The 1907 66th Street Studio Building - 131-135 East 66th Street

 

photograph by Gryffindor

The first studio building in America--a structure designed especially as working spaces and residences of artists--was the 1858 Tenth Street Studios in Greenwich Village.  The concept gained traction at the turn of the century, when upscale buildings were erected with soaring studio spaces flooded with natural light from vast windows.  In 1905, a syndicate including artist Walter Russell laid plans for a sumptuous studio building at the northeast corner of 66th Street and Lexington Avenue.

Interestingly, the group, called the East 66th Street Studio Building, hired the architectural firm of Pollard & Steinam and B. Hustace Simonson to prepare the plans.  But at some point, Charles A. Platt took over the project.  And he was much more than a hired architect; he was an investor.  Upon the building's completion, an announcement in The New York Times on December 5, 1907, noted that the corporate name of the East 66th Street Studio Building had been changed to Nos. 131-135 East 66th Street.  It was signed by "Charles A. Platt, President."

from Monograph of the Work of Charles A. Platt, 1913 (copyright expired)

The 11-story, Renaissance Revival style structure was faced in limestone.  An urban palazzo, it featured two bold and elegant entrances with imposing broken pediments atop double-height Scamozzi columns.  Divided into four horizonal sections by bandcourses and intermediate cornices, the building is crowned by a dentiled and modillioned cornice that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has called, "one of the finest in the city."

from Monograph of the Work of Charles A. Platt, 1913 (copyright expired)

An advertisement called the 10- and 12-room suites, "houses within [an] apartment house."  The ad described the "smaller 4 and 7 room suites" as being "quite as desirable in their own way."  The building had both cooperative apartments and rentals.  Among the initial residents of 131 East 66th Street were its designer, Charles A. Platt, and his second wife, Eleanor Hardy Bunker.  The couple's summer home was in Cornish, New Hampshire.

The soaring studios with their nearly double-height windows were on the north side of the building, unseen from the street.  They attracted artists like Elizabeth Gowdy Baker, who held an exhibition of "portraits in aquarelle," as described by The New York Times on April 1, 1914, in her studio through April 4 that year.  Resident Henriette A. Clark exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts the following year.

Two views of Charles A. Platt's studio.  from Monograph of the Work of Charles A. Platt, 1913 (copyright expired)

The bachelor artist William Howard Hart was an early resident.  The 50-year-old landscape artist hosted a "soiree Francaise" in his studio on the night of January 27, 1913.  The Sun reported that Le Peril Jaune "was acted by Mme. Henri Goiran, wife of the French Consul in New York; Mlle. de Sombreuil, Reginald Francklyn and Rene Wildenstein."  Additionally, "Mlle. Regnier and Gerald Onativia gave Louis XV dances in costume, and afterward there was general dancing."

Platt was not the only architect in 131 East 66th Street.  William Emerson was here by 1913 when he and the recently widowed Frances Hillard White Moffat surprised society by marrying.  George Barclay Moffat, who was a Harvard classmate of Emerson, died on December 4, 1911.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on January 15, 1913, said that Frances "had been a widow only a little more than a year" and explained, "the marriage is the culmination of a friendship of more than ten years' standing."

William Emerson, from the Century Association Archives.

Pianist, conductor and composer Ernest Henry Schelling and his wife, Lucie Howe Draper, lived here at the time.  Born in New Jersey in 1876, Schelling was a child prodigy, making his debut at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia at the age of four.  In 1896, at the age of 20, he began studying with Ignace Paderewski.  The teacher-pupil relationship grew to a life-long friendship.

On April 29, 1915, The Sun reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Schelling gave a dinner and reception last evening at their home, 131 East Sixty-sixth street, for Ignace Paderewski, the pianist."  The guest list included not only figures from the musical world, but from Manhattan's social elite, including the Harry Harkness Flaglers, Mrs. Henry A. Alexander, and Alessandro Fabbri.

Artist and dealer Alice Creelman and her husband, journalist James Creelman, were also residents of 131 East 66th Street.  On the afternoon of December 14, 1916, Alice hosted a "private benefit entertainment" in her apartment at which Augusta C. Gaynor sang.  Her appearance was notable.  The previous day she had announced, according to The New York Times, that she, "is shortly to make her debut as a professional concert singer."  She was the widow of assassinated New York City Mayor William J. Gaynor, who had died three years earlier.

Interestingly, four years later Augusta Gaynor moved temporarily into the Creelman's 131 East 66th Street suite.  She announced the engagement of the youngest of her seven children, Ruth Merritt Gaynor, here on December 9, 1920.  

And the following month, on January 15, 1921, Brooklyn Life reported, "The marriage of Mrs. Helen Gaynor Bedford, daughter of Mrs. William J. Gaynor and the late Mayor Gaynor, and Mr. Whitney Kernochan, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Frederick Kernochan...took place Friday afternoon, January seventh, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Creelman."

The Platts' library featured herringbone floors, an antique mantel and a stenciled, beamed ceiling.  from Monograph of the Work of Charles A. Platt, 1913 (copyright expired)

In the meantime, on February 24, 1918, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Chandler P. Anderson have returned to 135 East Sixty-sixth street from a visit to the Spanish Ambassador and Mme. Riano in Washington, D.C."  Chandler Parsons Anderson was the first Counselor of the United States Department of State and his wife was the former Harriet S. Ward.  During World War I, he served as special counsel on international affairs within the War Industries Board.  The couple's summer home was in York Harbor, Maine. 

Chandler Parsons Anderson, from the collection of the Library of Congress

A prominent couple in 135 East 66th Street were historian Henry Osborn Taylor and his wife, the former Julia Isham.  Born in 1857, Taylor was an authority on ancient literature and culture.  He and Julia were married in 1905.  Their apartment included architectural pieces imported from Europe, including "a pair of old Italian doors of bronze and wood, and an old Italian stone mantelpiece," as later mentioned by The New York Times.

Henry Osborn Taylor, from the 1917 Harvard College Class of 1878 Secretary's Report (copyright expired)

When Julia's brother, artist and writer Samuel Isham, died in 1914, leaving an estate equal to more than $15.7 million in 2024, he bequeathed all his "paintings, family silver, plate and bric-a-brac to his sister," as reported by The Sun on June 21.  She also received "$250,000 outright."  That amount would translate to $7.86 million today.  Included in the artwork was a collection of Japanese prints that Julia donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In appreciation, she was made a Fellow in Perpetuity.

And when she inherited what a century earlier had been the Isham family's country estate at 212th Street and Broadway, she donated it to the city.  It became Isham Park.

Julia Isham Taylor died in the apartment on March 6, 1939 at the age of 74.  Henry Osborn Taylor survived her by two years, dying here on April 11, 1941 at the age of 84.  He left the bulk of his estate to Harvard College "to help increase the salaries of the professors, teachers and instructors."

On September 8, 1939, The New York Times reported that T. G. MacKenzie and his wife, Ethel Maude, had taken "a nine-room duplex apartment."  The couple's quiet life here would be a welcomed change.  Thomas George MacKenzie was a mining engineer.  Born in Nova Scotia in 1882, his career had taken him from Cape Breton, Canada to Mexico in 1912.  In 1924, he was taken hostage by Hipolito Villa, brother of Pancho Villa.  He was held for three months before escaping.  Maude had worked tirelessly in the meantime to try to achieve his release.

In 1924, Charles A. Platt was selected to design the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  It would be one of his last major commissions.  He died at the Cornish, New Hampshire estate on September 12, 1933 at the age of 71.  Eleanor Hardy Platt survived him by two decades, dying in Cornish on November 26, 1953 at the age of 84.

Hildreth Meière lived here at mid-century.  The most prominent muralist of her day, she was highly instrumental in introducing Art Deco to America.  She was responsible for, among other important works, the striking red mosaic walls at One Wall Street, the colorful figurative roundels of Radio City Music Hall, and The Pillars of Hercules, now in the Center of Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C.

A fascinating resident was Gretchen Green, whose 1936 autobiography The Whole World and Company chronicled her astounding career.  The daughter of an itinerant preacher, she studied at the College Settlement in Philadelphia and the New York School of Philanthropy.  Her varied positions included a police officer and welfare director in Boise, Idaho, and a worker at Ellis Island helping incoming immigrants.  She worked in Moracco, ran a women's clinic at Tagore University in India, and operated tea houses in Venice.

During World War II, Green ran a Camel Corps in Africa for General Archibald Wavell, and worked in Royal Air Force Clubs in Britain and in Bahrein.  In New York, she opened Miss Green's Canteen for servicemen and furnished the Lady Halifax Club at 587 Fifth Avenue, for British servicewomen stationed here.  Following the war, her work in helping Britain rebuild earned her membership into the Order of the British Empire.  She was, as well, a founder of the School for Seeing-Eye Dogs.  

At the beginning of the 21st century, Robert and Blaine Trump purchased and combined three units--a duplex and two one-bedroom apartments--into a 6,500-square-foot residence.  They hired designer Greg Jordan to plan the space.  In addition to the $8 million they spent on the apartments, by May 2006 they had spent an additional $1.5 million in design and construction costs.  Then, with the apartments gutted, they separated after two decades of marriage.  They put the "far-from-finished triplex," as described by William Neuman of The New York Times on May 14, 2006, on the market for $17 million.

image via compass.com

Henry Hope Reed of the Municipal Art Society testified during the Landmark Preservation Commission's hearings in 1970 regarding the designating of 131-135 East 66th Street as an individual landmark.  He described the structure as "one of the finest" of the New York apartment houses of "the American Renaissance."

The 1916 Astor Court - Broadway and 89th Street

photo by Jim Henderson

On June 20, 1914 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that architect Charles A. Platt had filed plans for a 12-story "store and apartments" building to fill the eastern blockfront between 89th and 90th Streets.   The million-dollar structure, more than 25 times that amount in today's money, would be the first large-scale project for the 23-year old multimillionaire, Vincent Astor.

Completed two years later, Platt's sedate brick neo-Renaissance structure sat on a two-story rusticated limestone base.  The understated facade could boast little ornamentation.  Ambitious stone balconies surmounted the entrances on 89th and 90th Streets, and two others clung to the fifth floor cornice on the Broadway elevation.   The crowning copper cornice made a statement.  Projecting fully eight feet from the facade, it was brilliantly painted in gold and red.

The proportions of the deeply-projecting cornice can be gauged by the window below.  Architecture, September 1916 (copyright expired)  

Most innovative was Platt's treatment of the courtyard within the U-shaped structure.  Rather than using it as a turn-around for automobiles picking up and dropping off residents, he created a restful refuge.  The New York Times noted it "is adorned with a fountain in the centre of a formal garden."

Despite the presence of the well-known Astor Court Building on West 34th Street, or perhaps because of it, Astor named the new structure the Astor Court.  Residents entered through two entrances, under glass marquees, at No. 205 West 89th Street and 210 West 90th.  Stores installed in the Broadway ground floor provided additional income.

The exquisite glass-and-iron marquees have been replaced with canvas awnings.  Architecture, September 1916 (copyright expired)  

On October 31, 1916 The American Architect complained of overall disappointing apartment design.  "So much speculative building and attendant poor architecture have characterized this type of building in New York."  But it pointed to the Astor Court as an example "of what can be accomplished," adding "The features of domesticity, privacy and refinement are everywhere apparent in the Astor Court Apartments."

The New York Times, on April 23, had called the building "noteworthy" and "decidedly the superior of many of the Park Avenue houses" in "genuine architectural dignity."

Astor's marketing included opening a model apartment in the newly-finished building.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on June 18, 1916 announced that it was "open for inspection."

A Model Apartment completely furnished by the Interior Decoration Division of Gimbel Brothers, as a suggestion to lovers of fine apartments everywhere.  Furniture, Hangings and Floor Coverings.  You are cordially invited to enjoy this exhibit.

There were eight apartments per floor, ranging from seven to nine rooms.   It would quickly become home to well-to-do residents--some them both celebrated and colorful.

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, December 2, 1916 (copyright expired)

On May 11, 1916, as the Astor Court was nearing completion, a cable from London reached The New York Times that announced the marriage of Winfield R. Sheehan and Kay Laurell.  Both were well-known in the entertainment field.

