The William Cune Holbrook House - 10 West 130th Street

 

image via city realty.com

The forward thinking John Jacob Astor I accumulated land in Harlem in 1844 for $10,000 (about $445,000 in 2026).  Formerly part of two farms, it sat vacant and when Astor died four years later, the block that would eventually be girded by 129th and 130th Streets and Fifth and Lenox Avenues passed to his son, William Backhouse Astor.  He, in turn, bequeathed it to his sons, John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor Jr.  William received the 130th Street portion of the property.

In 1880, architect Charles Buek designed the first of three groups of houses that would line the block.  Nos. 8 through 22 West 103rd Street were completed the following year.  The full project would be finished in 1883, creating a charming streetscape that would prompt Claude McKay to call the row "the Block Beautiful" in his 1928 novel Home to Harlem.

Buek designed the homes in mirror-image pairs, each pair separated by a carriage drive that accessed the rear yards.  Three stories tall above short basements, their brick facades were clad in brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Harking to the district's rural cottages of a generation earlier, Buek sat them back from the property line, creating prim gardens and abling him to add delightful, spindle-decorated wooden porches.  The lintels were decorated with simple neo-Grec rosettes.  Rather than using a more costly pressed metal cornice, Buek designed a dentiled brick version above a brick frieze decorated with recessed quatrefoil designs.

Astor retained possession of the houses, eventually passing them to his grandchildren, Mary, James and Sarah Van Alen.  In the meantime, they were used as rental income.  

The first occupants of 10 West 130th Street were Colonel William Cune Holbrook and his family.  Born in Brattleboro, Vermont on June 14, 1842, Holbrook was the son of Vermont Governor Frederick Holbrook.  He graduated from Harvard Law School and served in the Union Army throughout the Civil War.  A member of the law firm Barret, Brinsmade & Barret, he married Anna Chalmers in 1872.

When they moved into 10 West 130th Street, the couple had two surviving children--three-year-old Margaret, and one-year-old Marion Goodhue.  Two sons, William Bradford and Chalmers William, would arrive in 1884 and 1887 respectively.  (Two sons, William Jr. and Richard Knowlton had died in infancy.)  Sadly, William Bradford Holbrook died at the age of one-and-a-half on June 28, 1886.  

Also living in the house was George Chalmers, possibly Anna's brother or nephew, who was graduated from Yale University in 1886, and Charles B. Tooker, a coal and feed dealer.   Tooker was apparently a boarder and would list his address with the Holbrooks through 1888.

Anna Holbrook was an active supporter of the Harlem Day Nursery on 116th Street and Second Avenue.  The New-York Tribune deemed it, "one of the most practical of the charities of Harlem."  Anna's involvement was reflected in an article in the New-York Tribune on April 10, 1892, which said, "A musical entertainment and a pastoral operetta called 'Little Bo-Peep' will be given in aid of the Harlem Day Nursery on Wednesday afternoon and evening at the home of Mrs. Holbrook, No. 10 West One-hundred-and-thirtieth-st.  The programme will be given entirely by children."

In June 1895, William Cune Holbrook was appointed by Mayor William Lafayette Strong as a justice "of the new criminal court," as reported by The Medico-Legal Journal.  According to The New York Times, his salary was the equivalent of $333,000 in 2026.

Justice William Cune Holbrook, Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, 1894 (copyright expired)

In January 1898, Anna began suffering "brain trouble," as worded by The New York Times.  That summer, the family traveled to Brattleboro, Vermont where William's widowed father still lived.  Anna's condition worsened and she fell into a coma.  She died about a week later, on September 29, at the age of 53.

Shortly afterward, Holbrook left the 130th Street house, moving to 16 West 116th Street where he died in March 1904.

In the meantime, 10 West 130th Street was rented to Sidney Buner Mills and his wife, the former Maria D. Freeborn.  Sidney Mills was associated with Rogers, Peet & Co., men's clothiers, and was the secretary of the Louis Berghart-Mills Company. 

Born in 1843 and 1845 respectively, the Sidney and Maria had four children, Dewitt Wilde, Marshall Freeborn, Sidney Jr., and Rushton Lenox.  Living with the family was Eliza Freeborn Mills and her son, Benjamin Freeborn Mills.  Eliza was the sister of Maria and the widow of Sidney's brother, Isaac Smith Mills, who had died in 1895. 

Rushton was 18 years old in 1901 when became involved with a bizarre missing person incident.  Myra Morgan was two years older than he, and The New York Times explained that he had "been a playmate of the girl" in their youth.

The daughter of Dr. G. E. Morgan, Myra disappeared from their Harlem home early in September.  The New York Times said that two weeks later Dr. Morgan learned, "that she had disguised herself as a boy before leaving home."  Indeed, Myra checked into the Hotel Boulevard, registering as M. Morgan.  The newspaper said, 

She was dressed in a neat suit of gray flannel, a derby hat, and low patent leather shoes.  She had clipped her hair shot, and as she wore glasses and carried herself with a self-possessed masculine swagger, the hotel clerk never suspected she was not a young man.

Equally duped was C. E. Horton, the assistant manager of the H. W. Johns Manufacturing Company.  The morning after Myra settled into the Hotel Boulevard, Horton hired her in the mailroom.  Horton later explained, "as she appeared to be a bright young man, I gave her a job as mail clerk at $5 a week...and as she was remarkably quick in catching on I thought I had found a very bright boy."

