On August 1, 1858, Hamilton Fish conveyed a portion of the triangular-shaped property he inherited from his mother, Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish, to Matthias Banta for $35,000 ($1.38 million by 2025 terms). It abutted the eastern side of his own home, 21 Stuyvesant Street, and wrapped the acute point of the parcel and back westerly along East 10th Street. Matthias had the property surveyed to create seven building plots.
Architectural historians generally agree that James Renwick, Jr. was responsible for the resultant rowhouses. The Anglo-Italianate, five-story-and-basement houses ranged from 16- to 32-feet-wide (because of the irregular, triangular parcel), their depths ranging from 16- to 48-feet. Despite the varied sizes, Renwick so skillfully designed the homes as a unit that it is difficult at a glance to distinguish each residence.
Among the narrowest was 23 Stuyvesant Street. Like its architectural siblings, its rusticated brownstone basement and first floors sat below four stories of red brick trimmed in brownstone. The tall, fully-arched windows of the second floor held hands by means of a stone bandcourse. Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently--those of the top floor resembling Victorian picture frames.
The houses were completed over a three-year period--23 Stuyvesant Street being one of the first. Banta and his wife, Eliza, rented it. Their first tenants placed an advertisement in the New York Herald on September 5, 1859:
A small private family would like to rent two rooms to gentlemen, or a gentleman and wife, with or without board. House contains all improvements. Apply at No. 23 Stuyvesant street, first new house east of Third avenue, and between Ninth and Tenth streets.
The ad was almost assuredly placed by Emily Eytinge. The widow of Samuel D. Eytinge, she was living here in 1861 when she placed a verbatim advertisement in the same newspaper.
The Bantas' tenants, like Emily Eytinge, rarely remained more than one or two years. The house was often shared with two families. In 1863, for instance, the Gerard Banker and George I. Prime families were listed here. Prime was a stockbroker.
In 1870, attorney Lester Newell moved in. Possibly a bachelor, he rented "furnished rooms." Although some families provided their renters with breakfast, Newell apparently offered no meals. He most likely relied heavily on word-of-mouth as advertising, since two of his three renters in 1872 were also lawyers. The other was Julias Knoedler, "pictures." He was no doubt associated with M. Knoedler & Co., which dealt in Old Masters. Lester Newell rented the house through 1880.
Leo Gartner lived here in 1889. The 25-year-old worked as a bookkeeper at Morris, Marks & Wolf, tailors. That year, he traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration of Benjamin Harrison on March 4. He returned to 23 Stuyvesant Street the following night and was met by Detectives Reap and Connor, who arrested him. In his absence, Morris, Marks & Wolf charged him with "the larceny of $125." The Evening World explained, "The firm said that Gartner collected the money and appropriated it to pay his expenses of a trip to Washington."
By the first years of the 20th century, Annie Wilson operated 23 Stuyvesant Street as a "furnished room house." Among her tenants were Leopold Hibbe, a physician, and his real estate agent brother, Henry C. Hibbe. The brothers found themselves in serious trouble in the fall of 1902.
On September 8, Agnes Lynch, a chorus girl known on the stage as "Laughing Fay" Ransom, "died in the arms of a Roman Catholic priest," as reported by The Evening Post, "after making a confession." That confession was that she had had an abortion. Three days later The Evening World reported that Dr. Leopold Hibbe had been arrested. "Dr. Hibbe denies absolutely any malpractice," said the article.
The next day, The Daily Globe reported, "police are looking for his brother, Dr. Henry C. Hibbe." The article said the dying girl implicated "the Drs. Hibbes." (If Agnes thought Henry C. Hibbes was a physician, or if he posed as one, it was not true.)
The brothers were tried separately. On April 29, 1903, The New York Times reported that Dr. Leopold Hibbe had been acquitted. Hibbe's attorney said only, "that he could not be convicted, as the principal in the case already had been found guilty." That person, of course, was Henry C. Hibbe. He was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree and received a ten-year sentence a week later. Henry's attorney had attempted to get a new trial, saying that the evidence in the two brothers' trials was exactly the same and, therefore, the verdict "could not have been in accordance with the testimony."
The judge dismissed the motion, saying, "The only comment I wish to make on your argument is that the verdict in your client's case was a just verdict, and the other a miscarriage of justice."
At the time of the Hibbes' legal problems, the neighborhood in general was being scrutinized by authorities. In the spring of 1902, an "anonymous communication" was received at police headquarters. It complained that disorderly houses (i.e., brothels) were operating in six East 9th Street houses and in three on Stuyvesant Street, including No. 23. The complaint alleged that the houses were "destroying the morals of school children of the neighborhood." Police were deployed to investigate each of the residences.
A report by First Deputy Commissioner of Police Nathaniel B. Thurston on March 13 detailed the results. It said in part:
No. 23 Stuyvesant Street is a five-story and basement brick building...This house is run as a furnished house for men only, by Mrs. Annie Wilson and so far as could be ascertained, is thoroughly respectable.
