The 1909 Cathedral Plaza - 101 West 109th Street / 410 Cathedral Pkwy

 photograph by Anthony Bellov

In April 1908, the architectural firm of Sommerfeld & Steckler began plans "for a six-story $100,000 flat building...for the Cathedral Realty Co. to be erected on the north side of 109th St., 150 ft. west of Columbus Avenue," as reported in the Real Estate Record & Guide.  The developer's vision was soon doubled.  When construction was completed in 1909, there were two connected, nearly identical buildings back-to-back.  The Cathedral Plaza had entrances at 101 West 109th Street and 410 Cathedral Parkway.  (The stretch of West 110th Street from Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Drive was renamed Cathedral Parkway in 1892.  Many New Yorkers ignored the change and this entrance is still also known as 410 West 110th Street.)

Each of the Beaux Arts-style buildings was designed as an E, with deep light courts separating the three sections.  Above rusticated limestone bases, Sommerfeld & Steckler faced the upper five floors with red Flemish bond brick trimmed with terra cotta.  Deep porches with polished red granite columns protected the centered entrances on each side.  Square headed drip moldings capped the ornate terra cotta lintels of the midsections, while the top section, introduced by a sumptuous cornice supported by an arched corbel table with angels' faces and shells, exploded with elaborate decoration.  A brick-and-terra cotta parapet crowned each section.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

An advertisement for the "just completed" Cathedral Plaza in February 1910 touted: "High class novel elevator apartments 2 and 3 rooms, bath and kitchenette.  A first class restaurant connected with the buildings.  Rents from $32 to $45."  The most expensive rent would translate to $1,570 per month in 2026.

Among the initial residents were stockbroker Hugh C. Kendall Hester and his wife, Edith H., who were going through some rough times.  The couple were married on October 26 1906.  That year was a propitious one for Hester.  Not only did he get married, but he made $60,000 in stocks.  (It was a staggering windfall, equal to $2.2 million today.)  The Sun reported, "He made so much money the first year he was married that he spent $20,000 for living expenses alone."

Hester was Edith's second husband and she had received a $13,000 settlement in the divorce of her first spouse, C. Henry Fosgate.  She asked Hugh to speculate with her sizable nest egg.  In March 1907, he lost $87,000, including his wife's money.  Edith told him, "Never mind, you'll get it all back again."  

Things became worse when Henry Clews & Co. refused to give Hester a raise and he resigned.  He took a job with E. F. Hutton & Co., but was "discharged for violating a rule of the Stock Exchange that he didn't know about," according to The Sun.  (He had written to his former clients at Henry Clews & Co., asking them to transfer their portfolios to him.)  He found a job as managing the office of Ball & Whicher, but that brokerage firm closed.  After living extravagantly for years, "he had to reduce expenses and moved from 515 West 110th Street to a kitchenette apartment in the Cathedral Plaza apartments at 101 West 109th street," explained The Sun.

Downsizing to a two-room apartment was the last straw for Edith.  When Hester came home on October 6, 1910, "his wife, her maid and her dog were all gone," reported The Sun.  On January 4, 1911, she applied for separation and alimony, painting a melodramatic picture to the court.  The Sun recounted:

She has no relatives or parents who can aid her, she says, and she needs winter clothing and has even suffered for want of food.  Once when she was hanging to her husband's coat demanding carfare he struck her in the face, she says.

Hester told the court that he was making only $10 per week.  The Sun reported, "but the Court awarded alimony of that amount and $100 counsel fee."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

On March 12, 1914, Florence Miller and her son, Samuel J. Miller, rented a fifth-floor apartment here.  Florence was 55 years old and Samuel, who said he was studying at Columbia University, was 24.  Florence handed the superintendent a check on the Colonial National Bank for the first month's rent and said their furniture would arrive the next day.  He gave her the keys and, according to The New York Times, "the couple immediately took possession, although they were without even a handbag."

The mother and son had a tragic story.  According to Florence, they "inherited a small fortune ten years ago" and came to Manhattan to live.  Samuel got a job in the advertising business, but he lost his job in January.  Florence later related, "since then both had been in the direst poverty, due to the exhaustion of their small fortune and his inability to find work."  The check with which Florence secured the lease was later found to be worthless.

The two did not rent the apartment to occupy it, they wanted a place to die.  On March 13, 1914, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Miller and her son were found sitting in chairs side by side with their arms around each other's neck.  Every gas cock in the kitchen stove was turned on full."  The article noted, "Ashes in the sink indicated that they had burned some papers before trying to end their lives."

The following day, The New York Times reported, "Both are now out of danger, although it was necessary to use a pulmotor to revive them."  Florence told authorities, "Because my son and I have been used to nice things, we did not want to die in a hovel."  

In the post-World War I years, the respectability of some of the tenants of Cathedral Plaza declined.  On June 15, 1920, for instance, 33-year-old Benjamin Silverman was arrested.  "He is suspected of the theft of $30,000 worth of miscellaneous stock certificates...and to have disposed of them at Providence, R. I.," reported The Sun.  And the following year, on August 6, 1921, Louis B. Jennings, president of the Standard Film Industries, Inc., surrendered to the District Attorney.  He was charged with selling unauthorized stock in the company.

The 109th Street elevation.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

Gertrude Schroeder lived here in 1923 when she became the focus of a highly publicized scandal.  Her sister, the former Elaine Phillips, was Princess Elaine von der Lippe-Lipski, the wife of Prince Nicholas Vladimir von der Lippe-Lipski, "one-time friend of the Czar," according to The New York Times.  

