The Lost Hermann Genrich House - 444 East 89th Street

The vintage house with its polychromed details had survived intact in 1932.  A section of the cornice was lost when the apartment building to the right was constructed.   from the collection of the New York Public Library

After the New York and Harlem Railroad was extended along Fourth Avenue in the 1830's, a hamlet grew up around the 86th Street station.   In the 1850's an influx of German and Irish immigrants settled in the village, many of them hired to build the Croton Aqueduct.  At some point around the time of the Civil War, it became known as Yorkville.  Eventually Yorkville would rival, then overtake the Lower East Side as the center of the German immigrant community.

A flurry of construction followed the end of the Civil War.  In the early years of the 1870s, wooden houses--two and three stories tall with high basements--were erected along both sides of East 89th Street between York and First Avenues.  Among them was 444 East 89th Street, home to William H. and Sara A. Mott.  Like the others along the block, it was faced in clapboard.  The paneled wooden fence posts mimicked the newels of the stoop railings.  Floor-to-ceiling parlor windows opened onto an ample porch, where the Motts would have found relief from warm evenings.  The architect-builder embellished the upper openings with handsome molded lintels with carved ornaments.  The deeply overhanging cornice was upheld by thin, scrolled corbels with hanging finials.

In May 1880, William and Sara Mott sold 444 East 89th Street to Anne M. Donnell.  She rented space in the house to families, one per floor.  Anne advertised it for sale in the New York Herald on March 25, 1891:

Fine Private House, Garden, full lot; all improvements on each floor; 15 large rooms; arranged for three families; $10,500.

The "improvements" would most likely have included indoor plumbing.  The price Anne Donnell asked would translate to about $383,000 in 2026.  It was purchased by Rudolph Ladensack, who resold it on June 6, 1892 to Hermann and Magdalena Schaefer Gehnrich.

Born in Germany, the couple had three sons, William T., Herman John, and Charles L.  The brothers pursued very different career paths.  

William turned to metalwork and on April 8, 1899, The Metal Worker listed him among the students enrolled in the evening class of Sheet Metal and Cornice Work at the New York Trade School.  It is possible that he commuted from Yorkville to the school at 67th Street and First Avenue by bicycle.  Four years before that article, William had signed a petition to the Board of Alderman, urging a "bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."

Herman John Gehnrich was also an ardent bicyclist.  On August 7, 1900, The New York Times reported on the upcoming "open moonlight and double century run" by the New York State Division of the Century Road Club of America, an organization for bicycle enthusiasts.  "Entries for this run can be sent to the Secretary, H. J. Gehnrich, 444 East Eighty-ninth Street."

Charles L. Gehnrich was involved in charity work for the state.  As early as 1902, he worked as a clerk in the Department of Inspection of the State Board of Charities.  The 1904 Annual Report of the State Board of Charities explained, "This department has charge of the visitation and inspection of all institutions, societies or associations which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character."

In the meantime, Herman John Gehnrich died on December 29, 1900 at the age of 21.  His parents did not disclose any funeral arrangements to the public.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

William brought his bride, Minnie, to live at 444 East 89th Street.  In 1906, they had two twin boys, Charlie and Willie.  The family suffered unspeakable grief on March 24, 1908.  The Inquirer reported, "locked in each other's arms, twin babies this afternoon plunged headlong from the second-story window to the yard in the rear of their home, at 444 East Eighty-ninth street."  The article said that Minnie, "having household duties to attend to, had locked the guards on the rear second-story window of her home, leaving the twins, Charlie and Willie, barely two years old, playing in the room."

The New York Times reported that Minnie entered the room "just as they toppled from the window, and she ran screaming downstairs into the yard.  Policeman Lederman found her holding the unconscious infants in her arms and weeping over them."  The boys had landed on the pavement in the rear yard, fracturing their skulls.  

According to The Evening World, "The father of the twins, William Gehnrich, came from the sheet-iron factory where he works, in East Ninety-second street, and took the mother to the hospital.  She was frantic with grief."  The New York Times noted, "There is no hope that the twins will live."

Minnie Gehnrich's anguish was increased when her husband, perhaps overcome with grief, died four days later.  Once again, The New York Times remarked only, "funeral private."  

Hermann and Magdalena moved to Brooklyn by 1917.  Hermann died on February 18, 1920 and Magdalena on July 14, 1922.

George Repp and Carl Wetzler leased the basement level of 444 East 89th Street for the offices of Repp & Wetzler, "baker oven builders."  An advertisement in The Retail Baker in October 1917 touted, "repairing of all patent and American ovens our specialty."  Rooms were rented in the upper floors.  Among the tenants here in 1923 was 21-year-old John Gick, arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated on October 9 that year.

When 444 East 89th Street was sold to Michael Demetroules and George Hadjinanos in September 1926, The New York Times described it as "a four-story flat."  The article said, "The purchasers contemplate extensive renovations."

