The John Schermerhorn Bussing House - 4 East 12th Street

 

The son of Abraham and Hester Kingsland Bussing, John Schermerhorn Bussing was born on Cortlandt Street on October 15, 1802.  His two maternal aunts had married into the prominent Schermerhorn family, prompting his middle name.  Bussing formed a dry goods business, E. & J. Bussing, with his brother, Edmund.  Following Edmund's death 26 years later, John changed course, founding the iron and nail firm, John S. Bussing & Company.  He married Agnes Ann Speir in 1825 and the couple had a son, Robert Speir, who was born in 1826.  Anne died in 1831.

Two years later, John married Ann Van Nest in her parent's home.  The couple, with young Robert, moved into the Van Nest home, once the summer mansion of Sir Peter Warren.  A son, Abraham VanNest Bussing was born in 1834 and John Stuyvesant Bussing arrived on September 21, 1838.  Sadly, Abraham died at the age of five in 1838.

Around 1845 John S. Bussing and Peter R. Bonnet, most likely close acquaintances, began construction of matching brownstone-faced residence at 154 and 156 Twelfth Street, respectively.  (The addresses would be altered to 4 and 6 West 12th Street in 1855.)  Twenty-five-feet wide and four stories tall above English basements, they held their own with the mansions rising on Fifth Avenue just steps away.  Next to the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows, the entrance sat within a striking portico, its fluted columns capped with complex palm leaf capitals.

John Schermerhorn Bussing, Genealogies of the State of New York, 1915 (copyright expired)

In 1848, not long after moving into their mansion, the Bussings' only daughter, Mary, was born.

John Bussing was active in the public schools.  As early as 1850, he held the position of Chairman of Section No. 1 in the public and primary school system.  

John Schermerhorn Bussing died in the East 12th Street house on June 9, 1864 at the age of 52.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

Robert Speir Bussing had joined his father's business as a young man.  He married Mary Kingsland on January 8, 1850 and at the time of his father's death the couple was living in Brooklyn.  

John Stuyvesant Bussing had served in the Civil War.  By now he was a partner in the banking and brokerage firm Gelston & Bussing and still lived with his mother and sister at 4 East 12th Street.

John Stuyvesant Bussing, Genealogies of the State of New York, 1915 (copyright expired)

John married Kate Breath in 1873.  In what must have been unspeakable emotional anguish for John, Kate died in childbirth the following year, as did the couple's twin daughters, Kate and Anne.  He married Emily Morton Jenkins on October 31, 1882.  The couple lived with Ann and Mary at 4 East 12th Street.

It was acceptable for even well-to-do and socially prominent families to take in a boarder and in 1873 Henry C. Overin, the proprietor of the Phoenix Stables on West 46th Street, lived with the family.  He was separated from his wife, Mary, whom he married in 1865.  The New York Times explained that for a few years, "they lived unhappily."  Overin lived here through 1880, and it would not be until his death in 1898 that his name appeared in newspapers.  When both Mrs. Mary E. Overin and a decidedly younger Mrs. Caroline Overin laid claim to Henry's estate and business, the wealthy stable owner's duel life came to light.

In the meantime, John Bussing was highly involved with church and civic activities.  For decades he was a member of the consistory of the College Reformed Church.  He would, additionally, become one of the board of managers of the Young Men's Christian Association and of the Young Women's Christian Association.  In 1877, he was among a group of gentlemen who hoped to reform alcoholics.  On May 27, The New York Times reported that the men "have issued an appeal for assistance to enable them to establish a home for the reformation of drunkards."

Mary, who would never marry, was the victim of a pickpocket on March 2, 1882.  The New York Times reported that as she "was looking at the window of a Broadway store," James Harvey "rifled the sack pocket" of Mary Bussing.  The article said, "The only plunder he secured, was a card-case containing some cards and a few postage stamps."

Both Mary and Anne were active in philanthropic and charitable causes.  Anne's father, Abraham Van Nest, had been a trustee of Rutgers College and Van Nest Hall there was named in his honor.  In 1898, Anne "built a stone porch to Van Nest Hall and also refitted the eastern portion of the second story into a handsome hall for the use of the students in elocution," reported the New-York Tribune.  She was a generous benefactor of the Theological Seminary in New Brunswick and established the Bussing Prize there.

Mary Bussing was a founder of the Christmas Letter Mission.  The group endeavored to brighten the holidays of orphans, the indigent, prisoners, and hospitalized patients.  She explained in a letter to the editor of the New-York Tribune on December 15, 1887, "these beautiful letters, with a bright card inclosed [sic], are sent as a surprise on Christmas morning to the suffering ones."  She noted, "Twenty-five cents will send six of these sunbeams into lonely hearts."

