The 1900 Samuel Haas Mansion - 15 East 80th Street

 

Samuel Paul Haas was president of Haas Brothers Ladies Tailoring Co.  On October 30, 1898, he and his wife, Isabella, purchased the 21-foot wide, four-story brownstone at 13 East 80th Street from the estate of Anne Bishop for "about $36,000," according to the New York Herald.  (The address would be renumbered 15 East 80th Street in March 1907.)  The price, equal to nearly $1.5 million in 2025 terms, reflected the rising real estate values in the neighborhood as Manhattan's millionaires crept this far north.

At the time, new homeowners were either drastically remodeling the outdated high-stooped brownstones or replacing them with modern, American basement residences.  Haas contracted the newly formed firm of Brun & Hauser to replace the Bishop house with a fashionable Beaux Arts-style mansion.

Completed in 1900, the five-story residence was faced in limestone.  Its elliptically arched entrance was centered within a rusticated base.  French windows at the second and third floors were fronted with faux balconies with French-style railings.  Below the third floor balcony and flanking it were carved cartouches, the former backed with palm fronds and the latter draped with elaborate swags of roses and bows.  The fifth floor sat atop a stone cornice and was capped with a carved parapet.

Haas was born in Reckendorf, Germany in June 1837. Isabella (known as Bella) was notably younger, born in March 1856.  The couple had one daughter, Florine, who was 18 years old and a recent debutante when they moved into the East 80th Street mansion.  Like their neighbors, they were attended to by a significant domestic staff, as reflected in an advertisement in The New York Times:

Waitress and Parlor Maid--Only first-class need apply; family of three; five in help; good wages, fine position; personal city references required.

The "waitress and parlor maid" would be one of the more polished of the staff members.  She would serve in the dining room and in the drawing room and would need to have impeccable finesse.  The mention of "five in help" suggests that the other staff members were the butler, lady's maid, cook, and chambermaid.

Florine married Dudley David Sicher in 1904.  The newlyweds moved into the mansion with Samuel and Bella, where little Richard Dudley Sicher was born the following year.  A second child, Jane E., would come along on September 17, 1911.

Like his father-in-law, Dudley D. Sicher was in the garment industry.  He was president of D. E. Sicher & Co., underwear manufacturer, and president of the Cotton Garment Manufacturers' Association of New York.  His firm employed 500 men and women, according to The New York Times.  

Sicher's approach to employer-employee relations at a time of worker dissatisfaction and tense labor problems was the polar opposite of many other garment makers.  He supported the concept of minimum wages, and in 1913 organized a factory-supported school for his poorly educated, mostly immigrant female workers.

He told The New York Times on April 20, 1913:

We want [the factory girls] to get a broader education that will help them to be more intelligent workers.  We will give them the skill if the teachers will help to give them the intelligence.

The article said that the workers would be taught "business arithmetic, commercial geography, and writing."

Dudley David Sicher The New York Times April 20, 1913 (copyright expired)

Tragically, two months prior to that article, Richard Dudley Sicher died at the age of five.  The little boy's funeral was held privately.

It is unclear when Bella Haas died, but she was already deceased when Samuel Paul Haas died in the East 80th Street mansion on May 19, 1920 at the age of 63.  After bequeaths of $5,000 to Mount Sinai Hospital and $2,500 to the Montefiore Home, he left his entire estate to Florine.  (He had transferred title to 15 East 80th Street to her in 1907.)

In 1922, the Sichers hired architects Taylor & Levi to remodel the second floor, or piano nobile.  While other homeowners were embracing modern 1920s trends, the Sichers turned to the past.  Taylor & Levi gave the interiors a Tudor and Gothic make-over and replaced the French windows with leaded, Gothic-style versions.  The New York Times reported that the redecorated interiors included "paneling and ornaments from the collection of William Randolph Hearst."

Year Book of the Architectural League of New York and Catalogue, 1922 (copyright expired)

David D. Sicher was elected president of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies in 1929, and two years later was nominated as Borough President of Manhattan.  In reporting the nomination, The New York Times remarked that he, "has a fine reputation for philanthropy."  (By now, in fact, he had retired to devote his time to charitable causes.)

Florine was equally involved in philanthropy.  She was a founder of the Women's Division of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies and sat on its board.  She died "after a lingering illness," according to The New York Times, on June 28, 1938.  Her funeral was held in the mansion the following day.

Dudley David Sicher died the following year, on December 29, 1939 at the age of 63.  The New York Times remarked on his "notable business career" in which he "pioneered in industrial relations and became a leader in the cotton garment manufacturing industry."  The article continued, "Then, in his prime, he left the world of business to devote himself to work for the welfare of his fellow humans."

