The Jacob and Mina Shire House - 109 East 61st Street

 

photograph by the author

Bentley Squier was a major player in the development of the Upper East Side in the years following the Civil War.  In 1870 he broke ground for a brownstone-faced residence at 109 East 61st Street.  It was most likely designed by D. & J. Jardine, with which he worked repeatedly. 

Squier sold the completed, 19-foot-wide house to Henry Grossmayer on February 25, 1871 for $28,000 (about $742,000 in 2025 terms).  Four stories tall above a high English basement, its Italianate design included an arched, double-doored entrance with a foliate keystone and brackets that upheld a triangular pediment.  The architrave frames of the openings wore prominent molded cornices.  A complex pressed metal cornice with foliate brackets crowned the design.

Henry Grossmayer was a cotton merchant.  The recent war had greatly disrupted his business.  To keep the Confederate government from seizing his bales of cotton, he had warehoused it in Savannah under the name of a Southerner, Abraham Einstein.  A later court order explained, "It remained in store in this manner until the capture of Savannah, in December, 1864, when it was reported to our military forces as Grossmayer's cotton, and taken by them and sent to New York and sold."

On December 1, 1879, Grossmayer sold 109 East 61st Street to Jacob Shire and his wife, the former Mina Milius, for $20,000.  A partner in the shirt manufacturing firm Miller, Shire & Co., Jacob Shire was born in Germany in 1834 and his wife was born in Ohio in 1844.  The couple were the parents of eight children: Leo, Albert, Tillie, Simeon (known as Sidney), Helen, Lawrence Crawford, Harold and Edward Isaac.  The children ranged from 5 to 14 years old when the family moved in.

Twelve years later, tragedy rocked the Shire family.  As Sidney got older, he became, "rather wild, and as he had plenty of money to spend, he...associated with undesirable companions," according to Annie E. Griffin.  She was the mother of 20-year-old Minnie Griffin, who moved into Annie's apartment on West 59th Street from Chicago in 1890.  Shortly afterward, Minnie and Sidney Shire met and, according to Annie, "I think the girl had a good influence over him."

Within months, 22-year-old Sidney became engaged to Minnie Griffin.  His family, however, was opposed to the relationship.  Jacob Shire later said, "We all talked to him in turn--that is, the different members of the family, but it seemed to have no effect upon him.  He was probably infatuated with her."

The last of those talks came on the afternoon of July 7, 1891 when Sidney, "had a stormy interview with his father," as worded by The Evening World.  Jacob demanded that he give up Minnie.  If not, "he must leave his house."  Jacob threatened that he would "have nothing more to do with him unless he obeyed his wishes."  The Evening World said, "The young man...was very much cut up over his father's treatment of him, and said he would never desert the girl he loved."

That evening Sidney visited the Griffin apartment.  He told Minnie of the conversation and vowed to leave his family.  Minnie, however, told him "he ought to regard his father's wishes, and that at least he ought not to give up his home."  

At around midnight, Sidney got up and put his hat on.  He kissed Minnie good night, then asked if he could step into the bedroom to check himself in the mirror.  As Minnie waited by the door, she suddenly heard a gunshot and "a heavy fall."

The Evening World, July 8, 1891 (copyright expired)

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle indiscreetly reported that Sidney, "blew his brains out."  The New York Press said, "Just before 1 a.m. a fierce ringing of the bell at No. 109 East Sixty-first street led to the announcement to Jacob Shire and his wife and to Simeon's brothers and sister the news that the boy had killed himself in his distraction between love and duty to his parents and his infatuation for Miss Minnie."

Jacob Shire, accompanied with two sons, including Albert (who was in the jewelry business), drove to the Griffin apartment.  "The father was so prostrated by the news of his son's shocking death that he would not go inside to look at his body but remained in the carriage while the brothers entered the house and learned the details of the shooting," recounted The Evening World.  Simon's body was brought to the East 61st Street house around 6 a.m.

At the time of the tragedy, the youngest child, Edward Isaac, was 17 years old.  Two years later he was enrolled in both Columbia College's School of Arts and in The School of Mines.  He graduated from the latter in 1896 with a Ph.B. degree.

After living here for nearly a quarter of a century, Jacob and Mina Shire sold 109 East 61st Street on June 2, 1902 to Josephine Van Boskerck for $35,000 (about $1.3 million today).  The widow of John W. Van Boskerck, Josephine's residency would be relatively short.  She died here on February 5, 1908.  Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

The house was leased by Josephine's daughter, Lizzie, to Charles Cashman.  The unmarried 77-year-old died in the house on March 12, 1909.  As had been the case with Josephine Van Boskerck, his funeral was held in the house.  Later that year, on November 23, 1909, The New York Times reported that "Miss L. Boskirck" [sic] had leased the house.  Her new tenants were the De Witt Davidson family.

De Witt Davidson was a jeweler.  In 1913, his wife hired a polished maid named Marie despite the 24-year-old's having no references.  On October 13, Mrs. Davidson told a reporter from the New York Herald that she "was somewhat uneasy at having taken her into the household without proper recommendations, [but] she had never had so fine a servant before."

