The Lost Hoffstatter & Revillon Frères Bldg - 668-670 Fifth Avenue

To the left of the new building is the William K. Vanderbilt Jr mansion.  The Brickbuilder, November 11, 1916 (copyright expired)

On March 23, 1913, The New York Times began an article saying, "The business invasion of Fifth Avenue north of Forty-second Street goes on ruthlessly."  Sumptuous mansions were rapidly being replaced by commercial buildings.  The article reported, "Workmen last week began tearing down the big Gallatin house on the southwest corner of Fifty-third Street, purchased a short time ago by Michael Dreicer for over $1,000,000.  Two six-story business buildings are to be erected on the 50-foot Fifth Avenue frontage."  

Michael Dreicer was the son of Jacob Dreicer, who opened his jewelry business in 1868.  They are credited for bringing cut gems into fashion, surpassing pearls.  The younger Dreicer had now branched into real estate development with the Dreicer Realty Company.   He hired Henry Otis Chapman to design the side-by-side buildings.  Construction would cost $130,000 to erect, or about $4.4 million in 2026 terms.

Chapman's Francois I Revival design was intended to harmoniously co-exist on the block with the magnificent Petite Chateau, erected for William K. and Alva Vanderbilt, and 666 Fifth Avenue, the Willie K. and "Birdie" Oelrichs Vanderbilt mansion.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide approved, calling 668-670 Fifth Avenue "one of the most attractive on the avenue, built in the Francois Premier style of architecture."

Like the two surviving mansions on the block, the buildings were faced in limestone.  The first and second floors of 668 Fifth Avenue were dominated by a vast, double-height show window capped by a French Gothic header and crocket.  Grouped windows at the third and fourth floors sat below square-headed drip moldings.  The steep mansard was fronted by a French Gothic dormer and crowned with lacy cast iron cresting.

The corner building continued many of those motifs--the double-height show window and the grouped openings at the third and fourth floors, for instance.  A row of ornate dormers lined the mansard on the 53rd Street side, and identical  rooftop cresting visually unified the structures.

No. 668 had been leased before the first shovel broke ground.  Nearly two weeks before The New York Times article, on March 10, 1913, The Furniture Trade Review reported that Theodore Hofstatter & Co. had "closed negotiations" for leasing the building "for a term of twenty-one years."  The article noted, "Hofstatter & Co., are in the interior decorating and furniture business, are now located at 589 Fifth avenue."

The buildings were completed in 1914 and very quickly the Hofstatter Building was the center of excitement.  On May 19, 1914, an alarm "brought the firemen to the home of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., at 666 Fifth Avenue," reported The New York Times.  The Vanderbilts were at their summer estate and heavy smoke was seen pouring out of one of the chimneys.

The Vanderbilts' caretaker notified the responding firefighters that there was no fire.  "About ten minutes later the blaze was discovered in the building occupied by Hofstatter & Co.," said the article.  "Decorators had been working on the fifth floor, and in some manner, a curtain became ignited."  Happily, the fire was extinguished before it could spread.  The New York Times said, "More than $500,000 worth of art treasures are in the building."

It would be nearly a year before the corner building was leased.  On February 6, 1915, the Record & Guide reported that Revillon Frères had leased "the new six-story building" for 21 years.  Revillon Brothers established its fur company in 1723.  Now known as Revillon Frères, it was a leading retailer and manufacturer of luxury furs and accessories.

The New York Times, September 26, 1915 (copyright expired)

Both firms sublet space in their buildings, with most of the tenants being in the arts or decorating business.  One notable exception was the Sonora Phonograph Corp.  On July 25, 1915, the New York Herald reported that the firm "has leased salons at 668 Fifth Avenue adjoining the Vanderbilt residence, for demonstration rooms."  

A Sonora Phonograph ad in December 1915 depicted the entire blockfront. The Pharmaceutical Era (copyright expired)

Also in 668 Fifth Avenue at the time was the Kent-Shmayon Galleries.  The firm dealt in imported art and antiques, like Persian faience, rare manuscripts, Chinese porcelains, and Spanish, Italian and English antique furniture.  Not long after its opening, it was the target of two slick thieves.  On December 1, 1914, Joseph Hess and "another well-dressed man" entered the Kent-Shmayon Galleries "to look at some antiques," reported The New York Times, "and carried off jewelry valued at $7,900."  (The heist would equal $261,000 today.)  Hess, who was known to police as "the man with many aliases," was captured in Indianapolis on January 6, 1915.

Unfortunately, the war in Europe disrupted the firm's ability to import goods.  On February 27, 1915, The Evening Post reported, "The Kent-Shmavon Galleries, 668 Fifth Avenue, have been forced by present conditions, due to the war, to close their galleries."  A six-day liquidation auction began on March 1.  The article said, "Altogether there are nearly fourteen hundred items now on exhibition."

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On March 2, the New-York Tribune reported on the first day's sales, saying, "Lovers and students of Eastern art filled the large ground floor salon."  The article noted, "Lillian Russell was an interested and liberal buyer.  She obtained, among other things, an Asia Minor silk rug."  Other items that were sold that day was a "Persian carpet of Kerman weave" which sold for the equivalent of $19,500 today, and a "Persian Goerevan carpet with a camel's hair field" that brought nearly the same amount.

