The family of John Ward moved into the newly built house at 326 West 23rd Street around 1851. It stood out among the Italianate mansions that filled the block with its handsome mansard roof--a nearly obligatory element of the French Second Empire style. Four stories tall above a high English basement, the 21-foot-wide residence was faced in brownstone. A cast iron balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.
The Press published a sketch of the house on February 8, 1890. (copyright expired)
John Ward listed his profession as "paperstainer" in 1851, changing it to "printer" in 1853. That year the family advertised, "Boarding, two single gentlemen can be accommodated with board in a small, respectable family." Their ad was answered by Jacob Ostrander, Jr., who was a bookkeeper.
A series of occupants, most likely renters, followed the Wards. Richard Martin, who ran a coal and wood business at 344 West 23rd Street, lived here in 1856 and 1857; followed by John Edwin Brown by 1860. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown was a broker. The 30-year-old died here at the age of 30 on November 25, 1861.
Around 1868, George Thomas Vingut purchased 326 West 23rd Street. Born in Havana, Cuba, he had married Sarah Augusta Floyd on February 27, 1867 at the nearby Church of St. Vincent de Paul. The house quickly filled with children. George Floyd Vingus was born on March 19, 1868; followed by Harry Kermit in March 1871; Maria Augusta Floyd on November 13, 1873; Mary Elizabeth Kermit in 1877; and Benjamin Van Horne Vingut on December 23, 1879. The social standing of the Vingut family was evidenced in all of the children's baptisms being held in St. Patrick's Cathedral--George's being performed by Archbishop McClusky personally.
The family moved to Eighth Avenue around 1876 and leased the 23rd Street house to street railroad operator Jacob Sharp. The New York Times would later recall, "He was born of humble parents on a sort of a farm in Montgomery County, N.Y., in 1817, and for 20 years remained on it." The newspaper said that for his first 20 years he was more focused on manual labor than in acquiring an education. When his father died in 1837, the young man turned to rafting timber down the Hudson River to New York.
He sold materials to New York City for the construction of piers and bulkheads and before long, according to The New York Times, "he controlled the trade in his line." The uneducated man next turned to street railroads in 1850 and formed Sharp & Co. to construct a railroad from the Battery to Manhattanville in northern Manhattan--The Broadway Railroad. That project, faced with intense opposition from powerful figures like Alexander T. Stewart and D. H. Haight, stalled. When he leased 326 West 23rd Street he was president of the Twenty-third Street Railroad and a director in the Bleecker & Fulton Railroad.
Sharp and his wife had four children, three of whom were still alive. Two daughters were married, while George C. Sharp lived with his parents. He died here on January 2, 1880 and his funeral was held in the drawing room on two days later. Contrasting Jacob Sharp's humble roots with his current condition, the Middlebury Register said that George died "in a house worth $50,000."
The Evening Telegram, October 19, 1886 (copyright expired)
The Press described the residence saying, "'Jake' Sharp's house, at 326 West Twenty-third street, comes in the Mansard era." The Middlebury Register noted that Mrs. Sharp, "took to painting, simply for recreation," and said, "Her whole house is filled with oil paintings, some of them quite creditable under all the circumstances."
After 33 years of litigation, the Broadway Railroad was finally opened in 1884 and was an immediate success. Sharp and his wife enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in the West 23rd Street house and at their "extensive and beautiful farm new Rome [New York]," as described by The New York Times.
But the opponents of the Broadway Railroad had not given up. The New York Times reported, "In the first flush of victory came the...investigation into the rumors that were rife concerning corruption deep and flagrant" around the Board of Aldermen's granting the railroad franchise. On October 19, 1886, The Evening Telegram reported, "Jacob Sharp was arrested at his house, No. 326 West Twenty-third street, at eight o'clock this morning." He was indicted by a grand jury that morning and his trial set for a few months later.
On Christmas Day 1886, the New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Courier reported,
Jacob Sharp has been under the weather for some days past. He is suffering from his old dyspeptic troubles, for which he put himself on a milk diet. He is able to move about the house, but has not been out of doors in two weeks. He still lives in his hired house at 326 West Twenty-Third street, and the sign, “For Sale,’’ still hangs on the front balcony.
Sharp was put on trial in 1887. It was called by one newspaper, the most important trial "since 'Boss' Tweed's." He was found guilty and on June 14 sentenced to four-and-a-half years in State Prison. The ordeal had taken a severe toll on Sharp's health, however. His condition was so bad that on November 29 the Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in return for $40,000 bail--around $1.1 million in today's money.
