The 1884 James and Ella Knowles House - 166 West 130th Street

 

Real estate developer and architect William J. Merritt was prolific in the Upper West Side and Harlem neighborhoods in the 1880s and 1890s.  His rowhouses were almost always intended for middle-class families and were often designed as charming Queen Anne ensembles.  In 1884, he completed a row of four 20-foot wide homes at 164-170 West 130th Street, just east of Seventh Avenue (later Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.).

Among them was 166 West 130th Street, a three-story and basement house the design of which was a successful marriage of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival.  A dog-legged box stoop fronted the English basement which, like the lower three-fourths of the parlor floor, was clad in undressed brownstone blocks.  Chunky voussoirs crowned the arched openings at this level.  The two-sided brick oriel that dominated the second floor was decorated with terra cotta Queen Anne tiles, while rough-cut brownstone bandcourses ran above and below the openings of the second and third floors.

The house became home to the James and Eleanor (known familiarly as Ella) Davidson family.  Married on April 22, 1861, the couple had nine children.  Living with the family was James's widowed mother, Eliza.  (Eliza died at the age of 76 two years after the Davidsons moved in.)

Despite what must have been snug conditions, Andrew Anderson lived here by 1888.  Possibly a relative of the Davidsons, he was a native of Berwick-on-Tweed, England and arrived in New York City in 1834.  The American Art Journal said, "One of the piano manufacturers then was John Pithie, in Bleecker Street.  Mr. Anderson went into business with Mr. Pithie, and at length gained entire control of the business."

The London & Provincial Music Trades Review described Anderson as, "one of the first to establish the piano manufacturing industry in New York."  Anderson sold both his own pianos and those of other makers.  On October 15, 1888, The London & Provincial Music Trades Review reported, "He was seized with paralysis some months ago, and never recovered from it."  Andrew Anderson had died in the 130th Street house on September 5, 1888 at the age of 81.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

In 1891, Charles Edward Knowles graduated from Brown University.  His brother, William Wells Knowles, was attending the Free Academy of the City of New York at the time.  William would enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1896, becoming an architect.  Among his works would be the Harlem Y.M.C.A. and the Queens County Courthouse (the latter co-designed with Alfred H. Eccles).

A tragic accident occurred on October 31, 1903.  The Buffalo [New York] Courier reported that Cosimo Cilinerto, "a young Italian...went to the house at No. 166 West 130th Street at about 4 o'clock to deliver some meat.  While he was in the house, according to witnesses, a gasoline automobile came through the street, and when it got opposite the horse let out an extra loud puff."  The horse was frightened and galloped west towards Eighth (today's Frederick Douglass Boulevard) Avenue.  Standing on the corner were two women who were "knocked flat."

The article said, "The older woman's back was broken and her ribs crushed in.  The younger woman's skull was fractured and several of her ribs broken, and the horses' hoofs made several deep wounds on her body."  Both women died minutes after being taken to a hospital without being able to identify themselves.  Cosimo Cilinerto was arrested.

On April 25, 1903, James Knowles sold 166 West 130th Street to Charles Napier Brenan and his wife, the former Mary A. Byrne.  Mary's widowed mother, Ann Byrne, lived with the couple by the post-World War I years.  The house was the scene of Mary's funeral on February 23, 1920.

The Brenans sold the house in April the following year.  By then, the Harlem neighborhood had become the center of Manhattan's black community.  The house became home to the family of Leander Mendis Miles.  Miles's brother-in-law, Dr. Percy Vaughan, lived with the family.

On October 4, 1930, the Richmond [Virginia] Planet, reported, "Mrs. Minnie Mundin Stows, has returned from a three weeks' visit to New York where she visited her sister, Mrs. Leander Mendis Miles and her brother, Dr. Percy Vaughan.  Mrs. Stows accompanied her nephew, William Mundin Miles to New York."

Young William Mundin Miles would remain in New York with his aunt and uncle, and eventually his parents would move in as well.  William entered Columbia Law School where he was editor of the Columbia Law Review.  His burgeoning legal career was interrupted by World War II.  On January 29, 1943, the New York Age reported, "Staff Sgt. William Mundin Miles was appointed warrant officer at Ft. Dix, N. J.  Warrant Officer Miles, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Miles, of 166 West 130th street, has made an outstanding record since his induction last April."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By 1955, 166 West 130th Street was operated as a rooming house.  Among those living here that year were Carrie Lindsay and John W. Gilbert.  

Although it has never officially been converted to apartments, there are four rental units in the building today.

