The 1909 Fourth Avenue Building - 381 Park Avenue So.

mage via loopnet.com

In 1909, architect Charles A. Valentine filed plans for a 16-story "brick and stone office building" at the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 27th Street.  Construction would cost developer A. Filmore Hyde $700,000, just under $25 million in 2026 terms.  Named the Fourth Avenue Building, its Renaissance Revival design included a three-story rusticated limestone base.  The 10-story midsection was faced in beige brick, its grouped openings stacked within full-height metal frames that included cartouche-decorated spandrels.

The reserved ornamentation of the lower levels was merely an aperitif for the three-story top level.  Paired arches separated by engaged columns were embraced within elaborate pointed arches, possibly inspired by Milan's Ca Granda.  The spandrels were embellished with frothy shields.

The Architectural Record, December 1910 (copyright expired)

The Fourth Avenue Building filled with a diverse tenant list.  Among them was the New York office of the State Labor Department.  Its meeting rooms were normally the scenes of labor disputes and strike negotiations, but in June 1911, its staff was distracted with a much different issue.  

George E. Dayton had worked as a financial clerk "for many years," according to The New York Times.  "He was so methodical in his habits that his fellow-clerks said they could regulate their watches by him."  On Friday, June 2, Dayton, who was a widower, left for his "Summer camp" in New London, Connecticut.  He was scheduled to return on June 7, but did not, and, in fact, was never heard of again. 

The New York Department of Labor would remain for years, dealing with issues like the 1912 laundrymen strike, and holding public hearings on fire-prevention construction methods the same year.

Another initial tenant was the substantial contracting firm Caldwell-Wingate Company.  It not only erected structures, but demolished them.  In November 1912, for instance, it received the contract for demolishing the four buildings at 107-113 East 23rd Street; and on July 14, 1924, the New York Evening Post reported that it had received the $4,174,800 contract to erect the Brooklyn Municipal Building.

Coldwell-Wingate Company was headed by Roy Wilson Wingate.  He suffered a public scandal in December 1921 when George J. Ainslee sued him for $50,000 for having "won his wife's affections by taking her on automobile trips, to dances and other entertainments."  The Ainslees divorced and whether Wingate (who was married with two children) continued the affair is unclear.

What is clear is that three years later, on March 20, 1924, Roy W. Wingate and his wife hosted a dinner and bridge party.  The guests left at around 10:00.  Mrs. Wingate went to bed, but woke shortly afterward "in pain," according to The New York Times.  She "saw her husband standing by her with a revolver in his hand."  After shooting his wife, Wingate walked around the bed, got under the bedclothes, and shot himself through the heart.

The Wingates' 14-year-old daughter, Janet, rushed to the bedroom.  Her mother said, "Your father shot me and then shot himself.  Get a doctor, get Dr. Brown quickly."  While his wife' life was saved at a hospital, Wingate had died instantly.  In reporting on the tragedy, The New York Times remarked, "The firm has just about completed the new building of Saks & Co. in Fifth Avenue."

In the meantime, perhaps the first publishing firm to occupy offices in the Fourth Avenue Building was The Crowell Publishing Company.  It published popular periodicals like Farm & Fireside, Woman's Home Companion, The American Magazine, and Colliers, the National Weekly.

George Buckley was president of Crowell Publishing Company.  On May 21, 1918, a telegram from the War Department informed him that his brother, Joseph H. Buckley, had been wounded in France.  A few weeks later, Buckley received a surprising letter from his brother dated two days after that telegram.  Joseph Buckley had enclosed in the letter "a piece of the shrapnel" that was removed from his wounds, reported The New York Times on June 9.

Thomas Nelson & Sons occupied space by 1915.  It published the American Standard Bible and Nelson's Perpetual Loose-Leaf Encyclopaedia, which enabled subscribers to insert and remove new or outdated information.  Founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, the firm was headed by the founder's son, William Thomson, who took over in 1904.  Born in 1862, he started working in the company when he was 14 and came to the United States in 1893.

Sophie Kerr symbolized the modern, self-sufficient career woman of the early 20th century.  The unmarried young woman was an editor of the Woman's Home Companion.  She scoffed at debutantes whose entire focus was preparing to be the wife of an affluent man, telling Marguerite Mooers Marshall of The Evening World in March 1917, "No girl in America is so rich that she can afford not to know how to earn."

In 1919 the National Juvenile Motion Picture League established its headquarters here.  Its president, Adele F. Woodward explained its purpose on May 25, saying "it expresses the idea in the efforts of many people who are opposed to official censorship of motion pictures, yet believe that the moral and artistic influence of many films is bad."  To that end, the league published The Bulletin that reviewed motion pictures.  The standards were, apparently high.  On May 25, 1919, The New York Times reported that between January 1 and May 20 that year, it "reviewed about 400 feature pictures and comedies, of which about 70 had been approved."  (By the following year, the organization's name was changed to The National Motion Picture League.)

