De Lemos & Cordes's 1890 247-251 Elizabeth Street

 

The architectural firm of De Lemos & Cordes would be best known for the Beaux Arts commercial buildings it designed in the 1890s, like the massive Siegel-Cooper Department Store on Sixth Avenue.  In October 1889, six years before designing that building, De Lemos & Cordes filed plans for a much different commission--two five-story store-and-tenements at 247 through 251 Elizabeth Street.  Interestingly, because the two buildings would occupy three 20-foot wide plots--splitting the middle plot in half--the southern building had two addresses, 247-249, while the identical northern building went by 251 Elizabeth Street.

At a time when tenement buildings often displayed overblown ornamentation, De Lemos & Cordes designed the two buildings in a dignified take on Renaissance Revival.  Faced in red brick above the cast iron storefronts, the buildings were divided into three horizonal sections by terra cotta intermediate cornices--each decorated with a frieze of terra cotta ornaments.   A frieze of blind rondels and fluted pilasters ran below the terminal cornice.  Each of the buildings cost $18,000 to construct--equal to about $615,000 in 2024.  There were two apartments per floor in each building, and two stores each at ground level.

The new structures sat within what newspapers called the "Italian community" and nearly all the tenants had Italian surnames and, most likely, spoke Italian as their first language.  

Among the initial residents of 251 Elizabeth Street were Antonio Gravallese, a tailor, and his family.  He had left his wife and children in Italy and established himself in New York before sending for them in 1886.  Life in America was good for the family.  The Evening World commented, "All the family were industrious and they prospered.  The eldest daughter married a young Italian tailor and then Filomena went out to sew and help swell the family treasury."

Filomena was 18 years old in 1891, described by the newspaper as, "a pretty, plump, red-cheeked Italian girl."  Boarding with the family was Antonio Cerriglio.  Although he did not have a regular job, The Evening World said he "made money nevertheless in speculating and acting as a real estate agent."  Unknown to the family, who considered him "more like a relative than a boarder," he was falling in love with Filomena.

Filomena found a job working in a shop where she had caught the eye of Cyrille Buhot, "a dashing Frenchman, thirty-three years old," according to The Evening Word, which added, "It is little wonder that her brilliant black eyes and cherry lips captivated Cyrille."  The two fell in love and, after Cyrille found a better paying job in a Fifth Avenue tailoring shop, he asked Filomena to marry him.

The proposal caused heated arguments in the Gravallese apartment.  Filomena's father reportedly said, "Do not wed a Frenchman.  Wed one of your own countrymen.  You are too young to marry, anyway."  The love-struck teen rebelled, threatening to elope.  In the meantime, Antonio Cerriglio listened in, his jealousy mounting.  Not long afterward, in April 1891, he stalked the couple along the Bowery.  The Evening World said he, "glowered threateningly."

On May 8, Antonio Gravallese and Filomena argued again, this time because she stayed out late.  The following day, Filomena and Cyrille decided to get married secretly.  As she waited outside Cyrille's boarding house, Filomena noticed Antonio Cerriglio.  When Cyrille appeared, she whispered, "See! There is Cerriglio following us.  I fear he means harm."

Cyrille replied, "Never mind, let us hasten along."

They had walked about a block when Filomena heard the report of a pistol.  As she whirled around, Cerriglio fired two more shots into Cyrille's back.  The young assassin turned to flee, but ran directly into the arms of Detective Sergeant Cosgrove.

The Gravellese family was shocked.  The Evening World said,  "Her family had never considered [Cerriglio] as Filomena's lover, thinking she was too young to marry."  The article added, "They knew little about Buhot, but objected to his attentions to Filomena simply because he was a Frenchman and not an Italian."

In 1893 a small pox epidemic broke out on New York City.  City officials struggled to educate tenement house residents about vaccinations.  The often ill-educated group distrusted the life-saving inoculations.  On April 30, 1894, The Evening World reported that 15-month-old Victoria Francesco, whose family lived at 251 Elizabeth Street, was one of six new cases of the disease.  A month later, on May 21, 1894, The Evening World headlined an article, "More Small-Pox Patients," and listed among the afflicted 37-year-old Mary Farra, who lived at 247 Elizabeth Street.  Somewhat interestingly, the article noted she "recently left the Ward's Island Insane Asylum."  She and little Victoria Francesco were now transported to another facility, the North Brother Island quarantine hospital.  

Like Antonio Cerriglio, the Italian-born residents of the buildings often settled their differences violently.  On June 13, 1896, Marie Nuccio was told that a neighborhood woman, Marie Franz, was repeating unkind rumors about her.  She stormed off to the Franz apartment at 129 West Third Street "for the purpose of asking what Mrs. Franz meant by spreading reports detrimental to her character," said The New York Times.

"Before she and Mrs. Franz had talked for three minutes they were pulling each other's white hair and punching each other in the face," said the article.  Zeni Franz came to his wife's aid just as a passing policeman heard the uproar and intervened.  While Franz was released because he "had only interfered to save his wife," Marie Franz was arrested on a charge of assault.

At the turn of the last century, the two commercial spaces in 247-249 Elizabeth Street held the Banco Italiano and Nicola Centocosti's cafe.  The private bank was run by Dominico Bonomolo.  Like Nicola Centocosti, he and his family lived in the rear of the commercial space.

