photograph by Carole Teller
In 1883, developer Pierson S. Halstead demolished the two vintage buildings at 67 and 69 Eighth Avenue, just south of West 14th Street, and hired architect James E. Ware to replace them with two store-and-tenement buildings. Completed in 1884, they struggled with an architectural dual personality. Above the residential entrances, flanked by stores, were stone entablatures ornately carved with Renaissance Revival designs. The style reappeared on the top floor where shallow piers capped with Doric capitals separated the openings. But sandwiched between, the three-story midsection was purely neo-Grec in style. Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, the windows wore hefty stone lintels capped with molded cornices.
While most tenants were respectable--like William H. Broderick, who lived in No. 67 and was a commissioner of deeds, similar to a notary public--others found themselves in trouble with the police.
James F. Hyde, who also lived in No. 67, was a "ticket speculator" (known today as a ticket scalper). He was working the crowd outside the Fourteenth Street Theatre on the night of November 24, 1887 when another speculator, David Stack, showed up. Infuriated, Hyde insisted that the interloper leave. The Sun reported, "They clinched, and Hyde, it is said, struck Stack over the head with the butt end of a revolver after Stack had bit his right thumb." Neither man would sell any more tickets that night. They were both arrested.
Hyde was assuredly familiar with another resident of 67 Eighth Avenue. Martin W. Hanley, who lived there with his family at the time of the affray, was the manager of Harrigan's Park Theatre.
Living next door as early as 1891 was aspiring politician Charles Henry Turner. Born in 1861, he attended Columbia College from 1886 to 1888. He went into the ice business while campaigning for State Senate in 1888. According to The New York Times, he "made speeches from the tailboard of an ice cart." The newspaper said he would become "known throughout the country as 'Turner, the Ice Man.'"
In 1889, after Democratic U.S. Senator Frank T. Fitzgerald stepped down, Turner was elected to fill his place. He served from December 9, 1889 to March 3, 1891, retaining the lease to his Eighth Avenue apartment.
Charles Henry Turner, Once a Week newspaper 1890 (copyright expired)
Turner hosted a political meeting in his apartment on February 9, 1891. The New York Herald said, "The Executive Committee of the County Democracy Organization of the Ninth Assembly district met last night at No. 69 Eighth avenue to decide upon the question of a union with the rival New York democracy."
At the end of his Senate term, in March 1891, Turner was appointed Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives. By the end of the year, it had become apparent that keeping the New York City residence was unworkable. On December 11, 1891, The Evening World said, "Doorkeeper Turner at his home, 69 Eighth avenue...said that he simply came home to arrange for the removal of his family to Washington."
Burns's Undertaking occupied one of the two shop spaces in 69 Eighth Avenue by 1898. It was taken over by Richard J. Delaney at the turn of the century.
The Xavier, May 1904 (copyright expired)
On the night of November 20, 1910, Richard J. Delaney was riding in the front seat of his hearse and John H. Koenig was driving. The hearse struck 12-year-old Genni Damborelli at Eighth Avenue and 16th Street. The New York Times reported, "The boy had his right eye injured and suffered some contusions." The article said, "The chauffeur was able to stop before the boy was run over."
Delaney put the boy into the hearse and he was taken to New York Hospital. There doctors diagnosed the boy's eye injury as serious and advised Delaney to take him to the New York Eye and Ear Hospital on Second Avenue. The New York Times reported, "After the boy's eye was dressed, he was put in the hearse again, while Mr. Delaney went to the West Twentieth Street Station to report the accident."
At the station house, it was discovered that John Koenig had been driving with a New Jersey license and he was detained. Richard Delaney now took the reins of the hearse and took Genni Damborelli home. The Times titled its article, "Boy Spends a Happy Hour in the Vehicle Which Ran Him Down," and said he was "apparently enjoying himself."
The Renaissance Revival carvings above the entrances were intact as late as 1940. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Richard J. Delaney sometimes handled the funerals of notable New Yorkers. On August 4, 1911, The New York Times reported on the funeral of John B. McGoldrick, "for thirteen years Secretary to Richard Crocker, and for a short time Secretary of the Tammany General Committee." And on the evening of May 17, 1916, the funeral of David Healy, "one of the oldest and most esteemed members of the New York Press Club," was held here.
