The 1900 Albert Goldman Mansion - 305 West 105th Street

 

In 1899, real estate developer Hamilton W. Weed broke ground for four upscale residences on the north side of West 105th street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.  Designed by Janes & Leo in an A-B-B-C configuration, they were completed the following year.  Among the B models was 305 West 105th Street.  Clad in Flemish bond brick and trimmed in limestone above an ashlar base, its French Beaux Arts design included a two-story, faceted oriel behind a balustrade at the second and third floors.  The central window of the second floor wore a triangular pediment that engulfed a large, layered keystone.  The understated fifth floor sat above a bracketed metal cornice.

Real estate operator Albert Brod purchased three of the houses for resale.  He sold No. 305 to Albert and Augusta Goldman in May 1901.  Goldman sat on the board of directors of the Mutual Chemical Company of Jersey City and of the Tartar Chemical Co.  He and Augusta had three children, Harry, Sophie and Lillian.

John C. Umberfield lived with the family briefly, listed here in 1904.  A prolific builder and developer, many of the structures he erected were on the Upper West Side.

Sophie and Lillian Goldman had lofty ambitions for young women in the first years of the 20th century.  At a time when female attorneys were nearly unheard of, in 1911 Sophie was enrolled in the Woman's Law Class of New York University.  Her sister would graduate from the Law Class, as well.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Augusta Goldman died in the mansion on August 10, 1914.  Sophie and Lillian took over the management of the house.  When well-to-do families closed their townhouses for the summer, the staff was often let go, to be replaced in the fall.  On June 26, 1916, a notice in The New York Times read: "Cook--Lady closing house for Summer, wishes situations for her cook and chambermaid, waitress.  305 West 105th St."

As early as 1920, both sisters were members of the Portia Club.  A women-only group, it was founded in 1895 and focused on social and intellectual activities.  Sophie was also a member of the Woman's Forum, a group composed of female lawyers, social workers, doctors and other professionals.  While partly a social club, the Woman's Forum also held civic discussions and events.

By then, Harry was gone from West 105th Street.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 23, 1920 reflected Albert's German origins: "Cook, competent, for private house, family three adults; city references required; German or Austrian preferred."

Interestingly, another builder-developer lived with the Goldmans shortly after that ad.  Hugh Getty was described by the Record & Guide as "one of the best known builders of New York City."  Born in Ireland in 1849, he came to New York at the age of 18 and "erected a number of business buildings in this city, several hotels and a number of handsome residences," said the journal.  Getty died in the house at the age of 73 on December 3, 1922.

The Goldmans had a serious scare in the spring of 1926.  Around the turn of the century, the Consolidated Gas Company established a "Pulmotor Crew" to resuscitate victims of escaping fumes from "imperfect gas fixtures and unsatisfactory, antiquated or neglected house pipes," as described by Gas Logic.  In March 1926, the Goldmans' neighbor, Dr. B. S. Bookstaver, who lived across the street at 304 West 105th Street, wrote a letter to the Consolidated Gas Company that said in part:

I extend my sincerest thanks for the help your Pulmotor crew have given me today in saving the life of Albert Goldman of 305 West 105th Street at 8:30 A.M. from accidental gas asphyxiation.

On April 21, 1929, Goldman's death was announced in an extremely succinctly worded notice in The New York Times:  "Goldman, Albert, at his late residence.  305 West 105th St. Funeral private."

The mansion was converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1940.  Among the residents as early as 2006 was Tony Award winning actress Betty Buckley.  Born in Texas in 1947, she made her mark on Broadway, film and television, earning her Tony as Grizabella in the original Broadway production of Cats in 1983.  While living here she sang "Memory" from Cats at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2006, in tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Externally, little has changed to 305 West 105th Street since the Goldman family moved in nearly 125 years ago.

photographs by the author

The Lost William E. Benjamin Mansion - 2 East 87th Street

To the left of 2 East 87th Street is the John Phipps house, erected simultaneously.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

By the turn of the last century, the relentless northward migration of Manhattan millionaires had reached the 80s.  The blocks along Central Park, once home to Dutch farms and Native American settlements, saw the rise of palatial mansions.  

In 1901, developer William H. Bolton began construction of a massive speculative residence at 2 and 4 East 87th Street.  His architects, Janes & Leo, had designed a Beaux Arts-style structure faced in limestone.  The rusticated two-story midsection was dominated by a double-height arch that included a columned, bowed balcony under a French style railed balcony at the third floor.  The fifth floor took the form of a striking Parisian inspired mansard.  Bolton reserved a 13-foot wide "easement" along the western border of the property.  It allowed Janes & Leo to place the service entrance to the side, along with windows that afforded a third elevation of light and ventilation.  Construction, completed in 1902, cost Bolton $200,000--about $7.6 million in 2025 terms.

Bolton advertised the mansion as being "directly opposite the garden front of one of 5th Ave.'s finest mansions."  (That was the newly built Henry Phipps residence.)  It ad said, "The house is a conspicuous example of the highest type of domestic architecture.  Everything appertaining to the most advanced art of construction has been incorporated."

