Boak & Paris's 1930 45 Christopher Street

 

In 1929 Cobham Realty hired the architectural firm of Murgatroyd & Ogden to design a 16-story-and-penthouse "brick hotel" on the site of five vintage structures at 41 through 49 Christopher Street.  Something derailed that project and the following year Boak & Paris filed plans for a 16-story apartment building with stores on the site.  The architects projected the construction costs at $500,000--about $9.3 million in 2026.

The firm's Art Deco design included a two-story rusticated stone base.  The entrance, centered between stores, was flanked by shallow pilasters decorated with stylized palm trunks.  Verticality of the brick-faced upper portion was emphasized by thin ribs that rose to romantic stone balconies.  Terraced penthouse apartments shared the roof with a creatively designed water tower.

image via homes.com

Despite the ongoing Depression, 45 Christopher Street filled with financially-comfortable residents.  Among the first were the family of George E. Heidt, who leased a penthouse in August 1931; newspaper columnist Louis Sobal, who rented "a duplex apartment in the penthouse," as reported by The New York Times; and attorney John Langley Ridley.

Ridley was the nephew of multimillionaire Edward Albert Ridley.  In 1932, Edward hired his personal secretary, Lee Weinstein.  Less than a year later, on May 10, 1933, the 88-year-old Ridley and Weinstein were discovered murdered.  The younger Ridley's suspicions were raised when his uncle's will was read.  For one thing, the recently written document was not drawn up by the elderly man's trusted attorney, and his bankers knew "nothing about it."   The new will bequeathed $200,000 to Weinstein and completely ignored Ridley's relatives (including John L. Ridley).  The New York Times estimated the estate at about $7 million (nearly $170 million today).

John L. Ridley filed a caveat against the probate of the will in May 1933.  An investigation revealed that Weinstein "had been the head of a conspiracy" to drain Edward Ridley's fortune.  He slipped the fake will into a stack of papers for the elderly man to sign.  Unfortunately for Weinstein, his conspirators' greed ended not only his employer's life, but his own.  In November the estate was distributed among the millionaire's relatives.  John Langley Ridley received "one-third of his uncle's large real estate holdings," reported The New York Times.  

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Among Ridley's neighbors in the building at the time was Navy Lieutenant Eric Hoag, who lived on the fifth floor.  He was attached to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Early in November 1933, a friend, Lieutenant John Dyer Foley, was married in Seattle, Washington.  A naval surgeon, he and his bride would be relocating to the Civilian Conservation Camp at Montpelier, Vermont.  Two weeks after their wedding, the newlyweds visited Eric Hoag.

At 2:00 on the morning of November 13, Mrs. Foley awoke and found "my husband was gone," she later explained.  "I aroused the household.  We looked out a kitchen window and saw my husband lying three stories below on a balcony."

The 31-year-old was conscious when his wife and Hoag reached him.  At St. Vincent's Hospital he said, "I didn't know anything until I struck [the balcony].  I must have been walking in my sleep."  Newspapers across the country reported on the sailor's nocturnal plunge.  Mrs. Foley telegraphed her parents in Seattle, assuring them, "The newspaper accounts made the injuries appear more serious than they were."

Jeanette Bair, who worked for Feer Realty Corp., was the agent for 45 Christopher Street at the time.  A representative of the firm later testified, "Her instructions included the refraining from entering an apartment...unless she had a prospective tenant."  But around noon on August 8, 1934, she violated that rule and entered Penthouse E, the home of Zara Reigga, who was on vacation.

Four months earlier, Bair's husband had obtained a divorce.  He told officials, "on several occasions she attempted to effect a reconciliation," but he refused.  The despondent Jeanette Bair opened the gas jets of Zara Reigga's stove and oven.  It appears that she intended to kill herself by inhaling gas, but the plan went horribly wrong.

Louis Sobol was on the sofa in his penthouse next door at 12:38 when a massive explosion blew out the wall between the two apartments and threw him to the ground.  The New York Times said it "shook buildings within a half-mile radius...For several minutes after the blast, plate and window glass, fragments of Venetian blinds, and bits of brick and mortar rained down on Sheridan Square."  About an hour after the explosion, "a piece of roof coping weighing between twenty and thirty pounds plunged through the sidewalk canopy and was shattered," said the newspaper.

Terrified residents attempted to flee, but police stopped them in the lobby.  "You can't leave," once policeman said.  "Some one has blown the roof off this place with a bomb and everyone must be questioned."  It would be a while before investigators realized the source of the explosion.

