Charles T. Mott's 1887 258 West 73rd Street

 

William J. Merritt headed the real estate development firm William J. Merritt & Co. and often acted as his own architect.  But for the ambitious row of 19 four-story-and-basement houses he planned on the south side of West 73rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in 1887, he hired architect Charles T. Mott.

Completed in 1887, the row was a romantic take on French Renaissance architecture.  Nestled among the streetscape of turrets and battlements was 258 West 73rd.  A broad stoop with solid wing walls originally led to the brownstone-faced parlor level.  The third and fourth floors, clad in rough faced brick, were dominated by a charming angled bay, the balcony of which was crowned with a stone railing with pierced quatrefoil openings.  The fourth floor took the form of a tiled mansard, fronted by two dormers with elaborate French Renaissance crockets (still intact at the house's former twin at 250 West 73rd Street).

For some reason, the house sat vacant for two years.  On November 7, 1889, an advertisement in the New York World noted it was the only house for sale on West 73rd Street.  It was described as an "elegant 4-story house, 20 x 100; dining-room extension, new, never occupied; opposite Mayor Grant's."  (Hugh Grant was the city's youngest mayor, elected at the age of 30 in 1888.)

Robert A. Hollister purchased the house for $40,000 (about $1.37 million in 2025), apparently as an investment.  Living here in 1891 was the family of R. J. McCabe.

Early in March that year, Mrs. McCabe hired a 40-year-old English woman, Kate Mary Trigg, as a chambermaid and waitress.  (A waitress in 19th century homes served in the parlor and dining room.)  The 40-year-old had been living at the Young Woman's Christian Home on East 15th Street.  

Kate Mary Trigg often complained of severe headaches.  Just two weeks after taking the job, on the morning of March 27, she "packed up her effects and left the house, telling her employer that she was going away for good," as reported by The Evening World.  That night, reported the newspaper, a "well-dressed woman...attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself into a small creek in the Salt Meadows near Newark Bay Bridge."  Luckily, Trigg was seen by three employees of the Jersey Central Railroad who rescued her.  The article said, "Her mind is believed to be affected."

The following year, D. Laurence Shaw and his wife, the former Agnes Moen, purchased the house.  Shaw was a wholesale dealer in spices and baking powders at 62 College Place (today's West Broadway).  He also owned a "summer hotel" in Lakeville, Connecticut.  He and Agnes had a newborn son, D. Laurence, Jr. when they moved in.  

Anges immediately began staffing the house and on March 4, 1892 advertised, "Waitress Wanted--Swede or German preferred; must be competent.  Call, before 1 P.M. at 258 West 73d St."

Tragically, a month later, on April 18, the couple's baby boy died.  His funeral was held in the house on April 21.

The couple's problems continued when D. Laurence Shaw was forced to declare bankruptcy on July 20, 1894.  The New York Times noted, "Papers were also filed yesterday against Mr. Shaw to foreclose a mortgage of $5,000 on his house, 258 West Seventy-third Street."  It was auctioned on December 24 that year.  Foreclosure sales usually resulted in deals, but property on the West 73rd Street block was in high demand.  The New York Times remarked, "the bidding was quite brisk and the purchaser had to pay $35,000 for the house, very near its real value."

The buyer was W. L. McCorkel.  Living with him and his wife was their adult son, Henry H., who was a commissioner of deeds.  Their residency would be short-lived.  McCorkle sold the house to William C. Adams on October 21, 1897.  Adams was the president of the S. F. Adams Realty Co. and of W. C. Adams & Co.

Just before 6:00 on the morning of December 20, 1898, fire broke out in the house of Charles H. Raymond next door at 260 West 73rd Street.  The blaze swept through the house, trapping the occupants, several of whom jumped from upper floor windows.  One of them was Mrs. Raymond's sister, visiting from Ohio for Christmas.  She plunged to the sidewalk, fatally fracturing her skull.  The body of Harriet Fee, the cook, was found on the third floor.  Four people, including the Raymonds, were taken to the hospital seriously injured.  

The fire had been discovered in the pantry by a chambermaid named Mularkey.  She notified Harriet Fee who rushed upstairs to awaken the others in the house, while Mularkey ran into the street to get help.  "The maid ran up and down the street, shrieking, and several neighbors, hearing her, ran out," reported the New York Evening Post.  As the drama played out next door, the hysterical woman, suffering from shock, was taken into the Adams house.

The Adams family remained here until 1907, when they sold 258 West 73rd Street to Julia A. and Albert L. House.  Albert was a stockbroker.  The couple hired architect Frank Hausle in December that year to install a new bathroom.

The couple's affluence was reflected in a notice in The New York Times on August 22, 1909.  "Lost--A lady's Tiffany watch, diamond and pearl studded; owner's name inside; please return to Mrs. A. L. House, 258 West 73d St.; suitable reward."

Living with the Houses in 1910 was Isabelle Evesson.  She and her sister, Estelle, were partners in the Bassford Estate Corporation, formed to recover compensation for their grandfather's massive real estate holdings.  On April 25, 1907, the Montana Standard said, "these two Evesson sisters, year in and year out, are making their fight for untold millions."

Isabelle Evesson, The Players Blue Book, 1901 (copyright expired)

While they litigated the estate, the sisters performed on stage.  Isabelle had appeared in the original cast of the 1887 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Richard Mansfield; and among her other Broadway appearances were Papa's Wife in 1899-1900 and Anna Karenina in 1905.

