Blum & Blum's 1912 875 Park Avenue

image via fis-architecture.com

Having studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, brothers George and Edward Blum opened their architectural office, Blum & Blum, in 1909.  The following year, they received an important commission from A. M. Jampol, president of the newly formed 875 Park Avenue Company.  

On September 23, 1910 The New York Times reported that they had filed plans, "for a twelve-story fireproof elevator apartment house to be erected at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Seventy-eighth Street."  Projecting the construction costs at $1 million (about 34 times that much in 2025), the article said, "The building will have a facade of brick with limestone and terra cotta trimmings of the modern Italian Renaissance style."

Park Avenue was seeing its private homes replaced with upscale apartment buildings for the wealthy at the time.  This one would have to compete.  The article said that the residents of the 48 apartments would enjoy, "four electric passenger elevators and a refrigerating plant, heating plant, vacuum cleaning plant and large laundry in the basement with steam dryers and all the latest electrical appliances for washing and ironing."

Construction would take two years to complete.  The Times was generally correct in saying the style would be Italian Renaissance.  But in designing 875 Park Avenue, the Blum brothers revealed their knack of stepping away from the expected, a trait that would become their trademark.  Creative brickwork and terra cotta elements created vertical piers and what architectural journalist Christopher Gray would later call "a haunting series of hieroglyph-like medallions.

images via fsi-architecture.com

The apartments ranged from seven to ten rooms "with foyers," according to the New York World's Apartment Album.  "These apartments are designed to fill the needs of those who wish to combine the advantage of a private house with the comforts of an apartment," said the article, which added, "all porcelain plumbing fixtures [are] similar to those used in the Vanderbilt Hotel."  It noted that 875 Park Avenue provided "ample servants' accommodation."

Most floors had four apartments.  The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

Rents ranged from $2,500 to $4,500 a year--equal to about $7,000 to $12,500 per month today.  Although construction was not completed until September 1912, by the end of March that year 15 apartments had been leased.  Among those initial residents were John F. Stevens, head of the construction company that bore his name; Percy Seldon Straus, Jr. and his wife, the former Edith Abraham; and Baroness de Graffenried.

Born in 1876, Percy Selden Straus was the son of Isidor and Ida Straus.  Percy was a member of the R. H. Macy & Co. department store in which his father was a partner.  Edith Straus was the daughter of another department store mogul, Abraham Abraham, founder of Wechsler & Abraham.  In 1888, Isidor Straus and his brother, Nathan, purchased Joseph Wechsler's portion, creating the Abraham & Straus department store.

Edith and Percy Seldon Straus from the collection of The Straus Historical Society

The Strauses had two sons when they moved in--Ralph Isidor, born in 1903, and Percy Selden Jr., who arrived three years later.  In 1916, a third son, Donald Blun, was born.  

The couple filled their 875 Park Avenue apartment with a magnificent collection of Renaissance art.  Living with them was Edith's widowed mother, Rose Abraham, who was active in philanthropic work.  (Edith's father died in 1911.)

Baroness de Graffenried was the former Gertrude Van Cortlandt.  Her first husband, whom she married in 1877, was Schuyler Hamilton, Jr.  She and her current husband, Baron Raoul de Graffenried, had been estranged for several years.  (The Baron was living in Switzerland.)  Gertrude and Hamilton had four children together, Violet Loring, Gertrude Ray, Helena Van Wyck, and Lilian Gardiner.  Moving into 875 Park Avenue with their mother were Violet and Gertrude, 30 and 25 

years old respectively.

Expectedly, the residents' names often appeared in the society columns.  On December 3, 1913, The New York Times reported, "The Baroness de Graffenried was the hostess last evening at an informal and small dance at 875 Park Avenue, for her daughters, the Misses Gertrude and Violet Hamilton."  The article noted, "A buffet supper was served at midnight."  Although the event was considered informal and small, the article named 68 guests.

Similarly, on December 14, 1913, at the height of the debutante season, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Robert T. Ford is to give a tea for her daughter, Miss Julia Ford, on Friday afternoon, at 875 Park Avenue."

In 1915, Percy Straus Sr. and Jr. went to the Far West "on a pleasure trip," according to The New York Times.  On September 24, Percy Jr. became suddenly ill on the train in New Mexico.  "He was believed to be suffering from spinal trouble, and physicians declared his life could not be saved without an immediate operation," said the article.  Percy Straus Sr. had the nine-year-old boy taken off the train at Albuquerque and he chartered a special train of three coaches to rush his son to Denver.  The New York Times said, "The special covered 528 miles in less than twelve hours.  At times the train ran eighty miles an hour."  At the hospital, physicians discovered an abscess in the boy's neck and performed a successful operation.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

Living here at the time was Dr. Whitney Lyon, the 51-year-old son of wealthy tooth powder manufacturer, I. W. Lyon.  A widower, Dr. Lyon was also the president of I. W. Lyon & Sons.  His son and daughter were attending Yale and Wellesley, respectively, in 1915.  Lyon also maintained "a handsome country place at New Canaan, Connecticut," as described by The New York Times, and "a fine estate in Fleming Park, Larchmont Point [New York], overlooking the harbor and the Larchmont Yacht Club."

