FORTY-EIGHTH STREET
FEBRUARY 1, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 278

GLASS-BRICK AND BROWNSTONE FRONTS
209-211 East 48th Street
FEBRUARY 1, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 280

Looking west and north, Abbott made two photographs standing in front of the town houses at 209 and 211 East 48th Street.

The view down 48th Street shows the transition from residences and local retailers near Third Avenue (in the foreground) to hotels and office buildings farther west. The two towers in the background are the Shelton Hotel (1933) and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1931). Today, the hotels are obscured by newer office buildings at 777 Third Avenue (1963) and 780 Third Avenue (1984); the El was demolished in 1956.

The northward view shows the boldly remodeled home and office of Swiss-born architect William Lescaze at 211 East 48th Street and its conventional neighbor at no. 209. Originally built in the 1860s, these two town houses belonged to a two-block-square group that was uniformly remodeled in 1920 with a common garden as Turtle Bay Gardens. In 1934, Lescaze brazenly injected into this ensemble an example of the International Style, complete with white stucco, glass brick, horizontal windows, and rooftop garden. Not apparent from the photograph was Lescaze's greatest intrusion; bthe house extended into the communal garden, filling the entire 100-foot-deep lot.

Except for the addition of a decorative security gate, the Lescaze house remains unchanged. Abbott's contrast, however, has been lost: no. 209 has been remodeled, albeit mundanely, in the modernist style.

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