The 1874 Bloomingdale Turnverein - 341 West 47th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

Substantial German immigration into New York City began in the 1830s and continued to grow.  In the 1850s, around 800,000 Germans arrived, and while many dispersed to rural areas like Pennsylvania or Ohio, thousands settled in Manhattan's Lower East Side, creating Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany.  A smaller group, however, established a community further north in Hell's Kitchen, just below Bloomingdale Square.

In 1850, a group of German men organized the Bloomingdale Turnverein, or Bloomingdale Gymnastics Club.  They established the club in a vintage building at 341 West 47th Street.  In addition to being an athletic venue, the Bloomingdale Turnverein was (perhaps more importantly) a social club.  It routinely hosted outings and picnics in the summer months, and receptions and balls in the winter.

On June 28, 1869, the New-York Tribune reported that the gymnasium at 341 West 47th Street had been deemed unsafe, noting "Bloomingdale Turnverein, owner."  Apparently, adequate repairs were made to the structure, but two years later, on September 20, 1871, The New York Times reported, "The Bloomingdale Turnverein has recently established a boys' Turn school, and contemplates the erection of a new Turn hall."  (A Turn school-and-hall was a place where German youths could learn and play sports, similar to The Y today.)

The old structure was demolished and a four-story-and-basement, brick-faced edifice erected.  Looking much more like a rowhouse than a clubhouse, its transitional design straddled the Greek Revival and Italianate styles.  Above the stoop, Doric pilasters flanked the arched entrance and upheld an entablature and molded cornice that hailed visitors in German.

The openings originally wore molded lintels, and miniature brackets upheld the sills.  The fascia of the foliate-bracketed cornice announced "BL. Turnverein" and a parapet reflected the date of the ground-breaking: 1873.

In 1940, the window details had been shaved off, but most of the 1874 elements survived.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In January 1873, as construction progressed, the Bloomingdale Turnverein released its annual report.  Although having only 150 members, its capital was $12,000, or about three-quarters of a million in 2026 dollars.  "The Turn school, established by the society, is attended by 175 boys and 38 girls," reported the New-York Tribune.

The building was designed to generate rental income, as well.  In addition to the Bloomingdale Turnverein's clubrooms and gymnasium, the structure held several meeting rooms.  They would be rented by a variety of organizations over the coming years--political, social and ethnic groups, for instance--that used them as their clubrooms on specific weeknights, or for one-time meetings.

On March 29, 1874, an advertisement in the New York Dispatch offered:

To Let--An Elegantly Furnished Lodge-Room (with parlors attached), in the New Hall of the Bloomingdale Turnverein, No. 341 West Forty-seventh street.  Inspection invited.

The halls immediately became popular.  On February 25, 1876, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported, "The XVIIth Assembly District Republican Association held their regular monthly meeting last evening at No. 341 West Forty-seventh-st."  A resolution that night reflected the substantial German presence in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.  It said in part:

It would be wise to admit the President of the German Republican Central Committee, and the Chairman of the German Republican Central Committee, as ex-officio members of the Central Committee of the Regular Republican Association.

And on June 29, 1884, the New York Dispatch announced that the Masonic Park Lodge No. 516 "meets first and third Tuesdays, at Turn Hall, No. 341 West Forty-seventh st."

A major holiday for German immigrants was Pfingst-Montag, or Whit Monday.  On May 22, 1877, the New-York Tribune reported, "The celebration of Pfingster began Saturday at noon, when all German workmen stopped work and prepared to take part in the religious observance of Sunday.  Monday and Tuesday are given entirely to holiday amusements, such as picnics, parades, festivals, balls, and athletic exhibitions."  The article said, "The Bloomingdale Turnverein paraded through the streets in the upper part of the city in the morning, and then enjoyed a picnic at Lion Park."

The annual Pfingst-Montag celebrations were always covered by the press.  Five years later, on May 30, 1882, the New-York Tribune reported on the festivities held at Jones's Woods.  "There were athletic contests and exhibitions of all kinds by members of the New-York and the Bloomingdale Turn-Vereins," said the article.  "A band of wind instruments played continually while the games and contests were going on, and in the dancing pavilion an orchestra furnished music to the crowds of young people who danced all the afternoon and until late at night."

Rooms for socials like this one by the Victoria Coterie were rented on a one-time basis.  The New York Globe, January 27, 1883 (copyright expired)

On November 29, 1887, the New York Herald announced that the West 47th Street building had "become inadequate" for the Bloomingdale Turnverein, "owing to the increase in members and scholars."  The club had raised funds to obtain a "larger and more suitable building."  

Another German organization, the New York Central Schuetzen Corps (or shooting club), took over 341 West 47th Street.  The group embarked on a major trip in the spring of 1890.  Forest and Stream reported on May 22, "The New York Central Schuetzen Corps, which will start for the great international shooting festival on June 3, held a farewell meeting and banquet at its rooms, 341 West Forty-seventh street, on the evening of May 14."  That international event was being held in Berlin.  "Their departure will be celebrated by a big all-day German picnic in Hoboken," said the article.

Like the Turnverein, the Schuetzen Corps leased lodge rooms.  Among those renting space in the early 1890s were the Ornamental Plasters' and Shop Hands' Society, the Colored Republican Club, and the West Side Athletic Club.  The latter group held "a stag" on November 11, 1893.  The event included boxing, including "a special bout of six rounds between Harry Martin and Jack Russell."

The changing demographics of Hell's Kitchen was reflected in Irish groups taking space here in the early years of the 20th century.  The New York Philo-Celtic Society began leasing space beginning around 1906.  That year, on April 24, The New York Times reported that it "will produce, in Gaelic...'An Posadh' at the Lexington Avenue Opera House."  The play (the English title of which is The Marriage) "shows the Irish people in their everyday life," said the article.

