The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street
One of the city’s outstanding museums and one of the best such collections of its size in the world, the Frick Collection is housed in the former residence of Henry Clay Frick.
A melding of French and English Neo-Classical influences, the mansion was designed by the architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings, whose best-known work is undoubtedly the main building of the New York Public Library; the house was converted into a museum by John Russell Pope, the designer of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC.
By turns opulent and austere, the house contains a series of murals by Fragonard in addition to numerous masterworks by Rembrandt, Titian, Goya, Whistler and Vermeer among many others.
The small garden that overlooks East 70th Street is the only surviving New York City work by the British Landscape architect Russell Page. The garden was at the center of a preservation controversy; the museum had planned to replace it with more gallery space but has decided, in face of widespread opposition to this idea, to convert the upper floors of the mansion into galleries instead.