The 1854 Antonio di Alfaro House - 206 East 16th Street

 

Robert Voorhies purchased eight lots on the south side of East 16th Street, just steps from elegant Stuyvesant Square in January 1852 for $16,800--just over $700,000 in 2026 terms.  The houses he erected on the site went up with blinding speed and only nine months later he had sold nearly all of them.  Among the buyers was Antonio Franchi di Alfaro, who paid $11,000 for the westernmost house, 82 East 16th Street.  (The address would be renumbered 206 in 1864.)

Alfaro's wife was Maria Ignacia.  They had recently relocated from Cuba where Antonio had been a professor of Greek at the University of Havana.  He now listed his profession as "printer" at 7 Spruce Street, but continued his work in languages.  The same year he moved his family into the East 16th Street house, he wrote and published a Spanish language guide.  It explained a spelling system titled "Castilian-phonetic Spelling or According to Pronunciation."  Franchi Alfaro, presumably a son, lived in the house and worked in the Spruce Street business.

The Alfaros' handsome Anglo-Italianate-style home was four stories tall and faced in red brick above a brownstone base.  The segmentally-arched windows of the upper floors wore pretty cast iron lintels that sat upon ornate corbels.  Their sills rested upon especially decorative brackets.  An arched corbel table and three foliate brackets supported the cornice.

Alfaro offered the house for sale in September 1858, describing it in the New York Herald as, "A handsome, well built four story modern house, in a very genteel neighborhood, with all improvements, between Union and Stuyvesant parks."  The residence was sold quickly.  On November 11, 1858, the title was transferred to Frances Bryant Godwin.

Frances, known as Fanny, was the daughter of William Cullen Bryant and Frances Fairchild, and the wife of Parke Godwin.  Godwin and Bryant worked together in the publishing firm of William C. Bryant & Co.  The East 16th Street house became home to both the Bryants and the Godwins.

Frances Fairchild Bryant, from the collection of The Bryant Library

William Cullen Bryant, from the collection of the Library of Congress

William Cullen Bryant was, as well, the editor of the New York Evening Post, a poet, and an orator.  Perhaps his best known poem was "Thanatopsis," published in 1817.  By the time the family moved into the 16th Street house, he was well-known for his ardent stands on abolition, workers' rights and free trade.

Born in 1816 in Paterson, New Jersey, Parke Goodwin married Fannie Maria Bryant in 1837.  Like his father-in-law, he was a journalist (he had worked for the Evening Post from 1837 to 1853), an outspoken abolitionist, and author.  When he and Fannie purchased 82 East 16th Street, he was a co-editor of Putnam's Magazine with George William Curtis.

Frances "Fanny" Maria Bryant Godwin, from the collection of The Bryant Library

Parke Godwin, Current Literature, Vol. 36 1904 (copyright expired)

Bryant's and Godwin's close professional relationship was reflected in a letter Bryant wrote home to Frances during a business trip on January 16, 1861:

Dear Frances.

I think I shall not return till Friday.  I want to finish the revision of the Memoir of Cooper, and this I must do from materials furnished by "Pages and Pictures from Cooper," a big book, too large to be conveniently brought out to Roslyn.  The publisher Townsend, the same who published the Forest Hymn, is waiting for me.

All well here.  The E. P. is virtually in Godwin's hands, and he begins to breakfast earlier.  Only some papers are to be executed as soon as they are drawn up.

Yours ever, W. C. B.

(The "E. P." Bryant referenced was the Evening Post.)

The house was regularly the meeting place for The Sketch Club, also known as The Twenty-One.  Its purpose, according to historian and author James T. Callow, was "the cross fertilization of art, literature, and other professions [that] united artists and patrons, and forced each member to broaden his outlook."

By 1864, the dwelling (now numbered 206 East 16th Street) was home to John Chamberlin.  Because he did not list a profession in city directories, he may have been retired or simply affluent enough to be a "gentleman" who did not need to work.  When the family left in November 1867, an auction of their furnishings was held.  The announcement hinted at their high-toned lifestyle.  Among the items were an "iron silver safe" (which would have held the family's table service), mahogany bedroom and dining room furniture, and a rosewood parlor suite.  The rosewood piano was made by Decker & Co. (the headquarters of which was nearby on Union Square), and the china was imported from France.

The house was purchased by Jacob and Abbie W. Russell.  Russell was a director in The Safe Deposit Company of New York.  The couple would remain until about 1880, when Henry Clay Miner and his wife, the former Julia Lucinda Moore, moved in.

Born in 1842, Henry Clay Miner was well-known in the New York theater.  The impresario operated a number of prominent theaters, most notably the Bowery Theatre and the Harry Miner's Theatre.  He pioneered the concept of circuits—booking acts into a string of popular venues rather than a single theater.  Miner grew wealthy in the theater business.  

Henry Clay Miner, Notable New Yorkers of 1869-1899 (copyright expired)

Henry Clay Miner would later be highly involved in politics, serving as a United States Representative from New York from 1895 to 1897.  By then, the Miners would have been gone from 206 East 16th Street for years.  

They quickly sold the house to Johanne Hesse who resold it to John C. Oscar in 1886 for $1,600.  It would finally have a long-term owner when Oscar sold it to attorney Thomas M. Canton and his wife Susan around 1889.

In addition to his legal work as a defense attorney, Canton was a Commissioner of Deeds.  He had arrived in New York from Dublin in 1849 at the age of 20.  He and Susan were married in 1859.  At the onset of the Civil War he enlisted in the 69^th Regiment and served with the Army of the Potomac.  He had reached the rank of first lieutenant before his first battle—Bull Run.  His military service ended when he was wounded on August 25, 1864.  He was twice brevetted for bravery, earning the rank of colonel.

Canton defended some of Manhattan’s most egregious criminals, including Samuel Greenstein, charged with first and second degree rape in March 1899; Joseph J. Cronin, who went on trial for first degree grand larceny in April 1900; and James Kennedy whose list of charges in October that year included abduction, assault in the second degree, and first and second degree rape.

The two houses next door, originally part of the 1854 row, were converted to St. George's deaconess house in 1902.  When this photo was taken in 1941, an Art Deco apartment building had nuzzled up to the western side of 206 East 16th Street.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Susan M. Canton was 75 years old and in failing health in January 1907.  On Thursday, February 7 she had contracted pneumonia and was “plainly in a dying condition.”   A trained nurse, May R. Traub was called to the house to attend to her.   She later described Susan’s condition saying, “Mrs. Canton was so ill and weak that she could not hold a spoon in her hand” and “she was delirious.”

Thomas Canton had been sitting up with his wife since midnight the day before.  Susan’s niece, Emilie Randall, “an actress,” and a nephew, John Hepenstall, held vigil as well.   When, after more than 24 hours with no sleep, Canton went upstairs to bed, the relatives jumped into action.

Around 2:00 in the morning they found a notary to draw up a new will that divided Susan’s entire estate of around $15,000 between them.  According to court papers later, “the dying woman was propped up with pillows and her lifeless hand was drawn over the paper in imitation of a signature while she was practically unconscious.”

Emilie hid the will and three hours later Susan M. Canton was dead.  The grieving Thomas Canton had no idea of what had transpired while he slept.  Susan’s funeral was held in the house on Sunday afternoon, February 10 at 1:00.

Canton was stunned when he obtained letters of administration on the estate and found he had been removed from the will.  What followed was a long court battle during which time the probate of the will was held up.  “Surrogate Beckett says that the drawing, signing and witnessing of the will were plainly done in a great hurry and under circumstances that warrant the Court in refusing to admit it to probate,” reported The Sun.

The attorney representing Emilie Randall (consistently referred to as “an actress” in the press) and John Hepenstall attempted to prove that “the Cantons had not been happy in the closing years of their lives.”  The judge was unmoved by the argument.  The Sun reported on March 22, 1908, ‘the Surrogate holds that ‘bickerings, disagreements and jealousies’ that existed were not remarkable in a couple who had been married for forty-eight years and that they had lived together in as much peace and harmony as could reasonably  be expected.”

On March 21, 1908, Surrogate Beckett ruled in favor of Thomas Canton saying, “the will was drawn when Mrs. Canton was so near death that she did not realize the importance of the act."  He said that “influence was used to prevent the property from being left to her husband.”  In reporting on the decision the New-York Tribune once more reminded readers, “Miss Randall is an actress.”

Although he was 79 years old at the time of the decision, Canton quickly remarried and rewrote his will, leaving his entire estate to his new wife, Minnie Walling.

On April 22, 1912, the Veterans’ Corps honored Thomas Canton at a banquet in the Union Square Hotel.  It was the 51^st anniversary of the day his regiment was deployed to the South.  He was, as reported by The Evening World the following day, the “only survivor among the thirty-three officers of the Sixty-ninth Regiment who marched down Broadway April 23, 1861, on their way to the civil war.”

The ugly incident that had surrounded Susan’s will stayed with Canton.  On March 4, 1913, he added a codicil to his will.  His fear of connivers trying to get part of his estate was obvious in his wording.

Dating it “Wilson’s Inauguration Day” he still left everything to his wife, Minnie, but explained:

The will written on the preceding was written by the testator without the influence of any person.  After due deliberation I believe the provision I have made for my wife is the best I could have made for her.  In a former will I devised her my real estate in fee simple.  I have made the change entirely with a view to her interest, which by care will return a moderate income for life.  I feared that if she had the power of sale or mortgage it would pass out of her hands, as frequently happens to inexperienced women.

Nine days after he signed the revised will, the 83-year-old Thomas M. Canton died.  Other than $500, which he left to St. Ann’s Church, his $33,328 estate passed to Minnie W. Canton—a bequest equal to just over $1 million in 2026.

