Amster Yard
Amster Yard is a small enclave in the East Midtown and Turtle Bay neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, consisting of a courtyard and a group of five surrounding structures. The L-shaped yard, created by the artist James Amster between 1944 and 1946, is in the middle of the block bounded clockwise from south by 49th Street, Third Avenue, 50th Street, and Second Avenue. The five buildings were remodeled by Ted Sandler and Harold Sterner. Since 1999, the yard and its surrounding structures have been owned by the Instituto Cervantes New York, a non-profit organization created by the Spanish government.
The entrance to the yard is underneath two buildings on 49th Street. Amster created the yard with plantings, a walkway, and a courtyard surrounded by multiple 19th-century low-rise buildings. There were commercial shops on the ground level and six apartments above. The three structures in the rear of the courtyard are replicas of the original structures. Beneath the yard itself are numerous spaces for the Instituto Cervantes, including an auditorium, library, and gallery.
The building was originally a 19th-century boarding house, a station of the Boston Post Road and a commercial yard, but was abandoned by the time Amster bought it in 1944. Amster Yard became a popular meeting place within the Turtle Bay community in the decades after its completion. In 1966, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the yard as a city landmark. Amster died in 1986, but his longtime partner Robert K. Moyer continued to live there until 1992, when he was the last residential tenant to move out. Amster Yard was acquired in 1999 by the Instituto Cervantes, which installed new facilities under the original yard and replaced several structures in the rear with replicas.