Arthur Curtiss James House

You are approaching the site of the former Arthur Curtiss James House, which once stood as a marble palace at 39 East 69th Street. Completed in 1914, this Gilded Age mansion was the primary city residence for Arthur Curtiss James, a railroad tycoon who controlled one seventh of the entire United States railroad mileage. While his name is less commonly cited than those of the Vanderbilts or Rockefellers, his fortune was substantial enough to rival the era's most famous industrial giants. The house was designed by the Boston firm Allen and Collens with an English Renaissance exterior of Knoxville gray marble, though it was carefully proportioned to appear as only three stories from the street level.