The Peter R. Bonnett House - 6 East 12th Street

 

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Around 1846, two nearly identical, 25-foot-wide Greek Revival homes were completed at 154 and 156 Twelfth Street (renumbered 4 and 6 East 12th in 1855).  Similar to mansions erected on the north side of Washington Square a decade earlier, their wide stone stoops rose to handsome porticos supported by fluted columns with palm leaf capitals.  The floor-to-ceiling parlor windows were, most likely, fronted by cast iron balconies.  The encroaching Italianate style was reflected in a tiny detail--the foliate brackets that co-existed with the Greek Revival dentils of the cornices.

The eastern house was erected by Peter Riker Bonnett, a wealthy grocer whose operation was at 202 Front Street.  Born in 1801, he married 20-year-old Maria Saltonstall in August 1835.  The couple would have eight children: Charlotte Augusta, Louisa, Daniel (who died in 1843 at the age of four), Daniel Blake, Mary Jane, Lucretia Saltonstall, Charles Pierre, and John Bingham.

Sadly, the family had just settled into their new home when John died on May 21, 1846, just two months after his fourth birthday.  His little casket sat in the parlor until his funeral on Saturday afternoon, May 23.

Margaret Targee lived with the couple in the 1850s.  Born in 1814, she was the daughter of the well-known silversmith John Targee, who died in 1850.  Never married, it is unclear whether she boarded with the Bonnetts or was simply a close friend.  She died at the age of 45 on May 25, 1859 and her funeral was held here two days later.

Peter Bonnett died on September 4, 1871 at the age of 70.  Interestingly, his funeral was not held in the parlor, but in St. George's Church three days later.

Maria Bonnett left 6 East 12th Street in 1878.  She rented the house for two years to metal dealer George A. Crocker, starting that year.  Then, in 1881, Reverend Philip A. H. Brown, minister-in-charge of St. John's Chapel, leased the property.  He also sat on the executive committee of the New York Protestant Episcopal City Mission Society, which was listed here.

By 1885, Brown shared the house with the offices of the Young Women's Christian Association.  Its "industrial department" gave lessons on sewing, which provided them a means to earn a living.  On March 25, 1886, The Christian Union announced:

The Young Women's Christian Association, now at 6 East Twelfth Street, New York, has an industrial department, where sewing of all kinds is given out to competent workers who are compelled to be self-supporting.  Orders will be received by mail, materials as well as labor furnished.

The Evening Post, December 12, 1885 (copyright expired)

Operating from a residence quickly revealed its shortcomings.  On January 11, 1886, the officers of the Young Women's Christian Association met at the house of "Miss Stokes."  The New-York Tribune explained, "The meeting was held at a private house, as the accommodations of the rooms now occupied by the Association are too small for the officers and their friends."  The article continued, "All the classes connected with the institution have been given up this winter, as there is not room for them in the present quarters at No. 6 East Twelfth-st."

The association moved into new, larger accommodations and Reverend Brown remained here at least through 1890.  By 1895, Reverend Howard Duffeld of the nearby First Presbyterian Church occupied 6 East 12th Street.  The erudite clergyman was a member of the elite Century Association.

Reverend Duffeld left in 1896 and the house was next rented to the socially prominent Augusta Lovett Kingsland Jones.  Born in 1839, her husband, Herman LeRoy Jones died in 1880.  (The Jones family had been at the pinnacle of New York high society since the early 19th century and were reputedly the inspiration of the term, "keeping up with the Joneses.")  Living with Augusta was her son, Herman Jr., and her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Kingsland Jones and William Bradford, Jr.

That the Bradfords lived with Augusta is somewhat surprising.  Mary had wed Bradford in 1891 "without the knowledge of her mother," said the New-York Tribune.  When the extended family moved into 6 East 12th Street, the Bradfords' only son, William Jr., was three years old.

In what must have been an unwelcomed case of déjà vu for Augusta, on March 12, 1896, the New-York Tribune began an article saying, "Society was treated to a mild sensation yesterday by the announcement of the marriage of Mrs. Margaret Dunscombe Hone to Herman Leroy Jones."  The couple was married on February 16 and, according to Herman, they had told their families only a few days before the article.

Herman, assuredly, would have faced a confrontation had he informed his mother before marrying Margaret.  Although she had a sterling social pedigree, being the eldest child of former Mayor Philip Hone, she came with what many socialites would consider unforgiveable baggage.