The date of the ground breaking and "BL. TURNVEREIN" were announced atop the building. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Society's staging of the play in Gaelic was notable.  Determined that Irish roots and culture were not diluted in their new country, it held language classes here.  On October 30, 1909, The Gaelic American reported, "The classes for the study of Irish, which are under very competent teachers, will be held all during the winter on Sundays from 3 to 6 P.M. and on Thursdays from 8 to 10 P.M. at 341 West Forty-seventh street."

Also renting a lodge room at the time were the County Mayo Men's Association and the Irish Counties Athletic Union.  There was a bit of scandal within the former in the spring of 1907.  The group had held a ball the previous St. Patrick's Day.  A review of the books showed that $300 of ticket sales, which were received by the secretary, John T. McIntyre, was not accounted for.  Now, treasurer Peter J. Delaney, discovered that McIntire had collected $30 in dues from members, but never turned it in.  (The total embezzlement would equal nearly $11,500 in 2026 terms.)  On April 9, 1907, McIntire was arrested and jailed.

When Theodore Stucky purchased the building, he renamed it Unity Hall.  While groups continued to lease space as their clubrooms, Stucky gradually wooed theatrical concerns as the nearby Times Square increasingly became the center of Manhattan's theater district.

Stucky suggested that lodge rooms could be used as rehearsal halls.  Masonic Standard, June 3, 1916 (copyright expired)

While Irish groups continued to gather here (in 1919, for instance, The Loyal Orange Order of Protestantism held its meetings here), increasingly theatrical groups rented space.

On June 14, 1919, for instance, The Moving Picture World reported, "The Film Social Club, the membership of which is made up of the operating forces of the various film exchanges, gave its first dance and vaudeville entertainment at Unity Hall, 341 West Forty-seventh street, New York on Thursday evening, May 29."  

Meetings held here two months later were more serious.  Actors nationwide went on strike.  On August 19, 1919, a meeting of the Actors Equity Association was held here that "may result in the mediation of the actors' strike," said the New York Herald.  

Theodore William Stucky was described by the New York Herald as being "identified with the activities of the French colony in this city for many years."  The newspaper said he "owned considerable property on the West Side, among his holdings being Unity Hall...the scene of rehearsals for many big Broadway productions."

Stucky was not merely taking advantage of the building's proximity to the entertainment district, he was fully entrenched in the theater.  He organized the Cercle d'Art Francaise (French Art Circle) and was a major financial supporter of the Operetta Francaise.  (The New York Herald clarified, "Mr. Stucky, despite his associations here, was not a Frenchman.  He was born in Switzerland.")  

In the fall of 1920, Cercle d'Art Francaise produced the opera La Mascotte.  The 16-member cast played in New England and in Washington D.C., but when they opened in Worcester, Massachusetts, it failed and the entire cast and crew were stranded.

Resultantly, Stucky was greatly concerned about finances.  A bachelor, he lived on Riverside Drive, but his office and that of the Cercle d'Art Francaise were at 341 West 47th Street.  The building's superintendent, Frederick Carter, and his family lived in an apartment, most likely in the basement.  On February 5, 1921, Stucky saw Carter's five-year-old daughter in the hallway.  The New York Times reported, "Mr. Stucky picked up the child and, after kissing her several times, began to weep.  'My darling,' he said to the child, 'I am glad you haven't the worries I have.'"

He had told Carter that he had been threatened by creditors and "feared for his life."  At around 4:00 on the afternoon of February 5, Catherine Valo noticed a man pacing back and forth near a bench on which she was sitting at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge.  Shortly afterward, she saw the man climb the railing and jump.

Valo ran to a policeman.  At the point when the man jumped, he found a coat containing "several papers," according to The New York Times.  One was a card printed, "Theodore W. Stucky" on the front.  On the other side, in French, was written, "My Dear Friends: I am sick and am going to end my life."

Irish groups continued to rent spaces in Unity Hall.  An announcement in The Advocate on October 25, 1924 read: "Reception and Dance of the Cork, Kerry and Limerick Boys at Unity Hall, 341 West 47th St., near 9th Ave.  Every Saturday Night.  American and Irish dancing."  And nearly three decades later, on May 30, 1953, the newspaper reported on the "largely attended meeting of the Cork Ladies in the Irish Counties Athletic Union Hall, 341 West 47th St."

In 1942, the Theatre Showcase opened here in one of the former lodge rooms that had previously been converted to a wedding chapel.  On March 20, 1942, Saroyan's one-act play Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning opened.  Four months later, on July 14, The Goldfish Bowl premiered.

In the late 1960s, composer Harvey Schmidt and his partner and lyricist Tom Jones converted the Theatre Showcase to Portfolio Studio.  Schmidt and Jones, best known perhaps for The Fantasticks, were also the creators of musicals like I Do, I Do; 110 in the Shade; and Celebration.  On June 7, 1970, The New York Times said, "they have set up their own theater, Elizabethan stage, dressing rooms and offices."

On December 6, 1974, the newspaper reported that Schmidt and Jones "will present 'Portfolio Revue,' the first of their four original musicals making the team's workshop theater, a converted brownstone, a public showcase."  Four months later, on April 10, 1975, the newspaper announced, "The new Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical, 'Philemon,' reopens tonight...for a six-week run at the team's Portfolio Studio."

Portfolio Studio made way for The 47th Street Playhouse the following year.  On July 15, 1976, In Dublin's Fair City, a revue, opened in the remodeled venue.