That summer, the Prince and Princess visited New York City and took a suite in the Biltmore Hotel.  In October, the Princess became suspicious that her sister was carrying on a dalliance with her husband.  On October 25, she and friends came to Gertrude's apartment.  The New York Times reported, "the Princess said she heard the voices of her husband and her sister as they stood waiting outside the door."  Once inside, the Princess found some of her husband's clothing.  Gertrude refused to open the bathroom door.  Eventually the Princess and her party left, taking along her husband's clothing.  (In the vest pocket, she later told the court, she found the key to Gertrude's apartment.)

The Princess faced off with Gertrude in court on January 28, 1924.  She had sued her for $100,000 for alienating her husband's affections.  Among those who testified was Gertrude's next-door neighbor.  He told the court that on October 25, 1923, he heard a noise outside his window.  Looking out, he discovered the Prince on the fire escape, wearing nothing but a woman's bathrobe.

For hours on the night of February 13, 1924, policemen surveilled the apartment occupied by Abraham Horowitz and Joseph Stern from a rear fire escape.  The New York Times described it as "elaborately furnished in Oriental style, and illuminated by shaded colored lights."  The exotic decor set mood for Horowitz's and Stern's opium den.  Finally, early in the morning police raided the apartment.  Along with Horowitz and Stern, four others were arrested, including 22-year-old manicurist Dorothy Clark.

Dr. John Leo Hanson left Boston and took a two-room apartment here on July 15, 1926.  Five days later he was arrested on West 40th Street.  The New York Times said he was "wanted as an accessory in the death of Miss Edith Greene."  According to Police Inspector Carey, Hanson was so intoxicated "he could get no information whatever from him when he was first taken in."  Edith Greene had been murdered in Boston and her body dismembered.  Once sober, Hanson denied having anything to do with the murder.  On July 20, The New York Times reported that investigators searched Hanson's apartment here and "found a trunk filled with feminine apparel."

On September 21, 1928, contractor David Angus was fatally shot in his home on West 105th Street "by a band of thugs who robbed him of $700," reported The New York Times.  Six months later, acting on an anonymous tip, police "arrested six men in a fourth-floor apartment at 101 West 109th Street on suspicion of homicide."  The newspaper reported, "the apartment in which the men were arrested was pretentiously furnished."  All but one of them had previous convictions.

Unusual ornaments sit atop the 109th Street side in 1940 (they are not trees).  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After a significant decline, the buildings were renovated in 1960.  In 1965, two women, Mary Pierce and Florence Senior moved into one of the apartments from an SRO hotel.  "Oh, Christ, you can escape," Mary told a reporter.  "You're not like cluttered together.  You can go into the kitchen, go into the living room.  We've got a parlor, so they say."

The upgrades did not necessarily improve the respectability of some of the tenants.  In 1963 John R. Payne was arrested for Social Security fraud; and in 1974 Santiago Rodriguez and his half-brother Miguel Diaz were arrested as suspects in the murder of Pace University professor James C. Clees.

The 100th Street building is a copy of the 109th Street structure.  image via nelsonmanagementgroup.net

Things have improved within the two buildings (which are no longer known as the Cathedral Plaza).  Recently renovated, the units now range from studios to four-bedroom duplexes.  The management's website notes, "It is 100% dedicated to affordable housing and funded in part by the U.S. Department  of Housing and Urban Development."

many thanks to Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Lost Grace Gospel Chapel - 102 West 133rd Street

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

Born in Maryland in 1868, Reverend Frederick Cullen founded the Salem Methodist Episcopal Chapel as a mission of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in the East Village.  In 1908, Salem Chapel became an independent congregation: the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.  That year the New York City Church Extension and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church paid $93,000 for the vintage houses at 102 and 104 West 133rd Street.  Formerly the homes of Frederick Stimson and John Henry Bradford, they were converted into a worship space for Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.

The church became a center not only for worship, but for civil rights and cultural events.  Cullen would become president of the Harlem branch of the NAACP, and in 1917 was vice-president of the Negro Silent Protest Parade, commonly known as the Silent Parade.  On July 28 that year, 10,000 Blacks marched along Fifth Avenue to protest racist violence like the lynchings in Waco, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee.

Two significant memorial services were held here in 1919.  The first honored President Theodore Roosevelt.  On January 27, The New York Times reported, "One thousand negro residents of Harlem attended a memorial meeting in honor of Colonel Roosevelt last night in the Salem African Methodist Episcopal Church, 102 West 133d Street."  

And five months later, on June 9, the New-York Tribune reported on the memorial service of Madam C. J. Walker.  Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Louisiana where her parents and older siblings had been slaves, Walker developed beauty and hair products for Black women.  Described by the Guinness Book of Records as being "America's first, self-made female millionaire," she created an empire.  The article noted that during the service messages were read from Governor Alfred E. Smith; R. R. Morton, principal of Tuskegee Institute; and from Emmett J. Scott, special assistant to the Secretary of War.

In 1924, the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church moved into the former Calvary Methodist Church building at 129th Street and Seventh Avenue (today's Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard).  The altered houses at 102-104 West 133rd Street were purchased by Grace Gospel Chapel.  The congregation hired architect Vertner Woodson Tandy to renovate the building.  The first Black architect registered in New York State, Tandy was born in 1885 and educated Tuskegee Institute and Cornell University.  Interestingly, among his prominent designs was the $250,000 mansion of Madam C. J. Walker in Irvington-on-Hudson.

The renovations were completed in 1925.  Tandy had transformed the old brownstones into a Spanish Mission-style fantasy.  With the stoops removed, the entrances (one to the worship space and the other to apartments on the top two floors) were located below grade, at the former English basement level.  Tandy covered the stone with white stucco and accentuated the Spanish motif with red brick and colorful tiles.  A group of three windows at the second floor were fronted with a picturesque iron balcony.  

The combined buildings originally looked much like the extant houses to the right.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Shallow, decorative buttresses gave the facade dimension.  A charming octagonal bell tower at the corner rose above the orange-tiled roof.