Known to her friends as Rita, she married Archibald Kennedy Kearny Mackay in 1890.  The event was "one of the fashionable affairs of the winter season," according to the New-York Tribune.  Only weeks later, in May, she divorced him and within one or two days after the divorce was granted, she married an actor, Paul T. Wilkes.  In 1894, Rita divorced Wilkes and, as if society was not already sufficiently shocked, she "appeared on the stage under the name of Virginia Paul," as reported by the New-York Tribune.

The newlyweds moved into the East 12th Street mansion.  Having two Mrs. Herman Leroy Jones at the address caused some confusion.  Newspapers that reported on an incident that took place in the winter of 1899, for instance, did not distinguish which Mrs. Jones was involved.  

On December 7, the New York Herald reported that Mrs. Jones engaged a cab "to do some shopping."  The cabbie, John Downey, became frustrated with his female client.  The newspaper said, "after driving to half a dozen stores his actions became so disagreeable that Mrs. Jones called a policeman and caused his arrest."  The incident drew attention nationwide, partially because well-bred women went to lengths to keep their names out of newspapers for reasons other than social events.

The following day, The Chicago Tribune wrote, "Mrs. Herman Leroy-Jones, society woman, of 6 East Twelfth street...was courageous enough to appear today in the Jefferson Market Police Court."  The article revealed that Mrs. Jones was not only courageous, but sympathetic.  As she noticed tears running down Downey's checks, she paused by him.

"Please, ma'am," he said.  "Do be merciful.  It is the first time I have ever done such a thing, and it will be the last time, believe me, ma'am."

Mrs. Jones first turned to the magistrate and said, "He has been punished enough.  I will not prosecute him."  Then she turned back to Downey and said, "Now, here is the dollar I owe you.  Let this be a lesson to you and all cabmen who are rude to women."

On March 20, 1900, seven-year-old William Bradford Jr. died and, once again, a funeral was held in the parlor of 6 West 12th Street.

Although she provided a home to her children and their spouses and despite her personal wealth, it appears that Augusta Kingsland Jones intended that they stand on their own financial feet.  On January 14, 1903, The New York Times reported that Herman Leroy Jones, "a well-known society man," had filed for bankruptcy, "with liabilities of $87,965 and assets nominal."  (The debt would equal $3.2 million in 2026.)

At the time, the ladies' tailor Haas Brothers had been attempting to receive payment of his wife's bills.  Now with Jones in bankruptcy, the firm sued Margaret directly.  Mentioning that she lived in "the old Jones mansion," on December 15 The Evening World reported that Margaret "failed to appear for examination in supplementary proceedings to-day."  Her bill, which stretched back to 1897, would equal about $30,000 today.  The article commented, "The Herman Le Roy Joneses are conspicuous in fashionable society."

The pressure apparently took a toll, and Margaret suffered a breakdown.  She was committed to a sanitarium for nervous exhaustion until May 6, 1904.  The Evening World reported that upon her release, "She was under rigid restraint and surveillance in her mother-in-law's mansion, at No. 6 East Twelfth street...She was allowed to go nowhere without some member of her immediate family or a servant in her company."

Ten days after Margaret returned home, Herman thought a trip to the races would do her good.  And so, on the afternoon of May 16, 1904, the couple accompanied millionaire Robert L. Cutting to the races at Morris Park.  What Herman expected to be pleasant afternoon turned to anything but when Margaret disappeared.

After the first race, Herman and Cutting left Margaret in their box to go to the betting ring.  When they returned, she was gone.  When she did not return after a considerable period, the two men became alarmed.  They searched the ground and the clubhouse and made repeated inquiries, but no one had seen her.  Finally giving up, Herman returned home around 6:00.

About half an hour later, a boy rang the bell with a note from Margaret, written on stationery of the Brevoort Hotel just four blocks away on Fifth Avenue.  In it, according to Robert Cutting, she "declared her intention of leaving her husband and working for her own living."  The two men rushed to the hotel, but the clerk said a woman matching Margaret's description had merely stopped in and used the writing room.

On May 26, Jones received information from a woman who lived in a 22nd Street boarding house that his wife was living there.  He and Cutting went there and examined the room and Jones recognized some of Margaret's clothing.  They waited in the parlor until she returned.  She arrived at about 6:00 that evening and Herman brought her back to 6 East 12th Street.  Neither he nor Cutting would discuss the incident.

The Joneses moved out in 1907 and on April 9 that year, The New York Times reported that the Bonnett Estate had leased the house to Samuel Medlin for five years.  By then, the Lower Fifth Avenue neighborhood had drastically changed as millionaires migrated northward and commerce invaded the once exclusive district.

Medlin converted the basement for commercial use.  In 1909, Morris F. Pfaelzer operated his fur business, M. F. Pfaelzer & Company, here.  He would remain here until 1913 when M. L. Weiss, "dealer in cornices and skylights," moved his operation in.

