D. & J. Jardine's 1869 108 East 10th Street

 

image via realtor.com

In 1867, just two years after John and David Jardine formed their architectural office of D. & J. Jardine, builder James Mulry hired them to design three four-story rowhouses at 106 to 110 East 10th Street just east of Third Avenue.  The resultant brick-faced residences were three bays wide.  Trimmed in brownstone, they sat upon rusticated stone English basements.  Their identical, Italianate-style design included prominent molded cornices with foliate brackets over the openings and cast metal cornices with paneled friezes and leafy scrolled brackets.

The middle house at 108 East 10th Street was operated as a boarding house from the beginning.  Living here in 1868 were the families of Asa S. Blake, who ran an express business; and physician William S. Townsend.  

An advertisement in January 1870 offered, "2 beautifully furnished rooms, with board; also back Parlor to gentleman and wife or single gentlemen.  Terms very moderate."

There were far more boarders in 1871, including the Austin family.  James and William K. Austin were partners in the gas firm James Austin & Co. at 7 Bowling Green and 311 Avenue A.  George and William Lewis were both clerks; as were Lawrence Stein and Walter Wilson.  Also boarding here that year were reporter Theodore Schenck and broker Henry M. Stanton.

Anna M. L. Baron ran the boarding house as early as 1876 and it appears she scaled back her tenant list.  Only Robert Ellis, a mirror dealer; and Dr. Galen W. Lovatt were listed at the address.

In 1881 two boarders arrived who would shine the spotlight onto 108 East 10th Street.  Actress Marie Prescott was born in Kentucky in 1850.  She first appeared on stage in Cincinnati as Lady Macbeth.  Although married with two children, she and delicatessen store owner, William Perzel, became romantically involved.  She hired him as her manager.

According to Kevin Lane Dearinger, in his Marie Prescott: A Star of Some Brilliancy, in the beginning of 1881, Perzel "rented five rooms at 108 East Tenth Street, in New York City, and as his two children were away at school, he had proposed that Prescott 'take half the flat.'"  By now, the actress had obtained a divorce.  Dearinger writes, "They were already engaged at the time...and 'shared the same table at meals,' even if they had not yet 'shared the expenses of living.'"

Marie Prescott moved in upon returning from appearing in the West.  She later explained that she "took one-half of Mr. Perzel's flat on the express condition that she should pay half the expenses.  Her French maid was with her and occupied the apartments with her."  Despite the respectable arrangement, it infuriated her press agent, Ernest Harvier, who had become infatuated with her.

Harvier created "a scene" at 108 East 10th Street, according to Prescott, when he arrived and pressed her to become her lover.  She said "She ordered him out of the house, whereupon he became angry and said, "I have spent three years to put you where you are and I will spend twenty-three years to pull you down."

Ernest Harvier told the American News Company that the star was cohabitating with Perzel and that she was pregnant with his baby.  The newspaper ran the story and in October 1882, Marie Prescott sued for $20,000 damages.  The New York Times reported that the courtroom on October 17 was filled with about 300 men who "stood before her and gazed down upon her in rude curiosity."

Marie Prescott, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Testifying that day was her former landlord, Amelia C. Tate, who "testified that she knew of nothing against Miss Prescott's character," and Dr. Miles H. Nash, who swore that Marie was not pregnant and suffered only from "a not unusual female weakness."  On the stand, Marie was asked about Harvier's testimony.  Always the actress, The New York Times reported, "A convulsive shudder ran through Miss Prescott's slender fame.  She grasped the railing of the Judge's desk tightly, and in a voice broken with sobs she slowly said: 'It is an infamous lie from beginning to end.'"

Marie won her case and was awarded $12,500--about $396,000 in 2026 terms.

Thomas Jefferson Regan, an "inspector of electric lights and gas mains," boarded here in 1890 when he was the brunt of a political joke.  On August 7 that year, The Evening World began an article saying, "There is only one Thomas Jefferson Regan in this town and he is one of Tammany's shining lights in the Fourteenth Assembly District."  The article went on to say, "A great number of Mr. Regan's friends who saw the above advertisement this morning were very much worried about him."  The notice read:

$100 Reward for any information of Thomas Jefferson Regan; has not been seen since July 31, at Washington Park.  Arthur Donnelly, 110 Madison av.

On the afternoon of July 31, the employees of Percy Rockwell's bakery hosted a picnic in Washington Square and among the "honored guests" was Regan.  A friend explained to a reporter from The Evening World, "They opened 100 bottles of fizz in our honor, and the result was that we all got feeling pretty lively."  Nevertheless, he said, "The boys have been kidding Jeff again.  He hasn't been missing at all, and I was with him all last evening."

