Oliver Gould Jennings House

The former Oliver Gould Jennings House is at 7 East 72nd Street, along the northern side of 72nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.^[1] The house originally had a north–south depth of 102 feet (31 m);^[2][3] sources disagree on whether the frontage on 72nd Street was 25 feet (7.6 m)^[2] or 28 feet (8.5 m).^[3][4] Since 2010, the house has been connected with the former Henry T. Sloane House at 9 East 72nd Street, immediately to the east, forming a single residence.^[5] The two houses collectively occupy a single rectangular land lot of 8,923 square feet (829.0 m²), with a frontage of 87.33 feet (26.62 m) and a north–south depth of 102.17 feet (31.14 m).^[6] Notable buildings nearby include the Pulitzer Mansion on the block to the north; 907 Fifth Avenue and 9 East 71st Street on the block to the south; and the Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House and St. James' Episcopal Church on Madison Avenue to the east. In addition, Central Park is one half block to the west.^[1][6]

The building was designed by Ernest Flagg and Walter B. Chambers of the firm of Flagg and Chambers.^[7][8] It was constructed in a modern French Beaux-Arts style.^[8] The facade was intended to complement the design of Henry T. Sloane's house at 9 East 72nd Street.^[8][9] The architects accomplished this by using Indiana limestone, a similar material to the stone used on Sloane's home, and by matching the floor heights of Jennings's house to those of Sloane's.^[9]

The facade rises four stories above 72nd Street and is topped by a mansard roof.^[9] The only visible elevation of the facade, on 72nd Street, is divided vertically into two bays. On the first story, the facade is rusticated and contains smooth-faced horizontal bands alternating with vermiculated horizontal bands.^[4][9] There is a carved wooden doorway in the left bay of the house.^[4] Within the right bay, there is a wide archway with a window.^[9] Carved brackets, above the first-floor door and window, support a balcony on the second floor.^[9][10]

On the second floor, the facade is also rusticated but is made entirely of smooth limestone.^[9] The second-story French doors open onto a balcony with an elaborate iron balustrade.^[10] At the top of the second-story windows are scallop designs, which are recessed into the facade. There are corbels with cartouches below either of the third-story window sills. The windows on the third story are placed within segmentally-arched openings, and there are ornate iron window guards in front of the windows.^[9] Above the third-story windows is a cornice with brackets, as well as an iron railing above the cornice, which extends across the house. The fourth story is within a convex mansard roof,^[9][10] which is made of copper and slate.^[4] There are two dormer windows on the roof, each with an elaborate copper cresting and an ornate frame.^[9] Above each dormer window is a segmentally-arched pediment with carved cartouches, and there are also volutes flanking each of the dormer windows.^[10]

The house internally contains five levels with a total of 18,256 square feet (1,696.0 m²). It is decorated with details such as fireplaces and molded decorations.^[11] The house was intended to be fireproof;^[12] as such, kalamein-iron doors and windows were used throughout the house.^[13]

The ground-level entrance led to a vestibule and entrance hall with stone walls and marble floors.^[10] The stairs, walls, fireplace, and cornice of the entrance hall were all of carved Caen stone, while the floor was made of marble with inlaid borders in different colors.^[14] There was also a reception room at the front of the ground story, with wooden paneling and a plaster ceiling.^[10] The reception room was to the east of the entrance, adjoining a powder room.^[15] A stair in the Louis XV style led from the eastern side of the house up to the second floor;^[10] the railings on the stairs were of wrought iron.^[14] In the rear of the ground story was a dining room, with decorations in the Louis XIV style,^[10] in addition to an adjoining pantry.^[15]

The primary rooms were placed on the second floor, one story above ground.^[9] At the front of the house was a drawing room measuring 25 by 31 feet (7.6 by 9.4 m) across, while at the rear of the house was a library measuring 20 by 24 feet (6.1 by 7.3 m) long.^[12] The drawing room was in the French rococo style, and the library was in the Louis XVI style with half-height bookcases and a marble fireplace.^[10] The drawing room and library were connected by a stair hall and gallery.^[12][15] When 7 East 72nd Street was combined with the neighboring 9 East 72nd Street in 2010, the combined houses included two levels of bedrooms, a swimming pool, and two top floors for the staff.^[5] There was also a 8,500-square-foot (790 m²) terrace above the two houses.^[16] Observer cites the two houses as occupying a combined 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²),^[17] though the New York City Department of City Planning cites the gross floor area as 42,380 square feet (3,937 m²).^[6]

