The Altered Alfred Schanck House - 318 Second Avenue

 

photograph by Ted Leather

Alfred Schanck's first American ancestor was Roelof Martense Schenck, who arrived in New Amsterdam from the Netherlands in 1650.  Alfred's grandfather, John Schanck (the surname had been changed a generation earlier) fought in the Revolutionary War, and Alfred's father, DeLaFayette Schanck, was, according to his obituary, "the first American child who bore the name of La Fayette."

Alfred was born on November 5, 1817.  In 1845 he married Emily Woodward and the couple had two children: Charles W., born in 1846; and Emily W., born in 1849.  Alfred was a partner in the ironworks firm Tugnot, Dally & Co. on First Avenue at 25th Street.  It manufactured elements of U.S. Navy vessels like the U.S.S. Niagara, the U.S.S. Shubrick and the U.S.S. Brooklyn.  

Portions of the U.S.S. Niagara were manufactured in Schank's foundry. (original source unknown)

In 1852 Schanck moved his family into the newly built  Italianate-style rowhouse at 318 Second Avenue, a block-and-a-half north of elegant Stuyvesant Square.  Four stories tall above a high brownstone-clad basement, it was faced in warm red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  The floor-to-ceiling parlor floor windows were most likely fronted by a cast iron balcony.  The elliptically arched openings sat within handsome architrave frames.  An elaborate cornice with scrolled brackets and alternating panels of rosettes and foliate ornaments completed the design.

Schanck also dabbled in real estate.  On March 7, 1860, for instance, he offered a house on this block, 324 Second Avenue, for rent; and a "two story and basement Cottage" on East 35th Street.  He was, as well, a director in the Hamilton Fire Insurance Co.

The Schanck family moved to 844 Second Avenue in 1863 and No. 318 became home to merchant Samuel Bachrach.  The family's residency was relatively short.  On April 5, 1869, an advertisement in the New York Herald offered:

To Let--Furnished, the fine, four-story high stoop brick House No. 318 Second avenue containing 22 rooms, suitable for a large family or private boarding house, at reasonable rent to responsible parties.

The house was rented for a year to attorneys George S. Sedgwick and Thomas Simons, whose office was at 41 Chambers Street.  Boarding with the two families was Mary G. Reyns, a teacher.

The Bachrachs sold 318 Second Avenue the following year.  An auction of the "handsome household furniture" was held on April 9, 1870.  The residence was purchased by Franz Romanus Rust and his wife, Rudolphine.

Rust was the victim of what The New York Times called "one of the most audacious of recent robberies in this City," on July 1, 1871.  Rust went to the New-York Trust Company at 119 Broadway at 1:30 that afternoon.  He intended to make a deposit of $2,000 in cash (equal to $53,000 in 2025).  As he entered the vestibule, "he was surrounded by six thieves, one of whom succeeded in taking the wallet containing the money from his pocket, while another knocked him down," according to The Evening Post.

Attracted by Rust's cries, a crowd collected and "the desperadoes...fled in different directions as soon as the money had been carried away," said The New York Times.  The article continued, "But Mr. Rust continuing his outcries, the next instant a person, whom he vaguely describes as a half-grown colored boy, handed him back the wallet, which he said he had picked up in the street."  There was $500 missing.

Police quickly nabbed two suspects whom Rust identified.  The following day, the New York Dispatch reported, "James F. Martin, alias Butts, and Joseph Page, alias James Ahearn, alias 'Mysterious Jim,' were arraigned before Justice Hogan, at the Tombs, yesterday, charged with having robbed Emil Rust...of a wallet containing $2,000 in greenbacks."  

In an interesting turn of events, this was not the first time the magistrate had interacted with one of the defendants.  The Evening Post reported, "Butts about a year ago assaulted Justice Hogan in a Broadway stage, when the latter interfered to preserve a lady from insult, but the ruffian escaped punishment."

Well-to-do families often filled non-used rooms with renters or boarders.  On December 24, 1872, the Rusts advertised, "two single nicely furnished rooms to let, without board."  The ad was answered by Herman A. Curiel and Siegfried Koppel, partners in an importing firm at 95 Beaver Street; and Maurice Krickl, a trimmings merchant.

As the Second Avenue neighborhood morphed from elegant private homes to commerce, the Rusts left 318 Second Avenue and leased it to a proprietor who operated it as rented rooms.  Rudolphine, who survived her husband, died on October 4, 1912.  On December 3 the following year, The New York Times reported that "the four-story brick tenement situated at 318 Second Avenue," was being auctioned "to close [the] estate of Rudolphine Rust."  (Rudolphine's estate was equal to about $2.5 million today.)

The handsome cornice and the carved frames of the windows and former doorway survived in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The property continued to be a rooming house and at some point previous to 1941 the stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the basement level.  A renovation completed in 1952 resulted in a day nursery in the basement, a doctor's office on the first floor and one apartment each on the upper floors.  

photograph by Ted Leather

A subsequent remodeling in 1990 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and first floors, and one apartment each on the upper stories.  There are a total of five apartments in the former mansion today.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.