On January 17, 1933, Louis Comfort Tiffany died in the hulking mansion he designed with Stanford White in 1882 at 898 Madison Avenue, at the northwest corner of 72nd Street. Three years later, the Manhattan landmark was razed by attorney John Thomas Smith to make way for a 16-story apartment building. Smith's motivation was not entirely selfish. According to family members decades later, he wanted to provide jobs to out-of-work construction workers during the ongoing Depression. Smith, who was general counsel and a vice president of General Motors Corporation, personally paid the $2.25 million (about $49.5 million in 2024) for the land and construction costs.
Smith hired Rosario Candela to design the structure, but, according to a grandchild who spoke to The New York Times journalist Christopher Gray in 1996, he "brought in Mott Schmidt to ride herd on Candela, who was thought too extreme, too Art Deco-y." If Smith, indeed, wanted to tone down Candela's streamlined style, his choice of Mott, whose haughty neo-Georgian mansions on Sutton Place oozed dignity and elegance, was perfect.
Completed in 1937, the Art Moderne style building sat on a three-story base with gently sculpted limestone ogee curves. Around the slightly recessed entrance, marble panels were carved with bas reliefs by Carl Paul Jennewein--seeming unrelated classical figures, flying putti, and various animals. The ten-story midsection was relatively unadorned, and the top floors stair-stepped upward to provide commodious terraces.
There were just 34 apartments in the building--20 of them duplexes which ranged from 7 to 13 rooms. Each of the 13 simplex apartments held 11 rooms. For John Thompson Smith's family there was a triplex apartment of 21 rooms. A decade later, builder Jesse J. Secoles recalled the apartments "have large, flat ceilings with elaborate cornices [and] fireplaces in their livings rooms and libraries." Rents ranged from $330 to $1,000 per month--equal to $7,000 to $21,200 today.
Among the initial residents were attorney Edward Baldwin Boies and his wife, the former Helen Chapell. The couple was married in 1914. Helen and her neighbors appeared in society columns for their upscale entertaining. On January 12, 1940, for instance, The New York Times announced, "Mrs. Edward B. Boies of 19 East Seventy-second Street will give a luncheon on Tuesday for Miss Sylvia Follett, a debutante of the season."
Carl Paul Jennewein's melange of images--like the dog and cat facing off on either side of the doors, and the putti flying about a compass rose--has puzzled architectural historians for decades.
Eleanor Grant Bosher Brewster and her daughter Frances were also early residents. Eleanor's husband, George Stepenson Brewster, had been of the largest shareholders of the Standard Oil Company, and a member of The Jekyll Island Club. It was on Jekyll Island that he died on March 11, 1936. The Brewsters' summer home was in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
On March 29, 1941, Eleanor announced Frances's engagement to R. Stewart Rauch, Jr. In reporting the event, The Brooklyn Citizen remarked that Frances "attended the Brearley and Foxcroft Schools and was introduced to society in Manhattan in 1933."
John Thomas Smith and his family summered in Southampton. The erudite businessman was fluent in German, Spanish and French and, according to family members, read Greek and Latin. He died in 1947 and two years later the Smith estate converted the building to co-ops.
The apartment of Arthur Wallace Pope and his wife, the former Josephine Marie Auguste, was the scene of the wedding of their daughter, Virginia Pope MacLean to Robert Bruce Dickson on September 9, 1964. Like Frances Brewster, Virginia had a privileged upbringing. The New York Times noted she "attended the Brearley School and was graduated from the Garrison Forest School. She attended Bradford Junior College, and was presented at the Junior League Ball." The at-home ceremony was somewhat understated because it was the second marriage of both parties.
Well-heeled residents in the second half of the century included N. Baxter Jackson and his wife, Judith Dohme. Jackson retired as chairman of the board of Chemical Bank in 1956, remaining on as a director until 1968. Born in 1891, his service in World War I earned him the Medal of Merit and his being named to the French Legion of Honor. He was a member of the committees that chose the sites for the United Nations in Manhattan and at Lake Success, Long Island.
Jack I. Straus, who lived here with his wife Margaret Hollister by the 1960s, was chairman of the executive committee of R. H. Macy & Co., Inc. and its former chairman and C.E.O.
Minot K. Milliken and his wife, Armene L., had five adult children. The treasurer and CFO of Milliken & Company, the largest privately owned textile company in the United States, he was, as well, a director of the National Distillers, Mercantile Stores, the Irving Bank of New York and the Union Pacific Railroad. For many years he was chairman of the board of the Boys Club of New York.
But it was Milliken's position as president of the co-op board that would land him in the national spotlight in 1979. When former President Richard M. Nixon and his wife, Pat, initially made a down payment on the nine-room penthouse owned by Robert A. Becker, there seemed to be no problem. The New York Times reported on July 28, "This apartment is said to include three master bedrooms and two servants' rooms." The article continued, "although the Nixons had not yet taken title, there appeared little doubt, 'barring a broken cup at the lip,' that Mr. and Mrs. Nixon would become residents of the building."
But as it turned out, there was a rub. Although the co-op board approved the Nixons' application, the other residents were not so quick. Milliken's letter informing them of their potential new neighbor sparked a return letter signed by 14 residents expressing their opposition. Simultaneously, according to The New York Times on August 3, "a lawyer representing several of the residents...had been in contact on several occasions with a lawyer for the former President, to let Mr. Nixon know that he faced opposition."
On August 2, 1979, Minot Milliken sent a new letter to the residents that read, "Please be advised that former President Nixon and Mr. Becker have agreed to cancel the contract relating to Mr. Becker's apartment. Mr. Becker's apartment is once again on the market."
In 1996, a $1 million exterior restoration was begun. It included roof replacement, repairs and cleaning of the limestone, and window replacement "at shareholder discretion," according to co-op president Cary Koplin. (Minot Milliken had died in November 1998.) Importantly, as John Thompson Smith had demanded in 1936, no commercial spaces were carved into the base in the renovations.
many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post
photographs by the author
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Doug Floor Plan
ReplyDeleteAs I recall news articles at the time -- the Nixons were rejected as residents at 19 East 72nd mostly because the existing residents did not want to have to deal with the security detail. They did not want to have their elevators commandeered and be stopped from entering their own lobby because the Nixons were there. They also did not want protests outside their building against the first president to resign in disgrace. Other presidents have also been challenged to find a home after leaving office because the neighborhood around them is suddenly part of a secure zone.
I wonder how this building would have looked if it were a Candela solo work!
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