New-York Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902 (copyright expired)

Finding a buyer for the sumptuous home took time.  Finally, on January 30, 1904, the Record & Guide reported that Bolton had sold it to Lewis Cass Ledyard.  On February 28, The New York Times commented that spending "about $300,000" for the mansion, "did not attach sufficient importance to the event to let it delay a trip out of the city." The purchase price would translate to about $10.9 million today.

Lewis Cass Ledyard, from the collection of the Library of Congress

An attorney, Ledyard was a partner in Carter Ledyard & Milburn and president of the New York City Bar Association.  He married Gertrude Prince on April 11, 1878, and had one son, Lewis, Jr.  She was the daughter of Colonel William E. Prince of the United States Army.

Gertrude Prince Ledyard, from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

On January 17, 1905, less than a year after moving into the mansion, the 54-year-old Gertrude Ledyard died.  The New York Times mentioned, "She was prominent socially in New York, and was one of the leaders of the Newport colony, where the Ledyard house is one of the show places."  Devastated, Lewis Cass Ledyard sold the residence to William Evarts Benjamin.

Born in 1859 the son of millionaire journalist Park Benjamin, William had retired in 1900.  During his career he was a book and print seller and dealer of historic autographs.  His wife, Anne Engle Rogers, was the daughter of Henry Huttleston Rogers, a founder of Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller.  She could boast Mayflower lineage on both sides of her family.  The couple had two children, Beatrice May and Henry Rogers.  Their summer home, Lake House, was in Southampton, Long Island.

Beatrice's debut season started with a dance in the mansion on December 17, 1907.  The New York Times reported, "The cotillion was danced in the Louis XVI ballroom, and was preceded by a dinner for fourteen guests."  The extensive guest list for the dance portion included the cream of high society, including names like Lanier, Fish, Rogers, Roosevelt, Morgan, Mortimer and Dodge.

A 13-foot wide "easement" separated the Benjamin mansion (left) from the massive Speyer residence on the corner.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Beatrice was married to Alexander Dallas Bache Pratt in St. Thomas's Church on November 17, 1909.  The New York Times devoted an entire column to her Empire-style wedding dress.  The groom, who was 26 years old, had entered military service in 1905.  The newlyweds moved into the East 87th Street mansion.

Social functions within the house were now often hosted by Beatrice.  On February 8, 1910, for instance, she gave a dinner party for 20 in honor of Marjorie Gould and her fiancé Anthony J. Drexel, Jr., and Elizabeth Berton and her fiancé Snowden Q. Fahnestock.  The New York Times reported, "Afterward, the young people went to see 'The Jolly Bachelors' at the Broadway Theatre."  And the following month, on March 18, Beatrice hosted a dinner for 14.  "The guests were at one large table decorated with American beauty roses," said The Times.  (Acquiring roses in March required a significant expenditure.)

Alexander D. B. Pratt was deployed during World War I.  On August 4, 1918, The Sun reported that Beatrice had entertained with a dinner "in honor of her mother, Mrs. William Evarts Benjamin" at the Pratt's cottage in Newport.  No one was aware that while her husband was overseas, Beatrice had begun an affair in Newport with twice-married playwright Preston Gibson.  In June 1919, she divorced her husband "on grounds of non-support and desertion."  

Four months later, on October 18, 1919, The Sun reported that Beatrice and Gibson, "ran away in a taxicab to Greenwich, Conn., yesterday and got married."  The article said that William and Anne Benjamin "have publicly objected to the marriage."

And indeed they did.  On December 21, 1919, the Syracuse Herald ran a full-page article titled, "Was Preston Gibson Worth the Price Mrs. Alexander Pratt Paid for Him?."  It reported that Beatrice was "estranged" from her parents, who had begun proceedings to rescind her $2 million inheritance, and the $200,000 trust funds for her two children.  The Benjamins declared her daughter had "married against the wishes and in spite of the protest of all the members of her family."  The procedure sparked several suits and counter-suits between Beatrice and her parents.

While the ugly and very public fighting within the courts and in the newspapers played out, Henry Rogers Benjamin was serving in the U.S. Navy Aviation Corps.  He returned to the states after a deployment in Italy in January 1919 and on January 27 his engagement to Dorothy S. Rennard was announced.  Married that year, Henry brought his bride home to the East 87th Street mansion.

On May 4, 1921, The Evening World reported that Beatrice, "sailed Saturday for Europe with her two children by a former marriage, Cynthia Anne Pratt and Alexander Dallas Bache Pratt 2d, to visit her parents, who have been abroad for some time."  The article said the voyage, "bears out the report that a reconciliation has been effected" between Beatrice and her parents.  The mending of the rift and the trip to Europe quite possibly had everything to do with Beatrice's plans to divorce Preston Gibson.  Their divorce was finalized the following year.

