image via douglaselliman.com
Attorney Daniel A. Baldwin erected an ambitious row of 16 brick-faced rowhouses in 1843 along the south side of West 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Each of the identical homes was three stories tall above a brownstone English basement. The doorway was framed in an earred stone frame that upheld an entablature and cornice. The "ears" were a popular design in domestic Greek Revival architecture (although their origins were, in fact, Egyptian). Floor-to-ceiling windows graced the parlor level.
It appears that 62 West 12th Street was initially rented. It was home to Edward Braun, an importer, in the late 1840s. His family was followed by Italian diplomat Rocco Martuscelli. He filled the house with French furniture and an exquisite art collection, detailed in an auction announcement in December 1852 as he prepared to return to Naples. It noted the paintings, "not to be found in this country" had been "selected at great expense." Included in the collection was Portrait of a Child by Van Dyke; a study for The Last Judgment by Michelangelo (for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), noted as "the only one in America;" and landscapes, battle scenes and portraits by other noted artists.
James M. Sloan and his wife, the former Mary Magdalena Safford, next occupied the house. Sloan was a partner in the drygoods firm of Gage, Sloan & Dater at 83 Chambers Street. He died here on November 24, 1856 and his funeral was held in the parlor two days later. Mary Sloan left soon afterward, and from 1857 through 1859, the residence was home to Joseph Park, Jr., a grocer on Sixth Avenue.
Finally, starting in 1860, the house had a long-term occupant. It was purchased by Reverend Edwin R. T. Cook. Living with him and his wife, Ann, was his widowed mother, Elizabeth. Edwin and Ann had at least three children, Philena, Anna, and Robert B. M.
Rev. Cook had organized the Episcopal parish of St. John the Evangelist. Having worshipped in a rented room for several years, in 1856 the congregation moved into the former Hammond Street Presbyterian Church, renaming it the Bishop Wainwright Memorial Church of St. John the Evangelist. The Churchman's Monthly Magazine mentioned, "we should judge that Mr. Cook might feel himself no more than justly rewarded by this pleasant change from the upper room in which he has been officiating, to a spacious and convenient temple."
On July 24, 1865, five years after moving into the West 12th Street house, Rev. Cook died. His funeral in the Wainwright Memorial Church "was attended by a large concourse of people," reported The New York Times on July 28, "among them a large representation of the clergy." The article said, "Many hundreds passed around the coffin to take a farewell look of a faithful and successful minister of the gospel."
Ann M. Cook lived on at 62 West 12th Street, taking in a boarder after the death of her aged mother-in-law. Living here in 1879 and '80, for instance, was Yoshinosuke Hasegawa, a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.
St. Johns Guild operated a Floating Hospital and a Seaside Sanitarium, which provided health care to impoverished New Yorkers. On March 27, 1883, the Canajoharie Courier reported that a local artist was working on a painting to be donated to a fair to benefit the two organizations "to be held at the residence of the late Rev. Edwin Cook, at No. 62 West 12th street, New York City, Wednesday, April 4th."
In the summer of 1887, the Cook house was one of four along the block that were burglarized. On August 30, the New York Evening Telegram said, "The people in West Twelfth street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, will be glad when Captain Brogan...unravels the mystery of the several burglaries." The reporter felt he knew who the perpetrators were. "The gang hangs out at the corner of Eleventh street and Fifth avenue."
In 1890, Ann Cook leased the house to William C. Field. Two years later, lecturer W. J. Colville lived here. On February 14, 1892, he spoke at Steinert Hall on "Evolution and Christianity" and, in the evening, on "The True Ideal of Marriage."
Ann Cook got long-term renters in Harvard graduate Daniel Paine Griswold and his wife. Like their well-heeled neighbors, the Griswolds maintained a country home. On November 10, 1895, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Paine Griswold have returned from Stockbridge, Mass, to their house, No. 62 West Twelfth street. Mrs. Griswold has been a great sufferer since her bicycle accident, and still has to use crutches."
The couple remained here until the spring of 1903. On May 30, that year, The New York Times reported that Robert Cook had sold the house after its having been in the family four decades. The buyer was the wealthy widow Mary Ann Chisholm, who maintained a summer home in College Point, Long Island.
Mary Ann Chisholm was 75 years old when she purchased the house. According to The New York Times, she had an annual income of $300,000 a year from railroad stocks and bonds, and Manhattan real estate. That figure would translate to a staggering $10 million in 2024.
Chisholm had four adult children, Benjamin Ogden, George E., Mary E. Schieffelin, and Margaret C. Hammersly. Despite their being financially comfortable on their own, she provided each an income of $1,000 per month. On April 11, George Chisholm, who was "a committee of her person and property," applied to increase her children's monthly allowances to $2,500, or nearly $83,000 in today's money.
Mary Ann Chisholm died in the West 12th Street house on May 21, 1913 at the age of 83. The New York Sun reported that she left an estate of $5.5 million--around $175 million today.
The Chisholm estate leased the house for decades, carefully vetting the tenants. An advertisement in the New York Evening Post in 1928, for instance, noted the 10-room, two-bath house was available to a "private family only."
The New School for Social Research began buying up houses along the block in the 1930s, including 62 West 12th Street. In 1954, it was converted to apartments, at which time the stoop was removed. Fifteen years later, it appeared that the end was near for the entire row. The New School for Social Research announced plans "to tear down all the houses from 50 to 62 West 12th Street in order to build educational facilities," reported The Villager on September 4, 1969. The article noted, "Tenants in the affected buildings plan to form a blockwide organization to demonstrate in front of the New School during registration." City Council member Carol Grietzer introduced a bill "which would prohibit the destruction of 'sound' residential structures."
photograph by the author
The protests worked and the vintage homes were saved. In 1985, a renovation to 62 West 12th Street returned it to a single-family home, at which time the stoop was refabricated. The interior remodeling left none of the Greek Revival details. It was purchased in 2013 by Robert Duffy, business partner of Marc Jacobs, for $10.25 million. He sold it in 2017 for $9.5 million, significantly below his $12 million asking price.
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