The Lost Hugh and Henrietta Chisholm Mansion -- 813 Fifth Avenue

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In 1870-71, two near-matching brownstone houses were erected at 812 and 813 Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park.  Designed by D. & J. Jardine in the Second Empire style, 813 Fifth Avenue was a smaller version of its neighbor--two bays wide rather than three.  The openings--even at the basement level--sat within decorative architrave frames.  The fourth floor took the form of a Parisian-style mansard with an elaborate dormer and shingled cap.

813 (left) was a smaller version of its next door neighbor.  from Microbes and The Microbe Killer, 1890 (copyright expired)

The house became home to Charles S. Fischer.  He and his brother John U. Fischer, arrived in America in 1839.  The great-grandsons of the piano maker to King Ferdinand I of Naples, they established the J. & C. Fischer piano company the following year.  Now music spilled over from Fischer's business into his home.  In his mansion was an orchestrion--an organ-like machine that incorporated other instruments and operated by means of rolls.  Costing Fischer $6,000 (about $154,000 in 2025), it was "equal in power to a band of 40 instruments, all instruments full size," and came with 50 rolls "comprising all the popular operas, overtures, waltzes, &c.," according to its ad.

The stoops and areaways of the high end homes were often where desperate mothers abandoned their infants.  On the night of June 11, 1887, a servant discovered a month-old girl "lying on the stoop," according to The Sun.  The article said, "alongside of it lay a bundle of worn clothing."  The servant changed its clothing, and then Fischer hailed a cabbie, who transported the infant to the Police Central Office.  There was no note with the baby, so it assuredly was taken to an orphanage.

An advertisement appeared in The New York Times on March 7, 1889:

An elegant Fifth Avenue House for sale on very easy terms.  No. 813 Fifth-Avenue between 62d and 63d Streets.  Four Stories with extension.

The ad noted the house was "superbly decorated" and that the plumbing was new.

The residence was purchased by William and Ida Haenel Radam.  Born in Germany in 1844, Radam came to America at the age of 23.  A botanist, he settled in Austin, Texas where he established gardens, eventually having branches in other cities.  When he contracted malarial fever in 1884, doctors told him he had no chance of recovery.  The New York Times later recalled, "His interest in botany and some experience as a naturalist had led him some time before into an investigation of certain forms of plant life, and the result of his experiments was the discovery in 1885 of what he claimed to be a 'microbe killer.'"  Radam attributed his recovery to his discovery.  He established the Microbe Killer Companies with factories here, in England and Australia, "and from the sale he amassed a considerable fortune," according to the newspaper.

William Radam within his office at 813 Fifth Avenue.  from Microbes and The Microbe Killer, 1890 (copyright expired)

On May 19, 1894, The Evening World ran a full-page article about Radam titled, "What To Do For Microbes / A Texas Florist Discovers What Scientists Could Not."  The article explained the workings of the Microbe Killer and about Radam's life.  It praised, "the name of William Radam ought to be in every book of history and upon the lips of every schoolboy," and compared him to Louis Pasteur and Thomas Edison.

The Radams sold 813 Fifth Avenue in February 1889 to Hugh and Henrietta Chisholm.  (Incidentally, William Radam was later exposed as a charlatan.)  By now, the 1870s brownstones along the avenue across Central Park and the side streets were no longer fashionable.  One by one they were demolished and replaced, or renovated.

Two months later, The New York Times reported that the Chisholms had hired C. P. H. Gilbert to renovate their home.  The esteemed architect replaced the brownstone with a limestone facade, removed the stoop and created an entrance at street level.  His Beaux Arts design included two beefy telamones (columns in the form of men) that supported by faux balcony above the entrance, and another pair at the fifth floor.  Gilbert bowed the first through fourth floors, creating a stone railed balcony at the fifth floor that morphed into a steep mansard.

photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm was born in Canada in 1847.  He started his career by selling newspapers on trains.  He saved $50 and used it to take a course at a business school in Toronto.  In 1861, the teen co-founded Chisholm Brothers with his brothers.  They distributed newspapers across Canada and the Northeastern United States and within a few years employed 250 workers.  He married Henrietta Mason in 1872 and had one son, Hugh, Jr.  

By the time the Chisholms moved into 813 Fifth Avenue, Hugh had established several pulp and paper companies, including the Otis Falls Pulp Company in Jay, Maine, the third largest mill in the country.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Maine: A History, 1919 (copyright expired)

While Hugh was busy with work, Henrietta was involved in social and charity work.  The children of wealthy families had to be prepared for their introductions to society and that included learning dancing.  On May 19, 1901, The New York Times reported, "A new dancing class has been formed for young girls."  It was organized by Henrietta and four other socialites.  The first meeting, said the article, would be held on December 13, "at Mrs. Chisholm's residence, 813 Fifth Avenue."

On January 24, 1903, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. Hugh J. Chisholm (Miss Henrietta Mason) of 813 Fifth Avenue has invitations out for dinners on Tuesday next and Feb. 10, and a luncheon on Feb. 4."

The Chisholms' library.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Hugh Chisholm established company towns around his mills, including Chisholm, Maine, near the Otis Falls paper mills.  Concerned about workers' welfare, his planned communities included "wholesome" recreational areas like parks, theaters, educational buildings, and other outlets.

