The Lost Hermann Gehnrich House - 444 East 89th Street

The vintage house with its polychromed details had survived intact in 1932.  A section of the cornice was lost when the apartment building to the right was constructed.   from the collection of the New York Public Library

After the New York and Harlem Railroad was extended along Fourth Avenue in the 1830's, a hamlet grew up around the 86th Street station.   In the 1850's an influx of German and Irish immigrants settled in the village, many of them hired to build the Croton Aqueduct.  At some point around the time of the Civil War, it became known as Yorkville.  Eventually Yorkville would rival, then overtake the Lower East Side as the center of the German immigrant community.

A flurry of construction followed the end of the Civil War.  In the early years of the 1870s, wooden houses--two and three stories tall with high basements--were erected along both sides of East 89th Street between York and First Avenues.  Among them was 444 East 89th Street, home to William H. and Sara A. Mott.  Like the others along the block, it was faced in clapboard.  The paneled wooden fence posts mimicked the newels of the stoop railings.  Floor-to-ceiling parlor windows opened onto an ample porch, where the Motts would have found relief from warm evenings.  The architect-builder embellished the upper openings with handsome molded lintels with carved ornaments.  The deeply overhanging cornice was upheld by thin, scrolled corbels with hanging finials.

In May 1880, William and Sara Mott sold 444 East 89th Street to Anne M. Donnell.  She rented space in the house to families, one per floor.  Anne advertised it for sale in the New York Herald on March 25, 1891:

Fine Private House, Garden, full lot; all improvements on each floor; 15 large rooms; arranged for three families; $10,500.

The "improvements" would most likely have included indoor plumbing.  The price Anne Donnell asked would translate to about $383,000 in 2026.  It was purchased by Rudolph Ladensack, who resold it on June 6, 1892 to Hermann and Magdalena Schaefer Gehnrich.

Born in Germany, the couple had three sons, William T., Herman John, and Charles L.  The brothers pursued very different career paths.  

William turned to metalwork and on April 8, 1899, The Metal Worker listed him among the students enrolled in the evening class of Sheet Metal and Cornice Work at the New York Trade School.  It is possible that he commuted from Yorkville to the school at 67th Street and First Avenue by bicycle.  Four years before that article, William had signed a petition to the Board of Alderman, urging a "bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."

Herman John Gehnrich was also an ardent bicyclist.  On August 7, 1900, The New York Times reported on the upcoming "open moonlight and double century run" by the New York State Division of the Century Road Club of America, an organization for bicycle enthusiasts.  "Entries for this run can be sent to the Secretary, H. J. Gehnrich, 444 East Eighty-ninth Street."

Charles L. Gehnrich was involved in charity work for the state.  As early as 1902, he worked as a clerk in the Department of Inspection of the State Board of Charities.  The 1904 Annual Report of the State Board of Charities explained, "This department has charge of the visitation and inspection of all institutions, societies or associations which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character."

In the meantime, Herman John Gehnrich died on December 29, 1900 at the age of 21.  His parents did not disclose any funeral arrangements to the public.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

William brought his bride, Minnie, to live at 444 East 89th Street.  In 1906, they had two twin boys, Charlie and Willie.  The family suffered unspeakable grief on March 24, 1908.  The Inquirer reported, "locked in each other's arms, twin babies this afternoon plunged headlong from the second-story window to the yard in the rear of their home, at 444 East Eighty-ninth street."  The article said that Minnie, "having household duties to attend to, had locked the guards on the rear second-story window of her home, leaving the twins, Charlie and Willie, barely two years old, playing in the room."

The New York Times reported that Minnie entered the room "just as they toppled from the window, and she ran screaming downstairs into the yard.  Policeman Lederman found her holding the unconscious infants in her arms and weeping over them."  The boys had landed on the pavement in the rear yard, fracturing their skulls.  

According to The Evening World, "The father of the twins, William Gehnrich, came from the sheet-iron factory where he works, in East Ninety-second street, and took the mother to the hospital.  She was frantic with grief."  The New York Times noted, "There is no hope that the twins will live."

