The Al Hirschfeld House - 122 East 95th Street

 

Developers William J. and John P. Walsh often turned to the architectural firm of C. Abbott French & Co. in designing their projects.  On February 19, 1887, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that they had teamed up again for a row of 12 "Queen Anne private residences" on East 95th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.  Completed in 1888, each of the three-story residences would cost about $490,000 in 2026 money to erect.

Among the most eye-catching was 122 East 95th Street, the yellow brick facade of which was contrasted by ruddy terra cotta.  A dog-legged box stoop rose to the entrance.  The upper sashes of the grouped parlor windows contained myriad small panes--typical of the Queen Anne style.  They were reflected in the multiple square panels of the double entrance doors.  C. Abbott French & Co. united the parlor floor openings with a single arched terra cotta lintel filled with crisp, swirling foliate forms.

A projecting metal oriel dominated the second floor and the three windows of the third floor were capped by a triangular pediment filled with elaborate terra cotta ornaments.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Real estate operator Lewis Coon purchased 120 and 122 East 95th Street, painted and wallpapered the interiors, and then put them back on the market in September 1889.  His advertisement described them as "two of the most comfortable and well built new 20 foot, three story and basement private dwellings in restricted block."  Asking $20,000 each for the properties, Coon said buyers would find "no equal for the money on the island."  Calling the houses "strictly first class in every respect," he noted they were "elegantly trimmed in cabinet style; handsomely decorated and papered."

Lewis Coon sold 122 East 95th Street to Elias Einstein in July 1890.  The sale price would translate to about $730,000 today.  Born in 1830, Einstein was the head of a cloak manufacturing firm at 392 Broadway.  He and his wife had two adult daughters, Ida and Hannah, both of whom were married.

Elias Einstein (original source unknown)

In 1893, the Einsteins' eldest daughter, Ida, moved in along with her nine-year-old twin children Helen and David.  Ida had married Jacob Rothschild in 1883.  The New York Herald said he held "a post of trust in a large mercantile house and drew a large salary."  But then, he "became dissipated."  (The term most often referred to alcoholism.)   Rothschild lost his job and, finally, Ida "went back to her father, who contributed to Rothschild's support as well as hers," according to the New York Herald.

Initially, Jacob Rothschild visited 122 East 95th Street to see Ida and the twins.  "Of late, however, his family saw little of him," reported the New York Herald in 1895.

At around 7:30 on the morning of May 19, 1895, a servant heard a noise in the vestibule.  He found Jacob Rothschild lying on the floor and called for Elias Einstein.  The New York Herald said that Rothschild was "breathing laboriously and in his hand was a small bottle partly filled with some liquid."  He looked up at Einstein and mumbled, "You won't have any more trouble on my account.  I have taken this poison, and I came here to die."

The 45-year-old was brought into the parlor and Dr. Louis Cohn, who lived nearby at 139 East 95th Street, was summoned.  Rothschild was unconscious when the doctor arrived and he died shortly afterward.

The following year, in June 1896, the Einsteins sold 122 East 95th Street to Solomon Baerlein and his wife, the former Lottie Kohner.  Solomon was a "special partner" with Lyman G. and Joseph B. Bloomingdale in the Bloomingdale department store.  

Although the couple had no children, their new house was well filled.  Moving in with them were Lottie's parents, Marcus and Hildegart Kohner, and Solomon's mother, Elise (known as Elsie).  Their advanced ages resulted in a series of funerals in the parlor starting with Hildegart Kohner's death on February 21, 1907 at the age of 70.  Nine months later, on November 7, Marcus Kohner passed away at the age of 76, and Elise Baerlein died at the age of 81 on June 21, 1908.

The parlor was the scene of a more joyous event in 1913.  On December 7, The New York Times reported that Rena Goldstein would be married to Arthur H. Schweizer "on Wednesday in the home of the bride's uncle, Solomon Baerlein, 122 East Ninety-fifth Street."

Starting in 1914, the Baerleins leased the house.  A series of well-to-do families occupied it until Solomon Baerlein's death in November 1924.  His estate sold 122 East 95th Street to the Empire State Holding Corporation in October the following year.  The house continued to be leased to a series of tenants until December 1947 when it was sold "to Albert Hirschfeld, the artist," according to The New York Times.

Better known to readers of The New York Times Drama Section as Al Hirschfeld, he was born in 1903.  He became the newspaper's caricaturist in 1929.  Dolly Hass Hirschfeld was his second wife.  They were married in 1943 and had a daughter, Nina.  Nina's name was always hidden in capital letters within her father's caricatures and finding them became a Sunday morning quest for readers of The New York Times for decades.

This self portrait contains two NINAs.

On January 31, 1948, The New York Times reported, "Plans for altering the three-story brick dwelling at 122 East Ninety-fifth Street for studio and residence were announced."  The years-long renovation resulted in the stoop being removed and the entrance lowered to below grade.  It was deftly replaced by paired windows that matched the originals on that level.  In order to create Hirschfeld's studio, the three third-floor windows were replaced with a large opening.  Hirschfeld had the yellow brick and terra cotta painted a cheery pink.

In addition to his top-story studio, the renovations resulted in five bedrooms and five baths.

For decades Hirschfeld would sit in theaters with his sketch pad, then return to his third-floor studio to create his final images.  According to The Wall Street Journal later, he would sometimes keep "his notepad in his pocket while drawing to avoid disturbing other theatergoers."

Some of the artworks found their way into the interiors of the house.  According to The Wall Street Journal, he commissioned "hand-painted fireplace tiles in Mr. Hirschfeld's unique caricature style," and at some point he had selected caricatures enlarged and printed on wallpaper panels for the second floor.  They included portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe among other stars.

Al Hirschfeld at the piano on the second floor with his custom wallpaper in the background.  photograph by Jill Krementz, December 4, 1971

Dolly Haas Hirschfeld died in 1994.  Two years later, Al Hirschfeld married theater historian Louise Kerz. 

On January 21, 2003, the Fredericksburg, Virginia newspaper The Free Lance-Star reported, "Al Hischfeld, whose graceful fluid caricatures captured the essence of performers from Charlie Chaplin to Jerry Seinfeld, died yesterday.  He was 99."  Newspapers nationwide mourned him as a national treasure.

Eight years later, in February 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported, "The townhouse where the artist Al Hirschfeld drew his theatrical caricatures for more than half a century was sold for more than the $5.3 million asking price, after a bidding war."  (Louise Kerz Hirschfeld had married Lewis B. Cullman two months earlier.)

Anne Snee, the broker from the Corcoran Group, told the journal that the buyers, Paul and Denise Lachman, "plan to completely renovate and restore the house, but will protect and preserve large panels of Hirschfeld wallpaper by covering them with plastic panels."

The Lachmans sold the house in 2015 to Phyllis E. Battista.  The Real Deal commented on May 3, 2026 that she "is the ex-wife of Ben Odierno, the landlord who made headlines back in 2005 when he killed his second wife."

No. 122 East 95th Street still sports the pink paint chosen by one of America's most beloved caricaturists, and it continues to be a standout among C. Abbott French & Co.'s picturesque row.

photographs by the author

The Thorn in Andrew Carnegie's Side--Carnegie Hall

photo by Alice Lum

Andrew Carnegie willingly parted with millions to build libraries to help underprivileged boys—as he himself had been—become educated.   His enthusiasm for endowing the musical arts, however, fell far short  of his interest in supporting practical education.

Walter Damrosch hoped to change the industrialist’s attitude.  The German-born composer/conductor was assistant conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and conductor of the Oratorio and Symphony Societies.   New York City’s problem, as he saw it, was that there was no suitable venue for opera or orchestral music.

Neither the Academy of Music nor the Metropolitan Opera House could stage opera properly, as could the great houses of Europe.  And the remaining recital halls—Steinway Hall and Chickering Hall—were built as showplaces for piano manufacturers.  For several years Damrosch chipped away at Carnegie in an attempt to convince him to provide the city with a free-standing, state of the art concert hall.

The millionaire needed no convincing that a new hall was needed.  He was quite familiar with all the musical venues.  He simply did not want to pay for a new one.  Damrosch wrote in his diaries that Carnegie felt that the importance of science and literature in life far outweighed that of music.  “He always insisted that the greatest patronage of music should come from a paying public rather than from private endowment,” Damrosch wrote.

Finally Carnegie gave in—but only to a point.  Damrosch remembered “He built Carnegie Hall, but he did not look upon this as philanthropy, and expected to have the hall support itself and give a fair return upon the capital invested.”  In other words, it was a business deal.

Plans were begun in 1889.  On March 15 The New York Times happily reported “New-York City will probably soon rejoice in the possession of a music hall.  For several years musical enthusiasts have been trying hard to bring about the result which they now hope to accomplish.”

