Architect William Lescaze
Arrived in America from Switzerland in 1920 as an unknown architect. In 1933 he designed his home and office in the 1865 row house located at 211 E 48th Street. Its minimal International Style implemented glass blocks, never before used in New York City, and a simple stucco facade. One of the first architectural pillars of the Modern Movement, it is one of only three townhouses Lescaze would ever design in the city. The Lescaze house was designated as an official landmark by The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1976 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Lescaze’s son, Lee Adrien Lescaze, a renowned editor of both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, would join his father on the block by moving his family into 209 East 48th Street.
Turtle Bay Gardens
48th Street houses the tranquil enclave of 1860’s townhouses “Turtle Bay Gardens,” purchased and renovated by New York socialite Charlotte Hunnewell Martin in 1918 and sold to her sparkling friends to enjoy. E.B. White famously penned Charlotte’s Web and several essays for The New Yorker while living in the Gardens. Other famous residents included Katharine Hepburn and Tyrone Power, composer Stephen Sondheim, jurist Learned Hand, conductor Leopold Stokowski, Maria Bowen Chapin (founder of the Chapin School), publishing legends Maxwell Perkins, Henry Luce, Dorothy Thompson.
Terra 48 sits between two iconic architectural gems
