The 1866 Bernard Flach House - 128 East 93rd Street

 

In 1866, one year after carpenters, masons and painters returned from the Civil War and resumed construction in Manhattan, Henry W. Shaw hired Edmund Waring & Sons Architects to design a modest, 25-foot wide frame house on East 93rd Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  The project was speculative for Shaw, who dabbled in real estate but whose profession was the manufacture of artificial limbs. 

The senior Edmund Waring is attributed as being the architect of the design.  Although the site was still semi-rural, Waring drew on the latest architectural fashion of the day: the French Second Empire style.  Born in Paris, the elegant style was just appearing in New York and the wooden house would be the last word in residential design.

Three robust, hooded dormers graced the mansard above a heavy, bracketed cornice. A wooden stoop rose to a porch that fronted the off-set entrance and floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Bernard Flach Jr. purchased the house in 1868.  The neighborhood was not yet sufficiently developed to warrant a street number, and Flach was listed in directories as living at "East 93d near Third av."  He and his wife had at least two sons, Otto and Arthur.  Also moving into the new house was Bernard's father.

Flach ran a "mouldings" business, manufacturing wooden architectural details like spindles, door frames, and such.  He would have an arduous commute to work.  His shop was located at 178 Centre Street and the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad would not reach 93rd Street until 1878.

Bernard Flach, Sr. did not enjoy the house for especially long.  He died here on May 22, 1870 and his funeral was held in the parlor on the 24th.

Around 1872, the Flachs took in a boarder.  Richard Bohler would live with the family through 1875.  The enterprising businessman ran two starkly different businesses.  He ran a store at 180 Broadway selling, "native and foreign wines, liquors, etc." and a drugstore at 50 Cedar Street.

Arthur B. Flach joined his father's business as early as 1876.  His brother, however, took a much different career route.  His business was listed in 1873 as "pianos."

Bernard Flach apparently died in 1877, the year his name disappeared from city directories.  On November 7 that year, Arthur B. Flach sold 128 East 93rd Street to John R. Graham.  

Graham leased the house to a young German couple, Johannes and Pauline Kamm Hartzheim.  It seems that Pauline's widowed mother, Catherine Kamm, lived with them.  Tragically, Pauline died at the age of 29 on January 11, 1879 "after a long and painful illness," as described by the New York Herald.  Her funeral was held here three days later.

Pauline's grieving husband almost immediately left 128 East 93rd Street.  He placed an advertisement in the New York Herald the following month that read: "Parlor suit and other furniture cheap--On account of death."

Edwin Henes and his wife, the former Caroline Schiffer, purchased 128 East 93rd Street in 1880.  The couple were newlyweds.  They were married on May 8, 1879.  John R. Graham had neglected the wooden house and before they moved in, they would have to make some significant repairs.  On November 22, 1881, Inspector Esterbrook of the Bureau of the Inspection of Buildings released a list of "Buildings That are Likely to Fall."  Included was 128 East 93rd Street.

Edwin Henes was born in Milwaukee in 1850 and graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1869.  He followed a much different professional path, however.  When he purchased 128 East 93rd Street, he was "in the beer business with George Ehret," according to the History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College in 1907.

Four children would be born in the house: Louis George in 1881; Caroline Julia two years later; Edward Jr., who arrived in 1885; and Henry William, born in 1887.

The Henes family was affluent enough to provide their children private educations and to spend time away from the city in the summer months.  Edwin Henes placed an advertisement in the New York Herald in May 1891 that sought:

Wanted--Accommodation for family during July and August in a respectable private or boarding house in the country; must be in healthy location, easily accessible, and within a distance of 25 miles from the city; terms and references.  Address E. H., 128 East 93d st.

By 1903, Louis George Henes was a civic engineer.  Edwin Jr. enrolled in Columbia College that year and studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons during his senior year.  (The History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College recounted, "He began school at the age of four.  He first attended several private elementary schools, and then, in 1897...was prepared to enter the College of the City of New York.")  In the meantime, in 1904 Henry was enrolled in the "scientific course" at the College of the City of New York.  

Edwin Henes Jr., as he appeared above in 1907, would become a physician.  History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College (copyright expired)

The Henes family was involved in charity work.  Caroline was a member of the Ladies Aid Society of the German Hospital and Dispensary, for instance.  And in July 1894, the family held a "fair and garden party" at the house for the benefit of The Evening World's Sick Babies' Fund.  The event raised $52.54 (about $2,000 in 2026 terms).  Edwin Jr. wrote to the newspaper saying in part, "We are happy to have been able to make a success of our undertaking and to contribute, with the assistance of our friends and neighbors, something towards the good cause of taking care of the poor sick children of his city."

On June 18, 1905, The New York Times reported, "A town wedding will take place on June 21, when Miss Carolyn Julia Haynes [sic] will be married to Edward Bolter of Chicago in St. James's Lutheran Church, Madison Avenue and Seventy-third Street."  Louis was the groom's best man.  The reception was held in the East 93rd Street house.

In April 1912, the family offered 128 East 93rd Street for sale.  An advertisement described, "A 3 story and basement frame private Dwelling, with brick foundation, containing 15 rooms, 1 bath and 2 toilets."  Whether the Heneses changed their minds or the house simply did not sell is unclear, but Edwin Henes leased the house to James Edberg Fitch in April 1914.  (Edwin and Caroline moved to Seventh Avenue.)

