The Tammany Central Assoc. Clubhouse - 226 East 32nd Street

 

photo via zillow.com

Around 1855, a trio of Anglo-Italianate rowhouses was erected on East 32nd Street between Second and Third Avenues.  Just 16-feet wide, the identical homes were faced in brownstone.  Short stoops rose to the rusticated base with fully arched openings.  The elliptically arched upper floor windows wore molded lintels, and cast metal cornices with handsome scrolled brackets completed the design.

The easternmost of the three, No. 132 East 32nd Street (renumbered 226 in 1864) became home to John Straiton and his wife, Maria, who moved here from Brooklyn.  Born in 1829, Straiton was a partner in Straiton, Sandford & Company, a major importer of cigars, with two stores at 101 Park Place and 64 Stone Street.  He was, as well, a trustee of public schools.  

Childless at the time (their only son, Wallace, would be born in 1862), the couple rented a large portion of their home.  An advertisement in The New York Times on April 18, 1862, read: "To Let--The upper part of the modern dwelling-house No. 132 East 32d-st., near 3d-av., containing five rooms and bath-room; rent $17 per month."  The figure would translate to about $550 in 2025.

M. J. V. de Montueil, a teacher of French in School No. 20, and his widowed mother moved in.  They were followed in 1864 by Stiles B. Wood, who listed his name as "operator." 

An announcement in the New-York Tribune in March 1866 offered, "For Sale--the 4-story English basement house, No. 226 East Thirty-second-st., between Second and Third aves., containing all modern improvements, in good order."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

The house was purchased by William D. and Mary A. Gibson, who had two daughters, Maria L. and Emma J., and a son, Edward Forrest Gibson.  Edward was a student at New York City University when the family moved in.  William listed his profession as "carpenter."  

The Gibsons, too, took in roomers.  Ferdinand A. Benedikt, a tobacco merchant, lived with the family in 1868, for instance, and Martin Donohoe, a drygoods merchant, listed his address here in 1870.

On May 1, 1872, William and Mary Gibson purchased 126 East 27th Street.  The 32nd Street residence became a boardinghouse operated by Mary Connolly, the widow of John Connolly.  

Among her few boarders was Dr. Jose C. de Verona.  De Verona apparently maintained a country home.  He placed an advertisement in The Fanciers' Journal on March 23, 1876.  It said he had "six pairs Ferretts, three cream and three black, all imported, young, and in first class condition, to exchange for young and extra large Cochins and Brahmas, or for good Berkshire pigs from two to four months old."

De Verona was called to a disturbing scene in the summer of 1876.  Maggie McCloskey and Catherine Conklin were arrested on June 27 for operating a "baby farm" at 324 East 25th Street.  (Baby farms took newborns from single mothers and offered them for sale.)  The New York Herald reported that the infants here were found "to be starved, abused, and neglected."  On June 29, The New York Times reported that De Verona "examined the children, and said they would probably survive, provided they were properly treated."  The infants were sent to the New-York Infant Asylum.

John Hayes purchased 226 East 32nd Street in March 1894.  He was described by the New-York Tribune on February 2, 1896, as "well known as the Tammany captain of this district."  After Hayes's death 17 years later, on August 19, 1911, his estate sold the house to the Tammany Central Association.  In reporting on the sale, the Record & Guide noted, "The club is one of the oldest political organizations in the city," noting, "The building just acquired will be extensively altered and fitted up as a clubhouse."

The Tammany Central Association had operated from an impressive house at 207 East 32nd Street since 1888.  The club now leased that property to the Fourth District Municipal Court and hired architect E. B. Brun to make the renovations to 226 East 32nd Street, which included "toilets" and the rearranging of walls.

The clubhouse was ruled by Tammany leader and City Clerk Michael Cruise.  Shortly after the club moved in, he made his opinion of women's voting clear.  On the night of October 5, 1911, all the Tammany clubs throughout the city held their nominating conventions.  And representatives of the Woman Suffrage Party went to each clubhouse with handbills "telling the men not to nominate an Assemblyman who wouldn't promise to try to get their women's bill out of committee," according to The New York Times.  Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, accompanied by journalists, knocked on the door of 226 East 32nd Street.  A club member repeated Cruise's message.

"I am very sorry," he said, "but it is a rule of the club that no woman shall cross the threshold."

And so, Mrs. Laidlaw asked a male reporter to take in the fliers.  The New York Times reported, "Mr. Cruise became really peevish then."

The Tammany Central Association was a welcomed neighbor.  Each Christmas it distributed baskets of food within the neighborhood (in 1922 they gave out 500 baskets, for instance), and hosted Christmas parties for local children.  That year, The New York Times reported that Michael J. Cruise "will act as Santa Claus" and that "more than 3,000 tickets to Keith's Colonial Theatre have been sent to the children of the Fifth Assembly District for use this week."

