The 1866 Bernard Flach House - 128 East 93rd Street

 

In 1866, one year after carpenters, masons and painters returned from the Civil War and resumed construction in Manhattan, Henry W. Shaw hired Edmund Waring & Sons Architects to design a modest, 25-foot wide frame house on West 93rd Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  The project was speculative for Shaw, who dabbled in real estate but whose profession was the manufacture of artificial limbs. 

The senior Edmund Waring is attributed as being the architect of the design.  Although the site was still semi-rural, Warning drew on the latest architectural fashion of the day: the French Second Empire style.  Born in Paris, the elegant style was just appearing in New York and the wooden house would be the last word in residential design.

Three robust, hooded dormers graced the mansard above a heavy, bracketed cornice. A wooden stoop rose to a porch that fronted the off-set entrance and floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Bernard Flach Jr. purchased the house in 1868.  The neighborhood was not yet sufficiently developed to warrant a street number, and Flach was listed in directories as living at "East 93d near Third av."  He and his wife had at least two sons, Otto and Arthur.  Also moving into the new house was Bernard's father.

Flach ran a "mouldings" business, manufacturing wooden architectural details like spindles, door frames, and such.  He would have an arduous commute to work.  His shop was located at 178 Centre Street and the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad would not reach 93rd Street until 1878.

Bernard Flach, Sr. did not enjoy the house for especially long.  He died here on May 22, 1870 and his funeral was held in the parlor on the 24th.

Around 1872, the Flachs took in a boarder.  Richard Bohler would live with the family through 1875.  The enterprising businessman ran two starkly different businesses.  He ran a store at 180 Broadway selling, "native and foreign wines, liquors, etc." and a drugstore at 50 Cedar Street.

Arthur B. Flach joined his father's business as early as 1876.  His brother, however, took a much different career route.  His business was listed in 1873 as "pianos."

Bernard Flach apparently died in 1877, the year his name disappeared from city directories.  On November 7 that year, Arthur B. Flach sold 128 East 93rd Street to John R. Graham.  

Graham leased the house to a young German couple, Johannes and Pauline Kamm Hartzheim.  It seems that Pauline's widowed mother, Catherine Kamm, lived with them.  Tragically, Pauline died at the age of 29 on January 11, 1879 "after a long and painful illness," as described by the New York Herald.  Her funeral was held here three days later.

Pauline's grieving husband almost immediately left 128 East 93rd Street.  He placed an advertisement in the New York Herald the following month that read: "Parlor suit and other furniture cheap--On account of death."

Edwin Henes and his wife, the former Caroline Schiffer, purchased 128 East 93rd Street in 1880.  The couple were newlyweds.  They were married on May 8, 1879.  John R. Graham had neglected the wooden house and before they moved in, they would have to make some significant repairs.  On November 22, 1881, Inspector Esterbrook of the Bureau of the Inspection of Buildings released a list of "Buildings That are Likely to Fall."  Included was 128 East 93rd Street.

Edwin Henes was born in Milwaukee in 1850 and graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1869.  He followed a much different professional path, however.  When he purchased 128 East 93rd Street, he was "in the beer business with George Ehret," according to the History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College in 1907.

Four children would be born in the house: Louis George in 1881; Caroline Julia two years later; Edward Jr., who arrived in 1885; and Henry William, born in 1887.

The Henes family was affluent enough to provide their children private educations and to spend time away from the city in the summer months.  Edwin Henes placed an advertisement in the New York Herald in May 1891 that sought:

Wanted--Accommodation for family during July and August in a respectable private or boarding house in the country; must be in healthy location, easily accessible, and within a distance of 25 miles from the city; terms and references.  Address E. H., 128 East 93d st.

By 1903, Louis George Henes was a civic engineer.  Edwin Jr. enrolled in Columbia College that year and studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons during his senior year.  (The History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College recounted, "He began school at the age of four.  He first attended several private elementary schools, and then, in 1897...was prepared to enter the College of the City of New York.")  In the meantime, in 1904 Henry was enrolled in the "scientific course" at the College of the City of New York.  

Edwin Henes Jr., as he appeared above in 1907, would become a physician.  History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College (copyright expired)

The Henes family was involved in charity work.  Caroline was a member of the Ladies Aid Society of the German Hospital and Dispensary, for instance.  And in July 1894, the family held a "fair and garden party" at the house for the benefit of The Evening World's Sick Babies' Fund.  The event raised $52.54 (about $2,000 in 2026 terms).  Edwin Jr. wrote to the newspaper saying in part, "We are happy to have been able to make a success of our undertaking and to contribute, with the assistance of our friends and neighbors, something towards the good cause of taking care of the poor sick children of his city."

On June 18, 1905, The New York Times reported, "A town wedding will take place on June 21, when Miss Carolyn Julia Haynes [sic] will be married to Edward Bolter of Chicago in St. James's Lutheran Church, Madison Avenue and Seventy-third Street."  Louis  was the groom's best man.  The reception was held in the East 93rd Street house.

In April 1912, the family offered 128 East 93rd Street for sale.  An advertisement described, "A 3 story and basement frame private Dwelling, with brick foundation, containing 15 rooms, 1 bath and 2 toilets."  Whether the Heneses changed their minds or the house simply did not sell is unclear, but Edwin Henes leased the house to James Edberg Fitch in April 1914.  (Edwin and Caroline moved to Seventh Avenue.)

Fitch and his wife, Virginia, had at least three adult children, John H., Virginia and Isabel.  Two months after leasing the house, the Fitches' son, John H. Fitch, got a temporary job with the city's Public Creation Commission as a Gymnasium Instructor at $3 a day "for a period of fifteen days."  (It was an attractive gig, equal to $100 a day today.)

