Look Up: A Boutique Hotel with Ties to Prohibition. Also, Gargoyles. (NYC)

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Once the tallest apartment building in New York City, the Sherry-Netherland (781 5th Avenue) is now a boutique hotel operated as part of the Mantis Collection, an elite collection of five-star hotels, game reserves, luxury yachts, and other extravagant vacation options.

It was built in 1927 as a joint venture between Louis Sherry, a renowned ice cream-maker and confectioner, and Lucius Boomer, a hotelier with ties to the Waldorf-Astoria. Situated across from Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza, this corner is one of the most prestigious centers for apartment-hotels in the city, with the Plaza and the Pierre nearby. However, unlike most other grand hotels, the restaurant inside, the luxurious Harry Cipriani, is rather small, a result of being built during the height of Prohibition. Interestingly, it was Prohibition that inspired Sherry to close his previous successful restaurant at 44th and 5th.

Erected on the site of the old Netherland Hotel, also associated with the Waldorf-Astoria, the Sherry-Netherland was designed by the office of Schulze & Weaver, along with Buchman & Kahn, in a neo-Romanesque style with an odd Gothic peaked tower with copper finials. The street facing sides of the tower also feature gables clad in terra cotta and have a pair of arches, a rose window, and a square inlaid tile with a seated griffin. The back of the tower, seen from the East is slightly less impressive, with less windows and fewer details. Also near the top of the tower and the peak of the spire are two arrays of amazing copper griffin gargoyles.

Around the 4-storey travertine marble base, other seated griffons support hanging lanterns that are unfortunately currently covered by scaffolding. The travertine also has some other decorative features including several in-filled arch windows and a band of moderately decorated balusters. Other than some 2-storey double arches that adorn the central stepped back region of the building, the rest of the façade is relatively subdued, with a dark grey-brown brick and pairs of double-hung windows.

However, in one bay, a lucky resident was able to join these into a single window, a treat no longer permitted as the building was included in the 1981 Upper East Side landmark district.   

The Sherry-Netherland was, for a time, the tallest apartment building in the city.

The hotel is situated across from Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza.

The building itself was built on the former site of the old Netherland Hotel, also associated with the Waldorf-Astoria. 

Near the top of the tower and the peak of the spire are two arrays of amazing copper griffin gargoyles. 

The street facing sides of the tower also feature gables clad in terra cotta and have a pair of arches, a rose window, and a square inlaid tile with a seated griffin. 

The gargoyles.

Detail of a single gargoyle.

Two gargoyles.

The spire.