The 1909 Esperanto - 229 West 105th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

In 1908 developer Lorenz Weiher acquired the five lots at 227 through 235 West 105th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway.  He commissioned the architectural firm of Moore & Landsiedel to design a "six story brick and stone tenement" on the site, as described in the firm's plans.  (The term "tenement" at the time referred to any multi-family residential building.)  Construction, which was completed the following year, cost Weiher $125,000, or about $4.45 million in 2026.

Moore & Landsiedel drew from Colonial precedents, embellishing the Roman brick clad upper facade with dramatically splayed lintels and scrolled keystones, and prominent stone quoins that emphasized verticality in the extremely wide structure.  The architects also broke up the horizontal plane by placing the entrance to the east and balancing its heavy stone enframement with a duplicate to the west--the latter embracing two windows.  The four-story midsection sat between intermediate cornices and the top floor was capped with a bracketed and corbelled cornice.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

An advertisement for the Esperanto in August 15, 1909 described "5 or 6 rooms and bath."  Because financially comfortable New Yorkers fled the city in the summer months, the ad noted, "Concessions for summer."  The advertised rents ranged from $660 to $840 per year--the equivalent of $1,950 to $2,500 per month today.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1909  (copyright expired)

The residents were affluent enough to have domestic help.  Hulda Maske, described by The New York Times as "a servant girl," worked for and lived with a family here.  On her night off on October 18, 1909, she went with three men and two women in an automobile to the Bronx.  Early in the morning, the car struck a telegraph pole on Jerome Avenue.  The Times said, "The women fainted, and all the party were bruised and cut, but apparently none was hurt enough to go to the hospital."

After being treated by an ambulance crew, Hulda and her friends went back to Manhattan "by trolley."  The next day, Hulda complained that her head began to ache.  She was taken to Harlem Hospital where she was diagnosed with a skull fracture.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1909 (copyright expired)

Among the early residents were Reverend Thomas W. Martin and his wife.  Born in 1837, Martin was ordained by Bishop Henry C. Potter in 1863.  For years he had been rector of Trinity Church in Hewlett, Long Island.  

Walter Bertrand Walker and his wife, the former Mary Creecy Lawton, moved into the Esperanto following their wedding in The Plaza on February 14, 1911.  An attorney, Walker was a 1903 graduate of Yale College and a partner with classmate George Leonard.  The young lawyer was, somewhat surprisingly, a trustee of the American College for Girls in Constantinople, Turkey.  His bride was graduated from Ely School in 1906.  

Baron Paul von Eglinitzki lived here following his divorce from the former Helen Nicholson in July 1915.  The couple was married on June 1, 1907 and their only child, Katharine, was born in 1909.

Von Eglinitzki was born in Germany in 1876.  The New York Times said that his ancestors "could be traced back to the fourteenth century" and that he "was for six years in the German Army, two years in the Thirteenth Huzzars and four in the first guard Field Artillery, of which the Kaiser was the Colonel."

Now living in the Esperanto, he was a stockbroker with Charles R. Flint & Co. with offices in the Park Row Building.  The New York Herald noted, "the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice also had its offices" in the building.  The bureau suspected that the baron was more than a stockbroker.  

On March 14, 1919, The New York Times ran the headline, "Baron Paul von Zglinitzki [sic] and Others Sent to Fort Oglethorpe," and reported, "He was arrested yesterday after having been watched by Government secret agents for a year."  The New York Herald explained that he was suspected "of having negotiated for the shipment of munitions in Mexico."  

The baron and the other six German nationals were sent to the Government internment camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.  But because the Armistice had been signed on November 11, 1918, Von Zglinitzki would likely not be held there very long.  The New York Herald said that prisoners who "escaped arrest until so near the end of the war" would most likely be released from internment camps and deported "when peace is ratified." 

A widower, John H. Conway lived here at the time.  Born in 1843, he was a Civil War veteran and the last surviving crew member of the Monitor, which famously fought the Merrimac off Hampton Roads.  An ardent Democrat, he was formerly president of the Horatio Seymour Democratic Club and was treasurer of Tammany Hall in the 1870s.  He was appointed Deputy Tax Commissioner in 1893.  Conway still held that position on August 1, 1919 when he died in his apartment at the age of 76.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

George H. Whaley, president of the dye-making firm John Campbell & Co., lived here with his wife until his romantic eye roamed.  He became infatuated with his stenographer, May M. Croke.  In 1919 he gave her money to take a three-week vacation and while she was gone, he induced his wife to divorce him so he could marry May.  (Whaley moved to the Hotel Breslin and his wife remained in the Esperanto apartment.)  When May returned from her vacation, Whaley gave her a $2,200 diamond engagement ring and the title to a house at 301 West 88th Street.

