The Winfield Scott Hancock Bust - Hancock Park

 

On February 10, 1886, The New York Times titled an article, "A Brave Soldier Dead."  Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock had died in his home on Governors Island while in command of the U.S. Army's Division of the Atlantic.  His remarkable career, which began with his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1844, had earned him the nickname within the Army as "Hancock the Superb."

Born on February 14, 1824, Hancock seemed destined to a military career.  He was named after General Winfield Scott, who distinguished himself in the War of 1812.  In 1850, after serving in the Mexican War, Hancock married Almira Russell.  They had two children.  

The "Superb" nickname came from a telegram sent from Major General George B. McClellan to Washington following the Battle of Gettysburg: "Hancock was superb today."  He commanded his troops in the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville and the siege of Petersburg, and was wounded twice.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock - from the collection of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Following the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the executions of the conspirators of the Lincoln assassination.  He was placed in charge of the Reconstruction in Texas and Louisiana, and in 1872 was put in command of the Division of the Atlantic, headquartered at Fort Columbus on Governors Island.  He was the Democratic nominee for President in 1880, losing to James A. Garfield.

In reporting his death, The New York Times said on February 10, 1886, "Of the military fames acquired in the war for the Union probably none rests on a surer foundation than that of the illustrious soldier who died yesterday."

Movements to memorialize Hancock were swift.  Within months, the triangular property bounded by Manhattan and St. Nicholas Avenues and 124th Street was named Hancock Park.  In 1890, veterans of Hancock Post No. 259 formed a Hancock Memorial Association and commissioned sculptor James Wilson Alexander MacDonald to create a monument.

The choice of artist was, perhaps, based on the fact that MacDonald had created a life mask of the general in 1880, the year he was nominated.  The sculptor used the accurate plaster cast as  the model for his memorial.

Statues for military heroes traditionally depicted them astride a horse or striking a commanding stance.  Not this one.  MacDonald created a monumental sized bust with no trappings of warfare--indeed, it wore no uniform or clothing at all, other than a sash over the left shoulder that symbolized military honor.

Three years after the Hancock Memorial Association was formed, the monument was still not finished.  On September 14, 1892, The Evening World reported that it would be placed in Hancock Park, but it would be more than a year later that the bust would be unveiled.  The problem was money.  The treasurer of the Memorial Fund told the New-York Tribune, "Subscriptions did not come in so rapidly as we anticipated, and that is the cause of the delay."

The New-York Tribune explained the problem on June 25, 1893:

One cause of the difficulty in securing subscriptions to the statue fund was the fact that General Grant's monument in Riverside Park, only a few blocks away, was still uncompleted and many thousands of dollars were required to finish it.  Had it not been for this fact the Hancock statue would have been finished some time ago.

On April 24, 1893, The New York Times reported, "A concert will be given in Palmer's Theatre Sunday evening, May 7, for the benefit of the Hancock Statue Fund."  The article said, "It is hoped that the sufficient money will be raised by this entertainment to give a great impetus to the movement to erect a statue in New-York worthy of Gen. Hancock."  Each of the audience members would receive a "finely-bound memorial of Gen. Hancock."

The benefit was helpful.  On June 25, 1893, the New-York Tribune announced, "The bronze figure and pedestal have been paid for."  The article grumbled, "This statue has been allowed to remain in a half-finished condition for many months."

Finally, in frigid weather on the day before New Year's Eve, the dedication ceremony was held.  A host of prominent military figures were present as Mayor Thomas Francis Gilroy accepted the statue for the city.  "Statues like this," he said, "will be to our youth a constant inspiration, and the city will ever carefully treasure them."

from Statues of New York, 1923 (copyright expired)

In their 1923 Statues of New York, J. Sanford Saltus and Walter E. Tisne diplomatically addressed MacDonald's unorthodox, unmilitary depiction of Hancock.

It does not carry the conviction that naturally emanates from an equestrian statue and the immobilization of a gesture of command, but as a likeness it is said to do justice to the model.

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department.  Included in the work (that ranged from 1934 to 1937) was the Hancock bust.  It was conserved again in 1998 with a cleaning and waxing by the City Parks Foundation Monuments Conservation Program.

In the meantime, in 1981 a group of volunteers from the Coalition of 100 Black Women became guardians of the little park.  They continue to plant and maintain the triangular plot today.

photographs by the author

The 1907 Thaddeus Davids Company Building - 95-97 Vandam Street

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Wealthy sugar refiner William Frederick Havemeyer and his family lived in the handsome house at 95 Vandam Street at the middle of the 19th century.  Living next door at 97 Vandam Street was the family of Charles Burkhalter, a well-to-do wholesale grocer.  The Burkhalters leased their home from the Havemeyers.  

Half a century later, the neighborhood had drastically changed.  Affluent families had moved northward and commercial structures were quickly replacing vintage homes.  In December 1904, the Record & Guide reported that the Havemeyer estate had sold 95 and 97 Vandam Street, "two three-story houses," to Mitchell A. C. Levy.

