The 1909 Britannia - 527 Cathedral Parkway (West 110th Street)

 

image via streeteasy.com

On December 27, 1892, shovels broke ground for the construction of the Cathedral Church of St. John Divine on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street.  Its sprawling property stretched from 110th to 113rd Streets.  Simultaneously, the section of West 110th Street from Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Drive was renamed Cathedral Parkway.  Not all New Yorkers, however, warmed to the change and the buildings along those blocks continue to use both addresses to this day.

In 1909, the Gracehull Realty Co., headed by J. Charles Weschler, hired the short-lived partnership of Waid & Wallauer to design an apartment house at 527 Cathedral Parkway.  (Daniel Everett Waid would be remembered as a prominent architect.  Arthur Wallauer, on the other hand, fell from the record, apparently working with Waid only on this building.)

The plans, filed on February 19, 1909, projected the cost at $350,000--more than $8.7 million in 2026 terms.  Completed before the end of the year, the nine-story Britannia was designed in the Tudor Revival style.  Described by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide as suggesting "the old English house," its multi-paned windows and sharply-angled bays echoed portions of Hampton Court.  Above the limestone base, the facade was clad in rough-faced tapestry brick and trimmed in stone and terra cotta.  Arthur Willauer explained in The American Architect in 1909, "Let us give to the crowded thousands some portion of that joy that we have known abroad and from the real homes in our own country."  And The Apartment Houses of the Metropolis described the Britannia as having a "domestic character in harmony with the architecture of the Cathedral."

Waid & Wallauer produced this rendering in 1909.  Supplement to Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1910 (copyright expired)

The side courts of the Britannia's U-shape provided light and ventilation to nearly every interior room.   The wide, deep central courtyard also acted as "an entrance for vehicles and pedestrians, as well as the approach to the private entrances to two ground floor apartments," as reported by Apartment Houses of the Metropolis.  

Potential residents could choose apartments from five to nine rooms with one or two baths.  Apartment Houses of the Metropolis said, "None of the apartments contain the long dark narrow hallway, so objectionable to dwellers in apartments."  Residents would enjoy, "garbage receptacles, porcelain lined refrigerators, long distance telephone, etc."  Rents ranged from $1,400 to $3,000 per year--about $4,000 to $9,000 per month today.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1910 (copyright expired)

Notably, Waid & Wallauer gave the Britannia more than its share of personality in the form of humorous carved corbels in the form of medieval characters.  The Record & Guide explained that each one was "symbolic of some form of the homely art of housekeeping."  And so the ten crouching figures stir a pot, eat from a bowl and spoon, carry a roasted chicken on a platter, write in a diary or ledger, and such.

This comical figure licks his finger before turning the page in his ledger or diary.  photograph by Carole Teller

Among the first residents were its builder, J. Charles Weschler, and his family; and Archer S. Gibson, his wife, the former Frances Fleetwood Bryant, and their seven-year-old daughter, Elinor.

Born on December 5, 1875 in Baltimore, Gibson was arguably the most famous organist in the country.  He was organist and choirmaster of the Brick Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue.  He was also in great demand by high society, almost all of whom had pipe organs in their mansions.  The New York Times would later describe him as the "organist by appointment to many of the country's richest families."  Among his clients, for instance, were Charles and Eurana Schwab, who had two pipe organs in their sprawling chateau, Riverside House.  The Times added to the list: "Mrs. Henry Clay Frick, William Sloane, Andrew Carnegie, Walter P. Chrysler, H. E. Manville, Mrs. H. Mckay Twombly...and the Rockefellers, Senior and Junior."

Archer S. Gibson.  He and his family remained here at least through 1915.  (original source unknown)

A fascinating couple were Fabian Franklin and his wife, Christine Ladd-Franklin, who were also initial tenants.  Born in Hungary in 1853, Franklin was brought to America by his parents when he was four.  He graduated from Columbian College (today's George Washington University) in 1869 with a Ph.B. in engineering, and earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from John Hopkins University in 1880.  He and Christine Ladd were married in 1882.  By the time the couple moved into the Britannia, he was an associate editor of the New York Evening Post.  He would go on to write books on social, political and economic issues.

Fabian Franklin, MacTutor History of Mathematics

Christine Ladd-Franklin was no less respected in her field.  A psychologist, logician and mathematician, she was known familiarly as Kitty.  She was born in 1847 in Connecticut.  Highly unusual for a female at the time, Christine graduated from Wesleyan Academy in 1865 and enrolled in Vassar College the following year.  Although she had a passion for physics, women were banned from physics laboratories, so she turned to mathematics.

