The William C. and Emma Orr House - 50 West 76th Street

 

Real estate developer Leonard Beeckman embarked on an ambitious project in 1887 by breaking ground for nine, 19-feet-wide rowhouses on West 76th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues (renamed Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, respectively, in 1890).  Designed by George M. Walgrove, the homes were completed in 1889.  

(Walgrove, incidentally, would be appointed a Parks Commissioner in January 1906, only to be forced to resign that November for using his post "for political purposes," according to Mayor George B. McClellan.)

Among the most striking of the homes was 50 West 76th Street.  Above the doglegged box stoop, Walgrove striated the parlor floor by alternating wide dressed stone with narrow rough cut strips.  Elegant Renaissance-style pediments crowned the center windows of the second and third floors.  The other openings sat within multi-layered, stepped architraves topped with molded cornices.

The house was briefly owned by Reverend Dr. Edmund Guilbert.  Born in 1837, he was rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit on Madison Avenue.

Rev. Dr. Edmund Guilbert, Annals of an Old Parish Historical Sketches of Trinity Church Southport Connecticut 1725 to 1898 by Rev. Edmund Gilbert D. D.(copyright expired)

Rev. Guilbert was the victim of two "rogues," as described by the New York Herald in the summer of 1891.  On July 1, the Waterbury, Connecticut Evening Democrat explained that one "well dressed young man" would board a boat heading from New York to summer communities.  He would find an unaccompanied valise on the deck and, just before the gangplank was raised, his accomplice on the pier would wave frantically as if there were an emergency.  The first man would grab the valise and rush off the boat.  The Evening Democrat said, "So frequent had these thefts become, that...policemen were detailed to watch."  

Like most wealthy Manhattan churches, the Church of the Holy Spirit closed during the hot summer months while their congregants abandoned the city for their summer estates or fashionable resorts.  On July 22, Rev. Guilbert boarded the Monmouth to Sandy Hook.  The Evening World reported that just as the ship's whistle blew, a "well dressed young man" hurried to the pier with a valise.  Police caught Henry Hamilton, whose story "was all knocked in the head when the rightful owner of the valise, Rev. Dr. Edmund Guilbert...appeared on the scene and told how he had left the valise for a moment in the saloon."  The Evening Democrat said that among the contents were stocks, the value of which "has been placed at thousands of dollars."

At the time of the incident, Rev. Guilbert had already tendered his resignation from the Church of the Holy Spirit.  In 1890 he accepted the position of rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport, Connecticut.  On November 7, 1891, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that Edmund Guilbert had sold 50 West 76th Street to William C. Orr and his wife, the former Emma Philbin.

Born in Brooklyn, Orr graduated from St. Francis Xavier College in 1868 and received his M. A. degree the following year.  A specialist in real estate law, he was counsel for the Fifth Avenue Bank, the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, and the Home for the Aged of the Little Sisters of Poor.

William and Emma had three sons--Philbin, Sherwood and William Jr.--and three daughters--Constance Philbin, Jeannette, and Florence.

The Orrs apparently took in a boarder and in 1896 a "Mrs. Nickerson" listed her address here.  She was a daughter of John Forman of Asbury Park, New Jersey and a sister of Laura Forman.  In May 1896, the women's widowed father remarried and Laura, who was unmarried, "became restive under the changed conditions," according to him.  To complicate the situation, George H. Lefferson began "paying attention" to Laura.  The New York Sun commented that John Forman "was not well disposed toward the young man."

In July 1896, Laura came to New York to visit her sister.  Suddenly, on July 16, a carriage stopped in front of 50 West 76th Street and several men got out.  They forcibly put Laura into the vehicle, and took her to the House of Mercy in Inwood.  Her father had arranged to have her incarcerated there.  The New York Sun reported, "Her father paid her board there, although most of the inmates are supported by the institution."

Constance Philbin Orr died "after a short illness," according to The New York Times, on July 9, 1910.  Somewhat surprisingly, her funeral was not held in the house, but at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Broadway and 71st Street.

Within three years, the Orrs left 50 West 76th Street and they leased the the home to the Daniel O'Connell family.  Like his landlord, O'Connell was an attorney.  Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he graduated from De La Salle College in Toronto and earned his law degree from the New York Law School.  He and his wife, the former Marcella Harlin, had two sons and three daughters.  

President Grover Cleveland appointed O'Connell an Assistant United States District Attorney.  He was, as well, president of the McNab & Harlin Manufacturing Company.

