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 History of the nabes
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| The Fifth Avenue Garden at The Frick Collection. The Frick is celebrating its 75th anniversary as a museum this year, having opened in 1935. The garden was also designed in 1935. 2:30 PM. Photo: JH. |
April 7, 2010. Yet another beautiful Spring day in New York with the temperatures reaching well into the 70s.
History of the nabes. Yesterday afternoon JH went over to the Frick Collection where their magnolias and dogwoods were at The Perfect Moment in their bloom.
The Frick is a treasure to the city in many ways, including its connection to the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons and the development of the great American art collections and the museums that were nurtured with them.
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| More views of the Fifth Avenue Garden. |
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The property, when Henry Clay Frick bought it, in 1912, housed the Lenox Library, built by James Lenox in 1871. Mr. Lenox’s father, who emigrated from Scotland in 1793 (a year before John Jacob Astor arrived), bought 30 acres for $6920 between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue (then known as Fourth Avenue), running from 68th Street to 74th Street. It was known as the Lenox Farm, and then later Lenox Hill.
His only son James, born in 1800, inherited it and when he died eighty years later, that property was considered to be worth “at least” $10 million (then the dollar was also worth close to a dollar versus today’s 3 cents).
James Lenox had founded his library in 1871. When it was merged with the Astor Library into the New York Public Library (in 1895 with money provided by Samuel Tilden – who lived in a house that is now the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park), it moved to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, and the Lenox Library was torn down to make way for Mr. Frick’s mansion. |
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| The Lenox Library, built by James Lenox on the Fifth Avenue block between 70th and 71st Street in 1871 and torn down in 1912 to make way for the Henry Clay Frick mansion, now The Frick Collection. The house on the right was the last in-town residence of Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, the last living grandchild of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who died in her 90s in 1952. That house was razed to make way for the luxury co-op, 2 East 70th. |
Lenox, who never married but amassed a great fortune besides his inheritance, was a generous and conscientious donor to his community, including the founding to the Presbyterian Hospital, and the Presbyterian Home for Aging Women which was nearby on 73rd and Madison.
When the Frick house went up, that section of Fifth Avenue – previously used as a raceway for horses and carriages and later the early automobiles (also called “machines”) – was all mansions from to the 40s up through the 80s, except for some hotels (like the St. Regis, the Gotham, The Sherry, the Plaza).
Mr. Frick evidently had a dream for his grand house and the community also, although it wasn’t known to the public at the time. When the house was completed, what the public could see was what passers-by can see today – a limestone mansion with terraces, lawns, gardens, and the flowering trees.
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Inside The Frick looking north in the Garden Court, which also dates to the 1935 transformation of mansion to museum, undertaken by architect John Russell Pope. This summer The Frick is focusing on his work in a small Cabinet gallery display of architectural drawings and archival photos.
Their new exhibition, “Masterpieces of European Painting from Dulwich Picture Gallery,” features nine iconic paintings from the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London (Dulwich is on the verge of celebrating its 200 anniversary). The exhibition is in the Oval Room and the north end of the Garden Court. |
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)
A Girl at a Window, 1645
Oil on canvas, 81.6 x 66 cm
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811
© The Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery |
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682)
The Flower Girl—Spring, c. 1665
Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 98.7 cm
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811
© The Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery |
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721)
Les Plaisirs du bal (Pleasures of the Dance, c. 1717
Oil on canvas, 52.6 x 65.4 cm
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811
© The Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery |
| An unpublished photo (until now) that shows the Garden Court in August of 1935 (The Frick opened in December 1935), illustrating an ongoing experiment with different plantings ... looks as if the Garden Court is divided into quarters. |
Coincidentally, the name Lenox is attached to last night’s dinner dance here in New York -- the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House held it’s annual gala benefit at Sotheby’s on York Avenue and 72nd Street.
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House was founded in 1894, fourteen years after the death of James Lenox, in the spirit of the great philanthropists’ objectives which was namely to help the less fortunate make decent lives for themselves in the New World.
In the last quarter of the 19th century with the mass migrations to the United States, many of the poor and indigent from foreign lands arrived at the Port of New York, and remained here. Feeding and sheltering “the tired, the hungry” was an enormous task, and one which the men of their day like James Lenox and Jacob Schiff approached with deliberate commitment.
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, now a multi-service community-based organization that serves people in need on the East Side of Manhattan and on Roosevelt Island, was founded as a free kindergarten for the children of immigrants. It was one of the first settlement houses in the nation and remains the oldest and largest provider of social, legal and educational services on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
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| Last night's gala chair, Diana Quasha. John Richter to her right. |
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House's Virginia Pitman and Warren Scharf. |
| John and Nina Richter with Michael Foster. |
| Audrey Gruss. |
Elizabeth Pyne (standing next to her table design) with Christine Grace. |
| Frances Beatty Adler and Ann Pyne. |
Charles and Clo Cohen. |
| Lisa and Philip Gorrivan. |
Each year, more than 20,000 individuals and families ranging in age from 3 to 103, representing dozens of races, ethnicities and countries of origin who "live, work, go to school or access services" on the East Side from 14th Street to 143rd Street and on Roosevelt Island, benefit from its programs.
