The 1911 Riverside Mansions Apts. - 410 Riverside Drive

image via apartments.com

In 1888, the mansion of George Noakes was erected at the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and 113th Street.  The lavish private homes facing Riverside Park were being replaced by luxury apartment buildings by the first years of the 20th century, however, and on January 1, 1910, just 22 years after the Noakes family moved into their mansion, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported, "The Einsworth Construction Co. will soon begin work on the new 12-story elevator apartment house on the north corner of Riverside drive and 113th st."  The article noted that construction, "is estimated to cost $750,000."  The figure would translate to $25.5 million in 2026.

Two months later, on March 6, the New York Herald said The Riverside Mansions building "will be ready for occupancy, according to the builders, next October."  Interestingly, the article explained that of the 35 apartments, 14 would be cooperative.  They would be priced from $16,000 to $20,000, or approximately $545,000 to $680,000 today.  The remaining 21 apartments would be rentals.

Architects Neville & Bagge designed the 13-story-and-attic structure in the Chateauesque style.  The three-story base was clad in undressed granite.  The seven-story midsection, which sat between scalloped intermediate cornices, was clad in beige Roman brick.  Stone-and-iron balconies at the fourth, sixth and eleventh floors sat on corbel tables that matched the intermediate cornices.  Neville & Bagge embellished the top floor and attic with Loire Valley inspired gables and crockets and a steep mansard.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

There were three apartments per floor with either eight or nine rooms with three baths.  The well-heeled residents would enjoy "uniformed hall and elevator service day and night," according to The World's New York Apartment House Album, and there were a "separate entrance and elevator for service."

The irregular footprint presented the architects a challenge in laying out the apartments.  The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

Among the initial residents were the families of Henry Field, Edward A. Mays, Hugo Schweitzer, and Harry McDonald.  The Mays' and McDonalds' apartments were on the ground floor and only months after moving in that caused a problem.

On the evening of February 25, 1911, Edward A. Mays and his wife were hosting a dinner party.  The guests' coats and purses were placed in a bedroom.  While the group was at dinner, a burglar entered a window in that room.  He fled with a $300 fur overcoat and a silver toilet set.  The New York Times reported, "The thief overlooked a wallet containing $1,500 in cash, which was in one of the bureau drawers."

About the time that Mays and his guests discovered the theft, Harry McDonald arrived home.  His wife and daughter had been out all afternoon.  He told a reporter from The New York Times, "his apartment had been stripped."  Among the items stolen were "$600 worth of clothing, silverware, and decorations."

Henry and Mary Fields had two daughters, Rosalynd and Sylvia.  All the residents of The Riverside Mansions employed at least one servant and the Fields family employed 23-year-old Lydia Johnson, whom they said had "long been a faithful employee."  On August 31, 1911, The Evening World said, "For several days the servant had been acting queerly."  But the family "decided to humor her and kept her at her usual duties."

In fact, Lydia Johnson was having a mental breakdown.  On the afternoon of August 30, when Mary Field entered the kitchen, Lydia attacked her.  Mary screamed and her 18-year-old daughter, Rosalynd, rushed in.  "She pulled her mother from the servant's grasp, blocked several wild rushes and succeeded in getting Mrs. Fields into the hallway," reported The Evening World.  Then Rosalynd grappled with Lydia until she could get safely into the hallway and slammed the door.

The women's loud commotion had attracted "two painters at work in the building, two bellboys, two expressmen and the superintendent."  Policeman Best also ran into the building and "all made a rush for the raving negress," as worded by the article.  Lydia Johnson had been worked up into a frenzy, and she took Best's night stick from him and tore his uniform.  The painters came to Johnson's aid, but "the combined strength of the three was no match for that of the woman."  She was overpowered only when all eight men "made a concerted rush and dragged her to the floor."

Lydia Johnson was placed in an improvised straitjacket and taken to J. Hood Wright Hospital.  The day after the incident, The Evening World reported that Mary Fields, "is under the care of a physician to-day from the shock."

More typical of events within The Riverside Mansions were glittering dinner parties, teas and receptions.  On the evening of September 6, 1912, for instance, Dr. and Mrs. Hugo Schweitzer hosted a dinner "for forty, in honor of the official delegates of Germany, France, and Great Britain," as reported by The New York Times.  (The men were attending the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry.)  

Dr. Hugo Schweitzer was born in Pitschen, Silesia in 1861 and came to America around 1885.  He married Adela Hammerslough in 1892 and the couple had one son, Edward Stephen.  Hugo Schweitzer studied chemistry in four German universities and was a member of the Society for Chemical Industry, the American Chemical Society, Engineers' Club of Boston, Cosmos Club of Washington and was president of the Chemists' Club of New York.

The international harmony seen at the Schweitzer's dinner table that September evening in 1912 was about to be shattered world-wide.  Following the outbreak of world war in 1914 and several years before America became involved, Schweitzer ardently sided with Germany.  He was a delegate of the German-American Alliance meeting in Utica in 1915, and that autumn announced that he would publish "a New-York daily newspaper of pro-German proclivities, to be used in propaganda," according to The Evening Post.