The Houses had an esteemed houseguest in 1910.  On January 15, The Mining World commented, "Lazard Cahn of Colorado Springs, Colo., dealer in mineral specimens, will be at 258 West 73d street, New York city, for the next few months."  A well-known chemist and geologist, Cahn first identified the mineral Cahnite, named for him.  

Lazard Cahn in his laboratory around 1930.  from the collection of the Pikes peak Library District

Shortly before noon on May 8, 1914, Albert L. House stepped off a southbound Fourth Avenue streetcar at 19th Street.  The New York Times reported, "as Mr. House got off the car he stepped in front of the oncoming truck and was knocked down and kicked by the horses."  House was taken to the New York Hospital where he died later that night.

Julia House sold 258 West 73rd Street around 1918.  It was converted to bachelor apartments (meaning they had no kitchens) the following year.  The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to below grade.  The two ornate dormers were replaced by a tall shed dormer.  The Department of Buildings noted, "not more than 15 rooms to be used for sleeping purposes."  An advertisement for one apartment described, "Handsomely furnished, two rooms and bath apartment; all conveniences; direct private telephone; summer porch."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Among the tenants in 1923 was David Arnof.  That year he became involved in a mystery surrounding his brother, Jacob, who had gone to South America early in 1920 with a friend, Harry Wolfe.  Jacob had obtained a job as a clerk with the Buenos Aires office of the United States Shipping Board.  Letters from Jacob came regularly until the end of 1920, then they stopped for about three months.  On November 26, 1923, The Oshkosh Northwestern said, "When letters began arriving again, members of the family said the handwriting had changed entirely and no mention was made of intimate family affairs."

Early in 1921, Jacob drew a draft on his father's account for $500 (about $8,500 today).  In 1922, he drew another $250, and on August 6, 1923 he cabled his father for $25,000, saying "the family would be disgraced if it was not sent."  In addition to his desperate demands for money, the family's suspicions were heightened by "strange phrases" in Jacob's letters, his failure to mention his five siblings, and by photographs that only slightly resembled him.

Jacob Arnof was accused of defrauding his employer of 400,000 pesos in November 1923.  Shortly afterward, he committed suicide.  But a note found with the body was signed by Harry Wolfe.  It said he "wanted to clear the name of his friend."  According to the note, Jacob Arnof had drowned on November 7, 1920 while the two friends were canoeing.  Wolfe took over his identity for three years, using his passport and possessions.  During that time he embezzled from the United States Shipping Board, and deceived Arnof's family into supplying him with cash.

On December 27, 1923, the Republic City News reported, "Whether the body of the suicide is that of Arnof or of 'Harry Wolfe' will not be definitely established until David Arnof of New York...arrives in Buenos Aires."  In South America, David Arnof discovered the extent to which Wolfe had gone to carry out the deception.  The two friends resembled one another, but Jacob Arnof had a scar on his face.  On January 19, 1924, the Adelaide, Australia newspaper the Saturday Journal revealed that Wolfe "burned on his cheek with acid a scar similar to Arnof's scar."

A bit beleaguered today, there are nine rental units within the building.  In addition to the 1919 remodeling, an obtrusive drain pipe that snakes down the facade and protruding window air conditioners disguise the fact that it was once the home of wealthy families.

photographs by the author

The 1889 Albert Edmond Symington House - 275 West 73rd Street

 

William J. Merritt & Co. erected scores of houses in Harlem and the Upper West Side in the 1880s and 1890s.  In one month alone in 1888, Merritt & Co. advertised 38 new houses within a two-block area around West End Avenue between 73rd and 75th Streets: four on West End Avenue between 73^rd and 74^th Streets, seven harmonious dwellings on the corner of 75^th Street and West End Avenue, and the entire block—27 houses in all—on both sides of 73^rd Street between West End Avenue and Broadway (then called the Boulevard).

Although Merritt often acted as his own architect, he hired Charles T. Mott to design 18 upscale houses in 1887 that wrapped the northeast corner of West End Avenue and 73rd Street.  The ambitious project would take two years to complete.  Although somewhat overshadowed by its hulking neighbor at 280 West End Avenue, 275 West 73rd Street was nonetheless eye-catching.

Four stories tall above a high English basement, Mott gave the house a full-height, tower-like bay.  It was clad in planar stone while the remainder of the facade was undressed brownstone.  The tower was rounded at the basement and parlor levels, then morphed into sharp angles--its windows affording views in three directions.  Red clay tiles covered the conical cap of the tower and the steep attic roof.

The house became home to the Albert Edmond Symington family.  An attorney, Symington was a member of Symington, Symington & Symington.  Born in New York City on October 24, 1862, he graduated from Yale in 1883 and received his law degree from Columbia in 1887.

Symington married Edith Louise Harris in 1889, the year he purchased 275 West 73rd Street.  They would have five children while living here--William Harris, born in 1890; Edith Harris, born the following year; Hazen, who arrived in 1893; James Mansfield, born in 1894; and Albert, born in 1910.  Unfortunately Edith died at the age of one, and Albert died in infancy.  The family's summer home was in Seabright, New Jersey.

Edith's American roots were deep.  Her first ancestor, Thomas Harris, arrived in Rhode Island in 1686.  Her parents, Civil War veteran Lieutenant-Colonel William Hamilton Harris and the former Edith Witt, were prominent in society, despite their being newcomers to Manhattan.  The couple moved from the Midwest in 1889, the year the Symingtons were married, and lived nearby on West 75th Street.