Minnie Gehnrich's anguish was increased when her husband, perhaps overcome with grief, died four days later.  Once again, The New York Times remarked only, "funeral private."  

Hermann and Magdalena moved to Brooklyn by 1917.  Hermann died on February 18, 1920 and Magdalena on July 14, 1922.

George Repp and Carl Wetzler leased the basement level of 444 East 89th Street for the offices of Repp & Wetzler, "baker oven builders."  An advertisement in The Retail Baker in October 1917 touted, "repairing of all patent and American ovens our specialty."  Rooms were rented in the upper floors.  Among the tenants here in 1923 was 21-year-old John Gick, arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated on October 9 that year.

When 444 East 89th Street was sold to Michael Demetroules and George Hadjinanos in September 1926, The New York Times described it as "a four-story flat."  The article said, "The purchasers contemplate extensive renovations."

The quaint wooden building was remodeled.  The porch was removed and a Colonial-style entrance installed slightly below grade.  The architect modernized the vintage elements by streamlining the window frames and reducing the cornice corbels.

mage via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A renovation completed in 1945 resulted in one apartment per floor.  By then, 444 East 89th Street was the last remnant of the 1870s block.  The end finally came in the early 1970s when the house and the properties to the corner of York Avenue were demolished for a 33-floor apartment building, completed in 1974.

image via compass.com

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 Jacob Herrlich & Sons Building - 332 East 86th Street

photo by Ted Leather

Early in 1885, developer Gotthold Haug completed construction of three "four-story stone front flats," as described by the Real Estate Record & Guide, at 332 through 336 East 86th Street.   Their openings sat within pronounced architrave neo-Grec-style frames and bracketed cornices with paneled friezes crowned their facades.

On November 15, 1898, Jacob and Christine Ruth Herrlich purchased 332 East 86th Street for $16,150 (about $630,000 in 2025 terms).  The following month, on December 31, The New York Times reported that Herrlich had contracted architect Charles Stegmayer to make renovations.  

The alterations converted the ground floor to a commercial space.  It was originally home to the Yorkville Court (or headquarters) of the I.O.F. (the Independent Order of Foresters).  But by 1905, the Jacob Herrlich & Bros'. Funeral Parlors occupied the space.

Jacob Herrlich had opened his funeral operation in 1875.  Living above the funeral home with Jacob and Christina were sons August Jacob and Philip C.  August was made a commissioner of deeds in 1906, a civil service position similar to a notary public.

Other tenants in the building at the time were William Wheeler, a tile-layer, and his mother; and Caroline A. Wieler who, like August Jacob Herrlich, applied for a civil service job in 1909.  But her application for Typewriter Accountant was denied.  The minutes of the Municipal Civil Service Commission of July 14, 1909, said, "It appeared that the candidate had been disqualified for placing the examination number on her papers."  Caroline appealed, submitting a statement that "the error was unintentional and made with no thought of revealing her identity."  Upon consideration, the commission granted her papers for examination.

Jacob Herrlich died in 1907 and by 1910, the business was renamed Jacob Herrlich's Sons.  Philip and August Herrlich made renovations to the building in 1923, resulting in the funeral parlor on the ground and second floors, and one apartment each on the third and fourth.  The Herrlich brothers and their families were now the only occupants of the building.

Jacob Herrlich & Sons was the scene of notable funerals over the decades.  Annie White Strathern's funeral was held here in October 1920.  Never married, she devoted her life to social work and was a teacher and social worker for 55 years, 43 of those working with the Children's Aid Society.  She spent every summer vacation at the fresh air branches of that society.  In 1908 she organized the Mothers' Helpers' Association, which trained young girls in domestic science.

Another notable funeral was that of Police Sergeant Herman R. Blohm, held here on August 23, 1922.  Blohm had taken his family on vacation to Highland Lake.  The previous summer his family "were annoyed by rattlesnakes," according to The Evening World, so this year Blohm left his service pistol home "and bought a vest pocket automatic," to deal with the reptiles.

