170 Riverside Drive: The Rice Mansion

170 Riverside Drive

Date: 1901-1903

NB Number: NB 1350-1901

Type:  Mansion

Architect:  Herts & Tallant

Developer/Owner/Builder: Isaac L Rice

NYC Landmarks Designation:  Historic District and Individual Landmark

Landmark Designation Report: Individual Landmark, Riverside Drive- West End Historic District

National Register Designation: N/A

Primary Style:  Beaux-Arts

Primary Facade:   Red Brick and white marble

Stories: 4 and 3 (see structure)

Window Type/Material: See Structure

Roof Type/Material: Broad hipped/Spanish Tile

Structure:  The Rice Mansion, located at the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 89th Street, is faced in red brick with white marble detail and eclectically incorporates neo-Georgian and Beaux-Arts stylistic elements. The house is four stories in height at 89th Street and three stories at Riverside Drive, where it has a stepped approach through the large terraced garden. The house has a broad hipped roof, originally covered by Spanish tile, with deep bracketed eaves, small dormers, and three tall chimneys.

Riverside Drive Facade: This facade is three bays wide and has a bold two story marble arch in the center bay with a large console keystone; this contains a pedimented doorway with a pair of small windows above. Flanking the entrance are tall French doors with transoms that are placed above small carved balconies and framed by Doric columns which carry a modillioned entablature. At the third story, three casement windows are centered above the entrance; the end bays at the second and third stories have similar windows below transoms. The terraced garden is enclosed by a limestone balustraded wall with a wrought iron gate leading to broad steps.

West 89th Street Facade: Three bays wide, this facade is dominated by a curved two-story projection faced in marble, with a porte-cochere at the ground story. Between the openings of the porte-cochere is a pediment containing a sculpted relief depicting six children which may represent the six Rice children. At the second story, engaged Doric columns flank the windows and carry the modillioned entablature continued from the Riverside Drive facade. The upper two stories have a single casement window in each bay. A marble fronted garage entrance extends to the sidewalk at the east side of the West 89th Street facade and a brick and marble wing abuts the adjacent house at No. 344 West 89th Street.

Southern Elevation: The southern elevation has a curved projecting twostory wing, with Doric columns flanking a door with a transom above a balcqny at the first story, as on the Riverside Drive facade, and a tripartite window with a keystone at the second story.

Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD

Alterations: The roof has been resurfaced with a bituminous covering. At the West 89th Street facade, there is storm sash in the second story windows and part of the copper cornice has been removed and partially replaced. The Riverside Drive facade has storm sash above the first story and the door is not original. The sculpted relief on the West 89th Street facade has badly weathered

History: The Rice Mansion (a designated New York City Landmark) is one of only two surviving freestanding mansions on Riverside Drive. Built in 1901-03 for Isaac L. Rice, a wealthy lawyer and entrepreneur, the mansion was originally named Villa Julia for Rice’s wife, Julia Barnett Rice, one of the first American women to receive an MD degree. It was designed by the noted architectural firm of Herts & Tallant, at that time just beginning to make a reputation in theater architecture, and is one of the firm’s rare residential commissions in New York City. Henry B. Herts also collaborated on the Congregation B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue (1917-18), and the associated Community House (1927-28), both within this district. Sold in 1907 to Solomon Schinasi, a partner in Schinasi Brothers, the largest independent manufacturer of Turkish cigarettes in the world, the house was subsequently sympathetically altered. Occupied by members of the Schinasi family until 1945, the estate of Leon Schinasi (Solomon’s son) sold the mansion in 1954 to the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, the current owner occupants. Selected References: Landmarks Preservation Commission, Isaac L. Rice Mansion Designation Report (New York, 1980), LP-1089. New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, H2370. New York Public Library, Photographic Views of New York City 1870’s-1970’s from the Collections of the New York Public Library (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1981), microfiche nos. 0965 B1. Peter Salwen, Upper West Side Story: A History and Guide (New York, 1989), 321