The Symington boys received privileged educations.  They attended the Taft School, a preparatory institution, before entering Yale--William in the class of 1912 and James in the class of 1916.  

Attention was focused on Hazen in 1911.  On November 12, The New York Times announced, "Mrs. William Hamilton Harris will give a luncheon at Sherry's on Nov. 15 for her granddaughter, Miss Hazen Symington, the debutante daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Symington of 275 West Seventy-third Street."  It would be the first of several events for Hazen that winter season.

Three years later, on March 31, 1914, The New York Times reported that Edith and Hazen "are at their town home" after spending a few weeks in Miami, Florida.  The Sun added, "They will be at 275 West Seventy-third street until they open their summer place in Seabright."

This would be no ordinary summer there.  On June 28, 1914, The New York Times reported that Hazen had married George De Forest Lord in St. George's Church by the River Side in Seabright, New Jersey.  The article said, "The wedding breakfast and reception were at the Rumson Country Club, and afterward the bridal party drove to the Symington villa at Monmouth Beach."  

The Symingtons left 275 West 73rd Street that year, leasing the house first to J. E. and Eliza Morris.  Their tenants starting around 1917 was the Hackett family.  On November 5, 1918, Bernard Augustus Hackett, who was 33 years old, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Section of the U.S. Army.  The family remained in the West 73rd Street house at least through 1919.

A top floor occupant surveys the scene in 1941.  At the time, the tiled roof, the stoop and sturdy wing walls, and double-doored entrance survived.  image from the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Albert Edmond Symington died in 1930.  At some point Samuel Shaw, who owned the corner mansion, purchased 275 West 73rd Street and continued to lease it.  Living here in the early 1930s was actor, playwright and lecturer Frank Ferguson (not to be confused with the character actor of the same name, popular in the late 20th century).

Frank Ferguson, The New York Times September 10, 1937

Born in Boston in 1863, Ferguson started his career as a singer in light opera there.  He later became the dramatic critic for periodicals like The Saturday Evening Herald and The Boston Home Journal.  He was the author of more than 40 plays, one of which, Lucky Jim, ran for nine years in America and England.  For two years he served as the director in the dramatic department of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, taught drama at Long Island University in Brooklyn, and lectured at Columbia University and the University of Chicago.  A bachelor, he died while living here on September 10, 1937.

The estate of Samuel T. Shaw sold the house in 1946 to the 280 West End Avenue Corporation.  In 1961, it was converted to apartments, two per floor.  It was possibly at this time that the stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to below grade.  

While the apartment configuration remains, in 2010 the entrance and stoop were restored by EAB Architectural Designs, PLLC.  Although the roof tiles have been replaced with shingles, and the entrance is noticeably narrower, the refabrication of the stoop returns the house more closely to its 1889 appearance. 

photographs by the author

The Joseph J. O'Donohue, Jr. House - 262 West 73rd Street

 

In the 1880s, the Upper West Side experienced a flurry of construction as developers erected long rows of brick and brownstone rowhouses.  Among them was William J. Merritt, the principal in Merritt & Co.  He would be responsible for scores of residences in the area, designing many of them himself.  In 1888 alone, Merritt & Co. advertised 38 new houses, including both sides of the block of 73rd Street between West End Avenue and Broadway.

The four-story houses on the southern side, from 246 to 272 West 73rd Street, were not designed by Merritt.  A year earlier, he commissioned prolific architect Charles T. Mott, with whom he often worked, for the project.  The outcome was striking.  Mott drew inspiration from the French Renaissance, particularly, according to architectural historian Andrew S. Dolkart, the medieval castle Pierrefonds.

The romantic row evokes images of damsels and knights.

The picturesque assemblage of dormers and towers, oriels and mansards created a romantic streetscape.  Among the row was 262 West 73rd Street.  Its basement and parlor levels were faced in brownstone.  The brick-clad upper floors were almost completely consumed by a rounded bay, girded above the third floor by a complex, copper balustrade.  The fourth floor was capped with a conical tiled roof.

The house became home to William Stevens Louderback and his wife, the former Emma Beekman.  The family moved in just in time for a triple celebration.  On November 13, 1888, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. W. Stevens Louderback celebrated their silver wedding last evening at their new residence, 262 West Seventy-third-street."  The New-York Tribune noted, "The anniversary was of three-fold interest, as it was as well the occasion of their daughter's introduction to society, and a housewarming.  Miss Etta Louderback assisted her mother to receive."

The triple entertainment was a sparkling opening of the new residence.  "Several hundred guests were present," said The New York Times.  Among the high society figures present was millionaire heiress Helen Gould.

The Loudebacks' residency would be short.  In August 1891, Joseph J. O'Donohue, Jr. and his wife, the former Marie Louise Bruner, purchased the house.  The couple was married on October 27, 1887 and had two sons, Joseph, 3d, who was three years old, and Henry, who was a newborn.  Two daughters would be born in the house--Marie in 1896, and Ethel in 1901.  The family's summer home was in Elberon, New Jersey.

O'Donohue's father was well known to New Yorkers.  A millionaire grocery dealer, he had been a member of Tammany Hall since 1856.  Joseph, Jr.'s business interests were wide-flung.  He was president of the Brooklyn and North Ferry Company, president of the Agatine Shoe Hook and Eyelet Company, vice-president of the General Realty and Mortgage Company, and a director in two railroads, an insurance company and other corporations.

