The Palacio, 620 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 620 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This 14-story co-operative apartment building at 620 Park Avenue on the northwest corner at 65^th Street was built in 1924.

It was developed by Starrett Brothers. 

J. E. R. Carpenter was the architect and his other buildings on the avenue include 550, 580, 610, 625, 630, 635, 640, 655, 812, 950, and 960 Park Avenue.

It has only 15 apartments.

Bottom Line

A distinctive apartment building with very few apartments in a very prime Upper East Side location.

Description

This red-brick building has a two-story limestone base and the third through the fifth floors are visually contained in broad white stone banding at the bottom and three string courses at the top with broad white stone quoins that are longer on the avenue frontage on the fourth and fifth floors and decorative spandrels beneath the fifth floor windows.

The sixth through the 12^th floors are plains except for very handsome quoins at the corners and there is a bandcourse and a stringcourse above the 12^th floor and the windows on the 13^th floor have attracted banded surrounds. 

The building originally had a cornice, which has subsequently been replaced by an attractive balustrade and the quoins are continued on the 13^th and 14^th floors.

The building has a canopied entrance but no sidewalk landscaping.

The building permits discrete air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a full-time doorman, but no garage, no roof deck and no balconies.

Apartments

The third floor apartment is a four-bedroom unit with a 16-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace adjacent to a 20-foot-long library and a 20-foot-long dining room next to a 17-foot-square eat-in kitchen  and a 14-foot-long media room, and two staff rooms. The master bedroom also has a wood-burning fireplace.

The tenth floor apartment is a three-bedroom unit with a 13-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 24-foot-long living room with a gas-burning fireplace that is adjacent to a 17-foot-long library and a 19-foot-long dining room next to a 27-foot-long kitchen, a laundry room and a maid’s room.  The master bedroom has a wood-burning fireplace.

History

In 1933, Mrs. Lucien H. Tyng died and her obituary in The New York Times indicated that “long socially prominent in this city and in Southampton, L. I., Mrs. Tyng was recognized here for her efforts to help needy artists.”  Her “grandfather on her mother’s side was the Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, who for twenty-three years was pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle during the days of anti-slavery agitation here,” according to the article, adding that “the Tyng home at 620 Park Avenue and the Summer home, the Shallows, in Halsey Neck Lane, Southampton, were the scenes of many brilliant social functions” and when it was rebuilt after a fire it was “architecturally considered one of the finest residences in Southampton.