The John J. and Emma G. O'Brien House - 208 East 78th Street

 

Howard A. Martin purchased 200 feet of property in 1861 along East 78th Street, which at the time existed only on paper.  His deed included a $128 assessment (about $4,830 in 2026) to open the street.  Martin divided the parcel into 15 building plots, each 13-feet, 4-inches-wide.  His builders, Warren and Ransom Beman (possibly brothers) and John Buckley, were most likely responsible for the charming design of the challengingly narrow homes.   

Martin's project stalled when, that same year, the Civil War broke out.  Thousands of laborers march off to fight and construction in New York City ground nearly to a halt.  Finally, in 1865 (the year the conflict ended) construction of the 15 identical houses was completed.  Each rose three stories above high basements.  Two bays wide, their red brick facades were trimmed in brownstone.  Each of the openings was fully arched.  Bracketed Italianate-style cornices graced the rooflines.

Possibly strapped for money because of the delay, Martin had sold the uncompleted project to investor William H. Brower.  It appears, because of the regular turnover in occupants, he rented 208 East 78th Street.  

Interestingly, despite its narrow proportions, two families initially occupied the house.  William Rosenberg and Jacob Weinman were partners in three dry goods stores--at 28 West Broadway, 221 First Avenue, and 224 Avenue A.  The families remained until 1869, when an auction of their household goods was held on April 28.  The inventory revealed that these were middle-class families, with items like "walnut and mahogany Parlor and Chamber Suits."

James Campbell, a merchant, occupied the house through 1874, followed by Morris Kuttner and his family.  Kuttner operated a fancygoods store at 201 Church Street.  The family was affluent enough to hire at least one servant.  An advertisement on May 29, 1876 read, "A girl to do housework in small family.  208 East 78th st., near 3d av."

The Morris Jacobson family occupied the house in the 1890s.  Jacobson was a real estate operator and ran his business from the house.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It appears that Moses Hirsch Sr. purchased 208 at the turn of the century as a wedding present for his son, Moses Jr. and his bride, the former Hannah Rothschild.  He transferred title to the property to the couple in April 1901.  They would suffer heartache four years later.  On February 3, 1905, Ira Arnold Hirsch died at the age of three months.

The following year, on September 17, Moses Hirsch sold 208 East 78th Street to John J. and Emma G. O'Brien.  The couple had one son, Thomas K.

Born in 1862, John J. O'Brien was a fascinating figure.  In 1884 he earned the title of "amateur wrestling champion of the United States," according to The New York Times.  He never totally abandoned the sport.  In May 1905, for instance, he was one of the two judges of the Madison Square Garden "world's championship at catch-as-catch-can wrestling," as reported by The New York Times.

O'Brien sat on the last New York Board of Alderman prior to the consolidation of the boroughs into one metropolis in 1898.  That year he was appointed an official of the Department of Sanitation.  He still held that position when the family moved into 208 East 78th Street.  He was, as well, the head of the John J. O'Brien Printing Co.

John J. O'Brien's expertise in wrestling resulted in his becoming a judge during the 1920 Olympic Games in Belgium.  

Thomas K. O'Brien graduated from Yale University in 1922 and then entered the Fordham Law School.

John J. O'Brien suffered a heart attack in January 1942.  He died in the Misericordia Hospital a week later, on January 21.  By then, Thomas had moved to Pelham Manor, New York and Emma sold 208 East 78th Street to Isaac D. Bachmann.

Isaac D. Bachmann, The New York Times, January 1, 1949

Isaac Bachmann was born in 1878.  In 1900 he co-founded Bachmann, Emmerich & Co., Inc., a textile factoring firm.  He and his wife, the former Aimee Lubelski, had a son, Harold S., and two daughters, Edith and Peggy.  The family's country home was in Mount Vernon, New York.  In 1939, Bachmann left the firm he had co-founded and joined James Talcott, Inc., another textile factor.

Bachmann's health began failing in 1948, and he died in the East 78th Street house at the age of 71 on December 30.  The New York Times said simply that he died "after a long illness."

The house was purchased by Frederick Arthur Collins.  Born in Boston in 1898, he was known as Arthur Collins throughout his adult lifetime.  He was president of Collins, Tuttle & Co., Inc., a real estate firm he and Wylie F. L. Tuttle established in 1954.  Prior to that, Collins had been a vice president and partner in Brown, Harris, Stevens, Inc. for more than two decades.

On March 7, 1953, Collins (who had two sons, Frederick Arthur Jr. and Hunt Turner by an earlier marriage) married Lucia Baldwin.  It was Lucia's fourth marriage.  This one, too, would not last and Lucia left 208 East 78th Street around 1957 to begin divorce proceedings.

Arthur Collins died in the house at the age of 60 on June 16, 1958.  The divorce had not been finalized, and a long court case over the estate between his sons and Lucia began.

In 1964, the four 1865 houses to the west were demolished.  Those at the far east of the row were razed before 1900, replaced with a tenement building.  There were now just five houses, including 208 East 78th Street, that survived.

No. 208 is at the far right.

