Cartier Building
651 5th Avenue | also 2 East 52nd Street, 649 5th Avenue | Midtown | built 1905
Open on the map10 entries
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.
- 1846
The city leases a Fifth Avenue block to Archbishop Hughes for a Catholic orphan asylum
The deed for the land between 51st and 52nd Streets was signed on August 1, 1846. The city asked for rent of one dollar a year, on the condition that the land shelter orphans, and the Roman Catholic asylum was finished in 1851. When the church sold off the land around 1900, lots on the former asylum block went to Edward Holbrook and others, and the Plant and Holbrook mansions that now form the Cartier building rose there.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1902
The Vanderbilts buy the corner to stop an apartment hotel, then sell Morton Plant a residence-only lot
In 1901 a developer filed plans for an 18-story apartment hotel at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, alarming the Vanderbilts, who lived along the avenue. In March 1902 a company acting for the family took over the excavated site. It sold the 52nd Street half to Morton Plant for $350,000, $50,000 less than the Vanderbilts had paid, with a requirement to keep the house residential for 25 years.
“The Vanderbilts sold the northern section of the plot ... to Morton F. Plant ... required to use the structure exclusively as a residence for 25 years.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1905
Morton Plant builds an Italian Renaissance mansion on the former orphan asylum site
Morton F. Plant bought the corner lot at Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street from William K. Vanderbilt in 1902, after the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum had been demolished. He agreed that it would not be used commercially for 25 years. English-born architect Robert W. Gibson took three years to build a marble and granite Italian Renaissance mansion for Plant and his wife Nellie.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1907
Tobacco magnate James B. Duke secretly buys the new Holbrook house at 4 East 52nd Street
Edward Holbrook sold his mansion at 4 East 52nd Street, now part of the Cartier store, in June 1907, and the buyer stayed unnamed for a month. The Times then revealed it was James B. Duke, head of the tobacco trust, who paid $300,000, three times the building cost. Gossip said he wanted a home near Fifth Avenue for his bride, but he bought a house at 78th Street instead.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1917
The Fifth Avenue Association gives Cartier a gold medal for turning the Plant mansion into a store
Architect William Welles Bosworth converted the Plant mansion into Cartier's New York store, removing the original front doorway from the middle of the 52nd Street facade. In November 1917 the Fifth Avenue Association awarded Cartier its gold medal for altered buildings. Cartier hired Bosworth again in 1919 for further changes to the house.
“The Fifth Avenue Association granted its "gold medal for altered buildings" to Cartier in November 1917 for its alteration of the Plant House.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1917
Pierre Cartier trades a pearl necklace for the mansion
After his first wife Nellie died in 1913, Plant remarried and began building a new house farther uptown. His second wife Mae admired a double-strand pearl necklace worth about $1 million in a Cartier shop window. Plant sold the mansion to Pierre Cartier for the necklace and $100, and William Welles Bosworth converted it into Cartier's store.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1927
The Luce house next to Cartier's store becomes a French school and chamber of commerce
In 1927 the Luce family left their house at 4 East 52nd Street, next door to the Cartier store, and moved to the Gotham Hotel. The mansion became home to the Alliance Francaise de New York, a school teaching French language and literature under Sorbonne professor Leon Vallas. The French Chamber of Commerce shared the building and elected Pierre Cartier its president in 1935.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1956
The pearl necklace traded for the mansion falls to a fraction of its value
The double-stranded natural pearl necklace that Cartier gave Morton Plant for the mansion had been valued at about $1 million. After cultured pearls arrived and pearl prices fell, it was worth only $151,000 when Mae Plant died in 1956. She had first admired it in a Cartier shop window.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1967
The city landmarks the Cartier Building, then revokes the status when the real owner objects
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building on February 5, 1967, and Cartier threw a party at the Plaza Hotel. The commission had assumed Cartier owned the property, but the owner was Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance, which had never heard of the hearing. Phoenix asked for reconsideration and the status was revoked in August 1967. Rules then barred a new designation until 1970.
“Phoenix had never even been aware of the landmark status ... the landmark status was revoked in August 1967.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1970
The Landmarks Commission redesignates the Cartier mansion after its president speaks for protection
At the June 23, 1970 hearing three witnesses supported designation, including Cartier president Michael H. Thomas, who called the mansion a reminder of luxurious Fifth Avenue homes in an era of glass and bronze. On July 14, 1970 the commission designated 651-653 Fifth Avenue and 4 East 52nd Street, praising the conversion of a town house into a dignified commercial home.
Further reading
- Cartier BuildingWikipedia
- The 1905 Edward Holbrook House -- No. 4 East 52nd StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
- George W. Vanderbilt Residence647 5th Avenue | 10 entries
- Olympic Tower641 5th Avenue | 10 entries
- Austrian Cultural Forum11 East 52nd Street | 7 entries
- 650 Fifth Avenue650 5th Avenue | 8 entries
- Look Building488 Madison Avenue | 12 entries
- Fisk-Harkness House12 East 53rd Street | 4 entries