Beatrice Benjamin Pratt Gibson Cartwright would be married again in 1940.  The Evening World, May 4, 1921 (copyright expired)

Beatrice would not remain unmarried for long.  On January 2, 1923, The Sedalia Democrat reported that she "and Captain Charles Aubrey Cartwright of the royal navy were married [in Paris] last Saturday."

Anne Engle Benjamin died on September 8, 1924 at the age of 59.  In addition to trusts of $1 million each to her children and other bequests, she left $14.5 million to William (the figure would equal about $266 million today).

Henry Rogers Benjamin divorced his wife in 1929.  His sister would divorce Charles Aubrey Cartwright in 1939.  Beatrice would marry Frederick Joseph McEvoy in 1940, and Henry would marry Virginia Poole in 1941.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

William Evarts Benjamin died at the age of 81 on February 24, 1940.  In reporting his death, The Corpus Christi Times mentioned that from his collection of rare manuscripts he had donated to the New-York Historical Society "the letters patent signed by King Charles II in 1674 authorizing Edmund Andros to take New York--then New Netherlands--for the British crown;" and "gave the Library of Congress valuable papers of George Washington concerning Mount Vernon."

Henry's daughter, Anne Rogers Benjamin, lived with him in the mansion.  On October 20, 1941, The New York Times reported, "Miss Benjamin will be introduced to society by her father on Dec. 27," and that her aunt, Mrs. Frederick J. McEvoy would host a dinner dance for her at the Waldorf-Astoria on the 29th.

The days of debutante cotillions and glittering dinner parties were coming to an end at the time.  Within a few years, the mansion was demolished to be replaced with the massive George F. Pelham apartment building, 1056 Fifth Avenue, completed in 1951.

image via compass.com

The 1899 James A. O'Gorman House - 318 West 108th Street

 

image via apartments.com

Architects Janes & Leo had a close relationship with Joseph A. Farley, designing several rows of speculative, upscale rowhouses for the developer in the 1890s.  On October 7, 1898 the firm filed plans for another project: four resplendent homes at 316 through 322 West 108th Street for Farley.  

Completed late in 1899, 318 West 108th Street was faced in red brick above a limestone-clad base.  The centered entrance atop a two-step stoop sat within a dignified Georgian-style portico.  The three-story midsection included a bowed oriel at the third floor.  The fourth floor sat atop a dentiled and bracketed cornice, while a much more modest terminal cornice completed the design.

The entrance originally sat between the service entrance and a window.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In January 1900, Joseph A. Farley sold 318 West 108th Street, "a new 5-story American basement dwelling," as described by the Record & Guide, to Justice James Aloysius O'Gorman.  He paid $42,500 for the 22-foot wide house, or about $1.64 million in 2025 conversions.  (O'Gorman had negotiated the price down.  On January 9, The Sun noted, "Mr. Farley was asking $45,500 for the house.")

In reporting the sale, The Sun added, "The buyer is a well-known lawyer."  Born on May 5, 1860, O'Gorman was born "in the upper west side of the great city, not very far from where his present residence, No. 318 West 108th street, is situated," according to The Red Book in 1911.

O'Gorman graduated from New York University School of Law in May 1882.  He juggled his law practice with politics and in 1896 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.  He had become justice of the District Court in 1893 and just after purchasing 318 West 108th Street, was elected as a justice of the New York Supreme Court's 1st District.

James Aloysius O'Gorman, from the collection of the Library of Congress

O'Gorman married Anne M. Leslie in 1884.  The couple had seven daughters and a son.  Moving into the 108th Street house was the justice's widowed mother, Ellen.

Ellen O'Gorman suffered a stroke just after New Year's in 1905.  She died early on the morning of January 19.  The Evening World reported that O'Gorman's "secretary telephoned the tidings from the home of the Justice...to Clerk Early, of Part 4, Special Term, of the Supreme Court.  The court was adjourned in consequence."

Like most well-to-do New Yorkers, the O'Gormans spent time in Europe.  The Ithaca [New York] Daily News mentioned, "He has several times taken the entire family abroad, spending no less than $3,500 for steamship tickets alone."

The toughness that James O'Gorman learned as a boy on the streets of his Irish neighborhood came into play as an adult on April 4, 1908.  When he returned home that night, as reported by the Ithaca Daily News, "he discovered a big negro in the house, beating and robbing his butler."  The invader was no match for the 48-year-old jurist.  The article said, "Justice O'Gorman beat the man into subjection with his fists, and then turned him over to the police."

On September 27, 1908, the O'Gormans invited "a number of friends" to the house.  During the evening, the engagement of Mary O'Gorman, the eldest daughter, to Dudley Field Malone was announced.  The wedding took place in the Church of the Ascension on West 107th Street on November 14.  The wedding breakfast followed in the West 108th Street house.

Ellen Katherine O'Gorman was married to William J. Duffy in the Church of the Ascension on March 28, 1910.  The reception followed at 318 West 108th Street.  At the reception, Edith Patricia O'Gorman's engagement to Assistant District Attorney James Edward McDonald was announced.  Their wedding was to take place at the Church of the Ascension in 1911.

