The Stubborn 1892 Holdout at 304 West 104th Street

 

Perhaps the most prolific architect working in the Upper West Side in the late 19th century was Clarence Fagan True.  Known for his often lighthearted take on historic styles, in 1891 he was hired by developers T. A. Squier and William E. Lanchantin to design ten upscale homes on West 104th Street--numbers 304 through 322--West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  

Construction was completed in 1892.  True created an architecturally harmonious row.  Sitting atop high English basements, each house was three stories tall with an attic.  Designed in a contemporary take on Romanesque, True visually connected them with stone railings that protected sleeping porches at the attic level.  The carved scrolls of the railing's identical panels were, in fact, back-to-back serpents.

The basement of the easternmost residence, 304 West 104th Street, was faced in rough cut stone.  A wing-walled stoop led to the arched entrance that sat beside a full-height, two-bay wide projecting section.  The strikingly spartan parlor level was faced in planar brownstone.  The second and third floors were clad in variegated beige Roman brick accented by brownstone quoins.  A shallow mansard was pierced with a single brick dormer.

The house initially saw a rapid turnover in owners.  In May 1893, William Lanchantin sold it to F. Milton Welch, who resold it the next month to Sarah J. Lozier.  Sarah sold the residence seven months later, in January 1894, to Moritz Arthur Gottlieb for $27,250.  The price would translate to about $1 million in 2026.

Moritz (who sometimes anglicized his name to Maurice) would share his new house with his brother, Dr. J. Adelphi Gottlieb.  Both were fascinating figures.  

Moritz and J. Adelphi Gottlieb were born in Vienna, Austria in 1856 and 1870 respectively.  Moritz was described by Herringshaw's Library of American Biography as, "artist, founder, antiquarian, author."  Around 1880 he became manager of the art department of Puck magazine.  A Masonic master, he wrote The History of the Rite of Memphis.  Herringshaw's recorded, "He is a noted collector of antiquities; a member of the Geographical Society; was treasurer of the Medico-Legal Laboratory; is a life member of the Society of Science, Letters and Art of London, England; and vice-president of its American branch."

Moritz Arthur Gottlieb Herringhaw's Library of American Biography, (copyright expired)

His brother was a physician, scientist and author.  Educated in the German-American Institute and the State University of New York, after receiving his medical degree J. Adelphi Gottlieb became director and professor of micro-medicine in the New York Medico-Legal Institute.  There he oversaw the "laboratory of scientific technology," where work known today as criminal forensics was done.  The American Public Health Association's listing of members gave his title as "professor [of] forensic medicine."

Dr. J. Adelphi Gottlieb Herringhaw's Library of American Biography, (copyright expired)

In 1900 the brothers established the National Volunteer Emergency-Service Medical Corps.  In its December issue that year, The Druggists Circular and Chemical Gazette reported, "This unwieldy title is the name of an organization with headquarters at 304 West One-Hundred-and-Fourth street...of which Surgeon-Major-General J. Adelphi Gottlieb, M. A., M. D., LL.D, is commandant director general."  

In forming the organization, the Gottliebs were preparing for the worst.  The article explained, "The object of the corps is to render prompt aid in time of pestilence, catastrophe, war, etc."  They were actively recruiting, "civilians, physicians, pharmacist, nurses and medical students," particularly in areas that would be prone to attack: "railroad centers, factory districts, mining regions, etc."

The medical corps was not the only organization headquartered in the brothers' home.  Like Moritz, J. Adelphi was highly involved in the Masons.  The World's 1903 Almanac and Encyclopedia included the Sovereign Sanctuary of Ancient and Primitive Freemasonry.  It listed J. Adelphi Gottlieb, as "legate of the M. I. Grand Master-General and Sovereign Sanctuary to Foreign Countries," and Moritz as "Deputy Grand Representative and Assistant Grand Examiner Mystic Temple."  The entry noted that the offices were at 304 West 104th Street.

A succinct announcement in The New York Times on February 24, 1904 said simply that 304 West 104th Street had been sold.  "The buyer will occupy the house," it said.

That buyer was Joseph Berndt.  Born in Austria in 1843, he arrived in New York with his family at the age of 10 on the ship Beethoven.  He married the 22-year-old Mary Ann Hattemer on June 21, 1877.  The couple had ten children, nine of whom moved into the West 104th Street house with their parents.  They ranged from Frederick, who was 9 years old, to Joseph Jr., who was 26.

Oscar was in the middle, age-wise.  He was 17 years old in 1904 and in October 3, 1908 was looking for a job.  He described himself in an ad in the New-York Tribune: "Young Man, 21, business school graduate, with office experience.  O. B. 304 West 104th st."

The parlor of 304 West 104th Street was the scene of Mary A. Berndt's low-key wedding to William Buryan on November 9, 1912.  The New York Herald reported, "Only relatives and a few intimate friends were asked to the ceremony."  Mary's sister, Julia, was her sole attendant.  The best man, Herman Linder, traveled from Germany for the occasion.

