James B. Duke House

About

The James B. Duke House is a mansion at 1 East 78th Street, on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Horace Trumbauer, who drew heavily upon the design of Château Labottière in Bordeaux. Constructed between 1909 and 1912 as a private residence for businessman James Buchanan Duke and his family, the building has housed the New York University (NYU)'s Institute of Fine Arts since 1959.

The house has a limestone facade and was designed to look like a two-story structure from the street. An attic story is placed behind the balustrade on roof level. The house generally contains long windows and high ceilings and has a portico in the middle of the 78th Street facade. The interior of the first floor is designed in the French Classical style and consists of four large corner rooms, used as classrooms, which surround a main entrance hall. The second floor originally contained eight bedrooms while the third floor had servants' quarters; these later served respectively as a library and offices. The basement had service rooms, later converted into laboratories.