Tenement to Mansion - The 1901 47 East 3rd Street

 

Real estate developers Miller, Mofsenson & Brill erected a five-story apartment building at 47 and 49 East Third Street in 1901.  Designed by Michael Bernstein, its Renaissance Revival design included intricate carving around the entrance frame, which was capped with a prominent, bracketed cornice.  Bernstein contrasted the beige Roman brick of the base with four floors of red brick.  Their elaborate stone and terra cotta decorations included ornate panels, window ornaments, and faux balconies flanked with fluted columns and topped with impressive arched pediments.  A complex cornice crowned the design.

Typical of the working and lower-middle class tenants of 47 East 3rd Street were Isaac Chelsky and Abraham Bartnofsky, who both worked for the United States Condensed Milk Company.  They attached address labels to milk orders for the delivery drivers.  

Another early resident was Abraham Weise.  In the fall of 1904, an out-of-town friend visited and on September 23 Weise took him around town on a trolley car to see the sights.  The Morning Telegraph reported, "Passing Thirty-ninth street there is a sharp turn.  Weise was pointing out to his friend the Casino when the turn was made, and Weise lost his balance and fell from the car."  The would-be tour guide broke both his legs.  Later he told a reporter, "It's the first time in twelve years that I have been on Broadway.  The Bowery for me, when I get out of the hospital."

Alexander J. Barth, a barber, endeavored to better his life by becoming an attorney.  He took the Regents' examination twice--failing both times.  Frustrated, he hired a substitute to take his third test.  Unfortunately, his goal to be a lawyer would not come to be.  His subterfuge was discovered when two informants came forth.  On June 9, 1911 he confessed and was fine $100.  (It was a significant penalty for the barber, equal to about $3,500 in 2025 terms.)

Edward Barnes, who was 19 years old, lived here in 1922.  On May 14 that year, he and four cohorts, one of whom drove a taxicab, went looking for a victim.  They found one in 30-year-old Joseph Zaliski who was headed home at 1 a.m.  At the corner of East 3rd Street and Second Avenue, Barnes and two others jumped out of the cab and beat and robbed Zaliski.  The Evening World reported that they, "broke his nose and closed his eyes with blackjacks and fists and took $112 from his pocket."

Zaliski's cries were heard by an ambulance driver, known as Red.  He picked up a policeman on the street and pursued the fleeing taxicab with the ambulance's siren blaring.  When the cab pulled over, the driver said, "What's the big idea?  We don't want no ambulance."

Red replied, "No, but you're liable to want one in a minute.  Here's a load of cops want to talk to you."  Policeman Henry Hagen stepped out of the ambulance with his gun drawn.  Edward Barnes and his accomplices were arrested.

A more respectable tenant who lived here in the 1920s was J. Bolotoff.  He worked in theatrical make-up.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

As the 20th century drew to a close, the tenor of the East Village neighborhood changed.  Once populated with struggling immigrants, it was increasingly becoming a hip district with trendy shops and restaurants.

In 2003, Alistair and Catherine Economakis purchased 47 East Third Street.  The New York Times reported, "The building has 15 apartments, with tenants paying rents of $500 to $950 a month."  Almost immediately, the couple notified their tenants that their leases would not be renewed.  On June 26, 2005, The New York Times explained, "the couple planned to live in the building with their infant son and take over all 11,600 square feet."

The plans would result in a 60-room mansion with "five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a den, a playroom, a gym, a library, a study area, a dining room, a kitchen and a living room," said the article.  At the time, the tenants were battling the evictions.

Three years later, on December 12, 2008, The Independent reported that the nine remaining tenants, fearing they would lose in court, conceded to a buyout.  Each received $75,000 for vacating their apartments by the end of August 2009.  

In 2012, as renovations were still ongoing, the Economakis family moved into the building.  Construction of what is now a single-family home was completed in 2017. 

many thanks to reader Carole Teller for suggesting this post.

photographs by the author

The 1899 Vincent Loeser House - 320 West 108th Street

 

Prolific developer Joseph A. Farley and the architectural firm Janes & Leo repeatedly worked together in the late 1890s.  In fact, their offices were in the same building, 967 Boulevard (later renamed Broadway).  Janes & Leo designed several projects of speculative, upscale rowhouses in the Upper West Side and on October 7, 1898 they filed plans for another: four sumptuous homes at 316 through 322 West 108th Street for Farley.

Mysteriously, the architects designed the row as three harmonious neo-Georgian-style homes and one Beaux Arts beauty that had nothing in common with the others.

