{"id":305226,"date":"2025-10-15T11:33:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305226\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:33:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:33:03","slug":"a-duplex-in-the-former-ballroom-of-a-private-club-for-masons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305226\/","title":{"rendered":"A Duplex in the Former Ballroom of a Private Club for Masons"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n Looking down the nearly 50-foot-long living area in Larry Schier\u2019s combo unit at the Level Club.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who knows me knows two things about me,\u201d said Larry Schier, a 71-year-old real-estate agent. \u201cFirst, that I love Diana Ross. Second, that I\u2019m a Level Clubber.\u201d A Ross obsession doesn\u2019t require\u00a0explanation, but the Level Club does. It\u2019s not a club but a condo building carved out of a former men\u2019s club on West 73rd Street that kept the old name. Schier was the first buyer to snag a unit, shopping when the building was still under construction in 1983. \u201cI went up to the very top level, and I ran from apartment to apartment with a pad taking notes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The stylish scion of a garment-industry family, Schier fell in love at first sight with the lobby, a double-height great room with a romantic balcony that rings the second level and a coffered Moorish ceiling. On the fifth floor, he gawked at apartments carved into the building\u2019s former ballroom with arched windows looking out over the street. 5F was a one-bedroom duplex with stairs leading up from a foyer to the former ballroom, then tracking further up to a lofted bedroom. He paid $298,000 \u2014 less than $1 million today \u2014\u00a0and never left, later buying the neighboring one-bedroom duplex, 5G, and combined the two to create an oversize two-bedroom with a wild amount of custom design work \u2014 including a curved metal desk built into a home office and flat-screens mounted into the tile across from a tub. \u201cThat way I can watch Diana Ross videos,\u201d he said. \u201cI did everything to the nth degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The view that first convinced Schier to buy 5F. His notes on the unit show he admired the two arched windows and the ballroom\u2019s old pole.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

While Schier was perfecting his own space, he was selling other New Yorkers on life in the Level Club. His family sold its children\u2019s-clothing business in the 1990s, and a friend in real estate suggested Schier might make a good agent. In an interview, a Corcoran manager asked where he lived, then gave him a job. \u201cShe claims she saw something in me, but I really believe it was the building,\u201d Schier said. (The manager had been selling units there, but a promotion meant she could no longer do deals herself \u2014 a job she handed to him.) Over the next 25 years, he represented buyers and sellers in 250 transactions at the address. \u201cThere\u2019s only 160 units, so I\u2019ve sold some multiple times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Passersby may assume the building is like any other prewar apartment complex, but then there’s the grand lobby, as shown in this 1929 magazine photo. Courtesy of Larry Schier .\n <\/p>\n

\n Passersby may assume the building is like any other prewar apartment complex, but then there’s the grand lobby, as shown in this 1929 magazine photo. … more
\n Passersby may assume the building is like any other prewar apartment complex, but then there’s the grand lobby, as shown in this 1929 magazine photo. Courtesy of Larry Schier .\n <\/p>\n

The Daily News once called<\/a> Schier the building\u2019s \u201cunofficial mayor,\u201d but he is also its historian. At one point, he had a website<\/a> that explained its history as a kind of private university club for Masons. In the 1920s, its membership peaked, and they wanted a club where they could stay in rooms upstairs, swim laps in an Olympic-size pool, steam in Turkish baths, and swing through a lobby that had a barber, a shoeshine, a manicurist, and a coat check. The founders pitched it as<\/a> the \u201cfirst and most complete Masonic hotel and clubhouse in the world, open to every living Mason\u201d and invited President Calvin Coolidge to lay the cornerstone. (He couldn\u2019t make it<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n One of the Masonic symbols carved into the fa\u00e7ade.
\n Photo: Courtesy Larry Schier\n <\/p>\n