Sheehan, who had started out as a reporter for The Evening World and then as secretary to former Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo, was now a vice-president of Fox Film Corporation and one of its major stockholders.  Kay Laurell was a Broadway actress whom The New York Times pointed out "was considered one of the handsomest girls in Mr. Ziegfeld's last year's 'Follies,' when the revue was presented at the New Amsterdam."  Along with the news of the marriage, the article managed to remind readers that Kay had appeared on stage in an "exotic scene...wrapped in gauze and stage sunlight" and "at the end of one of the acts strapped to the muzzle of a cannon."

Kay Laurell -- from the collection of the Library of Congress

In fact, Kay Laurell, who started out as an artists' model as a teenager, had been discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld and became famous for her striking beauty and her willingness to disrobe.

Two months earlier, opera star Geraldine Farrar was married to Lou Tellegen, considered one of the handsomest actors on screen or stage.  On February 6 The New York Times explained "The prima donna and the actor first met in New York last Winter, when Miss Farrar was singing at the Metropolitan and Mr. Tellegen was appearing in the principal role of 'Taking Chances.'"  By now they had appeared in three silent films for the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Film Company.  She was his second wife.

Both sets of newlyweds moved into the Astor Court Apartments.  

Geraldine Farrar and Lou Tellegen posed for a domestic photograph in 1916, possibly in their Astor Court apartment.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Irene Taylor also lived in the Astor Court at the time.  The well-to-do widow had recently moved to New York from Minneapolis.  Although she was not famous, her name would soon become well-known to newspaper readers.

William Baer Ewing was president of the Ford Tractor Company, based in Minneapolis.  He was obligated to come to New York after he was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for mail fraud "in connection with the exploitation of the company's stock," as explained by The Evening World.  Some eyebrows were raised when he chose not to check into a hotel, but moved into Irene Taylor's apartment.

The unseemly arrangement did not escape the notice of Edward L. Kelly and Daniel Finn.  On August 13, 1917 they knocked on the apartment door.  When Ewing answered, they flashed a badge and identified themselves as Federal agents Hollahan and Doherty.

When Ewing asked them the purpose of the call, one replied "You know the Mann white slave law."  (The 1910 Mann Act made transporting females across state lines for the purposes of prostitution a felony.)   Ewing immediately realized he was the target of extortionists.

The men suggested they all walk to Riverside Drive where they sat on a bench.  Ewing later testified that, playing along,  "I asked them what it was worth to hush up the matter and they told me that as I was a pretty good sort of a little fellow they would not go hard with me and $5,000 would do."

The next morning Ewing was in office of Federal authorities, accompanied by his attorney.  They provided him with marked bills to take to his appointment the following afternoon.  When the payment was made, undercover detectives moved in and arrested the crooks.

Nevertheless, the embarrassing fact that Irene Taylor had a man living with her was now well publicized.  The Evening World noted that at the trial Kelley was asked "how he knew that Ewing was living with a woman not his wife."

In the meantime, things were not going well in the Sheehan apartment.  On July 3, 1917 Kay went to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.   On the 16th Billboard magazine explained she "is recovering from a nervous breakdown."  The article added "Mrs. Sheehan retired from the stage when she became the wife of Winnie Sheehan.  It is said as soon as her health is restored she will return to the footlights in a musical production."

But there was more to the story.  The following day the New-York Tribune reported she had sued for separation.  "The actress alleges cruelty," said the article, adding "Shortly after the marriage, she says, Sheehan commenced a course of unkind, harsh and tyrannical conduct toward her."

Although the couple never divorced, they never reconciled.  Laurell returned to the stage and to her scandalously revealing costumes.  She appeared in Zeigfeld's patriotic pageant The Spirit of the Allies in 1918.  H. L. Mencken described her as being gifted "with all the arts of the really first-rate harlot" in his 1918 In Defense of Women.  

Still married to Sheehan, she died in childbirth in 1927.  The father was the son of Yukon lumberjack and secret agent Klondike Joe Boyle.

Winfield Sheehan left New York when the motion picture industry moved to Hollywood.  He won an Academy Award as Fox studio head for Cavalcade and was nominated three more times.

Another of the original tenants related to the theater were William Frederick Peters and his wife.   The composer wrote scores for plays and then films.   When silent movies were screened they were accompanied by musical scores.  Among those written by Peters were scores for Way Down East, Orphans of the Storm and Little Old New York.

His wife left the theatrical side of things to him, focusing instead on entertaining.  On April 26, 1918, for instance, The Sun announced "Mrs. William F. Peters of 205 West Eighty-ninth street, will entertain Saturday afternoon, May 4, in honor of Miss Priscilla Bigelow of Boston."

Sometime before this Geraldine Farrar and Lou Tellegen moved to No. 20 East 74th Street and turned their Astor Court apartment over to Geraldine's parents.  Her father, Sidney Douglas Farrar, had been a sort of celebrity in his own right.  A professional baseball infielder, he played from 1883 through 1890.

Sidney D. Farrar in his playing days, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Henrietta Barnes Farrar invited a dozen men and women, four reporters and two publishers to her drawing room on May 1, 1920.  The guest of honor was Mary McEvilly, who claimed to be the spiritual conduit of 15th century Hindu spirit Meslom.

According to The New York Herald, "It was the largest gathering, both Mrs. Farrar and Miss McEvilly explained, that Meslom ever had been called upon to greet at one time through her pencil point, but the medium and the hostess expressed assurance of a satisfactory sitting."

Participation from the apprehensive participants was tepid "until a question on prohibition was injected into the ether.  That broke the ice and queries flowed freely thereafter."  Meslom correctly predicted that the "'drys' will lose."

Reporters would haunt the 90th Street entrance of the Astor Court the following year in August in hopes of catching Geraldine Farrar coming or going from her parents' apartment.   The diva had locked Lou Tellegen out of the 74th Street townhouse, not even allowing him to retrieve his clothing.

Tellegen had just returned to New York from a "shack" he had rented in Long Beach, California.  Geraldine told her friends "he was there in order to have the quietude necessary to learn the long role in his new play."  (That play, L'Homme a la Rose, was being produced by Archibald Selwyn, who perhaps not coincidentally lived in the Astor Court.)  Perhaps Geraldine discovered that her husband's female secretary was also there.