The architects solved the problem of the downward slope of West 108th Street by increasing the stoops of each house by one step.  Record & Guide, September 2, 1899 (copyright expired)

The plans projected the construction costs at a total of $110,000 (or just over $1 million each in 2025 terms).  Faced in red brick above a limestone base, 320 West 108th Street rose five stories.  Its American basement plan placed the entrance above a three-step stoop, its doorway flanked by free-standing Scamozzi capitals.  The lower four floors were bowed, providing a stone-balustraded balcony, or sleeping porch, to the fifth floor.  

On December 21, 1899, The World reported that Farley had sold 320 West 108th Street for $42,000 (about $1.64 million today).  The owners were Vincent Adolf Loeser and his wife, the former Mary Craven Thomae.  The couple, who were married in 1893, were both born in Brooklyn--Vincent in 1857 and Mary in 1867.  They had no children.

Educated in private schools, at the age of 22 Loeser became a member of the Produce Exchange.  When he and Mary moved into the West 108th Street house, he was the head of the brokerage firm Loeser, Robinson & Armstrong and a member of the Academy of Political Science.  In 1905, he was appointed president of the East River National Bank.

Like all well-to-do New Yorkers, incidents in the lives of the couple were followed by the society columns.  On October 3, 1909, for instance, the New York Herald announced, "Miss Carol Thomae and her aunt, Miss Caroline Jenks, of No. 22 Monroe Place [Brooklyn], will spend the winter with Miss Thomae's sister, Mrs. Vincent Loeser, at No. 320 West 108th Street."  And at the end of the summer social season of 1911, The New York Times noted on November 12, "Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Loeser will spend the Winter at 320 West 108th Street."

Carol Thomae still lived at 22 Monroe Place in Brooklyn in 1918.  On April 1 that year, Vincent and Mary visited her and while there, Vincent suffered a fatal heart attack.  He was 60 years old.

Mary left West 108th Street shortly after her husband's death.  She sold the house to Joseph P. Walsh and his wife, Agnes.  Born in Brooklyn, Walsh graduated from De La Salle College in 1883.  He and Agnes had a daughter and two sons.  

After running a plumbing supply business, Walsh became treasurer of the Law Recording Company in 1906.  He was not primarily known for his professional activities, however.  The New York Herald said, "Mr. Walsh at one time was one of the best known bowlers and bicycle riders in the city."  A member of the New York Athletic Club, he was still active in both sports when he purchased 320 West 108th Street.  Unfortunately, he would not enjoy the house for long.  He died here at the age of 57 on December 27, 1921.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Agnes Walsh leased a room to a Columbia grad student in 1923.  Paul Alexander Tihler was from Youngstown, Ohio.  The 37-year-old was enrolled in Columbia's School of Architecture.  During the war he had served as a first sergeant with the medical corps.  His talent as an architect earned him a bronze model for excellence from the Institute of Beaux Arts in 1917.

Tihler spent Thanksgiving Day with friends.  They later said that he "was not feeling well" and "that he had been unable to find employment for the last six months," according to The Columbia Spectator on December 8, 1923.  The day before that article, Agnes Walsh had found Tihler dead in his room.  The Columbia Spectator reported, "Dr. Vance said last night that a blotter had been placed over the gas jet in the room to direct the fumes of the gas downward."  Tihler's death was ruled a suicide.

Agnes Walsh sold 320 West 108th Street to Marietta Sinopoli in October 1927.  For the next seven years it was home to the Japanese M. E. Church, and in 1936 was sold twice.  The late Depression and World War II years were not kind to the once elegant home.  In 1944 it was listed as a rooming house.

A renovation completed in 1986 resulted in apartments, including one within the new penthouse level, unseen from the street.  It is possible that during the remodeling the stone balustrade was removed from the fifth floor balcony.

photographs by the author

The Lost Thomas Cole House - 1 Laight Street

 

photograph by Samuel Landsman from the collection of the New York Public Library

On September 13, 1802, the Board of Trinity Episcopal Church resolved to erect a chapel of convenience north of the city.  Construction of St. John's Park, anchored by a Georgian-style chapel designed by John McComb, began in 1803.  By the time St. John's Chapel was completed in 1807, the manicured, fence enclosed park--bounded by Varick, Laight, Hudson and Beach Streets--was being girded by refined Federal-style mansions.

