The Nehemiah Cohn House - 250 East 33rd Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

Around 1855, a long row of brick-faced homes was erected on the south side of East 33rd Street between Second and Third Avenues.  Three stories tall above brownstone English basements, they exhibited elements of the waning Greek Revival style--particularly in the stone entrance frame, with its paneled stone pilasters and corniced entablature.  But even here, a decorative carved rosette above the doorway strayed from the expected sternness of Greek Revival.  Handsome Italianate-style cast ironwork originally protected the areaway and stoop, and individual cast cornices with foliate brackets, also Italianate in style, finished the design.

The cornice brackets are purely Italianate in style.  photo by Anthony Bellov

The presence of Irish immigrants in the Kips Bay district was reflected in the early inhabitants of 156 East 33rd Street (renumbered 250 in 1865).  In 1855, Michael Burke lived here.  He was a member of the Thomas Francis Meagher Club, which supported the Irish nationalist and leader in the Rebellion of 1848.  The Burkes were followed by Mary A. Rice, the widow of Henry Rice, and in 1864 by Daniel and Eliza Fitzgerald.  

The parlor was the scene of a somber funeral on November 23, 1864.  Jessie Fitzgerald, Daniel and Eliza's only son, had died two days earlier at the age of four-and-a-half.

The Fitzgeralds remained until 1865 when Nehemiah Cohn and his wife, the former Caroline Metzger, purchased the house.  Born in Germany in 1825, Cohn was in the tobacco and cigar business Nehemiah Cohn & Co. with his brother, Jacob.  They had two locations, one on Fulton Street and the other on South Street.  Nehemiah was a Master in the Darcy Lodge of the Freemasons.

The population within the house quickly grew.  Cecilia Cohn was born in 1866 and her sister, Josie, arrived the following year.  A third daughter, Flora, would follow.  

In 1868, brothers Marx M. and Aaron Myres were also listed at the address, presumably boarders.  They, with their brother Daniel M., comprised the Myres Brothers drygoods business on Third Avenue.

Nehemiah and Jacob Cohn found themselves facing a judge in the United States Commissioners' Court on July 21, 1869.  The previous year, the Internal Revenue Service had passed a law requiring that tobacco offered for sale be stamped as evidence that the necessary taxes had been paid.  The Cohn brothers were charged "with fraudulently evading certain provisions of the Internal Revenue laws."  Four days later, the commissioner dismissed the charges, saying the Cohns "proved by their clerk that he never knew of any sale of tobacco that was unstamped."

Among Cohn's suppliers was tobacconist John R. Sutton & Brothers.  On September 5, 1871, Sutton & Brothers fired Charles Kohler, a young man who had worked there for some time.  Kohler walked directly to Nehemiah Cohn & Co. at 12 Fulton Street and said he had been sent to collect a bill of $95 for a recent purchase.  On April 18, 1872, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. Cohn, supposing Kohler was still in Sutton & Brothers' employ, paid the amount demanded, and did not find that he had been swindled until several weeks later."

In the meantime, Kohler had fled town and got a job with the Erie Railroad.  Unfortunately for him, the train on which he was working pulled into New York City on April 17, 1872.  He "was at once arrested and taken before Judge Dowling at the Tombs Police Court," said the New York Herald.  (Nehemiah Cohn's $95, which would translate to around $2,500 in 2025 terms, was gone.)

Caroline Metzger Cohn died on June 14, 1874.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of 250 East 33rd Street three days later.  

In the summer of 1879, Cohn was called as a potential juror in a sensational murder case.  Mrs. Jane DeForrest Hull, wife of Dr. Alonso J. Hull, was found dead in their mansion at 4 West 42nd Street on the morning of June 11, 1879.  She was blindfolded, gagged, and her feet and wrists were tied with strips of bedsheets.  Jane Hull came from the DeForrest family, who was described by the Colorado newspaper The Rocky Mountain News as "wealthy and aristocratic" and who had "left her a fortune."  Suspicion quickly focused on "a negro named Chastine Cox," according to the Rocky Mountain News, who had previously been the family's private waiter.  When Chastine Cox was arrested weeks after the murder, Mrs. Hull's watch was found on him.

Finding an unbiased jury would prove problematic.  Not only had Mrs. Hull been socially esteemed, the defense attorneys would be facing rampant racism.  On July 16, 1879, the New-York Tribune reported that the process had taken two days.  Among those selected was Nehemiah Cohn.  Describing him as "a dealer in cigars," the New-York Tribune said, "he had no opinion on the case that he could not lay aside on entering the jury box," adding, "He was regarded as a competent juryman, and took the last chair."

(On July 24, 1880, Chastine Cox was hanged in the courtyard of The Tombs, downtown.)

