Fifth Avenue Mansion
In 1869-70, A.T. Stewart built the first of the grand Fifth Avenue palaces, on the northwest corner of 34th Street, across from the doyenne of New York society, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor. His architect, as for the store, was John Kellum. When all of Fifth Avenue was of brownstone rowhouses, Stewart's fireproof structure in French Second Empire taste was faced with marble.
It had three main floors and an attic in a mansard roof. A mezzanine floor at cornice height was used for storage. The house was separated from the sidewalks by a moat-like light well that lit the service areas in the basement. The main parlour ran the full length of the house's Fifth Avenue frontage.
On the death of Stewart's widow in 1886, it was rented as premises for the Manhattan Club and was painted in 1891 by Childe Hassam The structure was razed in 1901 to make way for the new premises of the Knickerbocker Trust Company.
Read more about this topic: Alexander Turney Stewart
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