The First Penthouse in Manhattan (Marjorie Merriweather Post Penthouse)
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Dive into the opulent world of Manhattan's elite with an exclusive tour of America's first penthouse! Discover the astonishing story of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the wealthiest woman in the U.S., who transformed her Fifth Avenue mansion into a sky-high palace. From its lavish 54 rooms to secret negotiations and grand parties, this video reveals how New York's skyline was forever changed by luxury and ambition. Join Ken as he explores the birthplace of vertical living and the extraordinary lifestyle of the Gilded Age's most influential figures.
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For those wondering, it is still there but has been divided into six units when the building became a co-op. Ralph Lauren paid $20 million for one of them!
Thanks! 🙏 I was waiting for something like this at the end of the video. 🤔
Yes thank you for that update!
Thank you! That was going to be my question, since the narrator doesn't tell us the current status of the building. I'm guessing that M. M. Post's penthouse has been subdivided and is no longer intact, with any of the original room configuration or architectural details remaining. I thought of the sweeping, curved staircase and foyer from the movie "Auntie Mame." (1958) I wonder if Mrs. Post's penthouse was known to the set designer and if it inspired him?
Too bad they split it up.
Thanks. Was very much wondering
Thought I mention her daughter was the actress Dina Merrill. Beatiful woman in her own right.
Dina Merrill lived a fairytale life, as a child she & her parents sailed on the beautiful yacht, the Sea Cloud. Dina had a tortoise from Galapagos she 'rode' on the deck.
This penthouse, the yacht,
Mar a Lago, Hillside in DC, Her 'Camp' in the Adirondacks- all fabulous properties
I was lucky enough to have met her several times when I was very young. She was always flawlessly groomed and always perfectly kind and warm (at least to those beneath her). When you mention the dancing, did you know she loved and often threw amazing square dances, downtown the ultra wealthy wearing gingham.
Not mentioned is that Marjorie Merriweather Post only had a 15-year lease on the apartment at $75k/year. In 1941 she moved out and the triplex sat vacant for 10 years before it was divided into co-ops. Ralph Lauren has owned one of them for decades.
I grew up in small-town, have never lived in a city and have never gotten accustomed to tall buildings. If there are any third-floor penthouses, I'm interested! -- I read a biography of Marjorie Merriweather Post and I recall how when Marjorie was a young girl her foot got caught in a railroad track and a train was approaching. Another girl who was Marjorie's friend pulled her loose and saved her life. In appreciation of her friend's courage Marjorie made sure that her friend was never in any financial need throughout her entire life.
The 54-room triplex penthouse was certainly New York’s largest, but it wasn’t the first. Condé Nast owned a 30-room penthouse at 1040 Fifth Avenue, designed by Elsie de Wolfe, that opened two years earlier than Marjorie Merriweather Post’s apartment, that she owned with her husband at the time, E.F. Hutton.
Fantastic, resplendent and chock-full of detailed floorplans allowing the viewer to really get a glimpse into the inner workings of the uber rich back when. We see the foyer is about as big as the living room and that the place is packed with servants on every floor with warrens of servants quarters throughout. Most interesting.
To quote Lisa Douglas, "darling, I love a penthouse view." Having lived in a couple of penthouses over a 30-year period in Boston, it's incomparable. However, I have moved on and now own and live in a 16th century townhouse in the south of France.
My condolences for living in both Boston and France.
Better luck with your choices in the future.👍🥃
@@BillMcGirr 😊
I'd have to say, Land spreadin' out so far and wide! Keep Manhattan.....BEACH. Please!! Because I am just no city Boy. Like Al ALberts, I'd be "On the Way to Cape-Mayyyyy" :D
Me gustaría conocer su casa del siglo 16 en Francia!
FANCY! ❤❤ Comme c'est glamour!
TWO THINGS YOU DIDN'T SAY: FIRST, IS THIS BUILDING STILL STANDING?????????? SECOND, IS THE THREE STORY PENTHOUSE SUITE STILL INTACT??????????????