On the afternoon of March 14, 1916, Daniel and Marcella O'Connell took in the matinee at the New York Theatre on Broadway and 44th Street.  At 4:30, Daniel O'Connell, as reported by the New-York Tribune, he fell "unconscious while in the theatre."  The 61-year-old had suffered "an attack of apoplexy," as reported by The New York Times.  (The term most often refers to a stroke today.)  He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Daniel O'Connell's funeral was held in the parlor of 50 West 76th Street on March 17, followed by a mass at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle on Columbus Avenue and 59th Street.  

The Orrs continued to lease the house to well-to-do tenants until William C. Orr's death in 1926.  It was purchased by Hannah Marshall who operated it as unofficial apartments.

In 1940, 50 West 76th Street looked no different than it does today.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Living here in 1932 were Henry Ritter and his wife, Anna.  Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1874, Henry was an inventor.  For several years he had been paralyzed from the waist down.  On May 23, Anna went out after getting Henry settled into a chair.  He was reading his newspaper and smoking a cigar when the newspaper caught fire.  Unable to get up, the fire spread to his clothing.  Another resident, Joseph Babalco, smelled smoke and entered the apartment.  The New York Times reported that he "found Mr. Ritter's clothing still burning."  He beat out the fire and called for an ambulance, but Ritter was dead by the time it arrived.

Gershon Legman rented an apartment here in 1937.  According to Mikita Brottman in her 2004 Funny Peculiar, Gershon Legman and the Psychopathology of Humor, "Legman's main personal interest at this time, and his first publication, was Oragenitalism, a small volume of 'Oral Techniques in Genital Excitation for Gentlemen."  

Gershon Legman, from the collection of Judith Legman

Born on November 2, 1917, Legman was educated at the University of Michigan.  He would become the editor of the magazine Neurotica in the 1940s and a folklorist and critic.  His The Horn Book: Studies in Erotic Folklore and Bibliography and The Rationale of the Dirty Joke would be published in 1964 and 1968 respectively.

In 1967, 50 West 76th Street was converted to apartments.  Then, a renovation completed in 2013 returned it to a single-family home.  

photographs by the author

The Lost Clinton Hall - Beekman and Nassau Streets

A public pump sits opposite Clinton Hall.  The fence surrounds the churchyard of the Old Brick Church.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Established in 1820 and opened on February 1821 at 49 Fulton Street, the Mercantile Library Association afforded a reading room and library for young clerks just beginning their business careers.  In 1829, its members established the Clinton Hall Association (named for beloved New York City Mayor and Governor DeWitt Clinton, who died the previous year) to erect a formidable new building.  The site chosen was formerly occupied by the 1761 theater in which Hamlet was first staged in the United States.  At the southwest corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets, it faced the 1767 Old Brick Church.  Scribner's Monthly would remark decades later, "Beekman street was pretty well up town in those days."

The association hired 26-year-old architect Alexander Jackson Davis to design the multi-use structure.  (Davis partnered with Ithiel Town, a respected and well-established architect, that same year.  Although it would make sense that Clinton Hall was a collaboration of the pair, only Davis is listed as its designer.)  

On July 21, 1829, The Evening Post reported on the cornerstone laying ceremony.  It began at noon with "a procession composed of the Trustees and the Clergymen, who were to officiate,...the subscribers, the Mercantile Library Association, and the members of other public Institutions" from City Hall to the site.  The stone was laid "in the midst of a large assembly of citizens" by Isaac Carow, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, and Alexander Jackson Davis.

Dedicated on November 2, 1830, Davis's Greek Revival design successfully disguised the fact that the structure was, in fact, two separate buildings.  The New York Annual Register of 1831 explained, "The cost of the building was about $50,000, independent of Clinton Hotel, the property of Philip Hone, Esq. which is under the same roof, fronting on Beekman-street, and cost about the same as the Hall."  (Not coincidentally, Philip Hone was the chairman of the Mercantile Library Association.)  The combined construction cost would translate to about $3.5 million in 2026.  

The New-York Annual Register, 1831 (copyright expired)

The granite base was girded by a low flight of stone stairs.  It contained stores--six in the Clinton Hall portion and two in the hotel--that provided income.  The upper three floors were faced in brick "stuccoed in imitation of stone," said the New-York Annual Register.  Calling it a "noble and substantial edifice," the register said Clinton Hall was "dedicated to Literature, Science, and the Arts."  Within the upper floors were the Mercantile Library's large lecture room, library,  and reading room.  (The lecture room could be rented by outside groups.)

Philip Hone, who served as mayor from 1826 to 1827, hired Joseph M. Bispham to run his hotel.  On October 20, 1830, The Evening Post reported, "This elegant and commodious establishment is not completed...We understand Mr. Bispham is especially qualified to discharge the duties of the Host, and that his gentlemanly manners will render Clinton Hotel a place of fashionable resort and temporary residence."  The article added, "Its connexion [sic] with Clinton Hall will always preserve it as a conspicuous point in the public eye."

