Step inside, however, and you might think you hear the flourish of brightly garbed trumpeters as the lobby is supremely impressive with superb and rich detailing. A large and handsome concierge station precedes a small flight of stairs to the elegant bank and the ambiance is quite baronial and the equal of the finest small hotels in Europe.

The building was designed by George F. Pelham in an Italian Renaissance style and completed in 1927. It has 130 cooperative apartments, all with fireplaces. An adjoining building on 63rd Street was subsequently expanded into, but its apartments have no fireplaces. Most of the units are relatively small as the building has 349 rooms and 218 bathrooms.

The small apartments have long been popular as pièd-a-terres given the building’s prime location and its residents over the years have included former New York Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, politician Stanley Steingut, actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., entertainers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and financier Henry Kaufmann.

A large restaurant in the building, the Park Avenue Cafe, has its own entrance on 63rd Street and its space was formerly occupied by two other famous restaurants, Hubert’s and Le Perigord Park.