In 1988, an apartment was installed in the basement.  At some point the homeowners of the row agreed to paint the brownstone trim white, giving the charming residences a unified appearance.

photographs by the author

Louis A. Abramson's 1927 145 East 32nd Street

photograph by Carole Teller

The Ivy Construction Company demolished the vintage buildings at 145 through 151 East 32nd Street, just east of Lexington Avenue, in 1925.  The developers hired Louis A. Abramson to design a 13-story "brick stores and loft building" upon the plot.  Construction was completed two years later at a cost of $450,000, or about $8.34 million in 2026.  The developer had no intention of being a landlord and on August 1, 1927, the New York Evening Post reported that the Ivy Construction Company, Inc. had sold the building to "the newly formed 145 East Thirty-second Street Corporation."

The structure was faced in beige brick above a two-story limestone base.  Abramson's modern profile of setbacks started at the ninth floor, where they flanked a three-story section with angled sides.  The architect's 1927 design had its roots in 15th century English motifs.  Square-headed drip moldings below the third floor wrapped terra cotta heraldic shields.  The upper floors were decorated with hooded niches, presumably intended for statues, reeded panels and heraldic emblems.

photograph by Carole Teller

The building drew tenants from various industries.  Among the earliest included Max Engerow, a fabrics dealer; the A. C. M. Embroidery Company; Van Blerk Furniture Company; and W E C O Pharmaceutical Laboratories.  Perhaps less expected tenants were Hunter College and Hunter High School. 

Hunter College (formerly Normal College) sat on the block between Park and Lexington Avenues and 68th to 69th Street.  It shared space with Hunter High School.  But the 1873 complex could not accommodate the 20th century enrollment.  The overflow of the institutions were taught in rented floors within 145 East 32nd Street.

Matriculation in an industrial building had, of course, serious drawbacks.  Hunter solved the problem with a modern structure.  On September 27, 1938, the Staten Island Advance reported that the approximately 1,500 girl students attending Hunter High School here would be moving to "a new 16-story building which will be erected on the site of the old college building at Park avenue and 68th street."  

Another non-industrial tenant was the National Youth Administration.  As part of his sweeping Depression Era Works Progress Administration, Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the program to provide education and work for Americans between 16 and 25 years of age.  

A recruitment poster offered opportunities for young women and men.

Young people who participated in the program were eligible for jobs within cooperating organizations.  Those included the New York Urban League, Selective Service Boards, Department of Welfare offices and the New York City Housing Authority.

The National Youth Administration's Manhattan operation was enlarged in 1941.  On August 23, The New York Age reported that the NYA Harlem offices were being transferred to the 32nd Street location.  "This consolidation will insure better service for the young men and women of the Harlem area as HYA Headquarters houses the Consultation and special divisions maintained by the NYA for its youth," said the article.

Among the areas available to the participants, according to The New York Age on May 9, 1942, were "Radio Communications, Photography, and Commercial Silk Screen Work/Projects."

As early as 1944, the National Jewish Welfare Board occupied space here.  Founded in 1917, it oversaw the national activities of the Young Women's Hebrew Association, the Young Men's Hebrew Association and Jewish Community Centers.  The 1952 Handbook of Facts on Women Workers explained:

It is also the recognized Jewish community agency for meeting the religious, welfare, and moral needs of Jewish personnel in the armed forces, and its a constituent agency of the United Services Organizations (USO).

The National Jewish Welfare Board received a shipment of poignant items in the summer of 1946.  On July 15, The New York Times reported that the organization's Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities "took temporary custody yesterday of 105 Jewish religious objects that had been stolen by the Nazis from synagogues they destroyed in Germany."  The stash, which included objects of bronze, brass and silver, had been discovered "by chance" in Nuremberg, said the article, which added, "The committee will decide the permanent disposition of the objects."

photograph by Carole Teller

Another branch of the NJWB was established in 1948.  On September 1, 1948, The New York Times reported "Ten executives in the field of Jewish social work received yesterday the first certificates to be issued by the Jewish Communal Service Training Bureau."  The article said that the social workers had completed a 15-month course "including nine months of supervised placement work."  

Around 1954 the National Jewish Music Council also shared space here, and in 1962 the Zionist Organization of America was listed in the building.  The National Jewish Welfare Board remained at 145 East 32nd Street until around January 1968, when it moved to East 26th Street.  

Perhaps the first engineering firm to move in was Barr & Barr, here prior to midcentury.  The firm was responsible for erecting the British and French Buildings in Rockefeller Center, the Centre Theatre, and Time and Life Building.

Other construction and engineering firms occupying space here in the 1950s and '60s included Bogert & Childs; Maganaro, Martin and Lincoln; and Lev Zitiln Associations, Inc.

In December 1959, the furniture manufacturing firm Baumritter Corporation leased the first three floors for its showroom and sales office.  In 2004, the upper floors were converted to medical offices.  The end of the furniture showrooms came with a renovation initiated in 2011.  It resulted in the entire building being used by medical facilities.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1883 236 East Sixth Street

photograph by Carole Teller

On January 5, 1882, Joseph Schwarzschild and Ferdinand Sulzberger sold the four "five-story stone front tenements" at 230 to 236 East Sixth Street to architects and builders William P. and Ambrose M. Parsons for $48,500 (about $1.48 million in 2026 terms).  The brothers replaced the buildings with four identical structures.  Completed within the year, they were faced in brownstone.  Their neo-Grec design included centered entrances above short stoops.  The windows sat within prominent architraves upheld by scrolled brackets and their molded cornices sat upon corbeled piers.  Cast metal cornices, more in keeping with the earlier Italianate style, crowned the buildings.  The Parsons brothers sold the completed row on November 29, 1882.

