The Winfield Scott Hancock Bust - Hancock Park

 

On February 10, 1886, The New York Times titled an article, "A Brave Soldier Dead."  Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock had died in his home on Governors Island while in command of the U.S. Army's Division of the Atlantic.  His remarkable career, which began with his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1844, had earned him the nickname within the Army as "Hancock the Superb."

Born on February 14, 1824, Hancock seemed destined to a military career.  He was named after General Winfield Scott, who distinguished himself in the War of 1812.  In 1850, after serving in the Mexican War, Hancock married Almira Russell.  They had two children.  

The "Superb" nickname came from a telegram sent from Major General George B. McClellan to Washington following the Battle of Gettysburg: "Hancock was superb today."  He commanded his troops in the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville and the siege of Petersburg, and was wounded twice.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock - from the collection of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Following the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the executions of the conspirators of the Lincoln assassination.  He was placed in charge of the Reconstruction in Texas and Louisiana, and in 1872 was put in command of the Division of the Atlantic, headquartered at Fort Columbus on Governors Island.  He was the Democratic nominee for President in 1880, losing to James A. Garfield.

In reporting his death, The New York Times said on February 10, 1886, "Of the military fames acquired in the war for the Union probably none rests on a surer foundation than that of the illustrious soldier who died yesterday."

Movements to memorialize Hancock were swift.  Within months, the triangular property bounded by Manhattan and St. Nicholas Avenues and 124th Street was named Hancock Park.  In 1890, veterans of Hancock Post No. 259 formed a Hancock Memorial Association and commissioned sculptor James Wilson Alexander MacDonald to create a monument.

The choice of artist was, perhaps, based on the fact that MacDonald had created a life mask of the general in 1880, the year he was nominated.  The sculptor used the accurate plaster cast as  the model for his memorial.

Statues for military heroes traditionally depicted them astride a horse or striking a commanding stance.  Not this one.  MacDonald created a monumental sized bust with no trappings of warfare--indeed, it wore no uniform or clothing at all, other than a sash over the left shoulder that symbolized military honor.

Three years after the Hancock Memorial Association was formed, the monument was still not finished.  On September 14, 1892, The Evening World reported that it would be placed in Hancock Park, but it would be more than a year later that the bust would be unveiled.  The problem was money.  The treasurer of the Memorial Fund told the New-York Tribune, "Subscriptions did not come in so rapidly as we anticipated, and that is the cause of the delay."

The New-York Tribune explained the problem on June 25, 1893:

One cause of the difficulty in securing subscriptions to the statue fund was the fact that General Grant's monument in Riverside Park, only a few blocks away, was still uncompleted and many thousands of dollars were required to finish it.  Had it not been for this fact the Hancock statue would have been finished some time ago.

On April 24, 1893, The New York Times reported, "A concert will be given in Palmer's Theatre Sunday evening, May 7, for the benefit of the Hancock Statue Fund."  The article said, "It is hoped that the sufficient money will be raised by this entertainment to give a great impetus to the movement to erect a statue in New-York worthy of Gen. Hancock."  Each of the audience members would receive a "finely-bound memorial of Gen. Hancock."

The benefit was helpful.  On June 25, 1893, the New-York Tribune announced, "The bronze figure and pedestal have been paid for."  The article grumbled, "This statue has been allowed to remain in a half-finished condition for many months."

Finally, in frigid weather on the day before New Year's Eve, the dedication ceremony was held.  A host of prominent military figures were present as Mayor Thomas Francis Gilroy accepted the statue for the city.  "Statues like this," he said, "will be to our youth a constant inspiration, and the city will ever carefully treasure them."

from Statues of New York, 1923 (copyright expired)

In their 1923 Statues of New York, J. Sanford Saltus and Walter E. Tisne diplomatically addressed MacDonald's unorthodox, unmilitary depiction of Hancock.

It does not carry the conviction that naturally emanates from an equestrian statue and the immobilization of a gesture of command, but as a likeness it is said to do justice to the model.

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department.  Included in the work (that ranged from 1934 to 1937) was the Hancock bust.  It was conserved again in 1998 with a cleaning and waxing by the City Parks Foundation Monuments Conservation Program.

In the meantime, in 1981 a group of volunteers from the Coalition of 100 Black Women became guardians of the little park.  They continue to plant and maintain the triangular plot today.

photographs by the author

The 1907 Thaddeus Davids Company Building - 95-97 Vandam Street

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Wealthy sugar refiner William Frederick Havemeyer and his family lived in the handsome house at 95 Vandam Street at the middle of the 19th century.  Living next door at 97 Vandam Street was the family of Charles Burkhalter, a well-to-do wholesale grocer.  The Burkhalters leased their home from the Havemeyers.  

Half a century later, the neighborhood had drastically changed.  Affluent families had moved northward and commercial structures were quickly replacing vintage homes.  In December 1904, the Record & Guide reported that the Havemeyer estate had sold 95 and 97 Vandam Street, "two three-story houses," to Mitchell A. C. Levy.

