The Fisk-Harkness House -- No. 12 East 53rd St.

photo by Alice Lum

In 1871 when Charles Moran purchased the building lot at No. 12 East 53^rd Street the march of millionaires up Fifth Avenue would take a few years to reach this far north.  Along the block between Fifth and Madison Avenues, brownstone row houses were being erected by developers; but many of them were still intended for the comfortable merchant class; not the fabulously wealthy residents that would soon arrive.

Moran’s site was a bit grander, however.  At 37-1/2 feet wide and 100 feet deep, it was significantly broader than the standard 25-foot width of building lots.   For his architect Moran went straight to the top.  He hired architect Griffith Thomas, whom the American Institute of Architects would years later deem “the most fashionable architect of his generation.”

The resulting mansion rose four stories over an English basement.  Clad in brownstone it had the expected steep, broad stoop and flat roof emblematic of New York residential architecture of the period.

Six years after Moran’s house was completed Harvey Edward Fisk graduated from Princeton University in 1877.  He entered the banking firm founded by his father, Fisk & Hatch, which was reorganized at Harvey Fisk & Sons in 1885.  By the turn of the century the successful banker was a partner in Fisk & Robinson, an investment banking firm.

And things had changed along East 53^rd Street off Fifth Avenue.

The avenue and its side streets were now lined with the mansions and clubs of New York’s wealthiest citizens—the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers sharing their neighborhood with the exclusive Union and University Clubs.    It was the sort of area that attracted wealthy bankers like Harvey Edward Fisk.

In 1905 No. 12 was owned by Walter G. Oakman, the Chairman of the Board of the Guaranty Trust Company.  He sold the house to Fisk, and promptly moved three blocks north to No. 1 East 56^th Street.    Manhattan’s millionaires were routinely razing the outdated Victorian brownstones or remodeling them into unrecognizable, now-fashionable residences.  Fisk would follow the trend.

He commissioned architect Raleigh C. Gildersleeve to completely renovate the old house.    Gildersleeve was responsible for the neo-Tudor and Collegiate Gothic buildings of Princeton University where Fisk had studied.  Whether the connection had any influence on the choice of architects or the design is uncertain; but the result was Gildersleeve at his best.

Gildersleeve's attention to small details included carved heraldic shields, barely noticeable to the passerby -- photo by Alice Lum

Completed in 1906 at a cost of $25,000 (nearly half a million dollars today) the transformation was remarkable.  Gildersleeve did away with the outdated stoop and opted for an up-to-date American basement with the home’s entrance at street level.  The elimination of the stoop made it possible to move the façade forward 8-1/2 feet, and a 19-foot extension was added to the rear where the former Moran stables had stood—the residence was now a full 27-1/2 feet deeper than before.

The limestone façade rose five stories; a striking neo-Tudor Gothic palace that announced Harvey Fisk’s place among New York’s privileged class.   Diamond-paned windows, buttresses and drip moldings created a palace reminiscent of Anne Boleyn.

photo by Alice Lum

The extreme depth of the building allowed for three large rooms on the ground floor—a reception room, followed by the music room and the formal dining room to the rear.  The walls were hung with artwork and tapestries, and the rooms filled with antique furnishings.

Just four years later, on October 17, 1908 The New York Times surprised many with the announcement of the sale of the mansion.  “The sale of one of the finest residences in the Fifth Avenue section added a feature of unusual interest to yesterday’s real estate dealings,” it said.

The newspaper revealed that “The buyer is William L. Harkness, a cousin of Edward S. Harness of the Standard Oil Company.  Mr. Harkness lives at Glen Cove, L.I., and has acquired the Fifty-third Street house with a view to making it his permanent home in this city.”

Fisk had been forced to sell by financial setbacks.  The price he got from Harkness, no doubt, helped greatly relieve his money problems.  For the house, including the furnishings, artwork, antiques and tapestries, Harkness paid a staggering $400,000—an unprecedented sum for a house.

