Carnegie Hill received its name early in the 20th century, but the known history of the area begins more than 500 years ago. This section of Manhattan, now noted for its historic architecture, was once dotted with dwellings made of bent trees, the homes of the Wechquaesgek Indians. Those gave way in the mid-17th century to Dutch farmland, which was divided and sold in parcels beginning in the 1800s when the erection of private wooden houses signaled the beginning of the community we know today. Four of those wooden dwellings are preserved in Carnegie Hill, surrounded by the more permanent structures that followed, including survivors from the age of rowhouses in styles ranging from Neo-Grec to Renaissance Revival, many early 20th century mansions beginning with Andrew Carnegie’s pioneering move, and finally luxury apartment buildings.

The Manhattan we see today with all of its varied neighborhoods presented a very different landscape 500 years ago, before the first white settlers appeared. In upper Manhattan near the East River, blueberry fields bisected the forests and provided food for both animals and the Wechquaesgek Indians. They called the place where they lived Manahatta, meaning hilly island.

In the center of these hills, at about 94th Street and Park Avenue, stood an Indian village called Konanda, a name that translates as “the place near the sand,” overlooking Hellgate Bay and the sandy point then extending along the mouth of the Harlem Creek into the East River. There, some 60 men, women, and children lived in houses made of tall, bent trees covered with bark, with one hole in the center for ventilation.

The village, bordered on a little brook fed by a spring, was situated on a branch of the footpath which went down the present Madison Avenue and across 96th Street into Central Park to meet with the Weckquaesgek Path, which led to the south end of the island.

The Dutch “bought” the island of Manhattan in 1626. At the time, the area along the East River encompassing what we know as Carnegie Hill was considered particularly choice farming land. The curve of the East River protected the land from the intense cold and wind during the winter, and the land itself was relatively flat and easy to cultivate.

An Indian war, stemming from the murder of a female Delaware Indian by a Dutch farmer, resulted in the formation of a fortified hamlet called New Harlem, the first farming cooperative in America. The farming cooperative evolved into a thriving little village by the latter half of the 17th century, adopting its name, New Harlem, as an homage to a beautiful city in Holland called Haarlem.

After the surrender of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to the English in 1664, the British governor visited New Harlem. Because the land boundaries of the town had never been fixed, he drew a line across the map from the Hudson River around 129th Street down to 74th Street and the East River. These boundaries would later include both the communities of Yorkville, which was established by German settlers in the 1790s, and Carnegie Hill.

What today is Carnegie Hill and its surrounding area became part of a large tract of farmland which can be traced back to at least 1677, when it belonged to one Peter Van Ogliensis. The farm extended from what is now about 82nd Street to about 94th Street, and from Harlem Commons (Fifth Avenue) to the East River.

The area was known as Waldron Farm after a Dutch patent conveyed the land to Baron Resolved Waldron, who owned it until he died in 1705. His son Samuel and, in turn, his grandson William became owners of the farm. The farm underwent no material change for more than 50 years until it was divided by William Waldron’s heirs after his death in December 1769.

One of Waldron’s sons, Adolph Waldron, gained the bulk of the property and then, apparently, lost it all as well. Abraham Duryea, a merchant of the City of New York, bought the farm at auction for eight hundred pounds. The borders of the farm were described for the transaction in detail, following the style of the time, as:

There is no documentation regarding further distribution of the original Waldron Farm, although an 1880’s map shows extinct borders of smaller farm parcels and is evidence that sections of Waldron Farm were eventually sold to a number of people.

In 1811, when Carnegie Hill was still very much farmland, the city commissioners began a long-term plan to develop Manhattan above 14th Street in a rectangular grid, but streets and avenues were not cut into this area until late in the century. Until then, individual houses were scattered on lots designated on the grid plan.

At that time there were only two major thoroughfares in the upper part of the island: the Boston Post Road on the east side and the Bloomingdale Road on the west. An east-west road that would later become 86th Street connected with the two. The only traffic on Fifth Avenue was the drovers who used the old dirt road to travel down to the Bowery.

According to records provided by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the lots of the two joined clapboard houses on East 92nd Street were sold from a small remaining portion of Abraham Duryea’s land in 1834 and 1835, but the houses themselves were not erected until 1859 and 1860. These wooden houses at 120 and 122 East 92nd Street, a third at 160 East 92nd Street built about 1852-53, and a fourth at 128 East 93rd Street (1866), are the oldest buildings in Carnegie Hill and the only link to a time when the area from, “the cleft in a large rock . . . to the stone marked W . . . and to the chestnut stump, etc.,” was known as Waldron Farm.

In 1834, the New York and Harlem Railroad ran from lower Manhattan to Yorkville, and ultimately extended to Harlem and beyond. To encourage use of the railroad for a day trip, Prospect Hall was built on Mount Prospect at the northwest corner of Fourth (later Park) Avenue and 93rd Street (the site of the George Palmer mansion, now the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia). It was advertised as Observatory Place with views of New Jersey and Long Island, and was a favorite destination for day trips “out of town”
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The railroad precipitated growth in the Carnegie Hill area. In the mid-19th century there were squatters’ settlements along Fourth Avenue as well as breweries and piano factories. By 1875, much of the open railroad track was lowered and partially covered at street level. After the turn of the century, the railroad switched from coal to electric power, alleviating the noise and pollution, and the thoroughfare was renamed Park Avenue.

