{"nrhp_refnum":"77000961","name":"New York Cancer Hospital","other_names":["The Towers Nursing Home"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2 W. 106th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.79781803900005,"lon":-73.96047768399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-04-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Science","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former cancer hospital at Central Park West and West 106th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, New York City. The original building was constructed in 1884-86 to designs by Charles Coolidge Haight, with additions through 1926. It later became the Towers Nursing Home.","why_significant":"It was the first hospital in the United States built solely for cancer treatment and only the second in the world. It was also the first American hospital with circular wards, a design tied to nineteenth-century beliefs about light and pure air. Architecturally, it is a French chateau-style building with Gothic Revival detail that has kept its integrity despite additions.","narrative":"Rising at the corner of Central Park West and 106th Street, this L-shaped complex began as the New York Cancer Hospital. Charles Coolidge Haight designed it in the manner of a French chateau, with three large round towers under steep conical roofs, sandstone and brick walls, slate roofing and Gothic dormers. John Jacob Astor financed construction between 1884 and 1890. It was the first hospital in the United States devoted solely to cancer and only the second in the world, and the first American hospital with circular wards. The round wards and a ventilation shaft in each tower reflected the belief that light and fresh air aided recovery, and a contemporary reviewer praised the system as nearly perfect. Later additions included a chapel, a laboratory in 1916 and an X-ray building in 1925-26, all built to blend with the original design. The building later served as a nursing home and was vacant when nominated.","period_of_significance":"1884-86, 1886-87, 1889-90, 1916 and 1925-26","architect_builder":"Charles Coolidge Haight","architectural_style":"French chateau style with modified English Gothic / Gothic Revival detail","criteria":[],"status_note":"The form lists the present use as vacant (unoccupied). Condition is marked good and altered, and the original site is retained.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:40.051479-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/77000961.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000961/f6e297c61c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000961/f6e297c61c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:455_Central_Park_West.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:455_Central_Park_West.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319760","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cancer_Hospital","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7013099"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/new-york-cancer-hospital-77000961/"}