The 1951 Carlton House - 680 Madison Avenue (21 East 61st)

 

photo by Lowell Cochrane

In January 1950, the Associated Press reported that the Ritz-Carlton on Madison Avenue at 46th Street was to be demolished.  The northern portion of the ultra-fashionable hotel was Carlton House--a residential hotel whose well-to-do residents enjoyed the service of the Ritz-Carlton's staff. 

Almost simultaneously, on January 3, The New York Times reported that a new Carlton House was already in the works.  "The Astor Estate interests...will add another large one to their holdings with the construction of a fifteen-story and penthouse luxury hotel-service apartment building on...Madison Avenue between Sixty-first and Sixty-second Streets.  It will have its main entrance at 680 Madison Avenue."  The article noted, "Like the property from which it inherits its name, it will be operated by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company."

Architect Kenneth B. Norton told The Times that the 200 apartments would range from one to four-and-a-half rooms and most would be "completely furnished and with full hotel service."  He added that because of his "recessed construction" (i.e., projecting bays and setbacks), "nearly all of the suites will offer corner rooms."

photo by Lowell Cochrane

Norton's neo-Georgian design was markedly similar to his John Murray House, designed a full decade earlier.  Fluted pilasters, and neo-Classical elements like stylized urns and wreaths drew from its Georgian precedents.  The fenestration brought the viewer from 18th century into the mid-20th.  The grouped casements, some of them wrapping the faceted corners, were an integral part of the overall design.

Carved grooves imitate fluted pilasters and Greek keys stand in as their capitals.  The windows are applaudable replacements.  photo by Lowell Cochrane

In the basement would be a barber shop, valet, laundry rooms, "helps' dining room," and offices.  The first floor was given over to public spaces: the lobby, a cocktail bar, "a cabaret and dining room" (which extended into the second floor), and reception rooms.  (Interestingly, the Department of Buildings was stern about the cabaret portions of the dining room, saying the cabaret on the first story "is limited to a piano in the dining room," and on the second "is limited to string instruments only, consisting of five pieces.")  On the second floor were four more dining rooms, ten maids' rooms, and the kitchen.  There were four duplex apartments on the 14th and 15th floors, and three apartments in the penthouse level.  

The floorplan of one of the upper floors from a 1951 brochure shows the arrangement of terraces.  

Four months after ground was broken, leases were already being signed.  Among the prospective residents were Zilph Hayes Palmer, the widow of philanthropist Edgar M. Palmer; the H. Allan Sillcoxes, whose summer home was in Southampton; and the William Felton Barretts, whose summer estate was Sky Farm in North Egremont, Massachusetts.

The Ritz-Carlton Restaurant opened on May 8, 1951.  The New York Times described it saying, "The restaurant, designed in the Adam period, is built on two levels.  A décor of French blue, rose and beige is carried out in the French blue walls, rose and beige draperies, and upholstery to correspond."  The article noted, "Many dinner parties were given last night at the formal opening," and listed the names of all the guests in the various groups, saying, for instance, "L. G. Auchincloss, who has taken an apartment in Carlton House, entertained for his daughter, Mrs. E. A. J. Collard, and Mrs. Charles S. Whitman."

Although not nearly the scale of those held at the earlier Ritz-Carlton, the Carlton House was regularly the scene of debutante entertainments and society weddings.  On January 1, 1955, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Frank B. Bateman of 40 East Eighty-eighth Street and Jungle Point, Palm Beach, Fla., gave a tea dance yesterday in the Carlton Suite of Carlton House for their debutante daughter, Miss Barbara Ellen Bateman."  The last of the string of weddings that year was that of June Rosoff to Lt. Herbert M. Zydney of the U. S. Air Force on December 22.

On March 7, 1964, The New York Times reported that Harry B. Helmsley and Lawrence A. Wien "have contracted to buy Carlton House, the deluxe residential hotel" from "the British branch of the Astor family."  The name of the building was tweaked to the Helmsley Carlton House.

Among the residents Helmsley and Wien inherited was Carlotta O'Neill, the widow of playwright Eugene O'Neill.  She moved here from the Lowell Hotel just over a block away around 1961.  She apparently had regrets, however.  In 1966 she told friend and New York Times journalist Jose Quintero, "This apartment is too large...The more space you have around you the lonelier you feel.  Sometimes it's like being in the middle of the ocean with no other craft in sight, trapped within the high, desolate dome of the sky."

Quintero described a portion of the apartment several years later, on May 1, 1988 in The New York Times, saying,

I sat on a large leather chair, which was partially occupied by a black stuffed Chinese monkey, found by the O'Neills during a disastrous trip to the Orient before their marriage.  The monkey's name was Estaban and, to my annoyance, he seemed forever to be peering with contemptuous amusement through the narrow slits of his eyes.

