Rosario Candela's 1941 44 East 67th Street

 

image via compass.com

In the autumn of 1940, the Millard Realty Corp. broke ground for a 12-story and penthouse apartment building on the site of four rowhouses erected about 75 years earlier.  A few months later, on February 15, 1941, The New York Sun noted, "The building has been designed by Rosario Candela, architect for many outstanding New York apartment houses during the past twenty years.  The apartments have been planned to meet present day trends in living accommodations."  The article described,

Each typical floor contains three, four and five-room arrangements, one of which is a four-room duplex.  Specially planned duplex apartments are on the eleventh and twelfth floors, having such features as terraces, open fireplaces, outside galleries, winding staircases and extra lavatories.  The penthouse has two three-room apartments with terraces on three aides.  A majority of the apartments on the upper floors have open fireplaces.

Candela's transitional design straddled the Art Deco and Art Moderne styles.  A two-story base supported ten floors of beige brick.  The entrance with its rounded, reeded corners, sat below a sinuous, offset canopy.  Rusticated brick spandrels within the central, upper section provided visual interest.  

The upper floors, with a variety of terrace shapes, created a sculptural appearance.  (original source unknown)

An advertisement in The New York Sun in the summer of 1941 touted, "Ideal 4-room Duplex Terrace Apartments--Rentals from $2900--featuring all modern conveniences."  Potential residents could chose among other options, like a 3-room apartment starting at $1560 and a 5-room suite starting at $2400 per year.  (The least expensive rent for a four-room apartment with terrace would translate to $5,000 per month in 2024.)

Just before the building opened, The New York Times reported on August 8, 1941 that seven more apartments had been rented, including one to Mrs. Evelyn Brenner.  Evelyn, who had divorced Herman Brenner in 1927, moved into a three-room apartment on the fifth floor.

Eleven years later, on the night of November 5, Evelyn Brenner went out with friends, returning around 3:00 the next morning.  In her absence, burglars had been busy.  The New York Times reported on November 5 that the thieves "escaped with thirty-seven pieces of jewelry estimated to be worth $47,000 and a mink stole valued at $2,000."  Among the items stolen was a platinum bracelet with 282 emeralds and diamonds.  (The total heist would equal about $562,000 today.)  

The serpentine canopy gives the ground floor added personality.  image via nynesting.com

Jeremiah L. Murphy and his wife Anastasia were neighbors of Evelyn Brenner.  The couple maintained a country home, White Hill Farm, in Yorktown Heights, New York.  

Born in Ireland in 1881, Murphy had worked as a plumber for 19 years before becoming a partner in the firm of Lasette & Murphy in 1900.  He founded his own company, J. L. Murphy, Inc., in 1921.

In 1927, Murphy was appointed a member of the Hoover Committee, tasked with drafting a national plumbing code, and in 1930 was greatly responsible for the passing by the State Legislature of the mechanics lien law that protected building contractors.

Murphy's firm executed the plumbing in buildings like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, as well as multi-family projects like Stuyvesant Town and the Peter Cooper Apartments.

Frank I. Commanday and his wife, the former Betty Krieger, moved into 44 East 67th Street in 1953.  Born in Boston in 1889, Commanday founded the printing business of Commanday Roth Co., Inc. in 1937.  It was not printing, however, but music that was his passion.

Frank I. Commanday, Herald Statesman, August 18, 1956.

Commanday, who played the trumpet and the French horn, had played with the Yonkers Symphony and the Westchester Symphony Orchestras.  He was a founder and trustee of the Indian Hill Music Workshop in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  He was, as well, a former vice president of the Yonkers Musician's Union Local 402.

An interesting resident was Frank A. Vanderlip, Jr.  The son of Frank A. and Narcissa Cox Vanderlip, he had grown up in privileged surroundings.  (Reportedly, when he entered Harvard, after attending the Phillips Exeter Academy, he took along his valet.)  His summer home, Beechwood, in Scarborough, New York, had been built by his father.

According to The New York Times on January 5, 1964, when Vanderlip left Harvard and entered banking in Manhattan, the country was "mired in Depression."  The article said, "He and a group of about 20 other young men in banking, fighting the glum-approach to charity work, formed the Society for Stoopnocracy, named in honor of Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, the radio comic.  Its purpose was to raise money for unemployed white-collar workers."

