The John J. and Emma G. O'Brien House - 208 East 78th Street

 

Howard A. Martin purchased 200 feet of property in 1861 along East 78th Street, which at the time existed only on paper.  His deed included a $128 assessment (about $4,830 in 2026) to open the street.  Martin divided the parcel into 15 building plots, each 13-feet, 4-inches-wide.  His builders, Warren and Ransom Beman (possibly brothers) and John Buckley, were most likely responsible for the charming design of the challengingly narrow homes.   

Martin's project stalled when, that same year, the Civil War broke out.  Thousands of laborers marched off to fight and construction in New York City ground nearly to a halt.  Finally, in 1865 (the year the conflict ended) construction of the 15 identical houses was completed.  Each rose three stories above high basements.  Two bays wide, their red brick facades were trimmed in brownstone.  Each of the openings was fully arched.  Bracketed Italianate-style cornices graced the rooflines.

Possibly strapped for money because of the delay, Martin had sold the uncompleted project to investor William H. Brower.  It appears, because of the regular turnover in occupants, he rented 208 East 78th Street.  

Interestingly, despite its narrow proportions, two families initially occupied the house.  William Rosenberg and Jacob Weinman were partners in three dry goods stores--at 28 West Broadway, 221 First Avenue, and 224 Avenue A.  The families remained until 1869, when an auction of their household goods was held on April 28.  The inventory revealed that these were middle-class families, with items like "walnut and mahogany Parlor and Chamber Suits."

James Campbell, a merchant, occupied the house through 1874, followed by Morris Kuttner and his family.  Kuttner operated a fancygoods store at 201 Church Street.  The family was affluent enough to hire at least one servant.  An advertisement on May 29, 1876 read, "A girl to do housework in small family.  208 East 78th st., near 3d av."

The Morris Jacobson family occupied the house in the 1890s.  Jacobson was a real estate operator and ran his business from the house.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It appears that Moses Hirsch Sr. purchased 208 at the turn of the century as a wedding present for his son, Moses Jr. and his bride, the former Hannah Rothschild.  He transferred title to the property to the couple in April 1901.  They would suffer heartache four years later.  On February 3, 1905, Ira Arnold Hirsch died at the age of three months.

The following year, on September 17, Moses Hirsch sold 208 East 78th Street to John J. and Emma G. O'Brien.  The couple had one son, Thomas K.

Born in 1862, John J. O'Brien was a fascinating figure.  In 1884 he earned the title of "amateur wrestling champion of the United States," according to The New York Times.  He never totally abandoned the sport.  In May 1905, for instance, he was one of the two judges of the Madison Square Garden "world's championship at catch-as-catch-can wrestling," as reported by The New York Times.

O'Brien sat on the last New York Board of Alderman prior to the consolidation of the boroughs into one metropolis in 1898.  That year he was appointed an official of the Department of Sanitation.  He still held that position when the family moved into 208 East 78th Street.  He was, as well, the head of the John J. O'Brien Printing Co.

John J. O'Brien's expertise in wrestling resulted in his becoming a judge during the 1920 Olympic Games in Belgium.  

Thomas K. O'Brien graduated from Yale University in 1922 and then entered the Fordham Law School.

John J. O'Brien suffered a heart attack in January 1942.  He died in the Misericordia Hospital a week later, on January 21.  By then, Thomas had moved to Pelham Manor, New York and Emma sold 208 East 78th Street to Isaac D. Bachmann.

Isaac D. Bachmann, The New York Times, January 1, 1949

Isaac Bachmann was born in 1878.  In 1900 he co-founded Bachmann, Emmerich & Co., Inc., a textile factoring firm.  He and his wife, the former Aimee Lubelski, had a son, Harold S., and two daughters, Edith and Peggy.  The family's country home was in Mount Vernon, New York.  In 1939, Bachmann left the firm he had co-founded and joined James Talcott, Inc., another textile factor.

Bachmann's health began failing in 1948, and he died in the East 78th Street house at the age of 71 on December 30.  The New York Times said simply that he died "after a long illness."

The house was purchased by Frederick Arthur Collins.  Born in Boston in 1898, he was known as Arthur Collins throughout his adult lifetime.  He was president of Collins, Tuttle & Co., Inc., a real estate firm he and Wylie F. L. Tuttle established in 1954.  Prior to that, Collins had been a vice president and partner in Brown, Harris, Stevens, Inc. for more than two decades.

On March 7, 1953, Collins (who had two sons, Frederick Arthur Jr. and Hunt Turner by an earlier marriage) married Lucia Baldwin.  It was Lucia's fourth marriage.  This one, too, would not last and Lucia left 208 East 78th Street around 1957 to begin divorce proceedings.

