The Lost William Fox House - 316 West 91st Street

This photograph of 316 West 91st Street and its mirror-image next door (left) was photographed in 1914.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Charles P. H. Gilbert (known professionally as C. P. H. Gilbert) began his career as an architect in 1886 at just 25 years old.  Within a few years his upscale residential designs were in high demand and several developers commissioned him to design sumptuous homes in the Riverside Drive district.  In 1892, C. De H. Brower hired him to design two 20-foot-wide residences at 314 and 316 West 91st Street, just steps from Riverside Drive.

Gilbert produced two mirror-image, four-story houses in the Renaissance Revival style.  Their American basement plan placed each entrance atop a three-step stoop.  (The basement entrances were nestled under the stoops.)  Above a rusticated stone base, the upper floors were clad in light-colored brick and trimmed in sandstone.  The second floor windows were flanked by shallow pilasters and capped with Renaissance-style pediments.  Openings on the third floor sat within stone architraves capped with molded cornices, and those on the top floor were fully arched.

The purchaser of No. 316, a man named Ward, leased the house to stockbroker Alfred N. Benjamin and his bride, the former Eugenie S. Joyce.  The couple were married in December 1892.  Alfred had been a Wall Street broker since 1874 and his wife was described by The New York Sun as "a belle of Baltimore."  

The couple's romance had begun unexpectedly.  In 1891, Eugenie was spending the summer at Long Branch.  Although she was a competent swimmer, she ventured too far out and was caught in the undertow.  The New York Sun said, "Mr. Benjamin went to her rescue and brought her to the shore."  

The Benjamins filled the West 91st Street house with opulent furnishings and artworks.  An inventory included 72 "paintings by American and Continental artists" including George Inness and Jules Breton.  

Jules Breton's Le Repos hung in the Benjamin house.

The inventory also included "Louis XV gold drawing room furniture," a dinner service made by Cauldon China of England that The Sun said was "made to order at great cost," and "the largest Royal Sevres vase in this country."  That vase, said The Sun, was "formerly the property of the Comtesse de Kisleff of Homburg."  

The couple, who maintained a summer home in Short Hills, New Jersey, had a young son when they moved into 316 West 91st Street. 

The Benjamins' marital bliss was short-lived.  In 1895, the couple separated and Alfred moved into the Short Hills house.  He sent $60 to his wife each month (about $2,370 in 2026).

Eugenie soon showed a bitter and vengeful side.  When she saw Alfred's advertisement for a "good laundress," she hatched a scheme.  Agnes Trainor applied for the job and was hired.  The New York Press reported, 

She remained in his employ only one day and went away after leaving his linen hanging up to dry in the yard.  The cook had to go out and bring it in, and then the discovery was made that his five white shirts had been cut and slashed, most of them having the tails cut off, and his six collars and four nightgowns also had been made unfit for wear.

A search for Agnes Trainer found her in the basement of 316 West 91st Street.  Agnes was tried, but the judge decided there was not enough evidence to convict her.  The New York Press said that Eugenie, who had "been an interested witness of the trial," warmly congratulated Agnes upon the decision.

Eugenie obtained a divorce in July 1898 and took back her maiden name.  But she was not done with Alfred.  In May 1901, she sued him for $20,000 which she claimed he had borrowed and never repaid.  She won the suit.

Alfred and Eugenie as they faced off in court in May 1901.  The World, May 15, 1901 (copyright expired)

And, yet, Eugenie was still not done.  On June 25, 1902, The Press reported, "Alfred N. Benjamin's divorced wife, Eugenie S. Joyce, who has been seeking revenge on the Wall Street broker ever since she obtained her decree in July [sic] 1898, has scored heavily against him."  The article said she recently "learned that he was depositing $30,000 a year in trust for her son."  She sued again and won.  Eugenie successfully ruined her former husband.  Two years later, on October 21, 1904, The New York Sun reported that Alfred N. Benjamin had filed for bankruptcy.

