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
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