The Louis and Ellen Shipman House - 21 Beekman Place

 

The Beekman family's country estate, Mount Pleasant, overlooked Turtle Bay and provided refreshing river breezes in the summer months.  The mansion, erected in 1763, was located at what would become 51st Street and First Avenue.  When the residence was threatened with the proposed opening of crosstown streets in 1840, the Beekmans carefully moved it to what is now 50th Street and First Avenue.  

Two decades later, the two-block long Beekman Place was opened.  The north-south running street stretched from 49th to 51st Street.  On December 18, 1865, former Methodist minister Samuel W. Dunscomb purchased the land from James W. Beekman for $127,500 (just over $2.5 million in 2025 terms).  (Beekman retained possession of the narrow strip of land along the river.)  Dunscombe erected a stone retaining wall and began erecting 20-foot-wide rowhouses on both sides of Beekman Place.  The high-stooped residences were four-stories tall and shared a continuous cornice.

Builder Samuel Stevens may have been involved in Dunscomb's project.  He moved his family into 21 Beekman Place, on the northeast corner of 50th Street.  One of the eight Beekman Place corner houses, it enjoyed light and ventilation on three sides as well as river views.

The Stevens' adult sons, Mark S. and Salomon S., were also involved in the construction business.  They independently erected and owned structures in the quickly developing Upper East Side.

The Stevens family sold 21 Beekman Place to Josiah Sutherland in 1880.  He lost it in foreclosure two years later, and on April 15, 1884, Felix A. Mulgrew purchased the house from the bank for $15,000 (about $495,000 today). 

Mulgrew operated a substantial sawmill on Eighth Avenue, employing 60 employees by the 1890s.  He and his wife, Alice, had seven sons--Henry, George B., James T, John F., Will, Felix Jr., Frederick--and four daughters--Mary R., Annie, Elizabeth and Alice Eleanor.

Elizabeth F. Mulgrew was married to Dr. Richard Frederick Burke in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 11, 1891.  Alice served as the maid of honor and John Mulgrew acted as Burke's best man.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The wedding supper and reception were given afterward at the bride's home, No. 21 Beekman Place."

Another wedding took place that year.  Mary was married to attorney Terence C. O'Reilly.  The 31-year-old groom was a member of the Tammany Hall General Committee of the Sixteenth Assembly District.  The newlyweds moved into a nearby house at 8 Beekman Place.

On January 8, 1894, O'Reilly was crossing Park Row heading to the elevated train when he was knocked down by a United States mail wagon and "thrown violently to the pavement," according to The New York Times.  He was taken to the Chambers Street Hospital.  The Times said, "at his own request he was permitted to leave the hospital."  As a precaution, however, his doctor opted to have him taken to the Mulgrew house rather than his own.  

What none of the doctors realized was that O'Reilly had suffered a skull fracture.  He died at 21 Beekman Place two days later.  His funeral was held here on January 12.  

On January 31, 1895, The Evening World reported that Mary O'Reilly "was awarded eighteen thousand dollars damages yesterday for the loss of her husband."  It was a substantial settlement, equal to about $695,000 today.

Felix A. Mulgrew sold 21 Beekman Place in January 1899 for $25,000 (equal to about $975,000 today).  It became home to John Stacey Roberts and his wife, Elizabeth.  In 1900, their daughter Cecile Roberts graduated from Normal College.  Her choice of careers was, perhaps, not surprising.  Normal College trained women for careers in teaching.  Her father, a graduate of the College of the City of New York and of Columbia University, was a teacher of mathematics at DeWitt Clinton High School.

Roberts's rise within the public school system was consistent.  By 1904 he was principal of Public School No. 75 and by the outbreak of World War I was the District Supervisor of High Schools.

In 1917, Anne Rutherford Vanderbilt, the wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, purchased 21 Beekman Place.  She had founded The Big Sisters, Inc. in 1912 and on September 29, 1917, The American Contractor announced that she had contracted the E. E. Paul Co. to convert the house to a club house.

America's entry into World War I changed the plans.  On October 18, 1918, the New-York Tribune reported, "The Chateau Thierry Club, for convalescent soldiers, was opened yesterday afternoon at 21 Beekman Place."  Run by the American Red Cross, the article said, "The large four-story house for the club quarters was given by Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt."

The previous day, The Sun had begun an article saying, "Laughter and singing and the sound of a piano played enthusiastically if not with great skill came yesterday from the open windows of the pleasant house at 21 Beekman place...Chateau Thierry, the club for wounded sailors and soldiers, was open and going full blast."  The club offered a billiard table in the basement, an afternoon tea "with absolutely unlimited sandwiches and cake and cookies and doughnuts."

The entire top floor had been renovated to a "lounging room," for "the men who want to be quiet, though as there is a player piano and gramophone up there the chance for noise is considerable," said The Sun.  On the second floor were the writing room and game room, and the parlor.  The teas were held in the parlor, which also had a piano.  There were no bedrooms.  The convalescing soldiers were brought here for a few hours each day from hospitals.

In October 1919, with the war over, Louis Evans Shipman and his wife, the former Ellen Biddle, purchased 21 Beekman Place.  The couple had two children, Ellen Biddle, Evan Biddle and Mary Pamela.

Born on August 2, 1869, Shipman was an author and playwright.  He and Ellen were married in 1893.  Among his plays were the 1911 The Grain of Dust, and The Fountain of Youth, which opened at the Henry Miller Theatre in 1918.  In 1921 he finished his play Fools Errant.

Ellen Biddle Shipman was born in Philadelphia on November 5, 1869.  She met Louis while attending Harvard.  Following their marriage, they moved into the Cornish Art Colony in New Hampshire.  There she became interested in landscape architecture, especially the Cornish style that focused on geometric patterns and colonial gardens.  By the time the family moved into 21 Beekman Place, she had collaborated on the gardens of several estates and the courtyard gardens of the Astor Court apartment.

The daughter of General James Biddle, Ellen had three brothers, Colonel David Biddle of the U.S. Army; J. M. Biddle, who lived in Washington; and Nicholas who lived at 6 East 86th Street.  The sibling's widowed mother, Ellen Fish McGowan Biddle, lived with the Shipmans.

Nicholas Biddle contracted bronchial pneumonia in 1921.  On February 21, The New York Times reported that he had been "for two weeks at the home of his sister, Mrs. Louis E. Shipman, 21 Beekman Place."  

Ellen Shipman at her desk in 21 Beekman Place around 1920.  (original source unknown)

The following year, on June 30, 1922, Ellen Fish McGowan Biddle died here at the age of 82.  The New York Herald reported, "Death was due to infirmities of age."

Louis Shipman was appointed editor of Life magazine that year.  But it would be a short-lived position.  He stepped down in 1924 and the Shipmans divorced in 1925.  Louis moved to Paris and was married in 1926 to Lucille Watson.  He died there on August 2, 1933.

In the meantime, Ellen remodeled the Victorian rowhouse.  In November 1927, House Beautiful said, "Mrs. Shipman lived in the house approximately six years, and was constantly working over plans, before she remodeled it."  She hired Butler & Corse to remove the stoop and transform the Italianate brownstone to a brick-faced neo-Georgian residence.  "The house was originally the usual city structure of brownstone," said the article.  "Now it has more the appearance of the studio houses of old Chelsea."

The two-story angled bay featured Gothic style windows.  A one-story extension replaced the rear yard.  House Beautiful, November 1927 (copyright expired)

With the entrance lowered to the former English basement level, Shipman placed a hooded, veranda-like balcony at the second floor.  A niche at the third floor held a small statue and a bas relief rondel decorated what was now the fifth floor.  A brick parapet crowned the design.

Two views of the drawing room.  House Beautiful, November 1927 (copyright expired)

Ellen Shipman carried the Georgian motif into the interiors.  Antique mantels and woodwork were installed and the rooms were decorated with vintage furnishings.  

The dining room walls were covered with "an old Chinese paper,"  House Beautiful said, "The hangings are of a jade-green brocade imported from China.  The glass curtains are of transparent Chinese gauze, and the Venetian blinds are painted powder-blue."  House Beautiful November 1927 (copyright expired)

On October 2, 1946, Ellen Shipman sold 21 Beekman Place to Edgar B. Sterri and his wife for $125,000 (about $2 million today).  They initiated a renovation that resulted in an apartment in the first floor.  It was most likely at this time that an entrance on East 50th Street was added.

The house was returned to a single-family home by William R. Rupp who purchased it for $8.8 million in 2001.  It appears that it was he who remodeled the window lintels and replaced the Gothic-style bay windows with standard square-headed models.  And because he objected to the renovations next door done by famous architect Paul Rudolph, he erected a wall above Ellen Shipman's rear terrace that rose 27 feet.  It successfully blocked the views of Rudolph's many balconies.

Rupp's 27-foot-high wall was removed in 2008.  

Rupp died in 2007 and his estate put the house on the market for $25 million.  The real estate agent, however, said that the ongoing litigation between the owners of 23 Beekman Place over Rupp's wall "scared away" potential owners.

It was purchased in November 2008 by Peter Novello for $10.6 million.  He gut-renovated it and on August 30, 2009, Christopher Gray of The New York Times reported the house was "at its barest, down to the studs and bare walls."  Novello added a level to the terrace in the renovation.

Ellen Shipman's veranda was saved.

The renovated mansion was offered in 2025 for $32 million.

photographs by the author