On January 10, 1885, the Record & Guide reported that real estate developer Samuel O. Wright was constructing a row of four brownstone-fronted homes at 117 to 123 West 130th Street. Three stories tall above English basements, they were designed by the architectural firm of Cleverdon & Putzel in the neo-Grec style and completed before the year's end. Beefy cast iron railings and newels originally graced the stoops. The architects dipped into the popular Queen Anne style with details like the inset tiles at the basement and parlor levels, and the sunflower-themed cornice frieze.
The easternmost house, 117 West 130th Street, became home to Charles L. and Anna B. Holt. Born in New York City in 1834, Holt was a tobacco merchant with offices at 156 Water Street and the secretary and director of the Leaf Tobacco Board of Trade.
Holt was better known, however, for his involvement in education. He was a member of the New York City Board of Education and in 1885 became a trustee of the College of the City of New York. He was, as well, a member of the American Museum of National History, the City College Club, and the Men's Club of Harlem.
Anna B. Holt was an accomplished artist. Her works appeared throughout the 1890s at the annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design. She and Charles had a daughter, Lillian.
Like all her neighbors, Anna oversaw a small domestic staff. On September 16, 1890, for instance, she advertised for a "chambermaid and waitress in private family; city references required." ("City references" were much easier to check and greatly reduced the risk of "the servant girl game" by which young women would take jobs simply to rob the employer.)
The Holt drawing room was the scene of refined entertainments, such as the violin recital by Hubert Arnold held here on October 26 1894. The American Art Journal said he was "assisted by Mrs. Eleanor Garrigue Ferguson, pianist, and other artists."
Charles L. Holt fell ill on New Year's Day 1902. He died on April 8 "from a complication of diseases," according to The New York Times. His funeral was held in the house two days later.
Anna and Lillian underwent a terrifying incident on November 22, 1905. That afternoon they were on the third floor when they heard someone trying to break into the scuttle (the trap door to the roof). They locked the door to that room, then called police.
Before help arrived, two 19-year-olds had broken into the scuttle but, finding themselves locked in the room, returned to the roof and looked for other targets. They entered the house of Enoch C. Bell at 103 West 130th and "worked at will" in the third-floor bedroom of the Bells' daughter, Harriett. John Murphy and Frank J. Stanley rifled the young woman's drawers before heading back up through the scuttle.
There they encountered the two policemen who had answered Anna Holt's call. "We are looking for pigeons," Stanley told them. The New York Herald reported, "[Policemen] O'Connor and McDonald drew their revolvers and the burglars surrendered." But the incident was not over.
The officers holstered their weapons as they led the burglars back to the open scuttle, "when the prisoners turned suddenly upon the policemen and grappled with them," reported the New York Herald. The teens, described as "powerful men," fought furiously.
Murphy yelled to his cohort, "Roll them over the edge," and the four became engaged in a life-and-death battle. The article said, "Locked in one another's arms, two policemen and two burglars fought on the edge of a roof in West 130th street yesterday afternoon for fifteen minutes in full view of many hysterical women who had climbed to the tops of their nearby dwellings. Many times the policemen were near to death as the burglars sought to throw them four stories to the street below."
As the neighbors watched helplessly, the burglars repeatedly wrestled O'Connor and McDonald to the edge of the roof. Finally, "once their revolvers were in their hands again they were masters of the situation." The Bell family was unaware they had been burglarized until $1,500 of Harriett Bell's jewelry was discovered in the teens' pockets.
Anna Holt was engaged in a different type of drama in March 1907 with her newly-hired cook, Catherine Cominsky, described by The Sun as "an Irish-Pole." After a week "of disaster to crockery and tempers," Anna decided to fire Catherine and attempted to do so on March 29, but the cook refused to leave. An argument ensued. The Sun said, "when [Catherine] began to use picturesque Irish-Pole idioms to back up her position, Mrs. Holt retreated."
Now Anna and Lillian had a disgruntled cook barricaded in the kitchen as dinner time came and went. Annie Hogan, the Holts' "second girl" offered to help. (Second girls were domestics who came in on certain days to do chores like laundry.) The Sun said she "soon returned from the kitchen with an ultimatum from Catherine to the effect that if the cook couldn't cook no second girl need apply."
