York Museum Gardens

The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of 10 acres (4.0 ha) of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along with the Yorkshire Museum which they contain.

The gardens are held in trust by the City of York Council and are managed by the York Museums Trust. They were designed in a gardenesque style by landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith, and contain a variety of species of plants, trees and birds. Admission is free. A variety of events take place in the gardens, such as open-air theatre performances and festival activities.

There are several historic buildings in the gardens. They contain the remains of the west corner of the Roman fort of Eboracum, including the Multangular Tower and parts of the Roman walls. In the same area there is also the Anglian Tower, which was probably built into the remains of a late Roman period fortress. During the Middle Ages, the tower was expanded and the Roman walls were incorporated into York's city walls. Most of the other buildings dating from the Middle Ages are associated with St Mary's Abbey, including the ruins of the abbey church, the Hospitium, the lodge and part of the surviving precinct wall. The remains of St. Leonard's Hospital chapel and undercroft are on the east side of the gardens. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society constructed several buildings in the gardens during the 19th and early 20th century, including the Yorkshire Museum and its octagonal observatory. The museum houses four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy.

## History

The gardens, which were given to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society by the British Royal Family in 1828, occupy part of the former grounds of St. Mary's Abbey. The society acquired the land to build a museum to house its collections; the Yorkshire Museum was completed in 1830. The land was granted to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society under the condition that botanical gardens would be established on the site. These were created during the 1830s in a gardenesque style design by landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith. They originally contained a conservatory, a pond and a menagerie, which was destroyed when a bear escaped from it and had brief control of the area. The then Princess Victoria visited the gardens in 1835, the year that they were first open to the public. In 1854 the gardens were described as "one of the principal attractions of York". At this time entrance as free to members and for non-members entrance cost one shilling except on Saturday when it cost six pence.

In 1960, the gardens and the Yorkshire Museum were given in trust to the City of York Council and they became a public park. Since 2002, they have been managed by the York Museums Trust, along with York Castle Museum and York Art Gallery. The gardens are maintained by the Askham Bryan College of Agriculture.

## Description

York Museum Gardens cover an area of 10 acres (4.0 ha) on the north bank of the River Ouse, just outside the city walls in the centre of York. There are four entrances to the gardens: on Marygate (off Bootham) by St Olave's Church, on Museum Street by Lendal Bridge, via a path at the side of King's Manor, and from the riverside walk next to the River Ouse. The site slopes gently down towards the river and is made up of historical buildings and undulating lawns interspersed with plants and trees. The gardens are open to the public during daylight hours, so the opening and closing times vary throughout the year. Normally admission is free but there are charges for some events. In 2010 it was estimated that the gardens attract 1.3 million visitors a year. Drinking alcohol, cycling and ball games are not allowed in the gardens.

### Plants

There are approximately 4,500 plants and trees in the collection, some of the varieties native to England and some from other parts of the world. Planting consists of large beds containing predominantly shrubs and trees, and lawns interspersed with individual trees. Species of tree include a monkey puzzle tree along with oak and chestnut trees; six of the trees in the gardens are classed as county champion trees: Fraxinus angustifolia 'Lentiscifolia', Pyrus elaeagrifolia, Carpinus betulus 'Incisa', Alnus glutinosa 'Imperialis', Tilia cordata, Fagus sylvatica 'Miltonensis'. There is a rockery next to the Marygate entrance, by the ruins of the abbey church, and in front of the entrance to the Yorkshire Museum there is a terrace bordered with beds of white roses, the symbol of Yorkshire.

There is an 'Edible Wood' located behind York Art Gallery, in the north-west corner of the gardens. The wood was planted in July 2015 and features plants that have an edible component and are both attractive and useful.

### Animals

In the early 19th century, the gardens included a menagerie. Henry Baines' daughter, Fanny, recalled 70 years later that in this period the menageries contained a bear, a golden eagle, and several monkeys, amongst other animals. In 1831, a bear from the menagerie got loose in the gardens and reportedly chased the Keeper of the Yorkshire Museum, John Phillips, and Reverend Harcourt into an outbuilding. The bear was subsequently sent to London Zoo.

The gardens are home to a population of semi-tame grey squirrels and many species of birds. A 1970 report covering the period 1965–1969 listed the vertebrates resident in the gardens at that time: Common wood pigeon, Tawny owl, Blue tit, Eurasian Wren, Dunnock, European Robin, European greenfinch, Mistle thrush, Song thrush, Blackbird, and House sparrow, Common shrew, Wood mouse, and Brown rat. Until 2006 a family of peacocks had been in residence for at least 70 years, though numbers had fluctuated since at least 2001 as birds occasionally escaped or were involved in traffic accidents on nearby Museum Street.

In 2012 the gardens was one of the release sites for a new population of the endangered Tansy beetle and, as of 2015, is one of the best places to see them in the wild. In 2018 a leaf-mining fly, Phytomyza scotina, was discovered mining the leaves of sage plants in the gardens – it was subsequently described as a new species for Britain.

### Geology

There is a geological oddity close to the main gates, consisting of a large boulder of pink granite that was discovered during construction of the city's railway station. Since this type of stone is not local it was determined as having been transported there from Shap in Cumbria by glacial action during the last ice age. In 2015, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of the geological map of Britain by William Smith, a mosaic map was commissioned for the Gardens from artist Janette Ireland which shows the geological strata of Yorkshire in pebbles of the corresponding stone.

## Events

As well as being a popular recreational space for both residents and visitors, the gardens are the venue for special events such as open-air theatre and music performances. In 1970, bands including Roxy Music, Hawkwind and Pink Fairies staged concerts here. During the 20th-century revival of the York Mystery Plays, performances were held on a fixed stage in the gardens among the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey. In the 1950s, York actress Dame Judi Dench acted in the plays performed in the gardens, and played the Virgin Mary in 1957. The Mystery Plays returned to the gardens between 2–27 August 2012 and involved over one thousand local volunteers. In 2006, between 800 and 1,000 people celebrated the Chinese New Year with displays that included lion dancers, In 2007 The Lord Chamberlain's Men presented a production of Romeo & Juliet. Also in 2007, during the Jorvik Viking festival, there were demonstrations of Viking craft skills and battle training. The Yorkshire Museum and the Museum Gardens first hosted the Eboracum Roman Festival in 2016. It has since become an annual event. In 2019 the gardens hosted the York Proms, an open-air classical music concert.

### Saluting station

The gardens are the location of York's Saluting Station, one of only 12 in the United Kingdom, with 21-gun salutes being fired at noon to celebrate occasions related to the British Royal Family throughout the year. At these times a military band marches to the gardens before the salute is fired. On 9 September 2022 a 96-gun salute was held in commemoration of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, one for each year of her life. This was followed, on 10 September by a 21-gun salute to mark the Proclamation of accession of Charles III.

