C. P. H. Gilbert's 1890 Romantic Trio at 456-460 West 152nd Street

 

Gilbert cleverly designed the three entrances without upsetting symmetry.  photo by Mark Satlof.

On September 6, 1890, the Record & Guide reported, "On the south side of 152d street...east of 10th avenue, the three-story and basement dwellings are nearing completion, from plans of C. P. H. Gilbert.  They are ready for the trimwork, and are being built by J. H. McKenney."  The esteemed architect had filed the plans six months earlier, projecting the construction costs of each house at $9,834 (about $340,000 in 2024).

Gilbert disguised the three residences as a single structure.  The homogenous design was a surprising and successful blending of Romanesque Revival and Colonial Revival styles.  Faced in yellow brick and trimmed in brownstone, the former style exhibited in the rough cut voussoirs of the five-part arcade at the parlor level, the faceted bay and rounded tower on the end homes, and the romantic third floor's arched openings, charming dormers and conical cap.  The Colonial was most evident in the second floor with the delicate fanlight over the central grouping and spider web leading of the oval windows.

The project was personal for real estate developer James H. McKenney.  He had purchased the vacant property on November 28, 1881 and immediately transferred the title to his wife, Sarah A. McKenney.  The couple's plan was to occupy the easternmost house, No. 456, with their daughter, Susan, and to lease the others as rental income.  

Construction was completed before the end of 1890.  Each of the residences had 10 rooms and "1 bath and 2 toilets," according to an advertisement.  The still somewhat rural district was reflected in an advertisement for 460 West 152nd Street in 1891:  

The handsome three-story and basement brick residence; hardwood finish; sanitary plumbing; fruit trees.

As the neighborhood developed, the city struggled to keep pace with services.  On March 31, 1891, for instance, the New York Herald reported, "Residents of Washington Heights and Carmansville wish to have transportation facilities accorded them throughout the night," adding, "They do not look upon the running of the cable cars on Amsterdam avenue all night in the light of a luxury, but as a necessity."  Among the residents interviewed was James H. McKenney.  He said, "houses were standing vacant on account of the poor night service given by the cable road."  The article noted, "Night after night he had been compelled to walk from 125th and 145th streets, having missed the last car."

James H. McKenney died shortly after that interview.  Then, on February 8, 1894, Sarah A. McKenney died.  Her funeral, as her husband's had been, was held in the parlor on February 11.

After living alone for years at 456 West 152nd Street, on November 11, 1900 The New York Times reported that Susan, "daughter of the late James McKenney, long a well-known resident of Washington Heights, was quietly married on October 22."  She and Bostonian Frederick Sylvester Coburn had married in Port Jervis, New York.  The article noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Coburn will be at home at 456 West One Hundred and Fifty-second Street."

At the time of the wedding, Susan's tenants at 458 West 152nd Street were Daniel Van Wagenen, a ship chandler, and his family.  

The initial occupants of No. 460 had been Reverend E. Spruille Burford and his second wife, the former Josephine Finley Hynson.  (His first wife, Rosa Petite, died in 1873.)  The house was convenient to his work.  Burford was the rector of the Church of the Intercession at 158th Street and Broadway.  While Spruille was attending a funeral in Indianapolis in March 1894, a carbuncle developed on his neck.  Back at home, it worsened to blood poison and he died at the age of 54 on April 15.

 photo by Mark Satlof

Attorney John Baldwin Hand next occupied 460 West 152nd Street.  Born on February 28, 1856 in Canada, he married Elizabeth A. Sheppard in 1885.  The couple had two sons, Richard Bertram and John, Jr.  In addition to his law practice, Hand, Sr. was involved in the Washington Heights Savings and Loan Association. 

In May 1911, Susan McKenney sold all three properties at auction.  No. 456 became home to Angus P. Thorne, the Superintendent of Dependent Adults of the Charities Department.  In 1916, as war was raging in Europe, Angus, Jr. was deployed to the Plattsburgh Military Training Camp in Plattsburgh, New York.

