The Century
25 Central Park West | also 4 West 63rd Street, 2 West 63rd Street, 1 West 62nd Street | Lincoln Square | built 1931
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1909
Rachmaninoff premieres his Third Piano Concerto at the New Theatre
On November 28, 1909, three weeks after the New Theatre opened on this block, Sergei Rachmaninoff played the world premiere of his Third Piano Concerto here, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Society. The Carrere and Hastings building seated about 2,300 and had been conceived as the permanent home of a repertory company free of commercialism. It stood where the Century apartments rose two decades later.
“The world premiere of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto took place on Sunday, November 28, 1909, at the New Theatre, with Rachmaninoff as soloist…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1911
The failed New Theatre is renamed the Century and becomes a commercial playhouse
Carrere & Hastings built the New Theatre in 1909 for a subsidized company meant to stay apart from the commercial theaters around Times Square. The artistic venture did not succeed and the effort to establish a classical company failed. In 1911 the house was renamed the Century and run commercially, though it stood far from the main theater district. The Shubert Organization gained control in 1920 and managed it until selling to the Chanin Construction Company in 1930.
- 1929
Irwin Chanin announces a Palais de France skyscraper for the block, then drops it
In May 1929 the Chanin Construction Company announced it would buy the whole block bounded by Broadway, Central Park West, and 62nd and 63rd Streets. That August Irwin Chanin unveiled a Palais de France for the site, meant to house the French consulate, a tourist board and French commercial firms, with exhibition space for French goods and a hotel. French banks never supplied the money, and in October 1930 he abandoned it for a twin-towered apartment house.
“…the building, to be known as the Palais de France, was to house the French consulate and tourist board, and the offices of French commercial firms.”
- 1931
Irwin Chanin completes the twin-towered Century apartments on Central Park West
Irwin S. Chanin, working with Jacques Delamarre of his firm, built the 30-story Century between 1930 and December 1931 for $6.5 million. Twin towers rise from a 19-story base, echoing the Majestic that Chanin developed farther north. The building opened with 417 apartments and 1,688 rooms and operated much like a hotel, with housekeeping, valet and catering services.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1936
Ethel Merman's living room fills with first-night tributes after Red, Hot and Blue
Ethel Merman lived at the Century with her parents while starring on Broadway. After Red, Hot and Blue opened, Sun drama critic Ward Morehouse interviewed her at the apartment shortly after midnight on November 6, 1936. He wrote that it took three cabs to bring her opening-night tributes home and that the living room looked like a flower shop. He put her pay at $3,500 a week, up from $350 for her first show, and she agreed it was about right.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1937
Rose Gershwin, mother of George and Ira, moves into the Century after George's death
Rose Gershwin, mother of George and Ira Gershwin, moved into the Century in 1937. George had bought a house on West 103rd Street for the family, but it was sold after his death that year, and Rose was the sole beneficiary of his estate. She died in her apartment at age 71 on December 16, 1948.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1939
Carmen Miranda leases a duplex in a building full of show-business tenants
Film star Carmen Miranda took a duplex at the Century in June 1939. She joined other entertainers already there, including radio announcer Graham McNamee and bandleader Al Goodman, who leased apartments in 1938, and singer Ethel Merman, who lived with her parents and was interviewed at home in November 1936 after opening in Red, Hot and Blue.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1940
Author William March throws flamboyant cocktail parties in Apartment 30-K
William March, the highly decorated former Marine turned author, moved into the Century in 1940. In Apartment 30-K he gave what his biographer Roy Simmonds called the more flamboyant of his legendary cocktail parties. A guest who arrived early once found jugs of cocktails mixed the day before waiting in the refrigerator, and Clay Shaw later recalled the huge living room and its view over the park.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1966
Architect Robert A. M. Stern builds a platform over his rental's sunken living room
Robert A. M. Stern and his wife, Lynn, moved into a rental apartment at the Century in 1966. Barred from altering structural walls, he had stage carpenters construct a raised platform across most of the sunken living room, leaving the floor beneath undamaged. It turned the park-facing casement windows into French windows and created a conversation pit. The New York Times gave the redone apartment a two-page spread on January 29, 1967.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1985
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Century Apartments
On July 9, 1985, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Century Apartments a city landmark. At the hearing the previous September 11, thirteen witnesses spoke in favor and none opposed. The commission's report called the building, designed in 1930 by Irwin S. Chanin and built in 1931, ranking it with the most sophisticated Art Deco residences in the city, its twin towers rising 300 feet from the street.
“Thirteen witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation.”
- 1988
Irwin Chanin dies in the building he built, and the Century becomes a condominium soon after
Irwin Chanin, who had lived in the Century for more than half a century, died in his apartment on February 25, 1988, at age 96. Residents and owners had been locked in a conversion dispute for about five years. In February 1989 the New York Times reported that the fight had ended with the building becoming a condominium, with 229 of its 410 apartments sold to occupants at one-half to one-third of market rate.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The Century (apartment building)Wikipedia
- Irwin S. Chanin's 1931 The Century Apartments - 25 Central Park WestDaytonian in Manhattan
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