Mad Men Tour of Midtown Manhattan

9. Villard Houses

New York, NY

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Appropriately enough, during the first three seasons of "Mad Men," the well-established advertising firm of Sterling Cooper was on Madison Avenue in Midtown. Just where it was on Madison Avenue was not something the characters discussed often. "Mad Men" is a rare television show which requires not only concentration but a good degree of thought to process what happens in an episode. Most "Mad Men" fans are happy just analyzing the complex layers of subtext beneath the stories, but some are also determined to place the series in a real, historical context. While later seasons of "Mad Men" take place in a real life building in Rockefeller Center, fans of historical context will be either pleased or, more likely, frustrated to note that the address of the original Sterling Cooper building does not actually exist. The address, 405 Madison Avenue, does not officially exist. However, there are several shots during the first three seasons that show the unmistakable spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral visible through Roger Sterling's office window. The back of the cathedral, which you can see on the west side of Madison Avenue, directly across from the Villard Houses, appears to be directly across the street from the Sterling Cooper offices in "Mad Men." This would put the fictional offices of the Madison Avenue ad firm right here, on the east side of Madison Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets, where the Villard Houses stand. While the 405 address would be a bit south of here, it is plausible that the "Mad Men" production team found the famed Gothic cathedral to be a suitably dramatic backdrop. Like St. Patrick's, the Villard Houses, also known as the Villard Mansion, dominated the surrounding blocks in the 19th century, but are now dwarfed by the skyscrapers and high-rise office buildings in the area. Stanford White, the same architect who designed the old Penn Station and the main branch of the New York Public Library, designed this residential complex for Northern Pacific Railroad president Henry Villard. Completed in 1884, the Villard Houses have been a designated historical landmark since 1968. The building is now incorporated into the New York Palace Hotel, which includes the 55 story building visible behind the original Villard Houses. Part of the original Villard Mansion is reserved as rentable event space. [Photo credit: Noah Axelrod]