Clark Greenwood had been a mutual of Rushton and Myra during their childhood.  Now he recruited Rushton to help find her.  "They made a blind search of different Harlem hotels until they finally located Miss Morgan," said the article.  Pretending surprise at their "chance" meeting, they arranged to go to the theater that evening.  The boys then reported back to Dr. Morgan, who took his wayward daughter home.

At the time of Myra Morgan's adventure, Marshall Freeborn Mills was attending Princeton University where he was a football star.  He graduated in 1902, assisted in coaching the Princeton football team that year, and coached the New York University team during the 1905 season.  Rather surprisingly, he was listed in city directories as a "decorator" the following year.

As Anna Holbrook had been, Eliza Mills was involved in a nursery.  In 1902, she was a director of the Silver Cross Day Nursery.  And by 1905, she was the first vice-president of The Haarlem Philharmonic Society.

Sidney Buner Mills died died "suddenly" on November 29, 1911 at the age of 68.  His funeral was held in the house on December 2.

Four months later, on April 14, 1912, Maria Freeborn Mills died.  In reporting on her death, The New York Times mentioned that she had suffered "a long illness."

The Mills family left 10 West 130th Street soon after.  The house became home to widowed Joseph Hook Boyd, an appraiser in the Custom House.  Born in 1839, he served in the Lincoln Cavalry during the Civil War.  His employment with the Custom House began in 1885.

While at his desk on the afternoon of July 12, 1915, Boyd was attacked with "acute indigestion."  He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where he died a few hours later.  His funeral was held in the parlor of 10 West 130th Street on July 15.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Van Alen family next leased the house to Leroy A. Williamson, an "electrical inventor."  He lived here quietly for a year until, for some unknown reason, he checked into a room in the Hotel Manhattan on February 12, 1916.  

The New York Herald reported, "He remained constantly in the room."  Then, on the night of February 13, "he began to shout and when attendants went in they found him talking incoherently."  Police were called and, as reported by The New York Times, "according to the patrolmen, Williamson said he was dickering with the Allies for the purchase of an electric invention by which German armies could be annihilated."  He told the policemen that "the fortune he would amass by the purchase of this invention would 'make Morgan and Rockefeller look like pikers.'"

Patrolman Wisner patronized the inventor, inviting him to "take a ride in a carriage."  Williamson accepted "only upon the condition that Wisner accept $10,000 and an automobile," said The New York Times.  The "carriage" turned out to be a Bellevue Hospital ambulance.  The New York Herald titled its report, "Inventor Goes Mad In Hotel."

Starting in 1912, the Van Alens began liquidating the row of homes.  Six years later, on November 1, 1918, an advertisement for 10 West 130th Street in The New York Times read:

Opportunity to live in a fine street in good style for little money; three-story house, two baths; suitable to sublet in rooms or floors to good advantage.

By the time of the advertisement, the demographics of the Harlem neighborhood had greatly changed.  In 1914, more than 50,000 Black residents lived in the district.  No. 10 West 130th Street became a rooming house, with almost all of its tenants Black as evidenced by positions-wanted advertisements posted in 1921.

One of them, which appeared in the New York Herald on April 26, read, "Couple, light colored; cook; wife waitress-chambermaid, city, country; experience."  Another, on November 4, read, "Girl, colored, wishes half time work, mornings or afternoons.  Lucas, 10 West 130th."  

The charming streetscape was deemed The Block Beautiful in 1928.  image via cityrealty.com

Renting a room here in 1925 was Theodore Williams, who worked as a waiter in the dining car of the Atlantic Coast Line Express.  On February 27 that year, another train "crashed into the rear end of the Florida express," reported The New York Age, "smashing and overturning a dining car, and causing the electric engine pulling the local to topple over also."  The two trains immediately caught fire "and burned until there was nothing left."

The article said that there were few passengers in the dining car, "but the waiters and cooks, all colored, were bustling about, busy preparing for the breakfast rush."  Theodore Williams initially survived the disaster, but he died at a hospital later.

Mrs. Mary G. Miles lived here in 1963 when she received a Federal Citation.  She started working as a clerk typist with the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. in 1942.  The New York Amsterdam News said she, "improved in her proficiency and acquired additional responsibilities in the duties of her rating."  When the agency moved to Manhattan, she came along and in 1948 she was transferred to the Army Transport Service, and then to the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1950.  On November 29, 1963, she was cited for her two decades "of faithful government service."

A renovation completed in 1967 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and furnished rooms on the upper stories.  After the turn of the century, 10 West 130th Street was restored to a single family house.  It was sold in 2022 for $3.85 million.

The Joseph H. Choate Jr. House - 158 East 71st Street

 

Born in Germany in 1823, Henry Elias earned his fortune in beer.  The founder and president of the Henry Elias Brewing Company, in 1873 he added to his resume with a membership to the Produce Exchange.  By the early 1880s, he and his family lived at 158 East 71st Street, one of seven identical houses built in 1871 by Andrew Barry and Ira G. Lane.  

Designed by Irish-born William O'Gorman, the 20-foot-wide house was three stories tall above a high English basement.  Faced in brownstone, its Italianate design included an arched entrance under a peaked pediment supported by scrolled, foliate brackets.  The parlor windows wore triangular pediments, while the upper floor openings sat within architraves with molded sills and cornices.

Henry Elias arrived in America in 1850 and started his first brewery in 1855.  Katharina Elias was Henry's second wife.  His previous marriage to Ernestine Schmidt ended in divorce.  Moving into the house with Henry and Katharina were their children, William, Elsa, and Katie; and Henry's son, Henry Jr., from his previous marriage.

