The City Residence of Mr. Arthur Curtis James

RESIDENCE,  ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES, PARK AVENUE AND 69TH ST., NEW YORK      ALLEN & COLLENS, ARCHITECTS. THE WHITNEY COMPANY, NEW YORK, BUILDERS 

  THE residence just completed on the former site of the Union Theological Seminary, for Commodore Arthur Curtiss James, adds to the list of noticeable dwellings lately erected in the upper Park Avenue section.

RESIDENCE, ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES, PARK AVENUE AND 69TH ST., NEW YORK     ALLEN & COLLENS, ARCHITECTS. THE WHITNEY COMPANY, NEW YORK, BUILDERS 

  The exterior is built of Knoxville gray marble and presents three imposing facades designed in the English Renaissance. The house is of four stories with an extra mezzanine at the westerly end. The elevation shows only three stories—the fourth being substantially hidden by the balustrade. On the 69th Street side are two projecting wings, the entrance vestibule and the alcove of the library. The main facade is set back fifteen feet from the sidewalk line. This wall is pierced with three tall windows running through two stories and mark the location of the great hall within. At the north side, the long conservatory bay relieves the design of monotony. The roof above is surrounded by a balustrade and forms a terrace fronting the owner's suite with its two graceful bay windows.

RESIDENCE, ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES, PARK AVENUE AND 69TH ST., NEW YORK      ALLEN & COLLENS, ARCHITECTS. THE WHITNEY COMPANY, NEW YORK, BUILDERS 

RESIDENCE, ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES, PARK AVENUE AND 69TH ST., NEW YORK      ALLEN & COLLENS, ARCHITECTS. THE WHITNEY COMPANY, NEW YORK, BUILDERS 

RESIDENCE, ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES, PARK AVENUE AND 69TH ST., NEW YORK      ALLEN & COLLENS, ARCHITECTS. THE WHITNEY COMPANY, NEW YORK, BUILDERS  - LOOKING SOUTHWEST FROM 70TH STREET

  Passing through the bronze doors of the vestibule, one enters the entrance hall, a room of large proportions, with the floor on two levels. The general tone of the floor and walls is the warm yellow gray Botticini. The columns, capitals and mosaics of Langnedoc, Formosa, gray Sienna and other marbles stand in contrasting relief. This work is Byzantine in character and the antique finish is admirably executed.

STAIR HALL

ALCOVE, STAIR HALL

  

DETAIL, STAIR HALL

MAIN STAIRS

 The level of the first floor is reached by three steps the width of the hall. The main staircase, with its beautiful perforated balustrade and newel, rises from the second level of the hall. There is a beamed ceiling of oak of a grayish blue color with carved designs on the beams picked out in color and dull gold. The same treatment of walls and ceilings is carried out through the first mezzanine where are situated the cloak rooms used for entertainments. The windows, with the exception of the stained glass window on the main staircase, have leaded glass in English casements inside of which are finely executed bronze screens. An interesting feature is the fireplace between the windows.

ENTRANCE HALL

  At the right of the entrance hall are the steps leading to the great Gothic hall which is about fifty feet long by twenty-five feet wide and rising through two stories to a height of thirty-four feet. The walls are wainscoted in dark oak, having the upper panels exquisitely carved and the whole surmounted by a fine cresting extending around the room. At the easterly end is a large bay window opening from the boudoir and at the opposite end of the room, over the arched doorway, is the minstrel's balcony. Above the wainscot, the walls are of rough plaster, without color, against which are hung rare tapestries. A carved paneled frieze, cornice and cresting completes the finish. In each bay, the frieze terminates with a medieval statue. The ceiling of dark oak is divided into three bays by hammer-beam trusses with carved moldings and ornamental tracery in the openings.

DOORWAY, GREAT HALL

GREAT HALL

GREAT HALL 

  A fireplace of limestone centers on the north wall, to either side of which are doorways to adjoining rooms. A base and broad border of limestone extends around the room framing in the wood floor. This is of Brazilian teak wood which has a natural dark oak color and imparts more life than the ordinary teak. It is laid in reproduction of old English plank floor with keys, plugs and lines. Leaded glass windows, painted with a thin patine and design, soften the light and screen the interior from the outside view, while the coats-of-arms impart a sufficient touch of color to relieve the large surfaces of the openings.