On June 18, 1910, the entire O'Gorman family sailed for Europe.  While they were in a little Swiss town, James McDonald sent a telegram to the family "that he could not wait, and said that he would go to Switzerland on the next steamship," reported the New-York Tribune.

On September 9, The New York Times reported that the wedding "took place yesterday morning at the Church of St. Leonhard, Brunnen, Switzerland."  The wedding breakfast was held at the Grand Hotel where the O'Gorman family was staying.  The Times said, "Mr. and Mrs. McDonald will return to this country in October after a honeymoon spent in England and on the Continent."

Shortly after the wedding, Edith became ill.  When the newlyweds returned to New York, according to the New-York Tribune, Edith, "felt too ill to go to an apartment which her husband fitted up for her, and they went to live with her father."  Tragically, the 23-year-old bride died in the 108th Street house on November 18, 1910 "from heart disease."  Her funeral was held in the drawing room on November 21.

The following spring, James A. O'Gorman was elected to the U.S. Senate.  He would split his time between Washington D.C. and 318 West 108th Street until the end of his term on March 3, 1917.

In December 1911, the O'Gormans were "in the midst of the family's preparations for the Christmas festivities," when daughter Anna fell ill.  The New York Times said, "she was removed on Dec. 22 from the O'Gorman home" to St. Luke's Hospital.  There she was diagnosed with typhoid fever.  The newspaper said, "Her illness has led to a postponement of the O'Gormans' plans to leave for Washington this month with the idea of making that city their home for the Winter."  Happily, on December 31, the Washington D.C. Herald reported that Anna "had responded to treatment and is progressing as favorably as could be expected."

The O'Gorman family was in Washington in the spring of 1912.  In their absence, on the night of May 21 their 22-year-old New York chauffeur, Frank Hallett, took the O'Gorman's vehicle for a spin.  The next day, The Sun reported that the senator's chauffeur "was locked up in the West 125th street police station last night on charges of reckless driving, intoxication and disorderly conduct."  

When stopped by police lieutenant Meehan, Hallett said, "I'm Senator O'Gorman's chauffeur and I guess he's somebody.  You don't dare to arrest me.  You'll be out of a job if you do."   The Sun reported, "Senator O'Gorman and his family were all in Washington and at a late hour last night a member of the Senator's household said he guessed Hallett would have to stay in the station house until morning."

Anne Leslie O'Gorman, The Evening World, March 13, 1913 (copyright expired)

The family had another medical scare in 1913.  They were in Washington on March 11 when Anne became ill.  Dr. Howard Hume diagnosed her with "an attack of ptomaine poisoning" and advised "a complete rest," as reported by The Evening World.  Anne brought Alice, Dolorita and Anna back to New York.  The article said that she, "has no plans for her return to the capital and will absent herself from all social activities for several weeks."

Dolorita was the next to marry.  Her wedding to John Anthony Maher took place in the chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola Academy at Park Avenue and East 83rd Street (where the groom had attended) on May 23, 1913.  At the reception in the 108th Street house were the mayor and his wife, the governor and his wife, and the lieutenant governor and his spouse, a judge, Tammany leaders, and a U.S. Senator and his wife.

James A. O'Gorman, Jr. was one of the "junior rookies from schools, academies and colleges all over the United States," as reported by the New-York Tribune, who gave up their summer vacation by going to the military training camp in Plattsburg, New York.  As part of a recruiting campaign, the program gave the preppies the experience of "living the lives of soldiers."  Somewhat sarcastically, the New-York Tribune remarked that well-heeled recruits, "who brought tennis rackets, golf sticks and musical instruments found that they had no time or inclination for the lighter labors of sports."

At the end of his term on March 3, 1917, O'Gorman returned to his law practice as a partner in O'Gorman, Battle and Vandiver.

In 1921, now 23 years old, James, Jr. found himself behind bars.  The Evening World reported on June 6 that Patrolman Rerle, "charged that his prisoner, who wore a tuxedo suit, was abusive toward him."  Rerle had commanded him to move his vehicle from a no parking zone and O'Gorman refused.

The following day, James A. O'Gorman, Jr., appearing repentant, told Magistrate Silberman "that he had not heard a patrolman tell him to 'move along.'"  Whether his father's stature was an influence or not, the judge accepted his story and dismissed the charges.

Agnes O'Gorman was married to Joseph Sanford Shanley in the Notre Dame Chapel on Morningside Drive on June 15, 1922.  The reception would be the last for the family in the West 108th Street house.  On October 13, 1923, The New York Times reported, "Senator James A. O'Gorman sold his five-story American basement dwelling."

The residence was home to several families over the next few decades.  In the 1930s it was home to Harold Keller and his wife.  A journalist, Keller was with the New York American until it closed in 1937.  The newspaper's closing prompted a significant change in Keller's career.  On December 31 that year, the Daily Worker reported that the newly elected District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey had appointed the 31-year-old Keller as one of his two confidential secretaries.