Only a Tammany star identifies the building as a clubhouse in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Not everything taking place inside the clubhouse was so respectable.  Former police officer Lewis Joseph Valentine writes in his autobiography Night Stick, "I knew that George McManus operated his gambling game in City Clerk Michael J. Cruise's political club at 226 East Thirty-second Street."  And in his Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition, Francesco Landolfi writes:

For instance, the City Clerk of Manhattan Michael J. Cruise owned a Democratic club at 226 East 32nd Street that basically became a horse track "racing-poolroom" and run by the "notorious gambler" George "Hump" A. McManus, indicted and then discharged for the [Arnold] Rothstein murder.

Although the clubhouse was repeatedly raided, the gambling continued.  On May 20, 1926, The New York Times reported, "The police paid another visit last night to the Tammany Central Club at 226 East Thirty-second Street...where City Clerk Michael J. Cruise is the leader.  It was the second raid on the club in three days."  The article explained that police "broke in a rear door" and discovered "racing charts, racing slips and racing literature."  Thirty-five men were arrested, but the newspaper reported, "They were promptly discharged in Night Court."

Michael J. Cruise died at the age of 79 on April 18, 1946.  In reporting his death, The New York Times ignored his sometimes shady background and focused on the "many thousands of New Yorkers" whom he had married in his office downtown.  The title to 226 East 32nd Street was transferred to George W. Thompson and his wife, Catherine.  The name of the clubhouse was changed to the George W. Thompson Democratic Club.

The 1963 renovations included an unnecessary and ill-advised coat of paint.  photograph by Anthony Bellov.

The club remained here until November 1963, when Catherine Thompson, now a widow, sold the house to Ruel Novotny Hook.  The New York Times said he, "plans to alter the building into duplex and triplex apartments."  Renovations completed the following year resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and first floor, and one apartment each on the upper floors.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Joshua B. Jenkins House - 33 Stuyvesant Street

 

On September 16, 1854, Matthias Banta purchased the triangular parcel that wrapped the north side of Stuyvesant Street and along the south side of East 10th Streets.  Architectural historians generally agree that James Renwick, Jr. designed the rows of Anglo-Italianate-style homes that Banta erected on the site.  Completed in 1861, they were five stories tall above short basements.  Sitting upon rusticated stone bases, the upper floors were faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  The tall, fully-arched windows of the second floor held hands by means of a stone bandcourse.  Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.  The houses ranged from 16- to 32-feet wide.

Among the widest was 33 Stuyvesant Street at four bays wide.  It appears that the dwelling was initially operated as a high-end boarding house.  The affluence of the residents was reflected in a crime against Anna Francis in 1862.  On March 7, Frederick McAlpine pleaded guilty to stealing jewelry from her rooms and was committed to the House of Refuge--a facility for delinquent youths.  The jewelry was valued at $76--or about $2,450 in 2025 terms.

An advertisement in the New York Herald in 1865 read:

Elegantly furnished rooms to let--to single gentlemen or gentlemen and wife, with full Board for the lady.  Apply at 33 Stuyvesant street.

(The unusual circumstances meant that only the wife of a renting couple would be fed.)

In 1867, attorney Joshua B. and Mary R. Jenkins purchased the house.  The couple had at least one young adult son, Charles.  Joshua Jenkins died in 1872 and Mary began taking in roomers to augment her income.  Her ad on May 29 that year read:

A lady, living in her own elegantly furnished house, would rent Rooms, without board; gentlemen will find a delightful home.  33 Stuyvesant street.

Among her initial tenants was Henry T. Carroll, who taught in the boys' department of School No. 18 on East 51st Street.  In 1873, Siegfried Ehrenberg, the president of the Dry Goods Clerks' Early Closing Association, listed his address here.

Mary R. Jenkins soon rethought her operation and by 1874 was running a full fledged boarding house.  She advertised in February that year, "Wanted--A girl from 14 to 16 years old, to make herself generally useful in a private boarding house, one speaking French preferred."

Her boarders were well-heeled, like Dr. James L. Wilson, who lived here from about 1877 through 1879.  Attorney Michael A. Gearon lived here in 1882 when he and his partner, William K. Lancaster, were administrators of the estate of wealthy Jacob P. Kniffen.  That fall, Gearon drew a large amount of money from the Kniffen trust and disappeared.  Authorities searched for him but, as court documents in 1883 revealed, a clerk went "to his last known place of residence at No. 33 Stuyvesant Street...at different times of the day, but were unsuccessful in finding him."

In 1889, 28-year-old Samuel Blumenthal arrived in New York from Russia and took a room here.  He got a job as an agent for a Philadelphia-based watch company and for the next few years saved money in hopes of bringing his girlfriend, Annie Smolin, from Moscow.

Seven years after first moving into 33 Stuyvesant Street, Blumenthal lost his job.  To add to his problems, he had loaned money to someone who did not repay it.  When Blumenthal did not come downstairs for breakfast on April 16, 1896, Mary Jenkins knocked on his door.  Getting no response, she found Policeman Heiderich on the street.  The New York Herald reported, "he kicked in the door.  Blumenthal lay on his bed unconscious."  He was transported to Bellevue Hospital where "the doctor worked for two hours on the man, but could not restore him to consciousness."