Jeanette Bair, of course, was killed.  Amazingly, 37-year-old Louis Sobol suffered only cuts, and his maid, Anna Filsingeo was "cut and bruised."  Other residents were injured by being hit by glass or falling items, or from being thrown from their feet.  Ethel Jackson, a maid in one of the other penthouses, was "hurled through the bathroom door" and suffered painful bruises.

Fred C. Kuehnle, chief inspector for the Building Department, estimated the damages to Zara Reigga's furnishings and artwork at $5,000 (about $117,000 today).  Understandably, she did not return to 45 Christopher Street.  Following the major repairs to the building, an advertisement in The New York Sun on October 6, 1934 offered the vacant penthouse.  It touted a "sunken living room over 20 ft. sq.; wood-burning fireplace, spacious dining foyer, extensive terrace."

Perhaps the first artist to move into 45 Christopher Street was Russian-born illustrator Boris Mikhailovich Artzybasheff and his wife.  Born in 1899, his father, Mikhail Artsybashev, was a noted author.  Mikhailovich came to America in 1919 and quickly began earning a reputation for his book and magazine illustrations.  His work appeared in magazines like Time, Fortune and Life, and he would ultimately create 219 Time covers.

Artzyhasheff created Steel in 1934.

In reporting on the arrival of the steamship Washington on June 25, 1936, the New York Post commented, "Also on the liner was Mrs. Boris Artzybasheff, wife of the artist and daughter-in-law of the famous Russian novelist."  The article mentioned that she worked as a broker.

Another resident artist was sculptor Walter Rotan, here as early as 1944.  Born in 1912, he has been described as "an Impressionist and Modern artist."  He was living here in March 1944 when his bronze head Henry received the Ellen P. Speyer Memorial Prize in the 188th Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design.

A colorful resident was James J. McCormick, a widower who lived here with his widowed daughter, Hazel Jacobs.  McCormick had been a Tammany leader for 22 years and "a power in the Hall," according to The New York Times.  

His career had come to an abrupt halt in 1931 when the Seabury Investigation, which delved into city government corruption, discovered his graft and extortion.  The investigators discovered that he held 30 bank accounts containing "more than $257,900," according to The New York Times.  Almost all of that had been obtained from couples whom "he had married as chief of the Marriage License Bureau."  Other money came from "gratuities given him by 'friends' whom he aided when they became involved in difficulties over violations of building regulations."  He had, additionally, failed to file income tax returns for 1929 and 1930, during which time he received $69,000 "in gratuities."

In January 1939, McCormick suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.  He died in St. Elizabeth's Hospital a week later, on January 22.

As Jeanette Bair had been, in 1939 Adelaide Tate was the building's renting agent.  She, too, was a divorcee and, she too, was troubled.  Among the tenants she placed here was Standard Oil Company chemical engineer Age Skiolvig, who moved into one of the penthouses.  According to Skiolvig, "he had taken her to several parties."  The eligible bachelor, however, had a much different take on their casual relationship than did Tate.

On November 22, 1939, Skiolvig flew to Cleveland, Chicago and St. Louis on business.  Adelaide accompanied him to the airport.  In each city, he received telephone calls and telegrams from the smitten Adelaide.  At some point, Skiolvig "became suspicious that the calls and telegrams were originating from his apartment," reported The New York Times.  He telephoned the building's superintendent, who entered the Skiolvig apartment and found Adelaide there.  Skiolvig insisted "he did not know how she got into his apartment."  Apparently, as the renting agent, she had kept a copy of the key.

Adelaide gave the superintendent the key and promised to leave.  Then, according to The New York Sun, "Skiolvig became "annoyed and a bit alarmed at the tone of a telegram Mrs. Tate had sent him" and he hurried back to New York, arriving in New York at 7 a.m. on the morning of November 29.

He walked into his apartment to find Adelaide was asleep in a chair, still wearing a hat and coat.  When he wakened her, "she asked for a glass of tomato juice, which he gave her," according to The New York Times.  He then "reprimanded her" for the $100 bill of "telephone and telegraph tolls" she had run up.  Twenty minutes later, she walked into the bathroom and jumped from the window to her death 17 floors below.

Snow falling on the day this 1940 photograph was taken gave it a polka-dot effect.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the shops in the 1940s was the National Flower Decorating Company florist shop and Irving Weiss's liquor store.  Victor Emanual was the cashier of the flower shop in 1940 when a man who "appeared to be carrying a pistol in his pocket," according to The New York Times, walked in and demanded money.  The 26-year-old cashier handed over $1,281 and the robber fled.

