The Frank and Elizabeth Larom House - 219 West 78th Street

 

The extended Hall family were builders and developers.  William Hall began the tradition that was continued by his sons William W. and Thomas M. Hall.  (They operated both as William Hall's Sons and W. W. & T. M. Hall).  Joining in the familial trend were Arlington C., and Harvey M. Hall, who worked together; and William H. Hall Jr. and T. R. A. Hall.

In 1890, the latter two purchased ten building lots on the northern side of West 78th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.  They hired the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson to design upscale, three-story and basement homes on the site.  Completed in 1891, they wore Romanesque Revival pants and Renaissance Revival shirts.

Among them was 219 West 78th Street.  Its basement and parlor levels were clad in chunky, undressed brownstone blocks, typical of the Romanesque Revival style.  Beefy carved stoop newels continued the motif.  Thom & Wilson introduced the Renaissance at the parlor floor with sumptuous fruit-and-flower carvings in the single lintel that connected the windows and above the doorway.  Formal fluted columns with complex capitals flanked the entranceway.

The second and third floors discarded any hints of Romanesque.  The windows within the planar brownstone surface were framed by shallow quoins and capped with lintels carved with intricate swags of fruits and flowers.  A pressed metal cornice with paired corbels completed the design.

On October 6, 1892, only two of the homes were still unsold, including No. 219.  An advertisement in The Evening Post for the "3-Story High-Class Houses" read:

For sale--206 and 219 West 78th St.; remainder of row of ten thoroughly seasoned; ready for decorating; restricted neighborhood front and rear.  Liberal mortgage.

The mention of "restricted neighborhood front and rear" meant that commerce (like stores) was prohibited on the 78th and 79th Street blocks.

The house underwent a quick succession of owners until about 1896 when glove importer Frank William Larom and his wife, the former Elizabeth Elmira Shute, moved in.  Born in 1862 and 1867 respectively, the couple was married on December 14, 1887.  They had two children, Irving Hastings and Edith Emerson.  

Elizabeth had deep American roots and was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Society of New England Women.  Her father, builder William Shute, had erected the Grand Opera House.  Like most wives of affluent businessmen, Elizabeth was involved in charitable work.  She annually donated items to the New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home for orphans and wives of veterans.  In 1896, for instance, she donated "1 blanket, 5 tidies, 13 books, dolls and toys."  ("Tidies" were embroidered pieces of cloth used to protect the backs of upholstered furniture.)  The 1914 Woman's Who's Who of America would mention that Elizabeth "interested in animal welfare."  (She was a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.)  It also noted that she was "against woman suffrage."

Edith Emerson Larom was 12 years old when she died on April 21, 1905.  The little girl's casket sat in the parlor until her funeral there on April 24.

The 1914 Social Register listed Irving Hastings Larom as living in the Cottage Club at Princeton University.  Known as Larry, upon his graduation the following year, he relocated to the Far West with Winthrop Brooks (of the Brooks Brothers family).  They established Valley Ranch near Cody, Wyoming.  A dude ranch, he advertised in part, "You'd enjoy wearing ranch clothes, the cowboys, the ranch work, the saddle-leather atmosphere of the place."

Now empty nesters, Frank and Elizabeth sold 219 West 78th Street in December 1918 to Dr. Ferdinand G. Kneer and his wife, the former Annie L. Thoe.  Kneer had been the pathologist at Harlem Hospital, and was now a surgeon at St. Katherine's Hospital.  Additionally, he was also president of the Kneer-Kuhl Co. and an amateur photographer and a pioneer in the creation of colored "optical lantern" slides.  He used those in illustrating his lectures.

Ferdinand G. Kneer died on June 17, 1927.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later, followed by services in the Church of the Transfiguration on East 29th Street.  Annie did not remain in the house for long.  She sold it in February 1929 to the Monel Holding Corporation.  The New York Times remarked that the buyer "will remodel the premises into small suites."

