Henry Engelbert's 1868 367 Bleecker Street

369 Bleecker Street (left) was a mirror-image of 367.  The Charles Street homes, built simultaneously, are directly behind 367, at the right.

By the mid-1860s, the Second Empire style was highly popular in America, its mansard roofs giving a decidedly French flair to Manhattan streets.  In 1867, grocer E. C. Henry Kugeler hired architect Henry Engelbert, who was currently working on the design of the Second Empire-style Grand Hotel on Broadway, to design four structures at the northeast corner of Bleecker Street and Van Nest Place (later Charles Street)--two four-story mansions on Van Nest Place and two store-and-flat buildings facing Bleecker.

Completed in 1868, the two Bleecker Street buildings were designed as mirror-images.  Despite their the storefronts, the brick-faced edifices were imposing.  Their segmentally-arched openings originally wore molded brownstone lintels.  Above the cornice was a slate shingled mansard with dormers capped with elegant triangular pediments.  Both buildings were designed to house just three families above the ground floor.  (Apparently the attic level was reserved for servants or storage.)

The commercial space in 367 Bleecker Street was leased to the Cole & Fox dry goods store, run principally by Theodore Fox who lived on West 30th Street.  Among the original residents upstairs were James Bousinger, an importer, and his family; and the Springsteen family.

Henry Springsteen held a relatively new job, a professional firefighter.  Prior to 1865, fires were fought by volunteer companies throughout the city.  When a bill was introduced in the State Senate to abolish those companies and establish the Metropolitan Fire Department in January that year, The New York Times commented that it "has created a great excitement in fire circles, and among the better class of firemen it is not very favorably received."

But by the time the Springsteens moved into 367 Bleecker Street, the uproar had settled.  Henry worked at Engine Company No. 19.  George H. Springsteen, on the other hand, had a more white collar job, working as a clerk.

On October 8, 1871, a conflagration broke out in Chicago.  Dry and windy conditions resulted in a two-day inferno that would be known as the Great Chicago Fire.  The nation reacted with an outpouring of aid.  The disaster caused another to be greatly overlooked.  Calling it "The Great Northwestern Fire," on October 21, New York Herald reported, "The needs of the sufferers by Wisconsin fires are very great; thousands are utterly destitute and must be assisted for many months."  The article noted, "Mr. Fisher, of the Anchor Life Insurance Company, yesterday forwarded one bundle of clothing from Coles & Fox, 367 Bleecker Street."

Unlike some dry goods stores that offered women only the raw goods to create their clothing, Cole & Fox also produced apparel.  On December 16, 1872, it placed an advertisement in the New York Herald that read (rather sternly): "Dressmaker wanted; come prepared to work."

In 1876, George H. Springsteen changed his profession to "printer."  Simultaneously, he established the Chatham, Jordan & Springsteen printing company with two locations--29 Charles Street and 367 Bleecker, supplanting Cole & Fox here.  

Unfortunately, George Springsteen's venture did not work out.  The following year, Chatham, Jordan & Springsteen disappeared from city directories, and E. C. Henry Kugeler, who still owned the four buildings, moved in his grocery.  (It was located at 386 Bleecker Street when he erected the buildings.)  The Springsteen family left Bleecker Street that year, as well, moving to 90 Bank Street.

Now occupying the upper floors were Daniel A. Anderson, an agent who worked on Pier 49 on the Hudson River; Ira S. Otis, a clerk; and cabinetmaker John Lorenz.  Otis and his family would remain here at least through 1886.

J. H. Goetchius leased 367 and 369 Bleecker street in 1891 and made "interior alterations," as described by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide on September 26.  Whatever the remodeling was, it was minimal, costing Goetchius the equivalent of only $7,000 in 2026.

An interesting resident here during the first years of the 20th century was Amos L. See, a widow.  Born in Westchester County in 1837, his family moved to "old Greenwich Village," as worded by The New York Times, in 1856.  He served in the Civil War as a captain with Company H, 71st Regiment.  (His two sons fought in the same company during the Spanish American War.)  Following the Civil War, See went into the  business of manufacturing hardware.

In 1903, See retired.  He suffered a fatal stroke in his apartment here on March 14, 1906.  The New York Times said, "He was an enthusiastic fisherman, and he spent the last three years of his life fishing a little and talking and reading about it more."  

E. C. Henry Kugeler died around 1909 and the two Bleecker Street buildings and the house that was still numbered 18 Van Nest Place were inherited by his daughters, Matilda C. Kugeler and Anna L. Zellweger.  They sold the three properties at auction on March 15, 1910.

At the time, the residents of 367 Bleecker Street were less professional.  Living here at the time was the family of John Walsh, who drove a wagon for an express company.  That summer, the teamsters went on strike.  Labor disputes in the first decades of the century were often violent and even deadly.  On October 31, 1910, the New-York Tribune reported, "In expectation of trouble to-day Chief Monahan ordered the police to shoot any one seen inciting to riot and who ran when ordered by the police to submit to arrest."  The extreme orders were, in part, a result of the rioting that occurred the previous day.  During that affray, said the newspaper, "John Walsh, a driver, of No. 367 Bleecker street, was locked up on a charge of assaulting Patrolman M. J. Hogan."

