The real estate development firm Egan & Hallecy worked with architects Neville & Bagge several times. Among their speculative projects were six rowhouses on the north side of West 101st Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. Neville & Bagge created a balanced row of three designs in an A-B-C-C-B-A plan. Begun in 1900, the homes were completed the following year.
Among the B models was 247 West 101st Street. Its formal Renaissance Revival design included a columned portico above a three-step stoop. Above the rusticated limestone base were three floors of sandy-colored Roman brick (painted white today). An ornamental railing fronted the second floor windows, and a bowed oriel at the third floor gave dimension.
The initial occupants of 247 West 101st Street were H. B. and Laura B. Anthony. Anthony was an 1879 graduate of Brown University. Their residency was relatively short, and the George Herbert Clarke family moved in sometime after 1905.
Clarke married Elizabeth Drummond on November 12, 1902. Born in 1874, Clarke was two years older than Elizabeth. They had two sons, George Cheever Clarke II, born in 1903; and John Drummond Clarke, born in 1908. Moving into the 101st Street house with the family were George's widowed father, George Cheever Clarke, and Mina Dodds Drummond, Elizabeth's widowed mother.
George Cheever Clarke was born in 1844. In 1861, he joined the drygoods firm E. T. Tefft & Co.. It was later renamed Tefft, Weller Company and Clarke became its president in 1901. He was, as well, the chairman of the advisory committee of American Lloyd's, vice-president of the Colonial Assurance Company, and was involved in other insurance firms. He died at 247 West 101st Street on January 11, 1911 at the age of 67.
One year later, almost to the day, Mina Drummond died on January 10, 1912. There would be one more Clarke family funeral in the parlor. Five-year-old John Drummond Clarke died on May 17, 1913.
The Clarkes sold 247 West 101st Street to Joseph (born Giuseppe) and Annetta Gatto Villari in March 1916. The couple was born in Sicily in 1882 and 1887 respectively and were married in San Filippo Superiore in 1905. The couple had eight children.
In 1918, an earthquake severely damaged the 1835 Cathedral of Ponce in Puerto Rico. Despite no apparent ties to the Sicilian-born Annetta and Puerto Rico, she stepped up to help the restoration efforts. On February 8, 1919, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Joseph Villari, 247 West 101st street, will give a dance at the Hotel Plaza next Tuesday evening for the benefit of the Cathedral of Ponce."
The house was photographed by Wurts Bros. on May 28, 1944. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York
It is unclear why Villari went to Des Moines, Iowa for an extended trip that following winter. He died there on July 2, 1920.
The Villari children were well educated. One of them sought a summer job in 1923, placing an ad in The New York Times that read: "Tutor-Companion to boy during Summer; going country; former Columbia student; Christian, congenial, pleasing personality, commands French, Spanish fluently; highest references. Write Villari, 247 West 101st St."
In the fall of 1928, Annetta moved to Pelham Manor and leased the 101st Street house in September to Mrs. A. Cummings. The lease was for five years.
A year later, on September 30, 1929, Annetta was operated on for acute appendicitis. She died three days later.
By the outbreak of World War II, 247 West 101st Street was operated as rented rooms. Among the residents in 1940 was Sylvia Keanfeld, whose name appeared on the list of members of the Communist Party compiled by Government's Special Committee on Un-American Activities.
A renovation completed in 1972 resulted in apartments. A subsequent remodeling in 1996 returned the main portion of the house to a single-family residence, with a basement apartment.
photographs by the author
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