In October 1921, the Industrial Bank of New York leased the ground floor, and Princeton Silk Mills took space on an upper floor.

Additional publishing firms moved into the building.  In the 1920s, it was home to the International Publishers, the Macaulay Company, Engineering Magazine Company, and Experimental Publications.  The latter published Radio News, which it boasted in 1929 had a "circulation larger than that of any other radio publication."

International Publishers had a decidedly socialist bent.  On September 15, 1925, The New York Times reported that it had released Leon Trotsky's Whither England? that day.  In it Trotsky predicted:

The inevitable hour will strike for American capital also: the American oil and steel magnates, trust and export leaders, the multimillionaires of New York, Chicago and San Francisco are performing--thought unconsciously--their predestined revolutionary function.  And the American proletariat will ultimately discharge theirs.

Two years later, on October 5, 1927, The Daily Worker reported that International Publishers, "cooperating with the Lenin Institute in Moscow," was publishing "the complete and definitive edition of Lenin's speeches and writings."  And three months later, in January 1928, the firm published Scott Nearing's Whither China?.  Nearing was a leading intellectual within the Socialist Party of America.

A much less controversial publishing firm, which moved into the building in June 1929, was Popular Science Publishing Company, publishers of Popular Science Magazine.  It signed a lease "for a long term of years" for the seventh floor, reported The New York Times.

The early 1930s saw new tenants, including The Modern Institute, which offered slimming techniques by mail order; the Boys Clubs of America headquarters; and the offices of the Social Register Association, which annually published the directory of America's socially elite.

The Modern Institute's advertisements, like this one from 1932, guaranteed results in the privacy of one's home.

Having the New York State Department of Labor within the building might have been convenient for the Macaulay Company in 1934.  On September 19, The Daily Worker reported that a breach of contract "caused the calling yesterday of the second strike in three months, by the Office Workers Union.  During the first strike, in May, 18 picketers were arrested, including several respected authors.

Now, the union charged that Macaulay Company had fired three workers "without consulting the shop committee."  The dispute triggered a strike of the employees of eight other publishing houses.  Strikers lined the sidewalks outside the Fourth Avenue Building while Lee S. Furman, president of the firm, called them "malcontents" and "agitators."

Other politically-motivated tenants moved into the building in the 1930s, including the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy and the offices of the American Peace Mobilization. 

A seemingly non-political tenant was the G. S. Blakeslee Company, distributors of dishwashing machines.  One employee, however, did have a political agenda.  On January 15, 1940, The New York Times reported on the FBI's indictments against 18 co-conspirators who were intent to overthrow the Government of the United States.  Among them was 32-year-old Blakeslee employee Macklin Boettger.  He and the other members of the Christian Front were or had been members of various branches of the American military and had stolen weapons from National Guard armories.

Increasingly, organizations established their headquarters in 381 Fourth Avenue.  On February 2, 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the offices of the National Youth Administration here.  The group placed "orphaned boys and girls in employment," explained The New York Times.  Mrs. Roosevelt commended the work and suggested it could be extended throughout the country, but cautioned, "against the possibility of the plan's falling into the hands of unscrupulous people who might use it to get cheap labor and to exploit youth."

On September 22, 1942, following the United States entry into World War II, West Coast shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser opened a "recruiting office" here.  The New York Times said he intended "to recruit 20,000 shipyard workers for his plants."  By 4:00 the first day, 1,600 had applied.  The plan was successful.  Two weeks later, the newspaper reported that another "trainload of workers" was heading for the Kaiser shipbuilding yard in Portland, Oregon.

The U.S. Government followed suit and installed an Army recruiting office here.  A journalist who stopped by on April 26, 1942, counted "more than 400 men in line."

At midcentury, the International Publishers (which would remain into the 1970s) and its Socialist ideology drew the attention of Congress.  On June 20, 1951, at the height of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communism campaign, Russian-born Alexander Leo Trachtenberg, the head of the firm, was indicted on conspiracy charges.

Alexander Leo Trachtenberg, The New York Times, June 21, 1951

Trachtenberg went on trial on January 7, 1953.  His attorney called him the victim of "a frame-up and a fraud."  The publisher was convicted under the Smith Act (known today as the Alien Registration Act) but his conviction was overturned when a government witness recanted his testimony.

Still occupying space in the 1960s were the Boys Clubs of America and the Social Register.  A new tenant by 1963 was the New York Board of Regents.

