The only mansion currently available for purchase on Fifth Avenue is this work of architectural art by Stanford White located between East 79th and 78th Streets. Nestled between the Ukrainian Institute of America and Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the mansion is directly across from the bucolic oasis of Central Park and is located less than a block away from the internationally renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art.

New York, New York—The only mansion currently available for purchase on Fifth Avenue is this work of architectural art by Stanford White located between East 79th and 78th Streets. Nestled between the Ukrainian Institute of America and Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the mansion is directly across from the bucolic oasis of Central Park and is located less than a block away from the internationally renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

“Inventory levels for prime real estate in Manhattan are at historic lows, and this is particularly the case for single houses on Fifth Avenue,” says Neil Palmer, Chief Executive Officer for Christie’s International Real Estate. “In addition this mansion has been placed on the market at a realistic US$49 million, which represents a rare proposition for the international community who wish to own a landmark home in one of the world’s greatest cities.”

Designed in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style, the mansion still remarkably possesses all the interior details placed there by Stanford White, true to the original floor plan. Encompassing over 15,000 total square feet on six levels, this mansion is unique in possessing an incomparable historical and artistic provenance, one that can never be duplicated. It is truly a home for the ages.

“The location is beyond compare,” adds Kathleen Coumou, the company’s Senior Vice President based in New York City. “This stretch of Fifth Avenue is known as Millionaire’s Row because during the Gilded Age, the city’s wealthy constructed urban palaces in this exclusive neighborhood. Even then, as now, savvy investors realize the value in owning property on a street as magnificent as Fifth Avenue.”

“The fact that Henry Cook, for whom this house was built in 1907, originally owned the entire city block and placed a height restriction on every house means that this mansion is perfectly positioned on the last Fifth Avenue block that still has only limestone mansions,” says Paula Del Nunzio, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Brown Harris Stevens. “The view from the roof is like a mesa in the middle of the city, with the glory of Central Park spread out before you.”

No architect dominated the Gilded Age like Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White. For almost 30 years, from 1879 to 1912, the esteemed firm was awarded the most glorious projects of the day: a redesign of The White House, Pennsylvania Station, the Century and Metropolitan Clubs in New York, and the Boston Public Library.

The firm’s creative genius was Stanford White. The most prestigious families of the time—Villard, Vanderbilt, Whitney, Pulitzer—insisted that he design their estates. Possessing the aesthetic of a Renaissance master, White’s patrons sought his taste not only in the architecture of their homes but also in choosing the furnishings, paneling, tapestries, art, landscaping, and even the planning of the grand social events that would be held there.

White’s last designs, the culminations of his prodigious career, were the Henry Cook house, 973 Fifth Avenue, and its neighbor, the Payne Whitney house, completed in 1907 and now occupied by the French Embassy. Cook, who originally owned the entire block of Fifth to Madison Avenues, from East 79th to East 78th Streets, limited the height of all buildings with deed restrictions that remain to this day.