SNIFFEN COURT

YOU always want what you cannot have. NYC is very short on mewses and small dead ends lined by picturesque dwellings. I’d settle for a key to get in and walk around Sniffen Court, though I’ve been able to get shots like this through the gate as I did in April 2018.

Nestled in prosperous Murray Hill on East 36th Street between 3rd and Lexington is one of the few alleys of the midtown area. Sniffen Court was constructed in the 1860s and consists of ten handsome brick carriage houses protected behind a locked iron gate. According to tradition, the carriage houses were built by architect John Sniffen (though no existing documentation exists to prove it) in a Romanesque Revival theme and were originally used as stables until the 1920s, when they were converted into living spaces. The rear wall features plaques of horsemen created by artist Malvina Hoffman, who lived in Sniffen Court for over forty years. The court was also home to sculptor Harriet Whitney Frishmuth.

Sniffen Court used to be the home of The Sniffen Court Dramatic Society, an amateur theater group that performed plays in a theater located in the court.

Additionally, check out the cover of the Doors’ Strange Days. It was shot in Sniffen Court.

Composer Cole Porter once owned a residence at 2 Sniffen Court as well as the townhouse next door at 4 Sniffen Court in order to discreetly put up his boyfriend at the time, all while he was in residence at the Waldorf-Astoria. In the 1930s, author Pearl Buck resided in what had been Hoffman’s home. Also, legendary comedian and “World’s Foremost Authority” Professor Irwin Corey owned a home on Sniffen Court for many years. Since then, the street has played host to model Claudia Schiffer, Lenny Kravitz and, more recently, British talk show host Graham Norton. [wikipedia]

Sniffen Court was provided with a maroon Landmarks Historic Districts street sign some years ago, but it’a apparently a target for theft as the city hasn’t replaced it in recent years.

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12/26/24