The Moses M. Bradley House - 212 East 32nd Street

 

An apartment door was installed in the basement in 1990 and the parlor windows shortened.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

It appears that in 1855 Mary Edmonds, the widow of William Edmonds, was leasing the newly built house at 118 East 32nd Street (renumbered 212 in 1865).  Three stories tall above a high brownstone basement, it was one of a row of identical, brick-faced homes.  The architect straddled the Greek Revival and emerging Italianate styles in his design.  The double-doored entrance, for instance, sat within a purely Greek Revival frame of paneled pilasters upholding a cornice-topped entablature.  The full-height third floor, the delicate cast iron stoop and areaway railings, and the bracketed cornice, however, were Italianate.  Floor-to-ceiling French windows at the parlor may have had a cast iron balcony.

Mary Edmonds was followed in the house by John Coughtry in 1857.  He listed his profession as "cards."  Then, in 1859, Moses M. Bradley purchased the house.  Bradley was in the fancygoods business at 5 Barclay Street.  He was, as well, secretary of the Star Fire Insurance Co.  Born in 1820, he and his wife, Mary S., had a son and a daughter.

Like many families, the Bradleys took in a boarder.  In 1859 it was George F. Coachman, a "measurer."  Starting about 1863, Daniel S. Briant, who worked as a clerk, lived with the family.  He would remain until 1866.

On December 13, 1865, U.S. Representative William E. Dodge filed papers in Congress challenging the election of Representative James Brooks for the Eighth Congressional District of New York.  Both Moses M. Bradley and Daniel S. Briant were subpoenaed to Washington D.C. to testify about the procedures that surrounded their voting that previous November.

A contemporary photo reveals the transitional styles inside.  The marble mantle is purely Italianate, while the earred woodwork is Greek Revival.  (The doorway has been narrowed from what originally would have been about twice as wide.)  image via compass.com

In 1866, the Bradley family moved to Brooklyn.  The East 32nd Street house became home to the Lambert family.  George F. Lambert, who listed no profession, was most likely retired.  Benjamin H. and Frederic Lambert were in the fruits and produce business at 239 Washington Street.  They would remain here until 1870 when George Asmus moved in.

Asmus was a metallurgist, engineer and inventor.  In 1867 he received a patent for an improved blast furnace.  As early as 1879, he was a manager of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.  Asmus and his family remained here until about 1880.

They were followed by Francis Fox Bussell and his wife, the former Virginia Alwaise.  Members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, the couple had three children, Alice Virginia, Francis Jr., and Charles Baner who were 27, 23, and 16 years old respectively in 1880.

Born in 1828, Bussell was a partner with Edward Bussell (presumably a brother) in Francis F. Bussell & Co., dealers in lumber (specializing in mahogany) at First Avenue and 80th Street.  Their parents had come from Cornwall, England shortly before Francis's birth.  Francis was involved with charity work and was a member of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. 

Virginia's American pedigree, on the other hand, was far-reaching.  The 1916 History of Seattle said she "traces her ancestry in America back to 1640 through English and Dutch lineage, one of the early representatives of the family being the famous Anneke Jans."

Francis F. Bussell died on September 11, 1887 at the age of 60.  His funeral was held in the parlor on the 14th.  Virginia and Charles, who was 23 years old now, moved to Seattle, Washington.  The East 32nd Street house became home to Francis's sister, Sophia Jane, and her husband Christopher Wray.

Sophia Jane Bussell was born in 1823.  She married Christopher Wray on December 9, 1846.  Wray, who was born in Derby, England on April 8, 1817, came to New York City as a boy.  The New-York Tribune would later recall, "in the course of time [he] became proprietor of a hardware store in Third-ave., near Twenty-eighth st."  Like his brother-in-law, he was altruistic and served as secretary of the New York Colored Mission.

The couple had seven children, only three of whom were alive when they moved in.  Two of them, Samuel Bussell and Anna Maria, lived with their parents.  They were 28 and 24 years old respectively in 1887.

In 1889, Christopher Wray retired at the age of 72.  Two years later, on October 23, 1891, he died in the East 32nd Street house.  The New-York Tribune reported, "His death was due to old age."  The New York Herald added, "he was a retail hardware dealer, having been engaged at that business for forty years," and said, "He was a prominent member of the Society of Friends."  His funeral was held on October 26.

In 1941, the house to the left was being converted to apartments.  The French windows of 212 East 32nd Street have been replaced by double-hung panes.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Shockingly, three weeks after the parlor had been the scene of her father's funeral, Anna Maria's wedding was held there.  The Delta Upsilon Quarterly reported, "Harry N. Hoffman, of Elmira, N. Y., was married November 19, at 212 East 32d street, N Y., the residence of Christopher Wray, Esq., the bride's father, to Miss Anna Wray."  The article mentioned, "Mr. Hoffman has built a house on Hoffman street, Elmira, where the young couple are now residing."

Samuel B. Wray was, by now, treasurer of his father's favorite charity, the New York Colored Mission.  He and his mother remained at 212 East 32nd Street until May 1892, when Sophia sold it to James M. Fitzsimons and his wife, Matilda, for $11,200, or about $398,000 in 2025 terms.  (Sophia moved into Anna Marie's Elmira house where she died on January 24, 1894 at the age of 71.)

Fitzsimons was born in New York City in 1858 and graduated from the Columbia Law School when he was just 19 years old.  Because he was too young to be admitted to the bar, he worked as a practitioner in the law officer of Nehbras & Pitshke until 1879.  Two years before buying 212 East 32nd Street, he was appointed to the City Court bench.

