Just Off Fifth: 7 East 72nd Street
In complete contrast to its white brick neighbor at 912 Fifth Avenue, the Jennings Mansion at 7 East 72nd Street is an eye-popping catalogue of Beaux Arts architecture at its most unconstrained. Built in 1898 for Oliver Jennings, 7 East 72nd Street was designed by Ernest Flagg, whose best-known remaining New York building is the fascinating “Little Singer Building” in Soho, a remarkable Art Nouveau confection scarcely less ornate; his much larger Singer Building had the dubious distinction of being the tallest building in New York to be demolished for new construction.
Now joined to its opulent neighbor at 9 East 72nd Street, the Jennings Mansion was for many years the location of the Lycée Français de New York, the prestigious French-language private school.
It is, almost unbelievably, again a private single family residence.