History and architecture
This handsome, meticulously detailed town house was built in 1897-99 for Dr. Moses Allen Starr , one of America's leading, neurologists. Designed in the neo-Renaissance style using principals of Beaux Arts composition by the noted architect Robert H. Robertson , the building is a distinguished example of the elegant residential architecture that, once characterized the West Fifties,between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and is one of an ensemble of five townhouses on West 54th Street .
The landscaping of Central Park, commenced in 1857, helped spur development of Midtown, and during the building boom that followed the Civil War, the West Forties and Fifties became lined with brick and stone residences. These new houses ranged from lavish Fifth Avenue, mansions commissioned by such individual clients as the Vanderbilt's to middle-class dwellings erected on a speculative basis.
The house at 5 West 54th Street occupies part of the original site of St. Luke's Hospital (1858), which fronted on West 55th Street at. the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue. The hospital dominated the east end of the block until new quarters were erected on Amsterdam Avenue and 113th Street in 1896, That same year, construction began on the University Club, designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White and located on the northwest corner of West 54th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.