The Wilbraham at 282–284

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

or 1 West 30th Street, in the

NoMad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

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 ...

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 ...

, was built in 1888–90 as a bachelor

apartment hotel An apartment hotel or aparthotel (also residential hotel, or extended-stay hotel) is a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel-style booking system. It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can "check ...

. Its "bachelor flats" each consisted of a bedroom and

parlor A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

, with bathroom but no kitchen; the communal

dining room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

was on the eighth floor., pp.80–81 The building's refined and "extraordinarily well detailed" design in commercial

Romanesque revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style – which owed much to the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

developed by

H.H. Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

– was the work of the partners

David and John Jardine The brothers David (2 July 1840 - 4 June 1892), John E. (1838 - 23 June 1920) and George Elliott Jardine (1841 - 1902) were architects of Scottish nationality, sons of a Scottish architect-builder, Archibald Jardine, of Whithorn, Whithorn, Wigto ...

. The ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' in 1890 called it "quite an imposing piece of architecture".Shockley, Jay
"The Wilbraham Designation Report"

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 ...

(June 8, 2004) The building is eight stories under a verdigris copper-covered

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

, with penthouses and basements, as a result of changes made during its construction. It is clad in Philadelphia brick and

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

from quarries in

Belleville, New Jersey Belleville (French: "Belle ville" meaning "Beautiful city / town") is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, the township's population was 38,222, reflecting an increase of 6.4% from th ...

, with wrought- and cast iron. Steel replaced structural cast iron after the foundations were already in place. Wilbraham 284 Fifth Avenue entrance

The building was commissioned as a real estate investment by the prominent Scottish-American jeweler William Moir. At the time the brownstone-fronted houses along this stretch of Fifth Avenue were being sold by the rich, who were rebuilding, often in more palatial fashion, farther north, in the part of Fifth Avenue that overlooked

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 ...

, just coming into its first maturity. Still, the neighborhood remained fashionable for clubs, hotels and the first blocks of "French flats". The fashionable purveyors of china and glass Davis Collamore & Co. leased two floors of showrooms.Location noted in Landmarks Preservation Commission: The Wilbraham
8 June 2004. In 1934–35 the Wilbraham's apartments were remodeled to include kitchens, a mark of changed social habits and gas cooking. It remains in residential use. In 2004 the Wilbraham was designated a

New York City Landmark 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 ...

. In 2018 it 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 v ...

References

;Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilbraham Residential buildings in Manhattan Residential buildings completed in 1890 Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Romanesque Revival architecture in New York City Fifth Avenue

See also

References

External links