The 1910 Turin Apartments - 333 Central Park West

 

The eight, five-story brick houses at the northwest corner of Central Park West and 93rd Street were demolished in 1909 to make way for a modern apartment building.  The Sturtevant Realty Co. had hired architect Albert Joseph Bodker to design the 12-story structure.  His plans projected the construction cost at $750,000--or a staggering $22 million today.

The Turin was completed in 1910.  Bodker had made ventilation and natural light a priority.  Architects' and Builders' Magazine noted, "The 'Turin'...is a very large apartment house in the design of which much space has been allowed for the street-opening courts to light the inner rooms."  An advertisement boasted, "all outside rooms," meaning that each room had a window.  To achieve that, the building's footprint navigated four light courts which reduced the possible number of apartments but increased their livability.  

The unusual shape of the structure is evident in the floorplan.  Central Park West is to the right.  Architecture, April 15, 1911 (copyright expired)

The apartments ranged from five to nine rooms.  Residents would enjoy the latest amenities.  The Real Estate Record & Guide noted it contained, "two electric passenger elevators, four electric service elevators, one electric freight elevator and one sidewalk elevator."

The tenants were professionals, like Ralph M. Stauffen, who was assistant treasurer and a director of the Lord & Taylor drygoods store, and president of the Newark-based Hahne & Company.  Another early resident was Caroline Adler, the widow of dry goods merchant Samuel Adler.  Caroline was known fondly as the "grandmother of the Jewish orphans."  The sister of Abraham Abraham, one of the founders of Abraham & Straus department store, she devoted her life to Jewish charities, most notably the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.  She was appointed vice president of the institution in 1893, and still held the position when she died in her apartment here on December 5, 1918.

Relations within the family of George M. Ehrgott were stressed in 1919.  The stock broker's wife had begun a suit for separation, and his young son, George, Jr. was rebelling (possibility because of his parent's strained relations).  Police were no doubt surprised when the boy walked into the police station on August 1.

The Sun reported, "George M. Ehrgott, Jr., 11, preferred charges against his father in West Side court yesterday for horsewhipping him.  The boy showed Magistrate Tobias a number of welts across his back and around his legs."  He said that his father had telephoned him, told him to come to his aunt's house on West 96th Street, and then beat him.  The newspaper noted, "Mr. Ehrgott admitted the whipping in court, but said his son fully deserved it."

"'I love my son,' he said, 'but he is too much for me.  When I called him up and asked him to meet me he refused at first, saying I was a 'bad papa.'"  

Ehrgott was held on $500 bail for trail.

Architects' and Builders' Magazine, August 1910 (copyright expired)

Resident George Greenway Smith met a bizarre death in 1920.  The 45-year-old and three friends took an automobile to Asbury Park, New Jersey for an outing on Saturday, October 9.  That night before returning home, they stopped in a Main Street restaurant for "a pancake feast," as worded by the New-York Tribune.  Three of the party grew seriously ill, and Smith died from what the article called "poison pancakes."  It explained, "The death certificate issued for Smith gave arsenic poisoning as the 'probably cause of death.'"  The night manager who made the pancakes and the waiter who served them were arrested.

Typical of the Turin residents were importer Edward Kalisher, his wife Theresa, and their daughter Eleanor Betty.  Kalisher was a partner in the importing firm of Kalisher & Steinberger.  He died in February 1921, and his funeral was held in the apartment.

The following year, when their mourning period had passed, Theresa and Betty summered in Lake Placid, New York.  

On September 10, 1922 The New York Herald reported on Eleanor's 18th birthday celebration at the Grand View Hotel.  "The guests came in costume, and for the occasion the hotel cafe was decorated in old time manner, with log fire at one end."  Later, at midnight, the 70 guests enjoyed a "camp supper" cooked in the open by an Adirondack guide.

Living in an eight-room apartment in the Turin at the time was John H. Sutphen, described by The Daily Argus as a "member of a prominent south New Jersey family."  He was estranged from his wife and five-year-old son, who lived in New Jersey, and, rather shockingly, shared his apartment with Katherine Deneston.

Sutphen's mother died in August 1923.  Her estate was divided among Sutphen and his two sisters, his portion "said to be more than $100,000."  (The windfall would equal about $1.5 million today.)  One week later, on Saturday night, August 25, Sutphen and Katherine went out with Katherine's sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Spohn.  According to Spohn, they started out at the Moulin Rouge on Broadway and 50th Street and ended up at a night club at 110 East 59th Street, leaving at 4:00.  They returned to the Turin apartment around 4:30 in the morning.

Spohn told investigators they sat up until around 6:30, then everyone other than Sutphen went to bed.  Katherine said he "kissed her good night and said that he would sit up a while."  Half an hour later, Sutphen telephoned a business associate, Ernest A. Dunlea saying he was "very ill" and asked him to hurry to his apartment.  Dunlea and another business associate, Julius Beekman, rushed to the Turin.  When no one answered the telephone, the desk clerk took them up and used a passkey to enter.  Sutphen was found dead on the sofa in the drawing room, a victim of cyanide poisoning.

