The Herman C. Strobel House - 262 West 91st Street

 

Born in 1851, Herman Christian Strobel was one of three sons born to Philip and Caroline Strobel.  The year after his birth, his German-born father Philip opened a "table making" business.  As the sons reach adulthood, each was brought into the firm, which became Philip Strobel & Sons, Inc.  By 1897, when Herman Strobel purchased the newly built house at 262 West 91st Street, he was the senior partner of the firm (now a leading maker of "dining room, café and restaurant furniture") and had accumulated a sizable personal fortune.

Strobel and his wife, the former Caroline Becker, had three sons, George Philip, Edward Emil, and Frank Charles.  The boys were twelve, seven and two years old respectively when their parents purchased the new residence.

The family's house was one of seven erected in 1896-97 by James Frame.  Designed by Alexander M. Welch, the Renaissance Revival style homes were configured in three distinct sections--two pairs flanking a trio.  The Strobel house, the easternmost of the central section, was three stories tall above the English basement.  Stone wing walls, one of which gracefully swept to the side, guarded the stoop.  The basement and parlor levels were faced in planar stone, while the upper two were clad in yellow Roman brick.  A three-sided limestone oriel distinguished the second floor, and the third boasted a handsome triple arcade with fluted columns.

Herman Christian Strobel, original source unknown.

It is unclear what Strobel paid for the house, but his $20,000 mortgage, equal to about $758,000 in 2024, gives a clue.  The family also maintained a summer home in Edgemere, Long Island.

At least one of Herman's sons chose not to go into the family business.  On November 28, 1907, The Motor World reported that George and two partners, George W. Garland, Jr., and Albert L. Martin, had incorporated the Marion-Overland Automobile Co.

In 1909, Philip Strobel & Sons patented this dining table that morphed into a card table.  The Grand Rapids Furniture Record, June 1912 (copyright expired)

Caroline, who was known familiarly as Carrie, entertained often, although not lavishly.  Typical of her social page mentions was the one-line article in The New York Times on February 21, 1909.  "Cards are out for a bridge and euchre party to be given on Thursday by Mrs. H. C. Strobel, 262 West Ninety-first Street."  

It was common within well-to-do families for the title for domestic property to be put in the wife's name.  The practice insured her of some financial stability in the case of the husband's death.  Herman Strobel had not done that in 1897, but he corrected the situation in July 1911 by transferring title to 262 West 91st Street to Carrie.

On December 31, 1912, Herman's brother Otto withdrew from Philip Strobel & Sons "by mutual consent," according to the notice in The New York Times a month later.  Herman remained senior partner and he and his remaining brother, George, continued the firm under the same name.

Herman Strobel died at the Edgemere house eight months later, on August 18, 1913, at the age of 62.  He left $10,000 to each of his sons (about $315,000 today).  Because Edward and Frank were still minors, their inheritance was placed in trust until they reached 25.  The New York Herald reported, "Mrs. Carrie Strobel, widow, who lives with her sons at No. 262 West Ninety-first street, receives the residue."

Carrie involved herself in charitable causes, like the Little Mothers Aid Association.  In 1920, her attention focused on the upcoming wedding of Frank.  His engagement to Mildred M. Rock was announced on January 11.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The couple was married in the Crystal Room of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on October 6 that year.  George was his brother's best man and Edward was one of the ushers.  The newlyweds would not live far from Carrie.  The New-York Tribune noted, "After their wedding trip Mr. and Mrs. Strobel will live at 215 West Ninety-first Street."

After being home to the Strobels for three decades, 262 West 91st Street was sold in August 1926 to the 4195 Broadway Corporation.  The house was unofficially converted to apartments.  Among the tenants in 1935 was Joseph DeVilasis, who described his profession as "mechanical dentistry."

In 1943, Siegmund Weissmann, a musician, lived here, as did Louis Mendez, a Spanish-born restaurant worker.

A renovation completed in 1964 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels, two apartments each on the second and third floors, and one on the new fourth floor, unseen from the street.  In the 1970s, the duplex was home to Group Laboratories, a group therapy organization.

photographs by the author

The Alexander and Augusta Boehm House - 263 West 93rd Street

 

The Boehm house is the middle of the three.

Brothers William W. and Thomas M. Hall were prolific developers at the turn of the last century.  At a time when millionaires were moving into lavish Fifth Avenue palaces along Central Park, the brothers erected speculative residences that held their own among the custom-designed mansions.  In 1897 they tested the opposite side of the park, hiring architect Alexander M. Welch (with whom they worked repeatedly) to design three upscale townhouses on West 93rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue.

Completed early in 1898, the homes were advertised as "the most attractive, medium sized, moderate priced Private Houses ever offered.  Accessible restricted location."  (The reference to "restricted location" meant that no businesses were allowed in the neighborhood.)

While the ad hinted that the three homes were not as sumptuous as some of the palazzos the Hall Brothers erected on the East Side, 261 through 265 West 93rd Street were undeniably first-class.  Welch designed them as American basement houses, foregoing the high stoops which were falling from fashion.  Each identical house had a rusticated limestone first floor designed in the Beaux Arts style.  The ornate keystones above the arched openings did double-duty as brackets for the slightly projecting bays at the second and third floors.  A center bracket took the form of an elaborately carved cartouche surrounded by leaves and vines.  French gave way to Italian on the upper floors as Welch turned to Renaissance Revival.  The prim limestone bays sat against a wall of gray Roman brick.  The fourth floor openings were separated by Doric pilasters, above which the cornices were decorated with swags.

