durhamnc

James B. Duke House – Then and Now (94+ years later)

"One of the great surviving mansions of "Millionaire's Row" on Fifth Avenue, the New York University Institute of Fine Arts was built originally as the James B. and Nanaline Duke home in 1912, and was designed by Horace Trumbauer." [1]

James Buchanan Duke (1856 - 1925) was one of the founding partners of the American Tobacco Company and the owner of Duke Power. He was the founder of Duke University. The Duke family donated the building to New York University in 1952. [2] [3]


"James B. Duke House (c.1912)" by Bain News



"NYU Institute of Fine Arts (2006)" by yeussquai

Link to the NYU IFA website (with a cool picture of the interior staircase: www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/ifa/research/libraries.htm The Stephen Chan Library of Fine Arts is located on the second floor of the Duke House at 1 East 78th Street. Location is on 5th Avenue, adjacent to Central Park, New York, NY.

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Thank you both so much for your research on this magnificent house both past and present. We'll fill in the caption, and provide a better approximation of the date the next time that we update the record.

A similar photo ran in The Sunday Oregonian, July 13, 1913, SECTION FIVE, Image 59 with the caption: "James B. Duke, the very wealthy tobacco man has just completed his house at the corner of Seventy eighth street and Fifth avenue, New York. He and his beautiful wife are expected to take an active part in social affairs In New York next year. Mr. Duke also has a fine estate and home at Somervllle, N. J. He and Mrs. Duke pass much time abroad." oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1913-07-13/ed-1/se...

Mary Lillian Duke (1887-1960), tobacco heiress who married Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. in 1915 (this is probably the engagement portrait). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Duke_Biddle

There's a photograph of Mary Lillian Duke as Mrs. A. D. (Anthony Drexel) Biddle, Jr. in the Bain Collection of The Library of Congress that hasn't made its way to Flickr yet ...

 


 

First cousin of Doris Duke.

See also

Thanks to all of you for your research and keen eye to pull the information together. We'll add a little more information to both records the next time we update.