Blumenthal had left a note that said he had "good cause for suicide, as he was in hard luck," according to the article.  He asked that his brother; his "sweetheart," Annie Smolin; and Rev. S. Ehrmann back in Russia be notified.  Three days later, the New York Herald said, "He is lying at Bellevue Hospital in a critical condition."

Mary R. Jenkins eventually moved into the basement level.  The Washington D.C. newspaper The Evening Times noted that although she, "owned the house, she lived in rather squalid quarters and let furnished lodgings on the upper floors."  The article added, "Her neighbor believed she had a great amount of money."

The 70-year-old suffered a horrific incident on October 23, 1890.  In the basement dining room was a gas stove which was used "for heating purposes," according to The Sun.  It was "burning high" on that chilly morning, and Mary settled down in an armchair next to it and dozed off.  

At around 10:30, Ella Aggler, "the colored servant employed by Mrs. Jenkins," as described by The Evening Times, entered the kitchen.  In highly callous wording, the newspaper said that Ella "saw the body of the old woman on the floor burned to a crisp."  Evidence--like the scorched chair and burned spots on the table and tablecloth--showed that Mary had wakened to find her clothing had caught fire from the stove.  "She ran around the table, the burning pieces of clothing dropping to the floor, and stumbled into the kitchen where she must have fallen, striking her head on the stove."

Stunned by the blow to her head (there was blood near her head on the floor), she succumbed to the flames.  The Sun said, "her clothing was entirely burned away and her body was charred."  The article noted that she had "lived in the house, which she owned, for over thirty years."

Elias Stone purchased 33 Stuyvesant Street in May 1899 and almost immediately leased it to Mathias Fettinger.  He and his wife continued to operate it as a boarding house.  In addition to the Fettingers in 1902, according to court documents, "three married couples, a few single men and one single woman, a typewriter for a firm at Broadway and Broome street," lived here.  

The unmarried men were all waiters at the Cafe Boulevard on Second Avenue.  The nature of their jobs meant that they returned home between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m.  The nocturnal foot traffic caused suspicions for one neighbor.  

"A mother at 9th and Stuyvesant streets," as identified in court papers, complained to Police Inspector Adam A. Cross that 33 Stuyvesant Street was a disorderly house--or brothel.  A policeman named Hibbard was detailed to surveil the house in plain clothes.  Sergeant James Churchill testified in part on January 6, 1902,

Every effort was made by Patrolman Hibbard to obtain any evidence that this house was of a disorderly character, that men called at late hour[s] or that disorderly acts could be witnessed at the windows.  

He found "nothing of the kind," other than the waiters returning home.  Hibbard interviewed neighbors who had no complaints about the Fettingers.  Finally, he confronted them directly.  Churchill said, "Mr. Fettinger and his wife welcomed an inspection of the premises...and the officer states that appearances indicate that this is a respectable house."

Elias Stone died in 1907, but his heirs retained possession of 33 Stuyvesant Street for several years.  

Among the residents in the early 1920s was composer and musician Henry Cowell.  Born in March 1897, he began playing violin at the age of four.  He started learning the piano at the age of nine and enrolled in the music department of the University of California, Berkeley in 1914.  In 1924 he founded the New Music Society and today is remembered as one of the nation's most influential composers.

Henry Cowell, from the cover of a 1924 Carnegie Hall program. (copyright expired)

On August 27, 1959, The Villager reported that 33 Stuyvesant Street had been sold, describing it as a "multiple dwelling."  The article said that the new owner would "remodel" the structure.  The alterations resulted in a two-family home.

Occupying one of the new apartments was bachelor Walter H. Campbell.  Born in 1921, he attended the University of North Carolina and served in World War II.  Formerly an editor with the Oxford University Press, when he moved into 33 Stuyvesant Street he was senior editor of Penthouse magazine.  He died here at the age of 55 on February 15, 1976.

There are still two residences in the house.  And although its brick facade could stand a gentle cleaning, it survives remarkably intact after more than 160 years.

photographs by the author

The Alexander Grant House - 426 West 44th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Around 1860, a trio of brick-faced, Italianate style houses were erected at 274 through 278 West 44th Street.  (They would be renumbered 426 through 430 in 1865.)  Three bays wide and three stories tall above a brownstone basement, their elliptically arched entrances were capped with shallow pediments.  The windows wore molded cornices and miniature brackets upheld the sills.  Especially handsome cornices incorporated ornate foliate brackets and leafy fascia decorations.  The heavy Italianate ironwork included a surprising areaway gate that took the form of a giant daisy or cartwheel.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Although the residences sat perilously close to the notorious Hell's Kitchen district, the block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues was respectable and populated with upper-middle class families.  The easternmost house, No. 274, appears to have been originally rented, based on the rapid-fire turnover of occupants.  In 1861 and '62, it was home to William Armstrong, a carpenter; coal merchant Peter Connelly; and Charlotte Pollock, who taught in the Primary Department of Public School No. 33 on West 28th Street.  (Charlotte earned $300 a year in 1862, or about $9,650 in 2025.)

