Audubon Terrace

Audubon Terrace (also known as the Audubon Terrace Historic District) is a group of eight early-20th century Beaux Arts/American Renaissance^[1] buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, in New York City, United States. The complex is bounded by Broadway to the east, 155th Street to the south, and 156th Street to the north. Home to several cultural institutions, the architecturally complementary buildings, which take up most of a city block, are arranged in two parallel rows facing each other across a common plaza. The complex is directly across 155th Street from Trinity Church Cemetery.

Audubon Terrace Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
New York City Landmark
(2008)
Location	Between Broadway & Riverside Drive, between West 155th & 156th Streets Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°50′0″N 73°56′49″W
Built	1907
Architect	Charles Pratt Huntington
Architectural style	Beaux Arts/American Renaissance[1]
NRHP reference No.	80002667
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 30, 1980[2]
Designated NYCL	January 9, 1979[3]

A – formerly American Geographical Society, now Boricua College
B – Hispanic Society Library
C – Church of Our Lady of Esperanza
D – American Academy of Arts and Letters Auditorium
E – American Academy of Arts and Letters (AAA&L)
F – New entrance link
G – formerly American Numismatic Society, now AAA&L Annex
H – Hispanic Society of America
I – formerly Museum of the American Indian, now Hispanic Society

Although the 157th Street station on the New York City Subway's 1 train is one block away, the complex's location considerably north of Midtown Manhattan has resulted in a perceived detriment to easy access for visitors.^[4] The complex was designated a New York City landmark in 1979,^[3] and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.^[2]

History

Named for naturalist and artist John James Audubon, on whose former land the complex sits, Audubon Terrace was commissioned in 1907 by Archer Milton Huntington, the heir to the Southern Pacific Railroad fortune, a philanthropist and a Spanish scholar.^[5] The master plan for the site was drawn up by his cousin, architect Charles P. Huntington, in 1908.^[1] Archer Huntington chose the location at a time when the two centuries old northward march of fashionable residences and cultural institutions seemed likely to transform the largely rural area. He assumed that other museums and learned societies would soon join him, creating an intellectual citadel atop the island's heights. The widespread adoption of the elevator and steel framing at this time, however, led Manhattan real estate to begin to develop vertically instead and New York's other great cultural institutions failed to follow suit – in fact, most of the organizations which located on Audubon Terrace were headed by or strongly connected to Huntington.^[6]

In 1904, Huntington had founded the Hispanic Society of America, and had commissioned Charles Huntington to design a building for the new institution on the grounds of what would become Audubon Terrace. Huntington's original building was constructed from 1904–08, with a west wing by Huntington added in 1915 along with an east wing designed by Erik Strindberg. In 1923–30, a library for the Society was added across the plaza, designed by H. Brooks Price.^[3] The next institutions to locate on the site all had their buildings designed by Charles Huntington: the American Numismatic Society, built in 1907, the American Geographical Society (1911), the Spanish-speaking Church of Our Lady of Esperanza (1909–12; West 156th Street addition and remodeling in 1924 by Lawrence G. White, Stanford White's son^[3]), and the Museum of the American Indian (1915–22).

In 1921–23, William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White designed an Anglo-Italian Renaissance building for the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, which was followed by an auditorium and gallery for them designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1928–30.^[1][5] The two organizations merged as the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976.^[3]

The plaza surrounding these buildings is the location of a number of sculptures executed by Anna Hyatt Huntington, Archer Huntington's wife, between 1927 and 1944.^[3] These include a large equestrian statue of the legendary Spanish knight El Cid (1927), in front of the Hispanic Society Library.^[7][8]

Resident institutions

A number of the original institutions are no longer resident on the Terrace:^[4]

• The American Geographical Society, founded in 1851, moved its collection of maps, photographs, books, journals and atlases – the largest map collection in the world – to the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1978.^[1][9] The AGS was replaced on Audubon Terrace by a campus of Boricua College, a bilingual college.
• The Heye Foundation's Museum of the American Indian (founded in 1916) merged into the National Museum of the American Indian, a component of the Smithsonian Institution which opened in 2004 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with a small permanent gallery remaining in New York City in the Custom House at Bowling Green.^[1] The space occupied by the Museum of the American Indian is now used by the Hispanic Society.^[1]
• The American Numismatic Society, founded in 1858, moved in 2008 to a facility on Varick Street in downtown Manhattan.^[10] This building has been taken over by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as an Annex,^[1] and the space between it and the original Academy building was converted in 2009 into a new entrance link designed by James Vincent Czajka with Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.^[1]

Of the remaining original institutions, the Hispanic Society is renovating its existing space as well as expanding into the space left vacant by the Museum of the American Indian, a project that will take several years to complete. A plan to move the Hispanic Society downtown was contemplated in 2006 but ultimately not carried out.^[11] Some of its collection is on tour, and so far, has been sent to Madrid, Mexico City, and Albuquerque.^[12] The Society maintains a library and a museum with an important collection of art and artifacts from the Iberian Peninsula, with some items from Spanish America.^[13]

The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898. Its gallery is open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 pm to 4 pm, except from March to June, when it is open Thursdays through Sundays from 1 pm to 4 pm.^[14]

See also

• List of New York City Landmarks
• National Register of Historic Places listings in New York County, New York
• Audubon Mural Project
• Huntington family

References

Notes

1. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 558–561. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
3. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission "Audubon Terrace Historic District Designation Report" Archived February 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine (January 9, 1979)
4. Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes: Audubon Terrace", The New York Times, (May 17, 1987) accessed March 30, 2008
5. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
6. "Additional Institutions Founded and Funded by Archer M. Huntington". A Collection in Context: The Hispanic Society of America. Columbia University. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
7. "Anna Hyatt Huntington" Archived April 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine on the Hispanic Society website, accessed March 30, 2008
8. Framberger, David J. & Olshansky, Joan R. (December 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Audubon Terrace Historic District". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved March 19, 2011. See also: "Accompanying eight photos".
9. "Timeline of the American Geographical Society" Archived October 23, 2013, at the Wayback Machine on the AGS website
10. "About the ANS" on the American Numismatic Society website]
11. Hispanic Society Board Endorses Plan to Leave Washington Heights for Downtown, The New York Times (March 23, 2006), accessed March 30, 2008
12. "Visitor Information". June 4, 2015.
13. Hispanic Society – Collections Archived April 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 30, 2008
14. Informational plaques at Audubon Terrace

Bibliography

• Walsh, Kevin (2006). Forgotten New York. New York: Collins. pp. 206. ISBN 0-06-114502-5.

External links

• Audubon Terrace Gallery Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine – 96 photos