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

 

Architect M. Louis Ungrich was busy in the spring of 1885.  On May 30, the Record & Guide reported that he was "preparing the sketches" for six apartment buildings for Henry Muhlker, ten rowhouses for F. K. Keller and Frank Tilford, and a tenement for Augustus Eichele.  

The houses for Keller and Tilford, on the north side of West 123rd Street between Morningside Avenue and Manhattan Avenue, were intended for middle-class residents.  Just 16-feet-wide, they were completed in 1886.  Three stories tall above stone basements, they were faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta.  Ungrich designed the Queen Anne-style homes in five mirror-image pairs in an A-B-C-D-A-B-C-D-A-B configuration.

Among the D models was 349 West 123rd Street.  Slightly more understated than the A and B models, Ungrich gave it a splash of Renaissance Revival with terra cotta lintels over the doorway and parlor window.  The parlor level openings sat within quoined stone frames.  Interestingly, the proportions of the window nearly matched that of the doorway and the two lintels were nearly identical.  The openings of the second and third floors shared single stone lintels, and a sloped shingled roof covered the attic level.

Keller and Tilford initially leased 349 West 123rd Street.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 29, 1887, offered: 

Handsome New House, 349 West 123d St., near Morningside Park, decorated, ten rooms and bath; three years' lease.

The new occupants seem to have been adherents of the Temperance movement.  The restriction of alcohol in the household may have been too much to bear for their cook.  The well-trained culinarian was specific in looking for a new position.  On February 1, 1888 she advertised in The New York Times:

$40--Cook; Professional from Ems. (Imperial Medal of Merit); in first-class family; no children; no abstainers.  Call at 349 West 123d-st.

The salary she required (presumably monthly) would translate to about $1,360 in 2025.

The house and the one next door at 351 were sold in May 1890 to Annie B. Wakefield.  She resold No. 349 four months later to Mariam Howe Nolen, the widow of George H. Nolen.  She had three children, George Jr., Spencer, and Mary Howe.  

Mariam Nolen worked as what today would be called a real estate agent.  She took in a boarder to augment finances.  Living with the family in 1894 was John L. Florence, a commissioner of deeds.  (The civil service position was similar to today's notary public.)

Spencer Nolen died at the age of 28 on March 21, 1896.  His funeral was held in the house three days later.

It was almost assuredly through Mariam's real estate work that she became acquainted with "Mrs. D. H. Nellis, known as Mrs. Blakely" as described by The Sun.  Mrs. Blakely was a member of the Real Estate Exchange and she rented houses owned by W. E. D. Stokes and collected his rents.  On February 4, 1898, she appeared in court to answer a complaint from the owner of a livery stable for an outstanding bill of $75.  During the proceedings it was revealed that she had several other outstanding financial obligations.  The Sun quoted her testimony:

My mother lent me $1,500, which I used for personal expenses.  I borrowed $900 from Mrs. Nolan [sic] of 349 West 123d street; $400 from Mr. F. Barnes, a stock broker, last October; $400 from Mrs. Duke of 255 West Seventy-second street.  I used all for expenses.

The amount Mariam Nolen loaned her would translate to about $35,100 today.  Whether she ever recouped the loan is unclear.

Sarah Hortense Herrington boarded with the Nolen family at the time.  She died on May 8, 1898 and her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

By then, Mary Howe Nolen was a force among the kindergarten movement.  A graduate of Hunter College, she worked with the Department of Education overseeing kindergarten classes.  Her diplomatic but stern oversight was reflected in a letter the 28-year-old wrote to a teacher, Adele Miln, in 1899, that said:

Please be prepared next Wednesday morning to show the teachers how you adapted "Marching to Jerusalem" to the playground without chairs.  You had chalk circles on the floor.  I shall have to trouble you to bring your own chalk and any other portable equipment necessary.  Also please bring a list of playground games that are especially successful with small boys.  If you do not err, yours is a boys' playground so you will have need to plan these carefully for yourself.  I do not want to put any extra labor upon you, but you are always helpful and willing, so don't fail me.

In 1902, Mariam transferred title of 349 West 123rd Street to Mary.  She held the title of Supervisor of Kindergarten at the time.

The Nolens continued to take in a boarder.  In 1902 Andrew J. Smith lived here, and in 1912 Ernest A. Needham boarded with the family.  Needham was a retired commission merchant and in failing health.  