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The Dr. Percy C. Mundin House - 164 West 130th Street

 

In the 1880s, architect and developer William J. Merritt erected scores of rowhouses in the Upper West Side and Harlem, nearly all of them in the Queen Anne style.  He completed a row of four such homes at 164 to 170 West 130th Street in 1884.  

Anchoring the group to the east was 164 West 130th Street.  Like its architectural siblings, it was 20-feet wide and three stories tall above an English basement.  Its basement and parlor levels were faced in rough-cut brownstone.  A dog-legged box stoop led to the entrance.  The brick-faced upper floors were dominated by a striking metal oriel, and a shallow slate-shingled mansard was fronted by an offset gable filled with a checkerboard pattern with nubby bosses.

Merritt sold 164 West 130th Street to broker Frank M. Freeman and his wife, Julia B. Freeman.  They remained for just over a decade, selling it on October 7, 1890 to George Edwin Marks for $16,000 (around $553,000 in 2024).

An 1879 graduate of Union University, Marks had married Louisa Ridabock in October 1888.  When they purchased the house, their daughter Frances Louisa was 10 months old.  Another daughter, Anna G., would arrive in 1891; and George Jr. would be born in April 1898.

Marks was a partner with his brother, William L. Marks, in A. A. Marks, the firm founded by their father, Amasa Abraham Marks.  The company manufactured prosthetic limbs.  

This and other illustrations in William L. Marks's 1888 "A Treatise on Marks' Patent Artificial Limbs" show remarkably advanced designs. (copyright expired)

Not surprisingly, given the trio of children in the household, living with the Marks family in 1902 was Margaret Morgan, a "nursery maid."

Around 1905, Edwin Marks sold 164 West 130th Street to the family of Benjamin Guion Glover.  Born in Brooklyn in 1853, Glover married Louise Cromwell in September 1885.  The couple had seven children--four daughters and three sons.  They ranged in age from Beatrice Louise, who was 19 years old in 1905, to Marion V., who was just four.

The Glovers' second eldest daughter was Florence Elsie, born in 1889.  The parlor of the West 130th Street house was the scene of her wedding to Harry Moore Vantine on October 8, 1908.  Beatrice, still unmarried, was her maid of honor.  Marion, now seven, acted as the flower girl.

Like nearly all well-to-do New Yorkers, the Glovers spent the hot summer months elsewhere.  On May 30, 1909, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Glover of 164 West 130th Street will also leave town this week for the Summer.  They will go to Bogota, N. J."

By the end of World War I, Harlem had become the center of Manhattan's black community.  In June 1919, Benjamin Glover sold 164 West 130th Street to Dr. Percy C. Mundin and his wife, the former Eva Estelle Christian.  

Mundin was one of a handful of black doctors at the time.  He and Eva were married on June 24, 1902, and he graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital in 1919 (the same year he purchased the house).  That year in July he was hired by the city as a temporary physician in the Department of Corrections earning $1,600 a year.  (The salary, which would translate to about $28,200 today, was additional income to his regular medical practice.)

Dr. Mundin was a prominent figure in the Harlem community.  Listed in the National Negro Business and Professional Directory in 1923, he was highly involved in the Imperial Lodge, No. 127, of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order Elks.  He would rise to the office of exalted ruler in the group.

Eva Mundin died on July 8, 1928 at the age of 50.  Dr. Percy Mundin sold the house around 1930.  It became a rooming house, home to respectable tenants.

Among those living here in 1939 was Theodore Daniels.  On June 24 that year, The New York Age reported that a "musical tea" was held in the Daniels' apartment to celebrate the reunion of Class No. 12 of Mother Zion A. M. E. Church.

The house as it appeared in 1941, the year two residents were drafted.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On April 5, 1941, eight months before the attack on Pearl Harbor would pull America into World War II, The New York Age reported, "The following Harlemites were inducted into the Army for one year of service during the past week."  The list included two residents of 164 West 130th Street--Leroy Robinson and Charles J. McGee.

The following year, on December 26, 1942, the newspaper reported the engagement of resident Rosena Kelsey to Wilton Williams.  Williams's address was listed as "U. S. Army."

Living here in 1952 was the Reilly family.  Pernall Reilly, who was 18 years old that year, was in the wrong place on the night of July 11.  She was passing by the corner of 126th Street and Seventh Avenue (later Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.) as another pedestrian, Lewis Hayden, overheard a man using "profane language," as described by The New York Age, "in talking to some women."  Hayden and the man got into an argument which became violent.

The New York Age reported that Hayden, "pulled out a gun on the man, who started to run as Hayden fired four shots."  When his firearm jammed, his intended victim rushed back and fatally stabbed him.  In the chaos, Pernall Reilly was shot in the leg.  She was taken to Harlem Hospital.