The family was deeply religious and Marie involved herself with Catholic charities.  She was, for instance, president of the Ladies of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

The O'Donohues received unexpected house guests early in the morning of February 4.  The New York Times began an article saying, "The families occupying the handsome row of dwellings in Seventy-third Street, between West End Avenue and the Boulevard [i.e., Broadway] were aroused between 12 and 1 o'clock this morning by a fire which was caused by an overheated furnace in the basement of George Crawford's home, 272 West Seventy-third Street."

The family escaped into the cold night in their bedclothes.  While firefighters battled the blaze, which luckily did not extend above the basement level, The New York Times reported, "The Crawford family went to the home of Joseph J. O'Donohue at 262 West Seventy-third Street for the night."

Interestingly, O'Donohue's uncle, James O'Donohue, lived with the family by the turn of the century.  (This despite the fact that his son, Louis V. O'Donohue was a well-to-do manufacturer and banker.)  Born in 1830, James was at one time City Chamberlain and was a member of the coffee firm John O'Donohue's Sons before his retirement.  He died here at the age of 71 on December 12, 1901.

By 1911, Henry was enrolled at Princeton University and Joseph, Jr. was associated with his father in business.  On May 27 that year, Joseph was married to Rose Mildred Taylor in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on West 71st Street.  

When The Sun reported on the Monmouth County Horse Show on July 29, 1915, it mentioned that Joseph J. O'Dohonue, Jr. was first vice-president of the association.  It also noted that his parents were among the viewers "in the boxes and on the lawn."  No mention of Rose Taylor O'Donohue was made.  That was because, as reported by The Evening World four months later, since April she had "been living in Reno in luxurious apartments."

Joseph, Jr. was now back in the West 73rd Street with his parents.  On October 16, 1915, The Evening World reported that Rose Mildred Taylor O'Donohue, "prominent in New York and Washington society," had been granted a divorce.  She charged her 27-year-old husband with "desertion and non-support."  The article said O'Donohue was said to be out of the city and "his father would say nothing about the case."

Joseph, Jr. was granted duel custody of the couple's son, Joseph J. O'Donohue, 4th.  He would live in the 73rd Street house six months of the year.

Ethel Louise was the first of the O'Donohue daughters to marry.  On May 30, 1920, The Sun reported that her wedding to Alwyn Ball 3d had taken place in the Louis XVI suite of the St. Regis Hotel.   "Miss O'Dohonue was once identified with the summer life in Elberon, N. J., where her parents had a villa, but for three summers they have had a place in Greenwich, Conn.," said the article.

The following year, on October 9, the O'Donohues announced Marie Gladys's engagement to C. R. Coster Steers.  The couple was married on November 7, 1922.

Joseph and Marie hosted a dinner party on December 20, 1925.  Among the monied guests was Thomas M. McCarthy, the treasurer of the wholesale grocery firm Austin Nichols & Co.  The Christmas week party ended tragically when, after dinner, the 74-year-old McCarthy suddenly became ill.  The New York Times reported he, "died a few minutes later, presumably from heart disease or acute indigestion."

As with all well-to-do New Yorkers, the society columnists followed Joseph and Marie O'Donohue's movements.  In July 1927, The Sun reported, "in June [they] will go to Bretton Woods for the Summer," and the following year, in July, the newspaper said that they would be taking Joseph J. O'Dohonue, 4th along with them "to the Apawamis Club at Rye for part of the summer."

Marie Bruner O'Donohue died on December 29, 1928.  Joseph remained in the house and it appears that his grandson was living with him full time by now.  On February 1, 1930, the Rye Chronicle reported, "Mr. Joseph J. O'Donohue, well known member of the Apawamis Club, gave a dinner Tuesday evening at his home 262 West Seventy-third Street to celebrate the birthday of his grandson, Joseph J. O'Donohue 4th.  Following the dinner Mr. O'Donohue took his guests to the theatre."

In 1941, the tile roof was intact.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After living here for 44 years, O'Donohue sold 262 West 73rd Street in 1935.  (He died two years later.)  Architect Frederick S. Keeler was hired by the new owners to convert the house to furnished rooms.

It was purchased by architect Henry J. Gazon in January 1954.  It continued to be a rooming house until a renovation completed in 2012 resulted in ten apartments.

While little survives of Charles T. Mott's interiors, outwardly the picturesque house is greatly intact.

photographs by the author

Charles T. Mott's 1890 298 Manhattan Avenue

 

In 1890 Smith Newell Penfield advertised the new house at 298 Manhattan Avenue for rent, emphasizing the convenient location:

At 298 Manhattan Av., facing Morningside Park, near Central Park--Four story twenty foot Dwelling, decorated; location unsurpassed; elevator to 116th elevated station; price low; little cash; terms easy.

The house was one of five erected by Edward Roemer and designed by Charles T. Mott.  Upon their completion in 1890, Penfield had purchased them all.  He and his wife moved into the corner house at 329 West 112th Street and rented the others.

Each of the 20-foot-wide homes had cost $13,000 to construct, or about $386,000 by 2023 conversions.  Mott designed the four houses facing Manhattan Avenue as two mirror-image pairs.  The bowed bays and dormers of the red-brick residences were typical of his style.  Like its neighbors, 298 Manhattan Avenue featured an arched, double-doored entrance above a dog-leg stoop, stained glass transoms in the parlor windows, and a fish-scale tiled mansard with a single dormer.