Virginia Fitch died on March 18, 1915.  Rather unexpectedly, Isabel was married seven months later.  Described as a suffragist and expert in outdoor sports, she found love rather late, at least by society standards.  When she and Ralph Folks, the Commissioner of Public Works, obtained their marriage license on November 27, 1915, they listed their ages as 30 and 37, respectively.  The wedding took place "quietly," as described by The New York Times, the following afternoon in the Church of the Beloved Disciple on 89th Street and Madison Avenue.  Virginia was her maid of honor.

Edwin Hene sold 128 East 93rd Street in June 1920.  Interestingly, the buyer was his business associate, George Ehret, who purchased it as a rental property.

Among his tenants that year the Kinzler family, whose son, Herman, became engaged to Clara Frankel that year; and Dr. Julius Scheider and his wife, Marie.

It may have been the city's plans to widen East 93rd Street that prompted Ehret to sell 128 East 93rd Street to a Mrs. Miller in 1921.  On May 21, The New York Times reported that she "will occupy" the house.

The widening of the street in 1922 necessitating the removal of the stoop and porch.  The entrance was lowered below grade and the former doorway converted to a window, seamlessly designed to match the originals.

Seen here in 1932, the basement (now first) floor was spartan.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The house was sold again in July 1930.  It became home to Frederick W. Kroehle, president of the Elfred Realty Company.  By the late 1950s, F. LeMoyne Page and his wife, the former Dorothea Fiske, occupied the house.  

Born in 1901, Page was the founder and president of Transportation Displays, Inc., known as TDI.  The New York Times noted in 1964 that the firm "does $6,000,000 worth of business annually selling advertising space in commuter railroad systems."   Educated as an architect, in 1949 he designed and built the family's summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Page was operated for a prostate disorder in April 1964.  He died in the New York Hospital on April 22.

Two years later, 128 East 93rd Street was nominated for landmark status.  Dorothea, now remarried, successfully blocked the designation.

In 1989, Bradley and Ashley Reifler purchased the house.  California natives, they told a reporter, "We wanted the sense of privacy of a house, the sense of country in the city."  The couple added an elevator housed in a wooden tower in the rear.  In 1991, architectural journalist Christopher Gray reported somewhat sadly, "Although the wideboard floors and marble mantelpieces survive, most of the sense of age in the interior has been ironed out."  

That "sense of age" would be further eradicated in 1995 when the Reiflers removed interior walls.  The house was sold in 2010 to C. C. Dyer, the former wife of television personality Geraldo Rivera.  She paid $6.8 million for the property.

Even without its porch and stoop, the wooden relic retains its post-Civil War charm.

photographs by the author

William Jose's 1873 Re-do of 167 Rivington Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

United States Customs inspector William H. Randall and his family lived at 167 Rivington Street as early as 1836.  They suffered grief on the morning of December 27, 1837 when four-month-old Ann Rebecca Randall died.  The Randall home was, likely, a recently-built Federal-style structure.  

Just before the outbreak of Civil War, the house was replaced with Benedict Kraus's three-story hotel.  The enterprising Kraus also operated a meat business in the Essex Market.  The war affected at least one of Kraus's tenants.  On August 28, 1863, S. Adler was drafted into the Union Army.

Edward Gottlieb took over the hotel by 1865.  Like Kraus, he had a second job and operated his real estate business from the building.  The barroom here was the venue of political meetings, and on November 21, 1865 an announcement in the New York Herald reported that the 13th Ward Gunther Club "will hold regular meetings every Wednesday and Saturday night at Gottlieb's Hotel, 167 Rivington street."

On December 14, 1866, the New-York Tribune reported, "Shortly after 4 o'clock yesterday morning a fire was discovered in the premises No. 167 Rivington-st., occupied as a German hotel."  The article said, "the building and furniture were considerably damaged by fire and water."

Following repairs, 167 Rivington Street emerged as Urania Hall, a combination "concert saloon" and hotel.  (Concert saloons were the American version of English music halls and provided live entertainment.)  On January 4, 1867, an advertisement read, "Wanted--Some young waiter girls, for a concern saloon.  Apply at Urania Hall, 167 Rivington street."  And an announcement in the New York Herald on January 13 touted: "Concert every night; handsome girls attending, with choice wines, beer, &c."

The venture did not survive.  Only six months later, on June 28, 1867, an auction was held of "the entire Furniture of Urania Hotel," as well as the remaining three years' lease on the property.

The lease was taken by David Gans and Henry Schwartz, who opened the Schwartz & Gans beer saloon in the ground floor.  It, too, was a meeting spot for German political groups.  On June 26, 1872, The New York Times reported, "The German Republican Organization of the Thirteenth Ward held a meeting at No. 167 Rivington-street last night, indorsing the nomination of Gen. Grant and Senator Wilson for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency."

Change came the following year when owner Paul Hoffman hired architect William Jose to remodel and enlarge the building.  The renovations, which included an additional story, cost Hoffman the equivalent of $208,000 in 2026.

William Jose was best known for designing tenement buildings in the Bowery neighborhood.  He transformed 167 Rivington Street to a four-story-and-basement, store-and-tenement building faced in red brick above the storefronts.  A centered stoop lead to the first floor where two shops flanked the residential entrance.  Jose's neo-Grec design included molded cast metal sills supported by decorated brackets, and paneled lintels topped by molded cornices with a decorative ornament.

photograph by Carole Teller

The complex cornice was comprised of a paneled and dentiled fascia, ornate paired corbels and matching smaller brackets.

The new apartments filled with middle class tenants.  Among those living here in 1879 were two real estate agents, a lithographer, a tailor, one "merchant," and a porter.  That year Jacob Grossmann's shirt business occupied one of the stores.

By the turn of the century, the residents were more working class.  Caroline Rosenthal lived here by the early 1890s with her two grandsons.  George W. and Ernest Schultze were two of the three sons of Dr. Reinbold Schultze who died in 1890.  The boys were eight and six years old at the time.  Their mother "soon afterward went to live with one Courtney, alias Harrison," reported the New York Herald.  Courtney had a wife and three children in Brooklyn.  The couple disappeared, taking the four-year-old Reinbold with them and leaving George and Ernest with their grandmother.

