The Benjamin N. Duke House, also the Duke–Semans Mansion and the Benjamin N. and Sarah Duke House, is a mansion at 1009
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
, at the southeast corner with
82nd Street, on the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. It was built between 1899 and 1901 and was designed by the firm of
Welch, Smith & Provot. The house, along with three other mansions on the same block, was built speculatively by developers William W. Hall and Thomas M. Hall. The Benjamin N. Duke House is one of a few remaining private mansions along Fifth Avenue. It is a
New York City designated landmark and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
The house, located across from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
's
Fifth Avenue building, consists of seven stories and a basement. The exterior of the house is built in the
Beaux-Arts style, while the interior was originally designed in the
French Renaissance
The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define ...
style. The ground floor is clad in limestone, while the facade of the upper floors is made of brick; the mansion is capped by a copper
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...
. The facade is divided vertically into six
bays on 82nd Street and three bays on Fifth Avenue. The main entrance on 82nd Street leads to a stairway that rises through the building. Originally, the dining room, music room, parlor and kitchen were on the second floor, while the other stories contained bedrooms. The house was divided into three apartments in the 1990s, and it had 12 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms by the 2010s.
American Tobacco Company chairman
Benjamin N. Duke acquired the house in April 1901 and moved there in 1907. Benjamin's brother
James bought the house in 1907 and moved to the
James B. Duke House in 1912. The mansion then served as the residence of Benjamin Duke's son
Angier Buchanan Duke until 1919, when Angier's sister
Mary Lillian Duke and her husband
A. J. Drexel Biddle Jr. moved in. After Mary's death in 1960, her daughter
Mary Semans took over the house with her family. The building became a city landmark in 1974 after the Semans family refused to sell the building to developers; it was renovated in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Semans sold the house in 2006 to businessman
Tamir Sapir. Mexican telecom magnate
Carlos Slim bought the house in 2010 and tried to resell it in 2015 and 2023.
Site
The Benjamin N. Duke House is at 1009 Fifth Avenue on the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. It is on the southeast corner of 82nd Street and
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
.
The rectangular
land lot
In real estate, a land lot or plot of land is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the sam ...
covers , with a frontage of on Fifth Avenue to the west and on 82nd Street to the north.
Directly to the north, the building is adjacent to a 15-story apartment building at 1010 Fifth Avenue, which was completed in 1925.
A townhouse at 2 East 82nd Street abuts the building to the east. To the south are two apartment buildings: 1001 Fifth Avenue, designed by
Philip Johnson and
John Burgee in 1979, as well as
998 Fifth Avenue, designed by
McKim, Mead & White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm based in New York City. The firm came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in ''fin de siècle'' New York.
The firm's founding partners, Cha ...
and opened in 1910.
The main entrance of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
's
Fifth Avenue building is directly across Fifth Avenue to the west, adjoining
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
.
Historically, the house was part of Fifth Avenue's "
Millionaires' Row", a grouping of mansions owned by some of the United States' wealthiest people.
Historically, the Benjamin N. Duke House was one of four adjacent mansions at 1006 through 1009 Fifth Avenue that were developed by William W. and Thomas M. Hall and completed in 1901.
Welch, Smith & Provot was hired to design all four mansions, as well as the adjacent townhouse at 2 East 82nd Street.
Among the notable occupants of the other houses was the
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...
, which moved into 1006 Fifth Avenue in 1938.
The houses at 1006 and 1007 Fifth Avenue were demolished in 1972 to make way for an apartment building,
and the house at 1008 Fifth Avenue was also demolished in 1977.
Architecture
The house was built between 1899 and 1901 to designs by the firm of Welch, Smith & Provot, composed of
Alexander M. Welch, Bowen Bancroft Smith, and George Provot.
Welch, Smith & Provot. who worked nearly exclusively for William W. and Thomas M. Hall, designed many buildings on the Upper East Side in the early 20th century.
The house was built in the
Beaux-Arts style
with a
French Renaissance
The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define ...
interior, decorated mainly with
Louis XV style furniture.