Christine Ladd-Franklin from the collection of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Christine obtained a fellowship at John Hopkins University in 1878 by signing her application, "C. Ladd."  It was only after she accepted the position that the university realized she was a woman.  Now living here, the erudite woman's name appeared in newsprint more often than that of her husband.  On January 14, 1911, for instance, The Evening Post reported on the Sarah Berliner fellowship, "which grants the sum of twelve hundred dollars for study or research in biology, chemistry, or physics."  The article said, "Applications must be in the hands of the chairman of the committee, Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, No. 527 Cathedral Parkway, New York, before February 1."

The Franklins' only daughter, Margaret Ladd, graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1908 and entered New York University Law School where she graduated in 1917.  She became a prominent advocate for women's rights.

Christine Ladd-Franklin's concerns were not limited to mathematics, psychology and education.  On March 1, 1915, the Fortnightly Review reported:

Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, of 527 Cathedral Parkway, New York City, protests against the illustrations of women's underwear published in many newspapers and magazines and which quite pass beyond the limits of decency.  This is a matter where women, even without organization, have the case in their own hands.  A few letters to the shops, newspapers and magazines concerned would, no doubt, be at once effective.

photograph by Carole Teller

Like Christine Ladd-Franklin, her neighbor Bertha Vivian Wooten was an adherent of Edwardian proprieties.  Her husband, Jesse B. Wooten, was an associate of the Knox Hat Company.  His disturbing behavior forced Bertha to leave him in May 1913.  She filed separation "because he played golf on Sunday and fell asleep over his evening paper when she wanted to talk to him," according to the New York Herald.  But the last straw came when, after they had been apart for two days, "he kissed his niece before he did his wife."  To make things worse, when Bertha complained about that, he replied, "Don't be silly."

In court, Jesse explained that his niece was only nine years old, and when he said, "Don't be silly," his "tones were conciliatory rather than brutal."

Happily, just 31 days after Bertha stormed out, she returned to the Britannia and her husband on June 27.  The New York Herald reported that they "were reconciled."

Engineer Albert Bach and his family lived in the Britannia as early as 1915.  On May 22 that year, he and his wife, the former Alice Henricks, announced the engagement of their daughter, Justine Ellen, to Otto Ludwig Koscherak.  The Bachs had two other children, Albert Jr. and Henry Michael.

Alice Bach died in the apartment the following year, on November 17, 1916, at the age of 53.  The family would remain at least through 1919.  By then, Albert Bach Jr. was an engineer like his father.

A prominent resident was architect Lionel Moses, who lived here with his wife, the firmer Shirley Maduro, and three sons, Lionel Jr., Felix, and Richard.  A great-grandson of Revolutionary figure Isaac Moses, Lionel joined the firm of McKim, Mead & White in 1887.  It was Moses who proposed to William Rutherford Mead the formation of a club for Rome Prize winners who had completed their residence at the American Academy in Rome.  He died in his apartment here at the age of 60 on February 19, 1931.

Another respected resident died the following month.  Richard Fitch was an assistant in the psychology department at Columbia University.  He shared his apartment with his brother Carl.  On the afternoon of March 18, Fitch asked the elevator operator to take him to the top floor.  He explained that he "was going to the roof to repair the radio wires."  Once there, the 25-year-old lost his balance and fell to his death.

image by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Hermine Baranyi Serly and her widowed daughter Ethel (born Etelka) Serly Brummer shared an apartment here at midcentury.  Hermine was the widow of composer, conductor and author Lajos Serly.  Her son (and Ethel's brother) was composer and conductor Tibor Serly. 

Hermine was born in Budapest, Hungary.  When she met Serly, she was the prima donna of the National Theatre in Kolozsvar, Hungary and he was the conductor.  The New York Times would later recall, "For a number of years she sang in Europe with various opera and operetta companies, of which her husband was conductor."  The couple moved to the United States in 1905.  Hermine and Lajos organized the First Hungarian Theatre here and she later helped found the Hungarian Free Lyceum.

Hermine and Ethel later established the Hungarian Folk Dance and Character Ballet Group (Buzavirag Koszoru).  Hermine was the musical director of the group until 1950.

Ethel started out in vaudeville with her sisters, the Serly Sisters.  An accomplished dancer, she was a member of the Dancing Masters of America and the Dance Educators of America.  When she and her mother moved into the Britannia, both were widows.  Ethel's husband, art connoisseur and founder of the Brummer Art Galleries, Imre Brummer, had died in 1928.