Unfortunately, the care of two young boys was too much for Caroline Rosenthal, and around 1892 she placed them in St. John's Home for Boys in Brooklyn.  Then, a remarkable turn of events occurred.  A Frau Krummhauer died in Magdeburg, Prussia in 1892.  She was the aunt of the three Schultze boys and left them a fortune of $375,000, equal to about $13.7 million today.  William Schwickardi began looking for the three young heirs in December 1892.  He was unable track down the boys' mother, young Reinbold, or Courtney.  (Mrs. Courtney told him she had not heard from her husband and had no idea where he was.)  

He was more successful in finding George and Ernest.  Caroline Rosenthal appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court with her grandsons on April 11, 1893.  The boys--who one day earlier were living as orphans in a less-than-comfortable institution--were suddenly wealthy.  Selflessly, Caroline Rosenthal requested the court to appoint Julia Schwickardi, William's wife, the boys' legal guardian.

Living in the building at the time of the boys' windfall were junk dealer Saul Deutsch and Dr. Simon Rappaport.  Max Marks ran a dry goods business in one of the stores.

In April 1893, a large quantity of cloth began disappearing from the clothing manufacturer Marks & Co. on Broadway.  On May 5, police officers witnessed two employees, Nathan Schnapper and Solomon Tischler, lowering a bag of rags to Saul Deutsch.  Suspicious, they investigated the bundle.  "Among the rags the detectives found a roll of cloth valued at $27," reported The Evening Post.  Deutsch was arrested and held at $1,000 bail.

Dr. Simon Rappaport faced an even more serious charge two years later.  On December 3, 1895, the New York Herald reported that he and Joseph Stern had been arrested for an "operation performed upon Mrs. Jennie Fourgang, who is very ill in Bellevue Hospital."  The newspaper delicately danced around naming the offense--an abortion.

The charges were elevated three weeks later.  On December 24, The Evening Post reported that Rappaport and Stern had been charged "in connection with the death of Mrs. Jennie Fortgang, of No. 5 Norfolk Street."  The article said she had died "from malpractice," and had named the two men from her deathbed.

Paul Hoffman made improvements to the building again in 1898.  He hired the architectural firm of Kurtzer & Rohl to install a "new fireproof vent shaft [and] new skylight," as described in the plans.  The alterations cost Hoffman the equivalent of $48,000 today.

Austrian-born Leon Stand (known familiarly as Leo) and his family lived here as early as 1901.  He operated his real estate office from one of the commercial spaces.  In 1901 he rallied other businessmen on the block to protest about the garbage and resultant odors that littered the street.  On August 8, The New York Times reported that he had initiated a petition to the Commissioner of Street Cleaning.  "Unable to endure the stench from the streets, they have [been] buying snuff-snuff by the half-pound which the women as well as the men have been using," said the article.  Stand and his neighbors charged that they were being discriminated against.  The petition said in part:

We...protest against the unjust discrimination and partiality shown to the lower east side in the matter of removing garbage and cleaning streets of our neighborhood.  The garbage and filth have been lying in front of the tenements for the past three days, and the drivers and employes [sic] of your department have absolutely refused to remove it.

Leon Stand told a reporter, "We simply can't stand it here any longer.  I took a walk up Fifth Avenue on purpose on Saturday.  Do you think I saw any ash cans or ill-smelling garbage cans there?  Not on your life."

A substantial renovation came in March 1904 when architect Max Muller redesigned the lower floors.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide explained that he "rearranged front wall," installed new store fronts and a cast iron staircase.

Max Muller's 1904 storefronts and iron steps can be seen in this 1940 tax photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Leon Stand and his family would remain here for years.  In August 1911, he arranged a testimonial dinner for Charles F. Hartman, the 71-year-old principal of Public School 106 at Rivington and Suffolk Streets.  On the night of September 12, 250 former pupils gathered at the Café Boulevard to celebrate his retirement and honor his half-century of "pedagogy," as worded by The New York Times.

The following year, Leon's son, Murray, made news on his own.  On September 19, 1912, The New York Times said he "has won prizes for oratory at the De Witt Clinton High School, and is President of the Young Boys Democratic Club."  An admirer of Mayor William Jay Gaynor, Murray Stand was offended when he read the speech delivered by Rabbi Wise at Carnegie Hall, "in which the Rabbi suggested that the Mayor had better resign."  The teen wrote to the mayor, saying in part, "Keep up your good work, dear Mr. Mayor, and when your term as Mayor shall expire, 'one good term shall then deserve another.'"

Mayor Gaynor responded to Murray Stand's letter, writing that he had no ill feelings for Rabbi Wise, however he said he "seems to be without charity or truthfulness."  He went on, "He is a mere rhetorician, and you know what rhetoricians from the beginning of time have been designated as persons 'with the crooked mouth.'"  Murray Stand declined to be interviewed, although he said that "he believed politics should be kept out of religion and the public schools" and deemed Rabbi Wise's attack "in bad taste."

Murray Stand's name was again in newsprint the following year on November 17, 1913 when The New York Times reported on the upcoming testimonial dinner for Justice Aaron J. Levy.  "Murray W. Stand, Secretary of the Neighborhood Dinner Committee, 167 Rivington Street, is in charge of the arrangements," said the article.

By 1917, Murray W. Stand was an Internal Revenue Service collector and alderman.  He would go on to serve in the Army in World War I, be elected alderman 14 successive times, and appointed New York City Commissioner to the World's Fair, and Inspector General of Defense for New York City and City Clerk in 1946.  

His brother, Bert Stand, would become secretary of the New York State Athletic Commission in 1925 and Tammany Hall's first Jewish secretary, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, on July 29, 1934.  

