John G. Prague's profession was both architect and developer. In the late 19th century he designed and built scores of rowhouses on Manhattan's Upper West Side, prompting the Real Estate Record & Guide to comment in 1890 that he "created a neighborhood." In 1886, he designed and erected four rowhouses at 110 through 116 West 87th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. The following year he enlarged the row, designing 17 more. This time he shared the project with two other developers. Prague would erect four, Charles B. Milliken would build five, and D. Willis James eight. With the new houses completed in 1888, the 21 residences--designed as a harmonious composition--nearly filled the southern blockfront.
Among James's group was 126 West 87th Street. A medley of styles, Prague gave the undressed brownstone-clad basement and parlor floors a Romanesque Revival flair. The arched entrance was crowned with a menacing, medieval inspired mask. Prague strayed from Romanesque Revival by giving the panels below the parlor windows Renaissance Revival carvings.
The upper floors were a happy marriage of Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival. Faced in yellow Roman brick and trimmed in brownstone, the design's asymmetry was Queen Anne but the detailing purely Renaissance Revival. Foliate carvings decorated the window frames. Above the cornice, a brick parapet featured a stone panel above the single windows, and a triangular pediment above the paired openings. The pediment sprouted a stocky, chimney-looking finial.
Brothers Daniel F. and Michael J. Mahony were partners in the real estate development firm Mahony Brothers, founded in 1873. Michael was the construction side of the business and Daniel the architect. In 1889, Michael and and his wife, the former Annie Campbell, purchased 126 West 87th Street.
Michael J. Mahony (the newspapers routinely misspelled the family's surname "Mahoney") was born in Cork, Ireland in 1841. He and Annie had no children, but they took in their orphaned niece, Nonie L. Mahony, the daughter of Michael's brother, Patrick and his wife Mary Powers. Annie's brother, Henry Campbell, also lived with the family.
Nonie died on December 14, 1902. There would be another funeral in the Mahonys' parlor four years later. On September 5, 1908, Henry Campbell died at Lake Mahopac, New York. The funeral was held here on September 9 followed by a requiem mass at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus on 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
Annie and Henry had been made godparents of Lois Ann Campbell, the daughter of Annie's cousin, James Campbell, and his wife, Florence Adele. She was christened in St. Patrick's Cathedral on March 27, 1893. James had done well in his career as a banker and public utilities owner. When he died in 1914, he left what The New York Times said on November 26 was a "16,000,000 estate." (The staggering figure would translate to about $518 million in 2025.)
Campbell's will divided the estate in halves--to his wife and daughter. Annie Mahony was pulled into an ugly, days-long court battle in November 1914, when her cousin and only sister of James Campbell sued to upturn the will, charging that "Campbell died without leaving a child or children." Annie Mahony testified on November 25 that she had been present two hours after Lois's birth.
Michael J. Mahony died in the house on March 12, 1918 at the age of 78. As had been the case with Henry Campbell, his funeral was held in the parlor followed by a requiem mass at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. He divided his estate in equal shares to Annie and his sister, Elizabeth Mahony Walsh. It was estimated at "more than $250,000 in real and $10,000 in personal property." (The nebulous figure would equal not less than $5.5 million today.)
Just two months after Mahony's death, real estate agent Nicholas Francis Walsh offered the house for sale. (Nicholas was Michael Mahony's nephew, the son of John J. and Elizabeth Mahony Walsh). The ad described it as having 11 rooms and one bath.
As it turned out, 126 West 87th Street became home to Nicholas Francis Walsh's future in-laws, the Hammill family. On January 9, 1920, The New York Times reported, "The wedding of Miss Marguerite Fay Hammill, daughter of Thomas Hammill of 126 East Eighty-seventh Street, and Nicholas Francis Walsh...was celebrated at 10 o'clock yesterday morning at St. Patrick's Cathedral." The importance of the two families within the Roman Catholic and Irish communities was reflected in the ceremony's being celebrated by Archbishop Patrick Joseph Hayes personally. The Sun noted, "Mr. Walsh and his bride will live at 126 West Eighty-seventh street after their honeymoon."
Nicholas Walsh had graduated from the New York Law School and became a member of the bar in 1915. Rather than law, he went into real estate and insurance. Like his uncles, Michael and Daniel Mahony, he was closely tied to his Irish roots. He was a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the American-Irish Historical Society.
According to The New York Times, Walsh was "close friends for years" with Alfred E. Smith, who was New York State Governor at the time of his and Marguerite's marriage. The couple would have eight children--four daughters and four sons. In 1924, they modernized the parlor level by replacing the two openings with a Palladio-inspired window.
The original configuration of the parlor windows can be seen on either side of No. 126. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Nicholas Francis Walsh died in the West 87th Street house at the age of 72 on August 17, 1949.
The last of the Walsh family to occupy the house was Nicholas and Marguerite's unmarried daughter, Elizabeth. She was approached by married actors Peter Maloney and Kristin Griffin in 1981. Griffin later told The New York Times journalist Robin Finn that she had been renting down the block and "was enraptured by its haunted aura." She said, "At first, Elizabeth F. Walsh...wasn't interested in their overtures." But when told that they had no intention of converting the house into apartments, Walsh agreed to a $450,000 price. Robin Finn reported, "a harrowing $2 million renovation commenced."
The two-year long project greatly remodeled the interior spaces, including the creation of a soaring 18-foot studio space with a vast skylight and two terraces. During their residency, the house appeared in several episodes of "Law & Order."
In 2013, with their children grown, the couple offered the house for sale for $8.75 million. Other than replacement windows, the exterior of the Mahony house is little changed since Marguerite and Nicholas Walsh remodeled the parlor window.
photographs by the author
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