P. A. Fiebiger created much of the house's metalwork.
Facade
The main portion of the house rises five stories from the street and is capped by a two-story
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...
.
The 82nd Street elevation of the facade, to the north, is vertically divided into six
bays of openings; the facade is further split into a five-bay-wide main section and a one-bay-wide eastern wing.
There are three bays of openings on the west, facing Fifth Avenue.
Both the Fifth Avenue
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
and the third-westernmost bay on the 82nd Street elevation are curved outward in a manner resembling the
Baroque style.
The house is separated from either street by a recessed
areaway, which is delineated by a
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
railing along the sidewalk. The basement and first floor are clad with
rusticated blocks of
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
. The facade of the upper floors is made of brick, with limestone
quoins at each corner, as well as large pieces of limestone trim. The roof is clad with red tile and is topped by copper cresting; metal
finials extend from the top of the roof.
The mansard roof may have been influenced by the
Beaux-Arts style; the house is designed with further elements of the Beaux-Arts style, including
cartouches on the facade and wrought-iron window guards.
The copper cresting on the roof, which was mass-produced when the house was built, had to be replaced with a custom-made replica in the 1980s. The modern-day house has six metal finials, each weighing and measuring tall.
There are also two outdoor terraces, including one on the roof.
82nd Street

The main portion of the 82nd Street elevation consists of the westernmost five bays of that elevation. The third bay from the west, a curved central bay, is flanked by two-bay-wide
pavilions that project slightly from the facade. The house's main entrance is in the center bay, underneath a metal-and-glass marquee at the ground story. The doors are made of wrought iron and glass and are flanked by
engaged columns and narrow windows on either side.
Above the first floor, the center bay consists of a three-story-high window frame made of limestone. On the second story, there are four windows in the center bay; there is a
lintel and
cartouche above the two center windows and a cartouche above each of the outer windows. The center bay has a rectangular window on the third floor and a segmentally-arched window with cartouche on the fourth floor.
Both the third- and fourth-floor windows of the third bay have iron window guards. A balustrade runs above the fourth floor of the third bay.
On the ground story, the side pavilions (comprising the first, second, fourth, and fifth bays from west) have rectangular windows flanked by
brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...
. These brackets support balconies on the second floor, behind which are
French window
A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide securit ...
s; there are triangular
pediment
Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
s above each of the second-story French windows. Within the side pavilions, the windows on the third and fourth floor of each bay are connected by limestone frames, and there are iron window guards in front of the windows. Above the fourth story, brackets hold up a horizontal
band course protruding from the facade.
There are rectangular windows at the fifth story, as well as limestone belt courses that run across the facade.
An ornate
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
, with
modillion
A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...
s, runs across the facade just above the fifth floor, with a stone balustrade above the cornice.
Dormers with segmentally-arched cartouches protrude from the mansard roof.
The wing at the eastern end of the 82nd Street facade is one bay wide and is clad with rusticated limestone blocks at its base.
An
oriel window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...
, which resembles a
conservatory, projects from the facade at the second story.
There is a
fluted corbel below the oriel window, as well as floral ornament around the window.
Similarly to the other bays, the third floor contains a rectangular window, and the fourth floor includes a segmental arch with a cartouche just above it. Above the fourth floor, the facade of the eastern wing is recessed behind a balustrade.
Fifth Avenue

On Fifth Avenue, all three bays are curved outward and are placed within a limestone frame. As with the 82nd Street elevation, the basement and first floors are clad with rusticated limestone; the outer portions of the facade above the first floor are made of red brick. There are limestone balustrades in front of the second-floor windows, as well as garlands on the
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...
panel between the second- and third-story windows. The third- and fourth-story windows all have iron window guards, and the third-story windows are additionally topped by brackets. As with the center bay of the 82nd Street elevation, there is a balustrade above the fourth floor and a cornice above the fifth floor.
Features
The house is variously cited as covering
or ;
according to ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', the house covers .
