The Abused 1841 Cornelius Read House - 328 East 4th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

New York City's shipbuilding industry along the East River in the early 19th century stretched from about Grand Street to East 12th and earned the district the nickname Dry Dock.  It attracted thousands of workers in the related businesses that arose in the surrounding blocks, all of whom needed housing.
In 1837, construction began on a row of seven brick-faced houses along East Fourth Street between Avenues C and D.

Completed in 1841, the identical, 22-foot-wide Greek Revival-style homes were three stories tall above brownstone English basements.  Sturdy Doric stone pilasters flanked the doorway and upheld paneled entablatures.  The molded lintels and bracketed sills of the openings reflected the rising Italianate style.  The sumptuous wrought iron stoop railings that terminated in drum-based newels testified that they were not intended for working-class occupants.

The sinuous hand-wrought railings swept down to wrap the newels.

Merchant Cornelius Read and his family moved into 557 Fourth Street (renumbered 328 East 4th Street in 1863).  His lumber business at 42 Mangin Street was typical of the Dry Dock district firms.  Cornelius was born in 1798, and he and his wife, Eunice, had three adult children: Mary Elizabeth, Catharine, and Junius (known as John).  John was involved in his father's company.  All of the siblings were married by 1847.

When Catharine married Joseph Bishop, they moved into the house next door at 555.  Like his father-in-law, Bishop was affluent and involved in the Dry Dock industry.  He operated a shipyard at 193 Lewis Street, just a block away from Read's business.

Cornelius Read died at the age of 51 on Monday evening, April 30, 1849, "after a short illness," according to The Evening Post.  His funeral was held in the parlor on May 2.

Eunice left the East 4th Street house the following year.  Interestingly, city directories now listed her as operating the Mangin Street lumberyard.  She moved into the home of Junius Read at 267 Fifth Street.  

Her move necessitated a scramble to find new employment on the part of her servants.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on October 10, 1850 read:

Wanted--Situations by two respectable Protestant women--one as good cook, washer and ironer, (none for entire housework need apply); the other as chambermaid and seamstress or to do the fine washing and ironing--is willing to make herself generally useful in a good family.

Eunice's leaving initiated a stark change in the formerly refined household.  Briefly operated as a rooming house, in 1851 its tenant list included four tailors, a bootmaker, two laborers and a locksmith.

The house returned to a single-family home in 1853 when David L. Youngs and his family moved in.  Like Cornelius Read, he was involved in the Dry Dock industry and ran a ship joinery business on East 9th Street, Youngs, Cutter & Co.  (The firm constructed and installed the interior wooden components and furnishings in vessels.)  Additionally, Youngs owned a stagecoach business and was a director in The Pacific Bank.  Like many wealthy citizens, he was concerned about the less fortunate and was a member of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

David and his wife, Caroline A., had at least three sons, William F., Joshua and Roscius.  William and Joshua were married and lived elsewhere.  Both were ship joiners in their father's shop.  Roscius was just 16 years old when his parents moved in and was most likely still in school.  Tragically, Roscius died on September 29, 1860 at the age of 23.  His funeral was held in the parlor on October 2.

The following year, David and Caroline Youngs sold the house to Bernard Kelly.  A contractor and builder, he was also a candidate for Aldermen in 1861.  His campaign was unsuccessful.

Kelly was involved in an affray shortly after moving in.  On Saturday night, December 7, 1861, he and two friends went into the lager beer saloon of Valentin Schack at 186 East Second Street.  Apparently the trio had already been drinking elsewhere.  The New York Times reported, "They soon became very disorderly, and proceeded to break tumblers, chairs, tables, &c."  Schack, "thinking there was imminent danger of his establishment being destroyed," pulled out a pistol and told them to leave.

Kelly and his friends asked him to put the firearm down, which he did.  Then one of Kelly's drunken friends picked up the gun and accidentally fired it, hitting Kelly in the stomach.  Seriously wounded, he was brought back to 328 East 4th Street and "surgical aid procured," according to the article.  Happily, he survived the ordeal.