The newspaper described Marie as Viennese, saying, "In appearance, Marie is more than the ordinary maid.  She is prepossessing and neat, short of stature, with pleasing but not striking features, and has a wealth of beautiful hair."  Mrs. Davidson noticed that "her hands were soft and white."  Marie's hands, her refined manners, and her wardrobe strongly suggested that she was no run of the mill servant girl.  The New York Herald reported,

With her neat trunk, which bore labels from every country, installed in her room, Marie began unpacking her belongings, only to find that she had nothing suitable to work in.  She took out a handsome skating costume, but laid that aside as being inappropriate.  Then a tennis costume was tried on with white buckskin tennis shoes, and as that was the nearest approach to the uniform of a well groomed servant she decided to wear the tennis outfit until she could have made some plain gingham and calico dresses, with white aprons.

There were other hints to Marie's identity in her trunk.  She removed "family jewels valued at several hundred dollars, which she asked her employers to place in safe keeping for her until she could rent a box in a safety deposit vault," said the article.  The other clues in the trunk were: "a dainty bridal gown with orange blossoms, a lace veil, satin slippers and all the accessories of a trousseau."  Residents along East 61st Street quickly concocted rumors.  "Neighbors who have heard about Marie are wondering if she is not some person of position and wealth disguising herself as an upstairs girl," said the article.  

Pressed by the family, their "upstairs girl" obliquely explained how she came to work in their home.  Without betraying her true name, Marie said she "fled from her home in Europe to escape being wedded to a man she did not love."  The intended groom, she said, "is a man of high status," and hinted, said the New York Herald, that she "herself is far above the ordinary class to which she has assigned herself."  The mysterious Marie remained with the Davidsons for some time.

On April 30, 1914, the New York Press reported that Lizzie Van Boskerck had sold 109 East 61st Street to Dr. Louis Faugeres Bishop.  Born on March 14, 1864 in Brunswick, New Jersey, Bishop was a graduate of Rutgers College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.  In 1899 he married Charlotte D. Gruner.  The couple had one son, Dr. Henry Bishop.

Louis was president of The Good Samaritan Dispensary and consultant in heart and blood vessel diseases at the Lincoln Hospital.  The family occupied the upper floors of the house and Bishop opened his Cardiac Institute in the lower portion.

The Medical Times, March 1918 (copyright expired)

The Bishops rarely appeared in the society columns, but on November 17, 1923, The Sun reported, "Dr. and Mrs. Louis Faugeres Bishop are giving a reception this afternoon at their home, 109 East Sixty-first street, to celebrate the silver anniversary of their wedding."

In 1927, the Bishops advertised the house for rent.  The ad in the Medical Journal and Record read:

Physicians House, arrangement suitable for a group, 15 rooms, 4 baths, large basement extending the length of the lot with skylight studio in the rear.

It was rented by Marion B. Herrschaft, the head of the Parkside Special School.  Termed by Hershaft as a "foundation training school," her listing in Private Schools that year described it as "A day school for children who find progress difficult in regular schools.  Montessori principles followed."  The school accepted pupils of both genders, from 7 to 15 years old.

Child Study, October 1927 (copyright expired)

The venture within the East 61st Street house was fleeting.  On June 4, 1928, the New York Evening Post reported that Bishop sold the house to The 535 Park Avenue, Inc.  With Prohibition in effect, the house was converted to a nightclub called Malborough House, run by Jim Moriarty.  In her 2021 Madam, The Biography of Polly Adler, Debby Applegate writes, "The Marlborough House catered to the collegians with the approval of their parents, who knew [the] establishment was strictly upper class."

It was most likely during the conversion to the Malborough House that the parlor windows were replaced a vast window with leaded and stained-glass panes.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In June 1931, Leonard Leaman signed a 15-year lease on the house and converted it to the Opera Club.  The first problem with law enforcement came on January 19, 1932.  The Norwich Sun reported, "The Opera Club, a resort at 109 East Sixty-First street, with a thirty-foot bar in the basement, was raided by agents yesterday afternoon," who seized 108 bottles of liquor.  Surprisingly, the 30 customers in the space at the time were not arrested.  The article said they "were ordered to depart after paying their checks."  The staff, on the other hand, were not so lucky.  Seven employees--the manager, bartender and waiters--were arrested.

Prohibition Director McCampbell intended that the Opera Club could not reopen.  The New York Sun reported that he ordered the club to be "dismantled," while warning that the "property must not be destroyed."  The Evening Star of Washington, D.C. reported that on January 21, "a half dozen laborers were stripping the Opera Club at 109 East Sixty-first street, and were trucking the furnishings away to the Federal warehouse."

The Opera Club did reopen, however, and was still in operation as late as 1935, two years after the end of Prohibition.  In 1937 the house was converted to apartments.   As early as 1983, the stone stoop was removed and a staircase to the side installed.  Around 1986 the upper floors were returned to a single-family home and the basement converted to a commercial space. 

The Power & Kern Saloon Building - 70 Prince Street

 

The neighborhood around St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street, completed in 1815, was filled with a mixture of residents in 1827.  It was about that time that Patrick Sherryd erected four similar brick houses on the southern blockfront of Prince Street between Lafayette Street and Crosby Streets.  Unlike the refined mansions that would soon rise on nearby Bond Street and Astor Place, Sherryd’s three-story homes were middle-class.  No. 70, on the corner of Crosby, was faced in Flemish-bond red brick above a ground floor store.  It rose to a simple wooden cornice below a shallow hip roof with tiny dormers.