In 1864, the house was home to Thomas White, who ran a slaughterhouse at 13 Abbatoir Place.  His family was followed in 1868 by Jacob Brower, a carpenter; James Avent, a driver; and Joseph Burns, who worked as a clerk.  Finally, in 1870, No. 426 received long-term residents when Alexander Grant purchased it.

Grant was born in Granton, Scotland in 1811.  He came to America as a young engineer with the United States Coast Survey Service.  (Formed in 1807 as the Survey of the Coast, the agency was renamed Coast Survey in 1836.   Today, as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, it is part of NOAA.)  By the time Grant purchased 426 West 44th Street, he operated an iron foundry, specializing in the manufacturing of railings.

The Grants had two children, a son and daughter.  By 1879, Charles A. Grant had a job as an "agent," and on January 6, 1881, was appointed a clerk in the Police Department.  He rapidly rose within the force and within three years was the private secretary to Police Commissioner Joel W. Mason.

On April 14, 1884, The New York Times reported, "Alexander Grant, an old business man of this city, and an active Republican worker in the Seventeenth Assembly District, died yesterday of paralysis of the heart, at his residence, No. 426 West Forty-fourth-street."  His funeral was held in the parlor on April 15.

The original entrance doors survive.  Originally they most likely held acid-etched glass.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The Grants sold 426 West 44th Street to John Crawford and his wife, the former Rachel Rylie.  Born in 1825 and 1834 respectively, he and his wife had two daughters, Elizabeth J. and Matilda A.  Elizabeth was a teacher in the primary department of Grammar School No. 17 on West 47th Street in 1892.  

Sharing the house with the Crawfords starting around 1895 was Rev. Homer H. Wallace.  Born in 1854, Wallace graduated from Princeton University in 1881.  Living with the Crawford family was highly convenient, since he was pastor of the West Forty-Fourth St. United Presbyterian Church just steps away to the west.  

John Crawford died in the house on October 30, 1903 at the age of 78, and his funeral was held in the parlor on November 2nd.  

Rachel took in additional boarders, apparently only one at a time.  They were often elderly widows, some remaining with the family until their deaths.  On March 3, 1911, for instance, Mary A. Mains, the widow of Robert Mains, died at the age of 85; and on February 14, 1914, Isabelle Josephine Simon died.  Their funerals were held in the Crawfords' parlor.

After living here for three decades, Rachel Rylie Crawford died on May 6, 1921 at the age of 87.  Her funeral (nearly a week later on May 12) would be the last to be held in the house.  About this time, Rev. Wallace was taken to a private nursing home in Washington, Connecticut, where he died at the age of 84 on July 13, 1938.

Two decades after her mother's death, on May 28, 1941, The New York Times reported that Matilda A. Crawford had sold 426 West 44th Street.  The article noted, "This is the first sale of the property in fifty-four years.

The original ironwork was intact in 1941.  Close inspection reveals the marvelous, giant daisy gate.  Rev. Wallace's church is at the right.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The new owner, described by the newspaper as "an investor," operated the house as rented rooms.  Among the residents in 1941 were Frank W. Kerr, who received his insurance brokage license that year; and the Prosser family.  

On the night of November 15, The New York Times reported, 

Two boys, found cowering in a clump of bushes in back of 65-83 Fitchett Street, West Forest Hills, Queens, last night were arrested as the burglars who had broken in the home of Mrs. Wilhelmina Smith...shortly before, and had fled with jewelry after they had been surprised in the house.  

In their pockets, police found "rings, jewelry, a watch and some unset diamonds."  The items were identified by Mrs. Smith as having been taken from her dresser.  Sixteen-year-old Frederick Prosser was one of the teens arrested.  The Times noted, "The boys said they escaped three months ago from the Parental Home at Bayonne, N. J."

Oddly, every other oval balustrade has been removed, and the hand railing replaced. photograph by Anthony Bellov

The house was sold on August 11, 1961 to Joseph L. Ennis & Co., real estate operators.  It was converted to a two-family home.  Although the masonry is painted and the once-striking ironwork mutilated (or totally replaced, in the case of the areaway fencing), the Grant house greatly retains its pre-Civil War appearance.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Benjamin Mordecai Mansion - 319 West 105th Street

 

On April 17, 1902, The New York Times reported that Benjamin Mordecai had purchased the recently completed limestone-faced mansion at 319 West 105th Street.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in 1900, it was one of seven upscale residences erected by builder and developer John C. Umberfield.  

Five stories tall and 22-feet wide, Mowbray designed the mansion in a very structured version of the French Beaux Arts style.  Rather than carved festoons and wreathed cartouches, he ornamented the facade with straight forward Ionic pilasters at the ground floor.  The second through fourth floors were bowed, each story defined by an intermediate cornice.  The bowed section was flanked by paneled quoins, its windows capped with hefty, layered keystones.  A stone cornice with substantial scrolled brackets completed the design.

