The 1832 Benjamin Robert Winthrop Mansion - 138 2nd Avenue

 

image via apartments.com

In 1832, the year after he completed the sumptuous homes along St. Mark's Place between Second and Third Avenues, Thomas E. Davis began construction of similar Federal-style mansions on Second Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets.  The property sat within what had been part of the Stuyvesant farm.  Completed the following year, like its identical siblings 138 Second Avenue was faced in Flemish bond brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Typical of Davis's designs, the arched entrance sat within a Gibbs surround.  Three-and-a-half stories tall, its peaked roof was pierced with two prominent dormers.

photograph by the author

The mansion was purchased by Benjamin Robert Winthrop, a nephew of Nicholas William Stuyvesant.  Born in January 1804, he was a direct descendant of John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts and from Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of New York.  The head of a marine insurance company and a vice president of the New-York Historical Society, he and his wife, the former Elizabeth Neilson, had three sons and a daughter.

Benjamin Robert Winthrop later in life.  from americanaristocracy.com

The "Report of the Annual Dinner of the New England Society" on December 23, 1851, recalled, "From both father and mother he inherited a large fortune," adding that his house "is said to have been one of the finest houses in the city."

The Winthrops sailed to Europe in 1839, apparently intending to return to 138 Second Avenue eventually.  Benjamin Winthrop's first cousin, Hamilton Fish, moved into the house with his wife, the former Julia Kean, and their seven children.  The family had previously lived in Fish's birthplace, 21 Stuyvesant Street.

Hamilton Fish, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Born on August 3, 1808, Fish was an attorney.  He first ran for New York State Assembly as a Whig candidate in 1834 and would be a prominent figure in State and U.S. politics for the rest of his life.  

It appears that the Fish family lived with the Winthrops' furnishings.  In 1851, the "Report of the Annual Dinner of the New England Society" noted that the house "remains nearly in the same condition as when [Winthrop] left it to go abroad.  His library, rich in American and local history, is  still there.  On one of the walls hang pictures of his ancestors, among them one of Petrus Stuyvesant."

In 1851, Hamilton Fish was elected U.S. Senator.  (He would go on to become U.S. Secretary of State from 1869 to 1877 and a close advisor to President Ulysses S. Grant.)  He and his family left 138 Second Avenue following his election.

The house became home to Duncan Pearsall Campbell and his wife, the former Maria Bayard.  (Maria was Campbell's second wife, his first, Catherine Bayard, was her sister.  Catherine died in 1814 and Duncan and Maria were married on June 16, 1817.)  Campbell, who was born on Christmas Day 1781, was a partner in the shipping firm Le Roy, Bayard & Co.  His father-in-law, William Bayard, was the senior partner of the firm.  Living with Duncan and Maria were the children of Duncan's first marriage--Sarah Ann, Henry P., Robert B., and William B. Campbell--and Thomas P. Campbell, the only child of his second.

In addition to his position with Le Roy, Bayard & Co., Campbell was a director of the City Dispensary, was a founder of the Bank for Savings, and a trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York.

It was almost assuredly Duncan Campbell who raised the attic to a full fourth floor and updated the parlor with a three-sided bay.  While the Federal-style lintels were copied at the new level, the Italianate cornice with foliate brackets gave the house an up-to-date flavor.  

The parlor bay was likely added when the attic was raised.  No. 138 is the fourth house from the left.  Its original appearance can be see in 140 and 142 2nd Avenue next door.  King's Handbook of New York, 1892, (copyright expired)

The Campbell family suffered a period of grief starting on December 9, 1860 when William Bayard Campbell died.  Interestingly, his funeral was not held in the house, as would be expected, but at Trinity Church.  (None of the Campbell funerals would be held at home.)  Three months later, on March 5, 1861, Sarah Ann Campbell died, and on November 9, Duncan Pearsall Campbell expired in the house at the age of 80.

Thomas and Henry remained in the Second Avenue house with Maria through 1869.  By then, the once refined neighborhood was being engulfed with immigrants.  In 1870, the Winthrop family leased the former mansion to Eliza Foshee, the widow of Bernard Foshee.  She operated it as a boarding house.  Among her initial tenants were William Vanduze, a dry goods merchant; and George Adams, who did not list a profession in city directories, suggesting he was retired.

Benjamin Robert Winthrop died in London in 1873.  The Evening World reported, "By a provision of the will, the widow was given the house at 138 Second avenue, rent free for her life and $20,000 a year."  Elizabeth Winthrop, who had homes in Paris and London, would not be returning to Second Avenue.

The residence continued to house boarders until about 1883, when the Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls leased it and the house next door at 136.  Founded in 1869, its Annual Report said, 

The objects of the association shall be to rescue the daughters of poor and dissolute parents in the city of New York from the evil influences which surround them, by providing houses where the most necessitous and exposed may be cared for, or by gathering them for daily instruction, religious or secular.

The Annual Report of the State Board of Charities noted in 1885, "The building No. 136 is occupied by the older girls and young women, and constitutes an institution quite separate from the next house, occupied by children."  It added, "Number 138 is undoubtedly overcrowded, especially considering the condition of the health of a large number of the children."