 
The first occupant of the ground floor was Lewis T. Stansbery, who ran a grocery store.  By 1836, he had changed courses and ran a clothing store at 477 Greenwich Street.  The grocery was operated by Christian Febrock as early as 1840.  Around 1856, grocer William Lohmann extended the building to the rear and installed the residential entrance at 105 Crosby Street.  Lohmann and his family lived in the upper floors.  His Lohmann & Ording grocery was one of two, the other being at 117 Bleecker Street. 
 
The Lohmanns took in roomers.  Among them in 1856 was John Boyle, who taught in the Boys’ Department of Ward School No. 4 on Marion Street near Prince.  But the shadier character of some of the residents was reflected in the arrest of Alfred Howard on July 26, 1867 during a raid on “policy” dealers.  Policy rackets were a version of a numbers game or illegal lottery that preyed on the desperate poor.  Police Officer Lacy of the 14^th Precinct charged Howard with running a policy game, “he having purchased a ‘policy’ ticket from Howard for the sum of four cents,” reported The New York Times.
 
In the meantime, the Lohmanns moved to Wooster Street in 1860.  Dederick and Richard Gerken now ran the grocery store and lived upstairs.  A significant change came in 1867 when John Shewell converted the store into a saloon.  He was charged on December 29, 1868 for violating the excise laws, most likely for having the saloon open on Sunday.
 
Well-to-do New Yorkers left the oppressive city heat by spending the summer months at country homes or resorts.  The less affluent had to suffer and, in many cases, died.  Such was the case of 49-year-old Henry Blesses on June 29, 1869.  Described as “a German,” by The New York Times, he died suddenly in his room, “supposed to be the result of the heat.”
 
In 1871, Abraham W. Burnett, whose family lived upstairs, took over the saloon.  And around 1876 it became the Powers & Kerns saloon, operated by Frank Kerns and Edward Power, whose families--like Burnett's had done--lived above the business.  Their less visible partner was Alderman Patrick Napoleon Oakley. 
 
Saloons in the 19^th century, at a time when almost every male carried a weapon, were often dangerous places.  In 1879, Jim Poole shot Pat McGowan here, landing him in Sing Sing Prison for ten years.
 
The outspoken and colorful Patrick Oakley was a member of the Marion Club, a political group with ties to Tammany Hall.  It used a room on the second floor for meetings.  In 1880, the room was also being used as the meeting place of the Metropolitan Hancock and English Campaign Club.  (Winfield Hancock and William English were the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates in 1880.)
 
By then, John Edward Power, Edward’s son, had been a partner in Power & Kerns for at least a year.  He, like Oakley, was an assemblyman.  Born on May 15, 1850, he attended public schools and Cooper Union before working in a machine shop as a pattern maker.  He was married in 1873 in the Mott Street cathedral to Mary Louise Donohue and the couple had two children.
 
In 1886, the City Reform Club wrote of him, “He now keeps a liquor-saloon at 70 Prince St.  This saloon has many thieves and prostitutes among its customers.”  The organization's scathing assessment of him said in part:
 

As a legislator, Mr. Power was not as useful or as harmful as he might have been.  If he can be commended in the least, it is because some of his colleagues were apparently much more corrupt.  He was as unfit for the place which he held as any keeper of a low saloon must be…He was controlled by the bosses in New York City.

 
The New York Times accused him of hiding his partnership in the saloon.  On October 24, 1886, it reported that he, “sells ales, wines, beers, and spirituous liquors in Prince-street.  He conceals the fact from his friends in the country by telling them in his biography, printed in the Albany Political Almanac, that he ‘is now interested in the hotel business.’  He tells them also in the same article that ‘he is descended from one of the best families of Ireland.’”
 
The year following the blistering remarks, Oakley and Power replaced the saloon front.  The new street level façade included cast iron columns and a large window.  But later that year, John Power would have other things to think about.
 
On October 19, 1887, The New York Times wrote, “Assemblyman James E. Power has got himself in trouble.”  For years Power had been a friend of Richard W. Conroy, who ran a Sixth Avenue saloon.  The newspaper said Conroy, “lived with his wife at 116 Waverley-place happily enough until May 30 last, when, coming home later than usual from his club, he found Power in the bedroom with his wife, Mary Louise Conroy.”  Saying, “Power keeps a saloon at Prince and Crosby streets,” The Times reported that Conroy had filed suit for $20,000 in damages against the assemblyman.
 
During the campaign of 1890, Oakley openly served liquor on Sundays as part of his campaign.  On Monday November 3 that year The New York Times reported:
 

There was a strong smell of fresh varnish yesterday in the demure white saloon of Alderman Patrick Napoleon Oakley at 70 Prince Street, and the floor was shiny in spots, as though in course of preparation for a ball.  The blinds were discretely drawn, but the two back doors swung noiselessly on their hinges and the beer pump beat the record of the old oaken bucket long before the day was over.  A policeman hovered near, but he devoted his attention to a gang of wicked small boys.  Two bartenders were on duty all day, and the saloon was at least half full of people nearly all the time.

