Upper East Side Building Could Gain Landmarks Status

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted Tuesday to begin the process of extending landmarks designation to an Upper East Side building.

The LPC will spend the coming months weighing whether to extend individual landmark status to the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York headquarters building on East 71st Street between Second and Third avenues, the commission announced.

The building — described by the LPC as "an exceptional example of the Colonial Revival style" — was designed in 1929 by architect Richard Henry Dana, Jr., according to an LPC proposal. The headquarters was commissioned to accomodate a growing New York City membership in the National Society of Colonial Dames.

"Dana’s skillfully developed design provided the organization with a headquarters that reflected its mission to promote an understanding of America’s colonial past while furthering the development of the Colonial Revival as a style," LPC records on the building read.

The commission also kicked off an effort to landmark some of the building's interiors including: the main foyer, members’ dressing room, and dining room on the first floor; the central stair hall and monumental staircase that connects the publicly accessible rooms of the first, second, and third floors; the members’ room and members’ lounge on the second floor and the exhibition hall on the third floor.

The organization was founded in 1891 and all of its members trace their lineage back to significant figures of colonial America, according to the LPC. One of the organization's primary goals was historic preservation, according to the LPC.

Photos courtesy Landmarks Preservation Commission