The elegant, brick-faced residence at the head of Laight Street was three-and-a-half stories tall and 27-1/2-feet wide.  Although it faced Varick Street, it took the address of 1 Laight Street.  Because it sat on the northern side of the churchyard, its residents enjoyed windows on the southern side.  A stone stoop with wrought iron cage newels rose to the double-doored, arched entryway.  Its frame, along with the paneled window lintels, were made of marble.

photograph by Samuel Landsman from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Hoffman family occupied the house in 1827.  A. M. Hoffman was a surveyor, most likely employed by the city, and Henry Hoffman was a wholesale grocer.

Commission merchant Richard Reed and his family next occupied the mansion, here as early as 1829.  On the night of September 30, 1832, a sneak thief entered the house and made off with four silver and six silver-plated "table spoons."  A notice in the New-York Evening Post the next day said, "To any person returning said spoons, or giving information where they can be found, a suitable reward will be given by applying as above."

The house was sold on March 4, 1834 to Dr. George Ackerley and his wife, the former Anne Cole.  Born in 1797, Ackerley would be described by historian Henry Howe in 1891 as "the noted New York surgeon."  He and Anne were part of the "English immigrant colony" in Steubenville, Ohio when they were married in February 1821.  At the time, Anne's brother, Thomas, was working in the family's wallpaper factory, designing wallpaper patterns and engraving them into woodblocks.

By the time the Ackerleys moved into 1 Laight Street, Thomas Cole had transitioned to portrait painting.  He moved into the mansion with the Ackerleys.  Interestingly, Cole listed his profession in 1836 as "architect."

The Course of Empire, Consummation was among the works Cole executed while living here.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

That year, on November 22, Thomas Cole married Maria Bartow in her family's house in Catskill, New York.  Interestingly, Cole lived with Maria and her parents in the Bartow house during part of the year, while living with Anne and George in the remainder (most likely during the winter season).  Maria remained year round in Catskill, occasionally taking a steamboat to New York City to attend Thomas's lectures.  When they were apart, the pair maintained regular communications, with Maria often giving Thomas advice on his patrons.  In her letter on February 12, 1844, for instance, she urged:

Don't work too hard but go into society as much as you can--& now I Think of it, why need you propose either of your subjects of Pictures, Tell them you have Subjects, & what you will paint for them, & be sure you have it in the bargin [sic] that you may exhibit them if you wish to.

In the meantime, George Ackerley maintained a side practice of patent medicines.  In April 1841, he advertised Dr. Ackeley's Enteritic Balm in The New York Sun.  It guaranteed in part:

A certain remedy for the summer complaint of children, cholera morbus, dysentery, diarrhea, obstinate vomiting, cramp in the stomach and bowels, lead cholic, bilious and flatulent cholic, &c, &c.

The ad said the balm had cured 2,200 cases over the past eight years.  Ackerley also marketed Dr. Ackerley's Vegetable Pills, a "valuable agreeable and safe medicine for Ladies at all times," and Dr. Ackerley's Tonic Bitters, which "have done wonders where the Digestive and Nervous System have been out of order."  And an advertisement on April 8, 1842 in the New-York Tribune touted Dr. Ackerley's Purifying Anti-Scrofulous Syrup.  It said that, in part, that the medicine:

...cures scrofulous affections and other diseases occasioned by or attended with an impure state of the blood, restoring healthy action, diseased growths are stopped and scattered, and sores and ulcers healed...Prepared and sold by Dr. G. Ackerley, at his office for consultation and advice, No. 1 Laight st., corner Canal street.

A month after that ad appeared, George Ackerley was dead.  He died at the age of 45 on May 22, 1842.  Two days later, the New-York Tribune announced, "His friends, and those of his brother-in-law, Thomas Cole, are respectfully invited to attend his funeral this afternoon at 4 o'clock, from his late residence, No. 1 Laight street."

Anne Cole Ackerley soon left the mansion and in 1850 it was being rented by stockbroker S. A. Darling and his family.  The property was sold at auction on November 19, 1851.

Reflecting the gradual change in St. John's Park, Jules Poinsignon converted a portion of 1 Laight Street to a restaurant.  It was operated by William D. Benson in 1856 and '57, and in 1860 Charles Koss took over, running the former mansion as a hotel.

An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on February 4, 1863 offered the commercial properties at 394 and 396 Canal Street for sale.  The parcel included 1 Laight Street "in the rear."  The three properties would be forever linked going forward.