In 1959, Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue South.  Atco Properties and Management acquired 631 Park Avenue South in 1974.  The firm's senior vice president, Peter L. DiCapua, later explained that the property was its first "adaptive re-use of middle-aged buildings."  He told Richard D. Lyons of The New York Times in December 1989, "We put in a lot of dollars and re-created the original design, such as restoring the main lobby to its original form, while upgrading the mechanical systems."

image via marketplace.vts.com

Among Atco's initial tenants was Public Affairs Pamphlets, which published brochures like "Help for Your Troubled Child," "Helping Children Face Crisis," and "Your Child's Emotional Health" in 1977.  It was joined in the building with Inform, a non-profit environmental group that published reported issues about chemical hazard pollution, sustainable transportation such such.  As early as 2009, the National Center for Learning Disabilities operated from the building.

many thanks to reader Peter Alsen for prompting this post

From Horses to Oysters to Art - 246 East 5th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Jacob Finck owned the two-story building--possibly a carriage house or small stable--at 246 East 5th Street when he died in 1881.  It was most likely his widow and son, Andrew, who converted the building to a house-and-store around 1883.  

The remodeling was a mélange of styles.  The building's tall second-floor windows wore molded cornices, typical of the Italianate style.  The pressed metal cornice, however, with its crisp, geometric corbels, was neo-Grec in style.  A handsome, slightly-projecting storefront was supported by paneled, cast iron pilasters.

The storefront was intact when this photograph was taken in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It is unclear how long the Fricks retained possession of the property.  By the turn of the century, it was owned by real estate operator Michael J. Adrian, who owned dozens of properties in the district.  As early as 1904, the store was home to Oscar Horn's clothing and tailoring shop.  

Adrian died in 1908 and on May 15 that year his estate transferred his holdings--valued at the equivalent of $62.7 million in 2026--to the newly formed Michael J. Adrian Corporation.  Included in the transfer was 246 East 5th Street, the storefront of which now held the office of building contractors Golomb & Magid.

The corporation leased 246 East 5th Street in 1913 to real estate operator Norbert Landau.  He advertised on February 8 that year, "Real Estate Wanted.  $10,000 cash to invest for good paying houses; (no steam heat;) with only one mortgage.  Robert Landau, 246 East 5th St., New York."  His substantial offering would translate to about $325,000 today.

Little changed to the charming building over the subsequent decades.  In the Depression years, a tailor shop occupied the store.  And then, in the 1970s it was converted to a single-family home.  The storefront was removed and replaced with a comically tiny window, and a slathering of stucco was applied to the facade.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Before 2000, the building was renovated again.  A storefront was reintroduced, the second floor windows were shortened, and an awkward third floor added.  

Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar opened in the storefront in September 2003.  The New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant described it as "a small marble bar with chandeliers."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

The restaurant was short-lived.  On May 9, 2025, Slip House opened in the space.  The gallery was founded by Ingrid Lundgren and Marissa Dembkoski.  At some point (the timeline is vague), the ground floor facade was encrusted with colorful mosaics and pennies by artist Jim Powers.  And a striking ironwork archway was installed, created by Linus Coraggio.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Eufrasia and Allen Tucker Mansion - 121 East 79th Street

 

Brutal enlarging and remodeling the upper floors has destroyed the original charm

Eufrasia Aguilar Leland Wesson and Allen Tucker were married on February 12, 1895.  The 25-year-old bride was reared in privilege, the daughter of the late Charles Howland Wesson and Martha Leland.  The groom, who was four years older than Eufrasia, earned his architectural degree from Columbia University in 1887 and worked as a draftsman at his father's firm, McIlvaine & Tucker.

In 1906, Eufrasia's mother and aunt, Emma Wesson and Eufrasia A. Leland, purchased two vintage houses at 123 and 125 East 79th Street as the site of their double-wide mansion.  Simultaneously, Eufrasia and Allen Tucker purchased the house next door and hired the firm of Robins & Oakman to make "extensive alterations," as worded by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide.  Their redesigning of the high-stooped brownstone would transform it into a modern residence.

On May 30, 1906, the New-York Tribune explained the changes.  "A rear extension is to be added, new plumbing installed and a new Colonial facade, with a mansard roof built."  The renovations would cost the Tuckers $10,000, or about $360,000 in 2026 terms.

Robins & Oakman removed the stoop and brownstone and created a neo-Georgian-style facade.  In many cases, when the stoops was removed from English basement homes, the front was pulled forward to the property line.  For the Tuckers, however, the areaway was preserved, giving them a small front yard.  

The architects' tripartite design was faced in Flemish bond red brick and trimmed in limestone at the base and midsection.  The fourth floor took the form of a mansard with two dormers.  The mansion's focal point was the pair of French doors under fanlights at the second floor, or piano nobile. 

The Tucker mansion harkened to Colonial times.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The "rear extension" mentioned by the New-York Tribune filled the rear yard.  It would hold Allen Tucker's skylight-lit studio.  By now, he had moved from architecture to fine art.  An impressionist, he was part of the group of painters known as the "Independents," whom, according to the Smithsonian Institution, "wanted to shake up the conservative ideas of the National Academy of Design."  In 1911, four years after moving into 121 East 79th Street, Tucker co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, and in 1913 helped organize the famous Amory Show.

