Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's 1931 500 Fifth Avenue

 

photograph by Gryffindor

The year 1928 was prodigious for the new partnership of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.  Six months after the Empire State Inc. commissioned the firm to design what would be the Empire State Building on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria, Walter J. Salmon hired the architects to design a 58-floor skyscraper at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Interestingly, the 42nd Street corner was considered more valuable than the Empire State Building site.  The Real Estate Record & Guide described it as "the most valuable building site on Manhattan Island north of Wall Street," and commented, "For years residents of the city and out-of-town visitors alike have speculated as to the future of this corner, wondering that so prominent a location--at 'the crossroads of the world'--should have been neglected in the modern development of Fifth Avenue."

Walter J. Salmon (he changed his surname from Salomon sometime after 1910) had acquired the 42nd Street corner in 1915, but delayed development for more than a decade.  His plot, explained The New York Times on September 14, 1930, "is located in two zones, and a special design for that unusual situation had to be worked out by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the architects."  The two building zones, which allowed taller structures on 42nd Street than on Fifth Avenue, would result in the architects' asymmetrical design, unlike its sister building.  

Both skyscrapers broke ground in January 1930.  The New York Times followed the blinding speed of the progress of 500 Fifth Avenue.  On July 29, 1930, it reported "With the placing yesterday of the double deck tank house frame atop the fifty-eight story office building...steel work on the skyscraper was completed ahead of schedule."  The newspaper reported on September 7, "The exterior brick work...was completed last week," noting, "1,940,000 face brick and 1,374,000 common brick have been used."

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

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's Art Deco design was clad in limestone, buff brick and terra cotta.  The setbacks on the Fifth Avenue side were located at the 18th, 22nd and 25th floors, while those of the taller 42nd Street portion were at the 23rd, 28th and 34th floors.  Between them, the soaring central shaft rose dramatically.  

Stores lined the sidewalk, their windows framed in bronze.  The architects decorated the lower floors with Art Deco motifs, most efficaciously at the entrance which was flanked by pylons that terminated in stylized gilded fountain motifs.  Above the entrance was a bas relief by Edward Amateis.  It depicts a seated goddess embracing a model of the building in one arm, and a staff in the other.

photograph by Epicgenius

Although the building was not completed until March 1931, it was far enough along that potential tenants could inspect spaces several months earlier.  Among those was real estate operator Reginald W. Murray, head of the R. W. Murray Company and the Bagge-Murray Company.  According to a company spokesperson, "Mr. Murray was interested in floor space in the sixty-story building...and had had blueprints made of the space and layout of executive offices for a client."

On November 20, 1930, he left his office around noon with the blueprints, saying he would be back shortly for a lunch appointment.  Just after 1:00, Murray's body crashed onto the iron grill covering the skylight of the Columbia University Club.  "The belief was expressed that while inspecting the window lighting on the twenty-fourth floor he leaned out too far, lost his balance or became dizzy, and fell," reported The New York Times.  

The soaring structure embodied the Art Deco age in this postcard view.

"The Great Crash" that triggered the Great Depression happened three months before construction began.  As the opening neared, Walter J. Salmon addressed the economic reality.  In an article in The New York Times on December 14, 1930, he said, "We feel that it will take some time to absorb the approximately 500,000 square feet of office space in the building."  Nevertheless, at the time of the article 500 Fifth Avenue was 80 percent rented.

The tenants were varied.  In May 1931, the newly-organized Hotel Expert Service Corporation took space on the 20th floor.  In August, the advertising agency of N. W. Ayer & Son, Inc. moved into the 25th through 27th floors.  Included in the space was a radio station on the 25th floor "with complete equipment for transmitting programs to several conference rooms, making it possible for the advertiser to hear his program just as it will sound when publicly broadcast," and a theater on the same floor, "where advertisers can view the moving pictures made for them by the company," reported The New York Times on August 3, 1931.

photograph by Epicogenius

Among the initial retail tenants was the tobacco store of Nat Sherman, which moved into the corner store.  In the meantime, railroad firms gravitated to the building.  On February 5, 1932, The New York Sun began an article saying, "The eleventh railroad has taken lease space in the sixty-story 500 Fifth Avenue Building."  The newest was the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company.  Others included the Chicago & Northwestern; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; and Burlington & Quincy.

An unusual tenant was the Western Universities Club, which outfitted the four top floors for its clubhouse.  On October 25, 1932, the Iowa City Press-Citizen explained, "The club provides facilities for newcomers to meet old western friends who are now in the east and to promote understanding between the east and west."

The Austrian Consulate and office of consul-general Dr. Friedrich Fischerauer occupied space on the 31st floor in 1934.  At the time, the country's chancellor was dictator Engelbert Dollfuss who instituted Austro-Fascism that year.  At around 3:00 on February 14, about 200 "Communist, Socialists and other sympathizers," according to the Daily Columbia Spectator, began protests "against the Dollfuss regime" outside 500 Fifth Avenue.  "By 5:30 P. M., it numbered at least 4,000."  