The quaint wooden building was remodeled.  The porch was removed and a Colonial-style entrance installed slightly below grade.  The architect modernized the vintage elements by streamlining the window frames and reducing the cornice corbels.

mage via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A renovation completed in 1945 resulted in one apartment per floor.  By then, 444 East 89th Street was the last remnant of the 1870s block.  The end finally came in the early 1970s when the house and the properties to the corner of York Avenue were demolished for a 33-floor apartment building, completed in 1974.

image via compass.com

The Lonely George and Annie Smith Mansion - 1033 Fifth Avenue

 

In 1870, Harriet Track erected four elegant homes on Fifth Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets.  Designed by Stephen D. Hatch, the American basement plan homes were four stories tall with an attic.  Among them was No. 1033.  Faced in brownstone, its French Second Empire design was the latest in domestic fashion.  

A portion of No. 1033 can be glimpsed at the side of 1034 Fifth Avenue, which had just been given a new front in 1912.  No. 1033 would follow suit within months of this photo.  photograph by Wurts Brothers from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Jacob Campbell purchased 1033 Fifth Avenue as an investment.  He leased it to Edward Payson Hatch and his wife, the former Elizabeth C. Height.  Born in Norwich, Vermont on July 11, 1832, Hatch started his retail career at the age of 15 earning $4 a month.  By the time he and his family moved into 1033 Fifth Avenue, he had been highly successful.  The New York Herald noted, "After making a fortune in the sewing machine business Mr. Hatch retired from business."

Then, in 1879, he got a call from John Taylor Lord.  The New York Herald later explained, "the firm of Lord & Taylor became involved in financial difficulties and he was asked to take charge of affairs."

Elizabeth Height Hatch was born in New Jersey, where her ancestors first settled in 1721.  She and Edward had one son, Edward Jr., and six daughters.  Their country homes were in  Arlington, New Jersey and Burlington, Vermont.

On April 28, 1889, The New York Sun debunked a common assumption, saying, "There is no Taylor in Lord & Taylor."  The newspaper explained, "The firm is composed of Samuel Lord, Jr., who lives in Orange, and Edward P. Hatch, who lives at 1,033 Fifth avenue."

Samuel Lord Jr. died in 1896.  John Taylor Lord was now Hatch's partner in the firm.  Upon his death in January 1903, Edward Hatch became the sole head of Lord & Taylor.  That same year, Hatch finally purchased 1033 Fifth Avenue.

At the time, the Hatches' butler was 25-year-old William Johnson.  On August 3, 1903, the 25-year-old took a few days off.  His subsequent behavior--going into three pawnshops on Sixth Avenue--made Detective Rochester suspicious.  Rochester went into one of them and "learned that he had pawned several pieces of silk," according to The New York Times.  The detective detained Johnson and "he found a dozen pawn tickets sewed on the negro's underwear representing silverware, jewelry, suits of clothes, and silk to the value of several hundred dollars."  He also had letters addressed to Edward P. Hatch Sr. and private papers.

Hatch was notified and he and his daughter, Cornelia, appeared in court the following day.  Johnson confessed to stealing $40 worth of silk and "several hundred dollars' worth of silverware."

Elizabeth Height Hatch died on February 2, 1906 "after a lingering illness," as reported by The Christian Advocate.  In reporting her death, the newspaper mentioned that she and Edward were "largely instrumental" in establishing the church in Arlington, New Jersey.

Red Rocks, the Hatch country place in Burlington, Vermont, was described by the New-York Tribune in 1909 as "a splendid estate on the shore of Lake Champlain.  The article said Hatch "spent large sums in laying out driveways through the woods, providing lookouts over the lake, building permanent stone highways and installing public drinking fountains," said the newspaper, adding, "He loved his estate and loved to see the people in general visit and admire the work of his hands."

Hatch had seen intense grief by the time of that article.  Only two children, Edward and Cornelia, were still alive.  In September 1909, he was at Red Rocks.  The New York Herald said, "He had been in poor health for weeks, but was able to be out and chat with his friends on Sunday afternoon."  That evening he "had a sinking spell and failed rapidly."  He died of a heart attack the following morning, September 21.

The Hatch estate sold 1033 Fifth Avenue in March 1910 to Charles Sooysmith for $150,000 (about $5.24 million in 2026 terms).   Plans were filed for a replacement house, but for some reason, Sooysmith changed his mind.  Two years later, he resold it George C. and Annie S. Smith.  The Sun reported on March 31, 1912, "It is the intention of the purchaser to practically rebuild the house."

The Smiths commissioned the architectural firm of Hoppin & Koen to bring the outdated mansion into the 20th century.  The brownstone facade was removed to be replaced with limestone.  Hoppin & Koen's dignified Beaux Arts design was reservedly decorated with elegant, French Classic Louis XV motifs, like the panels of double-swags and ribbons below the second-floor windows, and the swags and wreaths below the third-floor openings.  Two segmentally arched dormers peered over the stone balustrade that fronted the mansard.