On August 7, 1921 The New York Herald surmised "Whatever has come about to disturb the serenity of the married life of Lou Tellegen and Geraldine Farrar, it is of recent development."  The journalist suggested it could be the stark differences in the current successes of their careers.  While Geraldine Farrar continue to be in high demand on the operatic stage, she was equally popular in films.  Between 1915 and 1920 she had made more than a dozen motion pictures including Cecil B. De Mille's 1915 Carmen.  Tellegen, on the other hand, had hit his professional nadir.

"It long has been the subject of comment in theatrical circles that Miss Farrar so patiently continued her interest in Tellegen's enterprises.  Not a single one of them has met with success in New York.  He was last seen in a play by Augustus Thomas called 'The Blue Devil,' which failed so completely that it was never seen in this city."

Attempts to find her at the Astor Court were unsuccessful.  On August 7 The New York Herald reported "At 210 West Ninetieth street, the apartment house in which Miss Farrar provides a home for her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Farrar, it was [said] 'She comes here sometimes, but not to-day.'"

In retaliation Tellegen filed for separation; but his attorneys had a challenging task in serving papers on Geraldine.  Five paid witnesses loitered about the northwest corner of 74th Street and Central Park West, where they could see the Tellegen house.  On the evening of August 4, after they reported that she left in a car with her parents and two other women, a lawyer set an ambush.

When the automobile returned at around 11:20 p.m., the witnesses rushed up, pretending to be fans.  As Geraldine stepped out, one said "Is this Miss Farrar?"  Suspecting nothing more than a request for an autograph, she answered "Yes, I am Miss Farrar," at which point the woman said "I have a letter for you."  The attorney quickly thrust the envelope at Geraldine.

The New York Herald reported that she "did not take it, but quickly jumped out of the car and hurried into her home, calling out to the supposed admirer as she did so: 'That was very nice of you.'"  The envelope had fallen to the floorboard of the automobile.  The process server picked it up and handed it to Henrietta Farrar.  Since it had touched Geraldine, it was deemed served.  

Tellegen's complaint, it turned out, was that Geraldine "was unwilling to rear a family, as she deemed it incompatible with her career as an artist," according to The New York Herald on August 9.  In fact Tellegen had carried on several affairs during the marriage.  

The irate star agreed to relinquish her husband's clothing; but she refused to allow him back into their home to retrieve them as he requested.  Neither would she send them to his hotel.  Instead she sent them to the Manhattan Storage Warehouse where, she said, "he is at liberty to call for them."

Her parents continued to be in the scopes of the press.  The New York Herald even tried to find her at the Farrar summer home at Chateaugay Lake in the Adirondacks.  

Tellegen's life (including two more marriages, to actresses Nina Romano and Eve Casanova) following his 1923 divorce from Geraldine would be tragic.  His career had relied greatly on his good looks; but on Christmas Day 1929 he fell asleep while smoking.  His face was seriously burned.

Following extensive reconstructive surgery in 1931, he became increasingly despondent.  On October 29, 1934 while a guest in a Hollywood mansion, he locked himself in a bathroom, then committed suicide by stabbing himself seven times with a pair of scissors.  Reportedly his body was surrounded by newspaper clippings of his former stellar career.

When Geraldine Farrar was notified of his death, she famously replied "Why should that interest me?"

In the meantime, Archibald Selwyn who had attempted to help Tellegen in 1921 lived on with his wife in the Astor Court.  Like Winfield Sheehan, he had gotten in on the ground floor of a major film company.  He and his brother Edgar, had joined Samuel Goldfish (who was later professionally known as Samuel Goldwyn) in forming Goldwyn Pictures Corporation.

Selwyn divided his time among writing screen plays, managing New York theaters and producing plays.  He and Edgar, as Selwyn & Company, erected three New York theaters, the Apollo, the Selweyn and the Times Square.  They produced the first Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Jesse Lynch Williams's Why Marry? in 1917.

When his sister, actress Rae Selwyn was married to F. Maitland Goldsmith on March 28, 1922, the celebrity-filled reception was held in the Astor Court apartment.

In 1924 the Selwyn brothers parted ways and Archibald (known popularly as "Arch") continued producing plays like Noel Coward's 1925 Easy Virtue and his 1928 This Year of Grace.

Of course not all the residents of the Astor Court were in the theatrical field.  Ernesto G. Ros was one of the owners of the Santa Fe sugar central--a massive sugar processing firm--in Santo Domingo.  When his daughter Flora became engaged to William H. Davis in May 1922, the New-York Tribune described it as being "of interest" to society.  The wedding was performed on October 26 in the fashionable St. Thomas's Church on Fifth Avenue, and the reception held at Sherry's.

Less uplifting press surrounded Clarence G. Hellman earlier that year.  The 47-year old was the head of Hellman, Straus & Co., lace manufacturers and importers.  But the firm was in deep financial trouble and on February 10 an application for receivership was made in the United States District Court.  The papers showed liabilities amounting to $950,000--a staggering figure approaching $14 million today.  The pressures were too much for Hellman.

That night as his partner, Milton Straus, prepared to go home he stopped by Hellman's office to say good-night.  He found the door locked and there were no reply from inside.

Straus and a salesman, Herman Simon, stood on chairs to look into the transom.  Hellman, who was at his desk slumped forward, did not respond to their shouts.  When a policeman was called and the door broken in, it was discovered that Hellman had shot himself in the head with a pistol.

The Astor Court, unlike some hulking apartment houses from the beginning of the century, did not decline.  It continued to house well-heeled residents like August W. Kelley, retired vice president and trustee of the Union Trust Company.  He died in his apartment on December 4, 1930.   The well-known urological surgeon Dr. Emanuel Donheiserf and his wife, Sally, lived here in the 1960's; as did actor-director Stanley Prager and his wife, television and screen actress Georgann Johnson.

Stanley Prager original source unknown

Prager had been a stage and film actor before going into directing.  He told an interviewer in 1969 that he played "all the parts that Phil Silvers wouldn't play."  He said that directing television commercials gave him the financial independence to do projects he liked.   Not wanting to be tied down to a single activity, he sometimes gave up directing highly successful television shows.  He directed "Car 54, Where Are You" for just one season, and "The Patty Duke Show" for two.

