An announcement appeared in The Evening Post on September 6, 1842:
Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies, No. 9 St. Mark's place.
Mrs. M. L. Mitchell will re-open her school on Monday, 12th Sept.
The exclusive school was housed in a recently erected, 32-foot-wide mansion within an elegant residential neighborhood. Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, its Greek Revival entrance above a high stone stoop was just left of center, providing for a grand, commodious front parlor. Almost assuredly the floor-to-ceiling parlor level openings were fronted with cast iron balconies. Three-and-a-half stories tall, the squat attic level succeeded the peaked roof and dormers of the earlier Federal style.
Mrs. Mitchell most likely leased the house. It was sold at auction in 1846 and became home to Dr. R. L. Morris until 1850, when Andrew Mount purchased the property. The advertisement he answered described it as a "desirable and valuable house and lot" with "three stories, attic, garret, and fine basement, has the Croton Water and Gas throughout, furnaces, fine large under cellar flagged and ceiled, wine closets, &c."
Mount was an auctioneer, a partner in Wilmerdings & Mount at 512 Beaver Street. Around 1856, his son, William Mount, joined the firm.
Many affluent families took in a boarder. The Mounts only occasionally did so and years would pass between them. In 1856, Daniel Woodhouse, a lawyer at 6 Wall Street, lived with the family. It would not be until 1863 that another boarder was listed--Bryce Gray, who was an importer. Gray's residency was extremely short. He enlisted in the Union Army that year.
Starting in 1873, William Mount was no longer listed at the address, suggesting he had married. In 1875, the Mounts left St. Mark's Place and the dwelling became home to John Ashley Lockw0od and his family.
Lockwood's American pedigree was deep, tracing his roots to Robert Lockwood who arrived in 1630. Born in Peekskill, New York in 1823, he married Hannah Elizabeth Mott on June 4, 1844. Hannah was seven years younger than he. The couple had 14 children, four of whom died in infancy. It appears that only one, Elizabeth G. Lockwood, lived here with her parents.
It was almost certainly Lockwood who raised the attic to a full fourth floor. In remodeling the house, the basement was converted to a doctor's office for Edmund P. Banning, Sr. and his sons, Edmund Jr. and Archibald T. Banning. Edmund Sr. advertised himself as "the original inventor of Banning's Braces, Trusses and Spinal Supports."
Hannah took in numerous boarders. Living with the family in 1876, for instance, were Hamilton Cole, an attorney; Edward Edgerton; William G. White, a cashier; and Rev. William H. Leavall.
Hamilton Cole was described by the New-York Tribune as "a well known lawyer." Born in New York City in 1844, he prepared for college at the Claverack Prep Academy and graduated salutatorian from Yale in 1866. He then studied at the Columbia Law School. He was counsel for the American Express Company and for Wells, Fargo & Co.
Although the influx of immigrants after the Civil War had changed the immediate neighborhood, Hamilton Cole's memberships reveal that the Lockwood's operation was still upscale. He was a member of the American and the Coney Island Jockey Clubs, the Gentlemen's Driving Club and the University and Grolier Clubs. Never married, among his most visible cases were the "Grant and Ward" suits. They arose from the collapse of Ferdinand Ward's Wall Street firm in 1884 as a result of what today would be called a Ponzi scheme. It ruined many investors (including Ulysses S. Grant) and started a Wall Street panic.
Hamilton Cole was "speeding his horses" along Seventh Avenue in the early part of October 1889. He was "thrown out of his road-wagon," as reported by the New-York Tribune, and severely injured. Pneumonia set in and he died in the St. Mark's Place house on October 28 at the age of 45. His funeral was held in St. Mark's Church on October 30.
In the meantime, a Dr. Theel had taken over the doctor's office by 1884. In November that year, he advertised:
Dr. Theel, European hospital experience, guarantees to cure afflicted & unfortunate (acute cases in 4 to 10 days), both sexes, after failure of all others. Hours 8 to 12 A. M., 2 to 4 & 6 to 8 P. M. 9 St. Mark's place, N.Y.
The affects of the changes in the district arrived at 9 St. Mark's Place in 1886 when the former physician's office became what the New-York Tribune described as "'Jake' Wunderlich's gambling place." On the night of February 28 that year, saloon owner William Pittschau and Louis C. Bruns, a court clerk, were involved "in a quarrel over a game of poker" here, according to the newspaper. Pittschau punched Bruns in the face, resulting in a black eye. Bruns retaliated in court. It very well might have been the fact that he was a court official that resulted in his being awarded $50 in damages (more than $1,700 in 2025 terms).
