[1] The home was designed by an architect with only a modest reputation, Maurice Hébert,[2] as an eclectic Beaux-Arts mixture of pink granite features that made the Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth Avenue look cramped.

It combined details from three French Renaissance châteaux: Chenonceau, the exterior staircase from Blois, and Azay-le-Rideau.

[3] Schwab's former employer Andrew Carnegie, whose own mansion on upper Fifth Avenue later became the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, once remarked, "Have you seen that place of Charlie's?

"[6] La Guardia's rejection of the mansion sealed its fate, and during World War II, a Victory garden was planted in its once-landscaped grounds.

Eventually the many dwellings around the home became overcrowded and Riverside Drive lost whatever affluence and wealth that had existed.