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 office building, townhouse

5-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1904 as a townhome. Designed by Clinton & Russell for Jennie S. Parker, wife of major real estate developer John H. Parker, it was one of three abutting townhouses built as a speculative venture. It is clad in red brick above a rusticated white marble ground floor and basement, three bays wide. The entrance is at the right, up a set of low steps and flanked by fluted Doric pilasters supporting an entablature with alternating panels of triglyphs and various carved shields, all topped by a dentiled cornice. The entry has wood-and-glass double-doors and a transom behind a wrought-iron gate.

To the left are two round-arched windows with scrolled keystones and elaborate garlands. They have iron grilles and planter boxes. Below them is a low basement window and door, also with iron grilles; the steps down to the areaway of the door at the center are surrounded by a low iron fence. Topping the base are marble balustrades below the 2nd-floor windows, with shields at the ends. The 2nd-floor windows are topped by panels with roundels, flanked by narrow scrolled brackets and surmounted by rounded, dentiled pediments. The 3rd-floor windows are somewhat smaller, and have full surrounds, with brackets sills and dentiled cornices. The 4th-floor windows have surrounds, but without brackets and cornices.

The steep metal mansard roof at the 5th floor is set off by a marble cornice with paired fluted brackets, modillions, dentils, and an elaborately carved frieze featuring shields and foliate ornament. Three dormers pierce the mansard, topped by broken pediments with urns. A roof garden tops the mansard.

James A. Robinson purchased the house and quickly leased it in August 1904 to Frank A. Vanderlip, the Vice President of the National City Bank. By 1906 it was the home of banker and stockbroker Robert H. McCurdy and his wife Mary, as well as their eight servants. After 1926, it was used by St. Nicholas Club, the French art firm of DeMotte, Inc., and then in 1946 the art advertising firm of Frank A. Lavaty moved into the building, sharing space with the art dealer. Finally, in 1952 plans were announced by the new owner, Talon, Inc. for altering the building into offices. In 1954 the conversion to Talon’s headquarters was completed, resulting in offices on five floors with a lounge in the rooftop penthouse.

39 East 51st Street is the only extant townhouse on East 51st Street between Madison and Park Avenues, a reminder of the fact that at the turn of the twentieth century this area of Midtown Manhattan was part of the city’s most prestigious residential neighborhood.

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