The 1861 Claudius B. Conant House - 25 Stuyvesant Street

 

The regimented grid of the 1811 Commissioners Plan was interrupted by the diagonally-running Stuyvesant Street, originally a lane created by the Stuyvesant family to separate their two farms, Bouwerij #1 and #2.  On September 16, 1854, Matthias Banta purchased the triangular point between Stuyvesant Street and East 10th Street for development.

Generally attributed to James Renwick, Jr., Banta's five-story-and-basement Anglo-Italianate homes were completed in 1861.  They varied from 16- to 32-feet-wide and (because of the triangular plot) their depths ranged from 16- to 48-feet.  Among the narrowest was 25 Stuyvesant Street.  Like its neighbors, its rusticated brownstone basement and first floors sat below four stories of red brick trimmed in stone.  The tall, a stone bandcourse connected the fully-arched windows of the second floor.  Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.

Matthias Banta retained ownership of the house, leasing it originally to Margaret Madden who operated it as a boarding house.  On August 20, 1861, she advertised:

Board--At 25 Stuyvesant Street.  Second Floor of the new English basement house, a front and back Parlor, unfurnished.  Also a gentleman and his wife or two single gentlemen can be accommodated with Board.  House has all the modern improvements.  Convenient to cars and stages.

Madden's venture was relatively short-lived.  By 1863, two Fay families occupied the house.  Signourney Webster Fay was a merchant, operating at 48 Park Place, and Emery Brigham Fay was a broker.  Signourney and Emery were cousins, their fathers Nahum and Dexter Fay, respectively, were brothers.  

Born in 1814 in Southborough, Massachusetts, Emery married Almira Allton Adams in 1838.  They had five grown children.  Signourney was significantly younger than his cousin.  Emery was born in Boston in 1836 and he married Delia Almira Fay in 1860.  

The Civil War interrupted the Fays' residency here.  Signourney enlisted in the Union Army in March 1863.  Emery and Almira moved to East 7th Street and, presumably, Delia went along with them.  Upon Signorney's return from the war, he and Delia moved to Long Island.

The house was leased by the extended Claudius Buchanan Conant family.  Born in 1819, his wife was the former Elizabeth Trumbull Mills.  Living with the couple were their son, Clarence Mortimer; their daughters Elizabeth J. and Elizabeth Ann, and her husband John Richards Weed, and their son, Louis Mortimer.  

In 1866, both Clarence and Louis attended the College of the City of New York--Clarence as a junior and Louis in the Introductory Class.  Emily attended Normal College and in 1870 taught in that facility's "model school."

Also living in what must have been snug conditions was Alice Cunningham Fletcher.  In their commentary to Alice's memoir, Life Among The Indians, Joanna C. Scherer and Raymond J. DeMallie explains, "During her adolescence, family problems, the details of which have gone unrecorded, prompted her to leave home and take a position as a governess to the children of a wealthy hardware merchant, Claudius Buchanan Conant."

With the Conant children grown, Alice remained with the family, which essentially acted as her patron.  Joan T. Mark, in her A Stranger in Her Native Land, Alice Fletcher and the American Indians, writes, "Alice Fletcher's years as a governess came to an end around 1870, when she was in her early thirties.  With Claudius Conant, her former employer, still paying her a substantial salary, she [lived] at 25 Stuyvesant Street on Manhattan and set out to explore the cultural life of New York City.

While living here, Alice became highly involved with women's causes.  An article in the New York Herald on October 15, 1873, reported on the Woman's Congress, which the newspaper sarcastically said was composed of "about 120 'earnest' ladies, upon whom 'missions' have devolved."  The article noted, "The secretary of the Woman's Congress is Miss C. Fletcher, No. 25 Stuyvesant street."

While still living here, she turned to anthropology and ethnology, making extensive trips to the West to study Native American culture.  

Alice Cunningham Fletcher with Chief Joseph at the Nez Percé Lapwai Reservation in Idaho in 1889.  The man on the left is James Stuart, Alice's interpreter.  from the collection of the Smithsonian Institute.

Alice C. Fletcher became one of the most influential anthropologists studying Native Americans and helped write the Daws Act of 1887, which eliminated reservations and distributed communal land to individual households.

Claudius Buchanan Conant died in 1877.  By 1880, Clarence Mortimer Conant was a physician with his medical office in the house.  The family left in 1887 and the Banta family leased it to a proprietor who operated it as a rooming house.  A succinct advertisement in The Sun on August 1, 1888 offered, "To Let--Newly furnished rooms, suitable for one or two, near 3d av. and 9th st. elevated station."

By the turn of the century, the neighborhood had decidedly declined.  No. 25 Stuyvesant Street was leased by Flanagan Bros., the offices of which were on West 34th Street.  They sublet it to Annie Russell, a.k.a. Sadie Brown, who purportedly rented rooms.  Her operation was much more than that, however.

Living here in 1901 was 21-year-old Alma Cirnicer.  She worked closely with Meyer Rosenthal, who ran the Rosedale Hotel at 395 Bowery, to fleece naive "customers."  That summer Kai Bronsted, a lawyer from Copenhagen, had been visiting friends in Brooklyn.  On August 26, his last night in New York, he "determined to inspect the Bowery," as he explained to police.  He said he met Alma "and accompanied her to the Rosedale Hotel, where he was robbed of $59," reported The Evening World.

Bronsted complained to Rosenthal, who pretended to help.  They found Alma at Third Street and the Bowery where she handed him his empty wallet.  As they were arguing, Detective Penz happened by and arrested Alma and Rosenthal.