The younger Hugh, born on April 17, 1886, attended Browning's School and Yale University.  On September 7, 1907, just before returning to Yale for his junior year, Hugh, Jr. got his chauffeur Alfred Panier into a tight spot.  At a time when motorists were being pulled over for speeding at 15 miles per hour, Chisholm pushed his driver even faster.  The New York Times reported that Panier was "arrested for driving his machine over sixty miles an hour on Broadway, between 194th and 196th Streets."  The chauffeur was fined $10 (about $334 today), which presumably young Chisholm paid.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Jr. The History of the Class of 1908 Yale College, 1908 (copyright expired)

In December 1909, the Chisholms purchased Blind Brook Farm, the 200-acre former country estate of Marion Story in Portchester, New York.  (Marion Story had committed suicide in the mansion the previous August.)  The price Hugh Chisholm paid for the property "exceeded $500,000," according to The Sun, which said he would "spend $50,000 in repairs."  (The combined figure would translate to more than $12 million today.)

Blind Brook Farm.  1909 real estate brochure (copyright expired)

Three months prior to the purchase, Hugh, Jr.'s engagement to Sara C. Hardenbergh was announced.  The wedding took place in St. Bernard's Church in Bernardsville, New Jersey on June 25, 1910.  The reception was held at Rennemead, the country home of the Hardenberghs.  The newlyweds moved into the Chisholms' Fifth Avenue mansion.

Hugh Joseph Chisholm, Sr. died in the house on July 8, 1912.  His funeral was held in the residence at 3:00 the following day.  Henrietta and Hugh, Jr. and his wife would soon leave Fifth Avenue.  On December 25, 1912, The Sun reported, 

Mrs Hugh Chisholm is to give up her residence at 813 Fifth avenue...to live in an apartment house on Park avenue.  She is to have the eleventh floor in the new apartment to be erected at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Sixty-fifth street.

The suit will comprise fourteen rooms and four baths and will take in the entire floor.  Mrs. Chisholm's son Hugh will have the twelfth floor.  His suite will have also fourteen rooms and four baths.

The Park Avenue building was completed in 1917.  Henrietta sold 813 Fifth Avenue in April that year to Francis Joseph and Anne Arend for $260,000 (about $6.18 million today).

The Arends filled the mansion with antique French furnishings and objets d'art, as seen in this photo of the salon.    from the Parke-Bernet Galleries' "Contents of the Residence of the Late Francis J. Arend" catalogue 1942

Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1866, Francis married Anne M. Moltz on November 15, 1890.  Anne's unmarried sister, Jennie B. Moltz, moved into the mansion with the couple.  Arend was president of the De Laval Separator Co., the Turbine Co., the Amerigo Realty Co., and was director in the Coal & Iron Bank.  He was a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the American Geographical Society.  The Arends' country home was in Deal, New Jersey.

 

On October 24, 1931, fourteen years after the family moved into 813 Fifth Avenue, Annie Moltz Arend underwent an operation at Sitken-Morgan Memorial Hospital.  She died a week later on October 30 at the age of 65.

from the Parke-Bernet Galleries' "Contents of the Residence of the Late Francis J. Arend" catalogue 1942

It is unclear when Francis left 813 Fifth Avenue.  In 1940, he was living in the Plaza Hotel with a staff of 10.  The house sat fully furnished until his death on August 24, 1942.  An auction of the Arends' valuable collection of antique silver, furnishings and artwork was held before the end of the year.

In 1941, while Arend lived in the Plaza Hotel, the mansion was boarded up.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Georges Lurcy and his wife, the former Alice Snow Barbee, purchased the mansion from the Arend estate.  Lurcy had headed his own bank in France before coming "to New York after the fall of France in 1940," according to the Fort Worth newspaper Star-Telegram.  He was now a partner in the New York Stock Exchange firm of Halle & Stieglitz.  In reporting his purchasing of the Arends mansion, The New York Times mentioned that he and Alice had "been living at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel."

When Georges and Alice fled France, they retained their vast collection of French antiques and artwork.  Like the Arends, they filled the Fifth Avenue mansion with a remarkable collection.  Lurcy occasionally lent art pieces for exhibition.

Georges Lurcy amid French antiques and a Renoir landscape within the house.  from the Parke-Bernet catalogue "Collection of Georges Lurcy" November 1957.

Georges Lurcy died at the age of 62 on September 30, 1953.  Alice remained in the house for four more years.  On November 27, 1957, the Star-Telegram reported:

Parke-Bernet Galleries offered to a glittering gathering of 1,600 socialites and dealers the largest collection of French paintings ever assembled for a New York Auction last week.  They had been the collection of the late George[s] Lurcy and they were snapped up at prices ranging from $200,000 for a Renoir landscape, a $180,000 for a Gauguin portrait of a Tahitian woman, to $92,500 for a Monet.

The article commented that the extent of the collection, "was not known until his death in 1953."

No. 813 Fifth Avenue survived until 1963 when it and the flanking townhouses were demolished to be replaced for a Robert Bien-designed apartment building for the newly formed 813 Fifth Avenue syndicate.  During the demolition, the four limestone telemones were rescued and are exhibited today in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

photograph by Larry Gertner, August 23, 2015.

The Henry J. Scudder House - 116 East 17th Street

 

In 1850, Henry Joel Scudder purchased the 25-foot-wide plot at 69 East 17th Street (renumbered 116 in 1867) from Courtlandt Palmer.  Half a block to the west was Union Square where brick and brownstone mansions had begun appearing five years earlier; and two blocks to the east was the equally exclusive Stuyvesant Square.  

