The 1889 Louis Isaacs House - 349 West 122nd Street

 

Within three years, Joseph W. and Abram Alonzo Teets transformed the block of West 122nd Street between Morningside and Manhattan Avenues from vacant lots into a neighborhood.  In 1888, they hired architect J. A. Webster to design eleven three-story-and-basement brownstone houses on the north side of the block.  The following year, Webster was back, designing ten houses on the south side for the brothers.

Among the initial project, completed in 1889, was 349 West 122nd Street.  Just 15-feet wide, it was identical to its neighbors.  The tall stoop was guarded by beefy iron newels and railings.  Each floor was belted with carved foliate bands, and the windows wore prominent molded cornices supported by fluted brackets.  

Financially involved in her sons' development projects was Louisa S. Wood Teets.  In July 5, 1890, for instance, she purchased five of the northern houses--342 to 360 West 122nd Street--from Joseph and Abram Alonzo Teets for $25,000.  By then she owned 349 West 122nd as well.

Louisa Teets sold the house to Louis Isaacs, who listed his occupation as "buyer" at 309 Grand Street.  He and his wife, the former Marion Norburn, had five children, Charles Richard, Margaret Maud, Alfreda, Howard Norburn, and Florence Belle.  The eldest, Charles, was 10 years old in 1889 and the youngest, Florence Belle, was an infant.

Somewhat surprisingly, when Louis Isaacs sold the house in December 1906, the purchaser was Philip Teets, the widower of  Louisa (she died in 1895).  He paid $8,900 for the property, or about $320,000 in 2026 terms.

Teet leased the house to the family of James F. Douglass, a woolens importer at 244 Fifth Avenue.  He and his wife had a son and daughter.

The quiet lives within the household was upset when the Douglasses' name became fodder for newspaper articles nationwide in 1907.  At the beginning of summer, daughter Lorene, who was then 15 years old, was invited to a gathering of teens at the summer cottage of Joseph A. Physioc, a theatrical scenery painter, in Bayville, Long Island.  The Physiocs' son, Joseph, Jr., was also 15.

Also at the party on June 4 were Lilac MacManus, "a prospective heiress of New York city, 16 years old," as described by the Montana newspaper The Anaconda Standard; and 16-year-old Frank A. Libby.  

At some point, the four decided to sneak away and get married.  They made their way to Oyster Bay and the parsonage of Methodist minister Rev. M. Wilson.  Joseph Physioc said he was 22 years old and an engineer, Libby said he was 21 and was also an engineer.  The girls professed to be 18.

Despite their youthful appearance and clothing, and the fact that the four giggled and made light of the ceremony, Rev. Wilson married the two couples.  When the marriages came to light, according to The Anaconda Standard, they "caused wrath and consternation in the homes of four well-known New York families."  The news scandalized the summer community as well.  On September 13, 1907, The New York Times said, "Gossip has been busy all summer at the little village of Bayville, L. I., concerning a rumored double wedding, in which all of the contracting parties were under 17 years of age."

Lorene Douglass's mother was incensed and blamed Rev. Wilson.  She told a reporter from the Spokesman-Review, 

My daughter wore short dresses and had her hair down her back.  She had told me no effort was made to alter their childish appearance.  Lorene does not appear to realize the seriousness of this thing.  She said that while the minister was before them everybody tittered and acted as though the affair was a great joke.

A reporter from the The New York Times was less successful in getting an interview.  When he called at the 122nd Street house on September 12, "a servant said that Mr. and Mrs. Douglas [sic] were in Canada.  She also said that they had no daughter named Lorene."  The journalist tried a second attempt that afternoon.  "A young man, who said he was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas [sic] said that his mother was upstairs, but could not be seen," said the article.

When he asked if Lorene was home, the young man said, "I have no sister.  This marriage story is all a mistake."

Despite the family's denials, The New York Times discovered that the Douglasses "consulted their lawyers early in the Summer, and were told that the marriages were not binding owing to the ages of the four."

Philip Teets died that year.  In September 1909, the Teets estate placed 349 West 122nd Street on the market.  An advertisement described it as being "in a quiet, elegant section of Harlem; an ideal residence."

