Isaac L. Rice Mansion
The Isaac L. Rice Mansion is a mansion on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Located at 346 West 89th Street, at the corner of Riverside Drive, it was designed by Herts & Tallant. The house was built between 1901 and 1903 for the family of the businessman Isaac Rice and his wife Julia. Several further expansions in the 20th century, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert, Bloch & Hesse, and William Lazinsk, are similar in style to the original building. The Rice Mansion has served as a yeshiva since 1954 and is one of only two free-standing mansions extant on Riverside Drive. The house is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The mansion was designed in a mixture of the Colonial Revival, Italianate, Georgian, and Beaux-Arts architectural styles. The brick and marble facade is four stories high, with an attic and basement; the house is surrounded by a marble perimeter wall. There is a double-height entrance arch along Riverside Drive. On 89th Street, the first two stories are curved outward and contain a porte-cochère and a carved bas relief panel. The building is topped by a hip roof, clad with Spanish tiles. The mansion's interior was decorated in classical architectural styles, and was designed to be soundproof. It was built with spaces such as a main hall, library, and dining room on the main floor; a chess room in the basement; and bedrooms on the upper stories. Although subsequent tenants have modified the interior spaces over the years, the house largely retains its original interior layout.
At the end of the 19th century, Isaac Rice and his wife Julia sought to erect a residence in a quiet part of New York City. The Rices bought the site at Riverside Drive and 89th Street in 1900 and hired Herts and Tallant as the house's architects. When the Rice family moved to the Ansonia Hotel in 1907, they sold it to the tobacconist Solomon Schinasi, whose family modified the house in 1908, 1912, and 1927. The Schinasi family lived there until around 1945, after which the Heckscher Foundation for Children leased it. Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim acquired the house in 1954. The yeshiva attempted to sell and demolish the mansion in the late 1970s, prompting a heated dispute with local preservationists. The house was taken over in 1988 by another Jewish day school, Yeshiva Ketana, which restored the house in the 1990s. There has been positive architectural commentary of the house over the years.
Site
The Isaac L. Rice Mansion is at 346 West 89th Street, at the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and 89th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The house occupies an irregular plot with frontage of wide on 89th Street to the north and on Riverside Drive to the west; the plot extends back from 89th Street. The house itself is rectangular, measuring roughly, with a semicircular annex to the south and a rectangular annex to the southeast. It is aligned with the rest of the Manhattan street grid, toward the eastern portion of the site. When the house was finished in the early 1900s, it was surrounded by terraced gardens.The house was originally surrounded by a brick wall designed by Herts & Tallant, the mansion's overall architect. The wall was a solid masonry structure measuring high, interspersed with six pillars measuring high. The brick perimeter wall was demolished in 1912 because it protruded past the lot line, and it was replaced by a marble wall designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. The house is across from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument within Riverside Park to the west. Rice had specifically selected the site of his house because it faced the monument, and the mansion's marble perimeter wall is designed similarly to the monument's balustrades. The Rice Mansion is also near the Normandy apartment building, which is two blocks to the south.
The house was one of several freestanding mansions that were built along Riverside Drive and Park in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time when developers envisioned Riverside Drive as a rival to the millionaires' row on Fifth Avenue. The plot immediately to the south was owned by the brewer George Ehret and the department store retailer Benjamin Altman in the late 19th century, neither of whom built their houses there. Immediately to the north was a house belonging to Elizabeth Clark. As part of an agreement that Altman made with William W. Hall in 1898, the Rice Mansion site was restricted to single-family residential use and had to be at least four stories high. By the early 21st century, the Rice Mansion was one of two remaining freestanding mansions on Riverside Drive, along with the Schinasi Mansion. The Rice Mansion was also the only mansion on the avenue that retained some of its original gardens; the other mansions had mostly been replaced with apartment buildings.