At the time, the house where Alma Cirnicer lived was on the police investigators' watch list.  A 1901 police report listed 25 Stuyvesant Street among "suspicious houses of prostitution."  And on March 7, 1902, Edward Bicherer signed a deposition saying he had visited 25 Stuyvesant Street several times and found that "Annie Russell did unlawfully keep a place...for persons to visit for unlawful sexual intercourse, and for lewd, obscene and indecent purposes."

Annie Russell was charged for running a disorderly house...

and there unlawfully procure and permit as well men and women of evil name and fame and of dishonest conversation, to visit, frequent and come together for unlawful sexual intercourse and for purpose of prostitution and there unlawfully and willfully did permit said men and women of evil name and fame there to be and remain drinking, dancing, fighting, disturbing the peace, whoring and misbehaving themselves.

On March 29, 1902, Flanagan Bros. received a letter from the Police Department that said in part, "You are hereby notified that your tenant, Sadie Brown, in the premises 25 Stuyvesant Street, was convicted of the crime of keeping and maintaining a disorderly house."  The letter demanded that if the tenant was not evicted immediately, the matter would be forwarded to the District Attorney.

The threat was successful.  Flanagan Bros. did not renew its lease and in March 1904, Emil Neufeld took over.  His roomers, many of them German immigrants, were hard working and respectable.

A roomer leans in the doorway of 25 Stuyvesant Street in 1941.  At the left is the 1803 Stuyvesant-Fish house.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The estate of Eliza A. Banta sold the house in 1925 to Jacob Bellak, who continued to rent rooms.  It quickly became the scene of a disturbing incident.  In October 1926, the body of Catherine Braum was found "hanging from the ceiling of a room at 25 Stuyvesant Street," according to The New York Times.  The death was reported as a suicide, but neighbors thought there was foul play involved.  They insisted that the 65-year-old had been poisoned and her body staged as a suicide.  Faced with mounting pressure, the District Attorney's Office ordered that Braum's body be exhumed for an autopsy.  (Frustratingly, newspapers did not report the findings.)

Another shocking incident occurred on April 2, 1939.  That morning, the Rev. Francis X. Quinn of the Church of the Guardian Angel was invited to a housewarming party at Eighth Avenue and 22nd Street.  "Instead of going to this party in a limousine I found myself traveling in a police car," he told reporters later.

At 25 Stuyvesant Street, 23-year-old John Naumo was holding an elderly couple "as hostages in an effort to stave off capture by police," as reported by the Long Island Star-Journal.  Quinn said he "arrived at the apartment an unwelcome visitor."

Naumo pointed his gun at the priest and said, "Come in father--with your hands up."  The desperate suspect and the cool-headed cleric talked at length.  Finally, said the newspaper, "After more than an hour of drama and suspense, during which the bandit asked the priest to get a glass and a bottle of beer from the icebox, the priest induced the bandit to surrender."

Through it all, 25 Stuyvesant Street was never converted to apartments.  When it was offered for sale in 2011, realtor photographs revealed that the 1861 interiors were remarkably intact.

A photograph of the parlor in 2011 shows an original marble Italianate mantel and intricate ceiling plasterwork.  via Brown Harris and Stevens realty

The house was purchased by award winning journalist and author Nina Munk.  Her articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair among others.  She sold it in 2016 for $6.5 million.  

photographs by the author

The 1931 Dumont Building - 515 Madison Avenue

 

image via redesignarchitects.com

Architect James Edwin Ruthven Carpenter, Jr. (who went professionally as J. E. R. Carpenter) was three years older than his brother, real estate developer James H Carpenter.  The two collaborated on several significant Manhattan structures, and in 1930, just months after the Stock Market crash, they embarked on another: a 42-story, $2 million office building at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 53rd Street.  (The construction cost would translate to $41.2 million in 2026.)

Completed in 1931, J. E. R. Carpenter's Gothic-inspired Art Deco pile was faced in gray brick above a three-story limestone base.  The deeply recessed entrance, flanked with storefronts, sat below a bronze-and-glass marquee and was framed by a gold-veined stone arch, carved with Gothic motifs.

The groined Gothic-style ceiling of the lobby can be glimpsed.  photo by Carole Teller

Terra cotta Gothic tracery sat atop the openings of the third floor, and cast Gothic-style spandrel panels decorated the upper facade.  Setbacks began at the 14th floor, rising to an offset tower.

photograph by Americasroof

Opened in October 1931, the building quickly drew advertising and publishing firms.  Among the first tenants were the offices of the Plumbers Trade Journal, Spur Publishing Company (which occupied the 11,000-square-foot 13th floor), Outlook Publishing Company, and Advertising Digest. 

An interesting tenant was The Blue Cockade.  On May 10, 1932, The New York Times explained it was "a recently formed organization favoring repeal of the prohibition amendment."  The membership was different from other anti-Prohibition groups.  A representative told The Times, "Several department stores in the city have been organized '100 per cent' in membership in The Blue Cockade."

Real estate agent Jules Spiegel opened his "well-furnished" office here in August 1933.  Just days later, the 40-year-old was taken out in handcuffs.  The New York Times reported that he, "looked back wistfully as he departed with the detectives," adding, "The last thing he saw in his office as he closed the door was a large floral horseshoe.  It bore the inscription 'Success.'"

Spiegel had been accused by Frank Nagel of larceny.  He told authorities that he had paid $225 to Spiegel in his "luxuriously furnished office" here as security for a rent collector's job.  It was a significant amount in the Depression years, and Nagel got neither the job nor his money back.  As it turned out, Nagel was only one of several victims.  The assistant district attorney revealed in court that Spiegel "had swindled many others by the same means in the last ten years."

