Rosario Candela's 1926 607 West End Avenue

 

image via streeteasy.com

Real estate developer Bernard Wilson commissioned the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson in 1887 to design a row of ten upscale houses at 601 through 619 West End Avenue between 89th and 90th Street.  The handsome, Renaissance Revival-style dwellings would become home to well-to-do families for decades.  But the post-World War I years saw nearly all the opulent private residences that lined the thoroughfare being replaced by apartment buildings.  

In 1925, the newly-formed 607 West End Avenue Corporation purchased and demolished the houses at 607 through 613 West End Avenue and hired architect Rosario Candela, known for his high-end apartment buildings, to design a replacement structure.  Plans were filed on August 12, 1925 and construction was completed in 1926.

The 16-story edifice cost $500,000 (about $8.9 million in 2026 terms) to construct.  Candela's subdued neo-Renaissance design included a two-story stone base.  Its centered entrance was flanked with highly unusual, double-height rusticated Corinthian pilasters that upheld a broken pediment that interrupted the second floor cornice.  An intricately carved,  Renaissance-inspired spandrel panel sat above the doorway.  The nearly unadorned Flemish bond brick midsection included stone balconies at the fourth floor.

The rusticated pilasters are highly unusual, if not unique.

The building opened in May 1926.  Describing an 11th floor suite as "an ideal apartment in a just completed house," an advertisement in the New York Evening Post on September 4 that year touted:

6 rooms, 2 baths, built-in shower, electric refrigeration, kitchen and pantry walls tiled, floor covered in inlaid rubber tiling, cedar and numerous other closets; other attractive features.

Society columns reported on the residents' marriages, births, engagements, travels and entertainments.  Such was the case on December 12, 1926 when the engagement of Harry Halbren to Eleanor Finn was announced.  Harry was the son of Jacob Halbren and the two were partners in the fixture company Jacob Halbren & Son.  Harry and Eleanor were married in her parents' home at 838 West End Avenue on January 11, 1927.

Jacob Halbren had six children with his late wife, Rosie.  When the family moved into 607 West End Avenue, he and his second wife, Pauline, had recently married.  Also living with them was at least one of Jacob's unmarried daughters, Gertrude.

On January 7, 1928, Jacob Halbren died in the Post-Graduate Hospital at the age of 63.  He left an estate of $250,000 (about $4.5 million today).  His will vividly disclosed tensions within the household.  On February 7, The New York Times titled an article, "Disappointed Husband Cut Off Wife In Will," and reported, "Because his recent marriage to her had not been 'productive of the happiness' he had 'anticipated,' Jacob Halbren, a retired businessman...cut off his second wife, Pauline Halbren."  The estate was divided among his six children with Pauline receiving nothing.

Gertrude Halbren remained in the apartment, presumably with her step-mother, for another year.  On June 9, 1929, The New York Times reported on her engagement to James Deyong "of London, England."

In the meantime, the William H. Rankin family were conspicuous initial residents.  Born in New Albany, Indiana in 1878, William brought his family to New York City in 1921 and opened an advertising agency, William H. Rankin Company.  It would eventually have offices in Chicago and London.

Rankin and his wife, the former Roberta Risk, had two daughters, Frances and Mary, and three sons, William Jr., Robert and Charles.

On October 1, 1927, the New York Evening Post reported that Frances H. Rankin had sailed for Europe that morning on the Homeric.  "She will go to Versailles, France, where she will attend the Finch School during the coming year," it said.  Young unmarried women did not travel unescorted and the article noted, "Miss Rankin will make the trip with Mrs. Horace Stilwell and Mr. and Mrs. Earl Stewart."

Interestingly, Frances remained abroad for the holidays.  On December 20, 1927, The New York Sun reported, "Mr. and Mrs. William H. Rankin and their three sons of 607 West End avenue sailed on Saturday on the Iroquois to pass the Christmas and New Year holidays in Miami, Palm Beach and Hollywood."

On July 26, 1929, The Christian Science Monitor ran a full-page article on "skyscape gardening."  It revealed to non-New Yorkers that "flowers and shrubs abound atop Manhattan apartments."  The article noted, "One of the finest terrace gardens in New York is the home of William L. Goodwin, head of Goodwin, Morton & Bradian, marketing counselors."

The Goodwins' 16-floor apartment had "a broad terrace on two sides of the building."  Comparing their garden as a "Babylonian King's terraces," the article said in part:

Along the outside edge of the setback a row of leafy shrubs and dwarf evergreen trees forms a pleasing border, the fresh green of which serves as a background for a generous sprinkling of Privet and Vincas, or red geraniums and purple and white petunias, of yellow and purple and pink hollyhocks.  On the inside--against the building--are many more varieties of green plants and flowers, morning glories, phlox, clematis and even sunflowers.

Living here at the time was the Simon Liebovitz family.  Born in Russia in 1854, Simon came to America as a boy "landing at the Battery virtually penniless," according to The New York Times.  He and his wife, Fannie, founded the Liebovitz Shirt Manufacturing Company in 1877.  The couple had six sons and a daughter.

The couple's small shirt company grew and by the time they moved into 607 West End Avenue it employed "several thousand persons and had factories in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee and Maryland," according to The New York Times on October 25, 1930.  

