This article is about the apartment building on Central Park West in New York City. For the hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, see The Langham, New York. For other uses, see The Langham (disambiguation).
The Langham is a luxury apartment building located at 135 Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. After the site was unused for more than 15 years, the building was constructed between 1905 and 1907. Built at a cost of US $2 million, the structure included modern amenities, such as an ice maker in every apartment. The building was designed in the French Second Empire style by architects Clinton and Russell.[2] It was listed as a contributing property to the federal government designated Central Park West Historic District on November 9, 1982.
History
In 1902 the property that The Langham stands on was owned by the same family, the Clarks, who owned the prestigious Dakota. The Clark family acquired the property during a period from 1880–1884 when they acquired numerous properties, including the site of The Dakota. The building is currently owned by the Manocherian family. Located at what is now 135 Central Park West, The Langham occupies the blockfront between West 73rd and 74th Streets. The location remained vacant until the Clark family liquidated it in 1902. At first the property would not sell because they had placed an unusual restriction on it, no building built could exceed the height of The Dakota, which stands across 73rd Street. Apparently, the Clarks could not sell the site with the restriction in place as the sale deed from later in 1902 indicated only a standard "restriction on stables and billboards."[3]
The site was purchased by Abraham Boehm and Lewis Coon but remained vacant until 1904. Architects Clinton and Russell, working for Boehm and Coon, filed plans for a US$2 million building in 1904.[3]
By September 1906 the finishing touches were being applied and The Langham was fully complete and open for rental in 1907.[4] The reporting from The New York Times lavished praise upon the building when it opened, noting among its modern amenities "real ice."
In each icebox is an extra coil of pipe, through which a freezing mixture circulates, so that if a tenant wants a piece of real ice, without going to the trust for it, all he has to do is fill a small metal pan with water, place it within the coil, and in a few minutes its contents will be frozen solid. (Emphasis original).[4]
^ abCentral Park West Historic District, (Java), National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, New York's State and National Registers of Historic Places Document Imaging Project [1], New York State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved April 6, 2007.