The 1888 Van Tassell & Kearney Building - 130-132 East 13th (125 East 12th)

 

On October 15, 1887 the Real Estate Record & Guide described the plans for Van Tassell & Kearney's "stable and carriage house" on East 13th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues.  "It will contain five floors and basement, the latter being used to accommodate one hundred horses.  The first floor will be used as an auction room and the four floors above for carriages."  The structure, in fact, would be more than a stable, it was carriage and horse auction mart.

William Van Tassell had been in the horse auction business since 1864, a partner in Johnston & Van Tassell at 110-112 East 13th Street.  He joined Edward Kearney in 1874, changing the company's name to Van Tassell & Kearney.  There were about 100,000 horses in New York City at the time, and auction houses of horses and vehicles were highly important.  Van Tassell & Kearney were known as one of the largest and most reliable.

Completed in 1888, the new building had cost $200,000 to construct--more than $5.6 million today.  Architects D. & J. Jardine had created a handsome brick-faced structure atop a cast iron base.  The style, sometimes called "brick warehouse style," drew on the Romanesque Revival with heavy piers that rose to large arches.  The building extended through the block to East 12th Street, where its nearly-identical facade was slightly wider.  The architects used terra cotta to embellish the structure with decorative rondels, foliate capitals, and elaborate sprandrel panels between the third and fourth floors depicting riding crops and horseshoes on a leafy background.

The building opened on November 10, 1888.  The Sun commented, "Van Tassell & Kearney, whose magnificent new auction mart and storage house for carriages, at 130 and 132 East Thirteenth street...was opened on Saturday last, are the leaders in their trade, having gained a reputation for sterling integrity ever since the establishment of the firm in 1867 [sic]."

Excitement turned to tragedy a month later.  Around 4:30 on December 7, a good friend of William Van Tassell, Dr. John W. Dowling stopped by to visit.  The Sun said, "Mr. Van Tassell was proud of the great establishment, and whenever an intimate friend came around he usually wanted to show him through it."  Van Tassell unlocked the elevator door, "expecting to find the car in the place it usually was in when not in use.  Someone had left it two flights up."  He stepped into the dark shaft, and plummeted "without a word or cry, into the cellar, 112 feet below."  

Dr. Dowling went for help, and by the light of a lantern, Van Tassell could be seen at the bottom of the shaft.  His skull had been fractured, and he died within two hours of being brought up.  The following day, The Evening World reported rather dramatically:

The sadly mutilated body of Auctioneer William Van Tassell, who was killed last evening by falling 112 feet through an elevator shaft in his new building, 132 East Thirteenth street, lies to-day in the darkened parlor of his home, 28 Irving place.  The art of the undertaker has done much to restore a natural look to the dead man's countenance, but the ugly gash in the skull where the unfortunate man struck the centre bar of the elevator could not be concealed.

The tragedy spurred Edward Kearney to rethink his recent retirement.  He had turned over his position in the firm to his son, Edward Jr.  Now, on December 22, The Spirit of the Times reported, "Notwithstanding the recent sudden death of Mr. Van Tassell, the extensive business of the firm will be continued just the same, and with the same firm name...and the addition of the return of Mr. Edward Kearney, Sr., to active business again."

New York Athletic Club Journal, December 1897 (copyright expired)

Van Tassell & Kearney continued as one of the city's largest outlets for vehicles and horses.  On December 22, 1891 The Sun wrote, "Messrs. Van Tassell & Kearney's place at 130-132 East Thirteenth street is a mecca for lovers of fine carriages.  The display of all kinds of vehicles it contains is so large that a purchaser is almost bewildered when trying to made a selection."  The article noted various carriage types like broughams, victorias, cabriolets, wagonettes, donkey and pony carts, dog carts and more.

As the business grew, in 1902 Van Tassell & Kearney purchased to property next door at 126-128 East 13th Street and brought back David and John Jardine, whose firm was now Jardine, Kent & Jardine, to design a striking two-story auction show ring building.   The plans included "two large openings in the wall of No. 130, large enough to drive a double team of horses through."  

