When the Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, it sought to bring an understanding of societies in Asia to the United States. Since the founding, the Society has become a global institution with offices across both the United States and Asia. The institution continues to grow today as economies, social issues, and cultures between the two regions become more and more interconnected.&nbsp; The building that houses the Asian Society and Museum was designed by&nbsp;Edward Larrabee Barnes, and it was opened in 1981. The eight-story building was designed for the museum, offices, and conference space. The exterior of the building is made out of Oklahoma granite and consists of rectangular&nbsp;office windows along with two large semi-circular windows.&nbsp; The artwork for the Museum began with a collection that was amassed by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, who believed&nbsp;that art was a way to merge societies through cultural understanding. From 1963 to 1978,&nbsp;Sherman E. Lee, an art historian, helped Rockefeller expand this collection, which included sculptures, paintings, and decorative art from various regions across Asia. In 2007, the Museum began expanding its contemporary collection of Asian art, which has added nearly 100 works to the collection. The Rockefeller collection, along with rotating exhibitions, make the museum a worthwhile visit.&nbsp;

Outside of the Asia Society and Museum in New York City

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The Asia Society Museum was one of the first American museums to establish a program of contemporary Asian art. The Society was founded by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1956. The goal of the Society is to foster an understanding between peoples, leaders, and institutions in Asia and the United States. The Museum uses art and culture to encourage a global understanding of one another in order to ensure a shared future. The Museum holds tours, rotating exhibitions, and family events for visitors to enjoy. 

Asia Society and Museum

Start at the Lexington Avenue-63rd St. subway stop & stroll through the neighborhood east of Central Park from E. 61st to E. 73rd St.

Lenox Hill historical walking tour, Upper East Side of Manhattan houses, hotels, clubs, schools

When Barbara Rutherford married Cyril Hatch in 1916, her mother, Mrs.
W.K. Vanderbilt gifted the newlyweds with a plot of land on East 63rd
Street. At the time, the address was viewed as an odd choice, as it was
considered “too far east” of Fifth and Madison, the preferred addresses of the
city’s wealthy residents.&nbsp;

The new Mrs. Hatch hired Frederick J. Sterner to design the couple’s
new home. Sterner was more well-known at the time for remodeling Manhattan townhouses.
The home he designed is a bit of an oddball; surrounded by brownstones, the
Hatch home has a gray stucco façade and little in the way of adornment. Aside
from an ornate doorway, the home is actually rather plain compared to other
mansions of the city’s upper crust.&nbsp;

The Hatch marriage was short-lived, ending in divorce in 1920.&nbsp; In 1921, the home was sold to Charles B.
Dillingham, a successful Broadway agent and producer. Dillingham lived in the home
with his second wife from 1921 to 1924, when their marriage ended in divorce.
The Dillinghams sold the home to Charles Lanier Lawrence, a partner of the
Wright brothers.&nbsp;

In 1940, after the Dillinghams moved into the house next door, the
property was sold to the famed burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee. Though Lee
was known primarily for her risqué persona, she in fact had more high-brow
aspirations. She kept company with a number of writers and artists and was the
author of two books herself. According to the New York Times, while Lee owned
the home, it was essentially a salon, albeit a flamboyantly appointed one.&nbsp;

In later years, the house, which became a New York City Landmark in
1977, was owned by modern artist Jasper Johns. More recently, filmmaker Spike
Lee bought the home. Lee put the house on the market for $32 million in 2013.
The house was later taken off the market and it is unclear if Lee is the
current owner.

There are many homes in Manhattan with a star-studded past, but perhaps no Manhattan address has had more celebrity owners than 153 East 63rd Street. The home was built for socialite Barbara Rutherford when she married Cyril Hatch, also a leading member of New York society. Over the years, the home has been owned by numerous celebrities from burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee to acclaimed director Spike Lee. The home became a New York City Landmark in 1977 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Barbara Rutherford Hatch House (Former home of Gypsy Rose Lee, Jasper Johns, Spike Lee, and others)

