The Henry Wannemacher House and Store - 217 East 3rd Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

The family of Henry Wannemacher covered a broad swatch of interests in 1855.  Henry Wannemacher was a musician and composer.  (His sons, interestingly, spelled their surname both as "Wannemacher" and "Wannemaker.")  While Henry Jr. ran a feed store at 229 Third Street, he, too, was a musician and would eventually become a musical director in New York theaters.  In 1855, Charles was already listed as a "music director," while Jacob Wannemaker was a tailor.

The family lived in the recently built four-story house-and-store at 217 Third Street (the "East" would be added later).  The three floors above the storefront were clad in red brick.  The hefty stone lintels of the openings harkened to the Greek Revival style, while the handsome pressed metal cornice with its scrolled corbels and paneled fascia was purely Italianate.

In the rear yard was a secondary house.  Music seems not to have provided the income necessary to maintain the property.  In 1857, the family was living in the rear house and the upper floors of the main building were operated as a boarding house.  Charles had put his musical career on hold and opened a saloon in the store space.  Henry Jr. was now supplementing his income as a tailor, no doubt working with Jacob.

Among Henry Jr.'s compositions in the latter part of the century was this march, composed for piano.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Living above the saloon in 1859 were the families of Frederick Koch, Louis Mabriein and Christian Loetterle (all tailors); Jacob Becker, a tinsmith; Jacob Orth, who listed his profession as "segars;" and Joseph Weber, who dealt in portefeuilles (or wallets).

The Wannemachers left East 3rd Street in 1864.  That year Jacob Graf moved his family into the upper floors and installed his grocery store in the former saloon space.  Among the other residents upstairs that year was the John Blessinger family, who would remain for years.  John Blessinger was a tailor (he would change his profession to waiter in 1868).  His wife's name was Eva.  Andrew Bessinger worked as a laborer, and Louis was a peddler.  Eva Bessinger remained in their rooms following John's death in 1872.

The grocery store was taken over by John Kraft in 1876.  Several of the residents had been here for years, like Casper Stumpf, a tailor who first moved into the main building in 1873, and Christopher Lock, a carman, who had been in the rear house as early as 1867.

Around 1880, Ignatz Martin leased the buildings.  While he listed his profession as "boarding house," newspapers were less kind, calling 217 East 3rd Street a lodging house.  Lodging houses were the lowest level of accommodations--rented by the day and offering no amenities other than a bed or cot.  

On May 15, 1881, Jacob Ammann, described by the New-York Tribune as being "twenty-eight, a German," came to New York from Hoboken, where he lived.  His revelry went late into the night and rather than go back to New Jersey, "he went at a late hour to the lodging-house at No. 217 East Third-st.," reported the newspaper.  Early in the morning, he went to the 11th Precinct Police Station, "suffering from three severe scalp wounds, and said he had been assaulted by Ignatz Martin, the proprietor of the lodging-house, and several other men who were at the place."  When police arrived at 217 East 3rd Street, said the article, "the men had made their escape." 

In September 1881, the interestingly-named Woolf Woolf and his wife, Sarah, purchased 217 East 3rd Street.  The change in ownership did not elevate the conditions here.

Small pox was commonly called "the speckled monster" in the 19th century.  In the early 1880s, an epidemic broke out in New York City, with the Eastern Dispensary treating more than 21,000 cases per year.  Uneducated and suspicious immigrant families avoided immunization.  Additionally, knowing that patients were quarantined on North Brother Island, they hid cases from authorities.  It sometimes resulted in tragedy.

On March 21, 1882, the New-York Tribune reported, "A sanitary inspector learned that Joseph Kranck, a baby four months old, had died from the disease in the tenement house, No. 217 East Third-st.  The parents of the child had neglected to call in a physician."

Sarah and Woolf Woolf transferred title to the building to Samuel Woolf, presumably their son, in February 1883.  It triggered a rapid turnover in ownership.  Woolf sold it seven months later to Myer and Rosa Elsas, who sold it to Kate Offner for $18,100 on August 22, 1884.  Offner hired architect Charles Sturtzkober to add a one-story extension to the rear.

In the meantime, Joseph Rubatsky's saloon occupied the ground floor.  It was operated by Paul Zambory by 1891.  That year, he and five other men sent a petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania "asking him not to pardon the three Slovaks who are under sentence of death for taking part in the Edgar Thompson Steel-Works riot at Pittsburg," reported The Evening World.  The petition resulted in Joseph Santandrassy's suing all six for what today we would call a hate crime.  The article said, "Santandrassy says that the circulating of the petition was actuated by nationality hatred prevailing for centuries among Hungarians and Slovaks."

In October 1895, Kate Offner leased the ground floor to Elizabeth and Paul Zamborg, who took over the saloon.  

The back room in the new extension was used for meetings.  On November 5, 1898, The Sun reported on the many appearances that Colonel Theodore Roosevelt would be making.  Among the venues listed was "Paul Zambory's [sic], 217 East Third street."  The change in demographics in the neighborhood from German to Hungarian at the turn of the century was reflected in the Hungarian Democratic League's establishing its headquarters in the rear room in 1900.

In the summer months, tenement residents had no refuge from the heat.  Each day newspapers listed the previous day's victims.  Among the deaths from the heat on July 1, 1901 was 71-year-old Mabline Zahulke, who succumbed in her room here.

