The 1892 Felix Hamberger House - 123 East 95th Street

 

In two phases--completed in 1890 and 1892--developer Francis J. Schnugg erected 17 abutting houses on the northern side of East 95th Street between Park and Madison Avenues.  Nearly filling the blockfront, they were designed by Louis Entzer Jr. in a happy blend of styles.  Among the second phase was 123 East 95th Street, a mirror image of No. 125.  The structures' Rorschach-like design was best exemplified in the shared molding and Renaissance Revival carving that straddled the doorways.

Along with side-by-side stoops, the parlor floor ornaments unified the pair.

Entzer's potpourri of styles included Gothic Revival inspired square-headed moldings at the parlor level, the Renaissance Revival carving above the doors and faceted oriels at the second floor in the same style, Romanesque Revival arched windows and eyebrows at the third floor, and neo-Classical swags and wreaths in the pressed metal cornices.

No. 123 was purchased by Felix Hamberger, an insurance broker.  The family's upper-middle-class status was reflected in their ads looking for domestic help.  In wealthy families, the roles of the staff were highly defined, while in middle-class homes servants took on several responsibilities.  An advertisement on October 2, 1895 read: "General housework and plain cooking for family, adults.  123 East 95th st." and the following year, on June 15, 1896, an ad sought a "Girl to do plain cooking, washing and ironing for small family of adults."

Francis Schnugg reclaimed the house in foreclosure in 1902.  It was sold to Bernard Neuhaus who resold it to Charles Gulden in June 1906.  Gulden purchased the house as an investment and leased it to Dr. George A. Friedman and his wife.  The couple had two small children.

Among the Friedmans' staff was Katie Becker, described by the New York Herald as "a Hungarian girl of 22."  On April 27, 1912, the newspaper said that Katie was "such a model maidservant that [the couple] wouldn't part with her for anything.  Peace and quiet usually follow Katies ministrations to household needs."

That peace and quiet was shattered the the night of April 25.  Dr. Friedman came home late from a meeting at Mount Sinai Hospital.  "He found his wife and Katie in the dining room, where Katie had prepared a late supper," said the New York Herald.  Just as Friedman sat down in the basement level dining room, Katie remarked that she smelled smoke.  The doctor investigated and found the portieres between the living room and his consulting room were on fire.  The fire was put out, but Katie was "greatly excited."

Dr. Friedman assumed that Katie had accidentally set the curtains on fire while lighting the gas fixtures.  He told Katie that "she wouldn't be scolded," but she insisted that she had nothing to do with the fire.  Unconvinced, Friedman and his wife went back to their dinner and Katie went upstairs.

Seconds later, the Friedmans were jolted by Katie's screams.  The doctor bolted out of the basement door to find a policeman.  The street was busy with men and women who were leaving a dance nearby.  By the time Friedman brought back a policeman, he found his parlor floor crowded with passersby who "had run in to find out what the matter was."  He also found Katie, "lying on the floor under a small table."

The curtain incident had been, apparently, a distraction by an intruder.  When Katie came to, she told of entering her room to surprise a "big man."  She told investigators that he "put chloroform to her mouth and then dragged her downstairs, throwing her into the room where she was found," according to the newspaper.  Other than the $2.50 that had been in her purse, the intruder took nothing.

Because of that, police did not believe Katie's story.  The New York Herald said, "The police were somewhat inclined to think that Katie's digestion was out of order."  Her employer, however, trusted her.  Dr. Friedman now accepted that the "queer burglar" had set the curtains on fire and "that it was a real adventure that Katie met with when she climbed the stairs."  The article said, "So Katie won't loose her job on a charge of being too imaginative."

Dr. Friedman placed what many readers must have consider a bizarre ad in the "Lost" columns of The New York Times on July 14, 1913.  "LOST--Six rubber stomach tubes, July 9, on Lexington car, 118th St.; reward.  Physician, 123 East 95th St., 9 to 1 P.M."

The Friedmans continued to rent 123 East 95th Street through 1918.  On January 28, 1919, the New-York Tribune reported that the Charles Gulden Estate had leased it to Mrs. Harry Symonds.  She was still occupying the house when the Charles Gulden Estate offered it for sale in November 1920.

It is unclear whether Mrs. Symonds continued to lease the house from the new owner, or if she, in fact, was the purchaser.  Either way, she continued to live here.  Her vocation was the breeding of pedigree Pekingese dogs and in 1921 a dozen of her dogs were listed in The American Kennel Gazette and Stud Book.

On December 12, 1925, Noble T. Macfarland and Helen Brantingham were married in Rockford, Illinois.  Macfarland was a 1919 graduate of Amherst College and was a partner in Beckhard & Macfarlane, concert promoters.  The February 1926 issue of the Amherst Graduates' Quarterly noted, "They live at 123 East 95th Street."