After being in the family for more than seven decades, on February 19, 1918, the New York Herald reported that Charles P. Bonnett had sold 6 East 12th Street to M. L. Weiss, "who occupies the lower floor of this building."  Weiss resold the house to Thomas Snell who leased it and the house next door at 4 East 12th Street to the Winifred Warren Company in 1919.  The New-York Tribune reported that the firm "will alter the houses into studio apartments."

Among the first tenants was Jessie Franklin Turner, a fashion designer, here in 1919.  Turner established workrooms and showrooms in both houses.  

An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 26, 1920, offered an available apartment in 6 East 12th Street: "Two large rooms with bath in Colonial house for studio or professional offices."

In 1925, Belfast-born poet Joseph Campbell and Michael Walsh established The School of Irish Studies in the building.  Among the initial courses it offered were the "History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to the Latest Developments," and "Irish Literature from the Ancient Hero-Tales to Post-James Joyce."  It additionally presented lectures on Irish history, language, literature and art.  It would operate here through 1927.

The canopy of the Blue Heaven Restaurant that resulted from the 1936 renovation can be seen in this 1940 photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

An renovation by architect Hans C. Volz in 1936 resulted in a restaurant, the Blue Heaven, in the basement and one apartment per floor on the upper portion.  It was likely during this remodeling that the upper floor windows were enlarged.  The configuration lasted until 1945 when the basement was converted to an apartment.

The ever-changing basement became the Peridot Gallery, headed by Lou Pollack in the 1949.  (It was likely during this renovation that the stoop was removed.)  The gallery featured avant-garde and Abstract Expressionist art.  In the 1960s, writer Robert Phelps and his artist wife Rosemarie Beck occupied an apartment here.  An Abstract Expressionist, Beck's works likely appeared in the gallery downstairs.

The top floor windows would have originally be squat, matching those of No. 4 next door.

The basement level was renovated again in 2009 when it became part of a duplex apartment with the parlor level.  

photographs by the author

The 1892 Middle Church House - 50 East Seventh Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In 1891, the Middle Collegiate Church hired architect Samuel B. Reed to design its newest church building, at 112 Second Avenue.  This would be its third structure.  The congregation was established in 1729  at Cedar and Nassau Streets.  In 1859 it moved north to Lafayette Place and Fourth Street.

Included in Reed's commission was the designing of the multi-purpose Middle Church House around the corner at 50 East 7th Street.  While he designed the church in the Gothic Revival style, he turned to Romanesque Revival for the church house.  Five stories tall above an English basement, the upper four floors were clad in beige Roman brick.  Reed faced the first floor with undressed limestone--the same material used for the church.  The asymmetrical design included grouped windows at the second and third floors within an arch crowned with a stone eyebrow.  The charming fifth floor design was composed of a tower-like western portion with a triple arcade and pyramidal cap, while the eastern portion was distinguished by a wide dormer with a hipped roof, fronted by a stone balcony.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Inside were living accommodations for the minister and his family, an auditorium for lectures and services, a gymnasium, Sunday school rooms, and administrative offices.

The year 1918 was especially noteworthy for Reverend Edgar Franklin Romig.  He was ordained in March, was married to Ella Woodruff Dutcher on May 11, and was appointed minister of Middle Collegiate Church in 1918.  Rev. Romig and his bride moved into the Middle Church House.

Romig had a fascinating past.  Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on March 22, 1890, he graduated valedictorian from Franklin & Marshall College in 1911 and graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in 1918.  (He would earn an M. A. degree from Columbia University in 1923.)  From 1913 to 1916, he was an instructor at Syrian Protestant College (now American University) in Beirut, Syria.  In August 1914 he served in the American Consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia.

At some point, the building became the repository of William Leverich Brower's extensive collection of historical memorabilia.  A catalogue published in 1926 said, "This collection comprises one hundred and thirty prints and photographs of persons and places chiefly identified with the earlier history of the City and Nation."

The 1930 Year Book of the (Collegiate) Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York outlined some of the activities offered in the Middle Church House.  In addition to the "large number of boys and young men at the Sunday School services," said the article, there were Sunday school classes for girls and young women.  Young men were offered physical education and health classes, and a Boy Scouts troop was organized here in 1929.

photograph by Carole Teller

As the East Village neighborhood changed, the offerings within the Middle Church House adapted.  In May 11, 1960, for instance, The Villager reported, "A film, 'Voices Across the Miles,' will be shown...in the Middle Church House" on May 17.  The following year, on February 2, 1961, the newspaper reported on the Middle Collegiate Church's upcoming production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.  The article mentioned that dramatic soprano Susan Griska, who would be singing the lead role, "is directing the costuming and staging of the production in the Middle Church House."

