19 Gramercy Park South

[3] In 1887, this modest property was expanded and altered by noted architect Stanford White[4] at the cost of $130,000[2] into a mansion with an interior marble staircase and a ballroom on the top floor where Mamie Fish gave elaborate parties for New York society.

[2] The Fish family left for their new 78th Street home in 1898, and the building was broken up into small apartments;[5] actor John Barrymore was a resident while he was in New York working on Broadway.

[3] The building was rescued from decay in 1931 by noted publicist Benjamin Sonnenberg when he and his wife rented the first two floors, gradually expanding and taking over other apartments.

In 1945, Sonnenberg bought the entire building from Fish's son, Stuyvesant Fish Jr., for $85,000, and combined it with the apartment building to the south to create a massive residence which noted architecture critic Brendan Gill called "the greatest private house remaining in private hands in New York.

[1] Sonnenberg died in 1978, and the house was auctioned to Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff, the owner of Evyan Perfumes, although Dr. Henry Jarecki also bid on it.