photograph by Wurts Bros, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York
On November 11, 1901, Chauncey Kilmer died in his four-story, brownstone-faced mansion at 9 East 57th Street. He left an estate "valued at $1,000,000," according to the Troy, New York Daily Times. That figure would translate to about 38 times that amount in 2025. Less than a month later, on December 5, The New York Times reported that Kilmer's estate had sold the 28-foot-wide residence. Frederick Fritz Achelis paid $175,000 for the property (about $6.6 million today).
Achelis was known professionally by his middle name. He and his wife, the former Bertha Franzisca Koenig were born in 1843 and 1855 respectively, and were married on July 4, 1878. The couple had three children, twins Margaret Julie and Alette Elisabeth, and Fritz (or Frederic) George. (Another child, Bertha Dorothea, had died at the age of one in 1881.)
Fritz and Bertha commissioned esteemed architect C. P. H. Gilbert to remodel the outdated house, built in 1881. He stripped off the brownstone facade and replaced it with limestone. Behind the tall, impressive iron fencing, the stoop rose to a columned portico that upheld a stone-railed balcony at the second floor. The rusticated basement and parlor levels gave way to planar stone at the upper floors. A three-sided oriel at the second floor provided one of the two balconies at the third floor. A handsome balustraded parapet sat atop the cornice. The renovations cost the Achelises the equivalent of $571,000 today.
Achelis was president of the American Hard Rubber Company, established by Bertha's father, Friedrich Wilhelm Koenig. He was, as well, a partner with Bertha's brother-in-law, George F. Vietor, in the dry goods and textile firm Frederick Vietor & Achelis. The couple's 49-acre summer home, Wiesenach, was in Seabright, New Jersey.
The mansion at Wiesenach was built in 1889 and designed by Henry Hudson Holly. photograph by Pach Brothers from the collection of Rugers University Libraries.
The renovations to 9 East 57th Street were completed by the end of the 1902 summer season. On October 6, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Achelis and family, who are still at their country place, Wiesenach, Rumson Road, Seabright, N. J., will this winter occupy the house No. 9 East Fifty-seventh street."
While Bertha Achelis continued to host entertainments and involve herself in philanthropic work, in 1909 she became a force in the nationwide debate about women's right to vote. On March 17 that year, The Evening Post announced, "The home of Mrs. Fritz Achelis, at No. 9 East Fifty-seventh Street, will be thrown open on Monday afternoons hereafter to the Anti-Suffragists. Prominent 'Antis' will explain the position of the women who are opposed to ballots for their sex." The article mentioned that Bertha "is an active member of the executive committee of the State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage."
Seven months after that article, Bertha was appointed chairman of the State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. On October 2, 1909, the New-York Tribune noted, "Mrs. Achelis is entirely free for the present to give all her time to the work, and she intends to do it, she says." Explaining that she disliked protest marches and brash publicity, she told the reporter in part,
I don't approve of public meetings or of public debates. Contentious discussion advances nothing, and in debates people often speak without very deep thought. We never want to speak without reflection, and we are going to take great pains not to make any statements that are not absolutely correct. We are going to be very conservative, strong and thorough, I hope, but not aggressive or sensational.
(Bertha's laid-back philosophy was starkly different to those of pro-Suffragists like Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and may have contributed to the Anti-Suffragists' eventual defeat.)
Fritz George Achelis graduated from Yale in 1907 and joined his father's American Hard Rubber Company. His engagement to Helen Bruff was announced on January 26, 1913, The Sun mentioning that he, "is a member of several well known clubs, including the Yale, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Rumson Country clubs."
Interestingly, the wedding, which took place on April 16, was held in the East 57th Street mansion. (House weddings traditionally were held in the home of the bride's family.) The Sun explained, "Owing to the recent death of the bride's grandmother, Mrs. Richard P. Bruff, the ceremony will be celebrated quietly and there will be no reception."
By the time of the wedding, the Midtown neighborhood was quickly transforming from one of sumptuous private residences to a commercial district. Millionaires moved uptown along Central Park, and their homes were converted for business or razed.
On December 22, 1917, the Record & Guide reported, "Harry Collins, Inc. costumes, leased for ten years, the one-time residence of Fritz Achelis, at 9 East 57th street...The building will be remodeled for occupancy by the lessee." The annual rental, $11,259, would equal about a quarter of a million dollars today. Architects Cross & Cross sympathetically altered the mansion for the clothing firm, including an additional floor that sat back from the roofline.
Harry Collins, Inc. included a sketch of the remodeled mansion in its opening announcement in The New York Times on March 3, 1918 (copyright expired)
Henry Collins, Inc. opened on March 5, 1918 with a benefit fashion show called "A Fashion Fete of Suits: Gowns, Wraps, Millinery." Society patrons paid a $2 admission charge. An announcement in The New York Times noted, "The two-day event will be for the benefit of the blind soldiers. A host of artists have offered their talents, contributing to a most delightful terpsichorean and musical program."
Henry Collins, Inc. leased the building through 1921, after which Tappe, Inc., another society millinery and gown shop, moved in. On April 19, 1922, Floyd Macdonald, the firm's shipping clerk, was working in the basement when Mr. Tappe's pet fox terrier, JoJo, began barking. It prompted Macdonald to investigate and he discovered "shooting flames" in an area of the basement. The New York Times reported, "The 200 young women who are employed in the establishment became panic-stricken as the clouds of smoke filled every stairway and exit, and it was with difficulty that some of them were rescued."
Specifically, Kitty Robinson was trapped on the third floor. The article said that she, "hastily knotted together a couple of sheets and slid down the improvised rope into the rear areaway." Happily for her, a policeman caught her and saved her life, according to Mr. Tappe. Cecelia Tappe, a partner in the firm, was discovered unconscious on the top floor by a firefighter. "He picked her up and carried her to the roof, where he dropped from overexertion," said The New York Times. "Patrolman Thompson...got them to safety."
The article said that "nearly $10,000 worth of hats and dresses" were destroyed, including gowns belonging "to Mrs. George Vanderbilt and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt." The building suffered damages equivalent of $935,000 today.
The fire resulted in the lower floors being completely remodeled. A glass-fronted show window and entrances replaced Gilbert's limestone front at street level.
An advertisement offering the building for lease boasted the new storefront. International Studio, September 1924 (copyright expired)
Bertha Koenig Achelis died in 1921. Three years later, on December 23, 1924, Fritz Achelis died at the age of 81. On March 28, 1925, the Record & Guide reported that the Achelis estate had sold the building. Before the end of the year, The Cumulative Daily Digest of Corporation News reported that a "completed building" had replaced the former Achelis mansion.