In 1885, daughter Elsa was sent to Cassel, Germany (today's Kassel) for schooling.  The Evening World described the 16-year-old as "not over-bright but rather pretty."  Henry and Katharina visited her in the winter of 1887 and Henry died there on February 27, 1888.

His will directed that his stock in the Henry Elias Brewery Company (valued at $300,000, or about $10.5 million in 2026) be held in trust for his children.  Obviously embittered even in death, Elias mentioned his former wife, Ernestine, in the will.  It directed that his heirs "must never give her anything and that they shall receive nothing from him if they do."

What no one knew at the time of Henry's death was that Elsa had become the lover of Oscar Moeller, a "bald-headed, middle-aged man," as described by The Evening World, who ran a store in Cassel.  Following the settlement of her father's will, the two ran off.  In a sensational chain of events, the couple was captured and Moeller was arrested for abduction.  He escaped and, using a fraudulent passport, fled to England with Elsa, and then to Queensland, Australia.  They were recaptured there.  On August 7, 1888, The Evening World reported that Moeller "whines that he is not an abductor, but was being abducted by the giddy heiress."  The New-York Tribune said the scandal "has created quite a sensation in German society circles in this city."

In 1891, Katharina Elias leased 158 East 71st Street to Solomon and Doris Landsberger.  (Frustratingly, their name was often spelled as Landsberg.)  Landsberger was described by The New York Times as "a wealthy jeweler."  The couple had five children: Sadie, Jacob, Monte, Estelle and Madeleine.  

Solomon Landsberger died in the house on April 1, 1897.  His funeral was held in the house three days later.  

The following year, on December 18, 1898, Doris announced Sadie's engagement to Samuel G. Isaacs.  The wedding took place on March 12, 1899 and the reception was held in Carnegie Hall.  The New York Times noted, "Over 200 invitations have been issued."

The event was, perhaps, somewhat tarnished by Doris's arrest two months earlier.  For some time, Anna Coulter, a store detective in a Grand Street establishment, had been suspicious of Doris, going so far as to following her home to ascertain her address.  On January 13, 1899, Doris entered the store and Coulter "decided to watch her."  According to her, "I disguised myself as an old woman and followed her from counter to counter."  When Doris attempted to leave the store, Coulter detained her.  She was arrested for shoplifting and at the station house gave name as Mrs. S. Solomon.  Coulter, however, had done her homework and gave the detectives her true identity.

Doris's lawyer, Hyman Rosenheim, told The New York Times that his client was "a wealthy widow," saying she "possesses a fortune of over $175,000."  He surmised that she was suffering from kleptomania.  Happily for Doris, her case was dismissed after she appeared before the Grand Jury "and made a satisfactory explanation."

In May 1903, Katharina Elias sold 158 East 71st Street to Joseph Hodges Choate Jr.  It would become the home of him and his bride, Cora Lyman Oliver.  The couple were married the following month, on June 7 in Albany.  The New-York Tribune called the ceremony, "an assemblage representative of the society of New-York, Albany and other centres."

Choate was the son of Joseph H. Choate, Ambassador to Great Britain, and Cora was the daughter of General Robert Shaw Oliver.  On May 30, 1903, Automobile Topics reported, "A ten-day automobile trip will be a feature of the wedding journey and will be supplemented by a trip to England...Upon their return to America, in September, they will reside at 158 east 71st street, New York."

Joseph Choate as he appeared in 1897 and in 1922.  Harvard College Class of 1897, 1922 (copyright expired)

Born in 1876, Choate worked as a private secretary in the London Embassy until 1900 when he returned to law school.  When he and Cora married, he was a member of the law firm Evarts, Choate & Sherman.  

While the couple was on their honeymoon, architect George B. de Gersdorff made interior updates to the house.  (The renovations cost the Choates the equivalent of $113,000 today.)

The population of 158 East 71st Street gradually increased.  Marion was born on February 1, 1905, and Helen arrived on November 21, 1906.  Two years later, on December 22, 1908, Priscilla would be born, and Joseph 3d on February 22, 1912.

Cora survived a terrifying incident on November 7, 1906.  She and Mrs. Samuel A. Tucker and her children went on a ride in Central Park.  Suddenly the horse bolted and the driver lost all control.  A mounted officer saw the runaway and galloped after it.  "At Ninety-sixth Street the policeman overtook the runaway and, leaning over from his saddle, caught the bridle of the frightened horse," reported The New York Times.  Officer Daly was "dragged to Ninety-seventh Street before he brought the runaway to a standstill."  The article said the women and children were "frightened, but were not injured."

The Choates brought back George B. de Gersdorff in 1908.  On July 23, The Evening Post reported that plans had been filed to enlarge the Choate house by adding a mansard level.  The article said it would "be used for sleeping quarters for servants, and will have two guests' chambers with baths and toilets."  

158 East 71st Street was now one-story taller than its neighbors.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The addition would not be the last time that George B. de Gersdorff and the Choates would work together.  In 1918, the couple purchased 10 and 12 East 94th Street and hired Gersdorff to convert the vintage brownstones to a single mansion.  As construction of 10 East 94th Street was nearing completion, on January 12, 1919 the New-York Tribune reported that the Choates had sold 158 East 71st Street.  The article said, "It will be occupied by the purchaser after slight alterations have been made."

The buyers were Lansing Parmalee Reed and his wife, the former Ruth Lawrence.  Born on April 2, 1882, Lansing Reed was a corporate attorney and a partner in the law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed.  Ruth was born in Boston in 1886, the daughter of Episcopal Bishop William Lawrence.  (Her brothers were Bishop Frederic Lawrence Lawrence and Bishop William Appleton Lawrence.)

