The Langston Hughes House - 20 East 127th Street

 

photograph by Americasroof

Four years after the end of the Civil War, pioneering developers were beginning to transform Harlem from country estates and farms to an attractive suburb.  Two of them, James Meagher and Thomas Hanson, erected two 20-foot-wide, three-story homes on East 127th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues in 1869.  Designed by Alexander Wilson, their Italianate design was handsome, but unexceptional.  Throughout the city, similar rows of nearly identical homes were being constructed, their monotonous appearance sometimes befuddling inebriated homeowners who could not find their own house.

Like its neighbor, 20 East 127th Street was clad in brownstone.  A high stone stoop rose to the double-doored entrance below an arched pediment supported by elaborately carved corbels.  The segmentally arched openings sat within molded architraves and a bracketed pressed metal cornice crowned the design.

The house became home to the Walter C. Palmer, Jr. family.  A printer, publisher, author and bookseller, he and his wife, Mary G., had at least one child, Mamie, born in 1867.

Palmer's business focused on religious topics.  Several of the works he published were related to the American Holiness Movement, co-founded by his mother, evangelist and author Phoebe Palmer.  (The movement stressed the doctrine of John Wesley, called "Christian perfection.")  He not only published Phoebe Palmer's works, but in 1869-70 he co-edited The Guide to Holiness Magazine with her.

In 1874, Mamie Palmer contracted scarlet fever.  The seven-year-old died on March 25 and her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

The Palmers left West 127th Street by 1876 and No. 20 became home to Alexander Gaw and his unmarried daughter, Louisa.  Gaw's wife, the former Elizabeth Campbell, had died at the age of 65 on November 9, 1874.  Alexander Gaw was in the paint business and was, additionally, a trustee of the West Side Savings Bank.  

The parlor was the scene of another funeral in 1880.  Louisa Gaw died on October 18 and her funeral held here on the 21st.

In May 1886, an advertisement offered 20 East 127th Street for rent.  It described it as a "Three story brown stone House, good order, to let; nine hundred dollars."  The figure would translate to about $31,800 per year today.

The house was leased by E. Jeanrenaud, who converted it to The Harlem Collegiate School.  The private boys' school accommodated 30 students including six "boarding pupils."

The Nation, September 1, 1887 (copyright expired)

The venture was short lived and on September 14, 1889, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune announced the opening of the Mount Morris School, headed by Frank Clifford Lyman and George B. Towle.  The ad said in part:

In the resolve to have a school of telling merit, the principals rely on the highest standards, enthusiastic interest, liberal recitation methods and advanced methods.  The start in Classics a specialty.

Frank Clifford Lyman and his family occupied space on the upper floors.  The ad said, "A school home of rare advantages is offered to a very few boys in the principals' household."  Only three boys were accepted as boarding students.

Frank Clifford Lyman would continue to operate The Mount Morris School in the house into the mid-1890s.  It became home to the Nussbaum family at the turn of the century, and to Dr. John Staunton Blackmar by 1906.

Born in Connecticut in 1874, Blackmar graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1898 and served in the Spanish-American War as a first lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon in the Third Connecticut Voluntary Infantry

Dr. John S. Blackmar in his military uniform.  (original source unknown)

He became associated with Harlem Hospital in June 1900 and by the time he moved into 20 East 127th Street was doing clinical work in the Harlem Hospital Dispensary.  It was likely his marriage to Mildred Martin in 1910 that ended his residency here.

Edward Goldschmidt, who owned 20 East 127th Street, continued to lease the house.  From 1910 to 1914 it was home to Reverend Edward H. Cleveland of the New York Protestant Episcopal City Mission Society.  The American Church Almanac and Year Book said he was "Missionary to Riverside Hospital, North Brother's Island, and Branch Workhouse, Riker's Island."

A major change came when Edward Goldschmidt leased the house to Henry Riddle in August 1914.  He rented rooms in the upper portion and installed "the Funeral Parlors of Henry Riddle" in the lower floors.  Riddle operated the funeral home and chapel through the spring of 1920, when the Goldschmidt estate sold the house.

No. 20 East 127th Street saw a flurry of residents over the subsequent two decades.  Then in 1947, musician William Emerson Harper, his wife, the former Ethel "Toy" Dudley Brown, and poet Langston Hughes co-purchased the house for $12,500 (about $180,000 today).

Trumpeter W. Emerson Harper was known as much for his labor activism as for his music.  He routinely contributed articles to periodicals regarding the financial struggles of musicians.  

He and Ethel, a costume designer and seamstress, had become close friends of Langston Hughes in the 1930s.  At the time, Hughes was emerging as a significant writer and poet.  His first novel, Not Without Laughter, published in 1930, earned him the Harmon Gold Medal for literature.  His close relationship with the Harpers was evidenced by his dedicating his 1940 autobiography, The Big Sea, to them.

Langston Hughes in 1942.  photograph by Cal Varn Vechten from the collection of the Yale University Library.

Hughes occupied the upper portion of the house.  Among the works he produced here were Shakespeare in Harlem in 1942; Montage of a Dream Deferred, published in 1951; a series of humorous books about character Jess B. Simple written from 1950 through 1965; and works about Black culture, like the 1952 The First Book of Negroes; the 1954 Famous American Negroes; and The Book of Negro Folklore, published in 1958.