Dr. Schweitzer died of pneumonia in the apartment on December 22, 1917 at the age of 56.  In reporting his death, The Evening Post commented that in the early days of the war he "had been the centre of much attention because of his pro-German sympathies."

In the meantime, the Fields family appeared in society columns.  On June 22, 1914, for instance, The New York Times announced that Mary and Rosalynd "who sailed on the Vaterland last Tuesday, are to visit Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Holland."  The article added, "Mr. Fields, who is a brother of Lew Fields, with his youngest daughter, Miss Sylvia Fields, will join his family abroad in August."

The following year, on October 21, 1915, Mary and Henry announced the engagements of both of their daughters.  More surprising was that the sisters would be marrying brothers.  The New York Times reported that Rosalynd and Sylvia were engaged to Meyer and Jacques Ginsberg, respectively.

On January 21, 1916, the newspaper reported on Rosalynd's and Meyer's wedding in The Riverside Mansions apartment.  The article said the newlyweds left for their honeymoon, "but will return on Sunday to act as attendants at the wedding of Miss Sylvia Fields and Jacques Ginsberg."

In the meantime, the family of Farron S. Betts occupied an apartment here.  He was the president of F. L. Schafuss Co., maker of greeting cards and postcards.  Living with the family was Betts' widowed mother-in-law, Alma E. Byxbee.  

When Betts sailed to Europe on business in July 1914, he took along his chauffeur, Ernst Theodor Edward Fischer.  The young man was the son of Brigadier General Carl Heinz Fischer of the German Army.  They were in England when war was declared and Fischer "was promptly taken into custody by agents of the British Secret Service," reported The New York Times.  He was held in prison for several weeks before Betts could get him released.  The article said the chauffeur pledged, "not to try to get back to Germany, but to return to the United States."  Betts and Fischer returned to New York.  However, like Hugo Schweitzer, the chauffeur "admits that he is anxious for the kaiser to win," reported The New York Times.

Nine months after the Fields sisters' weddings, on October 19, 1916 Jenesse Alma Betts was married to Ernst Theodor Eduard Fischer.  Alma E. Byxbee died in the Betts apartment at the age of 89 on February 18, 1918.  Her funeral was held in the parlor the following afternoon.

Once America entered World War I, Ernst Fischer's outspoken favoritism to the German cause could not be ignored.   On July 4, 1918, The New York Times reported that he had been arrested by agents of the Department of Justice.  Although he had not committed a crime, the Department said his family "is one of the best known fighting families in Germany."  Ernst Fischer was imprisoned as an enemy alien, "for the period of the war," said the article.

A war of a different type was playing out in the apartment of Edwin Clifford and Louise McCullough.  McCullough was the head of E. C. McCullough & Co., which imported cigars and tobacco from the Philippines.  He had a personal fortune of $2 million according to Louise (or about $23.7 million today).  Louise was, according to the New York Herald, "a musician of ability and a linguist, speaking German, French and Spanish, as well as English."

Clifford met Louise at her dancing school when she was 15 years old and he was 25.  They eloped on April 23, 1893 and had a son and daughter.  According to Louise, their marriage was happy until McCullough "began to tell her of his affairs with other women, wives of his social and business friends."  When he began coming home early in the morning three or four days at week, according to Louise, he said "he was entitled to live his life in his own way."

On June 27, 1920, Louise, her 15-year-old daughter, also named Louise, and a cousin, Edwin Elser, were riding in the McCullough's large touring car in Westchester County, driven by their chauffeur, Pietro Holanda.  The teen badgered her mother to allow her to drive and finally, after luncheon, she let Louise get behind the wheel.  The girl slammed the car into a tree on Pelham Parkway.  The crash killed the young driver and severely injured her mother and the other occupants.

Ten days after the accident, Louise was back home, incapacitated with two broken legs and other injuries.  Edwin walked out, telling her that she "could communicate with his stenographer."  He took their son with him.

The following year, on March 26, 1921, Louise began separation proceedings, charging Edwin with abandonment and "poisoning her son's mind" against her.  Edwin denied the charges, saying that his wife was "temperamental."  Louise was awarded alimony the following year.

On Christmas Eve 1921, Farron S. Betts was in his automobile in the Bronx (driven by his new chauffeur).  The New York Herald reported that Betts "felt a bump in the West Drive, and getting out to investigate found an unconscious man."  The victim was Edward McConnell, who lived at 54 West 98th Street.  Betts and his chauffeur lifted him into the automobile and took him to Reconstruction Hospital, "where it was said he had a fractured skull."  Both Betts and his driver insisted that they had not originally struck McCullough, but merely ran over him.

At the time, rents at 410 Riverside Drive ranged from $3,100 and $3,500 a year--equal to $4,000 to $4,500 per month today.

Among the residents during the Depression years were prominent attorney and railroad man Walter J. Bartnett and his wife, the former Frances G. Vaux.  Married in 1895, they had three daughters, one of whom, Joanne, who was unmarried, lived with them.  Born in California, Bartnett received his law degree from Hastings College of Law in 1890.  

Walter J. Bartnett in his younger years.  from the collection of the Western Pacific Railroad.

He organized the Western Pacific Railroad Company in 1903 and became its first president.  He organized the Central California Traction Company and built an interurban system between Sacramento and Stockton, California.  He was, as well, a founder of the World Federation League.