The Bourgeois Galleries replaced the Kent-Shmavon Galleries in the building.  The art dealers catered to wealthy patrons.  Somewhat ironically, one of its first exhibitions was the private collection of Albert Eugene Gallatin's paintings and graphic art.  Certainly many of the artworks had hung in his family's mansion on the site.

The gallery's firm reputation did not require anything other than a dignified, understated ad.  The Arts, August-September 1921 (copyright expired)

Other tenants in the buildings in the 1920s, along with Hoffstatter and Revillon Frères, of course, were Stair & Andrew and the Kingore art gallery.  Stair & Company, which occupied space on the fourth floor of 668 Fifth Avenue, specialized in old English furniture, paneling, tapestries, and antique mantelpieces. 

By the mid-1920s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. owned 668 and 670 Fifth Avenue.  On February 16, 1928, The New York Times reported that he was erecting a six-story building on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street and that it "will be occupied under lease by Revillon Frères, furriers."  The firm was replaced by Raymond & Whitcomb, Inc., which made "extensive alterations," according to The New York Times on June 6, 1929.

Raymond & Whitcomb, Inc. was a travel agency.  In 1934, the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania loaned the firm eight items from its collection of Central American relics to display.  It did not end well.  Three items, a gold sacrificial cup, two Zapotec funerary urns, and a solid gold breastplate, were displayed in the show window.  On June 5, The New York Times reported, "A stone hurled through the show window of Raymond-Whitcomb, Inc...at some time early yesterday morning, enabled a thief to obtain a rare Mayan relic worth $5,000."  The stolen relic was the sacrificial gold cup.  The stone that smashed the window also broke one of the urns.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

In October 1938, John D. Rockefeller Jr. filed plans to replace the buildings with "a new nine-story office building," as reported by The New York Times.  Something derailed those plans, however.  Two years later, Theodore Hoffstatter & Co. moved to its own newly built structure at 9 East 56th Street.  Lanz Inc., took over the lease of 668 Fifth Avenue for its clothing store.

In June 1945, Doubleday, Doran, Inc. opened a bookstore in the basement, first and second floors of 670 Fifth Avenue.  The following year, Russell Stover Candies took over the first and second floors next door.  

The Doubleday book shop was the scene of a raid on August 8, 1946.  Responding to a complaint by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, four plainclothes detectives entered and "removed 130 copies of Edmund Wilson's book of short stores, 'Memoirs of Hecate County,'" as reported by The New York Times.  Blotter entries at the West 54th and East 51st Street station houses called the books, "salacious and lascivious literature."  While the Society called the book "obscene," The New York Times said, "virtually all reviewers regarded it as a serious literary work."

Just before demolition in 1955, the Russell Stover signage covered the 2nd-floor show window of No. 688 and the iron cresting was gone.  Supreme Court evidence photo May 1957.

In 1955, Russell Stover Candies announced it would be moving into the Gotham Hotel.  The move was no doubt prompted by the sale of 668 and 670 Fifth Avenue for redevelopment.  On February 13, The New York Times reported that a 36-story office building designed by Carson & Lundin would replace the buildings from 52nd to 53rd Street.  Demolition of the structures began that April.  

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for prompting this post

Van Wart & Wein's 40 Fifth Avenue

 

image via landmarkbranding.com

Development of Fifth Avenue above Washington Square began with the Henry and Laura Brevort mansion at the corner of West 9th Street, completed in 1834.  Within seven years, the Church of the Ascension was erected on the corresponding corner of 10th Street, and by 1858 the northern half of that block was filled with sumptuous rowhouses, like the Henry Rutgers Remsen mansion at 40 Fifth Avenue.

Four mansions, including the Remsen house at No. 40 (left) filled the northern block between 9th and 10th Streets.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

At the end of World War I, lower Fifth Avenue had drastically changed.  Like the Brevoort mansion, which was demolished in 1925, private homes were quickly being replaced by upscale apartment buildings.  In 1927, the four houses at 40 through 46 Fifth Avenue and those at 2 through 10 West 11th Street were acquired by Moses Ginsberg's 10 West 11th Street Corporation.  

On September 16, 1928, The New York Times reported that demolition of those structures had begun.  On the site, said the article, would be a 15-story-and-penthouse "100 per cent cooperative building to be known as 40 Fifth Avenue."  The article pointed out that the location was "one of the most unusual corners of lower Fifth Avenue" because it was flanked by churches, ensuring light and ventilation.  The structure, "will be from plans by Van Wart & Wein, architects, with McKim, Meade [sic] & White, architects for the purchasers."  

As the structure neared completion, an advertisement in The New Yorker on December 15, 1928 called the location, "The corner of corners."  It boasted, "40 Fifth Avenue, now under construction, will occupy one of the few corners in New York combining residential desirability with complete sunshine and light protection on all sides."  

The ad boasted that the apartments would have "spacious rooms with ample baths and closets, glass-enclosed loggias, wood-burning fireplaces and mechanical refrigeration."  Prices, said the advertisement, started at $10,500 (just under $200,000 in 2026 terms).  Along Fifth Avenue would be four "maisonettes," essentially private homes within the building with separate entrances on the avenue.

