The 1855 Peter Gibson House - 139 East 18th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

By the end of the 1840s, Gramercy Square (known today as Gramercy Park), was ringed with fine mansions.  Its refined tenor spilled into the neighboring blocks, and in 1855 D. Hennessy completed five brick faced houses two blocks away, on the north side of East 18th Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place.

Four stories tall above short basements, they were just two bays wide.  The segmentally arched openings wore handsome cast iron lintels, chosen from a local foundry's catalog.  Each house had its own bracketed cornice.

Among them was 106 East 18th Street (renumbered 139 in 1865).  It became home to builder Peter Gibson and his family.  

The family briefly took in a roomer in 1857.  Their advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 29 read, "106 East 18th-st., near Irving-place--One or two nicely-furnished rooms or two handsome parlors, to let to gentlemen only, without board, in a modern-built house, with a private family."  The ad was answered by James M. Hamilton, a retired merchant.  It appears that the Gibsons valued their privacy more than the income, and no other roomer was listed after 1857.

The Gibson family moved to 132 East 19th Street in 1859 and the 18th Street house became home to Gustave Herter and his wife, Anna.  Herter listed his profession as, "furniture, 547 Broadway."  It did not reflect his talents.

Born in Germany in 1830, he and his half-brother, Christian Augustus Ludwig Herter, who was nine years younger than he, learned cabinetmaking from their father.  Gustave Herter arrived in New York City in 1848 and established his furniture-making shop.  Around the time that he and Anna purchased 106 East 18th Street, Christian arrived in New York and joined the business, renaming it Herter Brothers around 1864.

Herter Brothers designed and manufactured high-end furniture.  Their remarkable pieces both followed and set fashionable trends, and caught the eye of America's wealthiest patrons.  By the late 1860s, they not only created the furnishings of America's mansions, but decorated the rooms around them.  When President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Grant moved into the White House in 1869, they commissioned Herter Brothers to redecorate the Executive Mansion.

This illustration titled "A Corner in the Drawing Room" shows a portion of Herter Brothers' furniture and decoration of William Henry Vanderbilt's Fifth Avenue mansion. Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, 1883 (copyright expired)

By 1873, Herter Brothers was, perhaps, the foremost furniture maker and interior design firm in the country.  With their success came affluence.  That year Gustave and Anna left 139 East 18th Street.  Their furnishings--no doubt all of which came from the Herter Brothers workrooms--were sold at auction on April 16 and among the offerings were, "fine Parlor, Chamber [i.e, bedroom], Library, Hall, Dining Room and Kitchen" furniture, described by the auctioneer as "elegant."

The house was briefly operated as a boarding house until Dr. William W. Hurd, a dentist, moved in in 1876.  Hurd and his family remained until 1884, when Richard Cary Morse purchased 139 East 18th Street.  

Richard Cary Morse, from the collection of the Springfield College Archives.

Born in Hudson, New York on September 19, 1841, Morse was a nephew of inventor Samuel F. B. Morse.  Although he studied at the Princeton and Union Theological Seminaries, he never pursued active ministry.  In 1869, he became involved with the Y.M.C.A.

On June 21, 1883, Morse married Jane Elizabeth Van Cott.  She would regularly be hostess to Y.M.C.A. leaders.  In his autobiography, My Life With Young Men, for instance, Morse writes:

In 1884, and several succeeding years, the Secretaries, on coming to the city for the annual dinner, spent the day in our home at 139 East 18th Street...The morning and afternoon were spent in our parlor and library on the second floor, going over each man's work for the year past, and the program of his department for the coming year.

Richard and Jane Morse remained here until around 1898, after which 139 East 18th Street was operated as a boarding house.  It was run by Mrs. Mollie Galler by 1917.

Two boarders who arrived in 1919 had much in common.  With the war ended, former soldier Antonio de Blaza returned to New York.  He took a room here and found a job as a porter in the Hilliard Building, an office building at 55 John Street.  And in August, Army Sergeant Ernest W. Gooch rented a room.   A native of Indiana, he had been reassigned to the Army Recruiting Office at East 14th Street and Third Avenue.

Sergeant Gooch was dealing with dark demons.  Four weeks after moving in, on September 15, 1919, Gooch committed suicide by shooting himself in his room.   The New-York Tribune reported, "Two sealed letters addressed to his company commander were found."

Another tragedy occurred a month later.  On October 17, The Sun reported that Antonio de Blaza "was caught between the elevator and the shaft opening on the first floor landing" at his job.  "Firemen were called to extricate him, but before he was released he was dead."  The article mentioned, "He was unmarried and had recently returned from service overseas."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Luke Chess, who rented a room here in 1921, worked as a mechanical engineer for the Standard Oil Company.  In the early hours of September 13, he was awakened by a knock on his door.  Two men and a woman "demanded his jewelry," according to Chess.  The would-be robbers were unprepared for his reaction.  

Suspicious of the unexpected visit in the middle of the night, Chess had pulled out his revolver before answering the door.  The New York Times reported, "Clad in pajamas, Luke Chess...chased two men and a woman from his apartment at 139 East Eighteenth Street early yesterday and fired several shots after them."  One of the men escaped, but Gladys Kaufman and Charles Banno were apprehended.