On November 12, 1898, the Record & Guide reported that William T. Hall had sold the center house to Augusta Boehm, the wife of Alexander Boehm.  (The title to real estate was commonly placed in the wife's name within well-to-do couples.)

Alexander Boehm was a partner in the women's garment manufacturing firm of Boehm & Levine.  He and Augusta had two children, Herbert Leo and Meta Gertrude.  Herbert, who was 19 years old when the family moved in, enrolled as a sub-freshman in the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1901.

On March 10, 1903, the New York Herald reported that "in the presence of relatives only," Meta Gertrude "was married to Mr. Maurice Sichel yesterday afternoon, at Delmonico's.  The ceremony was followed by a reception, dinner and dance."  The article noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Sichel sail for Europe to-day."

Seven years later, on March 9, 1910. Herbert was married to Josephine M. Clute.  Now empty nesters, the Boehms leased 263 West 93rd Street to Richard Melancthon Hurd in 1911.

Hurd married Lucy Gazzam on September 22, 1898, and the couple had four children.  The president of the Lawyers Mortgage Co., Hurd was an expert in real estate economy and the author of the 1903 Principles of City Land Values.  The Hurds' collection of Italian primitives included artists like Fra Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Antonio Veneziano.

If the Richard Hurd family moved into 263 West 93rd Street at all, their stay was short.  More likely, Richard signed the lease for a relative, Ebenezer Hurd, who was undergoing financial hardships at the time, and who was listed at the address in 1912.  On May 10 that year, The New York Times reported that Halstead & Co., of which Ebenezer Hurd and James W. Halstead were partners, had declared bankruptcy.  The article noted, "The petition says that Hurd, who lives at 263 West Ninety-third Street, New York, refused to join in the petition, but that he and Halstead and the company are all insolvent."  Hurd managed to survive the bankruptcy, and the following year was operating on his own as a member of the New York Produce Exchange.  

Hurd appears to have remained in the 93rd Street house until around 1915.  Marion L. Wilder was leasing it in 1917.  She was a 1908 graduate of Mount Holyoke College.  Marion would have to find other accommodations when the house was sold in March 1921 to Henri M. Barron and his wife Alice Kraft Baroni.

Musical America, April 9, 1921 (copyright expired)

Barron was an operatic tenor, and his wife was a coloratura soprano.  Henri Barron was known to opera audiences, but it was Madame Alice Kraft Baroni who stole the limelight.  On February 28, 1925, Equal Rights magazine wrote, "Prima donna of opera, concert and song recital and actively engaged in her career, she has also found time in the past year to assume editorship of the Musical World, a review that has met with much encouragement and success owing to her extensive acquaintance with musical conditions in Europe and our own country."

Madame Alice Kraft Baroni.  Equal Rights, February 28, 1925 (copyright expired)

Alice's American roots were deep.  Her first ancestor arrived in 1638, and Equal Rights noted, "On her maternal side she is descended from Captain James Lawrence of 'Don't give up the ship' fame, and the Moreheads.  Two brothers and a son of this family were among our early Governors."  She had begun her career at the age of 14, and had performed in the leading opera houses of Europe.  In addition to her concert work and editing, Alice Baroni made time for women's causes.  She was a founder of the National Woman's Party.

No. 263 West 93rd Street survived as a private home until 1967, when it was converted to two apartments per floor.  That configuration lasted until 2010 when it was returned to a single family residence.  Much of Alexander M. Welch's interior detail from 1898 survives.

photographs by the author

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The Fleming Smith House - 11 East 76th Street

In the last decade of the 19th century developer brothers William W. and Thomas R. Hall erected high-end speculative homes, most within the fashionable Upper East Side.  Although they most often erected just one mansion at a time, in 1895 they commenced work out a row of six, Nos. 9 through 19 East 76th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues.  Their architect, Alexander M. Welch, designed the row as three pairs--an A-A-B-B-A-A pattern.  They were completed in 1896.

No. 11 was a near match to its next door neighbor at No. 9.  The gray brick above the limestone base was gently contrasted with white stone.  Its neo-Renaissance design featured a faceted oriel at the second floor which created a stone-railed balcony at the third.  Panels below the windows were decorated with cornucopia and stylized ferns.   Carved lion heads adorned the unusual carved enframement which continued from the second through third floors.  As expected, they stared straight forward from the upper edge, but turned sideways along the sides.  The fourth floor was made especially handsome with an arcade of five openings separated by bulbous, twisted Corinthian columns.  The cornice was supported by an ornate row of cusped arches, above a frieze containing superbly carved scallop shells.

On January 14, 1897 The New York Times reported that the Halls had sold No. 11 "to a Mr. Blum" and added "This leaves but one remaining out of a row of six."  For some reason or another, the buyers of upscale homes often attempted to remain anonymous--at least initially.  The buyer was not Mr. Blum, but Fleming Smith.