Leon Stand, in the meantime, founded the Lemberger Congregation, a synagogue on East Fourth Street, in 1925.

Among the tenants of 167 Rivington Street in the 1920s was Sam Kirschner.  He and his family occupied an apartment while he ran his dressmaking store downstairs.  Attorney I. Schleider's office was here at least from 1922 through 1925.

The vintage building suffered significant neglect by the third quarter of the century.  On March 7, 1973, 13 tenants lived here, but not for long.  Around 5 a.m., police rushed into the building and roused them "when the walls and roof of the brick structure began to sag," as reported by The New York Times.  Moments later, a partial collapse occurred.  

A blurry 1980 tax photograph shows the building boarded up.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building appears to have sat vacant until a "gut rehabilitation" by Harden-Van Arnam Architects completed in 1993 resulted in stores in the basement and first floor and apartments above.

photograph by Carole Teller

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1909 Cathedral Plaza - 101 West 109th Street / 410 Cathedral Pkwy

 photograph by Anthony Bellov

In April 1908, the architectural firm of Sommerfeld & Steckler began plans "for a six-story $100,000 flat building...for the Cathedral Realty Co. to be erected on the north side of 109th St., 150 ft. west of Columbus Avenue," as reported in the Real Estate Record & Guide.  The developer's vision was soon doubled.  When construction was completed in 1909, there were two connected, nearly identical buildings back-to-back.  The Cathedral Plaza had entrances at 101 West 109th Street and 410 Cathedral Parkway.  (The stretch of West 110th Street from Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Drive was renamed Cathedral Parkway in 1892.  Many New Yorkers ignored the change and this entrance is still also known as 410 West 110th Street.)

Each of the Beaux Arts-style buildings was designed as an E, with deep light courts separating the three sections.  Above rusticated limestone bases, Sommerfeld & Steckler faced the upper five floors with red Flemish bond brick trimmed with terra cotta.  Deep porches with polished red granite columns protected the centered entrances on each side.  Square headed drip moldings capped the ornate terra cotta lintels of the midsections, while the top section, introduced by a sumptuous cornice supported by an arched corbel table with angels' faces and shells, exploded with elaborate decoration.  A brick-and-terra cotta parapet crowned each section.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

An advertisement for the "just completed" Cathedral Plaza in February 1910 touted: "High class novel elevator apartments 2 and 3 rooms, bath and kitchenette.  A first class restaurant connected with the buildings.  Rents from $32 to $45."  The most expensive rent would translate to $1,570 per month in 2026.

Among the initial residents were stockbroker Hugh C. Kendall Hester and his wife, Edith H., who were going through some rough times.  The couple were married on October 26, 1906.  That year was a propitious one for Hester.  Not only did he get married, but he made $60,000 in stocks.  (It was a staggering windfall, equal to $2.2 million today.)  The Sun reported, "He made so much money the first year he was married that he spent $20,000 for living expenses alone."

Hester was Edith's second husband and she had received a $13,000 settlement in the divorce of her first spouse, C. Henry Fosgate.  She asked Hugh to speculate with her sizable nest egg.  In March 1907, he lost $87,000, including his wife's money.  Edith told him, "Never mind, you'll get it all back again."  

Things became worse when Henry Clews & Co. refused to give Hester a raise and he resigned.  He took a job with E. F. Hutton & Co., but was "discharged for violating a rule of the Stock Exchange that he didn't know about," according to The Sun.  (He had written to his former clients at Henry Clews & Co., asking them to transfer their portfolios to him.)  He found a job as managing the office of Ball & Whicher, but that brokerage firm closed.  After living extravagantly for years, "he had to reduce expenses and moved from 515 West 110th Street to a kitchenette apartment in the Cathedral Plaza apartments at 101 West 109th street," explained The Sun.

Downsizing to a two-room apartment was the last straw for Edith.  When Hester came home on October 6, 1910, "his wife, her maid and her dog were all gone," reported The Sun.  On January 4, 1911, she applied for separation and alimony, painting a melodramatic picture to the court.  The Sun recounted:

She has no relatives or parents who can aid her, she says, and she needs winter clothing and has even suffered for want of food.  Once when she was hanging to her husband's coat demanding carfare he struck her in the face, she says.

Hester told the court that he was making only $10 per week.  The Sun reported, "but the Court awarded alimony of that amount and $100 counsel fee."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

On March 12, 1914, Florence Miller and her son, Samuel J. Miller, rented a fifth-floor apartment here.  Florence was 55 years old and Samuel, who said he was studying at Columbia University, was 24.  Florence handed the superintendent a check on the Colonial National Bank for the first month's rent and said their furniture would arrive the next day.  He gave her the keys and, according to The New York Times, "the couple immediately took possession, although they were without even a handbag."

The mother and son had a tragic story.  According to Florence, they "inherited a small fortune ten years ago" and came to Manhattan to live.  Samuel got a job in the advertising business, but he lost his job in January.  Florence later related, "since then both had been in the direst poverty, due to the exhaustion of their small fortune and his inability to find work."  The check with which Florence secured the lease was later found to be worthless.

The two did not rent the apartment to occupy it, they wanted a place to die.  On March 13, 1914, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Miller and her son were found sitting in chairs side by side with their arms around each other's neck.  Every gas cock in the kitchen stove was turned on full."  The article noted, "Ashes in the sink indicated that they had burned some papers before trying to end their lives."

The following day, The New York Times reported, "Both are now out of danger, although it was necessary to use a pulmotor to revive them."  Florence told authorities, "Because my son and I have been used to nice things, we did not want to die in a hovel."  

In the post-World War I years, the respectability of some of the tenants of Cathedral Plaza declined.  On June 15, 1920, for instance, 33-year-old Benjamin Silverman was arrested.  "He is suspected of the theft of $30,000 worth of miscellaneous stock certificates...and to have disposed of them at Providence, R. I.," reported The Sun.  And the following year, on August 6, 1921, Louis B. Jennings, president of the Standard Film Industries, Inc., surrendered to the District Attorney.  He was charged with selling unauthorized stock in the company.