Three years later Scudder married Louisa Henrietta Davies and the following year, in 1854, the couple began construction of their new home on the site.  Their four-story-and-basement Italianate-style residence, completed within that year, was faced in brownstone.  

The highly-ornamented arched entrance, inspired by Renaissance designs, would set the house apart.  Its paneled columns were carved with a chain motif, the spandrels were filled with intricate foliate designs, and the keystone was carved with a stylized lyre.  A full relief shell sat within the triangular, bracketed pediment.  The chain motif was echoed in a frieze running below the fourth-floor windows.

The windows sat within molded architrave frames.  A cast iron balcony most likely fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Born in 1825, Henry Joel Scudder had deep American roots, descending from Thomas Scudder who arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1630.  Henry Scudder graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1846 and opened his law office in New York City in 1848.  He co-founded the law firm of Scudder & Carter in 1854.

When the couple moved into their new home, they had a newborn baby, Henry Townsend Scudder.  Also living with them were Henry's brothers, Hewlett and Townsend, a merchant and lawyer, respectively.  (Townsend was a partner with his brother in Scudder & Carter.)  

Henry and Louisa would have four more children--Charles Davies, Edward Mansfield, Mary English, and Elizabeth.   The family's country home was along the upper Hudson River.

On April 12, 1861, the year Elizabeth was born, the Civil War broke out.  Henry Scudder, a member of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment, left his family to fight in 1862.  In his absence, Louisa died on December 28, 1864 at the age of 30.  Shortly after Scudder's return to his East 17th Street home, Elizabeth died at the age of four.

Formerly the responsibility of Louisa, Henry Scudder was now tasked with staffing the houses.  He placed an ad in The Sun on May 3, 1865:

Wanted--A Cook and Chambermaid in a gentleman's family, 60 miles up the North River.  The cook to assist in washing and ironing; the chambermaid to be seamstress also; good references required.  Call at 69 East 17th st, between the hours of 8 and 3 to-day.

At the time of the ad, Hewlett still lived with the family.  Townsend had moved to East 30th Street by then.

In 1866, Henry Scudder married Emma Willard.  The population of the East 17th Street house would continue to grow as the couple had five children--Willard, Louisa H, Heyward, Emma Willard, and Hewlett.

Henry Joel Scudder, from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1872, Scudder was elected to the Forty-third Congress and held the office through March 3, 1875.  Afterward, he returned to his law practice and became the principal counsel for the Standard Oil Company.

Scudder moved his family to East 22nd Street in 1882 where he died on February 10, 1886.  In reporting his death, The New York Times said he, "for nearly a third of a century occupied a leading position at the Bar of this city."  In the meantime, the East 17th Street house was being rented, its tenant operating it as a boarding house.

Boarding here by 1887 was George R. Phillips, who apparently consisted of the one-person faculty of The New York School of Oratory.  Phillips taught his students from his rooms.  His advertisement in the New York Herald on December 18, 1887 read: "The New York School of Oratory and Voice Culture for the care of stammering and vocal impediments, 116 East 17th st, George R. Phillips, Principal."  He would remain here at least through 1879.

Another tenant gave instructions from his rooms.  In the same issue of the New York Herald an advertisement read, "$5 for six lessons--day or evening; drawing, flowers &c.; painting, photo color, photo crayon. 116 East 17th."  (The cost of each lesson would translate to $27.50 in 2025.)

The upscale tenor of the boarding house was reflected in one resident's ad looking for new accommodations on December 2, 1888.  "A lady with maid would like sitting room and bedroom in quiet, comfortable house; private family preferred, where there are no other boarders.  Address, giving particulars, K. E. 116 East 17th st."

The Scudder family advertised the house for sale on January  22, 1895, noting, "rented to May 1, 1896."  Just four days later, The New York Times reported "the Scudder estate [sold] to W. S. Patten the four-story and basement brownstone dwelling 116 East Seventeenth Street."  

William S. and Mary E. Patten inherited at least two boarders, Major Charles Mann and Rev. John R. Davies.  Rev. Davies was the pastor of the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Charles Mann was born in 1833 and educated in Germany.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the First Missouri Light Artillery.  He was Assistant Chief of Artillery at the Battle of Vicksburg.  The New York Press noted, "After the war he interested himself in oil wells."  Charles Mann was still involved in that business when he died here at the age of 62 on June 21, 1895.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

The Pattens continued to take in male boarders.  An advertisement  in the New York Journal and Advertiser on April 4, 1899 read, "17th St., 116 East, near Irving place--Large and single rooms; first class table; moderate price; gentlemen."

In December 1909, the Pattens sold the house to Ekko and Elise Sollmann.  They resold it in 1917 to George Borgfeldt & Co., which leased furnished rooms in the house.

The chain-carved frieze, molded window frames and denticulated cornices of the parlor windows survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Living here in the spring of 1928 was 22-year-old Winifred Mullarky, who came to New York from Youngstown, Ohio to become an artist's model.  The impressionable young woman read James Branch Cabell's Beyond Life while living here.  

On March 13, a tenant smelled gas and traced it to Mullarky's door.  The Evening Telegram reported, "Failing to gain entrance, the tenant called Policeman Frolich of the East Twenty-second street station, who forced the door."  Inside he found Winifred Mullarky unconscious in a chair.  She had placed a rubber tube leading from an open gas jet into her mouth.  Inhaling illuminating gas was so common that a device was available from some utility companies.  In addition to calling an ambulance from Bellevue Hospital, Frolich summoned "a lung motor from the Consolidated Gas Company."  The Evening Telegram reported, "it was said Miss Mullarky would recover."