Among the angry throng was Columbia assistant professor in physics (and son of author Upton Sinclair), David Sinclair.  "Trouble started shortly after 5 P. M.," said the Daily Columbia Spectator, which said the protest developed to a "near riot."  The article said, "The demonstrators, chased by officers up on the Public Library plaza, were then closed in upon by the mounted and foot police."  Among the injured was David Sinclair, who was "severely beaten about the head."

Before leaving for work on February 18, 1935, tenants must have panicked when they saw a headline in The New York Sun that read, "Elevator Men Begin Walkout."  In reporting the strike, the article noted, "Another twenty operators and two starters struck at 500 Fifth avenue in the sixty-story building, where 3,500 persons work and some 20,000 persons go in and out every day."

The building manager, Emil Gallinger, however, told a reporter the following day that amidst the Depression environment, "he had no lack of applications from men seeking to replace the striking elevator operators."  He told The Sun, "New men were running some of the elevators in the sixty-story building at 500 Fifth avenue...and that soon all would be in operation."

In the second half of the 20th century, 500 Fifth Avenue was home to several attorneys and travel agencies.  At least one railroad was still here, Burlington Northern.  

The City Stores Company, a holding company for department stores founded in 1923, had offices on the 32nd floor by the early 1970s.  Gloria Nimmons was its switchboard operator in 1974.  The 35-year-old was estranged from her husband, Bernard Nimmons.  Just before 2:00 on May 25 that year, Bernard walked into the City Stores Company offices.  According to police, he "emptied his gun at the woman."  Nimmons fled, leaving his wife dead on the floor.

At the time, the architectural firm Prentice & Chan, Olhausen occupied the top floor.  In November 1976 partner Rolf Olhausen opined to The New York Times architecture critic and journalist Paul Goldberger that its space "may have been some sort of restaurant very long ago."  The space, of course, had been the clubrooms of the Western Universities Club, details of which apparently had survived.

The Nat Sherman store's large bronze street clock, flanked with two cigar store Indians, was a fixture on the 42nd and Fifth Avenue corner.  Then, after more than three-quarters of a century in the space, Nat Sherman closed its doors on June 15, 2007.  CEO Joel Sherman explained to The New York Times journalist Anthony Ramirez that the lease had expired and, while the firm did not want to leave, the management of 500 Fifth Avenue "made staying in that building rather uncomfortable for us, they made us feel unwanted."  In his August 30 article, Ramirez recalled:

Customers like Joe Montana and Natalie Cole would drop by for cigars, and sometimes stay for a smoke in the upstairs lounge.  The more committed aficionados had small name-plated lockers for their smokes.  They included Harry Connick Jr., the singer; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor; and Joe Torre, the Yankees baseball manager.

Nat Sherman moved diagonally across the intersection to 12 East 42nd Street.

photograph by Pablo Costa Tirado

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's imposing Art Deco skyscraper has always played second fiddle to its famous sister, the Empire State Building.  Deserving more attention than it is given, 500 Fifth Avenue is among the most architecturally significant Art Deco skyscrapers in the city.

The 1836 Arthur Rogers Pharmacy Building - 193 Spring Street

 

Little Brannon Street, named for the owner's garden, continued through the country estate of Aaron Burr, Richmond Hill.  In 1817, streets began appearing in the district, followed by houses.  The name of Brannon Street was changed to Spring Street, after the spring that provided water to the new residents.

In 1833, Thomas and Maria Ludlow sold a portion of their large property to three investors--merchant Ellison C. Scott, Israel Clark and John G. Hadden.  The trio erected three similar Federal style houses on the plots.  Clark, a mason, and Hadden, who was a carpenter-builder, were no doubt hands-on in the construction.  Ellison C. Scott was the owner of the new structure at 193 Spring Street.

Originally two-and-a-half stories tall, the 25-foot-wide building and store would have had one or two dormers punching through the peaked roof.  The occupants of the upper floors in 1836 was the family of James B. Bensel, a tailor whose shop was at 51 Fulton Street.

By 1840, the store was occupied by the confectionary store of Arthur Corry (sometimes spelled Cory).  It was replaced by William Core's fancystore by 1845.  (Fancystores offered a variety of items, from sewing needs to gloves and hosiery.)  At the time, Leah Nagle, the widow of William Nagle, lived upstairs.

When 193 and 195 Spring Street were advertised for sale on December 19, 1845, they were described as, "2 story and attic brick front houses."  The ad reflected the well-established neighborhood.  "The situation, with regard to business is unsurpassed, it being regarded as the best stand on the street."  The owner of 193 Spring Street raised the attic level to a full floor.  When he sold the property in February 1850, it was now described as, "the lot of ground known as No. 193 Spring street, with the 3 story brick store and dwelling house thereon."

That year, Thomas Towle moved his drygoods store, Thomas Towle & Sons, from 313 Hudson Street into the shop and moved his family into the upper floors.  Although the Towles continued to live here, in 1853 Peter B. and Charles L. Utley ran the drygoods store, named Utley & Brother.  Sharing the upper floors with the Towles were the Mott family.

Tragedy occurred here on October 4, 1854.  The Motts had a newly born girl, Ella.  On October 14, the Mourning Courier & New-York Enquirer reported, "An inquest was held upon the body of Ella Mott, an infant, who died from the effects of scalds received ten days since, when a pot of boiling coffee was upset upon its chest at the residence of its parents, No. 193 Spring street."

