The 1910 Fischer Lewine Mansion - 116 East 78th Street

Around 1866 a row of high-stooped, brownstone-fronted houses was erected on the southern side of East 78th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  At the turn of the century, they were decidedly outdated.  On May 29, 1909, The New York Times reported that Anna De Blois had sold 116 East 78th Street, noting, "The new owner will erect a modern residence on the site for his own occupancy."

The buyer was the Saltz Company and among its executives was Fischer Lewine, who had been in the real estate business since 1885.  The architectural firm of Rouse & Goldstone filed plans for the replacement building in August.  They called for a four-story dwelling to cost $30,000 to construct (just over $1 million in 2026).   On August 20, The New York Times mentioned, "The house is to be of Colonial design."

Completed in 1910, the Lewine house was faced in beige Flemish bond brick above a rusticated limestone base.   The centered entrance sat within a modified Gibbs surround.  The three sets of French windows at the second floor, or piano nobile, were framed in stone, the central pair crowned with a majestic broken pediment embelished with a cartouche, carved garlands and ribbons.  The upper floor windows were framed in molded architraves, and a dignified stone balustrade sat upon the cornice.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Only seven years after moving into the mansion, on February 4, 1917 The New York Times reported that Fisher Lewine had leased "his residence at 116 East Seventy-eighth Street to Louis Joseph Grumbach."  

Born in Montbéliard, France in 1874, Grumbach studied banking in Switzerland and Germany, and came to New York City in 1900.  He and Edna Reckendarfer were married in 1914 and had two children when they moved in, five-year-old Louise Jeanne and two-year-old George Jacques.  The following year, on March 20, 1918, Elizabeth Werner Grumbach was born in the house.

In 1919, Grumbach was made a partner in Speyer & Co., investment bankers.  The 1923 issue of Herringshaw's American Blue Book of Biography noted, "He is a director of the Speyer Building; and a director of other corporations."  The family summered in Elberon, New Jersey.

When not hosting polite entertainments in her drawing room, Edna had an athletic bent.  On June 13, 1924, for instance, The American Hebrew reported:

Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Grumbach of 116 East Seventy-eighth Street, who have been traveling abroad, will return this month and go to the Hollywood Golf Club, where Mrs. Grumbach will golf.  She will again compete in the Woman's Golf Championship in the Fall.

Louise Jeanne was the first of the siblings to marry.  On March 31, 1931, the New York Evening Post reported on her wedding to Serge Weill-Goudchaux in the Ambassador Hotel.  The article said, "After a short wedding trip...Mr. and Mrs. Weill-Goudchaux will sail for Paris, where they will make their home."

George was married to Helen P. Leidesdorf in February 1940.  Six months later, on August 14, Louis and Edna announced Elizabeth's engagement to Henry Werner.  The New York Times noted that on her mother's side, Elizabeth "is a descendant of Gershom Mendex Seixas, revolutionary patriot and one of the founders of King's College, now Columbia."

Something went awry with Louise Jeanne's marriage, and by the time of Elizabeth's wedding she was back in the East 78th Street house with her parents.  Louise was married in the drawing room on November 6, 1941 to Dr. Rudolf L. Baer.

The following year, on December 21, 1942, The New York Sun reported that William A. Drayton had purchased the house for $18,000, a bargain equal to $346,000 today.

Louis and Edna Grumbach moved to 465 Park Avenue, where Louis was diagnosed with cancer in March 1952.  He committed suicide on September 19 that year by throwing himself from a fifth-floor window of Lenox Hill Hospital where he was being treated.

In the meantime, William A. Drayton added a "penthouse" level to the residence that had no architectural panache.  He sold the mansion in 1950 and on April 13 The New York Times reported that the buyers had filed "plans for remodeling."  The renovations resulted in apartments, including two in the penthouse level.

The rooftop addition had the architectural flair of a World War II bunker.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

An initial resident of the apartments was the fascinating Nancy Garbett-Edwards Wilbur, who was separated from Emery Wilbur.  Born in Llandinam, Montgomeryshire, Wales, during World War II she served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service of the British Army.  She was now an officer on the staff of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.  She and Wilbur were married on November 9, 1946 and she was now suing for divorce "on grounds of cruelty," according to The New York Times.

At the time, women in the neighborhood were being terrorized by dozens of violent burglaries by two men.  On November 9, 1951, Isabelle Parker was accosted by one of them in the hallway outside her apartment here.  The New York Times reported that he, "assaulted her and then fled with her pocketbook containing $60 in cash."  The perpetrators, it turned out, were brothers.  Calling them, "two young thugs," The New York Times reported that they were arrested on November 25, 1951 and charged with "burglary, felonious assault, robbery, possession of burglars' tools and illegal possession of a weapon in the commission of two crimes."

A renovation begun in 2011 returned 116 East 78th Street to a single family home.  As part of the remodeling, the top floor addition was given dormers, more sympathetic to Rouse & Goldstone's neo-Georgian design.

photographs by the author