The Van Buren Ryerson House -- 129 East 94th Street

 

In 1878 developers Duffy & Bros. tackled the problem of developing Goat Hill--presumably named because its steep slope had made it unworkable for planting, but quite satisfactory for grazing goats.  That year they hired architect F. S. Barus to design nine rowhouses--121 through 137 East 94th Street--between Park and Lexington Avenues.  The 16-and-one-half-feet wide homes were completed in 1879.

Among the group was 129 East 94th Street.  Faced in brownstone, it rose three stories above a high English basement.  Beefy cast iron newels and railings flanked the stoop, and austere stone architraves embraced the openings.  Their sills and molded cornices sat on scrolled brackets.

It became home to engineer and inventor Van Buren Ryerson.  Born in 1805, he was renowned for his inventions, like his 1869 Ryerson Pulverizer used by miners to pulverize dry ores.  But none was more celebrated than his 1858 Sub Marine Explorer, a pioneering diving bell.  Ryerson's residency would be short-lived.  He died in the house on November 16, 1880 at the age of 75.  

Frank R. Houghton purchased the house.  A real estate broker, he was treasurer of the Real Estate Board of Brokers.  Houghton offered 129 East 94th Street for sale in March 1890 for $16,000, guaranteeing its "value [will] surely increase."  

Andrew Fay purchased the house in September 1892 after, apparently, negotiating the price.  He paid $15,500, or about $551,000 in 2026.

An attorney, Fay was an assistant clerk in the District Attorney's office.  He and his wife, Maria, had five children, Elizabeth A., Edward J., Eugene, Loretta, and William A.

The Fay family led quiet lives, never appearing in the society pages.  Other than legal business matters, Andrew Fay's name did not appear in print until his passing here on October 24, 1906.  And even then, his death notice was a succinct, one-sentence announcement.  His funeral was held in the drawing room two days later.

Interestingly, Fay bequeathed the house in equal portions to his children.  Maria was not included in the title.

At the time of their father's death, at least Eugene, Loretta and Elizabeth were still living with Maria.  Eugene was highly involved in civic affairs and on January 24, 1906 was appointed a member of the Local School Board of the 16th District.  

On January 21, 1909, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. John J. Daniels and Miss Elizabeth M. Fay were married yesterday in the Church of St. Francis de Sales."  Loretta was her sister's maid of honor.  The article noted, "A wedding breakfast was served at the home of the bride's mother, Mrs. Andrew Fay, at No. 129 East Ninety-fourth street."

Maria Fay died on August 16, 1912.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room on the 20th, followed by a mass at the Church of St. Francis de Sales.

In 1941, the muscular stoop ironwork was intact.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The house saw several occupants over the subsequent years.  It was lost in foreclosure in the World War II years.  On August 5, 1943, The New York Times reported, "Paul G. Reilly of the law firm of Earle, Rust & Reilly has bought for his own occupancy, the three-story brownstone dwelling."  

Reilly and his wife, Lillian, made substantial changes before moving in.  The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered below grade.  The 1879 details of the parlor floor openings were shaved off.  (Oddly enough, the upper floor windows were left intact.)  A second renovation remodeled the interiors  in 1948.  During one of the projects, the brownstone was stuccoed.

image via Google Streetview

Paul and Lillian had three sons, Willis, Gorman, and Paul Jr., and a daughter, Jane.  Reilly had been a member of Reilly, Fleming & Reilly since the 1930s.  In 1948, he represented the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy for reimbursement for 22 million acres of upstate New York land.  He would work on the case for four decades, amassing a library of photocopies of treaties between Native American nations and the U.S. Government, maps, chapters from history books, and other materials.

In 1954, Reilly unsuccessfully ran for the House of Representatives.  The couple was in San Pedro Cantira, Spain on April 26, 1979 when Reilly died at the age of 70.  His casework materials, called The Paul G. Reilly Indian Collection, was donated to the E. H. Butler Library of The State University of New York.

In 2014, a restoration was initiated by William Vitacco Associates, Ltd.  The stoop was restored, the stucco removed, and the window details refabricated.  Still a single-family home, it has been sympathetically returned to its 1879 appearance.

photographs by the author

Mills & Bottomley's 1920 1049 Park Avenue

 

photograph by Deansfa

J. Lang Mills and W. L. Bottomley worked as Mills & Bottomley in 1919 when they received the commission to design a 13-story apartment building on Park Avenue near the southeast corner of 87th Street from Katharine Abbot, head of the Abbotsford Realty Corporation.  Faced in brown brick and trimmed in stone and terra cotta, 1049 Park Avenue was completed in 1921 at a cost of $350,000 (about $6.5 million in 2026).

