New York’s Osborne Apartment House of 1885

A sumptuously illustrated book exploring every nook and cranny of this legendary New York apartment house—its distinguished architecture, its extravagant decoration, its tumultuous history, and its storied tenants.

The Osborne, at 205 West 57th Street, was one of New York’s first luxury apartment houses; along with peers like the Dakota, it helped to popularise the idea of apartment living among New York’s affluent classes. A monument to the Gilded Age, the Osborne features a rusticated brownstone facade with both Romanesque and Renaissance motifs, and a foyer and lobby elaborately adorned with marble, mosaics, murals, gilding, and stained glass. Although many of its grand apartments were gradually subdivided, the Osborne has always remained a habitat for the interesting and influential, including many habitués of across-the-street neighbour Carnegie Hall, such as Leonard Bernstein and Van Cliburn.

In this handsome volume, Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch, a longtime resident and the leading authority on the Osborne, traces every stage of the building’s history—from the tangled tale of its financing and construction to its present status as a proud 19th-century survivor on Billionaires’ Row—profiling its most colourful tenants along the way. Original colour photography and archival illustrations bring the Osborne’s apartments and public spaces to vivid life, and a study of the building’s stained glass by noted expert Julie L. Sloan clarifies the respective contributions of the John La Farge and Tiffany studios.