Now, three decades later, Vanderlip was the "head of personal holding companies in real estate and oil."  He was also well-known for choreographing upscale benefit events.  On January 7, 1964, he arranged the Consuls General Ball at the New York Hilton and two days later organized a charity ball in the the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal.

 image via nynesting.com

Gussie Kleiman graduated from Temple University in 1944, received her Bachelor of Law degree from New York University Law School in 1948, and her Doctor of Laws degree from Midwestern University in Wichita, Kansas in 1965.  Like so many of her neighbors, her interests were diverse.  In addition to her legal career, she was a concert pianist from 1933 to 1945.

Kleiman specialized in criminal cases, her most notable being her defense of the Harlem Six.  The highly-publicized trial began on March 1965, drawing the attention of the nation and activists like Ossie Davis and James Baldwin.  Gussie Kleiman died at the age of 47 on January 10, 1972.

Another legal expert living here at the time was retired State Supreme Court Justice Julius J. Gans and his wife, the former Sylvia Kugel.  Born in 1896, Gans received his law degree from the Brooklyn Law School in 1919.  He was elected to the City Court in 1954 and made a Supreme Court Justice in 1961.

 image via nynesting.com

Rosario Candela's transitional building survives intact, including the all-important casement windows and the wonderful entrance canopy.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochran for requesting this post

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The 1884 Abraham and Mary Garside House - 112 West 71st Street

 

In 1883, developer George W. Hamilton hired the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson to design a row of five four-story-and-basement houses on the south side of West 71st Street between Columbus Avenue and Broadway.  Completed the following year, the firm designed two Renaissance Revival style models in an A-B-A-B-A configuration.  (Hamilton was apparently well-pleased with the result, and the year the homes were completed he hired Thom & Wilson to design an abutting row of five more homes.)

The center house, 112 West 71st Street, like the two other A models, featured a high stoop guarded by stone railings and beefy carved newels.  An impressive, projecting cornice above the entranceway was supported by engaged columns and hefty neo-Grec inspired brackets.  The upper floor windows wore prominent molded lintels, their brackets resting on molded bandcourses.  The design terminated in an ambitious pressed metal cornice.

William M. Stout, a partner in Stout & Noonan, and his family briefly lived here.  He sold the house in December 1887 to Abraham Garside and his wife Mary for $36,000 (about $1.14 million in 2024 terms).

Living with Abraham and Mary were their adult sons, Artha (whose name, understandably, was sometimes erroneously spelled "Arthur"), Herbert, and John; and John's wife, the former Emilie Seward Herbell.  All three young men were directors in the firm founded by their father, A. Garside & Sons, which manufactured women's shoes.

Abraham Garside was known for his fast vehicles.  The Harlem River Speedway, which ran from West 155^th Street to Dyckman Avenue, was begun in 1893.  Intended for well-to-do "roadites," it was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, and "slow vehicles" were prohibited.  Garside was a regular participant in the official and unofficial races.

On June 23, 1897, Mary A. Garside died.  Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later.  In her place, Emilie Garside took over the management of the household.  By now, she was highly involved in real estate operations, as well.  It was one of the few businesses in which a woman could thrive in the 19th century.

Artha was married to Jane McGonegal in the Bloomingdale Reformed Church on October 26, 1898.  Herbert served as his best man.  The reception was held in the West 71st Street house.  The New-York Tribune noted, "After their honeymoon trip, Mr. and Mrs. Garside will make their home at No. 112 West Seventy-first-st."

On January 23, 1899, The Evening Telegram reported on the "Sunday cavalcade" of the day before, saying, "dusty avenues and drives do not dismay the roadite, merchant, clerk or damsel."  It appears that a few of the drivers thought Abraham Garside had cheated.  The article explained that he "drove his favorite roadster, Leroy, and got in Central Park ahead of several others who started from Central Bridge at the same time he did, and the several others are trying to ascertain how it was done, as all certify he did not pass them on the road, to which Mr. Garside replied he 'had a flier.'"

Two weeks later, the engagement of Minna Marie Hunken to Herbert Garside was announced.  The New-York Tribune said, "The marriage will be celebrated at the home of the bridegroom's father, A. Garside, No. 112 West Seventy-first-st. on Wednesday, March 15."  The newspaper noted, "When Mr. Garside and his bride return from the South they will take possession of their new home in West One-hundred-and-fourth-st."

When Abraham Garside died on March 15, 1905, it was not his business successes that were remembered in his obituary.  The Morning Telegraph wrote, "Abraham Garside, who for years drove a pair of fair bay trotters on the Speedway, died Thursday, aged sixty-nine years.  He always had driven fast road pairs, and belonged to the old-school of roadites who went the length of the road once they started in to speed their horses, and did not believe in the featherweight vehicles of to-day."