Irving Weiss was not so lucky four years later.  At 12:15 on the afternoon of January 15, Maxine Golberg walked into the liquor store to find Weiss dead on the floor with two gunshot wounds in his head.  This was not a robbery, however.  Detectives said that Weiss was found "in a sitting position behind his swivel chair" and no cash appeared to be missing.

Living here by the late 1940s was newspaper man and playwright James Gow and his wife, the former Olga Alexander.  The couple married in 1941.  With Arnaud d'Usseau, he wrote the 1943 Tomorrow the World and Deep are the Roots, which premiered in 1945.  The former dealt with how post-World War II German children could be reassimilated into normal life after their indoctrination by the Nazis.  The latter play dealt with Blacks within the South.  He wrote screenplays for motion pictures including Ballerina and Paramount on Parade.

Another resident in the theater field was Carroll McComas.  Born in 1886, she made her stage debut in 1907.  While she was a dancer and singer in vaudeville, she was best known for whistling.  She went on to Broadway, where she would play in more than 24 roles, and made her first silent movie in 1916 in When Love is King.  

Carroll McComas with Frank Craven in the 1916 Seven Chances.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

While living here, she appeared on Broadway in Design for a Stained Glass Window, Arms and the Man, The Glass Menagerie and The Innocents; and in the 1953 film Jamaica Run and The Miracle Worker, released in 1962.  She died of a heart attack in her apartment here on November 9, 1962 at the age of 76.

Other residents in the 1960s were artist Ben Bishop; fashion consultant Gastona Marie Rossilli; and labor historian and economist Dr. Lewis L. Lorwin.

Bishop was born in the Bronx in 1923 and held a BFA in art history from the University of Nebraska and did graduate work at Columbia University, the New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, and the University of California at Berkeley where he received his Masters in painting in 1954.  His paintings hang in the collections of the Syracuse Museum, the Russell Sage Museum, the Brandeis University Museum, the Jewett Art Center and several other institutions.

Gastona Marie Rossilli attended the Traphagen School of Fashion and held a degree from Seton Hall University.  A "fashion-behavioral consultant," she had made field studies in the West of "the relation between clothing and behavior of American Indians," as explained by The New York Times.  She also conducted research in Europe and other parts of the U.S.   While living here, she consulted for department stores and the Fashion Institute.

In 1987, 45 Christopher Street was converted from a rental building to condominiums.  

In 1997, management of the Stonewall Inn attempted to circumvent the zoning rule that "prohibits cabaret licenses for places with entrances within 100 feet of a residential district."  The intention was to install a dance floor on the second floor of the bar  On August 6, The Villager reported, "But residential neighbors at 45 Christopher St., are opposing the permit.  Their lawyer, Stewart O'Brien, explained, "We have no problem with an eating and drinking establishment on the second floor, but a disco makes a lot of noise."

The imposing building that soars high above its neighbors, has become an architectural landmark within the Greenwich Village neighborhood.  

photographs by the author

Boak & Paris's 1936 50 East 78th Street

 

Born in 1884 in Russia, Sam Minskoff came to America as a young man as a plumber.  In 1908 he erected his first apartment house and by 1935 was a force in New York City real estate development.  That year, as president of the Forty-Six East 78th St. Corp., he broke ground for an 11-story apartment building at 50 East 78th Street.  Boak & Paris, which had worked with Minskoff on several projects, was hired to design the structure.

Completed in 1936 and costing $150,000 according to The Bridgemen's Magazine, its Art Moderne design included a two-story cast stone base with reeded piers.  A recess above the entrance (typical of Boak & Paris designs) was flanked by corner-wrapping casements.  In its May 1937 issue, The Architectural Forum noted, "The setbacks on the street facade were made to give the rooms another exposure; by the use of corner windows on a narrow street, the view is considerably enlarged."

Architectural Forum, May 1937

The Architectural Forum noted, "This building is located in a residential neighborhood in New York where small apartments are in active demand" and mentioned, "The interiors show the continual trend toward greater simplicity in design."  Indeed, the typical apartments had either two or three rooms and a bath.  Their sunken living rooms had been a trend for several years.

Architectural Forum, May 1937

Residents enjoyed outdoor space on the roof.  Annice M. Alt, writes in Boak & Paris / Boak & Raad:

...there was a roof deck for all tenants.  Long-time tenants remember a roof garden, and, to rinse off after gardening or sun bathing, residents could shower on each landing of the internal fire stairs.