### Exhibitions

There is a designated 'Artist's Garden' behind the Art Gallery, within the Museum Gardens. Sculptural works are displayed in this open air space. Exhibitions in this space have included:

- Foundation Myths by Charles Holland (2016–2017) was the first exhibition in the Artist's Garden.
- Leisureland Golf by Doug Fishbourne (June–September 2017) was a fully playable crazy-golf course and sculptural installation.
- The Pollinarium (27 September – 6 October 2018) was a timber structure, covered with flowering plants and shown as part of the York Mediale.
- Michael Lyons: Ancient and Modern (25 May 2019 – May 2020) is a series of sculptures by Michael Lyons. It is the first time such a large exhibition of outdoor sculpture has been displayed in York.
- Ghosts in the Garden (23 September - 7 November 2022) is a series of wire-mesh sculptures of historical figures on display throughout the Artist's garden and Museum Gardens as well as at the Treasurer's House, York, Merchant Adventurers' Hall, Barley Hall, and St Anthony’s Garden.

## Buildings

### Roman

In the northeast of Museum Gardens there are remains of the west corner of the fortifications that surrounded the Roman fort of Eboracum. The original defences, consisting of turf ramparts on a green wood foundation, were built by the Ninth Legion between 71 and 74 AD. Later those were replaced by a clay mound with a turf front on a new oak foundation, and eventually wooden battlements were added, which were then replaced by limestone walls and towers. These stone defences are some of the few Roman remains that are visible above ground in York.

The Multangular Tower is the western corner tower of the Roman fortress, and consists of both Roman and medieval architecture. The tower has 10 sides, from which it derives its modern name "multangular", and is 19 feet (5.8 m) high. It was built in its late Roman form during the early 4th century, when it was constructed with three floors to house a catapult. Five Roman stone coffins are in the Multangular Tower, which were brought from graveyards in other areas of York.

A 76-foot (23 m) section of 4th-century wall connects the Multangular Tower to a small interval tower. The side of the wall and towers facing into Museum Gardens is carefully faced in stone, as during the Roman period it was on display. The other side is rougher because it was originally covered by an earth bank. The wall and towers were still in use after the end of the Roman period in Britain, and were subsequently incorporated into the medieval city walls. As late as the English Civil War they were being used to defend the city, and there is a hole in the wall along from the Multangular Tower that was made by a cannonball during this period. The Roman parts of the wall and towers are constructed of regular rectangular limestone blocks with a band of red tile running through them. The later medieval additions can be identified by the use of much larger blocks of limestone that cut through the red tiles in places and by the cross shaped arrow slits on the Multangular Tower.

To the north of the Multangular Tower there is a stretch of the medieval city wall with the remains of the original Roman wall running parallel to it on the city side. Built into this part of the wall is the stone Anglian Tower, which was once thought to have been built during the reign of Edwin of Northumbria, but now is generally thought to be of the very late Roman period. Behind the Anglian Tower are a series of banks showing the level of the defences during the Roman, early Middle Ages, Norman, and late medieval periods.

### Medieval

The gardens contain several buildings dating back to the medieval period, most of them relating to St Mary's Abbey. The Benedictine Abbey's origins date back to 1086 when Alan Count of Brittany granted St Olave's Church and the adjoining land to the monk Stephen of Whitby, who became the first abbot of St. Mary's. When St Olave's Church became too small, a larger church in a Romanesque style was built nearby, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1089 by William II. This was replaced between 1270 and 1279 by a church in a Gothic style. The abbey became the wealthiest monastery in the North of England, worth over £2,085 a year before it was dissolved by Henry VIII on 25 November 1539. Over the next 200 years the abbey fell into disrepair and the abbey church was largely dismantled for its stone.

Stones from the abbey church can be seen lining paths throughout the gardens, but the major ruins of the church are on the western side. The church was aligned on a northeast axis because of the shape and size of the site, instead of pointing to the east, the normal alignment for churches in England. Part of the north and west walls that formed the nave and crossing, designed in Gothic style by architect Simon of Pabenham in the 13th century, remain standing. The ruins include dummy lancet windows, tracery windows and "tracery remains to show that the patterns alternated between a single large circle over two lights and three small circles over three lights". The column capitals are decorated with foliage in a stiff-leaf style as well as in a naturalistic style, although this stonework is weatherworn and so this decoration is hard to distinguish. Sections of the foundations of the church and its Norman predecessor are exposed, and a plan of their layouts can be seen in the grass. Finds excavated from the site, including life-sized statues of Christian saints, can be seen in the Yorkshire Museum.

St Mary's Lodge was built around 1470 as an addition to the late 12th-century buildings that formed the gatehouse at the main entrance to the abbey, – now the Marygate entrance to the gardens. Some remains of the 12th-century gatehouse can still be seen, in particular the archway attached to the side of the lodge. The lodge is built of stone, and does not contain timber framing like the nearby Hospitium. The lodge, along with the attached railings, gates and gate piers are all Grade I listed buildings, which means that they are of outstanding interest. Originally, the lodge may have been used as a guesthouse for the abbey, and was the point where the poor could claim alms from the abbey. After the abbey's dissolution, the lodge became a courthouse until 1722, when part of the building became the Brown Cow pub. In 1840 John Philips, the Yorkshire Museum's curator, restored and converted it to use as his home while retaining its external appearance. The lodge subsequently became used as offices, and during the early 21st century became the headquarters of the York Museums Trust.

Along with the lodge, some of the abbey's precinct walls are still standing. A section of the remaining walls runs along the north-west part of the gardens and extends further along Marygate to Bootham. The walls were constructed in 1266 and increased in height and crenellated in 1318 under a royal licence from Edward III. Originally there was a defensive ditch along the outside of the walls. The walls include several towers, not all of them dating from the medieval period; the semicircular tower near the gatehouse is a 19th-century reconstruction. The walls and towers were used for the abbey's defence, e.g. in disputes with the City of York over land ownership and taxes, and played a role in the defence of the city during the siege of York.

The Hospitium is located between the ruins of St Mary's Abbey Church and the River Ouse, and is thought to have originally been a guest house for visitors to the abbey of low social rank, or possibly a barn. It was originally part of a group of buildings in the abbey grounds that included a brew-house, stables, mill and, near the main gate, a boarding school with 50 pupils. The oldest parts of the ground floor were built around 1300, but the upper storey has been extensively restored in modern times. The ruined gateway at the side dates back to the 15th century, and was probably the entrance to a passage that ran towards the water-gate by the river.