A contemplative carved head stares upward from beneath the stone balustrade of an upper balcony -- photo by Alice Lum

Considering his interest in Standard Oil, the residence was conveniently close to the Rockefeller houses across the Fifth Avenue on West 54^th Street.  Like the Rockefellers, Harkness traveled back to Ohio for business and pleasure.  In August 1911 Harkness entertained to New York guests named Harding on his $100,000 steam yacht Gunilda on Lake Superior.  Also on board were Edith Harkness and the children, Louise 9 years old and her brother Billy, 5.   The pleasure trip became less pleasurable when the yacht went aground in the fog.

The Sun reported that the party was stranded on board the yacht while Harkness and two crew members went ashore and made their way to a small fishing village for help.  “The passengers were badly shaken up and were frightened, thinking that the vessel was about to sink,” the newspaper said.

The 195-foot craft was rescued by a team of wreckers.

Most Harkness entertainments were more successful.  In December 1916 they included a stream of receptions, dinners and other entertainments in celebration of Louise’s debut.   On December 7 there was an afternoon reception in the mansion followed by an “informal dinner.”  (One is left to wonder how informal that dinner was.)  Afterwards, Edith took her guests to the Republic Theatre to see “Good Gracious Annabel,” and then to the Club de Vingt for supper and dancing.

A week later the Harknesses hosted a large dinner dance at the Colony Club for Louise with 150 guests invited to dinner and another 60 arriving afterward for the dance.

Three years later on May 10, 1919, William L. Harkness died in the 53^rd Street house.  His funeral was held on the first floor here three days later.   Edith was the principal beneficiary of the vast estate—over $700 million by today’s standards.  She retained the Manhattan house, the Glen Cove estate, Dosoris, and the yacht.  The two children divided the rest of the estate, held in trust until they reached 24 years of age.  There were “no public bequests.”

By now the Fifth Avenue neighborhood was once again changing.   In the Manhattan tradition of ever-expanding northward, the grand mansions built only a generation earlier were being razed or converted for commercial use as millionaires fled further up the avenue along Central Park.   On November 20, 1921 the New-York Tribune announced “The fine large home of Mrs. William L. Harkness is the latest to be taken over for trade in the new upper Fifth Avenue art colony…The property has been bought by Proctor & Co., interior decorators and dealers in furniture, fabrics, draperies and Oriental rugs.”

The house as it appeared when Edith Harkness sold it in 1921 -- New-York Tribune October 27, 1921 (copyright expired)

Thirteen years after her husband had bought the house for $400,000, Edith Harkness sold it for the same price—a reflection of the change in the neighborhood.  The 32-year old Proctor & Co. had been doing business from Nos. 3 and 5 West 36^th Street since 1906, and it announced that “extensive alterations” were planned for the Harkness mansion.

Among those alterations was a show window punched into the ground floor.

The interior decorators would not stay long, however.  Just three years later it sold the house to the Automobile Club of America.   The club functioned not only as an instrument to promote good thoroughfares, improved road signs, traffic regulations and the marketing of the automobile for recreational purposes; but as a social club as well.  The organization’s Women’s Committee redecorated the former residence.

The primary intention of the club was reflected in the “touring, supply and map departments.”  But the house was outfitted with the expected clubhouse features as well.  On the second floor was a restaurant; the third floor offered a library, sitting room, lounge and card rooms; there were baths, locker rooms and dressing rooms on the fourth floor; and executive offices above.

When the Automobile Club of America was in the building, the large show window had already been cut into the facade -- photo from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Social events were common here.  On December 3, 1927 the Junior League of the Union Hospital held a “bridge and dance” for the benefit of the institution here.  A month later on January 6, 1928 The Times reported that “Beginning tomorrow, a series of four tea-dances will be held at the Automobile Club of America, 12 East Fifty-third Street…There will be tables of bridge.”

The Great Depression took its toll on the Automobile Club of America and in 1932 it was forced to dissolve.   The Mutual Life Insurance Company acquired the building in foreclosure that year.

photo by Alice Lum

The mansion apparently sat vacant for six years until the Symons Galleries leased it from Mutual Life in 1938.  The firm dealt in European antiques and had been founded by Henry Symons in 1913.  After being “extensively renovated for its new tenant,” according to The New York Times, the building opened for business in May 1938.