McKim, Mead & White was kept busy with the interior designs.  Future homeowners had begun purchasing the apartments months earlier.  Among the first was Eugene V. Connett Jr., who  had purchased a six-room and three-bath apartment on the 12th floor in June 1928.  And on August 15, The New York Times reported that H. Hamilton Holden had purchased the triplex maisonette at 46 Fifth Avenue.  "The apartment contains eleven rooms and four baths," said the article.

Completed in 1929, Van Wart & Wein had turned to New York's colonial past by designing the building in the neo-Georgian style.  Its three-section base was divided by intermediate cornices and clad in limestone and red brick.  Above the 10-story shaft, the top section was crowned with a brick-and-stone-balustraded parapet, behind which the penthouse level was topped with a striking Georgian-style cupola.  

photograph by Beyond My Ken

Among the initial residents were commercial artist Bert Pagano, whose 8th-floor apartment contained six rooms and three baths; his brother, Guido Pagano; attorney Joseph Force Crater and his wife, Ella; stockbroker Floyd Y. Keeler; and William A. Force 3d, president of the William A. Force Company, Inc.

Born in 1885, Floyd Y. Keeler was a partner in the brokerage firm of Orvis Brothers & Co.  He and his wife, the former Elizabeth Rapallo Irving, had two adult daughters.  

Shortly after moving into their penthouse here, Keeler left town on a business trip.  Early on the morning of April 13, Elizabeth woke up to find a man "rummaging about in the bedroom," as reported by The New York Times.  The burglar quickly realized that he had chosen the wrong apartment to rob.  The article said, 

Mrs. Keeler, who weighs only 100 pounds, but who served in the Red Cross Motor Corps during the World War, made a flying tackle and grappled the intruder just as he was about to make his way out of the window to the roof.

The burglar wriggled free, but not before Elizabeth pulled off one of his shoes.  He headed down the fifteen flights of stairs while Elizabeth telephoned the police.  Two detectives arrived at 40 Fifth Avenue just as a man, wearing only one shoe, exited.  Frank Vagedes was arrested and the following morning he appeared in the Essex Market Court.  The New York Times commented, "Mrs. Keeler returned his shoe."

Joseph Force Crater was born in 1889, the son of Irish immigrants.  A graduate of Columbia University, he was closely associated with Tammany Hall leader Martin J. Healy.  He and his wife, the former Stella Mance Wheeler, were married in 1917.

Justice Joseph Force Crater (original source unknown)

Just months after buying their penthouse apartment, in April 1930, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Crater a Justice of the New York Supreme Court.  Shortly afterward, the state initiated an investigation into corruption within New York City agencies.

Like all the well-to-do residents of 40 Fifth Avenue, the Craters had a country home.  Theirs was in Belgrade Lakes, Maine and they were there in the summer of 1930 when, late in July, Crater received a telephone call.  On August 3, he returned to Manhattan, telling Stella he would return in time for her birthday on August 9.  When he did not return after ten days, Stella initiated a search.  Justice Joseph F. Crater had vanished.

On September 6, The New York Times reported that Stella was still in Maine, "suffering from a nervous breakdown."  In what would be the most intensive and publicized missing case until Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance in 1975, newspapers nationwide updated readers nearly daily.  Sanitariums were searched, bank records were examined (he had cashed two checks totaling $5,150, or about $100,000 today), and numerous leads were followed.

On February 1, 1931, District Attorney Crane told reporters that the investigation "would end in a few days."  Ransom notes and telephone calls received by Stella had proved to be bogus.  In the meantime, Stella Crater found herself in a difficult position.  With no proof of her husband's death, she had no income.  On January 14, 1932, Surrogate James A. Foley granted her an allowance of "$50 a week and the use of their apartment at 40 Fifth Avenue."  The New York Times said, "Mrs. Crater said she had been accustomed to living at the rate of $15,000 a year and that she had no other means of support."

Six years later, on March 15, 1938, The New York Times reported that Stella Crater had been evicted from her apartment.  Her attorney announced, "Mrs. Crater was resigned to abandoning her home, being without funds."  The disappearance of Joseph Force Crater remains one of America's great unsolved mysteries.

photograph by Spencer Means

Also occupying a penthouse apartment at the time of Crater's disappearance was another attorney, William E. Carnochan.  Born in 1869, he joined the law firm of Parsons, Closson & McIlvaine in 1891.  Never married, he was a member of the University and Lawyers Clubs.  In December 1930, while the nation was focused on the search for his neighbor, Carnochan suffered a nervous breakdown.  His sister, Sara Willard of Troy, Pennsylvania, temporarily moved into the apartment to care for him.

Five months later, Carnochan was still unwell and suffering from insomnia.  On April 23, 1931, he went onto his terrace, climbed the four-foot high parapet, and jumped to his death, landing on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk.  

The majority of the owners within the building, of course, were much less dramatic.  More typical of the initial owners were John Phillips Logan and his wife, the former Gertrude Hardman.  Born in 1880, Logan was a member of the wholesale dry goods firm of J. P. Logan & Sons on Canal Street.  Their country home was in Seabright, New Jersey.  The couple were members of the Essex County Country Club and John was, additionally, a member of the Montclair Golf Club and the New York Athletic Club.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Also living here in the 1930s were Reverend Dr. Archibald Romaine Mansfield and his wife, the former Ella Huntington.  Dr. Mansfield studied ministry at St. Stephen's College and graduated from the General Theological Seminary in 1896.  He received his honorary D. D. degree from St. Stephen's in 1915.

