photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York
Prolific developer Richard W. Buckley completed a row of high-end brownstone fronted homes at 26 through 32 West 53rd Street in 1881. Each 25 feet wide and four-stories tall above English basements, they were intended for well-heeled families.
The exclusive character of the block, just steps from Fifth Avenue, was evidenced when Nathaniel Stone Simpkins paid $90,000 for 26 West 53rd Street on April 28, 1883. The figure would translate to about $2.82 million in 2024.
Twenty-two years old, Simpkins had graduated from Columbia University that year. His father, John, had died in 1870, and his mother, Ruth Barker Sears Simpkins, died in June 1882, a year before Nathaniel purchased his new home. According to The New York Times, John Simpkins left his children "a large fortune." Nathaniel's wife was Mable Jenks. Moving into the mansion with them were John's 16-year-old brother, Willard Sears Simpkins, and his unmarried sister Elizabeth. (Another sister, Mabel, was just 12 at the time and most likely also lived in the house.)
Nathaniel's and Ruth's first child, Nathaniel Jr., was born in 1885. There would be four more children, the last, Tudor Jenks, arriving in 1904.
On October 9, 1886, Willard Sears Simpkins, now 19, went to Central Park with "a young lady attired in regulation riding habit," as described by The New York Times. She was the daughter of James B. Houston, president of the Pacific Mall Steamship Company. The pair hired two horses at Merkin's Stable and started out on a ride. The newspaper said, "Mr. Simpkins's horse was a fiery and rebellious beast, but he was particular to have such mounts in preference to quiet horses."
The couple was going at "a smart trot" as they approached 62nd Street. Simpkins's horse suddenly lurched violently and broke into a gallop. Miss Houston hurried around the curve to find Simpkins in a clump of bushes beside the bridal path. A park policeman extricated him and an ambulance was called. The New York Times reported, "The ambulance surgeon found Mr. Simpkins breathing but unconscious, and his neck appeared to be broken." Although the doctor advised that Simpkins be transported to a hospital, Miss Houston demanded that he be taken to his home. Although "half a dozen physicians were quickly in attendance," according to The Times, the teen died at 2:00 that afternoon.
In 1896, Stanley Mortimer and his wife leased the Simpkins house, and by 1898 former U.S. Secretary of War Daniel S. Lamont and his wife Juliet occupied the mansion. Juliet Lamont entertained often during the year they were here.
By the time she "received her friends" on March 17, 1898, as reported in the society pages, the brownstone house was decidedly out of fashion. The following year Nathaniel Simpkins sold it to Henry Francis Shoemaker. He immediately commissioned mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert to update the residence. On July 15, 1899, the Record & Guide reported that Gilbert's plans included removing the stoop and replacing the brownstone with limestone. The article said, "The building will be fitted in the most substantial manner, and will be equipped with an electric elevator, electric plant, etc."
The renovations resulted in a striking Beaux Arts style mansion, the lower three floors of which were rusticated and bowed. At the second floor (or piano nobile), a set of French windows opened onto a faux balcony. They were capped by an elaborate swans head pediment. The bowed section provided a balcony at the fourth floor. The renovations cost Shoemaker the equivalent of $1.48 million today.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1843, Henry Francis Shoemaker came from an old Quaker family, his first ancestor arriving from Holland in 1685. After serving in the Civil War, in 1863 he took over control of his family's coal mines, eventually expanded into railroads and banking. He and his wife, the former Blanche Quiggle, moved to New York in 1878.
The couple's summer homes were Restless Oaks in Pennsylvania (the Quiggle family estate) and Cedar Cliff in Riverside, Connecticut. The 1907 Men of Mark in Connecticut commented, "his beautiful Connecticut home at Riverside-on-the-Sound, which is built on a high bluff overlooking the water...is considered by many to be among the finest along the Sound."
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Henry Francis Shoemaker - New York State's Prominent and Progressive Men, 1900 (copyright expired)
When the Shoemakers moved into their new home, their son Henry Wharton was 19 years old, William Brock was 17, and Blanche LeRoy was 13.
The winter social season of 1904 was an important one in the Shoemaker household--it was Blanche Leroy's debutante season. The whirl began relatively quietly. On November 27, 1904, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Henry F. Shoemaker of 26 West Fifty-third street will give a tea next Saturday afternoon when she will present her daughter, Miss Blanche Le Roy Shoemaker." The article noted, "The family recently returned from Europe and Miss Shoemaker was the guest for a time of the Duchess of Manchester." It added, "Miss Shoemaker, who is a decided blond, will be presented at one of the first London drawing rooms when the season there begins."
The debutante entertainments continued for weeks. On February 15, 1905, The New York Times reported on the theater party, supper and dance the Shoemakers hosted "for their debutante daughter, Miss Blanche Le Roy Shoemaker, who will sail next week with her father for several months in Europe." Ninety guests assembled at the 53rd Street house before heading to Daly's Theatre, after which there was dancing in the marble ballroom of the St. Regis Hotel followed by supper. The New York Times later reported that Blanche "was introduced at Court in England" in May.