The model had left a suicide note for her mother in Ohio, that said in part,

I am disappointed in life, in love, and in happiness.  Much that I have wanted to try to do has not been done.  I recently read the book by James Branch Cabell, "Beyond Life," and I found it very interesting.

She told her mother that the book shed light on the "life beyond the horizon."

Rooms continued to be leased in the house throughout the following decades.  In was purchased in 2012 for $23.5 million, initiating a still-ongoing renovation that will result in a two-family residence.

photographs by the author

The Patrick Galligan Saloon -- 337 Third Avenue

 

In 1853, Robert Kennie operated a grocery store in the Italianate-style building at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and 25th Street.  Although storekeepers customarily lived above their shops within buildings like this, the Kennies lived a few blocks north on Third Avenue.  Living upstairs at the time was Peter P. Roome, who worked as a watchman (what today we would call a security guard).

No. 337 Third Avenue was three stories tall and faced in running bond brick above the storefront.  Trimmed in simple brownstone sills and lintels, the building boasted a handsome bracketed metal cornice.

Around 1858, Patrick Galligan moved his saloon into the former grocery space.  Sarah Mason, widow of Jabez Mason, lived in the upper floors by 1861.  Hubbard Mason, presumably her son, was working as a carman in 1865.

The Masons had a scare early on the afternoon of July 4, 1865.  Celebrations for Independence Day in the 19th century were boisterous and dangerous.  Boys routinely fired pistols indiscriminatingly in the air and firecrackers were tossed willy-nilly with no regard to property owners or pedestrians.  The New York Times reported:

At about 3 o'clock P. M., the roof of No. 337 Third-avenue took fire from India crackers, and loss was sustained to the amount of $350.  The loss is fully covered by insurance in the Stuyvesant Office.

The saloon was taken over by James Goss in 1871.  In February 1874, builder James Whyte was hired to add a one-story, 21-foot-long extension to the rear, adding significant square footage to the saloon space.

Thomas Goss, presumably James's son, was arrested for a shocking crime on June 18 that year.  The New York Herald reported that he had been charged with felonious assault on Charles Sheridan, "whom he stabbed three times in the neck."  Goss was held without bail while Sheridan's fate played out, his "wounds being of a dangerous character."

Eliza Mooney ran a boarding house on the upper floors as early as 1879.  Her tenants were respectable, like Richard Tamplin, a shoemaker, who lived here at least from 1876 through 1880; and a young man who kept his identity private in his ad looking for work in May 1877:

Coachman and Groom--By a first-class coachman; single man; thoroughly understands his business; is a good, careful driver; will make himself generally useful; willing and obliging; no objection to the country; best City and country reference.  Address Coachman. No. 337 3d-av.

Thirty-nine-year-old Joseph Buneo, a barber, lived here in the spring of 1881 when he was involved in a disturbing incident.  At around 10:00 on April 3, he and 17-year-old Biencio Angelo were walking along First Avenue when the teen stopped at Mullen's fruit stand at First Avenue and East 2nd Street and purchased 5 cents of apples.  The Sun reported, "While the two Italians started off Mullen saw Buneo take an apple from the stand.  He demanded payment for it, and when it was refused, he attempted to forcibly take it from Buneo."

While Mullen and Buneo struggled, Angelo drew a knife and stabbed Mullen five times.  The fruit dealer fell to the pavement and cried for help as Mullen and Buneo fled.  Right behind them were two detectives, who quickly arrested them.

At the time of the incident, the saloon was now operated by Miles A. Gibbons.  He placed an advertisement in The Sun on May 13, 1881 that read, "Boy wanted about 17 to work in liquor store; reference required.  Miles A. Gibbons, 337 3d av."

Operating the upper floors in 1882 was M. Luther, who advertised in September, "A girl, about 15 years old, to mind baby and assist in light housework."

An employee took over the saloon for Miles Gibbons in the summer of 1883 when Gibbons was called for jury duty.  He sat on the murder case of James English, who had shot and killed James Ward on June 28 in McGlory's saloon.  The verdict was reached on July 6.  The courtroom was packed with "frequenters of Billy McGlory's dance hall," said The Sun.  The afternoon was favorable to the defendant and relatively tragic for Gibbons.  The article said, "The jury found a verdict of accidental shooting, and the audience dispersed.  The audience stole the new Panama hat of Juror Michael [sic] Gibbons."

By the mid-1880s, the building was part of the vast real estate holdings of a consortium of relatives including Nicholas Fish and his wife, and several Bryce family members, including Joseph S. and Elizabeth S. Bryce.  In 1891, Joseph Bryce signed a three-year lease on the building to John J. Dooley.  Almost immediately, Dooley gave the "saloon lease" to Peter Doelger.  At the time it was common for large breweries like the Peter Doelger Brewery to operate saloons that sold only their products.  

A tragedy occurred in 1893.  Annie Melzen arrived in New York from Germany on September 29 and moved into a room here.  The 15-year-old quickly found a job as a servant and her prospects in her new country seemed good.  But Annie Melzen was unaccustomed to illuminating gas and seven days after moving in, she went to bed and blew out the flame, as she would with a candle.  She was found dead in the morning.