Seven days later two another residents appeared in the newspapers, for a much different reason.  On September 30, 1921, the Daily Star reported that the four men responsible for the theft of ten automobiles recently had been arrested.  Among them was "James Stapleton, alias Rogers, alias Frisco, of 139 East Eighteenth street, Manhattan," said the article.  Another gang member, James Hall, who also lived here, was already in jail, "having admitted committing three hold-ups in Manhattan."

John Cole, who lived here in 1937, worked at the Horn & Hardart Automat at 115 East 14th Street.  He was on the picket line outside on Christmas night that year when he and another striker, George Russo, became annoyed with the police officers, "calling them 'rats and finks' and causing a crowd of more than 500 to gather, after they had been warned to desist," reported The New York Times on December 29.  The fingerprints of both men revealed that they had previous convictions.  Their calling officers derogatory names landed them in the workhouse for 60 days.

photograph by Carole Teller

A renovation completed in 1989 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and first floors, two duplexes that shared the second and third floors, and one apartment on the fourth.  The configuration was amended in 2010 when the top three floors were combined as a triplex apartment.

many thanks to reader Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The O. P. Clarke House - 322 East 18th Street

 

photograph by Ted Leather

Peter Gerard Stuyvesant died on August 16, 1847.  By then, the sprawling farm or "Bouwerie" of his great-great grandfather, Governor Peter Stuyvesant, had been portioned off into city lots, and streets already crisscrossed the former farmland.

Stuyvesant’s nephew, the Reverend Peter Stuyvesant Ten Broeck, who lived in North Danvers, Massachusetts, inherited the fifteen lots on the south side of 18^th Street between First and Second Avenues.  In 1852, Ten Broeck's daughter, Cornelia Stuyvesant Ten Broeck, leased the land to developers.  The Ten Broeck family was specific on the type of construction it wanted on its land.  Building was restricted to “good and substantial dwelling houses…being three or more stories in height and constructed either of Brick or Stone.”

The house at 201 East 18th Street (renumbered 322 in 1867), was completed in 1854, one of three similar homes.  Three stories of red brick sat upon a brownstone English basement.  Its Italianate design included an arched doorway within an impressive stone frame of scrolled brackets and a substantial molded cornice.  Each of the three residences had identical, cast metal cornices with foliate brackets and paneled fascias.

photograph by Ted Leather

The house seems to have been operated from the beginning as a boarding house.  Living here in 1854 were the families of three craftsmen involved in the construction industry: Henry Berger, a carver; Samuel Myers, a moulder; and Philip Riley, a plasterer.

Boarders in the pre-Civil War years were middle-class and held white collar jobs.  In 1856, for instance, they were Michael Callagy, who operated a feed business; attorney Henry Z. Hayner; and Thomas T. Lavall, a clerk.

Henry Dix, who listed his profession as "merchant" at 25 Park Row, moved into the house around 1859.  He and his family would remain until about 1866, when Henry Beckwith and his family occupied the house.  William H. Beckwith had recently returned safely from the war.  The family was still living here on October 11, 1871 when William was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the 22nd Regiment of Infantry.

By 1876, O. P. Clarke was leasing 322 East 18th Street.  It was the scene of the funeral of Clarke's sister-in-law, Marion Marshall, on March 31, that year.  The unmarried 30-year-old had lived with the family.

On December 18, 1877, Mayor Smith Ely sent a letter to Police Commissioner Joel B. Ehrhardt, which said in part that he was responsible for the "inefficiency and maladministration of the Police Department."  Ely gave the commissioner until noon of December 20 "to show cause, if any exist, why you should not be removed from office."

O. P. Clarke and dozens of other "merchants, bankers, property-owners and tax-payers," signed a "remonstrance" to the mayor in support of Ehrhardt.  After pointing out his accomplishments, such as "raising the discipline of the force, weeding out faithless and incompetent officers, preserving the public peace," and such, the group insisted, "the general welfare of the public and the best interests of the people of this city will not be subserved by the removal of the present Commissioner of Police."  (The petition, at least in part, was successful and Ehrhardt retained his position.)

The Clarke family took in one boarder at a time.  In 1877, it was Anna Metz Byland, the editor and publisher of the German-language weekly Fortschritt.  The American Newspaper Directory noted, "the 'Fortschritt' is the only paper in the United States which is edited and published in the German language by a lady."

Less respectable was the Clarkes' next boarder, Harry Gulagy, alias Harry Somers.  The 21-year-old native of Albany was a driver of a United States mail wagon, according to the New York Herald.

Samuel Pilser slept in the rear room of his clothing store at 202 East 31st Street.  On the night of February 3, 1878, he woke to noises at the front door.  The New York Herald reported, "He lit the gas at once, and was somewhat astonished to see a man standing in the front window and coolly passing out clothing to two confederates outside."  Pilser rushed into the store and grabbed Harry Gulagy, holding him until a policeman arrived.  (The other burglars fled.)  Gulagy was held in $2,500 bail awaiting trial.  It was a significant amount, equaling more than $81,000 in 2025.