The son of Isha and Lydia Ann Smith, Smith was born in New York in 1835.  He was married to the former Helen McGaw.  A prominent broker and real estate dealer, he name is best remembered today for the distinctive Fleming Smith Warehouse on Watts Street.  

Helen inherited an impressive family pedigree.  The daughter of John A. McGaw, a wealthy shipping merchant in the pre-Civil War decades, her great-grandfather, Matthew Thornton, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  

The well-do-to Smiths attended the fashionable Grace Church, far downtown.  Like other upper crust New Yorkers, they filled the 76th Street house with notable artworks.  Their summer estate was in New London, Connecticut.  The year after moving into No. 11 Fleming hired Providence, Rhode Island architect Hoppin Ely to make renovations on that residence.  The significant alterations cost him the equivalent of about $187,000 today.

The childless Smiths lived quietly, never appearing in society columns and apparently interacting little within fashionable circles.  The couple was at the New London residence when Fleming died at the age of 78 on August 19, 1913.  A telegraph arriving at the New-York Tribune said cryptically, "Death was due to paralysis."

Helen McGaw Smith survived her husband by only a year.  She died in the 76th Street house on October 4, 1914 at the age of 77.  Her funeral was private, mirroring the Smiths' quiet lives.

Helen's estate was estimated at $1 million--closer to $27 million in today's dollars.  She gave "use" of the summer estate to her nephew, Thornton Woodbury, during his lifetime, after which it became property of the city of New London "for a park."  The New-York Tribune noted "The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York receives paintings and works of art."

The East 76th Street house was sold to Estelle Scholle, but if she ever lived here at all, she was leasing it by the 1920's when the family of Arthur Marvin Anderson occupied the house.  The family's summer home was in Llewellyn Park, New Jersey.   Alice Mary Anderson was introduced to society in November 1929 and one of the entertainments--given by a summer-season neighbor--stood out.

On November 11 the New York Evening Post reported "Mrs. Thomas A. Edison of Glenmont, Llewellyn Park, West Orange, N. J., will entertain at dinner Tuesday evening, November 28, at the Cosmopolitan Club in honor of Miss Alice Anderson, debutante daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Marvin Anderson...Mrs. Edison will take her guests to the concert of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra."

Even servants deserved notice in newspapers for special events in their lives.  On June 15, 1935 the Irish-American newspaper, The Advocate, reported on the upcoming marriage of one of the Andersons' live-in maids.  Margaret Gallagher, "native of Glasgow," was scheduled to wed John Heaney, "native of Derry," at All Saints' Church on 129th Street four days later.

Estelle sold No. 11 in 1943, after which it was altered to a multiple family dwelling.  The renovations resulted in a duplex in the basement and first floor, one apartment each on the second and third, and a duplex on the fourth that extended into the new penthouse, unseen from street level. 

The family of Edward S. McCann were among the first tenants.  They most likely leased one of the duplexes.  He was the principal in the Edward S. McCann Realty and Construction Company.  The McCanns, who announced the engagement of daughter Mary Jane to Frederic C. Reichey on May 26, 1946, remained here at least through the late 1950's.

Despite the changes inside, the exterior of No. 11--and as a matter of fact, the entire 1896 row--is almost perfectly preserved.

photograph by the author

The Joel W. Thorne House - 9 East 76th Street

In the last decade of the 19th century developer brothers William W. and Thomas R. Hall erected high-end speculative homes, most within the fashionable Upper East Side.  Although they most often erected just one mansion at a time, in 1895 they commenced work out a row of six, Nos. 9 through 19 East 76th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues.  Their architect, Alexander M. Welch, designed the row as three pairs--an A-A-B-B-A-A pattern.  They were completed in 1896.

The western-most house, No. 9, was a mirror image of No. 19 at the far end, and a near match to No. 11 next door.   Its neo-Renaissance design featured a rounded bay at the second floor which created a balcony at the third.  Carved lion heads adorned the unusual carved enframement which continued from the second through third floors.  As expected, they stared straight forward from the upper edge, but turned sideways along the sides.  The fourth floor was made especially handsome with an arcade of five openings separated by bulbous, twisted Corninthian columns.  The cornice was supported by an ornate row of cusped arches, above a frieze containing superbly carved scallop shells.

With only slight variations, Nos. 9 and 11 are nearly identical.

The Halls sold the house on March 24, 1896 to George Quintard Palmer.  The timing of his purchase no doubt had much to do with his upcoming marriage to Edna Earl Johnson less than a month later, on April 22.  Palmer would become President of the Alberger Pump Co.; President of the Newburgh Ice Machine & Engine Co.; and Vice President and Director of the Alberger Condenser Company.  

The Palmers remained in the 76th Street house for only four years.  George purchased the house at No. 1 East 76th Street, directly behind the Fifth Avenue mansion in which he grew up and on March 31, 1900 The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that he had sold the 22-foot wide No. 9 to "a Mrs. Smith."  The New York Times placed the selling price at $80,000, or around $2.47 million in today's money.  That "Mrs. Smith" was the wife of Ormond Gerald Smith.  

Smith was president of the publishing firm of Street & Smith, co-founded by his father Francis Smith and Francis Scott Street.   He had joined the firm in 1883 after graduating from Harvard University.  He and his wife, the former Grace Hewitt Pellett, had one child, Gerald.

Like Palmer, Smith did not stay especially long in the house.  On January 13, 1907 the New-York Tribune reported that he had purchased the former Abernathy house at No. 39 West 56th Street, and as Palmer had done, "will tear down the building and put up a five story American basement house."

Smith sold No. 9 to Emily T. Lesher, the wife of banker Stephen R. Lesher.  The couple, who lived at No. 611 Fifth Avenue, purchased the mansion as an investment only.  In 1910 Emily leased it to wealthy bachelor Joel Wolf Thorne.   The signing of the lease knocked over the first domino in what would result in years of drama and publicity.

The New York Times described Thorne as "a well-known figure in society and club life in this city" and a "member of one of New York's oldest families."  The son of millionaire banker Samuel Thorne and a cousin of banker Oakleigh Thorne, Joel was heavily involved in western mining.

On November 2, 1911 The New York Times reported on a bizarrely-secret wedding in "one of the handsomest suites" in the Plaza Hotel.   Joel W. Thorne had married Mary Casey with only 14 persons present.  "So closely were the details of the wedding kept, by direction of Mr. Thorne himself, that even after the ceremony few about the hotel knew the identity of the couple.  It was especially desired that all news of the wedding should be withheld from the newspapers."

The Times was noticeably frustrated that no information on the bride could be obtained.  The article added "As far as could be learned last night, few members of Mr. Thorne's family were aware of the wedding and fewer attended it."  That was because Thorne's socially prominent family had vigorously protested his marriage.

The reason was Mary's background.  She was born on the very unfashionable Third Avenue.  Despite her humble childhood, she had struggled to improve her lot.  Saying "She is tall, has very dark hair and an Irish rose complexion," The Sun later explained "She worked her way through Barnard, where she specialized in psychology, was graduated in 1908, and received the degree of A. M. at Columbia."  When Joel Thorne fell in love with her she was teaching at Public School 49.  

In 1914 the couple's only child, Joel, Jr. was born.  Although the Thorne family still refused to accept the socially-inferior Mary, Joel's mother, Phoebe Thorne, did come to the 76th Street house to see her new grandson.  Mary later recalled that on that occasion she treated her "condescendingly."  She explained "She spoke unkindly about my religion, too, saying that the only persons she knew of that faith were in her kitchen."

Despite it all, Mary attempted to slip into polite society.  She studied singing under contralto Mariani Brandt, and worked with other socialites for the benefit of charities like the New York Home for Homeless Boys.

Mary Thorne poses with son Joel.  The Sun, April 26, 1918 (copyright expired)

The Thornes celebrated Joel's third birthday on October 16, 1917.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to Mary as she went to bed that night.  She later recalled that Joel "came in and kissed me.  I'm a good healthy sleeper.  I went right off to sleep.  In the morning he was gone.  His bed had not been slept in.  He had gone away without any clothes except those he was wearing.  He didn't even take an extra collar."

Although Mary was frantic about her husband's mysterious disappearance, the Thorne family was not.  Six months later Joel's brother, Samuel, a banker, responded to a reporter from The Sun saying "I do not know where Joel Thorne is just now.  Do you know where President Wilson is just now?  I don't recall when I saw him last, but am sure he's all right.  He has not disappeared."  The Thorne family's lawyer simply said he was "all right" and was "out West in business."

Mary had gone to the newspapers as her only hope.  The New-York Tribune reported she "summoned newspaper men to her luxurious home, 9 East Seventy-sixth Street," where she declared "that her husband's family did not like her and would not tolerate her socially, and she insisted that they knew where Mr. Thorne was."

She told the New-York Tribune on April 25, "I'm certain the Thorne family is hiding him from me.  They never liked me, and they would do anything to get my child from me, for he is one of the heirs to the Thorne millions."  She insisted "For the boy's sake, I regret this notoriety; but there was nothing left for me to do."

Getting her husband back would also mean she would again have financial support.  "He took away the three cars--one of which he had given me for my own--and stopped all my accounts.  I haven't had a cent of allowance since October," she told a reporter.  She was paying bills with the $40,000 in stock dividends she had managed to cash out.

Mary Thorne thought up another way to force her husband out of hiding.  The following week, on April 30, she went to the District Attorney's office and said "that she believed her husband...who has been missing since last October, was dead."  It was a clever ploy, since a declaration of death would mean that she and her son would inherit most of his fortune, leaving a still-living Joel W. Thorne penniless.

But the Thorne family was no less resourceful.  Because the months of stress were showing their effects on Mary's nerves, she contacted Dr. Seth Milliken, whom she had met around the time of Joel's disappearance.  He told her she did not need a tonic, but, as she later described, "a place where I could have regular hours, a diet and perfect quiet; in other words, a rest cure."

Milliken drove her to a facility on Central Park West where Mary overheard the man at the desk say "Why, this lady is in full possession of her mental faculties.  I don't want any damage suit.  I must decline to accept her as a patient."  Dr. Milliken then drove her to Bellevue Hospital where he told Mary she would "receive the best of treatment."

