Master Apartments
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The Master Apartments, officially known as the Master Building, is a 27-story
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
skyscraper at 310 Riverside Drive, on the
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of
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 ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. It sits on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 103rd Street. Designed by
Harvey Wiley Corbett Harvey Wiley Corbett (January 8, 1873 – April 21, 1954) was an American architect primarily known for skyscraper and office building designs in New York and London, and his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism in architecture. Early life ...
of the firm Helmle, Corbett & Harrison, in conjunction with Sugarman & Berger, the Master Apartments was completed in 1929 as the tallest building on Riverside Drive. It was the first skyscraper in New York City to feature corner windows and the first to employ brick in varying colors for its entire exterior. The Master Apartments' name derives from the Master Institute of United Arts, an art institute founded in 1920 by Nicholas and
Helena Roerich Helena Ivanovna Roerich (born Shaposhnikova; russian: Елéна Ивáновна Рéрих; 12 February 1879 – 5 October 1955) was a Russian theosophist, writer, and public figure. In the early 20th century, she created, in cooperation with t ...
. Wealthy financier Louis L. Horch began purchasing lots in 1925 to build the apartment building, and in 1928 he secured a bond to fund its construction. As built, the building's lower floors consisted of a museum; a school for the
fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...
and performing arts; and an international art center. The building opened in 1929 to generally positive acclaim, but it went into foreclosure in 1932, and Horch's
tax-exempt Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, redu ...
corporation acted as the Master Building's receiver from 1934 to 1935. Following a disagreement between Horch and the Roeriches, the museum was closed and the Roeriches unsuccessfully sued to regain control of the Master Apartments. Louis Horch's wife Nettie also controlled some aspects of the building and its organizations during this time, but by 1958, the Horches' son Frank became the building's manager. During the 1950s and 1960s, people moved out of the surrounding
Manhattan Valley Manhattan Valley (also known as Bloomingdale ) is a neighborhood in the northern part of Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded by West 110th Street to the north, Central Park West to the east, West 96th Street to the south, ...
neighborhood. Consequently, the Master Apartments' museum and cultural center closed by 1971, their holdings dispersed elsewhere, although the building's auditorium was still used for cultural events. After Louis's death in 1979, the building was bought by real estate investor
Sol Goldman Sol Goldman (born Usher Selig Goldman, September 2, 1917 – October 18, 1987) was an American real estate investor and philanthropist. Goldman was the founder of Solil Management, a real estate investment firm he founded in the 1950s with his ...
, who converted it to a
housing co-operative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...
over the next decade. Further renovations, which were completed in 2005, resulted in many of the one-bedroom studios being combined into two- and three-bedroom units. These renovations attracted more families and made the building more luxurious by both quality-of-life and purchase-price measures. The Master Apartments was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 2016.


Site

The Master Building is at 310 Riverside Drive in the
Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
neighborhood of
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 ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The building occupies the northeastern corner of Riverside Drive and 103rd Street, across from Riverside Park. It is situated on a nearly square land lot with an area of . The lot has a frontage of along Riverside Drive and along 103rd Street, with an indentation in the northeast corner. The building is part of the Riverside-West End Historic District, a New York City historic district designated in 2015. The surrounding neighborhood largely contains brick-and-limestone row houses and apartment structures built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.


Architecture

The Master Building was designed by
Harvey Wiley Corbett Harvey Wiley Corbett (January 8, 1873 – April 21, 1954) was an American architect primarily known for skyscraper and office building designs in New York and London, and his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism in architecture. Early life ...
of the firm Helmle, Corbett & Harrison, in conjunction with the firm Sugarman & Berger. The building was developed for artist
Nicholas Roerich Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (russian: link=no, Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophi ...
and his financial patron, Louis L. Horch. The skyscraper's first three floors originally held a museum, a school of the
fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...
and performing arts, and an international art center, operated by Roerich and his wife Helena. Horch largely funded all three organizations.