Emilie Garside was left essentially alone in the house now.  John had died, and Artha and Jane had moved upstate.  She quickly refilled the house, however.  Her unmarried sister, Mary E. Herbell moved in with her, as did her brother William H. Herbell, and her married sister Minnie E. and her husband Dr. Jay Hayden Radley.  Also living in the house by 1906 was a boarder, attorney Theodore Frederic Sanxay.

Born in Iowa City in 1843, Sanxay came from an old American family.  An 1864 graduate of Princeton University, he would never marry, and would live with the Garside-Herbell families for decades.

Mary E. Herbell died in the house on December 13, 1907.  Her funeral was held here three days later.

In the meantime, Emilie Garside was indefatigable in her real estate dealings, focusing greatly on tenement buildings in the Lower East Side.  In 1909, she purchased two such buildings on Essex Street from Arthur C. and Emily G. Rollwagen.  It is unclear whether the Rollwagens were boarding with Emilie in the 71st Street house before or after the transaction, but either way, it soon became an uncomfortable coexistence.

On December 18, 1909, The New York Times reported, "Arthur C. Rollwagen, living at 112 West Seventy-first Street, who describes himself as 'a gentleman never engaged in any business,' has filed a petition in bankruptcy."  Rollwagen had not only duped Emilie, from whom he had borrowed $4,100, but her sister Minnie Radley, who loaned him $800, and her brother William, who lost $525.  Emilie Garside was a shrewd businesswoman, however, and it appears she had taken precautions.  The article said, "His life is insured for $1,000, taken out by Emily S. Garside, and she is the beneficiary."

Minnie's husband, Dr. Jay Hayden Radley, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago in 1889.  A specialist in rectal diseases and spinal adjustment, he was the author of Fresh Air, A Great Necessity.  He regularly contributed articles to publications like the Medical Record and the Pacific Medical Journal.

Dr. Jay H. Radley, Leaders of the Twentieth Century, 1918 (copyright expired)

Unlike many physicians, Radley did not run his practice from the house, but from an office at 38 Hudson Street.  On January 8, 1915, the New Brunswick Daily Times said, "the place is extensively fitted up as a laboratory, where the doctor makes a remedy to stop the use of intoxicating liquors."  The newspaper was reporting on an incident that no doubt enraged the doctor and humiliated his family.  He had been arrested "on a charge of practicing without a license."  (This despite his several medical degrees and untarnished reputation.)

William H. Herbell died on September 4, 1920.  His funeral on September 7 would be the last held in the house. 

After having lived with the Garside-Herbell families for almost two decades, Theodore F. Sanxay died on March 25, 1925.  His body was sent to Iowa City, Iowa where his funeral and burial were conducted.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen said, "His methodical and systematic habits and customs were remarkable, almost unique."  Indeed, the attorney's will said "he had observed a low standard of ethics among men of high repute, among politicians and even among governments. He was convinced that civilization could not make great progress without a higher standard of ethics."  Among his bequests was a $20,000 gift to Princeton University "to found a fellowship of practical ethics."  He posthumously explained:

I am moved in this matter by the revelation of ethical principles prevailing among men of high repute.  In the conduct of great business, by the readiness of men to be satisfied in the standards of conduct in political matters that would be condemned as dishonest if done in private matters, and by the readiness of governments in pursuit of their own ends to commit acts which would be deemed dishonest if done by private individuals in the pursuit of private ends. 

The Garside house was sold in January 1929 to the Vinz Realty Company, Inc.  The firm operated it as a rooming house.  Among the tenants here in 1944 was John F. Loughlin.  The 43-year-old engaged in nefarious activities that resulted in his death that year.  The New York Sun reported on November 6, that Loughlin, "who was said to have been discovered peeping into a window of St. Luke's Hospital Nurses Home from the roof of an adjoining apartment building, was shot and fatally wounded as he ran from a police officer in pajamas when the latter went to the roof to investigate a noise he heard while retiring early yesterday." 

When Loughlin ran from patrolman Joseph E. Pribil, the officer fired four times.  "One bullet struck Loughlin in the abdomen, but he ran down six flights of stairs and around the corner before collapsing," said the article.

In 1968, the rooming house was operated by a Mrs. Lawson, who accepted only male tenants.  She advertised in the New York Irish American Advocate that year, "Room with bath.  Cooking.  Also single.  Gentlemen only."  (The "single" referred to the fact that the room did not have a private bathroom.)