The end of theatrical performances here came in 1982 when the building was purchased and emptied in anticipation of conversion to residential purposes.  At the time, police were dealing with a rash of pipe bombings.  In 1981, there were 12 non-terrorist and 11 terrorists explosions.  The next spring, on May 13, 1982, The New York Times reported, "So far this year, the police said, there have been six bomb explosions attributed to 'non-terrorist' actions and six explosions attributed to terrorist groups."  One of the most recent was "in a vacant building at 341 West 47th Street," said the article.

photograph by Carole Teller

The renovation was completed in 1985, resulting in two condominium apartments per floor.  All remnants of the Bloomingdale Turnverein were erased, including the parapet and frieze, and the German inscription above the doorway.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1926 Springs Building - 15 West 47th Street

 

Even before Eli Baxter Springs arrived in New York City from the Deep South, he had had a fascinating life and career.  He was born at his grandfather's Georgia home, Cornucopia Plantation, on February 1, 1852, to Colonel Andrew Baxter Springs, who served in the Confederate Army.  As a young man, Springs founded a small grocery in Charlotte, North Carolina that grew to be one of the largest retail grocery firms in the state.  He turned to railroads, eventually becoming president of the Atlantic, Tennessee & Ohio Railroad and director in the Southern Railway Company.

Eli Baxter Springs, from The Lineage and Tradition of the Family of John Springs III (copyright expired)

He went on to be a substantial cotton grower and trader, a director of the Charlotte Construction Company, and Mayor of Charlotte from 1897 to 1899.  Never married, he relocated to New York in 1903 and became a partner in the cotton brokerage firm of J. H. Parker & Co., later named Springs & Co.  

In 1925, Springs acquired the vintage structures at 13 through 19 West 47th Street and commissioned architect Walter M. Mason to design an 18-story brick and stone office building on the site.  Called the Springs Building, it was completed in 1927 at a cost of $1 million--about 18 times that much in 2025 terms.  Mason's Renaissance Revival-style structure looked as much as a luxury hotel as a business building.  A glorious succession of setbacks combined with stone balustrades, balconies and octagonal towers flanking a three-story gable created an imposing whole.

The original tenants were varied.  Among the initial occupants were the headquarters of the Leather Vita Corporation which manufactured a leather cleaning and preservation compound; and Schanz, Inc. a men's tailoring firm.

New York Evening Post, December 1, 1927 

Perhaps the first of the jewelers in the building was L. Heller & Son, Inc.  The gem dealer had a branch in Paris and advertised  to jewelry makers on March 2, 1927, "Large stones of fine quality, series of matched sizes for bracelets and other jewelry."

At the time of that ad, L. Heller & Son, Inc. was in the midst of major negotiations with the Soviet Union.  Czarist Russia had mined some of the largest and best emeralds in the world from the Ural mountains.  The mines sat idle following the Russian Revolution.  On October 22, 1927, The New York Times reported, "The Russian Soviet Government, having disposed of the crown jewels and other treasures of the Czar's regime, is now seeking to raise money from capitalist countries."  The article said that L. Heller & Son, Inc. had purchased "a concession on the famous Ural emerald mines" and "has already put the best part of $1,000,000 worth of Russian emeralds on the American market as a result of the deal."  L. Heller & Son, Inc. agreed to supply cash and managing personnel to operate the mines jointly with the Soviet Government.

The building's tenant list continued to be varied.  In 1929, Katherine M. H. Marshall, a sales agent for women's wear makers took part of the eighth floor; while Johnson Matthey & Co., Inc. a London-based precious metals firm, took the remainder of the floor.  Also in the building were the construction and development firm Pentaboro Realty Corporation, and Janet Lewis's "book doctor" shop.  Lewis started her business in 1908 when the wife of Richard Morris Hunt asked her "what to do about old French bindings she inherited," according to The New Yorker on March 29, 1930.  The portrait painter began restoring antique bindings, including those in the libraries of J. P. Morgan.

Stone balustrades and decorative urns flank a panel announcing "Springs Building."

A interesting tenant at the time was Mortimer Montgomery Lee, head of the silk importing firm bearing his name, and the owner of the Hadley Silk Mills in Paterson, New Jersey.  Born on May 24, 1846 in Farmington, Pennsylvania, he came to New York City in 1880 and joined the silk importing firm that would eventually become Mortimer M. Lee.  A resident of Norwalk, Connecticut, Lee served as Mayor there from 1892 to 1895 and again in 1901 and '02.  Despite the commute, he never missed a day at work in 45 years.  On the afternoon of July 9, 1931, a coworker walked into Lee's office to find the 85-year-old dead at his desk.  

Handling precious gems came with intrinsic danger.  On November 5, 1931, 36-year-old Paul Krakowsky, a diamond dealer in the Springs Building, stumbled into the Williamsbridge Road police station in the Bronx with his hands tied with picture wire.  He told officers that he was walking along Sixth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street with a satchel (called a "wallet") at 6:00 when "two or three men approached him, thrust him into a limousine and, after tying his hands, took the wallet containing the gems," as reported by The New York Times.  He said they forced him onto the floor of the car and warned him against making any noise.  They pushed him out of the automobile at Schurz and East Tremont Avenues in the Bronx.  The kidnappers got away with $60,000 worth of unset diamonds--about $1.24 million today.

Paul Krakowsky was a partner in the diamond firm of Krakowsky Freres, which also had offices in Belgium, Antwerp and Paris.  The firm owned its own diamond mine in British Guiana.  Krakowsky's success in business was not equaled in his domestic life.  In 1933 he and his wife, Ruth, separated "because of differences in temperament," as explained by Krakowsky's lawyer, Matthew M. Levy.  Krakowsky moved into a suite in the Hotel St. Moritz while Ruth and the two children remained in the family's suburban home.