Fitch and his wife, Virginia, had at least three adult children, John H., Virginia and Isabel.  Two months after leasing the house, the Fitches' son, John H. Fitch, got a temporary job with the city's Public Creation Commission as a Gymnasium Instructor at $3 a day "for a period of fifteen days."  (It was an attractive gig, equal to $100 a day today.)

Virginia Fitch died on March 18, 1915.  Rather unexpectedly, Isabel was married seven months later.  Described as a suffragist and expert in outdoor sports, she found love rather late, at least by society standards.  When she and Ralph Folks, the Commissioner of Public Works, obtained their marriage license on November 27, 1915, they listed their ages as 30 and 37, respectively.  The wedding took place "quietly," as described by The New York Times, the following afternoon in the Church of the Beloved Disciple on 89th Street and Madison Avenue.  Virginia was her maid of honor.

Edwin Hene sold 128 East 93rd Street in June 1920.  Interestingly, the buyer was his business associate, George Ehret, who purchased it as a rental property.

Among his tenants that year the Kinzler family, whose son, Herman, became engaged to Clara Frankel that year; and Dr. Julius Scheider and his wife, Marie.

It may have been the city's plans to widen East 93rd Street that prompted Ehret to sell 128 East 93rd Street to a Mrs. Miller in 1921.  On May 21, The New York Times reported that she "will occupy" the house.

The widening of the street in 1922 necessitating the removal of the stoop and porch.  The entrance was lowered below grade and the former doorway converted to a window, seamlessly designed to match the originals.

Seen here in 1932, the basement (now first) floor was spartan.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The house was sold again in July 1930.  It became home to Frederick W. Kroehle, president of the Elfred Realty Company.  By the late 1950s, F. LeMoyne Page and his wife, the former Dorothea Fiske, occupied the house.  

Born in 1901, Page was the founder and president of Transportation Displays, Inc., known as TDI.  The New York Times noted in 1964 that the firm "does $6,000,000 worth of business annually selling advertising space in commuter railroad systems."   Educated as an architect, in 1949 he designed and built the family's summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Page was operated for a prostate disorder in April 1964.  He died in the New York Hospital on April 22.

Two years later, 128 East 93rd Street was nominated for landmark status.  Dorothea, now remarried, successfully blocked the designation.

In 1989, Bradley and Ashley Reifler purchased the house.  California natives, they told a reporter, "We wanted the sense of privacy of a house, the sense of country in the city."  The couple added an elevator housed in a wooden tower in the rear.  In 1991, architectural journalist Christopher Gray reported somewhat sadly, "Although the wideboard floors and marble mantelpieces survive, most of the sense of age in the interior has been ironed out."  

That "sense of age" would be further eradicated in 1995 when the Reiflers removed interior walls.  The house was sold in 2010 to C. C. Dyer, the former wife of television personality Geraldo Rivera.  She paid $6.8 million for the property.

Even without its porch and stoop, the wooden relic retains its post-Civil War charm.

photographs by the author

The Charles F. and Maude Watson Mansion - 34 East 69th Street

 

Prolific real estate developer Anthony Mowbray erected two brownstone-faced homes at 32 and 34 East 69th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in 1880.  Designed by Lamb & Wheeler in a marriage of neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles, they were 20-feet wide and four stories tall above high English basements.

34 East 69th Street would originally have been very similar to its next-door-neighbor at 32 E. 69th Street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Politician John Kelly and his wife, Ann Theresa Mullen, purchased 34 East 69th Street.  Born in 1822, Kelly entered politics in 1840 and served as a New York Representative in Congress from 1855 to 1858.  He was elected Sheriff of New York County in 1859 and in 1871 turned his focus to fighting the corruption of the notorious Tweed Ring.  By 1874, Kelly controlled Tammany Hall and earned his nickname, "Honest John."

John Kelly, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Ann was Kelly's second wife.  His first, Mary Ann McIllhargy, died on July 17, 1866, and within five years their three children had perished.  He and Ann (who was the niece of New York Cardinal John McCloskey) had a son, John Jerome, and a daughter, Josephine.

Kelly, the most powerful force in New York City politics, suffered a blow in 1884.  In his 1917 The History of Tammany Hall, Gustuvus Myers writes:

Kelly broke down with nervous and physical prostration after the Presidential campaign of 1884.  Grover Cleveland's election, which falsified his predictions, deeply disappointed him.  He kept to his house, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth street, but still issued his orders to the Tammany organization.

His condition was well publicized.  On February 14, 1885, The New York Times reported that Kelly had spent a few days as a guest of Nathaniel Jarvis, Jr. in Far Rockaway.  Now back home, the article said "it was announced that he was greatly improved in health, and had not been in better spirits for several weeks."

New Yorkers no doubt realized things were more serious that November.  The day after the elections, the New-York Tribune reported, "John Kelly remained all day yesterday at his home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st.  It was stated that he was too ill to go out of the house."

By the following year, according to Gustuvus Meyers, "he could not sleep except by the use of opiates."  Around 1:30 on the morning of May 30, 1886, Mary Ann sent for a priest.  Two more came at around 10:00 to administer last rites.  On June 2, The Sun reported, "John Kelly, the Tammany chieftain, whose name is as familiar to the country as the President's, died yesterday afternoon at a little about 3 o'clock."  John Kelly's funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 5.

