photo by Alice Lum |
Earlier, in 1840, Randel had partnered with James Baremore to
form the high-end jewelry company Randel & Baremore. The pair opened their first store at No. 32
North Moore Street. In 1851 they hired
Chester Billings as a clerk. Fifteen
years later Billings became a partner and the firm was renamed Randel, Baremore
& Billings; Co.
The firm would probably have been lost in the tangle of
upscale jewelers at the time if it were not for a daring step Randel and
Baremore took shortly after opening. At
a time when wealthy women were judged by their pearls, Randel and Baremore
focused on diamonds. Years later the
New-York Tribune would remember “they determined to make diamonds their
specialty, and in this they were pioneers, as no diamond specialists existed
here at that time.”
It was a risky move.
Americans were largely disinterested in cut gemstones; however Randel, Baremore & Billings now
held a near-monopoly in the diamond trade in New York. The partners amassed personal fortunes.
James Baremore traveled to France in 1867. New York was shocked to receive the news that
the 48-year old died in Paris on Friday, September 27. The body had to be transported home on a
steamer, and almost a month later, on Friday October 18 at 2:00 in the
afternoon, Baremore’s funeral was held in the parlor of the Randel home at 38
East 38th Street.
The home would be the scene of another unexpected funeral on
Wednesday, January 28, 1874. Caroline’s
brother, Isaac C. Perrine, died near Omaha on January 23. His body was brought back to New York for the
38th Street funeral.
Henry Randel and Chester Billings took another bold step in
1880. The New-York Tribune said “they
took up diamond cutting, and this they carried on in the American style…This
method aims at producing effect rather than conserving the weight of the gems.” Their pioneering method focused on brilliance
rather than size. Once again their
daring paid off; prompting the Tribune to say their “enterprise was most
successful.”
By now the firm now
had two branches overseas. The Tribune noted
that “But, besides diamonds, this house deals largely through its London and
Amsterdam offices in rubies, sapphires, opals, emeralds and pearls and their
designs for the settings and arrangements of these gems give them high rank as
manufacturers of jewelry.”
The Randel family received a scare on March 30, 1885. While traveling in Washington DC the 68-year
old Henry Randel “was suddenly prostrated at dinner,” as reported in The
Sun. The resilient jeweler recovered
however and it would be another twelve years before he finally retired.
On February 23, 1897 Henry Randel and Chester Billings
issued a Notice of Dissolution. The
partnership was dissolved “by mutual consent” and continued business under the
name of Chester Billings & Son.
Ironically, it was Billings who died later that same year.
The Randel’s daughter, Emelie, was no longer in the house by
now. Divorced, she married the
staggeringly-wealthy director of the Standard Oil Company, Henry Huttleston
Rogers, in 1896. Her aging parents kept
up their annual pilgrimages to various summer resorts, along with the rest of
New York’s wealthy citizens. For the summer
season of 1900 they took “the Hathorn Cottage” in Saratoga and the following
year leased the William Kent Cottage in Tuxedo, New York.
But Henry’s age was showing. In 1900, on the advice of H. H. Rogers, he
traveled to Georgia for medical attention.
It was an idea that annoyed Samuel Clemens. On April 8 of that year the author wrote a
fiery letter to Rogers from London which said in part:
"Now you get some Plasmon of Butters, and give it to Mrs.
Rogers and her father, and you will find good results. In any case it will do away with
indigestions, and that is something. Why did you send Mr. Randel to Georgia? There was no use in it. You should have sent him to Dr. Helmer,
corner of 36th and Madison avenue—osteopath. Can’t I beat it into your head that
physicians are only useful up to a certain point? There their art fails, and then one osteopath
is worth two of them.”
While the Randels were in Tuxedo Park the following year,
Henry fell ill again. The New York Times
reported on July 28, 1901 that “Mr. Henry Randel, who occupies the William Kent
cottage, lies seriously ill at Tuxedo, having suffered a stroke of apoplexy
last week. Fears are entertained for his
recovery and the family have been sent for, and are now constantly with him.”
The Times was a bit tardy in its reporting. Henry Randel had been dead for two days when
the article came out. The body of the
84-year old was brought back to the house on 38th Street, where his
funeral was held on Monday, July 29 at 10:30 a.m.
Within the year Caroline Randel left the house she and her
husband had shared for over half a century.
