The 1926 Barclay Hotel - 111 East 48th Street

 

photograph by Ajay Suresh

The renovation of Grand Central Depot to Grand Central Terminal sparked a burst of development in the neighborhood, known as Terminal City.  A second wave that erupted in the 1920s included a 14-story "stores and apartment hotel," as described in the plans.  Fred Bielsaski was president of the Barclay Park Corporation.  In 1925, the syndicate hired the architectural firm of Cross & Cross to design the $3 million project at the northwest corner of 48th Street and Lexington Avenue.  (Millionaire architect Eliot Cross not only designed the building, but he sat on the hotel's board of directors with highly-visible moguls like W. Seward Webb Jr., John R. Todd and James M. Todd, and Weld M. Stevens.)

The U-shaped, Renaissance Revival-style structure was completed the following year.  Its midsection atop a three-story stone base was clad in brown brick.  The single-story, stone-faced top section sat upon a molded cornice and was decorated with massive full-relief rosettes and Renaissance-inspired panels.

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

On April 10, 1926, The New York Times reported, "The new Barclay Hotel at 111 East Forty-eighth Street will be formally opened at a dinner and dance on Oct. 21."  But on the day of that article, the first residents were already moving in.  The Barclay Hotel was a residential hotel--meaning that residents had long-term leases, like apartment dwellers, but enjoyed the amenities of transient hotels, like maid service.

New York Evening Post, September 25, 1926 (copyright expired)

Among the initial residents were Morgan Belmont and his wife, the former Margaret Frances Andrews.  Belmont was born in 1892, the son of millionaire August Belmont Jr. and Bessie Hamilton Morgan.  The couple's daughter, Margaret Andrews Morgan Belmont, was born in 1917.  The family's country home was in Westbury, Long Island.

Morgan Belmont in his World War I Army uniform.  War Records of the Knickerbocker Club 1914-1918 (1922 - copyright expired)

Alice Wheelock and Erwin Hoy Watts moved in following their wedding on October 1, 1927.  Alice was the granddaughter of Dr. and Mrs. Morgan Dix on her maternal side and Dr. and Mrs. George G. Wheelock on her father's.  Born in 1903, the young groom was the son of cotton goods magnate Ridley Watts and was a member of the Chemical National Bank.

Radio stations were often installed in upscale hotels and on October 11, 1927, The New York Times reported, "An hour of luncheon music will be broadcast at 1 o'clock daily except Sunday over WABC direct from the Barclay Hotel."

Andrew H. Nutting, another initial resident, was the son of Andrew Jackson Nutting, founder of A. J. Nutting & Co.  The senior Nutting died on September 4, 1924 and his estate was divided equally among Andrew and his two sisters.  Like the Morgan Belmonts, residents of the Barclay Hotel spent their summers in their country homes or fashionable resorts.  On March 13, 1928, The New York Times reported that Andrew H. Nutting had purchased "the Hanna property at Boar's Head, Rye Beach, N. H., and will erect a residence there this Spring."

A postcard depicted the Nutting country home.

Resident Robert J. Upson graduated from Princeton University in 1921.  He joined the National Bank of Commerce in 1923 and became its assistant trust officer in 1927.  The unmarried 29-year-old went to Flushing, New York on March 29, 1928 to visit Charles G. Muller.  The next night at around 11:00, he left in a taxicab heading for the train station to return to Manhattan.

The following morning, his body was found on the elevated railroad crossing about 200 yards from the Flushing station.  Mysteriously, The New York Times reported, "he had been run over by a train at about 11:30 o'clock Thursday evening."

The Barclay Hotel reserved a number of suites for well-heeled transient guests.  Arthur Morgan Smith was described by The New York Times as a "Harvard graduate and wealthy Clevelander."  On April 10, 1929, he attended a bridge party held by socialite Florence Schuette in the Hotel Marguery.   Smith was smitten by another guest, Mrs. Robert L. Brown, who was staying in the Plaza Hotel.  The party broke up at just before 2:30 a.m.  A guest offered Smith a ride, "but he refused, saying it was just a short distance to his hotel, and he would walk," reported The New York Times.  In fact, Smith was intent on escorting Mrs. Brown to her hotel.

Equally intent on accompanying Mrs. Brown was another guest, Samuel E. Bell, a "well-to-do oil producer."  Bell won the argument, but not before shoving Smith to the pavement as he climbed into a taxi with Mrs. Brown.  Smith was arrested for intoxication a few minutes later on Park Avenue.  Later it became clear that he was not drunk--he had suffered a fractured skull in the fall to the curb.  He died the following afternoon.

Two views of the Art Deco cafe.  photographs by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The ballroom and meeting rooms could be rented by groups or, in some cases, individuals.  Such was the case in February 1937 when Amelia Earhart held a press conference to announce her intentions to fly a Lockheed Electra airplane around the world.  Fred Noonan, a Pan American Airways navigator, she said, would accompany her as navigator.

Ironically, following Earhart's disappearance in July her husband, George P. Putnam, moved into a suite in the Barclay Hotel where he followed the newspaper accounts of the search for his wife.  The New York Times said, "One, bearing the headline 'Sold Down the River,' essentially blamed Putnam for his wife's death, asserting that her failure to find Howland Island was because of inadequate equipment."  According to his assistant, Harold McCracken, "Then he took all the clippings and let them slip out of his hands into a wastepaper basket."