Alt points out another interesting innovation.  Decades before air conditioning, the "apartments had screen doors so that the main doors could be open, allowing cross breezes."

Architectural Forum, May 1937

Among the first tenants were young entertainers Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.  Nelson was the bandleader of Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, which recorded for Brunswick starting in 1930.  In 1935, he married the band's singer, Harriet Hilliard.

Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in 1936, the year they moved into the building.  Radio Mirror, October 1936

According to John R. Holmes in his The Adventures of Ozzie Nelson, the Life and Career of America's Favorite Pop, in 1936, pregnant with their first child, "Harriet spent her mornings in March apartment hunting, and by mid-month had found what she was looking for: a family-sized suite in a new building at 50 East 78th Street."  The couple's first son, David, would be born while they lived here.

Rents at the time ranged from $1,100 to $1,500 per year, or about $2,750 per month for the most expensive in 2025 terms.

Living here in 1940 were newlyweds John D. and Beatrice Coleman.  Beatrice was "known also as the Baroness and the Countess de Chaney," according to The New York Sun.  The couple was married in September that year.  Beatrice later told reporters she "left Germany after the rise of Hitler," saying, "she always had been anti-Nazi."

The Colemans separated in 1942.  In April 1945, Beatrice was invited to a cocktail party hosted by Albert E. Langford and his wife, Marion, in their Hotel Marguery apartment.  Two months later, on June 4, Langford was murdered in their suite.  In the meantime, Beatrice had relocated to California.

On June 13, 1945, The New York Sun reported that Beatrice Coleman, "will 'in all probability' be questioned in Hollywood by New York city detectives for any information she can supply."  Beatrice said, "I was invited, but I was ill and couldn't attend."  But detectives were especially interested in her because of her earlier illicit affair with the murdered millionaire.  The Sun recounted, "Mrs. Coleman said that Mrs. Langford was 'very jealous' of her and forced Langford to break off their relationship."  Asked her opinion on what had transpired, she said, "The only thing I can think of is that he was in some one's way.  You know there was much money involved, and money is a powerful force."  (The Langford murder was never solved.)

In the meantime, the residents of 50 East 78th Street were professionals.  M. M. Rosten lived here in November 1951 when his book, Power Alcohol in Canada, was released.  The following year, Dr. Bret Ratner's film Allergy was produced.  The cumbersomely-titled United States Educational Scientific and Cultural Motion Pictures and Filmstrips Suitable and Available for Use Abroad said Ratner's film was intended "to disseminate information concerning the phenomena of protein hypersensitivity."

Unflattering press coverage of residents of 50 East 78th Street was nearly non-existent.  An exception came early in 1960 when 31-year-old Abraham Korman was arrested.  The secretary-treasurer of the Nassau Management Corporation, he and the firm's president were convicted of the "theft of $200,000 in funds entrusted to them," according to the Long Island Star-Journal on February 10.

Around 1963, the E. V. Thaw & Co. art gallery opened in the building.  It was supplanted by the Ira Spanierman, Inc. Gallery, which specialized in 19th century American paintings.  Despite that, according to The New York Times, "Spanierman "has an eye for hidden or dubious Old Masters."  

In 1968, he purchased what he was told was a late 16th century painting.  Spanierman suspected that it was more than that.  On October 11, 1971, The Times reported, "A portrait bought here three years ago by [Spanierman] has been authenticated as a work painted by Raphael in 1518."  Asked what the long-lost portrait of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino was worth, Spanierman said, "I don't know, millions probably, but how many I can't say."

Ira Spanierman was no doubt well acquainted with former artist Robert Dain.  A resident of the building, he was the proprietor of the Dain/Shiff Gallery at 1018 Madison Avenue.  After separating from his wife, in 1971 he moved into what The New York Times would later call a "tastefully decorated three-and-a-half-room apartment, whose walls, according to friends, are adorned with Toulouse-Lautrec prints."

Dain left the gallery at 5:30 on the evening of April 22, 1973.  When he failed to show up for the opening of an exhibition the following day, police gained entrance to his ninth-floor apartment.  His nude body was found on the bed with a sheet wrapped around his head.  He had been stabbed several times in the chest.  There was no sign of a struggle and it appeared to investigators that Dain had been drinking Scotch with a visitor.  The murderer was never discovered.

On January 22, 1999, The New York Times reported that Adam Williams, "who ran Newhouse Galleries for 15 years," would be opening his own gallery here.  "He will specialize in European Old Master paintings," said the article.  