Benjamin Mordecai and his wife, the former Constance Miriam Davis, were born in 1865 and 1867, respectively.  Benjamin was a partner in A. L. Mordecai & Son, the real estate firm founded his father, Allen L. Mordecai.  He and Constance had four daughters (Eva, Lucile, Constance, and Katherine), and a son, Allen Lewis.

Maintaining a significant domestic staff often came with problems.  Such was the case for Benjamin and Constance on the evening of December 26, 1903.  That evening at 7:30, a cab had been waiting at the curb for some time to take the couple to the theater.  Inside the mansion, Benjamin was dealing with a servant, Ellen McDonald, whom he discharged, but who refused to leave the house.  A telephone call was made to Police Headquarters asking for an officer to remove her.

When the officers arrived, "Mr. Mordecai was remonstrating with a servant in the kitchen," reported The New York Times.  "She would not leave the house, and the other servants were afraid, Mr. Mordecai said, to stay in the house with her."  He told the officers he did not want her arrested, but simply wanted her removed.  One of them tried gently to persuade Ellen to come along with them.

McDonald refused, saying, "I want my discharge in the regular way."

A policeman called for a patrol wagon.  "Another effort was made to get the servant to leave, but she objected," said the article.

"I'm king, here," she asserted, "This kitchen's me castle, and you can all clear out.  Take yer gilted buttons and skedaddle." 

Having tried all else, the policemen had to resort to force. "The woman, screaming and kicking, was carried out by the police and locked up on a charge of being drunk and disorderly," reported The New York Times, which added, "It was then 2:30 o'clock, and M. Mordecai said he would not go to the theatre."

The entrance, above a wing-walled two-step stoop, was originally centered.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Constance's early entertainments in the mansion were routine.  On December 29, 1907, for instance, The New York Times mentioned, "Mrs. Mordecai, 319 West 105th Street, was the hostess a short time ago at a bridge given in her home."

But as Eva and Lucile reached their debutante season, the focus turned to them.  In 1911 the girls were 21 and 20 years old, respectively.  On February 26, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Benjamin Mordecai of 319 West 105th Street, gave a large dance for her daughters, the Misses Eva and Lucille [sic], on Wednesday night."

The sisters not only shared their debuts, but their engagements.  On April 29, 1913, Benjamin and Constance announced that Eva was engaged to Sidney Cardoza and Lucile was engaged to Harold Leiber.  The New York Times noted that Eva had graduated from Barnard College in 1912, and that Lucile was a senior there.  The following month, a dinner party was held in the mansion for both couples.

Entertainment briefly focused on the parents in the fall of 1914.  On November 8, the New York Herald reported that Benjamin and Constance had hosted a reception "to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary."

Like their sisters, Constance and Katherine were married in quick succession.  Constance was married to Danforth Cardoza (Eva's brother-in-law) on June 28, 1917, and Katherine was married in the 105th Street mansion four months later, on October 9, to Clarence L. Lee.

With only 17-year-old Allen still at home, in the fall of 1919 the Mordecais placed the mansion on the market.  Expectedly, A. L. Mordecai & Son handled the listing.  It was most likely Benjamin himself who wrote the advertisement in The New York Times on October 9, which called 319 West 105th Street "a palatial home."  Noting that it sat within a "restricted neighborhood" (meaning that businesses were banned), the ad said in part that it "is modern in every respect and embodies all the innovations and improvements that money can buy.  Decorations and appointments are in keeping with the artistic ideals of the owner."

Within two weeks, the mansion was sold to William P. Youngs and his wife, Harriet.  The Mordecais moved into a sprawling apartment on Park Avenue.  Like Benjamin Mordecai, Youngs was a real estate operator, a partner in W. P. Youngs Bros.

As the Mordecais had experienced, the Youngs soon encountered a staff problem.  Ella D. Mallet was a seamstress, hired to work on Harriet's "certain dresses and garments," according to her testimony.  On January 8, 1921, she passed through a doorway and, according to her complaint, "was suddenly precipitated and fell down certain steps leading out from said door."  Ella charged her employers of "carelessness and negligence" and sued for $2,000 damages (about $35,000 in 2025 terms).  A year later, when the case came to court, she said she was  still confined to bed "and will so continue to suffer."

The Youngs were childless, but they nevertheless hosted a debutante event in 1921.  On February 28, The Yonkers Statesman reported, "Miss Winifred Youngs, debutante daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Youngs...was guest of honor at a dinner-dance given for her by her aunt, Mrs. William P. Youngs of 319 West 105th street, New York City, Saturday."

The Youngs would not remain in the 105th Street mansion for especially long.  On August 29, 1925, the Record & Guide reported that they had sold it for $60,000 (just over $1 million today).  The buyer was Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad executive Michael J. McGowan.  