Born in 1858, George Campbell Smith was a partner in Stead & Smith, the publishing firm co-founded by his father.  He married Anne Kammerer Schmertz on January 18, 1888.  The couple had three children, Dorothy Frances, George Jr., and Annie J.  The family's country home, Blythewood, was in East Norwich, Long Island.

Annie's engagement to Leon H. Abbett was announced in September 1919.  It sparked entertainments, like the Smiths' dinner and dance at the Metropolitan Club for the couple on November 14.

Annie J. Smith's engagement photograph.  The New-York Tribune, December 25, 1919 (copyright expired)

At the time of that dinner party, the Smiths had already sold the mansion.  The sale was announced in the New York Herald on October 4, 1919.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported the sale price at $210,000, or just under $4 million today.

The buyers were Milo Merrick Belding and his wife, the former Annie L. Kirk.  Milo was born in New York City on April 14, 1865, "the day of Lincoln's assassination," as noted by The New York Times.  His deep American roots were reflected in his membership in the Founders and Patriots of America and the Sons of the Revolution.

Milo Merrick Belding (original source unknown)

In 1884, he took a job as a clerk in his father's firm, Belding Bros. & Co., "the largest manufacturers and distributers of silk thread in the United States," according to The New York Times in 1931.  Upon his father's death in 1912, Milo Belding became president.  He was, as well, president of the American Union Life Insurance Company.

Belding commissioned a sea-worthy yacht, the Cocoon, in 1923.  The vessel needed only "finishing touches" in November 1924 and those were to be done in Florida.  Milo invited two guests--his secretary, W. H. Stillhammer, and Dr. George M. Smith--to accompany him on the cruise.  The vessel had a crew of four.  

Around dusk on November 22, "the yacht was heading in toward Government Cut after having made a test trip down the bay, around Cape Florida and into the Atlantic," reported The New York Times.  Belding and his guests heard a loud noise that they initially thought was a door slamming or glass breaking.  Another came two minutes later and this time "they plainly identified it as a gunshot."

The Cocoon was under fire from the Coast Guard, which, despite its being fully lighted, was mistaken for a rum runner.  The yacht was boarded and searched.  "When no liquor was found the Cocoon was permitted to steam to her berth, and the officer expressed his regrets," reported The New York Times.

Understandably, Milo Belding was not ready to accept the apology.  He told reporters that "the affair would be reported to Washington."

That year, the abutting houses to the south were demolished and replaced with an apartment building designed by J. E. R. Carpenter.

The Smith mansion now snuggled up to a behemoth. photograph by Wurts Brothers from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The following year, the property to the north of 1033 Fifth Avenue was filled with another J. E. R. Carpenter-designed apartment building.  The Smith mansion was now sandwiched between two soaring structures.

Image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Around October 1, 1931, Milo Belding contracted what was described as a "mild cold."  Two weeks later, it developed into bronchitis that "fatally affected his heart," as reported by The New York Times on October 14.  His funeral was held in the mansion two days later.

Belding's massive estate was reflected in an article in The New York Times on January 9, 1934, which began, "The Association for the Aid of Crippled Children will get more than $10,000,000 of the wealth of the late Milo M. Belding.  That figure would translate to $240 million today.

Annie Kirk Belding died in the mansion on September 4, 1944.  In reporting her death, The New York Times remarked that she had been a director of the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children since 1925 and that she helped establish the Milo M. Belding Fund for the aid of crippled children."

Singer Morton Downey purchased 1033 Fifth Avenue.  Born in 1901, he was known as The Irish Nightingale.  He and his wife, actress Barbara Bennett (sister of actresses Constance and Joan Bennett), were divorced in 1941.  They had five children, including Morton Downey Jr., who would go on to become a talk show host and actor.

On October 1, 1945, The New York Times reported that Downey had sold "the five-story house with elevator" to the Herbert J. Freezer Company.  It became home to Herbert J. Freezer and his wife, Michael Stone Freezer.  The couple had a son, Winthrop.  Their residency would be relatively short.  The Freezers separated in 1950 and the mansion was sold to actress Eva Gabor.

According to Sam Staggs in his Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors Behind the Legend, "Eva daydreamed of a gilded life in her spacious multi-story, with herself as chatelaine and vassals at her side."  On November 29, 1950, The New York Times announced that she "intends to alter and occupy the property as her town house."

Eva invited her mother, Jolie, to inspect the mansion.  According to Staggs, Eva recalled, "She told me I am not her smartest daughter, since it was evident to anyone with eyes that ten apartments could be made in the building."  The dutiful daughter followed her advice.  Within a year, there were six apartments in the former residence, including a triplex.

The Government of Iran purchased 1033 Fifth Avenue in 1960 as the residence of Iran's United Nations mission chief.  It remained so until the Iranian Revolution in 1978-79 that overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy.

On December 23, 1990, The New York Times reported, "Acquired by Iran in the mid-60s' [sic] and furnished with Persian rugs, antique mirrors and crystal chandeliers, the town house at 1033 Fifth Avenue...has declined in the last decade or so."  The article explained that the Iranian Government intended to spend $250,000 in renovating the building.  Architect George Schwartz was commissioned to "modernize" the building and reconvert it into a single residence.  The work included new electrical, heating and air conditioning systems, and the updating of the kitchen and bathrooms.

