The Lost William E. Benjamin Mansion - 2 East 87th Street

To the left of 2 East 87th Street is the John Phipps house, erected simultaneously.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

By the turn of the last century, the relentless northward migration of Manhattan millionaires had reached the 80s.  The blocks along Central Park, once home to Dutch farms and Native American settlements, saw the rise of palatial mansions.  

In 1901, developer William H. Bolton began construction of a massive speculative residence at 2 and 4 East 87th Street.  His architects, Janes & Leo, had designed a Beaux Arts-style structure faced in limestone.  The rusticated two-story midsection was dominated by a double-height arch that included a columned, bowed balcony under a French style railed balcony at the third floor.  The fifth floor took the form of a striking Parisian inspired mansard.  Bolton reserved a 13-foot wide "easement" along the western border of the property.  It allowed Janes & Leo to place the service entrance to the side, along with windows that afforded a third elevation of light and ventilation.  Construction, completed in 1902, cost Bolton $200,000--about $7.6 million in 2025 terms.

Bolton advertised the mansion as being "directly opposite the garden front of one of 5th Ave.'s finest mansions."  (That was the newly built Henry Phipps residence.)  It ad said, "The house is a conspicuous example of the highest type of domestic architecture.  Everything appertaining to the most advanced art of construction has been incorporated."

New-York Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902 (copyright expired)

Finding a buyer for the sumptuous home took time.  Finally, on January 30, 1904, the Record & Guide reported that Bolton had sold it to Lewis Cass Ledyard.  On February 28, The New York Times commented that spending "about $300,000" for the mansion, "did not attach sufficient importance to the event to let it delay a trip out of the city." The purchase price would translate to about $10.9 million today.

Lewis Cass Ledyard, from the collection of the Library of Congress

An attorney, Ledyard was a partner in Carter Ledyard & Milburn and president of the New York City Bar Association.  He married Gertrude Prince on April 11, 1878, and had one son, Lewis, Jr.  She was the daughter of Colonel William E. Prince of the United States Army.

Gertrude Prince Ledyard, from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

On January 17, 1905, less than a year after moving into the mansion, the 54-year-old Gertrude Ledyard died.  The New York Times mentioned, "She was prominent socially in New York, and was one of the leaders of the Newport colony, where the Ledyard house is one of the show places."  Devastated, Lewis Cass Ledyard sold the residence to William Evarts Benjamin.

Born in 1859 the son of millionaire journalist Park Benjamin, William had retired in 1900.  During his career he was a book and print seller and dealer of historic autographs.  His wife, Anne Engle Rogers, was the daughter of Henry Huttleston Rogers, a founder of Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller.  She could boast Mayflower lineage on both sides of her family.  The couple had two children, Beatrice May and Henry Rogers.  Their summer home, Lake House, was in Southampton, Long Island.

Beatrice's debut season started with a dance in the mansion on December 17, 1907.  The New York Times reported, "The cotillion was danced in the Louis XVI ballroom, and was preceded by a dinner for fourteen guests."  The extensive guest list for the dance portion included the cream of high society, including names like Lanier, Fish, Rogers, Roosevelt, Morgan, Mortimer and Dodge.

A 13-foot wide "easement" separated the Benjamin mansion (left) from the massive Speyer residence on the corner.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Beatrice was married to Alexander Dallas Bache Pratt in St. Thomas's Church on November 17, 1909.  The New York Times devoted an entire column to her Empire-style wedding dress.  The groom, who was 26 years old, had entered military service in 1905.  The newlyweds moved into the East 87th Street mansion.

Social functions within the house were now often hosted by Beatrice.  On February 8, 1910, for instance, she gave a dinner party for 20 in honor of Marjorie Gould and her fiancé Anthony J. Drexel, Jr., and Elizabeth Berton and her fiancé Snowden Q. Fahnestock.  The New York Times reported, "Afterward, the young people went to see 'The Jolly Bachelors' at the Broadway Theatre."  And the following month, on March 18, Beatrice hosted a dinner for 14.  "The guests were at one large table decorated with American beauty roses," said The Times.  (Acquiring roses in March required a significant expenditure.)

