On February 7, 1872, William C. Morgan purchased three properties on the Ninth Avenue block between 47th and 48th Streets from the estate of Henry Ulrick. The Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in which the old buildings sat was, overall, sketchy at best. Morgan may have had buyer's regret. He attempted to sell the property to Michael Lorentz on March 21, 1874, but the transaction was never completed. In 1880, he transferred the title to Charles W. Morgan (presumably a son), but on November 22, 1884, the Record & Guide recorded that Charles had transferred the title back to William. In recording the change, the journal noted, "new buildings projected."
Morgan erected two French flat buildings with stores on the sites. No. 693 Ninth Avenue, in the middle of the block, was five stories tall and faced in red brick above the storefronts. Its prim neo-Grec design featured stone bandcourses that connected the window sills and lintels. Diminutive rosettes decorated the lintels, one on each corner. The building's metal elements, no doubt chosen from a catalogue, stepped away from neo-Grec: the highly decorative fire escapes harkened to the Italianate style of a generation earlier, while the cornice included neo-Classical swags and a triangular pediment.
With his property improved with a modern building, Morgan sold 693 Ninth Avenue in February 1887 to Zachariah Jaques for $38,000--about $1.26 million today. The building became home to respectable families--one realtor telling the courts that it had a "better class" of tenants than did buildings a block to the west on Tenth Avenue.
Two stores flanked the entrance at ground level. One was initially home to a D. Auerbach & Sons candy store. The firm's large factory was at 334-336 West 39th Street. For some reason, in 1887 D. Auerbach & Sons moved their shop next door to 691 Ninth Avenue, and their former space became home to the P. C. Eckhardt real estate office.
Record & Guide, June, 30, 1888 (copyright expired)
Peter C. Eckhardt had founded the business in 1858. When he moved into 638 Ninth Avenue his two sons worked with him. P. C. Eckhardt specialized in Hell's Kitchen properties. Peter C. Eckhardt, Jr. (who started out in the office at the age of 12 in 1873), testified in 1892 that in addition to the "general course of real estate, "We do a great deal of collecting of rents and for a great number of parties on Ninth Avenue and on Eighth Avenue...also on Tenth Avenue and on the intervening streets between Thirty-fourth and, say, Twenty-third Streets."
In 1898, A History of Real Estate, Building and Architecture in New York City said, "There is a class of real estate men who are as much a necessity to a community as is the medical practitioner...No one would question the right of placing the firm of P. C. Eckhardt in this category." The Eckhardt concern would operate from 693 Ninth Avenue into the first decade of the 20th century. It was still here in January 1910 when Peter Jr. became a director in the newly formed Penn Amusement Company, organized "to own and manage theatres and to present plays, operas and moving picture exhibitions."
The other store was originally home to the Farmer's Butter & Egg Co., then to an S. Cushman & Sons bakery. There were three other Cushman bakeries in the city.
In the meantime, the residents of 693 Ninth Avenue drew little undue attention. An exception was 13-year-old Marcella Hunter who got into trouble with her classmate, Maude Vliet on February 6, 1893. Something about their behavior when they walked into the Bloomingdale Brothers' store caused the store detective to suspect "the girls of misconduct," reported the New York Press. He watched them and, sure enough, they pocketed merchandise. The "two pretty young girls" were "committed to the care of the Gerry society to await trial." (The Gerry Society was the common name for the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.) The fact that the residents of 693 Ninth Avenue were of "a better class" was evidenced in the newspaper's saying that the girls "are well connected."
Living in the building at the time was the family of Peter J. Ferrier, a veterinarian whose office was at 521 Seventh Avenue. He was foreman of the jury that heard the case against Joseph F. Blaut, former President of the Madison Square Bank in February 1894. Blaut was charged with perjury and fraud, having accepted deposits while knowing that the bank was insolvent. After three days of heated deliberation, the jury gave up without reaching a verdict. The World remarked that the "feeling in the jury-room grew so bitter that the Jurors went out and talked about each other."
Godfrey Gort lived here by 1907. He was a member of the New York Railroad Club and would remain at least through 1911. Another resident, Frank Morris, was affluent enough to afford a motorcar. He apparently missed the newspaper articles about the crackdown of Westchester county police on Sunday speeders in the spring of 1906. On April 30, the New-York Tribune reported, "A score of men were on guard on the leading highways with motor cycles, stop watches and flags," but they did not get "the usual Sunday harvest." Only one speeder was arrested--Frank Morris. He deposited $100 (a hefty $3,500 today) for his appeared in court.
Nellie Hayes, who lived here by 1922, was a school teacher. On July 16 that year, The New York Times reported on The Sight Saving Class, "The first training class ever given under the auspices of an American university began at Columbia University last week with a class of twenty-one." Among the educators in the class was Nellie Hayes.
Nellie had a close call two years later. On August 21, 1924, she went to Long Island City with a friend, Harriet Friedman. That afternoon, they were "found unconscious at Court Square," according to the Queens, New York Daily Star. The women were taken to St. John's Hospital in Long Island City where physicians "worked for hours before reviving the women." An analysis of the seafood in their stomachs was "declared to be poisonous" by the doctors, who said "the sea food was not as fresh as it should have been." The women were held overnight at the hospital.
In 1935, a year after the repeal of Prohibition, one of the stores became home to Dan Sheehy's restaurant and bar. On July 27, the Irish American Advocate reported that Dan Sheehy's "goes with the Patrick Henry beer tide." (Patrick Henry was a brand of draft beer.)
The other shop was Sam's Ninth Avenue Meat market. During the World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Office of Price Administration to control prices and limit consumption of certain commodities, like meat. On July 25, 1946, the New York Sun reported on "treble damage actions seeking to recover more than $1,000,000" that were filed against eight Manhattan meat dealers. The article said the "largest sum sought in the actions filed by [Callman] Gottesman in Federal court here, was $294,337.68 from Sam's Ninth Avenue Meat Market, Inc."
The R & T Meat Market occupied the space in the third quarter of the century. The store's participation in the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival on May 15, 1977 reflected the change in the neighborhood's demographics. Molly Ivins reported in The New York Times, "The R & T Meat Market at 693 Ninth Avenue had a loudspeaker broadcasting salsa music which attracted some very fine dancers and a two-man rhythm section. One fellow played a bongo drum while the second got a nice beat by playing a Ballantine Ale can with an Afro comb."
As the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood continues to change (there is a Dunkin' Donuts and a smoke shop in the store spaces today), William Morgan's 1884 building has not.
photograph by the author
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