Rooms throughout the former house were dedicated to the display of tapestries, porcelains, bronzes, paintings, and Renaissance jewelry.   The gallery announced that “French and English eighteenth-century furniture will predominate.”  At least some of the original Gildersleeve interiors still survived.  Two rooms were devoted to Jacobean and French antiques and the newspaper reported that the “former is a carved oak room with the original stone mantel.” 

In a striking example of misinformation, The Times added that “The building was designed in the Renaissance style by the late Stanford White.”

With the expiration of the Symons lease the building was offered for sale and in December 1948 the national advertising agency, Maxon, Inc., purchased the building.  The New York Times announced that “The advertising concern plans to occupy the entire building as offices for its New York staff.”

While glass and steel skyscrapers replaced the limestone and marble mansions along 53^rd Street, the Fisk house at No. 12 miraculously survived.  In 1964 it was purchased by the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising.   Founded in 1939, the school offers specialized education “focused on the business side of fashion.”   The once-magnificent interiors were partitioned into classrooms and suspended acoustical ceilings were hung over Tudor-style plasterwork.

In order to modernize and optimize the space, the school commissioned architectural firm Butler Rogers Baskett to renovate the interiors.  In what LIM’s website calls a “gut renovation,” the last vestiges of Raleigh Gildersleeve’s 1906 detailing were obliterated.

The mere existence of the mansion in the Midtown neighborhood of glass and steel skyscrapers is miraculous -- photo by Alice Lum

The exterior, however, is amazingly intact on a block where no trace of the once exclusive residential neighborhood remains.  The singularity of the mansion’s architecture is matched only by the miracle of its survival.

The 1868 Hoyt Building -- Nos. 873-879 Broadway

photo by Alice Lum

In 1868 the Broadway blocks just north of Union Square were quickly becoming the main shopping district of Manhattan.   Wide brick homes were rapidly being replaced by retail emporiums and that year the well-known merchant Edwin Hoyt, a partner in Hoyt, Spragues & Co., commissioned architect Griffith Thomas to design an imposing store at the northwest corner of 18^th Street and Broadway.

On the north end of the block retailer Arnold, Constable & Co. planned a second store to supplement its white marble Canal Street location.  Whether by coincidence or not, Griffith Thomas was given the task of designing this building as well.  The result would be two architecturally harmonious structures that visually flowed together as one.  

The well-dressed shoppers of New York’s carriage trade would enter a five-story Second Empire Commercial-style building clad in rose-colored marble.  A delicate street-level arcade supported ranks of arched openings separated by pilasters and columns. 

A year after completion, Shannon's Manual published this view -- Shannon's Manual 1869 (copyright expired)

Part of the massive structure was leased to smaller firms.  On July 24, 1871 W. M. Humphrey & Bro. advertised in The Sun for “Bow and scarf hands wanted; also, an operator on Wheeler & Wilson machine; only experienced hands need apply.”

photo by Alice Lum

But by 1875 Hoyt, Spragues & Co. was gone and that year Aitken, Son & Co. moved in.  The dry goods store catered to a well-heeled feminine clientele who shopped for dress fabrics, French bonnets, ribbons, and home decorations.     As the Christmas holiday approached in 1878, the firm advertised “Elegant sashes, antique tidies, made-up lace goods, fine hosiery, ties and handkerchiefs, fancy scrap baskets and numerous minor articles of use and ornament.” 

Women shoppers today might be mystified at an earlier advertisement that year which hawked “pringes and galloons.”

When the Arnold, Constable & Co. building sprouted a handsome mansard roof the continuity of the two buildings was lost.  photo by Alice Lum

During the last quarter of the 19^th century the popular Aesthetic Movement swept the country and every up-to-date household boasted an Asian-themed nook or room.  A. Vantine & Co., which called itself “The Oriental Store,” sold exotic gifts such as Chinese porcelains, lacquered ware, Turkish rugs and colorful Japanese lanterns.   The firm shared space with Aitken, Son beginning in 1887, when the Hoyt Building became essentially two separate, equal-sized stores. 

A year later owner Solomon Loeb contracted architectural firm Delemos & Cordes to enlarge the two buildings.     The northern structure at mid-block was extended backwards, to the west and south, creating an L around the corner building which was simultaneously extended 23 feet along 18^th Street 23 feet.  The nearly seamless extensions, clad in marble, closely matched Thomas’s design; although they exceeded the height of the original building by three stories.