By 1940, carpet merchant Frank J. Gilroy occupied the house.  That year, on September 22, he married Marion Gertrude Higgins in St. Ursula's Church in Mount Vernon, New York.

Mrs. Julie Stern occupied the house at mid-century.  The 84-year-old suffered a gruesome death at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 110th Street at 5:15 on the afternoon of January 14, 1951.  She was hit by a black sedan and thrown onto the street.  A woman on the sidewalk waved frantically at a oncoming taxicab driven by Frederick Burke.  So distracted by her attempts to warn him that Mrs. Stern was on the pavement, he did not see her.  The New York Times reported that she, "was killed...after she was struck by a hit-and-run car and then run over by a taxicab."  

image via apartments.com

In 1970 the former O'Gorman home was converted to eight apartments.  In the remodeling, the doorway was moved to the side and the former entrance converted into a window.   A subsequent renovation in 2010 resulted in three duplexes, one of which extends into the new penthouse level, unseen from the street.

The 1899 Vincent Loeser House - 320 West 108th Street

 

Prolific developer Joseph A. Farley and the architectural firm Janes & Leo repeatedly worked together in the late 1890s.  In fact, their offices were in the same building, 967 Boulevard (later renamed Broadway).  Janes & Leo designed several projects of speculative, upscale rowhouses in the Upper West Side and on October 7, 1898 they filed plans for another: four sumptuous homes at 316 through 322 West 108th Street for Farley.

Mysteriously, the architects designed the row as three harmonious neo-Georgian-style homes and one Beaux Arts beauty that had nothing in common with the others.

The architects solved the problem of the downward slope of West 108th Street by increasing the stoops of each house by one step.  Record & Guide, September 2, 1899 (copyright expired)

The plans projected the construction costs at a total of $110,000 (or just over $1 million each in 2025 terms).  Faced in red brick above a limestone base, 320 West 108th Street rose five stories.  Its American basement plan placed the entrance above a three-step stoop, its doorway flanked by free-standing Scamozzi capitals.  The lower four floors were bowed, providing a stone-balustraded balcony, or sleeping porch, to the fifth floor.  

On December 21, 1899, The World reported that Farley had sold 320 West 108th Street for $42,000 (about $1.64 million today).  The owners were Vincent Adolf Loeser and his wife, the former Mary Craven Thomae.  The couple, who were married in 1893, were both born in Brooklyn--Vincent in 1857 and Mary in 1867.  They had no children.

Educated in private schools, at the age of 22 Loeser became a member of the Produce Exchange.  When he and Mary moved into the West 108th Street house, he was the head of the brokerage firm Loeser, Robinson & Armstrong and a member of the Academy of Political Science.  In 1905, he was appointed president of the East River National Bank.

Like all well-to-do New Yorkers, incidents in the lives of the couple were followed by the society columns.  On October 3, 1909, for instance, the New York Herald announced, "Miss Carol Thomae and her aunt, Miss Caroline Jenks, of No. 22 Monroe Place [Brooklyn], will spend the winter with Miss Thomae's sister, Mrs. Vincent Loeser, at No. 320 West 108th Street."  And at the end of the summer social season of 1911, The New York Times noted on November 12, "Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Loeser will spend the Winter at 320 West 108th Street."

Carol Thomae still lived at 22 Monroe Place in Brooklyn in 1918.  On April 1 that year, Vincent and Mary visited her and while there, Vincent suffered a fatal heart attack.  He was 60 years old.

Mary left West 108th Street shortly after her husband's death.  She sold the house to Joseph P. Walsh and his wife, Agnes.  Born in Brooklyn, Walsh graduated from De La Salle College in 1883.  He and Agnes had a daughter and two sons.  

After running a plumbing supply business, Walsh became treasurer of the Law Recording Company in 1906.  He was not primarily known for his professional activities, however.  The New York Herald said, "Mr. Walsh at one time was one of the best known bowlers and bicycle riders in the city."  A member of the New York Athletic Club, he was still active in both sports when he purchased 320 West 108th Street.  Unfortunately, he would not enjoy the house for long.  He died here at the age of 57 on December 27, 1921.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Agnes Walsh leased a room to a Columbia grad student in 1923.  Paul Alexander Tihler was from Youngstown, Ohio.  The 37-year-old was enrolled in Columbia's School of Architecture.  During the war he had served as a first sergeant with the medical corps.  His talent as an architect earned him a bronze model for excellence from the Institute of Beaux Arts in 1917.

Tihler spent Thanksgiving Day with friends.  They later said that he "was not feeling well" and "that he had been unable to find employment for the last six months," according to The Columbia Spectator on December 8, 1923.  The day before that article, Agnes Walsh had found Tihler dead in his room.  The Columbia Spectator reported, "Dr. Vance said last night that a blotter had been placed over the gas jet in the room to direct the fumes of the gas downward."  Tihler's death was ruled a suicide.

