Dorothy Parker Society

Official Dorothy Parker Site Since 1998

Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Society
  • Tours
    • Dorothy Parker Upper West Side
    • Algonquin Round Table
    • The Guide
  • Homes
    • Los Angeles
  • Haunts
  • Gallery
    • Audio
  • Book Shop
    • Dorothy Parker Merchandise
    • Books by Parker
    • About Dorothy Parker
    • Algonquin Round Table
    • By Round Table Members
    • Collections
    • Plays & Study Guides
    • Audio Books
    • DVD
  • Contact
Menu

Pre-teen Home, 57 W. 68th St.

57 W. 68th Street
When young Dorothy Rothschild lived at 57 West 68th Street at the turn of the Century, her homelife was at its worst.

This is the second apartment in New York that young Dorothy Rothschild lived in as a girl. For most of her adult life, she resided close to her Upper West Side girlhood roots. It was only in the 1930s and later that she took apartments on the East Side.

Young Dorothy’s mother, Eliza, died when she was only a month away from turning five years old. That changed her life. Father Henry Rothschild moved the family from West 72nd Street to a limestone rowhouse at 57 W. 68th Street and he remarried, to Eleanor Francis Lewis. Young Dottie despised her.

Her rotten stepmother did not last long either. This is where Dorothy grew up, just a block away from Central Park, at the turn of the Century. Just ten years earlier the whole area had been sparsely populated, but the new rich transformed it into an upscale neighborhood.

This apartment is the scene where she told a childhood tale about civil rights in later years, part of the background that made her a lifelong supporter of human rights.

The house that Henry bought is a non-descript rowhouse. There isn’t a marker that Dottie once resided here. On the street are big brownstones, a synagogue, and on the corner of Central Park West and West 68th Street, Second Church of Christ Scientist, built in 1899, when Dorothy was 7 years old. The street is also the former home to James Dean, who moved to 19 West 68th Street, (fifth floor walkup) in the Spring of 1953.

It is a quiet residential block. On some days the street must seem like it did when Dorothy was a young girl, walking to school at the Blessed Sacrament Academy at 168-170 W. 79th Street. And Central Park is right across the street, where she probably took her dogs to play. When her stepmother Eleanor died in 1903, the family moved out.

This was probably the street of one of her bad childhood memories. Her older brother was walking down the street one day with a pal, and they passed Dorothy. The friend asked him, wasn’t that his little sister? He replied within earshot, “No” and they kept walking.

Dorothy Parker

Recent News

  • ‘News Item’ and ‘Résumé’ Enter Public Domain January 1 December 18, 2020
  • Gloria Steinem 1965 Interview with Dorothy Parker Found October 16, 2020
  • 1965 Newspaper Interview on Aging and Writing September 9, 2020
  • Homecoming: Dorothy Parker’s Ashes Buried in New York City September 7, 2020
  • Dorothy Parker Ashes Return to Hometown September 5, 2020
  • Apartment Building at Childhood Home Spot to Be Named for Dorothy Parker August 14, 2020
  • Bald Eagle Dorothy Parker Returns to Wild July 1, 2020
  • June 7 Toast and Tour for Dorothy Parker June 3, 2020
  • Listen to Radio Play by the Parker-Campbell Team May 28, 2020
  • Is This The Last Photo Taken of Dorothy Parker? May 11, 2020

Archives 1999-2020

Social

A Vicious Circle

  • Algonquin Hotel
  • Algonquin Round Table
  • Dorothy Parker on Facebook
  • Dorothy Parker Society Los Angeles
  • Dorothy Parker Society Seattle
  • Franklin P. Adams
  • George S. Kaufman
  • Heywood Broun
  • Robert Benchley Society

Friend Sites

  • Don Marquis
  • Ellen Meister
  • Fitzgerald Society
  • Forgotten NY
  • Great Gatsby Boat Tour
  • Literary Manhattan
  • Liza Donnelly
  • Nat Benchley
  • Natalie Ascencios
  • Ring Lardner
  • Tallulah Bankhead
© 2021 Dorothy Parker Society | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme