The Altered 1880 186 East 75th Street

 

image via serphant.com

In 1880, prolific real estate developer Anthony McQuade completed construction of four four-story brownstone-fronted rowhouses at 180 through 186 East 75th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues.  Each 18-feet-wide, their Anglo-Italianate design included short stoops and corbeled cornices.

McQuade sold the four homes in June 12, 1880 to Stephen Barker for $54,000 (about $427,000 each in 2026 terms).  He resold them to real estate operator Sarah Talman, who owned numerous properties throughout the city.  She converted the buildings to "single flats," meaning that there was one apartment per floor.

The easternmost building was 186 East 75th Street.  Its tenants were middle-class professionals.  Living here in 1886, for instance, were Richard J. Flanagan, a tax collector for the city; real estate agent Manuel Fried; and Jacob Georgia, a barber.  

All four renovated houses were nearly destroyed in the fall of 1893.  At the time, houses and apartment buildings were lit by gas.  Odorants would not be added to natural gas until 1937, so a gas leak at the time was only detectable when people became sick or lost consciousness (or, in the worst case, an explosion occurred). 

The New York Times reported on November 21, "The tenants at 180, 182, 184 and 186 East Seventy-fifth Street were greatly alarmed yesterday afternoon by an influx of illuminating gas into the houses."  The occupants of the lower apartments became nauseated and had to leave.

The 16-year-old son of the janitor of 184 East 75th Street went searching for the gas leak.  He was found unconscious in the basement and was dragged into the street.  He died in Presbyterian Hospital a few hours later.

Isaac and Hannah Cohen, who lived at 186 East 75th Street, had a newborn baby.  Isaac was a fur dealer at 99 Mercer Street and he, of course, was at his shop when the emergency began.  Hannah Cohen was "badly affected," according to The New York Times.  Despite her own condition, she managed to get her infant out and onto the sidewalk.  The article said that Hannah, "thought that the baby was dead, but after receiving medical attention the child revived."

The Consolidated and the Standard Gas Companies arrived and discovered the leak in the basement next door at 184 East 75th Street.  "The gas had forced its way through the foundation walls into the basement...and then into the other houses," said the article.  By nightfall the break was repaired and the gas turned on again.

No. 186 East 75th Street was sold and resold repeatedly until Isaac Leopold Teschner and his wife Katie, purchased it in July 1910.  They moved into one of the apartments with their two children, Rosebud Lotta and Adolph N.

Twelve years after purchasing the property, in 1922 the Teschners hired architect Edward Angell to update the vintage building.  He replaced the Italianate stoop railings with concrete wing walls, and a handsome neo-Georgian broken pediment was placed upon the entrance.  A stucco-like substance applied to the first floor was scored to mimic rusticated stone.  A full-width wrought iron railing, meant to mimic a balcony, introduced the second floor.  Angell kept the 1880 window sills and brackets of the third floor, and the lintels of the fourth.  The latter openings were now framed in simulated quoins.  Above them, blind rondels enhanced the facade.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The renovated apartments were quickly leased.  The new tenants in 1922 were Rushmore Shope and his wife, the former Margarette Kellogg; George D. Arvedson; and Georgette Folsom Fitzgibbon.

Georgette Fitzgibbon was well-known in New York Society.  Born in 1883 to George Winthrop Folsom and the former Frances Elizabeth Hastings, she grew up in New York City, Lenox and Newport.  The New York Times said that her father was "a member of the well-known Winthrop family of Massachusetts."  Georgette was recently divorced from Robert Francis Lee-Dillon Fitzgibbon.  The couple had one child, Major Constantine Robert Louis Lee-Dillon Fitzgibbon, who was three years old when Georgette signed the lease here.

At the time of the renovation, the Teschner children were young adults.  Adolph graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1924.

Adolph Teschner's graduation photograph.  Microcosm, 1924 (copyright expired)

That same year, the Teschners announced Rosebud Lotta's engagement to Dr. Myer Solls-Cohen.  The wedding was held at the Gotham Hotel on February 11, 1925.  A modern woman, Rosebud retained her maiden name and continued her education, eventually earning a Ph.D.

Nine months after the wedding, on November 9, 1925, Isaac Leopold Teschner died at the age of 63.  His funeral was held in the Teschner apartment two days later.

On August 18, 1927, the New York Evening Post entitled an article, "American Lawyer in Paris Takes Bride," and announced that Georgette Fitzgibbon was married to her second cousin, Bertram Winthrop in Calvary Church Chapel the previous day.

Georgette Fitzgibbon and Bertram Winthrop on their wedding day.  New York Evening Post, August 18, 1927.

Katie Teschner retained possession of 186 East 75th Street until March 1960, when she sold it to real estate operator John Rau, Inc.  A renovation completed in 1965 combined the apartments on the first and second floors into a duplex.  

Among the tenants in the last quarter of the century was horsewoman, championship golfer and interior designer Justine Cushing.  She lived here as early as 1988 when House Beautiful ran a multi-page layout of her apartment.  Her country home was in Southampton.

image via streeteasy.com

In 2025, 186 East 75th Street was sold.  Its owners have announced intentions to restore it to a single family home.