By now the Canton house had been architecturally separated from the rest of the row.  In 1902, the abutting houses at Nos. 208 and 210 had been drastically redesigned for use as a deaconess house for nearby St. George’s Church.

Following the end of World War I, 206 East 16^th Street became home to English-born Ernest Kilburn Scott.  A consulting engineer, he had served with the ministry of munitions for two years, part of that time with the explosives department.  He remained in the house at least into the 1920s.

In 1944, furnished rooms were being rented in the once proud house.  Three years later it was converted to apartments—one on the first floor and two on the second—with furnished rooms on the upper stories.

Another renovation came in 1962 when the first and second floors were converted to a duplex apartment, and the third and fourth converted to one apartment each.  Despite the renovations inside, the exterior of the narrow 1854 residence survives remarkably intact.

photographs by the author

Arthur Paul Hess's 1930 200 East 16th Street

 

Arthur Paul Hess was a busy man during the late 1920s.  He was not only an architect, but a builder and developer, president of the Middleton Estates, Inc.  As the decade waned, the firm acquired the properties at 200 through 204 East 16th Street, and 157 through 165 Third Avenue.  On April 27, 1929 (just six months before the Wall Street Crash), the Evening Post announced, "The Stuyvesant Park section is to have a new apartment house." The article said the building, "with terraced roof apartments...is to go up at 200 East Sixteenth Street, overlooking St. George's Church."  It ended saying, "Middleton Estates, Inc. are the owners and Arthur Paul Hess is the architect."

The 19-story and penthouse building was completed the following year at a cost of $850,000--about $16 million in 2025 terms.  Faced in reddish-brown brick, Hess's Art Deco design featured bold, contrasting brick bands above the first through third floors, and at the 16th floor, where setbacks began.  Above the entrance, which was framed in cast stone, were two striking terra cotta faux balconies with banded, curved telescoping edges.  The front sections of the balconies were decorated with bold sangria and white panels of stylized fountains or cornstalks.

The brick bands are laid with projecting corners, creating an angular, three-dimensional effect.

Prospective tenants could choose from one- through four-room apartments.  There were also five "studio garden apartments" in the penthouse level.  The units filled with a wide variety of residents.

Among the first was Philip A. Parke, a salesman.  The 45-year-old added his name to the growing list of Depression suicides on February 11, 1932.  The New York Times said he killed himself "by jumping to the elevated tracks at Forty-seventh Street, before a Third Avenue local."

Police Detective Charles F. Kane and his family lived here at the time.  In January 1933, he read a heart wrenching story in the newspapers about the death of Anna Mortimer.  The woman's husband, John, was 60 years old and had been out of work since the previous summer.  On the night of January 18, he telephoned the Polyclinic Hospital saying that he feared Anna was having a heart attack.  According to The New York Times, the clerk "refused to send a physician out to see her."  John and Anna tried to make it on foot, but she died on the sidewalk outside the hospital.

On January 21, The New York Times reported, "Saved from a pauper's grave by the generosity of Detective Charles F. Kane, Mrs. Anna Mortimer will be buried today in Calvary Cemetery.  The funeral expenses will be paid by the detective."  Kane told reporters he did not know the couple, but was moved by the story he read in the newspapers.

Among the Kanes' neighbors in the building were journalist Dudley Siddall and his wife, Dr. Dorothy Bocker.  The couple was married in 1926.  Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1891, Siddall was on the staff of The Sun.  In addition to his journalist abilities (he had worked for newspapers in Michigan, Ohio and New York), he was educated at the Cleveland School of Art.  He was editor of The Sun's Saturday "fishing pages," and wrote the newspaper's boating guides for 1931 through 1933.

The couple was invited for Thanksgiving at the home of S. G. Stern in Grantwood, New Jersey in 1934.  What had started as a warm gathering turned tragic when Dudley Siddall suffered a fatal heart attack at the Sterns' home.

A colorful resident was 31-year-old Natalie Colby, who had a clever, if illicit, means of augmenting her income during the Depression years.  Colby (also known as Natalie Chadwick, Natalie Cohen, and Natalie Rosenbaum) was a former Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl and lived in what The Sun described as "an attractive three-room apartment."  She moved into that apartment in 1932.  Her neighbors and landlord, most likely, did not realize that she had just been released from Auburn Prison after a two year stint for burglary.

Colby would go to the race tracks and strike up conversations with well-to-do persons, "learn the addresses of these acquaintances and then rob their houses," explained The New York Sun on June 25, 1935.  Among her victims was Mrs. Simone Brooks of 400 East 57th Street.  She burglarized that apartment on March 30 and again three weeks later, making off with a total of $4,400 in "furs, jewelry and other personal property," according to The New York Times.  She was careless during the second heist and left a fingerprint on a mirror.

Natalie Colby's fingerprints were readily available.  The Sun said, "Mrs. Colby has a record of four arrests."  The newspaper reported, "From inquiries made in night clubs and among stage folk the police learned that Mrs. Colby was living at 200 East Sixteenth street."  When officers arrived at her apartment on the night of June 24, 1935, she "slammed the door in their faces."  She relented when they threatened to break down the door.