As early as 1929, Henry Anderson Rapp (known as Harry) and his wife, the former Elizabeth Reilly, occupied the house.  The couple was married in 1927 and on January 7, 1929, The New York Times reported that their daughter had been born the previous day.  Suzanne Elizabeth would get a sister, Elizabeth Pamela, in 1936.  

Sharing the house by then were Henry's older brother, William J., and his wife, the former Martha Florentine Geyer Rapp.  A maritime attorney, Henry was a partner in the law firm Hann & Rapp.  Also living here was the brothers' widowed mother, Anna G. Reilly Rapp.  Anna was born in 1870.  Her husband and William's and Harry's father, Francis Berkely Rapp, died in 1921.

A young Anna G. Reilly Rapp as she appeared around the 1890s.  (original source unknown)

It was almost assuredly the Rapps who altered the parlor opening to French windows with multiple panes sometime before 1940.

The updated parlor window was in place in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Harry Rapp family's trip to the Bronx on July 4, 1940 was doubly unlucky.  They got a flat tire in Pelham Manor and Harry pulled over to change it.  While he worked, Forest L. Appelby, Jr. slammed his car into the rear of Harry's.  The Daily Argus of Mount Vernon, New York reported, "Both cars were considerably damaged."

Anna G. Rapp died at the age of 75 on October 11, 1946.  Her estate of "more than $10,000," according to the New York Star Journal, was divided equally among her six children.

By the time of Susanne Elizabeth's engagement to E. D. Farrell Sullivan in January 1951, her family had moved to 118 East 93rd Street.  William and Martha continued to live in the East 95th Street house.  

William J. Rapp, who was still actively working at the time, died of a heart attack on December 19, 1965 at the age of 73.  It is unclear how long Martha continued to live at 123 East 95th Street.

An original mantelpiece survives on the parlor floor.  image via streeteasy.com

At some point, the house was converted to a two-family home.  Much of the interior detailing survives and from the exterior the house has changed little since the parlor windows were updated in the early 20th century.

photographs by the author

The 1887 Henry and Helen Hirsch House - 116 East 95th Street

 

In 1887 developer brothers William J. and John P. C. Walsh set out on an ambitious project of a row of 12 residences on the south side of the 95th Street block between Lexington and Park Avenues--numbers 116 to 138.  The steeply sloping site was known as Goat Hill.

The architectural firm of C. Abbott French & Co. turned to the popular Queen Anne style in designing the individual, yet harmonious homes.  Seen more frequently on the west side of Central Park, the often-whimsical style played with historic elements, materials, shapes and colors.

Like its neighbors, 116 East 95th Street was three stories tall above a brownstone fronted basement.  A dog-legged box stoop rose to the segmentally arched doorway, the terra cotta lintel of which connected that of the window creating a graceful wavelike effect.  A cast metal oriel, flanked by basketweave brick panels, dominated the second floor.  The openings of the third floor wore elaborate terra cotta decoration--the outer windows crowned with arches filled with sunbursts and mythical faces, and the central opening topped with a draped swans' head pediment.  Rather than a cornice, the house was completed by an arched brick parapet supported by a complex brick corbel table.

The house had a rocky start.  Its original owner, James R. Cuming, lost it in foreclosure in 1891 to Daniel P. Mahoney.  He immediately sold it to Henry Wallach, who sold it to Irving and Mollie Hirschfeld in May 1895.  The couple paid $16,500 for the house, or about $636,000 in 2026.

The Hirschfelds, too, would not remain especially long.  On April 12, 1902, they announced the engagement of their daughter, Minnie, to Henry Cohen.  Before the end of the year, they had sold 116 East 95th Street to Henry Hirsch and his wife, the former Helen Ella Gattman.

Henry was born in 1839 and Helen around 1845.  They couple, who were married in 1864, had seven adult children.  In July 1903, only months after purchasing No. 116, the couple hired architect J. Berry to make the equivalent of $276,000 today in interior renovations. 

Helen Hirsch, of course, had a small domestic staff.  On March 29, 1906, for instance, she advertised, "A neat girl wanted as chambermaid, assist washing; small private family.  116 East 95th st."

Henry Hirsh died in the house at the age of 77 on May 26, 1916.  His succinct, two-line death notice said, "Interment private."

Four years later, on May 5, 1920, The New York Times reported that Helen Ella Hirsch had sold the 20-foot-wide house.  The buyers were Latham Gallup Reed and his wife, the former Mary Newbold Welsh.

An attorney, Reed was born in Albany on December 10, 1855.  His American pedigree was deep and he descended from members of the Plymouth Colony.  His father was an Episcopalian priest, Rev. Sylvanus Reed, and his mother, Caroline Gallup Reed, "maintained a fashionable girls' school," according to The New York Times later. He studied at Columbia before transferring to Cambridge University where he earned his law degree.