The rooms behind the bank were apparently well-filled.  According to The New York Times, living with Dominico Bonomolo and his wife, Gracia, were "his cousins, his aunts, and a bright green parrot."  On January 16, 1900, Gracia Bonomolo attempted to light the kitchen stove using kerosene.  The Times said she, "absently spilled the oil, and when she added the lighted match the partition and its hangings blazed up."

 The Evening Post reported, "The occupants of the house rushed shrieking into the street, but Bonomolo rushed to the window of the bank, where there were several hundreds of dollars in gold and foreign exchange, and began throwing the money into a bag."

As passersby watched, Bonomolo was overcome by smoke and fell to the floor.  Seemingly fearing more for the money than for the banker, they smashed the window and "began sweeping the money into their aprons and pockets."  Happily, firefighters soon arrived and extinguished the blaze.  Bonomolo was rescued.  As it turned out, his neighbors had been concerned for his financial well-being.  "None of the money was lost," said the article.

The only casualty was the parrot.  On January 17, The New York Times wrote, "Bonomolo was in his counting room in the afternoon attending to business as usual, while Little Italy filed into the rear room, where the parrot lay in state."

Coffee, wine and pasta were not the only things served at the Centocosti cafe.  On January 26, 1901, two plain-clothes detectives "made a raid" on the establishment.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The policemen say that an Italian gambling game known as 'segment' was being played."  All the patrons escaped, but Nicola Centocosti was arrested.

The Formosa family lived at 247 Elizabeth Street in 1901.  On February 5 that year their son, Rosario, was hanging out with a gang of boys on Varick Street.  The New York Times reported that they, "resolved that it would be a great joke to kill the first policeman who passed.  Rosario was selected by lot in true Mafia style."  The teen was well equipped for the job.  The newspaper noted he, "whetted the edge of a stiletto, placed another in his belt, and unlimbered his trusty revolver."

A pedestrian who overheard the gang warned Policeman Wooley of its intentions.  So when he turned the corner, he had his nightstick ready.  As Formosa lunged with his knife, Wooley knocked it aside with his stick.  Changing to his stiletto, Formosa lunged again.  "Misjudging the location of the officer's vital organs on account of his girth, the point of the weapon landed on the patrolman's belt buckle," said The Times.

Rosario Formosa yelled, "He's got on a coat of mail," and ran, tossing his weapons one-by-one into snowbanks.  Policeman Wooley was right behind and captured the teen after a chase of three blocks.  He was held on $1,000 bail awaiting trial--a significant $37,000 in today's money.

Frank Bareale ran a grocery store in 251 Elizabeth Street by 1906.  At the time, the Italian community was plagued by a terroristic group called La Mano Nera, or the Black Hand.  The Italian-American group used violence, including assassinations and bombings, to extort money from well-to-do Italians.

On December 31, 1906, The Sun reported, "The ten families in the big tenement at 251 Elizabeth street were thrown into a panic early yesterday morning by an explosion under the window of Frank Bareale's grocery store on the ground floor."  The loud boom "alarmed all the tenants, who rushed from the building scantily clad and shrieking."

The significant explosion blew out windows across the street.  Bareale and his wife and three children had been asleep in the apartment behind the store.  He told police that he had never received any Black Hand letters and he knew of no enemies.  The Sun reported, "The police, however, believe that Black Hand agents have been after him and that he is afraid to talk, fearing that they might resort to something more effective."  The article commented, "This is the third explosion that has occurred in the immediate vicinity within the last three months."

The lives of the tenants of both buildings continued to be marked by violence.  On December 25, 1916, the New York Herald reported that Salvatore Costa, a 28-year-old bricklayer who lived at 247 Elizabeth Street, had been arrested for "attempting to shoot Detectives Santanello and Terra."  The article explained, "Costa attacked a drunken man early in the morning at Elizabeth and Prince streets and when they interferred [sic] he drew a revolver and pulled the trigger twice, but the cartridges failed to explode."

By 1912, one of the ground floor spaces in 251 Elizabeth Street was home to the Goritza Social Club.  The Italian-American club was raided in December 1918 and 25 members arrested for gambling.  The New-York Tribune reported on December 16, "Evidence to show that the men had gathered to collect money for the Red Cross was given."  Whether or not the alibi was true, Magistrate Joseph Corrigan dismissed the charges, saying (surprisingly), "If a man wishes to bet on a ball game or a horse race it is his privilege to do so."

Residents of the two buildings, described as "cold water flats," continued to be the perpetrators or the victims of violence over the years.  In February 1920, 20-year-old Michael Romano, who lived at 251 Elizabeth Street, was arrested for armed robbery.  He and an accomplice had entered an elevator at 716 Broadway and held up the passengers.  

Salvatore Lolacano and his wife ran an Italian restaurant at 247 Elizabeth Street that year.  On the night of December 10, 1920, they were counting the day's receipts when the door burst open.  The Evening World reported, "three bullets sped over Mrs. Lolacano's left shoulder and her husband fell dead at her feet."

