NEW YORK—On a breezy day an American and an Irish flag fly side by side, billowing in front of a five-story limestone building on Fifth Avenue.
Between 80th and 81st streets, this city structure is across the street from both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park.
The American Irish Historical Society has called it home since 1940.
When the townhouse was first erected in 1900, similar buildings lined the block. From the 1920s on however, many original buildings were knocked down to make way for towering apartment blocks, two of which sandwich the historic building today.
Before the society obtained the building, it had changed ownership four times: the president of U.S. Steel was the fourth owner. After being forced out of his position because of a scandal, his son sold it to an association of Irish builders.
Rare books and artifacts abound inside, amongst them the first Irish translation of the Bible circa 17th century. Letters of prominent Irish figures can also be found, including those of the poet William Butler Yeats and Patrick Pearse, a central figure in the 1916 Irish Independence movement. The library alone has more than 50,000 volumes.