Around 1894, the basement level was converted to business.  It held a barber shop through the turn of the century.  Despite its current uses, No. 138 Second Avenue and the other surviving Davis homes still exuded their former graciousness.  Influential architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler wrote that they give "an impression of decorum and refinement for which one would search any more modern quarter entirely in vain."

The Rev. Dr. Orlock and his wife were associated with Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls.  They lived here as early as 1900.  The couple got around town on bicycles, a popular and expensive pastime.  But on April 16, 1900, The Sun reported that the pair, "have been obliged to forego bicycle riding for the last two weeks because someone stole their wheels from their residence at 138 Second avenue."   Happily for them, a detective discovered the bicycles in a junk store on First Avenue on April 14. 

Living in the building in 1904 was John Holthosen, the sexton of St. Mark's Church.   By now, the former barber shop was operated as Philip Wagner's "funeral shop."  On June 14 that year, John and his two adult daughters boarded the General Slocum for a day trip up the East River and across the Long Island Sound to a picnic grove on Long Island.

The pleasure trip became a disaster--ending with the largest loss of life in New York City until the World Trade Center attacks.  Fire broke out below decks around 10:00.  Within 15 minutes the General Slocum burned to the waterline.  Of the 1,300 people aboard, only 321 survived.  Among them was John Holthosen, "who was saved with his two daughters," according to The Sun.  

On June 19, The New York Times reported,

...all day yesterday many [unidentified bodies] lay in the undertaking shop of Philip Wagner, at 138 Second Avenue, while every now and then hearses came and went and now one and then now another coffin was borne out for burial, some of whom made up the grim family party lying so quiet in the long black boxes in the back room of the undertaker's shop.

The "grim family party" referred to in the article were the 26 extended family members of Henry A. Kohler.

In 1910, the Winthrop family received a permit to install a store front, or "bay window."  The permit noted it was "not to project past the property line."  Five years later, in February 1915, architect Louis A. Sheinart filed plans to make alterations "for show rooms."  While the projecting, two-story storefront destroyed the parlor bay, the renovations did not alter the magnificent entrance nor the upper floor openings.

In 1916, the League of Foreign-Born Citizens moved its headquarters into the building.  Its present, Nathaniel Phillips, also took up residence here.   On December 15, The Evening Post remarked, "Starting in October, 1913, with five members, the League has grown steadily until its membership is now close to 2,400."  The article said, "At 138 Second Avenue the brother of the man who stormed Bucharest sits beside the cousin of the man who defended it and learns how to become a citizen of his adopted land."  The organization was described in the November 1919 issue of Foreign Born as the "First organized institute for the purpose of helping the foreign-born to become American citizens and appreciate American institutions."

The League remained here at least through 1919.  The commercial spaces held the Enterprize Dental Supply Co. and the Art Costume Co. in the 1920s.  By then, ownership of 138 Second Avenue had passed to Benjamin Winthrop.  Prior to his death before 1931, he possessed 72 properties in the district, including this one.

In March 1939, the Manhattan Eighth Assembly District Club established its clubhouse here.  The social-political club was "formed to fight Charles A. Schneider for the Tammany leadership of the district," according to The New York Times on March 17.

Lightweight boxer Angelo DeSanza fought in the ring as Terry Young.  On November 17, 1943, The New York Times reported that the 21-year-old "boasted...he had averaged $10,000 yearly for the last three years."  He was, as well, the leader of a gang of gunmen who had been perpetrating hold-ups on the Lower East Side.  The article said their downfall came "when the four younger robbers invaded the Eighth Assembly District Democratic Club at 138 Second Avenue on Feb. 19."  The gang threatened 40 members with drawn pistols and fled with $400.

The inexperienced delinquents had chosen the wrong club to target.  Two were arrested within hours and they then fingered the others as well as DeSanza.  He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in Sing Sing.  In sentencing him, Judge Goldstein commented, "It was only by the grace of God and the cool-headedness of those in that club that some of the victims were not murdered by those young gunmen."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1947, Spanish American painter Esteban Vicente Pérez (who did not use his surname professionally) and his bride, Maria Teresa Babin, moved into an apartment here.  Born on January 20, 1903, he was among the first generation of New York School abstract expressionists.  He had just returned to New York after a two-year period of painting in Puerto Rico.  According to Elizabeth Frank in her Esteban Vicente, when they moved into 138 Second Avenue, 

Vicente already knew and had become good friends with composer Edgar Varèse and his wife, and now he became friends with the composer Stefan Wolpe and his wife, the poet Hilda Morley, as well as a number of painters, including Willem de Kooning, Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, William Baziotes, and Barnett Newman.

The couple remained here through 1949.

The Eighth District Assembly Democratic Club had its headquarters here at least through 1969.  One of the commercial spaces was home to Zachary's hair salon in the early 1980s.

photograph by the author

A hearing regarding the designation 138 Second Avenue as an individual New York City landmark was scheduled for June 23, 2009.  Poised to testify was Joyce Mendelsohn, author of The Lower East Side Remembered & Revisited.  In her letter of support, she commented, "No. 138 Second Avenue survives as an important nineteenth century building with twentieth-century alterations, reflecting the history of the area and the growth and development of the city."  Unfortunately, the hearing was "removed from the calendar without prejudice."  

photographs by the author