{"nrhp_refnum":"76001239","name":"Ellington, Edward Kennedy \"Duke\", House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"935 St. Nicholas Ave., Apt. 4A","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.83235059450004,"lon":-73.94138231510998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-11","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1976-05-11","areas_of_significance":["Black","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story elevator apartment building at 935 St. Nicholas Avenue, on the southwest corner of W. 157th Street in Manhattan, where Duke Ellington lived in Apartment 4A. The form does not give a construction date or builder.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its link to Edward Kennedy \"Duke\" Ellington, one of America's most important composers and most influential jazz musicians. He moved into the building in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as he neared the height of his creativity. The form also treats the building as an excellent example of late Gothic Perpendicular style.","narrative":"This six-story apartment building stands at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and W. 157th Street in Manhattan. It is best known as the home of composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, who moved into Apartment 4A in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The nomination credits Ellington with legitimizing jazz as a serious art form and with writing more than a thousand compositions for jazz groups, orchestras, theater, film, ballet and opera. Works the form associates with this period include \"Ko-Ko,\" \"Concerto for Cootie,\" \"Harlem Air Shaft\" and the extended piece \"Black, Brown and Beige.\" The building itself is masonry, faced in brown brick, with limestone quatrefoil panels, stone turrets and pinnacles, and a stone-framed Gothic entrance bay. The form describes it as an excellent example of late Gothic Perpendicular style and a dominant presence at the north end of the avenue block. Its listing rests chiefly on the Ellington connection, within the context of Afro-American history and music.","period_of_significance":"1939-1961","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Gothic Perpendicular","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is given as fair on the form checkbox, though the text calls the building in good repair and well kept, needing minor exterior repair and brick cleaning and pointing. Listed as occupied, privately owned, in use as apartments.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.727438-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/76001239_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001239/75e55fa238-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001239/75e55fa238-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Dmadeo","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duke-ellington.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Dmadeo</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duke-ellington.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100011048","name":"Dominican Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/dominican-historic-district-100011048/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315954","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2610027"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/ellington-edward-kennedy-duke-house-76001239/"}