57 East 64th Street, THOUSE

THE ARCHITECT: CPH GILBERT
Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert was born in 1861 to a family descending from the English aristocracy before the time of Queen Elizabeth I. From an early age, he was devoted to the study of all aspects of the construction and decoration of magnificent residences: civil engineering, painting, sculpture, fine arts, and architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Graduates were taught to produce a building of differing stylistic expressions but with a functional, lucid floor plan. Some of C.P.H. Gilbert's greatest creations were in the late French Gothic limestone chateau style favored by the wealthiest members of the elite of The Gilded Age. For Isaac D. Fletcher in 1898, at Fifth Avenue & 79 Street, he designed a pinnacled Gothic Structure with a moat, now the Ukrainian Institute. For Felix M. Warburg, in 1906, at Fifth Avenue & 92 Street, a French Gothic chateau, lavish in scale, perfect in proportion yet graced with spaces for family life, now the Jewish Museum. For Otto H. Kahn, in 1916, at Fifth Avenue & 91 Street, he helped create an Italian Renaissance Palace with 65 rooms, one of the largest private mansions ever built in New York, now the Convent of the Sacred Heart.

AMERICAN SOCIALITE, ARLENE TEW
Born in 1872, Arlene Tew was a member of the DAR, The Daughters of the American Revolution, signaling that her direct ancestors fought in the American Revolutionary War. With a large inheritance of her own, she proceeded to marry five husbands including the Chairman of General Electric, Anson Wood Buchard, one Prince and one Count. Long one of the wealthiest American women of her time when, when married to husband number two, Morton Colton Nichols, she commissioned C.P.H. Gilbert in 1905 to design her New York residence at 57 East 64 Street, replacing two smaller townhouses with a massive limestone mansion in the style of Neo-Francois I with a magnificent four story curved bay.

THE MANSION
Comprising approximately 14,000 total square feet on seven levels, this mansion was originally designed to have the kind of scale and ceiling height in entertaining rooms sought today to display an art collection of major scale. It is a special benefit that the original plan of the architect is largely intact, and details in the rooms throughout have been restored with attention to historical accuracy. The massive wrought iron double doors open to an entry hall which includes a huge manor fire place and extraordinary light. The wrought iron work in the sculptural staircase reflects the same designs that appear in the boisserie surrounding mirrors over fireplaces in the numerous grand rooms. The massive staircase culminates in a stunning skylight with leaded glass. The paneled dining room with a floor to ceiling fireplace and a wall of bowed floor to ceiling windows with leaded glass accented with colored glass shields evokes s a Chateau in the Loire Valley in France. The elevator accommodates six people.

The house is perfectly located on the north side of what is generally considered to be the best street in the East 60s for mansions of this type. The north side of the street allows far more light to pour into a building, given the way the sun travels across Manhattan, an extremely important factor for those who seek a mansion that is as light as possible.

Most important of all, no other building by C.P.H. Gilbert is on the market at this time and it is unlikely that another will be available, which makes this mansion a very rare opportunity to acquire one of the best creations of one of the acknowledged stars of The Gilded Age. Co-exclusive.