The 1940 Lindley House - 123 East 37th Street

 

image via streeteasy.com

On December 21, 1937, The New York Sun reported that the newly-formed 37th Street & Lexington Avenue Corporation had purchased "the three four-story houses at 296 to 300 Lexington avenue, northwest corner of Thirty-seventh Street, and the five-story house adjoining at 123 East Thirty-seventh Street."  The firm would add to these initial holdings before hiring H. I. Feldman to design a modern apartment building on the site.

Born in Chelzetz, Austria (now part of Poland) in 1896, Hyman Isaac Feldman, who went professionally by his first two initials, established his architectural practice in 1921.  During the next two decades, he focused much of his work on designing Art Deco style apartment houses in Brooklyn and along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.  He would eventually design 2,500 apartment houses in the New York metropolitan area.

The jazzy Art Deco style that gave Feldman his start was no longer current.  His design for the Lindley House is more accurately termed Art Moderne, yet it strongly anticipates the mid-century modern style.  Face in red brick, it rose stoically to a series of setbacks where the central section was beveled at a 45-degree angle, a trademark of Feldman's designs.  The architect gave the ground floor a neo-Federal touch by creating incised lines that suggested pilasters, and placing a cast concrete fan over the window above the entrance.

image via CityRealty.com

The Lindley House cost $500,000 to erect, or around $10.5 million in 2024.  There were seven apartments per floor through the 11th floor, five each on floors 12 through 14, and three on the penthouse level.  An advertisement in September 1940 read, "Just completed.  Drop living rooms, dining galleries, powder rooms.  Free gas.  Muzak.  Maid-valet service available."  Rents for two- or three-room apartments ranged from $67.50 to $135 (about $2,820 per month for the more expensive by today's standards).

photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The Lindley House filled with a wide variety of residents.  Among the first was Herbert R. Ekins, cable editor for the United Press Association.  Several early renters were in the military military or recently retired.  Among them were Lieutenant William R. Ross of the U.S. Navy, Commander Jacques E. Ledure, and Captain James F. Gorman.

Captain John W. Renchard was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey on March 15, 1941 when he was married to Mary Lisa.  Renchard had graduated from Princeton University in 1928 and received a law degree from St. Lawrence University in 1937.  In reporting their marriage, the Daily Argus mentioned, "The couple will reside at 123 East 37th Street, New York City."

Two weeks earlier, a tragedy affected one family here.  Arthur Knox, Jr., who was in the insurance business, married Jane Elizabeth Hubbard in 1939.  He had graduated from the esteemed Phillips-Exeter Academy, and from Princeton University in 1931.  Jane was a graduate of St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, Connecticut.

In February 1941, Jane and her mother, Mrs. Giles Monro Hubbard, left on a road trip to Florida.  Near Jacksonville, North Carolina, they were involved in an accident and Jane Knox, who was 35 years old, was killed.  Mrs. Hubbard "suffered minor injuries," according to the Daily Argus.

Occupying one of the three-room penthouse apartments in 1949 was Jacqueline Coover Butcher.  Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1916, the Waterloo Daily Courier said her "beautiful silver-blonde hair" had "started her on the road to fame and fortune."  Butcher went to Los Angeles to launch a motion picture career.  She married an advertising executive there and her future looked bright.  The Waterloo Daily Courier said, "The screen and the stage both wanted her then for her beauty and her dancing ability."

Then, in 1938, Butcher went back to Sioux City to visit her parents.  "There was an auto accident that scarred her nose and kept her in bed for a year," said the article.  "Plastic surgeons fixed it, but never good enough for the movies."  To made matters worse, her husband divorced her soon afterward.

Jacqueline came to New York, rented the apartment in the Lindley House, and, according to the Waterloo Daily Courier, "did her own [hair] styling and her own modelling and made money.  She had a wide circle of friends as any lovely, 33-year-old divorcee, can have in New York."  Butcher was said by her friends to be "an alternately moody and life-of-the-party girl."  

On April 13, 1949, she decided to dye her silver-blonde hair red.  According to friends, the results severely disappointed her.  That night she had a dinner date with Norman J. Edelmann, the New York publicist she had been seeing for about a year and a half.  She left early, saying she did not feel well.  

For the next two days, Edelmann phoned and knocked on Jacqueline's door, getting no answer.  Finally, on the night of April 15, he tried the doorknob and found the door unlocked.  "He found Jacqueline dead in a clothes closet, half sitting, half hanging from a rope noosed around her neck," reported the Waterloo Daily Courier.

