301 East 52nd Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 301 East 52nd Street by Carter Horsley

This pleasant, 6-story, red-brick building at 301 East 52^nd Street was erected in 1931 as the headquarters of the Kips Bay Boys Club and it was converted to 15 cooperative apartments in 1980. 

Delano & Aldrich designed the building, which is between Second and First avenues in the Beekman Place neighborhood.

Bottom Line

This is a nice mid-block building on a tree-lined street with few apartments, several with fireplaces, in the heart of Midtown East.

Description

The second-story windows are arched, although the third-story windows are now missing their shutters. 

There is a bandcourse above the first floor and a half-arch window near the top.

Amenities

The building has a doorman and elevator.  It is pet-friendly.

Apartments

The Garden B unit is a three-bedroom duplex apartment with a 21-foot-long living room with a fireplace adjacent to the enclosed kitchen and a 350-square-foot garden/patio on the upper level and a 30-foot-long family room on the lower level.

Apartment 2B has a large foyer that opens onto an 11-foot-wide dining area next to a 13-foot-wide open kitchen and a 22-foot-long living room with a fireplace. 

Apartment 4B is a two-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-long entry foyer that opens onto a 14-foot-long dining room adjacent to an open 13-foot-wide kitchen and a 16-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a 10-foot-long office. 

Penthouse C is a duplex is a five-bedroom unit with a 28-foot-long living room with a fireplace, a 30-foot-long dining room next to a 21-foot-long wide enclosed kitchen with an island and a 16-foot-long bedroom on the main floor and a four bedrooms and a 16-foot-long family room and two terraces on the second floor.

History

When it was built, the building consildated the club’s two former locations at 340 East 54^th Street and 44^th Street and Second Avenue into a new structure that could accommodate 2,500 boys with a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a dental clinic, a library and roof space for outdoor sports. 

An article about the new building in The New York Times noted that its purpose was "to keep boys out of mischief by offering them worthwhile and attractive pursuits." The article said that “an auditorium decorated with mural paintings by Ernest Peixotto has been provided for large meetings…and a printing shop will attract those who are interested in making books."