One
Lexington Avenue
123 East 21st
Street
49-50 Gramercy
Park North
Block
877 Lot 1
By Carter B. Horsley
This
12-story building at 1 Lexington Avenue
is the handsomest
pre-war apartment building overlooking GramercyPark.
It
was erected in 1910 and has 27 cooperative apartments,
many of them duplexes.
The
impressive brown-brick building has a high cast-iron
fence around it and the canopied entrance leads to a four-step-up,
colonnaded
portico with Tuscan columns.The
Gramercy Proposed Historic District Extension noted that above the
portico are
round-arched windows embellished with finely carved garlands of fruit.
The
building has several impressive decorative balconies and
a cornice and a three-story stone base.It is pet friendly.
The
building, which is also known as 123-125 East 21st Street
and 49-50
Gramercy Park North,has
a doorman and
an elevator person, windowed kitchens and wood-burning fireplaces.
It
is convenient to the many restaurants in the Flatiron and
Union
Square
districts and there is convenient good public transportation.
It
was designed by Herbert Lucas who also designed the 24
Gramercy Park South.
According
to Andrew Alpern in his book “Luxury Apartment
Houses of Manhattan,” the building was erected by a company headed by
Edward
Corning and the design of 1 Lexington Avenue
is refined and restrained with a
two-story stone base and upper floors of deep red brick laid in Flemish
bond.He noted that
voluted stone
keystones are displayed over each window, as well as cast-iron
balconies on
stone console brackets, and a colonnaded and balustraded stone porch.
The
building originally had only 12 units.
Residents
have included Uma Thurman and Winona Ryder, the
actresses, and Danny Meyer, the restaurateur.
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