M. Louis Ungrich's 1886 345 and 347 West 123rd Street

 
Developers Frank Tilford and F. Keller hired architect M. Louis Ungrich in the spring of 1885 to design a row of 10 "three-story basement brick and stone private dwellings" on West 123rd Street between Morningside and Manhattan Avenues.  Turning to the popular Queen Anne style, Ungrich designed the row as five alternating, mirror-image pairs--A-B, C-D, A-B, C-D, and A-B.

The easternmost homes, Nos. 345 and 347, were among the A and B models.  At just 16-feet wide, they were clad in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta above the stone-faced basements.  The squiggly spindles of the iron stoop railings and areaway fencing were typical of the often light-hearted Queen Anne style.  The two homes shared a stone bandcourse above the parlor and a bracketed intermediate cornice above the second floor.  An elaborate terra cotta plaque of swirling vines behind a shell straddled the property line at the third floor.  Each gable was decorated with a terra cotta rondel with a full-relief flower erupting from a sunburst.

Terra cotta details enhance the building's charm.

Tilford & Keller initially leased the homes.  An advertisement in the New-York Daily Tribune on January 23, 1887 read, "For Rent--The new and elegant house, 345 West 123d-st.; has never been occupied; will be decorated to suit tenant and rented for half rate until May 1."

It appears that the first to occupy 345 West 123rd Street was the William Mahl family.  William was born in Germany in 1843 and his wife, the former Mary Ann Skidmore, was born in England in 1848.  Mahl was the controller of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and he and Mary Ann had three children, Frederick William, John Thomas (known as Tom), and Edith Virginia. 

The family was still here in 1891 when Tom was studying at the Columbia University School of Mines.  The family moved away around 1892, three years before he graduated. 

(Tom's story would have a sad ending.  He married Ella Hutchins Botts in 1894 and upon graduation he was appointed the head of the Department of Maintenance and Ways of the Houston and Texas Central Railway.  The couple moved to Houston.  Ella died at the age of 29 on June 13, 1900 and, according to The New York Times, "Soon afterward his own health gave way and his physicians advised him to travel extensively.  He had consumption, they said."  In March 1901, the Mahls received word that "death was not far distant."  Mary Ann was with Tom in a private train car on March 31, 1901 when then 27-year-old died.)

The families along the row maintained a small domestic staff.  Mrs. Elizabeth Murphy, who followed the Mahls in 345 West 123rd Street, had at least one servant, Sadie Scott.  Around noon on June 1, 1894, Elizabeth returned from church and, according to The Evening World, "deposited in a closet a diamond ring valued at $100 and $125 in bills."  (Why Elizabeth would have taken the cash--equal to more than $4,800 in 2026--to church in the first place is puzzling.)  Later that afternoon, she noticed that the closet door was open and discovered the cash was missing.  The newspaper reported, "Sadie being the only one in the house suspicion fell on her."  Despite Sadie's strong denial of the crime, she was arrested and charged with grand larceny.

Tilford and Keller were looking for a new tenant for No. 347 in 1890.  Their ad on April 9 read: "Just Look--347 West 123d-st. to lease for only $1,000; three story, high-stoop house, with every improvement; decorated, chandeliers and sanitary plumbing."  The mention of chandeliers was significant.  New homeowners and renters most often had to supply their own lighting fixtures.  And "sanitary plumbing" reveals that the houses had indoor plumbing and toilets.  The rent was extremely reasonable, translating to about $3,000 per month today.

In 1896, Tilford & Keller sold the houses--345 West 123rd Street to Herbert M. Johnson and 347 to Charles D. Folsom.  

Herbert M. Johnson resold No. 345 in April 1897 to William M. Badger and his wife, Eliza.  William would not enjoy the house for long.  He died in 1899.  

Eliza sold the dwelling on May 3, 1902 to Daniel and Jane T. McGowan for $13,000 (about $500,000 today).  In an unsettling instance of déjà vu, Daniel McGowan died in the house less than a year later, on February 28, 1903.

In the meantime, Charles Folsom rented 347 West 123rd Street.  His tenants (who appear to be Harry Hull St. Clair Sr. and his wife, the former Mary Louise Harber) immediately took in a boarder.  In fact, they gave up half of the house in doing so.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on August 16, 1896 read: "347 West 123d-St--Strictly private family offer, with board, three large rooms; second and third floors."  ("Strictly private family" stressed that this was not a boarding house situation.)

Living here in 1896-97 was Arthur Moult Smyth, a civil engineer.  Born in 1868, he earned his Engineer of Mines degree from Lehigh University in 1890.

Harry and Mary St. Clair had a daughter, Helen, born on June 28, 1877.  On Christmas Day 1897, Mary Louse St. Clair died at the age of 44.  Newspapers noted that her funeral services would be "private."  

(Helen would go on to great success.  She would graduate from the Classical School for Girls, from Barnard College, and from Columbia University Phi Beta Kappa.  She would received her law degree from New York University Law School.)

In 1940, the original doors were intact and the masonry was not yet painted.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In the early 1900s, William Henry Bolander and his wife, the former Jennie Damon, lived at 347 West 123rd Street.  Born on September 11, 1838, he was placed in charge of the New Haven Railroad's "Pier 6, East River" in 1878, according to The New York Times.  William still held that position when he died on October 28, 1913 at the age of 75.  His funeral was held in the parlor on the 31st.

The McGowan family retained possession of 345 West 123rd Street into the Depression years.  By the mid-1940s it was operated as a rooming house.  Among the tenants in 1947 was Lamar Harris who got into trouble in Ossining, New York on the afternoon of April 7 that year.  The Citizen-Register reported that he was arrested at the Ossining Railroad Station "on a charge of disorderly conduct" and fined $10.  The article did not go into details of what constituted his offense.

Next door, 347 West 123rd Street was home to the St. Joseph Council Service Station of the Knights of Columbus in the post-World War I years.  Never converted to apartments, it is a single-family home today.  Its architectural fraternal twin was less lucky.  There are eight residential units in 345 West 123rd Street.

photographs by the author

The 1866 Bernard Flach House - 128 East 93rd Street

 

In 1866, one year after carpenters, masons and painters returned from the Civil War and resumed construction in Manhattan, Henry W. Shaw hired Edmund Waring & Sons Architects to design a modest, 25-foot wide frame house on East 93rd Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  The project was speculative for Shaw, who dabbled in real estate but whose profession was the manufacture of artificial limbs. 

The senior Edmund Waring is attributed as being the architect of the design.  Although the site was still semi-rural, Waring drew on the latest architectural fashion of the day: the French Second Empire style.  Born in Paris, the elegant style was just appearing in New York and the wooden house would be the last word in residential design.

Three robust, hooded dormers graced the mansard above a heavy, bracketed cornice. A wooden stoop rose to a porch that fronted the off-set entrance and floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Bernard Flach Jr. purchased the house in 1868.  The neighborhood was not yet sufficiently developed to warrant a street number, and Flach was listed in directories as living at "East 93d near Third av."  He and his wife had at least two sons, Otto and Arthur.  Also moving into the new house was Bernard's father.

Flach ran a "mouldings" business, manufacturing wooden architectural details like spindles, door frames, and such.  He would have an arduous commute to work.  His shop was located at 178 Centre Street and the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad would not reach 93rd Street until 1878.

Bernard Flach, Sr. did not enjoy the house for especially long.  He died here on May 22, 1870 and his funeral was held in the parlor on the 24th.

Around 1872, the Flachs took in a boarder.  Richard Bohler would live with the family through 1875.  The enterprising businessman ran two starkly different businesses.  He ran a store at 180 Broadway selling, "native and foreign wines, liquors, etc." and a drugstore at 50 Cedar Street.

Arthur B. Flach joined his father's business as early as 1876.  His brother, however, took a much different career route.  His business was listed in 1873 as "pianos."

Bernard Flach apparently died in 1877, the year his name disappeared from city directories.  On November 7 that year, Arthur B. Flach sold 128 East 93rd Street to John R. Graham.  

