James E. Ware's 1884 67 and 69 Eighth Avenue

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In 1883, developer Pierson S. Halstead demolished the two vintage buildings at 67 and 69 Eighth Avenue, just south of West 14th Street, and hired architect James E. Ware to replace them with two store-and-tenement buildings.  Completed in 1884, they struggled with an architectural dual personality.  Above the residential entrances, flanked by stores, were stone entablatures ornately carved with Renaissance Revival designs.  The style reappeared on the top floor where shallow piers capped with Doric capitals separated the openings.  But sandwiched between, the three-story midsection was purely neo-Grec in style.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, the windows wore hefty stone lintels capped with molded cornices.

While most tenants were respectable--like William H. Broderick, who lived in No. 67 and was a commissioner of deeds, similar to a notary public--others found themselves in trouble with the police.  

James F. Hyde, who also lived in No. 67, was a "ticket speculator" (known today as a ticket scalper).  He was working the crowd outside the Fourteenth Street Theatre on the night of November 24, 1887 when another speculator, David Stack, showed up.  Infuriated, Hyde insisted that the interloper leave.  The Sun reported, "They clinched, and Hyde, it is said, struck Stack over the head with the butt end of a revolver after Stack had bit his right thumb."  Neither man would sell any more tickets that night.  They were both arrested.

Hyde was assuredly familiar with another resident of 67 Eighth Avenue.  Martin W. Hanley, who lived there with his family at the time of the affray, was the manager of Harrigan's Park Theatre.

Living next door as early as 1891 was aspiring politician Charles Henry Turner.  Born in 1861, he attended Columbia College from 1886 to 1888.  He went into the ice business while campaigning for State Senate in 1888.  According to The New York Times, he "made speeches from the tailboard of an ice cart."  The newspaper said he would become "known throughout the country as 'Turner, the Ice Man.'"

In 1889, after Democratic U.S. Senator Frank T. Fitzgerald stepped down, Turner was elected to fill his place.  He served from December 9, 1889 to March 3, 1891, retaining the lease to his Eighth Avenue apartment.

Charles Henry Turner, Once a Week newspaper 1890 (copyright expired)

Turner hosted a political meeting in his apartment on February 9, 1891.  The New York Herald said, "The Executive Committee of the County Democracy Organization of the Ninth Assembly district met last night at No. 69 Eighth avenue to decide upon the question of a union with the rival New York democracy."

At the end of his Senate term, in March 1891, Turner was appointed Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives.  By the end of the year, it had become apparent that keeping the New York City residence was unworkable.  On December 11, 1891, The Evening World said, "Doorkeeper Turner at his home, 69 Eighth avenue...said that he simply came home to arrange for the removal of his family to Washington."

Burns's Undertaking occupied one of the two shop spaces in 69 Eighth Avenue by 1898.  It was taken over by Richard J. Delaney at the turn of the century.

The Xavier, May 1904 (copyright expired)

On the night of November 20, 1910, Richard J. Delaney was riding in the front seat of his hearse and John H. Koenig was driving.  The hearse struck 12-year-old Genni Damborelli at Eighth Avenue and 16th Street.  The New York Times reported, "The boy had his right eye injured and suffered some contusions."  The article said, "The chauffeur was able to stop before the boy was run over."

Delaney put the boy into the hearse and he was taken to New York Hospital.  There doctors diagnosed the boy's eye injury as serious and advised Delaney to take him to the New York Eye and Ear Hospital on Second Avenue.  The New York Times reported, "After the boy's eye was dressed, he was put in the hearse again, while Mr. Delaney went to the West Twentieth Street Station to report the accident."

At the station house, it was discovered that John Koenig had been driving with a New Jersey license and he was detained.  Richard Delaney now took the reins of the hearse and took Genni Damborelli home.  The Times titled its article, "Boy Spends a Happy Hour in the Vehicle Which Ran Him Down," and said he was "apparently enjoying himself."

The Renaissance Revival carvings above the entrances were intact as late as 1940.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Richard J. Delaney sometimes handled the funerals of notable New Yorkers.  On August 4, 1911, The New York Times reported on the funeral of John B. McGoldrick, "for thirteen years Secretary to Richard Crocker, and for a short time Secretary of the Tammany General Committee."  And on the evening of May 17, 1916, the funeral of David Healy, "one of the oldest and most esteemed members of the New York Press Club," was held here.  