Perhaps the untidy Gulagy incident prompted the Clarkes to more carefully choose their boarders.  Gulagy was followed in 1879 by Rev. Anselan Buchanan, the assistant rector of St. George's Church.  By 1883, Rev. J. Stanley D'Orsay and his wife, Lucy, lived with the Clarkes.  Lucy C. D'Orsay contracted pleuro-pneumonia, according to the New-York Tribune that year.  She died on December 26 and her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

After leasing 322 East 18th Street for nearly two decades, the Clarkes left in 1893 when the house was purchased by Richard F. and Mary E. July. 

Like the Clarkes, the Julys took in boarders.  In 1896, the Thomas J. Cunningham family took rooms here.  Thomas and Catherine Cunningham's adult daughter, Jennie, taught in Grammar School No. 71 on East 7th Street near Avenue C.  That year, Jennie was accused of a horrific crime--murder.

In March 1896, 11-year-old Philippine Armauer asked Jennie permission to go to the restroom.  When the girl went home that afternoon, she told her mother "that she did not feel well.  She said her teacher had refused to allow her to go to the toilet," reported the New-York Tribune.  Philippine continued to complain of pains in her lower right side and on April 21, "went to bed ill."

Philippine Armauer died on April 26.  Her doctor said the cause was "peritonitis, following colitis, or inflammation of the lower passages of the bowels, brought on by the teacher refusing to allow the child to go to the toilet," as reported by the New-York Tribune.  Corner Hoeber announced, "the teacher was criminally responsible for the child's death."

Happily for Jennie Cunningham, an autopsy cleared her of guilt.  While the girl did die of peritonitis, it was caused from appendicitis.  Had her doctor diagnosed the condition when she first complained of the pains, according to Coroner Hoeber, "The child's life could have been saved by an operation."

Despite the findings, it seems that Jennie Cunningham lost her job.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 21, 1897, read, "Kindergartner, 12 years' experience, wishes position as visiting teacher, school or family.  Kindergarten and German.  Best references."

The exterior shutters were all tightly closed on the summer day of 1941 when this photo was captured.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Thomas J. Cunningham died here on November 23, 1902, and Catherine Cunningham died on June 20, 1911.  

In the meantime, Richard F. July worked for the city.  On December 1, 1901, he was appointed a stenographer for the State Courts earning $3,600 per year (a comfortable $137,000 in 2025 terms). 

In 1912, the Julys' son, Robert H, graduated from the College of the City of New York with a law degree.  Three years later in February 1915 (and still living with his parents), he founded the Herilhy Hull Co., a foodstuffs corporation, with Ross McCombe and Harry C. Wing.  

Richard F. July was still working as a court stenographer in 1920, now earning an annual salary of $4,200.  Robert was still living here in 1924 and practicing law.  The family left 322 East 18th Street in the early Depression years, when Carl W. and Hilda Lenner occupied the house.  Lenner was a structural iron worker employed by Mason & Henger.

photograph by Ted Leather

A renovation completed in 1971 resulted in a doctor's office in the basement level.  That was converted to a two-bedroom apartment by 1991.  Externally, little has changed to the venerable building.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.

The James A. Foley House - 316 East 18th Street

 

A laudable recreation of the entrance and window frames replaced the lost originals.  photo by Ted Leather

An advertisement in the New York Herald on November 6, 1867 described the recently built house at 316 East 18th Street:

For Sale--With possession, house and furniture; house 3 stories, high stoop and brown stone front, with all conveniences and in fine order.

It was purchased by the William L. Colby family.  Three stories tall and 20-feet wide, its individual Italianate design was unlike others on the block.  The elliptically arched openings sat within architrave frames, including the unusual doorway.  Its multi-layered frame was capped with a gently arched cornice.  A foliate-bracketed cornice with paneled fascia crowned the design.

William L. Colby was an important figure in the printing industry, a close associate of Richard March Hoe, the head of R. Hoe & Company.  Hoe invented the rotary printing press in 1843.  Colby, too, improved the printing process.  In his 1885 History of R. Hoe & Company, Stephen D. Tucker noted that around 1858, "Mr. William L. Colby devised a plan for driving the type bed of cylinder presses through a universal joint."  The device was adopted for most of the R. Hoe & Company presses.

Colby and his wife, the former Malvina Walkington, had three sons and three daughters.  (The close relationship between Colby and Roe was evidenced in the name of the Colbys' youngest son: Richard March Hoe Colby.)  The other children were John, Benjamin L., Sarah E., Mary, and Malvina W.  

When the family moved into the East 18th Street house, Richard March Hoe Colby was enrolled at the College of the City of New York.  His brothers, John and Benjamin L. Colby, joined the Roe firm by 1871; and Malvina W. Colby taught in the primary department of Grammar School No. 2 at 116 Henry Street in 1876.

William L. Colby died on March 6, 1881 at the age of 70.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later.  Malvina survived him by 12 years, dying in the house on August 7, 1892 at the age of 78.  Her funeral, too, was held in the residence.

The former Colby house was occupied by several physicians starting in 1894 with a dentist named Mogovin.  German immigrants Dr. Otto Maier, a gynecologist, and his wife, Dina, occupied the house in 1899.  

Their lives were rocked in the fall of 1899 when Otto Maier was accused of murder.  Nora Seltz was brought to Bellevue Hospital on October 18 "following an operation performed by some person or persons unknown," as reported by the New-York Tribune.  (The implication was that Seltz had had an abortion.)  After the 38-year-old patient died, Dr. Maier and an associate, Dr. Henry Purdy, were arrested and charged for murder.