Desperate, Anna called the police. Luckily, the sergeant at the 125 Street police station had experience in such matters. He later told a reporter, "It's easy. You just tell them it's a shame such a fine looking girl should work in such a place and a little more of the blarney, and out they go as pleasant as you please. I always pick a good looking cop for the job, and that helps some."
Annie Hogan summed up the encounter saying, "Aw, no, there wasn't no trouble. Catherine just took to them two cops like they was her long lost brothers. And they lugged her off very kind and considerate." And with that, peace was restored to the Holt household.
Attorney William Henry Hanford and his wife, the former Francis Hill Hays purchased the Holt house in 1910. The elderly couple (William was 70 and Francis was 68) had three adult children.
Francis's unmarried sister, Mary Ella Hays, died on August 26, 1912. When her will was read, Francis was not pleased. Mary Ella's estate--equal to several million dollars in today's money--went almost exclusively to a cousin, John R. Hill. He had grown up in the Hays household as a child. Francis received "some jewelry valued at little more than $500," reported The New York Times on October 4.
Mary Ella Hays had been confined "as an insane patient" in the Rivercrest Sanitarium in Queens, according to The Times. The will, however, had been executed 17 years earlier, in 1887. Francis went to court to overturn the will. She insisted that her sister was insane when she made it, despite not being diagnosed as such. Additionally, she asserted "that John Hill constituted himself chief beneficiary through duress and fraud." She demanded that the will be invalidated "and the fortune turned over to her as the sole next of kin," said The New York Times. (It is unclear whether Francis was victorious in her suit.)
William Henry Hanford died on January 15, 1913. Francis remained in the West 130th Street house until March 18, 1919 when she sold it to Catherine L. Minifie. Catherine resold it two days later.
By now Harlem was quickly becoming the center of Manhattan's black community. No. 117 West 130th Street was operated as a rooming house, home to working class tenants. Among them in 1921 was Estelle Counts. She worked as an elevator operator in an apartment house at 18 West 107th Street near Central Park where Mrs. Regina Teidelbaum lived.
On April 19 that year, Mrs. Teidelbaum returned home after taking her 17-month-old baby, Martin, to the park. The New York Herald reported, "When the elevator stopped at the fifth floor of the apartment [building] she got out of the cage and started to draw out the baby carriage, in which Martin was asleep." But before she could do so, the elevator started up, crushing the carriage and killing the baby. The newspaper reported that Estelle, "said she did not know how the car started."
Tenants routinely placed position-wanted ads in local newspapers. One, who placed an ad in the New York Herald on July 26, 1922, was unexpectedly picky in the domestic job she was looking for. "Half time or whole position, colored girl; two or three in family; no children." Another, named Van Bergen, was less restrictive in her requirements on August 16, 1922. "Housework, half time; experienced; colored; reference."
While other tenants worked as domestics, mechanics, and such, Ellen C. Brown was busy socializing. On April 11, 1925, for instance, The New York Age reported, "The New York Hampton Club was entertained at the beautiful home of Mrs. Ellen C. Brown, 117 West 130th street, Tuesday evening, March 31. The occasion was a forum meeting." Three months later, the newspaper announced, "The members of the Block Association of 130th street, between Lenox and Seventh avenues, gave a surprise party, Monday evening...in honor of the birthday of Mrs. Ellen Brown of 117 West 130th street, who was the organizer and first president of the block association.
In 1941, the cast iron stoop railings and newels were intact. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Ellen C. Brown was a social presence on the block for years. On February 5, 1927, The New York Age reported, "Prof. Henry Thomas of San Francisco, Cal., entertained the Music Study Club Monday night at the home of Mrs. S. [sic] Brown, 117 West 130th street," and five years later, the newspaper wrote, "On Sunday, November 13, the Sunflower Relief Club gave a tea at the home of Mrs. Ellen Brown, 117 West 130th street."
Ellen's list of club memberships seems endless. On January 11, 1936, The New York Age reported on the holiday party of the Carolina Club of Williams Institutional Church that she hosted the previous week. "The spacious domicile was decorated in Christmas style, and the guests, formally attired, made merry to the tunes furnished by Prof. B. Williamson and his orchestra."
Interestingly, the residence was never officially converted to apartments, although there are ten rental units listed in the house today. At some point in the 20th century the cast iron stoop railings and newels were replaced with modern railings and concrete newels.
photograph by the author
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