In October 1938, the Cornell Club of New York leased the 30,000-square-foot third floor.  It was accessed by a private entrance at 107 East 48th Street.  On October 17, The New York Times reported that Cross & Cross would remodel the floor "to provide a main dining room and three private rooms, grill, library and lounges, card and billiard rooms and a ladies' department."  There were, as well, 39 bedrooms and suites for resident members.

By midcentury, the Barclay Hotel was increasingly hosting transient guests.  The wealthy visitors, in some instances, became attractive targets for robbers.  On October 11, 1951, The New York Times reported that $10,400 worth of jewelry had "disappeared" from a suite.  Henry Rand, vice president of the International Shoe Company in St. Louis, and his wife and daughter had stepped out.  When they returned around midnight, they discovered the theft. 

Six months later, on April 29, 1952, the newspaper reported, "Jewelry valued at $2,700 was stolen last night from Sheik Asad Al Facih, Saudi-Arabian Ambassador to the United States."  Included in the heist were "an Indian necklace set with rubies and pearls and valued at $2,000, and a man's gold-and-ruby ring valued at $650 and a man's wedding ring valued at $50," said that article.  The total value would translate to about $32,700 today.

At the time of the article, the management offered a unique service to its transient guests.  On November 9, 1955, The New York Times noted, "The Barclay Hotel cares for transient's canaries; boards them in the lobby cage with its own yellow birds and finches."  That cage had become an attraction.  Decades later, architectural critic David W. Dunlap would recall his visit to New York City with his mother at the age of nine in 1962.  They stayed at the Barclay Hotel and Dunlap wrote in his diary, "In the middle of the lobby there is a cage of 9 song birds."

The Barclay Hotel continued to be the permanent home to well-heeled residents over the subsequent decades, among them actress Amy Busby who debuted on the stage in 1889; Municipal Court Justice George L. Genung; and author Norman Beasley.

The Cornell Club moved out in the mid-1960s and the third floor space was next occupied by the Manhattan Club, who moved from its clubhouse, the former Jerome Mansion, on Madison Avenue in November 1966.  

In July 1978, InterContinental Hotels purchased the Barclay Hotel.  The following year, $37 million in financing was acquired "in connection with the purchase and planned renovation," reported The New York Times.  Saying the renovations would be completed in 1981, the article noted, "the company planned to make the Barclay the flagship of its worldwide chain of 80 hotels."

The hotel was renovated again, re-opening in April 2016.  In reporting on the renovations in The New York Times on February 28, David W. Dunlap remembered the cage of canaries and finches, saying, "the song birds are long gone."  The InterContinental designers, however, gave a nod to the beloved fixture.  The new revolving door mimicked the cage with swirling birds.

photo by Pablo Enriquez for The New York Times, April 28, 2016

Two new ballrooms on the second floor necessitated the removal of the lobby's dome.  The exterior of the hotel, "as confident and debonair as Gene Kelly on a dance floor," as described by journalist Christopher Gray, was not touched.

photograph by Jim Henderson

many thanks to reader Kevin Cross for suggesting this post.

The 1915 Brooks Brothers Building - 346 Madison Avenue

 

Henry Sands Brooks opened his haberdashery shop on April 7, 1818.  Following his death in 1833, Henry Jr. headed the business until 1850, when his sons, Elisha, Edward, Daniel and John took the reins.  The brothers renamed it Brooks Brothers.  Seven years later they moved northward from Catherine Street to the northeast corner of Broadway and Grand Street.  By then Brook Brothers catered to an exclusive clientele.  The suit President Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, for example, had been purchased at this store.

On June 13, 1914, the Real Estate Record & Guide hinted that Brooks Brothers was moving from its fourth location.  "The real estate market was enlivened this week by several transactions, the most prominent involving a Madison avenue and 44th street corner, where by a prominent downtown clothing establishment, for thirty years at Broadway and 22d street, joins the growing colony in the neighborhood of Grand Central Terminal."

Within a week ground had been broken for Brooks Brothers's new 10-story headquarters and store, designed by La Farge & Morris with Clinton & Russell.  The Record & Guide said, "The facade has been designed in a dignified yet simple manner in the style of the Italian Renaissance and which will harmonize beautifully with the Hotel Biltmore, diagonally opposite and the new Yale Club being erected on Vanderbilt avenue."  The structure would cost $750,000 to construct (about $22.7 million in 2023), not including the custom made fixtures, counters and lighting.  Not mentioned in the article were the specifications for "a shower bath" for the use of executive staff.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The building's tripartite design included a three-story stone base, a subdued red brick mid-section, and a show-stopping, two-story top section of double-height arched openings framed in stone and separated by Corinthian pilasters.  The architects placed the main entrance on 44th Street, where two-story engaged columns upheld a massive entablature and cornice.  

A window directly above the Renaissance style Madison Avenue entrance was framed in intricate carvings that included the Brooks Brothers insignia of the Golden Fleece, used by the firm since 1850.