Alexander D. B. Pratt was deployed during World War I.  On August 4, 1918, The Sun reported that Beatrice had entertained with a dinner "in honor of her mother, Mrs. William Evarts Benjamin" at the Pratt's cottage in Newport.  No one was aware that while her husband was overseas, Beatrice had begun an affair in Newport with twice-married playwright Preston Gibson.  In June 1919, she divorced her husband "on grounds of non-support and desertion."  

Four months later, on October 18, 1919, The Sun reported that Beatrice and Gibson, "ran away in a taxicab to Greenwich, Conn., yesterday and got married."  The article said that William and Anne Benjamin "have publicly objected to the marriage."

And indeed they did.  On December 21, 1919, the Syracuse Herald ran a full-page article titled, "Was Preston Gibson Worth the Price Mrs. Alexander Pratt Paid for Him?."  It reported that Beatrice was "estranged" from her parents, who had begun proceedings to rescind her $2 million inheritance, and the $200,000 trust funds for her two children.  The Benjamins declared her daughter had "married against the wishes and in spite of the protest of all the members of her family."  The procedure sparked several suits and counter-suits between Beatrice and her parents.

While the ugly and very public fighting within the courts and in the newspapers played out, Henry Rogers Benjamin was serving in the U.S. Navy Aviation Corps.  He returned to the states after a deployment in Italy in January 1919 and on January 27 his engagement to Dorothy S. Rennard was announced.  Married that year, Henry brought his bride home to the East 87th Street mansion.

On May 4, 1921, The Evening World reported that Beatrice, "sailed Saturday for Europe with her two children by a former marriage, Cynthia Anne Pratt and Alexander Dallas Bache Pratt 2d, to visit her parents, who have been abroad for some time."  The article said the voyage, "bears out the report that a reconciliation has been effected" between Beatrice and her parents.  The mending of the rift and the trip to Europe quite possibly had everything to do with Beatrice's plans to divorce Preston Gibson.  Their divorce was finalized the following year.

Beatrice Benjamin Pratt Gibson Cartwright would be married again in 1940.  The Evening World, May 4, 1921 (copyright expired)

Beatrice would not remain unmarried for long.  On January 2, 1923, The Sedalia Democrat reported that she "and Captain Charles Aubrey Cartwright of the royal navy were married [in Paris] last Saturday."

Anne Engle Benjamin died on September 8, 1924 at the age of 59.  In addition to trusts of $1 million each to her children and other bequests, she left $14.5 million to William (the figure would equal about $266 million today).

Henry Rogers Benjamin divorced his wife in 1929.  His sister would divorce Charles Aubrey Cartwright in 1939.  Beatrice would marry Frederick Joseph McEvoy in 1940, and Henry would marry Virginia Poole in 1941.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

William Evarts Benjamin died at the age of 81 on February 24, 1940.  In reporting his death, The Corpus Christi Times mentioned that from his collection of rare manuscripts he had donated to the New-York Historical Society "the letters patent signed by King Charles II in 1674 authorizing Edmund Andros to take New York--then New Netherlands--for the British crown;" and "gave the Library of Congress valuable papers of George Washington concerning Mount Vernon."

Henry's daughter, Anne Rogers Benjamin, lived with him in the mansion.  On October 20, 1941, The New York Times reported, "Miss Benjamin will be introduced to society by her father on Dec. 27," and that her aunt, Mrs. Frederick J. McEvoy would host a dinner dance for her at the Waldorf-Astoria on the 29th.

The days of debutante cotillions and glittering dinner parties were coming to an end at the time.  Within a few years, the mansion was demolished to be replaced with the massive George F. Pelham apartment building, 1056 Fifth Avenue, completed in 1951.

image via compass.com