The Hiram and Rosalind Bloomingdale Mansion - 11 East 80th Street

 

Born in 1875, Hiram Collenberger Bloomingdale was one of three sons of Lyman Bloomingdale, co-founder of Bloomingdale Brothers' department store.  On December 9, 1908, he married Rosalind Schiffer in Delmonico's, the New York Herald noting, "Mr. and Mrs. Bloomingdale will spend three months on the Pacific coast and next autumn will live at No. 11 East Eightieth street."

The newspaper's timeline was a bit optimistic.  Just over a month before the wedding, on October 24, 1908, the Record & Guide reported that Bloomingdale had purchased the four-story, high-stooped brownstone from Michael Hyman.  The article said he would replace it with "a 6-story American basement dwelling for his own occupancy."

While the newlyweds were on their honeymoon, on January 20, 1909 The New York Times reported that Schwartz & Gross had filed plans for the new mansion, projecting the cost at $50,000 (about $1.78 million in 2025).  The article said, "The facade is to be of brick, finished with limestone and terra cotta, of Colonial design, with a mansard roof and central entrance with staircase."

Schwartz & Gross's design for the five-story mansion, indeed, drew from 18th century precedents, notably in the stylized Georgian entrance and fanlight, and the mansard's Palladio-inspired dormer.  Other details, like the geometric brick-and-stone spandrels between the second and third floors reflected the current Arts & Crafts movement.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Construction was completed late in 1910 and Rosalind quickly began hosting.  On February 12, 1911, The New York Times noted, "Mrs. Hiram Bloomingdale of 11 East Eightieth Street was at home on Thursday and Friday afternoons."  (Publishing one's "at homes" informed socialites when they could make social calls.)

On August 18, 1912, the Bloomingdales welcomed their first son, Lyman Gustave, named after his grandfather.  A second, Alfred Schiffer, arrived on April 15, 1916.  The family's 70-acre country estate was in Ossining, New York.

The domestic bliss within the Bloomingdale household dissolved early in 1919.  On April 22, Rosalind telephoned Hiram at his office.  He recounted the call to the courts later, saying she told him that "she had left his home and was living at the Chatham Hotel with their children."  According to him, he rushed home to find that "she had taken with her silverware, linens, glassware, &c."

Three weeks later, on May 14, The New York Times reported that Rosalind had filed suit for separation "on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment."  She asked for $50,000 a year in alimony (more than $900,000 in 2025 terms).  The article mentioned, "Mrs. Bloomingdale is 29 years old and her husband is 42."  The next month, Rosalind leased a house in Elberon, New Jersey and took Lyman and Alfred with her.

Hiram seemed to have been more upset about the thought of losing his sons than his wife and a messy and public custody battle ensued.  In court on July 15, 1919, he made an emotional plea to Justice Ford, painting Rosalind as, essentially, an absentee mother.  He said in part,

There is nothing in the world that I love so dearly as I do my children.  My elder son has been my steady and constant companion ever since babyhood.  I take him out walking on every opportunity and spent practically every Saturday and Sunday with him up to the time my wife left me.

In stark contrast, he said, "Mrs. Bloomingdale was rarely with the children on Saturdays and Sundays.  She was either playing tennis, going to bridge parties, visiting or attending to her social duties."  Bloomingdale said that while he listened to the boys' prayers each night, Rosalind did not.  "I used to play with the children, while my wife delegated their care, largely, to servants."

While the divorce and custody hearings played out, Hiram moved in with his brother, Irving, at 850 Park Avenue.  In May 1920, he sold 11 East 80th Street to theater owner and agent Martin Beck.  The New-York Tribune reported that he purchased it "as his home."  But he apparently quickly decided otherwise and resold the house to William Kingsland Macy.

Born on November 21, 1889 to George H. and Kate Carter Macy, William went by his first initial and middle name.  When he purchased 11 East 80th Street he was a stock broker and president of the Union Pacific Tea Co.  Moving into the mansion with him was his widowed mother.  She died here on May 14, 1921 and her funeral was held in the house on the 16th.

Kingsland's country home was on Long Island.  He increasingly spent more time there, and in 1926 he was appointed chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Committee.  By then he was occupying the Long Island house year-round.  The previous winter season he had leased the townhouse to Robert Hazlehurst McAdoo and his wife, Lorraine Arnold Rowan.  Born in 1898, McAdoo had served as a Naval Aviator in World War I.  He and Lorraine were married on December 24, 1923.

On December 16, 1925, The New York Times announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. McAdoo, now at the Gladstone, will go next week to their house at 11 East Eightieth Street."

Lorraine Rowan McAdoo, photo by Edward Steichen, Vogue, November 15, 1925 (copyright expired)

Lorraine was the daughter of the late Robert Arnold Rowan and Laura Madeline Schwartz.  By the time she married McAdoo, her mother had become a princess, the wife of Prince Domenica Napoleone Orsini of Italy.  The New York Evening Post said, "The Orsini family is one of the oldest and most aristocratic in Italy."

On October 5, 1926, The New York Evening Post reported that Prince and Princess Orsini had arrived on the Aquitania and were staying at the St. Regis Hotel for two weeks.  The article said the couple "will visit relations of the Princess," including, of course, the McAdoos.

W. Kingsland Macy sold 11 East 80th Street to Henry Dickerson Steers and his wife, the former Adeline Boardman Coster, that year.  Steers was the president and founder of the sand and gravel corporation Henry Steers, Inc.  The couple, who were married in Grace Church on October 22, 1889, had two sons, Henry Coster and Charles Robert Coster.  Henry was associated with his father's firm.  He was 36 years old and still unmarried when his parents purchased 11 East 80th Street.  

The Steers' country estate was in Port Chester, New York.  Adeline and Henry were there on November 4, 1928 when Henry died at the age of 63.  His entire estate, equal to $26.3 million today, was left to Adeline.

Henry Coster Steers finally found romance in Mercer Dunlop.  The couple was married in the Plaza Hotel on February 3, 1930.  Charles stood in as his best man.  

In the meantime, following her mourning period, Adeline had returned to society life.  On November 25, 1932, for instance, The New York Sun reported that she "will give a dinner party at her house on Tuesday, December 27, before the junior holiday dance at the Plaza Hotel."  The event was in honor of Adeline's granddaughter Phebe.

Adeline Steers sold 11 East 80th Street in 1942.  That year the house was converted to apartments.  Among the initial tenants were Army Major Dexter S. French and his wife, the former Cuyler Nicoll; and Dr. Alfred Weil.  Weil was a diagnostician and radiologist.  He father, Dr. Adolf Weil, was the discoverer of Weil's disease, better known today as leptospirosis.

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim occupied an apartment here in the mid-1950s.  While living here he worked on the lyrics of West Side Story and Gypsy.  On September 26, 1957, he wrote to Leonard Bernstein, saying in part:

West Side Story means much more to me than a first show, more even than the privilege of collaborating with you and Arthur [Laurents] and Jerry [i.e. Jerome Robbins].  It marks the beginning of what I hope will be a long and enduring friendship.  Friendship is a thing I give and receive rarely, but for what it's worth I want you to know you have it from me always.

Among Sondheim's neighbors in the building was children's author, photographer and model Dare Wright.  While Sondheim was working on West Side Story, she was finishing her first book, The Lonely Doll, published in 1957.  It made The New York Times Best Seller list that year.  (In 2010, the British newspaper The Guardian would list The Lonely Doll as one of the ten best illustrated children's books "of all time.")

As early as 2023, the Meredith Rosen Gallery occupied space in the building.  From the exterior, the Bloomingdale mansion is essentially unchanged since its completion in 1910.

photographs by the author