The mansion--vised between two 1920s apartment buildings--is home to the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations today.

photographs by the author

M. Louis Ungrich's 1886 345 and 347 West 123rd Street

 
Developers Frank Tilford and F. Keller hired architect M. Louis Ungrich in the spring of 1885 to design a row of 10 "three-story basement brick and stone private dwellings" on West 123rd Street between Morningside and Manhattan Avenues.  Turning to the popular Queen Anne style, Ungrich designed the row as five alternating, mirror-image pairs--A-B, C-D, A-B, C-D, and A-B.

The easternmost homes, Nos. 345 and 347, were among the A and B models.  At just 16-feet wide, they were clad in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta above the stone-faced basements.  The squiggly spindles of the iron stoop railings and areaway fencing were typical of the often light-hearted Queen Anne style.  The two homes shared a stone bandcourse above the parlor and a bracketed intermediate cornice above the second floor.  An elaborate terra cotta plaque of swirling vines behind a shell straddled the property line at the third floor.  Each gable was decorated with a terra cotta rondel with a full-relief flower erupting from a sunburst.

Terra cotta details enhance the building's charm.

Tilford & Keller initially leased the homes.  An advertisement in the New-York Daily Tribune on January 23, 1887 read, "For Rent--The new and elegant house, 345 West 123d-st.; has never been occupied; will be decorated to suit tenant and rented for half rate until May 1."

It appears that the first to occupy 345 West 123rd Street was the William Mahl family.  William was born in Germany in 1843 and his wife, the former Mary Ann Skidmore, was born in England in 1848.  Mahl was the controller of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and he and Mary Ann had three children, Frederick William, John Thomas (known as Tom), and Edith Virginia. 

The family was still here in 1891 when Tom was studying at the Columbia University School of Mines.  The family moved away around 1892, three years before he graduated. 

(Tom's story would have a sad ending.  He married Ella Hutchins Botts in 1894 and upon graduation he was appointed the head of the Department of Maintenance and Ways of the Houston and Texas Central Railway.  The couple moved to Houston.  Ella died at the age of 29 on June 13, 1900 and, according to The New York Times, "Soon afterward his own health gave way and his physicians advised him to travel extensively.  He had consumption, they said."  In March 1901, the Mahls received word that "death was not far distant."  Mary Ann was with Tom in a private train car on March 31, 1901 when the 27-year-old died.)

The families along the row maintained a small domestic staff.  Mrs. Elizabeth Murphy, who followed the Mahls in 345 West 123rd Street, had at least one servant, Sadie Scott.  Around noon on June 1, 1894, Elizabeth returned from church and, according to The Evening World, "deposited in a closet a diamond ring valued at $100 and $125 in bills."  (Why Elizabeth would have taken the cash--equal to more than $4,800 in 2026--to church in the first place is puzzling.)  Later that afternoon, she noticed that the closet door was open and discovered the cash was missing.  The newspaper reported, "Sadie being the only one in the house suspicion fell on her."  Despite Sadie's strong denial of the crime, she was arrested and charged with grand larceny.

Tilford and Keller were looking for a new tenant for No. 347 in 1890.  Their ad on April 9 read: "Just Look--347 West 123d-st. to lease for only $1,000; three story, high-stoop house, with every improvement; decorated, chandeliers and sanitary plumbing."  The mention of chandeliers was significant.  New homeowners and renters most often had to supply their own lighting fixtures.  And "sanitary plumbing" reveals that the houses had indoor plumbing and toilets.  The rent was extremely reasonable, translating to about $3,000 per month today.

In 1896, Tilford & Keller sold the houses--345 West 123rd Street to Herbert M. Johnson and 347 to Charles D. Folsom.  

Herbert M. Johnson resold No. 345 in April 1897 to William M. Badger and his wife, Eliza.  William would not enjoy the house for long.  He died in 1899.  

Eliza sold the dwelling on May 3, 1902 to Daniel and Jane T. McGowan for $13,000 (about $500,000 today).  In an unsettling instance of déjà vu, Daniel McGowan died in the house less than a year later, on February 28, 1903.

In the meantime, Charles Folsom rented 347 West 123rd Street.  His tenants (who appear to be Harry Hull St. Clair Sr. and his wife, the former Mary Louise Harber) immediately took in a boarder.  In fact, they gave up half of the house in doing so.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on August 16, 1896 read: "347 West 123d-St--Strictly private family offer, with board, three large rooms; second and third floors."  ("Strictly private family" stressed that this was not a boarding house situation.)

Living here in 1896-97 was Arthur Moult Smyth, a civil engineer.  Born in 1868, he earned his Engineer of Mines degree from Lehigh University in 1890.