Charles Hoharst leased 1 Laight Street, running it as a boarding house with an "oyster house" in the former restaurant space.  Three years after opening, he lost his new puppy and on January 31, 1866, advertised:

$5 Reward--Lost a Bull Terrier pup, about 3 months old, white with brindle spots.  Had on a plated collar, with the name of Charles Hoharst on it.  Whoever will return the same to 1 Laight st. will receive the above reward.

Hoharst's reward would translate to about $100 in 2025.

In 1867, Trinity Church sold St. John's Park to the Hudson River Railroad Company.  The firm immediately began plans to replace the refined private green with a freight terminal.  Understandably, one-by-one the wealthy homeowners abandoned their mansions and moved uptown.

In 1909, 1 Laight Street (left) was dwarfed by a commercial structure.  The former mansion on the opposite of the chapel (right) is a near mirror-image.  photograph by George F. Arata from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The Canal Street and Laight Street properties were soon occupied by Huntington Brothers & Company, manufacturers of women's garments.  Presumably 1 Laight Street was used as its offices.  The firm remained until 1896.  Arkin Brothers, a maker of boxes, leased the properties in February 1901, and in May 1914, another box company, the Heppe-Schoen Paper Box Co., moved in.  Amazingly, through it all the exterior of the venerable Laight Street mansion remained essentially intact.

Edwin Davis French created this depiction in 1898.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Then, in 1918, the widening of Varick Street eradicated not only 1 Laight Street, but the magnificent St. John's Chapel.  The former Ackerley mansion was one of the last vestiges of what had been Manhattan's most exclusive residential enclave.

The 1886 Mary Howe Nolen House - 349 West 123rd Street

 

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."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

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

Robert Maynicke's 1903 130-132 Fifth Avenue

 

image via loopnet.com

In 1874, piano maker Chickering & Sons invaded Manhattan's mansion district by erecting a piano showroom and concert hall on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 18th Street.  For nearly three decades Chickering Hall would be one of the city's foremost music venues.  But at the turn of the century, the entertainment district and its wealthy patrons had moved northward.  The last concert in Chickering Hall took place in 1901.

Soon afterward, on December 8, The New York Times reported, "A new mercantile structure will soon rise on the site of Chickering Hall."  The venerable concert hall was razed and in 1902 excavation for the foundations of an 11-story business building began.  Developer Henry Corn was busily transforming the district from private homes to loft and office buildings.  He hired Robert Maynicke, of the architectural firm of Maynicke & Franke, to design the structure.  The two men had a close relationship and Maynicke, in fact, was simultaneously designing a similar 11-story building four blocks to the south at 84-90 Fifth Avenue.

Maynicke filed the plans on April 4, 1902, placing the construction cost at $600,000--about $22.6 million in 2025.  A month later, the excavation became the site of tragedy.  On May 27, 1902, an excited crowd of viewers crammed the area to view a parade welcoming the Rochambeau Delegation to the city.  (The group of distinguished French Governmental representatives and military figures were in the U.S. to dedicate a memorial to Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, in Washington.)  The New York Times reported, "About 100 persons...were precipitated to the bottom of the deep excavation on the site of Chickering Hall...shortly after 6 o'clock last evening by the collapse of a large section of a temporary bridge or sidewalk thrown across the front of the pit."  One man died instantly and “at least fifty were so seriously injured that they either had to receive medical attention on the spot or else were driven away in carriages,” said the police report.

The structure was completed in 1903.  Maynicke disguised its steel frame skeleton by placing heavy, rusticated piers along the three-story base--mimicking load-bearing masonry construction.  There were two entrances on Fifth Avenue.  One accessed the upper floors and the other the ground floor store.  The northern entrance sat within a striking portico of polished granite columns upholding a Renaissance inspired hood.

The upper floors were clad in tan brick and trimmed with stone, their corners distinguished with stone quoins.  Typical of Maynicke's style, the windows of the eighth and ninth floors were arranged in stacked groups.  They sat within Gibbs-style elliptically arched frames.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building filled, mostly, with apparel-related firms.  Among the first was Stein-Bloch Co., a wholesale tailor which had operated for years at 718-720 Broadway.  In its March 1903 issue, The Clothier & Furnisher reported that the firm's loft, "is being fitted up in the most artistic manner, and when completed will be models of convenience and attractiveness."

The Clothier & Furnisher, March 1903 (copyright expired)

Other initial tenants included Marks Rosenberg & Bros., lace and millinery importers; Burr & Hardwick, dealers in trimmings; and the dry goods firm of P. K. Wilson & Son.  Decidedly not part of the apparel industry was S. Sanford & Sons, which sold floor coverings.

