The Lost Clarendon Hotel - 18th Street and Fourth Av (Park Avenue So.)

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Similar to his Gramercy Park, Samuel Ruggles's Union Square was ringed by substantial brick residences around a fenced park with a central fountain.  The blocks of Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue South) directly above the park were named Union Place.  In 1848, six years after completion of the park, Ruggles began construction of an elegant hotel one block to the north at the southeast corner of 18th Street and Union Place.

Completed in 1851, the Clarendon Hotel was designed in the Italianate style.  A cast iron portico sheltered the entrance within the rusticated stone base.  The hotel's six-floor center section on 18th Street rose one story above the rest of the structure.  

Ruggles leased the hotel to proprietor G. C. Putnam.  His opening announcement on August 8, 1851 stressed its residential setting (as opposed to bustling Broadway), saying it would appeal to families "who desire the comforts and quiet of a more retired situation than the other hotels of New York."  It continued in part,

The arrangements of this establishment are altogether superior to anything of the kind in this or, perhaps, any other country, being divided into suits of apartments, with bathing rooms and other water conveniences attached.  It is furnished in the most elegant and expensive manner, equal to the best private residences of the city.

The garden of the Efraim Holbrook mansion can be seen at the left.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The Clarendon Hotel catered to both transient and permanent guests.  An advertisement in 1859 noted, "The apartments, from the single room to the suite of any number desired, are provided with Bath Rooms, and all the modern conveniences.  It is conducted on the Table d'Hote system, or meals are served in rooms."

By then, Kerner & Birch had taken over the proprietorship.  Gerrit Kerner, who had been the steward of the exclusive Union Club, ran the hotel with military precision.  A permanent guest, Richard Lathers, recalled in his 1907 memoir, Reminiscences of Richard Lathers,

The table service was exceedingly well organized.  The waiters marched from the pantry in military order to place the food on the table and, after removing the covers of the dishes, marched in the same manner to deposit them on the side tables before waiting on the guests.  The dinner was served punctually at a fixed hour, and those not present at any course lost it--for the courses were brought on with as much regularity as a private dinner.

On the first floor were "a couple of neatly furnished rooms," according to Lathers, for smoking.  "After dinner, and after the theater, these smoking rooms were always filled," he said.  Lathers listed some of the well-heeled figures who haunted the smoking rooms, including Ward McAllister, Governor John T. Hoffman, Charles Clinton, former President Franklin Pierce (a full-time resident of the hotel), and General Winfield Scott Hancock.

Perhaps the first foreign dignitaries to stay at the Clarendon Hotel were Lord and Lady Ellesmere, who stayed here with their daughter in 1853 while attending the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations in the Crystal Palace.  Quickly, according to Lathers, "the Clarendon [became] popular with travelers from all over Europe, and especially from England."

from the collection of the Library of Congress

On March 7, 1857, Lord Napier and his family arrived on his way to Washington.  He was the newly appointed British Ambassador to the United States.  High ranking figures would continue to stay here.  On one day alone--October 22, 1870--the New York Herald reported that opera star Christina Nilsson, General E. W. Serrell, and Russian Minister Count Calacazy had checked into the hotel.

Gerrit Kerner died in 1862 and his son, Charles H. Kerner took over the hotel's operation.  There was no change in the level of service and hospitality.

The Grand Duke Alexis of Russia arrived on November 28, 1871.  He was given the equivalent of today's secret service protection.  The New-York Tribune reported, "When he landed three detectives guarded him; at the serenade on Tuesday night they were near at hand; and they are now quartered at the Clarendon Hotel."  Within the Clarendon, the Grand Duke was able to relax from his many official duties.  Lathers said he "visited this headquarters of international goodfellowship for the relaxation of a cigar and a glass of the best wine in the city after the tiresome formalities of public receptions."

While staying here the Grand Duke Alexis was honored by the city with a grand ball.  Harper's Weekly, December 1871.

In 1884, New York's Great Industries said that because of its proximity to "all of the theatres, halls and clubs, the Clarendon has many recognized advantages as a place of residence for the leading prima donnas and artistes who visit the metropolis, while the nobility and gentry of the Old World here find those congenial surrounds and superior service which has made the Clarendon so justly celebrated all over Europe."  

Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák, his wife and two of their children arrived in America on September 27, 1891.  In his 2022 Distant Melodies, Edward Dusinberre writes they were "met at the port of Hoboken by an enthusiastic delegation of Czech citizens and people associated with the National Conservatory before being installed in luxurious rooms at the Hotel Clarendon near Union Square."  Unfortunately, the quiet residential nature of the location that was so touted in 1851 was gone.  "The presence of a new Steinway grand piano was not enough to distract Dvořák from the unaccustomed noise of the city," writes Dusinberre.  The family was soon installed in rooms in a nearby rowhouse on East 17th Street.

To the shock of many hoteliers, when C. H. Kearny's lease was up in April 1893, he did not renew it.  In reporting that the lease was available on April 8, The New York Times mentioned, "For many years the Clarendon was without a rival as the favorite family hotel of the city.  It was always a home-like house, with spacious rooms, genteel service, and pleasant surroundings."  But now the hotel which was once feared to be too far uptown, was too far downtown.  "The construction of other fine family hotels further up town within the last few years has made the Clarendon, however, less desirable from a lessee's standpoint."

Charles L. Briggs, who had been head clerk for years, took over the lease in a valiant but hopeless endeavor to save the old hostelry.  Five years later, on October 13, 1898, The Sun reported, "To-day the solitary tenant of the building is George, the old porter, who for nearly a quarter of a century has been employed in the house."  The newspaper lamented, "In any other city than New York it would probably survive to-day with its former prosperity, the resort of just the sort of persons who frequented it in the past.  But the times change and people change with them more rapidly here, and the Clarendon...has been deserted by its patrons for the more fashionable and more modern hotels uptown."  The article reminisced, 

That seven Ministers of foreign Governments slept one night in the hotel was one old boast of its manager...The aristocracy of genius went there as well.  Adelaide Ristori stopped there on her visits to this country, and so did Brignoli, Carolotta Patti, and Etelka Gerster.  Adelaide Neilson, the actress, and Christine Nilsson, the singer, were regular guests of the hotel, and when Helen Modjeska first came from San Francisco to try her fortunes here, it was at the Clarendon that she lived.

The Clarendon Hotel survived, vacant, until 1909.  Developer Henry Corn had purchased it a year earlier and on September 15, 1909, the Record & Guide reported that the venerable structure "is to be torn down and immediately replaced with a 20-story high-class office building of the best type."  Named the Clarendon Building and designed by Maynicke & Franke, it survives.

photograph by Byron Company,  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

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The 1883 James Clark Abrams House - 146 West 130th Street

Real estate developer Samuel O. Wright completed three brownstone fronted houses at 146-150 West 130th Street in 1883.  The identical homes were three stories tall above English basements and 18-feet wide.  Designed by Cleverdon & Putzel, their ambitious neo-Grec design included architrave window surrounds, the lower portions of which were incised to suggest fluting, and bold bracketed cornices.  The stoop and areaway were guarded by beefy cast iron railings and newels crowned with commanding finials.  The engaged Tuscan columns that flanked the double-doored entrance upheld a forceful entablature and molded cornice.  Here the architects dipped into the Queen Anne style with a row of playful sunburst designs.

In July 1882, while construction was ongoing, James Bogert purchased 146 West 130th Street for $14,500 (about $446,000 in 2024 terms).  He advertised it for sale on January 16, 1890 for $16,500.  It was purchased by Robert O'Neill Ford and his wife, the former Sophie Eliza Darling.

Ford was born in Pennsylvania in 1840.  He joined the U. S. Marine Corps at the onset of the Civil War and on April 1, 1862 was appointed a second lieutenant.  President Abraham Lincoln and Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the Navy, signed his commission.

Robert O'Neill Ford gave this photograph of himself in uniform to Sophie while they were still courting.  On the back is inscribed "R.O.N.F. for S.E."  from the collection of The Henry Ford.

Sophie Eliza Darling was born in New York City in 1843, the daughter of William Augustus and Eliza M. Lee Darling.  Her wealthy father was the president of a railroad and the Appraiser of the Port, a highly sought-after and well-paying commission.  Only months after the end of the war, on November 8, 1865, she and Robert were married.  They had three children, O'Neil Ford, born in 1867; Clarence Darling, who arrived the following year; and Robert Edwin, who was born in 1874.

On March 4, 1893, three years after moving into the 130th Street house, Sophie died at the age of 50.  The New-York Tribune announced, "Funeral services will be held at her late residence, 146 West 130th-st., on Tuesday, March 7th, at 4 p.m."

The house was sold one year later almost to the day, on March 6, 1894, for the equivalent of $676,000 today.  It became home to another Civil War veteran, Major James Clark Abrams, and his wife, the former Sarah Caroline Russell.  James and Sarah were married on October 4, 1871 and had four children, Robert Russell, Harold B., Marion, and James Clark.  

Born in Hudson, New York in 1841, Abrams enlisted in the Seventh Regiment on October 8, 1860.  It was the preferred regiment for the sons of millionaires, earning it the nickname "The Silk Stocking Regiment."  He served throughout the Civil War.  The New York Times later recalled, "He often spoke of the Baltimore riots, in which the first blood of the war of the rebellion was shed, and also saw service during the draft riots and during the Orange troubles."  (The "Orange troubles" referred to the Orange Riots in Manhattan in 1870 and 1871, a bloody conflict between Protestant and Catholic Irish immigrants.)  

Abrams remained active in the Seventh Regiment and on May 22, 1893 he was promoted to major.  Around the same time, he was invited to the White House where President Grover Cleveland awarded him a diamond cross.  In stark contrast to his military presence, in civilian life Abrams was a dentist.  

In 1900, laborers upstate agitated for higher pay and better work conditions.  Their protests turned to riots and they threatened to blow up the the Croton Dam.  The Seventh Regiment was deployed there in April.  Abrams, now 60 years old, caught what The New York Times described as "a severe cold."  He never recovered and nearly a year later, on March 10, 1901, he died.  The Baltimore Sun called him, "one of the best known officers of the National Guard of the State," The New York Times adding that "for the past forty years [he] had been a prominent figure in National Guard circles."

Following Abrams's death, Sarah's brother Robert Russell, moved into the house.

On March 10, 1906, Sarah announced the engagement of Marion to Harold Thorndale Birnie.  The wedding was held in the drawing room on March 27.  The New York Herald reported, "Following the ceremony, which will be witnessed by relatives and intimate friends, there will be a reception."

There would be two more Abrams funerals in the house.  Robert Russell died on January 9, 1909, and Sarah Caroline Abrams died on July 12, 1916.

The Abrams children leased 146 West 130th Street to Cornelia M. Andrews.  She was the widow of John R. Andrews, a member of the jewelry firm Tiffany & Co.  In the fall of 1918, Cornelia visited her cousin, Mrs. Wilfred J. Funk, in Montclair, New Jersey, were she died on November 10.