In the meantime, Eugenie left 316 West 91st Street in September 1902.  Everything in the "Colonial Mansion," as described by the auctioneer--the paintings, the made-to-order china, the "massive silver chest, containing over 200 pieces of the designer's art sterling silver tea sets, &c.," bronze and marble sculptors, and such--was sold.

The Ward estate sold 316 West 91st Street in June 1906.  It was purchased by Dr. George La Breche Smith and his wife, the former Madeline O'Neill.  The couple had three children.

Born in Ottawa, Canada in 1865, Smith studied medicine at McGill and Lavelle Universities.  In 1893 he established his practice in New York City and was by now a noted eye, ear and nose specialist.  He was attached to the Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital of New York and was a visiting surgeon at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Early in 1908, Smith became "afflicted with stomach trouble of a serious nature," as described by The New York Sun.  He died in the house on June 13, 1908.  Interestingly, his funeral was not held in the residence, but, according to the New York Herald, "from Holy Trinity Church" on 82nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

Shortly afterward, Madeline Smith left 316 West 91st Street.  She first leased the mansion in October and continued to do so until selling it in March 1914 to General E. P. Meaney and his wife, Rosalie Behr.  The price was $40,000, or about $1.3 million today.  

Meaney was the general counsel for the New York Telephone Company.  The New York Times noted that he already owned the adjoining property, saying that he "will probably improve the site at some future date."  

Instead, the Meaneys leased the house to William Fox.  Born in January 1879 in Tolcsva, Zemplén, Hungary, Fox came to America in 1880 and married Eva Leo on December 31, 1899. They had two daughters, Caroline Leah and Isabella, known as Belle.

Fox had purchased a nickelodeon in 1904 and grew that business into a chain of motion picture theaters.  Two years after moving his family into 316 West 91st Street, he shocked old time society by converting the New York Academy of Music into a movie theater.  In 1914, he formed the Fox Film Corporation and began producing his own films.

The following year Fox hired what would be Fox Film's first major star--Theda Bara.  Her role in the 1915 A Fool There Was earned her the name "The Vamp" for audiences throughout the country.

On Christmas night 1916, Colonel Louis Annin Ames and his family, who lived a block away at 622 West End Avenue, went out for dinner.  When they returned, they saw a light inside.  Ames told his family to wait outside while he investigated.  Inside, he discovered a "short, heavily-built stranger with a candle in his hand," reported The New York Times.  The intruder dropped the candle and a "furious struggle" started in the dark.  At one point they wrestled to the top of the stairs and tumbled down.  The burglar ran down the stoop and disappeared.

Police arrived and "a passerby told them that he had seen a man hiding in the basement of 316 West Ninety-first Street," said The New York Times.  The Fox household was awakened to the sounds of a frenzied struggle.  Outnumbered, John Smoley was eventually overpowered and arrested.

In 1917, Fox signed another actor who would become a household name, Tom Mix.  The cowboy actor would star in Westerns for years.  By now, William Fox had amassed  a personal fortune estimated into the millions.

Fox was living at 316 West 91st Street when this photograph was taken in 1921.  Wid's Year Book 1921 (copyright expired)

On May 17, 1923, The New York Times reported, "The wedding of Miss Carolyn Leah Fox, daughter of William Fox, motion picture producer, to Douglas Nicholas Tauzig...will take place on Sunday, May 27 at the home of the bride, 316 West Ninety-first Street."  Tauzig was president of the Tauzig-Klingenstein Company.  Belle was her sister's maid of honor.  The next day, The Times reported, "A dinner for the families followed at the home of Mr. Fox."