Regan did not necessarily think the prank was humorous.  The article said, "His friends think that he will try to find out who perpetrated the hoax upon him, and will make things warm for the practical joker if he discovers him."

By the turn of the century, the tenant list was peppered with a few less professional types.  Patrick Sarsfield worked as a laborer in 1899, when he was arrested for drunkenness.  On August 9, The Sun reported that he "died of acute alcoholism on Blackwell's Island on Sunday and his body was removed to the morgue on Monday."  His brother and sister viewed the body there the next day.  "The face was discolored and there was blood upon it," said the article.  The siblings accused guards on the island of beating their brother to death, as had recently been the case of inmate James McGuire.

A heart rending story played out here in the summer of 1907.  Rolford Miller and Eva Fisk came to New York City from Washington D.C. in June and took a room here.  Miller had been employed as a private detective, but became "sickly and unable to work," according to Eva.  On July 8, Eva was arrested on Third Avenue as "a street walker."

Eva appeared in the Yorkville police court the following morning.  As her case was called, Rolford Miller entered the courtroom.  The Sun reported, "He appealed to Magistrate Wahle to discharge his wife, saying that he did not know that she spoke to men on the streets and promising that she would never do it again."  He explained that they had recently been married in Washington.

When Wahle pressed Eva, she admitted that the two were not married, that her parents lived in Plattsburg, New York, and "she was deeply in love with the young man and had been supporting him for some time" since he could no longer work.

Hearing that, Magistrate Wahle sentenced Miller to six months in the workhouse "as a vagrant," and said he would hold Eva in jail "until he could communicate with her parents."  Eva refused to disclose her parents' names and pleaded with Wahle, "Send me to jail too.  I want to go with Rolf."  She cried, "You can send me to prison, but I will not tell.  Do please let me go with him."  The article concluded, "The Magistrate turned the girl over to Matron Lynch of the court prison until to-morrow to see if she will give the address of her parents in the meantime."

Several of the tenants continued to be on the wrong side of law enforcement.  In 1909, John Mahoney was arrested for robbery, in March 1914, Meyer Lewis was convicted of pickpocketing, and three months later Joseph Gordon was arrested for armed robbery.

About 20 roomers lived at 108 East 10th Street in 1921, which was owned by Adolf Orgus and his wife.  The couple lived in the basement.  Among their roomers were 33-year-old Edith Medvin, who lived on the second floor; and 57-year-old Anna Hansel, who lived on the top floor.  Anna was "a crippled piano teacher," according to The New York Herald.

The building was quiet on Christmas night 1921.  The New-York Tribune said that only Edith Medvin and Anna Hansel "had no better place to spend Christmas than the rooms in which they lived."  At around 9:00, a passerby "noticed that a flickering glare framed the window shades on each floor and that smoke was seeping out of the door cracks," reported the New-York Tribune.  He turned in an alarm and when firefighters arrived, according to the New York Herald, "the hallway and stairs had become a furnace and it was half an hour before firemen were able to enter."

Someone in the crowd told Acting Battalion Chief Quinn that they had heard screaming coming from the blazing house before the engines arrived.  When firefighters finally could enter, they found Edith Medvin in her room, "burned about the head and upper part of her body," according to the New York Herald.  She was taken to Bellevue Hospital "so severely burned she probably will die," said the article.  

 

The New-York Tribune reported, "On the top floor in the hallway they found the body Mrs. Hansel."  Her clothing had been burned away.  Ironically, firefighters said that had she remained in her room, she probably would have survived, "as the house aside from the hallway was hardly touched by the fire."

The fire damage was repaired and 108 East 10th Street returned to a rooming house.  In 1922, Milton Pasky took a room here.  He lived in Baltimore where the 28-year-old worked as a baker's assistant.  He had arranged time off with his employer to come to New York City to find his missing sweetheart.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

A few months earlier, Milton's fiancée proposed that she would come to New York where she "could earn more money here as a stenographer" towards their wedding.  Once here, she wrote every day.  But little by little the letters came less frequently until they stopped and Milton's letters were returned stamped, "Not at this address."

The New York Herald reported on August 11, 1922 that Milton, "tucked his revolver into his hip pocket and came north to find the girl.  He and the revolver obtained a furnished room at 108 East Tenth street."  After a week of searching, on August 9, Milton ran into a female friend from Baltimore.  He asked about his missing girlfriend.

"Why, Milton," she replied, "didn't you hear?  Why, I thought everybody knew.  She's married.  The nicest fellow, too.  They got the prettiest flat.  I was up there last night.  Such a party, Milton.  Want her address?"

The crestfallen Milton did not want the address.  Now penniless and broken hearted, he walked into a pawnshop with the only thing he had of value, his revolver.

"Can you gimme enough on this to buy a ticket to Baltimore?" he asked the broker.