The molded window cornices, seen in the neighboring houses, had been shaved flat by 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the 237 young women who graduated in the commencement exercises of The Normal College on June 26, 1884 was Cecilia Cohn.  She found a position teaching in the primary department of Grammar School No. 14 on East 27th Street, where she would remain for years.

Among the death notices in the New York Herald on May 17, 1890, was the astonishingly succinct announcement, "Cohn--On Thursday morning, Nehemiah Cohn."  The 65-year-old was buried next to Caroline in Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens.

Flora Cohn's engagement to Julius Starfield was announced on November 18, 1894.  The New York Herald noted that the intended couple would be "At home Sunday, November 25, 250 East 33d St." to receive congratulations.

Neither Josie nor Cecilia married.  Josie died on April 16, 1907 at the age of 40.  Vaudevillians Tom Noland and Cora White boarded with Cecilia, remaining here until Cecilia's death at the age of 42 on December 16, 1908.

Nolan & White listed their address within the Cohn house in 1908.  Variety, May 2, 1908 (copyright expired)

In the early 1940s, Edwin Schriver and his wife, the former Ruth Hafferkamp, lived here.  Their son, Gary Edwin, was born in the Woman's Hospital in November 1946.

Bishop Sears Harrold occupied the house at mid-century.  Born in 1888 and a 1913 graduate of Harvard, he was a stockbroker and a member of Filor, Bullard & Smith.  Never married, his country home was in Darien, Connecticut.  His deep American roots entitled his memberships in the Society of Mayflower Descendants and the Sons of the Revolution.  Harrold died while living here on December 30, 1954 at the age of 66.

Although the Italianate ironwork has been replaced, the unusual stone entrance framework and paneled doors survive.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

Six years later, the house was renovated.  There were now an office in the basement, one apartment on the parlor level, and a duplex apartment in the second and third floors.  Then, a subsequent remodeling returned 250 East 33rd Street to a single-family home.  Completed in 2007, the renovations included the addition of a fourth floor.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Matthew B. Wynkoop House - 153 East 33rd Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

When he sat down to his drafting table to design a four-story house at 108 East 33rd Street (renumbered 153 in 1859) the  architect addressed a challenge.  The stoops of the English basement-style houses immediately to the east, running towards Third Avenue, meant the homes sat back from the property line.  The stoop-less American basement-style residences on the west side of the plot did not.  

The architect solved the problem of a potentially unattractive blank wall on one side or the other by designing the three-bay wide facade in a stylized piano lid shape.  The eastern bay, which held the arched entrance two steps above the sidewalk, was flush with its neighbors.  The architect projected the western two bays forward and rounding the corner.  Now this section, too, conformed to the houses on that side.  The house's Italianate design would have included molded lintels and a bracketed cornice.

The brickwork of the rounded corner was deftly executed.  Originally, curved glass panes would have conformed to its shape.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The house was briefly operated as a rooming or boarding house.  Living here in 1855 and '56 were Sam Ellis, a carman, for instance, and engineer Solon Farrer.  The desperate lost-and-found ad of another tenant in 1856 hints at their general financial status:

$5 Reward--Lost in one of the Third Avenue stages, or near the corner of the Bowery and Grand street, twenty-three dollars in gold, rolled in a piece of calico, the property of a poor girl.  The above reward will be paid by leaving it at 108 East 33d st.

(The chance that the girl recovered the lost coins was slim.  The value of the gold would translate to about $840 in 2025, and the reward would equal just under $200.)

Around 1860, Matthew Bennett Wynkoop moved his family into 153 East 33rd Street.  Born in Zanesville, Ohio on February 16, 1830, he came to New York City as a boy.  The New York Times would later say, "He went into the printing business in a small way until he had amassed considerable money."  When he and his wife, the former Susan Vincent, moved in, he was the senior member of the printing firm Wynkoop & Hallenbeck.  The couple had an infant daughter, Madeline May, born on June 29, 1860.

Isaac and Margaret K. Van Cleef (sometimes spelled Vancleef), purchased 153 East 33rd Street around 1866.  Isaac was born in Seneca, New York in 1786.  

In 1867, they advertised, "To Let--Half of a four story house furnished, No. 153 East Thirty-third street, between Lexington and Third avenues."  The ad was answered by 25-year-old James Herbert Morse.

James Herbert Morse (original source unknown)

Born in Hubbardston, Massachusetts in October 1841, Morse graduated from Harvard in 1863 and received his M.A. degree in 1866.  He founded the Morse & Rogers Classical School in 1868, advertising in The New York Times on November 5:

J. H. Morse, A. M., graduate of Harvard and of long experience as a teacher, will open Monday, October 5, at Nos. 621 and 623 6th-av., a select English, Mathematical and Classical School for boys; number limited to twenty; highest references given.  Address J. H. Morse, No. 153 East 33rd-st.