A renovation completed in 2003 resulted in an apartment in the basement, a duplex on the parlor and second floors, and one apartment on the third.

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The Dr. Edward E. Best House - 168 West 130th Street

 

Image via streeteasy.com

Real estate developer William J. Merritt often acted as his own architect and in 1884 he completed a row of four 20-foot-wide homes at 164-170 West 130th Street, just east of Seventh Avenue (later Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.)  Patently Merritt, they were designed in variations of the Queen Anne style.

Among them was 168 West 130th Street.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, it was accessed by a dog-legged brownstone stoop.  Brick voussoirs above the elliptically arched openings of the parlor floor were capped with terra cotta lintels.  Merritt placed a charming terra cotta plaque next to the parlor window.

The third floor was dominated by a Flemish Renaissance Revival gable, possibly inspired by the Belgian Pavilion at the 1878 World Exposition.  Behind it rose a slate shingled mansard roof.  

An advertisement described 168 West 130th Street as a "handsome, three-story dwelling; box stoop; cabinet finish; two baths."  The original owners sold the house at auction in 1898.  It was purchased by Frank and Carolina B. Thompson.  Following Frank Thompson's death, the residence was again auctioned, purchased by real estate agent Moses Misch in 1910.

Misch and his wife lived here only until November 1913.  The house had a series of occupants until July 12, 1919, when Dr. Edward E. Best purchased it from Russell A. Cowles.  Best was born in Barbados, British West Indies, on April 13, 1887.  The son of William E. and Evangeline St. Clair Best, he received his elementary and high school education at Ellicottville, New York.

The 32-year-old physician was a widower.  His late wife, Rhoda Russell, was the daughter of Dr. York Russell, who was also born in Barbados.  Dr. Best no doubt purchased the house in anticipation of his upcoming marriage to Jane Elizabeth Brown on September 30, 1919. 

The Best house was often a subject of Harlem social columnists.  On August 7, 1926, for instance, The New York Age announced, "Mrs. Kate G. Watkins of Cambridge, Mass., is spending a part of her vacation at the home of Dr. and Mrs. E. E. Best, 168 West 130th street."  Two months later, on October 30, the newspaper reported, "Dr. and Mrs. Edward E. Best...were host and hostess to members of the Hyacinth Social Club at its annual meeting on Thursday evening, October 2."  The article said, "After the routine business, the hosts entertained their guests in a manner which left nothing to memory but an evening which was replete with fun, augmented by a repast of delicious daintiness."

On January 28, 1928, the newspaper reported, 

Dr. and Mrs. E. E. Best honored Mrs. Best's birthday (it wasn't mentioned which one) on Sunday, January 22, by entertaining a few friends at their home, 168 West 130th street.  The event was commemorated by a dinner, which was served with an epicurean touch and a pre-war flavor.

Edward Best was not only a prominent Harlem physician, but an active member of the Catholic community and of the Equal Rights Movement.  He spoke regularly at various assemblies.  The Crisis reported in its April 1935 issue that he addressed, a meeting of the New Rochelle N.A.A.C.P on February 10, during which, "pertinent facts in Negro History were outlined."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

In its February 1941 issue, Our Province reported:

In early December we heard an interesting talk by Dr. Edward E. Best of St. Mark's Parish, N. Y.  Dr. Best is a member of the Interracial Council.  He appealed for a better understanding of the problems of the Negro.  It was an enlightening discourse, well received and enjoyed.

In 1949, Best organized the Friends of the Handmaids of Mary.  The New York Age explained on June 24, 1950 that it was formed "for the purpose of assisting the Sisters in raising funds for the upkeep of the Convent [of the Handmaids of Mary], 15 West 124th Street, the Resident Club for Working Girls, and St. Benedict's Day Nursery, all conducted by this order."

By the time of that article, Dr. Best had been gone from the West 130th Street house for several years.  He and Jane had separated and Jane's brother, Dr. Thomas Watkins, moved into the 130th Street house with her.

Jane married Luther Francis Yancey in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 25, 1947, but the marriage was short-lived.  By 1952 when she died in her sleep, she had taken back the name of Jane Elizabeth Brown Best.  In reporting her death, The New York Age ignored her recent marriage, saying, "She and the well known Harlem physician had been separated for years, although they maintained cordial relations."

Dr. Edward E. Best died in 1967.  In 2003 a renovation to 168 West 130th Street resulted in one apartment per floor.