Something went awry with the negotiation, however.  The Monel Holding Corporation was still leasing the property from Annie L. Kneer as late as 1934.  On November 13, 1938, The New York Times reported that Annie L. Kneer had leased the house to a new tenant for five years.  "The tenant will alter the building," said the article.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The residence was remodeled again after the Feingold Realty Corporation purchased it in September 1962.  "The buyer, an architect, plans to alter the building into small apartments, one of which he will occupy," reported The New York Times.  That architect was Alexander Feingold.  He reconfigured the interior to seven apartments while preserving the exterior appearance. 

At the time of Feingold's purchase, the neighborhood had severely declined from the era when Frank and Elizabeth Larom first stepped from their carriage in front of the stoop.  Thirty-five years later, Feingold still lived here.  He recalled his early years in the house to The New York Times journalist Christopher Gray in 1995, saying, "the block was plagued by prostitution and drugs."  Feingold and his neighbors turned things around.  Gray reported, "An early step forward, around 1966, was the planting of trees by the Department of Parks, followed by brick enclosures Mr. Feingold's firm designed for the tree pits a few years later."

There are still seven apartments in the building.  And Thom & Wilson's interesting hybrid design is amazingly intact.

photographs by the author

The Lost 1826 Masonic Hall - 316 Broadway

 

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

On April 18, 1826, the Masonic Hall Association announced in the New-York Evening Post its intention "to commence building a Masonic Hall, for the accommodation of all the lodges and other masonic bodies in this city, in the ensuing month."  The article offered "subscriptions to the stock of said association" for $10 each--about $330 in 2026 terms. 

The cornerstone was laid on June 24, 1826.  The Evening Post remarked that New Yorkers had witnessed, "for the first time, we believe, in twenty years, the novel and interesting spectacle of a Masonic Procession."  The article mentioned that inscribed on the stone, along with names of the trustees and builders, was, "Brother Hugh Reinagle, Architect."  The New York Times added, "Many thousands of our citizens were present to witness the ceremony."

The $10 stock certificates depicted Reinagle's rendering.  from the collection of the New York Masonic Library.

Reinagle was not an architect, but a well-known landscape painter.  Nonetheless, his Masonic Hall was one of the first Gothic Revival structures in America.  The New York Times would recall in 1856, "At the time of its erection, it was looked upon as a prodigy of American architecture." 

Sitting on Broadway between Duane and Worth Streets, the building was completed in 1827 at a cost of $50,000, or about $1.7 million today.  It was faced in "eastern gray granite," according to The New York Times.  Two triple Gothic-arched arcades flanked the main entrance, which was ornamented with Gothic crockets.  A row of stone quatrefoils introduced the second floor, which was dominated by a central arched window 22 feet high and 10 feet wide.  The New York Times described it as being, "divided into small diamond-shaped window panes in leaden frames."  The third floor sat between an intermediate cornice and slightly projecting band course.  A rose window distinguished the fourth floor and the crenelated roofline sprouted crocketed pinnacles.

Geo. P. Hall & Son depicted the residential neighborhood around Masonic Hall in 1830.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Historian Rufus Rockwell Wilson would recall in his 1903 New York: Old & New, "A costly Gothic structure, its first floor was given up to a single spacious apartment, intended for public meetings, concerts, and balls, while its third story was arranged for the meetings of the fraternity from which it borrowed its name."  Visitors entered a long hall that extended through the length of the building.  The Grand Saloon--95 feet long, 20 feet high and 47 feet wide--on the second floor was described by The New York Times as "the most splendid apartment of the kind in the United States."  According to the newspaper, Reinagle had based its design on the Chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey, saying:

The ceiling was beautifully ornamented, and fancifully divided into light arches with numerous decorations...Open-work columns supported arches which projected from the side walls, between which were false windows wreathed with flowers cut in stone, and carved corbels, and other architectural adornments.

There were historic-themed spaces.  The New-York Tribune (which described the Grand Saloon as a "splendid memorial of feudal age, and venerated relic of the early arts,") said that the Great Doric Hall was "equally distinguished for its simplicity, its beauty, and commanding size."  Another of the semi-public spaces, according to the article, was the Reading-Room Library.