And on January 23, 1921, Angelo Patriocola was "shot and killed at 249 Elizabeth Street," according to the New-York Tribune.

The original storefronts can be seen in this 1941 photograph.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A renovation completed in 1947 resulted in new storefronts and four apartments per floor.  The second half of the 20th century saw the Italian community being supplanted by Chinese immigrants.

Among the residents of 247 Elizabeth Street in 1973 was the Wong family.  Theresa Wong was 17 years old that year when she attended a party of about 100 Chinese American youths in the basement of a building on West 51st Street on March 18.  At around 3 p.m. five shots were fired through the basement window.  Theresa was shot in the right arm, one of three injured teens.

Theresa Hak-Kyung-Cha and her husband lived at 247 Elizabeth Street in 1982.  On November 5, a woman's body was found in a Lower Manhattan parking lot with a belt wrapped around her neck at around 7:15 p.m..  She was naked from the waist down.  After searching for his wife for two days, Theresa was identified by her husband on November 7.

The ground floor of De Lemos & Cordes's 1889 building has been brutalized.  The upper portion, however, retains much of its original appearance.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post.

photographs by the author

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The Altered James Cumings House - 126 East 35th Street

 

Irish-born real estate developer and architect Thomas Kilpatrick erected a trio of houses at 72 to 76 East 35th Street (renumbered 126 through 130 in 1868) in 1854-55.  The high-stooped, brownstone fronted homes were designed in the popular Italianate style.  Three stories tall above English basements, their elliptically arched entrances sat within square-headed frames.  Like the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows, the architrave openings of the upper floors sat on diminutive sills and wore molded cornices.

Kilpatrick sold 72 East 35th Street to James and Laura Melissa Shaw Cumings.  The couple had five children, James Maurice, Joseph, Mary Ida, Laura and Ira T.  

Cumings was the owner of the Columbian Foundry and president of the Morris & Cumings Dredging Company.  The New York Herald called him, "well known to all old New Yorkers and his active life is contemporaneous with the rapid development of the city."  Born in 1803, he entered the iron business as an apprentice to Robert McQueen in his Columbian Foundry.  In 1832, McQueen turned the business over to Cumings and his partner Peter Morris.

The Cumings family remained here through 1864, when they moved across the street to 81 East 35th Street.  William Speiden, a broker, next occupied 72 East 35th Street; and in 1872, Professor William G. Peck moved in.

Born in 1832, the erudite Peck was on the faculty of Columbia College.  He held the positions of Professor of Mathematics, of Astronomy and of Mechanics in the School of Mines.  He was the author of numerous educational books.

On December 27, 1874, Peck "rushed into the Twenty-first Precinct station house...and said that he wanted to see Capt. McElwaine immediately, as he had just been robbed of $40,000," reported The New York Times, which added, "Prof. Peck was very much agitated."

Peck's agitation was understandable.  He said two young men had carried a chest out of his house, in which were the family silver and securities equal in value to just over $1 million today.  Captain McElwaine's investigation suggested a surprising in-house conspirator.  He interviewed a servant who had been looking out the kitchen window when Peck's 19-year-old son, Henry, arrived with two teenaged friends.  The rest of the family was at church.  Instead of using the basement entrance, as family members most often did, they climbed the stoop and entered the front hall.

"She heard them walking overhead in the parlor, and then heard them apparently go upstairs to young Peck's room," said the article.  The inquisitive servant heard the front door open and watched the two young men carry the chest down the stoop.  "She went out, saw that they turned down Madison avenue to Thirty-fourth street, and on looking up saw young Peck watching them from the window of his room."

When the servant ran into Henry Peck in the hallway later and asked him what his friends had taken, "he told her to mind her-----business and he would mind his," reported The New York Times.  Doubly, suspicious now, the servant watched Peck leave and follow the same path as his comrades.

She notified another servant and they did a search of the house, quickly discovering the silver chest was missing from the dining room.  The two rushed to the church and pulled Professor Peck and his father-in-law, Professor Davis, from the service.  

Captain McElwain's probing revealed that young Henry "was keeping company with a dressmaker."  More importantly, he had accumulated significant gambling debts to the likes of James Oxley, "Seddons Mouse," "Owney" Geoghegan, "Paddy the Smasher," and "other sporting and notorious persons."  When confronted with the evidence, Henry Peck claimed he knew nothing about the robbery and his father refused to press charges.

The Peck family left 126 East 35th Street the following year.  The family of William W. Thompson occupied the house through the mid-1880s.  Like their predecessors, the Thompsons had a domestic staff and on October 28, 1879 advertised for two chambermaids.  Their wages were listed at $10 per month, about $315 today.

By 1894, the Gordon Wendell family owned 126 East 35th Street.  Born in 1859, Wendell married Frances Cadwalader Elwyn on April 20, 1887.  They had one child, Frances Gordon.  

Gordon Wendell was a wool commission merchant, a member of Jacob Wendell & Co.  (It was reorganized as Taylor, Wendell & Co. following the death of Wendell's father, Jacob, in 1898.)  Educated at Harvard, he was a member of the exclusive Union League, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, Merchants' and Harvard Clubs.  (Two of his sisters married titles.  Catherine Wendell married the the son of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, known for discovering and exploring the tomb of Tutankhamun.  Philippe Wendell married the Count of Galloway.)

