The Lost Bank of Commerce - 31 Nassau Street

The newly completed Bank of Commerce building towered over the New York Clearing House to the left.  Real Estate Record & Guide, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)

Established on January 1, 1839, the Bank of Commerce was the largest bank in the country by 1863.  On January 27, 1894, the Record & Guide reported that the bank had purchased the Holland Trust Company's property at 33 Nassau Street.  It abutted the Bank of Commerce's marble-faced, Italianate structure at the northwest corner of Nassau and Cedar Streets.  The bank's president, W. W. Sherman told the Record & Guide, "the bank would certainly not build this year, but would, doubtless, soon thereafter."  The article said, "He thought that when they did build, it would be in harmony with the style of the projected Clearing House building."

When this photograph was taken, the bank's handsome 1855 Italianate structure was soon to go.  King's Views of New York, 1893 (copyright expired)

On May 1, 1896, the New-York Tribune reported, "The old National Bank of Commerce Building, at Cedar and Nassau sts., is to be torn down at once for the erection of a tall office and bank building."  The article mentioned, "In consequence, tenants who have had quarters there for many years will have to move."  The bank leased temporary space in the Syndicate Building at Nassau and Liberty Streets.

James B. Baker was hired to design the 18-story bank and office building.  His Renaissance Revival, tripartite design included a limestone clad, four-story-and-basement base.  The double-height Nassau Street arched entrance was flanked with intricately carved pilasters.  The brick-faced midsection was distinguished with grouped openings within 11-story arches.  The top section was clad in limestone, the grouped windows of  the 16th and 17th floors separated by paired columns.

Karl Bitter sculpted the allegorical figures Commerce and Mercury in the spandrels above the entrance.  When they were installed in the spring of 1897, they "attracted a great deal of attention," according to The Sun on May 18.  In fact, it was only one of "heroic figures" that sparked controversy.  The Sun said the male example was "the classical Mercury with the winged cap."  The figure of Commerce, however, which was "very slightly clothed," was "subjected to criticism unfavorable to its anatomical correctness."  The Sun said, "Both figures were almost immediately veiled."

For the next two weeks, passersby heard "the sound of chipping marble behind the screen."  Underneath the draping, Bitter was "flattening some of the contours of the female figure."

Bitter made his Commerce less sensuous.  American Architect and Building News, May 14, 1898 (copyright expired)

The New-York Tribune came to Bitter's defense, saying on May 23, "the much-talked-about spandrels which Mr. Baker introduced over the entrance to the Bank of Commerce Building are not only artistic in themselves but of the utmost importance to the general effect of the Nassau-st. front."

Less controversial was the ceiling painting by Charles Yardley Turner in the entrance hall, Commerce Presiding Over an Exchange of the Products of Wealth and Industry.  This Commerce was fully clothed, described by The New York Times on November 7, 1897 as "Madonnalike."  The critic summarized his lengthy article saying, "As an example of purely decorative composition and delicate color Mr. Turner has surpassed himself in this ceiling."

photograph by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

As the building neared completion, the massive banking vault was scheduled to be delivered.  Unfortunately, Cedar Street had been excavated to lay pipes and, according to The Sun, "The men who did the work left the street in bad shape for eighteen-ton loads."  On April 17, 1897, the truck carrying the steel frame for the vault door "blocked up Cedar street in front of the Clearing House building" the entire day.  One of the rear wheels had sunk into the roadway to the hub.

On April 19, The New York Times reported, "After remaining nearly forty-eight hours mired in the mud on Cedar Street...the seven-and-a-half-ton truck, loaded with a twenty-two ton steel door frame for the Bank of Commerce Building, was moved yesterday morning at 9 o'clock."  Two 20-ton hydraulic jacks had raised the truck and four horses had pulled the truck on heavy skids to the rear entrance of the Bank of Commerce Building.

There was one more hurdle in the building's completion.  An Italian-born marble polisher arrived to work in April with "an eruption on his face."  The worker had smallpox and on May 1 John G. Vaughan, a carpenter, was diagnosed with the disease.  Two days later, William H. Lemon, an engine oiler, was removed from his home by the Brooklyn Board of Health.  He, too, had contracted smallpox.  The Sun reported on May 4, "It is not known what became of the Italian who is suspected of having been suffering from the disease.  He must be well or dead by this time."

King's Views of New York 1903 (copyright expired)

The Bank of Commerce moved in on April 1, occupying the lower floors.  The upper floor offices were rented to real estate agents, attorneys, bankers and brokers.  A particularly notable tenant was financier and railroad mogul, Russell Sage.  On April 3, 1897, The Sun reported that he had moved his office into the building.  Karl Bitter's contentious sculptures were still in the forefront.  In reporting on the banker's move, The Sun titled the article, "Russell Sage Moves To-Day / Going Up Above the Bank of Commerce's Colossal Statues."

In 1900, the bank merged with the National Union Bank and three years later the Western National Bank was absorbed. 

Baker carried the Italian Renaissance motif into the interior.  photographs by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

A high profile tenant moved into the building in February 1906.  Joseph P. Day was one of the foremost real estate appraisers and auctioneers in the city.  Also here were the offices of the Rhinelander Real Estate Co.

Russell Sage died on July 22, 1906 at the age of 90.  On November 2, the New-York Tribune reported that his will directed that his employees, "are to receive double the amount of salary paid them in Mr. Sage's lifetime."

On March 30, 1912, The Sun reported, "The buildings along Nassau street are to be shaved of all encroachments on the public way."  Included was the framework of the National Bank of Commerce entrance.  The article said, "it is not known whether the two nude figures over the doorway, which caused comment at the time of the erection of the building, will be allowed to remain or not."  (It appears they were not.)

