photograph by Jim Henderson
Andrew Carnegie, perhaps, surprised his peers when he broke ground in 1899 for a sumptuous palace surrounded by gardens on Fifth Avenue between 91st and 92nd Streets, at least 20 blocks above the northern fringe of the mansion district. Anticipating the neighborhood's transformation from undeveloped plots and modest houses into one of the most exclusive residential districts in the city, Max and Betty Greene began buying up property. On a single day, for instance, on May 2, 1903, the Record & Guide reported that Max had purchased the property at 53 East 91st Street, and Betty had bought two vintage houses across the street at 56 and 58 East 91st Street.
In 1907, the couple hired architect Edward I. Shire to alter No. 53 and the abutting house at 55 East 91st Street into a single structure. Perhaps drawing inspiration from the Carnegie mansion one-and-a-half blocks away at 2 East 91st Street, Shire designed the Greenes' 32-foot-wide home in the neo-Georgian style.
Completed in 1908, the 14-room mansion was faced in red brick (laid in a unique version of running bond) and trimmed in marble. A sweeping stoop spilled from the doorway, which was flanked by leaded sidelights and crowned with an ornate fanlight. The stepped lintels of the parlor floor, the layered keystones of the third, and the regal balustrade atop the cornice were all hallmarks of the style. Less expected, however, was the picturesque oriel at the second floor, with its multi-paned sashes.
Six years after moving in, Max and Betty Greene hired architect Herbert M. Baer to enlarge the house by adding a single-story extension to the rear. They sold the mansion to George Oliver May and and his wife, the former Edith Mary Slocome, sometime before 1925.
Both George and Edith were born in England in 1875. They were married in Exeter, England on New Years Day 1902. That year George was made a partner in Jones, Caesar & Co. (later Price Waterhouse & Co.) and the couple moved to New York City. George became a senior partner in Price Waterhouse in 1911.
During the first World War, George was an official within the United States Treasury Department and the War Trade Board. When the family moved into 53 East 91st Street, he was still a senior partner at Price Waterhouse. He and Edith had three children: Edith Claire, born in 1906; Oliver, born in 1908; and Mary Barbara, who arrived four years later. The family's country home, Brimley, was in Southport, Connecticut.
George Oliver May, via the American Accounting Association
In addition to his pastime of studying history and linguistics, George collected old English silver. Edith was an amateur horticulturist and the Connecticut estate gave her ample opportunity to indulge in her hobby. The New York Times said that she was "a frequent exhibitor in local and national flower shows."
Edith Claire was introduced to society in the winter season of 1925-26. Among the events was a luncheon her mother hosted at Pierre's for 53 of "this and last season's débutantes," according to The New York Times on December 5, 1925. The surnames of the socially elite young women in the room included Van Rensselaer, Phipps, Belmont, Flagler, Fahnestock, Gallatin, and Whitney.
Edith Claire's engagement to Burton Wakeman Taylor in February 1928 was "of interest to a wide circle of friends abroad as well as here," as described by The New York Times. The following year, on May 12, 1929, the newspaper reported that the "details have been completed" for the wedding. The ceremony would be held in Trinity Church in Southport, Connecticut on June 1. The article said that Mary Barbara would be maid of honor and the reception would be held "at Brimley, the country home of Mr. and Mrs. May in Southport."
Oliver May graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1930. Mary Barbara's debut into society came in the winter social season of 1931-32.
In February 1932, Edith May was hospitalized and she died there on February 15. Her funeral was held in Trinity Church in Southport, where Edith Claire had been married three years earlier.
The eight-over-eight double-hung windows of the upper floors survived in 1941. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
On October 3, 1944, The New York Times reported that George Oliver May had sold 53 East 91st Street to Phil Baker, "a stage and radio star." Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1896, Baker began his career in vaudeville at the age of 19. By the time he and his actress wife, Irmgard, purchased the East 91st Street mansion, he was a household name. Baker was the host of the radio game show Take it or Leave It, had his own radio series The Armour Jester, and appeared in the musical The Gang's All Here with Carmen Miranda in 1943.
Phil Baker, from the collection of the New York Public Library
Baker was formerly married to silent movie actress Peggy Cartright, who had a leading role in the Our Gang series before talkies. The couple, who had three children together, were divorced in 1941.
In March 1946, a journalist from The New York Times visited Phil Baker here. In describing the mansion, he commented, "A Hollywood set pales into drab insignificance by comparison." During the interview, Baker told him that his success in radio and his magnificent residence "should make me a very happy man, but I'm not." He confessed, "I would like to be an actor...I love the radio very much, and being a quiz master is out of this world; you meet every shade of person. But I miss the theater."
And so, it was not surprising that later that year, in September, Baker gave a one-year lease to the mansion to the Provisional Government of the Republic of France. The New York Times reported, "The Ambassador's staff and members of his family expect to arrive in New York About Sept. 23 to take up residence there."
On February 14, 1948, Winthrop Rockefeller, son of financier John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, married actress Jievute "Bobo" Paulekiute. Their son, Winthrop Paul, was born on September 17, 1948, and two years later the couple separated. John A. Kirk, in his Winthrop Rockefeller, From New Yorker to Arkasawyer, 1912-1956, writes that Rockefeller leased 53 East 91st Street for Bobo and his son "from April 6 through to the end of September [1950]" for $7,000. The figure would translate to $91,200 in 2026. Kirk writes, "He also offered to pay for Win Paul's nurse, his medical expenses, and his bodyguard."
The following year, in March 1951, Phil Baker sold 53 East 91st Street to Oscar and Babette Block Serlin. Baker and Serlin assuredly knew one another from the entertainment business.
Oscar Serlin was born in 1901 in Poland and arrived in the United States at the age of nine. He began producing plays and his first Broadway production was the 1929 comedy Broken Dishes. It was not only his Broadway debut, but that of his star, the fledgling actress Bette Davis.
Newcomer Bette Davis and Donald Meek on stage in Oscar Serlin's 1929 Broken Dishes. Theatre Magazine, January 1930 (copyright expired)
Serlin's great success came with Life With Father, which opened in 1939 and became the longest running Broadway show of all time until The Phantom of the Opera. (Life With Father still holds the title of the longest running non-musical play on Broadway.) In 1932 Serlin signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and headed that studio's Eastern talent department for five years. The New York Times would later say, "He was credited with sending Cary Grant, Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour to Hollywood, and had participated in the hunt for a Scarlett O'Hara for the film version of 'Gone with the Wind.'" Oscar retired in 1951, the year he and Babette purchased 53 East 91st Street.
Following what The New York Times called "a long illness," Oscar Serlin died in the East 91st Street house on February 27, 1971 at the age of 70.
At the time, the Dalton School had occupied the mansion next door at 61 East 91st Street for seven years. In 1978, the institution acquired 53 East 91st Street and combined the two buildings internally. Two additional floors were added to the joined structures. The school continues to occupy the property.
photograph by Jim Henderson
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