In 1896, according to The New York Sun years later, "New York's water front was notorious as a hotbed of crime and vice and Dr. Mansfield saw a wide field for service there."  He established a lodging house where sailors "were not in danger of being robbed or shanghaied," said the newspaper.  Mansfield's riverfront mission grew until, by the time he and his wife moved into 40 Fifth Avenue, the Seamen's Church Institute occupied a 13-story building on South Street.

Still living here in the 1940s were Eugene V. Connett and his wife, May Brewer.  Connett was the founder of E. V. Connett & Co.  The couple's country home was in Amagansett, New York.  A long time member of the Union League Club, Connett was the chairman of the club's art committee.

image via cityrealty.com

While the private mansions of lower Fifth Avenue did not survive, the apartment houses that replaced them did.  And  today they retain the upscale aplomb that they enjoyed a century ago.  Among the most distinguished is 40 Fifth Avenue, the unique site of which still provides it special notice.

The Meyer and Emilie Hoffman House - 122 East 57th Street

 

photograph by Ted Leather

In March 1876, real estate operator Andres Dold purchased a 204-foot long parcel on East 57th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues from Frederick Zittel.  The following year he completed a row of two- and three-bay wide houses on the site. 

Among the narrower examples was 122 East 57th Street.  Just 16-feet-wide, it rose four stories above a high English basement.  Faced in brownstone, its neo-Grec design included stone architraves with molded cornices and bracketed sills.

The houses along the block became home to well-heeled residents.  The Betts family first occupied 122 East 57th Street and, like their neighbors, their movements were closely followed by the society pages.  On September 6, 1883, for instance,  The Evening Telegram reported, "Mrs. H. W. Betts and family, of 122 East Fifty-seventh street, have left the Mansion Home, Monticello, N. Y., and are now at Saratoga."

Before long, Meyer and Emilie Hoffman purchased the house.  Living with them were their adult children, Clara, Maurice J. (known as Morris), and Julia May and her family.  Julia and her husband, Charles Brownold, had two children, Claudia and Irma.

Clara's wedding to Nathaniel Henry Wolfstein was held in the ballroom of Mazzetti's at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue on January 16, 1890.  The New York Times described the venue as being "prettily decorated with palms and clematis, and the bridal party stood under a canopy of white roses and lilacs."  Maurice Hoffman was Wolfstein's best man and Charles Brownold was one of the ushers.  The socially visible event drew guests from as far as Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

Maurice J. Hoffman died unmarried on January 21, 1892 at the age of 31.  His funeral was held in the parlor of 122 East 57th Street three days later.

It would not be the family's last funeral to be held here.  On November 28, 1904, Meyer Hoffman died at the age of 74 and his funeral was held on the 30th; and Charles Brownold died on June 24, 1913.  (While The New York Times noted that his funeral would be held in the house, it said it would be "strictly private.")

By the time of Emilie's death around 1916, the neighborhood around 122 East 57th Street had become decidedly commercial.  On May 1, 1917, The New York Times reported: 

The rapid transformation of East Fifty-seventh Street from residential to business purposes is further illustrated by a lease of the four-story dwelling, 122 East Fifty-seventh Street...for the estate of Emilie Hoffman to Harry Turner...The building will be altered by the installation of stores on the lower floors and apartments above.

Architect Herbert J. Krapp made $6,000 in renovations (about $151,000 in 2026 terms).  While the stoop remained, the basement and parlor levels were converted to shops.  They were quickly leased.  On August 5, 1917, The New York Times reported that Georges Chevrier, "cleaning and dyeing" had rented the ground floor store and milliner Frances B. Lankland had signed a lease on the "parlor floor."

Each of the upper three floors held two apartments.  An advertisement in July 1918 described one of them as having "Two very large rooms, kitchenette and bath."

In 1919, the Paris-based boutique Jeannetton, Inc. occupied one of the store spaces.  Its manager was looking for help in October 1920, advertising, "Girl for errands and shopping, white; experience required; $20 weekly."  (How much experience a young woman would need to run errands is unclear.)  The weekly pay would translate to about $320 today.

Victory magazine, September, 1919 (copyright expired)

Charles Finkelstein assembled a syndicate, the 122 East Fifty-seventh Street, Inc., in 1935 to purchase the building.  In reporting on the transaction on April 11, The New York Times noted, "The new owner will alter the building."

Before the end of the year, the stoop had been removed and a new two-story storefront installed.  The apartments, still two per floor, got a renovation at the time.

The 1935 renovations did not affect the 1877 neo-Grec window details.  via the NYC Dept. of Records & Information Services.

Shortly after the renovations were completed, 122 East 57th Street was the scene of a dramatic rescue.  On November 13, 1935, The New York Times reported that an "exploring expedition undertaken by a white Persian cat" had thrown the block into upheaval.  The feline was valued by its owner, Louise Kersch of 110 East 57th Street, at the equivalent of $7,000 today.  It had crawled from the window of the Kersch apartment and jumped sill-to-sill until stopping in front of an apartment at 122 East 57th Street.

