The Ernest G. Stillman Mansion - 45 East 75th Street

 

photo by Ajay Suresh

Dr. Ernest Goodrich Stillman was born in Newport, Rhode Island on July 14, 1894, the son of multi-millionaire banker James J. Stillman and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Rumrill.  Upon his father's death in 1918, Ernest and his two brothers, Charles and James, each inherited $9,694,561.  Ernest's windfall would be the equivalent of about $196 million in 2024.

Dr. Stillman graduated from Harvard in 1908 and earned his medical degree from Columbia University in 1913.  He was a research staff member at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital (not especially surprising considering that two of his sisters, Sarah and Isabel, had married Rockefellers).  Stillman and his wife, the former Mildred Marguerite Whitney, had three daughters, Jane, Dora Whitney and Penelope; and three sons, John Sterling, Calvin Whitney and Timothy Goodrich.  

In 1924, Stillman purchased the three high-stooped brownstones at 45 to 49 West 75th Street and hired the architectural firm of Cross & Cross to design a replacement mansion on the site.  Completed the following year, its architect of record was H. W. Andrews.  He designed the 51-foot-wide, four-story mansion in the neo-Federal style, giving East 75th Street a splash of 18th century America.

A graceful fanlight crowned above the main entrance.  Sitting above a stone bandcourse, four large, multi-paned windows at the second floor were fronted by iron balconies.  The slate-shingled mansard was punctured by five alternating pedimented and flat-headed dormers.  A Chippendale railing crowned the roof.

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Stillman's mother was taken to her country home at Cornwall-on-Hudson in 1925, the year the family moved into 45 East 75th Street.  Her health was fragile and Middletown [New York] Daily Herald said, "it was said she could not live out the year."  On October 18, Sarah Stillman was brought from Cornwall-on-Hudson to 45 East 75th Street in a private ambulance.  Ernest G. Stillman soft-peddled her condition, telling reporters, "she made the trip by motor to avoid the fatigue of transferring from train to ferry."  Sarah Elizabeth Rumrill eventually returned to her home at 102 East 35th Street, where she died a little over a month later, on November 30, at the age of 73.

Stillman filled the 75th Street mansion with a magnificent collection of Japanese art and literature.  It was later divided between the Widener Library and the Peabody Museum.  The family maintained two summer homes, the Cornwall-on-Hudson residence and another in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

Jane, born in 1913, was the eldest of the Stillman children.  On October 26, 1931, the New York Evening Post reported, "Dr. and Mrs. Ernest G. Stillman will present their daughter, Miss Jane Stillman, to society at an old fashioned afternoon reception, at their home, 45 East Seventy-fifth Street. This has been arranged primarily for old friends of the family, and there will not be dancing."

Debutante entertainments continued throughout the winter social season, and on December 23 the newspaper announced that Ernest and Mildred, "are giving a dinner-dance this evening at the Ritz-Carlton for their daughter, Miss Jane Stillman.  The debutante made her format debut at a tea at the Stillman home on December 6, and tonight's party has been arranged for her friends in the younger set."

Mildred's entertainments in the 75th Street mansion often centered around charities.  On November 15, 1942, for instance, The New York Times reported that she would be hosting a tea "for members of the debutante committee aiding in the plans for the annual card party in behalf of the New York Child's Foster Home Service."  She and Ernest jointly provided funds for the construction of the Cornwall Hospital, and she was a director and chairman of the foster home committee of the New York Nursery and Childs Hospital, to which she contributed generously.

She was, as well, an author, editor and poet, best known for her children's books.  She was already a successful author when she and Ernest were married in 1911.  Among her children's books were The Mermaid and the Little Fish, A Present for Santa Claus, and A Boy of Galilee.  Additionally, The New York Times said, "she was widely recognized as a translator of writings by the French religious philosopher, Francois Fenelton."

Philanthropy was as much a part of Ernest Stillman's life as was medicine.  He funded the building of Shaler Hall and the Fisher Museum at Harvard University, donated a horticultural research unit in Petersham, Massachusetts to the university, and financially supported the Cornwall Hospital in upstate New York.  Ardently interested in forestry and silvicultural research, he donated the 3,800-acre Black Rock Forest along the Hudson River in Orange County, New York to Harvard along with a large endowment.

Dr. Ernest Goodrich Stillman died in the mansion on December 16, 1949 at the age of 65.  His love of trees and forestry was reflected in his will, which directed his executors "to have my remains cremated and the ashes scattered in Black Rock Forest."

Eight months later, on August 22, 1950, Mildred Marguerite Whitney Stillman suffered a fatal heart attack in the house at the age of 60.  The New York Times mentioned that, in addition to her many philanthropies, "She was a founder and former secretary of the New York Junior League."

