The southeast corner of Third Avenue and Sixteenth Street, a plot of 100 by 103 feet, was part of an original Dutch land grant to Peter Stuyvesant in 1622. It was one of New York’s oldest real estate holdings, having been passed down by the Stuyvesant and Fish families for more than three centuries.

In 1928 Harris and Maurice Mandelbaum completed their purchase of the plot and announced plans to erect a 19-story elevator apartment house on the site. However, the property changed hands several times before construction began. In 1930 Abner Distillator purchased the property and filed plans for a twenty-story apartment house with stores and penthouses. The proposed structure was to contain suites of one, two and three rooms.

On August 27, 1930, plans were filed with the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings by yet another owner named 885 West End Avenue Realty Corporation of 1860 Broadway. The Architectural firm of Margon & Holder was hired to design the building and construction was completed in 1931. Also that year, Margon & Holder, in collaboration with Emery Roth, completed the 28-story El Dorado apartment towers located at 300 Central Park West.

In 1946 the property was sold to 200 East Sixteenth Street Realty Corporation who operated the building until its conversion to a co-op in 1987.