Louis A. Abramson's 1927 145 East 32nd Street

photograph by Carole Teller

The Ivy Construction Company demolished the vintage buildings at 145 through 151 East 32nd Street, just east of Lexington Avenue, in 1925.  The developers hired Louis A. Abramson to design a 13-story "brick stores and loft building" upon the plot.  Construction was completed two years later at a cost of $450,000, or about $8.34 million in 2026.  The developer had no intention of being a landlord and on August 1, 1927, the New York Evening Post reported that the Ivy Construction Company, Inc. had sold the building to "the newly formed 145 East Thirty-second Street Corporation."

The structure was faced in beige brick above a two-story limestone base.  Abramson's modern profile of setbacks started at the ninth floor, where they flanked a three-story section with angled sides.  The architect's 1927 design had its roots in 15th century English motifs.  Square-headed drip moldings below the third floor wrapped terra cotta heraldic shields.  The upper floors were decorated with hooded niches, presumably intended for statues, reeded panels and heraldic emblems.

photograph by Carole Teller

The building drew tenants from various industries.  Among the earliest included Max Engerow, a fabrics dealer; the A. C. M. Embroidery Company; Van Blerk Furniture Company; and W E C O Pharmaceutical Laboratories.  Perhaps less expected tenants were Hunter College and Hunter High School. 

Hunter College (formerly Normal College) sat on the block between Park and Lexington Avenues and 68th to 69th Street.  It shared space with Hunter High School.  But the 1873 complex could not accommodate the 20th century enrollment.  The overflow of the institutions were taught in rented floors within 145 East 32nd Street.

Matriculation in an industrial building had, of course, serious drawbacks.  Hunter solved the problem with a modern structure.  On September 27, 1938, the Staten Island Advance reported that the approximately 1,500 girl students attending Hunter High School here would be moving to "a new 16-story building which will be erected on the site of the old college building at Park avenue and 68th street."  

Another non-industrial tenant was the National Youth Administration.  As part of his sweeping Depression Era Works Progress Administration, Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the program to provide education and work for Americans between 16 and 25 years of age.  

A recruitment poster offered opportunities for young women and men.

Young people who participated in the program were eligible for jobs within cooperating organizations.  Those included the New York Urban League, Selective Service Boards, Department of Welfare offices and the New York City Housing Authority.

The National Youth Administration's Manhattan operation was enlarged in 1941.  On August 23, The New York Age reported that the NYA Harlem offices were being transferred to the 32nd Street location.  "This consolidation will insure better service for the young men and women of the Harlem area as HYA Headquarters houses the Consultation and special divisions maintained by the NYA for its youth," said the article.

Among the areas available to the participants, according to The New York Age on May 9, 1942, were "Radio Communications, Photography, and Commercial Silk Screen Work/Projects."

As early as 1944, the National Jewish Welfare Board occupied space here.  Founded in 1917, it oversaw the national activities of the Young Women's Hebrew Association, the Young Men's Hebrew Association and Jewish Community Centers.  The 1952 Handbook of Facts on Women Workers explained:

It is also the recognized Jewish community agency for meeting the religious, welfare, and moral needs of Jewish personnel in the armed forces, and its a constituent agency of the United Services Organizations (USO).

The National Jewish Welfare Board received a shipment of poignant items in the summer of 1946.  On July 15, The New York Times reported that the organization's Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities "took temporary custody yesterday of 105 Jewish religious objects that had been stolen by the Nazis from synagogues they destroyed in Germany."  The stash, which included objects of bronze, brass and silver, had been discovered "by chance" in Nuremberg, said the article, which added, "The committee will decide the permanent disposition of the objects."

photograph by Carole Teller

Another branch of the NJWB was established in 1948.  On September 1, 1948, The New York Times reported "Ten executives in the field of Jewish social work received yesterday the first certificates to be issued by the Jewish Communal Service Training Bureau."  The article said that the social workers had completed a 15-month course "including nine months of supervised placement work."  

Around 1954 the National Jewish Music Council also shared space here, and in 1962 the Zionist Organization of America was listed in the building.  The National Jewish Welfare Board remained at 145 East 32nd Street until around January 1968, when it moved to East 26th Street.  

Perhaps the first engineering firm to move in was Barr & Barr, here prior to midcentury.  The firm was responsible for erecting the British and French Buildings in Rockefeller Center, the Centre Theatre, and Time and Life Building.

Other construction and engineering firms occupying space here in the 1950s and '60s included Bogert & Childs; Maganaro, Martin and Lincoln; and Lev Zitiln Associations, Inc.

In December 1959, the furniture manufacturing firm Baumritter Corporation leased the first three floors for its showroom and sales office.  In 2004, the upper floors were converted to medical offices.  The end of the furniture showrooms came with a renovation initiated in 2011.  It resulted in the entire building being used by medical facilities.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The Gluck-Zimbalist House - 225-227 East 49th Street

 

image via streeteasy.com

Alma Gluck was born Reba Feinsohn in Romania in 1884.  Her marriage to insurance agent Bernard Glick produced a daughter, Marcia.  By 1912, when Alma divorced Glick, she was an internationally-renowned operatic soprano.  That year she took a sabbatical from the stage to study in Europe.