298 Manhattan Avenue is at the far left.

The house was first leased to Henry Mendelson, who had received his bachelor of science degree from Cooper Union's five-year Scientific Course in 1881.

When Penfield listed the now-vacant house for rent again in 1893, he noted that there were 12 rooms.  The advertised rent was $1,200 per year, or about $3,100 a month today.

No. 298 Manhattan Avenue next became home to the Louis Straus family.  A banker and importer-exporter with offices at 52 Broad Street, Straus had branch offices in Philadelphia and Boston.  Additionally, according to The New York Times, he had "made a fortune by the sale of the Butte and Boston Cooper Mine" in 1887.

Straus's wife, Rosa Welt, was a fascinating figure.  Born in 1856 in Austria, she was the first female in that country to receive a high school graduation.  In 1878 she became the first woman in Austria to receive a medical degree, and was among the first female ophthalmologists in Europe.

Rosa Welt-Straus now worked as an eye surgeon in the New York Eye Hospital and the Women's Hospital.  The year before they moved into 298 Manhattan Avenue the couple's daughter, Nellie, was born.  (Another child, a boy, apparently died in infancy.)

Dr. Rosa Welt-Straus with her daughter, Nellie.  (original source unknown)

Starting around 1895, Louis's sister and brother-in-law, Hattie and Edward Weidenbach, shared the house.  Edward was a director in the E. Klein Supply Company, dealers in bakers' supplies.

Those in banking and importing circles were most likely shocked to read in The New York Times on September 14, 1900, "Louis Straus, residing at 298 Manhattan Avenue, has filed a petition in bankruptcy."  It was a staggering blow to the former millionaire.  He never recovered from the humiliation and shock, and committed suicide in 1907.

Rosa Welt-Straus would continue to make her mark on the world.  She helped organize the Woman Suffrage Alliance with Carrie Chapman-Catt, and in 1904 was a member of the American delegation to the first congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.   She would continue to be a force in the suffrage movement for years.

In 1919, at the age of 63, Rosa relocated to Palestine, where, within two months of her arrival, she was elected head of the Union of Hebrew Women.

The Weidenbach family, along with Louis and Hattie's widowed mother, Elizabeth (known as Betty) Straus, remained at 298 Manhattan Avenue through 1911.  The following year Penfield leased the house to George Hunter who rented rooms.  Among his tenants in 1912 was Gladys Parks, who came from De Leon, Texas to study at Columbia University.  

In 1914 a "highly educated European lady" boarded here.  The multi-talented woman was looking for private students.  Her advertisement in The New York Times in February that year described her as "conversant in English, French, and German, also full-fledged reciter and pianiste," and said she "desires a limited number of scholars; children preferable."

In 1917 Penfield rented the house to an old friend, clergyman William Brewster Humphrey and his wife, the former Marie E. Ives.  Reverend Humphrey was the founder and president of the American Indian League, and Penfield and his wife Sarah were members of the New York City Indian Association.  An eminent musician, Penfield had collaborated with Humphrey for the latter's 1911 compilation, North American Indian Folklore Music, published by The American Indian League.

Humphrey's interest in Native Americans, their music and culture would be his life-long passion.  His purpose in forming the American Indian League was "to assist in preserving native industries; establishing if need be, industrial schools and missions where the young Indians might be taught to keep up the old arts."  He hoped to "arouse interest in the North American customs and to preserve and foster their native music and industries in every possible way."

Like Rosa-Welt Straus, Marie E. Ives Humphrey was as interesting as her husband.  Descending from what the 1917-1918 Who's Who in America called "Pilgrim and Puritan stock, three arriving on the Mayflower," her father Charles Ives had been the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives and an author and poet.  Like he, she was a writer.  Who's Who in America called her a "Writer for papers and magazines of sketches, stories, poems and articles for children."

Marie was best known for her work with with her husband, however.  She was president of the New Haven Indian Association, first view-president of the Connecticut Indian Association, chair of the Young People's Department of the National Indian Association, and editor and business manager of The Indian's Friend.  Marie lectured in schools, clubs and churches on Native American issues, and marketed the sale of indigenous crafts, like baskets, "to encourage the art." 

After the Humphreys left 298 Manhattan Avenue in 1919, it was operated as a rooming house.  Smith Newell Penfield died in the corner house on January 7, 1920 at the age of 83.  The following year his estate again leased No. 298.  An advertisement on May 15, 1921 read, "Rooming house, 10 rooms, two baths; long lease furniture."

It became a favorite among Chinese students, most of them attending Columbia University.  Among the first was T. Y. Chin, a member of The Chinese Students' Christian Association in North America.  Also living here in 1921 were students M. K. Mo and Edward S. K. Yen.

On November 17, 1942, The New York Sun reported that the house had been leased "for residence club use."  It is possible that it was a chapter house for a Columbia University fraternity.  It is unclear how long the "residence club" remained here.

A renovation completed in 2012 resulted in one apartment each in the basement and parlor levels, and a triplex apartment above.  It was most likely at this time that a large dormer replaced the original.

photos by the author

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The Jennie Oberdoerfer House - 317 West 112th Street

 

Charles T. Mott designed a long row of Queen Anne-style, three-story and basement homes on the north side of 112th Street between Manhattan Avenue and Eighth Avenues (today's Frederick Douglass Boulevard) in 1886 for real estate developer Edward Roemer.  Among them was 317 West 112th Street, which Mott gave multiple architectural personalities.