In 1854, while the Havemeyers were still occupying 95 Vandam Street, the Thaddeus Davids Company moved into the building at 127-129 William Street.  After occupying it for more than half a century, in 1906 the William Street owner refused to renew the Thaddeus Davids Company's lease.  On June 9, The American Stationer reported that the Thaddeus Davids Company, "the well-known manufacturers of inks and adhesives, has closed a deal for the building[s] at 95-97 Vandam street, between Hudson and Greenwich."  The article said, "The old buildings now standing on the site will be torn down and a modern factory building, containing every facility for manufacturing and specialties for which this firm is so justly famous, will be erected."

The firm had contracted the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker to design the factory.  Their plans projected the construction cost at $60,000, or about $2 million in 2025.  The American Stationer said, "No expense or care will be spared to make the building a model of its kind."  The article explained that the William Street lease would expire in May 1908 "and it is expected that the new building will be ready for occupancy at that time."

Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker considered both attractiveness and functionality in designing the building.  To safely accommodate the firm's heavy machinery, the plans included a "system of cinder concrete arches, reinforced with iron rods, terra cotta partitions, copper covered skylights."  Importantly, the building was fully electrified.  The large machines, previously operated manually, would now be powered by electricity.

Construction was completed in the spring of 1908.  The architects' commercial take on Renaissance Revival was splashed with the currently popular Arts & Crafts style.  The piers of the first floor loading bay--fabricated in cast iron in most loft buildings at the time--were constructed of beige brick and topped with limestone capitals.  They upheld a heavy structural beam decorated with triglyphs.  A second beam above the second floor was disguised with a reeded band that dangled blank shields.  The third to sixth floors were faced in rusticated brick.  A denticulated and bracketed pressed metal cornice completed the design.

Now one of the foremost ink companies in the world, the Thaddeus Davids Company had an interesting start.  Thaddeus Davids was born in Bedford, New York in 1810 and his family moved to New York City in 1823.  The 13-year-old was hired by an ink manufacturer.  Amazingly, when the owner retired, he left the concern to Davids, who was still a teen.  Because he was a minor, the firm was named William Davids, for his father.

In 1827, now 17 years old, Thaddeus developed "steel pen ink," touted to be of "record quality."  Over the decades he continued to experiment, introducing innovative and improved products.  In 1856, his son George W. Davids became a partner and the firm became Thaddeus Davids & Company.  

George nearly caused the end of the firm in 1883.  Unknown to his father, he accumulated massive amounts of debt and used the company as collateral.  When they came due that year, Thaddeus had to liquidate all his properties, including the firm, to settle the debts.  (In the meantime, George committed suicide in a New York City hotel.)  The emotional turmoil no doubt contributed to Thaddeus's stroke soon afterward.  He never recovered.

In the meantime, sons David F. and Edwin Davids took over the company in receivership.  The brothers died in 1905 and 1907, respectively, just before the firm moved into the Vandam facility.  Other Davids family members took over, and, in fact, the 95-97 Vandam property was held in the name of Louise A. Davids.

The firm continued to innovate.  On October 25, 1910, for instance, Walden's Stationery and Printer reported, "The Thaddeus Davids Company, 95 Vandam Street, New York, are putting on the market a long-felt want, consisting of a neat metal box containing a large bottle of their Black Diamond indelible ink, a penholder and one of Davids' indelible marking pens."

Walden's Stationer and Printer, October 25, 1910 (copyright expired)

Innovation within the Thaddeus Davids Company operations did not stop with its products.  At a time when traveling salesmen were--as the term suggested--male, on January 27, 1912 the firm advertised, "Wanted--Six young women to sell a popular article to offices; salary and commission."  The firm would necessarily turn to women again when World War I depleted the male workforce.  On October 24, 1918, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune was titled, "Girls and Women Wanted.  Help Win the War."  Foreshadowing the Rosie the Riveters of the 1940s, the ad said the Thaddeus Davids Ink Company, "offers profitable employment to girls and women; excellent wages; steady work and bonus; Uncle Sam needs you here."

The Touchstone, July 1919 (copyright expired)

The Thaddeus Davids Company closed before 1941 when the Tiara Products Co., Inc. occupied 95-97 Vandam Street.  The industrial tenor within the building began to change in 1960, when the newly-formed 670 Realty Corporation took space.  The realty management firm Samson Management operated from the building as early as 1968.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The neighborhood--now called Hudson Square--saw change again in the third quarter of the 20th century.  Loft buildings were transformed to residential, office and retail space.  In 1987, the Thaddeus Davids Company building was converted to apartments with a retail space on the former loading dock level.

For years, Form and Function occupied the first floor and more recently Exquisite Surfaces moved in.  

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

Neville & Bagge's 1899 862 West End Avenue

 

In 1898, developer James Livingston hired the architectural firm of Neville & Bagge to design five "four-story American basement" houses on West End Avenue and six nearly identical others around the corner on West 102nd Street.  An advertisement for 862 to 868 West End Avenue in March 1899 described the residences as, "Elegant four-story houses, highly finished throughout; 3 large chambers [i.e., bedrooms], saloon [i.e., salon or sitting room], and bathroom on second floors; 20 feet front, 55 feet deep; with 30-foot extension.  Clothes dryer in basement."