The tripartite, neo-Renaissance design included a three-story base, the lower two floors of which were enhanced with decorated quoins.  The centered entrance was flanked by double-height fluted Corinthian pilasters.  Above the doorway was an entablature with intricate Renaissance decorations and a window fronted by a faux balcony.  The pilasters rose to a broken pediment from which emerged a window topped with yet another broken pediment.  Portrait keystones enhanced each of the third floor openings.

While the architects left the seven-story midsection essentially unadorned, they gave the top section exuberant decoration.  Between the openings of the 11th and 12th floors were double-height, terra cotta cartouches filled with dangling garlands.  Smaller examples decorated the top floor above a terra cotta intermediate cornice.  A decorative parapet above the cornice was interrupted by paneled blocks that sprouted towering finials.

In 1922, a private house survived on the south side of 1049 Park Avenue.  photograph by John Wallace Gillier, from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The American Institute of Architects presented Katharine H. Abbot the gold medal for apartment house buildings completed in 1921.  It praised Mills and Bottomley "for the originality of its design, the pleasing proportions, the clever use of materials, and the domestic feeling of the building."

There were three apartments per floor--four, six or seven rooms each with two or three baths.  The penthouse apartment had nine rooms.  Rents ranged from $3,000 to $6,000 per year, or about $9,500 per month for the most expensive.

On Christmas night 1921, the Robert L. Huntzinger family was away from the city.  Their servants, according to the New York Herald, were "at a party."  With the apartment temporarily unguarded, burglars moved in.  The New York Herald reported, "Several thousand dollars' worth of silver and jewelry was reported taken."  Police surmised that the thief was "some one familiar with the premises and habits of the tenants."

Among the Huntzingers' neighbors in the building was the socially prestigious Caroline Suydam Whitney Fellowes, the widow of Colonel Cornelius Fellows.  As the daughter of Henry Whitney, the New York Herald remarked that she "was a member of one of the oldest New York and New England families" and was related to the Livingstons and Kernochans.  Caroline Fellowes's health began to decline in 1922 and she died on September 22, "in her seventieth year of infirmities from which she had suffered for months," as reported by the New York Herald.  

A young Caroline Suydam Whitney Fellowes, from a family album.

Canada-born siblings Florence Mary Lynch and W. F. Lynch were initial residents.  Florence was educated in Ottawa and at the Villa Marie Convent in Montreal.  W. F. Lynch was with the Cuba Railway Company and "was for some years secretary to Sir William Van Horne, predecessor of Baron Shaughnessy as president of the Canadian Pacific Railway," according to the New York Herald.

It was possibly through her brother's involvement in the railroads that Florence met D. C. Coleman, who lived in Winnipeg.  The 43-year-old was vice-president of the Canadian Pacific Railway's western lines.  The couple was married in St. Ignatius Loyola Church on October 28, 1922.  The New York Herald reported, "A small reception will follow at the home of Miss Lynch and her brother."

On April 9, 1924, the New York Evening Post reported that Barry Doyle, "the illustrious cousin and adopted brother of the originator of the famous Sherlock Holmes, was the guest of honor at a reception "at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Pullman West."  The article said the reception was being held "in the interest of the fund being raised for the relief of the starving children of the Near East."

Born in Providence, Rhode Island on December 18, 1876.  Stuart Pullman West was the nephew of George M. Pullman, the founder of the Pullman Company.  He graduated from Harvard in 1897 and was was the financial editor of The Evening World and contributor to the Wall Street Journal.  He and Eliza Von Bretton Di Zerega were married in January 1902 and they had one son and one daughter.  The couple's movements were followed by the society columns and on June 12, 1924, the Chicago Daily Tribune remarked, "Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Pullman West of 1049 Park avenue will pass the early summer at Whiteface Inn, Lake Placid."

Eliza West died on December 11, 1925 at the age of 46.  Before long, Stuart began a romantic relationship with Loren Oldham Crenshaw, described by The Yonkers Statesman as "a prominent society woman."  But tragedy interrupted their courtship.  Stuart Pullman West was diagnosed with tuberculosis early in 1927.  The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi explained that his illness was not discovered before it "was critical."   

photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the New York Public Library

On February 19, 1927, The Yonkers Statesman reported, "Romance dared to defy death two weeks ago."  The article said that Loren Crenshaw went to Stuart's bedside where they were married by a municipal court justice.  It continued, "Yesterday death won, when West's game fight against the ravages of tuberculosis proved unavailing."

Stuart Pullman West left an estate equal to $5.56 million today.  On March 1, 1927, The New York Times reported that his will "made no provision for his wife, Mrs. Loren Oldham Crenshaw West, whom he married a week before he died."  A reporter called on Loren West in her 1049 Park Avenue apartment.  She explained, "The will was made before I met Mr. West and I knew all about it.  Its provisions were not in any way a surprise."

