The Sherry-Netherland

Hotel in Manhattan, New York

Sherry-Netherland

(2010)

General information
Type| Hotel
Architectural style| Romanesque Revival
Gothic Revival[1]
Location| 781 Fifth Avenue
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates| 40°45′51″N 73°58′22″W﻿ / ﻿40.7643°N 73.9727°W﻿ / 40.7643; -73.9727
Construction started| 1926
Completed| 1927
Owner| Atlas Corporation
Height| 560 ft (170.7 m)[2]
Technical details
Floor count| 38[1]
Design and construction
Architect(s)| Schultze & Weaver
Buchman & Kahn[2]
References
[3][2]

The Sherry-Netherland is a 38-story[1] apartment hotel located at 781 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 59th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Schultze & Weaver with Buchman & Kahn.[4] At 560 ft (170.7 m), it was the tallest apartment hotel in New York City when it opened. The building is located in the Upper East Side Historic District, which was created in 1981.[5]

## Features

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The hotel's facade (2016)

The building houses 165 apartments that were converted to co-ops in 1954.[6] There are only 50 hotel rooms and suites, but in the tower above the 24th floor there are single apartments to a floor. The Neo-Romanesque/Neo-Gothic[1] roofline with gargoyles[7] disguises the water tower.[8]

## History

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The site had been occupied since the early 1890s by the Hotel New Netherland, designed by William Hume for William Waldorf Astor, a member of the prominent Astor family. The building that was to replace it would occupy the same footprint and frontage on Fifth Avenue.

Demolition began in the early winter of 1926, and construction began before the year was out, but the upper floors suffered a spectacular fire when wooden scaffolding caught alight on April 12, 1927, before the building was completed.[9] The fire burned for 12 hours[10] and flames were said to have been visible from Long Island. It ignited a debate in the press concerning the ability of the available technology to put out fires in high-rise buildings.[11]

Restored lobby (2014)

At the time of the hotel's construction, the Vanderbilt mansion, diagonally across Fifth Avenue, was being demolished. High relief carved limestone panels by Karl Bitter from the Vanderbilt's porte-cochere[12] and ornamental frieze roundels from that mansion were installed in the Sherry's classicizing groin-vaulted lobby, where massive marble-veneered pilasters with gilded Italian Renaissance capitals articulate walls paneled in small rectangles, Jacobean-fashion.[13] Because of Prohibition, the Sherry was designed with smaller public restaurant square footage than other pre-war hotels.[14]

In March 1927, construction was almost completed and the property was turned over to Louis Sherry, Inc., a subsidiary of Boomer-duPont Properties Corporation. Lucius Boomer was a noted hotel operator and was also affiliated with the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, while Louis Sherry was a noted restaurateur, famous for ice creams and other confections, and had run a hotel and restaurant, Sherry's, at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, closing it soon after Prohibition. Sherry had died before his name became associated with the new venture.

In 1940, the famous stock trader Jesse Livermore committed suicide in the cloakroom of the hotel.

In 1949, the hotel was sold to Floyd Odlum and Boyd Hatch's Atlas Corporation.[15]

When the New York City Landmarks Commission created the Upper East Side Historic District on May 19, 1981, the Sherry-Netherland was included within its boundaries.[1]

In 2014, the lobby ceiling was restored by Evergreene Architectural Arts.[16] The frescoes on the ceiling were based on Raphael's frescoes in Cardinal Bibbienna's Loggetta at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. The style was recreated by artist Joseph Aruta in the 1920s.