7 East 72nd Street was originally constructed for Oliver Gould Jennings, who served on the boards of Bethlehem Steel, McKesson & Robbins, and National Fuel Gas.^[18] Jennings's father Oliver Burr Jennings was one of the original stockholders of Standard Oil, one of the world's largest oil businesses, and had left his son $1.3 million upon his death in 1893.^[19] The younger Jennings was married to Mary Dows Brewster, the daughter of his father's business partner Benjamin Brewster.^[18][19] When Benjamin Brewster died in 1897, he left Mary a large inheritance.^[19]

By the mid-1890s, numerous wealthy families had settled on 72nd Street,^[20][21] including the Jennings family.^[19] In March 1898, the Jennings family bought a plot on the north side of 72nd Street, east of Fifth Avenue, from the family of Collis P. Huntington for between $75,000 and $80,000.^[2][3] Jennings was one of several people to buy land on the east side of Fifth Avenue from 72nd to 73rd Street in the late 1890s.^[22] Flagg and Chambers were hired to design the house,^[7][8] while Sloane & Moller were hired as the house's general contractors.^[13] The architects intentionally designed the facade so it harmonized with the facade of Henry T. Sloane's adjacent mansion at 9 East 72nd Street.^[23] The house was completed in 1899,^[18] and the New-York Tribune reported at the end of November that the house was ready for their occupancy.^[24] The Jennings family hosted events such as dinners in their house.^[25] In addition to their 72nd Street residence, the Jenningses had a country estate named Mailands in Fairfield, Connecticut.^[26]

With the growing traffic on 72nd Street, the Jennings family no longer wished to live on that street.^[27] Jennings agreed in April 1914 to sell his house to W. Emlen Roosevelt's Four West Fifty-seventh Street Company.^[28] Media sources record the building as having been transferred to Frank Schlitt,^[29][30] who promptly gave it to Roosevelt.^[30] Jennings bought an empty site at 882 Fifth Avenue,^[28] where he developed a new house.^[31] He continued to live at 7 East 72nd Street for at least another year, and the Real Estate Record reported at the end of 1915 that the new house was nearly completed.^[32] At some point, ownership of the house reverted to Jennings, who sold it in October 1917 to Sumner Gerard,^[33][34] a businessman whose brother James W. Gerard was a former U.S. ambassador.^[35] The house was offered as partial payment for a site that Gerard owned on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 96th Street.^[33][34] When the house was transferred to Gerard, it was valued at $325,000.^[34][35]

Among the events the Gerard family hosted in their house were a bridge tournament to raise funds for charity,^[36] as well as a meeting for the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.^[37] The Gerard family lived at the house for a relatively short time; by January 1923, the New-York Tribune reported that the house had been sold yet again.^[38] The house was then occupied by Henry I. Riker, his wife, and their children.^[39] Riker himself is recorded as having lived there until his death in November 1927.^[40] The Rikers' daughter Mary moved out following her marriage in 1930,^[41] while their son John had moved out by the time he got married in 1932.^[42] Henry's widow Mary was living at the house by herself by the 1940s, when she bought the neighboring residence at 9 East 72nd Street to protect the value of her house.^[43]

In the mid-20th century, the house briefly hosted the Danish mission to the United Nations.^[44] The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum then rented space at the house in May 1956, in preparation for the construction of the museum's permanent building on Fifth Avenue.^[45][46] Initially, the house was used only as storage space and offices, rather than an exhibition space.^[46] The house hosted exhibits during the late 1950s, such as showcases of items from the museum's collection;^[47] works by Guggenheim International Award winners;^[48] works from contemporary European painters;^[49] and artwork by Marcel Duchamp and his older brothers Raymond and Jacques.^[50] The Guggenheim moved to Fifth Avenue in 1959,^[51] when the museum's permanent building on Fifth Avenue opened.^[52]