As New York City boomed in the 1920s, numbers of young women moved to the city seeking jobs. Many of these young women were educated professionals or aspiring actresses or models who sought residences that offered safety as well as modern amenities and a sense of community. The Barbizon was one of the largest of the city's&nbsp;apartment hotels for women and served as a step between life in a patriarchal home and a young woman's own family in an era when women who chose to live alone faced both pity and scrutiny. The hotel is also the setting for The Dollhouse, a novel by Fiona Davis.&nbsp; When the Barbizon Hotel for Women opened in 1927, it offered what Vanity Fair describes as a combination "charm school and dormitory." The Barbizon included communal and social spaces for women and services that were similar to the numerous men's clubs in the city, including a gymnasium, swimming pool, and a library. The building also&nbsp;hosted numerous cultural activities. Similar to men's clubs, residents were also required to submit three references before they could be accepted by the Barbizon.&nbsp; The similarities between men's spaces in social clubs and the Barbizon Hotel end when it comes to the rules that residents were expected to follow and&nbsp;extended beyond shared spaces on the lower levels. No men were ever allowed above the lobby. Residents--at the request of their parents--had to sign in and out, and those who stayed out too late were lectured about their behavior. At the same time, the Barbizon's strict rules and regulated lobby provided both physical safety and social acceptance at a time when women who lived alone often found neither. For young women alone in the city, living in the Barbizon provided a way to demonstrate that they were independent and virtuous. It also provided a network for women who often came to the city with few professional, social, or family connections.&nbsp; From its opening, the Barbizon cultivated an image meant to attract only the most stylish and discriminating residents. By World War II, the hotel had a reputation for "Barbizon girls," attractive, chic, professional women, who were frequently profiled in newspapers. The mid-twentieth century was the Barbizon's heyday, and its residents included a who's who of aspiring models and actresses. The Barbizon counted among its not-yet-famous residents Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, and Cybil Shepherd. Aspiring writers made a home there as well, including Eudora Welty and Silvia Plath, who would go on to use a Barbizon-inspired hotel as part of the setting for The Bell Jar. For a number of years, the Barbizon was also home to a number of Vogue models. The Ford modeling agency rented two floors in the building, both for the safety of its young models and to keep them out of the tabloids.&nbsp; The feminist movement and the sexual revolution meant that by the end of the 1960s, a hotel for women seemed more prudish than stylish. In the years since the 1960s, the property was bought and sold numerous times, and following a $40 million renovation, it became the Melrose Hotel in 2002. Within a few years, however, new owners transformed the 700 small rooms into sprawling luxury apartments and renamed the building Barbizon 93.&nbsp;

The Barbizon Hotel for Women opened in 1927 as a home for young women who came to New York City to find work, including those in pursuit of their dream of becoming a model or actress. By the mid-twentieth century, the 23-story property had developed a reputation for attracting young women who were both glamorous and successful. The building was home to numerous future celebrities and a small army of models of the Ford agency, a company that rented two floors of the building. As second-wave feminism challenged the gendered assumptions that led to the creation of the Barbizon Hotel, a hotel for women seemed more prudish than stylish. As a result, the property was converted to hotels and apartments as it changed hands in the late 20th century. The building now houses condominiums and is known as Barbizon 63. Owing to its architectural and historical significance, the property is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Barbizon Hotel for Women (now Barbizon 63)

Getting off the subway uptown on the way to Central Park or its string of east-side museums means a lot of options for longitudinal cross streets. It is worth walking a little out of the way to find one of the leafier residential blocks like 63rd St where Manhattan's old money dwells in stone, carved cornices, and spiraling entrance ways. While these monuments to generational wealth are exciting to glimpse into when a door is left open or a window's blinds are up, it is also a welcome surprise&nbsp;to come across a monotony-busting address like the Edward Durell Stone House. The building's power comes from the simplicity that Stone was known for: one sheet of patterned concrete and a wide red-door in the midst of the street's over-the-top opulence.&nbsp; Stone (1902-1978) helped bring European modern architecture to the United States, eventually putting an American mark on modernism through a combination of romanticism (ie. the red door) and formalism (classical proportions). Originally from Arkansas, Stone began studying architecture in Boston before traveling abroad on a fellowship. Returning from Europe with a sketchpad full of buildings by Le Corbusier and other well-known creators of the International Style of modernism, Stone settled in New York where he practiced for the next 49 years. He worked on plans for Radio City Hall (1932) and was later tapped as the associate architect for the Museum of Modern Art (1937). In the 1950s Stone gained widespread recognition for infusing classical architectural forms with a rare combination of&nbsp; warmth and a modern aesthetic. In the midst of his success on projects like the&nbsp;Stanford University Medical Center (1955) and&nbsp;Busch Memorial Stadium (1966), Stone completely gutted and rebuilt an 1878 brick townhouse as his base in New York.&nbsp; Stone House caused an uproar in the neighborhood from the start because of its non-traditional appearance. Neighbors and critics slammed the house and even Stone's own son continued to push for a facelift until the dean of the Yale School of Architecture&nbsp;Robert A.M. Stern asked the New York&nbsp;City Landmarks Commissioner&nbsp;to "rise above the inevitably changing winds of fashion... and preserve an important architect's ingenious, if controversial, solution to the problem of town house design." While neighbors may shutter at the interruption of the street's chiseled brownstones, interior photographs reveal what Stern meant--the house's facade hides a modern glass cube that gives residents a light-filled haven while maintaining their privacy. Despite this rarity, when the property went on the market in 2013, its price had to be dropped from $10 million to $7.5 million a year later.&nbsp;