Police Captain Delaney testified during the trial on October 27, saying "the reason why he had had the physicians arrested was because they had been the last to attend her."

The judge asked, "Was that the sole reason?"

"Yes."

The jury decided that Nora Seltz's death was due to blood poisoning following the earlier operation.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The two physicians were exonerated from all blame."

After having occupied the East 18th Street house for about a decade, the Maiers began a family.  Both 41 years old at the time, their daughter Dorothea was born in 1906 and a year later Herbert was born.  (Herbert would follow in his father's professional footsteps, eventually becoming chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.)

On February 25, 1910, the New-York Tribune reported, "Otto Maier sold to a Mr. Foley for occupancy No. 316 East 18th Street."  "Mr. Foley" was James Foley, a well-known figure within Tammany Hall politics and since 1879 had been chairman of the General Committee of the Twelfth Assembly District.  He and his wife, the former Anne Moran, had eleven children. 

Son James A. Foley, born on June 21, 1882, was also involved in politics.  Three years before his parents purchased 316 East 18th Street, he was elected to the New York State Assembly.  In 1913, he was elected to the New York State Senate.

In the meantime, his brother Frank was a broker with C. I. Hudson & Co. and held the rank of major in the Twelfth Regiment of Infantry.  Frank Joseph Foley was married to Rosa A. Metzner on Long Island on October 8, 1913.  Senator James A. Foley was his brother's best man.

The year 1919 was a significant one within the Foley household.  On May 14, son Edward died.  His funeral was held in the parlor on May 16 followed by a solemn mass of requiem at the Church of the Epiphany on Second Avenue.

Surprisingly, James A. Foley's wedding to Mabel Graham Murphy was celebrated a month later, on June 21.  Shortly afterward, James Foley fell ill.  Described by The Evening World as a "veteran Democratic political leader," he died on August 10.  As had been the case with his son, his funeral was held in the house followed by a mass at the Church of the Epiphany.

On August 12, The Evening World reported, "Hundreds of persons attended the funeral to-day of James Foley...Two hundred and fifty members of the Democratic Committee of the 12th Assembly District escorted the body to the church and later to Calvary Cemetery."  The mourners represented a who's-who of New York politics.  The guard of honor at the gravesite was composed of Tammany chief Charles F. Murphy and four judges and an alderman.  Also present were Governor Alfred Smith and his wife, former Governor Martin Henry Glynn, Police Commissioner Robert F. Wagner, President of the Board of Aldermen Robert L. Moses and other leaders.

The East 18th Street house was now a female domain.  Florence J., Anna M., Mary E., Kathryn and Jane, still unmarried, remained with their mother.  And around the time of James's death, Anne's widowed sister, Elizabeth M. Leary, moved in.

Only two years after the parlor was the scene of two Foley funerals, it was the setting of Elizabeth Leary's.  She died here on April 6, 1921 and, like the others, her funeral was followed by a mass at the Church of the Epiphany. 

Florence M. Foley was involved in a frightening accident on October 12, 1927.  The Brooklyn Daily Star reported, "Edward O'Hare, sixty-five...was struck by an auto operated by Florence M. Foley, 316 East Eighteenth street, Manhattan, at Forty-sixth (Bliss) street and Queen's boulevard."  O'Hare was transported to St. John's Hospital with "multiple contusions of the head, neck and back."

At some point in the first half of the 20th century, the Victorian window surrounds were shaved flat.  The original entrance frame was intact.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Five months later, on March 29, 1928, Anne Moran Foley died in the East 18th Street house at the age of 81.  The New York Times reported, "This was learned yesterday in the Surrogate's Court when her son, Surrogate James A. Foley, failed to take his place on the bench in the morning."  The article noted that she was survived by seven of her eleven children.  Once again, a Foley funeral mass was held in the Church of the Epiphany.

The last of the Foley family to occupy the house was Kathryn.  When she sold it in April 1962, The New York Times commented, "The house had been in the seller's family for fifty-three years."  

photograph by Ted Leather

At some point before 1941, the Foleys had shaved off the window surrounds and modernized the stoop railings.  Still a single family home, in 2007 the owners initiated a two-year renovation.  It was apparently at this time that a period-appropriate entrance frame and window surrounds were fabricated.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The 1868 Henry T. Ingalls House -- 118 East 18th Street

 

In 1867 Henry T. Ingalls commissioned Stephen Decatur Hatch to design a sumptuous new home at 118 East 18th Street, two blocks south of Gramercy Park.  His choice of architects was somewhat bold, the 28-year-old Hatch having opened his practice just three years earlier.  As it turned out, he would go on to produce remarkable structures, including the Gilsey House Hotel and the sprawling Murray Hill Hotel in Manhattan, and and U.S. War Department Building in Washington D. C.

Completed in 1868, the 25-foot-wide, four-story structure was faced in brownstone.  Compared to the architectural pizzazz of some of his later works, Hatch's design was safe--an expected, by-the-books example of the Italianate style.  It was nonetheless an elegant home suitable for the wealthy family who would live in it.  Molded architrave frames that sat on delicate brackets surrounded each window and an arched pediment, supported by heavy foliate brackets, crowned the entranceway.