Kelly had left the East 69th Street house in equal shares to Mary Ann and Josephine, who was still unmarried.  Following their period of bereavement, the women again entertained.  Those gatherings often reflected the Kellys' deep Catholic faith.  On December 16, 1894, for instance, the New-York Tribune wrote, "One of the pleasant dinners of the week was given by Mrs. John Kelly for Monsignor Satolli, at her home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st., on Monday.  The decorations were in white and purple, the Papal and the Delegate's colors."  (Monsignor Francesco Satolli was the first Apostolic Delegate to the United States.)

Mary Ann and Josephine remained here until August 1928 when 34 East 69th Street was sold to stockbroker Charles Frederic Watson Jr.  Somewhat ironically, seven months later, on March 25, 1929, Mary Ann Kelly died.

In reporting the sale on August 3, 1928 The New York Times had remarked that during the decades that the Kelly family occupied the house, "the block was improved with fine residences."  Charles and Maude Watson followed suite by hiring architect A. Wallace McCrea to remodel the outdated brownstone.  

He stripped off the outer wall and pulled the facade to the property line.  McCrea gave the mansion a tripartite, neo-French Classic marble facade.  Above the rusticated base, the windows of the piano nobile were fully arched, while the upper openings were segmentally arched.  McCrea even executed the terminal cornice in marble.

The renovation caused a stark contrast to its once fraternal twin next door.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

As work on the house progressed, the Watsons lived in a sumptuous apartment in Mayfair House at 610 Park Avenue.  Then, on November 2, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Watson Jr. have left Mayfair House for 34 East Sixty-ninth Street."

Both Charles Frederic Watson Jr. and his wife, the former Maude V. Burnside, came from privileged backgrounds.  They were married in St. Thomas's Church on January 26, 1924.  The New York Times said that Charles was "descended from the Campbell and Argyle families of Scotland."  On her maternal side, Maude was a descendant of Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Charles was born in Orange, New Jersey and educated in private schools.  He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1906, but was, perhaps, better known for his athletic skills at the time.  He was a championship amateur tennis player.  Now, he and Maude maintained a home in London where they spent several months every year.

As early as 1938, the Watsons's butler was John Evert Andren.  The butler was the most trusted member of a family's domestic staff and were entrusted with all the keys and combinations for silver safes.  On January 17, 1939, Andren was arrested "as a suspect" in the theft of some of the Watsons' silver.  Although he claimed innocence, he was carrying "monogrammed silverware worth more than $500" at the time of his arrest.  (The value would translate to more than $11,000 in 2026.)

Charles Frederic Watson Jr. died at the age of 71 on April 19, 1954.   Maude sold 34 East 69th Street on November 1, 1956 to Harold G. and Irene R. Lacks.  The couple's marriage dissolved and the house was auctioned as part of the divorce proceedings in February 1969.  It was purchased for the equivalent of $3 million today by the Government of Iran.  On February 28, The New York Times reported, "The house will be the residence of Iran's consul general, Parviz Sepahbodi."

photograph by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On February 11, 1979, revolutionary, armed forces overthrew the Iranian Government.  The U.S. State Department took over Iranian properties, including 34 East 69th Street in April 1980.  Six months later, on October 14, The New York Times reported that the State Department had leased the building to the French Designer Showhouse.  The Decorator Showcase continued to be held here through 2000.

In 2001, the Richard L. Feigen & Co. gallery opened in three floors of 34 East 69th Street.  Founded in Chicago in 1957, the gallery "handles work by such important artsists as German Expressionist Max Beckmann and Surrealist master Henri Rousseau," according to the 2016 ART + NYC.

David Zwirner's gallery took over the space in 2017.  Art dealer Adler Beatty occupied the fourth floor.  When Zwirner closed his East 69th Street location in July 2026, artnet recalled, "The Zwirner on East 69th Street hosted about three-dozen exhibitions for canonical figures like Yayoi Kusama, Bill Traylor, and Dan Flavin."

With the gallery gone, the future of the landmarked marble mansion is unclear.

photographs by the author

The 1860 Joseph Murray House - 175 East 73rd Street

 

image via douglaselliman.com

In 1860, E. H. Robbins completed construction of six 20-foot-wide rowhouses on East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues.  Three stories tall above English basements, they were clad in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Although they were intended for middle-class families, Robbins splurged by giving the homes elaborate cast iron porches.  The parlor level featured floor-to-ceiling parlor windows and the scalloped fascia of the cornice echoed the segmentally arched windows of the third floor.

In 1862, Joseph Murray, who listed his profession as "machinery" at 126 Broadway, purchased 22 East 73rd Street (renumbered 175 in 1867).  The Murray family took in at least one boarder during their residency.  John Callaghan, possibly a relative, lived here in 1868.

On February 15, 1873, the New-York Tribune reported that Joseph Murray had sold 175 East 73rd Street for $15,500.  The price would translate to about $430,000 in 2026.  The buyers were Dr. Charles Smith Robert and his wife, the former Adelina Trudeau.  The couple was married on January 29, 1867 and had four children: Mary, who was six; five-year-old Lelia Adelina; Francis Berger, who was three; and Caroline Elizabeth, who was one year old.

Robert was born in Mastic, Long Island on March 5, 1839.  He entered Yale College in 1858, but left during his junior year to pursue medicine.  He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1864, just in time to serve in the Union Army as an assistant surgeon.  The New York Herald would later remark, "Mrs. Roberts [sic] is an unusually refined and accomplished woman of French extraction."