Delaney handled a sensitive situation in March 1921. The bodies of Willis McCurdy, personnel manager of the American Surety Company, and his "young woman secretary, Alice Snowden," as described by the New-York Tribune, were discovered in Central Park. The murder-suicide strongly suggested an extra-marital affair. On March 10, the New-York Tribune reported, "The home of the McCurdys [in Astoria] remained closed all yesterday." McCurdy's wife had taken their daughter away from the city and, apparently, wanted nothing to do with a funeral nor press attention. McCurdy's brother, said the article, "placed the remains in charge of R. Delaney, an undertaker, of 69 Eighth Avenue, with instructions for shipment to the family home in Philadelphia."
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
The Lenox Laundry occupied one of the store spaces in 67 Eighth Avenue as early as 1908. That year Charles Goldstein, who lived at 318 West 14th Street and was studying dentistry, began sending his linen to the shop. In February 1909, nine-year-old Edna Carroll, the daughter of the laundry's owner, was watching a Salvation Army "street meeting" when Goldstein approached her. The Evening World reported, "He persuaded her to come to his room for a letter he said he wanted delivered and promised to give her 10 cents for carrying it."
Once there, Goldstein assaulted her. The Evening World reported, "The child said that when she got to the young man's room he had held a knife over her, threatening her life if she made an outcry." Shockingly, Goldstein was not done. The article said that Edna "was afraid to go home for several hours and meanwhile Goldstein had enticed [12-year-old Fannie Katz] to his room." Fannie escaped and ran to her mother. Edna Edna finally had enough courage go home. The Evening World reported that just as Fannie Katz and her parents left the Charles Street station, "the parents of Edna Carroll arrived."
News of the outrageous crimes quickly spread throughout the neighborhood. The World reported, "A great crowd gathered before Goldstein's house. As he was dragged out by the policemen, several men in the crowd sprang forward and struck him down. Before the policemen could draw their clubs and fight back the crowd, the young man had been kicked and beaten."
On February 17, Goldstein pleaded guilty. He told the magistrate that he looked upon himself "with loathing" and said, "I must have been drunk or mad when I committed those horrible acts. I see myself, now, as I must have been then, a creature only fit to be hanged."
The Delaney Funeral Parlors were still at 69 Eighth Avenue in 1924. At the time, the other space was home to the florist shop of Alfred D. Sickles.
Patrick Mitchell and his family lived at 67 Eighth Avenue as early as 1922. He listed his profession as a "trucking foreman," but police knew him as "Link" Mitchell, "a member of the 'Tanner' Smith gang when that organization was terrorizing the mid-west side," according to The New York Times. Patrick was closely associated with Frank Wallace, described by the police as "a thrice-convicted member of the notorious Hudson Dusters gang," according to the newspaper.
The two gangsters spent Saturday night, August 12, 1922, "from dusk until Sunday dawn cruising about Broadway and the side streets in an automobile, 'looking for a guy,' who was apparently avoiding him successfully," reported The Evening World. At 2:00 a.m. they arrived at the Café La Vie on West 48th Street (a dining-dancing café).
At around dawn, Wallace and Mitchell started to leave. The New York Times reported, "Two bullets in his head, Wallace pitched from the café to the curb and toppled into the street to die an hour later in Roosevelt Hospital." Patrick Mitchell was one of seven patrons who were detained as "material witnesses."
The slippery Patrick Mitchell avoided arrest over the coming years. Then, early on the morning of October 17, 1925, detectives raided the Varsity Club at 48 Sixth Avenue and "seized a flask of gin and whisky," as reported by The New York Times. Two men, Louis Roth and James Dixson, were arrested. The article said, "As the detectives were leaving with their prisoners, they said, they saw Joseph King, a negro...hand a revolver to Patrick Mitchell." Both men and Thomas King, "who was standing next to Mitchell," were arrested and charged with violating the Sullivan Law, an early gun control act.
Half a century after Alfred D. Sickles opened his flower shop in 69 Eighth Avenue, a florist still occupied the space. On December 18, 1978, The Villager reported, "At 12:15 pm on December 9, two men entered the flower shop at 69 Eighth Avenue, pulled guns and forced the manager to turn over $450 in cash and $1900 worth of jewelry before fleeing north on Eighth Avenue. The manager gave chase, but lost them at 16th Street."
Two decades later, the McManus Florist occupied in the space.
The Villager, February 7, 1996
There are still four apartments per floor in the buildings. The cast iron piers of the 1884 storefronts survive, however the Renaissance Revival entablatures over the doorways are gone. The upper floors are essentially unchanged.
photograph by Carole Teller
many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post
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