Form and facade

The Master Building is 28 stories tall, though contemporary media referred to it as having 24 stories. The building is cited as being tall. According to the Master Building's first manager, only three other residential structures in New York City were taller: the
Savoy-Plaza Hotel The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was a 33-story hotel overlooking Central Park at Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street (Manhattan), 59th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1927 and was demolished in 1965. History Original Savoy Hotel The ...
, the
Park Central Hotel The Park Central Hotel is a 25-story, 935-room hotel located across the street from Carnegie Hall at 870 7th Avenue (between West 55th and 56th Streets) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed in the Renaissance Revival style ...
, and the
Ritz Tower The Ritz Tower is a luxury residential building at 465 Park Avenue on the corner of East 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built from 1925 to 1926 as an apartment hotel and was designed by Emery Roth an ...
. Upon its completion in 1929, the Master Building was the tallest structure on Riverside Drive. It is still the avenue's tallest residential building, surpassed only by the
Riverside Church Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornin ...
on 120th Street. The northern section of the building contains a three-story wing. The Master Building has a shallow setback above the second story on its eastern
elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...
, as well as above the three-story wing on its northern elevation. Above the 14th story, the building sets back further into an irregularly massed "transitional" section with several setbacks, which rises to the 21st story. The octagonal tower rises above the transitional building. The single pinnacle contrasts with the multiple twin-towered buildings on
Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
(namely the Century, the Majestic,
the San Remo The San Remo is a cooperative apartment building at 145 and 146 Central Park West, between 74th and 75th Streets, adjacent to Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 to 1930 and was desi ...
, and
the El Dorado The El Dorado (also spelled the Eldorado) is a cooperative apartment building at 300 Central Park West, between 90th and 91st Streets adjacent to Central Park, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 ...
), which were all built following a change to the zoning regulations in 1929. The building has a brick exterior that was deep purple in its lower stories, originally tapering to white at the tower.; Over the years, the pinnacle has weathered to a light gray color. Harvey Wiley Corbett said the coloration gave the skyscraper a "feeling of growth". He said: "This colored brick exterior, which rises from a low, dark ground to a gleaming, white pinnacle, gives the building a dynamic quality. The play of sunlight on the many hues will make the building a beautiful spectacle of changing colors." Other ornamentation was limited to brick patterns on the base and
spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
panels, as well as
architectural terracotta Architectural terracotta refers to a fired mixture of clay and water that can be used in a non-structural, semi-structural, or structural capacity on the exterior or interior of a building. Terracotta pottery, as earthenware is called when not use ...
on the
parapets A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Wher ...
of each setback.


Base

The Master Building's two main entrances, at the centers of the 103rd Street and Riverside Drive elevations, both contain double-height portals.; The 103rd Street entrance provides access to the residential lobby, with a pair of metal-and-glass doors directly in front of the sidewalk. The Riverside Drive entrance, which formerly led to the Roerich Museum, is approached by a short flight of steps and contains one metal-and-glass door on either of the portal's reveals. Both entrances have brick portals. which are laid in courses of headers A metal canopy is cantilevered in front of either entrance. Recessed within each portal are three-part transoms with
sidelights A sidelight or sidelite in a building is a window, usually with a vertical emphasis, that flanks a door or a larger window. Sidelights are narrow, usually stationary and found immediately adjacent doorways.Barr, Peter.Illustrated Glossary, 19th ...
made of blue leaded glass. Each sidelight consists of several small rectangular panes with metal motifs resembling corn stalks. The central pane of both portals had originally been made of blue glass, but these were replaced with clear glass at some point after they were vandalized. Near the eastern end of the 103rd Street elevation is a third entrance, with three pairs of doors leading to the building's auditorium. Two sets of doors are made of paneled glass, while the remaining pair is a metal service door. Above each of these doors are patterned brick panels, composed of diagonally-oriented courses of headers. The central door is topped by a paneled-glass transom with blue leaded-glass sidelights, though there is no canopy in front of this door. A fourth entrance is at the northern end of the Riverside Drive elevation and formerly led to a restaurant.; This doorway also has a tripartite transom, though the sidelights are made of metal. Originally, the transom had been made of blue glass, which also suffered vandalism and was replaced with metal. The main entrance on Riverside Drive is flanked by three bays of windows; the innermost bay is separated from the two outer bays by projecting
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
. The main entrance on 103rd Street is flanked by four bays; the inner three bays are separated from the outer bay by projecting piers. On both elevations, the first-story windows contain metal grilles in front of them. Below the first-story windows, the brickwork is laid in headers. The southwest corner of the first and second stories does not have windows, since the Roerich Museum was formerly housed there. The
cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...
is at ground level, embedded into the building's southwest corner. It has an all-black irregular shape stepped like the building. On it are inscribed the year 1929 and a symbol designed by Roerich consisting of a circle enclosing three dots together with a monogram. The monogram, showing the letter R within the letter M, stands for the Roerich Museum. The circle and the three dots are the symbol of Roerich's
Banner of Peace The banner of peace is a symbol of the Roerich Pact. This pact is the first international treaty dedicated to the protection of artistic and scientific institutions and historical monuments. It was signed on April 15, 1935. The banner of peace wa ...
. He once said the circle represents eternity and unity and the dots the triune nature of existence. On another occasion he said the symbol has two meanings: in one interpretation, the circle represents the totality of culture and the dots are art, science, and religion (or philosophy), while in the other, the circle symbolizes the endlessness of time and the dots are the past, the present, and the future. The cornerstone contains a 400-year-old casket from the
Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...
dynasty of northern India. Made of iron with inlays of gold and silver, the casket contains photographs taken during the Roeriches' expedition to Central Asia. It is also said to contain
Jacob's Pillow Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives a ...
or the
Stone of Scone The Stone of Scone (; gd, An Lia Fàil; sco, Stane o Scuin)—also known as the Stone of Destiny, and often referred to in England as The Coronation Stone—is an oblong block of red sandstone that has been used for centuries in the coronati ...
.


