Otto Kahn House (New York, N.Y.)

The Otto H. Kahn House is a mansion at 1 East 91st Street, at Fifth Avenue, in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The four-story mansion was designed by architects J. Armstrong Stenhouse and C. P. H. Gilbert in the neo-Italian Renaissance style. It was completed in 1918 as the town residence of the German-born financier and philanthropist Otto H. Kahn and his family. The Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private school, owns the Kahn House along with the adjacent James A. Burden House, which is internally connected. The mansion is a New York City designated landmark and, along with the Burden House, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Andrew Carnegie purchased the site in 1898 to protect the value of his nearby mansion, but he did not sell it until 1913, when Kahn bought the plot. Kahn reportedly lost over $50 million during the Wall Street Crash of 1929, although the family retained ownership of the house.[78] The house continued to host events in the early 1930s, including a recital by Alexis Obolensky[95] and business dinners.[96]

The Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private girls' school,[97] began negotiating for the house in 1932.[98] Kahn negotiated a tentative agreement with the school in early 1934, one month before he died.[17] Kahn died in March 1934 after a heart attack;[99] he bequeathed everything to his children and allowed them to sell his real estate.[100] When he died, his real estate was valued at $216,375, excluding the 91st Street mansion.[101] At the time of Kahn's death, the Kahn House and several other houses along the block were restricted to residential use because of a covenant placed by Andrew Carnegie.[97] The Oheka Corporation, representing Kahn's estate, filed a lawsuit in May 1934 to have the restriction removed so they could sell the house to the Convent of the Sacred Heart.[97] Kahn's neighbors did not oppose the sale,[102] provided that the height of the house was not increased.[17] The restriction was thus lifted to allow the Kahn House to be sold.[103] By the 2000s, the Kahn House was known as the Convent of the Sacred Heart's Duchesne Residence.[122] The house contains Convent of the Sacred Heart's middle and upper schools as of 2024.[123]