The space is split across eight levels, including a basement.
Original design
The structure originally had either seven
or eight bedrooms,
as well as ten bathrooms.
There were also eleven fireplaces and three elevators.
The interior of the house was originally decorated in the French Neoclassical style.
The original decorations included sconces, moldings, and wood paneling, which were largely preserved in later years.
The first through third floors largely retain their original layout. The main entrance on 82nd Street leads to an outer vestibule clad with marble; a set of doors leads to a stair hall and other ground-level spaces.
Within the stair hall is a curved staircase to the second floor, which has an iron railing.
The staircase runs the entire height of the building, linking with each story.
The staircase opens directly into a music room on the second floor. The music room has arched doorways on its west and east walls, which respectively lead to a parlor and a dining room. The music room's south wall contains an elevator and another doorway, both of which are topped by panels with motifs depicting musical instruments. The dining room, to the east of the music room, is decorated with roundels with
putti
A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...
; vines painted using a
trompe-l'œil
; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...
technique; simple paneling on the walls; and a marble
fireplace mantel. There is a kitchen to the east of the dining room. The parlor, west of the music room has wall paneling ornamented by classical moldings, urns, and cartouches, as well as a white fireplace mantel topped by a
frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
with
guilloché moldings. In addition, the parlor windows facing Fifth Avenue feature ornate frames with
brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...
, which support
entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
s above the windows.
On the upper floors, the stairway connects with a landing that is flanked by two main rooms to the west and the east.
The master bedroom is to the east of the third-floor landing, while a library room is to the west. The doorways in the master bedroom are decorated with foliate and guilloché moldings, and the master bedroom also has a marble fireplace mantel. A plainly designed bedroom is to the east of the master bedroom, within the house's easternmost wing. The western part of the third floor is occupied by a
rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
-style library with a red-marble mantel, as well as bookcase built into the walls.
Modifications
Karl Bock redesigned the house in the 1920s,
when many of the original
Victorian designs were simplified.
Bock further renovated some of the spaces in the 1930s and 1940s. These included an oval bathroom with mirrors and black marble on the walls; another bathroom with blue glass tiles and a
modern-style sink; and a dressing room with ribbon-striped sycamore.
The modern-day interior also is decorated with "gold-leaf trimmed fixtures and intricate friezes".
By the mid-1980s, two offices occupied the western and eastern portions of the ground floor. The Dukes occupied an apartment on the second and third floors, while they rented out another apartment on the fourth and fifth floors; in addition, there were servants' rooms on the sixth floor.
In 1995, the original residence was divided into three apartments, as well as a room for the Duke family on the ground floor. The first four stories became a four-story apartment, measuring . Another apartment, spanning one story was on the fifth floor. An additional floor was created by raising the mansard roof, accommodating a third apartment on the sixth and seventh floors.
By the 2010s, the house had 12 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.
History
Before William W. and Thomas M. Hall had developed the mansions at 1006–1009 Fifth Avenue, the site at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street was undeveloped.
In July 1899, the Halls hired Welch, Smith & Provot to design three five-story mansions at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street at a cost of $255,000 ().
The
New York City Department of Buildings granted the developers a single work permit for the three houses, occupying the lots at 1007–1009 Fifth Avenue. All three houses were completed in 1901 and were speculative developments.
Duke ownership
Benjamin and James Duke
The Halls sold the houses at 1007 through 1009 Fifth Avenue in April 1901.
Kate F. Timmerman and William A. Hall had respectively acquired the adjacent houses at 1007 and 1008 Fifth Avenue,
while
William H. Gelshenen occupied 1006 Fifth Avenue.
Contemporary sources initially reported that tobacco businessman
James Buchanan Duke had acquired the house at 1009 Fifth Avenue, facing 82nd Street.
In June 1901, William W. Hall finalized his sale of 1009 Fifth Avenue to James's brother
Benjamin Newton Duke,
the chairman of the
American Tobacco Company, which Benjamin and James Duke had cofounded.
