740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building
Summary (from the publisher): For seventy-five years, it’s been Manhattan’s richest apartment building, and one of the most lusted-after addresses in the world. One apartment had 37 rooms, 14 bathrooms, 43 closets, 11 working fireplaces, a private elevator, and his-and-hers saunas; another at one time had a live-in service staff of 16. To this day, it is steeped in the purest luxury, the kind most of us could only imagine, until now.
The last great building to go up along New York’s Gold Coast, construction on 740 Park finished in 1930. Since then, 740 has been home to an ever-evolving cadre of our wealthiest and most powerful families, some of America’s (and the world’s) oldest money—the kind attached to names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Bouvier, Chrysler, Niarchos, Houghton, and Harkness—and some whose names evoke the excesses of today’s monied elite: Kravis, Koch, Bronfman, Perelman, Steinberg, and Schwarzman. All along, the building has housed titans of industry, political power brokers, international royalty, fabulous scam-artists, and even the lowest scoundrels.
The book begins with the tumultuous story of the building’s construction. Conceived in the bubbling financial, artistic, and social cauldron of 1920’s Manhattan, 740 Park rose to its dizzying heights as the stock market plunged in 1929—the building was in dire financial straits before the first apartments were sold. The builders include the architectural genius Rosario Candela, the scheming businessman James T. Lee (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s grandfather), and a raft of financiers, many of whom were little more than white-collar crooks and grand-scale hustlers.
Once finished, 740 became a magnet for the richest, oldest families in the country: the Brewsters, descendents of the leader of the Plymouth Colony; the socially-registered Bordens, Hoppins, Scovilles, Thornes, and Schermerhorns; and top executives of the Chase Bank, American Express, and U.S. Rubber. Outside the walls of 740 Park, these were the people shaping America culturally and economically. Within those walls, they were indulging in all of the Seven Deadly Sins.
As the social climate evolved throughout the last century, so did 740 Park: after World War II, the building’s rulers eased their more restrictive policies and began allowing Jews (though not to this day African Americans) to reside within their hallowed walls. Nowadays, it is full to bursting with new money, people whose fortunes, though freshly-made, are large enough to buy their way in.
At its core this book is a social history of the American rich, and how the locus of power and influence has shifted haltingly from old bloodlines to new money. But it’s also much more than that: filled with meaty, startling, often tragic stories of the people who lived behind 740’s walls, the book gives us an unprecedented access to worlds of wealth, privilege, and extraordinary folly that are usually hidden behind a scrim of money and influence. This is, truly, how the other half—or at least the other one hundredth of one percent—lives.
The last great building to go up along New York’s Gold Coast, construction on 740 Park finished in 1930. Since then, 740 has been home to an ever-evolving cadre of our wealthiest and most powerful families, some of America’s (and the world’s) oldest money—the kind attached to names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Bouvier, Chrysler, Niarchos, Houghton, and Harkness—and some whose names evoke the excesses of today’s monied elite: Kravis, Koch, Bronfman, Perelman, Steinberg, and Schwarzman. All along, the building has housed titans of industry, political power brokers, international royalty, fabulous scam-artists, and even the lowest scoundrels.
The book begins with the tumultuous story of the building’s construction. Conceived in the bubbling financial, artistic, and social cauldron of 1920’s Manhattan, 740 Park rose to its dizzying heights as the stock market plunged in 1929—the building was in dire financial straits before the first apartments were sold. The builders include the architectural genius Rosario Candela, the scheming businessman James T. Lee (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s grandfather), and a raft of financiers, many of whom were little more than white-collar crooks and grand-scale hustlers.
Once finished, 740 became a magnet for the richest, oldest families in the country: the Brewsters, descendents of the leader of the Plymouth Colony; the socially-registered Bordens, Hoppins, Scovilles, Thornes, and Schermerhorns; and top executives of the Chase Bank, American Express, and U.S. Rubber. Outside the walls of 740 Park, these were the people shaping America culturally and economically. Within those walls, they were indulging in all of the Seven Deadly Sins.