The extension, at left, matched the Broadway facade -- photo by Alice Lum

Following Loeb’s death the owner of A. Vantine & Co. purchased the building.  On November 25, 1905 The Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide noted that Irving C. Raymond had hired architect Thomas H. Styles to “add 1 story, alter windows, elevator, stairs” to Nos. 873-879 Broadway at a cost of $15,000.  Unlike Delemos & Cordes’ alterations, this would not be so architecturally-sympathetic.   The decorative triangular pediments, balustrades and bulbous finials were replaced by a nearly-industrial looking addition.

The new top story resulted in an unexpected scandal.   Not only was added floor not fireproof, it was 18 feet higher than the application filed by the architect.   A Special Examination of the Accounts and Methods of the Office of the President of the Borough of Manhattan was ordered by Mayor George B. McClellan to look into the possibility of graft.   Raymond’s addition was closely reviewed.

The investigators found that “The plans and application on file in the department show a state of facts which would not permit the approval thereof in good faith, it appearing upon their face utterly impossible to construct the new story as proposed in the amended application.”   The commissioners concluded “The fact that it was never intended that the law should be complied with in this case is indicated by the findings of our expert, Mr. Hamilton.”

Testimony in the hearings revealed the a mason employed in the alteration, George Potterton, stated that a “payment of money” would secure the approval of the additional story by the Bureau of Buildings.  Building Superintendent Murphy found himself in hot water over his acceptance of bribes.

“This seems to us to be so gross a misuse of discretionary power as to constitute an unfitness for office,” the Report concluded.

photo by Alice Lum

In February 1912 A. A. Vantine & Co. leased the entire building at Nos 436-468 5^th Avenue and moved in with its companion firm, Aitken Company, leaving the marble building on Broadway that had been their home for decades.   The Hoyt Building now filled with a variety of smaller tenants, many of them manufacturers. 

While the Sitt & Howell Company was selling rugs and carpeting from the first floor retail area, Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, Inc. moved here from No. 45 East 20^th Street in January 1916.  The wholesale manufacturer printed “hand-painted, die-stamped, offset and lithographed cards” which were sold to stationers.

Through the 1920s the trend continued.  Fishbein & McCabe, leather goods manufacturers, moved here in 1920.  A year later Valkone Dye & Finishing Works took an entire floor.

Bahner, Doscher Company imported dolls and toys from Europe at the same time.  The Pottery & Glass Salesman noted in 1921 that “Among the toy novelties is a mechanical cat, with sparkling eyes, that walks over the floor in most life-like fashion.  The sparkling eyes constitute the novelty feature of the item.  Then, there is a beetle, with sparkling eyes, that walks, lifts its wings and hums.  And so on it goes.”  Bahner, Doscher’s array of dolls included “a wide range of both French and German products, and takes in both dressed and jointed dolls in all sizes.”

The marble ornamentation remains crisp a century and a half after it was carved -- photo by Alice Lum

For years, beginning around this time, Moe Levy & Son would sell men’s clothing from here.   On the corner, from 1920 through 1951 a bank leased the corner space at street level.

In the second half of the century offices on the upper floors became headquarters to the Socialist Workers Party.   Here the leader of the Trotskyite Communist Party planned his Presidential campaign and other Socialist members ran for various offices.    What would seem to be a mere rental agreement proved dangerous to the building.

In 1966 Socialist Judy White was running for Governor of New York and Richard Garza was seeking the office of Lieutenant Governor.  On September 29 four bombs exploded at the headquarters, “causing extensive damage,” according to The New York Times.

Three years later Paul Boutelle was a candidate for Mayor.  On April 24, 1969 15 workers inside the headquarters at No. 873 Broadway were visible from the street.  A hand grenade was tossed at the closed window.  It bounced off the glass and demolished a parked car.

Although the graceful arcade that once graced the first floor has been long-demolished, the rest of the Hoyt Building has been little changed since the 1905 renovation.   The middle four floors still blend harmoniously into the old Arnold, Constable & Co. department store, providing a glimpse back to the days of the post-Civil War shopping district.