The 1922 book National Bank of Commerce in New York remarked on the growth and stability of the institution, saying that its "present figure [is] $25,000,000."  Converted to 2025 terms, the amount would equal $454 million.  Seven years later the bank merged with Guaranty Trust Company of New York.  In 1959, Guaranty Trust merged with J.P. Morgan & Co.

1902 photograph by Irving Underhill, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

On November 2, 1964, The New York Times reported, "A group headed by Harry B. Helmsley" had obtained funds "to erect a 49-story office building," adding, "The square-block site, bounded by Broadway and Liberty, Nassau and Cedar Streets, is being cleared."  Included in the block, of course, was the Bank of Commerce Building.

William M. Dowling's 1939 Regent House - 25 West 54th Street

photo by Lowell Cochran

In 1935, Nathaniel Wallenstein, head of the Wallenstein Realty Corporation, hired architect George F. Pelham to design an Art Moderne style apartment building at 411 West End Avenue.  In 1938, two years after that structure was completed, William M. Dowling started plans for another building for Wallenstein, at 25 West 54th Street.  His plans projected the cost of the 12-story structure at $450,000--about $9.73 million in 2025.

Dowling's design for Regent House moved away from Art Moderne and towards Midcentury-Modern.  Its spartan, yellow brick facade relied on its geometric shapes and complex casement windows for interest.  The windows of the slightly-projecting central section wrapped the corners, and those of the set-backs were angled.  Sleek metal railings protected the terraces of the upper floors.  The design did not impress The New York Times architectural columnist Christopher Gray half a century later.  On March 12, 2006, he described it as, "just a plain-vanilla box."

The complex windows are seen in this photograph of the newly-completed building.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the initial residents were journalist Cecil Broida Brown and his wife, the former Martha Leaine Kohn.  Born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania in 1907, Brown graduated from Ohio State University in 1929.  He and Martha were married in Rome, Italy in 1938 where, in 1940, he was hired by CBS as their Rome correspondent.  That quickly ended when he criticized the Mussolini regime and was ousted from Italy.

In his Cecil Brown, The Murrow Boy Who Became Broadcasting's Crusader for Truth, Reed W. Smith writes that the Browns moved into "a penthouse apartment in a co-op complex at 25 West 54th Street, just north of the Museum of Modern Art."

Brown left CBS in 1943 after a heated disagreement with news director Paul White.  On the air on August 25, Brown editorialized his newscast with the comment, "a good deal of the enthusiasm for this war is evaporating into thin air."  White insisted on non-bias reporting, while Brown said he could not abide with the CBS policy of "non-opinionated" news.  

Cecil Brown, 1961 NBC Television promotional photo

Following the end of World War II, he worked as a correspondent for ABC and for NBC.  While living here Brown wrote Suez to Singapore, Cecil Brown's Story, a retelling of the sinking of the HMS Repulse in December 1941.  He and Martha left Regent House in 1967, moving to California to teach at Cal Poly Pomona.

On April 20, 1957, The New York Times reported, "A corporation formed by tenants in Regent House, a fourteen-story apartment building at 25 West Fifty-fourth Street, has purchased the property and will operate it on a cooperative basis."  

Among the residents at the time was theatrical booking agent Charles Rapp.  His business, The American Guild of Variety Artists, was in the Brill Building at 1650 Broadway.  (The impressively named firm consisted of a single room and two employees.) He explained to the U.S. Congress Senate Committee on Government Operations in 1962, "I am primarily engaged in supplying entertainment to resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains."  Indeed, he was.  The New York Times later commented, "Mr. Rapp was considered the biggest one-man buyer and supplier of talent in the city...From July 1 to Labor Day, year after year, he booked all but a tiny fraction of the acts in the Borscht Belt."

Rapp started his career when he was 12.  Aware that the son of his building's superintendent could sing and that a caterer (a friend of his father) needed entertainment one Saturday night, he introduced them.  He divided his $10 fee with the singer.

Charles Rapp booked unknown singers, comedians, and dancers, many of whom went onto stardom.  He discovered Jack E. Leonard, Buddy Hackett, Rip Taylor, Alan Kind, Jackie Mason and Henny Youngman among many others.  Two of his clients, Red Buttons and Jan Murray, were working as social directors when he found them.

Among Rapp's neighbors in the building were attorney Sidney S. Bobbe and his wife, author Dorothie de Bear Bobbe.  Born in 1895, Dorothie wrote historical works, including the 1929 Abigail Adams, the Second First Lady; Mr. and Mrs. John Quincy Adams, published in 1930; and her 1939 De Witt Clinton.  She contributed articles to The New York Times Magazine and American Heritage.

photo by Lowell Cochran

Living here in the late 1970s was television host and journalist Ponchitte Pierce.  Born in Chicago in 1942, she started her career as assistant editor of Ebony magazine.  She first appeared on broadcast news in 1967 and in 1973 was made a special correspondent at CBS News.

Ponchitte became close friends with another resident, Megan Marshack.  She was an aide to Nelson Rockefeller, whose office in the vintage rowhouse at 13 West 54th Street was just steps away.  The two women were pulled into a nationwide scandal on January 26, 1979.  At about 10:50 that night, Ponchitte received a panicked phone call from Marshack.  Ponchitte told Jet magazine, "She told me that Governor Rockefeller had suffered a heart attack and she asked me to come immediately to 13 West 54th Street."

Pierce arrived to find her friend trying to perform mouth-t0-mouth on Rockefeller, who had suffered his heart attack during sex.  Pierce said, "It seemed to me that the best thing I could do was call '911.'"  She left immediately afterward and on the way to Regent House, "I saw a police car approaching and I directed the policeman to 13 West 54th Street."  Craig Shirley, in his Citizen Newt, writes, "A longtime Rockefeller aide, Hugh Morrow, appeared and tried to assemble what was left of the old man's dignity before the paramedics, the police and the cream of the New York media showed up."  According to Shirley, Marshack's apartment had been purchased by Rockefeller.