The wealthy bachelor remained in the house until his death on November 5, 1938.  Four years later, the mansion was converted to a total of 13 apartments.  The renovation resulted in the main and service entrances being converted to windows, and the doorway relocated to the side.

An interesting resident was actor Takeo Lee Wong.  He was best known for playing a medical examiner in the Fox Television series New York Undercover in the 1990s.  He and his partner, talent agent Rosella Olson, occupied one of the two ground floor apartments as early as 2001.  That year, after the World Trade Center attacks, he began converting the concrete areaway in front of the house with pots of flowers.  It was, he explained later, as a tribute to a neighbor who died.

Over the years, the pots of lavender and impatiens and geraniums were added to with hydrangeas, strawberries, cactus, basil and other plants.  Calling it his "mother garden," Wong carefully tended the pots, and arranged with his neighbors to take in perennials over the winter.  But in 2010, his off-site landlord, Joey Franco, demanded that he clear out the potted garden.  Wong complied, prompting Corey Kilgannon of The New York Times to write, "Mr. Wong turned this concrete expanse--about the size of a parking space--into a plant paradise over the past decade, only to have it stripped of the plants by his landlord."

Takeo Lee Wong posed in his "mother garden" in July 2012.  photo by Ozier Muhammad, The New York Times August 11, 2012.

But two years later, the garden was back.  On July 11, 2012, Corey Kilgannon wrote, "he has brought back the plants, thicker than ever."  The reprise would be short lived.  On July 4, Joey Franco was back as well.  Kilgannon reported that he "showed up, and he was not happy."  He told Wong that he had a truck ready to cart away the plants.  The areaway was returned to a concrete slab.

Other than the refiguration of the ground floor and replacement windows, the appearance of the Mordecai mansion is nearly unchanged after 124 years.

photographs by the author

The Lost H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Building - 139-141 East 24th Street

The centered show window replaced a vast carriage bay.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

As early as 1873, J. O. Taylor's brick livery stable sat at 139-141 East 24th Street.  It was lost in foreclosure in June 1881 to Charles E. Larned for $11,550 (about $366,000 in 2025 terms).  At the beginning of the 1890s, the property was purchased by H. Meise for his horse exchange business. 

New-York Tribune, April 23, 1905 (copyright expired)

Meise's operation was significant.  An article titled, "Horse and Carriage Trade Notes" in the New York Journal and Advertiser on May 14, 1899, mentioned, "H. Meise, 141 East 24th street, has enjoyed a most successful trade right along and feels thoroughly satisfied.  There are at present about seventy-five head in his stables suitable for all manner of business."

In September 1905, Meise sold the building to Robert Leslie Moffett "and others of Minneapolis, Minn.," as reported by the New York Herald.  Then in 1913, the property was purchased by the Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Co.  The concern was a major player in the horse trade business.

On May 17, 1913, the Record & Guide reported that the Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Co. had commissioned architect Michael Bernstein to replace the vintage structure.  Bernstein's plans placed the construction costs at $8,000 (just over $260,000 today).  Completed before the end of the year, Bernstein's design married the Beaux Arts and neo-Classical styles to create a striking stable and auction mart.

The centered, arched carriage bay of the two-story, steel-framed stucco-covered structure was flanked with Ionic columns.  On either side of those were carved yoked horses' heads, the traditional iconography of stables.  Most eye-catching was the dramatic, parabolic-arched hayloft that sat back from the facade.  

The Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Co. quickly realized that automobiles were winning the battle for the streets of Manhattan and added motorized vehicles to its offerings.  On December 2, 1913, shortly after the completion of its building, an announcement in the New York Herald read:

Automobiles on Auction !

On Exhibition

In modern, light, absolutely fire-proof ground floor show arena

at 139-141 East 24th Street.

A Bona Fide Auto Auction--An Innovation

In 1922, nine years after its completion, the "business building presently used as a horse ring known as No. 139-141 East 24th Street," as described by legal papers, was lost in foreclosure.  The property was purchased by H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Company.

Herman Kauffman was born in Prussia in 1841 and arrived in the United States around 1867.  He founded the Herman Kauffman Harness company in the 1870s, mostly supplying harnesses for horse-drawn fire wagons and police carts.  When his sons, Jacob and Isidor, joined the business around the turn of the century, it was renamed H. Kauffman's Sons.  World War I prompted the firm to diversify and it now manufactured saddles and saddle blankets for the Army.

When the firm purchased 139-141 East 24th Street, its name was changed to H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Company.  The Kauffmans renovated the building for its retail business.  The carriage bay was replaced with a show window and, inside, the gravel horse ring was covered with a concrete slab.  The second floor mezzanine, from which potential buyers once surveyed horses or automobiles, became offices and a leather workshop for working on boots, saddles and other items.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Kauffman & Sons was accustomed to catering to prominent customers and shortly after moving in New York Governor Alfred E. Smith walked in the door.  The New York Times explained that he, "bought a pony for his grandson, and then drove it in his limousine to Kauffman's to be outfitted."