Interior of the home of Arthur Curtis James, 39 East 69th Street, New York City***LOC***

DETAIL, GREAT HALL, LOOKING INTO LIBRARY

  The great hall is, indeed, an impressive room. It is handled with utmost dignity of treatment, with consistent care which is not forced or oppressive. It holds together beautifully without appearance of the slightest effort to introduce features. Perhaps the best way to express appreciation for this wonderful room is by the fact that the writer found nothing lacking and nothing superfluous in this satisfying great hall.

GREAT HALL, LOOKING INTO ENTRANCE HALL

CORNER, SHOWING ORGAN, GREAT HALL, LOOKING INTO LIBRARY

  The dining room, in English Renaissance, is open to the conservatory from which it receives light. The walls are paneled with English limewood which is adopted to bold carving. Our illustration shows the antique marble mantelpiece of cream white and yellow Sienna around which the soft, light, satiny wood, the dull gold lighting fixtures and the old painting, combine to make a charming decoration. The carvings of the upper panels are of Grinling Gibbons type. An enriched bracketed cornice conceals the indirect lighting.

DINING ROOM

DETAIL, DINING ROOM

  

PANELING IN DINING ROOM

  Nearly the entire length of the north side is open to the conservatory. Double columns and pilasters of Formosa marble support beams over the opening while, within the conservatory, the yellow walls of old Convent Sienna***This well-known Siena quarry was owned and operated by the Monks of the Old Convent at Monterenti, Italy***  and the Mosaic floor of Formosa and Sienna, charmingly accentuate the color tone of the dining room. The floor of the dining room is of oak inlay surrounded by a base and border of Sienna Brocatille.

  A pleasing surprise of the interior is the solarium on the third floor. From the long gallery, hung with paintings, there are two gateways into a garden enclosed with brick walls and trellises over which are climbing vines. Beds of ferns and shrubs and flowering plants give color in contrast to the brick walks. The central fountain and basin with its musical tinkling, the song of birds and the sun's rays through the glazed ceiling bring the joy and warmth of summer when cold winter is without.

WROUGHT IRON GATES, SOLARIUM

SOLARIUM 

SOLARIUM 

  The house was erected under the general contract of The Whitney Company and the work was carried out with a high standard of materials and skill. Throughout the building there is evidence of co-operation between artist, contractor and artisan.

BASEMENT

FIRST FLOOR - ENTRANCE & STAIR HALL, DINING ROOM, DEN, LIBRARY, GREAT HALL 

SECOND FLOOR - MR. & MRS. JAMES BEDROOM - BATHS & DRESSING ROOMS

THIRD FLOOR - BLACK & GOLD, ROSE & WHITE, GREEN GUEST BEDROOMS - SOLARIUM - SERVANTS QUARTERS

 Arthur Curtiss James was a railroad industrialist who was one of the wealthiest men in the country. He built up a rail empire that covered a quarter of the country and included a seventh of the entire mileage of all railroads in the United States. He also had enormous holdings in copper, silver and gold mines, making him one of the richest men in the country. Mr. James had a passion for yachting and in 1909 had built a 218-foot full-rigged yacht, the finest of her kind ever constructed at the time. He was for several years the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club.

  Mr. James and his wife, the former Harriet Eddy Parsons, built the residence in 1914 at a total cost of about $1,000,000. The property had a frontage of 100 feet on Park Avenue and 125 feet on Sixty-ninth Street. As designed by Allen & Collens of Boston, the four and one-half story house occupied a plot 80 by 110 feet and had a facade of English and Tennessee marble. Source 

New York Times June 4, 1941 - 

ARTHUR C. JAMES, 74; RAIL TITAN, IS DEAD; Industrialist, One of Nation's Richest Men, Victim of Attack of Pneumonia GAVE MILLIONS TO CHARITY Liberal in Politics, He Fought Prohibition, Yachting His Favorite Pastime.

The residence was demolished .