The Lost Louis Ohlman House - 130 East 83rd Street

 

When this photograph was taken around 1898, the picturesque house was squashed between an apartment building and grocery store.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

When the Civil War erupted, the vast countryside east of Central Park was sparsely developed.  And yet, the extension of the New York and Harlem Railroad along Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue) in the 1830s, which included a station at 86th Street, sparked interest in the district.  A hamlet, Yorkville, grew up east of Third Avenue.

Just after the war, a two-and-a-half story and basement house was erected at 130 East 83rd Street, just east of Lexington Avenue.  About a decade before real development would swamp the neighborhood, the frame Italianate-style house reflected its rural setting.  Three bays wide and sitting back from the property line behind a prim wooden fence, its windows wore molded lintels.  The unusual porch above the wooden stoop was supported by wooden columns and its roof was in the shape of a hood.  What made the modest house stand out was its jig-sawed decorations--sometimes known as gingerbread.  Delicate, lacy forms hung like icicles from the porch roof and the eaves.  They were nearly copied in reverse by ornaments that pointed upward.

The house seems to have been rented.  Living here by 1873 was Anna M. Brewster, the widow of Stephen.  She was followed by Emma S. McLean, another widow, around 1876.  She took in a boarder, Henry I. Cooper, who worked as a clerk.  Emma left in 1878 and an advertisement in The New York Herald on June 2 read: "Furnished House to Let--$40 per month."  The rent would translate to about $1,400 in 2026.

By the early 1880s, English-born contractor Joseph Richardson owned large amounts of property in the neighborhood, including 130 East 83rd Street.  His own house was just a block away.  The multi-millionaire leased the East 83rd Street house to the Louis Ohlman family in 1886.  

Louis Ohlman was a real estate agent and he operated his business from 130 East 83rd Street.  He and his wife had an adult son, Joseph H.  The family had a live-in servant, Maggie, who had been with them since 1875.  

Concerned about Joseph's future, Mrs. Ohlman would sometimes walk around the block to her landlord's house.  She would later testify, "I asked him to try and get my son a position."  Richardson, she said, would repeatedly told her "to let my son alone, and that he thought he would get along nicely."

Joseph Richardson had erected his bizarre home at the northwest corner of 82nd Street and Lexington Street in 1882.  It was one of the most famous residences in New York--not because of its grandeur, but because it was 102 feet long and only five feet wide.  It was known popularly as The Spite House because the eccentric Richardson erected it to get revenge on the developers who would not meet his price for the narrow strip.

Mrs. Ohlman's relationship with her cantankerous landlord was apparently very friendly.  According to her court testimony later, she would visit him and his wife, Emma, and occasionally Richardson would present small gifts, like passes to an afternoon outing.

Sometimes, Mrs. Ohlman's visits were more businesslike.  When Richardson began excavation for the large apartment building next door to 130 East 83rd Street, she worried.  Mrs. Ohlman testified, "in the first week in April [1897] I was very much troubled...and they dug so far down I was afraid my house would tip over, and I used to go in quite often and converse about that matter with Mr. Richardson."  Each time, Richardson assured her "that my house was on built on rocks, and he thought there was no danger."

And when the construction workers began throwing rocks and debris into the Ohlman's front yard, breaking some of the rose bushes, Mrs. Ohlman marched over to the Richardson house to complain.  "He said it was no use of taking any notice of those Italians, and that I should by no means speak to them, because they would only give me abusive language," she recounted.

When Richardson became ill in 1897, according to her court testimony, Mrs. Ohlman visited regularly, bringing fresh-cut flowers from her garden and often sitting with him for nearly half and hour.  The eccentric millionaire died on June 8, 1897, and Emma Richardson inherited 130 East 83rd Street.

In the meantime, Richardson had been correct regarding Joseph Ohlman.  He went into the sign business and, like his father, ran it from the East 83rd Street house.

Trow's Business Directory 1898 (copyright expired)

Joseph Ohlman died at the age of 30 on December 14, 1899.  Emma Richardson sold East 83rd Street shortly afterward to lawyer William T. Washburn, who lived at 52 East 79th Street.  

Washburn leased the property to Catherine and William H. Walsh, who operated it as a boarding house.  Among the conditions of the lease was that Washburn's mother-in-law, Mary Doughty, could occupy rooms on the second floor.  (Mary's husband had died in 1879.)  According to Washburn, "Mrs. Doughty lived in the Eighty-third street house because she was independent."

Catherine Walsh's other boarders were working class, many of them with Irish surnames.  Among their professions in 1904  and 1905 were carpenter and dressmaker.

Although Joseph Richardson had installed lighting gas in the house years earlier, Mary Doughty was afraid of using it.  Her son-in-law said that she, "read a great deal, but refused to have gas in her room, preferring the old fashioned oil lamp."  

At around 11:00 on the night of November 28, 1909, Catherine Walsh smelled smoke and she traced it to the second floor and Mary Doughty's door.  The New York Herald reported that she and other boarders "beat at the door in vain."  In the meantime, a policeman saw smoke pouring from a window, rushed in and broke in the door.  He smothered the flame with a blanket but it was too late for the 75-year-old Mary.

The New York Sun said, "On the floor was a broken kerosene lamp.  The theory was that while trying to move the lamp from a table to a bureau, Mrs. Doughty had dropped it and her dress got on fire."

William and Catherine Walsh had a daughter, Beatrice, who became an actress in 1901.   She appeared in The Follies and in the 1907 production of The Social Whirl at the Majestic Theatre on Columbus Circle.  Beatrice Walsh died in the 83rd Street house in December 1913.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The end of the line for the exquisitely charming wooden house came in 1923 when it and the wooden store building on the corner were demolished and replaced by a two-story brick store-and-office building designed by Thomas Paterson, Jr., which survives.

