Dahlgren-Cartier House

15 East 96th Street | East Harlem | built 1916

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.

1916
Heiress Lucy Dahlgren builds a Louis XVI-style mansion
Heiress Lucy Drexel Dahlgren, who had inherited more than $20 million from her Philadelphia banking family, bought this lot in February 1915 and hired architect Ogden Codman Jr. to design a 30-room Louis XVI-style mansion. Completed in 1916, it featured two marble fountains, eleven bathrooms, and a player organ installed in the second-floor drawing room.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1927
Jeweler Pierre Cartier buys the mansion
Jeweler Pierre Cartier, who had been leasing the mansion since 1922, purchased it outright in 1927 as a secondary residence for his family, who kept their main estate on Long Island.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1945
A Catholic church uses the mansion as a convent
The Roman Catholic Church of St. Francis de Sales used the mansion as a convent from 1945 until 1981, when developer Barry Trupin bought it for $3 million to use as a private residence.
Source: Wikipedia
1987
Financier Paul Singer buys and restores the mansion
Financier Paul Singer bought the mansion around 1987 for $5.7 million and undertook a Beaux-Arts restoration, including a 2004 project that replaced the copper roof cladding and repaired the limestone facade.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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