Burr & Hardwick included a rendering of the new building in its moving announcement.  Dry Goods Reporter, January 3, 1903 (copyright expired)

Marks Rosenberg & Bros., which was based in Paris, was described by The Evening World as "one of the largest millinery importing houses in America."  It consisted of Jules, Hugo, and Max Rosenberg.  (Max managed the Paris concern.)  

Jules and Hugo Rosenberg were drawn into an uncomfortable position in the spring of 1905 when Parisian-born traveling  salesman Hugo Jacobson committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at the Hotel Breslin.  Before doing so, he mailed a letter to a friend, saying where his body could be found.  He also left a note on the dresser that read, "Mr. Jules and Hugo Rosenberg of 130 Fifth avenue will take care of me and settle everything."

McClure's, October 1908 (copyright expired)

On January 10, 1908, the 12-story Parker Building on Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue South) and East 19th Street was gutted by fire.  It was one of the first fires in a high-rise building in the city.  The O. B. Potter Trust, which now owned 130-132 Fifth Avenue, quickly reacted.  On January 22, The Sun reported, "Plans have been filed for equipping the eleven story Mercantile Building at Nos. 130 and 132 Fifth avenue with an auxiliary fire extinguishing plant, supplied by a 15,000 gallon storage tank and two 5,000 gallon pressure tanks."  Architect Francis H. Kimball was hired to make the modifications.

In the summer of 1910, the employees of P. K. Wilson & Co. were moved by newspaper reports of 12-year-old Ethel Worbert, who was knocked down by an Eighth Avenue streetcar and hospitalized.  On June 26, the New-York Tribune reported, "The case excited much sympathy, as the girl had been accustomed to lead her blind father to and from the Christopher street station of the Hudson tunnel, where he stands all day and sells newspapers."  The P. K. Wilson & Co. workers, who had little money to spare, pooled their resources for the little girl.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Ethel Worbert received $10 through The Tribune some days ago from employe[e]s of the firm of P. K. Wilson & Co., silk merchants."

Marks Rosenberg & Bros. got less favorable press that same month.  The New-York Tribune reported that Jules and Hugo Rosenberg, "along with their brother, Max, who is the Paris manager of the concern, were indicted...on a charge of undervaluing imports entered at the New York Custom House."  Along with the charge of undervaluing $234 worth of goods, said the newspaper, "there are other indictments standing against them."  Jules and Hugo posted $10,000 bail  each awaiting their trial.  (The bail was significant--amounting to about $341,000 each today.)

When the men did not appear in court in October 1910, Marshal Henkel went to 130-132 Fifth Avenue to arrest them.  But they were not there.  Henkel was told they were out of the city.  The New-York Tribune explained, "The offence charged is one for which extradition does not apply, so that if they get out of the country they will be safe from punishment."

Three months later, on January 23, 1911, The Evening World reported that Judge Hand had declared their bail forfeited.  Having closely examined the firm's books, the Government now placed the amount the men had cheated Customs at $250,000 (more than $8.5 million today).  The article said that Jules and Hugo Rosenberg had joined Max in France, adding, "it has been impossible to coax them across from Paris for trial."  In the meantime, their firm had been placed "in other hands, though there has been no change in the sign."

Finally, a compromise between the Government and the brothers was made and Jules and Hugo returned to America in June 1911 and paid $182,436 on the outstanding duty, and $25,000 each in fines.  

In 1915, original tenants in the building like Burr & Hardwick and S. Sanford & Sons were joined with G. C. Batcheller & Co., a corset maker.  The quality of the carpeting sold by S. Sanford & Sons was reflected in a two-day auction held in the building beginning on April 19 that year.  The Sun reported, "Carpets and rugs valued at $4,500,000 will be disposed of."  The article estimated that nearly 2,000 buyers from throughout the country would be in attendance.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

At the time of the auction, Charles Cheever Hardwick, of Burr & Hardwick, was preparing for his semi-annual buying trip to Europe.  Normally his wife accompanied him on these trips, but this time she was nervous about the ongoing war in Europe.  On May 1, Hardwick boarded the RMS Lusitania headed to Liverpool, England.   Six days later, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship off the coast of Ireland.  Among the 1,198 lives that were lost was Charles Hardwick.