No. 862 was faced in gray Roman brick above the limestone basement and parlor levels.  The architects bowed the three upper floors.  The openings of the second and fourth floors sat atop molded sill courses and were grouped by a single eyebrow.  The third-floor windows featured splayed lintels with foliate keystones.

The house would see a rapid-fire turnover in owners.  In May 1899, Livingston sold the West End Avenue group to Charles F. Richards.  No. 862 would see three more owners before Anna Galbraith purchased it on March 20, 1903.  Like her predecessors, she purchased the house for rental income.

Living here as early as 1911 was the Michael Gernsheim family.  Living with him and his wife, the former Emilie Loeb, were their unmarried adult children, Felix M. and Alice.  

Felix, who was 40 years old in 1915, was an attorney.  He had a bit too much to drink on the night of September 16 that year.   At the corner of Broadway and 96th Street, he came upon two soap box orators, the opinions of whom did not align with his.

The New York Times reported that he, "dragged Joseph L. Kaufman, a Socialist speaker, from his platform and disturbed the crowd listening to a suffragette speaker on the opposite corner."  He was not done yet.  The article continued, "he then went into a near-by restaurant, pulled a man to the street and when Patrolman Walsh...tried to arrest him threw himself to the ground."  

Gernsheim was charged with intoxication and disorderly conduct.  Although he denied having been drunk, when he appeared before Magistrate Appleton the next day he promised "he would not touch a drop of liquor for a year."  The Times reported, "he was discharged in the custody of his mother."

In 1917, the Gernsheims moved two doors away to 866 West End Avenue where Felix, still unmarried, died of pneumonia on February 9, 1920.  

Anna Galbraith rented 862 West End Avenue in March 1917 to Katherine V. and George A. Sipp, a highly colorful couple.  Although she used George's surname, Katherine was actually Katherine Lynch.  He and his wife, Catherine V. Lynch, were married in 1883, but he left her for Katherine in 1913, with whom he had two children.

George and his legitimate son, Howard, ran the Commonwealth Hotel in Harlem.  When he and Katherine leased 862 West End Avenue, he and Howard were deeply involved in a case against New York City policemen.  On January 1913, The Evening World reported on the graft case of "high police officers" implicated by the Sipps of extorting money from "the keepers of disorderly houses."  As the trial date neared, George Sipp announced that he had been offered a $700 bribe from a defense attorney "to leave New York."

The Sipps were not always on the right side of the law, however.  On December 25, 1918, the New-York Tribune reported on a warning issued by the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World about an advertising scam.  The New-York Tribune editors added to the message, giving an example of an advertisement in their newspaper on December 11, 1918:

A ladies' natural muskrat coat, forty-five inches long, full flare, belted model; never worn.  SIPP, 862 West End Avenue; private house.

The article continued, "Tribune readers will recall the conviction of George A. Sipp, who, in September, 1917, was fined $250 in the Court of Special Sessions for fraudulent advertising."

The couple had other worries at the time.  Two months before the article, Catherine V. Sipp sued George for divorce and Katherine for $100,000 "for alleged alienation of Sipp's affections," according to The Sun on October 22, 1918.

The Sipps remained here through 1920.  The following year the house was converted to non-housekeeping apartments, meaning they had no kitchens.  The basement level was now a physician's suite.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on January 28, 1921 described, "Doctor's office, waiting room and apartment--five rooms, bath, $2,100."  (The yearly rent would translate to about $3,000 per month in 2025.)  A two-room apartment with bath in the upper floors rented for the equivalent of $1,700 a month today.

The configuration lasted until 1965, when a remodeling resulted in two apartments per floor.  Living here in 1970 was the family of John Hewitt, a medical writer.  His son attended the Fieldston School in Riverdale.  On March 24 that year, The New York Times reported, "A group of about 60 students, most of them black, calmly took over the three-story administration building of the Fieldston School...yesterday morning and, in a well-planned maneuver, barricaded themselves inside."  The article said this was "one of the first instances in the country where minority students in a private preparatory school actually took over a school building."

John Hewitt, who was also the chairman of the school's Black Parents' Association, rushed to the school and climbed the fire escape of the administration building to the only unbarricaded entrance.  He was not intent on persuading his son to leave, however.  The Times said, "He was carrying seat cushions for his son to sleep on."  Hewitt told a reporter, "We're fully in back of these students."

The house would undergo another renovation in 1991.  There are now a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floor, and two apartments each on the upper levels.

photographs by the author

The Lost Hugh and Henrietta Chisholm Mansion -- 813 Fifth Avenue

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In 1870-71, two near-matching brownstone houses were erected at 812 and 813 Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park.  Designed by D. & J. Jardine in the Second Empire style, 813 Fifth Avenue was a smaller version of its neighbor--two bays wide rather than three.  The openings--even at the basement level--sat within decorative architrave frames.  The fourth floor took the form of a Parisian-style mansard with an elaborate dormer and shingled cap.

813 (left) was a smaller version of its next door neighbor.  from Microbes and The Microbe Killer, 1890 (copyright expired)

The house became home to Charles S. Fischer.  He and his brother John U. Fischer, arrived in America in 1839.  The great-grandsons of the piano maker to King Ferdinand I of Naples, they established the J. & C. Fischer piano company the following year.  Now music spilled over from Fischer's business into his home.  In his mansion was an orchestrion--an organ-like machine that incorporated other instruments and operated by means of rolls.  Costing Fischer $6,000 (about $154,000 in 2025), it was "equal in power to a band of 40 instruments, all instruments full size," and came with 50 rolls "comprising all the popular operas, overtures, waltzes, &c.," according to its ad.