On a quiet Upper East Side street, amongst the gilded manors squished six or seven stories into the sky, sits the Edward Durell Stone House. The mid-century masterpiece was extensively renovated into its present form by its namesake in 1956. Stone, who is known for combining modernism and formalism in buildings like MoMA and the US Embassy in India, lived in the house until 1964. Zen-like in its simplicity, Stone House is recognizable by its sheared facade designed to bring light into the building's four stories. 

Edward Durell Stone House

Just nine months into their marriage and with their first child on the way, Sara Delano Roosevelt gifted her son and daughter-in-law with a sketch of a six-story town home in New York City located at 47-49 East 65th Street. A widow and closely bonded to her only child, Sara occupied Number 47 while her son and his growing family occupied Number 49. Renowned architect Charles Platt designed the buff-colored brick and limestone twin town homes. Each home had their own entrance but were connected by doors inside. Over the next few years, Franklin Roosevelt rose through the political ranks, first serving as a State Senator from New York then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Even when the family was residing in Albany, Washington, or the family home in Hyde Park, they would spend most winters here in New York City. After Franklin Roosevelt was stricken with polio in 1921, he returned to this home to partake in his physical therapy treatments. While her husband was convalescing, Eleanor Roosevelt came into her own in New York politics, involving herself with local Women's Democratic organizations and even teaching at the Todhunter School in New York. After Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, he organized his cabinet at the Roosevelt House, which included Henry Morgenthau, Frances Perkins, and Harold Ickes. The night after the election, FDR gave his first radio address as president-elect from the library of the house, laying out his plan to remove America from the grips of the Great Depression. It was at the Roosevelt House that the ground-work for the New Deal was laid. The Roosevelt House hosted prominent figures during the Roosevelt presidency, including Mary McLeod Bethune, who was a key figure in the African-American community and a close friend and adviser of both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.After the death of Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1941, Franklin and Eleanor decided to sell the double town home. A group of students at nearby Hunter College, then a women’s college, formed a nonprofit consortium and bought the home. In November 1943, the home was re-opened to the public and named the Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House and was operated by Hunter’s students. Few changes were made to the interior of the home and the exterior remained unchanged. In 1973, the Roosevelt House was named a New York Landmark and in 1980 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1992 the home was closed for desperate need of repair and reopened again in 2010 as the Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. Though the interior has changed and is used to hold public events, many artifacts from the Roosevelt-era remain and are visible to the public.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this stately home on East 65th Street was once the home of President Franklin Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor, their five children, and his mother Sara Delano Roosevelt. Sara Delano Roosevelt gifted the home at 49 East 65th Street to Franklin and Eleanor at Christmastime in 1905, two and half years later the couple moved in with their two children. At that time, Sara Roosevelt occupied Number 47 next door. Over the next three decades, the Roosevelt House was the location of numerous historical events, including the birth of Social Security. The Roosevelt House is now owned by Hunter College and operates as a Public Policy Institute in the former home. While the institute is non-partisan and not tied to the policies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, this building continues to influence public policy debates just as it once did when it was home to discussions among members of the Roosevelt family's extended circle of influence. 

Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

The Seventh Regiment Armory, known today as the Park Avenue Armory, was originally constructed between 1877 and 1879 under the guidance of architect Charles Clinton, who was a member of the Regiment. He designed the building in a Victorian style, and it included a 55,000 square foot drill hall. By 1881, the interior was designed by brilliant artist and designers such as&nbsp;Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, the Herter Brothers, and Pottier &amp; Stymus. Some of their best work was done in the Veteran's Room, which included influences from&nbsp;Islamic, Chinese, Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, and Persian cultures.&nbsp; Both the buildings design and its occupants have changed over the years. The 7th Regiment became part of the 107th Infantry in 1921&nbsp;but still occupied the building. Eventually, the 7th Regiment became part of the&nbsp;42nd Infantry Division. Additions were added to the building from 1909 until 1914 as it went from three stories to five stories. The belfry&nbsp;was also removed from the central tower during this time.&nbsp; Eventually, the building fell into disrepair, but a restoration project began in 2009, which was privately funded. The restoration was overseen by&nbsp;Ascan Mergenthaler, a senior partner of&nbsp;Herzog &amp; de Meuron. Today, the building is used as a venue for live performance&nbsp;and art exhibitions, particularly for art that has a hard time finding display space because of its size. The Park Avenue Armory was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986.&nbsp;

The Park Avenue Armory was constructed between 1877 and 1881. It was originally home to the 7th Infantry Regiment, and later, several other divisions and regiments. The building was designed and constructed by Charles Clinton. However, the magnificent Veteran's Room, influenced by cultures from all over the world, was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Candace Wheeler and Samuel Colman. Today, the building serves as an event venue for visual and performing arts that need an unconventional space to display their work. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986. 

Park Avenue Armory 

In 1910, Stephen Clark constructed this townhouse for himself and his family at a cost of $650,000. Stephen Clark was the grandson of Edward Clark – head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company and builder of the famous <a href="https://www.theclio.com/entry/19165" target="_blank">Dakota building</a> on Manhattan’s Upper West Side – and consequently, Clark managed that property as well. Frederick Sterner was hired as the architect for Clark’s Upper East Side mansion, which now houses the Explorers Club. In the days when this property was occupied by the Clark family, the mansion had five floors and, according to the 1920 census, Stephen Clark lived in the home with his wife, three children, and ten servants. Stephen Clark collected many fine artworks in the home, including works by El Greco and Matisse (these works were later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Clark was also a trustee). In 1939, Stephen Clark solidified his legacy by establishing the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. (2) In 1964 the Clark’s sold the mansion to the Explorers Club (2). The club’s headquarters have remained in this location since 1965. After the explorers moved in, they filled the former mansion with a wide collection of historical artifacts and souvenirs from their members’ expeditions. Members of the Explorers Club were “first to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, and first to the surface of the moon” (1). The Club houses artifacts such as the Dowager Empress Chair, which purportedly belonged to the last empress of China, Empress Wanrong (3). The club also houses the globe which Thor Heyerdahl used to plan his expedition aboard the Kon-Tiki – seeking to prove the theory that early South American people could have sailed across the ocean to settle the South Pacific islands as far back as 500 A.D. (3). The Explorers Club has its own flag, which has been an important part of member expeditions since 1918. The flag, “has flown at both poles, from the highest peaks of the greatest mountain ranges, traveled to the depths of the ocean, to the lunar surface, and outer space”. Not every expedition may qualify for a flag – only those which further the cause of exploration and field science may qualify. Today there are 202 numbered flags, each is tracked and photographed along its journey and each has a unique historical account (1). For example, Flag 101 has traveled to the highest point on Earth (the summit of Mt. Everest) and to the deepest spot on Earth (the Mariana Trench) (3). According to the Explorers Club website, membership is open to individuals, “who carry out or assist in field science expeditions to study unknown or little-known destinations or phenomena in order to gain knowledge for humankind”. Prospective members must be nominated by an existing member. Women were not admitted to the Club until 1981 and the first female members included Sylvia Earle, Dian Fossey, Rita Mathews, Anna Roosevelt, and Kathryn Sullivan (1). Today the club provides grants for key projects and hosts a variety of events including networking events, lectures, and special film screenings. The Club has approximately 3,500 members representing every continent and operates in more than 60 countries, comprising 32 chapters around the globe (1). The collection of historical items housed in the Explorers Club is often of a specialized nature; however, if an individual wishes to access the collection they may contact the Curator at the address below for general guidance and to make an appointment. The Explorers Club46 E. 70th StreetNew York, NY 10021(212) 628-8383 x28<a href="mailto:researchcollections@explorers.org" target="_blank" style="color:maroon;background-color:initial;">researchcollections@explorers.org</a>

The Explorers Club was founded in 1904 by “a group of men active in exploration” in order to “unite explorers in the bonds of good fellowship and to promote the work of exploration by every means in its power” (1). The club moved locations several times following its official incorporation (October 15, 1905), ultimately ending up at this Jacobean townhouse in 1965. Today the club hosts events, lectures, and exhibitions, many of which are ticketed events that are open to the public and discounted for members. This historic space may also be rented out for certain events. 