Agnes Walsh sold 320 West 108th Street to Marietta Sinopoli in October 1927.  For the next seven years it was home to the Japanese M. E. Church, and in 1936 was sold twice.  The late Depression and World War II years were not kind to the once elegant home.  In 1944 it was listed as a rooming house.

A renovation completed in 1986 resulted in apartments, including one within the new penthouse level, unseen from the street.  It is possible that during the remodeling the stone balustrade was removed from the fifth floor balcony.

photographs by the author

The Eugene and Josephine Arnstein House - 16 East 80th Street

 

image via streeteasy.com

Developer Anthony Mowbray began construction of a trio of high-stooped rowhouses at 16 through 20 East 80th Street in 1884.  Designed by McElfatrick & Sons & Debaud in the Queen Anne style, they were faced in brownstone at the basement and parlor levels, and red brick above.  Interestingly, while construction was still ongoing in July 1885, Mowbray brought in architect William E. Mowbray (presumably a relative) to make minor "internal alterations" to 16 East 80th Street.  The changes were most likely requested by Anthony Mowbray's potential buyers August and Josephine Schmid.

August Schmid arrived in America from Switzerland at the age of 12.  His father co-founded the Lion Brewery and, after learning the fundamentals of the business, August traveled to Munich to study beer making.  In 1879, he was made a full partner and, by now, he had amassed a fortune.

Their new home was completed in 1886.  August Schmid would not enjoy his impressive residence for long.  On June 7, 1889, the New York Evening Post reported, "The funeral of the well-known brewer, August Schmid, took place at ten o'clock this morning at his late home, No. 16 East Eightieth Street and was largely attended."  The article said representatives "from nearly every prominent German organization, as well as from the different brewing and malting associations," attended the service.  Josephine inherited approximately $1 million--about 34 times that much in today's money.  She stepped into her husband's position as a partner in the Lion Brewery.

On February 9, 1893, shortly after her 21st birthday, Josephine's eldest daughter, also named Josephine, died.  Her funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral.  

At the time, Asbel Parmelee Fitch and his family lived at 1388 Lexington Avenue.  Two years later, in the fall of 1895, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Fitch had sold the house to Josephine Schmid, "for a consideration of $27,000 in a trade for a larger residence in East 80th Street."  Fitch and Schmid no doubt knew one another well, since he was a director in the Lion Brewery.  (Josephine did not intend to live in the Lexington Avenue house.  Instead, she would erect a striking mansion at 807 Fifth Avenue.)

Including his Lexington Avenue property, Fitch paid $75,000 for the 25-foot-wide East 80th Street house, according to The New York Times on October 29, 1895.  (The figure would translate to about $2.8 million in 2024.)  He and his wife, the former Elizabeth A. Cross, were married in 1874 and had three children, Elizabeth (known as Bessie), Ashbel, Jr., and Ella.  The family's country home was in Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson.

Ashbel Parmalee Fitch, The National Magazine, December 1893 expired)

Born in 1848, Fitch had deep American roots, descending from William Bradford of the Mayflower.  A graduate of Columbia Law School, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1887 through 1893.  When he purchased 16 East 80th Street, he had been Comptroller of New York City for two years.

Ashbel Jr. was attending Yale in 1897.  On June 22, he boarded the Richard Peck in New Haven headed to New York City with three other Yale students.  When the boat landed, the 20-year-old and his companions were promptly arrested "on charges of intoxication, disorderly conduct, and malicious mischief," as reported by the New York Evening Post.  The captain complained "that they were noisy, smashed beer bottles on deck, and did various objectionable things."

The captain said he was "especially goaded" into pressing charges "by young Fitch's conduct."  The Evening Post quoted him:

He told me that his father was the Comptroller of New York, and that he would have me discharged from my job, and that he would have any policeman broke who attempted to arrest him.  He blustered up a great deal, and I called Policeman Snydecker aboard, and he, with three other officers, placed the young men under arrest.

In court, Magistrate Meade let the four go, but not before admonishing them, "you should be ashamed of the disgrace you have brought on yourselves, your parents, and your college."  One can imagine the more severe talking-to Fitch received at home.

More positive press centered around the Fitch daughters.  On January 5, 1898, The New York Times reported on Ella's debutante reception in the house, "an event of widespread social interest."  The article said, "There was a large attendance of fashionable people."

Ella was married to Henri George Chatain on November 15, 1902 in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.  The reception was held in the East 80th Street house.  In reporting on the wedding, The New York Times commented, "Mr. Fitch has made his daughter a wedding present of a house on West End Avenue."

In the meantime, Fitch was defeated in the election for Comptroller in 1897.  Two years later, he co-founded the Trust Company of America, becoming its first president.  He was, as well, a director of the Bowling Green Trust Company, the Germania Bank, the Title Insurance Company of America, and the American Light and Traction Company.

The first hint that Ashbel Fitch's health was failing came in the fall of 1903.  On November 1, The New York Times reported, "Ex-Controller Ashbel P. Fitch, President of the Trust Company of American, who has been seriously ill at his house, 16 East Eightieth Street, for three weeks, is reported as improving, although still seriously ill."