While the house passed inspection, the renters (like the Hibbes) were not always on the right side of the law. An example was Charles Clayton, who lived here in 1909. On October 18 that year, he and Harry Isaac Taber "of nowhere in particular" were arrested. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted, "Clayton's picture is in the Rogue's Gallery in Manhattan as a short change artist." The two raised the suspicions of two detectives because of their "scattering loaves of bread about with amazing prodigality."
The detectives watched as they "would go into a small shop and stay a while; then emerge with a loaf tucked under the arm of one or the other, or a 'duchess cake,' the 15 cent goody which is to be found in almost any bakery." The policemen then went into the stores and discovered that Clayton and Taber would make the small purchases, then "dispute about the correctness of the change." The pair was arrested as "flim-flamming." In each case they had profited from $1 to $2.
John McClaren operated the rooming house in 1910. He was involved in a feud with Ernest G. Hamilton who ran a livery stable uptown at 2530 Amsterdam Avenue. McClaren had housed a horse or a vehicle there until 1909 when Hamilton "put him out." According to McClaren, Hamilton owed him $10 for prepaid fees. When he was unable to get his money back, he went to the police headquarters. The New York Times reported, "a detective investigated his story, but the matter was dropped." McClaren then filed a complaint against the detective, but that, too, was dismissed.
On October 22, 1910, McClaren took the matter into his own hands. He appeared at Hamilton's stable and finding the owner outside, said, "I want you to fix up that matter. If you don't I will fix you."
Hamilton ordered him to leave. Instead, McClaren pulled out a revolver and fired. The stable owner rushed into the building, shutting the door behind him. He waited a few minutes and, hearing nothing more, stepped out to find a policeman. McClaren was still there and "fired more shots at him and then ran," said The New York Times.
A crowd pursued McClaren until he turned on them and fired. One man, Max Keppel, fell to the sidewalk. McClaren shot again and the crowed "sought shelter." But while he was distracted by the crowd, another pedestrian sneaked up from behind. Hamilton, who was among the throng, "grabbed the revolver and the crowd set upon McClaren." The New York Times said that Policeman Siegnener "arrived just in time to rescue him."
Both Keppell and McClaren were hospitalized. Keppell was shot in the side and was "in a very serious condition," said The Times, and McClaren was "suffering from the effects of a beating he received at the hands of the crowd."
In 1910, Eliza A. Banta, widow of Matthias, died. In December, her estate sold the building he had erected half a century earlier. It was purchased by Elois J. Mosser who resold it a month later to Antonie and Ludwig Lievendag, who lived next door at 25 Stuyvesant Street.
In 1913, released convict Michael Murphy took a room here. He had been held in Dannemora Prison. Before his incarceration he had committed the unthinkable among crooks--he informed on another man who, as a result, was sent to Sing Sing. Now free, Murphy tried to smooth things over in the underworld.
On January 20, 1914, he was in a Bowery saloon "known for many years as 'The Tub of Blood,'" according to the New-York Tribune. The 38-year-old "was trying to make his peace and shake hands with a man who had quarreled with him for informing on a pal," said the article. The man, according to the 19-year-old bartender Joseph Mera, was known only as "Gyp the Blood the Second." Instead of shaking Murphy's hand, Gyp the Blood II shot him dead. The New-York Tribune said Murphy had "paid the crook's price for informing."
The renters in 23 Stuyvesant Street continued to be blue collar throughout the subsequent decades. In 1935 through 1939, for instance, Henry Hegemeier lived here. He worked as a bartender.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Then, on July 7, 1960, The Villager reported, "The five-story rooming house at 23 Stuyvesant St. has been sold to Mr. and Mrs. R. S. Flusser...Mr. and Mrs. Flusser will occupy a triplex apartment after 'extensive alterations' to the building."
Richard S. Flusser and his wife, Beth, converted the house into two triplex apartments. The renovations were completed in 1961. Their apartment became headquarters to Flusser's After Dinner Opera Company.
A director and music teacher, Flusser founded the After Dinner Opera Company in 1949. Earlier that summer, while studying at Queens College, he went to Tanglewood where, according to The New York Times, "Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland encouraged him to start a company devoted to contemporary American opera." He founded the company that fall. Its name came from its first performances, which were held in private homes.
In 1969, Flusser became a professor of music at Queensborough Community College. He also taught opera workshops at the New School. He and Beth had a daughter, Jennifer-Jo and a son, Matthew.
On January 3, 1975, The Villager reported that the company "will perform a kaleidoscope of early American opera" on January 6 at Fraunces Tavern. The article mentioned, "The production has been staged by Richard Flusser, who lives at 23 Stuyvesant St, home base for the opera company."
The company was by now a "mainstay in the margins of the opera world," as worded by The New York Times. On September 22, 1984, The Amsterdam News reported on the opening program of the After Dinner Opera Company's "Meet The Composers Series." The article said the series "is dedicated to bringing new operas and their composers to New York City audiences in free performances."
Richard Flusser died here at the age of 75 on July 1, 2002, and Beth Flusser died on November 20, 2021 at the age of 87.
Today there are still two apartments in the building.
photographs by the author
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