Like the others in the row, 236 East Sixth Street was a "double flat," meaning there were two apartments per floor--one each on either side of the centered hallway.  They became home to a variety of tenants.  Living here in 1895 was William Bader, who worked for the city as "assistant to deputy sheriff."  He earned $1,000 a year, or about $40,000 today.  And Dr. Leopold Hibbe and his wife, Anna, and their child lived here as early as 1897.  Sharing the apartment was Leopold's brother, Dr. Henry Hibbe, and their widowed mother.

Leopold Hibbe was born in 1866 and graduated from the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York (where he had been an athlete) in 1891.  On the morning of March 2, 1897, he sat at his desk writing.  The New York Journal reported that he "struck a match to light his pipe."  It broke and the burning portion fell into a waste basket filled with papers.  Hibbe panicked and, rather than rushing the flaming basket into the street, he ran outside to get help.  The New York Journal said that in doing so, he forgot that his little child was asleep on the sofa in the room.  The article continued, "When he remembered it he could not get back."  Happily, Patrolman Wichman courageously rushed into the flaming room and rescued the child.

Dr. Hibbe had his wits together seven months later.  On October 25, 1897, The New York Times reported that the Hibbe apartment "served as the theatre for a scene in which a night marauder and a physician were the chief actors, and which had a ludicrous as well as a dangerous side."  In the middle of the night, Hibbe awakened to footsteps in the hall.  He discovered an intruder shoving "a few odds and ends into his trousers pockets."  The article said that Dr. Hibbe "caught the man he had been following unceremoniously by the throat and threw him to the floor."  The "rough-and-tumble scuffle" aroused Henry Hibbe who entered the affray.  Finally two policemen arrived and took into custody the "submissive and badly battered prisoner."

Within five years, the extended Hibbe family had moved to 23 Stuyvesant Street.  (There the two physicians were arrested, charged with performing an abortion.)  Another doctor, Albert S. Gombar moved into 236 East Sixth Street in 1909.

In the meantime, John Graham and his wife occupied an apartment at the turn of the century.  The 25-year-old was waiting for an elevated train at Second Avenue and 23rd Street on the afternoon of February 11, 1900 when he tumbled down the two-story tall staircase to the pavement below.  A witness said, "He was a laboring man, evidently, as he wore overalls and jumper, and his hands were soiled and calloused."

A doctor was summoned.  Before he arrived, two priests happened by and noticed the growing crowed.  One of them noticed "a little brown ribbon which came just over the edge of the injured man's shirt," reported The New York Times.  "He's a Catholic, Father," said the priest to his companion.  "See, he wears a scapular."  The priests knelt beside Graham, who was unconscious.  "The crowd fell back reverently, the Catholic ones uncovering and joining silently in prayer," said the article.

Dr. Graham Roberts transported John Graham to a hospital.  He told reporters that the young man's skull was fractured.  Tragically, he was given little hope of surviving.  Graham, who had just a nickel in his pocket, had not been drinking.  Doctors opined "that when near the top of the stairs he was attacked by heart disease and fell."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Minnie Wagner lived here in 1911.  She worked as a sewing machine operator on the eighth floor in the Triangle Waist Company at 23-29 Washington Place.  On Saturday morning, March 11, that year, she went to work as always.  The day would end tragically, however.  At around 4:45, just 15 minutes before the workday ended, fire broke out.  Minnie testified later:

[I] was near my machine when I heard the cry of "Fire!"  I rushed to the Washington Place door, and there saw Eva Harris...and she rushed by me and shouted to me, "My, God, the door is locked!"  After that I saw Louis Brown, who was wiping his hand, drop the towel and come to where we were standing, and, he said, "Wait a minute, girls, and don't get excited.  I will open the door for you."  He reached in his pocket and took out a key and turned the lock.  The door would not open, and he smashed another lock.  It then opened and we went out.

Minnie Wagner was one of the fortunate women in the building that day.  Trapped inside on two floors, 146 female workers perished, having either jumped to their deaths or burned. 

Emily Davisson was convalescing from an operation on April 26, 1915, and her 21-year-old son, Benjamin, was suffering from pneumonia.  They occupied a fifth-floor apartment.  Both were in their beds that day and were unaware of "the shout of fire which drove the other ten families from the building," according to the New-York Tribune.  Someone ran to a fire alarm box, but it was stuck.  The newspaper said that Ladder Company 3 was "late in responding to the blaze because the alarm box refused to open until after a five-minute struggle."

It was only when smoke and flames entered their apartment did Emily and Benjamin Davisson realize they were in danger.  Policeman Healy saw the panicked pair as they clung to their windowsill.  "They intended to jump," said the article, but Healy "warned them to stay where they were."  Minutes later, fire fighters arrived.  A ladder was raised and the Davissons were rescued.  The newspaper said that the damage to the building was estimated at about $331,000 in today's money.

At least two more physicians would live and work here.  Dr. Michael Shander was listed at the address in 1916, and Dr. William Steinhauser was here in 1927.  Among Dr. Steinhauser's neighbors in the building at the time was Rabbi Julius Boloker of the Congregation First Mihailener and the Independent Burdujener.

By the third quarter of the century, the East Village neighborhood had a more avant-garde demographic.  Head shops occupied former deli spaces and Mod Art posters hung in store windows.  In 1970, 22-year-old Bruce McKeithen, a Bernard B. Baruch College student, occupied an apartment here.

On May 21 that year, Narcotics Division detectives arrested a Barnard College co-ed, Andrea Rosenberg, in her West End Avenue apartment.  Police called her "a major supplier of drugs" at Columbia University.  They discovered $100,000 worth of illegal drugs in her apartment.  Unfortunately for Bruce McKeithen, he and two young Columbia students were in the apartment at the time of the raid.  They were arrested for drug possession.

photograph by Carole Teller

At some point, the brownstone was painted cream and white.  The original stoop ironwork and entrance doors survive.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1933 Independent Theatre Owners Bldg - 341 West 44th Street

An article in the "Vaudeville" section of The Billboard on May 6, 1933, announced that the Independent Theatre Owners' Protective Association "expect to open their new offices soon at 341 West 44th street."  Recently formed by independent motion picture theater owners, the organization sought to protect them from the already powerful film distributors and large theater circuits.

The group's new headquarters were in a recently completed, three-story building just blocks away from the country's entertainment epicenter--Times Square.  Designed by Raymond Irrera for the 341 West 44th Street Corporation, it straddled the Art Deco and Art Moderne styles.

The ground floor was dominated by a modern arcade show window.  Its vast plate glass panels, sitting upon a polished black base, were trimmed in thin strips of chrome.  Nestled behind the storefront were two entrances, one accessing the store and the other the offices above.

Irrera sandwiched the two upper floors between matching terra cotta friezes of Art Deco zigzags and rondels.  He used starkly contrasting white and black brick to create the Art Moderne design of the second and third floors.  The resulting economy of materials during the difficult Depression years worked.  Construction cost the syndicate $15,000 to erect, or about $373,000 in 2026 terms.

The ground floor space was taken by the Amusement Supply Co., Inc.  It catered to the nearby legitimate theaters by offering set design and construction, lighting, and equipment.

The Independent Theatre Owners Association had barely settled into their new home when trouble ensued.  In June 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Recovery Administration to stimulate economic recovery.  On November 10, it filed a $1 million suit "on the ground of alleged violation," reported The New York Times.  Calling the Independent Theatre Owners Association and a co-defendant "an alleged 'company union,'" the suit charged that they "signed the re-employment agreement to better business conditions by hiring more men, increasing wages and cutting working house to thirty-five hours a week."  Instead, they "cut staffs in half, reduced pay and increased the working week to fifty-two hours."  The two organizations were ordered to pay "sums ranging from $1,294 to $5,499 for crews of from four to eight men."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The drastic decline of independently owned motion picture houses at midcentury prompted the closing of the Independent Theatre Owners Association.  It was gone from 341 West 44th Street as early as 1940.  The Amusement Supply Co., Inc. still occupied the storefront that year.  A theatrical printing firm, New Process Program Corp. occupied the second floors.  It produced programs, banners on oilcloth, full-sized lobby cutouts of motion picture stars, and lobby posters.  Upstairs was Eldridge Enterprises, Inc.  Its cryptically worded help wanted ad on November 3, 1940 gave no hint of the firm or its dealings:

Attention Salesmen:  Big Commissions.  Proven Plan for Retail merchants to increase sales.  Write for particulars.  Eldridge Enterprises, Inc. 341 West 44th St., New York.

The Tops Employment Agency occupied space here as early as 1961.  On July 6 that year, Mayor Robert Wagner ordered penalties against the firm.  The New York Times reported that it was "accused of 'petty chiseling' against domestic workers they had brought to the city."

A renovation in 1991 resulted in a "eating and drinking establishment" on the second floor, and by 1996 the Trilogy Theatre Group operated downstairs.  It presented plays like Louise Page's Tissue, a drama about a woman's struggle with breast cancer, in April 1996, and Kevin Doyle's Styrofoam, about the Stampede Theater Festival, staged here in January 2004.  That production was among the group's last.  The Trilogy Theatre closed later that year.

Luthier Music Corp. replaced the theater.  It sold guitars, sheet music, and Luthier-made guitar strings, among other related goods.  The store would occupy the space for a decade, moving out in 2014.

The handsome little building sat empty for years before being purchased by the Buddha's Light International Association.  The group announced plans to construct the Buddha's Light Cultural Center on the site.  But that scheme got derailed.  In May 2026, the group sold the property "to a fashion executive," according to Crain's New York.  Its fate is unknown at the time of this writing.

photographs by the author

The 1900 Abner C. Thomas House - 315 West 84th Street

 

James Ross and Charles R. McNeill established their architectural practice in 1898.  Among their first commissions was the designing of six upscale rowhouses on the north side of West 84th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue for Matthews & Eppenstein.  Completed in 1900, the five-story homes were designed, overall, in the Beaux Arts style.  Ross & McNeil created an off-balanced row in an ABBBAA configuration.  The flat-faced "A" models were clad in red brick.  The B models, which included 315 West 84th Street, were faced in brown brick above their rusticated limestone bases.  The upper three floors were bowed, terminating in a dignified stone balustrade that fronted the tiled mansard.  Its prominent dormer wore an arched pediment.

The houses form a dignified row.  315 West 84th Street is hiding behind the tree in the foreground.

Matthews & Eppenstein had purchased the property from Henry Oppenheimer in November 1899.  The transaction did not come without a problem.  A house already existed at 315 West 84th Street and it was being leased to attorney Abner C. Thomas and his family.  The developers apparently negotiated with family, because when the row was completed, the Thomas family moved into 315 West 84th Street.

