 |
| When constructed No. 7 bore the address of No. 5 East 76th St. To the left is the mansion's fraternal twin, originally No. 3. |
Completed
in 1898 Nos. 3 and 5 were harmoniously designed in the neo-Renaissance
style. The proportions and compositions
of the sister homes left no doubt that they were built as a pair or that they
were intended for wealthy owners. The
slightly lower stoop of No. 5 allowed for higher ceilings on the parlor level
and therefore grander spaces. The
reserved Italian-inspired façade, highlighted by a delicate iron balcony at the
second floor, rose to a rather unexpected clay-tiled mansard.
The
house was purchased by Clarence Whitman who wasted little time in adapting the
mansion to his personal tastes. On June
10, 1899 architect Charles Alonzo Rich filed plans for alterations amounting to
$10,000—over $275,000 today.
Whitman
was a wealthy importer of laces and embroidery.
He and his wife had three sons, Harold, Gerald and Clarence, and the family summered in their elaborate
country estate in Katonah, New York.
The
Whitman boys were nearly grown when the family moved in. Clarence Morton Whitman graduated from
Harvard in 1900 and, like his father, was a yachtsman and clubman. He left the mansion following his November
19, 1903 wedding in St. Thomas’s Church to Eleanor Motley.
A
society event, The New York Times remarked that “It was a white wedding, the
decorations of church and house being white flowers and greens.” The modern couple spent their honeymoon in
Southern California rather than making the traditional European bridal tour.
On
November 23 the following year Clarence Whitman sold the house to Harold
Farquhar Hadden. Like Whitman, Hadden
was an importer. He was the head of
Hadden & Co., which had been founded by his grandfather. By now it was one of the oldest
silk importing firms in the country.
Hadden
was educated at Cambridge University and, as expected of moneyed merchants, was
a member of several clubs. The spacious
home was necessary for Hadden and his wife, the former Valerie Burkhardt--they
had three daughters and three sons. Their
summer home was in Seabright, New Jersey.
In
1904, the same year that the family moved into the East 76th, son
William Aspinwall Hadden was admitted to the family firm. A graduate of Harvard, he had spent two years
learning the business and now stepped into the position of President.
 |
| Young, handsome and wealthy, William Hadden died in the mansion at the age of 27 -- The American Carpet and Upholstery Journal June 10, 1908 (copyright expired) |
But
in 1908 the 27-year old contracted typhoid fever. According to The American Carpet and Upholstery
Journal on June 10, “Mr. Hadden was stricken at just about the opening of the
carpet season, after a hard Winter’s work, and for a time convalesced so
rapidly that his friends were encouraged to believe he would soon be at his desk;
but last week his condition took a turn for the worse.” Tragically, on Saturday morning, June 6 the
promising young businessman died in the mansion.
With
the construction of the J. J. Wysong mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue in
1910, the house numbers along the 76th Street block shifted.
Rather than take the prestigious Fifth Avenue address, the new mansion took No.
1 East 76th Street—an address already being used by Charles Hudson. Now the Hudson house became No. 3, No 3 became
No. 5 and so forth down the block.
That
same year brought a flurry of social excitement to the Hadden household. On March 30, 1910 Harold Farquhar Hadden, Jr.
was married to Laura Emmet in what The New York Times called “the largest of
the Easter week events.” The newspaper
said “St. James’s Church, at Seventy-fourth Street and Madison Avenue, was
filled with a fashionable throng.”
Five
months later, on August 18, the Haddens announced the engagement of daughter Valerie
to Francis Behn Riggs of Seattle.
Valerie’s debut had been celebrated in the house just a few years
earlier.
It
would be a short engagement. On October
6 the wedding took place in the same church where her brother had been married;
with a reception following at the 76th Street mansion.
Social
events in the Hadden house were not all about weddings, debuts and
engagements. On February 4, 1913 Valerie
Hadden hosted a musical for some of Manhattan’s most socially-elite. The Times reported that “Those invited
included Mrs. Vanderbilt, Mrs. H. Fairfield Osborn, Mrs. Hamilton Fish, Miss
Beatrix Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Damrosch, Miss Constance Wilkinson,
Magistrate Barlow, Miss Olive Fremstad and M. Hellen.”
St.
James’s Church had not seen the end of the Hadden children weddings. In January 1914 son Gavin’s engagement to
Rebecca Lloyd was announced and on February 16, a year later E. Kenneth Hadden
married Frances Hawthorne Wyeth. In
reporting that ceremony, The Times said “The wedding…filled the edifice with a
large and fashionable assemblage.” The newspaper
noted that following their honeymoon the newlyweds “will live at 7 East
Seventy-sixth Street.”
Six
months later on August 11, 1915 Harold Farquhar Hadden died in the Seabright home at the age of 60. Valerie did not stay
on in the mansion and within months the Yale Alumni Weekly announced that
Herbert Parsons had changed his residence to 7 East 76th Street. It was possibly Parsons who installed a
handball court on the roof in 1917.
While many of the Upper East Side mansions were either razed or converted to
apartments in the 1920s and subsequent decades, No. 7 survived as a private
residence. By 1926 it was home to Colonel
Thomas H. Birch. The annual horse show
was a major event for Manhattan society and on November 25 that year The New York Times
noted that “The third night at the horse show was marked with an unusually
brilliant showing of fashion.” This was
partially due to the attendance of the Spanish Ambassador, his wife, and a
large entourage.
On
the afternoon before The Times article Colonel Birch hosted a luncheon in
the house “for the Spanish team of officers who are participating in the
international events at the show.”
Throughout
the 1930s Mr. and Mrs. Albert J. Erdmann lived at No. 7. Mrs. Erdmann was highly involved in
charitable causes. In 1932 she was a
member of the committee arranging the Vassar Club’s benefit opera “Lucia di
Lammermoor” and to benefit the college’s scholarship fund. She would be a force behind the formation of
the Junior Consultation Service that helped drop-outs find jobs with the help
of psychologists and vocational counselors.
By
the 1960s the mansion was home to Sam Salz, one of the world’s leading art
dealers. Salz dealt mainly in
impressionist and post-impressionist paintings; but he was a collector as
well. On February 15, 1964 The Times
remarked “On walls in hallways, living rooms, and bedrooms are works of Renoir,
Dufy, Utrillo, Brque, Pissarro, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, Rouault, Manet, Sisley
and Toulouse-Lautrec. There are also
many pieces of sculpture.”
The
Austrian-born dealer lived in the mansion with his wife, Marina, and their two
sons. “On the walls of the bedrooms hang
small Vuilllards, Bonnards, Renoirs and Pissaros,” reported The Times’ Milton
Esterow.
.
The
mansion survives essentially unchanged today; a remarkably handsome private
home.
photographs by the author
photographs by the author
No comments:
Post a Comment