The 109th Street elevation.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

Gertrude Schroeder lived here in 1923 when she became the focus of a highly publicized scandal.  Her sister, the former Elaine Phillips, was Princess Elaine von der Lippe-Lipski, the wife of Prince Nicholas Vladimir von der Lippe-Lipski, "one-time friend of the Czar," according to The New York Times.  

That summer, the Prince and Princess visited New York City and took a suite in the Biltmore Hotel.  In October, the Princess became suspicious that her sister was carrying on a dalliance with her husband.  On October 25, she and friends came to Gertrude's apartment.  The New York Times reported, "the Princess said she heard the voices of her husband and her sister as they stood waiting outside the door."  Once inside, the Princess found some of her husband's clothing.  Gertrude refused to open the bathroom door.  Eventually the Princess and her party left, taking along her husband's clothing.  (In the vest pocket, she later told the court, she found the key to Gertrude's apartment.)

The Princess faced off with Gertrude in court on January 28, 1924.  She had sued her for $100,000 for alienating her husband's affections.  Among those who testified was Gertrude's next-door neighbor.  He told the court that on October 25, 1923, he heard a noise outside his window.  Looking out, he discovered the Prince on the fire escape, wearing nothing but a woman's bathrobe.

For hours on the night of February 13, 1924, policemen surveilled the apartment occupied by Abraham Horowitz and Joseph Stern from a rear fire escape.  The New York Times described it as "elaborately furnished in Oriental style, and illuminated by shaded colored lights."  The exotic decor set mood for Horowitz's and Stern's opium den.  Finally, early in the morning police raided the apartment.  Along with Horowitz and Stern, four others were arrested, including 22-year-old manicurist Dorothy Clark.

Dr. John Leo Hanson left Boston and took a two-room apartment here on July 15, 1926.  Five days later he was arrested on West 40th Street.  The New York Times said he was "wanted as an accessory in the death of Miss Edith Greene."  According to Police Inspector Carey, Hanson was so intoxicated "he could get no information whatever from him when he was first taken in."  Edith Greene had been murdered in Boston and her body dismembered.  Once sober, Hanson denied having anything to do with the murder.  On July 20, The New York Times reported that investigators searched Hanson's apartment here and "found a trunk filled with feminine apparel."

On September 21, 1928, contractor David Angus was fatally shot in his home on West 105th Street "by a band of thugs who robbed him of $700," reported The New York Times.  Six months later, acting on an anonymous tip, police "arrested six men in a fourth-floor apartment at 101 West 109th Street on suspicion of homicide."  The newspaper reported, "the apartment in which the men were arrested was pretentiously furnished."  All but one of them had previous convictions.

Unusual ornaments sit atop the 109th Street side in 1940 (they are not trees).  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After a significant decline, the buildings were renovated in 1960.  In 1965, two women, Mary Pierce and Florence Senior moved into one of the apartments from an SRO hotel.  "Oh, Christ, you can escape," Mary told a reporter.  "You're not like cluttered together.  You can go into the kitchen, go into the living room.  We've got a parlor, so they say."

The upgrades did not necessarily improve the respectability of some of the tenants.  In 1963 John R. Payne was arrested for Social Security fraud; and in 1974 Santiago Rodriguez and his half-brother Miguel Diaz were arrested as suspects in the murder of Pace University professor James C. Clees.

The 100th Street building is a copy of the 109th Street structure.  image via nelsonmanagementgroup.net

Things have improved within the two buildings (which are no longer known as the Cathedral Plaza).  Recently renovated, the units now range from studios to four-bedroom duplexes.  The management's website notes, "It is 100% dedicated to affordable housing and funded in part by the U.S. Department  of Housing and Urban Development."

many thanks to Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Lost Grace Gospel Chapel - 102 West 133rd Street

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

Born in Maryland in 1868, Reverend Frederick Cullen founded the Salem Methodist Episcopal Chapel as a mission of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in the East Village.  In 1908, Salem Chapel became an independent congregation: the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.  That year the New York City Church Extension and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church paid $93,000 for the vintage houses at 102 and 104 West 133rd Street.  Formerly the homes of Frederick Stimson and John Henry Bradford, they were converted into a worship space for Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.

The church became a center not only for worship, but for civil rights and cultural events.  Cullen would become president of the Harlem branch of the NAACP, and in 1917 was vice-president of the Negro Silent Protest Parade, commonly known as the Silent Parade.  On July 28 that year, 10,000 Blacks marched along Fifth Avenue to protest racist violence like the lynchings in Waco, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee.

Two significant memorial services were held here in 1919.  The first honored President Theodore Roosevelt.  On January 27, The New York Times reported, "One thousand negro residents of Harlem attended a memorial meeting in honor of Colonel Roosevelt last night in the Salem African Methodist Episcopal Church, 102 West 133d Street."  

And five months later, on June 9, the New-York Tribune reported on the memorial service of Madam C. J. Walker.  Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Louisiana where her parents and older siblings had been slaves, Walker developed beauty and hair products for Black women.  Described by the Guinness Book of Records as being "America's first, self-made female millionaire," she created an empire.  The article noted that during the service messages were read from Governor Alfred E. Smith; R. R. Morton, principal of Tuskegee Institute; and from Emmett J. Scott, special assistant to the Secretary of War.

In 1924, the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church moved into the former Calvary Methodist Church building at 129th Street and Seventh Avenue (today's Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard).  The altered houses at 102-104 West 133rd Street were purchased by Grace Gospel Chapel.  The congregation hired architect Vertner Woodson Tandy to renovate the building.  The first Black architect registered in New York State, Tandy was born in 1885 and educated Tuskegee Institute and Cornell University.  Interestingly, among his prominent designs was the $250,000 mansion of Madam C. J. Walker in Irvington-on-Hudson.