When the Reeds moved in, they had four daughters, Ruth Lawrence, Julia Cunningham, Hester Lansing, and Mary Parmalee.  A fifth, Joan, would be born on December 11, 1927.  The family's country home, Windy Hill, was at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.

As the daughters grew, their names gradually made their way into the society pages.  On September 7, 1935, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Miss Hester Lansing Reed...made her début tonight at a supper dance given by her parents at Windy Hill, their Summer home...The party was similar to those given for her sisters, Miss Julia Reed, last season, and the former Miss Ruth Reed, now Mrs. Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr., during a previous Autumn."  The article noted, "The guests included about 250 members of the younger set."

Two years later, on February 23, 1937, The New York Evening Post reported, "Miss Hester Reed, the attractive daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lansing Parmalee Reed...has been chosen by George Haines Weed of Savannah, Ga., to lead the Junior Promenade at Yale, this Friday night."

Around Thanksgiving that year, Lansing Parmalee Reed became ill.  His condition worsened to pneumonia and he died in the 71st Street house on December 2, 1937 at the age of 55.

Just five months later, in May 1938, Ruth Reed sold the house to editor Robert Littell and his wife, the former Anita Blaine Damrosch.  Born in Milwaukee on May 25, 1896, Robert was the grandson of Eliakim Littell, founder of The Living Age, and the son of Philip Littell, an editor on The Milwaukee Sentinel.  Robert started his career in 1922 as a staff member of The New Republic.   The same year that he and Anita purchased 158 East 71st Street, he joined The Reader's Digest.  He was the author of a novel, Candles in the Storm, and a play (with Sidney Howard), Gather Ye Rosebuds.

Anita was the granddaughter of Dr. Leopold Damrosch, founder of the Oratorio Society and introducer of German opera at the Metropolitan Opera, and daughter of Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra.  

The couple would have four children: Alisa, Walter, Philip and Blaine.  Their country home was in Tyringham, Massachusetts.

The family remained here until August 1952, when they sold the house to Janice Lowenstein.  Unlike most of its contemporaries on the block, 158 East 71st Street was never converted to apartments nor modernized on the exterior.

Other than replacement windows and stoop railings, the house looks little changed since the Choates added a stylish fourth floor.

photographs by the author

Murders, Suicides and Jazz - 90 West Houston Street

 

A flurry of construction along Houston Street between Laurens Street and Thompson Street around 1828 filled the block with two-and-a-half story Federal-style homes.  (This section of Houston Street would later become West Houston, and Laurens Street would be renamed South Fifth Avenue in 1870, West Broadway in 1896, and LaGuardia Place in 1967.)  Like its neighbors, 90 Houston Street would have been faced in Flemish bond brick, while one or two dormers would have pierced its peaked roof.  

Beyond the rear yards of the Houston Street houses were the elegant homes on Bleecker Street.  Angelica Gilbert, perhaps, hoped to draw clientele from those wealthy families.  She established Miss Angelica Gilbert's Boarding & Day School in 90 Houston Street.  An advertisement in the New-York Evening Post on September 2, 1830 described the school as being, "where with competent assistance, children are taught the rudiments, and young ladies the highest branches of a sound and elegant education."  And, indeed, Angelica Gilbert's students came from some of Manhattan's most illustrious families, including the Rhinelanders, Kipps, and Wards.

As early as 1850, the 18-foot-wide house had multiple occupants.  Listed here that year were Archibald Murray, a carver; and two butchers, William Odell who worked in the Essex Market, and George Vale, whose store was on Stanton Street.

Produce merchant Peter Lisse and his wife, Ernestine, were here in 1853.  Apparently boarding with them was Francis Burke, who operated a liquor store or saloon.  

Following Peter Lisse's death in 1854, Ernestine took over his business, listing her profession as "vegetables" in the Union Market.  She also now accepted more boarders.  Listed here in 1857, along with Francis Burke, were cabinetmaker John Hoffman; upholsterer George Stetter; and Simon Lampert, a "segarmaker."

Boarding here in 1870 was Margarette P. Luthy.  On June 10 that year, Walter L. Butler arrived at the house and handed her a letter from her good friend, Fannie C. Shattuck, who lived on Second Avenue.  In it Fannie apologized for her handwriting, saying, "I am very nervous," and explained, "When I see you again I will be a married woman."  The letter said that she and the man bringing the letter were to be married at 3:00 that day, and asked to borrow some of Margarette's things for the ceremony.  The letter said in part:

You know what I mean--your collar and undersleeves--and if you will oblige me so much will you loan me a pair of earrings and any little thing that you would think would do for me to get married in, and I will take the best of care of them, and would like to see you on to-morrow morning without fail.  Please send by my intended anything you will loan me, as I have not much time.

Margaretta Luthy gave Fannie Shattuck's "intended" a pair of gold and coral earrings, a breast pin, a lace collar, handkerchief, a "chemisette and a pair of undersleeves."  The items were valued by Margarette at $68, or nearly $1,750 in 2026 terms.  

When the blushing bride did not arrive the next day, Margarette investigated.  Fannie C. Shattuck was not married, nor had she been engaged.  And the letter's handwriting was unfamiliar not because Fannie had been nervous, it was because it was written by Walter Butler.