When the estate of Sarah Caroline Abrams sold 146 West 130th Street in February 1922, the demographics of the neighborhood had greatly changed.  Harlem, whose only black presence had been domestic staff at the turn of the century, was now the epicenter of Manhattan's black community.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide mentioned that the new owner of the Abrams house had purchased it "for investment."

Like most of the homes along the block, 146 West 130th Street was operated as unofficial apartments.  It played an important part in black culture when, according to the 1991 Literary New York, A History and Guide,  LeRoi Jones founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School in the house around 1965.

A major figure in black culture, LeRoi Jones was a poet, dramatist, and author.  He changed his name to Amiri Baraka in 1965 following the assassination of Malcolm X.  Known as BARTS, the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School was the first of its kind.  According to historian Rachel Horowitz, "The FBI were present at initial meetings and classroom discussions, including educational lectures on African-American history."  Although the school remained opened here for only about a year, it prompted the establishment of similar institutions throughout the country.

A renovation completed in 2006 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floor, and one apartment each on the upper floors.

photographs by the author

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The Robert Laird House - 228 East 10th Street

 

Tenth Street, as laid out on the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, ran through the 86-acre estate of Henry Brevoort.  It was not until after his death in 1841 that elegant homes began rising along the quiet thoroughfare.  By the late 1850s, real estate agent John Rogers lived in the newly built brick house at 75 Tenth Street (renumbered 228 East 10th Street in 1868).

Rogers's Greek Revival home was 25-feet-wide and three-and-a-half stories tall above an English basement.  It would originally have had a sturdy brownstone frame around the entrance, simple stone lintels atop the openings, and an unassuming cornice above the squat attic windows.  Rogers ran his business from the house, possibly in the basement level, as reflected in a panicked announcement in the New York Herald on October 31, 1861:

Lost--A rent book, showing the payments of rents; is of no use to no one but the owner.  By leaving it at the office of John Rogers, house agent, 75 Tenth avenue, a reward will be given.

At the time, another real estate agent named Robert Laird lived further east on Tenth Street.  The two most likely knew one another.  By 1868 Laird's family occupied the former Rogers home.  

The Lairds' summer home was in Irvington-on-Hudson.  They were there in July 1881 before their neighbors, the family of Police Captain McCullagh (who were also from New York City), had arrived.  On July 19, an enormous fire broke out "in what is called the horticultural building of Messrs. Lord & Burnhan," according to The Sun.  The fire spread rapidly, causing the newspaper to say, "If the wind had not changed suddenly yesterday morning it is probable that a good part of Irvington would have been burned."

As the flames threatened the McCullagh home, Laird jumped into action.  When the captain arrived from New York, "He found all his furniture in the street, and his friends, Mr. Robert Laird of Tenth street and Mr. John F. Dinkle of Irvington, exhausted by their labors in sweeping and sousing his roof."

Robert Laird died around 1881, and on February 23, 1884, The Record & Guide reported that his son, John, had sold 228 East 10th Street to Christian Hummel for $16,250 (about $521,000 in 2024 terms).  The following year, on March 21, 1885, the journal reported that Hummel had hired architect Frederick Jenth to "raise attic to full story."  Part of the renovation was the addition of sheet metal cornices over the windows and an up-to-date neo-Grec terminal cornice.

In 1887, Hummel provided bond for an 18-year-old delinquent, William Kurz.  On March 2, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Kurz, "who distinguished himself by jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge some months since, was rearraigned before Justice O'Reilly to-day, at Essex Market Court, New York.  He was arrested yesterday...for discharging three barrels of a revolver at Frances Rignacht, his mother."

When Mrs. Rignacht was told that her son faced a prison term, she refused to press charges.  "Christian Hummel, of 228 East Tenth street, who became bondsman for Kurz, surrendered the lad to Justice O'Reilly," said the article.  "Kurz is again in the Tombs."

In 1891, Charles Ruff and his wife, Maria, moved into the house.  Ruff was "a wealthy retired builder," according to The Sun.  Maria was his second wife.  His first wife (her sister) had died and the couple was married on on January 30, 1889.  Maria had been previously married, as well, and both had a child from their first marriages.  (Which, interestingly, now made the children both cousins and siblings.)

On July 16, 1895, The New York Times explained, "Their married life was full of trouble from the start."  Charles Ruff was extremely jealous, controlling, and both physically and mentally abusive.  His jealousy grew to obsession.  Constantly accusing Maria of flirting with men or, worse, being unfaithful, The New York Times reported, "Her husband said she might signal to other men if she was permitted to go near the windows, and to make assurance doubly sure on this score, he had all the window glass painted."

Maria told the courts he "would sprinkle flour all over the rooms and hallways of the house" at night.  He told her it would allow him "to detect any person who might enter [Maria's] room."  Charles imprisoned her in her bedroom at night.  The New York Times wrote, "he would keep a guard at night in her bedroom to watch her.  He would also bolt and double lock all the doors and windows of the room."

Finally, in August 1895, Maria had had enough.  She sued for separation.  The New York Times sarcastically reported that Ruff, "has an amiable habit, his wife says, of shooting at her, striking her on the head when the fancy seizes him, and indulging in other pleasant practices just to show that he is the head of the house."

The Sun reported, "she charges him with cruelty and abandonment.  She says that he has $125,000 in realty and $50,000 in personalty [i.e.,assets], from which he derives an income of $10,000 a year."  If Maria were correct, her husband's worth would equal just over 5 million in 2024 dollars.

But, as is often the case with domestic abuse victims, Maria returned to Charles.  Following his death in 1901, she inherited his estate, including 228 East 10th Street.  

The East 10th Street neighborhood had noticeably changed by then.  Once a refined residential enclave, it had filled with tenements and commercial buildings.  Within a few years of Maria Ruff's inheriting the property, the house was converted to apartments.  Additionally, the stoop was removed and a shop installed in the basement level.

Among the tenants in 1906 was Mrs. S. Schlomowitz.  Early on the morning of March 19, she woke to discover a thief in her room.  The feisty woman, "grappled with him, but he escaped through an open window, taking a $60 watch and chain."  Mrs. Schlomowitz reported the theft and it led to the discovery of a den of thieves next door.  Two days later, The New York Sun reported, "Three Italians named Giuseppe Rossi, Christopher Scimone and Joseph Clementi, all of 226 East Tenth street, were arrested yesterday."  In their rooms, "a quantity of jewelry, including three watches and a silver smelling salts bottle" were found.

By 1913, Italian businessmen were terrorized by the Black Hand, an Italian-American extortion group also known as La Mano Nera.  On October 19 that year, The New York Times titled a first-page article, "Police Strike a Telling Blow At Organized Bomb Gang," and noted that since the first of the year there had been 125 "bomb outrages" that resulted in two fatalities and 19 injuries.  The list included, "July 25--228 East Tenth Street bomb explosion in basement occupied by Dominick Quattrone as a confectionery store.  Paole Gerace caught running away."

Living upstairs at the time was Otto Mertel, a 30-year-old waiter.  Two months after the bombing, early in the morning of Christmas Eve, Mertel got into a fight with John Wood "on the sidewalk in front of Lena Hoberg's restaurant, No. 119 Third avenue," as reported by the Evening World.  Wood, who was 35 and a plumber, landed a knock-out blow to Mertel, sending him to the pavement and fracturing his skull.  Wood was arrested "about a block from the scene of the fight, deliberately walking away," and was charged with felonious assault.  Otto Mertel never returned to his room here.  He died at Bellevue Hospital.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Some time before mid-century, the building was painted white.  The East Village neighborhood experienced change again as the 20th century drew to a close.  On July 3, 2013, The New York Times reported that a "local family investor" had purchased the building, noting that it had two commercial spaces and nine apartments--"1 studio, 7 one-bedrooms and 1 three-bedroom."  At the time, Dieci, an Asian fusion restaurant was in the ground floor and the second floor office space was vacant.  In 2019, Tsukimi, a Japanese restaurant, opened in the lower level.

photographs by the author

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The William Delamano House - 17 Vandam Street

 

While Edgar Harriot and his extended family were involved in the building trade, he had a sideline and was also listed in directories as a baker.  During the flurry of building in Greenwich Village during the 1820s, Harriot erected several brick-faced houses on the block of Vandam Street between Varick Street and Sixth Avenues, including one for himself at 21 Vandam Street.  The houses sat upon land leased from Trinity Church.

Around 1825, he completed a mirror-image pair of homes at 15 and 17 Vandam Street.  Two-and-a-half stories tall, each was 25-feet wide.  Above high stoops, their handsome, single-doored entrances included wooden frames carved to mimic stone behind fluted columns.  The delicately leaded transoms were outlined by egg-and-dart molding.  

The original owner of 17 Vandam Street, Jonathan Bayley, died months after moving in.  An advertisement in The Evening Post on October 6, 1825, noted that it had a "43 years lease unexpired, free from ground rent," suggesting that Harriot had paid the land lease to Trinity Church years in advance.  The ad said, 

The house is roomy, 2 stories high, 6 fire places, lot 25 feet front and rear, and 113 feet deep, a stable for 5 or 6 horses in rear, and a carriage way between it and the adjacent lot.

When Harriet broke ground for a house on the vacant lot at 19 Vandam Street in 1826, the "carriage way" mentioned in the ad was preserved.  The stable would have to be shared, since it straddled the property line of the two homes.

Edgar Harriot sold the land lease of 19 and 17 Vandam Street at auction in January 1839.  The ad noted that the lease came "with the well built brick front house thereon...with the right to use 3 ft of the alley adjoining and sold with No. 19."  The ground rent was $65 per year--about $2,200 in 2024.

In the mid-1830s, 17 Vandam Street was home to John Freeman, and by 1840 it was home to Rebecca Seixas, the widow of Rev. Isaac B. Seixas, who had died the previous year.  Rev. Seixas had been the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel since 1828.  The couple had eight children, six of whom were still alive and at least one of whom, Hillel M. Seixas, lived here.  He was in the "segar" business on Nassau Street.  Rebecca took in a boarder, tailor James E. Hadden, who lived here at least through 1845.  

By 1851, artist William Delamano lived at 17 Vandam Street.  He specialized in painting stage scenery and panoramas from his studio at 468 Broadway.  When Hungarian statesman Lajos Kossuth arrived in New York in December 1851, he was met with a parade, a ball and receptions.  On December 8, The New York Times described "An immense allegorical painting, designed by Delamano, representing a tableau of Turkey defending Kossuth, and Russia and Austria vainly endeavoring to seize him."  Above it was the inscription "Welcome to the Head of Persecuted Patriots."

