The Paul Rudolph House - 23 Beekman Place

 

The two-block long Beekman Place was opened in 1860.  Running from 49th to 51st Street, it sat on land that had formerly been the Beekman family's country estate.  On December 18, 1865, former Methodist minister Samuel W. Dunscomb purchased the land from James W. Beekman for $127,500, or just over $2.5 million in 2026 terms.  (Beekman retained possession of the narrow strip of land along the river.)  Dunscombe erected a stone retaining wall and began erecting 20-foot-wide rowhouses on both sides of Beekman Place.  The high-stooped residences were four-stories tall and shared a continuous cornice.

Dr. John Jay Higgins and his wife, the former Maria Briggs, moved into 23 Beekman Place.  The second house north of East 50th Street, its rear garden sloped to the riverfront.  Moving in with the couple, who were married on April 24, 1850, were Maria's parents, William D. and Mary Major Briggs.

Born in 1827, Higgins graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1850.  When he first moved into 23 Beekman Place, he operated a pharmacy.  His advertisement on November 22, 1870 in the New York Herald offered, "A drug store, the largest, most extensive and finest on First avenue, for sale, to a cash customer; an unexampled opportunity."

Mary Major Briggs died at the age of 81 on May 7, 1870.  Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.  

Despite the breezes and views that had first prompted wealthy New Yorkers to build lavish country estates above the river, Beekman Place residents in the last quarter of the 19th century dealt with the abattoirs across the river.  On February 24, 1881, The New York Times reported on complaints "against the bone-boiling and other nuisances of Hunter's Point and vicinity."  The article mentioned, "Dr. J. J. Higgins, of No. 23 Beekman-place, reported that the stenches were most powerful in the Summer, but were by no means limited to that season."  And on the same day, the New York Herald quoted him saying, "Frequently I have had to leave my house and drive to another portion of the city."

In the meantime, Higgins regularly contributed articles and papers to medical journals.  By the last decade of the 19th century, he and Maria maintained a summer estate in Connecticut where he practiced his avocation of photography.  In its May 1892 issue, Scientific American, Architects and Builders Edition remarked, "In addition to his rare accomplishments as a physician and surgeon, the doctor is an amateur photographer of rare skill."

23 Beekman Place, the second house from the right, originally resembled the high-stooped brownstones at the north of the block, seen here on September 20, 1927.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

John Jay Higgins died at the age of 79 on August 28, 1906.  His funeral was held in the house two days later.  Maria L. Higgins almost immediately left the residence.  One month to the day after Higgins's funeral, she sold the house to Charles Philip Schmid.  (Schmid's middle name was sometimes reported as "Pin.")

Born in Ulm, Germany around 1855, Schmid came to America at the age of 13.  He married Marie Louis Weisendanger in April 1877.  The couple had six surviving children when they moved in: Charles Philip, Ernest Emmel, Robert Major, Agnes Henrietta, Emeline Elise and Walter Arnsdale.

Schmid was secretary of the Schaefer Brewing Company, having joined the firm in 1884.  He would not enjoy his new home for especially long.  On December 30, 1911, the New York Herald reported that he had died in the residence after a short illness.

Still living in the house with Maria were Robert, Walter, and Emeline.  Walter became a hero in the spring of 1915.  On May 24, The New York Herald reported, "The cry of 'Man overboard!' was heard by Walter A. Schmid in his home, at No. 23 Beekman place, yesterday."  He ran down the slope to the pier at East 49th Street and leaped into the East River to rescue William Grist.  The man had fallen asleep on the pier and rolled off.

Schmid reached him as he "was sinking."  He kept Grist's head above water and treaded until a boat from the Life Savings Corps reached him.  Although Grist's lungs were filled with water, he was revived at Blackwell's Island.  The article said, "In a similar circumstance, Schmid saved another man in the same place last August."

Emeline Elise was married to William Claxton Dooris in March 1920.  It is unclear how the two met, since Dooris worked for the British Government in India.  The Sun said, "After an extended honeymoon, which will include a trip through Egypt, Mr. Dooris and his bride will live in Nasik and Bombay."

It was likely the Schmids who removed the stoop of their house.  By the time of Emeline's wedding, 23 Beekman Place was a two-family home--what today we would call a duplex and a triplex apartment.