After the concern became self-sufficient, Fannie stepped away from the active operation and devoted herself to charitable and civic works.  She joined the Ladies Fuel and Aid Society and for years was president of the Reda Liebovitz Welfare League and the Regina Rose Aid Society.  The Liebovitz family were among the founders of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism.

Simon Liebovitz died in the apartment on October 24, 1930.  At the time of his death, three of his sons, Abraham, Harry and Ephraim were associated with the family business.  Fannie continued as its treasurer and a director.  Meyer Liebovitz still lived in the 607 West End Avenue apartment with his mother.  He was president of The John Forsythe Company, Inc., a men's and women's apparel firm.

Dr. Joseph Edwin Conroy and his wife, the former Ethel Palardy, were initial residents.  The couple had two children and living with them was Joseph's widowed mother, Winifred N. Moylan Conroy.

Conroy graduated from Fordham University in 1918 and served in the Navy in World War I.  He opened his medical office in 1920 specializing in cardiology, and was additionally on the staffs of Fordham and St. Elizabeth Hospitals.

Conroy's father, Edward, died around 1913.  Winifred Conroy was highly involved in civic affairs.  The honorary president of the Model Civic Club, she was active in the Federation of Women's Clubs and was chairman of that group's motion picture committee.  On June 19, 1933, Winifred Conroy visited her daughter and son-in-law in Brooklyn.  While there, she suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 62 years old.  Her funeral was held in the apartment here on June 13.

On March 9, 1939, The Sun reported that Attorney-General John J. Bennett Jr. was "making arrangements for his first real vacation since the world war."  The article said he would sail on the Transylvania for a 12-day cruise in the West Indies.  Among the close friends accompanying him, said the article were Dr. Joseph E. Conroy and his daughter, Joan.

At the time of the Conroys' vacation, a six-room apartment rented for $1,750 a year, and an eight-room suite for $2,400.  The more expensive rent would translate to about $3,250 per month today.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the Conroys' neighbors in the building was Ira S. Atkins, vice president of the Sterling National Bank and Trust Company; and real estate dealer and developer Isidor Williams and his wife, Lillian.

Born in 1896, Williams was president of the Sconat Realty Corporation and Williams Homes.  His firm erected several apartment buildings in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.  Among those was Queensbury Hall on Queens Boulevard.

Williams was driving along Grand Central Parkway in Queens on the night of October 28, 1948 with Lillian in the passenger seat when he suffered a heart attack.  The New York Times reported that Lillian "took the wheel and drove to City Hospital, where Mr. Williams was pronounced dead."

Harry Colton, a lingerie salesman, lived here at midcentury.  On the night of February 26, 1952, his body was found in a washroom on the sixth floor of the Empire State Building.  The New York Post reported, "There was a gunshot wound in his right temple.  A gun was on the floor near the body."  Police listed his death as suicide.

The Conroys were still living here at the time.  In December 1953, Dr. Joseph Edwin Conroy became ill and he died in St. Clare's Hospital on March 23, 1954.  

image via streeteasy.com

Rosario Candela's dignified design remains as stylish as it was 100 years ago when the first residents moved in.

many thanks to Dr. Sarah Stemp for requesting this post

The Lost Hotel Diplomat - 108-116 West 43rd Street

photograph by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the New York Public Library

A social club for actors, the Jolly Club, was formed in 1867 to evade laws against the sale of alcohol on Sundays.  It eventually morphed into a fraternal order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE), that focused on philanthropy, social service and patriotic causes.  By the early years of the 20th century, the Elks Club had become one of America's largest fraternal groups and it increasingly concentrated on veterans, youth, and civic programs.

Throughout the United States, the New York Lodge No. 1 was known as the Mother Lodge.  On July 8, 1911, The New York Times reported that its newly erected home at 108-116 West 43rd Street had opened.  "It is a twelve-story steel frame fireproof structure...with a roof garden and two basements," said the article.  Designed by James Riley Gordon, the Renaissance Revival-style structure was shaped as a T and cost $1.25 million to build and furnish (about $42.6 million in 2026).  The tripartite design of the 43rd Street elevation included a three-story limestone base.  Gordon designed it as a rusticated arcade that supported a double-height, paired Doric colonnade.

The building was designed as a T, with a relatively shallow front section.  photo by Irving Underhill, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The eight-story, brick-faced midsection was adorned only by two stone faux balconies.  The top two floors were faced in stone, their paired, engaged Corinthian columns complementing and balancing those below.

The New York Times described the cavernous Lodge Room as, "87 feet by 93 feet, the walls rising to a height of 32 feet," adding, "There are two tiers of boxes, twenty-eight boxes in each, with a promenade encircling each tier for use when the room is used for balls or banquets."

James Riley Gordon's office released a watercolor rendering of the Lodge Room.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The lower floors included "lounging rooms, writing rooms, a handsome grill room and restaurant, billiard room, and spacious bowling alleys in the basement," said the article.  On the roof were a solarium and roof garden.  