On the night of September 3, 1912, he walked into the dining room and poured carbolic acid into a glass and drank it.  The act was witnessed by Mariam Nolan, who "ran to the street and summoned policeman Singer," as reported by The Sun.  Singer "found Mr. Needham on a couch in the dining room."  He was transported to the J. Hood Wright Hospital where he was deemed to be "in a serious condition."  It was so serious, in fact, that a priest was called.  Mariam told reporters, "He has been in poor health and seemed much discouraged about it."

Ernest A. Needham survived the attempt.  He died in the house a year later, on November 12, 1913.  The New York Times mentioned, "funeral private."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

There would be two other funerals in the parlor in rapid succession.  Three months later, on January 22, 1914, George H. Nolen died; and the following year, on June 25, 1915, Mariam Howe Nolen died.  Her funeral was held in the house on June 27. 

By the post-World War I years, Mary Howe Nolen was president of the Parents' Kindergarten Association of the Model School.  The group was founded in 1889 "to establish some model kindergartens in districts where the children were in greatest need of them," as explained by The Outlook in 1912.  Mary would head that organization into the mid-1920s.

Mary Howe Nolen died on March 25, 1948 at the age of 77.  

The Nolen house became home to Alonzo B. Morris, a real estate operator.  By the second half of the 20th century, it had been converted to a two-family home and it continues as such today.

Although the stone and terra cotta have been painted, the exterior of the Nolen house is virtually intact.  And, somewhat surprisingly, the original interior shutters still hang in the upper floor windows.

photographs by the author

Robert Maynicke's 1903 130-132 Fifth Avenue

 

image via loopnet.com

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

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

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

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

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

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

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

The Clothier & Furnisher, March 1903 (copyright expired)

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

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

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

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

McClure's, October 1908 (copyright expired)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

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

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

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

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

photograph by the author

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

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for prompting this post

The Isaac F. Fisher House - 249 East Houston Street

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

many thanks to Carole Teller for suggesting this post.

photographs by the author

The Altered Alfred Schanck House - 318 Second Avenue

 

photograph by Ted Leather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photograph by Ted Leather

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

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.

The 1902 Victor Herbert House - 321 West 108th Street

 

Born in London in 1844, Thomas Graham attended public schools in New York City.  His father was a builder and, upon coming to America, a staunch abolitionist.  Thomas set out on a career in architecture, studying in the office of Jardine & Thompson.  But he left at the outbreak of the Civil War to serve with the First New York Engineers.  Upon his return to New York, he learned the cabinet making and stair building trades, but switched careers again in 1870 when he again took up architecture and building.

In 1898, Leslie's History of the Greater New York noted, "He now has his son, William Van Wyck Graham, associated with him in various building operations."  William was 25 years old at the time and he and his father had just embarked on a new project--seven upscale row houses on West 108th Street between Riverside Drive and  Broadway.  Thomas acted as architect while William was the owner and builder of record.

By the fall of 1899 the houses, stretching from 317 to 329 West 108th Street, were taking shape.  On November 4, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported on the homes, which Thomas Graham described as "the finest and best equipped American basement residences ever offered to the public for sale in this city."  The article noted, "They are all built, finished and fitted in the most approved style of modern domestic construction, with hard woods, tiles, mosaics, sanitary plumbing, and the closest attention to the necessity of producing large, airy apartments, rich in appearance and containing all the requirements of elegance and comfort."  Although the row was nearly a year from completion, William Van Wyck Graham had "prepared elegant books containing elevations and floor plans" for potential buyers.

Thomas Graham's rendering depicted a street filled with well-to-do pedestrians.  No. 321 is third from right.  Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, November 4, 1899 (copyright expired)

Successful and engaged to be married, young William Van Wyck Graham seemed to be leading an enviable life.  But on September 1, 1900 The Sun reported, "William Van Wyck Graham, 25 years old, son of Thomas Graham, a New York architect, committed suicide late last night on the lawn in front of the New York Infant Asylum by drinking enough carbolic acid to kill a dozen men."  The article noted, "Graham was engaged to be married and a letter from the young woman dated Aug. 20 was found in his pocket.  It was evident that he had visited her while he was drinking and that they had quarreled."

Devastated, Thomas Graham stopped work on the West 108th Street project.  The property changed hands twice and the final owner, Hugh J. Gallagher, commissioned the architectural firm of Horgan & Slattery to complete the houses.  The row was completed in 1902, four years after ground was broken.