A renovation completed in 1977 resulted in a total of 10 apartments in the building.

photographs by the author

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The Lost Hotel Marie Antoinette - Broadway and 66th Street

 

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In 1893, William L. Flanagan, the president and director of the H. Clausen & Son Brewing Company, decided to diversify.  He 

hired J. Munkowitz to design a seven-story residential hotel on the northwest corner of Broadway and 66th Street.  The architect's subdued Renaissance Revival style design exuded taste and dignity.  Faced in limestone, its Broadway corner was gently rounded, and the decoration of its midsection was limited to bandcourses and occasional Renaissance-inspired pediments over selected openings.  Delicate carved swags hung from above the seventh-floor windows like sugary cake decorations.  A stone balustrade sat atop the structure like a tiara.  Construction cost Flanagan $225,000, or about $8.25 million in 2024.

Upon the Hotel Marie Antoinette's completion, on October 28, 1894, the New-York Tribune compared it to "some beautiful building from the White City of the [Chicago] World's Fair."  The article said, "The proportions of the building are such as to give the effect of height, without appearing to scrape the sky...It is massive and substantial."

Munkowitz's restrained exterior belied the sumptuous French interiors.  The New-York Tribune commented on wrought iron entrance doors, "the like of which are not to be found in New-York, except, perhaps, on the residence of Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt."  This was the first time wrought iron doors had been used in a hotel building in the United States, said the article.  "Wrought-iron doors are enormously more expensive than the ordinary cast-iron affairs...But their value in the Hotel Marie Antoinette, besides being beautiful, is real."  Cast iron, said the article, was "quite below the standard of Hotel Marie Antoinette taste."

A liveried doorman is poised to open one of the 14 wrought iron doors.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The journalist was awed with the public rooms, modeled after Versailles.  "It is obvious at a glance that the most lavish expenditure had been made," said the article.  It described the main dining room, first asking rhetorically, "Is there just such a room in all New-York, and, indeed, anywhere?"

A room neither too square nor too long, supported by columns of colored alabaster, heightened with gold Corinthian capitals.  The color scale of the walls, modulating through successive tints of rose and crush strawberry, suitably harmonized from ceiling to floor, diffused the brightest kind of rose-colored light suddenly relieved by the rich dark green of the portieres which shut off the street.  These portieres, serving in themselves an eminently useful purpose, also suggest and introduce the contrast between the dining-room and the drawing-room, which has already been given a name--the Oak Room.

Frescoed panels grace the ceiling of the restaurant, which was decidedly smaller than the dining room.    photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The Oak Room was paneled in carved antique oak under an immense stained-glass dome.  Flanagan had purchased its antique furnishings in Europe.  "An enormous rug covers the centre of the polished floor, old Venetian marriage chests serve as wood boxes, and a comfortable but enormous settee of carved oak and deep-blue tapestry invites the visitor."  The New-York Tribune predicted, "The Oak Room of the Hotel Antoinette will long be one of the things to be seen in New-York.  Every piece is an heirloom."

The drawing room, or Oak Room.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The article made note of an innovation in the restaurant, a space more intimate than the dining room.  It was "the introduction of shaded electric lamps, coming up through the middle of each table, like flowers of light."

There were 62 apartments in the building.  "The rooms are large, and each suite is provided with a private hall, with the most luxurious kind of a bathroom."  The general floor plan provided each apartment with a large drawing room, two bedrooms and a bathroom.  The colors were selected from the Petit Trianon at Versailles.  "Mahogany and rosewood are the prevailing woods used," said the New-York Tribune.  All rooms had both electricity and gas (electricity was not especially reliable in 1894).  There were a few transient apartments, as well, which rented for $2.50 per night (about $90 today).

The suites' drawing rooms--from the ornate ceiling plasterwork to the furnishings--were decidedly French in style.   photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Among the earliest residents were theatrical producer, director, playwright and impresario David Belasco and his wife, the former Cecilia Loverich.  Another celebrated theatrical figure at the Hotel Marie Antoinette was Sarah Bernhardt.  The internationally famous actress made it her home whenever she was in New York. 

Edgar Van Etten, the general superintendent of the operating department of the New York Central Railroad, was an initial resident.  He suffered a most embarrassing situation on October 10, 1894.  He and one of the railroad's vice-presidents, H. Walter Webb, had made an inspection trip along the line, and were on their way back to the city.  They went to bed at 11:00.  A porter packed Van Etten's waistcoat, containing his gold watch and most of his money, into a small locker, and laid his trousers out on a chair of the private car.

At 7:00 a.m., when the train pulled into Scarborough, Van Etten "jumped out of bed in a hurry and called for his clothing," reported The Sun.  The porter returned to report that his trousers had been stolen.  Also taken were his satchel and a dressing case.  Because of Van Etten's girth, no one on the train had a pair of trousers that would fit him.  He was given a blanket "to wear."

