The Joseph Ecclesine House at 127 East 15th Street

 

No. 127 (left) was originally a mirror-image of No. 129.

Rather than a erecting a commodious home on the 25-foot wide plot at 64-66 East 15th Street around 1847, the owner opted for two 12-1/2-foot wide houses.  (The addresses would be renumbered 127 and 129 in 1868.)  Three stories tall and faced in orange brick, the mirror-image Greek Revival style residences sat atop brownstone-clad basements.  Their narrow proportions necessitated skinny doorways with scaled-down frames and paired openings on the upper floors.  

As early as 1850, Ann Leah Brown, the widow of Calvin Brown, lived in 64 East 15th Street.  She listed her profession that year as "spiritual manifestations."  Ann was on the forefront of the spiritualism movement, which had just begun in America in 1848.  She held seances in her parlor here, as described in her advertisement in the New-York Tribune on June 17, 1854:

Spiritualism--Mrs. Ann Leah Brown, formerly Mrs. Fish, will hold Circles at No. 64 East 15th st., near 4th-av, every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, from 7 to 9 o'clock, and on the same days will wait on private parties calling between 10 A.M. and 3 P.M.  Admission to Evening Circles $1; Private Parties $5 the hour.

Ann Leah Brown's sessions were profitable.  The hourly rate for the group sessions would translate to about $195 in 2026.

Brown remained here until early in 1855 when an advertisement in the New York Herald on March 5 offered, "To Let--A small house, No. 64 East Fifteenth street, with gas, hot and cold water and bath.  Rent $600."  (It was a reasonable price, equal to about $1,875 per month today, especially considering that most homes did not have indoor water or illuminating gas at the time.)

The house saw at least three tenants through 1861 before Joseph Brodie and Marcella Keating Ecclesine purchased it.  Brodie was born in Wicklow, Ireland in 1820 and the family arrived in New York City in 1856.  The couple had two sons, Thomas Charles Edward and Joseph Jr.

Ecclesine co-founded the publishing firm Grierson & Ecclesine.  Unexpectedly for the period, Marcella listed her profession as "editor."  Starting in 1862, Grierson & Ecclesine published the American Underwriter's Manual and Insurance Directory.

from the collection of the Library of Congress

Despite what must have been snug conditions, the Ecclesines took in a boarder, Preserved Gaige.  Born in Bristol, Vermont around 1816, the bachelor was a stockbroker.  (Although he got a late start, in 1866, three years after leaving East 15th Street, the 50-year-old was married.  He and Emma F. Gaige would have five children.)

Thomas Charles Edward Ecclesine did not go into the family's business.  He graduated from Columbia College in 1870 and from Columbia Law School in 1871.  

In 1871, the Ecclesines' boarders were Thomas J. Davis (who was a widower) and his four adult children: James T., Albert H., Charlie J., and Maud.  Davis was an oculist and in 1849 established the unusual and profitable business of creating prosthetic eyeballs.

On the morning of August 20 that year, the senior Davis "was found at Fifteenth street and Third avenue...with a pistol shot wound in his shoulder," as reported by The Sun.  The article explained, "he said that he had been shot in Fourteenth street near Third avenue by an unknown ruffian."  As it turned out, it was not a random shooting.  The New York Times explained that the English-born Davis had been shot "during an affray," although he did not know the man who shot him.  "He was taken to his home," said the article.

Two years later, on Christmas Eve 1873, Thomas J. Davis died in the East 15th Street house at the age of 53.  No doubt because of the holiday, his funeral in the parlor was not held until four days later.  (One imagines that the coffin in the parlor put a pall on the Ecclesines' Christmas festivities.)

The Davis boys remained with the Ecclesines.  James took over his father's business, operating it in the basement of the house.  He also improved his father's prosthetics.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 4, 1878 read:

James T. Davis, Inventor and only maker of the Improved Artificial Human Eye, acknowledged by the faculty to be the only correct imitation of nature in the world.  No. 127 East 15th st., between 3d and 4th avs.

The label in the lid of this box of artificial eyeballs in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History reads, "Prof. James T. Davis, 127 East 15 St. New York" 

Charlie Davis remained at least through 1879.  By the time Albert was wed to Clara A. Glyn in St. George's Episcopal Church on September 10, 1884, James was already married.  

In the meantime, Thomas Ecclesine was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1877 and served in 1878 and '79.  

With the Davis population thinning, the Ecclesines took in two new boarders, John Simpson Hall and his wife Lizzie Newell.  Born in November 1840, Hall had served in the Civil War before turning to acting under the stage name J. Clinton Hall.  An actress, Lizzie often appeared with him on the stage.

Early in December 1889, John Simpson Hall played the part of the Count in Almost a Life at the Theatre Comique.  On December 11 he complained of not feeling well and did not appear at the theater the following night.  He died of pneumonia on December 17, 1889 at the age of 49.  His funeral was held in the Church of the Transfiguration, the "Actor's Church."

Earlier that year, James T. Davis had warmed the hearts of New Yorkers.  On January 21, 1889, The Evening World published a letter from a young woman named Mary Jones.  It said in part, "I am a poor girl out of employment, and had the misfortune to lose one of my eyes some years ago."  She said she had no means with which to purchase an artificial eye.  Two days later, the newspaper reported that James T. Davis had written, "I will be pleased to give Miss Jones an artificial eye, the best that can be made, and adapted to the socket."

Mary Jones was given a temporary eye while a permanent one was "made and properly fitted."  The Evening World noted, "the professor's usual charges for making artificial eyes are from $25 to $50.  He fits them so that they move in the socket just like a real eye and do not have the glassy stare ordinarily noticed in many such artificial members."  (The cost of the more expensive model would translate to about $1,760 today.)

It was around that time that the exterior received a striking updating with neo-Grec details.  The stone entrance frame was modernized and elaborate Greek-inspired lintels installed.

Astonishingly, given the restricted proportions of their residence, in 1892 the Ecclesine family listed the address as "boarding house."  By then, Albert Davis had joined his brother's business, which was now known as J. T. and A. H. Davis.

James T. Davis died in the house on May 13, 1899 at the age of 58.  In reporting his death, The New York Times said that he "treated free of charge many poor people.  He had a valuable collection of over 200 paintings."  (Where he hung them is a mystery.)  His wife, Mary Louise remained with the Ecclesine family.  Albert continued the business in the basement level.

On February 1, 1904, Joseph B. Ecclesine transferred one-half interest in 127 East 15th Street to Joseph, Jr. and the other to Edward B. Ecclesine, obviously a relative.  (Thomas Ecclesine had died in 1895.)

As some point, the title to 127 East 15th Street was transferred into Mary Louis Davis's name.  She died in April 2, 1925 and on November 24 The New York Sun reported that the estate had sold the house.

Once a mirror image of 129, the house next door got a substantial make-over in the 1880s or '90s.  image via the NYC Dept f Records & Information Services.

It was purchased by Mary Louis's niece, Dorothy Davis, the daughter of Albert Davis.  She had been operating the artificial eyeball business since her father's death.  Her widowed sister, Emma Davis Hill, moved in with her.  

Writing in The New York Sun on May 26, 1927, Maxine McBride said, "Miss Dorothy Davis is a glass eye manufacturer, probably the only woman in this country enrolled in her peculiar profession."  The article explained, "when Miss Davis was barely seventeen, she was left with her father's business upon her shoulders and scores of patients turning to Miss Davis for aid."  McBride wrote, "She has turned her brownstone house at 127 East Fifteenth street into a combined office, laboratory and home--and there with her eleven-month-old baby daughter and pet Pomeranian and cat runs an amicable family household as well as highly profitable business." 

Emma Davis Hill died here on August 20, 1928.  Her funeral was held in the house three days later.

It is unclear when Dorothy Davis left East 15th Street.  The house was renovated in 1971 and 1978 and it was most likely during one of those projects that the Victorian details were removed from the facade.

The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the basement level.  There are three apartments in the building today.

photographs by the author