As seen today, the rich woodwork of the parlor level continued throughout the upper floors. images via zillow.com

It was purchased by Elizabeth Cassidy Henry Smith, a real estate operator, and wife of Charles J. Smith.  The house was rife with Charleses.  In addition to the couple's son, Charles, Jr., Charles A. Henry was the son of Elizabeth's previous marriage.  It appears that the only male in the household not named Charles was John A. Smith.  The young man worked as a topographical draftsman in the Bronx Borough President's office.  His annual salary in 1914 was $1,350 per year--a modest $43,700 today.

Charles Smith was too young to fight in World War I, but his half-brother was not.  Charles A. Henry went overseas with the Army.  On November 19, 1918, the New-York Tribune reported that he was missing in action.  Shortly afterward, an official Government announcement listed him "killed in action."

Charles J. Smith died on April 30, 1922 and his funeral was held in the parlor on May 3, followed by a requiem mass at Corpus Christi Church at 121st Street and Broadway.  Around this time, Elizabeth's widowed father, John Cassidy, moved into the house.  

Charles Jr. was still here in 1928, when he was involved in a serious accident.  He and an associate, James O'Brien, were riding in a taxicab on Madison Avenue on March 2 when it crashed into another cab at 85th Street.  One "ran into a window of the Busy Bee Grocery at 1,143 Madison Avenue," reported The New York Times, and the other "crashed into the window of the Reese & Reese Cleaning Establishment, across the street."  Charles Smith suffered serious cuts and O'Brien's skull was fractured.  Neither of the cabbies was injured, but both were arrested "charged with reckless driving," according to the article.

There would be one more funeral in the house.  John Cassidy died on April 19, 1919 and his funeral was held on the 22nd.  Elizabeth Smith sold 349 West 122nd Street shortly afterward.  

It appears that it was next operated as a rooming house.  Surprisingly, given that the Harlem neighborhood was now the epicenter of Manhattan's Black community, the tenants seem to have been mostly German.  Living here in 1934, for instance, were Peter Franz and Meyer Goldschmidt.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Depression years saw a quick turnover of owners.  The property was sold again in December 1936, and resold in November 1937 for $6,500 (about $142,000 today).

Rooming here in 1938 was 35-year-old John Workman, described by the Long Island City Daily Star and North Shore Daily Journal as a "Negro WPA worker."  (The Works Progress Administration was created in 1935 to create jobs during the Great Depression.)  He was working on a construction project at the North Beach Airport on October 6 that year when something went horribly awry.

The newspaper said he was arrested on a charge of attempted felonious assault after being "accused of trying to beat up a foreman" on the job.  The foreman, Joseph Urlacher, pressed the charges.  It was not the first time Workman had been in trouble.  The article said he, "was acquitted of another felonious assault charge last year."

A recent floorplan shows the current configuration.  image via zillow.com

Relatively recently restored to a single-family home, a surprising amount of original interior detailing survives throughout the house.  

photographs by the author

The 1830 Peter P. Ramsey House - 361 Bleecker Street

 

The population explosion in the Greenwich Village district beginning in the 1820s made ordinary businessmen part-time real estate developers--like hatter James Haslet (sometimes spelled Hazlet).  In 1829, he signed a 21-year lease with the Reformed Dutch Church for a portion of the Bleecker Street blockfront between Amos (later West 10th Street) and Charles Streets.  (The church, erected two years earlier, occupied the remainder of the block.)  The lease demanded that he "immediately" improve the lots with "six good and permanent brick or stone buildings at least two stories in height."  Haslet was prohibited to erect any structure that would be a "nuisance," like a factory.

He erected six 17-foot-wide houses that were completed in 1830.  Faced in Flemish bond brick, they originally rose two-and-a-half stories tall.  Their Federal design included peaked roofs with dormers (most likely just one per home).  It is unclear whether all the houses included a shop, but that was the case with 343 Bleecker Street (renumbered 361 Bleecker in 1867).

The original occupant was Alpheus Hawley, who operated a dry goods store.  The Hawley family's residency would be relatively short.  As early as 1836, Peter P. Ramsey and his family occupied the upper floors while his shoemaking shop was on the ground floor.  Living with the Ramseys was Stephen Keeler, a shoemaker who most assuredly worked for Ramsey.  In 1840, a different shoemaker lived with the family--Cornelius Cooper.