Delamano had just completed what might have been his most important commission, the Grand Panorama of London's World's Fair.  It was previewed at P. T. Barnum's Stoppani Hall on December 12, 1851.  The New York Herald reported, "The grand panorama of the 'World's Fair' was exhibited at this popular place last evening to the utmost satisfaction of a very large assemblage."  Barnum's advertisement described in vivid detail:

Monster work of art, the World's Fair; or, Mirror of the Exterior and Interior of the renowned Crystal Palace; bird's eye view of the Crystal Palace and the West End of London; the grand opening by Queen Victoria and the British Court; superb view of the whole nave, the nave in all its parts, the American division, the whole transept, the Agricultural court, with McCormick's famous American Reaper, and the yacht America, in her celebrated triumph off Cowes.

In reviewing the opening of Uncle Tom's Cabin at Barnum's Museum in November 1853, The New York Times wrote, "The scenery of this version of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is truly very beautiful.  The diorama of the Mississippi, supposed to be view from the deck of a steamer on her passage down, is a novel and pleasing idea...Delamano never acquitted himself before with so much striking ability."

William Delamano, too, took in boarders.  In 1852 they were Azariah Giffin and Louis Staudinger, both hairdressers; and in 1853 and '54 Solomon S. Kimball and Solomon Jr. boarded with the artist.  One was a bookkeeper, the other in the produce business.

In 1857, Delamano advertised, "To Let--Lower part of house 17 Vandam street--six rooms, rent $275."  The yearly rent would translate to about $825 per month today.  It was leased to the Frost family.  Jesse D. Frost was in the cement business, and William E. Frost was a real estate agent.

William Delamano left the Vandam Street house around 1864.  It then became a boarding house run by Electra Bielby, the widow of Charles Bielby.  Her daughter, Kate T. Beilby, was a teacher in Primary School No. 11 on Greenwich Street.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on November 13, 1870, was typical: "17 Vandam Street--A nicely furnished, large front room and hall bedroom; terms moderate."

The house saw a succession of owners who took in boarders.  The Moran family lived here in the mid-1870s.  Bridge Moran was the widow of Michael, and her son Peter, was in the fruit business.  

It was around this time that the attic floor was raised to full height.  The house next door at 19 Vandam Street was remodeled simultaneously, and almost assuredly by the same contractor.  In both cases the Flemish bond brickwork was carried on into the upper floors, and a continuous cornice now joined the two homes.

By 1878, another widow, Ellen Carrigan was here, taking in boarders.  Her son, John Carrigan Jr. was a butcher on Varick Street.  John's son, John W. Carrigan, died at the age of 31 on December 7, 1883.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.  The Carrigan family would remain in the house through 1892.

In 1893, William A. and Margaret Wilbur moved in.  William died that year on August 13 at the age of 79.  As had been the case over the years, Margaret, who was known as Mary to her friends, took in boarders.  

Among her first was young Walter F. McGinn.  In June 1892, Joseph Pulitzer had endowed the Board of Education with $100,000 "for the purpose of enabling deserving students who have been graduated from the grammar schools of the city...to prepare for and complete a college course," according to The New York World.  On September 1, 1893, the newspaper listed the "best twenty" students who had taken the examination for the scholarship.  Among them was Walter F. McGinn.

McGinn was still boarding with Mary Wilbur in 1903.  He used his rooms for private instruction.  An advertisement in The New York Times on March 11 that year read, "Stammers and ex-pupils of Stammering Schools wanted to join a society for practice and instruction.  W. F. McGinn.  17 Vandam St. N.Y."

The house continued to see boarders and roomers throughout the World War I years.  In 1924, there was a rapid turnover of buyers.  On July 17, the New York Evening Post reported that Zay Holland had sold it, noting "This is the third sale of this house by the same brokers since last week."

The quick resales may have been related to the condition of the house.  It was deemed an "unsafe building" by the Department of Buildings in 1926 and 1927.

At some point, 17 Vandam Street was converted to a two-family residence.  Outwardly, it is little changed since its attic level was raised to a full third floor in the years following the Civil War.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

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The 1869 Oswin O'Brien House - 128 East 37th Street

 

Prolific architect John G. Prague, who would design hundreds of Manhattan rowhouses before the 1890s, was hired in 1868 by speculative developer and carpenter John Coar to design four upscale homes at 124 to 130 East 37th Street.  Faced in brownstone, they rose four stories above English basements.  Prague's Second Empire design included slate-shingled mansards, nearly obligatory to the style.

The row was completed in 1869.  Oswin J. and Elizabeth G. O'Brien purchased 128 East 37th Street.  The couple had a son, Oswin Jr.  Born in 1826, Oswin Sr. was a stockbroker and member of the New York Stock Exchange.  Additionally, around 1864 he opened "The Palace" department store at the corner of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue.

The O'Brien family sold 128 East 37th Street in 1873 to William Adams Walker Stewart and his wife, the former Frances Loring Gray.  Stewart was a wealthy lawyer.  He would be lost at sea when his yacht, Cythera, disappeared during a  voyage to the West Indies in March 1888.  Eight years before that tragedy, he and Frances sold 128 East 37th Street to his massively wealthy father, John Aikman Stewart, for $17,000 (about $523,000 in 2024).

Born on Fulton Street on August 26, 1822, John A. Stewart was married to Sarah Youle Johnson.  He had served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War.  Now he was president of the United States Trust Company and a director in several banks and insurance companies.  He and Sarah, who lived almost directly across the street at 125 East 37th Street, apparently purchased the house for their daughter, Emily, and son-in-law, Robert Waller, Jr.

In June 1882, John Aikman Stewart hired architect James Brown Lord to enlarge the Waller's house by adding a two-story extension to the rear.  It is unclear exactly how long Emily and Robert Waller remained here, but the house was occupied by the aristocratic Van Vleck family by 1889.

