Nestled on an idyllic tree-lined block in Greenwich Village, just steps from tony Fifth Ave. (and right around the corner from the oft-filmed 43 Fifth building), stands a charming brownstone with not only a notable provenance but a vast filming history, as well. Known as the Emma Lazarus House, the Italianate masterpiece was home to the revered poet for a short time in the late 1800s and, in more recent years, has become a favorite amongst location managers and something of a regular on “Law & Order.” This writer was introduced to the place via its appearance on Netflix’s popular holiday-themed teen romance series “Dash & Lily” in 2020. One look at its striking double-height library and intricate bifurcated staircase and I was smitten!
Thanks to a historical placard visible on the dwelling’s exterior on the show, it was not hard to identify as the Emma Lazarus House, declared a New York City Landmark by the Preservation Commission in 1999. The poet intermittently called the residence home from 1883, when her father, well-to-do sugar merchant Moses Lazarus, purchased it until her untimely death at the age of 38 in 1887. While her name might not be familiar to all, a sonnet she penned in 1883 most likely is. It is Emma’s famous words, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” from her poem “The New Colossus” that adorn the base of the Statue of Liberty about five miles south in New York Harbor.
The stately abode’s origins date back much farther, though. The dwelling was originally built in 1856 for prominent banker James Winslow and his wife, Margaret. According to The Forward website, renowned architect James Renwick, who was also behind the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., many of the buildings on the Vassar College campus and, perhaps most famous of all, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, was responsible for the design.
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Image Credit: Emma Lazarus House, Spencer Means, Wikipedia, CC BY SA 2.0 The same year the Lazarus family moved in, Emma was approached by Constance Cary Harrison to pen some verses for a souvenir journal the playwright was putting together as part of a fundraising venture to gather capital for the construction of a base for the Statue of Liberty. The poet was in good company – Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow also contributed writings to be included in the journal. It took Lazarus just two days to craft her now-famous sonnet. According to All That’s Interesting, its title was “a not-so-subtle rebuke against the ancient Greek Colossus of Rhodes, a macho male statue erected in the 3rd century B.C.”
Sadly, Emma’s words went largely forgotten. As detailed by Forward, when the statue’s dedication took place in April 1886, “Not only was ‘The New Colossus’ never mentioned, but Lazarus was far away from the celebration, traveling in Europe — and feeling weaker every day.” Emma returned home in 1887 and passed away unexpectedly that November from what is now believed to have been Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Her funeral was held inside the Greenwich Village brownstone on the 21st of the month, with such literary luminaries as poet Richard Watson Gilder, linguist Charles DeKay and journalist Charles Anderson Dana in attendance. Her family sold the home just two years later.
“The New Colossus” might have stayed buried from the collective consciousness if not for Emma’s friend Georgina Schuyler. Per Forward, one fateful day, Schuyler came across the poem while venturing through a bookstore and “was so moved that she organized a civic effort to resurrect the lost sonnet.” The endeavor paid off and in 1903, Lazarus’ words were etched onto a bronze plaque crafted by Tiffany & Co. and placed on an interior wall of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. It wasn’t until 1945 that the piece received a more prominent placement at the landmark’s entrance.
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Image Credit: Douglas Friedman Photography, Courtesy of Robert Couturier Lazarus’ former home is a true landmark, as well, thanks to the efforts of another esteemed author, Andrew Solomon, of “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression” fame, which won the National Book Award, became a Pulitzer Prize finalist and was included in The Guardian’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. Solomon purchased the abode in 1993 for $1.6 million at the recommendation of a realtor friend of his mother’s, who, as detailed in Architectural Digest, called him with the news, “I’ve found the house you’re going to live in for the rest of your life.”
The 28-foot wide, 7,500-square-foot townhouse was in bad shape at the time. As Solomon told AD, “Graffiti covered the walls; leaking pipes projected from the ceilings; the roof had been taken off a room on the top floor, and the dangling roots of suspicious plants grew through the ceiling of what is now my bedroom.” The residence had one major ace up its sleeve, though. It had not undergone any significant alterations throughout its nearly 140-year history and, as such, countless original details remained intact. It was a palette Solomon could work with.