Fitzsimons owned several rental properties, one of which was nearby at 345 East 33rd Street.  On December 23, 1894, a reporter from The World asked him about the policy shop that was being operated there.  (A policy shop was a gambling place where lottery-type games were played.)  Having illegal activities operating from one of his properties would have been highly embarrassing for the judge.  He told the reporter that he visited his properties once a week, but had not been in that particular apartment for several months.

At 8:00 that night, the reporter and Judge Fitzsimons went to the apartment of John Simmer, with the judge posing as a potential buyer of the building.  It was clear that Simmer's apartment was doubling as a gambling den.  The following morning, the newspaper reported, "Judge James M. Fitzsimmons [sic], of the City Court...said last night that he should go to the house this morning and order John Simmer, the tenant, on the ground floor, to vacate at once."

Shortly after the humiliating episode, James and Matilda Fitzsimons moved to 12 West 121st Street where the judge died at the age of 46 on March 4, 1904.

The East 32nd Street house became home to Robert and Karoline (known at Katie) Rosenthal.  The couple had three children, Irving, Rebecca (known as Becky), and Fannie Leah.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

In January 1896, Katie purchased a goose for $1.50.  When the butcher's delivery boy brought it, according to the New York Herald, "as she does not believe in confiding such matters to her servant, she proceeded to open it."  Not only did Katie open the package, she personally plucked the goose and prepared it for roasting.

The New York Times reported on January 20, "while preparing the bird for the oven, she felt a hard substance in the interior which, upon examination, appeared to her to be very much like a diamond with a small fragment of gold attached to it, as though it had been set in a ring."  She took the stone to a friend "who is a judge of precious stones," according to the New York Herald.  "After inspecting it he declared it to be a diamond of excellent water, worth in the neighborhood of $150."  (The windfall would equal about $5,780 today.)  The New York Times remarked, "Mrs. Rosenthal has been buying geese ever since, and she always takes charge of the preparation and cooking herself.  The butcher has raised his prices."

Robert Rosenthal died at the age of 53 on June 2, 1897.  His funeral was held in the house the following morning.

Katie announced the engagement of Fannie Leah to Louis B. Wasserstrom on January 8, 1899.  Louis was a leather merchant and the newlyweds moved into the East 32nd Street residence.  By then, Irving was operating a successful real estate business from the house.  On October 16, 1901, for instance, he advertised in The World, "Business Places, every description sold; city or country; capital procured.  Irving Rosenthal, 212 East 32d st."

Fannie and Louis Wasserstroms would have two sons.  Silas was born in 1900 and Robert, known as Bobby, was born in 1902.  On June 23, 1904, The New York Press reported that Louis B. Wasserstrom "was in no hurry to go to his office yesterday morning.  Instead he decided to spend another hour at home in No. 212 East Thirty-second street."  The article said he lighted his pipe and sat by the window to watch Silas and Bobby playing in a sandpile across the street.

Silas suddenly ran home, darting across the street.  "Then came Bobby, 2 years old, ambitiously trying to catch up with his older brother," said the article.  As Louis watched, a patrol wagon from the East 35th Street police station tore down the street on a call.  "All the father remembers seeing is a driver throwing his horses in the air and a child crushed beneath an iron hoof."  Louis ran into the street, but Bobby was dead.

No. 212 East 32nd Street was owned by Thomas and Mary Reid by 1910.  The couple had two daughters, Anna and Katherine.  The family remained here until 1951, when they sold the house to Jack S. and Dorothy M. Bryant.  The couple converted it to apartments, one per floor.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

In 1990, a renovation returned the upper three floors to a single family home.  A door to the basement apartment was installed, its earred frame valiantly echoing Greek Revival precedents.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post.

The DeWitt and Victorine Cole House - 436 West 20th Street

 

Clement Clark Moore donated the block of Ninth to Tenth Avenues from 20th to 21st Street in 1818.  Six years later, the first building of the Episcopal Church's General Seminary was erected on the property.  Within a few years, the first genteel residences began appearing on the opposite side of West 20th Street.  In 1835, John N. Smith erected one of the first homes to face the bucolic spot, at 280 West 20th Street (renumbered 436 in 1865).

Faced in red Flemish bond brick above a brownstone basement, the 25-foot wide house was a very early example of the emerging Greek Revival style.  Handsome iron fencing  with acanthus finials ran along the areaway.  Fluted Doric columns upheld the heavy entablature of the double-doored entrance.  The squat windows of the attic level interrupted the generous, layered wooden fascia below the understated cornice.

The handsome columned entrance and the layered fascia survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The house was home to the William A. Duncan family in the 1840s.  He was a paper merchant at 77 John Street.  Starting around 1853, it was operated as a boarding house run by Harriet Maurice.  Among her tenants that year were M. L. Candee, a clerk, and importer Henry J. Moore.  An advertisement in The New York Times on March 13, 1854 offered:

Boarding--Rooms furnished or unfurnished, with board for gentlemen and their wives and single gentlemen, in a house with all the modern improvements.  Apply at 280 West 20th-st.

An "M. Miller" boarded here in January 1859, when his room was burglarized.  The thief made away with "a carpet-bag containing a number of deeds and bonds, a pocketbook containing $585 in $5 and $10 bills on the Brownsville Bank, Omaha City, Nebraska, and some valuable papers," as reported by the New-York Tribune on January 18.  Miller reported the theft to Police Sergeant Lefferts, who concocted a wily scheme.