The Clinton Hall Bookstore was among the first of the commercial tenants.  The New-York Annual Register, 1831 (copyright expired)

In addition to housing the Mercantile Library, Clinton Hall was designed to accommodate long-term tenants.  Perhaps the first was the National Academy of Design, which moved in in 1830.  Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly said that starting in 1831, the academy's annual exhibitions "were held in much more commodious and altogether more suitable rooms, on the third floor of the Mercantile Library, in Clinton Hall."  The article reported that the National Academy of Design paid an annual rent of $500 (or $18,000 today) "for these apartments."

On November 11, 1831, The Evening Post noted that the National Academy would be opening its "school of the Antique," saying, "The instructors will be the gentlemen of the council."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

To pay for the building's construction, the directors sold Clinton Hall Stock.  But, "the sickness which shortly after prevailed in the city," as worded by The Evening Post, abruptly halted the fund-raising.  The city was ravaged by a cholera epidemic that took the lives of between 3,500 and 3,515 New Yorkers.  Roughly one third of the city's residents fled northward.  On January 9, 1832, The Evening Post reported, "Eighteen thousand dollars yet remain to be subscribed for, ere the Board of Trustees can proceed with vigor to the attainment of the magnificent ends aimed by this institution."

But at the time of the article, things were returning to normal.  On the same page was a notice that, "A course of lectures is to be commenced to-morrow evening, at Clinton Hall...The subject is Political Economy."

New York University's 1916 Annual Catalogue would recall its early years: "The work began with instruction in the Undergraduate College with special courses in Mathematics and Physical Science in the fall of 1832, the classes being held in Clinton Hall."

Although slavery was abolished in New York City in 1827, the city's economic dependence on the South placed its abolitionists overwhelmingly in the minority.  That was vividly shown in a passage in The American Metropolis:

To Tammany belongs the honor of the first victory over abolitionists in New York City.  In 1833 abolitionists attempted to hold their first meeting at Clinton Hall (Nassau and Beekman Streets).  It was prevented by a riotous crowd, which promptly celebrated its victory by adjourning to Tammany Hall and passing resolutions denouncing abolition.

Publisher Daniel Appleton established a bookstore in the Clinton Hotel side of the building.  It sold his own publications as well as books imported from England.   

James Gordon Bennett, the publisher of the New York Herald, rented offices in Clinton Hall as early as 1836.  That year the fiery publisher began a campaign "in favor of the great mass of the tenantry of New York, against the grasping landlords," in his words.  He was served an eviction notice in February 1837.

Bennett's editorial in the New York Herald on February 8 said that he had paid his quarterly rent in advance and that his eviction was "in consequence" of his campaign for renters.

I have every reason to believe that the Clinton Hall Association, a species of Real Estate Monopoly, composed as it is of speculators and fanatics, have determined to violate the implied engagements of their Agent with me, and to turn me out, as a punishment for my manifold transgressions towards the cause of the rich and powerful.

Upscale hotels were constant targets of burglars and the Clinton Hotel was no exception.  On November 23, 1843, the National Anti-Slavery Standard titled an article "Something New" and reported that two thieves, Richard Martin and George Fisher, had been arrested "for stealing wearing apparel from Clinton hotel."  They had an innovative burglary tool, "an instrument for turning a key outside, which has been turned by a person inside, and left in the door."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

By the mid-1840s, the Clinton Hotel was operated by Simon and Warren Leland.  (The brothers would later conceive of hotel chains.)  The problem of hotel thievery became personal to him in 1847.  On December 8 The Evening Post reported that William Seiler, an employee in the hotel, had been arrested for "stealing a frock coat from Warren Leland."  The young man had been hired four months earlier and during that time, "coats, &c. have been taken to the amount of $100."

In July 1848, The Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks, a bank for young businessmen, opened on the ground floor.  The institution had been incorporated just three months earlier.  It would become the Union Square Savings Bank in 1905.

The Clinton Hotel hosted wealthy Americans and distinguished foreigners.  On June 21, 1851, for instance, The Evening Post reported that the entourage of "Count Villaneva, Intendent General of the Island of Cuba," were occupying rooms here.  Included were "Count Villanova, the Count's private Secretaries--Colonel Pinillas, General Carrillo--Colonel Pasejo and family, Post Captain Amero, Colonel Delango, and their servants."

At the time, the end of the line for the hotel and the Mercantile Library's occupancy in Clinton Hall was nearing.  On June 9, 1854, the New York Herald reported, "The Mercantile Library for several years past has been much cramped for room in its quarters in Beekman street, and after the urgent solicitations of its members, the Clinton Hall Association decided to purchase a more favorable site for the institution."  The association purchased the Astor Place Opera House on Astor Place.  The Mercantile Library Association's annual report in January 1855 said that the move from Clinton Hall was effected on June 8, 1854.