Dr. Lyon gave up his apartment here in 1917.  He was married to Maude Cecil Vollman on January 28 at the Larchmont estate.  The New York Times said, "It is expected later that they will make their home in Larchmont, where Dr. Lyon owns considerable property."  The article noted, "After the marriage, Dr. Lyon and his bride motored toward Connecticut."

Other socially visible residents were Dr. Robert Cunningham Myles, his wife, the former Edith Georgiana Russell Platt, and their sons, Robert Jr. and Beverly Russell.  Born in Covebrook, Mississippi in 1853, Myles received his medical degree at the age of 21.  Specializing in nose, throat and ear diseases, he "was known as a pioneer of modern treatments," according to The New York Times, and invented several types of surgical instruments.  The family's country home was in Garden City, Long Island.

Dr. Robert Cunningham Myles as he appeared around 1893.  from the collection of the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

Robert Jr. left Yale to enter the banking firm of Harriman & Co.  He married Dorothy Greer in the St. James Chapel of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on November 8, 1916.  The New York Times said that, although a large ceremony in St. Bartholomew's Church had been planned, "owing to mourning," it was a smaller wedding.  In reporting on the ceremony, the journalist noted, "On his father's side he is a descendant of Paul Russell of Hereford, England, who founded the family of that name in New England, of which James Russell Lowell was a member."

On the night of February 25, 1916, the Yale Chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity gave a large dance at Sherry's that started at 10:30.  The New York Times said, "Those from the university town arrived here in a special car in time for a dance given by Dr. and Mrs. Robert Cunningham Myles at 875 Park Avenue, from 4 until 7 o'clock."

As early as 1918, Thornton Niven Motley and his wife, the former Kathryn Lena Kennard (born in 1858 and 1868 respectively) lived in 875 Park Avenue with their unmarried daughter, Kathryn Thornton, who was born in 1898.  Motley was the head of Thornton N. Motley & Co., manufacturer of railroad cars and steamships.  The family's summer home was in Newport where, in 1887, Thornton Motley won the Newport Yachting Cup.

The social spotlight shone on the Motleys in 1919 when Kathryn's engagement to Matthew Comstock Jenkins was announced.  Three days before the wedding in St. Thomas's Church, on February 19, 1920 her mother gave a dinner, the guest list of which included "the entire bridal party," according to the New-York Tribune.  The following afternoon, she gave a luncheon at the Plaza Hotel for the bridesmaids.

Although attorney Nelson Beardsley Burr and his wife, the former Helen M. Morris, had no children of their own, in 1914 they became wards of Helen's nephew, Monson Morris Jr.  Helen's brother, Major Monson Morris, was a real estate operator "and prominent socially," according to The New York Times.  His wife died in 1914.  Prior to traveling to Europe in November 1917 with his regiment, he gave Helen custody of his four-year-old son.  Possibly thinking he may not survive the conflict, he wrote in part, "I promise to give you entire charge of his bringing up and education until he becomes of age."

On May 10, 1922, The New York Times reported that Morris had sued Helen Burr for custody of the now nine-year-old boy.  The article mentioned that Morris "has been married twice since his first wife's death."  The custody battle would extend for two years.  Perhaps State Supreme Court Justice Bijur's decision had much to do with the young Morris's telling him that he did not like his father's newest wife.  In 1924, Nelson and Helen Burr was given full custody of the boy, with his father having regular visitation rights.

Rose Abraham died in the Straus apartment on May 26, 1938 at the age of 86.  She bequeathed $10,000 each to her three grandsons--a quarter of a million each in 2025 dollars. 

By the time of his mother-in-law's death, Percy Selden Straus was chairman of the board of R. H. Macy & Co.  He suffered with heart disease, which worsened in 1939.  On the night of April 6, 1944 he died in the apartment at the age of 67.  Tributes poured in from businessmen and department store heads, among them from Walter Hoving, president of Lord & Taylor; and Samuel J. Bloomingdale.

Edith Straus inherited a life interest in Percy's "books, paintings, pictures, sculptures and household furnishings."  Particular artworks, however, he left to his sons.  Percy Jr. received the Fred Spencer Portrait of Andrew Jackson; Ralph was bequeathed Renoir's Portrait of Maurice Grimpel and Pacheco's Portrait of a Chorister.  Donald was given the Gilbert Stuart Portrait of Thomas Jefferson and Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin's Still Life.  

Upon Edith's death 75 of the masterworks in their collection--paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Van Dyke, Botticelli, Bellini, Fra Angelico and sculptures by Michelangelo, Cellini, Houdon, Luca Della Robbia and others--were to go to the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston.

A reserved resident was Estelle Whitfield, of whom The New York Times said, "her name practically never appeared in the newspapers."  A daughter of John A. Whitfield, a wholesale merchant, she had grown up in a Gramercy Park mansion.  Among her father's close friends was Andrew Carnegie, who married Estelle's sister, Louise, in 1888.  