The Utley & Brother store remained in 1856.  That year Arthur Rogers leased the building, opening his pharmacy in the shop and moving his family into the upstairs.  Born in 1817, Rogers had been a druggist for about 15 years.  

When the building was sold at auction on March 18, 1856, the announcement mentioned it was "occupied by a drug store."  The pharmacy would continue to be a neighborhood mainstay for decades to come.

Pharmacists routinely mixed and sold their own patent medicine.  In April 1859, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune touted, "Rogers's Citrate of Magnesia--Try it! Try it!  Large Bottles in Powder only 25 cents.  One Bottle is equal to three of the Liquid.  A very agreeable Purgative."

By 1868, Edward H. Rogers had joined his father's business, now named Arthur Rogers & Son's.  In June that year, Kate Sloan, who was a servant in the house of James Hamilton at 99 Thompson Street, purchased a package of Epsom salts mixed with senna.  (The compound was used as a laxative.)  When she returned, Hamilton did not take it, and the package was placed on a shelf.

Around September 20, James Hamilton took the preparation.  A week later, on September 27, the 42-year-old died.  Both Arthur and Edward Rogers were arrested the next day, "to await an examination into the circumstances attending the dead," reported the New York Herald.  The druggists were held until October 5 when they were exonerated "for all blame," as reported by The Evening Post.  James Hamilton had accidentally ingested oxalic acid after, apparently, the packages had gotten confused.

The Rogers family routinely took in boarders, and in 1869 William Ferguson lived here.  That year in April he joined scores of irate citizens who signed a demand that the New York Senate and Assembly investigate the recent Presidential election.  Saying that prominent officials had "with the shrewdly-concealed connivance of others," they "robbed the people of that great State of their rightful choice of electors of President and Vice-President."

Arthur Rogers was at the Market Street train station in Newark, New Jersey when he was "robbed of fifty dollars and some valuable papers...by a Philadelphia pickpocket named Christian," said The Evening Post on September 22, 1870.  The article reported, "The thief was at once arrested by the police, but he threw the pocketbook and its contents to an accomplice, who succeeded in effecting his escape."  The cash Rogers lost would translate to about $1,200 in 2025.

Around 1876, the father-and-son business was successful enough that they opened a second drugstore at 281 Bleecker Street.  The following year, an "annoying tumor," as described by The New York Times, developed on Arthur Rogers's neck.  The pharmacist worried about his condition, eventually becoming despondent.

Around 5:00 on the morning of November 8, 1877, Rogers left the house, telling his wife "he was going to visit a relative in Brooklyn," said The New York Times.  He would not return.  The newspaper reported, "Between 8 and 9 o'clock yesterday evening the Harbor Police found the body of an unknown man floating in the East River at the foot of Montague-street, Brooklyn."  Papers on the body suggested it was Rogers.  Edward went to the morgue and identified his father.  The body of the 60-year-old was brought here, where his funeral was held.

Edward continued to use the former name following his father's death.  Decades after Arthur concocted the patent medicine, it was still was the firm's major draw.  Friends' Intelligencer, September 21, 1878 (copyright expired)

The Rogers pharmacy remained at least through 1891.  By then, the neighborhood was what newspapers called "the Italian Colony."  The inspection that resulted in a violation at 193 Spring Street for "inadequate fire-escapes" described it as a "tenement," meaning that it was now a multi-family building.  In April 1906, Sophia Longinotti sold the property to Antonio and Silvestro Sozio, presumably brothers.

The Sozios hired architect Frederick Musty in August 1908 to make minor renovations.  The costs were only about $3,500 in 2025 terms.  It was possible at this time that a veneer of stucco scored to appear as stone was applied.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A more substantial renovation completed in 1944 that resulted in two apartments per floor above the storefront.

The Soho neighborhood retained its Italian personality into the second half of the century.  In the 1980s, the former Rogers drugstore was home to the restaurant, Rocco & His Brothers.  But as the 20th century drew to a close, the district was transformed by trendy cafes, art galleries, and boutiques.  The change was evident when Baluchi's, a Northern Indian restaurant, opened in January 1993.  Today a delicatessen occupies the space.

This resilient survivor stands as a surprising relic of the first wave of the Soho development.

photographs by the author

The Remodeled Herbert Lawrence House - 267 Henry Street

 

In the early 1830s, prim Federal-style houses rose along the new streets laid out on the former Rutgers Farm.  One of these, at 267 Henry Street (named for Henry Rutgers), was completed in 1834.  Like most of its neighbors, it was two-and-a-half stories tall with red brick cladding and two attic dormers.  In November 1834, an advertisement in the New York Morning Courier offered for sale, "the two story House and Lot No. 267 Henry st...house 24 by 42 ft., finished in modern style, with under cellars, finished attic, &c."

Nathan Cobb, a shipmaster, occupied the house in 1836.  Cobb owned the coastal steamer Savannah and had become a member of the Marine Society of the City of New York on May 12, 1828.  Following his retirement, Cobb relocated to Tarrytown, where he erected a stately mansion that survives.