The property was purchased by Welz Zerweck Brewing Co. in December 1904.  Breweries often owned buildings like this one so they could monopolize the products sold in the saloons.  The following year, the firm made major improvements, hiring architect H. E. Funk to install indoor plumbing, toilets and new windows.

Despite the improvements, the conditions of the residents were miserable.  On April 5, 1914, the New York Herald reported on the 2,200 loaves of bread that the The New York Sun distributed within the Lower East Side.  "It was the longest line yet," said the article.  "At the end of the first hour, 1,700 loaves had been given away."  It profiled a few of the people who waited for bread, saying in part:

A middle aged, haggard looking woman with a baby in her arms came in.  After she had received four loaves she was willing to tell something about herself.  She said she had come all the way from 217 East Third street, which is near Avenue B about a mile away from the depot the shortest way you can walk.  The baby in her arms, she said, is 11 months old and she has an eight-year-old boy at home.

Julia Witkawsky's plight was even more dire.  Born in Poland, her husband had abandoned her three months earlier and she had used all the money she had.  The New York Herald reporter accompanied her to 217 East 3rd Street.  He wrote, "The landlord said he had served a dispossess order on her last month, but out of sympathy had allowed her to stay.  Her rent was due again yesterday, he said, and he could not wait longer."  Julia Witkawsky was desperate. 

"I can live on bread and milk," she said, "working at the wash tubs, but I've got to have a roof over the children."

It is unclear what happened to Julia Witkawsky and her children.

After decades of being home to a saloon, Prohibition caused a major change to the ground floor of 217 East 3rd Street--it became a restaurant.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

As soon as Prohibition was repealed, however, Waskel Bakalo got a liquor license for his restaurant in 1932.

At the time, the upper floors were crammed with indigent families.  Several homeless men got access of a vacant third-floor apartment in 1934.  On the night of September 1, they accidentally started a fire.  The New York Times reported that it "drove sixteen families...from a four-story tenement."  One firefighter was injured "when a fourth floor stairway collapsed under him," said the article.  "The tenants escaped without difficulty, part of them reaching the street by the stairway of the building, and the rest crossing over the roof to an adjoining tenement."

The repairs to the fire damage resulted in one apartment per floor above the store.  Around 1984, the St. Philip African Methodist Church opened here.  It was most likely at that time that the storefront was divided into two, and a second doorway installed.

In April 1999, Michael Mendez and Casey Torres opened the restaurant Latin here.  The New York Times reported that customers could find, "a dance lesson, a radish-and-spinach empanada, [and] pork chops with rice and beans."  The article said, "Latin jazz, merengue and salsa are played, paella ($17) can be ordered at tables, and dance instructions will be offered."

By 2002, Plant, a jazz club, occupied one of the spaces.  On November 15 that year, The New York Times said the owner "has honed a less exotic style, using bits of jazz and soul music to create smooth grooves."

photograph by Carole Teller

Where once 16 families crowded into rooms, there are now just four apartments in the building.  

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

William S. Schneider's 1928 136 Waverly Place

 

In 1854, the Greenwich Savings Bank erected an Anglo-Italianate-style bank building at the southwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Waverly Place.  The New York Times would later describe it as "a dignified three-story brownstone structure."  Decades later, in 1892, the bank moved out and the building was converted for use by the New York Bank Note Company.  Then, on February 26, 1928, The New York Times reported, "Housewreckers began last week tearing down the old Greenwich Village landmark."  The article explained, "a sixteen-story apartment house will be erected" on the site.  

The Citadel Construction Company had commissioned architect Walter S. Schneider to design the structure.  Schneider's Art Deco design has none of the expected geometric zig-zags and stair-stepping elements.  Instead he gave the brick-faced structure cast stone, medieval-style decorations around the entrance, and Aztec-inspired motifs in terra cotta at the top two floors.  Schneider used contrasting brick to create bandcourses and to simulate quoins.

An advertisement for The Waverly offered apartments of three or four rooms that included "dining alcoves [and] electric refrigerators."  (The electric appliances were a significant amenity at a time when many New Yorkers still had messy iceboxes in their kitchens.)  Rents started at $900 per year, or about $1,750 a month in 2026 terms.

Among the initial residents was William Seeman.  A 1914 graduate of Cornell University, he was an executive with the wholesale grocery firm of Seeman Brothers.  Shortly after he moved in, on April 24, 1929 The New York Times reported that he and motion picture actress Phyllis Haver "will be married at 7:30 tonight by Mayor Walker at the home of Rube Goldberg, cartoonist."  (Mayor James Walker was, incidentally, a good friend of Seeman and Goldberg was his brother-in-law.)

The engagement was not a secret.  A month earlier, Haver had announced her upcoming marriage in Hollywood and said she would retire afterward.  And, although this was an at-home wedding, it was no small affair.  The following day, The New York Times reported that Paul Whiteman's band marched from West End Avenue to the Goldberg's residence "amid the flare of fireworks."  The Brooklyn Standard Union said that about 60 guests attended the wedding and the dinner that followed--among them Constance Bennett, Samuel Goldwyn, William Fleischman and Mack Sennett.  "About four hundred telegrams of congratulations were received during the evening from the motion picture colony in Hollywood," said the article, "including messages from Douglas Fairbanks and Mabel Normand."  The Brooklyn Standard Union noted, "On their return from Europe, Mr. and Mrs. Seeman will make their home at 136 Waverly place."