The Peter Doelger saloon repeatedly ran afoul of the excise (or liquor board) authorities.  On June 11, 1894, bartender Henry Bohmeeche was arrested for selling alcohol on Sunday.  The New York Times said he told Justice Voorhis, "he was merely closing up his place."  Voorhis responded, "What's the use of lying?" and held him for trial.

Three months later, on September 26, 1894, The Evening World reported, "Supt. Byrnes has thrown down the gauntlet to the Police Commissioners and declared open war."  Thomas Byrnes declared, "No more Sunday saloons."

Among the saloon workers arrested in the massive city-wide raids ordered by Byrnes on September 23 was Thomas Connor, who was bartending here that afternoon.

In May 1896, William and Emma Tucker "engaged a room," as reported by The World, at 337 Third Avenue.  Tucker and his wife were "theatrical people."  Theirs were snug conditions.  The Tuckers, who were "in hard luck," according to The World, shared the room with their daughter and son, eight and three years old respectively; and Nora Purcell, Tucker's 21-year-old step-daughter, who minded the children.

William Tucker had appeared recently in In a Big City, but was now out of work.  The World reported, "Impoverished but hopeful, Tucker, his wife and step-daughter bent their energies to a search for employment.  The wife alone succeeded, securing an engagement in a Bowery concert hall."  A few days after the family moved into their room, Tucker "worn out with exertion and anxiety," entered the Union Square Theatre.

The performance ended at 6:00, "but the quiet figure in the balcony remained motionless," said The World.  Two hours later, an usher saw William Tucker "sway slightly and then bend forward, his head falling gently upon the cushioned balcony rail."  The New York Times reported that he was carried unconscious out of the theater and was dead by the time a doctor arrived.

Nora Purcell identified the body at the Mercer Street Police Station.  She then rushed to the Palace Theatre where her mother was appearing.  She told The World, "At the theatre, I told my story to the manager, but he refused to allow me behind the scenes.  'Don't tell her now,' he insisted.  'Wait till after the show.  Do you want to break her all up?'"

Nora sat, crying, backstage throughout the show.  Afterward, she asked a company member to break the news to Emma Tucker.  "Mrs. Tucker fell in a faint, and it was an hour before she revived sufficiently to leave the theatre and be driven to the Morgue," said The World.

The Bryce-Fish families sold numerous properties in June 1889, including 337 Third Avenue, which was purchased by Ellen Dooley.  She renewed the saloon lease to Peter Doelger the following year, and leased the upper floors to Ellen Snyder, who named it the Rockland Hotel.  (It would later be revealed that Snyder and the Doelger proprietor were working in concert.)

In November 1900, Isaac Gilbert took a room here.  He arrived in New York City from Bridgeport, Connecticut seeking work and "had enough money to last him a few days," according to The New York Times.  Unfortunately, the former gardener was unsuccessful in finding a job and "grew despondent."  On December 17, 1900, The New York Times reported that Gilbert, "tried to end his life yesterday in the Rockland Hotel, 337 Third Avenue, by inhaling illuminating gas."  He was unsuccessful, however, and at Bellevue Hospital, "it is said that he will recover," said the newspaper.

The Rockland Hotel was what was known as a "Raines Law hotel."  The 1896 law was intended to curb the consumption of alcohol by imposing regulations.  An exemption to the Sunday liquor laws was that hotels could still serve alcohol to guests, if it accompanied a meal or was served in the guests’ rooms.  The result was that saloons, like the one at 337 Third Avenue, took over the upper floors as a “Raines Law hotel” to circumvent the excise laws.  When detectives raided the Rockland in February 1902, they discovered more than they expected.

On February 22, The New York Times reported that a group of officers "at a late hour raided a Raines law hotel at 337 Third Avenue, capturing six prisoners.  Ellen Snyder, the alleged proprietress of the hotel, was arrested as were three other women and Ernest Myers, a bartender.  They were charged with disorderly conduct."  (The term referred to a brothel.)

The incident ended the Peter Doelger saloon.  The property was turned over to a receiver, John M. Bowers, and four months later, the lease was given to Bernheimer & Schmid, owners of the Lion Brewery.  They operated the saloon until Prohibition closed it.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The space became a restaurant.  It was the scene of a spectacular gunfight at 2:00 on the morning of December 22, 1933.  Someone rushed up to Patrolman Harry Kroll and told him there was a holdup taking place in the restaurant.  Kroll drew his revolver and entered the premises, "where he fearlessly exchanged shots with the bandit and fatally wounded him," according to Kroll's citation for bravery the following year.  In the exchange, Kroll was wounded and was hospitalized for nearly two weeks.  

The Kips Bay neighborhood saw change in the third quarter of the century.  In 1978, Mr. Lee's restaurant opened here.  The New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton noted on March 3 that the "nondescript neighborhood" belied the interior that "summons up images of an enclosed, Spanish garden."  The  restaurant, which served a Continental menu, remained for more than a decade.

The space returned to its long tradition of housing a tavern in the 21st century when it became The Hairy Monk.  By 2014 it was the Rose Hill Tavern, and most recently AWOL Bar and Grill.

photographs by the author

Emery Roth's 1931 59 West 12th Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

Brothers Alexander and Leo Bing were prolific real estate developers in the first half of the 20th century, the name of Bing & Bing earning a reputation for building dozens of gracious apartment buildings, many of them designed by Emery Roth.  On April 2, 1929 The New York Times reported that Bing & Bing had purchased 75 old houses and buildings in Greenwich Village "as sites for a group of sixteen-story apartments."  Leo Bing told reporters that the project would transform the Village, saying it "will rival Central Park West and the fashionable east side within a few years."