The Hampton Magazine explained, "This completely appointed building is the headquarters for 2,800 members of the original lodge and for visiting Elks from all over the United States."  The 216 "outside sleeping rooms" on the upper floors cost visiting members $1.50 a day, with the 24 suites renting for double that amount.  (Rent for a suite for the night would equal $100 today.)

The Columbian, July 1910 (copyright expired)

The clubhouse was not only the venue of meetings, benefits, large dinners, and dances; it was often the scene of members' funerals.  On April 30, 1915, for example, the Independent Republican reported, "Nearly 1,500 members of the Elks and St. Cecile Lodge of Masons attended the funeral of John Bunny in the Elks' clubhouse, 108 West Forty-third Street, Wednesday night," and the following year, on March 3, 1915, The New York Times reported on the funeral of John J. Brogan, which was held in the Lodge Room.

The Elks' focus on patriotism was reflected in a dinner on the roof garden on the night of June 30, 1915.  Eleven days earlier, the battleship USS Arizona was launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yards.  The impressive ceremonies included the battleships Wyoming, Maine, and Cumberland.  The Elks hosted "twelve young officers of the battleships," said the article.

Every year the Lodge Room rang with the laughter and squeals of children.  On Christmas Eve 1917, The New York Times reported on the 2,500 needy children and 500 indigent families who gathered around the massive Christmas tree and enjoyed "entertainment and presentation of gifts."  The event had ballooned by Christmas 1919, when the newspaper reported, "Seven thousand children attended the fifth annual Christmas celebration."  The children received "candies, fruits, sweaters, stockings, caps and toys," while 600 needy families were given baskets containing, "two chickens, cranberries, potatoes, lettuce, bread and groceries."

The Elks also hosted Thanksgiving dinners for hundreds.  Theirs, at least in 1923, was somewhat unexpected.  The New York Times reported on November 29, "A 'pigs' knuckle and sauerkraut' dinner, followed by a dance, was held last night by New York Lodge 1."

Less welcomed press came in October 1925 when Federal agents seized nine barrels of beer from the barroom.  On November 16, the bar room and the grill were padlocked for a period of six months.  The restaurant was allowed to operate during the decree.

It might have been the onslaught of the Great Depression that strained the Elks' finances.  On May 8, 1930, The New York Times reported that the lodge had leased the fourth to twelfth floors "to a private corporation for the operation of the hotel."  The attempt did not succeed.  

On April 12, 1934, the property was sold in foreclosure for $600,000 (the only bid offered, it equaled $14 million today).  Less than a month later, on May 5, the building opened as the Hotel Delano, operated by the Radio City Hotel Corporation.

The Hotel Delano accepted both transient and permanent residents.  Among the latter was actress Agnes Tibbetts.  For years she and her sister performed in vaudeville as the Neilson Sisters.  She had appeared on Broadway in Mae West's play Diamond Lil and recently opened in The Jayhawker with Fred Stone.  In June 1936 she was in rehearsals for Crime, a production of the WPA Theatre Project.  She would not see opening night.  The 60-year-old suffered a fatal heart attack in her rooms on June 21.

The Hotel Delano was short lived.  The following month, the Drier Hotel Organization leased the building and renamed it the Center Hotel.  It continued to accept both transient and permanent residents.

A colorful resident was Simon Lake, described by The New York Times as a "veteran submarine enthusiast."  He was obsessed with discovering the lost H.M.S. Hussar, a British frigate that sank in the East River in 1780.  It reportedly went down with as much as $40.7 million in gold (by 2026 conversions).  On September 25, 1936, he held a news conference in his hotel room.  He told reporters that he had notified the Treasury Department that he had "discovered a hulk in the East River" that he was confident was the Hussar.  The 70-year-old explained, "My probing leads me to believe the Hussar could very well be raised for exhibition at the World's Fair.  I hope to begin work under the supervision of the Coast Guard within a month."  (The H.M.S. Hussar remains undiscovered.)

Reporters were back at Simon Lake's room the following year.  He "declared that he had perfected plans for cargo-carrying submarines and that he would make these plans available to the United States Government in the event of a war," reported The New York Times.  "So far, I have kept plans for these undersea cargo ships to myself, because of their tremendous value to foreign powers during wartime.  But if we get mixed up in another conflict, I shall certainly give my ideas to the Government," he said.

Lake had good reason to suspect "another conflict."  The hotel's ballroom (formerly the Lodge Room) was the scene of a mass meeting of the Greater New York Retail Furnishings and Dry Goods Association on October 4, 1936.  It reflected the current rising global tensions.  The members voted "to support the anti-German boycott" and to "discontinue at once any and all relations with any importing or wholesale house that sells German goods anywhere in this country and/or uses the services of Nazi-controlled vessels."

The ballroom was increasingly being rented for political assemblies.  Two months later, on December 18, 1936, 2,000 people filled the room for a three-hour meeting "to urge the right of a Mexican asylum for Trotsky, exiled Russian leader," reported The New York Times.

The first day of the convention of the International Ladies Handbag, Pocketbook and Novelty Workers Union opened on May 7, 1938 in the ballroom.  It started off badly.  At 10:20 that morning, a "free-for-all fight," as described by The New York Times, took place.  Of the more than 100 persons involved, four were injured and one hospitalized.

