55 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 55 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This attractive, 16-story, mid-block apartment building at 55 Park Avenue between 37^th and 38^th Street in Murray Hill was erected and designed by the Fred F. French Company in 1923.

It has 32 co-operative apartments.

It was converted in 1985.

It is just down the block from the very handsome and impressive Roman Catholic Our Savior Church that was designed by Paul W. Reilly in 1959 and was the first church in the city to have air-conditioning.  It merged with Our Lady of the Scapular, the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the Church of St. Stephen the Martyr in it now contains Constantino Brumidi’s paintings of the Stations of the Cross that had been in the Church of St. Stephen the Martyr.

This church is diagonally across Park Avenue from the very handsome, Georgian-style Union League Club that was designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris III at 38 East 37^th Street.

Bottom Line

An elegant, pre-war, mid-block apartment building with only two apartments a floor that was erected by Fred F. French and is in a choice Murray Hill location.

Description

The red-brick building has a four-story limestone base and floors 2 through 4 are rusticated and the fourth floor has 12 narrow, arched windows.

The building has a canopied entrance flanked by two small planters.

There is a bandcourse with a scalloped underside above the 12^th floor, a design motif that is repeated in the building’s cornice and in the surrounds of the center windows on the 15^th floor.  There is a bandcourse above the 13^th floor.

The top floor is setback.

The building has some window air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a full-time doorman and fireplaces.

Apartments

Apartment 15E is a two-bedroom unit with a 6-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and the 10-foot-long dining room next to the 10-foot-long enclosed kitchen.

Apartment 12W is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 22-foot-long living/dining room with a wood-burning fireplace that is next to the 23-foot-long, eat-in, windowed kitchen.

Apartment 9E is a two-bedroom unit with a 21-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a 9-foot-long dining room next to a 11-foot-long kitchen.