But problems soon arose.  George Whaley "employed detectives to shadow her."  They discovered, in part, that May had used some of the money Whaley gave her for her vacation on Monte F. Jacobs "and was with him part of the time," according to The Times.  The embittered George Whaley "instructed the detectives to give [Effie Elizabeth Jacobs] the evidence they had."  Jacobs's wife then sued May Croke on September 22, 1920 for $100,000 damages, "charging alienation of the affections of her husband."  George Whaley now had neither wife nor girlfriend, and a significant dent in his bank account.

Two residents were victims of audacious thievery in 1924.  The first took place in the apartment of Bernie Woods where a wedding was held on June 22.  Among the guests was 15-year-old Anna Treloar, presumably accompanied by her parents.  Anna left the ceremony early, according to police.  Later, expensive wedding gifts were discovered missing--a platinum watch, an onyx ring and silver cuff links.  On August 10, Anna was arrested and at the time she was wearing the platinum watch.  "The girl was held for the Children's Society, reported The New York Times.

The following month, on September 15, Detectives Cronin and Barrett thought that 21-year-old Loretta Floyd was acting "suspiciously" as she came out of the building with a suitcase.  Loretta was a maid in the apartment of Irving Finkelstein and his wife.  When they had her open the suitcase, they discovered, "valuable silk dresses, lingerie and other wearing apparel," reported The Evening Mail.  Loretta was charged with grand larceny.

The building continued to house middle-class professionals, like dentist Ernesto Calvo, here as early as 1928; and John G. Broady, an attorney with the firm Chadbourne, Stanchfield & Levy in 1930.

Abraham Adolph Rozen and his wife, Eva, came to America in 1941 and moved into 229 West 105th Street.  Abraham had been a leader among Polish Jews in Paris before leaving Europe.  Now he was a partner in a textile exporting concern.  The couple was still living in the building when Rozen suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 63 on March 10, 1954.

Elizabeth Horvath West lived here with her married daughter, Joyce Kaiden, and Joyce's five-month-old son in September 1960.  (The whereabouts of Joyce's husband is unclear.)  Elizabeth, who was 38, was estranged from her husband.  The Daily News described her as a "120-pound brunette-dyed-blonde."  On the night of September 6, she and three men, including 32-year-old Robert Hannigan, were seen at a rear table in the Castilian Room on East 75th Street.  

Elizabeth Horvath West, Daily News, September 8, 1960

Robert Hannigan was a bartender and convicted gambler.  He had been negotiating with the owner to buy the Castilian Room for about six months.  The Daily News said that Elizabeth was apparently meeting with him "to discuss the possibility of becoming hatcheck girl there in the fall."

The last of the club's employees left around 4:20 a.m.  A refuse collector entered at 5:50 and discovered the bodies of Elizabeth West and Robert Hannigan.  The Daily News said, "The killer shot Mrs. West three times, once in the abdomen, once in the neck and once in the head, the last slug penetrating the brain."  Hannigan's body was on the floor under a pay phone.  A dime on the carpet suggested he had tried to make a call when he was ambushed.

It appeared that Elizabeth was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Hannigan was "in the hole," according to the club's owner, "for $2,000 in business debts and a $7,000 mortgage."  Police thought that the money was the motive.  Elizabeth was murdered because she could have identified the killers.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The 1960s saw at least two activists in the building.  On October 2, 1961, Joseph Brandt was called to Washington to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  Brandt was a member of the National Assembly for Democratic Rights.  The Long Island Star-Journal reported that he "invoked the Fifth Amendment 60 times in refusing to answer questions."  And on May 18, 1968, 21-year-old Steven Goldfield was arrested with two other Columbia University students when they refused to leave a building on 114th Street while other students protested outside.

In 1970, The Besma Women's Association was founded here.  On May 27, 1972, the New York Amsterdam News reported on the group's upcoming annual Debutante Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Statler Hilton.  The organization's headquarters is still in the building today.

The nine-over-one windows survive in some apartments.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The name Esperanto was dropped decades ago.  But the apartments still contain five and six rooms and the exterior is essentially unchanged.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for prompting this post

The "Berler Houses" - Nos. 809-811 Riverside Drive

The sidewalk cascades dramatically down to West 158th Street.

In the years following the end of World War I the rowhouses of the Audubon Park neighborhood were rapidly being demolished and replaced by modern apartment buildings.  But Charles Siegel Levy and Nathan Berler had a different idea.

