Isaac L. Rice Mansion

History and architecture

The imposing Isaac L. Rice Mansion, built in 1901-03, is one of two freestanding mansions to survive on Riverside Drive. As such it is a reminder of the period in the early 20th century when Riverside Drive was lined by elegant single-family residences, serving as the West Side counterpart to Fifth Avenue on the East Side. Impressively sited, the Rice mansion was designed by the noted theater architects Herts & Tallant and is one 'of their rare residential commissions in New York City. While it features elements of neo-Georgian and Beaux-Arts design, the mansion displays the highly individualistic character which Herts & Tallant brought to residential architecture.

While Riverside Park and Riverside Drive had been planned by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1873, construction of the park and roadway continued until 1898. The presence of the park and drive as well as that of the Ninth Avenue elevated railroad--opened in 1879--were an incentive to the development of the West Side which was carried out primarily between 1885 and 1900.2 While the first stages of West Side development were concentrated on the side streets, development also began about 1885 on the choice and higher-priced lots facing Riverside Drive itself. By 1900 there ware approximately 135 single-family residences located along Riverside Drive.

While most were rowhouses, approximately 30 were freestanding residences commissioned by a specific client from an architect.4 In 1899 Isaac L. Rice purchased the site on the southwest corner of 89th Street and Riverside Drive for his mansion from William W. Hall, a prominent builder and real estate developer active on both the East and West Sides during this period.5 Earlier that year the site for the Soldiers and Sailors Monument (190002, Stoughton & Stoughton and Paul Duboy), a designated New York City Landmark, just across the drive, had finally been chosen, Just north of 89th Street on the drive were two residences commissioned by members of the unrelated Clark families who had done much to aid development on the Upper West Side.6 Elizabeth Scriven Clark, the widow of Alfred Corning Clark and later wife of Henry Cadman Potter, Episcopal bishop of New York, built her house at 89th Street in 1898-99 from designs by Ernest Flagg, while Cyrus Clark, honored with a plaque in Riverside Park as the "the father of the West Side," had built his house at 90th Street in 1887 from designs by Henry F.

Kilburn. Both have now been replaced by apartment buildings.