Building- yes. PH is subdivided into several apartments. Port cochere is gone.
@@hewitcYou are correct!
@@hewitc the port cochere is still there, but you can no longer drive under like she did. Her original amazing front doors, salvaged from the Burden mansion were removed when she left the location for DC.
I called the real estate broker who was selling the penthouse floor, which is one large apartment surrounded by terraces on all sides. But I explained to him that I could not afford it and merely wanted to look. I did tell him that I had met Marjorie Merriweather Post in Washington, D.C. two times in the early 1970s and was impressed by her regal style. The main salon had wooden walls installed from an 18th century room in France, and a similar floor. Overall, it was a fabulous apartment with two kitchens, but it definitely needed updating.
I’ve toured her Hillwood outside of DC twice and it is spectacular.
I have always loved the idea of living in a penthouse. Inside a warm, soft, quiet, and cozy home with views for miles. Outside the city is always moving. The shimmer of lights at night. The contrast of being outside in the hustle and bustle then entering your calm home. If I could afford any home I wanted I would choose a penthouse in a large city.
The most amazing thing is that she had a rental lease on the penthouse for just 15 years. When it expired, she had to move out.
I was wondering if someone would mention that .
They knew they’d have no use for her in 15 years.
They knew they’d have no use for her in 15 years.
@@whatsboredom9133 noy sure I see the sense in that statement...........
May I ask... Who..owned that property? (I'm plain and fascinated by the logistics of cosmopolitan rental property!!!)... I wish She could just OWN it...(I'm left figuring out WHY she could or wouldn't?)... Ty to anyone who knows 🙂
Another gorgeous video - the vertical mansion pictured at 1:17 cracks me up. Location of 1107 _(at 92nd)_ is now just slightly outside today's most prestigious stretch of 5th Avenue (59th - 89th).
I have been fascinated by this legendary penthouse for years! You presented photos I never knew existed and information i didn’t know. Your videos and channel are ALWAYS excellent and fascinating! 👏
Well done. Just one thing. The Burden mansion was 2 East 92nd Street. Marjorie insisted that everyone else in the building entered from 5th Avenue and she had her own entrance on 92nd Street and kept her address of #2.
Fascinating that they were largely able to recreate her mansion at the top of the new building. And even better to see that the building still survives today.
I wasn’t able to license a few current photos, but there are a handful of rooms still intact spread across the 6 condos that took its place.
@ThisHouse do any Floorplans or pictures exist of the floors below this fine pile? Were they highly prized when they first sold? Her presence is so large that I would have thought that the in crowd would see it like living in her basement.
Excellent work. Thank you
What an amazing home to go with a truly amazing woman. I personally would prefer a domicile outside the hustle & bustle of a major city.
She had many of those from which to choose as well!
It looks lovely. My childhood friend lived in a penthouse but the hotel was very old. Because it's at the top, it was very bright with light & could see four directions with views of entire town. Very very pretty!
Great photos! Thank you!
Simply amazing! 🎉
Wow, 1107 still exists on 5th Ave.......I have Hillcrest on my "to visit" list for April of this year when I cat sit for my daughter in Takoma Park!
Thank you again...what a beautiful space...almost overwhelming
The Hillwood Estate in DC is amazing.
Just watched on the news (Boston channel 7, 1/20/24) a magnificent house in Lawrence MA caught fire. What a shame they will probably just tear it down instead of trying to fix all the fire damage. I watch all your videos Ken, and just love them. I use many of these beautiful structures as inspiration when playing Minecraft with my grandchildren. We have created our own little Gilded age world. Again great work Ken and keep the videos and back stories coming.
Thank you for sharing.😊
Sérios!!! This building still standing? Fabulous!! I really like your vídeos. Hugs from Brasil!!
So interesting ❤
What a superb report.