William and Phyllis Haver Seeman (original source unknown).

James and Anna D. Collins occupied an apartment in the mid-1930s.  James was a detective with the New York City Police Department.  Their two children John and Peggy, who were 24 and 11 years old respectively in 1935, lived with them.

Anna Collins suffered a nervous breakdown around that time.  By 1938, James had become worried that she might attempt suicide and was understandably concerned about his service weapon, which he necessarily brought home.  Because of that, he told investigators that "he hid the cartridges for his revolver" somewhere in the apartment.

James apparently worked a night shift on August 8, 1938.  He came home and went directly to bed the next morning.  By 10:00, John, who was a ticket agent for the Eastern Steamship Lines, was at work and Peggy was at school.  Anna Collins found her husband's weapon and cartridges.  She shot herself in the head and died within the hour at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Residents Margaret and Joseph Sarafite lived here as early as 1940.  An attorney, Sarafite had been on the staff of District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey's Homicide, Appeals and General Sessions Bureaus since 1938.

The couple's country home was on Silver Mountain along the Hudson River.  They were headed there on November 24, 1940 when the trip nearly ended in tragedy.  Joseph was driving and, according to State Trooper McManus, "there was a heavy fog on the road at 1:15 p.m."  As Sarafite rounded a curve, he collided head-on with another vehicle.  McManus said, "Both drivers claimed they could not see the other car until it was too late."

Margaret, who was 38 years old at the time, was treated on the scene for "bruises, shock and a possible brain concussion."  Joseph was not injured and the other driver, Clifford Lilley, suffered "severe lacerations of the right hand."  Although both cars were "very badly damaged," all parties involved survived.  Nevertheless, The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News reported that Margaret Sarafite "was confined to bed in her summer home on Silver mountain."

Joseph A. Sarafite, The New York Sun, March 1, 1944

Not long after the incident, Joseph A. Sarafite was appointed Assistant District Attorney.  Then, on March 1, 1944, District Attorney Frank S. Hogan named him "head of the Rackets Bureau."  In reporting on the appointment, The New York Sun mentioned that since 1938, "of 200 cases on which he worked, convictions were obtained in 98 per cent of them."

Somewhat ironically, among the Sarafite's neighbors in the building was Gerard Mosiello, described by The New York Times on June 29, 1943 as "a convicted burglar."  His brother, Anthony, who lived on Sullivan Street, was described by the FBI as "a bookmaker."  The brothers and two other men formed a corporation to supply ammunition to the Soviet Government.  (Gerald Mosiello personally invested $40,000 in the enterprise.)

All four men were arrested on June 28, 1943 not for supplying munitions to a foreign entity, but for fraud.  The New York Times said they devised "a scheme alleged to have been carried out in the shipment to Russia of 3,072,000 .45 caliber cartridges, of which 38 per cent were found to be dangerously defective."  

 

John Augustine Sands and his wife, the former Eleanor Lydell Livingston, were residents at the time.  Born in 1865 and 1866 respectively, they were married on October 14, 1891.  The couple's daughter, Lettice Lee, was married to millionaire James Graham Phelps Stokes and they lived nearby at 88 Grove Street.  

At 4:45 on the afternoon of March 22, 1945, Eleanor, who was 79 years old at the time, was at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 8th Street when she tripped in a hole in the pavement.  The New York Times reported that she "fell against the side of a southbound truck owned by the Banner Manufacturing Company."  Eleanor Sands died at St. Vincent's Hospital later that day.

Samuel S. and Mollie Fishzohn and their children, Henry and Rita, were residents by the late 1940s.  Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1899, Samuel came to the United States at the age of eight.  He graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut and attended the Graduate School of Jewish Social Work and at New York University.  During World War II he was chairman of the Lower East Side Defense Council.

In 1945, Samuel became the director of the American Jewish Committee.  In the meantime, Mollie was not a stay-at-home mom, selling mutual funds fulltime.

Like his father, Henry Fishzohn got an early start on civic involvement.  On April 22, 1949, The New York Times reported on a group of Greenwich Village teens who "have banded together to combat delinquency and to erase religious and racial barriers between youngsters in their area."  Among them was 14-year-old Henry Fishzohn.

Samuel Fishzohn retired in January 1963, but continued his work as an executive member of the National Committee on Children and Youth and a vice-president of the Council of National Organizations for Children and Youth.  He and Mollie were still living here on August 28, 1964 when Samuel died at the age of 65.  Mollie Fishzohn would survive until December 1998, when she died at the age of 99.  Her obituary noted that she "sold mutual funds until her 90's."

photograph by Standard Flashlight Co., Inc. from the collection of the New York Public Library

A well-known name to New York travelers was Italo A. Fugazy, president of the Fugazy Travel Bureau, Inc., who lived here in the 1950s with his wife, Irene.  His father, Commendatore Louis F. Fugazy had founded the business in 1870 as a steamship agency and private bank.  By now, Fugazy's clients included Samuel Goldwyn Productions, R. K. O. Pictures, the Radio Corporation of America, and New York University.

A renovation to the building completed in 1967 resulted in eight stores at street level, five apartments per floor in the upper section, and one in the penthouse level.

Living here at the time were defense attorney Matthew H. Brandenburg and his wife, Florence.  Brandenburg was one of the best known criminal lawyers in the country.  A graduate of Fordham College and St. John's University Law School, he represented a number of defendants accused of murder.  In November 1967, he represented Harold Weinberg, who confessed to murdering poet Maxwell Bodenheim.  And the following year, he appealed the 30-year-prison sentence of former Marine Sergeant Charles Wilkerson, convicted in the killing of a Vietcong prisoner in Vietnam.

Mezzo American-inspired motifs decorate the uppermost floors.

Around 1969, Fraser's Restaurant opened in the building.  It was listed in the Bob Damron's Address Book (a directory for gay or gay-friendly businesses), and the 1969 New York City Gay Scene Guide described it as, "where the gay kids go for dinner before the bar tour."  It remained here at least through 1971.

At around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon, July 11, 1976, the 46-year-old elevator man, Joseph Garskian, was on duty.  A man entered the lobby and asked if the super was around.  He then pulled a knife on Garskian and took "a $200 Russian watch, a $200 Greek ring and $275 in U.S. cash," reported The Villager.  As the crook exited, a friend of Garskian, Ken Sieveri walked in.  He told a reporter, "I didn't do anything because I didn't want to take chances with a guy holding a knife."  The robber was not captured.

By 1996, the 1967 interior redecoration was out of fashion and it made selling a specific apartment here difficult for one realtor.  Michael M. Beltrami told a reporter from The New York Times that although the $325,000 two-bedroom, one bath apartment had "a working fireplace, multiple exposures, a good layout and even a peek at Washington Square Park," it was not selling.

The problem, he decided, was the the decor.  "It's a style called 1963-1964," he said.  And he lamented the original bathroom, which was apparently not updated in the re-do.  It had "turquoise and black 30's tiles," he said.

Reported by some to be the location of Don Draper's apartment in the 2007-2015 Mad Man series, Walter S. Schneider's wonderful building stands out in its Greenwich Village neighborhood--its cast stone sentinels still standing guard over the entranceway after nearly a century.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

A Hidden Theater District Treasure -- 690-692 Eighth Avenue

 

Only the Gothic arches and drip moldings hint at the Eighth Avenue facade's original purpose.  photograph by frog17.

On March 21, 1886, the New-York Tribune reported that Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson, "of the Twenty-third Street Tabernacle" had signed a contract to purchase the Madison Avenue Congregational Church for $126,000.  The article said it would "become known as the Gospel Tabernacle."

Born in Canada, Simpson was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1865 and came to New York City in 1881.  The year after purchasing the Madison Avenue church, he founded the Christian Alliance and would be president of the organization until his death.  His ability to amass the funds necessary to purchase the Madison Avenue property--equal to $4.3 million in 2026--had much to do with Simpson's charismatic personality.  The New York Times would later comment that it was not unusual for him to raise tens of thousands of dollars at a single meeting.

Rev. Alfred Benjamin Smith, image via cmalliance.org

Just two years after moving into the Madison Avenue property, on March 9, 1888, the New-York Tribune reported, "It was said yesterday by members of the Tabernacle that...the congregation made a fatal mistake in going there."  The Gospel Tabernacle Church sold the Madison Avenue church in August and the next month Edelmann & Smith filed plans for a complex of buildings on an L-shaped plot around the southeastern corner of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street.

On September 22, 1888, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide explained that the Gospel Tabernacle would occupy a 50-foot-wide building at 690-692 Eighth Avenue.  On the 44th Street side, said the article, "there will be a college building five-stories high, 50x45, of which two stories on the first floor will be rented out, adjoining which will be a six-story home, 50x100."  Edelman & Smith projected the construction costs at "between $100,000 and $125,000."  (The figures would translate to $3.5 to $4.25 million today.)

Edelmann & Smith's rendering of the Eighth Avenue elevation was published in The Christian Alliance and Missionary Weekly in March 1890 (copyright expired)

John Herman Edelmann and Lyndon Smith gave the West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue buildings similar designs.  Eschewing the Gothic Revival style more expected in ecclesiastical structures, the architects turned to Romanesque Revival.  

The Gospel Tabernacle and Missionary Home School building on Eighth Avenue was faced in red brick and trimmed stone.  Between the entrances (the Tabernacle was entered at 692 Eighth Avenue and Missionary Home School at No. 690) was a cast-iron storefront.  The asymmetrical midsection featured paired windows, arches and a second-floor oriel.  A square tower with a pyramidal cap and steep mansard composed the top floor.  

Edelman & Smith's design gave little hint that at the back of the building was an impressive worship and meeting space that soared the full height of the building, culminating with a glorious octagonal stained glass skylight.  

The Gospel Tabernacle could be accessed by the Berachah Home at 258-260 West 44th Street.  Its design was similar to the Eighth Avenue building, with a comparable mansard, but with a rounded rather than squared corner tower.

The Berachah Home offered "a place of rest and instruction for persons coming from various parts of the country in order to attend the meetings of the Tabernacle," according to a pamphlet, which added, "It is a commodious building holding about 100 guests and specially adapted to the purposes of the work."

The lower edge of the octagonal skylight can be glimpsed in this early photo.  (original source unknown)

The pamphlet explained that the Missionary Home School at 690 Eighth Avenue provided training for missionaries.  "A short course of Bible study and missionary training lasting about six weeks is conducted in this place and students are chiefly employed in missionary work and house-to-house visitation in the neighbourhood."

On the morning of March 16, 1890, services to dedicate the Gospel Tabernacle were held.  The New-York Tribune said, "Dr. A. B. Simpson, the pastor, addressed the congregation, giving a short history of the non-sectarian movement which led to the building of the Gospel Tabernacle."  The article said that the following afternoon, "the Training College and Berachah Home, which are connected with the institution, will be dedicated."

(original source unknown)

The headquarters of the Christian Alliance was in the Eighth Avenue Building.  The Encyclopaedia Britannica said, "At the opening of the year 1890, the secretary reported having established 23 missionaries in India, China, Japan, Hayti and Congo Free State."  The Alliance also published the Christian Alliance & Missionary Weekly from the building.

Rev. Simpson's ability to generate funds for the various enterprises under his control was mind-boggling.  On October 12, 1903, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported, "Nearly $70,000 was pledged yesterday by members of the Gospel Tabernacle, Eighth-av. and Forty-fourth st., to support the foreign missions."  The article noted, "At the end of the sermon a woman in the congregation jumped to her feet, shouting, and, rushing to the platform, handed $15 to the minister.  Some amounts pledged, ranging from $1,000 to $6,000, aroused enthusiasm when they were announced."

(original source unknown)

The incident was not out of the ordinary.  Three years later, on October 15, 1906, the newspaper reported that $71,773.80 was collected during the previous morning and afternoon services.  (The amount would equal more than $2.5 million today.)  The article said, "the congregation was wrought up to an almost hysterical pitch and threw gold watches and diamonds on the stage of the tabernacle."

Around 1908, the Berachah House was converted to a residential hotel called Alliance House.  An advertisement in the New York Herald in October 1911 read: 

Quiet place for quiet people; in the very centre of the city, catering only to a respectable class; suites consisting of parlor, sleeping apartment and private bathroom; also parlor and sleeping room, with running water; single and double rooms; steam heated; elevator service; popular rates; special rates for permanent guests.

In 1916, the Christian Alliance relinquished the management of Alliance House.  On February 16, The New York Times reported that Dr. Albert B. Simpson had leased it to Arthur K. Bonta, "the proprietor of the Hotels Bonta and Narragansett."

The configuration of the Alliance Hotel and Gospel Tabernacle are clearly seen in this property map.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson died on October 29, 1919 at the age of 74.  In reporting on his death, The New York Times remarked, "There was almost no end to Mr. Simpson's religious activities.  He was editor of the Alliance Weekly and proprietor of the Alliance Press Company."  He had written many books, including the 10-volume Christ in the Bible, The Gospel of the Kingdom and The Old Faith and the New Gospel.  Of course, Simpson's funeral on November 4 was held in the Gospel Tabernacle.

Rev. Simpson's funeral was called a "service of testimony."  New York Herald, Nov. 1, 1919 (copyright expired)

In 1925, renovations were made to the two facades.  The mansards were removed, replaced with parapets.  Edelmann & Smith's Romanesque Revival elements were totally eliminated from the Eighth Avenue elevation and Gothic arches and square-headed drip moldings installed at the ground and second levels.  On the 44th Street side, the openings on the upper three floors were squared off, but much of the original appearance of the lower levels was preserved.

The Alliance House facade retained much of its original, lower floor elements after the renovation. vintage postcard from the author's collection.

The Gospel Tabernacle Church welcomed touring evangelists in the 1920s.  Some of their services were almost carnival like.  On July 22, 1922, for instance, the 14-year-old preacher Mary Agnes Vitchestain appeared here.  The Gospel Tabernacle Church's advertisement said, "Miss Vitchestain preaches to the largest audiences everywhere."  And the following month The Bosworth Brothers held a service.  The announcement said, "How sinners may be forgiven and how the sick may be healed are made equally plain by the preaching of Evangelist F. F. Bosworth."  It urged, "come and bring the sick."

The 1925 renovations erased all of Edelmann & Smith's 1888 design.  An electric sign for the Gospel Tabernacle hangs over the entrance of No. 692.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Another renovation completed in 1950 converted the former Alliance Hotel into offices for the International Christian Alliance.  Then, on January 12, 1969, The New York Times reported, "For 80 years Gospel Tabernacle Church...has stood at 690 Eighth Avenue, south of 44th Street.  A domed skylight of stained glass surmounts nine banked rows of pews and a full-immersion baptismal font on the main floor."  Now, said the article, the buildings were "up for sale."  The organization had purchased the former German Evangelical Reformed Church on East 68th Street for its new headquarters.

The complex became home to Covenant House, organized in 1968 to house homeless teenagers.  The facility remained until 1995.  On November 12 that year, The New York Times reported that Peter Castellotti and Robert Vittoria (co-owners of John's Pizzeria founded by their great uncle, John Sasso, in 1935) were "negotiating to open a fourth John's Pizzeria, in the site of the original Covenant House at 260 West 44th Street."

Seven months later, on June 26, 1996, The Times food critic Florence Fabricant announced that John's Pizzeria would indeed open in the space before the end of the year.  Astoundingly, much of the interior of the Gospel Tabernacle was preserved--the galleries, original lighting figures, and all of the stained glass, including the striking skylight.