The mansion was purchased by Miss Hewitt's Classes, a private girls' school founded in 1920.  A renovation completed in 1951 resulted in classrooms and offices on each floor. 

Three years later, the school purchased the vintage house across the street at 44 East 75th Street for dormitory purposes.  It continued to expand its holdings in April 1964, when it purchased the adjoining house at 46 East 75th Street.

photo by Jim Henderson

By then, name of Miss Hewitt's Classes had been changed to The Hewitt School.  It remains a private girl's school for grades kindergarten through 12.  The exterior of the Stillman mansion has been respectfully preserved.

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The Sorely Abused John Ward House - 326 West 23rd Street

 

The family of John Ward moved into the newly built house at 326 West 23rd Street around 1851.  It stood out among the Italianate mansions that filled the block with its handsome mansard roof--a nearly obligatory element of the French Second Empire style.  Four stories tall above a high English basement, the 21-foot-wide residence was faced in brownstone.  A cast iron balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

The Press published a sketch of the house on February 8, 1890.  (copyright expired)

John Ward listed his profession as "paperstainer" in 1851, changing it to "printer" in 1853.  That year the family advertised, "Boarding, two single gentlemen can be accommodated with board in a small, respectable family."  Their ad was answered by Jacob Ostrander, Jr., who was a bookkeeper.

A series of occupants, most likely renters, followed the Wards.  Richard Martin, who ran a coal and wood business at 344 West 23rd Street, lived here in 1856 and 1857; followed by John Edwin Brown by 1860.  Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown was a broker.  The 30-year-old died here at the age of 30 on November 25, 1861.

Around 1868, George Thomas Vingut purchased 326 West 23rd Street.  Born in Havana, Cuba, he had married Sarah Augusta Floyd on February 27, 1867 at the nearby Church of St. Vincent de Paul.  The house quickly filled with children.  George Floyd Vingus was born on March 19, 1868; followed by Harry Kermit in March 1871; Maria Augusta Floyd on November 13, 1873; Mary Elizabeth Kermit in 1877; and Benjamin Van Horne Vingut on December 23, 1879.  The social standing of the Vingut family was evidenced in all of the children's baptisms being held in St. Patrick's Cathedral--George's being performed by Archbishop McClusky personally.

The family moved to Eighth Avenue around 1876 and leased the 23rd Street house to street railroad operator Jacob Sharp.  The New York Times would later recall, "He was born of humble parents on a sort of a farm in Montgomery County, N.Y., in 1817, and for 20 years remained on it."  The newspaper said that for his first 20 years he was more focused on manual labor than in acquiring an education.  When his father died in 1837, the young man turned to rafting timber down the Hudson River to New York.

He sold materials to New York City for the construction of piers and bulkheads and before long, according to The New York Times, "he controlled the trade in his line."  The uneducated man next turned to street railroads in 1850 and formed Sharp & Co. to construct a railroad from the Battery to Manhattanville in northern Manhattan--The Broadway Railroad.  That project, faced with intense opposition from powerful figures like Alexander T. Stewart and D. H. Haight, stalled.  When he leased 326 West 23rd Street he was president of the Twenty-third Street Railroad and a director in the Bleecker & Fulton Railroad.

Sharp and his wife had four children, three of whom were still alive.  Two daughters were married, while George C. Sharp lived with his parents.  He died here on January 2, 1880 and his funeral was held in the drawing room on two days later.  Contrasting Jacob Sharp's humble roots with his current condition, the Middlebury Register said that George died "in a house worth $50,000."

The Evening Telegram, October 19, 1886 (copyright expired)

The Press described the residence saying, "'Jake' Sharp's house, at 326 West Twenty-third street, comes in the Mansard era."  The Middlebury Register noted that Mrs. Sharp, "took to painting, simply for recreation," and said, "Her whole house is filled with oil paintings, some of them quite creditable under all the circumstances."

After 33 years of litigation, the Broadway Railroad was finally opened in 1884 and was an immediate success.  Sharp and his wife enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in the West 23rd Street house and at their "extensive and beautiful farm new Rome [New York]," as described by The New York Times.

But the opponents of the Broadway Railroad had not given up.   The New York Times reported, "In the first flush of victory came the...investigation into the rumors that were rife concerning corruption deep and flagrant" around the Board of Aldermen's granting the railroad franchise.  On October 19, 1886, The Evening Telegram reported, "Jacob Sharp was arrested at his house, No. 326 West Twenty-third street, at eight o'clock this morning."  He was indicted by a grand jury that morning and his trial set for a few months later.

On Christmas Day 1886, the New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Courier reported, 

Jacob Sharp has been under the weather for some days past.  He is suffering from his old dyspeptic troubles, for which he put himself on a milk diet.  He is able to move about the house, but has not been out of doors in two weeks.  He still lives in his hired house at 326 West Twenty-Third street, and the sign, “For Sale,’’ still hangs on the front balcony.  

