Mertz Gilmore Foundation (New York City, New York)

 office building, non-profit organization

4-story (plus raised basement) Italianate office building originally completed as a townhouse in 1857. Built by owner John Foster, his home was the the showplace of the block. High above the rusticated English basement and tall stoop, the carved brownstone entrance was lavish. The heavily ornamented enframement enclosed a deeply-recessed double doorway. Two richly carved and paneled doors protected the inner double-doors. A heavy arched door pediment is supported on unusually long acanthus-carved consoles on slender pane led pilasters. The round-arched doorway is further enriched by a foliate-scrolled keystone and two slender fluted Corinthian columns. Segmental-arched windows are crowned by shouldered lintels with triple moldings: one directly above the window nearly flush with the facade, and above that, two projecting moldings. The massive cast-iron newel posts flank the stoop and the yard is enclosed by an Italianate cast-iron railing and gate. The facade is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with acanthus-leaf brackets and panels with arched undersides.

Following John Foster’s death the mansion was leased by John R. G. Hassard, who then also died in the house, in 1888, although his widow lived on here. By 1893 the house was home to Dr. Simeon B. Minden, who was later convicted of manslaughter after a failed abortion procedure. At the turn of the century the land was owned by Stuyvesant Fish; but the house was still in the possession of the John Foster estate. By the late 1910s the neighborhood would no longer be one of upscale private homes and the former mansion became a rooming house. Paul Leibscher and Bertha Baretz bought the house in 1931.

After owning the property for nearly two decades, Liebscher sold the house in September 1959 to The American Friends Service Committee. Within the year it had been converted to offices. The group, a Quaker organization, had been founded during World War I with the goal of addressing the root causes of war and violence. In 1964 the house was also home to the New York Peace Information Center. By the mid-1970s the Center for Global Perspectives was here. In 1994 the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation found its home here. The organization says of itself that “It has a long-standing commitment to efforts which foster and protect social, economic, and political rights and which promote the development of democratic institutions.” The private foundation was established by LuEsther and Harold Mertz.

www.mertzgilmore.org/