An advertisement explained the uses of the two buildings.  Bit & Spur, October 1908 (copyright expired)

An article in The Saddle and Show Horse Chronicle on May 16, 1911 reflected the reputation of the firm.  It said in part, "Van Tassell & Kearney's auction sales, held every Tuesday and Friday, at No. 132 East Thirteenth street, New York, have long been resorted to by buyers from fifty miles around when in want of such horses as well as carriages, harness, saddles and all equipment for the stable."

But at the time of the article, motorcars were threatening the future of horse-drawn vehicles.  By World War I, Van Tassell & Kearney was adapting.  An advertisement on April 6, 1917 in The New York Times read, "Marmon--At auction, very fine town car; 1914; used by private family; to be sold today (Friday, April 6) by Van Tassell & Kearney, 130-132 East 13th St."

Nevertheless, the end of the horse era brought the end of the fabled auction house.  The building was offered for rent in March 1919, described as "suitable for storage of light manufacturing, etc."   Four months later the Record & Guide reported, "Van Tassell & Kearney's auction mart at 127 and 129 East 12th street, through to 130 and 132 East 13th street, is shortly to be improved with a candy factory, having been leased by the Kearney estate to the King Philip Chocolates Co."  The Sun said the building, "for many years the auction salesroom for horses and carriages of New York's fashionable residents," would be "entirely remodeled."  Architect J. O'Dell Whitenack's conversion from stable to factory cost the equivalent of $450,000 in 2022.

King Philip Chocolates Co. was newly incorporated at the time.  It was acquired in 1920 by the U. R. S. Candy Stores, which was renamed Happiness Candy Stores in 1924.   It remained here for another four years.

The cast iron base can be seen in this 1941 photograph.  via NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building housed A. J. Siris Products, Inc. beginning in 1943.  The firm manufactured powder puffs.  Its management's plans to move the operation to Virginia in 1946 drew the wrath of labor unions.  The New York Times noted the firm's intentions "will become an international incident...if Local 65 of the Wholesale and Warehouse Workers Union, CIO, has its way."  The union did not get its way, and the firm moved South.

The entrance is now on the virtually identical East 12th Street side.

A conversion to residential use was completed in 1989, along with an additional two stories, mostly unseen from street level.  The entrance was moved to East 12th Street and all evidences that the original main entrance on East 13th Street were erased.  Happily, the architects treated the historic facade sympathetically, carefully cleaning and repairing it and its striking terra cotta decorations.

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The 1875 Van Tassell & Kearney Building - 110-112 East 13th Street

The horse auction firm of Johnston & Van Tassell was established in 1864 at 110 and 112 East 13th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenue.  In 1874, William Van Tassell partnered with Edward W. Kearney, changing the firm's name to Van Tassell & Kearney.  They wasted no time in upgrading their auction house.

On June 26, 1874, architect Joseph M. Dunn filed plans for a four-story "brick stable and auction mart."  Construction was completed the following year.  Dunn's neo-Grec design featured a cast iron base that supported four floors of red-orange brick trimmed in limestone.  Stone bandcourses connected the segmentally arched lintels and (originally) the bracketed sills of the openings.  A complex metal cornice with small and large brackets and a frieze of shell-filled corbels crowned the design.

Van Tassell & Kearney sold both horses and vehicles in its massive auctions every Tuesday and Friday at 10:00 a.m.  The business was vital to businesses and private citizens alike, with more than 100,000 horses in New York City at the time.  In 1878, The American Gentlemen's Newspaper called Van Tassell & Kearney, "One of the largest and most reliable auction and commission houses in this city, for the sale of horses, carriages, etc."  It employed a staff of between 40 and 50 men.