Sharp was put on trial in 1887.  It was called by one newspaper, the most important trial "since 'Boss' Tweed's."  He was found guilty and on June 14 sentenced to four-and-a-half years in State Prison.  The ordeal had taken a severe toll on Sharp's health, however.  His condition was so bad that on November 29 the Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in return for $40,000 bail--around $1.1 million in today's money.

Sharp and his wife went to the country house for a few weeks.  On January 4, 1888, The New York Times reported, "Jacob Sharp returned from his health trip to the country yesterday.  It has evidently been decidedly beneficial in his somewhat feeble health."  But, in fact, the decades-long ordeal had broken the millionaire.

On the night of April 6, 1888, Sharp died in his second floor bedroom.  The New York Times reported, "His death was sudden, his enfeebled heart ceasing to act after a violent and exhausting fit of coughing."  Sharp's obituary noted, "The disgrace attending his indictment and arrest was keenly felt, and the added ignominy of a public trial was borne with difficulty."

The next morning The Evening World reported that undertaker Charles Benedict "affixed to the front door of the house, this morning, the usual crepe symbol of mourning, and many a passer-by half stopped as his eyes fell on the sable draping."  The family, offended by the unrelenting treatment Sharp had endured, rebuffed most sympathizers.  The New York Times said on April 7, "The house 354 [sic] West Twenty-third-street...was kept tightly closed yesterday and very few callers attempted to enter the house."  The funeral was held in the drawing room, but the family kept it so private that the hour of the ceremony was not announced.

The "For Sale" sign in front of the house mentioned by the New Haven newspaper in 1886 had been removed, possibly because of the Vinguts' concern for their tenant.  In July 1887, title to the property was transferred by the family to Sarah A. Vingut, who ironically died a month later, on August 20.  

The house was sold on June 30, 1891 to Thomas Stokes, who paid $22,250, according to the Record & Guide (about $770,000 in 2024).  It appears he leased it to a proprietor who ran an upscale boarding house.

A Mrs. Waddington (possibly the landlady), took in her sister, Rosalie Dodge, in January 1893.  Rosalie was married to millionaire Jacob L. Dodge, described by The New York Times as "a wealthy young man about town" and "a man of fine appearance."  Dodge owned two sloops, the 60-foot Arrow and the 26-foot Coquette, which he sailed mostly on the Long Island Sound.  The Dodges had a summer estate at Huntington, Long Island.  Rosalie moved in with her sister after discovering that Dodge "had been untrue to her with a woman at the Hotel Vendome."

At their separation hearing on August 2, 1893, details were revealed that Rosalie, no doubt, had wanted to keep secret.  The New York Times reported, "She made no reference to the fact that she had lived with her husband before the formal ceremony until after that fact was accidentally brought out by Frank A. C. McLewee, a witness."  In fact, Rosalie and Jacob had lived together for ten years without being married.  Nevertheless, she testified, "He introduced her to his mother and relatives as his wife, and she executed deeds and mortgages with him."  

The couple had been married for four days before they separated.  Their divorce was granted on August 3, 1883.

William J. Stewart and his wife lived here in 1895.  Mrs. Stewart was treasurer of The Co-Operato, which opened a year earlier at 301 West 18th Street.  It  was described by the New York Charities Directory as, "A co-operative home for self-supporting and self-respecting women of unexceptional reference as to character, regardless of creed."  The residents were charged $2.50 and $3 per week, "with privilege of laundry."

Around 1899, Luke L. Fitzgerald (whose surname was spelled variously as Fitz Gerald and FitzGerald) and his wife, the former Elizabeth (known as Lizzie) Gay, purchased the house.  Fitzgerald was an auctioneer.  The extended Fitzgerald family filled the house.  

Living with her parents were 20-year-old Julia Annie and her husband, rubber merchant Edgar Howard Brown.  On January 13, 1899, the couple had a baby girl, Elizabeth.  Additionally, son Louis G. Fitzgerald and daughters Lulu and Adelaide lived here.  Adelaide would graduate from Normal College in 1901 and take her teacher's examination that year.

Louis G. Fitzgerald died on March 23, 1909.  His funeral was held in the drawing room on the 27th.

Nine years later, on December 1, 1918, Luke L. Fitzgerald died.  Elizabeth survived him by nearly two years, dying here on October 22, 1920.  Her funeral was held in the house on October 26, after which her casket was removed to the nearby Church of St. Columba for a requiem mass.

The 23rd Street house was sold in December 1923 to Michael Taggart, "who will occupy," according to The New York Sun.  Instead, Taggart significantly altered the structure, removing the stoop, installing a commercial space at sidewalk level, and furnished rooms on the upper floors.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Rhozis family rented rooms here from around 1936 through 1940.  Charatamas Rhozis and his son Harry (who changed the spelling of his surname to Rozis), were on the Government's radar for continually voting for Communist candidates while living here.

