Upper East Side, 66th Street Between Park and Madison Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 ……….. click to enlarge

I probably should've saved this photo for some rainy, cold day when it would cheer us up; now we've had a surfeit, an overabundance of sun and summer for days, so this is no big deal. Have you spotted the girl yet?

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Upper East Side, 66th Street at Park Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Would I have posted this photo if those two little lamps hadn't been in the windows? Probably not.

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Upper East Side, Madison Avenue at 66th Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 …...….. click to enlarge


The photo below is 66th Street at Madison.


Mary Sargent © 2008 …….. click to enlarge

This building is known only as 45 East 66th Street and was built in 1908 as an apartment building with two 12-13 room apartments on each floor. As of 1988, when this Streetscapes column was written, a "handful" survived intact. The column concerns the major restoration done in 1988 to restore the façade to its original form.

The AIA Guide to New York City describes it thusly: "Two glassy 10-story walls of 12 over 12 double-hung windows intersect in a magnificent cylinder of even more windows, making this one of the city's grandest facades."

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Upper East Side, 66th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

A window of Oscar de la Renta's store on the corner. I was taken by the matching jewel-like sidewalk hardware, especially the large thimble thing.



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And the next window. I stood there for a while admiring the display and the middle dress in particular. I was saying to myself that it looked like architecture (the middle dress), although I'm at a loss to defend that thought.

This store has been here for only a few years; before that women had to wait for his new collections to show up at high end department stores. Women don't like waiting!

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Upper East Side, 66th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Being hot, tired, cranky and hungry, Chat Noir had the edge over forging ahead. It was a good decision, and a wonderfully pleasant lunch, though expensive, and I emerged a happier person. I had a frisee salad with poached egg, a glass of good white wine I hadn't heard of before, and can't remember now, but wish I could, tarte tatin and espresso. Well, no wonder it was expensive.

This photo was taken after lunch. When I went in, the outside tables were filled – you can see, there are three downstairs in the entryway and this one on the sidewalk. Lovely, yes?

Now take a look at the sidewalk table in an earlier shot and then from another viewpoint.



Mary Sargent © 2008 ……………………………………. click to enlarge



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Lunching in the traffic just down from the Sabrett food cart. We New Yorkers have special invisible blinders we wear at times like this. Food cart? What traffic?

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Upper East Side, 66th Street at Madison Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Here I am at Madison considering whether I should forge on or go back and check out Chat Noir.

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Upper East Side, 66th Street Between Fifth and Madison Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 … click to enlarge

Here it is, folks. The Charles Scribner House, the destination for this photowalk. Lovely, but – well, it doesn't seem more lovely than many, many other townhouses on the Upper East Side.

WELL, this is interesting. I just went online and found the original New York Times Streetscapes column by Christopher Gray that was used for the entry in Streetscapes (the book) by Christopher Gray. However, the first and last paragraphs of the newspaper column were omitted from the book. The first paragraph:

NEW YORK'S blocks are full of hidden networks, families of buildings related by appearance, type or design. One of these is now in mid-restoration as the Polish Mission cleans and repairs the facade of the 1912 Charles Scribner house at 9 East 66th Street, one of six buildings in Manhattan designed by Ernest Flagg for the publishing family.

The book mentions only three buildings designed by Flagg for the Scribners. Flagg was, by the way, Charles Scribner's brother-in-law. This is the last paragraph from the original column:

Although the Scribner family still runs Charles Scribner's Sons it sold the last
of the Flagg-Scribner buildings, 597 Fifth Avenue, in 1984 . . . But all the
structures survive, a distinct group that -- for those who care to look for it
-- gives a certain order to New York's often chaotic streets.

The thrust of the newspaper article is that this building is one of six that form a "hidden network" and you might want to search out the other five because they're all still standing.

The thrust of the article in the book is that this is the house of Charles Scribner and isn't it lovely.

You can probably tell which version I prefer.

BTW this is now the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Poland to the United Nations.

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Upper East Side, 66th Street Between Fifth and Madison Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………click to enlarge

This is the Lotos Club, the building immediately before our destination building. Finished in 1900. Visit New York Daily Photo to see interior shots and a brief history of the club. Paul Goldberger in The City Observed calls it "a grand Second Empire Mansion, which piles an ornate two-story mansard on top of a red-brick midsection on top of a rusticated limestone base. The detailing is lavish and comes tantalizingly close to excess. The ability of Hunt [Richard Howland Hunt] . . . to push this design right to the edge and yet never lose control in impressive." Now see, I want to know architecture well enough to be able to look at a building and say things like that.

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