When America entered World War I, Tucker served with the American Ambulance Service in  France.  It appears that Eufrasia moved temporarily next door with her mother and aunt.  On December 9, 1917, The New York Times reported that she had leased 121 East 79th Street furnished at Arthur A. Fowler.  

Starting in 1921, after returning to New York after the war, Allen Tucker taught at the Art Students League.  Often deemed "the American Van Gogh," his paintings would hang in prestigious institutions like the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frye Art Museum.

Allen Tucker painted Landscape in his East 79th Street studio in 1919.  from the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art.

Allen and Eufrasia Tucker sold 121 East 79th Street to the Atram Realty Corporation in May 1930.  The firm purchased the property "as a light protector for the apartment building at 120 East Eightieth Street," explained The New York Times.  The new owners hired Cross & Cross to enlarge the mansion with another floor.  The architects deftly increased the height of the mansard without greatly upsetting the proportions nor the Colonial motif.

Cross & Cross's additional level was not displeasing.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On July 7, 1933, The New York Times reported that the Atram Realty Corporation had leased the mansion to Leighton Hammond Coleman, "of the law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed."  

Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Coleman had served as a "pursuit pilot" in World War I.  He earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1922.  Coleman and his wife, the former Jane Fraser, had five children, Leighton Jr., Jane, Helen, Sally, and Prudence.  The family's country home, East Farm, was at Stony Brook, Long Island.

After having leased the house for a decade, in 1943 Leighton H. Coleman purchased it.  His daughters were approaching their debutante years and before long the house would be a flurry of activity.

Debutante entertainments traditionally were held in the winter social season.  Twin sisters Jane and Helen, however, got an early start.  On June 28, 1946, The New York Sun reported that the Colemans "will honor their debutante daughters, the Misses Jane and Helen Coleman, at a dinner-dance tomorrow evening at East Farm."  The article noted that Jane had graduated that year from the Brearley School and that Helen was "an alumna of the Chapin School."

Helen Rulison Coleman went on to study at Bryn Mawr College and Barnard College.  (Her mother was  was a trustee of the latter institution.)  She was the first to marry.  Her wedding to William Maxwell Evarts Jr. was held in St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in St. James, Long Island on August 28, 1948.  It was a family affair, with Jane being the maid of honor and Sally and Prudence bridesmaids.  Leighton Jr. was among the ten ushers.

The following year, on June 25, 1949, Jane was married in the same church to William Draper Blair Jr.  Expectedly, Helen was her matron of honor and her younger sisters were bridesmaids.  The New York Times remarked that Jane "wore a gown of white satin with a rosepoint lace veil that had been worn by her mother and grandmother and last August by her sister."

No. 121 East 79th Street was sold in 1954.  The New York Times reported on April 9 that plans had been filed "for altering the five-story dwelling...into four apartments and a professional office."  The renovations resulted in a doctor's office on the first floor, a duplex apartment in the second and third, and one apartment each in the upper levels.  Apparently to augment the livable square-footage of the top two floors, the mansard was converted to a vertical wall with no cornice.

Then, in 1997, restauranteur Simon Oren purchased the property for $2 million (about $3.9 million today).  He initiated a renovation that returned the upper floors to a single family home, while keeping the ground floor doctor's office (accessed by a separate entrance).  He listed it for sale in 2016 for $19 million.

Although sadly disfigured, the Tucker mansion still recalls its aristocratic roots and place in American art history.

photographs by the author

The 1905 Hudson Stables - 248 West 108th Street

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Born in 1839, Herman Masemann immigrated from Germany in 1856.  By the turn of the century, he had garnered a significant fortune in the butcher business.  In 1905, he acquired the 25-foot-wide lot at 248 West 108th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue and gave the architectural firm of Holt & Weidinger a formidable (some might have said impossible) task: squeezing a livery stable onto the plot no wider than an upscale residence.  The five-story brick-and-stone stable cost Masemann $18,000 to construct, or about $650,000 in 2026 terms.

Holt & Wiedinger's design was a blend of Arts & Crafts and neo-Georgian styles.  Two large arches with limestone lintels filled the ground floor.  One contained the double-doored carriage bay and the other the pedestrian entrance and a window.  Grouped windows at the second through fourth floors sat within a vast arch topped with a brick eyebrow and stone keystone.  They flooded those floors with natural light.  The five openings of the fifth floor, which sat upon a single limestone sill, were protected by a projecting cornice on floor-height cast iron brackets.  A simple brick parapet completed the design.

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, March 10, 1906 (copyright expired)

The critic of the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide was highly impressed, calling the Hudson Stable, "what is undoubtedly the finest 25-ft. boarding stable in the city," and saying that Holt & Weidinger had shown "that it is perfectly possible to build a satisfactory stable on a 25-ft. lot."