The Walsh family was still here when war broke out in Europe.  On October 1, 1918, William J. Walsh's name appeared on the list of soldiers wounded in battle.

In the post-war years, Peter H. Rieper ran the grocery store.  Following the enactment of Prohibition, he started selling more than celery and eggs.  On February 19, 1920, the New-York Tribune reported, "In a grocery at 367 Bleecker Street, Revenue Agents Loftus and Jacobs found thirteen bottles of wine and a quantity of gin."  Rieper was jailed.

A grocery still occupied the ground floor in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1967, Pierre Moulin and Pierre LeVec created a French Provicial antiques shop, Pierre Deux (The Two Pierres), here.  The shop branched out, importing fabrics from the south of France.  The New York Times would later report, "Before long, there were 22 Pierre Deux shops around the world."

The partners gave the building an even more Parisian flavor by  installing French windows throughout.  Shopping at Pierre Deux could be costly.  New York Magazine said, "this crowded West Village antiques shop has two floors of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French Country, as well as twentieth-century--tables, chairs, commodes, beds, and more.  Armoires start at $8,000, farm tables at $5,000."  

In 1989, Moulin and LeVec retired, selling all of the shops except 367 Bleecker Street.  LeVec died in 1998 and Moulin the following year.  

Pierre Deux closed in 2011 and in 2013 Burberry Brit moved into the space.  In reporting the opening, Retail Market Study 2013 remarked, "The budding fashion district that is 367 Bleecker Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village has a new destination.  In October, Burberry opened their latest Burberry Brit store."

Despite the loss of the molded lintels, 367 Bleecker Street is still a commanding presence on the corner.

photographs by the author

The 1911 Zinn Building - 210 Eleventh Avenue

 

photograph by Jim Henderson

Around 1847 when he was 16 years old, Simon Zinn left his native Bavaria.  Upon arriving in New York City, he found employment in a metal goods firm.  By the late 1880s, he was a partner in Zinn & Messer, which manufactured a vast variety of small metal goods like frames and clasps.  The firm's name had became Simon Zinn & Co. before Simon's death in May 1897.

Simon Zinn's widow, Mary, and her sons, Arthur and Martin, took over the firm.  The following year, they established an ancillary company, The Gem Cutlery Company to manufacture safety razors.  By 1907, the two businesses required a large facility.

On November 1 that year, The New York Times reported that the Zinns had purchased the two buildings at 210 to 216 Eleventh Avenue, on the southeast corner of 25th Street.  They were one- and three-stories tall, respectively.  The family did not move quickly to replace the structures, but a disaster three years later forced their hands.

On October 4, 1910, The New York Times reported on "One of the most spectacular fires New York has seen in years."  The blaze began in the lumberyards "on the North River water front" between 23rd and 26th Street.  The city's entire fleet of fireboats helped firefighters on the ground.   In the end, $1.5 million worth of property was destroyed and the riverfront from Tenth to Eleventh Avenue, from 24th Street to the north side of 26th Street was leveled.

Ten days later, the architectural firm of Shire & Kaufman filed plans for an 11-story "brick factory" for the Zinns.  The plans projected the construction cost at $300,000, or about $10.2 million in 2026.  Completed in 1911, the steel-frame Zinn Building was designed in an Arts & Crafts take on Gothic.  The three-story base included double-height segmental arches within banded piers.  The seven-story mid-section was faced in beige brick, its vast windows stacked within full-height arches.  The supports of the tenth floor piers took the form of medieval grotesques, and the building's corner sections rose above the roofline.  The northwestern corner sprouted a clock tower.

By 1940 only a stump of the clock tower survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Gem Cutlery Co. was as successful (if not more so) as Simon Zinn & Co.  An article in the October 1913 issue of Exporters' Review said, "The 'Gem' safety razors are among the best known safety razors in the United States, the Gem Cutlery Co. having been pioneers in the manufacture of these indispensable toilet requisites."

The Popular Magazine, November 1913 (copyright expired)

Emanuel Grammici was hired in April 1915 as a press operator for Simon Zinn & Co.  The 25-year-old earned $1.18 per day, or about $38 in 2026 terms.  In operating the power press, he created metal inlays.  Less than a month after starting his new job, on May 6, he suffered a horrific accident.  According to legal papers, "in placing the inlay in the die, he accidentally released the power, catching his fingers between the die and punch."  In an instant, all of Grammaci's fingers on his right hand were severed.

Mary Zinn died in May 1919.  She had been highly involved in the operation of the two companies since her husband's death.  Just four months later, in September, Arthur and Martin sold the Gem Cutlery Company for $4 million, a staggering $72.5 million today.

