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| photo by Alice Lum |
In the last years before the outbreak of the Civil War, some
wealthy New Yorkers migrated north of the Bond Street and St. John’s Park
neighborhoods to Murray Hill. Here
staggeringly wealthy families like the Phelps and Dodge had already built imposing
mansions and developers like Hamilton & Ryer recognized the potential.
In 1860 they began construction of a row of brownstone-fronted homes from No. 105 through 115 East 37th
Street. Intended for well-to-do merchant
class families, the Italianate homes sat above high English basements. Four stories tall, they featured handsome
arched entranceways. It would be three
years before the row was completed.
No. 113 was purchased by 46-year old hardware merchant
Charles G. Harmer. He was the senior
member of Harmer, Hays & Co., and a Director of the Nassau Bank. The New York Times would later remember that
he was born “in the Seventh Ward, where the fashionable people of the city then
resided, and he attended school in Wall Street.”
While a teen Harmer became a clerk in the store of Prosper
M. Whetmore. The aggressive young man
set out on his own at the age of 20, starting his own importing business. Before he was 21 years old, Harmer sent his
first order for saddler hardware to Europe.
By the time he purchased the 37th Street house, Harmer, Hays
& Co. was tremendously successful and Harmer had accumulated a significant
fortune.
He and his wife, Margaret Hays Harmer, had three sons—Thomas,
Charles, Jr., and John—and four daughters.
Two decades after moving in, in 1883, the family was still here. Young Thomas Hays Harmer was now an engineer,
having graduated from Columbia University and earning his advanced degrees from
The School of Mines.
On Wednesday, May 9, that year, Charles Edmund Harmer
died. The young man’s funeral was held in
the family residence at 10:00 on Saturday morning the 12th.
In 1890, now widowed, Charles G. Harmer suffered an attack of influenza—termed
“the grip” at the time. The 73-year old, he never fully recovered. The New
York Times said “His nervous system was prostrated.” A year later his condition worsened and after
suffering for a few weeks, he died in the house early in the morning of August
10, 1891. His obituary noted that “As a
merchant and financier, Mr. Harmer held a high position.”
The family sold the house to George Burt Roys. George’s wife, the former Sarah Church, had died
on September 24, 1888 and around the time of Harmer’s death he arrived in New
York from Sheffield, Massachusetts. The
middle-aged widower would not own the residence for many years. He died on Saturday, February 23, 1895; his
funeral, as was Harmer’s, being held in the house four days later.
No. 113 was purchased by stock broker James W. Henning, the
sole member of J. W. Henning & Co.
In addition to his brokerage business, he had large real estate
holdings. He set about updating the old
Victorian, spending $8,000 on “alterations” in September 1896. It was most likely at this time that the exquisite iron fence and stoop railings were added. The significant expense would amount to about
a quarter of a million dollars today.
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| The elaborate fencing, newels and railings are unmatched in the neighborhood -- photo by Alice Lum |
As the summer season approached the following year, Mrs.
Henning sought employment for her maid, who was apparently not coming along to
the country. An advertisement in the
New-York Tribune on June 21 read “Lady closing house desires position for her
waitress; sober, honest and competent.”
Within a few years Henning focused much of his attention on
real estate speculation, the New-York Tribune saying that around 1901 he became
“among the large speculators in real estate in this borough.” His real estate investments would become
important in October 1906 when he lost heavily in the stock market.
On October 5 his suspension from the Stock Exchange was
announced. The New-York Tribune reported
the following day “Last April, it is said, he suffered a loss of wellnigh
$1,000,000.” The newspaper mentioned his
real estate holdings and said “it is thought by his friends that he may realize
enough on these investments to put him on his feet again.” Well-liked, the broker had the backing of
other firms. Nichol, Anable &
Lindsay issued a statement:
A number of Mr.
Henning’s Stock Exchange friends have offered to come to his assistance, and
negotiations are pending which he (Mr. Henning) expects will enable him to
resume business shortly.