Harry and Mary St. Clair had a daughter, Helen, born on June 28, 1877.  On Christmas Day 1897, Mary Louse St. Clair died at the age of 44.  Newspapers noted that her funeral services would be "private."  

(Helen would go on to great success.  She would graduate from the Classical School for Girls, from Barnard College, and from Columbia University Phi Beta Kappa.  She would received her law degree from New York University Law School.)

In 1940, the original doors were intact and the masonry was not yet painted.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In the early 1900s, William Henry Bolander and his wife, the former Jennie Damon, lived at 347 West 123rd Street.  Born on September 11, 1838, he was placed in charge of the New Haven Railroad's "Pier 6, East River" in 1878, according to The New York Times.  William still held that position when he died on October 28, 1913 at the age of 75.  His funeral was held in the parlor on the 31st.

The McGowan family retained possession of 345 West 123rd Street into the Depression years.  By the mid-1940s it was operated as a rooming house.  Among the tenants in 1947 was Lamar Harris who got into trouble in Ossining, New York on the afternoon of April 7 that year.  The Citizen-Register reported that he was arrested at the Ossining Railroad Station "on a charge of disorderly conduct" and fined $10.  The article did not go into details of what constituted his offense.

Next door, 347 West 123rd Street was home to the St. Joseph Council Service Station of the Knights of Columbus in the post-World War I years.  Never converted to apartments, it is a single-family home today.  Its architectural fraternal twin was less lucky.  There are eight residential units in 345 West 123rd Street.

photographs by the author

The 1866 Bernard Flach House - 128 East 93rd Street

 

In 1866, one year after carpenters, masons and painters returned from the Civil War and resumed construction in Manhattan, Henry W. Shaw hired Edmund Waring & Sons Architects to design a modest, 25-foot wide frame house on East 93rd Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  The project was speculative for Shaw, who dabbled in real estate but whose profession was the manufacture of artificial limbs. 

The senior Edmund Waring is attributed as being the architect of the design.  Although the site was still semi-rural, Waring drew on the latest architectural fashion of the day: the French Second Empire style.  Born in Paris, the elegant style was just appearing in New York and the wooden house would be the last word in residential design.

Three robust, hooded dormers graced the mansard above a heavy, bracketed cornice. A wooden stoop rose to a porch that fronted the off-set entrance and floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Bernard Flach Jr. purchased the house in 1868.  The neighborhood was not yet sufficiently developed to warrant a street number, and Flach was listed in directories as living at "East 93d near Third av."  He and his wife had at least two sons, Otto and Arthur.  Also moving into the new house was Bernard's father.

Flach ran a "mouldings" business, manufacturing wooden architectural details like spindles, door frames, and such.  He would have an arduous commute to work.  His shop was located at 178 Centre Street and the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad would not reach 93rd Street until 1878.

Bernard Flach, Sr. did not enjoy the house for especially long.  He died here on May 22, 1870 and his funeral was held in the parlor on the 24th.

Around 1872, the Flachs took in a boarder.  Richard Bohler would live with the family through 1875.  The enterprising businessman ran two starkly different businesses.  He ran a store at 180 Broadway selling, "native and foreign wines, liquors, etc." and a drugstore at 50 Cedar Street.

Arthur B. Flach joined his father's business as early as 1876.  His brother, however, took a much different career route.  His business was listed in 1873 as "pianos."

Bernard Flach apparently died in 1877, the year his name disappeared from city directories.  On November 7 that year, Arthur B. Flach sold 128 East 93rd Street to John R. Graham.  

Graham leased the house to a young German couple, Johannes and Pauline Kamm Hartzheim.  It seems that Pauline's widowed mother, Catherine Kamm, lived with them.  Tragically, Pauline died at the age of 29 on January 11, 1879 "after a long and painful illness," as described by the New York Herald.  Her funeral was held here three days later.

Pauline's grieving husband almost immediately left 128 East 93rd Street.  He placed an advertisement in the New York Herald the following month that read: "Parlor suit and other furniture cheap--On account of death."

Edwin Henes and his wife, the former Caroline Schiffer, purchased 128 East 93rd Street in 1880.  The couple were newlyweds.  They were married on May 8, 1879.  John R. Graham had neglected the wooden house and before they moved in, they would have to make some significant repairs.  On November 22, 1881, Inspector Esterbrook of the Bureau of the Inspection of Buildings released a list of "Buildings That are Likely to Fall."  Included was 128 East 93rd Street.

Edwin Henes was born in Milwaukee in 1850 and graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1869.  He followed a much different professional path, however.  When he purchased 128 East 93rd Street, he was "in the beer business with George Ehret," according to the History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College in 1907.

Four children would be born in the house: Louis George in 1881; Caroline Julia two years later; Edward Jr., who arrived in 1885; and Henry William, born in 1887.

The Henes family was affluent enough to provide their children private educations and to spend time away from the city in the summer months.  Edwin Henes placed an advertisement in the New York Herald in May 1891 that sought:

Wanted--Accommodation for family during July and August in a respectable private or boarding house in the country; must be in healthy location, easily accessible, and within a distance of 25 miles from the city; terms and references.  Address E. H., 128 East 93d st.

