Robb House

23 Park Avenue | also 101 East 35th Street | Murray Hill | built 1890

Open on the map5 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. 1891

    Stanford White designs a Renaissance palazzo for James Hampden Robb

    Architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White designed a five-story Italian Renaissance-style townhouse at 23 Park Avenue, completed in 1891, for James Hampden Robb, a former cotton broker, state assemblyman and state senator then serving as the city's parks commissioner, and his wife, Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer Robb. Iron-spot brick and terra-cotta trim covered a brownstone base.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1911

    January 21

    James Hampden Robb dies in his Park Avenue mansion

    James Hampden Robb, who had filled the house with 16th-century Persian rugs, Gobelin tapestries, and paintings by Rubens and Van Dyck, died there on January 21, 1911. The following year his daughter Cornelia sold much of the collection at a Plaza Hotel auction, where a single Persian carpet brought $22,000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1923

    The Advertising Club of New York moves into the mansion

    The Advertising Club of New York purchased the former Robb mansion in 1923 for use as its clubhouse. Architect Fred F. French oversaw renovations that were completed on January 6, 1924.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1946

    A fire damages the clubhouse's top floors

    A fire tore through the Advertising Club's clubhouse in 1946, damaging its top three floors. After repairs, the club acquired the adjoining 1853 rowhouse at 103 East 35th Street and connected it to the mansion for additional space.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1977

    The mansion is converted into cooperative apartments

    In 1977 the Advertising Club sold the building to a developer who converted it into co-op apartments. The club's former library became a duplex living room for jewelry designer Kenneth Jay Lane, one of the building's early residents.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 26 buildings with stories in Murray Hill