In the meantime, H. Ivan Stengel and his wife, Marguerite, occupied a sixth-floor apartment.  Stengel was an engineer with the Cadillac Automotive Company.  He was, as well, the president of the Automobile Merchants' Association.  Their country home was in Larchmont, New York.

On the morning of April 8, 1924, the couple had a "shopping engagement."  Marguerite returned to 1049 Park Avenue around 11:00.  Hoping to summon a servant to help with her packages, she rang the apartment's bell from the lobby, but got no response.  The New York Times reported, "on alighting from the elevator again, [she] again rang to save herself the trouble of getting her keys from her bag."  Again she got no response.  Assuming that her maid, Louise, and her cook, Mary, were "in the rear of the deep apartment," she let herself in.

As she passed through the foyer, she could see a diagonal view into her bedroom through the half-opened door.  Marguerite later explained that she was frozen in fear seeing a man going through her dresser drawers.  "He had extracted a jewel case Mrs. Stengel kept there and before her eyes he proceeded to take from it two strands of pearls, one valued at $14,000 and the other at $10,000," said The New York Times. 

After approximately a minute, Marguerite uttered a sound and the burglar "glanced up sharply to catch her reflection in a mirror across the room."  He drew a revolver and Marguerite fled down the stairway all the way to the lobby.  The superintendent blew a police whistle and "mustering a posse of house attendants," headed upstairs.  The New York Times reported that they found "the servants, locked, terror-stricken, in a small room adjoining the bedroom."  The burglar had gotten away with jewelry valued at the equivalent of $940,000 today.

Marguerite described the thief as being "stumpy" and wearing a red wig.  The New York Times reported, "A red wig and a cap found on a rear fire escape marked his trail."

Four months later, on August 18, Louis Hernandez Campos (called the "red wig robber" by newspapers) was arrested in Washington D.C.  Campos had attempted to pawn one of the valuable pearl necklaces.  The New York Times reported, "In a canvas belt around his waist were jewels valued at $60,000."

The Stengels were at their Larchmont home at the time.  The following day, detectives arrived there and arrested their maid, Louise Provnka (who had been tied, gagged and imprisoned with the cook during the robbery).  In questioning Campos, they had discovered that Louise was his wife.  The New York Times reported, "the maid admitted she was the wife of Campos and had planned the robbery with him."

Helen Churchill Hungerford Candee lived here at the time.  Born in October 1858, she had divorced her abusive husband, Edward Candee in 1896.  An early feminist, her first book, How Women May Earn a Living, published in 1900 was a best-seller.  She went on to be a journalist, author, interior decorator, and geographer.  She was a close friend of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt.  Her personal account of surviving the RMS Titanic, Down To the Sea in Ships, would be published by her granddaughter years later.

Helen Churchill Candee, (original source unknown)

Helen eventually wrote eight books, traveled throughout the world, and even consulted with the Roosevelts in the remodeling of the White House's West Wing in 1909.  The remarkable author and lecturer died in York Harbor, Maine at the age of 90 on August 23, 1949.

The building continued to be home to well-heeled residents.  In August 1941, assistant publicity director of R. H. Macy & Co. John Goodwillie leased "a large penthouse apartment," as described by The New York Times.  Living here at the time was Oscar Gavrilovich, the Yugoslav Consul General.  His brother, Otto Gavrilovich, was Secretary of the Treasury of Yugoslavia.

In 1947 Josip Broz Tito created a new Yugoslavian Communist Government.  The Gavrilovich brothers found themselves in a difficult position.  On October 15, The New York Times reported that Oscar "is about to become a press agent" and that he would soon open a "diplomatic public relations office."  Otto, mentioned the article, "last month opened a retail women's apparel shop here."

Following World War II, Captain Stephen Booth McKinney and his wife, Sarah, moved into 1049 Park Avenue.  McKinney graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1903 and had been Chief of Staff of the Third Naval District during World War II.  He commanded the battleship Idaho from August 1939 to February 1941.  He was retired in 1946 "for medical reasons," according to The New York Times.  Now he was an executive in the law department of the National Association of Credit Men.

On October 9, 1953, McKinney was placed under the care of a heart specialist.  Three days later the 68-year-old plunged from the couple's apartment window.  The New York Times reported, "His pajama-clad body landed in a rear yard."

In 1960, 1049 Park Avenue underwent a cooperative conversion.  Among the residents at the time included Claudius D. Duncan, vice president of the Chemical Bank New York Trust Company and his wife, the former Mary Martin.  Claudius died of a heart ailment on September 1, 1961.  Three years later, on November 29, 1964, Mary announced the engagement of their daughter, Mary Martin Duncan, to Charles Francis Clement 3d.  In reporting the announcement, The New York Times remarked that Mary graduated from the Chapin School and was presented to society at the Grosvenor Ball in 1961.