New Yorkers had an opportunity to see selected spaces on November 30, 1827.  An announcement in the New-York Evening Post said:  

The public is informed that the Gothic Saloon in that splendid edifice, the Masonic Hall, will be opened for inspection on Wednesday...at which time the whole of the decorations, Grand Lodge furniture, hangings, &c., used at the dedication, can be seen.  The Chapter Lodge and Banqueting rooms can be viewed at the same time.

Tickets to tour the three areas cost 25 cents, or about $8 today.

Certain meeting rooms were available for rent.  On October 30, 1828, for instance, the Republican Electors of the Sixth Ward held a meeting for promoting the nomination of "the election of General Andrew Jackson" for President.  The following year, a meeting of the Friends of the American System backed Henry Clay for the U.S. Senate here.

The Grand Saloon was the scene of the Scottish themed Thistle Ball on March  18, 1829.  The New-York Evening Post reported, "Two Bag Pipers, and a number of Gentlemen in Highland Costume, will promenade the room before the commencement of the Ball."  This was a benefit event for John Graham, "as a mark of respect for his genius, the emanations of which have so frequently enlivened of public festivals; and also, an alleviation of his affliction, he being entire deprived of sight."

from the collection of the New York Masonic Library

Later that year, in October, a less expected function took place.  The New-York Evening Post reported that a boa constrictor was on exhibition.  "Although but about five years of age, it already measures some seventeen or eighteen feet in length," said the article.  Another snake, an anaconda, had been removed from the exhibition because, "it is now torpid from the process which it is undergoing of changing its skin."  The article proposed, however, "When the shedding shall be completed, an opportunity will probably be afforded to the public of seeing this animal destroy and swallow its quarterly meal."

In 1827, the body of anti-Mason William Morgan washed up on the shore of Lake Ontario.  Shortly after, David Cade Miller published a book that strongly suggested that he had been murdered by Masons.  The book eventually affected Masonic Hall.  Rufus Rockwell Wilson recalled in 1903, "But following the blow given to Masonry by the disappearance of William Morgan, its name was changed to Gothic Hall."

Gothic Hall continued to be the venue of political rallies, temperance meetings, and exhibitions.  On July 26, 1841, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported on the "grand opening fete" of the temperance movement.  Among the activities, said the article, was "an elegant supper, upon Temperance principles, served up in the Doric Hall with the same splendor and magnificent that was displayed in London at the Great Temperance Festival at the Coloseum [sic]."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

On November 29, 1854, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune read: "On Friday, Dec. 1., the marvelous Hybrid, or Bear-Woman, will be exhibited--pronounced by naturalists as a mysterious link combining the Human Species with the Brute Creation."

At the time of the Bear-Woman's appearance here, the end of the magnificent structure was near.  On May 26, 1856, The New York Times reported, "They are tearing down Gothic Hall, in Broadway."  After reminiscing about the building's history and mentioning that it had held the "largest bowling alley in the world," the article said, "The workmen are busily engaged in tearing down the walls of the edifice, and in a few days nothing will remain on the spot but dust and ruins."

Today the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building sits on the site.

image by Ajay Suresh

The 1887 Henry and Helen Hirsch House - 116 East 95th Street

 

In 1887 developer brothers William J. and John P. C. Walsh set out on an ambitious project of a row of 12 residences on the south side of the 95th Street block between Lexington and Park Avenues--numbers 116 to 138.  The steeply sloping site was known as Goat Hill.

The architectural firm of C. Abbott French & Co. turned to the popular Queen Anne style in designing the individual, yet harmonious homes.  Seen more frequently on the west side of Central Park, the often-whimsical style played with historic elements, materials, shapes and colors.

Like its neighbors, 116 East 95th Street was three stories tall above a brownstone fronted basement.  A dog-legged box stoop rose to the segmentally arched doorway, the terra cotta lintel of which connected that of the window creating a graceful wavelike effect.  A cast metal oriel, flanked by basketweave brick panels, dominated the second floor.  The openings of the third floor wore elaborate terra cotta decoration--the outer windows crowned with arches filled with sunbursts and mythical faces, and the central opening topped with a draped swans' head pediment.  Rather than a cornice, the house was completed by an arched brick parapet supported by a complex brick corbel table.

