Beneath the red casing around the entrance, the fluted stone columns hopefully survive.
Around 1843, John Addoms moved his family into the newly built house at 158 Henry Street. While the 26-foot-wide, three-story residence was similar to the numerous Greek Revival homes erecting throughout the city, certain details of 158 Henry Street announced that its owner was wealthy. The double-doored entrance was flanked with engaged, fluted columns that upheld a three-part entablature and cornice.
Addoms and his wife, the former Mary Agnes Clark, were relative newlyweds, having married in 1837. Living with them were Catherine "Katy" Embury Bininger. The relationship between the couple and Catherine is unclear, but it was doubtful she was a mere boarder. She was the widow of the well-known grocer and property owner Abraham Bininger, whom she married around 1761. She had been instrumental in establishing what The New York Times later called, "the great house" of A. M. Bininger & Co. (The newspaper recalled that early in the business, Katy Bininger hired an teenaged boy to peddle her "cookies, cakes and tea rusks" from a basket. "The name of the peddler was John Jacob Astor, who was then of eighteen or twenty years of age, and had not long arrived in this country.")
The fascinating Catherine Embury Bininger died at the age of 92 on July 11, 1848. Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.
John Addoms died in August 1850. Mary Agnes, who was 31 years old at time of the John's death, soon left 158 Henry Street. At an auction on April 10, 1851, the household goods and furniture were sold. Everything from the impressive items--like the parlor and dining room suites, "large pier glasses," and candelabras--to the mundane, like crockery, glassware, and oil cloths, was sold.
Reverend Daniel C. Van Norman (sometimes written as Vannorman) next occupied the house. The erudite educator was the principal of the Rutger's Female Institute on Fifth Avenue. At a time when education for most females ended with the fundamentals of writing, basic math, and such, the institute offered courses that were equivalent to those available to young men. The Phelps' Strangers and Citizens' Guide to New York City said,
It has a fine library, selected with great care and excellent philosophical apparatus for illustrating the subjects of astronomy, chemistry, and other branches of science. Its course of instruction embraces history, general philosophy, mathematics, and belles letters, by which young ladies are thoroughly prepared for the pursuit of general knowledge, for the duties of teachers, and for that moral and intellectual power so necessary to be possessed by the mothers of our republic.
Reverend Van Norman remained here through 1854, when the Henry Street house was purchased by Peter Crosby Barnum and his second wife, the former Sarah Ann Baldwin. The couple had married in 1846 and had two children, Joshua Willets, born in 1847, and Kate Vail, born in 1850.
Peter Crosby Barnum (original source unknown)
Barnum was born in 1815, the eldest son of Dr. Stephen C. Barnum. In 1851, Peter joined his brother's clothing firm, Horton & Barnum, established two years earlier. Barnum's massive fortune was reflected in the family's country house in East Meadow, New York, which "covered 2700 hundred acres," described by the Brewster Standard, and held "a sumptuous home." (The newspaper, undoubtedly, meant 2,700 acres.)
Like Van Norton's, the Barnums' residency would be relatively short. By 1867, they sold 158 Henry Street to Edmund J. Kelly and his wife, Mary E. The exclusive residential neighborhood that the Addoms family had enjoyed was quickly changing, as waves of immigrants flooded into the Lower East Side. Edmund J. Kelly was the proprietor of two saloons, one on 25 New Bowery and the other at 399 Pearl Street. He and Mary had at least one child, Mary C.
Mary E. Kelly was apparently a self-sufficient woman. After Edmund's death in 1869, she took over the Pearl Street saloon. (It appears she sold the other business.) She augmented her finances by leasing part of her home. On April 14, 1874, an advertisement in the New York Herald offered,
The Upper or Lower part of that beautiful brown stone House in that nice block, No. 158 Henry street between Rutgers and Jefferson streets, with all improvements, to a nice family; I will make the rent to suit.
The advertisement was answered by German-born William Hochhausen, who was in the "electric instruments" business on William Street. The family was with the two Marys at least through 1877.
While her mother ran a saloon, Mary C. Kelly went into a more respectable female profession, a teacher. By 1881, she was teaching music in several public schools. Specialized instructors like music and art teachers were not affiliated with a specific school, but moved from one to another. Because of that, Mary did not have a set salary, but was paid at $1.50 per hour in 1881.
Mary E. Kelly sold 158 Henry Street in April 1885 for $13,250 (about $433,000 in 2025). It changed hands several times before Simon Scharlin purchased the house around 1893. Born in Jerusalem in 1849, at some point Scharlin had anglicized his name Sabsai to Simon. He and his wife, the former Sarah Liebe Silverson, had three sons, Nimon, Jacob and Sidney, and a daughter Rebecca.
Simon Scharlin established his snuff and tobacco business on Division Street in 1876. He was president of the Jewish Synagogue on Pike Street and, according to The Journal on June 1, 1896, he was "said to be worth a million dollars."