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William J. Merritt's 1889 119 West 95th Street

The dormer originally wore a triangular pediment, as seen in its neighbor to the left.

By the 1880's the former 18th century country estate of Charles Ward Apthorp was crisscrossed with newly-laid streets, and building plots were being rapidly filled with rowhouses.  Architect William J. Merritt, who sometimes acted as his own developer, was especially busy in the area at the time.  In 1888 he designed a row of six brick- and brownstone-clad homes at 111 through 121 West 95th Street for developer Charles Bouton.  Completed the following year, the four-story, American basement homes were patently William J. Merritt in design.

Their rusticated, rough-cut brownstone first floors served as a base for two stories of red brick.   Brownstone quoins framed the paired, centered windows and each peaked, tiled roof was interrupted by a single dormer.  Merritt placed the dormer at 119 West 95th Street slightly to the side, in keeping with the Queen Anne style's affinity for asymmetry.  

119 West 95th Street is behind by the yellow traffic sign in this photo.

Edward R. and Louise M. Sweetser purchased the 16-foot wide house in 1890, "on private terms."  They bought the property as an investment, immediately renting the house to the Rev. Dr. Francis Brown and his wife, the former Louise Reiss.

Brown taught at the Union Theological Seminary, on Park Avenue between 69th and 70th Streets.  The erudite clergyman came from an academic family.  His grandfather, Francis Brown, had been the president of Dartmouth College, and his father, Samuel Gilman Brown had been president of Hamilton College from 1867 to 1881.   Brown graduated from Dartmouth College, then earned his Doctorate of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary.   The same year he moved into the West 95th Street house he was promoted to Davenport Professor of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages at his alma mater.

Brown's scholarly books include Assyriology: Its Use and Abuse in Old Testament Study, and a revision of Gesenius' Lexicon.  His publications would earn him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the University of Glasgow, and honorary doctorates from Dartmouth College and Yale University.

The Browns remained in the house until 1903, when the Sweetsers sold it to John L. and Eva B. Edwards.  They, too, purchased the property as an investment, operating it as a boarding house.

Among their first boarders was a struggling actor, 19-year-old Doug Elton Fairbanks.  Years later, on May 11, 1922, The Evening World would recall, "Doug had once signed his name to the payroll of a hardware firm, for which he was acting as a clerk.  That was back in 1903 and at the time Fairbanks was living modestly at No. 119 West 95th Street."  The young man had to live "modestly," since his weekly pay at the hardware store was $5--about $150 today.

Douglas Fairbanks, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Fairbanks worked at the hardware store between acting jobs.  He told a reporter from The Evening World in 1922, "I'm sure no one will remember me as a hardware salesman; that is, if said recollection was prompted by his ability to dispose of hardware."  Douglas Fairbanks, of course, would go on to fame as a swashbuckling silent film actor, screenwriter and director, and a founding member of United Artists.

Typical of the boarders living in the house with Fairbanks was Martha Sherman Taylor.  The young woman's home was in Spring Valley, New York, but she boarded here while studying at Columbia University.

Living here in 1923 was Max Littenberg.  On July 1 that year he went to Long Beach, New York with his well-to-do friend, Morris Goldfarb, a manufacturer of ladies' garments.  For Littenberg, who lived in a furnished room in the West 95th Street house, riding in a chauffeur driven Buick sedan must have seemed a luxury.

Late that night they had almost made it to 95th Street to drop Littenberg off, when tragedy occurred.  On Amsterdam Avenue at 81st Street, the automobile crashed violently into a taxicab driven by Martin P. Rowan.  The Sun and The Globe reported, "The taxicab was hurled against the curb, where it turned turtle."  Martin P. Rowan had been thrown from the cab and was crushed to death when it rolled onto him.

Goldfarb, his chauffeur, and Littenberg "crawled out through one of the smashed windows in the sedan," said the article.  "They were badly shaken up, but refused medical aid."  The chauffeur was arrested on a technical charge of homicide.

Charles Redmond was running the rooming house in 1925.  Among his tenants was 40-year-old Harry Gomprecht.  A few months after moving in, despite listing his occupation as a lawyer, Gomprecht had fallen behind in his room rent.  

On the night of August 23, 1925, Charles Redmond noticed the small of Lysol.  He was understandably concerned, because drinking Lysol was at the time one of the most common means of suicide in the New York City.  He traced the odor to Gomprechts room,  The New York Times reported, "Asked if he had been using it, Gomprecht replied, 'No.'  Redmond, however, summoned an ambulance from Knickerbocker Hospital.  Dr. J. C. Kenney was unable to save the man."  The newspaper said, "Ill health and money difficulties are thought to have been the cause."