Neighborhood outreach was reflected in programs hosted here.  A "Game Night" for the benefit of the Warwick Fund was held here on October 19, 1962.  (The Warwick Fund, administered by the American Philosophical Society, helped orphans of World War II.)  As early as the following year, volunteers from the Society of Illustrators offered art classes to teenagers here as part of the Blue Curtain Youth Program in the neighborhood.  And on April 4, 1983, as reported by The New York Times, the second East Village Arts Festival would open here.  The article said, "Artists, musicians, dancers and other performers who live in the East Village will take part."

With the AIDS crisis ravaging New York City in 1986, Celebrate Life Meal for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS was established here.  At a time when HIV victims were often seen as pariahs, Reverend Gordon R. Dragt, explains in his One Foot Planted in the Center, the Other Dangling off the Edge,

Every Monday night a meal was served, vegetables and groceries were distributed, people were greeted and hugged, a social worker, nurse and nutritionist were available, entertainment was provided, and special event parties were planned.

Around 1987, the Divine Theater was established in the auditorium, staging productions like Bertolt Brecht's theater-dance piece, Dog and Bone in November that year.  The name was changed to the Cooper Square Theater in 1989.  The venue would continue to offer performing and visual arts.  On May 11, 2001, The New York Times reported, "A choreographic collective, De Facto Dance," would be performing for two days at "Middle Collegiate Church Performance Space, 50 East Seventh Street."

Tragedy came on December 4, 2020 when Middle Collegiate Church was destroyed by fire.  Executive minister Amanda Ashcroft summed up the catastrophe to the New York Post.  "This has been a year already with racial inequity, economic inequity, a global pandemic and now our church is burning."

The extended columns give the appearance of having always been there.  photograph by Carole Teller

The shaken congregation rallied.  After holding services online and in East End Temple, plans were initiated to convert Middle Church House to the new worship space.  Recently completed, the facade was deftly altered by the removal of the stoop and lowering of the entrance to grade.  The architects seamlessly extended its engaged columns and installed a two-paneled transom to fill the resultant void.  A double-doored entrance to the worship space was installed to the side.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1893 248 West 23rd Street

 

Contractor and real estate developer Isidore Hoffstadt and his wife, Bettie, often worked as a team--Bettie handling the business side and Isidore the construction.  On May 15, 1893, the New York Herald reported that Bettie Hoffstadt had spent $28,000 for the 25-foot-wide, four-story brownstone at 248 West 23rd Street.  On the site, Hoffstadt erected a six-story business building.

The structure went up at lighting speed and construction was completed before the end of the year.  The pace was made possible by the pre-fabricated, cast iron faceted bay that engulfed most of the second through sixth floors.  Above a cast iron base, the bay nestled between beige brick piers decorated with terra cotta tiles and carved "capitals."  A commercial take on Italian Renaissance Revival, the design was capped by an elaborate pressed metal cornice.

Immediately upon its completion, the Hoffstadts sold 248 West 23rd Street to William C. G. Wilson for $86,000, or about $3.2 million in 2026 terms.  The building's early tenants included two disparate lighting companies--The Incandescent Gas Lamp Co. and the Standard Electric Light and Novelty Co.

On March 15, 1894, the cumbersomely named The Plumbers' Trade Journal, Gas, Steam and Hot Water Fitters' Review reported on the former firm's innovation in lighting.  "This burner they claim will distribute the gas evenly allowing a large volume of oxygen to unite with the gas and gives a brilliant mellow light."

The Sun, November 18, 1897 (copyright expired)

In reporting on the Standard Electric Lamp & Novelty Company on September 5, 1896, Western Electrician noted, "The company has prepared a large number of new designs in miniature incandescent lamps for decorative purposes that are very beautiful and of various shades of color and forms."  In addition to the firm's cutting edge technology in electric lighting, it also manufactured "complete X-ray outfits," according to the article.

Other tenants by the turn of the century were Samuel Budd, who made "fine custom shirts;" Demmerle & Co., makers of automobile apparel like cloth caps and dusters; Bennett & Felt, "dealers in mantels," and the somewhat shady The Animal World and The Humane Alliance.

The latter organization was headed by E. C. Vick.  His operation came crashing down when he was arrested on February 25, 1901 for "using the United States mails for fraudulent purposes," according to The New York Times.  Vick placed advertisements in newspapers nationwide that promised that "he would give to all who wished them pet animals of all species" for free.  But there were conditions.