On June 3, 1941, The Sun reported, "Dr. Lester Carson Spier has purchased the five-story dwelling with elevator at 15 East 80th street...from the estate of Florine H. Sicher."  The article noted, "The house contains thirty rooms and eight baths."

Dr. Spier began his medical practice in June 1930 and specialized in surgery and "traumatic surgery" (i.e., cases of victims involved in automobile crashes, industrial accidents and such).  He had two children from a previous marriage, Marcia Ann, who was eight, and Carol Payne, who was six.

In 1949, Spier married Frances Johnson Stillman, just days after her divorce from Charles Latimer Stillman, the executive vice-president and treasurer of Time, Inc.  Moving into the mansion with his bride were her three children, Charles, Stanley and Louise.

The Spiers routinely appeared in the society columns.  On January 25, 1964, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Many cocktail parties were given in private homes last evening before the annual Yorkville dinner dance in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza."  The article noted, "Among those who entertained at parties were...Dr. and Mrs. Lester C. Spier and Miss Virginia Dodge, jointly, at the Spier home at 15 East 80th Street."

Taylor & Levi's Gothic-style second floor windows can be glimpsed in this 1941 photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On April 13, 1967, The New York Times reported that the Spiers had sold 15 East 80th Street to "Eliot Janeway, the economist and columnist, and his wife, Elizabeth, the novelist" for $350,000.  (The price would translate to about $3.29 million today.)  The article mentioned, "The house is believed to be one of the first in New York to be centrally air-conditioned."

Eliot Janeway was born on New Year's Day 1913.  He and Elizabeth Hall were married in 1938 and had two sons, Michael and William.  Eliot was an influential economist, writing for Time and Fortune magazines until 1944.  He advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.  

At the time of their marriage, Elizabeth was working on her first novel, The Walsh Girls.  Eventually she would write six more, including the 1945 Daisy Kenyon that was made into a film of the same name starring Joan Crawford.

In 1998, 15 East 80th Street was converted to a doctor's office on the ground floor and two duplexes above.  It was possibly during this renovation that the Gothic-style leaded second floor windows were removed.

The mansion was purchased in 2000 by Wall Street mogul Jeffrey Urwin and his wife, Ailsa, for $6.6 million.  They re-converted it to a single family home with five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, a private gym,  and 35-foot music-reception room.  The couple sold it in January 2013 for $24.75 million.

photographs by the author

The John Langdon Erving House - 62 East 80th Street

 

John Langdon Erving was 38 years old when he was "very quietly" married to Alice H. Rutherford on November 4, 1904.  The wedding had originally been planned to take place in Newport, The New York Times predicting that it would be "the leading social event of the season."  But the death of Alice's mother, Emma Hanchett Rutherford Crocker, on July 26, 1904, changed things.  The understated ceremony was held in the mansion of the bride's step-father at 1 East 64th Street.

Erving had an illustrious pedigree.  On his father's side was John Erving, who was born in 1692, settled in Boston and made a fortune in that city.  His mother, Cornelia Paterson Van Rensselaer, came from one of the oldest and most prestigious families in New York.  A businessman, Erving was perhaps better known to New Yorkers for his connections to Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst's civic reforms.  

A year after his marriage, on November 11, 1905, the Record & Guide reported that J. Langdon Erving had purchased  the "4-story high stoop dwelling" at 62 East 80th Street for $50,000 (the price would translate to about $1.84 million in 2025).  The article said, "Mr. Erving will alter the house this spring to a white stone American basement dwelling."

Built in 1883 by Terence Farley and designed by Thom & Wilson, the brownstone-fronted house was architecturally outdated.  Erving hired the architectural firm of Albro & Lindeberg to bring it into the Edwardian Era.  Their plans, filed in March 1906, would result in what was essentially a new, five-story residence.  The "extensive alterations," as described in the plans, would cost the Ervings $16,000 (about $576,000 today).

Albro & Lindeberg removed the brownstone front and stoop, and pulled the facade forward to the property line.  The Colonial Revival design was faced in rough (or "common"), variegated brick above a limestone base.  French windows at the second floor, or piano nobile, sat below stone tympana inset with veined stone rondels.  The openings of the third and fourth floors were grouped, and the fifth story took the form of a dormered mansard behind a stone balustrade.

American Architect and Building News, May 6, 1908 (copyright expired)

In an article titled "The Passing of the Brownstone Front" in the April 1910 issue of The International Studio mentioned,

One method of giving the servants direct access from the kitchen to the street by independent passage is to cut off part of the space from the entrance hall and provide a narrow corridor on the same level, as has been done in the case of the house for Mr. Erving.