The Fox family would have to leave 316 West 91st Street before long.  In 1927 it and the properties at the corner of Riverside Drive and two on the drive were demolished.  In 1928 a high-rise apartment building replaced the sites.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The 1897 Donac - 402 West 20th Street

photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

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

The Lost Fritz and Bertha Achelis House - 9 East 57th Street

 

photograph by Wurts Bros, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

On November 11, 1901, Chauncey Kilmer died in his four-story, brownstone-faced mansion at 9 East 57th Street.  He left an estate "valued at $1,000,000," according to the Troy, New York Daily Times.  That figure would translate to about 38 times that amount in 2025.  Less than a month later, on December 5, The New York Times reported that Kilmer's estate had sold the 28-foot-wide residence.  Frederick Fritz Achelis paid $175,000 for the property (about $6.6 million today).

Achelis was known professionally by his middle name.  He and his wife, the former Bertha Franzisca Koenig were born in 1843 and 1855 respectively, and were married on July 4, 1878.  The couple had three children, twins Margaret Julie and Alette Elisabeth, and Fritz (or Frederic) George.  (Another child, Bertha Dorothea, had died at the age of one in 1881.)

Fritz and Bertha commissioned esteemed architect C. P. H. Gilbert to remodel the outdated house, built in 1881.  He stripped off the brownstone facade and replaced it with limestone.  Behind the tall, impressive iron fencing, the stoop rose to a columned portico that upheld a stone-railed balcony at the second floor.  The rusticated basement and parlor levels gave way to planar stone at the upper floors.  A three-sided oriel at the second floor provided one of the two balconies at the third floor.  A handsome balustraded parapet sat atop the cornice.  The renovations cost the Achelises the equivalent of $571,000 today.

Achelis was president of the American Hard Rubber Company, established by Bertha's father, Friedrich Wilhelm Koenig.  He was, as well, a partner with Bertha's brother-in-law, George F. Vietor, in the dry goods and textile firm Frederick Vietor & Achelis.  The couple's 49-acre summer home, Wiesenach, was in Seabright, New Jersey.  

The mansion at Wiesenach was built in 1889 and designed by Henry Hudson Holly.  photograph by Pach Brothers from the collection of Rugers University Libraries.

The renovations to 9 East 57th Street were completed by the end of the 1902 summer season.  On October 6, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Achelis and family, who are still at their country place, Wiesenach, Rumson Road, Seabright, N. J., will this winter occupy the house No. 9 East Fifty-seventh street."

While Bertha Achelis continued to host entertainments and involve herself in philanthropic work, in 1909 she became a force in the nationwide debate about women's right to vote.  On March 17 that year, The Evening Post announced, "The home of Mrs. Fritz Achelis, at No. 9 East Fifty-seventh Street, will be thrown open on Monday afternoons hereafter to the Anti-Suffragists.  Prominent 'Antis' will explain the position of the women who are opposed to ballots for their sex."  The article mentioned that Bertha "is an active member of the executive committee of the State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage."

Seven months after that article, Bertha was appointed chairman of the State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.  On October 2, 1909, the New-York Tribune noted, "Mrs. Achelis is entirely free for the present to give all her time to the work, and she intends to do it, she says."  Explaining that she disliked protest marches and brash publicity, she told the reporter in part, 

I don't approve of public meetings or of public debates.  Contentious discussion advances nothing, and in debates people often speak without very deep thought.  We never want to speak without reflection, and we are going to take great pains not to make any statements that are not absolutely correct.  We are going to be very conservative, strong and thorough, I hope, but not aggressive or sensational.

(Bertha's laid-back philosophy was starkly different to those of pro-Suffragists like Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and may have contributed to the Anti-Suffragists' eventual defeat.)

Fritz George Achelis graduated from Yale in 1907 and joined his father's American Hard Rubber Company.  His engagement to Helen Bruff was announced on January 26, 1913, The Sun mentioning that he, "is a member of several well known clubs, including the Yale, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Rumson Country clubs."