Nathan Cobb assuredly was well-acquainted with Herbert Lawrence, one of the preeminent ship builders of the East Coast.  Their relationship likely resulted in Lawrence's purchase of 267 Henry Street in 1846.  

Herbert Lawrence was born in Pallisades, in Rockland County, in 1778.  He arrived in New York City in 1809 and became "a practical ship-builder, entering a yard near the Battery," according to The New York Times decades later.  He co-founded Lawrence & Sneden in 1816 as the senior partner.  The following year the firm was given an important commission for the steamboat Bolona by Cornelius Vanderbilt I.  The New York Times reported, 

She was a model of beauty and marveled at of account of her size.  She was built to compete with a line of boats owned by a company which was monopolizing traffic on the Hudson River.  The wonderful craft was 80 feet long, 20 feet beam, and 6 feet hold, and was propelled by paddle wheels.

In appreciation of the lucrative commission, Lawrence presented Vanderbilt with a scale model of the Bolona, which was prominently displayed in the Vanderbilt parlor at 10 Washington Place.

Herbert and his wife, the former Sarah Freelove Mann, had two sons, William and Herbert, Jr.  (Somewhat morbidly, the boys' namesakes were their parent's first sons--also William and Herbert--who died in infancy.)

By 1852, Herbert, Jr., still in his 20s, was a co-proprietor of his father's firm.  That year William Foulks established a partnership with Herbert Lawrence, and the firm was renamed Lawrence & Foulks.  With the seaport bustling and crowded, in 1854 the firm moved its shipyard to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  During this period, Lawrence & Foulks built oceangoing steamships outfitted with lavish accommodations for passengers.

Lawrence & Foulks built the luxurious Commonwealth in 1854.  from the collection of the Athenaeum.

The firm turned from luxury travel and shipping to warfare with the outbreak of the Civil War.  Several crafts in the process of construction were remodeled for gunboats.  The sidewheel steamer Thomas Freeborn was engaged in an attack on Mathias Point, Virginia on June 16, 1861 and his commander, James H. Ward, became the first U.S. Navy officer killed in the war.

Following the war, Lawrence & Foulks resumed the construction of a variety of vessels, like the Sylvan Dell, a ferry built for the Harlem & New York Navigation Company (it earned the nickname the "Queen of New York Harbor"), and the first schooner built after the Civil War, the Jennie Stout.

On October 20, 1877, Sarah Lawrence died a month before her 84th birthday.  Her funeral was held in the house on October 24, at 11 a.m.  By then, Herbert, Sr. had retired and Herbert, Jr. had stepped into the senior partnership role.  

On March 1, 1882, The New York Times reported, "Mr. Herbert Lawrence, a very old resident of this City and one who was closely identified with ship-building interests here in the early years of the century, died yesterday at his residence, No. 267 Henry-street."  The article commented, "he bought the house in which he died yesterday 36 years ago, when Henry-street was a fashionable locality."  His funeral on March 2 would be the last in the venerable house.

The "fashionable locality" mentioned in the article had greatly changed since the Lawrence family moved in.  The district was now mostly filled with Eastern European Jewish immigrants.  On June 16, 1888, the Record & Guide reported that the Lawrence house had been sold to "The Louis Down-Town Sabbath School."  The cost had been $14,250, and "with an additional expenditure of $5,000, was converted into a well-appointed schoolhouse," according to The New York Times.  The total expenditure would translate to about $636,000 today.

The girls' school was founded in 1880 by Mrs. A. H. Louis.  Seven years after it moved into 267 Henry Street, on June 16, 1895, The New York Times praised, "The Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School is a magnificent example of what can be accomplished by noble-minded women among the young and old of their sex in the hearts of the slums."  The article said the sponsors, "by the hand with kindness and tact, has induced these little girls to go to the schoolhouse and receive not only the rudiments of an English education and that of the ancient faith of Moses and the children of Israel, but lessons in decorum, cleanliness, and useful knowledge to the housewife."

The 50 students were from 8 to 15 years old.  The curriculum focused on preparing the girls for life later.  The morning consisted of "plain sewing, fancy needlework, dressmaking, millinery, and cooking."  In the afternoons, they were instructed in "stenography, typewriter, bookkeeping, and in elementary English."  The article stressed, "The officers and teachers endeavor to place the girls with families and business houses and thereby counteract...as possible the evils of the sweatshop system."

The New York Times, June 10, 1905 (copyright expired)

On February 10, 1902, The Evening World reported, "Adolph Lewisohn to-day gave $75,000 to the Hebrew Technical School towards a fund for another school building," and that Nathaniel Meyers had added $5,000.  The article recalled, "The school is located at No. 267 Henry street for the education of poor east side girls."  The massive funding resulted in an announcement  on May 5, 1903 that a planned building at Second Avenue and 15th Street was planned.

The school relocated in 1906 and on May 11 Morris Loeb purchased the building for $28,000 (about $978,000 today).  The Federal style residence was given a remarkable re-do.  The attic was raised to a third floor, the entrance dropped below grade, and the facade given a Georgian inspired transformation, including handsome arched tympana over the floor windows and Colonial splayed lintels at the second floor.

The renovation of 267 (right) was remarkable.  Next door, at 265 Henry Street was the original Henry Settlement House property.  from the NYC Records & Information Services.