Describing Natalie Colby as "a comely young woman in a green dress," on June 26, The New York Times said that she "became the star of the daily police line-up yesterday."  Not only was Mrs. Simone Brooke there to pick her out, she identified some of the stolen property discovered in Colby's apartment.

Several of the residents of 200 East 16th Street were connected professionally with Tammany Hall.  Living here at the time of Colby's arrest were Joseph H. Morris and his wife, the former Helen McAuliff.  Since 1905 he had been a Democratic county committeeman and a member of the Tammany's Anawanda Club.  Among his close associates was Tammany Hall leader, Charles F. Murphy.  Another political ally was Joseph Hamerman, a lawyer.  He would be nominated as the Tammany candidate for Alderman from the Eighth District in October 1937.

A terrifying incident occurred here on November 28, 1935.  Abraham Simmers and his wife occupied a one-room apartment.  That afternoon Simmers's sister, Mayne Spilberg, was visiting.  As they chatted, Mrs. Simmers cleaned a dress with dry cleaning fluid.  Suddenly, at around 2:30, the fluid violently exploded.  The New York Times reported that it "forced forty other residents of the twenty-story building to the lobby.  Fire resulting from the explosion poured smoke through the building and wrecked the apartment where it started."

Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, which was confined to the Simmers apartment.  Amazingly, while the apartment was devastated, all three of its occupants at the time survived.  They were taken to Columbus Hospital with "severe burns," according to the article.

The New York Sun journalist Gerry Fitch wrote a descriptive article about "A Polite Neighborhood" (Stuyvesant Square) on November 7, 1936.  After strolling through the "gentle English atmosphere of the place," he said, "I felt a bit of a shock upon noting the smart modernistic apartment building across the way at 200 East Sixteenth Street."  He described:

This terraced structure has chromium marquees under which stands a doorman as gorgeously uniformed as the King's guard.  With a white-gloved hand he imperiously disposed of me in the elevator that whisked me to the thirteenth floor on which was a three-room apartment available at $135 a month.  French doors open upon two terraces with east and south exposure.  An extra maid's bath and a little half-room off the kitchenette add to its individuality.

The monthly rent for the three-room apartment he described would translate to $3,000 today.

Born in 1882 and never married, Virginia Schwarte, who lived on the 13th floor, started teaching in New York City public schools in 1904.  In 1936, she taught far uptown in Public School 57 on East 115th Street.  In January 1937, she called in sick and was out that entire week.  Then she disappeared.  The New York Times said, "friends became alarmed and reported her missing to the police."  She re-emerged on March 19, saying she had gone to Boston, but offered no explanation of the trip.

Concerned about that Virginia was suffering a nervous breakdown, a friend, Dr. Agnes Smith, who lived in Newark, offered to stay with her for a few days.  Two days later, on March 21, Virginia "seemed in better spirits," said Dr. Smith.

But Virginia Schwarte was decidedly not in better spirits.  That morning Agnes Smith spoke to her from another room and got no reply.  She telephoned another teacher in the building, Mary Deming, who lived in the apartment directly below.  "Miss Deming looked out, and saw the body on an extension roof," reported The New York Times on March 22.  The 55-year-old teacher had jumped from the 13th floor window.

An interesting resident was Mrs. Elizabeth Beach, the mother of celebrated sculptor Chester Beach, and the widow of Chilion Beach, "who started the first book store in San Francisco," according to The New York Times on June 6, 1946.  Elizabeth shared the apartment with her unmarried daughter, Jean.  Elizabeth Beach's birthday celebration in their apartment the previous day had been a momentous one--her 100th.  Born in Bedford, New York in 1846, she "remembers rolling bandages at the age of 15 in New York for the Civil War fighters," said the article.  It added, "She wears no glasses and reads her newspaper without difficulty."

Another Tammany-related resident was former city official and newspaper writer William R. Peer, who lived here with his wife, Lucille and their two children, Roderick Johnson and Nancy.  Born in Brooklyn in 1906, he had been on the staff of The New York Post and the New York Daily Mirror.  On August 23, 1948, The New York Times reported that he had been named by Tammany leader Hugo E. Rogers as director of press and public relations for the New York County Democratic Committee.

In the summer of 1953, William and Lucille Peer allowed Roderick, who was 11, to go on vacation to Killawog, New York with family friends.  On July 9, Roderick and his friend, Wayne Davidson, who was also 11, went fishing off a train trestle of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.  Suddenly, a northbound train appeared.  The boys raced to get off the bridge and the Davidson boy made it to safety.  Roderick Peer did not.  He was instantly killed when the locomotive struck him.

Three months later, on November 20, newly-elected Mayor Robert F. Wagner appointed William Peer his press secretary.  In reporting the appointment, The New York Times said, "Mr. Peer will bring to his new post long experience in political and general public relations."  