Delaney handled a sensitive situation in March 1921.  The bodies of Willis McCurdy, personnel manager of the American Surety Company, and his "young woman secretary, Alice Snowden," as described by the New-York Tribune, were discovered in Central Park.  The murder-suicide strongly suggested an extra-marital affair.  On March 10, the New-York Tribune reported, "The home of the McCurdys [in Astoria] remained closed all yesterday."  McCurdy's wife had taken their daughter away from the city and, apparently, wanted nothing to do with a funeral nor press attention.  McCurdy's brother, said the article, "placed the remains in charge of R. Delaney, an undertaker, of 69 Eighth Avenue, with instructions for shipment to the family home in Philadelphia."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Lenox Laundry occupied one of the store spaces in 67 Eighth Avenue as early as 1908.  That year Charles Goldstein, who lived at 318 West 14th Street and was studying dentistry, began sending his linen to the shop.  In February 1909, nine-year-old Edna Carroll, the daughter of the laundry's owner, was watching a Salvation Army "street meeting" when Goldstein approached her.  The Evening World reported, "He persuaded her to come to his room for a letter he said he wanted delivered and promised to give her 10 cents for carrying it."

Once there, Goldstein assaulted her.  The Evening World reported, "The child said that when she got to the young man's room he had held a knife over her, threatening her life if she made an outcry."  Shockingly, Goldstein was not done.  The article said that Edna "was afraid to go home for several hours and meanwhile Goldstein had enticed [12-year-old Fannie Katz] to his room."  Fannie escaped and ran to her mother.  Edna finally had enough courage go home.  The Evening World reported that just as Fannie Katz and her parents left the Charles Street station, "the parents of Edna Carroll arrived."

News of the outrageous crimes quickly spread throughout the neighborhood.  The World reported, "A great crowd gathered before Goldstein's house.  As he was dragged out by the policemen, several men in the crowd sprang forward and struck him down.  Before the policemen could draw their clubs and fight back the crowd, the young man had been kicked and beaten."

On February 17, Goldstein pleaded guilty.  He told the magistrate that he looked upon himself "with loathing" and said, "I must have been drunk or mad when I committed those horrible acts.  I see myself, now, as I must have been then, a creature only fit to be hanged."

The Delaney Funeral Parlors were still at 69 Eighth Avenue in 1924.  At the time, the other space was home to the florist shop of Alfred D. Sickles.

Patrick Mitchell and his family lived at 67 Eighth Avenue as early as 1922.  He listed his profession as a "trucking foreman," but police knew him as "Link" Mitchell, "a member of the 'Tanner' Smith gang when that organization was terrorizing the mid-west side," according to The New York Times.  Patrick was closely associated with Frank Wallace, described by the police as "a thrice-convicted member of the notorious Hudson Dusters gang," according to the newspaper. 

The two gangsters spent Saturday night, August 12, 1922, "from dusk until Sunday dawn cruising about Broadway and the side streets in an automobile, 'looking for a guy,' who was apparently avoiding him successfully," reported The Evening World.  At 2:00 a.m. they arrived at the Café La Vie on West 48th Street (a dining-dancing café).  

At around dawn, Wallace and Mitchell started to leave.  The New York Times reported, "Two bullets in his head, Wallace pitched from the café to the curb and toppled into the street to die an hour later in Roosevelt Hospital."  Patrick Mitchell was one of seven patrons who were detained as "material witnesses."

The slippery Patrick Mitchell avoided arrest over the coming years.  Then, early on the morning of October 17, 1925, detectives raided the Varsity Club at 48 Sixth Avenue and "seized a flask of gin and whisky," as reported by The New York Times.  Two men, Louis Roth and James Dixson, were arrested.  The article said, "As the detectives were leaving with their prisoners, they said, they saw Joseph King, a negro...hand a revolver to Patrick Mitchell."  Both men and Thomas King, "who was standing next to Mitchell," were arrested and charged with violating the Sullivan Law, an early gun control act.

Half a century after Alfred D. Sickles opened his flower shop in 69 Eighth Avenue, a florist still occupied the space.  On December 18, 1978, The Villager reported, "At 12:15 pm on December 9, two men entered the flower shop at 69 Eighth Avenue, pulled guns and forced the manager to turn over $450 in cash and $1900 worth of jewelry before fleeing north on Eighth Avenue.  The manager gave chase, but lost them at 16th Street." 

Two decades later, the McManus Florist occupied the space.

The Villager, February 7, 1996

There are still four apartments per floor in the buildings.  The cast iron piers of the 1884 storefronts survive, however the Renaissance Revival entablatures over the doorways are gone.  The upper floors are essentially unchanged.

photograph by Carole Teller

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

William E. Waring's 1881 106 West Houston Street

 

William E. Waring was perhaps best known for his tenement building designs.  In 1881, real estate investors Louis P. Dexheimer and Henry Thole hired him to design two tenement-and-store buildings at 104 and 106 West Houston Street at the northeast corner of Thompson Street.   Thole's building, No. 106, would be identical to that of Dexheimer.  Completed within the year, they were faced in brownstone and reflected an interesting mix of Italianate and neo-Grec styles.

