Sutton House (Manhattan)

Sutton House is located at 415 East 52nd Street on the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. As of 1815, the Sutton House area was farmland. According to The Iconography of Manhattan Island Volume 6, Block 1364, which is where Sutton House Lies, was split diagonally between the Edmund Seaman Farm and the George Youle Farm, also known as Spring Farm. By 1879 a stoneyard had been developed and a planning mill had been erected where currently building C stands, facing E 53rd street, while townhouses faced 52nd st, in the area still owned by the descendants of Edmund Seaman. The 1891 map shows the planning mill replaced by a building owned by Consumers Ice Co, and the stoneyard still active, at the site of building C. In 1930, the Sutton House site continued occupied by townhouses facing 52nd St, and by the Knickerbocker Ice Company ice house facing 53rd Street. Given that the Knickerbocker Ice company closed to the public in 1924, the area was not being used when construction started in 1954. == Architecture ==

Sutton House was designed by John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras in the modern style and was built by Kolyer Construction Corporation, originally as a luxury rental building managed by Douglas Elliman. approached through a landscaped entrance, facing 52nd St on the south. Open areas between the buildings are private park-like settings. The complex features a two-story 160-car garage facing 53rd street, for easy access from FDR Drive, and totals 290 apartments, from suites to 5-bedroom penthouses. Most of the apartments feature balconies, and some include fireplaces. Sutton House is a white brick building designed in the modernist period, a style shared with the contemporaneous Manhattan House, which regained popularity in the 2010s. According to the New York Times in 1956, "the term "landscaping", rather than "decorating", has been used to describe the plans for the lobby and ground floor corridors of the Sutton House". The public space design was done by Virginia Conner Dick, a prominent interior designer and a furniture designer hired by Kokkins & Lyras for the job. According to the Times, "The indoor-outdoor effect of the lobby and the glass-enclosed corridors connecting the building's three sections are achieved with large plantings near the large windows facing the private garden". The building entrance is at 415 E 52nd St, with the restaurant space at 405 E 52nd St, and two offices also open towards E 52nd St. The building was built with air conditioner outlets on every room, and window space for air conditioners, so they could be at the center of the room. The building is going through a conversion from window air-conditioners to PTACs, as can be seen on the images. Sutton_House_Building_A.jpg|Sutton House Building A Sutton_House_Building_B.jpg|Sutton House Building B Sutton_House_Building_C.jpg|Sutton House Building C Apartments (original floor plan) Building A Building A has five apartments per floor, A through E, on floors 2 to 9, where apartments B, C and D have balconies. Sutton House Lobby contains windows facing the internal and external gardens, and features floor to ceiling mirrors. Sutton House has a kid's playroom, a modern gym/health center, bicycle storage, and three East River-viewing rooftop decks. Restaurant The French restaurant Le Périgord, owned by Georges Briguet, operated at Sutton House from 1964 until 2017. After Le Périgord closed, Briguet had planned to open a new restaurant at the same location, but the space remained vacant until his death in 2022. Italian restaurant Nino's, owned by Nino Selimaj, took its place at 405 East 52nd Street in December 2025. Previously located at 1354 First Avenue on the Upper East Side, the 35-year-old restaurant relocated because its former space was slated to be demolished to make way for a 23-story building. == History ==

Development and initial rentals In 1954, a syndicate of seven investors—including architects John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras, and Greek shipping executive Manuel Kulukundis—acquired the parcels necessary to construct Sutton House. Following DiLorenzo's death in 1975, Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo III famously divided their joint real estate empire via a coin flip; however, disputes over the valuation of Sutton House led to the property being sold in its entirety to Michael Kulukundis in June 1979 for over $7 million. During this period, the building briefly appeared in federal investigations involving Anthony Scotto, a labor union leader and member of the Gambino crime family. In 1979, trial testimony revealed that Kulukundis had sold a 13% interest in the corporation owning Sutton House to Scotto for a nominal sum of $26, despite that portion's multi-million dollar valuation. Scotto divested his interest in the corporation later that year. Cooperative conversion Due to the financial and legal pressures facing the sponsors, an initial offering plan to convert the building into a housing cooperative was submitted in January 1980. == Notable tenants ==

• Alex DiLorenzo III, son of Alex DiLorenzo Jr and partner of Sol Goldman, lived in the building in the 1970s • Andy Griffith, American actor, comedian, television producer, singer, and writer, in 1959. • Barbara Gail Rowes, writer, in 1981. • Carol Alt, model and actress • Cassandra Kulukundis, as of 2026, an American casting director, the first person to win an Academy Award for Best Casting, granddaughter of Manuel Kulukundis. • Clyde Curlee Trees, in 1959, co-founder of the Society of Medalists • Dorothy Bell Lawrence, a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 8th D.) from 1959 to 1963 • Earle I. Mack, businessman and former United States Ambassador to Finland • Edward B. Watson, as of 1976. • Edward Eager, American lyricist, dramatist and writer of children's fiction • Georges Briguet, who ran the Le Périgord restaurant at Sutton House, among other restaurants in NYC, and lived in the building from 1964 until his death in 2022 • Herb Grosch, early computer scientist, in 1960. • Herb Schapiro, co‑creator and co‑lyricist of The Me Nobody Knows, in 1977. • John N. Mitchell, 67th attorney general of the United States. • Judy Sheindlin (known professionally as Judge Judy) and husband Jerry Sheindlin lived in apartment 4CC from 1997 until 2005. Judge Jerry assisted in getting the building's CofO modified to allow a gym. • Lester Merkin, Jazz saxophone player, later into numismatic, in 1964. • Real Admiral Paulus Prince Powell, as of 1960. • N. Hashem, Egyptian physician and scientist. • Ralph G. Gulley, architect, founder and first dean of the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. • Ray Josephs, American journalist, author, and international public relations consultant. • Richard C. Casey, United States district judge of the for the Southern District of New York, lived in apartment 12HC from 2006 until his death == In fiction ==

Sutton House is mentioned in the following fictional works: • Cahoots: A Comedy in Two Acts • Rosa Ponselle: American Diva • Duffy's War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting == Critical reception ==

The interior design magazine featured a model apartment of Sutton House in its august 1956 edition. In 1998, Sutton House was picked as one of "New York's Top Ten Residences" by The Cooperator magazine, alongside 1185 Park Avenue, 300 East 74th Street, The Ardsley, The Boulevard, Castle Village, The Chateau, Hudson Tower Condominium, Kensington Lofts, and The Oxford. Sutton House was hailed for its three rooftop decks with views of the East River, its glass-enclosed lobby designed with marble floors and wood paneling, overlooking the gardens in front of the building and the courtyard in the center of the complex. Its glass-enclosed walkway from the lobby to the center building, behind the courtyard, was also praised, as well as its health club, on-site garage, basement storage, package room and a 24-hour doorman and concierge. The building was also praised for having apartments featuring European kitchens, hardwood floors, washers and dryers, marble bathrooms and lots of closets, also for many units with balconies or terraces with East River views. In 1998, the reserve fund was over $1 million with a long-term resident and board member saying maintenance costs were kept low by not doing everything at once. ==References==