This site is just so good!!🙂🙂❤️❤️💯💯
Just love ❤️ this channel. Still looking forward to your coverage of Governor's mansions
Beautiful! Please do a story on the Marland Estate in Ponca City, OK. It’s one of the most beautiful and unique homes of the 20s still in existence in the U.S. It has an incredible history that should be a movie.
Beyond incredible - would be like a dream come true to live there!!!
Penthouses are fantastic.
You are often visited by building maintenance workers who need access to the roof. They replace the water tower or elevator motor, install brackets to hold scaffolds and need to repair roof leaks. They are great but it's still a building occupied by many people, some of whom take the required firestairs to look at your terrace. The ones by the river can be so windy that it's impossible to sit and read a newspaper or barbeque. But still fantastic, yes.
I love it. Like a huge mansion just plopped down on the top of a high rise 😂 was the Green Goblins penthouse real in Spider-Man? Made me think of than.
In Buenos Aires, right across from the obelisk on Avenida 9 de Julio, there’s a chalet that was built on top of a high rise in 1927; it’s literally a house on top of a building, and it looks so interesting and simultaneously very out of place.
I believe the shots of his patio is ,I remember seeing the patios apt for sale. it is in New york
Very interesting report, Ken. It would be interesting to get a comparative analysis as to extreme mansions of the pre tax Gilded Age of the 19th century, to similar structures of today. Just an idea.
Thank you for the great video. Where can we find the 2D floor layout plans that you featured?
1:31
She looked like an actress or model.
Her daughter Dina Merrill was.
My favorite room was the library 😊
Her penthouse was beautiful, Ken. However, I like to be closer to ground level in case of fire. Heights have never appealed to me, either! lol
Another grand Marjorie Merriweather Post extravaganza, Camp Topridge in the Adirondacks, with its sixty-some buildings. Talk about roughing it...
I really enjoy your content & the research you put into your videos. Wanted to request if you knew anything about The Gilsey House Building located at 1200 Broadway in NYC? I believe it was a Hotel & has a Beautiful Exterior. I walk by it to work. Would be great to know more & see Interior shots of when it was a Gilded Age Hotel. Thank You!
How uncanny. A friend sent me this link a few days ago because we were having a conversation about it and a few other hotels. Geographic Guide wrote an article about it and included a couple interiors www.geographicguide.com/united-states/nyc/antique/hotels/gilsey-house/gilsey-house.htm
I actually wanted to share that link !! I walked by it this morning and it looked beautiful in the snow
I watched this using closed captioning. I had to go back and turn on the sound when the captioning said it had 177 bathrooms!😁
We just fixed the subtitles! Thank you for bringing that to our attention!
Huge partys..beer blasts.
@@ThisHouse Please do some more fine tuning. Change "plasters" to "pilasters." Thank you for putting this video on UA-cam.
Good for her. Well solved.
I'd love to live in a penthouse in the sky!!!
If I had that kind of lifestyle I would most definitely love to have a penthouse; but I'd only want to live there in the winter months. The rest of the year I'd prefer a country estate.
Wouldn't we all. And perhaps a castle in Spain for an extra diversion.
In the winter the terraces get covered with snow. You can't just shovel it over the parapet wall. Make sure the fall leaves aren't blocking the drains or you, or your downstairs neighbor may have leaks in the ceiling.
I would love to live in a penthouse! 🌃
In your closing comments it would be good to mention her Washington, DC house she built and that it is a museum nowadays. There is also a good book out about her and her family and marriages, and there is a separate book about Mara Largo(?).
Suggestion for you: The Boundary Castle by Mary Henderson in Washington DC, corner of 16th and Florida Ave NW
This space was eventually split up into six 9-room residences. BTW, MMP *rented* this penthouse space; she didn't own it. She was paying $75,000/year on a 15-year lease, and she eventually vacated before the lease was up. The unit stood empty for years before it was subdivided into smaller units when the building went co-op.
Its a shame that those beautiful old mansions couldn't be saved!
The exact level of response I would have expected from you ..good luck with that negativity. I will pray for you ❤
I wish there were color photographs or illustrations to view !
