330 Riverside Drive soon after construction was completed in 1902.
In August 1890, the New York Herald ran a series of editorials praising the attractiveness of the Upper West Side, in particular the Riverside Drive area: "The district to the east of Riverside Park as far as Central Park is likely, or rather, sure to become within the next twenty years, perhaps the location of the most beautiful residences in the world."
Several building firms responded to the increased interest by New York's middle and upper classes. One of them, the Joseph A. Farley company, developed Nos. 330, 331 and 333 Riverside Drive between 1899 and 1902, retaining the Janes & Leo architectural firm for that purpose. The total cost of the project would rise to around $430,000. Alas for Farley, the houses did not attract buyers soon enough, and in 1902 the company declared bankruptcy.
330 Riverside Drive soon after construction was completed in 1902.
Finally, in 1905 the 330 Riverside Drive property was acquired by R. B. Davis. Born in 1843 and a civil war veteran, Davis founded the R. B. Davis Company (of baking powder fame) around 1890. In 1881, he married Jennie Weed. The couple's only child, Lucretia Davis, was born in 1886.
The Davis marriage went through a difficult patch, leading to protracted divorce and alimony litigation. Mrs. Davis died in 1915, before the court proceedings were completed. Five years later Mr. Davis followed died too, leaving Lucretia Davis as the sole heir. By then she was married to Mr. George S. Jephson, a Princeton graduate who joined the R. B. Davis company and became its President. The couple divided their time between 330 Riverside Drive and their summer estate in Cazenovia, New York.
Possibly to protect the exclusive nature of the Upper West Side block, Jephson acquired Nos. 331 and 332 when they became available. Upon Jephson's death in 1951, Lucretia — who would die in 1979 at the age of 93 — moved permanently to her Cazenovia estate and sold the three Riverside Drive mansions to Fred H. Hill.
In 1955, No. 330 was resold to the Brothers of La Salle — also known as the Christian Brothers —, a Roman Catholic religious teaching congregation. Founded in France in the 17th century, the Christian Brothers run over 1,100 education centers in 80 countries, including Manhattan College in New York. At the time, a group of La Salle brothers were moving their New York quarters from 112 West 77th St to further north on the West Side. While the exterior of the Davis mansion remained essentially unchanged, the Christian Brothers re-purposed the "music room" — a large room on the second floor's west end — as a chapel.
In 1978, the Heights Foundation — a charity associated with the Catholic Prelature Opus Dei — purchased the property 330 Riverside Drive from the Christian Brothers. After a few minor adaptations, the house was purposed as a university student center and, more recently, as a residence for Opus Dei members. (In 1989, ownership was transferred to the then-created corporation Riverside Study Center, Inc.)
New Yorkers of a certain age will remember that the Upper West Side — in particular the north end of the Upper West Side — was a difficult neighborhood in the 1970s. Reports of muggings, broken car windows — even gun shots — were frighteningly common events. Fortunately, crime rates decreased significantly during the 1990s. Given the accompanying appreciation in property values, the directors of Riverside Study Center gave considerable thought to the possibility of selling the house and relocating its residents to a different New York location. However, upon consulting with various real-estate agents and constructors, the conclusion was reached that the cost of building or adapting a residence capable of housing a dozen Opus Dei members would be equivalent to or higher than Riverside's selling price. Moreover, it was feared that placing the house in the open market might lead to its division into independent condos, destroying in the process much of its historic value. It was thus decided to resist the temptation of selling to developers and rather preserve this architectural gem for posterity.
The house underwent a long-overdue major renovation from 2017-2021. The renovation was largely structural. Many parts of the house, including plumbing and electrical wiring, had not been changed for more than a century. Moreover, the distribution of bedroom sizes still reflected the asymmetric distribution of a 1900 mansion: extremely large master bedrooms (including, for example, walk-in closets) and very minimal servant-quarters bedrooms (some smaller than 100 square feet). In its current design, Riverside can hold up to 15 residents.
The above changes notwithstanding, Riverside's tenants have ensured that the building's facade, as well as the main interior common areas — living room, dining room, library — maintain their original appearance (including, in particular, the elaborate ceilings and the ornate furniture and woodwork).
Sources: Tom Miller, The 1902 Robert Davis Mansion — No. 330 Riverside Drive, posted on the Daytonian in Manhattan blog. Daniel J. Wakin, The Man with the Sawed-Off Leg and Other Tales of a New York City Block, Arcade Publishing, New York, 2018. Riverside-West 105th Street Historic District Designation Report, City of New York, 1973. Various Wikipedia pages.
Riverside is a landmark building, a wonderful exemplar of an exciting period in the history of New York's Upper West Side architecture.
Throughout the 19th century, Paris was the center of the art and architecture world. The Beaux-Arts style — which draws upon the principles of French neoclassicism but also incorporates Gothic and Renaissance elements — was then in full bloom. A number of American architects studied in France during the late 19th century, and as they returned to the US the French style gradually made its way into the country's cityscapes. Prominent examples of the Beaux-Arts style in New York City include the Low Memorial Library at Columbia University (1895), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1902), and the Grand Central Terminal (1905).
