 |
|
J. P. MORGAN HOUSE J. P. Morgan's imposing brownstone mansion was one of several built in Murray Hill, where many of New York's "Four Hundred" lived in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Constructed in 1853 for financier Isaac N. Phelps, the house was acquired and remodeled in 1895 by J. P. Morgan, Sr. Abbott's photograph emphasizes Morgan's renovation: the enlarged windows, the "Robertson stoop," and the masterful ironwork designed by Oscar Luetke. She disregarded the house's grounds, which included a large garden and Morgan's neoclassical library, designed in 1906 by McKim, Mead & White. In Abbott's day, the house was one of seven residences belonging to J. P. Morgan, Jr. After Morgan's death in 1943, it was sold to the Lutheran Church, whose effort to develop the site was blocked by preservationists. In 1988, the Morgan Library acquired the house for offices and a bookshop. Return to the Middle East Side |