Never married, in 1928 Estelle sailed to visit her widowed sister at Skibo Castle in Dornock, Scotland.  (Andrew Carnegie had died in 1919.)  While there, Estelle caught pneumonia.  She died at Skibo Castle on July 14 at the age of 66.

Other residents at the time were Katharine C. Harper, the widow of publisher James Thorne Harper; and former opera singer and widow of stock broker James H. Benedict, Mary von Buehler Benedict.  Before her marriage to Benedict at the turn of the century, Mary was known on the European stage as Madame Billoni.  After a command performance in St. Petersburg, the Czar presented her with a pair of diamond earrings hidden in a bouquet of roses.

Following her divorce from Paul Felix Warburg in 1934, Jean Stettheimer Warburg moved into 875 Park Avenue with her daughter, Felicia.   In 1948, Felicia (and her mother by extension) scored a social coup by being presented at the Court of St. James.  Two years later, in April, Jean announced her daughter's engagement to Robert William Sarnoff.  One year later, nearly to the day on April 6, 1951, Jean married Lawrence J. Steinhardt.

Among the residents by the mid-1960s were real estate executive and president of the J. H. Taylor Construction Company, William Korn and his wife, the former Fannie Mayer.  Among the structures Korn's concern built were the office building at 1407 Broadway and the apartment building at 240 Central Park South.  In the 1930s and '40s, Fannie was instrumental in organizing the "Congress houses," shelters for incoming refugees from Nazi Germany.  In 1963, she was a co-winner in the first Louise Waterman Wise Award of the American Jewish Congress.

Fannie Mayer Korn died in their apartment at the age of 85 on August 21, 1972.  Five months later, on December 18, William Korn died here at the age of 88.

image via fsi-architecture.com

In time for the building's centennial in 2012, a facade restoration was completed by FSI Architecture.  The project entailed restoration or replacement of the deteriorated terra cotta and stone ornaments, repointing and other preservation work.

Blum & Blum's 1926 322 Central Park West

 

image via streeteasy.com

The 1920s saw a flurry of construction along Central Park West as residential hotels, most erected just before the turn of the century, were replaced with modern apartment buildings.  In 1925, Blum & Blum filed plans for a 15-story structure at the northwest corner of 92nd Street for the the Central Park West Corp.  It would replace the seven-story hotel on the site.  

Brothers George and Edward--who would eventually design at least 120 apartment houses--opened their architectural office in 1909.  By now they were well-known for their edgy Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.  But for 322 Central Park West they turned to historic styles--Italian Renaissance and Gothic.

The architects gave drama to the otherwise unadorned three-story stone base by placing the entrance within a double-height Gothic arch with elaborate carvings.  The nine-story midsection, faced in beige brick, was introduced by an arcade of windows that perched upon an understated intermediate cornice enhanced by a bold, non-continuous terra cotta band of stylized palmettes and vines.  For the most part, Blum & Blum reserved ornamentation for the three-story top section, where triple-height terra cotta arches sat upon faux Renaissance-inspired balconies.  A parapet took the place of a cornice.  It was given movement by a wave-like terra cotta eyebrow that followed the arched openings of the top floor.

The building opened on August 1, 1926, offering six- or eight-room apartments with three or four baths.  (One "bungalow apartment" of ten rooms and four baths was also available.)  An advertisement boasted, "Spacious rooms.  Each apartment with wood burning fire places, roomy foyers and every modern housekeeping convenience."  

Among the initial residents were Edward Staats Luther, his wife, the former Harriett Lewis, and their daughters, Marianna and Harriett, who were ten and seven years old in 1926.  Luther had an impressive pedigree.  Born in Ballston Spa, New York in 1876, his father, Alvin Luther, was a descendant of John Luther, Colonial Governor of Rhode Island in 1642.  His mother, Marianna Sickler, descended from the Staats family who settled in the Hudson River valley in the 17th century.

Luther moved to New York City in 1899 and joined the staff of The New York Times as a political and financial writer.  In 1913 he became political editor of the Morning Telegraph.  He was, additionally, a director and chairman of the board of the Rosoff Subway Construction Company, a director of the Federation Bank and Trust Company, and the founder of the Industries Development Corporation.

Rex Ellingwood Beach and his wife, the former Margherita Crater, were also initial residents.  The couple also maintained a home in Sebring, Florida.  Born in Atwood, Michigan in 1877, Beach received his law degree from Kent College of Law in 1900.  He would not use his legal education, however.  In 1904, he won a silver medal at the Summer Olympics as a member of the American water polo team.  After prospecting in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush, he turned to writing.  His 1906 novel The Spoilers became a best seller, and his experiences in Alaska provided fodder for later works, like his 1908 The Barrier, and The Silver Horde, published in 1909.  

On October 12, 1930, the Atlanta, Georgia newspaper The Constitution began an article saying, "Georgians will be delighted to hear that one of America's best-known writers is eager to come down from his New York home and write a novel with a Georgia background."  Beach had told the newspaper in a telegram, "I only wish that I had a story that would bring me to Georgia.  Dig one up and I will tackle it."  The article urged readers to send Beach ideas for a plot to 322 Central Park West.

