Places
Within the Alienist books, many well-known places around New York are used as settings for the stories. Here you are able to find some detail on the places visited within the books.
Click the links below to navigate the places section of the site.
Maps | Houses & Offices | Other Locations
Houses & Offices
Dr Laszlo Kreizler's House (283 East Seventeenth Street)
Within the books, this is Dr Kreizler's residence and it acts as a setting for a lot of what happens in the stories. It is a brick and stone townhouse and is directly across the road from Stuyvesant Park. It has a small front yard enclosed by a short iron fence. Next door to the house is the Doctor's small carriage house. Much of the interior of the house is described as being elegant with a "collection of contemporary and classic art and splendid French furniture" (A 88). The furniture and fabrics that outfit the house appear to be primarily in colours of blue, green, and silver. For instance, covering stairs is a blue and green Persian carpet. More detailed descriptions of each room are included below.
Examination Room: This is described as a small room on the ground floor containing glass cases of medicine, nursing bottles and, it is assumed, other medical equipment. It is not used by the Doctor in either of the books suggesting that he may have only used it for consultation in the years before he opened the Institute.
Parlor: Contains a grand piano and a marble mantle piece. It has french doors leading out onto a balcony that overlooks Stuyvesant Park.
Study: The study is a dark-panelled room that is extremely messy most of the time. Piles of books cover the floor, tables, and shelves.
Master Bedroom: Contains a four-poster bed covered with a thin, deep blue spread. The bed has lots of soft goose-down pillows. On the divan, underneath the windows which overlook the park, sits a green-and-silver Chinese satin comforter.
Upstairs Bedrooms: Otherwise known as the servants' quarters, these rooms are plain in comparison to the rest of the house. They have blue-and-white striped wallpaper, simple yet comfortable furniture, and dormered windows.
Additionally, based upon the description provided in The Angel of Darkness, I have put together an example floor-plan (seen above) of how the house might be intended to be laid out. This floor-plan is based off a popular 1880s/90s townhouse plan which was included in Homes in City and Country1. Although it is likely that a townhouse such as 283 East Seventeenth Street would have had a more traditional 1860s layout originally1, it seems reasonable to assume that a buyer like Dr Kreizler would have hired an architect when such a house was purchased in the 1870s/80s. In the Doctor's case, this would have enabled the examination room to be added and the home's layout updated to comply with the latest New York building laws.
Investigation Headquarters (808 Broadway)
In The Alienist, Dr Kreizler purchases an apartment on the top floor of 808 Broadway to be the team's headquarters for the duration of the investigation (it later becomes Sara Howard's office for her private investigation service). Historically, the building, known as The Renwick, was built in the years 1887 and 1888 in a gothic style to be in-keeping with Grace Church next door to it.2 It is brick and stone with terra cotta ornament.2 Within the books, the interior of the team's apartments are described as follows.
The Alienist, 119-20:
I was lying on some sort of divan, which I would have dated as early nineteenth century. Its green and silver covering matched several chairs, as well as a sofa and love seat, that were nearby. On one long, inlaid mahagony dining table stood a silver candelabra, next to which was a Remington typewriter. This incongruity was echoed in the room's wall hangings: Across from my divan, an ostentationsly framed oil view of Florence hung next to an enormous map of Manhattan that was encrusted with several pins. The pins bore small red flags. On the opposite wall was a large chalkboard, notably blank, and beneath this black patch sat the most substantial of the five clerical desks, which together formed a ring at the outer perimeter of the room. Large fans hung from the ceiling, and two enormous Persian carpets, with elaborate designs against a deep green background, covered the center of the floor.
Within this main parlor and living area, there is an ornately carved billiard table and a baby grand piano not mentioned in the quote. The apartment also contains a kitchen.
John Moore's Residence (34 Gramercy Park)
Within The Angel of Darkness we discover that soon after the events of The Alienist, John's grandmother passed away. Rather than staying in her house at 19 Washington Square North, John moves into an apartment in 34 Gramercy Park due to competition over inheritance of her estate. Historically, this was the first co-operative luxury apartment building in Manhattan and was built in 1883.3 It is a large brownstone Victorian building and when it was built, its apartments were limited to three per floor.3 In total, the building contained 27 apartments, each containing between 7 and 11 rooms, including both a bathroom and kitchen.4 Within The Angel of Darkness, John occupies the apartments on the fifth floor that face the park on the building's north side. His apartment is described within the book as follows.
The Angel of Darkness, 21-2:
Mr. Moore had decorated his apartments with as much of his grandmother's furniture as his family would let him get away with, as well as with some fine English country pieces what Dr. Kreizler had helped him select. So the place had a kind of split character about it, feeling in some spots like an old lady's house and in others like a rugged bachelor flat. There were some seven rooms in all, arranged in a kind of crazy order that wouldn't have made much sense in a regular house.
Kreizler Institute for Children (185 – 187 East Broadway)
Within the books it is explained that Dr Kreizler founded his Institute in 1885 using his own money. It is here that he helps troubled children from all socio-economic backgrounds by taking them off the streets or out of abusive home environments and providing them with schooling and rehabilitation. In addition, the Doctor conducts a large amount of his developmental research at this location. The upkeep of the Institute is financed by the fees charged to wealthier parents in addition to the large income he receives as an expert legal witness.