Interestingly, the wedding, which took place on April 16, was held in the East 57th Street mansion.  (House weddings traditionally were held in the home of the bride's family.)  The Sun explained, "Owing to the recent death of the bride's grandmother, Mrs. Richard P. Bruff, the ceremony will be celebrated quietly and there will be no reception."

By the time of the wedding, the Midtown neighborhood was quickly transforming from one of sumptuous private residences to a commercial district.  Millionaires moved uptown along Central Park, and their homes were converted for business or razed.  

On December 22, 1917, the Record & Guide reported, "Harry Collins, Inc. costumes, leased for ten years, the one-time residence of Fritz Achelis, at 9 East 57th street...The building will be remodeled for occupancy by the lessee."  The annual rental, $11,259, would equal about a quarter of a million dollars today.  Architects Cross & Cross sympathetically altered the mansion for the clothing firm, including an additional floor that sat back from the roofline.

Harry Collins, Inc. included a sketch of the remodeled mansion in its opening announcement in The New York Times on March 3, 1918 (copyright expired)

Henry Collins, Inc. opened on March 5, 1918 with a benefit fashion show called "A Fashion Fete of Suits: Gowns, Wraps, Millinery."  Society patrons paid a $2 admission charge.  An announcement in The New York Times noted, "The two-day event will be for the benefit of the blind soldiers.  A host of artists have offered their talents, contributing to a most delightful terpsichorean and musical program."

Henry Collins, Inc. leased the building through 1921, after which Tappe, Inc., another society millinery and gown shop, moved in.  On April 19, 1922, Floyd Macdonald, the firm's shipping clerk, was working in the basement when Mr. Tappe's pet fox terrier, JoJo, began barking.  It prompted Macdonald to investigate and he discovered "shooting flames" in an area of the basement.  The New York Times reported, "The 200 young women who are employed in the establishment became panic-stricken as the clouds of smoke filled every stairway and exit, and it was with difficulty that some of them were rescued."

Specifically, Kitty Robinson was trapped on the third floor.  The article said that she, "hastily knotted together a couple of sheets and slid down the improvised rope into the rear areaway."  Happily for her, a policeman caught her and saved her life, according to Mr. Tappe.  Cecelia Tappe, a partner in the firm, was discovered unconscious on the top floor by a firefighter.  "He picked her up and carried her to the roof, where he dropped from overexertion," said The New York Times.  "Patrolman Thompson...got them to safety."

The article said that "nearly $10,000 worth of hats and dresses" were destroyed, including gowns belonging "to Mrs. George Vanderbilt and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt."  The building suffered damages equivalent of $935,000 today.

The fire resulted in the lower floors being completely remodeled.  A glass-fronted show window and entrances replaced Gilbert's limestone front at street level.

An advertisement offering the building for lease boasted the new storefront.  International Studio, September 1924 (copyright expired)

Bertha Koenig Achelis died in 1921.  Three years later, on December 23, 1924, Fritz Achelis died at the age of 81.  On March 28, 1925, the Record & Guide reported that the Achelis estate had sold the building.  Before the end of the year, The Cumulative Daily Digest of Corporation News reported that a "completed building" had replaced the former Achelis mansion.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Leonard Paulson, Jr. House - 307 West 74th Street

 

In 1836, the New York Orphan Asylum purchased the two blocks from 73rd to 75th Street, and Riverside Drive to West End Avenue as the site of an orphanage, opened in 1840.  Thirty-five years later, Frederick Law Olmsted began transforming Riverside Drive and Riverside Park.  As mansions rose along the wide thoroughfare and naturalistic park, the institution's property value soared.  In 1893, the New York Orphan Asylum announced that its northern block was for sale. 

Eight of the plots were purchased by wealthy businessmen.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide described them as, "a syndicate of eight gentlemen who will build homes for themselves."  To ensure architectural harmony, they agreed on a single architect--C. P. H. Gilbert, whose reputation for designing high-end residences was well established.

