Brothers Joseph Warren and Abraham Alonzo Teets were responsible for erecting scores of rowhouses in Upper Manhattan in the 1880s. In 1887 they filled the western blockfront of Manhattan Avenue from 121st to 122nd Street with three-story-and-basement homes, and the following year completed a similar row along the block from 122nd to 123rd Streets.
Architects Cleverdon & Putzel lightened the neo-Grec design of the latter row by adding fanciful terra cotta hoods, molded to simulate fish scale tiles, to the parlor and second floor openings. The architrave frames of the windows were decorated with incised carvings, and the elaborate metal cornices included pressed fans between the prominent brackets.
The row engulfs the entire blockfront.
The house at the southern corner of the row, 529 Manhattan Avenue, was highly desirable because of the southern wall of additional light and ventilation. It became home to the Frederick Charles Halbe family. Halbe was born in Germany on March 30, 1830 and came to America at the age of 17. While he was in the upholstery business, he dealt in Manhattan real estate as well. He owned, for instance, the valuable property on Sixth Avenue on which the Adams Dry Goods emporium was built. He often used only his middle name professionally.
Halbe and his wife, the former Sophia Hiedelhouse, had at least three children, Bertha, William A., and Charles G. H. William was listed as a clerk in 1889, and Charles G. H. Halbe as a merchant at 30 Front Street. The affluent family was annually listed in Dau's New York Social Blue Book.
Bertha H. Halbe died on November 15, 1901. Her funeral was held in the parlor on the 17th.
A second funeral was held there ten years later. Frederick Charles Halbe died on June 3, 1911 at the age of 81. He left an estate of about $8.67 million by 2025 conversions.
William still lived with his mother at the time of Frederick's death. Sophia survived her husband by a decade, dying in the Manhattan Avenue house on February 26, 1921. Hers was the last of the Halbe funerals to be held here.
Five months later, Joseph Goodfellow, a contractor, purchased 529 Manhattan Avenue for $16,000, according to The New York Times (the price would translate to about $272,000 today).
It continued to be a single-family home until 1958, when a renovation resulted in one apartment each in the basement and parlor levels, and two each on the upper floors.
Among the tenants by the early 1970s were Clifford A. Scott and his wife, the former Mary Myles. Born on January 15, 1918 in Monroe, Louisiana, Scott was a 1942 graduate of Southern University and received his Bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees from Brooklyn Law School. While living here in 1974, Scott was elected a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. The January 14, 1991 issue of New York Magazine listed him as one of the five toughest judges in New York State.
photographs by the author
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