By Carter B. Horsley

Of all the mansions remaining in Manhattan, this is perhaps the most enchanting, a deliriously detailed chateau with a myriad of deeply inset windows, arched windows, balconies, statues, and great tall chimneys.

Designed by Kimball & Thompson, it was commissioned in 1895 in 16th Century French chateau style for Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo as one of the largest private residences in the city, but she never moved into it and Andrew S. Dolkart has written, in his book, "Touring The Upper East Side, Walks in Five Historic Districts" (The New York Landmarks Conservancy, 1995), "evidence suggests that she ran out of money before being able to complete the building."

"Mimicking its French prototypes," Dolkart continued, "the Waldo house combines late Gothic and early Renaissance motifs, including statues of a monk, a knight, and other medieval personnages ensconced in second-story niches, and a roofline that bristles with projecting dormers, finials, and chimneys. The house remained unoccupied until 1920 when it received its first commercial tenant. It was transformed into the flagship Polo/Ralph Lauren shop in the mid-1980s."

In his fine book, "Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York" (Dover Publications Inc., 1988), which has fine photographs by Edmund V. Gillon Jr., Henry Hope Reed provides the following commentary:

"The fortress heritage of the rural, royal residences of the Loire was not lost in the transfer to New York. The roofline is very fine....The Gothic is found in the high-pitched roof of slate, the high, ornate dormers and the tall chimneys. The enrichment is early Renaissance, especially at the center dormers on both facades of the building, which boast colonnettes, broken entablatures, finials on high bases, finials in relief and volutes. In fact, although the dormers are ebullient, ornamentation is everywhere, even in the diamond-shaped pattern in relief on the chimneys (traceable to Chambord)."

In his superb book, "Elegant New York, The Builders and Their Buildings, 1885-1915" (Abbeville Press, 1985), John Tauranac provides the following commentary:

"Gertrude Rhinderlander Waldo was a direct descendant of Philip Jacob Rhinelander, who settled in New Rochelle in 1696 and was the progenitor of one of the land-owningest families in Manhattan (an Upper East Side telephone echange was RHinelander)....During its construction, the Waldos toured Europe again, where Mrs. Waldo purchased accessories for the house, but Mrs. Waldo never moved into her huse, and most of the treasures she had collected in Europe remained in their cartons. By the time the house was finished, Francis Waldo [her husband] was dead, and Mrs. Waldo chose to live with her sister, Mriss Laura L. Rhindlander, whose house at 31 East 72nd Street overlooked Mrs. Waldo's dream turned sour. In 1908, a 'For Sale' sign hung in front of the building, but there was no sale, as much because of Mrs. Waldo's price tag as her impetuosity. One broker had practically consummated a sale, but while the papers were being drawn up Mrs. Waldo calmly said, 'I don't think I'll sell,' and walked out. By 1909, the Waldo mansion was dilapidated, its stonework discolored, its interior fittings damaged by the rain that leaked through the roof. Despite the ostensible protection of a high iron fence around the house, the $200,000 worth of bronzes, paintings, and tapestries that were stored in it became an easy mark, and four times within as many months the houses was burglarized. Two years later, Mrs. Waldo died, with $9,221 owed in upaid taxes and a $150,000 mortage on the house. The Dime Savings Bank came into ownership by default and tried to sell the plot with the assurance that an apartment house could be erected on the site. A restrictive clause covered the block, but the bank claimed that an apartment house was tantamount to a series of private houses within a multifamily dwelling and was well within the definition of a private house. The restrictive clause held, and the house stood vacant until 1921, when the first floor was converted for stores and two apartments were created in the still luxurious quarters above. It was the first time that anyone had ever lived in the place."

Before Lauren took it over, the building was subdivided into a variety of spaces and at one time had some apartments on the upper floors and its lower floors were used at various times by Olivetti, the Italian company, Christie's, the auction house, and Zabar's, the gourmet food store, among others.

Rhinelander Waldo was a hero of the Spanish-American War and also Police Commissioner of the City of New York and was a character in the novel, "Ragtime."

Lauren's conversion of the entire building into a flagship store was very handsomely done and several years later he took over the two-story building across Madison Avenue and converted it into a stunning flagship store for Polo, one of his fashion lines, and that building is highlighted by a double-story space with a working fireplace. The building is on land that slopes down towards the north and it has a midblock entrance and one at the corner.

My mother briefly had an apartment in this building.