Villard Houses (New York City, New York)

 museum, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, movie / film / TV location, historic landmark, historical building

In 1882, Henry Villard, a railroad financier, hired McKim, Mead & White to create six private brownstone townhouses in a U-shape surrounding a courtyard on Madison Avenue. The architectural firm created the houses in the neo-Italian Renaissance tradition, after the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome. The street fronts are all unified by the bold (rusticated) stonework of the basement and first floor with smooth wall surfaces (ashlar masonry) for the floors above. A stone band course signalizes each floor at window sill level, there are quoins at the corners, and a projecting cornice effectively crowns the entire composition, with a low-sloped red tile roof.

The 3rd-floor windows, handsomely enframed, are reminiscent of those of the Palazzo della Cancelleria, while some of the 2nd-floor windows display striking individual balconies carried on console brackets. The north and south doors facing the courtyard are complemented, in their elegance, by the welcoming arched loggia on the east side. The central portion, Nos. 453-455 Madison Avenue, contains five graceful arches on the ground floor and paired windows of the three upper floors. There are smaller attic windows at the top floor. The entrance to the courtyard is between two square uprights surmounted by balls between which a graceful arch of scrolled wrought-iron is bridged to carry the central lantern.

This great complex is skillfully creating a U-shaped unit of welded townhouses to create a courtyard, originally planned as a turn-around for carriages. Designed in a manner of a 16th century palace, these buildings represent the epitome of brownstone architecture of their day. This “House of Mansions” represented an early break with the picturesque tradition of the Romantic styles.

The street fronts are all unified by the bold, rusticated stonework of the basement and first floor, with smooth wall surfaces (ashlar masonry) for the floors above. A stone band course signalizes each floor at window sill level, while a projecting cornice effectively crowns the entire composition.

What was once the Villard mansion’s carriage entrance on Madison Avenue is now Lotte New York Palace’s Courtyard. During the restoration of the hotel, the Courtyard was redesigned to incorporate motifs from the flooring of several 15th-century Italian cathedrals. A 2-story lobby joins The Villard Mansion with the newer tower building of the hotel with some salvaged architectural elements within. Elements were fabricated by John LaFarge, D. Maitland Armstrong, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Murals were executed by Francis Lathrop.

The courtyard and interiors of the Villard Houses was used as a filming location for the White Collar S01 E02 episode entitled "Threads" where neal and Ghovat meet for a purchase. The library was used for S4E3 of the Starz original series "Power". The interior was also used for a 2020 Saturday Night Live remote skit on James Bond.

archive.org/details/villardhouseslif0000shop
daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/05/1884-villard-hou...
www.6sqft.com/exclusive-photos-tour-the-lavish-south-wi...
archive.org/details/americanarchite121newyuoft/page/733...
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/9653ad40-5102-0134-4c...


www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTbOKlLDLBg&ab_channel=Lott...


www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbpibPm7AVE