On June 21, 1920, Ralph Cherry, a 17-year-old clerk working for P. K. Wilson & Son, purchased $100 in stamps for the shipping room.  Just as he returned, three men stopped him on the sidewalk and asked about possible work.  Suddenly one of them grabbed the parcel.  Cherry fought back and was stabbed in the back, but refused to release the stamps.  The Evening World reported, "The three men, grabbing clubs that looked like baseball bats, went out into the crowds on Fifth Avenue."

Two policemen came to Cherry's aid.  One stayed with the injured clerk and the other chased the would-be robbers.  One of them was captured at Broadway and 17th Street, and another policeman who had joined the chase overcame a second on 18th Street and Fourth Avenue.  Joseph Gardella and Frank Flanio were both 19 years old.  The knife used to stab Cherry was found on Gardella.  Ralph Cherry recovered from his wounds at New York Hospital.

The building continued to house apparel firms into the 1920s.  In 1921 Sanford Narrow Fabric Co. leased a floor, and in 1924 Belcraft Shirt Company moved in.  That year the Chatham and Phenix National Bank converted the ground floor for a branch office.

photograph by the author

That space became home to a Manufacturer Hanover Trust branch in 1970.  It was followed in the early 21st century by an Express retail shop, and a Duane Reade store in 2022.  Robert Maynicke's handsome 1903 design is little changed, including the ground floor and its impressive Renaissance-style entrances.

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for prompting this post

The Isaac F. Fisher House - 249 East Houston Street

 

In the 18th century, North Street ran east-west through the lowest section of the former Petrus Stuyvesant farms.  (The street, named because it designated the northern boundary of the city, would later be renamed East Houston Street.)  The Stuyvesant heirs retained vast portions of the property as the city moved northward, encroaching into and developing their formerly verdant land.

Thomas Macfarlan was Peter Gerard Stuyvesant's long-term real estate manager.  On February 19, 1861, he advertised in the New York Herald: "To Let--The House No. 249 East Houston street.  Apply to Thos. Macfarlan, No. 180 Tenth street, near Third avenue."  Frustratingly, his succinct ad gave no details about the residence. 

No. 249 East Houston Street was 18-feet wide and one of a row of Federal-style residences.  Most likely all identical, they were faced in Flemish bond brick and rose three stories above English basements.  

Isaac F. Fisher (sometimes spelled Fischer) and his wife, Jettie, moved into the house with their son, Henry.  Fisher was most likely well-acquainted with Thomas Macfarlan, since he, too, was a real estate agent.

Young Henry enrolled in Columbia College in 1865.  His father operated his substantial real estate business from the house.  On June 7, 1866, for instance, he advertised, "For Sale--A nice property on a corner of the west side of Avenue A, being 52 feet front on the avenue by 100, with four good houses on it, having seven stores paying over 15 per cent and sold on easy terms."  The following February, in a single ad he offered, five "first class tenement houses," "four houses and lots," and "two houses on the west side of Eighth avenue; and nine houses on Third avenue."

Jettie Fisher died in the house on February 17, 1872 at the age of 46.  Her funeral was held in the parlor the next morning.  Before the end of the year, Isaac F. Fisher had moved away.

The house was purchased by a Mrs. Sheppard, who was cited for a violation from the city for having "unsafe chimneys" on September 27, 1873.  

Around 1882, the basement was converted for business purposes.  Harris and Caroline Baruch moved into rooms upstairs and Harris leased the shop for his pawn business.  Living with them was their son Benjamin Baruch, who would eventually join the business.

As with all pawn shops, Baruch regularly held auctions of items left past their due date.  On November 23, 1883, for instance, he held an auction that included, "1,000 lots fine gold and silver watches, diamonds, heavy gold chains, bracelets, jewelry."

In May 1893, Joseph Wolf (sometimes spelled Wolff) purchased the building for $12,400 (about $446,000 in 2025 terms).  He continued to lease the store to Harris Baruch, whose family remained in the upper portion.  

On April 14, 1895, The World titled an article, "Made Rich By The Poor."  It detailed an independent investigation of pawn shops that overcharged customers.  The lengthy article listed numerous infractions, including: "A young man took a banjo to H. Baruch, of No. 249 East Houston street, and was overcharged 12 cents."

At the time of the article, Caroline Baruch's health was declining.  She died here on February 23, 1895 at the age of 64.  Her active involvement in Jewish organizations was evidenced in her death notice in the New York Herald, which invited "members of the Daughters of Israel, of Cheebra Holche Zedek, of Joseph Lodge, K. S. B., and of Congregation Bnee Scholom" to her funeral.

