The vintage house with its polychromed details had survived intact in 1932. A section of the cornice was lost when the apartment building to the right was constructed. from the collection of the New York Public Library
After the New York and Harlem Railroad was extended along Fourth Avenue in the 1830's, a hamlet grew up around the 86th Street station. In the 1850's an influx of German and Irish immigrants settled in the village, many of them hired to build the Croton Aqueduct. At some point around the time of the Civil War, it became known as Yorkville. Eventually Yorkville would rival, then overtake the Lower East Side as the center of the German immigrant community.
A flurry of construction followed the end of the Civil War. In the early years of the 1870s, wooden houses--two and three stories tall with high basements--were erected along both sides of East 89th Street between York and First Avenues. Among them was 444 East 89th Street, home to William H. and Sara A. Mott. Like the others along the block, it was faced in clapboard. The paneled wooden fence posts mimicked the newels of the stoop railings. Floor-to-ceiling parlor windows opened onto an ample porch, where the Motts would have found relief from warm evenings. The architect-builder embellished the upper openings with handsome molded lintels with carved ornaments. The deeply overhanging cornice was upheld by thin, scrolled corbels with hanging finials.
In May 1880, William and Sara Mott sold 444 East 89th Street to Anne M. Donnell. She rented space in the house to families, one per floor. Anne advertised it for sale in the New York Herald on March 25, 1891:
Fine Private House, Garden, full lot; all improvements on each floor; 15 large rooms; arranged for three families; $10,500.
The "improvements" would most likely have included indoor plumbing. The price Anne Donnell asked would translate to about $383,000 in 2026. It was purchased by Rudolph Ladensack, who resold it on June 6, 1892 to Hermann and Magdalena Schaefer Gehnrich.
Born in Germany, the couple had three sons, William T., Herman John, and Charles L. The brothers pursued very different career paths.
William turned to metalwork and on April 8, 1899, The Metal Worker listed him among the students enrolled in the evening class of Sheet Metal and Cornice Work at the New York Trade School. It is possible that he commuted from Yorkville to the school at 67th Street and First Avenue by bicycle. Four years before that article, William had signed a petition to the Board of Alderman, urging a "bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."
Herman John Gehnrich was also an ardent bicyclist. On August 7, 1900, The New York Times reported on the upcoming "open moonlight and double century run" by the New York State Division of the Century Road Club of America, an organization for bicycle enthusiasts. "Entries for this run can be sent to the Secretary, H. J. Gehnrich, 444 East Eighty-ninth Street."
Charles L. Gehnrich was involved in charity work for the state. As early as 1902, he worked as a clerk in the Department of Inspection of the State Board of Charities. The 1904 Annual Report of the State Board of Charities explained, "This department has charge of the visitation and inspection of all institutions, societies or associations which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character."
In the meantime, Herman John Gehnrich died on December 29, 1900 at the age of 21. His parents did not disclose any funeral arrangements to the public.
from the collection of the New York Public Library
William brought his bride, Minnie, to live at 444 East 89th Street. In 1906, they had two twin boys, Charlie and Willie. The family suffered unspeakable grief on March 24, 1908. The Inquirer reported, "locked in each other's arms, twin babies this afternoon plunged headlong from the second-story window to the yard in the rear of their home, at 444 East Eighty-ninth street." The article said that Minnie, "having household duties to attend to, had locked the guards on the rear second-story window of her home, leaving the twins, Charlie and Willie, barely two years old, playing in the room."
The New York Times reported that Minnie entered the room "just as they toppled from the window, and she ran screaming downstairs into the yard. Policeman Lederman found her holding the unconscious infants in her arms and weeping over them." The boys had landed on the pavement in the rear yard, fracturing their skulls.
According to The Evening World, "The father of the twins, William Gehnrich, came from the sheet-iron factory where he works, in East Ninety-second street, and took the mother to the hospital. She was frantic with grief." The New York Times noted, "There is no hope that the twins will live."
Minnie Gehnrich's anguish was increased when her husband, perhaps overcome with grief, died four days later. Once again, The New York Times remarked only, "funeral private."
Hermann and Magdalena moved to Brooklyn by 1917. Hermann died on February 18, 1920 and Magdalena on July 14, 1922.
George Repp and Carl Wetzler leased the basement level of 444 East 89th Street for the offices of Repp & Wetzler, "baker oven builders." An advertisement in The Retail Baker in October 1917 touted, "repairing of all patent and American ovens our specialty." Rooms were rented in the upper floors. Among the tenants here in 1923 was 21-year-old John Gick, arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated on October 9 that year.
When 444 East 89th Street was sold to Michael Demetroules and George Hadjinanos in September 1926, The New York Times described it as "a four-story flat." The article said, "The purchasers contemplate extensive renovations."
The quaint wooden building was remodeled. The porch was removed and a Colonial-style entrance installed slightly below grade. The architect modernized the vintage elements by streamlining the window frames and reducing the cornice corbels.
mage via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
A renovation completed in 1945 resulted in one apartment per floor. By then, 444 East 89th Street was the last remnant of the 1870s block. The end finally came in the early 1970s when the house and the properties to the corner of York Avenue were demolished for a 33-floor apartment building, completed in 1974.
image via compass.com
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