The New York Times reported that its rescue entailed, "the calling of a police emergency squad."  The residents of the apartment were not at home, so police "rigged a life net of tarpaulin below the window in fear that the cat, some sixty feet above the sidewalk, might fall."  Traffic on the block was stopped and crowds gathered to watch the drama unfold.  Finally, police "forced a door" into the apartment and rescued the cat from the window.

At the time of that drama, the store spaces were occupied by two high-end antiques dealers.  Henry V. Weil occupied the parlor floor and Alfred Rich & Sons was in the shop at street level.  Weil advertised "genuine American antiques" in 1937, and that year The New York Sun remarked, "The firm of Alfred Rich & Sons...has made a specialty of cameo glass."

The constant search for rare glassware and china caused Alfred Rich & Sons to become a victim of a prolific crook in 1945.  Harry Francis Burke, who lived in a furnished room on East 50th Street, was "a collector of rare china," as reported by The New York Sun on June 22.  He had been arrested the previous day and police said his room was packed with valuable stolen glassware and china, including "an 1850 dessert dish from the J. P. Morgan collection."  The article noted, "The police said he also had stored several barrels of the merchandise in warehouses."  

Burke confessed that he had sold several items to Alfred Rich.  The New York Sun said that Rich "was unaware that they were stolen," but he was given a summons "for failing to keep proper books."

At the time of the embarrassing incident, the second floor space had been home to the East India Curry Shop for four years, having opened in May 1941.  Writing in The New York Times on April 3, 1944, Jane Holt reported that in addition to the many varieties of curry offered at the East India Curry Shop, "the establishment sells a concentrated curry sauce, which it blends itself."

Living here around midcentury was pioneer aviator David Hugh McCulloch.  Born on April 23, 1890, he was a pilot for the Curtis Airplane Company in 1910, and trained flyers for the U.S. Navy during World War I.  He served as co-pilot during the U.S. Navy's attempt in 1919 to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, and continued to train pilots at Floyd Bennett Field until his retirement in 1946.  McCulloch was still living here on September 21, 1955 when he died following what The New York Times described as "a long illness."  

In the meantime, the ground floor continued to house upscale antiques dealers.  In 1949, Martin J. Ullmanns expanded its offerings by "making a specialty of designing mounts and shades" for antique vases and figurines to be converted into table lamps.  

From the mid-1960s until 1983, Philip Colleck of London occupied space here.  On November 25, 1965, The New York Times reported, "A sizable section of newly acquired pine paneling, once in a chateau in the environs of Paris, has been installed in the shop of Philip Colleck of London."  The article said the Louis XV paneling turned the shop "into an atmospheric stage for handsome furniture."

photograph by Ted Leather

In 1994, the lower two floors were combined as a restaurant and the upper floors converted to office space.  It was possibly at this time that the window details were shaved off.  Today the brownstone is painted and only the 1877 cornice survives to remind us of a time when the building was home to a wealthy family.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The Al Hirschfeld House - 122 East 95th Street

 

Developers William J. and John P. Walsh often turned to the architectural firm of C. Abbott French & Co. in designing their projects.  On February 19, 1887, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that they had teamed up again for a row of 12 "Queen Anne private residences" on East 95th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.  Completed in 1888, each of the three-story residences would cost about $490,000 in 2026 money to erect.

Among the most eye-catching was 122 East 95th Street, the yellow brick facade of which was contrasted by ruddy terra cotta.  A dog-legged box stoop rose to the entrance.  The upper sashes of the grouped parlor windows contained myriad small panes--typical of the Queen Anne style.  They were reflected in the multiple square panels of the double entrance doors.  C. Abbott French & Co. united the parlor floor openings with a single arched terra cotta lintel filled with crisp, swirling foliate forms.

A projecting metal oriel dominated the second floor and the three windows of the third floor were capped by a triangular pediment filled with elaborate terra cotta ornaments.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Real estate operator Lewis Coon purchased 120 and 122 East 95th Street, painted and wallpapered the interiors, and then put them back on the market in September 1889.  His advertisement described them as "two of the most comfortable and well built new 20 foot, three story and basement private dwellings in restricted block."  Asking $20,000 each for the properties, Coon said buyers would find "no equal for the money on the island."  Calling the houses "strictly first class in every respect," he noted they were "elegantly trimmed in cabinet style; handsomely decorated and papered."

Lewis Coon sold 122 East 95th Street to Elias Einstein in July 1890.  The sale price would translate to about $730,000 today.  Born in 1830, Einstein was the head of a cloak manufacturing firm at 392 Broadway.  He and his wife had two adult daughters, Ida and Hannah, both of whom were married.

Elias Einstein (original source unknown)

In 1893, the Einsteins' eldest daughter, Ida, moved in along with her nine-year-old twin children Helen and David.  Ida had married Jacob Rothschild in 1883.  The New York Herald said he held "a post of trust in a large mercantile house and drew a large salary."  But then, he "became dissipated."  (The term most often referred to alcoholism.)   Rothschild lost his job and, finally, Ida "went back to her father, who contributed to Rothschild's support as well as hers," according to the New York Herald.