He and Mary were married in 1884.  Latham was 29 and his bride was 25.  The couple had a son, Latham Ralston, and a daughter, Elizabeth Eunice.  When they moved into 116 East 95th Street, Latham Reed had been retired for six years.  The family's country home was in Locust, New Jersey.

Elizabeth, who never married, lived with her parents.  She was, perhaps, more visible in society than her mother.  On October 30, 1928, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Miss Elizabeth Reed...gave a reception yesterday afternoon at the Junior League Club, 133 East Sixty-first Street, for the Countess de la Gabbe, who is here from Paris."

Mary Newbold Welsh Reed died in the East 95th Street house on November 26, 1943 at the age of 84.  Her funeral was held two days later in All Saints Memorial Church in Navesink, New Jersey.

The stained-glass transoms of the parlor level and the charming  multi-paned, Queen Anne-style sashes of the top floor were intact in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1945, Latham Gallup Reed fell ill.  He died "after a brief illness," according to The New York Times, on November 29 at the age of 89.  The newspaper described him as an "internationally known lawyer."

No. 116 East 95th Street was sold the following year in June to Colonel George Leonidovich Artamonoff and his wife, the former Jessie Downing.  Born in Kursk, Russia on April 21, 1902, Artamonoff's father was General Leonid Konstantinovich Artamonoff of the Imperial Russian Army.  George fought in the White Army in 1919 before fleeing to the United States in 1921.

At the outbreak of World War II, Artamonoff was commissioned a major in the United States Army.  The conflict would cut short the couple's residency here.  The New York Times reported that in 1947, he was made "director of the Tokyo office of the Marshall Plan."  He was charged with "restoring economic relations between Japan and countries of Southeast Asia."  The Artamonoffs leased the house until June 1949, when they sold it.  

The subsequent occupants of the residence continued to be affluent--albeit not always as upstanding as their predecessors.  Harold Von Maker lived here in 1968 when was one of eight men, "including Carmine Lombardozzi, the Mafia figure," according to The New York Times, who were arrested by the FBI.  They were charged for conspiracy to steal brokerage checks.

Five years later, on August 16, 1973, The East Hampton Star reported that "Steven H. Maltby, 22, of 116 East 95th Street, New York" had been arrested.  He was charged "with criminal possession of a dangerous drug in the sixth degree (LSD)."

The house, still a single-family home, was renovated in 2020.  It was most likely at this time, that the stained-glass in the parlor floor transoms were removed in the process of replacing the windows.  

photographs by the author

The 1892 John Stich House - 117 East 95th Street

 

In 1891, developer Francis J. Schnugg hired Louis Entzer, Jr. to design nine abutting houses on the northern side East 95th Street between Park and Madison Avenues.  Along with the eight homes the pair created a year earlier, they would nearly fill the blockfront.

Completed in 1892, Entzer's row would compliment the earlier houses.  The four designs were configured in an A-B-C-C-D-D-B-A pattern.  Among the B models was 117 East 95th Street and, like its architectural siblings, was three stories high above a basement.  The undressed stone blocks and the heavy voussoirs over the arched parlor windows were Romanesque Revival in style.  Above the double-doored entrance, a stained-glass transom incorporated the address.

Entzer gave the planar sandstone of the upper two floors interest by striating it with bands of rough cut stone.  A sheet metal oriel dominated the second floor--its whimsical bosses along its base and the artistic panes of the upper sashes were Queen Anne in design.  The architect continued to blend styles by placing Gothic Revival, square-headed drip moldings above the top floor windows.  An elaborate and highly unusual pressed metal cornice completed the design.

The house became home to the John Stich family.  Born in 1856, Stich was the head of the John Stich Building Company.  He and his wife, the former Rose Herrmann, had two daughters: Mildred, born in 1882, and Nellie, born in 1886.

John Stich (original source unknown)

The 1899-1900 winter social season saw 18-year-old Mildred's debut.  Debutante entertainments often stretched for weeks, and on January 7, 1900, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. John Stich, of 117 East Ninety-fifth street, gave a musical and dance on New Year's night in honor of their daughter Mildred."

Two years later, on October 1, 1902, the New York Herald reported that John and Rose had announced Mildred's engagement to Saul Manovitch.  It may have been that article that provided Mary Smith the alternative identity she needed.

Shortly afterward, Mary Smith, described by The New York Times as "stylish and twenty-five years old," went on a shopping spree in the Stern Brothers' dry goods store on West 23rd Street.  She was arrested on October 25, 1902 "charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses."  The article said she confessed "to having obtained a large quantity of goods by representing herself to be the daughter of Mrs. John Stitch [sic] of 117 East Ninety-fifth Street."