John and Kate Bussing moved to 26 East 10th Street in 1886.  Now only Ann and Mary remained in the East 12th Street house with their staff of servants.  After a "severe attack of pneumonia," as reported by the New-York Tribune, Ann Van Nest Bussing died in the mansion at the age of 93 on January 8, 1905.

In 1918, Mary Bussing sold the house that her parents had built seven decades earlier and the only home she had ever known.  On February 23, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported, "Samuel Marcus...contemplates altering the 4-story brick and stone dwelling at 4 East 12th st., into studios and apartments."  The cost of the renovations, said the article, would be $15,000, or about $312,000 in 2026.  Plans filed by architects Jonathan B. Snook Sons included "remove stoop and [install] plumbing."

The renovations, completed in 1920, resulted in bachelor apartments.  The term did not mean that tenants were not restricted to men, but that the apartments did not have kitchens.  

Among the initial residents were Joseph P. Dugan, an engineer, and English-born D. Frank Gordon.  On October 25, 1920, the two men went uptown to join a rally by gubernatorial candidate Dudley Field Malone.  Professor Walter Edgerton Holloway first addressed the crowd and things began getting tense when , as described by The New York Times, the speaker "harangued a crowd of 5,000 Irish sympathizers near the Maine Monument."  Joseph Dugan remarked to Gordon, "Edgerton is a poor speaker, I wish Malone would hurry up and talk."

The New York Times said that the "casual remark to a friend was misinterpreted."  The Evening World reported that an Irishman in the crowd instead heard, "to the devil with Lord Mayor MacSwiney."  (MacSwiney was the former Lord Mayor of Cork.)  The article said, "An Irishman punched Gordon and a yell went up, 'He cursed MacSwiney!'"  The New York Times reported that Dugan and Gordon were beaten and Dugan "nearly lost his life at the hands of a mob."  Happily, police officers were on hand to rescue them.

In 1927, the newly-formed Institute of World Unity moved into the building, presumably in the basement level.  An educational and cultural organization, its goal was to promote racial tolerance and international peace.  By 1930, it also published World Unity Magazine from the address.

The institute was followed by The Meeting Place, Inc. around 1931.  A renovation by architects Beineix & Snyder in 1934 better accommodated the organization.  The Meeting Place now occupied the basement and first floors, and the upper floors held apartments.

The stoop and portico of 6 East 12th Street was originally a match to the one removed from No. 4 in 1918.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the first tenants in the renovated apartments was artist Reginald Marsh, who was recently divorced.  He moved into the building in February 1933.  Born in Paris in 1898, Marsh would become noted for his depictions of New York City life, like unemployed men on the Bowery and lively Coney Island boardwalk scenes.

In January 1934, Marsh married painter Felicia Meyer and, according to Ellen Wiley Todd in her New Woman Revised, the couple left 4 East 12th Street that month.  Apparently Marsh retained his studio here, however, because when he won a cash prize in the 122th annual exhibition of the national Academy of Design in 1937, his address was still listed at 4 East 12th Street.

Another renovation, completed in 1952, resulted in a "business office" in the basement and apartments on the upper floors.  Among those living and working here in the 1960s were composer, librettist and lyricist Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, and painter and printmaker Betty Waldo Parish.  Later television and documentary producer David E. J. Berger and his collaborator and wife Holly Maxson lived and worked here.

Despite the loss of the stoop and parlor entry, 6 East 12th Street survives remarkably intact above the basement level.  Today, the building, with its remarkable history, holds eight apartments.

photographs by the author

The Renovated Edison Illuminating Co. Station - 30-32 Horatio Street

photograph by Anthony Bellov

 

In 1881, the streets of New York City, like those of metropolises throughout the world, were illuminated by gas lamps, each one manually lit by a lamplighter.  Mass transportation was accomplished by horse-drawn streetcars, stages, and smoke-belching elevated trains.  But that was all about to change.  

Thomas Alva Edison received a patent for a practical incandescent light bulb on January 27, 1880.  New York City wasted no time in embracing the innovation and hired Edison to electrify Manhattan.  On December 17 that year, he established the Edison Illuminating Company, which would tackle the task of creating generating stations throughout the city.

The New York Edison Company recalled in its 1903 Thirty Years of New York, "One of Edison's most far-reaching ideas, in planning for the incandescent illumination of New York City, was his scheme of a distribution system which should be located entirely underground, free from all atmospheric disturbances and from other interferences to which overhead wires might be subjected."  Edison divided the city into sections, each about a square mile.  Each would receive an electrical generation station, the first of which was the Pearl Street Station that opened on September 4, 1882. 