As the social climate evolved throughout the last century, so did 740 Park: after World War II, the building’s rulers eased their more restrictive policies and began allowing Jews (though not to this day African Americans) to reside within their hallowed walls. Nowadays, it is full to bursting with new money, people whose fortunes, though freshly-made, are large enough to buy their way in.
At its core this book is a social history of the American rich, and how the locus of power and influence has shifted haltingly from old bloodlines to new money. But it’s also much more than that: filled with meaty, startling, often tragic stories of the people who lived behind 740’s walls, the book gives us an unprecedented access to worlds of wealth, privilege, and extraordinary folly that are usually hidden behind a scrim of money and influence. This is, truly, how the other half—or at least the other one hundredth of one percent—lives.
Review: Built in 1929, 740 Park was designed to be the most expensive and exclusive apartment building in the world. Built by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis's grandfather James Thomas Aloysius Lee, it became Jackie's childhood home. Containing 31 total units, each is more mansion than apartment. Most have between "ten and thirteen spacious rooms, galleries, conservatories, and loggias, all designed to offer maximum sunlight and cross-ventilation" (41). The building has 506 rooms in all and occupies twenty-two thousand square feet. One apartment alone has 34 rooms and seventeen baths on three floors. "Seven forty has long been a sort of self-deposit box for brand-name heirs to the fortunes of Standard Oil, Gulf Oil, Anaconda Copper, New York Central, Havemeyer Sugar, International Harvester, Seagram, Campbell's soup, Chrysler, Marshall Field's, Gimbel, Bonita Banana, Pullman, Friendly Ice Cream, Avon Products, Milliken, and currently Mosler Safe, Time Warner, Loews, Estee Lauder, and TV Guide" (7).
The first sections of this book deal with the planning and building of 740 Park, as well as background on how ownership, which is comprised by shares, functions. There is also a detailed breakdown of the expenses of building as well as ongoing maintenance costs. Later sections dive into the many owners and tenants of the building. Although in the early years, and during subsequent economic recessions, the price to own an apartment was relatively minor, today only millionaires can afford both the purchase price and the monthly maintenance fees, which run into the thousands.
The strength of this book lies in the inside look inside the lives of the some of the richest individuals in the world. The behind the scenes look at how they live and socialize, as well as descriptions of the magnitude of their apartment mansions and sumptuous decor were fascinating. For instance, in the 1950s, the Foys threw frequent dinner parties, "where a servant stood behind every chair and the tables would be pushed back afterward for dancing on the marble floors. Between spins on the floor, guests could admire the Foys' eight Renoirs, two Degas ballet pastels, Toulouse-Lautrec's Femme rouse dans le jar din, vanni da Bologna, two white marble sphinxes with women's heads made for Marie Antoinette, a chandelier from a Russian palace, plenty of porcelains, terra-cotta nymphs and cherubs, and an Oriental clock from an Italian royal palace" (255). Another family had a custom made sectional sofa large enough to seat one hundred that had to be brought in by crane. After moving in with their children in the 1950s, the Epsteins were shocked to see their children come back from trick or treating in the building not with candy but "caviar, pate, and salmon canapés" (327).
My biggest complaint with this book was the difficulty in keeping up with all the many owners. The author gives family overviews and history for nearly every owner. Since there are 31 units and many have had multiple owners (and multiple spouses for each owner) this led to an exceedingly complicated family tree. The story is told in chronological order, which makes sense in a way, but it did make it difficult to follow the fate of an individual apartment. A character list or chart of owners may have assisted the reader in keeping up with the seemingly hundreds of individuals who have called 740 Park home.
The history of its exclusiveness, as well as scandal behind its discriminatory practices was interesting to read. Famously, Barbara Streisand was rejected as a potential owner, because of her status as an actress and singer. Jewish families were largely excluded for much of the building's history as well. Over time, many of these prejudicial standards have relaxed, with the top key to admission still being wealth and a relatively low-profile. With time, the value of the apartments has continued to escalate to astronomical proportions. For instance, one apartment bought in 1965 for just $200,000 sold for $17 million in 2004. Not surprisingly, few of the current residents were willing to be interviewed for this book, but the author still managed to dig up quite a comprehensive history of a still astounding residence.
Stars: 3.5
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