The following year, on December 28, 1913, the Berndts announced Julia's engagement to Frederick Walter Lohr.  The wedding took place in the house on the evening of March 26, 1914.  Eleanor was Julia's only attendant.  The New York Herald noted, "A reception and dancing followed the ceremony after which Mr. and Mrs. Lohr started for the South.  They will live in Boston."

Julia V. Berndt's engagement photograph.  The New York Times, January 25, 1914 (copyright expired)

Real estate operator Leon Sobel purchased 304 West 104th Street in September 1916.  President of the Cathedral Realty Company and the Leon Sobel Company, Leon would eventually be responsible for the erection of more than 400 buildings in New York City.  He filed plans for renovating the "private dwelling" in 1917.  The remodeling focused on updating the interiors, likely the installation of electricity and improved plumbing.

The house briefly became home to Herbert R. Snyder, who was likely closely acquainted with Leon Sobel.  Since 1902 he had been a real estate appraiser and operator. 

John McCaffery moved into the house in 1918.  From 1909 to 1912 he had worked as a traveling representative of the New York Journal.  He now worked for the Hearst organization.

The 42-year-old McCaffery found himself before a judge on September 2, 1918.  The next day The Daily Argus ran the headline, "Hearst Agent Is Accused By A Former Newsboy" and said that McCaffery was charged with threatening Benjamin Handler.  According to Handler, "Mr. McCaffery approached him and said something about 'I'll throw you downstairs; I'll beat your head off and murder you,' and a few other things," said the article.

As early as 1921, Everett Louis Hackes occupied 304 West 104th Street.  A 1914 graduate of Harvard, he initially used the house only for the summer.  The educator listed his winter address as "University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan."  That position had ended by 1923, when the Harvard Alumni Bulletin nebulously announced that he "is doing literary work."

The ambiguous wording most likely was because Hackes was temporarily unemployed.  An advertisement in the May 17, 1924 issue of The Publishers' Weekly read:

Harvard Graduate--Ten years in teaching profession, specialist in French and German, knowledge of Spanish and Italian, desires connection with publishing house in New York.  Editorial work.  Hackes, 304 West 104th St., New York City.

And on November 13 that year, an advertisement in The Christian Science Monitor read: "Tutoring--Modern languages; Latin, history, literature; literary reading; classes or individual; university instructor. Hackes, 304 West 104th St., New York City."

Two decades earlier, in 1912, the houses at 300 and 302 West 104th Street were demolished for a Gaetan Ajello-designed apartment house.  The three houses on the opposite side of No. 304 were razed in 1926 for an apartment building designed by Schwartz & Gross.  The slice of Clarence F. True's row was now squashed between the two 20th century structures.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Depression years saw unofficial apartments in the house.  Among the residents in 1930 was Lincoln Jose, a union carpenter; and in 1940 musician George Robert was listed here.

When the house was sold in April 1950, The New York Times described it as a "five-story building altered into nine small apartments."  That configuration lasted until a 1999 renovation resulted in two apartments per floor in the basement through third floors, and one in the attic level.

Looking somewhat lonely today, the 1892 survivor is little changed on the exterior.  

photographs by the author

The Lost J. & R. Lamb Decorators Bldg - 59 Carmine Street

 

A century of wear had worn down the brownstone steps when H. Shobbrook Collins took this photograph in March 1921 (cropped).  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Reverend Rowan Desbrosses and his family rented the newly built house at 59 Carmine Street as early as 1827.  As was common in the early 19th century, when they moved out, they sold much of their furnishings to start over in their new home.  An announcement of the auction to be held here on August 30, 1828 listed:

...part of the furniture of a family breaking up housekeeping, consisting of carpets, chairs, settees, bureaus, bedsteads, looking glasses, &c., with a general assortment of kitchen furniture.  Also 1 superb mantle clock.

The house which the Desbrosses family left was typical of the scores of brick-faced, Federal-style homes that exploded in Greenwich Village following the yellow fever epidemic that broke out in New York City to the south in 1822.  Twenty-five-feet wide and two-and-a-half stories tall, its Flemish bond brickwork was trimmed in brownstone.  Two dormers would have pierced the peaked roof in the front and, likely, just one in the rear.

The Desbrosses family was, most likely, the first of a series of tenants who rarely remained more than a year or two.  Over the subsequent decades, a variety of renters occupied the house, including Joseph Spencer, who lived here in 1830.  He worked as a "city scaler," or a street sweeper.  

Around 1842, the Hiram Youngs family moved in.  Born in 1795, Youngs worked as a clerk (a nebulous term that ranged from a low level shop worker to a highly responsible position in an office or bank).  Early in their residency, on July 29, 1843, he and his wife, the former Sophia Perrine, had a son, Theophilus.  Their other children were Henry, Sophia, Elizabeth and Francis.  

Hiram Youngs died in 1851.  The family remained in the Carmine Street house until about 1856, when Sophia took her sons (Sophia and Francis were apparently married) to live on West 26th Street.