The same owner-worker relationship continued in 1850 when shoemaker Alfred Brush took over the house and store.  Living with his family for the next six years was shoemaker Luke Concklin.  (Luke changed the spelling of his surname to Conklin in 1852.)

Brush's shoe and boot shop seems to have been thriving, because in 1852 through 1854 he had a second employee, John F. Purdy, who lived nearby on Amos Street.  Outside of his business Brush was involved in civic affairs and in 1855 and 1856 served as a city councilman.  

E. Downes took over the shoe store around 1857.  Unlike his predecessors, he did not live over the shop.  He and his family lived at 72 Bedford Street.  There were now two tenants in the upper floors.  The Smith family and Chauncey B. Scranton, a clerk.  (Both John and Conklin Smith were hatters, although they operated separate shops--Conklin's on Park Row and John's on Canal Street.)

After decades of its being a shoe store, in 1864 Edward P. Welch moved his confectionary shop into the ground floor.  There were still two tenants upstairs--George Barnett, a clerk, and carpenter Thomas C. Whitman.  At the time, Peter Asmussen's coffin business was at 291 Bleecker Street.

Around 1867, Asmussen acquired this property (he would continue to purchase Greenwich Village real estate throughout the coming decades).  He moved his undertaking shop in and established his family in the upper floors.  Asmussen was, as well, a sexton in St. John's Lutheran Church on Christopher Street.

Interestingly, given Peter's apparent religious bent, the Asmussen's shared the upper portion of the house with the Stadtmuller family in 1867 and 1868.  Henry Stadtmuller listed his profession as "beer."  Daughter Annie Stadtmuller taught in the girls' department of School No. 20 on Chrystie Street.

By 1873, John F. Asmussen, presumably Peter's brother, had joined the business.  That year Peter and his wife moved far north to 160 East 63rd Street and John moved into 361 Bleecker Street with his wife, the former Mary Meyn, and their eight children.  

The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported on November 6, 1875 that Peter Asmussen had hired architect Henry Grube to remodel 361 Bleecker Street.  The attic was raised to full height, the facade "rebuilt of brick," and a fashionable Italianate cornice installed.  Corniced, sheet metal lintels were included in the remodeling.

Renting rooms from the Asmussens 1879 were a young couple named Crawford.  The husband was a bookkeeper by profession, but he lost his job around September that year.  His resultant frustration became directed to his wife, Ellen.  On September 30, the New-York Tribune reported that Ellen, "a respectable-looking woman, age twenty-two years," had been arrested and charged for attempted suicide, "by throwing herself from the sea wall of the Battery Park."  

In court, Ellen explained to Justice Morgan that her husband was, "improvident in his habits, and rude in his manners toward her; and that when intoxicated he would beat her brutally," as reported by the New-York Tribune.  The judge was moved by her story and dismissed her case.  How Ellen Crawford's domestic life played out is unknown.

In 1888, Peter Asmussen sold the similar building at 355 Bleecker Street to John.  The family moved the undertaking business to that property.  (The following year John erected a livery stable at 56 Barrow Street, which also housed the company's hearse, wagon and horses.)

Peter Asmussen leased the store at 361 Bleecker Street to John J. Keyes as early as the mid-1890s.  Keyes ran a drugstore in the space.  Living upstairs was the family of William L. Reid, who ran an express business at 103 Bank Street.

Herman Meyersfield took over the drugstore in 1895.  He had a scare on the Fourth of July 1896.  The following day, the New-York Tribune reported on the many small blazes that were set off by children playing with fireworks.  Among the casualties was "Herman Morris's [sic] awning at No. 361 Bleecker-st."  The article said he suffered $25 worth of damage, or about $963 in 2026 terms.

Peter Asmussen died in 1903.  His estate continued to lease 361 Bleecker Street. 

Charles Schulz's contracting business had replaced the drugstore about three years earlier.  He and his family lived upstairs.  At the turn of the century, he listed his profession as "painter," but he was much more than that.  Highly involved with Tammany Hall, he was awarded profitable contracts with the city.  He was still living here, for instance, on June 12, 1905 when he received contracts to paint two public schools, Nos. 77 and 123.

The Tammany Times, December 17, 1910 (copyright expired)

The Peter Asmussen estate sold 361 Bleecker Street and two other properties in October 1909.