The void in the Zinn Building was filled by the newly-formed Automatic Straight Air Brake Co.  The Wall Street Journal announced on May 14, 1920, "The company has obtained a desirable location for manufacturing purpose, at 210 Eleventh avenue."  And on November 9, the periodical reported, "The Automatic Straight Air Brake Co. is already in production at its plant at 210 Eleventh Avenue."

Arthur and Martin Zinn now focused on the Simon Zinn Inc.'s metal novelty goods.  In 1920, they added their patented vanity cases to the line.

An advertisement for the Zinns' patented vanity case featured a photo of the Zinn Building with the clock tower atop the corner.  The American Perfumer and Essential Oil Review, May 1923 (copyright expired)

In 1924, the Zinns moved their operation to Bristol, Connecticut.  The building was sold to the newly-formed 210 Eleventh Avenue Corporation.  The syndicate was composed of Paul Baron and his sons, Louis J., Abner, Samuel T., Harry and Morton Harold.

Paul Baron was born in Russia and entered the paper manufacturing business in 1882.  He and his sons founded the Royal Card & Paper Corporation in 1913.  The firm produced a variety of papers and card stock and was the first producer of gift-wrapping paper in the United States.

Giftwares magazine, May, 1929

In an early example of environmental regulation, the Royal Paper Company was fined $100 by Magistrate Edward Thompson on September 24, 1951 for air pollution.  Murray Berger, an inspector of the Bureau of Smoke Control, "had witnessed on several inspections," according to The New York Times, of the firm's permitting "dense smoke from the smokestack."

When Morton Harold Baron died in 1986, all his brothers had predeceased him.  Shortly afterward, the Royal Paper Company closed.

At the time of Baron's death, the Chelsea neighborhood was seeing a transformation from industry to art as lofts were converted to gallery spaces.  In 1999, the Robert Mann and the Pardo-Sheehan galleries were in the Zinn Building, joined the following year by the Edward Thorp and the Urban Architecture galleries.  

photograph by the author

Today 210 Eleventh Avenue is known as The Chelsea Arts Centre, its realtor boasting it is "the home to cutting edge creative and high-fashion tenants."  Astoundingly, the lower floors have never been brutalized and Shire & Kaufman's 1911 design is greatly intact.

The 1897 Donac - 402 West 20th Street

photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

Angelica Barraclough Faber was one of 13 children of Don Alonzo and Mathilda Charity Smith Cushman.  Cushman, a close friend of Clement Clarke Moore, began developing plots on the former's country estate, Chelsea, in the early 1830s.  Upon Cushman's death in 1875, he left significant real estate to his children in equal shares.

Angelica's husband, Gustavus William Faber, died in 1895.  Like her father, she turned to real estate and in February 1897, bought out her siblings to acquire full ownership of the vacant lot at 402 West 20th Street, just west of Ninth Avenue.  She hired esteemed architect C. P. H. Gilbert (who had designed several Cushman buildings) to design a flat building on the site.  His plans, filed on April 2, projected the construction cost at $15,000, or about $585,000 in 2026 terms.

To the east of the plot sat 169 Ninth Avenue, which Don Alonzo Cushman erected in 1845 and which hugged the 20th Street property line.  To the west was the 1830 house at 404 West 20th Street, which sat back to allow for its stoop.  Gilbert cleverly transitioned the two by concaving the western corner of his building, creating an elegant architectural link.  

C. P. H. Gilbert's design gracefully transitions from property line to set-back.  photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

Faced in beige brick, Gilbert's tripartite neo-Colonial design included splayed lintels and paneled quoins.  Above the entrance, a stone entablature announced the building's name, Donac, a nod to Angelica's father (Don A. C.).  A three-story faceted bay filled the mid-section of the concave section.  It provided a small stone balcony to the fifth floor apartment.

Perhaps because the Donac faced the General Theological Seminary, several of the tenants were involved with the Episcopalian church.  Among the initial residents was Adelaide Oliver, who had lived across the street at 4 Chelsea Square with her husband, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Oliver.  On October 19, 1897, as construction of the Donac neared completion, Rev. Oliver died.  Adelaide could see the seminary and her former home from the window of her new apartment.

Adelaide Inlay Oliver was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1832.  She died in her Donac apartment on November 17, 1898 and her funeral was held in Trinity Chapel on November 21.

As early as 1908, John Wilson Wood and his wife, the former Harriet Roe Drom, lived here.  Born in New York City in 1866, he was the executive secretary of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.  He was in charge of domestic missionary work in North America.

The Woods would remain in the Donac for decades. The 1929 American Biography noted, "Mr. Wood makes his home at No. 402 West Twentieth Street, in that charming part of New York City known locally as Chelsea."

Harriet died in the apartment in 1931, and eight years later John Wilson Wood married Regina Lustgarten, who had been a missionary in China for years.  John and Regina Wood still lived here on August 7, 1947, when he died at the age of 81.