Langston Hughes entered the Polyclinic Hospital for prostate surgery in the spring of 1967.  The operation was "apparently successful," according to the New York Amsterdam News, but complications developed.  He died on May 22 at the age of 66.  In reporting his death, newspapers nationwide lauded his work.  The San Francisco Chronicle, for instance, wrote:

A versatile and prolific writer, Hughes was equally fluent in the lyric voice of the poet, sharp-humored posturing and rhythms that echoed folk music and jazz, and the plaint of Simple, the Harlem philosopher who was his best known creation.

The Harpers remained in the house, transferring the title to their son, James Emerson Harper in 1980.  He sold it to Dr. Beverly Prince, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at Harlem Hospital, and her husband, Les Rolfe, five years later.

An automobile sits in front of the stoop of 20 East 127th Street in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By the 2000s, the vintage brownstone house was showing significant deterioration.  In 2019, Brett Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust of Historic Preservation, first visited the house.  Seven years, later, on March 19, 2026, The New York Times reported that Dr. Beverly C. Price and the National Trust "are undertaking a meticulous restoration of its timeworn exterior."

(In the meantime, the I, Too Arts Collection had occupied the top three floors from 2016 to 2019.  The group offered to buy the house, but, "Dr. Prince did not want to sell," said The New York Times.)

The ivy that covered the facade in this photograph damaged the surface of the brownstone.  photograph via 6sqft.com

The Times article explained that the restoration is also addressing the cast iron fencing and stoop railings, the brownstone (damaged from decades of clinging ivy), and roof repairs.

The Much Altered John Perrine House - 332 Bowery

photograph by Anthony Bellov

 
In May 1817, James Van Zandt advertised for sale two mares and a "gig, with a leather top and a good set of harnesses."  He directed potential buyers to see him at 332 Bowery-road.  Van Zandt was most likely a long-term resident in the district, because Bowery Road had been officially renamed The Bowery four years earlier.

James Van Zandt possibly leased the property.  It was owned by David S. Jones in 1824 when the latter sold it to John Perrine.  It appears that Perrine simultaneously purchased the lot next door at 330 Bowery.  Within three years, Perrine had erected a three-and-a-half story, Federal style house and shop at 332 Bowery.  Its peaked roof would have been pierced with one or two dormers.

The Perrine family originally moved into 330 Bowery and leased No. 332.  In 1830 the Thompson family occupied the upper portion while Samuel Clark, a trunk maker, was in the shop.

John Perrine moved his family into 332 Bowery as early as 1836.  He operated his butcher shop in the ground floor space, while his two sons, George E. and Robert P., ran a brokerage business at 129 Bowery.  The brothers' venture ended by 1845.  That year George was working in his father's butcher shop and Robert had moved to Brooklyn.

In 1848, William H. Ho0ple purchased the property.  He leased the commercial space to R. Cook & Son for its umbrella store, and the upper portion to Sarah Shumway, who operated a boarding house.  Murville Shumway, possibly a brother, also lived here.  Sarah's initial tenants were William H. and Joseph W. Cook, proprietors of the umbrella shop; and Charles S. and Elizabeth A. Burrell.  Charles was a carpenter and Elizabeth made bonnets.

The shop of R. Cook & Son was supplanted in 1853 by the Wright & Bailey carpet store.  The fact that the location was still far north of the established shopping district was reflected in a slightly ungrammatical Wright & Bailey advertisement in April that year.

Up-Town vs. Down-Town--Two great dissideratums [sic] in the purchase of any article is Price and Quality, and those in pursuit of Carpeting will find no place where they will be better pleased with both than at Wright & Bailey's, No. 332 Bowery, near Bond-st.  Their stock is varied and excellent, and from their low rents they are enabled to deal more liberal with their customers than down-town establishments.

The shop changed hands again in 1857.  Michael A. Egan moved his dry goods store, The Linen Hall, in that year and quickly faced problems.  On June 2, the New-York Tribune reported that a fire in Egan & Co. had started at 9:30 the previous night, "a consequence of some light goods in the show-window coming in contact with a lighted gas-burner."  The article mentioned, "The building, owned by W. H. Hoople, was damaged to the amount of $100."  

Three days later, Egan advertised what today would be called a fire sale.  The title read, "Great Sale of wet goods--$67,000 worth of dry goods damaged by fire, selling at The Linen Hall, No. 332 Bowery."  One wonders if Egan was exaggerating in his ad.  The figure he cited would translate to $2.5 million in 2026.  

Not long after moving into 332 Bowery, Michael A. Egan realized that someone was systematically stealing his inventory.  At one point, he confided about the thefts to Thomas R. Finley, a trusted clerk who had been with him for about a year.  The New York Times said on October 3, 1857 that Egan "consulted with him on the best plan for detecting the culprit."  Finley fingered a clerk and the porter and the two were fired.  But the shrinkage continued.  The New York Times said, "at length suspicion fell on Finley."