The ground and second floors contained 60 horse stalls.  Vehicles were stored on the upper floors.  The architects placed the large electric elevator in the middle of the building rather than the rear, as was customary.  It had doors on the front and the back, "and thus permits the easy handling and storing of wagons without requiring large gangways," explained the Record & Guide.

On the first, third and fourth floors were "ample carriage-washes," while "horse-washes" were on the first and second.  The washing stations were supplied with hot and cold water.

At the front portion of the third floor was the harness room, "connected by a harness lift with the stall floors and office below," said the article.  "This room also contains lockers for private coachmen."  The architects' ingenious solutions included the feeding of the horses.  The feed room was at the rear of the top floor and "feed chutes" delivered the fodder to the individual stalls below.  The Record & Guide noted, "The problem of the storage and disposal of manure has been effectively solved, and a brick vent flue removes all odors."

After operating the Hudson Stables for four years, on June 6, 1910 Herman Masemann sold the property to George C. Masemann for $1.  As his father had done, George assisted his customers in selling their horses and vehicles.  On May 28, 1912, for instance, an advertisement in the New York Herald read, "For Sale--Pony, Shetland; safe, gentle; with governess cart, harness and saddle.  Hudson Stables, 248 West 108th st."  (A governess cart was a popular two-wheeled vehicle.)

Importantly, the overwhelming majority of the advertisements on that page were marketing automobiles, not carriages or horses.  They indicated the major shift that was transforming transportation.

On April 2, 1917, architect George Raymond Euell filed a request with the Board of Appeals to convert 248 West 108th Street from "a stable into a garage in a residence district."  It appears that the request was denied, because Euell instead converted the Hudson Stable to a storage warehouse.  In doing so, he added a fifth floor in the form of a mansard.  Its single dormer sat below a deeply-overhanging roof, reminiscent of the one he removed from the fifth floor.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

George C. Masemann and his wife, Phoebe, leased the remodeled building to the Haage Storage company.  It was occasionally the scene of auctions of unclaimed property.  On February 16, 1921, for instance, auctioneer Henry Brady advertised the Sheriff's Auction at the Haage Storage Warehouse.  It included, "one George Steck baby grand piano."

Columbia Alumni News, July 1919 (copyright expired)

On July 1, 1928, The New York Times reported that the Masemanns had sold "the six-story warehouse building" to Vera Beermann.  Vera was the wife of Edward Beermann Jr. and the couple operated the Harlem Despatch Express Co.

Like the Haage Storage Warehouse, the Beermann's operation was a moving and storage business and it would remain in the building for decades.  By the time America entered World War II, the firm's name had been slightly changed to the Despatch Moving & Storage Company.  An advertisement in 1944 touted, "Our First Love is Commercial Hauling and Storage" and that it was "Now Our Defense Contribution."  (Exactly how the firm's hauling or storage of freight contributed to the war effort was left unclear.)  It added, "Tell us your hauling or storage problems.  Then you will not have one."

The Despatch Moving & Storage Co. was still in the building in the third quarter of the century.  Then, in 1989 248 West 108th Street was converted by The Bridge, Inc. for its headquarters and facilities.  The organization was founded in 1954 "to change lives by providing help, hope and opportunity to the most vulnerable New Yorkers," according to its website.  It adds that The Bridge offers "a range of behavioral health services, supportive housing, and community services to adults in New York City who are experiencing serious mental illness."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

The Bridge, Inc. continues to occupy the building that once housed horses and carriages.  Its sympathetic renovation to the building greatly preserves the historic 1905 and 1917 designs.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Lost Henry de Coppet Mansion - 754 Park Avenue

 

The Architectural Record. November 1911 (copyright expired)

Robert W. Buckley and Robert McCafferty composed the builder-architect firm of McCafferty & Buckley.  In July 1891, McCafferty bought out his partner's share of their new, upscale house at 754 Park Avenue (adjoining the southwest corner of 72nd Street) for his own occupancy.  By then, the thoroughfare was seeing the construction of similar upscale residences.  

McCafferty died in the Park Avenue house on February 11, 1905 "after a long illness."  Less than two months later, on April 1, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that his estate had sold the 34-foot-wide dwelling to Henry de Coppet.

De Coppet and his wife, the former Laura Fawcett, commissioned architect George B. de Gersdorff to modernize the outdated Victorian.  His plans, filed in June, called for a new facade, an extension to the rear, and reconfigured interior partitions.  The renovations cost the De Coppets the equivalent of $441,000 in 2026.

Court documents in 1914 reveals the odd footprint of the De Coppet property.  Supreme Court, Bronx County, August 1914 (copyright expired)

De Gersdorff dealt with an unusual footprint, especially considering that his extension would mostly gobble up the rear yard.  He removed the stoop and pulled the facade to the property line.  The entrance was lowered to below grade, centered within a marble base.  De Gersdorff faced the upper floors in red brick and trimmed in marble.  The three windows of the first floor, or piano nobile, sat within slightly recessed arches.  The neo-Georgian design included splayed lintels, a handsome stone balustrade atop the third floor, and large dormers that fronted the fourth floor mansard.