Among the tenants of the storefronts as early as 1933 was the Michaelyan Galleries.  It held an exhibition of Oriental rugs that November, assembled from the collection of the Textile Museum of Washington and from H. Michaelyan's personal collection.

A much more controversial tenant at the time was the Second Spanish Republic Consulate.  The government had been formed on April 14, 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII.  In 1933, a "revolutionary uprising" by Spanish Socialists was put down and the rebels imprisoned.  It sparked a backlash among some Americans.  

On October 10, 1934, The New York Times reported that "about 200 men and women stalked and shouted for an hour yesterday afternoon demonstrating their support of the Spanish revolt," and on November 24, 1934, The Daily Worker reported that the Young Communist League had called for "mass picketing to demand the release of the imprisoned Socialist and Communist workers of Spain" in front of 515 Madison Avenue that day.

Another sometimes controversial tenant at the time was the New York State Birth Control Federation.  Two years later, on May 14, 1936, the formation of the National Medical Council on Birth Control was announced here.

Theatrical producer Jules Alberti operated from 515 as early as 1934.  On the afternoon of January 23, 1935, 23-year-old John Days, Jr. entered the office, "brandished a pistol and demanded $1,000," according to The New York Times.  The article described Days as "a WPA worker" and said his wife had formerly worked as a domestic servant in Alberti's home.

At gunpoint, Alberti was forced to make out a promissory note for the money.  He promised to meet Day at the corner of 54th Street and Lexington at 7:00 that evening to give him "an installment."  Not surprisingly, when Day showed up, two detectives were waiting for him.

More turmoil within the Spanish Consulate was to come.  In 1936, civil war resulted in the overthrow of the government and the installation of General Francisco Franco as the country's ruler.  On August 6, 1936, The New York Times reported that the consul, Felix de Iturriaga had been replaced "because he apparently was 'not in sympathy' with the present Spanish Government."  And six months later, on January 13, 1937, the new consul, Luis Careaga, announced that the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce was "no longer authorized."  He told reporters that the functions of the chamber would now be exercised at 515 Madison Avenue.

As early as 1936, the burgeoning television industry was represented in 515 Madison Avenue by The Television Corporation of America.  It was joined by the Allen B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc., "manufacturers of television equipment."  In 1938, Dumont installed a broadcasting antenna on the building and in May 1939 The New York Times reported it would erect an "outdoor studio" for "the transmission of tele-pictures."  The article said it "will be equipped on a setback of the building to receive the benefit of daylight.  It will be roofed with glass so that inclement weather will not interfere with the schedule."

Licensing of the Dumont Laboratories television station was granted in April 1940.  Later that year, the station made history.  On November 10, The New York Times reported:

Television has just played with honor and acclaim its most striking role in America's greatest political show.  Last Tuesday it took its place alongside that more mature trouper of twenty-odd years of Presidential elections, the microphone.

According to the article, "nearly 4,000 television sets were in use," as the results of the Presidential election came in.

The firm's visible presence here gave the building its nickname, the Dumont Building.  The following January, the Allen B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc. demonstrated a "625 line definition" receiver here that produced enhanced clarity to the image.  The firm made history again that year by initiating "commercial" television.  The New York Times reported on May 11, "The DuMont station will specialize in outside pick-ups, such as baseball and football games and events."

As turmoil swept Europe, the newly-formed American First Committee took space here in 1941.  Perhaps its most visible member was Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh.  He made an appeal in April "to keep the United States out of the war."  In response, 3,000 membership applications were received the next day.  "Each member is required to subscribe to a declaration that he has no affiliation with any foreign power," noted The New York Times on April 25.

On June 16, 1941, the Government closed the United States consulates in Germany.  The Anti-Nazi League reacted, "It's about time.  The league has long advocated just such a course."  The New York Times reported, "The America First Committee, 515 Madison Avenue, declined to make any statement."

The Dumont Television Laboratories continued to break ground.  On September 30, 1943, it announced it had teamed with Police Headquarters.  "Pictures of missing persons will be broadcast over [the] television system," reported The New York Times.  And on November 5 that year, the newspaper said, "When Senator Robert F. Wagner goes on the air at 8:15 o'clock tonight over Station WABD, it will be the first time in the history of the nation that a candidate for major public office has used television as a means of appealing for votes on election day."

In 1945, with the war ended, the Society for the Prevention of World War III, Inc. established an office here.  And resumption of protests against the Franco regime resumed.  On March 3, 1946, The New York Times reported on the 700 pickets outside, "demanding that the United States sever diplomatic relations with Franco Spain."

On May 18, 1950, the Dumont Laboratories announced the "invention of an all-color all-electronic direct-view television tube."  And while the headquarters continued to operate from 515 Madison Avenue, in December 1951 it announced the opening of its "$4,000,000 Tele-Centre" at 205 East 67th Street.  The seven-story structure would house five studios.  In the move, the WABD antenna was removed and relocated to the Empire State Building.  The headquarters in the Dumont Building was now named the Dumont Television Company.

In 1958, the former Dumont rooftop station became home to the Columbia University WKCR-FM radio station.  It would remain until 1977.

The Dumont Building was sold in May 1962 to Aaron Rabinowitz, chairman of the board of the Fred F. French Management Company.  The New York Times reported that he purchased it "for family investment."