The residential entrance to 106 West Houston Street was located around the corner at 164 Thompson Street.  Its handsome stone enframement included scrolled corbels that upheld a classical triangular pediment.  It and the segmentally arched windows were Italianate; however, the incised carvings of the lintels and the geometric lines of the cast metal cornice were purely neo-Grec.  To further confuse the architectural mix, Waring capped the cornices with Classical-style pediments topped with an anthemion, and flanked them with neo-Classical urns.

There were two apartments per floor in the building.  The store became home to H. Reiken's drugstore.  An advertisement he placed in the New York Herald on October 10, 1883 hinted at the neighborhood's demographics:

Drug Clerk (Junior)--That can speak French fluently and has had city experience may apply H. Reiken, 106 West Houston st.

In 1888, Leon Wernert graduated from the College of Pharmacy New York and took over the operation of the pharmacy.  He and Pietro Drureno established a symbiotic relationship when, on November 27 that year, Drureno received a permit to operate a newsstand on the sidewalk outside the drugstore.

Two of the urns on the shared cornice survived as late as 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Tom Turner lived at 64 South Fifth Avenue (today's LaGuardia Place) in 1889.  On the morning of March 27, he came into the drugstore and bought "forty grains of quinine," as reported by The Evening World.  It is unclear why Turner wanted the medication, which was mostly used to treat malaria.  In any case, said the article, he "took all of it on the spot.  It made him feel very sick and he had to be taken home and attended by a physician."  Presumably Turner survived the ordeal.

Among the residents in 1893 was James Hayden, described by the New York Herald as "a notorious pickpocket, who is also known as Funeral Wells."  Once a bookkeeper, the newspaper explained that now, "His picture is in the Rogues' Gallery and he has spent many years in prison."  Having a criminal past in the 19th century was reason enough to be arrested.  On October 9, 1893, Hayden and three other men were loitering around Sixth Avenue and 28th Street.  Detectives Sullivan and Lang noticed the "quartette of crooks," as described by the New York Herald.  "The crooks didn't do anything unlawful, so they were arrested as suspicious characters." said the article.  It continued, "They will be arraigned in Jefferson Market Police Court this morning."

Leon Wernert moved his business to Third Avenue.  The pharmacy here was taken over by Frederick Sutheim.  In the meantime, the residents continued to be middle class.  Living here in 1897 were the families of Gustav Grumbach, who ran a fur business on Clinton Place (today's West 8th Street); tailor Joseph Eremito; Peter Campora, who ran a florist shop steps away at 100 West Houston Street; Dominico Livellara, whose butcher shop was on Bleecker Street; and Caroline Buzze, a widow.

By the outbreak of World War I, Paul F. Gebicke ran the drugstore.  Born in Germany in 1854, he was vice-president and custodian of the mortuary fund of the German Apothecaries' Society of New York.  Although the neighborhood was greatly filled with Italian immigrants, the German druggist was "very popular" according to The Practical Druggist in December 1919.

Druggist Paul F. Gebicke, The Practical Druggist, December 1919 (copyright expired)

In the post-World War I years, the neighborhood saw increasing violence and crime.  Giuseppe Pepe lived here as early as 1920.  On January 20, 1921, The Evening World reported that he had been arrested for "peddling home made hootch to householders."

On the night of August 8, 1922, Alfred Form staggered into the drugstore and collapsed.  The 30-year-old tailor "had been stabbed in the abdomen and the left hand," reported the New York Herald.  The article said, "He became unconscious before he could be questioned and was in a serious condition when taken to St. Vincent's Hospital."  Detectives surmised that the stabbing was a result "of labor troubles in the clothing business."

The Valeati family occupied an apartment here in 1927.  On September 4 that year, 15-year-old Tony Valeati was watching a dice game in the rear yard of the building.  A quarrel broke out between two of the gamblers.  The New York Times reported, "A pistol was drawn and Tony was shot in the left shoulder."  Happily, the wound was not serious and he was treated at St. Vincent's Hospital.  The gamblers, not unexpectedly, had scattered.

Boys play in a stack of paving blocks as a limousine crosses West Houston street in 1932.  The excavation for the subway had been covered, but the pavement had not been repaired yet.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

After having been a pharmacy for decades, in the Prohibition years the store became a "pasticceria and gelateria," or pastry and gelato shop.  By the early 1960s, it was a cafe, La Casa Di Arturo, operated by Arthur Giunta.  (In 1964, he was refused a beer license because he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 1959 and because it was within 200 feet of a school, St. Anthony's School.)

The name La Casa Di Arturo eventually was honed down to Arturo's, a famous Greenwich Village spot for Italian food and pizza.  A blurb in Claudia Varrin's 2002 A Guide to New York's Fetish Underground described Arturo's fare, "Terrific brick-oven pizza, great mussels in wine sauce, live jazz on selected nights."

Arturo's has spread into the twin building next door.