Although Frances C. E. Wendell was a member of the Society of Colonial Dames and of the Colony Club, she was, perhaps, more active in political and civic issues than in society.  She was an early and ardent suffragist.  On April 19, 1894, The New York Times reported on "the political equality meeting" held in the parlor.  "A large number of guests were present, and both sides of the suffrage question were represented," said the article.  

Frances C. E. Wendell (original source unknown)

On April 25, 1895, The New York Times titled an article, "More Women as School Inspectors" and reported that Mayor William L. Strong had appointed Frances C. E. Wendell one of three new School Inspectors.  She was, as well, a trustee of the Babies' Day Nursery.  In reporting on her newest appointment, The Times noted that she "has long been identified with charitable and educational work."

In 1907, Gordon Wendell hired architect Richard Berger to make what the Record & Guide described as "extensive exterior and interior changes" to the house.  It appears from later photographs, that the alterations were mostly inside.

In the fall of 1908, Gordon Wendell was serving on the jury of the high profile trial of Charles W. Morse and Alfred H. Curtis "on the charge of having violated in several particulars the National banking laws," according to The New York Times on October 23.  Wendell brought the case to a temporary halt on the night of October 21.  The jury was sequestered at the Astor House hotel when Wendell became ill.  The New York Times said, he "had to be allowed to go to his home, 126 East Thirty-fifth Street, under guard of a Deputy United States Marshal."

Wendell's doctor sent a note to the judge the following morning, saying he was "suffering from an acute attack of indigestion and kidney trouble."  The judge told reporters, "I have no desire to kill a juror."  The doctor had assured him there was "plenty of room for the accommodation of a guard at Mr. Wendell's private residence."  Happily for the other jurors, Wendell was well enough to attend deliberations a day later.

On the night of January 31, 1910, Gordon Wendell died "suddenly" at his home.  The term most often referred to a stroke or heart attack.  His funeral was held in the parlor on February 3.

When this photograph was taken in 1941, the architectural personality of the house was about to be starkly changed.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Apparently boarding with the two Frances Wendells in 1914 was the young Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter.  The 24-year-old cleric's engagement to socialite Ida Miller Taylor was announced on June 14 that year.  Interestingly, the couple would have two daughters, Jayne and Audrey Meadows, who would well-known actresses.

New York society may have assumed that Frances Gordon Wendell would never wed.  But on January 24, 1920, she and U.S. Navy Lt. John Gilbert Marshall Stone were married in the parlor of 126 East 35th Street.  The bride was 29 years old.

Frances Cadwalader Elwyn Wendell died on June 19, 1929 at the age of 64.  Frances and John G. M. Stone remained in the 35th Street house until the fall of 1937.  On November 1 that year, The New York Sun reported that the Engineering Women's Club had leased the house, adding, "Mrs. Herbert Hoover is a member of the club."

The Women's Engineering Club opened its new clubhouse on December 1.  The New York Times explained that the club had been formed in 1928 "with a group of women who worked together in the first Presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover."  The article said, "it has served as an international center for women engineers and wives of engineers from all parts of the country and abroad."

The Women's Engineering Club remained in the house until 1941, when the Midhattan Realty, Inc. hired architect Stephen L. Heinrich to remodel it to apartments.  He removed the stoop, moved the entrance to the basement level, and converted the top floor to a tile covered mansard with a shed dormer.  Unlike many awkward remodelings at the time, Heinrich's design has a charming, cottage-like feel.

A subsequent renovation, completed in 1989, resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and former parlor floors, and a triplex on the upper floors.  Outwardly, the house is little changed since the 1941 make-over.

photographs by the author

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The Daniel and Katherine Holden House - 310 West 91st Street

 

Developers Alexander Walker and Judson Lawson hired architect Martin V. B. Ferdon in 1893 to design a row of five houses on the south side of West 91st Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  Ferndon was responsible for scores of Upper West Side homes, the majority of them in the Renaissance Revival style.  These would follow suit.  The row was designed in an off-balanced A-B-C-B-D arrangement.  

No. 310 West 91st Street was one of the B models.  Above its single-doored entrance, a swan's neck pediment was filled with carved garlands of roses.  A hefty bracket between the parlor windows upheld a two-story bowed oriel.

In 1894 Walker & Judson advertised, 

Two left--304 and 310 West 91st st., Riverside Drive; elegant three story basement and cellar dwellings; bay windows; three story extensions; two tiled bathrooms, gas grates, and all the latest improvements; inspection invited; price low; send for circular.

Daniel Judson Holden and his wife, the former Katherine Veghte Knox, purchased 310 West 91st Street for $24,500 on April 19, 1894.  The price would translate to about $772,000 in 2024.

Daniel Judson Holden was born in New York City on January 15, 1844.  He was educated at Yale University and received his law degree at Columbia Law School.  When the family moved into 310 West 91st Street, he was a member of the law firm of Coudert Brothers.

Holden married Katherine (known familiarly as Kate) on September 1, 1885.  Their first child, Daniel Jr., had died at the age of one on February 6, 1888.  Their second, Edith, was seven when the family purchased the house.