It was about this time that the Lockwoods relocated. The 1889 Colonial and Revolutionary History of the Lockwood Family in America mentions, "After making several fortunes and losing them all, [John Ashley Lockwood] is now striving to make another near Rugby on the Cumberland Mountains, where he has 1600 acres."
The basement level was converted to a meeting hall in 1890. It was here on August 25 that the Central Labor Union met to make arrangements for an upcoming mass protest in Union Square.
It was also the meeting place of the recently formed Radical Club. The World editorialized on December 24, 1890 that the members "are enthusiastic on all queer things which happen in the heavens above, the earth beneath or the waters under the earth." The Home-Maker, in its January 1891 issue, was less subjective, saying, "It consists of men and women, and its object is to raise a fund to aid liberty-loving men and women, and distribute literature which will aid their purpose."
Robert and Mary E. Lawson purchased 9 St. Mark's Place in April 1893 for $35,000 (about $1.26 million today). They leased the meeting hall to various groups, including the Good Government Club in 1895, and the Gramercy Wheelmen (a bicycle club) by the following year.
Things changed as the turn of the century approached, however. Sparked by complaints by Philip Cohen that "he had lost about $200, in small amounts, in a poolroom at 9 St. Mark's Place," according to The New York Times on March 18, the basement level was raided several times that spring. (A poolroom was an illegal gambling den where bets were taken on horse racing.)
The following year, on March 9, 1900, the newspaper reported, "When agents of the Society for the Prevention of Crime...swooped down upon a place at 9 St. Mark's Place, they surprised more than 300 men and boys, and caught two alleged principals with money in their hands, and also seized a wagonload of poolroom paraphernalia." The article said they,
...found its nest of alleged gamblers on the second floor of an old mansion. The massive rosewood door for several minutes resisted the efforts of the six detectives and a like number of members of the Essex Market Court Squad...When it finally yielded to the blows of a big iron hammer, a scene of wild excitement and terror was revealed, those inside rushing from side to side of the room, vainly seeking some means of escape.
Mary E. Lawson continued to operate the property after her husband's death. In January 1907, she leased the parlor floor (the former poolroom space had already been converted for business purposes) to George Bernard.
A renovation in 1924 resulted in a pool parlor (this type of pool room having nothing to do with horse betting) in the basement and a restaurant on the first floor. The upper three floors became the home of owner Samuel Bader. But by the Depression years, that portion of the house was again rented rooms.
Living in one of those rooms in 1933 was Albert Schwartz, a fascinating figure. Born in Austria and formerly a lieutenant in the Austria-Hungarian army, he worked in the Krupp steelworks in Essen, Germany before immigrating to America in 1900. Here, he turned to inventing military devices.
In 1922, he perfected a bullet-proof vest which interested the New York City Police Department. The New York Times reported, "After an exhaustive--and for spectators--a nerve-wracking test in which Schwartz fired six high-powered bullets against the chest of an assistant wearing one of the vests, eleven were purchased for use in special duty." Schwartz also designed a light, rapid-fire gun, and a parachute that he sold to the Mexican Government. His inventions made him "well-to-do," according to The Times, but he lost his fortune in the Depression. Now, living in a furnished room here, he worked as a waiter in the Hubsch Restaurant.
On January 4, 1933, The New York Times reported that the 60-year-old inventor was found dead in his room. "The windows were closed and a gas heater was still burning." He had died from carbon monoxide gas.
In 1941, a billards parlor and bowling alley occupied the basement, while a restaurant operated on the parlor level. The Greek Revival entrance and magnificent stoop railings survived. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
The second half of the 20th century saw the East Village revitalized with trendy shops. The basement level of 9 St. Mark's Place was split into two sections, one of which became Grizzly Furs, a vintage clothing store, in 1967. That same year La MaMa, an off-off Broadway theater founded by Ellen Stewart, moved temporarily into the other side while its permanent home on East Fourth Street was being readied.
Grizzly Furs was operated by Charles Fitzgerald, who was also a teacher. He supplanted it with Bowl & Board, a woodenware shop. The entrepreneur eventually ran seven businesses along the block, with Bowl & Board having branches around the country. He purchased 9 St. Mark's Place and another building across the street at No. 12.
The Villager, December 3, 1981
In 2008 Boka restaurant opened in the basement level and in 2016 Nohohon tearoom moved into the former parlor level.
The former mansion, which boasted rosewood interior doors and sumptuous furnishings that would have equaled those of the city's wealthiest citizens, is hard to recognize today. Its Greek Revival entrance and stone stoop have been eradicated and a faux stone veneer clings to the basement walls. And yet, much of its 1840s appearance survives.
photographs by the author
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