Later that year, in November, 119 West 95th Street was offered for sale.  An advertisement succinctly read, "Clean furnished house, 14 rooms, good profit and home."

It continued to be operated as a furnished rooming house, home to working class tenants like Max Koller, a butler.  When his employer, Max Koller, closed his town house and opened his country place in Pelham Manor in April 1935, Koller, of course, went along with the family.  He had Saturdays off, and on April 19 he partied a little too hard.

The Argus reported, "Koller, who is employed as a butler by David Minton, Park Lane, became a bit confused in his directions Sunday morning and wound up beating at the door of E. O. Perrin's house in Manor Circle."  A member of the household called the police, "who found Koller wandering away from the scene.  They booked him on an intoxication charge."

The second half of the 20th century was not kind to the West 95th Street block.  Once home to respectable, middle-class families, it had noticeably declined.  In 1965, the City of New York took over much of Merritt's row as part of an urban renewal scheme intended to clean up the now-derelict homes along the block.

Most of the row was boarded up in 1969 when this photograph was taken.  119 West 95th Street is directly behind the light pole.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The conditions were reflected in a horrifying incident here in 1966.  On March 17, the Long Island Star-Journal reported, "An unidentified man was found beaten to death in an unoccupied Upper West Side apartment late last night.  Detectives said the man, in his late 50's, was found shortly after 11 P.M. in an unoccupied apartment on the second floor at 119 West 95th street."  It is unclear whether his identity was ever discerned.

Change along the block would come again.  A renovation completed in 2004 resulted in four "class A" apartments in 119 West 95th Street.  And while it seems that little remains of William J. Merritt's interiors, its 1889 outward appearance is greatly intact.

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W. J. Merritt's 1896 123 West 95th Street

 

In the summer of 1886, developer Charles A. Bouton embarked on a project of six rowhouses on West 95th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.  His choice of architects was interesting.  William J. Merritt & Co. was a prolific developer on the Upper West Side, occasionally acting as its own architect.  When plans were filed on August 6 the architect of record was W. J. Merritt & Co.--normally considered a competitor of Bouton.

Each of the narrow houses--some were 16 feet and the others 17 feet wide--would cost $10,000 to construct, more than a quarter of a million dollars today.  The row was completed in 1887.  Among the 17-foot-wide homes was 123 West 95th Street, a blend of the Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles.  It shared a stoop (divided by a solid wall) with its neighbor at 125.  The basement and parlor floors of both houses were clad in rough-cut brownstone, their entrances topped with blocky voussoirs.   But there the similarities essentially stopped.

A dramatic, full-height rounded bay rose turret-like to a brick parapet above the dentiled cornice at 123 West 95th.  The windows of the interior hallways of the brick-faced upper floors were noticeably reduced--beginning at about chest height.

Boulton sold the house to Mary V. Terry on March 10, 1888 for $18,000--around $505,000 in today's money--initiating a game of real estate hot potato.  Mary lost it in foreclosure that December.  It was sold at auction to Walter Scott for $14,300, who sold it the following month to Albion L. Warner for $16,000.  

Warner owned four other West 95th Street houses, all of this he leased.  Living here in the 1890's was the family of I. L. Lersner.  A pharmacist, Lersner was prominent among the Jewish community.  He would sit on the sub-committee for the erection of The McKinley Memorial in 1902 to honor the assassinated President.  But he was perhaps best known outside of his druggist work, for translating and publishing the Rules and Regulation of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1878.  

The West 95th Street house was the scene of an important social function on February 12, 1900.  Hannah Leonore Lersner was married to Julius Siegel in the drawing room at noon that day.  "After the ceremony there was a breakfast, followed by a reception," reported the New-York Tribune.  The house was filled with some of the most socially important names in Jewish society, including Schwab, Bachman, and Flesichman.

Albion L. Warner sold 123 West 95th Street in May 1904 to Marcus F. Bender.  Interestingly, he, too, was a pharmacist, having started in the business in the 1860's.  His Chelsea drugstore was at 357 West 14th Street, at the corner of Ninth Avenue.

His purchase of the house may have been prompted by a recent windfall.  The American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record explained that he "inherited a modest fortune from his relatives in Syracuse."

Born in 1849 in Syracuse, New York, Bender had started out working the drugstore of Charles H. Bell, at Bleecker and Charles Street, as a boy.   He and his wife now had two grown children, Lucia H. and Dr. Leach H. Bender.

