The 1891 Alberta Apartments - 202 West 81st Street

 

Born in Funchal, Portugal in 1838 and a veteran of the Civil War, George W. Da Cunha lived with his wife, Rosina, in New Jersey in the last quarter of the 19th century.  But that did not stop him from designing and erecting some of the most notable Manhattan buildings of the period.  Looking back at his early career in 1917, The Montclair Times recalled that he "built a number of buildings which at that time attracted considerable attention for originality of design and style of construction."

In 1891, Da Cunha acquired the lots at 202 and 204 West 81st Street and filed plans for "two five-story and stone flats" on the site.  Each of them was projected to cost $40,000 to construct, or about $1.46 million in 2026 terms.  The project was a husband-and-wife effort, with Rosina W. Da Cunha listed as the owner of record.

Completed within the year, the two buildings--The Alberta and The Madria--were distinctly different.  The Alberta at 202 West 81st Street was designed in the Romanesque Revival style with light-hearted touches of Queen Anne.  Its double-doored entrance sat within a yawning maw above a four-step stoop.  It was flanked by large gas lanterns supported by ornate cast iron brackets.  The first and second floors were faced in rough cut brownstone.  The paired windows of the first floor were fronted with half-bowls carved with Romanesque designs.  Small Queen Anne-style panes outlined the upper half of the second floor openings.

Impressive gas lanterns flank the arched entrance.  The transoms of the first-floor windows most likely held stained glass.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The upper three floors were faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival coexisted at the top floor.  Here the stone corner ornament and the arched eyebrows that rested on an intricately carved bandcourse were purely Romanesque Revival.  The small window panes, the offset gable, and the terra cotta fans within the tympanums were Queen Anne.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

An advertisement offered, "seven and eight rooms to a suite; all improvements; decorated, steam heat, hot water; furnished and hall attendance."  It boasted that the parlors were finished "in white and gold."  Rents ranged from $55 to $75 (nearly $3,000 per month in today's terms for the most expensive).

Among the early tenants were Dr. Rollin B. Gray and his wife, the former Lydia Dutcher Whitney.  Born in Randolph, Pennsylvania in 1840, Gray received his medical degree from the Homoeopathic College of New York in 1871.  He and Lydia had two children, Anita and Marian.  (Two other daughters, Lillian and Elizabeth had died at the ages of five and one, respectively.)

Dr. Rolling B. Gray, from Gray Genealogy, 1887 (copyright expired)

Several years after moving into The Alberta, Dr. Gray caused panic among mothers and nannies throughout the Upper East and West Sides.  On June 30, 1901, the New-York Tribune began an article saying, "Dr. Rollin B. Gray, who for years has had a practice among people on the west side of Central Park, says that Manhattan's great breathing space is a bad place to take young children, because of malaria."  Gray had convened reporters to his office here to sound the alarm.  He told them that in the past few days he had treated two babies who "were stricken with malaria while being wheeled through the park."  Gray explained that mosquitoes, which carried the disease, were breeding in the stagnant pools and decayed vegetation of the park.

He quickly faced vehement opposition.  One park policeman told a reporter from the New-York Tribune, "This is the greatest place for babies that ever was.  They thrive on the fresh air and enjoy the shade just as much as older people.  Thousands of babies are brought here every day.  Do you suppose that we would not have heard of it before if the park was reeking with malaria?"  A more authoritative opinion came from the Board of Health.  While admitting that there were mosquitoes in the park, an official said that "Central Park mosquitoes are not the malaria carrying kind."  The article added, "the officers say that Manhattan is remarkably free from the disease."

In the meantime, the residents of The Alberta were, like the Grays, upper-middle class.  Each of the families had at least one servant.  On September 24, 1899, for instance, one resident advertised for a "competent and reliable German governess."

The Alberta was purchased in 1901 by the wife of James Daniel.  Daniel was described by the New York Herald as "a traveling salesman for a stove company," and his wife, said The New York Times, "is said to be wealthy."  The couple, who had a rocky relationship, moved into an apartment here.

According to Mrs. Daniel, her husband "was a hard drinker and went on sprees two or three times a month," recounted The New York Times.  She said, "when in this condition he usually went to stay with his friend [William H.] Messenger.  He was never violent when drunk, but simply had the good taste to stay away from home until sober."  

And so, when James did not return home on the night of August 17, 1903 and was still absent five days later, Mrs. Daniel was not especially concerned.  And, indeed, during that period James Daniel was staying with William Messenger on East 138th Street.  On August 21, the two went to Coney Island, where they continued their week-long bender.  When they returned to Manhattan, reported the New York Herald, "they decided not to go directly to Messenger's room, but to rest at the pier at the foot of East 132nd Street."  The drunken men were "skylarking," according to witnesses.  Suddenly, the 36-year-old Daniel jumped into the water "clothes and all."

After swimming around for a few minutes, Daniel was not able to climb out of the water.  The New York Herald said he "tried to cling to the piles supporting the piers."  By the time policemen jumped in to rescue him, it was too late.  James Daniel was pulled from the water unconscious and died shortly afterward.  (Messenger was arrested for intoxication.)