A renovation completed in 1967 resulted in two apartments per floor above the ground floor commercial space.  Little remains of the former mansion's appearance when well-heeled families lived here.

photographs by the author

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John Hauser's 1903 The Pauline -- 16 Morningside Avenue

 

On October 25, 1902, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that George Doctor would erect a 54-foot wide, six-story apartment building at 16 Morningside Avenue.  "John Hauser...is the architect," noted the article.

Called The Pauline, the structure was completed within a year.  Hauser's dignified, Renaissance Revival design included a two-story rusticated stone base and four stories of sand-colored brick trimmed in stone.  Above the brawny Ionic pilasters that flanked the entrance were paired Corinthian examples at the second floor.  They supported a monumental broken pediment above an arched opening.  The windows of the upper floors were decorated with Renaissance style pediments, splayed lintels, and garlanded keystones.

An advertisement for The Pauline on September 6, 1903, boasted an elevator and "all the latest modern improvements."  Potential tenants could chose apartments of either six or seven rooms with a bath.  Rents ranged from $55 to $75--about $225 per month for the most expensive in 2024 terms.

Among the first residents were Hannibal Hamlin Garland and his wife, the former Zulime Taft.  Garland, who went professionally by his middle name, was a novelist, short story writer and poet.  The couple had married in 1899 and would have two daughters, Mary Isabel and Constance Hamlin.  Mary was born on July 15, 1903, the year her parents moved into The Pauline.  Constance arrived four years later.

Hamlin Garland, The Writer: A Monthly Magazine, October 1891 (copyright expired)

Born in Wisconsin in 1860, Hamlin Garland was a well-known writer.  Among his works were the highly popular Main-Travelled Roads, Prairie Folks, and the novel Jason Edwards.  In 1898, he published his biography of Ulysses S. Grant, and the following year his The Trail of the Gold Seekers was released.

Zulime Taft Garland, known affectionately as Tetie, was an artist (and the sister of famed Chicago sculptor Lorado Taft).  The Garlands spent part of their summers in the homestead where Garland was born near West Salem, Wisconsin.  He had purchased the farm in 1894.

Zulime Taft Garland and her infant daughter Mary Isabel in 1903 (the year they moved in). from the collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 

Joseph Hart Boudrow and his wife, the former Carrie De Mar, were also early tenants.  Joseph Hart (he dropped his surname professionally) had begun his stage career as a teenager working with minstrel troupes.  He married Carrie, an actress, in 1894.  The couple had worked together for several years and would appear together in two silent films, The Boys Think They Have One on Foxy Grandpa and Foxy Grandpa and Polly in a Little Hilarity.

Joseph Hart and Carrie De Mar, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Emil Fischer was, according to the New York Herald, "one of the greatest bassos this country ever heard."  He debuted in America in the 1880s.  The newspaper said, "his success was instant and his subsequent triumphs too numerous for mention."  On New Year's Day 1906, while a house guest of residents of The Pauline, the 65-year-old paid a visit to the home of millionaire Philip Lewisohn.  The New York Herald reported, "He was stepping lightly to a staircase when the treacherous rug over the polished floor sent him sliding to the topmost stair.  He could not catch himself.  With considerable force he fell several steps before he could grasp a support."

An 1889 cabinet cart depicted Emil Fischer in his role as Wotan in Das Rheingold.

The opera star broke his ankle.  The newspaper said he "displayed rare courage while being removed in great pain to the home of friends with whom he is staying at No. 16 Morningside avenue."

Living here by 1909 were Edward Kapp, his wife and their 15-year-old son, Martin.  The New York Evening Telegram described Kapp as, "fifty years old, a manufacturer of skirts, who is reputed to have been wealthy."

According to a servant, on the morning of January 7, 1910, Kapp left the apartment at around 8:00 "after kissing his wife good bye.  He appeared then to be in good spirits."  At 1:15, Kapp went to the office of Albert Sittner at 101 Fifth Avenue.  Sittner was not in, and Kapp requested the key to the lavatory from the office boy.  The New York Times reported, "It was handed to him, and two minutes later the report of a revolver shot was heard."  When the door of the lavatory was opened, Kapp was found lying dead on the floor.

The New York Evening Telegram reported, "The pistol shot was heard by the young women in the shop and caused great excitement among them.  Several of the girls became hysterical when it was learned that a suicide had occurred in the adjoining room."

A fascinating resident was Martha Foote Crow, here by 1919.  Born in 1854, she was educated at Syracuse University (where she was a founding member of Alpha Phi Sorority).  She earned a Ph.B. in 1876, a Ph.M. in 1878, and her Ph.D. in English Literature in 1886.  She was the widow of archaeologist John M. Crow, who died of tuberculosis in 1891.

Martha Foote Crow, from Northwestern University: A History, 1855-1905 (copyright expired).

Before John Crow's death, Martha had been preceptress of Iowa College.  During her time there, she conducted an international survey of women's higher education.  She became assistant professor of English literature at the University of Chicago after her husband's death.  Martha Foote Crow would play a significant part in the development of women's higher education in America.  

In 1919, The Alpha Phi Quarterly noted, "Sister Martha Foote Crow, 16 Morningside Avenue, New York City...is writing a book on Frances Willard Will."  Among her many other works were The World Above; Harriet Beecher Store, a Biography; and The American Country Girl.  She was still living here when she died on New Year's Day, 1924 in Chicago.

Living here in 1956 was James "Nat" Nathaniel.  The 33-year-old was arrested early in the morning on August 29 "for assaulting 29-year-old Alice Jackson" with a knife, according to The New York Age.  The article said, "The knifing took place in the Vets, an after hours spot."

Earl Grant, who made his living as a welder, lived here in 1966.  In September that year, he and another welder, James Norwood, were the center of NAACP civil rights demonstrations against the Pan American Airways.  The State Commission for Human Rights cited "probable cause to credit the allegations" that the men were the victims of "alleged discrimination in the hiring of Negro welders."

Once the home of well-to-do families who employed at least one servant, by the 1970s 16 Morningside Avenue had been divided into one-room furnished apartments.  Among the tenants in 1974 was 27-year-old James Gadson.  At 5:00 on the afternoon of August 9 that year, his body was discovered in his apartment.  The New York Times reported, "he had been stabbed in the chest."

A renovation completed in 2007, resulted in two apartments per floor.  After 121 years, John Hauser's handsome design is outwardly little changed.

many thanks to reader Lawrence Levens for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

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The 1840 Charles H. Macy House - 48 Charles Street

 

In 1839 a group of masons, smiths and builders worked cooperatively to erect a row of Greek Revival style homes at 48 through 56 Charles Street.  They were separately owned, yet built on the same plans.  The easternmost of the row, 48 Charles Street, was owned by smiths Samuel Cyphers and Edward Duvall.  

Like its neighbors, the house was faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Three stories tall above an English basement, it was 20-feet wide.  Cyphers and Duvall apparently erected the house for rental income.  No. 48 Charles Street was initially leased to the family of merchant Nathaniel Low.

The Lows did not renew their lease and on April 6, 1841 an auction of their furnishings was held.  The announcement explained they were "giving up housekeeping."  Among the "very choice assortment of good furniture mostly made to order last year" were a "superior piano forte, pier tables, mirrors, centre tables, carpets, mantel lamps, sofas, mahogany chairs, etc. etc."

The family of importer Benaiah G. Stokes occupied the house in the mid-1840s.  By 1851, it was home to Henry A. and Jane A. Dingee.  Henry was in the coach making and "equipments" businesses at two separate locations.  

The "equipments" firm which he operated with his brother, Robert Dingee, Jr., made military accessories for the United States Army.  Following Robert's death in 1851, Henry took over the business.  On August 31, 1852, he billed the government for $1,554.25 in "ordnance, ordnance stores, and supplies."  (The amount would translate to about $63,200 in 2024.)  

Henry and Jane had a daughter, Elizabeth H., when they moved in; and in December 1854, Helen Dingee was born.  Sadly, she died six months later, on May 4, 1855.  Her funeral was held in the Charles Street house the next afternoon.

In 1863, during the Civil War, Dingee partnered with George T. Lorigan to form Dingee & Lorigan.  The firm would continue to outfit the U. S. Army--providing 18,550 carbine boxes and 20,000 carbine slings among other items that year.

By then, however, the family had been gone from 48 Charles Street for four years.  In 1859, Dingee listed it for sale for $9,000 (about $340,000 today), noting it was "3 rooms deep" and contained "two kitchens, two bathrooms," with "hot and cold water, and all other modern improvements."

The house seems to have been next operated as a boarding house.  Living here in 1860 were William H. Haskell, who operated a grocery store at 274 Bleecker; Charles F. Haskell (presumably a son) who was in the safe business; and Samuel L. Hall, an employee of William Haskell.  Isaac Homan, a carpenter; and George W. Lewis, a boot merchant, also boarded here.

By 1861 Charles C. Curtis and his wife, Charlotte A. Williston, lived here.  The house was the scene of another infant's funeral in July.  Charles and Charlotte's baby daughter Sarah Esther died on July 24.  In reporting her death, The New York Times mentioned that she was "granddaughter of O. H. Williston, Esq."  Othniel H. Williston was familiar to well-heeled New Yorkers as the proprietor of The Mansion House hotel in Syracuse, New York.