A stepped, solid wing wall of chunky undressed stone led to the parlor floor, the round-arched openings of which sat within pointed Gothic eyebrows.  Gothic turned to Romanesque on the second floor, where a trio of round arches with rough-cut keystones united two tall windows and a brick panel and lunette.  That motif was carried on to the third floor, where the windows were square-headed, joined by a single, flat stone lintel.  The little house was a sort of stylebook of architectural periods.

Sarah A. Muir purchased 317 West 112th Street in January 1889 for $15,000, the equivalent of around $456,000 in 2023.  The Muir family lived here until 1899 when William W. Vaughn paid $13,412 for the property.  Unfortunately for him, he filed for bankruptcy only months later, in 1900.  

William E. Thorn, who held the mortgage to the house, foreclosed and rented it to Regina Jonas Oberdorfer that year.  Known as Jennie to her friends, she was the daughter of Cecelia and Julius Jonas and had married Adolph Oberdorfer (frustratingly, also spelled in documents as "Oberndorfer," "Oberndoerfer," and "Obendorfer") in 1894.  The couple had a baby girl, Alice, in 1895 and a second, named Edith, soon after.  The marriage fell apart around 1898.  Jennie first took her daughters and her widowed mother to East 74th Street, and now to West 112th Street.

Cecelia Jonas died in the house on October 5, 1902.  Jennie forged on, taking in boarders for income.  

Running a boardinghouse may have given her the initial business acumen to branch out, and by 1908 she had acquired a small vacation hotel at Rockaway Park.  As the summer season neared, she placed an advertisement in the New York Herald on April 26, 1908:

Exceptionally high class accommodations at Rockaway Park; new house, open June 1.  Arrangements for the season by apply[ing] J. J. Oberndorfer, 317 West 112th.

The stalwart young business woman continued to expand.  In 1913 the New York Hotel Record listed her as proprietor of the Coronado Hotel in Edgemere, Long Island.

The following season she advertised it saying:

"The Coronado."  High class family hotel; opens May 1; renowned for its superior location, right near the ocean; unapproached cuisine, sociability, select patronage; special rates for May and June.  Each Sunday until May 1 at hotel, or address Mrs. J. J. Oberndorfer, 317 West 112th St. New York City

Her success was such that in 1916 she required a secretary.  On January 6 she advertised for a "Young lady of ability, initiative, pleasant personality, refinement, as private or business secretary, where conscientious work will gain recognition."

On March 29, 1918, The American Jewish Chronicle reported, "Mrs. Jennie J. Oberdorfer, of 317 West 112th Street, has announced the engagement of her daughter Miss Alice Obendorfer, to Private William J. Rosenthal, Quartermaster Corps, U.S.A."  The article noted that Jennie would be hosting a reception in honor of the couple in the 112th Street house on April 7th.  

Ironically, that was the very day that the United States entered World War I.  Alice would not marry her military fiancé until March 17, 1920.  (The newlyweds moved in with Rosenthal's parents nearby on West 113th Street.)

In the meantime, Jennie continued to take in boarders, apparently one at a time, at 317 West 112th Street.  In May 1919 a young Chinese man named Chuey lived here.  Describing himself as single and a "good mechanic, experienced drive," he was looking for a job as a chauffeur with a private family year.

Harry Spencer was 24-years-old and working for the Borden Milk Company as a milkman when he lived here in 1926.  That winter various bill collectors and deliverymen were the victims of a gang of armed robbers.

In the pre-dawn hours of February 24 Spencer was delivering milk to tenement buildings along West 142nd Street.  Apparently to save time, he cut across the rooftops from one building to the next.  The New York Sun reported he, "was crossing the roof in the course of his rounds just before daylight when somebody yelled, 'Hands up!'  A negro, later identified as Palm Johnson, 17 years old...appeared out of the darkness, brandishing a pistol."  The teen took $14.52 from Spencer, who suddenly swung at the robber.

Johnson fired his gun, the bullet entering Spencer's left thigh.  "Undaunted, Spencer continued to struggle.  He got the pistol and shot Johnson in the left knee."  The shots awakened tenants all around, who now shouted to the pair as they wrangled on the ice-covered roof.  As they struggled, several times partially hanging off the slippery roof, the gun changed hands.  Four more shots rang out before officers arrived.  The New York Sun reported, "Johnson had recovered the pistol and was taking careful aim when [Officer] Bevan knocked him down."  Both men were taken to a hospital.

The house as it appeared in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Jennie Oberdoerfer died in 1933.  By 1936, 317 West 112th Street was home to Atticus H. Mitchell, an analytical chemist.  A graduate of the University of Georgia, he worked for Ferguson Laboratories.  

The 1889 row suffered abuse throughout the latter part of the 20th century.  Then in 2001 a renovation to 317 West 112th Street resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels, and one apartment each on the top two floors.  Although the masonry has been painted, the stained glass transoms removed, and expected replacement windows installed, the Oberdorfer house is greatly intact.

photographs by the author

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The George Hall Baker house - 294 Manhattan Avenue

 

In July 1886 architect Charles T. Mott filed plans for five three-story brick and stone residences on the east side of Manhattan Avenue, between 112th and 113th Street.  Each of the 20-foot-wide homes would cost their developer, Edward Roemer, $13,000 to construct, or about $386,000 by 2023 conversions.   

