Felicity House Organization

 museum, office building, non-profit organization

6-story office building originally completed in about 1865 as a 4-story townhouse for Percy Rivington Pyne. It was altered for commercial use in 1904. In the late 1980s, the building played host to the Women’s Executive Committee of the Board of Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church. Later, the home belonged to industrial designer George Nelson, a founder of American modernism. In the 1990s, it was the headquarters of Nike, Inc., and in 1997 was sold to fashion company Novello, Inc.

In 2004, David Chu, founder of clothing company Nautica, bought the townhouse and gut renovated it, adding two floors and a new limestone facade, and turned it into his corporate headquarters with showrooms, conference rooms, and stylish office. The building was sold again in 2014.

The new facade has three bays, with the western bay wider than the other two. This bay has the main entrance at the 1st floor, with a grey stone stoop with sidewalls leading up to a black wooden double-door framed by narrow pillars with a restrained entablature and cornice. To the right are two tall parlor-floor windows, above fan-shaped basement windows at the sidewalk level, enclosed by a wrought-iron gate. The windows on the 2nd & 3rd floors have 3-over-4 panes at the western bay, and 2-over-4 at the smaller bays. The shorter windows at the 4th & 5th floors have 4-over-2 panes at the west, and 2-over-1 panes at the other two. All the windows have stone surrounds and cornices. A black metal roof cornice with alternating brackets and modillions caps the 5th floor, with a recessed penthouse level above.

The building is now home to Felicity House, an organization that provides a gathering space for female-identifying individuals who are diagnosed on the autism spectrum. It was founded by Audrey Cappell, a philanthropist, writer, and activist.

felicity-house.org/