Farrar & Thompson's 1929 200 West 16th Street

 

Henry Mandel started his career in his father's real estate development business, erecting tenement buildings.  But following World War I the Mandel Companies erected progressively larger, more elaborate projects.  His aggressive building plans culminated in 1929 when he laid plans for the block-engulfing London Terrace project on West 23rd Street and four architecturally similar apartment buildings on each of the corners of Seventh Avenue and 16th Street.

The Great Depression derailed Mandel's plans for the "Chelsea Corners" project and only three were built, all designed by Farrar & Thompson.  The architects married the Gothic and Jazz ages to create striking brick, limestone and terra cotta delights.

No. 200 West 16th Street, on the southwest corner, was 18 stories tall, plus a penthouse level, with 40 apartments per floor.  The two-story stone base, with stores along Seventh Avenue, was decorated with Gothic-style panels and whimsical tiles depicting mythical beasts.  The residential entrance was recessed within a Gothic arch and decorated with a square-headed drip molding, heraldic shields and another beast.  The upper floors rose to a set of dramatic Art Deco setbacks.

The building offered all the modern conveniences--uniformed doormen and elevator operators, a laundry in the basement, and electric refrigerators.  Prospective tenants had a variety of apartments from which to choose, from studios to larger suites.  The $40 rent for a studio apartment would equal about $670 per month today.

Among the initial studio apartment tenants were John C. Maurer, Jr. and his wife.  That they lived in a studio is somewhat surprising, since Maurer was the son of "Celery Jack" Maurer.  Maurer Sr. had begun his career as a fruit and vegetable shipper in Rochester, New York.  At a time when celery was not commonly used, he promoted it, becoming a pioneer in the celery industry and one of the largest celery distributors in the United States.  By the time he and his wife moved into the building, John Maurer, Jr. was the general manager of the firm.

The couple had not lived here long before Mrs. Maurer began noticing a peculiar recurring incident.  She would dutifully make up the Murphy bed every morning, fold it away, but then upon returning later in the afternoon would find it unfolded.  The mystery was solved when she came home unexpectedly in the spring of 1931.  She later explained, "One afternoon just about tea time I returned to our studio at 200 West 16th Street and found the bed unfolded and the lights lit, and my husband and a young woman there who was certainly not myself."

On May 7, 1931 the Daily News entitled an article "Celery Heir's Wife Sues Over Freaky Folding Bed."  According to the article she told the judge that when she walked in, her husband "was clad in gold pajamas and a lounging robe, while his fair companion had on less than a movie queen in a De Mille bathroom scene."  The couple divorced.

Another well-known tenant was Ed Frayne, the sports editor of the New York American.  He and close friends and associates Damon Runyon and Bill Farnsworth promoted boxing, most notably through the Hearst Milk Fund.  They lobbied promoters and managers to arrange fights, often at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, to benefit the fund. 

Frayne's apartment was the setting of Damon Runyon's wedding to actress Patrice Amati Del Grande on July 7, 1932.  Mayor James J. Walker performed the ceremony which, according to The New York Times, "took place in the presence of many sports writers and friends of the couple."  Runyon's first wife, Ellen, had died the previous year and his teen-aged daughter, Mary, was present at the ceremony.

The newlywed Runyons pose after the ceremony.  To the right of the bride is Mayor Walker and to her left is her husband's daughter, Mary.  from the collection of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Another newspaperman living here was Lyman Worthington, an advertising representative of The Daily News.  His wife was novelist and short-story writer Marjorie Muir Worthington.  Close friends of the Worthingtons were journalist William Buehler Seabrook and his wife, Katherine.  

William Seabrook and Marjorie Worthington had met in Paris in 1926.  By 1932 when Seabrook laid plans for a new book on Africa, he had added explorer and occultist to his resume (in the 1920's he traveled to West Africa where he encountered a tribe of cannibals, later obtaining human flesh from a hospital which he cooked and ate).

When Seabrook again left for Africa to do research for a book in 1932, he took Marjorie Worthington along.  It was a hint of things to come.  On September 20, 1935, The New York Times wrote, "The marriage eight months ago of William Seabrook, author of books of travel and adventure, to Mrs. Marjorie Worthington, novelist and short-story writer, was revealed here last night.  At about the same time, it was learned, Mrs. Worthington's former husband married Mr. Seabrook's former wife."