John Stich sold the 18-foot-wide residence in April 1903 to Hyman (who often angelized his name to Herman) Adelstein.  He was born in Russia (in an area that would later become part of Poland) on December 7, 1868 and came to America in 1887.  He was a partner with Herman Avrutine in an iron foundry.

Hyman and his wife, the former Rosa Solvey, had six children--the eldest, Michael, was 13 years old when the family moved into 117 East 95th Street and the youngest, Sidney, was three.  Also living with the family was Ida Ksofsky, a niece.  Ida's time here was relatively short.  On February 4, 1906, Hyman and Rosa announced her engagement to Ezekiel Yachnowitz.

The Adelsteins were supplanted by the Jacob Lunitz family as early as 1912.  Lunitz was president of the Laclun Realty Company.  Like Hyman Adelstein, he was born in the Russian Empire around 1865.  He arrived in the United States in 1878.  Jacob and his wife, the former Betsie Horwitz, had six surviving children.  Two others, Feige and Salie, had died in 1894 and 1900, respectively.  The family maintained a summer home in Tannersville, New York.

Jacob and Betsie announced daughter Pansy's engagement to Louis Propp on March 1, 1920.  The Lunitzes were already planning a move and on July 10, the Record & Guide reported that they had sold 117 East 95th Street to Ernest and Oscar Sondheim.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Brothers Ernest and Oscar Sondheim were partners in The Imperial Metal Manufacturing Corporation, the factory of which was located in Long Island City, and in the Perfumers & Jewelers Box Company on West 14th Street.

The bachelor brothers purchased 117 East 95th Street as a family home.  Living with them here were their widowed mother and their unmarried sisters.

Ernest Sondheim was the last of the family to occupy the house.  He died in 1954, 34 years after moving in, and his estate sold the house to George Axelrod.  He resold it eight years later, in August 1962, to designer Stephen Kyle and his wife, entertainer, lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter Betty Comden. 

The couple, who were married in 1942, had created their own names.  Stephen Kyle was born Siegfried Schutzman and Betty Comden was born in Brooklyn in 1917 as Basya Cohen.  They had two children, Susanna and Alan.  

Betty Comden, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Betty Comden formed a troupe, the Revuers, in 1938 that included Judy Holliday, Adolph Green, and Leonard Bernstein.  Comden and Adolph Green partnered to write musical plays.  Their first Broadway production was the 1944 musical On the Town.  They relocated to California and, working for MGM, wrote screenplays.  Among their output were The Barkleys of Broadway, Singin' in the Rain, and The Band Wagon.

Now, back in New York City, Betty and Stephen became close friends with Leonard Bernstein.  When his wife, Felicia Montealegre, died in 1978, Betty wrote a moving letter that ended,

You are so much, Lenny--so many qualities and gifts and inner voices not given to many human beings.  You will find your strength somehow in them--and in the beautiful elements added to them by the co-mingling of your life and Felicia's.

        Much love, always, from Steve and from me.  Betty

A year after that letter, Stephen Kyle died of pancreatitis.  

Betty Comden and Adolph Green received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.  She died in the New York Presbyterian Hospital on November 23, 2006 at the age of 89.

The following year, an apartment was installed in the basement level.  When the house was offered for sale in 2011, The New York Times described the main portion as having five bedrooms and three baths.  Outwardly, little has changed to the 134-year-old residence.

photographs by the author

The Eufrasia and Allen Tucker Mansion - 121 East 79th Street

 

Brutal enlarging and remodeling the upper floors has destroyed the original charm

Eufrasia Aguilar Leland Wesson and Allen Tucker were married on February 12, 1895.  The 25-year-old bride was reared in privilege, the daughter of the late Charles Howland Wesson and Martha Leland.  The groom, who was four years older than Eufrasia, earned his architectural degree from Columbia University in 1887 and worked as a draftsman at his father's firm, McIlvaine & Tucker.

In 1906, Eufrasia's mother and aunt, Emma Wesson and Eufrasia A. Leland, purchased two vintage houses at 123 and 125 East 79th Street as the site of their double-wide mansion.  Simultaneously, Eufrasia and Allen Tucker purchased the house next door and hired the firm of Robins & Oakman to make "extensive alterations," as worded by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide.  Their redesigning of the high-stooped brownstone would transform it into a modern residence.

On May 30, 1906, the New-York Tribune explained the changes.  "A rear extension is to be added, new plumbing installed and a new Colonial facade, with a mansard roof built."  The renovations would cost the Tuckers $10,000, or about $360,000 in 2026 terms.

Robins & Oakman removed the stoop and brownstone and created a neo-Georgian-style facade.  In many cases, when the stoop was removed from English basement homes, the front was pulled forward to the property line.  For the Tuckers, however, the areaway was preserved, giving them a small front yard.  

