Sloan & Robertson's 1930 895 Park Avenue

In 1923, John Sloan and Thomas Markoe Robertson partnered to form the architectural firm of Sloan & Robertson.  Specializing in Art Deco-style office and civic buildings, they stepped out of their comfort zone in 1929 by designing a luxury apartment building.  The project could not technically be called a commission, since the developer of the site, the 895 Park Avenue Co., was organized by Sloan and Robertson.  John Sloan was its president and Thomas Markoe Robertson was one of the only two other officers.

Demolition of the ten residences at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and 79th Street began on October 1, 1929.  Two weeks earlier, John Sloan told reporters,

There will be thirty-five apartments of the simplex, duplex and triplex types.  The Park Avenue corner location on the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth floors will be devoted to a special triplex apartment opening to roof garden terraces on all sides, and the nineteenth and penthouse floors will contain two duplex apartments of twelve and fourteen rooms respectively.

Prefabricated concrete panels resulted in rapid construction--each concrete floor taking only a day to install.  The American Architect, July 1930 (copyright expired)

Sloan described the design as "of dignified but modern character.  Facades will be of natural stone to the fourth story, with brick and natural stone for the remainder."  Completed in 1930, Sloan & Robertson's design has been called "Classicizing Art Deco," with The New York Times explaining on December 29, 1929, "In design it will be a modern adaption of classical motifs."

The Skyscraper Times pointed out on September 23, 1929, that the 19-story-and-penthouse building would be "100 per cent co-operative."  The article described the typical, 14-room corner duplexes, saying they...

comprise living room, dining room, library, 5 master's chambers, with dressing rooms, extra dressing room and lavatory adjoining the foyer, 6 baths, 4 servants' rooms, servants' hall and kitchen.

The 15-room duplex apartments included seven baths and a conservatory.  Amenities included, "electric refrigeration, large ranges, exceptionally large servants' quarters, cedar closets, and wood-burning fireplaces."  Ceiling heights in the bedrooms were 10 feet and in the living rooms 12 feet.  Residents would enjoy communal amenities like "a squash court, gymnasium and locker rooms in the basement."

As construction progressed, on December 1, 1929, an advertisement in Town & Country was titled, "The Luxury of Venetian Palaces Brought to Park Avenue."  Prices for the 10- to 15-room apartments ranged from $26,000 to $169,000, according to the ad.  The figures would translate to $476,000 and $3 million today.

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Costing $5 million to construct (nearly $94 million in 2026), 895 Park Avenue was completed in 1930.  The New York Sun described the building as "an imposing and brilliant mass of architecture."  Sloan & Robertson incorporated "classic" elements into their Art Deco design.  Fluted piers that echoed classical pilasters ran the height of the nine-story midsection.  More in keeping with the Art Deco style were the sculptural panels and reverse stair-stepping balconies on the upper floors.

 
Unfortunately, the Stock Market crashed shortly after construction had begun.  The syndicate quickly changed course and offered the apartments as rentals.  But it was too late.  On August 5, 1931, The New York Times reported that 895 Park Avenue had been sold in foreclosure for $1 million.  Nevertheless, said the article, "many of its suites have been taken."

Art Deco panels decorate the facade high above the street. 

Not surprisingly, among the initial residents were John Sloan and T. Markoe Robertson and their families.  Both were staggeringly wealthy and socially visible.  On August 14, 1931, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported, "Mrs. John Sloan of 895 Park avenue entertained at luncheon at the Casino, Central Park, for her guest, Mrs. Marion Bedell of Bermuda."  Two months later, on October 20, the New York Evening Post announced, "The Misses Ruth and Evelyn Sloan, the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. John Sloan...are sailing Saturday, October 31, for Bermuda, to remain until just before the Christmas holiday."

Thomas Markoe Robertson (who went by his first initial) was the son of well-known architect Robert Henderson Robertson.  His wife was Cordelia Drexel Biddle, the former wife of tobacco mogul Angier Buchanan Duke.  She and Duke had divorced in 1921.  Living with the couple were Cordelia's sons, Angier Biddle Duke and Anthony Drexel Duke.  The family maintained a country home in Westbury, Long Island.

Angier married Priscilla Saint George on January 2, 1936 in St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Tuxedo Park.  It was a socially important affair, with New York's premier surnames within the church and at the reception held in the Saint Georges' cottage.  The newlyweds move into a suite in 895 Park Avenue.