In at last one instance, a special Van Tassell & Kearney auction included unexpected items--dogs.  An advertisement for the June 22, 1875 sale listed "the entire establishment of  private family going abroad."  The wealthy clients were disposing of three vehicles and teams of horses.  But they also needed to see "two imported hunting dogs from the best Scotch stock, and well broken on all kinds of game."

The 1888 Illustrated New York, The Metropolis of To-day said the firm "handle[s] an average of 10,000 horses and from 12,000 to 15,000 wagons, carriages, harnesses, etc., at private sales."  The article also mentioned, "the firm are now engaged in the erection of a new building in the same block."  The Sun chimed in on August 24, saying that Van Tassell & Kearney "has been so successful that it was necessary...to seek a location for entirely new quarters."  At the time of the articles, their new home at 130-132 East 13th Street was nearly completed.

Van Tassell & Kearney had been leasing the building from Andrew S. Garvey.  William T. A. Hart, who briefly rented it next, made minor interior alterations in October 1889.

Alfred Dolge & Son moved into the building in 1893.  Alfred Dolge was born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1848.  His father, August Dolge, was the head of the piano-making firm in Leipsic, A. Dolge & Co.  Alfred came alone to America as a teen "with little or no money," according to The Engineering Magazine in April 1897.  After working in a piano factory for a year, he struck out on his own in 1869 at the age of 19.  It was a remarkably bold move, considering that the teen had just married "an estimable young lady without fortune."  Using the $500 he had saved, he started manufacturing piano felt in a small shop on Amity Street (later West 3rd Street) in Greenwich Village.

His success was phenomenal.   Now 43 years old, he had essentially created a town out of the little village of Brockett's Bridge, New York--which had been renamed Dolgeville.  The Engineer Magazine wrote, "a railway was constructed...fine stores, magnificent schools, an elegant Turn Halle, and other accessories of Civilized existence sprang into being under the magical wand of the Dolge management."

His factories in Dolgeville manufactured "felt shoes and sounding-boards"  The magazine noted, "The Dolgeville productions are recognized the world over as the best of their class, having taken first premiums at the world's fair at Vienna in 1873, at Philadelphia in 1876, at Paris in 1879, and at Chicago in 1893."

The Music Trade Review, 1897 (copyright expired)

The East 13th Street held the offices and showrooms of Alfred Dolge & Sons.  The firm employed 70 clerks at this location, and about 1,000 workers in Dolgeville.

Despite his firm's rapid expansion, or perhaps because of it, Alfred Dolge was in trouble in the summer of 1898.  On June 17, The New York Times reported on a judgment against him for two demand notes held by the Exchange National Bank totaling $30,108--just under $970,000 in today's money.  

The company blamed the difficulties on what today we would call supply chain issues, telling The New York Times, "The trouble is only temporary and was due to the war scare, which stopped the placing of commercial paper.  The firm had to use considerable paper in the business, and inability to raise money in this way brought matters to a crisis."  The statement added, "Mr. Dolge is a man of such ability, energy, and resources that it is only a question of a little time when his affairs will come out all right."

Unfortunately, they did not.  The firm failed, not only devastating Alfred Dolge and his son, Rudolph, but the entire town of Dolgeville.  The Johnstown Daily Republican said the news "caused universal surprise and regret throughout this section of the state."  The article noted, "When verified...the news elicited many expressions of sympathy for the people of Dolgeville and especially for the man who has spent the best years of his life in establishing the immense business which he controlled and in upbuilding and improving the handsome little village."

In February 1899, Andrew S. Garvey hired architect H. A. Hausenstein to make interior renovations for his new tenant, the American Felt Company.  The firm manufactured "felt of every description," according to one advertisement.

In 1901, following Garvey's death, his wife, Helene B. Garvey, sold the building to the American Felt Company for $55,000 (about $1.73 million today).  It made subsequent renovations in January 1910 when architect Earl H. Syall replaced the windows.

The firm remained for over a decade.  On June 30, 1925, the New York Evening Post reported that the American Piano Supply Company had "leased the entire building."  Its stay would be relatively short-lived.  