In the meantime, theatrical figures continued to live here.  Joseph Butterly, whose stage name was Joseph Allenton, lived here at the time.  Born in 1889, he had appeared on Broadway in You Can't Take It With You, The Pure in Heart, and Ladies Don't Lie, among other plays.

Retired actress Ella Willard was the widow of character actor Charles Willard.  She made her debut in Hazel Kirke in 1885 and would play with Eddy Foy in That Casey Girl, with Dustin Farnum in The White Slave, and in The Virginian.  

By the time Ella Willard died at the age of 83 on January 13, 1945, the Hotel Central had become the Hotel Diplomat.  The management staged dances in the Roof Garden during the summer months, and the ballroom continued to be leased for political and labor meetings.  An announcement in the Daily World on February 13, 1949 was titled, "Call to a City-Wide Mass Conference for a Democratic Jury System."  Nearly two decades later, on February 25, 1964, an announcement in the same newspaper was titled, "Protest Nazi War Criminals' Presence in USA."

On September 25, 1961, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King addressed the Drug and Hospital Employees Union here.  He announced a "campaign to double the number of Negro voters in the South," according to The New York Times.  

Engineering Review, February 1912 (copyright expired)

Similar assemblies continued here.  On May 26, 1968, the Daily World reported that actor and activist Ossie Davis would deliver the keynote address at the "Founding Convention of the Freedom and Peace Party," here.

The Hotel Diplomat was acquired by the Durst Organization in 1974 and by the 1980s it had degraded to a SRO hotel.  In 1987 the tenants were "generally the elderly and poor," according to The New York Times journalist Christopher Gray on December 13, that year.  At the time of his article, the Durst Organization was preparing to "buy out about 50 S.R.O. tenants" in order to demolish the structure and redevelop the site.

(postcard from the author's collection)

It was an arduous process.  It would not be until November 7, 1993 that architectural journalist David Dunlap reported, "It has been nearly four years since the owners, the Durst Organization, filed a demolition application for the decrepit single-room-occupancy hotel at 108 West 43d Street."  But finally, he wrote, the once proud building was "clad in a spindly web of scaffolding that heralds its imminent demise."

The handsome building with its vibrant history was demolished in 1994.

many thanks to architect Sean Weine for prompting this post

The 1904 Van Cordlandt - 1240 Park Avenue

 

photo by Deansfa

In the late 19th century, the soot-belching locomotives that ran down the middle of Park Avenue made the thoroughfare unappealing.  But with the trains converted to electricity, magnificent residences and upscale apartment buildings began appearing along the avenue.   In 1903, William F. Rohrig broke ground for a six-story apartment building, The Van Cortlandt, at the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 96th Street.  Designed by George F. Pelham, it was completed the following year at a cost of $195,000, or about $7 million in 2026.

Although The Van Cordlandt turned its shoulder to the busy avenue, its entrance on East 96th Street took the more enviable address of 1240 Park Avenue.  Pelham's tripartite Renaissance Revival design included a rusticated limestone base and an off-set entrance portico.  Its paired, polished granite Scamozzi columns upheld a substantial entablature that announced the building's name. It was crowned by a stone balustrade.

image via streeteasy.com

The brick-faced, four-story midsection was trimmed in limestone.  The Renaissance motif was carried out with arched and triangular pediments, occasional cornucopia-framed windows, and faux balconies.  Pelham emphasized horizontality at the top section with two running bandcourses.  A distinguished stone balustrade ran along the bracketed cornice.

The areaway was protected by high, wrought iron fencing.  The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1904 (copyright expired)

The Apartment Houses of the Metropolis described:

The suites are of seven, eight and nine rooms with two baths.  Parlors and libraries are finished in mahogany, whilst the dining-rooms are in unique quartered oak, with a high wainscoting and Dutch plate shelving.  The ceilings have oak beams.

There were four apartments per floor, the rents for which ranged from $1,050 to $1,400 per year--or $3,150 to $4,200 per month today.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1904 (copyright expired)

The Van Cordlandt filled with well-to-do residents.  Among them was Mrs. Mollie Anderson who became entangled in a debacle worthy of a silent film comedy on the afternoon of December 8, 1913.  That day the city experienced a gale with 88-mile-per-hour winds.  The following day, The New York Times reported, "Many persons were injured, much damage was done to property."  Mollie Anderson was unfortunate enough to have had ventured out.

She was walking along West End Avenue between 70th and 71st Street when, according to The New York Times, "she had occasion to open her handbag."  A gust of wind blew $50 in small bills into the air.  (The amount would translate to more than $1,600 today.)  As Mollie ran to gather up the bills, two rings--one containing five diamonds and the other a wedding ring--tumbled out of her bag "and were carried along by the wind," said the article.

Her increasingly panicked scrambling made the situation worse.  Two bank books fell out of her purse and were blown away.  Mollie's cries attracted a crowd as well as Patrolman Moskowitz.  People ran through the windstorm snatching at bills.  Mollie Anderson's struggle did not end well.  The New York Times reported, "The patrolman found only $17 of the $50 lost.  The bank books were found by a boy, but the rings, if found, were not returned."