Morse lived with the Van Cleefs until his marriage to artist Lucy Gibbons on May 12, 1870.  James Herbert Morse would go on to become a noted poet, author and educator.

Four months before Morse's wedding, on January 23, Isaac Van Cleef died at the age of 85.  His "sudden" death in the house, as reported by the New York Herald, hints of a heart attack or stroke.

Margaret remained here until about 1875.  The following year, 153 East 33rd Street was occupied by Peter Maguire, an "inspector;" printer Daniel A. Nolan; Mary Van Buskirk; and the Pierce family.  William H. Pierce did not list a profession, suggesting he was retired, and Elizabeth Pierce was a physician, as was Mary Van Buskirk.  (The two women most likely worked together).

Dr. Van Buskirk placed an understated advertisement in the New York Herald on September 13, 1877:  "Dr. Mary Van Buskirk, 153 East 33d st., between Lexington and 3d ave."  Her advertisement three months later on January 7 in The New York Telegram was more specific:  "Dr. Mary Van Buskirk treats female complaints scientifically.  153 East 33d st, between Lexington and third avs."  In fact, the "female complaints" she treated were unwanted pregnancies.

She narrowly escaped serious problems in the fall of 1870.  On September 19, Dr. Benjamin W. West, "Madame West," and Dr. Enoch Eastman were arrested and charged "with complicity in an attempt to commit an abortion on Maggie McLoon," as reported by The New York Times.  The 20-year-old woman had gone to a Dr. Eastman on July 8.  When his attempt to abort the fetus failed, according to McLoon, "he took her on August 18 to Mme. Van Buskirk, at No. 153 East Thirty-third-street, telling her that the Madame would relieve her, as she had the proper instruments."  While Maggie McLoon sat in Mary Van Buskirk's waiting room, another woman recommended that she go to Dr. West.  She left without consulting with Dr. Van Buskirk.

The house was purchased by George F. and Augusta W. Keim in 1879.  Keim listed his profession as "flowers."  He could have been either a florist or a dealer in artificial flowers, used as trimmings for women's millinery.  In 1888, the couple hired architect William B. Tuthill to do "interior alterations," and the following year commissioned contractor P. F. Loonam to erect a one-story addition to the rear.  

Augusta Keim's estate sold 153 East 33rd Street in May 1897 to Robert H. Roesel and his wife, the former Katharine Lichtenberger, for $12,250 (about $478,000 today).  Roesel was the principal in Roesel & Sons, upholsters and makers of furniture covers.  Robert's sons, Edward R. and Henry C. Roesel were partners.  The Roesels had two daughters, Elsie Caroline and Margaret.

Edward and his wife, the former Elizabeth Anacker, lived here with his parents.  He died on July 4, 1917 and his funeral was held in the parlor four days later.

The Roesels took in roomers, apparently just one at a time.  Their tenant in 1917, Gus Politaker, quickly disappeared when America entered World War I.  Four years later, he was still listed on the Government's list of draft evaders, noting that he was also known as Gus Polelakees and Gus Politakes.

Their roomer in 1922, 42-year-old Edward McGann, also found himself on the wrong side of the law.  He worked as a waiter in a First Avenue restaurant.  On December 14 he faced Magistrate Joseph E. Corrigan in Yorkville Court after serving a drink to an undercover Prohibition agent.  A search found a quart bottle of whiskey and McGann was charged with illegal possession of liquor.

Prohibition also affected Joseph Crowley, who roomed with the Roesels in 1928.  On October 10, The New York Times reported that the 43-year-old "was found with a broken nose and suffering from alcoholism at East Tenth Street and Third Avenue."

The Roesels made renovations to 153 East 33rd Street in 1938.  It was possibly during these modifications that the cornice was removed, and the elliptically arched upper windows changed to flat-headed openings and their 1850s lintels shaved off.

As early as 1941, the Roesels had modernized the facade.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After their family had owned the building more than half a century, Henry C. Roesel and his sister, Elsie, sold 153 East 33rd Street in November 1950 to the Armenian Missionary Society of America, Inc.  The New York Times reported, "The buyer plans to use the property for a parish house for the Armenian Evangelical Church at 136 East Thirty-fourth Street."

photographs by Anthony Bellov

In 1952, the ground floor was converted to a commercial space with a separate entrance.  It was given a coating of stucco and the doors received Spanish-influenced iron grills.  In the early 1970s the ground floor space was home to the Mexican restaurant Chili Charlie's, followed by Mimosa around 1976.  Today a Thai restaurant occupies the space.

Sadly abused, the structure's brick facade has been painted and its windows replaced.  Little remains of the Italianate design created by a resourceful architect around 1854. 

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post