The 1913 The Dallieu - 838 West End Avenue

 

On July 6, 1913, The New York Times remarked that "the west side will always remain the great apartment district of the city, a fact has been doubly pronounced during the past few months by the demolition of rows of fine private residences for towering apartments."  Among those "towering apartments" was the recently completed The Dallieu at the southeast corner of West End Avenue and 101st Street.

Erected by the real estate development firm Julius Tishman & Sons, Inc., it was designed by the fledgling architectural office of Blum & Blum.  George and Edward Blum were nine and twelve years old when they arrived in America from France in 1888.  Educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the Blum brothers' grasp of architectural trends that transcended their Beaux-Arts training—like Art Nouveau and Art Deco—would impact apartment designs in New York. 

For the 12-story The Dallieu, they turned to Arts & Crafts.  Encrusting the two-story base was a sumptuous tapestry of terra cotta tiles of swirling vines, grapes, berries and flowers.  The upper floors were clad in Roman brick, except for the tenth floor.  Its terra cotta panels delineated the midsection from the top.  Iron-railed balconies clung to the facade at the fourth and ninth floor, and a continuous balcony girded the building at the eleventh--its Arts & Crafts-style iron railing a work of art.  A parapet with decorative panels forewent a cornice.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1913 (copyright expired)

The apartments ranged from six to nine rooms with three baths.  Rents started at $1,800--about $4,750 per month in 2025 terms.  An advertisement in The Evening Post on August 23, 1913 touted, "These Apartments have unequalled arrangements such as filtered water throughout the building, steam driers on the roof.  Two passenger and two service elevators, thus assuring privacy on each floor by elimination of public halls."  The ad noted that "extra servants' rooms" and private storage rooms were available on the penthouse level.

There were four apartments on most floors.  The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1913 (copyright expired)

Residents of The Dallieu were professionals, like civil engineer John C. Underwood, who graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1862; and Loren Albert Scott, a 1904 Harvard graduate.  Scott was the president of the Hasco Building Company and the Aeon Reality Company.  Adhemer Fieux was a member of chocolate making firm Runkel Brothers, "one of the best known in the trade," according to The New York Times.  Born in Bordeaux, France in 1843, he married Fannie Runkel (the sister of one of his business partners) and the couple had three sons.

Less typical was Alice Redding, another initial resident.  When she divorced Arthur Maurice Werner in 1910, she retook her maiden name.  Alice, who shared the apartment with her two sisters, was pulled into a scurrilous incident in the spring of 1914.  Arthur Werner and his current wife, the former Giulia Morosini, who were married in 1911, lived in a lavish home, Elmhurst, in Riverdale.  Giulia was the daughter of banker Giovanni Morosini, a former partner of Jay Gould.

In March 17, 1914, the Oakland Enquirer reported that Giulia had filed for an annulment.  The heiress barred Werner from the estate.  The Sun said Giulia protected herself by replacing the grounds staff with "about twenty men sent up to Riverdale by the Burns Detective Agency."  Suddenly, Giulia was mysteriously missing.

  

The first and second stories display a dizzying profusion of Arts & Crafts designs.

Suspiciously, authorities could not locate Werner for questioning.  Investigators learned he had been seen at The Dallieu.  The Sun reported on April 6, 1914, "At the home of Werner's first wife, 838 West End avenue, it was said that Werner was not there and had not been seen for two days."  Later that afternoon, a maid said Alice "went out of town."  Reporters returned the next evening and were told the same message.  Finally, Giulia turned up and the press's harassment of Alice ended.  

On October 13, 1914, the New-York Tribune reported on the Connecticut marriage of Lorne Albert Scott to Lutie Wilson Babb the previous day.  Reminding readers that Scott was involved "in various real estate and construction ventures," the article said, "The couple will spend their honeymoon in the South.  After their return they will live at 838 West End av."

The newlyweds' wedded bliss would be short.  On October 24, 1915, The Sun reported that Lutie sued for separation, charging "that it is unsafe to live with her husband, who has a violent and ungovernable temper."

A colorful resident was Charles Francis Phillips, a journalism student at Columbia.  On June 1, 1917, The Sun described him as "22 years old [and] is the son of a manufacturing tailor, who, though foreign born, is rated as a good American."  The previous day, Phillips had been arrested with three other Columbia seniors "charged with conspiring to violate the selective conscription law by urging resistance to the draft."  The article reported that Phillips's father, "said when his son was arrested, 'He got himself into trouble, let him get himself out of it,' but who is expected to relent and do what he can to help the boy through."