In the meantime, author Edward Sim Van Zile and his family occupied an apartment as early as 1913.  Born on May 2, 1863, Van Zile married Mary Morgan Bulkeley in 1886 and they had five children.  An article about Van Zile in Book News Biographies in 1904 said, "for the past ten years, Mr. Van Zile has been known to the reading public through many short stories, novelettes and a few novels."

Edward Sims Van Zile ca. 1917, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Among the books written by him at the time of that article were the the 1890 A Magnetic Man and Other Stories; Don Miguel, and Other Stories, released in 1891; and the 1903 A Duke and His Double.

The Van Ziles' parlor was the scene of daughter Sally's marriage to Dr. Walter F. Scott on June 3, 1913.  The home wedding was, apparently a compromise.  The New York Times reported, "As Miss Van Zile is a Protestant and Dr. Scott a Catholic, the wedding ceremony will be performed by Mgr. [Michael J.] Lavelle of St. Patrick's Cathedral."  (The family moved next door to 404 West 20th Street, leasing it from the Cushman family, soon after.)

The staid atmosphere of the Donac was rocked in 1958.  Poet Hettie Cohen worked as a subscription manager at the Record Changer when author and poet LeRoi Jones applied for a job.  The two bonded, were married the following year, and leased an apartment in the Donac.  Hettie, in her How I Became Hettie Jones, recalls the Friday night, "just after we moved to Chelsea," that the couple attended a poetry reading by Jack Kerouac.  She writes:

Our new house was a straight mile downtown, just off Ninth Avenue, and we had nothing but party space to offer, so after the reading we just brought the audience home, to 402 West Twentieth Street, a once elegant six-room parlor facing the weatherbeaten brick of the Episcopal Seminary.

Hettie Jones writes that that Friday night never ended.  "Soon we had a studio couch and a folding cot, one or two weekly boarders, twenty or more weekend regulars, occasional bases for hundreds."  The Jones apartment fostered what became known as the "Twentieth Street poets," a group of Beat Generation poets, including figures like Jack Kerouac, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso.

LeRoi and Hettie Jones with Jones's parents in 1963.  Kas Heppner/Metropolitan Photo Service

In 1957, the couple founded the literary magazine Yugen and established the publishing firm Totem Press.  Not surprisingly, they published works by their friends--like Ginsberg, Kerouac and Frank O'Hara.  In 1962, they left the Donac to move into an apartment at 27 Cooper Square.

photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

The building was purchased in 1981 by Marion Buhagiar, who initiated a facade cleaning and restoration.  Essentially unchanged externally, it was recently offered for sale, the realtor telling me it "can now be offered as a single-family home if desired."

The 1914 Municipal Building - 1 Centre Street

 

photograph by Momos

As early as 1884, the city's government had outgrown the 1812 City Hall building.  Plans for a Municipal Building that would "contain the different departments that are now housed in rented quarters," as described by the Real Estate Record & Guide in October 25, 1890, were varied.  The article said that the Municipal Building Commission had considered sites on St. Mark's Place and East 6th Street, but had decided on City Hall Park, which was already owned by the city.  The New York Times explained that several structures, including City Hall, the Post Office and the Court House, would have to be demolished.

A vote in the State Senate on February 25, 1890 challenged the idea.  The New York Times reported that legislators balked at the loss of a public park.  They further argued, "The City Hall is architecturally and historically too valuable, and the Court House and the Post Office are too substantial and costly to be removed."  (The sensitivity to City Hall's architectural importance, or even its recognition, was highly unusual for the time.)

A year later, however, the plan looked promising.  On March 28, 1891, The New York Times reported that Mayor Hugh J. Grant was pushing hard for the plan.  The article explained:

He was fully aware of the fact that there was opposition to the scheme of tearing down the old City Hall, but so far as he had been able to determine this was the expression only of sentimentalism which should not be allowed to stand in the way of the city's progress.

Ready to fight the mayor, said the article, was the Architectural League of America, which "would condemn the proposition to tear down the old City Hall."

City Hall seemed doomed following a two-hour meeting in the private office of the new mayor, Thomas Gilroy, on March 28, 1893.  The Municipal Building Commission and the Advisory Committee of Architects agreed with Gilroy and his predecessor.  A site map was released showing the proposed $4 million structure sitting directly on top of the City Hall site, its northern wings engulfing the Court House.

The New York Times, March 29, 1883 (copyright expired)

A contest for the design of the Municipal Building was opened shortly after, with the deadline for submission at noon on September 1, 1893.  The 130 architects had toiled in vain, as it turned out.  The battle to save City Hall was far from over.