Before the 400-seat pizzeria was opened, artist Douglas Cooper was commissioned to execute a series of three murals.  The largest--21-feet high and 30-feet wide--adorns a wall in the former worship space.  Cooper describes it in architect Andrew Tesoro's website as: 

A panoramic fly-over of Manhattan visible from the full width of a bi-level mezzanine...The foreground is set in one of the most dramatic views of Manhattan: the view from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River above the entrances to the Lincoln Midtown Tunnels.

Cooper's "Front Room Bar Mural," which is 8-feet high and 30-feet wide, pictures a scene in Times Square including identifiable theaters and throngs of pedestrians and vehicles.  Astute bar patrons can pick out figures like Theodore Roosevelt, Mickey Mantle, Salvadore Dali and Marilyn Monroe from the dozens in the crowd.  And the smallest, the "Mezzanine Mural," is 2-feet high and 28-feet wide.  The separate images, according to Cooper, "focus on the theatrical character of the District [and] illustrate a set of improbably theatrical anecdotes going back as far as the 1880s."

Elements of the 1888 and 1925 designs survive in the West 44th Street upper facade, including the stump of the rounded tower.

Easily dismissed today, the two 1888 buildings are at best unremarkable from the outside.  But inside, better known to tourists than to New Yorkers, is a hidden and remarkable gem.

non-credited photographs by the author

The Erica Jong House - 125 East 94th Street

 

In 1878-79, real estate developers Duffy & Bros. erected a row of nine, 17-feet-wide rowhouses along the north side of East 94th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  Designed by F. S. Barus, the identical brownstone-fronted homes were three stories tall above high English basements.  Barus's neo-Grec design placed the openings into architraves embellished with scrolled brackets and molded cornices.  Each house terminated with its own pressed metal cornice.

The original residents of 125 East 94th Street were Philip and Annie Smith, whose residency would be short and disturbing.  Philip, it seems, had a drinking problem and when intoxicated became abusive.  A maid, Louise Hughes, testified several years later that on March 25, 1880 Philip was drunk and struck Annie "with his fist around the head."  She said he was "in a great rage and used violent and abusive language."  That night, said Louise, Annie "ran away from the house to get out of his way."  She also testified that Philip would tell his wife, "I will knock your teeth out," and, "I will throw you out of the window."

The Smiths left 125 East 94th Street on May 1, 1881.  The house was leased by Laura M. Boehmann to several affluent tenants over the ensuing years.  Living here in the pre-World War I years was the Kroger family, who announced the engagement of daughter Matilda to Henry C. Reife in April 1916.

Laura Boehmann sold 125 East 94th Street in April 1917 to W. S. Groesbeck Fowler.  He, too, used the property for rental income.  In 1919, he leased it to Colonel Latham Gallup Reed and his wife, the former Mary Newbold Welsh. 

Latham Reed was born in Albany, New York in 1856.  His deep American ancestry included "early residents of the Plymouth Colony," according to The New York Times, and "officers of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars."  Reed studied at Columbia University, and at Cambridge University in England where he earned his law degree.  Formerly a partner in the law firm of Bowers & Sands, he retired in 1914.

Fowler sold 125 East 94th Street in May 1921.  The New York Herald remarked, "The new owner will alter and occupy."  The house continued to see a relatively quick turnover of residents.  

Amelia Caroline Taylor Mason was the widow of Reverend Arthur Mason.  Born in 1837 in Cuba, she and her husband, who died in 1907, had two children.  Amelia died in the house on January 11, 1924 and her funeral was held in St. Bartholomew's Church.

Dr. Robert Ogden DuBois quickly moved into 125 East 94th Street.  The 30-year-old bachelor had graduated from Columbia University in 1915 and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1919.  An assistant at the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital, he would not be alone here for long.  On March 9, 1925, The New York Times reported that he was engaged to Elizabeth Harsen Chisolm.   The newspaper mentioned that the bride-to-be "is well known in New York society."

Like Latham Gallup Reed, DuBois had a sterling American pedigree.  He traced his ancestry to Robert Livingston the Elder, who arrived in Albany in 1674 and established Livingston Manor along the Hudson River in 1715.  The couple would have two sons, Robert Jr., born in 1926, and Philip Mason, born in 1932.

In August 1933, Betty Menzel was hired here as a servant.  The 24-year-old had previously worked in the home of Benjamin Friedman in Laurelton, Long Island.  Only days after she moved in, Friedman rang the door.  The Long Island Daily Press reported "on June 28 he missed a gold ring set with a sapphire worth $50, two fountain pens valued at $20, and a cigarette lighter valued at $8."  When Betty quit on August 12, Friedman's suspicions "turned to her."

Faced with her former employer, Betty Menzel crumpled.  The article said, "she returned the pens and lighter, and gave him a pawn ticket for the ring."  That was not enough for Friedman, and Betty was arrested.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The house was next owned by Julia Smith, the widow of John Smith.  She lived here with her young adult daughter, Madeleine Anne.  Madeleine graduated from the College of New Rochelle and received her Master of Arts degree from Columbia University.

Madeleine was married to Lieutenant John Francis Butler in the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on May 5, 1944.  The groom had just returned from deployment overseas.  

Julia Smith died in 1954.  In reporting that her estate had sold the house, The New York Times remarked, "It has ten rooms, three baths, and a garden."

Novelist and poet Erica Jong purchased 125 East 94th Street following her divorce from Jonathan Fast in 1983.  She moved in with the couple's five-year-old daughter, Molly Jong-Fast.  Jong also maintained a country home in Weston, Connecticut.