Police arrested Finley in the shop on October 2.  "When arrested Finley had concealed in his pockets and about his person several articles, valued at $15," said The New York Times.  When police searched his rooms on Allen Street, they discovered, "$2,000 worth of crape shawls, embroideries, laces, silks, linens and other costly goods."  Finley was charged with sealing $2,915 in goods from his employer--about $111,000 today.

Around 1859, Hoople enlarged the building.  He raised the attic to a full fourth floor and added an extension to the rear.  Modern, Italianate-style cast metal lintels were placed over the openings and a corbeled cornice installed.  Most likely, an up-to-date cast iron storefront was included in the renovations.

The cornice introduced a neo-Grec touch to the renovations.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The store space became home to B. T. Hardy's, a dry goods emporium operated by Benjamin T. Hardy.  He, too, suffered thievery.  On June 7, 1861, The New York Times began an article saying, "Yesterday morning, Mr. B. F. [sic] Hardy, dry goods dealer, at No. 332 Bowery, discovered that his store had been broken into on Wednesday night and robbed of $2,000 worth of silks and laces."

While modern day detectives resort to forensics like fingerprints and surveillance cameras, mid-19th century investigators relied greatly on instinct.  The article said, "From the manner in which the burglary had been effected, the Detectives felt confident that the delinquents were David Bartlett and John Watson, both noted rogues."  Officers Farley and Eustace barged into the rooms occupied by the the pair in a Thompson Street boarding house.  They discovered Bartlett and Watson with another man, John Williams, "engaged in overhauling, assorting and preparing for sale...the entire proceeds of the burglary."

The New-York Dispatch, December 17, 1865 (copyright expired)

In the meantime, Sarah Shumway's tenants continued to be working class.  Living here at the time of the burglary were Hugh Graham and Theron Rykert, both carpenters.  Both would remain through 1863.

On January 22, 1869, Murville Shumway died in the house at the age of 67.  His funeral was held here two days later.  Sarah Shumway continued to lease the upper portion of the building until about 1870.  

William Hoople next leased the building to German-born Henry N. Markert.  He and his family lived upstairs and Henry's bakery occupied the ground floor.  (In 1876, Markert changed the description of his business from baker to "candy.")  Living with the Markerts were four servants and a boarder Julius Willing, who was a clerk.  Willing would live here from 1870 through 1880.  A second boarder, Charles W. See (sometimes spelled Sy) moved in around 1876.  Like Willing, he was a clerk and would remain through 1880.

By the late 1880s, The Bowery had changed.  German beer gardens and music halls lined the thoroughfare and "bawdy houses" were crammed with “degraded women” and drunkards.  The ground floor of 332 Bowery became Charles T. Krauss's saloon around 1888.  By then, the third and fourth floors had been converted to Krauss's "office."  His application for the renewal of the excise (i.e., liquor) license on March 11, 1890 described:

The premises No. 332 Bowery, now occupied as offices, excepting the second floor of the building, at a yearly rent of $720 and on the same conditions as the present lease; Mr. Charles T. Krauss, lessor.

The annual rent would translate to about $2,000 per month today.

The saloon changed hands rather rapidly.  In 1896, Joseph A. and S. W. Weiss operated it as a "concert garden," called The Auditorium.  The partners touted their operation as "high class vaudeville."

New York Journal, November 24, 1896 (copyright expired)

Although the ads described The Auditorium as being family friendly, reformers and police were not so sure.  On December 15, 1896, The New York Times reported that Ignatz Leppel, Henry Montberger and Samuel Margules had been arrested for the unlicensed sale of cigars and soda.  "They are waiters employed by Joseph A. Weiss, who keeps a concert garden at 332 Bowery."

Another waiter, Sam Aronson, was arrested for a much more serious offense the following year.  He and a confederate, Joseph Winthall, attempted to blackmail wealthy stockbroker S. Duncan Leverich, whose wife had recently died.  They sent a letter on April 14, 1897 that intimated that Leverich had murdered his wife.  It said that the sender had evidence that Mrs. Leverich had died "by foul play."  It demanded cash for the information and was signed, "From your friend, D. Corrock, No. 332 Bowery, saloon, city."

After the third letter arrived, Leverich went to police.  He was given marked bills and Leverich met with Aronson and his comrade.  The two were quickly arrested.

If The Auditorium was, indeed, family friendly, that would change in August 1897 when John H. McGurk purchased the building.  The Irish-born saloonkeeper ran the notorious McGurk's Saloon at 295 Bowery, also known as Suicide Hall.  He paid the equivalent of $1.2 million in todays money for 332 Bowery.  

After being repeatedly arrested, John McGurk jumped bail in 1902 and fled to California with his wife and daughter, reportedly taking along half a million in cash.  Two years earlier, he had sold 332 Bowery to Michael J. Adrian for $28,000.  The two men could not possibly have been more different.  In reporting the transaction, the Record & Guide said on June 2, 1900, "Mr. Adrian is president of the German Exchange Bank, but buys [the property] for his own account.  The building will undergo extensive alterations."

The German Exchange Bank sat next door, at 330 Bowery (aka 54 Bond Street).  Adrian's restoring the saloon space to a respectable business would be beneficial to his bank's reputation and certainly would make his female customers more comfortable in doing business in the bank.  Within weeks of the purchase, Adrian hired architects J. Bockell & Son to renovate 332 Bowery with a new storefront.  The building became home to three makers of "caps and cloth hats"--S. Kraviz & Son, Einhorn & Waldman, and H. Meyerowitz.