Andrew Haswell Green was well known to New Yorkers.  He had been highly involved in the development of open spaces including Central Park, Riverside Drive, and Morningside Park.  He wrote a lengthy, pleading open letter to the Parks Commissioners in February 1894.  It said in part:

The City Hall presents an example of fine architectural taste.  In design and construction it is faultless as any structure in the city, while its historical and biographical relations involve events of paramount interest and personages of dignity and estimation, and, as has been well said, "It stands to-day unsurpassed by any structure of its kind in the country."  It should continue to stand, as for nearly a century it has stood, ample, commodious, and convenient.

It would be more than a decade before a committee agreed to  find an alternative site for the Municipal Building, and to preserve the Court House and City Hall, and renovate the park.  Finally, on May 9, 1908, the Record & Guide published a rendering of the new building, designed by William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White.  The site, facing City Hall Park on the east side of Centre Street, had proved a challenge for him.

The article said, "The peculiar shape of the lot...at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, made the architectural problem, as well as the problem of light and air an unusual one."  Also challenging was "the problem of construction over the subway without interfering with the passage of trains."  Kendall had chosen "the classic style" for the building, said the article, "following the accepted traditions of buildings of a civic character throughout the country from the earliest times down."

McKim, Mead & White released the above rendering on May 8, 1908.  Real Estate Record & Guide (copyright expired)

As construction progressed, on June 27, 1909 The New York Times began an article saying, "New Yorkers thrive on superlatives."  It reminded readers of the Municipal Building's unique elements: "a subway running through its basement, an elevated railroad on its second floor, with streets on every side of it, and one passing directly through it."  

On December 27, 1909, Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. and Bridge Commissioner James W. Stevenson oversaw the laying of the four-ton, Maine granite cornerstone "of what is to be the largest, most elaborate, and most ornate municipal building of any city in the world," according to The New York Times.  The article said construction would be completed by January 1912 at a cost of "about $14,000,000."  (That figure would translate to nearly $500 million in 2026).

 Real Estate Record & Guide (copyright expired)

The article went on to describe Kendall's design, saying it would rise 25 floors to an eight-story tower.  "The general style is to be French Renaissance...The ornamental front of the building on Centre Street, with a long row of fifty-foot pillars, will be broken in the centre by an arched arcade through which Chambers Street will be run through the building."  Kendall strayed from the French Renaissance with that arcade, which was inspired by the ancient Arch of Constantine in Rome.

photograph by Jgrenaldy

Constructing a massive building adjacent to the subway was not only challenging, but dangerous.  On June 4, 1910, The New York Times reported that the east side of the excavation for the Municipal Building's foundation collapsed.  "A mountain of sand behind the shoring suddenly shifted and buried three workmen," said the article.  "Some of the timbers knocked over two others."  One of those workers, James McClellan, was buried to the neck and pinned by timbers.  The article explained, "further movements of the sand threatened to bury him completely."  Two priests, Father John Curry and Father Luke J. Evers, were lowered into the pit where they gave the last sacraments to McClellan.  Three hours later, fortunately, he was extricated and removed to a hospital.

Three months later, on September 3, a second cave in took place, this time on the western side.  It undid significant work.  The New York Times reported, "The sewer and water pipes along the line of the cave-in were torn away."  Happily, this time no workers were injured.

Within months after that setback, the building began taking shape.  On April 23, 1911, McKim, Mead & White announced that the tower of the structure was "designed in the modern classic style, and will be built of Maine granite of a light tone."  Not yet decided, according to The New York Times, was "a figure to top the tower."  The firm said "a number of figures are being considered."

Disaster struck again on June 28, 1911.  The New York Times reported, "The highest blaze ever fought by the Fire Department...was discovered early last evening on the twenty-fifth floor of the new Municipal Building, now in course of construction."  The stand pipes did not yet extend above the 21st floor.  The article said, "The firemen tried to extinguish the fire by throwing on sand, but the blaze was beyond their control."  The fire fighters were also endangered by the fact that the floors at that level were not yet floored over.  They "were compelled to walk in line and carry a lighted lantern," said the article.  Hoses were hauled up from the 21st floor stand pipe and eventually the fire was extinguished.

The next week, on July 3, the building was topped off.  "Just before stopping work last night," reported The Times, "several hundred iron workers on the new Municipal Building...unfurled a large American flag to show they had reached the highest point of the structure."

On May 8, 1913, Adolph A. Weinman's gilded statue, Civic Fame, was installed atop the tower.  Although the building was still under construction, the first tenants moved in seven months later.  

Not everyone was happy with Kendall's results.   On January 22, 1914, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel told a meeting of the Sinking Fund Commissioners, "The building was planned badly in its original conception and is largely a waste of space as now constructed."  The board's commissioner noted, "this undoubtedly can be attributed to the fact that the site was a bad one in the beginning."  The president of the Board of Aldermen added his thought.  "We have the building and we must make the best of it."