Physically, the Institute is described as occupying two four-story red-brick buildings with black-trim. It is also said that the Doctor had their interiors remodelled to become one unit. The main entrance, fronted by black iron stairs, is located at Number 185 and opens onto the second floor. This floor contains a small vestibule, front hall, consulting room, examination room, and psychological laboratory. Detailed descriptions of these rooms are included below.
Vestibule and Front Hall: Two long low benches flank the walls of these rooms, providing seating for prospective children and their parents as they wait to consult with Dr Kreizler. The walls are painted white and have dark wood wainscoting.
Consulting Room: Contains an ornate secretary that is lighted by "a small Tiffany desk lamp of muted green and gold glass" (A 68). A small bookshelf sits near the secretary and contains book volumes that the Doctor uses to instruct parents on proper care of their children. The rest of the furnishings were specifically chosen not to be intimidating as this is the first room the children are exposed to at the Institute. The walls are decorated with paintings of animals and a variety of toys are also present. In addition to reassuring the children, Dr Kreizler uses them to examine "agility, reaction time, and emotional disposition" (A 68).
Examination Room: Attached to the consulting room, the examination room contains Dr Kreizler's medical instruments. It is here that he performs physical investigations if a case interests him. As the Doctor is only interested in taking on children who have mental or emotional disorders that are not secondary to physical abnormalities, these tests ensure that a child is suitable for enrolling at the Institute.
The other floors of the Institute contain dorms, school rooms, and an operating theatre. Specifically, the top floor contains the children's dorms while the third floor contains school rooms and recreational halls. The operating theatre is located on the ground floor and is used for the occasional post-mortem and brain dissection. This room can be accessed from a courtyard that is located behind the building. Within the books, the interior of the operating theatre is described as follows.
The Alienist, 72:
A dark, dank hallway led us to the operating theatre, a very long room that was kept dry and warm by a gas space heater that hissed in one corner. The walls were smooth and whitewashed, and white cabinets with glass doors ran along each wall, holding a collection of gruesome, glistening instruments. On white shelves above these were a collection of chilling models: realistically painted plaster casts of human and simian heads, with their skulls partly removed to reveal brain positioning and their faces still expressive of their death throes. Sharing the shelf space with these was a large collection of actual brains from a wide variety of creatures, housed in specimen jars full of formaldehyde. The remainder of the wall space was occupied by charts of human and animal nervous systems. In the center of the room were two steel operating tables, with channels for draining bodily fluids running down the center of their beds to the foot, where they emptied into steel receptacles on the floor.
Mrs Moore's Residence (19 Washington Square North)
Within The Alienist, John Moore lives with his grandmother at her house, 19 Washington Square North. Historically, this house is part of "the Row" of Greek Revival town houses which were established in the 1840s.5 Although these homes ceased to be the address of choice for high society following the Civil War, wealthy New Yorkers occupied the homes well into the 20th century.5 The famous author, Henry James, also immortalised the neighbourhood in Washington Square, a novel he wrote in 1881. Very little of 19 Washington Square North is described in detail within The Alienist, however John does describe eating breakfast in a "glass-enclosed nook" with a copper roof that overlooks his grandmother's rose garden in the rear yard.
Rupert Picton's Residence (Junction of Charlton & High Streets, Ballston Spa)
Within The Angel of Darkness, the investigative team stay with Rupert Picton, one of John Moore's friends. Located in Ballston Spa, his house was built by his father for his mother in the 1860s. It is in the Victorian Gothic style and has four turrets on each of its corners with a wide porch that wraps around the entire house. The front and rear gardens contain roses, ivy, and elm trees that have grown somewhat out of control. The interior is described within the books as follows.
The Angel of Darkness, 337:
The ground floor of Mr. Picton's house had a reception room what might've served as a convention hall. Stocked to overflowing with heavy, velvet-upholstered furniture that was centered around a carved stone fireplace you could've walked right into, it also contained the usual recreational items, like a piano and a big card table. At the center of the house was a staircase made out of heavy, polished oak, and then, mirroring the reception room on the other side of the stairs, there was an enormous dining room crammed full of chairs, sideboards, and a table what were all in the same style as the things in the living room. The bedrooms on the upper floors – located as Mr. Picton'd said, in the four corner turrets – were of similarly huge dimensions, each with its own big fireplace and most with their own baths.
The bathrooms, which are decorated with marble and tiles, are also described as being unusually large. Each of the characters chose their own bedroom. Miss Howard chose a room with an impressive view of the garden and stream, while the Isaacson brothers and Stevie all chose rooms on the third floor. It is unclear which rooms were chosen by Dr Kreizler, John, and Cyrus.
References
1. Sturgis, Russell. "The City House in the East and South." Homes in the City and Country. Ed. Sturgis, Russell, Mitchell, Donald G., Root, John W., Parsons, Samuel Jr., Price, Bruce, and Linn, W. A. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. 1-34.
2. NYCJPG, "The Renwick, 808 Broadway" 2003. Link.
3. New York Architecture Images, "34 Gramercy Park East" 9 Feb. 2008. Link.
4. Barr, Linda, "New York City's oldest co-op celebrates 120th anniversary - Profile of the Week: The Gramercy at 34 Gramercy Park", Real Estate Weekly 14 May 2003. Link.
5. New York Architecture Images, "19-26 Washington Square North" 9 Feb. 2008. Link.