Influential architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler was displeased with the awkward placement of the below-ground entrance.  He said the mansion...

is unmistakably Old New York, excepting the high stoop--very much excepting the high stoop, for here the revivalist has gone to the other extreme; and to dive into the area in order to get at the front door cannot be considered a dignified mode of entrance.

Henry and Laura de Coppet were born in 1843 and 1840 respectively and were married in 1873.  Henry was "a member of a family long prominent in financial and social affairs," according to The New York Herald.  He was educated at the University of Berne and founded his own brokerage firm.  He retired in 1900.

He and Laura had three children, Beatrice, Gertrude and Theakson.  (Their first child, Kinloch Fawcett, died in 1876 at the age of two.)  The family's summer home, Summerstay, was near Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island.

The family was at Summerstay on July 20, 1910 when their automobile was involved in what would be an expensive accident.  The vehicle collided with that of Dr. Henry Rolf Brown, another Manhattanite.  On September 2, Brown and his passenger, Mary H. Rhentan, filed individual suits against Henry de Coppet--Brown's for $5,000 in injuries and damages to his car; and Rhentan's for $5,000 for personal injuries and "a shock to her nervous system."  The suits alleged that the De Coppets' chauffeur "was driving in a careless manner."  The combined suits would translate to about $243,000 today.

Theakston de Coppett had attended Columbia University and was a stockbroker by the time the family moved into 754 Park Avenue.  In 1916, he turned his back to Wall Street and urban life, purchasing the abandoned mill village of Hillsdale, Rhode Island.  He moved there and became president of the town council.  (An early preservationist, the bachelor would will the entire 1,800-acre estate to the state of Rhode Island in 1937.)

In 1920, the family had to address an uncomfortable issue: Henry's mental decline.  On May 11, The Sun reported that Laura "and two of his children," had applied for what today would be termed a conservatorship.  The article said that De Coppet, "is alleged to be suffering from senile dementia." 

As it turned out, the conservatorship was not necessary.  Henry de Coppet died less than five months later on October 6, 1920 at the age of 77.

Laura Fawcett de Coppet survived her husband by six years, dying in the mansion on April 21, 1926.  At the time, her daughters, neither of whom would marry, lived in the house.  They sold 754 Park Avenue to Mary Hoyt Wiborg in July 1929.

Born in 1888, Mary's maternal grandfather was millionaire Hoyt Sherman and her uncles were General William Tecumseh Sherman and Senator John Sherman.  The wealthy socialite had served in a French hospital during World War I.  She now had turned to playwrighting and in 1922 released Taboo, which starred Paul Robeson.

Mary Hoyt Wiborg, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Wiborg's family owned the corner mansion, and on March 25, 1930, The New York Times reported Mary Hoyt Wiborg had sold the two residences to the Rhoades-Kennedy Security Corporation, "which intends to erect on the site a $3,000,000 eighteen-story cooperative apartment house."  The article noted, "The parcel is one of the few in Park Avenue not improved with an apartment house."

In reporting on the transaction, the newspaper commented, "Miss Wiborg, who is prominent in society, is the daughter of Frank B. Wiborg, local manufacturer.  They have a home also in East Hampton, L. I."

Mary Hoyt Wiborg's family's mansion can be glimpsed at the right.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Something, possibly the Depression, derailed the plans.  The property reverted to Mary Wiborg and she continued to reside in 754 Park Avenue.  An art connoisseur, she filled the mansion with a remarkable art collection.  On February 20, 1931, for instance, The East Hampton Star reported that Mary had loaned "three canvases by Picasso" to the Brooklyn Museum for a year.  "Among the Picasso group was a canvas entitled 'Seated Women,' in the modern manner."

When her father died on May 12, 1930, Mary Wiborg inherited $365,509 from his estate--about $7.5 million today. 

At mid-century, the combined corner property was again sold and this time the developers were successful.  The two mansions were replaced by a 17-story apartment building designed by Horace Ginsbern & Associated, completed in 1951.

image via cocoran.com.

The 1909 Britannia - 527 Cathedral Parkway (West 110th Street)

 

image via streeteasy.com

On December 27, 1892, shovels broke ground for the construction of the Cathedral Church of St. John Divine on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street.  Its sprawling property stretched from 110th to 113rd Streets.  Simultaneously, the section of West 110th Street from Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Drive was renamed Cathedral Parkway.  Not all New Yorkers, however, warmed to the change and the buildings along those blocks continue to use both addresses to this day.

In 1909, the Gracehull Realty Co., headed by J. Charles Weschler, hired the short-lived partnership of Waid & Wallauer to design an apartment house at 527 Cathedral Parkway.  (Daniel Everett Waid would be remembered as a prominent architect.  Arthur Wallauer, on the other hand, fell from the record, apparently working with Waid only on this building.)