More than half a century after Arthur Giunta opened his cafe, Arturo's remains a Greenwich Village destination.  William E. Waring's 1881 building has lost the urns that once decorated its cornice, but overall its appearance is little changed.

photographs by the author

Charles Mettam's 1870 506 La Guardia Place

image via loopnet.com

As early as 1845, a two-story brick house occupied the plot at 185 Laurens Street.  In the rear yard was a three-story brick house.  (It was an unexpected configuration since, normally, the larger house was at the front of the property.)  The address and the street name would be changed more than once in the coming decades.

Charles Golden owned the property in the post-Civil War years and the front house was home to Edwin Beyersdorf's lager-beer saloon.  At 10:00 on the morning of September 30, 1869, Beyersdorf was filling a cigar lighter on the counter from a "can of liquid gas," according to The New York Times.  The can ignited and the flames quickly engulfed the barroom.  The article noted, "The building, owned by M. [sic] Golden, is damaged about $800 and is insured for $4,000 in the Aetna."  (The amount of damage would translate to about $19,500 in 2026.)

One wonders if the fire was truly an accident or if Golden was in cahoots with his tenant to obtain the insurance money.  Two weeks before the fire, architect Charles Mettam had already filed plans for a "five-story brick store & tenement" on the site.  It is clear that Golden intended to replace the old structures, because at the time of Mettam's filing, the builder, James Clarke, had already been contracted.

Whether Golden was aware that Clarke was making shortcuts in the construction of the new building is impossible to know.  But a horrific accident took place on the job site.  The New-York Tribune reported, "a wrought-iron tension rod broke.  It was used to sustain the front wall...Having broken it let the entire wall down in to the cellar, and came near killing the master mason and a laborer."  An investigation revealed that the rod "was not of suitable form to sustain a great weight."

By the time construction of the building was completed in 1871, the block was known as South Fifth Avenue.  Mettam's Italianate design was typical of scores of store-and-apartment buildings being constructed throughout the city.  Faced in red brick above its cast iron storefront, the building's windows wore handsome molded stone lintels.  The cast metal cornice, likely chosen from a foundry's catalogue, featured foliate corbels, dentils and brackets. 

The building received a new address again in 1896--506 West Broadway.  Occupying the commercial space at the time was the United States Directory Publishing and Printing Company.  Among the upstairs tenants were the Mullin and Smith families.

Mary Mullin was an activist of sorts, at least for a woman of her time.  In 1896 she co-founded of the Woman's National Democratic League of the United States of America.  Its noble and floridly written purposes included: 

To denounce all forms of political corruption and unjust legislation and to aid and encourage the voters of the nation in their patriotic endeavors to maintain and perpetuate government of the people for the people and by the people.

The Smith apartment was burglarized by a trio of crooks early in 1897.  John Gartland, alias Corey; John Kelley, alias Frank Hazel, and Charles Walker, alias Stewart, were arrested on March 27 at 96 Barrow Street, described by the New York Herald as "a den of thieves."  Recent victims of burglaries, including Annie Smith, were summoned to Police Headquarters to identify any possible stolen items.  Annie "claimed a gold wedding ring," reported the New-York Tribune.

By the turn of the century, Gross & Horn, makers of shoe soles, occupied the ground floor.

Building Trades Association Bulletin, July 1901 (copyright expired)

In 1905, Ulric J. De Poli, described by the New York Herald as "a good looking young Italian," took an apartment here.  He operated his silk business from his apartment.  The nearly penniless immigrant posed as Louis Banta, "an Italian nobleman and a wealthy silk merchant," said the article.  Telling the owners of silk mills in New Jersey that he had $17,000 in the bank, he ordered bales of silk on credit and resold them to dry goods merchants.

The scheme collapsed on the morning of December 8, when De Poli "was nabbed at Bleecker street and West Broadway by Detective Sergeants Howard, Flannelly and Schoenick, who had a warrant for his arrest," as reported by the New York Herald.  The article explained that De Poli had been wanted "for fleecing several silk manufacturers out of goods valued at $20,933." 

Abolardo Cassi and his family arrived from Italy in 1906 and moved an apartment on the third floor of 506 West Broadway.  Like De Poli, he ran his business, of sorts, from his apartment.  On July 26, 1907, a man "hurried into the New York Custom House," and told officials that "he had found seven paintings by old masters, including Correggio and Titian, offered for sale by Abolardo Cassi...and that at the price asked he was sure they must have been smuggled into the country."

An art expert from the Appraiser's Office, a Customs inspector and a representative from the Custom House's legal department accompanied the man to Cassi's apartment.  Here Cassi showed them Titian's Rebecca at the Well; two canvases by Tintoretto, Hunting and Music; two works by Correggio, Abraham Dying and Joseph Recognizing His Brothers; The Holy Family by Cimaburg, and Massaccio's The Redeemer.  Cassi's asking prices ranged from $1,000 each for Hunting and The Redeemer to $15,000 for Rebecca at the Well.  The total amount of $32,000 would equal $1.1 million today.