On August 20, Blohm and his wife headed to the lake.  He saw and killed a rattle snake on the way.  Uncustomed to the new weapon, he forgot to adjust the safety catch.  The Evening World said, "The trigger caught on his trousers and the weapon was discharged."  His funeral here was crowded with police.

A Nazi parade marched past the Jacob Herrlich & Sons building on October 30, 1937.  A prominent blade sign identifies the funeral home.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Perhaps none of the funerals attracted more public attention than that of Krao Farini, known as the "bearded lady," the "missing link," and the "ape-woman" of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  

Born in Laos in 1876, Krao was afflicted with what today is known as hypertrichosis--an abnormal amount of hair growth.  She and her parents were captured by explorer Carl Bock during an expedition in 1881.  Bock put her on exhibition in 1882 as an example of the missing link between apes and humans.  By the 1920s, she lived in Brooklyn and when not on exhibition with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, she wore a heavy veil in public.

Krao Farini, cabinet card by Obermuller & Son, around 1890.

Krao died from influenza on April 16, 1926.  Her funeral was held here on April 18.  The New York Times reported on the service, spattering the article with callous descriptions of the mourners.  It described Carrie Holt as "the fat lady," and said Jim Tarver, the "Texas Giant" had "to bring his own chair."  The article said, "Victoria Anderson, 'leopard girl' with the spotted hair and skin, cried a bit as she looked at Krao for the last time."  Krao Farini had requested that her body be cremated to preclude her corpse becoming a post-mortem freak attraction.

Philip C. Herrlich died in his apartment on April 8, 1926 at the age of 53.  In reporting his death, The Casket and Sunnyside called him "one of the most widely known members of the profession in Greater New York, and a power in the State and local associations."

A coat of white paint covered the brownstone in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

August Jacob Herrlich continued the family business.  At mid-century, the firm merged with Frank E. Campbell Funeral Church, and after occupying the space for half a century, left East 86th Street.  By 1954, it was home to the office of attorney Richard E. Bauman.

In the summer of 1968, the seafood restaurant Brigadoon opened here.  Food critic Craig Claiborne of The New York Times said on August 30, "As to the decor and table service, there isn't a lot to praise in this recently opened fish and seafood house."  He deemed the fish, however, "impressive."

The venture was short lived.  It was replaced by Alda's Ristorante in 1970.  The restaurant offered "heartwarming Italian cuisine," according to its advertisement in Gourmet magazine that year.  The end of Alda's Risatorante came 15 years later when the owners were caught selling heroin in addition to pasta.

The former funeral home space continued to see a turn-over of occupants.  Christine Polish Restaurant was here in 1987, replaced by Pasta Vicci in 1989, and the following year The Well Bred Pedigree, a pet shop, was here.  Most recently, a hair-removal clinic occupies the space.

At some point the white paint was carefully removed from the brownstone facade, returning the upper floors to its 1895 appearance.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.

Robert Maynicke's 1906 Yorkville Bank -- 1511 Third Avenue

 

image via realestate.union-investment.com

Reinhold Van Der Emde was born in Germany on March 17, 1842.  After studying the pharmaceutical trade in Switzerland, he arrived in New York City in 1869.  The New York Times later said he, "got a position in Dietel's drug store.  He was thrifty, and soon started a business of his own on the Bowery."

Van Der Emde's drugstore thrived.  In 1893, he and Richard H. Adams founded the Yorkville Bank, erecting a building on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 85th Street within the neighborhood that was greatly populated by German and Hungarian immigrants.  Reinhold Van Der Emde became the bank's president.  The New York Times recalled in 1909, "The institution was successful from the first."