Bender suffered a fatal stroke in the house on January 28, 1907.  He was only 58 years old.  His will hinted at tensions between him and his son.  The American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record reported that his store, "will be conducted...in the interest of his widow and daughter, for whom he has otherwise provided comfortably."  Nothing concerning Leach was mentioned.

Once again the house saw a rapid turnover of owners.  Three months later it was sold to Charles F. Schorer, who quickly sold it to Josephing I. Harrington, who sold it in May 1908.

By 1913 it was the home of Dr. Alexander Andrade.  In June that year he and his wife looked to take in a roomer.  Their advertisement offered, "Beautifully decorated, three rooms, handsome marble bathroom, kitchen, private residence."

Andrade was born in Colombia, South America.  On Saturday night, January 10, 1914, he attended a meeting of Colombian businessman in the Earlington Hotel.  It resulted in the organization of the Colombian Commercial Club.  The New York Herald reported, "Francisco Escobar, Consul General of Colombia in New York, was urged to accept the presidency of the club, but he declined in favor of Dr. Alexander Andrade, of No. 123 West Ninety-fifth street, who was unanimously elected."

The newspaper added that "a committee was appointed to find a location for the club house."  They did not look far.  In its May 1914 issue, the Bulletin of the Pan American Union reported:

There is now established in New York, at 123 West Ninety-fifth Street, a Colombian Commercial Club, which has for its purpose the bringing about of cooperation and good feeling between the citizens of Colombia and the United States; the free promotion by free instruction of a knowledge of the history, language, and commercial possibilities of those countries; and the maintenance of a library of books, periodicals, newspapers, magazines and other publications relating to the soil, climate natural resources and commercial possibilities of both.

The club was still holding its meetings and lectures in the house as late as 1919.

In the meantime, the Andrades continued leasing the three rooms.  Living with them in 1918 was R. E. Voss.  That year he started a new business, The Voss Alcohol Export Corporation, "to manufacture alcohol, etc."

The residence remained a single-family house until 1977 when it was converted to a total of seven apartments, including a duplex.  That configuration survived until 1996 when a renovation resulted in just four apartments.

photographs by the author

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The Marion and Mary Verdery House - 131 West 95th Street

 

In the summer of 1886 developer Charles A. Bouton began construction on six rowhouses on West 95th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.  Almost assuredly he was working together with another real estate development firm, William J. Merritt & Co., which was simultaneously erecting a row directly across the street.  Although Bouton and Merritt were normally considered competitors, Bouton's architect of record for his row was W. J. Merritt & Co.

Completed in the fall of 1887, Bouton's houses were 16- and 17-feet-wide.  Three stories tall with shallow attics and English basements, they were designed in a mirror-image A-B-C-C-B-A pattern.  The B models, which included 131 West 95th Street, were a mixture of Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival.  Above the rough cut brownstone basement and parlor levels, the red brick bowed façade was trimmed in dressed brownstone.  A shingled mansard sat above the dentiled cornice.

Marion J. Verdery and his wife, the former Mary Letitia Deems, purchased the house in June 1889 for $16,500--about $473,000 in today's money.  As was common, the title was placed in Mary's name.

Both Marion and his wife (who went by Minnie) were Southerners.  Minnie was the daughter of Rev. Edward M. Deems and Anna Disosway Deems.  The New York Times later explained, that Verdery, "succeeded in winning the heart" of Minnie, "and soon after Dr. Deems came to this city to live Mr. Verdery followed to claim his bride."  They were married in the Church of the Strangers, of which Deems was pastor, in 1872.

Verdery was a stock and bond broker with Latham, Alexander & Co.  He was, as well, the New York correspondent for several Southern newspapers.  The couple had a daughter, Katherine, and a one-year-old son, Marion, Jr.

The Verderys were widely known within society.  A month before moving into the 95th Street house, for instance, they attended the Presidential Ball at the Metropolitan Opera House.  The guests of honor were President Benjamin Harrison and the First Lady, and former President and First Lady Grover and Frances Cleveland.

Minnie's parents lived in the New York Hotel on Broadway.  In 1892 the 73-year-old clergyman was forced to retire because of failing health.  He and Anna were sitting in their rooms on December 28, when he suffered another stroke.  He lost all ability to speak and was paralyzed on his right side.  Rev. Edward M. Deems and Dr. Francis M. Deems, Minnie's brothers, explained in their father's biography in 1897:

After a hurried consultation it was decided to move the patient immediately to No. 131 West Ninety-fifth Street, where resided Mr. Marion J. Verdery, Dr. Deem's son-in-law.  It was a long drive from Waverly Place (Seventh Street) and Broadway to West Ninety-fifth Street, but the most smoothly paved streets and avenues were followed, and he stood the trip wonderfully well.