On May 10, 1902, the Record & Guide reported that Jacob D. Butler (Hugh J. Gallagher, it turned out, was a pseudonym used at the time of the property's purchase) had sold 329 West 108th Street, "an American basement dwelling on lot 30x65."  The handsome, Renaissance Revival-style mansion was faced in gray brick above a limestone base.  The full-width, faceted oriel of the second and third floors was enhanced with Corinthian pilasters carved with elaborate Renaissance designs.  The openings of the fourth and fifth floors sat within a single frame, its spandrel panel intricately carved.

The initial owner's residency was short lived.  In 1904, composer, conductor and cellist Victor Herbert and his wife, the former operatic soprano Theresa Förster, purchased the house.  The couple had two children, Ella Victoria and Clifford Victor.

The Herberts' new home is third from the right.

Born in Ireland on February 1, 1859, Herbert began his musical career as a cellist in Vienna and Stuttgart.  He met Theresa in 1885 while she was a member of the Stuttgart court opera and he was part of the court orchestra.  They married in August 1886 and moved to America two months later.

Victor Herbert's Babes In Toyland had opened at the Majestic Theatre a few months before the family moved into the West 108th Street house.  Starting in 1904, Herbert gave weekly concerts at the venue, The New York Times saying on December 4 that year, "The popularity of the Victor Herbert Sunday night concerts at the Majestic Theatre was demonstrated again last evening by an audience that filled the house."

Herbert converted the fifth floor of the residence to his studio.  Here, and in the family's country home, Camp Joyland at Lake Placid, he wrote his operettas and other scores.  According to the composer, he worked in his studio in the mornings, took a brisk walk, then attended to business downtown.  But soon after moving into the West 108th Street house, his morning quietude was shattered.

Living next door at 323 West 108th Street was a family whose teenaged daughter played piano.  Neil Gould, in his A Theatrical Life-Victor Herbert, explains,

The young lady was accustomed to practicing her Czerny [piano exercises] for three hours each morning--about the same time that Herbert loved to compose...The young lady's music penetrated the wall of Herbert's studio and disturbed his routine.

Theresa solved the matter.  She went next door, introduced herself and explained the problem--the famous composer could neither think nor write.  A compromise was reached and the young pianist practiced in the afternoons and the tranquility of Herbert's morning hours was restored.

Ella's introduction to society came in 1907 and she quickly flexed her social wings.  On October 29, 1908, The New York Times reported, "Miss Ella Herbert, the daughter of Victor Herbert, the composer and orchestra leader, gave a party at the home of her father, 321 West 108th Street, last night in the form of a double celebration, it being Miss Herbert's nineteenth birthday and the wedding day of her friend, Miss May O'Gorman, daughter of Supreme Court Justice O'Gorman, to Dudley Malone."

On January 27, 1911, the newspaper reported that Ella "gave a small luncheon at her house yesterday in honor of Miss Eva Ingersoll-Brown, a debutante.  Afterward Miss Herbert took her guests to a theatre."

Victor Herbert, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Later that year, on September 30, Victor Herbert was involved in a bizarre accident.  His chauffeur, Frank Sabefe, was taking him to the Knickerbocker Theatre.  They had nearly arrived there when Sabefe slowed the automobile "to fall in behind a street car bound in the same direction," according to The Sun.  As he did so, a wagon owned by the New Amsterdam Gas Company slammed into the car.  The article said, "The horse climbed into the front of Mr. Herbert's automobile and damaged the car to the extent of $200."  No one was hurt and Herbert did not press charges, although he directed his attorney to "settle the question of damages with [the] company."

The truce with the family next door remained in effect until 1911 when Herbert's peace was once again shattered.  That family moved away and Dr. Fery Lulek established his Conservatory of Music in the house.  Moving in with Lulek, writes Neil Gould, were "a violiniste and two pianistes as female artists were then known...eight vocalists, and, together with Mrs. Mary Turner as chaperone, and her daughter 'Miss Jean' as piano coach."  He adds, "As Victor and Theresa watched in disbelief, in they came: eight chirping sopranos, four Steinway pianos (one for each floor) and a pubescent Paganini."

The New York Herald explained on October 23, 1912, the conservatory moved in "a few months ago, while [Herbert] was whipping his new composition, 'The Lady of the Slipper,' into shape."  The article said, "No muse, no matter how domestic, would abide amid such clanging and banging, and the composer's inspiration fled."