Signing an announcement in the local papers "Jones," Lefferts offered $100 for the return of the bag, and used his personal address.  On January 17, two "rough-looking Irishmen" rang the bell of the Lefferts house.  Posing as "Mrs. Jones," Lefferts's wife explained that her husband was out, partially described the bag, and asked where her husband could call on them.  When they left, she rushed to the Detectives' Office and reported the incident.

Wearing plain clothes, Sergeant Lefferts and Officer McCord went to 103 Perry Street, the address the men supplied.  Some bantering went on, during which the two men questioned "Jones" about the description of the bag and its contents.  Satisfied that Lefferts was the actual owner, they released it after receiving the reward.

"At this point of the proceedings, the officers buckled on their shields and told the two men that they were prisoners," reported the New-York Tribune.  A fight ensued, but a "few well directed blows from the clubs of the [officers] brought the fellows to terms, and they submitted to be handcuffed," said the article.  The prisoners insisted they had found the carpetbag on the stoop of the Perry Street house.

The West 20th Street residence continued to be operated as a boarding house through 1863.  The next year it was purchased by Dewitt (sometimes spelled De Witt) Clinton Cole and his wife, the former Victorine Selena Crapser.  A Civil War veteran, Cole (perhaps appropriately) was a coal merchant, his business located at 165 Tenth Avenue.  He and Victorine had four daughters, Helen, Victorine, Marguerite, and Bessie.

As was common, the Coles rented unneeded space in their home.  In 1868, the Dexter family lived here.  Edward and Elias Dexter ran an art and framing store at 564 Broadway.  They would have occupied the second floor, while the Coles lived above and below them.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 2, 1872 offered, "To Let--with owner (private family), second floor, 5 rooms, all conveniences, in an American family; house 436 West Twentieth street; location first class."

Dewitt Cole had an interesting avocation--breeding pedigree dogs.  On April 9, 1879, he entered his English Setter puppy Boson in the Gilmore's Garden dog show.  The New York Times remarked, "The English setter dogs were magnificent.  Such a lot was never seen in any country before."

In October 1885, the Coles hired architect M. H. Roullier to enlarge the house with a full-height, 17-foot-wide extension to the rear.  The renovation cost them the equivalent of $135,000 in 2025.

In January 1887, the Coles took in two new renters, the fascinating Reverend Royal G. Wilder and his wife.  On February 17, The Sabbath Recorder reported, "With the January number, the Missionary Review begins volume ten.  The address of the editor and publisher has been changed from Princeton, N. J., to 436 West 20th St., New York."  Wilder had established the publication in 1875.

Born in 1816 in Bridgeport, Vermont, Wilder graduated from Middlebury College and two schools in Mississippi before entering Andover Theological Seminary.  In 1845, two years after graduating, he sailed to India as a missionary.  Although he would remain there for three decades, it was not an easy mission.  The New-York Tribune explained, "The natives of Kolapoor were a bigoted class, most of them being Brahmins, and his greeting there was in the shape of a petition to the government for his banishment."  For 12 years, said the newspaper, Wilder and his wife were the only Christians within a population of 4 million.

Wilder's health prompted his return to America in 1871.  He wrote Mission Schools in India and, now in the West 20th Street, continued work on Missionary Review.  His heart, however, was in India.  After moving into the Coles' home, he said, "My whole soul would leap and jump at the chance if I had energy enough to go back to that dear native mission field."

Wilder's condition continued to worsen, but he carried on his work diligently.  On October 8, he published an edition of Missionary Review and three days later he died.  The New-York Tribune said, "Mrs. Wilder, her daughter and one son will return to India to complete the work already begun there."

At the turn of the century, the Coles' second floor tenants were Henry and Mary Hughes.  A machinist, he worked for the Charles K. Rogers & Co. factory at 161-165 West 18th Street.  Hughes became obsessed about the possibility of fire in the old building.  According to the New York Morning Telegraph, he regularly told Mary, "It's a regular fire trap.  I have a premonition that I'm going to die in a fire, and I think it'll be in that building."

The newspaper said, "Some time ago, his premonition constantly preying upon his mind, Hughes had his machine transferred from the third floor of the factory to a vault which was considered fireproof."  Next door to the vault was a storage room where excelsior, used for shipping, was kept.

On April 18, 1900, fire broke out in the excelsior room.  While the other 110 employees quickly exited the factory building, Hughes was trapped.  "He had no exit--no escape from the death he knew, or thought, the Fates had destined him to meet."  Had Hughes not moved his workplace into the vault, he, too, would have simply walked out of the building.  Instead, he met a grisly demise.  On April 20, the New York Morning Telegraph reported, "His charred and maimed body was found yesterday morning in the vault in the basement where he was penned in, a victim of smoke and fire, precisely as he had foretold."

The Coles apparently had no problems with their renters until the Arthur Lewis family moved in.  The couple had a small son, Arnold.  Things went smoothly until Arnold contracted whooping cough and had to be kept home from school.  The peace of Dewitt C. Cole's quiet domicile was shattered.  On June 23, 1909, he and his tenant faced a judge.

The Evening Post said Cole told Magistrate Krotel in the Jefferson Market Court "that the small son of Mrs. Arthur Lewis made the day hideous."

Mrs. Lewis explained, "Your Honor, my boy Arnold has only two drums, four horns, a couple of whistles, and one rattle.  He's had the whooping cough, and I had to keep him at home.  So I got him these toys."