The stoops and areaways of the high end homes were often where desperate mothers abandoned their infants.  On the night of June 11, 1887, a servant discovered a month-old girl "lying on the stoop," according to The Sun.  The article said, "alongside of it lay a bundle of worn clothing."  The servant changed its clothing, and then Fischer hailed a cabbie, who transported the infant to the Police Central Office.  There was no note with the baby, so it assuredly was taken to an orphanage.

An advertisement appeared in The New York Times on March 7, 1889:

An elegant Fifth Avenue House for sale on very easy terms.  No. 813 Fifth-Avenue between 62d and 63d Streets.  Four Stories with extension.

The ad noted the house was "superbly decorated" and that the plumbing was new.

The residence was purchased by William and Ida Haenel Radam.  Born in Germany in 1844, Radam came to America at the age of 23.  A botanist, he settled in Austin, Texas where he established gardens, eventually having branches in other cities.  When he contracted malarial fever in 1884, doctors told him he had no chance of recovery.  The New York Times later recalled, "His interest in botany and some experience as a naturalist had led him some time before into an investigation of certain forms of plant life, and the result of his experiments was the discovery in 1885 of what he claimed to be a 'microbe killer.'"  Radam attributed his recovery to his discovery.  He established the Microbe Killer Companies with factories here, in England and Australia, "and from the sale he amassed a considerable fortune," according to the newspaper.

William Radam within his office at 813 Fifth Avenue.  from Microbes and The Microbe Killer, 1890 (copyright expired)

On May 19, 1894, The Evening World ran a full-page article about Radam titled, "What To Do For Microbes / A Texas Florist Discovers What Scientists Could Not."  The article explained the workings of the Microbe Killer and about Radam's life.  It praised, "the name of William Radam ought to be in every book of history and upon the lips of every schoolboy," and compared him to Louis Pasteur and Thomas Edison.

The Radams sold 813 Fifth Avenue in February 1889 to Hugh and Henrietta Chisholm.  (Incidentally, William Radam was later exposed as a charlatan.)  By now, the 1870s brownstones along the avenue across Central Park and the side streets were no longer fashionable.  One by one they were demolished and replaced, or renovated.

Two months later, The New York Times reported that the Chisholms had hired C. P. H. Gilbert to renovate their home.  The esteemed architect replaced the brownstone with a limestone facade, removed the stoop and created an entrance at street level.  His Beaux Arts design included two beefy telamones (columns in the form of men) that supported a faux balcony above the entrance, and another pair at the fifth floor.  Gilbert bowed the first through fourth floors, creating a stone railed balcony at the fifth floor that morphed into a steep mansard.

photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm was born in Canada in 1847.  He started his career by selling newspapers on trains.  He saved $50 and used it to take a course at a business school in Toronto.  In 1861, the teen co-founded Chisholm Brothers with his brothers.  They distributed newspapers across Canada and the Northeastern United States and within a few years employed 250 workers.  He married Henrietta Mason in 1872 and had one son, Hugh, Jr.  

By the time the Chisholms moved into 813 Fifth Avenue, Hugh had established several pulp and paper companies, including the Otis Falls Pulp Company in Jay, Maine, the third largest mill in the country.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Maine: A History, 1919 (copyright expired)

While Hugh was busy with work, Henrietta was involved in social and charity work.  The children of wealthy families had to be prepared for their introductions to society and that included learning dancing.  On May 19, 1901, The New York Times reported, "A new dancing class has been formed for young girls."  It was organized by Henrietta and four other socialites.  The first meeting, said the article, would be held on December 13, "at Mrs. Chisholm's residence, 813 Fifth Avenue."

On January 24, 1903, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. Hugh J. Chisholm (Miss Henrietta Mason) of 813 Fifth Avenue has invitations out for dinners on Tuesday next and Feb. 10, and a luncheon on Feb. 4."

The Chisholms' library.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Hugh Chisholm established company towns around his mills, including Chisholm, Maine, near the Otis Falls paper mills.  Concerned about workers' welfare, his planned communities included "wholesome" recreational areas like parks, theaters, educational buildings, and other outlets.

The younger Hugh, born on April 17, 1886, attended Browning's School and Yale University.  On September 7, 1907, just before returning to Yale for his junior year, Hugh, Jr. got his chauffeur Alfred Panier into a tight spot.  At a time when motorists were being pulled over for speeding at 15 miles per hour, Chisholm pushed his driver even faster.  The New York Times reported that Panier was "arrested for driving his machine over sixty miles an hour on Broadway, between 194th and 196th Streets."  The chauffeur was fined $10 (about $334 today), which presumably young Chisholm paid.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Jr. The History of the Class of 1908 Yale College, 1908 (copyright expired)

In December 1909, the Chisholms purchased Blind Brook Farm, the 200-acre former country estate of Marion Story in Portchester, New York.  (Marion Story had committed suicide in the mansion the previous August.)  The price Hugh Chisholm paid for the property "exceeded $500,000," according to The Sun, which said he would "spend $50,000 in repairs."  (The combined figure would translate to more than $12 million today.)

