True created a streetscape of undulating bays and turrets, gables and dormers. Among the three-story-and-attic, Romanesque Revival-style homes was 320 West 104th Street. Its dogleg stoop rose above an English basement faced with rough-cut stone to a spartan parlor level clad with planar brownstone. A two-story, three-sided stone oriel sprouted from the beige Roman brick-clad upper floors. A brick-faced dormer, capped with an angular pediment decorated with a brownstone panel of an urn and vines, poked through the attic roof. The stone railing of the sleeping porch was decorated with carved scrolls. But, typical of True's tongue-and-cheek detailing, close inspection reveals that the scrolled ornamentation is composed of fantastic, back-to-back serpents.
The house was initially purchased by Dr. A. W. Lozier, who quickly resold it in March 1893 to Alexander Kimbel and his wife, the former Elenora Haubner. Kimbel was born in 1854 and Eleanora in 1858. The couple had three children when they moved in, Eleanore Pauline, who was 14; 12-year-old Frances; and William Anthony, who was five. Eleanora was pregnant when they purchased No. 320, and Elsie was born that year.
Also moving into the house was Eleanora's widowed mother, Fredericka S. Haubner. Charles Haubner, Fredericka's late husband and Eleanora's father, had operated a tannery on West 35th Street. Fredericka's physical condition was frail, and on September 10, 1894, Eleanora placed an ad in the New York Herald that read, "Wanted--An experienced German nurse for an invalid lady. 320 West 104th st." Fredericka Haubner died on April 7, 1900 at the age of 72.
In 1904, a group of influential German residents including Carl Schurz, Herman Ridder, and August Zinsser, formed the Germanistic Society of America. Its object was "to promote the study of knowledge of German civilization in America, and of American civilization in Germany." Among the initial members was Anthony Kimbel.
It may have been their mutual memberships in the Society that brought Kimbel and August Zinsser together. In 1914, August and Eleanora rented 320 West 104th Street to Zinsser's son, Dr. Hans Zinsser.
Born in New York City in 1878, Zinsser received his bachelor's and master's degrees and a doctorate in medicine from Columbia University. He and his wife, the former Ruby Handforth, whom he married in 1905, had two children, Hans Handforth and Gretel (known as Margaret). In 1910, Zinsser was appointed an associate professor at Stanford University, but the family moved back to New York City in 1913 when Zinsser was hired as professor of bacteriology at Columbia University.
Dr. Hans Zinsser, from the Wellcome Collection gallery.
Many Americans, especially the lesser educated immigrant population, viewed vaccination warily. On April 14, 1915, Hans Zinsser very publicly got his typhus shot. The New York Times reported (in a exhaustingly long sentence):
As conclusive proof of the acceptance of the vaccine as a prophylactic agent, it was further stated, to the amazement of a large number of the physicians present, that Dr. Hans Zinsser, the eminent bacteriologist who holds the professorship of bacteriology of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, who is also President of the New York Pathological Society, and who is now on his way to Serbia as a member of the Rockefeller expedition to take up the fight against typhus, had been inoculated with the protective vaccine prior to his departure.
Zinsser's mother, Marie, died in October 1916. She left a startling condition in her will concerning the inheritance of her two granddaughters, including Margaret. Marie Zinsser wanted to ensure that her granddaughters were proficient in homemaking duties. The Evening World reported, "According to the will, not only must each girl cook an acceptable six-course dinner, but while doing so she must wear a dress of her own making." Should Margaret and her cousin not comply with the instructions, they would each forfeit $10,000 (about $295,000 in 2025 terms). Presumably, Margaret completed the task to the approval of the trustees.
When America entered World War I in 1917, Dr. Zinsser was commissioned a major in the Medical Reserve Corps. He would go on to write more than 200 books and medical articles and, surprisingly, became a published poet, as well. Among his most influential works was his 1935 Rats, Lice and History.
It was possibly Zinsser's involvement in the war that prompted the family to leave West 104th Street. An advertisement in The New York Times on March 10, 1918, read, "For Sale or To Let, House, 320 West 104th St., 20 ft. wide, 3-1/2 stories--electric light, 2 baths."
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Elenora Haubner died in 1919 and in January 1920 Anthony sold 320 West 104th Street. The house was converted to unofficial apartments.
Among the initial tenants was James A. Howard, former vice-president and general manager of the meat packing concern Wilson & Company. He was described by The National Provisioner as "one of the best known packinghouse men in the United States." Born in 1860, Howard started in the business in 1880, and retired in 1917.
In 1932, The 4195 Broadway Corp. officially converted 320 West 104th Street to apartments. Surprisingly, unlike almost all similar renovations, the stoop was preserved. A subsequent alteration, completed in 1990, resulted in one apartment per floor in the lower three levels and a duplex apartment in the top two floors.
photographs by the author
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