Sniffen Court — Attraction in New York

The Sniffen Court Historic District is a small close-ended mews, running perpendicularly southwest from East 36th Street, between Third and Lexington Avenues in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The district, one of the smallest in New York City, encompasses the entire alley, which consists of 10 two-story brick stables built in 1863–1864 in the early Romanesque Revival style. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Sniffen Court as a city historic district on June 21, 1966, and the district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1973.

Sniffen Court may have been named after John Sniffen, a local builder, although The New York Times could not find evidence of his involvement with the alley. As the need for carriage houses lessened, the buildings were converted for other uses. In 1918, two of the stables (#1, also known as 150 East 36th Street, and #3) were bought by the Amateur Comedy Club, which has been in existence since 1884, to be their clubhouse and theatre; they remain there today. In the 1920s the conversions continued, and by 1966 one of the buildings was in use as an architect's office, the gabled building at #2 (156 East 36th Street) was the home of a noted architect, while the remainder were small private residences. Two artists associated with the mews were the sculptors Malvina Hoffman and Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, both of whom had studios in the Court. On the rear of the alley are mounted two sculpted plaques of Greek horsemen by Hoffman.

Composer Cole Porter once owned a residence at 2 Sniffen Court as well as the townhouse next door at 4 Sniffen Court in order to discreetly put up his boyfriend at the time, all while he was in residence at the Waldorf-Astoria. In the 1930s, author Pearl Buck resided in what had been Hoffman's home. Also, legendary comedian Professor Irwin Corey owned a home on Sniffen Court for many years. Since then, the street has played host to model Claudia Schiffer, Lenny Kravitz and, more recently, British talk show host...

It is amazing the number of people that walk right by this little architectural jewel of history on East 36th Street every day. Even more astounding are the hordes that pass by along 3rd Ave, just a few feet away, oblivious to its existence. I've worked over the years in three different office high rises and one day chimed in during a conversation I overheard among some Dutch tourists looking for other sites nearby and suggested it, only to have them shrug and say it is off the main street . Great to see that it has been preserved as a landmark. According to the marker these former stables all date to the Civil War period. I got lucky one of the days I passed by and saw the gate open. Some guys were doing...

Had to visit the place on account of it being on The Doors 'Strange Days' album cover. It's pretty much all there minus who and whatever the photographer brought to the shoot the 20 years previous - we'd visited in 1988. So it's been over thirty years since we'd seen it last - don't recall the gate being there. Dang how the...