The house had a rocky start.  Its original owner, James R. Cuming, lost it in foreclosure in 1891 to Daniel P. Mahoney.  He immediately sold it to Henry Wallach, who sold it to Irving and Mollie Hirschfeld in May 1895.  The couple paid $16,500 for the house, or about $636,000 in 2026.

The Hirschfelds, too, would not remain especially long.  On April 12, 1902, they announced the engagement of their daughter, Minnie, to Henry Cohen.  Before the end of the year, they had sold 116 East 95th Street to Henry Hirsch and his wife, the former Helen Ella Gattman.

Henry was born in 1839 and Helen around 1845.  They couple, who were married in 1864, had seven adult children.  In July 1903, only months after purchasing No. 116, the couple hired architect J. Berry to make the equivalent of $276,000 today in interior renovations. 

Helen Hirsch, of course, had a small domestic staff.  On March 29, 1906, for instance, she advertised, "A neat girl wanted as chambermaid, assist washing; small private family.  116 East 95th st."

Henry Hirsh died in the house at the age of 77 on May 26, 1916.  His succinct, two-line death notice said, "Interment private."

Four years later, on May 5, 1920, The New York Times reported that Helen Ella Hirsch had sold the 20-foot-wide house.  The buyers were Latham Gallup Reed and his wife, the former Mary Newbold Welsh.

An attorney, Reed was born in Albany on December 10, 1855.  His American pedigree was deep and he descended from members of the Plymouth Colony.  His father was an Episcopalian priest, Rev. Sylvanus Reed, and his mother, Caroline Gallup Reed, "maintained a fashionable girls' school," according to The New York Times later. He studied at Columbia before transferring to Cambridge University where he earned his law degree.

He and Mary were married in 1884.  Latham was 29 and his bride was 25.  The couple had a son, Latham Ralston, and a daughter, Elizabeth Eunice.  When they moved into 116 East 95th Street, Latham Reed had been retired for six years.  The family's country home was in Locust, New Jersey.

Elizabeth, who never married, lived with her parents.  She was, perhaps, more visible in society than her mother.  On October 30, 1928, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Miss Elizabeth Reed...gave a reception yesterday afternoon at the Junior League Club, 133 East Sixty-first Street, for the Countess de la Gabbe, who is here from Paris."

Mary Newbold Welsh Reed died in the East 95th Street house on November 26, 1943 at the age of 84.  Her funeral was held two days later in All Saints Memorial Church in Navesink, New Jersey.

The stained-glass transoms of the parlor level and the charming  multi-paned, Queen Anne-style sashes of the top floor were intact in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1945, Latham Gallup Reed fell ill.  He died "after a brief illness," according to The New York Times, on November 29 at the age of 89.  The newspaper described him as an "internationally known lawyer."

No. 116 East 95th Street was sold the following year in June to Colonel George Leonidovich Artamonoff and his wife, the former Jessie Downing.  Born in Kursk, Russia on April 21, 1902, Artamonoff's father was General Leonid Konstantinovich Artamonoff of the Imperial Russian Army.  George fought in the White Army in 1919 before fleeing to the United States in 1921.

At the outbreak of World War II, Artamonoff was commissioned a major in the United States Army.  The conflict would cut short the couple's residency here.  The New York Times reported that in 1947, he was made "director of the Tokyo office of the Marshall Plan."  He was charged with "restoring economic relations between Japan and countries of Southeast Asia."  The Artamonoffs leased the house until June 1949, when they sold it.  

The subsequent occupants of the residence continued to be affluent--albeit not always as upstanding as their predecessors.  Harold Von Maker lived here in 1968 when was one of eight men, "including Carmine Lombardozzi, the Mafia figure," according to The New York Times, who were arrested by the FBI.  They were charged for conspiracy to steal brokerage checks.

Five years later, on August 16, 1973, The East Hampton Star reported that "Steven H. Maltby, 22, of 116 East 95th Street, New York" had been arrested.  He was charged "with criminal possession of a dangerous drug in the sixth degree (LSD)."

The house, still a single-family home, was renovated in 2020.  It was most likely at this time, that the stained-glass in the parlor floor transoms were removed in the process of replacing the windows.  

photographs by the author

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 a 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 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