Boak & Paris's 1936 50 East 78th Street

 

Born in 1884 in Russia, Sam Minskoff came to America as a young man as a plumber.  In 1908 he erected his first apartment house and by 1935 was a force in New York City real estate development.  That year, as president of the Forty-Six East 78th St. Corp., he broke ground for an 11-story apartment building at 50 East 78th Street.  Boak & Paris, which had worked with Minskoff on several projects, was hired to design the structure.

Completed in 1936 and costing $150,000 according to The Bridgemen's Magazine, its Art Moderne design included a two-story cast stone base with reeded piers.  A recess above the entrance (typical of Boak & Paris designs) was flanked by corner-wrapping casements.  In its May 1937 issue, The Architectural Forum noted, "The setbacks on the street facade were made to give the rooms another exposure; by the use of corner windows on a narrow street, the view is considerably enlarged."

Architectural Forum, May 1937

The Architectural Forum noted, "This building is located in a residential neighborhood in New York where small apartments are in active demand" and mentioned, "The interiors show the continual trend toward greater simplicity in design."  Indeed, the typical apartments had either two or three rooms and a bath.  Their sunken living rooms had been a trend for several years.

Architectural Forum, May 1937

Residents enjoyed outdoor space on the roof.  Annice M. Alt, writes in Boak & Paris / Boak & Raad:

...there was a roof deck for all tenants.  Long-time tenants remember a roof garden, and, to rinse off after gardening or sun bathing, residents could shower on each landing of the internal fire stairs.

Alt points out another interesting innovation.  Decades before air conditioning, the "apartments had screen doors so that the main doors could be open, allowing cross breezes."

Architectural Forum, May 1937

Among the first tenants were young entertainers Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.  Nelson was the bandleader of Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, which recorded for Brunswick starting in 1930.  In 1935, he married the band's singer, Harriet Hilliard.

Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in 1936, the year they moved into the building.  Radio Mirror, October 1936

According to John R. Holmes in his The Adventures of Ozzie Nelson, the Life and Career of America's Favorite Pop, in 1936, pregnant with their first child, "Harriet spent her mornings in March apartment hunting, and by mid-month had found what she was looking for: a family-sized suite in a new building at 50 East 78th Street."  The couple's first son, David, would be born while they lived here.

Rents at the time ranged from $1,100 to $1,500 per year, or about $2,750 per month for the most expensive in 2025 terms.

Living here in 1940 were newlyweds John D. and Beatrice Coleman.  Beatrice was "known also as the Baroness and the Countess de Chaney," according to The New York Sun.  The couple was married in September that year.  Beatrice later told reporters she "left Germany after the rise of Hitler," saying, "she always had been anti-Nazi."

The Colemans separated in 1942.  In April 1945, Beatrice was invited to a cocktail party hosted by Albert E. Langford and his wife, Marion, in their Hotel Marguery apartment.  Two months later, on June 4, Langford was murdered in their suite.  In the meantime, Beatrice had relocated to California.

On June 13, 1945, The New York Sun reported that Beatrice Coleman, "will 'in all probability' be questioned in Hollywood by New York city detectives for any information she can supply."  Beatrice said, "I was invited, but I was ill and couldn't attend."  But detectives were especially interested in her because of her earlier illicit affair with the murdered millionaire.  The Sun recounted, "Mrs. Coleman said that Mrs. Langford was 'very jealous' of her and forced Langford to break off their relationship."  Asked her opinion on what had transpired, she said, "The only thing I can think of is that he was in some one's way.  You know there was much money involved, and money is a powerful force."  (The Langford murder was never solved.)

In the meantime, the residents of 50 East 78th Street were professionals.  M. M. Rosten lived here in November 1951 when his book, Power Alcohol in Canada, was released.  The following year, Dr. Bret Ratner's film Allergy was produced.  The cumbersomely-titled United States Educational Scientific and Cultural Motion Pictures and Filmstrips Suitable and Available for Use Abroad said Ratner's film was intended "to disseminate information concerning the phenomena of protein hypersensitivity."

Unflattering press coverage of residents of 50 East 78th Street was nearly non-existent.  An exception came early in 1960 when 31-year-old Abraham Korman was arrested.  The secretary-treasurer of the Nassau Management Corporation, he and the firm's president were convicted of the "theft of $200,000 in funds entrusted to them," according to the Long Island Star-Journal on February 10.

Around 1963, the E. V. Thaw & Co. art gallery opened in the building.  It was supplanted by the Ira Spanierman, Inc. Gallery, which specialized in 19th century American paintings.  Despite that, according to The New York Times, "Spanierman "has an eye for hidden or dubious Old Masters."  

In 1968, he purchased what he was told was a late 16th century painting.  Spanierman suspected that it was more than that.  On October 11, 1971, The Times reported, "A portrait bought here three years ago by [Spanierman] has been authenticated as a work painted by Raphael in 1518."  Asked what the long-lost portrait of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino was worth, Spanierman said, "I don't know, millions probably, but how many I can't say."

Ira Spanierman was no doubt well acquainted with former artist Robert Dain.  A resident of the building, he was the proprietor of the Dain/Shiff Gallery at 1018 Madison Avenue.  After separating from his wife, in 1971 he moved into what The New York Times would later call a "tastefully decorated three-and-a-half-room apartment, whose walls, according to friends, are adorned with Toulouse-Lautrec prints."

Dain left the gallery at 5:30 on the evening of April 22, 1973.  When he failed to show up for the opening of an exhibition the following day, police gained entrance to his ninth-floor apartment.  His nude body was found on the bed with a sheet wrapped around his head.  He had been stabbed several times in the chest.  There was no sign of a struggle and it appeared to investigators that Dain had been drinking Scotch with a visitor.  The murderer was never discovered.

On January 22, 1999, The New York Times reported that Adam Williams, "who ran Newhouse Galleries for 15 years," would be opening his own gallery here.  "He will specialize in European Old Master paintings," said the article.  

Five years later, on November 30, 2004, the woman who was tending the Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. gallery was expecting a telephone repair crew.  (Williams was abroad at the time.)  At around 11:15 a.m., she unlocked the security door and let two men in.  They were not telephone workers.  While one of the men distracted her, the other slipped a 19th century painting by French artist Théodore Chassériau into his overcoat.  Described as a painting of "a seminude woman with her maids," the insurance company offered a $50,000 reward for its return.  

More recently, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) moved into the gallery space.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

photographs by Lowell Cochrane