Like their neighbors, the Robert family maintained a domestic staff.  In 1875, they employed a laundress, a cook and a nurse.  The staff undoubtedly also included at least one maid, and likely two.  The Robert family's country home was in Westport, Connecticut.  

In April 1875, Robert listed the Westport estate for rent.  Simultaneously, three domestics advertised for new positions.  The moves suggested that the Robert family would be spending an extended period away, possibly in Europe.  (Families who were away for extended periods often dismissed their domestic staffs, other than the lady's maid and valet, to be replaced upon their return.)

A spectacular cast iron porch, like the surviving example at 171 East 73rd Street, once fronted the parlor of No. 175.  photograph by the author

While the Roberts were away, 175 East 73rd Street was occupied by the John S. Patterson family.  Patterson was a lawyer and he and his wife, Emily, would be here through 1877.  During their residency, they experienced a tragedy.  On May 4, 1876, their son William Fisher died at the age of 27.  His funeral was held in the parlor on May 6.

The Roberts continued to lease 175 East 73rd Street.  Following the Pattersons, Baptiste E. Wehner, who ran a storage warehouse on West 33rd Street, occupied the house.  And in May 1880, Charles Robert leased it to Jacob Thalman.  By the time the Robert family returned to 175 East 73rd Street in the mid-1880s, Robert had retired.  

On October 9, 1889, Leila Adelina was married to Charles H. Hallock.  The newlyweds moved to Moriches, Long Island, where they had a daughter. 

Leila's marriage would not survive.  According to Hallock in September 1893, "We were very happy until last January, although we had occasional 'spats.'  About the middle of that month I noticed that she had changed in her manner toward me."  Leila began spending time away from their home, traveling to Manhattan to visit her parents or to Brooklyn to see other relatives.  Hallock became suspicious that her frequent trips were not innocent when she talked in her sleep about "Bert."

The relationship continued to devolve.  Hallock said later, "She finally locked me out of our house on one occasion.  Then she blackened my eyes, and once said she wished our three-year-old child was dead."  Leila perceived an escape from her situation in the summer of 1893 when she received $1,800 from the estate of an aunt.  She told Charles that she was going to the Chicago World's Fair, packed her suitcases, and on September 2 he drove her to the train station.

Leila joined Berthold Popper, an usher in the Academy of Music, and the two went on to Chicago.  Leila's relationship with Popper was even shorter than that with her husband.  Once there, Popper abandoned her.  On September 6, 1893, just days after arriving in Chicago, Leila Robert Hallock "blew her brains out," as worded by the New York Press.  

Charles Hallock begrudgingly told the New York Herald, "She has dishonored my name, but I shall probably have her body brought here and buried in the graveyard at Center Moriches, where her father has a plot."  (Berthold Popper was convicted  of "illegally marrying Mrs. Leila Hallock" on March 22, 1894.)

Shortly after the tragedy, the Roberts sold 175 East 73rd Street to Daniel Healey.  Their decision was, no doubt, influenced by the many stables that were replacing the private homes along the block.  Healey was a blacksmith and on July 22, 1896, The New York Times reported that he was making $700 in alterations to the house.  The basement was now converted to a blacksmith shop, a convenience for the nearby carriage houses and stables.

Living above a commercial space did not deter Tracy and Frances Lyon.  Born in 1865 and 1866 respectively, the couple had four adult children.  The affluence and social standing of the family was evidenced in daughter Frances Tracy Lyon's wedding to Sidney E. Brewster on October 17, 1923.  The New York Times said the newlyweds were "socially prominent," noting that Frances was a member of the Junior League and Brewster was a descendant of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower.

Like Leila Robert Hallock, Frances and her husband moved to Long Island.  And like Leila, Frances's marriage would end tragically.  At around 7:00 on the evening of June 22, 1926, Frances telephoned her parents.  The New York Times reported, "She told her mother that her husband had beaten her and that she was going to come home."  The servants told investigators later that "a quarrel had been going on all day."  Then, shortly after Frances called her parents, the servants heard shots.  They rushed to Frances's bedroom to find both of their employers dead.  Brewster had shot his wife in the chest then turned the gun onto himself.

In June 1928, architect Francis Livingston Pell purchased 174 East 73rd Street.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide noted, "After extensive alterations the purchaser will use the property for his own occupancy."  That was partially true.  Pell's alterations resulting in a "store" in the basement level, one apartment each at the parlor and second floor, and a "non-housekeeping apartment" on the third.  (The term meant there was no kitchen.) 

The cast iron porch was removed in the renovations.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Pells moved into one of the apartments.  Born on September 23, 1873, Pell was a descendant of founding father James Duane.  He studied architecture in Rome and Paris after receiving his Ph.B. in architecture from the Columbia University School of Mines in 1895.  He married Ellen Van Buren Morris on October 9, 1899.  Her pedigree matched that of her husband.  The daughter of Stuyvesant Fish Morris and Ellen James Van Buren, she descended from the Fish, Morris and Stuyvesant families and was the great-granddaughter of President Martin Van Buren.  They had three sons, Francis Jr., Stuyvesant Morris, and Walden.  Their country home was in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The occupants of the "non-housekeeping" apartment were equally prominent.  Anna Giralt Farrar Goldsborough was born in New Orleans in 1882.  She married Richard Francis Goldsborough in 1904 and had four children.  She and her unmarried daughters, Lucinda Davis and Ellen Roy, moved into the top floor apartment following Richard Goldsborough death in 1929.  

