"Horizonal Mansions" - the 1916 820 Fifth Avenue

 

photo by Buddy 212

When the Progress Club moved to the west side of Central Park in 1901, its clubhouse at 820 Fifth Avenue was purchased by millionaire James Haggin as the site of his new mansion.  Instead, the magnificent structure sat vacant until his death in 1914.  The following year, on December 11, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that his estate had sold the property "to a syndicate formed for the purpose of erecting an apartment house suitable in every way to the location where it is to be constructed."  That "location," at the northeast corner of 63rd Street, sat among the mansions of some of Manhattan's wealthiest citizens.

The firm of Starrett & Van Vleck was commissioned to design the 12-story building that would be inspired by Italian Renaissance palazzo prototypes.  There would be only one apartment per floor (others would be enlarged), and were marketed as "horizontal mansions."  The rents were expected to be about $18,000 to $25,000 per year—about $67,000 a month in today’s money for the more expensive apartments.

Each of the full-floor apartments had 11-foot ceilings, fireplaces in the principal rooms and typically five bedrooms and seven servants' rooms.  Three elevators opened directly into the apartments--one passenger; one "cargo," or service elevator that opened into the service hall; and a "party" elevator to accommodate larger groups.

A typical, floor-through apartment.  The New York Real Estate Brochure Collection of Columbia University Libraries.

Millionaires lined up to sign leases during construction.  On May 13, 1916, The New York Times reported that Robert Goelet had leased "an apartment of eighteen rooms and six baths."  The recently divorced real estate tycoon moved from his marble-fronted mansion at 647 Fifth Avenue.  

Two of the five woodburning fireplaces in the Goelet apartment.  Photos by Wurts Bros, from the collection of the Museum of the City f New York.

By the time Alfred Nathan, president of Nathan Manufacturing Company, moved into the "large duplex apartment, comprising the entire ninth floor and part of the tenth containing twenty-four rooms and nine baths," as described by The New York Times on November 7, 1916, the building was nearly full.  The article said, "Other tenants in this building are August Belmont, Robert Goelet, Alexander S. Cochran, Mrs. S. V. Harkness, C. G. K. Billings, and H. D. Whiton."  

George Arents, treasurer and co-organizer of the American Tobacco Company, and his wife, the former Annie Amelia Walter, were also initial residents.  He died of pneumonia in their apartment on February 22, 1918 at the age of 83, leaving an estate of $10,040,643--equal to $209 million in 2025.

Anna M. Harkness was the widow of Stephen V. Harkness, a co-founder of the Standard Oil Company.  On May 1, 1916, shortly before moving into 820 Fifth Avenue, her son and business advisor, Charles William Harkness, died.  His death prompted legal entanglements for her, since $25 million of her bank deposits and securities had been under his name.  Happily the confusion was settled in court in May 1917.

Robert Wilson Goelet was not the only unmarried man in 820 Fifth Avenue.  Although Alexander Smith Cochran had inherited the Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet mills, one of the largest carpet manufacturers in the world, he was better known among society as a yachtsman.  And he could afford to pursue a leisurely existence.  Upon the death of his uncle, Warren B. Smith, in 1902, Cochran inherited an estate of $40 million (about $1.5 billion in today's money).  His country estate, Brookholt, was on Long Island.

Alexander Smith Cochran, via americanaristocracy.com

Goelet ended his bachelorship on October 22, 1919, when he married Fernanda Riabouchinsky in the American Church at Paris.  In January 1921, their son, Robert, Jr. was born in the apartment.

The couple hosted a "caudle party" on December 30, 1922, following the baptism of the infant of the William May Wrights.  Fernanda was the baby's godmother.  The impressive guest list included the Duke and Duchess de Richelieu, Prince and Princess Francesco Rospigliosi, the Middleton S. Burrills, the Efrem Zimbalists, and Whitney Warren, among others.

Robert Wilson Goelet (original source unknown)

Like Goelet's first marriage, this one would end in divorce.  On February 10, 1924, The New York Times reported that Fernanda had begun proceedings in Paris.  "Mr. Goelet could not be reached last night at his town apartment at 820 Fifth avenue or at his country place at Goshen, N. Y.," said the article.

Robert Goelet, it seems, did not intend his failed domestic relationship to upset his social schedule.  A month later, on March 26, he hosted "a supper with dancing," in the Fifth Avenue apartment.  "There were about 150 guests," reported The Times.  Among them were Prince and Princess Francesco Rospigliosi, Prince and Princess Matchabelli, Prince and Princess Pierre Troubetskoy, Mr. and Mrs. Jay Gould, the Otto Kahns, and society surnames like Drexel, Gerard, and Pell. 