On November 7, 1942, the North Carolina newspaper The Pilot reported, "Mr. and Mrs. T. Markoe Robertson, frequent Pinehurst guests of the Livingston Biddles, entertained recently at dinner at their New York home, 895 Park avenue, for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  The dinner was followed by a theater party."

Paul Ernst Thalmann and his wife, the former Regina Marie Chester, leased a 13-room, six-bath apartment in June 1932.  The New York Times noted, "The apartment has terraces and occupies the sixteenth and seventeenth floors."  Thalmann was associated with the banking firm Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., co-founded by his father.  He was, as well, president of the General Fuel Briquette Corporation and of the Smelters Corporation, and a vice president of the Industrial Supply Company and a director of the Florence Iron Company.  Upon his father's death in 1912, Thalmann received a life income from $1.5 million--more than $50 million today.

The multi-millionaire would not enjoy the sprawling apartment for long.  Eight months after moving in, Paul Ernst Thalmann fell ill.  Within the week, he died in the apartment at the age of 37.  His will, no doubt, raised several eyebrows.  On August 8, 1934, The New York Times reported that Regina would receive "half the estate in trust."  Thalmann's secretary, Grace Howard, was left a $70,000 trust fund (about $1.64 million today).  The article said she, "rejected the bequest and elected to take half the residuary estate outright."

Regina Thalmann remained in the apartment.  Her personal fortune was enhanced in November 1935 when the will of Anna Thalmann, Paul's mother, left her more than $4.5 million in today's money "and articles of jewelry."

Society columnist closely followed the movements of well-to-do New Yorkers.  And so, the Robert Schey family routinely appeared in the social sections of newspapers.  On April 13, 1933, The New York Sun reported, for instance, "Mrs. Robert Schey and her daughter, Miss Theresa Schey, a student at Spence School, have returned to 895 Park avenue from East Hampton."  And on August 9, 1935, The New York Evening Post noted, "Mrs. Robert Schey and her daughter Teresa...who have been at a ranch in Wyoming since June, have returned and will pass the remainder of the season at East Hampton, where they have taken a house."

Born in Vienna in 1877, Robert Paul Schey studied art and design in Europe.  He came to America in 1896 and in 1907 opened his textile designing firm.  He and his wife, the former Laura Todd, were married in 1918 and they had one daughter, Theresa Todd.  By the time the family moved into 895 Park Avenue, Schey's firm had branches in London and Paris.

After graduating from the Spence School, Theresa entered the Foxcroft School in Virginia.  On December 9, 1937, the East Hampton newspaper The Star reported that they Scheys "gave a large supper dance Saturday evening at the Pierre...in honor of their debutante daughter, Theresa Todd Schey."  This was the second entertainment in Theresa's debut.  Her parents had earlier hosted a tea in the apartment "for the older friends of the family."

A photographer snapped Theresa Schey and Rulon Neilson as they arrived at the Stork Club.  The New York Sun, July 5, 1939.

Among the Scheys' neighbors in the building was cosmetic tycoon Helena Rubinstein.  Born in Poland in 1872, Rubinstein and her husband moved to New York City at the outbreak of World War I and she opened a cosmetics salon.  In 1928, a few years before moving into 895 Park Avenue, she sold the business to Lehman Brothers for $7.3 million ($134 million today).  Her apartment here held her astounding collection of miniature Chippendale furniture.

Helena Rubinstein, from the collection of the Library of Congress

The families of brothers Ralph Isidor Straus and Percy Selden Straus had apartments here as early as 1938.  Their parents were Percy Selden Straus Sr., head of the R. H. Macy Department Store, and Edith Abraham Straus.  Edith was the daughter of Rose and Abraham Abraham, founder of the Abraham & Straus department store.  Ralph, who was born in 1903, was married to Matilda Bradford Day; and Percy, who was born in 1906 and changed his name to Percy Seldon, married Marjorie Jester in 1937.

Sloan's and Robertson's vision of 895 Park Avenue as a cooperative came to pass in 1952.  The tenants formed the Cooperative Apartment Corporation and took title to the property.

An interesting resident at the time was Laura Talmage Huyck.  Born Laura Van Nest Talmage in Brooklyn on June 21, 1875, she married felt manufacturer Francis Conkling Huyck in 1899.  In the 1920s, she and her daughter and son-in-law founded the Institute on Man and Science (later the Rensselaerville Institute) at their country home in Rensselaerville, New York.  In the 1930s, at the age of 56, she began painting.  Her work was exhibited in the Durand Ruel Gallery in 1932, the director describing her paintings as "extraordinary mystical landscapes."  And then she disappeared from art circles.  