In the post-Depression years, a modern arcade storefront was installed.  The shop became home to Ruggiero's Fish Market.  

The new arcade storefront made window shopping easy for passersby.  from the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Following the fish store was Helène, a boutique-style lampshade shop run by Helène Lenart.  The New York Times described her wares as "made-to-order, simple in design and moderately priced."  Lenart moved to West 4th Street around 1950.

An unexpected tenant arrived in the ground floor space in 1954--Elektra Records, founded by Jac Holzman in 1950 in his shop, the Record Loft.  In their Folk City--New York and the American Folk Music Revival, authors Stephen Petrus and Ronald D. Cohen explain:

In 1954, after producing seven or eight records, Holzman decided to focus on record production rather than retail, so he closed the Record Loft and moved Elektra around the corner to larger offices at 361 Bleecker Street.

The authors note, "Elektra became a center for gatherings of folk musicians."  Recording artist Theo Bikel recalled, "Folkies would meet with cheap wine and beer and no eats, smallish rooms, just large enough to have some elbow room so you could play a guitar or banjo, and most everybody played and sang."

As early as 1959, sculptor Alfred Van Loen lived and worked at 361 Bleecker Street.  Born in Germany in 1924, he studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Amsterdam.  He taught at Vassar, Hunter College and Columbia--and in his studio here.

On November 12, 1959, The Villager reported, "Classes at sculptor Alfred Van Leon's studio, 361 Bleecker St., have begun for the fall and winter schedule on Mondays and Wednesdays."  The article noted, "An exponent of direct carving, he also has a class at the North Shore Community Art Center, Roslyn, L.I."  Van Loen's work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

A renovation completed in 1965 resulted in an "art gallery with artist's studio and office" on the ground floor, and one apartment each on the upper floors.

The entire building, however, became the Kelter–Malcé antiques shop by 1973.  Jolie Kelter and Michael Malcé sold "quilts, folk art, garden furniture, and other antiques," according to Elaine Louie of The New York Times, adding that the couple "are a walking, talking encyclopedia of 19th- and 20th-century decorative arts."  The pair, who originally lived above the store, closed it in the spring of 1992.  The New York Times reported on May 7, "They will conduct their antique business from their 1850 Italianate town house [on Jane Street]."

At some point, the arcade storefront was modernized.  In the early 2000s, the space was home to Sleek, an apparel boutique, and by 2010 a James Perse clothing shop occupied it.  It was replaced by Rains, another boutique.  Through it all, the unassuming building with its remarkable history remains relatively intact since its 1873 remodeling.

photographs by the author

The Abused 1880 Engine Co. 17 - 91 Ludlow Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In the first half of the 19th century, New Yorkers were protected by volunteer fire companies.  Among them was Elephant Company, organized prior to Evacuation Day in 1783.  In 1831, according to George William Sheldon in his 1882 The Story of the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York, it "moved to the vicinity of Essex Market and stationed at 91 Ludlow Street."

An act by the New York State Assembly in 1865 coupled Brooklyn and New York with a professional fire organization, the Metropolitan Fire Department.  The volunteer companies were disbanded and, in many cases, the new companies took over the old firehouses.  The house at 91 Ludlow Street became home to Engine Company 17.  It would not be long, however, before the city realized that state-of-the-art facilities were necessary.

Napoleon LeBrun was appointed architect for the Metropolitan Fire Department in 1879.  His son, Pierre, joined him in 1880 to form Napoleon LeBrun & Son.  They went to work designing dozens of firehouses--42 of them before the turn of the century.  Among the first would be Engine Company 17.  On August 9, 1879, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the city would erect "two three-story brick engine houses at No. 91 Ludlow street and 604 East Eleventh street."  

The LeBruns created a single design for the structures, which followed the traditional firehouse layout.  The centered bay doors sat within a cast iron base.  The two upper floors were faced in red brick and trimmed in terra cotta and stone.  LeBrun & Son’s Queen Anne design was splashed with neo-Grec elements, most notably the stone lintel that floated above the central second-story opening.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

(Not surprisingly, given the number of firehouses on their drafting tables, LeBrun & Son repurposed the design, only slightly tweaking it in other houses, like Engine Company 27 on Franklin Street, and Engine Company 5 on East 14th Street.)