Blind Brook Farm.  1909 real estate brochure (copyright expired)

Three months prior to the purchase, Hugh, Jr.'s engagement to Sara C. Hardenbergh was announced.  The wedding took place in St. Bernard's Church in Bernardsville, New Jersey on June 25, 1910.  The reception was held at Rennemead, the country home of the Hardenberghs.  The newlyweds moved into the Chisholms' Fifth Avenue mansion.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Sr. died in the house on July 8, 1912.  His funeral was held in the residence at 3:00 the following day.  Henrietta and Hugh, Jr. and his wife would soon leave Fifth Avenue.  On December 25, 1912, The Sun reported, 

Mrs Hugh Chisholm is to give up her residence at 813 Fifth avenue...to live in an apartment house on Park avenue.  She is to have the eleventh floor in the new apartment to be erected at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Sixty-fifth street.

The suite will comprise fourteen rooms and four baths and will take in the entire floor.  Mrs. Chisholm's son Hugh will have the twelfth floor.  His suite will have also fourteen rooms and four baths.

The Park Avenue building was completed in 1917.  Henrietta sold 813 Fifth Avenue in April that year to Francis Joseph and Anne Arend for $260,000 (about $6.18 million today).

The Arends filled the mansion with antique French furnishings and objets d'art, as seen in this photo of the salon.    from the Parke-Bernet Galleries' "Contents of the Residence of the Late Francis J. Arend" catalogue 1942

Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1866, Francis married Anne M. Moltz on November 15, 1890.  Anne's unmarried sister, Jennie B. Moltz, moved into the mansion with the couple.  Arend was president of the De Laval Separator Co., the Turbine Co., the Amerigo Realty Co., and was director in the Coal & Iron Bank.  He was a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the American Geographical Society.  The Arends' country home was in Deal, New Jersey.

 

On October 24, 1931, fourteen years after the family moved into 813 Fifth Avenue, Annie Moltz Arend underwent an operation at Sitken-Morgan Memorial Hospital.  She died a week later on October 30 at the age of 65.

from the Parke-Bernet Galleries' "Contents of the Residence of the Late Francis J. Arend" catalogue 1942

It is unclear when Francis left 813 Fifth Avenue.  In 1940, he was living in the Plaza Hotel with a staff of 10.  The house sat fully furnished until his death on August 24, 1942.  An auction of the Arends' valuable collection of antique silver, furnishings and artwork was held before the end of the year.

In 1941, while Arend lived in the Plaza Hotel, the mansion was boarded up.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Georges Lurcy and his wife, the former Alice Snow Barbee, purchased the mansion from the Arend estate.  Lurcy had headed his own bank in France before coming "to New York after the fall of France in 1940," according to the Fort Worth newspaper Star-Telegram.  He was now a partner in the New York Stock Exchange firm of Halle & Stieglitz.  In reporting his purchasing of the Arends mansion, The New York Times mentioned that he and Alice had "been living at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel."

When Georges and Alice fled France, they retained their vast collection of French antiques and artwork.  Like the Arends, they filled the Fifth Avenue mansion with a remarkable collection.  Lurcy occasionally lent art pieces for exhibition.

Georges Lurcy amid French antiques and a Renoir landscape within the house.  from the Parke-Bernet catalogue "Collection of Georges Lurcy" November 1957.

Georges Lurcy died at the age of 62 on September 30, 1953.  Alice remained in the house for four more years.  On November 27, 1957, the Star-Telegram reported:

Parke-Bernet Galleries offered to a glittering gathering of 1,600 socialites and dealers the largest collection of French paintings ever assembled for a New York Auction last week.  They had been the collection of the late George[s] Lurcy and they were snapped up at prices ranging from $200,000 for a Renoir landscape, a $180,000 for a Gauguin portrait of a Tahitian woman, to $92,500 for a Monet.

The article commented that the extent of the collection, "was not known until his death in 1953."

No. 813 Fifth Avenue survived until 1963 when it and the flanking townhouses were demolished to be replaced for a Robert Bien-designed apartment building for the newly formed 813 Fifth Avenue syndicate.  During the demolition, the four limestone telemones were rescued and are exhibited today in the Brooklyn Museum.

photograph by Larry Gertner, August 23, 2015.

The Henry J. Scudder House - 116 East 17th Street

 

In 1850, Henry Joel Scudder purchased the 25-foot-wide plot at 69 East 17th Street (renumbered 116 in 1867) from Courtlandt Palmer.  Half a block to the west was Union Square where brick and brownstone mansions had begun appearing five years earlier; and two blocks to the east was the equally exclusive Stuyvesant Square.  

Three years later Scudder married Louisa Henrietta Davies and the following year, in 1854, the couple began construction of their new home on the site.  Their four-story-and-basement Italianate-style residence, completed within that year, was faced in brownstone.  