Unfortunately for Milton, Detective Casseti was in the shop at the time.  He arrested Milton Pasky as "a violator of the Sullivan Law."  (The 1911 Sullivan Law required a license to carry a concealed weapon.)  The "sad Baltimorean," as described by the New York Herald, was jailed in The Tombs downtown.

Sometimes tragic, sometimes criminal, and more often colorful roomers continued to live here.  Harry Bailey, who rented a room in 1931, was arrested for working in a speakeasy and selling drinks to a Prohibition agent.  Hyman Rosenberg was one of a dozen striking textile workers arrested on July 18, 1940 when a "mass picketing demonstration," as described by The New York Times, "culminated in a near-riot in front of City Hall."  And Aurelio Fazio was involved in a bizarre workplace incident on June 23, 1945.  Fazio worked in a barbershop at 671 Third Avenue.  For no apparent reason, while another barber was cutting a customer's hair that afternoon, Fazio went berserk and attacked his co-worker with his razor.  Leonardo Pascalicchio told investigators, "I was cutting hair this way for the customer, and the barber in the third chair, without warning, he tried to cut my head off."  Pascalicchio suffered a slash to his neck that ran nearly ear-to-ear.

A renovation completed in 1962 resulted in an apartment in the basement and a single-family home on the upper floors.

The 1890 Elmhurst Apartments - 212 West 105th Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

In 1889, Diedrich Tragman hired architect John C. Burne to design two identical apartment buildings at 210 and 212 West 105th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and The Boulevard (renamed Broadway in 1899).  

Each of the buildings cost Tragman $20,000 (or about $631,000 in 2026) to erect.  Unfortunately, he overextended himself and on May 10, 1890 he was forced to sell the "two five-story unfinished double flats in process of erection, requiring for the purpose of their completion an expenditure of about six thousand dollars," according to court papers later.  The buyer, Frederick M. Littlefield, completed the buildings.  (The term "double flat" referred to the configuration of two apartments per floor, east and west.)

The western building, 212 West 105th Street, was called the Elmhurst Apartments.  Like its architectural sibling, it was a happy marriage of Romanesque Revival and neo-Grec styles (the former appearing at the first and fifth floors). Paired windows on the first floor were engulfed by vast arches.  They flanked the brownstone-framed entrance above a short stoop.  Intricate swirling carvings filled its spandrels.

Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta, the three-story midsection featured neo-Grec-style stone lintels, foliate terra cotta bandcourses and decorative panels.  The elements of the top floor included a dramatic brick arch above two fully arched openings.  It was supported by paired brick pilasters with terra cotta capitals.  A highly unusual pressed cornice with geometric horizontal and vertical lines completed the design.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Each apartment held "six large, light rooms," according to an advertisement.  They rented for $25 a month, or about $1,000 today.  Among the initial tenants were builder and contractor Ernest Wetterer, and New York Life Insurance Company agent Silas E. Pearsall.

The middle-class residents were affluent enough to afford domestic help.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on January 18, 1893, read: "Housework--a girl, 16 to 17, to help with housework and washing; wages $5 or $6.  Mrs. Garrison, 212 West 105th st."  The higher figure would translate to about $215 today.  

Mary and H. D. Hubener purchased 212 West 105th Street in August 1906.  Two months later, "a heap of kerosene-soaked rags was found in the cellar," reported The New York Times, which said the "attempt to burn the building was reported to the police, but they were unable to get a clew to the firebug."  Mary Hubener had her suspicions, though.  She and her husband had previously owned an apartment house where they were harassed by a "woman firebug."  

The vengeful arsonist had only started, however.  A few months later, The Brooklyn Citizen reported, "The tenants of the house...had about forgotten this fire when on Dec. 1 another blaze was discovered among some furniture in the cellar.  Three days later this was discovered ablaze again, and the terror began to seize upon the tenants."

At 8:45 on the night of December 6, 1906, another rubbish fire was discovered in the cellar of the building and four nights later another was set in the hallway.  On January 7, 1907, the New York Herald reported on yet another fire, saying, "This was the fifth fire of undoubted incendiary origin that had been discovered in the house within two weeks."  On the same day, The Brooklyn Citizen reported that police "got information to-day that a woman firebug" was bent on destroying "the handsome ten-family apartment house."  Mary Hubener told the police the woman's name.  

The New York Herald added, "the place has a reputation of being a hoodoo house."  (The term meant it was cursed.)  Mary Hubener told a reporter from The Brooklyn Citizen, "These fires have about ruined me.  Nobody will live in the house."  The New York Herald reported that the repeated attempts to burn the building resulted in its being "almost deserted by its tenants.  Three of ten families were left and these had given notice of their intention to take an early departure."