George E. Hill purchased 458 West 152nd Street at the 1911 auction.  He and his wife, Margaret Marie, had a son, George F.  Like his next door neighbor, George F. Hill was inducted into the Army.  His address was still listed with his parents in 1923 when he held the rank of captain.

In July 1929, George E. Hill was promoted to the position of chief mechanical engineer of the Bronx Terminal Market.  His civil service job would bring welcome security when the stock market crashed later that year.  His raise brought his salary to $7,500--equal to about $133,000 a year today.

Less upstanding was Edith Stevens who occupied 456 West 152nd Street in 1922.  The 19-year-old, according to the Brooklyn Times Union, "is also known as Stevenson, nee Schneider, and whose true name is said to be Mrs. Hirsh."  On August 26, 1922, she was arrested as the conspirator of Anthony Cassese, "millionaire tobacco merchant of Ozone Park, owner of a fleet of alleged rum-running vessels, and Joseph Bartolin, his chauffeur, charged with conspiracy of smuggling liquor into this country."  The Long Island newspaper, The Daily Review, headlined an article, "Woman 'Pal' Of Bootlegger Under Arrest."

By the third quarter of the 20th century, the former McKenney house held the Wilson Major Morris Community Center.  The facility provided help to local residents.  On June 23, 1989, for instance, Newsday reported, "State Sen. David Patterson will speak on 'Budget Cuts/Freeze Efforts on Senior Citizens.'"  

At the turn of the century, at least one of the residences was tottering on dereliction.   In 2002, 460 West 152nd Street was vacant and shuttered.

All three were renovated within the decade.  In 2008, 460 West 152nd Street was remodeled to a duplex on the first and second floors with one apartment on the third.  Two years later, 456 West 152nd Street was converted to the identical configuration; and 458 West 152nd Street was remodeled in 2010 to a basement apartment and a single family home on the upper floors.

 photo by Mark Satlof

C. P. H. Gilbert's especially eye-catching trio of 1890 residences have happily survived greatly intact.

thanks to reader Mark Satlof for prompting this post

The 1887 James B. Gillie House (St. John's Baptist Church) - 448 West 152nd Street

 

Born on June 23, 1854, James Bruce Gillie was a prominent builder and real estate developer by the last quarter of the 19^th century.  Early in 1887, he commissioned architect Martin V. B. Ferdon to design a freestanding residence for him and his wife at 448 West 152^nd Street between St. Nicholas and Amsterdam Avenues.  Ferdon’s plans, filed on February 11, laid out a “two-story brick and basement brown stone dwelling” that would cost Gillie $12,000 to construct—just under $400,000 in 2024.  (His costs were drastically reduced since he would be erecting the house himself.)
 
The 33-foot-wide residence would sit within a 50-foot-wide parcel.  Ferdon blended two popular styles—Queen Anne and neo-Grec.  Completed within the year, the basement level was faced in undressed brownstone.  Iron, winged griffins stood in for the areaway posts, and larger examples perched upon the stoop newels.  An imposing portico with Corinthian columns upheld a substantial entablature and cornice.  The entrance sat within a projecting, single bay.  A triangular pediment above the bracketed cornice over that center bay was filled with a Queen Anne sunburst.

 
James B. Gillie and Sarah Elizabeth McWhinney had married on May 8, 1878.   They were 24 and 23 years old respectively.   The couple had three sons, George Ross, Robert Bruce and Leslie Beach.  Just four years after the family moved into 448 West 152^nd Street, Sarah Elizabeth died on August 15, 1891, at the age of 36.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on August 17.

Almost immediately Gillie sold the house to Philip Schaeffer, another contractor.  (Interestingly, James B. Gillie would marry Sarah's sister, Agnes May McWhinney, and they would have a son, Benjamin Austin.)

Schaeffer lost the property in foreclosure on April 15, 1897.  John A. Northwood, of the Northwood Malting Company, paid $32,000 (about $1.2 million today).  Just a month later, on May 28, Northwood sold 448 West 152nd Street to another beer dealer, Rudolph (sometimes spelled Rodoph) Oelsner.

