Terence Farley was one of the most prolific New York City developers of the late 19th century. In 1883 he commissioned the equally busy architectural firm Thom & Wilson to design a row of upscale homes on the south side of East 80th Street between Park and Madison Avenues. Completed early in 1884, they were a blend of neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles.
The playful elements of No. 52 were introduced by the highly unusual brownstone stoop newels, which smacked of English letter boxes. The double-doored entrance with its transom outlined with Queen Anne-style panes sat within a frame consisting of medieval-inspired colonettes perched upon bulbous brackets. They upheld an intricate cornice. The busy decorations of the parlor floor included rosettes and beaded panels. The asymmetry of the Queen Anne style appeared in the hall windows that sat apart from the paired openings on each floor and, unlike those, wore Renaissance style pediments. To further stress the asymmetrical design, the architects placed the cornice pediment prominently off to the side.
Three of houses sold on a single day, March 25, 1884. No. 52 was purchased by Heinrich and Rosa Marie Richter for $42,500--about $1.4 million in 2025 terms.
Born in Germany in 1823, Richter came to New York in 1861 and established a wholesale neckwear business. Known by most as Henry, he also founded the Congregation Adath Israel and would serve as its president for 35 years. He and Rosa had four adult children, Maximillian (known as Max), Marie Helene, Daniel and Bruno. The couple maintained a summer home in Riverdale, New York.
Living with the couple were Max and his wife, Rebecca. Max was was 25 years old when the family moved in. He was a partner in his father's firm, which was now known as H. Richter & Sons.
In the last half of the 20th century the stoop railings were replaced. Happily, the highly unusual brownstone newels were preserved.
Henry and Rosa's only daughter, Marie Helene, married Charles Heidenheimer in 1881 and the couple had a son, Delwyn Walter, born in 1887. Charles worked as the general manager of H. Richter & Sons. Whether Charles was abusive or unfaithful is unclear (although The Sun described him as having "a very violent temper"), but when Delwyn was three years old, Marie took him away to Europe. The World reported, "While she was away, Mr. Heidenheimer quarrelled [sic] with her relatives, and they induced Marie not to write to him." The New York Times added, "they instructed her by cable to have nothing more to do with 'the rascal.'"
Eventually, Charles "after a tedious chase found [Marie] at Darmstadt [Germany]." She brought Delwyn back to New York and the two moved into her parents' East 80th Street house. On February 18, 1893, The World explained, "She refused to live with him, saying that her folks had referred to him in a letter as 'that scoundrel.'" In the meantime, Charles was fired from H. Richter & Sons, "for neglect of business" and for his temper in the workplace.
After a contentious court battle, on March 1, 1893 Marie was given custody of Delwyn. The New York Times reported that Charles watched the carriage carrying his wife and son away from the courthouse steps as "the tears rolled down his cheeks."
Whimsical iron sunflowers, an important motif in Queen Anne design, guard the basement and parlor openings.
Marie's and Charles's divorce proceedings were as ugly as the custody battle--lasting for years and involving Charles's suing almost all of the Richter family members. Finally, Marie Helene married Dr. Louis Peiser, a heart specialist associated with the German Hospital. The newlyweds moved down the block from the Richters at 59 East 80th Street. Dr. Peiser adopted Delwyn and in 1896 the couple had a son, Walter.
The Richters were at the Riverdale house on August 1, 1902 when Henry died. The New York Herald said the cause was "heart disease, after several months' illness." The Peiser family now moved into 52 East 80th Street with Rosa.
In 1901, the Peisers had hired John G. Robinson to install a copper-clad oriel at the second floor of their home. Now, on January 3, 1903, the Record & Guide reported that Rosa had hired architect Frederick C. Zobel to do the same. The "new bay widow" cost the family $1,500--more than $55,000 in today's money. The handsome, bowed oriel gave a splash of France to the architecture. Along with its intricate pressed decorations, its Parisian style windows were the height of Edwardian domestic taste.
On April 20, 1903, Dr. Peiser was awakened by a panicked servant from the house of William Prager at 129 East 74th Street. The family's 19-year-old son, David, had shot himself in the forehead, presumably while cleaning his pistol in the middle of the night. (Suicide was considered shameful and scandalous at the time and families often made extraordinary excuses to hide the truth.) The New-York Tribune reported, "Dr. Piser [sic] on seeing the wound said it was a fatal one. Half an hour after his arrival the youth died."