She moved to No. 667 Madison Avenue and the 38th Street house
was offered for sale. It was undoubtedly
no coincidence that the buyer of the family home was Emelie Rogers’ step-son,
H. H. Rogers, Jr.
Rogers lost no time in updating the architecturally
out-of-fashion home. Like other wealthy
homeowners in the still-upscale neighborhood, he gave the old house a
facelift. Rogers commissioned architect
Charles Brigham to design an entirely new façade. What resulted was an imposing limestone mansion
overflowing with classical details—scrolled broken pediments embracing carved
urns over the parlor windows, two-story fluted pilasters at the upper floors,
menacing carved lions heads in the brackets of the limestone balcony and elaborate
oversized volutes that rolled away from the free-standing Corinthian entrance
columns.
Unusual for the East Side of Manhattan, Brigham used a
dog-leg stoop. But unlike its West Side
counterparts, he treated it imperiously.
Squared columns with Ionic pilasters supported four classical urns. Ornate ironwork provided a screen and regal
iron gates protected the service entrance.
The handsome treatment of the dog-leg stoop created an even more regal appearance -- photo by Alice Lum |
As 38 East 38th Street was receiving its
make-over, Hugo Baring was arriving in New York. On May 18, 1902 The New York Times reported
that “Hugo Baring, a brother of Lord Revelstoke and Cecil Baring, will take the
latter’s place in the banking house in this city. Cecil Baring returns to England.”
The 26-year old was already a member of the firm Baring
& Co. at No. 15 Wall Street and before long would hold memberships in New
York’s most exclusive clubs—The Union, Racquet and Riding, and Tuxedo
Clubs among them. He was quickly
established as one of society’s most eligible bachelors.
That bachelorship ended in March 1905 when he married. The renovated house on 38th Street
was now worthy of titled British and the following year The Times noted that “Hugo
Baring and his wife, Lady Evelyn Baring, are at 38 East Thirty-eighth Street
for the Winter.”
Following the Barings, the family of Winthrop Burr took the
house. 1907 was an important year for
the Burrs as daughter Rosamond was being introduced to society. On December 5 Mrs. Burr hosted an afternoon
tea for Rosamond, followed by a dinner “of fourteen covers.” Helping Rosamond and her mother receive were
six other young socialites.
The following evening twenty-eight guests dined in the Burr
mansion. Afterward Mrs. Burr gave a
dance in the Assembly Room of the Colony Club.
The impressive guest list included the top names in New York
society: Fish, Roosevelt, Harriman,
Gould, Morgan, Sloane, Townsend among them.
Guests expected favors and Mrs. Burr’s seem somewhat surprising to
modern minds. “There were four sets of
favors, including fancy lace bags and jardinières of ferns, assorted baskets trimmed
with roses, toy monkeys holding ferns, carved Japanese daggers, hand mirrors
tied with ribbons, velvet cat pin cushions and shaving pads,” noted The Times.
After the cotillion supper was served for the 210 guests.
In 1909 the Burrs moved to No. 20 West 58th
Street for the winter season. Before
long the magnificent house would be leased as upscale furnished
apartments. In 1919 Walter Franklin took
an apartment here and a year later newspapers reported that “William Alpheus
Nettleton has taken an apartment for the Winter at 38 East Thirty-eighth
Street.”
Through the 1920s well-to-do tenants included Mrs. F. Stanhope
Philips, who also lived in Santa Barbara, California; Dr. John P. A. Lang, and
Dr. Samuel Gottesman. Dr. Gottesman was
living here in 1925 when he married Lillie Simmonds and the couple was still
here in 1929 when they announced the arrival of their baby daughter on January
28.
In 1936 the house was structurally converted to apartments—just
two per floor with a doctor’s office in the basement level. Among the tenants was Leonard M. Holland who
had been wine steward at the Waldorf-Astoria for 12 years when he died in his
sleep in his apartment in 1945.
In 2006 the house was renovated once again. The doctor’s office remains in the basement
level; but now the house is divided into a triplex stretching from the parlor
through the third floor, and three apartments above. Today the exterior of the imposing house is
little changed from the 1902 renovation.
No. 38 sits among other turn-of-the-century updates. Down the street an Italianate survivor from the 1860s is a reminder of how No. 38 appeared when Henry Randel lived here. -- photo by Alice Lum |
Building was featured in the 1949 film, House of Strangers, starring Edward G Robinson and Richard Conte. https://nycinfilm.com/2021/06/18/housestrangers/
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