Working as Wilson and Tichborne, William C. G. Wilson and James Tichborne helped to mold the countenance of the Upper West Side in the late 19th century with handsome rows of upscale homes. In 1889 they hired architect Gilbert A. Schellenger to design another--a row of six 17-feet-wide townhouses at 159 through 169 West 87th Street just east of Amsterdam Avenue.
A marriage of Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles, 169 West 87th Street was faced in brownstone. Like its neighbors, it was three stories tall above a high English basement. The two styles existed harmoniously at the parlor level where the undressed stone was Romanesque while the prim, fluted pilasters with their lotus leaf capitals were purely Renaissance Revival. A colorful stained glass tympanum unified the paired windows at this level. The two upper floors, separated by a projecting bandcourse, were striated--the second by narrow rows of rough-cut stone and the third by incised lines. A triple layered cornice crowned the design.
On March 29, 1890, the Record & Guide reported that Wilson & Tichborne had sold the house to "Mr. Rose" for $23,500 (about $858,000 in 2026 terms). "Mr. Rose" was Gamaliel S. Rose, the "paying teller" of the Seventh National Bank.
Moving into the house with him and wife, Amelia, were their daughter Caroline and her husband William S. Hull, a real estate operator. The family went about their lives quietly and while Hull's name appeared in newsprint regarding real estate transactions, they evaded the notoriety of the society pages.
The quietude of the Rose family's lives was shattered in 1901 when three executives of the Seventh National Bank, including Gamaliel S. Rose, were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury. On September 23, Rose appeared at the Federal Building to answer charges of the "unlawful certification of the checks of Henry Marquand & Co." The president of the bank was charged with "conspiracy against the United States."
A secondary headline in The New York Times said, "Messrs. Kimball and Rose and F. B. Poor Held in Heavy Bail." Indeed, it was. Rose's bail was set at $5,000, the equivalent of $195,000 today. His attorney complained, "As for Mr. Rose, it is pretty hard lines for a $1,500 clerk to be put under $5,000 bail for doing what he was told to do by the President of the bank."
Unfortunately, the legal process was sluggish. Six months later, on March 13, 1902, Rose's attorney asked the courts to dismiss his case. He was denied. The trial finally concluded on February 14 the following year. While all three men were found guilty, "sentence was suspended in the case of Gamaliel S. Rose," reported the New York Herald.
With the embarrassing publicity finally behind them, the Rose family returned to social anonymity. Their names did not appear in newspapers again until Amelia's death on October 18, 1921. Her funeral was held in the parlor on October 20. Just four months later, on February 13, 1922, Gamaliel R. Rose died here. His funeral was held in the house on the 20th.
Caroline inherited 169 West 87th Street and she and William moved out shortly after. By 1925, she was leasing 169 West 87th Street to Frank Finkelstein and his wife, the former Sylvia Lekin. Their baby boy was born in the house on March 11 that year.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
At the time of the Finkelsteins' happy event, Saul A. Rothschild operated his funeral chapel at 2003 Seventh Avenue. As early as the fall of 1929, he had moved the Saul A. Rothchild's Central Funeral Chapel into 169 West 87th Street, where it would remain for years.
The estate of Caroline L. Hull sold the house to Michael Fahey in October 1938. Daughter Kathleen M. Fahey was a teenager when the family moved in. When America entered World War II, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserves as a WAVE. On June 6, 1945, The New York Sun reported that Kathleen, now with the rank of lieutenant junior grade, had passed the training to be a navigator. Another WAVE in the group explained, "like the men navigators, we'll be used where the Navy needs us. We may be assigned to classes or we may be assigned to fly, either on cargo or passenger planes."
George C. Joannides purchased 169 West 87th Street in 1951, converting it to furnished rooms. Then, around 1971, the West Side Community Nursery School moved in. Established in 1964 on West 90th Street, the school was one of the first private agencies to accommodate both tuition-paying students and those funded by the Federal Head Start program.
Around 1983, the name was changed to Escalera Head Start. Still occupying the building, it provides care and instruction to children from two to five years old.
The exterior of the Rose house survives essentially intact.
photographs by the author
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