On the morning of March 8, 1934, Matthew M. Levy and a friend of Krakowsky, Jack Silberfeld (whose offices were in the same building as Levy's) received letters from the 39-year-old that said he "couldn't stand it any longer."  Jack Silberfeld rushed to the St. Moritz.  The New York Times reported, "His friend was found on the floor beside his bed with a pistol beside him."  Krakowsky had fired two bullets into his head.  The wounded man was taken to the Manhattan State Hospital on Ward's Island where he lingered for three months, finally dying on June 12.

Despite the numerous gems and jewelry firms on the tenant list, 15 West 47th Street continued to attract other types of businesses.  Among them in the 1940s were the Medo Photo Supply Company, the Lockwood Trade Journal Company, the International Electronics Laboratories, and the New York State Commission for the Blind.

Fascinating tenants at the time were Eugene Shawl and his son, Alfred.  Born in Poland in 1868, Eugene Shawl took his family to Germany in 1904.  Alfred showed no interest in his father's jewelry business and pursued law.  He graduated from the law school at Koenigsberg in 1922 and later was appointed an assistant district attorney for Koenigsberg and Marienwerer in East Prussia.

In 1932, the younger Shawl was assigned to prosecute several Nazis who killed two Communists who had infiltrated a Nazi meeting.  The New York Times later recounted, "Several of the Nazis were sent to prison...On leaving the courtroom, [Baldur] von Schirach turned to Mr. Shawl and said: "I'll never forget you.  You'll think of me, Mr. Attorney."

When Hitler took power, he disbarred all Jewish lawyers.  The father and son fled to France where they established a small jewelry shop.  They "made lapel watch cases--unusual pieces of new and functional design," said The Times.  "And it wasn't long before [their] concern was shipping to all parts of the world."

When the Nazis entered France, and with Alfred "high on Hitler's extermination list," the Shawls fled to New York City.  Their Norma Jewelry Corporation created what the younger Shawl called "heirloom pieces."  The firm "revived the wearing of fob watches by women," according to The New York Times, which said on June 9, 1950 that Alfred, "believes that by making articles that can be disassembled, the same ornament may be adapted to six or eight difference uses."  Norma Jewelry Corporation was still in the building on November 17, 1953 when Eugene Shawl died at the age of 85.

By 1957, the Springs Building was known as the West Side Jewelers Exchange.  That year the building was the target of multiple robberies.  When Marcus Schwartz, a partner in  the diamond cutting firm Weisbrot & Schwartz, was robbed on August 22, The New York Times remarked, "It was the third incident of its kind in the exchange in less than a month."

At 8:10 that morning, Schwartz was opening his 17th-floor office when two men forced him inside and ordered him to open the safe.  They tied him to a chair and fled with the equivalent of $334,000 today in finished diamonds.  Schwartz was eventually freed by a building maintenance man who heard his shouts.

Diamond dealers in the building continued to be victims through the 1960s and '70s, but two incidents in particular shook the industry and the city.  The first involved diamond dealer Henri Teichler, a tenant here who devised a devious scheme in the spring of 1965.  He had watched and memorized the movements of another jeweler, Ben Mellen, who occupied a ground floor space across the street at 36 West 47th Street.  In April, Teichler spoke with a mobster and told him he "wanted to hire two gunmen who knew what they were doing, men who had had experience in holdups," according to The New York Times.  He told the racketeer he planned a half-million-dollar gem heist.

A few days later, the mobster introduced Teichler to two "hired gunmen."  A week of preparation beginning on April 20 included Teichler's instructing them on Mellen's habits, and a dry-run with Teichler timing them with a stopwatch.  On the night of the robbery, the gunmen were to grab Mellen's tray of diamonds, throw a smoke bomb down the stairs where guards were stationed at the vault, then shoot tear gas at Mellen and push him down the stairs.  

That night, Teichler waited in a hotel room for the thugs to return.  Six detectives, instead, walked in and arrested him.  The gunmen he hired were undercover detectives, put on the case when the mobster Teichler originally contacted went to authorities.

Diamond cutter Schlomo Tal, an Israeli citizen, had an office here on the 15th Floor.  At 5:30 on the afternoon of September 20, 1977, diamond broker Pinchos Jaroslawicz left the Diamond Dealers' Club at 30 West 47th Street for an appointment with Tal, but according to him, Jaroslawicz never arrived.

Days later, there was still no trace of the 20-year-old broker who had reportedly been carrying as much as $1 million worth of gems.  Foul play was suspected, police telling reporters that Jaroslawicz "had a good reputation in the diamond district and that it was very unlikely that he left of his own accord."

The mystery deepened when Shlomo Tal left home in Plainview, Long Island on Sunday morning September 25, telling his wife he was going to the office.  Now he, too, went missing.  Two days later, Detective Sgt. Robert Young said, "right now, we're treating this as a coincidence--a very strange coincidence."  Investigators checked the West 47th Street office and found the door unlocked and a small window broken.

Then, on September 28, police discovered Tal sleeping in his wife's car in Queens.  He told them that he had been hiding out from murderers and took them to his office at 15 West 47th Street.  There, under a desk was Jaroslawicz's body, wrapped in plastic and stuffed into an air conditioner box.  An autopsy, according to The New York Times, showed that the broker "died of head injuries and asphyxiation after a plastic bag was put over his head."