## See also

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* Hotels portal

## References

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Notes

1. ^ a b c d e Staff; Pearson, Marjorie (ed.) Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report Archived September 21, 2020, at the Wayback Machine New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, pp. 907–08, 1338
2. ^ a b c "Hotel Sherry-Netherland". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2017.
3. ^ Official website
4. ^ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. p. 382\. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.
5. ^ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 154\. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
6. ^ Toy, Vivian S. (February 25, 2010). "Geffen Buys Fifth Avenue Co-op for $14 Million". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
7. ^ Gargoyles of New York: Sherry-Netherland illustrations[usurped]; Architectural drawing for the tower cupola (The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach,) Archived November 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine.
8. ^ "The Sherry Netherland Hotel" Archived September 17, 2021, at the Wayback Machine NYC-architecture.com
9. ^ thequintessential (June 2, 2009). "Sherry-Netherland Hotel Fire". Iconic Photos. Archived from the original on February 24, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2010.
10. ^ "Scaffold Safety – Fire Changes Wood to Metal" Archived January 28, 2013, at archive.today Masonry Construction Magazine (November 1, 2006) Accessed: September 11, 2012
11. ^ Schultze, Leonard; Weaver, Spencer Fullerton; Lamonaca, Marianne; Mogul, Jonathan (2005). Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultze & Weaver. Miami Beach: Wolfsonian-Florida International University. p. 197\. ISBN 1-56898-555-X.
12. ^ Johnson, Richard (December 2011) "The Sherry-Netherland, New York City" (image and text) Archived March 16, 2023, at the Wayback Machine Flickr
13. ^ Architectural details main lobby (The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach) Archived September 6, 2015, at the Wayback Machine; the small lobby is often compared in style to the Vatican Library, with which it only shares cross-vaulted ceilings and marble revetments.
14. ^ "Plan and elevation of the Dining Room (The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach)". Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
15. ^ Turkel, Stanley (September 19, 2014). "The Sherry-Netherland Hotel". Hotel Mavens. Author House. pp. 113–127\. ISBN 9781496933355.
16. ^ "The Sherry-Netherland – EverGreene". evergreene.com. Retrieved February 8, 2024.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Sherry-Netherland.

* Official website
* Hotel Sherry-Netherland at Structurae
* The Sherry-Netherlands Hotel Fire

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Structures on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan

Below 34th Street

* 1
* 47 (Salmagundi Club)
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* 153 (Scribner)
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* 200 (Toy Center)
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* 284 (The Wilbraham)
* 339 (Demarest)
* 350 (Empire State)

34th–59th Streets

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* 401 (Tiffany and Company)
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* 453 (Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library)
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* 712
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* 727 (Tiffany & Co.)
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* 767 (General Motors)
* Apple Fifth Avenue
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59th–96th Streets

* 781 (The Sherry-Netherland)
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* Metropolitan Club
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* 810
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* Edward J. Berwind House
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* 834
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* 880
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* Frick Collection
* 907
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* Edward S. Harkness House
* 960
* James B. Duke House
* 972 (Payne Whitney House)
* 974 (Harry F. Sinclair House)
* 995
* 998
* 1000 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
* 1009 (Benjamin N. Duke House)
* 1020
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* 1048
* Neue Galerie New York
* 1049
* 1067
* 1071 (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)
* 1085 (Church of the Heavenly Rest)
* Andrew Carnegie Mansion
* Cooper Hewitt
* Otto H. Kahn House
* 1109 (Felix M. Warburg House)
* Jewish Museum
* 1130 (Willard D. Straight House)

Above 96th Street

* Mount Sinai Hospital
* 1220 (Museum of the City of New York)
* 1230 (El Museo del Barrio)
* 1280 (The Africa Center)
* 2067 (St. Andrew's Episcopal Church)
* 2366 (369th Regiment Armory)

Parks and park features

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Subway stations

* 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue
* Fifth Avenue/53rd Street
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Former

* 200 (Fifth Avenue Hotel)
* Hotel Victoria
* Fifth Avenue Hotel (28th Street)
* Caspar Samler farm
* 316 (Kaskel and Kaskel)
* 350 (Waldorf–Astoria)
* 391 (Gunther)
* West Presbyterian Church
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* Vanderbilt Triple Palace
* William K. Vanderbilt House
* 767 (Savoy-Plaza Hotel)
* Elbridge T. Gerry Mansion
* 840 (Mrs. William B. Astor House)
* 857 (Jay Gould House)
* 857 (George J. Gould House)
* 858 (Isaac Stern House)
* 871 (William C. Whitney House)
* Ogden Mills House
* Lenox Library
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* 1020 (William Salomon House)
* 1058 (James Speyer House)
* 1063 (Henry Phipps House)
* 1115 (Jacob Ruppert Sr. House)
* 2122 (Jordan L. Mott House)
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