Abner C. Thomas was born in Brooklyn in 1844.  He received a civil engineering degree from the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania.  At the age of 21, he changed course, studying law in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  He relocated to New York City in 1866 and opened his law office.  

Thomas and his wife, the former Lucy Carnahan, had four children: Ethel Cary, Rhoda Cary, Lucy Cary and Abel Cary.  Lucy had a long American pedigree.  She was the first president of the Daughters of Ohio, and a member of the Daughters of the Revolution, and the Daughters of the War of 1812.  She was, as well, a member of Sorosis, the first professional women's club in America.

The Thomas family had lived in the previous house as early as 1895.  The last social event in that residence took place on December 5, 1899.  That evening Rhoda Cary Thomas was married to Cornelius W. Luyster Jr. at the Church of All Angels on West End Avenue.  The New-York Tribune remarked, "a supper and dance for the members of the bridal party will follow at the home of the bride's parents, No. 315 West Eighty-fourth-st."

In addition to his law practice, Abner C. Thomas was an author.  He wrote, according to The Evening World, "many text books on law," most of which dealt with real estate law.  In 1899, he was appointed surrogate justice by the Tammany organization.

In March 1903, F. W. Drury and his wife, Josephine, purchased 315 West 84th Street.  Their residency would be relatively short and in May 1907, they sold the house to Corinne Roche.

A graduate of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Corinne was highly involved in real estate, buying and selling properties in Manhattan.  Her parents, Walter and Mary Amelia Doherty Roche, were both dead and moving into 315 West 84th Street were Corinne's sisters, Beatrice, Marie and Amelia.  The Roches' summer home was in Deal Beach, New Jersey.  At the time, Beatrice was still a student in the Convent of the Sacred Heart.

On September 24, 1907, Marie was married to Joseph Thomas Ryan in Deal, New Jersey.  Her brother, John Doherty Roche, gave her away.  The New York Times noted, "A reception followed the wedding at the Roche Summer home."

The Asbury Park Press began an article on September 11, 1909, "While on a vacation from the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Manhattanville, N. Y., several years ago, Miss Beatrice Roche gave a birthday party...and it was there that she first met Dr. William Vincent Pascual of Brooklyn, then a student at Columbia university."  The article said a "rather romantic courtship" followed.  Beatrice and Pascual were married in Deal on the morning of that article.  Corinne was Beatrice's maid of honor and John gave her away.  The reception was held in Marie and Joseph Ryan's summer home.

There were now just two sisters in the West 84th Street house.  Corinne busied herself with her real estate dealings while remaining highly active in her alumnae association.  On June 15, 1919, for instance, the New York Herald announced, "On the campus at Manhattanville members of the alumnae association of the Convent of the Sacred Heart College held their 'Old Students' Day' Tuesday."  The article noted that Corinne Roche was the chairman of the arrangements.

Amelia was married to John William Kehoe in the Church of the Holy Trinity in September 1920.  She was given away by Joseph Ryan.  (John D. Roche had died on January 29, 1918.)  Corinne attended her sister.  The New York Times reported, "The ceremony was followed by a wedding breakfast at the home of the bride, 315 West Eighty-fourth Street."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Corinne was not left alone in the house.  Amelia and John moved in.  Kehoe was a textile executive and Amelia kept busy with charity work.  She was vice president of the Manhattanville Children of Mary, was highly active in the ladies' auxiliary of St. Joseph's Day Nursery, and was treasurer of the Maplehurst Alumnae of the Sacred Heart.  And in 1933, The New York Sun reported that she was chairman of the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae's annual bridge party.

Corinne Roche continued to buy and sell real estate.  On May 9, 1930, for instance, The New York Times reported that she had purchased an apartment building on East 123rd Street, and by the early 1940s she owned a theater on Eighth Avenue.

In August 1944, real estate operator M. C. Berg purchased 315 West 84th Street, sparking a game of real estate hot potato.  He resold it the following month "to an investor," according to The New York Sun on September 28.  In April 1945, G. W. Cane purchased it and resold it the following month to real estate Dorothy Kaliski.  She rented rooms in the house until 1953, when The New York Times reported on June 4 that she sold it to a buyer who would convert it into ten apartments.  But, once again, the purchaser resold 315 West 84th Street the following month.  On July 24, The New York Times reported, "The buyer plans to alter the building and occupy a large part of it."

The once elegant home became a rooming house.  The following year, on December 21, 1954, The New York Times reported that the owner and nine other rooming house owners had been "threatened with forced evacuation of their tenements as firetraps."

A renovation completed in 1956 resulted in one apartment each on the first and second floors, two each on the third and fourth, and two furnished rooms on the fifth floor.  There would be three more renovations to come, each one reducing the number of units.  In 1973 the first and second floors were combined as a duplex, in 1995 that apartment was enlarged to a triplex, and, finally, in 2017 315 West 84th Street was restored to a single-family home.

photographs by the author

The Lost Empire Brewery - 287 West 10th Street

from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The State Legislature enacted a statute in 1796 to erect two New York State prisons, one in Albany and the other in New York City.  The latter's four-acre site was in Greenwich Village and stretched from Skinner Road (today's Christopher Street) to the south to Charles Street at the north.  Designed by French-born architect Joseph-Francois Mangin and completed in 1797, the Federal style structure was both utilitarian and attractive.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Christopher Street prison's tenure was short.  A new facility was completed in Ossining, New York in 1828 and the last prisoner was transferred there in 1829.