Tal recounted a incredible series of events.  He said that after Jaroslawicz arrived on September 20, two masked men barged in, struck the broker on the head and forced Tal to wrap and cram the still-living body into the box.  He said he did not notify police because he feared the murderers would harm his family.  Then, when he left home on September 25, the same criminals abducted him.  "He said the two drove him around Nassau County, Brooklyn and Queens for most of three days, spending one night at a motel.  On Tuesday night, he said, the men gave him something to drink--he thought it contained 'a drug potion,'" reported The Times.  Chief of Detectives John L. Keenan said, "We are certainly not accepting his story or any story at face value."

More than a year later, on November 9, 1978, Schlomo Tal was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of Pinchos Jaroslawicz.  Tal continued to insist he was innocent.

The building still held tenants not related to jewelry or gems into the 21st century.  Included was the office of photojournalist John G. Morris.  Beginning his career in 1938, he was Life magazine's picture editor from 1938 to 1945, was photograph editor of the Ladies' Home Journal and Magnum's Photos, and the picture editor of the Washington Post and The New York Times, as well as holding other impressive positions.

Known today as The Exchange, Walter M. Mason's handsome limestone and brick building is as impressive as the history that has played out inside it.

photographs by Sean Khorsandi

The 1869 John F. Rottmann House - 437 West 47th Street

 

Although much of the 1869 architectural details have been removed, the original entrance doors survive.

John and Myer Hayes (presumably brothers) erected a row of six Italianate homes along the north side of West 47th Street Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in 1869.  John Hayes designed the houses, as well.  Just over 18-feet-wide and three stories tall above English basements, each featured beefy, cast iron stoop railings and newels, arched entranceways with peaked pediments, and molded, architrave window frames.

The western-most house, 437 West 47th Street, became home to the John F. Rottmann family.  Born in Germany, Rottmann was a member of the New York Schutzen Corps, a German rifle club; and the Amt Hagener Club, a popular German-American social group.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, had three sons--John Jr., Henry D. and Herman H.--and a daughter, Margaret.  When they moved into the 47th Street house, Rottmann was a partner in the Rottmann & Eckhoff Brewery.  In 1873, Rottmann dissolved his partnership with Eckhoff and established a new brewery, John F. Rottmann & Sons.  It was located conveniently nearby at 315 West 47th Street. 

In 1872, one month after her 21st birthday, Margaret C. Rottman died.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on May 13.

On March 1, 1889, 437 West 47th Street was purchased by James Fitzpatrick for $14,000 (about $478,000 in 2024 terms).  It was resold in 1892 to Dr. John Martin for $15,000.

Dr. Martin lived and practiced from the house until 1905.  It was sold to the John J. Kelly family.  Living with him and his wife, Elizabeth, was their adult son, Bernard, who was head of a local ironworkers union.  The Kellys took in one boarder.  In 1906, it was 43-year-old Joseph Bobbnieth.  

On August 7, 1906, the New-York Tribune began an article saying, "The heat wave which began Saturday increased in intensity yesterday until the record for the hottest day of the year was broken...The intense heat and the enervating humidity caused seventeen deaths in the metropolitan district and over fifty prostrations in Manhattan alone."  Among the latter was Joseph Bobbnieth, "found in front of No. 508 West 34th street."  He was taken to Bellevue Hospital to recover.

In 1919, the Kellys sold 437 West 47th Street to the Missionary Canonesses of St. Augustine, known as the Belgian Missionary Sisters, who converted it to their convent.  While officially the St. John Berchman's Convent, it was familiarly known as the Belgian Sisters Convent.

The dedication was performed by a most auspicious figure--Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, who was also the Archbishop of Mechelen in Belgium,  On September 14, 1919, the New York Herald reported he "will visit St. Albert's Church, 431 West Forty-seventh street, call upon the parish clergy and then proceed to the new convent of the Belgian Sisters...which he will dedicate."

The cast iron stoop railings and other details were intact in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Interestingly, the convent drew the support of the highest level of Manhattan society.  On March 9, 1921, the New York Herald reported, "For the Belgian Missionary Sisters of 437 West Forty-seventh street, there will be a concert this afternoon at Mrs. John Sanford's."  Among those in attendance were millionaires like Cornelius Vanderbilt, Thomas Fortune Ryan, Hamilton Fish Armstrong, De Lancey Astor Kane, and Countess de Laugier-Villars.

On October 28, 1973, The New York Times reported, "The Fountain House Foundation, a nonprofit organization involved in psychiatric rehabilitation, has purchased five brownstones at 429-437 West 47th Street from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York."  In 2014, the foundation converted 437 West 47th Street to Fountain House College Re-Entry, "to help students that have discontinued their college plans due to mental health obstacles," according to its website.

photographs by the author

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

The 1870 William P. and Annie Brown House - 435 West 47th Street

 

The well-rounded John Hayes was an architect, developer, builder, and real estate agent.  Partnering with Myers Hayes (presumably his brother) in 1869, he designed six "three-story brick and brown stone first class dwellings" on the north side of West 47th Street east of Tenth Avenue.  Similar to other Italianate style residences appearing throughout the city, the identical 18-foot-wide rowhouses were completed in 1870.  Stoops with beefy stone railings and newels rose to the arched entrances, which were capped with impressive pediments upon scrolled brackets.  The windows were fully framed, and handsome bracketed cornices completed the design.

William P. and Annie R. Brown purchased 435 West 47th Street.  Interestingly, when he bought the house in 1870, he listed his business as "stone" at 456 West 46th Street.  Six years later, he described himself as a "silk and ribbon manufacturer" at the same address.  Brown invested heavily in real estate and owned scores of Manhattan properties, including several tenements as well as his 46th Street factory.

In 1881, William P. Brown's business failed and he began selling off his real estate.  The factory building was purchased by one of his creditors, Adam Nickel.  The Browns managed to hold on to 435 West 47th Street until March 10, 1884, when they sold it to Nickel for $16,000 (about $513,000 in 2024).

It is unclear whether Nickel and his family ever occupied the house.  In 1894, James O'Grady lived here, but he was most likely a boarder.  A conductor on the Third Avenue cable car line, he would not have had the income to afford a house like this, even in the Hell's Kitchen district.

On July 19, 1894, Hugo Schueler, who worked as a cook in Brooklyn, attempted to board O'Grady's street car.  He fell and fractured his skull.  Surprisingly today, O'Grady and his gripman, Frank C. Wieger, were arrested.  The Evening World reported, "Justice [Frank C.] Feitner paroled them for further examination."

By the turn of the century, the Ehrenberg family lived here.  Mrs. M. Ehrenberg was apparently a widow.  She had three daughters, Leonora, Emily and Frances.  Leonora taught in the primary department of Public School No. 28 at 257 West 40th Street, earning $680 per year.  She got a raise of $36.63 in 1903, bringing her annual income to the equivalent of $25,600 today.

Leonora Ehrenberg was a talented musician, as well.  In 1917 she attended the Eastern Music Supervisors' Conference.

In 1941, the stoop railings and newels, the entrance pediment, and the window enframements all survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Emily worked for the Christian Herald in 1923. On August 9 that year, the newspaper chartered a bus to take sixty employees on a summer outing.  On the way home, just outside of Nyack, New York, "they were discussing the celebration just over and singing songs," according to the New York Evening Telegram, when tragedy occurred.  The article said the "sightseeing car carrying sixty persons skidded into a concrete mixer and smashed the steam boiler."  The scalding steam killed one young woman instantly and five others died within 24 hours.  "Hospital authorities fear three of the remaining six patients may not live."  Among those three was Emily Ehrenberg whose recovery was listed as "doubtful."  

Happily, however, she did recover.  Three years later, on June 24, 1926, the Sullivan County Record reported that among the guests at A. Heidt's Valley View House at Kenoza Lake were "Mrs. M. Erenberg [and] the Misses Frances and Emily Ehrenberg."

The house received its moment of cinematic fame when it served as the exterior of the apartment of the character Babe in the 1976 film Marathon Man.

In 1978, 435 West 47th Street was converted to 28 "class B furnished rooms" with a common dining room and kitchen in the basement.  (Class B rooms or apartments do not require a lease.)  It was possibly at this time that the stone stoop railings, the entrance pediment, and the window enframements were removed.  

Fountain House, a self-help organization, purchased four of the 1870 rowhouses, including 435 West 47th Street, in 1985 and converted them into the "Van Ameringen Center, providing increased space for the group's charitable efforts," according to its website.

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Congregation Ezrath Israel -- The Actors' Temple -- 339 West 47th Street

 

In September 1922, architect Sidney P. Oppenheim filed plans to dramatically remodel a "four story brick tenement" for the West Side Hebrew Relief Association, Inc.  The old structure (it was built around 1869) was, in fact, a high-stooped brownstone which had been converted to a rooming house.  Oppenheim's far-reaching plans called for new floors, new interior walls, "new exterior, new front."

The house was transformed into a synagogue faced in sandy-colored brick.  It was home to Congregation Ezrath Israel (Help of Israel), founded in 1917.  Vaguely neo-Georgian in style, the building's focal point was the large, centered arch that embraced the stained glass rose window.

In the post-World War I years, the most conservative of churches and synagogues still considered the theater to be sinful.  People involved in the theater were not welcomed by those institutions.  This synagogue was conveniently near the entertainment district, however, and when actor-comedian Red Baxter began worshiping at Ezrath Israel, Rabbi Bernard Birstein welcomed him.

Birstein was born in 1892 in Poland and had come to America in 1912.  Word of his warm reception to actors and entertainers spread.  Before long, the congregation was a mix of long-time neighborhood residents and stage celebrities.  

Rabbi Birstein discovered that having well-known members in his congregation had its advantages.  He instituted what would become an annual benefit.  According to Birstein's daughter, Ann, in her 1982 book The Rabbi on 47th Street, the events featured performances by the likes of Sophie Tucker; Jimmy Durante and his vaudeville team Clayton, Jackson and Durante; Red Buttons; Eddie Cantor; Jack Benny; Edward G. Robinson; and Milton Berle.  Within a few years, Congregation Ezrath Israel had earned the nickname, The Actors' Temple.  

The benefit would be staged every February for years.  On January 28, 1933, the Greenpoint Daily Star reported, 

With Eddie Cantor and George Jessel as honorary chairmen, Broadway stage stars are rallying to the support of the charity show to be given in aid of Temple Ezrath Israel at the Casino Theater on Sunday evening, February 5.  This annual theatrical affair helps considerably to maintain the synagogue, located at 339 West Forty-seventh street, where the actors come to pray and mourn for the dead.

More somber, of course, were those many funerals and memorial services which were routinely held here.  On April 16, 1927, for instance, The Vaudeville News reported, "N.V.A. [National Vaudeville Artists] members are respectfully invited to attend a Memorial Service on Sunday, April 24, 1927, at 11 A. M. at the Ezrath Israel Synagogue, 339 West 47th St., New York City."

On July 12, 1941, The New York Times reported on the memorial service for theatrical producer Sam H. Harris.  The article said 200 friends and former associates were present.  "George M. Cohan, former partner of Mr. Harris, had been asked to speak...but had declined, saying, 'I was too close to Sam Harris.  I couldn't go through with it.'"

