The George Gershwin House - 316 West 103rd Street

 

photograph by Alice Lum

Born New York City in 1857, Mark Ash graduated from Columbia University Law School and co-founded Alexander & Ash in 1878.  He and his wife, Rose, had three children, Edward, Alma and Jennie.

In 1898, Ash hired architect Henri Fouchaux to design a four-story and basement house at 316 West 103rd Street.  A marriage of Beaux Arts and Renaissance Revival styles, the 25-foot wide residence was faced in limestone and parged brick.  The rusticated parlor level sat above a dog-legged stoop protected by French-inspired iron railings.  The transoms of the arched parlor openings wore handsome metal screens of wreaths and stylized vines.  The spandrels of underside of the two-story, faceted oriel directly above was intricately carved with sprays of full blown roses.  The fourth floor sat back from the blustraded cornice, nearly unseen from the street.

photograph by Alice Lum

The Ash family was highly involved in Jewish causes.  Ash was a member of the Judaeans and a supporter of the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society, and Rose was a member of the National Council of Jewish Women.  

Construction was completed in 1899 and a search for domestic help began.  On November 9, a succinct advertisement in the New York Journal and Advertiser read, "Nurse--Competent.  Call between 10 and 2, 316 West 103d st.," and six days later an advertisement sought, "Young man to care for furnace; sleep home."

Also living in the house was William Ash, Mark's unmarried brother.  William was born in 1871 and graduated from New York University and the New York Law School.  He, too, was a member of Alexander & Ash.  The brothers co-authored technical books like the 1899 The Building Code of the City of New York; and Ash's Annotated Greater New York Charter, published in 1906 and updated in 1912 and 1913.

Edward Ash graduated from the Ethical Culture School in 1909 and received his law degree from Fordham University in 1913.  Not surprisingly, he joined Alexander & Ash.  

In the meantime, his father had delved into real estate development, as well.  In 1910, for instance, he and Sonn Brothers erected The Riviera, at 790 Riverside Drive, described by the Real Estate Record & Guide as, "one of the largest and most magnificently constructed and equipped apartment houses in the city."

Alma Ash graduated from Barnard College.  The parlor was the scene of her wedding to landscape artist Alonzo Klaw on November 12, 1912.  The New York Times reported, "It was a quiet home wedding, only the relatives and a few intimate friends being present."

William Ash died of Bright's Disease on January 14, 1915.  The attorney was 43 years old.

The following year, Edward enlisted in the U.S. Army.  He trained at Plattsburg, New York.  It is unclear whether he actively served in the war, but he was back at 316 West 103rd Street on July 12, 1917 when he married Jeannette Albert in the bride's Brooklyn home.

On July 28, 1923, the Record & Guide reported that Mark Ash had sold the house to Mary E. Lane.  Two years later, on September 11, 1925, The New York Evening Post reported that Mary Lane sold the house, "to George Gershwin, the music composer."  Gershwin was just 28 years old.

Now home to the entire Gershwin family, it was creatively compartmentalized to accommodate the living arrangements of the all-adult members.  George's parents, Rose and Morris Gershwin (born in Russia as Roza Bruskina and Moishe Gershwin) took the parlor floor; George's siblings, Arthur and Frances, were on the third; brother Ira moved into the fourth floor (and a year later his bride, Leonore would be there); and George took the top floor.

George Gershwin had recently returned from Paris.  He was just seeing the glint of success in the music world, yet fame and real fortune were still a few years away.  

Part of the English basement was turned into a table tennis room and two grand pianos were lugged into the house for George.  Howard Pollack, in his George Gershwin: His Life and Work, writes, 

Observers painted a picturesque portrait of this residence, with Morris riding the elevator, Rose cooking borscht in the kitchen, Frances on her way to dance lessons, and George making occasional retreats to the nearby Whitehall Hotel to get some work done—a scene that might have sprung from the pages of the play You Can’t Take it with You (1936) by two friends of the Gershwins, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.  Years later, Frances remembered with some amazement how she would sometimes return home and find groups of people independently socializing on each floor of the house.

George used the top floor as living quarters, office and studio.  Shortly after moving in, he landed a $35-a-week job as a rehearsal pianist for the Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern musical Miss 1917.  Bored with playing the same tunes over and over, he gradually slipped in his own subtle versions.  The creative variations caught the attention of management and he was soon elevated to accompanist for the Century Sunday Concerts—a popular show featuring the likes of Fanny Brice, Bert Williams, Ann Pennington and Eddie Cantor.

This portrait of George Gershwin was made in 1937. from the collection of the Library of Congress

George and his brother Ira would not be staying in the 103^rd Street house with their family for long.  In 1927, flushed with success and with their plays Strike up the Band and Funny Face opening on Broadway, the brothers moved to adjoining penthouses at 33 Riverside Drive.

On November 3, 1930, The New York Sun reported on the marriage of Frances Gershwin, who was now 22 years old, to Leopold Godowsky, Jr., "son of the pianist and composer."  The wedding was held in Ira Gershwin's Riverside Drive penthouse.

The following year, on September 19, 1931, The New York Times reported, "George Gershwin, the composer, sold his brownstone [sic] residence at 316 West 103d after an ownership of many years."  Only two months later, the buyer, Mary S. Drain resold it to Isidor and Rose Becker "for alteration into small suites," as reported by The Times on December 24.  "This is a four-story house containing sixteen rooms, four baths and an electric elevator," said the article.

The Beckers leased rooms to a variety of tenants including conductor Jasha Horenstein, who entertained visitors like Artur Rubenstein here.  It was a frightening time for German Americans and, especially, German Jews.  Across the street from 316 West 103rd Street, at the corner of Riverside Drive, was the Masters Apartments where Congressman Sol Bloom lived.  The Jewish chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations opposed isolationism and on Sunday afternoons for two years—between 1939 and 1941—the sidewalk outside saw pro-Nazi demonstrators.

No. 316 West 103^rd was not immune to political intrigue.  One resident, a waiter at the Astor Hotel, was blatant about his pro-Nazi sympathies.  One day in 1940, five FBI agents came to the house and arrested him as a member of an espionage ring centered at the Astor Hotel.  He was soon deported.

The unusual stoop can be seen in this 1941 photograph.   The original fourth floor can been glimpsed behind the balustrade above the cornice.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1947, the house was converted to apartments, two per floor.  The stoop was shaved off and the entrance moved to the former English basement.  The original railings were reinstalled as the areaway fencing.   

A fascinating tenant in 1952 was Gordon Langley Hall.  Born in England in 1922, Hall was society editor of the Port Chester Daily Item.  On March 15 that year, The New York Age reported, "A reception honoring the baritone [John Fleming] followed his recital and was given at the home of Gordon Langley Hall, 316 West 103rd Street."  Hall would later live as a female, changing her name to Dawn Langley Pepita Hall.  She claimed to have been born with an unusual medical condition that swelled her genitals and caused the misidentification of her sex.  And, indeed, she married John-Paul Simmons in 1969 and had a daughter.

photograph by Alice Lum

In 1998, the top floor was raised and given a grossly architecturally incompatible facade.  Despite that and the unfortunate loss of the stoop, Henri Fouchaux's handsome and unusual design stands out along the block.