In 1857, the house was operated as a boarding house.  Among the residents were Arabella Willard, the widow of Dr. Moses Willard; Daniel R. Butts, who listed his profession as "merchant;" and John N. Edwards, "cider."  Edwards's cider factory was on South Street.  

Arabella's residency would be short-lived.  She died in the house on December 30, 1858 at the age of 90.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on January 3.

The Civil War personally affected several boarders here.  On August 19, 1863, the names of William Seers and J. M. Andrews were pulled in the Union Army's draft lottery, and on March 15, 1865, W. A. Cussad suffered the same fate.  (Happily for Cussad, the Confederate Army surrendered a month later.)

In 1867, brothers Joseph and Richard Lamb moved their decorating firm into the lower portion of the house.  They had established the firm in 1857, specializing on ecclesiastic work.  

Trow's New York City Director, 1870-71 (copyright expired)

Joseph George and Richard Lamb were born in 1833 and 1836 respectively.  Richard, who was unmarried, moved into the upper portion of the Carmine Street house with his brother's family.  Joseph had married Eliza Rollinson on April 19, 1855.  When they moved in, they had five children: Salom, Osborn Rennie, Charles Rollinson, Frederick Stymetz and Richard.  (Salom was ten years old and Richard was one.)

Richard married around 1870.  Tragically his wife soon died, likely in childbirth.  And on February 9, 1871, The New York Times reported that William Cokelet Lamb, "infant son of Richard Lamb," had died, too.  His funeral was held in the house that day.  (Richard would not remarry until 1904.)

By then, the Lamb brothers had established a nation-wide reputation and garnered comfortable personal incomes.  In 1872, they moved into side-by-side houses across the street--Joseph and his family into 84 Carmine Street and Richard into 86.

In May 1876, the Lambs hired the architectural firm of Jeans & Taylor to raise the attic of 59 Carmine Street to a full floor.  At the same time, they remodeled the facade to reflect J. & R. Lamb's ecclesiastical work.  The two parlor windows were replaced with a single, tripartite opening with Gothic-arches under a projecting hood topped with a crocket.  A steep, shingled hood with exposed struts protected the doorway.  Two of the second-floor openings were combined, its grouped windows separated by engaged Gothic-inspired columns.  Similar colonnettes, which sat upon foliate brackets, flanked both openings.  They supported overhanging shingled roofs.  Interestingly, Janes & Taylor gave the top floor windows paneled lintels, expected in the original Federal examples.  A neo-Grec cornice completed the renovations, which cost the Lambs the equivalent of $36,200 in 2026.

The house was flanked by horsewalks, or passages to the rear, making 59 Carmine Street free-standing.  photo by H. Shobbrook Collins  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

J. & R. Lamb created complete church interiors--pews, altars, murals and stained-glass windows, for instance.  

President James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881.  His summer home was in Long Branch, New Jersey and on February 4, 1882, the New-York Tribune reported, "The Garfield Memorial Window that is to be placed in St. James's Protestant Episcopal Church, at Long Branch, by the parishioners of that church, was exhibited yesterday at the rooms of the designers and makers, J. & R. Lamb, No. 59 Carmine-st."  The Lambs designed the window to capture "the last act of public worship by the late President, for he attended the services at St. James's on Sunday, June 26."

The J. & R. Lamb business was such that in 1887, the brothers enlarged 59 Carmine Street with an addition to the rear.  Even that would not be sufficient, and in 1893 they expanded into a second location at 325 Sixth Avenue.  

By that time, Joseph's children were actively involved in the firm.  Charles was an architect, chiefly designing church buildings;  his wife, Ella Condie Lamb, was an artist and stained-glass designer; Frederick was an artist and designer; and Osborn worked in the "furniture" department. 

Charles Rollinson Lamb's architectural talents are reflected in this reredos.  Year Book of the Architectural league of New York, 1904 (copyright expired)

A bizarre incident occurred in the winter of 1899.  A package was delivered to 59 Carmine Street addressed "to Richard Lamb, of the firm of J. & R. Lamb, church furnishers and decorators," as reported by the New York Journal and Advertiser.  Inside were cough drops.  An identical package was received by Max Stark, the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan Cafe on Second Avenue.

Both men were suspicious and on March 22, the New York Journal and Advertiser reported that Captain McClusky of the Detective Bureau, "had forwarded the cough drops...to Professor Witthaus to be analyzed."  The New York Herald reported on April 2, "The candy on examination proved to have been sprinkled with yellow prussiate of potash."  

The perpetrator was not difficult to find.  Charles Freeman, a 39-year-old peddler, "notified a newspaper that the candy was poisoned and gave the addresses...to whom he had sent the stuff," said the New York Herald.  Freeman was arrested "charged with being a suspicious person, and seems to be insane."

