A wealthy financier is transforming a landmark Carnegie Hill museum back into the grand residence it was during the Gilded Age.
Bruce Kovner, the principal of the Caxton Group, a Wall Street hedge fund, will begin interior renovations on one of the last great mansions built on Fifth Avenue once the International Center of Photography vacates the premises by next spring.
Kovner bought the six-floor, 30-room structure at 1130 Fifth Ave. (at 94th Street) last year for $17.5 million.
Part of the sales agreement was to give ICP – which had Jackie Onassis as a supporter – sufficient time to settle into its new quarters in Midtown.
The imposing red brick Federal-style manor house was constructed between 1913 and 1915 by Willard D. Straight – a news correspondent-turned-diplomat – after he married the fabulously wealthy society dame Dorothy Whitney in 1911. Dorothy was the daughter of legendary Wall Street financier William C. Whitney and cousin to the Vanderbilt family.
Unfortunately, Straight didn’t have much time to enjoy the house – or his wife’s dough. He was killed in 1918 while serving overseas as a Major in the American Expeditionary forces during World War I.
Mrs. Straight managed to hang in for a couple more wars and eventually endowed to premises to the National Audubon society in 1952.
The property was landmarked in 1968 and then sold to the ICP for $750,000 in 1974.
Since the property hasn’t housed a person for almost half-a-century, Mr. Kovner, who did not return calls, is going to have to spend big bucks (without disturbing the landmarked exterior) to give the place those homey touches.
* Please send e-mail tobkeil@nypost.com