In 1854, while the Havemeyers were still occupying 95 Vandam Street, the Thaddeus Davids Company moved into the building at 127-129 William Street.  After occupying it for more than half a century, in 1906 the William Street owner refused to renew the Thaddeus Davids Company's lease.  On June 9, The American Stationer reported that the Thaddeus Davids Company, "the well-known manufacturers of inks and adhesives, has closed a deal for the building[s] at 95-97 Vandam street, between Hudson and Greenwich."  The article said, "The old buildings now standing on the site will be torn down and a modern factory building, containing every facility for manufacturing and specialties for which this firm is so justly famous, will be erected."

The firm had contracted the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker to design the factory.  Their plans projected the construction cost at $60,000, or about $2 million in 2025.  The American Stationer said, "No expense or care will be spared to make the building a model of its kind."  The article explained that the William Street lease would expire in May 1908 "and it is expected that the new building will be ready for occupancy at that time."

Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker considered both attractiveness and functionality in designing the building.  To safely accommodate the firm's heavy machinery, the plans included a "system of cinder concrete arches, reinforced with iron rods, terra cotta partitions, copper covered skylights."  Importantly, the building was fully electrified.  The large machines, previously operated manually, would now be powered by electricity.

Construction was completed in the spring of 1908.  The architects' commercial take on Renaissance Revival was splashed with the currently popular Arts & Crafts style.  The piers of the first floor loading bay--fabricated in cast iron in most loft buildings at the time--were constructed of beige brick and topped with limestone capitals.  They upheld a heavy structural beam decorated with triglyphs.  A second beam above the second floor was disguised with a reeded band that dangled blank shields.  The third to sixth floors were faced in rusticated brick.  A denticulated and bracketed pressed metal cornice completed the design.

Now one of the foremost ink companies in the world, the Thaddeus Davids Company had an interesting start.  Thaddeus Davids was born in Bedford, New York in 1810 and his family moved to New York City in 1823.  The 13-year-old was hired by an ink manufacturer.  Amazingly, when the owner retired, he left the concern to Davids, who was still a teen.  Because he was a minor, the firm was named William Davids, for his father.

In 1827, now 17 years old, Thaddeus developed "steel pen ink," touted to be of "record quality."  Over the decades he continued to experiment, introducing innovative and improved products.  In 1856, his son George W. Davids became a partner and the firm became Thaddeus Davids & Company.  

George nearly caused the end of the firm in 1883.  Unknown to his father, he accumulated massive amounts of debt and used the company as collateral.  When they came due that year, Thaddeus had to liquidate all his properties, including the firm, to settle the debts.  (In the meantime, George committed suicide in a New York City hotel.)  The emotional turmoil no doubt contributed to Thaddeus's stroke soon afterward.  He never recovered.

In the meantime, sons David F. and Edwin Davids took over the company in receivership.  The brothers died in 1905 and 1907, respectively, just before the firm moved into the Vandam facility.  Other Davids family members took over, and, in fact, the 95-97 Vandam property was held in the name of Louise A. Davids.

The firm continued to innovate.  On October 25, 1910, for instance, Walden's Stationery and Printer reported, "The Thaddeus Davids Company, 95 Vandam Street, New York, are putting on the market a long-felt want, consisting of a neat metal box containing a large bottle of their Black Diamond indelible ink, a penholder and one of Davids' indelible marking pens."

Walden's Stationer and Printer, October 25, 1910 (copyright expired)

Innovation within the Thaddeus Davids Company operations did not stop with its products.  At a time when traveling salesmen were--as the term suggested--male, on January 27, 1912 the firm advertised, "Wanted--Six young women to sell a popular article to offices; salary and commission."  The firm would necessarily turn to women again when World War I depleted the male workforce.  On October 24, 1918, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune was titled, "Girls and Women Wanted.  Help Win the War."  Foreshadowing the Rosie the Riveters of the 1940s, the ad said the Thaddeus Davids Ink Company, "offers profitable employment to girls and women; excellent wages; steady work and bonus; Uncle Sam needs you here."

The Touchstone, July 1919 (copyright expired)

The Thaddeus Davids Company closed before 1941 when the Tiara Products Co., Inc. occupied 95-97 Vandam Street.  The industrial tenor within the building began to change in 1960, when the newly-formed 670 Realty Corporation took space.  The realty management firm Samson Management operated from the building as early as 1968.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The neighborhood--now called Hudson Square--saw change again in the third quarter of the 20th century.  Loft buildings were transformed to residential, office and retail space.  In 1987, the Thaddeus Davids Company building was converted to apartments with a retail space on the former loading dock level.

For years, Form and Function occupied the first floor and more recently Exquisite Surfaces moved in.  