According to a 1979 brochure of the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site by the Division of Cultural Resource Management, Carlotta lived in Carlton House "until the fall of 1968, when a breakdown sent her to Regent Hospital followed by a transfer to St. Luke's.  She died at Valley Nursing Home near Westwood New Jersey on November 18, 1970 at the age of 82.

In the meantime, other residents included the twice widowed Florence Levi Lehman, the mother of president and publisher of The New York Times, Orvil E. Dryfoos.  Walter M. Giblin and his wife, actress Constance Talmadge, lived here by the early 1960s.  The couple had homes in Jericho, Long Island and Palm Beach, Florida.  Born in Chicago in 1901, Giblin was a general partner in the brokerage firm of Glore, Forgan & Co. and a director in several other large firms.

Lucius Dubignon Clay and his wife Marjorie lived here at the time.  Born on April 23, 1898 in Marietta, Georgia and a 1918 graduate of West Point, Clay administered the United States' occupation of Germany following World War II.  He was deputy to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945, and was appointed Commander in Chief of the United States forces in Europe and military governor of the United States Zone in Germany from 1947 to 1949.  On June 25, 1948, the day after the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin, Clay mobilized the Berlin Airlift.

His life at Carlton House was much more placid.  In 1962 he became a senior partner in Lehman Brothers, the investment banking firm.  He retired in 1973.  While he and Marjorie maintained their apartment here, according to Jean Edward Smith in her Lucius D. Clay, An American Life, they "spent most of their time on Cape Code at the old rambling house--known in East Chatham as 'Square Top,' for the shape of its roof--that they had bought in the 1950s."

Also living here were Joseph Revson and his wife Elsie.  Revson was a founder of the cosmetic firm Revlon, Inc.  Founded in 1932 "with a few hundred dollars," according to The New York Times later, Revlon "became one of the biggest concerns in the cosmetics industry through high-powered advertising and the introduction of a number of new products."  Revson filled his free time with painting and was an accomplished landscape artist.

Another enterprising resident was Harold Boeschenstein, who founded the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation in Toledo, Ohio in 1938.  Like Lucius D. Clay, he had been highly involved in post-war logistics and in 1958 sat on a committee of business experts to advise President Dwight D. Eisenhower "on how to cope with Soviet trade," according to The New York Times.  He accompanied Vice-President Richard M. Nixon on his 1959 trip to Moscow.

Boeschenstein and his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Wade, divided their time between Carlton House and their home in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo.  Boeschenstein's cultural focus was divided between the two locations, as well.  He was president of the Toledo Museum of Art and a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and the Asia Foundation.  He died of a heart attack in the couple's Carlton House suite on October 2, 1972.

In 1978, Jean and Krishna Roy Riboud moved into a ninth-floor apartment.  The French-born Ribould was chairman of Schlumberger, the largest oilfield services company in the world.  During World War II he had been imprisoned by the Nazis in Buchenwald concentration camp.  The couple's French home was in Neuilly-sur-Seine outside of Paris.  Riboud died there on October 20, 1985.

What would be an important era in Manhattan social history was foreshadowed in New York Magazine's September 17, 1984 issue, which reported on the upcoming opening of  Pierre Cardin's restaurant, Maxim's.  "No expense is being spared in creating a replica of the Paris institution," said the article.  "Everything, from the busboys' uniforms to the crystal chandeliers, will come from France.  The grand staircase is already in place."  (The article warned, "the look will be formal--as will your attire.")

Indeed, Maxim's double-level restaurant was a near carbon-copy of the Paris original.  On February 10, 1985, while work was ongoing, The New York Times reported, "some patrons, no doubt, will recognize its stained-glass ceilings, deep-red upholstery, fleur-de-lis sconces and framed Sem cartoons as signatures of Maxim's de Paris, one of France's best-known-restaurants."  Interior designers Janko Rasic of New York and Pierre Porthier of Paris collaborated on the décor. 

Two views of the Art Nouveau interiors of Maxim's.  images via janorasic.com.

The lower level, L'Omnibus, a "bistro-style restaurant and bar," accommodated 150 patrons; while Maxim's on the second floor sat 225 guests.  On that level, too, was a banquet room for about 200 guests.

In 2010, the Helmsley Carlton House was sold and plans were laid to convert it to condominium residences.  On June 2, 2011, Amanda Kludt of Eater New York reported, "And now it's finally time to dismantle the restaurant."  The architectural savage company Demolition Depot had purchased Maxim's art nouveau interiors.  Spokesman Evan Blum told The Post, "We are hoping [the room] will be bought by someone who will appreciate it in its entirety." 

image via beyerblinderbelle.com

The conversion, headed by the architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, was completed in 2014.  The interiors were reconfigured, the facade restored, and the main entrance moved to 21 East 61st Street.  There are now 68 units in the building

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

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