The remains of St. Leonard's Hospital chapel and undercroft are on the east side of the gardens, by the Museum Street entrance. The hospital was the largest in England during the Middle Ages, and was run by a community of men and women of the Augustinian order. During the 14th century, the hospital could have contained as many as 240 patients, 18 clergy and 30 choristers. St. Leonard's Hospital was closed during the dissolution of the monasteries, when it was surrendered to Henry VIII by Thomas Magnus. The undercroft and chapel were part of the infirmary built between 1225 and 1250. The interior of the undercroft, accessible from the gardens, has a rib vaulted ceiling and houses a collection of Roman and medieval stonework. In 1999, the hospital and surrounding area in Museum Gardens was one of three sites in York to feature in a live edition of the British Channel 4 television show Time Team.

Between the Museum Street entrance to the gardens and the River Ouse is a short stretch of York's city walls, which ends at the medieval Lendal Tower.

### 19th and 20th century

William Hincks was instrumental in establishing the gardens. Henry John Wilkinson reports as follows: "Mr. Hincks was lecturer on botany at the York School of Medicine, and the services he rendered to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for over ten years deserve our grateful thanks. He devoted his leisure time to convert the " waste land " into a botanical and ornamental\* garden, and in this work he was ably assisted by the late sub-curator, Henry Baines. "

The Yorkshire Philosophical Society constructed several buildings in the gardens during the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the Yorkshire Museum, one of the first purpose-built museums in Britain. The Yorkshire Museum was designed by architect William Wilkins in a Greek Revival style and was officially opened in February 1830. On 26 September 1831 the inaugural meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was held at the Yorkshire Museum. Three of the museum's permanent collections are housed in the Yorkshire Museum building all of which have English designated collection status, which means they are "pre-eminent collections of national and international importance". The biology collection contains 200,000 specimens, including both fauna and flora, with most of the collection made up of insects. There are two stuffed specimens of the extinct great auk, an almost complete skeleton of an extinct moa and a large collection of specimens from the Yorkshire region including the remains of elephants, cave bears and hyena from Kirkdale Cave dated to the Quaternary period, around 125,000 years ago. The geological collection contains over 112,500 specimens of rocks, minerals and fossils. Fossils make up most of the collection numbering over 100,000 samples, and include important specimens from the Carboniferous, Mesozoic and Tertiary periods. The archaeology collection has close to a million objects that date from around 500,000 BC to the 20th century, including the Coppergate Helmet discovered in York in 1982, and the Ormside Bowl, an intricate example of an Anglian silversmith.

Most of the museum's astronomy collection is housed in the octagonal observatory in the centre of the gardens, built during 1832 and 1833. The design of its rotating roof is credited to John Smeaton designer of the Eddystone Lighthouse. A 4.5-inch (11 cm) telescope built in 1850 by the instrument maker Thomas Cooke of York was installed during the observatory's 1981 restoration. It is Yorkshire's oldest working observatory and as of August 2007 was opened to the public by a team of volunteers. The building is currently opened every Thursday and Saturday 11.30 until 2.30. The clock in the observatory was made by Barraud of London in 1811, and during the 19th century it was used to set the time for other clocks in York.

At the eastern, Museum Street, entrance to the gardens is Museum Gardens' Lodge built in 1874 to a design by George Fowler Jones in a Victorian Gothic revival style. The lodge now houses the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's offices and reading room.

The curator's house ('Manor cottage'), built in 1844 and originally called the keeper's house, is located by King's Manor. It was designed by J B Atkinson and was built using reclaimed limestone from St. Mary's Abbey.

#### Tempest Anderson Hall

The Tempest Anderson Hall is a 300-seat auditorium-style lecture theatre built in 1912 as an annexe to the Yorkshire Museum. Dr Tempest Anderson, a York surgeon and vulcanologist, presented the hall to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society to replace its existing lecture theatre. Designed by E. Ridsdale Tate, it is an early example of the use of reinforced concrete and is a Grade I listed building. In the late 20th century it housed a cinema, but it is now used as a conference venue and lecture theatre.

### Swimming baths

York's first swimming bath was located in the south-west corner of the Museum Gardens. It was an open-air pool designed by the architects Samuel and Richard Hey Sharp, one of the designers of the Yorkshire Museum, and measured 110 feet (34 m) by 80 feet (24 m) and had a capacity of approximately 290,000 gallons. It opened to the public on 8 August 1837, and employed a Keeper of the baths throughout its lifespan.

## Gallery

## See also

- History of York

Botanic gardens in York, North Yorkshire, England

Grade II listed parks and gardens in North Yorkshire

Grade II* listed parks and gardens in North Yorkshire


Histoire Naturelle

The Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi (; English: Natural History, General and Particular, with a Description of the King's Cabinet) is an encyclopaedic collection of 36 large (quarto) volumes written between 1749–1804, initially by the Comte de Buffon, and continued in eight more volumes after his death by his colleagues, led by Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The books cover what was known of the "natural sciences" at the time, including what would now be called material science, physics, chemistry and technology as well as the natural history of animals.

## Histoire Naturelle, an encyclopaedic work

The Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi is the work that the Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) is remembered for. He worked on it for some 50 years, initially at Montbard in his office in the Tour Saint-Louis, then in his library at Petit Fontenet. 36 volumes came out between 1749 and 1789, followed by 8 more after his death, thanks to Bernard Germain de Lacépède. It includes all the knowledge available in his time on the "natural sciences", a broad term that includes disciplines which today would be called material science, physics, chemistry and technology. Buffon notes the morphological similarities between men and apes, although he considered apes completely devoid of the ability to think, differentiating them sharply from human beings. Buffon's attention to internal anatomy made him an early comparative anatomist. "L’intérieur, dans les êtres vivants, est le fond du dessin de la nature", he wrote in his Quadrupèdes, "the interior, in living things, is the foundation of nature's design."

The Histoire Naturelle, which was meant to address the whole of natural history, actually covers only minerals, birds, and the quadrupeds among animals. It is accompanied by some discourses and a theory of the earth by way of introduction, and by supplements including an elegantly written account of the epochs of nature.

The Suppléments cover a wide range of topics; for example, in (Suppléments IV), there is a Discours sur le style (Discourse on Style) and an Essai d'arithmétique morale (essay on Moral Arithmetic).

Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton assisted Buffon on the quadrupeds; Philippe Guéneau de Montbeillard worked on the birds. They were joined, from 1767, by Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, the abbot Gabriel Bexon and Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt. The whole descriptive and anatomical part of l’Histoire des Quadrupèdes was the work of Daubenton and Jean-Claude Mertrud.

Buffon attached much importance to the illustrations; Jacques de Sève illustrated the quadrupeds and François-Nicolas Martinet illustrated the birds. Nearly 2000 plates adorn the work, representing animals with care given both to aesthetics and anatomical accuracy, with dreamlike and mythological settings.