The entrance of 1049 Park Avenue became familiar to television viewers nationwide starting in 1970.  The opening scene of every episode of The Odd Couple depicted Oscar (Jack Klugman) and Felix (Tony Randall) emerging from the building--Oscar throwing his cigar butt to the sidewalk and Felix picking it up with the point of his umbrella.

image via cityrealty.com

At some point the crowning parapet and its remarkable finials were removed from the building.  And unsympathetic masonry repairs have resulted in a patchwork of brick colors.  But, overall, 1049 Park Avenue survives highly intact.

The 1892 Felix Hamberger House - 123 East 95th Street

 

In two phases--completed in 1890 and 1892--developer Francis J. Schnugg erected 17 abutting houses on the northern side of East 95th Street between Park and Madison Avenues.  Nearly filling the blockfront, they were designed by Louis Entzer Jr. in a happy blend of styles.  Among the second phase was 123 East 95th Street, a mirror image of No. 125.  The structures' Rorschach-like design was best exemplified in the shared molding and Renaissance Revival carving that straddled the doorways.

Along with side-by-side stoops, the parlor floor ornaments unified the pair.

Entzer's potpourri of styles included Gothic Revival inspired square-headed moldings at the parlor level, the Renaissance Revival carving above the doors and faceted oriels at the second floor in the same style, Romanesque Revival arched windows and eyebrows at the third floor, and neo-Classical swags and wreaths in the pressed metal cornices.

No. 123 was purchased by Felix Hamberger, an insurance broker.  The family's upper-middle-class status was reflected in their ads looking for domestic help.  In wealthy families, the roles of the staff were highly defined, while in middle-class homes servants took on several responsibilities.  An advertisement on October 2, 1895 read: "General housework and plain cooking for family, adults.  123 East 95th st." and the following year, on June 15, 1896, an ad sought a "Girl to do plain cooking, washing and ironing for small family of adults."

Francis Schnugg reclaimed the house in foreclosure in 1902.  It was sold to Bernard Neuhaus who resold it to Charles Gulden in June 1906.  Gulden purchased the house as an investment and leased it to Dr. George A. Friedman and his wife.  The couple had two small children.

Among the Friedmans' staff was Katie Becker, described by the New York Herald as "a Hungarian girl of 22."  On April 27, 1912, the newspaper said that Katie was "such a model maidservant that [the couple] wouldn't part with her for anything.  Peace and quiet usually follow Katies ministrations to household needs."

That peace and quiet was shattered the the night of April 25.  Dr. Friedman came home late from a meeting at Mount Sinai Hospital.  "He found his wife and Katie in the dining room, where Katie had prepared a late supper," said the New York Herald.  Just as Friedman sat down in the basement level dining room, Katie remarked that she smelled smoke.  The doctor investigated and found the portieres between the living room and his consulting room were on fire.  The fire was put out, but Katie was "greatly excited."

Dr. Friedman assumed that Katie had accidentally set the curtains on fire while lighting the gas fixtures.  He told Katie that "she wouldn't be scolded," but she insisted that she had nothing to do with the fire.  Unconvinced, Friedman and his wife went back to their dinner and Katie went upstairs.

Seconds later, the Friedmans were jolted by Katie's screams.  The doctor bolted out of the basement door to find a policeman.  The street was busy with men and women who were leaving a dance nearby.  By the time Friedman brought back a policeman, he found his parlor floor crowded with passersby who "had run in to find out what the matter was."  He also found Katie, "lying on the floor under a small table."

The curtain incident had been, apparently, a distraction by an intruder.  When Katie came to, she told of entering her room to surprise a "big man."  She told investigators that he "put chloroform to her mouth and then dragged her downstairs, throwing her into the room where she was found," according to the newspaper.  Other than the $2.50 that had been in her purse, the intruder took nothing.

Because of that, police did not believe Katie's story.  The New York Herald said, "The police were somewhat inclined to think that Katie's digestion was out of order."  Her employer, however, trusted her.  Dr. Friedman now accepted that the "queer burglar" had set the curtains on fire and "that it was a real adventure that Katie met with when she climbed the stairs."  The article said, "So Katie won't loose her job on a charge of being too imaginative."

Dr. Friedman placed what many readers must have consider a bizarre ad in the "Lost" columns of The New York Times on July 14, 1913.  "LOST--Six rubber stomach tubes, July 9, on Lexington car, 118th St.; reward.  Physician, 123 East 95th St., 9 to 1 P.M."

The Friedmans continued to rent 123 East 95th Street through 1918.  On January 28, 1919, the New-York Tribune reported that the Charles Gulden Estate had leased it to Mrs. Harry Symonds.  She was still occupying the house when the Charles Gulden Estate offered it for sale in November 1920.