The architects' tripartite design was faced in Flemish bond red brick and trimmed in limestone at the base and midsection.  The fourth floor took the form of a mansard with two dormers.  The mansion's focal point was the pair of French doors under fanlights at the second floor, or piano nobile. 

The Tucker mansion harkened to Colonial times.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The "rear extension" mentioned by the New-York Tribune filled the rear yard.  It would hold Allen Tucker's skylight-lit studio.  By now, he had moved from architecture to fine art.  An impressionist, he was part of the group of painters known as the "Independents," which, according to the Smithsonian Institution, "wanted to shake up the conservative ideas of the National Academy of Design."  In 1911, four years after moving into 121 East 79th Street, Tucker co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, and in 1913 helped organize the famous Armory Show.

When America entered World War I, Tucker served with the American Ambulance Service in  France.  It appears that Eufrasia moved temporarily next door with her mother and aunt.  On December 9, 1917, The New York Times reported that she had leased 121 East 79th Street furnished at Arthur A. Fowler.  

Starting in 1921, after returning to New York after the war, Allen Tucker taught at the Art Students League.  Often deemed "the American Van Gogh," his paintings would hang in prestigious institutions like the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frye Art Museum.

Allen Tucker painted Landscape in his East 79th Street studio in 1919.  from the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art.

Allen and Eufrasia Tucker sold 121 East 79th Street to the Atram Realty Corporation in May 1930.  The firm purchased the property "as a light protector for the apartment building at 120 East Eightieth Street," explained The New York Times.  The new owners hired Cross & Cross to enlarge the mansion with another floor.  The architects deftly increased the height of the mansard without greatly upsetting the proportions nor the Colonial motif.

Cross & Cross's additional level was not displeasing.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On July 7, 1933, The New York Times reported that the Atram Realty Corporation had leased the mansion to Leighton Hammond Coleman, "of the law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed."  

Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Coleman had served as a "pursuit pilot" in World War I.  He earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1922.  Coleman and his wife, the former Jane Fraser, had five children, Leighton Jr., Jane, Helen, Sally, and Prudence.  The family's country home, East Farm, was at Stony Brook, Long Island.

After having leased the house for a decade, in 1943 Leighton H. Coleman purchased it.  His daughters were approaching their debutante years and before long the house would be a flurry of activity.

Debutante entertainments traditionally were held in the winter social season.  Twin sisters Jane and Helen, however, got an early start.  On June 28, 1946, The New York Sun reported that the Colemans "will honor their debutante daughters, the Misses Jane and Helen Coleman, at a dinner-dance tomorrow evening at East Farm."  The article noted that Jane had graduated that year from the Brearley School and that Helen was "an alumna of the Chapin School."

Helen Rulison Coleman went on to study at Bryn Mawr College and Barnard College.  (Her mother was  was a trustee of the latter institution.)  She was the first to marry.  Her wedding to William Maxwell Evarts Jr. was held in St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in St. James, Long Island on August 28, 1948.  It was a family affair, with Jane being the maid of honor and Sally and Prudence bridesmaids.  Leighton Jr. was among the ten ushers.

The following year, on June 25, 1949, Jane was married in the same church to William Draper Blair Jr.  Expectedly, Helen was her matron of honor and her younger sisters were bridesmaids.  The New York Times remarked that Jane "wore a gown of white satin with a rosepoint lace veil that had been worn by her mother and grandmother and last August by her sister."

No. 121 East 79th Street was sold in 1954.  The New York Times reported on April 9 that plans had been filed "for altering the five-story dwelling...into four apartments and a professional office."  The renovations resulted in a doctor's office on the first floor, a duplex apartment in the second and third, and one apartment each in the upper levels.  Apparently to augment the livable square-footage of the top two floors, the mansard was converted to a vertical wall with no cornice.

Then, in 1997, restauranteur Simon Oren purchased the property for $2 million (about $3.9 million today).  He initiated a renovation that returned the upper floors to a single family home, while keeping the ground floor doctor's office (accessed by a separate entrance).  He listed it for sale in 2016 for $19 million.

Although sadly disfigured, the Tucker mansion still recalls its aristocratic roots and place in American art history.

photographs by the author

The Mary Hodson Francklyn House - 118 East 95th Street

 

By the late 1880's, development on the Upper East Side had reached as far north as Goat Hill--presumably named because its steep slope made it unworkable for planting, but quite satisfactory for grazing goats.  It was also satisfactory with developers William J. and John P. C. Walsh, who nearly filled the southern blockfront of East 95th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in 1888.  

Designed in 1887 by Charles Abbott French & Co., the 12 rowhouses drew mostly from the rabidly popular Queen Anne style.  The architects gave each home its own personality--giving some fronts red brick and ruddy terra cotta, and others cream colored brick and sandstone.  