As it turned out, Butler was the ne'er-do-well nephew of Civil War General Benjamin F. Butler.  He was tracked down and arrested in Yorkville on June 24.  The New York Herald reported, "Butler attempted to cut his throat before he was taken from the house."  He pleaded guilty and sentenced to two years' and six months' hard labor.

Owner J. L. Brooks made significant changes to the building in 1871.   On February 11, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that he would transform the "two and a half story...second-class dwelling" by raising the attic to a full third floor "with Mansard roof to be added."  The building would be enlarged to the rear with an eight-foot deep extension, as well.  Equally important, The New York Times noted, "store to be made in front."

Brooks's contractor transformed the Federal-style house to a Second Empire-style store-and-apartment building.  A cast iron storefront was installed, and a stylish mansard with three prominent dormers brought the building up to date.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

West Houston Street was becoming increasingly commercial, and the neighborhood in general was filling with immigrants.  Among Brooks's initial tenants was Pierre Fagani.  He was arrested on June 10, 1872, charged "with having stolen a counterfeit $20 bill, and afterward attempted to pass it on a poor shoe-maker," as reported The New York Times.

The ground floor became home to Joseph Rath's beer saloon.  It changed hands over the subsequent years.  By 1879, it was run by Adolph Luttig.

Several of the tenants continued to be on the wrong side of the law.  Around midnight on March 5, 1881, resident James McDonnell and five other thugs attacked Alfred Speanot on South Fifth Avenue.  Speanot tried to escape on Bleecker Street, but the three overtook him, knocked him down and beat him while trying to snatch his watch.  Police Officer Scullion came on the scene and while three of the men fled, Scullion captured the others, including James McDonnell.  When asked in court what they had to say, one of the prisoners explained that Speanot, "struck them first."  

Pierre Soulan, who lived here with his wife in 1888, worked as a waiter in the exclusive Delmonico restaurant.  A native Frenchman, The Evening World said he was "well connected in his native country."  In October that year, Soulan's eyes "began to trouble him," according to The Evening World.  On the advice of his physician, he went to the Eye and Ear Infirmary where an operation was performed.

The surgery was not only unsuccessful, it left Soulan in significant pain.  A second operation was proposed.  The Evening World said that since the first procedure, Soulan "has been more or less deranged."  At 5:00 on the morning of December 5, Mrs. Soulan called her husband to breakfast, saying it was nearly time to go to work.  She then noticed blood on the bedclothes.  Soulan, who was unconscious from a loss of blood, had slit his wrists with a razor while still in bed.  The Sun said, "It is supposed that the prospect of another operation was too much for him."  Amazingly, at Bellevue Hospital it was said he would recover.  (He would, however, now face charges of attempted suicide.)

The Morris family occupied rooms here in 1894.  On the evening of July 4 that year, 17-year-old Frank Morris and his 14-year-old friend, William Laugin, who lived around the corner, were setting off firecrackers on South Fifth Avenue between Bleecker and Houston Streets.  They would be witnesses to a brutal crime.

Maggie Davis and her boyfriend, George Washington Gibbin, had been drinking that night.  The two separated and, suspicious, Maggie followed George.  The New York Herald reported that she "saw him talking to another woman."  She went home, retrieved a large butcher knife, and went out looking for Gibbin.  She found him near the spot where Morris and Laugin were lighting their firecrackers.  Frank Morris turned just in time to see Maggie, who had sneaked up behind Gibbin, raise the knife.  He yelled a warning to the unsuspecting man, but it was too late.  The New York Herald said, "As he did the weapon descended three times in rapid succession.  Gibbon was stabbed in the back, in the chest, and in the right thigh."

Morris and Laugin were in court to testify.  While Maggie Davis (who was "well known to the police as a general hard character") insisted she had not done the stabbing, the New York Herald said, "Morris and Laugin both contradicted her."

In the meantime, the ground floor space at 90 West Houston Street became J. S. Rowley's Restaurant in 1893.  The patrons of the all-night operation were not necessarily upstanding citizens.  

Among the regular customers was Alice Walsh, whom The Evening World described as a "poor outcast."  She entered the restaurant at around 12:30 on the morning of April 21, 1895.  According to the cook, Michael C. McNamara, a few minutes later four men entered, one of them saying, "There she is."

Alice was "much disturbed" according to McNamara, "and then became very angry when the men began to abuse her for having deserted them."  When one of the men threatened her, Alice "retorted by showering vile epithets upon him, after the fashion of the women of the street."

One of the men told Alice to come with them to the Yorktown Hotel.

"Not on your life," she answered.

"We'll make you," said one of the men.

"No you won't," said Alice, and she pulled out a long, steel hairpin and threatened, "I'll stick you with this, --- you, and I mean what I say."

Finally, at around 1:55 a.m., all five left.  McNamara said as they headed toward Thompson Street, he could still hear them "talking loudly and making threats."  Later that morning, Alice Walsh's body was found "in the squalid hallway at 148 Thompson Street."  She had been kicked and beaten and then fatally stabbed in the abdomen.

A month later, on May 18, 32-year-old Tony Murphy was "ejected from Rowley's restaurant by Walter Patrick Henry,"  as reported by The Evening World.  The barman was less than gentle in removing the unwanted customer.  Murphy was found unconscious on the sidewalk outside at 5:00 that morning, bleeding from the head.  The newspaper reported that he was hospitalized with a "probable fracture of the skull."  Walter Henry was arrested.