It is unclear whether Mrs. Symonds continued to lease the house from the new owner, or if she, in fact, was the purchaser.  Either way, she continued to live here.  Her vocation was the breeding of pedigree Pekingese dogs and in 1921 a dozen of her dogs were listed in The American Kennel Gazette and Stud Book.

On December 12, 1925, Noble T. Macfarland and Helen Brantingham were married in Rockford, Illinois.  Macfarland was a 1919 graduate of Amherst College and was a partner in Beckhard & Macfarlane, concert promoters.  The February 1926 issue of the Amherst Graduates' Quarterly noted, "They live at 123 East 95th Street."

As early as 1929, Henry Anderson Rapp (known as Harry) and his wife, the former Elizabeth Reilly, occupied the house.  The couple was married in 1927 and on January 7, 1929, The New York Times reported that their daughter had been born the previous day.  Suzanne Elizabeth would get a sister, Elizabeth Pamela, in 1936.  

Sharing the house by then were Henry's older brother, William J., and his wife, the former Martha Florentine Geyer Rapp.  A maritime attorney, Henry was a partner in the law firm Hann & Rapp.  Also living here was the brothers' widowed mother, Anna G. Reilly Rapp.  Anna was born in 1870.  Her husband and William's and Harry's father, Francis Berkely Rapp, died in 1921.

A young Anna G. Reilly Rapp as she appeared around the 1890s.  (original source unknown)

It was almost assuredly the Rapps who altered the parlor opening to French windows with multiple panes sometime before 1940.

The updated parlor window was in place in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Harry Rapp family's trip to the Bronx on July 4, 1940 was doubly unlucky.  They got a flat tire in Pelham Manor and Harry pulled over to change it.  While he worked, Forest L. Appelby, Jr. slammed his car into the rear of Harry's.  The Daily Argus of Mount Vernon, New York reported, "Both cars were considerably damaged."

Anna G. Rapp died at the age of 75 on October 11, 1946.  Her estate of "more than $10,000," according to the New York Star Journal, was divided equally among her six children.

By the time of Susanne Elizabeth's engagement to E. D. Farrell Sullivan in January 1951, her family had moved to 118 East 93rd Street.  William and Martha continued to live in the East 95th Street house.  

William J. Rapp, who was still actively working at the time, died of a heart attack on December 19, 1965 at the age of 73.  It is unclear how long Martha continued to live at 123 East 95th Street.

An original mantelpiece survives on the parlor floor.  image via streeteasy.com

At some point, the house was converted to a two-family home.  Much of the interior detailing survives and from the exterior the house has changed little since the parlor windows were updated in the early 20th century.

photographs by the author

The 1887 Henry and Helen Hirsch House - 116 East 95th Street

 

In 1887 developer brothers William J. and John P. C. Walsh set out on an ambitious project of a row of 12 residences on the south side of the 95th Street block between Lexington and Park Avenues--numbers 116 to 138.  The steeply sloping site was known as Goat Hill.

The architectural firm of C. Abbott French & Co. turned to the popular Queen Anne style in designing the individual, yet harmonious homes.  Seen more frequently on the west side of Central Park, the often-whimsical style played with historic elements, materials, shapes and colors.

Like its neighbors, 116 East 95th Street was three stories tall above a brownstone fronted basement.  A dog-legged box stoop rose to the segmentally arched doorway, the terra cotta lintel of which connected that of the window creating a graceful wavelike effect.  A cast metal oriel, flanked by basketweave brick panels, dominated the second floor.  The openings of the third floor wore elaborate terra cotta decoration--the outer windows crowned with arches filled with sunbursts and mythical faces, and the central opening topped with a draped swans' head pediment.  Rather than a cornice, the house was completed by an arched brick parapet supported by a complex brick corbel table.

The house had a rocky start.  Its original owner, James R. Cuming, lost it in foreclosure in 1891 to Daniel P. Mahoney.  He immediately sold it to Henry Wallach, who sold it to Irving and Mollie Hirschfeld in May 1895.  The couple paid $16,500 for the house, or about $636,000 in 2026.

The Hirschfelds, too, would not remain especially long.  On April 12, 1902, they announced the engagement of their daughter, Minnie, to Henry Cohen.  Before the end of the year, they had sold 116 East 95th Street to Henry Hirsch and his wife, the former Helen Ella Gattman.

Henry was born in 1839 and Helen around 1845.  They couple, who were married in 1864, had seven adult children.  In July 1903, only months after purchasing No. 116, the couple hired architect J. Berry to make the equivalent of $276,000 today in interior renovations. 

Helen Hirsch, of course, had a small domestic staff.  On March 29, 1906, for instance, she advertised, "A neat girl wanted as chambermaid, assist washing; small private family.  116 East 95th st."

