Great Houses of New York, 1880-1940: v. 2

New York has never been a place to hide one s wealth. As the city grew in power and affluence during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so did the houses of its richest citizens. The best architectural firms filled avenues and side streets with fluid Venetian palazzos, elegant French hôtels particuliers, and dignified Georgian mansions with private galleries and exhibition halls created to house their patrons growing art collections.
In this, the second volume of Great Houses of New York, Michael Kathrens continues to explore the most elegant New York City town houses, built for the city s business and social elite between 1880 and 1940. Released in 2005, the first volume profiled 43 important houses, offering a rare and captivating glimpse into a time of unprecedented architectural and social development of the city. Great Houses of New York, Volume II, documents another 37 structures both celebrated and less well-known completing the survey of the city s most exclusive addresses of the Gilded Age.
Illustrated with a wealth of period photos of buildings exteriors, interiors, and decor the exotic 45-foot-high studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the art-and- treasure-filled residences of Henry O. Havemeyer and Jeanette Dwight Bliss, the magnificent country estate of C.K.G. Billings on the former site of Fort Tryon (now the site of The Cloisters Museum and Gardens), and architect Ernest Flagg s own house that once stood at 109 E. 40th Street Great Houses of New York parades the sumptuous facades and the riches within. A visual delight and an absorbing social history, Great Houses of New York chronicles 60 years of the city s culture, commerce, sophisticated lifestyle, and the rich architectural and cultural legacy they established.