The Explorers Club

As both&nbsp;Czech and Slovak peoples immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century, there was a need for community building as these people tried to establish themselves in a new country.&nbsp;

The Bohemian National Hall is a social club for people who come from Czech and Slovak cultures. Originally built in 1896 with additions in 1897, the building was designed in a neo-Renaissance palazzo style by architect William C. Frohne and funded by the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), which was established in 1892 and brought together many Czech clubs that already existed. Over time, the Bohemian National Hall was used less and less by the Czech and Slovak communities in New York, and it fell into disrepair. Luckily for the survival of the building, it was designated a New York City Landmark in 1994, and in 2001, the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association sold it for a dollar to the Czech Republic, who completely renovated the building, a project that was completed in 2008. 

Bohemian National Hall

The architect of the rowhouses from 322 to 332 E. 69th St. Jacob H. Valentine, was born in 1823 and was a practicing architect in New York City by 1879. Examples of his residences have survived in several New York historic districts, ranging in style including Italianate, neo-Grec, Queen Anne, and Renaissance Revival in flats, rowhouses, and tenements. Valentine lived in the Upper West Side of New York City at the time of his death in 1903 at age 80. William R. Smith was the architect who designed the rowhouses at #334-344.The rowhouses were designed in the neo-Grec Style which used sharper, more angular and geometric lines able to be cut by the new stone-cutting machines; the previously-popular fluid, curvy lines were not able to be machine-cut.Each architect's style was slightly different, although all of these rowhouses were built by James E. Ray. Valentine's rowhouses were fronted in brownstone and featured double-door entrances at the top of high stoops and topped by slabbed lintels supported by stylized brackets. The base of each townshouse is cut by a pair of segmental-arched windows. The sills of the parlor windows on the first floor have sills supported by corbels similar to the doorway brackets. A galvanized-iron cornice with dentils and angular brackets top the main facade.As an example of Valentine's design, the rowhouse at 330 E. 69th Street is three stories tall over a basement. When the rowhouse was documented in 1983, the building still retained its original cornice of galvanized iron and a bracketed doorway lintel. A basement-level garage was incorporated in the neighboring rowhouse (#328) in 1966.The 6 rowhouses designed by Smith are slightly more ornate than those by Valentine. The main elements and materials are the same, but Smith's enframements of the doors and windows are fancier. Each entrance has a full enframement with a deep lintel set on angular brackets. The windows also have full enframements with complex lintels. The cast-iron railings of all 12 of the rowhouses were still the originals in 1945 but were replaced by the mid-1980s; many of the exterior doors also were replacements and some of the rowhouses have been painted.The rowhouses are now typically two-family homes and do not come onto the market for sale often. One that is a single-family home without a basement unit (#332) contains nine rooms in about 3,000 square feet, with three wood-burning fireplaces. The rowhouse at the east end of this group (#344) has become the parsonage for the adjacent church, the First Hungarian Reformed Church (a brick building faced in yellow stucco, built in 1916 for a congregation established in 1895).

The 12 rowhouses in Lenox Hill on the south side of E. 69th Street from #322 to #344 are remnants of the scores of new residences built in the neighborhood in the late nineteenth century. The coming of the elevated train above 3rd Avenue to the neighborhood in 1878 made commuting to lower Manhattan easy, and developers soon filled the streets with rowhouses for housing the middle class. In 1879, architect Jacob H. Valentine designed six of the rowhouses; William R. Smith designed the rest. The brick rowhouses faced in brownstone are a surviving example of the neo-Grec style that became popular in the era but is rare to be found today amidst the area's altered rowhouses and high-rise buildings. The rowhouses were listed in the New York and National Registers in 1984.