Upper stories

On the 3rd to 14th stories, the fenestration is composed of windows separated by wide and narrow piers. The corners of the building were outfitted with windows wrapping around the edge at a 90-degree angle. These were the first such windows in a skyscraper in New York City. The corner windows were originally folding casement windows, though most of these have since been replaced by "Chicago-style windows". The rest of the facade is divided into bays, each with a single one-over-one sash window per floor. These windows were replaced in the 1970s and again in 1990. The bays of the facade are generally grouped into pairs, except for the outermost bays of each elevation, which are grouped as single bays. Each different grouping of bays is separated by a wide pier, and the bays in each grouping are divided by a narrower pier. The spandrel panels between the windows on different stories are composed of dark and light bricks. The contrast between the bricks gives the appearance of four vertical lines in each spandrel panel. The building's setbacks, which double as terraces for the apartments, begin above the 14th story. Each setback contains terracotta cresting; the color of the cresting varied based on how high up the terrace was. Some sections of terracotta cresting are gray, while other sections are yellow and orange.


Features

The building was to house a large and a small auditorium, two art libraries, conference rooms, and studios, in addition to three cultural institutions. These were all located on the first three floors. The building's steel superstructure was in the core, and the corners lacked columns, which were present in other buildings of the time.


Lower stories

The auditorium is used by a church as of 2016. It has 300 seats across an orchestra level and a balcony. The seats have red and purple upholstery, a color scheme repeated on the stage curtains. The stage itself wraps around to the left and right walls; it was enlarged at some point after the Master Building opened. The auditorium's balcony level has been modified several times over the years. The 103rd Street lobby contains a lounge on the left (west) and a concierge desk to the right (east). The concierge desk dates to 1996 and contains a corn-stalk motif. The floors are made of
terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...
tiles with geometric patterns, while the walls contain a
crown molding Crown moulding is a form of cornice created out of decorative moulding installed atop an interior wall. It is also used atop doors, windows, pilasters and cabinets. Historically made of plaster or wood, modern crown moulding installation ma ...
composed of 90-degree angles. On the north wall is a bank of three elevators; the elevators' aluminum doors contain geometric motifs, similar to those on the first-floor window grills. The elevator bank is separated from the rest of the lobby by a
colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...
of four columns. Between each column, bronze-colored octagonal light fixtures hang from the ceiling. The Riverside Drive lobby has a limestone floor and baseboards. The side walls contain two sets of double doors leading to commercial spaces. The center of the Riverside Drive lobby contains a grand limestone staircase, which leads to the second floor. A single flight rises from lobby level to an intermediate landing, where two upper flights run in the opposite direction from the lower flight. The balustrades of the staircase consist of angular limestone blocks, set at 90-degree angles. At the second story was the museum, which has since been divided by glass partitions and converted into offices.