When does all this happen?" asked the magistrate.

"From one to five in the afternoon."

The article said, "Mrs. Lewis was told by the magistrate to keep Arnold quiet."

Victorine Selena Cole died on July 24, 1920.  DeWitt and his daughters noted that her funeral would be "private."  Still living here with DeWitt was his only still single daughter, Victorine.

On February 24, 1925, the New York Evening Post reported, "De Witt Cole, ninety, one of the oldest residents of Old Chelsea, died this morning at 436 West Twentieth street, where he had lived for more than fifty years."

In October 1929, the Cole daughters sold 436 West 20th Street to Aaron J. and Elizabeth Colnan, "for their residency," according to The New York Times.  Interestingly, they inherited renters, Cornelius Blauvelt Zabriskie and his wife, Augusta.  Zabriskie was the registrar and bursar of the General Theological Seminary across the street.  The couple had rented from the Coles as early as 1923.

Zabriskie had retired in the spring of 1929.  He died here at the age of 71 on February 22, 1930.  In reporting his death, The New York Times remarked, "He spent much of the early part of his life in the West."

Actress and swimmer Frances Gaar purchased 436 West 20th Street in 1962 for $12,000 (about $124,000 today).  She had appeared in the motion picture Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates four years earlier and now appeared in television shows like The Defenders.  A champion swimmer in college, a biography by the Actors Fund said she "turned down an offer by MGM Studios to be a stand-in for Esther Williams in order to study acting in New York."  Two years after moving into the West 20th Street house, Gaar returned to the water doing an underwater ballet in the 1964 World's Fair's "Sea Hunt" exhibition.  

Gaar rented rooms in the house, mostly to actors.  A long-time resident was actress Glenn Close, "who lived on the parlor floor for many years," according to The New York Times on October 11, 2009.

Frances Gaar died at the age of 89 in 2008.  Just before her death, she sold the house to Michael Bolla and Michael Daniel, developers, "who promised her they would preserve it," according to The New York Times.  Gaar donated most of the $6.1 million sale proceeds to the Actors Fund.

On October 11, 2009, The New York Times reported that the new owners were "rebuilding the structure...while preserving historic detail."  They had put it on the market a week earlier as "an unusually large family mansion" at $21 million.

Unusual paneled Greek Revival pilasters survive in the parlor level.  photograph by Chester Higgins Jr. / The New York Times April 27, 2011

The new owners converted it to "Chelsea Mansion," with short-term rentals.  The parlor floor rented in 2011 for $12,000 per month.

The house was on the market again in 2015 for $22.5 million.  In reporting the offering on March 18, Real Estate Weekly said, "The building has continued [to] attract celebrity tenants in recent years with Courtney Love among those calling 436 West 20th Street home."

Current owners have removed the Greek Revival entrance (perhaps to be reinstalled later) and replaced the complex 1835 fascia with a sterile example.  David Holwka, in an article called "The Seamy Side of 436 West 20th Street" in his Small House Lab blog on January 31, 2025, complains about the ongoing renovations that appear to be going forward behind the backs of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.  He points out, for instance, a "prominent steel I-beam above its roof ridge and a large skylight on its north slope."  There was, he says, "no evidence of applications or approvals for these additions."

The wonderful missing entrance, in place as late as September 2024, will hopefully be restored.

The 190-year-old house, the earliest one on the block, survives in remarkable condition.

photographs by the author 

The 1898 Swannanoa - 105-107 East 15th Street

On July 15, 1897, David Greene sold the "three story brick store" at 105 East 15th Street and the "three-story frame dwelling" next door at No. 107 for $19,684, a considerable $768,000 in 2025 terms.  The following year, developer Paul B. Pugh hired architect Gilbert A. Schellinger to design a 10-story residential hotel on the site--The Swannanoa.

Schellinger's Renaissance Revival-style structure featured a two-story stone base dominated by a double-height portico upheld by slender, polished granite Corinthian columns.  Two-story Doric piers separated the openings at this level.  Two rounded bays rose from the third to seventh floors.  Each story was separated by a richly carved spandrel panel.  A full-width stone balcony fronted the tenth floor, and a balustrade ran along the roof line.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1906 (copyright expired)

Paul B. Pugh marketed the building as having "every known modern improvement."  Apartments ranged from five to ten rooms and a bath.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on February 22, 1900 boasted that The Swannanoa was "finished and decorated in superior style, hardwood trim throughout, electric light, elevator, long distance telephone in each apartment" and "all night service."  Rents ranged from $55 to $160 (equal to $2,120 to $6,170 per month today).

This floorplan depicts four apartments, two each front and back.  New-York Tribune, February 22, 1900 (copyright expired)

The World's New York Apartment House Album described the parlors as being trimmed with "red birch, curly panels, handsome mantels with mirrors, gas grates, parquet floors."  The dining rooms and bedrooms were trimmed in quartered white oak.  The publication said that the kitchens contained, "wash trays and sinks of porcelain; gas ranges" and "refrigerators of [the] latest improved patterns and glass lined."

Among the respectable and well-to-do initial residents was a couple who were decidedly neither--Maudie Belle Marou and Charles H. Moore, alias Moran, alias Marou.  In 1900, Samuel H. Conn inherited $12,000 from his grandfather's estate.  He was introduced to Charles Moran by a friend.  