Walter Van Vleck was described by the New York Herald as "the dashing sergeant major of the Ninth regiment."  At the Regiment Ball in 1889, 17-year-old Minnie Ahearn caught Van Vleck's eye.  The New York Herald described her as being,

...tall for one of her years, with a fine, well developed figure and might easily pass for a maiden of twenty-five.  Her dark, heavy eyebrows and rich brown hair could attract attention anywhere, while her beautiful eyes and well rounded face have caused many a gallant masculine heart to flutter on the West side since she has been living on Twenty-sixty street with her aunt and guardian, Mrs. Margaret Higgins.

Margaret Higgins kept a close rein on her ward.  But the 40-year-old bachelor and his new sweetheart managed to communicate by love letters sneaked back-and-forth via a young girl.  The romance came to a climax on January 13, 1890, when Minnie Ahearn and Walter Van Vleck both disappeared.  

A week later, with the couple still missing, The Press pointed out the social differences between them.  "Love laughs at locksmiths and scorns all the artificial distinctions of rank, wealth, birth and breeding.  It is, however a long time since Love, the leveler, has shown himself so thoroughly democratic as in the probable elopement of Walter Van Vleck of 128 East thirty-seventh street with Minnie Ahearn of 204 West Twenty-sixth street."  The New York Herald wrote, 

At the residence of the Van Vleck family all was excitement yesterday.  Walter had been telegraphing to his two sisters and mother nearly every day during the week to make excuses for various engagements to dinner parties, &c., for him.  Members of the family are greatly shocked over the affair, because the young lady in the case does not move in the same fashionable set nor in society at all for that matter.

It was later confirmed that the two unlikely lovers had married.

By 1900, John Aikman Stewart was leasing 128 East 37th Street to the John Jay White family.  White and his wife, the former Virginia Grace Hoffman, had a teenaged daughter, Louise Lawrence White.

Interestingly, when the house was leased for winter social season of 1900-1901, the New-York Tribune did not mention Louise's parents.  The article on December 9, 1900 read, "Mr. and Mrs. Lester del Garcia have taken No. 128 East Thirty-seventh-st. for the winter.  It is the home of Miss White."

On May 10, 1903, The New York Times reported on the engagement of Louise to Walter Lispenard Suydam, Jr., saying, "The extreme youth of the couple neither being over eighteen years of age, gives it a touch of the romantic."  The article noted, "The attendants selected are related to nearly all the old Knickerbocker representative branches, including the Suydams, the Lispenards, the Delafields, the Lydigs, the Mesiers, the Hoffmans, the Jays, and a score of others."

Walter Lispenard Suydam.  Portraits of the Presidents of the [Saint Nicholas] Society, 1835-1914 (copyright expired)

Indeed, the couple was so young that on January 28, 1904, in reporting that Louise "gave one of a series of days at home," The New York Times mentioned that she "was Miss White, and she and Mr. Suydam were married last Summer.  Mr. Suydam was then still at college, and his wife had not made her debut in society."

The Suydams appeared in the society columns repeatedly over the next few years.  The couple welcomed a baby girl, Louise Lispenard, in June 1905.  Tragically, she died on January 24, 1906, at the age of six months.

Two years later, Louise had a brush with death.  On February 15, 1907, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Walter L. Suydam, Jr., who is in town for the Winter at her home, 128 East Thirty-seventh Street, is seriously ill with typhoid fever."

The Suydams remained here until 1909 when the 11-room, two-bath house was sold.  The couple's marriage would end tragically two years later.  In 1911, Louise left Walter for the 22-year-old son of a Brooklyn plumber, Frederick Noble.  They were married in January 1912.  A month later, on February 5, The New York Times ran the headline, "Dies With Youth She Eloped With / Suicide by Gas Ends Romance of Young Noble and the Former Mrs. Suydam."  The article said that their short marriage was troubled, and surmised that Louise discovered she was still in love with Walter.  The two committed suicide together.

In the meantime, the 37th Street house was purchased jointly by Alexander Stewart Walker and Leon Narcisse Gillette, partners in the architectural firm of Walker & Gillette.  They converted the upper floors to apartments and installed their offices in the lower floors.  An advertisement in The New York Times on April 23, 1911 offered, "Two Apartments, 128 East 37th Street, 3 and 4 rooms and bath."

Walker & Gillette was a highly respected firm which, at the time, was mostly responsible for lavish country homes and New York City townhouses.  Among the residences they designed from 128 East 37th Street were the 1914 Warren M. Salisbury estate in Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the 1917 Henry P. Davison mansion at 690 Park Avenue; and Coe Hall in Oyster Bay, Long Island, erected between 1918 and 1921. 

Walker & Gillette occupied 128 East 37th Street through 1926.  In the 1930s, the house was owned and occupied by well-known stage designer, Norman Bel Geddes and his partner, George Howe.  Bel Geddes was described by The New York Times as "a brilliant craftsman and draftsman, a master of style, the 20th century's Leonardo da Vinci."

In 1936, Bel Geddes designed the "Metropolis City of 1960."  It, perhaps, landed him the job that year of assisting production designer William Cameron Menzies in fabricating the sets for the H. G. Wells science fiction film, Things to Come.

Not everything was so positive for Bel Geddes in 1936.  That year on August 21, the Elmhurst, New York Daily Register reported that Edna Buckler had filed a $2 million lawsuit claiming that the play Dead End was "a plagiarism from her play entitled 'Money.'"  The article said she was suing the play's author, Sidney Kingsley; its producer, Norman Bel Geddes; Random House, which published the drama; and Samuel Goldwyn, who bought the film rights.

A scalloped, arched entranceway was created after the removal of the stoop.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1940, following Bel Geddes's sale of the house, it was converted to apartments.  The stoop was removed and a rather dramatic entrance created at the former English basement level.  Otherwise, the exterior was little changed.

At some point the entrance framing was removed.  There are four apartments in the house today, including three duplexes (two of which share the third and fourth floors).

photograph by the author

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The 1923 Holy Name House - 214 West 97th Street

 

photo by Wurts Bros, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In August 1868, the first service was held in the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus.  The wooden building sat at what would become the northwest corner of Broadway and 96th Street.  At the time, the district was, according to The Catholic Church in the United States of America in 1914, "a region of vacant lots, with here and there a suburban cottage, while the majority of the inhabitants were squatters who supported themselves by tilling small pieces of ground around their huts."

Notwithstanding its humble beginnings, the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus thrived, and by the end of World War I engulfed the Broadway blockfront from 96th to 97th Street with an impressive stone church and a substantial school building.  In April 1923, Architecture and Building called the Church of the Holy Name "one of the largest parishes in New York City."

Two years before that article, the Holy Name Roman Catholic Church Society had hired architect Raphael Hume to design a recreational building at 214 West 97th Street, adjoining the school.  Hume's career included several structures for the Roman Catholic Church, including the Church of St. John and St. Mary in Chappaqua, New York; and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Hackensack, New Jersey.  Pope Pius XII would make him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory in 1948. 

The Holy Name House was completed in 1923.  Hume took inspiration from Sicilian Romanesque structures, facing it in variegated red and gray Flemish bond brick.  The doorway, recessed within a large arch supported by clustered columns with Medieval capitals, was surmounted by an intricate tympanum.  Along with a large eagle, it was carved with scenes of boys playing tug-of-war and other activities.  Three double-height arches dominated the third and fourth floors, and the projecting tiled roof was supported by a row of complex brackets.

Architecture and Building called it, "a new venture, the success of which will lead many others in its wake."  The article explained, 

Heretofore the Church, the first consideration in the parish life, has been supplemented by its parish school building.  Now as a further center of parish activity to provide for the entertainment and physical welfare of all of its members there is added to the church group a recreational building which offers to old and young all that the name implies.

The Auditorium.  Architecture and Building, April 1923.

On the ground floor was an auditorium capable of seating 300 people to be used for lectures and meetings, as well as dances and fairs.  Architecture and Building said, "In the second story is the fully equipped gymnasium occupying a space 35 by 90 feet.  The roof provides a children's playground of the same size."  In the basement was a swimming pool, "with shower baths and locker rooms."  The article noted, "There is a water purifying system for the pool."

Alternating patterns of brickwork fills the spaces between the cornice brackets (which also alternate in design). 

While many church-run clubs focused on the boys of the neighborhood, the Holy Name House was equally welcoming to girls.  On July 1, 1925, the Daily News reported on the upcoming Women's Open Swimming and Diving Meets to be held at the Starling Amusement Park.  The article mentioned, "Up at Holy Name House, 214 West 97th st., Miss Christine Murray is looking to the laurels of her girls.  The Holy Name girls are not going to be caught napping.  Margaret Donovan and Mary Frisby are two of her bright youngsters who have their eyes on the prize."

The gymnasium (top) and swimming pool.  Architecture and Building, April 1923

The auditorium was sometimes the scene of neighborhood dances.  On September 23, 1930, The New York Sun reported that The Commerce Catholic Clubs and the Newman Clubs of several schools would be holding monthly dances, the first of which would take place here.  "Music will be furnished by the C0-Ed Jazz Pirates, an organization composed of former Commerce-Julia Richman students."

Mayor John P. O'Brien was here on January 8, 1933 to officially start the Holy Name Club's annual "novice road run."  Individuals and groups came from as far as Long Island vying for six silver cups and medals awarded to the leading individuals, and a trophy and five medals for teams.

In April 1960, the auditorium was the scene of the Veterans' Sports Night hosted by the Father Duffy Post D.S.C. No. 54 of the Catholic War Veterans.  The Irish American Advocate anticipated it would be "the biggest and greatest night of them all," saying, "The place will be jammed with world champions in the various fields of sport."

Starting in 1978, the American Folk Theater used space for its productions.  On April 8, 1981, The New York Times reported, "The American Folk Theater is in its third year as an Off Off Broadway company that is multiethnic and devoted to presenting theater by American talent, onstage and backstage."

Starting in 1990, the parish was under the administration of the Franciscans.  The Holy Name House was renamed the Franciscan Community Center.  Among the services provided are "the Sandwich Line," which in 2024 served 450 lunches a week to the needy.

photographs by the author

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The Lost Boreel Building - 113-119 Broadway

 

Real Estate Record & Guide, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)

Born in 1813, Sarah Astor was the daughter of John Jacob and Sarah Cox Todd Astor.  When she married Robert Boreel in 1842, her father transferred title to the former City Hotel (by then being used as an office building) on the western blockfront of Broadway between Thames and Cedar Streets.  

Purchased by John Jacob Astor in 1828, the City Hotel had operated since 1794.  Old New York Yesterday & Today, 1922, (copyright expired)

More than three decades later, on July 13, 1878, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Stephen Decatur Hatch had filed plans for a seven-story "brick and iron office building" on the site for Sarah Boreel.  Hatch projected the cost of construction at $270,000 (about $8.5 million in 2024).