The Hubeners apparently gave up.  On April 30, 1907, The New York Times reported that they had sold the building.  The fires ceased.

212 West 105th Street (right) is identical to its neighbor at 210.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Somewhat shockingly for the times, 26-year-old Florence Sohmer lived here on her own in 1911.  On the evening of August 6 that year, three teenaged males knocked on her door "with a letter purporting to come from a friend," as reported by The Evening World.  While she started reading the letter, one of them pulled out a revolver, "while another hit her over the head with a blackjack," said the article.  Florence Sohmer screamed, frightening her assailants and causing them to flee.  Florence's shrieks had alerted passersby.  The Evening World said the men "ran, with a crowd following into Morningside Park."  The trio, whose ages ranged from 17 to 19, were later captured.

Living here around the time was French-born Marie Escande and her daughter, Charlotte.  Marie worked as the companion of wealthy widow Dorcas Knox Braisted, who lived in the Hotel Gotham on Fifth Avenue.  Mrs. Braisted died at her summer home in White Plains on March 24, 1925.  The New York Times reported, "Mme. Marie Escande of 212 West 105th Street...will receive an annuity of $1,800."  The annual windfall would equal more than $32,000 today.

A tenant named Thylstrup also worked for himself.  Moving in around 1915, he remained here into the 1920s.  His advertisements over the years never changed: "Painter, paperhanger, kalsominer, first class; has tools; reasonable."  (A skilled craftsman, a kalsominer applied kalsomine to ceilings, resulting in a matte finish.)

A replacement door sits within the carved brownstone frame.  photo by Anthony Bellov

There are still just two apartments per floor in the building that lost its name decades ago.  Other than a shocking coat of bright turquoise paint on the cornice, little has changed externally to the 135 year old building.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Lost James B. Finnen House - 147 East 126th Street

 

Charles Von Urban photographed the vintage structure in 1932.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

In the years just following the end of the Civil War, two-story frame houses began dotting East 126th Street.  Their addresses were listed in directories through 1869 simply as "East 126th Street" since actual numbers would not be assigned until the following year.

James B. Finnen, a builder, occupied 147 East 126th Street that year, and it is likely he constructed it.  The clapboard, vernacular style building sat upon a stone basement.  Its naive design was not the product of a professional architect, but was the work of the builder.  Three bays wide, its single-doored entrance harkened to Greek Revival prototypes of a generation earlier.  The projecting wooden cornice below the peaked roof was supported by three utilitarian brackets.

In the rear yard was a second, smaller house.  Both buildings would see a regular turnover of occupants.  In 1873, Walter L. Thompson and his wife, Maria, occupied one building and Alexander Rogers and his family lived in the other.  Thompson worked as a clerk and Rogers was in the stone business.

Walter and Maria Thompson's baby girl, Loretta, was born on August 18, 1872.  Sadly, she died one month after her first birthday, on September 24, 1873.  Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

As early as 1876, William Ellis, a laborer, and his family occupied the rear house.  He and his wife had four children, Nellie, Mamie, Harry, and Edward (known as Eddie).  At the time, the Pabor family lived in the rear house next door at 145 East 126th Street.  

Around 1881, Pabors moved into the front house at No. 147.  Born in 1848, David Simon Pabor was a clerk.  He and his wife, Eliza Boazman, who was born in 1855, had four children, Catherine (known as Katie), Harry Munson, Lucy E., and David Jr.  

David Pabor died here on October 18, 1883 at the age of 36.  His funeral was held in the house on October 20.

Eliza Pabor and her children remained here.  The Ellis and Pabor children had been playmates for years.  In 1889, The Evening World initiated its "Sick Babies Fund" that solicited donations of clothing and money for "the babes of the poor."  The Ellis and Pabor children were moved and they organized an "entertainment" with several of the neighborhood children.

On August 19, 1889, the newspaper reprinted their letter: 

Please find inclosed [sic] $8.50, the proceeds of our second entertainment, held at 147 East One Hundred and Twenty-sixth street, on Thursday evening, Aug. 15, 1889, for the benefit of your Sick Babies' Fund held by the undersigned.

The children, the oldest of whom was Catherine at age 15, had raised the equivalent of $300 in 2026.  Their efforts did not stop with that event.  

The following year, on August 12, 1890, The Evening World reported, "Among the many Harlemites who became interested in The Evening World's efforts to raise a fund to send doctors among the sick babies was Miss Mamie Ellis, a pretty dark-eyed girl, of 147 East One Hundred and Twenty-sixth street."  The article explained that Mamie had "enlisted a corps of playmates and made arrangements for a rousing benefit."