The highly-ornamented arched entrance, inspired by Renaissance designs, would set the house apart.  Its paneled columns were carved with a chain motif, the spandrels were filled with intricate foliate designs, and the keystone was carved with a stylized lyre.  A full relief shell sat within the triangular, bracketed pediment.  The chain motif was echoed in a frieze running below the fourth-floor windows.

The windows sat within molded architrave frames.  A cast iron balcony most likely fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Born in 1825, Henry Joel Scudder had deep American roots, descending from Thomas Scudder who arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1630.  Henry Scudder graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1846 and opened his law office in New York City in 1848.  He co-founded the law firm of Scudder & Carter in 1854.

When the couple moved into their new home, they had a newborn baby, Henry Townsend Scudder.  Also living with them were Henry's brothers, Hewlett and Townsend, a merchant and lawyer, respectively.  (Townsend was a partner with his brother in Scudder & Carter.)  

Henry and Louisa would have four more children--Charles Davies, Edward Mansfield, Mary English, and Elizabeth.   The family's country home was along the upper Hudson River.

On April 12, 1861, the year Elizabeth was born, the Civil War broke out.  Henry Scudder, a member of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment, left his family to fight in 1862.  In his absence, Louisa died on December 28, 1864 at the age of 30.  Shortly after Scudder's return to his East 17th Street home, Elizabeth died at the age of four.

Formerly the responsibility of Louisa, Henry Scudder was now tasked with staffing the houses.  He placed an ad in The Sun on May 3, 1865:

Wanted--A Cook and Chambermaid in a gentleman's family, 60 miles up the North River.  The cook to assist in washing and ironing; the chambermaid to be seamstress also; good references required.  Call at 69 East 17th st, between the hours of 8 and 3 to-day.

At the time of the ad, Hewlett still lived with the family.  Townsend had moved to East 30th Street by then.

In 1866, Henry Scudder married Emma Willard.  The population of the East 17th Street house would continue to grow as the couple had five children--Willard, Louisa H, Heyward, Emma Willard, and Hewlett.

Henry Joel Scudder, from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1872, Scudder was elected to the Forty-third Congress and held the office through March 3, 1875.  Afterward, he returned to his law practice and became the principal counsel for the Standard Oil Company.

Scudder moved his family to East 22nd Street in 1882 where he died on February 10, 1886.  In reporting his death, The New York Times said he, "for nearly a third of a century occupied a leading position at the Bar of this city."  In the meantime, the East 17th Street house was being rented, its tenant operating it as a boarding house.

Boarding here by 1887 was George R. Phillips, who apparently consisted of the one-person faculty of The New York School of Oratory.  Phillips taught his students from his rooms.  His advertisement in the New York Herald on December 18, 1887 read: "The New York School of Oratory and Voice Culture for the care of stammering and vocal impediments, 116 East 17th st, George R. Phillips, Principal."  He would remain here at least through 1879.

Another tenant gave instructions from his rooms.  In the same issue of the New York Herald an advertisement read, "$5 for six lessons--day or evening; drawing, flowers &c.; painting, photo color, photo crayon. 116 East 17th."  (The cost of each lesson would translate to $27.50 in 2025.)

The upscale tenor of the boarding house was reflected in one resident's ad looking for new accommodations on December 2, 1888.  "A lady with maid would like sitting room and bedroom in quiet, comfortable house; private family preferred, where there are no other boarders.  Address, giving particulars, K. E. 116 East 17th st."

The Scudder family advertised the house for sale on January  22, 1895, noting, "rented to May 1, 1896."  Just four days later, The New York Times reported "the Scudder estate [sold] to W. S. Patten the four-story and basement brownstone dwelling 116 East Seventeenth Street."  

William S. and Mary E. Patten inherited at least two boarders, Major Charles Mann and Rev. John R. Davies.  Rev. Davies was the pastor of the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Charles Mann was born in 1833 and educated in Germany.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the First Missouri Light Artillery.  He was Assistant Chief of Artillery at the Battle of Vicksburg.  The New York Press noted, "After the war he interested himself in oil wells."  Charles Mann was still involved in that business when he died here at the age of 62 on June 21, 1895.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

The Pattens continued to take in male boarders.  An advertisement  in the New York Journal and Advertiser on April 4, 1899 read, "17th St., 116 East, near Irving place--Large and single rooms; first class table; moderate price; gentlemen."

In December 1909, the Pattens sold the house to Ekko and Elise Sollmann.  They resold it in 1917 to George Borgfeldt & Co., which leased furnished rooms in the house.

The chain-carved frieze, molded window frames and denticulated cornices of the parlor windows survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Living here in the spring of 1928 was 22-year-old Winifred Mullarky, who came to New York from Youngstown, Ohio to become an artist's model.  The impressionable young woman read James Branch Cabell's Beyond Life while living here.  

On March 13, a tenant smelled gas and traced it to Mullarky's door.  The Evening Telegram reported, "Failing to gain entrance, the tenant called Policeman Frolich of the East Twenty-second street station, who forced the door."  Inside he found Winifred Mullarky unconscious in a chair.  She had placed a rubber tube leading from an open gas jet into her mouth.  Inhaling illuminating gas was so common that a device was available from some utility companies.  In addition to calling an ambulance from Bellevue Hospital, Frolich summoned "a lung motor from the Consolidated Gas Company."  The Evening Telegram reported, "it was said Miss Mullarky would recover."

