Agnes H. Moore took out an $18,000 mortgage on 268 West 91st Street in 1897. The recently completed house was one of a row of seven begun the previous year by developer James Frame and designed by Alexander Welch. Agnes was the wife of Elbridge J. Moore, and it was common at the time for the title of real estate to be placed in the name of the wives of well-to-do couples.
The Moores' new home was four stories tall and 18-feet wide. It was faced in gray Roman brick above the planar limestone base. The entrance was tucked behind two square columns that upheld a two-story bowfront culminating in a stone balustrade. Doric pilasters separated the three windows on the fourth floor.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Agnes Lawrence Hall Moore was the widow of John T. Walker. Moving in with her and Elbridge were her daughter from her previous marriage, Florence Le Baron Walker; and her mother, Urania Lawrence Hall. (Urania spoke proudly of having been the first person married at the newly built First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue in 1846.)
Agnes and Florence often appeared in the society columns together. On January 7, 1900, for instance, the New York Herald reported that Agnes "will be at home to her friends on Wednesdays throughout January. She will be assisted in receiving by Miss Walker."
Later that summer, on August 4, Brooklyn Life reported, "Mrs. Elbridge J. Moore and her daughter, Miss Florence H. Le Baron Walker, of West Ninety-first street, Manhattan, sail for Europe next Wednesday on the Oceanic, accompanied by Miss Walker's uncle, Bishop Walker...After traveling through England, they intend to visit the Paris Exposition and the Passion Play at Oberammergau."
The following year, the 91st Street house buzzed with the excitement of wedding plans. On October 26, 1901, Brooklyn Life reported that Florence would be married to Ernest Sayre Emanuel in fashionable St. Thomas's Church on Fifth Avenue on October 30.
Elbridge J. Moore walked his step-daughter down the aisle of the church that had been the scene of notable society weddings. The New York Times reported, "A reception followed at the home of the bride's mother, 268 West Ninety-first street."
At the time of the wedding, Agnes was vice-president of the Eclectic Club, founded in 1896. Club Women of New York described the club's broad interests, saying, "In all movements, whether literary, social, ethical, altruistic or philanthropic the interest and influence of the Eclectic Club will be found active. Although concerning itself with grave social problems and broadly active charities, yet the club does not neglect questions of literature and language, of taste and manners, while it prides itself also upon the high order of its musical entertainments."
In 1903, Agnes and Elbridge Moore moved to the Ansonia Apartments and sold 268 West 91st Street to Leo J. and Mary C. O'Donovan. Leo was a partner in the consulting engineering firm Reis & O'Donovan.
Living behind the O'Donovans at 271 West 90th Street in 1906 was another consulting engineer, Clinton H. Fletcher. At about 4:00 on the morning of June 1, he was awakened by a noise in the backyard. Looking out the window, he saw a man climbing over the fence into the O'Donovans' yard. He phoned police, then went back to the window to see the crook at his neighbor's basement window.
"There were heavy iron bars over the window," reported the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "and the burglar had to pick out the lead, in which they were set, before he could bend apart two of them and squeeze through." The man disappeared into the dark house. Police arrived just as the 30-year-old James Thompson was exiting the window carrying a sack of the O'Donovans' silver. A struggle ensued, during which one policeman was stabbed in the hand with a silver carving fork. The article said, "The burglar was well marked for identification by the nightsticks of the two officers, when they were through with him."
By 1911, the O'Donovans leased the West 91st Street house to George Washington Hill and his wife. Hill was an executive with the American Tobacco Co. (He would eventually become its president and chairman.)
George Washington Hill, from "Sold American!" The First Fifth Years, 1904-1954
While his wife was visibly social, perhaps none of her entertainments was more high-profile than the theater party and supper she hosted for Mary Lillian Duke, the daughter of Hill's multimillionaire employer, Benjamin N. Duke, and her fiancé, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. on May 17, 1915. The Newark, New Jersey Evening Star reported,
The Tapestry Room at Sherry's was reserved for the party. The decorations were entirely of white, relieved only by a gilded cage containing cooing turtledoves, which was hung near the entrance. The guests sat at a large open table and in the centre was a huge cake decorated with tiny electric lights and topped with a miniature bride and bridegroom. During the supper a travesty on the Biddle-Duke nuptials was shown in moving pictures, giving the humorous details of the preparation for the wedding and those who are to participate, much to the surprise of the guests.
That would be the last substantial entertainment given by the Hills while living here. On September 19, 1915, Mary O'Donovan placed an advertisement in The New York Times offering the house for rent (emphasizing three bathrooms) at $2,500 per year, or about $6,500 per month by 2024 conversion. The ad was answered by Geza D. Berko.
Berko was the founder and editor of the Hungarian-language newspaper Amerikai Magyar Nepszava and a leading figure in the Hungarian community. He and his wife had at least two daughters, Marguerite and Olga. The family had just moved in when Marguerite's engagement to Dr. Nicholas Galdonyi was announced. The following year, on October 13, 1920, the Berkos announced Olga's engagement to Peter Fleischer.
The family's affluence was reflected in Geza Berko's detailed wish-list for a country house on April 15, 1921:
Country Property wanted--9-10 room house, 2-3 baths, and garage, in good residential section, with some ground; must be in first-class condition; at most 40 minutes from New York; no seashore; state price. Berko. 268 West 91st st.
The O'Donovans' last tenant in the 91st Street house would be the Dugans. Emaline Dugan signed a lease in October 1922. By 1927, it was owned by doctors Emma Selkin-Aronson and Louis Aronson. The couple had two children, Arthur, who was 11 years old in 1927, and Agnes, who was four.
Born in 1888, Emma graduated from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1910, and was Attending Surgeon and Gynecologist at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and Associate Gynecologist at Bronx Hospital.
A psychiatrist and specialist in diseases of the brain and spinal cord, Louis Aronson was the adjutant neurologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital and attending neurologist at the Vanderbilt Clinic and the Bronx General Hospital. He, as well, instructed in neurology at Columbia University. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1904.
Around 1929, Louis Aronson took up sculpture as a pastime and became adept at portraiture. The New York Times said, "He was regarded as a good amateur and had exhibited his work at the New York Academy of Medicine. He was a member of the Physician's Art Club."
Dr. Louis Aronson suffered a fatal heart attack in the house on February 1, 1934. He was 52 years old. His funeral was held the following day at the Riverside Memorial Chapel on Amsterdam Avenue. Nine months later, Emma sold 268 West 91st Street to Frank J. Reineske for $26,000 (about $592,000 today), $7,000 less than its assessed value.
Reineske, who lived in Glen Rock, New Jersey, converted the house to apartments. It was renovated again in 1964, resulting in two apartments per floor and one in the new penthouse level, unseen from the street.
photographs by the author
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