34th Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House Location, House History from 1896 to 2006

The site of the 34th Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2006 is located at 4 East 75th Street in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, less than a block from Central Park. This neoclassical French Renaissance style house was built for Nathaniel McCready, a shipping and real estate tycoon, by Trowbridge, Colt & Livingston in 1896. The 20,000 square foot limestone townhouse it is 50 feet wide with more than 25 rooms connected inside by a marble staircase and elevator.

The exquisite architectural features are truly showstopping. At the top of the building, from the fifth floor and up past the slope of the pitched roof, project three highly decorative gabled dormer windows, complete with faux columns and entablature. Topping it all off at the horizontal roof line is a patina pastel-colored frieze in a repeating band pattern of two alternating designs in low relief.

There are many beautiful and intricate metalwork features throughout and the along the grand central marble staircase, and white/black checkerboard marble floors at the landings. Stanley Mortimer, owner from 1919 to 1939, had the bronze gate at the entrance designed for him by Carrére & Hastings (designers of the New York Public Library).

Katrina Arts-Meyer Ltd. "A Collector's Study"

Kips Bay Decorator Show House Room: “A Collector’s Study” by Katina Arts-Meyer Ltd.marries the original marble floor in her design. Photo by NY Social Diary.

Mortimer sold the property in 1939 to IBM founder, Thomas Watson Jr, who lived in it until his death in 1956. It was then purchased by the widow of movie mogul, William Fox who lived in it under her death ten years later. It was in 1965 that it was sold to Rebakah Harkness for $625,000, which was the beginning of a decade of much international traffic and attention. Harkness was a wealthy Standard Oil heiress, patron of the arts, “mommy dearest” of the Upper East Side, and a hot topic in her own right. She was the subject of a book written by Craig Unger in 1988 titled “Blue Blood," inside of which the legacy of this outstanding New York property and the life of Rebekah Harkness is provided in delicious detail.

Rebekah Harkness hired Rogers, Butler & Burgun to turn the mansion into a dance company school. It was modeled after the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, complete with private living areas and home to four studios, 35 dancers, 50 trainers, and 10 staff members. The box office and coat room were built into the ground floor entrance hall, a stage was added to the 3rd floor grand ballroom, upper floor bedrooms and living quarters were converted into dance rehearsal studios, music rooms, workshops and office. One room with a beamed ceiling became the library with leather furniture and velvet wall coverings. The elevator cage was decorated to resemble a butterfly-encrusted jewel box. Works of Picasso, Braque, Derain, and Matisse were displayed in an art gallery, formerly the coach room, on the ground floor. Several works of Salvador Dali, a longtime friend of Rebekah Harkness, including a jeweled golden “Chalice of Life,” were also displayed within the rooms.

The transformed mansion became a site for dance performances and a magnet to many top dance names and international celebrities from 1965 to 1977. There are thousands of references to it online, and dance libraries throughout the world contain as many archives of the Harkness Ballet programs. At its height, it was reviewed by the dance critics in major national and international newspapers for its performances at home and abroad.

In 1987, the house was purchased for $6.9 million by Jacqui Safra and Jean Doumanian, who have remained owners of the property. A Harkness Ballet canopy still stretches from the front entrance out to the curb on the street. It has remained empty a majority of the time with only workers visible performing on-again, off-again renovations which started in 2000.

Woody Allen, former business partner of producer Jean Doumanian, recorded “The Bunk Project”—an album of traditional New Orleans jazz featuring the New York Jazz Ensemble with Woody Allen on clarinet—over several jam sessions there in 1993. He is also reported to have thrown a New Year's Eve party there in 1979. The guest list included Robert De Niro, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Sylvester Stallone and Bianca Jagger.

Last year the Jacqui Safra put the property up for sale with a $55 million price tag on it, reputed to be the highest price for a townhouse in Manhattan. The Kips Decorator Show House committee selected the property for its annual show house event resulting in a complete interior makeover from top to bottom on all five floors. The makeover has been a complete success and involved the efforts of international designers, showrooms, industry sponsors (this year Philips, Electrolux, and Molteni), and many volunteers. The grand opening and public viewing was held between the months of April and May, 2006.