Edward S. Harkness House
The Edward S. Harkness House is a Modern Renaissance–style mansion at the northeastern corner of Fifth Avenue and 75th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Built between 1907 and 1909, it was designed by James Gamble Rogers for the philanthropist and oil heir Edward Harkness and his wife Mary Harkness. The mansion, which has been the Commonwealth Fund's headquarters since 1952, is a New York City designated landmark.
The Harkness House is five stories tall and has a facade made of Tennessee marble, with few exterior decorations. Because the mansion has a longer frontage along 75th Street than on Fifth Avenue, the main entrance is through a portico on 75th Street. The rest of the facade has windows with carved sills and lintels. The house retains most of its original interiors, which were designed in a much more elaborate manner than the facade, though these spaces have been converted to offices. The ground floor contained a reception room and dining room, and the second floor had a salon, music room, and library. There were also servants' rooms in the basement and attic, as well as bedrooms for the Harkness family on the third and fourth floors.
Edward Harkness acquired the site at the northeast corner of 75th Street and Fifth Avenue in January 1907. When the house was completed, it was one of seven residences that the Harkness family owned. Edward lived there until his death in 1940. When Mary died ten years later, she bequeathed the house to the Commonwealth Fund, an organization founded by Edward's mother. After the Commonwealth Fund converted the house into offices, the organization used the building as its headquarters. By the late 20th century, the Harkness House was one of a relatively small number of pre–World War I mansions remaining in the area. Commentary of the house's design has been largely positive, focusing on the simplicity of the facade.
Site
The Edward S. Harkness House is on the northeastern corner of 75th Street and Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The house has a primary address of 1 East 75th Street, with an alternate address of 940 Fifth Avenue. The house occupies a rectangular land lot of, with a frontage of on Fifth Avenue to the west and on 75th Street to the south. Immediately to the south are the apartment building at 930 Fifth Avenue and the Nathaniel L. McCready House at 4 East 75th Street. The Conservatory Water pond at Central Park is directly to the west, across Fifth Avenue, while the Clarence Whitman Mansion is at 7 East 76th Street on the block to the north.At the time of the Harkness House's construction, it was one of several Renaissance–style mansions in New York City to be built upon a highly visible corner site. The house originally shared the block with Temple Beth-El, a synagogue directly to the north. It was one of several mansions on the block of 75th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues that replaced smaller row houses; the block's residents during the early 20th century included the magnates Edwin Gould and Barron Collier. By the late 20th century, the Harkness House was one of a relatively small number of remaining pre–World War I mansions in the southern portion of the Upper East Side; most of the surrounding mansions were replaced with apartment buildings after the war. Other surviving pre-war mansions nearby include the Henry Clay Frick House, Oliver Gould Jennings House, Henry T. Sloane House, Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House, and Joseph Pulitzer House.
Architecture
The building was designed by the firm of Hale and Rogers for the philanthropist and oil heir Edward Harkness and his wife Mary Harkness. James Gamble Rogers was the house's primary architect. After he designed the Harkness House, Rogers was hired to design several other structures for the Harkness family, such as Yale University's Memorial Quadrangle, Columbia University's Butler Library, and the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.The architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern describes the structure as an early Modern Renaissance–style building in New York City. The building has Italian Renaissance–style architectural elements as well. The house has a frontage of on 75th Street, while the Fifth Avenue frontage measures wide. The structure is five stories high, but the attic is concealed from street level.
Facade
The Harkness House is five stories high and has relatively little architectural ornamentation compared with other mansions nearby. Harkness had wanted a "dignified house that would not in an ostentatious way indicate its costliness". Early plans called for the first story to be made of granite, while the upper stories would have been made of marble with terracotta trim. As built, the entire facade is clad in Tennessee marble, with trim made of granite and terracotta. The wider 75th Street elevation of the facade is divided vertically into seven bays, while the narrower Fifth Avenue elevation is divided into two bays. The design of the facade on 75th Street is continued along Fifth Avenue. Two leaded windows are installed on the eastern elevation, and an alleyway measuring wide was built to the east of the house as well.An areaway separates the house from the sidewalk, and there is an iron fence in front of the areaway, inspired by a similar fence in the Italian city of Verona. Due to the narrow frontage on Fifth Avenue, the main entrance is through an archway at the center of the 75th Street elevation. There is a portico, supported by a pair of Tuscan columns, in front of the archway. The rest of the first story contains windows, which have raised window sills to prevent pedestrians from looking in. The first story is clad with rusticated marble blocks, with deep grooves running horizontally and vertically across the facade. The vertical grooves between the first-story windows are arranged in a pattern to give the illusion of vertical pilasters on the facade. Above the first story, there are two capitals between each bay, further contributing to the impression of pilasters. Unlike traditional pilasters, the grooved sections of the wall do not have vertical decorative elements that evoke column shafts.
