The United States Express Bldg - 2 Rector Street (101 Greenwich)

 

image via archinect.com

Born in Oswego, New York on July 15, 1833, Thomas Collier Platt was described by The New York Times as, "for nearly a quarter of a century the undisputed 'Easy Boss' of the Republican organization in this State."  Known popularly as Tom Platt, he served two terms in the U.S. House of Presentatives and three terms in the U.S. Senate.  He was highly involved in the consolidation of five counties into the City of Greater New York.  The Times noted that he knew "every President, personally, since Lincoln."

In 1879, Platt became secretary and a director in the United States Express Company and was elected its president the following year.  He still held that position nearly 30 years later when, on July 7, 1905, the architectural firm of Clinton & Russell filed plans for the firm's new headquarters on the northern side of Rector Street between Greenwich Street and Trinity Place.  The plans called for a 23-story "brick and stone office building" projected to cost $1.6 million to erect (about $57.2 million by 2024 conversion).

As the caissons for the foundation were being sunk into the bedrock three months later, Carpentry & Building explained, "The first five stories of the façade will be of granite, while the remaining stories will be of brick trimmed with terra cotta.  The style of architecture will harmonize with the Empire and Trinity buildings."  That style would be, for the most part, a commercial take on Renaissance Revival, with nods to Gothic Revival and touches of Beaux Arts.  As the building rose, Henry Alexander Horwood, writing in The Metropolitan Magazine, said, "Trinity churchyard is in front of it and from Broadway it will loom up like a giant in the background." 

The decoration of the original, terra cotta-clad top section included elaborate piers, and spandrels containing classical figures.  photograph by Wurts Bros from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The United States Express Building was completed in the fall of 1906.  An interesting innovation was a second floor arcade that connected the stations of the Sixth Avenue and the Ninth Avenue elevated trains.  The United States Express Company occupied the lower floors and rented the upper portions to a variety of tenants.  On December 1, 1906, for instance, the Record & Guide reported that the 17th floor had been leased to the Safety Car Heating and Lighting Co. for ten years, and the Lackawanna Steel Co. had signed a lease on "almost all of the eighteen floor for a long term."

A significant tenant was the Carnegie Safe Deposit Company, which on January 24, 1908 installed what the Topeka State Journal described as, "the largest steel vault in the world."  The article said, "The huge plates used are of the same quality of steel as is used by the leading nations in the protection of their battleships, and are proof against even any modern high power gun cable of being brought to an attack on the vault."  Each of the steel plates, made by the Bethlehem Steel Company, weighed 756 tons.  The doors to the vault weighed 20 tons each, yet the article said, "These are hung with such delicate precision that a child can swing them."

This photo was captioned "One of the Plates in the World's Largest Deposit Vault" in The Topeka State Journal on January 24, 1908 (copyright expired)

Interest switched from the massive vault to a scandal involving Thomas C. Platt five months later.  A front page article in The Evening World on May 18, 1908 was headlined, "Platt's Letter to Mae Wood Signed 'Lovingly, Tom" and the article detailed Mae Catharine Wood's divorce suit against the former senator.  The interesting thing about the case was that Platt already had a wife, and he insisted he and Wood had never been married.

The article said, "Mae Catharine Wood-Platt asserts that she was married secretly to the Senator in the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the night of Nov. 9, 1901.  Two years later, she says, he married Lillian Janeway."  Although Platt did not attend the court session on May 17, 1908, Mae Catharine Wood was undeterred in exposing embarrassing details and reading torrid love letters during her testimony.

The scurrilous proceedings lasted until May 27 when the judge declared, "I cannot credit the plaintiff's evidence as to the alleged marriage and the testimony as it impresses the court is that this is a most wicked design to support a false and fictious clam by forgery and perjury."  Mae Catharine Wood was sent to the city prison on charges of perjury "unless she furnishes a bail in $5,000," reported the Daily News of Kearney, Nebraska.

The lobby boasted carved stone, a deeply coffered ceiling, and mosaic floors.  photograph by Wurts Bros from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

An advertisement for an office in the building on April 7, 1917 touted its up-to-the-minute amenities.  "Fire proof building, light, heat and service included, circulating ice water, excellent toilet facilities."  The "circulating ice water" was a somewhat common means of cooling large buildings in the decades before air conditioning.  A refrigeration plant in the basement sent frigid salt water through copper tubing within the walls, noticeably lowering the temperatures during the hot months.

Among the several attorneys with offices in the United States Express Building in 1920 was Frank I. Finkler, who acted as his own lawyer in a startling case against his son-in-law, John F. McNulty, in July that year.  Finkler accused him of bigamy, of trying to poison the entire Finkler family, and of setting fire to his house to conceal a theft of $5,600 worth of Liberty Bonds.

Finkler's daughter, Martha Ruth, had served in the Women's Motor Corps of America during World War I.  One morning she was assigned to drive Lieutenant McNulty to the New York Navy Yard.  A romance blossomed and "despite her father's objections," according to The Evening World, they were married in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on April 2, 1919.  The newspaper said, "Later it was found that McNulty had previously married Mary Wasal Oct. 28, 1908, and Ruth Ennis, by whom he had three children, on Nov. 8, 1911.

One morning, Finkler's wife saw McNulty drop mercury tablets into the coffee pot that was boiling on the stove.  She poured the contents into the sink.  Later, McNulty witnessed Finkler place Liberty Bonds in his desk drawer in the library.  After a fire later gutted the room, Finkler applied to Washington for redemption of the bonds, only to be told they had been sold.

On July 18, 1920, Finkler's daughter took the stand.  "But she had scarcely started to give her testimony," reported The Sun, "when, overcome by sight of the prisoner, the father of her child, she toppled from the witness chair in a faint, which lasted nearly an hour."  She was unable to return to the courtroom.  Nonetheless, McNulty pleaded guilty to bigamy, while denying he had tried to kill the Finkler family or to having stolen the bonds and set fire to the house.  He was sentenced to two to five years in Sing Sing Prison.  Finkler told the reporters, "It has cost me $24,000, including the Liberty Bonds, to rid my daughter of this man."

The Brickbuilder, July 1907 (copyright expired)

On January 12, 1925, The New York Times reported that the Electric Bond and Share Company, "purchased for its future home the twenty-three-story office building at 2 Rector Street."  The article noted, "The building was erected by Thomas P. [sic] Platt as President of the United States Express Company and was considered the finest building of its kind."  The new owners enlarged the skyscraper by adding three floors, the architecture of which honored the Clinton & Russell design.

Joseph A. Eggers worked in the mail room of the Electronic Bond and Share Company.  On the evening of February 25, 1933, the 40-year-old was seen sorting mail, and then he disappeared.  Suddenly, Joseph Hawthorne, the manager of the Western Union branch office in the rear extension of the building, was startled by a loud thud.  Investigating, he found Eggers's body "wedged in a ventilator," according to The New York Times.  He had thrown himself from a window on the 21st floor.

John J. McMullen, the owner of the Houston Astros, purchased 2 Rector Street in March 1981 "for a price reported in trade circles as $23 million," reported The New York Times.  (The figure would translate to more than $77 million today.)

Cesar Martinez, who worked for the building's management firm as a security guard, helped his sister, Eridania Rodriquez, obtain a job here as a cleaner in 2008.  Almost a year later, on July 7, 2009, Eridania failed to meet her co-workers for their evening meal at 9:00.  When they looked for her, they found only a hair clip and a mop.  In the room where the employees changed into their uniforms, they found her clothing and purse.  Her cart was abandoned on the eight floor.

The building was carefully searched, but no trace of the woman was found.  Two days later, The New York Times reported that police suspected foul play.  Then, on July 11, the newspaper reported, "After days of fearing the worst, the police said they believed they found the body of Eridania Rodriguez, a 46-year-old woman missing since Tuesday night."  At 8:50 on Saturday morning, an officer found a body inside an air-conditioning duct near the 12th floor.

Joseph Pabon, who worked as an elevator operator in the building, was arrested and convicted in April 2012 for murder and kidnapping.  He was sentenced to 25 year to life in prison.

image via polycor.com

A renovation by architects Montroy Andersen DeMarco completed in 2018 resulted in "a significant repositioning," as worded by the firm's website.  The vintage building was modernized to accommodate 21st century tenants, including "the financial and hospitality sectors."  With the updates came a new address, 101 Greenwich Street.

many thanks to reader Laurie Gwen Shapiro for requesting this post

The Chauncey S. Traux House - 7 East 67th Street

In July 1881 the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson filed plans for a row of six four-story brownstone houses along East 67th Street, just off Fifth Avenue.  Financially advantageous for the developers, Spaulding, Brennan & Jones, was the fact that M. Brennan and R. Spaulding were also partners in a construction firm.  An ample 25-feet wide, the identical high-stooped houses were intended for upper middle class families.  The cost of construction of each was $155,000 in today's money.

The row was completed in 1882, but it appears that Spaulding, Brennan & Jones chose to retain ownership and lease the houses.  If that were the case it was a bad decision.  They were all lost in foreclosures in January 1885.  Interesting, one of the creditors involved in the sale was the wealthy attorney Chauncey S. Traux.  

No. 7 East 67th Street was foreclosed upon again and in February 1889 it was purchased by Frank W. and Arriba Savin for $75,000--or about $2.15 million today.  It began a peculiar chapter in the history of the house.