Apartments

The upper stories contained an apartment hotel complying with New York City tenement laws. This was done because apartment hotels were not subject to tenement-law height restrictions. Conversely, units within apartment hotels could not have individual kitchens; instead, each unit had a "pantry" and the entire apartment hotel had an on-site restaurants and maid service. There were to be 390 apartments, with the majority having one bedroom and several having two or three bedrooms. The completed structure had 233 one-room, 63 two-room, and two three-room apartments as well as a penthouse suite of seven rooms. In total, the Master Building was to contain 406 rooms. After the Master Building was converted into a housing cooperative in the 1980s, many of the one-bedroom units were combined.


History

Although "Master Building" is the name that appeared on official documents, the structure has long been known as Master Apartments or The Master. From 1939 onward newspaper advertising used both names constantly. One 1939 ad listed "The Master. Choice 1, 2 room suites, serving pantries, full hotel service, all rooms outside; from $50 month unfurnished; few furnished, $65 month. Popular price restaurant. Home of Riverside Museum. Concerts, lectures, recitals free to residents."


Development

Both the building and the institute take their name primarily from
Master Morya Morya, also spelt Maurya, is one of the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" within modern Theosophical beliefs. He is believed to be one of the Mahatmas who inspired the founding of the Theosophical Society and was engaged in a correspondence with t ...
, a non-corporeal spiritual leader from whom Helena Roerich received guidance via automatic writing. A secondary source of the name was Roerich himself who was revered as a
theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...
master, able to interpret the wisdom of ancient
guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential ...
s to modern man. The Master Institute of United Arts came into being in 1920 as the Master School of United Arts. It struggled to survive until, in 1922, Louis Horch financed its transfer from a single-room, all-in-one studio at 314 West 54th Street to a mansion he bought on the site where the Master Building would later be constructed. Horch's wife, Nettie Horch, was a friend of Frances Grant who directed the Master School for the Roeriches. Nettie and Louis were patrons of the arts and ardent believers in art education as an indirect means of promoting harmony among the peoples of the world. They were attracted to the spiritual quest in which the Roeriches were engaged and participated in sessions during which Helena Roerich would receive instructions from Master Morya (or other esoteric beings) and Nicholas Roerich would record them on scrolls of paper that were later transcribed into a series of texts, the ''Leaves of Morya's Garden''. Their teachings became the core of a spiritual and cultural movement known as
Roerichism Roerichism or RerikhismPhilip Walters. ''Religion, State & Society''. Volume 28, Issue 1, 2000. Quote from the ''Editorial'': "'Rerikhism' is an example of a thoroughly Russian new religious movement". (Russian: ''Рерихи́зм'', ''Ре ...
. The Master Institute aimed to give students a well-rounded education in the arts and also to "open the gates to spiritual enlightenment" through culture. The mansion where it was located also housed the Roerich Museum, containing many of the thousands of paintings Roerich had created, and Corona Mundi, which arranged for exhibitions of paintings by Roerich and international artists.


Preparation for construction

In 1925, while the Roeriches were engaged in a long period of travel in
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, Horch began to acquire the lots surrounding the mansion to construct the Master Building. The Roeriches' extensive travels were almost entirely funded by Louis Horch. As is common when assembling adjacent lots for a single purpose, he used dummies as purchasers. In doing this he followed a pattern he had established in providing an organizational structure for the Master Institute when he installed the Roeriches and their close associates as nominal shareholders and corporate officers. In 1928, Horch formed a corporation, Master Building, Inc., in which he was president. The corporation was appointed to plan and construct a skyscraper to replace the mansion in which the museum, institute, and outreach center were located. The architect was
Harvey Wiley Corbett Harvey Wiley Corbett (January 8, 1873 – April 21, 1954) was an American architect primarily known for skyscraper and office building designs in New York and London, and his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism in architecture. Early life ...
, of the architectural firm Helmle, Corbett & Harrison. Plans filed in January 1928 called for a 24-story apartment hotel, topped by a stupa – a Buddhist shrine in the shape of a staggered pyramid with a spire on top. Subsequently, plans for the stupa were scrapped in favor of an additional three stories. Helmle, Corbett & Harrison teamed with another architectural firm, Sugarman & Berger. Henry Sugarman, of the latter organization, advised in the building's design and supervised interior construction work. An article in the ''New York Times'' said the planned building was to be "New York's first skyscraper art gallery", while an art critic for the ''Washington Post'' called it "a shrine of art with a truly American architectural expression."