This Kansas City church window was designed by Frederick Stymetz Lamb in 1903.  Year Book of the Architectural league of New York, 1904 (copyright expired)

Joseph George Lamb died in 1898 at the age of 64, and Richard died on March 24, 1909 at the age of 74.  That year the firm moved exclusively into the Sixth Avenue building and leased 59 Carmine Street to builder Edward Jeans.  It was rented by several subsequent firms, including Pasqualla Lobasso & Co. in 1919, and the Western Parquet Flooring Company the following year.

The Lamb family sold 59 Carmine Street to Anthony Ferdano in February 1921.  It and the house next door at 61 Carmine were demolished to make way for a six-story apartment building completed in 1926.

image via loopnet.com

The 1861 Claudius B. Conant House - 25 Stuyvesant Street

 

The regimented grid of the 1811 Commissioners Plan was interrupted by the diagonally-running Stuyvesant Street, originally a lane created by the Stuyvesant family to separate their two farms, Bouwerij #1 and #2.  On September 16, 1854, Matthias Banta purchased the triangular point between Stuyvesant Street and East 10th Street for development.

Generally attributed to James Renwick, Jr., Banta's five-story-and-basement Anglo-Italianate homes were completed in 1861.  They varied from 16- to 32-feet-wide and (because of the triangular plot) their depths ranged from 16- to 48-feet.  Among the narrowest was 25 Stuyvesant Street.  Like its neighbors, its rusticated brownstone basement and first floors sat below four stories of red brick trimmed in stone.  The tall, a stone bandcourse connected the fully-arched windows of the second floor.  Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.

Matthias Banta retained ownership of the house, leasing it originally to Margaret Madden who operated it as a boarding house.  On August 20, 1861, she advertised:

Board--At 25 Stuyvesant Street.  Second Floor of the new English basement house, a front and back Parlor, unfurnished.  Also a gentleman and his wife or two single gentlemen can be accommodated with Board.  House has all the modern improvements.  Convenient to cars and stages.

Madden's venture was relatively short-lived.  By 1863, two Fay families occupied the house.  Signourney Webster Fay was a merchant, operating at 48 Park Place, and Emery Brigham Fay was a broker.  Signourney and Emery were cousins, their fathers Nahum and Dexter Fay, respectively, were brothers.  

Born in 1814 in Southborough, Massachusetts, Emery married Almira Allton Adams in 1838.  They had five grown children.  Signourney was significantly younger than his cousin.  Emery was born in Boston in 1836 and he married Delia Almira Fay in 1860.  

The Civil War interrupted the Fays' residency here.  Signourney enlisted in the Union Army in March 1863.  Emery and Almira moved to East 7th Street and, presumably, Delia went along with them.  Upon Signorney's return from the war, he and Delia moved to Long Island.

The house was leased by the extended Claudius Buchanan Conant family.  Born in 1819, his wife was the former Elizabeth Trumbull Mills.  Living with the couple were their son, Clarence Mortimer; their daughters Elizabeth J. and Elizabeth Ann, and her husband John Richards Weed, and their son, Louis Mortimer.  

In 1866, both Clarence and Louis attended the College of the City of New York--Clarence as a junior and Louis in the Introductory Class.  Emily attended Normal College and in 1870 taught in that facility's "model school."

Also living in what must have been snug conditions was Alice Cunningham Fletcher.  In their commentary to Alice's memoir, Life Among The Indians, Joanna C. Scherer and Raymond J. DeMallie explains, "During her adolescence, family problems, the details of which have gone unrecorded, prompted her to leave home and take a position as a governess to the children of a wealthy hardware merchant, Claudius Buchanan Conant."

With the Conant children grown, Alice remained with the family, which essentially acted as her patron.  Joan T. Mark, in her A Stranger in Her Native Land, Alice Fletcher and the American Indians, writes, "Alice Fletcher's years as a governess came to an end around 1870, when she was in her early thirties.  With Claudius Conant, her former employer, still paying her a substantial salary, she [lived] at 25 Stuyvesant Street on Manhattan and set out to explore the cultural life of New York City.

While living here, Alice became highly involved with women's causes.  An article in the New York Herald on October 15, 1873, reported on the Woman's Congress, which the newspaper sarcastically said was composed of "about 120 'earnest' ladies, upon whom 'missions' have devolved."  The article noted, "The secretary of the Woman's Congress is Miss C. Fletcher, No. 25 Stuyvesant street."

While still living here, she turned to anthropology and ethnology, making extensive trips to the West to study Native American culture.  

Alice Cunningham Fletcher with Chief Joseph at the Nez Percé Lapwai Reservation in Idaho in 1889.  The man on the left is James Stuart, Alice's interpreter.  from the collection of the Smithsonian Institute.

Alice C. Fletcher became one of the most influential anthropologists studying Native Americans and helped write the Daws Act of 1887, which eliminated reservations and distributed communal land to individual households.

Claudius Buchanan Conant died in 1877.  By 1880, Clarence Mortimer Conant was a physician with his medical office in the house.  The family left in 1887 and the Banta family leased it to a proprietor who operated it as a rooming house.  A succinct advertisement in The Sun on August 1, 1888 offered, "To Let--Newly furnished rooms, suitable for one or two, near 3d av. and 9th st. elevated station."