In 1863, Othniel H. Williston, presumably Charlotte's brother, also boarded here.  He had been appointed to the police department on March 27, 1858.

The Degroot and Coe families shared 48 Charles Street in 1871.  James Degroot was the superintendent of the building at 71 Broadway, and William E. Degroot made his living as a clerk.  Joseph B. Coe, who was also a clerk, worked in the County Courthouse.  In February 1874, Coe was on the ticket committee of the "Grand Dramatic Entertainment in the Aid of The Poor of the Ninth Ward" held at the Academy of Music.

The Degroot and Coe families remained through 1877.  By the mid-1880s, the house was owned by Charles Henry and Sarah Searing Bancker Macy.  Born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on May 30, 1836, Macy came to New York "at an early age," according to the New York Herald.  He went into the ice business and would be an executive with the New York City Ice Company for decades.

The couple had a daughter, Ella L. Macy.  Ella was active in society, as reflected on November 26, 1886 when The New York Times reported, "The Oxford Social Club, gave a masquerade party Wednesday evening at the house of Miss Ella Macy, No. 48 Charles-street.  Many guests were present to enjoy the dancing and a fine supper."

Ella married Robert Edgar Milligan around 1890.  The newlyweds moved into 48 Charles Street.  Born in Canada in November 1867, Milligan graduated from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1889.  He would become a director in the New York Continental Jewell Filtration Company and a member of the Down-Town Business Men's Association.

On May 25, 1891, Ella gave birth to Archibald Stewart Milligan.  Tragically, Ella died in childbirth at the age of 21.

As the century drew to a close, Charles S. and Katherine A. Nylander, possibly relatives of Charles and Sarah Macy, and Charles's unmarried sister, Emma L., moved into the house with the couple.  The Nylanders were heavily involved in real estate and Charles was the secretary of Happy Days magazine.  But bicycling was Charles's true passion.  His name repeatedly appeared in sports pages and in magazine articles for his cycling.  And as automobiles began appearing, he embraced that trend.  In 1904 Good Roads Magazine listed him as secretary of the Century Road Club of America.

Sarah S. Macy died in the house at the age of 63 on July 29, 1901.  Her estate transferred title to Charles.  

There would be three more funerals here in relatively quick succession.  On March 2, 1908, Katherine A. Nylander died, and on May 30, 1910, Charles Henry Macy died at the age of 73.  The New York Herald attributed his death to "the infirmities due to old age."  A year later, on June 21, 1911, Emma L. Nylander died at the age of 65.

Archibald S. Milligan inherited 48 Charles Street from his grandfather.  On January 1, 1912, he leased it to the National Association for the Prevention of Mendicancy and Charitable Imposture, which opened Stepping Stone House here.  A sort of half-way house, on May 23, 1912, the New-York Tribune explained:

This is not a refuge for tramps, nor a free lodging house for reformed beggars and ex-tramps.  It is a temporary home for the exceptional man who by virtue of his own ability does not belong to the vagrant type, but who is losing his grip owing to circumstances and sliding into mendicancy for want of friendly aid at the right moment.  The purpose is the same as that of the social settlements--work with the individual and not a hasty grouping of individuals into crowds, to be dealt with all alike.

Despite the group's lofty ambitions, Stepping Stone House was short-lived.  Milligan, who was now living in Kansas City, Missouri, leased the house to artist Frank Tenney Johnson and H. Ledyard Towle.  They converted it to apartments and remodeled the top floor to an artist's studio where the center opening was replaced with a large studio window that extended to the roof.  The parlor floor windows were extended nearly to the floor.

Image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Both Johnson and Towle occupied apartments.  An advertisement on June 27, 1920 described the studio:

Greenwich Village--To lease, unfurnished studio, 3 unusually large rooms, bath and kitchenette; all modern conveniences; two open fire places; $100 monthly.  H. L. Towle, 48 Charles st.

In January 1921, Archibald S. Milligan sold 48 Charles Street to Frank Tenney Johnson and his wife Vinnie F. Johnson.  H. Ledyard Towle continued to live here for at least another year.  An advertisement for a 3-room apartment in June 1921 listed the rent at $135, about $2,300 in today's money.

Frank T. Johnson was born in Iowa in 1874.  He studied at the Milwaukee School of Art and the Art Students League of New York.  Starting out as an illustrator, his work appeared in magazines like Field & Stream, Boys' Life and Harpers Weekly.  A year before buying the Charles Street house, he began traveling to the Far West where he made sketches that he completed in his studio here.  

On March 15, 1922, the New York Evening Post reported, "Mr. Frank Tenney Johnson, whose paintings of Western scenes and Indians on horseback are very popular, and Mrs. Johnson entertained a group of New Jersey Club women and their husbands Saturday afternoon, March 4, at his studio, 48 Charles Street, New York City."