Police now had a mystery on their hands.   Had the millionaire killed himself or was he murdered?  Why would he call a friend to help him when he could have wakened any one of three people in the apartment?  According to Dunlea and Beekman, Stuphen "had placed money in a business that would have netted him a big sum this week."  And investigators were informed that there were parties who could benefit from his death.

Three days later, Assistant District Attorney James J. Wilson ruled his death self-inflicted, adding that Sutphen lived "at the rate of $75,000 a year," and "played Broadway nightly, spending $500 a week to tip waiters."   The implication was that his "fast living" had driven him to self destruction.

In 1912 the Turin was the tallest building along Central Park West.  A canvas marquee stretched from the entrance to the curb.  The Edison Monthly, June 1912 (copyright expired)

The Turin continued to house well-heeled residents, like Edward Angly and his wife, the former Elizabeth Mary Wadsworth, here at mid-century.  Angly was a well-traveled war correspondent and author.  From 1922 to 1930 he worked in London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow for The Associated Press.  In 1936 he joined The Herald Tribune, becoming the head of it's London bureau in 1939.  During World War II he covered the front lines in Flanders and Bordeaux, and was present at the Battle of Britain.  Angly was among the first American correspondents to reach Pearl Harbor following the attack of December 7, 1941.

In the summer of 1968 film critic Pauline Kael and her daughter, Gina, moved into a 12th-floor apartment.  Her biographer, Brian Kellow commented in his 2011 book Pauline Kael, A Life in the Dark, "It was a famous building on the West Side because of the intensity of its social life, and many leftist writers and academic types lived there."

Not so left-leaning was Rene d'Harnoncourt, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, and his wife, the former Sarah Carr.  He joined the museum in 1944.  When Nelson Rockefeller established the Museum of Primitive Art in 1957, the Austrian-born d'Harnoncourt became its vice president.  He retired from the Museum of Modern Art in July 1968.  A month later he and Sara were at their summer home in New Suffolk, New York where he was struck by a car and killed.

Another resident affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art was Peter Selz, who became its curator of painting and sculpture exhibitions in 1958.  Paul J. and Ann Heath Karlstrom, in their 2012 biography Peter Selz: Sketches of a Life in Art, noted that he and his wife, Thalia, "lived well, in a large apartment at 333 Central Park West...Peter and Thalia socialized with couples well known in art and literary circles, among them Lionel and Diana Trilling."

In the winter of 1980, journalist and editor Andrew Cockburn, his wife, investigative journalist and filmmaker Leslie Cockburn, and their daughter Chloe, moved into the Turin.  In her 1998 book Looking for Trouble, Leslie writes, "the landlord screened tenants for creativity.  Mr. Sheldon chose writers, composers, filmmakers, actors.  'Over the Rainbow,' originally 'Somewhere on the Other Side of the Rainbow,' was composed at 333."  

Essentially unchanged today, the Turin was a pioneer in the transformation of Central Park West from rowhouses and resident hotels to the majestic apartment buildings for which it is known today.  

photographs by the author

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The Lost Anson R. Flower Mansion -- No. 601 5th Avenue

The elegant renovations to No. 603 (left) and the Flower mansion were completed in 1902 -- photo "Collins' Both Sides of Fifth Avenue"  1910 (copyright expired)

Around 9:00 on the evening of October 5, 1891 Governor Roswell Pettibone Flower and his wife left the brownstone mansion at No. 601 Fifth Avenue.  They walked, unescorted, a block north to the Democratic Club where Flower was guest of honor at a glittering reception.   The house where the Flowers were staying was the home of Emma A. Schley, wife of millionaire lawyer William Schley and the sister of the Governor’s wife.

Perhaps less powerful but no less wealthy were Flower’s brothers, partners in the banking firm of Flower & Co.  Frederick Flower lived near Emma Schley at No. 615 Fifth Avenue, while Anson Ranney Flower’s mansion was at No. 500 Madison Avenue. 

Like most wealthy New Yorkers at the time, Anson Flower was involved in more than his banking firm.  He was a Director in the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Railroad Co.; Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Co.; the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Co.; the Colonial Trust Co.; Federal Steel Co. and at least at dozen other corporations.

photograph by Alwan & Co, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/Collection/%5bAnson-R.-Flower.%5d-24UAKVA9H8F.html 

The Successful American said in 1899 “The firm of Flower & Co. is well known to the banking houses of the world as one of the most solid financial institutions in America, and also as one of the most daring and successful in speculation.”    The entire Flower family was well-respected and The Successful American said of Anson, “The family traits are faithfully preserved in Mr. Flower and he represents the best qualities of the stock.”

When Emma Schley died in 1900 she left an estate of “several millions of dollars.”   Her generosity extended even to her favorite clerks at B. Altman’s Department Store.  Mrs. Nagle, a clerk in “the white underwear department” there received $5,000 as did another clerk, Mrs. Flanagan.   The handsome inheritances would equal nearly $145,000 today.

