Architect M. Louis Ungrich was busy in the spring of 1885. On May 30, the Record & Guide reported that he was "preparing the sketches" for six apartment buildings for Henry Muhlker, ten rowhouses for F. K. Keller and Frank Tilford, and a tenement for Augustus Eichele.
The houses for Keller and Tilford, on the north side of West 123rd Street between Morningside Avenue and Manhattan Avenue, were intended for middle-class residents. Just 16-feet-wide, they were completed in 1886. Three stories tall above stone basements, they were faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta. Ungrich designed the Queen Anne-style homes in five mirror-image pairs in an A-B-C-D-A-B-C-D-A-B configuration.
Among the D models was 349 West 123rd Street. Slightly more understated than the A and B models, Ungrich gave it a splash of Renaissance Revival with terra cotta lintels over the doorway and parlor window. The parlor level openings sat within quoined stone frames. Interestingly, the proportions of the window nearly matched that of the doorway and the two lintels were nearly identical. The openings of the second and third floors shared single stone lintels, and a sloped shingled roof covered the attic level.
Keller and Tilford initially leased 349 West 123rd Street. An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 29, 1887, offered:
Handsome New House, 349 West 123d St., near Morningside Park, decorated, ten rooms and bath; three years' lease.
The new occupants seem to have been adherents of the Temperance movement. The restriction of alcohol in the household may have been too much to bear for their cook. The well-trained culinarian was specific in looking for a new position. On February 1, 1888 she advertised in The New York Times:
$40--Cook; Professional from Ems. (Imperial Medal of Merit); in first-class family; no children; no abstainers. Call at 349 West 123d-st.
The salary she required (presumably monthly) would translate to about $1,360 in 2025.
The house and the one next door at 351 were sold in May 1890 to Annie B. Wakefield. She resold No. 349 four months later to Mariam Howe Nolen, the widow of George H. Nolen. She had three children, George Jr., Spencer, and Mary Howe.
Mariam Nolen worked as what today would be called a real estate agent. She took in a boarder to augment finances. Living with the family in 1894 was John L. Florence, a commissioner of deeds. (The civil service position was similar to today's notary public.)
Spencer Nolen died at the age of 28 on March 21, 1896. His funeral was held in the house three days later.
It was almost assuredly through Mariam's real estate work that she became acquainted with "Mrs. D. H. Nellis, known as Mrs. Blakely" as described by The Sun. Mrs. Blakely was a member of the Real Estate Exchange and she rented houses owned by W. E. D. Stokes and collected his rents. On February 4, 1898, she appeared in court to answer a complaint from the owner of a livery stable for an outstanding bill of $75. During the proceedings it was revealed that she had several other outstanding financial obligations. The Sun quoted her testimony:
My mother lent me $1,500, which I used for personal expenses. I borrowed $900 from Mrs. Nolan [sic] of 349 West 123d street; $400 from Mr. F. Barnes, a stock broker, last October; $400 from Mrs. Duke of 255 West Seventy-second street. I used all for expenses.
The amount Mariam Nolen loaned her would translate to about $35,100 today. Whether she ever recouped the loan is unclear.
Sarah Hortense Herrington boarded with the Nolen family at the time. She died on May 8, 1898 and her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.
By then, Mary Howe Nolen was a force among the kindergarten movement. A graduate of Hunter College, she worked with the Department of Education overseeing kindergarten classes. Her diplomatic but stern oversight was reflected in a letter the 28-year-old wrote to a teacher, Adele Miln, in 1899, that said:
Please be prepared next Wednesday morning to show the teachers how you adapted "Marching to Jerusalem" to the playground without chairs. You had chalk circles on the floor. I shall have to trouble you to bring your own chalk and any other portable equipment necessary. Also please bring a list of playground games that are especially successful with small boys. If you do not err, yours is a boys' playground so you will have need to plan these carefully for yourself. I do not want to put any extra labor upon you, but you are always helpful and willing, so don't fail me.
In 1902, Mariam transferred title of 349 West 123rd Street to Mary. She held the title of Supervisor of Kindergarten at the time.
The Nolens continued to take in a boarder. In 1902 Andrew J. Smith lived here, and in 1912 Ernest A. Needham boarded with the family. Needham was a retired commission merchant and in failing health.
On the night of September 3, 1912, he walked into the dining room and poured carbolic acid into a glass and drank it. The act was witnessed by Mariam Nolan, who "ran to the street and summoned policeman Singer," as reported by The Sun. Singer "found Mr. Needham on a couch in the dining room." He was transported to the J. Hood Wright Hospital where he was deemed to be "in a serious condition." It was so serious, in fact, that a priest was called. Mariam told reporters, "He has been in poor health and seemed much discouraged about it."
Ernest A. Needham survived the attempt. He died in the house a year later, on November 12, 1913. The New York Times mentioned, "funeral private."
There would be two other funerals in the parlor in rapid succession. Three months later, on January 22, 1914, George H. Nolen died; and the following year, on June 25, 1915, Mariam Howe Nolen died. Her funeral was held in the house on June 27.
By the post-World War I years, Mary Howe Nolen was president of the Parents' Kindergarten Association of the Model School. The group was founded in 1889 "to establish some model kindergartens in districts where the children were in greatest need of them," as explained by The Outlook in 1912. Mary would head that organization into the mid-1920s.
Mary Howe Nolen died on March 25, 1948 at the age of 77.
The Nolen house became home to Alonzo B. Morris, a real estate operator. By the second half of the 20th century, it had been converted to a two-family home and it continues as such today.
Although the stone and terra cotta have been painted, the exterior of the Nolen house is virtually intact. And, somewhat surprisingly, the original interior shutters still hang in the upper floor windows.
photographs by the author