Arthur Collins died in the house at the age of 60 on June 16, 1958.  The divorce had not been finalized, and a long court case over the estate between his sons and Lucia began.

In 1964, the four 1865 houses to the west were demolished.  Those at the far east of the row were razed before 1900, replaced with a tenement building.  There were now just five houses, including 208 East 78th Street, that survived.

No. 208 is at the far right.

In 1988, an apartment was installed in the basement.  At some point the homeowners of the row agreed to paint the brownstone trim white, giving the charming residences a unified appearance.

photographs by the author

The 1871 Jacob J. Lissner House - 125 East 78th Street

 

Among the early developers who began transforming the mostly rural land east of Central Park at the end of the Civil War was Nicholas McCool.  Around 1871 he erected a row of three-story, brownstone-fronted homes on the north side of East 78th Street between Lexington and Fourth Avenues (renamed Park Avenue in 1888).  The three-bay-wide homes were identical--their brownstone stoops protected by substantial cast iron railings and newels.  On either side of the fully arched entrances were foliate carved corbels that supported Renaissance-inspired triangular pediments.  Smaller versions sat upon the parlor floor windows.

McCool sold 125 East 78th Street to real estate operator Dennis Loomie, who, in turn, rented it to the family of Samuel Trishet.  Trishet and his wife had at least one small daughter.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 28, 1872 read: "Dressmaker wanted who understands making children's dresses, at 128 East 78th st, near 4th av., steady work."

On April 27, 1874, Loomie sold 125 East 78th Street to Jacob J. Lissner for $17,000.  The price would translate to about $496,000 in 2026.  The obscure Lissner did not list a profession in city directories.  Six years after purchasing the house, he and his family moved to Madison Avenue and 99th Street.

The family of John Byrnes next moved into 125 East 78th Street.  Born in Dublin, Ireland, Byrnes was the principal of the National Surety Company and was well-connected with Tammany Hall.  He and his wife, Rose, had at least three children: Matthew, Mary Cecelia, and Thomas F.  The family's country home was in Babylon, Long Island.

Despite the family's affluence, John Brynes had a stain on his reputation, one not forgotten by The New York Times.  Three years earlier, in 1877, he was appointed the city's Chief of the Supply Bureau and the following year he was Tammany Hall's nomination for Alderman.  The newspaper sneered at his nomination, saying that Byrnes, "is a fair sample of the class of men Tammany Hall seeks to place in power in this city."  The article then dragged out a shocking incident that occurred in 1869.  On July 31 that year, he had "exposed his person" to a young woman "in a most indecent manner," reported The New York Times.  He told her he "would like to have some pleasure with her," according to the victim.  She broke free and had Byrne arrested.

The children were young adults in 1897 and on October 20 that year Cecilia was married to Joseph W. Lawrence in the Church of Jean Baptiste on East 74th Street near Lexington Avenue.  John Brynes's earlier indiscretion seems to have been forgotten.  The social status of the two families was reflected in the reception held in the East 78th Street house.  Among the guests, as recorded by the New-York Tribune were "Miss Chambers, Miss Fish and the Misses Bayne," along with other recognizable society surnames like Kennelly, Sniffen, Trainor and Schuyler.

John Brynes's ties to Tammany had been advantageous to his son, Thomas, who was appointed Police Commissioner in 1880, the year the family moved into 125 East 78th Street.  But in 1895, the new president of the New York City Police Commission, Theodore Roosevelt, forced Thomas to resign as part of Roosevelt's purge of corruption within the department.  Thomas Byrnes would later become an insurance investigator.

Thomas F. Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America, 1886 (copyright expired)

Thomas Byrnes attempted to re-enter Tammany politics in 1903 as a nominee for mayor.  On September 12, The New York Times said that Byrnes's name was "stricken off" the list of candidates, saying that he was "one of the best known Tammany men in the city and a man who for thirteen years [sic] has lived at 125 East Seventy-eighth Street."

On January 27, 1912, The New York Times reported, "John Byrnes has sold...his residence at 125 East Seventy-eighth Street."  The purchaser was Marie C. M. Winter, whose country home was in Woodbury, Long Island.

As early as 1914, Marie Winter leased the house to Reverend James Nevett Steele and his wife, Helen Hudson Aldrich.  Born in 1850 and 1851, respectively, the couple maintained a country home in East Hampton.  Steele was vicar of Trinity Church and a prolific hymnist.  

Rev. James Nevett Steele, The Churchman, May 8, 1897 (copyright expired)

Several of the hymns Steele wrote are still highly popular in American churches.  Among them are "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts," "Just as I Am, Without One Plea," and "Nearer My God, to Thee."

Marie C. M. Winter had moved back to 125 East 78th Street before 1917, when she was looking for a new cook.  Her advertisement on October 7 read, "Cook--Good plain cook; young.  English, Scotch or Swedish preferred; must have good reference and want a permanent position."