Ponchitte Pierce resided here as late as 1996 when she was included in Notable Black American Women.

Steven M. Kaufmann, who moved into Regent House when the building opened in 1939, was still here in 2004 when he died in his apartment in May at the age of 91.  One of the most colorful residents in the building's history, he had retired at the age of 25.  The New York Times journalist Cathy Horyn interviewed Kaufmann in his apartment earlier that year.  She wrote,

Although I knew that name-dropping would be an inevitable part of a 90-year-old's memories, I was unprepared for what I heard: Gertrude Lawrence, Lena Horne, the 1950s star Ross Hunter, the grande dame Kitty Miller, the investor and art collector Jacques Sarlie, and Rock Hudson.

During the interview, Kauffmann motioned to a chair in his living room.  It was legendary actress Greta Garbo's favorite spot when she visited.  "She used to sit over in that chair," he mentioned.

Kaufmann shared the apartment with his partner of 19 years, Edward DeLuca.  They met in an art gallery in 1985 when Kaufmann was 71 and DeLuca was 24.  Kaufmann told Horyn, "That was the beginning of what I call the glorious years.  All the events in my life cannot compare to what this relationship has meant to me."

photo by Lowell Cochran

William M. Dowling's windows have been replaced.  The laudable attempt to honor the originals falls short.  Nevertheless, the Regent House does not deserve the denigration of "just a plain vanilla box."

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochran for suggesting this post

The 1925 The Brook Club - 111 East 54th Street

photograph by Transpoman

On April 2, 1903, The New York Times reported, "Some of the most prominent clubmen in this city have launched a new club, like no other in New York."  Each of the founders, said the article, belonged to the Union, Knickerbocker, Metropolitan, "or other well-known clubs," but they intended to enjoy amenities in their new club "that can be had nowhere else."

Two of the innovations were the absence of by-laws (a member told The Sun they need no laws to "see that we behave ourselves like gentlemen.  We think we can do that.") and its 24-hour service.  The front door would never be locked.  The New York Times explained, "Having in mind the lines from Tennyson--'Men may come and men may go, / But I go on forever,' the founders, men who stand foremost in New York society, have named their new organization the Brook Club."

Among the organizers were William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., Oliver H. P. Belmont, Louis Stuyvesant Chanler, Robert Livingston Beekman, Stanford White, Frederic Gebbard, and Thomas B. Clarke.  Not surprisingly, McKim, Mead and White was hired to renovate the four-story-and-basement brownstone at 7 East 40th Street for its clubhouse.  White took the reins in the remodeling.

Stanford White transformed an upscale rowhouse to an American basement clubhouse.  photo by McKim, Mead & White from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Two decades later, on May 9, 1924, the New York Evening Post reported that the Brook Club, "has bought as the site for its new headquarters the two dwellings at 111-113 East Fifty-fourth street."  The following month, on June 6, the newspaper announced that Vincent Astor had purchased the East 40th Street clubhouse property for development.

Once again, the Brook turned to a member to design its new home.  William Adams Delano was a partner of Delano & Aldrich and, as the firm had done for its 1915 Knickerbocker Club building, he turned to the dignified neo-Federal style.   

Completed the following year, the Brook Club could easily have passed as a private mansion.  Delano centered the entrance within the rusticated base.  Engaged columns upheld the entablature and faux balcony at the second floor.  A subtle, vitruvian wave of dolphins ran along the top of the ground floor.   The upper three floors were faced in Flemish bond red brick.  Three carved reliefs decorated the two-floor midsection, and the brick parapet atop the cornice was relieved with sections of stone balusters.

from the collection of the Delano & Aldrich Collection of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, the grandson and namesake of the renowned poet, was a member of England's championship cricket team.  He arrived in New York "for a brief visit," according to the New York Evening Post, on February 18, 1931.  He stopped by the Brook Club, the name of which (as had been pointed out by The New York Times nearly three decades earlier) came from his grandfather's poem, "The Brook."  The newspaper noted, "He recently presented the club with one of his grandfather's original manuscripts."

The club had another well-known guest later that year.  On November 17, the Standard Union reported that Dino Grandi, Foreign Minister of Italy, would arrive in New York three days later.  Grandi was one of the 35 Fascists who made up Benito Mussolini's Chamber of Deputies in 1921.

Mayor Jimmy Walker, "feeling certain that there will be no hostile demonstration to fear," according to the article, had planned welcoming ceremonies.  Listed on the Fascist's busy schedule was, "Wednesday, Nov. 25--Luncheon at the Brook Club, 111 East Fifty-fourth street."

Two weeks earlier, a tragedy had occurred here.  The upper floors held bedrooms for out-of-town members and local members whose townhouses were closed for the summer season.   Although Samuel Adams Clark lived in town, at 655 Park Avenue, he stayed here on the night of November 7, 1931 in preparation of a meeting the following day.

Clark was described by The New York Times as "an architect widely known outside his profession for his interest in sports, particularly racing."  A member of the architectural firm Warren & Clark, he was married to the former Gertrude Jerome Alexandre.

Wealthy gentlemen traveled with their valets and, in the case of Clark at least, even for a single night.  He and Harry Wishkin arrived at the club on Saturday afternoon.  Clark "conversed with his friends," while Wishkin unpacked and arranged Clark's things.  At 11:00 that night, Clark had a "light supper" in his fourth-floor room.