The firm took custom orders, and an especially notable one came in 1939 when it made "the boots and riding clothes for the cowboy midgets" performing at the World's Fair, as described by The Times.  Years later, in 1974, Kauffman's created two camel saddles for the Bronx Zoo, and another time manufactured a miniature saddle for a customer's chihuahua.

On March 24, 1946, The New York Times lamented the vanishing of trade signs--three-dimensional outside sculptural elements that signified the businesses inside.  The article noted that the last cigar store Indian in Manhattan stood outside 122 East 7th Street, and a wooden mortar and pestle hung outside a drugstore at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street.  The journalist turned to East 24th Street, saying:

A life-size yellow papier-mâché horse named Modock stands on a dolly outside Kauffman's Saddlery Company at 141 East Twenty-fourth Street.  Dressed in a helmet and blanket for winter--for he is very old--Modock is missing his ears and tail, which have never been replaced because the Messrs. Kauffman felt that it would attract more business as it is.  It did.

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

On April 28, 1975, Mayor Abraham Beame presented the city's Citation of Business Merit to "the saddlery that has catered to New York's horsey set for 100 years," as described by The New York Times, which said the air "was redolent with saddle soap and nostalgia."  Instead of being anachronistic, the journalist explained that Kauffman's filled an important niche.

For even in this city, the horse lives.  Bridle paths in all the boroughs are regularly pounded by the clatter of hoofs.  Rented mounts from about 780 licensed stables raise clouds of dust in the parklands.  And for those who are committed, the inconveniences and costs of horsemanship are outweighed by the joys of an early morning canter.

Not all of H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Company's patrons were riders.  Many of them, said the article, simply "like Western outfits and riding clothes."  

In 1977, H. Kauffman & Sons sold the building to the L. B. Oil Company, while remaining as its tenant.  It was a decision that would eventually doom the structure.

On May 17, 1981, The New York Times recalled that H. Kauffman & Sons "has outfitted such famous figures as Teddy Roosevelt, General Patton and Larry Hagman, star of 'Dallas.'"  By the time of the article, the company did a mail order business as well, now including polo equipment.

A decade after the article, Kauffman moved out.  Charles Kauffman, CEO of the still family-owned firm, explained to a reporter on March 3, 1991 that, although preservationists had initiated a campaign to landmark the building, "it has been slated for demolition by Baruch College."  L. B. Oil Company had already sold the property to Baruch.  Unwilling to gamble that preservationists' efforts would be successful, H. Kauffman & Sons moved uptown.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

In January 1989, Historic Conservation and Interpretation, Inc. completed its "Cultural Resource Survey for the Proposed Baruch College Campus Development."  In it, Edward S. Rutsch and Patricia Condell said:

The structure is both historically and architecturally significant and eligible for listing on both the National and New York State Registers of Historic Places...The building's historical significance stems from its association with the Fiss, Doerr, and Carroll Horse Company and its later use as an equestrian outfitting store operated by H. Kauffman and Sons Saddlery Company.  The structure is architecturally significant because it retains its interior spatial arrangements that reflect its original function as a horse auction mart.

The efforts to save the building were fruitless.  The block was demolished for Baruch College's expansion.

photograph by Faud Choudhury

The 1875 47 St. Mark's Place

 

The family of Stephen C. Lynes had occupied the brick-faced house at 47 St. Mark's Place for decades when he died at the age of 85 on October 9, 1872.  The elegant neighborhood he knew in the 1840s was now home to hundreds of immigrant families, and former private homes were being converted to rooming houses or razed to make way for tenement buildings.

The Lynes house was offered for sale in February 1873.  It was replaced with a handsome flat (or apartment) building, completed by 1875.  Faced in brownstone, it sat back from the property line to create a yard, protected by a high iron fence.  The rusticated ground floor was designed in the Anglo-Italianate style, its three fully-arched openings crowned with faceted keystones.  

For the upper four floors--separated from the base by a molded intermediate cornice--the architect turned to neo-Grec, which was just beginning to overtake the Italianate style in domestic taste.  Prominent molded cornices above the windows were supported by geometric brackets.  The cast metal terminal cornice was a blend of both styles, with crisp lines of the brackets terminating in curvy foliate designs.

A double-flat (meaning there were two apartments per floor), the building filled with a variety of tenants.  Most had German surnames, along with a few Irish.  Their professions ranged from blue collar, like cartman Michael Hogan and porter Ferdinand Niemann; to middle class, like Gustav Falck, a clerk, and George Wittfielder, an upholsterer.

By 1879, Francis McConnell, a clerk, lived here with his wife, Mary, and their children.  On September 19, 1879, Mary advertised for a, "Middle-aged woman during the day only, to sleep at her own home, to assist in taking care of children and make herself generally useful.  Mrs. McConnell, 47 St. Mark's place, 1st floor."