Henry Hirsh died in the house at the age of 77 on May 26, 1916.  His succinct, two-line death notice said, "Interment private."

Four years later, on May 5, 1920, The New York Times reported that Helen Ella Hirsch had sold the 20-foot-wide house.  The buyers were Latham Gallup Reed and his wife, the former Mary Newbold Welsh.

An attorney, Reed was born in Albany on December 10, 1855.  His American pedigree was deep and he descended from members of the Plymouth Colony.  His father was an Episcopalian priest, Rev. Sylvanus Reed, and his mother, Caroline Gallup Reed, "maintained a fashionable girls' school," according to The New York Times later. He studied at Columbia before transferring to Cambridge University where he earned his law degree.

He and Mary were married in 1884.  Latham was 29 and his bride was 25.  The couple had a son, Latham Ralston, and a daughter, Elizabeth Eunice.  When they moved into 116 East 95th Street, Latham Reed had been retired for six years.  The family's country home was in Locust, New Jersey.

Elizabeth, who never married, lived with her parents.  She was, perhaps, more visible in society than her mother.  On October 30, 1928, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Miss Elizabeth Reed...gave a reception yesterday afternoon at the Junior League Club, 133 East Sixty-first Street, for the Countess de la Gabbe, who is here from Paris."

Mary Newbold Welsh Reed died in the East 95th Street house on November 26, 1943 at the age of 84.  Her funeral was held two days later in All Saints Memorial Church in Navesink, New Jersey.

The stained-glass transoms of the parlor level and the charming  multi-paned, Queen Anne-style sashes of the top floor were intact in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1945, Latham Gallup Reed fell ill.  He died "after a brief illness," according to The New York Times, on November 29 at the age of 89.  The newspaper described him as an "internationally known lawyer."

No. 116 East 95th Street was sold the following year in June to Colonel George Leonidovich Artamonoff and his wife, the former Jessie Downing.  Born in Kursk, Russia on April 21, 1902, Artamonoff's father was General Leonid Konstantinovich Artamonoff of the Imperial Russian Army.  George fought in the White Army in 1919 before fleeing to the United States in 1921.

At the outbreak of World War II, Artamonoff was commissioned a major in the United States Army.  The conflict would cut short the couple's residency here.  The New York Times reported that in 1947, he was made "director of the Tokyo office of the Marshall Plan."  He was charged with "restoring economic relations between Japan and countries of Southeast Asia."  The Artamonoffs leased the house until June 1949, when they sold it.  

The subsequent occupants of the residence continued to be affluent--albeit not always as upstanding as their predecessors.  Harold Von Maker lived here in 1968 when was one of eight men, "including Carmine Lombardozzi, the Mafia figure," according to The New York Times, who were arrested by the FBI.  They were charged for conspiracy to steal brokerage checks.

Five years later, on August 16, 1973, The East Hampton Star reported that "Steven H. Maltby, 22, of 116 East 95th Street, New York" had been arrested.  He was charged "with criminal possession of a dangerous drug in the sixth degree (LSD)."

The house, still a single-family home, was renovated in 2020.  It was most likely at this time, that the stained-glass in the parlor floor transoms were removed in the process of replacing the windows.  

photographs by the author

The 1892 John Stich House - 117 East 95th Street

 

In 1891, developer Francis J. Schnugg hired Louis Entzer, Jr. to design nine abutting houses on the northern side East 95th Street between Park and Madison Avenues.  Along with the eight homes the pair created a year earlier, they would nearly fill the blockfront.

Completed in 1892, Entzer's row would compliment the earlier houses.  The four designs were configured in an A-B-C-C-D-D-B-A pattern.  Among the B models was 117 East 95th Street and, like its architectural siblings, was three stories high above a basement.  The undressed stone blocks and the heavy voussoirs over the arched parlor windows were Romanesque Revival in style.  Above the double-doored entrance, a stained-glass transom incorporated the address.

Entzer gave the planar sandstone of the upper two floors interest by striating it with bands of rough cut stone.  A sheet metal oriel dominated the second floor--its whimsical bosses along its base and the artistic panes of the upper sashes were Queen Anne in design.  The architect continued to blend styles by placing Gothic Revival, square-headed drip moldings above the top floor windows.  An elaborate and highly unusual pressed metal cornice completed the design.

The house became home to the John Stich family.  Born in 1856, Stich was the head of the John Stich Building Company.  He and his wife, the former Rose Herrmann, had two daughters: Mildred, born in 1882, and Nellie, born in 1886.

John Stich (original source unknown)

The 1899-1900 winter social season saw 18-year-old Mildred's debut.  Debutante entertainments often stretched for weeks, and on January 7, 1900, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. John Stich, of 117 East Ninety-fifth street, gave a musical and dance on New Year's night in honor of their daughter Mildred."