A reporter arrived at the Worthington apartment at 200 West 16th Street, where Lyman confirmed he had married Patricia Seabrook "six or eight months ago," but would not give any other details.

Her marriage to Seabrook was Marjorie's third and this one, too, did not last.  She divorced him in 1941, citing "alcoholism and sadism."

Whimsical beasts decorate the 16th Street side.

Perhaps the most celebrated tenant of 200 West 16th Street was politician Vincent Richard Impellitteri.  Born in Sicily, he had married Elizabeth Agnes McLaughlin in 1926, two years after earning his law degree from Fordham Law School.   The couple moved into the four-room apartment 19-A in 1931.  

Impellitteri was appointed President of the City council by Mayor William O'Dwyer in 1945.  Because of his steadfast stand against organized crime and corruption, the Tammany bosses refused to back him in his run for mayor in 1950.  He forged ahead, running as an independent, with the slogan "unbought and unbossed."  He won, bucking the long established system.

On September 2, 1950, The New York Times reported that Elizabeth was being "deluged" by good wishes.  She told journalist Madeleine Loeb, "I went down to the corner grocery store to buy a quart of milk and it took me one hour.  Everyone from clerks to customers, all old friends and neighbors, wanted to congratulate me at once."

Vincent Impellitteri in his office and Elizabeth in their apartment in 200 West 16th Street.  She is displaying a tea service she said she would be taking to Gracie Mansion.  The New York Times, September 2, 1950

Helen Donaldson lived in the building by the early 1960's.  A character actress in television and on Broadway, she was as well, according The New York Times journalist Jean Hewitt, an "office manager for a leading woman's magazine, world traveler and cooking enthusiast."

Donaldson was well-known among her close friends for her homemade Genoise, a French butter spongecake, which she often served to her guests.  In an article published on June 8, 1964, Hewitt said that she "shares her apartment with a Siamese cat, prepares and serves her meals with care and entertains frequently at small dinner parties for six to eight and at large buffet parties."

Hewitt had come to 200 West 16th Street to interview the actress because her friends had finally convinced her to offer her Genoise for sale, at $8 each.  She cautioned she needed two day's notice on an order.

Donaldson's interest in cooking led her to collaborate with artist and professional dancer Jere McMahon--also an enthusiastic cook--in a cookbook, Measure for Measure.  It was written from a theatrical standpoint, with the preparatory steps of recipes labeled Act I, followed by Acts II and III.

Although the limestone base has been painted gray, Farrar & Thompson's playful Art Deco take on Gothic survives mostly unchanged along with its two fraternal twins on opposite corners.

photographs by the author

Farrar & Thompson's 1930 201 West 16th Street

 

Henry Mandel started out in the real estate business erecting tenement buildings with his father.  Following World War I his firm, the Mandel Companies, erected progressively larger and more elaborate projects.  Mandel's aggressive building plans reached an apex in 1929 when he laid plans for the massive London Terrace project on West 23rd Street and four architecturally harmonious apartment buildings on each of the corners of Seventh Avenue and 16th Street.

The onslaught of the Great Depression upset Mandel's plans for the "Chelsea Corners" undertaking and only three were built.  Like its fraternal twins at Nos. 200 and 161 West 16th Street as well as the London Terrace, No. 201 West 16th Street was designed by Farrar & Thompson.  The architects melded the Jazz Age with Gothic Revival, creating a striking brick, limestone and terra cotta delight.  

Eighteen stories tall, the two-story base incorporated two shops on the avenue, while the residential entrance was centered on the side street.  Gothic elements, like the square-headed drip moldings over the second story windows and the handsome double height stone embellishments at the third and fourth floors, successfully coexisted with the sleek Art Deco lines of the structure.

On December 8, 1930, as the building neared completion, tragedy struck.  The Standard Union reported "A scaffold on the tenth story of a building under construction at 201 West Sixteenth street, Manhattan, collapsed to-day plunging four workmen to their deaths on the roof of a one-story building next door."  