Three of the apartment buildings were erected on West 12th Street.  Two of them, including 59 West 12th Street, were Roth-designed.  All were completed in 1931.

The 17-floor 59 West 12th Street was clad in beige brick above a two-story cast stone base.  Large geometric tiles flanked the double-height entrance and a full-width stylized fasces separated the base from the beige brick upper floors.  Above the tenth floor, a series of setbacks created private terraces--typical of Bing & Bing buildings.  They were protected by streamlined, ocean liner-ready railings.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

As construction neared completion on August 29, 1931, The New York Sun described, "A thirty-foot sweep from the entrance foyer to the front of the large living room, made possible by low ornamental iron railings between the two rooms, distinguished the new apartments at 59 West Twelfth street, across from the New School for Social Research."  The 104 apartments included duplexes and roof terraces "of a variety of sizes and arrangement."  Every apartment above the ground floor had a wood-burning fireplace in the living room.

The New York Sun noted:

The apartments are grouped in small suites of large rooms and a bath for every chamber, refrigeration units, equipped kitchens, dining alcoves, dressing rooms, radio outlets and dining foyers are among the features of the building.

Emery Roth released his rendering to the press in the spring of 1931. New York Evening Post, May 16, 1931.

The New Yorker added, "No. 59 West Twelfth Street has one, two, three and four-room apartments, almost all with fireplaces.  Annual rents, from $1,150 to $4,480."  The range would translate to $1,916 to $7,466 per month in 2025.

Tenants in 59 West 12th Street were professionals, like G. Vernor Rogers, vice president of the newspaper and magazine firm, McClure Syndicate; and stockbroker Clarence August Bettman and his wife, the former Marion Keyes.  The Bettmans had two daughters, Margaret and Marion.  The family was still in the building two decades later when Margaret was married to Harry Wallace Faath, Jr. in the Church of the Ascension on November 17, 1951.

Journalist John Lardner, his wife, the former Hazel Cannon, and their children Susan, Mary and John Nicholas, occupied an apartment at mid-century.  Born in 1913, Lardner was the son of sports writer and humorist Ring Lardner.  The younger Lardner joined the staff of the New-York Herald Tribune in 1929.  During World War II he served as a war correspondent for Newsweek, The New Yorker, and The North American Newspaper Alliance.  

While living here, Lardner wrote several books, often relating to sports.  They included The Yanks in the Pacific in 1943; It Beats Working in 1947; and White Hopes and Other Tigers and Strong Cigars and Lovely Women, both published in 1951.

Early in March 1960, the 47-year-old sports writer was hospitalized with a heart ailment.  He was released ten days later and suffered a fatal heart attack in the family's apartment on March 24.

Less respectable was Joseph Cataldo (alias Joe the Wop), who lived here with his wife, the former Thelma West.  Born in Italy on November 16, 1908, Cataldo had a file at the United States Treasury Department Bureau of Narcotics in 1961 that described his modus operandi as "financier for illegal activities including narcotics," and called him, "An important NYC racketeer and close associate of Mafia leader Tony Strollo."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

At the time, Sylvester W. and Beatrice Kriess Altfeld had lived at 59 West 12th Street for at least two decades.  They were born in 1893 and 1899 respectively, and Sylvester operated a handbag firm.

On March 4, 1964, two gunmen entered the lobby and forced the 58-year-old elevator operator, Harold Goldfinger, to take them to the 14th floor.  Apparently aware that the Altfelds had valuable items, they compelled Goldfinger to request Beatrice to open the door.  At the point of a gun, Beatrice told them where her jewelry box was.  The New York Times reported, "Then the thugs knocked the two to the floor and handcuffed them, took the jewels and ran down the stairs to the street."  Beatrice and Goldfinger were both treated at St. Vincent's Hospital with head wounds.  The crooks made off with more than $15,000 in jewelry (about $147,000 today).

The first celebrity to sign a lease was Jimi Hendrix.  Charles R. Cross, in his Room Full of Mirrors, A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, writes, "In the fall of 1969, Jimi leased an apartment at 59 West Twelfth Street in Greenwich Village.  It was the first and only place of his own in New York."  Cross explains that his friend, Colette Mimram, helped decorate it with throw pillows, a tapestry over his four-poster bed, and prayer rugs and bedspreads on the walls.  He writes,

"The place looked like a Moroccan bazaar," recalled Colette.  "You could imagine a hookah sitting in the middle of the floor. There were African textiles all over the ceiling."

Fashion model Devon Wilson shared the apartment with Hendrix.  She was "the closest Hendrix had been to having a real girlfriend," according to biographer David Henderson's 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix, Voodoo Child.  The next year, according to Henderson, when Hendrix left New York for a London tour, "he did not want her in England."  (Hendrix had another girlfriend in London, Monika Dannemann.)  Wilson showed up anyway, causing tensions.

Jimi Hendrix and Devon Wilson backstage at Madison Square Garden.  photo via The Selvedge Yard

Hendrix would not return to 59 West 12th Street.  He died from an overdose in London on September 18, 1970.  The 27-year-old had no will.  His father, therefore, inherited his estate, equal to about $4 million today.

Five months later, Devon Wilson plunged to her death from the 8th floor balcony of the Chelsea Hotel.  Whether the incident was an accident, a suicide, or if she were pushed is still a mystery.

