The Osborne

205 West 57th Street | also 211 West 57th Street, 209 West 57th Street, 906 7th Avenue | Midtown | built 1885

Open on the map9 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1885

    J.A. Holzer fills the lobby with mosaics and murals, with help from Saint-Gaudens and La Farge

    Thomas Osborne wanted the entrance to set the tone the moment a visitor walked in. He gave the lobby to J.A. Holzer, an artist born in Switzerland and trained in Paris, who filled it with murals, mosaics, marble, gold leaf, leaded glass and a coffered ceiling. Augustus Saint-Gaudens and John La Farge also contributed to the work.

    “The elaborate entrance and lobby areas ... were the work of the Swiss-born and Paris-trained artist J.A. Holzer, with contributions by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and John LaFarge…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1885

    Thomas Osborne opens a lavishly decorated apartment house near Carnegie Hall

    Stone contractor Thomas Osborne spends two years and about $1.2 million building an Italian Renaissance apartment house at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, designed by architect James E. Ware. Working with Tiffany Studios, artists including Augustus Saint-Gaudens and John La Farge create a lobby of mosaics, colored marble, and gold-leafed detail, though the extravagant cost bankrupts Osborne.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1888

    John Taylor's estate sells the Osborne at auction and a relative takes over, keeping it in the family until 1961

    In 1888 the estate of John Taylor was forced to sell the apartment house at auction. William Taylor, another member of the family, bought it, and the Taylors owned it for the next seven decades. They modernized it and divided many of the huge suites, yet it kept drawing wealthy and famous tenants.

    “In 1888, John Taylor's estate was forced to sell the building at auction and it was purchased by another member of his family, William Taylor…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1889

    A rear addition adds a story to the Osborne within years of opening

    After William Taylor buys the foreclosed building for just over $1 million in 1888, he adds a story to the rear section the next year and later extends the building 25 feet to the west in 1896. The additions come even as the building's opulent interiors continue to draw wealthy tenants.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1961

    Leonard Bernstein buys apartment 4B, which later passes to Bobby Short

    Leonard Bernstein bought apartment 4B in 1961. It went to actor Larry Storch and then, in 1970, to entertainer Bobby Short. The building was so full of musicians that The New York Times quipped that one closet door might reveal Blanche Thebom vocalizing and the next Van Cliburn at the piano.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1962

    Osborne tenants form a cooperative to save their building

    After real estate investor Sarah Korein buys the Osborne and plans to replace it with a 17-story tower, tenants pay her $500,000 to give up those plans. The newly formed Osborne Tenants Corporation completes the purchase and converts the building into a housing cooperative, preserving its Tiffany-decorated lobby nearly three decades before the city grants it landmark status in 1991.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1978

    October 19

    Actor Gig Young shoots his wife of three weeks and then himself in their apartment

    On October 19, 1978, police arrived at the Osborne apartment of actor Gig Young. They found that he had shot Kim Schmidt, his wife of three weeks, and then turned the gun on himself. Young was one of many performers who have lived in the building, along with Vera Miles, Imogene Coca, Lynn Redgrave and Clifton Webb.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  8. 1988

    TCM host Robert Osborne tours an apartment with Bette Davis and buys it, the first of three he will own

    In 1988 Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne was hunting for a Manhattan apartment when Carol Burnett told him that a friend of hers was selling one in the Osborne. He toured it with actress Bette Davis before he bought it. It was the first of three apartments he would own in the building that shared his surname.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  9. 1991

    After a withdrawn application and decades of hearings, the city landmarks the Osborne's exterior

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission first considered the Osborne in 1966 and 1967, but the co-op board withdrew the application, fearing the extra regulation that comes with landmark status. More hearings followed in 1980, 1985 and 1989. The commission finally designated the exterior in 1991, and the building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown