The Allerton

History and architecture

Constructed in 1916-18 by architect Arthur Loomis Harmon (1878-1958), the Allerton House at 145 East 39th Street provided the service of a hotel and the intimacy of a private club for young, single men. As described in the company’s brochure: “the Allerton has quiet, refined, clublike homes that provided socially respectable, economical housing for hard working refined ambitious young men and women.” The services were provided without the usual supervision and restrictions imposed by most residential hotels of the early twentieth century.

Between 1913 and 1924, six Allerton Houses were built in New York City; this building was the third Allerton Hotel to be built and the first of three that were designed by Harmon. The building features a granite base and a main façade structured around three bays of windows, constructed primarily of red brick with projecting headers that ascend to a central hipped roof tower. The prominent roof garden, emphasized by three arched openings separated by twin terracotta columns, forms the crown of the building, and was a central feature of the hotel’s communal facilities.

The use of terra-cotta by Atlantic Terra Cotta Company placed strategically on the façade is in keeping with the Northern Italian Renaissance Style of architecture. Built just before the new zoning laws came into effect. The Allerton is a transitional design combining the pared-down ornamentation of later hotels with the box-like massing of earlier buildings. For the Allerton, Harmon adapted the Northern Italian Renaissance style, emphasizing the vertical by recessing the window bays.

This quickly became the trademark style for the Allerton Club Hotel chain. This building became a seminal building for the hotel type and precursor to the design of the Shelton Hotel, designed by Harmon in 1924. At the Shelton, Harmon combined the use of rich materials, subdued stylistic references and emphasis upon the vertical of the Allerton design with the set-back massing mandated by the new zoning laws. Harmon later became a partner with the architectural firm of Shreve & Lamb, designers of the Empire State Building.

In 1956, the Salvation Army converted the Allerton House to the Ten Eyck-Troughton Memorial Residence for Women. It remained in use by the Salvation Army until recently.