The 1902 Isidor and Julia Gartner Mansion - 309 West 105th Street

 

Two years after ground was broken, in 1902 builder and developer John C. Umberfield completed construction of seven, 22-foot wide townhouses on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in the French Beaux Arts style, they were five stories tall and faced in limestone.

Anchoring the row to the east was 309 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance within a rusticated base.  A projecting bay with gently curved corners provided an iron-railed balcony to the fifth floor.  Engaged Scamozzi columns that upheld a dramatic, broken pediment at the second floor were mimicked in the double-height pilasters that flanked the second and third floors.

Umberfield sold the house to Isidor and Julia M. Gartner in April 1902. Born in Rhaunen, Germany in September 1844, Gartner was a partner in Gartner & Friedenheit, makers of satin and silk ribbons.  The former Julia M. Winter was born in New York in 1847.  Also living in the house were the couple's unmarried sons, Louis Winter and Albert Victor; and son William S. (known as "Billy") and his wife, the former Carrol Batles (known familiarly as "Babe.")  They were married on July 3, 1900.  

The family's country home was in Arverne, Long Island.  Julia suffered a terrifying and potentially fatal incident there on August 10, 1902.  Among the domestic staff was Mathilda Schnitzer.  The New York Herald Dispatch reported, "The young woman found Mrs. Gartner alone in a room and sprang upon her with the cry, 'Now I'll do it!'  She then threw Mrs. Gartner on the floor and began to choke her."

Hearing the commotion, other servants ran to the room and found Julia unconscious on the floor.  "They dragged the Schnitzer girl away from Mrs. Gartner," said the article.  Two physicians soon arrived.  The Herald Dispatch said that Dr. Tingley "had trouble restoring [Julia] to consciousness," while the other doctor, George Meyer, diagnosed Mathilda Schnitzer with "acute mania."  (The term often refers to bipolar disorder today.)  The young woman was transported back to Manhattan where she was committed to the Bellevue Hospital insane ward.

William and Carrol had a baby boy, named William Jr. in 1902.  Tragically, he died on New Year's Day 1903.  The family's intense grief resulted in the infant's funeral being strictly private.

There would be another funeral in the parlor a month to the day later.  Julia Gartner died on February 1, 1903 at the age of 55.  Her active involvement and that of her husband in the local and Jewish communities was reflected in the groups represented at the funeral: Yorkville Lodge, No. 69; King Solomon's Lodge, No. 279; Temple Beth-El; the Monte Relief Society; and the Grand Lodge of the United Order of True Sisters.

On June 12, 1905, Isidore Gartner sold 309 West 105th Street to Daniel Fiske Kellogg.  Born on March 19, 1865 in Chittenango, New York, Kellogg was the financial editor of The Sun.  He married Maude Isabel Forbes on September 2, 1891 and they had a son, Daniel Jr., and a daughter Victorine Lee.  The family's summer home was in Newport.

The Kelloggs remained here for nearly a decade, selling the mansion in November 1914 for $50,000 to John F. Haas.  The price would translate to about $1.62 million in 2025.

The Haas family did not initially move into the house.  They leased it Colonel Frank Scott Long and his wife, the former Edith Erdine Clark.  The couple had two sons, Charles C. and Frank Sidney, and a daughter, Edith.  When the family moved into the house in 1914, Frank Sidney was 19 years old.  On June 18 that year, he was appointed a cadet in the U. S. Military Academy.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

When America entered World War I, Frank Sidney Long was deployed to Europe.  A first lieutenant, he was in command of a battalion at Fleville, France on October 5, 1918.  In posthumously awarding him the Distinguished Service Cross, The General Orders, No. 95 of the War Department on July 26, 1919 read:

Having been wounded in the side by shrapnel while caring for wounded men of his platoon, Lieut. Long refused to be evacuated, but returned from the dressing station to his command.  While withdrawing his platoon to a better position under heavy barrage he was instantly killed by shell fire.

The Haas family moved briefly into the West 105th Street residence.  On September 19, 1919, an ad in The New York Times read, "Lost--Brown and white rough terrier, male; answers to name Scally; no collar; strayed from home Wednesday, 309 West 105th St.  Miss Hass [sic]."  When Scally had not been found nearly two months later, the identical ad was placed in the New York Herald on November 3 adding the plea, "owner heartbroken."

Charles Andrew Flammer and his wife Harriet moved into the house before the end of the year.  Born on June 28, 1845, he graduated from the College of the City of New York and was admitted to the bar in 1866.  He was appointed a judge in 1873.  

On June 29, 1936, The New York Times reported on Flammer's 91st birthday, recalling that he "was a justice presiding over Yorkville Court during the Civil War."  Four months earlier, Flammer had been interviewed by The New York Times journalist Meyer Berger in "the cavernous, dark-paneled parlor of his home at 309 West 105th Street."  The judge recalled the day when he was in his teens, standing at the corner of Broadway and Canal Street "to watch Abraham Lincoln go by in his carriage."  

Justice Charles A. Flammer, Times Wide World Photo, The New York Times June 25, 1937

Berger mentioned in that February 13, 1936 article, "He and his third wife live in the great house off Riverside Drive with two servants.  He climbs the old stairs, despite his age, reads standard or classic books in his library and smokes three cigars a day."  

Judge Charles Andrew Flammer died in the house on June 24, 1937, four days before his 92nd birthday. 

The Flammer estate sold 309 West 105th Street to James H. Cruickshank on June 20, 1939.  In reporting on the sale, The New York Times remarked, "There are fourteen rooms and three baths in the building."

In 1950, the mansion was converted to apartments and furnished rooms.  A subsequent renovation in 1964 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and two each on the upper floors.

photographs by the author