Johnson's Western scenes, like Moonlight on the Ranch, popularized the style that became known as "The Johnson Moonlight Technique."

Artist Milton Herbert Bancroft lived here in 1921.  Born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1867, he was an impressionist painter of portraits, landscapes, and murals.

Another resident artist was Florence Wilde, here by 1935.  She also taught from her studio.  On March 2, 1935, the New York Evening Post reported, "The Florence Wilde Studio of Illustration is offering two scholarships--one for costume sketching and the other for textile design, each a six-month course."  The article added, "Many of Mrs. Wilde's students have found profitable work in costume sketching and textile design."

Eight months later, the New York Post titled an article, "What, No Bodies?"  It reported, "Police wearing gas masks raced to the studio apartment of Mrs. Florence Wilde at 48 Charles Street at 1 A.M. today to rescue several persons reported overcome by gas fumes.  They found no bodies.  They did find several lighted sulphur [sic] candles and a pungent odor."

The following March, Florence Wilde renewed her offer of two scholarships to her commercial illustration course.

Frank Tenney Johnson died in 1939.  The house was sold in 1941.  It continued to be home to artists, such as German-American Hugo Asbach, who was here by 1960.  That year, in February, the Lynn Kottler Galleries on East 65th Street staged a one-man show of Asbach's paintings of Captiva Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hugo Asbach's La Ronde

A renovation to 48 Charles Street completed in 1969 resulted in one apartment per floor.  Although the stoop has been remodeled and the railings replaced, the house looks much as it did following its renovation to artists studios after World War I.

many thanks to reader Frank Regan for requesting this post

photographs by the author

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The 1926 Central Park View Apartments - 415 Central Park West

 

photo courtesy Landmark West!

On October 31, 1925, the Record & Guide pointed out, "Central Park West is now attracting the attention of apartment house builders and operators."  It went on to say that the latest project was a $1,325,000 building being erected by the 415 Central Park West Corporation.  "It will contain about 112 apartments," said the article, noting that "a library is included in the seven-room suites."

The Central Park View Apartments, on the northwest corner of Central Park West and 101st Street, opened in 1926.  Designed by Deutsch & Schneider in the neo-Regency style, the 16-floor and penthouse structure was formally symmetrical.  The three-story base was anchored by limestone corners, its double-height entrance supporting two pairs of neo-Classical urns.  The ten-story mid-section was faced in red Flemish-bond brick.  At the 14th and 15th floors, faux balconies sprouted 2-story stone surrounds and pilasters.

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, October 31, 1925

The Central Park View Apartments offered suites of four rooms and two baths, and six- or seven-rooms apartments with three baths.  A 1926 brochure said, "The two 6 room apartments are ideal, each being in effect a Private Home, extending through the full length of the building from east to west with no long halls; the maid's quarters, including the kitchen, occupying the entire rear, and the kitchens of both apartments connected with a service elevator and service stairway."

The up-to-the-minute amenities included lighted closets (the smallest apartments had five closets while the largest had ten, including a cedar closet).  The brochure noted, "The floors are of hardwood, in herringbone design; solid brass and bronze hardware has been used throughout...In keeping with all else, every apartment has up-to-date electric refrigeration--individual equipment in every kitchen."

The two penthouse apartments were marketed as "roof garden apartments," and called "a feature of this building."  One had six rooms, the other seven rooms.  The 1926 brochure said, "The roof is entirely of red tile, and a liberal landscaping effect is provided around these apartments.  Elevator service, of course."

photo courtesy Landmark West!

Among the initial residents of one of the penthouse apartments was the musical comedy lyricist Lorenz Hart.  He moved in with his parents, Max and Frieda Hart.  According to Gary Marmorstein, in his A Ship Without a Sail--The Life of Lorenz Hart, the family moved here from their 119th Street house to be on one floor.  Max Hart "was having an increasingly painful time negotiating a flight of stairs."

Max's deteriorating condition did not improve.  According to Marmorstein, on the night of October 8, 1928, with Lorenz and his brother Theodore at his bedside, Max said, "I'm going to die tonight.  Don't wake your mother, though.  Let her sleep."  He was 68 years old.

Lorenz Hart (right) with Richard Rodgers.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Early in the summer of 1929, Lorenz Hart and his partner, Richard Rodgers, received an offer from producer Laurence Schwab to contribute songs for the movie version of the Broadway musical Follow Thru.  To celebrate, Hart hosted an open house.  Variety reported, "Larry Hart threw an endurance party at his place the other a.m.  Broke all pent-house records."

Lorenz and Frieda Hart remained in the Central Park View Apartments until August 1939 when they moved about nine blocks south to the Ardsley, at 320 Central Park West.