Benjamin and his wife Sarah Duke are recorded as having owned the house during the early 1900s.
It is not known why Benjamin Duke did not develop his own house, as he was worth $60 million at the time (equal to $ billion in ). Nonetheless, the house was originally unoccupied; Benjamin is recorded as having lived at a hotel, Hoffman House, until 1907.
In late 1906, James met cotton heiress Nanaline Holt Inman at a party in his brother's house. James married Nanaline eight months later, in July 1907, and bought a plot at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 78th Street, where he intended to build a mansion.
That November, James acquired the house at 1009 Fifth Avenue from his brother.
James is recorded as having lived in the house by early 1908, when he gave testimony from his bedroom as part of an antitrust lawsuit that the federal government had brought against the American Tobacco Company.
Benjamin Duke moved to the
Plaza Hotel in 1909. By the
1910 United States census, James and Nanaline lived there, along with Nanaline's mother Florence Holt and nine servants.
James's mansion at Fifth Avenue and 78th Street, the
James B. Duke House, was completed in 1912.
The same year, Benjamin built his own house at Fifth Avenue and 89th Street on the future site of the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
The banker Moses Taylor, who worked for the firm Kean, Taylor & Co., leased the house in December 1913 for $30,000 per year ().
The mansion became the residence of one of Benjamin Duke's sons,
Angier Buchanan Duke, and Angier's wife Cordelia Biddle, of the wealthy
Biddle family.
Angier and Cordelia's son
Angier Biddle Duke was born at the house in 1915.
Biddle family

By the early 1920s, the house was occupied by Angier's sister
Mary Lillian Duke Biddle and her husband
A. J. Drexel Biddle Jr. Sources disagree over whether the Biddles moved into the house in 1919
or 1922.
The couple had two children: their daughter
Mary Duke Biddle II (later Mary Semans) was born in 1920, while their son Nicholas B. D. Biddle was born in 1921. They split their time between 1009 Fifth Avenue and an estate in
Irvington, New York.
Mary Lillian Duke was responsible for renovating the house's interior, removing some plasterwork, adding black marble decorations in one bathroom, and adding brass and wrought-iron railings to one of the staircases.
These decorations were designed by Karl Bock, whose additions were largely supplemented the original French-style decorations.
By the mid-1920s, many of Fifth Avenue's former mansions were rapidly being replaced with apartment buildings, although the Biddles' mansion remained intact.
The Biddles divorced in 1931, upon which Mary Lillian Duke retained ownership of the house.
The younger Mary and her brother Nicholas continued to live at 1009 Fifth Avenue with their mother.
During the 1930s, the elder Mary hosted several events at the house, including a 1936 "musicale" with many high-society guests. Bock continued to make alterations to the house throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Mary Lillian Duke bought
an estate in
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
, in 1935 and began spending increasing amounts of time there. By 1950, she lived in Durham for six months of the year, splitting her remaining time between 1009 Fifth Avenue and another estate in Florida.
The facade was repainted gray in the 1950s.
Mary Lillian Duke continued to own 1009 Fifth Avenue until her death in 1960.
Mary Duke Biddle II and her husband, doctor James Semans, assumed ownership of the house after the elder Mary had died.
By then, 1009 Fifth Avenue was one of five remaining single-family mansions on the Millionaires' Row section of Fifth Avenue.
During the early 1960s, the upper stories were split into a separate apartment.
Preservation

In the early 1970s,
Sol Goldman and Donald Zucker announced plans to demolish the houses at 1006–1008 Fifth Avenue and 2 East 82nd Street, replacing them with a 25-story apartment house.
Mary Semans not only refused to sell her family's house but was also petitioning the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the Government of New York City, New York City agency charged with administering the city's Historic preservation, Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting Ne ...
(LPC) to designate the building as a landmark. At the time, Semans occupied two floors, while
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
's
Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
occupied the ground story.
Semans reportedly rejected sales offers of over $1 million for her family's house.