Initially, Jacob Rothschild visited 122 East 95th Street to see Ida and the twins.  "Of late, however, his family saw little of him," reported the New York Herald in 1895.

At around 7:30 on the morning of May 19, 1895, a servant heard a noise in the vestibule.  He found Jacob Rothschild lying on the floor and called for Elias Einstein.  The New York Herald said that Rothschild was "breathing laboriously and in his hand was a small bottle partly filled with some liquid."  He looked up at Einstein and mumbled, "You won't have any more trouble on my account.  I have taken this poison, and I came here to die."

The 45-year-old was brought into the parlor and Dr. Louis Cohn, who lived nearby at 139 East 95th Street, was summoned.  Rothschild was unconscious when the doctor arrived and he died shortly afterward.

The following year, in June 1896, the Einsteins sold 122 East 95th Street to Solomon Baerlein and his wife, the former Lottie Kohner.  Solomon was a "special partner" with Lyman G. and Joseph B. Bloomingdale in the Bloomingdale department store.  

Although the couple had no children, their new house was well filled.  Moving in with them were Lottie's parents, Marcus and Hildegart Kohner, and Solomon's mother, Elise (known as Elsie).  Their advanced ages resulted in a series of funerals in the parlor starting with Hildegart Kohner's death on February 21, 1907 at the age of 70.  Nine months later, on November 7, Marcus Kohner passed away at the age of 76, and Elise Baerlein died at the age of 81 on June 21, 1908.

The parlor was the scene of a more joyous event in 1913.  On December 7, The New York Times reported that Rena Goldstein would be married to Arthur H. Schweizer "on Wednesday in the home of the bride's uncle, Solomon Baerlein, 122 East Ninety-fifth Street."

Starting in 1914, the Baerleins leased the house.  A series of well-to-do families occupied it until Solomon Baerlein's death in November 1924.  His estate sold 122 East 95th Street to the Empire State Holding Corporation in October the following year.  The house continued to be leased to a series of tenants until December 1947 when it was sold "to Albert Hirschfeld, the artist," according to The New York Times.

Better known to readers of The New York Times Drama Section as Al Hirschfeld, he was born in 1903.  He became the newspaper's caricaturist in 1929.  Dolly Hass Hirschfeld was his second wife.  They were married in 1943 and had a daughter, Nina.  Nina's name was always hidden in capital letters within her father's caricatures and finding them became a Sunday morning quest for readers of The New York Times for decades.

This self portrait contains two NINAs.

On January 31, 1948, The New York Times reported, "Plans for altering the three-story brick dwelling at 122 East Ninety-fifth Street for studio and residence were announced."  The years-long renovation resulted in the stoop being removed and the entrance lowered to below grade.  It was deftly replaced by paired windows that matched the originals on that level.  In order to create Hirschfeld's studio, the three third-floor windows were replaced with a large opening.  Hirschfeld had the yellow brick and terra cotta painted a cheery pink.

In addition to his top-story studio, the renovations resulted in five bedrooms and five baths.

For decades Hirschfeld would sit in theaters with his sketch pad, then return to his third-floor studio to create his final images.  According to The Wall Street Journal later, he would sometimes keep "his notepad in his pocket while drawing to avoid disturbing other theatergoers."

Some of the artworks found their way into the interiors of the house.  According to The Wall Street Journal, he commissioned "hand-painted fireplace tiles in Mr. Hirschfeld's unique caricature style," and at some point he had selected caricatures enlarged and printed on wallpaper panels for the second floor.  They included portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe among other stars.

Al Hirschfeld at the piano on the second floor with his custom wallpaper in the background.  photograph by Jill Krementz, December 4, 1971

Dolly Haas Hirschfeld died in 1994.  Two years later, Al Hirschfeld married theater historian Louise Kerz. 

On January 21, 2003, the Fredericksburg, Virginia newspaper The Free Lance-Star reported, "Al Hischfeld, whose graceful fluid caricatures captured the essence of performers from Charlie Chaplin to Jerry Seinfeld, died yesterday.  He was 99."  Newspapers nationwide mourned him as a national treasure.

Eight years later, in February 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported, "The townhouse where the artist Al Hirschfeld drew his theatrical caricatures for more than half a century was sold for more than the $5.3 million asking price, after a bidding war."  (Louise Kerz Hirschfeld had married Lewis B. Cullman two months earlier.)

Anne Snee, the broker from the Corcoran Group, told the journal that the buyers, Paul and Denise Lachman, "plan to completely renovate and restore the house, but will protect and preserve large panels of Hirschfeld wallpaper by covering them with plastic panels."

The Lachmans sold the house in 2015 to Phyllis E. Battista.  The Real Deal commented on May 3, 2026 that she "is the ex-wife of Ben Odierno, the landlord who made headlines back in 2005 when he killed his second wife."

No. 122 East 95th Street still sports the pink paint chosen by one of America's most beloved caricaturists, and it continues to be a standout among C. Abbott French & Co.'s picturesque row.

photographs by the author

Sewing Women, Socialists and Theater - 85 East 4th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

Developers sometimes lobbied the Board of Aldermen to rename a block or two upon which their new upscale homes sat.  Their goal was to create the sense of exclusivity.  In 1836, Longworth's American Almanack noted, "Part of Fourth [Street], between the Bowery and Avenue 2d, has the soubriquet of Albion-place."