Construction cost the city $9,024, or just under $300,000 in 2026, and it proceeded with lightning speed.  Seven months after the announcement, on March 21, 1880, the New York Dispatch reported, "The new building for Engine Company No. 17, located at No. 91 Ludlow street, is completed and the company a few days since took formal possession of the same."  The facility was on the cutting edge of firefighting technology.  The article noted, "They have all the new appliances and improvements, such as the patent swinging harness, etc., etc."

The transition from volunteer to professional status did not entirely change the laddies' rough edged reputations.  John Carney was attached to Engine Company 17 in 1881.  He and his brother, Bernard, were drinking in Fay's saloon on East 14th Street on Friday night, November 18, when, according to John, they "had a falling out about a family matter."  As he lay dying at Bellevue Hospital later, he explained, "My brother was abusive, and I shoved him away from me.  He then plunged a knife into my abdomen on the left side."  

The Evening World described the dormitory on the second floor of Engine Company 17 on December 31, 1889:

It is a long room, about twenty feet above the street, the walls on either side being lined with iron cots, whereon the firemen sleep.  Each man turns in wearing his flannel underclothes.  His boots stand at his bedside with the trousers so disposed about them that he can jump from the cot into both without losing a moment.  In order to get quickly to the floor below the men slide down a polished slender brass pole.

Charles H. Morris had been a firefighter with Engine Company 17 for several years at the time of that article.  The other members were acutely aware that he was a sleepwalker.  In the summer of 1887, for instance, "he dreamed there was an alarm and jumped from his cot to the pole, and, still asleep, slid down carelessly and broke four toes on his right foot," reported The Evening World.  "I dreamed there was an alarm," he said upon wakening.

And around December 14, 1889, Assistant Foreman Charles J. Autenreith awoke to see Morris carrying his street clothes from beside his bed to his locker on the third floor, and then return to bed.  Autenreith woke Morris, who thought the other men were playing a trick on him by taking his clothes upstairs and then telling him he had done it.

At 12:40 a.m. on December 30, 1889, Engineer Maguire and Fireman Smith were on duty when they heard a crash.  Thinking that a horse had fallen, they rushed to the rear and found Morris unconscious and bleeding at the base of the brass pole.  Whether he had dreamed of an alarm, of simply sleep-walked accidentally into the hole could not be determined.  "It is certain that he came down head first, for his skull is fractured at the forehead," reported The Evening World.  The article said doctors in Gouverneur Hospital said "he has but one chance in a hundred for recovery," and noted that should he die his widow and four children would receive a pension of $300 a year (about $10,600 today).

A surprising, unofficial member of Engine Company 17 lived and worked briefly with the men in 1894--a female journalist.  In recording the interesting events of the past year, in January 1895 The World Almanac and Encyclopedia recounted:

Meg Merrilies spent a week with Engine Company No. 17, in their quarters at No. 91 Ludlow Street, dressed in boy's clothes, for convenience, with rubber boots and rubber coat.  She lived the life of one of the fire-laddies, attending regularly to her duties, jumping from sleep at the alarm, sliding half-awake down the pole, swinging on the engine as it left the house, dashing into smoke and fire, and in every way sharing the hardships, the dangers, and the glory.

The entry described a woman who was equal to the tasks of any veteran firefighter.  "She drove engine horses back from fires, carried a choking bay through dense smoke to a place of safety at the risk of her own life, and wound up the week of remarkable activity by helping her associates fight the big fire at Broadway and Leonard street."

By the turn of the century, the crowded Lower East Side neighborhood kept Engine Company 17 more than busy.  The New York Herald reported that in 1906, it had responded to 1,062 calls.  "In other words," said the article, "the men...had to answer an alarm before sitting down to breakfast, dinner or supper, and then some."

The following year, the city hired architect Alexander Stevens to update the house with "iron stairs, skylights, walls and windows."  The renovations cost $12,000.  As the work proceeded, on October 23, 1908, The Sun explained the temporary arrangements.  "The horses and engines are camping in the street opposite their quarters in a temporary wooden house...The harness is attached to the ceiling, ready to drop in case of alarm."  The article noted, "The engine company is in the centre of the Ghetto and has to answer more alarms than any other on the lower East Side."