At around noon the following day, Wishkin entered Clark's room to find him dead on the floor.  The New York Times reported, "From the position of the body it was believed that Mr. Clark had entered the closet in search of a bathrobe or other article of clothing, and had suffered a stroke as he reached for it."

Shortly after 10:30 on the night of April 20, "Three gunmen in evening dress sauntered into the Brook Club," as reported by the Daily Star.  The New York Times recounted, "The robbers, all young and apparently quite at their ease, entered the club hallway, only two doors off Park Avenue, and displaying pistols rounded up Roy Wilson, the cashier; William Ingram, the telephone switchboard operator, and the club doorman."

One gunman guarded the trio and another stood watch by the door.  The third emptied the cash drawer and the safe, the door of which was open.  Wall Street broker William Walter Phelps arrived in a cab in the meantime, unaware of what was taking place.  Because he had only two $100 bills in his wallet, he approached the desk for change.  He was ordered behind the counter with the other prisoners and relieved of his cash.  The New York Times reported, "One of the hold-up men obligingly stepped outside and paid the taxicab driver, presumably to prevent the latter from becoming suspicious."

The crooks then herded their prisoners into the elevator, sent it upward, and fled.  They made off with $1,500 of the club's money and Phelps's $200 (about $37,900 in total in 2025).

As it turned out, the mastermind of the heist was a former doorman, Frank Mackey.  He had worked in the club for several years, but was fired in 1927 for insubordination.  On January 20, 1933, another robbery took place here.  The New York Times reported, "three Negroes forced their way past the doorman, bound other employes [sic] and got $375."  

Mackey was planning a third and bigger caper five months later.  The scheme "to strip valuable oil paintings and framed signatures of the Presidents of the United States from the walls of the Brook Club," as described by The Times, was foiled when an apparently homeless man, "accidentally overheard some men discussing previous robberies of the club."  The clever eavesdropper, "said to be in need," according to The New York Times, pretended to want to get in on the robbery.  After getting details, he went to the club and warned the secretary.  Mackey and his cronies were rounded up and the nameless informant, "got a job and some new clothes as reward."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The building was updated in 1963.  Little changed with the  functioning of the layout.  The cellar now holds locker rooms, a billiard room and a dining room, the ground floor has the visitors' room and coat room, and the second floor holds a dining room, lounge and sitting room.  On the third floor are the card room, bar and another dining room.  The upper floors, as before, hold bedrooms and valets' rooms.

Michael R. Bloomberg was a member until 2001, when he embarked on his candidacy for mayor.  Unlike almost all other male-only social clubs, like the Union League Club, which were pressured to admit women in the 1980s, the Brook stood steadfast.  Bloomberg resigned from this and three others.  He told a reporter, "Those clubs have a right to do what they want, but if I can't change them, and I choose to resign, then I have chosen to go elsewheres [sic]."

Normally avoiding publicity, the exclusive club was recently thrust into the news when a 32-year-old worker who was working in the dumbwaiter shaft was crushed on March 25, 2025.   The Daily News reported that the dumbwaiter had fallen three floors onto the workman.  A number of firefighters had to secure the device while others broke into the wall to free him.  The injured man was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Among the celebrated members of the Brook Club over the years include Henry Kissinger, President John F. Kennedy, explorer and Congressman William A. Chanler, and Admiral James L. Holloway.

many thanks to reader Felix Bronstein for suggesting this post

The Winfield Scott Hancock Bust - Hancock Park

 

On February 10, 1886, The New York Times titled an article, "A Brave Soldier Dead."  Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock had died in his home on Governors Island while in command of the U.S. Army's Division of the Atlantic.  His remarkable career, which began with his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1844, had earned him the nickname within the Army as "Hancock the Superb."

Born on February 14, 1824, Hancock seemed destined to a military career.  He was named after General Winfield Scott, who distinguished himself in the War of 1812.  In 1850, after serving in the Mexican War, Hancock married Almira Russell.  They had two children.  

The "Superb" nickname came from a telegram sent from Major General George B. McClellan to Washington following the Battle of Gettysburg: "Hancock was superb today."  He commanded his troops in the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville and the siege of Petersburg, and was wounded twice.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock - from the collection of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Following the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the executions of the conspirators of the Lincoln assassination.  He was placed in charge of the Reconstruction in Texas and Louisiana, and in 1872 was put in command of the Division of the Atlantic, headquartered at Fort Columbus on Governors Island.  He was the Democratic nominee for President in 1880, losing to James A. Garfield.

In reporting his death, The New York Times said on February 10, 1886, "Of the military fames acquired in the war for the Union probably none rests on a surer foundation than that of the illustrious soldier who died yesterday."

Movements to memorialize Hancock were swift.  Within months, the triangular property bounded by Manhattan and St. Nicholas Avenues and 124th Street was named Hancock Park.  In 1890, veterans of Hancock Post No. 259 formed a Hancock Memorial Association and commissioned sculptor James Wilson Alexander MacDonald to create a monument.

The choice of artist was, perhaps, based on the fact that MacDonald had created a life mask of the general in 1880, the year he was nominated.  The sculptor used the accurate plaster cast as  the model for his memorial.

Statues for military heroes traditionally depicted them astride a horse or striking a commanding stance.  Not this one.  MacDonald created a monumental sized bust with no trappings of warfare--indeed, it wore no uniform or clothing at all, other than a sash over the left shoulder that symbolized military honor.

Three years after the Hancock Memorial Association was formed, the monument was still not finished.  On September 14, 1892, The Evening World reported that it would be placed in Hancock Park, but it would be more than a year later that the bust would be unveiled.  The problem was money.  The treasurer of the Memorial Fund told the New-York Tribune, "Subscriptions did not come in so rapidly as we anticipated, and that is the cause of the delay."

