The Wilbraham

The Wilbraham
A dark red brick apartment building, with brown stone facing the lower two of its seven stories, topped by a green mansard roof with dormer windows, seen from the opposite corner of its intersection. Taller buildings are beyond it, and at street level is a storefront with "Estex" written above it.
South elevation and west facade from across Fifth, 2011
Map
LocationManhattan, New York
Coordinates40°44′46″N 73°59′12″W / 40.7462°N 73.9867°W / 40.7462; -73.9867
Built1888–90
ArchitectDavid and John Jardine
Architectural styleRomanesque revival
NRHP reference No.100002386
NYCL No.2153
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 4, 2018
Designated NYCLJune 8, 2004

The Wilbraham is an apartment building at 282–284 Fifth Avenue and 1 West 30th Street in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The nine-story structure was designed by David and John Jardine in the Romanesque Revival style, with elements of the Renaissance Revival style, and occupies the northwestern corner of 30th Street and Fifth Avenue. It was built between 1888 and 1890 as a bachelor apartment hotel. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated the Wilbraham as an official city landmark, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building occupies a rectangular site and has a facade that is divided horizontally into three sections. The lowest two stories are clad in rusticated blocks of New Jersey brownstone, with storefronts near the western and eastern ends of the facade. The third through sixth stories are clad in Philadelphia red brick, the seventh story is clad in ashlar, and the eighth story is located within a mansard roof. The Wilbraham retains much of its original layout, which is composed of storefronts and a lobby on the lowest two floors, as well as apartments on the third through eighth floors. The building originally had 42 apartments and five servants' quarters, which by the 2010s had been consolidated into 38 apartments. Its bachelor flats each consisted of a bedroom and parlor, with a bathroom but no kitchen; the communal dining room was on the eighth floor.

The building was a speculative development by Scottish-American jeweler William Moir, at a time when clubs, hotels, and the first blocks of "French flats" were being developed in the area. When the Wilbraham opened in May 1890, china and glass importer Davis Collamore & Co. leased two floors of showrooms. John J. Gibbons, the leader of Davis Collamore & Co., bought the building in 1908 and sold it in 1927. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company took over the Wilbraham in 1934 and renovated it over the next year, adding some units with kitchens. By the 21st century, the building was still mostly residential.


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