James Amster

James Amster (July 18, 1908 – June 11, 1986) was an interior decorator in New York City in the 1960s who created Amster Yard, a New York City designated landmark.

Early life Amster was born on July 18, 1908, in Lynn, Massachusetts, and grew up in Boston, in a house with a yard, probably the reason why he decided to restore Amster Yard in Manhattan.

Amster attended the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he studied sculpture and painting. was a friend of Amster from the Turtle Bay Association, who was killed in 1972; his murderer was never found.

Amster Yard

In 1944, Amster restored what is now known as Amster Yard at 211 1/2 East 49th Street. The complex of five buildings, set around a courtyard, was originally a 19th-century boarding house, a station of the Boston Post Road and a commercial yard, but it was abandoned when Amster purchased it. Amster renovated the complex thanks to architect Ted Sandier and artist Harold Sterner, creating an inner yard connecting several apartments/studios which he rented to many key figures in the design field.

One of the apartments was Amster's home, which he decorated with Biedermeier furniture. During the party hosted by Amster to inaugurate the Yard, Elsie de Wolfe, mentor to Amster, suggested that he put a mirror at one end of the Yard to give the impression that the Yard was bigger. Amster framed the mirror inside an arch, and the mirror remained in place in the yard through the 21st century.

Personal life

James Amster was in a long-lasting relationship with Robert K. Moyer. Concerning the Amster-Moyer relationship, journalist and friend Mike Wallace described them in 1995 as "a wonderful old married couple" and "both people that [sic] I admired".

Amster was also friends with Constance Spry, British educator and florist, and Syrie Maugham, leading British interior decorator of the 1920s and 1930s and wife to W. Somerset Maugham.

Amster died of leukemia on June 11, 1986. Moyer continued to live at Amster Yard until 1992, when he was the last tenant to move out. Amster Yard was acquired in 1999 and renovated by the Instituto Cervantes, New York, and since 2002, the Instituto allows people to use the yard as a pocket park.