The Ingalls family had lived in a fine home on Union Square.  Henry was an importer of ebony, shell, ivory and other exotic tropical goods.  His Mary, had died on November 21, 1864 at the age of 67.  

Moving into the new house with Ingalls were his daughter, Elizabeth B., and her family.  She had married Edward R. Janes in 1854 and the couple had four children, Rebecca, Herbert, Henry E. and Arthur.  A year after they moved in a fifth child, Walter, was born.

Edward R. Janes was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1829.  While still a boy he went to work in his father's iron foundry, Janes, Fowler, Beebe & Co.  The firm moved to New York City in 1840.   Its prominence in the industry was reflected in its contract to do the ironwork for the Capitol Building dome in Washington, begun in 1860.  (Interestingly, work was stopped at the outbreak of Civil War, and the iron girders were torn down and used to barricade the Capitol.  It had to be restarted nearly from scratch after the war.)

Henry Ingalls did not enjoy his new home for especially long.  He died on July 2, 1871 at the age of 74.  As was customary, his funeral was held in the drawing room three days later.

Elizabeth seems to have had staff problems in 1872.  On February 2 she placed an advertisement seeking "A competent laundress, and to assist in chamberwork," and in September she was looking for "a competent plain cook for a large private family; wages $16."  The salary Elizabeth was offering would be equal to just under $350 per week today.

The house was the scene of another funeral on August 24, 1876 following the death of  Edward's brother, Charles B. Janes, at the age of 33.  The Janes family left 118 East 18th Street in 1879, selling it to James Bryon.

The Byron family was at their summer home in August when burglars forced open the basement door "and thoroughly ransacked the premises," according to the Brooklyn Union-Argus on August 21.  The two young men were apprehended getting off a Second Avenue streetcar with two heavy satchels laden with "plunder."  Inside were "valuable silk dresses and silk and satin cloaks" belonging to Mrs. Byron.

By the early 1880's 118 East 18th Street was home to banker George Harman Peabody.  Born in Ohio in 1830, he had come to New York City in 1850.  In 1865 he married Belle Bratton Ward and in 1868 their only child, George, Jr., was born.

By 1874 Peabody's fortune was sufficient enough for him to found The Peabody Home for Aged Women on Lexington Avenue at 33rd Street.  Most likely initially prompted by the number of Civil War widows who needed assistance, it moved to the Bronx in 1880.

George, Jr. was a troubled teen.  The sons of wealthy families most often attended private boarding schools and George was sent to Cobb's Institute near the village of Cornwall-on-the-Hudson.  He had significant problems fitting in with the other boys there.  One youth told a reporter from The New York Times:

Peabody was a lad of very excitable temperament, and was often picked upon by the other scholars.  On several occasions, when annoyed in this way in the gymnasium connected with the school, he exhibited strong symptoms of insanity.  He would throw himself upon the floor, and kick and writhe like a contortionist, yelling and using the most profane language.  So uncontrollable would he become that even the teachers were afraid to go near him.

On the afternoon of Friday, December 5, 1884, George walked to the village, which was about two miles from the school.  At around 6:00 that evening he staggered into the school building, and fainted into the arms of Mr. Cobb's coachman.  His hat was missing, his clothes were soaking wet and covered in blood and mud.  His throat had been slashed repeatedly with a dull knife.

The village doctor stitched his wounds, and the boy lingered for just over a day before dying on Sunday morning.  The New York Times said, "During Friday night, and in fact up to the time of his death...Peabody was out of his mind most of the time, and talked and acted in a wild manner."

Investigators found George's hat floating on a nearby pond and evidence of his struggles to get out of the water and up the muddy bank.  The suggestion that another student would have murdered his classmate would have been damaging to the school's reputation.  The officials of the institute and Dr. Vail concluded that George had clumsily cut his own throat--a procedure that required several attempts because of the dull knife--then threw himself into the pond.

They sent the body to his parents for interment before an inquest could be held.  It raised the ire of the Coroner, who lodged a complaint against Dr. Vail with the County District Attorney.

Following her mourning period, Belle Peabody picked up her active social schedule.  On October 10, 1887, for instance, the New York Amusement Gazette reported:

Mrs. George H. Peabody gave a large musicale on Thursday afternoon last, at her residence, No. 118 East Eighteenth Street.  Mrs. Peabody's receptions are always well attended, and her selections of musical talent evidences perfect taste.  Mrs. Peabody is a veritable patron of music.

By the turn of the century the house was being operated as a high-end boarding house.  Living here in the first decade of the new century were attorney Paul B. Scarff; another attorney, Wade Green; and Dr. Austin Flint who appeared as an expert in the murder trial of Harry Thaw in 1907.

A renovation completed in 1921 resulted in "non-housekeeping apartments," meaning that they had no kitchens.  The Certificate of Occupancy clearly noted, "cooking in more than two of the apartments will render this building liable to immediate vacation."

Among the initial residents were Arnaldo and Grace Marson.  Grace's father was Bishop Charles Sumner Burch, who died on December 20, 1920.  In 1922 the Rev. William E. Gardner moved in, and by 1925 Reginald Birch and his wife were residents.