A local group, the Neighborhood Association to Preserve Fifth Avenue Houses, received an injunction in September 1972, preventing 1006 and 1007 Fifth Avenue from being demolished.
The
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...
overturned the injunction two days later, and the buildings were immediately razed.
By 1973, the LPC was considering designating 998, 1008, and 1009 Fifth Avenue and 2 East 82nd Street as city landmarks.
Although the Neighborhood Association had wanted the LPC to host a public hearing for the entire city block, the LPC was only considering these four buildings as individual city landmarks.
The
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...
and priest
Louis Gigante were among those who supported the designations.
The LPC designated 998 and 1009 Fifth Avenue as city landmarks on February 19, 1974, preventing major changes to these buildings without the LPC's permission.
However, the LPC declined to designate the other two structures, which Goldman and Zucker owned;
in particular, 1008 Fifth Avenue was ineligible for landmark designation because it had been heavily modified.
Richard Peck of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the house's landmark designation only covered a single site and "has not preserved the block against a high-rise of two-and-a-half-room apartment units".
The Neighborhood Association sued the LPC in March 1975, claiming that the agency had refused to consider designating the stretch of 82nd Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, including 1009 Fifth Avenue, as a New York City historic district.
That year, a state judge ruled that the LPC was required to at least host public hearings for the proposed district.
The LPC finally began considering designating 1009 Fifth Avenue as part of the Metropolitan Museum Historic District in early 1977; it was larger than the proposed 82nd Street historic district.
As negotiations for the Metropolitan Museum district proceeded, the neighboring house at 1008 Fifth Avenue was demolished in March 1975.
That September, the LPC designated 1009 Fifth Avenue as part of the Metropolitan Museum Historic District, a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century mansions around Fifth Avenue between 78th and 86th Streets. Ultimately, Goldman and Zucker's original plan fell through, and
Peter Kalikow leased the apartment-house site.
Renovations

The house underwent a two-year restoration in the 1980s to designs by Gerald Allen, who restored the exterior based on drawings in the collection of
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. Joseph Fiebiger, whose grandfather had created the original wrought-iron decorations, was hired to rebuild the corroded copper roof. Between six and eight employees of the Fiebiger company worked on the project for two years. The firm created 48 molds of pieces on the existing roof, then manufactured custom replacement pieces in its workshop; it had to buy a custom hydraulic press to mold the copper pieces. The Fiebiger company also installed six wrought-iron finials as a gift to the Duke family.
The balustrades on the facade were also replaced.
The contractors used a biodegradable paint remover on the facade, and they treated the wrought-iron window guards with
polyurethane
Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) is a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethane term ...
, epoxy, and an organic zinc mixture to prevent the iron from rusting. The Semans family then restored the interiors using photographs that were stored in the attic of one of the Duke family's houses in North Carolina.
The house was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1989.
Mary Semans placed her family's house for sale in 1991 but wished to retain part of the house as a
pied-à-terre.
At this point, Semans mostly lived in North Carolina.
Bradford Gannett of
Coldwell Banker, who had been hired to sell the house, said he was negotiating with foundations or wealthy individuals involved with the arts, who could preserve the house if he could not find a seller.
Semans also began negotiating to sell some of the house's unused
air rights
In real estate, air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the Earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by oth ...
to Kalikow,
who had been forced to seal up several apartments in the townhouse at 2 East 82nd Street to obtain of additional space in the apartment building at 1001 Fifth Avenue.
The sale of the air rights would allow Kalikow to unseal the apartments at 2 East 82nd Street.
Semans ultimately withdrew her offer to sell the house.
By 1995, the Duke family was renovating the house into luxury
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
apartments. At the time, the descendants of Benjamin Duke only occupied a single room in the house. The project also included renovating the basement into doctors' offices, raising the roof to create a seventh story, and splitting the interior into three floors.
As part of this project, the plumbing and heating systems were also refurbished.
Although the condominium conversion was ultimately canceled,
some of the space was rented out.
