The Cherokee Apartments (formerly the East River Homes and the Shively Sanitary Tenements) is a four-building apartment complex on 507–523 East 77th Street and 508–522 East 78th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed in 1912 as a residence for people with tuberculosis and their families, the buildings were designed by Henry Atterbury Smith. They incorporated architectural features such as floor-to-ceiling windows, balconies, and interior courtyards that were designed to aid ailing residents. The buildings have terra cotta and brick facades with green tile roofs. Each building has a central courtyard connected to the street by vaulted passages lined with Guastavino tile.
The complex was converted into regular rental apartments in 1924, and later became a co-op. It became a New York City designated landmark in 1985, and the buildings are also contributing properties to a National Register of Historic Places district.
Description
The complex comprises four buildings in the block bounded by York Avenue on the west, East 78th Street on the north, Cherokee Place on the east, and East 77th Street on the south. Each building is six stories high. The buildings were all designed by Henry Atterbury Smith, who had promoted an "open stair" plan for more healthful apartment buildings. Smith wished to give residents as much exposure to the outdoors as possible. As such, the architectural features include triple-hung floor-to-ceiling windows, French balconies, winding open stairwells, and interior courtyards – designed to provide an airy and healthful environment for sick residents.
Form and facade
The complex comprises four buildings: 508–514 East 78th Street to the northwest, 516–522 East 78th Street to the northeast, 517–523 East 77th Street to the southeast, and 507–515 East 77th Street to the southwest. A driveway runs west–east between the northern and southern buildings. There are also recesses separating the eastern and western buildings on either street, which contain driveways that slope down to the basement. The two eastern buildings face Cherokee Place, while the two western buildings face a neighboring school's playground, separated from it by a one-story-high retaining wall. The buildings contain nearly identical facades and are each six stories tall. Each building's entrance connects to a vaulted passage with Guastavino tile ceilings and glazed brick walls, which in turn leads to a courtyard in the middle of each building.
The first stories of each building are faced with terra cotta, which is laid in a manner resembling rustication. There is an areaway in front of each building along 77th and 78th Streets, with windows in the basement. The center of each building's north or south facade contains a large rectangular entrance, which leads to that building's vaulted passageway; the entrances are flanked by bronze lamps. The entryways on 77th Street are surrounded by pineapple motifs, while those on 78th Street are plain in design. A cornice above each entrance is supported by a pair of elaborate console brackets at either corner and a keystone at the center. The rest of the ground-floor facade contains either triple-paned windows with balconies or smaller double-paned windows without balconies. A frieze, with egg-and-dart moldings and double-ball motifs, separates the first story from the others. The two easternmost buildings have facades along Cherokee Place, but there are no doors or areaways at ground level.
The upper stories use brick and are divided vertically into numerous bays, most of which have balconies. Each balcony contains a metal railing, Guastavino tiles on its underside, and curved metal brackets below. Some of the bays do not have balconies and instead contain smaller windows with keystones. Above the fifth floor, within the bays that do not contain balconies, a pair of horizontal brick bands and a set of green rhombus-shaped terracotta motifs runs across the facade. The sixth story of each building is topped by a green-tiled roof, supported by pairs of one-story-high metal brackets. The buildings on 77th Street, and those on 78th Street, are connected to each other by a plain brick wall with sash windows and small balconies and are topped by a tall, narrow parapet.