In 1941, George M. Adrian, presumably Michael J. Adrian's son, was listed as the owner of 332 Bowery.  The family continued to possess the property until 1963, when it was sold to Seymour Finkelstein.

A glass store occupied the ground floor in 1940.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Steve's Deli occupied the ground floor in the mid-1980s.  By the turn of the century, the ever-changing Bowery saw the rise of modern apartment and store buildings.  The environment was reflected in the opening of Thai restaurant Godunk in 2025, described by The New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant on December 2 that year, "a room done in beige tile and burgundy leather."

Cast iron piers survive on the sides of the much-altered storefront.  The brick above has been painted, but overall the upper floors look much as they did around 1859 when William Hoople made his significant renovations.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The William and Phebe Baldwin House - 53 West 74th Street

 

The firm of Colleran & Brother & Hughes acted as both architect and developer.  In 1889 it broke ground for a row of four high-end residences on the north side of West 74th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.  Completed the following year in an A-B-A-B configuration, the 20-foot-wide houses were four stories tall above high English basements and faced in brownstone.  

The deeply rusticated parlor and second floors of 53 West 74th Street were distinguished by a pronounced rounded bay.  A dog-legged box stoop meandered up to the arched doorway, which was protected by iron-and-glass doors and outlined by delicate rope molding.  A fearsome lion's head decorated its keystone.  Intricate Renaissance Revival panels embellished these levels and also appeared at the bases of the parlor openings.  

The architect switched gears, turning to neo-Grec for the planar faced upper floors.  The windows sat within elaborate carved architraves.  Equally ambitious was the pressed metal cornice with its paired, scrolled corbels and decorated fascia panels.

Max Weil purchased all four houses from Colleran & Brother & Hughes in January 1891.  When he sold them at auction on July 3, William Burnet Baldwin placed the winning bid of $43,900 for No. 53.  (The price would translate to just over $1.5 million in 2026.)

William Burnet Baldwin was born on November 27, 1850 to Jesse Baldwin Jr. and the former Phebe Ann Burnet.  He and his wife, Irene, had at least one son, William R.  Also moving into the house was Phebe Baldwin.  (Jesse had died in December 1881.)

Baldwin was a builder and just two months after moving into 53 West 74th Street he began construction on two two-story stables on West 76th Street near Amsterdam Avenue.  

Phebe Ann Baldwin died in the house at the age of 84 on April 13, 1894.  Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

Somewhat surprisingly, William and Irene sold 53 West 74th Street for a tidy profit to their son, William R. Baldwin (who was living in Illinois by now), in March 1896 for $47,250.  The transaction initiated a flurry of deed transfers.  The same day, William R. Baldwin transferred the title to Samuel F. Adams who sold it almost immediately to Jacques Richard Simon.

Born in San Francisco on April 9, 1859, Simon was the head of the silk importing firm J. R. Simon & Co.  His substantial concern maintained a buying office in Yokohama, Japan and employed representatives in China, Hong Kong and France.

Simon married Virginia (known as Jenny) Rosenbaum on April 2, 1889.  When they moved into 53 West 74th Street, they had three children: six-year-old Lloyd Nutenson, two-year-old Grace Mignon, and Albert Richard, who was an infant.  Two more children would be born in the house: Carolina in 1904 and Virginia Dorothy the following year.

Jacques Richard Simon (original source unknown)

Like all their neighbors, the Simons maintained a domestic staff.  Living with the family were the children's governess and three other servants.

On July 28, 1912, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described 19-year-old Amy A. Michaels as "among the very pretty girls of the younger set."  The article said, "She is to marry a Manhattan man, Lloyd N. Simon."  (Lloyd was now 22 years old.)

Among the Simons' domestic staff who did not live with the family, of course, was their chauffeur, Paul Kearney.  On the afternoon of April 23, 1915, he was driving Jacques Simon in Long Island City.  A group of boys were playing ball at Ninth Street and Jackson Avenue around 3:00.  The Brooklyn Daily Star reported, "One of the players knocked the ball out into the street, and Harrigan fielded it."  "Harrigan" was 18-year-old Dennis Harrigan.  In chasing the ball, he "stepped right in the path" of the Simon vehicle.

Kearny slammed on the brakes, but not quickly enough to avoid hitting the teen.  Although Harrigan was knocked to the pavement, Kearny's quick reaction resulted only in "contusions and lacerations."  Harrigan was taken by ambulance to a hospital where it was reported, "His condition is not serious."

Jacques R. Simon sold 53 West 74th Street to Robert Reed Moore on July 15, 1919.  He and Jennie moved to 300 West End Avenue where Jacques died two years later from arteriosclerosis.

Moore was president of the Commercial Trust Company and of the cotton brokerage firm of Robert Moore & Co.  (Moore's brother, Edward, was a partner in the latter.)  The family moved into 53 West 74th Street just in time to announce the engagement of E. Louise Moore to Theodore Guy Converse on October 7, 1920.  The prospective bride had made her debut two years earlier and the New-York Tribune said, "They both are popular members of society."

