The Clarence C. Pell House - 24 East 35th Street

 
In 1860, Clarence C. Pell moved into the newly-build house at 24 East 35th Street, one of a handsome row of Anglo-Italianate homes.  Each 20 feet wide, the brownstone clad houses were four stories tall above a short English basement.  A prominent cornice above the first floor ran the length of the row.  Graceful cornices crowned the elliptically arched openings of the upper three floors. 

Pell was a partner with his brother, James Kent Pell, in an auction business at 109 Pearl Street.  They were descended from Thomas Pell who arrived in America in the 1630's.  Thomas Pell became the first Lord of Pelham Manor, which eventually became Pelham, New York, as well as parts of the Bronx and Westchester County.

Pell and his family left 24 East 35th Street in 1864.  The house became home to Louis Borg, who had been made Consul-General of France in August 1863.  

Borg filled the house with an impressive collection of artwork and antique French furniture.  The Evening Post remarked that his vast collection of paintings "were purchased at the sales of various celebrated galleries here and abroad."  He also had a notable collection of rare coins.

When Borg was recalled to France in the summer of 1867, a two-day auction was held in the house.  On August 13, following the first day's sales, The Evening Post reported that about 100 paintings had been sold, "and a sale of the remainder commenced this morning, and is being continued throughout the day."  Already sold were paintings by Dutch and Italian masters Cristofano Allori, Carlo Maratti, Jean de Baen, Francisco Albani, Cornelius van Poelenburgh, and Jacob van Ruisdael.

The article mentioned, "Notable among the furniture are a chair used by the first Napoleon on a state occasion at Malmaison, and an exquisite bronze and ormolu table and casket, once possessed by Marie Antoinette."  Borg had second thoughts about selling the chair, however.

The Empire style chair was one of a set of 10 designed by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine in 1800 for Napoleon's Château de Malmaison near Paris.  After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, his brother Joseph fled to America, bringing along elaborate furnishings, including this chair.  In 1839 he gave it to the French Consul General, Felix Lacoste, and following his death, Borg purchased it.

Once in the château of Napoleon, this chair sat in 24 East 35th Street during Borg's residency.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Now, in 1867, Borg donated the chair to the New-York Historical Society, where it remains in its original condition today.

The enterprising Mary B. Sumner, the widow of George W. Sumner, leased 20, 22 and 24 East 35th Street and operated them as boarding houses.  (She lived at 20 West 35th Street.)  Her business-like advertisement on August 21, 1874 read, "20, 22 and 24 East Thirty fifth street--Three handsome suits for the winter or year, with or without private table; also single rooms; early application necessary; one extra Suit to let, transiently, until November 1."

Mary Sumner's boarders were professional.  In 1870 they included broker Albert Bellamy; lawyers Granville P. Hawes and George W. Vanslyck; Francis J. Heyderick, a provisions merchant; and physician James Converse Rising.

Dr. Rising and his family would board with Mary Sumner through 1880, when she relinquished the lease.  His son, Henry W. Rising, began working as a clerk in 1876.

John P. and Antoinette L. Edwards owned 24 East 35th Street, but never lived here.  They listed their permanent address as Bar Harbor, Maine.  In 1886, they leased the house to the Zeta Psi Fraternity.  The 1928 The Story of Zeta Psi recalled, "By April 15, 1886, the Club was pleasantly located at 24 East Thirty-fifth Street, and the modest beginnings were made of an institution which was to last for many years, although its existence was intermittent and its vicissitudes were many."

The move was made in time for the 40th annual convention of the fraternity.  It opened in the Murray Hill Hotel on January 6, 1887, "with headquarters at the Zeta Psi Club house, No. 24 East thirty-fifth-street," as reported by The New York Times.  Delegates had come from across the country.  The New York contingent hosted a theater party at the Bijou Opera House on the first night of the convention.  "After the performance the entire party was entertained at supper at the clubhouse by the Phi Chapter," said the article.  The University Quarterly called it, "a bountiful collation by Mazzetti."  (Louis F. Mazzetti was one of the premier society caterers, described by The New York Times as "a master of the mysteries of the cuisine.")

The fraternity moved out in 1889.  Edward Walsh Humphreys and his wife, the former Mary Duane, next leased 24 East 35th Street.  Mary made it a center of social activities.  Throughout their residency, her entertainments were regular fodder for the society pages.  On January 26, 1893, for instance, The New York World reported, "Mrs. Edward W. Humphreys, of No. 24 East Thirty-fifth street, gave her fourth and last reception yesterday afternoon."

On May 30, 1896, the Record & Guide reported that Antoinette L. Edwards had sold the house to Henry Wheeler DeForest for $46,500 (about $1.76 million in 2024).  The well-to-do bachelor was a partner with his brother Robert Weeks DeForest in the law firm of DeForest Brothers.  He was also the president of the Land & River Company and a director in the Central New Jersey Land Improvement Company.  His other brother, Lockwood DeForest, was a well-known painter and interior designer.

On August 22, 1898, DeForest married Julia Gilman Noyes, the daughter of a millionaire druggist.  Julia, who came from St. Paul, Minnesota, quickly threw herself into charitable causes and that year became chairman of the College Committee of The Woman's Medical College.

In 1899, author Rudyard Kipling and his family arrived in New York City.  They were staying at the Hotel Grenoble when, in February, Kipling fell gravely ill.  On March 3, the Newburgh (New York) Register reported on "Rudyard Kipling's progress toward convalescence," and mentioned that his young daughter, "Josephine has been taken to the home of Mrs. Julia de Forest, 24 East Thirty-fifth street, a friend of Mrs. Kipling, and the latest news about her was that she was 'doing well.'"