Two years later, on October 1, 1902, the New York Herald reported that John and Rose had announced Mildred's engagement to Saul Manovitch.  It may have been that article that provided Mary Smith the alternative identity she needed.

Shortly afterward, Mary Smith, described by The New York Times as "stylish and twenty-five years old," went on a shopping spree in the Stern Brothers' dry goods store on West 23rd Street.  She was arrested on October 25, 1902 "charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses."  The article said she confessed "to having obtained a large quantity of goods by representing herself to be the daughter of Mrs. John Stitch [sic] of 117 East Ninety-fifth Street."

John Stich sold the 18-foot-wide residence in April 1903 to Hyman (who often angelized his name to Herman) Adelstein.  He was born in Russia (in an area that would later become part of Poland) on December 7, 1868 and came to America in 1887.  He was a partner with Herman Avrutine in an iron foundry.

Hyman and his wife, the former Rosa Solvey, had six children--the eldest, Michael, was 13 years old when the family moved into 117 East 95th Street and the youngest, Sidney, was three.  Also living with the family was Ida Ksofsky, a niece.  Ida's time here was relatively short.  On February 4, 1906, Hyman and Rosa announced her engagement to Ezekiel Yachnowitz.

The Adelsteins were supplanted by the Jacob Lunitz family as early as 1912.  Lunitz was president of the Laclun Realty Company.  Like Hyman Adelstein, he was born in the Russian Empire around 1865.  He arrived in the United States in 1878.  Jacob and his wife, the former Betsie Horwitz, had six surviving children.  Two others, Feige and Salie, had died in 1894 and 1900, respectively.  The family maintained a summer home in Tannersville, New York.

Jacob and Betsie announced daughter Pansy's engagement to Louis Propp on March 1, 1920.  The Lunitzes were already planning a move and on July 10, the Record & Guide reported that they had sold 117 East 95th Street to Ernest and Oscar Sondheim.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Brothers Ernest and Oscar Sondheim were partners in The Imperial Metal Manufacturing Corporation, the factory of which was located in Long Island City, and in the Perfumers & Jewelers Box Company on West 14th Street.

The bachelor brothers purchased 117 East 95th Street as a family home.  Living with them here were their widowed mother and their unmarried sisters.

Ernest Sondheim was the last of the family to occupy the house.  He died in 1954, 34 years after moving in, and his estate sold the house to George Axelrod.  He resold it eight years later, in August 1962, to designer Stephen Kyle and his wife, entertainer, lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter Betty Comden. 

The couple, who were married in 1942, had created their own names.  Stephen Kyle was born Siegfried Schutzman and Betty Comden was born in Brooklyn in 1917 as Basya Cohen.  They had two children, Susanna and Alan.  

Betty Comden, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Betty Comden formed a troupe, the Revuers, in 1938 that included Judy Holliday, Adolph Green, and Leonard Bernstein.  Comden and Adolph Green partnered to write musical plays.  Their first Broadway production was the 1944 musical On the Town.  They relocated to California and, working for MGM, wrote screenplays.  Among their output were The Barkleys of Broadway, Singin' in the Rain, and The Band Wagon.

Now, back in New York City, Betty and Stephen became close friends with Leonard Bernstein.  When his wife, Felicia Montealegre, died in 1978, Betty wrote a moving letter that ended,

You are so much, Lenny--so many qualities and gifts and inner voices not given to many human beings.  You will find your strength somehow in them--and in the beautiful elements added to them by the co-mingling of your life and Felicia's.

        Much love, always, from Steve and from me.  Betty

A year after that letter, Stephen Kyle died of pancreatitis.  

Betty Comden and Adolph Green received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.  She died in the New York Presbyterian Hospital on November 23, 2006 at the age of 89.

The following year, an apartment was installed in the basement level.  When the house was offered for sale in 2011, The New York Times described the main portion as having five bedrooms and three baths.  Outwardly, little has changed to the 134-year-old residence.

photographs by the author

The Eufrasia and Allen Tucker Mansion - 121 East 79th Street

 

Brutal enlarging and remodeling the upper floors has destroyed the original charm

Eufrasia Aguilar Leland Wesson and Allen Tucker were married on February 12, 1895.  The 25-year-old bride was reared in privilege, the daughter of the late Charles Howland Wesson and Martha Leland.  The groom, who was four years older than Eufrasia, earned his architectural degree from Columbia University in 1887 and worked as a draftsman at his father's firm, McIlvaine & Tucker.

In 1906, Eufrasia's mother and aunt, Emma Wesson and Eufrasia A. Leland, purchased two vintage houses at 123 and 125 East 79th Street as the site of their double-wide mansion.  Simultaneously, Eufrasia and Allen Tucker purchased the house next door and hired the firm of Robins & Oakman to make "extensive alterations," as worded by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide.  Their redesigning of the high-stooped brownstone would transform it into a modern residence.

