The Stanford White Mansion on Fifth Avenue

No other architect dominated the Gilded Age to the extent of Stanford White of the esteemed firm of McKim Mead & White. For almost 30 years, from 1879 to 1912, the firm was the architect of choice for the most glorious projects of the day: a redesign of The White House, Pennsylvania Station, and the Century and Metropolitan Clubs in New York, the Boston Public Library and the creative genius at the pinnacle of the firm was Stanford White. His residential clients were the most prestigious families of the time; such important names as Villard, Vanderbilt, Whitney, Pulitzer all requested his services. His last designs were the Henry Cook house on 973 Fifth Avenue and its neighbor the Payne Whitney house, completed in 1907. With the design impact of a Renaissance master, White's patrons sought his taste not only in the architecture of their homes but also in choosing the furnishings, panelling, tapestries, art, landscaping, and even the planning of the grand social events that would be held there.

Henry Cook who originally owned the entire block of Fifth to Madison Avenues, from East 79th to East 78th Streets, limited the height of all buildings with deed restrictions that persist to this day. His country mansion 'Wheatleigh' in Lenox, Massachusetts, resembled an Italianate Villa and was deemed 'one of the most beautiful country estates in the Berkshires.' Cook lived on Fifth Avenue at the corner of East 78th Street while he waited for his new Stanford White residence to be completed. At the time of his death, James B. Duke bought that home, 1 East 78th Street, and engaged Horace Trumbauer to erect the stately mansion that stands at that location today. Henry Cook's daugther, Goergie, inherited the new Stanford White mansion, Wheatleigh, and the Cook stables on East 77th Street.