So successful was the Yorkville Bank, in fact, that on July 30, 1904, the Record & Guide reported, "Robert Maynicke...is preparing plans for the new building to be erected by the Yorkville Bank."  (Van Der Emde's choice of the architect may have been slightly influenced by the fact that Maynicke was also German-born.)  He filed plans on January 7, 1905 for the $125,000 structure (about $4.47 million in 2024).  

The project moved fast.  On the same day of the Record & Guide's article, The Evening Post reported, "On Monday next the bank will be moved temporarily to Eighty-third Street and Third Avenue," and a month later, on February 4, the Record & Guide announced, "The old buildings are now being demolished and excavating will begin next week."

The new Yorkville Bank building was completed within ten months and its doors were opened on December 18, 1905.  Maynicke had produced a handsome Italian Renaissance banking palazzo of four floors.  A graceful arcade ran along the sidewalk, its tall arched openings separated by full-height pilasters.  A prominent intermediate cornice introduced the upper floors.  Maynicke carried on the Renaissance motif by treating the openings with terra cotta pediments, classical metopes between the third- and fourth-floor windows, and dentils below the stone cornice.

It appears that Van Der Emde gave Maynicke input.  On June 10, 1909, The Pharmaceutical Era wrote, "The bank's new building at Third avenue and 85th street, which is generally looked upon as a model for banking houses, was designed under the direction of Mr. van der Ende."

The upper floor offices were leased, mostly, to real estate and legal firms.  Among the first were realtors Nathan H. Weil, Arthur G. Muhlker, here in 1906, and the F. Dornberger Realty Co., which moved in in August 1909.

The F. Dornberger Realty Co. was headed by Frederick Dornberger.  Between 1:30 and 2:00 on the morning of October 11, 1910, he exited the subway at Eighth Avenue and 110th Street.  Dornberger witnessed a woman going through the pockets of an elderly, intoxicated man within the hansom cab sitting at the curb.  He demanded she stop.  Dornberger told a judge a few hours later, "She told me to 'beat it while my shoes were good and mind my own business.'"  

When the realtor continued to interfere with her larceny, she stabbed him with her hatpin, which pierced his cheek and tongue.  She then told the cabbie to drive as fast as he could.  Undeterred, Dornberger jumped into another cab, told the driver to follow her, all the while yelling, "Stop, thief!"

The commotion caught the attention of Patrolman Boylan who stopped the vehicles and took everyone in.  The next morning Lillian Harrison, described by The Sun as, "a handsomely gowned, golden-haired woman," and Dornberger faced off in the Harlem Court.  (The Sun noted, "the old man had promised to appear, but he failed to do so.)  Although Lillian denied the charges and the would-be victim was not in court, The Sun reported, "Magistrate Breen, however, was impressed so by Dornberger's story that he held her in $1,600 bail."

Reinhold Van Der Emde died in 1909.  August Zinsser, Jr. replaced him as president and continued the bank's policy of serving the mostly German neighborhood.  On February 27, 1910, for instance, The New York Times reported that the bank had partnered with Public School 77 in an innovative program.  The school formed a bank run by schoolboys.  Pupils made deposits and withdrawals "and even promissory notes are dealt with," said the article.  Zinsser was "a prime factor in establishing the right principles," said the article.  And when a student's bank account reached $5, it was transferred to the Yorkville Bank where it began receiving interest.

On September 22, 1922, The New York Times reported that the bank had purchased the 25-foot-wide, three-story building at 1515 Third Avenue.  Architect P. Gregory Stadler was hired to extend the bank building to the north and east.  His alterations, completed in 1924, honored Maynicke's design, resulting in nearly seamless additions.

An announcement of the merger of the Manufacturers Trust Company with three other banks, including the Yorkville Bank was published in the New York Evening Post on June 2, 1925.  It described the Yorkville Bank, "For many years the financial center of the great Yorkville District of Upper Manhattan."

At the time of the merger, Ernest Wolkwitz had been an employee of the Yorkville Bank since 1892, when he was hired as a clerk.  By now he had risen to vice-president.  He retained his title and was given charge of the branch here.  The new responsibilities may have been too much for him, and on July 1, 1927, he retired "on account of ill health," according to The New York Times.  At the time, he was being treated "for a nervous affliction."

Wolkwitz and his wife, Minna, lived in a ninth-floor apartment at 115 East 90th Street.  On the afternoon of November 21, 1927, Minna went shopping.  When she returned, she found Wolkwitz's body hanging "from a pipe in the bathroom of his apartment," according to The Times.

image from the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Twenty-two year old Patricia Ann Ryan was a teller in the Manufacturers Trust Co. branch in 1956 when she faced a terrifying incident.  On August 15, a man walked up to her counter and handed her a note that said in part that he had "nitro enough on me to blow all us up."  It seems, however, that this was the skittish bank robber's first heist.  The Citizen Register of Ossining, New York reported, "Before Miss Ryan had time to hand him any money, the man panicked, turned and ran."

Among the upstairs tenants in the late 1950s were the offices of the New York National Enquirer.  In 1974, a medical laboratory took over the entire third floor.  The bank left the ground floor in 1991.  A renovation in 2018 resulted in a retail store on the first floor and a health club on the upper floors.  Happily, Maynicke's striking 1906 design remains almost totally intact, including the graceful arcade of the first floor.

image via NYC.gov

Soon To Go - the 1886 York Hotel - 222-224 East 86th Street

photo by Beyond My Ken

By 1880 the Yorkville neighborhood was no longer a sleepy suburb.  Development following the Civil War was hastened by the opening of the Third Avenue elevated in 1878 and the Second Avenue line in 1879.  On June 15, 1882, Joseph Murray paid the extravagant sum of $10,000 for the 34-foot-wide, three-story wooden house at 222 East 86th Street (the price would translate to $307,000 in 2024).

Three years later, in March 1885, the Health Department approved the "plans for light and ventilation" for a new flat building at 222-224 East 86th Street.  Completed early in 1886, its Queen Anne design was rigidly balanced--a departure from the style's normally asymmetrical form.  Two storefronts flanked the residential entrance.  The upper section, faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, featured brawny arched windows at the second floor, and a pair of prominent copper gables that fronted a paneled parapet.

A center stair hall separated 222 and 224 and residents were listed at either address.  Described as a "first class, well kept apartment house," each of its apartments held four rooms.

Among the initial tenants of 224 East 86th Street were Byron W. Anderson and his wife Lucette.  Living with them was Lucette's widowed mother, Elizabeth Wall, who had a fascinating history.

Born Elizabeth Thompson in Freehold, New Jersey in 1798, her father, according to The New York Times, "was a German slaveholder."  The newspaper noted, "His house at Monmouth was Washington's headquarters when the famous battle was fought."  An "intellectual girl and of singular beauty," Elizabeth married Major William Wall.  When he died in 1856, he left Elizabeth with 10 children and "a handsome pension."

Fond of knitting, Elizabeth would often walk to Central Park and sit on a bench where she knitted socks that she would offer to policemen or laborers.  But it appears she also shows signs of what today we would recognize as early dementia.  Lucette wrote "Anderson, No. 224 East Eighty-sixth-street" on a slip of paper and tucked it into her mother's bag.  The New York Times explained she "feared that some day her mother would lose her way or be taken sick."

On September 20, 1886, The Boston Globe began an article saying, 

For many seasons the old lady with the knitting has been a familiar figure in Central Park.  All the policemen and laborers knew her by sight, but were ignorant of her name and residence...Selecting a shady bench in some retired nook the old lady took her knitting from the reticule and worked industriously until the afternoon was far spent. 

The day before the article, Charles McGlone, a park watchman, "saw a woman's body floating close to the western wall of the North basin."  He and an assistant removed the body.  The article said, "it was the 'old lady with the knitting.'"

The family had been searching for Elizabeth for hours and Byron W. Anderson identified his mother-in-law's body at the morgue.  While The Boston Globe attributed her death to "mental weakness, the result of advanced age," Anderson was not so sure.  He told a reporter from The New York Times, "to get to the reservoir basin she would have had to scale a fence which it was no easy task for an able-bodied man to get over."  The article said, "He scouted the idea of foul play."