First, the recipient had to take a pair of animals, one male and the other female, and "agree to sell to The Animal World the first of the progeny."  The recipient also had to purchase a $1 membership to The Animal World and the Humane Alliance.  But when the prospective subscriber send off his $1, instead of receiving his pair of gray squirrels or Belgian hares or even Shetland ponies, he received a letter that said, "on receipt of the requisite number of subscriptions to the publications...the animals would be shipped forthwith."  

According to Post Office Inspector Sutton, letters of complaint had come pouring into his office, "by the score from all parts of the country."  Vick defended himself, saying that his arrest was "a mistake" and that he would show that "everything was on the square."

Uncontestedly "on the square" was Demmerle & Co.  Having started out manufacturing cloth caps for automobile drivers, by 1903 it was designing and making entire outfits.  On October 1 that year, the Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal reported on the company's new invention--a "combination garment...intended for use as an overcoat or as pants and coat."  The ankle-length coat could be modified by wrapping the lower portions around the legs, creating "pants."  The article said, "Where it is necessary to straddle a steering pillar to manipulate foot levers, this coat will be found very useful in cold weather as both limbs are protected against the cold and wind."

The lower portion Demmerle automobile coat could be converted to pants.  Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal, October 1, 1903 (copyright expired)

Demmerle & Co. introduced another innovation in automobile apparel that year--"the first automobile gown."   The Evening World explained on January 23, 1903, "The proper attire for the feminine motorist is more difficult to determine than any other style of garment."  At the request of "Mrs. Vanderbilt" (the article did not specify which of the Vanderbilt women), Demmerle & Co. had designed "a tailor suit of tan suede."  The article said the socialite requested "something that would be warm and comfortable and at the same time display her shapely figure."

Demmerle & Co. created this custom-made "automobile suit" for Mrs. Vanderbilt.  The Evening World,  January 23, 1903 (copyright expired)

The Vanderbilt suit sparked an entire line of women's apparel for automobile travel.

Demmerle & Co. did not rely solely on their in-house designers.  On May 21, 1904, Automobile Topics reported, "Mr. L. Mendelsohn, of Demmerle & Co., 248 West Twenty-third street, sailed on Tuesday for Europe...He expects to study the situation in the automobile clothing trade abroad and will return with many novelties."

The Clothier & Furnisher, August 1907 (copyright expired)

Mendelsohn's trip might have surprised many in the industry.  The previous month, 248 West 23rd Street was ravaged by fire.  Boys playing in the vacant lot next door on April 14, 1904 built a bonfire.  It spread into the building through a first floor window.  The New York Times reported that the fire "raged on the first, second, and third floors for nearly half an hour."  The Demmerle & Co. employees were quickly evacuated, but the 50 young women who were employed in Samuel Gordon's shirt factory on the top two floors were trapped.

The Times said the women "became panic-stricken.  A few of them were induced by three policemen to climb out over the roof to safety, but the majority were taken down in the elevator."  Hugh Norton, known by the building's occupants as Hughey, was the elevator operator.  According to The Spectator, he "stuck by his elevator and ran it up ten times through smoke and flame until every one of the imprisoned girls was brought down to safety."  The New York Times reported, "When the last of the girls were safe in the street the elevator man fell in a faint, completely exhausted."  

In response to Norton's actions, according to The Spectator on April 21, "Andrew Carnegie has just established a fund of $5,000,000 from which such heroes are to be rewarded."

Edward Rhine moved his Rhine & Co. into the building in 1907.  The Millinery Trade Review reported that the firm had "increased their facilities for the manufacture of millinery linings, as well as their sales of millinery lining silk."  

The company had barely settled in when an employer, fabric cutter Joseph Moses, approached Edward Rhine, "with the proposition that for $700 he would give Rhine information leading to the arrest of employees in his establishment who were robbing him," reported the New York Herald on May 26, 1907.  Rhine notified the police and a detective provided him a marked $10 bill and instructed him to make an appointment with Moses.

Rhine met Moses at the corner of Nassau and Fulton Streets on the night of May 25.  After taking the bill, Moses told Rhine that "if he would watch the corner of Bleecker and Carmine Streets later in the evening he would discover a dishonest employee."  At that point, undercover detectives arrested Moses.

Detectives then went to Bleecker and Carmine and waited.  Two men met on the corner, one with a suitcase and the other with a large bundle, and entered a saloon.  The man with the bundle was Sephan Nilan, an employee of Edward Rhine.

