Tudor City is 90 YEARS OLD today

Today marks a most auspicious occasion, the 90th birthday of Prospect Tower and The Manor, which both opened on September 30, 1927. This date also marks the debut of the Tudor City Restaurant, and, of course, is the official birth date of the enclave itself.

No. 45 and The Manor are the first two units completed, construction having begun in early 1927. They're faced with red brick, part of a record-breaking order ‒ 10,000,000 bricks in all ‒ shipped in by barge and offloaded at the foot of 42nd Street.

The apartments are small but efficiently designed, and come equipped with name-brand products of the era like Frigidaires and Murphy beds. They are quickly rented out and remain so thereafter. 

The Manor and Prospect Tower under construction, 1927

New York Times, Oct. 1, 1927

The French Company celebrates the opening with a luncheon in Prospect Tower's restaurant, where self-congratulatory speeches are delivered by various company executives. There are 150 guests in attendance.

The final speaker, Fred French, concludes his remarks by producing a rusty sword that was unearthed during the excavation of the site. Waving it in the air, French explains it has been identified by arms experts at the Metropolitan Museum as a Revolutionary War Hessian cavalry sword.

And so, with a flash of a blade, Tudor City is off and running. French keeps the sword displayed in his office for years after. Today it is in the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

More about Prospect Tower here and The Manor here.

See them rise here.