Hotel des Artistes is a historic residential building located at 1 West 67th Street in New York City near the west side of

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Completed in 1917, the ornate 17-story, 119-unit Gothic-style building has been home to a long list of writers, artists, and politicians over the years.

History

In 1914, a group of artists—including

Walter Russell Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 – May 19, 1963) was an impressionist American painter (of the Boston School), sculptor, autodidact and author. His lectures and writing place him firmly in the New Thought Movement. Russell wrote extensivel ...

Frank DuMond Frank Vincent DuMond (August 20, 1865 – February 6, 1951) was one of the most influential teacher-painters in 20th-century America. He was an illustrator and American Impressionist painter of portraits and landscapes, and a prominent teac ...

Willard Metcalf Willard Leroy Metcalf (July 1, 1858March 9, 1925) was an American painter born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and ill ...

, and

Penrhyn Stanlaws Penrhyn Stanley Adamson, known as Penrhyn Stanlaws, (1877–1957) was a cover artist and film director. Sydney Adamson, who also became an illustrator, was his older brother. Career He was born in Dundee, Scotland. A successful cover ...

—paid $250,000 to buy a parcel of land on the west side of Central Park with the plans of building Hotel des Artistes. At the outset, they planned to erect a 20-story building where 10 stories would be dedicated to artists' studio space and the other 10 would be dedicated to apartments. Designed by George Mort Pollard, when it opened in 1917, the Hotel des Artistes boasted a large swimming pool, grand ballrooms, rooftop squash courts, a gym, and a restaurant. Apartments had as many as six rooms apiece, and many of the units featured 20-foot lofted ceilings. Kitchens were small, as tenants were able to use their dumbwaiters to receive meals prepared in a kitchen on the second floor. The building is also noted for its pastoral floor-to-ceiling paintings by

Howard Chandler Christy Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his ico ...

, one of its earliest residents. In 1971, the building transformed into a full co-operative after a new owner purchased it. Several longtime tenants were evicted after a lengthy court battle. In 1975, violinist turned restaurateur George Lang took over the run-down ground-floor cafe and renovated it, bringing in new diners. Lang and his wife Gloria ran Cafe des Artistes until 2009, when they decided to close it during the recession. In 2011, it reopened under new management as the Leopard at des Artistes.

Noteworthy former residents

Rolf Armstrong Rolf Armstrong (April 21, 1889 – February 22, 1960) was an American commercial artist specializing in glamorous depictions of female subjects. He is best known for his magazine covers and calendar art. In 1960 the New York Times dubbed him th ...

Peter Benchley Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for his bestselling novel ''Jaws'' and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works w ...

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

Harry Crosby Harry Crosby (June 4, 1898 – December 10, 1929) was an American heir, World War I veteran, ''bon vivant'', poet, and publisher who for some epitomized the Lost Generation in American literature. He was the son of one of the richest banking fam ...

: Writer Harry Crosby—nephew of

J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * ''Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Park ...

—killed himself and his mistress, Josephine Bigelow, in the building in 1929. *

Charles Dana Gibson Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944) was an American illustrator. He was best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent Euro-American woman at the turn of the ...

* Frank DuMond * Isadora Duncan *

Dean Fausett William Dean Fausett (July 4, 1913 – December 13, 1998) was an American painter. His career spanned over six decades. He painted notable figures like Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Grandma Moses, Ezra Taf ...

*Edna Ferber *

Joel Grey Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical ''Cabaret'' on Broadway as well as in the 1972 fil ...

* Elizabeth Hardwick (writer) *

Fannie Hurst Fannie Hurst (October 18, 1889 – February 23, 1968) was an American novelist and short-story writer whose works were highly popular during the post-World War I era. Her work combined sentimental, romantic themes with social issues of the d ...

: The novelist died in her apartment in the building in 1968. *

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...

John Lindsey John William Lindsey (born January 30, 1977) is a former professional baseball first baseman. Lindsey is known for having spent the most time in the minor leagues (sixteen years) before making his major league debut, which he did in 2010 with th ...

Peter Martins Peter Martins (born 27 October 1946) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as ...

* Willard Metcalf *

James Montgomery Flagg James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was an American artist, comics artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his 1 ...

Alla Nazimova Alla Nazimova (Russian: Алла Назимова; born Marem-Ides Leventon, Russian: Марем-Идес Левентон; June 3 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._May_22.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O ...

LeRoy Neiman LeRoy Neiman (born LeRoy Leslie Runquist, June 8, 1921 – June 20, 2012) was an American artist known for his brilliantly colored, expressionist paintings and screenprints of athletes, musicians, and sporting events. Early life Neiman was ...

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

Gary Oldman Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy Fi ...

Jean Pigozzi Jean "Johnny" Pigozzi (born 1952), heir to the CEO of the automobile brand Simca, is an art collector, photographer, fashion designer and . He lives in Geneva. Biography Pigozzi is a "French-born Italian". He was born in Paris in 1952 and is ...

Alice Pike Barney Alice Pike Barney (born Alice Pike; 1857–1931) was an American Painting, painter. She was active in Washington, D.C. and worked to make Washington into a center of the arts. Her two daughters were the writer and salon (gathering), salon hostess ...

*Zasu Pitts *

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

* Gloria Schiff * Penrhyn Stanlaws * Richard Thomas *

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

Margaret Widdemer Margaret Widdemer (September 30, 1884 – July 14, 1978) was an American poet and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize (known then as the Columbia University Prize) in 1919 for her collection ''The Old Road to Paradise'', shared with Carl Sandburg ...

* Alexander Wolcott

Appearances in film and TV

* '' Audrey Rose'' (1977): Hotel des Artistes plays a prominent role in the supernatural drama ''Audrey Rose''. The film's set designers re-created one of the building's apartments on a sound stage in Hollywood.

References

{{Coord, 40, 46, 25, N, 73, 58, 44, W, type:landmark_region:US-NY, display=title 1917 establishments in New York City Residential buildings completed in 1917 Residential buildings in Manhattan Gothic Revival architecture in New York City