The sunken living room of an apartment in 1940.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

 Another actress-model, Bonnie Louise Jones, moved in following her marriage to John A. Lucchese in December 1957.  Bonnie Jones worked for the Emily Brooks Agency, and The Courier of Clinton, New York said "She has appeared on television several times and has been seen on the Jackie Gleason Show, Dave Garroway's program and the Arthur Murray Show."  Lucchese was an attorney, having earned his law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

Living here at the same time was actress Charlotte Manson and her husband, singer Dick Brown.  Although Charlotte had appeared on Broadway, her success was on radio.  She had repeated roles in radio shows like Guiding Light and Nick Carter, Master Detective, and was active in commercials.  Like Bonnie Louise Jones, she also appeared on television.  According to the Long Island Star-Journal, "Miss Manson has been seen on TV in the Jackie Gleason Show and as a replacement for Bess Myerson and Betty Furness."

Charlotte Manson as Patsy with Leon Clark as Nick Carter in the 1946 radio program Nick Carter, Master Detective.  image via Mutual Broadcasting System.

On September 7, 1957, the Long Island Star-Journal reported, "Charlotte Manson, 33, radio and TV actress, remained in critical condition today in Bellevue Hospital after taking what police described as an apparent overdose of sleeping pills.  The pretty brunette was found in a coma yesterday by her mother at the actress' four room Manhattan apartment at 123 East 37th street."  After surviving what was apparently an accidental overdose, Manson suffered another serious accident almost exactly one year later.

On September 14, 1958, the actress fell down a flight of steps, fracturing her neck and paralyzing her.  Doctors told her she would never walk again.   

But five months later, on February 27, 1959, The Miami News titled an article "Radio Actress On Road Back / 'I Won't Be An Invalid,' Says Charlotte Manson."  The article explained, "Charlotte is a determined, confident fighter.  She is also an athlete.  She was a member of the Junior Olympics when she was a child and she is a competent horsewoman."  Doctors in Manhattan called her recovery "a medical miracle."  Manson and her mother had arrived in Miami so she could do "therapeutic" swimming."  The article ended saying, "After recuperative works in Miami she will return to New York, television and the stage.  Charlotte Monson doesn't know the meaning of the word quit."

The Lindley House continued to be home to professionals like Paul Barry Owen, a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  After having been vice president in charge of real estate at the Dry Dock Savings Institution, he became head of the mortgage department of real estate firm Cross & Brown Co.  Owen died in his apartment at the age of 79 on March 22, 1971.

As Valentine's Day approached in 2010, readers wrote to The New York Times with their romantic memories.  Susan Dominus recalled that her apartment here while in her 20s was that of a "late-20th-century struggling bachelorette."  But the lobby, she said, was much different.

But the Murray Hill building that housed that apartment, grandly called Lindley House, was a prewar beauty, with a lobby of dark burnished wood and gleaming floors.  I liked first dates to meet me in that perfectly polished space, where they would make conversation with the doormen, who seemed to function at such moments as surrogate fathers.

Inside that lobby, all was hopeful possibility; pure, even glamorous in the ways of old New York.  Outside it, the unpredictable roller coaster of modern dating began.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

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

The Russell C. Leffingwell Mansion - 38-40 East 69th Street

By the time Russell Cornell Leffingwell purchased 38 East 69th Street in 1927, the 49-year-old attorney had made a name for himself in both the financial and legal communities.  In 1917, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.  In reporting on the appointment, The New York Times said, "Mr. Leffingwell is well known as a finance lawyer, and has for several years been a member of the firm of Cravath & Henderson."  Leffingwell presided over the sale of Liberty Bonds, and The New York Times said, "He has given his services without compensation, and has lived almost night and day in the Treasury Building since he took up the work on the loans."

Russell Cornell Leffingwell, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Leffingwell married Luchen (known as Lucy) Hewitt in 1906.  The following year their daughter Lucy was born.  After World War I, he brought his family back to New York City and in 1923 was made a partner in the banking firm J. P. Morgan & Co.

The high-stooped brownstone on East 69th Street that Leffingwell purchased in April 1927 was one of seven identical rowhouses built around 1875.  Noting that the vintage house "is in the vicinity of many fine residences," The New York Times said he bought it "as a site for improvement with his new home...Construction of Mr. Leffingwell's new residence will be started immediately."

Those plans soon changed.  Leffingwell purchased the house next door at 40 East 69th Street and, rather than demolish the four-story residences as originally reported, he hired architect Edward Shepard Hewitt to combine and remodel them.  The entry to No. 38 was closed and an elegant, split staircase replaced the stoop of No. 40 and a handsome neo-Georgian entrance installed.  Interestingly, Hewitt made few other changes to the facade.  The lintels of the first through third floor windows were shaved flat, replaced by prim keystones.  Round-arched openings replaced the originals on the fourth floor, and an impassive parapet took the place of a cornice.

The neo-Georgian doorway was a mere hint of the interiors.  Hewitt lavished the rooms with details inspired by 18th century English architecture, including delicate plaster Adam-style ceilings.

Georgian doorways flanked the marble-tiled entrance hall.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Lucy had been introduced to society while an undergraduate at Vassar College in 1926.  The family had just moved into the East 69th Street mansion when her parents announced her engagement to Thomas John Edward Pulling on January 15, 1928.  

The Library.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

The Leffingwell's 116-acre country estate was Redcote at Oyster Bay, Long Island.  Its picturesque main house was originally a 19th-century farmhouse.

Lucy's wedding took place at St. John's Episcopal Church in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island on June 23, 1928.  The New York Times reported, "Following the ceremony at the church there was a reception at the home of the bride's parents on Yellow Cote Road."

Two views of the dining room, with its exquisite Adam style ceiling.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

At the time of Lucy's wedding, in addition to his partnership in J. P. Morgan & Co., Russell Leffingwell was a director of seven corporations and a trustee of Vassar College.  Now empty-nesters, Russell and Lucy remained socially visible.  On June 3, 1930, for instance, the New York Evening Post noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Russell C. Leffingwell are at the Westbury before going to Oyster Bay," and four months later on October 22, the newspaper reported the Leffingwells "who had an apartment at the Claridge during their stay in London, are returning today on the Olympic and will go to...38 East Sixty-ninth Street.  They will be among those entertaining at the opera Monday night."

On December 14, 1931, the New York Evening Post ran a long article about the many entertainments surrounding the debut of Helen Batcheller.  It said in part, "Miss Batcheller was a guest of honor at a large dinner her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Russell C. Leffingwell. gave at their home, 38 East Sixty-ninth Street, before the first Junior Assembly." 

Two years later, on September 24, 1933, The New York Times began an article saying, "A plot to kidnap a niece of Russell C. Leffingwell, a partner of J. P. Morgan and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, was frustrated yesterday by Department of Justice agents and the police of Yonkers, N. Y."  As Helen Batcheller's wedding to John K. Dougherty neared, her parents received letters that threatened "to abduct her and blow up the Batcheller home unless they received $190,000 to insure her safety."

The terror threat derailed the recent debutante's plans for a society wedding.  "On Sept. 13, however, Miss Batcheller and Mr. Doughtery were married quietly at her home, with agents of the Department of Justice as the only witnesses except members of the immediate family."  About a week later, the blackmailers arranged a drop-off point for the money.  Helen's father deposited the package behind a billboard in Yonkers.  Not surprisingly, when a woman retrieved it later, she was arrested, leading to the capture of the other conspirators.

Two views of the living room.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

During the Great Depression and World War II, Leffington was consulted about the economy and was supportive of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's taking the country off the gold standard.  He told a meeting of the Academy of Political Science in 1934, "When the horrible cycle of deflation began to revolve toward the abyss, the only hope for humanity was to stop gold payments, to go off gold...Cheap money opens the door to recover."

Lucy did her part on the social side.  On February 2, 1942, The New York Sun reported, "Mrs. Russell Leffingwell will give a luncheon tomorrow at her home, 38 East 69th street, for members of the executive committee of the Women's Council of the Community Service Society.  Mrs. Leffingwell's husband is an honorary vice-president of the society."

In 1948, Russell Leffingwell was made chairman of the board of J. P. Morgan & Co.  Although he retired in 1955, he remained on the board as a director.

The Blue Room contained colonial furniture.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

In February 1959, Lucy suffered a heart attack.  It was followed by pleurisy and pneumonia, and she died at the age of 78 in the East 69th Street mansion on February 8.  In reporting her death, The New York Times recalled that she "had been active in the Charity Organization and Community Service Societies and, during World War II, in the work of the Lenox Hill Hospital."

The following year, on October 2, 1960, Russell Cornell Leffingwell died at the age of 82.  His decades of accomplishments filled columns in newspapers like The New York Times that reported his death.

In 1966 the Leffingwell mansion was converted to doctors' offices in the basement and two duplex residences on the upper floors.  A subsequent renovation, completed in 1970, resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels, and a triplex on the top floors.

photographs by the author

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

Rouse & Goldstone's 1914 755 Park Avenue

 

In 1913 the architectural firm of Rouse & Goldstone, composed of W. L. Rouse and L. A. Goldstone, designed an upscale, 13-story apartment building for the E. A. L. Holding Co. on the southeast corner of Park Avenue and 72nd Street.  Anchored by a granite water table, the limestone base was nearly unadorned, other than the entrance on the side street (which, nevertheless, took the more impressive 755 Park Avenue address).