The article noted that the New-York Oratorio and Symphony Societies “and some other gentlemen interested in the advancement of music” had purchased “a plot of ground composing about nine city lots on the corner of Seventh-avenue and Fifty-seventh Street, upon which it is proposed to erect a magnificent building, suitable in every way for the purposes to which it is to be devoted.”

Interestingly, the newspaper barely mentioned Carnegie.  “All the necessary funds for the erection of such a structure have been pledged, and the actual designing and building will be begun without delay,” it said.  Only the last sentence named him.  “Mr. Andrew Carnegie…is the moving spirit in this scheme.”

The New York Times article noted that the location was “perhaps rather far up town.”  It was not only uptown, it was in a relatively undeveloped area filled with stables, weed-filled lots and coal yards just south of Dickel’s Riding Academy. 

Carnegie assembled a stock company to operate the hall, loaned it the cash necessary (in return he received 90 percent of the stock), and agreed to give the architectural commission to the Oratorio Society’s board secretary, William Tuthill.  At the time the 34-year old Tuthill was well known for his singing but not for his architectural skills.

By June of that same year the company had acquired additional real estate and The Times reported that a “much larger building that was originally contemplated” would be built.

Tuthill's blocky chunk of music hall as it appeared in 1895 -- photograph from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

By choosing a musician as architect, Carnegie and Damrosch had, wittingly or not, ensured that much of the focus would be on acoustics—a factor often lacking in earlier concert halls.  Tuthill carefully studied famous European halls and his finished auditorium would be praised for its excellent acoustics.

Tuthill gets the credit for the design of the “Music Hall, founded by Andrew Carnegie,”, as it was first known; but he did not work entirely alone.  On July 19, 1889 The Times reported that “William B. Tuthill, Richard M. Hunt, and Adler & Sullivan of Chicago, the architects of the Chicago Auditorium, have prepared the drawings for the building…In architectural style the building is to be Venetian Renaissance.”

The corner stone was laid in May 1890 and the hall was completed a year later.  As it rose The Times reported that the main hall would seat 3,300 and be “of the best acoustic properties.  The parquet alone will seat 1,200, and there will be two tiers of boxes and two balconies.  There will be thirteen exits, and the vestibules, corridors, and staircases will be of the most commodious character.”

Andrew Carnegie wished to ensure that his $2 million outlay would pay a profit.  “The great concert hall can be transferred into a magnificent ballroom, adjacent to which will be a grand banquet hall for the accommodation of 1,200 guests, fitted with a complete kitchen service…In the lateral building, as it will be called, fronting on Fifty-seventh-street, there will be a hall for chamber concerts, lectures, private theatricals, etc., having a seating capacity of 550.”

Carnegie Hall opened with a flourish on May 5, 1891—the first of a five-day festival of orchestral and choral concerts the highlight of which was the American debut of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky who conducted several of his own works.  The same season Ignacy Jan Paderewski was introduced to American audiences here.  It was the beginning of a tradition—Joseph Levinne, Mischa Elman and Ephram Zimbalist would all make their New York debuts here.

The ability of the concert hall to transform into an assembly space was exhibited later that year when the Kunstlerfest, or Artists’ Festival, was held here.  The German-American event culminated in a great ball “as brilliant as wealth and beauty could make it,” said The New York Times.

“It was a veritable indoor Eden that the guests entered when they began to arrive about 9 o’clock,” the newspaper reported on December 4, 1891.  “A false floor had been built over the entire auditorium, making it a great, smooth dancing surface.  To the height of the first tier of boxes sweet-scented pines had been banked and filled the air with a most delightful odor.  Around and under the pines settees were placed.  On either side of the proscenium arch the musicians were placed, screened from the view of the guests by masses of green stuffs.”

The Philharmonic Orchestra took the stage the following year with Anton Seidl as conductor.  But despite large crowds and rented space, the Music Call was not making money.  The solution: enlarge the building.

On September 19, 1892 Morris Reno who “bore with him full authority from Andrew Carnegie to act as his judgment prompted in any matters concerning the enlargement or alteration of the Carnegie Music Hall," announced that changes were coming.

“Our plans include the raising of the building several stories to allow us to fit up a number of artists’ studios, for which there is a demand.  Refitting the stage may also require some alterations of the boxes near the proscenium arch,” he told reporters.

By 1897 the tower and additional studio wings had been completed -- NYPL Collection

By 1897 two additions would provide for offices and income-producing studios, all continuing Tuthill’s original design—what the AIA Guide to New York City would a century later call “dour Renaissance Revival.”

In 1906 the New-York Tribune advertised studios in the Hall -- copyright expired

Carnegie Hall was not simply the venue of classical music.  In March 1905 Bronco Charlie took the stage.  The New-York Tribune noted “he has had an interesting career.  He was formerly a star rider of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.  He won the horse and bicycle race at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London, against the world’s champion cyclist.  King Edward was a spectator of his performance.  Wherever he has gone, ‘Bronco Charlie’s’ feats of horsemanship have called forth wonder and applause.”

E. Presson Miller coaches an aspiring songstress in his studio in 1916 -- photograph from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The hall was a favorite of lecturers.  In November 1907 Dwight Elmendorf delivered his series of “entertaining and instructive lectures, the subject being ‘Old Mexico,’” reported the New-York Tribune.  And in 1913 the “Kodak Exhibition” was held here, featuring “hundreds of pictorial enlargements” and illustrated lectures by Dr. William Torrence Stuchell with “fascinating motion pictures.”

But the profits Andrew Carnegie hoped for were never realized.   Years later, in 1939, the Works Progress Administration’s New York City Guide noted that Carnegie built the hall “in the belief that a patron of the arts could profit financially.  Continuing operating deficits dispelled his hope of profit.  Despite crowded houses, the hall never paid its way and had to depend upon private subsidization in order to survive.”

Carnegie was further infuriated when, in 1907, Carnegie Hall was assessed by the city at over $1.54 million.  Through his attorney, Robert L. Cutting, he said the assessment was over-estimated by $1.5 million.  In plain terms Carnegie was saying that the structure which paid no return was, in fact, worthless.   Cutting said “the steel man felt keenly the excessive valuation of the Carnegie Music Hall, as that was not a business proposition, and was of far more benefit to the city than to the corporation.”

When Andrew Carnegie died in 1919 the concert hall he never wanted to build had not provided him a dollar profit.  In 1925 it was purchased by a syndicate that made extensive renovations.  Among other alterations, the banquet hall became an art gallery for the tenants of the studios.

The following year Arturo Toscanini came to Carnegie Hall as guest conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra for the 1926 and 1927 seasons.   He stayed on as permanent conductor until his farewell performance on April 29, 1936. 

Throughout the decades the hall continued to host a variety of musical notables.  In 1938 the auditorium was filled with “jitterbugs” who came to hear Benny Goodman’s swing orchestra.   The list of performers is the Who’s Who of music:  Rachmaninoff, Rudolf Serkin, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Heifetz, Pablo Casals, Andrews Segovia, Enrico Caruso, Lily Pons, Marian Anderson, Maria Callas, Paul Robeson, John Sutherland, Josef Jofmann, Leontyne Price…a seemingly endless list.

Children join a group of grown-ups studying the Saturday matinee program in 1944 -- photograph from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Then, in the mid-1950s a group of developers purchased the hall with the intention of demolishing it for an office building.  Although the deal fell through, Lincoln Center was being built further uptown and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra would soon vacate Carnegie Hall.  The building was listed at $3 million; but there were no buyers.  Demolition seemed certain.

Violinist Isaac Stern was determined that the historic building would not be bulldozed.   He rallied public and artistic support to form the Artists’ Committee, the spearhead group of the Committee for Carnegie Hall.  After much negotiation and endless meetings, on April 21, 1960 The New York Times reported that “The Board of Estimate has approved in principle the preservation of Carnegie Hall by having the city acquire it, Mayor Wagner announced yesterday.”

Under the deal approved by Governor Rockefeller, the city would own the concert hall and the Carnegie Hall Corporation would rent it.  Rockefeller said the building was “a fitting monument” to “the great musical artists” who performed there over the years.

photo by Alice Lum

In 1985 a 17-month, $50 million remodeling and restoration was undertaken.  On December 15, 1986 the hall reopened with a gala performance including Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, Isaac Stern, Marilyn Horne, and Vladimir Horowitz among others.

In reporting on the reopening, Donal Henahan of The New York Times said “Rest easy, Andrew Carnegie.  Your great music hall has survived another crisis.”  But despite his name being inextricably connected to the venerable hall, Andrew Carnegie could possibly have cared less.

photo by Alice Lum