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Image Credit: Douglas Friedman Photography, Courtesy of Robert Couturier The author commissioned the much-heralded École Camondo-trained architect/decorator Robert Couturier, recognized as one of AD’s Top 100 talents, to helm an extensive remodel. Solomon told the magazine, “I was convinced that his wild imagination, coupled with his fathomless scholarship of architectural history, could turn this desolate wreck into someplace warm and exuberant. Moreover, I had lived in England for many years and wanted a house that didn’t feel altogether of New York, and Robert, with his singular ability to celebrate history without pandering to it, brought in a bit of Europe without being precious or coy.” The project took an incredible four years to complete and restored the Emma Lazarus House back to its original glory – and then some!
Couturier’s design is a whimsical work of art, awash with exquisitely styled detailing, rich coloring and unique textures at every turn! The living spaces include a kitchen lined with canary yellow walls and grounded by an island with a grand piano-inspired base (pictured above), a “dome room” fashioned with a fountain and tiled mosaics created by ceramic artist Farley Tobin and a contemporary study framed with maple built-ins. A dreamy rooftop garden sits atop the fifth floor.
Each space is peppered with artifacts collected on Solomon’s many travels, including a swatch of silk embroidery the author garnered on a visit to China that Robert shaped into the dressing room ceiling.
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Image Credit: Douglas Friedman Photography, Courtesy of Robert Couturier And then, of course, there is the library. Lined with masterfully crafted shelving and an ethereal catwalk reached via stairs that appear to hover in mid-air, the space is the stuff of a bibliophile’s dreams! Of Couturier’s design, Solomon told AD, “I had always yearned for a double-height library, since books are my life. He figured out how to make the upper tier of bookcases seem almost to float, using a wrought-iron catwalk as delicate as a spiderweb.” The architect is apparently a Michelangelo when it comes to creating libraries, as evidenced by the plethora of images of gorgeous book-lined spaces populating his Instagram grid.
The Robert Couturier website rather ironically states, “The last thing he sees his interiors as are stage sets – rather, they are spaces for living people to move through and function in.” But his designs are nothing if not cinematic! So it is no surprise that location managers flock to the Emma Lazarus House in droves.
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Image Credit: Netflix On “Dash & Lily,” the brownstone is featured prominently as the home of Mrs. Basil E (Jodi Long), the fabulously eccentric aunt/godmother of the eponymous Lily (Midori Francis).
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Image Credit: Netflix While several interior rooms are featured on the series, the library steals the show, its rich wood paneling, stone fireplace and unique catwalk showcased impeccably.
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Image Credit: CBS Television The library also makes a memorable appearance in the pilot episode of the CBS series “Instinct,” as the spot where Dr. Dylan Reinhart (Alan Cumming) and Detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic) investigate a serial killer who is playing a game of cat and mouse with the duo.
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal It is the “Law & Order” production team that has gotten the most mileage out of the pad, though, having featured it in at least four episodes by this author’s count! In season 15’s “Dining Out,” the property portrays the supposed Gramercy Park headquarters of the Falls Foundation, a charity group run by unscrupulous twin brothers Barry (Jason Sklar) and Max Finneran (Randy Sklar).
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal The Emma Lazarus House pulls double duty in the season 18 episode titled “Excalibur,” with the kitchen initially popping up as the supposed Upper East Side residence of Suzanne Beezley-Madison (Dena Tyler), where Detectives Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) and Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson) investigate a murder at the top of the show.
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal Later in the episode, the library is featured as the Sutton Place home of Governor Donald Shalvoy (Tom Everett Scott) and his wife, Rita (Alison Elliot), where District Attorney Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) heads to confront the couple over some shady political dealings.
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal The townhouse also masks as the Shalvoy residence in “Law & Order’s” season 19 finale, “The Drowned and the Saved.”
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Image Credit: NBCUniversal And in season 21’s “Wicked Game,” the dwelling plays the Waverly Place townhouse belonging to murder suspect Kyle Swanson (Currie Graham).
At this point, the Emma Lazarus House pretty much deserves top billing on the long-running series!