The building was converted to cooperatives in 1987.  Although the doorman no longer wears the white gloves that so impressed a journalist in 1936, the residents enjoy amenities those tenants could not have dreamed off--a "fitness room with Peloton bike" and a "recreation room with a massive TV," according to StreetEasy.

The windows have been replaced and some unsympathetic brick repairs to the upper floors done, but Arthur Paul Hess's unusual Art Deco design survives generally intact.

photographs by the author

George H. Griebel's 1891 201 East 16th Street

 

Born into a wealthy and influential Berlin family in 1846, George Henry Griebel immigrated to Washington D.C.  After working as an architect for the government, including designing the magnificent Great Hall of the Library of Congress, he relocated his practice to New York City in 1880.  He received a commission from Alfred Corning Clark to design a substantial office-and-store building at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 16th Street in 1890.  In a landscape of refined 19th century rowhouses and the Gothic Revival structures of the St. George's Episcopal Church complex, Griebel's design would stand out.

Completed in 1891, the six-story structure towered over its neighbors.  Griebel configured the windows in groups of three.  The sturdy piers of the two-story base, composed of alternating brick and stone, were capped with intricately carved capitals.  They supported a sandstone level embellished with delightful cast iron ornaments and carved portrait keystones.  The mid-section featured three-story piers, their brick laid to suggest fluting.  The windows of the top floor were arranged in arcades, somewhat mirroring the arched corbel table below the cornice.

The building attracted a variety of tenants.  Among the first was the Illuminating Engineering Co., which designed elements for the developing electrical lighting industry.  

Among Illuminating Engineering Co.'s products were fluted glass shades.  The Central Station, May 1903 (copyright expired)

The structure's proximity to the St. George's Church complex resulted in the St. George's Men's Club taking space.  It was the venue of a chess tournament in the spring of 1897.  On April 6, The Evening Post reported, "A match, five games up draws not counting, is in progress at the St. George's Men's Club, No. 201 East Sixteenth Street."  The previous evening, the competition had been interrupted by an unexpected visit by an illustrious player.  "Last night C[harles] Devidi paid a visit in the club, and gave an impromptu simultaneous performance, conducting six games, all of which he won."

George Letchworth English was born in 1864 and graduated from Friends' Central School in Philadelphia in 1881.  He was described by Who's Who in New York City and State in 1905 as an "expert on monazite and the rare earth minerals."  He established Geo. L. English & Co., "dealers in choice scientific minerals."  In February 1903, the firm announced in The Mineral Collector, "Our office and salesrooms were removed during January to the modern building 201 East Sixteenth Street, northeast corner of Third Avenue, where we have leased the entire third floor."  The announcement noted that the space was "splendidly lighted by fifteen large windows on two sides."

The filaments inside lightbulbs at the turn of the last century worked only within a vacuum.  Two tenants of 201 East 16th Street in 1907 were Pulsometer Pumps and Fahn & McJunkin.  The competitors manufactured "pumps for exhausting incandescent lamp bulbs," as explained in Electrical Review on August 24 that year.  Fahn & McJunkin had just signed a contract with the Linolite Company to manufacture its products here.  With that deal, reported Electrical Review, "The company is now working on the equipment for four large lamp factories."

The New York offices of the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Co. were here in 1908.  Two years later, the English-based Thermal Syndicate, Ltd. established its New York office here.  The Mining World reported on June 25, 1910, "The company manufactures silica ware in large and small sizes, suitable for metallurgical and chemical plants."

The St. George's Men's Club was still in the building in 1916, when the St. George's Lunch Room was opened.  The New York Charities Directory described it as, "A lunch room for respectable working women," saying it served, "simple, inexpensive lunches."

The first, and possibly the only, garment firm in the building signed a lease in 1920.  On March 5, The Corset and Underwear Review reported that Bessie Damsey "is now settled in enlarged quarters at 201 East Sixteenth Street."  The article described Bessie Damsey as "one which makes an all-around line of the exclusively fine in undergarments."

Dry Goods Economist, December 4, 1920 (copyright expired)

Geo. L. English & Co. remained in the building well into the 1920s.  In 1922, the Sun Press, Inc. took a floor, and renewed its lease in 1931 for an annual rental of $2,100 (about $43,300 by 2025 terms).  Another tenant in the 1920s was the Capitol Paper Company.

Isidore Rosenthal worked as a truck driver for Capitol Paper Company in 1926.  On May 24, he was driving on Essex Street where a group of little boys were playing tag.  Suddenly, six-year-old William Lucher darted out in front of Rosenthal's truck and was struck.  Rosenthal picked up the boy and drove to Gouverneur Hospital but when he arrived, Lucher was dead.  Doctors said his skull had been fractured.  Although Rosenthal was arrested "on a technical charge of homicide," according to The New York Times, "Persons who witnessed the accident declared him blameless."

As early as 1940, an Atlantic & Pacific grocery store occupied the commercial space.  Renamed A & P after mid-century, it still occupied the ground floor into the 1960s.