"I was taken to an elegantly furnished flat at the apartment house at 105 East Fifteenth street, and there met Miss Maudie Belle Marou, a very pretty girl.  I was told that Moran's real name was Marou, and that Maudie was his sister," he later told a reporter.  After visiting the apartment a few times, Morau told Conn "that he had the greatest chance in the world to make money."  He posed as a telegraph operator who "had made thousands by getting information from the race tracks before it reached the pool rooms [i.e., betting offices]."  Conn explained, "He said that friends of his who were operators would delay the reports of the St. Louis races twenty minutes, and give him a 'tip' on the winner by telephone."

On July 24, 1900, Conn gave Morau $2,500 to bet.  He lost and was told that the money was accidentally placed on the wrong horse.  A day or two later, he bet $3,500, and another time $600.  In each case the money was lost through an "error."  When Conn refused to continue to bet, Morau borrowed money to pay the rent on the flat.  On August 15, Conn told a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer, "He induced me to go to Saratoga on Tuesday, and when I returned to this city all the furniture had been taken out of the flat and stored, and Miss Marou and the gang had disappeared."  The newspaper said, "'Chappie' Moran is well known among the police, and his picture is at the rogues' gallery at police headquarters."

More typical of the residents were actors Kate Claxton and Charles A. Stevenson.  Kate was born in 1848 and first appeared on stage in Chicago in 1870.  Charles Stevenson was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1851.  The two married on March 3, 1878, and had one son, Harold.

The couple appeared together in In the Sea of Ice in 1883.  from the Jay T. Last Collection.

In 1900, Stevenson traveled to London with the cast of Zaza, which starred the world famous Mrs. Leslie Carter, known as the "American Sarah Bernhardt."  The run closed on July 28 and four days later the Morning Telegraph titled an article, "Kate Claxton is Miffed," and reported, "Charles A. Stevenson contemplates going to Switzerland with Mrs. Carter and her party, instead of returning to New York with the other members of the company."  The article added, "The growing fondness of Mrs. Carter and Mr. Stevenson for each other's society has excited a great deal of comment for several weeks."

The article continued, "It has even been whispered that Mrs. Stevenson's wife, who is known to the stage as Kate Claxton, wrote to him some time ago to give up his engagement in the 'Zaza' company and return to their home."  Stevenson, however, "told some of his fellow players that he would not be dictated to."

Kate's concern had started on the opening night of Zaza in New York.  "It is said she almost fainted in the theatre...when at one period Mrs. Carter threw herself into Mr. Stevenson's arms and kissed and caressed and pawed over him in a way that would have brought response from a marble statue," said the Morning Telegraph.  Kate was not in town to comment on the rumors.  "She is visiting her son, Harold Stevenson, who is spending the Summer at Port Washington, to be near his yacht," said the article.

The Stevensons received horrifying news three years later.  On April 22, 1904, The Boston Globe reported that Harold Stevenson, "shot and killed himself this afternoon in his bachelor apartments at 225 4th av."  The 21-year-old left a note that said, "Dear Mother--I can't make any friends.  We all have to go some time, and I may as well go now before I suffer any more.  Harold"

New-York Tribune, September 9, 1906 (copyright expired)

Other residents at the time were William S. Brockway, secretary of the Oil Fields of Mexico Company; John K. Erskine, Jr., a member of the law firm of Evarts, Van Cott & Erskine, and his wife, Marie; Leslie P. Farmer, chairman and commissioner of the Passenger Department of the Trunk Line Association; and children's author John Howard Jewett.

Jewett was born in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1843 and fought in the Civil War with the 10th Massachusetts Infantry.  For years he was editor and business manager of The Holyoke Transcript and then, starting in 1873, published The Worcester Gazette.  By the end of the 19th century, he devoted himself to writing children's books.  His first, The Bunny Stories: For Young People, was published in 1900, followed by the five-volume Christmas Stocking Stories, a ten-volume series of Little Mother Stories, and a four-volume set of Grandmother Goose Stories.

George J. Kraus was described by The New York Times in 1914 as an "amusement man" and had been the partner of "Big Tim" Sullivan in the firm of Sullivan & Kraus.  (Sullivan was a prominent leader in Tammany Hall and served in the United States Congress from 1903 to 1906.)  On June 3, 1914, a year after Sullivan's death, The New York Times said Kraus "was 'the man behind the gun' in the many theatrical ventures of the late leader of the Sullivan clan."  Sullivan & Kraus owned the Dewey Theatre on East 14th Street, which reportedly averaged a daily attendance of 9,000.  

George J. Krause was a part-owner of the Dewey Theatre, above.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Diamond dealer Antonio Stephen lived in The Swannanoa in the post World War I years.  At around 4:45 on the afternoon of June 5, 1919, he was enjoying a cup of coffee in Abraham Numair's coffee house at 95 Washington Street when six gunmen stormed in.  "We're going to frisk you," they announced.

The New-York Tribune said, "the customers thought the intruders were detectives."  The thugs had done their homework before crashing in.  They "marshalled" customers into a group and then one of them demanded, "Where's Stephen?"  They took his satchel, which contained $6,000 worth of diamonds, and $110 in cash from him.  Then, one-by-one, they fleeced the other two dozen or more patrons.  "In taking the scarfpins, the robbers cut their victims' neckties to obviate the difficulties offered by the safety clasps of the pins," said the article.

Suddenly, a customer entered the restaurant.  Abraham Numair shouted, "We are being held up!"  Before the gunman at the door could stop him, the customer ran into the street yelling for a policeman.  The Sun reported, "the gang on a signal from the leader backed out of the restaurant and scattered in the crowded street."  The man who had stood watch at the doorway was captured by Numair after a violent struggle.  Unfortunately for Antonio Stephen, the other robbers escaped with his diamonds and cash.