She was taken to the psychopathic ward, her clothing was taken from her, and she was put in a straitjacket.  Dr. Theron J. Vosburg diagnosed her with "maniacal depressive insanity."  The following day the long-missing Joel W. Thorne appeared at the hospital to consult with Dr. Vosburg.  He did not visit his wife. 

Mary was not permitted to communicate with anyone in the outside world.  Dr. Vosburg later admitted he had given orders "not to permit her to see any one."  But Mary somehow did manage to contact her lawyer.  A hearing was held in New York Supreme Court on June 12, 1918.  The following day The Sun ran the headline, "'Third Ave. Bride' Of Thorne Is Free."  Justice Geigerich's decision was diplomatic, not stepping on any high-powered toes.  "I do not think that this young woman should be detained.  But let me say in this connection that the city authorities acted in her case in the utmost good faith.  She is discharged."

Joel W. Thorne soon disappeared again, but this time he was not alone.  On August 24, 1918, Joel Jr.'s nurse took him out but they never returned.

Mary had no doubt that the boy's kidnapper was his father.  Seven months later, when no progress was made in the investigation, she again turned to the press.  On March 28, 1919 the New-York Tribune reported "Having failed to obtain the custody of her four-year-old son, Joel W. Thorne, jr., through habeas corpus proceedings, Mrs. Mary Casey Thorne, of 9 East Seventy-sixth Street, yesterday...offered $1,000 reward to any person giving her definite information about the whereabouts of the boy or actually placing him in her custody."

Mary was certain where he was being held.  The article noted "Mrs. Thorne was positive she saw her offspring on Tuesday watching the parade of the 27th Division from a window in the Fifth Avenue residence of his paternal grandmother, Mrs. Phoebe Thorne."  The family denied he was there.

In addition, she filed for legal separation from her husband, alleging "cruelty and abandonment."  Since no one seems to know where he was, the papers were served at the Thorne mansion on Fifth Avenue.  His response was lighting fast. 

The New-York Tribune reported "Joel Wolf Thorne, son and heir to the millions left by Samuel Thorne, banker, heretofore always the defendant in court proceedings between himself and Mrs. Mary Casey Thorne...assumed the offensive in the Supreme Court yesterday by suing his wife for a divorce."  His filing reflected a deeply-held enmity against Mary.

He named Raymond B. Wilson in the suit, saying he and Mary had engaged in "misconduct" in the 76th Street house.  (Ironically, Wilson, who was a professional bodyguard, had been hired by Mary's lawyer to guard the house to prevent accusations by the Thornes of illicit behavior.)   Thorne went on to demand full legal custody of their son, and further accused Mary of being a drunk.  He produced a bill from a Third Avenue liquor dealer for "Scotch whisky, gin, vermouth, brandy and stout," and claimed another Third Avenue dealer, Charles Daly, had delivered "180 bottles and seventy-two nips of stout" to No. 9 East 76th Street between March 14 and May 1, 1919.

Unfortunately for Mary, her servants testified on Thorne's behalf.  Although Mary's attorney, former judge John G. Dyer, reminded the jury that "back stairs gossip is completely and consistently denied," (perhaps hoping to introduce the possibility that the powerful Thornes had paid off the staff), the testimony of "loose and lascivious acts" prevailed.  Mary lost the case and any hope of getting her son back.

Mary, understandably, left No. 9 East 76th Street.  In May 1921 Emily Lesher sold it to William Adams Kissam for $90,000, just over $1.25 million today.  The New-York Herald announced on May 8 "The new owner will occupy after making extensive alterations."  Those alterations would all be internal.  Designed by architect F. P. Kelly, they included the installation of an elevator.

A nephew of Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt and the chairman of the board of the South American Development Co., Kissam had married the former Edith May Gale five years earlier.  He was 54-years old and she was 52 when they moved in.  Edith's first husband, Sewell Tappan Tyng, had died in 1913.  Her son by that marriage was now an adult, born in 1895.

The Kissams were prominent both in Manhattan society and in Southampton, where the maintained their summer estate.   Newspapers routinely reported on their entertainments in both locations.

Edith died in the 76th Street house on December 16, 1949.  A month later, on January 29, 1950, William died there at the age of 82.

Within the year the mansion was converted to a doctor's apartment and apartments.  Around 1954 it was purchased by the Lebanese Government as its permanent mission to the United Nations.  That, at times, resulted in disruption to the normally quiet residential block.

On September 7, 1972, for instance, The New York Times reported that "Last night more than 100 members of the Jewish Defense League demonstrated near the Lebanese mission to the United Nations at 9 East 76th Street.  Two men who forced their way through the crowd at a police barrier were taken into custody."

A similar protest occurred on May 17, 1974.  But by far the most frightening incident happened at around 9:30 on the night of July 5, 1982 when a pipe bomb exploded outside.  The explosive had been placed on the steps leading to the entrance.  A nearby doorman said "There was a big explosion and a huge cloud of smoke blew 10 to 15 feet in the air."

The blast occurred almost simultaneously with another at the French Mission on Fifth Avenue.  Police Officer David T. Hibert estimated that about two minutes separated the explosions.  He described the one on 76th Street saying "Glass shot across the street, and shattered the front glass of No. 10."

Only the Lebanese flag hints that the mansion is home to the Consul General.

The Lebanese Permanent Mission relocated to No. 866 United Nations Plaza before the end of the century and No. 9 East 76th Street became the private home of the Lebanese Consulate General.

photographs by the author

The George T. Bliss Carriage House - 77 East 77th Street

Auctioneer Phillip A. Smyth refused to sell the rowhouse at No. 170 East 77th Street at his foreclosure auction on January 18, 1896.  He considered the highest bid, $7,450, too low.  Before long a better offer was presented by developers Hall & Hall, who purchased the house next door as well.

Thomas and William W. Hall were well known in real estate circles for erecting high-end speculative homes, many of them near Central Park.  They had something much different in mind for these properties.  The wealthy families who moved into mansions like those the Hall brothers were erecting needed nearby carriage houses.  And so Hall & Hall commissioned architect Alexander Welch, of Welch, Smith & Provot to design two handsome private stables on the lots.

Completed in 1898, the two two-story buildings were architecturally harmonious; yet each flexed its own personality.   The overall-plan was identical.  The ground floor included a large arched carriage bay flanked by a window and entrance on the ground floor.  The second stories were treated identically--two sets of paired openings separated by a blind recessed panel.  Welch clad No. 75 in red brick, No. 77 in gray iron spot brick.

Millionaires' carriage houses were often lavish affairs, reflecting their wealth and social status.  Welch, therefore, embellished No. 77 with oeil de boeuf, or ox-eye, windows within molded frames decorated with palm fronds and cartouches.  Brick panels were deftly inlaid into the limestone within the carriage bay arch.

The ground floor interiors were finished in oak.  There were six horse stalls toward the back and a "wash deck."  The second floor, accessed by a staircase and elevator, held the hayloft and two coachmen's quarters (which faced the front, helping to avoid the odors of the manure pit to the rear).

On December 6, 1899 The Sun reported that "W. W. and T. M. Hall [have sold] the new private stables" at No. 77 East 77th Street.  The buyer was George Theodore Bliss, who lived in an imposing mansion at No. 860 Fifth Avenue, between 67th and 68th Street.

The 48-year old was the son of George Bliss, an original partner in the banking house of Morgan, Bliss & Co.   George T. Bliss remained a member of the firm when it was reorganized as the Morgan Trust Company.  He had inherited a substantial fortune from his father, augmented by his own major stock holdings in mining and banking firms.  Bliss and his wife, the former Jeanette Atwater Dwight, had one daughter, Susan Dwight Bliss.  

Moving into the 77th Street carriage house with the Bliss horses and vehicles were the family's 30-year-old British-born coachman, John Radford, his wife and her three children by a former marriage.  The other quarters were occupied by Edward Foley, a groom.  The 26-year-old was born in Ireland.

In 1901, less than two years after purchasing the carriage house, Bliss experienced a perfect storm of medical problems.  Already weakened by an attack of influenza, he was struck with appendicitis.  He underwent an operation, but was unable to recover from the procedure.  He died on March 24, 1901.

Jeanette retained possession of the carriage house.  Interestingly, later that year John Radford was looking for a new job.  His position wanted advertisement in the New-York Tribune read:

Coachman--By young married Englishman; thoroughly understands care of fine horses and carriages; willing to be generally useful; country preferred; good references.

Jeanette constructed a new mansion in 1907 at No. 9 East 68th Street.   In the meantime, she seems to have had trouble retaining stable employees.  On June 25, 1907 an advertisement read:

Coachman: married, aged 34; thoroughly competent in every respect, first class city references; city or country.  Address Coachman, 77 East 77th st.

That coachman's replacement, named Webster, did not last long.  He too was looking for a new position in March 1909.

But his removal was most likely due to the replacement of horses and carriages with automobiles.  The following year's census showed Charles Cavanagh, "auto mechanic," living upstairs with his family of five.  There was no longer need for a second employee in the building, so the former groom's quarters were now being leased.  That year it was occupied by Mary Kennedy, a "typewriter" at Vogue Magazine.  (The term "typewriter" at the time meant "secretary" or "typist.")

Phillips Phoenix sold his similar two-story stable directly across the street at No. 78 in April 1913.  Developer A. L. Mordecai & Son had been accumulating surrounding property and on March 1 the Real Estate Record & Guide explained "The stable threatened to be an obstacle to the re-improvement of the rest of the plot."

Phoenix moved his vehicles across the street to No. 77.   His home was at No. 3 East 66th Street and he maintained a summer home in Tuxedo, New York.   Wealthy and a touch flamboyant, the attorney and his wife, the former Lillian G. Lewis, were well-known in society.  His business interests sometimes ran far afield of those of his neighbors.  He had, for instance, built the Madison Square Theatre at a time with polite society may have attended the theater, but avoided involvement in its operations.

The son of J. Phillips and Mary Whitney Phoenix, he had graduated from Harvard Law School in 1854.  An avid sportsman in his younger years, he now focused more on automobiles and was a member of the Automobile Club of America.  His more traditional memberships included those in the Union, Knickerbocker, Metropolitan, Union League, Turf and Field, and New York Yacht Clubs, as well as the St. Nicholas Society.

In addition to Tuxedo, Phillips and Lillie (as she was familiarly known) routinely spent time in the warm months at the Aspinwall Hotel in Lenox, Massachusetts.  Lillie, like many socialites, did not allow her husband's business to interfere with her own leisure.  She regularly appeared in society columns as she arrived alone at the Aspinwall and other fashionable resorts like the Briarcliff Lodge.

The 87-year-old millionaire died in his 66th Street mansion on April 11, 1921.  Oddly enough, Lillie did not follow the expected mourning protocol, which would have restricted her appearances within society for a year.  Three months later, on July 17, 1921 the New-York Tribune reported that "Mrs. Phillips Phoenix...was a late arrival at the Aspinwall."  

Phoenix left an estate of nearly $2.6 million.  The accounting listed the value of No. 77 East 77th Street at $65,000--about $890,000 today.

Two years later the building was converted to a garage on the first floor and a "dwelling" on the second.  It was home to Emma A. Hamilton, widow of William H. Hamilton, by 1926.

In 1969 the building was converted to a private residence, home to Jules Goldstein and his wife, the former Jeanette Rosenberg.  A lawyer, Goldstein was a graduate of City College and New York University Law School.  His career, however, was wide-flung.  He was also executive secretary of the Trouser Institute of America, a member of the Management Labor Textile Advisory Committee of the Federal Trade Commission, and executive secretary of the National Outerwear and Sportswear Association.

Jules Goldstein died at University Hospital in December 1971 at the age of 80.  The house became home to Delbert W. Coleman, former CEO of jukebox firm J. P. Seeburg Corporation, and his wife.

The house was the center of an embarrassing snafu in 1976.  On January 26, the Colemans sent out about 100 formal invitations for a fund-raiser for Senator Frank Church to be held on February 10.  But after poking around into Coleman's background, Church's campaign staff "suddenly discovered that it had scheduled another fund-raising affair the same evening," reported Dan Dorfman in New York Magazine.

It seems that after Coleman sold his interests in Seeburg, he used the money to buy control of Parvin-Dorhmann Company, an operator of Las Vegas casinos and hotels.  Within a year Coleman had made a paper profit of over $34.5 million; a meteoric rise in value which prompted an SEC investigation and a charge of stock manipulation.

The Colemans were followed in No. 77 by Edward S. Finkelstein, chairman of R. H. Macy & Company.  Living here by 1988, he was widely credited with resuscitating the once-dowdy department store, restoring the ground floor to its original splendor--including the handsome polished wood cars of the Edwardian elevators.  It was Finkelstein who re-instituted the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks as a part of the national celebrations.  

When the house was sold for $2.58 million in December 1993, it was described as having three bedrooms, five baths, a "library overlooking dining area," and "double-height living room."  There were also two fireplaces and a roof deck.

In 2005 plans were filed for a "vertical enlargement of one family dwelling."  That barely described the project.  Radio entrepreneur Adam Lindemann would not only expand his home upward, but down.  His architect, London-based David Adjaye, would do a gut renovation that added three floors atop the original two, and two more below ground.

The renovations took years to be completed.  On May 22, 2011 New York magazine's Justin Davidson wrote "With the flamboyant orneriness that limitless wealth allows, the art collector Adam Lindemann and his wife, Amalia Dayan, have staged an act of architectural dissidence on the Upper East Side.  Lurking behind the limestone scrolls and wrought-iron gate of the carriage house at 77 East 77th Street is an eccentric concrete chateau."

photographs from "David Adjaye: A House for an Art Collector" via New York magazine May 22, 2011

Strikingly, the massive re-do is not noticeable from the street.  Davidson described it saying that Adjaye had confounded "the Upper East Side's aversion to novelty by combativeness and stealth."

photographs by the author

A Surviving Shell -- No. 31 East 74th Street

The first decade following the end of the Civil War saw an explosion of speculative development on the Upper East Side.  The Styles family—S. M. Styles, Frederick W. Styles and C. H. Styles—worked semi-independently on their building projects.  S. M. Styles, who doubled as a contractor and architect, brought his sons, John E. and Richard K. into his operation to form S. M. Styles & Sons.

In June 1876 C. H. Styles planned nine brownstone rowhouses that wrapped around the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 74^th Street.  Each would cost $12,000 to build—about a quarter of a million dollars in 2016 terms.  He commissioned S. M. Styles as his architect.

C. H. Styles seems to have had problems selling one of the homes.  On March 11, 1877 an advertisement in The New York Herald offered “For sale cheap—Call and see that fine four story brown stone high stoop house No. 31 East 74^th st.; will be sold at a bargain.”

A year later, on March 3, 1878 the developer was willing to nearly break even on the still vacant house.  An advertisement explained “$5,000 cash will buy an elegant four story House, cabinet finish.”

Despite the bargain price, No. 31 East 74^th Street was still unsold the following year.  On March 23, 1879 Styles offered “Finest located four story brown stone house in this city for the price, in perfect order throughout.”

Another prolific developer, William W. Hall, purchased the house in 1896.  By now Fifth Avenue in the 70s was filling with lavish mansions; and the side streets followed the trend.  The outdated two-decade old brownstones were rapidly being demolished or remodeled into more fashionable dwellings.  Hall hired architect Alexander M. Welch to transform No. 31 into a modern home acceptable to an upper class owner.

