The Goodwin Mansion

One of my favorite buildings in Midtown is the Board of Directors office of the U.S. Trust, at 9-11 West 54th Street. This fairly reserved wide neo-Georgian townhouse was designed by McKim Mead & White as a residence for Mr. James J. Goodwin when the West 50′s was full of beautiful townhouses instead of mediocre office buildings.

The building eventually became home to the Rhodes School, a prep school which eventually moved to what is now the Children’s Museum across from Café Lalo on the Upper West Side before closing in the late 1970′s/early 1980′s. Robert de Niro was a Rhodes grad and my Aunt Naomi took a summer course there (chemistry, I believe).

The Rhodes School, W. 54th St., 1955

On the same block at the Fifth Avenue corner is the renaissance palazzo of the University Club (so beloved of my friend Lev Trubkovich), also designed by McKim Mead & White. It’s a bit too Italianate for my tastes (in the context of clubs, I prefer the neo-Georgian style), but impressive nonetheless. I especially enjoy the academic heraldry carved along the length of the building, depicting the coats of arms or seals of some of the country’s most prominent institutions (Yale, Harvard, Brown, Williams, West Point, Annapolis, etc). And of course right around the corner is the most enjoyable neo-gothic Church of St. Thomas with its ethereal choir.

It’s very much a shame, however, that this building isn’t a home any more, nor a school, which is nearly as good as a home as it too is a place in which one (hopefully) experiences and matures. I imagine that the Board of Directors of the U.S. Trust can’t enjoy their meetings to the same extent that a child could enjoy growing up in such a house. And that is, after all, what it was designed for. Notwithstanding, the Trust have been kind to the Goodwin mansion, having completely renovated it back to a high standard following decades of use as a school building, so at least for that we can be grateful.

UPDATE: An elevation and floor plans in this more recent post.