12 East 53rd Street, also the Fisk–Harkness House, is a building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States.

The house had originally been designed as a four-story brownstone townhouse with a stoop, a raised basement, and a flat roof behind a galvanized-iron cornice.

The present appearance of the house is a limestone structure designed in the Tudor-inspired Gothic Revival style.

The interior floors of Thomas's original design were substantially altered to allow the three middle stories to have tall ceilings.

[6] The house is across the street from Paley Park to the north and is on the same city block as the Omni Berkshire Place hotel to the southeast.

[7][10] The block of East 53rd Street from Fifth to Madison Avenues was only sporadically developed until the late 1870s, and it had brownstone residences by 1886.

[12] The present appearance of the house was designed by Raleigh Colston Gildersleeve for businessman Harvey Edward Fisk.

[3][13] The current house is six stories tall,[2] with a limestone facade designed in the Tudor-inspired Gothic Revival style.

The interior floors of Thomas's original design were substantially altered to allow the three middle stories to have tall ceilings.

[15] At ground level, the main entrance portal is a four-centered arch in the left bay, which includes a wood-and-metal double door.

The fifth story has a balustrade and balcony on the left bay, behind which is a flat copper roof and a dormer window.

[14][17][18] When the Fisk family occupied the house, it contained European artifacts such as tapestries, furniture, and paintings, which formed an atmosphere that historian Andrew Dolkart describes as "olde English".

[20] When the building was converted into a clubhouse for the Automobile Club of America in 1925, the second story was redesigned as a restaurant and the decorative ceiling was kept.

[26] Griffith Thomas was hired to design a four-story brownstone townhouse for Moran on 53rd Street.

[28] When the Oakman family lived in the house, it hosted events such as an annual meeting for the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New York,[29] as well as a discussion of political affairs in Crete.

[31] Architecture firm Hert & Tallant filed plans for renovations in 1902, which were projected to cost $5,000.

[35] They hired Raleigh Colston Gildersleeve to renovate the house extensively, as well as to design a country estate in Elberon, New Jersey.

The improvements included extending the building forward by 8.5 feet (2.6 m); adding a story to the rear; and installing new stairs, an electric elevator, a new facade, and an interior structure.

[42][43] In November 1921, the 12 East 53rd Street house was sold to art dealer Proctor & Company.

[15] The company occupied 12 East 53rd Street for only two years before selling it in December 1923 to the Automobile Club of America, which planned to renovate the building into their clubhouse.

[51][52] The building was placed for sale at a foreclosure auction that August,[61] and it was sold to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York for $50,000.

[65][66] Advertising agency Maxon Inc. purchased the building from Dowling in December 1948, intending to use the structure for its own offices.

[70] Maxon Inc. continued to occupy the building until November 1964, when it sold the house to the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, later LIM College.

[1][74] In August 2024, LIM College sold the building for $11 million to the obstetrician Dimitry Goncharov.