In the meantime, Alexander Smith Cochran had found romance.  In 1920, he met Polish opera singer Ganna Walska aboard the Aquitania headed to Paris.  Only a few days later, he proposed and the couple was married on September 15.  The Evening World remarked that Walska, "became the bride of one of New York's richest bachelors."

Deemed by critics as a "mediocre" singer, Walska had been married twice before.  Her lack of success on the stage was countered by her success in marrying wealthy men and garnering large settlements.  The newlyweds moved into Walska's home at 101 East 94th Street, however The Evening World noted on December 20, 1920, "Mr. Cochran still retains his bachelor apartments at No. 820 Fifth Avenue."  It was fortunate that he did.  The couple was divorced in May 1922 and in August Ganna married Harold McCormick.  She received a $3 million settlement from Cochran--about $56 million today--and would marry two more times.  (Alexander S. Cochran died of pulmonary tuberculosis on June 19, 1929 at the age of 53.)

Banker David Crawford Clark and his wife, the former Zelina Elizabeth Keyser, sold their mansion at 991 Fifth Avenue and moved into No. 820 in 1918. The couple was married on April 23, 1889 and had two daughters, Zelina Theresa and Mary.

Only a few months after moving in, on April 19, 1919 David Clark died at the age of 55. Immediately after the funeral on April 21, Zelina, Mary and Harriet Clark (Zelina's sister-in-law and husband of George C. Clark) went to the Claridge Cottage in Southampton. Zelina's grief was too much for her to bear. Three days later, a carpenter, W. C. Schaeder, was working near Lake Agawam and saw Zelina Clark go into the water fully clothed. The New York Times reported, "when he went to her rescue, she tried to fight him off. He says he heard her tell her daughter, Miss Mary Clark, that she wanted to 'end it all.'" Happily, Zelina Elizabeth Clark survived the attempt and lived on until 1944.

In January 1919, Alfred Nathan leased his massive apartment to John North Willys "for a long term of years," as reported by The New York Times. Born in 1873, Willys was president of the Willys-Overland Company. His firm was the second largest automobile marker in the United States after Ford Motor Company. He and his wife, the firmer Irene Van Wie, had one daughter, Virginia Clayton. The family's country estate was Northcliffe, in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

John North Willys in 1917 from the collection of the Library of Congress.

After leasing the Nathan apartment for seven years, in April 1926 the family moved into another space within the building.  The New York Times reported their new "special duplex apartment" held "twenty-three rooms and eight baths."

On June 27, 1926, Virginia Pope wrote an article in the New York Times on "mansions in flats."  In it she described the Willys apartment, noting in part:

Canvases greet the eye as one enters this sumptuous home, whose living rooms extend the full length of the Fifth Avenue side of the building...The grilled iron doors and the heavily embossed ceiling of the long and broad entrance hall introduce an Italian note, putting one in humor to appreciate the two tendos [sic], one by Raffaelino del Garbo, the other by Lorenzo Credi, that hang at either side of the doorway leading into the living room.

The New York Times, June 27, 1926 (copyright expired)

The salon, she said, was "large enough to contain without crowding a Rembrandt, a Frans Hals, a Velasquez and other old masters."  Calling Irene's sitting room an "airy bower," she described the main rooms as being "grouped in a square about a Regency-style hall.

Virginia Willys's debutante season began with a "large ball" at the Park Lane on December 26, 1928, followed by a "large reception" in the apartment on December 29.  They were the first of a series of notable social events for the young woman within the next few months.  On January 25, 1929, her parents announced her engagement to Luis Marcelino de Aguirre "of Buenos Aires and Paris," as reported by The New York Times.  Nothing was more impressive, however, than her being presented to Queen Mary on May 9 that year.  

John and Isabel Willys divorced the following year.  Isabel remained in the 820 Fifth Avenue apartment and John quickly married Florence E. Dolan.  There was no divorce settlement.  John Willys told reporters four years later, on August 3, 1934, that he "had very amply provided for [Isabel] in the past years, the income from which will more than take care of her for the rest of her life."  Regarding Virginia, he said, "she is 23 years old and married.  I provided a trust fund for her some years ago, the income from which at this time gives her a good monthly allowance."

Twenty-three days after he made those statements, John North Willys suffered a fatal stroke.  His will left the substantial estate to Florence Dolan Willys.  Virginia sued in court in October 1935 to overturn the will.  She asserted that Florence had purposely ruined her parents' marriage "by means of guile, deceit, fraud and stratagem and false protestations of affection" to acquire "the great wealth she knew him to possess."