I’d live in that penthouse for sure
❤❤❤
Is the building still there, 1107 Fifth Ave? And what became of her penthouse apartment?
I note with interest that the kitchen, on the 2nd floor, is nearly the smallest room in the house. Did they not host elegant dinner parties? or is the space so huge that it is just miniscule by comparison?
Woah -- I look just like her (both older and younger versions).
👍✌
Oooh- la-la
Will you do Mara largo pre rump?
We made a video on it about a year ago, enjoy! ua-cam.com/video/8nwdHmIKjU0/v-deo.htmlsi=3ox4UsLP927Dqaw9
......umm, that's Trump.
@@theresalynch3703 who? You mean tRump?
Is the penthouse still intact or is it cut up in the smaller ones?
Great question! It has been divided up into 9 separate condos.
Sign me up for one of them penthouses.
I think it is worth noting that 1107 5th Avenue still stands, and the penthouse is still there (though whether or not it has been broken up into smaller units cannot be determined from the outside).
It is completely broken up
Marjorie must be spinning in her grave over current resident of Mar a Lago! From CLASS to 😠 😡 😤!
And he deeded away the ability to use the property as a private residence when he took tax incentives from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. MAL must be preserved intact but can only be used as a private club/recreational facility. It can't be subdivided and it can't be sold as a private home. It will forever have strangers swimming in the pool and eating in the dining room as a commercial property. The change was irrevocable.
Yeah, but what happened to the penthouse?.....
broken up into many apartments that were sold as coops (condos)
There were Penthouses way way before that.
Wow! What a Dame to be °~•.☆.•~°
Total legend
I was in a house fire at age 2 and a camping tent fire at age 13 so I like to live on the ground floor.
I would love to live in a penthouse.
So what happened to it?
This wasnt the first PH in NYC...The building went up in the 1925, the first official PH were a few years before, around 1922-23.
3:12
I take that back.
Marie Antoinette.
You ask if someone would be willing to live in a penthouse? I'm not a city girl/woman, but I wouldn't mind spending a night in its luxury. Wow, to have a 360° view of a city above all the city noises, sleep in 1000 thread count cotton sheets and have anything I'd desired to eat ( all expenses paid, of course 😊) would be a nice change. Then again, , it's all fantasy, but worth the dream if the penthouse was decked out like MWP had hers.
She also has a University named after her.
You can have impeccable taste when you INHERIT a fortune.
I was under the impression that the first penthouse was on the upper west side.
I'm afraid to ask, what happened to the building?
The building is still standing, but the penthouse was divided up into 6 separate units. Great question!
Too bad the Florida estate went to an unworthy owner.
who converted it to a club because he couldn't afford to maintain it. Then he took tax breaks that permanently restricted the use of the property to commercial use as a club/recreational facility. No one can live their as a private residence. Trump is permitted to stay overnight because he swore he was the "live in property manager, or 'super'"
Wait, these are the folks behind building mar-a-lago??
Dang, now I sympathize with that dreadfully butchered estate.
When she died the estate tried to give it to the state and federal governments for public use. Neither wanted it because it is too expensive to maintain. It languished on the market. No one wanted it. Trump bought it for cheap (relatively) thinking he could live there but he couldn't afford that either . Then he tried to subdivide the property and sell lots but it that was prohibited by the Town. So created the "club" to bring in revenue to maintain the property and he got the National Trust to landmark it, giving him big tax deductions. But that necessitated permanently restricting the use of the property to "private club". That's why it can't be sold today as a private residence and greatly reduces the value of the property. That can't be undone, so he made a bad decision just to get the tax breaks. It's a commercial property, basically a restaurant and event space that the County values at $18M, based on revenue. If it could be sold as a residence it would be worth over $100M. But it can't.
At least he didn't tear it down.
@@sharksport01...Title restrictions . Can NOT..
@@sharksport01 The landmarks designation prohibits that.