Laura's husband died in 1938, and she had continued painting, but only for her own pleasure.  On June 5, 1955, The New York Times started an article saying, "An artist, who was 'discovered' in 1932...and rediscovered only recently, is to have a retrospective show of her paintings."  Huyck, who was fast approaching her 80th birthday, had been approached by Betty Parsons of the Betty Parsons Gallery at 15 East 57th Street with the idea.  

Laura Talmadge Huyck in her apartment here with one of her landscapes behind her.  The New York Times June 5, 1955

"The doing is what has been important," she told Sanka Knox of The New York Times.  When Knox mentioned that she resembled Whistler's mother, in the famous portrait, Huyck responded, "Whistler's mother was a little resigned; I've never been resigned."

Three years after that article, on June 24, 1958, Laura Talmadge Huyck died in her Park Avenue apartment at the age of 83.

The Robertsons were still occupying their apartment more than three decades after the building opened.  On April 18, 1962, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. T. Markoe Robertson will give a cocktail party in her home at 895 Park Avenue today.  The guests were committee members for the Musicians Emergency Fund.  The article noted, "Her guest of honor will be Phyllis Curtin, Metropolitan Opera soprano."

Less than three months later, on August 3, the newspaper reported that Thomas Markoe Robertson had suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 84.

Cordelia Biddle Duke Robertson was assuredly well-acquainted with the Leonard Bernsteins, who moved into an apartment in 1964.  A 1939 graduate of Harvard, he next studied at the Curtis Institute of Music.  The composer-conductor married Felicia Montealegre in 1951.  By the time they moved into 895 Park Avenue, Bernstein had composed the score for Wonderful Town, the operetta-style musical Candide, and the musical West Side Story.

The Bernsteins in the 895 Park Avenue penthouse. photo by Don Hogan Charles, The New York Times, October 1965.

The Bernsteins were highly involved in humanitarian and civil issues.  Felicia was the chairman of the women's committee of the New York Civil Liberties Union.  Among their first entertainments here was a birthday party for Roger N. Baldwin, chairman of the International League for the Rights of Man.

The Bernsteins remained here until 1974 when they moved into the Dakota.

Anthony Drexel Duke still lived here in 1967 when his son, Anthony Jr. was married to Barbara Briggs Foshay in St. James's Episcopal Church.  Duke Sr. had founded and was head of Boys Harbor, an interracial camp in East Hampton for indigent boys from New York.  He was separated from his fourth wife, Maria de Lourdes Alcebo, when he died at the age of 95 on May 1, 2014.  In reporting his death, The New York Times called him, "a scion of three of America's wealthiest families."

Thomas L. Kempner was the vice president of the brokerage house Loeb Rhoades & Co.  He and Nan Field Schlesinger were married in 1952.  They had three children and owned a 10-room apartment here and maintained a country home in Purchase, New York.  Nan was described by The New York Times as "a fashion leader who is often seen at charity balls and benefit performances."

In 1975, the family had a house guest, Countess Angelica Lazansky, who was visiting from Paris.  On November 21, the Kempners' maid had the day off.  Late that afternoon the family returned home "with some guests to have cocktails," according to The New York Times.  The cocktail party disintegrated when someone noticed that the rear fire door had been forced open.  The Kempners found $1.8 million in jewelry missing.  (The figure would translate to $10.5 million today.)  Detectives said "it was one of the largest jewelry thefts ever reported in the city."

As it turned out, the 31-year-old maid had spent the afternoon of her day off selecting items of Nan's and Angelica's jewelry.  She had been seduced by a man who promised her $17,000 in cash for the jewels.  Prompted either by guilt or fear of being caught, at 2:30 on the afternoon of December 3, the maid entered Kempner's Wall Street office with "two boxes and a shopping bag containing jewels," according to police.  She and her accomplice were arrested.

The Bernstein penthouse living room as it appeared during the Feinbergs' residency.  photo by Warburg Realty.

Art collectors and philanthropists Carol and Maurice Feinberg purchased the former Bernstein penthouse in 1974.  Maurice died in 2002 and Carol in 2019.  In November that year the Feinbergs' children offered it for sale.  In describing the apartment, Vivian Marino of The New York Times said, "Many of the apartment's original architectural details remain, including the wide-plank mahogany floors, crown moldings and carved-wood fireplace mentals."

Among the fine Park Avenue apartment houses built in the 1920s, this one stands out for its unique architecture.

photographs by the author