 

Alderman Oakley was on hand, and he held frequent consultations with his visitors on the subject of the election.  Some campaigning was also in progress, and there was a noticeable proportion of young men, some of them mere lads, among the patrons of the bar.  Up stairs, the ‘Marion Club’ was in session.

 
The New York Press had a decidedly different opinion of the Assemblyman.  Following the election that year, it said he, “came to the rescue of his constituents like the refreshing shadow of a rock in the great desert where cooling waters are to be found…He is a native of Ireland, 43 years old, and a thorough American.”
 
The danger of burglarizing the business of two politically connected men did not deter two thieves on March 23, 1891.  The Evening World reported, “Thomas Kilimet and Thomas Sheridan were caught breaking into Alderman Oakley’s saloon, on Prince street, at 2:30 this morning, and were held at the Tombs Court.”
 
Patrick Napoleon Oakley was home at the time, suffering from a severe cold he had caught two days earlier.  It quickly developed into pneumonia, and he died just after midnight on March 26, 1891.  The World was glowing in its recap of his political accomplishments and focused on his prominence in the Ancient Order of Foresters, his memberships in the Knights of St. Patrick, the Marion Club, and the Catholic Benevolent Legion.  The newspaper only briefly mentioned, “He was the owner of two saloons, one at Canal and Mott streets and the other at Prince and Crosby streets.”
 
The saloon business was taken over by H. D. Dircksen and, apparently, his son, A. E. Dircksen.   They operated the saloon here at least until 1905.
 
The heavily Irish neighborhood saw the influx of Italian immigrants in the last decade of the century and in 1899 Antonio Sciarra received approval from the city to run his fruit stand on the Crosby Street side of the building.  Two years later, Giuseppe Porfillio replaced him with his own fruit stand there.
 
The enactment of Prohibition necessarily changed the personality of the ground floor, which became a barbershop.  The upstairs portion remained residential.  In 1922, A. Solomon, who was in the silk business, lived here with his family.  They were still here in 1935 when son Lester passed the New York State bar exam.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

As early as 1982, the former saloon space held The Crosby Luncheonette.  The restaurant would have an ongoing and unhappy relationship with the Department of Health.  In March 1982, it reopened after having been closed for health violations.  It was shut down again in September that year, reopened in October, and was closed again in June 1983. 
 
It became the Rodriguez Restaurant which, like its predecessor, was closed by the Department of Health in June 1984, cited again in 1985, and again in April 1986.
 
But in 1990, the Soho neighborhood was seeing a rebirth as galleries opened in its vast cast iron structures.  Trendy shops and restaurants opened, including Savoy at 70 Prince.  The American-Mediterranean bistro was a popular destination for over two decades.  The second floor was converted to a dining room, while the uppermost floor was listed in Department of Buildings records as a “one family home.”
 
Then, in June 2011, owner Peter Hoffman served the last dinner here with an $85 five-course menu.  Less than a year later, on February 29, 2012, Peter Hoffman announced he would open a version of his East Village restaurant, Back Forty, here.  Called Back Forty West, its glass and metal store front cleverly exposes the cast iron column that survives from Oakley’s and Power’s 1887 renovation.
 

Renovations to the top floor apartment were underway in 2025.

Surrounded by 19^th century factory lofts, the 200-year-old 70 Prince Street and its contemporary next door are unexpected survivors.  The second floor continues to house part of the ground floor restaurant, and there is one apartment on the top floor.  

The Michael H. Norton House - 42 Charlton Street

 

Thomas B. Ridder was a successful tobacco merchant and a councilman.  In 1851 he was leasing the newly-built, three-story house at 42 Charlton Street, erected by E. Young.  Above the brownstone basement, the house was faced in warm red brick.  The paneled piers flanking the entrance were a handsome and unusual detail.  The building's simple wooden cornice was typical of the style.

Sharing the house was the Samuel Cohen family.  Samuel and Dinah Cohen had a daughter, Mary.  Samuel was a fur merchant on Water Street.  Sadly, Mary died after a short illness on September 29, 1852 at the age of 13.

On February 8, 1853, 42 Charlton Street was sold at auction.  The announcement described the 23-foot-wide home as "built with the modern improvements.  Gas introduced into the house."  It added, "Chandeliers go with the house."

The purchaser paid $8,400 (about $342,000 in 2025 terms) for the house, which he continued to lease.  The Riddles and Cohens remained through 1855, after which Moses Souza, an importer, and Rev. Morgan Dix moved in.

Born on November 1, 1827, Dix was the son of Major General John Adams Dix, a U.S. Senator from 1845 to 1849, Secretary of the Treasury in 1861, Governor of New York from 1873 to 1874, and a notable figure during the Civil War.  Rev. Morgan was assistant minister of Trinity Church.

Rev. Dix and the Souza family remained until the spring of 1863.  In April the house was offered "for sale or to let."  By now, according to the ad, running water had been introduced.

It was purchased by Dr. Edward Fields.  Living with him and his wife, Iodema, were their daughter Jennie and her husband John D. Slayback.  In April 1865, the population of the house increased by one with the birth of the Slaybacks' daughter, also named Jennie.  Four months later, on August 17, the infant died.  Her funeral was held in the parlor.

It was most likely the Fields who modernized the house.  Italianate stoop railings and hefty newels were installed and the parlor windows were extended nearly to the floor.