The Harlem Democratic Club donated the use of its hall.  This year, Mamie Ellis convinced her teacher, Miss McKee, to help.  The children practiced for weeks before the event, which was held on August 8, 1890.  The article said, "the hall was crowded."  Among the extensive list of participants were familiar names.  Mamie Ellis recited "Asleep at the Switch" and sang, "Anchored."  Nellie Ellis recited "Singen on the Rhine," and Eddie Ellis recited "Pat and the Pig."  Harry Pabor was involved as well, reciting "Barbara Frietchie."  The benefit garnered $59.45--equal to more than $2,000 today.

Around this time, Captain Harry Munson Sr. and Jr., moved in with the Pabors.  The elder man appears to have been Eliza's maternal uncle.  Born in South Amboy, New Jersey in 1808, The Daily Argus described him as, "one of the oldest and best known oysterman of Long Island Sound."  Munson started in the oyster business in 1821.  According to the New York Herald, "He was among the first to learn the secret of replanting oyster beds with the small oysters which before this had been thrown overboard as worthless."

After his retirement in 1861, Munson opened a saloon on Park Row called "The Old Reliable."  Before moving into the East 126th Street house, he lived on City Island.  Remarkably fit for his age, in 1890, "he rowed from Harlem Bridge to City Island in a substantial rowboat, in which he spent many days at fishing and rowing about the Harlem River and the Sound," said the New York Herald.

Harry Munson Sr. died here on January 4, 1893 at the age of 85.  The Daily Argus attributed his death to "a stroke of paralysis."

Now grown, on August 5, 1895 Harry Munson Pabor signed a petition requesting the Board of Aldermen to consider "the necessity for the bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."  By now, Catherine was listed as a dressmaker, running her business from the house.

Harry Munson by no means followed his father's career in oysters.  He founded the New York Bill Posting Company and in 1897 described himself in the Trow's Directory as a "bill poster and display advertising contractor."  

Trow's City Directory, 1897 (copyright expired)

Following his marriage, Harry Munson and his wife appeared in the society pages.  The couple maintained a country home in Munson, New York.  (The town was named for his father.)  On December 2, 1897, for instance, The Queens County Sentinel reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Harry Munson have returned to New York, at 147 East 126th Street.  Mr. Munson expects to spend a portion of the Winter in the South."

At the time of the article, Eliza Pabor and her unmarried children had left East 126th Street.  (Eliza would live until 1939, dying at the age of 84.)  The Munsons lived on the upper floor of 147 East 126th Street and Harry installed a "branch office" of the New York Bill Posting Company in the parlor floor.  In doing so, he made no alterations to the exterior of the house.

One original two-over-two window survived on the first floor in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By 1912, Munson had divested himself from the New York Billposting Company.  C. H. Taylor now managed the firm, a branch of which still occupied the first floor.  When Vincenzo Celenza purchased the property in May 1920, it was still described as a "dwelling."

By the late Depression years, the Bronx Pattern & Model Works occupied the basement and first floor.  It advertised, "wood and metal patterns, machinery, automobile ornamental work."

The second floor continued to be residential.  An advertisement in the New York Amsterdam News on May 23, 1964 offered, "Large and small front room."  Against all odds, the wooden relic survived unaltered until its demolition in 1990, replaced by a six-floor apartment building.

The Sun-Ray Yarn Building - 349 Grand Street

 

photo by Carole Teller

In reporting on the "inventions and improvements" exhibited in the Annual Fair of the American Institute of New-York, the October 1833 issue of Mechanics' Magazine noted, "Mr. F. Murphy's exhibition of blacking will, if properly appreciated, make him a shining character...He makes it at 349 Grand street, and let it be remembered that it is American."  Francis Murphy would soon have to find another spot to make his improved shoe polish.  Within a few years, his vintage structure was replaced with a three-story house and store.

Faced in running bond red brick, its design most likely drew from the current Greek Revival or Italianate style.  In 1840, Benjamin Stimpson, Jr., a hatter, and his family lived upstairs while he ran his store downstairs.  Sharing the upper portion in 1847 were Gertrude Pearsall, the widow of Abijah Pearsall; and "segarmaker" William Fick.  The commercial space was now home to the Tice & Abbott bakery, run by Peter Tice and Samuel P. Abbott.

Drastic change soon came when Joseph Ochs and his family moved in.  He opened his "dining saloon" in the former bakery space.  Ochs also operated another dining saloon at 3 Cedar Street.  His venture here, however, was short-lived.  In March 1853, he advertised:

A public house for sale--A barroom, with restaurant and club room attached for sale low to a cash purchaser.  The house is doing a good business, and is in one of the best locations in the city.  For particulars, apply at No. 349 Grand street.

