Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House

Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House
Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House
	The main elevation of the façade on Madison Avenue
General information
Type	Mansion
Architectural style	French Renaissance
Address	867 Madison Avenue
Town or city	New York, NY 10021
Country	United States
Coordinates	40°46′17″N 73°57′55″W / 40.7715°N 73.9654°W
Current tenants	Ralph Lauren Corporation
Construction started	1894
Completed	1898
Cost	$1,000,000 (equivalent to $36,624,000 in 2023)
Client	Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo
Owner	867 Madison, LLC
Technical details
Floor count	4
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Kimball & Thompson
	Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	New York City Landmark No. 0927
NRHP reference No.	80002727
NYCL No.	0927
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 6, 1980
Designated NYCL	July 13, 1976
References

The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House (also 867 Madison Avenue and the Rhinelander Mansion) is a French Renaissance Revival mansion at the southeastern corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1894 and 1898, it was designed by Alexander Mackintosh of the architectural firm of Kimball & Thompson. The house was commissioned by the heiress Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo, who never moved in. It was converted to a commercial building in the 20th century, becoming the New York City flagship store of the Ralph Lauren accessory and clothing company in the 1980s. The mansion is a New York City designated landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House is four and a half stories tall and has a limestone façade modeled on a French château. Although storefront windows have been installed on the ground story over the years, the upper stories retain decorative details such as ornamental carvings and round-arched windows. The red roof contains various stone and copper dormers as well. The original interiors of the building are very poorly documented, as it was abandoned upon completion; the second story had various communal rooms, while the third and fourth stories originally had bedrooms. The interior layout has been significantly altered over the years, and few of the original interior plans and decorations survive.

Waldo bought the site in 1882 but did not develop it for more than a decade. Waldo refused to move into the house for unknown reasons, and she also refused to maintain, rent out, or sell the building. The Dime Savings Bank of New York took ownership in 1912, and two developers attempted to build apartments on the site in the 1910s. The building was partially converted to commercial use in 1920, when the antique dealer Olivotti & Company moved into the lower stories. Through the early 1980s, the building was sold several more times and hosted various commercial and residential tenants. In 1984, the designer Ralph Lauren leased the building and had it renovated to serve as the flagship store of his company, which opened in 1986. Ralph Lauren has been the mansion's sole tenant since then, though the house was sold several more times after Ralph Lauren moved in. The building became a Ralph Lauren menswear store in 2010.

^ ^a ^b ^c New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 163–64. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
^ ^a ^b White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.

[nycland-1] New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 163–64. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.

[aia-2] White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.

[nris-3] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.

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