The New-York Tribune explained the problem on June 25, 1893:

One cause of the difficulty in securing subscriptions to the statue fund was the fact that General Grant's monument in Riverside Park, only a few blocks away, was still uncompleted and many thousands of dollars were required to finish it.  Had it not been for this fact the Hancock statue would have been finished some time ago.

On April 24, 1893, The New York Times reported, "A concert will be given in Palmer's Theatre Sunday evening, May 7, for the benefit of the Hancock Statue Fund."  The article said, "It is hoped that the sufficient money will be raised by this entertainment to give a great impetus to the movement to erect a statue in New-York worthy of Gen. Hancock."  Each of the audience members would receive a "finely-bound memorial of Gen. Hancock."

The benefit was helpful.  On June 25, 1893, the New-York Tribune announced, "The bronze figure and pedestal have been paid for."  The article grumbled, "This statue has been allowed to remain in a half-finished condition for many months."

Finally, in frigid weather on the day before New Year's Eve, the dedication ceremony was held.  A host of prominent military figures were present as Mayor Thomas Francis Gilroy accepted the statue for the city.  "Statues like this," he said, "will be to our youth a constant inspiration, and the city will ever carefully treasure them."

from Statues of New York, 1923 (copyright expired)

In their 1923 Statues of New York, J. Sanford Saltus and Walter E. Tisne diplomatically addressed MacDonald's unorthodox, unmilitary depiction of Hancock.

It does not carry the conviction that naturally emanates from an equestrian statue and the immobilization of a gesture of command, but as a likeness it is said to do justice to the model.

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department.  Included in the work (that ranged from 1934 to 1937) was the Hancock bust.  It was conserved again in 1998 with a cleaning and waxing by the City Parks Foundation Monuments Conservation Program.

In the meantime, in 1981 a group of volunteers from the Coalition of 100 Black Women became guardians of the little park.  They continue to plant and maintain the triangular plot today.

photographs by the author

The 1907 Thaddeus Davids Company Building - 95-97 Vandam Street

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Wealthy sugar refiner William Frederick Havemeyer and his family lived in the handsome house at 95 Vandam Street at the middle of the 19th century.  Living next door at 97 Vandam Street was the family of Charles Burkhalter, a well-to-do wholesale grocer.  The Burkhalters leased their home from the Havemeyers.  

Half a century later, the neighborhood had drastically changed.  Affluent families had moved northward and commercial structures were quickly replacing vintage homes.  In December 1904, the Record & Guide reported that the Havemeyer estate had sold 95 and 97 Vandam Street, "two three-story houses," to Mitchell A. C. Levy.

In 1854, while the Havemeyers were still occupying 95 Vandam Street, the Thaddeus Davids Company moved into the building at 127-129 William Street.  After occupying it for more than half a century, in 1906 the William Street owner refused to renew the Thaddeus Davids Company's lease.  On June 9, The American Stationer reported that the Thaddeus Davids Company, "the well-known manufacturers of inks and adhesives, has closed a deal for the building[s] at 95-97 Vandam street, between Hudson and Greenwich."  The article said, "The old buildings now standing on the site will be torn down and a modern factory building, containing every facility for manufacturing and specialties for which this firm is so justly famous, will be erected."

The firm had contracted the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker to design the factory.  Their plans projected the construction cost at $60,000, or about $2 million in 2025.  The American Stationer said, "No expense or care will be spared to make the building a model of its kind."  The article explained that the William Street lease would expire in May 1908 "and it is expected that the new building will be ready for occupancy at that time."

Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker considered both attractiveness and functionality in designing the building.  To safely accommodate the firm's heavy machinery, the plans included a "system of cinder concrete arches, reinforced with iron rods, terra cotta partitions, copper covered skylights."  Importantly, the building was fully electrified.  The large machines, previously operated manually, would now be powered by electricity.

Construction was completed in the spring of 1908.  The architects' commercial take on Renaissance Revival was splashed with the currently popular Arts & Crafts style.  The piers of the first floor loading bay--fabricated in cast iron in most loft buildings at the time--were constructed of beige brick and topped with limestone capitals.  They upheld a heavy structural beam decorated with triglyphs.  A second beam above the second floor was disguised with a reeded band that dangled blank shields.  The third to sixth floors were faced in rusticated brick.  A denticulated and bracketed pressed metal cornice completed the design.

Now one of the foremost ink companies in the world, the Thaddeus Davids Company had an interesting start.  Thaddeus Davids was born in Bedford, New York in 1810 and his family moved to New York City in 1823.  The 13-year-old was hired by an ink manufacturer.  Amazingly, when the owner retired, he left the concern to Davids, who was still a teen.  Because he was a minor, the firm was named William Davids, for his father.

In 1827, now 17 years old, Thaddeus developed "steel pen ink," touted to be of "record quality."  Over the decades he continued to experiment, introducing innovative and improved products.  In 1856, his son George W. Davids became a partner and the firm became Thaddeus Davids & Company.  

George nearly caused the end of the firm in 1883.  Unknown to his father, he accumulated massive amounts of debt and used the company as collateral.  When they came due that year, Thaddeus had to liquidate all his properties, including the firm, to settle the debts.  (In the meantime, George committed suicide in a New York City hotel.)  The emotional turmoil no doubt contributed to Thaddeus's stroke soon afterward.  He never recovered.

In the meantime, sons David F. and Edwin Davids took over the company in receivership.  The brothers died in 1905 and 1907, respectively, just before the firm moved into the Vandam facility.  Other Davids family members took over, and, in fact, the 95-97 Vandam property was held in the name of Louise A. Davids.