The model had left a suicide note for her mother in Ohio, that said in part,

I am disappointed in life, in love, and in happiness.  Much that I have wanted to try to do has not been done.  I recently read the book by James Branch Cabell, "Beyond Life," and I found it very interesting.

She told her mother that the book shed light on the "life beyond the horizon."

Rooms continued to be leased in the house throughout the following decades.  It was purchased in 2012 for $23.5 million, initiating a still-ongoing renovation that will result in a two-family residence.

photographs by the author

The Patrick Galligan Saloon -- 337 Third Avenue

 

In 1853, Robert Kennie operated a grocery store in the Italianate-style building at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and 25th Street.  Although storekeepers customarily lived above their shops within buildings like this, the Kennies lived a few blocks north on Third Avenue.  Living upstairs at the time was Peter P. Roome, who worked as a watchman (what today we would call a security guard).

No. 337 Third Avenue was three stories tall and faced in running bond brick above the storefront.  Trimmed in simple brownstone sills and lintels, the building boasted a handsome bracketed metal cornice.

Around 1858, Patrick Galligan moved his saloon into the former grocery space.  Sarah Mason, widow of Jabez Mason, lived in the upper floors by 1861.  Hubbard Mason, presumably her son, was working as a carman in 1865.

The Masons had a scare early on the afternoon of July 4, 1865.  Celebrations for Independence Day in the 19th century were boisterous and dangerous.  Boys routinely fired pistols indiscriminatingly in the air and firecrackers were tossed willy-nilly with no regard to property owners or pedestrians.  The New York Times reported:

At about 3 o'clock P. M., the roof of No. 337 Third-avenue took fire from India crackers, and loss was sustained to the amount of $350.  The loss is fully covered by insurance in the Stuyvesant Office.

The saloon was taken over by James Goss in 1871.  In February 1874, builder James Whyte was hired to add a one-story, 21-foot-long extension to the rear, adding significant square footage to the saloon space.

Thomas Goss, presumably James's son, was arrested for a shocking crime on June 18 that year.  The New York Herald reported that he had been charged with felonious assault on Charles Sheridan, "whom he stabbed three times in the neck."  Goss was held without bail while Sheridan's fate played out, his "wounds being of a dangerous character."

Eliza Mooney ran a boarding house on the upper floors as early as 1879.  Her tenants were respectable, like Richard Tamplin, a shoemaker, who lived here at least from 1876 through 1880; and a young man who kept his identity private in his ad looking for work in May 1877:

Coachman and Groom--By a first-class coachman; single man; thoroughly understands his business; is a good, careful driver; will make himself generally useful; willing and obliging; no objection to the country; best City and country reference.  Address Coachman. No. 337 3d-av.

Thirty-nine-year-old Joseph Buneo, a barber, lived here in the spring of 1881 when he was involved in a disturbing incident.  At around 10:00 on April 3, he and 17-year-old Biencio Angelo were walking along First Avenue when the teen stopped at Mullen's fruit stand at First Avenue and East 2nd Street and purchased 5 cents of apples.  The Sun reported, "While the two Italians started off Mullen saw Buneo take an apple from the stand.  He demanded payment for it, and when it was refused, he attempted to forcibly take it from Buneo."

While Mullen and Buneo struggled, Angelo drew a knife and stabbed Mullen five times.  The fruit dealer fell to the pavement and cried for help as Mullen and Buneo fled.  Right behind them were two detectives, who quickly arrested them.

At the time of the incident, the saloon was now operated by Miles A. Gibbons.  He placed an advertisement in The Sun on May 13, 1881 that read, "Boy wanted about 17 to work in liquor store; reference required.  Miles A. Gibbons, 337 3d av."

Operating the upper floors in 1882 was M. Luther, who advertised in September, "A girl, about 15 years old, to mind baby and assist in light housework."

An employee took over the saloon for Miles Gibbons in the summer of 1883 when Gibbons was called for jury duty.  He sat on the murder case of James English, who had shot and killed James Ward on June 28 in McGlory's saloon.  The verdict was reached on July 6.  The courtroom was packed with "frequenters of Billy McGlory's dance hall," said The Sun.  The afternoon was favorable to the defendant and relatively tragic for Gibbons.  The article said, "The jury found a verdict of accidental shooting, and the audience dispersed.  The audience stole the new Panama hat of Juror Michael [sic] Gibbons."

By the mid-1880s, the building was part of the vast real estate holdings of a consortium of relatives including Nicholas Fish and his wife, and several Bryce family members, including Joseph S. and Elizabeth S. Bryce.  In 1891, Joseph Bryce signed a three-year lease on the building to John J. Dooley.  Almost immediately, Dooley gave the "saloon lease" to Peter Doelger.  At the time it was common for large breweries like the Peter Doelger Brewery to operate saloons that sold only their products.  

A tragedy occurred in 1893.  Annie Melzen arrived in New York from Germany on September 29 and moved into a room here.  The 15-year-old quickly found a job as a servant and her prospects in her new country seemed good.  But Annie Melzen was unaccustomed to illuminating gas and seven days after moving in, she went to bed and blew out the flame, as she would with a candle.  She was found dead in the morning.