On minerals, Buffon collaborated with André Thouin. Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond and Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau provided sources for the mineral volumes.

L’Histoire Naturelle met immense success, almost as great as Encyclopédie by Diderot, which came out in the same period. The first three volumes of L’Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du Roi were reprinted three times in six weeks.

The encyclopaedia appeared in 36 volumes :

- 3 volumes in 1749 : De la manière d’étudier l’histoire naturelle followed by Théorie de la Terre, Histoire Générale des animaux and Histoire Naturelle de l’homme
- 12 volumes on quadrupeds (1753 to 1767)
- 9 volumes on birds (1770 to 1783])
- 5 volumes on minerals (1783 to 1788), the last including Traité de l’aimant, the last work published by Buffon in his lifetime
- 7 volumes of supplements (1774 to 1789), including Époques de la nature (from 1778).

L’Histoire Naturelle was initially printed at the Imprimerie royale in 36 volumes (1749–1789). In 1764 Buffon bought back the rights to his work. It was continued by Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who described the egg-laying quadrupeds, snakes, fishes and cetaceans in 8 volumes (1788–1804).

Buffon was assisted in the work by Jacques-François Artur (1708–1779), Gabriel Léopold Charles Amé Bexon (1748–1785), Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton (1716–1799), Edme-Louis Daubenton (1732–1786), Jacques de Sève (actif 1742–1788), Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741–1819), Philippe Guéneau de Montbeillard (1720–1785), Louis-Bernard Guyton-Morveau (1737–1816), Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756–1825), François-Nicolas Martinet (1731–1800), the anatomist Jean-Claude Mertrud [fr] (1728–1802), Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1751–1812), and André Thouin (1747–1823).

## Approach

Each group is introduced with a general essay. This is followed by an article, sometimes of many pages, on each animal (or other item). The article on the wolf begins with the claim that it is one of the animals with a specially strong appetite for flesh; it asserts that the animal is naturally coarse and cowardly (grossier et poltron), but becoming crafty at need, and hardy by necessity, driven by hunger. The language, as in this instance, is elegant and elaborate, even "flowery and ornate". Buffon was roundly criticised by his fellow academics for writing a "purely popularizing work, empty and puffed up, with little real scientific value".

The species is named in Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Swedish, and Polish. The zoological descriptions of the species by Gessner, Ray, Linnaeus, Klein and Buffon himself ("Canis ex griseo flavescens. Lupus vulgaris. Buffon. Reg. animal. pag. 235") are cited.

The text is written as a continuous essay, without the sections on identification, distribution and behaviour that might have been expected from other natural histories. Parts concern human responses rather than the animal itself, as for example that the wolf likes human flesh, and the strongest wolves sometimes eat nothing else. Measurements may be included; in the case of the wolf, 41 separate measurements are tabulated, in pre-revolutionary French feet and inches starting with the "Length of the whole body measured in a straight line from the end of the muzzle to the anus........3 feet. 7 inches." (1.2 m); the "Length of the largest claws" is given as "10 lines" (2.2 cm).

The wolf is illustrated standing in farmland, and as a complete skeleton standing on a stone plinth in a landscape. The account of the species occupies 32 pages including illustrations.

## Editions

### Buffon's original edition continued by Lacépède

The original edition of the Histoire Naturelle by Buffon comprised 36 volumes in quarto, divided into the following series: Histoire de la Terre et de l'Homme, Quadrupèdes, Oiseaux, Minéraux, Suppléments. Buffon edited 35 volumes in his lifetime. Soon after his death, the fifth and final volume of l’Histoire des minéraux appeared in 1788 at the Imprimerie des Bâtiments du Roi. The seventh and final volume of Suppléments by Buffon was published posthumously in 1789 through Lacépède's hands. Lacépède continued the part of the Histoire Naturelle which dealt with animals. A few months before Buffon's death, in 1788, Lacépède published, as a continuation, the first volume of his Histoire des Reptiles, on egg-laying quadrupeds. The next year, he wrote a second volume on snakes, published during the French Revolution. Between 1798 and 1803, he brought out the volume Histoire des Poissons. Lacépède made use of the notes and collections left by Philibert Commerson (1727–1773). He wrote Histoire des Cétacés which was printed in 1804. At that point, the Histoire Naturelle, by Buffon and Lacépède, thus contained 44 quarto volumes forming the definitive edition.

### Variations in the editions by Buffon and Lacépède

Another edition in quarto format was printed by the Imprimerie royale in 36 volumes (1774–1804). It consisted of 28 volumes by Buffon, and 8 volumes by Lacépède. The part containing anatomical articles by Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton was dropped. The supplements were merged into the relevant articles in the main volumes.

The Imprimerie royale also published two editions of the Histoire Naturelle in duodecimo format (1752–1805), occupying 90 or 71 volumes, depending on whether or not they included the part on anatomy. In this print format, the original work by Buffon occupied 73 volumes with the part on anatomy, or 54 volumes without the part on anatomy. The continuation by Lacépède took up 17 duodecimo volumes.

A de luxe edition of Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (Birds) (1771–1786) was produced by the Imprimerie royale in 10 folio and quarto volumes, with 1008 engraved and hand-coloured plates, executed under Buffon's personal supervision by Edme-Louis Daubenton, cousin and brother-in-law of Buffon's principal collaborator.

### Translations

The Histoire Naturelle was translated into languages including English, German, Swedish, Russian and Italian. Many translations, often partial (single volumes, or all volumes to a certain date), abridged, reprinted in the same translation by different printers, or with additional text (for example on insects) and new illustrations, were made at the end of the eighteenth century and the start of the nineteenth century, presenting a complicated publication history. Early translations were necessarily only of the earlier volumes. Given the complexity, all catalogue dates other than of single volumes should be taken as approximate.

R. Griffith published an early translation of the volume on The Horse in London in 1762. T. Bell published a translation of the first six volumes in London between 1775 and 1776. William Creech published an edition in Edinburgh between 1780 and 1785. T. Cadell and W. Davies published another edition in London in 1812. An abridged edition was published by Wogan, Byrne et al. in Dublin in 1791; that same year R. Morison and Son of Perth, J. and J. Fairbairn of Edinburgh and T. Kay and C. Forster of London published their edition. W. Strahan and T. Cadell published a translation with notes by the encyclopaedist William Smellie in London around 1785. Barr's Buffon in ten volumes was published in London between 1797 and 1807. W. Davidson published an abridged version including the natural history of insects taken from Swammerdam, Brookes, Goldsmith et al., with "elegant engravings on wood"; its four volumes appeared in Alnwick in 1814.

German translations include those published by Joseph Georg Trassler 1784–1785; by Pauli, 1772–1829; Grund and Holle, 1750–1775; and Johann Samuel Heinsius, 1756–1782.