Mott's red brick, Queen Anne style homes were typical of his style, with bowed bays and dormers.   He designed the four facing Manhattan Avenue as two mirror-image pairs, while the corner house at 329 West 112th Street, was the show-stopper.  

Construction dragged on because of financial problems.  Surprisingly, when the row was completed in July 1890 all five homes were purchased by Smith Newell Penfield, a renowned organist.  He moved into the corner house with his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Hoyt.

Penfield sold 294 Manhattan Avenue to George Hall Baker on March 18, 1891 for $20,000 (around $615,000 today).  Baker and his wife, the former Ellen Eliza Atkins, had four children: George Friederich, Charles Atkins, Helen Julia, and Raymond Hall.

Baker was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts on April 23, 1850 to George and Mary Hall.  Upon his adoption by Charles and Wealthy Wells Baker, he received his new surname.  He and Ellen, who was known familiarly as Nellie, had married in 1875.  He graduated from Amherst College in 1874 and earned earn his post-graduate degree from Berlin University in 1878.  Upon his return to the United States, he helped compile The Century Dictionary.

The Manhattan Avenue house was convenient to his work.  In 1883 he was hired as assistant librarian at Columbia University and two years before buying the house was appointed Librarian-in-Chief.  Several years later, in 1913, the Annual Report of Chicago Historical Society mentioned: 

Under his administration the library made its greatest progress and acquired some of its most valuable collections.  He also instituted a new and very complete cataloguing system by means of which these treasures became thoroughly available to scholars.

George retired in 1899, earning the title Librarian Emeritus.  He now focused on "the study of art and art history and political science and literary work," according to The New York Times.

Not surprisingly, the Baker sons attended attended Columbia University.  Both Charles and Raymond became attorneys.  Following Charles's marriage to Marie Louise Johnston in 1908, the newlyweds moved into the Manhattan Avenue house where they would have three children.  Charles was, by now, a director and corporate counsel for the Harlem Contracting Company, vice president and counsel for the Pacific City Terminal and Contracting Company, and counsel of the Candelaria Gold and Silver Mining Company.  

George Hall Baker died in the Manhattan Avenue house at the age of 61 on March 27, 1911.  Ellen remained with Helen (who was still unmarried), and Charles's family.  At some point Ellen's brother, John Bangs Atkins moved in.  John's country home was in West Brattleboro, Vermont, where he and Ellen had been born.

Nearly four decades after moving into 294 Manhattan Avenue, Ellen died there on December 28, 1930 at the age of 79.  Her funeral was held in the house on the following day.  

Charles Atkins Baker was, by now, the head of the corporate law firm of Parker & Arron at 55 Liberty Street.  He was also a director of at least six corporations.  Still living his family in the Manhattan Avenue house were Helen, who was still single, and John Bangs Atkins.  John died at West Brattleboro on May 17, 1932.  Before the end of the decade the house was sold.  (Charles died in New Jersey on December 7, 1945.)

294 Manhattan Avenue is second from right.

The Baker house was converted to eight apartments in 1941.  After decades of decline, the neighborhood experienced a renaissance in the early 21st century.  No. 294 Manhattan Avenue was put on the market in 2009 at $2.4 million.  It was finally sold in the summer of 2011 for about half that amount.  It and its architectural siblings create a handsome presence facing Morningside Park.  Its well-preserved facade--albeit with painted brick and replaced stoop railings--begs to be restored.

photos by the author

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The Clement Tetedoux House - 323 West 112th Street

 

In 1886 architect Charles T. Mott filed plans for a long row of three-story and basement homes on the north side of 112th Street between Manhattan Avenue and Eighth Avenue (today's Frederick Douglass Boulevard.)  Designed for developer Edward Roemer, the row was a blend of Queen Anne, Renaissance Revival, Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival styles.  

No. 323 was a mirror-image of 325 West 112th Street.  At just 16.8 feet wide, its entrance above the short stoop was necessarily a single-door.  Stone quoins outlined the pair of homes, and framed the parlor windows.  Above the metal cornice was a brick parapet laid in a waffle pattern--a trademark of Mott.

In October 1890 Clement and Eliza J. Tetedoux purchased 323 West 112th Street.  Born Pierre Louise Clement Tetedoux in Paris, France, in 1825, Clement Tetedoux was among the most prominent vocal coaches in America.  

While a young man, he became the private tutor of the sons of a Russian nobleman.  But his love or music was greater than the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed.  Turning down a great deal of money to remain, he left to study music in Russia, France,  and Italy under masters like Gioachino Rossini.  Composer and tenor Alphonse Révial said of him, "Mr. Tetedoux possesses the double advantage of an Italian and French education, a perfect mastery of the bel canto and full command of lyric declamation; a sensitive temperament, poetical nature, dramatic instinct and cultivated intellect."

Clement Tetedoux, from the archives of the University of Pittsburgh.

A singer and vocal teacher, Eliza Cowley was Tetedoux's second wife.  He had divorced Apolline Guilford in 1866.  Living with them were two of their five children, Emile S. and Clementine.  The family maintained a home in Philadelphia, as well.  

Emile, who worked at the Mercantile National Bank, was an ardent bicyclist, or "wheelman."  The fad had spread across the nation and the young man was among its strongest proponents.  A member of the New York Wheelmen, he signed the club's petition on July 26, 1895, urging the Board of Aldermen to consider "the necessity for the cycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city, and recommend immediate adoption of the route via Eighth avenue and Hudson street and College place."  