Among the socially visible couples in The Van Cortlandt during the Depression years were Dr. William Wallace Whitelock and his wife, the former Baroness Mary von Stockhausen of Berlin.  The couple had one son, Otto von Stockhausen Whitelock.  Their country house, Tre Terrazzi, was in Pelham Manor, New York

An educator and author, Whitelock was born in Baltimore in 1870 and traced his ancestry to Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, the 17th century Governor of Windsor Castle, and to Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Having received his Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1893, he worked for The New York Times, interviewing celebrated figures like Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, George Moore, Rudyard Kipling, and Zola.  Starting in 1915, he was a contributor to the weekly humor magazine Life.  Among his several books were the  1903 The Literary Guillotine, the 1907 Foregone Verses, and a novel, When Kings Go Forth To Battle, published in 1907.

Born Baroness Mary Louise von Stockhausen in London, Mary Whitelock was educated in England, France and Germany.  She was presented at the Bavarian Court, the Austrian Court and the Court of St. James at the turn of the century, and in 1905 was given a private audience by Pope Pius X.

Admired by her beauty, she was a favorite model for prominent artists, and at one point a portrait of her by Stroese was placed on exhibition in the Crystal Palace.  Additionally, she was an accomplished singer and debuted in Paris with the Concerts Lamoureux and was later offered a contract with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

As a young woman, Mary Louise translated English works into German and French.  It was during that time that she met William Whitelock and they were married in London in 1901.

The Whitelocks' entertaining was widely followed by the society columns.  On December 31, 1937, for instance, The New York Sun reported that the couple "have returned to their residence at 1240 Park avenue, and will entertain at a reception on Sunday."  Among the guests that afternoon was Mary Dimmick Harrison, the former First Lady.  

Mary Harrison was a close friend of the Whitelocks.  The following year, on April 25, 1938, The Sun reported, "Dr. and Mrs. William Wallace Whitelock gave a dinner last night at their home, 1240 Park avenue, in honor of Mrs. Benjamin Harrison."

Also socially visible were Colonel George Chase Lewis and his wife, the former Louise Manning.  The couple had two daughters, Flora Louise and Virginia.  On December 29, 1938, The New York Times reported that the Lewises "gave a tea dance yesterday at the Officers Club on Governors Island.  The event served as a coming-out party for Miss Virginia J. Lewis."  The article mentioned, "Her sister, Miss Flora Louise Lewis, made her debut in the same setting several seasons ago."

At the time of her debut, Virginia Lewis was a freshman at Bryn Mawr College.  Possibly inspired by her father's military career, as war spread across Europe, she turned her attention to America's defense.  On June 27, 1940, The New York Times reported on the swearing in "of three volunteers into the first New York rifle squad of the America First Assembly of Women."  Among the volunteers was Virginia Lewis.  She and the other two girls had trained for six months.

A fascinating resident at the time was Caroline Sanders Truax, the widow of former New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles H. Truax, who died in 1910.  Caroline was one of the first women admitted to the New York State bar.  Born in Cincinnati, she was a graduate of the New York University Law School.  She practiced law briefly, turning her attention to conditions in what was then termed insane asylums.  The New York Times remarked that she "did much to better the conditions of inmates, making a study of American, English and Oriental asylums."

Like Mary Louise Whitelock, Caroline Sanders was a beauty in her youth.  She married Charles Truax in 1896 and on a tour of Europe (possibly their honeymoon), they visited the studio of French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme.  It resulted in Caroline's posing for the artist.  The portrait, with Caroline depicted as Sappho, a Grecian poet, was well received and when it arrived in America, was exhibited several times.

Gérôme's portrait of Caroline Sanders Traux hung in the Van Cordlandt apartment.  from the collection of Bowdoin University.

In the meantime, the Whitelocks continued to host glittering dinner parties and receptions.  On May 2, 1938, The New York Post reported on their dinner party in honor of composer Aurelio Giorni.  There were 22 "distinguished" guests, including pianist George Copeland.  This dinner party would stand out.

During a gathering in the apartment earlier that year, Copeland boasted that "his long residence in Spain and his experience with Spanish herbs and spices qualified him to rank among the best spaghetti cooks in New York."  The New York Post reported, "Mrs. Whitelock immediately challenged his contention on the ground that her many years of residence in Italy gave her a claim to the title."  

And so, this dinner party included a contest.  Copeland prepared his spaghetti and Mary Louise hers.  The article explained:

The spaghetti was brought in by two white-capped chefs, bearing two silver platters, one containing Mr. Copeland's effort, and the other Mrs. Whitelock's.  Each guest member of the jury received a portion from each salver, and was required to determine which he or she preferred.  They were given through the salad and desert courses to record their votes.

The article concluded, "needless to say the hostess saw to it that Mr. Copeland won."

In 1939, Dr. William Wallace Whitelock was struck "by a drunken vagrant on the street," according to The New York Times.  He never fully recovered from his injuries and the following year, on January 28, 1940, died in the couple's Van Corlandt apartment at the age of 70.  

The New York Times reported on June 26, 1949, "Mrs. William Wallace Whitelock, the former Baroness Mary Louise von Stockhausen, who was a prominent figure in early twentieth century literary, artistic and musical circles, died on Friday at Tre Terrazzi...after an illness of several months."

