Blum & Blum's 1926 322 Central Park West

 

image via streeteasy.com

The 1920s saw a flurry of construction along Central Park West as residential hotels, most erected just before the turn of the century, were replaced with modern apartment buildings.  In 1925, Blum & Blum filed plans for a 15-story structure at the northwest corner of 92nd Street for the the Central Park West Corp.  It would replace the seven-story hotel on the site.  

Brothers George and Edward--who would eventually design at least 120 apartment houses--opened their architectural office in 1909.  By now they were well-known for their edgy Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.  But for 322 Central Park West they turned to historic styles--Italian Renaissance and Gothic.

The architects gave drama to the otherwise unadorned three-story stone base by placing the entrance within a double-height Gothic arch with elaborate carvings.  The nine-story midsection, faced in beige brick, was introduced by an arcade of windows that perched upon an understated intermediate cornice enhanced by a bold, non-continuous terra cotta band of stylized palmettes and vines.  For the most part, Blum & Blum reserved ornamentation for the three-story top section, where triple-height terra cotta arches sat upon faux Renaissance-inspired balconies.  A parapet took the place of a cornice.  It was given movement by a wave-like terra cotta eyebrow that followed the arched openings of the top floor.

The building opened on August 1, 1926, offering six- or eight-room apartments with three or four baths.  (One "bungalow apartment" of ten rooms and four baths was also available.)  An advertisement boasted, "Spacious rooms.  Each apartment with wood burning fire places, roomy foyers and every modern housekeeping convenience."  

Among the initial residents were Edward Staats Luther, his wife, the former Harriett Lewis, and their daughters, Marianna and Harriett, who were ten and seven years old in 1926.  Luther had an impressive pedigree.  Born in Ballston Spa, New York in 1876, his father, Alvin Luther, was a descendant of John Luther, Colonial Governor of Rhode Island in 1642.  His mother, Marianna Sickler, descended from the Staats family who settled in the Hudson River valley in the 17th century.

Luther moved to New York City in 1899 and joined the staff of The New York Times as a political and financial writer.  In 1913 he became political editor of the Morning Telegraph.  He was, additionally, a director and chairman of the board of the Rosoff Subway Construction Company, a director of the Federation Bank and Trust Company, and the founder of the Industries Development Corporation.

Rex Ellingwood Beach and his wife, the former Margherita Crater, were also initial residents.  The couple also maintained a home in Sebring, Florida.  Born in Atwood, Michigan in 1877, Beach received his law degree from Kent College of Law in 1900.  He would not use his legal education, however.  In 1904, he won a silver medal at the Summer Olympics as a member of the American water polo team.  After prospecting in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush, he turned to writing.  His 1906 novel The Spoilers became a best seller, and his experiences in Alaska provided fodder for later works, like his 1908 The Barrier, and The Silver Horde, published in 1909.  

On October 12, 1930, the Atlanta, Georgia newspaper The Constitution began an article saying, "Georgians will be delighted to hear that one of America's best-known writers is eager to come down from his New York home and write a novel with a Georgia background."  Beach had told the newspaper in a telegram, "I only wish that I had a story that would bring me to Georgia.  Dig one up and I will tackle it."  The article urged readers to send Beach ideas for a plot to 322 Central Park West.

Rex Ellingwood Beach, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

The Spoilers was adapted as a stage play and then reworked as a screenplay five times.  Its main character Roy Glennister was played by Gary Cooper in 1930 and John Wayne in 1942.  The Silver Horde was also adapted to the screen, first as a silent film in 1920.  The second release, in 1930, starred Jean Arthur, Evelyn Brent and Joel McCrea.  The Beaches spent more and more time in Florida, eventually giving up their apartment on Central Park West. 

Among the Beaches' neighbors in the building were Harry H. Oshrin and his wife, the former Emma Guttman.  Born in 1889, Oshrin was a theatrical lawyer and stage and film producer.  Among the productions he staged were the 1927 Broadway play Talk About Girls; the 1941 film Tobacco Road, starring Charley Grapewin, Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney; and the 1943 Broadway adaption of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.  (The Oshrins' daughter, Elaine, was an actress and appeared in the cast of Tobacco Road.)

The affluence of the Oshrins was evidenced when burglars broke into their apartment in 1932.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that on the morning of April 17, "the maid discovered that a painting by Diaz...had been taken from the wall and was lying on the floor."  She mentioned it to Oshrin, who investigated.  Three paintings, "one by Murillo, one by Courbet and one by Jerome," were missing as well as $15,000 worth of Emma's jewelry.  The newspaper said the paintings were valued at $25,000.  The total theft would translate to just under $920,000 in 2025.

Resident Henry Symons died in 1930 and five years later his widow, Leah, opened the Symons Galleries, Inc.  The shop, which specialized in English and French antique furnishings, would be a resource for collectors and decorators for decades.

Social psychologist Erich Seligmann Fromm and his wife, psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann moved into the building around 1935.  The couple met in Germany while Fromm was one of Frieda's patients.  They were married in 1926 and fled Nazi Germany in 1934.  Fromm was hired by Columbia University that year.  He taught courses at the New School of Social Research from 1941 to 1959.