Fire companies were famous for their mascots--dogs that ran to fires along side the engines and provided comfort and company to the members during quiet times.  At the turn of the century, Topsy was Engine Company 17's mascot.  When he was accidentally killed by the horses, Topsy's son, Bunk, who was still a puppy, took his place.  On March 31, 1908, The New York Times called Bunk "the smoke-eating mascot of Engine Company 17" and said he "never lets the men of No. 17 get put out of his sight."

Bunk, of course, was with the company when it responded to a fire on the Joy Line Steamship Company pier on March 30, 1908.  Constructed of heavy logs covered with pitch and soaked in creosote, the pier burned slowly and spewed poisonous smoke.  The firefighters of the several companies on the scene were blinded by the thick smoke and staggered "with pain to the open as fast as they got into it," said The New York Times.  More than 50 firefighters had to be treated and 17 others were hospitalized.  The beloved Bunk did not survive.

Another remarkable mascot came in the form of Rex, "a black and white bulldog," as described by the New-York Tribune.  Fireman Tom Foley found him on a cold winter day and brought him to the station house "more dead than alive."  Like his predecessors, Rex became a member of the company.  On June 14, 1912, The Evening World described him as "no pretty dog, either.  He was a bull, with heavy jowls and legs which spoke strength and not beauty, but for four years he had guarded the fire house night and day when he was not on duty at some blaze or sniffing about in search of fire."

It was Rex's "sniffing about" that made him stand out among all the fire station mascots throughout the city, however.  He not only ran along with the fire engines to the blazes, he had the ability to detect the odor of fires and alert the crew.

In March 1912, Rex was awarded a firemen's helmet after he smelled a fire on the roof of a Ludlow Street tenement.  The Evening World reported, "He called the firemen and what would have been a bad blaze was averted."  Shortly afterward, reported the newspaper, "Rex discovered a blaze in Essex street and put up such barking and howling that a man who was passing investigated and then sent in the alarm."  The New-York Tribune said that during the time Rex had been with Engine Company 17 he "had been instrumental in saving seven lives."

On the night of June 13, 1912, Engine Company 17 responded to a fire.  On the way, according to the New-York Tribune, Rex was kicked by one of the horses.  The article said he was so badly hurt, "that a patrolman was summoned from the Clinton street station to put him out of misery."  When the firefighters returned that night, they "laid him on a litter of straw and placed his collar, with four medals, about his neck."

On the night of July 26, 1920, firefighters from Engine Company 17 witnessed an automobile swerve and fatally hit a pedestrian.  Almost immediately, a mob formed among the "hundreds of persons" who saw the accident, yelling, "Lynch him!"  The New York Times reported, "the firemen were able to get the driver into the engine house after he had been slightly bruised and cut."  But the ordeal was not over.

The firefighters barricaded the bay doors and called for police backup.  The New York Times said, "When the reserve policemen arrived the mob began to pummel them."  Fire Lieutenant Poggi and some of his men slipped out of one of the smaller doors with axe handles to help the police disperse the mob.  The article said, "Stones and bricks were hurled at the uniformed men, but few were injured."  Finally, after about half an hour, the firefighters and policemen were able to scatter the rabble.  The driver, Charles Gersowitz, said that Frank Bloomberg had walked directly into his path.  He was charged with homicide.

Napoleon LeBrun & Son used identical ironwork for the ground floor bays of several other firehouses.  The layered piers are a handsome touch. photograph by Carole Teller

The passing decades had not lessened the company's relentless schedule.  On November 25, 1925, Municipal Reference Library Notes reported, "According to the New York Times the busiest fire company in New York City is Engine Company No. 17 located at 91 Ludlow Street.  During 1924 Engine No. 17 responded to a total of 1,288 alarms."  The article noted that it sat within "the most congested district in the world, where humanity is so densely packed together that there is scarcely elbow room."  It added, "Members of Engine 17 scarcely know what it means to be idle for they are kept on the run day and night."

After occupying its firehouse for just under six decades, on May 1, 1939 Engine Company 17 was relocated to 185 Broom Street.  The firehouse was briefly used by the city's Sanitation Department.  Then, on March 21, 1941, The New York Times reported, "Last Friday the firehouse at 91 Ludlow Street was sold at public auction to Louis Keehn, a jobber in toys and stationery, for $18,000."  Not only did the city turn over the deed to Keehn, it provided him the mortgage on the property.