Among the tenants at the time was the national headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, founded in 1912.  It held an annual awards dinner on January 31, 1963 in Washington D.C. where it awarded President John F. Kennedy its America's Democratic Legacy Award, established in 1948.

An alarming incident occurred here on September 21, 1974.  Brothers Caro and Isaac Yamaoka ran the jewelry business, Caro Yamaoka Company, on the 13th floor.  Just after noon that day, two males posing as deliverymen entered.  They "drew guns, handcuffed the owner, his brother and an employee and escaped with about $150,000 in pearls," according to police.  The heist would equal more than $950,000 today.

image via marketplace.vts.com

The renovations to the ground floor of 515 Madison Avenue--always the first to be brutalized--have been made with some sympathy to the 1931 architecture, and the magnificent entrance is beautifully intact.  The building's "stepped-back shape," was described by The New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger on February 8, 1987, "a genial eclectic relic from the 1920's."

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1892 Max D. Neuberger House - 115 East 95th Street

 

Between 1890 and 1892, developer Francis Joseph Schnugg nearly filled the northern blockfront of East 95th Street from Lexington to Park Avenues.  His 17 rowhouses were constructed in two phases and designed by two architects.  The second phase, which included No. 115, was designed by Louis Entzer, Jr.  His hybrid Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival residences harmoniously complimented the earlier homes, designed by Frank Wennemer.

Faced in brownstone, the three-story-and-basement house was just 16-feet-wide.  Simple, square-headed stone drip moldings sat above the parlor floor openings, while continuous arched eyebrows crowned the top floor windows.  Entzer's design was dominated by a sheet metal oriel at the second floor.  It was decorated with fluted pilasters, neo-Classical swags, and a triangular pediment.

The house was initially home to commission merchant Max Seligmann, a partner in Seligmann Brothers.  The family's residency would be short-lived and by the turn of the century, the Max Neuberger family owned and lived in 115 East 95th Street.  Neuberger was the head of the importing firm Neuberger & Co.

Max Neuberger's father, David, died at Stuggart, Germany on April 3, 1900.  A memorial service was held in the parlor here on April 5.

On December 5, 1907, The Warrensburgh News, of Warrensburgh, New York, reported that the Neubergers had announced "the engagement of their daughter, Miss Henrietta, to Walter K. P. Baumann, of Warrensburgh."  The article noted that a "reception will take place at the Neuberger residence, 115 East 95th street, on Sunday, December 22."  The wedding took place in Delmonico's on October 12, 1908. 

On September 24, 1913, The New York Times reported, "The Rev. Dr. Moses Hyamson, for years one of the best-known rabbis in England, who was called to New York to take the place of the rabbi of the Congregation Orach Chaim...arrived from England on the North German Lloyd liner Kronpriz Wilhelm yesterday morning.  He was accompanied by Mrs. Hyamson."  

Born in Suvalk, Russia (today part of Poland), Rabbi Hyamson had been serving as acting Chief Rabbi of the British Empire when he left London.  He and Sarah Gordon were married at the Great Synagogue in London in 1892.  His contract as Rabbi of Congregation Orach Chaim was for life.

Within four months, the couple had a long-term home.  The Neubergers moved out of the East 95th Street home for the Hyamsons' use.  On January 25, 1914, The New York Times reported, "The Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Hyamson are now occupying their house at 115 East Ninety-fifth Street, and will be glad to receive their friends."

Rabbi Moses Hyamson, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Rabbi Hyamson's busy schedule, it would appear, did not allow time for relaxation.  The entry about Hyamson in Who's Who 1915 noted: "Recreations: none."  Sarah Hyamson filled her time with religious and civic service.  She was president of the Sisterhood Path of Life, a women's group that offered spiritual study and support.

Dr. Solomon Schechter, a life-long friend of Hyamson, died in November 1915.  Moses Hyamson visited Schechter's bier in the drawing room of his Riverside Drive home on the evening of November 20.  Upon leaving, Hyamson walked down Riverside Drive to 116th Street to catch a crosstown bus home.  He saw a bus approaching and stepped into the street to hail it.  The New York Times reported, "Seeing that it was the wrong one he stepped back, and directly into the path of a taxicab."

Rabbi Hyamson was knocked to the pavement.  The cabbie, Martin Joseph, stopped the automobile and his passengers fled.  Joseph and a policeman carried Hyamson to a park bench and waited for an ambulance.  At Knickerbocker Hospital, the rabbi was treated for a fractured left ankle.  He refused to make a complaint against Joseph and was later taken to 115 East 95th Street.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Hyamsons left the house in 1921 and on June 14 The New York Times reported that Max D. Neuberger had sold the property to William Poshik, who resold it in March 1922.

It became home to newlyweds Louis Butler McCagg, Jr. and his bride, the former Katherine G. Winslow.  The couple was married on June 27 that year.  Born in 1897, McCagg was a graduate of Harvard College where he was captain of the rowing crew.  He had just graduated, his college education interrupted by World War I, during which he served as a naval officer.

McCagg had a sterling pedigree.  His father, attorney Louis Butler McCagg, Sr., was, as described by The New York Times, "connected with several of the most prominent and older Newport families."  His mother was the former Edith Edgar King, the daughter of Edward and Mary Augusta LeRoy King, prominent in Newport and Manhattan high society.

When the McCaggs (who would have five children) moved in, Louis was working in the banking firm of Lee, Higginson & Co.  His career would take a decisive turn, however, becoming an architect with the firm of Rogers & Butler.

In October 1953, The New York Times reported that Fred H. Hill, president of the Melfra Realty Corporation, intended to buy 115 East 95th Street.  The article said he "plans to convert the structure to seven apartments of one and one-half and two and one-half rooms."

