Scaffolding for exterior restoration was going up in 2014 when this photograph was taken. by Beyond My Ken.
In 1862, William Paul, a carpenter, purchased three 75-foot-wide vacant plots on West 129th Street. They were part of what was once the 127-acre patent of Arent Harmanse Bussing who died in 1718. Two years after William Paul bought the property, a two-and-a-half-story clapboard house sat upon it.
William Paul's business partner was Thomas Wilson. Their shop was far downtown at 86 West 24th Street. Almost assuredly, they erected the 129th Street residence together. William Paul and his wife Frances are first listed at "129th off Fifth." In 1864, they shared the house with Thomas Wilson's family. The following year, William and Frances Paul sold the property to Thomas Wilson.
Born in Maine in 1820, Wilson changed his professional listing from "carpenter" to "builder" in 1871. Apparently a widower, he lived here with two daughters, two sons, and one live-in servant.
One of Wilson's sons was, apparently, an inventor. An advertisement in Scientific American in 1866 read, "For Sale--State Rights for Murphy's Improved Burglar Alarm, Patented Jan. 12, 1866. Address O. E. Wilson, 12 West 129th street, New York."
In 1872, the Wilsons moved to East 128th Street and sold the house to Martin England and his wife Anna Sophia. Born in Newfoundland, Canada, England was a printer. Living with him and Anna Sophia were their five children--three sons and two daughters--and two servants.
Two years after moving in, on February 8, 1874, the Wilsons' eldest son, John W., died at the age of 15. Tragedy visited the house again on September 25, 1879 when their next eldest son, Howie, died at 10 years old. The intense grief of the parents was evidenced in the fact that both the boys' funerals were private.
Martin England died on March 19, 1881 at the age of 46. His funeral was held at St. Jerome's Church three days later. Although she retained ownership of the 129th Street house, Anna Sophia leased it the following year to John Boulton Simpson, Jr.
Born in 1846, Simpson was a piano merchant, associated with the Arion Piano Company. He and his wife, the former Frances Collins Shilton, had two daughters, Fanny and Helen. Although he was only renting the house, in 1882 (the year the family moved in) Simpson hired builder Edward Gustaveson to enlarge it with a two-story brick extension to the west and a two-story wooden extension to the east. The renderings submitted with the plans depicted a two-and-a-half story, peaked roof dwelling. A romantic balcony fronted the attic window and a decorative, scrolled bargeboard ornamented the gable.
The renovations resulted in a central entrance hall with a parlor at the front, a library to the east and a dining room to the west. To the rear were the kitchen and a conservatory. Although a porch does not appear in the plans, before 1883 a wooden "piazza" appeared. Its complex Moorish design was achieved by scroll saws, an invention that first appeared in the United States in the 1860s.
photo by Beyond My Ken
In April 1883, Simpson brought Gustaveson back to erect a copy of the porch on the rear of the house. The plans specified that it be constructed of locust wood.
The Simpson family left 12 West 129th Street in 1893, and on December 11, 1895, the property was sold at auction to W. B. McVickars for the International Congregation of the Sacred Heart. According to The Press, he paid $20,000, or about $750,000 in 2024 terms.
The Missionary Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis occupied the house as a convent and a "reception home" for needy children who would be transferred to St. Joseph's Home for Destitute Children upstate in Peekskill.
Before moving in, the order hired Peekskill architect Asbury Barker to renovate the house. The attic and the two 1882 extensions were raised to a full floor with a flat roof. Given the new use of the building, a wrought-iron fire escape was installed.
Barker also designed a "summer house or pavillion [sic]" in the garden. His application for a building permit said in part:
The structure is designed for the benefit of the children who may be living on the premises in care of the Sisters...The children in question are destitute children committed to the care of the Sisters by City Magistrates or other officials. The fresh air enjoyed in...this covered pavilion will be most beneficial to the children's health; and this is the sole motive for its erection.
The remodeled house as it appeared around the turn of the last century. A portion of the summer house can be glimpsed at left. from the collection of the Franciscan Sisters Archives.
The nuns quickly were faced with difficult cases. On October 13, 1896, the New York Journal reported that Patrick Murphy and his wife were arrested and charged "with giving whiskey to little Tommy Murphy, three years old, and making him drunk and deathly sick." According to a witness, "the Murphys had been in the habit of giving the child liquor, and that this was not the first time he had been drunk."
Edward Gerrity, who was in the Murphy home that night, testified:
Mrs. Murphy made it a practice to leave a quantity of whiskey in her glass, which she gave to Tommy. The latter drank the stuff, and became drunk. He staggered and shouted and ultimately was extremely sick.
Gerrity left the Murphy house when the whiskey was gone, Tommy was ill, and "Mrs. Murphy was unable to stand, and had fallen to the floor in a heap," according to the New York Journal. The article said, "Little Terry [sic] was sent to the Mission of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, 12 West 129th Street."
The nine sisters who lived in the house in 1920 struggled with wards who did not always want to be there. In the pre-dawn hours of October 28 that year, five children stole away. They were Adelina and John Amendela, 12 and 10 years old respectively; Elizabeth and Matilda Smith, 11 and 5 years old; and ten-year-old Joseph Amisegger. Elizabeth Smith, according to the New-York Tribune, had hatched the plot. Adelina Amendela later said Elizabeth, "suggested they put their nightgowns on over their street clothes."
The great escape was short lived for the Amendela siblings. They made it to their home in the Bronx at 1:30 in the morning. Their father brought them back to the home by noon. The siblings could not account for the other runaways. They told officials, "They met a man who said he would put the Smith children on a car for home. That was the last they saw of any of the rest of the party," reported The Evening World on October 28.
The next day the Smith children were returned, but on October 30, Joseph Amisegger was still missing. His parents were separated and both lived in Yonkers. The New-York Tribune said, "it is believed that the boy may be trying to find his way, unaided, to the home of his father or mother."
In the meantime, the other escapees were in deep trouble. The New-York Tribune reported, "Elizabeth Smith, eleven, who is charged with planning the expedition, would not be permitted to return. She will remain with her grandmother." The fate of the others had not yet been determined. The article said they "may be returned to their parents because of their escapade, it was said." (It is unclear whether Joseph Amisegger was ever found.)
At some point, possibly in the 1920s, the order gave the facade a coating of stucco, and added quoins to the corners.
Asbury Barker's summer house can be seen in this 1932 photo by Charles Von Urban, as well as a chicken coop. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
In 1941 The Missionary Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis sold the property to the Nazareth Mission/Peace Center. According to Kenneth E. Burnham in his God Comes to America--Father Divine and the Peace Mission Movement, it was operated by Father Divine, leader of the cult called the Kingdom of Peace. It held, according to Burnham, the "brothers' quarters, peace center and Nazareth Missions' home and church."
The property was sold to the Christ Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith in 1979. In 1990, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered 12 West 129th Street for individual landmark status. In May 1991, a church trustee, Mercedes Herbert, "said the church would definitely oppose designation because of its plans for the building," according to The New York Times columnist Christopher Gray.
The house as it appeared in 1941. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
It was unclear what those plans were, but, according to Gray, "Now the house looks just short of being abandoned. A huge yellow school bus crowds its unkempt front yard, windows are broken and the brightly painted stucco is now dingy."
Despite the opposition of the Christ Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, 129 West 129th Street was designated an individual landmark on July 26, 1994. The exterior has been restored and the porch and garden house (the latter now sitting in a parking lot), which have somehow miraculously survived since 1882, are intact.
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