photo from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
Around 1864 wealthy merchant William P. Williams shot ahead
of the northward progression of New York’s wealthy and constructed a fine
brownstone residence at No. 4 West 54th
Street directly across from the hospital.
Taking full advantage of the available lot, he constructed a two-story
carriage house to the side, rather than to the back as expected, and surrounding
gardens. The Italianate brownstone-clad
house rose four stories over an English basement. The dignified façade offered little
embellishment to call attention to itself.
A handsome portico sheltered the entrance and provided support to a bay
window at the second floor. Quoins ran
up the corners and Italian pediments surmounted the front windows.
While the mansion was being constructed a drama was unfolding in Richmond, Virginia.
Catherine Yarrington’s husband died in 1859 so she opened a boarding
house to support herself and her five children.
But in 1865 much of the surrounding neighborhood had been burned to the
ground and her options were dismal.
With the war ended, the married New York City railroad
tycoon Collis P. Huntington initiated a series of visits to Richmond which
would culminate in his purchase of what would become the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad. Uneducated and unpolished, he
was described by newspapers as “As ruthless as a crocodile” and “scrupulously
dishonest.” And he was rich.
Catherine Yarrington recognized an opportunity. Her daughter, Arabella, was 19 years old and
attractive. Huntington played cards at
a faro parlor owned by John Worsham, not far from Catherine Yarrington’s
boarding house. Huntington was
introduced to Arabella and before long they were involved in a torrid affair.
In 1869 Collis P. Huntington drove the golden spike into the
rail line connecting the East and West. There was no longer a reason for him to travel south.
That same year the entire Yarrington family moved to New York City—including
John Worsham.
To keep the affair discreet, Arabella Yarrington and John Worsham posed as a married couple—in fact Worsham had a wife, Annette, back home. With Huntington footing the bills, Catherine and Arabella dressed in the finest of fashion; no one suspecting that the refined women with their Southern accents were anything but the most respectable Mrs. Yarrington and Mrs. Worsham.
To keep the affair discreet, Arabella Yarrington and John Worsham posed as a married couple—in fact Worsham had a wife, Annette, back home. With Huntington footing the bills, Catherine and Arabella dressed in the finest of fashion; no one suspecting that the refined women with their Southern accents were anything but the most respectable Mrs. Yarrington and Mrs. Worsham.
A year after they arrived, Arabella Worsham bore a son and
soon after was tragically widowed. At
least that was what respectable society was informed. In fact, John Worsham had returned to
Richmond to his wife. In all probability
little Archer Worsham was the son of Collis Huntington.
The millionaire moved the clan into a smart house he owned
at No. 109 Lexington Avenue near fashionable Gramercy Park where many of the
leading names of New York society lived.
In the meantime, Elizabeth Huntington, whether even slightly aware of
the affair or not, continued to live on in their Park Avenue mansion at 38th
Street.
By 1877 Arabella would move again. By now Fifth Avenue was Manhattan’s most exclusive
address and with Huntington money she purchased the brownstone at No. 4 West 54th
Street and the garden lots surrounding it.
The class-conscious Arabella had one problem with her new mansion
however. It was out of date.
Arabella added the extension to the house near the rear -- photo Brooklyn Museum |
Arabella Yarrington Worsham knew fashion. She studied architecture and decorating
books. She spoke French and read
extensively about art history. Although
polite society living in the homes around her—Astors, Vanderbilts and Goulds—did
not include her name on their guest lists; she nevertheless had the money to
redecorate her house in the latest fashion.
The remodeled house included stained glass (as in the entrance doors) and built-in furniture, like the entrance hall sideboard -- photo by Samuel Herman Gothscho, Library of Congress collection |
She enlarged the residence to the side and contracted a
foremost decorating firm—either George A. Schastey or Pottier & Stymus—to completely
renovate the interiors. The concept of
interior decorators was relatively new, as wealthy citizens focused more on the
overall design of the room, rather than individual pieces. There is little doubt, however, that Araballa
had a great deal of input into the décor.
The 1870s were the hey-day of the Aesthetic Movement and
Arabella’s house would be the epitome of the style. All traces of the stuffy, restricted Civil
War period décor were ripped out, replaced by Moorish, Oriental and Eastland
designs.
There was a Turkish bath, a Japanese bedroom with ebonized
woodwork and a silver and gilt chandelier.
The smoking room was Moorish.