The Atlantic & Pacific food market occupied the ground floor in 1941.  The Third Avenue elevated ran in front of the building.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A peculiar detail was affixed to the 16th Street facade between the early 1940s and 1975.  Around 1910, Grosvenor Atterbury designed whimsical lanterns for the residential complex at Forest Hills Gardens.  Unique to that project, one of them mysteriously appeared here.  In 1997, The New York Times journalist Christopher Gray attempted to solve the enigma with no success.

Poorly treated today, the standard of this example depicts trees sprouting from flower boxes.

In the meantime, the tenant list--once filled with mineralogic labs and technical electrical workrooms--now included firms like Merlite Industries, Inc. which advertised in The Popular Science Monthly in 1953, "You too can make good money showing 'Science's New Midget Miracle' to owners of homes, cars, boats, farms, etc."  The device was a hand-held fire extinguisher.

The commercial space has been split into two businesses, and George H. Griebel's storefront was long ago vandalized beyond recognition.  Otherwise, other than needing a cleaning, the handsome structure survives wonderfully intact after 134 years.

photographs by the author

The 1847 Sarah A. Faulkner House - 134 East 16th Street

 

photo by Ted Leather

An advertisement in The Evening Post on September 14, 1847 offered, "The large, new, modern style Dwelling House and Lot in fee, No. 58 East 16th st., near Union square."  The ad described the 25-foot-wide, four-story residence as being, "Finished in the best manner, with carved statuary mantels, plate glass, mahogany doors, all the recent improvements, including dumb waiter, gas, furnaces, &c.,--One of the most desirable residences in the city."

Construction of the Greek Revival home had started a year earlier.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, it was one of a row of identical houses.  A lacy, full-width cast iron balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows and a simple, bracketed cornice completed its design.  Distinguishing the row from scores of similar homes rising throughout the city at the time were their entrances, the entablatures of which were crowned with highly unusual cornices with stylized egg-and-dart decoration.

photo by Ted Leather

No. 58 East 16th Street (renumbered 134 in 1863) was purchased by Sarah Faulkner, the widow of William Faulkner.  Like many widows of the time, she operated her home as a boarding house.

Among Sarah's earliest tenants was Edward Chauncey Marshall, who boarded here as early as 1850.  He was on the faculty of the Free Academy of the City of New York as the Assistant in the Department of History and Belles Lettres.  In 1850 he earned $700 per year, or about $28,200 in 2025. 

The other boarders that year were three attorneys--Charles T. Shelton, Horace Andrews, and Cheselden Ellis-- and one merchant, John G. Williams.  Some, most likely, were married and would have shared one or two rooms with their wives.  Unmarried women were generally not welcomed in respectable boarding houses.

It appears that one married couple had a baby in 1852.  The new arrival prompted its parents to find their own home.  (The decision might have been made at Sarah Faulkner's urging.)  Sarah placed an advertisement in The New York Times on December 9, 1852 that read:

A Family who are about going to house-keeping will vacate two pleasant rooms in one of the most desirable boarding houses in the City, and would like to find someone to take them.  The dinner hour is 2 o'clock.

Sarah's daughter, Catherine, moved into the house following the death of her husband, Henry, in 1862.  She died here the next year, on August 2, 1863 at the age of 53.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of "the residence of her mother, Mrs. S. A. Faulkner, No. 134 (late 58) East 16-th st., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 3 o'clock P.M., without further invitation," reported The New York Times.

Boarding here at the time was David H. Brown, a clerk.  Two months after Catherine's funeral, he was called to testify in support of Alexander Simpson.  On October 14, Simpson and Margaret Larkin faced off in court--she accusing him of setting fire to Wilson's Bakery on the night of January 1, and he charging her of perjury.  

Larkin testified that she saw Simpson "with straw in his hands, the straw having tar, or some other combustible material spread over it."  The New York Times reported, "After the straw was lighted, she saw Mr. Simpson set fire to the stairs, baskets, &c."  Simpson swore that Mrs. Larkin's statements were "wickedly and maliciously false."  The Times said that David H. Brown "corroborated the statements of Mr. Simpson."

On March 15, 1865, David H. Brown and another boarder, John Strong, were inducted into the Union Army.  Happily for them, the war ended less than a month later.  Brown returned to 134 East 16th Street.

Catharine G. Read purchased 134 East 16th Street in 1867 for $23,250, according to the New York Dispatch on March 3.  (The price would convert to about $600,000 today.)  Sarah F. Brown continued to take in boarders.  David H. Brown would remain here through 1869.  Sarah Brown's other boarders that year were Robert McCartee (who listed his profession as "treasurer"), and John Murphy, a tobacco merchant.

The fact that Sarah Brown had only three boarders reflected the upscale tenor of her operation.  The fewer the tenants, the more exclusive the home.  She leaned on Sarah Faulkner's sterling reputation in advertising a vacancy on September 14, 1873:

134 East Sixteenth Street (late Mrs. Faulkner's) to let, with Board, a suit of rooms on second floor till November 1; also rooms for gentlemen.