The building was officially completed on September 16, 1931, although tenants had begun moving in earlier.  They were lured by the modern conveniences--a laundry in the basement, Electrolux refrigerators, and uniformed doormen and elevator operators.  The $40 rent for a studio apartment would be equal to about $671 today--a significant amount for New Yorkers struggling during the Depression.

Among the initial tenants were the E. Howard Mowbray family, accountant William Bringhurst, and Henry Robert Mandel and his family.  Mandel was the son of the building's developer and worked within the family firm.

The Mowbrays appeared in the society columns repeatedly.  E. Howard and his wife, Jane, had one daughter, Edna.  The family had a summer home far upstate in Elmira Heights, New York.  

Edna was involved in the formation of a young ladies' social club in 1931 and on November 18 the Star-Gazette reported "The Nona Club held its first meeting Monday evening at the home of Miss Edna Mowbray, 201 Wet 16th Street.  A delightful evening was spent and dainty refreshments were served."  The following year, in August, Edna "entertained with a variety shower" for Edna Biernbrauer.  The Star-Gazette noted "The honor guest received many attractive gifts.  Bridge was enjoyed during the evening, followed by a dainty luncheon."

On June 5, 1933 the Mowbrays hosted a party at which Edna's engagement to Howard J. Griswold was announced.  It was cleverly revealed in a heart-shaped jig-saw puzzle containing a photograph of the couple.  

In the meantime, Henry Mandel filed for bankruptcy in 1932 and was jailed in 1933 for failure to pay alimony.  His son, who used his first initial and middle name, possibly to distinguish himself from his father, now became vice president of the Chelsea Management Corporation.  Despite his father's substantial financial problems, his career thrived.  In 1938 he published a reference book for agents, lawyers and property owners entitled Real Estate Management.

Mandel and his wife Rose had a son, Paul William.  They were both highly involved in charitable, civic and artistic issues.  In 1934 Mandel became a member of the Art Students' League.  But his interest was not merely philanthropic.  He studied art under Carlos Egas, Gregario Prestopino, Victor D'Amico and Sol Wilson.  By the end of the 1950's he would have several one-man shows and, while he considered his art a hobby, was accepted as a serious painter.  He was, as well, the president of The Village Art Center Gallery on Grove Street.

Medieval style bosses decorate the cornice above the second floor.

Another visible tenant was David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.  Labor unions held enormous power at the time.  While Dubinsky was instrumental in achieving gains for the thousands of garment employees through strikes and protests, he was also accused of forcing members to follow the union line without question.  On November 2, 1936, for instance, The New York Sun reported "Final 'voting orders' went out to the members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union today."  In the messages president David Dubinsky said in part "Cast your own vote and get your family and friends to vote for Roosevelt and Lehman."  The Sun said that the hand-delivered messages were a "more-than-gentle hint that the union expected every member to do his or her duty at the polls tomorrow."

Paul William Mandel graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1951 and then studied at Harvard Law School.  He was married to Sheila Reid Emslie on August 20, 1956.  

His parents continued to be active in social causes.  Rose was head of the Community Service Society on East 22nd Street in 1959, described by The Villager as "The largest volunteer, non-sectarian, family service agency in the world, both in terms of cases handled and expenditure."  That year H. Robert became involved in the rescue of the historic and architecturally important Jefferson Market Courthouse in Greenwich Village.  Abandoned and home to rats and pigeons, the city slated it for demolition to make way for an apartment house.  The Villager reported on November 25 that "a group of noted sponsors headed by H. Robert Mandel, 201 W. 16th St., [propose] the use of the prison site as a Village Cultural Center...The Mandel plan would renovate the existing building for use as a cultural center."  He remained involved in the issue until the preservation of the building was finally secured more than a decade later.

Other tenants of note were attorney Edward Kuntz and his wife Beatrice.  Like David Dubinsky, Kuntz was heavily involved with labor issues.  He was one of the trial counsels of the International Labor Defense and routinely defended pickets arrested during strike demonstrations.  Among his most memorable cases was his defense of Morton Sobell, who stood trial in 1951 with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on charges of spying for the Soviet Union.  Kuntz and his wife were still living in No. 201 in April 1957 when he died.

Little has changed externally to Farrar & Thompson's 1931 take on Gothic Revival.  There are still 114 apartments in the building, as there were on opening day. 

photographs by the author