The plans, filed on February 19, 1909, projected the cost at $350,000--more than $8.7 million in 2026 terms.  Completed before the end of the year, the nine-story Britannia was designed in the Tudor Revival style.  Described by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide as suggesting "the old English house," its multi-paned windows and sharply-angled bays echoed portions of Hampton Court.  Above the limestone base, the facade was clad in rough-faced tapestry brick and trimmed in stone and terra cotta.  Arthur Willauer explained in The American Architect in 1909, "Let us give to the crowded thousands some portion of that joy that we have known abroad and from the real homes in our own country."  And The Apartment Houses of the Metropolis described the Britannia as having a "domestic character in harmony with the architecture of the Cathedral."

Waid & Wallauer produced this rendering in 1909.  Supplement to Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1910 (copyright expired)

The side courts of the Britannia's U-shape provided light and ventilation to nearly every interior room.   The wide, deep central courtyard also acted as "an entrance for vehicles and pedestrians, as well as the approach to the private entrances to two ground floor apartments," as reported by Apartment Houses of the Metropolis.  

Potential residents could choose apartments from five to nine rooms with one or two baths.  Apartment Houses of the Metropolis said, "None of the apartments contain the long dark narrow hallway, so objectionable to dwellers in apartments."  Residents would enjoy, "garbage receptacles, porcelain lined refrigerators, long distance telephone, etc."  Rents ranged from $1,400 to $3,000 per year--about $4,000 to $9,000 per month today.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1910 (copyright expired)

Notably, Waid & Wallauer gave the Britannia more than its share of personality in the form of humorous carved corbels in the form of medieval characters.  The Record & Guide explained that each one was "symbolic of some form of the homely art of housekeeping."  And so the ten crouching figures stir a pot, eat from a bowl and spoon, carry a roasted chicken on a platter, write in a diary or ledger, and such.

This comical figure licks his finger before turning the page in his ledger or diary.  photograph by Carole Teller

Among the first residents were its builder, J. Charles Weschler, and his family; and Archer S. Gibson, his wife, the former Frances Fleetwood Bryant, and their seven-year-old daughter, Elinor.

Born on December 5, 1875 in Baltimore, Gibson was arguably the most famous organist in the country.  He was organist and choirmaster of the Brick Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue.  He was also in great demand by high society, almost all of whom had pipe organs in their mansions.  The New York Times would later describe him as the "organist by appointment to many of the country's richest families."  Among his clients, for instance, were Charles and Eurana Schwab, who had two pipe organs in their sprawling chateau, Riverside House.  The Times added to the list: "Mrs. Henry Clay Frick, William Sloane, Andrew Carnegie, Walter P. Chrysler, H. E. Manville, Mrs. H. Mckay Twombly...and the Rockefellers, Senior and Junior."

Archer S. Gibson.  He and his family remained here at least through 1915.  (original source unknown)

A fascinating couple were Fabian Franklin and his wife, Christine Ladd-Franklin, who were also initial tenants.  Born in Hungary in 1853, Franklin was brought to America by his parents when he was four.  He graduated from Columbian College (today's George Washington University) in 1869 with a Ph.B. in engineering, and earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from John Hopkins University in 1880.  He and Christine Ladd were married in 1882.  By the time the couple moved into the Britannia, he was an associate editor of the New York Evening Post.  He would go on to write books on social, political and economic issues.

Fabian Franklin, MacTutor History of Mathematics

Christine Ladd-Franklin was no less respected in her field.  A psychologist, logician and mathematician, she was known familiarly as Kitty.  She was born in 1847 in Connecticut.  Highly unusual for a female at the time, Christine graduated from Wesleyan Academy in 1865 and enrolled in Vassar College the following year.  Although she had a passion for physics, women were banned from physics laboratories, so she turned to mathematics.

Christine Ladd-Franklin from the collection of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Christine obtained a fellowship at John Hopkins University in 1878 by signing her application, "C. Ladd."  It was only after she accepted the position that the university realized she was a woman.  Now living here, the erudite woman's name appeared in newsprint more often than that of her husband.  On January 14, 1911, for instance, The Evening Post reported on the Sarah Berliner fellowship, "which grants the sum of twelve hundred dollars for study or research in biology, chemistry, or physics."  The article said, "Applications must be in the hands of the chairman of the committee, Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, No. 527 Cathedral Parkway, New York, before February 1."

The Franklins' only daughter, Margaret Ladd, graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1908 and entered New York University Law School where she graduated in 1917.  She became a prominent advocate for women's rights.

