The Edward and Marianne Faulkner House - 305 West 74th Street

 

Although architect C. P. H. Gilbert is best remembered for the sumptuous palaces he designed in the first years of the 20th century--like the of magnificent Joseph R. De Lamar and Felix M. Warburg mansions--he was responsible for designing scores of upscale rowhouses on the Upper West Side in the 1890s.  Among them was 305 West 74th Street, one of a row of seven residences designed in 1893 for developer Thomas McIntyre.

Although each had its own personality, the Renaissance Revival-style homes created a harmonious group.  Four-and-a-half stories tall, the basement and first floor of 305 West 74th Street were clad in limestone.  A short stoop led to the double-doored entrance.  The relatively stoic decorations of this level relied mostly on the handsome row of scallop shells carved into the entrance entablature.

The second through fourth floors were clad in gray Roman brick.  Gilbert created a Palladian effect for the windows at the second floor with fluted terra cotta Scamozzi pilasters that upheld a molded cornice topped with an ornate tympanum filled with flowers and a shield.  The projecting portion of the second and third floors provided a balcony or sleeping porch at the fourth floor protected by a solid stone railing.  Atop the copper cornice, a wide dormer fronted the Spanish tile mansard.

The row was completed in 1894 and 305 West 74th Street was purchased by Edward Daniels Faulkner and his wife, the former Marianne Gaillard, on December 14.  Faulkner was born in New York City in 1853, and Marianne was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1859.  Faulkner attended the College of the City of New York.  He was the co-owner of the upholstery firm of Johnson & Faulkner and his financial and social status was reflected in his memberships in the Union League, the Players' and the Ardsley Clubs.

Edward Daniel Faulkner (original source unknown) 

In 1898, the Faulkners acquired their summer home near Woodstock, Vermont.  On October 13, the Vermont Standard reported that they had purchased "the Woodward Mansion property, so called," and that contractors and decorators had been hired "to put the property in first-class repair, with several modernizing changes, at a cost of something like $10,000."  The following year, on December 30, 1899, the Woodstock, Vermont newspaper Spirit of the Age reported that the mansion had been "remodeled and the grounds about it graded and improved--all making a beautiful residence of the fine old mansion."

Edward Faulkner's profession required him to travel to France annually.  It may have been during one of these trips that he became enamored with the French Bulldog breed, and at least one of the creatures lived in the couple's West 74th Street house.  On March 19, 1898, the Idaho Ketchum Keystone reported, "The French bulldog, after waiting for years for the social recognition in this country that it has long enjoyed abroad, is at last to be taken up by New York society."  The article explained that an exhibition of wealthy owners had "formally introduced these ugly little canines into the most exclusive society" at the Waldorf-Astoria.  Among the millionaires strutting their pups were Richard Howland Hunt, James L. Kernochan, Whitney Warren and Edward D. Faulkner.

Faulkner was, additionally, an inventor.  He invented "a loom for the weaving of tapestry--which it was said could not be done," according to the Vermont Standard later.  The invention resulted in his being made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the Government of France in January 1902.

On November 12, 1913, The Evening Post reported that the Faulkners had sold the house for $70,000, or about $2.2 million in 2025.  At the time, Edward Faulkner suffered from arthritis and he and Marianne spent more and more time in Vermont.  He died there on August 28, 1926 at the age of 75, the Vermont Standard noting, "He had long been partially crippled."

Faulkner's will left Marianne $3 million (about $51.6 million today), and $2 million to be "distributed among fourteen officers, directors and employes [sic]" of his firm, as reported by The New York Times.  He additionally left $1 million to establish a fund "for the study, treating, alleviation and cure of arthritis;" two $50,000 funds for the benefit of the Police and Fire Departments; and several other large charitable requests.

Marianne Faulkner almost immediately began putting her fortune to beneficial causes.  She was instrumental in establishing the first arthritis clinic in the country, at New York City Presbyterian Hospital and later would construct a $1 million wing to the Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, New Hampshire in her husband's name.

In the meantime, the Faulkner's had sold 305 West 74th Street to Louis E. Kleban.  Born in Russia in 1873, he was the president of the real estate and development firm of Louis E. Kleban & Sons, Inc.  The firm would construct impressive buildings like 275 Central Park West.  He and his wife, Matilda, had six children.

The Klebans' residency would be short-lived.  After they sold the house to Edward M. Gardner in August 1925 it became unofficial apartments.

Among the tenants living here that year were Elliot Griffis, who advertised himself as "teacher of piano playing and theory;" and aspiring interior decorator Clarisse Ord Ryan.  On October 17, 1925, the Army and Navy Register reported, "Since going to New York to follow the profession of interior decorator, Miss Ryan has become well known as the manager of the unique 'Corsir Shop' of the department of interior decoration" at Macy's.  Another early resident was artist Nell Sewell Johnson.  She exhibited watercolors in the annual Pennsylvania Academy of Art while living here in 1927.

The house was officially converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1929.  It continued to attract tenants involved in artistic endeavors over the decades.  Living here in 1965 was musician Alfred Schnitzler, and in 1977 fledgling actor Patrick Swayze and his wife, Lisa, moved in.

Swayze and Lisa Miemi had married two years earlier.  Born in Houston, Texas in 1952, Swayze relocated to New York City in 1972 to study dance at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet schools.  He and Lisa had been living in a basement apartment before he landed the role of Danny Zuko in the Broadway production of Grease (replacing John Travolta).  

Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi in 1990.  photograph by Alan Light

In her Patrick Swayze, One Last Dance, Wendy Leigh writes, "Now that their financial situation had improved considerably, he and Lisa moved out of the West 70th Street basement and into a more salubrious apartment at 305 West 74th Street."  The role transformed Swayze's career.  Leigh writes,  "Patrick was an overnight sensation in Grease.  'To me, he was more Danny Zuko than John Travolta was,' Zetta Alderman, who saw the show more than once enthused."

There are still two apartments per floor in the Faulkner house.  Despite decades of grime and replacement doors and windows, the building survives essentially intact.

photographs by the author