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.  (The negative of the tax photo above is reversed.) 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."

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, were installed.