1861. 1905: Mount Morris overlooking the Polo Grounds. If 18th century upper Manhattan was the Hamptons of of the day, partly consisting of landed estates with stately country houses, the most elegant surely was "Mount Morris". Indisputably Manhattan's oldest surviving house, it is also among the most aesthetically important and... Continue reading

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Circa 1929: Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh Always, she is shown to best advantage. Smiling, bright eyed and sincere, She beckons to us still: resplendent and ever properly attired, even amidst the perils of the Great Depression or during world warfare. For gala occasions routinely she dripped with gems worth $100,00.00.... Continue reading

Masterful magnate, Madame C. J. Walker, 1867-1919, the hair-care-beauty specialist who built the most spectacular residence ever owned by an African American in 1917: Villa Lewaro! Not for a moment was there ever the least doubt for her, as to why she was building such a showplace. Villa Lewaro was... Continue reading

In the late 19th and early 20th century, all over America, low rise entertainment complexes equipped with theatres, restaurants, meeting rooms and dance halls arose. One of Harlem’s most famous, the Renaissance Casino, provided the backdrop for the area’s most elegant dances and exciting sporting and political events. By the... Continue reading

Madame Helena Rubinstien, 1870-1965 The catalogue cover for the Jewish Museum's new special exhibition, shows Helena Rubinstein in 1939 , dressed by Chanel in a dark dress with straw cuffs and wearing a trompe l'oeil braided straw hat, mimicking a coil of hair, by milliner Suzanne Talbot Much like Iris... Continue reading

It's been said that one cannot be either too rich or too thin. Petite, prosperous and supremely stylish, my friend Chiu-Ti Jansen, Publisher of YUE Magazine, certainly seems to subscribe to this adage. For she is elegantly as imperially slender as a reed and wears such perfect, beautifully made and... Continue reading

More beguiling in conception? Taking his lead from housing peojects blocks away, David Adjaye referennces structures that tower outside of the historic Sugar Hill neighborhood, but which are not, and never have been, a part of it What makes one so denounce David Adjaye's new "Sugar Hill Apartments"? Unmistakably the... Continue reading

It was a handsome subject, photographed for Geoffrey Holder's 1986 book ,"Adam", intimating intimacy, who first suggested to me that the artistic giant might be gay Geoffrey Lamont Holder, 1930-2014 Circa 1954: Kindred spirits, handsome and highly talented brothers, Geoffrey and Boscoe Holder. Boscoe had been christened Arthur Aldwyn Holder... Continue reading

Born just after slavery's end, America's first self-made black woman millionaire, Madam C. J. Walker built the finest house inhabited by a 'Negro'. Today it is in jeopardy due to avarice and racism, that dismisses African American history and attainment as unimportant. Symbolic of the depth and breath of America's... Continue reading

Masterful magnate, Madame C. J. Walker, 1867-1919, the hair-care-beauty specialist who built the most spectacular residence ever owned by an African American in 1917: Villa Lewaro! Not for a moment was there ever the least doubt for her, as to why she was building such a showplace. Villa Lewaro was... Continue reading

Is this really respectful, traditional mourning attire, or not? NO! New York's Metropolitan Museum of Ar has announced its first autumn fashion exhibition since 2007! Perhaps eager to capitalize on a new lugubrious public sensibility nurtured by Dark Shadows, Six Feet Under and True Blood "Death Becomes Her: A Century... Continue reading

Masterful magnate, Madame C. J. Walker, 1867-1919, the hair-care-beauty specialist who built the most spectacular residence ever owned by an African American in 1917: Villa Lewaro! Not for a moment was there ever the least doubt for her, as to why she was building such a showplace. Villa Lewaro was... Continue reading

How adroit, for Vertner Tandy, Madame C. J. Walker and her daughter, A'Lelia Walker Robinson, to do just what whites would have maintained they were incapable of. Employing what a century ago was regarded as the epitome of "good taste", exercising disciplined restraint, they used Charlston's renowned Nathaniel Russell house... Continue reading

Masterful magnate, Madame C. J. Walker, the hair-care-beauty specialist who built the most spectacular residence ever owned by an African American in 1917: Villa Lewaro! Not for a moment was there ever the least doubt for her, as to why she was building such a showplace. Villa Lewaro was a... Continue reading

Sometimes we're lucky and get exactly what we want. Yet there's a limit to good fortune, Norval White or not. No, I'm not expressing regret over a duplex at the top of River House; I'm only lamenting a sad irony. For a century, tauted as the world's "African American Cultural... Continue reading

Circa 1914: 'Babs,' Irene Gibson, (1899-1973), the daughter of famous illustrator Charles Dana Gibson and the renowned beauty Irene Langhorne, she became Mrs. John J. Emery in 1926 Circa 1922: John J. Emery, (1898-1976) Based on his commissions to modern artist, Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg and Jean Miro, for embellishments... Continue reading

Elm Court, the garden elevation The most elaborate of the half dozen structures designed by Chicago’s talented practitioner Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) for men associated with the B. F. Goodrich Tire and Rubber Company, Elm Court was built for Arthur H. Marks (1874-1939) in 1910. Replete with no fewer... Continue reading

2012: A salvaged antique, the door of the elegant entrance to "Cornus Hill" has been altered by removing the panels Why is it that a man just as soon as he gets enough money builds a house much bigger than he needs? I have a house at Akron many times... Continue reading

2013 Fifty-four rooms make for rather a large house and Roundwood Manor, on Daisy Hill Farm in Hunting Valley, was in fact the second largest private dwelling to be built in Ohio. Smaller than sixty-five room Stan Hywet Hall, thirty miles South, it had only 600 acres, as opposed to... Continue reading