The Smith Mansion at 1033 Fifth Ave: A dignified Beaux Arts design sandwiched between apartment buildings
- The original 1870 brownstone facade was replaced with limestone and decorated with Louis XV motifs
- Bought by the Iranian government in 1960, it is home to the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations
In 1924, the abutting houses to the south were demolished and replaced with an apartment building designed by J. E. R. Carpenter. The following year, the same thing happened on the north side.
Have you ever passed by an interesting residential building in New York City and wanted to know more about its history? In this series, Brick Underground teams up with Tom Miller, creator of Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog about Manhattan buildings and other historic architecture. Each week, we run an excerpt from the Daytonian’s archives with a link to the full article.
In 1870, Harriet Track erected four elegant homes on Fifth Avenue between 84th and 85th streets. Designed by Stephen D. Hatch, the American basement plan homes were four stories tall with an attic. Among them was No. 1033. Faced in brownstone, its French Second Empire design was the latest fashion.
After being purchased as an investment property and leased to the future head of Lord & Taylor, the mansion was sold in March 1910 to Charles Sooysmith for $150,000 (about $5.24 million in 2026 terms). Plans were filed for a replacement house, but for some reason, Sooysmith changed his mind. Two years later, he resold it to George C. and Annie S. Smith.
The Smiths commissioned the architectural firm of Hoppin & Koen to bring the outdated mansion into the 20th century. The brownstone facade was removed to be replaced with limestone. Hoppin & Koen's dignified Beaux Arts design was decorated with elegant, French Classic Louis XV motifs, like the panels of double-swags and ribbons below the second-floor windows, and the swags and wreaths below the third-floor openings. Two segmentally arched dormers peered over the stone balustrade that fronted the mansard.
In 1924, the abutting houses to the south were demolished and replaced with an apartment building designed by J. E. R. Carpenter. The following year, the property to the north was filled with another J. E. R. Carpenter-designed apartment building. The Smith mansion was now sandwiched between two soaring structures.
The mansion was then owned by a succession of celebrities: singer Morton Downey (father of talk show host and actor Morton Downey Jr.) followed by actress Eva Gabor, who took her mother’s advice to chop it up into six apartments, including a triplex.
The Government of Iran purchased 1033 Fifth Ave. in 1960 as the residence of Iran's United Nations mission chief. The mansion—sandwiched between two 1920s apartment buildings—is home to the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations today.
For more on the property and the lives of the people that lived here, check out the full article.
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