Hermine Serly died at the age of 82 in their apartment on August 9, 1951 "after a long illness," according to The New York Times.  Ethel Serly Brummer died the following year, on August 16, 1952, at the age of 64.

Virginia Brauer, who lived here at the time, experienced a terrifying incident on July 16, 1954.  Virginia worked as the cashier at the Cherry Lane Theatre at 38 Commerce Street.  That night, two gun-wielding men rushed in and forced her and the manager, Nelson Sykes, to turn over the receipts.  The crooks grabbed the $225 in cash and fled in a waiting auto.

As early as 1979, poet Rika Lesser occupied an apartment here.  Born in Brooklyn in 1953, she graduated from Yale University in 1974, studied at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, and received her Masters in Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1977.  In addition to her own compositions, she translates poetry from Swedish and German works to English.  

Lesser received the Landon Poetry Translation Price from the Academy of American Poets in 1982, and the Poetry Translation Price from the Swedish Academy twice--in 1996 and 2003. 

photograph by Carole Teller

Thankfully, little has outwardly changed to the Britannia since 1909.  The automobile turnaround no longer allows vehicles to turn around, but the magnificent many-paned windows are miraculously intact.  And as for its marvelous carvings, Thane Rosenbaum described the building in The New York Times on April 19, 2002 as "a veritable Gothic asylum for grotesque characters."

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1922 West Side Meeting House - 550 Cathedral Parkway

photo by the author

After having moved several times since 1886, the Unity Congregational Society of New York purchased the five plots at 244-252 Cathedral Parkway (West 110th Street) between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway in 1921.  The firm of Hoppin & Koen was commissioned to design a church-and-community-house on the site.  Associate architect A. D. R. Sullivant was given the project.  His grand, initial design included a cupola reminiscent of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Sulllivant's 1921 rendering was more than twice the width of the subsequent building.  The Christian Register, June 16, 1921 (copyright expired)

But before ground was broken on June 2, 1921, the plans were grossly reduced.  Completed in 1922, Sullivant's dignified three-story, neo-Georgian-style edifice engulfed only two of the plots.  Above a limestone base, the upper floors were clad in red brick.  A centered, temple-like composition of double-height stone pilasters upholding a triangular pediment distinguished the upper sections.  (Sullivant's subdued Colonial design would reappear in a much more exuberant form in Thompson, Holmes & Converse's 1929 Tammany Hall on Union Square.)

On June 16, 1921, The Christian Register explained that the building would be called the West Side Meeting House for two reasons:

First, the name is in accord with the Pilgrim Congregational tradition of Unitarianism; second, it is planned to keep the building open throughout the week for any activity that tends to improve the personality of man, woman, or child.  Religion embraces not only the worship of God, but also the service of man.

To address the second reason, said the article, "religious, civic, educational, dramatic, literary, musical, recreational, and social gatherings will be held under church auspices and the building will therefore be a meeting-house--a house of meeting--for all who are seeking to build their own characters and to improve the neighborhood and the city."

The West Side Meeting House was completed in 1922.  In the basement was an auditorium-theater.  It was available for civic meetings and would become the home of the church's own theatrical troupe.

from Little Theatres, December 1923 (copyright expired)

Many mainstream Christians viewed Unitarianism sideways.  Its liberal doctrine included the belief in one God while denying the Trinity.  Its focus was on reason and tolerance over restricting creeds.  

Having a theater within the building offended many Christians, who still considered plays sinful.  Rev. Charles Francis Potter had to defend the theater in general.  In his sermon on April 22, 1923, he insisted, "There is more obscenity in the Bible than in any current New York play."

Born in 1885, Potter had degrees from Bucknell University, Brown University and Newton Theological Institution.  By the time the West Side Meeting House opened, science was making discoveries that fundamentalist preachers deemed heretical.  The well-educated and Modernist pastor Charles Potter went on the offensive.

Rev. Charles Francis Potter, Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography

On March 8, 1924, The Universalist Leader said he had initiated a Modernist Bible class, "whose teaching will be broadcast through the United States by radio at 8 p.m. every Sunday."  The article said it, "is intended to offset the attacks of the Fundamentalists, who have succeeded in excluding the teaching of science and evolution in regard to religion."  Potter told the reporter, "A faith that is disturbed by learning the facts of science is no real faith; it is largely prejudice and superstition."