Servants entered into a long passageway that circumvented the family area.  The International Studio, April 1910 (copyright expired)

Albro & Lindeberg's Colonial motif was carried into the interiors.  The Ervings enhanced the early American design with antiques and high-end reproductions.

The Ervings' entrance hall (above) and drawing room reflected the home's Colonial Revival architecture.  The American Architect and Building News, May 6, 1908 (copyright expired)

Somewhat surprisingly, J. Langdon and Alice Erving did not enjoy their new home for especially long.  In 1912, they relocated to Santa Barbara, California.  Perhaps anticipating that they would eventually return, they retained possession of the East 80th Street house.

The couple leased it to Ethel Kingsland in March 1912.  Born in 1886, Ethel was the great-niece of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.  The Kingsland family arrived in America in the 17th century.  Ethel's father, railroad tycoon George Lovett Kingsland, died when she was six years old.  Her mother, the former Helen Schermerhorn Welles, died in the family's mansion at 62 Fifth Avenue on February 14, 1911.  

Propriety required that the 26-year-old unmarried woman did not live alone.  Her bachelor brother, George L. Kingsland, Jr., initially moved into the house with her.  The arrangement would change three years later.

On June 19, 1915, Ethel's sister, Helen Schermerhorn Kingsland Morris, announced Ethel's engagement to Dr. Walter P. Anderton.  The prospective groom graduated from Harvard in 1908 and then from the College of Physicians and Surgeons.  The wedding took place in the East 80th Street house just five days later.  The Sun reported, "It was a simple wedding and there were present about twenty relatives and intimate friends."  Saying that after the newlyweds' honeymoon "automobile trip of several weeks," they would live at 62 East 80th Street.

Presumably with the permission of their landlords, in April 1916, Ethel and Walter Anderton hired architect S. Edson Gage to make $15,000 worth of interior alterations to the house.  But, then again, perhaps the Ervings had not permitted the alterations.  Just three months later, on July 22, 1916, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. J. Langdon Erving [leased] the four-story [sic] dwelling at 62 East Eightieth Street to W. C. Breed."

William Constable Breed was born in 1870.  A member of the law firm Breed, Abbott & Morgan, he married Eugenie Stiles in 1896.  They had two sons, William, Jr., who was 12 when they moved in; and Alan Ryder, who was six.  (Two other children had died in infancy.)  The couple's summer home was in Brookhaven, Long Island.

William Constable Breed's portrait was painted by David Berney.  (private collection)

While Eugenie busied herself with social activities (she was a member of the Daughters of Indiana, for instance), William was highly involved in civic affairs.  When America entered World War I, he became chairman of the Greater New York's American Red Cross Second War Fund drive, and chairman of the Red Cross Disaster Relief Committee for Greater New York.  

On July 13, 1921, the Long Island Daily Press reported, "A drive will be made at the anti-Hyland conferences...to name William Constable Breed, a Manhattan lawyer, for the Republican Mayoralty designation."  The article noted that in addition to his various other positions, he was "president of the Merchants' Association of New York."  (As it turned out, Breed was not nominated.)

After renting their home for a decade, the Ervings sold 62 East 80th Street in July 1922 to Joaquin Enrique Zanetti for $80,000 (about $1.5 million today).  Born in the Dominican Republic on January 20, 1885, Zanetti graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude in 1906 and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University in 1909.  

During World War I, Zanetti served in the Chemical Warfare Service, attaining a rank of lieutenant colonel.  Following the war, he served as a Chemical Officer in the army reserves and was a consulting expert on chemical warfare for the League of Nations.

Joaquin Enrique Zanetti, via home.army.mil 

When the family moved in, Zanetti was an associate professor at Columbia University.  (He would become a full professor in 1929.)  

He and his wife had at least one son, Enrique Carlos.  His engagement to George Pearson was announced on May 8, 1933.  (The bride-to-be shared her unusual first name with her father.)

By the late 1930s, 62 East 80th Street was home to science writer Walter Seager Sullivan, Jr. and his wife, Mary.  Sullivan was the science editor of The New York Times, which said:

His reports stretched the minds of newspaper readers, as he told of the marvels of the restless earth and violent universe and the audacity of the people trying to understand them.

The Sullivans were followed by the family of Walter Neale, here by the early 1950s.   The residence was sold in 1954 to A. K. Rubin.