Maria Louise Schmid advertised the house for sale in 1921.  Her advertisement in the New York Herald on April 10 read:

Four story and basement brownstone front two family house, 14 rooms, 2 baths; electric light, steam heat; quiet neighborhood in restricted section.  Rear overlooks East River, with unobstructed view; $32,000.  Schmid, 23 Beekman place (East 50th st.).

The price would translate to about $561,000 in 2026.  It reflected the transformation within the neighborhood that started when millionaires began remodeling nearby similar houses into mansions, creating exclusive Sutton Place.

On April 1, 1922, the New-York Tribune reported that Maria had sold the house to Guthrie McClintic.  Interestingly, a stipulation in the transaction apparently allowed Maria Louise Schmid to remain here.  She would die in the house at the age of 68 on November 27, 1927.

A theatrical producer and stage director, McClintic and his wife, actress Katharine Cornell, were both born in 1893.  He would produce every play in which Cornell starred beginning in 1925.  A leading lady, Katharine Cornell would later earn the title, "First Lady of the Theatre."  

Four months before purchasing 23 Beekman Place, The Dover Road opened at the Bijou Theatre.  It was McClintic's directorial debut and would become a smash hit.  An article about Guthrie McClintic in the November 1922 issue of National Magazine commented, "The atmosphere of his home at 23 Beekman Place is electrifying with everything that makes life worth while."

Following Maria Schmid's death, the couple returned 23 Beekman Place to a single-family home.  In 1929, they hired architect Franklin Abbott to renovate the interiors and exterior.  He remodeled the ground floor with rusticated stonework and arched openings.  Cast iron Juliette balconies were applied to the second floor and a metal mansard installed.  The ground floor was extended at the rear and the garden girded by walls.

The couple descended a few steps into the former English basement level to enter the home.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On December 17, 1939, The New York Times reported that The Dover Road was still playing.  "The curfew will be muted at 23 Beekman Place next Saturday night, magnums will boil, dulcimers will be whanged and the welkin shivered, for Guthrie McClintic will be celebrating the eighteenth anniversary of the opening of 'The Dover Road,' first play carrying his managerial and directorial stamp to enchant this bus-strewn island."  The article noted, "One of the fruits of 'The Dover Road' is 23 Beekman Place, his handsome five-story home."

McClintic and Cornell in their Beekman Place library.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

On May 27, 1955, The New York Times reported that 23 Beekman Place had been sold.  "It formerly was owned by Katharine Cornell, the actress," said the article.  Five years later, on January 13, 1960, the newspaper reported that the house had been resold, saying the buyer "will convert it into apartments, including a duplex suite for his own occupancy."

The owner was Antoinette Trombetta Marsicano who moved in with her daughter, Dr. Philomena R. Marsicano.  The widow of concert harpist Vincent Marsicano, Antoinette was founder and president of Antoinette of the Plaza, a hairdressing salon, and the Antoinette Beauty Salon, Inc. on West 38th Street.  Philomena was an attorney and she established the Marsicano Foundation.

Among the Marsicano's tenants was architect Paul Rudolph, who moved in in 1961.  He originally used the apartment as his New York pied-à-terre while he chaired the Department of Architecture at Yale University.  The apartment became his primary residence in 1965.

Paul Rudolph purchased 23 Beekman Place in 1976 for $300,000, according to Timothy M. Rohan's The Architecture of Paul Rudolph.  The price would equal $1.65 million today.  Rohan writes, "Work began in 1977, when Rudolph demolished his fourth-floor apartment (it was too idiosyncratic for a rental unit) and began building the rooftop addition."  The sculptural penthouse level was completed in 1982.  At the rear, he installed a series of what one critic called a "jungle gym" of metal, geometric balconies.

The complex of rear balconies can be glimpsed from East 50th Street.

Rudolph completely redesigned the interior spaces.  Writing in House & Garden in January 1988, architect and critic Michael Sorkin called the penthouse "one of the most amazing pieces of modern urban domestic architecture produced in this country."

Paul Rudolph died on August 8, 1997, having gained the esteem of architectural critics world-wide.  Nevertheless, his interior sense of design over function was sometimes problematic, at least for one person.  

