The high-stooped brownstone at 7 East 88th Street was occupied by the New York Magdalen Benevolent Home in February 1888 when it was visited by journalist Nellie Bly. Her article in The World described it as, "an institution for unfortunate women," whom she called the victims of "the toboggan slide of sin." At the time, the mansions of Manhattan's millionaires lined Fifth Avenue below 59th Street.
By the turn of the century, however, the northward migration of millionaires had reached 88th Street. In 1901, developers George C. Edgar's Sons purchased the properties at 5 through 9 East 88th Street from Francis K. Pendleton and began construction of three lavish mansions on the site. Designed by Turner & Kilian, their dignified Beaux Arts facades expressed wealth and breeding.
Unlike its neighbors, the upper floors of which were faced in deep red brick, the center mansion was fully clad in limestone. The paneled piers that flanked the entrance upheld a two-story oriel that provided a balustraded balcony to the fourth floor. And while the top floors of its fraternal siblings on either side rose vertically to stone balustrades, the fifth floor of 7 East 88th Street was a slate shingled mansard, pierced by French style stone dormers.
On December 27, 1902, the Record & Guide reported, "George C. Edgar's Sons have sold No. 7 East 88th Street...This sale disposes of three houses erected by the sellers in 1901." But then something went awry. A week later the journal reported that the house had, in fact, not been sold.
It would not be until May 15, 1904 that the New York Herald reported, "James C. Carter, well known as a lawyer, has bought a new home for himself at No. 7 East Eighty-eighth street. It is a handsome five story American basement brown stone [sic] structure and was only recently completed." The Real Estate Record & Guide reported the selling price to be $140,000--about $4.9 million in 2024.
Society portraitist John Singer Sargent captured Carter on canvas in 1899. from the collection of the Harvard Club of New York City.
James Coolidge Carter was, indeed, "well known as a lawyer." Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts on October 14, 1827, he graduated from Harvard College in 1850 and from Harvard Law School in 1853. The New York Times said, "He at once established himself in the practice of his profession, and soon won a place among the foremost lawyers in New York."
Carter's brilliant legal mind prompted President Benjamin Harrison to appoint him one of three counsels to "present the claims of the United States before the Bering Sea tribunal, which met in Paris in February, 1893," according to The New York Times. When he purchased the 88th Street mansion, Carter was a member of the law firm Carter & Ledyard.
Never married, the eminent attorney lived here alone with his domestic staff. But he would not enjoy the sumptuous home for long. Nine months after moving in, he fell ill. He died on February 14, 1905 at the age of 77. The New York Times commented, "Although he had been ill only a few days, his advanced age balked the efforts of his physicians, who found that he had overtaxed his constitution by excessive devotion to his profession."
On February 17, a procession of distinguished jurists accompanied the casket from 7 East 88th Street to All Soul's Church on Fourth Avenue and 20th Street. A second funeral was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts prior to his burial.
Carter's estate sold the house in December that year to banker Edward Charles Schaefer, president of the Germania Bank. Born on December 16, 1850, he was the son of Frederick and Theresa Schaefer. His father was one of the two brothers who founded the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company. Edward Schaefer had been the president of that firm since 1884, as well, and was a managing director of the Schaefer Company, a realty firm.
On April 20, 1904, a year before purchasing 7 East 88th Street, Schaefer had married Emily Winifred Haag, a widow. Living with them was Emily's daughter, Josephine Haag Toerge, and her two children from a previous marriage.
Like their neighbors, the Schaefers appeared regularly in the society columns. On May 20, 1910, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Schaefer of 7 East Eighty-eighth Street are leaving on the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria to-morrow for Kissingen, and later will make an automobile trip through Germany and France."
Two days before Christmas in 1917, the New-York Tribune reported, 'Edward C. Schaefer, president of the Germania Bank on the Bowery, has made his wife a present of their $200,000 home at 7 East Eighty-eighth Street as a Christmas gift."
Schaefer retired in 1918, the fiftieth anniversary of his employment with the bank. American Biography later said, "But while the directors accepted the resignation of their president they would not allow him to retire from all connection with the institution he had served so long and so well, and at once elected him chairman of the board of directors."
The mansion was the scene of a society wedding on February 24, 1921. Emily's niece, Gertrude W. Jetter, was married to Talman Bigelow that afternoon. The ceremony was covered in society pages in newspapers as far away as Washington D.C.
Ten months later, on December 19, Edward Charles Schaefer died in the 88th Street mansion at the age of 71.
There would be a second wedding at 7 East 88th Street. On January 9, 1925, The New York Times reported, "announcement was made yesterday of the marriage of Mrs. Josephine H. Toerge to Major Gen. I. Thord-Gray at the home of her mother, Mrs. Edward Charles Schaefer, of 7 East Eighty-eighth Street, on Wednesday. The article noted, "General and Mrs. Thord-Gray have left on a wedding trip, and when they return early in February they plan to make their home at 7 East Eighty-eighth Street."
Josephine's husband, Ivor Thord-Gray, was a fascinating figure. Born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1878, he had served in 13 wars on different continents between 1897 and 1919. In addition to his distinguished military career, he was an ethnologist, a linguist, and adventurer. In 1923 he wrote On the Antiquity of Mexico: Among the Ruins of Temples and Idols. He moved to New York City in 1925 and founded the investment banking firm I. T. Gray & Co.
Major General Ivor Thord-Gray (original source unknown)
Josephine was not his first wife. He had married Edith Kemper-Voss in 1904. Before their divorce in 1908, a son was born. Thord-Gray then lived with Isabel Barr from 1917 to 1921, fathering another son; and was briefly married to Belle Scott in 1922.
The Thord-Grays' summer home was Gray Court in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Georgian Revival mansion had 38 rooms.
Gray Court. image via ctgenweb.org
On November 12, 1925, the New York Evening Post reported, "Major General and Mrs. Ivor Thord Gray of 7 East Eighty-eighth Street, gave a dinner at the Plaza last night for twelve guests to celebrate General Gray's birthday."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Josephine would not be Thord-Gray's last wife. The couple was divorced in 1932 and he married Winnifred Ingersoll the following year.
Six years before her divorce, on April 15, 1926, the New York Sun had reported that Josephine had sold 7 East 88th Street "to a physician who will occupy it." Dr. Orrin Sage Wightman was born in New York City in 1873 and married Purl Parker in 1905. The couple had two children, Julia Parker and Orrin Jr.
The president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, Wightman was also editor in chief of the New York State Journal of Medicine and chairman of the New York State Medical Grievance Committee. His hobby was photography, and he carefully documented his extensive travels on film. It had begun with an 1895 bicycle trip through France and Spain, and continued with his Red Cross missions to Russia and the Far East during World War I and the Russian Revolution. His vast photographic array also included Central Park and other Manhattan scenes.
Interestingly, on May 12, 1930, the New York Sun reported that the Wightmans had sold the 88th Street mansion to the H. T. M. Realty Corporation. The following day, the New York Evening Post announced that Wightman "has taken a lease of the premises from the new owners for fifteen years."
The Wightmans remained here, now leasing the home they had owned, into the 1940s. They would be the last occupants of 7 East 88th Street as a single-family home. In 1948, it was converted to apartments, two on the first floor, one on the second, and two each on the upper floors. Two years later a "doctor apartment" was installed on the ground floor.
photographs by the author
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