On May 26, 1985 Michael DeCourcy Hinds, writing in The New York Times, called the Astor Court "one of the best examples of the dozens of 13-story buildings erected along Broadway" at the time of its construction.  He noted "The building is now being converted into cooperatives and Stephen B. Jacobs, a Manhattan architect, has designed 10 new penthouse apartments on the roof."  The renovations were completed later that year.

The lobby as it appeared in 1916 Architecture, September 1916 (copyright expired)  

Is little changed today.  photo via streeteasy.com

Architecturally, little has outwardly changed to Vincent Astor's and Charles A. Platt's bold residential project.  And although the protruding copper cornice no longer wears its exotic red and gold paint, it remains a showstopper.

The Often-Remodeled Mansion With an Impressive Past --11 East 61st Street

Susan Sullivan and her husband, John, made a good team in the 1870s.  John Sullivan was a well-known builder and his wife operated as a real estate developer.  It was Susan, apparently, who was the wheeler and dealer in the projects.

In 1876 Susan completed an upscale brownstone-fronted house at No. 11 East 61st Street, just off Central Park.  The Sullivans' investment reflected the increasingly high-end tone of the neighborhood, just north of Millionaire's Row.  Designed by the prolific John G. Prague, the house cost $25,000 to build.  Coupled with the $26,000 price for the 25-foot wide lot, the total outlay would be equal to nearly $1.2 million today.

No records or photographs survive to hint at the original appearance of the four-story structure.  Most likely it was in the Italianate style, with a high brownstone stoop.  Wealthy merchant William F. King would change that as the turn of the century approached.

King purchased the house in 1883.  He was associated with Calhoun, Robbins & Co., and was the founder and first president of the New York Merchants' Association.  King was later described by J. Hampton Dougherty as "A genial, affable, straight-forward, manly, energetic nature, a good-humored vital personality, yet with a touch of the feminine that is explained by his possession of that rare masculine endowment, the faculty of intuition."

William F. King, photo from "In Memory of William F. King" 1909, (copyright expired

By the early 1890s the high-stooped brownstone houses of a generation earlier were decidedly out of fashion.  As millionaires abandoned Fifth Avenue below 59th Street, forced northward by the advance of hotels, office buildings and stores, they razed or completed remodeled the vintage houses into modern residences.

Around 1895 King and his wife hired mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert to completely redesign No. 11 East 61st Street.  The stoop was removed and a three-story bowed bay added.   The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide deemed the changes "elegant."  Oddly enough, the Kings almost immediately sold their remodeled home.

On November 12, 1895 Pauline Whitney, the daughter of former Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney, married Almeric Hugh Paget, grandson of the first Marquis of Anglesey and son of Lord Alfred Paget.  The wedding took place in St. Thomas Church.  The guests included not only the cream of New York society, including the Vanderbilts, Rhinelanders, and Sloanes; but the Mayor and the President-elect, Grover Cleveland and his wife.

Fifth Avenue was overwhelmed with gawkers.  The Times reported “The crowd extended fully a block up and down the street, and lined along the curb as if some great procession were soon to pass by.  Most of the women appeared to be of the class that loves to read the so-called society papers.”

Less than two months later William F. King sold No. 11 to Paget for "about $150,000," or just under $4.5 million in today's dollars.  The social standing of the newlyweds was evidenced when even the Chicago Tribune mentioned the purchase on January 2, 1897.   In reporting the sale the Record & Guide noted "The house has long been considered one of the finest of its size in New York."

The Pagets were not totally content with the newly-done renovations.  On February 5 architects McKim, Mead & White filed plans for further alterations.  They included the raising of the roof one-half story and adding a "new laundry under extension" to the rear.  The extension allowed for increasing the size of the dining room.  Typical of Stanford White's modus operandi, mantels and other architectural elements were imported from Europe.

Apparently also included in the $10,000 worth of changes was the columned portico.   Although the plans do not specifically mention that detail, McKim, Mead & White often documented their work in photographs, and one such photo depicts the classical portico.

McKim, Mead & White documented its work in this photo. Both flanking houses retain their 1870s flavor.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New YorkPaul

Construction was completed and the house ready to receive guests by the end of the year.  On December 12, 1897 the New-York Tribune reported "Mrs. Almeric Hugh Paget gave her first formal reception since her marriage two years ago in her new home, No. 11 East Sixty-first-st., on Tuesday afternoon last."

Crowds jammed the streets around the Whitney mansion on the day of the wedding.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Pauline wasted no time in catching up on her entertaining.  Three days later she held a dinner party, the guest list of which reading like a Who's Who of Manhattan society--the Henry T. Sloanes, the M. Orme Wilsons, the Edmund L. Baylies, and on and on.

Pauline's brother, Payne Whitney, was attending Yale University at the time.  A few weeks later she held a dinner dance for him, and invited some of the most eligible unmarried women in New York.  Society watchers across the country took notice.  The Saint Paul Globe reported on the affair the following morning, January 9, 1898.

Socialites were expected to lavish their guests with expensive "favors" and since Payne was a member of Yale's varsity rowing crew, Pauline's gifts followed that theme.  The article mentioned "Among other favors given out were satin opera glass bags and gold lorgnettes for the young women.  For the men there were four-leaved clover charms, monocles, tiny crossed oar pins on boutonnieres, and oars about five feet long instead of wands."

The house in 1922.  To the right is the mansion of John T. Pratt, completed in 1915.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Just before Payne Whitney married Helen Hay on February 6, 1902, the Pagets moved permanently to London.   When Payne and his bride returned from their honeymoon in August, the Washington DC Evening Star reported that they "have leased the Almeric Hugh Paget house, 11 East 61st street, New York city, and will take possession within a month or so."

The need to rent his sister's home was understandable.  One of the couple's wedding gifts was a marble and granite mansion at No. 972 Fifth Avenue, designed by Stanford White.  It would not be completed until 1906.

No. 11 was next purchased by John Teele Pratt, son of oil tycoon and partner of John D. Rockefeller, Charles Pratt.  The established tradition of remodeling the house continued. 