By the turn of the century, the neighborhood had decidedly declined.  No. 25 Stuyvesant Street was leased by Flanagan Bros., the offices of which were on West 34th Street.  They sublet it to Annie Russell, a.k.a. Sadie Brown, who purportedly rented rooms.  Her operation was much more than that, however.

Living here in 1901 was 21-year-old Alma Cirnicer.  She worked closely with Meyer Rosenthal, who ran the Rosedale Hotel at 395 Bowery, to fleece naive "customers."  That summer Kai Bronsted, a lawyer from Copenhagen, had been visiting friends in Brooklyn.  On August 26, his last night in New York, he "determined to inspect the Bowery," as he explained to police.  He said he met Alma "and accompanied her to the Rosedale Hotel, where he was robbed of $59," reported The Evening World.

Bronsted complained to Rosenthal, who pretended to help.  They found Alma at Third Street and the Bowery where she handed him his empty wallet.  As they were arguing, Detective Penz happened by and arrested Alma and Rosenthal.

At the time, the house where Alma Cirnicer lived was on the police investigators' watch list.  A 1901 police report listed 25 Stuyvesant Street among "suspicious houses of prostitution."  And on March 7, 1902, Edward Bicherer signed a deposition saying he had visited 25 Stuyvesant Street several times and found that "Annie Russell did unlawfully keep a place...for persons to visit for unlawful sexual intercourse, and for lewd, obscene and indecent purposes."

Annie Russell was charged for running a disorderly house...

and there unlawfully procure and permit as well men and women of evil name and fame and of dishonest conversation, to visit, frequent and come together for unlawful sexual intercourse and for purpose of prostitution and there unlawfully and willfully did permit said men and women of evil name and fame there to be and remain drinking, dancing, fighting, disturbing the peace, whoring and misbehaving themselves.

On March 29, 1902, Flanagan Bros. received a letter from the Police Department that said in part, "You are hereby notified that your tenant, Sadie Brown, in the premises 25 Stuyvesant Street, was convicted of the crime of keeping and maintaining a disorderly house."  The letter demanded that if the tenant was not evicted immediately, the matter would be forwarded to the District Attorney.

The threat was successful.  Flanagan Bros. did not renew its lease and in March 1904, Emil Neufeld took over.  His roomers, many of them German immigrants, were hard working and respectable.

A roomer leans in the doorway of 25 Stuyvesant Street in 1941.  At the left is the 1803 Stuyvesant-Fish house.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The estate of Eliza A. Banta sold the house in 1925 to Jacob Bellak, who continued to rent rooms.  It quickly became the scene of a disturbing incident.  In October 1926, the body of Catherine Braum was found "hanging from the ceiling of a room at 25 Stuyvesant Street," according to The New York Times.  The death was reported as a suicide, but neighbors thought there was foul play involved.  They insisted that the 65-year-old had been poisoned and her body staged as a suicide.  Faced with mounting pressure, the District Attorney's Office ordered that Braum's body be exhumed for an autopsy.  (Frustratingly, newspapers did not report the findings.)

Another shocking incident occurred on April 2, 1939.  That morning, the Rev. Francis X. Quinn of the Church of the Guardian Angel was invited to a housewarming party at Eighth Avenue and 22nd Street.  "Instead of going to this party in a limousine I found myself traveling in a police car," he told reporters later.

At 25 Stuyvesant Street, 23-year-old John Naumo was holding an elderly couple "as hostages in an effort to stave off capture by police," as reported by the Long Island Star-Journal.  Quinn said he "arrived at the apartment an unwelcome visitor."

Naumo pointed his gun at the priest and said, "Come in father--with your hands up."  The desperate suspect and the cool-headed cleric talked at length.  Finally, said the newspaper, "After more than an hour of drama and suspense, during which the bandit asked the priest to get a glass and a bottle of beer from the icebox, the priest induced the bandit to surrender."

Through it all, 25 Stuyvesant Street was never converted to apartments.  When it was offered for sale in 2011, realtor photographs revealed that the 1861 interiors were remarkably intact.

A photograph of the parlor in 2011 shows an original marble Italianate mantel and intricate ceiling plasterwork.  via Brown Harris and Stevens realty

The house was purchased by award winning journalist and author Nina Munk.  Her articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair among others.  She sold it in 2016 for $6.5 million.  

photographs by the author

The 1931 Dumont Building - 515 Madison Avenue

 

image via redesignarchitects.com

Architect James Edwin Ruthven Carpenter, Jr. (who went professionally as J. E. R. Carpenter) was three years older than his brother, real estate developer James H Carpenter.  The two collaborated on several significant Manhattan structures, and in 1930, just months after the Stock Market crash, they embarked on another: a 42-story, $2 million office building at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 53rd Street.  (The construction cost would translate to $41.2 million in 2026.)