An intricate marble mosaic "carpet" floor, a stone fireplace, Caen stone walls, and a beamed ceiling gave the Van Cordlandt's lobby a refined air.  image via streeteasy.com

Living here in the early 1960s were William L. Brett and his wife.  Born in Przemysl, Poland in 1913, he was a naturalized American.  The European representative of the George E. Failing Company (a division of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company), he made routine business trips to Poland.

On February 9, 1962, he checked out of his Warsaw hotel to make a trip to Katowice, Poland.  After she heard nothing from him for a week, Mrs. Brett contacted the United States Embassy.  What they discovered was alarming.  The New York Times reported that he "has been held in [a] Warsaw jail for nearly three weeks on a charge of an illegal currency transaction."  It is unclear what the infraction was, but consul A. Gregory Nowakoski Jr., who visited him in the prison, said he "appeared to be in good health."

Among the Bretts' neighbors in the building were George A. Rosette, a former journalist and advertising executive, and his composer wife, the former Marion Savage.  After becoming a reporter for The Baltimore Sun in 1912, George opened an advertising agency the following year.  In 1925 the couple moved to New York and he began writing a column in The New York Daily Mirror, "Muse in Manhattan."  In 1940 he established the Rosette Advertising Agency and in 1946 began producing phonograph records as president of Corona Records, Inc.  The New York Times noted that Marion's songs were recorded by Corona Records.

Unfortunately, the distinguished rooftop balustrade has been removed.  But other than zig-zagging fire escapes that detract from George F. Pelham's design and the need for a gentle cleaning, The Van Cortlandt looks very much as it did in 1904 when it opened.

Sylvan Bien's 1939 150 West 21st Street

 

Born in Austria, architect Sylvan Bien emigrated to San Francisco to work on the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.  He relocated to New York City in 1919.  By the 1930s he was designing mostly apartment buildings and hotels.  As the Great Depression wound down, in 1938 Bien was hired by East Lane Inc. to design an apartment building at 150 through 158 West 21st Street, just east of Seventh Avenue.

Construction was completed the following year at a cost of $140,000 (about $3 million in 2026).  Bien executed his Art Moderne design almost entirely through contrasting brick and cast stone.  The centered entrance below a bronze grill was recessed within a dramatic polished black stone frame.  Matching bronze grills covered the windows on either side of the entrance.  Cast stone piers with reeded bands rose to create a frieze atop a reeded bandcourse.

The brickwork of the first floor was laid in a basketweave pattern.  Geometric bands of salmon-colored brick contrasted to a cream-colored brick background.  Multi-paned casement windows contributed to the Art Moderne geometry.  

Bien divided the upper five floors into three vertical sections by decorating the four-bay-wide central section with rows of salmon brick that vertically connected the windows with those above and below.  A parapet took the place of a cornice.  Two rows of brick bosses decorated the central section and Art Moderne railings provided interest above each of the two end bays.

Bronze grills at the entrance, multi-paned casements, and a bold parapet contributed to Bien's design.  from the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

An advertisement in The New York Sun on June 10, 1939 touted, "Just Completed -- Latest home comforts."  Prospective tenants could choose apartments that ranged from one-and-a-half to three rooms.

Catherine Donohue was among the initial residents.  The 35-year-old was a close friend of the Croke family that included 35-year-old Catholic priest Rev. John Croke.  He lived at 201 West 95th Street and was attached to the Rosary Hill House in Hawthorne, New York.

Shortly after she moved into 150 West 21st Street, on October 3, 1939 Catherine was riding in Rev. Croke's automobile in New Jersey.  Croke was driving south along Route 9 West in Englewood when they were hit head-on by a car driven by 19-year-old Frank Grande.  The teen's 14-year-old brother, Joseph, was in that car.  It was a horrific crash.  Rev. Croke died in Englewood Hospital the following morning.  The New York Times reported that Catherine was "in the hospital with critical injuries."

Frank Grande, tragically, should not have been on the road at all.  He held a conditional driver's permit, which prohibited him to operate a vehicle without a licensed driver in the car.  He and his brother were only slightly injured.

Four days later, The New York Times updated readers, reporting that Catherine Donahue had succumbed to her injuries.  Frank Grande's joy riding with his brother resulted in his being arrested "on two charges of causing death by automobile and on a charge of driving without a license," said the article.

Bien used creative brickwork and color as part of his design.

Another initial tenant was Daniel B. Stampler.  The building was extremely convenient, since he was manager of the Empire Bar & Grill down the block at Sixth Avenue and 21st Street.  At the time, employees were paid in cash.  In most cases they received their pay envelopes on Friday evening or on Saturday.  Crooks, who were sharply aware of the practice, would stake out businesses and learn the schedules of bookkeepers or managers tasked with transporting the cash.

On the morning of July 5, 1940, Stampler drove to the National Safety Bank & Trust Company at 27th Street and Seventh Avenue and withdrew $5,206 in cash (about $116,000 today).  As he got back into his automobile, another pulled up beside it.  The New York Times reported, "At the point of pistols the thugs forced him to drive to Twenty-eighth Street and the North [i.e., Hudson] River.  Putting Mr. Stampler out of the car, the bandits drove off."  It is unclear whether the robbers were captured or if Stampler's automobile was recovered.