Savin was a Wall Street broker, better known for his anger management problems than for his transactions.  The Evening World mentioned on September 12, 1889 "Mr. Savin is well known on Wall street and on the exchanges.  He has been a member since 1872, and has been the hero of a score of fistic battles, in which he invariably got the worst of the encounters."

Typical of his public outbursts was an incident in the posh Delmonico's restaurant a few years earlier.  "The waiter did not serve him fast enough to suit, and he slapped the waiter's face, just as a sort of a tip," said a newspaper.

Luckily for the Savins, the title of their new house, as was common, was filed in Arriba's name.  Because seven months after they purchased it, the housekeeper, Agnes Frances De Forest, sued her employer for the house (or its equivalent value in cash).  The unmarried woman had worked for the family since December 1883 and she told the courts "Mr. Savin paid her no regular salary, but maintained her in luxury," according to The Evening World.  The clear implication was that Miss De Forest's duties went beyond managing the household.

On August 2, 1889 Savin told her "that he could dispense with her services."  Agnes did not look kindly upon "an attempt to dispossess her" and immediately filed a suit to obtain possession of the residence.

As he left his office on September 12 a reporter asked him about the suit.  "It's an effort to extort money from me, but it won't work," he replied.  "That woman hasn't the slightest hold upon me and has no grounds to base a suit on...She's made a big mistake."  Agnes De Forrest no doubt knew she had little chance in court, but she did know the that suit would bring embarrassing publicity to her former employer.  And it did.

The following year Savin's temper got him into the newspapers--and the courts--again.  He was riding in his carriage on November 15, 1890 when it was involved in a collision with a truck.  His driver, Thomas Smith, was thrown to the ground.  As he got to his feet, according to him, "Savin struck him several times."  The broker's fury was not sated, however, and later, Smith testified, "he was again attacked by Savin in the stable and knocked down under the legs of one of the horses.  The animal stepped on him and injured him for life."

Smith sued his former employer for $25,000 damages.  In court Savin defended himself saying Smith "was drunk and abusive."  The Sun reported "He admitted having hit the coachman, but said he did not hit him hard."  Smith was awarded $25, a disappointing $785 by today's standards.

The Savins had two children, Frank, Jr. and Josephine.  Frank, it seems, had much in common with his father.  On January 14, 1896 the 18-year old was arrested for ill treatment of the his mother's English maid, Agnes Tidy.

In church on Sunday, January 11, Agnes told another girl what had happened to her.  That girl relayed the story to her uncle, Henry T. Smith, who insisted Agnes go to the police.  The following day she did and, after hearing her shocking tale, the judge had Frank arrested.  Agnes said that on January 10 Frank came into her room and "after he had forced her to undress, partly through threats of beating her with a leather strap, painted her face and half-nude body in a fantastic manner, and then, fastening her hands behind her back with a dog chain, made her parade and dance in the presence of other members of the Savin family."  (The "other members" were, in fact, only Josephine.)

The case was heard on January 16.  The Sun reported "There were present in court before the case was called Mrs. and Miss Savin and a score or more of the friends of the Savin family.  The servants employed by Mrs. Savin were also on hand to testify in behalf of the defendant."  But the hearing would never take place.  It appears that the Savins had successfully intimidated the servant girl.  At first she did not show up, but Henry Smith sent a cab to retrieve her.  "When she was hurried onto the stand she was trembling violently, and appeared to be badly frightened."  She told her lawyer she wanted to withdraw her charges.  "Young Savin was warmly congratulated as he left the court room," said The Sun.

Frank and Arriba spent the summer of 1898 apart--he in Europe and she, along with Josephine and Frank, Jr., in Saratoga.  While there Josephine met Dr. Marion de Zaremba "who is said to be a Russian count and very wealthy," according to The Sun.   The two were quietly married in Saratoga on August 20, but no one found out until September 19.  The Sun said "No one was found yesterday who could tell why this announcement had been delayed for more than three weeks."  It is quite possible that Arriba kept the ceremony secret to prevent her husband from attending.

In announcing the marriage The Sun noted "Mrs. Frank Savin is now suing her husband...for divorce.  She is receiving $1,000 a month alimony by order of the Supreme Court.  The co-respondent in the case is a woman who alleges that she is an actress."  The actress was the recently divorced Susette Virginia Bernard.

In court Slavin's domestic abuse was exposed.  On August 14, 1898 The World reported "For fifteen years, the lady swore, she suffered from his aberrations.  Sometimes he whimsically struck her with a cane or club.  At others in a spirit of hilarity he wound his fingers about her throat and choked her into a state of submission."

On December 4, 1898 auctioneer James P. Silo announced he would be selling the contents of the Savin home.  The listing noted that "some of the statuary is from the A. T. Stewart Collection" and added "the bronzes and articles of bric-a-brac are many of them remarkable for their artistic and intrinsic value, and were purchased from such houses as Tiffany & Co., Black, Starr & Frost and Camerden & Forster."