Two years later, in February 1856, a days-long auction of the furnishings of the Clinton Hotel began.  Hundreds of lots, including "a very large assortment of China and Glass Ware," mahogany dining tables and "several very large size Oil Paintings, very valuable," were sold.  The New York Times reported, "The Clinton Hotel property has been purchased by the Park Bank Company for $115,000."  The article said the bank would "fit up the old house temporarily."

The renovated Astor Place Opera House was renamed Clinton Hall.  Confusingly, the Beekman Street building retained the name, as well.  The downtown building was converted to offices, many of which were occupied by publishing firms.  Ironically, one of the new tenants was office of the Anti-Slavery Association.  

Other tenants in the 1860s were W. H. Bidwell, publisher of Bidwell's American Theological Review and W. H. Bidwell's Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature; the newspaper Independent, and Rev. John Marsh's Journal of the American Temperance Union.  One non-publishing tenant was financier and president of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, Cyrus Field, here as early as 1863. 

In 1881, banker Eugene Kelly purchased and demolished Clinton Hall.  On its site, he commissioned Silliman & Farnsworth to design a ten-story office building, the Temple Court Building.

King's Handbook of New York City, 1892 (copyright expired)

The Elijah B. Middlebrook House - 121 East 78th Street

 

photograph by the author

Development of the Upper East and Upper West Sides began in earnest following the Civil War.  Around 1871 Nicholas McCool erected a row of identical Italianate-style homes on the north side of East 78th Street, between Lexington and Fourth Avenues (renamed Park Avenue in 1888).  Three bays wide and three stories tall above high English basements, they were intended for affluent families.

Beefy cast iron railings and newels protected the areaways and stoops.  Like the others, the arched entrance of 121 East 78th Street sat below a prominent triangular pediment upheld by foliate, scrolled corbels.  Smaller versions embellished the parlor windows.  The upper floor windows sat within molded architraves with cornices.

121 East 78th Street was originally identical to No. 127, seen here around 1912.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

McCool advertised 121 East 78th Street and two others on September 17, 1872:

Three high stoop brown stone houses, 119 and 121 East Seventy-eighth street, also 121 East Seventy-ninth street, within two blocks of Central Park, all of which will be sold cheap to prompt buyers.

The ad was answered by Dr. Elijah B. Middlebrook, who had just relocated to New York City from Connecticut.  Middlebrook owned "large blocks of real estate" in Bridgeport, Connecticut, according to The Evening World, which added that he was "considered a wealthy man."  

Born at "Long Hill," in Trumbull, Connecticut, Middlebrook was a graduate of Yale College.  His resume was not restricted to medicine.  At the age of 36 he owned a carriage factory and a large livery stable in Bridgeport.  He was as well, according to the New York Herald, "a farmer and a dealer in real estate."

Middlebrook was not living in New York by his own choice, however.  Shortly before purchasing 121 East 78th Street, he was embroiled in a court battle in Connecticut.  He assaulted attorney W. K. Seller in the courtroom and openly called him a liar.  Although Middlebrook paid a $600 fine (a significant $16,900 in 2026), the New York Herald reported that he "exiled himself from Bridgeport rather than endure the ignominy of imprisonment."  The Evening World said, "Dr. Middlebrook was compelled to remain out of the State or go to jail to serve out a sentence for contempt of Court."

Moving into the new house with her father was Annie A. Sewell.  It is unclear whether she was a young widow, or if her husband lived here as well.  However, when Annie died a year later on March 16, 1873 at the age of 30, her husband was not mentioned in her obituary.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on March 19.

Interestingly, when Middlebrook moved into 121 East 78th Street, he listed his profession as "physician."  In 1876, he changed it to "veterinarian surgeon."  And in 1879, he listed both: "physician" at 170 East 78th Street and "veterinarian surgeon" at 169 East 77th Street.

Among Middlebrook's servants in 1881 was Mary Lynch.  On the afternoon of January 18, she caught 13-year-old George Leonard slipping out of the house.  She alerted Dr. Middlebrook who had the teen arrested.  The New York Herald reported, "Nothing was stolen from the premises.  In the boy's pocket was found a night key."  Leonard was held in jail until it could be discerned if the key would open the locks of the Middlebrook house.

By 1884, Mary J. Perkins and her adult nephew, Frederick B. Sewell, lived in the house with Elijah Middlebrook.  It is unclear what their relationship, if any, was.  

