Edey Mansion

10 West 56th Street | Midtown | built 1901

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1901
Frederick and Birdsall Edey build a French Renaissance townhouse
Stockbroker Frederick C. Edey and his wife Birdsall Otis Edey, married in 1893, were recorded as buyers of this lot in 1899, but a decades-old covenant kept them from building until 1901. They then hired Warren & Wetmore to design a slate-roofed, limestone-clad French Renaissance Revival house, filed at a projected cost of $50,000 and completed in 1903. A sixth story was added shortly after 1919.
Source: Wikipedia
1912
A burglar locks the Edeys' caretaker in a closet
In 1912, while the Edeys were away, an armed burglar surprised caretaker John Myer in the house, locked him in a closet, and filled a tablecloth with more than $3,000 in silverware. Myer's wife rang for help and scared the intruder off before he could get away with it, so the only thing he took was the closet key.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1930
Birdsall Otis Edey becomes national president of the Girl Scouts
Birdsall Otis Edey, who lived in the house with her husband Frederick, served as national president of the Girl Scouts of America from 1930 to 1935 and was also the first editor of Girl Scout Leader magazine.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1955
Elizabeth Taylor lives in the former Edey mansion for several years
By the mid-1950s, when the building held aviator-turned-cosmetics-executive Jacqueline Cochran's shop, actress Elizabeth Taylor lived there for two to three years.
Source: Wikipedia

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