P R O P O S E D   H I S T O R I C   D I S T R I C T   E X T E N S I O N

- To return to the extension map -

1 LEXINGTON AVENUE
Architect: Herbert Lucas
1910-11

The 12-story apartment house at the corner of Gramercy Park North and Lexington is the earliest of the apartment houses that line the north side of the park. The building was one of three luxury cooperatives erected on the park between 1908 and 1910. Architect Herbert Lucas was responsible for two of these - 24 Gramercy Park South and 1 Lexington Avenue. These cooperatives were planned with sizable apartments to attract an affluent and artistic group of people who were interested in living in well-designed apartment houses in a cultured and respectable neighborhood, albeit one located at some distance from the cityÕs most elite residences on the Upper East Side. The development of the these cooperative buildings coincided with the artistic "modernization" of rowhouses on East 19th Street, just south of the park.

No. 1 Lexington Avenue was a series of cooperatives erected early in the 20th century that were known as "club" buildings. Club or cooperative buildings were seen as being advantageous because they provided residents with the amenities of a private home without the problems attendant on owning an individual residence. No. 1 Lexington Avenue is a well-proportioned brick building with a two-story limestone base. It has an especially imposing entrance with a projecting limestone portico supported by Tuscan columns. This portico is an enlarged version of that designed by Stanford White in 1899-1901 for his alterations to 49-50 Gramercy Park North (123 East 21st Street) undertaken for Henry W. Poor; this was the house demolished to make way for the construction of 1 Lexington Avenue. Above the portico are round-arched windows embellished with finely carved garlands of fruit. The brick on the upper floors is laid in Flemish bond with burned headers creating a lively pattern of light and dark. The building is surrounded by an especially handsome fence consisting of tall narrow rounded pickets. The fence, designed by Stanford White, was salvaged during the demolition of the poor mansion.