A striking renovation would give the entrance a Renaissance inspired door frame.

In 1898, Benjamin Baruch was appointed a commissioner of deeds, a clerical civil service position.  The following year, his father was pulled into a sensational murder case.

In August 1899, Mrs. Nathan Kronman was murdered in her apartment at 266 West 35th Street.  Another resident passed the murderer, a "man in black," in the hallway which she described as "being swarthy and wearing a suit of dark clothes."  Police searched the pawn shops for the jewelry stolen from Mrs. Kronman's apartment.  They found one piece--an expensive diamond crescent-shaped brooch--at Harris Baruch's store.

Baruch was called to testify at William Neufeldt's trial on August 17.  He said in part:

It was coming in, two men in the afternoon, and one of those men handed me this pin and asked me $200 on it.  I make him an offer of $185.  I saw the defendant there.  That is the man that gave me the pin [indicating the defendant].  But there was two men.  One man took the $100 and the other man took the $85.

Baruch positively identified William Neufeldt as the man who handed him the pin.

The estate of Joseph Wolf sold the property to Max Schwartz around 1900.  In June 1901, Schwartz hired architect M. Bernstein to remodel the building.  Bernstein gave the vintage structure a Renaissance Revival makeover.  

Now termed a "tenement" by the Department of Buildings, it was given a veneer of running bond brick and boasted a handsome carved entrance enframement below a foliate-bracketed cornice.  The parlor and second floor openings were given splayed stone lintels with carved keystones, while the fully arched third floor windows wore brick eyebrows.  A cast metal cornice completed the re-do.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Harris had moved his family and his business, now known as H. Baruch & Son, before the renovations began.  The basement was leased for the S. & H. Levin restaurant.  In December 1912, dentist Abraham Pflantzer leased the "stoop floor" (the former parlor level).  His office would remain there for decades.

When America entered World War I, two of the residents of 249 East Houston Street, Nathan Messinger and Jack Herschkowitz, joined the army.

Jack was the son of Samuel Herschkowitz.  It appears that his mother was deceased at the time.  A member of Company C of the 308th Infantry, his battalion was near Binarville, France in September 1918.  Cut off from communication and needing ammunition and rations, he, an officer and another soldier set off for regimental headquarters.  In the dark of night they unwittingly crawled into a German camp.  They lay there three hours before being detected.  The 1919 Heroes All recounts:

Finally discovered, they made a dash to escape.  In order to protect the officer, Private Herschkowitz deliberately drew the enemy fire to himself, allowing the officer to escape.  Private Herschkowitz succeeded in getting through and delivering his message the next morning.

Jack Herschkowitz was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor "for extraordinary heroism in action."

Nathan Messinger survived the war, as well.  The 23-year-old returned to 249 East Houston Street with the rank of second lieutenant.

Prohibition ushered in an era of gangsters and violence.  On October 18, 1935, The New York Post headlined an article, "5th Gangster Is Shot Down In Policy War" and announced, "One of the underworld's bloodiest, boldest wars is on."  In reporting on the murders, it noted, "Death was to have been the lot of The Plug last night also as he stood in front of a three-story tenement at 249 East Houston Street on the lower East Side, but his assassins only wounded him."

Albert "The Plug" Schuman had an appointment with dentist Abraham Pflantzer and was climbing the stoop of 249 East Houston Street when he was attacked.  The New York Evening Post reported, "he scampered into a hallway, where he fell, groaning, a moment later."  The gangster was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he recovered.

The 21st century brought trendy bistros and shops to the neighborhood.  In 2016, the Chapter NY art gallery opened in the "stoop floor" that had been home to Dr. Pflantzer's office for decades.  There are four apartments in the building today.

many thanks to Carole Teller for suggesting this post.

photographs by the author

The Altered Alfred Schanck House - 318 Second Avenue

 

photograph by Ted Leather

Alfred Schanck's first American ancestor was Roelof Martense Schenck, who arrived in New Amsterdam from the Netherlands in 1650.  Alfred's grandfather, John Schanck (the surname had been changed a generation earlier) fought in the Revolutionary War, and Alfred's father, DeLaFayette Schanck, was, according to his obituary, "the first American child who bore the name of La Fayette."