Holden's club memberships reflected his social and professional standing.  He was a member of the University and the City Club, the Down Town Association, the Society of Medical Jurisprudence and the Sons of the Revolution.  

Attorney Paul Fuller called Holden, "A deeply religious man, in whom religion was an essence and not a garment."  He had joined the Brick Presbyterian Church at the age of 14, and served as a church trustee for three decades and as a ruling Elder from 1886 to 1897.  When the family moved to the Upper West Side, Holden became a ruling Elder of the Fourth Presbyterian Church down the block, at the corner of West End Avenue.

Well-to-do families left town during the summer months, normally taking their most valued servants--like valets and ladies' maids--with them.  The less important servants were often let go, to be replaced in the fall.  On May 22, 1902, Katherine placed an advertisement in hopes of finding jobs for two employees.  "A lady leaving town wishes to place her two maids as waitress and chambermaid; they are German Protestants, and can be highly recommended."

Daniel Holden died in the 91st Street house at the age of 59 on June 23, 1903.  Katherine and Edith immediately moved out, initially leasing 310 West 91st Street to Herbert D. Lacey.  In July 1908, William M. Richards signed a lease, and in 1910 Sara A. Palmer moved in.

The unmarried Sara Palmer was highly visible in society.  On January 22, 1911, for instance, The New York Times reported that she "will give the third of her series of large receptions on Tuesday, March 14, from 3 until 6."  She was chairman of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs.

In August 1914, Katherine Holden offered the house for sale.  The advertisement described a "modern three story high stoop with bath extension...Plumbing and woodwork in good condition.  This block is one of the best in the 90's."  The listed price was $32,000, or about $720,000 today.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

No. 310 West 91st Street was home to Pauline B. Fox in 1919, and by the early Depression Years was owned by Adelaide Drummond.  Adelaide died here on January 17, 1936, and the house was inherited by her daughter, Louise Adams.  She retained ownership until July 1939, when she sold it to Herman Hippe, who lived in Astoria, Queens.

The house was converted to apartments in 1970--a duplex in the basement and parlor floors, two apartments on the second, and one on the third.  In 2009, it was returned to a single family residence.

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The Lost 1910 53 East 61st Street

 

Architecture magazine, February 1910 (copyright expired)

Effingham Maynard, Jr. was a member of the publishing firm of Maynard, Merrill & Co.  He purchased the four-story, high-stooped brownstone house at 53 East 61st Street on November 10, 1905.  Three years later, the affluent, 28-year-old bachelor hired the architectural firm of Walker & Gillette to give it a comprehensive remodeling.  The plans called for enlarging the house to the rear, reconfiguring the interior, removing the stoop and replacing the Victorian facade with a modern front.  The extensive renovations cost Maynard $20,000--about $683,000 in 2024 terms.

Construction was completed in 1910.  Walker & Gillette had created an anomaly among Manhattan residences.  Above the rusticated, red brick base, they faced the building in concrete.  Architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler, writing in The Architectural Record said,

The material is a novelty in a city house front, common as it is in suburban work.  Possibly gray brick might have been as effective as the actual cement, in contrast with the red of the brickwork, but it could not have been more so.

from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The architects' potpourri of styles--a Palladian grouping at the second floor, romantic Italian faux balconies at the second, and colorful Arts and Crafts tilework around the arched second floor window and below the cornice--prompted Schuyler to say, "This front is of no style.  It is merely the putting together of the materials in the most straightforward manner.  He opined, "nothing could be prettier or more seemly and domestic," and that the house, "though of no style, very distinctly has style and is clearly one of the best of the recent things."

Maynard never moved into his renovated house, choosing instead to lease it.  His first tenants were the widowed Mrs. William M. Postlethwaite and her son, John Ellis Postlethwaite, a 1901 Harvard graduate.  Rev. William M. Postlethwaite had been chaplain and professor of Ethics, History and Geography at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  He died on January 10, 1896.

The first and second floor plans.  Architecture, 1911 (copyright expired)

In 1914, Effingham Maynard, Jr. rethought his investment.  He hired architect Simeon B. Eisendrath to convert the mansion into bachelor apartments.  (The term meant the apartment had no kitchens.)  An advertisement in The New York Times in August 1915 described the apartments as "one room and bath," or what we would today call studio apartments.  They were available furnished or unfurnished with, "Meals, telephone, and valet service optional."  Rents started at $480 a year, or about $1,250 per month today.

Effingham Maynard died on August 12, 1918 at the age of 42.  Still unmarried, his death sparked a contentious legal battle among family members over his property, including 51 East 61st Street, that lasted well into the following year.

In the meantime, despite their small size, the apartments filled with affluent tenants.  Among those living here in 1918 were Chester B. Coubleday, Harry Burnham Disston and Gerald Hull Gray.  With World War I ongoing, Coubleday was promoted to first lieutenant in the Aviation Section of the Officers' Reserve Corps. that year.  Disston was a second lieutenant in the Infantry Section of the U.S. Army.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Henrietta Upson, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. George Dwight Upson, was married to Henry Pitt Warren, Jr. in a socially notable ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1921.  Warren had graduated from Yale in 1913 and his bride from the Spence School.  The Yale Alumni Weekly announced, "They will be at home, after November 1, at 53 East 61st Street, New York City."