And the sale, too, had caused dissension between the Savins.  
Frank insisted that the 40 oil paintings in the sale were his, not Arriba's.  She disagreed.  So a week before the auction he sued Arriba for $25,000 "worth of paintings, which both claim," said The Sun on November 27.  

In April 1899 Arriba sold No. 7 East 67th Street to Chauncey Shaffer Traux, one of the original financial backers of the row.  He paid $85,000 for the house, in the neighborhood of $2.7 million today.

Arriba would never obtain her divorce from Frank Savin.  Shortly after selling the house she and Josephine (whose new husband was in jail for larceny) sailed to London for the season.  On July 3 Arriba died in her hotel suite there.

By the time Chauncey Traux purchased No. 7 it was architecturally out of date.  Before moving in he hired the architectural firm of Clinton & Russell to completely remodel it.  Although their plans, filed in October 1899 said they would "alter rooms," the project went far beyond that.  The brownstone front and stoop were removed.

The architects gave the residence a smart Beaux Arts facade.  Ionic columns now stood where the stoop had formerly begun.  They upheld a second floor bowed bay which, in turn, created a third floor balcony.  Rusticated piers ran up the sides of the three upper stories, which were embellished with elaborately carved keystones and ornate cartouches.  The limestone cornice, upon which four stone urns perched, was upheld by brackets decorated with garlands of fruits.

Leaded French doors open onto the third floor balcony.

Born in 1854, Chauncey Truax had married Alice M. Hawley in 1886.  The couple had three children, Katherine, Chauncey, Jr., and Ravaud Hawley.  The family maintained two country homes.  They were known as "old cottagers" of Long Branch, New Jersey, and had a summer estate in Blue Hill, Maine.  

A peculiar incident happened on the evening of March 29, 1905.  Alice was about to go on a carriage ride with some friends when she decided to go back into the house for a wrap.  When she returned the coachman told her he had seen a man enter the front door, which she had left open while inside.  The Sun reported "Mrs. Truax, her friends, the coachman and footman went back into the house and found a strange young man in the hall on the second floor."

Samuel Rosenstock was arrested and Chauncey Traux filed charges of unlawful entry the following day.  "I believe he entered my home to steal.  He certainly had no business there," he told the judge.  But when the judge asked Rosenstock if he had anything to say, the young man motioned with his fingers that he was deaf.

His sister spoke for him, saying that he suffered "from a nervous disease and could only talk a little."  She explained "He received an injury to his head when a baby and his mind has not been right since.  He made a mistake in going into the gentlemen's house.  My brother was looking for a friend who lives in the neighborhood."

Traux was unmoved as was the judge, who said "This is a private house and he walked in through the open door.  I will hold him in $500 bail for trial."

On March 12, 1906 Traux sold No. 7 to John Townsend Williams and his wife Louise.  Somewhat ironically, the entire Traux family was at their Maine residence that summer when, on August 9, Chauncey died at the age of 52.  

The Williams did not stay long, selling the house in January 1909 to Albert Gallatin and his wife, the former Margaret Hoffman Hackstaff.  The couple had been married for less than two years.  They moved into the house with their baby daughter, Margaret.  Three more children would arrive before 1918--Phyllis, Albert Frederick, and James Peter.   The family's summer residence was in Southampton.

Gallatin was the great grandson of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under President Thomas Jefferson.  He would become well known as an archeologist and writer on archeological subjects.  He was, as well, an expert on rare coins.

New York Herald, April 30, 1913 (copyright expired)

Albert was 34-years old when the First World War erupted in Europe.  Although he could have easily avoided service, he volunteered.  The men found wretched conditions when they reached the training camp in Plattsburgh, New York.  The new facility had been built on low-lying ground.  On June 12, 1916 The New York Press described it as "little better than a swamp."

The article added, "Health has been good in camp, with a few exceptions.  About ten men are laid up in the post hospital with trivial ailments.  The latest victim was Albert Gallatin of No. 7 East Sixty-seventh street...He has a touch of malaria."

On June 12, 1926 Brooklyn Life reported "One of the debutantes of the coming season is Miss Margaret Gallatin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Gallatin of 7 East Sixty-seventh Street, who have been identified for many years with Southampton."  The article noted "Miss Gallatin has been at boarding school in Paris for the last two years."

Two years later, on November 9, 1928, Margaret's parents announced her engagement to Dr. Clement B. P. Cobb.  The New York Times rolled out her impressive pedigree, which not only included the former Secretary of the Treasury and the renowned Dr. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, for many years the Dean of the General Theological Seminary, but "Through her paternal grandmother she is a direct descendant of Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence."