In the meantime, Efrem Zimbalist, too, had earned fame in classical music.  Born in Russia in 1889, he was a violin prodigy.  He was first violin in his father's orchestra at the age of nine, and entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 12.  By 1910 he ranked as one of the world's greatest violinists.  He was, as well, a composer and conductor.

The two stars collided shortly after Alma's divorce and in 1914 they were married in London.  They would have two children, Maria Virginia and Efrem Jr. 

In 1926, Alma and Efrem purchased the two high-stooped brownstones at 225 and 227 East 49th Street.  They hired architect Grosvenor Atterbury to design a double mansion on the site--one residence for the Zimbalist family and the other as rental income.  

Completed in 1927, the charming neo-Tudor-style structure appeared outwardly as a single home.  Inside the main entrance, slightly below grade, occupants entered left or right into their respective homes.  The facade's irregular brick, which gave the appearance of age, was enhanced with Tudor-style half-timbering.  Within the intricately carved tympanum of the entrance, plaques directed visitors to the correct doorway inside.  Above the entrance is a slate-shingled hood crowned by a heraldic shield with a violin against a sheet of music.  Below it, Tudor-style lettering announces, "Erected In The Year 1926."

The Gluck-Zimbalist mansion replaced two houses similar to the existing homes on either side in this photo.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services. 

The vast grouping of multi-paned windows on the second and third floors carried on the Tudor motif, as did the three picturesque gables that pierced the slate shingled roof.

The Zimbalist family moved into 227 East 49th Street and rented No. 229 to Marie Corcoran Eustis Hofmann and her daughter, Josefa.  Alma and Efrem were well acquainted with Marie and they were keeping a well-kept secret.  Marie married the famous pianist Josef Hofmann in 1905.  The bride was ten years older than the groom.  Hofmann met 15-year-old piano student Betty Short in 1922.  Two years later the Hofmanns were secretly divorced.  Hofmann and Short had a child the following year.

According to Elizabeth Carr in her Josef Hofmann, The Piano's Forgotten Giant, the split was costly for Hofmann.  He was compelled to deposit $100,000 in trust for Josefa until she reached the age of 21.  "Marie Hofmann was awarded an annual sum of $12,500 dollars, payable in monthly installments for life or until her remarriage."  (Marie's annual alimony would equal about $236,000 in 2026.)

photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The secret was finally made public in 1928 when Josef Hofmann and Betty Short were married.  The New York Times reported on April 3, "The first Mrs. Hofmann, who lives at 225 East Forty-ninth Street with the pianist's 21-year-old daughter, Josefa, refused to discuss stories of the divorce and remarriage."

Four months later, in August, Marie sublet the house to Henry Luce and his wife, the former Lila Ross Hotz.  Born in 1898, Luce was a co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time magazine.  The couple were married in 1923.  Luce would go on to found Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated.  The 1930 census shows the couple living here with their five-year-old son, Henry Jr., 10-month-old son Peter, and six French-born servants.

Henry Luce, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Next door, the Zimbalist family started out in their new mansion with drama.  In July 1927, Alma visited famed diva Dame Nellie Melba in Melbourne, Australia.  Melba gave Alma a bulldog puppy named So-So.  (The New York Times later said it "got the name because it just about described his size.")  Alma had to sweet talk the captain of the S. S. Maruka to get her puppy home.  The New York Times explained, "under no circumstances were dogs allowed on board."

Alma confessed that when she returned to 227 East 49th Street, much of the welcome she expected from her children "was lavished on So-So."  The children were broken hearted on October 3, 1927 when someone left a door ajar and So-So ran away.  The crisis was reported by newspapers city-wide.

Happily, two days later The New York Sun reported, "So-so, the wander, So-so, the poor little rich dog has been returned to his house."  The article said he had made it "no father than the corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-ninth street."  It was no doubt the newspaper coverage that led the finder to the Zimbalists.  The New York Sun said that with So-So's adventure having been cut short, he had "resigned himself to the cushioned existence he seems fated to lead."

Marcia Gluck Clarke had moved into 225 East 49th Street with her mother and step-father.  She and Frank Delmas Clarke had divorced in 1926 and she was now on the editorial staff of The New Yorker.  The mansion was the scene of her wedding to author Russell Wheeler Davenport on May 13, 1929.  

Efrem and Alva Gluck Zimbalist.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

The Zimbalists had highly-visible houseguests in 1929 in architect Alfred Henry Bossom and his wife, the former Emily Bayne.  On November 10, The New York Times reported that the Bossoms "will give a musicale tonight at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Efrem Zimbalist."  And, indeed, they did.  The following day, the newspaper listed the names of the 108 guests.  Efrem Zimbalist was the principal performer that evening.  Among socially elite surnames on the guestlist like Brokaw, Bache, Guggenheim and Blumenthal were titled invitees like Count and Countess de Zellombrosa, Sir Harry and Lady Armstrong, and the Countess of Crawbrook.

