DUKE TOWN HOUSE, 4 EAST 78TH STREET
4 East 78th Street
JANUARY 20, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 273

BROWNSTONE FRONT AND SKYSCRAPER
51 East 78th Street
JANUARY 20, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 275

Duke House, variant image

In the 1870s, upper Fifth Avenue opposite Central Park was a shantytown, but by World War I, it had become "millionaire's row," lined with mansions built by the captains of industry. Constructed to last for centuries, these urban villas soon gave way to apartment buildings, as the wealthy chose the ease of apartment living over the costs and constraints of palace life. Abbott photographed two Fifth Avenue mansions: those of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and tobacco king James B. Duke. Carnegie's house at 91st Street was virtually in the country when it was built in 1901. Duke's house, designed by society architect Horace Trumbauer to resemble a French château, was built in 1912 at 78th Street. In the 1930s, the houses were occupied by the widows of the two robber barons.

Andrew Carnegie House, discarded image

Abbott discarded the Carnegie house photograph in favor of the more complex one of the Duke house, which contrasts the mansion's entrance with that of 969 Fifth Avenue, a 15-story apartment building across the street. A rejected variant of the scene shows the Duke family's elegant car waiting at the entrance.

On the same day she photographed the Duke house, Abbott walked two doors to capture this 1887 four-story brownstone facade at 51 East 78th Street. A new apartment house, similar to the Fifth Avenue buildings on the right, was in construction next to the brownstone. Abbott allowed the walls of the structures to converge, exaggerating their upward thrust.

The Duke and Carnegie houses stand today. In 1958, the Duke house became New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, and in 1972, the Carnegie house became the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt Museum. The brownstone at 51 East 78th Street also remains, heavily remodeled and divided into apartments.

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