Cassi explained that the paintings were "heirlooms of his family, which was at one time well-to-do in Italy," as reported by The New York Times.  He told the officials that he "had formerly been in prosperous circumstances, but that, meeting with reverses, he came to this country, bringing the paintings with him, as he did not wish to part with them."  Now in America, the Cassis' 17-year-old son was their main support.  But "since they arrived in this country," he explained, he "recently became insane and is now confined in the Manhattan State Hospital."

The art appraiser decided that the paintings were "very old, but were not considered originals."  Because there was no evidence that Cassi smuggled them into the country, the matter was dropped.  Whether the struggling immigrant was able to liquidate the copies is unclear.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Around the time of the Cassi investigation, 506 West Broadway was acquired by C. & M. Moriggia.  In 1911, they hired architect L. V. Spenaport to do $8,000 in renovations to convert the upper floors to commercial use.

Their ground floor tenant around the time was the Mariani Brothers, importers of Italian foods, operated by Filomena and Oreste Mariani.  On January 15, 1915, the New York Herald reported on the massive earthquake that destroyed 16 Italian towns, including Avezzano, and damaged 12 others.  An article said, "Mr. Oreste Mariani, who is a native of Vasto, near Avezzano, set to work early in the morning collecting funds at his place of business, No. 506 West Broadway, and turning them over to the Italian Red Cross Society.  The firm of Mariani Brothers headed the subscription list with $100."  The article continued:

Mr. Oreste Mariani sent a cable despatch [sic] to his brother, Mr. Humbert Mariani, in Naples, directing him to go to the stricken country, investigate conditions and to extend whatever immediate aid he could to the sufferers.  Mr. Mariani awaits a reply and expects to be accurately informed by one who was born and reared near Avezzano and still has nearly a dozen relatives in that region.

Less noble press about the Mariani Brothers came four months later.  The firm was fined $25 in April 1915, "for shipping whiskey into prohibition Vermont as 'groceries,'" reported The Larchmonter-Times.  

Among the upper floor tenants in 1912 were Axelrod & Sokel, manufacturers of boys' pants, and H. H. Upham & Co., sign makers.  The latter firm was established in 1863.  They would be joined in the building by 1915 by Edward Podesnick's electrical machinery shop.

Mariani Brothers remained in the building at least through 1919.  That year they advertised, "Correspondent wanted to take care of Italian and English correspondence; good typist; several years' experience with importers and small mail order; good salary."

But, initiated by Edward Podesnick, the building was mainly occupied by electrical firms in the 1920s.  Among them were the Shotwell Electric Co. and Neptune Battery Co., manufacturer of dry batteries.  The latter was renamed the Advance Battery Co. in 1923.

The building was a scene worthy of a cops-and-robbers movie in 1958.  In the early hours of February 8, Police Sergeant Thomas Gilligan and Patrolman John Dolan followed Kendall Brown, an ex-convict.  A passerby notified them that he had climbed the fire escape of 506 West Broadway to the roof.  The New York Post reported, "Gilligan, a six-footer weighing 200 pounds, was confronted on the roof by a man about his size wielding a switch-blade knife.  He disarmed the suspect in a struggle near the edge of the roof."

As the pair wrestled, Kendall tried repeatedly to shove Gilligan over the edge of the roof.  After breaking loose from the sergeant's hold, Kendall "scaled an eight-foot wall to the roof of an adjoining building," said the article.  Gilligan fired two shots and missed.  While Dolan waited below for the fugitive to emerge, Gilligan fired one more shot, hitting Kendall in the arm.  He was taken into custody.  The New York Post reported that Kendall had been arrested twice for robbery and spent a prison term that ended in 1953.

A renovation in 1962 resulted in a luncheonette on the ground floor, and one apartment-working space each on the upper floors. 

The street was renamed yet again in 1967, now known as La Guardia Place in honor of former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.  

In 1980, Bruno Bakery occupied the ground floor.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Around 1980, Bruno Bakery, a bakery-cafe, moved into the ground floor space.  In 1999, Biagio Settepani purchased the business, renaming it Pasticceria Bruno.  The pastry chef had started his career at the age of 13 in a small bakery in Brooklyn.  Settepani had previously been named one of the ten best pastry chefs in America and in 2006 he received the Northeastern Region's Pastry Chef of the year Award from the American Culinary Federation.

The popular bakery remained through 2016, when it was supplanted by Austrian restaurant Freud.  Two years later the name was changed to Bar Freud after, as reported by Florence Fabricant in The New York Times on February 27, 2018, "Freud has hit the bottle.  Or, rather, the cocktail hour."

The change was short-lived.  On August 6, 2019, The New York Times reported the opening of Bosie Tea Parlor a "well-appointed tea cafe" and French bistro.  The cafe remained until 2022 when Lord's opened.