When the train arrived at Grand Central Station, Van Etten was unable to leave.  The Sun reported that a porter rushed to the Hotel Marie Antoinette in a cab "and corralled a pair of trousers of the required size."  The article said, "There was considerable merriment when the cause for the order became known to Mr. Van Etten's friends."

 photos by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In 1901 William L. Flanagan divested himself of his real estate holdings, transferring the title to the Hotel Marie Antoinette to his sister, and selling the abutting, vacant lot on the southwest corner of Broadway and 67th Street.  The following year the Boston Home Journal reported that a 12-story hotel was to be erected on that site.  Among those leasing the proposed hotel, said the article, was Albert R. Keen, the manager of the Marie Antoinette.

The new hotel opened on April 15, 1903.  Despite its being larger and showier, Keen marketed it as an annex to the Hotel Marie Antoinette, causing understandable confusion for years.

The new hotel, which dwarfed the Marie Antoinette, was nevertheless marketed as an annex.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Sarah Bernhardt was not confused, however, and continued to return to the original Marie Antoinette.  She granted an interview to Nixola Greeley-Smith of The Evening World on December 1, 1912.  The actress commented on the difference between the emancipated American woman and her French counterpart.

American women are monarchs.  French women are martyrs, martyrs to love, it is said that in France woman is a martyr to the family, while in America the family is a martyr to woman.  But I do not agree with this epigram.  I find in your women everything to admire and to envy.

In November 1926, the lease of the Marie Antoinette was taken over by Joseph E. Goulet.  The New York Times reported, "Mr. Goulet intends to make extensive alterations in order to make this hotel of the standard of the hotels he has conducted for the last sixteen years on Broadway."  A years-long court battle between over which hotel--the north or south--could continue using the name Marie Antoinette ended in 1929.  The newer hotel became the Hotel Dauphine.

The staff was outfitted in costumes of the court of Queen Marie Antoinette.   photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In October 1926, Cecilia Loverich Belasco died.  The memories of their many years together in the Hotel Marie Antoinette made continuing to occupy their apartment impossible for David Belasco.  He broke his lease, writing to the management in part:

The thought never occurred to me that I should be leaving the Marie Antoinette, but then the thought never occurred to me that death would interrupt the union between me and Mrs. Belasco, and since that has taken place, I have suffered agony whenever I have entered our rooms, with their constant reminder of her every night.  I thought I could promise to endure it, but it was too much for me.

Despite Belasco's long-term residency and his heart-felt explanation, the management sued him for the $1,667 rent left on his lease.

The Broadway side of the Marie Antoinette was given an Art Moderne ground floor lined with stores sometime in 1936.  The Parisian-style wrought iron entrance doors were scrapped as streamlined storefronts replaced the limestone ground floor.  Inside, the Versailles-inspired rooms were stripped bare, the floors replaced with terrazzo or tile, the paneling given over to bare plaster.

A jazzy Art Moderne marquee can be seen behind the subway kiosk.  photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the New York Public Library

It all ended in 1963, when the Hotel Marie Antoinette was demolished as part of the vast Lincoln Square urban renewal project.  A 32-floor mixed use structure occupies the site today.

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The 1827 Israel Clark House - 21 Vandam Street

 

Enclosed today, the narrow horsewalk (left) provided access to the rear yards.

In 1826, mason and builder Israel Clark broke ground for his two-and-a-half story house at 21 Vandam Street.  It sat on what had been the sprawling Richmond Hill estate, leased from Trinity Church by John Jacob Astor I.  Astor was busy erecting scores of buildings on the land, and it is possible that Clark was involved in the massive project, resulting in his acquiring this plot.  To enhance the marketing of his houses, Astor had paid the land rent years in advance.

Completed in 1827, 21 Vandam Street was similar to many of the Astor structures rising on the surrounding blocks at the time.  Twenty-two-feet wide, its Flemish bond brick facade was trimmed in brownstone.  While the entrance was less elaborate than those of some neighboring homes, its transom was outlined with delicate carving.  Two prim dormers punctured the peaked roof.  Almost every house constructed at the time had a secondary building in the rear yard--in this case a small brick house.  It was accessed by a three-foot-wide horsewalk, or passageway, between 21 and 23 Vandam Street.