On December 3, 1998, The New York Times reported, "Modernism can be dangerous.  Just ask Cremilda Conceicao, whose forehead and sweat pants bear the battle scars of 14 years of cleaning the see-through elevator, transparent sinks and 17 levels of Plexiglas walkways and mirrored I-beams that snake bewilderingly through the late architect Paul Rudolph's Beekman Place triplex, perhaps the city's most stunning apartment."

Cremilda recounted how earlier that week, she almost fell off a balcony while trying to clean a Plexiglas platform "that serves as the head-grazing ceiling for one level and the floor of the level above," said the article.  At the time of the article, the house was on the market for $5.65 million.  

The Paul Rudolph Penthouse & Apartments was designated an individual New York City Landmark on November 16, 2010.

photographs by the author

The Louis and Ellen Shipman House - 21 Beekman Place

 

The Beekman family's country estate, Mount Pleasant, overlooked Turtle Bay and provided refreshing river breezes in the summer months.  The mansion, erected in 1763, was located at what would become 51st Street and First Avenue.  When the residence was threatened with the proposed opening of crosstown streets in 1840, the Beekmans carefully moved it to what is now 50th Street and First Avenue.  

Two decades later, the two-block long Beekman Place was opened.  The north-south running street stretched from 49th to 51st Street.  On December 18, 1865, former Methodist minister Samuel W. Dunscomb purchased the land from James W. Beekman for $127,500 (just over $2.5 million in 2025 terms).  (Beekman retained possession of the narrow strip of land along the river.)  Dunscombe erected a stone retaining wall and began erecting 20-foot-wide rowhouses on both sides of Beekman Place.  The high-stooped residences were four-stories tall and shared a continuous cornice.

Builder Samuel Stevens may have been involved in Dunscomb's project.  He moved his family into 21 Beekman Place, on the northeast corner of 50th Street.  One of the eight Beekman Place corner houses, it enjoyed light and ventilation on three sides as well as river views.

The Stevens' adult sons, Mark S. and Salomon S., were also involved in the construction business.  They independently erected and owned structures in the quickly developing Upper East Side.

The Stevens family sold 21 Beekman Place to Josiah Sutherland in 1880.  He lost it in foreclosure two years later, and on April 15, 1884, Felix A. Mulgrew purchased the house from the bank for $15,000 (about $495,000 today). 

Mulgrew operated a substantial sawmill on Eighth Avenue, employing 60 employees by the 1890s.  He and his wife, Alice, had seven sons--Henry, George B., James T, John F., Will, Felix Jr., Frederick--and four daughters--Mary R., Annie, Elizabeth and Alice Eleanor.

Elizabeth F. Mulgrew was married to Dr. Richard Frederick Burke in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 11, 1891.  Alice served as the maid of honor and John Mulgrew acted as Burke's best man.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The wedding supper and reception were given afterward at the bride's home, No. 21 Beekman Place."

Another wedding took place that year.  Mary was married to attorney Terence C. O'Reilly.  The 31-year-old groom was a member of the Tammany Hall General Committee of the Sixteenth Assembly District.  The newlyweds moved into a nearby house at 8 Beekman Place.

On January 8, 1894, O'Reilly was crossing Park Row heading to the elevated train when he was knocked down by a United States mail wagon and "thrown violently to the pavement," according to The New York Times.  He was taken to the Chambers Street Hospital.  The Times said, "at his own request he was permitted to leave the hospital."  As a precaution, however, his doctor opted to have him taken to the Mulgrew house rather than his own.  

What none of the doctors realized was that O'Reilly had suffered a skull fracture.  He died at 21 Beekman Place two days later.  His funeral was held here on January 12.  

On January 31, 1895, The Evening World reported that Mary O'Reilly "was awarded eighteen thousand dollars damages yesterday for the loss of her husband."  It was a substantial settlement, equal to about $695,000 today.

Felix A. Mulgrew sold 21 Beekman Place in January 1899 for $25,000 (equal to about $975,000 today).  It became home to John Stacey Roberts and his wife, Elizabeth.  In 1900, their daughter Cecile Roberts graduated from Normal College.  Her choice of careers was, perhaps, not surprising.  Normal College trained women for careers in teaching.  Her father, a graduate of the College of the City of New York and of Columbia University, was a teacher of mathematics at DeWitt Clinton High School.