Two weeks earlier, the New Haven Morning Journal and Courier had reported, "Emile S. Tetedaux [sic]...and Maurice Kerrigan of Southport, Conn., passed through here yesterday on their wheels.  They are spending their vacation on the wheels, and are making a tour of southern Connecticut."

Emile died here on May 18, 1900.  His funeral was held in the house three days later.  

Clement Tetedoux was in Philadelphia the following winter when he became ill on March 17.  On March 23, 1901 the Pittsburgh Daily Post reported that pneumonia developed.  "He grew steadily worse until yesterday, when death came to his relief."  In reporting his death, The Musical Courier called him, "one of the most distinguished of the recognized teachers of the world."

A much happier event took place in the 112th Street house eight years later.  Clementine was married to Dr. Thurston Gilman Lusk on July 17, 1909.  The couple moved in with Eliza.  In 1911 they would have a son, Thurston Tetedoux Lusk.

Like her parents, Clementine was an accomplished musician.  A soprano and a member of the Women's Philharmonic Society and of the Musicians' Club of New York, she taught voice from the house.

Boarding with the family before long was composer Walter A. Phillips and his wife.  Educated in Paris, Phillips wrote popular songs including "A Son of the Desert Am I," "In Sight of the Harbor Lights," and "She Told Me I Was Dreaming."

Eliza Cowley Tetedoux died on February 21, 1913.  Walter A. Phillips was still living with the family, and he died here on November 15, 1914 at the age of 54.

Dr. Lusk practiced from the house.  A week after Phillips's death, for instance, on November 21, the Peekskill newspaper The Highland Democrat reported, "Capt. Irving Van Wart, of Simpson place, went to New York Wednesday to undergo an operation for cancer of the lip.  The operation was performed on Thursday morning at the home of Dr. Lusk, 323 West 112th Street."  The article noted that Van Wart "was doing nicely."

The Lusks were at Water Witch, New Jersey in October 1916, when Clementine died.  Her funeral was held in the 112th Street house on October 5th.  The Tetedoux estate sold 323 West 112th Street in May 1921 to architect Julius Eugene Gregory and his artist wife Mary Lovrien Price.  The couple had two sons, Jules and Alfred Lawrence.  Jules, would go on to become an award winning architect and urban planner.  

Julius Eugene Gregory (original source unknown)

Born in 1875, Julius Gregory had served in the U. S. Navy during World War I as a District Camoufleur, in charged of camouflaging warships.  Following the war, he designed a number of homes in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.  

He and Mary were married on September 18, 1918.  Trained at the School of Industrial Arts at the Pennsylvania Museum, Mary started out as a book illustrator.  By the time the family moved into 323 West 112th Street, she was a recognized muralist.  On March 10, 1925, The New York Sun reported, "Mrs. Gregory has just completed three panels for the new Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church, University avenue, New York, of which her husband, Julius Gregory, is the architect...Two of her paintings measure eight feet in width, the other twelve."  The critic praised her "drawing and color, welded with a spirituality that is rather remarkable in its appeal for even the untrained eye."

Mary Lovrien Gregory created this mural for the overmantle of the R. K. Stritzinger house in Scarsdale, New York.  Decoration magazine, 1921 (copyright expired).

The artistic tradition of 323 West 112th Street continued when the Gregorys sold it author Allan Nevins and his wife, the former May Richardson, in 1926.  An editorial writer for several publications, he was the author of scholarly books like  the 1924 American Social History Recorded by British Travellers; and The American States During and After the Revolution, published in 1925.  While living here he wrote The Emergence of Modern America in 1927.

The Nevins were followed in the house by playwright, poet and author James Maxwell Anderson (who wrote as Maxwell Anderson) around 1930.  He initially moved in alone.  Anderson's first pay, White Desert, had opened in 1923 while he was still working at the New York World.  Following the success of his What Price Glory? in 1924, he resigned from the newspaper to focus on his career as a dramatist.  Shortly after moving into 323 West 112th Street, Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen opened on Broadway starring Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt.  It would be adapted to the screen in 1939 as The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex starring Betty Davis and Errol Flynn.

Maxwell Anderson was living in 323 West 112th Street in 1934 when this portrait was taken.  from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery

It was most likely his affair with married actress Gertrude Higger that prompted his moving into 323 West 112th Street.  He and his wife, Margaret Haskett, had recently separated because of the indiscretion.  Higger divorced her husband and moved in with Anderson in 1933.  Their daughter, Hesper, was born in August 1934.  

323 and 325 West 112th Street were designed as mirror-images.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Maxwell Anderson occupied 323 West 112th Street as late as 1938, when the United States House of Representatives included him on its list of prominent writers, authors and artists.  By then, in addition to his stage plays, he had written the screenplays for films like All Quiet on the Western Front, Death Takes a Holiday, and Mary of Scotland.

Sometime before 1950 the residence was converted to a rooming house.  Not all of the tenants were upstanding citizens, including Roy Davis.  The 20-year-old was arrested on the night of January 11, 1964 after the cries of his mugging victim, Rob Andrew Brown, attracted the attention of Patrolman John R. Power.  

A renovation completed in 2001 resulted in two duplex apartments.  And while other of Charles T. Mott's 1887 row have been heavily modified, 323 West 112th Street is substantially intact.

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com