Rex Ellingwood Beach, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

The Spoilers was adapted as a stage play and then reworked as a screenplay five times.  Its main character Roy Glennister was played by Gary Cooper in 1930 and John Wayne in 1942.  The Silver Horde was also adapted to the screen, first as a silent film in 1920.  The second release, in 1930, starred Jean Arthur, Evelyn Brent and Joel McCrea.  The Beaches spent more and more time in Florida, eventually giving up their apartment on Central Park West. 

Among the Beaches' neighbors in the building were Harry H. Oshrin and his wife, the former Emma Guttman.  Born in 1889, Oshrin was a theatrical lawyer and stage and film producer.  Among the productions he staged were the 1927 Broadway play Talk About Girls; the 1941 film Tobacco Road, starring Charley Grapewin, Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney; and the 1943 Broadway adaption of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.  (The Oshrins' daughter, Elaine, was an actress and appeared in the cast of Tobacco Road.)

The affluence of the Oshrins was evidenced when burglars broke into their apartment in 1932.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that on the morning of April 17, "the maid discovered that a painting by Diaz...had been taken from the wall and was lying on the floor."  She mentioned it to Oshrin, who investigated.  Three paintings, "one by Murillo, one by Courbet and one by Jerome," were missing as well as $15,000 worth of Emma's jewelry.  The newspaper said the paintings were valued at $25,000.  The total theft would translate to just under $920,000 in 2025.

Resident Henry Symons died in 1930 and five years later his widow, Leah, opened the Symons Galleries, Inc.  The shop, which specialized in English and French antique furnishings, would be a resource for collectors and decorators for decades.

Social psychologist Erich Seligmann Fromm and his wife, psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann moved into the building around 1935.  The couple met in Germany while Fromm was one of Frieda's patients.  They were married in 1926 and fled Nazi Germany in 1934.  Fromm was hired by Columbia University that year.  He taught courses at the New School of Social Research from 1941 to 1959.

Erich Seligman Fromm in 1974.  photograph by Müller-May

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann was a pioneer in the treatment of schizophrenia.  She served in World War I as a major in the German Army and ran a clinic for brain-injured soldiers.  The work led to her study of anxieties and panic issues (what today would be called traumatic stress disorder).

The Fromms divorced in 1942 and in 1953, Erich Fromm remarried and gave up his apartment in 322 Central Park West.

Josef Bonime and his wife, Josephine, were residents at the time.  The composer, conductor and pianist was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1891 and arrived in the United States as a boy.  He graduated from The City College of New York and studied music at Julliard.  He joined the faculty of the Julliard School of Music in 1933.  By then, he had been composing music for radio shows for eight years and was conducting the CBS Symphony and the Columbia School of the Air.  

Josef Bonime, from the collection of the Jewish Music Research Centre

Among the programs on which Bonime worked were "Death Valley Days," "Five Star Theatre," "Let's Dance" and "Echoes of New York Town."  In 1930 he joined the radio department of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency.  Bonime retired from that position in 1958 and became special assistant to the president of the Polychrome Corporation, a graphic organization.  

The Bonimes visited friends in Westport, Connecticut in the fall of 1959.  Josef Bonime suffered a fatal heart attack while there on November 8.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Bonime was no doubt well acquainted with another resident, Fred Wise, whose apartment was on the seventh floor.  Born on May 27, 1915 in New York City, Wise and his wife, Elaine, had one daughter, Erica, born in 1954.  Although his degree was in clinical psychology (he received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1957 and founded the Independent Bronx Consultation Center in 1959), Wise's passion was songwriting.  He began writing lyrics while studying at Columbia.  

After serving as a radio operator in General Dwight D. Eisenhower's European headquarters during World War II, Wise began writing lyrics for popular songs and motion pictures.  Starting in 1958 with the film King Creole, he wrote the words for several Elvis Presley songs.  Others included "Wooden Heart" in the 1960 film G. I. Blues; "Rock-A-Hula Baby" for the 1961 feature Blue Hawaii; and "Kissin' Cousins," from Presley's 1964 film of the same name.  Other popular songs for which he wrong the lyrics include, "This Is My Country," "Let Me Go, Lover;" and "A, You're Adorable."

On January 18, 1966, Fred and Elaine got into a quarrel "over a television set," according to The New York Times.  Erica, who was now 12 years old, was asleep.  Elaine told officials later that she left the apartment for a walk, "until he cooled off."  When she walked out of the building, she saw the crumpled body of her husband on the sidewalk, clad in shorts and an undershirt.  Doctors said he had died upon impact.

Another interesting resident was Erich Cohn, president of A. Goodman & Sons, Inc., a maker of noodles, matzohs and other food products.  He shared the apartment with his wife, the former Helene Danziger.  Cohn had joined the firm in 1915.  That year he traveled to New York from Germany to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of a relative, Augustus Goodman.  While he was here, World War I broke out and he could not return.  Goodman hired him in his plant.  In 1937, Cohn assumed the position of president.