Roberts's rise within the public school system was consistent.  By 1904 he was principal of Public School No. 75 and by the outbreak of World War I was the District Supervisor of High Schools.

In 1917, Anne Rutherford Vanderbilt, the wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, purchased 21 Beekman Place.  She had founded The Big Sisters, Inc. in 1912 and on September 29, 1917, The American Contractor announced that she had contracted the E. E. Paul Co. to convert the house to a club house.

America's entry into World War I changed the plans.  On October 18, 1918, the New-York Tribune reported, "The Chateau Thierry Club, for convalescent soldiers, was opened yesterday afternoon at 21 Beekman Place."  Run by the American Red Cross, the article said, "The large four-story house for the club quarters was given by Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt."

The previous day, The Sun had begun an article saying, "Laughter and singing and the sound of a piano played enthusiastically if not with great skill came yesterday from the open windows of the pleasant house at 21 Beekman place...Chateau Thierry, the club for wounded sailors and soldiers, was open and going full blast."  The club offered a billiard table in the basement, an afternoon tea "with absolutely unlimited sandwiches and cake and cookies and doughnuts."

The entire top floor had been renovated to a "lounging room," for "the men who want to be quiet, though as there is a player piano and gramophone up there the chance for noise is considerable," said The Sun.  On the second floor were the writing room and game room, and the parlor.  The teas were held in the parlor, which also had a piano.  There were no bedrooms.  The convalescing soldiers were brought here for a few hours each day from hospitals.

In October 1919, with the war over, Louis Evans Shipman and his wife, the former Ellen Biddle, purchased 21 Beekman Place.  The couple had two children, Ellen Biddle, Evan Biddle and Mary Pamela.

Born on August 2, 1869, Shipman was an author and playwright.  He and Ellen were married in 1893.  Among his plays were the 1911 The Grain of Dust, and The Fountain of Youth, which opened at the Henry Miller Theatre in 1918.  In 1921 he finished his play Fools Errant.

Ellen Biddle Shipman was born in Philadelphia on November 5, 1869.  She met Louis while attending Harvard.  Following their marriage, they moved into the Cornish Art Colony in New Hampshire.  There she became interested in landscape architecture, especially the Cornish style that focused on geometric patterns and colonial gardens.  By the time the family moved into 21 Beekman Place, she had collaborated on the gardens of several estates and the courtyard gardens of the Astor Court apartment.

The daughter of General James Biddle, Ellen had three brothers, Colonel David Biddle of the U.S. Army; J. M. Biddle, who lived in Washington; and Nicholas who lived at 6 East 86th Street.  The sibling's widowed mother, Ellen Fish McGowan Biddle, lived with the Shipmans.

Nicholas Biddle contracted bronchial pneumonia in 1921.  On February 21, The New York Times reported that he had been "for two weeks at the home of his sister, Mrs. Louis E. Shipman, 21 Beekman Place."  

Ellen Shipman at her desk in 21 Beekman Place around 1920.  (original source unknown)

The following year, on June 30, 1922, Ellen Fish McGowan Biddle died here at the age of 82.  The New York Herald reported, "Death was due to infirmities of age."

Louis Shipman was appointed editor of Life magazine that year.  But it would be a short-lived position.  He stepped down in 1924 and the Shipmans divorced in 1925.  Louis moved to Paris and was married in 1926 to Lucille Watson.  He died there on August 2, 1933.

In the meantime, Ellen remodeled the Victorian rowhouse.  In November 1927, House Beautiful said, "Mrs. Shipman lived in the house approximately six years, and was constantly working over plans, before she remodeled it."  She hired Butler & Corse to remove the stoop and transform the Italianate brownstone to a brick-faced neo-Georgian residence.  "The house was originally the usual city structure of brownstone," said the article.  "Now it has more the appearance of the studio houses of old Chelsea."

The two-story angled bay featured Gothic style windows.  A one-story extension replaced the rear yard.  House Beautiful, November 1927 (copyright expired)

With the entrance lowered to the former English basement level, Shipman placed a hooded, veranda-like balcony at the second floor.  A niche at the third floor held a small statue and a bas relief rondel decorated what was now the fifth floor.  A brick parapet crowned the design.