Israel and Sarah F. Clark remained in the house until around 1831.  The following year, George W. Howe, a merchant doing business on Old-Slip, lived in the main residence and John Pollard, a painter, leased the rear house.  When the property was offered for lease on January 24, the announcement stressed, "without ground rent."  It included "the substantial well finished brick dwelling house in front, and a brick dwelling on the rear, well finished."  The announcement pointed out, "The above is rented for $700 per annum."  That figure would translate to about $1,225 a month in 2024.

James A. Hearn, a drygoods merchant, occupied the main house the following year, while architect Edward Gray lived in the rear.  In 1841, the family of Rev. James I. Ostrom moved in.  He was the pastor of the Eighth Avenue Presbyterian Church on West 18th Street.  The Ostroms' son, John W., enrolled at New York University the year they moved in.

The Ostrom family lived here at least through 1843.  Sharing the rear house that year were carpenter Cornelius Degraw, laborer Michael McCusker, and Percival V. Seaman, who listed his occupation as "whitesmith."  (A whitesmith was a tinsmith, or, in some cases, a finisher of iron works.)  Degraw took a civil service job in 1844, becoming an assistant captain in the Third District Watch, which was tasked with looking for fires and criminal activity.

The rear house became home to Deborah P. Havens in 1845.  The widow of Peter Havens, she would remain at least through 1851.  The main house saw a succession of renters throughout that time.  In 1845, they were Charles A. Marchant and his wife, and by 1848 the family of William D. Stewart lived here.  That year, on April 25, their 13-year-old son William Jr. died.  His funeral was held in the house the following day.

The Daniel Karr (sometimes spelled Carr) family occupied the front house in 1851.  Daniel Karr, Jr. was a merchant doing business on William Street.  Boarding with them that year was the Mason family, who had an 11-year-old son, Charles.

On the cold afternoon of February 14, 1851, Charles H. Mason took his kite out, and climbed to the roof of the rear house to fly it.  The New York Herald reported, "It seems the poor boy was flying his kite on the top of the three-story house, and on walking backwards he fell over on to the shelving roof of a two-story house next door."  That house sat in the rear yard of 19 Vandam Street.  Charles fractured his skull and broke and arm in the fall.  He died at 10:00 that night.  The New York Herald cautioned, "We hope this will be, in some degree, a warning to boys venturing on the tops of houses to fly kites."

The newspaper had good reason to warn kite-flying boys.  The Evening Post noted, "This is the second fatal accident which has resulted from flying kites on the tops of houses within the last week."

Around 1856, Abraham Whitley purchased 21 Vandam Street.  His affluence was reflected in his advertisement on June 28 that year.  "For Sale--The Schooner Rebecca Clyde, five years old, 62 or 63 tons burthen, now lying at the Brick Yard Dock, half a mile above Port Richmond, Staten Island, in fine order, calculated to go to any part of the world.  Price very low.  For particulars inquire of Abram Whitley, 21 Vandam st. N.Y.

Whitley married Henrietta Bedell in Staten Island in 1839.  Following his death around 1859, Lewis Bedell, presumably her brother, moved in.  He ran an oyster business on Spring Street at the Hudson River.  In 1860, Catharine King, a widow, lived in the rear house, while Nathan Rathbun, a fish dealer, boarded in the main residence.  

Lewis Bedell left Vandam Street in 1864.  Henrietta Whitley took in a boarder, John S. Scully that year.  Scully was a broker with offices at 8 Battery Place.  His occupancy came to a disastrous end in 1865.  The New York Herald reported,

About ten o'clock yesterday morning a fire originated from a spark on the roof of building No. 21 Vandam street, occupied by J. S. Scully.  The roof and attic story were destroyed.  Loss on furniture about four hundred dollars, insured for fifteen hundred dollars in the North River Insurance Company.  The building is owned by Mrs. Whitley. It is damaged about five hundred dollars and is insured.

Henrietta's damages would equal about $9,270 today.  It was possibly during the renovations that the handsome paneled fascia board--unexpected on a Federal period house--was installed below the cornice.

In 1870, Henrietta Whitley got a long-term renter for the rear house.  William Dodd listed his profession as "brass" and would remain into the 1890s.

In the meantime, Henrietta Whitley moved to West 23rd Street in 1878 where she operated a boarding house.  She sold 21 Vandam Street to James and Fannie A. Peacock.  Like Israel Clark half a century earlier, Peacock was a carpenter and builder.

William Lennan listed his address here in 1899, possibly in the rear house.  He worked at Monahan's Express Company, and on Valentine's Day that year he and a 14-year-old co-worker, Joseph de Burbery, went drinking.  The Morning Telegraph reported, "they thought they would celebrate the holiday in a most becoming manner, so they repaired to a brewery on Vandam and Spring streets, and consumed so much beer that the proprietor thought they would burst.  Then the two youths went out into the street and knew no more."