Dr. Jacob Schmeicher lived and practiced here in 1925.  On April 4, the New York Evening Post said, "He is said to have maintained a seven-room office on the street floor at 53 East Sixty-first street."  Things were going well for the doctor until he applied for an x-ray license early in 1925, listing his degree from the Albany Medical College.  It led to an investigation that revealed no such student had attended the school.  The New York Evening Post reported, "Isabel E. Pries, a detective, had him arrested last night, after he treated her for stomach trouble."

Stock broker Herbert McKenzie and his wife, Louise, lived here in 1928.  A dealer in unlisted securities, McKenzie maintained offices on the 14th floor of 50 Broad Street.  On the afternoon of October 25, his 18-year-old secretary, Virginia Green, overheard him talking to his wife on the phone.  She later said she heard him, "threatening to 'end it all,' but finally promising to see Mrs. McKenzie at the office or call her on the telephone again."

Later Virginia noticed McKenzie's office was empty and the window was open.  Fearing the worst and without checking

further, she telephoned police.  The Brooklyn Standard Union reported, "A few minutes later reserves were called out to control a crowd that had gathered."  The 53-year-old had jumped to his death.  Louise was brought to the scene, where she said she was "not surprised," and that her husband had been "melancholy" over recent financial reversals.

The Architectural Review, March 1910 (copyright expired)

Walker & Gillette's unique townhouse survived until 1963, when it and its neighbors were razed for a modern apartment building.

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The 1887 Charles B. Poor House - 367 Manhattan Avenue

 

In 1889, Andrew Carnegie gave architect William B. Tuthill a significant commission--designing Carnegie Hall.  But three years earlier, in September 1886, when Tuthill designed a row of 10 three-story houses along the western blockfront of Manhattan Avenue between 115th and 116th Streets for George F. Ferris, the 31-year-old was better known for his singing capabilities than for architecture.

Tuthill designed the row in a satisfying blend of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles.  Toward the center of the row, 367 Manhattan Avenue was faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  The fully arched openings of the parlor floor were capped with sturdy voussoirs of undressed stone.  The second story sat between two intermediate cornices, while the third featured two arched windows with brick eyebrows and a gable with Queen Anne style stone tiles.  The brick piers on either side terminated in elaborate Corinthian capitals.  The house had cost Ferris $7,000 to build--about $235,000 in 2024.

An advertisement in the New York Herald on October 18, 1887 read, "Charming 20 foot residence 367 Manhattan av., for sale; price $15,000; convenient to Morningside Park and 116th street "L" station."

Instead, however, Ferris ended up leasing the house, its monthly rent equivalent to about $2,741 today.  In 1895, Charles B. Poor moved his family into 367 Manhattan Avenue.  Poor juggled two professions.  He was a wine merchant at 44 Beaver Street while also running a real estate operation at 45 Broadway.  He and his wife had a daughter.

In May 1896, Charles B. Poor's name appeared in newspapers from coast to coast.  He was the first juror selected for the sensational "Chowder Trial."  

Two years earlier, the Bliss family moved to 121 Manhattan Avenue, about ten blocks south of the the Poors' home.  Henry H. Bliss, the deputy librarian at the College of the City of New York, had married his wife, Evelina, on July 23, 1868.  Also living in the house was Evelina's daughter by a former marriage, Mary Alice Almont Livingston Fleming, and her children.  It was not a tranquil arrangement, with Mary Alice constantly at odds with her mother and step-father over finances.

On the night of August 30, 1895, Evelina and Mary Alice got into another heated argument in Henry's presence.  After dinner Evelina fell violently ill.  A doctor was called who diagnosed "mixed poisoning."

On September 9, 1895, the Glens Falls Daily Times reported, "Nine days ago Mrs. Evelina M. Bliss ate some clam chowder.  Five hours after eating it she was dead."  An investigation by Dr. Henry A. Mott, an analytical chemist, discovered "a large amount of arsenic in the stomach of Mrs. Bliss," according to testimony later.

The morning after Evelina's death Mary Alice was arrested "and locked up in the Tombs charged with murdering her mother," said the Glens Falls Daily Times.  An official told the newspaper, "There is not the shadow of a doubt that Mrs. Bliss was poisoned by eating clam chowder."

On May 12, 1896, The World reported that after "more than four hours of questioning," Charles B. Poor had been selected as the first juror.  "He evidently didn't care to serve; but he had no valid excuse and was acceptable to both sides."  The newspaper described him as "a slender, well-dressed man with a brown beard tinged with gray."

Charles B. Poor in the courtroom.  The World, May 12, 1896 (copyright expired)

The reluctant Charles Poor was also selected as the jury's foreman.  The group deliberated for 19 hours (and wrangled over the possibility of condemning a woman to the death penalty).  On June 26, 1896, the Pike County [Pennsylvania] Press reported, "When Clerk Brophy asked foreman Charles B. Poor if the jury had agreed upon a verdict, he replied: 'We have.  Not guilty.'"  For the rest of his life, Poor would be remembered as having uttered those words.