Two views of the drawing room.  House Beautiful, November 1927 (copyright expired)

Ellen Shipman carried the Georgian motif into the interiors.  Antique mantels and woodwork were installed and the rooms were decorated with vintage furnishings.  

The dining room walls were covered with "an old Chinese paper,"  House Beautiful said, "The hangings are of a jade-green brocade imported from China.  The glass curtains are of transparent Chinese gauze, and the Venetian blinds are painted powder-blue."  House Beautiful November 1927 (copyright expired)

On October 2, 1946, Ellen Shipman sold 21 Beekman Place to Edgar B. Sterri and his wife for $125,000 (about $2 million today).  They initiated a renovation that resulted in an apartment in the first floor.  It was most likely at this time that an entrance on East 50th Street was added.

The house was returned to a single-family home by William R. Rupp who purchased it for $8.8 million in 2001.  It appears that it was he who remodeled the window lintels and replaced the Gothic-style bay windows with standard square-headed models.  And because he objected to the renovations next door done by famous architect Paul Rudolph, he erected a wall above Ellen Shipman's rear terrace that rose 27 feet.  It successfully blocked the views of Rudolph's many balconies.

Rupp's 27-foot-high wall was removed in 2008.  

Rupp died in 2007 and his estate put the house on the market for $25 million.  The real estate agent, however, said that the ongoing litigation between the owners of 23 Beekman Place over Rupp's wall "scared away" potential owners.

It was purchased in November 2008 by Peter Novello for $10.6 million.  He gut-renovated it and on August 30, 2009, Christopher Gray of The New York Times reported the house was "at its barest, down to the studs and bare walls."  Novello added a level to the terrace in the renovation.

Ellen Shipman's veranda was saved.

The renovated mansion was offered in 2025 for $32 million.

photographs by the author

The James V. Forrestal House -- No. 17 Beekman Place

photo by Alice Lum

Like most of the wealthy 18^th century New Yorker families, the Beekmans built a lavish country house north of the city where they could escape to the cooling river breezes and open countryside.  James Beekman erected Mount Pleasant in 1765 near the East River.

The next century would see the city gradually creep northwards, engulfing the sprawling estates as streets and avenues criss-crossed the land and homes and commercial buildings sprung up.  Mount Pleasant was demolished in 1874 to be replaced by brownstones and tenements populated for the most part by the impoverished immigrants working in the coal yards and shipyards that lined the riverbank.   New York’s millionaires clustered at the center of the island, around 5^th Avenue, far from the soot and dust of Manhattan’s margins.

Then something happened.

Elisabeth Marbury hired society architect Mott Schmidt to remodel an old rowhouse on an extension of Avenue A into a high-end neo-Georgian residence.  She soon persuaded friends, including Anne Vanderbilt, recent widow of William K. Vanderbilt; and Anne Morgan, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan, to do the same.  The avant-garde women thumbed their noses at social traditions and walked away from the accepted Fifth Avenue.   Before long an enclave of mansions, many of them in the Georgian style like Marbury's, had developed--now called Sutton Place.

The trend spilled over as millionaires began converting or razing tenements on the nearby two-block long street that would become known as Beekman Place.   The reputation of Beekman Place as the sanctuary for wealthy free-thinkers from Fifth Avenue’s restrictions later placed the character Auntie Mame at No. 23 Beekman Place.

In 1920 a temporary shelter for delinquent women stood at No. 17 Beekman Place.  Known simply as Number Seventeen Beeckman Place, Inc., it housed up to 25 women and 6 babies.  The purpose of the shelter was “to provide a temporary refuge and home for delinquent and friendless women and girls, and for unmarried and homeless mothers with their babies, where they  may be reclaimed and assisted in becoming self-supporting.”

In the meantime James Vincent Forrestal had been making a name for himself.  The son of an Irish immigrant  he worked as a reporter for the Matteawan Journal at the age of 16.  In 1912 he entered Princeton University, but left after three years to work for the New York World.  Four years later he changed careers to sell bonds.