An article in The American Architect and Building News on January 4, 1879 discussed the effect of elevators on Manhattan buildings, saying, "with the general use of elevators people would be just as willing to have offices in the seventh or eighth story as in the first."  As an example, it pointed to the Boreel Building "in the process of construction."  It said, "This has a high basement, high enough for handsome offices, a lofty first story suitable for a bank or insurance company, and five stories above that.  It is a large building, and will use four elevators."

Construction was completed in May 1879.  Stephen Decatur Hatch's neo-Grec structure sat on rusticated stone piers.  Its stone-framed Broadway entrance extended into the second floor.  The central bay was topped with a prominent pediment.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in stone, it was the largest office building in New York and, according to William Harrison Bayles in his 1915 Old Taverns of New York, "was considered the finest building devoted to office purposes in the city."  

The four Otis elevators rose within an open atrium lighted by a glass skylight.  On November 2, 1889, Building described, "three floors with galleries surrounding an open court, upon three sides of which offices are located, which are reached by an elevator, as well as by stairways."

Visitors peer over the railings into the atrium.  (original source unknown)

While attorneys and other professionals leased space in the Boreel Building, it quickly became known as the center of Manhattan's mining stock brokers.  Only a year after the building opened, however, things looked bad for them.  On August 2, 1880, The Sun reported,

The mining business seems to be gone, so far as New York is concerned.  The "Regulation hat" has departed from among us.  The halls of the Boreel building are as empty as those of Tara.  The cheery voice of the honest miner is no longer heard asking the elevator boy to let him out at "bed rock," as he facetiously called the ground floor.

The crisis resulted in those "honest" mining brokers in the Boreel Building being replaced by frauds.  As an example, on July 23, 1881, The Record & Guide pointed to "the most unfortunate operator that ever came to New York," George Roberts.  Having made a fortune in California, Roberts sought to enlarge it here.  "But Mr. Roberts, in coming to New York, found himself a lamb among the wolves," said the article.  It listed several transactions in which Roberts had been fleeced, adding, "And now it is understood the the same swindling scoundrels who have treated Mr. Roberts so badly with Huskill, Freeland, Chrysolite, Little Chief, Robinson, Iron Silver and the State Line Mines, are trying to get him into a Mexican mining scheme."

Illustrated New York City and Surroundings, 1889 (copyright expired)

The following year, on May 27, 1882, the Real Estate Record reported on the lawsuit of an investor named Badeau's against several Boreel Building brokers.  He claimed he had been swindled in a deal involving two mines, the Washington and the Bradshaw.  The Real Estate Record agreed, saying, "The $600,000 extracted from mining people by that deal was as clear a steal as any pickpocketing operation ever performed."  The article declared, "They are held responsible, and very justly, and if the $600,000 can be recovered, it will do much to help depopulating the Boreel building of the mining swindlers who are now, it is said, making it their headquarters."

And, indeed, before long most of the mining brokers were gone, replaced by insurance and real estate offices.  The 1887 How to Know New York City advised that the Boreel Building was "filled with offices, largely of famous and powerful insurance companies."

In 1885, rentable, fireproof vaults were installed in the basement of the building.  On October 10, the Record & Guide explained they could be rented for from $15 to $75 per year.  "The smallest of these are 5x6 and 8 feet high, and are especially suitable for family silver, gold plate, books, papers and articles of a bulky nature...The burglar alarm system is used whereby no door can be opened without immediate detection."

By 1888, New Yorkers' confidence in elevators was well established.  Emphasizing elevator safety, on June 20, The Evening World commented, "Patrick Phillips, Eddie Clarkson, John Trainor and Eddie Kasteen take hundreds of lawyers and railroad men up and down in the Boreel Building elevators every day, and have never had an accident."

Sarah Boreel died in 1895 and six years later her estate sold the Boreel Building to the Central Realty Bond and Trust Co. "for a price said to be not far from $2,225,000," as reported by the Real Estate Record & Guide on February 23, 1901.  (That figure would translate to about $82.3 million today.)  In a separate article, the journal predicted, "No doubt some time within the next few years the Boreel Building, itself only a little over twenty years ago one of the best of its kind, will be superseded by a building over twenty stories high."

Indeed, the following year, on May 3, 1902, the Record & Guide reported that the George A. Fuller Construction Co. had purchased the property.  The firm "will improve the site with a 25-story office building, which it is estimated will cost $2,500,000," said the article.  The secretary of the Fuller firm told the Record & Guide, "that operation is two years off."

At the time of the sale, the Boreel Building (right) was separated from the Trinity Building by narrow Thames Street.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In the meantime, a month after that article, the Record & Guide noted that well-known architect Henry Ives Cobb had moved his practice from Washington D. C. and "has leased a large suite of offices on the top of the Boreel Building."

But the inevitable came to pass in 1905.  On March 25 the Record & Guide reported, "The old Boreel Building...has begun to yield to the wreckers' axes, and though partly occupied and not apparent from Broadway, still in the rear it may be seen that the partitions and inside walls are being torn out."

Nine months later, the publication headlined an article, "Farewell to the Boreel Building" and said, "in a few days the last of the debris will have been carted away."  The journalist recalled, 

The Boreel was one of the first of the type of really large fireproof office buildings in the city, and one of the first of those whose construction was influenced by the perfecting of passenger elevators.

The Boreel Building was replaced by the 1907 United States Realty Building, designed by Francis H. Kimball.

from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com