Cherokee Apartments

The Cherokee Apartments were built in nineteen twelve to function as a medical intervention against the tuberculosis epidemic that devastated New York City at the turn of the century. Philanthropist Anne Harriman Vanderbilt funded the project, which was conceived by Dr. Henry Shively as a place where patients could live in a curated, sanitary environment. The complex was designed with the singular goal of maximizing sunlight and air flow, as medical professionals of the time believed that fresh air and light were the primary cures for consumption. The architecture itself served as the medicine. Each building features large triple-hung windows that reach from floor to ceiling, designed to be opened wide onto iron balconies where patients were encouraged to sleep outside. To prevent the spread of germs within closed spaces, the architect Henry Atterbury Smith incorporated open-air stairwells that were exposed to the elements. These stairs were also equipped with small bucketed seats on each landing, placed there so that residents who were winded or physically weakened by their illness could rest during their climb to the upper floors.