Charles Francis Phillips (left) following his arrest.  His father eventually posted the $2,000 bail.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Five days later, Charles Phillips was in the news again.  The Sun reported, "Phillips was seen several times yesterday loitering in front of the polling place in his district which is at 823 West End avenue, on the same block with his home, 838 West End avenue."  United States Marshal Thomas D. McCarthy had warned him the previous day "that should he fail to register a new charge would be lodged against him."  When he had not registered for the draft five minutes before the office closed, a warrant was issued and Phillips was again arrested.

Phillips would go on to be a force within the Communist movement.  He fled to Mexico and helped to found the Mexican Communist Party.  He eventually would live in Spain and Nicaragua, using the names Charles Shipman, Frank Seaman, Jesus Saremas, Jesus Ramirez and Manuel Gomez.  Phillips would become secretary of the All-American Anti-Imperialist League.

Joseph M. Simon was described by the New-York Tribune as a "wealthy hosiery and underwear manufacturer, in business at 19 East Twenty-first Street."  In March 1918, the Simons's daughter, Consahoe, eloped with Elwood M. Burgauer in a Municipal Building ceremony after a "romantic and rapid courtship."  Burgauer's father was as member of Kahn & Burgauer, lace importers.

When Joseph Simon discovered the elopement, he and his wife locked Consahoe in her room.  A year later, on July 8, 1919, The Evening World reported, "The only way his wife could tell him [i.e., Elwood Burgauer] how much she loved him was in notes dropped from a window of her father's home at No. 838 West End Avenue."  Elwood Burgauer filed suits of alienation against both of his wife's parents.

In addition to imprisoning Consahoe, as reported by the New-York Tribune, Elwood alleged that Simon, "told her such derogatory stories about his character that her love for him has been destroyed," and "interested his daughter in Christian Science in an effort to make her forget her husband."  The Simons denied having "anything to do with the estrangement of the couple," said The Evening World.

The families in The Dallieu maintained domestic staffs.  The 1920 census showed that of the 45 apartments, 39 of them had live-in cooks.  Among those families were that of real estate operator Bernard Reich.  Not only was he a resident, his firm owned the building.  

Reich was the president of the Marcon Realty Company and the Amri Realty Company.  In 1920, he read the heart-breaking story of a cobbler, Harry Zakow, and his wife who were searching for their lost boy.  The World said that in 1918, 12-year-old Samuel Kefovov (his parents changed their Russian surname to Zakow upon arriving in America) was "separated from his mother who was fleeing [from Odessa] with her five children."

Bernard Reich traveled to Jerusalem in 1921, and visited the Jewish War Orphanage that December.  He talked to a 15-year-old boy whose story was remarkably similar to the one Reich had read a year earlier.  He successfully reunited the family after being three years apart.

Even the service entrance is sumptuously decorated.

Before leaving on his trip to Jerusalem, Reich had made news for his philanthropy.  On April 28, 1921, The Evening World reported, "A drive for funds with which to purchase milk for poor children in this city was started to-day with...a $5,000 contribution by Bernard Reich of No. 838 West End Avenue."  The article mentioned, "Mr. Reich has previously distinguished himself by his generosity toward the penny lunch fund for school children."  

Three years later, Reich and his firm, Amri Realty Company, began acquiring the properties on the block directly south of The Dallieu as a potential development.  Standing in the way was Nat Levine's house at 830 West End Avenue, described by Reich's lawyer, Irving Gordon, as "a key piece" of the project.  Gordon told The New York Age in October 1925 that Levine, "wants to force it onto Mr. Reich at an exorbitant figure." 

When Reich would not agree to Levine's elevated price tag, the homeowner retaliated.  On October 31, 1925, The New York Age reported, "A large sign offering 'Furnished rooms for rent for Negro folks,' appeared last Saturday on the Nat Levine residence at 830 West End Avenue, and the property owners of that good residential section immediately began to worry."  Levine would not respond to reporters' questions other than to ask, "why did Bernard Reich...think he could buy the property at a ridiculously low price?"

Before 1952, the balconies and paneled parapet were in place.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A renovation completed in 1952 resulted in six apartments per floor on the second and third, and four apartments each on the upper floors.  The penthouse level, formerly servants' rooms and the laundry, was converted to six apartments.  In the remodeling, the balconies were removed and the paneling of the parapet bricked flush.

Despite the regrettable modernization, Blum & Blum's Arts & Crafts building remains among the firm's most striking designs.

photographs by the author