Edward L. Angell would design dozens of rowhouses, most of them on the Upper West Side. Like his contemporary, Clarence Fagan True, Angell worked in historic styles, creating romantic and sometimes lighthearted designs. In 1889, three years after opening his office, he was hired by developer Robert B. Baird to design two townhomes at 312 and 314 West 103rd Street.
Completed in 1891, each was distinctly different, yet their blend of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne designs worked harmoniously together. Each three-stories tall above English basements, their basement and parlor levels were clad in brownstone and their upper floors faced in beige brick trimmed in brownstone.
Angell gave 312 West 103rd Street a straight stone stoop flanked with solid wing walls. The paired parlor windows sat below a delicately leaded fanlight. Carved Renaissance Revival panels at this level happily co-existed with a neo-Classical frieze below the second floor. Pairs of brick pilasters topped with stone capitals flanked the grouped windows of the second floors. Their transoms and those of the third floor were filled with stained glass. The top floor was decorated with a terra cotta plaque depicting a fantastical winged cherub, the lower portion of which morphs into vegetation.
Angell created an asymmetrical roofline by placing a molded cornice and blank parapet at the west, and a slightly higher paneled parapet, crowned with stone urns, and pyramidical roof at the east.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
The house next door was approached by a dog-legged box stoop of rough-cut stone. The parlor openings were capped with heavy lintels and classical pediments, the brackets of which fully flanked the stained glass transoms. The Queen Anne asymmetry appeared on the top floor, where the two western bays were slightly taller than the eastern window. Above them, the facade continued past the eastern cornice to a decorative pediment fronting a brick parapet.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Charles E. M. Gross and his wife, the former May Leticia Miller, purchased 312 West 103rd Street in August 1890. The house became the scene of social gatherings. On February 13, 1901, for instance, the New York Evening Telegram announced, "Mrs. Charles E. M. Gross, of No. 312 West 103d street, will give a reception on Saturday of this week. She will be assisted in receiving by her mother, Mrs. Henry J. Miller."
Just two months later, on April 12, 1901, May died. Her funeral was "private," with only family members present. Shockingly, three months later, on June 4, Charles married May's sister, Leonore. The couple sold 312 West 103rd Street two years later, in June 1903, to Franklin Pierce.
In the meantime, real estate agent James E. Gafney and his family were the first occupants of 314 West 103rd Street. Born in 1854, Gafney was, as well, the secretary and a director of the New York Contracting & Trucking Co. (In the latter position, he became a favorite of Tammany Hall bigwigs.) He and his wife, the former Sarah Mahoney, had one daughter, Edna M.
Edna (who would never marry), graduated from Normal College in 1901 and got her temporary teacher's license that year.
Around 1906, 314 West 103rd Street was sold to real estate operator Susan Devin. She leased it that year to broker Henry Clark Townsend and his wife, the former Katharine Hayes Goodall. The couple had four children, Marian Goodall, Henry Clark, Katharine, and Frederick Barrett. Also living with the family was Katharine's widowed mother, Marian Le Petit Goodall.
An artist, Marian Goodall was described by The New York Times as having, "great ability as a water colourist." She died here on March 16, 1907. In reporting her death, The Times mentioned, "She was the descendant of distinguished French ancestry."
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Next door, attorney Franklin Pierce was well-known to New Yorkers. A member of the Academy of Political Science, he was retained in 1908 as counsel of the King Committee--a group organized by William F. King to investigate graft within the district attorney's office. Pierce's wife, the former Anna May Shepherd, held two degrees from Rio Grande College in Ohio.
The Pierces sold 312 West 103rd Street in March 18, 1911 to William J. Urchs for $30,000--about $993,000 in 2025.
By then, Patrick M. and Margaret J. Lenane owned 314 West 103rd Street. The couple dealt in real estate and owned multiple properties throughout Manhattan. The couple had two children, Mortimer V. and Eleanor B.
Mortimer V. Lelane was in Phoenix, Arizona when he died on April 10, 1913. His body was returned to New York and his funeral was held in the parlor of 314 West 103rd Street on April 17. Within two years, Patrick and Margaret died, leaving Eleanor with extensive Manhattan holdings, including the 103rd Street house.
Eleanor Lelane remained here until about 1917, when she leased the house to Professor Franklin H. Giddings, a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Century Club, and the American Economic Association. She continued to lease the residence. In June 1921, she signed a five-year lease with Anna Minet.
The end of the line for 314 West 103rd Street as a private home came in 1933. December 2, The Sun reported that Eleanor B. Lelane had leased the house, saying the lessee "plans to remodel the building into one and two room suites."
In the meantime, William J. Urchs sold 312 West 103rd Street to Dr. Henry C. Becker in March 1922. He leased rooms through the 1940s. The house was converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1952.
Both houses lost their stoops at mid-century and 312 West 103rd Street lost its parapet and pyramidal roof. A three-year renovation of 312 completed in 2004 resulted in three apartments; and 314 was remodeled in 2008. It created one apartment each in the lower two levels, and a duplex in the upper two stories.
photographs by the author
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