The 1902 Warrington Hotel - 161 Madison Avenue

 

At the turn of the last century, the era of refined mansions and stately carriages along the Madison Avenue block between 32nd and 33rd Streets had ended.  While the Murray Hill side streets retained their quiet, residential personality, the avenue had been invaded by commerce.

In 1902, developer Frank P. Bloodgood erected a residential hotel on the site of 161 and 163 Madison Avenue.  Designed by Israels & Harder, the 11-story structure cost $300,000 to build, or about $11 million in 2025 terms.  It was clad in red brick and trimmed in terra cotta and limestone above a rusticated stone base.

There were two retail spaces on the ground floor.  Between them was the residential entrance, its elaborate cornice supported by engaged Scamozzi columns.  The Beaux Arts design of the upper floors featured a full-width balcony at the fourth floor.  Supported by oversized stone brackets, it was protected by an ornate iron railing.  Between the brackets were French-style bay windows at the third floor.  Elaborate, foliate terra cotta tiles framed the fourth to eleventh floors, and massive scrolled brackets with wreaths sat at either end of the cornice.

In this fuzzy photo from 1941, the original cornice and over-blown end brackets can be seen.  from the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Occupants of residential hotels signed leases, as in an apartment building.  But the apartments did not have kitchens.  Instead, the residents of the Warrington took meals in the ground floor restaurant, included in the rent.  An advertisement offered, "unfurnished apartments from 2 to 6 rooms and baths; maids' rooms."

Among the first to move in were the Cameron sisters, whose decision to move in highlighted the change in the neighborhood.  On March 4, 1904, the New-York Tribune reported,

Miss Margaret, Miss Catherine and Miss Isabel Cameron, daughters of the late Sir Roderick Cameron, have given up their house at Madison-ave. and Thirty-fourth-st., and have taken an apartment at No. 161 Madison-ave., which they will occupy until they open Clifton Berley, their country place at Rosebank, Staten Island, for the summer.

The names of the affluent residents of the Warrington appeared in the newspapers mostly for engagements, debutante receptions, and deaths.  Elizabeth Flournoy Mariani's taking an apartment in April 1907, however, raised intrigue.

The daughter of the Mayor of Cleveland, Tom Loftin Johnson, Elizabeth (known as Bessie) married Frederico Mariani, "the dashing young Italian," as described by The Evening World, on March 23.  An aspiring writer, The Evening World said, "She was working on a serious drama when she met Sig. Mariani at Monte Carlo."  Calling him, "very good looking and splendidly educated, " the article said, "After they met at Monte Carlo they were much in each other's company at various Continental capitals, and when Miss Johnson returned to her Cleveland home, Mariani soon followed to resume his wooing in America."

Elizabeth "Bessie" Flournoy Johnson Mariani.  (original source unknown)

The couple was married in the Johnsons' "Cleveland mansion with considerable ceremony."  Their first stop on what was to be "an extended honeymoon" was New York City.  But on May 10, The Evening World reported that Bessie, "has been spending two weeks alone at the Hotel Warrington," while her husband of a month, "has been in the seclusion of his former bachelor quarters at Stratford House."  The newlyweds were unable to reconcile.  Elizabeth never remarried and went on to a successful career on the stage.

Bessie's choice, given her later career, was coincidental.  Living among the affluent families here were several theatrical figures.  Among them in 1911 was actor Jameson Lee Finney, who was appearing in The Deep Purple at the time.  In June, the bachelor fell ill and a good friend, Emily D. Jex visited him and "helped to nurse him," according to the New-York Tribune.  The article said Emily was "a wealthy young woman who, with her mother, Mrs. Josiah P. Jex, and her sister, Mrs. Gregory Sutton, lives at the Hotel Plaza during the winter months of each year."

The actor and Emily Jex had known one another for about five years, and he "was often seen with her at the Plaza," said the New-York Tribune.  In July, when he was well enough, Finney went abroad, and he met Emily and her mother and sister there.  

Jameson Lee Finney in costume.  (original source unknown)

Finney remained in London at the Hotel Carlton while the Jex women went "for a tour of the Continent."  On August 10, 1911, The New York Times titled an article, "J. L. Finney, Actor, Dies In London Fire."  A blaze in the Hotel Carlton broke out in the kitchens and rapidly spread upward.  Finney's body was discovered in the bathroom of his suite, "so charred to be beyond recognition," said the article.  A month later, on September 16, 1911, New Yorkers received a shock when the New-York Tribune reported that Finney, "was married less than a month before his death to Miss Emily D. Jex."  The couple had kept their marriage secret.

Another resident with theatrical ties was George Hammond McLean.  Although a well-to-do insurance man (he was vice-president of the Citizens' Fire Insurance Company when he retired in 1903), McLean had several friends in London in the theater.  In 1874, according to the New-York Tribune, he "brought the idea of a Lambs' club from London."  With four friends, they founded the Lambs in New York.