Among the fashionable homes on the block was 411 Albion Place, aka 411 Fourth Street.  Erected around 1834, it was two-and-a-half stories tall above an English basement.  Clad in Flemish bond brick, its Federal design included a peaked roof punctured with two dormers.  (The address would be a moving target for letter carriers and visitors.  It was changed to 427 Fourth Street in 1850, and to 85 East 4th Street in 1864.)

Hanna Brown lived here as early as 1836.  Born in 1774, she was the widow of Adam Brown.  Hanna had moved here from 38 Rivington Street.  After living here alone with her servants several years, she began suffering what The Evening Post would call, "a lingering illness."  She died at the age of 65 on December 16, 1839.  Two days later, a one-line notice appeared in the Morning Herald:

The widow of the late Adam Brown, a highly respected and deeply lamented lady, will be buried today, from 411 Fourth street.

(The fact that only the Adam Brown's name, not Hanna's, was mentioned in her funeral notice would be highly surprising and offensive today.)

Four months later, on April 21, 1840, Hanna Brown's things were auctioned in what today we would call an estate sale.  Auctioneer E. H. Ludlow described, "splendid fashionable furniture," damask and silk window curtains, and bronze candelabras among the offerings.

The house next became home to the Graydon family.  Born in County Tyrone, Ireland around 1781, John Graydon ran a "tingood" business on Beaver Street.  He married Elizabeth Whitley around 1803 and the couple had nine children, at least five of whom lived with their parents.  John W. was an attorney; Joseph and Samuel ran a dry goods business on William Street, William was listed in directories as "merchant" at 61 Cedar Street, and Jane Graydon Sherrerd was the young widow of Archibald Sherrerd, who died in 1836, three years after their marriage.  The Graydon family's country home was in Ridgewood, New Jersery.

It was likely the Graydon's who replaced the Federal style doorway (which was now falling from fashion) with an up-to-the-minute Greek Revival example.  Engaged, fluted Doric columns upheld a substantial entablature and cornice.

The family received an unexpected package at the basement door on June 4, 1855.  The New York Times reported, "The practice of dropping babies has become almost a mania of late in the City.  Monday evening there was one found at No. 427 Fourth-street, and taken to the Almshouse."

It was likely the substantial Grayson population within the house that prompted its enlargement in 1857.  The attic was demolished and a third and fourth floor erected.  Construction was completed in 1858.  The alterations included a fashionable Italianate cornice.

John Graydon died in the Ridgewood house on January 29, 1864 at the age of 83.  His funeral was held in the Fourth Street house three days later.

In 1867, Hannah Hosier operated 85 East 4th Street as a boarding house.  Although well-to-do businessmen like John D. Billings, a lawyer, and piano maker Edington B. Decker, boarded here in 1867; Hannah seems to have catered to college students.  In 1869, six Columbia University students lived here.

Jane E. Carman took over the operation of the boarding house in 1871.  On May 18, the New-York Tribune reported, "The Boarding-House for Sewing Women has been removed from No. 262 East Broadway to No. 85 East Fourth-st."  The house doubled as the headquarters of the Young Woman's Aid Association.

On December 16, 1875, The New York Times reported that Michael Ryan had purchased the house for $14,000 (or about $424,000 in 2026).  He and his wife Agnes operated it as a boarding house and his tenants were highly varied.  Living here in 1879 were the Gantzberg family--Albert was a weaver, Bertha a nurse, and Julius a teacher--as well as Charles Laroche, who was an actor; physician Alexander Weldmann; and a tax collector and two clerks.

The Ryans sold 85 East 4th Street to Charles F. and Marie Kremer in February 1883 for $15,500.  They converted the basement level to the Second Avenue Club.  The Documents of the Senate of the State of New York described it in 1887 as a "club and coffee house."

Two years later, in March 1889, the Kremers leased the house to Paul Wilzig.  By then, the once refined neighborhood was Manhattan's center of the Socialist movement.  Within days of Wilzig's signing the lease, on March 30, 1889 the Record & Guide reported that he had commissioned architect H. W. Fabian to renovate the interiors at a cost equal to $180,000 today.  

The result was Wilzig's Hall, also known as Wilzig's Assembly Rooms.  It quickly became a favorite meeting space.  On June 23, 1891, for instance, The Evening Post reported, "The Convention of the International Machinists' Union of North America was continued this morning at Wilzig's Assembly Rooms."  And on August 31, the New-York Tribune reported, "A meeting of the new Socialist Central Union was held at No. 85 East Fourth-st. yesterday morning, and it was permanently organized under the name of the New-York City Federation of Labor."

The Kremers leased 85 East 4th Street to Robert L. Worm in July 1908.  He converted it to Casino Hall, while continuing to cater to labor and Socialist groups.  On July 30, 1909, the New-York Tribune reported, "A benefit concert and entertainment for the unemployed of this city will be given this evening in Casino Hall, No. 85 East 4th street, under the auspices of the International Brotherhood Welfare Association."