The Birchs' son, Rodney Bathurst Birch, was described by the Pawling Chronicle as the "self-styled English earl of Dunbar, and flyer in the Royal Aviation corps."  He had to appear before a judge that year.  The newspaper explained he, "must stand trial on the indictment obtained by his wife on the charge of abandonment, despite the fact that she tried vainly afterward to have the charges dismissed."

Living here in 1927 was the Schuyler P. Carltons.  Mrs. Carlton's name regularly appeared in the society columns that winter season in reference to her daughter Elizabeth's coming-out.  On November 25, for instance, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Schuyler P. Carlton of 118 East Eighteenth street gives a luncheon at Pierre's for her daughter, Miss Elizabeth P. Carlton."  The New York Evening Post added, "Later on another party will be given in her honor, a holiday tea dance, at the Hotel Ambassador, on December 30.  Miss Carlton, who makes her home with her parents at 118 East Eighteenth Street, was educated at the Brearley School.  The Carltons spent the past summer at Westport Conn."

The Carltons were still here on June 23, 1930 when the New York Evening Post reported that Elizabeth was sailing for Europe "to be away for a year."  It added, "Her engagement to Lieutenant Frederick John Cunningham, U.S.N. retired, was announced on June 10 by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schuyler G. Carlton of 118 East Eighteenth Street.  The wedding will take place on her return."

Colorful figures continued to call the apartments home over the next few years.  In 1930 artist and sculptor W. B. Graham leased rooms, for instance.  

And in 1943 Edwin Emerson was living here.  Born in Dresden, German in 1869, he had served with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War.  With World War II now raging, he was a war and foreign press correspondent.   He would soon be leaving the East 18th Street apartment however.  In the 1944 United States Congress hearings on Un-American Activities it was reported that Emerson "has been proven to be an official agent of the German Government and of the German Nazi party in this country."

In 1964 the building received another renovation.  The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the English basement level.  There were now one apartment in the basement and parlor levels, and two each on the upper floors.  That configuration lasted until 2017 when a penthouse level was added, creating a total of six apartments.

photographs by the author

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The 1910 Belvidere Building - 222 Park Avenue South

In the first years of the 20th century developers Klein & Jackson were busy erecting numerous commercial buildings just above Union Square.  Many New Yorkers felt a twinge of of nostalgia when the partners chose the old Belvidere Hotel, on the northwest corner of 18th Street and Fourth Avenue as the site of their latest project in 1909.

Joseph Wehrle had purchased the plot from William H. Vanderbilt in 1879 and erected the hotel.  Now, on May 8 the New-York Tribune reported "Another Fourth avenue landmark is soon to be replaced with a big mercantile structure...Klein & Jackson bought the famous hotel yesterday."  The article noted "The Belevedere [sic], in Fourth avenue, has numbered among its guests many well known opera singers, musicians and literary men and women."

Within two weeks architect William A. Rouse, of Rouse & Goldstone, had filed plans for a 12-story loft and store building for the Belvidere Building Company which Leo M. Klein and Samuel Jackson had established for the project.  The Sun reported the cost of the new structure would be $450,000--or around $12.8 million today.

Work progressed rapidly and on September 25, 1909 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that "The structural steel work is now going ahead for the new Belvidere Building."  And only a week later Klein & Jackson advertised space in the building, saying it would be "ready for tenants February 1, 1910."

It may have been that rush for completion that resulted in a tragedy.  On September 1 The Sun reported that a construction worker, Antonio Galarpi, "was struck by a heavy steel beam while at work on the new building on the site of the old Belvidere Hotel."  The article explained "The beam was being lifted with a cable and was about twenty feet from the sidewalk when the hooks slipped and it fell on Galarpi."  He died on the way to the hospital.

The incident did not hamper progress and, as a matter of fact, construction was completed ahead of time.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on January 13 touted "Ready for Occupancy January 15, 1910."  It warned potential tenants that space was filling fast.  "Fully 150 wholesale concerns are now making preparations to move to this new Fourth Avenue District."  With two passenger elevators, two freight elevators and an automatic sprinkler system, the building was said to have "advantages superior in every respect to other buildings now in course of erection along Fourth avenue."

Rouse & Goldstone had designed a Renaissance Revival commercial building similar to scores of others rising in Manhattan at the time.  But they set this one apart by lavishing the top floor with Arts & Crafts style tilework.  A latticework of cream-colored tiles, interrupted by rose-framed diamond shapes, sat upon a field of mossy-green.  Sharp triangular pendants hung from the 12th floor cornice, so sleek and geometric as to anticipate the Art Deco movement to come.

The Arts & Crafts tile work of the 11th and 12th floors contrasted starkly with the stuffier Renaissance Revival elements surrounding it.

Several of the original tenants were garment related, such as the Perrin Sons glove manufacturing firm and Sutro Brothers braid makers, both of which signed leases in 1910.  But by 1917 a wider variety of occupants were calling the Belvidere Building home.

In February that year the Mentor Association took over the ninth floor.  While the organization was, technically, a publishing firm, it operated on a unique precept.  The bi-monthly magazine could not be purchased at newsstands, nor even by subscription.  Readers had to be "members" who paid a $4 per year membership fee.  They then received their issues filled with articles guaranteed to take no more than five minutes to read.