Five years later, on November 30, 2004, the woman who was tending the Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. gallery was expecting a telephone repair crew.  (Williams was abroad at the time.)  At around 11:15 a.m., she unlocked the security door and let two men in.  They were not telephone workers.  While one of the men distracted her, the other slipped a 19th century painting by French artist Théodore Chassériau into his overcoat.  Described as a painting of "a seminude woman with her maids," the insurance company offered a $50,000 reward for its return.  

More recently, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) moved into the gallery space.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

photographs by Lowell Cochrane

Boak & Paris's 1940 170 East 77th Street

 

Bronx natives, brothers Sidney R. and Arthur W. Diamond both held law degrees from Columbia University.  But they turned their focus to real estate, becoming major players in the erection and management of apartment buildings.

In 1939, the Diamonds hired the architectural firm of Boak & Paris to design a 10-story-and-penthouse apartment building on the site of four vintage brownstones at 166 through 172 East 77th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues.  Clad in beige brick, it was completed the following year.  Typical of Boak & Paris's designs, the central portion was recessed, allowing for dramatic chamfered corner windows.

The cover of the 1940 real brochure showed the original casement windows.

Potential residents could choose apartments of 3, 3-1/2 or 4 rooms with one or two baths.  A brochure boasted, "unusually large rooms, dropped living rooms, dinettes, glass-enclosed stall showers" and "modern steel casement windows specially equipped with fresh air ventilators."  A modern amenity was the "radio outlet in each living room."

Each of the six penthouse apartments had a terrace.  On June 22, 1940, The New York Times reported that Arthur David, president of Edward Davis, Inc., meat dealers, had taken a penthouse "which is to be built to his specification by Sidney and Arthur Diamond."  The article noted, "the house is nearing completion."

Penthouse floor plan -- from the 1941 real estate brochure

Four months later, William H. B. Cooper and his wife, the former Gertrude Cooper, leased the last penthouse.  At the time, The New York Times reported that the building was 95 per cent rented.  Cooper was the son of Senator Charles Cooper.  He and Gertrude had been prominent in Brooklyn society before moving to Manhattan, and owned a summer home in Hempstead, Long Island.

Living here at mid-century were insurance agent James L. Feder, his wife, the former Irma Rosenberger, and their daughter Jane.  Jane had attended the Riverdale Country School before entering Wellesley College.

Theodore C. Garfiel and his wife lived here by the early 1960s.  Born on May 1, 1905, Garfiel graduated from Columbia in 1924 and remained highly involved in the school's alumni activities.  From 1962 to 1964 he served as vice chairman of the board of the Association of the Alumni of Columbia College, and in 1964 was elected president of the association and chairman of the board.

Resident Daniel Greenberg was the only patron in the Golden Goose Bar and Restaurant on West 23rd Street at 10:30 on the morning of February 9, 1971 when a gas explosion tore through the building.  The New York Times reported, "The blast ripped out almost all of the roof of the 20-by-100-f0ot one-story structure, shattered the masonry floor and blew out the windows."  The shock of the explosion broke windows on both sides of the little structure and across the street.

Amazingly, no one was killed.  Five employees were rescued by firefighters.  One of them, waitress Marie Colocrai, was pinned under a table under a pile of debris.  All but one were admitted to Bellevue Hospital.  Daniel Greenberg escaped with head injuries and cuts.

Living in a fifth-floor apartment at the time were Frank and Mildred Knight.  During the 1930s and '40s, Knight was a well-known radio personality, the announcer for the Longines  sponsored Symphonette, a weekly program of light classical music, and its Choraliers program.  In the 1950s he was the announcer of the Columbia Broadcasting System's television program Chronoscope.

Born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Knight served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during World War I, and studied medicine at McGill University before turning to acting.  He landed several Broadway roles, but discovered his voice was best suited to radio.  He first worked as a news reporter in 1926.

In 1952, The New York Times television editor Jack Gould said that Knight delivered his commercials "with an almost cathedral formality.  They tend to induce such a feeling of social inadequacy that a viewer might be forgiven if he found himself wondering whether he was really eligible to buy the product."

In 1970, Knight teamed with Jack Benny to narrate the recording The Golden Age of Radio, produced by the Longines Symphonette Society.

At around 9:45 on the evening of October 9, 1973, a fire broke out in the Knights' bedroom.  Mildred, who was 77 years old, had been bedridden for several years.  Knight, who was two years older, was unable to get her out of the apartment as the fire spread.  She was burned to death and Knight seriously injured.  The fire was confined to the couple's apartment.