Illustrator Peter Arno and his wife, Lois Long, were also initial residents.  Born Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr., Arno was perhaps best known for his covers for The New Yorker.  He began contributing cover designs in 1925, the year of the magazine's founding.  He branched into the theater, producing, designing and writing four Broadway shows, beginning with the 1931 Here Goes the Bride.

Peter and Lois most likely met through The New Yorker.  Lois had been a journalist for Vogue and Vanity Fair before being hired to write an anonymous nightlife column for The New Yorker.  Using the pseudonym "Lipstick," her witty chronicles of Manhattan nightclubs and society capers made her a celebrity--albeit an anonymous one.  She married Peter Arno in 1927.

The couple's professional interaction seems to have been more successful than their domestic situation.  Their arguments turned violent, and on January 20, 1930, the Daily News headlined an article, "Peter Arno, Cartoonist, Hides From Wife to Nurse His Scars / Split With Lois Long, Says It's Friendly."  The final altercation was apparently heard by neighbors, Time magazine reporting that the couple "quarreled bitterly in the middle of the night."  Arno left the Central Park View Apartments and he and Lois divorced the following year.

Another tenant associated with The New Yorker was writer and critic Alfred Kazin and his wife, the former Natasha Dohn.  The couple moved in on November 18, 1948.  Kazin's reviews appeared in The New Yorker as well as the New York Herald-Tribune, The New York Times, and The New Republic.  His 1951 memoir, A Walker in the City was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, as were its sequels, the 1965 Starting Out in the Thirties and New York Jew, published in 1978.

Novelist Padraic Colum and his wife, Mary (known as Molly) Maguire, moved in around 1933 after spending three years living in France.  A major figure in the Irish Literary Revival movement, Colum covered all the literary bases--novelist, dramatist, children's author, playwright, poet and biographer.  

Padraic Colum, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Mollie Colum died in 1957 while co-writing Our Friend James Joyce with Padraic.  He finished the book about their close relationship with the Irish novelist and poet, which was published in 1958.

Jazz vocalist and civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln was another celebrated resident.  In her 2017 Dizzy Duke, Brother Ray and Friends--On and Off the Record With Jazz Greats, Lilian Terry recalls, "it became customary that I accept [Abbey's] hospitality at her New York apartment at 415 Central Park West."

Abbey Lincoln was one of the long list of impressive musicians who lived in the Central Park View Apartments that included drummers Art Blakey, Max Roach and Elvin Jones; jazz pianists Teddy Wilson and Dwike Mitchell; lyricist Yip Harburg; and cellist Marion Cumbo.  Singer, songwriter, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone moved into the building in 1960, following her divorce from Donald Ross.

By 1970, science fiction and fantasy author Robert E. Margroff lived here.  His first story, "Monster Tracks," was published in 1964, after which he mostly co-authored novels with Piers Anthony.  They included the five-book series Kelvin of Rud.

A fascinating tenant was artist Bradford Boobis, who lived here with his wife Shawn.  Starting out as a Hollywood composer, he turned to painting.  The self-taught artist was highlighted in a 1969 edition of American Artist, which said, "His work indicates that he has thoroughly mastered oil technique, draughtsmanship and craftsmanship."  A year later three of Boobis's works were chosen to be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Library of President Papers.  American Artist pointed out that he was the only living artist represented in the exhibition.

Boobis suffered a heart attack on January 16, 1972 and died on his way to the hospital at the age of 43.  Writing in The New York Times half a century later on April 3, 2023, Joshua Needelman recalled that on the night of his death, "fearing that his widow might sell them," four of his "most dedicated devotees" entered the Boobis apartment and "surreptitiously removed roughly a dozen of his paintings, which depicted naked figures amid distorted surroundings." 

Bradford Boobis's The Cocktail Party was one of the paintings shipped to London.  via Louis K. Meisel Gallery.

The paintings were shipped to London to Robert Anthony Rayne, a member of the British peerage.  In June 2022 they were briefly returned to New York City for a showing at the Meisel Gallery.  Louis K. Meisel told Needelman that two of the paintings were "as great as anything I'd ever seen in realism and surrealism or anything representational."

Stage, television and motion picture actor Edward Emerson and his wife, the former Edith Broder, lived here at the time of Boobis's death.  Born in 1903, Emerson appeared on Broadway in shows like Hilda Cassidy; Heigh-ho, Everybody; and Crime Marches On.  His film career included roles in the 1936 Cover Chinatown, Behind the Criminal the following year, and There Goes Kelly in 1945.

photo courtesy Landmark West!

While not as architecturally dazzling as some of the thoroughfare's well-known Art Deco structures, the Central Park View Apartments plays an important role in the Central Park West streetscape.

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