The New York Times reported on July 1, 1900 that Emma’s daughter, Emma G. Halsey, received the largest bequest.  “To her Mrs. Schley leaves her home at 601 Fifth Avenue, with all it contains.”  Emma Schley had earlier purchased the house next door, No. 603; and Roswell P. Flower by now owned the two flanking houses at Nos. 599 and 605.

On January 6, 1901 the New-York Tribune reported that Anson R. Flower had purchased Nos. 601 and 603 from Emma Schley’s estate.    According to the Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide, Flower paid $150,000 for No. 601 and $110,000 for No. 603.  The newspaper described them as “two four story and basement brownstone dwelling houses” and proposed that “Mr. Flower may unite the two houses into one for his own use.”

Both No. 603 (left) and No. 601 were about to get remarkable make-overs -- New-York Tribune, January 6, 1901 (copyright expired)

The Tribune’s supposition was not far off the mark.  At the turn of the century Manhattan’s millionaires were quickly razing or remodeling outdated brownstones into modern American basement showplaces (American basement homes were entered at street level, eliminating the high stoops).

But instead of joining the two houses, Flower quickly sold No. 603 to real estate operator Jeremiah C. Lyons, making a quick $20,000 profit.  Both Flower and Lyons remodeled the two residences and within the year they were unrecognizable.   Similar in style, they rose five stories to steep copper-clad mansard roofs.   While the Flower mansion was clad in red brick in contrast to the limestone front of No. 603; it made up for it in opulence.  Near matching six-foot iron fencing protected the areaways of both mansions.  The architect carried the material up to the entrance of the Flower mansion, having the elaborate door grills in cast iron rather than bronze.

The Record & Guide used the entrance doors as an example of fine cast iron work  August 8, 1908 (copyright expired)

Both houses were completed in 1902 and Lyons sold No. 603 to James B. Clemens for $200,000.   

The Times remarked on the Flower mansion. “The house is handsomely furnished, the tapestries and furniture having been imported for Mrs. Flower.”

While construction on the Flower residence was continuing, Anson Flower had added one more item to his resume.  In June 1901 he was elected President of the Amalgamated Copper Company, filling the position vacated by Standard Oil Company executive H. H. Rogers’s resignation.  Rogers appears to have gotten out of the copper business just in time.

It was a time when multimillionaires with names like Carnegie, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt were feeling attacked by the government, which was seeking to break the monopolistic empires the moguls had worked so hard to build.  Summonses to appear were often met with cold defiance.

Five months later, on November 24, 1901, the New-York Tribune reported that “Several of New-York’s wealthy and well known men have been summoned to appear before Judge Lacome, in the United States Circuit Court, on November 29, to show cause why the judge should not commit them to jail or fine them, or otherwise punish them at his discretion, for contempt of court.”  Anson R. Flower was among those “wealthy and well known men.”

Six days later The New York Times ran the headline “Anson R. Flower in Custody.”  Judge Lacome found the stubborn tycoon “guilty of contempt of court” after he refused to testify.  The judge committed him “to the custody of United States Marshall Henkel until he shall consent to appear and testify in an action brought against the company in the Montana courts.”

While the tempest played out, Ida Flower continued her charitable works and entertaining.  Eventually the scandal passed and life at No. 601 Fifth Avenue returned to normal.   Anson and Ida, who had no children, maintained a country estate in Watertown, New York.  When the summer season of 1908 drew to a close, the Flowers remained upstate after Anson’s heart condition took a serious turn.

On November 17 a Watertown newspaper reported “Anson R. Flower of the banking firm of Flower & Co., New York, was so ill at his home in this city yesterday that prayers were offered for his recovery in the Episcopal Church.”   But family members assured the reporter that the millionaire was resting “more comfortably and was apparently upon the road to recovery.”

As it turned out, there would be no road to recovery.   Anson Ranney Flower died in the Watertown house less than two months later, on January 3, 1909.   The ugly court case of 1901 was forgotten in his obituary.  Instead his vast charities, including the co-founding of Flower Hospital with his brothers, and his magnanimous contributions to the Stonywold Sanitarium in the Adirondacks; along with his vestryman position with St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church were remembered.

Ida remained in Watertown, leasing the mansion on Fifth Avenue to Washington B. Thomas, President of the American Sugar Refining Company.   On September 20, 1909 the New-York Daily Tribune noted “it is rented, fully furnished, as a temporary home for Mr. Thomas.”  The following year it was leased to Mrs. C. H. Mellon “of Morristown, New York,” according to The Times.

By now commerce had engulfed the Fifth Avenue neighborhood around the Flower mansion.  Although its handsome renovations were only 10 years old, The New York Times called the house “the old Anson R. Flower residence” when Ida leased it in June 1911 “on a long term for business.”

The “long term” lease lasted less than a year.   On March 24, 1912 The New York Times reported “Within the next month one of the fine old residences on Fifth Avenue above Forty-eighth Street will be torn down, giving way to a five-story business structure…The old residence has been the town home of Mrs. Anson Flower for about twelve years.”  An auction of the artwork, tapestries, and imported furniture was held inside the house on April 10.  Within five months the new building, designed by Albert Joseph Bodker, was completed.

The upper floors of the Clemmons mansion, next door, survive nearly intact.  photo by the author