Ten days later, The New York Times reported, "Frank Knight, who was a radio and television personality in the days of Graham McNamee, Ted Husing and Kate Smith, died yesterday at the Lenox Hill Hospital.

Known today as Diamond House, at some point its multi-paned casement windows, so important to the Boak & Paris design, were replaced.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochran for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

Boak & Paris's 1941 177 East 77th Street

 

Russell M. Boak and Hyman F. Paris both worked in the office of architect Emery Roth.  They struck out on their own and in 1927 established the office of Boak & Paris.  Like Roth's, the firm quickly became known for designing apartment buildings.

In 1940, developers Sidney and Arthur Diamond hired Boak & Paris to design an 11-story-and-penthouse building on East 77th Street, just west of Third Avenue.  The New York Times noted, "The plot runs through to Seventy-eighth Street, and on that side will be transformed into a large garden for the benefit of the tenants."  The architects introduced two innovations--one structural, the other aesthetic.  On July 6, 1941, the newspaper headlined an article, "Bolting Replaces Riveting on New Building; Each Suite in East Side House Has Terrace."

The foregoing of riveting in favor of bolting the girders and columns together made the process nearly noiseless.  Sidney and Arthur Diamond told the reporter that the exterior brickwork, completed within 30 days, had "set something of a record for this type of work."  The article explained the rapid process.

As the steel construction progressed from floor to floor the concrete workers poured the concrete floor in at a pace that kept them constantly within two floors of the steel workers.  When the concrete workers reached the seventh floor the bricklayers started their task, and when the brick work reach the sixth floor, work on the partitions began.

The reporter noted, "For a while the steel men, concrete men and bricklayers were all working at the same time."  At the time of the article, fully 50 percent of the apartments had been leased.  The renting manager, Charleton Otis, explained, "The private terraces for every apartment, the 11,000 square feet of landscaped, private garden adjoining the building, the spaciousness of the rooms and the architectural design of the building have been strong attractions."

The abundance of balconies was possible because the Goelet family, from whom the Diamonds purchased the plot, had erected a two-story store-and-apartment building on the Third Avenue blockfront in 1936.  The Diamonds took the bold gamble that no tall building would replace it.

Clad in sandy-colored brick, Boak & Paris's streamlined Art Moderne design included an understated entrance with incised Mayan-type designs.  No other ornamentation graced the facade.  The architects used 45-degree chamfered corners on the sides of the recessed section above the entrance--a feature they had used on another Stanley and Arthur Diamond building at 160 East 89th Street in 1937.

from the 1941 real estate brochure "177 East 77th", in the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

An advertisement in September 1941 touted, "52 apartments, each with private terrace.  Already 90% rented.  11,000 sq. ft. of private garden, roof garden, 3-4 rooms each."  The real estate brochure boasted, "seven large closets in four room apartments...five large closets in three room apartments...glass enclosed stall showers."

Among those who signed leases during construction were two physicians, Dr. Mary Dunne Walsh and Dr. Jules Victor Coleman; and Malcolm S. McNaught, a sales manager for the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Mary Dunne Walsh had received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1921.  Seven years before she moved into 177 East 77th Street, her name had appeared in newspapers nationwide for decidedly non-medical reasons.  She sued a socially-prominent female stockbroker and exposed a corrupt scheme.

In 1924, Edna V. O'Brien opened a private stockbrokerage business.  Time magazine described her as "an energetic, middle-aged spinster who had fought the good fight for women's votes, who was a lieutenant in an ambulance unit but did not get to France, who was a good friend and committee-mate of many of Manhattan's ablest socialites."

Boak & Paris managed to wrangle a balcony or terrace to every apartment.  from the 1941 real estate brochure "177 East 77th", in the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

Among O'Brien's clients were Anne Morgan, Elizabeth Marbury and Amelia Earhart Putnam.  Dr. Walsh had entrusted her with $80,000 to invest.  In December 1932, according to Time, "On the complaint of Dr. Mary Dunne Walsh...Miss O'Brien was hauled before the New York State Bureau of Securities.  She refused to answer questions." 

Investigators discovered that Amelia Earhart Putnam had lost $150,000, according to the article.  On February 11, 1933, The New York Times reported that Edna V. O'Brien had been arrested after the grand jury issued "four indictments charging theft of between $50,000 and $80,000 in securities from Dr. Mary Dunne Walsh."  (Dr. Walsh's loss would translate to as much as $1.9 million in 2024.)

