1009 Fifth Avenue (Benjamin N. Duke House)
1009 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
BBL 1014930069 · BIN 1087074
- Year built
- 1899
- Type
- Townhouse
- Units
- 2
- Floors
- 7
- Subletting
- Not documented; confirm any leasing restrictions from the recorded documents
- Landmark status
- Individual landmark; in the Metropolitan Museum Historic District
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 1009 Fifth Avenue (Benjamin N. Duke House) would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
1009 Fifth Avenue — the Benjamin N. and Sara Duke House — is among the most architecturally consequential single addresses on Fifth Avenue and one of the few freestanding Gilded Age mansions that remain on the avenue. The 1899–1901 Welch, Smith & Provot design, built on speculation by W.W. and T.M. Hall and bought by Benjamin N. Duke soon after completion, produced one of the great residential Beaux-Arts buildings of the era — a limestone-clad mansion with the architectural sophistication and material quality of the most ambitious freestanding Fifth Avenue houses of the Gilded Age.
The house's family history is part of its significance. Benjamin N. Duke, of the North Carolina tobacco family, bought it shortly after completion, and members of the Duke and Biddle families lived there for much of the twentieth century, which is why it is also known as the Duke–Semans mansion. It is sometimes confused with the house of Stuyvesant and Marian Graves Anthon Fish, which stood at 25 East 78th Street.
The building's landmark history is documented; a cooperative conversion is not. The Department of City Planning's land-use record lists the tax lot (block 1493, lot 69) as building class S2 with two residential units, held by a limited liability company, and ACRIS records the entire lot conveyed by deed in 2006 and again in 2010 — not apartment-by-apartment cooperative or condominium transfers. Its current legal ownership and occupancy structure should be confirmed from recorded documents before describing individual apartments, cooperative purchase procedures or building services.
The Metropolitan Museum's main entrance is directly across Fifth Avenue from 1009 Fifth; the Met's main facade is the visual anchor of the avenue view from the house. On Fifth Avenue, the Duke House occupies a particular tier — Beaux-Arts architectural pedigree, individual landmark status, mansion scale, and direct Met frontage at one of the most consequential single addresses on the corridor.
For buyers, 1009 Fifth represents a particular category of Fifth Avenue property that has no direct comparable: a Gilded Age Beaux-Arts mansion with individual landmark status and direct Met frontage. City records show the whole lot changing hands by deed, not apartment by apartment; when it trades, pricing reflects the unique character.
Architecture and unit composition
The house was built with Beaux-Arts interiors — marble fireplaces, paneled rooms, original millwork, classical proportioning — reflecting its 1899–1901 single-family mansion origin. How much of that survives, and how the house is divided today, should be confirmed on inspection; city records list two residential units on the lot.
The 7-story house has the ceiling heights and architectural detail of Gilded Age single-family residential construction. Its Fifth Avenue frontage faces the Met Museum and Central Park.
Building operations
Building services and staffing at 1009 Fifth Avenue are not documented in public records. City records list the lot as a privately held building with two residential units, so concierge, superintendent and storage arrangements should not be assumed; confirm them with the owner's representatives.
Ownership terms, use restrictions and occupancy arrangements should be confirmed from the recorded documents and directly with the owner's representatives during due diligence.
Building staffing and amenities
- Concierge
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 limits apply to a building on its own. It is still covered if it shares a tax lot or condominium board with buildings totaling over 50,000 sq ft; confirm on DOB’s covered-buildings list.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Photographs of 1009 Fifth Avenue (Benjamin N. Duke House)
Recent sales
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01493-0069). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.
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What to know if you’re buying
The Duke House is structurally unique. A freestanding Gilded Age Beaux-Arts mansion facing the Met; city records do not show it as a cooperative, so confirm what is being sold — the whole property or an interest in it — from the recorded documents. The building has no direct comparable.
The Beaux-Arts architectural pedigree is real. Welch, Smith & Provot's 1899–1901 design and the Duke family's long residency produce architectural and cultural significance that exceeds typical Fifth Avenue residential inventory.
The Met Museum frontage is among the most consequential individual addresses on Fifth Avenue.
Confirm specific policies directly with management. Financing posture, flip tax structure, sublet specifics, and pied-à-terre allowance should be obtained directly during the contract review process.
Confirm the legal form before any purchase process. City records do not show a cooperative, so no co-op board application or interview should be assumed; confirm ownership, financing and occupancy terms from the recorded documents. The individual landmark status produces additional scrutiny around interior renovation scope.
The outlook is the asset. The Met facade and Central Park sit opposite; views depend on floor and position, and no view is protected without a recorded instrument.
Inventory is rare. ACRIS records whole-property transfers of the lot in 2006 and 2010; transactions are infrequent.
What to know if you’re selling
The building's history is the primary marketing asset. Listing copy should reference the Duke family's ownership (Benjamin N. Duke bought the house shortly after completion), the Welch, Smith & Provot Beaux-Arts authorship, the individual landmark status, and the Met Museum corner positioning. These credentials are rare among Fifth Avenue residences.
Pricing requires property-level context. Given the mansion's unique character and the rarity of whole-house trades on Fifth Avenue, comparable analysis is intensive.
Closing timelines depend on what is being conveyed. A whole-property deed transfer follows a different process from a cooperative share purchase; confirm the legal form from the recorded documents before setting a timeline.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 1009 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 998 Fifth Avenue — McKim Mead & White 1912; pre-war landmark farther south along Fifth Avenue
- 1001 Fifth Avenue — Philip Johnson 1979; nearby to the south along Fifth Avenue
- 820 Fifth Avenue — Starrett & Van Vleck 1916; prewar Fifth Avenue cooperative
- The Pierre (795 Fifth) — Schultze & Weaver 1930; hotel-cooperative
- The Sherry-Netherland (781 Fifth) — Schultze & Weaver 1927; hotel-cooperative
More Fifth Avenue buildings
- 995 Fifth Avenue (The Stanhope) — 1926 condop by Rosario Candela
- 998 Fifth Avenue — 1910 co-op by McKim, Mead & White
- 1001 Fifth Avenue — 1979 co-op by Philip Johnson and John Burgee
- 1010 Fifth Avenue — 1925 co-op by Fred F. French Company
- 1016 Fifth Avenue — 1926 co-op
- 1020 Fifth Avenue — 1925 co-op by Warren & Wetmore
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Fifth Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to Fifth Avenue.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
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646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com