A supporter of several Jewish organizations, the Cohns were better known for their extensive collection of German Expressionist art.  In addition to the works that were displayed in their apartment, the Cohns donated several works, especially the paintings and sculptures of Käthe Kollwitz, to various museums.

By the mid-1970s, Dirck Halstead occupied an apartment here.  Born in 1936, he was the editor and publisher of The Digital Journalist.  He received a camera for Christmas in 1951 and two years later became Life magazine's youngest combat photographer, covering the Guatemalan civil war.  After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, he joined UPI.  He served as the organization's picture bureau chief in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

In 1972, while listing 322 Central Park West as his primary address, he was appointed Time magazine's Senior White House Photographer.  He accompanied President Richard Nixon to his historic trip to China that year.  Halstead would remain with Time for 29 years, his photographs appearing on the magazine's cover 49 times.

Actress, singer and playwright Tovah Feldshuh occupied an apartment here by 2005, as did actress Linda Lavin.  Feldshuh made her Broadway debut in the 1973 musical Cyrano starring Christopher Plummer.  Her characterization of Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony, which opened in 2003, set a record in 2005 as the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history.

Linda Lavin debuted on Broadway in the 1960s, but gained prominence playing Alice in the television sitcom of the same name.  It ran from 1976 to 1985.  She won a Tony Award in 1987 for her performance in Broadway Bound and was nominated in 2001 for The Tale of the Allergist's Wife.  Lavin sold her four-bedroom apartment in 2005 for about $4.3 million.

image via landmarkwest.org

Upon the building's opening in 1926, an advertisement in the New York Evening Post lauded, "unsurpassed panorama of Central Park assuring fresh air and abundance of sunshine."  Unfortunately, that panorama and sunshine prompted residents whose apartments overlook the park to disfigure Blum & Blum's regimented fenestration.  The unfettered renovations created a Mondrian-like mish-mash of picture windows of various styles.  Nonetheless, 322 Central Park West, with its dignified architecture and riveting history, survives as an integral part of the Central Park West streetscape.

many thanks to Ann Watkins for suggesting this post

The 1913 The Dallieu - 838 West End Avenue

 

On July 6, 1913, The New York Times remarked that "the west side will always remain the great apartment district of the city, a fact has been doubly pronounced during the past few months by the demolition of rows of fine private residences for towering apartments."  Among those "towering apartments" was the recently completed The Dallieu at the southeast corner of West End Avenue and 101st Street.

Erected by the real estate development firm Julius Tishman & Sons, Inc., it was designed by the fledgling architectural office of Blum & Blum.  George and Edward Blum were nine and twelve years old when they arrived in America from France in 1888.  Educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the Blum brothers' grasp of architectural trends that transcended their Beaux-Arts training—like Art Nouveau and Art Deco—would impact apartment designs in New York. 

For the 12-story The Dallieu, they turned to Arts & Crafts.  Encrusting the two-story base was a sumptuous tapestry of terra cotta tiles of swirling vines, grapes, berries and flowers.  The upper floors were clad in Roman brick, except for the tenth floor.  Its terra cotta panels delineated the midsection from the top.  Iron-railed balconies clung to the facade at the fourth and ninth floor, and a continuous balcony girded the building at the eleventh--its Arts & Crafts-style iron railing a work of art.  A parapet with decorative panels forewent a cornice.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1913 (copyright expired)

The apartments ranged from six to nine rooms with three baths.  Rents started at $1,800--about $4,750 per month in 2025 terms.  An advertisement in The Evening Post on August 23, 1913 touted, "These Apartments have unequalled arrangements such as filtered water throughout the building, steam driers on the roof.  Two passenger and two service elevators, thus assuring privacy on each floor by elimination of public halls."  The ad noted that "extra servants' rooms" and private storage rooms were available on the penthouse level.

There were four apartments on most floors.  The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1913 (copyright expired)

Residents of The Dallieu were professionals, like civil engineer John C. Underwood, who graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1862; and Loren Albert Scott, a 1904 Harvard graduate.  Scott was the president of the Hasco Building Company and the Aeon Reality Company.  Adhemer Fieux was a member of chocolate making firm Runkel Brothers, "one of the best known in the trade," according to The New York Times.  Born in Bordeaux, France in 1843, he married Fannie Runkel (the sister of one of his business partners) and the couple had three sons.

Less typical was Alice Redding, another initial resident.  When she divorced Arthur Maurice Werner in 1910, she retook her maiden name.  Alice, who shared the apartment with her two sisters, was pulled into a scurrilous incident in the spring of 1914.  Arthur Werner and his current wife, the former Giulia Morosini, who were married in 1911, lived in a lavish home, Elmhurst, in Riverdale.  Giulia was the daughter of banker Giovanni Morosini, a former partner of Jay Gould.

In March 17, 1914, the Oakland Enquirer reported that Giulia had filed for an annulment.  The heiress barred Werner from the estate.  The Sun said Giulia protected herself by replacing the grounds staff with "about twenty men sent up to Riverdale by the Burns Detective Agency."  Suddenly, Giulia was mysteriously missing.

  

The first and second stories display a dizzying profusion of Arts & Crafts designs.