The firm continued to innovate.  On October 25, 1910, for instance, Walden's Stationery and Printer reported, "The Thaddeus Davids Company, 95 Vandam Street, New York, are putting on the market a long-felt want, consisting of a neat metal box containing a large bottle of their Black Diamond indelible ink, a penholder and one of Davids' indelible marking pens."

Walden's Stationer and Printer, October 25, 1910 (copyright expired)

Innovation within the Thaddeus Davids Company operations did not stop with its products.  At a time when traveling salesmen were--as the term suggested--male, on January 27, 1912 the firm advertised, "Wanted--Six young women to sell a popular article to offices; salary and commission."  The firm would necessarily turn to women again when World War I depleted the male workforce.  On October 24, 1918, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune was titled, "Girls and Women Wanted.  Help Win the War."  Foreshadowing the Rosie the Riveters of the 1940s, the ad said the Thaddeus Davids Ink Company, "offers profitable employment to girls and women; excellent wages; steady work and bonus; Uncle Sam needs you here."

The Touchstone, July 1919 (copyright expired)

The Thaddeus Davids Company closed before 1941 when the Tiara Products Co., Inc. occupied 95-97 Vandam Street.  The industrial tenor within the building began to change in 1960, when the newly-formed 670 Realty Corporation took space.  The realty management firm Samson Management operated from the building as early as 1968.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The neighborhood--now called Hudson Square--saw change again in the third quarter of the 20th century.  Loft buildings were transformed to residential, office and retail space.  In 1987, the Thaddeus Davids Company building was converted to apartments with a retail space on the former loading dock level.

For years, Form and Function occupied the first floor and more recently Exquisite Surfaces moved in.  

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

Neville & Bagge's 1899 862 West End Avenue

 

In 1898, developer James Livingston hired the architectural firm of Neville & Bagge to design five "four-story American basement" houses on West End Avenue and six nearly identical others around the corner on West 102nd Street.  An advertisement for 862 to 868 West End Avenue in March 1899 described the residences as, "Elegant four-story houses, highly finished throughout; 3 large chambers [i.e., bedrooms], saloon [i.e., salon or sitting room], and bathroom on second floors; 20 feet front, 55 feet deep; with 30-foot extension.  Clothes dryer in basement."

No. 862 was faced in gray Roman brick above the limestone basement and parlor levels.  The architects bowed the three upper floors.  The openings of the second and fourth floors sat atop molded sill courses and were grouped by a single eyebrow.  The third-floor windows featured splayed lintels with foliate keystones.

The house would see a rapid-fire turnover in owners.  In May 1899, Livingston sold the West End Avenue group to Charles F. Richards.  No. 862 would see three more owners before Anna Galbraith purchased it on March 20, 1903.  Like her predecessors, she purchased the house for rental income.

Living here as early as 1911 was the Michael Gernsheim family.  Living with him and his wife, the former Emilie Loeb, were their unmarried adult children, Felix M. and Alice.  

Felix, who was 40 years old in 1915, was an attorney.  He had a bit too much to drink on the night of September 16 that year.   At the corner of Broadway and 96th Street, he came upon two soap box orators, the opinions of whom did not align with his.

The New York Times reported that he, "dragged Joseph L. Kaufman, a Socialist speaker, from his platform and disturbed the crowd listening to a suffragette speaker on the opposite corner."  He was not done yet.  The article continued, "he then went into a near-by restaurant, pulled a man to the street and when Patrolman Walsh...tried to arrest him threw himself to the ground."  

Gernsheim was charged with intoxication and disorderly conduct.  Although he denied having been drunk, when he appeared before Magistrate Appleton the next day he promised "he would not touch a drop of liquor for a year."  The Times reported, "he was discharged in the custody of his mother."

In 1917, the Gernsheims moved two doors away to 866 West End Avenue where Felix, still unmarried, died of pneumonia on February 9, 1920.  

Anna Galbraith rented 862 West End Avenue in March 1917 to Katherine V. and George A. Sipp, a highly colorful couple.  Although she used George's surname, Katherine was actually Katherine Lynch.  He and his wife, Catherine V. Lynch, were married in 1883, but he left her for Katherine in 1913, with whom he had two children.

George and his legitimate son, Howard, ran the Commonwealth Hotel in Harlem.  When he and Katherine leased 862 West End Avenue, he and Howard were deeply involved in a case against New York City policemen.  On January 1913, The Evening World reported on the graft case of "high police officers" implicated by the Sipps of extorting money from "the keepers of disorderly houses."  As the trial date neared, George Sipp announced that he had been offered a $700 bribe from a defense attorney "to leave New York."

The Sipps were not always on the right side of the law, however.  On December 25, 1918, the New-York Tribune reported on a warning issued by the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World about an advertising scam.  The New-York Tribune editors added to the message, giving an example of an advertisement in their newspaper on December 11, 1918:

A ladies' natural muskrat coat, forty-five inches long, full flare, belted model; never worn.  SIPP, 862 West End Avenue; private house.

The article continued, "Tribune readers will recall the conviction of George A. Sipp, who, in September, 1917, was fined $250 in the Court of Special Sessions for fraudulent advertising."

The couple had other worries at the time.  Two months before the article, Catherine V. Sipp sued George for divorce and Katherine for $100,000 "for alleged alienation of Sipp's affections," according to The Sun on October 22, 1918.

The Sipps remained here through 1920.  The following year the house was converted to non-housekeeping apartments, meaning they had no kitchens.  The basement level was now a physician's suite.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on January 28, 1921 described, "Doctor's office, waiting room and apartment--five rooms, bath, $2,100."  (The yearly rent would translate to about $3,000 per month in 2025.)  A two-room apartment with bath in the upper floors rented for the equivalent of $1,700 a month today.

