Samuel Canby Paxon married Elizabeth Drinker on July 5, 1827. The couple had eight children, only four of whom had survived when they moved into the newly built house at 187 East 15th Street (later renumbered 137) around 1851. Four stories tall and three bays wide, the design of the brick-faced residence transitioned from Greek Revival to Italianate. The arched entrance was flanked by ornately carved foliate brackets that upheld a dentiled cornice. Its style was purely Italianate. The short attic and the understated terminal cornice, however, smacked of the earlier style.
Paxson was a prominent commission merchant, a partner in the flour and grain trading firm Allen & Paxson. He had become the first president of the Corn Exchange in 1832, and was also a director in the Security Fire Insurance Company.
The Paxson were members of the Society of Friends, known commonly as the Quakers. They took in a few boarders at a time. In 1851, Hanna Barnes, a widow, and broker George M. Barnes, presumably her son, lived here; as did Thomas B. Dutcher, a commission merchant; and William Hagadorn. (Hanna Barnes would remain with the family at least through 1858.)
On May 9, 1855, Mary Drinker Paxson married William H. Cooper. The union caused problems, since the groom was not a Quaker. Mary was disowned by the Orthodox congregation in January 1856. (It appears that the family had already begun moving away from the Society of Friends at the time. In 1854, the family owned a pew in a New York City church.)
Samuel Canby Paxson died at the age of 56 on July 26, 1860. The New-York Tribune reported, "He had just taken a warm bath, when he was seized with paralysis, and died in a few minutes." (The description most likely referred to a stroke.) The article said, "there is not a clerk or laborer who had ever been employed in his service but remembered him affectionately and loved him." The funeral was held in the house on July 28, attended by the board members of the New-York Produce Exchange.
Still living with Elizabeth were her unmarried children William, Frances, known as Fannie, and Elizabeth Drinker Paxson. William was already involved in Allen & Paxson, and in 1858 its name was changed to Samuel C. Paxson, Son & Co. in his father's honor. Fannie was highly involved in the Colored Orphan Asylum and by the time of her father's death was a manager of the institution.
The Paxson family remained here until 1865. It became an upscale boarding house, operated by Hannah Ketcham. A widow and a Quaker, she may have had known Elizabeth Paxson for some time. Some of Hannah's well respected boarders would stay for years. Living here that year were Thomas G. Hunt, a merchant in "oil," and his wife. Hunt graduated from Harvard University in 1860. His wife was assistant secretary of the St. Barnabas' Industrial Association, which worked within the tenement district.
William Ransom was the principal of William A. Ransom & Co., wholesale dealers in boots and shoes. Like Mrs. Hunt, his wife was involved in charitable causes. That year she helped in fund-raising for "Mrs. Pruyn's Japan Home."
Ransom died at the age of 45 on December 5, 1875. The New-York Tribune remarked that he "was well known in the boot and shoe trade throughout the country." Hannah Ketcham's parlor was the scene of his funeral on December 7.
Hannah Ketcham died at the age of 84 on November 11, 1886. Her funeral was held in the Friends' Meeting House on Rutherford Place three days later. The East 15th Street house was inherited by Phebe S. and Doreas S. Ketcham, presumably Hannah's daughters.
On April 13, 1894, the house was purchased by David Schwartz for $18,950 (about $713,000 in 2025 terms). Born in New York City of German parents, Schwartz was the proprietor of a trunk store. Like Hannah Ketcham, he took in boarders and, perhaps not coincidentally, they were members of the Society of Friends.
New-York Tribune, October 29, 1895 (copyright expired)
Among them in 1894 were teacher S. Elizabeth Stover, who was highly involved in the Society of Friends; and Edward B. Rawson, also an educator, and his wife. Both Elizabeth and Edward Rawson would sit on the Executive Committee of the 20th Session of the Friends General Conference in 1896.
In 1895, Alexander S. Williams was nominated as the Republican candidate for State Senate. Known popularly as "Clubber Williams" and the "Czar of the Tenderloin," his career within the New York Police Department ended with the state's investigation of corruption. The New-York Tribune editorialized that his "election would be a disgrace to the city."
On October 29, the New-York Tribune reported, "To remedy this state of affairs the Good Government Club dedicated to put up a man fit to be voted for, and selected as their standard-bearer David Schwartz, of No. 137 East Fifteenth-st." The article said that, in addition to his many qualifications, Schwartz was staunchly against Prohibition. "His friends feel confident that on this platform he will win the German vote from Tammany," said the article. (Nevertheless, he was defeated by another candidate, Richard Higbie.)
In March 1900, Frederick Wrage purchased 137 East 15th Street. Among his boarders was Thomas C. Copeland. He was the secretary of the National Exposition of Children's Work, scheduled to open on February 18, 1901. On December 30, 1900, The New York Times reported that first meeting of the Executive Committee of the exposition was held here. The article said, "The exposition has the patronage of Governors of many States, the Governors General of Canada and Cuba, as well as many other prominent men."
Also living here at the time were Frederick Figge, his wife, Helene, and their son Frank. (Interestingly, Helene Figge was Frederick Wrage's attorney and had represented him in the purchase of the house.)
In 1903, Frederick Figge was called to testify against the Webster Hotel, across the street at 140 East 15th Street. In imperfect English he swore in part:
I seen woman go down there and try to catch men there and brought them in there; I saw women speak to men--try to take them into the house; they did take them in; not the same women, different women; I saw it several times; I couldn't say every night; I saw I saw it two or three times in a night.
Among the Figges' neighbors in the house at the time were George and William Campbell, "professional jugglers;" and bookkeeper James M. Howarth.
Howarth experienced a horrifying incident on November 30 that year. That night the 55-year-old was on his way home, "when a man stepped out from the shadow of a building, grabbed him by the throat, and tried to throw him over an iron fence," reported The Evening Post. Howarth's cries alerted two pedestrians, Alexander L. M. Backus and Paul Sheldon, who ran to his aid. Thomas Tully (who, surprisingly, was visiting from Toledo), fled, but he was captured after a chase of a few blocks. Tully was held in $5,000 bail awaiting trial on charges of attempted robbery.
The prominent window cornices were intact as late as 1941. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Frederick Wrage sold 137 East 15th Street in January 1906 to the Figges. The change of ownership did not lessen the boarders' colorful stories.
At around 1:00 on the morning of July 19, 1910, for instance, Stella Shaw was walking with her sister, Bella Kilday at 14th Street and Avenue B. According to Stella, a uniformed office knocked her to the pavement and kicked and clubbed her, while two other officers stood by. She complained at the Union Market Street Police Station, displaying her bruised arm. Bella was unable to pick out her assailant in a lineup of the men who had been on post at the time.
On the same day of Stella Shaw's incident, Louis Mandelbaum was arrested at First Street and Second Avenue. Mandelbaum had recently arrived in New York from Belgium. The apparently mild-mannered tailor went by the aliases of Brjiski Leibus and Louis Cohen. He had been tracked "by means of finger prints from Liege, Belgium," according to The New York Times on July 20. He was wanted there for bank robbery. The article said, "Mandelbaum protested that he knew nothing of the robbery in Belgium."
Perhaps none of the occupants of 137 East 15th Street was more notorious than Antone Karasincki. The 34-year-old rented a room in August 1917. He was captured on November 2 as what newspapers called "the Wall Street Ripper." The Sun began its article saying, "The sex lunatic, the type of degenerate who flares on rare occasions into a slash and run maniac of a Jack the Ripper, appeared on Broadway in the Wall Street district during the lunch hour yesterday and slashed four women in the course of an hour with a small kitchen knife."
In the police station, Karasincki confessed that he had been under the spell of "mystic influences urging him to murder which had driven him for fourteen years." Two of the women he had slashed that day received injuries "that may result in the permanent disfiguration," said the article.
Alexander Leoff occupied a room here in 1926. He conceived of a plan to elevate his financial status that year: marrying a woman with money. His advertisement in The Wide World Magazine in November read: "Jewish young man aged 26 desires correspondence with Jewish Girl with means or farm. Object matrimony. Alex. Leoff, 137 East 15th Street, New York, N.Y."
A renovation completed in 1970 resulted in three apartments--one in the basement and parlor level and two that shared halves of the third and fourth floors.
photographs by the author
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment