FOR SALE: One of the childhood homes of young Jacqueline and Caroline Lee Bouvier (later more commonly known as Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, respectively) is on the market for $44 million at 740 Park Avenue in New York…
The iconic building is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on the corner of Park Avenue and East 71st Street:
BACKGROUND: THE LEE FAMILY
The Art Deco residential building was built in 1929-1930 by Jackie and Lee’s grandfather, James T. Lee (1877–1968), a property developer, with architecture by Rosario Candela and Arthur Loomis Harmon.
The site was originally Lee’s private home, and the neighboring George Brewster limestone mansion, and the new building was officially opened in 1931.
The New York Times has an article about James T Lee and his building legacy.
James T Lee and Margaret Merritt Lee
James Thomas Lee married to Margaret A. Merritt (1879–1943) and went on to be the father of Janet Norton Lee Bouvier Auchincloss Morris (1907-1989), Marion Merritt Lee (1909-1991) and Winifred Norton Lee d’Olier (1912-1991).
Left to right: Franklin D’Olier, Winifred Lee, Jacqueline Bouvier (late Kennedy Onassis),
Marian Raymond and Mrs. James T. Lee at the Southhampton Riding and Hunt Club’s
seventh annual horse show
1. Janet Lee went on to marry:
- John Vernou Bouvier III with whom she had daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Caroline Lee Canfield Radziwill Ross
- Hugh D. Auchincloss with whom she had two more children, Janet Jennings Auchincloss and James Lee Auchincloss, and three stepchildren Hugh Dudley Auchincloss III, Nina Gore Auchincloss and Thomas Gore Auchincloss
- Bingham “Booch” Morris.
Jack and Janet, Mr and Mrs JV Bouvier III – the parents of Jacqueline
Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill
Ross – at a horse show in Southampton, Long Island in 1932
2. Marion Lee married John J Ryan Jnr (1905-1986), and went on to have daughter Mary Lee Ryan who married William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil.
3. Winifred Lee married Franklin d’Olier Jnr (1911-2000), the son of Franklin d’Olier, and went on to have children, including Anne d’Olier Mullen.
Read a bit more about the family background here.
Scroll through these images of young Jackie Kennedy Onassis and
Lee Radziwill when they were Jacqueline and Caroline Bouvier:
740 PARK: JACKIE AND LEE’S CHILDHOOD HOME
Jacqueline Bouvier (1929-1994) and Caroline Lee Bouvier known as “Lee” (1933- ) lived with their parents, “Jack Black” Bouvier and their socialite mother, Janet Norton Lee Bouvier, in apartment 6/7A on the sixth and seventh floors of 740 Park Avenue from 1931 to 1938, until Jackie was seven years old.
Grandparents James and Margaret Lee lived upstairs in apartment 15/16D from 1931 to 1937.
According to author Michael Gross, as the daughter of the builder, Janet Lee Bouvier and her husband Jack Bouvier, attained the final open lease which they did not pay for.
A young Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis outside
Chapin School for Girls in New York
Whilst living here, Jackie attended the exclusive Chapin School in the Upper East Side.
The family lived her until Jack Bouvier’s philandering ways became too much for Janet. They separated in 1936, reunited in 1937, separated again, and then divorced in 1940.
New York District Attorney Francis Garvan and his heiress wife Mabel Brady Garvan lived in apartment 6/7A from 1939-1980 , followed by Rand and Jesse Araskog from 1980-2005.
The following photos include images from the Garvan’s period, as well as the current owners, the Ganeks, both the listing photos for the $44m sale, and project photos from the recent renovation by Fox-Nahem (more details below):
FOR SALE: 740 PARK TODAY
The current owners are avid art collectors David Ganek, a hedge fund manager, and his wife, writer Danielle Ganek.
The Ganeks bought the former Bouvier apartment for $19.1 million in 2005, and have used the apartment to showcase some of their extensive art collection. They brought in Fox-Nahem to retain the core Candela architecture but spruce things up to modern standards.
The original floor plan:
The current floor plan:
Ganek’s firm, Level Global Investors, which in its peak managed $4.2 billion, was shut down in 2011 due to an insider trading scandal. His co-founder and partner, Anthony Chiasson, was sentenced to six and a half years in jail, and the now defunct firm owing $21.5 million to the SEC.
Apparently, the Ganeks have decided to move downtown to a $28 million penthouse in the Puck building in Soho, at 295 Lafayette Street.
They also have a $12.65 million, 7-bedroom, ocean front estate on Southampton’s prestigious Meadow Lane, with neighbours including David Koch, Daniel Och, Leon Black, Rachel Ray, Calvin Klein, Ian Schrager, and Aby Rosen.
Current listing photos for Apt #6/7A, 740 Park Avenue
They are giving up their 8000 square foot Park Avenue apartment which goes over two levels (sixth and seventh floors) and currently includes:
- a master suite with two marble bathrooms, two dressing rooms, and two offices
- three further bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom
- marble gallery entrance
- 550-plus square foot formal dining room
- 40-foot long living room with a bronze bar
- a panelled library
- powder room
- chef’s kitchen and breakfast room
- sweeping staircase
- media room
- laundry
- staff wing with two bedrooms and a bathroom
- four fireplaces
Current listing photos for Apt #6/7A, 740 Park Avenue
The co-op has monthly charges of $13,278 which can give you:
- Concierge
- 24-hour doorman
- Live-in superintendent
- Elevator
- Fitness center
- Laundry
- Pets allowed
- Storage
The neighbours
Apparently, applicants who want to live in the building must prove that they have liquid net worth of $100 million. So you’d better dig out all those coins down the back of the couch if you want to be in with a chance.
The 19-level limestone building has 31 units. As well as the Lee and Bouvier families, other notable residents have included:
John D Rockefeller Jr, Vera Wang, Woody Johnson, Thelma Chrysler Foy, Woody Johnson, David Koch, Jerzy Kosinski, Ronald Lauder, Howard Marks, Ronald Perelman, Steve Ross, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Saul Steinberg, Irene Guggenheim, Alexander Mellon, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Robert Thurlow and Mildred Bedford Vanderbilt, Marshall Field III, Spyros Niarchos, Edgar M and Ann Loeb Bronfman, Walter Chrysler, Jack F Chrysler, F. William and Edith Chrysler Carr, Prince Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, Anne Eisenhower and Wolfgang Flottl, Thomas and Alice Tisch, and Frank Gould.
The French government’s duplex at 740 Park Avenue sold for $70 million (well above the original $48 million asking price), suggesting how prized an apartment in the building is.
Applicants including Barbra Streisand, Joan Crawford,Barbara Walters, Neil Sedaka and Ukrainian-born American billionaire Leo Blavatnik have been famously rejected by the co-op board.
For more details, read 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building by Michael Gross, and see a list of tenants of 740 Park, past and present, via the Michael Gross website.
Take a look at photos and a floor plan from another apartment in this building here. And see more examples of 740 Park floor plans here, here and here.
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Cheers, Natasha
www.myLusciousLife.com
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