655 Park Avenue

also 108 East 68th Street, 104 East 68th Street, 651 Park Avenue | Upper East Side | built 1923

Open on the map6 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. 1878

    Hahnemann Hospital opens on the Park Avenue blockfront where 655 now stands

    Hahnemann Hospital, a homeopathic institution, received the east blockfront of Park Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets from the city and opened a hospital there in 1878. The low institutional buildings across the avenue from the mansions, this hospital among them, let light and air reach the mansion row. The hospital was an earlier occupant of the site on which 655 Park Avenue was later built.

    Source: Internet Archive

  2. 1919

    Hahnemann offers its Park Avenue blockfront for sale and neighboring mansion families buy it

    In 1919 Hahnemann planned a new hospital on Fifth Avenue and offered its Park Avenue property for sale. The Pratt, Pyne, Sloane and James families, whose mansions stood nearby, bought the blockfront for $1.25 million to keep out tall apartment buildings. They first planned a seven-story, U-shaped building of 12 triplex apartments by Delano & Aldrich, but there was no demand for such house-like hybrid dwellings.

    Source: Internet Archive

  3. 1923

    The mansion families resell the block with permanent height limits

    In 1923 the families resold the blockfront after their triplex plan found no market. They attached unusual permanent restrictions: private houses could rise to 80 feet, or a high-grade apartment house to 75 feet, half the height the zoning then allowed. Somewhat greater heights were allowed farther back, and the facade had to be brick with limestone or marble trim.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 1924

    Mott Schmidt and J.E.R. Carpenter design 655 Park Avenue as a 100 percent cooperative

    Architects Mott Schmidt and James E. R. Carpenter kept the 68th Street corner to just seven stories, with refined Georgian detailing. It was a 100 percent cooperative with 51 apartments of seven to 14 rooms. A wide T-shaped courtyard opens to the street, but no apartment had access to it and only a gate connected it to Park Avenue.

    Source: Internet Archive

  5. 1971

    July 13

    Admiral Jocko Clark, a Pacific carrier commander, dies while living at 655 Park Avenue

    Adm. Joseph James "Jocko" Clark died on July 13, 1971, at age 77 in the Naval Hospital at St. Albans, Queens, after a long illness. He lived at 655 Park Avenue and chaired the construction and investment firm Hegeman Harris. In World War II he commanded the carrier Yorktown, and later he led the Seventh Fleet in operations against North Korea. His 1967 autobiography, Carrier Admiral, described his part in the Pacific war.

    Source: Internet Archive

  6. 1992

    November 22

    Facade work temporarily takes down a parapet wall, giving the west side more morning light

    In late 1992 contractors working on the facade temporarily disassembled one of the parapet walls, shaving a few feet off the top. Residents on the avenue's west side welcomed the extra morning light, since the building had been kept low by restrictions set by their predecessors. The managing agent said all the parapets might eventually come down, depending on what the probes found, with work finishing the next year.

    Source: Internet Archive

Further reading

Nearby

All 93 buildings with stories in Upper East Side