Completed in 1931, J. E. R. Carpenter's Gothic-inspired Art Deco pile was faced in gray brick above a three-story limestone base.  The deeply recessed entrance, flanked with storefronts, sat below a bronze-and-glass marquee and was framed by a gold-veined stone arch, carved with Gothic motifs.

The groined Gothic-style ceiling of the lobby can be glimpsed.  photo by Carole Teller

Terra cotta Gothic tracery sat atop the openings of the third floor, and cast Gothic-style spandrel panels decorated the upper facade.  Setbacks began at the 14th floor, rising to an offset tower.

photograph by Americasroof

Opened in October 1931, the building quickly drew advertising and publishing firms.  Among the first tenants were the offices of the Plumbers Trade Journal, Spur Publishing Company (which occupied the 11,000-square-foot 13th floor), Outlook Publishing Company, and Advertising Digest. 

An interesting tenant was The Blue Cockade.  On May 10, 1932, The New York Times explained it was "a recently formed organization favoring repeal of the prohibition amendment."  The membership was different from other anti-Prohibition groups.  A representative told The Times, "Several department stores in the city have been organized '100 per cent' in membership in The Blue Cockade."

Real estate agent Jules Spiegel opened his "well-furnished" office here in August 1933.  Just days later, the 40-year-old was taken out in handcuffs.  The New York Times reported that he, "looked back wistfully as he departed with the detectives," adding, "The last thing he saw in his office as he closed the door was a large floral horseshoe.  It bore the inscription 'Success.'"

Spiegel had been accused by Frank Nagel of larceny.  He told authorities that he had paid $225 to Spiegel in his "luxuriously furnished office" here as security for a rent collector's job.  It was a significant amount in the Depression years, and Nagel got neither the job nor his money back.  As it turned out, Nagel was only one of several victims.  The assistant district attorney revealed in court that Spiegel "had swindled many others by the same means in the last ten years."

Among the tenants of the storefronts as early as 1933 was the Michaelyan Galleries.  It held an exhibition of Oriental rugs that November, assembled from the collection of the Textile Museum of Washington and from H. Michaelyan's personal collection.

A much more controversial tenant at the time was the Second Spanish Republic Consulate.  The government had been formed on April 14, 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII.  In 1933, a "revolutionary uprising" by Spanish Socialists was put down and the rebels imprisoned.  It sparked a backlash among some Americans.  

On October 10, 1934, The New York Times reported that "about 200 men and women stalked and shouted for an hour yesterday afternoon demonstrating their support of the Spanish revolt," and on November 24, 1934, The Daily Worker reported that the Young Communist League had called for "mass picketing to demand the release of the imprisoned Socialist and Communist workers of Spain" in front of 515 Madison Avenue that day.

Another sometimes controversial tenant at the time was the New York State Birth Control Federation.  Two years later, on May 14, 1936, the formation of the National Medical Council on Birth Control was announced here.

Theatrical producer Jules Alberti operated from 515 as early as 1934.  On the afternoon of January 23, 1935, 23-year-old John Days, Jr. entered the office, "brandished a pistol and demanded $1,000," according to The New York Times.  The article described Days as "a WPA worker" and said his wife had formerly worked as a domestic servant in Alberti's home.

At gunpoint, Alberti was forced to make out a promissory note for the money.  He promised to meet Day at the corner of 54th Street and Lexington at 7:00 that evening to give him "an installment."  Not surprisingly, when Day showed up, two detectives were waiting for him.

More turmoil within the Spanish Consulate was to come.  In 1936, civil war resulted in the overthrow of the government and the installation of General Francisco Franco as the country's ruler.  On August 6, 1936, The New York Times reported that the consul, Felix de Iturriaga had been replaced "because he apparently was 'not in sympathy' with the present Spanish Government."  And six months later, on January 13, 1937, the new consul, Luis Careaga, announced that the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce was "no longer authorized."  He told reporters that the functions of the chamber would now be exercised at 515 Madison Avenue.

As early as 1936, the burgeoning television industry was represented in 515 Madison Avenue by The Television Corporation of America.  It was joined by the Allen B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc., "manufacturers of television equipment."  In 1938, Dumont installed a broadcasting antenna on the building and in May 1939 The New York Times reported it would erect an "outdoor studio" for "the transmission of tele-pictures."  The article said it "will be equipped on a setback of the building to receive the benefit of daylight.  It will be roofed with glass so that inclement weather will not interfere with the schedule."

Licensing of the Dumont Laboratories television station was granted in April 1940.  Later that year, the station made history.  On November 10, The New York Times reported:

Television has just played with honor and acclaim its most striking role in America's greatest political show.  Last Tuesday it took its place alongside that more mature trouper of twenty-odd years of Presidential elections, the microphone.

According to the article, "nearly 4,000 television sets were in use," as the results of the Presidential election came in.

