In 1895, German Jewish banker
Felix M. Warburg immigrated to the United States to marry
Frieda Schiff, a daughter of
Jacob Schiff. In turn, Schiff was the head of the New York–based banking house
Kuhn, Loeb & Co., which Warburg had joined as a junior partner in 1897. After their
honeymoon, the Warburgs moved into a
townhouse at 18 East
72nd Street, a wedding gift to Frieda from her father. The Warburgs had four children by 1907 and, needing space, Frieda purchased a
lot at the northeast corner of
Fifth Avenue and
92nd Street from
Perry Belmont. At the time, the surrounding section of Fifth Avenue was known as "
Millionaires' Row" because of its wealthy residents.
Private residence To design a new residence on their lot, the Warburgs hired the architect
C. P. H. Gilbert, who was at that time building a house for Felix's brother,
Paul, and had impressed the family with
the mansion he built for
Isaac D. Fletcher on Fifth Avenue. In August1907, Gilbert filed plans for the house, which was to cost $260,000 (). L. Alavoine & Co. and Messrs.
William Baumgarten & Co. were awarded the contract for the house's interior decoration in May 1908. The house was completed in 1908 and a fundraiser for Jewish charities in 1928. Frieda took
title to the house in January 1924. On October 20, 1937, Felix Warburg died of a heart attack in the house. Felix had willed all of the possessions and other objects in the Warburg House to Frieda. She remained in the mansion with a son and relatives who had fled
Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The house continued to host events such as a meeting of the
National Council of Jewish Women in 1938. Rising property tax as a consequence of nearby development greatly strained the Warburgs' finances; by 1941, the city government had appraised the property as being worth $665,000 (), of which the land was worth $625,000 (). Frieda Warburg rented an apartment at 1070 Fifth Avenue in 1940. In May1941, she sold the mansion to developer Henry Kaufman and architect
Emery Roth, who intended to redevelop the site into an eighteen-story apartment building. The
New York Herald Tribune reported that the house had been sold for less than $225,000 (). Work on the site had started by July 27, and Roth and Kaufman had begun purchasing steel and other materials for the new building. However, the developers' plans did not progress further, and Frieda took back control of the house.
The Jewish Museum On January 14, 1944, Frieda Warburg donated the mansion to the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), a
Conservative Jewish education organization, to commemorate what would have been Felix Warburg's 73rd birthday. She made the donation in memory of her husband, her father, and her brother
Mortimer L. Schiff. The renovations were delayed by
World War II and, in December1945, the seminary's president
Louis Finkelstein announced that work would start immediately. The first and second stories would each contain two exhibition rooms, while the third story would contain six exhibition rooms. The first story would contain the museum's lobby, and the music room on the second story would be turned into an auditorium. In January 1946, the Sheppard Pollack Company was hired to renovate the house for $100,000 (). The JTS opened the
Jewish Museum in the mansion in 1947. The museum held a preview of its first exhibit on May 6, 1947, displaying one thousand items on the Warburg House's first two stories. Two days later, the museum formally opened to the general public. Frieda Warburg said that, when she re-entered the house for the first time after its renovation, "I discovered to my joy that instead of depressing me, it gave me a wonderful feeling of happiness." The museum opened a third exhibition in another story of the house in November 1947. In the two years after it relocated to the Warburg House, the museum had 175,000 visitors; by 1952, it had recorded almost half a million cumulative visitors. Adam List designed a sculpture garden next to the museum, which was dedicated in 1959. The Warburg House's former lawn was replaced with an annex in 1962. The Jewish Museum was temporarily closed for renovations at the end of that month. The project included installing elevators in the Warburg House and a connection to the new annex. The Albert A. List Building opened in February1963. The wing had of space for exhibitions, workshops, and a store. During the 1960s, following the completion of the List Building, the museum evolved into an exhibition space for modern art.
Preservation In 1970, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered designating the Warburg House a city landmark, which the Jewish Museum successfully opposed. By April1981, however, the LPC was again debating whether to preserve the Warburg House as a city landmark. At the time, the museum wished to replace the List Building with a 25-story tower containing both museum space and apartments, which would require modifications to the Warburg House. More than 1,000 people signed a petition requesting the LPC grant landmark status to the Warburg House. On November 24, 1981, the LPC designated the mansion as a city landmark; the designation excluded the List Building. but the museum subsequently abandoned its plans for the tower project. The Warburg House was then added to the
National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1982.
Expansion Jewish Museum director
Joan Rosenbaum and philanthropist
Dorothy Rodgers announced in June1985 that they planned to expand the museum. At the time, the museum had a collection of 14,000 objects, but the Warburg House and the List Building could only accommodate a few hundred objects simultaneously. The museum briefly considered opening a satellite location. The LPC endorsed plans for the annex, which was to be designed in an identical style to the original mansion. Construction began in November1990 and lasted two and a half years. which ultimately cost $36 million. The work included completely reconstructing the List Building and transforming its interior into a 232-seat auditorium, enlarging the museum's
gross floor area from , and moving its main entrance to 92nd Street. The museum reopened on June 13, 1993. The museum completed a renovation of its third-floor galleries in January2018. The renovation, designed by
Tsao & McKown Architects, involved removing a staircase and unsealing some windows that faced west toward
Central Park. In the mid-2020s, the galleries on the third and fourth floors were renovated as part of a project that was scheduled to be completed in 2025. In addition, a restaurant named Lox opened in the Warburg House in 2024. opening the fourth floor to the public for the first time. ==Architecture==