The firm's motto was "Learn one thing every day" and The Mentor's editors "select the best in Art, Literature, History, Popular Science, Nature, Biography, Music, and all of the Arts for the members."  Advertisements insisted that the broad range of knowledge members gained gave them the confidence to talk on a variety of subjects and advance in their jobs.  "I think of my membership in the Mentor Association as my college education," a member was quoted as saying.

As the building neared completion large For Rent signs appeared in the ground floor windows.  Construction on the IRT subway is still underway.  photograph by Wurts Brothers from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Taking space in January 1918 was a war-related office of the Christian Science Church.  An article in the Homer Republican on January 10 explained "Since the coming of severely cold weather the demand for warm knitted garments among our soldiers and sailors has become so great that a comforts forwarding committee of ladies representing the fifteen Christian Science churches of New York city has opened headquarters at 222 Fourth avenue."  From here the women distributed hand-knitted "helmets, socks, sweaters, wristlets" and similar garments to military camps and warships.

The war brought another tenant that month when the American Red Cross Bureau of Purchasing took the entire 11th floor.

On Friday afternoon June 13, 1919 several men entered the building and then hid for hours.  When the last of the cleaners left the building they sprung into action, breaking into the offices of corset manufacturers I. Newman & Sons, which occupied the fourth floor.  Of the three safes in the office, the thieves worked on the largest.  Police would later theorize, according to The Evening Telegram, "the burglars spent so much time on the heavy safe they were afraid to risk waiting any longer, although the other two safes might have been more profitable, as they contained cash."

Now the men had another problem.  Walking into the building was easy.  But now they were locked in.  And so while, apparently, a lookout watched from the street, they "left by the Fourth avenue entrance of the building by removing the large door from its hinges."

Early the following morning an elevator operator reported for work to find the street door removed.  As each tenant arrived he was told that someone had been inside overnight and to carefully check his office.  Newman rushed upstairs to find "doors jimmied and the safe removed to the centre of the office and the front ripped open with a sectional jimmy," reported The Evening Telegram.  The thieves had made off with $30,000 in Liberty and Victory bonds and $20,000 in cash, a heist of more than three quarters of a million dollars in today's money.

Despite the incident, I. Newman & Sons remained in the Belvidere Building well into the 1920's.  Other tenants at the time included the Mill Factors Corporation and the National Shirt Shops, Inc.  In 1924 one of the street level shops was a United Cigar Store.

Bonnie-B Co., Inc., importers of hair nets was another 1920's tenant.  The firm advertised its hand-made human hair nets as being "twice sterilized."  An ad in the Buffalo Courier in 1921 featured a photograph of film actress Ruth Roland, "noted for her lovely hair--always perfectly dressed."  Her secret, the ad confided, "is the Bonnie-B imported Hair Net with she invariably uses."

As garment firms migrated to the district above 34th Street, the Belvidere Building saw a new type of tenant.  In 1939 Philco Radio and Television took space, and as early as 1953 the Citadel Press was in the building and would stay for years.

In May 1959 the stretch of Fourth Avenue between 17th and 32nd Streets was renamed Park Avenue South; although the street address for the Belvidere Building remained No. 222.  The following two decades saw a influx of trade schools and publishers.  In 1963 the Empire School of Printing was here, joined by the Printing Trades School two years later.  By 1971 Apex Technical School, where students could learn trades like automobile mechanics, the air conditioning and refrigeration repair, was in the building.  At the same time Dogs Magazine and Motor Cycle World were being published here.

That all came to an end in 1981 when a massive renovation resulted in five apartments per floor above the street level.  

photographs by the author

The Mary Beals House - 30 East 18th Street

In response to a devastating yellow fever epidemic, the Manhattan Bank Company purchased a rural plot of land, one acre square, from Edward Williams in 1806 far north of the city.  The bank was preparing for the possibility that it may have to erect a branch for its patrons who were quickly fleeing to remote hamlets like Greenwich Village.    

As it turned out the bank did not have to relocate and the land running north along Broadway from what would become East 17th Street sat vacant for decades.  But by the 1830's the expansion of the city was nearing the area.  In 1847 the Manhattan Bank Company began construction of four speculative brick-faced homes along Broadway and soon afterward another around the corner at No. 30 East 18th Street.

The few years between the projects was reflected in the architectural detailing.  Designed in the emerging Italianate style, No. 30 East 18th Street was a bit showier than its conservative Greek Revival neighbors.   The most striking elements of the design were the lintels and prominent arched molded cornices of the openings.  Each was decorated with a handsome carved rosette.  Above it all was bracketed Italianate cornice.

The interiors spaces were reflected in the size of the windows--growing successively smaller as the ceiling heights inside grew shorter.  The lower, more visible floors, would have been lavished with more expensive woods and mantels, as well.

The recently widowed Mary Mollar Beals moved into the house.  Her husband, Dr. Gorham Beals, had worked in the New York Dispensary.  There he contracted typhus from one of his patients.  The disease was known at the time as "ship's fever" because it spread rapidly in crowded conditions aboard sea vessels.  Beals died on January 9, 1848 at just 30 years only.  Mary's time in the new residence would be very short lived.  She died in the house on March 9, 1855 at the age of 36.   Two days later The New York Herald advised "The relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral, to-morrow morning, at 11 o'clock, from No. 30 East Eighteenth street."