On January 22, 1914, the New-York Tribune wrote, "If the protests of city department heads are to be believed, the fine white Municipal Building is a fine white elephant; cost to date, some $15,000,000; and value for the original purpose, doubtful."  The article admitted, "The Municipal Building is good to look at."  But it added, should it not adequately fulfill the needs of the city departments, "Miss New York on the top of the tower may have cause to hide her face in her robes for shame at the waste."

A vintage postcard shows the Municipal Building as the highest structure in the district. (copyright expired)

Borough President Marcus M. Marks came to Kendall's and the building's defense.  The Evening World reported on February 23, 1924, "He pointed to the wonderful capacity of the building with its fourteen acres of net floor space, its thousand offices, supplying 5,000 employees with plenty of natural light, and figures that office space in the new structure will cost the city...$1.33 per square foot, as against an average price of $1.76 per square foot paid during the past two years for rented space."

original photograph from the author's collection

Another complaint was almost unbelievable.  On June 21, 1914, the New York Herald reported, "Don't believe anybody who tells you that it's an optical illusion which makes you think that Miss Civic Virtue, or whatever the official name of the bronze lady on the top of the Municipal Building tower is, has hiked her gilt skirts up hysterically during the past few days and is trying to stand even higher on her pedestal than heretofore."  

As construction began, two cats "fell into the excavation," said the New York Herald.  And then, "nature took its course."  By the time the building opened, "the cats in the building grew so numerous that something had to be done."  The newspaper said that the city had eliminated to date 63 feral felines.  The problem now, said the article, "mice frolic gayly" within the building.

photograph by Ken Lund

Despite the early denunciation of the structure, the Municipal Building (renamed the David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building on October 15, 2015) has become an architectural landmark of the lower Manhattan skyscape.  William M. Kendall's ability to conform his design to the awkward footprint, his striking entrance arcade, and the structure's soaring presence topped with Civic Fame is integral to the City Hall and Foley Square architectural neighborhood.

The 1902 Henry Herman Westinghouse Mansion - 313 West 105th Street

 

Real estate developer John C. Umberfield purchased vacant land on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive in 1900.  Architect William E. Mowbray designed seven high-end residences for the site in the French Beaux Arts style, configuring his three designs in an A-B-C-B-C-B-A configuration.

The row was completed in 1902 and among the C models was 313 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance, which sat atop a three-stepped porch, within a rusticated base.  A delicate French-style railing at the second floor introduced a three-story projecting angled bay.  Engaged Scamozzi columns upheld a dramatic, broken pediment over the central window of the second floor.

John C. Umberfield sold the 21-foot-wide residence in February 1902 to Kate A. Burbank.  Her ownership would be short.  On October 30, 1903, The Sun reported that Kate sold 313 West 105th Street "to a Mrs. Westinghouse."

"Mrs. Westinghouse" was Clara Louise Saltmarsh Westinghouse, the wife of Henry Herman Westinghouse.  Born in 1854 and 1853 respectively, the couple was married in 1873.  They had two daughters, Clara Catherine, who was 20 in 1903; and Marjorie Caldwell, who was eight.  (Another daughter, Florence Erskine Westinghouse, died in 1890.)

Henry and his brother, George Westinghouse, were the sons of George Westinghouse, Sr., a patentee and manufacturer of farm equipment.  Like George, Jr., according to The New York Times, Henry "inherited a talent for mechanical development."  In 1883 he invented the single-acting steam engine and continued to design devices connected with air brakes and steam engines.  (His brother invented the air brake.)  In 1883, Henry co-founded the engineering firm of Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co.  The New York Times would later remark, "This company marketed the single-acting engine in every country where steam power is used."

When he founded Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co., Henry had already been associated with the Westinghouse Air Brake Company for a decade.  When he and Clara purchased 313 West 105th Street, he had been a vice-president of that firm for four years.

The family had another residence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and their country estate, Grasmere, was on Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes district of central New York State.   

Henry Herman Westinghouse (1853-1933) original source unknown

The drawing and dining rooms of the West 105th Street house were routinely the venue of entertaining.  But the dinner party of "intimate friends and members of the family" on February 16, 1906, was special.  The New-York Tribune noted that "there were twenty-covers" and said that during the dinner, Clara Catherine's engagement to Charles William Fletcher was announced.

Six months later, on August 26, the New-York Tribune reported that the invitations to the wedding had been issued.  It would take place, said the article, "on the evening of Wednesday, September 12, at their summer home, Grasmere, Kidder's Ferry, on Cayuga Lake."  It would be a prestigious event.

The Auburn, New York Democrat reported, "The affair was elaborate in detail and was witnessed by about 900 guests and relatives from New York, Pittsburg, Boston, Schenectady and Atchison, Kansas."  The article mentioned that after their "automobile tour," the newlyweds "will be at home at 313 West One Hundred and Fifth street, New York, after November 15."

The following year, Henry and Clara sold the mansion to clothing manufacturer Hugh M. Mullen and his wife, Jessie C.  The couple had a daughter, Genevieve Lillian, born in 1887.