At the time, Delwyn Walter Peiser was attending Columbia College. The highly educated 16-year-old had attended Jena University in Germany, prepared at the Rugby Military Academy and at the College of the City of New York. At Columbia, he was making a mark as an athlete. The History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College wrote:
He played with the University Baseball Squad for two years, and in 1905 made the second University Baseball Team. He was a member of the football Association, the Track Association, the Baseball Association, the Lacrosse Association, and the Tennis Club.
Delwyn Walter Peiser's life ended tragically. The History of the Class of 1907, 1907 (copyright expired)
On December 11, 1911, in a tragedy strikingly similar to that of David Prager seven years earlier, Delwyn Walter Peiser died "of a pistol shot wound supposed to have been received while he was cleaning a revolver." Like Prager, he had shot himself in the forehead. The Sun reported, "He was alone at the time. His father and other physicians tried to save his life, but he died in two hours."
In March 1911, title to the East 80th Street house was transferred to Marie Peiser. Living with the family at the time was Dr. George Thomas Strodl, Louis Peiser's assistant.
Louis and Marie traveled to Europe in the spring of 1913. They were in Berlin that summer when The Sun reported that Louis would "attend the medical congress in London in August." Unfortunately, he would not make the convention.
Around the time of the article, a cable was received at the German Hospital "carrying news of [Peiser's] serious illness," according to the New York Herald. The newspaper reported, "Dr. George T. Strodl, his assistant, caught the first eastbound steamship to be with him." Unfortunately, he arrived in Carlsbad, Germany on August 6, one day late. The following day, the New York Herald ran the headline, "Dr. Peiser Dies Suddenly Abroad."
Calling Peiser "one of the foremost medical men in the city, especially in the treatment of all affections of the heart," the article explained that the 54-year-old had succumbed to arterio sclerosis. It noted, "Mrs. Peiser accompanied him abroad and was with him when he died."
Dr. Peiser's body was brought back to New York on the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II. It arrived on August 19 and The New York Times reported, "Max Richter, brother-in-law of Dr. Peiser, boarded the steamship at Quarantine from a revenue cutter."
Louis Peiser bequeathed his medical library to Dr. Strodl. Other than the $500 that he left to the Society Schlaraffia (a German-language men's organization), Marie inherited his estate.
Dr. George Thomas Strodl continued to reside in the East 80th Street house. He took over Peiser's position as chief specialist of heart disease in the German Hospital. He had studied medicine in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and New York, receiving his medical degree from Columbia University.
Empire State Notables, 1914 (copyright expired)
In June 1920, Max and Rebecca Richter purchased 134 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village. It is unclear whether Marie moved with them. What is clear is that George T. Strodl remained at 52 East 80th Street at least through 1928.
In this 1941 photograph, the draperies throughout the house were drawn, protecting against the sun's damaging rays. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
The house was converted to apartments in 1965, with a doctor's office in the basement. Among the residents over the subsequent decades were Pilar and Vincent Downing, here in the mid- to late-1960s; Roger Denim, who operated his Silva Mind Control International, Inc. from his apartment in 1971 (he headed a "special seminar on Alpha Brain Wave Control and E.S.P. at the Tarrytown Hilton Inn that year); and Charles R. Fry, a 1965 graduate of Princeton, who lived here in the mid-1980s.
The Richter house draws less attention for its marvelous copper oriel than for a fragment of architectural decoration that landed, somewhat mysteriously, in the areaway. The carved limestone head once graced the facade of the Ziegfeld Theater on Sixth Avenue and 54th Street. According to Atlas Obscura, "Broadway folklore has it that show producer Jerome Hammer asked a friend of his who was working on the construction of the new skyscraper for one of the heads, which was one day installed by crane into his front yard." If the urban legend is true, that would put the placement here in 1965.
photograph by Luke J. Spencer
How the fascinating relic came to become part of the history of 52 East 80th Street will, most likely, never be known. In the meantime, the Richter house and their 1903 home improvement project demands attention.
photographs by the author
many thanks to reader Debbie Carter for requesting this post
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