Henry Hardenbergh’s French Flats: Upscale Living Comes to Greenwich Village

Do you live in an apartment? Well, for most New Yorkers, that was not always the case. Apartment living, while now synonymous with New York life, is a newer phenomenon, having not gained popularity with most New Yorkers until the late 19th century. Before the Civil War, unless they were poor or working class, or in temporary housing, New Yorkers generally chose to live in single-family residences and row houses—much like the ones seen in parts of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. Middle-class families could afford single-family homes and only opted for an apartment as a temporary fix. Conversely, multi-family residential buildings were seen as less than, reserved for poorer demographics. These dwellings, commonly known as Tenements houses or just tenements (derived from “tenant houses) were either tiny apartments of small rooms often with little or no light, air, or ventilation and no indoor plumbing, or rooms in what had been built as single-family homes in newly-undesirable locations that were split up into several units and meant to house immigrant or poorer families.

After the Civil War, however, New York’s population boomed, as did its need for denser living conditions, as expanding mass transit and a population boomed filed by large scale immigration made land values soar and vastly increased the number of people that could be shoehorned into, and moved into and out of, a small centrally located area. Consequently, city residents were forced to reevaluate their living styles and expectations. Developers took inspiration from cities on the European continent, which were generally larger and more densely built up than American cities, and had much sooner embraced apartment living as a desirable and necessary form of urban life, regardless of class or means.

As a result, in New York a new kind of residential building, with cosmopolitan associations and multiple units, touting high ceilings, great views, and luxurious amenities began popping up all over the city. The term “French Flat” was created to emulate the chic lifestyle of apartment living, indicative of a certain Parisian allure that developers sought to attach to it.

The cultural shift towards apartments was gradual, and apartment life did not become the norm for middle- and upper-class New Yorkers until after the turn of the 20th century. But the movement was well underway by the late 19th century.

One of the leaders of that shift was renowned architect Henry J. Hardenbergh. He was among the foremost architects who helped design and bring French Flats to our city and neighborhood, and transformed apartment living from a last resort into a lifestyle of choice.

Born February 6, 1847, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Henry J. Hardenbergh’s architectural career began in 1865, when he worked as an apprentice under Detlef Lienau, a German architect credited with bringing the French Second Empire style to American building construction, as exemplified by 32 Fifth Avenue. By 1870, Hardenbergh went on to open his own architectural practice, where he strived to build luxury apartment complexes. This is perhaps best illustrated when in 1878, Hardenbergh designed the Van Corlear, an apartment building on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 55th to 56th Streets (demolished). Though apartment living was still new to the middle and upper classes, Hardenbergh’s Van Corlear quickly filled with tenants by the time construction was completed.

After seeing the success of the Van Corlear, Edward Clark, president of Singer Sewing Machine Company, commissioned Hardenbergh to design a series of housing developments on West 72nd and West 73rd Streets. What followed was the construction of several row houses, a small apartment building at the northwest corner of Columbus and 73rd, and the renowned Dakota Building, located at 72nd Street and Central Park West.

The first of its kind, Hardenbergh designed 65 units for the Dakota (known as the Dakota Apartments at the time), ensuring that no two apartment units were alike. Adding a slew of amenities like a central courtyard, underground passageways, and common workspaces, the Dakota (1884), so named because its uptown and westerly location was considered so remote at the time as to, for all intents and purposes, be in the Dakota Territories, successfully captured the public imagination for the allure of upscale apartment-style living.

While the Dakota may be Hardenbergh’s most famous and only still-functioning French Flat, it isn’t his only surviving one. While Hardenbergh was working on the Dakota, he was also designing the Albert, located at 63 University Place/40-52 East 11th Street. Originally called the Albert Apartment House and opened in 1881, like the Dakota, this complex was intended to house middle- and upper-class residents underneath the same roof. But unlike the Dakota, the Albert didn’t stay dedicated to this purpose for long. In 1887, the Albert Apartment House was converted into the Albert Hotel and eventually merged with the neighboring St. Stephen Hotel on West 11th Street.

Though originally designed as luxury apartments, The Albert later evolved into a creative haven, becoming deeply embedded in Greenwich Village’s artistic and political identity. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, prominent painters, writers, photographers, and musicians found inspiration at the hotel. LGBTQ+ and African-American artists established communities here, as did radical, Jewish, and working-class organizations such as the Progressive Labor Party. The Albert hotel, which included the original Albert Apartments as well as several accreted additions over the years, as converted back to apartments in the mid-1970s

Today, apartment living is the norm for most New Yorkers, regardless of background or income. That transformation is due in large part to architects like Henry J. Hardenbergh, who helped shift the perception of multi-family housing from a cramped, last resort to a refined, desirable lifestyle. His buildings not only shaped the city’s streets and skyline but also fostered new, more economical ways of living. To continue exploring the legacy of French Flats and the architects who brought them to life, check out our virtual guide and map.