The house originally matched that of 114 East 10th Street, to the left. image via streeteasy.com
The far-sighted Commissioners Plan that laid out the future grid of streets and avenues of Manhattan was superimposed on the farms and country estates north of the city in 1811. The proposed Tenth Street created an acutely triangular parcel with the existing diagonally-running Stuyvesant Street within the former Peter Stuyvesant farms (Bouwerij #1 and #2). Elizabeth Stuyvesant, the widow of Petrus Stuyvesant, Peter's great-grandson, used the point of the triangle as her garden. Four years after her death in 1854, Mathias Banta purchased the property. He erected a row of handsome brick-and-stone houses that lined the V portion of the plot on Stuyvesant and Tenth Streets.
Completed in 1861, the Anglo-Italianate-style homes were five-stories tall above basements. Josiah Burton purchased 182 East 10th Street (which would later be renumbered 112) for $6,500. The price would translate to about $239,000 in 2026. Generally attributed to James Renwick, Jr., like the others, it featured a rusticated brownstone basement and first floor. They supported four stories of red brick trimmed in brownstone. The tall, fully-arched windows of the second floor held hands by means of a stone bandcourse. Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.
Burton leased the house. An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 8, 1867 read:
To Let--Handsomely furnished four story attic and English basement House; rent $325 per month, 112 East Tenth street, a few doors from Third avenue.
The rent would translate to $7,000 in 2026 terms.
Dr. Maximilian Gustav Raefle answered the ad. Having served as a surgeon in the Navy during the Civil War, he was currently living at 34 St. Mark's Place at the time. He, no doubt, rented 112 East 10th Street in anticipation of his upcoming wedding to Sarah Olmsted Bunce on November 13 that year. Raefle was born in September 1836 in Germany and Sarah was born in May 1844 in Galesburg, Illinois. The German doctor and his Midwestern bride almost assuredly met and fell in love when he was attending Humboldt Medical College in St. Louis. (He graduated in 1861). Sarah's father, James, was a doctor in Galesburg.
Moving into the house with the Raefles was Sarah's older sisters, Frances M. and Caroline Elizabeth Bunce. A year later, on August 8, 1868, Frances (the eldest of the sisters) died. Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.
The couple rented unused space in their home. An advertisement in the New York Herald on September 20, 1870, described:
To Let--An elegant frescoed front parlor with Bedroom. Also other Rooms, double and single, at 112 East Tenth street, between Second and Third avenues; references.
Among their tenants in 1870 was dentist Rynear O. Moses and his wife.
The parlor was the scene of a heart wrenching ceremony that year. The Raefles' first child, Maximilian Bunce, was born on January 13. The baby died five months later, on July 17. His tiny casket sat in the parlor until his funeral on July 20.
After renting 112 East 10th Street for five years, Maximilian and Sarah Raefle purchased it from Josiah H. Burton on November 6, 1872 for $18,000 (about $477,000 today).
The couple continued to take in roomers. Living here in 1873 was an erudite and multi-talented young man whose ad in the New-York Tribune on September 22, 1873 read: "A Harvard Graduate, experienced and highly recommended, will instruct a private pupil two or three hours daily in Classics, French, Mathematics, &c.; city references. Address C. K. No. 112 East Tenth-st." Two months later, "C. K." advertised, "An experienced tenor desires a position in quartet or as precentor; Protestant church in or near city preferred."
For a second time, Sarah Raefle had to arrange a sister's funeral. Caroline Elizabeth Bunce died on February 1, 1876 and her funeral was held in the house at 1:00 on the afternoon of February 5.
A daughter, Verona Beatrice, was born to Maximilian and Sarah Raefle on October 18, 1878. In the meantime, Dr. Raefle's prestige in the medical community grew.
On December 16, 1879, The Evening Telegram reported on the appointments of deputy coroners. "Dr. Maximilian Raefle, of No. 112 East Tenth street, was appointed Mr. Brady's deputy," said the article. Raefle held the position for 11 years, and on October 14, 1890, The New York Times reported that he had been nominated for coroner. Noting that he voted Republican, the article went on to say:
He lives at 112 East Tenth Street, is a German by birth, and is a physician of first-class reputation. He is about fifty years of age, and is a Grand Army man, and has already seen service in the Coroners' office, having been Deputy Coroner under John H. Brady some years ago.
Michael Springer, Jr. lived with his parents in "the German quarter of Fifth street in the neighborhood of Second avenue," as described by the New York Herald. Michael Springer, Sr. ran a butcher shop at 242 Fifth Street and Michael Jr., who was 22, worked as a butcher's boy in the Tompkins Market.
On June 26, 1890, Michael Jr., described by the newspaper as "stoutly built and fair haired," began to complain of the heat. The article said that he "was suddenly seized with violent spasms and began barking like a dog, rolling about on the floor, snapping and snarling and acting as though he were stark mad." Police were called to control the young man. Michael "attempted to fight the policeman, conducting himself in such a violent manner and making such frantic attempts to bite him that [Officer] McEvoy at length thrust his club into Michael's mouth."