Five months later, on April 19, Elizabeth Cooke Fitch was married in the drawing room to Harold Webster Ostby.  The decision not to have a church ceremony was almost assuredly based on Ashbel Fitch's health.  Nevertheless, The Sun reported, "There were many guests at the reception afterward.

Three weeks later, on May 3, 1904, Ashbel Parmalee Fitch died "from a stroke of apoplexy," according to The New York Times.  His funeral was held in the drawing room where his daughter had been married.  The Evening Post reported on May 6, "The gathering was so large that many persons were compelled to stand on the sidewalk, admission to the house being impossible."

The following year, Elizabeth Fitch sold 16 East 80th Street to Eugene and Josephine Mendelbau Arnstein.  Before moving in, they hired the architectural firm of Janes & Leo to remodel the outdated residence.  While the architects retained a stoop, they replaced the brick and brownstone facade with limestone.  The toned-down Beaux Arts design featured a large, arched parlor window, a full-width balcony at the second floor with an elaborate French railing, and a balustraded stone balcony at the fourth floor.

The New York Architect, 1907 (copyright expired)

Born in Germany in 1840, Eugene Arnstein was a manufacturer of paints and varnishes.  He and Josephine had four adult children.  As had been the case with August Schmid, he would not enjoy his home long.  The couple was in Munich, Germany on October 10, 1907 when Arnstein died at the age of 67.

The first floor had just three rooms--the parlor, music room, and dining room.  The New York Architect, 1907 (copyright expired)

At least two of Josephine's children, Edna and Hugo, lived with her.  In 1909, Hugo and his brother Leo partnered to found The Thread-Tight Company, a "plumbing, heating, and gas fitting business," according to Domestic Engineering on September 18 that year.

Although Josephine rarely appeared in society columns, Edna did.  On February 27, 1910, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Miss Edna Arnstein gave a fancy-dress dance at her home, 16 East Eightieth Street, on Saturday evening.  The first prize, given for the most attractive costume, was won by Miss Dorothy Drey, and the second by Miss Rene Seligman."

In May 1914, Josephine leased 16 East 80th Street to James J. Imbrie and his wife, the former Marie McCrea Pritchett.  Imbrie was the principal of the financial firm Imbrie & Co.  The couple had five children, James, Jr., Dorothy Jane, Janet Morris, Marie Dawn, and Robert McCrea.  The mansion on their Englewood, New Jersey summer estate in Englewood, New Jersey was inspired by Washington's Mount Vernon.

The house was originally similar to the as-yet unchanged neighbor to the right.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Joseph Arnstein sold the house in October 1916 for the equivalent of $1.5 million today.  The Sun remarked, "The new owner will occupy the property."  If Irving C. Miller and his family did move in, their residency was not long-lived.  By 1920, architect Albert H. Stursberg was leasing the house.  In July that year, he designed $10,000 in alterations for the residence.

Mrs. R. M. Morriss Betts occupied 16 East 80th Street in the 1930s.  She announced the engagement of her daughter, Marjorie Morriss MacCollom (from her former marriage to Donald Hoyt MacCollom) to Benjamin T. Fairchild 3d on June 27, 1938.  The couple was married in St. Thomas' Church on October 7, the El Paso Herald-Post noting the bride "wore the white satin gown lavishly trimmed with rosepoint and duchess lace which has been in the Fairchild family for generations."

A renovation to 16 East 80th Street in 1962 resulted in the removal of the stoop and the lowering of the entrance to the basement level.  There were now 19 apartments in the once-opulent mansion.  A subsequent remodeling reduced the number of apartments to 16.

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The Leyland - 306-308 West 80th Street

 

On December 3, 1898 the Real Estate Record & Builder's Guide reported that developer Michael Tully had commissioned the architectural firm of Janes & Leo to design a six-story "brick and stone apartment house" on West 80th Street, between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.  Both avenues were seeing the rise of opulent private homes, and so The Leyland would be a high-end residential building.

Completed in 1899, its rusticated stone base upheld five floors of red brick trimmed in limestone.  The sophisticated Renaissance Revival design included bellflower carved pilasters that flanked the second floor windows, classical pediments with elaborate cartouches above the third floor openings, and terra cotta banding at the sixth floor.

An advertisement for The Leyland said it sat within the "most aristocratic location on the west side."  The seven- or eight-room apartments included a private servants' entrance, electric lights, and "hall service."  The term referred to uniformed hallboys who ran errands, carried packages and performed other such services.

Among the initial residents were Carl Von Goeben, a construction engineer, and his wife; and dry goods importer Victor Erbacher and his wife and son.  Born in Vienna in 1863, Erbacher had come to America as a child, and was now a partner in Erbacher & Byram.

Stock broker Howard Crosby Foster and his wife, the former Ethel Emmagene Pratt, were married in 1903.  An 1898 graduate of Princeton University, Foster was a member of the firm of Foster & Adams (formed the year of his marriage).  The couple maintained a summer home in Plainfield, New Jersey.   When they moved into The Leyland, they had a daughter, Marion, born in 1905, and a baby son, Howard, Jr., born on April 13, 1908.