Marcus Nehab converted the space for his ribbons store.  In the meantime, William Seaman lived upstairs.  He was irate in 1854 when unflattering rumors about him were circulated.  In August he placed an announcement in the New York Herald saying,

$50 Reward--Whereas some person unknown to the subscriber [i.e., Seaman], has been circulating false and scandalous reports concerning him, the above reward will be cheerfully paid to any one who will furnish such information as may lead to the conviction of the one who circulated the slander.

Seaman's reward would equal about $1,950 in 2026.

Aaron Phillips took over the store around 1857.  He would operate his dry goods store for years while he and his family occupied the upper floors.  

In 1861, the Union Home and School was established to care for the children of soldiers killed in battle.  Following the conflict, the facility continued and on February 1, 1867, a lottery for its benefit was held.  The following day The New York Times reported on the winners, among whom was G. A. Phillips, who won $100 (the windfall would translate to $2,000 today).  Presumably, G. A. Phillips was Aaron Phillips's son.

The dry goods store was taken over by brothers Jacob and Leopold Diamond in 1867.  Change came again in 1871 when the store became a branch of the M. H. Moses & Co. tea shops.  It was one of 15 tea shops the firm operated throughout the city.

It may have been Moses H. Moses who updated the facade.  Impressive Renaissance Revival-style cast metal architraves were applied to the upper openings and an ornate cornice that included the street number was installed.

photograph by Carole Teller

Mary Morris was the widow of shoemaker Matthew Morris.  Upon his death, she took the reins of the company and in 1879 leased 349 Grand Street, installing her shoe store here and moving her family into the upper floors.  Mary had at least two sons and two daughters.  

One of the daughters, who signed her name "Miss L. Morris," thought that a joke that she invented in 1888 was so clever that she should share it with the world.  She wrote to the editor of The Evening World on July 31:

The other day I remarked to a group of friends in talking about a child that happened to be standing near by: "I think that child will be a teacher some day because he has a pupil in his eye."

By 1890, Mary's sons had joined the business, which was renamed Morris Bros.  At the time, clerks throughout the city had mobilized to promote the "half holiday" concept.  It proposed that during the hot summer months, shops would be closed on Saturday afternoons.  On August 6, 1890, a reporter from The World interviewed Max Morris about the movement.  He compassionately said, "If the others close we shall cheerfully follow suit," adding, "We are only employing two clerks now, and they get off whenever they ask the privilege.  The clerks ought to have the half day, by all means."

After having leased the property for 12 years, on April 3, 1891 Mary Morris purchased 349 Grand Street.  Following her death, on February 26, 1904 her children sold the building to Louis Minsky.  On March 30, the Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly reported:

Morris, the Grand street shoeman, who has conducted a store at 349 Grand street, under the style of Morris Bros. for several years, will open a new store on 8th avenue, between 37th and 38th street, about May 1st.

Minsky quickly resold the building to Frederick Siegler and his wife, Paulina.  (Confusingly, Siegler's name would also be spelled Zeigler and Siegel in documents.)  The couple moved into the upper floors and opened their fancy goods store downstairs.

On April 23, 1906, The Evening World reported on ten young women who were "shop girls on a weekday, but turned sleuth of a Sunday here of late."  They intended to gather evidence against "shopkeepers, dealers in dry goods, notions and the like," said the article, who kept their businesses open on Sundays.

The previous day, a "good-looking young woman" named "Miss Marcus," according to The Evening World, had entered Siegel's store and asked for three yards of blue ribbon.  "The clerk wasn't certain about selling the ribbon, and he called the boss."  Miss Marcus later alleged that Siegler directed, "Sure, sell her.  Only because it is Sunday she must pay ten cents a yard instead of seven and a half."

Later, Katie Burns entered the store.  The New York Herald reported, "Morris Lieberman, a clerk, sold her a pair of hose with the knowledge and consent of Ziegler."

In court the next day, the magistrate asked Siegler if he kept his store closed on the sabbath.  The Jewish shop owner replied that, "his store was always closed until 4 o'clock on Saturday," according to the New York Herald, which concluded, "'Discharged,' said the magistrate."

In February 1910, Siegel hired architect O. Reissmann to make interior alterations, including the reconfiguration of walls.  The changes cost the equivalent of $51,000 today.

In 1922, the children of Frederick and Pauline Seigler leased 349 Grand Street to Samuel Keiser "for women's wearing apparel," according to the New-York Tribune.  The lease was renewed in March 1930 for another five years.

At the end of the lease, Samuel and Abraham Friedman rented the building for their Sun-Ray Yarn Company.  The following year, in January 1936, they purchased the property.

In 1941, Sun-Ray occupied the ground floor of 351, as well.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Called Sun-Ray House, the three-story shop became a destination for its broad array of yarns.  But in February 1943, the Federal Trade Commission had a problem with S. Friedman & Sons.  The New York Times explained that the complaint charged "that they had misrepresented the fiber, material, or place or origin of some of the yarn they sell."  The Feds said, for instance, that they called "rainbow type yard" "rainbow tweed;" and instead of describing one item "mystic yarn," they marketed it as "mystic crepe."  

By then the dash had been dropped from Sunray and the store had extended into 351 Grand Street.  By 1975, it included the ground floor of 347, as well.

In 1975, Sunray Yarn had extended into 347 Grand Street.  No. 349 is at the far left.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Sunray Yarns remained at least into the 1980s.  In the early 2000s, a restaurant supply firm occupied the building.  It was replaced in 2012 by a pharmacy.  Somewhat beleaguered today, the vintage building still draws attention for its unusual window treatments.

many thanks to reader Carole Teller for prompting this post.

The 1887 Michael Hughes House - 365 West 123rd Street

 

The blocks just east of Morningside Park saw a flurry of construction in the 1880s.  In 1886, real estate developer Samuel H. Bailey purchased "the lots on the northeast corner of Ninth avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-third street," as reported by the Record & Guide and hired architect Charles E. Baxter to design a row of brownstone-faced houses on the site.  Completed on April 30, 1887, the neo-Grec-style homes were three stories tall above high English basements.  Baxter blended touches of Queen Anne into his design.  Instead of the striking copper oriels seen at the second floor of the other houses, the end homes, including 365 West 123rd Street, featured full-height angled bays.

That house became home to the Michael Hughes family.  He and his wife, the former Mary A. O'Grady, had four children, three sons and a daughter.  

The two rows of stylized acanthus leaves that decorate the cornice enhanced the Greek motif.

Hughes joined dozens of men who were "engaged in business in the northern part of the city of New York" in signing a petition to the Common Council on November 27, 1895.  Pointing out that the district "lying north of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street and fronting the Harlem river is a rapidly growing locality," they complained that the riverfront was not keeping up.  The businessmen asked for "wharves and dock facilities" which would make merchandise more easily received.

Mary was looking for a servant in September 1897.  The wording of her ad suggested the girl would not have an easy workday.  "Strong girl for general housework."

Nearly a half century after moving into the house, Michael Hughes died on March 26, 1921.  His funeral was held in Annunciation Church three days later.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Mary A. Hughes advertised 365 West 123rd Street for sale the following summer.  Her ad in the New York Herald read, "House, brownstone, 10 rooms, fine condition; could be used by two families."  It was purchased by Michael T. Reilly and his wife Catherine.  

In the fall of 1940, the Daily News challenged housewives to be a "pigskin clairvoyant" by picking the weekend's football game winners.  Of the 117,263 entries who guessed the outcome of the November 30 games, Catherine Reilly received the third prize of $25.

Michael T. Reilly sold 365 West 123rd Street in September 1941 to Thelma York for $5,500 (about $117,000 in 2026 terms).  She and her family lived here nine years, selling the house to Jacob Goodman & Co. in April 1950.

When Daisy Hatcher purchased it two years later, The New York Times described the property as a "four-story rooming house."  Among the roomers living here that year was musician and band leader Rudolph "Rudy" King.

Born in Trinidad, Rudy King introduced the steel pan to the United States in 1949.  The evolution of the steel pan began in Trinidad when empty cans were struck with bamboo shoots, according to King in an interview later.  He organized a band called the Tropican.  

Of the original row of six homes, three survive, including 365 West 123rd Street.  Greatly intact on the exterior, a renovation completed in 1989 resulted in a two-family home.''

photographs by the author

The Guy Fairfax Cary Mansion - 61 East 91st Street

 

photograph by Jim Henderson

Born in November 1879 to Clarence Cary and the former Elisabeth M. Potter, Guy Fairfax Cary was the great-grandson of the 9th Lord Fairfax (for which Fairfax County, Virginia, is named).  He was prepared for college at Groton School and received his A. B. and LL. B. degrees from Harvard in 1902 and 1904, respectively.  He was admitted to the New York bar in 1905 and became an influential attorney, the counsel to the National City Bank (later Citibank) and a trustee in the estates of William Rockefeller and Robert W. Goelet.

Shortly after the death of Arthur Scott Burden on June 15, 1921, Cary began a romance with his widow, the former Cynthia Burke Roche.  Born in April 1884 to Sir James Boothby Burke Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, and American heiress Frances Eleanor Work, Cynthia had married Burden on June 11, 1906.  The couple had a daughter, Eileen, who was born in 1911.  

Shortly after Cynthia's mourning period elapsed, the September 1922 issue of Harper's Bazar titled an article, "Newport Goes To An Expected Wedding At the Home of Mrs. Burke Roche."  The article reported, "Mrs. Arthur Scott Burden and Mr. Guy Fairfax Cary were married in Newport at Elm Court, the residence of the bride's mother, Mrs. Burke Roche," adding, "The wedding was Newport's happiest surprise of the season."  The first-time groom was 43 years old and his bride was 38.