@@hewitc I'm surprised The Donald made a bad business decision about Mar-a-Lago. Maybe this was his only option if he couldn't afford it as a private residence and couldn't rent it out. I don't see why a "private club" can't be changed back to "private residence" if the owner so desires. Two good things: Mar-a-Lago is landmarked, and it hasn't been torn down; not yet anyway.
California governor has decided to use a historic hotel in old town sacramento to house homeless. Too bad, there are so many other hotesl he could use that dont have historical value. Very sad
She was Queen Bee before that was ever a thing. I have always been fascinated by her. She was the “it girl” of the 1920’s-1950’s.
Unimaginable wealth! But she had massive philanthropic organizations and gave millions to charities. She was vain, selfish, dictatorial and wildly eccentric, but she shared her wealth.
I lived in one off Lake Merritt in Oakland CA for many years. Spectacular views! But... in every other way its overrated and actually really inconvenient. To be fair it was a horribly ugly and completely unmaintained 6 story 70's build owned by a slumlord, with a tiny elevator that moved slower than molasses and often broke down. But I don't think I'd want to ever live in a nice one either.
I wish the mansions stayed...
No I prefer to live in a hovel 🤨🙃🙃🙃
She owned mar a lago trumps former home
WOW 17 Bathrooms who needs so many 💩 houses lol
I was a minimalist long before the label even existed so, to me, old world “elegance” is what someone would look like if they wore every conceivable pattern and color all at the same time. Just no
Not to like. Roast you. "A hallway seldom seen by guests," per the floor plan, the breakfast room is Between the foyer and the dining room. Any guests attending a formal dinner would have walked through that hallway and right past the breakfast room.
strange how husbands & wives used to sleep separate
I wonder how she would feel about you know who living in mar a Lago?
She would appreciate that Trump recued the estate from ruin and spent millions on it preservation so you might want to give create where its due and stop being so narrow minded in your passive aggressive comments
@@silvermanandbuddy5111 eat me.
How beautiful of old time it past likewind😢 , in holly book God say in this world , life is dream over true world start after the dead …richness is true wold ,over good manner and deed , God bless good people 🙌🙌🙌🔯☪️🔯☪️🔯
Outstanding triplex! I imagine trump must think this is what _his_ place is like...
All the fabulous views covered up with unattractive drapes.
The penthouse was built almost 100 years ago. Those type of drapes and furnishings were in style and very fashionable at that time and only affordable by the very rich and famous. Styles come and go throughout time and what we consider ugly now to them it was beautiful. I remember during the early 1960's, my aunt owned a sofa and chairs that were covered in a clear, heavy plastic straight from the factory. The plastic was sealed around the edges and during the summer, your legs would stick to the plastic if one was wearing shorts or a dress. It was awful😝. The purpose of the plastic was to protect the fabric underneath and therefore, make the furniture last longer. My aunt also had linoleum with bright red flowers covering her floors 😝. I remember a time when new houses had wall-to-wall carpeting but now carpets are considered nasty and wood floors are in style again. I say decorate your house with whatever you feel comfortable regardless of current trends. I myself restored an old Victorian cottage, 126 years old, and I do have those heavy, old-fashioned drapes for my 8' windows. I love them. 😄♥️. To each, his own.
@@Dina52328😢
I would not want to live in a Penthouse... you will go blind!
?!
Like Joan Crawford
Yes
😊😢
Hard to imagine so much treasure amassed by selling crappy cereals.
So what do think is better cereal? Museli?
You’re about as sharp as a spoon, aren’t ya’??
And Jello
Government contracts..
Give me a smile .big one.
LOL
Hello I love this video. Who lives in this penthouse now? I was wondering if you know any single men who are interested in a relationship? I am a recent widower. After 38 years of marriage I lost my husband😢. I am gay and wondering if you are single? Or maybe you know someone? I am on Eharmony and other sites . They are a waste. I am 67 years old white gay man looking for a partner. I wish you could be close but I am very lonely.