New York Songlines: Beekman Place

51st St | 50th St | Mitchell Pl
Beekman Place is named for James Beekman, a Colonial merchant whose mansion, known as Mount Pleasant, was originally situated where 51st Street now crosses 1st Avenue. It served as British military headquarters during the Revolutionary War; Nathan Hale was reportedly tried and sentenced to death there. The Beekmans left the neighborhood during an 1850s cholera epidemic.



Beekman Place by Randy Levine, on Flickr

W <===     EAST 51ST STREET     ===> E

West:

34 (corner): Artist Marcel Duchamp lived at this address in October 1915. The current building, an extended-stay hotel, seems to have been built in 1930.












20 (corner): A 13-story building designed by Hyman Isaac Feldman

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East:

39 (corner): This 1910 townhouse, known as Hale House after Nathan Hale, was leased in 1941 by surrealist painter Max Ernst and art collector Peggy Guggenheim, after the two had fled Nazi-occupied Europe. They were married in December 1941, but separated in 1943.

33: Redesigned by Harrie Lindeberg in 1925. Impresario Billy Rose later lived here.

31: Permanent Mission of Tunisia to the U.N.

29: A seven-story house built in 1929 by CBS president William Paley.

25-27: In 1926, these houses were combined and given a neo-Classical facade by diplomat Van Santvoord Merle-Smith.

23: This two-story Modernist townhouse was radically redesigned in 1977 for Yale architecture dean Paul Rudolph, who decorated it with mirrors, mylar, white formica and clear acrylic. It underwent a controversial renovation in 2003, redone in similar 21st Century materials. Actress Katharine Cornell lived in an earlier version of this building.

19-21 (corner): A red-brick Georgian-style townhouse--redesigned in that style by Ellen Shipman in the early 1920s.

W <===     EAST 50TH STREET     ===> E

West:

12 (corner): Thirteen-story apartment building dates to 1957.

Beekman Tower Hotel

Beekman by chathamshooter, on Flickr

Corner (3 Mitchell Place): This 28-story Art Deco landmark was originally built in 1928 as the Panhellenic Tower, designed as a residence and clubhouse for members of Greek-letter sororities. The architect was John Mead Howells, the winner (along with Raymond Hood) in the Tribune Tower design competition, though it more resembles the influential second-place plan by Eliel Saarinen.

The Zephyr Grill is in this building but has the address 1 Mitchell Place.

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East:

Corner (17 Beekman): Luxembourg House serves as that nation's consulate; the townhouse was built in 1929 for future first Defense Secretary James Forrestal (designed by Harold Steiner). Songwriter Irving Berlin lived here from 1947 until his death at age 101 in 1989.






One Beekman Place

1 (corner): This 1929 co-op, designed by Sloan & Robertson and Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, is "the most prestigious Beekman Place apartment building," according to Carter Horsley. It was built by a group headed by David Milton, husband of Abby Rockefeller and son-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Early tenants here included "Wild Bill" Donovan of the OSS and John D. Rockefeller III.

W <===     MITCHELL PLACE     ===> E

First Avenue, Looking North from the U.N. by dsjeffries, on Flickr

860-870 U.N. Plaza: Twin 40-story apartment blocs put up in 1966 to a Harrison, Abramovitz & Harris design. Author Truman Capote lived at 870 from 1965 until his death in 1984.



What am I missing on Beekman Place? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it.

"Beekman Place, a Two-Block Street Down by the East Riverside," by Christopher Gray

Beekman Place is a photo tour from The Big Map.

New York Songlines Home.

Sources for the Songlines.

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