In February 1886, John M. Pinkney sold the vacant lots that made up the western blockfront of New Avenue (renamed Manhattan Avenue the following year) between 116th and 117th Street to developer Edward Cunningham. Cunningham was also a partner in the contracting firm of Cunningham & Henderson, and appears to have acted as his own architect. Before the year was out, he had filled the block with 11 three-story homes. A medley of Queen Anne designs, the houses--some faced in brick, some in brownstone, and others in both--created a charming streetscape.
The parlor level facades of the mirror-image houses that anchored the corners were clad in brownstone. Stone quoins framed the openings and ran up the corners. Large arched openings with stained glass transoms faced the avenue and side street, and decorative chimney backs carried on the Queen Anne motif.
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The original appearance of 385 Manhattan Avenue can be seen in its mirror-image on the opposite corner at 405 Manhattan Avenue. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
Rudolph and Minnie L. Schneider purchased 365 Manhattan Avenue in 1887. The couple operated a "brewers' materials" business at 211 East 94th Street under the name M. L. Schneider. The Schneiders sold the building on January 29, 1904 to William Levers.
It is unclear whether Levers ever moved into the house or merely rented it. In 1905 and '06, Eugene Bernstein listed his address here. A German immigrant, he was an active member of the Tonkünstler Society, a German musical group.
Lever sold 365 Manhattan Avenue to Solomon Schinasi in May 1906. Schinasi converted the parlor level for commercial use and created a second residential entrance around the corner at 355 West 116th Street. The upper floors were adapted for apartments.
In 1915, the shop space was leased to Drs. William Boehm and John Luks, who opened the Harlem Health Institute. A notice in The Columbia Spectator on April 7 that year described the facility as "an institution of interest to all Columbia University students in need of health-baths of all kinds." Among the services offered were "scientific massage, corrective gymnastics, and physical culture in all its branches--(X-Ray and all modern Electrical apparatus used)." The institute remained through 1917.
An advertisement in 1921 offered furnished or unfurnished apartments. It read, "Large rooms, kitchen, shower bath; parquet floor; electricity, gas included; or furnished; reasonable."
Not all the residents of 385 Manhattan Avenue during the Depression years were law-abiding. Carl Taylor lived here in 1936 when his criminal endeavors nearly cost him his life. On July 21, the Elmhurst, New York Daily Register reported, "Captured after a wild chase in which shots were fired, Carl Taylor, 34, a negro of 385 Manhattan avenue, Manhattan is in St. John's Hospital today suffering from bullet wounds received when he was pursued by Newtown police early this morning after the attempted burglary of a Jackson Heights apartment."
Born in Virginia around 1868, Thomas Lyman lived here in 1940. Crowded into the apartment with him were his 39-year-old daughter, Ellen Ash, and her three teenaged children, Vivian, Robert and Alfred.
At the time, the store was occupied by the grocery of brothers Louis and Michael Ronan. On the afternoon of December 28, 1946, Harrison Wilson, James Lewis and Leonard Lappeire barged into the store brandishing handguns. The young men (Wilson and Lappeire were both 22, and Lewis was 26), were dangerous and had committed ten armed robberies within the past month. During one of the heists alone--at the Club Car at 924 Fifth Avenue--they made off with "cash, furs and jewelry with a total value of $9,100," according to The Sun. (The Club Car was a private night club within the former mansion of George Henry Warren.)
The hoodlums were not expecting this caper to be any different from their others. But, as reported by The Sun, "Michael [Ronan] obeyed the 'stick 'em up' command, but Louis ducked under a counter and grabbed a gun." A shoot-out commenced during which Ronan wounded one of the would-be robbers in the hand. In the meantime, a passerby saw what was going on and notified two policemen. They captured Harrison Wilson, the injured man, as he was exiting the store. The others were tracked down within 24 hours.
A grocery store occupied the shop space in 1941. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
It may have been the harrowing incident that prompted the Ronan brothers to leave 365 Manhattan Avenue. The following year the store was home to Miguel Aviles's delicatessen.
Beulah Brown lived here in 1963 and worked in the Hotel Ebony on West 112th Street. She became a key witness in the capture of a serial murderer that year. James Foster was a 36-year-old trucker's helper who would later admit that he had "nursed a grudge against all women for the past 21 years," according to The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey. Within a two-week period beginning at the end of April, he strangled three women to death in Harlem hotels, and on the morning of May 12 strangled a 15-year-old girl in her mother's home. That night, detectives broke into a room in the Hotel Ebony where Foster had just registered with another women. The raid no doubt saved that woman's life.
A year later Foster went to trial. On April 25, 1964, the New York Amsterdam News reported, "During the two-week trial, Foster was identified by Mrs. Katherine Owens of 150 West 140th St., and Mrs. Beulah Brown of 385 Manhattan Ave., as the man who registered with Miss Lewis."
Around 2009, a second store was carved into the rear portion of the building. Kuti's Place, a takeout restaurant opened there in 2010. The New York Times food columnist Dave Cook described the offerings as a marriage of "West African and Middle Eastern flavors."
More than a bit battered today, 365 Manhattan Avenue nevertheless retains much of its 1886 appearance.
photographs by the author
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