The upper two floors held apartments, including one for the pastor, Reverend Talbot Berton Nottage, and his wife, Josephine Barnett.  Born in 1885 in the Bahamas, Talbot Berton Nottage became minister of Grace Gospel Chapel in 1921.  He was, as well, the editor of Testimony, a monthly missionary periodical, and president of the Harlem Bible Association.

The apartments in the building provided additional funds for the church.  An advertisement in The New York Age on December 18, 1926 read: "Spacious furnished rooms to let at 102 West 133rd street, Grace Gospel Chapel.  References desired."

The sanctuary, which was in the basement level, was regularly the scene of weddings and funerals.  One funeral, however, would be especially poignant.  

The auditorium accommodated hundreds of worshipers or funeral and wedding attendees.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Seven-year-old Valance Bynoe Jr. was playing with two friends in front of his house at around 11:00 on Saturday night, June 6, 1936.  Suddenly, three fleeing robbers ran by, followed by "Patrolman George Brown, Negro policeman attached to the 133rd Street Station," as reported by The Daily Worker.  Brown fired off three shots.  One hit Bynoe in the head and another struck 43-year-old Preston Best, who was exiting his home, in the shoulder.  The New York Age reported, "The policeman immediately gave up the chase and rushed the victims to the hospital in a commandeered taxicab."  The little boy did not survive.

On June 8, The Daily Worker reported, "Little Valance Bynoe, Jr., seven-year-old Negro schoolboy...lies dead in his home today, the second child victim of police guns in Harlem in a month."  The boy's funeral was held in Grace Gospel Chapel on the evening of June 9.

The church's auditorium was the scene of gospel meetings, cultural events and civic meetings for decades.  Then, in 1982 a demolition permit was issued for the property.  The congregation razed their building--one of the few Vertner W. Tandy designs extant in Harlem--to be replaced by a red brick, barn-like structure completed in 1984.

image via gracegospelchapelnyc.org

The Charles F. and Maude Watson Mansion - 34 East 69th Street

 

Prolific real estate developer Anthony Mowbray erected two brownstone-faced homes at 32 and 34 East 69th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in 1880.  Designed by Lamb & Wheeler in a marriage of neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles, they were 20-feet wide and four stories tall above high English basements.

34 East 69th Street would originally have been very similar to its next-door-neighbor at 32 E. 69th Street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Politician John Kelly and his wife, Ann Theresa Mullen, purchased 34 East 69th Street.  Born in 1822, Kelly entered politics in 1840 and served as a New York Representative in Congress from 1855 to 1858.  He was elected Sheriff of New York County in 1859 and in 1871 turned his focus to fighting the corruption of the notorious Tweed Ring.  By 1874, Kelly controlled Tammany Hall and earned his nickname, "Honest John."

John Kelly, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Ann was Kelly's second wife.  His first, Mary Ann McIllhargy, died on July 17, 1866, and within five years their three children had perished.  He and Ann (who was the niece of New York Cardinal John McCloskey) had a son, John Jerome, and a daughter, Josephine.

Kelly, the most powerful force in New York City politics, suffered a blow in 1884.  In his 1917 The History of Tammany Hall, Gustuvus Myers writes:

Kelly broke down with nervous and physical prostration after the Presidential campaign of 1884.  Grover Cleveland's election, which falsified his predictions, deeply disappointed him.  He kept to his house, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth street, but still issued his orders to the Tammany organization.

His condition was well publicized.  On February 14, 1885, The New York Times reported that Kelly had spent a few days as a guest of Nathaniel Jarvis, Jr. in Far Rockaway.  Now back home, the article said "it was announced that he was greatly improved in health, and had not been in better spirits for several weeks."

New Yorkers no doubt realized things were more serious that November.  The day after the elections, the New-York Tribune reported, "John Kelly remained all day yesterday at his home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st.  It was stated that he was too ill to go out of the house."

By the following year, according to Gustuvus Meyers, "he could not sleep except by the use of opiates."  Around 1:30 on the morning of May 30, 1886, Mary Ann sent for a priest.  Two more came at around 10:00 to administer last rites.  On June 2, The Sun reported, "John Kelly, the Tammany chieftain, whose name is as familiar to the country as the President's, died yesterday afternoon at a little about 3 o'clock."  John Kelly's funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 5.

Kelly had left the East 69th Street house in equal shares to Mary Ann and Josephine, who was still unmarried.  Following their period of bereavement, the women again entertained.  Those gatherings often reflected the Kellys' deep Catholic faith.  On December 16, 1894, for instance, the New-York Tribune wrote, "One of the pleasant dinners of the week was given by Mrs. John Kelly for Monsignor Satolli, at her home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st., on Monday.  The decorations were in white and purple, the Papal and the Delegate's colors."  (Monsignor Francesco Satolli was the first Apostolic Delegate to the United States.)

Mary Ann and Josephine remained here until August 1928 when 34 East 69th Street was sold to stockbroker Charles Frederic Watson Jr.  Somewhat ironically, seven months later, on March 25, 1929, Mary Ann Kelly died.

In reporting the sale on August 3, 1928 The New York Times had remarked that during the decades that the Kelly family occupied the house, "the block was improved with fine residences."  Charles and Maude Watson followed suite by hiring architect A. Wallace McCrea to remodel the outdated brownstone.  

He stripped off the outer wall and pulled the facade to the property line.  McCrea gave the mansion a tripartite, neo-French Classic marble facade.  Above the rusticated base, the windows of the piano nobile were fully arched, while the upper openings were segmentally arched.  McCrea even executed the terminal cornice in marble.

The renovation caused a stark contrast to its once fraternal twin next door.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

As work on the house progressed, the Watsons lived in a sumptuous apartment in Mayfair House at 610 Park Avenue.  Then, on November 2, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Watson Jr. have left Mayfair House for 34 East Sixty-ninth Street."