Dr. Fields was drawn into a scandalous case in 1865.  On the night of September 25, Dr. Grindle, who ran a lying-in hospital brought a patient, Lucy Sagendorf, to the boarding house of Mary Julia Rolf.  According to Mary, he had told her that Lucy "had inflammation of the bowels."  The doctor's wife stayed with Lucy overnight.  The next evening, Mrs. Grindle brought a young man, James J. Hicks, and after about ten minutes, according to Mary Rolf, Mrs. Grindle came down in great haste and inquired of me whether she could find a minister."  Before long, Rev. Dr. J. K. Wardle arrived and performed a marriage at the bedside.

Mary Rolf became concerned around midnight, and sent for Dr. Fields.  He later told investigators, "she was very pale and...she complained of intense pain in the intestines."  He noted, "she had been leeched."  When he asked Mary if Lucy had been treated by another physician, she said no, apparently protecting Dr. Grindle.  Fields visited Lucy that afternoon, and she died later that night.  He issued a death certificate citing the cause of death as peritonitis.

Dr. Grindle's lying-in hospital (a facility for pregnant women) doubled as an illegal abortion clinic, as it turned out.  And Mary Julia Rolf's boarding house was often used for the recuperating women.  Rolf testified on September 27, "I have recently had two cases of confinement and about twenty cases of miscarriage in my house."  In the trial that followed, Fields had to defend himself against suspicion of collaborating in the fatal abortion by having falsely listed the cause of death.

Dr. Edward Fields died in 1866.  Iodema sold the house to Michael H. and Marietta L. Norton in June 1870 for $30,000 (about $723,000 today).  Born in Ireland in 1838, Michael H. Norton was brought to New York as a child.  He "developed into an athlete and acquired considerable science as a sparrer," said The Sun.  He gave up boxing for politics and was elected an alderman in 1864 and to the State Senate in 1868.  Also elected to the Senate that year was William M. Tweed, later known as "Boss" Tweed, and the two became close friends.

Living with Michael and Marietta were Michael's brothers Peter and Edward.  (Another brother, John, and his family lived nearby at 50 King Street.)  

The Charlton Street house was again the scene of a funeral on May 21, 1871.  Edward H. Norton died at the age of 25.  The Sun reported that the parlor was filled members of several political groups, who followed the procession to the Church of St. Anthony of Padua afterward for a solemn requiem mass.

Michael Norton's generosity kept him from amassing wealth.  His financial condition was hinted at in an article on December 4, 1872 in The Evening Telegram, which said,

Yesterday Senator Michael Norton left his house, 42 Charlton street, with a large diamond stud fastening his shirt collar.  He got into a Bleecker street car and rode down to the Court of Special Sessions.  Soon afterward he discovered that while the gold setting remained attached to his collar the diamond was missing.  The Senator is a poor man, and can illy afford to lose so large a diamond.  He will pay a liberal reward for its return.

Peter Norton and his wife had a son, John M., in 1866.  The little boy died at the age of 7 on June 7, 1873.  The New York Herald reported on June 9, "The funeral will take place from the residence of his uncle, Michael Norton, No. 42 Charlton street, at twelve o'clock to-day."

Michael H. Norton, The Sun, April 24, 1889 (copyright expired)

In 1885 Michael H. Norton was appointed a justice in the District Court with a salary of $6,000 (about $196,000 today).

On April 23, 1889, The New York Sun reported, "Civil Justice Michael Norton is lying dangerously ill at his residence, 42 Charlton street."  The 55-year-old judge had slipped and fallen a week earlier resulting, according to the newspaper, "as he is a heavy man, in serious internal injuries."   The New York Evening World remarked, "Justice Norton is one of the most widely known and popular public men in New York.  He has earned a good deal of money in his lifetime, but has been so generous and charitable that he has remained poor."

Norton died just before midnight in the Charlton Street house on April 23, 1889.  Two days later, The Evening World reported, "The modest, old-fashioned house No. 42 Charlton street, in which Civil Justice Michael Norton passed the latter years of his life, was this morning visited by throngs of friends and admirers of the dead leader, who came to take a last look at his face and to condole with his family."

Amazingly, the day after Norton's death, his brother John died.  The Evening World remarked, "When he died he did not know that Michael had passed away twenty-three hours previously."

On April 26, The Evening World reported on Michael Norton's funeral.

A sweet, languorous perfume from a room full of flowers drifted through the open doors of the old-fashioned mansion at 42 Charlton street this morning.

In the centre of the room, in the midst of the perfume-giving flowers, stood a crape-covered casket containing the earthly remains of Civil Justice Michael Norton, who in life was called "The Thunderbolt."

Among the mourners were prominent politicians like Mayor Hugh J. Grant, Tammany bigwig Richard Croker, aldermen and a senator.  The Evening World remarked, "In the street in front of the house there were hundreds of people who had known and loved Mike Norton."

Marietta L. Norton sold the house to John C. and Catherine McGinn in July 1891 for $20,000 (about $691,000 in 2025).  Living with the couple were their adult children: Edward F., who was in the bottle business; Mary T. Sinnott and her husband; and Julia L. Bishop, her husband, and their young son, James.  Another son, Jonathan J. Bishop, lived elsewhere.