Still a single-family home, 62 East 80th Street externally is little changed since the newly wedded Ervings transformed the outdated brownstone.

photographs by the author

The Hiram and Rosalind Bloomingdale Mansion - 11 East 80th Street

 

Born in 1875, Hiram Collenberger Bloomingdale was one of three sons of Lyman Bloomingdale, co-founder of Bloomingdale Brothers' department store.  On December 9, 1908, he married Rosalind Schiffer in Delmonico's, the New York Herald noting, "Mr. and Mrs. Bloomingdale will spend three months on the Pacific coast and next autumn will live at No. 11 East Eightieth street."

The newspaper's timeline was a bit optimistic.  Just over a month before the wedding, on October 24, 1908, the Record & Guide reported that Bloomingdale had purchased the four-story, high-stooped brownstone from Michael Hyman.  The article said he would replace it with "a 6-story American basement dwelling for his own occupancy."

While the newlyweds were on their honeymoon, on January 20, 1909 The New York Times reported that Schwartz & Gross had filed plans for the new mansion, projecting the cost at $50,000 (about $1.78 million in 2025).  The article said, "The facade is to be of brick, finished with limestone and terra cotta, of Colonial design, with a mansard roof and central entrance with staircase."

Schwartz & Gross's design for the five-story mansion, indeed, drew from 18th century precedents, notably in the stylized Georgian entrance and fanlight, and the mansard's Palladio-inspired dormer.  Other details, like the geometric brick-and-stone spandrels between the second and third floors reflected the current Arts & Crafts movement.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Construction was completed late in 1910 and Rosalind quickly began hosting.  On February 12, 1911, The New York Times noted, "Mrs. Hiram Bloomingdale of 11 East Eightieth Street was at home on Thursday and Friday afternoons."  (Publishing one's "at homes" informed socialites when they could make social calls.)

On August 18, 1912, the Bloomingdales welcomed their first son, Lyman Gustave, named after his grandfather.  A second, Alfred Schiffer, arrived on April 15, 1916.  The family's 70-acre country estate was in Ossining, New York.

The domestic bliss within the Bloomingdale household dissolved early in 1919.  On April 22, Rosalind telephoned Hiram at his office.  He recounted the call to the courts later, saying she told him that "she had left his home and was living at the Chatham Hotel with their children."  According to him, he rushed home to find that "she had taken with her silverware, linens, glassware, &c."

Three weeks later, on May 14, The New York Times reported that Rosalind had filed suit for separation "on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment."  She asked for $50,000 a year in alimony (more than $900,000 in 2025 terms).  The article mentioned, "Mrs. Bloomingdale is 29 years old and her husband is 42."  The next month, Rosalind leased a house in Elberon, New Jersey and took Lyman and Alfred with her.

Hiram seemed to have been more upset about the thought of losing his sons than his wife and a messy and public custody battle ensued.  In court on July 15, 1919, he made an emotional plea to Justice Ford, painting Rosalind as, essentially, an absentee mother.  He said in part,

There is nothing in the world that I love so dearly as I do my children.  My elder son has been my steady and constant companion ever since babyhood.  I take him out walking on every opportunity and spent practically every Saturday and Sunday with him up to the time my wife left me.

In stark contrast, he said, "Mrs. Bloomingdale was rarely with the children on Saturdays and Sundays.  She was either playing tennis, going to bridge parties, visiting or attending to her social duties."  Bloomingdale said that while he listened to the boys' prayers each night, Rosalind did not.  "I used to play with the children, while my wife delegated their care, largely, to servants."

While the divorce and custody hearings played out, Hiram moved in with his brother, Irving, at 850 Park Avenue.  In May 1920, he sold 11 East 80th Street to theater owner and agent Martin Beck.  The New-York Tribune reported that he purchased it "as his home."  But he apparently quickly decided otherwise and resold the house to William Kingsland Macy.

Born on November 21, 1889 to George H. and Kate Carter Macy, William went by his first initial and middle name.  When he purchased 11 East 80th Street he was a stock broker and president of the Union Pacific Tea Co.  Moving into the mansion with him was his widowed mother.  She died here on May 14, 1921 and her funeral was held in the house on the 16th.

Kingsland's country home was on Long Island.  He increasingly spent more time there, and in 1926 he was appointed chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Committee.  By then he was occupying the Long Island house year-round.  The previous winter season he had leased the townhouse to Robert Hazlehurst McAdoo and his wife, Lorraine Arnold Rowan.  Born in 1898, McAdoo had served as a Naval Aviator in World War I.  He and Lorraine were married on December 24, 1923.

On December 16, 1925, The New York Times announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. McAdoo, now at the Gladstone, will go next week to their house at 11 East Eightieth Street."