By 1903, Louis George Henes was a civic engineer.  Edwin Jr. enrolled in Columbia College that year and studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons during his senior year.  (The History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College recounted, "He began school at the age of four.  He first attended several private elementary schools, and then, in 1897...was prepared to enter the College of the City of New York.")  In the meantime, in 1904 Henry was enrolled in the "scientific course" at the College of the City of New York.  

Edwin Henes Jr., as he appeared above in 1907, would become a physician.  History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College (copyright expired)

The Henes family was involved in charity work.  Caroline was a member of the Ladies Aid Society of the German Hospital and Dispensary, for instance.  And in July 1894, the family held a "fair and garden party" at the house for the benefit of The Evening World's Sick Babies' Fund.  The event raised $52.54 (about $2,000 in 2026 terms).  Edwin Jr. wrote to the newspaper saying in part, "We are happy to have been able to make a success of our undertaking and to contribute, with the assistance of our friends and neighbors, something towards the good cause of taking care of the poor sick children of his city."

On June 18, 1905, The New York Times reported, "A town wedding will take place on June 21, when Miss Carolyn Julia Haynes [sic] will be married to Edward Bolter of Chicago in St. James's Lutheran Church, Madison Avenue and Seventy-third Street."  Louis was the groom's best man.  The reception was held in the East 93rd Street house.

In April 1912, the family offered 128 East 93rd Street for sale.  An advertisement described, "A 3 story and basement frame private Dwelling, with brick foundation, containing 15 rooms, 1 bath and 2 toilets."  Whether the Heneses changed their minds or the house simply did not sell is unclear, but Edwin Henes leased the house to James Edberg Fitch in April 1914.  (Edwin and Caroline moved to Seventh Avenue.)

Fitch and his wife, Virginia, had at least three adult children, John H., Virginia and Isabel.  Two months after leasing the house, the Fitches' son, John H. Fitch, got a temporary job with the city's Public Creation Commission as a Gymnasium Instructor at $3 a day "for a period of fifteen days."  (It was an attractive gig, equal to $100 a day today.)

Virginia Fitch died on March 18, 1915.  Rather unexpectedly, Isabel was married seven months later.  Described as a suffragist and expert in outdoor sports, she found love rather late, at least by society standards.  When she and Ralph Folks, the Commissioner of Public Works, obtained their marriage license on November 27, 1915, they listed their ages as 30 and 37, respectively.  The wedding took place "quietly," as described by The New York Times, the following afternoon in the Church of the Beloved Disciple on 89th Street and Madison Avenue.  Virginia was her maid of honor.

Edwin Hene sold 128 East 93rd Street in June 1920.  Interestingly, the buyer was his business associate, George Ehret, who purchased it as a rental property.

Among his tenants that year the Kinzler family, whose son, Herman, became engaged to Clara Frankel that year; and Dr. Julius Scheider and his wife, Marie.

It may have been the city's plans to widen East 93rd Street that prompted Ehret to sell 128 East 93rd Street to a Mrs. Miller in 1921.  On May 21, The New York Times reported that she "will occupy" the house.

The widening of the street in 1922 necessitating the removal of the stoop and porch.  The entrance was lowered below grade and the former doorway converted to a window, seamlessly designed to match the originals.

Seen here in 1932, the basement (now first) floor was spartan.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The house was sold again in July 1930.  It became home to Frederick W. Kroehle, president of the Elfred Realty Company.  By the late 1950s, F. LeMoyne Page and his wife, the former Dorothea Fiske, occupied the house.  

Born in 1901, Page was the founder and president of Transportation Displays, Inc., known as TDI.  The New York Times noted in 1964 that the firm "does $6,000,000 worth of business annually selling advertising space in commuter railroad systems."   Educated as an architect, in 1949 he designed and built the family's summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Page was operated for a prostate disorder in April 1964.  He died in the New York Hospital on April 22.

Two years later, 128 East 93rd Street was nominated for landmark status.  Dorothea, now remarried, successfully blocked the designation.

In 1989, Bradley and Ashley Reifler purchased the house.  California natives, they told a reporter, "We wanted the sense of privacy of a house, the sense of country in the city."  The couple added an elevator housed in a wooden tower in the rear.  In 1991, architectural journalist Christopher Gray reported somewhat sadly, "Although the wideboard floors and marble mantelpieces survive, most of the sense of age in the interior has been ironed out."  

That "sense of age" would be further eradicated in 1995 when the Reiflers removed interior walls.  The house was sold in 2010 to C. C. Dyer, the former wife of television personality Geraldo Rivera.  She paid $6.8 million for the property.

Even without its porch and stoop, the wooden relic retains its post-Civil War charm.

photographs by the author

William Jose's 1873 Re-do of 167 Rivington Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

United States Customs inspector William H. Randall and his family lived at 167 Rivington Street as early as 1836.  They suffered grief on the morning of December 27, 1837 when four-month-old Ann Rebecca Randall died.  The Randall home was, likely, a recently-built Federal-style structure.  