In 1941, the roof cresting had been removed.  Cast iron sconces with milk glass globes still illuminated the entrance area and the balconies were intact.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

An interesting resident at the time was Dr. Raphael Constantin, who lived here with his wife, Florence M.  Born in Armenia, Constantin received his medical degree in 1893 from the University of Edinburgh.  He came to America in 1902 and turned his focus from medicine to industry.  He became the president of the Obelisk Waterproofing Company, which waterproofed structures like the obelisk in Central Park, St. Paul's Chapel, and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park.  He was also highly involved in Armenian-American affairs and was president of the Armenia-American Society and the Constantinople Armenian Relief Society.

Millionaire Ida M. Valentine was a resident in the second half of the century.  Never married, like many wealthy employers, she developed a close connection with her loyal servants.  Upon her death on July 28, 1962, she bequeathed the bulk of her large estate to three charitable institutions.  But she did not forget her chauffeur of 23 years, Louis Reale.  Mr. Reale, who lived on West 191st Street, received "a tax-free bequest of $200,000," according to The New York Times, as well as "jewelry and personal property."  The cash inheritance would equal $2 million today.

image via streeteasy.com

By the mid-1980s, Columbia University had acquired 410 Riverside Drive as apartments for "postdocs, faculty and staff."  In 1999 the school restored the upper portion of the building, including the eye-catching gables.  Nina Siegal, writing in The New York Times on November 21, 1999, said, "The structure had needed repairs badly, and instead of just patching it up, the university hired a respected preservation firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates."  The architects used extant details to copy missing ornaments "and restore the roof to its original grandeur," according to Siegal.  It may have been during this renovation that the balconies were removed.

The Lost Mail and Express Building - 203 Broadway

The Mail and Express Building towered over the corner buildings.  Real Estate Record & Guide, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)

The Real Estate Record & Guide reported on February 15, 1890 that Carrère & Hastings was designing an L-shaped, eight-story office building at 203 Broadway and 164-168 Fulton Street.  The owner was millionaire banker and attorney Elliott Fitch Shepard whose wife, Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt, was the daughter of multi-millionaire William Henry Vanderbilt.  The article noted, "The publication and business offices of the Mail and Express will be on the lower floor...The site will be cleared for the new building in May next."

The Mail and Express was founded in 1867 as the New York Evening Mail.   Owner Cyrus West Field acquired the New York Evening Express in 1879, renaming the newspaper the Mail and Express.  Elliott F. Shepard purchased it from Field in 1888 for $425,000 (equal to about $14 million in 2024).

 

For the newspaper's headquarters, Carrère & Hastings used an iron skeleton, allowing the outer walls to be only 16-inches thick.  By the time ground was broken, the height had changed to nine stories.  As the foundation was being excavated, the architectural critic of Harper's Weekly commented on the plans in the October 11, 1890 issue.  Interestingly, he noted that the Broadway facade was "planned largely in accordance with the suggestions of Colonel Shepard, and will have some features peculiar to itself."  One of the "peculiar" features was the inclusion of Shepard's monogram.

On one side of the large circular window in the second story is the legend "A.D. 1890," and on the other side the letters "E.F.S."  Across the front, on one cornice, are carved "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," and "E. Pluribus Unum," and in the cornice of the other stories are worked the coats of arms of the States of the Union.

The critic called the architecture, "of the Italian Renaissance style."  And while the Fulton Street elevation was, for the most part, Renaissance Revival, the Broadway front was what today would be termed Beaux Arts.

Unfortunately, the Broadway cable railway was being excavated at the same time.  On July 4, 1891, Architecture and Building wrote, "Probably but few of our citizens are not seriously incommoded by the tearing up of Broadway...Still we cannot but sympathize with Architect John M. Carrère, who has found the work on the new Mail and Express building seriously impeded from the fact that the contractors now at work on the cable railroad or other works have torn up the street and built plank bridges, which are hardly strong enough to carry any heavy traffic, so that when a truck with material drives up it is unsafe for this truck to pass over or to stand on this bridge in order to have this material delivered." 

Despite the setbacks, the building was completed in 1892.  Barr Ferree, writing in Stone magazine, said Thomas Hastings was the lead architect.  He attributed the stark difference in the appearance of the two facades to the demands of Elliot F. Shepard.  The "richness" of the Broadway elevation, he explained, "was demanded by the gentlemen for whom the building was erected, and his architects, therefore, had no other choice than to follow his directions."

The two disparate facades annoyed the critic of The Engineering Magazine.  In June 1896, he wrote that the criticism of the building "has been based on the highly-enriched and narrow Broadway front."  On the other hand, he said, "the larger front on Fulton street is conceded to be one of the most notable successes in commercial architecture."

The Beaux Arts Broadway facade was contrasted with the more sedate Fulton Street side in Harper's Weekly on October 11, 1890 (copyright expired)

The up-to-the-date building was equipped with its own "electric and steam plant" in the cellar, and was supplied with Croton water.  Of the four elevators in the building, one was dedicated to Mail and Express employees.  The hallways throughout the building were wainscoted with marble.