The following year, Rev. Potter traveled to Dayton, Tennessee to advise Clarence Darrow in the famous Scopes Trial.  Potter was open about his disdain of the Fundamentalist Christians who had initiated the suit.  He scoffed that the "Holy Rollers" might introduced "a bill prohibiting the teaching of geography in public schools because the Bible indicates that the earth is flat."

Potter was replaced by the erudite Rev. Arthur Wakefield Slaten.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1916 with a thesis titled, "The Qualitive Use of Nouns in the Pauline Epistles, and Their Translation in the Revised Version."

In reporting on his first sermon, on October 19, 1925 The New York Times said, "Dr. Slaten is an advocate of Humanism, noting, "He was dismissed as professor of Biblical literature and Biblical education by [Rochester Theological Seminary] for heresy, based upon his book, 'What Jesus Taught.'"

Barnard Bulletin, November 13, 1925 (copyright expired)

The year before Rev. Slaten's appointment, the Meeting House Theater troupe was organized.  On October 16, 1926, The Billboard noted that it "has become favorably known for its good work during the last two seasons.  It has won twice successively the cup offered at the little theater tournament of the Metropolitan Federation."  The Meeting house Theater premiered Edna Ferber's $1,200 a Year on October 28 that year.

Like his predecessor, Slaten found himself defending the theater.  The following month, on November 28, he declared in his sermon, "a play is morally bad only when it represents life falsely."  Saying that plays were "valuable contributions to the study of human nature," he insisted, "In no one of these plays is vice made attractive, nor are the facts of life falsely presented."

Slaten continued to raise eyebrows among mainstream Christians.  In his sermon on January 2, 1927, he described the book of Genesis, "One of the folk-lore classics of the world's literature."

Rev. Slaten resigned in January 1929 "because of illness," according to his resignation letter.  Guest preachers took the pulpit of the West Side Unitarian Church for an extended period.

Two years later, the congregation merged with the Community Church and moved into its facility on Park Avenue and 34th Street.  In the meantime, the auditorium, known as the Community Church Centre, continued to be the scene of lectures and meetings.  On the evening of February 3, 1933, Dr. Gustav F. Beck addressed an audience of about 100 on the topic "A Philosopher's View of Immortality."  In discussing whether there was an afterlife, Beck said it "was a mystery which could not be proved or disproved."  The New York Times reported, "Several persons in the audience arose to give their views."

One man, who was around 55 years old, "jumped to his feet and, speaking with a foreign accent, started a fervent comparison of Oriental and Western philosophy," said the article.  The impassioned man contended, "When you are dead, you are dead.  If these were my last words, I would still maintain it."  Ironically, a few seconds later he grasped his chest and fell dead, apparently from a heart attack.

Frank Wilson headed the cast Black, which opened here on May 15, 1934.  His career had skyrocketed after starting out in vaudeville.  He was in the 1925 Broadway revival of The Emperor Jones, and was part of the original 1927 cast of Porgy.  Two years prior to his performance here, he made his film debut in The Girl from Chicago.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The building was leased to Congregation Ramath Orah, a Modern Orthodox congregation.  It was founded in 1942 by Dr. Robert Serebrenik, who had been Grand Rabbi of Luxembourg from 1929 to 1940.  He had assisted approximately 250 Jews in escaping Luxembourg following the Nazi invasion in 1940.

A troubling incident here in 1944 was made even more so given Rabbi Serebrenik's background.  On April 12, The New York Times reported, "A swastika was found crudely painted on a wall outside the Congregation Ramath Orah at 550 West 110th Street yesterday morning."  The hateful graffiti was discovered by two police officers passing by in a patrol car.  The cops not only reported on the vandalism, but "then helped remove the marking with turpentine and a steel brush," said the article.  Rabbi Serebrenik was surprisingly charitable, saying he presumed "that children probably drew the symbol."

The following year, the congregation purchased the building.  The dedication ceremony was held on February 11, 1945.  Among the speakers was Edgar L. Nathan, the Manhattan Borough President.

Rabbi Robert Serebrenik died of a heart attack at the age of 62 on February 11, 1965.  In reporting his death, The New York Times recalled, "After the Nazis occupied [Luxembourg], he stayed on until 1941, when he was seized by the Gestapo and beaten unconscious.  After that attack he escaped by way of Lisbon and came to this country."

photograph by Beyond My Ken

Congregation Ramath Orah continues to occupy the building.  Other than the stained-glass windows added in 1955, it survives essentially unchanged after nearly a century.