Graham leased the house to a young German couple, Johannes and Pauline Kamm Hartzheim.  It seems that Pauline's widowed mother, Catherine Kamm, lived with them.  Tragically, Pauline died at the age of 29 on January 11, 1879 "after a long and painful illness," as described by the New York Herald.  Her funeral was held here three days later.

Pauline's grieving husband almost immediately left 128 East 93rd Street.  He placed an advertisement in the New York Herald the following month that read: "Parlor suit and other furniture cheap--On account of death."

Edwin Henes and his wife, the former Caroline Schiffer, purchased 128 East 93rd Street in 1880.  The couple were newlyweds.  They were married on May 8, 1879.  John R. Graham had neglected the wooden house and before they moved in, they would have to make some significant repairs.  On November 22, 1881, Inspector Esterbrook of the Bureau of the Inspection of Buildings released a list of "Buildings That are Likely to Fall."  Included was 128 East 93rd Street.

Edwin Henes was born in Milwaukee in 1850 and graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1869.  He followed a much different professional path, however.  When he purchased 128 East 93rd Street, he was "in the beer business with George Ehret," according to the History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College in 1907.

Four children would be born in the house: Louis George in 1881; Caroline Julia two years later; Edward Jr., who arrived in 1885; and Henry William, born in 1887.

The Henes family was affluent enough to provide their children private educations and to spend time away from the city in the summer months.  Edwin Henes placed an advertisement in the New York Herald in May 1891 that sought:

Wanted--Accommodation for family during July and August in a respectable private or boarding house in the country; must be in healthy location, easily accessible, and within a distance of 25 miles from the city; terms and references.  Address E. H., 128 East 93d st.

By 1903, Louis George Henes was a civic engineer.  Edwin Jr. enrolled in Columbia College that year and studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons during his senior year.  (The History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College recounted, "He began school at the age of four.  He first attended several private elementary schools, and then, in 1897...was prepared to enter the College of the City of New York.")  In the meantime, in 1904 Henry was enrolled in the "scientific course" at the College of the City of New York.  

Edwin Henes Jr., as he appeared above in 1907, would become a physician.  History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College (copyright expired)

The Henes family was involved in charity work.  Caroline was a member of the Ladies Aid Society of the German Hospital and Dispensary, for instance.  And in July 1894, the family held a "fair and garden party" at the house for the benefit of The Evening World's Sick Babies' Fund.  The event raised $52.54 (about $2,000 in 2026 terms).  Edwin Jr. wrote to the newspaper saying in part, "We are happy to have been able to make a success of our undertaking and to contribute, with the assistance of our friends and neighbors, something towards the good cause of taking care of the poor sick children of his city."

On June 18, 1905, The New York Times reported, "A town wedding will take place on June 21, when Miss Carolyn Julia Haynes [sic] will be married to Edward Bolter of Chicago in St. James's Lutheran Church, Madison Avenue and Seventy-third Street."  Louis was the groom's best man.  The reception was held in the East 93rd Street house.

In April 1912, the family offered 128 East 93rd Street for sale.  An advertisement described, "A 3 story and basement frame private Dwelling, with brick foundation, containing 15 rooms, 1 bath and 2 toilets."  Whether the Heneses changed their minds or the house simply did not sell is unclear, but Edwin Henes leased the house to James Edberg Fitch in April 1914.  (Edwin and Caroline moved to Seventh Avenue.)

Fitch and his wife, Virginia, had at least three adult children, John H., Virginia and Isabel.  Two months after leasing the house, the Fitches' son, John H. Fitch, got a temporary job with the city's Public Creation Commission as a Gymnasium Instructor at $3 a day "for a period of fifteen days."  (It was an attractive gig, equal to $100 a day today.)

Virginia Fitch died on March 18, 1915.  Rather unexpectedly, Isabel was married seven months later.  Described as a suffragist and expert in outdoor sports, she found love rather late, at least by society standards.  When she and Ralph Folks, the Commissioner of Public Works, obtained their marriage license on November 27, 1915, they listed their ages as 30 and 37, respectively.  The wedding took place "quietly," as described by The New York Times, the following afternoon in the Church of the Beloved Disciple on 89th Street and Madison Avenue.  Virginia was her maid of honor.