Pierre Soulan was not the last of the tenants here to attempt suicide.  Jacob Froelich, a tinsmith, lived here in 1899 when he became infatuated with another resident, Mrs. Taylor.  On November 17, he swallowed Paris Green, a rodenticide, because Mrs. Taylor "did not look favorably upon his suit," reported the New York Herald.  The article noted that he had done this before, "but cried out in time."  It added, "He will not die this time either."

More successful was Louis Guillemot, who lived here with his wife and two children in 1900.  The 24-year-old worked as a collector for an insurance company--calling on clients and receiving their premiums.  Each morning he would meet his supervisor at a grocery store on Macdougal Street to report and turn over his collections.  

On the morning of February 7, 1900, he was in trouble.  He had used $15 of his previous day's collection (about $600 today) for personal purposes.  Just before his supervisor arrived, he mentioned his plight to someone in the store, then walked into the rear room and shot himself in the chest.

The store space here became home to M. Martin & Co., commercial plumbers, by 1916.  A delicatessen occupied the space during the Depression years, and in 1964 it was converted to a luncheonette.  At the same time, the upper floors were converted to apartments, two per floor.

Among the tenants in 1986 was Ruth Polsky, a booking agent for clubs and discotheques.  On the night of September 8 that year, she was outside the Limelight on Sixth Avenue when a driver for a car service ran a red light and smashed into a taxicab.  The taxi spun out of control and careened into five people on the sidewalk, including Ruth Polsky, who was killed.

The ground floor space became Zinc Bar in 1993.  In reporting its opening, The Villager said, "Along with espresso, they provide blues and jazz and some Brazilian music."  Zinc Bar remained here until July 2008.  A coffee house, Moka Moment, occupies the space today.

photograph by the author

Medicine, Socialists, and Theater - the Oft-Altered Merrill Williams House - 83 E. 4th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In the 1830s, a few developers lobbied the city to rename a block or two upon which they had erected high-end residences.  If they were successful, the blocks acquired a sense of exclusivity.  The 1836 Longworth's American Almanack explained, "Part of Fourth [Street], between the Bowery and Avenue 2d, has the soubriquet of Albion-place."

Among the homes along Albion Place was that of stockbroker John W. Stebbins and his family.  Their Federal-style house was faced in Flemish bond brick and sat above an English basement.  Originally two dormers pierced its peaked roof.  

Interestingly, the Stebbins family listed their address as 409 Fourth Street in 1836, rebuffing the Albion Place name.  And, equally interestingly, all of the subsequent occupants followed suit.  Visitors and mail carriers, nevertheless, would have other issues with which to contend in the upcoming years.  In 1850 the address was changed to 425 Fourth Street, and in 1864 to 83 East 4th Street.

Born in 1807, John W. Stebbins was a partner with his brother H. G. Stebbins in the brokerage firm Stebbins Brothers at 50 Wall Street.  Despite his young age, he was also the president of the Mercantile Library Association.  His residency here would be short-lived.  On June 4, 1837 he died at the age of 30 "after a protracted illness, according to The Evening Post.  His funeral was held on June 6 "from his late residence 409 Fourth st., Albion Place," said the newspaper.

When the property was scheduled to be sold at auction in February 1846, it was described as:

The elegant two story and modern attic brick house, No. 409 Fourth st, having basement and entire under cellars, tea room in rear, front and back stair ways, croton water in kitchen and second floor in closets.  It is altogether a first class modern house.

The mention of Croton water was significant.  Indoor plumbing, made possible by the Croton Reservoir, was not available before 1842.  So this house was among the very first to have the luxury--not to mention the "closets" on the second floor.  Water closets, or toilets, were an expensive indulgence.

The house was purchased by Henry A. and Rosalie Heiser.  At the time, Henry ran a dry goods business on Pearl Street.  He changed course in 1851, turning to shipping.

That year was one of joy and tragedy for the Heisers.  A baby boy, Russell, was born in May 1851 and he died just before turning four months on September 8th.  His funeral was held in the parlor the following afternoon.

The widowed Dr. Merrill Whitney Williams purchased the property in 1855.  Born in 1801, he married Eliza B. Duyrea in June 1826 and began his practice the following year.  Eliza died in 1844.  Moving into the house with Williams was his only surviving child, Elizabeth Ann (known as Lizzie), who was 20 years old in 1855.  (Two children John Duryea and Harriet Emma, died in childhood.)  Also living here was Williams's unmarried sister, Emma.

Emma Williams died in the house at the age of 74 on December 1, 1867.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on the 3rd.  

The room was the scene of a much happier event four months later.  Elizabeth was married here to merchant and banker Robert Macy Gallaway on April 20, 1868.  The newlyweds started their lives together in the East 4th Street house.

Dr. Merrill Whitney Williams died on December 3, 1873 at the age of 72.  Robert and Elizabeth left 83 East 4th Street within a few months.

By the time of Williams's death, the once-refined neighborhood of upscale private residences was quickly filling with immigrants and tenements.  No. 83 East 4th Street became a boarding house.

Among the first boarders was German-born Carl Denninghoff.  Born in 1835, he came to America in 1857 and found a job as a "drug clerk."  He lost his job in 1874 and 18 months later was still unable to find work.  On October 26, 1875, the New-York Tribune reported, "He was found dead in his bed yesterday afternoon, and had left a note stating that he had committed suicide."  Denninghoff had swallowed "an overdose of morphine."

While the upper portion of No. 83 continued as a boarding house, in 1881 Charles Steckler leased the basement for the Steckler Association, a political club.  On November 19, 1882, the New-York Tribune reported that, "having refurnished its rooms," the organization had a house warming.  The article said that Frederick H. Conkling "spoke of the principles of the two great parties, and he treated at length the Jeffersonian doctrines."