In 1910 he and his wife, the former Ruth Baker, had commissioned architect Charles A. Platt to design their neo-Georgian summer home, The Manor, on their 55-acre estate in Glen Cove, Long Island.

They brought him back in 1912 to remodel the interiors of No. 11 East 62nd Street.  Charles Platt's plans, filed in March that year, included new windows and the rearranging of interior walls.

John T. Pratt in 1919.  Ruth Pratt would go on to become the first female member of Congress elected from New York.  photograph from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Perhaps because of their large family--the Pratts had six children--they did not stay at No. 11 for long.  In May 1914 John purchased the two 25-foot wide houses next door--Nos. 7 and 9 East 61st Street--and once again hired Charles A. Platt.  He was instructed to replace them with what the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide assumed would be "a high-class residence."

Construction on their $200,000 mansion (in the neighborhood of $4.87 million today) was completed by the end of 1915.  The Pratts leased No. 11 to the wealthy widow, Mary L. Flagler.  Despite her marriage to Judge Robert W. Bingham on November 16, 1916, she renewed her lease the following year.


On March 17, 1917 the Record & Guide reported on rumors that Pratt had sold No. 11.  "The holding price is about $250,000," said the article.  "It is understood that the buyer will occupy the residence."

Before long the rumors were confirmed.  Thomas Suffern Tailer was known popularly as "Tommy" and professionally as T. Suffern Tailor.  His divorce from Maude Lorrilard, the daughter of immensely wealthy Pierre Lorrilard, in 1902 had caused social vibrations across the country.  They had one child, Lorrilard Suffern Tailer.

The New York Times described Tailer as "a bit original in his ideas, dresses oddly, but denier cri; is very tall, smooth-faced, and wears glasses.  He is a man of unusual reading, and is also a lover of all kinds of out-of-door sports."

By the time Tailer purchased the 61st Street house he was remarried to the former Harriet Stewart and they had two children, Thomas Jr. and Betty.  Their former home had been squarely within the old mansion district at No. 21 West 51st Street.

Unlike their predecessors at No. 11, the Tailers did not renovate.  But like the others, their movements were closely followed by society columns nationwide.  On January 25, 1919 the Chicago Tribune noted that they would be giving a dinner party that night.

Lorillard Tailer was a young man by now, and in December that year the Tailers hosted a dinner dance in the house for him.  Many of Manhattan's wealthiest debutantes, possible romantic matches, were invited.  Among the 60 or so guests, according to the New-York Tribune, "were Miss Grace Vanderbilt, Miss Cornelia Vanderbilt, Miss Louise Vanderbilt Schieffelin, Miss Emily Sloane Hammond, Miss Renee Carhart, Miss Betty Jackson, Miss Constance Jennings, Miss Helen Moran, [and] Miss Mary Strange."

Four months later it was Lorillard who hosted a dinner in the house.  His close friend, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., would be marrying Rachel Littleton on April 29, 1920.  Lorillard was asked to be an usher.   On April 10 he gave a dinner and dance for the couple and the bridal party.  Not unexpectedly, the young guests represented Manhattan's most socially elite families.

Exactly one week later Harriet gave an important dinner.  Close friend Helen Keeney, who lived in San Francisco, was to marry Dr. George Bolling Lee on April 21, 1920.  Harriett's dinner was the high-society version of a bachelorette party, with only female guests.

The Tailers' involvement in the event went further.  On April 22 The Sun reported that the wedding took place "in the drawing room of Mr. and Mrs. T. Suffern Tailer's house...As Mrs. Kenney has no home in New York Mr. and Mrs. Tailer, close friends of her and her daughter, offered theirs."

It was a significant affair.  Dr. Lee was the great great grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis, wife of George Washington.  Within the old gold locket worn by the bride was a piece of lace from Martha Washington's wedding dress.  Serving as the groom's best man was his brother, Colonel Robert E. Lee of Virginia.

Harriet holds her hat as T. Suffern Tailer takes to the wheel of his runabout.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

The next marriage-related entertainment in the Tailer mansion was the "bachelor dance" given by Lorillard on April 1, 1921 five days before his wedding to Catherine Harding in St. Bartholomew's Church.   His ushers, including Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., Robert R. Livingston and A. J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., joined other wealthy young men in the Tailer dining room.

The The New York Herald noted "During the dinner a band of colored musicians played.  Mr. Tailer presented to the men of his bridal party silver cigarette boxes, the covers of which were engraved with a polo scene."

The following year, on March 12, 1922, The New York Herald reported on the rumor that T. Suffern Tailor intended to sell "his beautiful residence at 11 East Sixty-first street to Herman Goldman, the lawyer."  The rumor was only partly correct.  On April 5 the newspaper cleared up the mystery.  "Mr. Edward Barber, son of Mr. James Barber of the Barber Steamship company, also of Englewood, N. J., has bought the house of Mr. T. Suffern Tailer."

In reporting the sale, the Record & Guide got the history of the home inexcusably confused.  "The house, which was designed by the late Stanford White, was built by the Marquis of Queensberry."  The article made note of the high-toned character of the block.  "The new owner of the Tailer house will have as his neighbors, besides Mr. Pratt, Pembroke Jones, Moses Taylor Pyne, Charles Sabin and Frederick Watruss."

The Barbers' summer home was in Easthampton.  When they returned for the winter season that fall, they were forced to take rooms in the Ambassador Hotel.  They, too, had initiated changes in the 62nd Street house.  The New York Herald they would remain in the hotel "while improvements are being made at their house, which was the former home of Mr. and Mrs. T. Suffern Tailer."'

How far-reaching those renovations were is unclear.  But the Barbers sold the house within months to Elbridge Stratton, who hired the architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich to the most substantial alteration since C. P. H. Gilbert's massive re-do three decades earlier.

The front was removed and replaced by a neo-Federal facade.  The red brick was laid in Flemish bond, imitating the house's early 19th century prototypes.  The entrance was centered within a stone enframement of engaged Doric columns upholding an entablature decorated with carved scallop shells.  The splayed lintels of the upper windows were discretely executed in brick rather than the more expected stone; and the fifth floor sat back from a balustraded brick cornice.