Once again Theresa went next door.  Mary Turner agreed to move the pianos to the west wall, away from the Herbert side, and remove the piano from the fifth floor.  It did not work.  Theresa returned, this time suggesting that the conservatory might move.  Expectedly, that was not acceptable and the neighbors ended up in court, with the Herberts charging the conservatory with "disorderly conduct."

Teresa complained in court, "Such technique, such awful method, such attack, such rendition of scales!  It is terrible.  Never have I heard such singing."  

Mrs. Turner then took the stand to defend her students.  "We are sorry if we annoy the Herberts, but what can we do?  We have moved the pianos.  We do not practice all the pianos at one time, as Mrs. Herbert said.  No doubt the Herberts do not enjoy the music.  It is quite likely they do not appreciate our music.  Thank heaven, it isn't the kind of music Mr. Herbert writes.  We play classical music!"

The Herberts lost their case and so Theresa sued again, this time saying the music was a "public nuisance."  But since the law defined a "public nuisance" as affecting "more than one household," her suit was dismissed.  In desperation, Herbert contracted the American Gypsum Company to soundproof his studio.

The New York Herald explained, "He understood that they would make a padded cell of it, so that he could wrestle with the piano to his heart's content and not be disturbed by intramural harmonies.  The walls, ceiling and floor of the room were padded and lined and then the company sent in its bill for $220.55."

The New York Herald, October 23, 1912 (copyright expired)

To celebrate Herbert's 54th birthday, he and Theresa held a dinner party on February 1, 1913.  A few of the guests included tenor Enrico Caruso, Senator James O'Gorman and his wife, producer Joseph Grismer, librettist Otto Hauerbach and "Nathan Burkan, a lawyer, who recently convinced the courts that Mr. Herbert's alleged soundproof studio isn't any such thing."  (The padded room was a failure.)  During the evening a string quartet "played selections from Mr. Herbert's operas and his pieces de salon."

Victor Herbert's morning strolls were soon derailed by malodorous fumes wafting across the Hudson River.  He testified before the State Board of Health on April 29, 1918 about "the evil odors that emanate from chemical plants on the New Jersey side of the river."  He told the commissioners, "It is positively the worst nuisance in the world, and unless something is done to stop it it will mean a serious risk to health to live in the vicinity of Riverside Drive."

The New York Times recounted, "Mr. Herbert said he spent much time composing at home, and was accustomed to indulge in strolls for exercise.  He said he was accustomed as soon as his nose sniffed the presence of an odor not particularly harmonious to avoid it by walking in the opposite direction."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

On the morning of May 26, 1924, as reported by the Musical Observer, Herbert "left his home, No. 321 West 108th Street, New York, at 11 o'clock in the morning...apparently in the full vigor of health."  Ella drove him downtown.  He worked with his publisher, Harms, Inc., then had lunch at the Lambs.  Shortly afterward, he felt ill and headed to the office of his physician, Dr. Emmanuel Baruch.  Rather coldly, Variety reported that as he was climbing the stairs, "America's foremost composer and one of the most skilled musicians who ever adapted his talent to the theatre dropped dead."

Newspapers filled his obituary with lists of his works: operettas, a grand opera, an oratorio and a cantata, and motion picture scores.  His funeral was held on May 28 at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church.  Variety noted that among the honorary pallbearers were John Philip Sousa, Jerome Kern, Nahan Franko, Senator James A. O'Gorman, and Charles M. Schwab.

Herbert left the 108th Street house to Theresa.  Other than $10,000, which went to Clifford, she and the children shared equally with the rest of the estate, including Camp Joyland.

On August 23, a three-day auction "of the furniture and appointments" of 321 West 108th Street began.  The New York Times reported, "Much of the furniture, rugs and belongings were purchased by the new owner of the house, Captain Damer of Buffalo.  (Various newspapers spelled his name Demar and Dammer, as well.)  Variety mentioned, "The composer's widow and daughter have taken a Park avenue apartment as their city residence."  (Instead, Therese and Ella moved into 1010 Fifth Avenue where Theresa died on February 24, 1927.)

The former mansion was operated as unofficial apartments in the subsequent decades.  Then, in 1965, it was converted to two apartments per floor.  Today there are five rental units in the building.  Happily, much of the interior details survive.

photographs by the author