The detectives followed the pair into a back room.  The New York Herald said they "found four men clustered about a table, upon which were displayed about $500 worth of fine silks and feathers."  All four were arrested and, according to the article, police would release Moses the next day.

Fairchild's Men's Wear Directory, 1907 (copyright expired)

In 1912, Demmerle & Co. employed 78 workers, 29 of whom were females and 3 were teenagers between 14 and 16 years old.  By then, the firm had expanded into full automobile wardrobes, including footwear and chauffeurs' uniforms.

The Savoy Waist and Dress Company occupied the top floor in 1914 when another example of heroism during a fire took place.  At around 6:00 on the night of October 15, Mabel Snedecker, the firm's owner, discovered that the back stairway was in flames.  A series of full-width, balcony-like fire escapes fronted the 23rd Street facade and Snedecker directed her workforce of 60 young women toward the fire escapes.  As they exited the building, they saw that "hundreds of persons" had gathered on the street below, "according to the New York Herald.  The article said, "In the excitement two girls fainted."

The building-wide, platform-like fire escapes that saved the lives of the Savoy Waist and Dress Company employees were still in place in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Calling their employer a "heroine," the New York Herald said, "They were carried down the fire escape to safety on Miss Snedecker's back before the firemen arrived."  The newspaper said that, while the fire was confined to the top floor, the Savoy Waist and Dress Company factory was "entirely destroyed."

In 1914, the ground floor space became home to the American Soda Fountain Company.  It would remain at least into the 1920s.

By the early Depression years, apparel firms had migrated northward and 248 West 23rd Street began seeing a different type of tenant.  In February 1930, for instance, the Skinnell Silver Plating Company moved into the building.

In the mid-1960s, A Dinnerman Storage occupied at least one of the lofts, and in 1974 the Printmaking Workshop was in the building.  The New York Amsterdam News explained on July 20 that year that the organization "endeavors to make art a part of each student's life experience--using their own creative images as the catalyst."

Healthy Chelsea, a health food store, occupied the ground floor space in the mid-1980s.  It remained until 2009, replaced by a dentist office, a frozen yogurt shop, and finally a tax consultant firm in 2015.  

The storefront has been modernized with unflattering panels; however, the upper floors remain essentially intact.  Although there was never an official renovation to residential, there are six apartments in the building today.

photographs by the author

A Severe Transformation - 1 West 103rd Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

In 1892, developer J. C. Barth completed an ambitious project -- the erection of nine "five-story brick and stone flats" on Central Park West.  Designed by Edward Wenz in the Romanesque Revival style, the buildings stretched from 103rd to 104th Street.  Seven of them faced the avenue and two opened onto the side streets.  Wenz faced the buildings in yellow Roman brick atop a striated brownstone base.  Each of the entrances sat below layered arches upheld by clustered columns.  Here, the architect used historic license by adding Renaissance inspired decorations.

Brutalized today, the former entrance originally had a glass transom.  The intricate carvings on either side once continued into the now blank upper panels.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The southern building, 1 West 103rd Street, attracted a variety of tenants, including several theatrical figures.  Among the first was actor and manager Harry Hine, who, with his wife, were original tenants.

Two years prior to moving into 1 West 103rd Street, Hine received a windfall.  On June 6, 1890, The Times-Democrat said he "left Hallen & Hall's 'Later On' in St. Paul as soon as he heard of his good fortune and came straight to New York."  That "good fortune" was his inheriting $50,000 from Horace S. Lanfair.  The amount would translate to about $1.8 million in 2026.

The Indianapolis News called Hine, "one of the best known of the younger generation of American theatrical managers."  He would not enjoy newly found wealth, however, for long.  At the time of his inheritance, he was already showing symptoms of consumption, known today as tuberculosis.  He became ill in the fall of 1892 and died in his apartment on February 12, 1893. 

Alfred W. Barthelmess married actress Caroline Harris on September 2, 1893.  The newlyweds moved into 1 West 103rd Street where their only son, Richard Semler Barthelmess, was born on May 9, 1895.  Alfred died at the age of 34 on May 5, 1896.  Caroline not only continued her stage career, she tutored her son in the dramatic arts.  

Actress Caroline Harris and her actor son, Richard Barthelmess.  (original source unknown)

Both would go into silent films, and Richard would become a well-known silent film actor, starring opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms and Way Down East.  He would go on to co-found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and be nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Celebrated actress Alice Fischer and her Shakespearean actor husband William Harcourt King lived here as early as 1902.  Alice was born in January 1869 and debuted on the stage in 1887.  The following year she first appeared on Broadway in the role of Minna in Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Born in 1866, King was known to audiences as William Harcourt.  He and Alice were married on May 7, 1893.