At the time, Lillian D. Wald had operated the Henry Street Settlement next door at 265 Henry Street since 1894.  Loeb donated 267 Henry Street to the Settlement as administrative offices.

Eventually, 263 Henry Street would be acquired by the organization as well.  When a proposal in 1964 threatened to raze and replace the properties, the officers chose instead to restore the historic structures.  The work of the Henry Street Settlement continues within the three vintage structures.  No. 267 Henry Street--which would be unrecognizable to the Lawrence family today--is as important for its social history as for its striking architecture.

photographs by the author

The Ira A. Place House - 268 West 77th Street

 

Real estate developer Dore Lyon hired Edward Angell to design four high-stooped rowhouses on the south side of West 77th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in 1889.  The 18-feet-wide residences would rise four stories above high English basements.  Angell created them as two Romanesque Revival-style models in a balanced A-B-B-A configuration.

At the western end of the row was 268 West 77th Street, an "A" model.  A solid wing wall of undressed stone flanked the stoop, beside which was a rounded, two-story bay.  Colorful stained glass filled the transoms of the parlor windows, and the panel above the arched entrance was intricately carved with delicate vines.

The center stained glass transom has been lost, most likely to a one-time window air conditioner.  The arched opening above the door was originally stained glass, as well.

The third and fourth floors were clad in beige brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Below the peaked gable was a decorative, blind arcade.

Construction was completed in 1890.  Dore Lyon did not sell 268 West 77th Street, however, until March of 1895, when the "four-story and basement brown-stone and buff-brick" dwelling was offered at auction.   It may have been the ongoing Financial Panic of 1893 that lessened bidders' enthusiasm.  The single bid of $25,000 (about $935,000 in 2025) was refused.

Finally, six years after construction was completed, on September 23, 1896, The New York Times reported that Dore and Anna E. Lyon had sold 268 West 77th Street.  The buyers were Ira Adelbert Place and his wife, the former Katharine B. Gauntlett.

Ira Place was born in New York City on May 8, 1854.  He graduated from Cornell University in 1881 and was admitted to the bar in 1883.  He and Katharine were married in 1893 and had three children, three-year-old Katharine, two-year-old Hermann Gauntlett, and newborn Willard Fiske Place.  When the family moved into 268 West 77th Street, Place was assistant to the general counsel of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, as well as a director in four other railroads.

Ira Adelbert Place in his later years, from the collection of the Eastman Museum.

Place's position and influence within New York Central increased.  In April 1905, he was appointed the general counsel and a vice president of the railroad.  Apparently well satisfied with the Upper West Side, he was admitted to membership in the West End Association on February 4, 1907.  Founded by millionaire W. E. D. Stokes in 1884 as the Citizens' West Side Improvement Association, it was the Upper West Side's watchdog agency, lobbying for improvements and against incursions, like garbage dumps.

Place's membership in the West End Association and his firm's interests would come into direct conflict in October 1911.  As the railroad laid plans to provide passenger service along the Hudson River, a critic warned the press, "An open railway terminal in full view of the costly Riverside Drive and Parkway...would be an eyesore to Washington Heights and an eyesore to New York in general."

A reporter from The New York Times went to the Place house to obtain a response on October 11, 1911.  His timing was less than considerate--he arrived at approximately midnight.  The interview came to an abrupt conclusion:

Mr. Place listened from the second-story window.  Then he asked who gave him the information.  He was told that his caller was a Times reporter.  Mr. Place closed the window.  He did not reappear.

In 1912, Katharine enrolled in Vassar College.  Three years later, in June 1915, her engagement to James Fairchild Adams, who had just graduated from Princeton, was announced.  The wedding would wait until Katharine's graduation.  

The couple was married in the Church of the Messiah at 34th Street and Park Avenue on November 9, 1916.  "After their honeymoon trip," reported The New York Times, "Mr. and Mrs. Adams will live in New Kensington, near Pittsburgh, Penn., where Mr. Adams is in business."

Like their father, Hermann and Willard attended Cornell.  Hermann graduated in 1917 and immediately went off to war, serving with the U.S. Army.  Upon his return, he went into banking with the Mercantile Trust Company.

On March 6, 1921 the New York Herald reported on Hermann's engagement to Angela Turner Moore.  As his sister had done, Hermann was marrying into a socially prestigious family.  The Cornell Alumni News mentioned that Angela was "a member of the Colonial Dames and of the Junior League."

On January 24, 1928, according to The New York Times, Ira A. Place "announced at a meeting of the Board of Estimate...that the New York Central was ready to cooperate with the city in the vast west side improvement."  The article said he, "seemed to take pleasure in the graceful speech he made," during which he asserted that while the railroad, "hoped for more room for expansion of its yards on the west side, it still wished to cooperate with the city and was ready to make concessions."

The following day, Place prepared to go to Albany for a conference of the New York Central executives.  Before he could leave the house, as reported by The Times, the 73-year-old died "of thrombosis following a stroke of apoplexy."  In reporting his death, the newspaper said, "Mr. Place's name will be linked with some of the most important improvements in New York City in the present generation."