The configuration lasted until 1965, when a remodeling resulted in two apartments per floor.  Living here in 1970 was the family of John Hewitt, a medical writer.  His son attended the Fieldston School in Riverdale.  On March 24 that year, The New York Times reported, "A group of about 60 students, most of them black, calmly took over the three-story administration building of the Fieldston School...yesterday morning and, in a well-planned maneuver, barricaded themselves inside."  The article said this was "one of the first instances in the country where minority students in a private preparatory school actually took over a school building."

John Hewitt, who was also the chairman of the school's Black Parents' Association, rushed to the school and climbed the fire escape of the administration building to the only unbarricaded entrance.  He was not intent on persuading his son to leave, however.  The Times said, "He was carrying seat cushions for his son to sleep on."  Hewitt told a reporter, "We're fully in back of these students."

The house would undergo another renovation in 1991.  There are now a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floor, and two apartments each on the upper levels.

photographs by the author

The Lost Hugh and Henrietta Chisholm Mansion -- 813 Fifth Avenue

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

In 1870-71, two near-matching brownstone houses were erected at 812 and 813 Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park.  Designed by D. & J. Jardine in the Second Empire style, 813 Fifth Avenue was a smaller version of its neighbor--two bays wide rather than three.  The openings--even at the basement level--sat within decorative architrave frames.  The fourth floor took the form of a Parisian-style mansard with an elaborate dormer and shingled cap.

813 (left) was a smaller version of its next door neighbor.  from Microbes and The Microbe Killer, 1890 (copyright expired)

The house became home to Charles S. Fischer.  He and his brother John U. Fischer, arrived in America in 1839.  The great-grandsons of the piano maker to King Ferdinand I of Naples, they established the J. & C. Fischer piano company the following year.  Now music spilled over from Fischer's business into his home.  In his mansion was an orchestrion--an organ-like machine that incorporated other instruments and operated by means of rolls.  Costing Fischer $6,000 (about $154,000 in 2025), it was "equal in power to a band of 40 instruments, all instruments full size," and came with 50 rolls "comprising all the popular operas, overtures, waltzes, &c.," according to its ad.

The stoops and areaways of the high end homes were often where desperate mothers abandoned their infants.  On the night of June 11, 1887, a servant discovered a month-old girl "lying on the stoop," according to The Sun.  The article said, "alongside of it lay a bundle of worn clothing."  The servant changed its clothing, and then Fischer hailed a cabbie, who transported the infant to the Police Central Office.  There was no note with the baby, so it assuredly was taken to an orphanage.

An advertisement appeared in The New York Times on March 7, 1889:

An elegant Fifth Avenue House for sale on very easy terms.  No. 813 Fifth-Avenue between 62d and 63d Streets.  Four Stories with extension.

The ad noted the house was "superbly decorated" and that the plumbing was new.

The residence was purchased by William and Ida Haenel Radam.  Born in Germany in 1844, Radam came to America at the age of 23.  A botanist, he settled in Austin, Texas where he established gardens, eventually having branches in other cities.  When he contracted malarial fever in 1884, doctors told him he had no chance of recovery.  The New York Times later recalled, "His interest in botany and some experience as a naturalist had led him some time before into an investigation of certain forms of plant life, and the result of his experiments was the discovery in 1885 of what he claimed to be a 'microbe killer.'"  Radam attributed his recovery to his discovery.  He established the Microbe Killer Companies with factories here, in England and Australia, "and from the sale he amassed a considerable fortune," according to the newspaper.

William Radam within his office at 813 Fifth Avenue.  from Microbes and The Microbe Killer, 1890 (copyright expired)

On May 19, 1894, The Evening World ran a full-page article about Radam titled, "What To Do For Microbes / A Texas Florist Discovers What Scientists Could Not."  The article explained the workings of the Microbe Killer and about Radam's life.  It praised, "the name of William Radam ought to be in every book of history and upon the lips of every schoolboy," and compared him to Louis Pasteur and Thomas Edison.

The Radams sold 813 Fifth Avenue in February 1889 to Hugh and Henrietta Chisholm.  (Incidentally, William Radam was later exposed as a charlatan.)  By now, the 1870s brownstones along the avenue across Central Park and the side streets were no longer fashionable.  One by one they were demolished and replaced, or renovated.

Two months later, The New York Times reported that the Chisholms had hired C. P. H. Gilbert to renovate their home.  The esteemed architect replaced the brownstone with a limestone facade, removed the stoop and created an entrance at street level.  His Beaux Arts design included two beefy telamones (columns in the form of men) that supported a faux balcony above the entrance, and another pair at the fifth floor.  Gilbert bowed the first through fourth floors, creating a stone railed balcony at the fifth floor that morphed into a steep mansard.

photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm was born in Canada in 1847.  He started his career by selling newspapers on trains.  He saved $50 and used it to take a course at a business school in Toronto.  In 1861, the teen co-founded Chisholm Brothers with his brothers.  They distributed newspapers across Canada and the Northeastern United States and within a few years employed 250 workers.  He married Henrietta Mason in 1872 and had one son, Hugh, Jr.  

By the time the Chisholms moved into 813 Fifth Avenue, Hugh had established several pulp and paper companies, including the Otis Falls Pulp Company in Jay, Maine, the third largest mill in the country.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Maine: A History, 1919 (copyright expired)

While Hugh was busy with work, Henrietta was involved in social and charity work.  The children of wealthy families had to be prepared for their introductions to society and that included learning dancing.  On May 19, 1901, The New York Times reported, "A new dancing class has been formed for young girls."  It was organized by Henrietta and four other socialites.  The first meeting, said the article, would be held on December 13, "at Mrs. Chisholm's residence, 813 Fifth Avenue."