A fascinating resident, here as early as 1921, was Dr. Annie Sturgis Daniel, president of the Woman's Prison Association and Isaac H. Hopper Home.  She graduated from the Women's Medical College of New York in 1879 and joined the staff of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children at 321 East 15th Street two years later.  Known by New Yorkers as "The Angel of the East Side," she visited the tenement buildings in the Lower East Side and publicized the conditions.  Decades later, The New York Times would say, "she is known as the woman who first showed the need of tenement house, sweatshop and prison reforms."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On the evening of November 22, 1941, Dr. Daniel was the guest of honor at the annual dinner of the alumnae of the Women's Medical College in the Hotel St. Moritz.  In reporting the event, The New York Times mentioned, "Dr. Daniel is celebrating her sixtieth year as a member of the staff of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children."  Three years later, on August 11, 1944, The New York Times reported that Dr. Annie S. Daniel, "sometimes called 'The Angel of the East Side,'" had died in her apartment here at the age of 85.

In the meantime, Georgie Vere Tyler, the widow of Dr. Lachlan Tyler (son of President John Tyler), lived here as early as 1922.  Born in Richmond, Virginia, the outspoken author and speaker addressed social and political issues.  Among her works were The Daughter of a Rebel and A Huntress of Men.  When her Children of Transgression was published in 1922, she was interviewed by Marguerite Mooers Marshall for The Evening World.  Marshall described the book as "a strong and unusual plea for a new kind of sex equality, for 'equal rights' not merely in politics or business but in love and happiness."

Georgia Vere Tyler, The Evening World, May 6, 1922 (copyright expired)

Tyler pointed out during the interview that for generations, men "told women--all women--that woman is never, never so happy as in her own home."  The modern woman, she said, was rebelling against that restriction.

By mid-century, sculptor Breading B. Furst lived here.  Born in Yonkers, New York in 1907, he was best known for his portrayals of children and abstract studies.  He died in his Swannanoa apartment on December 19, 1950.

Former light heavyweight boxing champion Paul Berlenbach and his wife, the former Elizabeth Merck, lived here by the mid-1960s.  Born on February 18, 1901, Berlenbach was known in the ring as the Astoria Assassin and held the world light heavyweight title in 1925 and 1926.  Now retired from sports, he ran Paul Berlenbach's Ringside Restaurant in Sound Beach, New York.

In 1986, the apartments were divided, resulting in seven and eight suites per floor.  It was possibly at this time that the tenth-floor balcony was removed.  Still known as The Swannanoa, a current advertisement boasts that it offers "contemporary urban living while preserving its historical charm."

photographs by the author

The 1900 Samuel Haas Mansion - 15 East 80th Street

 

Samuel Paul Haas was president of Haas Brothers Ladies Tailoring Co.  On October 30, 1898, he and his wife, Isabella, purchased the 21-foot wide, four-story brownstone at 13 East 80th Street from the estate of Anne Bishop for "about $36,000," according to the New York Herald.  (The address would be renumbered 15 East 80th Street in March 1907.)  The price, equal to nearly $1.5 million in 2025 terms, reflected the rising real estate values in the neighborhood as Manhattan's millionaires crept this far north.

At the time, new homeowners were either drastically remodeling the outdated high-stooped brownstones or replacing them with modern, American basement residences.  Haas contracted the newly formed firm of Brun & Hauser to replace the Bishop house with a fashionable Beaux Arts-style mansion.

Completed in 1900, the five-story residence was faced in limestone.  Its elliptically arched entrance was centered within a rusticated base.  French windows at the second and third floors were fronted with faux balconies with French-style railings.  Below the third floor balcony and flanking it were carved cartouches, the former backed with palm fronds and the latter draped with elaborate swags of roses and bows.  The fifth floor sat atop a stone cornice and was capped with a carved parapet.

Haas was born in Reckendorf, Germany in June 1837. Isabella (known as Bella) was notably younger, born in March 1856.  The couple had one daughter, Florine, who was 18 years old and a recent debutante when they moved into the East 80th Street mansion.  Like their neighbors, they were attended to by a significant domestic staff, as reflected in an advertisement in The New York Times:

Waitress and Parlor Maid--Only first-class need apply; family of three; five in help; good wages, fine position; personal city references required.

The "waitress and parlor maid" would be one of the more polished of the staff members.  She would serve in the dining room and in the drawing room and would need to have impeccable finesse.  The mention of "five in help" suggests that the other staff members were the butler, lady's maid, cook, and chambermaid.

Florine married Dudley David Sicher in 1904.  The newlyweds moved into the mansion with Samuel and Bella, where little Richard Dudley Sicher was born the following year.  A second child, Jane E., would come along on September 17, 1911.

Like his father-in-law, Dudley D. Sicher was in the garment industry.  He was president of D. E. Sicher & Co., underwear manufacturer, and president of the Cotton Garment Manufacturers' Association of New York.  His firm employed 500 men and women, according to The New York Times.  

Sicher's approach to employer-employee relations at a time of worker dissatisfaction and tense labor problems was the polar opposite of many other garment makers.  He supported the concept of minimum wages, and in 1913 organized a factory-supported school for his poorly educated, mostly immigrant female workers.

He told The New York Times on April 20, 1913:

We want [the factory girls] to get a broader education that will help them to be more intelligent workers.  We will give them the skill if the teachers will help to give them the intelligence.