Both Charles Frederic Watson Jr. and his wife, the former Maude V. Burnside, came from privileged backgrounds.  They were married in St. Thomas's Church on January 26, 1924.  The New York Times said that Charles was "descended from the Campbell and Argyle families of Scotland."  On her maternal side, Maude was a descendant of Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Charles was born in Orange, New Jersey and educated in private schools.  He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1906, but was, perhaps, better known for his athletic skills at the time.  He was a championship amateur tennis player.  Now, he and Maude maintained a home in London where they spent several months every year.

As early as 1938, the Watsons's butler was John Evert Andren.  The butler was the most trusted member of a family's domestic staff and were entrusted with all the keys and combinations for silver safes.  On January 17, 1939, Andren was arrested "as a suspect" in the theft of some of the Watsons' silver.  Although he claimed innocence, he was carrying "monogrammed silverware worth more than $500" at the time of his arrest.  (The value would translate to more than $11,000 in 2026.)

Charles Frederic Watson Jr. died at the age of 71 on April 19, 1954.   Maude sold 34 East 69th Street on November 1, 1956 to Harold G. and Irene R. Lacks.  The couple's marriage dissolved and the house was auctioned as part of the divorce proceedings in February 1969.  It was purchased for the equivalent of $3 million today by the Government of Iran.  On February 28, The New York Times reported, "The house will be the residence of Iran's consul general, Parviz Sepahbodi."

photograph by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On February 11, 1979, revolutionary, armed forces overthrew the Iranian Government.  The U.S. State Department took over Iranian properties, including 34 East 69th Street in April 1980.  Six months later, on October 14, The New York Times reported that the State Department had leased the building to the French Designer Showhouse.  The Decorator Showcase continued to be held here through 2000.

In 2001, the Richard L. Feigen & Co. gallery opened in three floors of 34 East 69th Street.  Founded in Chicago in 1957, the gallery "handles work by such important artsists as German Expressionist Max Beckmann and Surrealist master Henri Rousseau," according to the 2016 ART + NYC.

David Zwirner's gallery took over the space in 2017.  Art dealer Adler Beatty occupied the fourth floor.  When Zwirner closed his East 69th Street location in July 2026, artnet recalled, "The Zwirner on East 69th Street hosted about three-dozen exhibitions for canonical figures like Yayoi Kusama, Bill Traylor, and Dan Flavin."

With the gallery gone, the future of the landmarked marble mansion is unclear.

photographs by the author

The Hiram and Henrietta A. Pettibone House - 124 East 10th Street

photograph by the author

In 1651, Peter Stuyvesant established two farms far north of New Amsterdam.  The lane that separated Bouwerij #1 and #2 would eventually become Stuyvesant Street.  When East 10th Street (part of the rigid street grid of the 1811 Commissioners Plan) was opened in 1826, the diagonally-running Stuyvesant Street created an odd shaped parcel, the triangular point of which Elizabeth Stuyvesant retained as her garden.  Four years after Elizabeth's death on September 16, 1854, Matthias Banta purchased the point for development.

Most historians attribute the resultant rowhouses to James Renwick, Jr., who had designed the magnificent Grace Church about three blocks to the west in 1846.  Completed in 1861, the Anglo-Italianate, five-story-and-basement homes varied from 16- to 32-feet-wide and (because of the triangular plot), their depths ranged from 16- to 48-feet.  

Like its neighbors, the rusticated brownstone basement and first floors of 192 Tenth Street (renumbered 124 East 10th in 1867) sat below four stories of red brick trimmed in brownstone.  The tall, fully-arched windows of the second floor held hands by means of a stone bandcourse.  Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.

The first occupant of the house was James G. Maeder, who listed his profession as "music" and likely rented it from Banta.  In 1863, Hiram A. Pettibone and his wife, the former Henrietta Davenport, moved in.

Pettibone was a stockbroker with an office at 70 Broad Street.  Born on January 19, 1805 in Syracuse, New York, he and Henrietta were married in Worchester, Massachusetts on June 13, 1859.  The newlyweds' bliss would be short-lived.  Hiram died the same year they moved into their new home.

Henrietta A. Pettibone remained, taking in respectable boarders.  Living here in 1864 were two lawyers, Andrew J. Coe and Robert A. Piper.  An interesting boarder arrived in 1867.  Christian von Hesse was listed in directories as "lawyer, notary and commissioner of deeds for all the States and Territories."

Von Hesse continued to board here after Phoebe Shaw began operating 124 East 10th Street as a boarding house in 1868.  Phoebe was the widow of Joshua Shaw.

Unlike Harriette Pettibone, who took in one or two boarders at a time, Phoebe Shaw ran a true boarding house.  In 1869, Edmund and Germaine Duverger arrived from France and took rooms.  Duverger was an importer and dealer in French lace.  His factory was in Brussels and he opened a store here for the sale of his goods.  He was quickly a success.  The New-York Tribune said his store "is well known to many prominent business men on Broadway."

On Saturday evening of November 13, 1869, "two men called at the residence of Mrs. Phoebe Shaw, No. 124 East Tenth-st., and inquired for Mr. E. Duverger," recounted the New-York Tribune.  They asked to see examples of Duverger's laces and, although they were unable to provide business cards, Duverger complied.  They left but returned five minutes later.  They declared, "These are smuggled goods and we seize them!"

When Duverger insisted he had paid duty on the goods and refused to relinquish them, one of the men displayed a Custom House badge and the other "drew a revolver and repeated the order."  Unwilling to allow his valuable laces out of his presence, Duverger accompanied the men to the St. Charles Hotel.  Here a "large man, with a huge black mustache and jet black hair," as described by the New-York Tribune, represented himself to be Collector Grinnell.  He looked over Duverger's certificates and told him the duty he had paid was insufficient and demanded more.