Suspiciously, authorities could not locate Werner for questioning.  Investigators learned he had been seen at The Dallieu.  The Sun reported on April 6, 1914, "At the home of Werner's first wife, 838 West End avenue, it was said that Werner was not there and had not been seen for two days."  Later that afternoon, a maid said Alice "went out of town."  Reporters returned the next evening and were told the same message.  Finally, Giulia turned up and the press's harassment of Alice ended.  

On October 13, 1914, the New-York Tribune reported on the Connecticut marriage of Lorne Albert Scott to Lutie Wilson Babb the previous day.  Reminding readers that Scott was involved "in various real estate and construction ventures," the article said, "The couple will spend their honeymoon in the South.  After their return they will live at 838 West End av."

The newlyweds' wedded bliss would be short.  On October 24, 1915, The Sun reported that Lutie sued for separation, charging "that it is unsafe to live with her husband, who has a violent and ungovernable temper."

A colorful resident was Charles Francis Phillips, a journalism student at Columbia.  On June 1, 1917, The Sun described him as "22 years old [and] is the son of a manufacturing tailor, who, though foreign born, is rated as a good American."  The previous day, Phillips had been arrested with three other Columbia seniors "charged with conspiring to violate the selective conscription law by urging resistance to the draft."  The article reported that Phillips's father, "said when his son was arrested, 'He got himself into trouble, let him get himself out of it,' but who is expected to relent and do what he can to help the boy through."

Charles Francis Phillips (left) following his arrest.  His father eventually posted the $2,000 bail.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Five days later, Charles Phillips was in the news again.  The Sun reported, "Phillips was seen several times yesterday loitering in front of the polling place in his district which is at 823 West End avenue, on the same block with his home, 838 West End avenue."  United States Marshal Thomas D. McCarthy had warned him the previous day "that should he fail to register a new charge would be lodged against him."  When he had not registered for the draft five minutes before the office closed, a warrant was issued and Phillips was again arrested.

Phillips would go on to be a force within the Communist movement.  He fled to Mexico and helped to found the Mexican Communist Party.  He eventually would live in Spain and Nicaragua, using the names Charles Shipman, Frank Seaman, Jesus Saremas, Jesus Ramirez and Manuel Gomez.  Phillips would become secretary of the All-American Anti-Imperialist League.

Joseph M. Simon was described by the New-York Tribune as a "wealthy hosiery and underwear manufacturer, in business at 19 East Twenty-first Street."  In March 1918, the Simons's daughter, Consahoe, eloped with Elwood M. Burgauer in a Municipal Building ceremony after a "romantic and rapid courtship."  Burgauer's father was as member of Kahn & Burgauer, lace importers.

When Joseph Simon discovered the elopement, he and his wife locked Consahoe in her room.  A year later, on July 8, 1919, The Evening World reported, "The only way his wife could tell him [i.e., Elwood Burgauer] how much she loved him was in notes dropped from a window of her father's home at No. 838 West End Avenue."  Elwood Burgauer filed suits of alienation against both of his wife's parents.

In addition to imprisoning Consahoe, as reported by the New-York Tribune, Elwood alleged that Simon, "told her such derogatory stories about his character that her love for him has been destroyed," and "interested his daughter in Christian Science in an effort to make her forget her husband."  The Simons denied having "anything to do with the estrangement of the couple," said The Evening World.

The families in The Dallieu maintained domestic staffs.  The 1920 census showed that of the 45 apartments, 39 of them had live-in cooks.  Among those families were that of real estate operator Bernard Reich.  Not only was he a resident, his firm owned the building.  

Reich was the president of the Marcon Realty Company and the Amri Realty Company.  In 1920, he read the heart-breaking story of a cobbler, Harry Zakow, and his wife who were searching for their lost boy.  The World said that in 1918, 12-year-old Samuel Kefovov (his parents changed their Russian surname to Zakow upon arriving in America) was "separated from his mother who was fleeing [from Odessa] with her five children."

Bernard Reich traveled to Jerusalem in 1921, and visited the Jewish War Orphanage that December.  He talked to a 15-year-old boy whose story was remarkably similar to the one Reich had read a year earlier.  He successfully reunited the family after being three years apart.

Even the service entrance is sumptuously decorated.

Before leaving on his trip to Jerusalem, Reich had made news for his philanthropy.  On April 28, 1921, The Evening World reported, "A drive for funds with which to purchase milk for poor children in this city was started to-day with...a $5,000 contribution by Bernard Reich of No. 838 West End Avenue."  The article mentioned, "Mr. Reich has previously distinguished himself by his generosity toward the penny lunch fund for school children."  

Three years later, Reich and his firm, Amri Realty Company, began acquiring the properties on the block directly south of The Dallieu as a potential development.  Standing in the way was Nat Levine's house at 830 West End Avenue, described by Reich's lawyer, Irving Gordon, as "a key piece" of the project.  Gordon told The New York Age in October 1925 that Levine, "wants to force it onto Mr. Reich at an exorbitant figure." 

