Luxembourg House is a historic mansion located at 17 Beekman Place,

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, owned by the

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...

. It is home to the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, the Consulate General of Luxembourg in New York, the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office and the activities of the Luxembourg-American Chamber of Commerce. It hosts a number of international relations, international trade and cultural activities for the European country of

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. The property is territory of the country of Luxembourg providing it all diplomatic rights and privileges.

History

The building is located on

Beekman Place Beekman Place is a small street located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Running from north to south for two blocks, the street is situated between the eastern end of 51st Street and Mitchell Place, ...

at the corner of East 50th Street in

. It was built in 1932 alongside mansions of the

Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

and J.P. Morgan family. It was designed by architect Harold Sterner for the former Secretary of Defense

James Forrestal James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense. Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...

and was then later owned by the American composer

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russi ...

and his wife

Ellin Mackay Ellin Berlin (née Mackay, 22 March 1903 – 29 July 1988) was an American author. She was the wife of Irving Berlin and the daughter of Clarence Mackay and Katherine Duer Mackay. She met Irving Berlin in 1924, and her father opposed marriage from ...

, an heiress. In 1990, it was purchased by The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which did a renovation that lasted three years. In 2010, a book on the home was published and titled ''The Luxembourg House on Beekman Place: Three Portraits in Time''.

Architecture

The mansion is open on three sides, with the east side facing the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

. The exterior consists of a bottom floor white marble base, supported by three stories of red brick and a copper-sheathed mansard roof. Its entrance is flanked by two Corinthian columns and surrounded by a stone frame displaying the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Coat of Arms. Shallow brick pilasters, two stories tall are at the second and third floors. The interior retains its original central circular staircase and its original moldings.

References

{{Coord, 40, 45, 11.4, N, 73, 57, 52.8, W, region:US-NY, display=title Historic buildings and structures in the United States