929 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 929 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

Although one often thinks of Park Avenue s apartment buildings as limestone palaces, at least on their lower floors, there are many quite distinctive non-limestone façades such as this one at 929 Park Avenue between 80^th and 81^st Streets.

It was erected in 1913 and converted to a co-operative in 1959.

It has 38 apartments and was designed by George and Edward Blum, whose other buildings, according to architectural historian Christopher Gray include 555, 830, 840 and 875 Park Avenue, 454 Riverside Drive, 780 and 838 West End Avenue, the Phaeton at 529 West 112^th Street, 12 East 87^th Street and the Hotel Theresa at 125^th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.

Bottom Line

This mid-block, pre-war building has a very impressive masonry façade and a good location not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Description

The beige-brick building has very elaborate and detailed terra-cotta decoration and a canopied entrance with a very attractive surround with light sconces.  It has decorative balconies on the 10^th and 12^th floors.

It has a large bandcourse above the third floor where once there was a long balustraded balcony.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, storage, video security and a laundry, but no roof deck, no garage and no sidewalk landscaping.

Apartments

Apartment 1A is a three-bedroom unit with an entry through the eat-in, 17-foot-wide, open kitchen to a 14-foot-square living room that opens onto a 51-foot-wide garden.

Penthouse A is a one-bedroom unit that has an entry foyer on the lower level that leads to a 29-foot-long living/dining room with a fireplace next to the kitchen and a 22-foot-long south terrace, a 50-foot-long west terrace and a 30-foo-tlong north terrace and a small room on the upper level with a 27-foot-long southwest terrace and a 23-foot-long northeast terrace.

Apartment 2B is a three-bedroom unit that has a 31-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a fireplace that leads up one step to a 19-foot-long library and also opens onto a 20-foot-long dining room with a Juliet balcony that is next to a 35-foot-long eat-in kitchen that also has its own Juliet balcony.

Apartment 10C is a two-bedroom unit that has a 22-foot-long living/dining room.

History

The building originally had a large cornice that was replaced with a less prominent one.  Also originally it had one apartment per floor with 12 rooms and four baths. 

A December 3, 1932 article in The New York Times indicated that four banks got various properties in exchange for debts of Benjamin Winter included the Hotel Bretton Hall on Broadway and 86^th Street, the Stanhope Hotel on Fifth Avenue at 81^st Street and 929 Park Avenue.

The building was sold in 1934 by the Mutual Life Insurance Company to Louis Cowan who subdivided the apartments and eventually sold the building to the Straight Improvement Company.

Caroline Kennedy transferred title of an apartment in the building to Marta Sgubin, the longtime cook and companion for her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  Ms. Sgubin lived in the apartment since 1995 when it was bought for her by Ms. Kennedy and her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., after their mother’s death in 1994.