Brothers David and John Jardine were partners in the prolific architectural firm D. & J. Jardine. In 1867, they acted as developers, as well, as members of Kendall & Jardine. That year they designed four brownstone houses on the north side of 80th Street, just east of Fifth Avenue. No. 9, completed the following year, underwent a succession of owners over the subsequent decades.
Thirty years after the first occupant moved in, the neighborhood was changing from upper-middle class to high end. The millionaire district, centered around Fifth Avenue in the 50s in 1867, had inched northward. The Jardine-designed brownstone was both architecturally passe and socially inferior. On April 28, 1899, the New York Journal and Advertiser reported that the 20-foot wide house had been sold. Two months later, on June 30, The New York Times reported that the buyer, John C. Schawe, had commissioned Samuel Edson Gage to transform the high-stooped brownstone to a modern American basement mansion at the significant cost of $20,200--about $788,000 in 2025 terms.
Gage stripped off the brownstone facade, removed the stoop and gave the house a neo-French Renaissance front. Above a stone base, the upper four floors (clad in yellow brick) were frosted with ornate terra cotta decorations--Corinthian pilasters encrusted with Renaissance ornamentation, and pediments topped with crockets and flanked with finials. Each floor was defined by a molded intermediate cornice. Gage created a unique terminal cornice by supporting it with free-standing colonnettes upon foliate scrolled brackets.
The treatment of the terminal cornice is unique and brilliant.
Hallett Allsop Borrowe and his wife, the former Anna Wheeler Corbin, purchased the remodeled house in April 1900. Anna was the youngest daughter of railroad magnate Austin Corbin. Her husband's life was what The New York Times described as "kaleidoscopic."
Born on April 1, 1864 into an aristocratic New York City family, he started out studying to be an artist. He then turned to law, entering Columbia Law School, but never completing the course. The New York Times said he then, "went abroad and mingled with the social and club life of England and France...His father's position and wealth enabled him to live a life of leisure."
A scandalous affair with Charlotte Augusta Drayton, the daughter of William and Caroline Astor and wife of J. Coleman Drayton, prompted Borrowe's father to "banish him to a residence in New Jersey," according to The New York Times. When the Draytons went to London in 1892, Borrowe followed. The visible romance between him and Charlotte resulted in Drayton's challenging him to a duel, what The New York Times called an "affair of honor." That event never happened, but on April 24, 1892, Edward Fox (who was accused of being responsible for the publicity around the affair) fought Borrowe in a duel in Brussels. The Associated Press reported that Fox's shot missed and Borrowe's pierced Fox's coat "without inflicting injury." The duel was declared at an end.
Hallett Alsop Borrowe, passport photo 1915 (copyright expired)
Back home, Borrowe married Anna in 1896. He joined Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, fighting in Cuba and returning home with the rank of captain. When he and Anna moved into 9 East 80th Street, he was a partner in the realty firm of A. B. Ashforth & Co.
The Borrowes' residency would be relatively short-lived. On November 11, 1904, The New York Times reported that they had sold 9 East 80th Street to Frank W. Woolworth, noting, "It is understood that Mr. Woolworth has bought the house for his daughter."
That daughter was Helena, Woolworth's eldest of three daughters. The house was a wedding gift. She and Charles Edward Francis McCann were married the previous April. The bridegroom was a nephew of Tammany boss Richard Crocker. An 1896 graduate of Columbia Law School, he was a partner in the legal firm of Douglas, Armitage & McCann.
Charles E. F. McCann (original source unknown).
Although it had been just four years since the mansion was remodeled, the McCanns embarked on renovations. On January 8, 1905, the New York Herald reported that they, "are making rapid progress toward the completion of their new home, No. 9 East Eightieth street." The article said they hoped to move in in time for two "at homes" on January 28 and February 4.
Helen Woolworth McCann (original source unknown)
McCann's marriage into the Woolworth family was professionally advantageous for him. He would become president of the Broadway Park Place Company that owned the Woolworth Building, and upon his father-in-law's death, would serve as attorney for the estate.
The anticipated "at home" on January 28 would not take place. On January 23, 1905, the New York Morning Telegraph reported on the death of McCann's cousin, Frank Crocker. The article said, "Mr. McCann had but lately moved into his new residence at 9 East Eightieth street, and was preparing for a number of social functions." The New York Herald reported, "On account of the sudden death of Frank H. Crocker, the invitations to the receptions which were to have been given by Mrs. C. F. McCann on January 28 and February 4 at her residence, No. 9 East Eightieth street, have been recalled."
McCann's mother, Maria Jeannette Frazer McCann, died on January 15, 1908. Her funeral was held in the 80th Street mansion three days later.
In 1911, Frank Winfield Woolworth began construction of three adjoining mansions opposite the McCann's home. Each would be a gift to a Woolworth daughters. He commissioned architect Charles P. H. Gilbert, responsible for the Woolworth mansion around the corner at 990 Fifth Avenue, to design the homes.
The McCann's new mansion, at 4 East 80th Street, was completed in 1915. The couple did not sell No. 9, but leased it. On November 23, that year, The New York Times reported that the McCanns had leased the house to Cornelius Tiers. The following year, William Watson Lawrence occupied the house, and in October 1918, William Meyer leased it.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
Six months later, on April 26, 1919, the Record & Guide reported that the McCanns had sold 9 East 80th Street to John Clarence Leslie and his wife, Elizabeth, for $90,000 (about $1.63 million today).
Born in North Carolina on March 17, 1865, Leslie married Elizabeth Harty (known as Bessie), in September 1893. The Sentinel called her, "one of Charlotte's most prominent and most popular women." The couple's daughter, Emma Ross, was 25 years old when the family purchased the house. (A son, John, died in 1897 at the age of one.) The family maintained a summer home on Long Island.
John C. Leslie was a partner in Cannon Mills with J. W. Cannon and Martin Glynn. Tragically, both his partners died unexpectedly and swiftly by what was diagnosed as "angina pectoria," or heart attack. The News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina, said, "The suddenness of their deaths had preyed upon Mr. Leslie's mind, he making frequent reference to it."
In the summer of 1923, Bessie and Emma were at Lake Placid while John remained in New York. On the morning of July 24, he started downstairs for breakfast when he suddenly felt ill. Before a servant could get him back to his bedroom, the 58-year-old was dead. Ironically, he had suffered the same fate as his partners.
In reporting his death, The News & Record said, "Mr. and Mrs. Leslie had also planned an elaborate wedding for their daughter, in New York, one which would have been of wide social note."
Surprisingly, the wedding was not postponed. On November 19, The Sentinel of Winston-Salem, North Carolina reported, "A wedding claiming much prominence and distinction was that of Miss Emma Ross Leslie and Mr. John Bynum Merritt, which was celebrated last Thursday...at the Leslie home, 9 East 80th street, New York city." The article said, "Owing to a recent bereavement in the bride's family, the wedding was a quiet affair, being attended only by relatives and a few close friends."
On June 30, 1949, The New York Times reported that the Republic of Korea had purchased 9 East 80th Street. The article mentioned, "It was owned and occupied for the past thirty years by Mrs. Bessie H. Leslie."
The mansion continues to be home to the Korean Consulate General. Other than a canvas marquee, little has changed to the exterior since its massive remodeling in 1899.
photographs by the author
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