It would be another decade before Albert and Margaret announced an engagement.   Phyllis Almy Gallatin was married to William Appleton Aiken in St. James Church on Madison Avenue on June 1, 1938.   The entire family was involved in the wedding party--Albert, of course, giving away the bride, her sister Margaret was matron of honor, and both brothers served as ushers. 

Like his father had done, when world war broke out in Europe Albert Frederick joined the military.  He was an ensign in the Navy when the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the country into the conflict.  It may have been that incident that prompted the announcement of his engagement to Elizabeth Anne Neilson less than a month later, on January 4, 1942.

On February 18, 1944 The New York Sun reported that "Albert Gallatin, author and collector of coins, has sold the five-story residence at 7 East 67th street which he has occupied for about 35 years to the Trinity Chapel Home."  Gallatin was a member of Trinity Chapel and practically donated the house to the group.  It paid just $18,000 (about $260,000 today) for the property which was assessed at $1.45 million in today's dollars.

A subsequent renovation resulted in a kitchen and laundry on the first floor, a dining room, chapel and sitting room on the second, and furnished rooms on the upper floors.

Founded in 1902, the purpose of Trinity Chapel Home was "to maintain and care for poor and aged churchwomen...who have no relatives or friends to support them."  The Trinity Chapel Home remained in the house until January 1960 when it was sold to modernist architect Edward Durell Stone.  In reporting on the sale The New York Times mentioned "The house contains twenty rooms and an elevator."  

It does not appear that the renowned architect, who lived at No. 130 East 64th Street, ever intended for his family to live in the former Traux house.  Instead he made renovations, completed in 1967 to accommodate the Edward Durrell Stone Foundation, Inc.  The former house, while unchanged on the exterior, now contained drafting rooms, offices and a conference room.  By 1989 the building was home to The Foundation for Depression and Manic Depression.

It was purchased by Seagram heir Matthew Bronfman in 1994.  Bronfman paid $3.5 million for the house, then initiated a gut renovation to a 19-room single family home with a four-story glass atrium, eight bedrooms, seven full baths, a gymnasium, sauna, wine cellar and 11 fireplaces.

The renovations included a double-height, wood paneled library.  photo via 6sqft.com

The house changed hands in 2007 when Charles Murphy, one of the top executives of the European Financial Institutions Group at Credit Swiss, paid 10 times what Bronfman had spent for the house (pre-renovations, of course).  Murphy had just moved to New York to join a $14 billion hedge fund, the Fairfield Greenwich Group.

photo via 6sqft.com

But less than two years later, as reported by Josh Barbanel in The New York Times on January 23, 2003, "Now he is out of a job.  It turns out that Fairfield Greenwich had invested more than $7 billion of its funds with Bernard L. Madoff, the disgraced investor accused last month of losing $50 billion of clients' money in a Ponzi scheme."

Murphy quickly placed the house on the market, but his $37 million price tag lured no offers.  Charles Murphy's troubles eventually overwhelmed him and he died by suicide in 2017 with the mansion still unsold.  

The following year Murphy's widow, Annabella, sold the mansion at a greatly reduced price of $28.5 million.  While nothing remains of Clinton & Russell's 1899 interiors, the exterior of the striking mansion remains essentially unchanged.

photographs by the author

The Lost Daly Mansion - 725 Fifth Avenue

 

The Daly mansion appears to sit on a corner.  In fact, what appears to be a street is the service alley to the hulking C. P. Huntington mansion.  Collins' Both Sides of Fifth Avenue, 1910 (copyright expired)

In 1854 Marcus Daly came to New York with his family at the age of 13 from the famine-ravaged County Cavan, Ireland.  After selling newspapers on street corners for seven years, the young man set off to find his fortune in California gold.

Aggressive, ambitious and tough, Daly soon was working Nevada's Comstock Lode, and then was a foreman in silver mines in Utah.  His employer, J. B. Haggin, sent him to Montana to check on claims, and while there he used his saved money to buy a small silver mine, called the Anaconda.  The mine produced minimal silver; but to Daly's happy surprise, seemingly endless copper veins were discovered.

The once penniless Irish immigrant boy was garnering a staggering fortune.  At its peak miners were digging $17 million in copper a year from Anaconda.  By the 1890s Daly was known as the Copper King and wielded immense power, both financially and politically, in the West.

Daly had early on become embroiled in a vicious feud with another mining baron--William Andrews Clark, who was among the most hated persons in America.  The San Francisco Call intimated that the manicured, well-dressed Clark was up against a formidable opponent.  It described Daly as "big, broad-shouldered, deep chested and powerful.  He is of mercurial and choleric Irish temperament, genial to friends, vindictive to an enemy, quick of speech and given to a lusty swear word on occasions."

