Each of the identical, 21-foot-wide homes was four stories tall above a rusticated English basement. Their fully-arched entrances were crowned by striking arched pediments supported on foliate brackets. The floor-to-ceiling parlor windows were likely fronted by cast iron balconies. Molded architrave window frames added to the homes' elegance.
James sold 42 West 12th Street to cotton broker Henry Morehouse Taber. Born in Saugatuck, Connecticut on February 8, 1825, he married Mary Elizabeth Philips on October 3, 1855. The couple had a son, William, who was four years old when they moved in. Mary was pregnant at the time, but, sadly, their son Kenneth would die in infancy that year. A daughter, Mary, would be born in 1861, and a son, Sydney Richmond, arrived the following year.
Henry Morehouse Taber, from Henry Morehouse Taber A Memoir, 1918 (copyright expired)
Few New Yorkers could claim an American pedigree as impressive as Taber's. He descended from three Mayflower passengers: Philip Taber, Francis Cooke, and Kenelm Winslow. Taber's great-grandfather, Levi Taylor, had served in the French and Indian Wars and had fought with the Connecticut regiment during the Revolution.
Taber and his brother, Charles Corey, headed the cotton brokerage firm of C. C. and H. M. Taber. Shortly after Henry moved his family into the West 12th Street house, war broke out in the South. It proved to be a boon to the brothers' business. Sydney Richmond Taber wrote decades later,
During the Civil War the transactions of the firm reached a considerable magnitude, and shortly after the close of that period they established branch houses or agencies at New Orleans, Memphis, Mobile, Providence, Boston and Fall River.
In 1876, Taber went into partnership with his son, William Phillips Taber, forming the cotton brokerage firm of Henry M. Taber & Co. In the meantime, Henry and Charles continued working together. They amassed large amounts of Manhattan real estate; and owned and operated steamers like the propeller-driven Vicksburg and the side-wheeler City of Providence. Additionally, they operated the Utica Cotton Company and its mills, of which Henry was president.
Mary Elizabeth Taber died in 1888. In addition to his many business responsibilities, Henry threw himself into civic matters. He had been appointed a trustee of the Common Schools of the 15th Ward in 1875, and in 1892 became an outspoken critic of police corruption. As foreman of the grand jury hearing evidence of department misconduct, he was quoted by The Evening World on April 5, 1892, saying,
There is at least $7,000,000 collected annually from the keepers of gambling dens, saloons, concert halls and houses of ill-repute and distributed among the members of the Police Department. I say at least $7,000,000, for calculation shows that the amount is probably nearer $10,000,000. I direct this accusation against the entire force, from the Superintendent down to the patrolmen.
The article said, "Mr. Taber's sweeping allegations created not a little talk at Police Headquarters and throughout the departments generally this morning."
Taber's high-profile accusations and the grand jury's findings sparked a State investigation, the Lexow Committee. The sweeping scrutiny put high-level police officials on trial in 1894 and ended the careers of many.
On October 30, 1897, William Phillips Taber died at the age of 40. The New-York Tribune noted, "He had been in poor health for some time, but his death was directly due to pneumonia." Two months later, on Christmas Eve, Henry Morehouse Taber died at the age of 72.
Taber's will divided his $1 million estate (in the neighborhood of $38 million in 2024) between Mary and Sydney. A clause in the will raised the ire of a journalist of the New York Evening Journal. Taber directed that there be no religious services at his funeral, claiming that "Christianity, so-called, is not the religion of Christ," but that current Christian teachings "encourage ignorance, selfishness, narrow-mindedness, acrimoniousness, intolerance, wrong and mental slavery."
The fact that Taber had been president and treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church prompted the writer to say, "his religion was a sham." The New York Times chimed in as well, calling him a hypocrite. The articles sparked a number of letters to the editors of the newspapers in defense of Taber. One, for example, asserted that a person "may disapprove of this or that theology, and yet highly approve of the good the Church is doing."
Mary Taber inherited the West 12th Street house. She almost immediately moved to 20 Washington Square and leased her childhood home. By 1902, it was being operated as a high-end boarding house run. It was the scene of excitement on the afternoon of March 30, 1904. The Sun reported, "A husky looking man called yesterday afternoon at the boarding house kept by Mrs. Jane Allen at 42 West Twelfth street and asked for Miss Farrell." One of the hallboys (servants, usually teenaged boys, kept on staff to run errands) directed the man to the third floor. The Sun said, "The man didn't go to Miss Farrell's room but dropped into one next to it. He was ransacking a bureau when a servant came in with some bedclothes."
The thief, Jacob Bososky, knocked the woman over and ran downstairs. The article said, "Two negro hallboys heard the rumpus and tried to block the intruder when he came downstairs. He bowled them over and ran through Twelfth street, pursued by the boys." Two detectives joined in the chase. After Bososky fled into a Sixth Avenue house, the officers caught him on the third floor. "He was locked up," concluded The Sun.
Among the boarders in 1908 was William S. Hall, known as Billy in the men's apparel community. He was described by Men's Wear magazine that year as "a pioneer furnishing goods salesman." Artists Clara M. Burd and S. H. Eltzner boarded here in 1910. Burd was both a successful illustrator of children's books and a designer of stained glass window designs. In the latter capacity, she worked with the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company and J. & W. Lamb Studios. Both she and Eltzner were represented in the exhibition of the Architectural League of New York in 1910.
Clara M. Burd created this charming illustration for a children's book while living here in 1911. image from the collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum.
A month after the RMS Titanic sank, a fundraiser for the victims was held in the parlor here. The New York Times reported on May 5, 1912, "The sum of $100 was raised for the Titanic survivors by means of a concert given last Tuesday evening at the home of Miss Florence de B. Allen, at 42 West Twelfth Street." Nine musical artists volunteered their services.
On July 5, 1919, the Record & Guide reported that Mary Taber had hired architects Cross & Butler to convert her childhood home to bachelor apartments (meaning they had no kitchens). Costing her the equivalent of $176,000 today, the plans listed items like "new dumbwaiter, vent shaft, skylights, plumbing door & remove stoop." The Department of Buildings noted, "Not more than 15 rooms to be used for sleeping purposes."
Mary Taber's renovations resulted in the loss of the stoop and elaborate entranceway. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Interestingly, Florence de B. Allen remained here after the renovations. The 1929 New York Blue Book of New York Society listed her living here, as well as consulting engineer Joseph Ezekiel Pogue and his wife, the former Grace Needham; artist Alan Gregg Holbrook and his wife; the Helen Cook, and Mrs. Martha Youngs.
The house was sold for $15.1 million in 2009. The Real Deal said later, "the buyer's identity was masked by an LLC...But press reports have pegged [actor Tom] Cruise as the buyer." A remarkable renovation brought 42 West 12th Street back to a single family home. The stoop was refabricated and an incredibly accurate entrance recreated.
The facade served as the apartment of Joan Holloway, a character in the television series Madmen. And it seems that was as close to celebrity the address would achieve. When the Taber house was placed on the market in 2013 for $28 million, the real estate agent insisted, "The owner of 42 West 12th Street is not Tom Cruise nor any entity related to him."
photographs by the author
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