In the meantime, Clarence A. and Marion Bettmann still occupied the apartment they moved into in 1931.  On January 28, 1972, The New York Times titled an article, "Court Overrules Wife on Surgery," and reported the heart wrenching story of Marion's struggle to allow her husband to die.  Clarence, now 79, was in the late stages of dementia.  His heartbeat was maintained by a pacemaker, and in late 1971 the battery died.  Because Clarence was "factually incompetent" and unaware of his condition, he could not approve the procedure to replace the battery.  Marion refused.  She told a reporter, "What has he got to live for?  Nothing.  He knows nothing, he has no memory whatsoever.  He is turning into a vegetable.  Isn't death better?"

The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center sued and won.  The battery was implanted in January 1972.  Marion told a New York Times journalist that she "resisted as long as I could and then I gave in."

In June 1985, 29 Bing & Bing apartment buildings were sold to a partnership controlled by Martin J. Raynes and Martin J. Wygod.  The following year 59 West 12th Street was converted to a condominium.

Jimi Hendrix, as it turns out, was just the first of several celebrated residents in the building.  In 2008, actress Cameron Diaz purchased a $2.95 million, two-bedroom apartment.  "She gut renovated the place, calling in the likes of interior designer Kelly Wearstler to work her magic," according to Observer.

Already living here was fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.  On November 23, 2010, Open House reported he had acquired a third apartment in the building, saying, "The newly purchased space connects the two apartments he already owns on the 14th floor."  (Earlier that year, Mizrahi had purchased yet another apartment on a lower floor, "which he plans to use as his home office," said the article.)

Among Mizrahi's neighbors were actress Marisa Tomei and John Waters.  Tomei's apartment was (unfortunately for Waters) directly above the famous director's.  After what was apparently an overflowed bathtub incident, on February 3, 2012, Observer reported that Tomei was being sued by "several downstairs apartments" for water damage.  The article said, "That includes $15,000 worth of damage to an apartment belonging to downstairs neighbor--and 'Hairspray' director--John Waters."

photograph by Bjeffway

Other notables who have called 59 West 12th Street home are actress and dancer Bebe Neuwirth, actor Jonathon Pryce, actress Lena Dunham, and songwriter Larry Dvoskin.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

Schwartz & Gross's 1930 44 Gramercy Park North

photograph by Lowell Cochran

Clement E. Merowit was just 26 years old in 1929, yet he was president of the Merowit Construction Corporation and had erected several significant apartment buildings, including the 1926 Windsor Arms on West 9th Street.  On November 23, 1929, The New York Evening Post reported the Merowit had broken ground for a "16-story and penthouse rental apartment house" at 44 Gramercy Park North.

The article said architects Schwartz & Gross, "have designed a distinctive building with gables and battlemented towers reminiscent of an English manor house."  The romantic mood of the design was achieved partly by asymmetry--the east portion rising 10 stories and the west being 16 stories.  Schwartz & Gross turned to Tudor England for inspiration, lavishing the red brick facade with multi-paned and leaded windows, faux limestone balconies with quatrefoil panels, and square-headed drip moldings.

photograph by Eden, Janine and Jim

The New York Evening Post said, "There will be three penthouse floors and several tower apartments with terraces," and explained that during construction potential tenants "may incorporate their own ideas, whether in a duplex or other type of apartment."  The typical apartment would range from 2 through 5 rooms, with "dining galleries equivalent in size to an extra room," said the article.  Schwartz & Gross carried the Tudor motif inside, and most apartments had log-burning fireplaces.

The upper floor apartments were spacious.  At the time of The New York Evening Post's article, bachelor Aldo R. Balsam had already leased the entire 11th floor based on the floorplans.  Two months later, on January 9, 1930, The New York Sun reported that Helen M. Holsclaw had leased "a special duplex apartment on the twelfth and thirteenth floors."  Like Balsam, she was unmarried and (in what might be seen as a slight to Schwartz & Gross) hired the esteemed architectural firm Warren & Wetmore to design her suite.  And on May 23, 1930, The New York Sun reported that publishers' attorney John Hanrahan had "leased the eight-room penthouse, with four large terraces."

The historic motif was carried into the design of the apartments.  photo via brownstoner.com

An advertisement in The New Yorker on February 15, 1930 promised that there would be "Numerous structural and decorative refinements seldom found even in the finest cooperatives."  Another advertisement skirted the cost by saying merely, "you get it at a fair rental."  By the time the building opened on October 1, 1930, it had been fully rented.

Aldo R. Balsam would not occupy his sprawling apartment alone for long.  On August 5, 1931, The New York Evening Post reported that he had married Geneva White Webster at the Savoy-Plaza the previous day.  The relatively subdued ceremony was possibly explained by the mention, "The bride secured a divorce in Reno recently."  The Balsams would patronize the upscale winter and summer resorts.  On February 13, 1932, for instance, The Pinehurst [North Carolina] Outlook mentioned, "Aldo R. Balsam, an outstanding player in last season's polo, came back to town this week and showed his old form."

Occupying less lavish apartments at the time were white collar residents like Dr. Arthur L. Linden, who specialized in "X-ray work;" surgeon Dr. Harrison I. Cook, who graduated from Bellevue Medical College in 1911; and artist and cartoonist Clive Weed.