Four years earlier, Abraham Nash had founded an ale brewery at Troy, New York.  In 1837, a relative, Ebenezer Beadleston, who lived in New York City, was brought in "for the purpose of extending the business in that locality," according to The Western Brewer in 1903.  Beadleston was made a partner in 1840 and the firm was renamed Nash, Beadleston & Company.
 
In 1846, the firm purchased the old prison block, as well as "one wing extending north to Charles street, another south to Tenth, formerly Amos street, and a third due west, terminating in a hat shop where the convicts were employed," as explained the New York Herald.  

The Western Brewer explained:

The old State Prison, whose buildings were occupied as a brewing and malting plant, was constructed of stone and surrounded by a high wall.  The wall was torn down when the property was purchased by Nash, Beadleston & Company who used the cells for malting rooms and built three stories upon the massive foundation.

Features of Mangin's Federal design, including the distinctive cupola, were apparent.  One Hundred Years of Brewing, 1903 (copyright expired)

The northern property included the brewery's stables (which were on Charles Street) and other auxiliary buildings.  The repurposed prison functioned until the beginning of the 1880s.  In 1879 construction began on a new brewery on the northern property, "covering practically all of the block bounded by Washington, Charles, Tenth and West Streets with the exception of the West Street frontage," according to The New York Times.

In January 1881, "their new ale and porter brewery was completed," as recalled by One Hundred Years of Brewing in 1903, on the northern property.  "In the same year," said the article, "they demolished the remainder of the prison."

On May 23, 1881, the New York Herald reported, "An energetic gang of workmen attacked on Saturday the main building of the old State prison," and recalled that it had been purchased "in 1846 by a firm of brewers, Nash, Beadleston & Co.  the firm afterward became Beadleston & Nash, then Beadleston & Price, later Walter N. Price, next Beadleston, Price & Woerz, and is now Beadlestone & Woerz."

The article noted, "The walls are three feet thick and built very firmly, and the live oak timbers and stone-like plaster resisted pickaxe and crowbar bravely."  The New York Times later explained, "The foundation walls were found so solid that they were retained in the new structure."

The 1879 Bromley map clearly shows in pink the irregular property.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Oddly enough, the new complex was a collection of structures.  The three that faced West 10th Street were distinct.  The main building, at 287 West 10th Street, was a blend of Rundbogenstil, or German Romanesque, and Victorian Gothic.  The round-arched openings of the ground floor sat within a heavily rusticated base that continued into the eastern building.  Deep corbel tables, typical of the Rundbogenstil style, ran below the cornice while a shingled clock tower with a pyramidal cap gave the structure panache.  

Trow's New York City Directory, 1880 (copyright expired)

The year 1888 started out badly.  On April 18, the New-York Tribune reported that the Beadleston & Woertz employees "went out on strike yesterday, breaking their union contracts with the proprietors."  Two weeks later, on May 5, The Evening World subtitled an article, "The Brewers and the Men Carrying on their Fight as Hot as Ever."  The unified breweries, including Beadleston & Woertz, had initiated a union lockout.

In the meantime, Beadleston & Woertz was being sued by a saloon owner.  J. H. Fulton owed the brewery $100.  When the debt was not paid, Beadleston & Woerz notified the Association of Beer Brewers and a city-wide boycott was initiated against J. H. Fulton.  Unable to acquire beer, his business was ruined.  Around the same time of the strike, he sued Beadleston & Woertz for $10,000 damages (a significant three-quarters of a million in 2026).  The suit drew the attention of reformers.  The New York Herald remarked on May 9, 1888, "If the inquiry is allowed, then, in all probability, the methods of boycotts on the side of the boss brewers may be gone into."  In the end, Beadleston & Woertz was victorious.  The next day, The New York Times reported, "Judge Andrews ordered a verdict for the defendants."

An 1894 advertisement boasted that the brewery's Imperial brand beer was "the best table beer in the market."  (original source unknown.)

A law in 1895 demanded that all wagons and trucks were taken off the streets at night to enable street cleaning.  Many large establishments, like Beadleston & Woertz, ignored the rule.  On April 7, the New York Herald reported that four nights earlier, Street Cleaning Department Commissioner Charles K. Moore and "gangs of men from stables" had swarmed the streets and confiscated vehicles.  One establishment that had not been targeted was Beadleston & Woertz, "where it is said that nearly a hundred heavy beer wagons were left out in the street every night," according to the New York Herald.  The article said that Deputy Commissioner Moore "went down and looked at the place, and found that not only were the streets lined with the brewery wagons, but that there were also hundreds of other trucks and wagons in the vicinity."

The problem of cleaning up the infractions revolved around the rough, riverfront neighborhood.  According to the New York Herald, Moore told his foreman to go to Beadleston & Woerz's brewery at 9:30 on the night of April 3.  "I want the men to lug off just as many of the trucks as they can."

The foreman replied, "I wouldn't advise going there before midnight."

"Why not?"

"You know the neighborhood?"

"Perfectly"

"There will be a row."

"I hope not," replied Moore, "but if it comes we'll simply have to fight, that's all."

As expected, as the men started driving off the beer wagons, men rushed from all sides, many from the nearby saloons.  One man yelled, "they're stealing the brewery wagons.  Get help quick!"  A melee erupted with angry men attempting to pull Deputy Moore from his buggy.  The city workers were met with "a shower of sticks and stones."  Finally, Moore told a brewery representative that as long as he put the wagons into the firm's yard, he would relinquish, but would check back in a few days to make sure the wagons were not back on the street.  Moore put a positive spin on the violent encounter.  The New York Herald reported, "Deputy Moore was highly pleased at the success of the raid."