The family had barely settled in when Genevieve's engagement to Guyon Locke Crocheron Earle was announced.  On December 30, 1908, The Sun reported, "The marriage will be celebrated at the Mullen home on January 27.  

While the society reporters normally focused on the prospective bride, this engagement was different.  The son of the late General Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Guyon Earle grew up in "Earle Cliff," known today as the Morris-Jumel mansion, and in the family's Staten Island country home, Guyon Mansion, erected in 1673.  New Yorkers were also well-acquainted with the family through General Earle's proprietorship of hotels, notably the New Netherlands and the Hotel Normandie.

The wedding took place in the 105th Street house on the night of January 27, 1909.  As the Westinghouses had done, the Mullens soon sold the mansion.  In May 1910, Hugh and Jessie moved to the fashionable Sugar Hill section of Harlem, purchasing a house at 20 St. Nicholas Place.  They sold 313 West 105th Street to John Ewing and his wife, the former Grace MacKenzie.

John Ewing was born in Scotland on May 21, 1848.  When he was three, his parents immigrated to New York City.  He graduated from the College of Pharmacy and in 1877 partnered in the drug business of Doyle & Ewing.  He later founded Ewing & Co. with his brother-in-law Alexander MacKenzie.  Grace was the daughter of George R. MacKenzie, president of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

The couple was married on October 3, 1876.  Their first child, Grace MacKenzie, died at the age of five in 1885.  Their son, George Ross McKenzie, was 27 years old when they purchased 313 West 105th Street.  The Ewings' country home, Bramble Brae, was in Glen Spey, New York.

The couple was at Bramble Brae on July 29, 1914, when John died at the age of 66.  Grace remained at 313 West 105th Street until September 1920 when she sold it to British Lt. Colonel Lloyd, sparking a rapid-fire turnover in ownership.  

On December 10, 1924, The New York Times reported that Milton and Edward Schreyer had purchased the house for $55,000, saying they "intend to make extensive improvements and occupy."  (The price would translate to just over $1 million in 2026.)  They Schreyers lost the property in foreclosure and it was sold at auction to John B. Antonapolos for $40,950 on January 12, 1927.

Antonapolos leased the house the following year to the Master Institute of United Arts.  In reporting the deal on July 27, 1928, The New York Times remarked, "The institute owns the plot at the north corner of 103d Street and Riverside Drive, where it is erecting a fifteen-story structure."

The porch and its hefty wing walls were intact when this tax photograph was taken.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Russian-born Nicholas Roerich and his wife, Helena, had arrived in New York City eight years earlier.  The mystic and artist described himself as a master in the theosophist belief in ancients who could transmit messages and knowledge to believers.  (Reportedly, it was he who urged follower Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture under Franklin Roosevelt, to persuade the Treasury Department to add the mystic pyramid of the Great Seal to the dollar bill—a change that was enacted in 1935.)  In addition to the institute, the couple had founded the Roerich Museum in 1923.

At the time of the lease signing, Nicholas was out of the country, "the head of the Roerich American expedition to Tibet," as explained by The New York Times on July 15, 1928.  His 5,000-word letter that Helena had received the previous day was the first anyone had heard from the expedition in 13 months.  He explained that they had been captives for five months in Tibet, "during which five of his men died and ninety caravan animals perished."

The Master Institute of United Arts and the Roerich Museum operated from 313 West 105th Street, staging exhibitions and lectures.  On January 27, 1929, The New York Times commented, "The Roerich Museum at 313 West 105th Street contains about 800 paintings by Mr. Roerich, including the panorama of his Asiatic travels.  The facilities remained here until the completion of the Master Building at 310-312 Riverside Drive. 

John Antonapolos signed a three-year lease for 313 West 105th Street to Pantelis Sioris on December 1, 1930 at $4,500 per year (about $7,000 per month today).  Before being leased in February 1939, it had been converted to multiple units--two apartments through the fourth floor and six furnished rooms on the fifth.

A substantial renovation came in 1963, when the former mansion was converted to apartments, three per floor.  The porch was removed, the main entrance and the service entrance remodeled as windows, and a new doorway installed where a window had been.

Then, in 1999, a penthouse level, unseen from the street was added.  It, combined with the fifth floor, created a duplex apartment.  There are 15 units in the building today.

photographs by the author

The Lost 1826 New York Theatre

 

image by Alexander Jackson Davis by Imbert's Lithography, from the collection of the New York Public Library

On November 25, 1783, George Washington gathered his entourage at the Bull's Head Tavern on the Bowery before re-entering the city upon the evacuation of the British.  The tavern was acquired by Henry Astor, brother of John Jacob Astor, two years later.  In 1824, he moved the operation uptown and assembled a group of businessmen who sold shares "for erecting a theatre on the grounds of Bull's Head."

The group commissioned 40-year-old architect Ithiel Town to design the structure.  Town was among the first American professional architects, and his rekindling of historic styles like Gothic and Greek would transform American tastes in architecture.