Clark lost two elections before finally becoming senator.  Daly was publicly accused of bribing state legislators to fix the first results.  The bitter rivalry would continue until one of them was dead.

Daly married Margaret Price Evans and they had four children, Mary, Margaret, Harriot and Marcus, Jr.   The Cooper King sold the Anaconda to Standard Oil in 1899.  With a massive fortune and three daughters approaching marrying age, he and Margaret had already begun planning a New York City mansion (although Daly would always consider their 50-acre estate in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana his home).

At the time William Waldorf Astor and George Vanderbilt were leading the battle against the incursion of commerce into the Fifth Avenue mansion district below 59th Street.  When properties became available either of the millionaires rushed in, erecting upscale homes or selling the plots with strict covenants.  On December 3, 1898 the Real Estate Record & Guide noted that Astor's recent purchase of "5th avenue lots, near 56th street" was "of sensational interest."

A month later, on January 14, the journal reported that Astor had commissioned architects Clinton & Russell to design two five-story brick and limestone mansions on the plots, Nos. 723 and 725 Fifth Avenue.  The estimated cost of the project was $80,000--about $2.4 million.

Construction progressed swiftly and only nine months later, on October 13, 1899, the Associated Press announced "Marcus Daly of Montana has taken a ten-year lease on a fine house recently built by William Waldorf Astor on Fifth Avenue between Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh streets."

Clinton & Russell had produced a pair of French Gothic homes that complimented one another.  The Daly house was a relatively restrained take on the style--foregoing the explosion of spiky finials and elaborate Francois I ornamentation.  The brick facade was selectively trimmed in limestone, including the paneled surrounds of the windows, the double bandcourses separating each story, and the striking carved balcony at the second floor.

Marcus Daly would not enjoy his Manhattan palace for long.  The Leadville, Colorado newspaper, The Herald Democrat explained that "Breathing fumes of arsenic, in smelters where copper ore from his mines were treated, and living in the high altitudes of Montana weakened his heart."

The millionaire consulted three New York physicians, each of which warned him to "foresake active business life."  Refusing to do so, he traveled to Bad Nauheim, Germany to take the restorative baths.  His self-treatment hastened his death.  The Herald Democrat wrote "These are said to be too stimulating in cases of dilation of the heart."

German doctors told him that death was imminent.  He boarded a steamship back to the States and, according to the newspaper, "wished to be taken to his new home at 725 Fifth avenue, but it was thought best that he should remain in the apartments of the Hotel Netherland, whither he had been taken from the steamship."

Marcus Daly - from the collection of the Montana Historical Society

Told that his survival was "day to day," he "accepted the decision with full resignation, asking only that he might live until his family could be with him."  Word was sent to the two his daughters who were in Europe.  While the family waited, Daly wrote a new will.

Finally, the entire family was at the hotel.  At 4:00 on the morning of November 12, 1900, after having been unconscious, Daly awoke and asked for his wife and children.  When Margaret came to his bedside, she asked if he were feeling any better.  He uttered his final words "Only a little while more; only a little while more and then peace."

Daly's body was taken to the Fifth Avenue mansion.  The San Francisco Call reported "The funeral will be held from that place, the services including a solemn high mass of requiem in St. Patrick's Cathedral at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning."

Daly's estate was valued at $11 million--a massive $316 million in today's dollars.  Margaret received one-third of the estate, the remainder being divided equally among the four children.  The will demanded that the bequests to the three girls be put in trust.  The Los Angeles Times explained this was "to guard against fortune hunters seeking marriage with his daughters" and noted he was had "suspicion as to their motives."

On January 2, 1901, less than two months after Daly's death, the wedding of daughter Margaret was held in the Fifth Avenue mansion.  The groom was Henry Carroll Brown, a Baltimore stockbroker and partner in H. C. Brown & Co.  The Chicago Tribune reported that the marriage "was celebrated quietly...at the home of the bride's mother."

Because the family was in mourning there were no attendants other than her sister, Mary, and the bride's gown was "quite simply made."  "There were no ushers," said the Tribune, and "Only the members of the families of the bride and bridegroom were present at the ceremony."

The understated affair did not prevent Margaret from decorating the mansion for the event.  "All of the rooms on the ground and the drawing-room floors were trimmed with flowers and green plants," reported the Chicago Tribune.  "The drawing-room was arranged with a chancel marked by palms and white roses.  The satin covered 'prie dieu,' on which lilies of the valley were strewn was placed for the couple to kneel upon."

Only five months later, on June 4, another wedding took place in the mansion.  Mary Augusta was married to attorney James Watson Gerard by the socially-powerful Episcopal Bishop Henry C. Potter.  Once again the house was filled with floral decorations.  The New York Times said "Spring flowers and peonies trimmed the halls, and in the main drawing room a large shell-shaped canopy of pink peonies was built by Small, and under it the ceremony was performed.  The tapestried walls of this room were hung with garlands of brown leaves and pink roses."