Bernard Gotfryd created his portrait of Erica Jong in 1969.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Dr. Du Bois's former office was still in the basement level and Jong leased it to what Molly Jong-Fast described as "sexologists."  In her How to Lose Your Mother, Jong-Fast writes:

The house looked like all the other narrow brownstone houses on the sloping block, but it wasn't the same.  She painted the front door bubblegum pink.  People who visited the house said it looked like a haunted bordello, but that wasn't because the house was haunted--that was because my mother had terrible taste.  She put floral wallpaper in each room.  Later she'd hang paintings of people having sex (bequeathed by the sexologists who would move into the basement) on that floral wallpaper.

Erica Jong was best known for her novel Fear of Flying, published a decade before she purchased 125 East 94th Street.  The controversial book's slant on female sexuality would greatly influence what was termed by some the "feminist wars."  By 2022, the book would have worldwide sales of more than 37 million copies, according to The New York Times.

Like her mother, Molly Jong-Fast would go on to a career as novelist and journalist.  By then, she and her mother would have moved on from 125 East 94th Street.

In 1997, it was purchased by Lisa and Perry Gershon--a lawyer and a real estate finance executive, respectively.  In reporting on the sale, The New York Times remarked that of the 1879 row, it was "one of the two brownstones left with its rosettes intact--its stoop standing proud, its interior spaces unblemished by conversion to apartments."  The article said, "the interior spaces were a bit tattered, but the house remained a single-family residence, with an office on the ground floor."

Astoundingly, given its long list of residents and owners, outwardly 125 East 94th Street survives essentially intact.

photographs by the author

The 1926 John Muir - 27 West 86th Street

 

image via landmarkwest.org

Developer and builder John Muir assembled a syndicate, The 31 West 86th Street Corporation, in 1925 to replace five handsome rowhouses at 27 through 35 West 86th Street, just west of Central Park, with an apartment building.  The group hired the architectural firm of Sugarman & Berger to design the the 15-story structure.  Completed in 1926, it was faced in variegated brick above a stone base.  Designed in the neo-Renaissance style, Sugarman & Berger peppered the facade with romantic terra cotta and cast stone details. 

The double-height frames around the grouped openings of the second and third floors included engaged terra cotta columns and spandrel panels with rondels containing bas relief busts or shields.  Shells and pinnacles capped each grouping.  The motif was copied at the sixth and thirteenth floors, where they were fronted with stone balconies.  An elaborately decorated cast stone parapet crowned the design.

John Muir christened the building after himself: The John Muir.  Although he had no connection with the naturalist and explorer of the same name (and who had died 14 years earlier), Sugarman & Berger might have given a nod to the much more famous John Muir by adding a very subtle, very non-Italian Renaissance detail--a Western cow's skull on either side of the entrance.

Above the ornate neo-Renaissance details of the entrance pilasters, is a surprising Western skull.  image via landmarkwest.org

An advertisement in The New York Times in November 1926 offered apartments of five through seven rooms, with two or three baths.  It boasted high ceilings and large rooms.  Although the ad described The John Muir as a "housekeeping apartment building," meaning the apartments had kitchens (including "electrical refrigerators" and "kitchen cabinets"), it noted, "Restaurant service available."  It was a vestige of residential hotels, in which tenants ate in restaurant-like dining rooms.

In September 1926, while construction was nearing completion, Dr. Leon L. Feldberg leased an apartment.  He was, perhaps, the first of an inordinate number of doctors and dentists in the building. 

Margaret (known as Rita) Hoff and Henry McAleenan were married in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Broadway and 71st Street on January 12, 1927.  The New York Times noted that following their "wedding trip in Europe," they would live at 27 West 86th Street.  The following year, on May 1, 1928, The New York Sun reported that the couple had welcomed a son.

Attorney Charles Culp Burlingham and his wife, the former Mary Farrell, were original residents.  Their country home was in Blackpoint, Connecticut.  Born in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1858, Burlingham was admitted to the bar in 1881 and became a partner in Burlingham, Veeder, Masten & Feary.  An expert in admiralty law, among his prominent clients were the White Star Line, the Holland America Line and Nippon Yusen.

Fourteen years before moving into The John Muir, Burlingham represented the White Star Line before the United States Supreme Court following the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.  He was, perhaps, better known as a civic and legal reformer.  (In 1953, the New York City Bar Association deemed him the "first citizen of New York.")  A close adviser to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Burlingham become president of the New York City Bar Association in 1929.

Charles Culp Burlingham in 1932.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Mary Farrell Burlingham died on May 20, 1928.  It is unclear when Charles moved to 860 Park Avenue, but he would survive Mary by decades.  On August 30, 1956, The New York Times said that at the age of 98, he was "one of the country's oldest practicing lawyers."  Asked how others could live to be 98, Burlingham replied, "Just never stop breathing."  Charles Culp Burlingham died at the age of 100 on June 7, 1959.

Among the several physicians in the building in the 1920s and early 1930s were Dr. Rubin L. Kahn; Herbert L. Celler, former president of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Alumni Association; Damas B. Becker and his wife, the former Beulah Mosher; Dr. John J. White; and dentists Ethel R. Meyerson and Henry G. Rieger.