The newspaper would occupy the first floor "and will be elegantly fitted up," said Harper's Weekly.  Included was a "commodious waiting-room for newsboys" outfitted with a drinking fountain.  Facing Broadway on the second floor were the private offices of Elliot Shepard.  

The eighth and ninth floors held the newspaper's editorial, composing and stereotyping departments, and the individual editors' offices.  The reporters and editors worked from the eighth floor, where a dedicated room held "all the bells, speaking-tubes, telephones, and the like."  There was also a library on that floor.  The composing room took up most of the top floor, partially illuminated by vast skylights.  "On the very top of the Broadway wing, where its odors cannot interfere with any one's olfactory sensibilities, is to be a kitchen, and under it, on the ninth floor, a restaurant, especially for the employés of the paper."  Elliot Shepard's private dining room was also on that floor.

Harper's Weekly pointed out a singular detail:

One of the noteworthy features of the building is to be the photograph-room, situated alongside the kitchen, at the very top of the building.  Here distinguished visitors may be captured by the camera, and their likenesses printed in the paper while they wait.

Although the building would fill, mostly, with attorneys and brokers, one of the first was unique.  The Bureau of Subscription for the World's Columbian Exposition operated from Room 304 in 1892.  On November 26, an advertisement in The New York Times announced that New Yorkers could obtain a "World's Fair Souvenir Coin For A Dollar" here.

French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi visited New York City in 1893.  The height of the skyscraper created the perfect vantage point to view his Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty.  On September 5, the New-York Tribune wrote, "M. Bartholdi took his first view of the statue yesterday from the top of 'The Mall and Express' building.  He was greatly pleased with the view of the bay and the position of honor and prominence which the Statue of Liberty occupies."

In 1894, the Ottoman Empire began a sweeping massacre of Armenians.  Regardless of age or sex, thousands of innocents were brutally butchered.  Before tapering off in 1897, an estimated 300,000 Armenians were slaughtered in what would be known as the Hamidian massacres.  New Yorkers responded and in 1895 the offices of the Armenian Relief Association opened here.  On the night of November 21, what The Sun said would be "one of the largest gatherings held in this country for protest against the Turkish atrocities" was held in Chickering Hall.  In reporting on the meeting, the newspaper said, "the names of well-known business men and clergymen who have taken up the cause of Armenia are pouring into the office of the association in the Mall and Express building."

Two months later, the association issued a bulletin "with the hope of arousing American sympathy," according to The New York Times on January 17, 1896.  It included a desperate cable from London from a missionary that said:

Armenia is at her last gasp.  The work of extermination continues.  The number of people massacred reaches 100,000, and half a million survivors have taken refuge in the forests and mountains, where they are feeding on herbs and roots.  Hunger and cold have begun to make great ravages among them.  In the name of humanity and Christianity, save us!

The Excise Board was faced with a puzzling predicament in March 1896.  Because the top floor restaurant served alcohol, it fell into the category of a saloon.  By law, no saloon could operate within 200 feet of a house of worship.  Directly across Fulton Street was St. Paul's Chapel.  On March 1, The Journal explained, "The question is raised as to how the 200-foot limit shall be measured...Shall the measurement be made as the snail crawls or as the swallow flies?"  It appears that the serving of wine with lunch was allowed to continue.

Both elevations can be seen in this 1902 photograph by Irving Underhill.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Elliot Fitch Shepard died on March 24, 1893.  The Mail and Express Building was inherited by his wife.  And so, when Susan Brady fell into the sidewalk coal hole on December 12, 1896, she sued Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard personally for $20,000 damages.  The weighty amount would translate to about $758,000 today.  It is unclear how the case was settled.

The "fireproof" quality of the building was first tested on January 23, 1901.  At 4:00 in the morning, John Hunt, a watchman, discovered fire on the ground floor.  He and the building's engineer went to the seventh floor, where the family of janitor James Draper lived.  The Evening World reported, "Mrs. Draper and her three children were seized with panic, but the janitor ordered them back to bed."

"'This is a fire-proof building,' he said, 'The fire will not burn beyond one floor.'"

As it turned out, Draper was correct.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The flames are said to have originated in the fileroom of 'The Mail and Express.'"  The burning paper created dense smoke that caused firefighters "great difficulty in getting at the fire."  

James Draper had an opinion as to the cause, telling reporters, "the building is infested with rats, which may have caused the fire by gnawing matches."  The fire was extinguished after doing only about $1,500 in damage.

The fireproof qualities would be put to the test again three years later.  On December 11, 1904, a phone call from Police Headquarters notified the New York City News Association on the second floor that the fire department was on the way.  That the building was on fire was news to the person who answered the phone.  It had broken out in the seventh-floor offices of advertising agent J. M. Pearsall.  The New York Times reported, "The firemen kept the flames right there and the big water tower out in Broadway didn't have to lend a hand."  The article added, A dozen compositors who were at work in the offices of The Evening Mall scurried out to the street when the engines arrived.  They soon went back again, however."

On February 5, 1916, the Record & Guide reported that the American Telephone & Telegraph Company had purchased the Mail and Express Building from the Shepard Estate.  The journal said acquisition was to "protect the light and air of the new twenty-eight-story" Western Union building the buyers had just completed.  The Evening Post was not so sure.  On the same day, the newspaper opined, "as the telegraph and telephone business is growing in leaps and bounds, the acquisition was doubtless made primarily to provide room for extending the recently completed skyscraper."

