In 1851 a group of well-to-do Swiss immigrants responded to
the needs of their compatriots who were not faring as well. The Swiss Benevolent Society was incorporated
that year. The group not only relied on
the support of its members, but in its annual meeting at Delmonico’s the following
year, it was noted that the Swiss Federal Government had donated $283 and $381
more came from 16 of the Cantonal Governments.
By 1883 there were between 12,000 and 15,000 Swiss-born
residents in New York City. On April 3 that year the New-York Tribune reported “to meet the increasing demands upon the
society, it has been decided to construct a building for its purposes, to be
called The Swiss Home.”
The Society purchased a home at No. 108 Second Avenue which
was, according to The New York Times on December 28, 1883 “remodeled and
refitted to suit the purposes of the Society.”
The total cost for the house and its remodeling was $28,089.63; about
$685,000 in 2015 dollars. In addition,
over the past year the Society had spent $12,029.22 in “relieving the wants of
needy Swiss and for medical attendance.”
Clearly the worthy project was not an inexpensive one.
The Swiss Home for Indigent Men and Women was opened “for
the inspection of its ‘benefactors’” on the afternoon of December 27, 1883. The interior of was decorated with flags and
flowers for the event; and guests toured “the different departments, the
dormitories, the bath-rooms for men and women, the sitting-rooms, and parlors.”
To help finance the Swiss Home,
occasional fairs were staged, like the one that opened on November 15, 1886 at
Irving Hall. The New-York Tribune
reported “Among the special attractions will be a shooting gallery in charge of
the Helvetia Rifle Club with prizes for the best marksmen, Swiss pottery and
specialties, thoroughbred Swiss St. Bernard dogs, music by Conterne, and singing.” The newspaper noted “many of the young ladies
will wear the pretty costumes of the different cantons of Switzerland.”
By 1903 the Society looked for a
site for a new building. The search may
have been partly prompted by health concerns.
That year alone, more than 10,000 people died in New York City from tuberculosis—a
disease commonly linked to crowded conditions and the lack of fresh air and
sunlight. In reporting on the purchase
of Nos. 35 and 37 West 67th Street in 1904 the Annual Report noted “the
site is an exceptionally good one and the proximity to central Park, with its
green lawns, its rocks and lakes, will remind the future inmates of their
mother country.” But a year later the
Report added that the site was “located in the most salubrious,” or
health-giving, part of New York City.
The Society announced its
intentions to build a five-story home (the Real Estate Record & Builders’
Guide termed it an “asylum”) in February, 1904.
Within four months an architect had been chosen, Swiss-born John E. Scharsmith,
and the projected cost of the new building was set at $55,000.
No longer a household word;
Scharsmith’s name was well known at the time.
He not only designed structures, but actively traded in real estate. On the Upper West Side alone he had been
responsible for The Chatworth Apartments and the The Hohenzollern within the
past two years, and soon would start work on the eight-story 425 West End
Avenue apartment building.
The Swiss Home was completed in
December 1905. Although it was popularly
reported that Scharsmith based his design on the Town Hall in Basel, the two
structures have basically nothing in common.
The architect produced an attractive Collegiate Gothic building
of red brick and limestone that appeared more school than residence. Neo-Gothic elements like the pointed-arched
first floor openings and doorway, the drip moldings within the fourth floor gables
and the finishing touch—the decorative finial on the center gable—added to the
romantic charm. Almost hidden from view
and nestled within the cornice brackets, were the heraldic shields of the 22
cantons of Switzerland.
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| Around the time of the building's completion, "studio buildings" were filling the block -- photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWK31G76&SMLS=1&RW=1097&RH=534 |
The Swiss Home was dedicated on
December 16, 1905. Among the dignitaries
present were the Swiss Consul, J. Bertschmann and the Swiss Minister, Dr. Leo
Vogel, who had traveled from Washington DC for the occasion.
Guests toured the facility,
finding in the basement a “waiting room, smoking room, repair shop, dining room
for transients, kitchen, laundry, storeroom, fumigator, bath and toilet rooms,”
according to The Times. The first floor
held semi-public rooms like the inmates’ dining room, a meeting room and small
waiting room. The women’s accommodations
were on the second floor—10 bedrooms, a bathroom and sitting room. Men were housed on the third floor where
there were 11 bedrooms. The top floor
had another eight bedrooms “for transients” and a cedar closet.
 |
| Tucked beneath the cornice are the carved shields of the Swiss cantons. |
There was room for 80 residents—30
permanent and 50 transient. The Home
assured “in case of great pressure accommodations to the extent of twenty
additional beds could be procured.”