The family received a shock on June 14, 1921.  Kirk Moore was the son of Robert's brother, Edward.  The 26-year-old checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania at 11:30 that morning and ten minutes later threw himself from the window of his 17th-floor room.  

Reporters came to the West 74th Street house for information.  Robert Moore said that "he could not understand why his nephew should want to take his own life as he was a most estimable young man and apparently was happy and had everything to live for."

Despite the tragedy, E. Louise's wedding took place as planned the following month, albeit much more subdued.  She and Theodore Guy Converse were married in Christ Church in Greenwich Connecticut on July 16.  The New York Times noted, "Owing to both families being in mourning, only relatives and intimate friends are to attend."  The New-York Tribune noted that the reception would be held "at the country home of the bride's parents."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Moores' residency at 53 West 74th Street would be short-lived.  They sold the house on August 3, 1922 to Dr. José Maria de Bermingham and his wife, the former Emily McElroy.

Born in Brooklyn on February 23, 1876, De Bermingham attended the St. John's Military School.  A medical prodigy, he graduated from the New York University Medical School at the age of 20 in 1896.  He served as assistant bacteriologist in the Pasteur Institute for a year before becoming the bacteriologist of the New York Nose and Throat Hospital in 1898.

Like most wives of prominent men, Emily was involved in charitable works.  A former English teacher, she was a founder of the Aytoun Society, which operated a day nursery.

When the couple purchased 53 West 74th Street, De Bermingham was already suffering from chronic nephritis (known only a generation earlier as Bright's Disease).  The 49-year-old physician died in the house on February 13, 1925.  One month later, on March 15, Emily McElroy de Bermingham died of pneumonia.

Emily's will was extremely generous to her long-time lady's maid, Pauline Lee.  On April 11, 1925, the Cleveland, Ohio newspaper The Gazette reported that she left Pauline $10,000.  The legacy would translate to $180,000 today.

The following month, on May 26, The New York Times reported that 53 West 74th Street had been sold for $50,000.  The buyer was Jeannette M. Thurber, known nationally as a patron of classical music.

Born in Delhi, New York to violinist Henry Meyers and Annamarie Coffin Price on January 29, 1850, Jeannette was educated at the Paris Conservatory.  Her husband, millionaire grocer Francis Beatty Thurber, died on July 4, 1907.  The couple had two daughters, Mariannne and Jeannette.

In 1884 Jeannette sponsored the city's first Wagner festival and the following year founded the National Conservatory of Music of America and the American Opera Company.  

Jeannette Meyer Thurber, photo by Bryon Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Two years after moving into 53 West 74th Street, Jeannette Thurber's name appeared in newsprint for a much different reason.  Her daughter, Jeannette, married Washington E. Connor in 1913.  Once a partner of Jay Gould, he had retired in 1910.  The younger Jeanette was described by The New York Times as "a member of an old, socially prominent family," and said she "was known as one of the foremost authorities on the history of Florida, where she owned the ruins of the old Franciscan mission at New Smyrna."

Jeannette Connor died on June 6, 1927 without a will.  Then, on September 6, Washington Connor discovered a will "at their Summer home at Onteora, New York," according to The Times.  Although Jeannette had voiced her intentions to leave her Florida estate to the Florida Historical Society, the newly found will left her entire estate to her husband.

Jeannette Thurber sued on November 4, 1927, charging her son-in-law with "duress and undue influence in the execution of the will."  She also charged that it "was not signed by Mrs. Connor in the presence of the attesting witnesses, nor did they sign it in the presence of each other. "

Jeannette prevailed and on February 27, 1928, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that the "ancient Franciscan mission erected in 1696...will become the property of the Florida State Historical society...in compliance with the wishes of its owner, the late Jeannette Thurber Connor."

Jeannette M. Thurber leased the West 74th Street house in October 1930 to Ruth Guedalla and Annie Isaac.  At the end of their five-year lease, Jeannette rented it again.  And by the time she sold 53 West 74th Street to real estate operator James H. Cruikshank in February 1939, The New York Times described it as a "four-story rooming house containing eighteen rooms."

Among Cruikshank's earliest roomers was photographer Tet Arnold von Borsig.  He placed third in the Long Island Photograph contest with his photograph Piping Rock Horse Show in November 1941.  On July 2, 1944, The New York Times reported on the newly released Chinese Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Alan Priest.  The article noted that the illustrations were photographed by Tet Borsig.

An unknown photographer snapped this photo of Tet Arnold von Borsig in 1936.  from the collection of the Sprengel Museum.

And on October 25, 1946, the Northport Journal reported on a 34-picture exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.  "All of the pictures were taken and arranged by Tet Borsig, 53 West 74th street," said the article.

A renovation completed in 1969 resulted in a duplex in the basement and parlor levels, and apartments and furnished rooms in the upper floors.  The configuration lasted until 1980 when the three upper floors were converted to two apartments each.

photographs by the author

The Lost Bowery Village M. E. Church - 24-28 E. 7th Street

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Founded in 1794, the name of the Two-Mile-Stone Methodist Episcopal Church was derived from the stone marker that told travelers that the nearby house in which the congregation worshipped was two miles north of Federal Hall.  A later pastor, Reverend F. Bottome, would recall the location in his 1864 Bowery Village M. E. Church: A Discourse, saying it "was a rugged belt of land, with here and there a garden and a solitary house to diversify the barrenness of the stunted pasture lots with their dilapidated fences."  

