The St. Urban

The building at 285 Central Park West, on the south side of W. 89th Street, is the St. Urban, an apartment building constructed from 1904 to 1905. The architect, Robert T. Lyons, designed a Beaux Arts building that looked like architecture along grand boulevards in Paris with its curved mansard roof. The 13-story building features a curved corner at the road intersection topped by a tower with oeil-de-boeuf (ox eye) windows. The three-story base of the building is faced in rusticated limestone; the uppers are light yellow brick. The original slate roofing's replacement asphalt shingles were replaced with copper in 1990; the elaborately pedimented dormer windows still peek out from the roofline.

The St. Urban was built on a space with about 125 feet fronting on Central Park West and 160 feet along W. 89th Street. There were no buildings standing in this footprint in 1894. Before the New York City street grid was expanded into this part of Manhattan, the future location of the St. Urban was on three different land tracts. The southernmost tract was owned by George Bowne; the northeastern tract was Grizzel Alpthorp's land, and the northwest part belonged to Ann Apthorp. The Upper West Side became a more desirable place to live after an elevated rail line reached the area along Ninth Avenue in 1879. Eighth Avenue was renamed "Central Park West" adjacent to the park by 1899 and had its own streetcar route.

The lots for the St. Urban were purchased in 1904 by Peter Banner. The front entrance was designed as a porte cochere, a sheltered drive where you could ride up and be dropped off without having to be exposed to rain or snow. You can no longer access this drive from Central Park West; a new entrance door was carved into the facade to the right of the double archways. Some of the building's architectural elements have been lost to remodeling since the 1950s: balconies, cresting, and a cornice (see the historical photo in the blog linked below). The lion heads still adorn the brackets supporting the belt course above the third story.

Residents began moving into the apartments in January 1906. Only four apartments occupied each floor; each was 12 rooms with bay windows in the living and dining rooms. Each apartment contained four bedrooms plus two more for servants; there were three bathrooms, one of which was for the servants. The master bedroom had a wall safe; the kitchen had a tile-lined refrigerator connected to a refrigeration plant in the basement, allowing for the luxury of creating ice in the apartment. The owner lost the building to foreclosure in 1906 due to unexpected costs that arose during construction and a lawsuit from the southern neighbor. The building was still heavily mortgaged in 1918 when it was offered for sale at $1.275 million. A tenant and real estate operator, Frederick Brown, purchased the St. Urban and was able to flip the building for a profit five months later. Yearly rents in 1922 were $4,000 to $5,000.

The St. Urban now contains 56 co-op apartments. Architectural critic and author Ada Louise Huxtable grew up in the St. Urban. Other well-known residents have included newsman Ed Bradley and actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.

Alpern, Albert. Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan: An Illustrated History. New York, NY. Dover Publications Inc., 1992.

Friedman, Drew. Avenue of the Stars. New York. September 2nd 1996. 23 - 23.

Howard, Alexandra Cushing. Building-Structure Inventory form for the St. Urban, N.Y.. Albany, NY. Division of Historic Preservation, New York State Parks and Recreation, 1975.

Huxtable, Ada Louise. On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change. New York, NY. Walker & Company, 2008.

Miller, Tom. The St. Urban Apartments - No. 285 Central Park West, Daytonian in Manhattan. Blog. August 20th 2015. Accessed September 16th 2021. http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-st-urban-apartments-no-285-central.html.

Van Winkle, E. K. "St. Urban. Advertisement." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) October 15th 1922. , III - Classifieds sec, 5-5.