An example of such “great pressure”
came about seven years later when, in April 1912, the RMS Carpathia steamed
into New York Harbor carrying the survivors of the RMS Titanic. Even before the ship arrived, Mrs. Nelson H.
Henry was concerned about the impoverished passengers who would have no means
to find shelter.
She formed a committee to ensure “that
the steerage and second class passengers who need help when they reach New York
by the Carpathia shall not be left in want,” reported The Sun on April 18. Mrs. Henry told reporters “We will see to
making definite arrangement for their care and we will try to give them the
kind of welcome that they have reason to expect from hospitable America.”
The committee visited benevolent
societies across the city. The Sun
reported that “The Swiss Benevolent Home, which has strict rules about taking
only immigrants from Switzerland, agreed to take fourteen women and children,
no matter what their nationality.”
The problem that the Swiss
Benevolent Society soon realized was that the Swiss House was never more than
half-filled. The result was that the
care of each person ran about $400 a year.
It was a concern that President Robert J. Schwarzenbach found untenable. In addition, the Upper West Side location,
once so salubrious, was now developed with theaters, apartment houses and
saloons. In 1923 a Mount Kisco, New York
estate was purchased and the Swiss House residents transferred there.
The 67th Street
building was converted to the Swiss Home for Self-Supporting Women. Such female-only hotels were highly
popular. They presented unmarried
working women with a safe haven at modest costs. Strict rules and oversight by female
management kept the residents safe from Manhattan’s “wolves.” Residents paid between $9 and $14 for rent
and meals; and while many of the other working women’s hotels had age limits,
the Swiss Home did not.
One of the residents in 1925 was
Rose Jager, who fell victim to a con artist that year. Rose was out of a job and she placed a newspaper
advertisement for a governess position.
She was picked up at the Home in a high-end automobile and taken to a
hotel where she was interviewed by 42-year old George Hamilton. The potential employer, according to The New
York Times on July 23, 1925, had an “impressive appearance, a suave manner and
smooth talk.”
Rose was a bit too trusting and
needed a job. What she could not know
was that police had been searching for Hamilton for weeks. By the time he was arrested he had swindled
at least 50 out-of-work women out of the little money they still had.
Detectives revealed his
methods: He would answer advertisements of
women seeking governess jobs; and then “Hamilton would pose as a wealthy man
intending to employ his victim.” By his
smooth talk he would find out how much money the applicant had.
The police explained he would “tell
his prospective victim that he intended to deposit a sum of money to her
account for expenses of the position, but that, to cover himself, since he had
once been swindled by a governess, she would have to give him control of her
savings account.”
Rose naively complied and Hamilton
drained her account of $650. The crook
had defrauded jobless women of as little as $10 to large amounts like Rose’s. His scheme was undone when he went to the
Jeanne d’Arc Home on West 24th Street and was recognized by a girl
whom he had earlier tried to swindle.
Another resident, stenographer Else
A. Sittle, was 25-years old in 1935.
That same year she left the Swiss Home on November 24 for a visit to France
and Germany. Else’s parents lived in
Germany and she intended to spend the holidays with them.
She had another reason for the
trip, as well. Born in Saarland, Germany,
she was intent on making her voice heard regarding political changes in her
homeland by voting in the plebiscite.
Else did not confine her opinion to the voting booth and her outspoken
views on Adolph Hitler were, indeed, heard.
Else A. Sittel was arrested by the
Nazis and confined to the prison in Waldmohr “on a charge of making derogatory
remarks about Chancellor Hitler and his government.” After serving her sentence she was released
on January 3, 1935 and finally visited her parents before returning to the
States on the SS President Roosevelt.
Upon disembarking on January 20 she told reporters “She said she did not
think she would visit the Reich again for some time.”
In 1994 the Swiss Benevolent
Society put the Swiss Home on the market for $2.95 million. It was purchased by New York University for
its Makor Center for Jewish Life. The
endeavor was short-lived and in 2001 the University donated the building to the
92nd Street Y. Six years
later title was transferred again, this time to CUNY. After a significant interior renovation the
building became the Macaulty Honors College, complete with modern classrooms, a
lecture hall, and performance space used by CUNY students city-wide.
The renovations sympathetically
preserved the exterior of Scarsmith’s dignified edifice. It is unchanged (other than the sad loss of
the wonderful decorative gable finial) after more than a century.
photographs by the author
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