Another early tenant was Mrs. Katherine Bassett, who taught German in Grammar School No. 37 on East 87th Street.  Katharine was most likely a widow, since, for the most part, only unmarried women taught in public schools.

Traveling salesman Oscar Hammerslough and his wife lived here by 1897.  The couple was married in 1893 and their domestic life was already troubled.  The New York Herald said on June 27, 1897, "Mrs. Hammerslough, who is twenty-seven years old and an attractive brunette, is said by her husband to have a passion for drink."

On the morning of June 22, Hammerslough gave his wife $20 for shopping before leaving on a sales trip.  When he returned home three days later, she was gone.  With two detectives, he found her in the home of Laura Johnson and Elisha Brewer, described by the New York Herald as "colored."  The article said Mrs. Hammerslough was intoxicated.

In court, Mrs. Hammerslough explained, according to the New York Herald, "that she had gone to a house to get some washing, and that she had been given something to drink by the colored man.  She denied that the man had assaulted her."  Laura Johnson testified that Mrs. Hammerslough came to her house at 11:00 that morning to get her laundry, that she asked to be allowed to sit down, "as she did not feel well," and that Laura had left her alone with Brewer.

Oscar Hammerslough told the judge he would apply for permission to have his wife committed to a private sanitarium.  She pleaded with him, "This will kill me.  Let me go, and I will go to my sister's."  The article said, "But her husband, who was standing close to her, turned his back and would not pay any attention to her.  He said afterward that he was going to apply for a divorce."

Interestingly, at the turn of the century the building was racially mixed.  Among the black tenants were the Robert W. Carter family.  Their movements were closely followed by the society columnists of The New York Age.  On September 28, 1905, for instance, it reported, "Mrs. R. W. Carter of 222 East 86th street, who has been seriously ill for four weeks, is able to be out again," and the following year, on October 25, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. Robert Brown of Manassas, Va., left for home last Saturday after paying a six weeks' visit to her daughter, Mrs. Robert Carter, of 222 East 86th street."

For some reason, Robert W. Carter lived apart from his family, only occasionally visiting.   On April 25, 1907, The New York Age reported, "after making a ten days' visit in different parts of Virginia, [he] spent the remainder of his vacation with his family.  He left for Boston on Sunday, April 21."  And on April 23, 1908, the newspaper reported, "Mr. R. W. Carter, of Brookline Mass., is spending two weeks in the city with Mrs. Carter and his daughter, Beatrice, at his house, 222 East 86th street."

No mention was made of the Carters' son, Myron L. Carter, in that article.  Eight months earlier, his name had appeared in newspapers for a a hideous crime.  On August 8, 1907, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "Myron L. Carter, a mulatto, 19 years old, of 222 East Eighty-sixth street" had been arrested for the murder of eight year old Katie Tretschler.  The article recounted that she "was found strangled and outraged [i.e., raped] in the cellar of 203 First avenue" on August 1.

By 1917, State Senator Robert Ferdinand Wagner and his wife, the former Margaret Marie McTague, lived at 224 East 86th Street.  Born in Prussia in 1877, Wagner was elected to the State Assembly in 1905 and to the State Senate in 1909.  He was Acting Lieutenant Governor of New York from October 17, 1913 to December 31, 1914.

Robert F. Wagner, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Wagner left the Senate in 1918 to serve as a justice of the New York Supreme Court.  He remained in the 86th Street apartment following Margaret's death in 1919.  Journalist Ada Patterson titled her article in the June 1921 issue of The New Success, "The Janitor's Son Who Became a Judge."  She began her article saying,

He lives in a comfortable home, with his ten-year-old son at 222 East Eighty-sixth Street, New York City.  His recreation is grand opera.  Once a week he goes to the Metropolitan Opera House, or he puts a Caruso or a Barrientos record on his victrola and the music is an aid to him as he reads or studies...Robert F. Wagner was a poor immigrant's son.  He arrived in this country when he was eight yeas of age--and he could not speak one word of English.  His father secured a job as janitor in an East Side apartment house.

