Daytonian in Manhattan: The Lost Peter and Elizabeth Schmidt House

Although their neighbors to the west had been demolished for the coming Miller Highway, the Schmidts kept their house in relatively prim condition in 1933. Savastano Photographic Studio, from the NYC Municipal Archives.

In the first years following the end of the Civil War, the neighborhood around Twelfth Avenue and West 52nd Street was filled mostly with ramshackle hovels. The desperate conditions of the inhabitants earned the district the nickname Hell's Kitchen. But the house at 634 West 52nd Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues, was an exception.

Three stories tall above basement and cellar levels, the frame house had a commodious wooden porch behind a front yard. Designed by the builder, its rustic take on Italianate architecture included wooden lintels and an understated cornice that recalled the waning Greek Revival style.

As early as 1868, piano maker Phillip Rodenback (often spelled as Rodenbach) and his family owned the house. He and his wife, Marie (who was 40 years old in 1868), would have at least two children, Kate and William. The family took in boarders. In 1868 they were Andrew Cumming, who ran a stone business at 51st Street at the Hudson River; carman William Williamson; and Jane Wright, a widow. Andrew Cumming would live with the family through 1873.

In 1870, Kate Rodenback taught at School No. 32. Fourteen years later, William Rodenback was enrolled in the Introductory Class of the College of the City of New York. The family's boarders in the early 1880s included Elizabeth Kenny, a widow, and her son, William, who worked as a clerk. Another widow, Mary Doughtery, boarded at the same time, as did engineer George Osborne.

Around the turn of the century, Peter Schmidt and his wife, Elizabeth, purchased the house. They would have at least three sons here, Peter J., Andrew B. and George A. Interestingly, it does not appear that the Schmidts took in any boarders.

Two boys, most likely Schmidt brothers, stand on the porch of 634 West 52nd St. Warehouses had replaced most similar structures by the turn of the century. from the collection of the New York Public Library

It is unclear when Peter Schmidt died, but Elizabeth was a widow when she died on December 31, 1911. Her funeral was held in the house on January 3, 1912. Four months later, on April 10, the "estate of Peter Schmidt, Deceased," offered the house at auction. The announcement described it as a "3-story and basement frame Dwelling, containing 12 rooms and 2 toilets, with 1-story sheds in the rear."

The Schmidt brothers, it seems, were not ready to give up their home and purchased the property and continued to live here. In 1925, Peter J. Schmidt enrolled in Fordham University; and the following year, Andrew was listed by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Navigation as operating an amateur radio station. His equipment had the power of just 8 watts.

In 1934, the northward construction of the Miller Highway had reached the Schmidt house, seen here from the rear. It barely escaped the demolition. from the collection of the New York Public Library.

George A. Schmidt was involved in an automobile accident in Kingston, New York on May 28, 1939. By then, his childhood neighborhood had drastically changed. In 1929, construction started on the Miller Highway (better known today as the West Side Highway). Built in stages, decades later it would hug the entire Manhattan riverfront.

By 1933, the structures neighboring the Schmidt house to the west were demolished, and grading for the highway in the early 1940s left the Schmidt's porch a floor above the sidewalk. In 1948, a store occupied the former basement level. An office took over the parlor and second floors, and the third floor held one apartment.

The Raffaele Bazaar occupied the basement level in 1948. A wooden staircase in the rear accessed the upper floors and a sign advertised the property for sale. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By the mid-1950s, the venerable wooden house was no longer recognizable. The top two floors were lopped off, a veneer of brick applied to the facade, and a storefront installed.