Another glittering social event held here was the 20th anniversary celebration of Efrem's American debut on October 12, 1931.  Conductor and composer Walter Damrosch acted as master of ceremonies.  The New York Times reported, "Among those present were Josef Hofmann, Josef Lhevinne, Mischa Levitzki, John Erskine, Hermann Irion, Mme. Olga Samaroff, Yolanda Mëro, Reinald Werrenrath, Paul Kochanski and George Engles."

In 1932, Efrem made a concert tour of the Far East.  He was scheduled to appear in Manchuria, which was currently embroiled in a war with Japan.  According to The New York Times on November 26, "The two trains that preceded his were blown up, and he decided finally that the residents perhaps could get along without his musical contributions to happiness."  The violinist continued to tour and on April 5, 1934 The New York Times reported that he had "accepted an invitation of the Soviet Government to give recitals in all the large cities in Russia during the month of May."

Henry and Lila Luce were divorced in 1935 and Henry married author, politician playwright Ann Clare Boothe, who went by her middle name.  Henry gave up the lease on 225 East 49th Street.  The Zimbalists next tenant was William Morris Jr., president of the William Morris Agency, a talent agency founded by his father in 1898.

Maria Virginia Zimbalist was married to Ogden Goelet in the mansion on April 19, 1938.  The New York Sun reported, "Because of the illness of Mrs. Zimbalist, who is known on the concert stage as Alma Gluck, only members of the two families are witnessing the ceremony."

Six months later, on October 28, The Omaha World-Herald titled an article, "Alma Gluck Who Sacrificed Career for Family Dies After Long Illness."  It was one of hundreds of newspapers world-wide that reported on Alma's death.  The article said, "Millions who have never seen the interior of the Metropolitan opera house knew and loved Alma Gluck's voice, which reached homes throughout the world on phonograph records."

Efrem Zimbalist did not remain at 227 East 49th Street especially long.  In 1940, he leased it to Max Palm and the following year to Irving Wayland Bonbright Jr.  In 1941, Nathalia Collver signed "a long lease," according to The New York Times.  The educator was the wife of Clinton Collver, economist and author.  She converted 227 West 49th Street to the private Scudder-Collver School.

Music returned to 227 West 49th Street in the summer of 1943.  On June 26, 1943, The New York Post reported on the upcoming benefit concert of Elmo Russ.  The article said it "will be held at the Scudder-Collver School, 227 East 40th Street."

The school occupied the house until 1944, when it was relocated into the former Goodridge mansion at 122 East 78th Street.

Wurts Bros. took this photograph in 1927, the year the Zimbalists moved in.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

A drastic change came in 1957.  On February 31, The New York Times reported that the New York City Police Department had rented Nos. 225-227.  "The twenty-room structure, which has thirteen bathrooms, is actually two houses with one entrance," said the article.  Both sides were unoccupied at the time, however The New York Times said, "Twenty-five detectives and 194 uniformed policemen" would soon "move into the former Ease Side home of Efrem Zimbalist, the violinist, and his first wife, the late Alma Gluck."  The 17th Precinct station was slated for demolition.  The residences would serve as a temporary precinct house until the new building was completed.  The certificate of occupancy noted that despite alterations, "there shell be no detention rooms in the building."

Following the Department's removal, in 1965 the building was converted to apartments--four each on the first through third floors and two on the fourth.  Happily, despite the renovations, Grosvenor Atterbury's charming neo-Tudor exterior has survived.

The 1928 248 West 17th Street

 

The block of West 17th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues had become noticeably commercial by the post-World War I years.  Many of the houses and flat buildings had been replaced with warehouses and factories.  But in 1928, David M. Fink and his newly formed 350 West 17th Street Realty Corp. bucked the trend by demolishing the old building at 248-250 West 17th Street (formerly occupied by the West Side Trucking Company) and erecting a six-story apartment building.

The architects, Springsteen & Goldhammer, leaned into the nation's current love affair with Tudor architecture.  Around the country, suburban neighborhoods saw charming, fairytale-like cottages and regal mansions that echoed British country homes.  Urban architects, like Springsteen & Goldhammer, modified the style to adapt to city living.

The off-set arched entrance was framed in cast stone that crept east to partially embrace a charming arched window.  Faced in variegated Flemish bond brick, the building blended modern elements, like multi-paned casement windows, with picturesque historic details.  Above the second floor were two cornices atop attractive arched corbel tables.  A three-story projecting bay with a peaked gable and rusticated brickwork recalled 16th century sentry towers.  A cast stone ledge with corbels fronted a large, arched window at the sixth floor.  Above it was a prominent decorative pediment supported by sturdy brackets.  Springsteen & Goldhammer covered parts of the upper bays with white stucco.  The straight parapet along the roofline was interrupted at the east by a taller, peaked section.

In 1940, the casements, most of the stucco, the cast stone ornaments of the sixth floor, and the roofline were intact.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Interestingly, three of the original residents--Harry A. Dooley, Evilio Brito, and "a rather mysterious blond woman"--would be involved in mysterious deaths, and all of them unwittingly.

Although Prohibition was still in effect, on Saturday night August 31, 1931 Evilio Brito attended "a drinking party" at the apartment of Dr. William F. Hurst at 410 West 58th Street.  Along with Brito and Hurst, there were two other men.  The bootleg gin they were drinking was apparently strong.  At one point, according to Brito, Dr. Hurst attempted to "leave the apartment in his underwear," but the other men constrained him.

The next afternoon, detectives knocked on Brito's apartment door and questioned him about the puzzling death of his friend.  Just before noon, Hurst's neighbors complained that his radio had been playing loudly since the previous night.  When he did not answer his telephone, building employees entered the apartment.  The 30-year-old doctor's body was found "slumped upon a settee," according to The New York Times, with "both hands fastened behind his back by a knotted towel."

Brito said that when he and another of the guests, a soldier named Jack, left the party, Hurst was alive.  Police reported that there had been no attempt at robbery, since $126 in cash and Hurst's expensive watch and cufflinks were undisturbed.  A medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was a "cerebral hemorrhage."  That did not narrow down the mystery, however.  He said the hemorrhage could have "been induced by alcoholism, a fall, or a blow."  It did not explain Hurst's wrists being bound, either.  In the end, Evilio Brito was cleared of suspicion and the bizarre mystery was never solved.

The following year, Harry A. Dooley went to Niagara Falls over the Fourth of July holiday.  He was taking in the views above the Horseshoe Falls when a man removed his topcoat, laid it on the ground along with his walking stick and hat, and climbed the guardrail.  Dooley and a park ranger "called to him, but in vain," reported The New York Times, which added, "the body was quickly swept" away.

Documents in the man's coat identified him as Nikolai Semenoff, a dancer in the Russian Ballet under the Imperial Government.  Since the Russian Revolution, he had been a member of Sergei Diaghilev's troupe.  His friends told authorities the overwhelmingly obvious.  They "expressed the belief that he had gone to Niagara Falls to end his life," said that article.

In 1934, police were attempting to find the "mysterious blond woman" who often visited newlyweds Agnes Tulfverson and Ivan Poderjay at 235 East 22nd Street.  Authorities said that the woman, who lived here, "called herself Poderjay's sister-in-law."  She was wanted for questioning in the supposed murder of Agnes Tulfverson Poderjay.  On December 20, 1933, three weeks after their wedding, the couple sailed to Europe on their honeymoon.  Agnes never made it there and her body was never discovered.  Also missing was the "mysterious blond woman."  The New York Sun reported on June 23, 1934 that detectives "found that she had moved from her last known address at 248 West Seventeenth street."

The anti-Communist paranoia in the 1940s and '50s was called the Red Scare.  It prompted the Congressional Special Committee on Un-American Activities to monitor and list Americans who registered as Communists or who voted for Communist Party candidates.  Every year from 1940 through 1944, residents Leo and Lillian Bergman, who lived here, appeared on that list.

Among the Bergmans' neighbors in the building was Leona Finestone.  The unmarried woman worked in an office conveniently just two blocks away at 205 West 19th Street.  She had just entered the lobby on the morning of May 13, 1943 when a "tall and heavily built" tough grabbed her handbag.  The 25-year-old screamed and her assailant "hurled the pocketbook at her head and, when it missed, began to beat her with his fists," reported The New York Times.

Undeterred, Leona Finestone followed him out of the building screaming.  John Bunch, who was 19 years old, pulled out a pocketknife and slashed her across the face.  Leona's screams attracted a group of men who captured Bunch after a block-long chase.  The bloodstained knife was in his pocket.

Leona faced her attacker during his sentencing before Judge James Garrott Wallace on November 5.  The jurist did not hold back in his disdain of Bunch, telling the teen, "In some parts of this country you would have been hung from a lamppost with several bullets in you for attacking a woman like that."  Bunch was sentenced to five to ten years in State Prison.

Another teen victimized two residents of 248 West 17th Street in 1966.  Mary Gartner, who had never married, was 71 years old and shared an apartment with her widowed sister, Amelia Fitzgibbon, who was 70.  Luckily, the women carefully put a chain on their door when they were at home.  At around 9:45 on the morning of July 21, someone tried to get in the door, but the chain held.  The voice from the hall threated to kill the women.  One of the sisters slammed the door and called the superintendent, who in turn called police.  

In the meantime, 18-year-0ld Gilbert Serrano went to the roof and down the fire escape.  He entered the sisters' apartment through the bathroom window.  Police arrived in time and Serrano was arrested, but not before he suffered a bullet wound in the leg.