The renovations were completed in 1925.  Tandy had transformed the old brownstones into a Spanish Mission-style fantasy.  With the stoops removed, the entrances (one to the worship space and the other to apartments on the top two floors) were located below grade, at the former English basement level.  Tandy covered the stone with white stucco and accentuated the Spanish motif with red brick and colorful tiles.  A group of three windows at the second floor were fronted with a picturesque iron balcony.  

The combined buildings originally looked much like the extant houses to the right.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Shallow, decorative buttresses gave the facade dimension.  A charming octagonal bell tower at the corner rose above the orange-tiled roof.

The upper two floors held apartments, including one for the pastor, Reverend Talbot Berton Nottage, and his wife, Josephine Barnett.  Born in 1885 in the Bahamas, Talbot Berton Nottage became minister of Grace Gospel Chapel in 1921.  He was, as well, the editor of Testimony, a monthly missionary periodical, and president of the Harlem Bible Association.

The apartments in the building provided additional funds for the church.  An advertisement in The New York Age on December 18, 1926 read: "Spacious furnished rooms to let at 102 West 133rd street, Grace Gospel Chapel.  References desired."

The sanctuary, which was in the basement level, was regularly the scene of weddings and funerals.  One funeral, however, would be especially poignant.  

The auditorium accommodated hundreds of worshipers or funeral and wedding attendees.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Seven-year-old Valance Bynoe Jr. was playing with two friends in front of his house at around 11:00 on Saturday night, June 6, 1936.  Suddenly, three fleeing robbers ran by, followed by "Patrolman George Brown, Negro policeman attached to the 133rd Street Station," as reported by The Daily Worker.  Brown fired off three shots.  One hit Bynoe in the head and another struck 43-year-old Preston Best, who was exiting his home, in the shoulder.  The New York Age reported, "The policeman immediately gave up the chase and rushed the victims to the hospital in a commandeered taxicab."  The little boy did not survive.

On June 8, The Daily Worker reported, "Little Valance Bynoe, Jr., seven-year-old Negro schoolboy...lies dead in his home today, the second child victim of police guns in Harlem in a month."  The boy's funeral was held in Grace Gospel Chapel on the evening of June 9.

The church's auditorium was the scene of gospel meetings, cultural events and civic meetings for decades.  Then, in 1982 a demolition permit was issued for the property.  The congregation razed their building--one of the few Vertner W. Tandy designs extant in Harlem--to be replaced by a red brick, barn-like structure completed in 1984.

image via gracegospelchapelnyc.org

The Charles F. and Maude Watson Mansion - 34 East 69th Street

 

Prolific real estate developer Anthony Mowbray erected two brownstone-faced homes at 32 and 34 East 69th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in 1880.  Designed by Lamb & Wheeler in a marriage of neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles, they were 20-feet wide and four stories tall above high English basements.

34 East 69th Street would originally have been very similar to its next-door-neighbor at 32 E. 69th Street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Politician John Kelly and his wife, Ann Theresa Mullen, purchased 34 East 69th Street.  Born in 1822, Kelly entered politics in 1840 and served as a New York Representative in Congress from 1855 to 1858.  He was elected Sheriff of New York County in 1859 and in 1871 turned his focus to fighting the corruption of the notorious Tweed Ring.  By 1874, Kelly controlled Tammany Hall and earned his nickname, "Honest John."

John Kelly, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Ann was Kelly's second wife.  His first, Mary Ann McIllhargy, died on July 17, 1866, and within five years their three children had perished.  He and Ann (who was the niece of New York Cardinal John McCloskey) had a son, John Jerome, and a daughter, Josephine.

Kelly, the most powerful force in New York City politics, suffered a blow in 1884.  In his 1917 The History of Tammany Hall, Gustuvus Myers writes:

Kelly broke down with nervous and physical prostration after the Presidential campaign of 1884.  Grover Cleveland's election, which falsified his predictions, deeply disappointed him.  He kept to his house, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth street, but still issued his orders to the Tammany organization.

His condition was well publicized.  On February 14, 1885, The New York Times reported that Kelly had spent a few days as a guest of Nathaniel Jarvis, Jr. in Far Rockaway.  Now back home, the article said "it was announced that he was greatly improved in health, and had not been in better spirits for several weeks."

New Yorkers no doubt realized things were more serious that November.  The day after the elections, the New-York Tribune reported, "John Kelly remained all day yesterday at his home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st.  It was stated that he was too ill to go out of the house."

By the following year, according to Gustuvus Meyers, "he could not sleep except by the use of opiates."  Around 1:30 on the morning of May 30, 1886, Mary Ann sent for a priest.  Two more came at around 10:00 to administer last rites.  On June 2, The Sun reported, "John Kelly, the Tammany chieftain, whose name is as familiar to the country as the President's, died yesterday afternoon at a little about 3 o'clock."  John Kelly's funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 5.

Kelly had left the East 69th Street house in equal shares to Mary Ann and Josephine, who was still unmarried.  Following their period of bereavement, the women again entertained.  Those gatherings often reflected the Kellys' deep Catholic faith.  On December 16, 1894, for instance, the New-York Tribune wrote, "One of the pleasant dinners of the week was given by Mrs. John Kelly for Monsignor Satolli, at her home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st., on Monday.  The decorations were in white and purple, the Papal and the Delegate's colors."  (Monsignor Francesco Satolli was the first Apostolic Delegate to the United States.)

Mary Ann and Josephine remained here until August 1928 when 34 East 69th Street was sold to stockbroker Charles Frederic Watson Jr.  Somewhat ironically, seven months later, on March 25, 1929, Mary Ann Kelly died.

In reporting the sale on August 3, 1928 The New York Times had remarked that during the decades that the Kelly family occupied the house, "the block was improved with fine residences."  Charles and Maude Watson followed suite by hiring architect A. Wallace McCrea to remodel the outdated brownstone.  