The affluence of the Warrington residents was evidenced by a break-in in the apartment of Samuel Chittenden in 1912.  The family returned on November 2 to discover that $2,000 in jewelry was missing.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The stolen jewels, which were heirlooms, have more than their money value for Mr. Chittenden."  (Nevertheless, their value would translate to about $64,800 today.)  Suspiciously, the elevator man, Charles H. Rosenthal, "disappeared the same day," reported the article.

Two months later, on January 2, 1913, Charles H. Rosenthal, alias Rogers, was arrested in Los Angeles.  Three pieces of the stolen jewelry was found on Rosenthal at the time of his arrest.  Three years earlier, Rosenthal had been arrested in Chicago "for the theft of jewels valued at $30,000 from Helen Dwelle Jenkins," according to the New-York Tribune.

Living here in 1917 were Mary Newman Kennedy and her daughter, Marion.  Mary was the widow of actor H. Custer Kennedy who died in 1914.  Mary issued invitations to Marion's wedding to William Gage Brady, Jr. in October 1917.  The couple was married in St. Bartholomew's Church (where the Vanderbilt family worshiped) on November 10.

Resident Count Edward Zichy upset the wedding plans of young Charlotte Gardiner Demarest and millionaire Max Bernheimer on May 9, 1922.  That day, "a few hours" before the wedding, according to The Evening World, Count Zichy whisked the bride-to-be away and they married at City Hall.   The next day, Warren G. Demarest, Charlotte's father, told reporters, "This whole affair is a great surprise and shock to me."  Although he wanted only his daughter's happiness, he said, "What I most regret is the publicity that has come of it...She is nothing but a child."

On May 18, just a week after the wedding, the Count and Countess returned to the Warrington after an evening out.  "They had dismissed the cab when out of the early morning drizzle there appeared four men who had kept a vigil in the shelter of nearby doorways for more than three hours," reported the New York Herald.  The surprised count was served with a summons in a suit for $1,000 damages for a taxicab and injuries to the cabbie in an earlier collision.  Count Zichy countersued for $1,000 damages to his Simplex speedster.

In September 1924, William C. Orr, Jr. signed a lease for the northerly store for his restaurant.  The other store was home to the Behr, Inc. florist.

A restaurant would occupy the northern store for decades.  It was possibly Orr who severely altered the storefront.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By the third quarter of the century, the Warrington Hotel, once home to affluent socialites, was operated as a single-room occupancy hotel.  With the change came a series of violent incidents and tragedies.

Among the tenants in the summer of 1970 was 53-year-old Amelia Muhlin.  On July 19 that year, she entered the 14th Street station of the Lexington IRT subway.  As the train entered the station, she threw herself onto the tracks and was killed instantly.

At 4:28 on the morning of December 21, 1971, a fire broke out.  The New York Times reported, "Many elderly people reside at the hotel."  Before the blaze was extinguished, Joseph Blair and his wife, Nancy, who were 57 and 56 years old respectively, were killed.

Saraj Bardharahedya worked here as a maid at the time.  She arrived for work at 9:00 a.m. on December 30, 1972.  Later, complaints were received at the desk that their rooms were not made up.  Neither Saraj nor the laundry basket that she wheeled from room to room could be found.

The New York Times reported, "The police searched for four hours most of the 150 rooms in the old 11-story building."  At one point, they knocked on room 605 and the occupant said he had not seen the maid.  He also refused to divulge his name.

In the afternoon, police retraced their search.  This time no one answered to the knock on room 605.  "As they opened the door they saw the maid's body in the laundry basket," reported The New York Times.  "It had been covered with sheets."

Three hours later, around 8:00 that night, the occupant, James Mitchell, returned.  The 25-year-old who was from Philadelphia, was arrested on charges of homicide and possession of cocaine.

A 13-year-old girl and two 15-year-old friends arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on September 29, 1977 after running away from their homes in Baltimore.  Outside the terminal, they were approached by a man, later identified as Homer Bryant, who offered to find them work.  He brought them to his room in the Warrington Hotel.

There he proposed that they work for him as prostitutes, "promising them large amounts of money and protection," reported The New York Times on November 2.  The two older girls agreed, but the 13-year-old refused.  Bryant sent the other two into an adjoining room, then beat and raped her.

The following day, when Bryant left with the two girls, "to deliver them to a pimp," the 13-year-old escaped.  The only place she knew in Manhattan was the bus terminal.  That afternoon, Port Authority police found her crying on a bench.  Bryant was arrested at the Warrington Hotel "on charges of rape, assault, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a minor."  The girl was reunited with her parents.  At the time, the other teens were still missing.

The Warrington Hotel was closed in 1983 for a renovation.  On September 30, The New York Times reported it would be reopened, "But instead of hotel rooms, behind the building's turn-of-the-century facade will be medical offices."

The $12 million gut renovation by developer McFarlane Company resulted in 29 medical spaces.  The ground floor was entirely remodeled, erasing any surviving elements of Israels & Harder's 1902 details.

photographs by the author