It appears that 328 East 4th Street was rented in the ensuing years.  Between 1867 and 1869, William W. Vanderbilt, a consulting engineer, lived here.  From 1870 through 1874, the families of Henry Blach and Edward Straus, both dry goods merchants, shared the house.

Physician Charles A. T. Krog lived here as early as 1879.  He was a graduate of the University Medical College of New York.  As was common at the time, Krog was sometimes called to the rooms of young women who were dying from botched abortions.  On February 9 and 10, 1879 he was called to the home of a Madame Berger to attend to Cora Sammis.  (He was told her name was Maggie Steele.)  The patient's attempt to hide her identity was typical.  Having an abortion was as illegal as performing one.  Krog was told that she was suffering with diarrhea.  She died the following day.

Around 1886, the Saulpaugh family moved into the house.  Moses James Saulpaugh ran a lumber business.  Born in 1835 in Kingston, New York, he started in the lumber industry "when but a boy of fourteen," according to The New York Times.  He married Maria Jane Love on August 27, 1856 and the couple had 12 children.  They maintained a country home  along the Hudson River in Kingston.

At least one son, James Montgomery (a twin of Egbert), lived with his parents and worked in his father's business.  He married Sarah Ann Whatley on October 13, 1880 and the couple moved into the East 4th Street house.

Moses Saulpaugh died of stomach cancer at the age of 54 on October 17, 1889.  In reporting his death, The New York Times called him, "a well-known lumber merchant" and "an old volunteer fireman."  Once again, a funeral was held in the parlor, this one on October 20.

At the time of Moses's death, James and Sarah had three children, William Pray, George J., and James Jr.  A fourth child, Sarah, would be born two months later.

The family suffered a severe scare on May 5, 1894.  Louis Eckhard was driving a soda-water wagon that afternoon when "he ran over seven-year-old James Saulpang," according to The Evening World.  The article said, "After the accident Eckhardt whipped up his horse and disappeared."  A witness, however, wrote down the number of the wagon and reported the incident to police.  The Evening World said, "Detective Farrell make Eckhardt a prisoner."  Charged with reckless driving, he insisted he did not know he had run over the boy.  The article said, "The little fellow is at home, suffering from bruises."

Within two years of the incident, the Fried family occupied 328 East 4th Street.  Eugene H Fried was a physician, and Samuel Fried was a real estate agent.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

While most of the similar houses in the Dry Dock district were converted to boarding or rooming houses by the turn of the century, this one continued to be leased as a private home.  On August 21, 1904, The New York Times began an article saying, 

To most people, even to New Yorkers who know the region well, 'the east side' means a district of tenements, where bedclothes adorn the fire escapes and children vie with one another in annexing grime to their persons.  But scattered among the monotonous blocks of tenements are a few homes as comfortable and luxurious as money can make them.

The article mentioned, "Herman Stieffel, who used to be connected with the Corporation Counsel's office, has a big house at 328 East Fourth Street."

Stieffel was followed in the house by attorney Abraham Bimbaum.  Change came around 1928 when the house became a synagogue.  It remained until 1974 when 328 East 4th Street and the house next door at 326 were purchased by the Uranian Phalanstery.

The group was begun by artist Richard Ovlet Tyler in 1959 in the basement of the tenement house next door at 330 East 4th Street.  At the time of purchasing the house, he and Dorothea Baer Tyler incorporated the Uranian Phalanstery with 20 other artists to create "a shrine devoted to art," according to its website.

Despite the sympathetic treatment of the addition, the new entrance and lamps could only be described as grim.  photograph by Carole Teller

Faced with financial problems, in 2010 the Phalanstery sold both houses to a developer.  Its plans for enlarging the astonishingly intact 1841 properties was challenged by preservationists.  But, without landmark designation, the new owners had no legal opposition.  Two floors were added and the entrances gruesomely altered.  To the architect's credit, he copied the original openings in the addition and designed a sympathetic cornice.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post