A policeman found the pair passed out in a snow bank.  "They were hung over a railing and thawed out at the station house," said the article.  De Burbery supposed the beer in his stomach had frozen solid "and he won't feel relieved until the Spring thaw."  The two were fined $5 each--about $185 today--for drunkenness.

James Peacock died on December 1, 1905.  His funeral was held in the parlor on December 4.  Nine years later, on October 16, 1914, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Fannie A. Peacock, widow of James Peacock, who was a carpenter and builder for many years in old Greenwich Village, is dead at her home."  Fannie was 73 years old.

William Sloane Coffin purchased 15 houses in the neighborhood from Trinity Church in August 1919, including 21 Vandam Street.  Three years later, in September, he offered it for sale, describing it as the "three-story basement modern dwelling."  (The term "modern," obviously, referred to the updated elements like plumbing and electricity.)  It was purchased by Mandelbaum & Levine, Inc. for $25,000 (about $436,000 today).  In reporting the sale, the New York Herald mentioned, "This is one of the twelve [sic] old dwellings purchased by Mr. Coffin from Trinity some years ago and which have been altered into modern dwellings, retaining the Colonial features of open fireplaces, mantels and large rooms."

The basement and parlor floors were converted to an Italian restaurant, Our Little Place, which opened in 1923.  (It was at this time, no doubt, that the dormers were combined, making the attic floor more usable.)  The restaurant was run by brothers Bruno and Renato Trebbi.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The following year, on March 11, The Musical Digest reported that Italian baritone Antonio Scotti had given a dinner in honor of conductor Gennaro Papi of the Metropolitan Opera.  The article quoted the invitation, "The place of our rendezvous is 'Our Little Place,' which is at 21 Vandam street (three streets below the west side Houston street subway station.)"

In 1925, the New York Evening Post reported that Bruno Trebbi had purchased 21 Vandam Street from Mandelbaum and Levine.  By the Depression years, the name of the restaurant was changed to Renato 21.  In 1934, its "Gala New Year's Eve Party" cost patrons $2.50 per person and included "special dinner, music, dancing and favors."

Renato Trebbi purchased the building from his brother in June 1935.  Although lore insists that Renato 21 was a speakeasy, there is no evidence that it was ever anything but a charming Italian restaurant.

The top floors of the house were rented.  Living here in 1940 was the Schrecder family.  Henry and Anna Schrecder were born in Germany.  Still living with them was there 21-year-old son, Walter.

In 1941, The New Yorker described Renato's "way down at 21 Vandam Street" as "fairly exclusive."  The New York Evening Post went further, writing,

Renato Trebbi has been operating this two-story establishment at this address for 18 years. Paintings and caricatures of animals (and some of the regular patrons) decorate the bar on the lower floor; two dining rooms upstairs feature murals by Tony Sarg, paintings of old New York and photographic murals of Lake Como and the Riviera. Entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights by Victor Zana, pianist.

A 1957 advertising postcard showed the rear garden.

Renato's was a destination spot for decades.  On June 11, 1959, The Villager wrote, "Under the genial guiding hand of Renato Trebbi, this south Village restaurant has few peers," adding, "250 guests can be accommodated at one time--the walnut paneled private dining rooms are sumptuous."

On May 3, 1972, Cue magazine said of Renato's, "In summer, bordered by rose gardens, there is one of the loveliest outdoor dining patios in New York."  But the end of the line for the half-century old restaurant was near at the time.

In 1974, 21 Vandam Street was converted to one apartment per floor.  A subsequent renovation completed in 2007 resulted in an apartment in the basement level, a duplex on the parlor and second floors, and an apartment on the third.  The sign for Renato's, painted over, still hands from its handsome wrought iron bracket.

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The Otto Hahn House - 552 East 87th Street

 

552 East 87th Street (right) is a mirror image of its next door neighbor.

In 1880, the once bucolic district around the hamlet of Yorkville, about five miles north of the city, was seeing rapid development.  John C. Henderson, a fur, hat, and strawgoods merchant, joined the trend in 1881 by acquiring the blockfront along East End Avenue, wrapping the corners of East 86th and East 87th Streets.  He commissioned the architectural firm of Lamb & Rich to design 32 brick-faced houses.  They would comprise the first of his residential enclaves "for persons of moderate means."  The plans, filed in October 1881, placed the cost of each house at $6,500, or about $192,000 in 2024.