On June 17, 1927, the D. A. Schulte Retail Stores Corporation purchased the Huyler's chocolate and candy company, founded in 1846.  Headed by David Arthur Schulte, the firm operated "5¢-to-$1" shops across the nation.  Schulte now established the Huyler's Luncheonettes, Inc., and in March 1928 rented 110-112 East 13th Street.  Once again, renovations were made, this time by architect Frederick J. Berger.  The New York Times advised, "The space will be used for offices, a showroom and the manufacture of ice-cream, candy and bakery products."

The Great Depression had cataclysmic effects on the Huyler's candy portion of the firm, but the luncheonettes limped along until 1964 when the last of them was closed.

On October 7, 1981 The New York Times writer Alan S. Oser reported on the city's new loft law.  "A building that may provide the first test of how this system will work is a loft building at 110 East 13th Street," said the article.  The intention was to convert the structure to office space, but that never came to be.  Instead, a renovation completed the following year resulted in residences above the ground floor retail space, including two additional stories, set back from street view.

Unfortunately, over decades of renovations, the openings of the upper floors were brutally disfigured.  Only the top floor gives an idea of their original appearance.  Hints of the cast iron storefront remain, and yet Joseph M. Dunn's impressive neo-Grec design manages to endure.

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

A 1904 Horse and Carriage Auction House -- Nos. 126-128 E. 13th Street

photo by Alice Lum

By 1903 the Van Tassell & Kearney Auction Mart had established itself as one of the premier houses in New York City for the sale of carriages as well as horses. That year an ad appearing in the New-York Tribune boasted “Finest display in New York of Carriages of the highest grade and most fashionable designs. Broughams, omnibuses, victorias, station wagons, wagonettes, traps.”

To the 21st century mind, Victorian horse-drawn transportation were “carriages.”  But just as we differentiate SUV’s, sedans, convertibles, sports cars and minibuses, the turn of the century buyer purchased vehicles specific to his needs.

Van Tassell & Kearney sold various vehicles including "gooch wagons," tub carts," and "governess carts."

Van Tassell & Kearney operated from building at 130-132 East 13th Street, extending through the block to 125-129 East 12th Street.  In February 1903, two four-story brick buildings at 126 and 128 East 13th Street became available at auction.  The cleared lot would become an adjoining showroom and auction space for Van Tassell & Kearney’s Auction Mart.

Completed in 1904, the masculine, utilitarian structure was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Jardine, Kent, and Jardine.  Faced in red brick and contrasting limestone, it was a brawny mass with Beaux Arts splashes – the visual focus being a large central arched window embellished with a carved cartouche.

Carved, decorative stonework added interest to the utilitarian structure -- photo by Alice Lum

Van Tassell & Kearney not only sold to New York’s most elite–among them buyers with names like Belmont, Vanderbilt and Mackay–but they were trusted by the wealthy to sell used stock.

In 1904, Prominent and Progressive Americans spoke of retired Dr. W. E. Woodend. “Dr. Woodend and his wife are popular members of society, and have been prominent in many of the horse shows which have come to be leading social functions. They maintain a fine stable of horses…In the New York Horse Show of 1903 their horses were conspicuous prize-winners, and in the course of the show captured no fewer than twenty ribbons.”

On March 13, 1906, some of Dr. Woodend’s geldings were among the 24 horses auctioned at Van Tassell & Kearney’s; the total sale amounting to $11,250–more than a quarter million dollars today.

The architects created sunburst effects with creative brickwork around the oval windows -- photo by Alice Lum

A year later, the New-York Tribune reported that “Mrs. John Gerken, always one of the most prominent figures at the Horse Show, has decided to give up nearly her entire stable.  Her failure to carry off as many awards as usual at the last horse show, she says, has nothing to do with her determination.  Her only object, she says, is to get rid of the trouble and annoyance of a big stable.  She will maintain only eight show horses.  The rest will be sold on May 20 by Van Tassell & Kearney.”

