352 Central Park West House

History and architecture

The 352 Central Park West House is one of a group of five neo-Renaissance style houses, designed by Gilbert Schellenger and built in 1892-93 for Edward Kilpatrick. It is a component of one of two surviving rows of houses on Central Park West and the only one of the two that is intact, recalling a period when there were still many undeveloped blockfronts along Central Park West and the adjacent side street parcels were still only sparsely developed.

This house is a rare survivor of the earliest development of Central Park West where there was a mixture of many building types ranging from small wooden shacks to small apartment houses and flats to individual single family houses. The construction of this house and the others of the row was the result of a restrictive agreement between the developer Edward Kilpatrick and the adjacent Scotch Presbyterian Church, an agreement which helped insure the survival of the houses.

The use of light-colored Roman brick, stone and terra cotta and neo-Renaissance detail reflects the fashion for simplicity and discretely applied ornament, as in the classically-inspired carved ornament of the oriels. The overall design composition of the house is part of an A-B pattern with an alternating rhythm of oriels. This treatment adheres to a tradition set with the houses Henry Hardenburgh designed for Edward Clark in 1882 on West 73rd Street.