Instead, actress June Havoc stepped in.  Decades later, The New York Times would describe her as "the actress who buys and refurbishes houses in the city and in the country as a hobby."  She purchased the house and converted to three apartments--a duplex in the basement and parlor level (for herself and husband, William Spier), and one unit each on the upper floors.

June Havoc was born Ellen Evangeline Hovick in British Columbia, Canada on November 8, 1912.  She began her theatrical career as a child, "Baby June."  Her sister, Rose Louise Hovick, would also become famous as Gypsy Rose Lee.  Their mother, in order to circumvent child labor laws, forged birth certificates for both girls. 

June Havoc and Van Johnson in the 1940 Broadway production of Pal Joey (publicity photograph)

Havoc had starred in the 1944 Broadway play Mexican Hayride, and left that show to take on the title role of Sadie Thompson (written for Ethel Merman, who withdrew from the production before its opening).  Throughout the 1940s and '50s, she appeared in musical films with stars like Alice Faye, Betty Grable, and George Raft.  Now back in New York City, she returned to the stage.

Producer, director and writer William Spier was Havoc's third husband.  The couple was married in 1948 and remained together until Spier's death in 1973.  He was born in New York City on October 16, 1906.  Starting his career at the age of 19 with Musical America magazine, he would eventually become its chief critic.  In 1929 he began producing and directing radio shows for Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn.  

William Spier, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Spier hired Orson Welles in 1936 for The March of Time program, Welles's first radio job.  In 1952, shortly after he and Havoc moved into 115 East 95th Street, he launched the 90-minute television show, Omnibus.  In 1954, he produced, directed and wrote the CBS situation comedy Willy, starring June Havoc.  That year he co-directed the film Lady Possessed, starring June and James Mason.

In January 1967, Havoc sold 115 East 95th Street to Robert Piccus and his wife.  Piccus was manager of telecommunications-market planning for the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.  It is unclear how long the Piccus family remained here.  The house was reconverted to a single family home in 2000.

photographs by the author

The 1853 David Read House - 343 West 47th Street

 

Prior to 2023, the altered mansion appeared like this.  image via loopnet.com

Born in 1830, Henry Astor was the youngest son of William Backhouse and Margaret Armstrong Astor.  He incurred the wrath of his family at the age of 20 when he married Malvina Dinehart--the daughter of a farmer and gardener who lived near the Astor family's summer residence at Red Hook, New York and who had done gardening on the estate.

Henry and Malvina moved to West Copake, New York.  Most New Yorkers assumed that his disobedience resulted in his ruin.  Decades later The New York Times remarked, "It was thought for years that he was a pauper, disinherited for marrying the gardener's daughter."  Instead, he and his wife lived well on "the rents from property in the heart of New York City, valued at many millions."  It was held in trust, however, and Henry was kept at arm's length from his holdings.  The newspaper added, "The trust established for Henry Astor was recommitted in 1869 to his brothers, John Jacob Astor and William Astor."

Among Henry Astor's holdings was a 25-f00t-wide, four-story Italianate style residence at 223 West 47th Street (renumbered 343 in 1863.)  The arched entrance above a short stoop sat off-center.  It was flanked by carved foliate brackets that upheld an arched pediment.  Beside the stoop was a narrow horsewalk, or passageway, that tunneled through the structure and accessed the rear yard.  In the rear was a three-story wooden building.

Astor's first tenants in the house appear to have been the families of Thomas Allen, a carpenter, and William Murfit, a carman, here in 1853.  Almost assuredly, Allen used the rear building for his carpentry business. 

At the time, David Read and his family lived at 107 West 29th Street.  Like Thomas Allen, he was a carpenter.  He specialized in the making of sashes and blinds.  In 1856, he signed a lease on the West 47th Street property, moving his family into the house and his business into the rear building.

Read was apparently highly successful.  While most families with substantial homes like this one took in at least one boarder or roomer, the Reads lived alone.  It suggests that the family was comfortably affluent.  Additionally, the social columns noted the Reads' arrival at Newport each season.

After leasing the house for two decades, on January 17, 1874 the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that "John Jacob Astor, Jr., William, and Henry Astor" had sold 343 West 47th Street to David Read.  

The Reads' daughter, Emma, was a young woman in 1876 and taught girls in Grammar School No. 17 on West 47th Street near Ninth Avenue.  She still held that position in 1879 when her parents sold 343 West 47th Street to Charlotte A. Morris for $15,000 (about $487,000 in 2026).

While David Read continued to operate his business from the rear building (apparently renting it), his former refined home was now operated as a boarding house.  The tenants, nevertheless, were middle-class.  Among them in 1880 were Henry Upton, a real estate agent; Henry Sherman, who listed his profession as "superintendent;" and John Green, who did not list a title, suggesting he was retired.

Among the boarders in 1890 were Charles N. Moulton, who worked as a driver for the Mutual Benefit Ice Company; and Louis Curtis, an auctioneer.  On June 1, Moulton left New York "rather suddenly," according to the New York Herald, for East Charleston, Vermont, where he became a contractor.  Before leaving, he handed his bank book from the New York Savings Bank on 14th Street to Curtis for safe keeping.  

The following year, Moulton became engaged and the wedding was set for the first week of October 1891.  The ceremony would have to be postponed, however.  Moulton wrote to Curtis, asking for the $160 in his bank account.  The New York Herald reported, "This money Curtis drew out, but failed to send any of it to the owner."  The two faced off in court on October 13, 1891.  Moulton was awarded $110 of the original $160.  Curtis was allowed to keep $50 "for expenses" involved in "undertaking business for the plaintiff."