On Monday morning, Duverger protested to Deputy Collector Clark of the Custom House.  The case was turned over to Treasury Department agents and a Federal investigation was launched.  Edmund Deverger accompanied two agents to room 15 at the St. Charles Hotel.  There they found two of the bogus collectors, both of whom held responsible Government positions.  John W. Lalor was a clerk in the Naval Office and Frederick G. A. Keever was a Custom House broker.

Phoebe M. Shaw died on June 6, 1879.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of 124 East 10th Street on June 9.

As early as 1886, Martin and Mary Burke occupied the house.  They apparently did not offer meals to their tenants because the house was no longer listed as a boarding house, but as "lodgings."

An interesting tenant was Eugene Thwing, who lived here in 1888.  An ardent prohibitionist, he and a comrade, George B. Smith, were accused by The Evening World on November 2 of stuffing a ballot box with votes for a Prohibition candidate.  Similar to the mail-in ballot controversy today, The Evening World charged that a Prohibitionist had falsified Postal-Card Votes "on the ground that the handwriting on many of the cards voting for Prohibition candidates is the same."

Thwing and Smith fired off a letter to the editor of The Evening World, saying, "While the charge is a decidedly unpleasant one and throws disgrace upon members of the party, it is very easily explained away."  They said that they took a stack of voting postcards to "a large rally at Cooper Union and a parade before the meeting."  Because the marchers were marching and the rallyers were rallying, "many of them requested that the cards be filled out for them."   

The fervent Thwing sent another letter to the editor of The Evening World the next day:

Should a million dollars come to be sudden one-half of it would certainly go to the National Prohibition party as the best way to [stamp] down rum and secure a clean and non-sectional party.  With the other half I would quit business, and, after travelling awhile, would settle down and study music.

Mary Burke died on May 14, 1893 and, once again, a funeral was held in the parlor here.  Her husband continued to operate the lodging house for at least another year.

The change from a boarding house to a lodging house reflected the decline in the neighborhood.  The tenants of 124 East 10th Street also reflected the changes.

Among those renting rooms here in 1899 was Viola Randall.  The 22-year-old worked as a waitress in the Sharon Hotel on Third Avenue.  On August 14, she got into a quarrel over a man with another waitress, Lottie Herman, who was 19.  The Morning Telegraph said, "trays, glasses, chairs and other things were thrown about."  Viola took things a step further by stabbing Lottie in the side and arm.  The injured teen was taken to Bellevue Hospital and Viola was taken to the Yorkville Police Court.

Adolph Schilder and his family occupied rooms here in 1904 when their 17-year-old daughter, Annie, disappeared on April 17.  The Evening World described her as "a pretty girl of the brunette type."  The newspaper said, "Her father searched every hospital and police station in greater New York, but found no trace of her."  Then, ten days after her disappearance, Schilder was walking along Third Avenue near 13th Street when he saw Annie arm in arm with 24-year-old Abraham Grossman.  According to The Evening World, Annie was caught in a tug-of-war between her father and suitor, each one pulling on an arm.  Two detectives came upon the scene and, after hearing Adolph Schilder's story, arrested Grossman for abduction.

Annie later told officials that the older man "had promised her a trip around the world, fine silk and satin dresses, a life of unbroken ease and all the happiness to be found on earth."  The Evening World concluded, "She liked his story and went away with him."

Resident Mrs. Angelina Piliero was the guardian of her 17-year-old sister, Josephine Belmont in 1912.  The girl had recently "escaped" from the House of the Good Shepherd after being "rescued at sixteen from the clutches of white slavers," said The Evening World.  She fled to Angelina's house where her older sister kept a "close watch on her."  But despite those precautions, Josephine "got into communication with a man she had known before her commitment," reported the newspaper on January 18, 1913, "and yesterday she disappeared."

After several failed attempts, including a visit to "Boob" Walker's ball in the Long Star Hall on First Avenue (where she was refused entry), Angelina heard that Josephine had taken a room at 124 East 10th Street.  She went there with six policemen.  Josephine's room was empty, but officers discerned a "stifling, pungent odor" in the hallway.  They recognized it as opium.  Going to the third-floor room where the smell was heaviest, the detectives kicked in the door.  The Evening World reported:

Six men were stretched out on the floor, stupefied by the drug.  A girl, her body draped with a flimsy kimono, lay at one end of the room.  She was the only one who seemed to hear the noise.  She stirred uneasily.  "I'm too happy to get up now," she murmured.

A detective asked Angelina, "Is this your sister?"  She screamed "yes" and "fell headlong across the girl's body."  Angelina had fainted at the sight of Josephine's condition.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Things had not considerably improved by midcentury.  Living here in 1954 was Walter Latoski.  The 32-year-old earned his living, outwardly, as a mechanic.  He augmented his income by joining a gang of thieves.  In July that year, he and seven other men highjacked a truck "transporting $30,000 worth of coffee beans from Brooklyn to Jersey City," as reported by The New York Times.  Five of the gang were found guilty on December 3, while three, including Walter Latoski, were acquitted for a lack of evidence.

On April 2, 1960, The New York Times reported that Mildred Frankel had sold "the five-story rooming house" to Albert Dionne and his wife.  The article said, "It will be altered and continued as a rooming house by the new owners."

Then, in 1976, the vintage house was renovated into a two-family home.  Happily, the exterior of 124 East 10th Street survives nearly unchanged since its completion in 1861.

The 1860 Joseph Murray House - 175 East 73rd Street

 

image via douglaselliman.com

In 1860, E. H. Robbins completed construction of six 20-foot-wide rowhouses on East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues.  Three stories tall above English basements, they were clad in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Although they were intended for middle-class families, Robbins splurged by giving the homes elaborate cast iron porches.  The parlor level featured floor-to-ceiling parlor windows and the scalloped fascia of the cornice echoed the segmentally arched windows of the third floor.

