Phelps Stokes - J.P. Morgan, Jr. House (New York City, New York)

 residence, historic landmark

4-story Italianate mansion originally completed in 1853 with three floors and a peaked roof for Isaac Newton Phelps as one of a group of houses for members of the Phelps family along this block of Madison Avenue. Phelp's daughter Helen and her husband Anson Phelps Stokes commissioned architect R. H. Robertson to expand the house in 1888. Robertson's designs harmonized with the original while adding Neo-Renaissance characteristics.

When J. Pierpont Morgan purchased the home for his son J.P. Morgan, Jr. in late 1904, it was further renovated, but much of its character survives today. After J.P. Morgan, Jr. died in 1943, his estate sold the house at 231 Madison to the United Lutheran Church for use as its headquarters. The Pierpont Morgan Library purchased the house in 1988, incorporating it into its museum and program operations.

The mansion is linked to the 1928 Morgan Library Addition to the south by a steel-and-glass conservatory structure, designed by Voorsanger & Mills, and completed in 1991. All three structures are set back from Madison Avenue with a small planted garden that is shielded by a brownstone retaining wall surmounted by a wrought-iron fence. The house at No. 231 is faced in brownstone, set on a stone basement. Its four floors are topped by a shallow, sloping roof.

On Madison Avenue the 3-bay facade is dominated by the center entranceway, approached by a high balustraded brownstone stoop. The steps extend sideways from the landing to the north. The arched entryway contains a transom with wrought-iron tracery and the numerals 231, set above paired glass outer doors with wrought-iron grilles. The entrance is shielded by a portico with Corinthian columns at the front of the stoop and engaged pilasters flanking the entrance. Full-length windows fronted by sinuous wrought-iron railings flank the center entrance. The windows have full surrounds supporting raised entablatures and sills carried console brackets. At the 2nd & 3rd floors three windows are set in surrounds with raised entablatures and sills on console brackets. The 3rd floor terminates in a projecting cornice. At the attic level, two groups of triple-windows with Ionic colonnettes are surmounted by rounded pediments.

The long 37th Street facade is set behind a narrow lawn protected by the wrought-iron fence on the brownstone base that continues around from Madison Avenue. The basement level rises from a water table surmounted by a molding and has regularly-spaced windows set behind wrought-iron grilles. The areaway at the east end leads to a delivery entrance.

The 1st floor contains a complex arrangement of openings articulated by a variety of detail. From east to west, these are a blind round-arch flanked by paired Ionic pilasters; a carved stone panel with foliate motifs; a 3-sided projecting bay with the openings flanked by Ionic pilasters and containing full-length windows set below transoms and fronted by wrought-iron railings; another carved foliate panel; and a full-height pier rising to a capital at the top of the 3rd floor. This pier marks the division between the original house and the 1888 extension. The openings continue as: a window surround surmounted by a full entablature with a sill carried on corbel brackets; a window opening flanked by Ionic columns surmounted by a pediment and fronted by a balcony with a wrought-iron railing; and a window surround surmounted by a full entablature with a sill carried on corbel brackets. The corner has a pier terminating in a capital at the 3rd floor.

The 2nd floor echoes the articulation of the first. In the 1888 extension, a wall panel rises above the blind arch. Paired window groups set in surrounds with shallow entablatures flanking a triple-window group rise above the projecting bay and are sheltered behind an angled balustrade. At the original house, there is an angled oriel; a paired window set below a pediment and above a balustraded wall panel flanked by two oculi windows; and a single-window set in a surround with an entablature.

At the 3rd floor in the extension are a wall panel that continues from the 2nd floor; and paired windows set in surrounds, flanking an oval window. In the original house, single-windows with surrounds below entablatures flank a central paired windows set in a surround with an entablature. The 3rd floor terminates in a wide band course below a projecting cornice. The attic story at the 4th-floor level has three triple-window groups with Ionic colonnettes set below rounded pediment like those seen on the Madison Avenue front of the house. The bases of the chimneys are still visible at the roof line, flanking the pediments.

The south elevation of the original section of the house is still visible, but the extension is obscured by the 1991 conservatory link. The portion of the house closest to Madison Avenue has a rounded bay projecting from the basement level to the 2nd floor. Three windows are set below a continuous cornice. The paired windows above the bay at the 3rd floor are set in a surround with an entablature. A pair of windows are set above a projecting cornice at the attic level. The next section of the elevation contains a full-height angled bay with paired windows set at three levels. The projecting cornice sets off the attic level.

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