French artist Theobald Chartran painted Blanche LeRoy Shoemaker's portrait in 1905, her debutante year. image via christies.com
She and her father were back home in time for the engagement of William Brock Shoemaker to Ella Morris de Peyster on August 19, 1905. The Sun predicted, "There is likely to be as big a crowd in St. Bartholomew's Church on this occasion as for any nuptial event of the season."
In announcing the engagement, The New York Times mentioned that William's father had "made a fortune in mines and railroads." It added that the groom-to-be "with his elder brother, Henry Wharton Shoemaker, who has held diplomatic posts at Lisbon and Berlin...has gone into the banking business."
The couple was married on December 14, 1905. Tragically, six months later, on June 21, 1906, William Brock Shoemaker sustained injuries "in an elevator," according to The New York Times. He died in the Hudson Street Hospital three days later.
The following year Blanche was married to Alfred Wagstaff in the 53rd Street mansion on April 29. The New York Times reported, "The house was beautifully decorated for the occasion, with white lilies, white roses, and smilax and green leaves. The ceremony took place in the drawing room where an altar and prie dieu of lilies and roses were erected."
Blanche was no insipid society girl. Already a recognized name in the literary field, she had begun writing poetry as a child and her first poem had been sold to Town & Country magazine three years before the wedding. Unlike other society brides, she insisted on a career and served briefly as the associate editor of the literary magazine, The International, and published volumes of her own poetry.
The Wagstaffs moved into the Shoemaker mansion. The population of the house increased again in 1907 when Henry Wharton married Beatrice Genevieve Barclay. And on March 29, 1908, The New York Times reported that the couple had a son. "The boy will be called Henry F. Shoemaker, second, after his paternal grandfather," said the article. Six months later, Blanche became mother of Alfred Wagstaff III.
Neither of the marriages would work out. Soon after little Henry's birth, his parents separated then divorced. Henry Wharton Shoemaker married Mabel Ruth Ord in 1913. In the meantime, Beatrice, who had permanent custody of their son, married Dr. Richard W. Perry. Perry adopted the boy and had his name legally changed to Henry Barclay Perry.
While Henry and Mabel were in Europe on their honeymoon, Henry F. Shoemaker discovered that his grandson's name had been changed. On May 24, 1913, The New York Times reported, "The name of Henry Barclay Perry, the 5-year-old adopted son of Dr. and Mrs. Richard W. Perry of Seattle, was changed by decree of Superior Judge Walter J. French late to-day to Henry Francis Shoemaker." The article said that Henry F. Shoemaker, "retired banker of New York" had made the boy "the promised heir to $2,000,000" if his name was changed back.
Henry F. Shoemaker died at the Connecticut estate on July 2, 1918. In reporting his death, the New-York Tribune recalled, "He was graduated from Syracuse University in 1861, and was appointed to the United States Naval Academy by President Lincoln."
Blanche and Alfred Wagstaff were divorced in Newport in December 1920. Six months later, on July 31, 1921, the New York Herald reported that Blanche had married Donald Carr. At the time she and her 13-year-old son were still living with her mother at 26 West 53rd Street.
Blanche Quiggle Shoemaker lived on in the mansion through 1923. In 1924 she leased it to the Edward Motley Weld and his wife, the former Sarah Lothrop.
Not long afterward, the Shoemaker mansion was converted to the European Club. The lavish nightclub was, in fact, an upscale speakeasy. When it was raided on April 9, 1928, The New York Times said, "the club is situated in a four-story brownstone [sic] front building and occupies every floor." Twelve people, including three proprietors, were arrested. The club was raided again on July 30 that year and again on June 7, 1929. That time, The New York Times said it was "ordered padlocked for ten months."
The European Club was taken over by the newly-chartered Simplon Club. It became the target of Chicago gangsters within the year. On July 13, 1930, The New York Times reported, "Racketeers invaded the exclusive district just off Fifth Avenue early yesterday morning and exploded a bomb at the Simplon Social Club, 26 West Fifty-third Street, jarring the neighborhood which includes John D. Rockefeller, Jr. among its residents."
The club had closed at 3 a.m. and only two porters and the female caretaker, who had gone to bed, were in the building when the bomb exploded at 4:30. The article said, "Chicago racketeers, crippled by the exposures that followed the murder of Alfred Lingle, Chicago reporter, have been coming to New York to attempt to ply their trade." It added, "The club, occupying the entire five stories, is a luxuriously fitted establishment, with a large lounge on the ground floor, a restaurant on the second, and private rooms above." After the explosion, detectives searched the club for liquor, but found nothing.
Little changed, the Shoemaker mansion stood alone in 1941. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
The Shoemaker mansion survived relatively intact until 1955 when it was demolished for a four-story commercial building. That was razed for a 31-story apartment building completed in 2015.
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