The article said that the workers would be taught "business arithmetic, commercial geography, and writing."

Dudley David Sicher The New York Times April 20, 1913 (copyright expired)

Tragically, two months prior to that article, Richard Dudley Sicher died at the age of five.  The little boy's funeral was held privately.

It is unclear when Bella Haas died, but she was already deceased when Samuel Paul Haas died in the East 80th Street mansion on May 19, 1920 at the age of 63.  After bequeaths of $5,000 to Mount Sinai Hospital and $2,500 to the Montefiore Home, he left his entire estate to Florine.  (He had transferred title to 15 East 80th Street to her in 1907.)

In 1922, the Sichers hired architects Taylor & Levi to remodel the second floor, or piano nobile.  While other homeowners were embracing modern 1920s trends, the Sichers turned to the past.  Taylor & Levi gave the interiors a Tudor and Gothic make-over and replaced the French windows with leaded, Gothic-style versions.  The New York Times reported that the redecorated interiors included "paneling and ornaments from the collection of William Randolph Hearst."

Year Book of the Architectural League of New York and Catalogue, 1922 (copyright expired)

David D. Sicher was elected president of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies in 1929, and two years later was nominated as Borough President of Manhattan.  In reporting the nomination, The New York Times remarked that he, "has a fine reputation for philanthropy."  (By now, in fact, he had retired to devote his time to charitable causes.)

Florine was equally involved in philanthropy.  She was a founder of the Women's Division of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies and sat on its board.  She died "after a lingering illness," according to The New York Times, on June 28, 1938.  Her funeral was held in the mansion the following day.

Dudley David Sicher died the following year, on December 29, 1939 at the age of 63.  The New York Times remarked on his "notable business career" in which he "pioneered in industrial relations and became a leader in the cotton garment manufacturing industry."  The article continued, "Then, in his prime, he left the world of business to devote himself to work for the welfare of his fellow humans."

On June 3, 1941, The Sun reported, "Dr. Lester Carson Spier has purchased the five-story dwelling with elevator at 15 East 80th street...from the estate of Florine H. Sicher."  The article noted, "The house contains thirty rooms and eight baths."

Dr. Spier began his medical practice in June 1930 and specialized in surgery and "traumatic surgery" (i.e., cases of victims involved in automobile crashes, industrial accidents and such).  He had two children from a previous marriage, Marcia Ann, who was eight, and Carol Payne, who was six.

In 1949, Spier married Frances Johnson Stillman, just days after her divorce from Charles Latimer Stillman, the executive vice-president and treasurer of Time, Inc.  Moving into the mansion with his bride were her three children, Charles, Stanley and Louise.

The Spiers routinely appeared in the society columns.  On January 25, 1964, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Many cocktail parties were given in private homes last evening before the annual Yorkville dinner dance in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza."  The article noted, "Among those who entertained at parties were...Dr. and Mrs. Lester C. Spier and Miss Virginia Dodge, jointly, at the Spier home at 15 East 80th Street."

Taylor & Levi's Gothic-style second floor windows can be glimpsed in this 1941 photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On April 13, 1967, The New York Times reported that the Spiers had sold 15 East 80th Street to "Eliot Janeway, the economist and columnist, and his wife, Elizabeth, the novelist" for $350,000.  (The price would translate to about $3.29 million today.)  The article mentioned, "The house is believed to be one of the first in New York to be centrally air-conditioned."

Eliot Janeway was born on New Year's Day 1913.  He and Elizabeth Hall were married in 1938 and had two sons, Michael and William.  Eliot was an influential economist, writing for Time and Fortune magazines until 1944.  He advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.  

At the time of their marriage, Elizabeth was working on her first novel, The Walsh Girls.  Eventually she would write six more, including the 1945 Daisy Kenyon that was made into a film of the same name starring Joan Crawford.

In 1998, 15 East 80th Street was converted to a doctor's office on the ground floor and two duplexes above.  It was possibly during this renovation that the Gothic-style leaded second floor windows were removed.

The mansion was purchased in 2000 by Wall Street mogul Jeffrey Urwin and his wife, Ailsa, for $6.6 million.  They re-converted it to a single family home with five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, a private gym,  and 35-foot music-reception room.  The couple sold it in January 2013 for $24.75 million.

photographs by the author

Emery Roth's 1929 110 West 86th Street

 

image via cocoran.com

On March 18, 1928, The New York Times reported that builder David Zimmerman "purchased from Benjamin Benenson the four altered dwellings at 104 to 110 West Eighty-sixth Street."  The $485,000 price tag would translate to a stunning $8.8 million in 2025.  The article mentioned, "Mr. Zimmerman is constructing a fifteen-story apartment house at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Ninety-sixth Street and will erect a similar structure on the West Eighty-sixth Street site."

Zimmerman formed the 110 West 86th Street Corp. to erect the building and hired architect Emery Roth to design it.  His plans, filed in May, projected a 16-story and penthouse apartment building that would bring Zimmerman's total outlay to $22.6 million in today's money.  Six months later, on December 8, The New York Sun described, "The building will contain suites of from two to five rooms, with one and two baths, and will have mechanical refrigeration."  (Modern refrigerators, which were replacing messy ice boxes, were an alluring amenity.)