322-344 East 69th Street Rowhouses

Born in Richford, New York, John D. Rockefeller was a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. He earned his fortune in the oil industry, where he started the Standard Oil Company. His company prospered, and by the 1890s, Standard Oil was in charge of most of the petroleum in the United States. Though multiple companies formed a trust within the Standard Oil Company, Rockefeller owned the highest percentage of the shares. The trust was dissolved into smaller companies, however, in 1911 when the Supreme court ruled it violated the anti-trust laws. By 1896, Rockefeller had already given over day to day operations of the company.&nbsp; After moving on from overseeing Standard Oil, Rockefeller put his time into establishing himself as a philanthropist, setting a standard for wealthy Americans to follow in the future. This was not a new venture for Rockefeller, as he was known for giving back to his community, particularly churches, whether he belonged to them or not. He also helped establish several institutions, including the University of Chicago, where he donated $600,000 of the $1 million needed to start the University. It was the Rockefeller University, though, that really helped define his philanthropist efforts.&nbsp; The Rockefeller University, a medical research center, was founded in 1901 by Rockefeller under the guidance of a close advisor, Frederick T. Gates, as the Rockefeller Institute. After seeing examples in Europe, these two men realized scientific study was the best way to fight diseases. When the Rockefeller Institute was established, it was the first medical research center in the United States. In 1910, the Rockefeller Institute Hospital was established with the ability to study medicine in its own laboratories and research centers. The Rockefeller Institute became the Rockefeller University in 1965. It had only begun taking graduate students ten years early.&nbsp; The University's main mission is to combat health scares that could be a threat to society. Early discoveries included the identification of genes that cause obesity, the recording of the chemical structure of antibodies, and the knowledge that brain cells can shrink from chronic stress. Recent achievements include the discovery of a way to destroy anthrax bacteria and the recording of the birth of HIV in a cell. Today, the University still aims to produce quality graduates who have successful&nbsp;careers in various fields, while also conducting research on both old and newly discovered diseases.&nbsp;

The Rockefeller University was founded in 1901 by business magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller. The founding of the University was influenced by Reverend Fredrick T. Gates, one of Rockefeller's advisors, who studied Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine. Guided by these ideas, the University took a scientific approach to studying medicine and became the first biomedical research center in the United States. Since its founding, the University has made multiple breakthroughs in the medical field while also producing students who have gone on to have successful careers in other related fields. 

The Rockefeller University 

Surrounded today by skyscrapers, the FDR Drive, and the Queensboro Bridge, The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden was once the carriage house for a bucolic 23-acre estate on the East River. The property was owned by&nbsp;Colonel William Stephens Smith (a veteran of the Revolutionary War and later a United States Representative from New York) and his wife Abigail Adams Smith, though they never lived there. They named it in honor of George Washington's famous plantation in Virginia.&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1826, after the main-house burned down, the American author Joseph C. Hart--known for being the first to theorize that William Shakespeare was not the true author of the works of Shakespeare--bought and converted the carriage-house into "The Mount Vernon Hotel," which it served as&nbsp;until 1833.1&nbsp;The Hotel advertised itself as, "free from the noise and dust of the public roads, and fitted up and intended for only the most genteel and respectable."2&nbsp;It was popular among New Yorkers who wanted to escape busy downtown life at a time when much of Manhattan above 14th Street was wooded and Central Park was yet to be built. The Hotel offered boating activities, card games in its parlors, lemonade and spirits to Manhattanites on their evening stroll or carriage ride out of the city, as well as other activities.&nbsp; A New York City family bought the hotel in 1833 and occupied the hotel as a family home for three generations. In 1905&nbsp;the building was purchased by Standard Gas Light Company, which would become Con Ed.&nbsp;The Colonial Dames of America, a woman’s patriotic society purchased and restored the building beginning in 1924 and opening it in 1939 to coincide with the New York World Fair. in 1973, The New York City Preservation Commission designated the site an Historic Landmark. Originally named the&nbsp;Abigail Adams Smith House, the site was renamed the&nbsp;Mount Vernon Hotel Museum &amp; Garden in 2000. Today the museum is one of the few 18th-century&nbsp;buildings remaining in Manhattan and boasts a unique collection of antebellum objects and furniture.&nbsp;

The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden sits on land originally owned by Colonel William Stephens Smith and his wife Abigail Adams Smith, daughter of John Adams. It was built in 1799 as a carriage house and was converted into a "day hotel" (similar to a country-club) in 1826 at a time when midtown Manhattan offered a semi-rural respite from the bustle of downtown. Today, eight fully furnished rooms are open to the public as a museum. 

Lenox Hill historical walking tour, Upper East Side of Manhattan houses, hotels, clubs, schools

Asia Society and Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information