Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Inside NYC's First Modernist Home, Now On The Market For $5 Million
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 24, 2018
Modified Jul 24, 2018
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
View all 8
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 24, 2018
Modified Jul 24, 2018
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
In 1938, a few years after it was built, photographer Berenice Abbott shot the facade of a home at 211 East 48th Street, one that was strikingly different from the old brownstone immediately next to it, as well as almost everything else in NYC. We've checked in on this house before, which was designed by Swiss-born architect William Lescaze and is considered to be the "first modernist home" in New York City.
E.B. White once wrote that the home sat "directly across the street from my grandmother's building," and was a "celebrated architectural landmark [from] William Lescaze, [who] must have been dreaming about South Miami Beach when he built his glass-brick and stucco Art Deco dream house." He went on to call Lescaze "a true modernist whose soon-to-be septuagenarian town house puts the much more recent buildings nearby to shame."
And now... it's on the market for $4.95 million.
The townhouse in 1938, as photographed by Berenice Abbott. (Courtesy of the NYPL)
When it was completed around 1934, it was not only considered the first modernist home in the city, but also one of the first structures in America to use glass bricks, and the first residence in NYC with central air conditioning. Lescaze (who died in 1969) used it as his personal home and studio, and it remained in his family until the 1970s, when the townhouse was landmarked in 1976.
In a 1936 profile on Lescaze, The New Yorker also declared he had "taken the lead in Modernist architecture in this country." On top of his own 48th Street home, he built the Raymond Kramer house at 32 East 74th — that one was put on the market in December with an asking price of $20 million. He was also the design lead for the Williamsburg Houses in Brooklyn in 1937, "a pioneering 20-building modernist housing project modeled on European examples."
However, "whatever lead Lescaze took in the 1930s fizzled," according to a piece in the NY Times, "and after the white-hot brilliance of the Kramer house and a 1940 successor at 124 East 70th Street, the Norman house, his portfolio is rather tame. That period includes buildings like his 1960 Civil Courthouse on Lafayette Street, and his 1969 office behemoth at 1 New York Plaza."
The Lescaze home in 1934. (Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York; X2010.7.2.5976X, 2010.7.2.6074)
In 1984, NY Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger wrote about Lescaze, calling him "a serious modernist" who was "convinced that the clean lines and simple geometric forms of the International Style could make for a better life." Or as Lescaze himself put it, "The visible results are beautiful, economical and efficient. The unseen results are greater happiness, better health for a greater number of human beings, the satisfaction of being honest and of being in tune with the life of our own times."
The home features "a glass-enclosed hydraulic elevator, a Boffi kitchen, central air conditioning, new structural steel inside and out, and a large north-facing courtyard with solid glass block skylights." A better life, indeed. (Just pull up all that carpeting.)
Tagged
architecture
modernist
real estate
william lescaze
original
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Inside the hidden chamber that controls Lincoln Center's magnificent fountain
Gothamist went behind the scenes to learn how the NYC landmark keeps its majestic waters flowing.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 23, 2026
In the algorithm age, NYC college radio DJs are still broadcasting the funky stuff
We dropped by WNYU to see what the next generation of radio DJs is up to. The answer is "Br00tal Beats To Study/Relax To."
By
James Ramsay
Arts & Entertainment
In the algorithm age, NYC college radio DJs are still broadcasting the funky stuff
We dropped by WNYU to see what the next generation of radio DJs is up to. The answer is "Br00tal Beats To Study/Relax To."
By
James Ramsay
A Queens prop shop shutters, bunnies find a home uptown, and more openings and closings
By
Hannah Frishberg
A new film invites you to eavesdrop on one of the greatest conversations in NYC history
By
Sonia Rao
The Knicks are NBA champions. Now they have to start dressing the part.
By
Sonia Rao
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .