Prior to 2023, the altered mansion appeared like this. image via loopnet.com
Born in 1830, Henry Astor was the youngest son of William Backhouse and Margaret Armstrong Astor. He incurred the wrath of his family at the age of 20 when he married Malvina Dinehart--the daughter of a farmer and gardener who lived near the Astor family's summer residence at Red Hook, New York and who had done gardening on the estate.
Henry and Malvina moved to West Copake, New York. Most New Yorkers assumed that his disobedience resulted in his ruin. Decades later The New York Times remarked, "It was thought for years that he was a pauper, disinherited for marrying the gardener's daughter." Instead, he and his wife lived well on "the rents from property in the heart of New York City, valued at many millions." It was held in trust, however, and Henry was kept at arm's length from his holdings. The newspaper added, "The trust established for Henry Astor was recommitted in 1869 to his brothers, John Jacob Astor and William Astor."
Among Henry Astor's holdings was a 25-f00t-wide, four-story Italianate style residence at 223 West 47th Street (renumbered 343 in 1863.) The arched entrance above a short stoop sat off-center. It was flanked by carved foliate brackets that upheld an arched pediment. Beside the stoop was a narrow horsewalk, or passageway, that tunneled through the structure and accessed the rear yard. In the rear was a three-story wooden building.
Astor's first tenants in the house appear to have been the families of Thomas Allen, a carpenter, and William Murfit, a carman, here in 1853. Almost assuredly, Allen used the rear building for his carpentry business.
At the time, David Read and his family lived at 107 West 29th Street. Like Thomas Allen, he was a carpenter. He specialized in the making of sashes and blinds. In 1856, he signed a lease on the West 47th Street property, moving his family into the house and his business into the rear building.
Read was apparently highly successful. While most families with substantial homes like this one took in at least one boarder or roomer, the Reads lived alone. It suggests that the family was comfortably affluent. Additionally, the social columns noted the Reads' arrival at Newport each season.
After leasing the house for two decades, on January 17, 1874 the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that "John Jacob Astor, Jr., William, and Henry Astor" had sold 343 West 47th Street to David Read.
The Reads' daughter, Emma, was a young woman in 1876 and taught girls in Grammar School No. 17 on West 47th Street near Ninth Avenue. She still held that position in 1879 when her parents sold 343 West 47th Street to Charlotte A. Morris for $15,000 (about $487,000 in 2026).
While David Read continued to operate his business from the rear building (apparently renting it), his former refined home was now operated as a boarding house. The tenants, nevertheless, were middle-class. Among them in 1880 were Henry Upton, a real estate agent; Henry Sherman, who listed his profession as "superintendent;" and John Green, who did not list a title, suggesting he was retired.
Among the boarders in 1890 were Charles N. Moulton, who worked as a driver for the Mutual Benefit Ice Company; and Louis Curtis, an auctioneer. On June 1, Moulton left New York "rather suddenly," according to the New York Herald, for East Charleston, Vermont, where he became a contractor. Before leaving, he handed his bank book from the New York Savings Bank on 14th Street to Curtis for safe keeping.
The following year, Moulton became engaged and the wedding was set for the first week of October 1891. The ceremony would have to be postponed, however. Moulton wrote to Curtis, asking for the $160 in his bank account. The New York Herald reported, "This money Curtis drew out, but failed to send any of it to the owner." The two faced off in court on October 13, 1891. Moulton was awarded $110 of the original $160. Curtis was allowed to keep $50 "for expenses" involved in "undertaking business for the plaintiff."
The block was on the border of the more degraded areas of Hell's Kitchen. In 1893 the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church purchased 343 West 47th Street for its newly-formed mission called The Armitage House. On April 8, The Christian Union reported that it "is being prepared for mission work of a very practical kind. We are informed that on the first floor there will be a Sunday-school and general assembly room, on the second floor a kindergarten, and on the third floor a day-nursery." The article noted, "The locality is which this mission is situated swarms with children, and the need is great."
The Armitage House was an early product of the Settlement House movement. Reformers hoped that by providing slum children a safe place to play, by teaching impoverished women about nutrition and health, and by giving them skills to earn a living, their miserable lives could be improved. The day nurseries and kindergartens provided women freedom to work during the day and add to their families' incomes.
On March 31, 1894, the Board of Aldermen approved "two additional lamps in front of the Armitage Mission Church." The Directory of Social Agencies in 1895 described it as "a centre of philanthropic endeavor" and explained:
It includes a Day Nursery and Kindergarten, Sewing-School, Cooking-School, Reading-Room, a Company of the Boys' Brigade, Branch of the Penny Provident Fund, and a course of Lectures for the people, etc.
A reception by the patronesses (who had society names like Rockefeller, Gould and Flagler) on November 19, 1895 reflected the need and the work that was being done here. The New-York Tribune reported, "during the last year they have taken care of 4,489 little children and enrolled in the kindergarten 215."
The mission's report two years later reflected a staggering jump in numbers. In 1896 The Armitage House nursery tended to 6,000 "healthy children under 7 years of age, whose parents are at work away from home during the day." A larger facility was necessary.
John D. Rockefeller, Sr. donated half of the blockfront on Tenth Avenue at West 50th Street for a new mission house and chapel. The complex was completed in 1901 and in July 1902 the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church sold 343 West 47th Street to John E. and Annie Dordan.
Dordan was a builder, having started his career in 1882. He was now president of John T. Brady & Co., contractors. Dordan was also highly involved in Tammany politics and in 1905 ran for leadership of the Fifteenth Assembly District.
A banner promoting John E. Dordan stretches across West 44th Street in 1905. from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.
The Dordans had at least one son. Well-to-do, they maintained a summer home in Pelham, New York, and in 1910 John would register his new Pierce-Arrow automobile. Nevertheless, they initially leased the lower portion of the house to the New York School of Industrial Art.
They, additionally, took in one renter at a time. Living here in 1904 was 24-year-old William Smith, a chauffeur. On the afternoon of May 11, he took his friend, William Thaw, on a joy ride. (Thaw was the son of Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw who would murder Stanford White two years later.) The New York Times reported that Smith, while "driving a big forty-horse power automobile," alarmed pedestrians in midtown "by dashing up and down the street for several blocks either way at top speed." Smith was jailed for reckless driving. "A young man with him was not held," said that article.
The Dordans continued to take in a roomer. In 1912 it was John Eberhardt, a truck driver for the Kelly Springfield Tire Company; and the following year, R. Voelckel, a theatrical manager, was here.
Annie Dordan died in the house on January 3, 1916. Her funeral was held in St. Malachy's church on West 49th Street. John E. Dordan remained in the house for years.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Involvement in Tammany Hall often involved interaction with shady dealings and characters. On December 20, 1922, Richard R. Manden was arrested for running a "place for gambling" on West 44th Street near Broadway, according to The New York Times. The article said, "John E. Dordan of 343 West Forty-seventh Street appeared promptly to pledge a $35,000 house as security for the bond and Manden was released at once."
Two years later, in April 1924, a grand jury investigated "charges of graft in the letting of Nassau County bridge and road contracts." The jury's investigation ground to a halt when important witnesses and the "books of construction companies" went missing. The New York Times reported on April 22, "John E. Dordan, President of John T. Brady & Co., of New York, which had the contract for the $1,000,000 Long Beach bridge has been sought in vain for the last four weeks." Also missing was the firm's bookkeeper, Anna Fitzgerald. (Anna's mother told investigators that she "had gone South.")
The article said, "John E. Dordan was not at his home at 343 West Forty-seventh Street last night. His son, J. J. Dordan, said he had gone to Philadelphia for the day and would return to New York today." When told that process servers had been unable to find his father, Dordan said flippantly, "I guess they haven't been looking very hard. He's in his office every day."
Dordan sold 343 West 47th Street in 1928. Architect Philip Bardes converted it to accommodate "one family and furnished rooms." The configuration lasted until 1989 when a renovation resulted in one apartment per floor.
After the property was sold for back taxes in 2014, Melamed Architect filed plans for a partial demolition and renovation. The renderings, released the following year, obliterates any historic fabric.
image via Melamed Architect PC
In 2026, partial demolition was underway for a six-story, six unit residential building. In reporting on the plans on October 7, 2015, Nikolai Fedak of New York YIMBY scoffed, "the existing building at 343 West 47th Street was nothing to write home about." (I didn't get that memo.)
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