Among the former was 118 East 95th Street.  Its undressed brownstone basement supported three floors of red brick.  The three fully arched openings of the parlor floor wore brick-like terra cotta voussoirs, each with three keystones; the center of which were grotesque masks.  The tympana were filled with colorful stained-glass--the street address incorporated into the design of that above the doorway.

Vibrant stained-glass filled the parlor floor transoms.  The address was worked into the doorway tympanum.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A pressed metal oriel dominated the second floor.  C. Abbott French & Co. gave visual interest with bands of dog toothed patterned brickwork.  The multi-paned upper sashes of the third floor openings were typical of the Queen Anne style.  The center window was crowned with a terra cotta voussoir and elaborate foliate tympana with a mask.  Rather than a cornice, the architects completed the design with a curvilinear gable atop a stepped brick corbel table.

On December 21, 1889, the Record & Guide reported that William Methven Leslie had purchased three of the houses, including 118 East 95th Street.  The millionaire importer rented the house into the first years of the 20th century, describing it as a "three-story and basement private house; 11 rooms, two baths."  Renters paid $1,200 per year, or an affordable $3,200 per month in 2026 terms.

William and Marion Digby Leslie's only daughter, Mary Digby, was married to Dr. Halstead Pell Hodson in the drawing room of their mansion at 106 West 57th Street in November 1894.  Afterward, said The New York World, there was a large reception and a supper by Mazzetti."  (Louis F. Mazzetti was a favorite caterer of the upper class, and the sole caterer for the exclusive Seventh Regiment.)  Dr. Hodson died in 1904.  

Shortly after William M. Leslie's death in March 1910, Marion Leslie and Mary Leslie Hodson moved into 118 East 95th Street.  The widowed socialites appeared routinely in society pages.  Like other wealthy women, they involved themselves in philanthropic and charitable causes.  On January 25, 1916, for instance, the New York Herald reported that Mary had contributed $50 to the Aide Immediate, a charity that provided aid to "soldiers crippled in the war."  The following year, she donated money to provide a Christmas party at the State Hospital for the Care of Crippled and Deformed Children.

Mary was an athlete, of sorts; at least so far as well-mannered Edwardian women could be.  On June 29, 1913, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Halstead Pell Hodson, who is at Heaton Hall, Stockbridge, with her mother, Mrs. William Leslie, is playing the best golf of her sex in the hills."

Marion Leslie died in the East 95th Street house on June 8, 1920.  Somewhat surprisingly, six months later (only half-way through her daughter's expected mourning period), the drawing room that had been the scene of Marion's funeral saw the marriage of Mary Digby Leslie Hodson to Cyril Alfred Percy Francklyn.  Mary's aristocratic groom was 72 years old.

The couple now spent their time in the Manhattan house, in resorts like Stockbridge and Newport, and at Cyril's ancestral estate in Devon, England.  The couple was there for the Christmas holidays in 1922 when Cyril died on December 28.

Now twice widowed, Mary Digby Leslie Hodson Francklyn returned to 118 East 95th Street.

Mary had one sibling, William M. Leslie, Jr.  He and his wife, the former Maud Prendergast, had one daughter, Barbara Digby.  She and her first husband, Philip Van Rensselaer Schuyler, Jr. were divorced.  On October 1, 1936, the East Hampton Star reported on her marriage to Richard Hanford Jordan.  The article said, "The ceremony was followed by a small reception at the home of the bride's aunt, Mrs. Cyril Francklyn, at 118 East 95th street."

Shortly afterward, William and Maud moved into 118 East 95th Street with Mary.  Born on March 3, 1863, William was an artist and his work was annually exhibited in the Guild Hall Artists' shows.  He also exhibited his landscapes and seascapes at the Parrish Museum in Southampton and had a one-man show at Clinton Academy.  The couple's country home, which they acquired around 1901, was in Southampton.

Maud Leslie died on September 23, 1946 and William died in the Southampton Hospital on June 16, 1947.  Mary Leslie Hodson Francklyn died on February 12, 1950 at the age of 89.  She left a net estate equal to about $3.4 million today, almost all of which (including 118 East 95th Street) was bequeathed to Barbara Leslie Jordon, described by The County Review at the time as the "socially prominent East Hampton matron."

image via the NYC Dept of Records and Information Services.

Barbara sold 118 East 95th Street to Theodore S. and Anne Nelson Cutler Amussen.  Born in Salt Lake City in 1915, Theodore was an editor, starting out his career with Rinehart & Company.  When the couple moved in, he was vice president and director of Rinehart & Co., Inc., book publishers.

Anne Amussen suffered a fatal heart attack in the house on November 18, 1958 at the age of 41.  Two years later, Theodore sold 118 East 95th Street to Joseph L. Ennis & Co.  He moved to Washington D.C. where he became editor in chief for the National Gallery of Art.

Joseph L. Ennis & Co. had intentionally clouded the actual owner.  Artist Mark Rothko and his second wife, Mary Alice Beistel (known as Mell), quietly moved in.  Born in today's Latvia in 1903, Rothko's parents brought the family to America in 1913.  By the time the couple purchased 118 East 95th Street, he was recognized as one of the most influential and important abstract expressionist painters of the time.

Mark Rothko, from the collection of the National Gallery of Art

The year after purchasing the house, Rothko's first important retrospective was staged by the Museum of Modern Art.  The couple's second child was born that same year.  

The Rothkos' happiness here would be short-lived, however.  In 1964, the couple separated and Rothko moved into his East 69th Street studio.  Mell and the children remained at 118 East 95th Street surrounded by Rothko canvases.

On April 10, 1967, Norman Reid, director of the London Tate Gallery, told the press that Rothko "is considering donating about 20 of his pictures."  He explained, "Mr. Rothko expressed a desire to have a representative group of his works displayed in a public gallery," adding, "he wants his work to be shown in London."  The donation would come much earlier than anyone imagined.

On February 26, 1970, The New York Times reported, "Mark Rothko, a pioneer of abstract expressionism who was widely regarded as one of the greatest artists of his generation, was found dead yesterday, his wrists slashed, in his studio at 157 East 69th Street."  In responding to the 66-year-old artist's death, William S. Rubin, chief curator of painting and sculpture of the Museum of Modern Art, said, "The loss to modern art is incalculable."

Rotkho's two-page will left "five paintings of their choice" from those created for the Seagram Building in 1959 to the Tate Gallery.  It devised to Mary Alice, "the real estate owned by me at 118 East 95th Street, New York, together with all the contents thereof."

The nebulous wording of "all the contents thereof" would spark a long-lasting court battle.  Mary Alice Rothko died six months after her husband.  The children, Kate and Christopher, would face off with their father's foundation for years.

Rothko bequeathed his 800 paintings to The Rothko Foundation.  It now sued the Rothko siblings for any paintings that hung in the house.  Additionally, the executors had contracted with the Marlborough Gallery to sell 700 paintings.  The foundation moved to "cancel the contract" with the Marlborough.  The suit lasted for years.

The house was offered for sale in April 2021 for $7.5 million.  The exterior is greatly intact, although, unfortunately, the striking stained-glass of the parlor floor has been removed.  Most likely at the same time, the Queen Anne sashes of the upper floors were replaced with plate glass.

photographs by the author

The Max and Betty Greene Mansion - 53 East 91st Street

photograph by Jim Henderson

Andrew Carnegie, perhaps, surprised his peers when he broke ground in 1899 for a sumptuous palace surrounded by gardens on Fifth Avenue between 91st and 92nd Streets, at least 20 blocks above the northern fringe of the mansion district.  Anticipating the neighborhood's transformation from undeveloped plots and modest houses into one of the most exclusive residential districts in the city, Max and Betty Greene began buying up property.  On a single day, for instance, on May 2, 1903, the Record & Guide reported that Max had purchased the property at 53 East 91st Street, and Betty had bought two vintage houses across the street at 56 and 58 East 91st Street.

In 1907, the couple hired architect Edward I. Shire to alter No. 53 and the abutting house at 55 East 91st Street into a single structure.  Perhaps drawing inspiration from the Carnegie mansion one-and-a-half blocks away at 2 East 91st Street, Shire designed the Greenes' 32-foot-wide home in the neo-Georgian style.  

Completed in 1908, the 14-room mansion was faced in red brick (laid in a unique version of running bond) and trimmed in marble.  A sweeping stoop spilled from the doorway, which was flanked by leaded sidelights and crowned with an ornate fanlight.  The stepped lintels of the parlor floor, the layered keystones of the third, and the regal balustrade atop the cornice were all hallmarks of the style.  Less expected, however, was the picturesque oriel at the second floor, with its multi-paned sashes.

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Six years after moving in, Max and Betty Greene hired architect Herbert M. Baer to enlarge the house by adding a single-story extension to the rear.  They sold the mansion to George Oliver May and and his wife, the former Edith Mary Slocome, sometime before 1925.

Both George and Edith were born in England in 1875.  They were married in Exeter, England on New Years Day 1902.  That year George was made a partner in Jones, Caesar & Co. (later Price Waterhouse & Co.) and the couple moved to New York City.  George became a senior partner in Price Waterhouse in 1911.

During the first World War, George was an official within the United States Treasury Department and the War Trade Board.  When the family moved into 53 East 91st Street, he was still a senior partner at Price Waterhouse.  He and Edith had three children: Edith Claire, born in 1906; Oliver, born in 1908; and Mary Barbara, who arrived four years later.  The family's country home, Brimley, was in Southport, Connecticut.

