Incredible, right? Called the Navarro Flats, this massive fortress of Gilded-Age extravagance was built on Central Park South at Seventh Avenue in the mid-1880s.
Twice the size of the Dakota, the Navarro Flats was also early example of apartment-style living. At the time, most New Yorkers of means still preferred living in a single brownstone or townhouse.
But “French Flats” were catching on, and the developer, Jose Francisco de Navarro, expected to make a mint selling luxury apartments to new-money New Yorkers.
He spared no expense. The seven-bedroom duplexes had as much as 7,000 square feet of floor space, including a drawing room, library, and billiards room (but only two bathrooms per apartment).
Each $20,000 duplex was part of one of eight townhouses within the complex, an arrangement thought to make the idea of apartment life more palatable, reports Nathan Silver’s Lost New York.
So why isn’t such a spectacular mishmash of Queen Anne and Gothic architecture there anymore?
Some apartments sold, but mostly, New Yorkers didn’t bite. In 1888, de Navarro was fending off lawsuits from mortgage holders, and the enormous complex met with foreclosure.
By the 1920s, it was gone–replaced by newer luxury residences the Hampshire House and Essex House.
[Middle Photo: NYPL Digital Collection]
Tags: Central Park Apartments 1880s, Central Park South, French Flats New York City, Gilded Age apartments, Incredible apartment buildings New York City, Navarro Central Park South, Navarro Flats, New York in the 1880s, New York's luxury apartments, Old apartment buildings New York City
Ephemeral New York 
December 7, 2013 at 5:00 am |
Fabulous, simply fabulous. Thanks for posting!
December 7, 2013 at 1:26 pm |
Wow. Wonder if the are any interior shots
December 7, 2013 at 7:52 pm |
I’ve never come across any, but if I do, I’ll post!
December 7, 2013 at 9:11 pm |
There was also a Navarro Hotel on Central Park South until the early 80s, when it was gut-renovated into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Any connection?
March 20, 2015 at 6:01 am |
I stayed at the “St Moritz” Hotel / Central Park South in April 1996. (The rooms were nice but very dated.) I believe THAT is the site
(after some major changes), re-named “The Ritz-Carlton.” It was located right next to “The Mickey Mantle Restaurant” and across from the Hoss-Carriages at the curb of Central Park.
Last two times we visited, (2005) we hauled into Leona H.’s swanky joint a couple of doors down the block. The tallllllll location provided a terrific view of the glorious, golden-orange unveiling in the wee morning hours, of Christo & wife’s ‘THE GATES’!
December 8, 2013 at 4:45 pm |
What a beautiful building, the second picture makes it appear mystical, like a huge fairy tale. Reminds me of the time I saw the Ansonia Hotel in the 1960s, what an impressive building.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nyc-architecture.com/UWS/UWS018-B01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nyc-architecture.com/UWS/UWS031.htm&h=479&w=720&sz=87&tbnid=ZI9TTQkoCIU3bM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&zoom=1&usg=__Mr0U6gU2oJoTdZXmT4rd2K6OxOc=&docid=1eynly2RpMX6LM&sa=X&ei=LaGkUvm3Ac7IsAS-_IHgAg&sqi=2&ved=0CEkQ9QEwAw
This old building was more remarkable.
December 15, 2013 at 4:53 pm |
What a travesty. Can you imagine how much one of these duplexes would have sold for today?
October 24, 2016 at 7:49 am |
[…] the palatial apartment houses of the 1880s—the Dakota, the Chelsea, and the ill-fated Navarro on Central Park South among others—the gem on 17th Street was all about refined, small-scale […]
October 24, 2016 at 5:48 pm |
My father lived in the Navarro Hotel on CPS for a while in 1966. I vaguely remember a gloomy one-bedroom apartment with a tiny kitchen, and the building as being crammed between its much grander neighbors.
September 19, 2019 at 1:51 am |
Being an Architect, I’d love to see floor plans.
January 13, 2020 at 4:59 am |
[…] lights, wall safes, private restaurants, billiards rooms, servant quarters, a chauffeurs’ lounge, even a rooftop farm were among the offerings […]
March 21, 2020 at 12:08 am |
Another barbarian act of the permanent change of NYC, the destruction of such a fantastic piece of art as the ever changing city has done with many other marvelous pieces of architecture through history. As a New Yorker when traveling around the World and enjoying cities, like London, Paris, Granada, Rome, Saint Petersburg etc etc etc I feel sad.
January 18, 2021 at 2:00 am |
[…] had gone up on East 17th Street. The Dakota on the West Side, The Osborne on 57th Street, and the spectacular Navarro Flats on 59th Street were also filling up with […]