Jacob Scharlin, who was deaf, was educated in a specialized school for the hearing impaired. The Journal said, "Notwithstanding his affliction, Jacob has been regarded on the East Side as a very good catch, and many a schatchen kept the favor of the young man as a valuable asset to be realized on when Jacob should desire a wife." (A schatchen is a marriage broker or matchmaker.)
In February 1896, Jacob met Annie Berlinger, who had been a school mate years earlier. An orphan, she lived with her aunt and uncle. The Journal described her as, "very beautiful, and her friends call her 'the Rose,' because of her complexion." The newspaper said, "After the revival of their acquaintance Jacob sent a deaf mute friend named Hanneman, of No. 61 Delancey street, to her as a schatchen and a marriage was arranged."
On February 8, 1896, "the engagement was celebrated, and the big parlors at Papa Scharlin's were filled with guests to wish the young couple happiness and participate in the engagement feast." The article mentioned, "The splendor of the surroundings was a new sensation for the prospective bride." As part of the ceremony, Simon, "took a diamond ring from his finger, gave it to Jacob, who placed it upon the finger of his intended and the engagement was acknowledged." The wedding was set for two weeks later, but was postponed for Passover.
Annie was given a room in the Scharlin house. Her uncle, Isaac Blumenthal, told a reporter, "They bought her clothes--fine silk!" But then, according to Blumenthal, everything fell apart. On June 1, 1896, The Journal quoted him:
One day Annie was helping in the housework with her ring on--the ring he gave her that cost $125, and [Jacob] said: "Why do you work in that ring? You will lose the stone." She is a child. She gave it to him, and then he told his mother that he had the ring back, and to put her out.
What was apparently a misunderstanding ended the engagement. Annie was sent back to his uncle's home. Blumenthal said, "Annie got a letter from him, saying that he wanted nothing more to do with her and she fainted." Through her guardian, "Miss Berlinger sued Jacob for $50,000 for breach of promise," reported The Journal. (The damages to Annie Berlinger's broken heart would translate to about $1.87 million today.)
At just 16 years old in 1897, Sidney was already a partner in his father's firm, now named Simon Scharlin & Son. The family's legal problems had increased that year when on March 5 the New York Herald headlined an article, "Twenty-Seven Were Poisoned." The article begun,
The alleged adulteration of hundreds of pounds of snuff, which it is said caused at least twenty-seven cases of chronic lead poisoning, was the real cause of the indictment and arrest yesterday of Simon and Simon [sic] H. Scharlin, of the firm of S. Scharlin & Son...on a technical charge of petty larceny.
The Scharlins pleaded non-guilty and their attorney, Abraham Levy, insisted "that his clients were not persons who would steal two cents, or $2,000,000 either."
Decades later, when Berenice Abbott took this photograph on January 26, 1938, the S. Scharlin & Son shop still occupied at1 113 Division Street. image from the collection of the New York Public Library
The Scharlins were cleared of the charges. In the meantime, however, Anna Berlinger was awarded $1,950 in her breach of promise suit (just under $74,000 today). Despite Simon Scharlin's vast fortune, it appears that Anna would never see any of that award. On June 20, 1899, The New York Times reported that Jacob Scharlin had "filed a petition in bankruptcy to get rid of a judgment...for breach of promise of marriage." The article mentioned, "He has no assets."
The family's trouble turned to celebration on June 1, 1898 when Rebecca was married to Dr. Moses Duckman in Vienna Hall on East 58th Street. Her brother, Nimon, was the groom's best man.
Nimon was taken to the Mount Sinai Hospital on February 3, 1900, "suffering from kidney trouble," according to the New-York Tribune. The 27-year-old died within hours and he was buried in Bay Side Cemetery on Long Island the following day.
Four nights later, Sarah had a vivid dream that Nimon was alive. The dream was so powerful, that she could not rest. The New-York Tribune reported on February 10 that Nimon's body had been disinterred. "She told [officials] yesterday about the dream, that constant thinking about it had made her nervous and that she would not be contented until she gazed upon the body again." When she saw that the body had not moved since the burial, she reconciled to his death.
Simon and Sarah Scharlin sold 158 Henry Street in June 1915. It became home to Congregation Shearith Israel in 1920. Four years later, the congregation Agudat Achim Anshei Drohitchin, which organized in 1899, moved from 101 Monroe Street to the former Scharlin house. Renovations completed in 1925 resulted in a dining room and kitchen in the basement, the shul's meeting room on the former parlor level, and the rabbi's residence on the second and third floors.
In 1941, little had outwardly changed from a private residence to a synagogue. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
After the shul operated here for decades, 158 Henry Street was sold in August 2009. Now home to the World Buddhist Center, the lintels and sill brackets of the windows have been removed and a stucco-like material applied to the facade. A bright red casing around the entrance somewhat echoes a shrine gateway. Jeff Wilson's The Buddhist Guide to New York notes, "Despite its grandiose name, this is a fairly typical Chinatown temple...Members sit on pews before the Amitabha Buddha statue for chanting and prayers."
photographs by the photograph
No comments:
Post a Comment