Patterson attributed Wagner's success to hard work, determination, and academic excellence.  Six years after her article, he was elected to the United States Senate and would served until June 28, 1949, succeeded by John Foster Dulles.

A socially visible tenant was Mrs. Lucelle Shiloh.  On March 3, 1923, The New York Age reported on the "Martha Washington dinner dance" she hosted in her apartment "in honor of Mrs. M. Patillo Harper of New Rochelle" on February 22 (George Washington's birthday).  The article listed 17 guests, who must have experienced snug conditions in the four-room apartment.

On November 12, 1926, The New York Sun reported that the Joseph Murray estate had sold 222-224 East 86th Street.  The next year the second floor was converted to offices and the upper floors to "non-housekeeping" apartments, meaning they had no kitchens.  That year G. Lipksin & Son, violin dealers, moved its shop into the western store.  In reporting on the move on September 24, 1927, The Music Trade Review noted, "This firm is thirty-five years old and specializes in fine repairing."

John Szabo operated his travel agency from the other store in 1937.  He ran afoul of anti-Nazi groups in September that year when he displayed American flags along with posters advertising German Day.  He was summoned to appear in the Yorkville Court on September 13 to answer to charges by the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League and the German-American League for Culture of "misuse of the American flag."  

The cut-up apartments no longer housed well-to-do residents.  Among the tenants in the spring of 1940 was 28-year-old James Russell Osterman, an unemployed shoe salesman.  On March 9 that year, he applied for a job at the shoe store of William Shapiro at 1485 First Avenue.  When Shapiro turned him down, Osterman reacted violently, stabbing him fatally with a hunting knife.  Before Osterman could escape, according to The New York Times, Shapiro, "with his last strength, kicked out the plate glass window before he died."  It attracted a crowd of passersby, who trapped Osterman in the store.  Police found him "crouching in the rear of the store grasping a hunting knife," said the article.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By the third quarter of the 20th century, the building was known as the York Hotel, a squalid SRO.  The New York Times journalist Sarah Lyall called it "a single-room-occupancy hotel that was little more than a flophouse."  In 1992, the nonprofit group Postgraduate Center for Mental Health purchased the building with financial help from New York State.  The group announced plans to convert the building into a group home for 38 mentally ill people.  It's president, David Glazer, told Lyall, "it was small [and] so rundown that repairs could only be welcomed by the community."

There were only two tenants in the building when the Postgraduate Center purchased it.  One left after she was found an affordable new apartment and given $3,500 for expenses.  The other, Jerome Smith, refused to budge.  Smith, who owed nearly $40,000 in back rent since 1988, "has refused to leave even as his neighbors moved out, as the paint peeled away in strips, as the curtains turned from yellow to brown and the rats took over," Lyall reported on March 8, 1993.

Despite all incentives--including an apartment in the renovated building--Smith stayed on.  The city, concerned about tenants' rights, would not allow the Postgraduate Center to evict him, threatening to "deny the group permission to renovate the hotel" if they did.

Finally, after a 14-month standoff, Jerome Smith accepted a $10,000 payment for moving expenses and the forgiveness of the back rent.  On March 13, 1994, The New York Times reported, "After being blocked for a year and a half by a tenant who would not move out, work began last week on the decaying York Hotel at 222 East 86th Street."

The PCMH Residences provided apartments to mentally ill residents until 2022, when a demolition permit was issued for the building.  On January 3, 2023, Nick Garber, writing in Patch, opened an article saying, "A nearly 100-year-old [sic] Yorkville building, home since the 1990s to a mental health facility, will be demolished by its nonprofit owner."

photograph by the author

More than a year later, the striking Queen Anne style building survives, but its future is shaky at best.

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