The Lost H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Building - 139-141 East 24th Street

The centered show window replaced a vast carriage bay.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

As early as 1873, J. O. Taylor's brick livery stable sat at 139-141 East 24th Street.  It was lost in foreclosure in June 1881 to Charles E. Larned for $11,550 (about $366,000 in 2025 terms).  At the beginning of the 1890s, the property was purchased by H. Meise for his horse exchange business. 

New-York Tribune, April 23, 1905 (copyright expired)

Meise's operation was significant.  An article titled, "Horse and Carriage Trade Notes" in the New York Journal and Advertiser on May 14, 1899, mentioned, "H. Meise, 141 East 24th street, has enjoyed a most successful trade right along and feels thoroughly satisfied.  There are at present about seventy-five head in his stables suitable for all manner of business."

In September 1905, Meise sold the building to Robert Leslie Moffett "and others of Minneapolis, Minn.," as reported by the New York Herald.  Then in 1913, the property was purchased by the Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Co.  The concern was a major player in the horse trade business.

On May 17, 1913, the Record & Guide reported that the Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Co. had commissioned architect Michael Bernstein to replace the vintage structure.  Bernstein's plans placed the construction costs at $8,000 (just over $260,000 today).  Completed before the end of the year, Bernstein's design married the Beaux Arts and neo-Classical styles to create a striking stable and auction mart.

The centered, arched carriage bay of the two-story, steel-framed stucco-covered structure was flanked with Ionic columns.  On either side of those were carved yoked horses' heads, the traditional iconography of stables.  Most eye-catching was the dramatic, parabolic-arched hayloft that sat back from the facade.  

The Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Co. quickly realized that automobiles were winning the battle for the streets of Manhattan and added motorized vehicles to its offerings.  On December 2, 1913, shortly after the completion of its building, an announcement in the New York Herald read:

Automobiles on Auction !

On Exhibition

In modern, light, absolutely fire-proof ground floor show arena

at 139-141 East 24th Street.

A Bona Fide Auto Auction--An Innovation

In 1922, nine years after its completion, the "business building presently used as a horse ring known as No. 139-141 East 24th Street," as described by legal papers, was lost in foreclosure.  The property was purchased by H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Company.

Herman Kauffman was born in Prussia in 1841 and arrived in the United States around 1867.  He founded the Herman Kauffman Harness company in the 1870s, mostly supplying harnesses for horse-drawn fire wagons and police carts.  When his sons, Jacob and Isidor, joined the business around the turn of the century, it was renamed H. Kauffman's Sons.  World War I prompted the firm to diversify and it now manufactured saddles and saddle blankets for the Army.

When the firm purchased 139-141 East 24th Street, its name was changed to H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Company.  The Kauffmans renovated the building for its retail business.  The carriage bay was replaced with a show window and, inside, the gravel horse ring was covered with a concrete slab.  The second floor mezzanine, from which potential buyers once surveyed horses or automobiles, became offices and a leather workshop for working on boots, saddles and other items.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Kauffman & Sons was accustomed to catering to prominent customers and shortly after moving in New York Governor Alfred E. Smith walked in the door.  The New York Times explained that he, "bought a pony for his grandson, and then drove it in his limousine to Kauffman's to be outfitted."

The firm took custom orders, and an especially notable one came in 1939 when it made "the boots and riding clothes for the cowboy midgets" performing at the World's Fair, as described by The Times.  Years later, in 1974, Kauffman's created two camel saddles for the Bronx Zoo, and another time manufactured a miniature saddle for a customer's chihuahua.

On March 24, 1946, The New York Times lamented the vanishing of trade signs--three-dimensional outside sculptural elements that signified the businesses inside.  The article noted that the last cigar store Indian in Manhattan stood outside 122 East 7th Street, and a wooden mortar and pestle hung outside a drugstore at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street.  The journalist turned to East 24th Street, saying:

A life-size yellow papier-mâché horse named Modock stands on a dolly outside Kauffman's Saddlery Company at 141 East Twenty-fourth Street.  Dressed in a helmet and blanket for winter--for he is very old--Modock is missing his ears and tail, which have never been replaced because the Messrs. Kauffman felt that it would attract more business as it is.  It did.

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

On April 28, 1975, Mayor Abraham Beame presented the city's Citation of Business Merit to "the saddlery that has catered to New York's horsey set for 100 years," as described by The New York Times, which said the air "was redolent with saddle soap and nostalgia."  Instead of being anachronistic, the journalist explained that Kauffman's filled an important niche.

For even in this city, the horse lives.  Bridle paths in all the boroughs are regularly pounded by the clatter of hoofs.  Rented mounts from about 780 licensed stables raise clouds of dust in the parklands.  And for those who are committed, the inconveniences and costs of horsemanship are outweighed by the joys of an early morning canter.

Not all of H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery Company's patrons were riders.  Many of them, said the article, simply "like Western outfits and riding clothes."  

In 1977, H. Kauffman & Sons sold the building to the L. B. Oil Company, while remaining as its tenant.  It was a decision that would eventually doom the structure.

On May 17, 1981, The New York Times recalled that H. Kauffman & Sons "has outfitted such famous figures as Teddy Roosevelt, General Patton and Larry Hagman, star of 'Dallas.'"  By the time of the article, the company did a mail order business as well, now including polo equipment.

A decade after the article, Kauffman moved out.  Charles Kauffman, CEO of the still family-owned firm, explained to a reporter on March 3, 1991 that, although preservationists had initiated a campaign to landmark the building, "it has been slated for demolition by Baruch College."  L. B. Oil Company had already sold the property to Baruch.  Unwilling to gamble that preservationists' efforts would be successful, H. Kauffman & Sons moved uptown.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

In January 1989, Historic Conservation and Interpretation, Inc. completed its "Cultural Resource Survey for the Proposed Baruch College Campus Development."  In it, Edward S. Rutsch and Patricia Condell said:

The structure is both historically and architecturally significant and eligible for listing on both the National and New York State Registers of Historic Places...The building's historical significance stems from its association with the Fiss, Doerr, and Carroll Horse Company and its later use as an equestrian outfitting store operated by H. Kauffman and Sons Saddlery Company.  The structure is architecturally significant because it retains its interior spatial arrangements that reflect its original function as a horse auction mart.

The efforts to save the building were fruitless.  The block was demolished for Baruch College's expansion.

photograph by Faud Choudhury