Former Governor Alfred E. Smith moved into the seventh-floor apartment of 820 Fifth Avenue in the fall of 1934.  In reporting on the move, The New York Times parenthetically mentioned that the building had "apartments of fourteen, seventeen and eighteen rooms, each suite occupying an entire floor...Among the tenants are Alfred P. Sloane Jr., Mrs. Pierre Lorillard, Adrian Iselin, John F. Harris, Mrs. Murray Crane, and Mrs. George Arents."

Living with Smith and his wife, the former Catherine A. Dunn, was their 33-year-old unmarried son, attorney Alfred Jr.; their daughter Catherine and her husband Francis J. Quillinan; and Emily Smith Warner and her husband, John A. Warner.  (Quillinan was a member of Warner's law firm.)  The siblings' father had come a long way from his humble beginnings at 25 Oliver Street.  

Alfred Emanuel Smith, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Among the servants the Smiths hired upon moving in was Mrs. William Suphka.  On August 3, 1935, the maid's sister, Sophie Windstosser, who worked as a children's nurse for a wealthy family, visited her here.  Mrs. Suphka left her "alone resting in the maid's room," according to her.  The New York Times reported, "When she returned she found the window open and her sister gone."  Sophie Windstosser had jumped from the window to her death.

In the spring of 1933, Alfred E. Smith, Jr. was seduced by a young woman, Catherine Pavlick, to a hotel room.  Soon afterward, he was approached by a Brooklyn lawyer, A. Henry Ross, who demanded $25,000 or his client "would expose a visit they made to a hotel."  Between May and August that year, Smith paid $7,250.  But when the demands kept coming, in 1936 Smith went to the authorities.  Despite the public humiliation and embarrassment to his family, he testified in court against Ross and Pavlick.

Catherine A. Dunn Smith contracted pneumonia in April 1944 and died in St. Vincent's Hospital on May 4 at the age of 65.  Her funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral.  The New York Times reported, "Deeply grieved and shocked by the unexpected death of his wife...Governor Smith retired to the seclusion of their home at 820 Fifth Avenue."

Five months later to the day, Alfred Emanuel Smith died on October 4, 1944 at the age of 70.  His funeral, too, was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral.  For the "millions of Americans" who were mourning his passing, the service was aired on radio nationwide.

photo by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The building was converted to cooperatives in 1949.  In its May 20, 1968 issue, New York Magazine described 820 Fifth Avenue, saying in part:

Its social tenancy includes the William Paleys, [and] Mrs. Carter Burden Sr.  The Charles Wrightsmans, who just paid about $350,000 for a floor to use as supplementary gallery space, spend about $18,000 for its maintenance which is below average, since some go as high as $30,000 a year.

At the time of the article, typical apartments sold for $750,000 (about $6.7 million today).

Florence Vanderbilt Twombly Burden's husband, William A. M. Burden had died in 1909.  She had two sons, William and Shirley C.  Florence died in her apartment on November 18, 1969 at the age of 87.  The New York Times mentioned that William Burden was a "former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Air and former United States Ambassador to Belgium."

William Paley, who built Columbia Broadcasting System into one of the foremost radio and television networks in the U.S., married Barbara Cushing Mortimer in 1947.  The couple filled their apartment here with a dazzling collection of artworks by masters like Matisse, Picasso, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Rouault and Derain.  Among their collection, for instance, was Paul Cézanne's Milk Can and Apples and Paul Gauguin's Washerwomen.  The couple's country home, "Kiluna North" sat on Squam Lake in New Hampshire.

Paul Gauguin's 1888 Washerwomen hung in the Paley apartment.  from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Barbara, known as Babe, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1974.  On July 5, 1978, the day after her 63rd birthday, she died.  William survived her by 12 years, dying of kidney failure on October 26, 1990, one month after his 89th birthday.  On November 3, The New York Times reported, "The collection of 19th- and 20th-century art assembled by William S. Paley, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, will go to the Museum of Modern Art."

Charles B. Wrightsman, an Oklahoma oil tycoon, and his wife, Jayne, moved into 820 Fifth Avenue in the 1950s.  The New York Times said that Jayne, "held court over the years with various socialites, aristocrats, politicians and museum curators who attended her elegant soirees."  Wrightsman died in 1986, and Jayne continued to live here.  

Jayne Wrightsman sits on a French settee in her sitting room under Renoir's The Green Jardiniere in 1966.  Cecil Beaton/Conde Nast

Described by The New York Times as a "society grande dame," she died in April 2019 at the age of 99.  The newspaper described her third-floor apartment as being "filled with priceless paintings and rare books and collectibles."  Her apartment was placed on the market in November that year for $50 million.

No. 820 Fifth Avenue is considered one of "the best" addresses in Manhattan.  Potential buyers are warned that sales must be "entirely in cash" and their liquid assets be ten times the price of the apartment.