Two months after the trial, Poor's wife and daughter were in the country while he remained in the city to conduct business.  On August 28, he and two friends, Dr. and Mrs. William T. Alexander, took a bike ride to Yonkers.  Returning late in the evening, they reached 163rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, "when horses attached to a light road wagon bore down upon Mr. Poor," reported the New York Herald.

In what can only be described as the perfect storm of bad luck and timing, the article said Poor attempted to avoid the team, "but was seized with a stroke of epilepsy.  He fell heavily, striking the curb.  He lost consciousness and blood poured from a gash in his head."  Reminding its readers that Poor "was the foreman of the Fleming jury," the newspaper said he was seriously injured and "is suffering at his home, No. 367 Manhattan avenue."

Charles B. Poor's luck would not improve.  At a time when it was often easier for a woman to have her husband committed to a lunatic asylum than to obtain a divorce, on November 12, 1898 the New York Journal and Advertiser reported that Poor "was committed to the insane pavilion at Bellevue yesterday morning."  This, said the article, was done, "despite Poor's vehement statement that he had been examined by two reputable physicians and pronounced to be sane."

Poor apparently never got over his wife's betrayal.  After being released, in 1906 he boarded with a family at 69 West 83rd Street.  On January 6, 1907, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the Harlem Canal.

In the meantime, by 1900 Poor's former home on Manhattan Avenue was being operated as a boarding house.  Living here that year was William Henry Glasson, who held a Ph.B. from Cornell University.  Martin J. Jackson moved in at the beginning of 1901.  He placed an announcement in The New York Dramatic Mirror on February 9 that read, "Martin J. Jackson, designer of costumes and at one time with the well known London costumer, is now located at 367 Manhattan Avenue, this city."

In 1912 and 1913, the house was the clubhouse of the Monongahela Democratic Club, a Tammany Hall organization.  It quickly returned to a boarding house, run by John M. Walsh who also leased 363 and 365 Manhattan Avenue.

After owning the houses for nearly four decades, the Ferris family sold 361 through 367 Manhattan Avenue to Samuel Polensky in October 1925.  He leased No. 367 to Cedric Whittier Root and his wife, the former Eva Bertram.  The couple had two sons, Peter H. and Edward J.  Born on May 21, 1903, Root was a radio enthusiast and installed an amateur radio "station" in the house.  The Roots remained here until at least 1928.

In 1938, 363 to 367 Manhattan Avenue were sold as a group to Sophie Malakoff for $24,000 (about $519,000 today).  They would continue to be sold together over the years, and on March 16, 1997, The New York Times reported that James Henderson had sold "the four dilapidated brownstones at 361 through 367 Manhattan Avenue" to developer Phillip H. Morrow.  The article said he and his partners "have set about to create duplex apartments with about 1,600 gross square feet of space."

Today there are two condominiums in 367 Manhattan Avenue.  Unfortunately, at some point the stained glass transoms of the parlor windows were removed, and the 1997 renovation included a shockingly inappropriate entrance door.

photographs by the author

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Robert W. Chanler's "House of Fantasy" - 147-149 East 19th Street

 

In 1843 a row of Greek Revival homes was completed along the northern side of East 19th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue.  Three stories tall above English basements, they were faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Among them were 106 and 108 East 19th Street (renumbered 147 and 149 in 1867), both of which were operated as rooming houses by the 1890s.  

On September 19, 1910, Antoinette and George Finch purchased the two houses, which were described by the Record & Guide as "brick tenements."  Seven months later, on April 5, 1911, The Sun reported, 

George Finch is having plans prepared for turning the two four story buildings at 147 and 149 East Nineteenth street into a studio building.  The improvement is an interesting one, as it is likely to have a decided influence on the future character of this neighborhood, which at present is a tenement district.  The alteration, which will cost about $10,000, is not a speculative improvement, as the property has been leased for five years to a party whose name Mr. Finch said he could not divulge at this time.  

The mystery of the renter's identity was soon cleared up.  On April 30, 1911, a headline in The New York Times read, “'Sheriff Bob' Chanler Will Join the Colony at Gramercy Park” and the sub-headline added, “With Mrs. William Astor Chanler He Will Move to the Nineteenth Street Section, Which Has Been Charmingly Reconstructed.”

Born on February 22, 1872, Chanler had an impressive pedigree.  He was the great-great grandson of Peter Stuyvesant and the grandnephew of Julia Ward Howe, John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor, Jr.  Chanler, who had just stepped down from his position as Sheriff of Duchess County, was also a newlywed.  He married Natalina (known as Lina) Cavalieri on June 18, 1910.  She was his second wife.  His marriage to Julia Remington Chamberlain had ended in divorce in August 1907.

It was Chanler who had chosen architect Frederick Junius Sterner to combine and remodel the two houses into a residence-studio.  In 1906, the British-born architect had arrived in New York from Colorado, purchased a high-stooped brownstone on the East 19th Street block, and transformed it into a Mediterranean-style villa with a stuccoed facade and red tiled roof.  One by one, he remodeled houses Pygmalion-like to fantastic, romantic structures, resulting in what Harriett Gillespie, writing in American Homes and Gardens in 1914, would call, "the Block Beautiful."

