Real estate operator Francis Joseph Schnugg hired architect Frank Wennemer in 1889 to design eight rowhouses along East 95th Street near Lexington Avenue. Completed the following year, the 17-foot-wide homes reflected a mixture of historic styles, mostly neo-Grec and Romanesque Revival. Wennemer gave No. 131, however, a splash of Gothic Revival.
Three stories tall above a high English basement, the parlor and basement levels were faced in planar brownstone and the upper floors in variegated beige brick. Drip moldings above the openings--elliptically arched at the parlor and square-headed at the second--were typical of Gothic Revival. The round-arched windows of the top floor with their brownstone voussoirs were Romanesque. And the frieze of the pressed metal cornice was decorated with neo-Classical swags.
Real estate operator Isaac Bitterman purchased three of the newly completed houses from Schnugg, paying the equivalent of $770,000 each today. He retained 131 East 95th Street for his family.
Unlike many families in the neighborhood, the Bittermans did not appear in society columns regarding dinner parties, receptions or summer travels. Even when they announced their daughter's engagement in the New York Herald on June 17, 1894, they were brutally succinct: "Paul Hirschfield to Hattie Bitterman, of No. 131 East 95th st. No cards."
Three months later, the Bittermans sold the house to Alexander A. Jordan, who resold it in 1898 to Jacob and Eda Newberger. Newberger was a director of the Chilton Special Machine Co. and a commissioner of deeds. The couple had at least two daughters, Cora and Sadie.
While the staffs within the homes of wealthy families had specific duties--chambermaid, server, or lady's maid, for instance--those who worked for middle-class families took on several tasks. On April 10, 1899, Eda Newberger placed an ad in the New York Journal and Advertiser that read: "Cook--Jewish girl that can cook, wash and iron; private house. 131 East 95th st."
Cora Newberger's engagement to Jake Kahn was announced on March 25, 1900, and on December 14, 1902 Sadie's engagement to Alexander Steinhardt was announced.
Now empty-nesters, on April 5, 1906 Jacob and Eda Newberger sold 131 East 95th Street to Frank Berkley Rapp and his wife, the former Anna G. Reilly. Frank was a member of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, and Anna invested in real estate and owned several other properties on this block. Their country home was in Belmar, New Jersey. The couple had three daughters--Frances A., Gertrude Rose Marie, and Katherine Ursula--and two sons, Harry Anderson and W. J. Rapp.
W. J. Rapp was an ambitious businessman. In 1917 alone, he co-founded three corporations, the silk fabrics firm of J. & G. Schofield, Inc.; the Anglo-Oriental Shipping Co.; and the Sterling Silk Mills.
The first of the Rapps' daughters to marry was Frances, whose engagement to Irvin Carlyle Davis was announced on August 7, 1917. The newlyweds moved into the East 95th Street house in what must have been snug conditions.
Gertrude Rose Marie Rapp's engagement to William W. C. Griffin was announced in January 1920 and the wedding took place in the Church of St. Francis de Sales on April 7. Gertrude's sister, Katherine Ursula, was her only attendant.
The church in which Gertrude's wedding was held would be the scene of her father's funeral the following year. Frank Berkley Rapp died on August 31, 1921 and his funeral was held on September 3.
Like the Bittermans, the Rapp family's names rarely appeared in the society pages. A rare exception was an entertainment that Frances hosted on February 20, 1925. The New York Times reported, "Miss Marie Heide Leyendecker...was the special guest at a bridge and tea given yesterday afternoon by Mrs. Irvin Carlyle Davis at her home, 131 East Ninety-fifth Street."
The year 1927 was a socially important one for the Rapps. On January 12, Anna announced Katherine Ursula's engagement to Joseph Lewis Rusch; and two weeks later, Harry Anderson Rapp's engagement to Elizabeth Regine Reilly was announced.
Exactly one year later, on January 12, 1928, The New York Times reported that Anna Rapp had swapped her house with that of Walter K. and Charlotte Earle at 134 East 92nd Street. Before the Earles moved into 131 East 95th Street, they made substantial changes.