It may have been Deem's condition and the small staff of nurses and attendants necessary to look after him that prompted the Verderys to look for a larger home.  On February 17, 1893 the family moved "into a commodious home at No. 517 West End Avenue," according to the Deems brothers.  The esteemed clergyman died in the Verdery home on November 19 that year.

The Verderys had sold 131 West 95th Street to Asa Alling Alling and his wife, the former Louise Floyd-Smith, "for about $18,000," according to the Real Estate Record & Guide on January 28.  The price would amount to about $528,000 today.  Alling, a partner in Kennerson, Crain & Alling, was described by The New York Times as "a leading lawyer of New York."

Born in New York in 1862, the 1898 Representative Men of New York said Alling "comes from thorough American stock, his ancestors having been pioneers and founders of one of the oldest families in this country."  Among his first American ancestors was Roger Alling (Allen) who was Treasurer of the Colony of New Haven in 1637.  Louise, whom he married in June 1894, also came from an old American family.  A member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Prominent Families of New York described her as being "of distinguished Colonial and Revolutionary ancestry."

Asa Alling Alling, Representative Men of New York, 1898 (copyright expired)

The Allings' residency would be short lived.  They sold the house a year later, in November 1894, for $200 more than they had paid.  It became home to dry goods merchant Isadore Reinhardt and his wife, the former Mary Simon.

The couple had six grown children.  Matilda and Caroline moved in with their parents, along with Caroline's husband Herman Elsas.  Herman was president of the Continental Paper Bag Company.

A daughter, May Belle Elsas, was born to Caroline and Herman in the house on  June 15, 1897.  The infant would grow up to have a stellar stage career as Mary Ellis--described later by The New York Times as "the young opera singer for whom Rudolph Friml wrote 'Rose-Marie' in 1924 and who later became the queen of musicals in London."

The family bond between the Reinhardts and Elsases was strengthened three months later when Matilda married Herman's brother, Benjamin Elsas, at noon on September 23 in the Red Room of Delmonico's.  

Rather surprisingly, in August 1909 Asa Alling Alling's older brother, Robert Bertine Alling purchased the house.  He had married Annie Gordon Smith in 1900.  The couple would have four children, Jane, Bertine, Nancy and Robert, Jr.  They maintained a country home in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Educated at New York and Cornell Universities, Alling was a well-respected attorney.  The family's name appeared in society columns throughout the years.  On March 13, 1915, for instance, the New York Courier and International Topics reported, "Mrs. Robert B. Alling will entertain the members of the Light Horse Harry Lee Society, Children of the American Revolution, with a card party and dance in her house, 131 West Ninety-fifth street, on the night of April 7."

A rather bizarre episode took place in the parlor in the early 1920's.  The 1924 book My Proof of Immortality included "evidential proof" of the existence of spirits of the dead.  It documented, among others, a séance conducted in the Alling home.  During the ritual Annie Alling's mother and another spirit named "Josie" appeared.  According to the account, Annie's mother and the other spirit "gave the minute detailed descriptions of themselves, their former lives in the bodies, clothes, tastes, personalities, etc."

Robert B. Alling died in the Poughkeepsie home on July 22, 1926.  Annie and the unmarried children remained.  Two years later, in May 1928,  Jane Gordon Alling was married to Carleton D. Farrell  in St. Agnes's Chapel on West 92nd Street.  The New York Times reported, "A reception at the home of the bride's mother, 131 West Ninety-fifth Street, will follow the ceremony."

In 1937 the house was converted to apartments--a duplex in the basement and parlor floors, and two apartments each on the upper floors.  The configuration lasted until 2008 when it was reconverted to a single-family home.  The five-bedroom residence was offered for sale in 2013 for $5 million.

photographs by the author

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The 1887 Robert E. Walsh House - 142 West 95th Street

 

As he often did, developer William J. Merritt acted as his own architect when he planned the row of houses on the south side of West 95th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues in 1886.  And as he was also known for doing, his 18-foot wide homes, completed in 1887, were designed for upper-middle-class families.

Merritt's somewhat quirky row was designed in the up-to-date Queen Anne style.  Clad in brick with stone trim, the three-story houses did not happily co-exist, but fought one another for attention.  When The Architectural Record critic Montgomery Schuyler reviewed the row, he likened it to the "reign of terror."

Merritt gave No. 142 a cottage-like feel.  A dog-legged stoop faced in rough cut brownstone led to the narrow double doored entrance.  Between it and the parlor window a terra cotta held an elaborate Celtic knot of leaves and bands.   Above a thin course of stone, the second and third floors rose to a faux gable decorated in checkerboard tiles.

An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 13, 1887 described the house as a "lovely Queen Anne" dwelling "decorated, papered, &c."  The advertised price was $15,000, or about $416,000 in today's money.  

Merritt apparently did not find his buyer, but leased the house.  And his price dropped just a bit five years later when the owners offered it at $14,500.  On March 31, 1892 it sold (although under asking price, at $14,250) to Robert E. Walsh and his wife, Annie.

The outline of the original window is evident.  It is hard to imagine that two entrance doors originally filled the doorway.

Upper-middle class families spent, if not the entire summer season, a few weeks each year at resorts.  Robert and Annie were on Fire Island at the fashionable Surf Hotel in 1894.  He was on the committee in charge of the "grand final ball" of the season that year.  On August 26 The New York Times promised "The famous old hostelry, cottages, and grounds, as well as the yachts and launches at anchor, are to be gayly decorated; Greek fire is to blaze here and there; the hotel orchestra is to be increased by several musicians from New-York, and altogether, the season is to be closed in the gayest possible fashion."

The Walshes escaped the city heat and humidity at the Surf Hotel.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Annie's widowed mother, Amelia Morton, moved into the 95th Street house at some point.  She died there on June 5, 1899.

Robert and Annie Walsh remained in the 95th Street house for more than a decade.   On March 6, 1907 The New York Press reported that Walsh had sold it and "the buyer will occupy the house."  A month later, on April 15, an on-site auction was held of the Walsh household furnishings.  The listing hints at the couple's comfortable home environment.  Among the items to be sold were "fine mahogany and gold Parlor Furniture and Cabinets, Marbles, Bronzes and Bric-a-Brac, Oil Paintings, Etchings and Engravings, Fine Draperies and Curtains throughout the house."

Although he had announced he would occupy No. 142 as a private home, it appears the new owner operated it as a boarding house.  Living here in 1916 was Dennis Manning.  He was among the five passengers riding in Irving Farian's automobile on the New Rochelle Road near the Pelham Bay Bridge in the early hours of September 23 that year.  

Given the timing, it is probably that the men had been drinking.  Farian drove the car into a telegraph pole and then into a tree.  It was a horrific accident, resulting in two men dead.  Manning was somewhat fortunate in that he was thrown from the vehicle, receiving only cuts and bruises.  Farian was held on a charge of homicide.

In the early 1940's the parlor window, stoop and gable tilework were all intact.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Colorful residents in the mid-1920's were the Rush family.  They advertised the address as the Riverside Spiritualist Church and touted young Harold Rush as "The Noted Boy Medium."  An advertisement in the Long Island Daily Press on December 14, 1927 announced "Message Services daily" at 2:30 and 8:00 p.m. and private readings every day from 2:00 through 10:00.

By 1931 No. 142 was run as a rooming house, the tenants of which were not always upstanding.  On April 21, 1931 the Standard Union reported that a taxi driver, Harry Kirschner, had picked up Vicco Anderson and Kai Wolffeld on 57th Street.  Both were tenants at No. 142 West 95th Street.

The men's behavior raised his suspicions by the time they reached Jackson Heights and he pulled over, saying he would not take them any further.  "One of the men, according to the taxi driver, pointed a gun at him and made him leave his cab after they had taken $7," said the article.  They hailed another cab and headed to the elevated train station.

Kirschner's shouts for help alerted Police Officer Patrick J. Shea  "who leaped on a private car and caught the two men after a few blocks' chase," said the Union Standard.  As Shea opened the cab door, Wolffeld's gun "was accidentally discharged" and burned his face.  Anderson was charged with having a length of rubber hose in his pocket and Wolffeld for gun possession.

As it turned out both men were sailors who, said the Daily News two weeks later "abandoned the bounding billows for paved streets and attempted to smooth their path via the gun."  Their $7 heist (about $118 today) landed both of them in prison, sentenced to two to four years each.

By mid-century the former Walsh house was neglected.  It sat vacant until being sold to Joseph Fish in June 1951.  But a new owner did not mean better days were ahead.  In the 1960's the house was appropriated by the city and in November 1967 was one of sixteen structures "designated for rehabilitation" and offered for sale.

Two renovations followed, one completed in 1975 and another in 2007.  The beleaguered and missing terra cotta tiles of the top floor were replaced with a panel simulating brownstone with a daisy relief appropriate to the Queen Anne architecture.  The damaged or lost stoop was also replaced.  Today there is a total of three apartments in the building, one in the basement, and two duplexes.

photographs by the author