In 1862, Joseph Murray, who listed his profession as "machinery" at 126 Broadway, purchased 22 East 73rd Street (renumbered 175 in 1867).  The Murray family took in at least one boarder during their residency.  John Callaghan, possibly a relative, lived here in 1868.

On February 15, 1873, the New-York Tribune reported that Joseph Murray had sold 175 East 73rd Street for $15,500.  The price would translate to about $430,000 in 2026.  The buyers were Dr. Charles Smith Robert and his wife, the former Adelina Trudeau.  The couple was married on January 29, 1867 and had four children: Mary, who was six; five-year-old Lelia Adelina; Francis Berger, who was three; and Caroline Elizabeth, who was one year old.

Robert was born in Mastic, Long Island on March 5, 1839.  He entered Yale College in 1858, but left during his junior year to pursue medicine.  He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1864, just in time to serve in the Union Army as an assistant surgeon.  The New York Herald would later remark, "Mrs. Roberts [sic] is an unusually refined and accomplished woman of French extraction."

Like their neighbors, the Robert family maintained a domestic staff.  In 1875, they employed a laundress, a cook and a nurse.  The staff undoubtedly also included at least one maid, and likely two.  The Robert family's country home was in Westport, Connecticut.  

In April 1875, Robert listed the Westport estate for rent.  Simultaneously, three domestics advertised for new positions.  The moves suggested that the Robert family would be spending an extended period away, possibly in Europe.  (Families who were away for extended periods often dismissed their domestic staffs, other than the lady's maid and valet, to be replaced upon their return.)

A spectacular cast iron porch, like the surviving example at 171 East 73rd Street, once fronted the parlor of No. 175.  photograph by the author

While the Roberts were away, 175 East 73rd Street was occupied by the John S. Patterson family.  Patterson was a lawyer and he and his wife, Emily, would be here through 1877.  During their residency, they experienced a tragedy.  On May 4, 1876, their son William Fisher died at the age of 27.  His funeral was held in the parlor on May 6.

The Roberts continued to lease 175 East 73rd Street.  Following the Pattersons, Baptiste E. Wehner, who ran a storage warehouse on West 33rd Street, occupied the house.  And in May 1880, Charles Robert leased it to Jacob Thalman.  By the time the Robert family returned to 175 East 73rd Street in the mid-1880s, Robert had retired.  

On October 9, 1889, Leila Adelina was married to Charles H. Hallock.  The newlyweds moved to Moriches, Long Island, where they had a daughter. 

Leila's marriage would not survive.  According to Hallock in September 1893, "We were very happy until last January, although we had occasional 'spats.'  About the middle of that month I noticed that she had changed in her manner toward me."  Leila began spending time away from their home, traveling to Manhattan to visit her parents or to Brooklyn to see other relatives.  Hallock became suspicious that her frequent trips were not innocent when she talked in her sleep about "Bert."

The relationship continued to devolve.  Hallock said later, "She finally locked me out of our house on one occasion.  Then she blackened my eyes, and once said she wished our three-year-old child was dead."  Leila perceived an escape from her situation in the summer of 1893 when she received $1,800 from the estate of an aunt.  She told Charles that she was going to the Chicago World's Fair, packed her suitcases, and on September 2 he drove her to the train station.

Leila joined Berthold Popper, an usher in the Academy of Music, and the two went on to Chicago.  Leila's relationship with Popper was even shorter than that with her husband.  Once there, Popper abandoned her.  On September 6, 1893, just days after arriving in Chicago, Leila Robert Hallock "blew her brains out," as worded by the New York Press.  

Charles Hallock begrudgingly told the New York Herald, "She has dishonored my name, but I shall probably have her body brought here and buried in the graveyard at Center Moriches, where her father has a plot."  (Berthold Popper was convicted  of "illegally marrying Mrs. Leila Hallock" on March 22, 1894.)

Shortly after the tragedy, the Roberts sold 175 East 73rd Street to Daniel Healey.  Their decision was, no doubt, influenced by the many stables that were replacing the private homes along the block.  Healey was a blacksmith and on July 22, 1896, The New York Times reported that he was making $700 in alterations to the house.  The basement was now converted to a blacksmith shop, a convenience for the nearby carriage houses and stables.

Living above a commercial space did not deter Tracy and Frances Lyon.  Born in 1865 and 1866 respectively, the couple had four adult children.  The affluence and social standing of the family was evidenced in daughter Frances Tracy Lyon's wedding to Sidney E. Brewster on October 17, 1923.  The New York Times said the newlyweds were "socially prominent," noting that Frances was a member of the Junior League and Brewster was a descendant of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower.

Like Leila Robert Hallock, Frances and her husband moved to Long Island.  And like Leila, Frances's marriage would end tragically.  At around 7:00 on the evening of June 22, 1926, Frances telephoned her parents.  The New York Times reported, "She told her mother that her husband had beaten her and that she was going to come home."  The servants told investigators later that "a quarrel had been going on all day."  Then, shortly after Frances called her parents, the servants heard shots.  They rushed to Frances's bedroom to find both of their employers dead.  Brewster had shot his wife in the chest then turned the gun onto himself.

In June 1928, architect Francis Livingston Pell purchased 174 East 73rd Street.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide noted, "After extensive alterations the purchaser will use the property for his own occupancy."  That was partially true.  Pell's alterations resulting in a "store" in the basement level, one apartment each at the parlor and second floor, and a "non-housekeeping apartment" on the third.  (The term meant there was no kitchen.) 