Lamb & Rich's Queen Anne group brought individual designs together into a charming streetscape of arches, towers and gables.  Starting with a charming mews called Henderson Place that opened onto East 86th Street, the assemblage would be called "the new Henderson Place residence colony."  It ended with 552 East 87th Street.

At just 17-feet-wide, it was a mirror image of 554 East 87th Street.  The two houses shared a split brownstone stoop.  A complex terra cotta plaque sat between the single-doored entrance and the vast, arched parlor window.  A blind panel below the hall window at the second floor featured brick laid in a sideways herringbone pattern.  The third floor took the form of a mansard with slate fish scale shingles.  The symmetry of the two houses was enhanced by a shared dormer.

Henderson leased the houses.  His tenants in 552 East 87th Street at the turn of the century were the family of Otto Hahn.  Hahn and his wife, the former Eleonore Funk, had one daughter, E. Adelaide, born in 1893.  

The erudite Eleonore was a graduate of Hunter College.  She involved herself in various women's clubs, including the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs.  She home-schooled her precocious daughter through her elementary years.  

Interestingly, E. Adelaide always used her first initial, and it is uncertain whether it even stood for a name.  In November 1907, St. Nicholas Magazine: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks launched a children's contest in categories ranging from verse and prose to drawing and photography.  Thirteen-year-old E. Adelaide won the cash prize in "Puzzle-Making."

That was the same year she was enrolled in the Hunter Model School, the high school run by her mother's alma mater.  E. Adelaide Hahn graduated from Hunter College in 1915 with majors in Latin and French and a minor in Greek.  She earned her masters degree in 1917 from Columbia University, and in 1921 became a member of the classics faculty at Hunter College.

Eleonore continued her involvement in social issues.  On July 8, 1937, The New York Times reported that she would address the Chautauqua Women's Club on children's rights.  The article noted that she and her daughter had won the club's "first and second prizes, $10 and $5, respectively in the annual prize spelling match," adding, "Miss Hahn is head of the Latin and Greek Department at Hunter College."  

E. Adelaide Hahn had earned her Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1929.  She became chair of the classics department of Hunter College in 1936, remaining in that post until her retirement in 1963.

E. Adelaide Hahn, from the Database of Classical Scholars of Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.

In the meantime, on December 18, 1921 (the year E. Adelaide Hahn joined the Hunter faculty), the New-York Tribune reported that the Henderson estate had sold "the three-story 17-foot dwelling at 552 East Eighty-seventh Street, in the new Henderson Place residence colony" to Dr. Thomas Kirby Davis.

A 1913 graduate of Johns Hopkins Medical School and a specialist in nervous and mental diseases, Davis was on the staff of Bellevue Hospital.  Like her predecessor in the house, his wife, the former Rosa Vedder Mabon, was well-educated, a 1913 graduate of Bryn Mawr College.  The couple had married in 1917 and had one son, William M. Davis, born in 1919.

Davis was Rosa's second husband.  She was formerly married to William Mabon.  Her American roots went deep and three of her ancestors had served in the American Revolution.

Shortly after moving into the East 87th Street house, Davis became director of neurology and psychiatry at the Lenox Hill Hospital, a post he would retain until 1952.  William followed his father's professional footsteps.  From 1944 to 1949 he was an intern and then a resident in medicine and pathology at St. Luke's Hospital, and in 1951 became Chief Resident at Bellevue Hospital.  

The Davises receive a delivery from a rug cleaning firm in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Davises moved to Danbury, Connecticut in 1961 following Dr. Davis's retirement.  The East 87th Street house became home to Bertram Clarke and his wife, the former Muriel Barudin.

Born in 1911, Clarke was a member of the Grolier Club, formed in 1884 by lovers of books.  He was described by The New York Times as "a prominent designer of art books and typography."  After serving in the Coast Guard during World War II, Clarke came to New York City in 1946, designing at the Limited Editions Club.  He did freelance work with David Jacques Way on the typography of the Frick Collection's 12-volume catalogue.  In 1953 the two formed Clarke & Way, Inc.

Upon Clarke's death at the age of 83 on February 19, 1994, The New York Times remarked, 

Mr. Clarke's talents were much in demand in the art world.  He designed catalogues for David Rockefeller, Paul Mellon, Jayne Wrightsman and Laughlin Phillips.  And he designed and printed the folio edition "Georgia O'Keefe" published by Viking.  He also designed the catalogue of "Georgia O'Keeffe, Arts and Letters," for the National Gallery of Art.

It is unclear how long Muriel Clarke remained in the house.  Always a single family home, little has changed outwardly after its more than 140 years existence.

photographs by the author

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