Construction

On June 15, 1928, Horch arranged for the American Bond and Mortgage Company to underwrite a
bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...
of $1,925,000 to cover costs. The bonds, which were linked to the price of
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
, were certificates held under a trust mortgage with the Chatham Phenix National Bank and Trust Company. Prospective purchasers of the bonds were told that Horch and an associate guaranteed payment of principal and interest personally and that the income from rentals was expected far to exceed expenses, including both interest costs and amounts to be committed to the sinking fund. Also in June 1928, the Longacre Construction Company was given the general contract for the building's construction. The cornerstone was laid on March 24, 1929. Prominent politicians participated in the cornerstone-laying ceremony and among messages read from prominent Americans was a letter from
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
in which he praised the cultural goals of the building's directors. The building was originally planned to cost $1.7 million (). Horch spent $2,497,164 for land and construction costs. He used $1,790,500 of the first mortgage bond issue, $64,500 of a second mortgage, and made up the rest from a loan he made. Some of the construction workers received awards for "superior craftsmanship" in April 1929, and additional workers were honored that August. The Master Building opened on October 17, 1929. Press reports emphasized the opportunity for people to rent apartments in a building devoted to the arts and drew attention to the rapid growth of the Institute's cultural ideal of united arts, over seven years, from being housed in a single classroom to moving to a skyscraper. However, many reports did not describe religious factors, with one source saying that "the institution had nothing to do with cults and only with culture."


Financial problems

The
Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
occurred only weeks after the building was completed. At that time more than 80% of the apartments were rented and some 300 students had signed up to take classes at the Institute. However, both rentals and student fees were soon depleted, and the nonprofit corporation that ran the building was unable to meet its payments. On April 6, 1932, this organization was sued for nonpayment of taxes and
sinking fund A sinking fund is a fund established by an economic entity by setting aside revenue over a period of time to fund a future capital expense, or repayment of a long-term debt. In North America and elsewhere where it is common for public and priva ...
payments due on the mortgage bonds. At that time, it was alleged that the building was being mismanaged, the principal evidence offered being the provision of free living quarters to the Roeriches and their followers. Horch successfully contested the suit, partly on a technicality and partly by explaining that the 20 rooms occupied rent-free were used by management as partial compensation to employees of the corporation. Representatives of the bondholders had argued that the parts of the building that did not produce rental income—that is, the museum, institute, and other cultural spaces—should be converted to apartments, but Horch successfully countered that the cultural spaces were an asset that generated a substantial tax exemption and that, in normal times, they led to higher rental rates from the existing apartments than would comparable apartments. He also pointed out that the demanded conversion would be expensive (about $100,000). In June 1932, the foreclosure case ended, with Horch being named one of two receivers tasked with clearing the building's debts. In 1934, Horch arranged to have Master Institute of United Arts, Inc., the educational corporation he had created in 1923, take over responsibility for the building from the organization he had previously used to run it. He did this because the Institute was free of debt and, due to its status as an educational organization, was tax-exempt. In 1935, the receivership ended and control over the Master Building and the cultural organizations it contained was turned over to the Master Institute of United Arts, Inc. with Horch as its president. At this time, Horch arranged for the Institute to give a five-year mortgage for $1,674,800 to the entity that managed the building (now organized as the Riverside Drive & 103d Street Corporation) at five and one-half percent interest. Horch, who had remained a devoted follower of the Roeriches since his acceptance of their spiritual quest as his own in 1923, started to fall out with them, for unclear reasons. The Roeriches maintained that Horch's motives were base: through guile and deception, they said, he had taken control of the Master Building, closed the cultural institutions it contained, and severed them and their associates from everything connected with the building and its contents. Horch countered that the Roeriches had improperly attempted to countermand his decisions as building owner and director of the cultural organizations it contained. He said they had shown bad faith when they asserted that they alone could receive and interpret the commands of the supreme being whom they all worshiped. On June 8, 1935, he wrote Helena Roerich to say he feared that the Roeriches had lost confidence in himself and his wife Nettie. Then, on July 13, 1935, Nettie wrote Helena of her and Horch's "fourteen years of complete devotion in heart and in deed" and of their enduring "loyalty and selfless sacrifice" over that period. She reaffirmed their "flaming devotion" which they continued to hold in their hearts. And she said the Roeriches' attempt to exert unilateral control over their affairs had caused them to "contemplate, review and think of matters in a new light." These letters explain actions that Horch took on June 5, 1936, to sever relations between the Institute and the other cultural organizations housed at the Master Building and discharge all their employees. The employees who occupied rent-free apartments were told to vacate immediately. In February 1936, the Roeriches and their associates attempted to obtain an injunction to prevent these actions. When the attempt failed, they sued Horch to regain what they believed to be their rightful authority to participate in the operation of the building and its component organizations. This case was settled on February 9, 1938, in favor of Horch. George Frankenthaler, the referee who decided the case, found that the Roeriches never possessed the authority they claimed. Horch alone administered the corporation that had the building constructed, ran the organizations that it housed, and obtained all the needed financing. In addition, he donated more than a million dollars of his own money, while the Roeriches and their associates had contributed no funds at all. Regarding allegations of deception, he found Horch to be the more creditable witness.