On May 30, 1906, the New-York Tribune explained the changes.  "A rear extension is to be added, new plumbing installed and a new Colonial facade, with a mansard roof built."  The renovations would cost the Tuckers $10,000, or about $360,000 in 2026 terms.

Robins & Oakman removed the stoop and brownstone and created a neo-Georgian-style facade.  In many cases, when the stoop was removed from English basement homes, the front was pulled forward to the property line.  For the Tuckers, however, the areaway was preserved, giving them a small front yard.  

The architects' tripartite design was faced in Flemish bond red brick and trimmed in limestone at the base and midsection.  The fourth floor took the form of a mansard with two dormers.  The mansion's focal point was the pair of French doors under fanlights at the second floor, or piano nobile. 

The Tucker mansion harkened to Colonial times.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The "rear extension" mentioned by the New-York Tribune filled the rear yard.  It would hold Allen Tucker's skylight-lit studio.  By now, he had moved from architecture to fine art.  An impressionist, he was part of the group of painters known as the "Independents," which, according to the Smithsonian Institution, "wanted to shake up the conservative ideas of the National Academy of Design."  In 1911, four years after moving into 121 East 79th Street, Tucker co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, and in 1913 helped organize the famous Armory Show.

When America entered World War I, Tucker served with the American Ambulance Service in  France.  It appears that Eufrasia moved temporarily next door with her mother and aunt.  On December 9, 1917, The New York Times reported that she had leased 121 East 79th Street furnished at Arthur A. Fowler.  

Starting in 1921, after returning to New York after the war, Allen Tucker taught at the Art Students League.  Often deemed "the American Van Gogh," his paintings would hang in prestigious institutions like the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frye Art Museum.

Allen Tucker painted Landscape in his East 79th Street studio in 1919.  from the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art.

Allen and Eufrasia Tucker sold 121 East 79th Street to the Atram Realty Corporation in May 1930.  The firm purchased the property "as a light protector for the apartment building at 120 East Eightieth Street," explained The New York Times.  The new owners hired Cross & Cross to enlarge the mansion with another floor.  The architects deftly increased the height of the mansard without greatly upsetting the proportions nor the Colonial motif.

Cross & Cross's additional level was not displeasing.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On July 7, 1933, The New York Times reported that the Atram Realty Corporation had leased the mansion to Leighton Hammond Coleman, "of the law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed."  

Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Coleman had served as a "pursuit pilot" in World War I.  He earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1922.  Coleman and his wife, the former Jane Fraser, had five children, Leighton Jr., Jane, Helen, Sally, and Prudence.  The family's country home, East Farm, was at Stony Brook, Long Island.

After having leased the house for a decade, in 1943 Leighton H. Coleman purchased it.  His daughters were approaching their debutante years and before long the house would be a flurry of activity.

Debutante entertainments traditionally were held in the winter social season.  Twin sisters Jane and Helen, however, got an early start.  On June 28, 1946, The New York Sun reported that the Colemans "will honor their debutante daughters, the Misses Jane and Helen Coleman, at a dinner-dance tomorrow evening at East Farm."  The article noted that Jane had graduated that year from the Brearley School and that Helen was "an alumna of the Chapin School."

Helen Rulison Coleman went on to study at Bryn Mawr College and Barnard College.  (Her mother was  was a trustee of the latter institution.)  She was the first to marry.  Her wedding to William Maxwell Evarts Jr. was held in St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in St. James, Long Island on August 28, 1948.  It was a family affair, with Jane being the maid of honor and Sally and Prudence bridesmaids.  Leighton Jr. was among the ten ushers.

The following year, on June 25, 1949, Jane was married in the same church to William Draper Blair Jr.  Expectedly, Helen was her matron of honor and her younger sisters were bridesmaids.  The New York Times remarked that Jane "wore a gown of white satin with a rosepoint lace veil that had been worn by her mother and grandmother and last August by her sister."

No. 121 East 79th Street was sold in 1954.  The New York Times reported on April 9 that plans had been filed "for altering the five-story dwelling...into four apartments and a professional office."  The renovations resulted in a doctor's office on the first floor, a duplex apartment in the second and third, and one apartment each in the upper levels.  Apparently to augment the livable square-footage of the top two floors, the mansard was converted to a vertical wall with no cornice.

Then, in 1997, restauranteur Simon Oren purchased the property for $2 million (about $3.9 million today).  He initiated a renovation that returned the upper floors to a single family home, while keeping the ground floor doctor's office (accessed by a separate entrance).  He listed it for sale in 2016 for $19 million.

Although sadly disfigured, the Tucker mansion still recalls its aristocratic roots and place in American art history.

photographs by the author