Around 1835, Jonathan Wilt erected three two-and-a-half story, Federal-style homes at 51 through 55 Third Street (the "East" would come later). Three bays wide and faced in brick, they would have had short stoops and their peaked roofs would have been pierced by dormers. The paneled lintels (only one of which survives unscathed) were an added touch.
The original residents were middle class. Peter R. Morgan, whose family occupied No. 51 in 1836, was a tinsmith. His next-door neighbor by 1840 was Edward H. Arthur, a bank teller; and Theodore Banks lived at 55. He listed his profession simply as "merchant."
Expectedly, the homes went through a series of ownerships over the coming decades. In 1853, the Winterton family occupied No. 51. William Winterton ran a coal business and William B. Winterton was an attorney. Living next door were the Goodmans. Max and Samuel Goodman were merchants, Samuel listing his business as "clothing." The family was still here in 1863 when David H. Goodman suffered a horrible tragedy. Without giving specifics (like the boy's name), The New York Times reported on August 19:
A son of Mr. David H. Goodman, of No. 53 Third-street, was accidentally run over, and instantly killed, last evening, in Third-street, by car No. 11 of the Second-avenue line. The boy was 5 years of age.
Joseph and Elizabeth Demmer owned 51 East 3rd Street as early as 1876. Demmer operated two "eatinghouses," one on Lispenard Street and the other on Canal. The couple sold the house to Robert and Maria Bley in 1886 for $13,000 (about $447,000 in 2025 terms). They hired architect Julius Kastner to built a piazza (or back porch) soon afterward.
It was about this time that the attics of all three houses were raised to a full story.
In the 19th century, a common method of disposing of inconvenient relatives was to have them committed to an asylum. On July 6, 1889, Christian Grotrian, who lived at 53 East 3rd Street, committed his wife, Louise, to the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. He then moved Mrs. Mina Fischer into the house, allegedly as his housekeeper.
Christian Grotrian died in January 1892. The World reported, "He was wealthy and owned $50,000 worth of real estate." (The figure would translate to $1.78 million today.) On October 12, the newspaper noted, "Mina Fischer lived at the Grotrian house. She is in possession [of it] now." Also in the East 3rd Street house was, presumably, Louise Grotrian's jewelry. The World said her, "collection of diamonds was valued at $10,000." And The Sun reported, "He left $20 a week for his wife's maintenance."
When a visitor called at the asylum, Louise asked her, according to The Sun, "where her dresses and diamonds were. She said she had only old clothes at the asylum and that she didn't think her husband should have put Mrs. Fischer in charge of everything." Another time, a visitor, Mary (known as Lulu) Schaffer, visited Louise accompanied by Mina Fischer. Louise told Lulu, "Mrs. Fischer has my fur cape on."
In December, Louise Grotian, who was now 50 years old, pleaded to be released from the institution. The Sun reported that Superintendent Lyons, "admitted that he had offered to release her last summer if some one would agree to care for her." Apparently no one had come forward. Louise appeared before Judge Pryor on December 16, 1892. She was backed up by friends who "testified that she talked sensibly to them," according to The Sun.
Unfortunately for Louise, she became emotional in court. She disrupted the proceedings by saying in part (in broken English), "I swore I would stay by [Grotrian] whenever there is hair on my head, and I declared his name ever since. I will suffered for him when he married me for a true wife." The Sun reported, "After a little more of this imperfect English, Judge Pryor said he thought they had heard enough." Louise was deemed insane and returned to the asylum.
Immediately after Louise's removal from the courtroom, "a row occurred among the factions of each side in the case," reported The Sun. Enraged that Lulu Schaefer had testified against her, "Mrs. Mina Fischer, sole executrix of the will of Grotrian, said, shaking her fist at Mrs. Lulu Schaefer: 'I've won, and I'll have my revenge on you."
In the meantime, No. 53 was being operated as The Jewish Mission by D. Landsmann. Landsmann founded the mission on July 12, 1883. In his 1896 Lutherans In All Lands, Rev. J. N. Lenker wrote that Landsmann worked "with great zeal among orthodox Jews, who had but recently arrived from Russia, Galicia, Poland, and Hungary."
The Jewish Mission ended here in 1903 when the house and 55 East 3rd Street were acquired by the Society of Music School Settlement. Founded by Emilie Wagner in 1894, her goal was to provide music and culture to immigrant children. Architect Grosvenor Atterbury was hired to convert the vintage houses to a single "three-story and basement brick and stone Settlement House," as described in his plans in June 1904. The alterations were significant--entailing the refiguring of the interior walls, the removal of the stoops and eliminating the doorway of No. 55, and creating an arched, Colonial-inspired entrance at 53 East 3rd.
In its June 1904 issue, The New Era remarked that the settlement, "is soon to be quartered in the large and commodious building at Nos. 53-55 East Third Street, which is now being remodelled [sic]."
Within five years, the Music School Settlement had outgrown its new home. In 1909, 51 East 3rd Street was acquired and the architectural firm of Bosworth & Holden was commissioned to integrate it into the complex. At the same time, they added a floor to No. 55 and gave the buildings matching, projecting cornices.
Wreaths decorate the windows as students pose outside the building in the snow in 1917. Musical America, February 24, 1917 (copyright expired)
In 1913, a piano tuning class for the blind was initiated here. The Outlook for the Blind reported in autumn that year, "The first class started with eight pupils; the number has now increased to 40."
The Outlook, February 22, 1908 (copyright expired)
The 1916 Status and Value of Music in Education said that 800 children were enrolled here and explained,
They are taught piano, violin and 'cello, sight reading, musical theory, ensemble playing and singing. They pay twenty-five cents a lesson, and scholarships are given to those too poor to pay. Success has been so great that thousands have been turned away.
The Outlook, February 22, 1908 (copyright expired)
The Music School Settlement orchestra gave an annual Spring Concert in Aeolian Hall. On April 18, 1920, The Sun reported, "A hundred boys and girls of the cliff dwelling [i.e. tenement] section of New York called 'the lower East Side'...gave a sophisticated audience one of the surprises of the winter." The article said that many of the society folk "went in a complacent sort of way because of the request of some friends, they had made out annual checks for a settlement house they had heard much about." Expecting mediocrity, they were stunned.
The Outlook, February 22, 1908 (copyright expired)
The performances of the 6- to 14-year-old musicians were "an eye opener," said the article. "It was a concert that satisfied a refined musical sense and amazed some persons in the audience who still regard the 'lower East Side' as a sort of foreign land."
The Junior Orchestra rehearsing in the Music School Settlement. Musical America, February 24, 1917 (copyright expired)
In 1974, the Music School Settlement moved to East 11th Street. The East 3rd Street property was acquired by the Catholic Worker Movement, which christened it Maryhouse. It was founded in 1933 in part by journalist, social activist and anarchist Dorothy Day. Maryhouse offers shelter to the homeless.
Writing in The Catholic Worker on March 1, 1981, David Beseda and Ruth Clements said,
The overwhelming needs of the people in the street have exerted continuing pressure on our lives at Maryhouse as we try to keep our doors open to those in need. Like other houses of hospitality, we rarely have an empty bed these days, and since we are trying to live together as a family there is always a tension between keeping a quality of life in the house that is peaceful and personal and, on the other hand, wanting to respond to everyone that comes to us.
Looking somewhat bedraggled today, Maryhouse continues to assist and house those in need.
photographs by the author
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