The Joseph Upham Orvis House - 140 East 34th Street

 

Born in Granville, New York on November 3, 1816, Joseph Upham Orvis traced his American roots to George Orvis, who lived in Farmington, Connecticut as early as 1652.  Joseph began working at the age of 16 in his uncle's dry goods store in Manchester, Vermont.  He relocated to New York City in 1854 and, after working in the mercantile business for four years, co-founded the Park Bank.  In 1864, he left that organization to organize the Ninth National Bank of New York, of which he was president.

It was about the same time that Orvis moved his family into a handsome home at 164 East 34th Street (renumbered 140 East 34th Street in  1868).  In 1864, he and his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Nazro, had six surviving children.  Four others had died (two of them, Helen Wells and George Herbert, a month apart in November and December 1859, respectively).  Living with the family was Joseph's widowed mother, Lucina Chipman Upham Orvis, known affectionately as Cina.  The Orvis family's country home was in Castleton-on-Hudson, New York.

Cina Orvis died at the age of 75 on April 17, 1867 and her funeral was held in the parlor the following afternoon.

By 1871, in addition to his presidency of the Ninth National Bank, Joseph U. Orvis was president of the Security Bank, a director of the Standard and Resolute Fire Insurance Companies, and chairman of the Finance Committee of the Union Dime Savings Bank.  The following year, he opened another private banking business with his son, Charles Eustis.  Joseph U. Orvis & Co. offered large loans to corporations.

The wedding of daughter Sarah Belle (who was known by her middle name) to Charles A. Hammond on May 18, 1881 was a socially visible affair.  Quiz: A Fortnightly Society Journal called it a "quite notable" wedding, adding, "After the ceremony there was a reception given by the bride's father, at his residence No. 140 East Thirty-fourth street."  

James Upton Orvis, A History of the Orvis Family in America, 1922 (copyright expired)

In March 1883, Joseph and Mary Orvis traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee with one of their daughters to attend a wedding.  Afterward, they "went to Florida to enjoy a short visit," according to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa newspaper, The Gazette.  On the way, Orvis contracted a severe cold.  He died in Palatka, Florida on March 30, 1883.

Mary Orvis purchased a newly-built house on West 81st Street from developer Samuel Colcord in February 1887.  As part of the transaction, she sold 140 East 34th Street to Colcord for $31,500 (just over $1 million in 2024).

Colcord was leasing the house to the James L. Stewart family by 1894.  When he sold it to James J. Brown on August 1, 1896, the Stewarts remained on as tenants.  

Unlike the Orvis family, the Stewarts, while financially comfortable, were middle-class.  The couple had three sons, James, Jr., John and George.  James and John listed their occupations as machinists, and George worked in the bookbinding industry as a "stamper."

James J. Brown and his wife, Mary, were in financial trouble at the turn of the century.  The East 34th Street house was scheduled to be sold at foreclosure auction on December 10, 1901.  The Browns seem to have skirted the problem by a wily move.  Mary C. Brown sold the house to James Wilson, Jr., who transferred title back to Mary Brown a few months later.

In the meantime, at least one of the Stewart brothers had found a way to make significant income.  On April 5, 1903, The New York Times entitled an article "James Stewart Arrested."  The day before, a raid had been made on the Garfield Club, "an alleged poolroom."  (The term did not refer to billiards, but to illegal horse betting.  Telegraph wires transmitted the winners and losers directly into the poolroom.)  Over 100 patrons were in the club when the raid was made.  The article said, "James Stewart, known as 'Lightning Jim,' is said by Capt. Shire to be the ex-Republican leader of the district."  Stewart was 39 years old at the time.

The Stewart family left 140 East 34th Street shortly after the scandal.  The house became a boarding house.  By the fall of 1904, the changes in the once-refined residential street were reflected in Miss Fitzgerald's Bureau's occupying the basement level.  The employment agency placed domestics, as evidenced by an advertisement in The New York Times on October 29, 1905:  "Cooks, chambermaids, nurses, governesses, laundresses, waitresses; couples to do work of house; wanted immediately.  Miss Fitzgerald's Bureau, 140 East 34th St."