Police went to The Alberta apartment to notify his wife.  (The New York Times parenthetically said it "is a handsome four-story [sic] structure built for private apartments and the property of Mrs. Daniel).  The newspaper said she "didn't seem much surprised."

Typical of the residents at the time of Daniel's death was financier Edward R. Holden, the head of E. R. Holden & Co., and an owner of a mine and a smeltery. 

The building continued to attract upper-middle-class residents.  On January 29, 1911, for instance, The New York Times reported, "The Misses McCarthy, 202 West Eighty-first Street, gave a musicale on Thursday evening at their home."  

Among the sisters' neighbors in the building at the time was Brigadier General Franclyn Elbert Davis.  Born in Brooklyn in 1858, he received a bachelor's degree from St. John's College, a Ph.G. from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and a medical degree from the University of Victoria Medical College.  His astounding resume included military surgeon, pharmacist, director of the National Volunteer Emergency Services, and author.  The 1916 One Thousand American Men of Mark Today said, "He has traveled all over the world, and was the first man to introduce into this country serums from the Institut Pasteur, Paris, and to introduce oxygen apparatus for the life saving of the miners."

Around 1912, the building was renamed The Maryland.  The residents continued to be respectable and upstanding.  Living here by 1918 were clergyman and poet James Benjamin Kenyon and his wife, the former Margaret Jane Taylor.  Born in 1858 in Frankfort, New York, he entered the Methodist Episcopal ministry in 1878.  Among his books of poetry were the 1887 In Realms of Gold; At the Gate of Dreams, published in 1892; and the 1895 An Oaten Pipe.

The post-World War I years brought a more working class tenant list.  Living here in 1921 were Robert Ryan, a "night worker," as described by The Evening World, and his wife.  The couple had a serious scare that year.  On the morning of November 15, Ryan returned from work to find his wife in convulsions.  She told him that she "had taken bichloride of mercury by mistake."  The Evening World reported, "She was taken to the Knickerbocker Hospital and is expected to recover."

The once sprawling apartments were dissected into rented rooms as early as 1923.  On September 12 that year, Detectives Martin Owens, Thomas Horan and John Cronin followed Irving Cohan and Joseph Levine, who were suspected in an armed robbery, to a third floor apartment.  When no one answered their knock, Horan and Cronin waited in the hallway while Owens went to the roof, climbed down the rear fire escape and entered through a window.  He opened the door for his partners.  The New York Times reported, "The air was acrid with fumes from a quantity of opium simmering on a gas burner.  A complete opium layout was found on a table."

The detectives arrested Esther Kaplan, a.k.a. Newberg, and five men.  In addition to the opium and equipment, they discovered two firearms.  "Both were fully loaded, and the lead bullets in the revolver were criss-crossed with lines to cause them to mushroom upon impact," said the article.

The following year, resident Benedict Radus, who listed his profession as a real estate agent, was arrested with three other men in a conspiracy to rob wealthy Dr. Hugo J. Loebinger.  Radus told the doctor he could acquire $43,000 worth of stolen Liberty bonds and a large sum of Russian gold rubles "which could be obtained at about one-quarter their value," explained The New York Times on August 26, 1924.  When Loebinger arrive at Radus's apartment with $7,000, the other two conspirators had a satchel containing magazines and newspapers "arranged in bundles in the shape and size of Liberty bonds."  The trio was prepared "with coils of rope and a pistol," said police.  The plan fell apart when Loebinger escaped.

Wilfred Lillback rented rooms here in 1927.  The son of a Brooklyn clergyman, he had been arrested in 1924 for a hold-up.  His lawyer at that time pleaded for clemency because "an accident to his head when a child had made a criminal of him."

On January 20, 1927, Policeman Sullivan noticed three trunks and three automobiles at the curb of 202 West 81st Street.  When he questioned them, one of the men explained they were moving.  Unconvinced, Sullivan "forced the man to take him to the apartment."  Inside, he found Lillback and another man in "a room full of stolen clothing."  Lillback and his accomplices, Charles Hayes and Will Abramson were arrested and charged of committing nine burglaries in Brooklyn.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

James J. Barrett and Joseph Robert Sylvester, who were 23 and 19 years old respectively, shared a furnished room here in 1950.  Sylvester, despite his age, had three felony convictions.  On the afternoon of April 29, they and another man, Robert Adelman, attempted to stick-up the Jewel Chest on Sixth Avenue.  The jewelry store had been purchased only a month earlier by Jacob Wasserman, a survivor from the Nazi concentration camp where his parents were killed.  The trio botched the robbery and Wasserman was shot.  The perpetrators fled in separate directions.

Barrett did not get far.  He was seized by a patrolman nearby.  At the 47th Street police station, he gave up the names and addresses of his accomplices.  Their legal troubles worsened when Jacob Wasserman died from his injuries on May 2.

Later that year, on November 18, 1950, another resident, 30-year-old Carlos Villasnov, was captured as he ran from the Macy's Department store in Jamaica, Queens.  He and two others had just slipped three men's suits from a rack and into a cardboard box.

