The Whitby, 325 West 45th Street
Between Eighth Avenue & Ninth Avenue
Key Details
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Year Built 1924Building Type CooperativeNeighborhood Midtown West
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Total Apartments 217Total Floors 10Doorman FT Doorman
Description
This handsome, pre-war apartment building at 325 West 45th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues in the Theater District is known as The Whitby and was designed by Emery Roth for Bing & Bing.
The 10-story, mid-block building has 217 apartments and was erected in 1924.
It was converted to a co-operative in 1986.
According to a December 29, 2014 article in The New York Times by Matt A. V. Chaban, “it was the first residential building in city created especially” for artists, performers, writers and stagehands.”
“What the actors especially valued…was the telephone service, a rarity in the day that kept them apprised of all their callbacks,” Mr. Chaban wrote, adding that its residents have included Doris Day and Betty Grable “as well as Al Capone, though legend says it was the showgirls, not the amenities, that drew him there.”
In an August 7, 1991 article in The Times, Douglas Martin recalled when he had dinner in the building with Roy Pinney, a retired photographer. “If it doesn’t offend you, I have a friend I’d like to have join us for the meal,” Mr. Pinney told him, “proceeding to set a box turtle, about eight inches long and a half century old, on the table.” “It stared down a shrimp as it if owed her money, shoved it with a clawed foot, then proceeded to make peculiar sounds, not unlike those of an elderly person with no teeth, as she blissfully dined.”
“Before our chat concluded,” the reporter continued, “we would hear enough scaly stories to fill the lifespan of a sea turtle” in “this herpetological heaven.”
A January 4, 1988 article on the building in The Times by Elizabeth Neuffer noted that “most days, Cecile Chauveau, a French singer, has a tea party in the lobby with her pet pigeon Pousson and Wally Radeau, a former female impersonator and vaudeville actor.”
Building Amenities
- FT Doorman
- Garden
- Roof Deck
- Elevator
- Outdoor Entertainment Space
- Bike Room
- Live-In Superintendent
