Frick New York Residence Construction Photo Album

Series

Identifier: TFC-0700-010

Staff Only

Frick residence construction, New York, N.Y., August 20, 1913

Scope and Content Note

Photographs document the construction of the Frick residence at One East 70th Street, New York, N.Y. from April 2nd to December 31st, 1913. While the images primarily depict wide exterior shots of the construction from different angles, several focus on specific areas of the building, including the main entrance, the porte cochere, and the loggia (now known as the portico). There are two interior shots: one of Henry Clay Frick's Art Gallery (now known as the West Gallery), and one of Adelaide Frick's bedroom. Some photographs of the building site, located on Fifth Avenue from East 70th to East 71st Street, also show Central Park and the buildings on East 70th Street, East 71st Street, and Fifth Avenue.

Dates

Creation: 1913

Creator

Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y.) (Organization)

Access Restrictions

These records are open for research under the conditions of The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives access policy. Contact the Archives Department for further information at archives@frick.org.

Historical Note

Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), a Pittsburgh industrialist and art collector, commissioned architect Thomas Hastings of the firm Carrère & Hastings to design and build his New York residence at One East 70th Street in 1912. Construction began in 1913, and the three-story Beaux-Arts mansion was completed in 1914. Clad in limestone, the mansion featured a 100-foot art gallery, a garden on the Fifth Avenue side of the house, an interior courtyard, a porte-cochere, and a loggia. Frick, along with his wife Adelaide and daughter Helen, took up residence in the house in November 1914. The house was opened to the public as an art museum, The Frick Collection, in 1935.