Woodwork was inlaid with ivory, ceilings were stenciled or frescoed,
mantels were carved in exotic patterns.
While the work was being done, Arabella and her son, now 7 years old,
traveled. They returned to a magnificent
transformation. The somber interiors
were now brilliant with primary colors, gold leaf, and sumptuous furnishings and
draperies.
The dazzling Moorish Smoking Room included ebonized woodwork, elaborate, polychrome plasterwork and exotic furniture -- photo brooklynmuseum.org |
In 1883 after having suffered from cancer for some time,
Elizabeth Huntington died. Now
Arabella, 34, and Collis, 64, were free to marry. On Friday July 7, 1884 Huntington
transferred the deed to his Park Avenue mansion “and two houses and lots around
the corner of Thirty Eighth street” to “Mrs. Belle D. Worsham,” as reported in
The Atlanta Constitution. The following
day they were married in the parlor of No. 4 East 54th Street. The newspaper added that “Rumor had it that
Mr. Huntington purchased the house many years ago and presented it as a
testimonial of friendly regard to Mrs. Worsham.” The famous minister, Henry Ward Beecher,
performed the ceremony.
The newlyweds took up residency in the Park Avenue house and
Arabella looked for a buyer for No. 4 West 54th. She found one in oil tycoon John D.
Rockefeller.
Rockefeller, a devout Baptist, had been spending more and
more time in New York and less in Cleveland.
He brought his family with him, staying in expansive suites in the
Buckingham. Fifth Avenue and Windsor Hotels.
By now he decided on a permanent New York residence.
While other Manhattan millionaires were building lavish
palaces along Fifth Avenue, the somber Rockefeller disdained ostentation. He purchased Arabella’s house and moved in
with his wife, Laura, and their children.
Although he was quickly becoming one of the richest and most powerful
men in America, Rockefeller saw no need to change anything in the house—except for
the purchase of new rugs.
photo by Samuel Herman Gothscho, Library of Congress collection |
Six years later, on November 25, 1890, The Evening World
described the tycoon. “John D.
Rockefeller is fifty-one years old. He
is a plain, ordinary man in appearance.
He wears a mustache, is a good husband and a kind father,enjoys his
home, which is at 4 West Fifty-fourth street, opposite St. Luke’s Hospital, and
looks like a solid businessman.
“He puts on no airs, but is a natural gentleman—police,
suave and gentle to all, be they rich or poor, lofy or humble. He claims no praise for getting rich, and
sticks faifully to Dr. Armitage’s Baptist Church, of which he is a member.”
The newspaper noted that “there are few servants,” although
census records a decade later would count ten.
Daughters Alta and Edith “two pretty girls just growing into women, have
but one maid between them” and “all the members of the family wait on
themselves as a rule.” The article even
claimed that Laura Rockefeller “is her own housekeeper.”
The exquisite inlaid doors and wainscot in the rear hallway were never seen by guests -- photo by Samuel Herman Gothscho, Library of Congress collection |
The thought of the mistress of a mansion behaving as a
housekeeper and young heiresses sharing a maid was no doubt shocking to
Caroline Astor or Alma Vanderbilt; yet the Rockefellers were not like most
fabulously wealthy families. Dividing
their time quietly between their country estate, Pocantico Hills, and the 54th
Street house, The Evening World said they had never “been prominent in society
simply for the reason that they never desired to be. To lead a simple, unostentatious life is one
of the strongest characteristics of all of the members of the Rockefellers, and
they are all religiously inclined.”
Stained glass separates a small sitting area in the extension and the master bedroom -- photo by Samuel Herman Gothscho, Library of Congress collection |
As it does today, wealth brought notoriety and possible
danger. In February 1892 Jay Gould
received threats against his life.
Rockefeller hired three private watchmen to guard the 54th
Street house in successive eight-hour shifts.
The oil man played down the security move to the press. “Mr. Rockefeller, like all notoriously very
rich men, receives many begging letters and letters from cranks, but he said
last evening that there was no especial incentive of this kind that led to
setting so strict a watch upon his house,” said The Sun on February 29,
1892. “The reason for employing watchmen
was that he was out of town frequently and that the family felt more secure
with a watchman within call.”