Edwin Hene sold 128 East 93rd Street in June 1920.  Interestingly, the buyer was his business associate, George Ehret, who purchased it as a rental property.

Among his tenants that year the Kinzler family, whose son, Herman, became engaged to Clara Frankel that year; and Dr. Julius Scheider and his wife, Marie.

It may have been the city's plans to widen East 93rd Street that prompted Ehret to sell 128 East 93rd Street to a Mrs. Miller in 1921.  On May 21, The New York Times reported that she "will occupy" the house.

The widening of the street in 1922 necessitating the removal of the stoop and porch.  The entrance was lowered below grade and the former doorway converted to a window, seamlessly designed to match the originals.

Seen here in 1932, the basement (now first) floor was spartan.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The house was sold again in July 1930.  It became home to Frederick W. Kroehle, president of the Elfred Realty Company.  By the late 1950s, F. LeMoyne Page and his wife, the former Dorothea Fiske, occupied the house.  

Born in 1901, Page was the founder and president of Transportation Displays, Inc., known as TDI.  The New York Times noted in 1964 that the firm "does $6,000,000 worth of business annually selling advertising space in commuter railroad systems."   Educated as an architect, in 1949 he designed and built the family's summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Page was operated for a prostate disorder in April 1964.  He died in the New York Hospital on April 22.

Two years later, 128 East 93rd Street was nominated for landmark status.  Dorothea, now remarried, successfully blocked the designation.

In 1989, Bradley and Ashley Reifler purchased the house.  California natives, they told a reporter, "We wanted the sense of privacy of a house, the sense of country in the city."  The couple added an elevator housed in a wooden tower in the rear.  In 1991, architectural journalist Christopher Gray reported somewhat sadly, "Although the wideboard floors and marble mantelpieces survive, most of the sense of age in the interior has been ironed out."  

That "sense of age" would be further eradicated in 1995 when the Reiflers removed interior walls.  The house was sold in 2010 to C. C. Dyer, the former wife of television personality Geraldo Rivera.  She paid $6.8 million for the property.

Even without its porch and stoop, the wooden relic retains its post-Civil War charm.

photographs by the author

William Jose's 1873 Re-do of 167 Rivington Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

United States Customs inspector William H. Randall and his family lived at 167 Rivington Street as early as 1836.  They suffered grief on the morning of December 27, 1837 when four-month-old Ann Rebecca Randall died.  The Randall home was, likely, a recently-built Federal-style structure.  

Just before the outbreak of civil war, the house was replaced with Benedict Kraus's three-story hotel.  The enterprising Kraus also operated a meat business in the Essex Market.  The war affected at least one of Kraus's tenants.  On August 28, 1863, S. Adler was drafted into the Union Army.

Edward Gottlieb took over the hotel by 1865.  Like Kraus, he had a second job and operated his real estate business from the building.  The barroom here was the venue of political meetings, and on November 21, 1865 an announcement in the New York Herald reported that the 13th Ward Gunther Club "will hold regular meetings every Wednesday and Saturday night at Gottlieb's Hotel, 167 Rivington street."

On December 14, 1866, the New-York Tribune reported, "Shortly after 4 o'clock yesterday morning a fire was discovered in the premises No. 167 Rivington-st., occupied as a German hotel."  The article said, "the building and furniture were considerably damaged by fire and water."

Following repairs, 167 Rivington Street emerged as Urania Hall, a combination "concert saloon" and hotel.  (Concert saloons were the American version of English music halls and provided live entertainment.)  On January 4, 1867, an advertisement read, "Wanted--Some young waiter girls, for a concert saloon.  Apply at Urania Hall, 167 Rivington street."  And an announcement in the New York Herald on January 13 touted: "Concert every night; handsome girls attending, with choice wines, beer, &c."

The venture did not survive.  Only six months later, on June 28, 1867, an auction was held of "the entire Furniture of Urania Hotel," as well as the remaining three years' lease on the property.