When Anna Goldsborough announced Lucinda's engagement to William Fitz-Randolph Ballard on December 14, 1929, The New York Times remarked that Lucinda was a great-grandniece of Jefferson Davis and was "a direct descendant of Nicholas Goldsborough, who settled [in] Maryland in the middle of the seventeenth century" and of Colonel Tench Tilghman, "aide-de-camp to George Washington."

Five years later, on March 8, 1934, Anna Goldsborough announced Ellen Roy's engagement to Talbot Otis Freeman.  Almost simultaneously, the Pells announced Stuyvesant Morris Pell's engagement to Katherine Louise Weston.  As Stuyvesant's marriage in Dalton, Massachusetts neared on December 19, 1935, The New York Evening Post said, "there is much interest in the event among local fashionables and members of the exclusive little coterie that make up the Berkshires colony."

The Pell and Weston families were apparently already close.  Two years after the wedding, the bride's mother was a long-term houseguest here.  On October 29, 1936, The New York Sun reported that Clarissa Wardwell Hewlett "is now residing with Mr. and Mrs. F. Livingston Pell at 175 East Seventy-third street."

In 1940 Pell converted the basement into half of a duplex apartment with the parlor level.  At the same time, the third floor apartment received a kitchen.  The Pells remained here until April 1944, when they sold the property to Wooster Properties, Inc.  The firm resold it in May the following year to a investor.

The house was sold in 1978 for $170,000, according to Observer.  A renovation completed the following year resulted in four cooperative duplexes.  During the remodeling, the parlor and second-floor windows were shortened.  

An out-of-focus 1980 tax photo reveals the shortened parlor windows.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In July 2006, fashion designer Steve Madden and his wife, Wendy Ballew, purchased the the rear, lower duplex for $3.6 million.  Three years later, they bought an upper apartment for $2.2 million.  In 2010 they purchased another, and in February 2011 bought the last apartment, now owning the entire property.  The Maddens returned 175 East 73rd Street to a single-family home.  They remained here until 2019, selling it for $9.1 million according to The New York Post on January 23.

The John J. and Emma G. O'Brien House - 208 East 78th Street

 

Howard A. Martin purchased 200 feet of property in 1861 along East 78th Street, which at the time existed only on paper.  His deed included a $128 assessment (about $4,830 in 2026) to open the street.  Martin divided the parcel into 15 building plots, each 13-feet, 4-inches-wide.  His builders, Warren and Ransom Beman (possibly brothers) and John Buckley, were most likely responsible for the charming design of the challengingly narrow homes.   

Martin's project stalled when, that same year, the Civil War broke out.  Thousands of laborers marched off to fight and construction in New York City ground nearly to a halt.  Finally, in 1865 (the year the conflict ended) construction of the 15 identical houses was completed.  Each rose three stories above high basements.  Two bays wide, their red brick facades were trimmed in brownstone.  Each of the openings was fully arched.  Bracketed Italianate-style cornices graced the rooflines.

Possibly strapped for money because of the delay, Martin had sold the uncompleted project to investor William H. Brower.  It appears, because of the regular turnover in occupants, he rented 208 East 78th Street.  

Interestingly, despite its narrow proportions, two families initially occupied the house.  William Rosenberg and Jacob Weinman were partners in three dry goods stores--at 28 West Broadway, 221 First Avenue, and 224 Avenue A.  The families remained until 1869, when an auction of their household goods was held on April 28.  The inventory revealed that these were middle-class families, with items like "walnut and mahogany Parlor and Chamber Suits."

James Campbell, a merchant, occupied the house through 1874, followed by Morris Kuttner and his family.  Kuttner operated a fancygoods store at 201 Church Street.  The family was affluent enough to hire at least one servant.  An advertisement on May 29, 1876 read, "A girl to do housework in small family.  208 East 78th st., near 3d av."

The Morris Jacobson family occupied the house in the 1890s.  Jacobson was a real estate operator and ran his business from the house.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It appears that Moses Hirsch Sr. purchased 208 at the turn of the century as a wedding present for his son, Moses Jr. and his bride, the former Hannah Rothschild.  He transferred title to the property to the couple in April 1901.  They would suffer heartache four years later.  On February 3, 1905, Ira Arnold Hirsch died at the age of three months.

The following year, on September 17, Moses Hirsch sold 208 East 78th Street to John J. and Emma G. O'Brien.  The couple had one son, Thomas K.

Born in 1862, John J. O'Brien was a fascinating figure.  In 1884 he earned the title of "amateur wrestling champion of the United States," according to The New York Times.  He never totally abandoned the sport.  In May 1905, for instance, he was one of the two judges of the Madison Square Garden "world's championship at catch-as-catch-can wrestling," as reported by The New York Times.

O'Brien sat on the last New York Board of Alderman prior to the consolidation of the boroughs into one metropolis in 1898.  That year he was appointed an official of the Department of Sanitation.  He still held that position when the family moved into 208 East 78th Street.  He was, as well, the head of the John J. O'Brien Printing Co.

John J. O'Brien's expertise in wrestling resulted in his becoming a judge during the 1920 Olympic Games in Belgium.  

Thomas K. O'Brien graduated from Yale University in 1922 and then entered the Fordham Law School.

John J. O'Brien suffered a heart attack in January 1942.  He died in the Misericordia Hospital a week later, on January 21.  By then, Thomas had moved to Pelham Manor, New York and Emma sold 208 East 78th Street to Isaac D. Bachmann.