On June 19, 1826, The Evening Post reported, "The ceremony of having the corner stone of the new Theatre on the site of the old Bull's Head Tavern, took place on Saturday afternoon."  Mayor Philip Hone officiated, "assisted by a number of distinguished individuals," said the article.  A leaden box inscribed with the date held "a variety of articles, such as boxes and medals, also several valuable newspapers of the latest dates."  

The journalist waxed poetic, saying the box would be a link to the future, "when some musty antiquarian will be called on to decypher [sic] the forgotten characters in which the literature of the present age is recorded in these, then invaluable relics."

Construction cost $175,000 to build, according to Thomas A. Bogar in his Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre.  (The figure would translate to about $5.7 million in 2026.)  Town had produced a dignified, two-story structure inspired by classic Greek temple designs.  Atop a broad flight of stairs, two heroic, fluted Doric columns fronted the recessed entrance.  Triglyphs decorated the frieze below a triangular pediment.  To appear as marble, the brick facade was covered with hand-veined stucco.

image most likely by Alexander Jackson Davis, from the collection of the New York Public Library

The theater would hold 3,000 patrons.  It included concessions, including three saloons and a ladies' lounge.  A notice in the New-York Evening Post on September 30, 1826 offered:

New-York Theatre--Bowery--To let, the saloon, punch room, pit and gallery bars and fruit stands for the New York Theatre.  These places will be let separately at public auction to the highest bidder, on Wednesday, the 2d day of October next, at 12 o'clock noon, at Morse's Hotel.

The New York Theatre opened in October 1826.  The saloons within the venue and the resultant behavior of the more rowdy attendees prompted the drama critic of The Evening Post to raise concerns for the female patrons.  He suggested on October 26 that the boxes should be priced higher than the seats in the pit.

The boxes are certainly the most quiet and orderly, and in some respects the most convenient of the two, and should therefore be set at a higher price.  Besides, the boxes are the only place for ladies, and something should be done to protect them from the troublesome neighbourhood of persons who now may not scruple to intrude among them.

The critic suggested "that a price of a seat in the boxes should be raised to six shillings, or that of a seat in the pit lowered to three."  The management was paying attention.  Five days later, a notice appeared in The Evening Post that announced the new rates of 75 cents for boxes and 37.5 cents for the pit.  (The cost of a box would equal $24.50 today.)

On November 25, 1826, exactly 43 years after Washington assembled his retinue at the Bull's Head, the site was commemorated in the New York Theatre with a "Grand Military Gala Night."  An announcement in The Evening Post said it would be in "celebration of the Evacuation of this city by the British Army," adding, "It is expected that the theatre will on this evening be honored by the presence of his Excellency the Governor and suite, and several Officers of distinction.  The front of the Theatre will be splendidly illuminated."

watercolor by Alexander Jackson Davis, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The success of the New York Theatre caused a logistical problem.  On December 20, 1826, Mayor Philip Hone announced new traffic laws, "in order to prevent the difficulty and confusion which has existed among the carriages in attendance at the New York Theatre."  To keep vehicles moving, among his seven directives was that the theater would employ an attendant "to open the doors and let down the steps of the carriages, and no driver will be permitted on any pretence [sic] to leave his box."

Among the first actors to appear was Edwin Forrest, who performed in the role of Damon in Damon & Pythias on November 21, 1826.  The Evening Post remarked, "This very promising young actor has already gained great credit."  Two months later, however, the critic was less generous.  "His voice, however, wants cultivation, and there is occasionally too much violence of declamation and extravagance of gesture."

Forrest, according to Thomas A. Bogar, was paid $28 a week (about $915 today).  By the end of the season, he was earning $200 per week.

Forrest's large income was by no means routine for most actors.  To support them, theaters would hold "ticket nights," on which all the ticket sales went directly to the actors.  Loyal fans would mob the theaters on those nights to support their favorite actors.  

The practice horribly backfired on July 19, 1827.  That night two of the cast members were taken sick.  The New York Courier reported, "consequently, a dance was omitted, and one farce substituted for another."  The audience was enraged.  The article said the theater "was a disgraceful scene of riot and disorder at this elegant establishment."  Several of the "beautiful lamps" were broken and some other damage done.  The newspaper said, "We do not believe that any blame can attach to the manager; he did all his power, and endeavored to explain all things, but when did ever a furious mob listen to reason."

The Evening Post's journalist who imagined that the New York Theatre and the leaden box within its cornerstone would last far into the future was woefully mistaken.  On the night of May 26, 1828, a fire broke out.  Before morning, Ithiel Town's handsome Greek Revival edifice was burned to the ground.

Joseph Sera's Greek Revival design honored its predecessor.  Bourne Views of New York, 1828 (copyright expired)

On its site, a new venue, the Bowery Theatre, designed by Joseph Sera, was erected.  Completed in 1828, it burned in 1836.