Its rural origins resulted in the makeup of the church's leadership to be slightly different from those in more populated areas.  Kyle B. Roberts writes in his Evangelical Gotham, that because it was located within a "plebeian belt" at the northern boundary of the city, "tradesmen, rather than merchants, served as trustees, class leaders and elders."

Despite its remoteness, the fledgling congregation grew and moved in 1810 from the house to a small building.  (At that time of the move, the name was changed to the Bowery Village Church.)  It moved again in 1818, into a wooden church structure.  Then, in 1835, it began construction of a brick and stone church on the south side of Seventh Street (later East 7th Street) between Second Avenue and the one-block-long Hall Place.  (Hall Place was renamed Taras Shevchenko Place in the late 20th century.)

Completed in 1836, the edifice was an early and striking example of the Greek Revival design.  Its entrance sat within a recessed portico above a broad flight of stairs.  Two monumental, fluted Doric columns flanked by Doric pilasters supported the entablature and Greek temple inspired triangular pediment.  

By then, the city had expanded northward and engulfed the neighborhood.  The New York Times would recall in 1885, "It was at this time one of the wealthiest and strongest churches of the city."  The changes to the formerly rural district were reflected in January 1851 when the city's Committee on Lamps and Gas approved the "placing of two Gas Lamps in front of the Bowery Village Methodist Church in Seventh-st."

The congregation was scandalized in the winter of 1870.  On Friday afternoon, January 7, its married pastor, Reverend Horace Cook, went to a local school and "made arrangements" for him to remove 16-year-old Mattie Johnson.  The cleric and the teen "eloped."

A week later, Mattie's father received an anonymous tip that she was in Philadelphia.  He and his son rushed there and "instituted a diligent search and succeeded in finding her at one of the leading uptown establishments," reported the New York Herald.  Mr. Johnson brought his "prodigal daughter" home.

The family attempted to repair Mattie's ravished reputation.  Rev. Cook, they told reporters, had not shared the room with the teen.  The New York Herald was convinced, writing...

there is not the slightest reason to suppose that Miss Johnson is not as chaste a young lady as when she left her parents' home last week; on the contrary it is asserted that she is in no wise harmed save in the matter of unenviable and unfortunate notoriety.

In the meantime, Reverend Cook's whereabouts was unknown until 10:00 on the night of January 12 when, "as the reporters of the World were closing up their reports, a violent kick was heard at the editorial room door," reported the newspaper.  It was Horace Cook, who slammed his fist on a desk and demanded: "I come here to get satisfaction for the slanderous article published in your paper this morning concerning me."

Rather than succeeding in getting a retraction from The New York World, the editor called for a policeman.  Reverend Cook was arrested.  The Johnson family did not press charges, maintaining that the trip to Philadelphia was innocent, and so Cook was later released.  The following Sunday, the church was jammed with members and outsiders.  They were disappointed to find that a substitute minister, Rev. Dr. Browning, would be giving the sermon.  The New York Daily Herald explained on January 17, "The Rev. Mr. Cook has gone to his family in Williamsburg."  The article said that he would soon return "so that before long the last sensation will have been buried and forgotten."

Four months later, nothing had changed.  A temporary pastor was appointed and on April 7, 1870, the New York Herald said, "Mr. Cook is now in the bosom of his family, over in Williamsburg, restored to the affections of his wife and extremely penitent for his past and wayward conduct."  The newspaper's earlier prediction that Cook would soon--or ever--return did not come to pass.

On October 21, 1872, the New York Herald reported that the church had reopened after "extensive repairs" had been made.  It was most likely at this time that a Georgian Revival style cupola, oddly crowned with onion domes, was installed.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Around 1880, the name of the congregation was changed to the Seventh-Street Methodist Episcopal Church.  The demographics of the neighborhood had also changed.  It was starkly evidenced in 1882 when the Manual of the Methodist Episcopal Church reported that the Chinese Sunday-School in New York City, established in 1879, had "lately been transferred to the Seventh-street Methodist Episcopal Church."  And the following year, on July 21, 1893, the New-York Tribune reported that Reverend J. V. Saunders, "has begun afternoon services at 4 o'clock in the German language."  The article noted, "The music is good, the seats are free."

By the turn of the century, the East Village district was one of tenement buildings and working class immigrants.  In 1905 the Little Missionary Day Nursery operated from the church, and as early as 1910, physical examinations of underprivileged children who hoped to be sent to the Fresh Air Fund's summer camp were held.  On June 28 that year, the New-York Tribune remarked, "The pitiful thing about these physical examinations is that so small a proportion of the applicants pass."  Most, said the article, suffered with "eye and throat afflictions" and were not "up to the standard of cleanliness."

The following year, the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church melded with the Hedding Methodist Episcopal Church.  The congregation moved into that group's structure on East 17th Street.  On March 26, 1911, The New York Times reported that the Seventh Street church building had been sold.  The buyer was the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for the parish of St. George Ukrainian Church.