When The John Muir opened, Dr. John J. White was involved in a lawsuit.  On March 15, 1926, he was riding in a Pennsylvania Railroad dining car and ordered the boneless chicken pie.  The pie turned out to be anything but boneless and when White bit into a bone, he lost a front tooth.  The New York Times reported that the cook insisted he could not understand "how come a bone should be in the pie."  Dr. White's long-lasting suit was finally settled on April 27, 1929.  The Weekly Underwriter and Insurance Press reported that he was awarded $650 (just under $12,000 in 2026).

image via landmarkwest.org

Elizabeth Russell, who was 20 years old and an artist's model, moved into The John Muir following her divorce from Richard C. Lyman in December 1926.  She took back her maiden name, but would not have it for long.  Elizabeth attended a New Year's Day party on January 1, 1928.  There she met 34-year-old playwright Patrick Kearney, who had recently adapted Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy for the stage.  He, too, was recently divorced.  He divorced his first wife in 1924 and his second in 1926.  Just over two weeks after they met, on January 17, The New York Times reported that the pair were married that afternoon.

(Patrick and Elizabeth would have two daughters together.  Their marriage would end tragically, however, on March 28, 1933 when the 39-year-old playwright committed suicide.)

Along with Charles Burlingham, at least two other attorneys, David M. Fink of Fink & Frank, and Louis L. Kahn of Wilberg, Norman & Kahn, were early residents.  Kahn and his wife had one daughter.  Born in Hungary in 1880, he graduated from the New York University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1903.

In August 1930, Kahn was named by the Tammany executive committee as the "Democratic candidate for the vacancy on the City Court bench," as reported by The New York Times.   Three months later, on November 14, the newspaper announced that Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed him as a judge of the City Court of New York.

The names of residents of The John Muir routinely appeared in the society columns.  On May 26, 1933, for instance, The New York Evening Post reported, "Dr. Eugene A. Dupin of 27 West Eighty-eighth Street, will give a dinner party at the Park Lane tonight for about fifty guests."

At least one resident at the time, however, appeared in newsprint for less favorable reasons.  Physiotherapist Albert C. Thierer occupied his apartment alone after his wife, Lee, left him.  In July 1932, he was ordered to pay her $12 per week to support her and their child.  According to Thierer, his Depression era patients were "lagging" in their payments and his finances were stretched.  On February 1, 1933, he faced his wife and a judge regarding the $125 he owed her.

When Magistrate Anthony Hockstra demanded that he immediately pay the amount in full, a frustrated Thierer exploded.  He told the magistrate, "I'll have to get a pistol permit from you and go out and steal!"  The Daily Star said the outburst "startled" the courtroom.  Hockstra adjourned the case for a week, saying that if Thierer did not come up with the $125, he would "go to jail for six months."

Perhaps because of his financial problems, Thierer branched out from physiotherapy to plastic surgery.  And it appeared to be working.  A year later, The New York Times reported that he "numbered many prominent actresses among his patients."  Unfortunately, Thierer had skipped an important step in opening his practice.

He was arrested on October 8, 1934 for "practicing medicine without a license."  The 42-year-old pleaded not guilty in court on December 20.  Apparently Thierer weathered the storm and on October 21, 1936, the "Shopping With Susan" column of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on "beauty authority" Grace Donohue's skin rejuvenation therapy.  The article said, "Grace Donohue offers a free analysis of your skin by Albert C. Thierer, B.S."

Among the residents in the second half of the century were attorney David Vorhaus and his wife, Dr. Pauline G. Vorhaus.  A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, David was in charge of gasoline rationing in the New York City area during World War II.  Pauline was a psychologist and author.  Their two children took similar professional paths.  Dr. Louis J. Vorhaus was a physician, and Dr. Jane M. Vorhaus Gang was a psychiatrist.

A fascinating resident was Moe Gale, who lived here with his wife, the former Gertrude Arnstein.  Born on the Lower East Side to a luggage salesman, in 1926 Moe partnered with Jay Faggen to open the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.  The New York Times would say that he "advanced the musical careers of such personalities as Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the bands of Erskine Hawkins, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Tiny Bradshaw and Lucky Millinder."  It was Moe Gale who discovered the Four Ink Spots.

The Savoy Ballroom was famous nationwide.  The Times recalled, "Nearly every name band in the late nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties played there, including those of Rudy Vallee, Isham Jones, Duke Ellington, Chick Webb, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller."  The Savoy Ballroom closed in 1958.  Six years later, on September 2, 1964, Moe Gale died while living here.

Among the Gales' neighbors in the building were Dr. Ludwig V. Chiavacci and his wife, Dr. Sidonia T. Furst-Chiavacci.  The two most likely met at the University of Vienna.  Ludwig received his medical degree there in 1925 and Sidonia the following year.

A research expert on multiple sclerosis, Ludwig was on the research staffs of the neurological Institute in Manhattan and the New Jersey Diagnostic Center in Metuchen.  A dermatologist, Sidonia Furst-Chiavacci was on the staffs of the University and Montefiore Hospitals.  She also served as a physician and dermatologist to the Austrian Consulate.  Ludwig V. Chiavacci died in August 1970 and Sidonia in September 1973.

image via landmarkwest.org

Externally, there are almost no changes to Sugarman & Berger's dignified, 1926 facade.

many thanks to reader (and former resident) Robyn Roth-Moise for suggesting this post