Dr. Victor Coleman had earned his B.A. degree at Cornell University in 1928, and his medical degree in Vienna, Austria in 1934.  America's entry into World War II drastically changed his life.  He was sent with the U.S. Army Medical Corps overseas as a psychiatrist attached to the 38th Infantry Division.  The United States Army's Neuropsychiatry in World War II later explained that while working "with combat casualties in the forward area during the Luzon Campaign, [he] was able to return 70 percent of his patients directly to duty from the clearing station."

Dr. Jules Victor Coleman, Journal of the Kansas Medical Society, 1950

Coleman was listed at 177 East 77th Street as late as 1943, when he was promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain.  But it does not appear he returned here following the war.  In 1950, he was living in Denver, Colorado where he was president of the American Association of Psychiatric Clinics for Children.

In 1946, Sidney and Arthur Diamond bought the two-story building on Third Avenue from the Goelet family, preserving the eastern exposure of 177 East 77th Street at least for the foreseeable decades.

A celebrated resident was violist Max Rosen, who lived here with his sculptor wife, the former Gertrude Buchbinder.  Born in Romania in 1900, Rosen's family emigrated to New York when he was eight months old.  They lived in the impoverished Lower East Side where Max's father ran a barber shop at Rivington and Forsyth Streets.  According to The New York Times, "It was in the rear of this barber shop that Max Rosen learned the rudiments of the violin from his father," and he was "able to play difficult compositions at the age of 7."  Friends of his father, astonished at the boy's playing, arranged to send him to the Music School Settlement.

There he continued to amaze professional musicians.  When the banker and founder of the Flonzale Quartet, Eduard de Koppe, heard the 12-year-old play, he sent him to Dresden, Germany to study with famed violinist and instructor Leopold Auer.  Max Rosen returned to New York in 1917 and debuted as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on January 12, 1918 at the age of 18.

Max Rosen at the age of 18.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Rosen appeared throughout the world with major symphonic ensembles before his retirement, after which he used his 77th Street apartment to teach.  He died from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 16, 1956 at the age of 56.

Not only did television and motion picture producer William A. Berns live here, but so did his brother and partner Samuel D. Berns.  

In the 1940s William Berns joined the National Broadcasting Company, producing the show While Berns Roams and acting as emcee for the radio game show Say It With Acting.  In the 1950s, he worked with several radio and television stations.

Then, in 1960, he joined the staff of Robert Moses's New York World's Fair 1964-65 Corporation as vice president in charge of communications.  That year he traveled internationally to promote the fair to other nations.  During the second year of the fair he served as its director of television, radio and motion picture publicity.

At the fair's end, Berns again turned to producing.  He produced the 1970 film The Gamblers, and was executive producer of Mel Brook's The Twelve Chairs, released the same year.  In 1970, he also partnered with Samuel Bern in film importing and packaging.

The Bern brothers were born in Philadelphia.  Samuel D. Bern lived here with his wife, the former Ruth Horne.  Before going into business with William, he had been on the staffs of Film Daily and Variety, and was at one point the West Coast editor for Quigley Publications.

The 1941 real estate brochure for 177 East 77th Street had touted, "steel casement windows specially equipped with fresh air ventilators."  Unfortunately, those windows--so important in Boak & Paris's design--have been replaced.  Otherwise, the building is little changed and--at least for now--the low-rise buildings on Third Avenue survive, affording light and views to the eastern-facing balconies.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for requesting this post

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

Boak & Paris's 1937 5 West 86th Street

 

On October 1, 1937, two years before the official end of the Great Depression, the West 86th Street Corp. opened the doors to its 20-story apartment house at 5 West 86th Street.  Replacing five high-stooped rowhouses (including the former home of James Buchanan Brady--"Diamond Jim" Brady--at 11 West 86th Street), it was designed by the architectural firm of Boak & Paris.

A 1930s take on Imperial Roman architecture, the entrance featured engaged, fasces-like reeded columns that sprouted hefty anthemia.  Crossed Roman spears decorated the door.  Panels of burly reeding separated the openings of the second floor.  The upper floors were clad in variegated beige brick, divided into three vertical sections by full-height piers that flanked and separated the two central bays.

Horizontal relief was achieved with terra cotta wave crest bandcourses above the seventh floor that flowed in opposite directions, and incised bandcourses above the fifteenth.  Casement windows, so important in the style, provided the apartments with natural light and wrapped the corners above the seventh floor.

