Presumably, William H. Merritt and Stephen A. Dennis were well acquainted with one another. In 1856 they hired the same architect to design their 26-foot wide mansions at 278 and 276 West 20th Street, respectively. (The addresses would be renumbered 432 and 434 in 1865.) Completed in 1857, the brownstone-faced, Italianate-style residences were essentially identical.
Robust cast iron railings and newels flanked the wide stone stoops. Four-stories tall above a high English-basement, their segmentally-arched openings wore bracketed, molded cornices. The floor-to-ceiling parlor windows were fronted with cast iron balconies.
In 1941, most of the original 1857 architectural details of both homes were intact. No. 434 is at the right. via NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Born in 1812, William H. Merrill married Rachel Tallman in 1839. The couple had five children, Albert Tallman, Emma Louise, Ellen Corey (known as "Nellie"), Rachel Augusta (known as "Katie"), and William Albert. When the family moved into their new home, the children ranged in age from William, who was 6, to Albert, who was 17.
Merrill was a partner with Dennis M. Fitch and George Allin in the jewelry firm of Merrill, Fitch & Allin.
The Watchmaker & Jeweler, April 1870 (copyright expired)
Merrill died on January 31, 1872 at the age of 59. His funeral was held in the parlor on February 3. Rachel remained in the house with her staff of servants until her death on March 4, 1892 at the age of 74. Her funeral was held two days later.
The Merrill heirs wasted little time in liquidating the estate. The house was auctioned two months later, on May 18, and purchased by William H. and Margaret L. Schultz for $20,000--about $711,000 in 2025 terms.
William H. Schultz was a captain in the New York City Police Department's harbor unit. Four years after buying 434 West 20th Street, he "took charge of the force," according to George W. Walling's 1887 Recollections of a New York Chief of Police.
Schultz was depicted on one of 95 "One of the Finest" tobacco cards issued in 1888 (copyright expired)
William and Margaret (who was known as "Mamie") took in a boarder, apparently just one at at time. Living with them in 1895 was Henry Haverstrom, a letter carrier. That fall, according to the New-York Tribune, "Many complaints have lately been made that letters mailed for collection on Haverstrom's route never reached their destination." On October 19, Haverstrom was arrested along his route at Greenwich and Perry Streets. Secreted in his uniform were several opened letters that contained cash or checks.
James Hanlon and his family lived with the Schultzes in 1899. At 1:45 a.m. on May 15, Hanlon was found unconscious on the sidewalk at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street. In the ambulance, he regained partial consciousness and mumbled repeatedly, "got a bad clubbing." Because his money and a valuable gold watch were still in his pockets, doctors opined "the man may have got into a quarrel with a policeman and been clubbed," reported The New York Times. If that were true, it would have been an embarrassment to Hanlon's landlord, Captain William H. Schultz. "The police believe that Hanlon received his injuries by falling from a car," said the article.
The Schultzes sold 434 West 20th Street to John L. and Isabelle Jordan in 1901. Jordan was an architect, a member with his father in John Jordan & Sons, and Assistant Superintendent of Buildings. Before moving in, the Jordans made minor interior renovations. Not surprisingly, The New York Times reported on September 5 that the architects would be John Jordan & Son.
The couple had one child, John Jordan 3d, born in December 1900. Also moving into the house with them was Isabelle's parents. Her father was former Police Superintendent William Murray. He had "preceded Superintendent [Thomas F.] Byrnes as the head of the police force," according to The Evening World.
Murray was also depicted on one of the 1888 "One of the Finest" tobacco cards (copyright expired)
Tragically, John Jordan 3d died on May 1, 1902 at the age of one-and-a-half. His devastated parents announced that his funeral would be "strictly private."
The Murrays' living with the Jordans might have had to do with William Murray's physical condition. The Evening World said in 1904, "for a long time [he] has been a sufferer with locomotor ataxia." (The condition affected his balance and coordination.)
Murray caught the flu in April 1904, which worsened to pneumonia. On April 15, The Evening World began an article with the alarming notice, "William Murray, formerly Superintendent of Police in this city, is dying at the home of his son-in-law, John L. Jordan." The article added flatly, "The physician in attendance on Mr. Murray says he probably will die to-day." As it turned out, the dire prognosis was overstated. A week later, on April 23, The New York Times reported that Murray "was doing well."
The Jordans sold 434 West 20th Street on June 29, 1904 to Joseph Elias. The following year, he leased it to the newly organized Chelsea House at $1,300 a year (about $47,800 in 2025 terms). A home for working girls, it opened in August 1905. Three years later, The Common Welfare explained that the organization provided:
...a home where [working girls] could get good beds and food, and especially where they could receive their friends, for at that time there were few boarding houses in the vicinity of Twentieth street except those houses from which the girl met her "gentleman friend" on the corner, or, worse still, entertained him in her hall bedroom.
The Common Welfare said, "The wages of the girls living at Chelsea House range from seven to fifteen dollars, averaging ten and a half dollars, and their occupations cover many branches of industry." The house accommodated 36 young women who paid from $4 to $6 a week "for board and lodging, including lunch." The 17 bedrooms held from one (there were five single rooms) to four residents. "There is also a large drawing room, a dining room and four bathrooms," said the article.
Residents of Chelsea House were entrusted with "latch keys," and were supervised by "a competent and sympathetic house mother," according to The Common Welfare.
That "house mother" was Mrs. George E. Haskell, described by The Sun as "widely known in New York as a settlement worker, and a member of an old New England family." Her daughter, Margaret, according to the New-York Tribune, "was educated in a convent in France and speaks several languages." Margaret's profession as a private nurse brought a momentary spotlight on Chelsea House in the spring of 1918.
Rufus Gaynor was the son of former New York City Mayor William J. Gaynor. He served in the Argonne sector of France as an ambulance driver during World War I. In 1916 he was sent home with shell-shock, known today as post traumatic stress disorder. He returned to the Plattsburg, New York military camp, but a second breakdown forced him to leave after a month of training. His doctor provided him with a private nurse, Margaret Haskell. The relationship became romantic and on March 23, the couple was married.
Chelsea House operated from 434 West 20th Street at least through the mid-1920s. The former mansion was run as rented rooms until 1962, when it was purchased by Elizabeth Lyon, "who plans extensive alterations," according to The New York Times on November 21. Lyon converted the residence to Bierer House, a half-way house "for mentally disturbed people who do not require hospitalization and who benefit from group living," as described by The New York Times on June 28 the following year. The article described,
Bierer House, at 434 West 20th Street, is a brownstone with 40 rooms. The elegance of times gone by is seen in the marble-floored front hall and the French windows and moldings in the spacious parlor. Some of the residents hold regular jobs outside, and most continue to receive psychiatric care outside. The house is thus a "halfway" home between a hospital and complete independence.
Elizabeth Lyon's renovations included the shaving off of the Italianate details, the removal of the parlor floor balcony, and replacing the 1857 ironwork. Bierer House operated here until the early 1980s. In 1982, a renovation resulted in nine apartments.
many thanks to reader and resident Gianni di Cenc for requesting this post
photographs by the author
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