The 1862 Mortimer Building -- 935-939 Broadway

In the final years before the Civil War the staid mansions on Broadway from 14th Street to 23rd Street gradually gave way to commercial buildings. One of the first of these was the dignified five-story structure at Nos. 935-939 Broadway.

Richard Mortimer owned real estate throughout Manhattan and for this plot he commissioned architect Griffith Thomas to design an Italianate brownstone structure that would blend comfortably in with the elegant residences. Thomas, who decades later would be praised by the Architectural Record as “the most fashionable architect of his generation,” produced a refined building with Renaissance detailing such as the pediments over the windows. Retail space would fill first floor while office space was above. Mortimer’s building filled the 22nd Street block front from Broadway to Fifth Avenue.

Construction began in 1861 and was completed a year later.

J. & C. Johnston Dry goods was one of the first tenants, while on one of the floors above the business college of Stratton & Packard did business. The offices of the makers of Dr. Jayne’s Expectorant were here as early as 1863 when this ad was published:

DR. JAYNE's EXPECTORANT will afford immediate relief by removing the difficulty of breathing and producing an easy expectoration, where by all irritating and obstructing manners are removed from the lungs. Having maintained its reputation, in all parts of the world, for over a quarter of a century, it is confidently recommended as the best remedy ever offered for the diseases it professes to cure. Sold by agents and druggists everywhere, from whom may also be obtained Dr. D. JAYNE's SANATIVE PILLS, a prompt and effectual cure for costiveness, sick headache, and all bilious affections

A contemporary tenant offered Grover & Baker’s “highest premium elastic Sewing-Machines for sale.” For those patrons not interested in doing the sewing themselves, the same business would do “family sewing, embroidering, braiding, quilting, tucking, etc., beautifully executed on the Grover & Baker Sewing-Machine.”

The American Institute of Architects, which was founded in 1866, established its offices here. On November 16, 1869 the third annual convention was held, chaired by President Richard Upjohn, in an effort to unite American architects and share ideas on “artistic, scientific and practical efficiency of the profession.”

It was here In February 1871 that New York’s elite gathered to view an exhibition of paintings, valued at $3,300, which were to be raffled off for the benefit of the orphans of Civil War soldiers in the Union Home and School.

By 1895 both Broadway and Fifth Avenue were bustling thoroughfares of grand emporiums and high-class retail shops. That year the store on the Broadway end of the Mortimer Building was occupied by C. W. Schumann’s Sons, jewelers and silversmiths. A. Besthoff & Son ran the store next door, which extended to the 5th Avenue side, selling “European novelties and leather goods.”

Oriental rug merchants Van Gaasbeck & Arkell did business from fourth floor while upstairs were the studios of Pach Brothers – counted among the most esteemed of New York City photographers.

Around 1:20 in the afternoon of February 16 that year a fire broke out in the Pach Brothers space, Quickly it spread to a three-alarm fire that could not be controlled for more than an hour. By the time it was extinguished, the fire had burst through the roof; destroyed parts of the cornice, pieces of which fell to the street; the intense heat had blown out windows.

Water damaged proved worse than that caused by the fire. On the same floor as Van Gaasbeek & Arkell was Geoffroy & Co., jewelers. Below, on the third floor, were Cochrane Carpet Company and Horner Brothers’ Carpet Company. Water poured through the floors soaking their inventory.

On the ground floor, Schumann’s employees took no chances. Before the water could reach the first floor they had quickly stowed everything of value into the vaults.  At the time, the store was showing paintings valued at as much as $30,000 each, two of which had recently been exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair.  All but two were rushed across the street to a clothing store for safe keeping.

Property loss due to water damaged was estimated at $40,000. Gotthelf Pach placed his own firm’s damaged at $20,000.

Within the month Richard Mortimer (whose main business was stock broker) filed plans for alterations of the burned structure at a cost of $500.

Pach’s misfortune with flames with not end with the near-destruction of the Mortimer Buildling. Two years later in December the photographer was commissioned by the rector of Grace Church to photograph the church's new chapel. When the magnesia powder was ignited to take a flash picture, the resulting explosion blew out some of the stained glass windows.