Isaac D. Bachmann, The New York Times, January 1, 1949

Isaac Bachmann was born in 1878.  In 1900 he co-founded Bachmann, Emmerich & Co., Inc., a textile factoring firm.  He and his wife, the former Aimee Lubelski, had a son, Harold S., and two daughters, Edith and Peggy.  The family's country home was in Mount Vernon, New York.  In 1939, Bachmann left the firm he had co-founded and joined James Talcott, Inc., another textile factor.

Bachmann's health began failing in 1948, and he died in the East 78th Street house at the age of 71 on December 30.  The New York Times said simply that he died "after a long illness."

The house was purchased by Frederick Arthur Collins.  Born in Boston in 1898, he was known as Arthur Collins throughout his adult lifetime.  He was president of Collins, Tuttle & Co., Inc., a real estate firm he and Wylie F. L. Tuttle established in 1954.  Prior to that, Collins had been a vice president and partner in Brown, Harris, Stevens, Inc. for more than two decades.

On March 7, 1953, Collins (who had two sons, Frederick Arthur Jr. and Hunt Turner by an earlier marriage) married Lucia Baldwin.  It was Lucia's fourth marriage.  This one, too, would not last and Lucia left 208 East 78th Street around 1957 to begin divorce proceedings.

Arthur Collins died in the house at the age of 60 on June 16, 1958.  The divorce had not been finalized, and a long court case over the estate between his sons and Lucia began.

In 1964, the four 1865 houses to the west were demolished.  Those at the far east of the row were razed before 1900, replaced with a tenement building.  There were now just five houses, including 208 East 78th Street, that survived.

No. 208 is at the far right.

In 1988, an apartment was installed in the basement.  At some point the homeowners of the row agreed to paint the brownstone trim white, giving the charming residences a unified appearance.

photographs by the author

The 1878 237 East 79th Street

Following the end of the Civil War, development crept northward into the Yorkville district.  Access to the neighborhood was greatly enhanced when the IRT Third Avenue Line opened in 1878.  That year, a four-story double flat (meaning there were two apartments per floor) was erected at 237 East 79th Street.  

Faced in brownstone, it's up-to-the-minute neo-Grec design included a rusticated first floor above a short stoop.  The centered entrance was crowned with a triangular pediment.  At the upper floors, French windows were framed by elaborate architraves that sat upon bracketed sills.  Scalloped lintels with incised decorations upheld prominent molded cornices.   An ornate pressed metal cornice completed the design.

In 1940, nearly nothing had changed to the neo-Grec design, including the charming French windows.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services. 

An advertisement described, "six light rooms and bath, modern improvements."  Among those "improvements" would have been running hot and cold water.  The eight families in the building were middle class.  Among the residents in 1879 were three clerks, Thomas D. Barton Jr., Ashley W. Cole, and George A. French.  

The families were affluent enough to afford at least one servant.  An advertisement appeared in The New York Herald on December 30, 1879, for instance, that read: "Wanted--A girl for housework; two in family; wages, $7 per month."  (The wages were not overly generous.  They would equal $233 in 2026.)

The Lehn family moved to New York City from Easton, Pennsylvania in 1880 and took an apartment here.  Their 19-year-old son, George W., found a job as an "extra gateman" at the 18th Street station of the Third Avenue elevated railroad.  (Gatemen controlled the wooden gates that protected passengers on the platforms.  Gatemen opened them when the trains arrived and closed them before the trains pulled out.)

George had had the job only a short time when his inexperience and the brashness of youth caused his horrific death.  Half an hour after appearing for work on the night of September 7, 1880, he "attempted to cross from one station to the other" by trotting over the tracks rather than cross at street level.  The New York Herald reported, "His foot became caught, and before he could extricate it he was struck by Engine No. 11."  The newspaper graphically recounted, "The whole train passed over him, and his body was shockingly torn and mangled."

At the time of the tragedy, Amos K. Hadley, the former Attorney General of New York State, and his family occupied an apartment here.  Early in October 1880, Hadley notified the landlord, J. P. Huyerman, who lived on Bank Street, that he would be moving out.  The New York Evening Telegram reported, "He, however, was indebted to Mr. Huyerman for a small balance of rent and Mr. Huyerman refused to allow him to move until the amount due was paid."  Hadley told him he was "about to collect some bills" and he would pay the outstanding money when he received the necessary cash.

On moving day, October 18, Hadley went downtown.  When he returned home he found his family and a guest of his wife imprisoned in the apartment.  The New York Evening Telegram reported that Huyerman had locked the doors and refused "to allow them to leave or to remove any of their baggage until the balance of rent was paid."  Hadley rushed to a police station and had Huyerman arrested for disorderly conduct.

The landlord's obsessive behavior over the outstanding rent cost him.  Justice Smith fined him $10 (about $325 today) and "required him to furnish $500 bail for his good behavior for six months" or serve three months in the Workhouse.  The judge announced, "it was about time that landlords learned that they do not own their tenants, body and soul."  According to the article, as Huyerman was led out of the courtroom he muttered, "We'll see about that."

On September 16, 1889, The Press titled an article, "Very Old And Very Wicked."  The headline referred to 73-year-old resident Joseph P. Snow, whom Police Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes described as "one of the most notorious 'fences' in the country."  Snow was a slippery fellow.  The Press explained, "He has been arrested dozens of times, and although stolen property has frequently been found in his possession he has thus far escaped punishment, with the exception of a term of five years which he served in Moyamensing Prison."

