Join the Victorian Society New York for our annual Margot Gayle Benefit Tour. This year we are privileged to visit the historic National Fine Art Foundry Building.

A private residence since 1977, the brownstone was erected in 1848 and was used for everything from a boarding house to a piano factory. It was named the National Fine Art Foundry Building for the foundry that purchased the building in 1868; the Kips Bay business soon became nationally known for their bronze and granite statues and monuments throughout the country. Sculptors Rochette & Parzini bought the building in 1909 and continued its artistic tradition operating it as an important sculptural foundry for most of the twentieth century, decorating buildings for clients from McKim, Mead & White to the New York Stock Exchange and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. In 1977, photographer Clara Aich rescued the by then run-down property and converted it to a residence using many of the remaining sculptural pieces as decoration. For a more extensive history of the building, please see Tom Miller’s Daytonian in Manhattan blog.

Join us for a private tour of this remarkable piece of New York City history.

Friday, April 17
6:30–8:30 p.m.
The National Fine Art Foundry Building
218 E. 25th St.

Purchase tickets.

The Margot Gayle Fund for the Preservation of Victorian Heritage was established in 2003 to honor Margot Gayle (1908–2008), an eminent preservationist who was one of the founders of the Victorian Society in America. VSNY regularly awards monetary grants from this fund to projects related to the preservation, conservation, and/or interpretation of material culture in the New York metropolitan area from c. 1837 to 1919.

A 19th-century stereoscope slide highlights the metalwork—the statues, plaques, and decorations—of the Civil War Soldiers’ Monument in Greenwood Cemetery, created at the National Fine Art Foundry.