Indeed, the Mail and Express Building was soon razed for an seamless extension of the Western Union Building, designed by William W. Bosworth.

The corner addition on the site of the Mail and Express Building, completed in 1922, it nearly seamless.  photo by Jim Henderson

The John Scott Boyd House - 336 West 23rd Street

 

In the 1850s, elegant homes were being erected along the block of West 23rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.  Among them was 336 West 23rd Street, completed around 1855.  It was home that year to John Scott Boyd and his wife, the former Sarah Anna Root.

Like similar homes along the block, the Italianate style Boyd residence was three stories tall above a high English basement.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, its double-doored entrance sat above a high stone stoop.  Its floor-to-ceiling parlor windows were most likely fronted by a cast iron balcony.

John and Sarah were born in Albany in 1820 and 1821, respectively, and were married there on June 23, 1851.  They had two sons in 1855--Robert Lyman, who was two years old, and John Scott, who was one.  The following year Marie Scott was born, and Allan Stuart Boyd would arrive in 1860.

John's grandfather, James Boyd, had founded the Albany Brewing Company in 1796.  In 1850, when he and his brother David I. Boyd took over the business, it became Boyd Brothers & Company.  The 1886 History of Albany and Schenectady Counties N.Y. said, "Their products are shipped through the New England States and to New York City, in which they have a depot on West Street."  John relocated to New York City in 1844 to oversee that end of the business.  

The wealthy brewer was visible within Manhattan's commercial circles.  He was elected to the Chamber of Commerce in 1865 and by 1869 sat on the board of the Electric Life Assurance Society.  The Boyds were interested in the conditions of the less fortunate, as well, and were members of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor and of the American Home Missionary Society.  His social standing was evidenced in his membership in the exclusive Union League Club.

The Boyds moved to 28 West 38th Street around 1874.  The West 23rd Street house became home to Cuban-born attorney Don Antonio Fernandez de Avis y Bramosio.  Born in 1827, he had "ranked very high in his profession as an advocate in Havana," according to The New York Times, and had been a member of the Havana City Council.  But following the Cuban uprising of 1868, the Government ordered his arrest for treason because of his support of the rebels.  He escaped to the United States, after which he was condemned to death in Cuba.

A widower, the exiled attorney became a citizen of the United States, and on April 25, 1876 married Maria Dolores Francisca de Asís Agramonte y Zayas-Zamudio. The groom was 49 and his bride was 22. The couple had a strong connection with the ongoing rebellion at home. The New York Times said Dolores (who "is reputed to be quite young and very beautiful") was "a relative of the family of Agramontes who so especially signalized themselves in the Cuban struggle for freedom."

Don Antonio died in the spring of 1878.  The New York Times reported that he "was reputed to be worth about $1,000,000 at the time of his death."  Of his massive estate, equal to about $31.5 million in 2024, Dolores received the house and "the jewels, furniture and ornaments" in her use, plus $40,000 (about $1.25 million today).  On July 16, 1879, six properties from the estate were sold, including 336 West 23rd Street.

The house was purchased by journalist Edward Jones Hale and his wife, the former Sarah Jane Walker.  The Southerner was born on his father's plantation in Chatham County, North Carolina in 1802.  His mother died when he was seven and his father when he was nine.  He became the ward of his namesake Colonel Edward Jones.

Privately tutored, he showed remarkable literary talents as a boy.  In 1825, at the age of 23, he purchased the Carolina Observer, renamed it the Fayetteville Observer, and was on his way "to amassing a considerable fortune," according to the Biographical History of North Carolina decades later in 1917.  On May 24, 1828, he and Sarah were married.

Edward Jones Hale.  Biographical History of North Carolina, 1917 (copyright expired)

Hale was an ardent Confederate and his newspaper became a target of General William T. Sherman, who ordered it destroyed.  The Biographical History of North Carolina noted, "The last issue of the paper was printed while the Confederates were retreating through the town and copies were handed to the soldiers as they passed by."  The Union Army burned the Fayetteville Observer building to the ground.  Hale, who had converted his fortune into Confederate bonds, "was left with only his honor and his loyalty."

In 1866, Hale and his family moved to New York City and began anew, opening a printing business, E. J. Hale & Sons.  Still loyal to his roots, Hale's firm specialized in printing works by Southern authors targeted to Southern audiences.

Hale died in the 23rd Street house at the age of 80 on New Year's Day 1883.  His funeral was held in the parlor on January 4.  While the New York Evening Post, apparently willing to forgive his rebellious background, listed many of the distinguished mourners, The New York Times said merely, "There were many floral offerings."

An auction of the Hale furnishings was held on March 25.  The announcement provided a glimpse into the Hales' high-end Victorian home.  It listed, "a fine rosewood piano, valuable oil paintings, engravings, marble and Parian figures, four pier mirrors," and such.