Architecture
The Isaac L. Rice Mansion was designed for the businessman and lawyer Isaac L. Rice by Herts & Tallant, who were known for designing Broadway theaters such as the New Amsterdam, Liberty, and Lyceum. The mansion was designed in a mix of the Colonial Revival, Italianate, and Georgian styles, and it also incorporates Beaux-Arts architectural elements. Local news sources in the early 20th century compared the house to an Italian villa or a Swiss chalet. C. P. H. Gilbert designed an annex in 1908 and a marble perimeter wall in 1912, while Bloch & Hesse and William Lazinsk were responsible for additional annexes in 1927. All of these additions were designed in a similar style to Herts & Tallant's original mansion. The building is four stories high with an attic and a basement.Facade
The facade is made of brick and marble. The use of brick in the facade was common among neo-Georgian buildings, whereas the marble details were intended to be reminiscent of the Beaux-Arts style. Marble was used for the stairs, gardens, terraces, and archway.Riverside Drive
The primary elevation of the mansion's facade faces west toward Riverside Drive and is divided vertically into three bays. There is an entrance on the second story of the Riverside Drive elevation, accessed via a wide exterior stairway measuring wide. While the original plans called for twenty granite steps, with a stone balustrade and electric lamps on either side, the current staircase has ten steps. The stairway to the house was narrowed in 1912 when the balustrade around the mansion was rebuilt.The Riverside Drive entrance is a double-height arch, which rises to the third story. The archway is similar to the New Amsterdam Theatre's original archway, which the firm also designed. The lower portion of the arch is flanked by a pair of engaged columns in the Tuscan order. Within the arch, the walls are faced in marble. The arch has a second-story doorway topped by a pediment and a double window. The upper portion of the arch is outlined by a string course with modillions. A keystone shaped like a console bracket is placed at the very top of the arch. On either side of the arched doorway, the second story forms a piano nobile flanked by Tuscan or Doric engaged columns. Miniature balustrades with stone panels are placed in front of the entrance. Above the story is an entablature with modillions, which is interrupted by the archway. The third-story windows have flat lintels influenced by English architecture. String courses run horizontally across the facade at the third and fourth stories as well.
Other elevations
On 89th Street, the first two stories are curved outward from the rest of the building and are clad with marble. At ground level, there is a porte-cochère for vehicles, which is composed of two segmental arches leading to a ground-floor entrance. Each arch is topped by a keystone. Between the arches of the porte-cochère is a carved bas relief panel depicting six children, who likely represent the Rices' sons and daughters. The sculpture is attributed to Louis St. Lannes, who also designed a statue outside the Rice Memorial Stadium in Pelham Bay Park. The second story consists of windows with Doric engaged columns on either side, above which is an entablature with modillions. There is another porte-cochère on 89th Street, which is attached to the house; the one-story structure fits two cars and was designed by Bloch and Hesse in 1927.The rest of the original facade is made of brick and is topped by a cornice with modillions and escutcheons. A hip roof, clad with Spanish tiles, overhangs the cornice. The north side of the roof has a skylight. The western and eastern sides of the roof each have three dormer windows that illuminate the attic, while the southern side has a single dormer. The house was originally constructed with four chimneys, two each to the west and east. There is also a brick elevator shaft to the east.
At the southeast corner is a two-story annex designed by Gilbert in 1908. This annex is attached to the original mansion's eastern wall, which has very little ornamentation. Gilbert also added a semicircular bay to the southern elevation, similar to the design of the original mansion. The semicircular bay contains windows flanked by Doric engaged columns, as well as an entablature above the second story. The southern elevation additionally includes a two-story arched entrance, which is similar to the design of the Riverside Drive arch. The southern arch is topped by a keystone, with three windows above.
Interior
Isaac Rice and his wife Julia Barnett Rice had wanted the house to be soundproof because their six children were loud. The mansion's interior was decorated in classical architectural styles, with marble fireplaces, wooden ceilings, stained glass windows, and a marble staircase. Although various subsequent tenants have modified the interior spaces over the years, the house largely retained its original interior layout in the late 20th century. Many of the original fireplace mantels also remain, along with wood paneling. The mechanical and electrical systems have also been upgraded. The original house had one elevator, and a second was constructed in 1927.The main hall measures. Its ceiling is made of plaster and is divided into coffers with rinceaux and foliate motifs. On the northern and southern walls of the main hall are tall doorways with moldings and pilasters, which lead to various rooms. The room to the north is the former library, whose eastern wall contains an elaborate fireplace mantel. The library's mantel is flanked by pilasters with ornate capitals, which support a shelf with carved rinceaux and a central medallion. When the Rices lived in the mansion, the library had a carving of a blind beggar, as well as a bronze bust of a rabbi also designed by Dorothy. South of the main hall was the dining room, which had wood paneling relocated from the St. Louis World's Fair. One source from 1907 described it as "one of the handsomest rooms in the house", with 40 types of wood used in the ceiling and walls.
In the basement was a chess room where Isaac Rice often arranged matches with competitors abroad. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style, the chess room was a double-height space measuring, with space for six tables. The room had a ventilation system, and it was soundproofed so Isaac could concentrate during matches. Other features of the house included wine vaults, billiards rooms, a fitness room, a studio, an infirmary room, and a garage that could fit several vehicles. The fourth floor contained a gymnasium for the Rice children.
The house's original staircase was made of wood; this was replaced in 1908 by an iron-and-marble stairway, designed by Gilbert in the Italianate style. The lower part of the staircase has a marble balustrade with coats of arms and rosettes. On the upper stories, the staircase has an iron balustrade with rosettes, as well as landings with protruding balconies. The upper stories were used as bedrooms. Each of the Rice children designed their bedrooms according to their own tastes; for example, Isaac Jr. and Julian decorated their respective rooms with machinery. On the fourth floor, there is a room with a plaster ceiling that contains moldings, a frieze, and geometric motifs.