The boarding house was taken over by Isaac Bush, Jr. in 1877.  Its respectability continued to be unreproachable.  Although Bush occasionally accepted unmarried females, they were always school teachers--Mary J. Gallagher in 1879, Mary G. Pursell in 1888, and Isabel McConnellogue in 1890.  All of them taught in public schools.

An interesting resident was Count Lucian Della Sala, who boarded here in 1883.  He summered at the Guigou House in the Catskill Mountains at least once.  As the end of the season neared in 1883, the resort listed him and other respected Manhattanites like General George H. Sharpe, Italian Consul General G. B. Raffo, and Colonel G. Thurston, as references.

On May 5, 1900, The World ran a lengthy article condemning "the immense profits made by The Tammany Ice Trust."  (Tammany Hall had given Charles W. Morse's American Ice Company a virtual monopoly over the ice supply in Manhattan.)  The article was headlined, "Grip of the Great Ice Trust, Now First Felt by the Public."  Among those interviewed for the article was Isaac Bush, Jr., who grumbled, "I had a special arrangement to get ice at 25 cents, and now comes a notice that the price is 50 cents."

Among the boarders in the early years of the 20th century were Reverend W. H. Van Antwerp and his wife, who arrived in September 1903.  Born in 1833 in Geneseo, New York, Van Antwerp was ordained on June 30, 1858 and earned his Master's at the General Theological Seminary.  He and Charlotte Augusta Jones were married in St. Thomas Church in 1862.  The couple traveled to Des Moines, Iowa in January 1882 where Van Antwerp built a new church.  

In 1941, the cast iron balcony of 132 East 16th Street next door survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Another interesting boarder was artist A. T. Weston.  His advertisement in Printers' Ink on November 27, 1907 read, "Drawings.  Comic drawings--bright, catchy and original.  Tell me what you want and I will submit sketches."

That year Catharine G. Read died, leaving the title "free of a mortgage" to 134 East 16th Street to her daughter, Gertrude E. Kellogg.  She retained possession at least through 1912, when she leased the house to Minnie Hoffman.

In the post-World War I years, 134 East 16th Street operated as a rooming house.  Not all the residents were as upstanding as those who had occupied rooms in the 19th century. 

On August 14, 1925, for instance, Platon Sorotay was arrested and "charged with driving [a] car while intoxicated," as reported by the Daily Argus of Mount Vernon, New York.  And on the night of April 28, 1944, Nicholas Marino was arrested in the subway station at Broadway and 72nd Street.  The New York Sun reported, "Marino was shown by the records to have been arrested twenty-four times previously" for pick-pocketing.

A renovation completed in 1961 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels and two apartments each in the upper floors.  The duplex was divided into two apartments in 1965.

photograph by Ted Leather

Although the iron stoop railings have been replaced, the original Greek Revival-style areaway fencing suggests their appearance.  The iron balcony was removed prior to 1940 and the brick facade has been painted.  Nonetheless, of the 1847 row, only 134 East 16th Street has outwardly survived mostly intact.  

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

Alfred Zucker's 1892 5-7 East 16th Street

 

Steps from Fifth Avenue and a block west of Union Square, the houses at 5 and 7 East 16th Street sat within the city's mansion district in the Civil War years.  But by the mid-1880's businesses were overtaking the grand homes as their owners moved ever northward.  In February 1886 Mary A. Lyddy hired architect W. Jones to renovate 5 and 7 East 16th Street into "studios and offices," according to the plans.  Two-story iron storefronts replaced the high stoops.

Apparently not content with the results, only five years later Lyddy demolished both buildings and hired Alfred Zucker to design an eight-story loft building at a cost of $120,000--around $3.5 million in today's money.  The prolific architect would be responsible for dozens of loft, hotel and office buildings in New York.  

His design incorporated a two-story Romanesque Revival base faced in undressed brownstone.   The large entrances that flanked the storefront reflected the English Norman style with compound arches and clustered colonnettes.  On either side of the central opening of the second story were paired arched windows fronted by charming balconettes.  The upper six floors completely changed personality.  Here Zucker turned to a more manicured Renaissance Revival design, and clad the façade in beige brick trimmed in matching terra cotta.  

Lyddy gave her project a name, one that would not catch on.  On November 14, 1891 the Real Estate Record & Guide wrote, "The 'Geraldine,' the eight-story building which is being erected on 16th street, east of 5th avenue, for Mary A. Lyddy...is now up to the roof.  The Guastavino arches are noticeable in the present unplastered condition of the building."  The district had become popular with publishing firms and the strength-giving arch system would be necessary to accommodate heavy printing presses.  The article additionally noted, "The terra cotta work in the front of the building is very credible."

The structure was completed in January 1892 and quickly filled with printers and publishers.  Among the first was the weekly magazine The Illustrated American, which advertised itself as "The handsomest news magazine in the world.  Brilliant and beautiful, clean, instructive, and entertaining."