If Mary McConnell was successful in finding a helper, it was not enough to relieve her stress.  A month later, on September 9, the New York Herald reported that she, "became suddenly demented, and fell in hurling her furniture from the window."  She was taken to the 17th Precinct police station where she, "flung the inkstand at the sergeant's head."  Mary was committed to The Tombs for a medical examination.  There, "she made an attack upon the physician," said the article.  The McConnells' children were "committed to the care of the French Guardian Society," according to the New York Herald.

Actress Florence Vincent, who lived here by the early 1890s, was deemed by the New York Dramatic Mirror as "well known and highly esteemed."  Starting her career in Albany, she had played with some of the most prominent actors of her day--Edwin Forrest, Adelaide Neilson, and Ada Cavendish among them.  

In the fall of 1893, she was appearing in The Chamois Hunter with Paul Barnes.  She had been ill "for a long time," according to the New York Dramatic Mirror, but because she was the sole supporter of her aged mother, "she continued to act even when she should have refrained from work."  Eventually, she was "forced to come home" and a few days later, on October 21, she died in her apartment.

Just before 10 p.m. on August 5, 1901, Patrolman Ozab "found a young man lying in a semi-conscious condition upon the grass in Stuyvesant Park," according to The Sun.  The boy was 18-year-old August Margraf, who lived here with his family.  Margraf was taken to Bellevue Hospital where it was revealed that he had narrowly averted death.  He had been stabbed over the heart, but the knife was "deflected by coming in contact with a rib."  In accordance with the rules of street justice, "Margraf admitted that he knew who had stabbed him, but wouldn't tell the police," said The Sun.

Sharp-eyed officers averted the break-ins of apartments here in 1903.  Detectives Ross and O'Neill spotted August Schaefer, alias "Black Butch," and Henry Miller, alias George Fisher, enter the building on the afternoon of January 28.  The World reported they were apprehended in the hallway, adding, "They put up a fight when arrested."  The policemen said the two were "responsible for several flat-house robberies."  When they were frisked, police found "jimmies and skeleton keys" on the pair.

On June 15, 1904, after their husbands went to work, Nita Ruthinger and Vetta Ruthmayer, along with Nita's children, Fred, Elsie and Ernest (10, 14 and 16 years old respectively), went to an East River pier to take part in St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church's 17th annual summer outing.  For $350, the members had chartered the 235-foot steam sidewheeler The General Slocum for a day trip up the East River and across the Long Island Sound to a picnic grove on Long Island. 

Over 1,300 passengers boarded the steamer which carried a crew of 35.  The church party was unaware of The General Slocum's recent history of problems--running aground several times and, at least twice, colliding with another ship.  Worse yet, Captain William Van Shaick had not practiced fire drills with his crew, as required by law, in years.  Life preservers and fire hoses had not been inspected since the craft was constructed 13 years earlier.

New York's Awful Excursion Boat Horror, 1904 (copyright expired)

Around 10:00, as the vessel entered the treacherous Hell Gate section of the East River, fire broke out below deck, quickly reaching a locker filled with gasoline and other flammable liquids.  Panic ensued as the flames broke through the deck.  The life boats were stuck to the side, having been painted in place.  Pandemonium broke out as children jumped or were tossed into the river, some sucked under in the turbulent Hells Gate eddies, others pulled into the side wheels and beaten to death.  Women who leapt overboard in their woolen Edwardian garments were quickly weighed down and drowned.  Within 15 minutes the General Slocum was burned to the waterline.  Of the 1,300 people on board, only 321 survived.

Bodies were pulled onto the shoreline.  Leslie's Weekly, 1904 (copyright expired)

Like dozens of Lower East Side men, Ernest Ruthinger and Edward Ruthmayer returned from work to an empty apartment.  Later that evening, Ruthmayer identified the body of his 38-year-old wife, Vetta.  The following day The Evening World listed Nita Ruthinger and her children among the still missing.   

Ernest Ruthinger identified Nita's and Ernest's bodies at the morgue on July 16.  The bodies of Fred and Elsie were never recovered (or were too charred to identify).  The Sun reported on the numerous funerals held the previous day, including that of "Mrs. Rudinger and Ernest Rudinger of 47 St. Mark's Place."

Eight decades after this photograph was taken in 1941, little has changed to the exterior appearance of the building.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Bernard Finkelstein lived here in 1938 when he was convicted of "cheating one of many persons of small sums under the pretext that he had 'influence' and would obtain news stand privileges for them," reported The New York Times on November 29.  The 30-year-old, according to John C. Mansfield, the circulation commissioner of morning and Sunday newspapers, "had defrauded newsstand operators of between $1,500 and $2,000 in the last year."  (The figure would translate to about $44,500 on the higher end in 2025.)  Among the witnesses at Finkelstein's trial was Mrs. Constance Morris.  She testified that "he induced her to give him $5 under the pretext that he would have her installed in a newsstand at a lucrative corner of the city," adding that, "he also induced her to sign a contract that he pretended was with a publishing concern."

In September 2020, the building was offered for sale, a realtor suggesting that it would be perfect for conversion to a single-family home.  That did not happen and today there are still just eight apartments in the building.

photograph by the author