The block was on the border of the more degraded areas of Hell's Kitchen.  In 1893 the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church purchased 343 West 47th Street for its newly-formed mission called The Armitage House.  On April 8, The Christian Union reported that it "is being prepared for mission work of a very practical kind.  We are informed that on the first floor there will be a Sunday-school and general assembly room, on the second floor a kindergarten, and on the third floor a day-nursery."  The article noted, "The locality in which this mission is situated swarms with children, and the need is great."

The Armitage House was an early product of the Settlement House movement.  Reformers hoped that by providing slum children a safe place to play, by teaching impoverished women about nutrition and health, and by giving them skills to earn a living, their miserable lives could be improved.  The day nurseries and kindergartens provided women freedom to work during the day and add to their families' incomes.

On March 31, 1894, the Board of Aldermen approved "two additional lamps in front of the Armitage Mission Church."  The Directory of Social Agencies in 1895 described it as "a centre of philanthropic endeavor" and explained:

It includes a Day Nursery and Kindergarten, Sewing-School, Cooking-School, Reading-Room, a Company of the Boys' Brigade, Branch of the Penny Provident Fund, and a course of Lectures for the people, etc.

A reception by the patronesses (who had society names like Rockefeller, Gould and Flagler) on November 19, 1895 reflected the need and the work that was being done here.  The New-York Tribune reported, "during the last year they have taken care of 4,489 little children and enrolled in the kindergarten 215."

The mission's report two years later reflected a staggering jump in numbers.  In 1896 The Armitage House nursery tended to 6,000 "healthy children under 7 years of age, whose parents are at work away from home during the day."  A larger facility was necessary.

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. donated half of the blockfront on Tenth Avenue at West 50th Street for a new mission house and chapel.  The complex was completed in 1901 and in July 1902 the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church sold 343 West 47th Street to John E. and Annie Dordan. 

Dordan was a builder, having started his career in 1882.  He was now president of John T. Brady & Co., contractors.  Dordan was also highly involved in Tammany politics and in 1905 ran for leadership of the Fifteenth Assembly District.  

A banner promoting John E. Dordan stretches across West 44th Street in 1905. from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

The Dordans had at least one son.  Well-to-do, they maintained a summer home in Pelham, New York, and in 1910 John would register his new Pierce-Arrow automobile.  Nevertheless, they initially leased the lower portion of the house to the New York School of Industrial Art.  

They, additionally, took in one renter at a time.  Living here in 1904 was 24-year-old William Smith, a chauffeur.  On the afternoon of May 11, he took his friend, William Thaw, on a joy ride.  (Thaw was the son of Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw who would murder Stanford White two years later.)  The New York Times reported that Smith, while "driving a big forty-horse power automobile," alarmed pedestrians in midtown "by dashing up and down the street for several blocks either way at top speed."  Smith was jailed for reckless driving.  "A young man with him was not held," said that article.

The Dordans continued to take in a roomer.  In 1912 it was John Eberhardt, a truck driver for the Kelly Springfield Tire Company; and the following year, R. Voelckel, a theatrical manager, was here.

Annie Dordan died in the house on January 3, 1916.  Her funeral was held in St. Malachy's church on West 49th Street.  John E. Dordan remained in the house for years.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Involvement in Tammany Hall often involved interaction with shady dealings and characters.  On December 20, 1922, Richard R. Manden was arrested for running a "place for gambling" on West 44th Street near Broadway, according to The New York Times.  The article said, "John E. Dordan of 343 West Forty-seventh Street appeared promptly to pledge a $35,000 house as security for the bond and Manden was released at once."

Two years later, in April 1924, a grand jury investigated "charges of graft in the letting of Nassau County bridge and road contracts."  The jury's investigation ground to a halt when important witnesses and the "books of construction companies" went missing.  The New York Times reported on April 22, "John E. Dordan, President of John T. Brady & Co., of New York, which had the contract for the $1,000,000 Long Beach bridge has been sought in vain for the last four weeks."  Also missing was the firm's bookkeeper, Anna Fitzgerald.  (Anna's mother told investigators that she "had gone South.")

The article said, "John E. Dordan was not at his home at 343 West Forty-seventh Street last night.  His son, J. J. Dordan, said he had gone to Philadelphia for the day and would return to New York today."  When told that process servers had been unable to find his father, Dordan said flippantly, "I guess they haven't been looking very hard.  He's in his office every day."

Dordan sold 343 West 47th Street in 1928.  Architect Philip Bardes converted it to accommodate "one family and furnished rooms."  The configuration lasted until 1989 when a renovation resulted in one apartment per floor.

After the property was sold for back taxes in 2014, Melamed Architect filed plans for a partial demolition and renovation.  The renderings, released the following year, obliterates any historic fabric.  

image via Melamed Architect PC

In 2026, partial demolition was underway for a six-story, six unit residential building.  In reporting on the plans on October 7, 2015, Nikolai Fedak of New York YIMBY scoffed, "the existing building at 343 West 47th Street was nothing to write home about."  (I didn't get that memo.)

The Peter K. Wilson House - 56 West 87th Street

 

An unfortunate coat of white paint covers the beige brick of the upper floors, seen in the neighboring house to the right.

