Riverside was the name of an extravagant private residence on the Upper West Side of New York City that existed in the first half of the 20th century. It was built for steel magnate Charles M. Schwab, and was the grandest and most ambitious house ever built on the island of Manhattan. Considered by many to be the classic example of a "white elephant", it was built on the "wrong" side of Central Park from the viewpoint of the more fashionable Upper East Side. The Upper West Side is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River. ... The Empire State Building (right) and the Chrysler Building (left) are easily recognized symbols of New York City to the world. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... Charles Michael Schwab (February 18, 1862 in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania - October 18, 1939 in London, England) was an American industrialist who became a multimillionaire in the steel industry but died bankrupt. ... Manhattan Borough,highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... A white elephant is a valuable possession whose upkeep is excessively expensive, and may be useless apart from its value to the gifter and giftee. ... Central Park (40°46′59″N, 73°58′20″W) is a large public, urban park (843 acres or 3. ... This photo, showing the architectural mix on the Upper East Side, was taken from 87th Street and Second Avenue. ...

The 75-room mansion between 73rd and 74th Streets was designed by an architect with only a modest reputation, Maurice Ebert, 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. The total cost was six million dollars. Architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... ... Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ... From the late 1870s to the 1920s the Vanderbilt clan employed Americas best Beaux-Arts architects and decorators to build an unequalled string of New York townhouses and East Coast palaces in the United States. ... Street sign at Fifth Avenue and East 57th street Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New York City. ... By region Italian Renaissance Spanish Renaissance Northern Renaissance English Renaissance French Renaissance German Renaissance Polish Renaissance The Renaissance, also known as Il Rinascimento (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution, religious reform and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... A château (French for castle; plural châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of gentry, usually French, with or without fortifications. ... Château de Chenonceau as seen from Diane de Poitiers gardens The Château de Chenonceau, near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France, was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before... Blois is a city in France, the préfecture (capital) city of the Loir-et-Cher département, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. ... Azay-le-Rideau, viewed across the Indre Azay-le-Rideau, built from 1518 to 1527, is one of the earliest French Renaissance châteaux. ...

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 Charley's? It makes mine look like a shack." Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. ... Mansion near Almelo, The Netherlands A mansion is a large and stately dwelling house. ...

Schwab was a self-made man who became president of U.S. Steel and later founded Bethlehem Steel Company. Schwab built "Riverside" after leaving Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for New York. The large property was available because it formed half the site of the former New York Orphan Asylum, one of several charitable institutions in the former Bloomingdale district that gave way to large projects, such as the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and Columbia University's campus on Morningside Heights. The Ansonia Hotel now occupies the orphans' Broadway frontage. The financier Jacob Schiff had bought the parcel, but— ominously for the social future of the Upper West Side— Mrs. Schiff refused to move to the "wrong" side of Central Park. The United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States and Central Europe. ... The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was the second largest steel producer in the United States, after US Steel but it is now part of the International Steel Group (ISG). ... Bethlehem is a city located in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in eastern Pennsylvania, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 71,329. ... The Cathedral of St. ... Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. ... Morningside Heights is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City and is bound by the Upper West Side, Morningside Park, Harlem, and Riverside Park (some now consider it part of the Upper West Side). ... Broadway theatre is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Jacob Schiff (January 10, 1847 – September 25, 1920) was a German-born New York City banker and philanthropist, who financed, among many other things, the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. ...

Schwab was a risk-taker and later went bankrupt in the Stock market crash of 1929. He died comparatively penniless ten years later in 1939, bequeathing the forlorn 'Riverside" to the City as a suitably ostentatious official residence for the mayors of New York. Unfortunately for the mansion, Fiorello La Guardia, then the mayor, was reform-minded and turned it down, saying "What, me in that?" Dorothea Langes Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson, a mother of seven children, age thirty-two, in Nipomo, California, March 1936. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Mayor of New York City is the chief executive of the New York City government, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of New York. ... Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (December 11, 1882–September 20, 1947) was the Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945. ...

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. It was later razed and replaced by a comparatively drab brick luxury apartment block, called Schwab House. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted... WWII-era poster promoting victory gardens. ...

Reference

Peter Salwen, Upper West Side Story