In January 1951, Keehn hired the architectural firm of S. Gardstein & Son to renovate the building at a cost of about $60,500 in today's money.  The truck bay was expanded and the southern openings of the second and third floors were bricked up.  The remodeling resulted in a store on the ground floor, an office on the mezzanine, and storage in the upper floors.

photograph by Carole Teller

Louis Keehn & Brother remained in the building at least into the 1960s.  The sorely disfigured structure, designed by one of the period's most influential firehouse architects, gives little hint of its original appearance and its fascinating history.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The Quondam Building - 450-460 Park Avenue South

 

On July 2, 1910, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that the De Forest Estate Corporation had leased the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue and 31st Street to the Quondam Realty Co.  The article said, "Work is to be started on or about Aug. 1 for the new-story office structure."  The Bridgemen's Magazine noted that the architectural firm of Herts & Tallant had designed the plans.  "The building will be known as the Quondam Building, and will be in the gothic style of architecture, and is estimated to cost $200,000."

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, July 2, 1910 (copyright expired)

Those plans were soon expanded.  Construction was delayed as negotiations with Robert Goelet, who owned the abutting property, played out.  Goelet leased his plot at 450-454 Fourth Avenue to the Quondam Leasing Company, now giving the developers a parcel twice the width of the original.

Herts & Tallant filed the revised plans on March 28, 1911.  The Engineering Record noted that the "12-story brick and terra cotta commercial building" would now cost $450,000 to erect (about $15.3 million in 2026).  

Completed in 1912, Herts & Tallant had designed two buildings that successfully pretended to be one.  Faced in white terra cotta, the architects' design was a 1911 take on late Gothic and Tudor.  The two-story base included elaborate arched entrances below niches with intricate Gothic hoods.  Quatrafoil panels created spandrels within the eight-story midsection.  Above a molded bandcourse, the two-story top section drew inspiration from Tudor-style residences, like the Dalmeny House near Edinburg, Scotland, with its crenellated parapet and Tudor pinnacles.

Although they were two buildings, some floors were cut through to create full-width spaces for tenants like silk manufacturers Collins, Doorly & Franc.  When the firm moved into the building in 1912, they had already named two silk colors in honor of Presidential daughters--Alice Blue, for Alice Roosevelt, and Helen Pink, for Helen Herron Taft.  Now, on November 8, 1912, The New York Times reported, "Collins, Doorly & Franc, 450 Fourth Avenue, have obtained permission from Miss Eleanor Randolph Wilson, daughter of the President-elect, to name a new color 'Nell Rose,' in her honor."

Silk magazine, November 1912 (copyright expired)

Tenants in the buildings were highly varied.  Among them were Valentine Brothers, makers of oils and varnishes; Atlas Advertising Agency; the International Souvenir Spoon Company; and Wireless Age magazine.

Among the sales staff of Valentine Brothers in 1913 was George Pettit.  The 34-year-old was dealing with serious personal problems.  He was separated from his wife and living in a Brooklyn boarding house.  Additionally, despite his relative youth, he was suffering from rheumatism.  He remarked to his landlady, Annie Magno, "that he intended to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge," according to The New York Times.  Annie brushed it off.  But a few nights later, on September 10, 1913, she was standing outside Pettit's door and heard him exclaim, "I did it!  I did it all right!"

Pettit had swallowed poison.  Annie Magno first called a policeman and then telephoned the Swedish Hospital, but it was too late.  The newspaper said Pettit's name "was added last night to the long list of those who have committed suicide by taking Bichloride of mercury tablets."

Another fabric dealer to occupy a full floor was A. Wimpfheimer & Brother, dealers in "velvets, plushes and other pile fabrics," as explained by Dry Goods Economist in December 1916.  Other tenants in the building at the time were Cerag Company, makers of a "delicious food rich" laxative; Motorcycle & Bicycle Illustrated magazine; and the National Amateur Wireless Association.  (On January 14, 1916, The New York Times reported, "The President of the association is Guglielmo Marconi.")