Despite what must have been snug conditions, they took in a boarder.  In 1892, Norman J. Osborne, a clerk, lived here; and in 1894 and 1895 Elizabeth Schaefer, a widow, lived with the family.

On August 21, 1904, James Bishop, now a teenager, placed an advertisement in the New York Herald looking for a job.  He obviously had not yet settled on a career path.  "Young man (17) wishes a position at anything.  James Bishop, 42 Charlton st."  Seven years later, however, he seems to have charted a course for himself, and applied to the city for a job as a police patrolman.

By March 20, 1915, the McGinn siblings had inherited the house in equal shares.  It was sold in November 1920 to their tenants, Lucy and Joseph Tomasullo.  Like Michael Norton, Tomasullo was a former boxer, known in the ring as Kid Thomas.  He now was a part owner of the White Poodle cabaret at 216 Bleecker Street.

While the Tomasullos were still renting 42 Charlton Street, the White Poodle was the scene of violence.  The New York Morning Telegraph reported that when members of the Hudson Dusters Gang attempted to rob the restaurant, it became "the scene of a battle" with police.  One patrolman, Michael Batto, was stabbed in the face.

On the morning of December 26, 1923, Joseph Tomasullo left an apartment at 216 Hancock Street where The New York Times said, "several men had been playing cards."  An assailant who was lying in wait in the hall shot him twice.  The New York Morning Telegraph said one of the bullets, "entered the chest and ploughed its way to the heart, and the other lodged in the left side."  

Tomasullo's brother Anthony heard the shots "and found his brother on the floor of the hallway," reported The New York Times.  He took him in a taxi to St. Vincent's Hospital where he was pronounced dead.  Police surmised that Tomasullo was "the victim of a Greenwich Village gamblers' feud."

It is unclear how long Lucy Tomasullo remained at 42 Charlton Street.  By the last decades of the century, the house received a coat of blue paint.

The house in 1983 retained the stone stoop railings and flat lintels, and was painted blue.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 2009, The Little Red School House, which owned the former Elisabeth Irwin High School next door, purchased the house and hired the architectural firm ABA Studio to connect the structures internally.  Included in the extensive renovations was the removal of the blue paint, and the addition of molded window cornices.  Writing in Curbed on February 22, 2010, Peter Davies reported, "From the street it all looks perfectly historical...But behind the landmarked facade there's all sorts of new stuff."

photographs by the author

Edward L. Angell's 1890 312 and 314 West 103rd Street

 

Edward L. Angell would design dozens of rowhouses, most of them on the Upper West Side.  Like his contemporary, Clarence Fagan True, Angell worked in historic styles, creating romantic and sometimes lighthearted designs.  In 1889, three years after opening his office, he was hired by developer Robert B. Baird to design two townhomes at 312 and 314 West 103rd Street.

Completed in 1891, each was distinctly different, yet their blend of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne designs worked harmoniously together.  Each three-stories tall above English basements, their basement and parlor levels were clad in brownstone and their upper floors faced in beige brick trimmed in brownstone.

Angell gave 312 West 103rd Street a straight stone stoop flanked with solid wing walls.  The paired parlor windows sat below a delicately leaded fanlight.  Carved Renaissance Revival panels at this level happily co-existed with a neo-Classical frieze below the second floor.  Pairs of brick pilasters topped with stone capitals flanked the grouped windows of the second floors.  Their transoms and those of the third floor were filled with stained glass.  The top floor was decorated with a terra cotta plaque depicting a fantastical winged cherub, the lower portion of which morphs into vegetation.  

Angell created an asymmetrical roofline by placing a molded cornice and blank parapet at the west, and a slightly higher paneled parapet, crowned with stone urns, and pyramidical roof at the east.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The house next door was approached by a dog-legged box stoop of rough-cut stone.  The parlor openings were capped with heavy lintels and classical pediments, the brackets of which fully flanked the stained glass transoms.  The Queen Anne asymmetry appeared on the top floor, where the two western bays were slightly taller than the eastern window.  Above them, the facade continued past the eastern cornice to a decorative pediment fronting a brick parapet.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Charles E. M. Gross and his wife, the former May Leticia Miller, purchased 312 West 103rd Street in August 1890.  The house became the scene of social gatherings.  On February 13, 1901, for instance, the New York Evening Telegram announced, "Mrs. Charles E. M. Gross, of No. 312 West 103d street, will give a reception on Saturday of this week.  She will be assisted in receiving by her mother, Mrs. Henry J. Miller."

Just two months later, on April 12, 1901, May died.  Her funeral was "private," with only family members present.  Shockingly, three months later, on June 4, Charles married May's sister, Leonore.  The couple sold 312 West 103rd Street two years later, in June 1903, to Franklin Pierce.

In the meantime, real estate agent James E. Gafney and his family were the first occupants of 314 West 103rd Street.  Born in 1854, Gafney was, as well, the secretary and a director of the New York Contracting & Trucking Co.  (In the latter position, he became a favorite of Tammany Hall bigwigs.)  He and his wife, the former Sarah Mahoney, had one daughter, Edna M.

Edna (who would never marry), graduated from Normal College in 1901 and got her temporary teacher's license that year.