Erich Seligman Fromm in 1974.  photograph by Müller-May

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann was a pioneer in the treatment of schizophrenia.  She served in World War I as a major in the German Army and ran a clinic for brain-injured soldiers.  The work led to her study of anxieties and panic issues (what today would be called traumatic stress disorder).

The Fromms divorced in 1942 and in 1953, Erich Fromm remarried and gave up his apartment in 322 Central Park West.

Josef Bonime and his wife, Josephine, were residents at the time.  The composer, conductor and pianist was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1891 and arrived in the United States as a boy.  He graduated from The City College of New York and studied music at Julliard.  He joined the faculty of the Julliard School of Music in 1933.  By then, he had been composing music for radio shows for eight years and was conducting the CBS Symphony and the Columbia School of the Air.  

Josef Bonime, from the collection of the Jewish Music Research Centre

Among the programs on which Bonime worked were "Death Valley Days," "Five Star Theatre," "Let's Dance" and "Echoes of New York Town."  In 1930 he joined the radio department of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency.  Bonime retired from that position in 1958 and became special assistant to the president of the Polychrome Corporation, a graphic organization.  

The Bonimes visited friends in Westport, Connecticut in the fall of 1959.  Josef Bonime suffered a fatal heart attack while there on November 8.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Bonime was no doubt well acquainted with another resident, Fred Wise, whose apartment was on the seventh floor.  Born on May 27, 1915 in New York City, Wise and his wife, Elaine, had one daughter, Erica, born in 1954.  Although his degree was in clinical psychology (he received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1957 and founded the Independent Bronx Consultation Center in 1959), Wise's passion was songwriting.  He began writing lyrics while studying at Columbia.  

After serving as a radio operator in General Dwight D. Eisenhower's European headquarters during World War II, Wise began writing lyrics for popular songs and motion pictures.  Starting in 1958 with the film King Creole, he wrote the words for several Elvis Presley songs.  Others included "Wooden Heart" in the 1960 film G. I. Blues; "Rock-A-Hula Baby" for the 1961 feature Blue Hawaii; and "Kissin' Cousins," from Presley's 1964 film of the same name.  Other popular songs for which he wrong the lyrics include, "This Is My Country," "Let Me Go, Lover;" and "A, You're Adorable."

On January 18, 1966, Fred and Elaine got into a quarrel "over a television set," according to The New York Times.  Erica, who was now 12 years old, was asleep.  Elaine told officials later that she left the apartment for a walk, "until he cooled off."  When she walked out of the building, she saw the crumpled body of her husband on the sidewalk, clad in shorts and an undershirt.  Doctors said he had died upon impact.

Another interesting resident was Erich Cohn, president of A. Goodman & Sons, Inc., a maker of noodles, matzohs and other food products.  He shared the apartment with his wife, the former Helene Danziger.  Cohn had joined the firm in 1915.  That year he traveled to New York from Germany to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of a relative, Augustus Goodman.  While he was here, World War I broke out and he could not return.  Goodman hired him in his plant.  In 1937, Cohn assumed the position of president.

A supporter of several Jewish organizations, the Cohns were better known for their extensive collection of German Expressionist art.  In addition to the works that were displayed in their apartment, the Cohns donated several works, especially the paintings and sculptures of Käthe Kollwitz, to various museums.

By the mid-1970s, Dirck Halstead occupied an apartment here.  Born in 1936, he was the editor and publisher of The Digital Journalist.  He received a camera for Christmas in 1951 and two years later became Life magazine's youngest combat photographer, covering the Guatemalan civil war.  After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, he joined UPI.  He served as the organization's picture bureau chief in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

In 1972, while listing 322 Central Park West as his primary address, he was appointed Time magazine's Senior White House Photographer.  He accompanied President Richard Nixon to his historic trip to China that year.  Halstead would remain with Time for 29 years, his photographs appearing on the magazine's cover 49 times.

Actress, singer and playwright Tovah Feldshuh occupied an apartment here by 2005, as did actress Linda Lavin.  Feldshuh made her Broadway debut in the 1973 musical Cyrano starring Christopher Plummer.  Her characterization of Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony, which opened in 2003, set a record in 2005 as the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history.

Linda Lavin debuted on Broadway in the 1960s, but gained prominence playing Alice in the television sitcom of the same name.  It ran from 1976 to 1985.  She won a Tony Award in 1987 for her performance in Broadway Bound and was nominated in 2001 for The Tale of the Allergist's Wife.  Lavin sold her four-bedroom apartment in 2005 for about $4.3 million.

image via landmarkwest.org

Upon the building's opening in 1926, an advertisement in the New York Evening Post lauded, "unsurpassed panorama of Central Park assuring fresh air and abundance of sunshine."  Unfortunately, that panorama and sunshine prompted residents whose apartments overlook the park to disfigure Blum & Blum's regimented fenestration.  The unfettered renovations created a Mondrian-like mish-mash of picture windows of various styles.  Nonetheless, 322 Central Park West, with its dignified architecture and riveting history, survives as an integral part of the Central Park West streetscape.

many thanks to Ann Watkins for suggesting this post