Italian translations include those published by Fratelle Bassaglia around 1788 and Boringherieri in 1959.

Per Olof Gravander translated an 1802–1803 French abridgement into Swedish, publishing it in Örebro in 1806–1807.

A Russian version (The General and Particular Natural History by Count Buffon; "Всеобщая и частная естественная история графа Бюффона") was brought out by The Imperial Academy of Sciences (Императорской Академией Наук) in St. Petersburg between 1789 and 1808.

### Children's

An abridged edition for children was published by Frederick Warne in London and Scribner, Welford and Co. c. 1870.

## Contents by volume

The original edition was arranged as follows:

Natural history, and description of the king's cabinet of curiosities

- Volume I : Premier Discours - De la manière d’étudier et de traiter l’histoire naturelle, Second Discours - Histoire et théorie de la Terre, Preuves de la théorie de la Terre, 1749
- Volume II : Histoire générale des Animaux, Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, 1749
- Volume III : Description du cabinet du Roi, Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, 1749

Quadrupèdes (Quadrupeds)

- Volume IV (Quadrupèdes I) : Discours sur la nature des Animaux, Les Animaux domestiques, 1753
- Volume V (Quadrupèdes II) : 1755
- Volume VI (Quadrupèdes III) : Les Animaux sauvages, 1756
- Volume VII (Quadrupèdes IV) : Les Animaux carnassiers, 1758
- Volume VIII (Quadrupèdes V) : 1760
- Volume IX (Quadrupèdes VI) : 1761
- Volume X (Quadrupèdes VII) : 1763
- Volume XI (Quadrupèdes VIII) : 1764
- Volume XII (Quadrupèdes IX) : 1764
- Volume XIII (Quadrupèdes X) : 1765
- Volume XIV (Quadrupèdes XI) : Nomenclature des Singes, De la dégénération des Animaux, 1766
- Volume XV (Quadrupèdes XII) : 1767

Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (Birds) (1770–1783)

- Volume XVI (Oiseaux I) : 1770
- Volume XVII (Oiseaux II) : 1771
- Volume XVIII (Oiseaux III) : 1774
- Volume XIX (Oiseaux IV) : 1778
- Volume XX (Oiseaux V) : 1778
- Volume XXI (Oiseaux VI) : 1779
- Volume XXII (Oiseaux VII) : 1780
- Volume XXIII (Oiseaux VIII) : 1781
- Volume XXIV (Oiseaux IX) : 1783

Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux (Minerals) (1783–1788)

- Volume XXV (Minéraux I) : 1783
- Volume XXVI (Minéraux II) : 1783
- Volume XXVII (Minéraux III) : 1785
- Volume XXVIII (Minéraux IV) : 1786
- Volume XXIX (Minéraux V) : Traité de l'Aimant et de ses usages, 1788

Suppléments à l’Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière (Supplements) (1774–1789)

- Volume XXX (Suppléments I) : Servant de suite à la Théorie de la Terre, et d’introduction à l’Histoire des Minéraux, 1774
- Volume XXXI (Suppléments II) : Servant de suite à la Théorie de la Terre, et de préliminaire à l’Histoire des Végétaux - Parties Expérimentale & Hypothétique, 1775
- Volume XXXII (Suppléments III) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire des Animaux quadrupèdes, 1776
- Volume XXXIII (Suppléments IV) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, 1777
- Volume XXXIV (Suppléments V) : Des Époques de la nature, 1779
- Volume XXXV (Suppléments VI) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire des Animaux quadrupèdes, 1782
- Volume XXXVI (Suppléments VII) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire des Animaux quadrupèdes, 1789

Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes ovipares et des Serpents (Egg-laying Quadrupeds and Snakes) (1788–1789)

- Volume XXXVII (Reptiles I) : Histoire générale et particulière des Quadrupèdes ovipares, 1788
- Volume XXXVIII (Reptiles II) : Histoire des Serpents, 1789

Histoire Naturelle des Poissons (Fish) (1798–1803)

- Volume XXXIX (Poissons I) : 1798
- Volume XXXX (Poissons II) : 1800
- Volume XXXXI (Poissons III) : 1802
- Volume XXXXII (Poissons IV) : 1802
- Volume XXXXIII (Poissons V) : 1803

Histoire Naturelle des Cétacés (Cetaceans) (1804)

- Volume XXXXIV (Cétacés) : 1804

## Reception

### Contemporary

The Histoire Naturelle had a distinctly mixed reception in the eighteenth century. Wealthy homes in both England and France purchased copies, and the first edition was sold out within six weeks. But Buffon was criticised by some priests for suggesting (in the essay Les Epoques de Nature, Volume XXXIV) that the earth was more than 6,000 years old and that mountains had arisen in geological time. Buffon cites as evidence that fossil sea-shells had been found at the tops of mountains; but the claim was seen as contradicting the biblical account in the Book of Genesis. Buffon also disagreed with Linnaeus's system of classifying plants as described in Systema Naturae (1735). In Buffon's view, expounded in the "Premier Discours" of the Histoire Naturelle (1749), the concept of species was entirely artificial, the only real entity in nature being the individual; as for a taxonomy based on the number of stamens or pistils in a flower, mere counting (despite Buffon's own training in mathematics) had no bearing on nature.

The Paris faculty of theology, acting as the official censor, wrote to Buffon with a list of statements in the Histoire Naturelle that were contradictory to Roman Catholic Church teaching. Buffon replied that he believed firmly in the biblical account of creation, and was able to continue printing his book, and remain in position as the leader of the 'old school', complete with his job as director of the royal botanical garden. On Buffon's death, the 19-year-old Georges Cuvier celebrated with the words "This time, the Comte de Buffon is dead and buried". Soon afterwards, the French revolution went much further in sweeping away old attitudes to natural history, along with much else.

### Modern

#### Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calls the Histoire Naturelle "Buffon's major work", observing that "In addressing the history of the earth, Buffon also broke with the 'counter-factual' tradition of Descartes, and presented a secular and realist account of the origins of the earth and its life forms." In its view, the work created an "age of Buffon", defining what natural history itself was, while Buffon's "Discourse on Method" (unlike that of Descartes) at the start of the work argued that repeated observation could lead to a greater certainty of knowledge even than "mathematical analysis of nature". Buffon also led natural history away from the natural theology of British parson-naturalists such as John Ray. He thus offered both a new methodology and an empirical style of enquiry. Buffon's position on evolution is complex; he noted in Volume 4 from Daubenton's comparative anatomy of the horse and the donkey that species might "transform", but initially (1753) rejected the possibility. However, in doing so he changed the definition of a species from a fixed or universal class (which could not change, by definition) to "the historical succession of ancestor and descendant linked by material connection through generation", identified by the ability to mate and produce fertile offspring. Thus the horse and donkey, which produce only sterile hybrids, are seen empirically not to be the same species, even though they have similar anatomy. That empirical fact leaves open the possibility of evolution.