On December 20, 1890, the Real Estate Record & Guide opined, "It would not be unjust to others to state that no firm of builders in New York City is better known than that of Chas. Buek & Co."  The article added, "Messrs. Buek & Co. always draw the plans for their own buildings, the firm being architects as well as builders."  Two months later, on February 21, 1891, the journal reported on the firm's next project, saying that Charles Buek & Co. "will shortly commence the erection of six four-story brick and limestone front dwellings on the south side of 87th street, 100 feet east of Columbus Avenue."

Charles Buek & Co. designed the row, which stretched from 48 to 58 West 87th Street, as three mirror-image pairs.  Nos. 56 and 58 shared a split stoop, the steps of which branched off to the east and west half way down.  Like its architectural sibling, the Romanesque Revival design of 56 West 87th Street featured rough-cut stone at the basement and parlor levels and beige brick at the upper floors.  A blustraded oriel dominated the second floor and a triple arcade at the third wore a continuous stone eyebrow.  A full-width, brick-faced gable fronted the slate shingled mansard.

The 20-foot-wide residence became home to the family of Peter K. Wilson.  A widower, Wilson was born in Scotland on August 27, 1825 and came to New York City at the age of 15.  By the time he was 21, he had started his own business, and in 1867 went into partnership, creating J. B. McBurnie & Co.  (It was described by the Dry Goods Reporter as "manufacturers and importers of laces, embroideries and white goods.") Upon his partner's retirement, Wilson renamed the firm P. K. Wilson.  He established the first American-owned lace factory in France, and was awarded the grand cross of the Legion of Honor from the French Government for promoting trade between the two countries.

Peter K. Wilson, Dry Goods Economist, December 20, 1913 (copyright expired)

Living with Peter Wilson in the West 87th Street house were his two single children, Samuel M. and Agnes Elizabeth, and his married son, William B. and his wife.  When Samuel joined his father's firm, the name was again changed--now to P. K. Wilson & Son.  Later William entered the business as general manger.

The Wilsons maintained a small domestic staff.  In April 1893, they were searching for two replacements.  Their advertisement in the New York Herald read, "Wanted--A cook, who is a good laundress, in a small family; also a girl to do chamberwork and waiting; German or Swede preferred."

The drawing room was the scene of Agnes Elizabeth's marriage to William Sanford Boyden on December 21, 1898.  

Around Thanksgiving 1913, Peter Wilson retired at the age of 89.  Two weeks later, on December 9, he died in the West 87th Street house of pneumonia.  In reporting his death, the Dry Goods Reporter remarked, "Mr. Wilson had long been regarded as an expert on laces and embroideries."  Somewhat surprisingly, his funeral was not held in the drawing room, but at the West Park Presbyterian Church.  

William B. Wilson and his wife continued to occupy 56 West 87th Street.  By 1914 they had changed from horse-drawn vehicles to an automobile and that year William owned a Renault.

Wilson sold the house in March 1924 to Baron Gennaro Mario Curci.  Born in Rome on September 19, 1888, he relocated to New York City in the mid-1910s.  Trained in voice at the Royal Academy of Rome, Curci ran his operatic vocal coaching studio in the house.

The New York Courier, March 1925 (copyright expired)

In its September 1924 issue, the Musical Advance announced, "Maestro G. M. Curci, the well-known vocal teacher and operatic coach, has removed to 56 West 87th Street, where he has resumed his individual teaching and classes, and is prepared to receive applications from those wishing to study with him."

Gennaro Mario Curci, Musical Courier, October 31, 1918 (copyright expired)

Curci branched into playwriting and in 1928 his play Barbara was produced in Naples and Havana.  It earned him first prize in a competition arranged by Le Cronache Letterarie e Teatrioli, a theatrical review of Naples.  On June 17, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Mme. Annie Mork, Finnish actress, who has been visiting in this country, was the guest of honor Saturday at a reception and supper given by Baron Gennaro M. Curci at his home, 56 West Eighty-seventh Street...She will appear [at the Abo Theatre in Abo, Finland] in September in the title role of 'Barbara,' by Baron Curci."

It had not taken long for Broadway producers to take notice.  A week before that article, The New York Times reported that William H. Leahy had announced that Barbara would be staged on Broadway "early next October."

Before long, it was Curci himself who was before audiences.  Motion picture director David Burton met him at a social function and was impressed with his voice and stature.  He cast him in a leading role in the 1935 film The Melody Lingers On.  It changed the vocal coach's life.  Curci went on to be a character actor in more than 30 feature films.  His new career took him from West 87th Street to Hollywood and by 1941 No. 56 was home to wine dealer Emil Marak.  

The natural brick can be seen in this 1941 image.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In the 1960s, the house was operated as unofficial apartments.  In the summer of 1967, a two-and-a-half-room apartment was rented to Gary Spring, who was only 19 years old.  Spring's actual home was in Bayside, Queens.  The Long Island Star-Journal explained that the teen did not intend to live here, but rented it "because the 'heat on dope parties in Queens" was getting too intense.  

Spring was the leader of eight youths who were involved in the selling and using of marijuana, LSD and other drugs.  Spring's plan of hiding his operation in a Manhattan apartment did not work.  The Long Island Star-Journal said that two Narcotics Squad detectives infiltrated the ring by one of them "posing as a beatnik and another by posing as a Queens College student."

A 2:00 on the morning of June 21, 1967, detectives raided the apartment and arrested eight youths, including Gary Spring.  Seven were charged with possession of marijuana and loitering "for the purpose to buy or use narcotics."  Spring was charged with additional charges of "possession of LSD and maintenance of a place for the purpose of using narcotics."