Snow's luck finally ran out.  On September 9, 1889, George Storms, alias Dick Short; William G. Cole, and ex-convict Charles Gardner broke into the J. C. Hecker leather goods factory and stole "several thousands dollars' worth of fancy pocketbooks, bags, etc.," according to The Press.  Most of the booty was stashed at Snow's apartment from which he intended to "dispose of" it.  A week later, after the thieves were nabbed, detectives closed in on 237 East 79th Street.  When Snow saw the detectives entering the building, he "ran into the yard, and, despite his weakness, tried to climb the fence."  Once again, Snow attempted to slip out of his dilemma.  The Press reported, "He is a bland old fellow, and told the Inspector that he did not know the goods were stolen, and promised that all would be returned if he was liberated."  This time the ploy did not work.

Four years later another resident was arrested, this time for a much more white collar crime.  Alexander Eisberg was the general bookkeeper of the State Bank of New York.  On July 21, 1893, the 27-year-old and the bank's paying teller, Carl Abresch, conspired to commit embezzlement.  They manipulated the books by creating false entries to cover up the $1,200 they stole.  When the books were audited on December 7, the discrepancy was discovered.  "Eisberg, upon being accused, made a confession," reported The Evening World on December 15.

John Schwandtner and his family lived here in 1904.  He was the senior partner in Pole & Schwandtner, structural iron contractors.  Paul Pole was essentially a silent partner.  The Evening World explained, "Mr. Pole is a man who saved a little money and put it into [the business] with Schwandtner."  The article said that Schwandtner ran the business and Pole knew almost nothing about how it operated.

That business relationship came into serious play during the construction of the Hotel Darlington.  On March 2, 1904, the building collapsed.  The next day, The Brooklyn Citizen reported that 15 bodies had been recovered from the debris, but grimly added, "The corpses are buried under many tons of structural metal and the work of getting them out necessarily is very slow."

On March 5, The Evening World reported, "The man most wanted just now by the officials who are endeavoring to place the responsibility for the Hotel Darlington disaster is John Schwandtner."  A server had taken a warrant to 237 East 79th Street on the previous morning.  Coroner Scholer, who was heading the investigation, told reporters:

He didn't find Mr. Schwandtner, but he learned that he left the house at midnight with a dress suit case and was evidently going on a journey.  We have not given up the chase, but it looks as though he had deliberately left town to avoid testifying in the inquest into these deaths.

By the time of that article, the body count had risen to 18.  Two days later, the New York Herald reported that Schwandtner had not yet been found, but "his house is being watched."

John Schwandtner was eventually tracked down and returned to New York.  Then, on March 29, 1904, The Evening World reported that a grand jury had indicted Eugene C. Allison, the managing owner of the collapsed building with manslaughter.  The article said, "To the great surprise of everybody, no indictments were found against Paul Pole and John Schwandtner."  

On November 3, 1912, the New-York Tribune ran a column titled, "At Music Studios," and reported, "Richard Loewy, violinist and teacher, whose studio is at 237 East 79th street, is establishing himself as a successful teacher."  The article noted that he "gives his pupils the benefit of his many years of study, and practical experience."  Loewy also coached singers, among whom were sopranos Mathilde Mallinger and Praxede Marcelline Proschansky.

Franklin Lacy Sheldon was "a member of a prominent family," according to The New York Sun.  He was the son of Dr. William Hills Sheldon, an assistant professor of medicine at Cornell University.  Following his graduation from Yale in 1936, Franklin Sheldon moved into 237 East 79th Street.  He found an accounting job, but then lost it in February 1938.

Sheldon's mother, who lived in a duplex apartment on East 86th Street, maintained a summer home in Bethlehem, Connecticut.  She was there on September 10, 1938 when the 26-year-old entered her apartment and committed suicide.  A handyman in that building forced his way into the kitchen, "the door of which had been propped shut with a chair," reported The New York Times.  "He found gas escaping from all the jets of the kitchen rage.  Sheldon was lying on the floor, dead."  Ironically, according to his sister, he was expected to start a new job the next morning.

No. 237 East 79th Street survives as the last remnant of the 19th century on the northern side of the block.

In 1936 the building was updated, however the exterior was left almost entirely untouched.  Then, a renovation in 1970 cut the apartments in half--now four per floor--and the 1878 neo-Grec exterior elements were removed.  The brownstone was slathered with stucco, successfully eliminating almost every hint of the original design other than the cornice.

photographs by the author

The 1871 Jacob J. Lissner House - 125 East 78th Street

 

Among the early developers who began transforming the mostly rural land east of Central Park at the end of the Civil War was Nicholas McCool.  Around 1871 he erected a row of three-story, brownstone-fronted homes on the north side of East 78th Street between Lexington and Fourth Avenues (renamed Park Avenue in 1888).  The three-bay-wide homes were identical--their brownstone stoops protected by substantial cast iron railings and newels.  On either side of the fully arched entrances were foliate carved corbels that supported Renaissance-inspired triangular pediments.  Smaller versions sat upon the parlor floor windows.

McCool sold 125 East 78th Street to real estate operator Dennis Loomie, who, in turn, rented it to the family of Samuel Trishet.  Trishet and his wife had at least one small daughter.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 28, 1872 read: "Dressmaker wanted who understands making children's dresses, at 128 East 78th st, near 4th av., steady work."