Marie Winter sold 125 East 78th Street in February 1921 to George and Grace Middleton Roberts.  George Roberts was a partner in the law firm Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts.  Grace was the daughter of Clifford L. and Grace B. Middleton and an alumna of Smith College.  The couple had two daughters, Constance and Rosamond Graham.  Their country home was on Great Peconic Bay in Long Island.  

The Robertses updated the house.  The stoop was removed and the entrance, along with its original brackets and entablature, was relocated to below grade.  Guests approached the doorway under a handsome lantern hung from a wrought iron arch supported by iron posts.  The architect deftly transformed the former doorway into a precise copy of the windows at that level.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Roberts sisters were educated in the private Brearley School.  Constance was studying at Smith College when she was introduced to society at the Colony Club in December 1936 at a "reception and tea dance," as reported by The East Hampton Star.  She married Robert Louis Hoguet Jr. in August 1940 in East Hampton.

Rosamond's time in the limelight came four years later.  On December 26, 1944, The New York Sun reported that her debut took place "at the roof of the St. Regis."  

The Robertses announced Rosamond's engagement to Donald Arthur Jr. on August 21, 1946.  The East Hampton Star noted that after graduating from Smith in 1944, "She did postgraduate work with the National institute of Public Affairs in Washington and has since been with the Tenant Relocation Bureau in New York."

Nine months later, The East Hampton Star reported, "Mr. and Mrs. George Roberts, who were in East Hampton last week, are moving in May from their house at 125 East 78th St. to 139 East 79th St."   The couple sold the house to photographer Hans Henry Namuth.

Born in Essen, Germany in 1915, Namuth focused on portraiture, often choosing artists as his subject.  Among the painters he photographed were Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Rauschenberg.  He also made portraits of architects like Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn.

Namuth captured Jackson Pollock at work in his studio.  from the collection of the Hans Namuth Estate

In 1967, 125 East 78th Street was remodeled.  There were now a dress shop in the ground floor and one apartment each on the upper stories.  A one-year renovation initiated in 2019 returned the structure to a single family home.

photographs by the author

The Philip Minis House - 117 East 78th Street

 

photograph by the author

As laborers returned to New York City following the end of the Civil War, construction resumed.  Within a few years years development was inching northward into the Upper West and Upper East Sides.  Around 1871, Nicholas McCool erected a dozen high-stooped brownstones at 103 through 125 East 78th Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues.  Like its neighbors, 117 East 78th Street was just under 19-feet wide and rose three stories above a high English basement.  The Italianate design included an arched entrance below a classical pediment supported by foliate-carved corbels.  The architrave framed parlor windows, as well, wore triangular pediments.

It appears that McCool originally leased the house.  Robert Wild Todd was a Yale University educated attorney.  He married Mary M. Shields on December 14, 1871, and they lived here as early as 1873.  By 1876, John B. Carroll, who worked in the city's Bureau for the Collection of Assessments, occupied 117 East 78th Street, followed by Joseph and Sophie Newman.

Sophie Newman died in the house in 1881.  Within months, George Frederick Seward and his wife, the former Kate Sherman, moved in.  The couple were married in 1870 and had four children.  Born in 1840, George Seward was the president of the Fidelity and Casualty Co. and a director in several other firms.

George's uncle, William H. Seward, had served as Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State.  It may have been his influence that landed George's appointment as United States consul to Shanghai in 1861.  He became Consul General and, in 1875, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Peking.  When he and Kate moved into 117 East 78th Street, they had just returned to New York from Washington D.C. where he was the American Minister to China.  He had held that post from 1876 until 1880. 

George Frederick Seward.  from the 1911 "George F. Seward: Born November 8, 1840, Died November 28, 1910" by the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York.

Seward was, as well, "a writer on political and financial matters," according to The Milwaukee Journal.  Among his works was the Chinese Immigration in Its Social and Political Aspects.

Around 1883, Martin Freeman and his wife, the former Henrietta Wise, purchased 117 East 78th Street.  The couple had two adult sons.  Freeman arrived in New York City from Belvidere, New York around 1879 and found employment in the clothing and men's furnishings business of Henry Wise & Co.  He would not only rise within the firm, but he would marry the owner's daughter.  Martin's brother, Joseph Freeman, also got a job within the firm and he, too, married one of Henry Wise's daughters.  Upon the death of Henry Wise, the firm was renamed Freeman Bros.

Martin Freeman, The American Hatter, June 1902 (copyright expired)

The Freemans maintained a country home in Elberon, New Jersey.  In April 1895, they advertised the property for rent, possibly because the family would be summering in Europe.  The ad described: "15 rooms; all modern improvements; with stable having accommodation for coachman's family and room for four horses; location the best."

Despite his relative youth, Martin Freeman suffered from heart disease.  On the evening of May 26, 1902, he died from a heart attack.  The American Hatter noted, "He was not quite 58 years of age."

On May 2, 1905, Henrietta Wise Freeman sold 117 East 78th Street to Philip H. Minis for $28,250, just over $1 million in 2026 terms.  

Before the Minis family moved in, they hired architect Henry Brooks Price and Hunt & Howells to make what the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide described as "extensive alterations."  Almost assuredly, one firm handled the structural changes and the other the interiors.  On March 21, 1906, the New-York Tribune reported, "The interior is to be remodelled [sic] and a new staircases installed."  The residence was enlarged by the seamless addition of a fourth floor.  It was likely during these renovations that new iron stoop railings in a Classical Roman cross-hatch design were installed.  The remodeling cost the Minis family the equivalent of $554,000 today.

A 1940 tax photograph captured the distinctive ancient Roman-inspired stoop railings.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Philip Minis was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1843 and fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  He came to New York City in 1871 and founded the brokerage firm P. H. Minis & Co.  Among his most visible clients was William K. Vanderbilt.

He and his wife, the former Roberta Dudley, had one son, Robert B. Minis.  According to the New York Herald, Minis was a founder of the Metropolitan Club and (ironically) a member of the Union Club.  By the time he purchased 117 East 78th Street, he was a partner in the brokerage firm of Minis & Davis.  

In October 1911, Philip H. Minis fell ill.  His condition worsened to pneumonia and he died in the house on October 22, 1911 at the age of 68.  In reporting his death, the New York Herald described him as "one of the oldest members of the New York Stock Exchange."

Upon the appraisal of Philip Minis's estate, many in the financial community taken aback.  On September 25, 1912, the New York Herald reported, "A woman as equal partner in a Stock Exchange firm was revealed yesterday...The report stated that Mrs. Roberta B. Minis, the widow, claimed to have been admitted to membership in the firm in 1906 and remained in it until her husband died."  Minis may have made his wife an equal partner to guarantee her financial future.  She received half of the firm's assets and about one-third of her Philip's estate.  Robert received the other two-thirds.

Robert and his wife, Janet, shared the house with Roberta.  On July 10, 1911, The Wall Street Journal reported that Robert had been appointed cashier of the National Reserve Bank.  It was a highly responsible and visible position.  Three years later, on February 5, 1914, the newspaper reported that he had been elected as a vice-president of the Mutual Trust Co., "which absorbed the National Reserve Bank."

In the meantime, Janet, was visible in high society.  In reporting on the activities in Southampton on August 28, 1922, for instance, the New York Herald said, "Mrs. Robert B. Minis, who for some weeks has been at the Irving House, gave a luncheon yesterday at the Meadow Club."

The house was photographed in 1940, just before the stoop was removed.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Minis family sold 117 East 78th Street to Harold Joseph Roig and his wife, the former Henrietta Bartlett Havens (known familiarly as "Henri"), in 1939.  Born in 1885 and 1892, respectively, the couple had three daughters, Jean, Carol and Leila.  Like their mother, at least two of them went by nicknames--Jean as "Cookie" and Leila as "Dee Dee."

As the Minis had done, the Roigs made significant alterations to the house before moving in.  They hired architect William Lawrence Bottomley to remove the stoop and lower the entrance below grade.  In transforming the original entrance to a window, Bottomley recreated the triangular pediments of the original windows.  And he skillfully removed the foliate entrance brackets and reinstalled them on either side of the new doorway.  (Tellingly, the certificate of occupancy noted, "entire premises to be occupied as [a] dwelling for one family and servants.")

Although Harold was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, his father, Adolph S. Roig, was Cuban-born.  Harold graduated from Columbia Law School and became CEO of W. R. Grace & Company and a co-founder and president of Pan American Grace Airways.  The family maintained a country estate in Great Neck, Long Island.  

Harold Joseph Roig, (original source unknown)

The Roigs moved in just in time for the announcement of Jean's engagement to John Thompson Ross.  The article in The New York Times on July 12, 1940, testified to the Roig sisters' privileged youth and their significant educations.  

Miss Roig attended the Brearley School in this city, was graduated from the Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, Pa., and in 1939 from Smith College.  She was introduced to society at a supper dance at the St. Regis in December, 1936, and is a member of the Junior League of New York.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the article noted that the prospective groom "is now with W. R. Grace & Co.

When the United States entered World War II, Carol enlisted in the U.S. Navy.  Her sense of patriotic duty led to romance and on August 19, 1945, The New York Times reported, "Lieut. (j.g.) Carol Roig of the Waves...was married [in Coronado, California] to Lieut. David Gapen Watrous, USNR."  Interestingly, none of the family members other than her father, was mentioned in the article.

On August 28, 1946, the Pan American-Grace Airways launched two passenger-cargo ocean liners, the Santa Sofia and the Santa Clara.  A crowd of about 500 watched as Henrietta Roig christened the Santa Sofia.  (The other was christened by the wife of another W. R. Grace & Co. executive.)

That would be perhaps that last time the Riogs' names would appear in the newspapers for quite a long time.  In 1946, Harold and Henrietta relocated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

By the mid-1960s, the house was owned by Andrew Y. Rogers.  He was president of The Park Association of the City of New York, a civic and advocacy organization.  The group often battled city officials, like Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, regarding urban planning and the loss of public green spaces.

George A. Kellner occupied 117 East 78th Street as early as 1981, when he was an incorporator of Kellner, Dileo & Co., an investment firm.

photograph by the author

At some point, an unofficial renovation resulted in three units within the house.  The exterior, however, is little changed since William Lawrence Bottomley removed the stoop and remodeled the lower floors for the Riogs in 1940.  And, perhaps coincidentally, the lost stoop railing's Roman cross-hatch design is reinvented in the ground floor openings.

Richard Williamson's 118 East 78th Street

 

The extension of the New York and Harlem Railway along Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue) in the early 1830s sparked interest in the district.  East 78th Street was officially opened in 1860 and homes began appearing shortly afterward.  But construction ground nearly to a halt throughout the city when laborers were sent to fight in the South.  

The Civil War ended in April 1865 and one developer wasted no time in constructing of a row of upper-middle-class rowhouses along East 78th Street between Lexington and Fourth Avenue.  Historians agree that it was likely Richard Williamson who was responsible for the project.  

Three stories tall above rusticated basements, the houses were just 18-feet wide.  Their elliptically arched openings sat within attractive molded frames.  Williamson's builder forewent the fussy scrolled corbels and pediments seen above Italianate entrances of more costly homes, giving these a simple keystone.

The molded architraves of 118 East 78th Street would have matched these, which survived in examples farther east along the row in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Given the regular change in occupants, it appears that Williamson rented 118 East 78th Street.  Living here in 1870 was Deborah Plume, the widow of Isaac Plume, and her son, Joseph.  (Another son, Isaac H. Plume, was among those New Yorkers who had marched off to battle.  A member of the Seventh Regiment, he rose to the rank of first lieutenant and was killed in the Battle of Manassas on August 27.)  Deborah died here on July 23, 1870 at the age of 80.  Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

James S. Shell and wife, Mary J., moved in within months.  Schell was a saddler with Hoover, Calhoun & Co., "manufacturers and importers of fine saddlery and harness, wholesale and retail," as described by The Merchant's Directory.  

Schell, too, had served in the war, but his experience was much different from that of Isaac Plume.  James S. Schell was drafted into the Union Army on March 21, 1865.  Just over two weeks later, on April 9, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the war.  Schell was mustered out on July 11, 1865.  

Like most families who had extra rooms, the Schells took in boarders.  Their ad on December 22, 1875 read: 

A gentleman and wife, or family, can have elegant Rooms and Board very low with small private family; brown stone residence.  118 East Seventy-eighth street, near Madison avenue cars.

Answering that ad was attorney Wells Hendershott, who listed his address here through 1877.

Around 1878 William D. Lent and his family owned and occupied 118 East 78th Street.  Lent was a glass merchant with his business at 390 Broome Street.  He and his wife, Ella M., had three daughters Alice, Mary and Marietta.  

Marietta's wedding to William H. Starbuck in St. Bartholomew's Church on September 22, 1880 reflected the family's comfortable finances.  "The bride's dress was of brocaded silver satin, and the dresses of the bridesmaids of mull and satin," reported The Daily Graphic.  The article noted, "A reception followed at the house of the bride's parents, No. 118 East Seventy-eighth street."

It appears that living with William D. Lent could be taxing.  Decades later, he sued his daughter, Alice, who was now married, "to restrain her from disposing of the contents of a safe deposit box containing securities which he had given to her," reported the New York Herald.  He died on November 17, 1915 leaving an estate equal to $3.2 million in 2026 terms.  The New York Herald reported, "He gave nothing to his wife, Mrs. Ella M. Lent."

In the meantime, the Lent family had moved to 60 East 68th Street around 1886 and the East 78th Street house became home to the Herman Hirsch family.  It was either the Lents or the Hirsches who slightly updated the house around that time.  Modern, Esthetic-style ironwork at the stoop and areaway replaced the Italianate originals.  And French windows with a modified fanlight were installed in the parlor.

The new parlor window and one of the replaced newels can be seen at the left in this 1913 photograph. (The molded architraves are intact.)  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Herman Hirsch listed his profession as "liquors," meaning he either ran saloons or liquor stores.  He had two locations, one at 1336 Third Avenue and the other at 75 Murray Street.  When the family moved into 118 East 78th Street, Lee Hirsch was attending the Free Academy of New York.

The residence continued to see a frequent turn-over of occupants.  The Beckwell family lived here in 1895 when William and James J. Beckwell added their names to hundreds of New Yorkers who petitioned the Board of Aldermen to construct a "bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."

Around 1906, John H. Campbell and his wife purchased 118 East 78th Street.  Born in 1866, Campbell was described by the New-York Tribune as "prominent in New York politics during the reign of Richard Croker as Tammany Hall chieftain."  The distinction was not especially positive.  "Boss" Crocker's tenure was marked with corruption.  Campbell was initially Crocker's secretary, and when the latter became City Chamberlain in 1889 he made Campbell his deputy.  

John H. Campbell, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

In 1908, Campbell "left the city's service," as worded by the New-York Tribune, and took the position of treasurer of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.  He would become, as well, the treasurer of the Subway Realty Company, the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, the Interborough Consolidated Corporation, and a director of the Merchants Refrigerating Company, the Metropolitan Securities Company, and "several ferry and transportation concerns," according to the New-York Tribune.

While Campbell was busy at work, his wife enjoyed the lifestyle of a well-to-do woman.  On August 24, 1913, the New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. John Campbell, of No. 118 East 78th street, who is spending the summer at the Nassau Hotel, Long Beach, gave a shore dinner and dance to her Beach friends at the Casino, Long Beach, Tuesday evening, August 19."  The article noted that Nathan Frank and his wife were among the guests and "his orchestra of fifty pieces played on the porch during the dinner."

With his health failing in 1919, Campbell and his wife sold 118 East 78th Street to Dr. Royal Herman Willis and his wife, Jennie.  The Campbells moved to the Garden City Hotel in Garden City where John H. Campbell would die on April 5, 1922 at the age of 56.  

Herman was Jennie's second husband.  Born Jennie B. Murray in 1867, her first husband, Samuel Edward Vernon, died in 1914.  She and Vernon had two children, Vivian and Murray Vernon.  They were 25 and 21 years old respectively in 1919.

Vivian would not reside in the East 78th Street house.  The previous year, on May 11, 1918, she married Leo Nunes, "of Leghorn, Italy, in Grace Church," as reported by the New-York Tribune.

Murray Vernon would live here until 1923.  On June 9, 1923, The New York Times reported on his marriage to Marcella Verran at the bride's home at 270 Park Avenue.

At some point prior to 1940, the molded architraves were shaved flat, apparently in an effort to slightly modernize the facade.

The molding of the frames around the windows and doorway was flattened by 1940.  The shuttered windows and boarded entrance suggests interior renovation was going on.  The charming crescent moon cutouts in the shutters provided ventilation.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.  

Jennie B. Willis died on December 3, 1953 at the age of 86.  Dr. Royal Herman Willis would die in Brooklyn in 1961 at the age of 85.  

In the meantime, the East 78th Street house was converted to two duplex apartments in 1953.  The configuration remained until a renovation in 1971 returned the house to a single-family home.  

In 2007 Chelsea Atelier Architect, PC completed a gut renovation.  The firm's website says that the "facade was completely restored to its original brownstone...Some stone was replaced and everything was repainted."

photograph by the author

The Elijah B. Middlebrook House - 121 East 78th Street

 

photograph by the author

Development of the Upper East and Upper West Sides began in earnest following the Civil War.  Around 1871 Nicholas McCool erected a row of identical Italianate-style homes on the north side of East 78th Street, between Lexington and Fourth Avenues (renamed Park Avenue in 1888).  Three bays wide and three stories tall above high English basements, they were intended for affluent families.

Beefy cast iron railings and newels protected the areaways and stoops.  Like the others, the arched entrance of 121 East 78th Street sat below a prominent triangular pediment upheld by foliate, scrolled corbels.  Smaller versions embellished the parlor windows.  The upper floor windows sat within molded architraves with cornices.

121 East 78th Street was originally identical to No. 127, seen here around 1912.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

McCool advertised 121 East 78th Street and two others on September 17, 1872:

Three high stoop brown stone houses, 119 and 121 East Seventy-eighth street, also 121 East Seventy-ninth street, within two blocks of Central Park, all of which will be sold cheap to prompt buyers.

The ad was answered by Dr. Elijah B. Middlebrook, who had just relocated to New York City from Connecticut.  Middlebrook owned "large blocks of real estate" in Bridgeport, Connecticut, according to The Evening World, which added that he was "considered a wealthy man."  

Born at "Long Hill," in Trumbull, Connecticut, Middlebrook was a graduate of Yale College.  His resume was not restricted to medicine.  At the age of 36 he owned a carriage factory and a large livery stable in Bridgeport.  He was as well, according to the New York Herald, "a farmer and a dealer in real estate."

Middlebrook was not living in New York by his own choice, however.  Shortly before purchasing 121 East 78th Street, he was embroiled in a court battle in Connecticut.  He assaulted attorney W. K. Seller in the courtroom and openly called him a liar.  Although Middlebrook paid a $600 fine (a significant $16,900 in 2026), the New York Herald reported that he "exiled himself from Bridgeport rather than endure the ignominy of imprisonment."  The Evening World said, "Dr. Middlebrook was compelled to remain out of the State or go to jail to serve out a sentence for contempt of Court."

Moving into the new house with her father was Annie A. Sewell.  It is unclear whether she was a young widow, or if her husband lived here as well.  However, when Annie died a year later on March 16, 1873 at the age of 30, her husband was not mentioned in her obituary.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on March 19.

Interestingly, when Middlebrook moved into 121 East 78th Street, he listed his profession as "physician."  In 1876, he changed it to "veterinarian surgeon."  And in 1879, he listed both: "physician" at 170 East 78th Street and "veterinarian surgeon" at 169 East 77th Street.

Among Middlebrook's servants in 1881 was Mary Lynch.  On the afternoon of January 18, she caught 13-year-old George Leonard slipping out of the house.  She alerted Dr. Middlebrook who had the teen arrested.  The New York Herald reported, "Nothing was stolen from the premises.  In the boy's pocket was found a night key."  Leonard was held in jail until it could be discerned if the key would open the locks of the Middlebrook house.

By 1884, Mary J. Perkins and her adult nephew, Frederick B. Sewell, lived in the house with Elijah Middlebrook.  It is unclear what their relationship, if any, was.  

Interestingly, on May 3, 1884 The American Architect and Building News reported that Middlebrook was erecting a two-story brick stable at 164-170 Eat 78th Street at a cost of $3,000 (just under $100,000 in 2026).  The plans named F. B. Sewell as the architect.

Dr. Elijah B. Middlebrook died in the East 78th Street house on April 1, 1889.  In reporting his death, a Bridgeport newspaper could not restrain from pointing out that he "fled from this city seventeen years ago after assaulting Lawyer W. K. Seeler in the court-room."

Mary J. Perkins inherited 121 East 78th Street.  She maintained a 133-acre country home in Westchester County.  She took in a boarder, Dr. Samuel F. Howland, who was a dentist.  Howland, who was a bachelor, lived here until his death on March 3, 1914.   His will was probated on July 30, and the New York Herald reported that he left $77,026, "of which he gave $50,000 to Mary J. Perkins, who was not related to him."  (The remainder went to the Moody Schools of Northfield, Massachusetts.)

Mary J. Perkins died on April 13, 1918.  She left the equivalent of $2 million today to Frederick B. Sewell and the East 78th Street house.  Sewell was now living in Mount Vernon, New York and exactly a year later, on April 19, 1919, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that he had leased the house to Dr. William B. Boyd.  Boyd was a vice president of the Columbia University Biochemical Association and a member of the Presbyterian Hospital staff.  

Moving into the house with him was his sister, Virginia.  A self-reliant woman, she was a graduate of Barnard College and during World War I she traveled overseas "with a Y.M.C.A. canteen."  She was originally in charge of "a Barnard unit" there.  Virginia was eventually promoted to inspector in charge of all units in one sector.

The New York Times noted, "Since the war she has been engaged in business management and accountancy."  When she and her brother moved into 121 East 78th Street she was controller of the Kent Place School for Girls in Summit, New Jersey.  Virginia Boyd resigned from the girls' school in June 1925.  Two months later she boarded the Leviathan "for an indefinite stay in France," according to The New York Times.

Virginia's independent and intrepid nature resulted, in part, in a horrifying incident.  On September 22, 1925, Dr. Boyd explained to a reporter that she "had planned to visit friends and to take a walking trip through the chateau region.  One of the points she was to visit was Blois."  Two days earlier, Virginia was on that "walking trip" while between Blois and Chambord when a man attacked her.  A wire from Paris said, "After fighting bravely Miss Boyd was about to be overcome by her assailant, when passing automobilists put him to flight."

French officials took the attack seriously.  The New York Times reported, "Armed posses are scouring the countryside today in a search for the assailant of Miss Boyd."

Frederick B. Sewell, described by The Carpet and Upholstery Trade Review as "a retired interior decorator," died in his Mount Vernon home in 1933.  On May 25, The New York Times reported that his estate had sold 121 East 78th Street to R. Keith Kane.  The article noted it "will be altered at a cost of $10,000."  

The costly renovations (equal to a quarter of a million today) included removing the stoop and lowering the entrance to below grade, converting the original entrance to a window, and adding a new floor.  Astoundingly, the architect deftly matched the former entrance with the existing parlor openings, copied the original architraves for the top floor windows, and reinstalled the 1871 cornice.

Only the unimpressive basement level hinted that renovations had been made.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Born on July 3, 1900, attorney Richmond Keith Kane (who went by his first initial) was a 1926 graduate of Harvard Law School.  He attended Oxford where (as he had been in Harvard) he was on the rowing team.  The year before purchasing 121 East 78th Street, he joined the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.  He and his wife, the former Amanda Stewart Bryan, had four daughters: Shelah, Anne Tennant, Hope Stewart and Constance H.  Their country home was in Wickford, Rhode Island.

Amanda was highly involved in civic and social affairs.  On March 23, 1936, for instance, The New York Times reported that she hosted the "first in a series of meetings in behalf of the work of the Vocational Service for Juniors."  And on January 18, 1939, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. R. Keith Kane, president of the Smith College Club of New York, will give a luncheon today."

The family moved to Washington D.C. in 1940 after Kane became special assistant to the United States Attorney General "in the enforcement of new foreign-registration laws," according to The New York Times.  In September that year, the newspaper reported that Kane had leased the house furnished to "Viscount Jacques d'Aumale, Minister in charge of the French Consulate General in New York."

The New York Police Department's bomb square responded to 121 East 78th Street on March 3, 1941 "to investigate an explosion," according to The New York Times.  The detectives, however, found only "a slightly damaged tin can with white powder spread over the outside of the street door."  The exploding canister was deemed a prank.

With relations between the French Vichy Government and America strained, the following year the consul left East 78th Street and No. 121 was leased to Frederick S. Bailey and his family.  He told The New York Times on November 11, 1942 that he and his family "were greatly disturbed lest any demonstration intended for [d'Aumale] should be addressed to them."

In the meantime, R. Keith Kane was appointed assistant to the Secretary of the Navy in 1943 and in 1945 was an advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization.

The family was back in the East 78th Street home at midcentury.  Shelah Kane was introduced to society in 1950.  She had graduated from the Brearley School and studied at Smith College.  She was married to Ensign James H. Scott, Jr. of the U.S. Coast Guard in St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church in Wickford, Rhode Island on August 18, 1952.

Anne Tennant Kane also attended the Brearly School.  She graduated from the Foxcroft School and Smith College.  Four years after Shelah's wedding, on December 22, 1956, Anne Tennant Kane was married in the Church of the Resurrection to Lockhart Bemiss McGuire.  

Adding to his impressive resume, in 1968 R. Keith Kane was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame.  And in 1971 Harvard gave him an honorary law doctorate.

Kane retired in December 1973 and he and Amanda relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia.  He died there five months later, on May 30, 1974, at the age of 73.

Former securities executive Aftab Islam, and his wife, Theresa Havell, lived here as early as 1999 with their six children and a live-in nanny.  The couple was married in 1979.  Theresa was described by The New York Post as "a Wall Street wizard."  She was the founder "of the highly successful Havell Capital Management," according to the newspaper.  Islam, on the other hand, called himself a "house husband" and had not worked since 1990.  

By 1999, things were not going smoothly within the marriage.  According to The New York Post, they slept in separate bedrooms.  Before going to bed on April 21, Theresa told Aftab that she wanted a divorce.  According to The New York Times, "She awoke just before 5 A.M. as Mr. Islam began beating her with a barbell he used to work out in their home at 121 East 78th Street." 

Saying that the attack came after "years of physical and mental abuse," Women's eNews reported, "After Havell's screams brought three of the couple's six children into her room, Islam continued his attack on the wife."  He told them that he had killed their mother, said the article.  Theresa was hospitalized with a fractured skull.  Islam was taken away by the police.

Charged with attempted murder, on August 11, 2000 Aftab Islam faced a judge.  Calling himself a "pacifist," he admitted hitting his wife with the 10-pound dumbbell.  But he explained his actions, saying that after he had sneaked into her room at 5 a.m. and "affectionately stroked her face...She bit my finger."

Islam continued, "I picked up the barbell she uses to exercise with and hit her with it."  He defended himself saying, "I only hit her four or five times and not very hard."

Islam was sentenced to eight years in prison.  While there, he attempted to retain 40 percent of the couple's assets in the divorce proceedings.  That did not happen.  The court (a subsequent appellate judge) ruled that Havell deserved the couple's entire assets, "valued at $17 million," according to Women's eNews.  The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court called his assault on Theresa "so egregious as to shock the conscience."

photograph by the author

New owners had renovations done in 2002.  It was most likely during this remodeling that architectural elements of the ground floor, faithful reproductions of the 1871 versions, and a charming bay window were installed.