The florist mentioned by the newspaper was Small & Sons, whose shop was in the Waldorf-Astoria.  Their creations decorated the dining rooms and ballrooms of Manhattan's wealthiest citizens.  The Times explained that "There were about 125 guests at the wedding, which was a small one because of the family are still in mourning."

The affair was nevertheless, much more elaborate than Margaret's had been.  The choir from Grace Church sang and after the ceremony a wedding breakfast was served.  "There were twenty small tables for the guests, each with a centrepiece of a different flower and coloring."  Among the guests were some of Manhattan's most socially-elite--families with names like Rockefeller, Barney, Alexander, de Forest, Mackay, Schieffelin and Cutting among them.

The Gerards moved into the Fifth Avenue house with Margaret and the still-unmarried Harriot and Marcus, Jr.  The Times reported that "Extensive repairs are being made to the Gerard family mansion, in Gramercy Park, and it is probable that the young could will reside there."  While the renovations were being done, the newlyweds and Margaret Daly went to the Montana estate, Riverside.

The Daly home in Hamilton, Montana, known as Riverside.  photo by "Dan"

As it turned out, the Gerards never left the Fifth Avenue mansion.  On December 13, 1903 The New York Times reported on the upcoming "dinners, teas and receptions" and said "One of the largest of these will be given by Mr. and Mrs. James W. Gerard at 725 Fifth Avenue."


Those who lived in the exclusive enclave of palaces and chateaux received special attention from the police.  And so when a call came into Police Headquarters on February 27, 1906 at 1:00 in the morning, officers rushed into action.

A whispering female voice told the operator "Well, this is Mrs. Marcus Daly of 725 Fifth Avenue.  Burglars are trying to get into the house.  Please send somebody around at once."

According to The New York Times the following day, the sergeant on duty exclaimed "Gee whiz!  That's Daly, the copper man's widow.  Get busy!  Notify the East Fifty-first Street Station."

Officers inside that station were alerted by a call of "Burglars!"  Three officers rushed out on foot, followed by a patrol wagon.  They arrived at the mansion just as the Daly carriage pulled up at the curb and two women in evening dress stepped out.

Confusion reigned.  The Times reported "The butler was rendered almost as breathless from fright as the policemen by their sprint; when three uniformed men, clubs drawn, brushed by him into the house."

While the perplexed butler and the women protested, telling the police there must be a mistaken, the officers insisted on searching the mansion.  They found nothing and no one in the house could explain the call.

"The guess of the policemen on returning was that a servant might have imagined that she saw an intruder or some one might have planned a joke on Mrs. Daily-perhaps on the policemen," said The Times.

In the meantime, Gerard's legal career skyrocketed.  His client list included widow of Hermann Oelrichs, the former Theresa Alice Fair.  Her husband's estate was about $10 million.  And by 1909 he was a New York Supreme Court Justice.

On January 27, 1908 Gladys Vanderbilt, daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, was married to Hungarian Count Laszlo Szechenyi. The groom's best man was Count Anton Sigray who, while in New York for the ceremony, was smitten with another American heiress, Harriot Daly.  On February 12, 1910 Margaret Daly announced the engagement of Harriot to the count.

The Times described Harriot as "a handsome brunette, and a musician.  Since her debut she has appeared with success in the various tableaux arranged for charity, and has been much admired for her charm of manner."

Marcus Daly need not have worried about a fortune hunter in the count.  "The Sigray family," said the newspaper, "is one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Hungary and holds many important positions.  The Count himself is a large land owner, and his fortune is quite equal to that of Miss Daly, who is one of the richest heiresses in this country."

What Daly may have worried about was religion.  Count Sigray was Catholic.  Nevertheless reporters were told that she "will make no change in her religion."

The marriage, like that of her sisters, was held in No. 725 Fifth Avenue on March 29, 1910.  Rather surprisingly, given the socially-visible match and despite the "large reception," The Sun reported "There will be no bridesmaids or ushers.  Marquis Pallavincini, best man, will be the only attendant."

Margaret and H. Carroll Brown had two children by now and were living at No. 18 East 76th Street.  The following spring Margaret, daughter Margaret, and Marcus, Jr. went to Riverside.  H. Carroll Brown did not go with his wife, but stayed in New York to attend to business.   While in Montana Margaret Brown suffered heart trouble (due to the high altitude, according to doctors).  She was put on a special train to speed her back to New York and medical specialists.  With her on the train were her relatives, two physicians and several nurses.  “And the long race for sea level began,” reported The Sun on April 30.