Howard Crosby Foster--Class of Eighteen Ninety Eight Twenty Fifth Year Book 1898-1923 (copyright expired)

Ethel Pratt Foster--from the collection of the Plainfield Garden Club

Tragically, their apartment would be the scene of 14-month-old Howard's funeral in May 1909.  There would be another funeral in the apartment two years later, on December 18, 1911--that of Ethel's mother, Emma Leffingwell Pratt.

A more joyful event was the wedding of Lola Pauline Kalman, the daughter of the Adolph and Julia Kalman, to Maurice Adelsheim on February 22, 1912.  Kalman was born in Hungary and had originally immigrated to Minnesota where he became a partner in the August Oppenheimer Company, makers of millinery and fancy goods.  The family still maintained a home in St. Paul, Minnesota.   Now, with Lola married, the Kalmans, only 15-year-old Emil remained with his parents.

At the time of the wedding, residents were paying $1,400 per year for an eight-room apartment--about $3,000 per month in today's money.  

Among the residents in 1915 was Francisco Urquidi, the Villista Consul to New York City.  Former bandit Pancho Villa had become a general during the Mexican Revolution that forced out President Porfirio Diaz.  Now Villa was one of two figures seeking recognition as the legitimate authority over Mexico, the other being Venustiano Carranza.  

A reporter from The New York Press who interviewed Urquidi in his apartment on September 19, 1915 was told, "General Villa does not expect to be recognized by the United States."  His expectations were met.  After Villa raided the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, in hopes of goading the United States into invading Mexico, he was regarded as an outlaw.  Presumably, Francisco Urquidi gave up his apartment in The Leyland soon afterward.

The Leyland continued to be home to upscale families in the post World War I years.  The residents appeared in the society columns' reports of weddings and funerals.  The engagement and wedding of Helen Marie Henderson, the daughter of Ernest Kirtland Henderson and his wife, for instance, in 1920, was followed by the social writers for months.

But the Hendersons' lease and those of the other residents would not be renewed.  On May 29, 1920 The New York Times reported that the building had been sold to the Weiss-Green Realty Company, "which will alter the property into small apartments."

The smaller apartments, coupled with the advent of the Great Depression, changed the tenor of the once-refined Leyland.  Resident Dominick Ceninati was arrested with Florence Maldine on September 34, 1934 for passing counterfeit bills.  Their mistake was in targeting the same store twice.  When Florence took items to the counter of an Astoria, Queens store in August, the owner recognized her as having previously passed a fake bill.  The New York Press reported that Cleon Psmopoulous "pulled out a revolver...when the woman started to pay for purchases and kept her covered until police arrived."

And 43-year-old Joseph Miller was arrested three years later for fraud.  Irving Winokur had placed an advertisement asking for a job "and saying he was prepared to invest money in a good business."  It caught the eye of Miller, who offered him a position at $25 per week, "if he posted $1,000 as a guarantee of faithful performance."  After working three months, Winokur became suspicious and demanded his money back.  "It was not forthcoming," said The New York Times.

Things got worse in 1947 when the building was converted to 16 and 17 single occupancy rooms per floor--commonly referred to as a flop house.  

On September 15, 1974 The New York Times began an article saying, "At least 16 persons have been murdered in single-room occupancy hotels in Manhattan's West Side in the last 12 months, according to [police] records."  Among them was 52-year-old Nora Cancel, who was murdered in The Leyland shortly after 1 a.m. on February 2.  She had been strangled to death by her 33-year-old live-in boyfriend, Jose Muniz.

The following year, just before noon May 6, 1975, Jackie Coleman forced his way into the fifth-floor room of 65-year-old Cobie Wheeler.  He not only robbed her of $15, but attacked her, trying "several times to push her out the window," according to police.  Police Officer Arthur J. Esposito was on  patrol on West 80th Street, when he heard Cobie's screams, and then saw Coleman run from the building.  He chased him down and "after a scuffle," disarmed him.  The New York Times reported, "He was charged with attempted murder, robbery, possession of a weapon, burglar tools and stolen property, and resisting arrest."

Redemption came as the neighborhood turned around in the next decade.  A renovation completed in 1987 resulted in "class A apartments" throughout, with a penthouse addition, unseen from the street, that included the upper halves of two duplex apartments.

Despite its renaissance, The Leyland still had one more unsavory connection.  In September Federal investigators busted a Columbian cocaine smuggling ring that "acquired apartments in quiet residential section of Manhattan for stashing drugs, money and weapons," according to agents.   One of those was The Leyland.  The New York Times reported, "In late June, Drug Enforcement Administration agents recovered $2.5 million in drug earnings from apartment 1-D at 306 West 80th Street."

Other than replacement windows and gray paint on the ground floor limestone, The Leyland retains its aristocratic 1899 appearance.

photographs by the author

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