Renting a room here in 1963 was ex-convict Alberto Gomez.   He had been released from Rikers Island in June 1962.  On July 25, he attempted to cash stolen travelers checks in a Chemical Bank branch in midtown.  The teller recognized the check numbers from a bulletin reporting the thefts.  When he summoned a manager, Gomez bolted.  He was arrested minutes later and charged for "receiving stolen money orders, felonious assault and forgery."

Renovations completed in the late 20th century resulted in five apartments per floor.  In the remodeling, the entrance doors and windows were modernized (sadly with with loss of the Queen Anne panes), and the first floor windows shortened.  The entrance lanterns were removed, the gable chopped off, and the terra cotta shells of the top floor removed and replaced with sheet metal.  The masonry was painted as well.

photographs by the author

The Lost Woman's Hospital - 113-141 West 109th Street

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

J. Marion Sims was born in South Carolina in 1813.  In the 1840s, he focused on women's conditions and in 1849 successfully developed a procedure to close vesicovaginal fistulas.  In 1853, Sims moved his family to New York City where he hoped to establish a hospital to treat women patients.  An announcement in The New York Herald on May 18, 1854 noted he would speak at a "Lecture on the necessity of organizing a great hospital in this city for the diseases peculiar to females."

Sims faced an uphill battle.  Although respected physicians like Valentine Mott endorsed his cause, wealthy donors "of the sterner sex," as described by The New York Times, balked.  Sims wrote, "I was called a quack and a humbug, and the hospital was pronounced a fraud."

But the millionaires' wives rallied behind The Woman's Hospital, as did The New York Times.  Pointing out on February 7, 1855 that there was no such facility in the nation, the newspaper stressed, "There are hundreds in our midst of poor women, who, for the lack of a few weeks' skillful surgical treatment, are day by day sinking into incurable state of disease...For the sake of science, such an institution is demanded here.  This class of diseases is little known, for it is little studied, and hence comes a great amount of suffering which ought to be avoided."  The first American hospital dedicated to women was opened in New York later that same year.

Originally functioning from a former rowhouse, in 1858 the City of New York offered Sims the block between Lexington and Park Avenues and from 49th to 50th Streets as the site for a proper hospital.  The first section was opened in 1867 and the second, doubling the size, was completed in 1877.  The facility proved inadequate by the turn of the century, and in 1900 the architectural firm of Allen & Vance was commissioned to design a replacement structure.

Allen & Vance released this rendering in 1900.  Real Estate Record & Guide, June 2, 1900 (copyright expired)

The Lexington Avenue site, however, was often wet and was deemed unsatisfactory for the proposed structure.  Allen & Vance's plans were shelved for two years.  Then, on February 15, 1902, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the Woman's Hospital had purchased 24 lots on the Upper West Side--midway between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues and running through the block from 109th to 110th Street.  (The hospital had sold the East Side property for $450,000, a significant $17.4 million in 2026 terms.)  The article noted, "A new hospital building will be erected from plans by Francis R. Allen, of Allen & Vance, of Boston, on the new site."

The massive structure took four years to complete at a cost equal to $22.5 million today.  Francis R. Allen's original 1900 design was followed.  The architect created a striking French Renaissance Revival-style structure inspired by Loire Valley chateaux.  Faced in two colors of brick above a granite basement level, it rose six stories to a delightful assemblage of mansards and elaborate dormers.  Three slightly projecting sections gave the West 109th Street elevation dimension.  Two prominent wings distinguished the 110th Street side.

The hospital's chapel is seen on the ground floor of the eastern wing on the 110th Street side. 

In 1905, as construction progressed, the New York Charities Directory described: "This Hospital is for the treatment of diseases particular to women, and the new building will have a capacity of 100 beds, of which 25 are free."

The new facility had been opened only a short time before its policy of treating female patients only caused an uproar.  On December 20, 1906, six-year-old Isidor Heller was struck by a truck.  The driver, Robert Boyd, drove the severely injured boy to the nearest facility: the Woman's Hospital.  According to Boyd, when he carried the boy through the door, he was met with a physician who said, "You may leave him here until an ambulance comes, but this is a private hospital and we cannot have such cases brought here."

According to Boyd, "nothing was done" and he put little Isidor Heller back into his truck and drove to St. Luke's Hospital where he died.  On January 5, 1907, The Sun reported that a jury in Coroner George F. Shrady's court the previous day had "censured the management and physicians of the Woman's Hospital" for its "brutal and inhuman" refusal to treat the boy.

photograph by Thaddeus Wilkerson, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Despite the early unflattering press, the Woman's Hospital was highly respected.  It democratically treated women from high society--like Margaret Mary Emerson Vanderbilt, Katherine S. C. Hoyt, and Helen Gould Finley--to theatrical figures, like Irene Castle (wife and dancing partner of Vernon Castle), and actress Edna May Oliver.

Madeline Morando was a dancer in Eddie Foy's vaudeville company.  (Born Edwin Fitzgerald, Foy was an extremely popular actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian.)  The couple were married in 1896.  Madeline was admitted to the Woman's Hospital in December 1908.  Upon hearing the news, her husband jumped into his automobile and sped off toward the hospital.  He would get a police escort, but not before getting a traffic ticket.

On December 11, the New-York Tribune reported, "Edward [sic] Foy Fitzgerald, known on the stage as 'Eddie Foy,' was arraigned...yesterday afternoon, charged with driving a motor car without a number."  He explained to the magistrate that "he was on his way to the Woman's Hospital...to see his wife, who is at the point of death."  He said that in his hurry he did not look at the car and "thought that perhaps his children had taken off the tag."  After hearing his story (which was corroborated by the policeman), the magistrate dropped the charges.  The article noted parenthetically, "At the hospital last night it was said that Mrs. Fitzgerald was resting comfortably."

Mary Craig Kimbrough married author Upton Sinclair in 1913.  On the voyage home from their honeymoon in August, "Mrs. Sinclair slipped on the deck of the steamer...and the fall affected her spine," as reported by The New York Times.  After three months of various treatments, on November 19 the newspaper reported, "it was decided some days ago that permanent relief from her injury could be obtained only by an operation."  Mary Sinclair underwent spinal surgery here on November 18.  The New York Times reported, "It was said last night at the hospital that the operation was a complete success."

from the collection of Columbia University Libraries

Like Mary Sinclair, traditional treatments for Christine Schnell's condition had not resulted in relief by March 1916.  She was admitted to the Woman's Hospital and scheduled to have an examination "to determine whether an operation was necessary," according The New York Times.  Her nurse divulged that the 40-year-old was apprehensive at the idea of surgery and "could not sleep Friday night because of worry over her approaching trial [i.e., examination]."  Christine Schnell's solution to avoid the dreaded operation was drastic.  On March 11, the nurse left the ward for a moment.  In her absence, Schnell jumped from the fifth-floor window.  The article said, "Looking from the window the nurse saw a crumpled body lying in an areaway separating the hospital and the adjoining building."  Christine Schnell had died instantly.

Margaret Vanderbilt was the widow of millionaire Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, lost in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May 1915.  She was admitted to the Woman's Hospital in March 1917 with appendicitis.  A week later, on March 19, the New York Herald reported, "she is recovering rapidly, and it is expected that she will be able to return to her home within a short time."

The Woman's Hospital received unflattering press in January 1922.  Nellie Harris filed a $5,000 suit in State Supreme Court "for the alleged refusal to admit her to the post graduate course for nurses because the plaintiff is a negro," reported the New-York Tribune on January 5.   Nellie Harris had admirable credentials.  A graduate of Freeman's Hospital in Washington, she took charge of the surgical ward in Lincoln Hospital in New York in 1920.  Later she was a nurse in charge of a sanatorium in Harlem.

A 1925 advertisement detailed the courses available.  from the collection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison

When she applied to the post graduate course here in August 1921, she was told the class was full.  When she tried again on December 1, "she was informed that she could not be admitted because of her color," reported the New-York Tribune.  The stalwart nurse's stance was successful.  In its March 1922 issue, The Crisis reported, "Nellie Harris, a colored nurse, has won admittance to the Post-Graduate course at the Woman's Hospital, New York City."  The article noted, "The case was settled out of court."

Mr. and Mrs. Leon Dukas "delayed the trip to the hospital too long" on February 18, 1928, according to officials.  The couple's baby "arrived at the very moment Mrs. Dukas entered the main hall of the hospital," reported The New York Times.  Because the seven-pound girl was not born in their taxi or outside the hospital doors, the infant was honored as "Miss Fourteen Thousand."  The 14,000th baby delivered within the building was celebrated a few days later with a "birthday party" in the maternity ward.  She was crowned and given a gift.

The Woman's Hospital was significantly enlarged in 1929.  Wings were erected at the east and west ends of the building.  They included a new "out-patient clinic building" that opened on March 13, 1929.  The wings were design in sympathy to Francis R. Allen's 1900 design.

from the collection of the  Museum of the City of New York

.

A disturbing incident occurred on February 6, 1945.  Catherine Keagen was a 20-year-old white nurse and her supervisor was Emma Miles, a 36-year-old black nurse.  Emma was in charge of the entire fifth floor.  Catherine Keagen, according to Emma Miles, refused to recognize her as her superior.  At 6:00 that morning, Emma snapped.  The New York Times reported that Catherine was in critical condition "with a fractured skull after having been struck on the head with a fire axe wielded by Emma Miles."  

Emma had fled the hospital, but was arrested that afternoon.  She admitted to the attack, explaining that Keagen, "refused to obey instructions."

The hospital instituted an innovation in 1949--a beauty salon.  It opened in February and physicians told reporters that "they had found the beauty service an excellent device for transferring the patient's attention from the discomfort of illness and improving morale."  The New York Times reported, "It humanizes hospitals and helps eliminate tension and anxieties created by unfamiliar and sometimes terrifying surroundings, the physicians said."

In 1952, the Woman's Hospital merged with St. Luke's Hospital.  Thirteen years later, on June 5, 1965, the N. Y. Amsterdam News reported on the dedication "of the new Woman's Hospital at Amsterdam Avenue and 114th Street."  The article reminded readers that the Woman's Hospital was "now a part of St. Luke's Hospital Center."