Sharp and his wife went to the country house for a few weeks. On January 4, 1888, The New York Times reported, "Jacob Sharp returned from his health trip to the country yesterday. It has evidently been decidedly beneficial in his somewhat feeble health." But, in fact, the decades-long ordeal had broken the millionaire.
On the night of April 6, 1888, Sharp died in his second floor bedroom. The New York Times reported, "His death was sudden, his enfeebled heart ceasing to act after a violent and exhausting fit of coughing." Sharp's obituary noted, "The disgrace attending his indictment and arrest was keenly felt, and the added ignominy of a public trial was borne with difficulty."
The next morning The Evening World reported that undertaker Charles Benedict "affixed to the front door of the house, this morning, the usual crepe symbol of mourning, and many a passer-by half stopped as his eyes fell on the sable draping." The family, offended by the unrelenting treatment Sharp had endured, rebuffed most sympathizers. The New York Times said on April 7, "The house 354 [sic] West Twenty-third-street...was kept tightly closed yesterday and very few callers attempted to enter the house." The funeral was held in the drawing room, but the family kept it so private that the hour of the ceremony was not announced.
The "For Sale" sign in front of the house mentioned by the New Haven newspaper in 1886 had been removed, possibly because of the Vinguts' concern for their tenant. In July 1887, title to the property was transferred by the family to Sarah A. Vingut, who ironically died a month later, on August 20.
The house was sold on June 30, 1891 to Thomas Stokes, who paid $22,250, according to the Record & Guide (about $770,000 in 2024). It appears he leased it to a proprietor who ran an upscale boarding house.
A Mrs. Waddington (possibly the landlady), took in her sister, Rosalie Dodge, in January 1893. Rosalie was married to millionaire Jacob L. Dodge, described by The New York Times as "a wealthy young man about town" and "a man of fine appearance." Dodge owned two sloops, the 60-foot Arrow and the 26-foot Coquette, which he sailed mostly on the Long Island Sound. The Dodges had a summer estate at Huntington, Long Island. Rosalie moved in with her sister after discovering that Dodge "had been untrue to her with a woman at the Hotel Vendome."
At their separation hearing on August 2, 1893, details were revealed that Rosalie, no doubt, had wanted to keep secret. The New York Times reported, "She made no reference to the fact that she had lived with her husband before the formal ceremony until after that fact was accidentally brought out by Frank A. C. McLewee, a witness." In fact, Rosalie and Jacob had lived together for ten years without being married. Nevertheless, she testified, "He introduced her to his mother and relatives as his wife, and she executed deeds and mortgages with him."
The couple had been married for four days before they separated. Their divorce was granted on August 3, 1883.
William J. Stewart and his wife lived here in 1895. Mrs. Stewart was treasurer of The Co-Operato, which opened a year earlier at 301 West 18th Street. It was described by the New York Charities Directory as, "A co-operative home for self-supporting and self-respecting women of unexceptional reference as to character, regardless of creed." The residents were charged $2.50 and $3 per week, "with privilege of laundry."
Around 1899, Luke L. Fitzgerald (whose surname was spelled variously as Fitz Gerald and FitzGerald) and his wife, the former Elizabeth (known as Lizzie) Gay, purchased the house. Fitzgerald was an auctioneer. The extended Fitzgerald family filled the house.
Living with her parents were 20-year-old Julia Annie and her husband, rubber merchant Edgar Howard Brown. On January 13, 1899, the couple had a baby girl, Elizabeth. Additionally, son Louis G. Fitzgerald and daughters Lulu and Adelaide lived here. Adelaide would graduate from Normal College in 1901 and take her teacher's examination that year.
Louis G. Fitzgerald died on March 23, 1909. His funeral was held in the drawing room on the 27th.
Nine years later, on December 1, 1918, Luke L. Fitzgerald died. Elizabeth survived him by nearly two years, dying here on October 22, 1920. Her funeral was held in the house on October 26, after which her casket was removed to the nearby Church of St. Columba for a requiem mass.
The 23rd Street house was sold in December 1923 to Michael Taggart, "who will occupy," according to The New York Sun. Instead, Taggart significantly altered the structure, removing the stoop, installing a commercial space at sidewalk level, and furnished rooms on the upper floors.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
The Rhozis family rented rooms here from around 1936 through 1940. Charatamas Rhozis and his son Harry (who changed the spelling of his surname to Rozis), were on the Government's radar for continually voting for Communist candidates while living here.
A renovation completed in 1967 resulted in two apartments per floor above the ground floor commercial space. Little remains of the former mansion's appearance when well-heeled families lived here.
photographs by the author
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