Apparently one of the properties liquidated by Henning was
the 37th Street house. In
1909 it was home to Martin W. Littleton.
Littleton’s wife was active in the Suffragist Movement and on December
29 that year her “suffrage luncheon” was attended by the wife of Mayor-elect
Gaynor, along with the wife of Member of Parliament, John Annan Bryce.
The Littletons did not remain here long. Next to live here was Robert Mather, Chairman
of the Board of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. In addition to his position with
Westinghouse, he was, according to The New York Times, “Director of many banks
and railroads, and for many years prominent as counsel for large corporations
and an expert on railroad affairs.”
The “many banks and railroads” of which Mather was a
Director numbered about 15. He was a
member of no fewer than seven exclusive clubs, including the Union League and
the Metropolitan.
But Mather and his wife Alice Caroline, would not be in
the house long either. On October 24,
1911 the 52-year old Robert Mather died in the house of peritonitis. Once again there was a funeral in the
parlor. On October 26 “many prominent
financiers, railroad officials and citizens” filed into the house, as reported
in The New York Times.
Alice Henning sold the house to Frederick K. Trowbridge in
June the following year. The real estate
investor had no intention of living here.
He already owned eight homes in the immediate area, including the house
next door. The Times said he held title
to “115 and 120 East Thirty-seventh Street, 112 to 120 East Thirty-eighth
Street, and 123 East Thirty-ninth Street.”
Trowbridge leased the house to Beverly Robinson. Robinson and his wife were highly visible in
New York society and maintained a summer estate in East Williston, Long Island
where the fox hunting crowd was centered.
They would lease the house for only one year; leaving shortly after the
funeral for Harvey Baldwin—brother of Mrs. Robinson—was held here on June 21,
1913.
Next to lease the house was the socially-prominent Henry Bridgham
Carhart family. In December 1913 Mrs.
Carhart hosted a dance for her debutante daughter, Edith, in the house. The Carharts took a break in entertaining two
months later by spending February and part of March in Palm Beach.
The Carharts returned to New York just in time to pack. On April 11, 1914 The Sun reported that
Frederick Trowbridge had sold the house to William N. Kremer who was currently
living at No. 34 Park Avenue.
Living with William Nevin Kremer and his wife, Helen, in the
house was Helen’s father the Rev. Alfred Langdon Elwyn. The Episcopal minister was, in 1914, 83 years
old and was an outspoken supporter of Indian Rights.
After many years of short-term residents, the Kremers would
stay on. On February 12, 1920 William
died and, as had been the case to many times, a funeral was held in the house
on February 14. Helen and her father
remained, until in August 1924 the 91-year old minister died in the house. He was at the time the oldest living graduate
of the University of Pennsylvania (he had graduated in 1853).
The Murray Hill neighborhood was changing as mid-century
approached. In 1950 the house was
converted to apartments, with “one professional apartment and office” on the
parlor floor. This office-and-apartment
was taken by Hungarian-born American Modernist architect and designer Marcel
Lajos Breuer. While working here he
designed some of his best known structures, including the UNESCO headquarters
in Paris, the De Bijenkorf Department Store in Rotterdam, the United States
Embassy at the Hague and St. John’s Abbey Church in Minnesota.
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| While the 1863 carved details were removed, the lovely fanlight survived over the doorway. -- photo by Alice Lum |
It was most likely while Breuer was in the house that the
carved brownstone details of the entrance and lintels were shaved flat. By 1958 the house had become the headquarters
for the Institute of International Labor Research. On July 1 that year The New York Times noted
that “The institute, with offices at 113 East Thirty-seventh Street, is backed
by labor leaders and groups and Socialist or Social Democratic parties of many
nations.” The institute would stay here
into the 1960s.
The Harmer house continues to be house offices while
retaining its residential appearance. Fortunately
when the Victorian detailing was removed in modernizing the face at
mid-century, the exceptional ironwork was retained.
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| Passersby are captivated by the unexplained Della Robbia-style plaque that hangs like a pendant on the facade. -- photo by Alice Lum |
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