On January 30, 1897, the New-York Tribune wrote a human interest article about Alfred N. Beadleston, grandson of Ebenezer Beadleston.  "Mr. Beadleston has taken full charge of the financial end of the concern, and under his able management the house has grown to be second to none in this part of the country."  The article said the brewery was producing 175,000 barrels of ale and porter a year.

Alfred Beadleston and his partners were millionaires by the end of the 19th century, New-York Tribune January 30, 1897 (copyright expired)

Frederick W. Woerz's name was in the newspapers five years later for less complimentary reasons.  On December 12, 1902, The New York Times reported that he had sent "private sleuths" to secretly accompany his wife to London and Paris.  Their investigation resulted in Woerz's filing for divorce.  "In the papers a foreign nobleman's name and that of a well-known musician were mentioned," said the article.

Prohibition brought an end to Beadleston & Woerz's Empire Brewing Company.  On December 16, 1920, The New York Times reported, "An old lower west side landmark has been disposed of in the leasing of a large portion of the Empire Brewing Company's property at 156 and 158 Charles Street, two seven and eight story buildings."  The Reynolds Whitney Warehouse Company, Inc. had leased the property for 20 years.  "The same company has also secured an option to lease the buildings at 674 and 676 Washington Street and 287 to 303 West Tenth Street," said the article.

Five years later, it appeared that Prohibition was here to stay and Beadleston & Wortz, "which has not manufactured beer for some time," had decided to liquidate its business and "release itself from the $50,000 bond which breweries post with the Treasury Department," according to The New York Times.  In preparing to sell the property, Prohibition Agent William F. McCann inspected the buildings on March 24, 1925.  Surprisingly, the article said he "seized 309 cases of beer," adding, "No charge was made against the brewery, and the owners disclaimed knowledge of the beer."

On August 22, 1937, The New York Times reported, "Old-timers and historical students in the Greenwich Village area have been visiting in larger numbers than usual during the last few days the Tenth Street block in the far westerly section between Washington and West Streets."  The interest was sparked by the demolishing of the Beadleston & Woerz buildings "for a three-story commercial building."  The visitors "are awaiting the time when the demolition will disclose portions of the foundations and walls of New York's first State Prison," said the article.  It continued, "In the demolition now under way the old prison walls will no longer be retained and the last vestiges of the structural work of the building artists of 1797 will soon disappear from the soil of Manhattan."

The three-story building, completed in 1938, survived until 2020, replaced by a 16-story apartment building.

The 1878 237 East 79th Street

Following the end of the Civil War, development crept northward into the Yorkville district.  Access to the neighborhood was greatly enhanced when the IRT Third Avenue Line opened in 1878.  That year, a four-story double flat (meaning there were two apartments per floor) was erected at 237 East 79th Street.  

Faced in brownstone, it's up-to-the-minute neo-Grec design included a rusticated first floor above a short stoop.  The centered entrance was crowned with a triangular pediment.  At the upper floors, French windows were framed by elaborate architraves that sat upon bracketed sills.  Scalloped lintels with incised decorations upheld prominent molded cornices.   An ornate pressed metal cornice completed the design.

In 1940, nearly nothing had changed to the neo-Grec design, including the charming French windows.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services. 

An advertisement described, "six light rooms and bath, modern improvements."  Among those "improvements" would have been running hot and cold water.  The eight families in the building were middle class.  Among the residents in 1879 were three clerks, Thomas D. Barton Jr., Ashley W. Cole, and George A. French.  

The families were affluent enough to afford at least one servant.  An advertisement appeared in The New York Herald on December 30, 1879, for instance, that read: "Wanted--A girl for housework; two in family; wages, $7 per month."  (The wages were not overly generous.  They would equal $233 in 2026.)

The Lehn family moved to New York City from Easton, Pennsylvania in 1880 and took an apartment here.  Their 19-year-old son, George W., found a job as an "extra gateman" at the 18th Street station of the Third Avenue elevated railroad.  (Gatemen controlled the wooden gates that protected passengers on the platforms.  Gatemen opened them when the trains arrived and closed them before the trains pulled out.)

George had had the job only a short time when his inexperience and the brashness of youth caused his horrific death.  Half an hour after appearing for work on the night of September 7, 1880, he "attempted to cross from one station to the other" by trotting over the tracks rather than cross at street level.  The New York Herald reported, "His foot became caught, and before he could extricate it he was struck by Engine No. 11."  The newspaper graphically recounted, "The whole train passed over him, and his body was shockingly torn and mangled."

At the time of the tragedy, Amos K. Hadley, the former Attorney General of New York State, and his family occupied an apartment here.  Early in October 1880, Hadley notified the landlord, J. P. Huyerman, who lived on Bank Street, that he would be moving out.  The New York Evening Telegram reported, "He, however, was indebted to Mr. Huyerman for a small balance of rent and Mr. Huyerman refused to allow him to move until the amount due was paid."  Hadley told him he was "about to collect some bills" and he would pay the outstanding money when he received the necessary cash.

On moving day, October 18, Hadley went downtown.  When he returned home he found his family and a guest of his wife imprisoned in the apartment.  The New York Evening Telegram reported that Huyerman had locked the doors and refused "to allow them to leave or to remove any of their baggage until the balance of rent was paid."  Hadley rushed to a police station and had Huyerman arrested for disorderly conduct.

The landlord's obsessive behavior over the outstanding rent cost him.  Justice Smith fined him $10 (about $325 today) and "required him to furnish $500 bail for his good behavior for six months" or serve three months in the Workhouse.  The judge announced, "it was about time that landlords learned that they do not own their tenants, body and soul."  According to the article, as Huyerman was led out of the courtroom he muttered, "We'll see about that."

On September 16, 1889, The Press titled an article, "Very Old And Very Wicked."  The headline referred to 73-year-old resident Joseph P. Snow, whom Police Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes described as "one of the most notorious 'fences' in the country."  Snow was a slippery fellow.  The Press explained, "He has been arrested dozens of times, and although stolen property has frequently been found in his possession he has thus far escaped punishment, with the exception of a term of five years which he served in Moyamensing Prison."

Snow's luck finally ran out.  On September 9, 1889, George Storms, alias Dick Short; William G. Cole, and ex-convict Charles Gardner broke into the J. C. Hecker leather goods factory and stole "several thousands dollars' worth of fancy pocketbooks, bags, etc.," according to The Press.  Most of the booty was stashed at Snow's apartment from which he intended to "dispose of" it.  A week later, after the thieves were nabbed, detectives closed in on 237 East 79th Street.  When Snow saw the detectives entering the building, he "ran into the yard, and, despite his weakness, tried to climb the fence."  Once again, Snow attempted to slip out of his dilemma.  The Press reported, "He is a bland old fellow, and told the Inspector that he did not know the goods were stolen, and promised that all would be returned if he was liberated."  This time the ploy did not work.

Four years later another resident was arrested, this time for a much more white collar crime.  Alexander Eisberg was the general bookkeeper of the State Bank of New York.  On July 21, 1893, the 27-year-old and the bank's paying teller, Carl Abresch, conspired to commit embezzlement.  They manipulated the books by creating false entries to cover up the $1,200 they stole.  When the books were audited on December 7, the discrepancy was discovered.  "Eisberg, upon being accused, made a confession," reported The Evening World on December 15.

John Schwandtner and his family lived here in 1904.  He was the senior partner in Pole & Schwandtner, structural iron contractors.  Paul Pole was essentially a silent partner.  The Evening World explained, "Mr. Pole is a man who saved a little money and put it into [the business] with Schwandtner."  The article said that Schwandtner ran the business and Pole knew almost nothing about how it operated.

That business relationship came into serious play during the construction of the Hotel Darlington.  On March 2, 1904, the building collapsed.  The next day, The Brooklyn Citizen reported that 15 bodies had been recovered from the debris, but grimly added, "The corpses are buried under many tons of structural metal and the work of getting them out necessarily is very slow."

On March 5, The Evening World reported, "The man most wanted just now by the officials who are endeavoring to place the responsibility for the Hotel Darlington disaster is John Schwandtner."  A server had taken a warrant to 237 East 79th Street on the previous morning.  Coroner Scholer, who was heading the investigation, told reporters:

He didn't find Mr. Schwandtner, but he learned that he left the house at midnight with a dress suit case and was evidently going on a journey.  We have not given up the chase, but it looks as though he had deliberately left town to avoid testifying in the inquest into these deaths.

By the time of that article, the body count had risen to 18.  Two days later, the New York Herald reported that Schwandtner had not yet been found, but "his house is being watched."

John Schwandtner was eventually tracked down and returned to New York.  Then, on March 29, 1904, The Evening World reported that a grand jury had indicted Eugene C. Allison, the managing owner of the collapsed building with manslaughter.  The article said, "To the great surprise of everybody, no indictments were found against Paul Pole and John Schwandtner."  

On November 3, 1912, the New-York Tribune ran a column titled, "At Music Studios," and reported, "Richard Loewy, violinist and teacher, whose studio is at 237 East 79th street, is establishing himself as a successful teacher."  The article noted that he "gives his pupils the benefit of his many years of study, and practical experience."  Loewy also coached singers, among whom were sopranos Mathilde Mallinger and Praxede Marcelline Proschansky.

Franklin Lacy Sheldon was "a member of a prominent family," according to The New York Sun.  He was the son of Dr. William Hills Sheldon, an assistant professor of medicine at Cornell University.  Following his graduation from Yale in 1936, Franklin Sheldon moved into 237 East 79th Street.  He found an accounting job, but then lost it in February 1938.

Sheldon's mother, who lived in a duplex apartment on East 86th Street, maintained a summer home in Bethlehem, Connecticut.  She was there on September 10, 1938 when the 26-year-old entered her apartment and committed suicide.  A handyman in that building forced his way into the kitchen, "the door of which had been propped shut with a chair," reported The New York Times.  "He found gas escaping from all the jets of the kitchen rage.  Sheldon was lying on the floor, dead."  Ironically, according to his sister, he was expected to start a new job the next morning.

No. 237 East 79th Street survives as the last remnant of the 19th century on the northern side of the block.

In 1936 the building was updated, however the exterior was left almost entirely untouched.  Then, a renovation in 1970 cut the apartments in half--now four per floor--and the 1878 neo-Grec exterior elements were removed.  The brownstone was slathered with stucco, successfully eliminating almost every hint of the original design other than the cornice.

photographs by the author