On September 2 that year, Florence Fabricant wrote, "At Lord's contemporary English fare 'a long way from the bangers-and-mash of previous generations,' is how Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski, the owners of Dame, describe what they have in store for this sibling."

Today each of the upper floors has one apartment and the commercial space is still home to Lord's.

A Georgian Transformation - 213-215 West 13th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

In 1851 George P. Rogers and William C. Rhinelander erected two three-story-and-basement homes on West 13th Street between Seventh and Greenwich Avenues.  Their basement and parlor levels were clad in brownstone and the upper floors faced in red brick and trimmed in stone.  Nos. 141 and 143 West 13th Street (renumbered 213 and 215 in 1868) were initially rented, resulting in relatively short residencies for their early occupants.

Real estate agent William H. Terry and his family lived in 141 West 13th Street in 1853.  Living next door in 1855 and 1856 was the family of dry goods merchant Max Weil.

Charles Fox, who operated a "caps and fur manufactory" on Canal Street, moved into 143 West 13th Street and would remain through 1869.  The Campbell family next rented the house.  Andrew J. Campbell was a blacksmith and Henry Campbell listed his profession as "iron."  (The related professions suggests that they worked together.)  When the Campbell family left early in 1872, an advertisement in the New York Herald on April 24 offered: 

To let--A three story high stoop house, 215 West Thirteenth street, in perfect order, with carpets, mirrors, cornices and gas fixtures, near Seventh avenue; immediate possession; $1,500; very cheap.

That yearly rental would translate to about $3,400 per month in 2026.

The advertisement was answered by widowed Lawrence Mingey.  He and his late wife, Mary, had eight sons, at least two of whom--Walter and Lawrence A.--moved into the West 13th Street house.  

A married daughter and her family also shared the house.  On July 4, 1873, their 18-year-old daughter, Mary Agnes McCann died.  Her funeral was held in the parlor.

The Mingey parlor would be the scene of another funeral before long.  Lawrence A. Mingey, the youngest of the brothers, died at the age of 27 in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 1, 1874.  His body was rushed back to West 13th Street and his funeral was held on May 3.

Walter Mingey was a successful and enterprising businessmen.  When the family moved into 215 West 13th Street in 1873, he operated a saddlery on Staten Island and a butcher business on Grove Street.

In the meantime, the family of Henry Strouse leased the house next door in 1867.  Among their servants was German-born Sophia Woelt.  A 42-year-old German man, Albert Garagnon, became infatuated with her and "frequently importuned [her] to become his wife," according to the New York Herald.  Sophia, however, "often refused him on account of his being previously married."

Between 6:00 and 7:00 on the morning of February 11, 1868, Garagnon arrived at the house.  He and Sophia quarreled and Garagnon drew a revolver and fired two shots at her.  Both bullets missed Sophia.  "He then took a razor from his pocket and cut his own throat," said the newspaper.  Garagnon died on the spot and the New York Herald concluded, "Disappointed love, so far as has yet been ascertained, is the cause assigned for the dreadful act."

Max Goepp and Simon Sterne were partners in the law firm Goepp & Sterne.  Their office was at 35 Wall Street.  On September 10, 1870, they purchased 213 West 13th Street--each owning a 50 percent share--and moved in.  The attorneys remained here until Goepp's death on May 12, 1872.  

The house was rented after that, but the unusual ownership caused problems.  In 1875 a relative, Charles Goepp, sued Simon Stern "to restrain defendant from collecting the rent of property 213 West 13th street."

The house was sold to David Richey, who continued to lease it.  In January 1886, he hired architect Gilbert A. Schellenger to add a fourth floor and a four-story addition to the rear.  Richey quickly sold the remodeled building to Mary Stappers for $19,000 (about $663,000 today).  By then, 215 West 13th Street had been raised to four floors, as well.

When Charles Rubinger purchased both buildings in June 1909 for "about $200,000," according to The New York Times, they were described as "two four-story single flats."  Then, in 1925, they were combined.  Rubinger's architect gave the cojoined buildings a neo-Georgian make-over.  The stoops were removed and an elegant entrance created at grade.  Within a columned portico, the doorway echoed an 18th century country mansion with multi-paned sidelights and a refined fanlight.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

At the same time, a fifth floor was added above a cornice upheld by corbels and decorated by a row of dentils.

Splayed Georgian-inspired lintels decorate the midsection openings.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1938, architect Joseph Lau renovated the interiors, resulting in four apartments per floor.  They quickly attracted literary figures.  Anaïs Nin and her husband, engraver and filmmaker Hugh Parker Guiler were perhaps the first.  Born Angela Nin, she had started writing detailed journals at the age of 13.  By now she was known as a writer of novels, short stories and erotica.  She and Guiler were married in 1923.