In April 1910, the Browns offered the house for rent, describing it as an, "Excellent location for business stores or boarding house; low rental; twenty years' lease may be obtained."  The ad was answered by millionaire socialite and activist Alva Erskine Vanderbilt Belmont.  Before she installed her Belmont Club in the house, Mary C. Brown made $5,000 in renovations for her.

The basement level, where Miss Fitzgerald's office had been, was leased to Herrmann's Seed Store.  Despite the misleading name, the society florist advertised regularly in publications like Club Women of New York, and would remain here into the Depression years.

Club Women of New York, 1914 (copyright expired)

Alva Belmont was present for the opening of the Belmont Club on December 2, 1910.  The New York Times explained, "The building was formerly a private house.  The basement is to be used for a store, and the main floor, which Mrs. Belmont has taken for her settlement, has large windows across the front.  There is a large extension to the lower floor, as all the rooms have been thrown into one, making a hall large enough to accommodate several hundred persons."

The article continued,

The front part of the house will be furnished for a sitting and writing room for the members, and the large hall will have tables along the sides of the walls, with hinges so that they may be let down when not in use and make room for the meetings which will be held there.

The Belmont Club was a multifaceted organization.  Operating here was the Belmont-Collegiate-Equality-Suffrage-League (which held a Christmas party for 2,000 children here in 1910); the Artist League of the Political Equality Association, which held exhibitions of art by women; and the Artists' Musical Branch of the Political Equality Association.

The indominable Alva Erskine Vanderbilt Belmont.  from the collection of the Library of Congress 

In addition, the parlor floor was transformed daily to the "suffrage lunchroom."  Businessmen in the neighborhood were welcomed, but they first had to become members of the suffrage organization.  The New York Times said, "Most of the things on the menu are 5 cents, with chicken 10 cents.  The variety will not be large, sandwiches, soup, coffee, tea, and milk being the staples."

The upper floors were leased as bachelor apartments (meaning they had no kitchens).  Rent in 1912 was listed at $30 to $45, furnished or unfurnished.  The price would translate to about $1,460 per month for the most expensive.

The Belmont Club moved to "Mrs. Belmont's new suffrage headquarters at No. 15 East 41st Street," as reported by the New-York Tribune, in September 1911.  The Southwestern Store took over the parlor level.  The shop sold Western articles, like Navajo rugs and Native American blankets.  An advertisement in The New York Times in November 1912, noted, "interior decorating of dens and corners a specialty."

As World War I raged in Europe, Herrmann's urged Americans to plant vegetable gardens.  An ad in May 1917 was headlined, "Do Your Bit--Raise food, raise plenty of it!"  Saying, "whenever you have a chance to lower the cost of production, make use of that chance," Herrmann's offered suburbanites wholesale prices.  "These prices are half of the regular ones," said the ad.  "They mean lots of labor and no profit for us.  But we are willing to do OUR BIT for the country."

Following Mary Brown's death in 1921, 140 East 34th Street, described as a "five story business building and apartments," was sold.  Six years later, architect Joseph J. Furman was hired to renovate it.  He removed the stoop, created a new storefront at street level (still home to Herrmann's), and remodeled the second floor to offices and a studio apartment.  The upper floors continued to hold kitchenless apartments.

The handsome Italianate window surrounds survived in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Herrmann's remained in the building at least through 1931.  Businesses came and went from the lower two floors throughout the 20th century.  In 2006, the Dumont Plaza Parfumerie, a beauty supply store, occupied the ground floor.  To the rear was Le Petite Spa, described by Suz's Spies--The Guide To Day Spas as offering, "body treatments, facials, makeup, waxing (for men and women), man/peds and massages."

The cornice with its especially pleasing fascia is unchanged since the Orvis family occupied the house.

Today there are nine rental apartments in the upper floors.  The ground floor, where society women purchased plants and bulbs for decades, is home to a Dunkin Donuts.

photographs by the author

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