Oelsner was born in Germany on New Year's Day in 1849.  He arrived in America at the age of 17 and found a job in a linen company.  Eventually, however, he introduced the Buergerliches Brauhaus Pilsener and other beers from Austria and Germany.  His operation grew to distribution branches in St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Boston and was one of the largest importers of beers in the county.

He was, as well, a restauranteur.  His Kaiserhof Restaurant was on the corner 0f 39th Street and Broadway where theater goers would stop before and after the performances.

Rudolph Oelsner's wife was the former Dorothea Ringer, known by friends as Dora.  When they moved into 448 West 152nd Street, their daughter, Martha, was 11.  The family's affluence was reflected in Oelsner's two yachts in 1905, the Dora and the Penelva.

In December 1905, Rudolph Oelsner purchased the high-stoop brownstone house at 135 West 72nd Street.  He sold 448 West 152nd Street to Alex Mackenzie, who quickly resold it to Isabella Wallace.  On September 1, 1906, the Record & Guide remarked, "The building will be altered and used as a dancing academy."  Only a month later, an advertisement for the George W. Wallace's Schools in The New York Times offered, "Class & private lessons.  Children.  Adults."

The dance academy's ballroom doubled as an event venue, The Wallace.  On February 7, 1907, for instance, Maida Peirce was married to Maurice Harrison Stearns here.  And in 1909, the Washington Heights School occupied space in the house.  An announcement in The New York Times on September 14 read, "Opens Oct. 1st.  Kindergarten, Primary, Intermediate, Academic Classes."

Wallace leased the property to Ernestine and Anton Fuerst around 1912, when they sublet the "two lower floors," according to the Record & Guide on September 14, "to the Mount Neboh Congregation."  The synagogue occupied the space for two years, when the congregation erected a building on West 150th Street.

The space resumed as The Wallace by 1917.  The Fuersts purchased the property, retaining the name.  It was a highly successful and popular spot for gatherings.  In its April 1917 issue, The Practical Druggist reported that at the last meeting of the Alumni Association of the Fordham College of Pharmacy Alumni Association, "The much-discussed topic was the annual affair which will be held at 'The Wallace', 448 West 152nd Street, on April 17th."

The Hebrew Standard, September 8, 1922 (copyright expired)

And on June 29, 1922, The New York Times reported, "The marriage of three young women, partners in business, took place in this city last Sunday."  Mildred Harris, Eve Lippman, and Ethel Westheimer were partners in a hat shop on Broadway.  They and their grooms were all married in The Wallace that day.

The Wallace (sometimes called the Wallace Mansion) operated until 1932, when the former house was purchased by the St. John's Baptist Church.  The congregation was founded in 1917 by the Rev. Wilson Major Morris.

In 1936, an interesting program was initiated here by the auspices of the Works Progress Administrations.  The New York Age reported on December 26, "A Major Bowes' gong, bells, blocks, drums, symbals [sic], and other such instruments, which are easily mastered, make up the equipment used in children rhythm bands at the St. Johns Music Center, 448 West 152nd street."  The article explained that children from 8 to 14 years old could participate.

"The rhythm bands provide a means for the youngsters to learn to listen to music intelligently and to think and do in terms of music."  If the children desire to progress further, they could partake in "classes in piano, violin, harmony, theory, or other musical classes available at these W. P. A. centers."

 

In 1941, the unpainted masonry shows Ferdon's contrast of brick and stone.  The wonderful griffin posts and newels survived.  from the NYC Records & Information Services.

By the third quarter of the century, the church furthered its outreach within the community with the St. John's Baptist Church Credit Union.   In her article on June 2, 1973 in the New York Amsterdam News, Sara Slack noted, "The Credit Union members "range from beauticians to school teachers to building superintendents to government workers to domestics to those in the medical profession."  The Credit Union members took a long weekend to Nassau that year.  Slack said, "Anyone who thinks devout, church-going people are squares and have little fun have never spent a Memorial Day weekend here in the sun."

After more than 90 years in the former Gillie house, St. John's Baptist Church continues to serve for the Harlem neighborhood.  Although the masonry has been painted red and white, Martin V. B. Ferdon's striking Queen Anne structure is remarkably intact.

thanks for Mark Satlof for requesting this post

photographs by Mark Satlof