The William Starr Miller House is a mansion

Mansion

A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 located on 1048 Fifth Avenue and 86th Street, in the Upper East Side

Upper East Side

The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...

 of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

History

It was originally constructed for the industrialist William Starr Miller

William Starr Miller

William Starr Miller II was a prominent New York industrialist and real estate operator.- Biography:Born in New York City, William was a son of George Norton Miller I and Caroline Tucker Chase...

. Miller hired the renowned New York-based, Beaux-Arts architectural firm Carrere & Hastings to design a six-story Georgian-style townhouse for himself and his family, to be located in Manhattan at 1048 Fifth Avenue (on the southeast corner of East 86th Street) on Central Park East. The work was undertaken in 1914.

After Miller's death the townhouse was occupied by Grace Wilson Vanderbilt (1870–1953), wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt III

Cornelius Vanderbilt III

Cornelius Vanderbilt III was a distinguished American military officer, inventor, engineer, and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family.-Biography:...

 (1873–1942), and then by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Purchased in 1994 by art dealer and museum exhibition organizer Serge Sabarsky ( 1912–1996 ) and cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder

Ronald Lauder

Ronald Steven Lauder is a Jewish-American businessman, civic leader, philanthropist, and art collector. Forbes lists Lauder among the richest people of the world with an estimated net worth of $3.0 billion in 2007.-Life and career:...

 (born 1944), the building was fully renovated by German architect Annabelle Selldorf

Annabelle Selldorf

Annabelle Selldorf FAIA, is a German-born architect and founding principal of Selldorf Architects, a New York City-based architecture and interior design practice...

 and restored to its original state. It is now home to the Neue Galerie New York, which opened on November 16, 2001.