H. Carroll Brown rushed in the opposite direction to intercept train, which he met and boarded in Chicago.  When the train arrived in New York, Mary was transported to her mother's mansion at No. 725 Fifth Avenue.  But the following day The Sun reported  “Her heart was weak and toward midnight she had a relapse that resulted in her death.”  She was just 38 years old.

The Geralds were still living in the house.  In January 1912 Gerard made a pointed stance against the dilapidated condition of the Tweed Court House:  he moved his court into the Daly mansion.

On January 20 The Times quipped that if the blindfolded Goddess of Justice were to peek out, "instead of the dingy walls of the Tweed Court House, the Goddess would have seen a beautiful room of the period of Louis XVI.  She would have gazed upon heavy crimson tapestries and rugs; she would have seen richly famed pictures and heavy gilt molding and the soft glow of the electrolier falling over it all."

Justice Gerard had brought his entire court staff, the jury, and the testifiers.  They gathered around the Circassian walnut dining room table; and a Louis XVI chair served as the witness stand.  Somewhat comically, Gerard's valet, outfitted in knickers and a black-braided coat ushered lawyers, clients and witnesses in and out.

The newspaper mentioned other witnesses to the cases that day: a large portrait of the Empress Marie of Russia; a 1667 portrait of Henry Rich, Earl of Holland; and one of Mlle. de la Sabiliere by Mignard.

While Gerard presided over court cases, the Fifth Avenue outside his window was changing.  Neighboring millionaires had begun moving up the avenue after John Jacob Astor had sullied the area with his St. Regis Hotel just south of the Daly house in 1901.

In March 1912 Gerard purchased a plot on Fifth Avenue far north, between 94th and 95th Streets as a site for his new mansion.  A year later President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Ambassador to Germany, and the family sailed for Berlin that summer.  It was an ill-timed appointment, with World War I erupting the following year.

Margaret Daly abandoned New York in 1913, spending her time at the Montana estate.  No. 725 Fifth Avenue became home to the Walter G. Oakman family.  Oakman was the founder and chairman of the Guaranty Trust Company.  His wife, Eliza, was the daughter of well-known politician Roscoe Conkling.   The couple had two children, Walter, Jr. and Katharine.

The family's move into the Fifth Avenue mansion coincided with Katharine's debutante entertainments.  On December 27 a large dinner and dance was held in the house in her honor.  The festivities went on for months.  In February Eliza gave a "theatre party and supper for Miss Katherine Oakman," according to The Sun.

When the Oakmans moved in 1914, they sold everything in the house at auction.  The two day sale attracted buyers like Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Oliver Gould Jennings, millionaire brewer Jacob Ruppert, and William Rockefeller.  The furnishings were described as "of historic interest," a portrait of Catherine of Russia brought $4,850 (nearly $120,000 today), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased medieval armor.

The mansion staggered along as a single family house for three years.  It was leased for the winter season of 1915-16 to Mrs. Nelson W. Aldrich, widow of the State Senator.  In reporting on the lease, The Times reminded readers it "is one of a row of dwellings there owned by William Waldorf Astor."

The mansion was used for war relief that spring.  The Times reported that "Several hundred dollars worth of hats were sold yesterday at the opening of the sale which is being given by a number of society women for the benefit of the Orphelinat des Armees at 725 Fifth Avenue.  The house, formerly occupied by James W. Gerard, Ambassador to Germany, has been converted into a spacious salon for the display  the latest models and creations of the leading milliners, many of them having been sent from Paris"

The renovations for F. Kleinberger Galleries, directly behind the massive C. P. Huntington mansion, can be seen.  The second floor windows have been enlarged, the balcony is gone, and show windows can be glimpsed above the automobile.  photograph by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWE6C420#/SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWE6C420&PN=1

Commerce caught up with the house in November 1917, when plans were filed to remodel it for the F. Kleinberger Galleries.  The art dealers had been located at No. 709 Fifth Avenue for years.  The renovations were completed in November that year.

The Evening World, November 9, 1917 (copyright expired)

Francois Kleinberger and his wife lived in the upper floors of the mansion, while he conducted his high-end art gallery below.  Here wealthy collectors were shown works by some of Europe's greatest artists, like Rembrandt and Reubens.

The altered house survived until 1928 when it was replaced by the Art Deco style Stewart & Company department store building designed by Warren & Wetmore.  The building was taken over by Bonwit Teller in 1930.  Described by American Architect in 1929 as "a sparkling jewel," it was demolished in 1980 for Donald Trump's glitzy Trump Tower.

High above Fifth Avenue floor-height Art Deco bas reliefs danced.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Art lovers and preservationists were aghast when, after Donald Trump promised that the Metropolitan Museum of Art could have the limestone bas reliefs of dancing women, he ordered them  jack hammered to scrabble.  Trump's representatives deemed them "without artistic merit" and complained that saving them would have delayed construction.

photograph by Martin Durrschnabel