Labor disputes in the early 20th century often involved violence.  In 1910, the Cloakmakers' Union went on strike.  Rather than march in the picket lines, five workers went to Hunter, New York where they found employment.  It did not sit well with union bosses.  The New York Times reported, "When the information was received by the union, men were sent to Hunter to bring back the five members."

Herman Liberwitz was one of those workers.  When the train pulled into Grand Central Station, three of his comrades were able to escape.  Liberwitz and the other man were not so lucky.  They were brought to 85 East 4th Street and beaten by Morris Stupniker, described by the newspaper as a labor union "strong-arm man."  Herman Liberwitz was "beaten over the head with a club and died of a fractured skull the next day," reported The New York Times.  The other man was "badly beaten."

Terrified of "starkers," (the lingo for a union goon who enforced union rules, patrolled picket lines and dealt with strike breakers), workers refused to give any information to authorities.  It would be four years before detectives got enough evidence to arrest Stupniker and union vice-president Max Sigman for Liberwitz's murder in April 1914.  

A persistent Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Lord was not done.  A year later, on May 12, 1915, The New York Times reported that he "went out last night to arrest east side gangsters, who, it is alleged, have been hired to do 'strong arm work,' and even commit murder."  Indictments against 34 men, "eleven of whom were gangsters, and twenty-three labor union officials in the textile trade," had been returned. 

In the meantime, Casino Hall continued to be a popular meeting place.  On June 29, 1914, an obviously unsympathetic New-York Tribune reported, "A number of groups of anarchists and other radical people met yesterday at Casino Hall, 85 East Fourth st."

Later that year, The New York Times reported that the Anarcho-Syndicalist League of Greater New York had been formed here.  "The symbol of the new league is a representation of the pyramid and mailed-fist urn in which were placed the ashes of Caron, who was killed when a bomb exploded in his flat."

On August 4, 1921, the New York Herald reported that B. H. Cohen had leased 85 East 4th Street for 21 years.  The article said he "will remodel it into a catering building."  Cohen initially kept the name Casino Hall.  It also continued to cater to Socialist groups.

On December 16, 1922, for instance, The Daily Worker, published by the Community Party, reported on the "fifth evening of the big six-day Russian bazaar" in Casino Hall.  That night would include a concern by composer and pianist I. Arnstein.

By 1927, the name of the venue was Royal Hall.  On December 2, 1929, The New York Times reported, "The injection of communism into a mass meeting of nearly 300 subway construction workers precipitated a clash yesterday afternoon in Royal Hall."  The article said, "chairs and water classes were used as weapons as scores of workers belabored each other."  Although no arrests were made, there were "plenty of black eyes and bruised noses, and several men were cut by chair rungs."

Another name change came by the early 1930s.  On May 5, 1934, The Daily Worker reported on a "gala entertainment and party for the benefit of the victims of Austrian fascism, at Palm Casino, 85 East Fourth Street."  (Reportedly, the Palm Casino was, in fact, a speakeasy owned by Italian-born gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano.)

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After decades of catering to Socialist and labor groups, a portion of 85 East 4th Street became home to the United Ukrainian Organizations of the United States around 1939.  

The space that had seen raucous meetings and celebrations for decades became a theater at midcentury.  On May 7, 1955, The New York Times reported that actor Will Geer would sponsor a tribute to the late Vernon Rice "at the Folksay Theatre, 85 East Fourth Street."  The venue became the Downtown Theatre in 1956, and to the East End Theatre around 1960.

On January 16, 1965, the New York Amsterdam News reported that the American Theatre for Poets had leased the East End Theatre, saying it "plans to remodel the theatre, enlarging the stage, and installing special new lighting and sound systems."  Once again, the theater was renamed.  On August 21, the New York Amsterdam News reported that Arise, Arise premiered "at the newly named Cinematheque East Theatre."

In the meantime, the rest of the building was known as Ukrainian Hall, home to the American-Ukrainian Heritage Society and the East Side Forum.  Appearing in the Forum in September 1967, was editor-journalist James Aronson who spoke on "1968: New Politics and Revolution?"

Less political events, of course, were held here.  On May 3, 1973, The Daily World reported on the Spring Candlelight Dance held here, sponsored by the American-Ukrainian Heritage Society.  Around 1981, Ukrainian Hall was renamed Ukrainian Labor Home.

As a boy, Denis Woychuk was brought to the Ukrainian Labor Home by his father, who was looking for work.  Years later, in 1983 and after becoming an attorney, Woychuk bought the building.  He opened the Kraine Art Gallery here and converted the theater space to the Kraine Theater.

Around 1993, Woychuck opened the Kraine Gallery Bar, aka KGB.  It was followed by a black box theater on the third floor called The Red Room.  That space was remodeled in 2013 as a speakeasy-inspired performance venue.

Sharing the building in the 21st century are the New York Neo-Futurists which, according to The WNET Group's website, "create theater that is fusion of sport, poetry and living-newspaper;" a branch of the New York Comedy Club; and the long-lasting KGB Bar.

photograph by Carole Teller

Despite its many iterations and several unsympathetic alterations like the parlor-floor entrance, it is not difficult to imagine the house when the wealthy Graydon family occupied it a century-and-a-half ago.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post