The cast iron porch was removed in the renovations.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Pells moved into one of the apartments.  Born on September 23, 1873, Pell was a descendant of founding father James Duane.  He studied architecture in Rome and Paris after receiving his Ph.B. in architecture from the Columbia University School of Mines in 1895.  He married Ellen Van Buren Morris on October 9, 1899.  Her pedigree matched that of her husband.  The daughter of Stuyvesant Fish Morris and Ellen James Van Buren, she descended from the Fish, Morris and Stuyvesant families and was the great-granddaughter of President Martin Van Buren.  They had three sons, Francis Jr., Stuyvesant Morris, and Walden.  Their country home was in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The occupants of the "non-housekeeping" apartment were equally prominent.  Anna Giralt Farrar Goldsborough was born in New Orleans in 1882.  She married Richard Francis Goldsborough in 1904 and had four children.  She and her unmarried daughters, Lucinda Davis and Ellen Roy, moved into the top floor apartment following Richard Goldsborough death in 1929.  

When Anna Goldsborough announced Lucinda's engagement to William Fitz-Randolph Ballard on December 14, 1929, The New York Times remarked that Lucinda was a great-grandniece of Jefferson Davis and was "a direct descendant of Nicholas Goldsborough, who settled [in] Maryland in the middle of the seventeenth century" and of Colonel Tench Tilghman, "aide-de-camp to George Washington."

Five years later, on March 8, 1934, Anna Goldsborough announced Ellen Roy's engagement to Talbot Otis Freeman.  Almost simultaneously, the Pells announced Stuyvesant Morris Pell's engagement to Katherine Louise Weston.  As Stuyvesant's marriage in Dalton, Massachusetts neared on December 19, 1935, The New York Evening Post said, "there is much interest in the event among local fashionables and members of the exclusive little coterie that make up the Berkshires colony."

The Pell and Weston families were apparently already close.  Two years after the wedding, the bride's mother was a long-term houseguest here.  On October 29, 1936, The New York Sun reported that Clarissa Wardwell Hewlett "is now residing with Mr. and Mrs. F. Livingston Pell at 175 East Seventy-third street."

In 1940 Pell converted the basement into half of a duplex apartment with the parlor level.  At the same time, the third floor apartment received a kitchen.  The Pells remained here until April 1944, when they sold the property to Wooster Properties, Inc.  The firm resold it in May the following year to a investor.

The house was sold in 1978 for $170,000, according to Observer.  A renovation completed the following year resulted in four cooperative duplexes.  During the remodeling, the parlor and second-floor windows were shortened.  

An out-of-focus 1980 tax photo reveals the shortened parlor windows.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In July 2006, fashion designer Steve Madden and his wife, Wendy Ballew, purchased the the rear, lower duplex for $3.6 million.  Three years later, they bought an upper apartment for $2.2 million.  In 2010 they purchased another, and in February 2011 bought the last apartment, now owning the entire property.  The Maddens returned 175 East 73rd Street to a single-family home.  They remained here until 2019, selling it for $9.1 million according to The New York Post on January 23.

Max Muller's 1905 169 Rivington Street

photograph by Carole Teller

As early as 1904, Dr. Moses Duckman and his family shared their home at 169 Rivington Street with Professor Abraham Hochman.  Born in 1868, Duckman and his wife, Rebecca, had four daughters, Miriam, Naomi, Ethel and Grace, and two sons, Simon and Bert.

Abraham Hochman was a local celebrity of sorts.  His "professor" title did not come from his teaching, but his purported extraordinary powers.  He was a clairvoyant.  On May 3, 1904, for instance, he appeared in the Essex Market police court to give bail for one of seven men arrested for burglary.  The magistrate asked, "What is your business?"

Hochman replied, "I am a mind reader.  I am Professor Abram Hochman of 169 Rivington Street."  He explained to the magistrate that he had read the accused's mind and knew that, while he was in the room at the time of the crime, he was not a part of it.  He added:

"I can also read your mind.  You will discharge him when the case comes up before you tomorrow.  Therefore, I have no hesitation on going on his bond.  If he were guilty, I would know it and I would not bail him.

The Duckmans and Hochman would have to find temporary accommodations soon after that encounter.  Moses Duckman acquired the property next door at 171 Rivington Street, demolished both structures, and hired architect Max Muller to design a store-and-tenement building on the site. 

Completed in 1905, the 40-foot-wide building rose five stories above a basement.  The basement's notable height accommodated two commercial spaces that flanked the stone stoop.  Muller faced the upper floors with variegated beige brick and cream-colored terra cotta.  Molded intermediate cornices divided the facade into three sections.  Terra cotta was molded into elaborate Italian Renaissance-style ornamentation including Scamozzi columns with intricate bases on either side of the entrance, paneled Corinthian piers that framed the first floor windows, elaborate faux balconies with triangular pediments at the second floor, and arched pediments embellished with ornate cartouches at the fourth.

Among Duckman's first tenants was, perhaps not surprisingly, Professor Abram Hochman.  He had barely settled into his new home when he appeared in newsprint again.  On May 23 the stable of Abraham Baumwald, a peddler, was broken into and his horse and wagon were stolen.  The theft put Baumwald out of business.  On June 1, The Sun reported, "On Tuesday night a man with long hair, who announced himself as Prof. Hochman of 169 Rivington street, went to the station house and said to the sergeant in charge: 'I know where Baumwald's horse is.'"

Upon questioning, Hochman explained, "I read it by my mind."  Police did not scoff at the revelation.  Hochman's reputation was well established.  They went to 136 Hester Street, as Hochman directed, and found Baumwald's stolen horse.

Hochman's talents were more often used for finding husbands than for stolen horses.  In her 2024 Mortimer and the Witches, Marie Carter writes that Hochman was referred to as "The Richest Man on Rivington Street" and explains, "Thanks to Hochman's affordable fees and high success rates, the press often reported he was trailed by 'wildly gesticulating women.'"