The double-doored entrance and fanlight sat within a frame of  rusticated, radiating stone voussoirs.  Rouse & Goldstone used intermediate cornices to break the mass of the structure into four parts.  Renaissance elements--stone balconies, balustrades and arched pediments, for instance--gave the building the dignified look of a larger-than-life Italian palazzo.

Completed in 1914, 755 Park Avenue was marketed as the "new fireproof apartment house, situated in [a] most exclusive neighborhood."  An advertisement in The New York Times on August 16 boasted, "Splendidly finished and appointed.  All light rooms--beautiful outlook--a locality restricted to homes of the most distinguished character."  Rents for the suites of nine or eleven rooms with three baths ranged from $3,500 to $5,500 (a significant $13,800 per month by 2024 conversion for the most expensive).  

The costly rents did not deter prospective tenants.  On May 21, 1914, months before the building was completed, The New York Times reported on the leases being signed.  One apartment was taken by Robert L. Bacon "of Kissell, Kinnicut & Co., son of Hon. Robert Bacon, ex-Ambassador to France.  Also, an apartment of eleven rooms and three baths in the same building to Waldo H. Marshall, President of the American Locomotive Company."  Two months later, on July 6, The Evening Post reported that "two large adjoining apartments in the new building under construction at 755 Park Avenue" had been leased "to Watson H. Butler and his mother, Mrs. E. H. Butler, at the total rental of about $25,000."  (That figure would translate to $755,000 today.)

Among the other initial residents were Julius P. Meyer, former assistant general director of the Hamburg American Line, and Frederick W. and Harriet Woerz.  Woertz was president of the Beadelston & Woerz Empire Brewery, co-founded by his father in 1878.  Shortly after the couple moved in, Ernest G. Woerz died on May 10, 1916, leaving the equivalent of $22 million today to Frederick.  The couple's country home was in Greenwich, Connecticut.

At least two residents of 755 Park Avenue fought overseas during World War I.  On May 28, 1917, the New-York Tribune reported that Charles Barnett Marr, the son of Charles J. Marr and his wife, had been promoted to second lieutenant.  He served as infantry and liaison officer with the American forces.

Frederick R. Wulsin was also a second lieutenant.  On September 24, 1919, The Evening World reported that he had been awarded the Belgian War Cross.  But unlike Marr, he did not return to 755 Park Avenue.  Although he had earned a degree in engineering from Harvard in 1915, he set out on a career in exploration.  According to the Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History, "After the war, Wulsin participated in several sociological expeditions, traveling to Inner Mongolia, China, and Tibet.  After his return, Wulsin traveled by Model T and camel caravan through much of Persia and Africa.  Having finally found his calling, Wulsin returned to Harvard and received his Ph. D. in anthropology in 1929."

In the meantime, the names of the well-heeled residents of 755 Park Avenue routinely appeared in the society pages.  On January 31, 1919, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Sir Arthur Pearson was the guest last night at a farewell dinner given at the Ritz-Carlton by Dr. Schuyler S. Wheeler of 755 Park Avenue."  

Schuyler Skaats Wheeler in 1914 (original source unknown)

Born on May 17, 1860, Schuyler Skaats Wheeler was married to Amy Sutton.  He traced his American roots on his mother's side prior to 1650.  An electrical engineer and inventor, he invented the electric fan, an electric elevator, an electrical voting device in 1907, and the electric fire engine.  Following the war, he focused much of his attention to disabled servicemen.  He initiated the hiring of blind veterans at the Crocker-Wheeler Motor Company in New Jersey, and established the Double-Duty Finger Guild in 1917, which both trained and provided work for the blind.

By 1920, banker Edward Roland Noel Harriman and his wife, the former Gladys Fries, had an apartment here.  Known to friends as Bunny, E. Roland Harriman was the youngest of five children of Mary Williamson Averell and Edward Henry Harriman.  He and Gladys had two daughters, Elizabeth and Phyllis.  

Gladys was, "a noted driver of pacing and trotting horses," according to The New York Times.   It was a pastime that, no doubt, contributed to her husband's becoming chairman of the U.S. Trotting Association.  Both she and her husband were highly involved in the American Red Cross, and E. Roland was president and chairman of the Boys' Club of New York.  The couple's philanthropies including the establishment of the Irving Sherwood Wright professorship in geriatrics at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

photo by Capital Photo Service from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Like Frederick W. Woerz, George Burton's fortune came from the brewing industry.  Born George Bernheimer (German-Americans often changed their surnames during the rampant anti-German sentiments of World War I), his father had founded the Bernheimer & Schwartz Brewery.  Burton was engaged to marry Charlotte Gardiner Demarest in May 1922.  

On May 10, the New York Herald reported that a special car had been hired "to take Burton and his intended bride to his mother's villa at Elberon, N.J." and that "a trip to Europe after a few weeks at Elberon" had been planned.  But those plans would have to be cancelled.