On April 27, 1874, Loomie sold 125 East 78th Street to Jacob J. Lissner for $17,000.  The price would translate to about $496,000 in 2026.  The obscure Lissner did not list a profession in city directories.  Six years after purchasing the house, he and his family moved to Madison Avenue and 99th Street.

The family of John Byrnes next moved into 125 East 78th Street.  Born in Dublin, Ireland, Byrnes was the principal of the National Surety Company and was well-connected with Tammany Hall.  He and his wife, Rose, had at least three children: Matthew, Mary Cecelia, and Thomas F.  The family's country home was in Babylon, Long Island.

Despite the family's affluence, John Brynes had a stain on his reputation, one not forgotten by The New York Times.  Three years earlier, in 1877, he was appointed the city's Chief of the Supply Bureau and the following year he was Tammany Hall's nomination for Alderman.  The newspaper sneered at his nomination, saying that Byrnes, "is a fair sample of the class of men Tammany Hall seeks to place in power in this city."  The article then dragged out a shocking incident that occurred in 1869.  On July 31 that year, he had "exposed his person" to a young woman "in a most indecent manner," reported The New York Times.  He told her he "would like to have some pleasure with her," according to the victim.  She broke free and had Byrne arrested.

The children were young adults in 1897 and on October 20 that year Cecilia was married to Joseph W. Lawrence in the Church of Jean Baptiste on East 74th Street near Lexington Avenue.  John Brynes's earlier indiscretion seems to have been forgotten.  The social status of the two families was reflected in the reception held in the East 78th Street house.  Among the guests, as recorded by the New-York Tribune were "Miss Chambers, Miss Fish and the Misses Bayne," along with other recognizable society surnames like Kennelly, Sniffen, Trainor and Schuyler.

John Brynes's ties to Tammany had been advantageous to his son, Thomas, who was appointed Police Commissioner in 1880, the year the family moved into 125 East 78th Street.  But in 1895, the new president of the New York City Police Commission, Theodore Roosevelt, forced Thomas to resign as part of Roosevelt's purge of corruption within the department.  Thomas Byrnes would later become an insurance investigator.

Thomas F. Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America, 1886 (copyright expired)

Thomas Byrnes attempted to re-enter Tammany politics in 1903 as a nominee for mayor.  On September 12, The New York Times said that Byrnes's name was "stricken off" the list of candidates, saying that he was "one of the best known Tammany men in the city and a man who for thirteen years [sic] has lived at 125 East Seventy-eighth Street."

On January 27, 1912, The New York Times reported, "John Byrnes has sold...his residence at 125 East Seventy-eighth Street."  The purchaser was Marie C. M. Winter, whose country home was in Woodbury, Long Island.

As early as 1914, Marie Winter leased the house to Reverend James Nevett Steele and his wife, Helen Hudson Aldrich.  Born in 1850 and 1851, respectively, the couple maintained a country home in East Hampton.  Steele was vicar of Trinity Church and a prolific hymnist.  

Rev. James Nevett Steele, The Churchman, May 8, 1897 (copyright expired)

Several of the hymns Steele wrote are still highly popular in American churches.  Among them are "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts," "Just as I Am, Without One Plea," and "Nearer My God, to Thee."

Marie C. M. Winter had moved back to 125 East 78th Street before 1917, when she was looking for a new cook.  Her advertisement on October 7 read, "Cook--Good plain cook; young.  English, Scotch or Swedish preferred; must have good reference and want a permanent position."

Marie Winter sold 125 East 78th Street in February 1921 to George and Grace Middleton Roberts.  George Roberts was a partner in the law firm Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts.  Grace was the daughter of Clifford L. and Grace B. Middleton and an alumna of Smith College.  The couple had two daughters, Constance and Rosamond Graham.  Their country home was on Great Peconic Bay in Long Island.  

The Robertses updated the house.  The stoop was removed and the entrance, along with its original brackets and entablature, was relocated to below grade.  Guests approached the doorway under a handsome lantern hung from a wrought iron arch supported by iron posts.  The architect deftly transformed the former doorway into a precise copy of the windows at that level.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Roberts sisters were educated in the private Brearley School.  Constance was studying at Smith College when she was introduced to society at the Colony Club in December 1936 at a "reception and tea dance," as reported by The East Hampton Star.  She married Robert Louis Hoguet Jr. in August 1940 in East Hampton.

Rosamond's time in the limelight came four years later.  On December 26, 1944, The New York Sun reported that her debut took place "at the roof of the St. Regis."  

The Robertses announced Rosamond's engagement to Donald Arthur Jr. on August 21, 1946.  The East Hampton Star noted that after graduating from Smith in 1944, "She did postgraduate work with the National institute of Public Affairs in Washington and has since been with the Tenant Relocation Bureau in New York."

Nine months later, The East Hampton Star reported, "Mr. and Mrs. George Roberts, who were in East Hampton last week, are moving in May from their house at 125 East 78th St. to 139 East 79th St."   The couple sold the house to photographer Hans Henry Namuth.

Born in Essen, Germany in 1915, Namuth focused on portraiture, often choosing artists as his subject.  Among the painters he photographed were Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Rauschenberg.  He also made portraits of architects like Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn.

Namuth captured Jackson Pollock at work in his studio.  from the collection of the Hans Namuth Estate

In 1967, 125 East 78th Street was remodeled.  There were now a dress shop in the ground floor and one apartment each on the upper stories.  A one-year renovation initiated in 2019 returned the structure to a single family home.

photographs by the author