Someone ran to 112 East 10th Street and requested Dr. Raefle to assist. He, however, responded rather coldly (considering his Hippocratic Oath). The New York Herald recounted, "but he did not respond, saying, it is reported, that the sufferer was a fit subject for an asylum." Michael Springer, Jr. was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was later discharged after "recovering from the effects of excessive drink."
Maximilian and Sarah Raefle sold 112 East 10th Street on April 11, 1893 to Franz Kahlenberg for $17,300 (about $622,000 today). Because the couple had been taking in several roomers, the house was described by the New York Herald as a "five story brick tenement."
Franz Kahlenberg ran a drugstore at the corner of Essex and East Houston Street. He had been in business there since 1854. He and his family continued to take in roomers. Among them in 1898 was 46-year-old John Williamson. He was described by The New York Times as "small of stature, and with an unappeased appetite for religious lore," adding, "He is said to be a man of strong religious views, and a devout student of the Bible." Unfortunately for Williamson, one edict within the Scriptures he ignored was "Thou shalt not steal."
On December 17, 1898, The New York Times reported that he was arrested in the American Baptist Publishing Company's bookstore, "attempting to steal a book." The bookstore's manager, Theodore E. Schulte, had become suspicious of Williamson because he repeatedly visited the store, reading a page or two from a book, then moving to another, but never buying anything. That afternoon, Schulte watched him and "was not surprised, so he says, to see him slip a book in his pocket." At the stationhouse, Williamson tearfully insisted, "They must be mistaken."
Another religiously-inclined tenant was Frank W. Smith, a grand knight of the Knights of Columbus. He was appointed a commissioner of deeds in 1899, a civil service position similar to a notary public today.
In the fall of 1900, the attention of Frank W. Smith was directed to another of the 1861 houses, 27 Stuyvesant Street. He filed a complaint with the police department "of disorderly house, women soliciting." Smith was accusing the owner of running a brothel in his neighborhood.
Smith was still occupying his rooms here in 1902. He was highly involved in the organizing of "the annual field day games of the Knights of Columbus," as reported by The New York Times on May 11 that year. The event, which took place on June 21 at Celtic Park was a huge success. Smith told the newspaper "that already more than 3,000 tickets of admission have been sold," and projected that "more than 10,000 will be sold before the day of the games."
By that time, Frank W. Smith had a new landlord. Elias Stone had purchased 112 East 10th Street in August 1901 for $20,000, according to the New-York Tribune. (The price would translate to about $761,000 today.)
Stone made improvements to the property. In July 1904, he hired architect David Stone to rearrange the floor plans, install plumbing and new windows.
Elias Stone continued to operated 112 East 10th Street as a rooming house until 1927. A renovation completed the following year resulted in "non-housekeeping apartments" on the first floor (meaning they had no kitchens), and one apartment each on the upper floors. The apartments were intended for artists. The windows on each floor (even the first) were replaced with vast, multi-paned studio windows that flooded the interiors with natural light. The attic floor was raised to full height and a full-width skylight added.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
Among the initial residents was painter, lithographer, and etcher Anne Goldthwaite. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she had studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and the Academie Moderne in Paris. By the time she moved into her apartment here, she had received the McMillin landscape prize of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1915; and a medal for etching at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco the same year. The 1929 One Hundred Important Paintings By Living American Artists noted that she was "represented in the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum and several other museums here and abroad."
Anne Goldthwaite, from Encyclopedia of Alabama
A journalist from the New York Evening Post visited Goldthwaite's studio in September 1933. She asked the artist if she were "a bit thrilled" to be the only woman whose work would be included in the 56th exhibition of the Art Students' League.
"And, pray, why should I be?" Goldthwaite replied. "The time surely is past when there was some distinction in being the 'only girl' or the 'only woman' among a lot of men who were doing things. Thank goodness, there are plenty of us today."
In reporting on Anne Goldthwaite's death on January 30, 1944, The New York Times noted that she had been an instructor at the Art Students' League "for the last twenty-three years," and that her works "are hung in prominent galleries" throughout America and Europe. The article said, "In France, she numbered among her friends Picasso, Matisse and other prominent contemporary painters."
Among Goldthwaite's neighbors in the building in 1932 had been mining engineer Pomeroy C. Merrill. He had just returned to America from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Government hired him in 1930 to direct iron mining operations in the Ural Mountains. Following World War II, he would go to Japan to help the occupation forces rebuild the Japanese iron ore industry.
After mid-century, art expert David Rosen lived here. From 1934 to 1954, he headed the conservation and technical research department of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. He had also been a technical adviser to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Morgan Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, and the Worcester Art Museum. Born in Russia, he was a sculptor and painter before coming to America in 1913. An expert in authenticating art works and detecting frauds, among his finds was a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington which he found in a museum basement in 1941. Rosen was still living here when he died at the age of 80 in 1960.
image via greatjonesrealty.com
The remodeling of 122 East 10th Street greatly altered the original design. And yet, the handsome and compatible melding of the 1861 and 1928 compositions is extremely successful, resulting in an eye catching hybrid.
many thanks to reader Richard Gombar for suggesting this post
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