The well-rounded John Hayes was an architect, developer, builder, and real estate agent. Partnering with Myers Hayes (presumably his brother) in 1869, he designed six "three-story brick and brown stone first class dwellings" on the north side of West 47th Street east of Tenth Avenue. Similar to other Italianate style residences appearing throughout the city, the identical 18-foot-wide rowhouses were completed in 1870. Stoops with beefy stone railings and newels rose to the arched entrances, which were capped with impressive pediments upon scrolled brackets. The windows were fully framed, and handsome bracketed cornices completed the design.
William P. and Annie R. Brown purchased 435 West 47th Street. Interestingly, when he bought the house in 1870, he listed his business as "stone" at 456 West 46th Street. Six years later, he described himself as a "silk and ribbon manufacturer" at the same address. Brown invested heavily in real estate and owned scores of Manhattan properties, including several tenements as well as his 46th Street factory.
In 1881, William P. Brown's business failed and he began selling off his real estate. The factory building was purchased by one of his creditors, Adam Nickel. The Browns managed to hold on to 435 West 47th Street until March 10, 1884, when they sold it to Nickel for $16,000 (about $513,000 in 2024).
It is unclear whether Nickel and his family ever occupied the house. In 1894, James O'Grady lived here, but he was most likely a boarder. A conductor on the Third Avenue cable car line, he would not have had the income to afford a house like this, even in the Hell's Kitchen district.
On July 19, 1894, Hugo Schueler, who worked as a cook in Brooklyn, attempted to board O'Grady's street car. He fell and fractured his skull. Surprisingly today, O'Grady and his gripman, Frank C. Wieger, were arrested. The Evening World reported, "Justice [Frank C.] Feitner paroled them for further examination."
By the turn of the century, the Ehrenberg family lived here. Mrs. M. Ehrenberg was apparently a widow. She had three daughters, Leonora, Emily and Frances. Leonora taught in the primary department of Public School No. 28 at 257 West 40th Street, earning $680 per year. She got a raise of $36.63 in 1903, bringing her annual income to the equivalent of $25,600 today.
Leonora Ehrenberg was a talented musician, as well. In 1917 she attended the Eastern Music Supervisors' Conference.
In 1941, the stoop railings and newels, the entrance pediment, and the window enframements all survived. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Emily worked for the Christian Herald in 1923. On August 9 that year, the newspaper chartered a bus to take sixty employees on a summer outing. On the way home, just outside of Nyack, New York, "they were discussing the celebration just over and singing songs," according to the New York Evening Telegram, when tragedy occurred. The article said the "sightseeing car carrying sixty persons skidded into a concrete mixer and smashed the steam boiler." The scalding steam killed one young woman instantly and five others died within 24 hours. "Hospital authorities fear three of the remaining six patients may not live." Among those three was Emily Ehrenberg whose recovery was listed as "doubtful."
Happily, however, she did recover. Three years later, on June 24, 1926, the Sullivan County Record reported that among the guests at A. Heidt's Valley View House at Kenoza Lake were "Mrs. M. Erenberg [and] the Misses Frances and Emily Ehrenberg."
The house received its moment of cinematic fame when it served as the exterior of the apartment of the character Babe in the 1976 film Marathon Man.
Fountain House, a self-help organization, purchased four of the 1870 rowhouses, including 435 West 47th Street, in 1985 and converted them into the "Van Ameringen Center, providing increased space for the group's charitable efforts," according to its website.
photographs by the author
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