35 East 68th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 35 East 68th Street by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, Beaux Arts-style mansion at 35 East 68^th Street was erected in 1901 for Edward Kellogg Dunham, a professor of pathology at the Bellevue Medical School, and his wife, the former Mary Dows, one of four daughters of Daniel Dows, the owner of one of the country’s largest grain dealers.  It was designed by Carrere & Hastings, who also designed a major mansion on Fifth Avenue for Henry Clay Frick that is now the great Frick Collection.

Dr. Kellogg died in 1922 and his widow died in 1936 when the house was acquired by William A. Read.

The building replaced a brownstone building owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley Love.

This building was converted into duplex apartments in 1977 after serving as a boarding house since 1935 for “young ladies who come to this city for study purposes,  according to a November 17, 1950 Ferguson Residence Club v. Bastedo case in the Municipal Court of the City of New York.

It has 8 co-operative apartments.

Bottom Line

This impressive, 1901, Beaux Arts, mansion at a prime Upper East Side location by Carrere & Hastings became a “young ladies’” boarding house before being converted in 1977 to co-operative apartments.

Description

The mid-block building, which has a broad, six-step stoop, was the subject of a long article by Tom Miller July 26, 2011 at his fabulous website, Daytonianinmanhattan.blogspot.com:

“It was a frothy confection dripping with carved garlands and extenuated brackets above the third floor.  The house rose three floors over a rusticated base to a mansard roof with two projecting oculi – or round windows.  Two arched French windows at the second story sat behind stone balustrades.  French doors opened to ornate bronze grills, creating pseudo-balconies, at the third floor, under an eye-catching stone balcony.  The Architectural Record tossed its expected jabs at the design, using terms like ‘florid’ and “pretentiousness,’ however, it allowed that ‘the exuberance of ornament is handled with skill and discretion, and very clearly avoids defects of over-muchness inevitable in this sort of work produced by designers of less experience.  Indeed, compared to the massive limestone or marble palaces the firm was producing on Fifth Avenue, this commission was rather modest, yet they managed to impart a richness of architecture here without appearing too grandiose.”

The website noted that by 1946 the two round windows on the top floor were replaced with two rectangular windows and were subsequently replaced by one large picture window.

An anonymous commenter on the article noted April 30, 2014 that she “found the house originally in a book written by Eileen Ford, in which she listed places for new models to find housing in New York.”  Eileen Ford was the head of the Ford modeling agency.

Amenities

The building has a roof deck and elevator and pets and washers and dryers.

Apartments

Apartment 3/4 is a two-bedroom duplex that has a 25-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-wide living room with a wood-burning fireplace, and a six-sided, 16-foot-loong media room on the lower level and a 18-foot-wide dining room with two curved and windowed corners, a 14-foot-wide, windowed library and  a 12-foot-wide enclosed kitchen with a large bay window on the upper level.

Apartment 2A is a three-bedroom duplex has a long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-wide living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a three-step-up, 15-foot-wide open and windowed kitchen and a bedroom on the lower floor and two bedrooms on the upper floor.

Apartment 1B is a three-bedroom duplex with a 25-foot-long, double-height living room with a wood-burning fireplace with a triangular patio and a larger rectangular patio and a bedroom with a large bay window on the lower level and large foyer with staircase with an 13-foot-wide eat-in kitchen with a large bay window and a bedroom on the upper level.

Apartment 4A is a one-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past a 16-foot-wide dining room with an open kitchen to a 21-foot-wide living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a Juliet balcony.