He stripped off the outer wall and pulled the facade to the property line.  McCrea gave the mansion a tripartite, neo-French Classic marble facade.  Above the rusticated base, the windows of the piano nobile were fully arched, while the upper openings were segmentally arched.  McCrea even executed the terminal cornice in marble.

The renovation caused a stark contrast to its once fraternal twin next door.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

As work on the house progressed, the Watsons lived in a sumptuous apartment in Mayfair House at 610 Park Avenue.  Then, on November 2, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Watson Jr. have left Mayfair House for 34 East Sixty-ninth Street."

Both Charles Frederic Watson Jr. and his wife, the former Maude V. Burnside, came from privileged backgrounds.  They were married in St. Thomas's Church on January 26, 1924.  The New York Times said that Charles was "descended from the Campbell and Argyle families of Scotland."  On her maternal side, Maude was a descendant of Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Charles was born in Orange, New Jersey and educated in private schools.  He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1906, but was, perhaps, better known for his athletic skills at the time.  He was a championship amateur tennis player.  Now, he and Maude maintained a home in London where they spent several months every year.

As early as 1938, the Watsons's butler was John Evert Andren.  The butler was the most trusted member of a family's domestic staff and were entrusted with all the keys and combinations for silver safes.  On January 17, 1939, Andren was arrested "as a suspect" in the theft of some of the Watsons' silver.  Although he claimed innocence, he was carrying "monogrammed silverware worth more than $500" at the time of his arrest.  (The value would translate to more than $11,000 in 2026.)

Charles Frederic Watson Jr. died at the age of 71 on April 19, 1954.   Maude sold 34 East 69th Street on November 1, 1956 to Harold G. and Irene R. Lacks.  The couple's marriage dissolved and the house was auctioned as part of the divorce proceedings in February 1969.  It was purchased for the equivalent of $3 million today by the Government of Iran.  On February 28, The New York Times reported, "The house will be the residence of Iran's consul general, Parviz Sepahbodi."

photograph by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On February 11, 1979, revolutionary, armed forces overthrew the Iranian Government.  The U.S. State Department took over Iranian properties, including 34 East 69th Street in April 1980.  Six months later, on October 14, The New York Times reported that the State Department had leased the building to the French Designer Showhouse.  The Decorator Showcase continued to be held here through 2000.

In 2001, the Richard L. Feigen & Co. gallery opened in three floors of 34 East 69th Street.  Founded in Chicago in 1957, the gallery "handles work by such important artsists as German Expressionist Max Beckmann and Surrealist master Henri Rousseau," according to the 2016 ART + NYC.

David Zwirner's gallery took over the space in 2017.  Art dealer Adler Beatty occupied the fourth floor.  When Zwirner closed his East 69th Street location in July 2026, artnet recalled, "The Zwirner on East 69th Street hosted about three-dozen exhibitions for canonical figures like Yayoi Kusama, Bill Traylor, and Dan Flavin."

With the gallery gone, the future of the landmarked marble mansion is unclear.

photographs by the author

The Hiram and Henrietta A. Pettibone House - 124 East 10th Street

photograph by the author

In 1651, Peter Stuyvesant established two farms far north of New Amsterdam.  The lane that separated Bouwerij #1 and #2 would eventually become Stuyvesant Street.  When East 10th Street (part of the rigid street grid of the 1811 Commissioners Plan) was opened in 1826, the diagonally-running Stuyvesant Street created an odd shaped parcel, the triangular point of which Elizabeth Stuyvesant retained as her garden.  Four years after Elizabeth's death on September 16, 1854, Matthias Banta purchased the point for development.

Most historians attribute the resultant rowhouses to James Renwick, Jr., who had designed the magnificent Grace Church about three blocks to the west in 1846.  Completed in 1861, the Anglo-Italianate, five-story-and-basement homes varied from 16- to 32-feet-wide and (because of the triangular plot), their depths ranged from 16- to 48-feet.  

Like its neighbors, the rusticated brownstone basement and first floors of 192 Tenth Street (renumbered 124 East 10th in 1867) sat below four stories of red brick trimmed in brownstone.  The tall, fully-arched windows of the second floor held hands by means of a stone bandcourse.  Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.

The first occupant of the house was James G. Maeder, who listed his profession as "music" and likely rented it from Banta.  In 1863, Hiram A. Pettibone and his wife, the former Henrietta Davenport, moved in.

Pettibone was a stockbroker with an office at 70 Broad Street.  Born on January 19, 1805 in Syracuse, New York, he and Henrietta were married in Worchester, Massachusetts on June 13, 1859.  The newlyweds' bliss would be short-lived.  Hiram died the same year they moved into their new home.

Henrietta A. Pettibone remained, taking in respectable boarders.  Living here in 1864 were two lawyers, Andrew J. Coe and Robert A. Piper.  An interesting boarder arrived in 1867.  Christian von Hesse was listed in directories as "lawyer, notary and commissioner of deeds for all the States and Territories."

Von Hesse continued to board here after Phoebe Shaw began operating 124 East 10th Street as a boarding house in 1868.  Phoebe was the widow of Joshua Shaw.

Unlike Harriette Pettibone, who took in one or two boarders at a time, Phoebe Shaw ran a true boarding house.  In 1869, Edmund and Germaine Duverger arrived from France and took rooms.  Duverger was an importer and dealer in French lace.  His factory was in Brussels and he opened a store here for the sale of his goods.  He was quickly a success.  The New-York Tribune said his store "is well known to many prominent business men on Broadway."

On Saturday evening of November 13, 1869, "two men called at the residence of Mrs. Phoebe Shaw, No. 124 East Tenth-st., and inquired for Mr. E. Duverger," recounted the New-York Tribune.  They asked to see examples of Duverger's laces and, although they were unable to provide business cards, Duverger complied.  They left but returned five minutes later.  They declared, "These are smuggled goods and we seize them!"