Like any proper haberdashery, Brooks Brothers offered the accessories and other miscellaneous items gentlemen would need.  Its tobacco department sold the Brooks Brothers brand "346," named for the Madison Avenue address.  The firm's button-down collar shirts had been marketed under the Polo name since around 1902.  (Coincidentally [or not], in 1964 25-year-old Ralph Lauren, recently discharged from the US Army, took a job here as a clerk.)

When the firm erected its new headquarters, its president was Francis Guerin Lloyd, who also served as the vice-president of the United States Savings Bank.  Conservative, proper, and wealthy, he lived in an art-filled Bernardsville, New Jersey estate where he raised Scottish Terriers.  He had worked for the firm since the age of 14, was made a partner in 1879, and became senior partner upon the death of John E. Brooks in 1896.

Staunchly patriotic, he was one of the prominent New Yorkers chosen to welcome home returning troops in January 1919.  It was an honor that seven of those men, including Lloyd, refused when they discovered that William Randolph Hearst was also on the list.

Hearst had rankled many Americans by vilifying the British Empire in his publications, and steadfastly opposing the U.S. entry into the war.  Lloyd's letter of refusal echoed the sentiments of others, saying in part:

Mr. Hearst's attitude, as expressed by the newspapers which he controls, toward our entrance into the war and toward our chief ally has been too notoriously subversive of all that I regard as the best ideals and spirit of the United States to permit me to service with him on a committee to welcome the returning troops.

The following year, on October 6, 1920, Francis Guerin Lloyd left his Bernardsville home, headed for the office.  He never made it.  The 72-year-old died on the way, presumably the victim of a heart attack.

Lloyd's insistence on quality and conservative dress resulted in jackets being displayed on tables inside-out.  The practice enabled customers to readily see the workmanship involved in the goods.  That ended in 1966, according to Town & Country magazine, when HRH Prince Philip (on a trip to New York without his wife) visited the Madison Avenue store and commented that the tables looked "untidy."

At the time of the Prince's remark, the name Brooks Brothers had been synonymous with quality in men's apparel for decades.  Author F. Scott Fitzgerald "dressed his star-crossed heroes in Brooks suits," pointed out The New York Times journalist Gilbert Millstein in 1976.  And writer John O'Hara "took the measure of his protagonists by the cut of their clothing (the good guys went to Brooks; the heels wore padded shoulders and severely pegged pants)."  Author Mary McCarty titled one of her most famous short stories "The Man in The Brooks Brothers Suit."  

Millstein noted that over the years Brooks Brothers had dressed "Astors, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, five generations of Morgans and Clark Gable."  Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson all wore Brooks Brothers suits when they took the oath of office.   And when President Gerald Ford met Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo in 1975, he wore a morning coat and ascot from Brooks Brothers.

photo by Karsten Moran for The New York Times, July 2020

But back home in America, times were changing in men's fashion.  Writing in The New York Times in May 8, 1976, Lawrence Van Gelder began an article saying, "Brooks Brothers, one of the nation's venerable bastions of sartorial conservatism, is phasing out all custom tailoring."  Brooks Brothers president Frank T. Reilly explained that there was simply a "declining demand" for custom-made suits.  The decision shocked many customers, who mourned the end of the 158-year tradition.  Gilbert Millstein said, "my reaction (I will try not to exaggerate) was one of disjointure: a slight dizziness, a sense of being in Cleveland, a feeling of malaise of the kind induced by discovering that one has left home in one blue sock and one black."

The stately 44th Street entrance.

The end of custom suits was a hint of things to come.  America's embrace of casual business attire, the rise of affordable brands like Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and J. Crew, and finally the onslaught of COVID, brought the venerable firm to its knees.

In July 2020 Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy.  Lisa Birnbach, author of the 2010 True Prep, wrote, "Maybe we should blame the bankruptcy on the perception that one buys suits at Brooks Brothers, and who wears a suit anymore?  I get that.  Everyone is wearing sweatpants or ugly shorts with a button-down shirt and tie for Zoom meetings."

In January the following year the property was placed on the market, the listing noting the site could be used for an office or residential tower.  In the meantime, in February 2022 the newly formed Piazza Italia rented space in the building.  Partner Dennis Ulrich described it as a "collective office and network concept that will facilitate the ability of Italian companies to grow both their business and brand awareness in North America."  In December, Bindi, an Italian dessert company, opened a holiday pop-up store in the ground floor, offering panettone, pandora and ice cream.

Office space on the upper floors and the main showroom floor continued to be offered for lease.

photographs by the author

many thanks to reader Andrew Cronson for requesting this post

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com 

The Colonel Richard Lathers House - 248 Central Park West

 

In 1887 real estate developer William Nobel began construction of a row of eight high-end residences that would fill the Central Park West blockfront from 84th to 85th Street.  Designed by Edward Angell, each of the four-story-and-basement homes was individual, yet they flowed together as a harmonious unit.  Upon the row's completion in 1889, Colonel Richard Lathers purchased 248 Central Park West.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Although, like its neighbors, 248 Central Park West was designed in the Queen Anne style, Angell had liberally slathered it with Renaissance Revival ornamentation.  The parlor level above the dog-legged stoop was heavily decorated with intricate Renaissance style carvings.  A rounded bay at the second and third floors was crowned by a stone balustrade.  A steep triangular gable fronted the fourth floor mansard.

