The Ansonia

The Ansonia is a massive Beaux Arts landmark that spans an entire city block between seventy third and seventy fourth streets. When its developer William Earle Dodge Stokes finished the project in nineteen hundred and four, he envisioned a self-sustaining residential utopia. To achieve this, he constructed a working farm on the roof that housed hundreds of chickens, ducks, goats, and even a small bear. Residents received fresh eggs and milk daily, delivered by staff from the rooftop pasture, until the Department of Health finally ordered the farm closed a few years later.