Anaïs Nin (original source unknown)

Writing in her diary on September 12, 1940, Nin wrote, 

After much searching I found an apartment I could afford.  Sixty dollars a month, a skylight studio, on the top floor of 215 West Thirteenth Street.  Five flights up.  A very large, high-ceilinged room, half of the ceiling an inclined skylight, the whole length of it, twelve windows in all.  A small kitchen, with barely enough room for stove and icebox.

Also moving in that year were Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman.  The writers met in 1938 and moved in shortly after their marriage in 1940.  Shirley Hardie Jackson, born in 1916, would be best known for her mystery and horror novels and short stories.  Stanley Edgar Hyman, who was three years younger, was a literary critic.

Shirley Jackson, from the dust jacket of We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Arthur McCaffery and his wife lived here at midcentury.  Born in 1899, his wide-ranging resume included radio writing, acting, and directing.  In 1947 he wrote Cape Cod on the Subway and collaborated on theatrical and musical comedy productions.

An avid fisherman, he and his wife owned a 30-foot cruiser.  The couple hosted several guests on their boat on Sheepshead Bay on May 22, 1954, when a gale blew in.  In battling the weather conditions, McCaffery suffered a heart attack.  The New York Times reported, "Mrs. McCaffery had other fishermen summon Coast guard assistance for her husband."  Happily, although "strong winds and waves up to ten feet" hampered the rescue, McCaffery was taken ashore for treatment and recovery.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

From the street, the handsome, combined rowhouses are nearly unchanged since their significant 1925 remodeling.

many thanks to Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The John Schermerhorn Bussing House - 4 East 12th Street

 

The son of Abraham and Hester Kingsland Bussing, John Schermerhorn Bussing was born on Cortlandt Street on October 15, 1802.  His two maternal aunts had married into the prominent Schermerhorn family, prompting his middle name.  Bussing formed a dry goods business, E. & J. Bussing, with his brother, Edmund.  Following Edmund's death 26 years later, John changed course, founding the iron and nail firm, John S. Bussing & Company.  He married Agnes Ann Speir in 1825 and the couple had a son, Robert Speir, who was born in 1826.  Agnes died in 1831.

Two years later, John married Ann Van Nest in her parent's home.  The couple, with young Robert, moved into the Van Nest home, once the summer mansion of Sir Peter Warren.  A son, Abraham VanNest Bussing was born in 1834 and John Stuyvesant Bussing arrived on September 21, 1838.  Sadly, Abraham died at the age of five in 1838.

Around 1845 John S. Bussing and Peter R. Bonnet, most likely close acquaintances, began construction of matching brownstone-faced residence at 154 and 156 Twelfth Street, respectively.  (The addresses would be altered to 4 and 6 East 12th Street in 1855.)  Twenty-five-feet wide and four stories tall above English basements, they held their own with the mansions rising on Fifth Avenue just steps away.  Next to the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows, the entrance sat within a striking portico, its fluted columns capped with complex palm leaf capitals.

John Schermerhorn Bussing, Genealogies of the State of New York, 1915 (copyright expired)

In 1848, not long after moving into their mansion, the Bussings' only daughter, Mary, was born.

John Bussing was active in the public schools.  As early as 1850, he held the position of Chairman of Section No. 1 in the public and primary school system.  

John Schermerhorn Bussing died in the East 12th Street house on June 9, 1864 at the age of 62.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

Robert Speir Bussing had joined his father's business as a young man.  He married Mary Kingsland on January 8, 1850 and at the time of his father's death the couple was living in Brooklyn.  

John Stuyvesant Bussing had served in the Civil War.  By now he was a partner in the banking and brokerage firm Gelston & Bussing and still lived with his mother and sister at 4 East 12th Street.

John Stuyvesant Bussing, Genealogies of the State of New York, 1915 (copyright expired)

John married Kate Breath in 1873.  In what must have been unspeakable emotional anguish for John, Kate died in childbirth the following year, as did the couple's twin daughters, Kate and Anne.  He married Emily Morton Jenkins on October 31, 1882.  The couple lived with Ann and Mary at 4 East 12th Street.

It was acceptable for even well-to-do and socially prominent families to take in a boarder and in 1873 Henry C. Overin, the proprietor of the Phoenix Stables on West 46th Street, lived with the family.  He was separated from his wife, Mary, whom he married in 1865.  The New York Times explained that for a few years, "they lived unhappily."  Overin lived here through 1880, and it would not be until his death in 1898 that his name appeared in newspapers.  When both Mrs. Mary E. Overin and a decidedly younger Mrs. Caroline Overin laid claim to Henry's estate and business, the wealthy stable owner's duel life came to light.

In the meantime, John Bussing was highly involved with church and civic activities.  For decades he was a member of the consistory of the College Reformed Church.  He would, additionally, become one of the board of managers of the Young Men's Christian Association and of the Young Women's Christian Association.  In 1877, he was among a group of gentlemen who hoped to reform alcoholics.  On May 27, The New York Times reported that the men "have issued an appeal for assistance to enable them to establish a home for the reformation of drunkards."