Lathers was born in Ireland on Christmas Day, 1821.  His parents brought him to America six months later, settling in Georgetown, South Carolina.  He was sent north to Huntington, Long Island to attend school.  He would subsequently found the Great Western Insurance Company, a commission business, and become highly involved in railroads.  In 1846 he married Abby Pitman Thurston, whose wealthy family lived on Bond Street in Manhattan and in Newport, Rhode Island.  The couple would have eight children.

Richard and Abby the year of  their wedding.  Biographical Sketch of Colonel Richard Lathers, 1902 (copyright expired)

Lathers had been made a colonel of the 31st Regiment of the State of South Carolina in 1841.  But as tensions between the North and South developed, his sympathies were decidedly with the Union.  Lathers traveled throughout the South making impassioned speeches against war.  On April 11, 1861 Lathers was speaking before a large assemblage in Mobile when news came by telegraph that Fort Sumter had been attacked.  Lathers later said the news "brought my address to a premature end."

In 1851 he had commissioned his friend, architect Alexander Jackson Davis, to design a country home, Winyah Park, on his 300-acre estate outside the village of New Rochelle, New York.   It would be only one of several Lathers family homes.  Their mountain residence in the Catskills was called Chicora Cotta, and the estate in Berkshire County, Massachusetts was Abby Lodge.

The mansion at Winyah Park would be destroyed by fire on May 5, 1897.  from the collection of the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce.

The Lathers family on the lawn of Abby Lodge in the Berkshires.  painting by George from  Story, Biographical Sketch of Colonel Richard Lathers, 1902 (copyright expired)

The Central Park West house was filled with a fine collection of artwork and antiques.  In 1902 the New-York Tribune wrote, "Mr. Lathers passes his evening of life quietly in his well-selected library, containing a fine collection of statuary, vases, rare pictures and engravings, collected during his travels in Europe."  The New York Sun said, "The New York City house contains a large collection of paintings and engravings and a library of rare books, chiefly obtained in Europe."

Colonel Lathers sat at a French Empire style desk among an impressive collection of books.  Biographical Sketch of Colonel Richard Lathers, 1902 (copyright expired)

The category of paintings assembled by the Lathers filled several pages.  In 1896, the New-York Tribune mentioned that among the collection within the Central Park West house "may be noted original works of [Alessandro] La Volpe, Joseph Vernet, [George H.] Story, T. A. Richards, and [Alexander] Emmons, as well as Edward Moran's Centennial picture of New York Harbor, and a portrait of Colonel Lathers painted by Huntington a quarter of a century ago.  There are also engravings of the works of Albert Durer (1507) Panini, Watson (1750), Le Brun, Hamilton, Bartolozzi, Turner, Simmons and Landseer."

Edward Moran's 1886 Unveiling the Statue of Liberty hung in the Lathers' Central Park West house.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The newspaper pointed out The Lost Pleiad, "Randolph Rodger's last work, for which General Scott's daughter was the model, and 'Judith,' by Tadolini, of Rome, which was originally executed for the Italian Government, but was purchased by Colonel Lathers.  A well-known Italian countess posed for this work."

Colonel Richard Lathers in 1901.  Biographical Sketch of Colonel Richard Lathers, 1902 (copyright expired)

A notable entertainment was held in the house on May 23, 1892.  Colonel Lathers had heard that Mary Custis Lee would be in town.  He later wrote, "I determined to give a reception in her honor."  Lathers invited Julia Grant, widow of Ulysses S. Grant, but because she was in mourning she sent her daughter-in-law, Ida Honore Grant.  The Fredericksburg, Virginia newspaper The Free Lance-Star reported, "Miss Mary Custis Lee, daughter of the late Gen. Robert E. Lee, who arrived in New York from a short sojourn in Bermuda, was Monday night given a charming reception at the residence of Col. Richard Lathers, No. 248 Central Park west...Mrs. Frederick D. Grant was present and completed the graceful ceremony by greeting the daughter of the great soldier of the South in the name of the great soldier of the North."

Abby Lathers and her children in 1902.  Biographical Sketch of Colonel Richard Lathers, 1902 (copyright expired)

Richard Lathers died in the Central Park house on September 17, 1903 at the age of 84.  Calling him "one of the most prominent southerners of this city," the Evening Star noted, "Colonel Lathers had been in feeble health for months."  His body was taken to Winyah Park where his funeral was held, and he was buried in Trinity Churchyard in New Rochelle.

Five months later, on February 9, 1904, Abby Pitman Thurston Lathers died in the house.  Her estate sold the residence in May 1906 to Dr. Max K. R. Reich.  

A citizen of Berlin, Reich practiced medicine from the house until around 1908 when he returned to Germany and leased it to Wolfgang Gustav Triest.  Like his landlord, Triest was a native of Germany, although by now had become an American citizen.  A civil engineer and member of the firm Snare & Triest, he and his wife, the former Lillie P. MacDonald, had a son, Kenneth.

The parlor floor is decorated with intricate Renaissance style carvings.

In 1914 Kenneth entered Princeton University.  Intensely proud of his German heritage, the freshman was deeply troubled by the war in Europe.

He communicated with his parents regularly until New Year's Day 1915, when he disappeared.  The college notified the Triests, and a search was launched.  The New York Times reported that when no trace of the young man was found, "fearful that some misfortune had overtaken the boy, Mr. Triest employed the Burns Detective Agency to search for him."

It would be months before any clue was found.  Wolfgang Triest received a letter from a former roommate of Kenneth, saying the young man had "gone to England and had enlisted in the navy there."  Triest contacted the State Department and even went to Washington personally.  He told The New York Times that his son "had performed a foolish boy's trick, and, being still a minor, might be discharged from the navy and returned to me at my request."  He was about to discover things were worse than he could imagine.

The State Department notified Triest that Kenneth had been arrested in Britain in January and was to be tried as a spy for Germany.  As Triest scrambled to get evidence to free his son, the British Government agreed to postpone the trial.  Lillie Triest told a journalist from The New York Times tearfully, "Kenneth had Germany on the brain.  He was trying to get to Germany.  I know he was, and he thought he could do it by joining the English Navy...Doesn't it prove my poor boy's mind had given out under the great excitement of this war?"

The stakes could not have been higher.  If Triest failed to get Kenneth released, he would almost unquestionably be executed.  When Wolfgang Gustav Triest sailed to London in November, he was armed with letters from high-powered American officials and affidavits from Kenneth's Princeton classmates.  The most significant of the letters came from Theodore Roosevelt.  On November 29, 1915, The New York Times ran the headline, "Triest Lands Here, Saved by Roosevelt."  

Triest took his impetuous son directly to Oyster Bay to see Roosevelt.  In his letter to the British Government, Roosevelt had instructed that should Kenneth be released, his father "should bring him to me and give me the opportunity to explain to him in the presence of his father...the terrible character of the offense he has committed and the heavy load of obligation he and his family are under to the British Government."

The war resulted in yet another missing person the following year.  On May 28, 1916, The New York Times reported, "Dr. Max K. R. Reich, who, if living, is easing the sufferings of the wounded on one of the battlefields in Europe, is in danger of losing his interest in the property at 248 Central Park West."  Reich had not been heard from since November 1915.  The mortgage payments on the house had not been paid since then.  He was never found, and the residence was sold in foreclosure to Mary E. A. Wendel as an investment.  (Somewhat coincidentally, her niece, Rebecca Wendel Swope, lived next door at 249 Central Park West.)

Mary Wendel leased the house to Frederick Cunliffe-Owen and his wife Countess Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen.  Born in London, Cunliffe-Owen had been with the British Diplomatic Service when he and his wife arrived in the United States in 1885 "on a secret diplomatic mission which mysteriously failed," according to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle later.

A writer and journalist, Cunlifee-Owen joined the staff of the New-York Tribune, eventually becoming its society editor, writing under the name of Marquise de Fontenoy.  He also wrote feature articles for The New York Times.  His wife was born Marguerite de Godart, Countess du Planty et de Sourdis in Brittany in 1859.  She, too, wrote, either anonymously or under the penname La Marquise de Fontenoy.  Most of her books dealt with the royal courts of Europe.

Frederick Cunliffe-Owen died in the Central Park West house on June 30, 1926 at the age of 72.  The emotional impact on Marguerite was intense.  When she died of myocarditis a year later, on August 28, 1927, The Gazette said, "she had never recovered from the shock of the death of her husband, Frederick Cunliffe-Owen, a year ago.  She had never left the house since his death and had been seriously ill for six weeks."

Mary E. A. Wendel died in 1929.  She left 248 Central Park West to William Lopez Dias, who had managed real estate properties for her and her late brother, John G. Wendel, for decades.  He leased the house for nearly a decade before selling it in 1937.

After mid-century it appears that rooms were being rented in the mansion.  Among the residents in 1956, according to the Journal of the American Musicological Society, was Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia.

Those rented rooms caused upheaval along upscale Central Park West in the last decade of the 20th century.  The New York Times wrote on December 13, 1990 that for three years it  had been "the center of a bitter controversy in the fashionable neighborhood because rooms were rented to drug addicts."  Neighbors complained of "nonstop parties, fights and a constant parade of strangers in and out of the house."  A fight that broke out in April 1988 resulted in the death of a 23-year-old man.

There were 16 people living in the house at the time of the article.  It had been being leased to former nightclub owner Frank Sokolowski, who lived on the second floor, since 1982.  Just before 6:00 on the morning of December 12, 1990, an arsonist ignited a fire on the second floor.  Firefighters said the flames "engulfed the building within ten minutes."  The upper floors were heavily damaged.

247 through 249 Central Park West are the last surviving houses of the 1889 row.

When repairs were completed in 1996, 248 Central Park West was returned to a single-family home.  It was purchased for $7.5 million in 2004 by Matthew and Janet Geller, who initiated a three-year renovation let by Rosenblum Architects.  When the Gellers put it on the market in 2018 for $29 million it now boasted a sixth-floor penthouse, unseen from the street, six en suite bedrooms, a screening room, an elevator and a lap pool.

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

James Ware & Son's 1909 29 West 21st Street

In March 1853 an advertisement offered a "small house" at No. 29 West 21st Street to let.  The block, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, was just seeing the arrival of substantial homes, triggered by the upward tide of mansions along Fifth Avenue.  That the block was changing was evidenced two years later when a similar advertisement described it as a "cottage house," clearly indicating it was not a rowhouse and, instead, sat within a small yard.

But fashion outweighed charm and after the little house was sold in 1859 it was demolished to be replaced by a 25-foot wide, four-story brownstone.  The increasing property values were reflected in the price Abraham Lawrence paid for the house in 1876.  The $30,475 price tag would be about $720,000 today.

By the time Agnes H. Poirier took title to the house around the turn of the century, the block was becoming increasingly commercial.  The elevated train ran up the middle of Sixth Avenue which was now lined with massive retail emporiums.  But Agnes had no intention of living at No. 29 West 21st Street.

She and her husband, Alfred E. Poirier, ran the firm of A. Barnes.  In July 1908 Agnes leased the property to Nathan Houtman "for a long term of years."  The total rent amounted to $60,000, or about $1.65 million today.  Houtman announced his plans to convert the old house into "a store and loft structure."

Before that came to pass something seems to have gone awry.  Houtman dropped out of the picture and the following year, on May 26, 1909, The Sun reported that "Plans have been filed for a six story loft and store building to be erected for Mrs. Agnes H. Poirier from designs by James E. Ware & Son."  The cost of the proposed structure was estimated at about $834,000 in today's money.

Construction was completed within only six months, in November.  The architects had produced an industrial building heavily influenced by the recently popular Arts & Crafts style.  It was faced in variegated rough-faced brick laid in Flemish bond.  The otherwise no-nonsense storefront included large transoms of multiple amber-tinted panes of textured glass.  The top lintel took the form of an Arts & Crafts style iron strap.

Like a massive strap hinge, the massive iron storefront lintel is eye-catching.

The identical upper floors featured sets of three windows, each floor separated by a hefty spandrel panel containing two decorative brackets.  Substantial consoles upheld the deeply-overhanging cornice.

The building filled with apparel-related firms.  The upper floors became home to David Fraitag, manufacturer of cloaks and suits; Loveman, Golemb & Cohen, dress manufacturers; and the Louis Walther Mfg. Co.  The Sterling Button Co. moved into the street level store.

David Fraitag was overly-optimistic about things when he signed the lease.   Only four months after the  building opened he filed for bankruptcy, no longer having enough funds to pay his workers.  When the staff heard that he was shutting the doors, they revolted.  On March 26, 1910 The New York Times ran a headline "Unpaid Workmen In A Riot."  If they could not get paid, the men at least wanted to obtain salable goods.

The article explained "at 9 o'clock yesterday morning the place was crowded with workmen and creditors struggling for possession of some of the goods.  The twenty-five workmen had not been paid, and they were attempting to remove goods, but were prevented by the creditors, about fifteen in number."

By 1915 Golemb & Cohen had lost the "Loveman" portion of the business.  The company, located on the top floor, employed 15 men and eight women.  Manufacturing came to an abrupt halt following a significant fire on February 25 that year.

The fire broke out around 11:00 that night on the third floor of a cloak and suit manufacturer.  Fire fighters who responded to the alarm of fire scoured the block trying to find it.  Meanwhile the heat of the smoldering fabrics built up within the enclosed space.  The Evening World reported "Policemen and firemen had been searching for the fire for an hour when it burst from the front of the building."

The sudden influx of oxygen fed the flames, which traveled up the elevator shaft to the fourth floor.  Fire fighters from Engine No. 72 went inside the inferno.  At around 1:00 a.m. a section of the floor collapsed, hurling John Middlestadt down to the second floor.  The injured man was taken to New York Hospital.  Ironically, he had just been released from the hospital after spending several weeks there recuperating from injuries in an earlier blaze.  Damages estimates were placed at $25,000, or around $629,000 today.

Golemb & Cohen moved on, replaced in 1916 by the National Garment Co.  Arnold Kamps, trimmings, took the renovated third floor.  Otherwise, Agnes Poirier seems to have had trouble filling the building.  In September 1917 she hired architect Edward L. Angell, perhaps best known for his whimsical Queen Anne houses on the Upper West Side, to make additional interior renovations.  They included new doors, reconfigured floor plans, and new windows.

The scheme worked.  A flurry of leases were signed by the beginning of 1918.  When Kopp Dress Co. took the fifth floor and Paul Puttman the fourth on the same day, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide commented on February 9, 1918 "the two leases complete the renting of the building."

Only one of the many-paned transoms survives.  Note the different textures of the glass panels.

Agnes H. Poirier retained ownership of the building for decades, leasing floors to similar tenants well into the Depression years.  The Rainbow Children's Dress Co. and the Goodyear Knitting Co. were here in the early 1920's, for instance, and in February 1932 she leased the second floor to the State Button Company; while the cotton textile firm of Alvin John Schafer was an upper floor.

But as the garment district moved north of 34th Street around the same time, a new type of tenant arrived.  Sharing the building in the 1940's and early '50's was J. Sweet & G. Leving, Inc. general contractors.  And in October 1957 Placematters signed a lease.  The firm produced children's place mats decorated with popular television and cartoon characters.

Placematters created colorful plastic place mats for kids.

The last quarter of the 20th century saw the formerly industrial neighborhood taken over by trendy shops and restaurants.  By the mid-1970's the sixth floor, where workers once sewed dresses, was home to Rima Sculptures, a combination art gallery and shop for one-of-a-kind pieces like jewelry.

By 1983 Video D Studios, a performance arts and video studio space, was on the top floor.  It remained here into the 21st century.

In 1988 J. P. Lofland's New York Grill opened in the ground floor.  A renovation completed in 1992 resulted in offices on the second, an artist studio on the third, one apartment each on the fourth and fifth, and the video-dance studio on the top floor. 

J. P. Lofland's New York Grill was a familiar spot in the neighborhood, lasting until 2006 when the space was taken over by the Lonesome Dove Western Bistro.  It was the New York version of chef Tim Love's Fort Worth restaurant and featured items like "roast garlic-stuffed beef tenderloin and New Zealand red deer with macaroni and cheese," according to the opening announcement.

The restaurant, which opened in September that year, featured much more exotic fare than New Zealand deer.  On the menu at various times were kangaroo, antelope ribs, buffalo, and quesadillas stuffed with quail.  It prompted New York Times food critic Frank Bruni on November 15, 2006 to refer to the menu as "a Noah's ark of birdies and beasties."

But even the most adventurous of Manhattan foodies did not rush for a table.  On August 8 the following year The New York Times announced "After the quick exit of the Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Jay Shaffer, who owns Shaffer City Oyster Bar and Grill down the block, bought the lease and is turning it into a casual restaurant."  Named Flatiron Joe's there was no kangaroo on its menu.  Instead the eatery offered bar food like nachos, sliders and pizza.

Another renovation, completed in 2010, did away with the restaurant space altogether   Above were now one apartment per floor below a duplex on the sixth and new seventh floor, invisible from street level.  Today the store is home to a dry cleaner.   James Ware & Son's handsome turn-of-the-century design survives undiminished by the larger loft buildings that crowd in around it.

photographs by the author

The 1895 Holmes-Bromley Candy Factory - 83 Warren Street

J. M. Atwater leased the property at No. 83 Warren Street from Grace Church.  The building he erected on the site housed his extensive business of jellies, sauces, catsups, canned goods, and other grocery items "wherewith the epicurean palate is so deliciously tickled," according to Illustrated New York, in 1888.   The writer mentioned that "The store, No. 83 Warren Street, is in one of the most desirable locations down town."

In March 1894, 34 years after opening his business, Atwater sold the leasehold to the property to Hampton O. Marsh for $5,000.  Marsh, who lived in Morristown, New Jersey, immediately initiated plans to replace the old Atwater building.  His architect, W. G. Beatty, filed plans in May, calling for a five-story brick and limestone loft building to cost $13,000--about $382,000 today.   Beatty included a hand-powered sidewalk freight elevator and electric lighting in the plans.

Hampton O. Marsh would never see his building completed.  He died of a heart attack in his home on September 22 that year at the age of 63.  His estate forged ahead with the plans.

The building was completed by the end of the year.  An industrial blend of Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles, it was faced in variegated Roman brick and trimmed in limestone.  The no-nonsense cast iron storefront had none of the grandiose Corinthian capitals and other decorations of a generation earlier.   Brawny splayed lintels with prominent keystones adorned the openings of the second through fourth floors.  A row of five arched openings sat upon a delicately-carved stone cornice at the fifth.

The new building was leased to candy manufacturer Holmes-Brumley & Company.  The factory's boilers required a smoke stack, so W. G. Beatty was called back in January 1895 to make the alterations, which cost the Marsh estate a little over $7,500 by today's standards.

In February 1897 the estate sold the leasehold to Benjamin Sire for $5,400.   He would soon have to find a new occupant of his building.   On March 26 The Sun reported that Holmes-Brumley & Company was in financial trouble and Robert W. Bullock had been appointed its receiver.

The candy company had debts amounting to nearly half a million in today's dollars.  Bullock, who was just 28 years old and "bears a good reputation," according to The New York Times, had been a bookkeeper in the company.  He now took on the responsibility of settling the affairs of the firm; a psychological burden which may have been more than he could handle.

The first week of July Bullock complained to friends of a headaches and said he thought he would go away for a few weeks to rest.  That was the last anyone heard from him.  On July 16 The Times reported "Some alarm is felt by creditors of Holmes, Brumley & Co...Mr. Bullock has been missing for more than two weeks, and as a result the settlement of the affairs of the company is blocked."  The article was quick to assure "no one suspects that the young man has absconded...They fear, however, that he has either met with foul play or is seriously ill and unable to communicate with his friends."

Bullock had already sold off the perishable stock of the firm, and had arranged for an auction of the company's equipment and furnishings.  The auction went on without him; but the buyer of the company's safe encountered a problem when it was revealed that only Bullock had the combination.  A representative of the safe factory was called to open it.  Everything inside was in order--checks made payable to Bullock as receiver, and some cash.  The mystery of Bullock's whereabouts only deepened.

On July 17 the New-York Tribune proposed "It may be possible that Bullock, while laboring under some mental stress, has wandered away, and does not know what he is about or what he is doing.  He was an extremely nervous man, and was under the care of several nerve specialists."  Oddly enough, the newspapers lost interest in the case after the company's finances were settled.  None seems to have followed up on the story of the missing man and his fate.

The former candy factory became home to a drastically different tenant.  Robert A. Keasbey was a manufacturer and dealer in industrial supplies, including railroad and ship parts.  The firm was, for instance, among the top bidders in 1898 for supplies for the New York Navy Yard.  And it was the Robert A. Keasbey company which supplied the asbestos coverings for pipes in the two torpedo boats being built for the U.S. Navy in Elizabethport, New Jersey in 1903.

In September that year Marcus Stowe Hill took a job earning $15 a week as a clerk.  His had been an ambitious but sadly disappointing career to date and the new job was a distinct step down.  He had met his wife, Alberta, in Sidney, Australia and they were married on December 1, 1888.  By now they had two children.

At one point Hill had moved his family to San Francisco, where he was a commission merchant.  But he devised a scheme to make a fortune making Egyptian and Turkish cigarettes.  He convinced three friends to invest $7,500 and relocated the family to Japan where the cost of living was lower.  In 1901 he returned to America and hired an engineer to make a special cigarette-making machine.  But it never worked.

And so to make ends meet he accepted the job of clerk.  After having worked at Robert A. Kesbey just three weeks, Hill was no doubt humiliated when police entered the building and arrested him for non-support.  Alberta, willing to wait no longer for her husband, had arrived in New York with the children and gone directly to the police.

Hill pleaded with the judge "I asked her not to come here, as it costs much more to live here than in Japan.  She has $500 worth of diamonds and I hardly have a collar button."  Alberta produced her husband's landlady as a witness, but, according to The Sun on October 3, 1903, "her evidence was all in favor of the defendant."

Irene Kenney testified "He boarded for $6 a week because he wanted to save money to get back to his family, of whom he appeared very fond."  Alberta's suit fell flat.  "The Magistrate dismissed the complaint when Hill said that he would do the best he could by his wife," explained The Sun.

Not long after the messy affair, the Robert A. Keasbey company moved to North Moore Street.  Three butter and egg firms took its place at No. 83 Warren Street.  The first was the Consumers' Butter and Egg Co., which had been organized at Greenwich and Reade Streets in 1902.  Two years later, according to The Sun, "a fire drove it to 83 Warren Street."

The blaze came at an especially bad time.  Consumers' Butter and Egg Co. was already burdened with debts that amounted to $15,000 (about $426,000 today), according to the New York Produce Review on March 9, 1904.  Unable to survive, the journal reported that the firm would close its doors.

On May 4, 1904 the New York Produce Review and American Creamery reported that after 27 years at No. 81 Warren Street, J. D. Stout & Co. had moved next door to No. 83.  "The object of moving was to get a more modern building and a better equipment for the handing of butter, cheese, and eggs, which have been the specialties of the firm every since its organization," the journal explained.

The American Produce Review, May 1904 (copyright expired)

A separate article on the same day noted that De Wolff & Christiansen "have moved from 15 Harrison street down to 83 Warren street."  Both butter, cheese and egg firms remained here only until about 1913, when a far different tenant moved in.

The James Goldmark Co. was the New York agent for Holtzer-Cabot Electric Co., based in Boston.  Its extensive list of products included buffers and polishers, time clocks, motors and dynamos, fire extinguishers, and soldering compound.

Following World War I No. 83 became home to the New York branch of Chicago-based John F. Jelke Co., makers of oleomargarine.  The firm was looking for an ambitious young employee in the summer of 1920.  "Boy Wanted--Strong, willing, for stock room and shipping department; steady employment, $14 a week."  It would be a lucrative job for someone, the weekly pay equal to about $185 today.

John F. Jelke Co.'s oleomargarine was marked under the Good Luck label.

The following year a salesman was needed.  The firm's advertisement in The New York Herald on April 24, 1921 sought someone with "good record and high class references" to sell "popular food in Bronx and Brooklyn."  The candidate would have to "driving experience."  The ad concluded "If you are a business producer with ability and character, call early Monday morning, John F. Jelke Co., 83 Warren St."

The Warren Street block saw a wave of employment agencies take over buildings beginning in the early 1940's.   The Employment Agency Center Building opened at No. 80 in 1942, housing more than 40 agencies; and the same year the Edwards Employment Agencies, Inc, purchased No. 73 Warren Street.  That deal prompted The New York Times on May 19 to call it part of "the recent movement of many similar enterprises from Sixth Avenue."

On November 17, 1947 The Times reported that the trend had reached No. 83.  "Roberts Employment Service, 83 Warren Street, a new organization specializing in male and female positions in the mechanical, technical and building trades, has been formed by Edward Greenberg."

Employment services would give way to residential space by the mid-1970's (although not legally converted).  Unlike so many Tribeca lofts which were taken over by artists, No. 83 became noted for its musical residents.  According to Mike Katz and Crispin Kott in their 2018 Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City, "Dubbed the 'Home for Teenage Dirt,' 83 Warren St. around 1977 was a residence for musicians Lydia Lunch, Bradly Field, and Miriam Linna; members of the group Mars; and writer and former WFMU DJ James Marshall."

Official residential conversion came in 1990 when the building was transformed for one apartment per floor.  But more than 113 years of change in the neighborhood has not greatly affected the appearance of W. G. Beatty's handsome brick factory building.

photographs by the author