The immense 1906 Woman's Hospital building was demolished, replaced with the Cathedral Parkway Towers apartment building, completed in 1974.

image via apartments.com

The John J. and Emma G. O'Brien House - 208 East 78th Street

 

Howard A. Martin purchased 200 feet of property in 1861 along East 78th Street, which at the time existed only on paper.  His deed included a $128 assessment (about $4,830 in 2026) to open the street.  Martin divided the parcel into 15 building plots, each 13-feet, 4-inches-wide.  His builders, Warren and Ransom Beman (possibly brothers) and John Buckley, were most likely responsible for the charming design of the challengingly narrow homes.   

Martin's project stalled when, that same year, the Civil War broke out.  Thousands of laborers marched off to fight and construction in New York City ground nearly to a halt.  Finally, in 1865 (the year the conflict ended) construction of the 15 identical houses was completed.  Each rose three stories above high basements.  Two bays wide, their red brick facades were trimmed in brownstone.  Each of the openings was fully arched.  Bracketed Italianate-style cornices graced the rooflines.

Possibly strapped for money because of the delay, Martin had sold the uncompleted project to investor William H. Brower.  It appears, because of the regular turnover in occupants, he rented 208 East 78th Street.  

Interestingly, despite its narrow proportions, two families initially occupied the house.  William Rosenberg and Jacob Weinman were partners in three dry goods stores--at 28 West Broadway, 221 First Avenue, and 224 Avenue A.  The families remained until 1869, when an auction of their household goods was held on April 28.  The inventory revealed that these were middle-class families, with items like "walnut and mahogany Parlor and Chamber Suits."

James Campbell, a merchant, occupied the house through 1874, followed by Morris Kuttner and his family.  Kuttner operated a fancygoods store at 201 Church Street.  The family was affluent enough to hire at least one servant.  An advertisement on May 29, 1876 read, "A girl to do housework in small family.  208 East 78th st., near 3d av."

The Morris Jacobson family occupied the house in the 1890s.  Jacobson was a real estate operator and ran his business from the house.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It appears that Moses Hirsch Sr. purchased 208 at the turn of the century as a wedding present for his son, Moses Jr. and his bride, the former Hannah Rothschild.  He transferred title to the property to the couple in April 1901.  They would suffer heartache four years later.  On February 3, 1905, Ira Arnold Hirsch died at the age of three months.

The following year, on September 17, Moses Hirsch sold 208 East 78th Street to John J. and Emma G. O'Brien.  The couple had one son, Thomas K.

Born in 1862, John J. O'Brien was a fascinating figure.  In 1884 he earned the title of "amateur wrestling champion of the United States," according to The New York Times.  He never totally abandoned the sport.  In May 1905, for instance, he was one of the two judges of the Madison Square Garden "world's championship at catch-as-catch-can wrestling," as reported by The New York Times.

O'Brien sat on the last New York Board of Alderman prior to the consolidation of the boroughs into one metropolis in 1898.  That year he was appointed an official of the Department of Sanitation.  He still held that position when the family moved into 208 East 78th Street.  He was, as well, the head of the John J. O'Brien Printing Co.

John J. O'Brien's expertise in wrestling resulted in his becoming a judge during the 1920 Olympic Games in Belgium.  

Thomas K. O'Brien graduated from Yale University in 1922 and then entered the Fordham Law School.

John J. O'Brien suffered a heart attack in January 1942.  He died in the Misericordia Hospital a week later, on January 21.  By then, Thomas had moved to Pelham Manor, New York and Emma sold 208 East 78th Street to Isaac D. Bachmann.

Isaac D. Bachmann, The New York Times, January 1, 1949

Isaac Bachmann was born in 1878.  In 1900 he co-founded Bachmann, Emmerich & Co., Inc., a textile factoring firm.  He and his wife, the former Aimee Lubelski, had a son, Harold S., and two daughters, Edith and Peggy.  The family's country home was in Mount Vernon, New York.  In 1939, Bachmann left the firm he had co-founded and joined James Talcott, Inc., another textile factor.

Bachmann's health began failing in 1948, and he died in the East 78th Street house at the age of 71 on December 30.  The New York Times said simply that he died "after a long illness."

The house was purchased by Frederick Arthur Collins.  Born in Boston in 1898, he was known as Arthur Collins throughout his adult lifetime.  He was president of Collins, Tuttle & Co., Inc., a real estate firm he and Wylie F. L. Tuttle established in 1954.  Prior to that, Collins had been a vice president and partner in Brown, Harris, Stevens, Inc. for more than two decades.

On March 7, 1953, Collins (who had two sons, Frederick Arthur Jr. and Hunt Turner by an earlier marriage) married Lucia Baldwin.  It was Lucia's fourth marriage.  This one, too, would not last and Lucia left 208 East 78th Street around 1957 to begin divorce proceedings.

Arthur Collins died in the house at the age of 60 on June 16, 1958.  The divorce had not been finalized, and a long court case over the estate between his sons and Lucia began.

In 1964, the four 1865 houses to the west were demolished.  Those at the far east of the row were razed before 1900, replaced with a tenement building.  There were now just five houses, including 208 East 78th Street, that survived.

No. 208 is at the far right.