The renovations were completed in 1897.  Somewhat surprisingly, Hall and his architect seem to have focused on interior improvements.  The brownstone stoop was retained even when the “English basement” plan had fallen out of favor; and the old 1877 design was only vaguely veiled by the neo-Renaissance motifs.  The second floor sprouted an angled oriel which supported a third-floor balcony.  The arched openings of the top floor received handsome carved framing and an updated, projecting copper cornice was added.

The renovations, while outwardly cosmetic, were successful.  William Hall quickly sold the remodeled 16-foot wide house to Raymond Lesher.  He was a partner with his brothers Arthur and Nathaniel in the “clothiers’ supplies” importing firm of Lesher, Whitman & Company.

Lesher and his wife did not remain in the house for long.  On June 27, 1901 he sold it to William S. Wyckoff for $46,000.  Wyckoff’s wife, Jennie, had died a year earlier, on February 5, 1900.  The New York Times described him as “a well-preserved, tall man.” 

Wyckoff had one grown son, Clarence, who had his own bachelor apartment in the Hotel Manhattan “when not at Palm Beach, Fla., or abroad,” according to a newspaper.  Like his son, William Wyckoff spent more and more time abroad.  He had two sisters, one in England and the other in Scotland.  Around 1905 his attention was focused on a Prussian woman living in London, Sophie Manasse.

The 60-year old’s romance culminated in April 1906 in a surprising coincidence.  Clarence P. Wyckoff returned to his apartment on the evening of April 5 to find a telegram from his father who was in London.  It revealed that William had applied to the Archbishop of Canterbury for a “special license” for the New Yorker and the Prussian to marry.

The New York Times reported “After he read it he looked up with a smile and said: ‘H’m, I’m to be married myself tomorrow.’”  The father and son, “both well-known members of society,” would miss one another’s nearly simultaneous weddings.

It was probably William S. Wyckoff’s overseas romance that had prompted him to sell No. 31 East 74^th Street a year earlier.  In January 1905 Newman Erb, Vice President of the Pere Marquette Railroad Company, purchased the house for his daughter.

The generous gift was not a wedding present.  Fannie Erb had married Irving Meade Dittenhoefer on November 18, 1896—the same year that William Hall began the renovations.  The 42-year old Dittenhoefer had graduated from the Columbia School of Law in 1885 and was now a partner in the law firm of Dittenhoefer, Gerber James.

The couple had one son, Newman Erb Dittenhoefer, and like other modern and wealthy families, they traveled widely.  On May 1, 1908 Irving wrote to a former classmate “I have traveled extensively in Europe, having made automobile trips in Italy, France and Germany of over 15,000 miles.”

Unlike the previous owners, Irving and Fannie stayed for nearly two decades.  They sold the house in October 1919 to the 44-year old physician, Dr. Frederick Knowles and his 34-year old wife Sophia.  Living with the Knowles were Charles Stevens, the butler, and his English-born wife, Mahlik, the cook.

Knowles established his doctor’s office in the house.  When elevator operator John Martina Feirera collapsed at the corner of Madison Avenue and 74^th Street on February 20, 1933, a market employee carried him to the Knowles house.  Sadly, the 30-year old died on the stoop before the doctor could be called out.

Knowles, now 71, sold the house in April 1946 to real estate operator Norman. S. Riesenfeld.   He quickly resold it to the World Federalists, U.S.A. and the residence became known as World Government House.  The goal of the global World Federalist Movement was to create “a new world order” that could prevent another international war.

Later that year, on November 11, 1946, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrived on the Queen Elizabeth.  Another passenger on the ship was heading to East 74^th Street.  The New York Times reported “Ulric Nesbet, British representative of the Federal Union, who has designed a world flag, came here to confer with members of World Government House, 31 East Seventy-fourth Street.”

World Government House lasted only a few years at the address.  In 1949 the house was converted to apartments and the stoop was removed.  Among the most interesting of the businesses in the newly-formed commercial space throughout the upcoming decades was Alaska Shop—Gallery of Eskimo Art which occupied the store in the early 1980s.

In 2010 No. 31 East 74^th Street got its stoop back—at a price.  CareOne, a firm that operates nursing and assisted-living facilities, hired restoration architects Beyer Blinder Belle and contractors New Line Structures, Inc. to “reinvent the interiors” (as described by CEO Daniel E. Straus) of six brownstones on Madison Avenue, along with No. 31 and its neighbor, the 33-foot wide Grosvenor Atterbury-designed mansion at No. 33.

Completed in 2015, the project called 33 East 74^th Street was no nursing home.  As renovations were underway on November 2, 2013, The New York Times journalist Alison Gregor explained “Demolishing all the brownstone interiors enabled Mr. Straus to create the layouts that he believes will best appeal to his target buyers.”  Those target buyers could expect to pay from $14 million to more than $30 million for the three- to five-bedroom condo units.

The completed project retained the vintage facades, but gutted the interiors.  No. 31 can be glimpsed behind the tree at right.  photo by Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Externally, No. 31 with its replacement stoop looks little changed, other than a cleaning-up and replacement windows.  But it is a stage set.  Behind the veneer nothing remains of the house C. H. Styles could not sell and which William Hall fancied up 20 years later.

photographs by the author