Among the many American architects influenced by the French style were Elisha Harris Janes and Richard Leopold Leo, owners of the Janes & Leo architectural firm. One of their best known buildings, the Dorilton (Broadway and 71st St, finished in 1902), is "bolder and more sculptural than any professor at the École des Beaux-Arts would have encouraged." (Neither Janes nor Leo actually studied at the École, one must add.) Before the Dorilton, Janes & Leo accepted the commission by J. Farley for the design of a series of houses on the Riverside Drive block between 105th and 106th streets. Among these houses — known as the "Seven Beauties" — 330 Riverside Drive stands out, not just for its corner location but also for its grandiosity.
The 105th St facade as of 1907.
The facade on Riverside Drive is technically the public face of the building, the first in the row of townhouses. It is well proportioned, with each floor distinguished by a different style of windows, and with asymmetrical variations within each row. The third floor has an elegant stone balcony topped with a broken pediment. But there is no entrance on Riverside Drive (Wakin, op cit).
The Riverside-West 105th Street Historic District Designation Report (op cit), which led to the landmark designation of Riverside and other nearby buildings, offers the following description of the 105th Street facade: "While it shares many of the design elements of the row houses on 105th Street, it does not merely reflect their facades. Decoration is restricted here to the enhancement of the openings, while large surfaces are left unadorned. Set on a basement of rusticated limestone, the upper floors are composed of buff-colored brick and are trimmed with beautifully finished and carved limestone. The richly ornamented recessed doorway, located in a central section of the main facade facing 105th Street, is surmounted by large console brackets supporting a stately balcony. Three tiers of triple windows in this central section are doubly enflamed by smooth limestone piers and by quoins, and crowned at the top by an arch with a large cartouche. Above this arch, there is a balustrade capped in turn by a pyramidal roof with resting. To the east of this impressive central section is a four-bay facade, each level distinguished by a particular ornamental element. At the basement level, the windows are convert with grilles; at the second floor, dedicated metal balconies ornament the windows. At the third level, a balustrade is supported on paired console brackets and the windows have "broken-arch" pediments. A mansard roof with arched dormers and simple cresting appears above the dented roof cornice."
The front door leads "into an oval entryway with interior glass doors bowed outward to a small reception room. For all the grandeur of the exterior ... a visitor would have found the entry area surprisingly small and cozy, a casualty of having to design a grand mansion in a townhouse footprint" (Wakin, op. cit.). The main elements in the entrance and entrance hall have been kept from the original house.
The original billiard room, currently used as a library
To the left of the entrance hall one finds the former billiard room, currently the house's library. The room retains most of the original features, including the brick fireplace mantle and the wood columns separating the small corner alcove. Of particular note are the large desk and book cabinet, made of Chilean mahogany (extremely heavy) and very elaborately decorated. Both date back to the original house and were moved from the office/library on the 3rd floor. Also of interest is the large globe, which, to the best of our knowledge, also dates back to the original house.
To the left of the entrance hall stands the main Georgian style stairwell, spanning all of the building's main five floors (a separate stairwell leads to the basement). Of particular note are the balusters which, rather than identical, follow a three-baluster cycle. Looking up one can appreciate the beautiful Tiffany-style skylight at the very top of the stairwell. Both the skylight and the balustrade were already present in the original house.
The current chapel, located in the former reception room.
On the second floor, facing Riverside Drive, stands the house's chapel, formerly the reception room. The adaptation was first effected by the Christian Brothers in 1951. In 2009, the chapel underwent a major uplift. Of particular note are the elaborate wall and ceiling decorations.
A note regarding the reredos, the painting standing behind the altar. This is a copy of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld's Flight into Egypt (1828), the original being kept in Germany's Museum Kunstpalast. This and four other paintings (two on the second floor landing, two in the living room) were painted by Boro, an Italian painter who lived in Rome and was a member of Opus Dei. Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, who was Opus Dei's Prelate from 1982-1994 and visited Riverside Study Center in 1988, offered these five paintings to the house.
The dining room on a festive day circa 1906.
In terms of decorative millwork, the dining room marks the apex of the Davis mansion. The room has "a Baroque feel, all French empire curlicues and damask panels" (Wakin, op cit). The murals (large canvases painted with oil), depicting woodland scenes, stretch from the wood paneling to the ceiling. The upholstered chairs, as well as the large cabinets, are made of Chilean mahogany and elaborately decorated.
Mr Davis' office, currently re-purposed as a living room.
On the third floor, the living room (formerly the library/office) completes the common area of the house. As mentioned earlier, some of the furniture originally located on the third floor is currently located in the first floor library. Two features are particularly notable in the third-floor room: the ceiling and the mantlepiece, each highly ornamented in its own way, both maintained in their original form.
The room currently serves as the house living room. A few additional notable points. The grand piano — a 1970 Steinway B — has a bit of history (though unrelated to the Davis family): It previously served as a rehearsal piano for Columbia Artists Management, Inc. (CAMI), an agency that managed a wide and varied stable of renowned artists such as Leonard Bernstein, Jose Carreras, Bob Dylan and Miles Davis.
Among the paintings exhibited in this room, one should mention the still life by Carl Schmitt (1889-1989) a notable American painter.
Since the 1980s, 330 Riverside Drive has been used as a set for a variety of movies and TV shows — from Who's That Girl (1987) to Elementary (various episodes) —, in addition to multiple TV commercials for advertisers hailing from various countries (including Japan and Russia). (Interested location scouts should look up the contacts page.)
Preparing for a scene of Boardwalk Empire