Rediscover the UWS's Main Street!
"West Seventy Today" introduces you to your business neighbors along West 72nd Street, from Central Park to Riverside Park in weekly installments.
Meet your neighbors, NOW:
Fred Astaire on the Upper West Side
by Claudie Benjamin

Really too good, it’s like a stage set. Lights up: a 19th Century building, located right in the very heart of West 72nd Street, is entirely draped in dark, protective safety screening. Looking at the building from the curb, there are few signs of activity. But, this quiet is misleading. An entry door is open. Music streams down from the second floor where ballroom dancing is being taught, by Fred Astaire Dance West Side Studio owners Darius and Jolanta Mosteika, their partner Val Grebenin, and their staff. The lessons are currently on a limited schedule with strictly applied Covid-19 safety protocols.
This is a place not only to break the monotony of restricted Covid-era life, but to fully enjoy, even a limited hour of the company of another person. “Psychologists who’ve been coming for years say dancing makes them feel better,” says Jolanta.

In 1992, Darius and Jolanta came to the Upper West Side from Lithuania which at the time was a part of the former Soviet Union. The couple, then 25-year-olds, with little English, already had a great reputation as ballroom champions. They were contracted to teach at the Fred Astaire West Side Dance Studio, the first of the national franchise established in 1947 by the great dancer and a business partner. A year and a half later, Mosteikas became owners of the studio. KEEP READING
...and THEN:
Four Architects and One Roe Mansion
by Tom Miller

On December 13, 1861, Albert Seeley Roe married Rhuamy (known to friends and family as Amy) A. Chamberlain in the parlor of the bride’s parents at No. 432 4th Street. The young groom would soon become successful in the lard refining business and a partner in Chamberlain, Roe & Co.

In the decades following the Civil War, as the Roes established their family, both the Upper East Side and West Side saw a flurry of development. Albert and Amy chose the West Side, and in 1883 were living at 337 West 58th Street. That year would be tragic for the family when 12-year old Jessie Carpenter Roe, their second daughter died of “brain fever” on Sunday May 27.
Three years after the tragedy, Albert Roe set architect Arthur Bates Jennings to work designing a rather monumental rowhouse at 174 West 72nd Street. Architects working on the Upper West Side at the time flexed their creative muscles to create wonderfully playful upscale residences.

The Roe mansion was completed two years later in 1886. Jennings produced a stone-fronted house that refused to be forced into stylistic box. Romanesque Revival coexisted with a touch of Flemish Revival, topped with a slate-covered mansard roof. The house sat above a tall English basement. No two openings were alike and the architect skillfully incorporated arches, gables, engaged columns and carvings to achieve his four-story fantasy. KEEP READING
KEEP READING the history of 174 W72nd at 72 Crosstown
72 Crosstown highlights the architectural and social histories of 1/3 of the buildings along West 72nd Street. Additional sites are being added this week!

If you have a building you'd like us to prioritize, or a business you think we should feature, let us know!
SUGGEST a business: landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org
See you on West 72nd Street again, next FRIDAY!
LANDMARK WEST!
45 West 67th Street NY NY 10023