Civic Club / Estonian House

Last updated

Civic Club
(New York Estonian House)
Civic-club1.jpg
(2008)
Civic Club / Estonian House
Location243 East 34th Street
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates 40°44′42.5″N73°58′34.4″W / 40.745139°N 73.976222°W / 40.745139; -73.976222
Built1898–1899
ArchitectThomas A. Gray
Architectural style Beaux-Arts
NRHP reference No. 82003372 [1]
NYCL No.0980
Significant dates
Added to NRHPSeptember 16, 1982
Designated NYCLMarch 28, 1978

The Civic Club building, now the New York Estonian House (Estonian : New Yorgi Eesti Maja), is a four-story Beaux-Arts building located at 243 East 34th Street between Second and Third Avenues in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.

Contents

The house was originally built for the Civic Club in 1898–1899, having been designed by Brooklyn architect Thomas A. Gray. The Civic Club was founded by the local social reformer F. Norton Goddard (1861–1905) to reduce poverty and fight against gambling in the neighborhood. After Goddard's death in 1905 the club ceased to exist, but the building remained in the Goddard family until 1946, when Frederick Norton's widow sold it for $25,000 to The New York Estonian Educational Society, Inc., which is still the owner of the house today. The building underwent a $100,000 restoration in 1992. [2] [3]

Known as the Estonian House (Eesti Maja), the building houses a number of Estonian organizations such as the New York Estonian School (New Yorgi Eesti Kool), The Foundation for Estonian Arts and Letters (Eesti Kultuurifond Ameerika Ühendriikides), choruses for men and women and a folk dancing group. [3] [4] Vaba Eesti Sõna , the largest Estonian-language newspaper in the United States, is also published at the New York Estonian House. [5] [6] The Estonian House has become the main center of Estonian culture on the U.S. Eastern seaboard, especially amongst Estonian-Americans.

The building was designated as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turtle Bay, Manhattan</span> Neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City

Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends from roughly 43rd Street to 53rd Street, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River's western branch. The neighborhood is the site of the headquarters of the United Nations and the Chrysler Building. The Tudor City apartment complex is next to the southeast corner of Turtle Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">29 East 32nd Street</span> United States historic place

29 East 32nd Street is a building in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1889 and designed by Charles W. Romeyn in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, it originally housed the Grolier Club. It is now called the Madison and became a New York City designated landmark in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel J. Tilden House</span> Historic house in Manhattan, New York

The Samuel J. Tilden House is a historic townhouse pair at 14-15 Gramercy Park South in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1845, it was the home of Samuel J. Tilden (1814–1886), former governor of New York, a fierce opponent of the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall, and the losing presidential candidate in the disputed 1876 election. Tilden lived in the brownstone from 1860 until his death in 1886. From 1881 to 1884, Calvert Vaux combined it with the row house next door, also built in 1845, to make the building that now stands, which has been described as "the height of Victorian Gothic in residential architecture" with Italian Renaissance style elements. Since 1906 it has been the headquarters of the National Arts Club, a private arts club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper East Side Historic District</span> Historic district in Manhattan, New York

The Upper East Side Historic District is a landmarked historic district on the Upper East Side of New York City's borough of Manhattan, first designated by the city in 1981. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Its boundaries were expanded in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Landmarks Conservancy</span> American nonprofit organization

The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and reusing" historic structures in New York state. It provides technical and financial skills to owners of historic properties. In the half century since its 1973 founding, the conservancy has provided more than $60 million in grants and loans.