Around 1906, 314 West 103rd Street was sold to real estate operator Susan Devin.  She leased it that year to broker Henry Clark Townsend and his wife, the former Katharine Hayes Goodall.  The couple had four children, Marian Goodall, Henry Clark, Katharine, and Frederick Barrett.  Also living with the family was Katharine's widowed mother, Marian Le Petit Goodall.  

An artist, Marian Goodall was described by The New York Times as having, "great ability as a water colourist."  She died here on March 16, 1907.  In reporting her death, The Times mentioned, "She was the descendant of distinguished French ancestry."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Next door, attorney Franklin Pierce was well-known to New Yorkers.  A member of the Academy of Political Science, he was retained in 1908 as counsel of the King Committee--a group organized by William F. King to investigate graft within the district attorney's office.  Pierce's wife, the former Anna May Shepherd, held two degrees from Rio Grande College in Ohio.

The Pierces sold 312 West 103rd Street in March 18, 1911 to William J. Urchs for $30,000--about $993,000 in 2025.

By then, Patrick M. and Margaret J. Lenane owned 314 West 103rd Street.  The couple dealt in real estate and owned multiple properties throughout Manhattan.  The couple had two children, Mortimer V. and Eleanor B.

Mortimer V. Lelane was in Phoenix, Arizona when he died on April 10, 1913.  His body was returned to New York and his funeral was held in the parlor of 314 West 103rd Street on April 17.  Within two years, Patrick and Margaret died, leaving Eleanor with extensive Manhattan holdings, including the 103rd Street house.

Eleanor Lelane remained here until about 1917, when she leased the house to Professor Franklin H. Giddings, a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Century Club, and the American Economic Association.  She continued to lease the residence.  In June 1921, she signed a five-year lease with Anna Minet.

The end of the line for 314 West 103rd Street as a private home came in 1933.  December 2, The Sun reported that Eleanor B. Lelane had leased the house, saying the lessee "plans to remodel the building into one and two room suites." 

In the meantime, William J. Urchs sold 312 West 103rd Street to Dr. Henry C. Becker in March 1922.  He leased rooms through the 1940s.  The house was converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1952.

Both houses lost their stoops at mid-century and 312 West 103rd Street lost its parapet and pyramidal roof.  A three-year renovation of 312 completed in 2004 resulted in three apartments; and 314 was remodeled in 2008.  It created one apartment each in the lower two levels, and a duplex in the upper two stories.

photographs by the author

The Lost George W. Pell Mansion - 392 Fifth Avenue

 

The family's private carriage house can be glimpsed behind the mansion, beyond the bay window.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Born in 1820, George Washington Pell was described by The New York Times as "a member of one of the oldest New-York families."  His earliest paternal ancestor in America, John Pell, was the first lord of Pelham Manor.  His mother, Adelia Duane, was related to "the Livingstons, the Norths, the Bleecker-Millers, and the Duanes of Schenectady," said the newspaper.

In 1853, Pell married Mary Bruen.  The couple moved into the newly built brick-and-brownstone mansion at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 36th Street.   They would have one son, Alfred Duane Pell.

The Pell's opulent home was four stories tall above an English basement.  Its Second Empire design included a classical pediment above the entrance.  Prominent cornices upheld by scrolled brackets graced the parlor openings.  A stone balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows on Fifth Avenue.  The fourth floor took the form of a slate-shingled mansard.  Its elaborate dormers were strikingly similar to those of the John Jacob Astor III mansion, erected a year earlier at Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street.

Although he held a degree from Columbia College, Pell's substantial inherited wealth precluded his needing a profession.  The New York Times would later mention that he "never engaged in business further than to manage his brother's estate and his own property interests."  He did involve himself in the community, specifically regarding issues within his elite neighborhood.  At the City Council meeting on December 9, 1862, for instance, Pell's "remonstrance to the proposed incumbrance of Thirty-fifth-street, by projecting the sidewalk out," was read.  And the following year, he joined neighbors to sign a letter to Albany expressing "surprise" of the state legislature's intention to install street railroads on every "avenue and street in the City of New-York."

In 1864, George and Mary Pell moved slightly northward to the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street.  No. 392 Fifth Avenue now became home to Emil and Virginia W. Justh. 

Born in Hungary in 1825, Justh was the head of the brokerage firm E. Justh & Co.  When he and Virginia moved into their new home, the Civil War was raging.  It appears Justh was nervous about the draft lottery, enacted the previous year.  The legislation provided a loophole by which the wealthy could pay for a substitute.  On September 4, 1864, The New York Times ran the sarcastically worded headline, "The Draft: Names of Patriotic Gentlemen who Have Furnished Substitutes in Advance of the Draft."  Among those listed was Emil Justh.

The wealthy couple apparently leased 392 Fifth Avenue from the Pells.  In 1866, they moved to 93 East 34th Street.  (Emil Justh survived an assassination attempt there on Christmas Eve, 1866.  In the middle of the night, he heard a noise in the hallway.  As he approached his bedroom door, "it was suddenly thrown open and a pistol fired directly at him," reported The New York Times.)

In 1868, Louis Thurston Hoyt purchased 392 Fifth Avenue for $129,000, according to The New York Times.  The price would translate to about $2.9 million today.  Born on April 9, 1834, Hoyt was a stockbroker.  Among his high-powered clients, according to The New York Times later, were "Commodore Vanderbilt, Leonard Jerome, A. W. Morse, E. H. Miller, John Trevor and Benjamin Nathan."  He married Marie Antoinette Bogert on January 27, 1857.  The couple had two daughters, Geraldine, born in 1859; and Aline born two years later.  The couple's country home was in New Brighton, Staten Island.

Marie Antoinette Hoyt died in the mansion on June 1, 1879.  Interestingly, her funeral was not held in the drawing room, as would be expected, but at the Church of the Incarnation on Madison Avenue.

Hoyt and his daughters were at the Staten Island estate during Thanksgiving week 1886.  While there, Geraldine died at the age of 27.  Her funeral was held in New Brighton on December 1.

Left with no family members other than her widowed father, Aline was now among the most prominent heiresses within Manhattan society.  The hostess of 392 Fifth Avenue, she appeared in society columns, like the mention in The New York Times on January 29, 1893, "To-morrow Miss Hoyt of 392 Fifth Avenue will entertain a party of ladies at luncheon."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The innocuous article did not reflect the storm clouds forming inside the mansion.  Aline was engaged to John W. Woodfield, against her father's blessings.  The potential groom was British and, reportedly, Hoyt did not wish his daughter to marry anyone other than an American.  The tensions were perhaps behind the notice in the New-York Tribune on December 24, 1893, "The wedding of Miss Aline Hoyt, daughter of Louis T. Hoyt, and John Woodfield, which was set down for January 3, has been postponed on account of the illness of Miss Hoyt."

On January 18, 1894, the New-York Tribune reported, "It is authoritatively announced that the engagement of Miss Aline Hoyt...to John W. Woodfield, of England, has been broken."  While it appears that Louis Hoyt's will had prevailed, it was a temporary situation.  Four months later, the New-York Tribune wrote, "Miss Aline Hoyt a few months ago was married to John Woodfield, in St. Chrysostom's Church...without the knowledge of her father, who has since refused to receive either his daughter or her husband."

With Aline gone, Louis handled the social affairs within his house personally.  On May 8, 1894, The New York Times announced, "Miss Edith Cruger Sands and her fiancé, T. J. Oakley Rhinelander, were the guests of honor at a handsome dinner given last evening by Louis T. Hoyt."  But the absence of a female in the Fifth Avenue mansion would be short-lived.  On May 18, 1894, the New-York Tribune reported, "The engagement has just been announced of Mrs. Richard M. Pell, of No. 436 Fifth-ave., to Louis T. Hoyt, of No. 392 Fifth-ave."  Louis and Frances Mary Jones Pell were married on June 11.  (Interestingly, Frances's former husband, who died in 1882, was the brother of George Washington Pell, the first owner of her new home.)

The newlyweds would see changes within their exclusive residential neighborhood.  A year earlier, William Waldorf Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel on the site of his father's mansion.  It would open the floodgates to commerce along the thoroughfare.

In the summer of 1901, Louis and Frances traveled to Europe.  Louis died in Bad Nauheim, Germany on August 2 at the age of 67.  His body was brought back to New York and buried in Greenwood Cemetery.  In reporting his death, The New York Times mentioned, "he had one daughter, Mrs. Woodfield, who lives in London."

At the turn of the last century, commerce had encroached into the neighborhood.  The Hoyt mansion can be glimpsed on the right, while a shop has been installed into the ground floor of the mansion to the left.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On September 4, 1901, The New York Times reported that Frances "is to receive the bulk" of Hoyt's estate, noting, "She is to receive the residence 392 Madison [sic] Avenue, with the jewelry, furniture, and horses and carriages for life...Mrs. Hoyt is also to have the use of his country seat at Staten Island."  The Fifth Avenue property was assessed at $9 million in today's money.

It does not appear that Frances Hoyt was interested in the New Brighton estate.  Following her period of mourning, she rented "Mrs. Markoe's cottage" in Southampton for the summer of 1903, according to the New-York Tribune, and spent subsequent summers in other fashionable places and in Europe. 

By 1908, Frances Hoyt was the last of the holdouts in the neighborhood.  Other mansions had been converted for business purposes or replaced with commercial buildings.  She eventually relented.  On June 2, The Sun reported she "is the buyer of No. 726 Fifth Avenue, sold recently by Charles W. Morse."  Six months later, the New-York Tribune announced that Frances had hired McClellan & Beadel to design a replacement mansion on the site.  

With her new home completed, in February 1912 Frances Hoyt sold the brownstone mansion to The Martin Holding Co.  The Record & Guide reported, "The price paid was about $1,000,000."  The figure would translate to about $33.4 million today.  On February 4, The New York Times commented, "The old house has been occupied for many years by Mrs. Louis T. Hoyt, and it has attracted attention in view of the fact that it is the only dwelling in that locality which has thus far resisted the encroachment of business."  The article said, "it is believed that the residence will soon be torn down and improved for high-class commercial purposes."

That assumption proved to be true.  Just four months later, on June 16, The New York Times began an article saying, "In the recent demolition of the old Louis T. Hoyt house on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street, for an eleven-story commercial building...one of the few remaining residential landmarks in the shopping district around Thirty-fourth Street has been wiped out as a result of the all-devouring trade invasion."

The tall building in the center of the frame replaced the Hoyt mansion.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.