The Strattons, too, did not stay long in the house.  By 1926 the family of Henry Cooke Cushing, III was living here.  Cushing was married to Cathleen Vanderbilt, the daughter of playboy millionaire Reginald Vanderbilt and his wife, the former Cathleen Neilson.  The Cushings had married in 1923 and had one son, Harry Cooke Cushing, IV.

The connection of the house to the Whitney family in was reestablished in 1927 when it was purchased by Charles Shipman Payson.   His wife, Joan, was daughter of Payne Whitney.   She now lived in the same house her newlywed parents had leased in 1902.

Despite Charles's highly-regarded legal career and Joan's well-known art collection, it was baseball for which the couple would be best remembered.  Ardent fans, the Paysons were outraged when the New York Giants moved to San Francisco in 1957.  Joan sold her stock in the club and set out to establish a new New York team.  She was co-founder of the New York Mets and the first American woman to own a major-league team without inheriting it.  Following her death in 1975, Charles inherited the team.

But by then the Paysons had been gone from East 61st Street for years.  They leased the house following World War II to the Soviet Government as an annex to its Consulate next door in the former Pratt mansion.   Soviets were forced by the U.S. Government to close its Consulate in 1948.  The house was sold to the 29 Club, a professional and social club of businessmen.

The club disbanded in 1964 and the former mansion was purchased by Joseph I. Lubin, a wealthy accountant and real estate investor.  Lubin purchased the house as a gift to Syracuse University.  Originally called the Syracuse University House, it was renamed the Lubin House in 1965.

The following year the university purchased the former Henry Batterman mansion at No. 15.  A subsequent alteration of the houses by architect Richard Hayden and his firm Swanke, Hayden & Connell, resulted in an internally-joined facility.  Floors were removed from No. 15 and rebuilt on a matching level with those of No. 11.

Another renovation in 2001 focused on the infrastructure of No. 11 and the restoration of its surviving details.   Few homes in Manhattan can claim as many significant alterations, remodeling and personalities as the remarkable No. 11 East 61st Street.

photographs by the author

The Lost John T. Pratt Mansion - 7-9 East 61st Street

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

John Teele Pratt was born on Christmas Day, 1873, to Charles Pratt and the former Mary Helen Richardson.  Charles owned a kerosene refinery, the Astral Oil Works, in Brooklyn.  The year after John was born, Charles agreed to join John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company.  It was a good move.

The Pratt family were all millionaires by the turn of the century.  John graduated from Harvard Law School in 1900, joining the prestigious firm of Carter & Ledyard on Wall Street.  He and his wife, Ruth Sears Baker, moved into a three-story brownstone rowhouse at No. 11 East 61st Street.

While the neighborhood was exclusive, the 1872 houses had become decidedly out of fashion.  In April 1907 Pratt hired one of America's premier architects, C. P. H. Gilbert, to update No. 11.  His plans called for making "extensive exterior and interior improvements."

Three years later the Pratts hired another architect, Charles A. Platt, to design their summer residence, Manor House, in Glen Cove, Long Island.  The Georgian-style mansion sat on 55 acres and was deemed by Country Life Magazine among the 12 "best country houses in America."

Manor House --- The Brickbuilder, 1912 (copyright expired)

The Pratts were no doubt pleased with the results.  In May 1914 John purchased the two 25-foot wide houses next door--Nos. 7 and 9 East 61st Street--and commissioned Charles A. Platt to replace them with what the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide assumed would be "a high-class residence."

The Record & Guide was correct.   Platt's plans, filed in March 1915, called for a brick and Indiana limestone residence costing $150,000.  By the time construction was nearing completion in December that same year, the cost had risen to $200,000--in the neighborhood of $4.87 million today.

Construction on the new house (left) was nearing completion on December 18, 1915.  C.P.H. Gilbert's renovations to No. 11 (the darker house next door) are visible.  Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide (copyright expired)

The Pratts would have six children.  The family moved into their new house and John leased No. 11 to the wealthy widow, Mary L. Flagler.  Despite her marriage to Judge Robert W. Bingham on November 16, 1916, she renewed her lease the following year.

John Teele Pratt in 1919.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Ruth Baker Pratt was no insipid society hostess.  A graduate of Wellesley College, she was actively involved in political and social issues.  Affairs in the 61st Street mansion most often centered around a cause.

The second floor stair hall (above) and the dining room were furnished with American antiques.  Architecture, June 1917 (copyright expired)

On May 2, 1917, for instance, she opened the house for a sale for the Department of Public Charities. The Sun noted "The articles to be on sale have been made by neurological and aged patients on Blackwell's Island, Mr. Pratt being the chairman of that department.  Hand made lace, tennis nets and attractive needle work will be offered for sale, and the Junior League will show work made under their supervision in the children's wards."

Tragedy struck the Pratt home the following spring.  On May 23, 1918 one-year old Ruth died of pneumonia.  The emotional devastation was clear in the newspapers' noting "funeral services private."

Later, while entertainments for the benefit of charities continued, such "the second of the series of readings by well-known authors for the benefit of the Goodhue Home for Convalescent Children" here on March 29, 1921; Ruth's activities turned more and more towards politics.

In 1922 the block was lined with elegant mansions.  The Pratt's former home, No. 11, is in the center.  Ruth has the second floor balcony of No. 9 decorated with potted shrubs.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

On March 7, 1919, for instance, the governor of the Federal Reserve Bank, Benjamin Strong, spoke to a group of women here "on the coming Victory Loan;" and on May 15, 1922 Ruth hosted the meeting of  the National Consumers' League "to discuss blanket bills of the National Women's party."

Politics and social issues were set aside in December 1922 when John, Jr. and Virginia returned home from college and school for the holidays.  On December 29 The New York Herald reported "But not all the dances of last night were for debutantes."  Ruth had thrown a society dance for young people in the 61st Street mansion.

Ruth with 12-year old Edwin and 13-year old Estelle outside Manor House in 1925.  photo via Getty Images.

