The Wilbraham

The Wilbraham, 282-284 Fifth Avenue and 1 West 30th Street, New York, was built in 1888-90 as a bachelor apartment hotel ("bachelor flats", each consisting of bedchamber and parlor, with bathroom but no kitchen; the communal dining room was on the floor [The flats were remodeled to include kitchens, a mark of changed social habits, in 1934-35.] ). The design, a refined and richly detailed ["The Wilbraham is extraoridinarily well detailed", according to [http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/wilbraham.pdf Landmarks Preservation Commission designation summary, 8 June 2004] , source of the information used in this article] commercial Romanesque revival style owing much the the Richardsonian Romanesque developed by H.H. Richardson, was the work of the partners David and John Jardine. It was commissioned, as a real estate investment, by the prominent Scottish-American jeweler William Moir. It remains in residential use.

As it stands, the building is eight stories under a mansard roof, with penthouses and basements, as a result of changes made during its construction. It is clad in Philadelphia brick and brownstone from quarries in Belleville, New jersey, with wrought- and cast iron. The "Real Estate Record and Guide" in 1890 called it "quite an imposing piece of architecture". Steel replaced structural cast iron when the foundations were already in place.

History

At the time The Wilbraham was constructed the brownstone-fronted houses along this stretch of Fifth Avenue were being sold by the rich, who were rebuilding, often in more palatial fashion, farther north, in the part of Fifth Avenue that overlooked Central Park, just coming into its first maturity. The neighborhood remained fashionable for clubs, hotels and the first blocks of "French flats".

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