When war broke out he moved to Canada to join the Royal Flying Corps, then returned to the city after the war to rejoin the banking firm of Dillon, Read & Company as a bond salesman.  He quickly rose within the firm to department manager, then partner in 1923, then vice-president in 1926.

Forrestal had done well for himself and it was time for a house that reflected it.  On May 12, 1928 Forrestal joined the “colony” of wealthy New Yorkers who thought outside of the Fifth Avenue box.   The New York Times announced that “Beekman Place Corporation disposed of the four-story house…at 17 Beekman Place to a banker.”     Forrestal commissioned architect Harold Sterner to design a distinguished Georgian-inspired brick-and-stone residence that stretched back 100 feet to the end of 50^th Street where the land dropped off to the river.  

James V. Forrestal would eventually rise to the position of Secretary of Defense -- photo Library of Congress

Despite the ongoing Great Depression the five-story mansion was completed in 1932.  The white marble base, punctured by unadorned, rectangular openings, supported three stories of red brick and a copper-sheathed mansard.   The subdued entrance was flanked by two plain, Corinthian columns and surrounded by a simple stone frame.

photo by Alice Lum

Shallow brick pilasters, two stories tall at the second and third floor were capped by carved Ionic capitals.   The home was both restrained and imposing.  But the understated exterior disguised the sumptuous interiors.

The wealthy residents of quiet Beekman Place hired a private special patrolman, Joseph Roy, to ensure their safety.  The arrangement worked well until the pre-dawn hours of July 2, 1937.  Mrs. Josephine Ogden Forrestal was arriving home in the car of a friend, Richard Hall around 2:00 a.m.  Knowing Mrs. Forrestal was soon to arrive, Roy had just asked a parked sedan to move.  As Hall’s chauffeur pulled the car up to the Forrestal house, six men jumped from the sedan with pistols drawn and surrounded the limousine.    Moments later they sped away with $48,000 worth of Mrs. Forrestal’s jewels.

Fanciful, decorative portholes are interspersed between the ground floor openings -- photo by Alice Lum

Six years after moving in, at only 46 years old, Forrestal was named President of Dillon, Read & Company.    The banker caught the eye of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1940 the President appointed him as liaison officer between the Oval Office and the Treasury Department as well as other financial agencies of the government.  The Forrestals moved to Washington D.C. and within a few months he was appointed Undersecretary of the Navy, responsible for production and procurement.

That the Forrestals would not be returning to Manhattan became evident.

In January 1942 the house, complete with all the Forrestal furnishings, was leased to Daniel G. Arnstein, the head of the Terminal Taxicab Company.  Arnstein had just returned to New York from China where he “was engaged in organizing traffic on the Burma Road,” according to The Times.

While Arnstein was in the house, Forrestal rose to Secretary of the Navy in 1944 and was in Europe to personally see the D-Day landings in June.

Sterner added occasional carved ornaments, like the architectural equivalent of a printer's dingbats, to the staid cornice -- photo by Alice Lum

Finally, in June 1946, James Forrestal sold the house at No. 17 Beekman Place.   The buyer was song-writer Irving Berlin.

The arcane location was perfect for the celebrity composer who, like Forrestal, had raised himself from an impoverished childhood to enormous wealth.   By now had added motion picture musicals to his successes with hits like Top Hat, Follow the Fleet and Carefree.  The immortal song "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat had earned Berlin an Academy Award.

From No. 17 Beekman Place the composer would pen masterpieces including Annie Get Your Gun in 1946, Call Me Madam in 1950, There’s No Business Like Show Business in 1954 and Sayonara in 1957. 

Irving Berlin and his wife, Ellen -- photo Library of Congress

The beloved composer would live on in the mansion until his death here on September 12, 1989 at the age of 101.

The plot of Call Me Madam, for which Irving Berlin wrote both the words and music, was based on Perle Mesta’s appointment as Ambassador to Luxembourg by President Harry S. Truman. In a coincidental twist of fate, two years after Berlin’s death the government of Luxembourg bought the building for $5.7 million.

photo by Alice Lum

Today the James Forrestal mansion, home to one of America’s most beloved composers for more than four decades, remains the Consulate of Luxembourg and its Mission to the United States.  The house is pristinely preserved on the hidden little enclave where millionaires sought refuge from stuffy social obligations.