These are lists of New York City landmarks designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis G. Morris House</span> Historic house in Manhattan, New York

The Lewis Gouverneur and Nathalie Bailey Morris House is a historic building at 100 East 85th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The five-story dark red brick house was built in 1913-14 as a private residence for Lewis Gouverneur Morris, a financier and descendant of Gouverneur Morris, a signer of the Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution, and Alletta Nathalie Lorillard Bailey. In 1917, Morris & Pope is bankrupt but the family retains ownership of this house as well as their house in Newport, RI because his wife owned the property as collateral for a loan to him for his brokerage business. Alletta Nathalie Bailey Morris was a leading women's tennis player in the 1910s, winning the national indoor tennis championship in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East 73rd Street Historic District</span> Block of former carriage houses in Manhattan, New York

The East 73rd Street Historic District is a block of that street on the Upper East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, on the south side of the street between Lexington and Third Avenues. It is a neighborhood of small rowhouses built from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Raphael De Lamar House</span> United States historic place

The Joseph Raphael De Lamar House is a mansion at 233 Madison Avenue at the corner of 37th Street in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The house, currently the Consulate General of Poland, New York City, was built in 1902–1905 and was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert in the Beaux-Arts style. The De Lamar Mansion marked a stark departure from Gilbert's traditional style of French Gothic architecture and was instead robustly Beaux-Arts, heavy with rusticated stonework, balconies, and a colossal mansard roof. The mansion is the largest in Murray Hill, and one of the most spectacular in the city; the interiors are as lavish as the exterior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Hotel (New York City)</span> United States historic place

The Grand Hotel is located at 1232–1238 Broadway at the corner of West 31st Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James F. D. Lanier Residence</span> Historic house in Manhattan, New York

The James F. D. Lanier Residence, also known as the James F. D. and Harriet Lanier House is a historic house at 123 East 35th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red House (Manhattan)</span> Residential building in Manhattan, New York

The Red House is a 1903 apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was built on land owned by Canadian architect R. Thomas Short of the Beaux-Arts firm, Harde & Short. He and his firm designed and built the building in a free eclectic mix of French late Gothic. and English Renaissance motifs, using red brick and limestone with bold black-painted mullions in the fenestration. The salamander badge of Henri II appears high on the flanking wings and in the portico frieze. The center is recessed, behind a triple-arched screen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Trinity Church, St. Christopher House and Parsonage</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The Holy Trinity Church, St. Christopher House and Parsonage is a historic Episcopal church located at 312-316 and 332 East 88th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The building was built in 1897.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park Avenue Houses</span> Historic houses in Manhattan, New York

The Park Avenue Houses in New York City were built in 1909. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilsey House</span> Building in Manhattan, New York

Gilsey House is an eight-story, 300-room former hotel at 1200 Broadway at West 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a New York City landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sniffen Court Historic District</span> Historic district in Manhattan, New York

The Sniffen Court Historic District is a small close-ended mews, running perpendicularly southwest from East 36th Street, between Third and Lexington Avenues in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The district, one of the smallest in New York City, encompasses the entire alley, which consists of 10 two-story brick stables built in 1863–1864 in the early Romanesque Revival style. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Sniffen Court as a city historic district on June 21, 1966, and the district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Church of Christ, Scientist (New York City)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Manhattan is a 1903 building located at Central Park West and 96th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. The building is a designated New York City landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Met Fifth Avenue</span> Branch of art museum in New York City

The Met Fifth Avenue is the primary museum building for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The building is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turtle Bay Gardens Historic District</span> Historic district in Manhattan, New York

The Turtle Bay Gardens Historic District is a collection of twenty rowhouses in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. They consist of eleven houses on the south side of 49th Street and nine on the north side of 48th Street, between Second and Third Avenues. The rowhouses, dating from the 1860s, were renovated between 1918 and 1920 by Charlotte Hunnewell Sorchan to plans by Clarence Dean.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "Estonian House; Beaux-Arts Restoration". The New York Times. May 17, 1992. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Estonian House History, Board of Directors and Organizations". New York Estonian House. Archived from the original on August 3, 2009. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  4. "About | English". The Foundation for Estonian Arts and Letters. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  5. Goodnough, Abby (November 6, 1994). "Making it Work; Cold War Without End". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  6. "Estonia and the US". Estonian Consulate General in New York City. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2009.