Alice Fischer suffered a frighting incident on the night of October 16, 1902.  After her performance that night, she was heading home in a carriage on Fifth Avenue when, at around midnight, a man in evening dress walked directly in front of the vehicle and was nearly run down.  The man "grabbed the bridle and began to abuse" the cabman, reported The New York Times.  When the driver "whipped up his horse to go on," the angry pedestrian pried a brick from the pavement and hurled it at the cab, breaking the side window and striking Alice's face.  He then dashed into the University Club.

The New York Times reported that Alice "drove up to the West Forty-seventh Street Station...bleeding from a severe cut on her cheek."  After reporting the incident and giving police a description of the attacker, said the article, "Miss Fischer drove away, saying she was going to a doctor to have her wound dressed."

Alice Fischer, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Alice's personal maid was Sally Pate, and their relationship had an unexpected start.  On March 29, 1899, Sally arrived from Atlanta, Georgia to audition for Williams & Walker, a minstrel company "that made a specialty of good singing and dancing," according to the New York Herald.  But her train was delayed by three hours and when she arrived at the theater, the role had already been cast.

The dejected would-be entertainer "looked about for some other theatrical engagement," said the newspaper.  Finding a position for a female Black entertainer was difficult, at the time.  Alice Fischer, who heard of her plight, realized that as much as did Sally.  The next day Sally was working for Alice Fischer as her "lady in waiting," as worded by the New York Herald. 

Now, eight years later on April 16, 1907, Sally was still living  and working for Alice and William.  That night she was married in the drawing room here to William Henry Bunn.    

The entrance to 1 West 103rd Street is at the left, on the side street.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The next morning, Alice left for Chicago on tour and, apparently, William accompanied her.  Bunn worked at the ice cream counter of a West 103rd Street pharmacy and the newlyweds had no money for a honeymoon.  The New York Herald said that Alice had given them the use of "the entire flat while the actress is in Windtown."

An interesting tenant here as early as 1905 was Ottoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish, described by the New York Herald as "the Public Instructor of Mazdaznan Philosophy in America."  Ha'nish was not only its instructor, but he was the founder of the neo-Zoroastrian religious movement.  Among its tenets were a vegetarian diet, "intestinal hygiene," and fasting.  

One of his students, Mrs. Brownie Rathbone Weaverson, took the practice too far, according to police, who arrested her on March 18, 1905 "for practising [sic] medicine and attempting to cure a gangrene leg."  In reporting the incident, the New York Herald called Ha'nish, "the head of Mrs. Weaverson's cult."

Terra cotta panels depict fearsome chimeras.  photograph by Anthony Bellov.

An advertisement in The New York Times in 1907 offered a seven-room corner apartment with bath at $75, or about $2,700 per month today.  The ad mentioned that the apartment had a "fine view."

The building was updated in July 1919.  The owner, H. S. Proctor, hired architects DeRosa & Pereira to do "improvements" that cost him the equivalent of more than $1.8 million today.  Presumably, the renovations included electricity and improved plumbing.

Tenants continued to be professional and upper-middle-class.  Among them in the 1920s was journalist Edward E. Marriott.  Born in England in 1862, he came to America as a boy.  In the 1890s, he was hired as a reporter for The New York World.  In 1918, he joined the editorial staff of the New York American.

On January 6, 1944, The New York Times reported that the nine buildings, including 1 West 103rd Street, had been purchased by Herbert H. Bachrach and Ira Rosenstock.  The article said they were "modernized into 110 apartments of small units."

The 1971 project resulted in staggering contrast in material and architectural styles. photograph by Anthony Bellov

That renovation could not compare with the changes that were completed in 1971.  Almost all of the 1892 facade was stripped away.  (By conserving sections of the exterior, the developers did not have to conform to "new building" conditions.)  The original entrances on 103rd and 104th Street were preserved--more or less--and bricked up.  Although described as a remodeling because of the various surviving elements on the side street elevations, the  term "facadism" would be more accurately applied to the project, but even then only by the most generous definition.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Lost Henry Ammon James Mansion - 735 Park Avenue

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

British-born architect Frederick Junius Sterner arrived in New York City in 1906.  He purchased an architecturally outdated brownstone on East 19th Street and transformed it into a Mediterranean-style villa with a stuccoed facade and red tile roof.  Within five years, he had remade numerous high-stooped brownstones around the city into modern mansions for numerous wealthy patrons.  

