One of my favorite Fifth Avenue Mansions. A very little known house that, from the outside, looks dull and dreary.The inside, however, is all marble, gilt, crystal and opulence. The layout couldn't be better than a Hollywood movie set of a Fifth Avenue Mansion. It has it all!
Mr. Salomon died in 1919, and, after the dispersal of his fine art and antiques collection, the house was demolished in 1924. Today, on the site of 1020 Fifth Avenue is now one of Fifth Avenue's finest apartment buildings, which was designed by Warren & Wetmore. More pictures to come. Click HERE to see 1st and 2nd floor stairhall. Click HERE to see the 2nd floor Master Bedroom.
Links:
In an Earlier Time of Boom and Bust, Rentals Also Gained Favor, New York Times
William A. Salomon Obituary, New York Times
7 comments:
Wow. The exterior does not give a hint of the over the top interiors.
you've got that right. this place is spectacular - all that carved marble and gilt and that stairway - i feel faint. who owns it now?
security word def - "paxedge" - fine line treaded by George Mitchell
It would give Stanford White a run for his money! I used to have a copy of the large auction catalog for the sale - about as thick as a phone book - that illustrated the rooms, furnishings and even gave floor plans. What a shame we can't see those interiors in color.
I don't know enough about the history of interior design, but so many grand houses of this era exhibit a strange similarity in terms of furniture placement: Although the rooms are fully furnished and don't look that odd at first glance, imagine how they were used when even a small group assembled in them- the chairs seem almost randomly scattered around the room and a get-together of four or more people would require the furniture to be shifted around, sometimes to some distance. This flies directly in the face of modern concepts of interior design where "seating groups" are a large focus. Note also the sedan chair next to the grand stairs. This was a fairly typical decorating conceit of the era, when these French relics were often fitted with a telephone- a padded and brocaded phone booth.
Remember, Magnus, that interior photographers, then and now, move furniture around at will to create sight lines and proper spatial relationships, so what you see in a photograph is often not what you would se in the actual room.
DT
How could this incredible interior have been destroyed?? The craftmanship is amazing! It is a real sin...
It makes me sick when I see gorgeous interiors like this that have been demolished. Such a shame.
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