When Reich would not agree to Levine's elevated price tag, the homeowner retaliated.  On October 31, 1925, The New York Age reported, "A large sign offering 'Furnished rooms for rent for Negro folks,' appeared last Saturday on the Nat Levine residence at 830 West End Avenue, and the property owners of that good residential section immediately began to worry."  Levine would not respond to reporters' questions other than to ask, "why did Bernard Reich...think he could buy the property at a ridiculously low price?"

Before 1952, the balconies and paneled parapet were in place.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A renovation completed in 1952 resulted in six apartments per floor on the second and third, and four apartments each on the upper floors.  The penthouse level, formerly servants' rooms and the laundry, was converted to six apartments.  In the remodeling, the balconies were removed and the paneling of the parapet bricked flush.

Despite the regrettable modernization, Blum & Blum's Arts & Crafts building remains among the firm's most striking designs.

photographs by the author

Blum & Blum's 1912 780 West End Avenue

 

In 1888, when brothers George and Edward Blum were 9 and 12 years old, respectively, they arrived in New York from France.  They would both return to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before opening the architectural office, Blum & Blum, in 1909 in New York.  Within the next two decades the Blum brothers would be responsible for at least 120 apartment houses.  Their grasp of French architectural trends that transcended their Beaux-Arts training—like Art Nouveau and Art Deco—would impact apartment designs in New York.  

Among Blum & Blum's earliest substantial commissions came from T. J. McLaughlin Sons in 1912.  It came at a time when aristocratic West End Avenue was changing from a thoroughfare of brick and brownstone mansions to high-end apartments.  On May 12, 1912, the New-York Tribune wrote:

The transformation of West End avenue into a greater apartment house thoroughfare is one of the most important features of the real estate market.  The row of dwelling houses No. 772 to 780 West End avenue...was bought last week by a builder, who will erect on the site a twelve story apartment house.

Blum & Blum embellished the white brick facade of 780 West End Avenue with lush art nouveau decoration in matching terra cotta.  Intricate tiles created window framework and bandcourses, while balconies atop elaborate art nouveau half-bowls were guarded by Vienna Successionist railings.

Most striking was the arched entrance.  Its intricate wrought iron doorway was outlined by swirling terra cotta shields and foliate forms within a story-and-a-half frame of complex tiles.

Potential residents could choose among apartments of 5, 6, or 7 rooms.  Among the first to move in were Edward B. Kinney and his wife Carrie.  The couple was married on April 20, 1899 and had three sons, Edward (who went by his middle name Sanford), Howard and Donald.

Kinney was a man of broad interests.  He was a partner in the mattress firm Wilcox & Kinney, was a professional organist, a vocal coach, and choirmaster.

advertisement from the 1912 Boston Symphony Orchestra Programme.

It was the Kinneys' religious affiliations that set them apart.  Edward was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith in 1895 and Carrie became an adherent shortly afterward.  On April 9, 1913, Star of the West reported that the headquarters of the New York Bahá’í Assembly would be "the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Kinney, 780 West End Avenue."  Their apartment was the scene of meetings, like the one on December 2, 1912 during which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá summarized "the Bahá’í approach to race, religion, and the progress of humanity most fully," according to historian Robert Stockman.

Walter Rockefeller Comfort was born in 1858 to Daniel Comfort and his wife, the former Mary Ellen Rockefeller.  He was president of seven companies, including the Reed Ice Cream Company and the Fruit and Land Co. of Florida; was a director in two banks and four corporations; treasurer of two firms; and a director of the Drew Theological Seminary.  He and his wife, Almira LaDue Comfort, had three children, Walter, Jr., Irene, and Eleanor.

The Comfort apartment was the scene of a society wedding on June 1, 1915 when Irene was married to Robcliff Vesey Jones.  Despite being a home wedding, Irene had three attendants and there were as many ushers.

It was social affairs like the Comfort-Jones wedding that brought attention to 780 West End Avenue until 1916.  Wealthy stock broker Leonard J. Field and his wife, Katherine Peters lived here at the time.  Katherine was described by the New-York Tribune as "a stage beauty."  When Field's father, stockbroker Jacob Field, retired in 1906, the New-York Tribune estimated his fortune at as much as $3 million (the figure would be closer to $105 million today).

Field had had a brush with ignominy in 1911 when he "figured in the scandal growing out of the alleged larceny...of  copper stock valued at more than $100,000 from F. Augustus Heinze," according to the New-York Tribune.  His indictment was dismissed.

Now his name was again in the newspapers for the wrong reasons.  On April 26, 1916, motion picture producer George A. Gullette sued Field for $100,000 for alienating his wife's affections.  Actress Grace Olive Gullette and the couple's four year old daughter were living in a "luxurious apartment," according to Gullette, directly across the street from Field at 771 West End Avenue.  Leonard Field was paying for that apartment.

The scandal only deepened when Grace Gullette's sister, Dorothy Schnidt, testified that Grace was not entirely to blame.  She said in part,

I was surprised she had changed her residency.  I learned for the first time that Mrs. Gullette was living with Mr. Field, under the name of Mrs. Leonard J. Field.  She had diamonds galore.  The apartment was gorgeously furnished.  Olive became hysterical and seemed irrational.  I learned later that a large amount of morphine had been administered to her.