The couple hired architect John H. Knubal to update the residence. The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to slightly below grade. The original doorway was seamlessly converted to a window.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
Walter Keese Earle was 41 years old and his wife, the former Charlotte Fellows Harding, was 40 when they moved into 131 East 95th Street. A specialist in trial law, Earle received his law degree from Harvard University in 1912 and had been a partner in the law firm of Shearman & Sterling since 1919.
The family maintained a country home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Fascinated by whaling, Walter was the founder of the Whaling Museum Society in Cold Spring Harbor and was the author of Scrimshaw Folk Art of the Whalers.
Charlotte was active in religious and historical organizations. She was chairman of the Altar Guild of Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay, and was a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was also president of the Friends of Raynham Hall, a Revolutionary War shrine on Long Island.
The couple's children, Anne French, Morris and Margaret, were 13, 11, and 8 years old in 1928. On December 2 that year, The New York Times reported, "A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Walter K. Earle of 131 East Ninety-fifth Street on Wednesday." The little girl was named Louise Harding.
Anne French Earle attended the private Chapin School before enrolling in Bennington College. Her parents introduced her to society at a dinner dance in 1933. A member of the Junior League, her engagement to Roy R. Buxton Attride of London was announced in October 1936. The wedding took place in St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church in Cold Spring Harbor on June 26, 1937.
Margaret W. Earle was introduced to society during the winter season of 1939-1940. By the time of Louise Harding Earle's debut on November 30, 1946, the family had moved to 1172 Park Avenue.
No. 131 East 95th Street became home to Vincent Sardi (born Melchiorre Pio Vincenzo Sardi), his wife Eugenia, and their adult children, Anna and Vincent, Jr.
Born in Italy on December 23, 1885, Sardi went to sea at the age of 10 and by 12 was working in restaurant kitchens in London. He emigrated to the United States in 1907, getting a job as a waiter. In 1921 he and his wife, the former Eugenia Pallera, opened The Little Restaurant on West 44th Street. Patrons routinely called it "Sardi's," and so the couple changed the name.
By the time the couple moved into 131 East 95th Street, Sardi's was world-famous, and The New York Times called Vincent, "host to the theater world." The dining room of Sardi's, famously lined with the signed caricatures of Broadway stars, repeatedly appeared in scenes in motion pictures and television dramas. The couple also owned Sardi's East at 123 East 54th Street. In 1947, a year after purchasing 131 East 94th Street, Vincent retired and Vincent, Jr. took over the restaurant's management.
At 2:00 on the morning of November 22, 1968, Vincent Sardi took his beagle along East 94th Street between Second and Third Avenues when he was set upon by a thug. He told a reporter from The New York Times, "He caught me with my hands in my pockets and he got off a beautiful shot. He took a dog chain I carried--partly for protection--and used it on me."
Sardi said, "We had quite a fight." While the two grappled, the dog ran into the nearby garage where Sardi parked his car. Its nervous yapping alerted an attendant who ran out armed with a metal pipe. In the meantime, a woman in a nearby house was wakened by the ruckus and called police.
The attacker grabbed Sardi's wallet, hailed a passing cab and jumped in. Another driver, however, sensing what was going on, blocked the cab. By now, two more men from the garage had appeared on the scene. They assisted in capturing the robber, 50-year-old Jackie Cooper. He was charged with robbery, possession of a dangerous weapon and assault. A grateful Sardi told The New York Times, "People always say nobody helps you, but the other night about eight people helped me."
Vincent Sardi died at the age of 83 in Saranac Lake, New York on November 19, 1969. In reporting his death, The New York Times remarked that for 50 years, Sardi's restaurant had been "the club, mess hall, lounge, post office, saloon and marketplace of the people of the theater."
Upon Vincent Sardi, Jr.'s retirement in 1997, he moved to Warren, Vermont, where he died at the age of 91 in January 2007.
A restoration of the exterior of 131 East 95th Street was completed in 2013. It included the refabrication of the lost stoop and doorway.
photographs by the author
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