A reporter arrived at the 755 Park Avenue apartment to get Burton's reaction to his fiancée's elopement with Count Edward George Zichy.  It was the first Burton had heard of the news.  The New York Herald reported, "'You don't say!' exclaimed Burton when he heard of it, and after a moment's thought, he added: 'Hell's bells!  Yes, indeed, hell's bells!'  But beyond that he declined to go."

The article said, "Next to young Burton, the most surprised person was Mrs. Warren G. Demarest."  She had just finished consulting with her dressmaker about Charlotte's wedding gown when the doorbell rang.  "She opened the door and saw her daughter with Count Zichy," said the article.  "'Mother,' said the daughter, 'I may as well tell you.  We're married.'"  

The New York Herald reported, "Young Burton and his family, who were preparing to welcome Miss Demarest to their home, at 755 Park avenue, prepared to make the best of the situation."

Few of the wealthy residents of 755 Park Avenue were greatly impacted by the Great Depression.  Living here at the time were Robert James and Sadie B. Eidlitz.  Eidlitz was the president of the building firm of Marc Eidlitz & Son, Inc., founded in 1854 by Marc Eidlitz.  When Robert Eidlitz died in his apartment here on May 17, 1935, he left an estate of $2,289.255, or approximately $49 million by today's conversion.

The second half of the 20th century saw State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and his wife Katherine living here.  The couple had a son and twin daughters.  On October 31, 1964, The New York Times said Mitchell was "generally considered New York City's most powerful member of the Legislature."  He was chairman of the Senate's Judiciary committee and the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing and Urban Development.

Also living here was Anne Colby Vanderbilt, the former wife of William Henry Vanderbilt III (the great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt I).  The couple had married in 1929.  The New York Times recalled, "Their home, Oakland Farm in Portsmouth, R.I., near Newport, was the scene of social events in the thirties."  She had served as First Lady of Rhode Island during her husband's governorship in 1939-40.  Anne Vanderbilt suffered a stroke in her apartment on February 27, 1974 and died shortly thereafter.

Essentially nothing has outwardly changed to 755 Park Avenue since its completion in 1914.  Its retains its aloof presence above the traffic of the two busy thoroughfares, while inside well-to-do residents continue to live in sublime surroundings.

photographs by the author

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

Louis Adams's 1890 29 West 12th Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

When the Emmet family acquired the 25-foot-wide lot at 29 West 12th Street in 1816, there was little else in the neighborhood.  That was not the case seven decades later when the heirs of Laura A. Emmet sold the "three story building, used as a bakery," according to the New York Herald on December 8, 1888.  Now surrounded by refined homes, the old structure was purchased by architect Louis Adams for $15,200.

Three months later, Adams filed plans for a "five-story brick and stone flat" on the site to cost $20,000 (just over $1 million in 2024).  Completed within the year, its stoic design featured little decoration.  The pierced, brownstone areaway wall gracefully morphed into the wing walls of the short stoop.  The openings of the brownstone-clad entry level were given delicate frames and a prominent, dentiled band course introduced four stories of brown Flemish bond brick.  A bracketed cornice capped the structure.

Adams reserved one of the apartments for his family.  On February 7, 1891 his wife advertised, "Wanted--An intelligent young woman for general housework.  Adams, 29 West 12th st."

The Huckel family moved into the building in the spring of 1890.  Rev. William M. Huckel was on the board of managers of the Seamen's Church Institute.  Living with him and his wife Christiana was their adult son, John Frederick Huckel, who was a publisher.  

Around 1895, John traveled west, settling in Kansas where he married Minnie Frances Harvey.  (Minnie was the daughter of Fred Harvey, founder of the Harvey House chain of restaurants and hotels that lined the railroads in the West.)  John Huckel would write several books, including American Indians: First Families of the Southwest, and Navaho Sandpainting: The Huckel Collection.

Rev. Huckel was assuredly well acquainted with resident Henry Rogers, who was manager of the Seamen's Mission and the New-York Bible and Prayerbook Association.  Born in 1820, he came from what the New-York Tribune called "old Colonial stock."  On his mother's side, he descended from John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  His wife, Mary Livingston, was descended from Robert Livingston the Elder, the first Lord of the Manor of Livingston in New York.

Another resident with early American roots was Robert H. Hutchins, a direct descendant of John Alden of Plymouth, Massachusetts.  A bachelor, he attended private schools before entering Trinity College.  He received his law degree at Columbia Law School and was now a partner with attorney David B. Ogden.