That year was a good one for the firm.  In October the New York Herald mentioned, “At Van Tasell & Kearney’s regular semi-weekly auction sale on Tuesday a cabriolet brought $760 and a brougham brought $825.  These are record prices for second-hand carriages sold this season and are almost up to the standard of values current when automobiles were unknown.  Not less significant than the prices were the number and character of the bidders who came to buy these and other carriages in the last week’s sales.”

The reporter said that Mr. Kearney was very pleased and “it looked quite like old times.”  It appeared to the auctioneer that the fad of the automobile was fading and “the carriage horse is coming back.”

Van Tassell & Kearney custom-built this trap for "Mr. LaSalla."  The 500-lb. vehicle could be drawn either by one or two horses -- The Rider and Driver 1911

Although the era of the carriage horse would not come back, it would be a while before it disappeared entirely.  In 1911 The Rider and Driver magazine marveled at the Van Tassell & Kearney’s operations.  “Few people are aware of the magnitude of their premises and the extent of business they are doing with our wealthiest and most critical class of carriage buyers in town and country.  Their patrons include members of the Cabinet and foreign ministers, prominent citizens, city officials; and at all horse shows, floral parades and summer resorts are to be seen every description of traps from Van Tassell & Kearney’s.”

In 1911 Van Tassell & Kearney introduced the "Horse Show Dog Cart," a small trap-type carriage --The Rider and Driver 1911 

The magazine described in detail the assembly of buildings, with underground space that ran from 13th to 12th Streets. “The basement is fitted up for accommodating one hundred and fifty horses, where they are stabled in well-ventilated stalls.”

The firm steadfastly refused to accept the invasion of the automobile into the staid tradition of horse-drawn buggies and carriages. On July 28, 1918, as more and more motorcars chugged along the streets and avenues of New York, a Van Tassell & Kearney ad in the New York Tribune insisted “The report that horses and carriages are coming back to their own in Newport is positively founded on fact.”

The prediction, of course, was not to be and before long the venerable auction house that refused to adapt to change was no more.

The cavernous building was used a a machinery shop in the decades leading to World War II.  Then on December 28, 1941 the Delehanty Institute announced it would be using the building as instructional space.  With most of the able-bodied men off fighting in the Pacific and Europe, the institute opened “a branch in machine shop practice for women” here.  The former auction space was used for teaching women “assembly and inspection work, the reading of blueprints, and various mechanical aspects needed in defense industries.”

In 1978, artist Frank Stella took over the building, using it as his studio for 27 years.  It was from here that the influential artist added free-standing sculpture to his painting and print-making art.  In 2005 the building was sold to Isaac Mishan for $10 million.  He planned to demolish the structure to replace it with a seven-story sleek condo building.

A proposed 7-story condo was slated to replace the old auction mart -- sketch Gothamist.com

Preservationists rushed in.  By September 3, 2006 the developer had construction permits in hand, but demolition permits had not be issued.  At an emergency meeting of the Landmarks Preservation Commission the next day, politicians including State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer pleaded to save the building.  Local residents joined representatives from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Municipal Arts Society, and the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America in the appeal.

During the meeting Johnathon Hayes who lived in the neighborhood asserted “The space cries out for adaptive reuse…We cannot live by luxury condominiums alone.”

Although the Landmarks Preservation Commission would not designate the structure a landmark until May 2012, the owners were nevertheless swayed.  They voluntarily allowed it to be listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, giving up the right to alter the exterior or build on it in anyway inconsistent with historic preservation guidelines.  In exchange they received a substantial tax write-off.

In 2007 the Peridance Center leased the building and began a nearly three-year renovation.  When opened in December 2009, it housed six roomy climate-controlled, soundproof dance studios, a 200-seat theater for the Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, a café and boutique.

The handsome old auction house where Belmonts and Vanderbilts shopped for show horses is a splendid example of creative recycling of historic properties.