D. T. Valentine's Manual, 1865 (copyright expired)
Born in England in 1743, James Alexander Stewart was a prominent New York City merchant. He and his wife, Sarah Schermerhorn, had four sons, three of whom, William James, Alexander John and John James, survived to adulthood; and two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth Barr. Like all monied families, the Stewarts had a "country seat" north of the city. Theirs was located in today's Midtown district, where the Bloomingdale Road (today's Broadway) cut diagonally through the property.
A portrait of the Stewarts' youngest son, John James, painted by William Joseph Weaver around 1800, attests to the family's affluence. (private collection)
The wooden, vernacular style house on the property sat between today's Seventh Avenue and Broadway. In 1804, Stewart laid plans for a more impressive summer house to the west, on the opposite side of the Bloomingdale Road. He initially offered the current house for sale, advertising on July 26, "Intending to build in the rear of his Country House, will dispose of the present one." His ad meticulously described the residence and grounds:
The house is very convenient, has two very handsome parlours, with marble fire places, and hung with East India paper; eight bedrooms, two kitchens, a milk room, three store rooms, and two cellars--a cistern that will contain sixteen hogshead water; a well of water in quality equal to any on the Island--these will be sold with the house--a coach-house, stable, cow-house, barn, and a neat house for the gardner [sic]; with forty-five town Lots of one-hundred by twenty-five feet, which includes a very find garden, with a least one hundred bearing fruit trees, of the first quality of fruit; asparagus beds, rasberry [sic], strawberry, gooseberry, and currant bushes.
As it turned out, Stewart leased the property rather than sell it. He advertised it again in April 1809, noting the estate included, "indeed every convenience requisite."
The Stewarts' eldest son, William James Stewart, would use the house following his marriage to Hannah Hopkins on October 16, 1811. The groom was 22 years old and the bride was 17.
William's father had backed his new business several years earlier. On May 16, 1805, an announcement in The Evening Post noted, "William James Stewart, has opened a Wine Store, opposite the Tontine Coffee-House, at the White Stoop." Saying, "In a short time he will have a general assortment of all kinds of Wine, for sale by the pipe, demijohn or dozen," the notice promised,
The public may depend on all the Madeira Wine that shall be sold from this store shall always be as genuine as when shipt from Madeira, his father, Mr. James A. Stewart, being a judge of Wine will always keep the store supplyed with the best Wines that is imported.
James Alexander Stewart died in 1813 and Sarah Schermerhorn Stewart died the following year. On March 3, 1815, William's wife, Hannah Hopkins Stewart, died at the age of 21.
The western portion of the Stewart summer estate was offered for sale in June 1815. The house that James and Sarah had occupied was described as "an excellent two story dwelling house, suitable for a country residence, which, together with the out houses and garden, will be sold in one lot."
In the meantime, William continued using the original summer home while spending the winter months in his townhouse at 205 Spring Street.
Rather unexpectedly, before his customary mourning period had elapsed, William remarried. Historian William M. MacBean wrote in his 1856 Biographical Register of Saint Andrew's Society, "On January 29, 1816, he married, at Bloomingdale, Mary, daughter of Joseph Hopkins, who may have been a sister of his first wife."
William died in the Spring Street house on March 13, 1823. His funeral was held there on March 15.
William M. MacBean reported that William "left one daughter, Julia, who married in 1833 Frederick A. De Voe, editor of the Republican Watchman." Interestingly, by 1840 another William James Stewart was occupying the 54th Street house. It is unclear how he was related to the family if, indeed, MacBean was correct in that Julia was the only child.
This William James Stewart ran a wholesale grocery business at 157 South Street. In 1851, he was occupying the West 54th Street house as his year-round residence. (It still did not have an address, listed instead as "West 54th Street near Broadway.") By then, streets had been laid out (at least on paper) that dissected the Stewart estate, and development had reached into the 40s in some neighborhoods.
Gladys Cook created this watercolor of the Stewart house around 1935, most assuredly based on the D. T. Valentine depiction. from the collection of the National Gallery of Art
Stewart's anachronistic home had been given the address of 211 West 54th Street by 1863. He and his family were listed here through 1866, after which they moved to a rowhouse at 438 West 29th Street. It was most likely soon afterward that the venerable 18th century Stewart residence was demolished.
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