House of the Redeemer

The House at 7 East 95th Street was built between 1914 and 1916 to serve as the town residence of Edith Shepard Fabbri, great granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, and her husband, Ernesto Fabbri. It was designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, an American architect and town planner trained at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. The interior decoration, however, was executed by Egisto Fabbri, Ernesto Fabbri’s brother, who incorporated the Fabbri collection of Italian Renaissance and Baroque furnishings and architectural fragments into his designs.


In 1949, inspired by a sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Austin Pardue on the necessity of silence and prayer in the spiritual life, Edith Fabbri founded House of the Redeemer. A new not-for-profit corporation by that name was formed to receive the gift of her house, which was for the use of retreats and to be a “place apart.” The Rt. Rev. Charles K. Gilbert, Bishop of New York, was the first president of the board of trustees. The House of the Redeemer was operated by the Sisters of St. Mary from 1949 until 1980, at which time the first residential Warden was appointed to run it. At the present time the House is run by special committees of the board and the spiritual care is provided by “priests in residence.”