Rabbi Bernard Birstein died in 1959 at the age of 67.  On November 15, The New York Times reported that "Congregation Ezrath Israel, more familiarly known as the Actors Temple," had hired Rabbi Moshay P. Mann.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Things were changing in the neighborhood and within the congregation.  Following World War II the motion picture industry drew celebrities to the West Coast.  And the neighborhood generally declined.  The 16th Precinct police stationhouse, just steps away, was demolished in 1972 and the station moved to a new building on West 54th Street.  Within weeks, on October 9, the shul was broken into and $500 worth of silver breastplates, used to adorn the Torah, were stolen.  (The items were later discovered in a pawnshop.)

On November 18, 1978, Leslie Maitland, writing in The New York Times, began an article saying,

Edward G. Robinson conducted services.  Toots Shor, Tony Martin and Red Buttons came to pray.  And when the rabbi had trouble gathering a minyan of 10 Jewish men at the Actors' Temple, the old 16th Precinct station a few doors down on 47th Street could be counted on to provide it.

But times have changed.

Edward G. Robinson is dead.  Red Buttons lives in California.  The police station has been torn down.  The police officers who visit now do not come to pray.

Those police officers were, instead, were coming to investigate vandalism.  Teens threw rocks through the windows, spray painted swastikas on the walls, and "shout[ed] obscenities at its leaders," according to Maitland.

Label Malamud had been cantor here for three decades.  Pointing to the school next door to the synagogue, he asked Maitland, "You think they go to school with pencils?  These days they carry knives.  They could make me a head shorter than I already am.  Frankly, I am afraid."  A month before the article, the synagogue's outdoor Succoth decorations had been destroyed.

In response, the congregation had installed a $2,000 burglar alarm system and covered the stained glass windows with plywood--among them memorial windows to Joe E. Lewis, Sophie Tucker and theatrical agent Joe Glaser.

On November 29, 2006, Campbell Robertson of The New York Times wrote, "Recently--say, oh, during the last half-century--this temple, with a declining membership and a vanishing budget, has not been doing so well."  In a desperate attempt to buoy its finances, the members of Congregation Ezrath Israel had decided to offer its auditorium as an Off Broadway venue.  The first play, The Big Voice: God or Merman?, opened on November 30, 2006.

It had not been an easy decision.  Congregation members discussed--and fought--it for more than a year.  Member Rich Schussel explained, "There was, first of all, the fundamental question of whether it was appropriate to open an active temple to show business.  And then the practical matters: if a show has a big, immovable set, what do you do for Friday and Saturday services?"

Vice president of the board, Mike Libien, said, "Not everyone was happy about it."  But, given the financial situation, "we really had no choice."

Nearly two decades later, the unlikely bedfellows continue to coexist as Congregation Ezrath Israel and the Actors' Temple Theater.

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George Keister's 1886 428 West 47th Street

 

In 1885, real estate developer William Rankin hired George Keister to design a flat building at 428-430 West 47th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.  The five-story structure was completed the following year, its brick-and-stone façade a medley of currently fashionable styles.  Above the stoop, with its heavy cast iron railings and newels, the first floor was faced in rough-cut brownstone, an element drawn from Romanesque Revival.  The carved brackets, formal entablature and cornice of the entrance, however, were Renaissance Revival in style.  Keister added touches of Queen Anne on the upper stories.  Here the architrave frames of the openings included stone quoins and cornices.  The design was completed with a bracketed cornice with a triangular pediment containing a neo-Classical pressed wreath.

Rankin sold his newly-completed building in April 1886 to Joseph Kucker for $38,000 (about $1.2 million today).  Kucker's advertisement on May 16, 1886 in the New York Herald read:  "Elegant new flats of four large rooms and bath; private halls; carpeted.  No. 428 West 47th st.  Can be seen to-day."

Although middle-class, some of the residents of 428 West 47th Street were affluent enough to afford domestic help.  A family named Martin had a maid when they moved in in 1886.  Two years later, they parted ways.  An advertisement in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle read, "Wanted--Situation--As a lady's maid or invalid's nurse; two years' reference.  Address Miss S. Dugay, care Mrs. Martin, 428 West Forty-seventh st, New York."

It is possible that "Martin" was actually Martini.  In 1890, Frederick J. Martini lived here with his family when he entered the sub-freshman mechanical course at New York City College.

The apartment house was nearly lost on the frigid night of January 14, 1902.  Around 9:30 that night, Elizabeth Bauman, the janitress, smelled smoke.  She sent her daughter Lena to investigate.  The girl followed the scent to the cellar where she discovered the woodbin ablaze and a man fumbling with the door to the outside.  William Gallagher managed to get out with Lena close behind screaming for help.

Two policemen arrested Gallagher and brought him back to the apartment house.  In the meantime, Elizabeth Bauman had extinguished the fire with several buckets of water.  Gallagher protested that he was merely a carpenter and had been doing work in the building.  The New York Herald noted, "He appeared slightly intoxicated."

Louise and Joseph Herbet had a rare interracial marriage at the turn of the century.  Joseph was described by The New York Times as "a Japanese."  In 1901, Louise was diagnosed with epilepsy.  By the summer of 1903, according to The New York Times, she had become "extremely despondent."  On the morning of July 25, Louise went to the roof.  Joseph discovered her just in time to prevent her from jumping.

The Herbets' bedroom opened onto a ventilation shaft.  That afternoon, while Louise was lying on the bed by the window, Joseph remained in the room watching over her.  The New York Times reported, "While his head was turned, Mrs. Herbet crawled from her bed to the open window and was half way out when Herbert saw her."  Joseph ran to the window and caught hold of Louise's kimono.  "The woman had gone too far, however, to be stopped, and the piece of the garment which her husband held tore off in his hands as the woman's body dropped to the bottom of the shaft."

