The Benjamin Mordecai Mansion - 319 West 105th Street

 

On April 17, 1902, The New York Times reported that Benjamin Mordecai had purchased the recently completed limestone-faced mansion at 319 West 105th Street.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in 1900, it was one of seven upscale residences erected by builder and developer John C. Umberfield.  

Five stories tall and 22-feet wide, Mowbray designed the mansion in a very structured version of the French Beaux Arts style.  Rather than carved festoons and wreathed cartouches, he ornamented the facade with straight forward Ionic pilasters at the ground floor.  The second through fourth floors were bowed, each story defined by an intermediate cornice.  The bowed section was flanked by paneled quoins, its windows capped with hefty, layered keystones.  A stone cornice with substantial scrolled brackets completed the design.

Benjamin Mordecai and his wife, the former Constance Miriam Davis, were born in 1865 and 1867, respectively.  Benjamin was a partner in A. L. Mordecai & Son, the real estate firm founded his father, Allen L. Mordecai.  He and Constance had four daughters (Eva, Lucile, Constance, and Katherine), and a son, Allen Lewis.

Maintaining a significant domestic staff often came with problems.  Such was the case for Benjamin and Constance on the evening of December 26, 1903.  That evening at 7:30, a cab had been waiting at the curb for some time to take the couple to the theater.  Inside the mansion, Benjamin was dealing with a servant, Ellen McDonald, whom he discharged, but who refused to leave the house.  A telephone call was made to Police Headquarters asking for an officer to remove her.

When the officers arrived, "Mr. Mordecai was remonstrating with a servant in the kitchen," reported The New York Times.  "She would not leave the house, and the other servants were afraid, Mr. Mordecai said, to stay in the house with her."  He told the officers he did not want her arrested, but simply wanted her removed.  One of them tried gently to persuade Ellen to come along with them.

McDonald refused, saying, "I want my discharge in the regular way."

A policeman called for a patrol wagon.  "Another effort was made to get the servant to leave, but she objected," said the article.

"I'm king, here," she asserted, "This kitchen's me castle, and you can all clear out.  Take yer gilted buttons and skedaddle." 

Having tried all else, the policemen had to resort to force. "The woman, screaming and kicking, was carried out by the police and locked up on a charge of being drunk and disorderly," reported The New York Times, which added, "It was then 2:30 o'clock, and M. Mordecai said he would not go to the theatre."

The entrance, above a wing-walled two-step stoop, was originally centered.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Constance's early entertainments in the mansion were routine.  On December 29, 1907, for instance, The New York Times mentioned, "Mrs. Mordecai, 319 West 105th Street, was the hostess a short time ago at a bridge given in her home."

But as Eva and Lucile reached their debutante season, the focus turned to them.  In 1911 the girls were 21 and 20 years old, respectively.  On February 26, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Benjamin Mordecai of 319 West 105th Street, gave a large dance for her daughters, the Misses Eva and Lucille [sic], on Wednesday night."

The sisters not only shared their debuts, but their engagements.  On April 29, 1913, Benjamin and Constance announced that Eva was engaged to Sidney Cardoza and Lucile was engaged to Harold Leiber.  The New York Times noted that Eva had graduated from Barnard College in 1912, and that Lucile was a senior there.  The following month, a dinner party was held in the mansion for both couples.

Entertainment briefly focused on the parents in the fall of 1914.  On November 8, the New York Herald reported that Benjamin and Constance had hosted a reception "to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary."

Like their sisters, Constance and Katherine were married in quick succession.  Constance was married to Danforth Cardoza (Eva's brother-in-law) on June 28, 1917, and Katherine was married in the 105th Street mansion four months later, on October 9, to Clarence L. Lee.

With only 17-year-old Allen still at home, in the fall of 1919 the Mordecais placed the mansion on the market.  Expectedly, A. L. Mordecai & Son handled the listing.  It was most likely Benjamin himself who wrote the advertisement in The New York Times on October 9, which called 319 West 105th Street "a palatial home."  Noting that it sat within a "restricted neighborhood" (meaning that businesses were banned), the ad said in part that it "is modern in every respect and embodies all the innovations and improvements that money can buy.  Decorations and appointments are in keeping with the artistic ideals of the owner."

Within two weeks, the mansion was sold to William P. Youngs and his wife, Harriet.  The Mordecais moved into a sprawling apartment on Park Avenue.  Like Benjamin Mordecai, Youngs was a real estate operator, a partner in W. P. Youngs Bros.

As the Mordecais had experienced, the Youngs soon encountered a staff problem.  Ella D. Mallet was a seamstress, hired to work on Harriet's "certain dresses and garments," according to her testimony.  On January 8, 1921, she passed through a doorway and, according to her complaint, "was suddenly precipitated and fell down certain steps leading out from said door."  Ella charged her employers of "carelessness and negligence" and sued for $2,000 damages (about $35,000 in 2025 terms).  A year later, when the case came to court, she said she was  still confined to bed "and will so continue to suffer."

The Youngs were childless, but they nevertheless hosted a debutante event in 1921.  On February 28, The Yonkers Statesman reported, "Miss Winifred Youngs, debutante daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Youngs...was guest of honor at a dinner-dance given for her by her aunt, Mrs. William P. Youngs of 319 West 105th street, New York City, Saturday."

The Youngs would not remain in the 105th Street mansion for especially long.  On August 29, 1925, the Record & Guide reported that they had sold it for $60,000 (just over $1 million today).  The buyer was Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad executive Michael J. McGowan.  

The wealthy bachelor remained in the house until his death on November 5, 1938.  Four years later, the mansion was converted to a total of 13 apartments.  The renovation resulted in the main and service entrances being converted to windows, and the doorway relocated to the side.

An interesting resident was actor Takeo Lee Wong.  He was best known for playing a medical examiner in the Fox Television series New York Undercover in the 1990s.  He and his partner, talent agent Rosella Olson, occupied one of the two ground floor apartments as early as 2001.  That year, after the World Trade Center attacks, he began converting the concrete areaway in front of the house with pots of flowers.  It was, he explained later, as a tribute to a neighbor who died.

Over the years, the pots of lavender and impatiens and geraniums were added to with hydrangeas, strawberries, cactus, basil and other plants.  Calling it his "mother garden," Wong carefully tended the pots, and arranged with his neighbors to take in perennials over the winter.  But in 2010, his off-site landlord, Joey Franco, demanded that he clear out the potted garden.  Wong complied, prompting Corey Kilgannon of The New York Times to write, "Mr. Wong turned this concrete expanse--about the size of a parking space--into a plant paradise over the past decade, only to have it stripped of the plants by his landlord."

Takeo Lee Wong posed in his "mother garden" in July 2012.  photo by Ozier Muhammad, The New York Times August 11, 2012.

But two years later, the garden was back.  On July 11, 2012, Corey Kilgannon wrote, "he has brought back the plants, thicker than ever."  The reprise would be short lived.  On July 4, Joey Franco was back as well.  Kilgannon reported that he "showed up, and he was not happy."  He told Wong that he had a truck ready to cart away the plants.  The areaway was returned to a concrete slab.

Other than the refiguration of the ground floor and replacement windows, the appearance of the Mordecai mansion is nearly unchanged after 124 years.

photographs by the author