The firm's visible presence here gave the building its nickname, the Dumont Building.  The following January, the Allen B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc. demonstrated a "625 line definition" receiver here that produced enhanced clarity to the image.  The firm made history again that year by initiating "commercial" television.  The New York Times reported on May 11, "The DuMont station will specialize in outside pick-ups, such as baseball and football games and events."

As turmoil swept Europe, the newly-formed American First Committee took space here in 1941.  Perhaps its most visible member was Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh.  He made an appeal in April "to keep the United States out of the war."  In response, 3,000 membership applications were received the next day.  "Each member is required to subscribe to a declaration that he has no affiliation with any foreign power," noted The New York Times on April 25.

On June 16, 1941, the Government closed the United States consulates in Germany.  The Anti-Nazi League reacted, "It's about time.  The league has long advocated just such a course."  The New York Times reported, "The America First Committee, 515 Madison Avenue, declined to make any statement."

The Dumont Television Laboratories continued to break ground.  On September 30, 1943, it announced it had teamed with Police Headquarters.  "Pictures of missing persons will be broadcast over [the] television system," reported The New York Times.  And on November 5 that year, the newspaper said, "When Senator Robert F. Wagner goes on the air at 8:15 o'clock tonight over Station WABD, it will be the first time in the history of the nation that a candidate for major public office has used television as a means of appealing for votes on election day."

In 1945, with the war ended, the Society for the Prevention of World War III, Inc. established an office here.  And resumption of protests against the Franco regime resumed.  On March 3, 1946, The New York Times reported on the 700 pickets outside, "demanding that the United States sever diplomatic relations with Franco Spain."

On May 18, 1950, the Dumont Laboratories announced the "invention of an all-color all-electronic direct-view television tube."  And while the headquarters continued to operate from 515 Madison Avenue, in December 1951 it announced the opening of its "$4,000,000 Tele-Centre" at 205 East 67th Street.  The seven-story structure would house five studios.  In the move, the WABD antenna was removed and relocated to the Empire State Building.  The headquarters in the Dumont Building was now named the Dumont Television Company.

In 1958, the former Dumont rooftop station became home to the Columbia University WKCR-FM radio station.  It would remain until 1977.

The Dumont Building was sold in May 1962 to Aaron Rabinowitz, chairman of the board of the Fred F. French Management Company.  The New York Times reported that he purchased it "for family investment."

Among the tenants at the time was the national headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, founded in 1912.  It held an annual awards dinner on January 31, 1963 in Washington D.C. where it awarded President John F. Kennedy its America's Democratic Legacy Award, established in 1948.

An alarming incident occurred here on September 21, 1974.  Brothers Caro and Isaac Yamaoka ran the jewelry business, Caro Yamaoka Company, on the 13th floor.  Just after noon that day, two males posing as deliverymen entered.  They "drew guns, handcuffed the owner, his brother and an employee and escaped with about $150,000 in pearls," according to police.  The heist would equal more than $950,000 today.

image via marketplace.vts.com

The renovations to the ground floor of 515 Madison Avenue--always the first to be brutalized--have been made with some sympathy to the 1931 architecture, and the magnificent entrance is beautifully intact.  The building's "stepped-back shape," was described by The New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger on February 8, 1987, "a genial eclectic relic from the 1920's."

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1892 Max D. Neuberger House - 115 East 95th Street

 

Between 1890 and 1892, developer Francis Joseph Schnugg nearly filled the northern blockfront of East 95th Street from Lexington to Park Avenues.  His 17 rowhouses were constructed in two phases and designed by two architects.  The second phase, which included No. 115, was designed by Louis Entzer, Jr.  His hybrid Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival residences harmoniously complimented the earlier homes, designed by Frank Wennemer.

Faced in brownstone, the three-story-and-basement house was just 16-feet-wide.  Simple, square-headed stone drip moldings sat above the parlor floor openings, while continuous arched eyebrows crowned the top floor windows.  Entzer's design was dominated by a sheet metal oriel at the second floor.  It was decorated with fluted pilasters, neo-Classical swags, and a triangular pediment.

The house was initially home to commission merchant Max Seligmann, a partner in Seligmann Brothers.  The family's residency would be short-lived and by the turn of the century, the Max Neuberger family owned and lived in 115 East 95th Street.  Neuberger was the head of the importing firm Neuberger & Co.

Max Neuberger's father, David, died at Stuggart, Germany on April 3, 1900.  A memorial service was held in the parlor here on April 5.

On December 5, 1907, The Warrensburgh News, of Warrensburgh, New York, reported that the Neubergers had announced "the engagement of their daughter, Miss Henrietta, to Walter K. P. Baumann, of Warrensburgh."  The article noted that a "reception will take place at the Neuberger residence, 115 East 95th street, on Sunday, December 22."  The wedding took place in Delmonico's on October 12, 1908. 

On September 24, 1913, The New York Times reported, "The Rev. Dr. Moses Hyamson, for years one of the best-known rabbis in England, who was called to New York to take the place of the rabbi of the Congregation Orach Chaim...arrived from England on the North German Lloyd liner Kronpriz Wilhelm yesterday morning.  He was accompanied by Mrs. Hyamson."  