In 1912 architectural firm Rouse & Goldstone was called in to add a sixth floor to the building. The roof was removed and the attic space raised. Square, inset windows were inserted just under the new cornice.

Through the first half of the 20th century the Mortimer building continued to be home to small apparel companies. In 1920 the Samuel Buyer garter manufacturer took space here followed in 1922 by the newly-formed Earl Shirt Company. In 1935 the Kase-Quinby Rubber Company opened its offices here.

When Jack Albert purchased the building he added enormous gold-toned letters on the 22nd Street and 5th Avenue corner vertically spelling A L B E R T. The large, Victorian-looking letters became an important part of the building to New Yorkers, as well as the clocks on both corners.

Towards the end of the century, Restoration Hardware moved into the entire first floor of the old Mortimer Building. A complete restoration of the greatly-altered storefront brought it back to its original appearance. Around the same time the wonderful gold ALBERT letters were removed.

The matching 5th Avenue facade.  The 1912 addition of a sixth floor is evident.

For some reason amateur New York historians insist on confusing the Mortimer Building with the Glenham Hotel. The Hotel, however, sat next door on the 5th Avenue side and was replaced by the 1893 Scribner’s Building that still survives.

The Mortimer Building is a rare example of Civil War period architecture in the lower 5th Avenue district.

Griffith Thomas' 1860 No. 443-445 Broadway

When merchant Nicholas Ludlum purchased the property on Broadway between Grand and Howard Streets in 1841, the neighborhood was still mostly residential. Within twenty years the sophisticated commercial buildings appearing on Canal Street, one block to the south, would begin replacing the old homes here as well.

In 1860 Ludlum commissioned architect Griffith Thomas to design an office building and store. Thomas, who had just completed the Astor Library a year earlier, would be deemed “the most fashionable architect of his generation” by the American Institute of Architects years later in 1908.

The result was a stone, Italianate beauty topped by a deep pediment; a style that would be copied in cast iron throughout the area for decades. In his “Access New York City,” Richard Saul Wurman wrote “In a neighborhood of iron buildings pretending to be stone, this five-story building…is the real thing, and it’s a real beauty…”

Gerald R. Wolfe, in his 1994 “New York, A Guide to the Metropolis,” agreed. “No. 443-445 gives a very aesthetic appearance. Rows of pleasing round-arch windows are topped by individual projecting cornice slabs supported by brackets. A projecting balustrade runs along the second floor, with decorative urns at each end. Ornate scrolled brackets support the main cornice, above which a pediment adds the final touch.”

Three years after completion, the business and editorial offices of D. Appleton & Co. moved in. The firm had published Darwin’s Origin of the Species in London in 1857 and would go on to print the memoirs of William Tecumseh Sherman and William H. Seward.

It was the demand for the latter types of publications after the Civil War and the subsequent need for more space that pressed Appleton & Co. to leave 443-445 Broadway after only three years.

Broadway in 1899 from Mail & Express -- NYPL Collection

For many years around the turn of the century, Einstein, Wolff & Co. leased the entire building. The firm dealt in “fancy lace wearing apparel” and the “embroidery trade,” importing and manufacturing laces and embroideries and holding the controlling interest in several other manufacturers of handkerchiefs, neckwear, laces and embroideries.

Einstein, Wolff & Co. moved out in February 1913 leaving the building vacant. In June of that year the heirs of Nicholas Ludlum sold the property for $260,000 after 72 years of ownership. The New York Times reported that “Plans are being prepared for remodeling the present structure.”

Indeed the old pre-Civil War building was updated and in 1918 an ad was placed announcing that the commercial space on the street level was for rent with all the latest amenities. “Store and basement 50x200 through to Mercer Street. All glass front, large private elevator—sprinkler system—heat furnished. Modern and most desirable store in this section.”

The Broadway-Canal neighborhood changed drastically as the 20th Century progressed and prestigious retail stores and offices were replaced by warehouses and cheap discount outlets. No. 443-445 managed to survive intact above street level although the ground floor was heavily altered and modernized.

As the Canal Street / SoHo district continues to experience its revitalization, No. 443-445 Broadway was recently restored. The street level once again looks as it did in 1860 and the upper floors have been renovated into condominiums.

non-credited photographs taken by the author