In 1976 the congregation broke ground for a substantial new church building on the abutting corner property.  Designed by Apollinaire Osadca, it was completed in 1978.  

The old church was dwarfed by the new St. George Ukrainian Cathlic Church building.  photograph by Edmund Vincent Gillon from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

With the congregation now in its new home, it demolished the historic 1836 building, replacing it with a modern brick building.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

That was supplanted in 1992 with a 12-story apartment building.

image via cityrealty.com

The William Cune Holbrook House - 10 West 130th Street

 

image via city realty.com

The forward thinking John Jacob Astor I accumulated land in Harlem in 1844 for $10,000 (about $445,000 in 2026).  Formerly part of two farms, it sat vacant and when Astor died four years later, the block that would eventually be girded by 129th and 130th Streets and Fifth and Lenox Avenues passed to his son, William Backhouse Astor.  He, in turn, bequeathed it to his sons, John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor Jr.  William received the 130th Street portion of the property.

In 1880, architect Charles Buek designed the first of three groups of houses that would line the block.  Nos. 8 through 22 West 130th Street were completed the following year.  The full project would be finished in 1883, creating a charming streetscape that would prompt Claude McKay to call the row "the Block Beautiful" in his 1928 novel Home to Harlem.

Buek designed the homes in mirror-image pairs, each pair separated by a carriage drive that accessed the rear yards.  Three stories tall above short basements, their brick facades were clad in brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Harking to the district's rural cottages of a generation earlier, Buek sat them back from the property line, creating prim gardens and abling him to add delightful, spindle-decorated wooden porches.  The lintels were decorated with simple neo-Grec rosettes.  Rather than using a more costly pressed metal cornice, Buek designed a dentiled brick version above a brick frieze decorated with recessed quatrefoil designs.

Astor retained possession of the houses, eventually passing them to his grandchildren, Mary, James and Sarah Van Alen.  In the meantime, they were used as rental income.  

The first occupants of 10 West 130th Street were Colonel William Cune Holbrook and his family.  Born in Brattleboro, Vermont on June 14, 1842, Holbrook was the son of Vermont Governor Frederick Holbrook.  He graduated from Harvard Law School and served in the Union Army throughout the Civil War.  A member of the law firm Barret, Brinsmade & Barret, he married Anna Chalmers in 1872.

When they moved into 10 West 130th Street, the couple had two surviving children--three-year-old Margaret, and one-year-old Marion Goodhue.  Two sons, William Bradford and Chalmers William, would arrive in 1884 and 1887 respectively.  (Two sons, William Jr. and Richard Knowlton had died in infancy.)  Sadly, William Bradford Holbrook died at the age of one-and-a-half on June 28, 1886.  

Also living in the house was George Chalmers, possibly Anna's brother or nephew, who was graduated from Yale University in 1886, and Charles B. Tooker, a coal and feed dealer.   Tooker was apparently a boarder and would list his address with the Holbrooks through 1888.

Anna Holbrook was an active supporter of the Harlem Day Nursery on 116th Street and Second Avenue.  The New-York Tribune deemed it, "one of the most practical of the charities of Harlem."  Anna's involvement was reflected in an article in the New-York Tribune on April 10, 1892, which said, "A musical entertainment and a pastoral operetta called 'Little Bo-Peep' will be given in aid of the Harlem Day Nursery on Wednesday afternoon and evening at the home of Mrs. Holbrook, No. 10 West One-hundred-and-thirtieth-st.  The programme will be given entirely by children."

In June 1895, William Cune Holbrook was appointed by Mayor William Lafayette Strong as a justice "of the new criminal court," as reported by The Medico-Legal Journal.  According to The New York Times, his salary was the equivalent of $333,000 in 2026.

Justice William Cune Holbrook, Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, 1894 (copyright expired)

In January 1898, Anna began suffering "brain trouble," as worded by The New York Times.  That summer, the family traveled to Brattleboro, Vermont where William's widowed father still lived.  Anna's condition worsened and she fell into a coma.  She died about a week later, on September 29, at the age of 53.

Shortly afterward, Holbrook left the 130th Street house, moving to 16 West 116th Street where he died in March 1904.

In the meantime, 10 West 130th Street was rented to Sidney Buner Mills and his wife, the former Maria D. Freeborn.  Sidney Mills was associated with Rogers, Peet & Co., men's clothiers, and was the secretary of the Louis Berghart-Mills Company. 

Born in 1843 and 1845 respectively, Sidney and Maria had four children, Dewitt Wilde, Marshall Freeborn, Sidney Jr., and Rushton Lenox.  Living with the family was Eliza Freeborn Mills and her son, Benjamin Freeborn Mills.  Eliza was the sister of Maria and the widow of Sidney's brother, Isaac Smith Mills, who had died in 1895. 

Rushton was 18 years old in 1901 when became involved with a bizarre missing person incident.  Myra Morgan was two years older than he, and The New York Times explained that he had "been a playmate of the girl" in their youth.

The daughter of Dr. G. E. Morgan, Myra disappeared from their Harlem home early in September.  The New York Times said that two weeks later Dr. Morgan learned, "that she had disguised herself as a boy before leaving home."  Indeed, Myra checked into the Hotel Boulevard, registering as M. Morgan.  The newspaper said, 

She was dressed in a neat suit of gray flannel, a derby hat, and low patent leather shoes.  She had clipped her hair short, and as she wore glasses and carried herself with a self-possessed masculine swagger, the hotel clerk never suspected she was not a young man.