Just before the outbreak of civil war, the house was replaced with Benedict Kraus's three-story hotel.  The enterprising Kraus also operated a meat business in the Essex Market.  The war affected at least one of Kraus's tenants.  On August 28, 1863, S. Adler was drafted into the Union Army.

Edward Gottlieb took over the hotel by 1865.  Like Kraus, he had a second job and operated his real estate business from the building.  The barroom here was the venue of political meetings, and on November 21, 1865 an announcement in the New York Herald reported that the 13th Ward Gunther Club "will hold regular meetings every Wednesday and Saturday night at Gottlieb's Hotel, 167 Rivington street."

On December 14, 1866, the New-York Tribune reported, "Shortly after 4 o'clock yesterday morning a fire was discovered in the premises No. 167 Rivington-st., occupied as a German hotel."  The article said, "the building and furniture were considerably damaged by fire and water."

Following repairs, 167 Rivington Street emerged as Urania Hall, a combination "concert saloon" and hotel.  (Concert saloons were the American version of English music halls and provided live entertainment.)  On January 4, 1867, an advertisement read, "Wanted--Some young waiter girls, for a concert saloon.  Apply at Urania Hall, 167 Rivington street."  And an announcement in the New York Herald on January 13 touted: "Concert every night; handsome girls attending, with choice wines, beer, &c."

The venture did not survive.  Only six months later, on June 28, 1867, an auction was held of "the entire Furniture of Urania Hotel," as well as the remaining three years' lease on the property.

The lease was taken by David Gans and Henry Schwartz, who opened the Schwartz & Gans beer saloon in the ground floor.  It, too, was a meeting spot for German political groups.  On June 26, 1872, The New York Times reported, "The German Republican Organization of the Thirteenth Ward held a meeting at No. 167 Rivington-street last night, indorsing the nomination of Gen. Grant and Senator Wilson for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency."

Change came the following year when owner Paul Hoffman hired architect William Jose to remodel and enlarge the building.  The renovations, which included an additional story, cost Hoffman the equivalent of $208,000 in 2026.

William Jose was best known for designing tenement buildings in the Bowery neighborhood.  He transformed 167 Rivington Street to a four-story-and-basement, store-and-tenement building faced in red brick above the storefronts.  A centered stoop lead to the first floor where two shops flanked the residential entrance.  Jose's neo-Grec design included molded cast metal sills supported by decorated brackets, and paneled lintels topped by molded cornices with a decorative ornament.

photograph by Carole Teller

The complex cornice was comprised of a paneled and dentiled fascia, ornate paired corbels and matching smaller brackets.

The new apartments filled with middle class tenants.  Among those living here in 1879 were two real estate agents, a lithographer, a tailor, one "merchant," and a porter.  That year Jacob Grossmann's shirt business occupied one of the stores.

By the turn of the century, the residents were more working class.  Caroline Rosenthal lived here by the early 1890s with her two grandsons.  George W. and Ernest Schultze were two of the three sons of Dr. Reinbold Schultze who died in 1890.  The boys were eight and six years old at the time.  Their mother "soon afterward went to live with one Courtney, alias Harrison," reported the New York Herald.  Courtney had a wife and three children in Brooklyn.  The couple disappeared, taking the four-year-old Reinbold with them and leaving George and Ernest with their grandmother.

Unfortunately, the care of two young boys was too much for Caroline Rosenthal, and around 1892 she placed them in St. John's Home for Boys in Brooklyn.  Then, a remarkable turn of events occurred.  A Frau Krummhauer died in Magdeburg, Prussia in 1892.  She was the aunt of the three Schultze boys and left them a fortune of $375,000, equal to about $13.7 million today.  William Schwickardi began looking for the three young heirs in December 1892.  He was unable to track down the boys' mother, young Reinbold, or Courtney.  (Mrs. Courtney told him she had not heard from her husband and had no idea where he was.)  

He was more successful in finding George and Ernest.  Caroline Rosenthal appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court with her grandsons on April 11, 1893.  The boys--who one day earlier were living as orphans in a less-than-comfortable institution--were suddenly wealthy.  Selflessly, Caroline Rosenthal requested the court to appoint Julia Schwickardi, William's wife, the boys' legal guardian.

Living in the building at the time of the boys' windfall were junk dealer Saul Deutsch and Dr. Simon Rappaport.  Max Marks ran a dry goods business in one of the stores.

In April 1893, a large quantity of cloth began disappearing from the clothing manufacturer Marks & Co. on Broadway.  On May 5, police officers witnessed two employees, Nathan Schnapper and Solomon Tischler, lowering a bag of rags to Saul Deutsch.  Suspicious, they investigated the bundle.  "Among the rags the detectives found a roll of cloth valued at $27," reported The Evening Post.  Deutsch was arrested and held at $1,000 bail.