#### Style

The botanist Sandra Knapp writes that "Buffon's prose was so purple that the ideas themselves are almost hidden", observing that this was also the contemporary academic opinion. She notes that some quite radical ideas are to be found in his work, but they are almost invisible, given the language they are cloaked in. She quotes Buffon's dramatic description of the lion, which along with the engraving in her view "emphasized both the lion's regal bearing and personality not only in his text but also in the illustration... A reader was left in no doubt as to the importance and character of the animal." She concludes "No wonder the cultured aristocratic public lapped it up – the text reads more like a romantic novel than a dry scientific treatise".

#### Evolutionary thought

The evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr comments that "In this monumental and fascinating Histoire naturelle, Buffon dealt in a stimulating manner with almost all the problems that would subsequently be raised by evolutionists. Written in a brilliant style, this work was read in French or in one of the numerous translations by every educated person in Europe". Mayr argued that "virtually all the well-known writers of the Enlightenment" were "Buffonians", and calls Buffon "the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the eighteenth century".

Mayr notes that Buffon was not an "evolutionist", but was certainly responsible for creating the great amount of interest in natural history in France. He agrees that Buffon's thought is hard to classify and even self-contradictory, and that the theologians forced him to avoid writing some of his opinions openly. Mayr argues however that Buffon was "fully aware of the possibility of 'common descent', and was perhaps the first author ever to articulate it clearly", quoting Buffon at length, starting with "Not only the ass and the horse, but also man, the apes, the quadrupeds, and all the animals might be regarded as constituting but a single family", and later "that man and ape have a common origin", and that "the power of nature...with sufficient time, she has been able from a single being to derive all the other organized beings". Mayr notes, however, that Buffon immediately rejects the suggestion and offers three arguments against it, namely that no new species have arisen in historical times; that hybrid infertility firmly separates species; and that animals intermediate between, say, the horse and the donkey are not seen (in the fossil record).

1749–1804 encyclopedic collection by Buffon


Cartier Building

The Cartier Building, also 653 Fifth Avenue, is a commercial building on the southeast corner of 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building serves as the flagship store of Cartier in New York City. It consists of two conjoined residences completed in 1905: the Morton F. Plant residence at 651–653 Fifth Avenue, designed by Robert W. Gibson, and the Edward Holbrook residence at 4 East 52nd Street, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert.

The Plant House was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style and has facades on both 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The 52nd Street facade of the house contains an ornate pavilion, and both facades have an attic hidden inside a frieze. The Edward Holbrook House was also designed in a neoclassical style but has a mansard roof. Both houses are five stories tall and are connected internally. The Cartier store takes up all of the stories inside the building.

The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street was planned as a hotel in the early 1900s after the Roman Catholic Asylum vacated the site. After the Vanderbilts blocked the development of the hotel, the northern portion became the Morton F. Plant House, while the southern portion of the site was developed as the Marble Twins at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue. In the late 1910s, Plant sold his house to Cartier. The Holbrook House was occupied by a variety of tenants until 1927, after which it was purchased by 653 Fifth Avenue's owners and used by various organizations and firms. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Cartier Building as a city landmark in 1970, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 along with 647 Fifth Avenue.

## Site

The Cartier Building is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue to the west and 52nd Street to the north. The land lot is "L"-shaped and covers 8,055 square feet (748.3 m2), with a frontage of 50 feet (15 m) on Fifth Avenue and a maximum depth of 130 feet (40 m). The lot includes 651–653 Fifth Avenue, measuring 50 feet along Fifth Avenue and 100 feet (30 m) on 52nd Street, and the adjacent 4 East 52nd Street to the east, measuring 30 feet (9.1 m) on 52nd Street and 100 feet (30 m) deep. The building is on the same block as 647 Fifth Avenue and the Olympic Tower to the south, as well as 11 East 51st Street and 488 Madison Avenue to the east. Other nearby buildings include 650 Fifth Avenue to the west, 660 Fifth Avenue to the northwest, Austrian Cultural Forum New York to the north, 12 East 53rd Street and Omni Berkshire Place to the northeast, St. Patrick's Cathedral to the south, and the International Building of Rockefeller Center to the southwest.

Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park South (59th Street) was relatively undeveloped through the late 19th century. The surrounding area was once part of the common lands of the city of New York. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 established Manhattan's street grid with lots measuring 100 feet (30 m) deep and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide. Upscale residences were constructed around Fifth Avenue following the American Civil War. In 1882, three Vanderbilt family residences were completed along Fifth Avenue between 51st and 59th Streets (the William H., William K., and Cornelius II mansions). The surrounding section of Fifth Avenue thus became known as "Vanderbilt Row". By the early 1900s, that section of Fifth Avenue was becoming a commercial area.

The site immediately north of St. Patrick's Cathedral was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which used the site for the Roman Catholic Asylum. The asylum took up two blocks between 51st Street, 52nd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Park Avenue. It was once one of several public institutions on the midtown section of Fifth Avenue, but by the end of the 19th century, it was the only one remaining. The Roman Catholic Asylum site was placed for sale in 1899 after the institution had secured another site in the Bronx.

## Architecture

The Cartier Building, the main New York City store of jeweler Cartier, consists of the Morton F. Plant House at 651–653 Fifth Avenue and the Edward Holbrook House at 4 East 52nd Street. The Plant House was designed by architect Robert W. Gibson in the Neo-Renaissance style for Morton Freeman Plant, a financier who was the son of railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant. The Holbrook House was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert for Edward Holbrook, who was president of the Gorham Manufacturing Company in the 1900s. The two houses comprise the Cartier Building and have been joined internally since the 1920s.

### Facade

#### Morton F. Plant House

The Morton F. Plant House at 651–653 Fifth Avenue has frontage on both 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The facade along Fifth Avenue is three bays wide and, at the ground floor, contains a large opening surrounded by blocks of rusticated limestone. The facade along 52nd Street also has a rusticated limestone facade and contains seven vertical bays, with an arched entrance in the center bay. The 52nd Street entrance was the original main entrance to the house, which was known initially as 2 East 52nd Street. The ground-story openings are square-headed, except for an arched opening at the center, which was the carriage entrance.

At the second and third stories on 52nd Street, the central three bays form a slightly projecting pavilion, with an ornate balustrade in front of the second-story windows. The center window on the second story of the pavilion has engaged columns, which support a curved pediment. The pavilion also contains four pilasters separating the windows on the second and third stories; the pilasters are fluted and contain Scamozzi capitals at their tops. The pilasters support a pediment at the fourth story.

