45 East 66th Street Building

History and architecture

The striking apartment house- at 45 East 66th Street stands at the corner of 66th Street and Madison Avenue and Is richly detailed with a profusion of Gothic ornament. The building creates a picturesque and imposing effect reminiscent of the neo-French Renaissance style which often employed Gothic detail. Executed in brick with terra-cotta trim, from the designs of the architectural firm of Harde & Short, this handsome apartment building with its distinctive corner tower was, when It was erected in 1906-08, among the earliest of Its type to be constructed In the city.

During the first decade of the 20th century, luxurious apartment houses gradually began to replace the opulent private residences of affluent New Yorkers who, for both economic and practical reasons, came to prefer apartment-styIe urban living. The convenience of apartment life was noted in many periodicals of the time and was praised by the architect, Lafayette A. Go Id stone, writing in Architecture (1918):

He [the apartment dweller] can be entirely Isolated and experience the joy of living 100 to 200 feet In the air, above the noise and dust of the street, and if he desires to travel need only dismiss his help and latch the front door, with none of the dreaded discomfort of closing up a huge house.

As early as 1884, The Dakota, one of the most impressive of the early luxury apartment buildings, had been constructed on 72nd Street and Central Park West. A number of elegant apartment houses were subsequently erected along Central Park West; however, construction of large deluxe apartment buildings along the fashionable streets of the Upper East Side did not occur until slightly Iater.

At the time that 45 East 66th Street was built, the surrounding neighborhood was characterized by low scale rowhouses. Only a few apartment buildings, such as Charles Piatt's neo-ltalian. Renaissance design at 131-35 East 66th Street (1905-07), stood nearby. After the construction of 45 East 66th Street, a number of elegant apartment houses were erected In this part of the Upper East Side. In 1909, the Verona was erected at 64th Street and Madison Avenue and In 1912, a large apartment house was built at 66th Street and Park Avenue.

The apartment buildings of the early 20th-century were designed by many of the most prestigious architects of the day and elegantly detailed in a wide variety of styles, including the neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance and Trench Beaux-Arts. The use of elaborate architectural ornament on the exterior of the building symbolized the grandeur and luxury of the style of living within.