The following month, Charles Steckler was presented with a $1,000 diamond ring here in "recognition of his services."  (It was a generous tribute, worth about $32,500 in 2026 terms.)

By 1885, the boarding house portion was operated by a Mrs. Betz, described by The Sun as "a stout, good-natured German woman."  In January that year, a "German cripple and a tall, good-looking German with a broad moustache" climbed the stoop with a 16-year-old German girl."  They asked Mrs. Betz if she had a room for the teen.  The two men, they explained, were Marie Probanski's cousins and they had come with her "to vouch for her respectability."  

The Sun said that Marie's "fair, pretty face and bright brown eyes at once won the landlady's heart."  The mustached man paid a week's rent and the two left.  Marie found work as a seamstress and shortly became close friends with another boarder, actress Anna Rando.  After a few weeks, Marie confided into Anna.

She said she had come from Poland the previous August to visit her father and find work in America.  He found her a job as a servant, but she "gave it up because she wasn't strong enough," explained The Sun later.  She said her father eventually became abusive over her not working and she ran away.  Whether her story was true would never be known.

At 4:00 on the morning of February 11, 1885, Mrs. Betz was awakened by noises from Marie's room.  "She found the girl vomiting violently.  Beside her bed lay a little white envelope marked 'Arsenic--Poison.'"  Marie died shortly afterward.

As the boarders were gathered around the dining room table that night, "a short, dark-bearded German burst into the room, accompanied by a stout, rosy-cheeked woman."  The man was Marie's father, Joseph Probanski, and the woman her stepmother.  They had been searching for Marie for a month.  Joseph' story was far different from his daughter's.

The tall, 27-year-old man with the moustache, he said, was Oscar Lang.  "He is a scoundrel and a married man.  I'll fix him for this," he said.  He told Mrs. Betz, "He put the girl in this house so that I couldn't find her, and meant to ruin her.  She had a good home in my house with her stepmother."

Police searched for Oscar, but were initially able to find only his brother, Paul (the "cripple" who had appeared on the stoop that first day).  Paul added to the confusion of Marie's story.  He denied that Oscar was married, and said, "Her father swore at her, and told her to leave the house if she couldn't earn money...He wouldn't have had anything to do with sheltering her if her father had acted like a father to her."

The Steckler Association remodeled the basement level again in 1885.  Calling it "a strong political East Side organization, on April 27, the New-York Tribune reported it "received their friends in their newly renovated rooms at No. 83 East Fourth-st."  The article noted, "Many prominent politicians and business men were present."

The space became Frederick Bengal's "coffee-house," around 1890.  Charles Henry Parkhurst was not so sure that coffee was the only thing being traded here.  The clergyman and reformer founded the Society for the Prevention of Crime in 1891 and in November 1893 he sent word to Captain Doherty of the Fifth Street police station "that the coffee-houses in his precinct were nothing but gambling resorts."  During the last week of November, Doherty made raids on seven such places, including that of Frederick Bengel, who was arrested.

The post-World War I years saw the neighborhood become the center of labor and Socialist groups.  No. 83 East 4th Street was home to the Unemployment Council by 1921.  On December 4 that year, The New York Times explained, "The Unemployment Council is made up of delegates from various unions."

Within a year, the Organization of the Unemployed, the United Labor Council and the Workers' Party of America operated from the building.  On March 11, 1922, The Daily Worker reported on the 15 million people starving from famine in Russia.  "Can you witness this suffering without raising a hand to help?" asked the article.  It said that a "vast relief army is being mustered in New York City" and one of the stations where donations could be left was at 83 East 4th Street.

Around 1939, the attic was raised to a full floor.  Its wall of windows was topped with a stepped parapet.  The brick was painted white and the basement and parlor floor were converted to Royal Hall, a meeting and entertainment space.  On October 31, 1943, The New York Times reported that the United Nations Folk Dance Group met here once a week.

A canvas marquee sheltered patrons of The Royal in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A decade later, the Royal Hall became the Royal Playhouse.  On October 30, 1953, a new play The Wedding Present by Ken Parker premiered here.

The Royal Playhouse was a short-lived venture.  In 1954, the Fourth Street Theatre opened.  It lasted until the Writers Stage Theater took over around 1960.  

In 1967, the New Dramatists Workshop operated within the building.  Two attendees of a performance of Megan Terry's Keep Tightly Clothed in a Cool Dry Place on March 23 that year were undercover officers.  In one scene, four actors--Yale University drama students--used an American flag as a blanket, threw it on the floor and rolled in it.  They were arrested for "desecrating an American flag."

On February 27, 1969, The New York Times reported that the Playwrights Unit, headed by Edward Albee, Richard Barr and Charles Woodward, had purchased 83 East 4th Street for $77,000 (about $675,000 today).  Barr and Woodward were the producers of the highly successful The Boys in the Band, and Albee was a Pulitzer Prize dramatist.  The article said, "The organization gives new dramatists an opportunity to see their scrips presented on a professional basis without the commercial pressure of paid public performances and newspaper criticism."  The theater space was now known as The Next Stage.

In 1972, the Players Workshop opened here, described by the New York Amsterdam News on October 28 as "a new performing arts center."  It offered courses and workshops in drama, dance, costume design and sewing.

A letter to the editor of The Villager printed on June 26, 1975, said that "the old Playwright's Unit theater is now operating under the name of Wonderhorse."  A product of The Alive Company, "a music-oriented performing theater group."  (The writer noted that when Wonderhorse was not in use, The Next Stage could use the space.)

Theater groups came and went.  In 1991, the New York Theatre Workshop purchased the property and moved in the following year.  (The group's principal performance venue is at 79 East 4th Street.)  No. 83 East 4th Street became a 75-seat "black box space" for readings, the organization's administrative offices, and a workshop.  The group continues in the vintage house today.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The Frank and Elizabeth Larom House - 219 West 78th Street

 

The extended Hall family were builders and developers.  William Hall began the tradition that was continued by his sons William W. and Thomas M. Hall.  (They operated both as William Hall's Sons and W. W. & T. M. Hall).  Joining in the familial trend were Arlington C., and Harvey M. Hall, who worked together; and William H. Hall Jr. and T. R. A. Hall.

In 1890, the latter two purchased ten building lots on the northern side of West 78th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.  They hired the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson to design upscale, three-story and basement homes on the site.  Completed in 1891, they wore Romanesque Revival pants and Renaissance Revival shirts.

Among them was 219 West 78th Street.  Its basement and parlor levels were clad in chunky, undressed brownstone blocks, typical of the Romanesque Revival style.  Beefy carved stoop newels continued the motif.  Thom & Wilson introduced the Renaissance at the parlor floor with sumptuous fruit-and-flower carvings in the single lintel that connected the windows and above the doorway.  Formal fluted columns with complex capitals flanked the entranceway.

The second and third floors discarded any hints of Romanesque.  The windows within the planar brownstone surface were framed by shallow quoins and capped with lintels carved with intricate swags of fruits and flowers.  A pressed metal cornice with paired corbels completed the design.

On October 6, 1892, only two of the homes were still unsold, including No. 219.  An advertisement in The Evening Post for the "3-Story High-Class Houses" read:

For sale--206 and 219 West 78th St.; remainder of row of ten thoroughly seasoned; ready for decorating; restricted neighborhood front and rear.  Liberal mortgage.

The mention of "restricted neighborhood front and rear" meant that commerce (like stores) was prohibited on the 78th and 79th Street blocks.

The house underwent a quick succession of owners until about 1896 when glove importer Frank William Larom and his wife, the former Elizabeth Elmira Shute, moved in.  Born in 1862 and 1867 respectively, the couple was married on December 14, 1887.  They had two children, Irving Hastings and Edith Emerson.  

Elizabeth had deep American roots and was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Society of New England Women.  Her father, builder William Shute, had erected the Grand Opera House.  Like most wives of affluent businessmen, Elizabeth was involved in charitable work.  She annually donated items to the New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home for orphans and wives of veterans.  In 1896, for instance, she donated "1 blanket, 5 tidies, 13 books, dolls and toys."  ("Tidies" were embroidered pieces of cloth used to protect the backs of upholstered furniture.)  The 1914 Woman's Who's Who of America would mention that Elizabeth "interested in animal welfare."  (She was a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.)  It also noted that she was "against woman suffrage."

Edith Emerson Larom was 12 years old when she died on April 21, 1905.  The little girl's casket sat in the parlor until her funeral there on April 24.

The 1914 Social Register listed Irving Hastings Larom as living in the Cottage Club at Princeton University.  Known as Larry, upon his graduation the following year, he relocated to the Far West with Winthrop Brooks (of the Brooks Brothers family).  They established Valley Ranch near Cody, Wyoming.  A dude ranch, he advertised in part, "You'd enjoy wearing ranch clothes, the cowboys, the ranch work, the saddle-leather atmosphere of the place."

Now empty nesters, Frank and Elizabeth sold 219 West 78th Street in December 1918 to Dr. Ferdinand G. Kneer and his wife, the former Annie L. Thoe.  Kneer had been the pathologist at Harlem Hospital, and was now a surgeon at St. Katherine's Hospital.  Additionally, he was also president of the Kneer-Kuhl Co. and an amateur photographer and a pioneer in the creation of colored "optical lantern" slides.  He used those in illustrating his lectures.

Ferdinand G. Kneer died on June 17, 1927.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later, followed by services in the Church of the Transfiguration on East 29th Street.  Annie did not remain in the house for long.  She sold it in February 1929 to the Monel Holding Corporation.  The New York Times remarked that the buyer "will remodel the premises into small suites."

Something went awry with the negotiation, however.  The Monel Holding Corporation was still leasing the property from Annie L. Kneer as late as 1934.  On November 13, 1938, The New York Times reported that Annie L. Kneer had leased the house to a new tenant for five years.  "The tenant will alter the building," said the article.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The residence was remodeled again after the Feingold Realty Corporation purchased it in September 1962.  "The buyer, an architect, plans to alter the building into small apartments, one of which he will occupy," reported The New York Times.  That architect was Alexander Feingold.  He reconfigured the interior to seven apartments while preserving the exterior appearance. 

At the time of Feingold's purchase, the neighborhood had severely declined from the era when Frank and Elizabeth Larom first stepped from their carriage in front of the stoop.  Thirty-five years later, Feingold still lived here.  He recalled his early years in the house to The New York Times journalist Christopher Gray in 1995, saying, "the block was plagued by prostitution and drugs."  Feingold and his neighbors turned things around.  Gray reported, "An early step forward, around 1966, was the planting of trees by the Department of Parks, followed by brick enclosures Mr. Feingold's firm designed for the tree pits a few years later."

There are still seven apartments in the building.  And Thom & Wilson's interesting hybrid design is amazingly intact.

photographs by the author