The Emanuel Kaplan House - 67 East 77th Street

 

John McNerney completed construction of eight four-story-and-basement homes on East 77th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in 1877.  Designed by Thomas S. Godwin, they were three bays wide and faced in brownstone.  Godwin likely designed the row in the Italianate or neo-Grec design.

67 East 77th Street would have been similar to this house, across the street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

John Owen Mott and his wife, the former Caroline E. Mors, purchased 67 East 77th Street.  The couple had three young children, Augusta, Joshua Mors, and Nellie.

An attorney, Mott was born in Half Moon, New York on October 18, 1829.  After serving in the Civil War, he was elected Assistant United State District Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  

John O. Mott gained a reputation for his unbending discipline and harsh sentences.  In 1882, he charged that New York Police Captain Gunner was negligent.  The New-York Tribune explained, "The charges were that the police had allowed dirt to be dumped in the streets, in front of private residences, in violation of the city ordinances."  Gunner retaliated, telling the Police Board on June 2:

For the most of the last week the roadway in front of No. 67 East Seventy-seventh-st. was strewn with about three cart-loads of old plaster and other rubbish taken from Mr. Mott's house, while it was being repaired.  To my surprise, on visiting that house today, I found nine empty lime barrels and some old lumber in the street immediately in front of it.

In 1891, 17-year-old Joshua Mors Mott contracted "consumption"--the 19th century term for tuberculosis.  Rather than send him to a sanitarium, which were often grim, his parents opted to have him treated at home.  Three years later, on November 27, 1894, the New-York Tribune reported, "Joshua M. Mott, only son of Assistant United States District-Attorney John O. Mott, died yesterday at his home, No. 67 East Seventy-seventh-st."  His funeral was held in the parlor on the 28th.

The following year was much more positive for the family.  In 1895, John O. Mott was appointed a city magistrate, and on December 8, The New York World reported, "One of the big home weddings of the week will be that of Miss Nellie Mott and Mr. Stephen K. Watts."  The article said that the house would be "trimmed with a profusion of choice flowers and exotics" and noted, "There will be as many as five hundred guests."  On December 13, the day after the ceremony, the New-York Tribune reported it was, "followed by a large reception."

By the turn of the century, John Mott was experiencing health problems.  On June 27, 1901, The New York Times reported, "City Magistrate John O. Mott who has been ill at his home, 67 East Seventy-seventh Street, from a heart affection, was improved last evening, and it was said he would probably go to the country today."  Caroline's health, too, was failing.

On August 25, 1902, Mott did not attend court, "owing to the serious illness of his wife," according to The New York Times.  The article said, "Mrs. Mott has been ill for some time, but on Thursday night her condition took a turn for the worse, and last evening it was said at the house that she was not expected to recover."  Caroline died on August 30 at the age of 62.  The New York Times reported, "Magistrate Mott, who has been ill for some time, was reported yesterday to be much improved, and it is expected that he will be well enough to attend his wife's funeral."

Now only he and Augusta remained in the house.  Mott's continuing health problems became untenable for some of his colleagues.  On June 23, 1903, attorney Charles P. Blaney filed papers seeking Mott's removal from the bench.  They charged that he had "been for eight months past physically and mentally incapable of attending [his] duties."  Three months later, on September 25, The New York Times reported, "Magistrate Mott, who entered a sanitarium in Darien [Connecticut] several weeks ago almost a total wreck physically and mentally, has been gaining wonderfully in mental and physical vigor."  Nevertheless, the respected jurist would never leave the facility.  He died on August 11, 1905 and his body was returned to the East 77th Street house for his funeral.  

John O. Mott's estate sold 67 East 77th Street in April 1906 to Julia K. Benjamin.  In May 1908, she hired architect Charles A. Rich, whose plans called for "enlarging and partly remodelling [sic]" the house.  (The "enlarging" most likely was an addition to the rear.)  Benjamin leased the remodeled residence to attorney Dudley Davis and his wife, the former Alice M. Grosvenor."

