A HABITATION FOR HERSELF

Park Avenue

Wharton would have preferred to stay at The Mount year-round, but social obligations dictated her return to New York City during the winter. Her consolation was “the amusement of adorning [her] sixteen-foot-wide house in New York with the modest spoils of [her] Italian travels.”

Drawing Room at 884 Park Avenue

Dining Room at 884 Park Avenue

Country houses such as The Mount could include many spacious rooms and a freer floorplan. The restraints of New York City homes, by contrast, sometimes dictated a different configuration of spaces. Wharton mentions the narrowness of her New York City residence, similar to the building shown in the plans below.

Second Floor Plan of Elsie DeWolfe's Residence

The second floor plan above, drawn for an alteration by Codman, shows the compact width but incredible depth of some New York City homes. In this residence, the drawing room was above the ground floor and would have been accessible from the dining room through the small hallway near the stairs.

Longitudinal Section of Elsie DeWolfe's Residence