Vitter Cucio and his wife were also initial residents.  In the winter of 1939, they were the target of what The New York Times described as "two of the city's boldest robbers."  Salvatore Oddo, who was 33 years old, and his partner 25-year-old Dominick Mundo, were not only bold, they were dangerous.

The Cucio apartment was one of several the pair burglarized.  Fortunately for the couple, they were not at home at the time.  Mundo and Oddo made away with $500 in cash and jewels.  (The cash would translate to about $11,000 today.)  The criminals were captured and sentenced "to long prison terms," according to The New York Times on June 13, 1942.  Among Mundo's charges was the "shooting [of] a police lieutenant last February, after his arrest in the hold-up of a garage," said the article.

Sadly, Sylvan Bien's Art Moderne grills were removed in the late 20th century.

Residents of 150 West 21st Street continued to be victimized.  Dorothy Shugard was an athlete, described by The New York Times as "formerly a sprinter."  On Sunday night December 21, 1947, she was walking along Broadway near the Broadway Central Hotel when 27-year-old Arthur W. Seymour, who worked as a seaman, "seized her handbag, containing $50 in cash and a bracelet," according to The New York Times, and knocked her to the sidewalk.  Dorothy screamed out, "Stop, thief!"  (The article said she, "was hampered in the chase by her high heels.")

Happily for her, walking along the block was 27-year-old Emanuel Hauser and his bride.  Hauser, an Air Force veteran, had been sworn in as a police officer two days earlier and married the next day.  Hauser's wife exhorted, "Go get him, Mannie!"

The young police officer, who had not yet served a single day in uniform, chased Seymour, capturing him at Broadway and Waverly Place.  Dorothy Shugard was right behind.  At Police Headquarters, Seymour admitted stealing the handbag and told Officer Hauser, "Once more around the block and she'd have caught me."

At the time of the incident, America was seeing the rise of what would be called the Red Scare, or McCarthyism.  The Cold War prompted fears of Communism and they ballooned into hysteria.  It all resulted in Government investigations, blacklisting, and accusations.  

Minna Finkelstein lived here at midcentury.  The teacher had been with the New York Public Schools since 1932 and taught at Public School 11 in the Bronx.  In 1951, Superintendent of Schools Dr. William Jansen initiated a personal "investigation into Communist influence in the city school system," as reported by The New York Times, and Jansen told the newspaper, "quite a bit of work" had to be done "before the school system was completely free of possible subversive influence."

By October 1952, when Minna Finkelstein was summoned to be interrogated, 15 teachers had already been fired.  She and two other educators "balked at questions" put to them.  Three months later, on January 31, 1953, The Times reported that the three instructors had been suspected and "charged with insubordination and conduct unbecoming teachers."  The school system's assistant corporation counsel, Saul Moskoff, explained that Minna had "refused to answer all questions about alleged past or present party membership."  

In the second half of the 20th century, the building underwent an unfortunate modernization.  The bronze grills were removed from the entrance, the casement windows replaced, and the parapet stripped of its Art Moderne personality.

photographs by the author

An Astounding Survivor - The 1837 287 East 3rd Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In 1811, streets were laid out on paper that dissected land owned by Nicholas and Elizabeth Fish.  Within two decades those pencil lines became actual thoroughfares.  In 1837, ship carver Charles Dodge erected a row of brick-faced houses on the north side of East 3rd Street between Avenues C and D.  Each 22-feet-wide and three stories tall above English basements, they were early examples of the blossoming Greek Revival style.  Dodge's builder designed them as mirror-image pairs that shared a stoop divided by an iron railing.  The side-by-side entrances were framed by brownstone pilasters that upheld a single layered entablature and molded cornice.

Charles Dodge apparently negotiated a deal with Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish (Nicholas died in 1833) regarding ownership of certain properties.  Upon her death in 1854, 287 East 3rd Street passed to her children: Susan Elizabeth, Margaret Ann, Hamilton and Elizabeth Sara.  There is no indication that any of the well-to-do and distinguished Fish siblings ever lived in the house.

At the time of Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish's death, the neighborhood around 287 East 3rd Street was the center of New York's German community.  Only Berlin and Vienna had a larger German-speaking population.  No. 287 East 3rd Street would have been home to multiple families.  The Fish heirs retained ownership until October 1882, when they sold the house to Robert P. and Julia Kean Barry for $5,270 (about $167,000 in 2026 terms).

The sale did not end the Fish family's ties to the property.  Born in 1843, Julia K. Barry was the daughter of Margaret Ann Fish and John Neilson.  (Her great-grandfather, General John Neilson had served in the Revolutionary War with Nicholas Fish.)  Robert Peabody Barry also had a sterling pedigree, a member of the fourth generation of Barrys in New York.  The couple was married on April 19, 1866.  They would be long-distance landlords--they lived in Virginia.

While 287 East 3rd Street was owned by distinguished figures, its tenants were working class.  Living here in 1897, for instance, was mechanic E. Matthews.  He was at work in a Harlem theatre, the Metropolis, at 142nd Street and Third Avenue on August 29 that year.  High above the stage, he lost his grip and fell 60 feet.  The New York Herald reported that he "received injuries which proved fatal three hours later."