The Evening World explained that Field kept Gullette under his control "by lavishing expensive gifts upon her and administering harmful drugs."  According to Dorothy Schnidt, he slipped a "white powder" into her tea.

When America entered World War I, socialites threw themselves into relief work, knitting socks or holding benefits, for instance.  Others, like Mathilde Delmetsch, were more proactive.  The recent debutante left the comfort of 780 West End Avenue to drive an ambulance for the Motor Corps of the National League for Woman's Service.

Mathilde's father, Richard Dolmetsch was the treasurer and director of the Egyptian Lacquer Manufacturing Company.  Like their neighbors, the family enjoyed an upscale lifestyle, including summers at fashionable resorts like White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. 

While Mathilde was driving an ambulance, Harry C. W. Schultz de Brun of 385 Central Park West was fighting with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Italy.  The well-educated young man held degrees from New York University, Fordham University and the University at Bordeaux, France.  

Whether the two knew one another from West End Avenue or if they met during the war is unclear, but on October 12, 1919, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dolmetsch of 780 West End avenue have announced the engagement of their daughter, Miss Mathilde Dolmetsch to Major Harry c. W. Schultz de Brun."  

The wedding was scheduled for June 12, 1920 in the Collegiate Reformed Church.  In the meantime, Richard Dolmetsch stepped down from his position as treasurer of the Egyptian Lacquer Manufacturing Company, one that he had held since 1895.  A month before the wedding, it became clear why.

On May 13, 1920, the New-York Tribune reported that Richard Dolmetsch, "had refused to account to the corporation for about $6,000,000."  An auditing of the books revealed, "During Dolmetch's [sic] tenure as treasurer, it is alleged, about $8,000,000 passed through his hands and he deposited large sums in banks and trust companies to his account as trustee."  The courts directed Dolmetsch to repay Egyptian Lacquer Manufacturing Company the missing funds.  (It was a massive amount, equal to more than $90 million today.)

Mathilde, however, seemed unruffled by the scandal.  On June 7, the New York Herald reported she "will give a luncheon in the Hotel Astor on Thursday for her bridesmaids."  And, indeed, the wedding and the reception in the Plaza Hotel went on as planned.

That same year, a portion of the apartments were changed to cooperatives.  An advertisement on June 6, 1920 in The New York Times priced them at between $10,500 to $24,000--equal to between $160,000 and $365,000 in 2024.  For those not wanting to buy, rents for the smallest suites were the equivalent of $3,800 per month today.

Living here at the time were Fleming Hewitt Revell, Jr. and his wife, the former Marion Conrell.  The couple were married in Boston in 1911 and had a daughter, Muriel, who was born the following year.  A graduate of Yale, in 1907 Revell joined the publishing firm founded by his father, the Fleming H. Revell Company.  He would become president in 1929.

Perhaps the most celebrated residents were playwright Edwin Milton Royle and his actress wife Selena Fetter Royle.  Born in Lexington, Missouri in 1862, Royle's best known play was the 1905 The Squaw Man, which was adapted as Cecil B. DeMille's first Hollywood film in 1914.

Edwin Milton Royle image via mormonwiki.com

Selena Fetter-Royle was born in Kentucky in 1860.  Her first Broadway appearance was as Marquerite Otto in the 1892 production of Friends.  The couple had two daughters, Selena and Josephine.  

Selena Fetter-Royle, image via californiarevealed.org

In 1921, Edwin Milton Royle wrote the Broadway play Lancelot and Elaine with the roles of Guinevere and Elaine specifically created for his daughters, Selena and Josephine respectively.  Selena would go on to become an even more celebrated actress than her mother.

On February 17, 1942, the Daily News reported that Edwin Milton Royle had died in his apartment at the age of 79.  "Funeral services will be held in the Little Church Around the Corner at 2 P.M. tomorrow," said the article.  Selena Fetter-Royle later moved to Hollywood where she died at the age of 95 in 1955.

At least two residents of 780 West End Avenue were part of the anti-establishment movement in the second half of the century.  Morris Alan Older Grosmer lived here by the mid-1960s.  He was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, a national student activist organization known for demonstrations like campus sit-ins, organized marches on Washington, and sometimes violent clashes with police.  He landed on the Congressional Committee on Government Operations' list of "militancy, extremism, and violence," in 1969 after he participated in a trip to Communist Cuba the previous August.

Andrea Rosenberg was a Phi Beta Kappa anthropology major at Barnard in 1970.  On May 21, three undercover agents posing as prospective customers arrested her in her apartment.  They seized "six pounds of hashish, seven pounds of marijuana, along with quantities of LSD and amphetamines," according to the Columbia Daily Spectator.  "Police agents at the time of the arrest estimated the value of the drugs at $100,000, said the article."  She pleaded guilty and was placed on five years probation.

Blum & Blum's spectacular building is one of only a handful of significant art nouveau style structures in Manhattan.  Importantly, its exterior has survived astonishingly intact.

photographs by the author

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