George Oliver May, via the American Accounting Association

In addition to his pastime of studying history and linguistics, George collected old English silver.  Edith was an amateur horticulturist and the Connecticut estate gave her ample opportunity to indulge in her hobby.  The New York Times said that she was "a frequent exhibitor in local and national flower shows."

Edith Claire was introduced to society in the winter season of 1925-26.  Among the events was a luncheon her mother hosted at Pierre's for 53 of "this and last season's débutantes," according to The New York Times on December 5, 1925.  The surnames of the socially elite young women in the room included Van Rensselaer, Phipps, Belmont, Flagler, Fahnestock, Gallatin, and Whitney.

Edith Claire's engagement to Burton Wakeman Taylor in February 1928 was "of interest to a wide circle of friends abroad as well as here," as described by The New York Times.  The following year, on May 12, 1929, the newspaper reported that the "details have been completed" for the wedding.  The ceremony would be held in Trinity Church in Southport, Connecticut on June 1.  The article said that Mary Barbara would be maid of honor and the reception would be held "at Brimley, the country home of Mr. and Mrs. May in Southport."

Oliver May graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1930.  Mary Barbara's debut into society came in the winter social season of 1931-32.  

In February 1932, Edith May was hospitalized and she died there on February 15.  Her funeral was held in Trinity Church in Southport, where Edith Claire had been married three years earlier.

The eight-over-eight double-hung windows of the upper floors survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On October 3, 1944, The New York Times reported that George Oliver May had sold 53 East 91st Street to Phil Baker, "a stage and radio star."  Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1896, Baker began his career in vaudeville at the age of 19.  By the time he and his actress wife, Irmgard, purchased the East 91st Street mansion, he was a household name.  Baker was the host of the radio game show Take it or Leave It, had his own radio series The Armour Jester, and appeared in the musical The Gang's All Here with Carmen Miranda in 1943.

Phil Baker, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Baker was formerly married to silent movie actress Peggy Cartright, who had a leading role in the Our Gang series before talkies.  The couple, who had three children together, were divorced in 1941.

In March 1946, a journalist from The New York Times visited Phil Baker here.  In describing the mansion, he commented, "A Hollywood set pales into drab insignificance by comparison."  During the interview, Baker told him that his success in radio and his magnificent residence "should make me a very happy man, but I'm not."  He confessed, "I would like to be an actor...I love the radio very much, and being a quiz master is out of this world; you meet every shade of person.  But I miss the theater."

And so, it was not surprising that later that year, in September, Baker gave a one-year lease to the mansion to the Provisional Government of the Republic of France.  The New York Times reported, "The Ambassador's staff and members of his family expect to arrive in New York About Sept. 23 to take up residence there."

On February 14, 1948, Winthrop Rockefeller, son of financier John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, married actress Jievute "Bobo" Paulekiute.  Their son, Winthrop Paul, was born on September 17, 1948, and two years later the couple separated.  John A. Kirk, in his Winthrop Rockefeller, From New Yorker to Arkasawyer, 1912-1956, writes that Rockefeller leased 53 East 91st Street for Bobo and his son "from April 6 through to the end of September [1950]" for $7,000.  The figure would translate to $91,200 in 2026.  Kirk writes, "He also offered to pay for Win Paul's nurse, his medical expenses, and his bodyguard."

The following year, in March 1951, Phil Baker sold 53 East 91st Street to Oscar and Babette Block Serlin.  Baker and Serlin assuredly knew one another from the entertainment business.

Oscar Serlin was born in 1901 in Poland and arrived in the United States at the age of nine.  He began producing plays and his first Broadway production was the 1929 comedy Broken Dishes.   It was not only his Broadway debut, but that of his star, the fledgling actress Bette Davis.

Newcomer Bette Davis and Donald Meek on stage in Oscar Serlin's 1929 Broken Dishes.  Theatre Magazine, January 1930 (copyright expired)

Serlin's great success came with Life With Father, which opened in 1939 and became the longest running Broadway show of all time until The Phantom of the Opera.  (Life With Father still holds the title of the longest running non-musical play on Broadway.)  In 1932 Serlin signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and headed that studio's Eastern talent department for five years.  The New York Times would later say, "He was credited with sending Cary Grant, Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour to Hollywood, and had participated in the hunt for a Scarlett O'Hara for the film version of 'Gone with the Wind.'"  Oscar retired in 1951, the year he and Babette purchased 53 East 91st Street.  

Following what The New York Times called "a long illness," Oscar Serlin died in the East 91st Street house on February 27, 1971 at the age of 70.  

At the time, the Dalton School had occupied the mansion next door at 61 East 91st Street for seven years.  In 1978, the institution acquired 53 East 91st Street and combined the two buildings internally.  Two additional floors were added to the joined structures.   The school continues to occupy the property.

photograph by Jim Henderson