MANHATTAN – Today’s photo is a house, located at 1130 Fifth Avenue, that was built in 1913-1915 for Willard Dickerman Straight, an American diplomat and financier, and his wife Dorothy Whitney Straight. It was designed by Delano & Aldrich in a restrained Georgian Revival style. Dorothy was wealthy: she was born Dorothy Payne Whitney, daughter of William Collins Whitney, who was a prominent New York lawyer, political figure (he served as Secretary of the Navy under President Grover Cleveland), and highly successful financier and investor.
Dorothy Whitney Straight continued to own the house after her husband’s death until 1927, when it was sold to Judge Elbert H. Gary, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United States Steel Corporation, who died in the house that same year. The next owner was Harrison Williams, a utilities investor. In 1952, the house was sold to the Audubon Society. The International Center for Photography acquired the house from the Audubon Society in September 1973.
The ICP sold the building in 1999 and in 2001, billionaire Bruce Kovner purchased the house for $17 million and spent another $10 million restoring and reconverting it back to residential use.
So: 1130 Fifth Avenue was built for a billionaire late in the gilded age and was converted back to residential use by a billionaire in the new gilded age.
Day 5,839 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
Looking back exactly 15 years to the Seagrams Building . Day 360 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
