The 1926 The Richmond - 147-153 West 79th Street

 

In 1925, the Felco Realty Corp. demolished three high-stooped brownstone houses to make way for a modern apartment building.  Designed by J. M. Felson, The Richmond was completed the following year at a cost of $700,000--just over $12 million in 2025.  A 1920s take on Spanish Renaissance architecture, its somber, dark brown brick facade was enlightened with brilliantly colored terra cotta elements.

The cream-colored details of the entrance sat upon an orange background.  In place of capitals, the Renaissance-inspired pilasters terminated in shields held by nude youths.  Above the doorway was an elaborate heraldic design, and three urns perched upon the cornice.

photograph by Eden, Janine and Jim (cropped)

A faux balcony at the third floor echoed the entrance pilasters.  Intricate filigree screens fronted heraldic shields over each window, above which were terra cotta knights flanked by children's faces.  Rondels of bas relief Renaissance busts floated above the central windows of the fourth floor.  A second faux balcony, this one in the form of an elaborate arcade, appeared at the 13th floor.  A modest terra cotta cornice originally crowned the 15-floor design.

An advertisement boasted that the apartments came with refrigerators rather than ice boxes.  "Unusual apartments in 'The Richmond.'  Large, convertible 4-room apartments and a Special Doctor's Apartment.  Mechanical refrigeration.  Moderate rents."

It appears that several of the early residents were young couples.  On December 17, 1926, for instance The American Hebrew reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Ahrens, upon their return from a Californian wedding trip, will reside at 147 West Seventy-ninth Street, New York.  The bride was the former Ethel Baer."  Another young couple were David and Doris Loeb, who lived on the sixth floor.  

David Loeb was a bond salesman.  When he returned to the apartment early in the morning of May 8, 1931, Doris was not there.  The Brooklyn Eagle reported, "Mrs. Doris Loeb, 30...was killed early this morning when she either fell or jumped from the dining room window...to a rear courtyard."  The Evening Post said, "Detectives said there was no sign of a struggle and Mrs. Loeb probably had been in bed prior to her fall."  (Why Doris plunged from the dining room if she had presumably been in bed was not addressed.)  David Loeb declared, "his wife was in good health, and could ascribe no reason for her death," added The Evening Post.

It may have been the difficulties of the Depression years that prompted a few residents of The Richmond to go astray.  On October 11, 1933, the Yonkers Herald Statesman reported that four men, including 38-year-old John B. Wagner, had pleaded guilty "to charges of bookmaking."  Wagner and his cronies were dealt leniently by Judge Charles W. Boote.  The article said, "They were placed on probation for indefinite periods."

Another resident would be in trouble three years later.  On February 4, 1936, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that 36-year-old Adrien Marcus and a co-conspirator had been charged "with attempting to extort $1,000 from Otto Bresse of 533 West End Ave., Manhattan, by posing as police officers."

An impressive resident was Fanny Holtzmann, who briefly moved into her parents' apartment here in the fall of 1934.  Fanny received her law degree from Fordham University in 1922, and focused on clients involved in the theater, eventually becoming the most influential attorney in the industry.  

On October 3, 1934, the Jewish Daily Bulletin reported, "Fanny Holtzmann is back.  Back from London, scene of one of the greatest and most dramatic legal triumphs--her victory over Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the suit of Princess Youssoupoff for libel in their production of 'Rasputin and the Empress.'"  Holtzmann had won a cash settlement "that has been estimated variously at from a quarter to three-quarters of a million dollars" for the princess, said the article.

Fanny Holtzmann.  from the collection of Fordham Law School

Holtzmann had represented actress Ina Claire in her divorce from stage star John Gilbert in 1931, and had negotiated the contracts of the likes of Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw.  Fanny's father, Henry Holtzman, had been an influential Brooklyn attorney.  The Jewish Daily Bulletin remarked, "Of late years, however, her father has resided in Manhattan at 147 West Seventy-ninth street, which address is also the home of Broadway and Hollywood's favorite Portia."

The "Portia" referred to in the article was assuredly well-acquainted with Fanny Holtzmann.  Actress Marion Cunnar Evensen first played the role of Portia in Julius Caesar in 1917.  In 1934, the year of the article, Evensen met actress and director Eva Le Gallienne.  The couple would remain life partners until Evensen's death in 1971.

Another theatrical resident was writer and producer Reginald Rose.  He and his wife, the former Barbara Langbart, were married in 1943.  While living here, he wrote Twelve Angry Men, which he initially sold as a television drama, in 1955.  It would be adapted for the screen in 1957.  In his 2021 Reginald Rose and the Journal of 12 Angry Men, Phil Rosenzweig mentioned, "In early 1955, Barbara Rose became pregnant with twins.  That spring, the family moved from their small apartment on 147 West Seventy-Ninth Street to a larger one at 151 West Eighty-Sixth Street."

Reginald Rose.  image via IMDb.com

Following the death in December 1964 of famed steamship designer Vladimir Yourkevitch, his widow, the former Olga Krestovsky Petrovsky, moved into The Richmond.  Vladimir Yourkevitch is best remembered today for his masterful Art Deco liner, the S. S. Normandie.  He and Olga had arrived in New York City in 1935 on that vessel's maiden voyage.

This 1935 postcard depicts the S. S. Normandie, which carried Olga and Vladimir Yourkevitch to New York.

Born 1891 to Russian officer and novelist Colonel Vsevolod Krestovsky, Olga was educated at the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg.  She earned Serbian and French decorations and the Russian Cross of St. George for her nursing work during World War I in Serbia, Cannes, and Moscow.  She and her first husband, Nicholas Petrovsky, fled to Serbia and then to France after the Russian Revolution.  Following her divorce, she married Yourkevitch in Paris.  Olga Yourkevitch died while living here on December 6, 1976 at the age of 85.

Among Yourkevitch's neighbors in The Richmond had been Dr. Herman Max Sternberg and his wife, the former Emmy Malles.  Born in Austria in 1901, Sternberg was "a member of a notable medical family," according to The New York Times.  "His father, Prof. Maximillian Sternberg, was a professor of medicine at [the University of] Vienna, and his uncle, Prof. Carl Sternberg, was a professor of pathology there," said the newspaper.  Not surprisingly, Herman Sternberg attended the University of Vienna, graduating in 1925.

Arriving in New York City in 1939, the orthopedic surgeon became associated with the Hospital of Joint Diseases, the Long Island College of Medicine, the Prospect Heights Hospital in Brooklyn, and Mount Sinai Hospital.

At some point after mid-century, the terra cotta cornice of The Richmond was removed.  Despite the lose and the unsympathetic treatment of facade repairs, the building's splashy Spanish Renaissance-style terra cotta decorations are show-stoppers.

photographs by the author