Famous Ankles

Henry Stimson is one of those names that I’ve heard about for much of my life, but I really haven’t known anything about him.  But since I’ve moved to NYC, I’ve occasionally passed by a building called “Stimson House” and a plaque caught my eye (I’m a sucker for historical plaques).

The plaque reads “New York, Home of Distinguished Americans; Henry Lewis Stimson; September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Herbert C. Hoover, 1929-33;  Secretary of War, 1911-13 and 1940-43; Governor General of the Philippines 1927-29; lived in a house on this site from 1921 to 1927; The New York Community Trust”

As the Wikipedia link, and the plaque note, Stimson served two presidents:  Hoover and Roosevelt, each from a differert political party.  As I understand it, his organizational acumen was such that he could appeal to two such different presidents and do excellent work for each.  This is the man who helped the US gear up and enter into the Second World War (and almost did the same in WWI).

It’s just a little building on 36th Street in Murray Hill between Lexington and Park.  I don’t know if it is an office building or a residence.  There are a couple of clues, though.

The awning is atypical and I’ve seen it only on residential apartment buildings.  The individual air conditioners are typical in residential places, too (they do exist in business buildings, but I’m making a guess here).

I could stop by again…

-H

This entry was posted on February 2, 2008 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.