Built 1909 Designated NYCL September 15, 1970 Area 3,642 m² Added to NRHP 10 November 1977 | NRHP Reference # 77000956 Opened 1909 Phone +1 212-992-5800 Architect Horace Trumbauer | |
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Location 1 E. 78th St., New York, New York Architectural style French Classical/Louis XV Address 1 E 78th St, New York, NY 10075, USA Similar Grey Art Gallery, Elmer Holmes Bobst Lib, Vanderbilt houses, Casa Italiana Zerilli‑Marimò, Andrew Carnegie Mansion | ||
The James B. Duke House is a mansion located at 1 East 78th Street, on the northeast corner at Fifth Avenue, in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The house is one of the great extant mansions from "Millionaire's Row". It was built for James Buchanan Duke, who was one of the founding partners of American Tobacco Company and the owner of Duke Power. The building has housed the New York University Institute of Fine Arts since 1952.
History
Architect Horace Trumbauer's design of the house drew heavily upon the Hôtel Labottière (1773), Bordeaux, by the Bordeaux architect Etienne Laclotte, architect of numerous hôtels particuliers in Bordeaux. The similar treatment of the central bay with its recessed entrance and window on the piano nobile, and the channeled rustication are particularly salient features shared by both urban town houses.
Construction was completed in 1912, and the three members of the Duke family—James B., his wife Nanaline, and their daughter Doris—lived there with their staff part of the year. In 1952, Nanaline and Doris donated the building to New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.
Robert Venturi renovated the building for academic use in 1958. The main reception rooms on the ground floor retain many of the original furnishings and decorations, while the Institute's library and faculty offices have colonized the eight bedrooms of the second floor and the servants' quarters on the third floor.
A Landmarks of New York plaque was erected in 1959 by the New York Community Trust. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The engagement party scene in the film Arthur was filmed here in 1980/81. In March 2007, the pilot for the ABC drama Dirty Sexy Money was filmed here.