Holmes Towers

The John Haynes Holmes Towers are named after a prominent Unitarian minister who spent six decades in New York City advocating for social justice and nonviolence. Holmes was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a tireless champion for racial equality, and these towers were named in honor of his long legacy of public service. Completed in 1969, the two twenty-five-story structures represent the only public housing development on the Upper East Side, standing as a distinct departure from the neighborhood’s surrounding architecture.