Lorraine Rowan McAdoo, photo by Edward Steichen, Vogue, November 15, 1925 (copyright expired)

Lorraine was the daughter of the late Robert Arnold Rowan and Laura Madeline Schwartz.  By the time she married McAdoo, her mother had become a princess, the wife of Prince Domenica Napoleone Orsini of Italy.  The New York Evening Post said, "The Orsini family is one of the oldest and most aristocratic in Italy."

On October 5, 1926, The New York Evening Post reported that Prince and Princess Orsini had arrived on the Aquitania and were staying at the St. Regis Hotel for two weeks.  The article said the couple "will visit relations of the Princess," including, of course, the McAdoos.

W. Kingsland Macy sold 11 East 80th Street to Henry Dickerson Steers and his wife, the former Adeline Boardman Coster, that year.  Steers was the president and founder of the sand and gravel corporation Henry Steers, Inc.  The couple, who were married in Grace Church on October 22, 1889, had two sons, Henry Coster and Charles Robert Coster.  Henry was associated with his father's firm.  He was 36 years old and still unmarried when his parents purchased 11 East 80th Street.  

The Steers' country estate was in Port Chester, New York.  Adeline and Henry were there on November 4, 1928 when Henry died at the age of 63.  His entire estate, equal to $26.3 million today, was left to Adeline.

Henry Coster Steers finally found romance in Mercer Dunlop.  The couple was married in the Plaza Hotel on February 3, 1930.  Charles stood in as his best man.  

In the meantime, following her mourning period, Adeline had returned to society life.  On November 25, 1932, for instance, The New York Sun reported that she "will give a dinner party at her house on Tuesday, December 27, before the junior holiday dance at the Plaza Hotel."  The event was in honor of Adeline's granddaughter Phebe.

Adeline Steers sold 11 East 80th Street in 1942.  That year the house was converted to apartments.  Among the initial tenants were Army Major Dexter S. French and his wife, the former Cuyler Nicoll; and Dr. Alfred Weil.  Weil was a diagnostician and radiologist.  He father, Dr. Adolf Weil, was the discoverer of Weil's disease, better known today as leptospirosis.

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim occupied an apartment here in the mid-1950s.  While living here he worked on the lyrics of West Side Story and Gypsy.  On September 26, 1957, he wrote to Leonard Bernstein, saying in part:

West Side Story means much more to me than a first show, more even than the privilege of collaborating with you and Arthur [Laurents] and Jerry [i.e. Jerome Robbins].  It marks the beginning of what I hope will be a long and enduring friendship.  Friendship is a thing I give and receive rarely, but for what it's worth I want you to know you have it from me always.

Among Sondheim's neighbors in the building was children's author, photographer and model Dare Wright.  While Sondheim was working on West Side Story, she was finishing her first book, The Lonely Doll, published in 1957.  It made The New York Times Best Seller list that year.  (In 2010, the British newspaper The Guardian would list The Lonely Doll as one of the ten best illustrated children's books "of all time.")

As early as 2023, the Meredith Rosen Gallery occupied space in the building.  From the exterior, the Bloomingdale mansion is essentially unchanged since its completion in 1910.

photographs by the author

The Margaret Delprat Remsen Mansion - 3 East 80th Street

 

William W. Hall erected lavish speculative mansions on the Upper East and West Sides in the 1890s and early 1900s.  He often commissioned the architectural firm of Welch, Smith & Provot to design his homes.  Such was the case in 1898 when he hired the firm to design a sumptuous double-wide mansion at 3 East 80th Street, just steps from Fifth Avenue.  Alexander Welch took the reins, designing the five-story residence in a dignified take on the French Beaux Arts style.

Foregoing the foliate swags and architectural confections often associated with the style, Welch created a refined design.  The offset entrance above a short stoop sat within a rusticated limestone base.  The three-story midsection, faced in gray brick and trimmed in limestone, was dominated by a three-sided stone oriel capped with a balustrade.  Welch faced the fifth floor with stone and crowned the wreathed-bracketed cornice with a row of copper anthemions.

The American Architect and Building News, September 1, 1900 (copyright expired)

On January 18, 1896, two years before Hall broke ground for 3 East 80th Street, Robert George Remsen died in his brownstone residence at 87 Fifth Avenue, just north of 16th Street.  One of the founders of the "Patriarchs," he and his wife, the former Margaret Delprat, were among the original New York 400--Manhattan's highest social clique.  At the time of Remsen's death, their once exclusive neighborhood was being invaded by commerce.