Dr. Simon Rappaport faced an even more serious charge two years later.  On December 3, 1895, the New York Herald reported that he and Joseph Stern had been arrested for an "operation performed upon Mrs. Jennie Fourgang, who is very ill in Bellevue Hospital."  The newspaper delicately danced around naming the offense--an abortion.

The charges were elevated three weeks later.  On December 24, The Evening Post reported that Rappaport and Stern had been charged "in connection with the death of Mrs. Jennie Fortgang, of No. 5 Norfolk Street."  The article said she had died "from malpractice," and had named the two men from her deathbed.

Paul Hoffman made improvements to the building again in 1898.  He hired the architectural firm of Kurtzer & Rohl to install a "new fireproof vent shaft [and] new skylight," as described in the plans.  The alterations cost Hoffman the equivalent of $48,000 today.

Austrian-born Leon Stand (known familiarly as Leo) and his family lived here as early as 1901.  He operated his real estate office from one of the commercial spaces.  In 1901 he rallied other businessmen on the block to protest about the garbage and resultant odors that littered the street.  On August 8, The New York Times reported that he had initiated a petition to the Commissioner of Street Cleaning.  "Unable to endure the stench from the streets, they have [been] buying snuff-snuff by the half-pound which the women as well as the men have been using," said the article.  Stand and his neighbors charged that they were being discriminated against.  The petition said in part:

We...protest against the unjust discrimination and partiality shown to the lower east side in the matter of removing garbage and cleaning streets of our neighborhood.  The garbage and filth have been lying in front of the tenements for the past three days, and the drivers and employes [sic] of your department have absolutely refused to remove it.

Leon Stand told a reporter, "We simply can't stand it here any longer.  I took a walk up Fifth Avenue on purpose on Saturday.  Do you think I saw any ash cans or ill-smelling garbage cans there?  Not on your life."

A substantial renovation came in March 1904 when architect Max Muller redesigned the lower floors.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide explained that he "rearranged front wall," installed new store fronts and a cast iron staircase.

Max Muller's 1904 storefronts and iron steps can be seen in this 1940 tax photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Leon Stand and his family would remain here for years.  In August 1911, he arranged a testimonial dinner for Charles F. Hartman, the 71-year-old principal of Public School 106 at Rivington and Suffolk Streets.  On the night of September 12, 250 former pupils gathered at the Café Boulevard to celebrate his retirement and honor his half-century of "pedagogy," as worded by The New York Times.

The following year, Leon's son, Murray, made news on his own.  On September 19, 1912, The New York Times said he "has won prizes for oratory at the De Witt Clinton High School, and is President of the Young Boys Democratic Club."  An admirer of Mayor William Jay Gaynor, Murray Stand was offended when he read the speech delivered by Rabbi Wise at Carnegie Hall, "in which the Rabbi suggested that the Mayor had better resign."  The teen wrote to the mayor, saying in part, "Keep up your good work, dear Mr. Mayor, and when your term as Mayor shall expire, 'one good term shall then deserve another.'"

Mayor Gaynor responded to Murray Stand's letter, writing that he had no ill feelings for Rabbi Wise, however he said he "seems to be without charity or truthfulness."  He went on, "He is a mere rhetorician, and you know what rhetoricians from the beginning of time have been designated as persons 'with the crooked mouth.'"  Murray Stand declined to be interviewed, although he said that "he believed politics should be kept out of religion and the public schools" and deemed Rabbi Wise's attack "in bad taste."

Murray Stand's name was again in newsprint the following year on November 17, 1913 when The New York Times reported on the upcoming testimonial dinner for Justice Aaron J. Levy.  "Murray W. Stand, Secretary of the Neighborhood Dinner Committee, 167 Rivington Street, is in charge of the arrangements," said the article.

By 1917, Murray W. Stand was an Internal Revenue Service collector and alderman.  He would go on to serve in the Army in World War I, be elected alderman 14 successive times, and appointed New York City Commissioner to the World's Fair, and Inspector General of Defense for New York City and City Clerk in 1946.  

His brother, Bert Stand, would become secretary of the New York State Athletic Commission in 1925 and Tammany Hall's first Jewish secretary, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, on July 29, 1934.  

Leon Stand, in the meantime, founded the Lemberger Congregation, a synagogue on East Fourth Street, in 1925.

Among the tenants of 167 Rivington Street in the 1920s was Sam Kirschner.  He and his family occupied an apartment while he ran his dressmaking store downstairs.  Attorney I. Schleider's office was here at least from 1922 through 1925.

The vintage building suffered significant neglect by the third quarter of the century.  On March 7, 1973, 13 tenants lived here, but not for long.  Around 5 a.m., police rushed into the building and roused them "when the walls and roof of the brick structure began to sag," as reported by The New York Times.  Moments later, a partial collapse occurred.  

A blurry 1980 tax photograph shows the building boarded up.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building appears to have sat vacant until a "gut rehabilitation" by Harden-Van Arnam Architects completed in 1993 resulted in stores in the basement and first floor and apartments above.

photograph by Carole Teller

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post