Levy, an attorney, and Berler, a principal in the apparel manufacturing firm of Baren, Lehman & Berler, were convinced there was a market for two-family homes in the area.  At the point where Riverside Drive and West 158th Street came together was a sharp triangular plot of land.  The two men created Bertley Holding Corporation (a not-so-subtle composite of their names) and in June 1920 purchased the wedge of real estate.

They commissioned architects Moore & Landsiedel to design an upscale home intended to be the model for a series of residences that never came to pass.  Fred W. Moore and Frank L. Landsiedel produced two handsome homes which successfully pretended to be a single Mediterranean villa.  Constructed at a cost of $70,000 (just under $1 million today) they boasted "completed electrical equipment" and garages below the homes, accessed on West 158th Street.

The houses each contained 11 rooms, including the large solaria at either end.  The Mediterranean Revival style structure, with its red brick and deep green tiled roof, was splashed with occasional Arts & Crafts touches, like the stained glass transoms in the shallow, projecting bay at the rear of No. 811.

Even in its neglected condition, the rear bay is charming.

Perhaps the reason that Bertley Holding Corporation's grand plans for similar homes never went forward was a break-up in the partnership.  The New York Times commented on the newly-completed houses in February 1922.  Charles S. Levy's name was not mentioned.  Instead, the article gave the entire credit to Nathan Berler; going so far as to say "It proved so successful that Mr. Berler now occupies the south half of the house himself and found no difficulty in selling the north half."

In fact, Berler had not sold No. 811.  His next door neighbor was his former partner, Charles S. Levy and his family.


Nathan and Sadie Berler were married on November 2, 1913 and moved into No. 809 with their three year old daughter, Lucille Marsha.  On the evening of New Year's Day, 1922 they hosted what The American Hebrew deemed "the first house warming in their newly completed residence."

Their family increased by one on August 29 that year when Marten Arnold was born.  At least one servant lived with the Berlers.

Two years after moving into No. 809 Nathan Berler (now head of the Enesbe Realty Corporation) started construction of the abutting apartment building at No. 807.  He instructed the architect, George F. Pelham, to design it to be architecturally harmonious with the two houses.

In 1930 the Berler family moved into No. 807, leasing No. 809 to Louis Robison.  In reporting on the deal, The New York Times mentioned, "The house, which was built only seven years ago, contains at $25,000 organ and a garage.  It receives heat and hot water from 807 Riverside Drive, the adjoining apartment house, also owned by Mr. Berler."

Robison was a principal in the cotton and rayon yarn trading company L. Robison Co., with partner Lawrence Lindner.  He served as treasurer of the Federation of American Zionists.   Robison and his wife were no doubt thrilled when daughter Hannah won a State scholarship to Cornell University in 1931.  The result of a competitive examination, the scholarship reduced tuition to $100 per year.

In the meantime, the Levy family was still in No. 811.  The family had three sons, Walter, Howard and Lawrence.  As Lawrence and Howard went on to Harvard, Walter was still studying at the Horace Mann School in 1927.  He was among the group of 100 boys to traveled to Denmark that year, a trip arranged by the Rotary Club and the American Club of Copenhagen.

But the Levy family would also endure tragedy in 1927.  On February 11 Charles was driving along East 152nd Street at the same time that 4-year old Jeremiah Mulcahy was playing in front of his home.  The automobile struck the boy, who died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  The following day The Times reported "Levy was also directed to appear at the Bronx Homicide Court this morning."

The Levy family remained in No. 811 at least through 1937.  In 1942 the house was sold to Dr. Luigi Capobianco.  It was assessed at the time at $22,000.  Capobianco moved his family into the house.  Although the Capobianco family was still in the house as late as 1952, it was converted to apartments, one per floor, around mid-century.

No. 809, meanwhile, had seen a series of tenants.  Following the Robison family came Louis Berkowitz in 1934, Aurelia Smart in 1939, and when her five-year lease expired the house was purchased by Adele R. Harlowe.  Adele leased rooms, apparently, and in 1947 one of her tenants was biologist Jewel Plummer Cobb.  Recognized today as an African American pioneer in medicine, her research on cancer cells led to major advances in chemotherapy.

Original details survive throughout No. 809.  photo via Corcoran Group

When No. 809 was listed in 2010, it's 1921 interiors were amazingly intact.  The new owners initiated a restoration that included replacement windows, most of which were faithful copies of the originals.  The sympathetic facelift accentuated the fact--for perhaps the first time in nearly a century--that the villa is actually two homes.

The laudable restoration stopped short of reproducing the diamond-paned foyer windows or its quarter-round transom. 

photographs by the author