An official conversion completed in 1969 resulted in 2 apartments each on the lower three floors, and four furnished rooms on the top floor.  A renovation in 1992 returned 56 West 87th Street to a single family home above a basement apartment.

photographs by the author

The Lost Jessie Crawford Whyte House and Store - 78 West 126th Street

 

To the left of the house, a wooden fence protects the horsewalk, or passage, that accessed the smaller residence in the rear.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Born in 1818, Jessie Crawford married James Whyte in Scotland around 1840.  The couple, who would have five sons and four daughters, arrived in America around 1850.  

The following year, Andrew Crawford (presumably Jessie's father) erected a two-story wooden house-and-store at 78 West 126th Street just east of Eighth Avenue (later renamed Frederick Douglass Boulevard).  The Harlem neighborhood in which the property sat was sparsely developed and was still mostly filled with farms and summer estates.  Crawford's humble building drew on the Italianate style.  That was especially apparent in the carpenter-made scrolled brackets below the eave line.  A second house sat in the rear yard.  

Jessie Whyte inherited the property in 1874.  It does not appear that the Whyte family occupied the property, but rented the two buildings.  Work-wanted advertisements often hinted at the social-economic status of the applicants.  One, on July 22, 1889, for instance, read: "Nurse or Chambermaid--By a young girl; willing and obliging; first-class references.  78 West 126th-st., rear."

The occupant of the rear house in 1896 placed an advertisement in the New York Journal that suggested she had made a heart-rending decision.  "A woman wishes to board her child where it will get mother's care.  McEvoy, 78 West 126th st., rear house."

Jessie Crawford Whyte bequeathed the property to her two eldest sons, David C. and James Richardson Whyte.  David transferred his portion on December 6, 1895 to James.  James was born on April 27, 1846 and married Emma Elizabeth Shafer in 1868.  The couple had nine children and, like David, they lived in New Jersey.

It appears that a physician occupied the ground floor at the time of the transfer.  He and his family would have lived behind the office.  Late in 1897, the front building was vacant and an advertisement on December 12 offered:

Back parlor, suitable for physician, newly furnished, hot, cold water; also second-story front and back rooms; fine location; references.  78 West 126th-st.

Instead, Louis Muliero signed a five-year lease for the ground floor on May 1, 1898 and moved his shoe store into the front space.  It would be the first of several shoe stores at the address.

The upper floor tenants at the turn of the century sought a cushy job, placing an ad in the New-York Tribune on June 8, 1900:

Caretakers--American couple; for vacant house; summer months or permanent; excellent reference and bond, no family; temperance.  Mr. Marion.  78 West 126th-st.

At the time of the Marions' ad, the Harlem neighborhood had greatly changed.  In 1879, elevated trains were extended into the area, making it a vibrant suburb.  In 1889, a dance school and hall was erected at 80 West 126th Street and in 1898 the Builders' League of New York erected a meeting hall at 74 West 126th Street.  The Whytes' little frame house was now a charming anachronism on the block.

The picturesque building, dwarfed by its neighbors, was captured by Charles Von Urban in 1932. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Raphael Maresco was born in Italy in 1882 and came to New York in 1889.  He saved up $200 and purchased Louis Muliero's shoe store.  Maresco did well and by 1904 he had accumulated $900 that he planned "to send over to Italy for the sweetheart he left there," according to The New York Times.

In July, Gregoric Delavere approached the 22-year-old and asked him if he would sell the store.  According to The Times, "they agreed upon a price, and Delavere said he would like to sit around the store for a day or two and get an idea of the character and amount of business Maresco was doing."

On the second day, Delavere went out and brought back cheese and crackers and a pitcher of beer.  Maresco recalled later that Delavere did not drink the beer.  That was because he had spiked it with what police called "knock-out drops."  According to Maresco, the next thing he knew, "he was lying on the bed in the rear of the store."  He had been passed out for 24 hours.  His $900 life savings and Delavere were both gone.

Six weeks later, on August 28, Maresco was walking along West 111th Street when he saw Delavere sitting on the stoop of No. 303.  "He called Policeman Nelson of the East One Hundred and Fourth Street Station, and Delavere was locked up."  It is unlikely that Maresco recovered his money.

The ground floor of 78 West 126th Street continued to house a shoe shop.  In September 1912, the Hanover Shoe Company signed a lease.

James Richardson Whyte died on November 2, 1928.  The West 126th Street property was inherited by his four adult children, Jessie Whyte, Elsie W. Noyes, Ida K. Walker and Howard Whyte.

At least one of their tenants during the Depression years was a bit shady.  On March 1, 1934, The New York Sun reported that 34-year-old Joseph Antico and a friend, Dominick Coppa, had been arrested for operating a policy racket.  (Policy games were illegal lotteries, later known as the numbers racket.  The games preyed on low-income persons who dreamed of quick riches.)

Two months earlier, The New York Times reported that 78 West 126th Street had been sold to the Northlone Realty Corporation.  The New York Sun mentioned that the property had "been owned for eighty-four years" by the Whyte family.

Tillie Epps leased the building from Northlone Realty Corporation.  She encountered a difficult tenant in Robert Johnson in 1938.  On May 14 that year, The New York Age reported sarcastically:

When your landlady has the audacity to insult your integrity and demean your pride by demanding that you either move from her premises or pay her the rent, you can hardly be blamed for making some sort of righteous indignation.

Tillie Epps had Johnson arrested when, according to her, he "threatened her with bodily harm when she demanded that he either pay his board or move out of the house."  Johnson was charged with disorderly conduct and evicted.

A demolition permit was issued for the property in 1943.  Somewhat astoundingly, the lot remains vacant.