By the last decade of the 19th century, development had extended to the upper reaches of the Upper West Side. In 1892, the Wide Construction Company contracted architect Gilbert A. Schellenger to design a row of six upper-class townhouses on the south side of West 101st Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. Completed in 1893, the high-stooped homes were three stories tall and faced in brownstone. Five of them were nearly identical, with only subtle changes at the parlor floors.
No. 240 West 101st Street became home to the Michael Hughes family. Hughes and his wife, Alice, were born in Ireland. They had one son and four daughters: George H., Anna E. (known as Annie), Mary C., Alice Loretta, and Lydia C.
On May 2, 1900, seven years after the family moved in, Alice Hughes died. Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later followed by a solemn requiem mass at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus at Amsterdam Avenue and 96th Street. A month later, Michael Hughes transferred the deed to the house in equal shares to his children, none of whom was married.
Following their father's death, the five children--now adults--continued to occupy the house. As early as 1903, Annie was teaching in Public School 184 on West 116th Street. George, proud of his parent's heritage, was a member of the American-Irish Historical Society.
The family had at least one live-in servant. On February 25, 1912, the siblings advertised for a "General houseworker in American family; must be good cook and laundress; good home for right party. 240 West 101st st."
Alice Loretta died here on August 25, 1912. As had been the case with her parents, her funeral was held in the house followed by a solemn requiem mass at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus.
The four siblings, still unmarried, continued to share the house. (In 1920, they ranged in age from Marie, who was 32, to George, who was 48.) But in 1927, they leased the house to William Dieckmann for five years. The family would never return.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
By 1944 the house was occupied by three families, including the Martoccio family. Domenico and Joan Martoccio's son, Anthony R., was serving in the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion. They were still here the following year when John J. Cole's family moved in. Cole was the general manager of the Ellwood Ordnance Plant of Sanderson & Porter.
No. 240 West 101st Street was returned a single-family home around 1955 when architect William Fontaine Jones and his family moved in. A member of the American Institute of Architects, Jones had had "a distinguished career in the Army," according to The Villager, before opening his architectural practice in 1953. Among his works are the striking 1964 blue brick-faced Cinema Village Theater and the West Thirteenth Street Theater. Jones died in December 1969.
Although the building was never officially converted to apartments, realtors list three units in the building today. Home to the Hughes family for decades, little has changed to the exterior. The original interior shutters still hang in the second floor windows.
photographs by the author
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