The four-story apartment was rented for $50,000 a month.
Sales
Sapir ownership

Mary Semans placed the mansion for sale in 2005, as none of her descendants lived in the city.
The mansion, which was described as the last intact mansion on Fifth Avenue, was listed for $50 million, making it the second most expensive residence in New York City at the time.
Semans said of any potential buyer, "The only thing I would like is that they keep the house sort of the way it is now".
One of the three brokers, Sharon Baum of the
Corcoran Group
Corcoran Group is an American real estate firm founded in 1973 by Barbara Corcoran.
History
Barbara Corcoran, a former diner waitress, founded her own real estate company in 1973 with a $1,000 loan. In 2001, Barbara Corcoran sold her company ...
, marketed the house as a single-family residence, though potential buyers could also divide the house into multiple condos.
Because of its high asking price, the house's brokers only offered tours to potential buyers after checking their bank accounts.
The brokers experienced difficulties in showing the house to prospective buyers, as the brokers needed permission from the two existing tenants, and they could not show the building when staff members were on vacation.
By August 2005, sixteen millionaires had visited the property,
and three had made bids. Among the bidders were rock musician
Lenny Kravitz, who wished to acquire the Duke–Semans Mansion as a headquarters for his company Kravitz Design.
In total, 40 prospective buyers toured the house before it was sold.
Tamir Sapir, an American businessman and former taxi driver, paid $40 million for the building in January 2006.
This was the highest amount ever paid for a townhouse in Manhattan at the time.
At the time, Sapir planned to move his collection of sculptures to the upper floors.
He had also planned to live in the penthouse with his partner and their daughter, who was then two years old.
Sapir ultimately never moved his sculpture collection to the house,
and a proposal to convert the house to luxury apartments also failed.
Slim ownership

Sapir placed the mansion for sale in January 2010 for $50 million,
and Paula Del Nunzio of brokerage firm
Brown Harris Stevens was hired to market the building under an
exclusive listing agreement.
Sapir finalized his sale of the building in July 2010; sources initially reported that a Russian businessman had bought the house.
Mexican telecom magnate
Carlos Slim, at the time
the richest person in the world, was reported as the buyer, having paid $44 million.
At the time, it was the fourth-most-expensive townhouse ever sold in New York City.
Brown Harris Stevens sued Sapir for breach of contract in August 2010, claiming that Sapir had tried to avoid paying a broker's commission to Del Nunzio by secretly negotiating directly with Slim, then waiting until Del Nunzio's contract had expired before finalizing the sale.
Brown Harris Stevens alleged that, when Sapir sold the house to Slim, he had already agreed to sell the house to a client of Del Nunzio for $37 million.
The lawsuit was settled in December 2010.
In May 2015,
Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
placed 1009 Fifth Avenue for sale at an asking price of $80 million, nearly twice the amount Slim had paid for it. The house became one of the most expensive public listings in New York City. Slim canceled the sale in early 2016 after no one expressed interest in buying the house. He placed the house for sale again in January 2023.
Critical reception
Soon after the house was completed,
Montgomery Schuyler criticized mansions on Fifth Avenue in general, saying: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that, when a man goes into 'six figures' for his dwelling house, he ought not to make its upperworks of sheet metal. That is a cheap pretence which nothing can distinguish from vulgarity."
By contrast, Richard Peck of ''The New York Times'' wrote in 1974 that 1009 Fifth Avenue was "quintessential Fifth Avenue Beaux Arts".
Christopher Gray, writing for the same newspaper in 1995, said that the house's modern-style rooms were "among the most unusual interiors on Fifth Avenue".
The ''New York Observer'' wrote in 2015 that the building was "a Beaux-Arts confection eight stories tall with a corner orientation that offers that most rare of townhouse qualities—good light".
See also
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List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets
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National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{Authority control
1890s architecture in the United States
1899 establishments in New York City
Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City
Duke family residences
Fifth Avenue
Gilded Age mansions
Houses completed in 1899
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Upper East Side