Mary, who would never marry, was the victim of a pickpocket on March 2, 1882.  The New York Times reported that as she "was looking at the window of a Broadway store," James Harvey "rifled the sack pocket" of Mary Bussing.  The article said, "The only plunder he secured, was a card-case containing some cards and a few postage stamps."

Both Mary and Anne were active in philanthropic and charitable causes.  Anne's father, Abraham Van Nest, had been a trustee of Rutgers College and Van Nest Hall there was named in his honor.  In 1898, Anne "built a stone porch to Van Nest Hall and also refitted the eastern portion of the second story into a handsome hall for the use of the students in elocution," reported the New-York Tribune.  She was a generous benefactor of the Theological Seminary in New Brunswick and established the Bussing Prize there.

Mary Bussing was a founder of the Christmas Letter Mission.  The group endeavored to brighten the holidays of orphans, the indigent, prisoners, and hospitalized patients.  She explained in a letter to the editor of the New-York Tribune on December 15, 1887, "these beautiful letters, with a bright card inclosed [sic], are sent as a surprise on Christmas morning to the suffering ones."  She noted, "Twenty-five cents will send six of these sunbeams into lonely hearts."

John and Kate Bussing moved to 26 East 10th Street in 1886.  Now only Ann and Mary remained in the East 12th Street house with their staff of servants.  After a "severe attack of pneumonia," as reported by the New-York Tribune, Ann Van Nest Bussing died in the mansion at the age of 93 on January 8, 1905.

In 1918, Mary Bussing sold the house that her parents had built seven decades earlier and the only home she had ever known.  On February 23, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported, "Samuel Marcus...contemplates altering the 4-story brick and stone dwelling at 4 East 12th st., into studios and apartments."  The cost of the renovations, said the article, would be $15,000, or about $312,000 in 2026.  Plans filed by architects Jonathan B. Snook Sons included "remove stoop and [install] plumbing."

The renovations, completed in 1920, resulted in bachelor apartments.  The term did not mean that tenants were not restricted to men, but that the apartments did not have kitchens.  

Among the initial residents were Joseph P. Dugan, an engineer, and English-born D. Frank Gordon.  On October 25, 1920, the two men went uptown to join a rally by gubernatorial candidate Dudley Field Malone.  Professor Walter Edgerton Holloway first addressed the crowd and things began getting tense when, as described by The New York Times, the speaker "harangued a crowd of 5,000 Irish sympathizers near the Maine Monument."  Joseph Dugan remarked to Gordon, "Edgerton is a poor speaker, I wish Malone would hurry up and talk."

The New York Times said that the "casual remark to a friend was misinterpreted."  The Evening World reported that an Irishman in the crowd instead heard, "to the devil with Lord Mayor MacSwiney."  (MacSwiney was the former Lord Mayor of Cork.)  The article said, "An Irishman punched Gordon and a yell went up, 'He cursed MacSwiney!'"  The New York Times reported that Dugan and Gordon were beaten and Dugan "nearly lost his life at the hands of a mob."  Happily, police officers were on hand to rescue them.

In 1927, the newly-formed Institute of World Unity moved into the building, presumably in the basement level.  An educational and cultural organization, its goal was to promote racial tolerance and international peace.  By 1930, it also published World Unity Magazine from the address.

The institute was followed by The Meeting Place, Inc. around 1931.  A renovation by architects Beineix & Snyder in 1934 better accommodated the organization.  The Meeting Place now occupied the basement and first floors, and the upper floors held apartments.

The stoop and portico of 6 East 12th Street was originally a match to the one removed from No. 4 in 1918.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the first tenants in the renovated apartments was artist Reginald Marsh, who was recently divorced.  He moved into the building in February 1933.  Born in Paris in 1898, Marsh would become noted for his depictions of New York City life, like unemployed men on the Bowery and lively Coney Island boardwalk scenes.

In January 1934, Marsh married painter Felicia Meyer and, according to Ellen Wiley Todd in her New Woman Revised, the couple left 4 East 12th Street that month.  Apparently Marsh retained his studio here, however, because when he won a cash prize in the 122th annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design in 1937, his address was still listed at 4 East 12th Street.

Another renovation, completed in 1952, resulted in a "business office" in the basement and apartments on the upper floors.  Among those living and working here in the 1960s were composer, librettist and lyricist Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, and painter and printmaker Betty Waldo Parish.  Later television and documentary producer David E. J. Berger and his collaborator and wife Holly Maxson lived and worked here.

Despite the loss of the stoop and parlor entry, 4 East 12th Street survives remarkably intact above the basement level.  Today, the building, with its remarkable history, holds eight apartments.

photographs by the author