Their clients include indigent families and the working-poor who live in the East Side's housing projects and tenements or who travel to the Upper East Side to work in low-wage jobs such as cashiers, housekeepers, nannies and laborers. There are 10,000 seniors; and hundreds of mentally ill, homeless and formerly homeless adults who receive the Neighborhood House’s services. They have five locations between 54th and 102nd Streets, offer programs at dozens of East Side locations and their headquarters is located on East 70th Street. |
| Thomas Jayne. |
The honoree, Albert Hadley (who turns 90 this year), and a former assistant, Bunny Williams. |
| Robert Rufino next to Frances Schultz accepting congratulations. |
Kim Heirston. |
| Julie Dannenberg and friend. |
Michael Foster, Jim Simon, and Bruce Addison. |
| Alex Donner at work and play. |
The Neighborhood House has seven departments (Adult Education, Children and Family Services, Homeless and Housing Services, Legal Advocacy and Organizing, Older Adult Services, Visual and Performing Arts and Fitness and Aquatics). There are more than 20 different programs, nearly 200 staff and over 600 regular volunteers. The mission is to help those in need and to improve the quality of life for all individuals and families in their community. “Need” is defined to include economic, social, emotional, and physical need, with economics the priority.
The annual benefit is quite a glamorous affair. Diana Quasha was Gala Chair – this being her 12th year on the job. Honorary Chair was Sydney Roberts Shuman. Dinner Chairs were Ingrid and Thomas Edelman and Dinner Patrons were Audrey and Martin Gruss. |
| Hugh and Helene Tilney. |
Melissa Morris (in white) and husband Chappy (back of his head) on left. |
| Audrey Gruss and Hilary Geary Ross. |
CNN's Robert Zimmerman. |
| Sydney Roberts Shuman. |
Alison Minton and Kathleen Giordano. |
The Interior design community got involved with Lenox Hill Neighborhood House through the interest of Albert Hadley, now the dean of American Interior Designers who volunteered to help more than 35 years ago. As a result of the design community’s participation, fostered by Mr. Hadley, the décor of the gala is fresh and elegant (and colorful) and everyone is encouraged in this black tie affair to put their best (fashion) foot forward.
Last night they had between 500 and 600 for cocktails and then 300 remaining for dinner with Alex Donner and his orchestra providing the music. The theme was “Shall We Dance” and the dance floor was made up of shiny black squares that looked very much like the Bakelite floors that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced on in the films.
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sat between Louise Grunwald and Sydney Shuman. Louise had Sean Driscoll on the other side of her. Sean’s Glorious Foods provided a delicious menu.
Louise told me that she and Sean volunteered for the second benefit, staged back in the early 70s, which was held in the Neighborhood House’s gym. It was a much smaller affair with a cocktail reception, a silent auction and a buffet. For the silent auction they sold quiches which were whipped up by Babe Paley’s chef (and sold like hotcakes) and handcrafted quilts and art pieces made by locals up in Northeast (also a big hit).
That early time they gathered a group of more than 200. In anticipation they projected how many of the crowd would actually partake of the buffet, figuring that most people would be gnoshing on the hors d’oeuvres and drinking instead of eating. The number came up with for the buffet was 85. After that night was over, Sean said to Louise: guess how many had the buffet?
Ten!
Thanks to all of these people and the supporters who came before them, and thanks to the administration of the Neighborhood House by Virginia Pittman and Warren Scharf, today the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House thrives, serving more than 20,000 people and is vigilant about being prepared for oncoming, developing needs of others who come within its purview. For many, both young and old, it is the saving grace, as well as a cushion for those who live in the neighborhood. |
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| Some of the tables at last night's Lenox Hill Neighborhood House's "Shall We Dance" gala dinner. |
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Other neighborhoods, other houses. From my friend the Real Estalker who has one of the funniest and best-informed web sites on high end real estate it the world (mainly in this country, and more specifically in Los Angeles – but elsewhere too) comes the reminder that I heard some weeks ago that Susan and John Gutfreund are putting their Paris pied a terre on the market.
Located in an l’hotel particulier which they share with Hubert de Givenchy and Philip Venet on the rue de Grenelle in the Seventh, it has been their Paris residence for the last twenty-five years.
While there is a lot of speculation as to why the Gutfreunds are selling, the fact is that the best of times for that chez Gutfreund have long since passed. In its heyday when Susan Gutfreund was using the Concorde to Paris with almost as much frequency as a lot of us take the 79th Street crosstown bus, and entertaining financial tycoons, shipping magnates, Rothschilds and le haut monde at her dinner table, the house was always in use. |
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| The courtyard of l'hotel particulier (the Gutfreund's entrance is to the right). |
| The Gutfreund entry foyer, inside and out. |
| Statuary striking a pose for JH. |
In recent years Mr. Gutfreund travels less and less, and Mrs., who still travels frequently but mainly for her interior design business, finds the Ritz more practical and convenient for her peripatetic purposes, than rambling around solo in a 19th century French mansion, as luxe as it might be.
We visited a couple of times in the last few years and JH got a few shots of the property. Mr. Real Estalker, who refers to himself in print as Your Mama, goes into more detail (not to mention hilarity) for your enjoyment. |
| The grand staircase of John and Susan Gutfreund's l'hotel particulier apartment. |
| The Gutfreund living room. |
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