The Dorchester, 131 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 131 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

This very fine apartment building at 131 Riverside Drive on the northeast corner at 85^th Street has a grand and very impressive entrance on Riverside Drive. It is known as the Dorchester.

The 12-story building was erected in 1909 and converted to a co-operative in 1968.  It was designed by Neville and Bagge for A. C. and H. M. Hall.

It has 51 apartments.

Bottom Line

One of Riverside Drive’s most attractive pre-war buildings, this building superb limestone detail and façade pattering

Description

The façade of this building is quite similar, especially along Riverside Drive, to that of the Clarendon on the same block at 137 Riverside Drive. That building was erected two years later and was the residence for many years of William Randolph Hearst, the legendary publisher. Both buildings have limestone banding near their tops although the banding does not align perfectly.

Both buildings also have three-and-a-half story limestone base with limestone window surrounds on the fourth floor and a low fence. 

This building has a more attractive “dry moat” with a handsome wrought-rogn railing and large limestone bollards.

The wrought-iron entrance door has Art-Nouveau styling and the first floor window sills have flower planters.  The entrance has very attractive free-standing light stanchions.

This building has a two-step-up entrance.

This building has inconsistent fenestration and some protruding air-conditioners.

It appears to be missing its cornice as the top floor retains large brackets.

The building has a deep light-well on the side-street.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a playroom, a gym and a laundry and is pet-friendly.

Apartments

Apartment 910C is a four-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-long angled entry foyer that leads past a 15-foot-wide family room that opens onto a 29-foot-wide kitchen to a 23-foot-loot long dining room and a 22-foot-long living room with a fireplace on the upper level, which also has a 12-foot-long office and four bedrooms and a den on the lower floor with a fireplace in the 22-foot-long master bedroom that has a 15-foot-long maser bathroom.

Apartment 7B is a three-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long living room that opens onto a 16-foot-wide dining room next to a 14-foot-wide kitchen and a 16-foot-long den and a 14-foot-wide office.

Apartment 10P is a three-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-long angled entry foyer that leads to a 38-foot-long gallery that ends unit a 16-foot-long dining room with a fireplace that opens onto a 17-foot-long living room.  The unit has a 15-foot-long enclosed kitchen.

In her description of apartment 8A, Deanna Kory of The Corcoran Group noted that “the 8^th floor is the perfect height (often referred to as the Architect’s floors) on the river, as one sees the river park and Jersey palisades all in the outlook,” and, “sitting down, the river is visible, which is not the case on a lower or much high floor.”

History

According to Ms. Kory, this site was formerly used by the Episcopal Home of Mercy and late by Misses Ely’s School, which was sold in 1905 to an investor who sold the north half of the block to Ronald Macdonald.