If anyone was surprised that a woman might be nominated for political office in 1925, it was not mentioned in the press.  On May 12 The New York Times reported "A movement has been started among Republicans in the Fifteenth Assembly District to nominate Mrs. John T. Pratt for Alderman."  One politician, Frank J. Coleman, Jr. told reporters "As soon as the suggestion was made to me that Mrs. Pratt be nominated for Alderman this Fall, I thought well of it...Everywhere there was instant and affirmative response."

Sure enough, Ruth was elected to the office, becoming the first woman to so serve.   Only a month before the election, John Teele Pratt, Jr. was married to Mary Christy Tiffany, the daughter of George S. Tiffany. 

The interiors featured exquisite Georgian-style elements.  Architecture, June 1917 (copyright expired)

Although her name appeared in newspapers more often than her husband's, she did not overshadow him.  By now he was a director in the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, among others, and a trustee in the Pratt Institute which his father had founded.  He was also a partner in the Stock Exchange firm of Grayson M. P. Murphy & Co. and a director in several banks.

The mansion was once again the scene of a social affair following Virginia's wedding to Robert H. Thayer in a fashionable St. Bartholomew's Church ceremony on December 7, 1926.  The reception was held in the 61st Street house.

Some millionaires remained in the city while their families summered in resorts or country estates, visiting on weekends.   But John commuted from Glen Cove to the his office in the Standard Oil Building at No. 26 Broadway every day on his yacht, the Tuna.  On the morning of June 17, 1927, he dropped into the office of his brother, Herbert, on the 24th floor, then went up to his own office a floor above.

Just after 10:00, while he was speaking with his partner Frederic W. Olmstead, he felt dizzy.  As Olmstead called for the medical staff in the building, Pratt lost consciousness.  By the time doctors arrived, he had succumbed to a heart attack.

His estate was estimated at around $10 million, or more than $135 million today.  Each of the children, only two of which were over 21, received trust funds of about $52,000 annually; a comfortable income of $710,000 in today's dollars.

Because the family was still in mourning in February 1928, Sally's marriage to James Jackson, Jr. was held in the 61st Street mansion and, according to The New York Times, "will be kept small, only relatives and a few intimate friends being asked to the ceremony."  The bridal party and ushers, nevertheless, compiled a Who's Who of New York society with names like Belmont, Iselin, Whitney, Biddle, and Cushing.

In the meantime, Ruth's political career continued as she was re-elected as Alderman in 1927, serving until March 1, 1929.  She was a member of the Republican National Committee from 1929 through 1943; a delegate to the Republic National Convention four times and the State Convention seven.  In 1929 she was elected to Congress--the first woman from New York so honored.

By the time Phyllis married Paul H. Nitze in the family home on November 28, 1932, the neighborhood was seeing change. The mansions directly across the street had been razed for the new Pierre Hotel as commerce inched uncomfortably close to the 61st Street block.

In 1934 Ruth leased No. 7-9 East 61st Street to the Soviet Government.  On April 21 400 guests, including Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and his wife, were invited to the official opening of the Soviet Consulate.

Seven months later, on November 7, Consul General Leonid N. Tolokonski and his wife hosted a celebration of the 17th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution.  The obvious irony of the lavish celebration was not lost on The New York Times, which noted that the Soviets "entertained in the bourgeois way."

There was nothing proletarian in the display--more expected in the days of the Pratts' residency.  "In the buffet, tables were heaped with dainty sandwiches.  There were thin slices of bread dotted with caviar.  Canapes and cakes of all sizes and sorts beckoned the guests.  Fruits were piled high on the tables.  Then there was vodka, strong and stimulating, and Tsinandali, a mellow dry red Georgian wine."

An article by Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel, titled "'Mlad' and 'Star'" and published in the January 1998 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists suggested "Perhaps not wanting to advertise the fancy neighborhood to their colleagues back in Moscow, the Soviets code-named the consulate zavod, or 'the factory,' in their secret cables, conjuring up a much drearier vision that East Side elegance and greenery."

As a matter of fact, almost immediately the Soviet Consulate became a hive of spies and espionage.  According to Barnes Carr in his 2016 book Operation Whisper, "The FBI had teams of watchers--known as the bucket squad--in a room across the street in the Pierre Hotel, and they used 35-mm newsreel cameras to film people entering and leaving the consulate."

The top three floors of the Pratt mansion became what Carr describes as "the control center for Soviet spying n North America.  But the not-so-secret spy and counter-spy activities came to a dramatic and horrific end in 1948.

Oksana Kasenkina had been sent to Manhattan from the Soviet Union in 1946 to school diplomats' children.  Two years later she was due to be sent back.  She appealed to the editor of a Russian-language newspaper for help on July 31, 1948.  She was spirited away to Reed Farm upstate, operated by the White Russian Tolstoy Foundation.

Foolishly, she wrote a letter to Consul Jacob Lomakin pleading "I implore you, I implore you once more, don't let me perish here. I am without willpower."  Soviets arrived at the farm on August 7 and took Kasenkina back to the 61st Street mansion, where she was imprisoned in her room.

The Soviets drew attention to the affair by formally accusing the Tolstoy Foundation of kidnapping the teacher.  Quickly newspapers suspected she was being held against her will.   Common Cause, Inc., an anti-Communist organization, sought a habeas corpus writ that demanded Consul Lomakin produce Kasenkina in court on August 12.  The Consul ignored the summons.

On August 12 newspaper men, waiting for the next development, gathered on East 61st Street around the consulate.   Suddenly, a uniformed employee of the private club next door appeared and told the reporters "Hey, fellows!  A woman just jumped out the back window!"

Oksana Kasenkina had thrown herself from her third floor window to the paved courtyard.  The New York Times reported "There was an instant of silence.  Then the whole neighborhood was in uproar."

The story swept the nation.  The Chicago Tribune said that the New York cop who shouldered his way into the consulate despite Soviet attempts to block him had breached "the Red Iron Curtain."  The story of the woman who tried to leap to freedom suddenly defined the Soviets.

The ugly and shocking affair signaled the end of the Soviet Consulate at No. 9 East 61st Street.  On August 25, 1948 it was ordered closed.

The Pratt mansion would survive--with far less drama--for almost 30 years.  In 1978 the apartment building named 800 Fifth Avenue was completed.  The site of the magnificent Pratt house made way for its "plaza," or private garden.