The elegant carriage houses of East 66th Street

Wherever rich New Yorkers built their homes in the 19th century, they also built private stables for their expensive horses and carriages—with upstairs living quarters for a coachman or groom.

So when Upper Fifth Avenue along Central Park became the city’s new Millionaire Mile during the Gilded Age, certain Upper East Side blocks to the east of Park Avenue were turned into unofficial stable rows.

East 66th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues is one of these former stable rows, with three spectacular restored carriage houses surviving today.

The twin beauties at 110 and 112 East 66th Street (at top and above, in 1934) off Park Avenue are stunning examples.

Built in 1890, these two Romanesque Revival carriages houses were purchased eight years later by William C. Whitney, who lived a few blocks away in a mansion at East 68th Street at Fifth Avenue (at left).

Whitney was a financier and secretary of the Navy under Grover Cleveland, according to the Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report made by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1981.

Down the block at number 126 East 66th Street is what remains of another delightful carriage house, also with a Whitney connection. This one is three stories, and it too reflects the Romanesque Revival style, according to the LPC report.

Number 126 was commissioned in 1895 by sugar baron Henry O. Havemeyer, whose mansion residence stood at One East 66th Street.

After it was completed, Havemeyer sold it to businessman, yachtsman, and Standard Oil trustee Col. Oliver Hazard Payne, who happened to be Havemeyer’s neighbor as well as the brother-in-law of William C. Whitney.

A 1902 article in Outing magazine called the Havemeyer-Payne carriage house “always as clean as a new pin, with space enough for every style of pleasure vehicle that a gentleman’s fancy can picture.”

More than a century later, 110 East 66th Street is home to a plastic surgeon’s office, while 112 appears to be a single-family dwelling.

Number 126 was partly demolished at some point in the 20th century. Even without its other half, what remains is still something special.

The Upper East Side is home to more former stable rows with enchanting carriage houses, such as East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues.

[Second photo: MCNY; fourth photo: MCNY; fifth photo: Google]

Tags: 126 East 66th Street, Carriage Houses NYC, Carriage Houses Upper East Side, East 66th Street Stables, Old Stables NYC, Stable Row New York City