The 1887 Edward Morrison, Jr. House - 373 West 123rd Street

 

In March 1886, Samuel H. Bailey purchased "the lots of the northeast corner of Ninth avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-third street," as described by the Record & Guide.  Bailey was a developer and builder, and his wife, Mary, E., seems to have been the business end of the partnership.  When Bailey completed a row of houses on the site on April 30, 1887, the titles were listed in Mary's name.

The identical residences were designed by Charles E. Baxter.  Faced in brownstone and three-stories tall above English basements, they were a blend of the neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles.  The double-doored entrances above the sturdy, stone stoops sat within columned porticoes.  The parlor and third floor windows had architrave neo-Grec frames.  Colorful stained glass transoms graced the parlor and second-floor openings.

Baxter introduced Queen Anne at the second floor with curved metal oriels capped with delicate iron cresting.  The metalwork was embossed with jaunty bosses.  Elaborate multi-level, pressed metal cornices completed the design.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Baileys rented the houses for a year, before selling the group to Michael Hughes in April 1888.  The price of each of the 16-foot-wide residences was $17,000, or about $562,000 in 2025 terms.

No. 373 West 123rd Street became home to the Edward Morrison, Jr. family.  Morrison was a director in the Central Pacific Railroad.  He and his wife had two children, Beatrice and Edward 3d.

The parlor was the scene of a society wedding at 8:00 on the night of April 4, 1894.  The New York Herald reported, "Miss Fannie Fielding Stewart, daughter of the late Alexander T. Stewart, was married to Mr. William Wallis Young, of Orange, N. J., last evening...at the home of her sister, Mrs. Edward Morrison Jr."  (The sisters' father should not be confused with millionaire drygoods merchant Alexander Turney Steward.)  The article noted, "Little Beatrice Morrison, the bride's niece, was maid of honor, and Masters Edward Morrison, 3d, and Lyle Wallis were pages."

Edward's father visited the family on June 13, 1897.  Edward Morrison, Sr. was a respected stockbroker, having first worked on Wall Street as a clerk when he was 13 years old.  He acquired his seat in the Stock Exchange in 1869.  

Around 5:00 that afternoon, the two Edwards went for a walk.  At the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive, "the elder Morrison fell to the sidewalk unconscious," according to The Sun.  The 75-year-old was taken to Manhattan Hospital where doctors said he was "suffering from nervous collapse."  The article mentioned that the patient was "well to do."

Morrison, Sr. was sent to his home at West 39th Street to recover.  After a week of convalescing, he was expected to return to his office on Monday, June 21.  But on Saturday, reported The Sun, "he again became very sick and continued to fail."  The broker died two days later.

The following year, on May 5, 1898, 373 West 123rd Street was sold to John and Mary Johnson for $15,500 (about $587,000 today).  The couple had a 14-year-old daughter, Helen.  Living with the family was Mary's niece, Eleanor Frances Weiss (who went by her middle name), who was also 14.  The Sun explained, "Miss Weiss's mother died two years ago and she came to live with Mrs. Johnson."  Frances's father, John Weiss was "a well-to-do wine merchant," as described by The Sun, and lived in Trenton, New Jersey.  The newspaper said that she and Helen "became inseparable companions [and] both attended Public School 14, at 117th street and St. Nicholas avenue."

On Friday March 11, 1899, the two girls asked Mary if they could go downtown to shop after school.  Oddly, that afternoon Frances left school early.  She told Helen she had something to do and asked her to wait for her after school.  Helen waited for an hour, but Frances never returned.  She came home and told her parents what had happened.

Mary Johnson sent a telegraph to Frances's grandmother in the Bronx.  A returned message said she was not there.  At midnight, Mary sent a telegraph to Frances's father.  He had not seen her, either, and asked "for full particulars of his daughter's absence," reported The Sun.

The next morning, a postcard was delivered to the Johnson house.  It said succinctly, "I am alive and well.  Good-by."

Although the card, sent from the post office at 105th Street and Columbus Avenue, was in Frances's handwriting, Mary Johnson was certain she had been abducted.  She told reporters,

Frances was a good girl and I don't believe she is staying away of her own free will.  She had no countenance with any men so far as I know and she was always home with me except when she was at school, and then she was with my daughter.  My own opinion is that some men and women have kidnapped the girl and are keeping her somewhere in the neighborhood of 105th street and Columbus avenue for purposes of their own.

As it turned out, Frances had answered an advertisement and was hired as a chambermaid in a house on West 105th Street.  Her new adventure, however, quickly came to an end.  The detailed description of the teen that was published in all the newspapers caught the eye of her employer, who turned her over to the police.  Frances's foray ended badly for her, and her life with the Johnsons was over.  On March 14, The Sun reported that her infuriated father, John Weiss, "took her to the Harlem Police Court yesterday.  On his statement that his daughter was incorrigible, Magistrate Brann committed her to the Home of the Good Shepherd."

The Johnson family left West 123rd Street that year, renting the house to the George A. McDowell and his second wife, the former Jane Carpenter.  George had three children from his former marriage, Fannie, Fred and Alexander H.  (Two other children, Ella and George, had died.)  Moving in with the McDowells was Harry A. Hawkins who, like the McDowells, were members of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers.

Both men were on the executive committee of the First-Day School Association of the Society of Friends.  The "New York Yearly Meeting of Friends" in 1899 was held in the McDowell house.

By 1903, Alexander H. McDowell was a member of the Society of Chemical Industry.  His scientific profession did not interfere with his religious affiliations and that year he was listed as secretary of the Young Friends' Aid Association.  The New York Charities Directory explained it, "Gives relief in food and clothing to the worthy poor families brought to their notice."  George A. McDowell was the treasurer of the group.

In September 1905, the International Peace Congress was held in Lucerne, Switzerland.  Pacifism is a major proponent of the  tenets of the Society of Friends and on July 8, 1905, Friends' Intelligencer reported, "It is desirable that the society of Friends should be represented at the International Peace Congress."  The article said those who wished to contribute funds to sending a delegation should be sent to "Harry A. Hawkins, 373 West 123d Street, New York city, who is treasurer of the General Conference."

George A. McDowell had a scare on December 6, 1912.  The New York Times reported, "A collision between two elevated trains on the sixty-foot high S curve of the Sixth Avenue line in Columbus Avenue near 110th Street, at 10 o'clock yesterday morning caused the injury of ten persons."  The article said, "The three-car train plunged directly into the rear platform of the five-car train, and simultaneously there was a shower of electric sparks and much screaming by the passengers on both trains."  Aboard one of those trains was 72-year-old George McDowell.  The Sun reported he suffered, "nose cut and faced bruised."

Jane McDowell was also involved with charitable work.  An article in The Evening Post on February 15, 1914, explained that the Friends' Employment Society "gives sewing to needy women without regard to race or creed."  The group, organized in 1862, provided unfinished garments to needy women who then completed them.  The women received $1 or $2 per week for their work, which was used in hospitals and day nurseries.  The article said, "please send all contributions to the Treasurer, Mrs. Geo. A. McDowell, 373 West 123rd Street."

In May 1921, the Johnson family sold the house to Delia Trainor.  She leased it to George B. Kiely (who was organizing a girl's semi-pro baseball team in April 1922), before selling it in February 1923 to Louisa G. Hargrave.  The following month, Hargrave sold 373 West 123rd Street to Anna Stroetzel.  The notice in The Sun remarked that she "will occupy."

Wedged between modern structures today, the Morrison house survived as a single-family residence until 1999 when an apartment was installed in the basement.

photographs by the author

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for prompting this post.