The guards did not suppress every beggar or crank,
however. In the spring of 1894 while
Rockefeller was at his office, a “wild-eyed, poorly-dressed man, with a
shuffling gait, walked hurriedly up Fifth Avenue…and turned west into
Fifty-fourth Street,” reported The Times on May 1. The man, whom the newspaper account said “swung
his arms above his head in an excited manner and mumbled something to himself,”
mounted the steps to the Rockefeller mansion and rang the doorbell.
The Rockefeller butler, Christopher Allson, opened the door
and, according to The Evening World, “saw at a glance that the man was crazy.” Camille Reinhardt, Jr., 26-years old,
demanded to see Rockefeller or the lady of the house. The butler said that no one was at home and
shut the door.
Undaunted, Reinhardt waited in the vicinity, then climbed
the steps again. This time he informed
Allson that a friend in heaven had informed him that the end of the world was
at hand and “for that reason he wanted to ask Mr. Rockefeller to give him a few
of his millions, which he knew the latter would not need at all after a short
time, and which would keep Reinhardt in very comfortable circumstances,” said
The World.
Allson persuaded Reinhardt to leave, but he merely hid behind
a bush in the hospital yard. Within a
few minutes of John Rockefeller’s return
home the doorbell rang again. It was, of
course, Reinhardt. Rockefeller was a
kind, patient and religious man. But
this was apparently enough. “He saw at
once that the man was demented,” reported The New York Times, and while the
butler engaged the latter in conversation, Mr. Rockefeller sent for a
policeman.”
Camila Reinhart spent the night at the East 51st
Street Police Station. The end of the
world never came.
Reflected in a large mirror, a dressing room included a lavatory with running water -- photo by Samuel Herman Gothscho, Library of Congress collection |
Later that year The Sun commented on daughter Edith’s
musical talents. “Miss Edith Rockefeller
has a fancy for pianos. There are five in her home, 4 West Fifty-fourth
street. She likes them in wood to match her boudoir, or in rosewood like
the drawing room. She plays beautifully, and is rich enough to indulge
the fancy to her heart’s desire.”
By the turn of the century Rockefeller had ostensibly retired,
although his enormous holdings in Standard Oil continued to enlarge his
fortune. He purchased large tracts of
land in the surrounding area to protect his mansion from encroaching
commerce. While Fifth Avenue began
changing, John D. Rockefeller’s free-standing home with its gardens and quaint
carriage house steadfastly remained.
In 1902 the butler was Nicholas Stanton and, like
Christopher Allson before him, he was tasked with turning away beggars. But on Christmas Eve that year, his job was
more difficult. He answered the
doorbell to find a shabbily-dressed nine-year old girl on the stoop. She asked for Mr. Rockefeller “saying that he
was to give her money to buy Christmas presents,” said The New York Times on
Christmas morning.
Little Mary Basanian had spent much of the day on the 9:30
train from Worcester, Massachusetts. She
roamed the streets, asking various people how to find the Rockefeller
house. Now at the door, she explained
that her father had given her money for the trip, saying that “Mr. Rockefeller
would give her money for Christmas.”
The butler explained that Mr. Rockefeller was not in the
city, and had her wait in the warm foyer while he got his coat. With
the family gone, he had no choice but to take the little waif to the East 51st
Street Station, the same police station where the demented beggar had ended up
13 years before. Sadly, little Mary
spent Christmas in the station house. “She
will be in the Children’s Court on Monday,” reported The Times.
The street where just one house and a hospital stood in 1865
was now lined with impressive mansions.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. moved into No. 31 in 1905. Philip Lehman lived at No. 7 and neurologist Moses
Allen Starr was at No. 5. Everything
on the tree-lined street was prosperous and happy. But inside the house at No. 4 Laura
Rockefeller was failing.
She spent the first years of the century as a semi-invalid
and by 1910 was essentially bed-ridden and in pain. John Rockefeller was her thoughtful
companion. On September 8, 1914 as they
celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, he proclaimed “I have had
but one sweetheart and I am thankful to say that I still have her.”
As the world changed outside the double entrance doors, everything stayed the same in the Rockefeller mansion -- photo by Samuel Herman Gothscho, Library of Congress collection |
Six months later, on March 12, 1915, the 75-year old Laura
Spelman Rockefeller died of a heart attack.
John D. Rockefeller closed the
New York house he had shared with his “sweetheart” and never returned.