The lease was taken by David Gans and Henry Schwartz, who opened the Schwartz & Gans beer saloon in the ground floor.  It, too, was a meeting spot for German political groups.  On June 26, 1872, The New York Times reported, "The German Republican Organization of the Thirteenth Ward held a meeting at No. 167 Rivington-street last night, indorsing the nomination of Gen. Grant and Senator Wilson for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency."

Change came the following year when owner Paul Hoffman hired architect William Jose to remodel and enlarge the building.  The renovations, which included an additional story, cost Hoffman the equivalent of $208,000 in 2026.

William Jose was best known for designing tenement buildings in the Bowery neighborhood.  He transformed 167 Rivington Street to a four-story-and-basement, store-and-tenement building faced in red brick above the storefronts.  A centered stoop lead to the first floor where two shops flanked the residential entrance.  Jose's neo-Grec design included molded cast metal sills supported by decorated brackets, and paneled lintels topped by molded cornices with a decorative ornament.

photograph by Carole Teller

The complex cornice was comprised of a paneled and dentiled fascia, ornate paired corbels and matching smaller brackets.

The new apartments filled with middle class tenants.  Among those living here in 1879 were two real estate agents, a lithographer, a tailor, one "merchant," and a porter.  That year Jacob Grossmann's shirt business occupied one of the stores.

By the turn of the century, the residents were more working class.  Caroline Rosenthal lived here by the early 1890s with her two grandsons.  George W. and Ernest Schultze were two of the three sons of Dr. Reinbold Schultze who died in 1890.  The boys were eight and six years old at the time.  Their mother "soon afterward went to live with one Courtney, alias Harrison," reported the New York Herald.  Courtney had a wife and three children in Brooklyn.  The couple disappeared, taking the four-year-old Reinbold with them and leaving George and Ernest with their grandmother.

Unfortunately, the care of two young boys was too much for Caroline Rosenthal, and around 1892 she placed them in St. John's Home for Boys in Brooklyn.  Then, a remarkable turn of events occurred.  A Frau Krummhauer died in Magdeburg, Prussia in 1892.  She was the aunt of the three Schultze boys and left them a fortune of $375,000, equal to about $13.7 million today.  William Schwickardi began looking for the three young heirs in December 1892.  He was unable to track down the boys' mother, young Reinbold, or Courtney.  (Mrs. Courtney told him she had not heard from her husband and had no idea where he was.)  

He was more successful in finding George and Ernest.  Caroline Rosenthal appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court with her grandsons on April 11, 1893.  The boys--who one day earlier were living as orphans in a less-than-comfortable institution--were suddenly wealthy.  Selflessly, Caroline Rosenthal requested the court to appoint Julia Schwickardi, William's wife, the boys' legal guardian.

Living in the building at the time of the boys' windfall were junk dealer Saul Deutsch and Dr. Simon Rappaport.  Max Marks ran a dry goods business in one of the stores.

In April 1893, a large quantity of cloth began disappearing from the clothing manufacturer Marks & Co. on Broadway.  On May 5, police officers witnessed two employees, Nathan Schnapper and Solomon Tischler, lowering a bag of rags to Saul Deutsch.  Suspicious, they investigated the bundle.  "Among the rags the detectives found a roll of cloth valued at $27," reported The Evening Post.  Deutsch was arrested and held at $1,000 bail.

Dr. Simon Rappaport faced an even more serious charge two years later.  On December 3, 1895, the New York Herald reported that he and Joseph Stern had been arrested for an "operation performed upon Mrs. Jennie Fourgang, who is very ill in Bellevue Hospital."  The newspaper delicately danced around naming the offense--an abortion.

The charges were elevated three weeks later.  On December 24, The Evening Post reported that Rappaport and Stern had been charged "in connection with the death of Mrs. Jennie Fortgang, of No. 5 Norfolk Street."  The article said she had died "from malpractice," and had named the two men from her deathbed.

Paul Hoffman made improvements to the building again in 1898.  He hired the architectural firm of Kurtzer & Rohl to install a "new fireproof vent shaft [and] new skylight," as described in the plans.  The alterations cost Hoffman the equivalent of $48,000 today.