The most notable buildings in Carnegie Hill in the late 19th century were churches and charitable institutions—the New York Magdalen Asylum, “affording an asylum to erring females,” at Fifth Avenue and 88th Street; the St. Luke’s Home for Indigent Christian females at Madison Avenue and 89th Street; the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Beloved Disciple, subsequently the Reformed Church of Harlem and since 1950, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas More, on 89th Street between Madison and Park avenues; the New York Christian Home for Intemperate Men on 86th Street between Madison and Park Avenues; and the Immanuel German Evangelical Lutheran Church, which moved to the southwest corner of 88th Street and Lexington Avenue in 1885.

Among the earliest large residences in Carnegie Hill were those built for brewers whose businesses were nearby. George Ehret, who by 1877 owned the largest brewing business in the United States, built a house on the southeast corner of Park Avenue and 94th Street in 1879. He was followed by Jacob Ruppert, whose mansion on an open lot at Fifth Avenue and 93rd Street was an isolated structure surrounded by small farms when it was built in 1881. Neither building now exists. Scattered farm houses, two-story brick buildings, and a few rows of brownstones erected by developers were interspersed with squatters’ shacks, which also lined the edges of Central Park.

After several false starts, elevated railroad lines on both Third and Second avenues were in operation by 1891 triggering building activity on the sides streets between Madison and Third avenues and on the avenues. Rows of brownstones were developed on speculation and, as speed was the driving factor, the houses followed a fairly standard set of plans aiming for uniformity. The ornamentation used was dependent on the whim of the builder and his notion of what would sell, which tended to change every decade or so, as one architectural style followed another in popularity.

Among the first rowhouses in Carnegie Hill were 12 on the south side of 95th Street east of Lexington Avenue, all of which survive, though many have lost their stoops, and another group on the north side of 94th Street, only one of which has been modernized. Carnegie Hill is unique in having many groups of rowhouses that were designed by professionally trained architects and that are distinguished by their attention to detail. Among these are six brownstones on the north side of 93rd Street between Fifth and Madison avenues and five red-brick houses on the east side of Madison Avenue between 91st and 92nd streets.

The Carnegie Hill rowhouses represent many of the new styles popular for residential architecture in New York City during the last decades of the 19th century: neo-Grec, Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, and Renaissance Revival.

Though much of Carnegie Hill was developed by 1898, squatters still lived on Fifth Avenue and a riding academy was on the corner of 90th Street when Andrew Carnegie purchased the land between 90th and 91st streets. In December 1902, Carnegie moved into the mansion at 2 East 91st Street, which would serve as his residence for the last 17 years of his life. He brought with him his vision of an elegant neighborhood of architectural masterpieces such as those CHN today strives to preserve.

Showing the same kind of foresight that had made him a phenomenally successful entrepreneur, Carnegie, using options, was able to buy much more land on 90th and 91st Streets than he needed for his own mansions. This allowed him to sell the extra lots to acquaintances to ensure that his surroundings would consist of fine homes as aesthetically appealing as his own, but less ostentatious than Fifth Avenue’s Millionaire’s Mile to the south. As a result of his precautions, we can now count among our architectural treasures the Hammond (1903), Burden (1905), and Otto Kahn (1917) mansions at 9, 7, and 1 East 91st Street.

The Carnegie mansion initiated a change in building trends in Carnegie Hill. Rowhouse construction virtually stopped and, instead, elegant townhouses were built for the wealthy, who began to pour into the area. These residences, which in many cases rivaled mansions in other parts of the city, were designed in a number of revival styles popular at the time, such as neo-Renaissance and, the most popular, neo-Federal. Construction of these fine houses continued until the Depression, although the last large residence, the William Goadby Loew house at 56 East 93rd Street (now the Spence School) was completed as late as 1932.

The most recent trend in Carnegie Hill is the luxury apartment building, which began to appear shortly after the Carnegie mansion and burgeoned after World War I. The high-ceilinged luxury apartment building, stretching for half a block and with only one or two apartments to a floor, wood-paneled rooms, and other amenities normally found only in private residences, signaled a new way of life for upper-income families. Whereas at the turn of the century the great majority of society lived in private residences, by 1935 most of society lived in luxury apartments. Although the first construction was on Fifth Avenue, large elevator buildings soon appeared and were fashionable on Park Avenue, as well. The popular styles of the time were French and Italian Renaissance. Although many frame houses, brownstones, and rowhouses gave way to what has become the standard living arrangement in Manhattan, Carnegie Hill is distinguished by the number of low-rise buildings that have been preserved.

Over time, major alterations have changed the facades of some of the houses in Carnegie Hill, particularly those dating from the 19th century. Stoops have been removed, ornamental details have been cut away, and, in several cases, entirely new facades have been applied. The lower floors of many of the rowhouses on Madison and Lexington avenues have been converted to storefronts. Larger townhouses have frequently been converted into institutions, especially private schools. In fact, Carnegie Hill has the largest concentration of private schools in the city. Nevertheless, most changes have been well done, and the neighborhood retains its unique residential character.