The family of Mayer and Fannie Baum lived in the new house at 210 East 72nd Street as early as 1877. One of a long row of neo-Grec style houses, it was clad in brownstone and rose three stories above an English basement. Beefy cast iron newels and railings flanked the stoop. The architrave surrounds of the windows mimicked that of the entrance, with prominent cornices and geometric brackets.
Mayer dealt in downtown real estate. He and Fannie had eight children--seven sons and a daughter. Among them was Samuel who enrolled in the introductory class of the Commercial Course at the College of the City of New York in 1877 when he was 13 years old. Samuel would go into the jewelry business, while his brother David became a real estate operator like his father by 1888. (The Baums' neighbors on the opposite side of the street by the early 1890s were Mayer's sister, Yette Friedman, and her family.)
On the night of March 16, 1894, Samuel, now 30, went drinking with 24-year-old George Adams, who lived next door at 208 East 72nd Street. Neither would return to their homes for a period.
At 5:00 the next morning, the pair stumbled into the Lenox Café, a saloon at 72nd Street and Third Avenue. According to the bartender, Angelo Blanco, they demanded free drinks. When he refused, one of them hurled a bottle at him. The Evening Post reported, "The bartender then rang for the police. This angered the two men and they began to hurl missiles." In response, Blanco pulled out a revolver and fired five shots. Samuel Baum was shot in the hip and George Adams in the shoulder. They were taken to the Presbyterian Hospital. All three men were arrested. In the Yorkville Police Court later that morning, Baum and Adams "asserted that they were assaulted by the bartender," said the article.
The family's name was in the newspapers for more positive reasons in the fall of 1896. Daisy Baum was married in the parlor to Martin Rothschild.
Mayer Baum died on March 7, 1904. Still living with Fannie at the time were (at least) sons Samuel, Irving, Alexander and Albert. Samuel died here, still unmarried, at the age of 45 on February 10, 1909. The following month, the family sold 210 East 72nd Street to John Byrns.
Interestingly, Alexander and Albert Baum remained in the house after the Byrns family moved in. Alexander would list his address here as late as 1914, by which time Albert was living on West 112th Street.
Born in Ireland in 1838, John Byrns arrived in America in 1849. His resume was diverse. He had been a director of the Fifth National Bank since 1891; was a director and treasurer of the Dry Dock, East Broadway & Battery Railroad Company; and president of the Master Plumbers' Association of the United States. He and his wife, Teresa A. Byrns had eight children--two sons and six daughters. The family's summer home was in Babylon, Long Island.
Son Chester J. Byrns was married to Mary B. Fitzgerald, the daughter of former Supreme Court Justice James Fitzgerald, in the newly-completed Church of St. Jean Baptiste on June 2, 1914.
John Byrns, Merchant Plumber and Fitter, January 10, 1927
Teresa Byrns died here on January 15, 1917. John and at least two daughters, Kathleen and Adelaide, remained in the East 72nd Street house. Kathleen was married to James Joseph Kirwin, Jr. in St. Joseph's Church in Babylon, New York on June 20, 1925. The Brooklyn Times Union reported that the reception was held "at the country place of the bride's father."
John Byrns died at the age of 89 on January 2, 1927. His funeral was held in St. Vincent Ferrer's Church, where Teresa's had been held a decade earlier.
The house became home to the Dr. Howard Gillespie Myers family. Myers was born in Port Byron, New York in 1862. He married Marie Antoinette Darwood (who went by her middle name) on July 30, 1890. The couple had four children, Darwood Gillespie, Dorothy Kenyon, Constance, and Beatrice--all of whom were married but Beatrice. Dr. Myers had been an active member of the Prohibition Party.
The population of 210 East 72nd Street increased by one following Beatrice's wedding to David H. Houghtaling on January 10, 1930. The Columbia Alumni News reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Houghtaling will live at 210 East Seventy-second Street, New York City."
Dr. Howard Gillespie Myers died on September 12, 1935 at the age of 73. The house became home to the Schneider family the following month, and to John and Dede Farrelly in the 1950s.
The row was intact as late as 1941. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Patrons of the arts, the Farrellys became acquainted with aspiring Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh. In her Patrick Kavanagh, A Biography, Antoinette Quinn writes:
Even after he had his own apartment, Kavanagh spent much of the day with the Farrellys, who lived about ten blocks away at 210 East 72nd Street. Their expensive east side home was a stopover for poets, especially the Beat poets.
Publisher Jay Landesman, according to Quinn, recalled, "long nights at Didi's [sic] with George Barker, Ginsberg, Corso, and Orloswki."
The Farrellys separated around 1958. The 72nd Street house became home to Dr. Robert C. Sorensen and his wife, the former Marjorie Mattson. Their son, David Woodrow Mattson, was born on June 3, 1964. Dr. Sorensen's brother, Theodore C. Sorensen, was a special adviser to President John F. Kennedy.
The last intact house of the row, 210 East 72nd Street has an apartment in the basement level, but remains a single family home on the main three floors.
photographs by the author
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