Margaret Delprat Remsen purchased 3 East 80th Street.  She and Robert had four daughters, Margaret Sophia, Georgiana Delprat, Frances, and Caroline.  Only Margaret, who was known as Maizie or May, was unmarried.  She moved into the new mansion with her mother.

The two women spent the warm months at their country residence in Connecticut.  On November 11, 1902, The New York Times updated its readers, "Mrs. Robert G. Remsen and Miss Remsen are in town for the Winter at their residence, 3 East Eightieth Street.  They were in New London, as usual, this Summer."

The women were given a fright on the evening of April 18, 1906.  A workman was hired to paint the servants' rooms on the top floor.  When he went home that afternoon, he left behind a burning cigar.  By 7:00, the draperies had caught fire.  May Remsen went into crisis mode.  The New York Times reported that she "sent the butler to turn in an alarm, and then organized the servants into a bucket brigade."  Despite their heroic efforts, it was not enough.  By the time the firefighters arrived, "the fire was gaining headway rapidly," said the article.  It took them half an hour to extinguish the blaze.  The New York Times reported, "The upper floor of the house was wrecked.  The loss is $3,000."  (The damages would translate to about $108,000 in 2025.)

The frightening chaos was almost too much for Margaret Remsen to bear.  The Times said she became "very much excited during the fire," and was taken next door to the Frank W. Woolworth mansion "where she was cared for."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The butler whom May sent for help was John Smith.  He had been with the family since 1887, when he was 17 years old.  While many butlers lived with their employers, Smith lived with his wife and two children at 301 East 83rd Street at the corner of Second Avenue.  The faithful servant caught a cold in the winter of 1916.  It worsened to pneumonia and he died on March 29, just short of having served the family for three decades.

On Christmas Eve 1919, May hosted a debutante dance and supper at Delmonico's for Sylvia Remsen Hillhouse.  Sylvia was the daughter of May's sister, Georgiana and her husband Charles Betts Hillhouse.  The New York Herald reported, "Miss Remsen, Mrs. Hillhouse and her daughter received the guests, numbering about 250 of the younger set."  

Margaret Remsen was not mentioned.  It was likely that the elderly dowager was not there.  Two months later, on February 16, 1920, Margaret Delprat Remsen died.  Her funeral was held at Grace Church three days later.

May Remsen immediately left the mansion.  On April 23, The New York Times reported, "No. 3 East Eightieth Street was sold a few days ago to Miss Brice."  "Miss Brice" was Helen Olivia Brice, the 49-year-old daughter of Calvin S. and Olivia Meily Brice.  

Helen was presented to Queen Victoria in 1896.  The Evening Telegram said she, "is known equally as well in European society as in this country."  Like May Remsen, she would never marry.  The newspaper explained, "while her engagement to several scions of nobility has been rumored she has just as often made emphatic denials and is still single."

Helen would not immediately move into the mansion.  There would be decorating to do and the addition of a rooftop level unseen from the street.  And during the upcoming summer social season she would occupy her Newport residence, The Bluffs.  Then, on October 29, 1920, the New York Herald reported, "Miss Helen O. Brice, whose home since her youth was at 693 Fifth avenue, has moved into her new home at 3 East Eightieth street."

John Singer Sargent painted Helen's portrait in 1907.  (private collection)

Five months after moving in, Helen, like May Remsen had done, took charge of handling a fire in the mansion.  On March 13, 1921, The Evening Telegram titled an article, "Society Girl Directs Fight Upon Flames."  The report opened by saying:

While flames raged at the bottom of an elevator shaft and with clouds of smoke choking her, Miss Helen O. Brice, millionaire daughter of the late United States Senator Calvin S. Brice, organized a bucket brigade of her six servants in her home at No. 3 East Eightieth street today and fought the flames with sand until the arrival of the firemen.

The newspaper said that Helen was preparing to go to church when she heard the cries of "Fire!"  She found her servants pouring buckets of water on the flames and told them that "sand was the only thing with which the flames would be extinguished."  The Evening Telegram reported, "The servants were sent to the rear yard where three of them began digging up the dirt while three others carried the pails and buckets back into the house."  The article said that despite the heat and smoke, Helen stood at the door of the elevator shaft and directed the operations.

As May Remsen had done, Helen sent a servant to "sound the fire alarm."  When firefighters arrived, she was still on the scene, "directing her servants in fighting the flames."  The fire was extinguished and, while it was confined to the elevator shaft, fire officials said that the smoke, "perhaps did considerable damage to the furnishings in the house, which the firemen described as being magnificent."

Helen Olivia Brice died at the age of 79 in 1950.  She had sold 3 East 80th Street on October 18 the previous year.  The following day, The New York Times reported, "Plans for converting the five-story private dwelling at 3 East Eightieth Street, near Fifth Avenue, into small apartments were announced yesterday."