On either side of the central pavilion, there are two windows on each of the second and third stories on 52nd Street, as well as three similarly designed windows on each story on Fifth Avenue. The second-story windows have individual balustrades at the bottom and are flanked by engaged columns that support lintels with denticulation. The center window on Fifth Avenue has a clock above it. The third-story windows are topped by denticulated lintels supported by brackets. On the fourth story, there are six windows on 52nd Street (three on each side of the pavilion) and five on Fifth Avenue. These windows are simpler in design and contain lintels above them. The fifth-story attic has a frieze within which are small window openings. A cornice with modillions, as well as a balustrade, runs above the attic. During the December holiday season, the facade of the mansion is wrapped with a large red ribbon.

#### Edward Holbrook House

4 East 52nd Street comprises the Edward Holbrook House, which is internally joined to the Morton F. Plant House. This house is five stories tall and has a neoclassical design. The limestone facade is divided into three bays. At the lowest two stories, there are plate glass windows and the center bay is wider than the other two bays. There is a projecting marquee and a clock above the center bay of the first story, while the outer bays have light fixtures. The original entrance at the Edward Holbrook House was removed when Cartier moved into the building in the 1920s. The current entrance was installed in a 2000 renovation.

The third and fourth stories each contain three windows with molded surrounds. The third-story windows are topped by keystones, while a cornice with modillions, dentils, and brackets runs above the fourth story. The fifth story contains a mansard roof with a skylight and three stone dormers.

### Features

As designed, the Plant House was supposed to have a large dining room, drawing room, and smoking annex on the ground floor, as well as a library and music room on the second floor, connected by a circular grand staircase. The east side of the second story had Plant's piano room, which contained a coffered ceiling. The west side of the second story had Pierre C. Cartier's private offices.

After Cartier moved into the Plant House, it made some changes. The Cartier store occupied the first two stories of the Plant House while offices were placed on the upper floors. A second-story mezzanine, built in 1917 and demolished in 2001, had cabinet doors containing leather bindings on the edges. Following a 2016 renovation, the Cartier store was expanded to 44,000 square feet (4,100 m2) on five floors, with an interior stairway connecting all the stories. The first floor was designed as an imitation of a residential mansion. The restored interior had a lacquered panel in the foyer, with representations of panthers in gold leaf, as well as oak paneling on the walls. The second floor contained salesrooms for fine jewelry. The third floor was designed to sell watches while the fourth floor was designed to sell perfume. In addition, a terrace facing Fifth Avenue was installed.

## History

In October 1899, the Roman Catholic Asylum sold much of the city block bounded clockwise from west by Fifth Avenue, 52nd Street, Madison Avenue, and 51st Street. The sale was valued at \$2.5 million and included the lots on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets, as well as those on the side streets. George R. Sheldon and Charles T. Barney were reported as the purchasers. In the subsequent months, many of the lots along 51st and 52nd Streets were sold to families, though one lot was sold to the Union Club of the City of New York. The single-family lots were sold under the stipulation that they would remain in residential use for 25 years. By May 1900, only the lots along Fifth Avenue remained unsold.

### Residential use

#### Construction

Edward Holbrook bought a 50-by-100-foot (15 by 30 m) lot on the south side of 52nd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue, from Worthington Whitehouse in August 1900. That December, Holbrook bought the 30-by-100-foot (9.1 by 30.5 m) lot immediately to the east from Lansdale Boardman. A group of developers led by Stewart H. Chisholm bought the southeast corner lot at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, measuring 100 by 125 feet (30 by 38 m), from Flake & Dowling in early 1901. That October, Chisholm's syndicate filed plans for an 18-story apartment hotel, designed by William C. Hazlett, to be built on that site. To the east, Holbrook hired C. P. H. Gilbert to construct a 14-story apartment house adjacent to Chisholm's hotel on the 50-foot lot, along with a private house for Holbrook's use on the 30-foot lot.

In March 1902, after the corner site had been excavated, Chisholm sold the site to the New York Realty Corporation. The Real Estate Record and Guide described the sale as "a peculiar transaction, and one which can hardly be called a sale". The corporation was acting on behalf of the Vanderbilt family, which did not want to see a high-rise hotel development opposite their houses. The Vanderbilts sold the northern section of the plot, facing 52nd Street and measuring 50 by 100 feet (15 by 30 m), to Morton F. Plant. However, they were unable to obtain a buyer for the southern section, which was in the middle of a city block. Holbrook canceled plans to build his apartment hotel in August 1902 after agreeing with the Vanderbilts to restrict their respective lots to private residential development. The following month, when George W. Vanderbilt announced plans for marble townhouses at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue, the Vanderbilt family was confirmed to be associated with the New York Realty Corporation.

Holbrook did build a 5-story residence on the eastern site of the lot at 8 East 52nd Street, but he sold it to Ernest Kempton Adams. Gilbert designed a six-story residence for Holbrook on the western side of his 52nd Street lot, which would have been the site of the apartment hotel. In December 1902, Robert W. Gibson was announced as the architect for Morton Plant's residence. Gibson filed plans for Plant's house with the New York City Department of Buildings in May 1903; the plans called for a five-story limestone house to cost \$300,000. Gilbert filed plans that November for Holbrook's house, which was to be a six-story limestone structure costing \$95,000. Plant's residence at 651–653 Fifth Avenue was completed in 1905, and he and his wife Nellie moved into the house. The facade of the Holbrook House was finished by that April, and his house was finished the next year.

#### Occupancy

When 4 East 52nd Street was completed, it was occupied by Edward Holbrook and his wife Frances. In January 1906, the Holbrook House hosted the wedding of their daughter Lilian to Count Guillaume de Balincourt. The Holbrooks sold the residence a year and a half later, in June 1907. The buyers of the 52nd Street house were initially not publicly revealed, but The New York Times announced the following month that tobacco businessman James Buchanan Duke had bought the house for \$300,000. The Times reported that Duke was rumored to have been looking for a mansion on the Upper East Side. Duke had purchased a site on 78th Street by 1909, which would become his house. 4 East 52nd Street was then occupied by the family of real estate developer Harry James Luce, who had moved into the house by August 1910, when he received a mortgage on the property.

Immediately to the west, Fifth Avenue was widened in 1911, and the marble steps in front of Plant's house had to be cut back. Plant was forced to truncate his front areaway and fence. Around that time, the neighborhood was growing increasingly commercial. Plant's wife Nellie died in 1913 and the next year he remarried to Mae Cadwell. By 1916, Plant decided to move to a new mansion at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. The new mansion was designed by Guy Lowell as an interpretation of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The Luces retained their adjacent house for several more years; in 1922, The New York Times published a social bulletin announcing that Harry Luce's daughter was returning to the house after three years abroad. The Luce family continued to live at 4 East 52nd Street until about 1927.