Later that year, the DeForests would have their first child, Julia Mary.  There would be three more children, Henry Jr., born in 1901; Charles Noyes, who arrived in 1905; and Alice Delano, born three years later.  The family's country house, Nethermuir, was in Cold Spring Harbor. 

In April 1906, Henry hired architect James B. Baker to make $5,000 in interior renovations to the house.  The following year the the DeForests leased it to Emma Kesselmark (who died here on October 25 that year).

On May 5, 1911, the New York Herald reported, "Lieutenant Commander Benjamin B. McCormick, U.S.N., and Mrs. McCormick have taken the house of Mr. Henry W. de Forest, at No. 24 East Thirty-fifth street."

The McCormicks' summer home was in Newport, Rhode Island.  Helen Miriam McCormick, like her predecessors, entertained often.  On February 12, 1914, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Benjamin B. McCormick, wife of Commander McCormick, U. S. N., gave an informal at home yesterday afternoon at her house, 24 East Thirty-fifth Street.  Her mother, Mrs. Charles R. Cornwall, received with her, and Miss Marie Louise Anderson and Mrs. Cammack were at the tea table."  (An "informal at-home" referred to friends dropping in for tea without invitations.)  Seven days later, the New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. Benjamin B. McCormick gave the last of two receptions at her home, No. 24 East 35th street."

The DeForests sold the house to Gordon Woodbury and his wife, Charlotte around 1917.  (Henry DeForest would go on to be chairman of the board of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the president of the New York Botanical Garden.) 

Gordon Woodbury was born on September 17, 1863 in New York City and grew up in Bedford, New Hampshire.  He descended from the Woodburys who settled in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1624.  A Harvard-educated attorney, he had lost his 1916 bid to become a member of Congress.  

He and Charlotte had three children, Eliza Gordon, Peter, and George.  (Two other children, Martha Riddle and Margaret Orr, had died in infancy.)  The family maintained summer homes in Newport and in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Peter Woodbury was attending the Phillips  Academy in Andover, Massachusetts when the United States entered World War I.  He left school to join the U. S. Army.  The family received terrifying news in the fall of 1918.  He was a member of the Machine Gun Company of the 107th Infantry, and on September 30 was wounded in battle.  In reporting the incident, The New York Times noted on November 5, "He is 18 years of age."  (Peter Woodbury survived the war and became an attorney and judge.)

When Franklin D. Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1920 in order to run for Vice-President, Woodrow Wilson appointed Woodbury as Roosevelt's successor.  He would serve as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for seven months, from August 27, 1920 until March 9, 1921.

Woodbury (right) alongside Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.  collection of the Library of Congress.

In 1921 Woodbury purchased the yacht Exen from its Norwegian owner and renamed it Half Moon.  Originally a racing yacht, it had been built as a wedding gift from Bertha Krupp to her husband, Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach.  Woodbury reportedly outfitted it with expensive furnishings and on January 4, 1922, announced plans for a cruise that "would take him through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal and thence to the islands of the South Seas," according to The New York World.

Gordon Woodbury's yacht, Half Moon.  Historisches Archiv Krupp

On January 30, 1922, the New York Herald received a dispatch from Newport that said, "Gordon Woodbury, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was swept over the rail of his yacht Half Moon forty miles off Cape Charles Friday night."  The vessel had run into a hurricane at about 10:00 that morning.  The article said, "The mainsail, compass, jibboom, and dinghy and a lifeboat were swept away within a few seconds of one another."

Woodbury and his crew hung on for "some hours" before a huge wave swept over the ship, washing all aboard into the sea.  One crew member, John Stolvig, was lost but, miraculously, everyone else survived by "clinging to the railing, the sidelashes and rudder."  Gordon Woodbury had been swept out to sea, "but was returned by a wave to the yacht."

The following morning the Japan Arrow, a Standard Oil tanker, happened upon the scene.  It rescued the men and towed the Half Moon to port.  Woodward recalled to reporters,

After that experience the crew, some members badly bruised up and all hungry and half frozen, managed to cling fast to articles on deck until about 9:30 this morning, when the Japan Arrow came by, giving the Half moon a line and taking the fagged out crew aboard.

Woodbury returned to New York in time for the announcement of Eliza Gordon Woodbury's engagement to Frederick Sherwood Dunn on March 19, 1922.  The New York Times mentioned, "Miss Woodbury graduated from Bryn Mawr, class of '19," and the New York Herald noted that she "served in Europe with the American Committee for Devasted France for two years."  The couple was married on September 30.

In 1941, after being converted to apartments, 24 East 35th Street was painted white.  (Next door is the stunning Thomas B. Clarke house, today's Collectors' Club.)  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Gordon and Charlotte were at the New Hampshire house in June 1924.  On June 16, Gordon dropped into William P. Goodman's bookstore and asked if he could address a letter.  He was shown to Goodman's private desk.  After a while, Goodman thought Woodbury was taking "a long time to write an address," according to The Boston Globe, so he checked on him.  The article said, "he raised [Woodbury's] head and found he was breathing feebly.  Hurried calls were sent for doctors, two responding, but on their arrival Mr. Woodbury was dead."  In reporting his death, The Boston Globe described Gordon Woodbury as "one of the foremost men of New Hampshire, ex-assistant secretary of the Navy, editor and publisher, legislator, sailor, author, man of letters, agriculturalist, and athlete."

Charlotte Woodbury sold 24 East 35th Street five months later, in November.  The house was quickly converted to apartments.  A subsequent renovation, completed in 2005, resulted in a two-family home.

photographs by the author

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