In 1840, builder Andrew Lockwood, carpenter Erastus Freeman, and mason James Harriot began construction of a row of 11 brick-faced houses that would nearly fill the south side of West 11th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Completed in 1841, the two-and-a-half-story homes sat upon rusticated brownstone basements. Handsome doorways with Corinthian-capped pilasters, sidelights and transoms were recessed within the expected Greek Revival-style brownstone frames of flat pilasters and a heavy entablature. The attic windows punched through the fascia of the delicately denticulated cornices.
No. 42 West 11th Street saw a succession of professional occupants (who possibly rented) over the first decades. In 1884, for instance, it was home to John H. Kitchen, a builder who was appointed receiver of the United States Underground Cable Company in December that year. (The firm was organized in 1882 "to manufacture and lay underground electric cables, both for telegraphic purposes and lighting, and for telephonic purposes." Perhaps ahead of its time, the company failed.)
Early in 1897, merchant John White Treadwell Nichols purchased 42 West 11th Street, ending the turnover in occupants. Born in Brighton, Massachusetts on October 30, 1852, he married Mary Blake Slocum in 1876. They relocated to New York City in 1884, at which time Nichols became a partner in the cotton goods commission house of Minot, Hooper & Co. The couple had three sons, George S., John Treadwell, and William Blake; and three daughters, Helen Slocum, Elizabeth, and Susan Farley.
Nichols had suffered from poor eyesight from an early age. The Textile World Journal later explained, "He went to work in the woolen business in Boston at the age of fourteen years, as poor eyesight prevented his continuing his studies." The journal said, "Mr. Nichols encouraged the development of devices that would operate to relieve others distressed in that way." He commissioned the development of a switchboard operated by bells rather than lights. It was installed at Minot, Hooper & Co., and, after being thoroughly tested, "was submitted to broader commercial usage."
At one point, Nichols turned his attention to his female employees, and established a women's restroom in his firm's building at 51-53 Leonard Street. It was one of the first women's rest rooms in a large commercial building.
The Nichols family were involved in philanthropy. John and Mary were aboard an ocean liner headed to Europe in April 1906 when news came of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Nichols immediately wired his firm, recommending that it "extend credits and especial courtesies in the stricken zone." Other businesses joined the movement. The Textile World Journal said, "it is remembered in the business district as probably the first step in commercial relief."
A year later, when The Association of the New York School of Philanthropy was formed, Helen S. Nichols was elected secretary-treasurer.
At the time, the aristocratic tenor of the lower Fifth Avenue neighborhood was threatened. When the two houses at 44 and 46 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of 11th Street, were offered for sale in the spring of 1907, Nichols purchased them. On May 4, the Record & Guide commented, "It is said that Mr. Nichols bought [them] for the purpose of helping to preserve the old-time residential character of lower 5th av."
It was around this time that Nichols purchased a 36-acre estate near Cove Neck in Oyster Bay, Long Island. It abutted Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill, and was near the estate of J. Pierpont Morgan, Matinicock Point. Nichols commissioned Minerva Parker Nichols, the wife of his second cousin, to design the house, which became known as The Kettles.
The Kettles. image via minervaparkernichols.com
At some point, Nichols purchased 44 West 11th Street and combined the two, removing the stoop of 42 while retaining the address. It was no doubt at the same time that both houses were raised to full three floors and identical cornices installed. The Spur described the Nichols home in 1915 as, "Two houses thrown into one, it is a very spacious dwelling with the old-fashioned high ceilings of half a century ago."
The original appearance of 42 and 44 West 11th Street can be seen in the unaltered house at the right. Although the Nichols house retained the address of 42 West 11th Street, the entrance was technically at 44. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
On June 12, 1910, The New York Times began an article saying, "The old Floyd homestead [in Mastic, Long Island], built in 1730, and the ancestral home of Gen. William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the scene of a wedding at noon today." John Treadwell Nichols was married to Cornelia Du Bois Floyd. George was his brother's best man, and William was one of the ushers. The article said, "A special train brought 100 guests from the city, and many came in automobiles."
Among those arriving in a car may have been George Nichols. That year he registered his new Matheson 50 automobile.