Christine Ladd-Franklin's concerns were not limited to mathematics, psychology and education.  On March 1, 1915, the Fortnightly Review reported:

Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, of 527 Cathedral Parkway, New York City, protests against the illustrations of women's underwear published in many newspapers and magazines and which quite pass beyond the limits of decency.  This is a matter where women, even without organization, have the case in their own hands.  A few letters to the shops, newspapers and magazines concerned would, no doubt, be at once effective.

photograph by Carole Teller

Like Christine Ladd-Franklin, her neighbor Bertha Vivian Wooten was an adherent of Edwardian proprieties.  Her husband, Jesse B. Wooten, was an associate of the Knox Hat Company.  His disturbing behavior forced Bertha to leave him in May 1913.  She filed separation "because he played golf on Sunday and fell asleep over his evening paper when she wanted to talk to him," according to the New York Herald.  But the last straw came when, after they had been apart for two days, "he kissed his niece before he did his wife."  To make things worse, when Bertha complained about that, he replied, "Don't be silly."

In court, Jesse explained that his niece was only nine years old, and when he said, "Don't be silly," his "tones were conciliatory rather than brutal."

Happily, just 31 days after Bertha stormed out, she returned to the Britannia and her husband on June 27.  The New York Herald reported that they "were reconciled."

Engineer Albert Bach and his family lived in the Britannia as early as 1915.  On May 22 that year, he and his wife, the former Alice Henricks, announced the engagement of their daughter, Justine Ellen, to Otto Ludwig Koscherak.  The Bachs had two other children, Albert Jr. and Henry Michael.

Alice Bach died in the apartment the following year, on November 17, 1916, at the age of 53.  The family would remain at least through 1919.  By then, Albert Bach Jr. was an engineer like his father.

A prominent resident was architect Lionel Moses, who lived here with his wife, the firmer Shirley Maduro, and three sons, Lionel Jr., Felix, and Richard.  A great-grandson of Revolutionary figure Isaac Moses, Lionel joined the firm of McKim, Mead & White in 1887.  It was Moses who proposed to William Rutherford Mead the formation of a club for Rome Prize winners who had completed their residence at the American Academy in Rome.  He died in his apartment here at the age of 60 on February 19, 1931.

Another respected resident died the following month.  Richard Fitch was an assistant in the psychology department at Columbia University.  He shared his apartment with his brother Carl.  On the afternoon of March 18, Fitch asked the elevator operator to take him to the top floor.  He explained that he "was going to the roof to repair the radio wires."  Once there, the 25-year-old lost his balance and fell to his death.

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

Hermine Baranyi Serly and her widowed daughter Ethel (born Etelka) Serly Brummer shared an apartment here at midcentury.  Hermine was the widow of composer, conductor and author Lajos Serly.  Her son (and Ethel's brother) was composer and conductor Tibor Serly. 

Hermine was born in Budapest, Hungary.  When she met Serly, she was the prima donna of the National Theatre in Kolozsvar, Hungary and he was the conductor.  The New York Times would later recall, "For a number of years she sang in Europe with various opera and operetta companies, of which her husband was conductor."  The couple moved to the United States in 1905.  Hermine and Lajos organized the First Hungarian Theatre here and she later helped found the Hungarian Free Lyceum.

Hermine and Ethel later established the Hungarian Folk Dance and Character Ballet Group (Buzavirag Koszoru).  Hermine was the musical director of the group until 1950.

Ethel started out in vaudeville with her sisters, the Serly Sisters.  An accomplished dancer, she was a member of the Dancing Masters of America and the Dance Educators of America.  When she and her mother moved into the Britannia, both were widows.  Ethel's husband, art connoisseur and founder of the Brummer Art Galleries, Imre Brummer, had died in 1928.

Hermine Serly died at the age of 82 in their apartment on August 9, 1951 "after a long illness," according to The New York Times.  Ethel Serly Brummer died the following year, on August 16, 1952, at the age of 64.

Virginia Brauer, who lived here at the time, experienced a terrifying incident on July 16, 1954.  Virginia worked as the cashier at the Cherry Lane Theatre at 38 Commerce Street.  That night, two gun-wielding men rushed in and forced her and the manager, Nelson Sykes, to turn over the receipts.  The crooks grabbed the $225 in cash and fled in a waiting auto.

As early as 1979, poet Rika Lesser occupied an apartment here.  Born in Brooklyn in 1953, she graduated from Yale University in 1974, studied at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, and received her Masters in Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1977.  In addition to her own compositions, she translates poetry from Swedish and German works to English.  

Lesser received the Landon Poetry Translation Price from the Academy of American Poets in 1982, and the Poetry Translation Price from the Swedish Academy twice--in 1996 and 2003. 

photograph by Carole Teller

Thankfully, little has outwardly changed to the Britannia since 1909.  The automobile turnaround no longer allows vehicles to turn around, but the magnificent many-paned windows are miraculously intact.  And as for its marvelous carvings, Thane Rosenbaum described the building in The New York Times on April 19, 2002 as "a veritable Gothic asylum for grotesque characters."

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post