On January 24, 1903, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. Hugh J. Chisholm (Miss Henrietta Mason) of 813 Fifth Avenue has invitations out for dinners on Tuesday next and Feb. 10, and a luncheon on Feb. 4."

The Chisholms' library.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Hugh Chisholm established company towns around his mills, including Chisholm, Maine, near the Otis Falls paper mills.  Concerned about workers' welfare, his planned communities included "wholesome" recreational areas like parks, theaters, educational buildings, and other outlets.

The younger Hugh, born on April 17, 1886, attended Browning's School and Yale University.  On September 7, 1907, just before returning to Yale for his junior year, Hugh, Jr. got his chauffeur Alfred Panier into a tight spot.  At a time when motorists were being pulled over for speeding at 15 miles per hour, Chisholm pushed his driver even faster.  The New York Times reported that Panier was "arrested for driving his machine over sixty miles an hour on Broadway, between 194th and 196th Streets."  The chauffeur was fined $10 (about $334 today), which presumably young Chisholm paid.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Jr. The History of the Class of 1908 Yale College, 1908 (copyright expired)

In December 1909, the Chisholms purchased Blind Brook Farm, the 200-acre former country estate of Marion Story in Portchester, New York.  (Marion Story had committed suicide in the mansion the previous August.)  The price Hugh Chisholm paid for the property "exceeded $500,000," according to The Sun, which said he would "spend $50,000 in repairs."  (The combined figure would translate to more than $12 million today.)

Blind Brook Farm.  1909 real estate brochure (copyright expired)

Three months prior to the purchase, Hugh, Jr.'s engagement to Sara C. Hardenbergh was announced.  The wedding took place in St. Bernard's Church in Bernardsville, New Jersey on June 25, 1910.  The reception was held at Rennemead, the country home of the Hardenberghs.  The newlyweds moved into the Chisholms' Fifth Avenue mansion.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Sr. died in the house on July 8, 1912.  His funeral was held in the residence at 3:00 the following day.  Henrietta and Hugh, Jr. and his wife would soon leave Fifth Avenue.  On December 25, 1912, The Sun reported, 

Mrs Hugh Chisholm is to give up her residence at 813 Fifth avenue...to live in an apartment house on Park avenue.  She is to have the eleventh floor in the new apartment to be erected at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Sixty-fifth street.

The suite will comprise fourteen rooms and four baths and will take in the entire floor.  Mrs. Chisholm's son Hugh will have the twelfth floor.  His suite will have also fourteen rooms and four baths.

The Park Avenue building was completed in 1917.  Henrietta sold 813 Fifth Avenue in April that year to Francis Joseph and Anne Arend for $260,000 (about $6.18 million today).

The Arends filled the mansion with antique French furnishings and objets d'art, as seen in this photo of the salon.    from the Parke-Bernet Galleries' "Contents of the Residence of the Late Francis J. Arend" catalogue 1942

Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1866, Francis married Anne M. Moltz on November 15, 1890.  Anne's unmarried sister, Jennie B. Moltz, moved into the mansion with the couple.  Arend was president of the De Laval Separator Co., the Turbine Co., the Amerigo Realty Co., and was director in the Coal & Iron Bank.  He was a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the American Geographical Society.  The Arends' country home was in Deal, New Jersey.

 

On October 24, 1931, fourteen years after the family moved into 813 Fifth Avenue, Annie Moltz Arend underwent an operation at Sitken-Morgan Memorial Hospital.  She died a week later on October 30 at the age of 65.

from the Parke-Bernet Galleries' "Contents of the Residence of the Late Francis J. Arend" catalogue 1942

It is unclear when Francis left 813 Fifth Avenue.  In 1940, he was living in the Plaza Hotel with a staff of 10.  The house sat fully furnished until his death on August 24, 1942.  An auction of the Arends' valuable collection of antique silver, furnishings and artwork was held before the end of the year.

In 1941, while Arend lived in the Plaza Hotel, the mansion was boarded up.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Georges Lurcy and his wife, the former Alice Snow Barbee, purchased the mansion from the Arend estate.  Lurcy had headed his own bank in France before coming "to New York after the fall of France in 1940," according to the Fort Worth newspaper Star-Telegram.  He was now a partner in the New York Stock Exchange firm of Halle & Stieglitz.  In reporting his purchasing of the Arends mansion, The New York Times mentioned that he and Alice had "been living at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel."

When Georges and Alice fled France, they retained their vast collection of French antiques and artwork.  Like the Arends, they filled the Fifth Avenue mansion with a remarkable collection.  Lurcy occasionally lent art pieces for exhibition.

Georges Lurcy amid French antiques and a Renoir landscape within the house.  from the Parke-Bernet catalogue "Collection of Georges Lurcy" November 1957.

Georges Lurcy died at the age of 62 on September 30, 1953.  Alice remained in the house for four more years.  On November 27, 1957, the Star-Telegram reported:

Parke-Bernet Galleries offered to a glittering gathering of 1,600 socialites and dealers the largest collection of French paintings ever assembled for a New York Auction last week.  They had been the collection of the late George[s] Lurcy and they were snapped up at prices ranging from $200,000 for a Renoir landscape, a $180,000 for a Gauguin portrait of a Tahitian woman, to $92,500 for a Monet.

The article commented that the extent of the collection, "was not known until his death in 1953."

No. 813 Fifth Avenue survived until 1963 when it and the flanking townhouses were demolished to be replaced for a Robert Bien-designed apartment building for the newly formed 813 Fifth Avenue syndicate.  During the demolition, the four limestone telemones were rescued and are exhibited today in the Brooklyn Museum.

photograph by Larry Gertner, August 23, 2015.