George's new car would have looked much like this 1910 model. The $3,000 price tag would translate to about $95,300 in 2024. Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal, 1910 (copyright expired)
Nichols's hope of preserving the old-time atmosphere of the neighborhood apparently extended to their own home's interiors. When John and Mary combined the two houses, they did not install electricity and, in fact, had never installed gas. On January 9, 1915, The Sun announced, "There will be a meeting of the Neighborhood Club on the evening of January 13 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John W. T. Nichols, 42 West Eleventh street. The artists will be Francis Rogers and Bruno Huhn." On February 1, The Spur followed up:
It seemed like stepping into the romantic past when the members and guests of that unusual New York organization, the Neighborhood Club, entered the reception room of Mrs. John W. T. Nichols, at 42 West Eleventh Street, and found it lighted by candles. The Nichols house is one of the few on Manhattan Island in which gas has never been installed; there are no chandeliers--only side lights.
It may have been the proximity of the Morgan and Nichols summer estates that sparked romance between George and Jane N. Morgan. On June 11, 1917, the New-York Tribune reported that the couple had obtained their marriage license in Oyster Bay. Somewhat shockingly, the article said, "No one accompanied the couple, the two driving to the clerk's office in Mr. Nichol's machine."
The wedding was performed on November 14 in the Church of St. John at Lattingtown, where both families worshiped during the summer season. The Sun reported, "Two special cars were run from the Pennsylvania Station, New York, to accommodate the guests," adding that the couple, "will probably make their home on the Nichols estate at Oyster Bay." (In fact, they moved into the West 11th Street house and shared The Kettles in the summer.)
The following year, the Morgan family and George and Jane Nichols were the victims of a bizarre extortion plot. On September 17, 1918, The New York Times reported, "For eighteen months past somebody has been trying to extort $20,000 from Mr. Morgan and his daughter, Mrs. Jane Nichols of Glen Cove, L.I." It said that a series of letters mailed from Lansing, Michigan promised sure death if instructions were not followed.
The writer asserted that he represented a gang in close touch with the Morgan family. He said the entire family was inoculated with a disease germ which would cause their death in three years. J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr., the writer said, had met death through this germ. The antidote for the germ, however, could be purchased from him for $20,000.
Federal agents began "dickering" with the writer through personal columns in newspapers in Lansing and Detroit. A plan was finally agreed upon by which the $20,000 would be handed over to an "unnamed man" in Lansing. On September 17, 1918, J. B. Thorn, a 51-year-old janitor, was arrested.
John White Tredwell Nichols died of heart failure in his sleep on April 25, 1920 at the age of 72. His large estate was left mostly to Mary, to be divided among the children after her death. A $5,000 bequest was made to Harvard University to establish the George Nichols Fund in honor of John's father. He remembered, as well, his long-time domestic staff. Ellen Barr, who worked at The Kettles, for instance, received $1,000 (about $14,600 by 2025 conversion).
Mary lived on here with Susan, who was unmarried; and George and Jane and their two-year-old daughter Jane Norton. A second child, George, was born on May 15, 1922. The population of 42 West 11th Street was reduced by one when Susan married writer John Trowbridge Pulsifer in 1924.
George Nichols was a member of his father's firm, Minot, Hooper & Co. and a noted yachtsman. In 1925, he was made commodore of the New York Yacht Club. George captained the Weetamoe in the America's Cup race of 1930, with his brother-in-law Junius S. Morgan as a member of the five-man crew. Around this time, George and Jane had established their own summer estate, Uplands, in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.
In May 1928, Helen, who was married to Mansfield Estabrook, died. Their three children, James, Laura and John, moved into 42 West 11th Street and The Kettles. Although Mansfield Estabrook was still alive, in 1935 George and Jane introduced Laura to society at a dance. The New York Post explained, "She and her two brothers, James M. and John N. Estabrook, make their home with their grandmother, Mrs. John W. T. Nichols, at the Kettles, in the Cove Neck sector of Oyster Bay, and at 42 West Eleventh Street, New York."
The following year, on September 12, 1936, The New York Post wrote, "The various members of the J. Pierpont Morgan clan pride themselves on their exclusiveness, so that the dance given last night by the financier's son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. George Nichols at Uplands, their country home at Cold Spring Harbor, to introduce to society their daughter, Miss Jane Nichols was one of the smaller of the debutante coming-out parties of the week." The article continued,
The dance was held in a marquee on the lawn, and the entire estate was illuminated by colored lights. Alexander Haas and his Hungarian orchestra, that has played at most of the parties given by this family in the past few years, contributed to the entertainment of the guests, who included members of the young married set as well as many of this season's debutantes.
Mary Blake Nichols died on September 8, 1943 at the age of 89. Three years later the combined houses were converted to a two-family residence, with a duplex in the basement and parlor levels, and another on the second and third floors.
The configuration lasted until 1988, when 42 and 44 West 11th Street were separated. A remarkable restoration of the lost stoop and entrance brought the house back to its 1841 appearance.
photographs by the author
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