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Coordinates: 40°44′58.8″N 73°58′52.4″W / 40.749667°N 73.981222°W / 40.749667; -73.981222
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Joseph R. De Lamar House
(2005)
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Location233 Madison Avenue
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°44′58.8″N 73°58′52.4″W / 40.749667°N 73.981222°W / 40.749667; -73.981222
Built1902-05
ArchitectC. P. H. Gilbert
Architectural styleBeaux-Arts
NRHP reference No.83001722
NYCL No.0884
Significant dates
Added to NRHPAugust 25, 1983
Designated NYCLMarch 25, 1975

The Joseph Raphael De Lamar House is a mansion at 233 Madison Avenue, at the corner of 37th Street, in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The house was built in 1902–1905 and was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert in the Beaux-Arts style. It serves as the Consulate General of Poland, New York City. The mansion is a New York City designated landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

The De Lamar Mansion marked a stark departure from Gilbert's traditional style of French Gothic architecture and was instead robustly Beaux-Arts, heavy with rusticated stonework, balconies, and a colossal mansard roof[1][2][3]

De Lamar acquired the site in 1902 and hired Gilbert to design it.

Site

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Architecture

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The building was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert for the businessman Joseph Raphael De Lamar.[4]

Facade

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Features

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Structural features

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The house is constructed with a steel superstructure. Each floor slab is made of metal arches covered with concrete, which at the time of the house's completion was known as the Roebling method of fireproofing. To prevent fires from spreading inside the house, the various rooms are divided by terracotta partitions.[4] When the house was constructed, it included five lifts.[5][6] There was one elevator each for residents and servants; a dumbwaiter; an elevator to bring ashes from the basement to the street; and a vehicle elevator.[6] The residents' elevator traveled only to the fifth floor, while the servants' elevator served every story and measured 3 by 5 feet (0.91 by 1.52 m).[4] The vehicle elevator served De Lamar's garage in the basement.[7] Though the entire house was equipped with heating systems when it was built, De Lamar's daughter Alice recalled that she seldom felt any heat.[4]

Interior

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At the ground (first) story, the entrance hall had a bronze grille designed in the Beaux-Arts style. On either side of a main hallway were double doors leading to the house's ground-story rooms; the doors were surrounded by moldings and topped by lintels.[8] A billiards room and a library occupied the Madison Avenue (west) side of the house, while a dining room occupied the east side.[4] A staircase also led up to the second floor and was flanked by fluted columns. Above the staircase was a skylight.[8] Alice De Lamar recalled that there was originally "a fountain with plants and marble figures" at the bottom of the staircase landing.[4]

The second floor included an art gallery or Pompeian room to the east, a ballroom to the west, and a music room in the center.[9] The western and central rooms had a gilded ceiling cornice surrounding a painted ceiling. The western room's walls had gilded pilasters interspersed with lighting sconces and fabric panels. Within the central room, the walls were topped by a gilded entablature.[8] There was also a musicians' gallery suspended above part of the music room.[10] Within the easternmost room, the walls were wainscoted with wooden panels, interspersed with Doric columns, and there was a marble fireplace mantel on one wall.[8] Above the eastern room's columns were a painted frieze and stained glass panels,[8][10] the latter of which were backlit.[4] The ceiling of the eastern room was coffered, and there was a panel in the middle of the ceiling.[8] Originally, the art gallery room had red walls, upon which paintings were displayed, as well as a Persian carpet.[4]

The upper stories were used as bedrooms. On the third story was a breakfast room, as well as three bedrooms, all with baths. One of the third-story bedrooms was used by J. R. De Lamar, while the other two were guest rooms.[4] The easternmost third-story room had paneling and a frieze on the walls. Its ceiling was painted and had a crystal chandelier and dentils.[8] On the fourth floor was a sewing room and two additional bedrooms with baths, one of which was for Alice De Lamar. The fifth floor contained the housekeeper's bedroom and various servants' bedrooms. There was also an attic within the mansard roof, which had a laundry room and a gymnasium.[4]

History

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Joseph Raphael De Lamar was a Dutch-born merchant seaman who was born around 1843.[11][12] After becoming the captain of his own ship in the 1860s,[12][13] he made a fortune in mining and metallurgy in Colorado and Idaho through the late 19th century.[14][15] De Lamar also served in the Idaho Senate before ultimately deciding to move to New York City.[12][13] He married Nellie Sands in 1893, and Sands gave birth to their only child, Alice, two years later.[11] The De Lamar family was living in Paris at the time.[13] De Lamar divorced Sands soon after their daughter was born.[11][13] He moved back to New York City with his daughter[13] and decided to construct a grand house in New York City.[2][3]

Residential use

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In April 1901, De Lamar bought a four-story brownstone at 233 Madison Avenue and 37th Street from Henry D. Noyes,[16][17] with plans to develop a six-story mansion there.[18] C. P. H. Gilbert was hired to design the house that month.[19] De Lamar bought a four-story structure at 235 Madison Avenue (just north of 37th Street) from Marion C. Grimshaw that September.[20][21] In August 1902, Gilbert submitted revised plans to the New York City Department of Buildings for a house measuring 50 by 100 feet (15 by 30 m).[7] The structure would cost $400,000 and would contain an underground garage with vehicle elevator.[7][22] That month. Charles T. Wills was hired as the house's general contractor.[22] Alice later recalled that, when she was eight years old, she was told that her father's mansion would be as large as the 130-room William A. Clark House on the Upper East Side.[4]

De Lamar was considering selling the mansion in 1904, when the house was nearly completed; The New York Times wrote that he no longer had a strong desire to live in one of Murray Hill's largest mansions.[4][23] The Times estimated at the time that the house would be worth $600,000 to $700,000 upon its completion.[23] By 1905, De Lamar was planning to move into the house with his fiancee, the opera singer Lillian Nordica.[24] According to the 1910 United States census, J. R. De Lamar lived in the house with Alice and nine servants.[11] Among the events that took place at the mansion was a 1915 debutante party for Alice De Lamar.[25][26] The house was valued at $400,000 by the mid-1910s.[27]

De Lamar died in 1918 at the age of 75.[15][28] He left an estate worth $32 million (equivalent to $487 million in 2023), including a $10 million life trust to his daughter,[29][28] a mechanic who was generally uninterested in high society.[30] De Lamar bequeathed the house itself to three medical schools: those of Harvard, Columbia, and Johns Hopkinsuniversities.[28] The executors of De Lamar's estate auctioned off the mansion's decorations in November 1919, receiving more than $250,000.[31][32] The objects on sale included Beauvais tapestries, silk rugs, and a copy of Hiram Powers's sculpture The Greek Slave.[31] Alice eventually moved to 740 Park Avenue.[29] In 1920, the city government valued the objects inside the house at $145,222 (equivalent to $2,209,000 in 2023),[29] while his estate's executors gave a different valuation of $110,113.[33]

Institutional use

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Attempted sale to American Bible Society

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By mid-1921, the house was on sale; at the time, the property was valued at $340,000. The proceeds of the sale would be donated to three colleges that were mentioned in De Lamar's will.[34][35] The American Bible Society signed a contract in May 1921 to buy the house for $275,000, and it made a down payment of $5,000. The society planned to use the building as a Bible store.[36][37] Although the New-York Tribune reported in June 1921 that another colonel named Floyd Brown was negotiating for the house,[35] The New York Times wrote that no one was actively negotiating for the site.[34] The executors of De Lamar's estate refused to sell the house to the American Bible Society, claiming that the building would need significant renovations to accommodate the group.[36] In addition, the executors claimed that the American Bible Society's use of the building would violate the Murray Hill Restrictive Agreement, an 1847 covenant restricting the development of non-residential buildings on Madison Avenue, as well as the 1916 Zoning Resolution.[36][37]

The structure was sold in September 1921[38] to Ella M. O'Kane.[39] The agreement between the De Lamar estate and the American Bible Society had never been rescinded, and the society requested that the executors of De Lamar's estate return their down payment. When the payment was not returned, the American Bible Society sued the estate's executors in the New York Supreme Court in May 1922.[36][37] A Supreme Court judge ruled in July that the payment had to be refunded but that the 1847 covenant precluded the house from being sold to the American Bible Society.[40][41] The covenant itself was repealed less than a year later.[42]

National Democratic Club

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In January 1923, the National Democratic Club purchased the building as its headquarters,[42] paying $287,000 for the structure.[43] The club sold its previous headquarters at 617 Fifth Avenue to pay for the purchase,[44] earning more than $1 million from its old clubhouse.[45][46] Club leaders added a presidential suite and a governor's room,[45] though the house's murals were preserved.[43] The club opened within the De Lamar House in December 1923.[43][47] Shortly after the Democratic Club moved into the mansion, in mid-1924, the city government began widening the adjacent stretch of Madison Avenue.[48] This required the removal of an iron railing in front of the house on Madison Avenue.[49]

Polish consulate

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In 1973, the Republic of Poland bought the mansion for $900,000 (equal to $6,200,000 in 2023) to house its Consulate General in New York.

In the early 1990s, the Polish consular office hired Artenova of New York, a local Polish-American restoration firm, to restore the exterior for $200,000. The project included fixes to the facade, roof, columns, and copper cresting; the project was completed by 1992.[50] The Polish government again repaired the house and cleaned the facade in 2008.[11]

Impact

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When the structure was being constructed, one newspaper described the building as "one of the handsomest palaces on Murray Hill".[24] In their 1985 book Elegant New York, John Tauranac and Christopher Little wrote that the house was "uncontestably one of the grandest expressions of Beaux-Arts in the city, a great French-style palais from its concrete base to the copper cresting atop its mansard roof".[4]

The De Lamar Mansion was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1975, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

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  • Neo-baroque cartouche with floral painting at the ceiling
    Neo-baroque cartouche with floral painting at the ceiling
  • One of the representative rooms with ceiling paintings and gilded stucco
    One of the representative rooms with ceiling paintings and gilded stucco
  • Staircase with leaded glass skylight
    Staircase with leaded glass skylight

See also

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References

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Notes

Citations

  1. ^ Gray, Christopher (December 12, 2008). "Still an Eye-Popper After All These Years". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  2. ^ a b New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
  3. ^ a b White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tauranac 1985, p. 61.
  5. ^ "Johnston Livingston, Jr. & Co". Architecture. Vol. 8, no. 43. July 15, 1903. p. 86. ProQuest 903882806.
  6. ^ a b "Trade Notes". Electrical Age. Vol. 30, no. 2. February 1, 1903. p. 167. ProQuest 574517753.
  7. ^ a b c "J.R. De Lamar's New House; Automobile Storage Room to be Constructed Under the Sidewalk". The New York Times. August 22, 1902. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g National Park Service 1983, p. 2.
  9. ^ Tauranac 1985, pp. 61–63.
  10. ^ a b Tauranac 1985, p. 63.
  11. ^ a b c d e Gray, Christopher (December 12, 2008). "Still an Eye-Popper After All These Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  12. ^ a b c National Park Service 1983, p. 3.
  13. ^ a b c d e Tauranac 1985, p. 60.
  14. ^ Barrett, G. W. (Spring 1969). "When Big Money Came to Owyhee, a Biography of J R De Lamar, miner". Idaho Yesterdays. 13 (1): 2–29.
  15. ^ a b "Joseph R. De Lamar, Mining Capitalist, Dies of Pneumonia: Was Taken to Roosevelt Hospital Last Wednesday for Operation". New-York Tribune. December 2, 1918. p. 9. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 575943656.
  16. ^ "Real Estate". New-York Tribune. April 17, 1901. p. 9. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  17. ^ "In the Real Estate Field". The New York Times. April 17, 1901. p. 11. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  18. ^ "South of 59th Street". The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. Vol. 67, no. 1727. April 20, 1901. p. 696 – via columbia.edu.
  19. ^ "Dwellings". The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. Vol. 67, no. 1727. April 20, 1901. p. 699 – via columbia.edu.
  20. ^ "Conveyances". The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. Vol. 68, no. 1750. September 28, 1901. p. 381 – via columbia.edu.
  21. ^ "Real Estate Transfers". The New York Times. September 22, 1901. p. 16. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 96135048.
  22. ^ a b "Contracts Awarded". The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. Vol. 70, no. 1797. August 23, 1902. p. 262 – via columbia.edu.
  23. ^ a b "De La Mar Mansion for Sale". The New York Times. April 8, 1904. p. 5. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 96376681. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  24. ^ a b "Nordica: to Wed a Millionaire. The Famous Singer is Said to Be Engaged, and Captain De Lamar Refuses Either to Affirm or Deny the Story of the Romance". Cincinnati Enquirer. October 27, 1905. p. 9. ProQuest 895518687.
  25. ^ "Alice Delamar Makes Her Debut; Daughter of John R. Delamar Is Introduced at a Dance at Sherry's". The New York Times. February 2, 1915. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  26. ^ "Captain Delamar Host at Dance: Many Society Folk Attend Party at Sherry's for His Daughter". New-York Tribune. February 2, 1915. p. 9. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 575390768.
  27. ^ "Private Dwelling Assessments for the Coming Year". The New York Times. October 15, 1916. p. XX4. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 97842635.
  28. ^ a b c Tauranac 1985, p. 65.
  29. ^ a b c "Schools Get 16 Millions Under De Lamar Will: Medical Departments of Columbia, Harvard and Johns Hopkins Will Each Receive $5,541,401". New-York Tribune. May 15, 1920. p. 11. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 576228157.
  30. ^ Mackenzie, Christine (January 5, 1919). "Latest of "Million-heiresses": Miss Alice De Lamar at 23 is Already a Trained Financier- by Study She Became Motor Corps' Most Expert Mechanician". Boston Daily Globe. p. 37. ProQuest 576134059.
  31. ^ a b "Ardebil Carpet Sold for $57,000; Duveens Pay Record Price of World for Mosque Rug at De Lamar Sale". The New York Times. November 23, 1919. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  32. ^ "$57,000 Paid for Mosque Carpet as De Lamar Sale Ends: Furnishings Valued at $1,000,000 Disposed Of at Auction for $257,563; Large Pieces Unpopular Newest in Arctic Fashions". New York Herald Tribune. January 11, 1962. p. 17. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 576134059.
  33. ^ "Estate of $33,327,335; More Than $12,000,000 in Stocks and Bonds, Including $3,000,000 Oil". The New York Times. March 30, 1920. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  34. ^ a b "De Lamar House Deal; Negotiations for Purchase Broken Off--Offered Under Assessed Valuation". The New York Times. June 25, 1921. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  35. ^ a b "Deal for Fine De Lamar Home on Madison Ave.: Col. Floyd Brown Mentioned as Negotiating for Property Opposite Morgan's House". New-York Tribune. June 25, 1921. p. 15. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 576398811.
  36. ^ a b c d "Morgan to Have Bible Society For Neighbor: {lans to Locate on Madison Ave. if Court Rules Covenant Against Business Will Not Be Broken". New-York Tribune. May 19, 1922. p. 19. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 576612613.
  37. ^ a b c "Bible Society in Suit.; Is Party to Dispute Over Property Involving Building Zone Rules". The New York Times. May 19, 1922. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  38. ^ "De Lamar Residence, Opposite Morgan's, Sold". New-York Tribune. September 3, 1921. p. 13. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 576510352.
  39. ^ "Realty Notes". The New York Times. September 8, 1921. p. 31. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 98377142.
  40. ^ "Bible Society Released From Realty Contract". New-York Tribune. July 15, 1922. p. 3. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 576653180.
  41. ^ "Bars Bible Society From Murray Hill; Appellate Division Holds its Business Comes Within Restrictive Covenant". The New York Times. July 15, 1922. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  42. ^ a b "Business to Face Old Morgan Home; Court of Appeals Ends Long Suit by Lifting Restrictions on Madison Avenue Plot". The New York Times. January 18, 1923. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  43. ^ a b c "Hughes Resents Hint of Action on Bergdoll; Obtains Withdrawal by Represen- tative Fitzgerald of Statement That He Would Aid Griffis". The New York Times. December 14, 1923. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  44. ^ "Scores Trust Plan to Operate Ships; Senator Ransdell Says It Would Return Monopoly to Foreign Vessels". The New York Times. September 4, 1923. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  45. ^ a b "Democratic Club Bows to Business; Department Store to Replace Noted Croker Headquarters at 617 Fifth Avenue". The New York Times. February 4, 1923. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  46. ^ "'Movies' Get Passing Of Democratic Club Realty to Brown: Fifth Ave. Clubhouse Now Belongs to Operator, Who Paid $1,010,000: Bought in 1889 for $175,000". New-York Tribune. February 2, 1923. p. 9. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 1221769490.
  47. ^ "Democrats to Open New Club To-morrow: Public Reception Will Be driven in Quarters at 233 Madison Avenue". New-York Tribune. December 14, 1923. p. 3. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 1237320678.
  48. ^ "Steps Cut Away at Morgan Home; Baker Houses Also Show the Effects of Work in Widening Madison Avenue Roadway". The New York Times. September 21, 1924. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  49. ^ "Morgan's Lawn Curtailed; Widening of Madison Avenue Is Affecting Fine Old Mansions". The New York Times. August 20, 1924. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  50. ^ "Postings: The Polish Consulate; Beaux-Arts Style Restoration". The New York Times. April 19, 1992. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2024.

Sources

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