Professor Abraham Hochman, The Jewish Calendar 1910 (copyright expired)

Professor Abraham Hochman's visions and predictions ran the gambit.  He accurately predicted the winners of upcoming horse races for members of his club, the Florrie Sullivan Association; foretold Theodore Roosevelt's victory over Alton B. Parker in the 1904 Presidential election; and predicted the Japanese victory over Russia in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War.

On February 24, 1906, the New-York Tribune reported, "Dr. Moses Duckman transferred title as a gift yesterday to Nos. 169 and 171 Rivington-st...to Rebecca Duckman his wife."  It was around the same time that the Duckman family moved to Brooklyn.

Elaborate terra cotta Renaissance Revival details embellish the building.  photograph by Carole Teller

Nathan Flauman's saloon occupied one of the basement spaces as early as 1909, and he and his family lived in one of the upstairs apartments.  At the same time, Abraham Goldman and his son, Louis, ran a clothing business in Brooklyn.  According to Assistant District Attorney Wasservogel later, "the two were hard pressed for money and in some way ascertained that Nathan Flauman, a wealthy saloon keeper, at No. 169 Rivington street, was seeking a husband for his only daughter, Mary."  The younger Goldman, who was married with three children, posed as an eligible bachelor and "ingratiated himself into Father Flauman's good graces and offered himself as a husband for his daughter," as reported by The Evening World.

The couple became engaged and Flauman held an engagement party on July 13, 1909.  Before Nathan Flauman and the heart-broken Mary discovered the scheme, he had given Louis Goldman $1,500--nearly $55,000 in 2026 money.  Flauman had him arrested for grand larceny.  While the jury acquitted Abraham Goldman, Louis was convicted.

The incident was not the last time that the trusting saloon keeper was bamboozled.  On March 31, 1910, Jacob Bellis, aka Max Blumfield, entered the saloon carrying a machine.  He told Nathan Flauman that the contraption would produce money.  To prove it, Bellis placed a blank piece of paper into the machine, poured in some chemicals, and turned the crank.  The New York Times reported, "In a few minutes a crisp $10 bill came out."  He repeated the demonstration and Flauman became interested.  Bellis then set his hook.  He took out a $100 bill, placed it into the machine with a sheet of paper, turned the crank and the original rolled out along with a new bill.

The New York Times reported, "As Flouman [sic] was suspicious; Bellis took him to a bank, where he changed the two $100 bills."  The Evening World said, "So Flauman beat it to the Fourteenth Street Bank and reduced the deposits of that institution by $4,780, his entire balance.  Then Miss Mary dug into her own lisle thread safe deposit vault and came to the front with $200 more."  That evening Bellis and his partner arrived at the Flaumans' apartment.  As the accomplice dickered over the machine, he held up the sponge soaked with chemicals and said to the family, "Just smell this; hasn't it a sweet odor?"

The Evening World reported, "It had.  It was chloroform, and straightway the family went into its golden dream.  When it awoke both the money and men were gone.  Adding insult to injury, they even took along the furniture."

Mary Flauman went to the police, but got no results.  Then, a year later, she saw Bellis and a woman on Third Avenue near 14th Street.  "He took to his heels down Second Avenue," reported The New York Times.  Mary chased after him, shouting.  A crowd caught him, reported The Evening World on April 6, 1911, noting, "If he is convicted he may get twenty years."

Two months earlier, Abram Hochman had again faced a judge, but this time in his own defense.  On February 22, 1911, Detective Szerlip told Magistrate Breen "that Hochman had told him that we would be the recipient of a large sum of money from the estate of his deceased uncle and that this money would come to him quicker if [he] would throw a match over his shoulder and think of his father," as reported by the New York Herald.  Hochman was accused by the detective of being a fortune teller.

This time, Hochman did not profess extrasensory powers.  The New York Herald recounted, "Hochman said that his business was publishing rather than fortune telling and that he was the publisher of a book entitled 'The Jewish Almanac,' which was in the libraries of the New York University, Yale and other institutions."  He denied ever telling Szerlip about his upcoming windfall.  Hochman's sister, Eugenia, corroborated his testimony.  Magistrate Appleton dismissed the case for insufficient evidence.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Insurance broker Maylich Breihart and his wife, Bertha, moved into 169 Rivington Street around 1918.  They had two sons, Bernard and Charles, and two daughters, Pauline and Sadie.  The enterprising couple filed bankruptcy separately on December 18, that year, but they were not defeated.  On January 8, 1920, Maylich was one of three partners who incorporated the Clibart Realty Corporation.  He was highly involved in Jewish charities and organizations, with memberships in a dozen groups including the Burshtiner Sick and Benevolent Society, the Home of the Sons and Daughters of Israel, and the Independent Kalischer Sick and Benevolent Society.

Bertha Briethard died at the age of 64 on January 18, 1921.  Her funeral was held in their apartment the following day.  Maylich survived her by a year, dying of pneumonia at the age of 65 in Mt. Sinai Hospital on May 21, 1922.  His funeral, too, was held in the apartment.

As early as 1923, the office of attorney Eugene Moss occupied one of the commercial spaces.  He was admitted to the bar in 1921 and would practice here at least through 1931.

At midcentury, Samuel Braun was the landlord of 169 Rivington Street.  He owned three other buildings in the Lower East Side.  On March 29, 1960, he was fined $400 "for permitting a defective gas range and for failure to provide proper heat" at 169 Rivington Street, as reported by The New York Times.  This was not the first time that Braun had been in trouble.  The article said that the previous year he had been cited for "fraudulently applying for rent increases" and "has had thirteen previous convictions for Health Code violations."

photograph by Carole Teller

There are 12 residential units in 169 Rivington Street today.  Max Muller's dignified treatment of a tenement building survives essentially intact, all the while masking the astonishing history that has played out inside.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post