Two other initial tenants were the Stanley-Bradley Company, and the United States Book Company, which also ran its bookstore in the building.  Among the latter's releases in 1892 were Arthur Conan Doyle's The White Company, and three new books by J. M. Barrie including his highly successful The Little Minister.

Scribner's Magazine, December 1892 (copyright expired)

By the latter part of the decade The New York Times Educational Line, which offered an encyclopedia on an installment plan; The Baker & Taylor Co., publishers of school and college textbooks; and Frederick A. Stokes Company leased space in the building..

Frederick A. Stokes published a wide range of books.  In 1899, for instance, it offered several new books for boys, including Stephen Crane's Active Service, Tom Hall's The Fun and Fighting of the Rough Riders, and Jack, the Young Ranchman; or a Boy's Adventures in the Rockies.  For women and girls it offered Maud Humphrey's The Golf Girl; Robert Barr's Jennie Baxter, Journalist; and Cupid and the Footlights by James L. Ford.  There were classics, as well, like Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield and Thackeray's History of Henry Esmond.

The New-York Daily Tribune, December 15, 1900 (copyright expired)

The tenant list began to change around 1904.  While Frederick A. Stokes Company, the Globe School Book Co., and Neumann Bros. bookbinding were still in the building, garment manufacturers were taking space.  In 1904, two new tenants were the embroidery firm of Leon Jobin and Oppenheim & Neuglass, makers of "women's fashionable high grade tailor made suits." 

An advertisement appeared in the Record & Guide on October 15, 1904 that read, "To Settle an Estate the following property will be sold cheap for cash:  Nos. 5 and 7 East 16th St."  The asking price was $210,000--or about $6.3 million today.  It was purchased by Carrie M. Butler.

Five years later she hired the architectural firm of Israels & Harder to enlarge the building by removing the parapet and adding four floors.  Although they copied Alfred Zucker's overall design, none of the ornamentation of the lower floors was continued, making the addition noticeable.  At the same time the top floors were joined internally with 85 Fifth Avenue.

All of the tenants were now involved in the garment industry.  In 1912 they included Hut Neckwear Co.; Louis Kramer's silk neckwear factory; and Picadilly Waist Co.  The waist, or shirtwaist, was the most popular item of women's apparel at the time and Picadilly Waist Co. employed 60 women in its factory.  It had one man on its payroll, presumably the foreman.

In 1919 Golinko & Marks, makers of children's clothing, occupied the fourth floor.  On the morning of November 12 the foreman, Samuel Block, opened the shop to find "the entire floor in confusion," as worded by The Evening World.  The company's safe had been blown open and the explosion "scattered valuable ginghams and linens, scorched and torn."  The safe was empty.

Block telephoned police.  They soon discovered that the burglars had gone throughout the building.  On the fifth floor they had pried open the safe of T. Buchwald, makers of waists.  They removed a strong box and blasted it open.  John W. Burt, manufacturer of umbrellas and parasols on the sixth floor, had also fallen victim.  The "safe had been dynamited and many rolls of valuable silks had ben taken from smashed cabinets."

The bold robbers used bolts of cloth, brought upstairs from Golinko & Marks to deaden the sound of the explosions.  They left the singed remains on the floor of the hosiery firm Wallach & Mayer, Inc., on the seventh floor.  There they had blown open two safes.  Police theorized that one of the thieves hid in the building until after hours, then let his confederates into the building.  Although a precise accounting could not be taken while the police were still investigating, the initial estimate of the total loss was half a million in today's dollars.

The 1920's continued to see apparel firms occupy the building.  Among them were the Reliable Manufacturing House, Schockett Leather Goods, and the Royal Costume House.  One  tenant, however, was, perhaps, unexpected.  On July 3, 1922 The New York Times reported that Edward F. Cassidy, "a former alderman and the Socialist nominee for Mayor last year, was named as the party candidate for Governor by the Socialist State convention at 5 East Sixteenth Street yesterday."

The third quarter of the 20th century saw change come to the neighborhood.  In 1979 the Union Square Theater occupied space in the building, as the high-ceilinged lofts of the upper floors lured photography studios.  Among them was Frank Cowan, who shot ads for corporate clients like Levi's, Pampers and Volkswagen.  He took the top floor in 1970 when a handbag manufacturer moved out, paying $550 per month rent.

Unfortunately for tenants like Cowan, landlords took full advantage of the increasingly trendy tenor of the neighborhood.  In 1981 when his lease expired, Leon Sutton raised his rent to $2,000 per month.

By now the internal connections with 85 Fifth Avenue had been closed off.  In 1987 the Manhattan Cooking Center, a culinary school that offered tastings and lectures, occupied space.  And for years starting around 1994 Ann Sack's Tile and Stone showroom was in the ground floor space.

A renovation in 2008 resulted in apartments on the fourth, fifth, and seventh through twelfth floors--one per floor.

photographs by the author

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