### Commercial use

#### Store conversion

653 Fifth Avenue was resold to William Kissam Vanderbilt, who leased the house to Cartier in October 1916, thereby breaking his family's own restriction on the lot. At the time, Cartier's previous space at 712 Fifth Avenue was becoming too small for the company. The neighboring house at number 647 was sold to an art dealer the next month. According to the Real Estate Record and Guide, these sales marked "another step in the transition of this section of Fifth avenue from the residential to the business stage". In July 1917, Louis J. Cartier and Pierre C. Cartier decided to buy the Plant House outright. The trade consisted of \$100 in cash and included a double-stranded necklace of 128 flawlessly matched natural pearls valued at the time at \$1 million (equivalent to \$ in ). Mae Plant had admired this necklace in the window of Cartier's 712 Fifth Avenue shop. Because of the later advent of cultured pearls causing the prices of pearls to plunge, the Cartier necklace was worth only \$151,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) after Mae Plant died in 1956.

William Welles Bosworth designed a conversion of the Plant House into a Cartier store. As part of the Plant House's conversion, the original front doorway in the middle of the facade on 52nd Street was removed. The Fifth Avenue Association granted its "gold medal for altered buildings" to Cartier in November 1917 for its alteration of the Plant House. Cartier hired Bosworth again in 1919 to make further alterations to the Plant residence.

#### 1920s to 1950s

The Cartier store was shared with Charvet & Fils, a gentlemen's haberdasher, until 1927. The store also hosted events such as a 1927 exhibition of old timepieces. Nicholas C. Partos took a 63-year lease on Luce's house in March 1927 and considered erecting a 12-story commercial structure on the site. Louis F. Mentz bought Luce's house that July, including a \$200,000 mortgage on the property. The house was resold shortly afterward to the 653 Fifth Avenue Corporation, which owned the former Plant residence that Cartier occupied. It was likely around this time that the two houses were joined internally. In November 1928, an information bureau for the French government opened at 4 East 52nd Street.

4 East 52nd Street came to be occupied by the French Chamber of Commerce and the Alliance Française de New York, which respectively elected Pierre C. Cartier as their president in 1935 and 1938. The French Chamber of Commerce continued to occupy 4 East 52nd Street until at least 1945, when it hosted an exhibit of French craftsmanship. The houses at 653 Fifth Avenue and 4 East 52nd Street, along with the neighboring property at 647 Fifth Avenue, were all acquired in May 1950 by the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company. The buyer, who reportedly paid for the buildings in cash, held the properties as an investment and continued leasing 653 Fifth Avenue to Cartier. In the late 1950s, design firm Design-Technics had a showroom at 4 East 52nd Street, though the firm moved out after 1959, when it leased another building on 53rd Street.

#### 1960s to 1980s

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Cartier Building as a city landmark on February 5, 1967. Cartier officials threw a party at the Plaza Hotel to celebrate the designation. In designating the building as a landmark, the LPC assumed Cartier owned the building. Phoenix had never even been aware of the landmark status, let alone attended any hearing about it. Once Phoenix learned of the action, it asked the LPC to reconsider the landmark designation, as such a status prohibited major alterations to a building's facade without the LPC's permission. As a result, the landmark status was revoked in August 1967. LPC rules at the time prevented the agency from reconsidering the building as a landmark until 1970. The Cartier Building was re-designated as a city landmark on July 14, 1970.

In the late 1960s, Best & Co. purchased the development rights over the Cartier Building. This permitted Best's to erect a skyscraper above their store, which was two buildings south of Cartier's. Aristotle Onassis—the president of Olympic Airways, which at the time had a sales office at 647 Fifth Avenue—established a family trust called Victory Development in March 1970. Victory formed a joint venture with Arlen Realty & Development Corporation to acquire Best's store, 647 Fifth Avenue, and the Cartier Building. The Best & Co. store closed in late 1970 and it was demolished the next year to make way for the Olympic Tower. As part of the Olympic Tower's construction, a pedestrian plaza was built east of 647 Fifth Avenue and the Cartier Building. The tower was ultimately completed and dedicated in 1974.

A Ben Kahn fur salon opened at 4 East 52nd Street in November 1970; at the time, Ben Kahn and Cartier were both owned by the Kenton Corporation. Kenton sold Ben Kahn in 1972, and Cartier opened Les Must de Cartier, a watch boutique, inside 4 East 52nd Street in 1976. Cartier celebrated its 75th anniversary in early 1983 with a gala at the building, to which several LPC officials were invited. On September 8, 1983, the Cartier Building at 651–653 Fifth Avenue and 4 East 52nd Street was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), along with the adjacent building at 647 Fifth Avenue. The buildings were cited as examples of residences in Midtown Manhattan that were later converted to commercial use. The houses were added to the NRHP as a single listing, the "Houses at 647, 651-53 Fifth Avenue and 4 East 52nd Street". In 1987, Cartier asked the building's owner Olympic Tower Associates for permission to renovate the building's interior. Olympic originally declined, but a New York Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of Cartier in 1989.

#### 1990s to present

Butler Rogers Baskett was hired in 1998 to renovate the Cartier Building. Two years later, Cartier announced it would temporarily move to 711 Fifth Avenue while renovations were being conducted. The main entrance on Fifth Avenue was to be relocated from the northernmost bay to the southernmost bay, and a mezzanine over the showroom on Fifth Avenue would be eliminated. In addition, an entrance would be added on 52nd Street, where one of the original entrances had been removed, and window grilles facing Fifth Avenue would be duplicated on the 52nd Street facade. The architects for the renovation were Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Timothy P. Greer, and David Schwartz. Cartier president Alain Viot likened the restoration to "a Cartier product that you redesign as it was before and make it contemporary at the same time". A ribbon-cutting ceremony was hosted in August 2001, marking the building's reopening.

In May 2012, real estate investment firm Crown Acquisitions took a 49.9 percent stake in the Olympic Tower properties, which included 647 Fifth Avenue, the Cartier Building, the Olympic Tower itself, and a fourth building at 10 East 52nd Street. The Cartier Building received another renovation in 2014, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle in conjunction with Thierry W. Despont. During the renovation, the Cartier store was temporarily at the General Motors Building. The renovation was completed in 2016, two and a half years after it started. Guy Trebay of The New York Times described the 2010s renovation as having turned the Cartier Building into a "thing of rational and distinctly Gallic beauty". A writer quoted in Bloomberg News stated that the new interior was the "single biggest signifier of wealth in Manhattan".

## See also

- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets

Cartier flagship store in New York City

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan

Neoclassical architecture in New York City

New York State Register of Historic Places in New York County