By Carter B. Horsley

This chateau-like confection is a gargoyle-lover's delight.

Occupying a prime site at the entrance to the 79th Street Central Park transverse road, this large mansion was erected in 1899 for Isaac and Mary Fletcher and was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert in the French Renaissance style.

After Mr. Fletcher died in 1917, the house was acquired by Harry F. Sinclair and subsequently by Augustus van Horn Stuyvesant and his sister Ann Stuyvesant, descendants of Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant. In 1955, the property was acquired by the Ukranian Institute of America and it is frequently open to the public for exhibitions.

In his fine book, "Touring The Upper East Side, Walks in Five Historic Districts" (The New York Landmarks Conservancy, 1995), Andrew S. Dolkart provides the following interesting commentary:

"Here, the rural chateau form is compacted by the demands of an urban site, yet the house has a lively asymmetrical shape, and is complete with a moat-like areaway with front stairs suggestive of a draw bridge. The carved detail is outstanding: the winged monster ensconced on the chimney, the paired dolphins on the stone entrance railings, the rustic couples who flank the entrance, and the heads dripping from the second-floor window are but a few of the whimsical ornamental touches."

Another François I chateau-style mansion was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert for Felix Warburg at 1109 Fifth Avenue in 1909 and it is now the Jewish Museum (see The City Review article). The architect also designed a major house in the same style for F. W. Woolworth of 5 and Dime fame on the site the apartment building that now stands at 990 Fifth Avenue.

This building is across the street from the dark-brown apartment tower at 980 Fifth Avenue that replaced several townhouses including one that belonged to Isaac Brokaw and whose loss was one of the factors, along with the demolition of the old Pennyslvania Station, that led to the city's enactment of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Brokaw house was large but nowhere near as interesting or attractive as this mansion, which anchors an entire block stretching to Madison Avenue of townhouses, the only such block on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side.

It also is the northern anchor of the extremely sumptuous block of mansions on the avenue between 79th and 78th Streets, a rare reminder of the glory days of when the avenue facing Central Park was known as "Millionaire's Row" and as lined with mansions. The lovely mansion at the south end of this block is the former James Duke mansion at 1 East 78th Street, which is now the New York University Institute of Fine Arts (see The City Review article).

In 2002, the townhouse just to the east of the Ukranian Institute was completed renovated and rebuilt and the block took on more celebrity because one of the mid-block townhouses on the north side of 79th Street belongs to Mayor Bloomberg.

In their fine book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City, Fourth Edition" (Three Rivers Press, 2000), Elliot Willensky and Norval White describe this as a "French Gothic palace," adding that "the classic comparison is the house of Jacques Coeur (ca. 1450) at Bourges."