On January 22, 1909, the New York Evening Post reported that the 39-year-old Hutchins "died early this morning in his bachelor apartments at No. 29 West Twelfth Street, before the arrival of medical aid."  The article said he had taken "some poison by mistake," explaining, "For the past few months Mr. Hutchins had complained of pains in his head.  He took several kinds of medicine, and recently had used powders to produce sleep."

It was generally assumed that Hutchins had taken an accidental overdose of phenacetin.  The pain reliever had been prescribed by Dr. Victor C. Pedersen two days earlier when Hutchins consulted him for "what he supposed to be neuralgia."  On January 23, however, The New York Times reported that the autopsy revealed the attorney had instead died "of cerebral hemorrhage."

Louis Adams died at the age of 70 on September 7, 1911.  His funeral was held in his apartment two days later.  No. 29 West 12th Street was inherited jointly by Albert I. and Genevieve Adams.  In 1919, Albert transferred his half to his sister.

By now Frederick W. Kendrick; his wife, the former Elizabeth P. de Aguilar; and her son from a previous marriage, F. Paul de Aguilar, lived here.  The New York Social Register listed them at the address as early as 1918.  F. Paul de Aguilar had only recently returned to New York.  The New-York Tribune noted, "Mr. de Aguilar served with the regular cavalry in 1916, and later was transferred to the air service as a private in the World War."  He was still living here in August 1920 when his engagement to Gladys Newbold Black was announced.

The Great Depression does not seem to have greatly affected the residents of 29 West 12th Street.  In 1940, Jane and Elizabeth M. Fullman, presumably sisters-in-law, lived here with a three-year-old daughter Martha Fullman.  The women had a live-in maid, Claudia Hore.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The following year, however, change came.  A renovation resulted in three apartments and "two class 'B' rooms" on the first floor, and two apartments and six class B rooms each on the upper floors.  The Department of Buildings explained, "All Class 'B' rooms to accommodate one (1) person in each room."  That configuration is still in place with a total of 36 residential units in the building.  

Outwardly, however, Louis Adams's reserved design is essentially unhanged after more than 130 years.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post.

uncredited photographs by the author

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

The 1906 Charles Altschul House - 32 West 86th Street

 

The extended Hall family were builders and developers.  William Hall began the tradition that was continued by his sons William W. and Thomas M. Hall.  (They operated both as William Hall's Sons and W. W. & T. M. Hall).  Joining in the  familial trend were Arlington C. and Harvey M. Hall, who worked together; and William H. Hall Jr.  

In 1906, William H. Hall Jr. partnered with W. W. & T. M. Hall in erecting a row of handsome townhouses on the south side of West 86th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.  Designed by Welch, Smith & Provot, certain pairs were built and owned by William H. Hall, Jr. and others by his relatives, yet they flowed together harmoniously.

Among those William H. Hall, Jr. erected was 32 West 86th Street.  Its neo-Renaissance design included a rusticated limestone base, stone architrave frames of the upper story windows, and a slate-shingled and dormered mansard.

The house became home to the Charles Altschul family.  Born in London on December 31, 1857, Altschul came to America in 1877 and settled in San Francisco where he joined the staff of the banking firm Lazard Freres.  In 1886, he married Camilla Mandelbaum.  The couple had three children, Frank, born in 1887; Edith Louise, who was born two years later; and Hilda who arrived in 1892.

Altschul thrived professionally in California.  In 1895, he was made manager of the London, Paris and American Bank and five years later was elected President of the California Bankers' Association.  Then, in 1901, he relocated his family to New York, where he remained a partner in Lazard Freres.

Charles Altschul (original source unknown)

Frank Altschul graduated from Yale University in 1908 and for the next two years worked in the Mexico City office of the banking firm Hugo Scherer, Jr. & Co.  On November 18, 1910, the Yale Alumni Weekly reported he "expects to return permanently to 32 West Eighty-sixth Street, New York City, about January 1, 1911."

He would find one more person living in the 86th Street house.  On April 30, 1910, "in a private suite at Sherry's," as reported by the New York Herald, Edith had married Herbert H. Lehman.  After the their honeymoon in the South, the couple moved into the Altschul house.

Lehman's father Mayer, like Charles Altschul, was a financier, one of the three brothers who co-founded Lehman Brothers.  Herbert had been a partner in that firm for two years when he married Edith.  

Frank was next to marry.  On November 3, 1912, The New York Times reported on his engagement to Helen Goodhart, a graduate of Barnard College.  The wedding took place on January 9, 1913 in the bride's home.

Herbert Lehman was drawn into the messy impeachment trial of Governor William Sulzer in 1913.  Among the charges was that he had accepted large, personal gifts, presumably in exchange for favors.  On October 8, 1913, Lehman was called to testify to explain his monetary gift to the governor.  The New York Sun printed his testimony in part.