Riverside Museum

Not long afterwards, Horch closed the Roerich Museum, which subsequently moved to a new location at 319 West 107th Street in 1949. In the Roerich Museum's former space, Horch established the Riverside Museum. He became president of the new museum and appointed Vernon C. Porter as its director. Open to the public free of charge, the new museum was devoted mainly to exhibitions of contemporary art by American artists. At its opening in on June 4, 1938, the museum showed modern American paintings and work by Native Americans as well as Tibetan art objects that Roerich had given to Horch. The American artists included Stuart Davis,
Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Biography Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889 in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi original ...
,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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, Reginald Marsh,
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, and
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. In 1939 the museum began hosting the annual exhibitions of
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, a group devoted to expanding appreciation of non-objective art that had been formed in 1936. The show included more than 300 oils, watercolors, pastels, collages, drawings, constructions, and sculpture. That year it also began hosting exhibitions held by the New York Society of Women Artists, a group that had been founded in 1926 to promote the work of avant-garde women artists. Other 1939 shows included contemporary works by artists from Poland, documentary photographs of child laborers by
Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. Early life ...
, an international exhibition of works by women artists, and a large display of Pan-American art. Over the next few decades the museum would specialize in exhibitions by members of artists' groups. In addition to the two already named, these included the Silvermine Guild of Artists (a
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
summer art colony), the Manhattan Camera Club, the Photo-Engravers' Art Society, the Brooklyn Society of Artists, the Artists Equity Group, and
USCO USCO was an American media art collective in the 1960s, founded by Gerd Stern, Michael Callahan, Steve Durkee, Judi Stern, and Barbara Durkee in New York. The name USCO is an acronym for Us Company or the Company of Us. The collective was most ac ...
(a collective from the
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art colony and Garnerville, New York). The museum was organized as a unit of the Master Institute of United Arts. As it had previously done, the institute gave art classes, provided studio space, and sponsored lectures, concerts, poetry readings, art clinics, and other cultural events. Porter served as the museum's director through the 1940s. He was succeeded by Nettie Horch, who had been in charge of the Institute's cultural events since the building opened. She was assisted by her daughter, Oriole, who took over direction of the museum and cultural events in the late 1960s.


Role of Nettie Horch

In addition to running the museum, Nettie had a large role in running the Master Building as a whole; however, the exact division of responsibilities between Nettie and her husband is unclear. She was secretary of the corporation, although this may have been a nominal position as Louis and his lawyer prepared most of the corporation's correspondence and its filings. She also probably helped her husband decide to provide more than one million dollars toward achieving the Roeriches' spiritual and cultural ambitions. She met with the Roeriches and their other supporters in making plans for the Roerich Museum, Master Institute, Corona Mundi, and the other organizations housed in the Master Building. She was active as president of the Roerich Society and, after its demise, directed the Riverside Museum for many years.