When Duverger insisted he had paid duty on the goods and refused to relinquish them, one of the men displayed a Custom House badge and the other "drew a revolver and repeated the order."  Unwilling to allow his valuable laces out of his presence, Duverger accompanied the men to the St. Charles Hotel.  Here a "large man, with a huge black mustache and jet black hair," as described by the New-York Tribune, represented himself to be Collector Grinnell.  He looked over Duverger's certificates and told him the duty he had paid was insufficient and demanded more.

On Monday morning, Duverger protested to Deputy Collector Clark of the Custom House.  The case was turned over to Treasury Department agents and a Federal investigation was launched.  Edmund Deverger accompanied two agents to room 15 at the St. Charles Hotel.  There they found two of the bogus collectors, both of whom held responsible Government positions.  John W. Lalor was a clerk in the Naval Office and Frederick G. A. Keever was a Custom House broker.

Phoebe M. Shaw died on June 6, 1879.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of 124 East 10th Street on June 9.

As early as 1886, Martin and Mary Burke occupied the house.  They apparently did not offer meals to their tenants because the house was no longer listed as a boarding house, but as "lodgings."

An interesting tenant was Eugene Thwing, who lived here in 1888.  An ardent prohibitionist, he and a comrade, George B. Smith, were accused by The Evening World on November 2 of stuffing a ballot box with votes for a Prohibition candidate.  Similar to the mail-in ballot controversy today, The Evening World charged that a Prohibitionist had falsified Postal-Card Votes "on the ground that the handwriting on many of the cards voting for Prohibition candidates is the same."

Thwing and Smith fired off a letter to the editor of The Evening World, saying, "While the charge is a decidedly unpleasant one and throws disgrace upon members of the party, it is very easily explained away."  They said that they took a stack of voting postcards to "a large rally at Cooper Union and a parade before the meeting."  Because the marchers were marching and the rallyers were rallying, "many of them requested that the cards be filled out for them."   

The fervent Thwing sent another letter to the editor of The Evening World the next day:

Should a million dollars come to be sudden one-half of it would certainly go to the National Prohibition party as the best way to [stamp] down rum and secure a clean and non-sectional party.  With the other half I would quit business, and, after travelling awhile, would settle down and study music.

Mary Burke died on May 14, 1893 and, once again, a funeral was held in the parlor here.  Her husband continued to operate the lodging house for at least another year.

The change from a boarding house to a lodging house reflected the decline in the neighborhood.  The tenants of 124 East 10th Street also reflected the changes.

Among those renting rooms here in 1899 was Viola Randall.  The 22-year-old worked as a waitress in the Sharon Hotel on Third Avenue.  On August 14, she got into a quarrel over a man with another waitress, Lottie Herman, who was 19.  The Morning Telegraph said, "trays, glasses, chairs and other things were thrown about."  Viola took things a step further by stabbing Lottie in the side and arm.  The injured teen was taken to Bellevue Hospital and Viola was taken to the Yorkville Police Court.

Adolph Schilder and his family occupied rooms here in 1904 when their 17-year-old daughter, Annie, disappeared on April 17.  The Evening World described her as "a pretty girl of the brunette type."  The newspaper said, "Her father searched every hospital and police station in greater New York, but found no trace of her."  Then, ten days after her disappearance, Schilder was walking along Third Avenue near 13th Street when he saw Annie arm in arm with 24-year-old Abraham Grossman.  According to The Evening World, Annie was caught in a tug-of-war between her father and suitor, each one pulling on an arm.  Two detectives came upon the scene and, after hearing Adolph Schilder's story, arrested Grossman for abduction.

Annie later told officials that the older man "had promised her a trip around the world, fine silk and satin dresses, a life of unbroken ease and all the happiness to be found on earth."  The Evening World concluded, "She liked his story and went away with him."

Resident Mrs. Angelina Piliero was the guardian of her 17-year-old sister, Josephine Belmont in 1912.  The girl had recently "escaped" from the House of the Good Shepherd after being "rescued at sixteen from the clutches of white slavers," said The Evening World.  She fled to Angelina's house where her older sister kept a "close watch on her."  But despite those precautions, Josephine "got into communication with a man she had known before her commitment," reported the newspaper on January 18, 1913, "and yesterday she disappeared."

After several failed attempts, including a visit to "Boob" Walker's ball in the Long Star Hall on First Avenue (where she was refused entry), Angelina heard that Josephine had taken a room at 124 East 10th Street.  She went there with six policemen.  Josephine's room was empty, but officers discerned a "stifling, pungent odor" in the hallway.  They recognized it as opium.  Going to the third-floor room where the smell was heaviest, the detectives kicked in the door.  The Evening World reported:

Six men were stretched out on the floor, stupefied by the drug.  A girl, her body draped with a flimsy kimono, lay at one end of the room.  She was the only one who seemed to hear the noise.  She stirred uneasily.  "I'm too happy to get up now," she murmured.

A detective asked Angelina, "Is this your sister?"  She screamed "yes" and "fell headlong across the girl's body."  Angelina had fainted at the sight of Josephine's condition.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Things had not considerably improved by midcentury.  Living here in 1954 was Walter Latoski.  The 32-year-old earned his living, outwardly, as a mechanic.  He augmented his income by joining a gang of thieves.  In July that year, he and seven other men highjacked a truck "transporting $30,000 worth of coffee beans from Brooklyn to Jersey City," as reported by The New York Times.  Five of the gang were found guilty on December 3, while three, including Walter Latoski, were acquitted for a lack of evidence.

On April 2, 1960, The New York Times reported that Mildred Frankel had sold "the five-story rooming house" to Albert Dionne and his wife.  The article said, "It will be altered and continued as a rooming house by the new owners."

Then, in 1976, the vintage house was renovated into a two-family home.  Happily, the exterior of 124 East 10th Street survives nearly unchanged since its completion in 1861.