The wedding party.  Harper's Bazar, September 1922 (copyright expired)

Eight months later, on May 26, 1923, The New York Times reported that H. H. Benkard had sold "the two private houses at 57 to 61 East Ninety-first Street," noting, "The buyer will rebuild and occupy the premises."  That buyer was Guy F. Cary who commissioned architect Mott B. Schmidt to design a replacement mansion on the site.

Schmidt had recently gained attention by transforming 19th century brownstones in Sutton Place to magnificent neo-Georgian mansions for the likes of Anne Tracy Morgan, Anne Vanderbilt, and Elisabeth Marbury.  He returned to the style for the Cary mansion.

Construction of the five-story, 51-foot-wide residence was complete in 1924 and cost $1.3 million (about $23.8 million in 2026 terms).  Faced in red Flemish bond brick, its entrance sat under an arched hood supported by fluted Scamozzi columns.  Brick quoins divided the two-story midsection into three bays.  The fourth floor, sitting upon a prominent cornice, was unexpectedly spartan.  Equally unfinished looking was the mansard with its five unassuming dormers.

Samuel H. Gottscho captured the mansion on film on April 25, 1930.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The mansion contained 23 rooms, 10 bathrooms, and two elevators.  The Carys filled the mansion with English and Continental antique furniture and a significant art collection.  The family's country home, Oak Hill, in Jericho, Long Island, was built for Cynthia's late husband in 1915, designed by John Russell Pope.  (It was at Oak Hill that Burden died following a polo playing accident.)

Oak Hill in Jericho, Long Island.  The Architecture of John Russell Pope, Volume I, 1925 (copyright expired)

Eileen Burden was 11 years old when her mother married Cary.  She would soon have two half-siblings.  Guy Fairfax Cary Jr. was born in 1923, and Cynthia Cary arrived the following year.

The winter social season of 1929-1930 was Eileen's debut.  On November 28, 1929, The New York Times reported that her parents "will give a dance on Dec. 27 at their home, 61 East Ninety-first Street, to introduce to society [their] daughter, Miss Eileen Burden."  The newspaper followed up on the "supper dance" on December 28, noting, "The guests included many of the débutantes and young men who have been seen at other parties of the season."

The following spring, Cynthia and Eileen sailed to Europe.  On May 2, 1930, The Evening Post reported that they "are returning this evening on the Aquitania."  It would be one of the last travels the mother and daughter would share.

On February 9, 1932, The New York Sun reported on the "important wedding" of Eileen Burden to Walter Maynard in the Church of the Heavenly Rest.  Cynthia Cary, who was eight, was the flower girl.  "A reception follows at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cary, 61 East Ninety-first street," said the article.

With America's entry into World War II, Guy Jr. entered the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant before the war's end.

Upon the death of Cynthia's mother in 1947, she inherited Elm Court in Newport.  The family now spent most of their summer season there.

Elm Court (original source unknown).

The Carys were at Elm Court on August 27, 1950 when Guy Fairfax Cary suffered a fatal heart attack.  He was 70 years old.  Interestingly, the East 91st Street mansion was bequeathed to Guy Jr.  Cynthia moved permanently to Elm Court shortly after her husband's death.

On August 25, 1952, The New York Times reported that the Cary mansion had been sold.  "It will be used as a nursing and convalescence home under the name of Park Town House," said the article.

photo by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York 

The Park Town House catered to well-heeled residents.  Among them over the years was art collector Richard Goetz who assembled "a collection of both modern and classic paintings valued at an estimated third of a million dollars," according to The New York Times.  Never married, upon his death here in December 1954, he left his $300,000 collection to a cousin.  (The value of the artwork would translate to about $3.5 million today.)

Stage and silent film actor Jack Devereaux was also a resident.  The son-in-law of famous actor John Drew, he died here in January 1958 at the age of 76.

Irish-American actor Jack Devereaux, Motography magazine, 1917 (copyright expired)

In 1964, the former Cary mansion was acquired by the Dalton School to house its First Program (kindergarten and first grade levels).  The facility's main location was on East 89th Street.  Founded by Helen Parkhust in 1919 as the Children's University School, it was renamed in 1924.  

On August 26, 1990, The New York Times reported, "The Dalton School has added another town house to its diverse holdings on the Upper East Side."  The school acquired the former Martha Rusk Stuphen mansion next door at 63 East 91st Street.  It enlarged the capacity of the "lower school" housed in the Cary mansion, which currently had about 400 students.

photograph by Jim Henderson