The renovations resulted in two doctors' offices on the first floor, three apartments each on the second through fifth floors, and one in the top level.  Over the subsequent decades, the ground floor spaces saw a succession of physicians, therapists, and one gallery, the Wender, which was here in the late 1980s through the early 1990s.

A renovation completed in 2000 created two triplex apartments.

photographs by the author

The 1884 Heinrich and Rosa Richter House - 52 East 80th Street

 

Terence Farley was one of the most prolific New York City developers of the late 19th century.  In 1883 he commissioned the equally busy architectural firm Thom & Wilson to design a row of upscale homes on the south side of East 80th Street between Park and Madison Avenues.  Completed early in 1884, they were a blend of neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles.  

The playful elements of No. 52 were introduced by the highly unusual brownstone stoop newels, which smacked of English letter boxes.  The double-doored entrance with its transom outlined with Queen Anne-style panes sat within a frame consisting of medieval-inspired colonettes perched upon bulbous brackets.  They upheld an intricate cornice.  The busy decorations of the parlor floor included rosettes and beaded panels.  The asymmetry of the Queen Anne style appeared in the hall windows that sat apart from the paired openings on each floor and, unlike those, wore Renaissance style pediments.  To further stress the asymmetrical design, the architects placed the cornice pediment prominently off to the side.

Three of houses sold on a single day, March 25, 1884.  No. 52 was purchased by Heinrich and Rosa Marie Richter for $42,500--about $1.4 million in 2025 terms. 

Born in Germany in 1823, Richter came to New York in 1861 and established a wholesale neckwear business.  Known by most as Henry, he also founded the Congregation Adath Israel and would serve as its president for 35 years.  He and Rosa had four adult children, Maximillian (known as Max), Marie Helene, Daniel and Bruno.  The couple maintained a summer home in Riverdale, New York.

Living with the couple were Max and his wife, Rebecca.  Max was was 25 years old when the family moved in.  He was a partner in his father's firm, which was now known as H. Richter & Sons.

In the last half of the 20th century the stoop railings were replaced.  Happily, the highly unusual brownstone newels were preserved.

Henry and Rosa's only daughter, Marie Helene, married Charles Heidenheimer in 1881 and the couple had a son, Delwyn Walter, born in 1887.  Charles worked as the general manager of H. Richter & Sons.  Whether Charles was abusive or unfaithful is unclear (although The Sun described him as having "a very violent temper"), but when Delwyn was three years old, Marie took him away to Europe.  The World reported, "While she was away, Mr. Heidenheimer quarrelled [sic] with her relatives, and they induced Marie not to write to him."  The New York Times added, "they instructed her by cable to have nothing more to do with 'the rascal.'" 

Eventually, Charles "after a tedious chase found [Marie] at Darmstadt [Germany]."  She brought Delwyn back to New York and the two moved into her parents' East 80th Street house.  On February 18, 1893, The World explained, "She refused to live with him, saying that her folks had referred to him in a letter as 'that scoundrel.'"  In the meantime, Charles was fired from H. Richter & Sons, "for neglect of business" and for his temper in the workplace.

After a contentious court battle, on March 1, 1893 Marie was given custody of Delwyn.  The New York Times reported that Charles watched the carriage carrying his wife and son away from the courthouse steps as "the tears rolled down his cheeks."  

Whimsical iron sunflowers, an important motif in Queen Anne design, guard the basement and parlor openings.

Marie's and Charles's divorce proceedings were as ugly as the custody battle--lasting for years and involving Charles's suing almost all of the Richter family members.  Finally, Marie Helene married Dr. Louis Peiser, a heart specialist associated with the German Hospital.  The newlyweds moved down the block from the Richters at 59 East 80th Street.  Dr. Peiser adopted Delwyn and in 1896 the couple had a son, Walter.

The Richters were at the Riverdale house on August 1, 1902 when Henry died.  The New York Herald said the cause was "heart disease, after several months' illness."  The Peiser family now moved into 52 East 80th Street with Rosa.

In 1901, the Peisers had hired John G. Robinson to install a copper-clad oriel at the second floor of their home.  Now, on January 3, 1903, the Record & Guide reported that Rosa had hired architect Frederick C. Zobel to do the same.  The "new bay widow" cost the family $1,500--more than $55,000 in today's money.  The handsome, bowed oriel gave a splash of France to the architecture.  Along with its intricate pressed decorations, its Parisian style windows were the height of Edwardian domestic taste.