During the war years, the mansion was opened to Red Cross
workers. The Sun reported on May 12,
1918 “Mr. Rockefeller had their workrooms equipped with sewing machines, chairs
and tables. The dining and reception rooms on the first floor, are used
by Auxiliary 236, New York County Chapter, of the Fifth Avenue Baptist
Church. Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. is general chairman of this
unit. The basement is used by Auxiliary 211, composed of older workers
from the church. Special lighting was installed for the work, and workers
have the use of the kitchen for preparing their lunches.”
Later that year, in October, the three upper floors were
outfitted as dormitories for the Y. W. C. A. “for women taking special courses
in recreation.” Fifty resident students
lived in the bedrooms where Rockefeller children had grown up.
On May 23, 1937 John D. Rockefeller, Sr., died in his winter
home, The Casements, at Ormond Beach, Florida.
He had hoped to live two more years “until July 9, 1939, when he would have
rounded out a century of life,” said The New York Times. Because his death was sudden, he died with no
family members with him. Over the course
of his life, the quiet-living philanthropist had given away more than $530
million.
With the end near, Samuel H. Gothscho photographed every room of the house -- photo Library of Congress |
The following year John D. Rockefeller, Jr. announced plans
to raze the family mansion on West 54th Street. The
house was an unbelievable time capsule of 1870s Aesthetic Movement décor. Unfortunately, not many recognized the
irreplaceable value of the museum-like interiors. Edward R. Walsh, in charge of the demolition,
told The New York Times “Little of the expensive carved hardwood stair rails,
wall paneling and pillars will be salvaged.
They would be out of place in the smaller rooms of modern homes, and
will not be of much value after being torn out of their present setting.”
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated two rooms—the master
bedroom and dressing room—to the Museum of the City of New York, and the
Moorish smoking room to the Brooklyn Museum.
And then the demolition team descended.
The Times said of the house “Its old walls, dating back more than eighty
years, will offer no particular problem for the wrecking crew.”
Fascinating post. Thanks. But the itle should read West not East.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post and fascinating details of the early life of Arabella Huntington, one of the more interesting figures of the "Gilded Age". I hope that you can be induced to undertake an article on her Fifth Avenue house which formerly occupied the site of today's Tiffany and Co. at 57th Street. For your readers who venture to the West Coast, I highly recommend a visit to Arabella Huntington's California abode, San Marino,- the Huntington Library and Museum in Pasedena.
ReplyDeleteThis is a a great post. There is not much written or shown about this house except that it is the site of MOMA. Thanks for filling in some of the background. One question - if this is 4 w. 54 and JDR Jr. house is on the same side, wouldn't Jr's house have an even number also?
ReplyDeleteJohn Junior first moved across the street ( http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/05/hardenberghs-1897-twins-at-nos-15-and.html ) then crossed back over to the south side to build his mansion next door to his father's house.
DeleteFantastic post. Have never seen any interior photos of the mansion except the Smoking Room at the Brooklyn Museum. Quite a Gilded Age time capsule and quite an architectural loss.
ReplyDeleteHuh: those interior shots remind me of my first studio apartment...
ReplyDeleteDepressing. Wish it was still around. Looks simply stunning! I'm sure what is there now is fine, but it makes me sick that something this wonderful was torn down.
ReplyDeleteIt is not, alas, easy to find, but the saga of Arabella and this house, as well as several others, is explored in James T. Maher's "The Twilight Of Splendor." A detailed look at both the human tales and architectural history of what Maher calls "the American palace," it is dense but highly satisfying reading.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather had dinner in that house with Mr. Rockefeller...I have wondered why I felt comfortable walking around MOMA...
ReplyDeleteWould enjoy seeing some information on 685 E. Fifth Avenue at 54th - JDR partner in Standard Oil Henry Flagler's mansion.
ReplyDeletejust did the Henry Flagler, Jr. residence ... guess I have another one to work on! Thanks!
DeleteGreat article! In addition to the rooms that survive in NY museums, there are several architectural elements from the 4 West 54th Street house that were installed in the Playhouse on the Rockefeller family estate in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Included are the entry hall sideboard, the parlor fireplace, the master bedroom chandelier, and the massive fireplace with the bronze relief (original location not mentioned in your caption). The parlor fireplace and one other fireplace were installed on the indoor tennis court; an odd choice!
ReplyDeleteGreat article!
ReplyDeleteI've just started watching The Gilded Age series on HBO and there was a reference to Arabella Huntington. Had to come back here and re-read her stories. Your blog is such a treasure connecting the present to the past, with all this detailed information and pictures. Thank you!
ReplyDelete