New York City
- Featured Architecture:
- ABOUT MOTT SCHMIDT
- Introduction
- Beginnings and Sutton Place
- Townhouses and Apartments
- Country Houses
- Late Works
- Townhouses
- Sutton Place
- Anne Morgan Townhouse
- Mrs W.K. Vanderbilt Townhouse
- Guy Fairfax Cary Townhouse
- Miss Emily Trevor Townhouse
- Vincent Astor Townhouse
- Walter E. Hope Townhouse
- Apartment Houses
- 53 East 66th Street
- 1088 Park Avenue
- 19 East 72nd Street
- Country Houses
- Mr & Mrs Clarence Dillon Summer House
- Pook's Hill: Mr & Mrs Mott B. Schmidt Country House
- Marienruh: Mrs Serge Obolensky Country House
- Mr & Mrs Bernard Peyton Country House
- C. Douglas Dillon Country House
- Hudson Pines: Mrs David M. Milton Abby Rockefeller Country House
- Hillcrest: Mrs Martha Baird Rockefeller Country House
- Municipal Buildings
- Municipal Building and Post Office, Mount Kisco
- Susan B. Wagner Wing, Gracie Mansion
- Other Buildings
- French City Village Houses
- Selected Commissions for the Rockefeller Family
New York, New York
1926
Another Adam-inspired townhouse, considered by
many to be Schmidt's best New York building, the Astor house stands next to the
similarly composed Dillon-Bigelow house at No. 124 East 80th Street.
One is constructed in French Roche limestone, the other in handmade brick.
Together they can be seen as variations on themes found in Adam's Society for
the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the Adelphi, of 1772.
Schmidt's design is distinctive among townhouses of its time for its gravity
and classical rigor. Other architects building in austere, stripped classical
modes, such as Walker & Gillette, Delano & Aldrich, and Cross &
Cross, were more inclined to stray from canonical proportions in their search
for modern variants on Georgian, Regency, or French styles.
Vincent Astor (born 1891) was one of the most important real estate men
and architectural patrons of his day. He was the only son of John Jacob and Ava
Willing Astor, scion of one of America's great fortunes. This was merely one of
his many residences, as Schmidt was one of a number of architects he favored.
The interiors of the house, unfortunately dissipated during several re-uses of
the building, were eclectic--a mix of eighteenth-century English, French and
American sources. It is currently used as the headquarters of the Junior
League of New York.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
New York Times / Streetscapes: 4 Mansions That Made Up a Multimillionaires' Row
Wikipedia: East 80th Street Houses
Daytonian in Manhattan: The Vincent Astor House
theguildedageera.blogspot.com