Alfred was born on November 5, 1817.  In 1845 he married Emily Woodward and the couple had two children: Charles W., born in 1846; and Emily W., born in 1849.  Alfred was a partner in the ironworks firm Tugnot, Dally & Co. on First Avenue at 25th Street.  It manufactured elements of U.S. Navy vessels like the U.S.S. Niagara, the U.S.S. Shubrick and the U.S.S. Brooklyn.  

Portions of the U.S.S. Niagara were manufactured in Schank's foundry. (original source unknown)

In 1852 Schanck moved his family into the newly built  Italianate-style rowhouse at 318 Second Avenue, a block-and-a-half north of elegant Stuyvesant Square.  Four stories tall above a high brownstone-clad basement, it was faced in warm red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  The floor-to-ceiling parlor floor windows were most likely fronted by a cast iron balcony.  The elliptically arched openings sat within handsome architrave frames.  An elaborate cornice with scrolled brackets and alternating panels of rosettes and foliate ornaments completed the design.

Schanck also dabbled in real estate.  On March 7, 1860, for instance, he offered a house on this block, 324 Second Avenue, for rent; and a "two story and basement Cottage" on East 35th Street.  He was, as well, a director in the Hamilton Fire Insurance Co.

The Schanck family moved to 844 Second Avenue in 1863 and No. 318 became home to merchant Samuel Bachrach.  The family's residency was relatively short.  On April 5, 1869, an advertisement in the New York Herald offered:

To Let--Furnished, the fine, four-story high stoop brick House No. 318 Second avenue containing 22 rooms, suitable for a large family or private boarding house, at reasonable rent to responsible parties.

The house was rented for a year to attorneys George S. Sedgwick and Thomas Simons, whose office was at 41 Chambers Street.  Boarding with the two families was Mary G. Reyns, a teacher.

The Bachrachs sold 318 Second Avenue the following year.  An auction of the "handsome household furniture" was held on April 9, 1870.  The residence was purchased by Franz Romanus Rust and his wife, Rudolphine.

Rust was the victim of what The New York Times called "one of the most audacious of recent robberies in this City," on July 1, 1871.  Rust went to the New-York Trust Company at 119 Broadway at 1:30 that afternoon.  He intended to make a deposit of $2,000 in cash (equal to $53,000 in 2025).  As he entered the vestibule, "he was surrounded by six thieves, one of whom succeeded in taking the wallet containing the money from his pocket, while another knocked him down," according to The Evening Post.

Attracted by Rust's cries, a crowd collected and "the desperadoes...fled in different directions as soon as the money had been carried away," said The New York Times.  The article continued, "But Mr. Rust continuing his outcries, the next instant a person, whom he vaguely describes as a half-grown colored boy, handed him back the wallet, which he said he had picked up in the street."  There was $500 missing.

Police quickly nabbed two suspects whom Rust identified.  The following day, the New York Dispatch reported, "James F. Martin, alias Butts, and Joseph Page, alias James Ahearn, alias 'Mysterious Jim,' were arraigned before Justice Hogan, at the Tombs, yesterday, charged with having robbed Emil Rust...of a wallet containing $2,000 in greenbacks."  

In an interesting turn of events, this was not the first time the magistrate had interacted with one of the defendants.  The Evening Post reported, "Butts about a year ago assaulted Justice Hogan in a Broadway stage, when the latter interfered to preserve a lady from insult, but the ruffian escaped punishment."

Well-to-do families often filled non-used rooms with renters or boarders.  On December 24, 1872, the Rusts advertised, "two single nicely furnished rooms to let, without board."  The ad was answered by Herman A. Curiel and Siegfried Koppel, partners in an importing firm at 95 Beaver Street; and Maurice Krickl, a trimmings merchant.

As the Second Avenue neighborhood morphed from elegant private homes to commerce, the Rusts left 318 Second Avenue and leased it to a proprietor who operated it as rented rooms.  Rudolphine, who survived her husband, died on October 4, 1912.  On December 3 the following year, The New York Times reported that "the four-story brick tenement situated at 318 Second Avenue," was being auctioned "to close [the] estate of Rudolphine Rust."  (Rudolphine's estate was equal to about $2.5 million today.)

The handsome cornice and the carved frames of the windows and former doorway survived in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The property continued to be a rooming house and at some point previous to 1941 the stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the basement level.  A renovation completed in 1952 resulted in a day nursery in the basement, a doctor's office on the first floor and one apartment each on the upper floors.  

photograph by Ted Leather

A subsequent remodeling in 1990 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and first floors, and one apartment each on the upper stories.  There are a total of five apartments in the former mansion today.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.