Weed was born in 1884 and graduated from the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in 1903.  He then studied under Thomas P. Anshutz at the Summer Art School in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and in Paris.  Weed turned from fine art to cartoons when he joined the Philadelphia Record in 1910.  By the time the bachelor moved into 44 Gramercy Park North his work regularly appeared in Judge magazine.  He also contributed to publications like The Nation, The New Republic, Leslie's Weekly, Life and The New Yorker.

Fascinating residents were the Rev. Dr. John W. Chapman and wife, May Seely.  Born in 1858 in Pikesville, Maryland, Chapman served in the Charity Hospital on Blackwells Island early in his career.  In 1887, he and May traveled to Alaska, founding the Christ Church Mission at Anvik.  

The couple's close relationship with the native population--which lasted for four decades--resulted in important ethnological advances.  The Chapmans translated native dialects to compile and publish a collection of folk tales.  The New York Sun said, "He also made many phonograph records of native songs and stories."  (These would eventually become part of the American Museum of Natural History's collection.)  Rev. Chapman built a wireless station that he operated for six years.

Chapman retired in 1930 and he and May were initial residents of 44 Gramercy Park North.  John W. Chapman died in their apartment at the age of 81 on November 27, 1939.

It was about that time that the building was converted to co-ops.  Living here in 1939 was author and editor Dr. Lewis B. Chamberlain.  Born in 1865, he was the secretary of the John Milton Society for the Blind.  From 1918 to 1935 he edited the monthly Bible Society Record and from 1920 to 1935 was editor of the American Bible Society annual reports.  Among his books was Seshayya: Conversion of a Brahman.

In 1941, newlyweds John C. Wood and his wife, the former Anne Robeson Truesdale, moved in.  The couple was married on January 20 that year.  Wood was a vice-president of B. Altman & Co., having joined the firm in 1932.  The couple's affluent lifestyle was reflected in Wood's memberships to the Union League Club and the Cedar Creek Club of Locust Valley.  America's entry to World War II, however, greatly changed their lives.

On October 5, 1942, Wood joined the Army Specialist Corps.  The expertise he gained while working in the department store became valuable to the military.  Six months later, he was transferred to the Office of the United Secretary of War as Executive Officer of the War Department Price Adjustment Board.

The Cincinnati Post reported on May 19, 1944 that Anna David, "plunged to her death yesterday from her 15th-floor apartment to a courtyard below."  The article said that the 46-year-old, "had been ill and had disappeared from her bedroom while her sister and a physicians were in an adjoining room."

What had seemed to be another tragic suicide became national news when Anna David's more famous identity was divulged.  The Washington Daily News reported that David, "was revealed today to have been Anna Damon, Communist leader and national secretary of the International Labor Defense."

Anna Damon during her testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities on October 16, 1939.  (source unknown)

Born Anna Cohen, her married name was David, but she used the surname Damon for her political work.  She was the executive secretary of the International Labor Defense, which provided legal services to persecuted Blacks, trade unionists, and others.  She was a founding member of the U.S. Communist Party.

At mid-century, author, playwright and screenwriter Jonathan Finn and his wife, the former Sadie Borgenicht, lived here. Sadie, who went by her maiden name as vice president of Jack Borgenicht, Inc., a children's dress manufacturer, was highly involved in charity work.  The Port Chester, New York newspaper The Daily Item noted that she "sponsored a creative therapy technique at Hillside Hospital, Long Island, in which painting was used for both artistic and psychological achievement."

Jonathan Finn partnered with Sing Sing Prison's warden Lewis E. Lawes to write the non-fiction book, Twenty-Thousand Years in Sing Sing, published in 1932.  The best seller was made into a motion picture starring Bette Davis and Spencer Tracy that same year.  The experience may have prompted Finn's prison-themed play Chalked Out that premiered on Broadway in 1937.  Among his screenplays were the 1936 Jailbreak, the 1939 Smashing the Money Ring, and Invisible Stripes, released in 1939.

Sadie Borgenicht Finn died on November 20, 1962 at the age of 66.  Finn took up her position at Jack Borgenicht, Inc. in addition to his writing.  He died in the apartment on June 4, 1971 at the age of 87.

After leaving his position in the Foreign Service of the State Department as consul in Saigon in 1962, Daniel Joseph Meloy moved to New York City and into 44 Gramercy Park North.  Fluent in Japanese, he took the post as deputy executive director of the Japan Society here and served as consultant with the Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation.  A graduate of Oberlin College and the Harvard Business School, he had served as vice consul in Kobe and Toyko, and consul in Sapporo, Japan before taking the South Vietnamese post in 1961.

Around 1969, Hungarian-born Janos Aranyi moved into a 2,141-square-foot, two-bedroom duplex on the 12th-floor.  A conservator of vintage picture frames, among his clients was the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  When Aranyi and his wife Theresa Llorente placed the apartment on the market in 2014, the realtor recalled that it was the scene of "countless soirees attended by such high-profile guests as Al Pacino, George Soros and Jeremy Irons."

The Aranyi dining room.  image via observer.com

Resident Mary Jo Jacobi lived in apartment 15-C and was working in the banking industry with Drexel Burnham Lambert in the early 1990s.  Born in 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri, she had previously been an aide to President Ronald Reagan, whose administration ended in 1989.  She returned to government service in 1992 when President George H. Bush appointed her Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

photograph by Lowell Cochran

Schwartz & Gross's Tudor fantasy survives beautifully intact, including the all-important casement windows, an integral piece of the historic-themed design.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochran for suggesting this post