Frank Seely, a wealthy real estate developer, and his wife, the former Hattie Boggs, purchased the house in September 1890.  Hattie seems to have been more involved in society than her predecessors had been.  On February 14, 1892, for instance, the New York Herald reported, "Mrs. F. Seeley, of No. 336 West Twenty-third, will give a large dance Thursday evening, February 18."

Like their neighbors, the Seelys maintained a household staff.  On April 17, 1910, Hattie advertised in The New York Times, "Chambermaid, &c.--Protestant white girl as chambermaid and waitress in small private family; best references required."  (Chambermaids had the often unpleasant duties of housework while waitresses served in the drawing and dining rooms.  Hattie's combining of the two job descriptions revealed that the Seelys were either a step below the wealthiest families or carefully parsimonious.)  The following year she was looking for a new cook.  "Protestant white woman as good plain cook in small private family; must be very neat."

Isabella Elsuer, a nurse, lived with the family in 1913.  That year, on February 3, she dropped into St. Vincent de Paul's Church on 23rd Street near Sixth Avenue.  While she knelt in prayer, John Grahn snatched her purse.  He was quickly caught and explained, according to The New York Times, "that he had been cold and hungry and had stepped into the church to be out of the rain."  Because Isabella Elsuer refused to appear against him in court, he could not be convicted of robbery.  Nevertheless, he was sent to the workhouse for six months on a charge of disorderly conduct.

John Seely died on May 21, 1916.  His funeral, which was private, was held in the house on the evening of the 23rd.

The house was next home to Charles C. and Hattie Klingelhoffer.  Charles was a founder of the New York Athletic Club and a retired manufacturer of carbonated beverages.  He died on August 10, 1933, leaving Hattie with an estate of $1,328,670, according to The New York Sun.  The figure would translate to $30.2 million today.

On November 2, 1940, The New York Times reported, "J. Malloy & Sons [sic], funeral directors, who have been in the Chelsea section for more than seventy-five years, bought from Lulu Seymour the four-story building at 336 West Twenty-third Street."  The lower two floors of the house were converted for the Molloy Funeral Chapel.  The stoop had already been removed for the proposed widening of West 23rd Street.  A stained glass window was now installed where the former doorway had been.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The following year Molloy Funeral Home expanded into the former bank next door at 338 West 23rd Street.  It was taken over by the Horne-Dannecker Funeral home in 1957, which remained at least through 1999.

The second floor stained glass window is evident in this 1983 photograph.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A remarkable renovation-restoration, completed in 2011, brought 336 West 23rd Street back to its 1855 appearance.  The stoop, entrance and the window cornices were refabricated, including period appropriate Italianate iron stoop railings and newels.  It is a two-family residence today.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for requesting this post

photographs by the author

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

The Lost Maunsell Van Rensselaer House - 22-24 St. Nicholas Place

 

The two houses were masterfully disguised as one.  Magazine of American History, January 1889 (copyright expired)

Before leaving Holland, Kiliean van Rensselaer was a wealthy pearl and diamond merchant in Amsterdam, and a founder and director of the Dutch West India Company.  His estate near today's Albany was named Crailo, a reference to his estate in Hulzen, Holland.  Van Rensselaer died in 1643, and his descendants would be among the wealthiest and most powerful figures in American history.

Perhaps not so powerful, but certainly wealthy, was Maunsell Van Rensselaer.  Born in Albany, New York on April 15, 1819, he was the son of Judge John S. Van Rensselaer.  He graduated from Union College in 1838, and from the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in 1841, becoming a deacon in the prestigious St. Paul's Chapel.  Over the succeeding years he would hold the positions of president of De Veaux College, New York, president of Hobart College in Geneva, New York, and, in 1886, the chaplain of the House of the Holy Comforter.  Van Rensselaer and his wife, the former Sarah Ann Taylor, had four children: Caroline Matilda, Maunsell Jr., James Taylor, and Bernard Sanders. 

Rev. Maunsell van Rensselaer, from the collection of De Veaux College

In the second half of the 19th century, the district of northern Manhattan which would become known as Sugar Hill was expected by many to be the city's next exclusive residential neighborhood.  Both freestanding residences and rowhouses rose throughout the 1880's which would house well-to-do families.   Maunsell Van Rensselaer had inherited a large swatch of land, originally acquired by his famous great-grandfather, John Watkins.  In his 1888 Annals of the Van Rensselaers, Maunsell recounted that Watkins:

...bought land on Harlem Heights, overlooking the Hudson and Harlem river, where he established his family in a dwelling which stood on the Kingsbridge road at what is now the corner of Avenue St. Nicholas and 152d street, which was destroyed by fire only a few years ago.  This was the ground on which was fought September 16, 1776, the battle of Harlem Heights, in which Washington was successful.

Were it not for the fire that destroyed it, Van Rensselaer may very well have moved his family into his ancestral country home.  In 1885 he began construction of a 100-foot-wide "double-residence" at 22 and 24 St. Nicholas Place, a block from the former Watkins house site.  Completed the following year, the exuberant Queen Anne style structure exploded in turrets, gables, and balconies.  Understated porches on either side disguised the fact that this was not a single mansion, but two.  The expansive rear yards extended to Edgecombe Avenue.  Rev. Van Rensselaer, Sarah and their unmarried children, Caroline and James, moved into 24 St. Nicholas Place (Bernard Sanders Van Rensselaer had died in 1870), while Maunsell Jr. and his wife, the former Isabella Mason, took the southern house.

The northern house, seen from his angle, was home to Rev. Van Rensselaer and his family.  (original source unknown)

The younger Maunsell Van Rensselaer was president of the Munich Co., and a member of the Volunteer Seventh Regiment.  (The Seventh Regiment was known popularly as "The Silk Stocking Regiment" or "The Dandy Seventh" because it was the favorite of the sons of the upper class.)  The year after he moved into his new home, on March 31, 1887, the Albany Express reported that he had been promoted to the rank of captain.

It may have been the Rev. Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer's failing health the prompted the families to dispose of the St. Nicholas Place houses.  They were auctioned on April 4, 1899 and Rev. Van Rensselaer and Sarah moved to Lakewood, New Jersey.  It was there that Van Rensselaer died on February 17, 1900 at the age of 80.  

The St. Nicholas Place property had been purchased by Mabel Suydam, who quickly resold it to Mary F. Lawrie in December 1900.  She operated The Audubon School from the houses, described in an advertisement as a "Boarding and Day School for Girls."  

The venture does not seem to have gone well, however.  On January 6, 1903 the New-York Tribune reported that "Nos. 22 and 24 St. Nicholas Place, two dwelling houses," had been sold, adding, "The buyer is a realty company."  Despite the still-upscale neighborhood, the double structure languished.  They were sitting vacant when Anna G. Mullen purchased them on July 1, 1904.   She quickly resold them to James Murray and Robert Hill.  Having only stood twenty years, the partners demolished the Van Rensselaer houses and hired architect Joseph C. Cocker to design two identical neo-Classical apartment buildings on the site, which survive.

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The Mark J. King House - 50 West 22nd Street

 

An outdoor dining shed currently obscures the extant stoop of 50 West 22nd Street.

In 1850, two decades after Henry Brevoort, Jr. erected the first mansion on Fifth Avenue, grand homes had spread northward as far as 23^rd Street.   The development of the retail shopping district along Sixth Avenue, known as the Ladies’ Mile, would not be in full swing for years.  And so, the blocks between Fifth and Sixth Avenues took on an elegant residential nature.

That year developer John Latson erected a row of carbon copy brownstone-fronted residences on the south side of West 22nd Street.  Each twenty-three feet wide and three stories tall above a English basements, their Italianate elements included handsome stone entrances with carved pilasters and dentiled cornices, heavy iron stoop railings and fencing, and unassuming bracketed cornices.

Among the row was 50 West 22nd Street, described in an advertisement in February 1855 as "The medium sized three story stone front House...containing all the modern improvements and conveniences."  Among those conveniences was indoor running water, made possible by the opening of mains from the Croton Reservoir in 1842.

The house became home to the Mark J. King family in 1861.  King was the principal in Mark J. King & Co., a retail furrier at 62 Broadway.  He and his wife, Sarah, had two sons.  Initially living with the family was Mrs. Ella Hall.

They had barely gotten settled when youthful burglars broke in.  On the night of February 23, 1861, Police Officer O'Connor saw "three lads, named Patrick Farrell, Michael Farrell and Patrick McDonnell," carrying a mantel clock.  The New York Times reported, "believing they had stolen it, he arrested them."  The boys languished in jail for three days until Mrs. Hall appeared to report the burglary.  They had not only stolen the mantel clock, but "sawed off the water-pipes and did other damage."

The three Irish boys confessed to the crime, "stating that they had entered the building by sliding down the coal-hole, not to steal but merely to have a slide for the fun of it."  Once in the coal cellar, they could not escape without going upstairs.  "Then they found the clock and took it away," they explained.

The King boys were teenagers when the Civil War broke out.  On July 11, 1863 the nation’s first attempt at a military draft played out in New York with a lottery, but newspapers explained "Isaac M. King and H. King were disposed from the draft as being under age."  In fact, few sons of wealthy families were inducted, their parents having bought exemptions or used their political power to circumvent the draft.  It resulted in the infamous Draft Riots, a three-day reign of terror and carnage unlike anything seen in the country before.  That the King boys were truly ineligible for the draft is questionable, given that shortly afterward King changed the name of his firm to Mark J. King & Sons.

King had renamed the firm and moved further up Broadway by 1866.  New York Dispatch, December 30, 1866.

Mark J. King died in 1866.  Sarah and Isaac lived on in the house until 1869.  Isaac had decided not to continue in the fur business, and in 1868 was listed as Dr. Isaac M. King.  

Another physician, Josiah Clark Nott, next occupied 50 West 22nd Street.  Born in 1804 in South Carolina, he was the son of politician and judge, Abraham Nott.  After receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1827, he further studied medicine in Paris.  A esteemed surgeon, Nott is listed at the address in 1869.  He is best remembered for his studies into the origins of malaria and yellow fever (he was the first to suggest the mosquito was responsible for spreading the diseases), and for his racist theories.  A slave owner prior to the end of the Civil War, he wrote in 1847 that "the negro achieves his greatest perfection, physical and moral, and also greatest longevity, in a state of slavery."