The funeral was held in the Community Church on Park Avenue at 34th Street (previously the Church of the Messiah).  The New York Times reported, "Railroad men of every rank, jurists, educators and civic officials made up a large part of a gathering of more than 700 at the funeral services for Ira A. Place."  The article included an exhaustive list of esteemed mourners at the service.

The formidable wing walls of the stoop survived in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Place's estate was appraised at $484,954, or about $8.63 million in 2025 terms.  The bulk of the estate went to Katherine.  Each of the children, including Willard, who was unmarried and still lived at 268 West 77th Street, received $1,000.

Katharine Place sold 268 West 77th Street shortly afterward.  It was divided into unofficial apartments.  Among the tenants in 1933 was Abram A. Preciado, who ran "a clearing house for bringing travel car owners together with passengers," as he described it in court that year.  If a vehicle owner were driving to Chicago, for instance, Preciado would match him with individuals going there.  The owner's costs would then be offset and the passengers' fees would be cheaper than riding by train.

Nathan Cahan lived here in 1947.  He was listed within the directory of Local No. 802 Associated Musicians of Greater New York.

An official conversion was completed in 1968.  It resulted in two apartments per floor.  The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to below grade.  It may have been at this time that most of the stained glass transoms throughout the house were removed.

photographs by the author

The Lost 1827 Azariah Ross House - 45 Dominick Street

 

image from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Born in 1787 in New Jersey, Azariah Ross served in the War of 1812, then became a significant architect, real estate developer and builder (although he consistently understated his profession in directories as "mason").  On March 11, 1826, he purchased a substantial amount of rural land from Robert M. Livingston.  The deed demanded Ross "to convey it as a street to the Corporation" [i.e., the city] within 18 months, "otherwise it reverts to R. M. Livingston."  The new street would be named Dominick Street, after George Dominick, a French-born vestryman of Trinity Church.

Ross quickly developed Dominick Street with prim, brick-faced Federal-style houses, two-and-a-half stories tall.  He moved his family into one of the first, the 20-foot-wide 45 Dominick Street, and used it as his base of operation.  An advertisement in the New-York Evening Post on May 3, 1827, offered, "To Let, 3 elegant two story brick Houses in Dominick near Hudson street.  Possession given immediately.  Inquire of assessor, 45 Dominick street."

The mention of "assessor" referred to Ross's other profession.  In addition to his substantial development and real estate operation, he was one of the two Assessors of the Eighth Ward.  On June 22, 1827, the New-York Evening Post reported, "Public notice is hereby given that the Assessors of the Eighth Ward have completed their assessments, and that a copy thereof is left with Azariah Ross, 45 Dominick street, where the same may be seen and examined by any of the inhabitants."  (Today, no doubt, eyebrows would be raised if the builder and seller of many of the properties was also trusted with appraising their values.)

Azariah Ross was married to the former Elsie Van Buskirk.  When they moved into 45 Dominick Street they had two children, Edwin, who was eight years old, and Theodore, who was five.  Elsie was pregnant at the time, and Amelia was born in the house that year.  A fourth child, Leander, would arrive in 1834.  The family had a summer home in Rockland County.

By 1830, Ross had been appointed a Commissioner of Estimate and Assessment.  He continue his construction and architectural work, as well.  He would work with Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux in the design and construction of the stone bridges of Central Park, for instance, and in the stonework at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

On December 13, 1839, Ross sold his home and the abutting house at 43 Dominick Street at auction.  (He would design and erect a striking Gothic Revival mansion at South Nyack, New York in 1856, where his family increasingly spent time.)

The Dominick Street house was purchased by Charles L. Vose, a merchant at 28 South Street.  His residency would be relatively short.  When he advertised 45 Dominick Street in 1845, he boasted that it "is in complete order and has all the modern improvements, Croton water, &c., probably the most convenient house in the city."

The mention of Croton water was significant.  It meant that 45 Dominick Street was one of the earliest to have running water.  The Croton Reservoir on Murray Hill (site of today's New York Public Library) had opened only three years earlier.

For nearly two decades, 45 Dominick Street saw a succession of occupants who most likely rented the house.  Then in 1863 it would become the long-time home of the Townsend Carpenter family.  

Carpenter was born in Purchase, New York in 1800.  He and his wife, Phebe, who were married in Purchase on October 5, 1823, were members of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.  After relocating to New York City, they continued to maintain a home in Purchase, a Quaker community founded by John Harrison in 1695.  

Townsend Carpenter was a wholesale grocer at 308 Spring Street.  He and Phebe had three children, Isaac Thorne, born in 1825; David R., born two years later; and Adelia Augusta, born in 1829.    

On June 29, 1868, one month after Townsend's 68th birthday, he died "suddenly," according to The New York Times.  The term most often referred to a heart attack or stroke.  His death notice reflected the phraseology of the Society of Friends:

His friends and relatives are respectfully invited to attend his funeral, from his late residence, No. 45 Dominick-st., at 4 o'clock on Fourth Day (Wednesday) afternoon, and at Friends meeting house, Purchace [sic], at 11 o'clock Fifth Day morning.

The family was in Purchase on September 1, 1884, when Phebe Carpenter died at the age of 79.  Her funeral was held there, the notice in the New-York Tribune noting, "Carriages in waiting at White Plains Depot on arrival of the 8:30 a.m. train out of New-York."