I gave him $5,000 unconditionally.  I knew he was a man of straitened circumstances.  I did not care what he did with his money, whether he paid his rent or bought himself clothes or paid for his office or any other expenses which he might incur.

Lazard Freres placed a notice in the New York Press on July 3, 1916 that read, "We regret to announce that Mr. Charles Altschul has this day retired from our firm."  It added, "Mr. Fred H. Greenebaum and Mr. Frank Altschul have been admitted as partners in our firm."

Charles Altschul now turned his attention to historical research and writing.  His first project was his 1917 The American Revolution in Our School Text Books: An Attempt to Trace the Influence of Early School Education on the Feeling Toward England in the United States.  After pouring over 93 history textbooks used in schools nationwide, he revealed an inherent bias which The Sun on October 21, 1917 called "an American tradition of Anglophobia."  The New York Times would later say it "helped bring a revision in the teaching of the history of the Revolution in public schools."

Charles was involved in other scholarly interests, as well.  He was a member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the American Historical Association, for instance.  

Early in April 1927, Charles Altschul suffered a heart attack.  He died three weeks later on April 28.

His son and son-in-law would go on to great success.  In their 2003 Wall Street People, Charles D. Ellis and James R. Vertin wrote, "Frank [Altschul] rose to be one of Wall Street's grand dukes, both in style and influence.  In the 1930s, he served on the governing board of the New York Stock Exchange and became a director of the Rockefeller family bank, the Chase National."  In 1929, Herbert Lehman became Lieutenant Governor of New York under Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in 1933 became the state's 45th governor, holding that office until March 1946.

In the meantime, the West 86th Street block had changed from upscale private homes to boarding houses, shops and apartment buildings by the time of Charles Altschul's death.  No. 32 was converted to the Ann Reno School--a dual purpose facility that taught deaf children and trained teachers.

The daughter of prominent musicians, Anna Reno Margulies was prompted by the deafness of her son to devote herself to teaching the deaf.  After studying with Maria Montessori in Italy, she opened her school in America using the Montessori methods.  The New York Times said here "students were taught to speak and understand conversation with a facility equal to that of persons with normal hearing."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Ann Reno School operated from the converted house into the 1950s.  By 1969, it was home to the Society for the Advancement of Judaism Nursery School, which accepted three- and four-year-old children at a yearly tuition of $675 (equal to about $4,880 in 2024).

A renovation completed in 1981 resulted in apartments.  There are three each on the first through fourth floors, and two duplex apartments on the fifth and new penthouse level, which is unseen from the street.

photographs by the author

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

The Lost Rev. Isaac Van Winkle House - 270 West 93rd Street

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The eight high-end residences designed by Little & O'Connor in 1892 of "irregular sizes" wrapped the southeast corner of West End Avenue and 93rd Street.  Their 19th century take on Flemish Renaissance architecture reflected affluence and luxury.  The sumptuous, double-wide home at 270 West 93rd Street just east of the avenue was faced in light-colored brick above a limestone base.  Its entrance above a short stoop was crowned with elaborately carved cresting.  The imposing dormer that fronted the slate-shingled mansard featured engaged columns, a carved shield, and an ornate Flemish style pediment that rose to a finial.

On July 20, 1895, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that the Mercantile Building Co. had sold the 32-foot-wide mansion to Rev. Isaac Van Winkle.  According to The New York Times, he paid "about $25,000" for the house--or around $936,000 by 2024 conversion.

Born on January 11, 1846, the minister traced his American roots to the Van Winkles who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1636.  Having graduated from Columbia in 1865, he earned his theological degree from the General Theological Seminary in 1869.  Van Winkle and his wife, the former Margaret Kembel Lente, had four children.  The eldest, Edward Kingsland, was 19 years old and the youngest, Gertrude Bayard, was six when the family moved into 270 West 93rd Street.

In the meantime, in 1892 Rev. Dr. John B. Morgan, brother-in-law of J. P. Morgan, had acquired land for the newly formed St. Luke's Chapel in Paris.  The corrugated iron building that rose on the site became known fondly as the "Little Tin Church."   In 1897, just two years after purchasing the West 93rd Street house, Rev. Van Winkle was transferred to Paris as minister to St. Luke's.  

An auction was held on March 11, 1897 of "the entire contents of the colonial mansion of No. 270 West 93d St., belonging to Rev. I. Van Winkle who goes abroad for a prolonged residence," according to the announcement in the New York Herald.  Along with a Weber piano, the inventory included antique furniture, "Turkish and Persian rugs, carpets, marble statuary, bronzes, porcelains, water colors, engravings, bric-a-brac, etc."