In 1988, an apartment was installed in the basement.  At some point the homeowners of the row agreed to paint the brownstone trim white, giving the charming residences a unified appearance.

photographs by the author

Louis A. Abramson's 1927 145 East 32nd Street

photograph by Carole Teller

The Ivy Construction Company demolished the vintage buildings at 145 through 151 East 32nd Street, just east of Lexington Avenue, in 1925.  The developers hired Louis A. Abramson to design a 13-story "brick stores and loft building" upon the plot.  Construction was completed two years later at a cost of $450,000, or about $8.34 million in 2026.  The developer had no intention of being a landlord and on August 1, 1927, the New York Evening Post reported that the Ivy Construction Company, Inc. had sold the building to "the newly formed 145 East Thirty-second Street Corporation."

The structure was faced in beige brick above a two-story limestone base.  Abramson's modern profile of setbacks started at the ninth floor, where they flanked a three-story section with angled sides.  The architect's 1927 design had its roots in 15th century English motifs.  Square-headed drip moldings below the third floor wrapped terra cotta heraldic shields.  The upper floors were decorated with hooded niches, presumably intended for statues, reeded panels and heraldic emblems.

photograph by Carole Teller

The building drew tenants from various industries.  Among the earliest included Max Engerow, a fabrics dealer; the A. C. M. Embroidery Company; Van Blerk Furniture Company; and W E C O Pharmaceutical Laboratories.  Perhaps less expected tenants were Hunter College and Hunter High School. 

Hunter College (formerly Normal College) sat on the block between Park and Lexington Avenues and 68th to 69th Street.  It shared space with Hunter High School.  But the 1873 complex could not accommodate the 20th century enrollment.  The overflow of the institutions were taught in rented floors within 145 East 32nd Street.

Matriculation in an industrial building had, of course, serious drawbacks.  Hunter solved the problem with a modern structure.  On September 27, 1938, the Staten Island Advance reported that the approximately 1,500 girl students attending Hunter High School here would be moving to "a new 16-story building which will be erected on the site of the old college building at Park avenue and 68th street."  

Another non-industrial tenant was the National Youth Administration.  As part of his sweeping Depression Era Works Progress Administration, Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the program to provide education and work for Americans between 16 and 25 years of age.  

A recruitment poster offered opportunities for young women and men.

Young people who participated in the program were eligible for jobs within cooperating organizations.  Those included the New York Urban League, Selective Service Boards, Department of Welfare offices and the New York City Housing Authority.

The National Youth Administration's Manhattan operation was enlarged in 1941.  On August 23, The New York Age reported that the NYA Harlem offices were being transferred to the 32nd Street location.  "This consolidation will insure better service for the young men and women of the Harlem area as HYA Headquarters houses the Consultation and special divisions maintained by the NYA for its youth," said the article.

Among the areas available to the participants, according to The New York Age on May 9, 1942, were "Radio Communications, Photography, and Commercial Silk Screen Work/Projects."

As early as 1944, the National Jewish Welfare Board occupied space here.  Founded in 1917, it oversaw the national activities of the Young Women's Hebrew Association, the Young Men's Hebrew Association and Jewish Community Centers.  The 1952 Handbook of Facts on Women Workers explained:

It is also the recognized Jewish community agency for meeting the religious, welfare, and moral needs of Jewish personnel in the armed forces, and its a constituent agency of the United Services Organizations (USO).

The National Jewish Welfare Board received a shipment of poignant items in the summer of 1946.  On July 15, The New York Times reported that the organization's Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities "took temporary custody yesterday of 105 Jewish religious objects that had been stolen by the Nazis from synagogues they destroyed in Germany."  The stash, which included objects of bronze, brass and silver, had been discovered "by chance" in Nuremberg, said the article, which added, "The committee will decide the permanent disposition of the objects."

photograph by Carole Teller

Another branch of the NJWB was established in 1948.  On September 1, 1948, The New York Times reported "Ten executives in the field of Jewish social work received yesterday the first certificates to be issued by the Jewish Communal Service Training Bureau."  The article said that the social workers had completed a 15-month course "including nine months of supervised placement work."  

Around 1954 the National Jewish Music Council also shared space here, and in 1962 the Zionist Organization of America was listed in the building.  The National Jewish Welfare Board remained at 145 East 32nd Street until around January 1968, when it moved to East 26th Street.  

Perhaps the first engineering firm to move in was Barr & Barr, here prior to midcentury.  The firm was responsible for erecting the British and French Buildings in Rockefeller Center, the Centre Theatre, and Time and Life Building.

Other construction and engineering firms occupying space here in the 1950s and '60s included Bogert & Childs; Maganaro, Martin and Lincoln; and Lev Zitiln Associations, Inc.

In December 1959, the furniture manufacturing firm Baumritter Corporation leased the first three floors for its showroom and sales office.  In 2004, the upper floors were converted to medical offices.  The end of the furniture showrooms came with a renovation initiated in 2011.  It resulted in the entire building being used by medical facilities.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1883 236 East Sixth Street

photograph by Carole Teller

On January 5, 1882, Joseph Schwarzschild and Ferdinand Sulzberger sold the four "five-story stone front tenements" at 230 to 236 East Sixth Street to architects and builders William P. and Ambrose M. Parsons for $48,500 (about $1.48 million in 2026 terms).  The brothers replaced the buildings with four identical structures.  Completed within the year, they were faced in brownstone.  Their neo-Grec design included centered entrances above short stoops.  The windows sat within prominent architraves upheld by scrolled brackets and their molded cornices sat upon corbeled piers.  Cast metal cornices, more in keeping with the earlier Italianate style, crowned the buildings.  The Parsons brothers sold the completed row on November 29, 1882.

Like the others in the row, 236 East Sixth Street was a "double flat," meaning there were two apartments per floor--one each on either side of the centered hallway.  They became home to a variety of tenants.  Living here in 1895 was William Bader, who worked for the city as "assistant to deputy sheriff."  He earned $1,000 a year, or about $40,000 today.  And Dr. Leopold Hibbe and his wife, Anna, and their child lived here as early as 1897.  Sharing the apartment was Leopold's brother, Dr. Henry Hibbe, and their widowed mother.

Leopold Hibbe was born in 1866 and graduated from the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York (where he had been an athlete) in 1891.  On the morning of March 2, 1897, he sat at his desk writing.  The New York Journal reported that he "struck a match to light his pipe."  It broke and the burning portion fell into a waste basket filled with papers.  Hibbe panicked and, rather than rushing the flaming basket into the street, he ran outside to get help.  The New York Journal said that in doing so, he forgot that his little child was asleep on the sofa in the room.  The article continued, "When he remembered it he could not get back."  Happily, Patrolman Wichman courageously rushed into the flaming room and rescued the child.

Dr. Hibbe had his wits together seven months later.  On October 25, 1897, The New York Times reported that the Hibbe apartment "served as the theatre for a scene in which a night marauder and a physician were the chief actors, and which had a ludicrous as well as a dangerous side."  In the middle of the night, Hibbe awakened to footsteps in the hall.  He discovered an intruder shoving "a few odds and ends into his trousers pockets."  The article said that Dr. Hibbe "caught the man he had been following unceremoniously by the throat and threw him to the floor."  The "rough-and-tumble scuffle" aroused Henry Hibbe who entered the affray.  Finally two policemen arrived and took into custody the "submissive and badly battered prisoner."

Within five years, the extended Hibbe family had moved to 23 Stuyvesant Street.  (There the two physicians were arrested, charged with performing an abortion.)  Another doctor, Albert S. Gombar moved into 236 East Sixth Street in 1909.

In the meantime, John Graham and his wife occupied an apartment at the turn of the century.  The 25-year-old was waiting for an elevated train at Second Avenue and 23rd Street on the afternoon of February 11, 1900 when he tumbled down the two-story tall staircase to the pavement below.  A witness said, "He was a laboring man, evidently, as he wore overalls and jumper, and his hands were soiled and calloused."

A doctor was summoned.  Before he arrived, two priests happened by and noticed the growing crowed.  One of them noticed "a little brown ribbon which came just over the edge of the injured man's shirt," reported The New York Times.  "He's a Catholic, Father," said the priest to his companion.  "See, he wears a scapular."  The priests knelt beside Graham, who was unconscious.  "The crowd fell back reverently, the Catholic ones uncovering and joining silently in prayer," said the article.

Dr. Graham Roberts transported John Graham to a hospital.  He told reporters that the young man's skull was fractured.  Tragically, he was given little hope of surviving.  Graham, who had just a nickel in his pocket, had not been drinking.  Doctors opined "that when near the top of the stairs he was attacked by heart disease and fell."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Minnie Wagner lived here in 1911.  She worked as a sewing machine operator on the eighth floor in the Triangle Waist Company at 23-29 Washington Place.  On Saturday morning, March 11, that year, she went to work as always.  The day would end tragically, however.  At around 4:45, just 15 minutes before the workday ended, fire broke out.  Minnie testified later:

[I] was near my machine when I heard the cry of "Fire!"  I rushed to the Washington Place door, and there saw Eva Harris...and she rushed by me and shouted to me, "My, God, the door is locked!"  After that I saw Louis Brown, who was wiping his hand, drop the towel and come to where we were standing, and, he said, "Wait a minute, girls, and don't get excited.  I will open the door for you."  He reached in his pocket and took out a key and turned the lock.  The door would not open, and he smashed another lock.  It then opened and we went out.

Minnie Wagner was one of the fortunate women in the building that day.  Trapped inside on two floors, 146 female workers perished, having either jumped to their deaths or burned. 

Emily Davisson was convalescing from an operation on April 26, 1915, and her 21-year-old son, Benjamin, was suffering from pneumonia.  They occupied a fifth-floor apartment.  Both were in their beds that day and were unaware of "the shout of fire which drove the other ten families from the building," according to the New-York Tribune.  Someone ran to a fire alarm box, but it was stuck.  The newspaper said that Ladder Company 3 was "late in responding to the blaze because the alarm box refused to open until after a five-minute struggle."

It was only when smoke and flames entered their apartment did Emily and Benjamin Davisson realize they were in danger.  Policeman Healy saw the panicked pair as they clung to their windowsill.  "They intended to jump," said the article, but Healy "warned them to stay where they were."  Minutes later, fire fighters arrived.  A ladder was raised and the Davissons were rescued.  The newspaper said that the damage to the building was estimated at about $331,000 in today's money.

At least two more physicians would live and work here.  Dr. Michael Shander was listed at the address in 1916, and Dr. William Steinhauser was here in 1927.  Among Dr. Steinhauser's neighbors in the building at the time was Rabbi Julius Boloker of the Congregation First Mihailener and the Independent Burdujener.

By the third quarter of the century, the East Village neighborhood had a more avant-garde demographic.  Head shops occupied former deli spaces and Mod Art posters hung in store windows.  In 1970, 22-year-old Bruce McKeithen, a Bernard B. Baruch College student, occupied an apartment here.

On May 21 that year, Narcotics Division detectives arrested a Barnard College co-ed, Andrea Rosenberg, in her West End Avenue apartment.  Police called her "a major supplier of drugs" at Columbia University.  They discovered $100,000 worth of illegal drugs in her apartment.  Unfortunately for Bruce McKeithen, he and two young Columbia students were in the apartment at the time of the raid.  They were arrested for drug possession.

photograph by Carole Teller

At some point, the brownstone was painted cream and white.  The original stoop ironwork and entrance doors survive.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1933 Independent Theatre Owners Bldg - 341 West 44th Street

An article in the "Vaudeville" section of The Billboard on May 6, 1933, announced that the Independent Theatre Owners' Protective Association "expect to open their new offices soon at 341 West 44th street."  Recently formed by independent motion picture theater owners, the organization sought to protect them from the already powerful film distributors and large theater circuits.

The group's new headquarters were in a recently completed, three-story building just blocks away from the country's entertainment epicenter--Times Square.  Designed by Raymond Irrera for the 341 West 44th Street Corporation, it straddled the Art Deco and Art Moderne styles.

The ground floor was dominated by a modern arcade show window.  Its vast plate glass panels, sitting upon a polished black base, were trimmed in thin strips of chrome.  Nestled behind the storefront were two entrances, one accessing the store and the other the offices above.

Irrera sandwiched the two upper floors between matching terra cotta friezes of Art Deco zigzags and rondels.  He used starkly contrasting white and black brick to create the Art Moderne design of the second and third floors.  The resulting economy of materials during the difficult Depression years worked.  Construction cost the syndicate $15,000 to erect, or about $373,000 in 2026 terms.

The ground floor space was taken by the Amusement Supply Co., Inc.  It catered to the nearby legitimate theaters by offering set design and construction, lighting, and equipment.

The Independent Theatre Owners Association had barely settled into their new home when trouble ensued.  In June 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Recovery Administration to stimulate economic recovery.  On November 10, it filed a $1 million suit "on the ground of alleged violation," reported The New York Times.  Calling the Independent Theatre Owners Association and a co-defendant "an alleged 'company union,'" the suit charged that they "signed the re-employment agreement to better business conditions by hiring more men, increasing wages and cutting working house to thirty-five hours a week."  Instead, they "cut staffs in half, reduced pay and increased the working week to fifty-two hours."  The two organizations were ordered to pay "sums ranging from $1,294 to $5,499 for crews of from four to eight men."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The drastic decline of independently owned motion picture houses at midcentury prompted the closing of the Independent Theatre Owners Association.  It was gone from 341 West 44th Street as early as 1940.  The Amusement Supply Co., Inc. still occupied the storefront that year.  A theatrical printing firm, New Process Program Corp. occupied the second floors.  It produced programs, banners on oilcloth, full-sized lobby cutouts of motion picture stars, and lobby posters.  Upstairs was Eldridge Enterprises, Inc.  Its cryptically worded help wanted ad on November 3, 1940 gave no hint of the firm or its dealings:

Attention Salesmen:  Big Commissions.  Proven Plan for Retail merchants to increase sales.  Write for particulars.  Eldridge Enterprises, Inc. 341 West 44th St., New York.

The Tops Employment Agency occupied space here as early as 1961.  On July 6 that year, Mayor Robert Wagner ordered penalties against the firm.  The New York Times reported that it was "accused of 'petty chiseling' against domestic workers they had brought to the city."

A renovation in 1991 resulted in a "eating and drinking establishment" on the second floor, and by 1996 the Trilogy Theatre Group operated downstairs.  It presented plays like Louise Page's Tissue, a drama about a woman's struggle with breast cancer, in April 1996, and Kevin Doyle's Styrofoam, about the Stampede Theater Festival, staged here in January 2004.  That production was among the group's last.  The Trilogy Theatre closed later that year.

Luthier Music Corp. replaced the theater.  It sold guitars, sheet music, and Luthier-made guitar strings, among other related goods.  The store would occupy the space for a decade, moving out in 2014.

The handsome little building sat empty for years before being purchased by the Buddha's Light International Association.  The group announced plans to construct the Buddha's Light Cultural Center on the site.  But that scheme got derailed.  In May 2026, the group sold the property "to a fashion executive," according to Crain's New York.  Its fate is unknown at the time of this writing.

photographs by the author