Completed in the summer of 1929, 110 West 86th Street sat upon a rusticated limestone base with stores.  Faced in beige brick, the upper floors of Roth's neo-Renaissance design relied on a few well-placed elements as decoration.  Three Renaissance-style pediments appeared atop four windows of the second floor, easily noticed by passersby.  The otherwise unadorned third through fifteenth floors were enlivened by three exuberant double-height, terra cotta faux balconies at the 12th and 13th floors.  Two bays wide, the elaborate Renaissance-inspired frames included blind balustrades and intricate Renaissance-inspired ornaments that terminated in molded cornices with heraldic shields.  The shields returned at the 16th floor as spandrel ornaments.  Roth completed the design with a modest corbel table and stone urns upon pedestals along the roofline.

Among the initial commercial tenants was the florist shop of Alexander Sekelos, who experienced a frightening incident on December 30, 1931.  That afternoon a "boy," as described by The New York Sun, entered and pointed a gun at Sekelos and demanded money.  The florist handed over $43 in cash and a $4 check.  The teen did not get far.  According to The Sun, "he was captured after a three-block chase by Patrolman William Sweeney."  John Duff originally gave his name as O'Neill and denied he had robbed the store, "although Sekelos's $4 check was found in his pocket."

The building filled with well-to-do white collar residents.  Among the first were David Dworsky and his wife, the former Carrie Autler.  Born in 1882, he sat on the board of governors of Associated Millinery Men, Inc. and was a leader in the millinery industry, according to The New York Times.

The Louis Greenfields and Benjamin Ogushes were also early residents.  Like Dworsky, Greenfield was involved in the apparel trade and was treasurer of the Admiration Dress Co., Inc.  Benjamin Ogush, whose wife was the former Martha Nestint, was a partner in the jewelry firm of Katz & Ogush, Inc.

Monroe C. Alesker and his wife, the former Mareaner Simms, were also early residents.  Alesker graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1926 and from New York University Law School.  Active in politics and community affairs, the young attorney was chairman of the legislation committee of the Park West Neighborhood Association.  He became ill in June 1937 and died in New York Hospital at the age of 32 on August 18.

Nathan and Anne Schultz moved into the building around the mid-1940s with their son, Irving.  Schultz was a retired cigar manufacturer.  By 1949, his declining health had made him "despondent," according to his wife.  Around 6:15 on the evening of March 25 that year, Irving discovered his father "hanging by a bedsheet from a hook in a bedroom closet."

Also living here at the time of the tragedy were Dr. J. Wilner Sundelson and his wife, the former Janet Racolin.  Sundelson, who received his Ph.D. in public finance at Columbia University, was an executive with Ford International.  He had earlier been associated with the United States Treasury Department, the Port of New York Authority, and the National Planning Board.

His impressive resume was equaled by his wife's.  With an M.A. degree from Columbia University, Janet Sundelson had been an economist with the Treasury Department (almost assuredly where she met her husband), a member of the United States technical delegation to the Bretton Woods Conference, state chairman of the public finance committee of the League of Women Voters, and an instructor at Queens College.  She was, by the late 1940s, an instructor in the Department of Economics at Barnard College.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Quiz shows were popular fare of 1950s television and in 1958 resident John Burns was chosen to appear as a contestant in  the show Who Do You Trust?.  Burns's few minutes of fame turned into a debacle.  On September 10, The New York Times reported, "a contestant on 'Who Do You Trust?' was trapped in an isolation booth for about twelve minutes during yesterday's show."  The article said that American Broadcasting Company's studio carpenters "had to remove hinges on the bulky door in order to extricate John Burns."  (It is unclear if he won any prize money, despite the on-air fiasco.)

A celebrated resident in the 1970s was stage, film and television actress Margaret Linn.  Born in Richmond, Indiana on August 21, 1934, she studied at Northwestern University.  She worked with Uta Hagen several times in the Shakespeare Festival productions.  Her many television appearances included the 1957 The DuPont Show of the Month, an episode of New York Television Theatre in 1965, and in Great Performances in 1971.  She appeared on Broadway in Halfway Up the Tree and How's the World Treating You? and several Off Broadway productions.

In 1973, she traveled to Los Angeles to appear in the Mark Taper Forum production of Hot L Baltimore.  She was there on September 12 when she suffered a brain hemorrhage and died at the age of 39.

Another resident involved in entertainment at the time was Jay Eisenstat.  The bachelor graduated from the New York University School of Arts and Sciences.  He founded and was the first president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, and was executive vice president of Myers & Eisenstat Films.  He served on the Mayor's Advisory Council on Motion Pictures and Television, and in 1973 was awarded by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences "for his work in training minorities in the field," as reported by The New York Times.  The prodigious television and film producer died of cancer on December 9, 1975 at the age of 33.

Writer and playwright Corinne Jacker lived here as early as 1980.  Born in Chicago in 1933, she majored in theater at Northwestern University, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees.  She relocated to New York City in 1958.  Her 1975 Off-Broadway play Bits & Pieces and her 1976 Harry Outside earned her Obie Awards.  Among the cast of her play My Life in 1976 was Christopher Reeves, who landed the title  role of the motion picture Superman that year.

Corinne Jacker, photograph by Ken Howard, via New York Times January 25, 2013.

Jacker wrote occasional television scripts, and, according to the 1979-80 Writer's Directory, was a "writer of biology, cybernetics, and politics; also writer of non-fiction for children."  Corinne Jacker died at the age of 79 on January 11, 2013.  

Designed by one of America's foremost 20th century apartment architects, 110 West 86th Street survives nearly unchanged--including the ground floor, most often the first to be ravaged.  

many thanks to reader Elizabeth Smith for requesting this post