Americas Society (Percy R. Pyne House)

680 Park Avenue | Upper East Side | built 1911

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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. 1911

    McKim, Mead & White complete the Pyne family's Park Avenue mansion

    Percy Rivington Pyne and his wife Maud commission McKim, Mead & White in 1906 to design their new home, but construction waits until the railroad tracks along Park Avenue are covered over. The finished neo-Georgian house, faced in red brick with white limestone trim, sets the tone for the mansions that follow along the block.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1917

    Mary Pyne descends the grand staircase for her wedding

    The Pynes' daughter Mary walks down the house's grand staircase on her way to marry Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Dwight Filley. The same year, Percy and Maud Pyne host a dinner at Sherry's ahead of a society dance, with guests including Theodore Roosevelt, showing the family's standing in New York society.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1948

    The Soviet Mission to the United Nations moves into the mansion

    After the Pyne family sells the house in 1947 and a brief stay by the Chinese delegation, the Soviet Mission to the United Nations takes over the Park Avenue mansion. Soviet diplomats occupy the building for the next sixteen years, drawing attention to the quiet residential block.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1960

    September

    Nikita Khrushchev addresses reporters from the Soviet mission's balcony

    From 1948 this former mansion was the headquarters of the Soviet Union's mission to the United Nations. In September 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev spoke to the press from the building's balcony. The Soviets sold the house in May 1964.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1965

    The Marquesa de Cuevas buys the house and saves it for the Americas Society

    McKim, Mead & White built the house in 1906–1911 for financier Percy Rivington Pyne, who lived here until 1946. In 1965 the Marquesa de Cuevas, a member of the Rockefeller family, bought the building, and in 1966 she gave it to the Center for Inter-American Relations, now the Americas Society, which still has its headquarters here. The house was designated a city landmark in 1970.

    Source: as-coa.org

Further reading

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