The couple maintained a home in Newport.  While living here, their three children were born--Dudley in 1909, Rose Grosvenor in 1912, and William Grosvenor in 1914.

Emanuel Kaplan purchased 67 East 77th Street in August 1922.  A month later, on September 16, the Record & Guide reported that he had hired George and Edward Blum to "alter" the architecturally outdated house.  The architects removed the stoop and the brownstone front and gave it a neo-Colonial remake.  The centered entrance sat within the understated, limestone-faced ground floor.  The upper floors were clad in red brick and trimmed in limestone.  At the second floor, a triple arcade of French windows opened onto a faux balcony.  The third and fourth floor windows wore splayed lintels with layered keystones.  The renovations cost Kaplan the equivalent of $281,000 in 2025.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Kaplan's residency would be short-lived.  In May 1926 he sold it to Rembrandt Peale, Jr.  Born on July 18, 1895, Peale was the grandson of the famous artist Rembrandt Peale.  He and his wife, the former Helena Daly, had two children.  It does not appear that the family ever resided here, but leased it.  Living here in 1927 was lawyer and author Eliot Norton and his wife, the former Margaret P. Meyer.  A writer of broad interests, among his works were On Sales of Securities Through a Stock Broker and Lincoln, Lover of Men.

Adrienne Fogg purchased the house around 1941.  He sold it in 1951 to Manfred Landers who converted the basement to an apartment.  Industrialist, film producer, poet and philanthropist Hyman J. Sobiloff and his wife, Adelaide, lived in the main portion in the 1960s.  Sobiloff's first film,  the 1959 Montauk, was nominated for an Academy Award; and his second, the 1960 Central Park, was selected as a United States entry in the International Film Festival in Venice.

A colorful chapter in the history of the house began in 1981 when Morris Levy purchased it for $525,000, according to Richard Carlin's Godfather of the Music Business.  Levy was a co-founder of Roulette Records and of the Birdland jazz club.  According to the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 25, 1987, Levy eventually owned more than 90 businesses with 900 employees.

Also highly involved in Levy's businesses was gangland boss Vincent "the Chin" Gigante, head of the Genovese crime family.  Gigante lived in Greenwich Village with his wife, Olympia Grippa, whom he married in 1950.  His long-term mistress, Olympia Esposito, was listed as a vice president of Roulette Records.  (FBI agents referred to Gigante's wife as "Olympia 1" and Esposito as "Olympia 2.")  In 1982, a year after purchasing 67 East 77th Street, Levy sold it to Olympia Esposito.  The real estate records reflected that she paid  $490,000, although a later investigation by The Village Voice revealed the price was actually $16,000.

Richard Carlin writes,

After she moved in, Gigante visited the apartment secretly each night after midnight to sleep with Esposito and stage private meetings with his cohorts.  However, after discovering a small pile of plaster dust on the dining room floor, Gigante realized the house was not secure; the FBI had rented an apartment next door and had attempted to plant a bug by drilling through Esposito's ceiling.

Gigante and his wife had five children, Andrew, Salvatore, Yolanda, Roseanne and Rita; and he and Olympia Esposito had three children, Vincent, Lucia and Carmella.  

Vincent Gigante's 1960 mugshot.  via the United States Department of Justice.

Olympia Esposito died in June 1985.  Despite her death, the mobster continued to use 67 East 77th Street.  In reporting on Gigante's sanity hearings on December 29, 1989, The New York Times reported, "Detectives say he has often spent evenings in a white-brick, four-story town house at 67 East 77th Street, near Park Avenue.  City real-estate records list the owner of the building as Olympia Esposito."  

Vincent Louis Gigante was convicted of racketeering and conspiracy in 2003.  He died in the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners on December 19, 2005.  His and Olympia's son, Vincent, had inherited the East 77th Street house.  He sold it in 2002 to Nantasit Chitpredakon for $420,000.

Regrettably painted today, the house still has an apartment in the basement level.

photographs by the author