The Morgan Library's Gilded Age Garden Gets a Glow-up

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( FRIDAY, JUNE 10 CITYSCAPE [The Morgan Library’s Gilded Age Garden Gets a Glow-up]( A restoration that looks as rich as it should. Photo: Brett Beyer, Courtesy of the Morgan Library & Museum, New York Italy, France, and Britain went to war on American soil during the Gilded Age, deploying not armies or artillery but architectural styles. The prize was the allegiance of a handful of plutocrats. William Randolph Hearst ornamented his[medieval triplex]( at the Clarendon on Riverside Drive and West 86th Street with a mantelpiece acquired from a Welsh castle. William Vanderbilt erected a [French chateau]( on Fifth Avenue. And J. P. Morgan hired the architect Charles Follen McKim to house his books in an Italianate palazzo that was ostentatious in its restraint. Morgan’s library faced East 36th Street with no turrets, mansards, bays, or gargoyles — just an austere wall of seashell-colored Tennessee marble, with one pair of niches, two columns, and a single arch over the front porch. Anyone could see that the building was costly and refined, but to get the full-on experience of dazzlement, you’d have to gain admittance. Like a leather-bound volume, the cover hinted at the imaginative richness it kept out of sight. [Continue reading »]( Want more on city life, real estate, and design? [Subscribe now](for unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [The Best Tilers in New York Who to call for impeccably tiled floors, walls, and showers.]( By Jane Starr Drinkard [Somehow, the Rental Market Is Only Getting Worse Prepare for a hellish summer.]( By Clio Chang [Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches for Good Cause Eviction Tenant activists released a swarm of the noisy bugs into an Albany courtroom.]( By Clio Chang [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( Introducing Dinner Party, a lively new evening newsletter about everything that just happened. [Sign up]( to get it every weeknight. [GET THE NEWSLETTER]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](param=curbed) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2022, All rights reserved