The York Avenue Estate (also known as the Avenue A Estate) is a historic complex of tenement buildings in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, US. The complex occupies a city block bounded by FDR Drive and the East River to the east, 79th Street to the north, York Avenue to the west, and 78th Street to the south. The estate is one of the oldest buildings on the Upper East Side built by the City and Suburban Homes Company, a tenement developer. The buildings, along with the neighboring Cherokee Apartments, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as the City and Suburban Homes Company's York Avenue Estate and Shively Sanitary Tenements Historic District. The York Avenue Estate was also designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) as a city landmark.
The York Avenue Estate consists of fourteen buildings, including a hotel. Harde & Short and Percy Griffin each designed two of the early buildings, while the others were designed by Philip Ohm. The buildings are all of the Beaux-Arts style, except for two Gothic Revival structures named for Episcopal bishop Henry C. Potter. They generally have similar details, floor plans, and materials. Except for the eight-story East End Hotel building at the estate's southeast corner, all the buildings are six stories high.
The city block had been reserved for the New York Protestant Episcopal School but remained undeveloped into the 19th century. The City and Suburban Homes Company bought the western part of the block in 1901, while the rest of the block was acquired in 1905. Work proceeded in phases from York Avenue eastward and was completed in 1913. City and Suburban owned the buildings until 1961, when the company was bought out by the Diversified Management Corporation, operated by the Scheuer family. In 1986, Peter Kalikow bought all the buildings and threatened to demolish the entire estate. Following outcry, Kalikow revised his plans to call for the redevelopment of four buildings; amid continued outcry, the LPC designated the complex as a landmark in 1990. The complex was resold in 1993 and 1994 to a firm operated by Stanley Wasserman Cos., which renovated it.
Description The York Avenue Estate occupies an entire city block in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, bounded by York Avenue (formerly Avenue A) to the west, 79th Street to the north, FDR Drive and East River to the east, and 78th Street to the south. It comprises fourteen buildings, consisting of thirteen apartment buildings and a hotel. The complex was built in stages from 1901 onward, with the last buildings constructed in 1913. The first two buildings on York Avenue were built by Harde & Short; two further buildings were constructed by Percy Griffin; and the rest were designed by Philip Ohm. Ernest Flagg is sometimes incorrectly attributed as a designer, though his name is not present on any of the building plans. The York Avenue Estate was one of the oldest tenement projects developed by the City and Suburban Homes Company on Manhattan's Upper East Side, behind only the First Avenue Estate farther south between 64th and 65th streets. The York and First Avenue estates were among a half-dozen full-block estates that the company built in Manhattan.
The Cherokee Apartments, another set of tenements, is immediately south of the York Avenue Estate. The buildings are surrounded by several stylistically separate structures, including post-war apartment buildings to the north and a high-rise building south of 77th Street. John Jay Park is directly opposite 78th Street at the southeast corner of the complex, and the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is across FDR Drive to the east. At the southwest corner, PS 158 is located directly south of the complex (across 78th Street), while a New York Public Library branch is diagonally across 78th Street and York Avenue.
The York Avenue Estate, along with the adjacent Cherokee Apartments, constitute the City and Suburban Homes Company's York Avenue Estate and Shively Sanitary Tenements Historic District, a US historic district extending south to 77th Street. This district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1994. The York Avenue Estate is also a city landmark, designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in 1990; the Cherokee Apartments were designated as a separate city landmark in 1985.
+List of buildings (west to east)AddressNameLocationCompletedArchitect1470 York Avenue, 501 East 78th StreetNortheast corner of York Avenue and 78th Street1901Harde & Short1472 York Avenue, 502 East 79th StreetSoutheast corner of York Avenue and 79th Street1901Harde & Short503–509 East 78th StreetNorth side of 78th Street1904Percy Griffin504–508 East 79th StreetSouth side of 79th Street1904Percy Griffin510–512 East 79th StreetSouth side of 79th Street1906Philip Ohm511–515 East 78th StreetNorth side of 78th Street1906Philip Ohm516–520 East 79th StreetBishop Potter Memorial BuildingSouth side of 79th Street1909Philip Ohm519–523 East 78th StreetNorth side of 78th Street1908Philip Ohm524–528 East 79th StreetBishop Potter Memorial BuildingSouth side of 79th Street1909Philip Ohm527–531 East 78th StreetNorth side of 78th Street1908Philip Ohm530–534 and 536–540 East 79th StreetSouth side of 79th Street1912Philip Ohm535–539 East 78th StreetNorth side of 78th Street1908Philip Ohm541 East 78th StreetJunior League HotelEast End HotelNorthwest corner of FDR Drive and 78th Street1910Philip Ohm542 East 79th StreetWilliam Bayard Cutting Memorial BuildingSouthwest corner of FDR Drive and 79th Street1913Philip Ohm
Exterior The buildings are all of the Beaux-Arts style, except for the two Bishop Potter Memorial buildings at 516–520 and 524–528 East 79th Street. The Potter Memorial buildings were described as being in the Neo-Gothic or Collegiate Gothic styles. Most of the buildings are constructed of yellow and tan brick, with masonry trim made of brick, stone, or terracotta, and are moderately decorated. Details such as brackets with garlands, porticoes, and ornamental fire escape and areaway railings are shared by several buildings. The structures also have brickwork details, such as patterned panels, cornices, or protruding window frames; in some buildings, light and dark bricks are juxtaposed for decorative contrast. The Potter Memorial buildings have brown and tan brick facades to evoke the Neo-Gothic style, along with Neo-Gothic decorations. Unlike all the other structures, 541–555 East 78th Street, originally the Junior League Hotel for Women, was not built as an apartment building.