Interestingly, on May 3, 1884 The American Architect and Building News reported that Middlebrook was erecting a two-story brick stable at 164-170 Eat 78th Street at a cost of $3,000 (just under $100,000 in 2026).  The plans named F. B. Sewell as the architect.

Dr. Elijah B. Middlebrook died in the East 78th Street house on April 1, 1889.  In reporting his death, a Bridgeport newspaper could not restrain from pointing out that he "fled from this city seventeen years ago after assaulting Lawyer W. K. Seeler in the court-room."

Mary J. Perkins inherited 121 East 78th Street.  She maintained a 133-acre country home in Westchester County.  She took in a boarder, Dr. Samuel F. Howland, who was a dentist.  Howland, who was a bachelor, lived here until his death on March 3, 1914.   His will was probated on July 30, and the New York Herald reported that he left $77,026, "of which he gave $50,000 to Mary J. Perkins, who was not related to him."  (The remainder went to the Moody Schools of Northfield, Massachusetts.)

Mary J. Perkins died on April 13, 1918.  She left the equivalent of $2 million today to Frederick B. Sewell and the East 78th Street house.  Sewell was now living in Mount Vernon, New York and exactly a year later, on April 19, 1919, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that he had leased the house to Dr. William B. Boyd.  Boyd was a vice president of the Columbia University Biochemical Association and a member of the Presbyterian Hospital staff.  

Moving into the house with him was his sister, Virginia.  A self-reliant woman, she was a graduate of Barnard College and during World War I she traveled overseas "with a Y.M.C.A. canteen."  She was originally in charge of "a Barnard unit" there.  Virginia was eventually promoted to inspector in charge of all units in one sector.

The New York Times noted, "Since the war she has been engaged in business management and accountancy."  When she and her brother moved into 121 East 78th Street she was controller of the Kent Place School for Girls in Summit, New Jersey.  Virginia Boyd resigned from the girls' school in June 1925.  Two months later she boarded the Leviathan "for an indefinite stay in France," according to The New York Times.

Virginia's independent and intrepid nature resulted, in part, in a horrifying incident.  On September 22, 1925, Dr. Boyd explained to a reporter that she "had planned to visit friends and to take a walking trip through the chateau region.  One of the points she was to visit was Blois."  Two days earlier, Virginia was on that "walking trip" while between Blois and Chambord when a man attacked her.  A wire from Paris said, "After fighting bravely Miss Boyd was about to be overcome by her assailant, when passing automobilists put him to flight."

French officials took the attack seriously.  The New York Times reported, "Armed posses are scouring the countryside today in a search for the assailant of Miss Boyd."

Frederick B. Sewell, described by The Carpet and Upholstery Trade Review as "a retired interior decorator," died in his Mount Vernon home in 1933.  On May 25, The New York Times reported that his estate had sold 121 East 78th Street to R. Keith Kane.  The article noted it "will be altered at a cost of $10,000."  

The costly renovations (equal to a quarter of a million today) included removing the stoop and lowering the entrance to below grade, converting the original entrance to a window, and adding a new floor.  Astoundingly, the architect deftly matched the former entrance with the existing parlor openings, copied the original architraves for the top floor windows, and reinstalled the 1871 cornice.

Only the unimpressive basement level hinted that renovations had been made.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Born on July 3, 1900, attorney Richmond Keith Kane (who went by his first initial) was a 1926 graduate of Harvard Law School.  He attended Oxford where (as he had been in Harvard) he was on the rowing team.  The year before purchasing 121 East 78th Street, he joined the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.  He and his wife, the former Amanda Stewart Bryan, had four daughters: Shelah, Anne Tennant, Hope Stewart and Constance H.  Their country home was in Wickford, Rhode Island.

Amanda was highly involved in civic and social affairs.  On March 23, 1936, for instance, The New York Times reported that she hosted the "first in a series of meetings in behalf of the work of the Vocational Service for Juniors."  And on January 18, 1939, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. R. Keith Kane, president of the Smith College Club of New York, will give a luncheon today."

The family moved to Washington D.C. in 1940 after Kane became special assistant to the United States Attorney General "in the enforcement of new foreign-registration laws," according to The New York Times.  In September that year, the newspaper reported that Kane had leased the house furnished to "Viscount Jacques d'Aumale, Minister in charge of the French Consulate General in New York."

The New York Police Department's bomb square responded to 121 East 78th Street on March 3, 1941 "to investigate an explosion," according to The New York Times.  The detectives, however, found only "a slightly damaged tin can with white powder spread over the outside of the street door."  The exploding canister was deemed a prank.

With relations between the French Vichy Government and America strained, the following year the consul left East 78th Street and No. 121 was leased to Frederick S. Bailey and his family.  He told The New York Times on November 11, 1942 that he and his family "were greatly disturbed lest any demonstration intended for [d'Aumale] should be addressed to them."

In the meantime, R. Keith Kane was appointed assistant to the Secretary of the Navy in 1943 and in 1945 was an advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization.

The family was back in the East 78th Street home at midcentury.  Shelah Kane was introduced to society in 1950.  She had graduated from the Brearley School and studied at Smith College.  She was married to Ensign James H. Scott, Jr. of the U.S. Coast Guard in St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church in Wickford, Rhode Island on August 18, 1952.

Anne Tennant Kane also attended the Brearly School.  She graduated from the Foxcroft School and Smith College.  Four years after Shelah's wedding, on December 22, 1956, Anne Tennant Kane was married in the Church of the Resurrection to Lockhart Bemiss McGuire.  

Adding to his impressive resume, in 1968 R. Keith Kane was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame.  And in 1971 Harvard gave him an honorary law doctorate.

Kane retired in December 1973 and he and Amanda relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia.  He died there five months later, on May 30, 1974, at the age of 73.

Former securities executive Aftab Islam, and his wife, Theresa Havell, lived here as early as 1999 with their six children and a live-in nanny.  The couple was married in 1979.  Theresa was described by The New York Post as "a Wall Street wizard."  She was the founder "of the highly successful Havell Capital Management," according to the newspaper.  Islam, on the other hand, called himself a "house husband" and had not worked since 1990.  

By 1999, things were not going smoothly within the marriage.  According to The New York Post, they slept in separate bedrooms.  Before going to bed on April 21, Theresa told Aftab that she wanted a divorce.  According to The New York Times, "She awoke just before 5 A.M. as Mr. Islam began beating her with a barbell he used to work out in their home at 121 East 78th Street." 

Saying that the attack came after "years of physical and mental abuse," Women's eNews reported, "After Havell's screams brought three of the couple's six children into her room, Islam continued his attack on the wife."  He told them that he had killed their mother, said the article.  Theresa was hospitalized with a fractured skull.  Islam was taken away by the police.

Charged with attempted murder, on August 11, 2000 Aftab Islam faced a judge.  Calling himself a "pacifist," he admitted hitting his wife with the 10-pound dumbbell.  But he explained his actions, saying that after he had sneaked into her room at 5 a.m. and "affectionately stroked her face...She bit my finger."

Islam continued, "I picked up the barbell she uses to exercise with and hit her with it."  He defended himself saying, "I only hit her four or five times and not very hard."

Islam was sentenced to eight years in prison.  While there, he attempted to retain 40 percent of the couple's assets in the divorce proceedings.  That did not happen.  The court (a subsequent appellate judge) ruled that Havell deserved the couple's entire assets, "valued at $17 million," according to Women's eNews.  The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court called his assault on Theresa "so egregious as to shock the conscience."

photograph by the author

New owners had renovations done in 2002.  It was most likely during this remodeling that architectural elements of the ground floor, faithful reproductions of the 1871 versions, and a charming bay window were installed.

The 1915 Burton Building - 267 Fifth Avenue

 

image via 267fifthave.com

The exclusive Calumet Club moved into the two brick-and-brownstone mansions at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 29th Street in 1886.  The relentless expansion of the commercial district had forced the club's members to migrate northward and necessitated its relocation to 12 West 56th Street in 1914.  The following year, on April 17, 1915, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the combined Fifth Avenue mansions had been sold.  "The new owners will erect an eleven-story structure for their own occupancy," explained the article.

The owners were Frank V., John H. and Crawford Burton, and Howard F. Clark, partners in Burton Brothers & Co., "one of the largest cotton goods manufacturers in the country," as described by The New York Times.  Two months later, the architectural firm of Starrett & Van Vleck filed plans for a "fire-proof warehouse" to cost $350,000 (about $11.6 million in 2026 terms).  

Frank V. and John H. Burton were the heads of Burton Brothers & Co. and it is likely that they gave Starrett & Van Vleck significant input.  On July 4, 1915, The New York Times remarked that they "have long been prominent in the realty world for their partiality to high-class Fifth Avenue property."  

Despite the plan's initial description, the Burton Building was decidedly not a warehouse.  Completed in 1915, the architects designed it in a commercial take on Colonial architecture.  (The New York Times would later comment, "The architecture is a careful adaptation of the American Colonial to the requirements of a building of that type.")  Its three-story limestone base featured a double-height level arcade, the upper windows of which mimicked elegant fan lights.  The mid- and upper sections were clad in gray brick and two-story arches at the 10th- and 11th-floors echoed the base.  Most eye-catching was the brick crown of piers that supported a pergola.  That roof garden was almost assuredly the idea of the Burtons.  The New York Times described it on February 13, 1916:

One of its most attractive features is the main roof tiled throughout and inclosed [sic] on side and overhead with iron screens filled in with heavy wire mesh, affording all employes [sic] in the building a splendid recreation space for their noon hour.