The project progressed rapidly.  On January 15, 1898, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the "4-story double tenement" at 30-32 Horatio Street (between West Fourth and Hudson Street) had been sold for $16,000.  The following year, on July 23, the New York Journal and Advertiser reported, "The Edison Electric Illuminating Company is to erect four fire-proof branch stations."  One of them would be at 32 Horatio Street, costing $23,500.  (The construction cost would translate to about $945,000 in 2026.)

The station opened in 1900.  The Edison Electric Illuminating Company's in-house architect had produced an attractive, utilitarian structure.  Although technically only three stories tall, the soaring ceilings inside made it nearly the equivalent of a five-story structure.  Above two short stoops were large entrances within a rusticated stone base.  They were similar to the carriage bays of livery stables and were flanked with windows.  The architect gave them splayed lintels, inspired by the current Colonial Revival trend.  The unadorned, brick-faced upper section was capped with a dentiled, pressed metal cornice.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Thirty Years of New York described:

It is equipped with three 500 and two 1000 kilowatt rotaries, 2150 kilowatt synchronous motor-generator sets, and two batteries.  Here, also are the offices of the company's battery department.  Horatio Street station serves a varied class of business.  On the west, it takes care of the shipping and wholesale work of the river front and on its east, it feeds into the southern end of the department store region.

The Edison Illuminating Company was acquired by Consolidated Gas in 1901.  Five years later, the Horatio Street building was renovated, but the changes were, apparently, mostly to the infrastructure and equipment.  Working here at the time was Frank de Benedetto, a "foreman on excavation jobs," according to The Sun.  Among his workers was Enrico Ciucci, who, along with "a score or more of Italians," appeared at the Tombs Police Court in March that year to press charges against Benedetto.

The Sun explained that Ciucci, "alleged that he paid $5 to Benedetto to hold his job...He said the payment was made in the present of Attillio Capuli...and others."  (The extorted money would equal about $185 today.)  Ciucci and the other immigrant laborers quickly discovered that their boss had powerful and dangerous ties.

On June 17, 1906, Justice McKean dismissed the case.  The Sun reported that the complaining workers "have practically all disappeared."  The article said, "When Capuli was needed to testify in Special Sessions, he could not be found," adding, "None of the original score or more of complainants could be reached by subpoenas."

A 1914 advertisement depicted the locations of the many Edison sub-stations.  The New York Sun, May 12, 1914 (copyright expired)

In 1936, the firm's name was changed to Consolidated Edison.  In November that year, the owner of the tenement building next door at 26-28 Horatio Street sued for $40,000 in damages saying that the "sub-station at 30-32 Horatio Street is a public nuisance," as reported by The New York Times.  The owner complained that the dynamos "create a continuous noise and that the vibration from machinery has shattered the brickwork of the tenement house."  

A Consolidated Edison representative was cavalier in his response, saying that the station had operated on the site for years and "is used only for the transfer of current from the main plant."  He dismissed the damage to his neighbor's property saying, "Any injuries suffered by the plaintiff is small compared to what would result to the public if the operation of the sub-station were stopped."

On December 11, 1966, The New York Times reported, "Two Consolidated Edison power stations that provided electricity to Greenwich Village residents for more than a half century will soon have dwellers of their own."  The article explained that the stations would be converted to apartments saying, "Every effort is being made to retain the quaint look of old Greenwich Village."

A Colonial-style entrance and faux gas lanterns were intended to recreate Greenwich Village charm.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The Times said that 30 Horatio Street "will contain 16 one-bedroom and living room-bedroom combination flats."  The renovation, completed in 1967, eliminated the stoops and original entrances.  An off-set doorway with a neo-Colonial frame with an arched pediment was installed, new openings cut, and the upper floors painted.  In keeping with the colonial motif, the single-paned double-hung windows were given multi-paned sashes.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The 1902 The Braender Apartments - 418 Central Park West

 

image via streeteasy.com

Born in Germany, Philip Braender arrived in New York as a youth.  At the turn of the last century, he was a visible player in the development of the Upper West Side.  In 1901 he commissioned architect Frederick C. Browne to design a ten-story "brick flat" at the southwest corner of Central Park West and 102nd Street.  Browne's plans projected the construction cost at $400,000--a significant $15.6 million in 2026.

Completed the following year, The Braender's French Renaissance design was splashed with Spanish Baroque Revival touches.  Clad in gray brick above the two-story stone base, The Braender's turret-like rounded bays and corbeled cornice were inspired from French chateaux and gave the building an exotic charm.  A lacy cast iron balcony girded the third floor and intricate Baroque-style terra cotta ornaments decorated the third, fourth and tenth floors.  At the ninth were balconies "capped with red Spanish tile in strong contrast to the prevailing color," as described by The World's New York Apartment House Album.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

The Braender's H-shape plan created a deep courtyard, which was entered "through a high columned archway, elaborately carved and ornamented," as described by The World's New York Apartment House Album.  Residents entered under a glass and iron marquee into a coffered ceilinged foyer that opened into a veined-marble lobby.

There were typically three apartments per floor ranging from five to twelve rooms with one to three baths.  Rents ranged (by today's conversion) from $1,650 to $3,300 per month.  An advertisement boasted that The Braender was "not exceeded in dignity and architectural beauty by any similar structure."

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

The Braender's tenants were affluent and professional.  Among the early residents were Charles Herbert Stoddard and his wife, the former Frances Henrietta Thebault.  An attorney, Stoddard was also the president and director of the Builders' Construction Company.

Also in the building at the time were Carlos Benito Figueredo, Consul General of Venezuela, and his wife Louise Calcafio.  The New-York Tribune called Louise "one of the belles of Caracas."  The couple had one child, Gloria.  On May 5, 1907, the New-York Tribune reported that the Figueredos "celebrated their silver wedding last night at their home."  The article said that there were  a "hundred or more guests at the dance and dinner."

Mrs. A. Guiterrez, a widow, lived here with her daughter, Lola, as early as 1914.  Like all their moneyed neighbors, they summered in fashionable resorts.  They traveled to Winthrop, Maine during the first week of July that year.  About a week later, on July 13, they attempted to walk across the train trestle near the hotel.  The New York Times reported that they "were struck and killed tonight by a train on the Main Central Railroad."  The article said that the horrific incident occurred "in the view of guests on the hotel piazzas and in boats on the lake."

On February 22, 1920, the New-York Tribune reported that the new owner, Frederick Bangerter, had "devised a tenant ownership plan for the Braender."  The plan to convert the building to a cooperative moved forward with lightning speed.  An advertisement a month later urged, "own a select apartment in a palatial home, with all the modern comforts--steam heat, hot water, day and night elevator service, etc., etc."  Fifty of the apartments had been converted while, according to the advertisement, "The income of the remaining 25 apartments pays in full for taxes and all other running costs and charges."

Surprisingly, by the time Wurts Bros. took this photograph, the iron cresting had been removed from the cornice.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The Braender's most celebrated tenants at the time were the Stoner family.  Dr. James Buchanan Stoner was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1861.  He was known nationwide for his work against epidemics, starting with the smallpox epidemic of 1888.  He married educator Dr. Winifred Sackville on February 3, 1900 and their only child, Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr. was born in 1902.  (Because her daughter, who would earn prominence on her own, bore her identical name, Dr. Stoner was often referred to as Mother Stoner.)

Winifred Jr. was a prodigy.  Under her mother's tutelage, she was able to speak multiple languages by the age of ten.  At the age of nine, she passed the Stanford University and University of Wisconsin-Madison entrance exams.

On December 26, 1921, the Stoners announced their 19-year-old daughter's marriage to Charles de Bruche.  The couple was married in the Stoner apartment four months earlier, "with none but the family present," explained The New York Times.  The article said, "Miss Stoner wishes to avoid publicity having as a young girl had columns published about her education, the books and the verses she had written and the eight languages she could speak before she was twelve years old, owing to her mother's remarkable system of education."  The newlyweds, said the article, "will divide their time between Paris and New York when they are not traveling."

Winifred and Charles de Bruche were in Mexico the following summer.  De Bruche had told his bride "that he was a composer, poet and member of a noble French family, entitled to call himself a count," according to Winifred Jr.  Less than a year later she told a reporter that she learned "that he was not of noble birth and was not a person of good repute."  De Bruche disappeared and in August Winifred received a telephone call from his friend, Frank Davis, telling her that her husband "had been killed in Mexico City" in an automobile crash.

On September 1, the New-York Tribune reported, "Funeral services for Charles Philippe de Bruche, husband of Winifred Sackville Stoner jr., were held yesterday at 418 Central Park West, the home of his wife's parents."  The ceremony was, apparently, more accurately described as a memorial service, since there was no body.

Dr. James Buchanan Stoner died on July 22, 1925.  In reporting his death, The New York Times recounted his long history of fighting epidemics throughout the United States.  It noted, additionally, that he was a relative of President James Buchanan.

The Braender's heavily-veined marble lobby remains virtually intact.  image via cocoran.com

After Winifred Stoner de Bruche married Louis Hyman, her mother continued to occupy The Braender apartment.  In 1925 she was a member of the Citizens' Committee for Music and published the monthly Mother Stoner's Bulletin, which outlined the Stoner philosophy of education.  In 1925 she founded the League for Fostering Genius.

On August 21, 1927, a reporter from The New York Times visited Mother Stoner's apartment for information about her daughter's divorce from Louis Hyman.  She said that she hoped Winifred would join her "to carry on the work of helping young genius."  And indeed, the mother and daughter initiated "a genius hunt covering all the United States and most of the Western Continental Europe" that month, as reported by the newspaper.

Mother Stoner explained to the reporter that there "are six classes of people:

Idiots, she said, were like jellyfish and common weeds; destructionists were often clever but dangerous, like the boll weevil and poisonous weeks; morons were like pigs and vegetables; the hyper-morons (or norms) were those with 16-year mentalities with whom the world is largely filled...The only two classes worth preserving were the geniuses, she said...and the progressionists or builders.

(She explained that progressionists included "men who constantly seek to make their business more efficient."  They included "newspaper men, bankers and highway robbers.")

The following month, on September 20, 1927, The New York Times reported, "'Mother' Stoner returned from Philadelphia yesterday to her home at 418 Central Park West.  She reports that she discovered six geniuses and 300 talented children during her Philadelphia stay."  The article added, "Winifred 2d is now in Paris, looking for geniuses there, her mother said."

Now divorced, Winifred Jr. moved back to 418 West Central Park West.  She received an arcane telephone message in November 1929, "suggesting that she go to the lobby of the Hotel Ansonia."  She did and saw her long-dead husband, Charles de Bruche there.  The New York Times said that he "was living at the Hotel Bretton Hall."  On December 12, the newspaper said she had filed suit to annul her marriage because she "finds herself still the wife of De Bruche."

This photograph of Winifred Jr. may have been taken in the Braender apartment.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

In 1931, Winifred Jr. married Earl Winston Harrison and moved to Los Angeles.  Later that year, on November 10, Winifred "Mother" Sackville Stoner died in her Braender apartment at the age of 49.  In reporting her death, The New York Times listed her books, which included Natural Education, Mother Stoner Nursery Rhymes, Arithmetic Through Play, Games With Aims, and Castles in Spain.  

Somewhat overshadowed by the Stoners in the building were prominent residents like Dr. Maurice H. Harris and his wife, the former Kitty Green.  Born in London in 1859, Harris was ordained a rabbi in 1882.  He had been rabbi of Temple Israel since 1885.  On February 8, 1925, the congregation hosted a tea and reception in appreciation of his 40 years of service.

Dr. Sergius Ingerman lived here as early as 1934.  That year he sent a telegram to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that said in part, "We implore you to use your influence to bring about the cessation of the mass executions in Soviet Russia."  Born in Russia in 1868, Ingerman was a specialist in eye diseases and a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and the New York Academy of Medicine.  

Dr. Sergius Ingerman, from House of Wisdom

More importantly, he was highly active in the socialist movement and a founder of the Russian Social Democratic Society.  His wife, Anna Amitin, died in 1931.  Their only child was Dr. Eugenia Ingerman.  Interman remained in The Braender until his death in 1943.

That year the building was sold to New York Savings Bank, which reconverted it to rental apartments.  The New York Times reported that it "was remodeled by the bank into eighty-eight suites."

Among the residents at the time were Dr. Walter L. Hervey, a retired member of the Board of Examiners of the Board of Education, and his wife Antoinette Bryant Hervey.  Antoinette was described by The New York Times as the "dean of women photographers in New York."  

A graduate of the Clarence H. White School of Photography, Antoinette Hervey made a 25-year photographic record of the construction of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.  In doing so, she sometimes climbed the scaffolding high above the ground to get her shots.  In 1938 she donated her 3,000 prints to the Cathedral and a duplicate set to the New-York Historical Society.

John Thompson and his wife lived in a sixth-floor apartment here in the mid-1960s.  Thompson was a director of the Fairfield Foundation, which promoted international cultural exchanges.  Through that institution, the couple became acquainted with Nathan Nakasa, a 25-year-old Nigerian journalist who arrived in America in 1964 as a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University. 

Nakasa was an outspoken critic of Apartheid.  In his homeland he had edited The Classic, a literary magazine, and was on the staff of the magazine Drum of Johannesburg.  While here he wrote two pieces for The New York Times Magazine.  In 1965, after his one-year fellowship, the South African Government refused to allow him to return home.

The writer, who was living on Lenox Avenue, was understandably depressed.  On July 24, 1965, The New York Amsterdam News wrote, "Told of Nakasa's mood, Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson of 418 Central Park West, asked him over to their apartment Tuesday."  The article said that they talked about his troubles "at length" and attempted to ease his mind.  But shockingly, at around 9:10, Nakasa rushed to a window and jumped.  He died instantly.

Tonal composer Ben Weber lived here within the next decade.  Born in St. Louis in 1916 and never married, he came to New York in 1945.  Among his compositions were the Symphony on Poems of William Blake, the Violin Concerto, the Consort of Winds and the Concert Aria After Solomon.  The celebrated composer died of a heart attack in his apartment at the age of 62 on May 11, 1979.

photograph by Jim Henderson

Nine years before Weber's death, The Braender underwent an alteration.  It was likely at this time that the spectacular cornice was removed and ninth-floor balconies stripped off, leaving the once picturesque structure sadly denuded.

The Lost Scotch Presbyterian Church - 360 Central Park West

 

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

On July 23, 1892, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the Scotch Presbyterian Church "will shortly commence the erection of a handsome church edifice...on the southwest corner of Central Park West and 96th street."  Simultaneously, said the article, a "lecture room" would be constructed on the north side of 95th Street, just west of Central Park West.  "The church will cost $150,000 and the lecture room $50,000," it said.  The total figure would translate to about $7.3 million in 2026.

The Scotch Presbyterian Church originated following a schism within the First Presbyterian Church in 1756.  After worshipping in several locations, the congregation erected a Sicilian Gothic-style church at 53 West 14th Street in 1852.  Now (despite Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst saying that the trustees "exhibited cowardice" by abandoning the increasingly commercial West 14th Street), the trustees planned another move.

William H. Hume & Son was commissioned to design what The New York Times promised would be "an imposing Romanesque pile."  Construction on both buildings began in 1892 and by late summer of 1893 the West 95th Street structure was completed.  

The West 95th Street building, like the church, was Romanesque in style.  New-York Tribune, May 31, 1894 (copyright expired)

On September 18, the New-York Tribune reported that the "handsome new Sunday-school room of the Scotch Presbyterian Church...was formally opened yesterday afternoon."  The article noted, "On October 1 the church congregation will begin to worship in the Sunday-school room, which it will use till the completion of its new church...in Ninth-sixth-st., behind the Sunday-school."

On March 31, 1894, The New York Times reported on the cornerstone laying ceremony.  "W. H. Hume, the architect of the church building, spoke briefly, congratulating the officers of the church on the successful beginning of the work."  The newspaper described Hume's plans:

The foundation is of bluestone and the rest of the structure will be of Indiana limestone.  The iron-trussed roof will be covered with Spanish tiles.  The main entrance, on Ninety-sixth Street, will be under three romanesque [sic] arches, above which there is to be a large rose window.  At the northeast corner will be a high square tower.

Nine months later, the structure neared completion.  On December 30, 1894, The New York Times remarked, "The new building of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, Ninety-sixth Street and Central Park West, attracts and rewards the visitor by its solid, impressive architecture and the display of art in the adornments."  The artistic "adornments" included the Scotch thistle motif, which appeared "from the cornerstone to the cornice, over the organ, in the pew ends, and elsewhere."

The article vividly described the 52 stained-glass windows, executed by William Gibson's Sons.  In the center of the "great wheel window over the main entrance," said the article, was "an open Bible with the text, 'Thy word is truth.'"  It was surrounded by seven small round windows.

Completed in 1895, William H. Hume & Son had, indeed, created an "imposing Romanesque pile."  Turning its shoulder to Central Park West, the building faced West 96th Street.  Above a wide set of stone stairs, three arched entrances sat below the complex rose window within a yawning arch.  On the western side of the peaked roof was a romantic turret with a conical cap.  On the eastern side, a formidable bell tower rose high above Central Park West, terminating in a pyramidal cap.

Among the first social functions held by the church was a fund-raising event.  On September 22, 1895, the New-York Tribune said it "has hit upon a novel scheme to raise funds."  Congregants received "the oddest invitation they ever received."  The cards, "printed on coarse wrapping paper of the cheapest quality," invited them to a "Povertie Partie."  Written in Shakespearean-style prose like, "Ye women must wear ye cotton gowne and apron or equally befitting apparel," the invitations explained that the party was inspired by the "hard times which do now prevail."  A list of fines, ranging from 1 to 25 cents, would be levied on guests who violated the dress code, like wearing a scarfpin or silk dress.

Two years later, the rector, David G. Wylie, and his family moved into the new "manse" next door to the church on West 96th Street.  It was designed by Jardine, Kent & Jardine.

A sliver of the new rectory can be glimpsed at the right.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Scotch Presbyterian Church, deeply rooted in the British Isles, was the scene of two mourning services for world leaders in 1901.  In his sermon on January 27, Reverend Wylie memorialized Queen Victoria and pointed out the late monarch's viewpoint on women.  He said in part, "she was interested in everything which tended to elevate woman.  She was a queen in her home, and believed that home was pre-eminently woman's real sphere, where she should shine as a queen."

Eight months later, on September 16, The New York Times reported on Wylie's sermon following the assassination of President William McKinley.  He said that the name of the fallen President would "be closely associated with those of Washington and Lincoln--an immortal triumvirate."

The Central Park West elevation.  Streetcar tracks run down the middle of the stone-paved avenue.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Earlier that year, on July 28, the decorum of Sunday service was shattered.  During Reverend Wylie's sermon, a woman suddenly stood up.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Tearing her collar from around her neck, she placed it around her head and exclaimed: 'I am going to be married to Mr. Rockwell.'"

Wylie stopped speaking, the congregants turned to face the disturbance, and an usher rushed over to the woman.  The New-York Tribune described her as "tall, black haired and neatly attired in a white waist and a black skirt."  When the usher attempted to restrain her, she "fought desperately, and succeeded in tearing the lining entirely out of the man's coat."  She was finally carried to the vestry room where she continued to attempt to "get at the usher, especially after the unfortunate man, in his efforts to quiet the woman, told her that he was Mr. Rockwell."

An ambulance took Pearl Rockwell to the Harlem Hospital.  She was later transferred to Bellevue Hospital and placed in the "insane pavilion."  There it was learned that the 40-year-old and her husband were estranged.  "It is thought that grief over the separation unbalanced her mind," explained the New-York Tribune.

Rev. Dr. David G. Wylie, New-York Tribune, September 17, 1904 (copyright expired)

Reverend Wylie, like other pastors throughout the city, was highly opinionated and announced his views from the pulpit.  On July 3, 1904, for instance, he laid out the evils that threatened the United States.  He said in part:

One of our National evils is Mormonism.  Another is divorce.  The next menace is that of the saloon.  Corporate greed offers a menace not to be forgotten...There ought to be a greater regard for human life in this country than there is at present.  Our street railways are a source of danger because of the gross carelessness often exhibited.  The automobile threatens the lives of children, women, and old people.

In 1907 the Scotch Presbyterian Church merged with the First Reformed Presbyterian Church.  That congregation moved into the West 96th Street edifice and on March 16, the New York Herald confirmed that the consolidated congregations would operate "under the name of the Scotch Presbyterian Church."

David G. Wylie had married Jennie McWilliam in 1884.  The couple had four sons, Howard M., David R., John McWilliam, and Robert Sterling, and one daughter, Jennie D.  The family found themselves in the national spotlight when John went missing.

On April 26, John Wylie, who was 15 at the time, and his best friend, 16-year-old Buster Gutelius, sold their bicycles and took the $25 they obtained to buy train tickets to Port Jervis, New York.  The duo later explained that they "were in search of some needed outdoor recreation."

When the boys failed to come home from school that Friday afternoon, their parents had reported them missing.   By Tuesday the New York newspapers reached the Mill Rift Post Office near the Pennsylvania border.  The boys, who had established a camp within a cave, purchased an axe, some eggs, and other rations, from the general store that shared space with the post office.  

When Wylie and Gutelius returned, Postmaster Maloney compared their faces with the photographs.  Rather than confronting them and risking scaring them away, he quietly mailed off a letter to Rev. David G. Wylie.  On the morning of May 3, Dr. Wylie and another son arrived at the post office while the Gutelius family waited nervously on Central Park West for word.

Maloney sent a neighbor, Samuel Wilson, to the mountain cave with word that the postmaster needed to see him.  Leaving Buster cooking bacon and flapjacks, John Wylie rushed to town.  When he entered Maloney’s store, he was confronted with his father and brother.  The quixotic adventure was over.

The New York Times wrote, “Dr. Wylie was much impressed by the natural habitation, and was delighted to find that the boys had been living in a comfortable manner.  However, they had but $2 left.”

The following morning the New-York Tribune ran a headline reading “Cave Boys Come Home.”  The newspaper advised “The erstwhile cave men, or cave boys, did not willingly leave their subterranean retreat in a mountainside near Millville, Penn., but they came back at the earnest persuasion of Dr. Wylie.”

Reverend David G. Wiley would suffer unspeakable tragedy  in 1910.  On October 8, he conducted the funeral of John McWilliam Wylie, whose adventure had captured America's attention three years earlier.  The New York Times remarked, "members of the [United Boy's Brigade of America], his classmates in public, high, and Sunday schools will be present."

Jennie McWilliam Wylie fell sick upon his son's death.  Less than a month later, on November 4, she died.  The New-York Tribune said that it was thought that the loss of her son had "hastened Mrs. Wylie's death."

After occupying the pulpit of the Scotch Presbyterian Church for 23 years, on February 23, 1914, The New York Times reported that Wylie had resigned to take the position of Secretary of the Board of Church Erection of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.  (On October 1 that year, the newspaper reported on his engagement to Martha Richter Thomas.)

The Reverend Dr. Robert Watson was installed as the new pastor on January 10, 1915.  Two years later, the congregation's name was changed to the Second Presbyterian Church.

In the post-World War I years, congregations nation-wide began embracing a new concept: the skyscraper church.  Parishes replaced their church edifices with office or apartment buildings that incorporated worship space within the lower floors.  On January 17, 1928, The New York Times reported that the Second Presbyterian Church would lease its property "to the Vinross Realties Company, Inc."  The article explained that the developer would replace the church with "a fifteen-story apartment building, which will house and support the church and its various activities."

Demolition of the 33-year-old church structure began in 1928.  It was replaced by 360 Central Park West, designed by Rosario Candela.

image via streeteasy.com

The Henry and Felicia Ressmeyer House - 348 West 122nd Street

 

J. A. Webster designed eleven brownstone-fronted rowhouses along the north side of West 122nd Street between Morningside and Manhattan Avenues for developers Joseph W. and A. Alonzo Teets in 1888.  Upon their completion in 1889, the brothers brought Webster back to design ten houses on the opposite side of the street.  This time E. H. Hammond was listed as working with Webster on the designs.  

Filed in May 1889, the plans listed the construction cost of the three-story, 16-foot wide homes at $11,000 each, or about $397,000 in 2026.  The neo-Grec design of 348 West 122nd Street included beefy cast iron stoop newels and balustraded railings.  Echoing the entrance enframement, the windows sat within architraves decorated with incised "fluting" on the lower portion and stylized flowers above.  The brackets of the parlor window cornice mimicked those of the entranceway.

The Teets originally rented the house, with the leases of some occupants being cut short by their demise.  Barbara Rimick was one of 75 New Yorkers who succumbed to a brutal late season heat wave on November 24, 1891.  She was 73 years old. On August 18, 1899, resident Margaret Johnson died in the house at the age of 43.  

Shortly afterward, the house was purchased by Fannie Mayer, the widow of Robert Mayer.  Living here with her and her unmarried daughters, Fanny, Annie, and Caroline, was at least one maid.  Tragically, Fannie would live here only a matter of weeks.  She died "after a lingering illness," as reported by the New York Herald, on April 11, 1900.  She was 61 years old.

The sisters experienced a shocking and distressing incident two years later.  The Brooklyn Standard Union ran a one-line article on June 3, 1902 that read: "Annie Dahn, employed by Miss Annie Meyer [sic], of 348 West 122d street, Manhattan, took her life this morning by swallowing carbolic acid."

After Annie's marriage to Joseph A. Kapp, Caroline and Fanny continued to live at 348 West 122nd Street.  Then, on July 29, 1908, Fanny died "after long suffering," according the notice in The New York Times.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on the 31st.

Caroline Mayer sold 348 West 122nd Street in August 1910 to Henry Frederick Ressmeyer and his wife, the former Felicitas Stang.  (Felicitas was known familiarly as Felicia.)  Born in Germany in January 1854, Henry was the president of the Lutheran Education Society.  He and Felicia were married in 1888 and they had three children, Felicia C., Rudolph S., and Gertrude Henrietta.  

Rudolph, who was a Lutheran minister, lived elsewhere.  But moving into the house with the family was Felicia's widowed mother, Anna C. Stang.

Both Gertrude and Felicia attended Barnard College.  (Felicia would eventually move to Maryland where she was associated with the Society for Preservation of Maryland Antiquities at midcentury.)

Henry F. Ressmeyer died in the house on September 19, 1921.  Most likely because of his involvement with the Lutheran Church, the parlor would not accommodate the anticipated mourners at his funeral.  It was held two days later at St. Matthews Lutheran Church on 145th Street and Convent Avenue. 

As late as 1940, there was not a single tree on the block.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Another funeral would be held in the parlor four years later.  Anna C. Stang died at the age of 79 on May 29, 1925.  Her funeral was held here on the 31st.  The following month, The New York Times reported that her estate would be distributed among her "children and grandchildren."

At the time of Anna Stang's death, the Harlem neighborhood was changing.  Private homes were being converted to rooming houses.  Felicia sold 348 West 122nd Street to Jeanette Glassman in February 1928 for $20,000 (about $321,000 today).  In reporting the sale, The New York Times inaccurately commented, "This is the first sale of the property in twenty-five years."

Jeanette Glassman resold the house to Louise Chaudruc three months later.  He rented rooms to respectable tenants, among the first of whom was Robert W. Frary.  On August 30, 1928, the Alfred, New York newspaper The Alfred reported that Frary, "who has been doing graduate work at Columbia and Texas," had been named to fill the temporary professorship of Columbia Professor Joseph Sidlin.

The building received a "multiple dwelling violation" in 1938, most likely for the lack of sprinklers.  Their installation was completed in 1940.

Although never officially converted to apartments, there are eight rental units in the former Ressmeyer house.  From the outside, it survives remarkably intact.

photographs by the author