Even middle-class families summered away from the city, and the first-floor residents were all "in the country," according to the newspaper.  For that reason, it took a while to reach Louise.  "Eventually Dr. Whitbeck of Roosevelt Hospital managed to get to her and take her to the hospital," said The New York Times.  There was little hope for her recovery, however, "the doctors saying her skull is, in all probability, fractured."

Austin Goodwin lived here in 1905.  On the night of September 4 that year, he nearly lost his life in Madison Square after he enraged a group of several hundred homeless men.  The men, explained the New York Morning Telegraph, "sleep on benches in the park.  After the sun has been down some time they are left unmolested by the police.  As a rule they mind their own business and want to be let alone."

The 31-year-old Goodwin, however, decided to have fun at their expense.  He "went the rounds, sneaking up and suddenly tipping over each bench and throwing the sleepers sprawling on the sidewalk."  The article said after he refused to stop, the men became enraged.  "Kick his head off, Bill!" one shouted.  "It was the signal, and from all parts of the park ran the crowd, intent on helping Bill to follow the advice of the outraged hobo."

The New York Telegraph said, "There came near being a lynching bee in Madison Square last night."  Goodwin was surrounded when several officers arrived to save him from the mob.  He was taken to the stationhouse, charged with disorderly conduct.  Here he explained, "I am studying the phenomenon of sleep.  It interests me to watch men suddenly aroused from the slumbers that is all."

The sergeant replied, "That won't be all in court tomorrow."

As mid-century neared, the architectural details, including the stoop railings and cornice, were intact.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

At the time of Goodwin's arrest, Mrs. Florence Bohart, presumably a widow, shared her apartment with 23-year-old Jennie Camden.  According to Florence, John H. Morgan, who lived in Westfield, New Jersey, "had been forcing his attentions on Miss Camden for some time."  Florence had repeatedly "warned him away."  The situation came to a head on Friday night, November 10, 1905.

Florence told officials that Morgan appeared at the apartment "with a revolver in his hand and declared that he would kill the girl if his love was not returned."  Morgan most likely did not expect the reaction of the headstrong women.  The New York Morning Telegraph reported, "A struggle followed, during which Miss Camden succeeded in getting the weapon away from Morgan."  Amazingly by today's viewpoint, he was charged only with carrying a concealed weapon.

By the end of World War I, the building was owned by Julius and Louise G. Hulle.  The couple owned "considerable West Side property," according to the New York Herald.  Julius, who was a customs agent, died in their apartment on August 20, 1919.  

Louise was a semi-invalid and neighbors routinely looked in on her.  With her husband gone, she sold all her Manhattan properties other than 428 West 47th Street, and planned to move to Cornwall-on-the-Hudson where her in-laws lived.  

Six months after Julius's death, on February 21, 1920, Louise was in the kitchen cooking when, according to the New York Herald, she "tripped over the rubber tube of a lighted stove."  The 62-year-old was so "frightened by the roar of the flame that burst from the open end of the tube," that she was unable to scream.

At around 8:00, a neighbor stopped by to see if Louise needed anything.  When she opened the door, she created a backdraft.  The New York Herald said, "the visitor was almost overcome with the heat."  Other neighbors responded to her cries and formed a bucket brigade.  They managed to extinguish the flames and turn off the gas.  The body of Louise Reiche, who had been unable to flee, was found in the kitchen.

On October 18, 1938, Thomas Davis, who lived in Yonkers, parked his automobile on West 47th Street.  When he returned, he discovered 21-year-old Ira Hayes, who lived here, sitting in the driver's seat.  The Herald Statesman reported, "When [Davis] sought to question the man, he attempted to draw a .38 caliber revolver from an inside pocket of his coat."  Davis yelled for help and two police officers ran to the scene and arrested Hayes.  He was sentenced to seven to fourteen years in the state prison for unlawfully possessing a revolver.

The McCann family lived at 428 West 47th Street in 1942.  On January 5, their 13-year-old daughter Margaret disappeared.  The family was panicked until the night of January 14 when Margaret's uncle, Michael Casey, discovered that her "visit" to his home in Albany was in fact a runaway case.  The New York Sun reported that he "turned her over to the Albany police last night when he learned she had run away from home."  Margaret's mother traveled to Albany that same night and brought her home.

The Sun reported, "Detective John Noenich of the Missing Persons Bureau, who visited the McCann home this morning, said the girl told her mother she boarded a train and managed to reach Albany without being asked for a ticket."  Margaret did not care to share any other details of her adventure.

On May 29, 1953, The Central New Jersey Home News began an article saying, "A siren-screaming, bullet-slinging column of police vehicles raced zig-zag through three miles of Bronx streets yesterday to capture a quartet of bandits."  The four armed robbers had just held up Salomon Salberg, the owner of a Bronx diner, and made off with $5,000.

Their getaway car was pursued by police cars and motorcycles which fired at the car.  "The bandits returned a fusillade themselves during the chase, some of the bullets crashing through the windshield of a police car."  Two of the crooks, Samuel Lepore, who was 27, and 26-year-old Frank E. Curich, lived at 428 West 47th Street.

The driver and mastermind of the holdup was Charles Jetter, who had been employed at the diner.  After he was hit in the head by a bullet, the "bullet-riddled car finally smashed into a parked vehicle."  Another of the gang, James Sanders, was wounded in the right arm.  Neither Curich nor Lepore was injured.  They were booked on charges of "assault, robbery, violation of the anti-weapons law, and grand larceny," said the article.

In the last half of the 20th century, the exterior of the building was modernized.   The cast iron railings and newels were removed, the undressed brownstone and window surrounds of the first floor plastered over, the cornice taken off, and the brick and stone given a two-tone coat of blue paint.

many thanks to reader Des Herlihy for requesting this post

photographs by the author

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