The Ardsley

This Art Deco high-rise apartment building was designed by architect Emery Roth and completed in1930. The Ardsley remains a New York architectural landmark and is one of eight buildings Roth designed that are located along Central Park West. The apartment building was converted to a co-op and now contains 201 units in its 22 stories. The Ardsley is part of the Central Park West Historic District which was added to the National Register in 1982. The building stands at the former location of New York's Rugby Academy and was once home to Barbra Streisand.

The Ardsley stands on land that was owned by the Rugby Academy in 1893. The school owned the eastern third of the block, and in 1894, the school building occupied their only two developed lots, along Central Park West near W 92nd Street. The school was a military academy for boys that was founded in 1889. The boarding and day school offered "classical, scientific, and commercial" instruction and "sunny recitation rooms," a gymnasium, and athletic fields. The school made the front page of the newspaper in September 1893 when a skeleton was found entangled by a chain in its athletic grounds shrubbery. No, not a murder, but an escaped fox who went missing several months prior from the Central Park Menagerie. Rugby Military Academy moved to Broadway at W. 79th Street by September 1902 for its 14th year; the school also opened a second location in the country at Suffern, N.Y. by September 1902.

An earlier apartment building was constructed at 320 Central Park West by 1911 named Ardsley Hall. The "high-class" apartments ranged in size from six to 12 rooms and were rented yearly for $1,200 to $3,000; rents in the nine-story building were about the same in 1921. Ardsley Hall was the home of the artist, Samuel Coleman, in March 1920 where he died at age 87. Coleman had been the oldest living member of the National Academy of Design and was the first president of the American Water Color Society. His specialty was paintings of landscape scenes along the Hudson River and Lake George. This building likely stood until the late 1920s when construction began on the new, Art Deco skyscraper Ardsley.

The San Remo (145 Central Park W.), the Beresford (211), and the El Dorado (300) are some of the other Art Deco high-rises designed by Emery Roth facing east onto Central Park, and part of a special walking tour featuring Roth's work (link below). By the time of his death in 1948, Roth had designed over 250 apartment buildings in New York City in a variety of styles. The Ardsley is distinctive for the configuration of the upper stories as a single, central boxy tower with multiple setbacks, and for the strong vertical emphasis seen in the dark brick bands between the lighter-colored brick. Some have compared the Ardsley tower to the shape of a Mayan temple.

The Ardsley has been a co-op since 1971. One illustrious owner of a 17-room triplex penthouse apartment was singer/ actress Barbra Streisand. Babs tried to sell the Ardsley apartment to singer Mariah Carey in 1998 after Steisand marries actor James Brolin in Malibu, but Carey was rejected by the co-op's board. Someone else ended up buying the penthouse.

Anonymous. "Caught by his Chain." The Evening World (New York, NY) September 14th 1893. Brooklyn Last ed, 1-1.

Anonymous. "Rugby Military Academy." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) May 26th 1900. 10-10.

Anonymous. "Sam. Coleman, Artist, Dies." Evening World (New York, NY) March 30th 1920. Final ed, 21-21.

Covell, Anne B. Wilson, Suzanne J. Ruttenbaum, Steven R. NRHP Nomination of Central Park West Historic District. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1982.

Gaines, Steven . The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan. New York, NY. Little, Brown and Company, 2005.

Howard, Alexandra Cushing . Buiding-Structure Inventory Form for The Ardsley, New York, N.Y.. Albany, NY. Division of Historic Preservation, New York State Parks and Recreation, 1975.

Pease & Elliman. "Pease & Elliman. Advertisement." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) October 8th 1911 .Classifieds sec, 49-49.

Rugby Academy. "Rugby Academy. Advertisement." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) September 19th 1895. Classifieds sec, 8-8.

Rugby Military Academy. "Rugby Military Academy, Nos. 2,231, 2,233, 2,235 Broadway, at 79th St. Advertisement." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) September 21st 1902. Classifieds sec, 13-13.

Rugby Military Academy. "Rugby Military Academy, Suffern, N.Y. Advertisement." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) September 21st 1902. Classifieds sec, 13-13.

Rugby Military Academy. "For Boys and Young Men - Country. Advertisement." New-York Tribune (New York, NY) September 7th 1903. Classifieds sec, 11-11.

Ruttenbaum, Steven. Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth. New York, NY. Balsam Press, 1986.

Sharp & Company. "Sharp & Company." New York Herald (New York, NY) September 25th 1921. , Real estate sec, 68-68.

Sherman, Gilbert and William. The Ardsley at 320 Central Park West, StreetEasy. Accessed September 22nd 2021. https://streeteasy.com/building/the-ardsley.