Decline

In 1958, Louis Horch made his son Frank manager of the building. During the 1950s and 1960s, the
Manhattan Valley Manhattan Valley (also known as Bloomingdale ) is a neighborhood in the northern part of Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded by West 110th Street to the north, Central Park West to the east, West 96th Street to the south, ...
neighborhood (then known as Bloomingdale), where the Master Building is located, saw its culturally-oriented middle class renters depart. Many of them may have bought houses in the city's suburbs. As a consequence, the museum and cultural center lost their audience and in 1971 they were forced to close. Their holdings were donated to
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...
and cultural initiatives such as the Master Institute Chorus, founded in 1960, either folded, or, as in the case of the chorus, became affiliated with other organizations, such as the New Amsterdam Singers. The Horches' daughter, Oriole, became advisory consultant for the collection at Brandeis. The building's auditorium continued to present concerts, plays, readings, and lectures in the 1940s and into the 1950s. From 1961 through 1989 the
Equity Library Theater The Equity Library Theatre (ELT) was a New York City theatre company active from 1943 until 1989. The original company Founded in 1943 by Sam Jaffe, representing Actors' Equity, and George Freedley, at the time curator of the New York Public Lib ...
leased it for productions showcasing the talents of New York actors. As chair of Bloomington Conservation Project, Horch and the Master Institute of United Arts led an effort to improve deteriorated housing by converting single-family brownstone buildings into rent-subsidized apartments. In 1970–71, Louis transferred partial ownership of the building to Frank and Oriole, and Louis and Nettie Horch moved to Florida. Frank was murdered during a 1975 robbery. The Bloomingdale area did not return to prosperity until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the city as a whole experienced an economic rebound. As high-paying white-collar employment in financial institutions and other service industries replaced long-departed blue-collar jobs in the industrial sector, real estate speculators found that they could profit from new condos and co-ops either by replacing old buildings or by renovating them.


Co-op conversion and renovations

Following the death of Louis in 1979, the Horch family sold the Master Building to a real estate investor,
Sol Goldman Sol Goldman (born Usher Selig Goldman, September 2, 1917 – October 18, 1987) was an American real estate investor and philanthropist. Goldman was the founder of Solil Management, a real estate investment firm he founded in the 1950s with his ...
, who was then the city's largest private landlord. Goldman continued to operate the building as rental apartments until 1982 when he formed a company, Manhattan Master Apartment Associates, to convert it to a housing cooperative. The conversion was completed in 1988 when that company transferred control to a new organization, Master Apartments, Inc. At that time it was described as having 335 apartments on 28 floors served by four elevators. Buyers were permitted to finance up to 90% of the purchase price and 28% of the monthly maintenance fee was tax deductible. In 1988, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) began considering whether to designate the Master Building as a city landmark. The building was designated as such on December 10, 1989. The following year, the LPC approved the installation of new aluminum windows with baked-enamel finishes, which resembled the design of the previous windows. The firm of Antonucci and Lawless conducted further renovations in 1996, adding wheelchair-accessible doors at the 103rd Street entrance and restoring the first-floor iron grilles. In addition, the elevator doors in the lobby were renovated, and a new front desk was installed. The terracotta and brickwork on the facade was restored in 2004, and the auditorium doors were replaced in 2009. After renovations were finished in 2005, the number of two- and three-bedroom units was increased dramatically, due to the combination of the building's original studio apartments. The larger layouts attracted more families to the cooperative community. In the early 21st century, the lobby has been restored, hallways remodeled, and amenities increased, including larger storage areas, a bike room, and an improved laundry facility. During that time, the auditorium continued to host lectures about art, architecture, urban planning, archeology, history, and travel. The lobby was also used as an art gallery. Further work on the facade was completed in 2012, and the Master Apartments was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 2016.


Critical reception

The
Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
report on the building praises its "successful employment of sculptural massing, vertical emphasis, and the minimal, yet elegant, use of surface ornamentation and historically-inspired detailing." Critics have praised the adept handling of the transitions between the base and tower, "as square and chamfered corners established a sprightly syncopation against the more thunderous beat of the central masses."


See also

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List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, class ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places between 59th and 110th Streets in Manhattan. For properties and districts in other parts of Manhattan and the other islands of N ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

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External links

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Master Apartments
(Kenneth G. Grant at NewYorkArchitecture.com)
Master Apartments at Emporis.comLouis L. and Nettie S. Horch Papers, circa 1920s-1960s
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University Images:
Master Apartments on NYMetropics.comMaster Apartments on NewYorkArchitecture.com
{{portal bar, Architecture, National Register of Historic Places, New York City 1929 establishments in New York City Residential buildings completed in 1929 Art Deco architecture in Manhattan Art Deco skyscrapers New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan Upper West Side