An advertisement listed "gracious urban apartments at Central Park" ranging from three to five rooms, and noted "some with terraces."  Rents ran from $1,250 to $1,900 per year (equal to about $2,150 to $2,600 per month in 2024).  The listing for the terraced penthouse with nine rooms and four baths touted "superb layout" and "unexcelled view, four exposures."  No rent was revealed for that unit.

The building filled quickly with professional like Mrs. John Iraci, "officer of the International Broadcasting Company," as described by The Sun when she signed the lease.  Her husband, radio executive John Iraci, had died the previous November.  Two other of the initial residents were Rev. Judah Kahn, associate rabbi of the Free Synagogue; and illustrator Frederic Varady.  When Varady signed his lease in December 1938, The New York Sun mentioned that renting in the building was now "complete."

The 30-year-old Frederic Varady did illustrations for books,  magazines and advertisements.  His style showed influences of J. C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell.

Varady's July 1953 cover of Collier's magazine showed Rockwell-esque humor.  

On October 4, 1939, The New York Times reported Lawrence Germain and "Dr. Joseph Fried, eye specialist who recently arrived in this country from Budapest, Hungary," had taken apartments.  

Germain was a partner in Germain-Hegeman Company, Inc., co-founded in 1910 by his father Max Germain.  The development firm erected housing in New Jersey.  On July 21, 1951, The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey recalled that Max Germain and his partner Norbert T. Hegeman were pioneers in Bergen County residential development.  The newspaper said they erected "several hundred homes in the North Hackensack-River Edge area."

Dr. Fried quickly became active in matters outside his profession and would become a vice-president of the The United Hungarian Jews of America, Inc. by 1945.  Three years after moving into 5 West 86th Street, the family suffered tragedy.

Paul Fried was 14 years old when the family moved to America in 1939.  He was enrolled in Stuyvesant High School for academically advanced boys.  Its location on East 15th Street necessitated his taking the subway to school.  Fried was "subject to fainting spells," according to school officials.  It was a condition that ended in calamity.

Paul, now 17 years old, stood on the 91st Street platform of the I.R.T. subway on the morning of November 22, 1942.  Just as the train pulled into the station, the teen fainted and fell onto the tracks.  Although, according to The New York Sun, the train operator "tried vainly to stop the train before it struck the boy," Fried was killed instantly.

Another couple suffered a tragic loss four years later.  Lt. Melvin Cohen had been in the Army for several years, according to The Larchmont Times.  In November 1945, he and his wife had a baby boy.

On July 11, 1946, the newspaper said, "The Cohens, who make their home at 5 West 86th street, New York, arrived in Larchmont about a week ago to spend the Summer."  At around 9:00 on the morning of July 7, Mrs. Cohen placed the baby in his carriage for a nap outdoors.  Twenty minutes later she checked on him and found him "at the foot of the carriage under the covers."

She rushed the infant across the street to Dr. S. W. Pearlman, who called the inhalator squad of the fire department.  "In spite of the vigorous attempts of the town firemen to revive the child," said the article, "he was pronounced dead about 20 minutes after the squad's arrival."  

Dr. Joseph Fried was still living at 5 West 86th Street as late as 1960.  Among his neighbors were William Mason Lichtenstein and his wife Annette.  A consultant and former vice president of Wullscyhleger & Co., Inc. textile manufacturers, Lichtenstein was best known for his bridge playing expertise.  

He had won the Reisinger Knockout Team Championship, the top ranking New York bridge event, in 1945.  Three years later he won the Vanderbilt Knockout Team Championship, "one of the two most important national titles," according to The New York Times, and came in second in that event in 1956.

The Frieds and the Lichtensteins were well-acquainted with Alfred De Silva, not as a neighbor, but as their beloved doorman.  A native of Trinidad, "Freddy" was hired at 5 West 86th Street in 1940.  His service to the residents went beyond professional to personal.  One resident, Sabrina Weinberger said in May 1975, "If someone was sick, he would call them every day.  He would watch out for children, seeing that they got safely on their school buses or keep an eye on them while they played in front of the building."

After 35 years of service, the 72-year-old retired on May 18, 1975 with plans of a trip to Trinidad before moving with his wife to Philadelphia.  The next day, The Daily Press reported, "Alfred De Silva has whistled up his last cab and gotten his last tip--a hefty one of $1,000."  The residents of 5 West 86th Street gave him the going-away thank-you that would equal about $5,500 today.

Boak & Paris's Depression era building--including its all-important casement windows--survives virtually intact.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com