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

Neville & Bagge's 1899 862 West End Avenue

 

In 1898, developer James Livingston hired the architectural firm of Neville & Bagge to design five "four-story American basement" houses on West End Avenue and six nearly identical others around the corner on West 102nd Street.  An advertisement for 862 to 868 West End Avenue in March 1899 described the residences as, "Elegant four-story houses, highly finished throughout; 3 large chambers [i.e., bedrooms], saloon [i.e., salon or sitting room], and bathroom on second floors; 20 feet front, 55 feet deep; with 30-foot extension.  Clothes dryer in basement."

No. 862 was faced in gray Roman brick above the limestone basement and parlor levels.  The architects bowed the three upper floors.  The openings of the second and fourth floors sat atop molded sill courses and were grouped by a single eyebrow.  The third-floor windows featured splayed lintels with foliate keystones.

The house would see a rapid-fire turnover in owners.  In May 1899, Livingston sold the West End Avenue group to Charles F. Richards.  No. 862 would see three more owners before Anna Galbraith purchased it on March 20, 1903.  Like her predecessors, she purchased the house for rental income.

Living here as early as 1911 was the Michael Gernsheim family.  Living with him and his wife, the former Emilie Loeb, were their unmarried adult children, Felix M. and Alice.  

Felix, who was 40 years old in 1915, was an attorney.  He had a bit too much to drink on the night of September 16 that year.   At the corner of Broadway and 96th Street, he came upon two soap box orators, the opinions of whom did not align with his.

The New York Times reported that he, "dragged Joseph L. Kaufman, a Socialist speaker, from his platform and disturbed the crowd listening to a suffragette speaker on the opposite corner."  He was not done yet.  The article continued, "he then went into a near-by restaurant, pulled a man to the street and when Patrolman Walsh...tried to arrest him threw himself to the ground."  

Gernsheim was charged with intoxication and disorderly conduct.  Although he denied having been drunk, when he appeared before Magistrate Appleton the next day he promised "he would not touch a drop of liquor for a year."  The Times reported, "he was discharged in the custody of his mother."

In 1917, the Gernsheims moved two doors away to 866 West End Avenue where Felix, still unmarried, died of pneumonia on February 9, 1920.  

Anna Galbraith rented 862 West End Avenue in March 1917 to Katherine V. and George A. Sipp, a highly colorful couple.  Although she used George's surname, Katherine was actually Katherine Lynch.  He and his wife, Catherine V. Lynch, were married in 1883, but he left her for Katherine in 1913, with whom he had two children.

George and his legitimate son, Howard, ran the Commonwealth Hotel in Harlem.  When he and Katherine leased 862 West End Avenue, he and Howard were deeply involved in a case against New York City policemen.  On January 1913, The Evening World reported on the graft case of "high police officers" implicated by the Sipps of extorting money from "the keepers of disorderly houses."  As the trial date neared, George Sipp announced that he had been offered a $700 bribe from a defense attorney "to leave New York."

The Sipps were not always on the right side of the law, however.  On December 25, 1918, the New-York Tribune reported on a warning issued by the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World about an advertising scam.  The New-York Tribune editors added to the message, giving an example of an advertisement in their newspaper on December 11, 1918:

A ladies' natural muskrat coat, forty-five inches long, full flare, belted model; never worn.  SIPP, 862 West End Avenue; private house.

The article continued, "Tribune readers will recall the conviction of George A. Sipp, who, in September, 1917, was fined $250 in the Court of Special Sessions for fraudulent advertising."

The couple had other worries at the time.  Two months before the article, Catherine V. Sipp sued George for divorce and Katherine for $100,000 "for alleged alienation of Sipp's affections," according to The Sun on October 22, 1918.

The Sipps remained here through 1920.  The following year the house was converted to non-housekeeping apartments, meaning they had no kitchens.  The basement level was now a physician's suite.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on January 28, 1921 described, "Doctor's office, waiting room and apartment--five rooms, bath, $2,100."  (The yearly rent would translate to about $3,000 per month in 2025.)  A two-room apartment with bath in the upper floors rented for the equivalent of $1,700 a month today.

The configuration lasted until 1965, when a remodeling resulted in two apartments per floor.  Living here in 1970 was the family of John Hewitt, a medical writer.  His son attended the Fieldston School in Riverdale.  On March 24 that year, The New York Times reported, "A group of about 60 students, most of them black, calmly took over the three-story administration building of the Fieldston School...yesterday morning and, in a well-planned maneuver, barricaded themselves inside."  The article said this was "one of the first instances in the country where minority students in a private preparatory school actually took over a school building."

John Hewitt, who was also the chairman of the school's Black Parents' Association, rushed to the school and climbed the fire escape of the administration building to the only unbarricaded entrance.  He was not intent on persuading his son to leave, however.  The Times said, "He was carrying seat cushions for his son to sleep on."  Hewitt told a reporter, "We're fully in back of these students."

The house would undergo another renovation in 1991.  There are now a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floor, and two apartments each on the upper levels.

photographs by the author