The Van Winkle family may have thought they would soon return.  They initially leased the mansion to Joseph Byrne.  He was appointed an examiner in the city's Auditor's Bureau on April 2, 1897.  The Byrne children were no doubt heartbroken when their dog ran away later that year.  A notice in the New York Journal and Advertiser on October 1, read: 

$10 reward--No questions asked for return of female fox terrier, strayed from 270 West 93d st., on Wednesday evening; she answers to name Sweetheart; wore license of 1896 No. 12,983 attached to collar; $5 reward for information leading to her recovery.

As it turned out, Van Winkle's pastorship in France would last nearly two decades.  The house was first offered for sale in March 1899 for $24,000.  It was finally sold to Max Tower Rosen in June the following year.

Rosen was president of the Havana and Key West Cigar Company, and secretary and director of the United States Rubber Reclaiming Works.  Born in Ukraine in 1844, he and his wife, the former Flora Thalmann, had three sons, Walter Tower, Ernest Tower, Felix Tower, and a daughter Jeanne.

    

Max, Flora, and Jeanne (who was 15 years old at the time) spent the summer of 1901 in Europe.  They boarded the steamship Deutschland headed home.  But on October 20, four days before reaching New York, Rosen suffered a fatal heart attack.  The New York Times reported, "His body was brought to this city.  Mr. Rosen was fifty-seven years old."

The Rosen family sold 270 West 93rd Street to Agnes Livingston in 1906, initiating a string of rapid turn-overs.  On January 5, 1907, the Record & Guide reported it had been sold to "an investor."  And on January 25, 1908 the New-York Tribune reported that Charles F. Lambke had sold the mansion.

It became home to Katharine Husbands Dodge, the widow of Loudon Underhill Dodge, who died in 1887.  A Civil War veteran, he had founded the Dodge Art Publishing Company.  Katherine was born on December 26, 1839, the daughter of Joseph Dotten Husbands and Frances Buckingham.  She and Loudon had one son, Joseph Hampton, who was born in 1864.

Katharine Dodge died on May 31, 1911 at the age of 71.  The mansion, described as having "12 rooms and 2 baths," was offered for lease.  The advertisement in The New York Times noted, "Liberal concession to immediate tenant."  It was leased to James G. McGowan for a year, and sold to artist Laura Opper in October 1912.

Laura Opper came from an artistic family.  Although her father, Victor M. Opper, was a businessman and partner in Opper & Levinson, Inc., he was a member of the Salmagundi Club, New York's oldest art club.  Laura, who was mainly a portrait artist, regularly exhibited her work at The Society of Independent Artists.  She studied under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League and trained at the National Academy.

Laura Opper's Portrait of a Young Girl with Roses.  

Living in the mansion with Laura was an elderly relative, Adolph Opper.  Born in Bohemia, he was a retired lace importer and manufacturer.  He had served on the jury that convicted Tammany boss William M. Tweed in 1877.  Adolph Opper died in the 93rd Street mansion on June 24, 1917 at the age of 87.

Laura also rented rooms in the house.  Charles King Morrison lived here in 1916.  He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1894, and in 1915 partnered with lawyer Eliot Norton.  While living here, he was married to Mildred H. Hoag on June 5, 1916.  

Vocal instructor Cosby Dansby Morris may have taken over Morrison's rooms.  On November 18, 1916, Musical America reported she "has opened her studio at 270 West Ninety-third Street with an unusually talented class."

Mrs. Bernice Vaughn rented rooms from Laura Opper in 1919.  On January 31 that year, she visited a friend, Mrs. Della Cambeir, who lived on the fourth floor of a Lexington Avenue apartment building.  As the two women chatted, they realized the building was on fire.  The New York Times reported they, "started down the stairs, which were burning.  Mrs. Cambier succeeded in reaching the street with her hair and clothing on fire."

Bernice, however, was trapped by a backdraft.  "A burst of flames drove Mrs. Vaughn back into the room.  She was about to leap from the window when Martin J. Murphy, a fireman, shouted for her not to jump."  Murphy and a passerby, Daniel Coughlin (who was a soldier just returned from the war), rushed to the fourth floor of the adjoining structure.  In what must have been a terrifying circumstance for Bernice, the article said, "Murphy straddled the window ledges and passed Mrs. Vaughn to the soldier."  Bernice Vaughn had much to be thankful for.  The article added, "After the fire was under control the firemen found the body of [Samuel] Chonton in a rear room of the upper floor."

Laura Opper died in 1924.  On April 14 the following year, The Sun reported that Ennis & Sinnoti had purchased "for plotage" the ten houses at the southeast corner of 93rd Street and West End Avenue, including 270 West 93rd.  They were demolished to be replaced by the 15-story-and-penthouse apartment building designed by George and Edward Blum which survives.

image via compass.com

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog