The Lost Harley Thomas Procter Mansion - 11 East 52nd Street

 

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

In 1879, Harley Thomas Procter was inspired by a passage from Psalms 45:8, "All their garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad."  He personally redesigned the paper wrapper of his firm's P&G White Soap, and marketed it as "Ivory Soap."  A decade earlier, Procter had revamped Procter & Gamble's marketing scheme by running full-page, colored advertisements for its floating bars of soap, rather than current "calling card" advertising.  By the turn of the century, he had amassed a significant personal fortune.

Born in Cincinnati on December 1, 1847, Procter was the son of William Procter, co-founder of Procter & Gamble.  In 1870, he married Mary Elizabeth Sanford and the couple would have four children, Harley Sanford (who died in childhood), William, Lilian Sanford, and Rodney.

Harley Thomas Procter, from Advertising Hall of Fame

Procter retired "from active connections with the affairs," as described by The New York Times, of Procter & Gamble in 1895.  Five years later, he laid plans to move his family to Manhattan.  On the north side of East 52nd Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, were several private carriage houses.  On September 23, 1900, The New York Times reported he had purchased two of them, 13 and 15 East 52nd, for "the erection of a new house by Mr. Procter."  Designed by Don Barber, the sumptuous Beaux Arts mansion was completed in 1903.

As construction of that residence neared completion, on January 17, 1903 the Record & Guide reported that Procter had purchased the 25-foot-wide, two-story stable next door at 11 East 52nd Street from Elizabeth C. Oakman.  He paid $80,000 for the property, nearly $3 million in 2025 terms.  By erecting a first-class residence on the site, he could choose his next door neighbor.

The architectural firm of Trowbridge & Livingston designed a French Renaissance Revival mansion on the site.  The style had been increasingly popular after C. P. H. Gilbert created French Renaissance chateaux like the Fletcher mansion at 2 East 79th Street and the Edward Converse residence at 3 East 78th Street.  Six stories tall, its lower three floors were understated.  The decoration of the sedate, planar limestone facade relied on delicate carving around the arched entrance and above the grouped windows of the second floor.  The mood changed at the top three levels.  Introduced by an open-work, full-width stone balcony, the openings at this level wore elaborate crocketed pediments.  They were flanked by engaged colonettes that sat upon carved faces.  The top two floors took the form of a steep, slate-shingled mansard.

The Procter's only daughter, Lilian, had married Fritz Wilhelm Hoeninghaus in 1901.  By the time William married Emily Pearson Bodstein on February 3, 1910 in Grace Church, the family was living in 11 East 52nd Street.  Getting the timeline slightly wrong, on May 23, 1912, the New York Herald explained, "Mr. Proctor seemed to lose interest in the house [i.e., 15 East 52nd], placed it on the market for sale and built a smaller residence at No. 11 East Fifty-second street."

Rodney Procter was married to Beatrice M. Sterling in Grace Church on January 17, 1912.  Harley and Mary Procter, now empty-nesters, rarely appeared in the society columns.  They spent their summers at Shadowbrook, their "famous garden estate," as described by American Gardening, in Lenox.

For decades, Procter had suffered with diabetes.  On May 16, 1920, The New York Times reported, "Harley T. Procter, who for many years carried on the business of Procter & Gamble, manufacturers of Ivory Soap, died early yesterday morning of diabetes at his home, 11 East Fifty-second Street."  He was 73 years old.  Procter left an estate of $3.6 million, according to The American Perfumer.  The figure would translate to about $42.5 million today.

Mary remained in the mansion for two years.  Then, on November 18, 1922, the New-York Tribune reported that the Procter estate sold the property for $225,000 (about $4.2 million today).  By then, the neighborhood, once home to millionaires like the Vanderbilts and Goulds, was commercial.

Before the end of the year, the mansion was renovated for business purposes.  Architects George and Edward Blum converted the first through fifth floors to showrooms, and the attic (now called the penthouse) to an apartment.

Arnold Seligmann and Emile Rey installed their art and antiques gallery, Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., in the lower floors.  Emile Rey was born in Mulhouse, France and established himself as an expert in Gothic ivory carvings and Italian Renaissance period bronzes.  Among his clients upon his arriving in America were J. Pierpont Morgan and Thomas Fortune Ryan.  Arnold Seligmann first opened an art gallery in Paris in 1879 with his brother, Jacques.

The Art News, October 31, 1924 (copyright expired)

The gallery remained here at least until the 1940s.  By 1952, American Listings, Inc., a real estate office that handled upscale homes and country estates, operated from an upper floor.  The Austrian State Tourist Department occupied offices here on January 3, 1958 when the Buffalo Courier Express advised that the "detailed program of the Salzburg Festival" was available here.

Blum & Blum's renovations little affected the exterior appearance.  from the Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1965, the Government of Austria purchased the property and converted it to the Austrian Cultural Center and the residence of the Austrian Consulate General.  Three decades later, on February 21, 1993, Christopher Gray announced in The New York Times, "The Austrian Cultural Center is proceeding with permit applications for its new headquarters, a futuristic 20-story building at 11 East 52nd Street designed by Raimund Abraham, an Austrian architect."

Although Gray asserted that the former Procter mansion, "is attractive, but not really a candidate for landmark designation," he lamented, "its demolition signals a change more important than the loss of any individual building: one by one, the last vestiges of Midtown East's character as a neighborhood of mansions and town houses is being lost."

photograph by Madnessofarts

The new building was completed in 2002.