Equally duped was C. E. Horton, the assistant manager of the H. W. Johns Manufacturing Company.  The morning after Myra settled into the Hotel Boulevard, Horton hired her in the mailroom.  Horton later explained, "as she appeared to be a bright young man, I gave her a job as mail clerk at $5 a week...and as she was remarkably quick in catching on I thought I had found a very bright boy."

Clark Greenwood had been a mutual of Rushton and Myra during their childhood.  Now he recruited Rushton to help find her.  "They made a blind search of different Harlem hotels until they finally located Miss Morgan," said the article.  Pretending surprise at their "chance" meeting, they arranged to go to the theater that evening.  The boys then reported back to Dr. Morgan, who took his wayward daughter home.

At the time of Myra Morgan's adventure, Marshall Freeborn Mills was attending Princeton University where he was a football star.  He graduated in 1902, assisted in coaching the Princeton football team that year, and coached the New York University team during the 1905 season.  Rather surprisingly, he was listed in city directories as a "decorator" the following year.

As Anna Holbrook had been, Eliza Mills was involved in a nursery.  In 1902, she was a director of the Silver Cross Day Nursery.  And by 1905, she was the first vice-president of The Haarlem Philharmonic Society.

Sidney Buner Mills died died "suddenly" on November 29, 1911 at the age of 68.  His funeral was held in the house on December 2.

Four months later, on April 14, 1912, Maria Freeborn Mills died.  In reporting on her death, The New York Times mentioned that she had suffered "a long illness."

The Mills family left 10 West 130th Street soon after.  The house became home to widowed Joseph Hook Boyd, an appraiser in the Custom House.  Born in 1839, he served in the Lincoln Cavalry during the Civil War.  His employment with the Custom House began in 1885.

While at his desk on the afternoon of July 12, 1915, Boyd was attacked with "acute indigestion."  He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where he died a few hours later.  His funeral was held in the parlor of 10 West 130th Street on July 15.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Van Alen family next leased the house to Leroy A. Williamson, an "electrical inventor."  He lived here quietly for a year until, for some unknown reason, he checked into a room in the Hotel Manhattan on February 12, 1916.  

The New York Herald reported, "He remained constantly in the room."  Then, on the night of February 13, "he began to shout and when attendants went in they found him talking incoherently."  Police were called and, as reported by The New York Times, "according to the patrolmen, Williamson said he was dickering with the Allies for the purchase of an electric invention by which German armies could be annihilated."  He told the policemen that "the fortune he would amass by the purchase of this invention would 'make Morgan and Rockefeller look like pikers.'"

Patrolman Wisner patronized the inventor, inviting him to "take a ride in a carriage."  Williamson accepted "only upon the condition that Wisner accept $10,000 and an automobile," said The New York Times.  The "carriage" turned out to be a Bellevue Hospital ambulance.  The New York Herald titled its report, "Inventor Goes Mad In Hotel."

Starting in 1912, the Van Alens began liquidating the row of homes.  Six years later, on November 1, 1918, an advertisement for 10 West 130th Street in The New York Times read:

Opportunity to live in a fine street in good style for little money; three-story house, two baths; suitable to sublet in rooms or floors to good advantage.

By the time of the advertisement, the demographics of the Harlem neighborhood had greatly changed.  In 1914, more than 50,000 Black residents lived in the district.  No. 10 West 130th Street became a rooming house, with almost all of its tenants Black as evidenced by positions-wanted advertisements posted in 1921.

One of them, which appeared in the New York Herald on April 26, read, "Couple, light colored; cook; wife waitress-chambermaid, city, country; experience."  Another, on November 4, read, "Girl, colored, wishes half time work, mornings or afternoons.  Lucas, 10 West 130th."  

The charming streetscape was deemed The Block Beautiful in 1928.  image via cityrealty.com

Renting a room here in 1925 was Theodore Williams, who worked as a waiter in the dining car of the Atlantic Coast Line Express.  On February 27 that year, another train "crashed into the rear end of the Florida express," reported The New York Age, "smashing and overturning a dining car, and causing the electric engine pulling the local to topple over also."  The two trains immediately caught fire "and burned until there was nothing left."

The article said that there were few passengers in the dining car, "but the waiters and cooks, all colored, were bustling about, busy preparing for the breakfast rush."  Theodore Williams initially survived the disaster, but he died at a hospital later.

Mrs. Mary G. Miles lived here in 1963 when she received a Federal Citation.  She started working as a clerk typist with the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. in 1942.  The New York Amsterdam News said she, "improved in her proficiency and acquired additional responsibilities in the duties of her rating."  When the agency moved to Manhattan, she came along and in 1948 she was transferred to the Army Transport Service, and then to the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1950.  On November 29, 1963, she was cited for her two decades "of faithful government service."

A renovation completed in 1967 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and furnished rooms on the upper stories.  After the turn of the century, 10 West 130th Street was restored to a single family house.  It was sold in 2022 for $3.85 million.