The Peter Doelger saloon repeatedly ran afoul of the excise (or liquor board) authorities.  On June 11, 1894, bartender Henry Bohmeeche was arrested for selling alcohol on Sunday.  The New York Times said he told Justice Voorhis, "he was merely closing up his place."  Voorhis responded, "What's the use of lying?" and held him for trial.

Three months later, on September 26, 1894, The Evening World reported, "Supt. Byrnes has thrown down the gauntlet to the Police Commissioners and declared open war."  Thomas Byrnes declared, "No more Sunday saloons."

Among the saloon workers arrested in the massive city-wide raids ordered by Byrnes on September 23 was Thomas Connor, who was bartending here that afternoon.

In May 1896, William and Emma Tucker "engaged a room," as reported by The World, at 337 Third Avenue.  Tucker and his wife were "theatrical people."  Theirs were snug conditions.  The Tuckers, who were "in hard luck," according to The World, shared the room with their daughter and son, eight and three years old respectively; and Nora Purcell, Tucker's 21-year-old step-daughter, who minded the children.

William Tucker had appeared recently in In a Big City, but was now out of work.  The World reported, "Impoverished but hopeful, Tucker, his wife and step-daughter bent their energies to a search for employment.  The wife alone succeeded, securing an engagement in a Bowery concert hall."  A few days after the family moved into their room, Tucker "worn out with exertion and anxiety," entered the Union Square Theatre.

The performance ended at 6:00, "but the quiet figure in the balcony remained motionless," said The World.  Two hours later, an usher saw William Tucker "sway slightly and then bend forward, his head falling gently upon the cushioned balcony rail."  The New York Times reported that he was carried unconscious out of the theater and was dead by the time a doctor arrived.

Nora Purcell identified the body at the Mercer Street Police Station.  She then rushed to the Palace Theatre where her mother was appearing.  She told The World, "At the theatre, I told my story to the manager, but he refused to allow me behind the scenes.  'Don't tell her now,' he insisted.  'Wait till after the show.  Do you want to break her all up?'"

Nora sat, crying, backstage throughout the show.  Afterward, she asked a company member to break the news to Emma Tucker.  "Mrs. Tucker fell in a faint, and it was an hour before she revived sufficiently to leave the theatre and be driven to the Morgue," said The World.

The Bryce-Fish families sold numerous properties in June 1889, including 337 Third Avenue, which was purchased by Ellen Dooley.  She renewed the saloon lease to Peter Doelger the following year, and leased the upper floors to Ellen Snyder, who named it the Rockland Hotel.  (It would later be revealed that Snyder and the Doelger proprietor were working in concert.)

In November 1900, Isaac Gilbert took a room here.  He arrived in New York City from Bridgeport, Connecticut seeking work and "had enough money to last him a few days," according to The New York Times.  Unfortunately, the former gardener was unsuccessful in finding a job and "grew despondent."  On December 17, 1900, The New York Times reported that Gilbert, "tried to end his life yesterday in the Rockland Hotel, 337 Third Avenue, by inhaling illuminating gas."  He was unsuccessful, however, and at Bellevue Hospital, "it is said that he will recover," said the newspaper.

The Rockland Hotel was what was known as a "Raines Law hotel."  The 1896 law was intended to curb the consumption of alcohol by imposing regulations.  An exemption to the Sunday liquor laws was that hotels could still serve alcohol to guests, if it accompanied a meal or was served in the guests’ rooms.  The result was that saloons, like the one at 337 Third Avenue, took over the upper floors as a “Raines Law hotel” to circumvent the excise laws.  When detectives raided the Rockland in February 1902, they discovered more than they expected.

On February 22, The New York Times reported that a group of officers "at a late hour raided a Raines law hotel at 337 Third Avenue, capturing six prisoners.  Ellen Snyder, the alleged proprietress of the hotel, was arrested as were three other women and Ernest Myers, a bartender.  They were charged with disorderly conduct."  (The term referred to a brothel.)

The incident ended the Peter Doelger saloon.  The property was turned over to a receiver, John M. Bowers, and four months later, the lease was given to Bernheimer & Schmid, owners of the Lion Brewery.  They operated the saloon until Prohibition closed it.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The space became a restaurant.  It was the scene of a spectacular gunfight at 2:00 on the morning of December 22, 1933.  Someone rushed up to Patrolman Harry Kroll and told him there was a holdup taking place in the restaurant.  Kroll drew his revolver and entered the premises, "where he fearlessly exchanged shots with the bandit and fatally wounded him," according to Kroll's citation for bravery the following year.  In the exchange, Kroll was wounded and was hospitalized for nearly two weeks.  

The Kips Bay neighborhood saw change in the third quarter of the century.  In 1978, Mr. Lee's restaurant opened here.  The New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton noted on March 3 that the "nondescript neighborhood" belied the interior that "summons up images of an enclosed, Spanish garden."  The  restaurant, which served a Continental menu, remained for more than a decade.

The space returned to its long tradition of housing a tavern in the 21st century when it became The Hairy Monk.  By 2014 it was the Rose Hill Tavern, and most recently AWOL Bar and Grill.

photographs by the author