In the first years following the end of the Civil War the Union Square neighborhood began to change as shops encroached on the residential district.  The trend was obvious in an advertisement in The New York Herald on March 28, 1874:

To Let--No. 30 East Eighteenth Street, one door east of Broadway, a four story House, desirably located for business purposes."

But the residence escaped renovation--as least for now.  The following year "furnished or unfurnished rooms" were offered for rent, "prices moderate."

By 1885 it was again a private dwelling, home to art collector and dealer William Schaus.  The well-known Schaus Galleries, founded by his father, were located at Astor Place and Madison Square.  His name appeared at this address in 1885 on White, Stokes and Allen's List of Prominent People.  

Four years earlier Schaus began pursuing a new interest--entomology.  In 1881 he traveled throughout the Southern Hemisphere collecting more than 200,000 butterflies and moths.  He purchased the Dognin collection of about 26,000 specimens of tropical moths and 5,000 butterflies.

The beautiful brownstone lintels are remarkable.

Despite his family's objections, in 1892 he made a life-changing decision--to liquidate the gallery business and devote his life to his true passion.  On February 29 The New York Times reported that a "little more than half a hundred paintings" would be sold at auction.  "They are the property of Mr. William Schaus, long a dealer in works of art in New York, who is about to retire definitely from business."

The former art dealer made his mark in the field, joining the Bureau of Entomology of the United States Department Agriculture in 1919, and being appointed an honorary curator of insects in the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in 1921.  He died in 1942 at the age of 84.

In the meantime, it appears that Schaus was the last resident of No. 30.  By 1897 The Analytical Laboratory operated from the building.  On August 29 that year the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported "The Analytical Laboratory at 30 East Eighteenth street, New York, of which A. A. Molin is the director, offers special courses in analytical chemistry with laboratory practice, and secures positions for competent graduates."

It was the beginning of a string of scientific or optical-based tenants.  Richards & Co. was here within the year when the firm was scammed by a female shopper, Mary Williams, who also presented herself as "Countess Zingar" and "Lady Mitchell."  On October 15, 1898 The World reported "Richards & Co., surgical instrument dealers, of No. 30 East Eighteenth street, received a visit from Mrs. Wilkins, who offered to buy a lot of saws and knives.  In the course of the negotiations she hypnotized the cashier, who gave her $65 for a bogus check for that amount."  It would translate to about $2,000 today.

Whether she was capable of hypnotizing cashiers or not, the police called her "a hotel swindler with a brilliant record in London, Paris and other European cities, and with a meteoric career in New York.  

Following the turn of the century the German-based Ernst Lietz operated from No. 30.  Like Richards & Co., he dealt in medical instruments and among his customers in 1907 was the city's Department of Public Charities.  That year the city purchased items including an incubator, 48 thermometers, culture and evaporating dishes, four microscopes, needles and chemicals.

Ernst Leitz was best known for its optical equipment.  Like Richards & Co. had been, it was hoodwinked in 1911.  The Thrice-A-Week World entitled an article on October 13 "Ex-Convicts Cheat Merchants Out Of $500,000 Goods" and reported that among the gang's victims was Ernst Leitz.

"Ernst Leitz, optical goods, of No. 30 East Eighteenth street...sent Koller three binoculars valued at $375; a few days later the same firm shipped two more binoculars to the American Smelting and Development," and many more instruments to various sham buyers.

Ernst Leitz was in the cross hairs of the anti-German sentiment which swept the country after the United States entered World War I.  The Trading With The Enemy Act was enacted in 1917, giving the Government broad rights to confiscate the properties of German-born businessmen.

In 1919 the Alien Property Custodian Report said in part "after taking over enemy-owned corporations the Alien Property Custodian has endeavored, wherever he could consistently do so, to make them a part of America's great fighting machine."  Among the properties listed as having been seized was "E. Leitz, Manufacturers and distributors of hospital laboratory equipment."  It placed the "enemy interest" in the firm at 100 percent.

One way to make the property part of the "great fighting machine" was simply to liquidate it.   The 1922 Report of the Alien Property Custodian listed Ernst Leitz as among the organizations whose assets had been sold by the Government.  Despite losing his American branch, however, Ernst Leitz continued to be a highly successful manufacturer of optical instruments.

The building was sold in 1920.  By now a storefront had replaced the first floor facade for years.  Ernst Leitz was the last of the optical and scientific tenants.  In June of  1921 the Metropolitan Hair Goods Company leased a floor, and the following year the Artline Novelty Company, a dress trimmings firm, and the University Knit Goods moved in.

The second half of the 20th century saw a decided decline in the Union Square neighborhood.  Vaina Ader was working in the building in April 1960 when she was confronted by two hold-up men.  While she looked on, terrified, the crooks wiped out the office equipment.  The Long Island Star-Journal wrote "Police said the pair took a tape recorder, record player, typewriter, mimeograph machine and $8 in cash."

The 19th century storefront was sadly disfigured during the 20th century; but a glance above reveals the facade of a house hardly changed since the funeral of a young widow took place here in 1855.

photographs by the author