Archbishop's Residence

 rectory, catholicism

4-story Neo-Gothic mansion completed in 1882, only a few years after the original dedication of the cathedral. Designed by James Renwick, Jr., who also designed the main church structure, it occupies the southeast corner of the site. Like the cathedral, it is clad in marble. The main entrance is on Madison Avenue, with paired iron gates, perhaps by Ferro Studio, up a set of steps, framed in a pointed-arch topped by a gable. The arch is flanked by buttresses topped by spires with finials, and a slightly higher finial crowns the gable in front of the center window on the 2nd floor. Flanking the entrance on the ground floor are paired arched windows with low basement windows below them. Buttresses at the corners recede into the facade at the top of the 1st floor.

The 2nd floor has two additional arched windows on either side of the center one, which is in a slightly recessed bay. This bay continues on the 3rd floor, with smaller, paired, pointed-arch windows. To the south is a single, large pointed-arch with tracery, below a large gable; to the north are two pointed-arch windows below a large gable that has a single, narrower arched window at the 4th floor. Both gables are topped by finials. Between them, there is a peaked dormer at the 4th floor, breaking the steep slate roof, with a small arched window.

The south facade on 50th Street is symmetrical, with four windows at the 1st floor, above basement windows and an open basement areaway behind an iron fence. At the 2nd floor there are paired arched windows at the center, above a course of modillions, and matching single-windows at the ends. A large pointed arch with tracery fills the center bay at the 3rd floor, surmounted by a large gable, and flanked by smaller versions at the end bays, topped by smaller gables. Between the west end bay and center bay, a chimney projects from the facade and extends up into the steep slate roof mansard of the top level. Multiple metal rainwater collector boxes and downspouts run down the facade. The west facade has a matching design.

On the north facade, facing the Lady Chapel, the 3rd floor has four bays: there are paired arched windows in the end bays, a small single window in the 2nd bay from the street, and two separate arched windows in the other middle bay. The west bay has a gable with a 4th-floor arched windows, while there are smaller peaked dormers piercing the slate roof at the east and 2nd-from-west bays, both with an arched window. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre were married here on April 3, 1920--they couldn't have the wedding in the cathedral itself because it was a mixed marriage.

The Congregation Center, at the northeast corner of the site, is almost identical to the Archbishop's Residence, with only a few design differences.

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