Dr. Josiah Clarke Nott, from the collection of the Alabama Department of Archives and History

Nott was still listed at the West 22nd Street address when he died on March 31, 1873.  His body was returned to Mobile, Alabama.

The house was next home to Rev. James Mulchaney, a minister with St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel on Broadway at Fulton Street.  Mulchaney was a prolific author whose works include The Inspiration of History, The Witness of the Church to Christian Faith, and Christianity in the Daily Conduct of Life.

The Mulchahey's son, John Henshaw Mulchaney graduated from Columbia University in 1879 and the following year the family left 50 West 22nd Street.  By then the commercial tone of Sixth Avenue had begun spilling over to the side street.

In 1888 Ella Hoyt purchased the house and opened Miss Hoyt's Dance School.  Her advertisement that year promised "Strictly private lessons daily; classes for adults and children's private classes; special terms; all dances carefully taught."  It was most likely Ella Hoyt who converted the basement and parlor level for commercial purposes by installing storefronts.

Andrew J. Graham was the inventor of Graham's Standard Phonography, a method of shorthand writing based on sound.  He was, as well, the editor and publisher of The Student's Journal, affiliated with his process.  In its November 1890 issue Graham wrote:

We have opened at 50 West 22nd Street...a school of Standard Phonography and typewriting, where we can accommodate a large number of pupils...The school is on the first floor, and is thoroughly lighted and ventilated with windows and a large skylight.  The location is one of the finest in the city, and being so accessible, must be a popular one for all pupils, especially ladies.

St. Nicholas magazine, June 1891 (copyright expired)

The former residence would have a wide variety of commercial tenants.  In 1891 Emily M. Coe operated the American Kindergarten Normal School, here, and the millinery store of Sunderland & Son, importers of ladies hats was in the building.

By the end of 1899, Higgens & Seiter occupied space in 50 West 22nd, as well as in 52 and 54.  The firm dealt in "fine china [and] rich cut glass."  The company was joined in the building by G. F. Conlon, "practical furrier," the following year, and by the furniture store of Cowperthwait & Co. in 1901.  G. F. Conlon advertised, "the repairing and altering of seal garments and fine furs a specialty."

A surprising tenant in 1902 was the Koch Lung Institute, run by Drs. Edward Koch and Frank A. Bigelow.  The facility promised to cure asthma and consumption (the then-common term for pulmonary tuberculosis) through "The Koch Lung Inhalations."  The public may have first become suspicious when Bigelow was sued in July 1903 by the widow of Thomas H. Collie.  On July 22 the New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. Collie told the magistrate that her husband began taking the Koch lung cure on March 1, and had been paying for medicine and treatment, which, she said, did him no good.  She also told the court that Dr. Bigelow had not been near her husband for a month before he died."

Higgins & Seiter, described by Recreation magazine in 1903 as offering "the most complete and extensive stock of fine cut glass and china ware in the world," remained at 50 West 22nd Street through 1912.  Most of the interior remnants of the once-refined residence were erased in 1917 when owner Henry Stein made renovations.  Upon completion, the Department of Building noted the structure was to be "occupied as tenant factory with not more than 22 persons employed above the first story at any one time."

The post-World War I years saw tenants like F. J. Bernard & Co., jewelers, the International Trimming Co., and King & Reissman, Inc. dealers in sewing machines.

Woolen & Worsted Piece Goods Houses, 1920 (copyright expired)

The building was sold in 1941, described as having "a double store on the street floor with lofts above."  By 1945, the Metropolitan Mechanical Display Co. was in the building.  The firm manufactured the motorized department store figures especially in demand at Christmas.  It would remain in the building at least through 1964.

The New York PM Daily labeled this drawing of the Metropolitan Mechanical Display Company's shop "Santa and satellites in the making" in December 1945.

The owner of the building in the 1950's was Jacques Gadiel.  Born in Germany in 1906, his dramatic, years-long escape from the Nazi regime had culminated with his arrival in New York in April 1941.  Gadiel established Cameo Novelty which originally manufactured large plastic buttons and shoulder padding, then transitioned to making the brass fastenings for women's handbags.

Gadiel's son, Peter, recently recalled his visits to the building in the 1950's:

The stoop on the east side of the building front led to the main entrance door, behind which was a small vestibule with stairs straight ahead that led up to the main floor.  At the top of the stairs was a statuary niche...Behind the offices and separated from them by a wooden wall were large power metal stamping presses producing the brass parts used in the handbag “turnlocks.”  On the floor above were smaller foot powered presses used in assembly. Other than the wall enclosing the offices there were no other interior walls. 

Change in the neighborhood was evident in the last decade of the 20th century.  In 1990 the Swiss Sun Tanning Salon, one of four in the city, occupied space; and in 1995 the upper portion of the building was converted to apartments--one each per floor.

A subsequent renovation, completed in 2008, resulted in an eating and drinking establishment in the basement level.  It is home today to BXL Zoute, a Belgian pub.  (BXL is the airport code for Brussels, and Zoute is a high-end neighborhood on the North Sea.)  On June 12, 2018 The New York Times called BXL Zoute "a home base during major [soccer] tournaments for fans of all stripes, not just those of the Red Devils."

photos by the author

many thanks to Peter Gadiel for suggesting this post

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