Matthews's English surname was an anomaly within the mostly German rooming house tenants.  More common were names like Lester W. Eisenberg (who was made a commissioner of deeds in 1901 and 1902), Max Schiller, and Dora Bruder.

On June 18, 1905, Max Schiller attended an outing of German families at a picnic grounds in Queens.  (It was most likely a church event.)   He boarded a trolly car of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit heading home that night.  It smashed into another trolly car at around 10:00.  "Both cars were crowded with men and women who were homeward bound from the picnic grounds," said The Sun.  Max Schiller and five others were "painfully injured," but he was able to go home after having his cuts and bruises dressed.

Living in the house at the same time, Dora Bruder held an interesting job.  She taught embroidery in the New York public vacation schools.

Around 1912, Jacob Beyerle acquired 287 East 3rd Street.  While continuing to rent rooms, he moved into the house with his widowed mother, Margeritte Geier Beyerle, and his unmarried sister, Philippine.  (Frustratingly, Philippine's name was alternately spelled Phillippina, Philippina, and Phillippine in documents.)

Born in 1869, Jacob was the youngest of eight children of Johann and Margeritte, who were 48 and 41 years old, respectively, at the time.   He never married.

In 1913 Beyerle hired architect Louis E. Muller to update the house with plumbing and "new partitions."  (The new walls most likely referred to the installation of bathrooms or water closets.)  The renovations cost him the equivalent of about $32,700 today.

Jacob Beyerle died in the house on May 8, 1914 at the age of 45.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later.  He left a $2,000 "personalty in trust" to his mother (about $65,000 today), and the remainder of his estate to his sisters Philippine, Maggie and Elizabeth.  

Philippine, who received the title to 287 East 3rd Street, continued to take in roomers.  The Schroeder family lived here in 1915 when 11-year-old George went to the Brighton Beach race track on April 18 to see the motorcycle races.  The New York Herald reported that Thomas Sylvester, "was racing his motorcycle about the track when he lost control of it, and it shot over the rim and into a crowd of several hundred persons."

At least one spectator, 19-year-old Charles Shay, was fatally injured.  George Schroeder was removed to Coney Island Hospital "with a broken leg, internal injuries and many cuts and bruises," said the article.  He happily recovered.

On January 5, 1917, Margeritte Beyerle died here at the age of 89.  Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.  Philippine sold 287 East 3rd Street in June 1919 to Max Schechter for $10,000 (about $181,000 today).  His tenants continued to be mostly German, like A. Steinmetz and his wife, who announced the engagement of their daughter Bess to Harry Ornstein in March 1920; and apparel worker Joseph Rosenwasser.

In 1921, "a strike in the clothing trade" began in Port Chester, New York.  A non-union man, Alexander Mangurick, took a job in a factory there to replace the union foreman.  The Yonkers Statesman reported on June 11, that the Walking Delegate in New York City directed Joseph Rosenwasser, who was 34, and Nathan Popick to go to Port Chester "and at a convenient place give him a beating."  The two men were arrested and charged with feloniously assaulting Mangurick.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Patrolman Solomon Hollander lived here in 1930.  The 26-year-old bachelor was attached to the Arsenal Station in Central Park.  Because he was an epileptic and subject to random seizures, he was not permitted to patrol with a loaded pistol.  In March 1931, he was charged with "brutally striking a business woman last Columbus Day in Central Park for sitting on the grass with two friends," according to The New York Times.  Nettie S. Wheeler charged that when she did not move from the grass "quickly enough to satisfy him," he "dragged" her to the police booth on Fifth Avenue and "struck her in the face in the police station with his clenched fist."

Hollander denied that he had struck Wheeler and on the stand "insisted that he spoke courteously when he ordered Mr. Gibson and the two women off the grass."  Mrs. Wheeler, he said, refused, saying, "I am a friend of the Park Commissioner."

On the same day of the alleged attack, according to another officer, Harry Gray, "Hollander was seized with an epileptic attack in the station."  Hollander testified that he could not remember periods of that day.  On March 24, 1931, The New York Times reported that he was found guilty "of twisting the arm of Miss Nettie S. Wheeler."  He was suspended from the police force.  Then came a plot twist.  On May 9, The Times reported that a neurologist, Charles O. Fiertz, asserted that Hollander "was not responsible for his actions at the time of the attack."  The conviction was reversed and a new trial was scheduled.  That trial resulted in Hollander getting a ten-day sentence in the workhouse.

No. 287 East 3rd Street continued as a rooming house throughout the 20th century.  In 2011, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation began a push to have the house and its fraternal twin at 285 designated individual landmarks.  In addition to the historic importance of No. 285 in Black History (it was for decades home to Steven Cannon and his "Gathering of the Tribes"), both houses, stressed the petition, are "highly intact Greek Revival 'sister' row houses dating from 1837."

photograph by Carole Teller

And, indeed, while early 19th century buildings throughout the East Village were brutalized or razed throughout the 20th century, these two examples survive pristinely intact.  Neither has landmark protection at this writing.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post.