The building opened in 1927 and then the Great Depression hit, membership declined, and the club went into foreclosure. A buyer turned it into a hotel, but the space lost its spark and became an SRO, then a drug-rehab facility (an early location for the groundbreaking Phoenix House<\/a>) before a developer bought it in 1982. The conversion filled in a pool, tiled in delicate mosaic, with cement and put down cheap carpets and Formica, but by slapping drywall over the old building, it inadvertently preserved some of the detail Schier was able to pull out when he renovated in 2002. And on the fa\u00e7ade, stone carvings show Masonic symbols: images of the biblical King Solomon and his architect, the hourglass, the all-seeing eye, and the classic compass.<\/p>\n

People who find Schier\u2019s old website still write to him to offer up their ephemera, \u201cwhich sort of freaks me out,\u201d he said. But he has bought the building\u2019s bond issue, an original doorknob, even a Masonic ring \u2014 a collection he displays, museumlike, in the entry hall across from a drawing by a friend depicting King Solomon, whose story is at the center of Masonic lore. (In the dining area, there\u2019s another King Solomon, an oil painting Schier picked up in Greenwich Village.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A painting depicting King Solomon hangs in a dining area with 1840s Biedermeier chairs around a 1920s marble table and 1940s chandelier, both from Italy.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I moved in, I had no inkling,\u201d he said. \u201cWhoever thought I\u2019d become the king of the Level Club?\u201d But after 40 years in the same building and 25 selling its apartments, the title has crept up on him. Selling his home here is a terrifying idea, but Schier has a backup plan. Years ago, he bought a studio in the building and rented it out as an investment. He plans to keep it as a pied-\u00e0-terre, he said. \u201cI\u2019m not very good with change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price:<\/strong> $5.995 million ($7,145 in monthly common charges and taxes)<\/p>\n

Specs:<\/strong> Three bedrooms, four bathrooms<\/p>\n

Extras:<\/strong> Home office, media room (or the third bedroom), laundry room, dining room, two walk-in closets, storage unit on floor five<\/p>\n

15-minute walking radius:<\/strong> Lincoln Center, Riverside Park, Fairway<\/p>\n

Listed by: <\/strong>Larry Schier, Corcoran<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The entryway. A friend gave Schier the drawing of King Solomon, who figures in Masonic lore.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n On the left is a collection of objects related to the building, including the bond issue that allowed the Masons to buy up a row of brownstones and begin construction.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe apartment can feel like a gallery, perfect for a cocktail party,\u201d Schier said. He pulled up the wall-to-wall carpet and put down floors of Brazilian walnut. Carpeting by Stark up the steps matches the tone of the wood.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The lofted bedroom includes a nook that was once Schier\u2019s main office, built to hold an antique desk and a landline.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Behind that desk is the original primary suite with an en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet. The carpets are by Stark.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The transparent chairs are by Tom Dixon. The large painting behind them came from Scotland. \u201cI like to mix competing styles,\u201d said Schier. He took courses at FIT and had a knack for picking colors and fabrics in the family garment business.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Past the dining area is the rest of the former 5G apartment, with a wine cooler and custom storage built into a recessed area that was uncovered in the demolition. The window at the center looks onto a Juliet balcony that faces west toward the Hudson.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A lofted area in the former 5G apartment was turned into a home office that can make use of the view to the west.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A bold De Sede Skeleton executive chair sits at a built-in metal desk.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Glass tile in the former 5G apartment\u2019s primary bedroom gets light from an air shaft. The silver wallpaper adds drama and carves out space for a storage unit accessed from outside. Schier extended the Brazilian walnut from the floor to create a feature wall.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The original kitchen of 5F was around the same size as in this photo but was finished cheaply by the developer with Formica countertops. Schier discovered the ceiling had been dropped, and a renovation added custom cabinetry to the full height of the room. \u201cWhatever I did, I didn\u2019t skimp,\u201d he said.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Schier didn\u2019t skimp on bathrooms, either. There are four in the apartment, and each feels unique.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Screens allow anyone soaking in the tub to watch a show \u2014 or a Diana Ross video. \u201cIt really feels like such a sanctuary,\u201d Schier said.
\n Photo: Al Siedman\/Corcoran\n <\/p>\n

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