The Architecture of Central Park, Part III

Today's post about architecture near Central Park is focused on one building, folks. It's a short one, but no less important. I'm sure you know this building to see it. It is the majestic, the beautiful:

The Ansonia Hotel


2109 Broadway (between W. 73rd and W. 74th Streets)

1904, Paul E.M. Duboy

The Beaux-Arts style was the name given to the newest neoclassical architectural style, as taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It became popular in the United States between 1880 through 1920. The Ansonia was a confection built for W.E.D Stokes, a finicky Upper West Side Developer, as an apartment hotel. Stokes had ambitious goals for the building - including a farm on the roof! He insisted on fireproof masonry construction and ordered that all of the apartments must be soundproof behind three-foot-thick walls, which made it attractive to such guests as singers Lauritz Melchior and Ezio Pinza, as well as conductor Arturo Toscanini and composer Igor Stravinsky. Showman Florenz Ziegfeld lived here, too, but a name not often mentioned in the Ansonia’s long and illustrious guest list is that of Babe Ruth. He was following a tradition already established by almost the entire New York Yankees baseball team. - Brian H.

Read more about the Ansonia Hotel at Wikipedia