Oliver D. Filley House (Spanish Institute)

684 Park Avenue | Upper East Side | built 1926

Open on the map4 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. 1926

    McKim, Mead & White finish a neo-Federal house for Oliver Filley beside his father-in-law's mansion

    The house at 684 Park Avenue was built in 1925-26 for Oliver D. Filley, son-in-law of the financier Percy R. Pyne, whose corner mansion stood next door. McKim, Mead & White designed both, so the brick pattern, rusticated ground floor, stone belt course and cornice line up. On the narrower lot the windows are taller and thinner, and the two houses once had a physical connection inside.

    “Filley was Percy Pyne's son-in-law, and there was formerly a physical interior connection between the two houses.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1965

    January 14

    An anonymous buyer halts the gutting of 680 and 684 Park Avenue; the buyer proves to be a Rockefeller granddaughter

    After the Soviet Mission moved out of 680 Park in 1964, the Pyne mansion and the two houses north of it were sold to a developer who meant to replace them with a 31-story apartment tower. The Landmarks Commission had no legal power yet to protect them, and the insides of Nos. 680 and 684 were already being torn out. On January 14, 1965 an unnamed purchaser bought the houses and demanded that the demolition stop; she was Margaret Rockefeller Strong, the Marquesa de Cuevas, who spent about $2 million.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1965

    The Spanish Institute makes the saved Filley house its headquarters

    The Queen Sofia Spanish Institute, incorporated in 1954, set out to build American interest in the culture and history of the Spanish-speaking world. In 1965 Margaret Rockefeller Strong rescued 684 Park Avenue from demolition, and with her backing and funds from the McMicking Foundation the Institute made the house its home. It was renamed in 2003 to honor Queen Sofia of Spain as its patroness, and the building was sold in 2014.

    “In 1965, the philanthropist Margaret Rockefeller Strong, saved the landmark building 684 Park Avenue from destruction. With her support and funding from McMicking Foundation, the institute made this building its headquarters.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1970

    November 10

    The Landmarks Commission designates the Spanish Institute, the former Filley house, with no opposition

    After a May 26, 1970 hearing at which three people spoke in favor and none against, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Spanish Institute (formerly the Oliver D. Filley House) on November 10, 1970. The owner supported the designation. The Commission called it an excellent small 1920s townhouse in the neo-Federal style, built fifteen years after the Pyne house to its south and in harmony with both neighbors.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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