Isaac T. Carpenter had taken over the operation of the family's grocery business.  Neither he nor Adelia married and lived quietly in the Dominick Street house for the rest of their lives.  The New-York Tribune mentioned that in his leisure time, Isaac was a member of the Manhattan Chess Club.

Around 1896, Isaac suffered a stroke.  Paralyzed, he was "confined to the house in care of nurses," according to the New-York Tribune.  Calling him, "one of the oldest residents of Greenwich Village," on December 17, 1902 the New-York Tribune reported that Isaac T. Carpenter had died. He was 77 years old.   The newspaper mentioned that he, "lived with a sister nearly as old."  There was no funeral in the Dominick house.  Instead, the body was directly transported to Purchase where the funeral was held in the Friends' Meeting House.

Amelia Augusta Carpenter lived on alone until November 19, 1915, when she died at the age of 87.  The New-York Tribune noted, "For the last fifty-two years she had been a resident of Greenwich Village, living during the entire period in the house where she died."  Like her family members before her, her funeral was held in the Friends' Meeting House in Purchase.

The extensive Carpenter real estate holdings was revealed the following year when Isaac T. Carpenter's estate was liquidated.  The auction in April 1916 included tenement buildings, factories, numerous houses, and vacant lots throughout the New York area and even a dwelling in Bar Harbor, Maine.  The Real Estate Record & Guide noted that Carpenter's will directed the proceeds to go to "over twenty-five charities as beneficiaries, including many hospitals."

Following World War I, William Sloane Coffin purchased many of the overlooked vintage structures in the neighborhood.  Included was 45 Dominick Street, which he leased to the Spring Street Church for its parsonage.  On April 18, 1920, The Sun noted (with one glaringly inaccurate historic detail), 

Mr. Coffin's first activity in the rehabilitation of Greenwich Village started seven or eight years ago, when he remodelled [sic] the parsonage of the Spring Street Church at 45 Dominick street.  This old house, like others in the neighborhood, has the quaint dormers and interesting Colonial doorway.  It is, as in the case of the others, built substantially of brick, with brownstone copings and a low front stoop with iron railings, and in this case, wrought iron posts [that] indicated the fact that at some time in its history, it was occupied by a Mayor of New York.

The same year of the article, construction began on the massive Holland Tunnel project that wiped out blocks of vintage structures.  The venerable Azariah Ross house, however, escaped the carnage by a mere block.  Nevertheless, in 1927, 45 Dominick along with the structures stretching to the corner of Varick Street, were demolished for a parking lot.

In 1954, a shed was erected on the parking lot to shelter the vehicles.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services. 

Construction began in 2006 of the 46-story Trump SoHo hotel on the site, engulfing the blockfront of Varick Street from Spring Street to Dominick Street.  The building was opened in 2008 and renamed the Dominick Hotel in 2017.

The 1928 Bergdorf Goodman Building - 58th Street and Fifth Avenue

 

photo by Ajay Suresh

In 1925, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt had outlived the grande dames of her generation like Caroline Schermerhorn Astor and Marion Fish.  Her massive mansion that engulfed the Fifth Avenue blockfront from 57th to 58th Street, which had been the showpiece of Millionaire's Row at the turn of the century, was now an anachronism.  One-by-one, the mansions of Alice's former neighbors had been replaced with high-rise commercial buildings.  The 80-year-old and her army of servants lived within a Gilded Age time capsule amid a 20th century sea of commerce.

Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt's palatial home was engulfed by 20th century business buildings.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

That year, Alice Vanderbilt offered the mansion that had been her home for nearly half a century for sale, saying "it had become a burden," according to The New York Times.  In November, a syndicate headed by G. Maurice Hecksher offered $7.1 million for the property, announcing it would "improve the site with a fifty-six-story apartment hotel," said the newspaper.  The deal fell through, however.

On June 16, 1926, The New York Times reported that the mansion "was disposed of finally yesterday by Mrs. Alice G. Vanderbilt to Frederick Brown."  The real estate operator had paid $6 million, or about $103 million in 2025 terms.  "The fate of the mansion, which was built by the late Cornelius Vanderbilt at a cost of millions of dollars, is undetermined," said the article.

That situation soon changed.  One of the last surviving landmarks of what was once called Vanderbilt Row, or sometimes Vanderbilt Alley, was demolished.  Brown hired Buchman & Kahn to design eight stores and office buildings  on the site.  (The plans would eventually change to seven.)  Ely Jacques Kahn headed the project, designing the grouping visually as a unified structure.  His Modern Classical design greatly drew from French Renaissance prototypes in order to complement the surrounding structures, most notably Henry J. Hardenbergh's Plaza Hotel.

Ely Jacques Kahn's Fifth Avenue elevation clearly depicts the separate buildings, from the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Completed in 1928, the buildings were designed in a symmetrical A-B-C-D-C-B-A configuration.  The end buildings, nearly twice the width of the others, rose nine floors, while the middle structures were six stories tall.  On March 11, 1928, The New York Times described, "the exterior of the building is of white South Dover marble with green bronze window trim, balcony and doorway, and a sloping roof of green tiles, thus carrying out the color scheme of other buildings on the plaza."

In the meantime, Alsace-born Herman Bergdorf had opened a tailor shop near Union Square in 1899.  Two years later, his former apprentice, 25-year-old Edwin Goodman, partnered with him and the business was renamed Bergdorf Goodman.   In 1906, Edwin Goodman purchased Bergdorf's interest.  Increasingly he established a reputation of a high-end women's tailor.  In an example of his marketing acumen, in 1914 he was the first Manhattan women's clothier to offer sophisticated, ready-to-wear fashions.

Brown's first tenant was Bergdorf Goodman, which signed a 21-year lease for the building on the southwest corner of 58th Street and Fifth Avenue in March 1927.  Because the building was still under construction, Edwin Goodman was able to provide design input to Kahn, including an apartment for Goodman's family on the ninth floor.

image by Sigurd Fischer, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Goodman specified opulent, French-style interiors.  Shoppers would move through rooms that echoed the salons and parlors of the Fifth Avenue mansions of a generation earlier.  Architecture & Building described the store in March 1928 saying, "The interior follow the French styles of the Louis' and the Empire with a savoring of modern French decoration...The principal entrance at the center of 58th Street leads into an elliptical rotunda in the style of the Empire."

On March 1931, Through The Ages captioned this photograph, "Entrance rotunda, Bergdorf Goodman Building.  The walls are of Biegenelle, the base and pilasters of Loredo Chiaro-marble. 

An advertisement in Country Life in America in 1928 reflected the surroundings in which wealthy women here shopped. 

Here women of critical taste may observe clothes of the highest fashion...One may judge, before purchasing, how such clothes will look when worn in one's own drawing room.

Like the most exclusive fashion houses of Paris, there were no goods to be seen.  Architecture & Building explained, "Here, as elsewhere throughout the building, the effect is of beautifully decorated and furnished salons wherein no merchandise is displayed."  Instead, customers sat in French chairs or settees while a saleswoman (called a vendeuse) brought out the items one-by-one for consideration.

Through the Ages magazine, March 1931

The southernmost four buildings were called the Dobbs Building, named after tenant Dobbs & Company, a hat retailer.  Another initial neighbor of Bergdorf Goodman on the block was the upscale restaurant Sherry's. 

In 1932, three years into the Great Depression, Frederick Brown declared bankruptcy and in 1934 he lost the property to foreclosure.  Edwin Goodman took the opportunity the next year to purchase the three northern buildings for $3 million (more than $66.5 million today).  By now his firm's remarkable success had made the staggering outlay possible.  In 1929, he had expanded through the sixth floor of the northern building.  In 1931, Fortune magazine had noted that none of the couturier houses in Manhattan, "has succeeded in clothing women in an exclusive way on so magnificent a scale as that which Mr. Goodman has achieved, with 18,000 customers on his books."

Despite the ongoing Depression, other chic tenants moved into the other buildings.  On July 9, 1934, The New York Times reported that Grande Maison de Blanc had leased the building at 746 Fifth Avenue, "one of the buildings on the Vanderbilt 'chateau' site."  Founded in around 1872, the firm dealt in children's and women's clothing.  Steuben Glass occupied the store next door, at 748 at the time.  It would move across the avenue in 1937, the same year that the Parke-Bernet Galleries took over four floors of the Dobbs Building.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Other tenants to move in included two women's shops, the Tailored Woman, Inc. and Mary Lewis, Inc., both of which signed a lease in 1939; and the French jewelry firm of Van Cleef & Arpels, which moved into the building in 1940.

All the while those tenants were signing leases, Edward Goodman was methodically purchasing the mortgages of the buildings.  By 1948, Goodman owned the entire blockfront.

On August 20, 1953, The New York Times reported, "Edwin Goodman, who at the age of 24 became a co-founder of Bergdorf Goodman...died early yesterday at his penthouse, atop the store 754 Fifth Avenue."  Calling the 76-year-old, "one of the most eminent figures in American haute couture and merchandising," the article said, "He catered to the wealthiest women of Hollywood and society and employed debutantes and members of royalty."  (The latter referred to vendeuses like Kay Summersby, who became Dwight D. Eisenhower's wartime aide, and the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia.)

Goodman's son, Andrew, took over the helm of Bergdorf Goodman.  At the time, the store extended the width of the Fifth Avenue property, other than the Van Cleef & Arpels shop.  (By 1998, the Goodman penthouse would be converted to a commercial space, home that year to the John Barrett Beauty Salon.)

In 1984, architect Allan Greenberg was hired to undo the decades of mismatched storefronts that had disfigured Buchman & Kahn's lower two floors.  As part of his renovations, Greenberg installed an imposing entrance on Fifth Avenue similar to the original entrance on West 58th Street.  

After seven decades of city grime, in the summer of 1998 Bellett Construction of Manhattan was commissioned to clean the marble facade.  At the time, the original bronze windows and trim on 58th Street were restored.

photograph by Tdorante10

At a time when the word "iconic" is tossed around to the point that it has lost its meaning, Buchman & Kahn's striking marble Bergdorf Goodman Building is one rare structure deserving of that description.