Gracie Mansion was built in 1799 for Archibald Gracie, a wealthy New York merchant, using the Federal Style of architecture. Gracie sold the house to Joseph Foulke in 1823 after suffering financial setbacks. The home was sold again in 1857 to Noah Wheaton. Then, in 1896, New York City acquired the property after the owner failed to pay taxes. It served as a restroom and concession stand for years until the city decided to invest money to refurbish the house. Following renovations, the historic mansion served as a museum until 1932. In 1942, it became the home of the Mayor of New York City, with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia being the first to move in.
Beloved author Harper Lee, who won the Pulitzer Prize for To Kill a Mockingbird, was an Alabama native who made her hometown of Monroeville famous as the fictionalized Maycomb. Lee spent much of her life in Alabama, but she also maintained an apartment on the Upper East Side. She moved to the city in 1949, well before becoming a literary sensation, and kept the apartment on 82nd Street until her death in 2016.
York Avenue is located in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York, New York. The street is named after one of the most famous American World War I veterans, Alvin Cullum York. York is known for his bravery in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of 1918. After his service, York maintained a high level of notoriety including being the subject of the film with box-office success _Sergeant York_ (1941).
The row of six connected row houses from 208 to 218 East 78th Street in the Upper East Side were listed together on the New York and National Registers in 1983 and as a New York City Landmark in 1978. This side of the block used to contain a row of 16 of these houses, built from 1861 to 1865 as speculative residences for the middle class. Each three-story house over a raised basement is only about 13 feet wide with two bays. The elliptical arched openings with decorative keystones for the first floor doorway and parlor window are unusual in Italianate design. Tall stoops lead to the doorway on the left of each unit; the double doors below an arched transom appeared to still be the originals in 1982. Ground floor units have an entryway under the stoop.
The three-story Italian Renaissance style building on the south side of East 79th Street was built in 1902 as a public library. The limestone main facade of the building, designed by architect James Brown Lord, officially opened on December 13th 1902. The New York Public Library, Yorkville Branch building was listed in the New York and National Registers in 1982. The building is a rare example of the Palladian phase of Italian Renaissance architecture in Manhattan. Still a public library branch, the building was the first library built in the city with funds donated by Andrew Carnegie to New York City for 65 public library buildings.
Built between 1929 and 1930, the 15-story apartment building at the northwest corner of East 80th Street and Lexington Avenue was designed by Rosario Candela (1890-1953). Candela was an architect who specialized in luxury apartment houses. In the 1920s, rising land values and zoning changes created a market for tall apartment buildings, especially in the Upper East Side neighborhood. By the late 1920s, it was becoming fashionable for upper class Manhattanites to live in apartment homes. The limestone base with patterned brown brick above is embellished with Medieval-inspired stone and terra cotta trim. The building's tower is formed by staggered setbacks of the upper floors and is ornamented in Gothic style.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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Stroll through the Yorkville neighborhood (east of Carnegie Hill and not quite as posh), to historic apartments, rowhouses, and a library; then say hello to the mayor at Gracie Mansion.
