The Beresford
211 Central Park West | also 10 West 82nd Street, 7 West 81st Street, 4 West 82nd Street | Upper West Side | built 1929
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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.
- 1889
An earlier Hotel Beresford rises on the site in 1889 and gains an annex in 1892
Before Emery Roth's apartment house, the corner of Central Park West and 81st Street held a Hotel Beresford built in two stages by Alva Walker. Theodore E. Thomson designed the first section in 1889, six stories with 34 apartments and a dining room on top. In 1892 Walker added a ten-story annex with 64 more apartments and moved the dining room to its roof. The current building replaced that hotel.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1929
Emery Roth's Beresford opens on Central Park West
Architect Emery Roth designed the 23-story Beresford, which HRH Construction began building in 1928 after demolishing the old Hotel Beresford on the site. Its 182 apartments sit beneath three towers that disguise the water tanks. The building was completed on September 13, 1929, about six weeks before the stock market crashed.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1930
Dancer Jack Donahue, a Beresford resident, dies at 38 after collapsing on tour
Jack Donahue, a Broadway tap dancer who had debuted in New York in 1912 with a whisk-broom routine, moved into the Beresford with his wife and three daughters in 1929 while starring in Sons o' Guns. He collapsed in Cincinnati while the show was on tour in the fall of 1930 and returned to New York. Back at the Beresford he refused medical attention and died at 5:45 on the morning of October 1, 1930.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1931
A banker's testimony reveals that the failed Bank of United States owns the Beresford
In February 1931 the New York Times reported that the collapsed Bank of United States was the true owner of the Beresford. The link surfaced when an official of the bank testified that he had been told to burn its papers in the apartment house's incinerator. The state Banking Department took over the bank's holdings and spent years trying to sell the building, which was still unsold in 1935.
“…a bank official testified that he had been ordered to burn the bank's documents in the Beresford's incinerator…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1932
A Beresford family's nursemaid is unmasked as the author of kidnap threats
In 1932, with the Lindbergh kidnapping still in the news, Louis Marx and his wife received letters threatening to kidnap their two small children, first demanding $20,000 and then $50,000. The writer proved to be Marion Harris, the family's live-in English nursemaid, who confessed. At her hearing, reported in March 1933, Marx appeared as a friend and told the judge she had loved his children and cared for them well.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1940
The Beresford is sold out of Depression-era receivership
The Bank of United States, which held the Beresford's mortgage, collapsed, and the building soon went into receivership. In July 1940, a group of anonymous investors acquired the Beresford and the San Remo together, taking on $7.4 million in mortgages across the two buildings. The buildings themselves cost only $25,000 in cash.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1962
The Beresford converts to a housing cooperative
In June 1962, the Beresford's owner turned the rental building into a housing cooperative after existing tenants and newcomers bought shares in about half the apartments. It was one of twelve Central Park West apartment buildings to convert to co-ops in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1963
Violinist Isaac Stern sues over renovation noise from the apartment above his
Isaac Stern and his wife Vera were upset when Jacob Goldfarb bought the apartment directly above theirs in 1962 and began renovating. In June 1963 the violinist asked State Supreme Court for an injunction against what he called unbearably loud noises, arguing that a concert artist needs undisturbed rest in the morning. The Sterns also sought $50,000 in damages for the months of construction.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1964
Candid Camera's Allen Funt sues the co-op board over his terrace
Allen Funt, creator and host of Candid Camera, took the Beresford's co-op board to court in September 1964 after the board turned down his plan to enclose his terrace with glass. His suit sought $600,000 in damages and called the board's refusal capricious, arbitrary and unreasonable. The building had converted to a cooperative only two years earlier.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1966
Erica Mann marries Allan Jong in her parents' Beresford apartment
On February 27, 1966, Erica Mann married Army Captain Allan Jong in the apartment of her parents, Seymour and Eda Mann, at the Beresford. Seymour Mann ran a gift and home-accessories firm known for mass-producing porcelain dolls that Eda designed. The bride, who finished a Barnard College master's degree in English literature in 1963, later became the novelist and poet Erica Jong, famed for Fear of Flying (1973).
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1987
New York City designates the Beresford a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Beresford an individual New York City landmark in September 1987. The building had been a contributing property to the National Register-listed Central Park West Historic District since 1982.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
Jerry Seinfeld buys violinist Isaac Stern's old Beresford apartment
In February 1998, comedian Jerry Seinfeld paid $4.35 million for an apartment at the Beresford that had belonged to violinist Isaac Stern. Stern had sued in 1963 over the loud renovation noise from the apartment above his own. Seinfeld still needed the co-op board's approval of his purchase.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2005
Glenn Close and David Shaw buy the corner penthouse once home to Rock Hudson
The Beresford's southeast-corner penthouse was the home of film actor Rock Hudson, who died at 59 in October 1985. Nicholas Clay bought it in 1998 and had the interior completely redone to suit a family. The Clays later sold it, in 2005, to the actress Glenn Close and her partner, the biotechnology entrepreneur David E. Shaw, for just under $6 million.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2019
Phyllis Newman and Adolph Green's party-hosting duplex goes on the market for $24 million
For decades apartment 19E, a terrace duplex, was the home of actress Phyllis Newman and her husband, the lyricist Adolph Green, who raised their two children there. After Green died in 2002 and Newman in September 2019, the children listed it for $24 million. The New York Times recalled the couple's glittering parties, whose guests included Lauren Bacall, Groucho Marx, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The BeresfordWikipedia
- The 1929 Beresford - 211 Central Park WestDaytonian in Manhattan
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