Born in Suvalk, Russia (today part of Poland), Rabbi Hyamson had been serving as acting Chief Rabbi of the British Empire when he left London.  He and Sarah Gordon were married at the Great Synagogue in London in 1892.  His contract as Rabbi of Congregation Orach Chaim was for life.

Within four months, the couple had a long-term home.  The Neubergers moved out of the East 95th Street home for the Hyamsons' use.  On January 25, 1914, The New York Times reported, "The Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Hyamson are now occupying their house at 115 East Ninety-fifth Street, and will be glad to receive their friends."

Rabbi Moses Hyamson, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Rabbi Hyamson's busy schedule, it would appear, did not allow time for relaxation.  The entry about Hyamson in Who's Who 1915 noted: "Recreations: none."  Sarah Hyamson filled her time with religious and civic service.  She was president of the Sisterhood Path of Life, a women's group that offered spiritual study and support.

Dr. Solomon Schechter, a life-long friend of Hyamson, died in November 1915.  Moses Hyamson visited Schechter's bier in the drawing room of his Riverside Drive home on the evening of November 20.  Upon leaving, Hyamson walked down Riverside Drive to 116th Street to catch a crosstown bus home.  He saw a bus approaching and stepped into the street to hail it.  The New York Times reported, "Seeing that it was the wrong one he stepped back, and directly into the path of a taxicab."

Rabbi Hyamson was knocked to the pavement.  The cabbie, Martin Joseph, stopped the automobile and his passengers fled.  Joseph and a policeman carried Hyamson to a park bench and waited for an ambulance.  At Knickerbocker Hospital, the rabbi was treated for a fractured left ankle.  He refused to make a complaint against Joseph and was later taken to 115 East 95th Street.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Hyamsons left the house in 1921 and on June 14 The New York Times reported that Max D. Neuberger had sold the property to William Poshik, who resold it in March 1922.

It became home to newlyweds Louis Butler McCagg, Jr. and his bride, the former Katherine G. Winslow.  The couple was married on June 27 that year.  Born in 1897, McCagg was a graduate of Harvard College where he was captain of the rowing crew.  He had just graduated, his college education interrupted by World War I, during which he served as a naval officer.

McCagg had a sterling pedigree.  His father, attorney Louis Butler McCagg, Sr., was, as described by The New York Times, "connected with several of the most prominent and older Newport families."  His mother was the former Edith Edgar King, the daughter of Edward and Mary Augusta LeRoy King, prominent in Newport and Manhattan high society.

When the McCaggs (who would have five children) moved in, Louis was working in the banking firm of Lee, Higginson & Co.  His career would take a decisive turn, however, becoming an architect with the firm of Rogers & Butler.

In October 1953, The New York Times reported that Fred H. Hill, president of the Melfra Realty Corporation, intended to buy 115 East 95th Street.  The article said he "plans to convert the structure to seven apartments of one and one-half and two and one-half rooms."

Instead, actress June Havoc stepped in.  Decades later, The New York Times would describe her as "the actress who buys and refurbishes houses in the city and in the country as a hobby."  She purchased the house and converted to three apartments--a duplex in the basement and parlor level (for herself and husband, William Spier), and one unit each on the upper floors.

June Havoc was born Ellen Evangeline Hovick in British Columbia, Canada on November 8, 1912.  She began her theatrical career as a child, "Baby June."  Her sister, Rose Louise Hovick, would also become famous as Gypsy Rose Lee.  Their mother, in order to circumvent child labor laws, forged birth certificates for both girls. 

June Havoc and Van Johnson in the 1940 Broadway production of Pal Joey (publicity photograph)

Havoc had starred in the 1944 Broadway play Mexican Hayride, and left that show to take on the title role of Sadie Thompson (written for Ethel Merman, who withdrew from the production before its opening).  Throughout the 1940s and '50s, she appeared in musical films with stars like Alice Faye, Betty Grable, and George Raft.  Now back in New York City, she returned to the stage.

Producer, director and writer William Spier was Havoc's third husband.  The couple was married in 1948 and remained together until Spier's death in 1973.  He was born in New York City on October 16, 1906.  Starting his career at the age of 19 with Musical America magazine, he would eventually become its chief critic.  In 1929 he began producing and directing radio shows for Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn.  

William Spier, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Spier hired Orson Welles in 1936 for The March of Time program, Welles's first radio job.  In 1952, shortly after he and Havoc moved into 115 East 95th Street, he launched the 90-minute television show, Omnibus.  In 1954, he produced, directed and wrote the CBS situation comedy Willy, starring June Havoc.  That year he co-directed the film Lady Possessed, starring June and James Mason.

In January 1967, Havoc sold 115 East 95th Street to Robert Piccus and his wife.  Piccus was manager of telecommunications-market planning for the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.  It is unclear how long the Piccus family remained here.  The house was reconverted to a single family home in 2000.

photographs by the author