A renovation begun in 2001 included the "rebuilding" of the parapet.  It was most likely at the same time that the casement windows were replaced, the remaining stucco removed, and the sixth floor ornaments taken down.  To the architect's credit, the remodeled parapet sympathetically adheres to Springsteen & Goldhammer's original theme, and even the brick color was carefully matched.

photographs by the author

The Quondam Building - 450-460 Park Avenue South

 

On July 2, 1910, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that the De Forest Estate Corporation had leased the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue and 31st Street to the Quondam Realty Co.  The article said, "Work is to be started on or about Aug. 1 for the new-story office structure."  The Bridgemen's Magazine noted that the architectural firm of Herts & Tallant had designed the plans.  "The building will be known as the Quondam Building, and will be in the gothic style of architecture, and is estimated to cost $200,000."

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, July 2, 1910 (copyright expired)

Those plans were soon expanded.  Construction was delayed as negotiations with Robert Goelet, who owned the abutting property, played out.  Goelet leased his plot at 450-454 Fourth Avenue to the Quondam Leasing Company, now giving the developers a parcel twice the width of the original.

Herts & Tallant filed the revised plans on March 28, 1911.  The Engineering Record noted that the "12-story brick and terra cotta commercial building" would now cost $450,000 to erect (about $15.3 million in 2026).  

Completed in 1912, Herts & Tallant had designed two buildings that successfully pretended to be one.  Faced in white terra cotta, the architects' design was a 1911 take on late Gothic and Tudor.  The two-story base included elaborate arched entrances below niches with intricate Gothic hoods.  Quatrafoil panels created spandrels within the eight-story midsection.  Above a molded bandcourse, the two-story top section drew inspiration from Tudor-style residences, like the Dalmeny House near Edinburg, Scotland, with its crenellated parapet and Tudor pinnacles.

Although they were two buildings, some floors were cut through to create full-width spaces for tenants like silk manufacturers Collins, Doorly & Franc.  When the firm moved into the building in 1912, they had already named two silk colors in honor of Presidential daughters--Alice Blue, for Alice Roosevelt, and Helen Pink, for Helen Herron Taft.  Now, on November 8, 1912, The New York Times reported, "Collins, Doorly & Franc, 450 Fourth Avenue, have obtained permission from Miss Eleanor Randolph Wilson, daughter of the President-elect, to name a new color 'Nell Rose,' in her honor."

Silk magazine, November 1912 (copyright expired)

Tenants in the buildings were highly varied.  Among them were Valentine Brothers, makers of oils and varnishes; Atlas Advertising Agency; the International Souvenir Spoon Company; and Wireless Age magazine.

Among the sales staff of Valentine Brothers in 1913 was George Pettit.  The 34-year-old was dealing with serious personal problems.  He was separated from his wife and living in a Brooklyn boarding house.  Additionally, despite his relative youth, he was suffering from rheumatism.  He remarked to his landlady, Annie Magno, "that he intended to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge," according to The New York Times.  Annie brushed it off.  But a few nights later, on September 10, 1913, she was standing outside Pettit's door and heard him exclaim, "I did it!  I did it all right!"

Pettit had swallowed poison.  Annie Magno first called a policeman and then telephoned the Swedish Hospital, but it was too late.  The newspaper said Pettit's name "was added last night to the long list of those who have committed suicide by taking Bichloride of mercury tablets."

Another fabric dealer to occupy a full floor was A. Wimpfheimer & Brother, dealers in "velvets, plushes and other pile fabrics," as explained by Dry Goods Economist in December 1916.  Other tenants in the building at the time were Cerag Company, makers of a "delicious food rich" laxative; Motorcycle & Bicycle Illustrated magazine; and the National Amateur Wireless Association.  (On January 14, 1916, The New York Times reported, "The President of the association is Guglielmo Marconi.")

The American Clock & Suit Review, June 1915 (copyright expired)

In 1917, The Merchants' Association embarked on an "Anti-Litter" campaign within the commercial district of 14th Street to 42nd Street.  As a part of the program, "block captains" were selected from one business per block.  On December 10, Greater New York reported, "The American Velvet Company, 450-460 Fourth Avenue, has appointed Mr. Michael Robertori, Block Captain."  In one of his reports, Robertori disclosed:

I have made a thorough examination of this street and found conditions very good with the exception of a coal and wood establishment that has a habit of leaving cakes of ice on the sidewalk.  I have notified him this day to refrain from doing this as the sidewalk must be absolutely free from all obstructions.  He promises to remedy this and I shall watch him closely.

Among the broad spectrum of tenants in the building at the time were the Corrective Eating Society and the American Trapshooting Association.  

The Hammondsport Products Company was occuping space when Prohibition was enacted.  The firm held a permit "for manufacturing and selling wine for sacramental purposes," according to Federal agents.  But it seems that the firm's clients were not merely synagogues and churches.

In October 1922, agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, disguised as cigar clerks in a small store in Grand Street, made inquiries about how they could obtain alcohol.  They were told that "wine could be bought from the Hammondsport Products Company, Inc. 450 Fourth Avenue, by using a password."  

According to the New-York Tribune on October 13, "They said that they telephoned to N. Rosenblum, secretary of the Rabbinical Bureau...who is also said to be a salesman for the Hammondsport company, and arranged for the purchase of the ten cases of assorted wine."  When the cases were delivered to the Grand Street address, the agents paid the trucker with marked bills.  They then seized, "the wine, the bills and the truck."  There were another 20 cases of wine in the vehicle.

Advertising agency Winemiller and Miller, Inc. had occupied space as early as 1919.  They employed what were called "illustrative photographers," and a representative told Studio Light, "We prepared to meet every demand, from a convincing and dramatic scene of fireman rescuing patients from a burning hospital...to the most advantageous display of a box of hairpins."  

In the spring of 1925, Winemiller and Miller, Inc. initiated an ad campaign for the Glen Falls Insurance Company.  For publicity, the firm launched a nationwide contest for the best fire prevention slogans.  It received more than 150,000 entries and the 100 best were awarded prizes--from $5 to $500--in the firm's offices on March 28.  (The winning slogan was, "Answer the Burning Question with Fire Prevention.")

The offices of the Westminster Kennel Club were in the building as early as 1929.  The distinguished dog show was scheduled to take place in Madison Square Garden beginning February 11 that year, and on January 27 The New York Times reported that entries "are still pouring into the offices of the club."  The article said, "Up to last night more than 2,000 dogs had been listed, with a large pile of entry blanks still to be tabulated."

Mid-century saw a new type of tenant, beginning with Leo H. Spivack, Inc. which opened its furniture showroom in May 1959.  An advertisement in Interiors that month described the showrooms as, "Newly hatched...and fairly bursting with the freshest, finest, most comprehensive collection of Scandinavian imports you ever saw!"

The original first- and second-floor detailing survived in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Furniture dealer William L. Marshall, Ltd. followed in 1961.  On August 8, The New York Times said that Marshall "has been channeling his cargoes of Asian, African and South American timber into banks, a law school, restaurants, hotel lobbies, club, libraries, executive offices of major corporations."

In 1959, Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue South.  The following year, according to The New York Times, "Iranians began to move into the rug-importing trade in the city in large numbers."  Now, in 1976, 450-460 Park Avenue South had become a center for rug importers, part of what was deemed the "Oriental rug district."

The district lasted through 1983, when, according to Jon S. Ansari, president of the Amiran Corporation here, rug dealers were exasperated by the rising rents.  Other tenants quickly moved in.  Ogilvy & Mather leased "several floors," as described by Newsday on May 23, 1984 for its corporate headquarters.  Subsequent tenants included Facts on File publishing, the Montserrat Tourist Board, and Franklin Spier, Inc., which leased 21,300 square feet in 1997.

On the ground floor, the cabaret Arci's Place opened in 1999.  In 2005, PS450 opened, a restaurant with "a menu of comfort food," according to The New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant on March 23.  And in September 2018, a Felix Roasting Co. coffee bar and cafe moved in.

Renovations to the first and second floors were initiated in 2017.  Sadly, the stripped-down modernization erased what was left of Herts & Tallant's wonderful terra cotta decorations.

The entrance of No. 460 in 2011 (from Google Streetviews)

...and in 2026

photographs by the author

The Fred F. French Company's 1917 370 Central Park West

 
 

photograph by Beyond My Ken

Fred Fillmore French founded the Fred F. French Company in 1910 when he was just 27 years old.  At the time, the firm consisted of himself and a boy whom he paid $15 a week.  He succeeded in the real estate business.  In 1917, just seven years after starting out, he formed the 370 Central Park West Company, and filed plans on March 17 for a “six-story elevator apartment” on the southwest corner of Central Park West and 97^th Street.  The property cost $150,000 and construction would add another $300,000, bringing the total outlay for the project to about $11 million in 2025 terms.
 
The Fred F. French Company’s architects designed a charming and romantic whimsy that foretold the neo-Tudor craze that would sweep the nation in the coming decade.  By inserting deep light courts along 97^th Street, they created the feel of a Shakespearean village on a modern scale.  The six stories of “common brick,” were enhanced with Tudor half-timbering, sections of rough plaster, and a mountainscape of gables.
 
The Fred F. French Company wasted no time in marketing the project.  An advertisement in The New York Times on July 24, 1917 read:
 

The apartment house unique, now under construction, S.W. corner 97^th St.  An old fashioned touch to a new fashioned home.  Suites 2 to 7 rooms $650 to $1800.  French Management Corporation.

 
The highest-end rent would equal $3,500 per month in today’s money.
 
Construction was completed within seven months.  Some of the earliest tenants were affected by the war raging in Europe.  On October 6, U.S. Navy Ensign Donald Stewart Tuttle married Eleanor Church Gould in Lyons Falls, New York while on a four-day furlough from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  The Sun mentioned, “the young couple started by automobile for New York, where they will be at home after November 1 at 370 Central Park West.”
 
Shortly after Helen Windsor Wilson, the widow of David H. Wilson, moved into 370 Central Park West with her son, Stafford Clay, the 25-year-old man was deployed to the battlefront with the 107^th Infantry.  Tragically, Stafford Clay Wilson was killed in battle near Peronne, France on September 29, 1918.
 
Another tragedy occurred here seven months later.  John A. Goodwin, a real estate operator, occupied an apartment with his wife Eleanor.  Following the sudden death of his father early in 1919, a traumatized Goodwin suffered a nervous breakdown.  Like most well-heeled couples at the time, the Goodwins had separate bedrooms.  Eleanor awoke during the night of April 15 to discover a horrific scene.  The New-York Tribune reported that Goodwin “committed suicide…by hanging himself from the hinge of his bedroom door.”
 
One of the most colorful residents of 370 Central Park West was Maud L. Ceballos, an actress whose stage name was Mona Desmond, “the Dresden China Doll.”  She had had a remarkable past.  In 1903 she was taken to police headquarters from a Chicago club following a shooting.  There she and her escort gave fictitious names.  

The following year she eloped with J. Reed Fuller, a Chicago businessman.  The Sun remarked, “His disappearance after their marriage caused considerable comment.”  That “disappearance” resulted in divorce.  A year later she was named in the divorce suit of Edna May and Fred Titus. 
 

An early cabinet card of Mona Desmond. (copyright expired)

In August 1910, Maud sued Clifford R. Hendrix for breach of promise.  She alleged “he had for three or four years kept on promising to marry me as soon as I got a divorce from my first husband, Mr. Fuller.”  She lost that suit.
 
Maud later married her dancing partner, Larry Ceballos.  Shortly after their divorce in August 1919, she moved into an apartment at 370 Central Park West.  Her name was back in the newspapers on May 8, 1920 when she once again sued Clifford R. Hendrix—this time on his wedding day.  Her $100,000 suit accused him of a second breach of promise.  Maud said he had paid for her divorce and further alleged that he had promised to marry her on August 16, 1919.  At the time, she said, he was in the process of building a house for them in Larchmont, New York.  When Hendrix’s bride, Eugenia Terry received word of the filing, she scoffed, “Some women seem to think they have a lien on men who take them out to tea.”
 
Hendrix told a reporter, “I never promised to marry Miss Ceballos nor did I ever entertain the idea of so doing.  I knew her in my bachelor days, that is all.  She has been married and has been freed.”
 
While she was at it, Maud sued her broker, Frederick B. Florian on December 7, 1921.  She claimed she had given him, “between $6,000 and $7,000 to invest for her,” according to the New York Herald, “and could not get him to return the money.”
 
Maud’s cause against Clifford R. Hendrix began on October 31, 1922.  She was seriously grilled by the defense team about her history of lawsuits and love affairs.  Two days later, the New-York Herald reported she had dropped the charges.  Her attorney, James M. Fisk, explained that the cross-examination had made her so nervous that it was “physically impossible for her to go on with the case.  She just cannot submit to any further examination,” he said.
 
Less controversial were the several artistic tenants in 370 Central Park West.  In 1921, Frederic Warren’s apartment doubled as his studio where he taught operatic voice.  His advertisements offered, “Full preparation for the concert and operatic stage.”
 
Among his neighbors was Helena Marsh, a contralto with the Metropolitan Opera Company.  When she returned home from the theater just before midnight on September 26, 1921, she found her door open, but barricaded from within.  The New-York Tribune reported, “She called a policeman, who with the aid of the elevator boy, forced the door in.”  The burglar had escaped through a window.  “Miss Marsh found her apartment in ruins, $400 in cash and about $5,000 worth of jewelry stolen,” said the article. 

Helena Marsh (original source unknown)

Living in what the New-York Tribune described as “an expensively furnished apartment” at the time was Jacques Roberto Cibrario, a Soviet citizen and “purchasing agent in America for the Russian Soviet government of motion picture machinery and films.”  He was given the job of purchasing American-made films and film-making equipment in 1919 by the Soviet Department of Public Information.  The materials were to be used “in making pictures for the education of the peasants in Communistic doctrine.”  The New-York Tribune explained, “the Soviet rulers had been much handicapped by inability to reach the peasantry through ordinary educational propaganda, since only a small proportion of the public could read.”
 
But now in America and with a fortune in the National City Bank supplied by the Soviet Government, Cibrario seems to have been enjoying the capitalistic lifestyle.  On September 1, 1921, he was indicted on four counts of grand larceny “in connection with the swindling of a good part of $1,000,000 advanced by the Soviets to him for the purchase of motion picture apparatus and films,” said the New York Herald.
 

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The building continued to attract musical and artistic types.  In 1926 Herman Neuman had his studio here.  The wide-ranging musician advertised, “accompanist, vocal coach, piano,” and “Musical Director Radio WNYC.”
 
Operatic and concert tenor and conductor John Hand lived here in 1931 with his wife, the former Ruth Worman.  That year he founded the New York Light Opera Guild to introduce young singers to the press and public.  The Hands’ apartment now doubled as the Guild’s administrative office and de facto audition hall.  On June 24, 1933, The New York Sun explained, “This is an educational and cultural institution for the advancement of American singers, and the stranger in New York, looking for an outlet for his talents, could find no better.”
 
Nine years later, on April 16, 1942, the Kingston Daily Freeman announced that the New York Light Opera Guild would stage Fatinitz early that June.  The article noted, “Preliminary hearings are now being conducted at headquarters, 370 Central Park West, where applications for auditions should be made.”  John Hand and his wife were still living here on October 11, 1956 when the 70-year-old suffered a fatal heart attack.
 
Professor of Economics at Columbia University Arthur F. Burns and his wife lived here in the 1950s.  Born in Stanislau, Austria in 1904, he graduated from Columbia University in 1925, and received his Ph.D. there in 1934.  He had added to his responsibilities in 1945 when he became research director of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
 

image via compass.com

While many of the low-rise buildings along Central Park West were replaced in the 20^th century by soaring apartments, Fred F. French’s picturesque 370 Central Park West survived unscathed, a charming touch of old England among its Art Deco neighbors.

The Altered Charles Steele Carriage House - 107 East 61st Street

photograph by the author

Born in 1857, Charles Steele was the son of esteemed attorney Isaac Nevett Steele and the former Rosa Londonia Nelson.  He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1880 and married Ann Gordon French five years later.  The couple had three daughters, Eleanor Herndon, born in 1893; Nancy Gordon, born the following year; and Kathryne Nevitt, who arrived in 1896.

In the last decade of the 19th century, Steele did legal work for Charles H. Coster, a partner of J. P. Morgan, in reorganizing the firm's railroad interests.  Coster died in March 1900 and, reportedly, during his funeral J. P. Morgan offered Steele a partnership within the firm. 

Charles and Ann (known as "Nannie) erected an English Tudor-style country place in Southampton, Long Island in 1899.  The couple's financial and social status was further exemplified when they purchased the magnificent Edith and Ernesto Fabbri mansion at 11 East 62nd Street in 1912.

By 1916, it appears that the Steeles had given up their horses and carriages in favor of motorcars.  On January 12, 1916, The New York Times reported that Charles Steele had purchased the property at 107 East 61st Street from Francis Muldoon.  The high-stooped brownstone had been the home of Edward and Anne Miller in the early 1880s.  It would not survive much longer.

Two months later, on March 25, 1916, the Record & Guide reported that George E. Wood was preparing plans for a "three-story brick garage" for Charles Steele.  It would cost $20,000 to construct, or about $573,000 in 2025.

Wood's charming neo-Tudor-style garage was completed within the year.  A stone base with a centered garage bay supported two floors of gray brick trimmed in limestone.  A grouping of three small-paned windows at the second floor sat within a quoined frame.  A quartet of arched openings on the third floor, also with small panes, shared a continuous stone eyebrow.  The attic floor took the form of a steep, metal-clad mansard.  Its acute gable held a blind lancet window.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Unlike carriage houses, which required space for bales of hay and tackle and such, garages needed much less storage.  The upper floors held apartments, originally for the Steeles' driver and, perhaps, a mechanic.  

But as early as 1921, James McCormick and his wife occupied the upper floors.  The couple's avocation was breeding Boston Terriers.  In 1921, for instance, they registered Rival's Lady None Such; and that year James McCormick advertised in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, offering three of his male dogs--Captain Altawood, Altawood's Boy, and Rival's Surprise--at stud.  (Captain Altawood came with the priciest fee, equal to about $350 today.)  The advertisement added, "Puppies for Sale."

Nannie Steele died in the couple's East 62nd Street mansion on December 18, 1932.  (By then the couple had a second Long Island estate, this one in Old Westbury.)  Charles died seven years later, on August 5, 1939.  

Four decades later, in 1982, a massive, three-year renovation began.  The ground floor was given a sleek remodeling that harkened to the former carriage bay.  Two additional floors, with no attempt to honor George E. Wood's Tudoresque design, were added.  The result was what one realtor described as a "reverse house," meaning that the living areas were on the top.  The ground floor of the single-family mansion now had a two-car garage, recreation room and swimming pool.  The second and third floors held bedrooms and a greenhouse.  On the fourth floor were a "den" and one bedroom.  The fifth floor held a "gallery," dining, living room, and kitchen.  What was described as a mezzanine level housed a studio.

The renovated structure in 1988.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In marketing the $6.9 million residence in 1990, broker Phyllis Gallaway told The New York Times, "This place appeals more to show business people who are a little more avant-garde."  The new owners initiated an exterior remodeling the following year.  The base and upper two floors were given a sleek, white facade.