The American Clock & Suit Review, June 1915 (copyright expired)

In 1917, The Merchants' Association embarked on an "Anti-Litter" campaign within the commercial district of 14th Street to 42nd Street.  As a part of the program, "block captains" were selected from one business per block.  On December 10, Greater New York reported, "The American Velvet Company, 450-460 Fourth Avenue, has appointed Mr. Michael Robertori, Block Captain."  In one of his reports, Robertori disclosed:

I have made a thorough examination of this street and found conditions very good with the exception of a coal and wood establishment that has a habit of leaving cakes of ice on the sidewalk.  I have notified him this day to refrain from doing this as the sidewalk must be absolutely free from all obstructions.  He promises to remedy this and I shall watch him closely.

Among the broad spectrum of tenants in the building at the time were the Corrective Eating Society and the American Trapshooting Association.  

The Hammondsport Products Company was occuping space when Prohibition was enacted.  The firm held a permit "for manufacturing and selling wine for sacramental purposes," according to Federal agents.  But it seems that the firm's clients were not merely synagogues and churches.

In October 1922, agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, disguised as cigar clerks in a small store in Grand Street, made inquiries about how they could obtain alcohol.  They were told that "wine could be bought from the Hammondsport Products Company, Inc. 450 Fourth Avenue, by using a password."  

According to the New-York Tribune on October 13, "They said that they telephoned to N. Rosenblum, secretary of the Rabbinical Bureau...who is also said to be a salesman for the Hammondsport company, and arranged for the purchase of the ten cases of assorted wine."  When the cases were delivered to the Grand Street address, the agents paid the trucker with marked bills.  They then seized, "the wine, the bills and the truck."  There were another 20 cases of wine in the vehicle.

Advertising agency Winemiller and Miller, Inc. had occupied space as early as 1919.  They employed what were called "illustrative photographers," and a representative told Studio Light, "We prepared to meet every demand, from a convincing and dramatic scene of fireman rescuing patients from a burning hospital...to the most advantageous display of a box of hairpins."  

In the spring of 1925, Winemiller and Miller, Inc. initiated an ad campaign for the Glen Falls Insurance Company.  For publicity, the firm launched a nationwide contest for the best fire prevention slogans.  It received more than 150,000 entries and the 100 best were awarded prizes--from $5 to $500--in the firm's offices on March 28.  (The winning slogan was, "Answer the Burning Question with Fire Prevention.")

The offices of the Westminster Kennel Club were in the building as early as 1929.  The distinguished dog show was scheduled to take place in Madison Square Garden beginning February 11 that year, and on January 27 The New York Times reported that entries "are still pouring into the offices of the club."  The article said, "Up to last night more than 2,000 dogs had been listed, with a large pile of entry blanks still to be tabulated."

Mid-century saw a new type of tenant, beginning with Leo H. Spivack, Inc. which opened its furniture showroom in May 1959.  An advertisement in Interiors that month described the showrooms as, "Newly hatched...and fairly bursting with the freshest, finest, most comprehensive collection of Scandinavian imports you ever saw!"

The original first- and second-floor detailing survived in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Furniture dealer William L. Marshall, Ltd. followed in 1961.  On August 8, The New York Times said that Marshall "has been channeling his cargoes of Asian, African and South American timber into banks, a law school, restaurants, hotel lobbies, club, libraries, executive offices of major corporations."

In 1959, Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue South.  The following year, according to The New York Times, "Iranians began to move into the rug-importing trade in the city in large numbers."  Now, in 1976, 450-460 Park Avenue South had become a center for rug importers, part of what was deemed the "Oriental rug district."

The district lasted through 1983, when, according to Jon S. Ansari, president of the Amiran Corporation here, rug dealers were exasperated by the rising rents.  Other tenants quickly moved in.  Ogilvy & Mather leased "several floors," as described by Newsday on May 23, 1984 for its corporate headquarters.  Subsequent tenants included Facts on File publishing, the Montserrat Tourist Board, and Franklin Spier, Inc., which leased 21,300 square feet in 1997.

On the ground floor, the cabaret Arci's Place opened in 1999.  In 2005, PS450 opened, a restaurant with "a menu of comfort food," according to The New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant on March 23.  And in September 2018, a Felix Roasting Co. coffee bar and cafe moved in.

Renovations to the first and second floors were initiated in 2017.  Sadly, the stripped-down modernization erased what was left of Herts & Tallant's wonderful terra cotta decorations.

The entrance of No. 460 in 2011 (from Google Streetviews)

...and in 2026

photographs by the author