After removing the stoops, as he did with most of his transformations, Sterner covered the facade with stucco.  Wrought iron faux balconies appeared at the second and fourth floors.  A sloped, tile roof was flanked by stepped Flemish gables.  The wooden doors with iron strap hinges that sat within brick surrounds were surmounted by tympana filled with polychrome scenes of giraffes executed by Chanler's close friend, Charles Cary Rumsey.  They were, most likely, a nod to one of Chanler's most successful paintings to date, Giraffes, which was exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905.

from the Rokeby Collection, Barrytown, New York

While 147 and 149 East 19th Street were being joined and remodeled, Chanler temporarily moved his studio into the converted carriage house down the block at 124 East 19th Street.  At the time, Current Opinion magazine called Chanler, “America’s most imaginative decorator.”  The artist’s murals decorated residences like that of William K. Vanderbilt, but they were in no way traditional.  The catalog for a later exhibition would explain, “Chanler’s career represents a series of reactions against conventions social and aesthetic.”  It said, “Surmounting in turn the inherited handicaps of family tradition and material affluence, he has won his way to a virile autonomy of thought and action which is to-day his most cherished possession.”

Lina Chanler would never move into the completed house.  The couple separated after their honeymoon and divorced in June 1912.  (Charles Green Shaw would later say, "He has been married twice and considers matrimony the greatest joke in the world.")

In the meantime, Chanler decorated what he called his House of Fantasy.  Years later, the Buffalo Evening News would comment, "His famous House of Fantasy, at 147 East 19th street, New York, is a demonstration of his eccentric nature.  The place has been rendered colorful and exotic by furnishings and decorations created by the artist to accord with his own desires rather than the routine of the conventions."

Although none of the interiors survive, contemporary accounts describe vibrant murals.  In an essay for the Vizcaya Museum and Garden's Robert Winthop Chanler, Lauren Drapala noted, "The building housed the largest collection of Chanler's work, an extensive study collection of live animals for modeling in his artwork, a vast library of rare books, and an assortment of houseguests, both friends as well as artisans in his workshop."

Robert Winthrop Chanler's 1905 painting Giraffes is presumed to be the inspiration for the tympana over the doors at 147-149 East 19th Street.  The International Studio, 1922 (copyright expired)

Members of Chanler's in-house menagerie--birds, fish, snakes and such--which he kept as models for his paintings, as well as his house pets sometimes took it on the lam.  On July 24, 1913, an ad offered a $50 reward for the return of a French bulldog.  Three years later, on July 15, 1916, the New York Herald reported, "Somewhere on Manhattan Island the small French bulldog belonging to Robert W. Chanler is making a frantic search for him."  In 1918, an ad in the Evening Telegram read, "Lost--A pink head parrot with gray body; good reward," and the following year, on March 10, an advertisement said, "Lost--A Parrot--green and yellow Macaw parrot, in neighborhood of 147 East 19th St.; generous reward."  The advertisements would continue for years.

Meanwhile, the House of Fantasy was known as much for its owner's parties as for his artwork.  Known as "Papa" to his friends ("pronounced in the French fashion," according to Charles G. Shaw's 1918 The Low-Down), Chanler threw a New Year's Eve party in 1917.  The following day, the New York Herald wrote, "A sequal to Nero's fiddle solo as Rome burned was enacted last night in a studio at No. 147 East Nineteenth street."  The New-York Tribune explained that the guests, "danced the old year out...while fire that started in a defective flue at 145 East Nineteenth Street ate its way under the floor toward them.  Some one discovered the blaze and the firemen put it out in jig time."

Interestingly, while Chanler's parties were infamous, Charles Green Shaw wrote in 1928, "In the midst of one of his parties he will sometimes sneak upstairs to his workshop and, all by himself, commence a new painting."

After renting 147-149 East 19th Street for nearly a decade, Chanler purchased the property in July 1919 for $57,000 (about $1 million in 2024).  In reporting the sale, the New York Herald remarked, "These houses were altered into what is the largest private studio in the city for Mr. Chanler about eight years ago by the sellers."

While in Europe in 1928, Chanler suffered a heart attack.  On July 29, 1929, the Buffalo [New York] Evening News reported that he had been admitted to a hospital in Kingston, New York, saying, "This is the third heart seizure within a little more than a year...His present illness has given [his friends] intense concern."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Chanler recovered, but the scare may have caused him to consider the viability of living alone in the East 19th Street house.  On June 23, 1930, the New York Sun reported that he had returned to the city from Woodstock, New York, but had gone to the apartment of Howland Spencer at 377 Park Avenue.  "Mr. Chanler closed his house at 147 East Nineteenth street last May.  An apartment house will be built on the site," said the article.

The renowned artist never had the chance to carry out that project.  He died four months later, on October 24, 1930.  

The Chanler estate sold the house in May 1945 to Nathan and Blossom Dolinsky.  The couple converted it to five apartments, many of them duplexes.  The configuration survives.  It was most likely the Dolinskys who drilled a hole through one of Charles Cary Rumsey's giraffe panels to accommodate a lamp and removed Sterner's picturesque wooden doors.  Overall, however, the 1911 appearance is intact.

many thanks to Carole Teller for prompting this post

photographs by the author

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