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

The Burtons did not forget themselves in planning the building.  The article said:

In addition to the roof garden an attractive parlor or rest room for the members of the firm has been provided in lieu of the usual pent house, to which a sleeping room is connected with baths, for the convenience of those who may be forced to work overtime in the rush period and thereby miss the customary train to the suburban homestead and family dinner.

Because the Church of the Transfiguration (known as the Little Church Around the Corner) sat directly behind the Burton Building, Starrett & Van Vleck was able to place "generous window space on all sides," as reported by The New York Times, "making it as attractive on the rear as on the street sides."

As The Times had pointed out, John H. Burton was, indeed, highly active in the protection of the district.  He was the chairman of the Save New York Committee in 1916, the goal of which was "to preserve the heart of the City, from 33rd to 59th Streets and from Third to Seventh Avenues, from destruction by factories and to rehabilitate the lower and deserted part of New York City."  (Five years later, the Save New York Committee would move its headquarters into the Burton Building.)

Burton Brothers & Co. did not occupy the entire building, and quickly tenants moved in.  Among them in the first years of the 1920s were the New York office of the Pennsylvania-based Eddystone Manufacturing, "finishers of fine fabric;" the Mohawk Glove Corporation, which occupied the entire top floor; the Waite Grass Carpet Company; and the Philadelphia-based Colonial Knitting Mills.

A Mohawk Glove Corporation ad included a depiction of the Burton Building.  The Glovers' Review, December 1921 (copyright expired)

Frank Vincent Burton, a founder of Burton Brothers & Co., was a widower with five children.  On November 20, 1919, at the age of 65, he married Claire Louise Hyllsted.  Less than three years later, on March 12, 1922, he died leaving an estate equal to $24 million today.  (Claire estimated it as being closer to $10 million, or $186 million today.)  Burton excluded Claire from his will and a long-fought and ugly legal battle soon began as Claire sued her five step-children. 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

In the spring of 1923, a branch of the Chemical National Bank opened in part of the ground floor.  At the time, the offices of the Silk Publishing Company were on the third floor; and S. Craig Preston & Company, dealers in "gift and art wares;" and the New York Office of Thos. L. Leedom Co., makers of rugs, were also in the building.

Bromley Manufacturing Company leased the second floor, engulfing 5,000 square feet, in 1925.  The Carpet and Upholstery Trade Review described the firm as "manufacturers of fringed lace curtains, fringed Lever and fringed silk curtains, novelty lace edge curtains, drapery nets, etc."  Another curtain firm, the newly formed Cooper & De Luna Corporation moved in in 1926.  The Decorative Furnisher explained that the firm distributed "ruffled and novelty curtains and damasks and light weight silks."

On September 4, 1930, The New York Times reported that architect C. B. French had been hired to make $7,000 in renovations.  It was most likely at this time that the roof garden and pergola were demolished.

As early as 1940, the rooftop structure had been removed.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A minor tenant here in 1931 was Abraham Holtz, a wholesale jeweler who occupied an office on the eighth floor.  Holtz was alone in the office just before noon on August 22 that year when two young men barged in.  The New York Times reported that, "using their fists as their only weapons," the thugs "gagged him, tied his coat over his head and then collected eight watches, a bracelet, a platinum wedding ring and three unset diamonds."  The youths escaped with about $1,500 worth of jewelry.  

Burton Brothers, Inc. faced charges by the Federal Trade Commission in 1943.  The firm marketed its "Burton's Irish Poplin" to shirt manufacturers with a picture of a shamrock.  The FTC charged that the material "is represented to be made in Ireland or of Irish goods" while, in fact, "it is an American product."

The Burton Building continued to house, mostly, dry goods related tenants through the 1940s.  Among them were the Nassau Textile Company, the American Soil Sponge Selling Group, and the National Association of Bedding Manufacturers.

The second half of the century saw more corporate offices moving in.  In the 1950s and '60s, the law firms Levin, Rosmarin & Schwartz and Rothenberg, Levin, Cohen and Schwartz operated here, as did the consulting firms of Arthur Deutz, Inc. and Francis Wadsworth James.

In September 1980, the Burton Building was sold "to a foreign investment group headed by Dr. B. Bastiyali of Dusseldorf, West Germany, for $2.35 million," according to The New York Times.  A renovation completed in 1983 resulted in a "dry goods store" in the lower five floors and a "wholesale establishment" in the upper portion, including the new penthouse level, according to the Department of Buildings.

A recent photograph reveals the remodeled base and the glass-enclosed penthouse. image via 267fifthave.com 

A subsequent two-year renovation initiated in 2017 included  the remodeling of the ground floor.  Starrett & Van Vleck's arched openings were enlarged and squared off.  

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for prompting this post

Charles Rentz's 1891 100-102 West Houston Street

Architect Charles Rentz's business was booming in 1890.  On November 21, 1890 alone he filed plans for four substantial buildings.  Among them was a "six-story stone and iron warehouse, with elevators, engines, etc." at 100 and 102 West Houston Street for Levy & Co.  Rentz placed the construction costs at $45,000, or about $1.6 million in 2026.

Charles Rentz designed the structure's two mirror-image sections in a reserved version of Romanesque Revival.  Completed in 1891, it was faced in brick above a cast iron base.  Triptych windows at the second floor sat within segmental arches, while the grouped windows of the midsection shared a single stone lintel.  The three-story pier between them was decorated with large, ornamental anchor plates.  Above the fully arched openings of the top floor was a bracketed cornice.

Among the initial tenants was Peter J. Brett, who manufactured "bonnet frames" on the fifth floor.  His ten male employees worked 53 hours per week.  Early on the morning of March 25, 1895, fire was discovered in Brett's shop.  The New York Times reported, "The firemen soon put it out, and some of them had left, while others were cleaning up the debris."  Those who remained were Captain Johnson and seven firefighters.  They "were putting things to rights," said the New York Herald, when a gas meter exploded.  "The shock threw them off their feet, but the things which were fired about shot over their heads, so they were not hurt."

The explosion started a second fire "and the rest of the firemen had to come back to put it out," reported the New York Herald.  The second blaze was worse than the first and Brett incurred damages of $10,000--a significant $385,000 today.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Like Peter J. Brett, several of the tenants were millinery-related.  At the turn of the century, Eugene Razetti, Sardi & Valente, and Rossig Bros.--all three makers of artificial flowers and foliage for women's hats--were here.  Unlike Brett, who employed only men, Sardi & Valente's staff was heavily female: 17 women and 3 men.

Both firms advertised in The Millinery Trade Review in November 1904 (copyright expired)

Also occupying space at the turn of the century was the Standard Embroidery Company (on October 2, 1904, it advertised for a "Boy, Hebrew, for errands and make himself generally useful"), the Chemical Novelty Co., and M. Friedman & Co., makers of umbrella handles.  The latter was established in 1881 and moved into the West Houston Street building in 1892.  In 1905, Trunks Leather Goods and Umbrellas called M. Friedman & Co. "the oldest umbrella handle manufacturers in New York."

In the meantime, the ground floor was home to Rigolletti's Restaurant.  Working for Eugene Razzetti upstairs was Caesar Razzetti, presumably a son.  On the night of February 22, 1908, Eugene met his uncle, Gerolamo Cella, a respected importer of Italian wines, in the restaurant.  They and some friends played cards, but, according to The Sun, "During the came [Cella] was gloomy and inattentive."  The newspaper said, "As he was leaving he told the little party that they might soon be called to attend his funeral."  Cella was right.  He went home and committed suicide.

By the World War I years, J. Mackey & Co. was here, making "the campaign hat strap adopted by the new National Army," according to an ad in December 1917.  The firm also manufactured, "leather visors, chin straps, trimmings for uniform caps complete."

The post-war years saw millinery firms replaced with a variety of businesses.  In the early 1920s, Forsberg Electric Mfg. Co. and Conway Import Company were here; and by 1930 C. M. Blodgett, publishers of advertising calendars operated in the building.

Geyer's Stationery, September 1930 (copyright expired)

For some reason, 100-102 West Houston Street became a target for burglars in 1920.  Between January and August that year, there were eight break-ins, two of them targeting Conway Import Company.  It happened again on August 22.  The Evening World reported, "A safe-ripping which failed to remove the inner door was disclosed to-day when the store of the Conway Import Company, olive oil importers at Nos. 100-102 West Houston Street, was opened."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Savoy Provision Company of Manhattan moved into the building in the Depression years and would remain for decades.  It was nearly involved in what the Staten Island Advance called an "early-morning barbecue" on June 10, 1947.  The article said that firemen were "called to put out a blaze in the cab of a meat truck to the rear of 1004 Arden avenue, Annadale."   How a fire could have started in the Savoy Provision Company's truck was unexplained.

The firm occupied the building until the early 1980s.  A conversion completed in 1985 resulted in six cooperative apartments.  It was possibly at this time that the cornice was removed.

As had been the case in 1908, the ground floor became a restaurant.  Fratelli Cangiani opened in June 1988, replaced by Jane at the turn of the century, and followed by Sarabeth.

photographs by the author