The Lycée Français de New York, a French-language school, leased 7 East 72nd Street from Sterling J. Boos in August 1960.^[44] Lycée Français initially housed its kindergarten and its secondary school in the building.^[39] In April 1964, Lycée Français purchased 7 and 9 East 72nd Street from the Boos family for a combined $850,000. The school took out a $815,275 mortgage from Massachusetts Mutual, which covered both the 72nd Street houses and Lycee Francais's original building at 3 East 95th Street.^[39] Although the expansion at 9 East 72nd Street opened on September 24, 1964, the school hosted classes in one of the houses' old ballrooms due to a lack of space.^[53]

The school made relatively few alterations to the two houses over the years.^[54] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considered designating 7 and 9 East 72nd Street as city landmarks in 1976^[55] and granted the designations in January 1977, despite the school's opposition to either designation.^[56] By the late 1970s, the houses at 7 and 9 East 72nd Street contained Lycee Francais's kindergarten through fourth grade classes.^[57] Lycee Francais bought 12 East 73rd Street, a five-bedroom mansion behind the two 72nd Street houses,^[58] for $4.3 million in 1994. The 73rd Street mansion was subsequently linked to the existing 72nd Street houses.^[11]

After Lycee Francais developed a new building on York Avenue in the 2000s, the school originally considered keeping the six townhouses that it owned, including the houses at 7 and 9 East 72nd Street, but they were all protected as city landmarks, making it difficult to modify any of the houses without permission from the city government.^[59] Instead, the school began looking to sell the six townhouses in August 2000 at a combined price of $100 million.^[60][61] Initially, Lycee Francais hired Massey Knakal to market the buildings; school officials refused an offer to buy the buildings for $43 million. When Lycee Francais hired the Corcoran Group as the new broker the next year, it sought $51 million for the two 72nd Street houses, including $21 million for 7 East 72nd Street.^[11] The 72nd Street houses remained unsold for over two years because of a decline in New York City real estate following the September 11 attacks.^[61]

Although an appraiser said in mid-2002 that the two buildings at 7 and 9 East 72nd Street could be sold for $25 million each,^[20] they were ultimately sold for a combined $26 million.^[11][62] The purchaser of the buildings was Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, then the Emir of Qatar,^[5][63] who reportedly beat out the developer Donald Trump and an unknown bidder when he agreed to acquire the properties in August 2002.^[11] The sale was finalized the next year.^[64] The Qatari government began combining the two buildings into a single house in 2004; the project, designed by Thornton Tomasetti, took six years.^[5]

The renovations of both buildings had been completed by 2010.^[7] The combined mansion at 7–9 East 72nd Street covered 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²), making it New York City's largest single-family house.^[17] It also became one of several dozen properties that the Qatari government owned in New York City.^[62] Qatari Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani used the houses as her New York City residence, displaying her art collection across numerous rooms.^[16] The country of Qatar bought the adjacent 12 East 73rd Street in 2017 to house the servants who were employed at 7–9 East 72nd Street.^[16][65]

In 1900, Architectural Annual magazine described 7 and 9 East 72nd Street as "Enigmas: Hotels particuliers a New York – but not the French Quarter" in a picture caption.^[54] The New-York Tribune said that "it was natural" for Flagg and Chambers to design 7 East 72nd Street in a similar style to 9 East 72nd Street and that "the proximity of these two buildings raises some lively thoughts about what the force of example may bring us to".^[23] Christopher Gray of The New York Times wrote in 2011 that the house's design defined "the Beaux-Arts movement sweeping over New York at the turn of the century".^[7]

• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets

• Craven, Wayne (2008). Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06754-5.
• Kathrens, Michael C. (2005). Great Houses of New York, 1880-1930. New York: Acanthus Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-926494-34-3.
• Kathrens, Michael C. (2013). Great Houses of New York, 1880–1940. Acanthus Press. ISBN 978-0-926494-80-0.
• Oliver Gould Jennings Residence (PDF) (Report). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. January 11, 1977.
• "The Works of Ernest Flagg" (PDF). Architectural Record. Vol. XI, no. 3. April 1902. pp. 54–59.

• Media related to Oliver Gould Jennings House at Wikimedia Commons