Henry Ammon James would add his name to Sterner's client list in 1916.  On January 29, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Sterner was designing renovations to the old brownstone at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 71st Street.  The plans included the removal of walls and stairs, "rearrange [the] roof," creation of "new areas," and installing modern "plumbing, wiring and heating."  The remodeling would cost James $25,000, or about $756,000 in 2026 terms.

The vintage four-story-and-basement house, built in the 1870s, originally faced 71st Street.  Sterner reconfigured the layout, placing the entrance on Park Avenue.  The "new areas" in his plans included extending the building to the north.  Sterner transformed the high-stooped house into a modern Elizabethan Revival-style townhouse.  Two projecting, two-story bays distinguished the Park Avenue elevation, and multi-paned, leaded windows throughout gave the house a sense of antiquity.  The otherwise symmetrical design was upset by the peaked attic level with its disparate sized gables.  It stopped short of the northern extension.

Hemry Ammon James, Yale College Class of 1874, 1870-1912 (copyright expired)

Attorney Henry Ammon James was a widower.  Born in Baltimore on April 24, 1854, he was educated by a private tutor before entering Yale.  He married Laura Brevoort Sedgwick on September 21, 1891 and they had two children, Dorothy, born in 1892, and William Ellery Sedgwick, born in 1895.  Laura died on November 1, 1907.  

In addition to his law practice, James was the president of the East Hampton Electric Light Company.  The family's country home, which Henry and Laura built the year they were married, was in East Hampton, Long Island.  

A postcard depicts the James' sprawling, shingle-style summer house.

William Ellery Sedgwick James went by Ellery.  When the family moved into the remodeled mansion, he was attending Yale University.  He and Louise R. Hoadley were engaged to be married in Southampton in June 1917, but, as was the case with hundreds of couples across the country, the war in Europe changed their plans.  On April 14, 1917, The New York Times said, "as Mr. James has joined the officers' reserve corps of Yale University the date for the wedding has been advanced."  The couple was married in St. Bartholomew's Church on April 25.

The war did not interrupt Ellery's schooling and he graduated later that year.  But shortly afterward he left his bride at home and went overseas with the American Expeditionary Force.  He would see battle in France with the 324th Field Artillery.

Sterner placed the service entrance in the northern extension, directly under the conservatory.  The American Architect, December 12, 1916 (copyright expired.

Dorothy's engagement to George Griswold Haven was announced on February 2, 1925.  It would be an extremely short engagement.  Three days later, The New York Times reported that the couple had been married the previous morning in St. George's Church.  "When Mr. and Mrs. Haven return from a wedding trip they will live at 6 East Fifth-third Street, which has been Mr. Haven's home for many years," said the article.  George G. Haven was the president of the Metropolitan Opera House Real Estate Company and the senior member of the banking form of Strong, Sturgis & Co.  Dorothy was his second wife, his first having died a few years earlier.

Thousands of diamond shaped panes composed the openings.  The American Architect, December 12, 1916 (copyright expired)

Five months later, on July 21, 1925, George and Dorothy had breakfast in their East 53rd Street mansion at 8:00.  Afterward, Dorothy left to go shopping.  An old friend, Dr. E. Eliot, stopped by unannounced at around 10:30.  The butler informed him that George was in his room.  "I'll go up and see him," responded Eliot.  He entered the bedroom to find George's body on the bed.  The New York Times reported, "He had shot himself through the jaw.  The bullet had lodged in the brain, killing him instantly."

Henry Ammon James died at the East Hampton estate on the afternoon of August 2, 1929 "after a long illness," as reported by The New York Times.  The newspaper noted that he "was a member of the University, Century, Metropolitan, Maidstone, Garden City, National Golf and Jekyll Island clubs."

James left an estate, according to The New York Times, of $2,993,392, or about $57.7 million today.  The bulk of the estate was divided, essentially, equally between Dorothy and Ellery, although Ellery received the Park Avenue mansion and its contents.

Two months later, on October 1, The New York Times reported that Ellery had purchased the abutting house at 103 East 71st Street.  The move was potentially intended to protect the mansion from developers.  But if that were the case, James changed his mind.

In August 1930, he sold the corner properties to developer Michael E. Paterno.  The New York Times reported that he intended to erect an apartment building on the site.  

William Ellery Sedgwick James died at the age of 37 on November 26, 1932.  

Seven years later, the syndicate named 737 Park Avenue Corporation had acquired the additional properties necessary to go forward with the apartment building project.  On November 25, 1939, The New York Times reported that workers "started this week to demolish six old private residences to make way for an eighteen-story apartment house which will go up on that corner."  Designed by Sylvan Bien, the replacement structure was completed in 1940.

photo by Godsfriendchuck

many thanks to Doug Wheeler for suggesting this post