Among the "syndicate" was Leonard Paulson, Jr.  Born in 1846, the son of a merchant tailor, he was a partner in Buckingham & Paulson, dealers in cotton yarn.  The firm was established in 1877.  A member of an old New York family, he was a member of the Sons of the Revolution, the Founders and Patriots, and the Society of Colonial Wars.

The Paulsons' 24-foot-wide mansion sat at 307 West 74th Street where a short, asymmetrical stoop fronted the limestone basement.  The first floor projected slightly away from the yellow brick upper floors, creating a stone-balustraded balcony.  A round, two-story bay dominated the mid-section, the wide stone frieze of which was decorated with elaborate carvings.  A Florentine inspired arcade dignified the fourth floor.

Orphans assembly on the grounds of the New York Orphan Asylum.  The newly-build Paulson house can be seen in the background, just to the left of the Asylum building.  image by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The Paulsons had three daughters, Blanch Paege, Florence Patty, and Marjorie.  The house was the venue for the first of the sisters' weddings.  On November 14, 1899, the New-York Tribune reported that invitations had been sent out "for the wedding of Miss Blanche Paege Paulson and Dr. John Joseph Nutt, on Saturday afternoon, December 2."  The article said the ceremony would take place in the Paulson residence, "and will be followed by a small reception to the relatives and intimate friends of the couple."

The marriage of Florence Patty Paulson (who had been Blanche's maid of honor) on June 4, 1901 captured society's attention.  On May 22, the New York Press reported, "Romance surrounds the approaching marriage of a wealthy New York girl and a young Italian nobleman, whose engagement was announced formally last night at a dinner given to a few intimate friends."  Florence had captured the heart of Marquis Virgilio Barsotti.  The New York Press said his "estates near Naples are famous throughout Italy."

Father M. J. Lavalle of St. Patrick's Cathedral officiated the ceremony in the West 74th Street mansion.  The New York World noted, "Baron Golotti was the Marquis's best man, and Mrs. John Joseph Nutt, the sister of the bride, the matron of honor."  Following their honeymoon, the newlyweds sailed to Italy on June 15.  The New York World commented flatly, "The Marquis is rich."

Four months after her sister's high-profile wedding, Marjorie traveled to Lincolnton, South Carolina to visit friends, the Rineharts.  The New York World reported, "There she met [Leonard] Richardson, a well-to-do young farmer, who fell desperately in love with her."

Marjorie became the target of what the newspaper termed, "ardent Southern wooing."  Only weeks after arriving in South Carolina, she wrote home, telling her parents that she had accepted Richardson's proposal of marriage.  They wrote back, "All right, but wait a year; come home first."

Marjorie obeyed, but her love was stronger than her parents' wishes.   She "slipped away" from 307 West 74th Street on Christmas Day and boarded a train to South Carolina where she and Leonard Richardson were married.

A reporter from The New York World visited 307 West 74th Street.  On December 28, the newspaper quoted Leonard Paulson who said, "Oh, it's all right.  He is a fine young fellow and has one of the best farms down South.  I simply didn't want to lose my daughter quite so soon, that's all."

At the time of Marjorie's elopement, the view from the Paulsons' parlor windows was undergoing change.  In 1901, the New York Orphan Asylum sold its remaining property to multi-millionaire Charles M. Schwab.  He demolished the orphanage and began a five-year construction project of a massive, block-engulfing estate with park-like grounds and a monumental French Renaissance style chateau.  

In the meantime, Blanche and her husband were living with her parents.  The couple appeared regularly in the society pages.  On August 23, 1902, for instance, the New York Herald reported, "Dr. and Mrs. John Joseph Nutt, of 307 West Seventy-fourth street, are at Kineo, Moosehead Lake, Me., for the remainder of the season."

On February 4, 1905, the Record & Guide reported that Leonard Paulson had sold 307 West 74th Street."  The New York Times mentioned, "This house was specially constructed for Mr. Paulson and faces the new residence of Charles M. Schwab."

The buyers were John and Mary M. Munro.  A director of the Metropolitan Realty Co., John was one of four children of the massively wealthy publisher George Munro, who died in 1896.  The couple had one daughter, Mary Watson Munro.

The Munros were socially visible.  On December 16, 1909, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. John Munro of 307 West Seventy-fourth Street entertained yesterday with a luncheon at Sherry's."  The winter social season of 1915-16 saw their names appearing in the society columns more frequently, as it was Mary Watson Munro's debutante year.

It began when The New York Times announced on November 15, 1915, "Mr. and Mrs.  John Munro of 307 West Seventy-fourth Street will give a coming-out reception for their daughter, Miss Mary Watson Munro, on Dec. 4."  Then, on New Year's Eve, the couple hosted a dinner at Sherry's at which "they introduced their daughter, Miss Mary W. Munroe [sic]," as reported by The Sun on January 1.  The article said, 

Their dinner guests, numbering 100, were seated in the suite adjoining the large ballroom, and after dinner there was dancing, interspersed with exhibition dances by professional people.  There were the regulation observances of New Year's eve, with the darkened supper room just before midnight, and afterward dancing was resumed in the grand ballroom.

Mary Watson Munro, The New York Times, February 13, 1916 (copyright expired)

Two years later, on March 23, 1918, the Munros announced Mary's engagement to Joseph Bryan Chaffe, Jr.  The wedding took place in the Central Presbyterian Church on April 23.  With World War I raging in Europe, the wedding had a decided military atmosphere.  The groom's brother, Ensign Blackshear Chaffe of the U.S. Navy was the best man, and among the ushers were Major Frank A. Cook and Lieutenant George Schurman of the U.S. Army.  A reception was held in the West 74th Street house.

John Munro was retired in June 1921 when he was called for jury duty.  But this was no ordinary jury.  Prohibition had gone into effect in January 1920 and Munro was chosen as one of 23 "merchants, manufacturers and brokers" to sit on "the Extraordinary Grand Jury of the Supreme Court" that would hear the cases of "4,000 alleged violations of the Mullan-Gage dry law in this country," according to The Evening World on June 7.

On August 2, 1931, John Munro died in the West 74th Street house.  His funeral was held in the drawing room three days later.

Mary M. Munroe sold 307 West 74th Street in 1939 and it was converted to apartments, two per floor.  The tenants came and went, bringing little attention to the address until 1984 when things drastically changed.

On October 10 that year, police raided the ground floor apartment leased by Sheila Devin.  Four days later, The New York Times began an article saying, "A raid on an Upper West Side town house has shut down a $1 million-a-year prostitution ring that catered to an affluent clientele around the world, according to police, who said yesterday that they were waiting for the head of the ring to turn herself in."  Sgt. Raymond Wood of the Manhattan Public Morals Squad called Devin, "the most professional madam we've ever come across."

Sheila Devin was, in fact, Sydney Biddle Barrows, a descendant of William Biddle, a Quaker shoemaker who arrived in America in 1681.  New York Magazine, on December 10, 1984, explained that she had been educated at the Rumson Country Day school and Stoneleigh-Burnham in Greenfield, Massachusetts.  Sgt. Wood said, "she has a management degree and once received the 'Female Executive of the Year' award from the management firm that employed her."  Her deep-rooted pedigree earned her the nickname, The Mayflower Madam.

Nine months after the raid, on July 19, 1985, Sydney Biddle Barrows pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution.  The New York Times reported, "She was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine."  Barrows told a reporter, "Handling things this way was the only way I could protect the women and my clients."

Things returned to normal for the tenants of 307 West 74th Street.  In 1993, a penthouse level, unseen from the street, was added.  The two fourth-floor apartments were now converted to duplexes.

photographs by the author

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 a 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 suite 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 Museum.

photograph by Larry Gertner, August 23, 2015.