Austrian-born Leon Stand (known familiarly as Leo) and his family lived here as early as 1901.  He operated his real estate office from one of the commercial spaces.  In 1901 he rallied other businessmen on the block to protest about the garbage and resultant odors that littered the street.  On August 8, The New York Times reported that he had initiated a petition to the Commissioner of Street Cleaning.  "Unable to endure the stench from the streets, they have [been] buying snuff-snuff by the half-pound which the women as well as the men have been using," said the article.  Stand and his neighbors charged that they were being discriminated against.  The petition said in part:

We...protest against the unjust discrimination and partiality shown to the lower east side in the matter of removing garbage and cleaning streets of our neighborhood.  The garbage and filth have been lying in front of the tenements for the past three days, and the drivers and employes [sic] of your department have absolutely refused to remove it.

Leon Stand told a reporter, "We simply can't stand it here any longer.  I took a walk up Fifth Avenue on purpose on Saturday.  Do you think I saw any ash cans or ill-smelling garbage cans there?  Not on your life."

A substantial renovation came in March 1904 when architect Max Muller redesigned the lower floors.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide explained that he "rearranged front wall," installed new store fronts and a cast iron staircase.

Max Muller's 1904 storefronts and iron steps can be seen in this 1940 tax photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Leon Stand and his family would remain here for years.  In August 1911, he arranged a testimonial dinner for Charles F. Hartman, the 71-year-old principal of Public School 106 at Rivington and Suffolk Streets.  On the night of September 12, 250 former pupils gathered at the Café Boulevard to celebrate his retirement and honor his half-century of "pedagogy," as worded by The New York Times.

The following year, Leon's son, Murray, made news on his own.  On September 19, 1912, The New York Times said he "has won prizes for oratory at the De Witt Clinton High School, and is President of the Young Boys Democratic Club."  An admirer of Mayor William Jay Gaynor, Murray Stand was offended when he read the speech delivered by Rabbi Wise at Carnegie Hall, "in which the Rabbi suggested that the Mayor had better resign."  The teen wrote to the mayor, saying in part, "Keep up your good work, dear Mr. Mayor, and when your term as Mayor shall expire, 'one good term shall then deserve another.'"

Mayor Gaynor responded to Murray Stand's letter, writing that he had no ill feelings for Rabbi Wise, however he said he "seems to be without charity or truthfulness."  He went on, "He is a mere rhetorician, and you know what rhetoricians from the beginning of time have been designated as persons 'with the crooked mouth.'"  Murray Stand declined to be interviewed, although he said that "he believed politics should be kept out of religion and the public schools" and deemed Rabbi Wise's attack "in bad taste."

Murray Stand's name was again in newsprint the following year on November 17, 1913 when The New York Times reported on the upcoming testimonial dinner for Justice Aaron J. Levy.  "Murray W. Stand, Secretary of the Neighborhood Dinner Committee, 167 Rivington Street, is in charge of the arrangements," said the article.

By 1917, Murray W. Stand was an Internal Revenue Service collector and alderman.  He would go on to serve in the Army in World War I, be elected alderman 14 successive times, and appointed New York City Commissioner to the World's Fair, and Inspector General of Defense for New York City and City Clerk in 1946.  

His brother, Bert Stand, would become secretary of the New York State Athletic Commission in 1925 and Tammany Hall's first Jewish secretary, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, on July 29, 1934.  

Leon Stand, in the meantime, founded the Lemberger Congregation, a synagogue on East Fourth Street, in 1925.

Among the tenants of 167 Rivington Street in the 1920s was Sam Kirschner.  He and his family occupied an apartment while he ran his dressmaking store downstairs.  Attorney I. Schleider's office was here at least from 1922 through 1925.

The vintage building suffered significant neglect by the third quarter of the century.  On March 7, 1973, 13 tenants lived here, but not for long.  Around 5 a.m., police rushed into the building and roused them "when the walls and roof of the brick structure began to sag," as reported by The New York Times.  Moments later, a partial collapse occurred.  

A blurry 1980 tax photograph shows the building boarded up.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building appears to have sat vacant until a "gut rehabilitation" by Harden-Van Arnam Architects completed in 1993 resulted in stores in the basement and first floor and apartments above.

photograph by Carole Teller

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

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