On April 20, 1903, Dr. Peiser was awakened by a panicked servant from the house of William Prager at 129 East 74th Street.  The family's 19-year-old son, David, had shot himself in the forehead, presumably while cleaning his pistol in the middle of the night.  (Suicide was considered shameful and scandalous at the time and families often made extraordinary excuses to hide the truth.)  The New-York Tribune reported, "Dr. Piser [sic] on seeing the wound said it was a fatal one.  Half an hour after his arrival the youth died."

At the time, Delwyn Walter Peiser was attending Columbia College.  The highly educated 16-year-old had attended Jena University in Germany, prepared at the Rugby Military Academy and at the College of the City of New York.  At Columbia, he was making a mark as an athlete.  The History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seven Columbia College wrote:

He played with the University Baseball Squad for two years, and in 1905 made the second University Baseball Team.  He was a member of the football Association, the Track Association, the Baseball Association, the Lacrosse Association, and the Tennis Club.

Delwyn Walter Peiser's life ended tragically.  The History of the Class of 1907, 1907 (copyright expired)

On December 11, 1911, in a tragedy strikingly similar to that of David Prager seven years earlier, Delwyn Walter Peiser died "of a pistol shot wound supposed to have been received while he was cleaning a revolver."  Like Prager, he had shot himself in the forehead.  The Sun reported, "He was alone at the time.  His father and other physicians tried to save his life, but he died in two hours."

In March 1911, title to the East 80th Street house was transferred to Marie Peiser.  Living with the family at the time was Dr. George Thomas Strodl, Louis Peiser's assistant.  

Louis and Marie traveled to Europe in the spring of 1913.  They were in Berlin that summer when The Sun reported that Louis would "attend the medical congress in London in August."  Unfortunately, he would not make the convention.

Around the time of the article, a cable was received at the German Hospital "carrying news of [Peiser's] serious illness," according to the New York Herald.  The newspaper reported, "Dr. George T. Strodl, his assistant, caught the first eastbound steamship to be with him."  Unfortunately, he arrived in Carlsbad, Germany on August 6, one day late.  The following day, the New York Herald ran the headline, "Dr. Peiser Dies Suddenly Abroad."  

Calling Peiser "one of the foremost medical men in the city, especially in the treatment of all affections of the heart," the article explained that the 54-year-old had succumbed to arterio sclerosis.  It noted, "Mrs. Peiser accompanied him abroad and was with him when he died."

Dr. Peiser's body was brought back to New York on the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II.  It arrived on August 19 and The New York Times reported, "Max Richter, brother-in-law of Dr. Peiser, boarded the steamship at Quarantine from a revenue cutter."

Louis Peiser bequeathed his medical library to Dr. Strodl.  Other than the $500 that he left to the Society Schlaraffia (a German-language men's organization), Marie inherited his estate.

Dr. George Thomas Strodl continued to reside in the East 80th Street house.  He took over Peiser's position as chief specialist of heart disease in the German Hospital.  He had studied medicine in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and New York, receiving his medical degree from Columbia University.

 

Empire State Notables, 1914 (copyright expired)

In June 1920, Max and Rebecca Richter purchased 134 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.  It is unclear whether Marie moved with them.  What is clear is that George T. Strodl remained at 52 East 80th Street at least through 1928.

In this 1941 photograph, the draperies throughout the house were drawn, protecting against the sun's damaging rays.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The house was converted to apartments in 1965, with a doctor's office in the basement.  Among the residents over the subsequent decades were Pilar and Vincent Downing, here in the mid- to late-1960s; Roger Denim, who operated his Silva Mind Control International, Inc. from his apartment in 1971 (he headed a "special seminar on Alpha Brain Wave Control and E.S.P. at the Tarrytown Hilton Inn that year); and Charles R. Fry, a 1965 graduate of Princeton, who lived here in the mid-1980s.

The Richter house draws less attention for its marvelous copper oriel than for a fragment of architectural decoration that landed, somewhat mysteriously, in the areaway.  The carved limestone head once graced the facade of the Ziegfeld Theater on Sixth Avenue and 54th Street.  According to Atlas Obscura, "Broadway folklore has it that show producer Jerome Hammer asked a friend of his who was working on the construction of the new skyscraper for one of the heads, which was one day installed by crane into his front yard."  If the urban legend is true, that would put the placement here in 1965.

photograph by Luke J. Spencer

How the fascinating relic came to become part of the history of 52 East 80th Street will, most likely, never be known.  In the meantime, the Richter house and their 1903 home improvement project demands attention.

photographs by the author

many thanks to reader Debbie Carter for requesting this post