For the most part, the buildings have similar details, floor plans, materials, and heights, but there are subtle differences between the structures. All the buildings are six stories high, except the Junior League Hotel, which is eight stories high. The buildings occupy wide lots with frontage of at least , providing space for courtyards both in the center and on the perimeter of each structure. There are central courtyards in all except two tenements. Two buildings are entered through their respective courtyards (which are connected directly to the street), a design detail derived from similar courtyard entrances at the Cherokee Apartments. The other buildings each have two entrances facing the street.
Western buildings
1470 York Avenue ( 501 East 78th Street) and 1472 York Avenue ( 502 East 79th Street) are mirror images of each other. Designed by Harde & Short, the two York Avenue buildings incorporate elements from both the original First Avenue Estate buildings and a competition design drawn up by Richard Thomas Short, one of the firm's principal architects. Both are six-story tenements, with floors divided horizontally (from bottom to top) in 2-3-1 configurations. The lowest section has tan brick, and the upper two sections have paler brick with tan-brick detailing. Although all stories have stone windowsills and lintels, the lintels in the lowest and highest sections are splayed, projecting outward. Both buildings have central and side courts along with ground-story storefronts. The ground-story entrances are flanked by Tuscan pilasters, each supporting an entablature, while the upper stories have wrought iron fire escapes. Over the years, the cornices have been removed and the storefronts modernized.
504–508 East 79th Street and 503–509 East 78th Street, designed by Percy Griffin, have identical layouts and incorporate Georgian Revival design features. They are the only buildings in the complex without central courtyards; Griffin had believed that an enclosed courtyard would be damp and uncomfortable. Instead, they have U-shaped layouts with the courtyard open to the street, visually dividing these buildings in two. Railings surround areaways in front of either building. The facades both have Tuscan-columned entry porticoes, along with neoclassical roundels on their wrought-iron fire escapes. 503–509 East 78th Street is divided in a 1-4-1 configuration from bottom to top. There is a protruding brick band above the first floor and a brick cornice or belt course above the sixth story. The brick-framed windows have both splayed lintels and stone keystones above. 504–508 East 79th Street is similar in design, except that the windows are grouped.
510–512 East 79th Street and 511–515 East 78th Street, designed by Philip Ohm, are nearly identical, except that only 510–512 East 79th Street includes a vehicle entrance. Railings surround areaways in front of either building. Both buildings have pale-yellow brick facades, with rusticated first floors and vertical quoins on the upper stories. The resident entrances have large garland-shaped brackets and stylized cartouches. The windowsills and lintels are made of stone and are simple in design. Both buildings had cornices that have since been removed.
Central buildings
519–523 and 527–531 East 78th Street, also designed by Ohm, adjoin 511–515 East 78th Street to the east. Numbers 519–523 and 527–531 have similar layouts and floor plans to numbers 510–512 and 511–515, except for the staircase layout. The buildings have pale-yellow or tan brick facades, with vertical groupings of protruding brick panels. The areaway railings have finials shaped like urns. The entrances are flanked by Tuscan half-pilasters supporting a molded frieze. On the upper stories are horizontal stone courses, ornamented wrought-iron fire escapes, and splayed keystones. There are diaperwork patterns between the sixth-floor windows. Cornices made of brick and terracotta run atop the roofs of both buildings.
Immediately north of these are the Bishop Potter Memorial buildings at 516–520 and 524–528 East 79th Street, designed by Ohm and built in honor of Episcopal bishop Henry Codman Potter. These buildings have more ornate decorations than the others because they were funded by an endowment, and they use darker brick. The wall of one building has a plaque memorializing Potter. The areaway railing has Gothic pinnacles, pointed arches, trefoils, and quatrefoils. The lowest two stories are made of tan brick and are rusticated, giving the impression of horizontal bands. The entrances have quatrefoils and pointed arches, while the lintels on the second floor have drip moldings. The upper four stories have brown-brick facades with buttresses, tan quoins, and wrought iron fire escapes, while the roofline has shields and rooftop crenellations.
535–539 East 78th Street, also designed by Ohm, is immediately east of numbers 519–523 and 527–531, with a similar design to these two buildings. Number 535–539 has a tan facade with vertical rusticated brick bands, and it has a wrought-iron fire escape. The windows have splayed lintels, except for those in the same bay as the entrance, which have ornate stone frames. The sixth-floor windows have splayed lintels with keystones, and there are belt courses both below and above that level.