The second through fourth stories have a smooth ashlar facade with quoins at each corner. The second-story windows, which illuminate the reception rooms inside, are taller than those on the upper stories. There are balustrades at the bottom of each second-story window, as well as console brackets with cornices above each window. In addition, the central second-story window on 75th Street has a small balcony directly above the entrance, and there are scrolls beside the window and a broken pediment above. The third-story windows are plain in design; these windows have sills supported by corbel blocks, as well as plain cornices above. The central third-story window on 75th Street has a balcony with tracery on its balustrade. The fourth-story windows are square, and the window sills are connected by a decorative frieze. The lintels above the fourth-story windows are connected by a frieze with foliate patterns in high relief. A cornice with dentils runs horizontally above the fourth floor. The attic level is concealed by the cornice and by a balustrade running above the fourth floor.
Features
According to the New York City Department of City Planning, the Harkness House has a gross floor area of. The building has five above-ground levels and two basements, with a steel frame that was built using the post and lintel system. In contrast to the facade, the interior was designed in a very elaborate style, using the highest-quality materials available at the time. The western and southeastern parts of the house were originally used as living quarters, while the northern part had service rooms. In designing the house, Rogers used a compact floor plan to give it a domestic ambiance. Harkness had specified that the house should contain at least 14 bedrooms for servants and 7 bedrooms for family members, as well as other mechanical and service rooms such as kitchens. There were originally marble and wrought iron decorations, in addition to a passenger elevator and a service elevator. Many of the original interior decorations remain intact, but the interiors have been converted to offices.First floor
The first floor has dining and reception rooms. The entrance on 75th Street leads to a plain vestibule with a ceiling vault, which was originally made of glass but was replaced with limestone after the 1920s. To the left of the vestibule is a square entrance hall, separated from the vestibule by a glass-and-bronze door. The entrance hall has a marble floor, Botticino limestone walls, and a leaded-glass ceiling dome, along with plaster reliefs. It was originally furnished with Italian chairs and tables. A Town and Country magazine article described the entrance hall as combining the more formal elements of the vestibule with the less formal design of the living quarters inside. There is a stair hall next to the entrance hall, which is not visible from the vestibule. The house's stair hall has marble newel posts designed by Henry Hering. The stair itself has brass railings, and the walls and steps of the staircase are made of marble. There is a leaded-glass dome above the stair hall on the second floor.West of the entrance hall, on the western end of the first floor, is the reception room, which faces Central Park. The reception room has a ceiling mural and was originally decorated in a French style, specifically the Louis XVI style. The ceiling mural contains representations of various figures such as white women carrying umbrellas, along with monkeys and Chinese men. The fixtures, such as light switches, were designed so they blended in with the woodwork. There is a small fireplace in the reception room, which is flanked by wall sconces. The reception room also had a Persian-style leather screen. There was originally a pair of doors connecting the entrance hall to the reception room; when the Commonwealth Fund took over the building in 1952, the reception room became a conference space, and the door was removed. North of the entrance hall, another room connects with the dressing room and elevator. The dressing room has mirrors and a coved ceiling.
The eastern half of the ground floor is occupied by the dining room and butler's pantry, the former of which is raised slightly above the entrance hall. East of the entrance hall are two doorways, one of which has a small staircase to the dining room. The dining room has Caen stone walls, as well as a ceiling with deep beams and velvet draperies on the walls. When the building was used as a residence, the dining room had sconces and chandeliers inspired by old Italian designs. There were also carved furniture, walnut chairs, and a sideboard from Italy, in addition to an Oriental rug. Kenyon Cox designed the leaded-glass windows on the eastern wall of the dining room; the windows were meant to conceal the fact that the house to the east had a plain brick wall. According to Cox, the leaded-glass windows were inspired by Italian Renaissance book decorations. The dining room was converted to the Commonwealth Fund's boardroom after the organization took over the building.