The Remodeled Wm. W. McLaughlin House - 60 East 83rd Street

 

image via streeteasy.com

In June 1887, architect Francis A. Minuth filed plans for four four-story-and-basement homes on East 83rd Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues.  Their high-end tenor was reflected in the construction costs--the equivalent of $661,000 each by today's standards.  Interestingly, Minuth was working for two developers.  Charles Gulden was erecting 54 and 56 East 83rd Street, while Frederick Correll and his wife Caroline were responsible for 58 and 60.

Completed in 1888, Minuth had designed the brownstone-faced, Queen Anne style residences in an A-B-B-A configuration.  The easternmost house, 60 East 83rd Street, was a mirror image of 54, its wide stoop with beefy newels set to the west and its second story oriel and prominent mansard gable to the east--the opposite of its counterpart. 

The row as it appeared in 1940.  60 East 83rd Street is to the left.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Corrells sold 60 East 83rd Street to wealthy clothier Hyman Sarner and his family.  He and his wife, the former Augusta Vogel had six children, Celia, Julius, Bertha, Martha, Marcus Joseph, and Hattie.  Like many well-to-do businessmen, Sarner dabbled in real estate development, and was perhaps best known for his battle over a five-foot wide strip of land on Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street six years earlier.  When the owner, Joseph Richardson, refused to lower his price, Sarner and his partner forged ahead, building an apartment house and leaving Richardson with what they considered a worthless strip of property.  The decision prompted what was widely known as "the incident."

A month after Sarner and his partner broke ground in May 1882, Richardson did the same.  He erected two houses on the 5-by-100-foot plot that blocked light and ventilation to the apartment building.  They were known as the Spite Houses.

On November 27, 1890, Bertha Sarner was married to Issac J. Silberstein in "the assembly rooms of the Metropolitan Opera House," as reported by the New York Herald.  Augusta nearly outshone her daughter, wearing "a gown of black velvet, en train, trimmed with point lace."

The Sarners sold 60 East 83rd Street on July 17, 1899 to one of New York's most colorful figures.  Known as the "Millionaire Cop," Inspector William W. McLaughlin had joined the New York Police Department on November 26, 1868.  The Times Union called him "among the most efficient enemies of criminals in New York police history."  McLaughlin was responsible for the capture of a string of forgers and thieves, including the tracking of a gang of elevated railroad robbers to Cuba and arresting them.

Now the head of the detective bureau, McLaughlin's career was not without stain.  He had faced trial in May 1895, charged by a State investigative committee of extortion.  He was accused of forcing shopkeepers and other businessmen to pay bribes to avoid being given fines for violations like blocking the sidewalk.  In court it was alleged McLaughlin's millions were amassed through such graft.  He countered, saying he earned his fortune in real estate dealings.

William and Mary A. McLaughlin had eight children.  Unlike most Irish cops, in his early years he spent his days off at art museums, honing what would become a fine knowledge of art.  By the time the family moved onto East 83rd Street, McLaughlin owned impressive and costly works.

The New York Sun said, "One of the best art collections in America is owned by a policeman," adding that McLaughlin's "brownstone mansion at 60 East Eighty-third street [is] hung with his old masters--Franz Hals, Turner, Delacroix, Corot, Inges, Landseer, Millet, Breugels and many others."  (In 1915 McLaughlin would value his collection "of rare pictures and etchings" at $250,000, nearly $7 million today.)  The newspaper noted, "There was some eye-rolling among the wealthy residents of upper Fifth avenue when he planted his mansion close by, but he didn't mind.  Those who know him say his love of art is informed and genuine."

McLaughlin's nationwide fame as a crook-catcher landed his image on a cigarette card.

McLaughlin had not given up his penchant for receiving money under the table.  It proved his undoing when he involved himself in a high-profile divorce case.  When millionaire Howard Gould and his wife, actress Katherine Clemmons, became embroiled in a high-profile divorce in 1907, McLaughlin gave him use of the Detective Bureau "to secure evidence to fight his wife's suit for separation," as reported by the Brooklyn Standard Union.

The discovery of the scheme resulted in a purge at the Police Department.  On April 20, 1907, The New York Times wrote, "The storm that has been hanging over Police Headquarters for more than a week broke yesterday, and eight Inspectors and almost unnumbered Detective Sergeants...in the Detective Bureau were hit.  Common patrolmen cluttered the earth."  Among the casualties, of course, was Inspector William W. McLaughlin.

The article reported that "William W. McLaughlin, known as a 'Millionaire Cop,'...[who] was sent to command a little Westchester station, suffered the hardest come-down that the Commissioner handed out yesterday."  A reporter was sent uptown, but "His magnificent house at 60 East Eight-third Street, among the millionaires, was closed up fast...A footman stood outside to tell reporters that the new Captain of the Westchester Precinct would see no one."

McLaughlin's humiliating demotion did not end the investigation.  On May 17 McLaughlin received a "list of questions" from the Commissioner regarding the Gould affair, asking him "to reply to them forthwith," as reported by The Sun.  The former inspector "was taken suddenly ill at his home" that night.  The Sun said he was afflicted with "a complication of diseases, of which the leading symptoms are rheumatism and bronchitis.  He may have others."

The Commissioner would never receive McLaughlin's reply.  On May 23 the Brooklyn Standard Union reported, "Rather than submit to a cross-examination and tell what he knows about the alleged use of the Detective Bureau by Howard Gould to secure evidence to fight his wife's suit for separation, it was rumored at Police Headquarters...that Capt. William McLaughlin, formerly head of the detective bureau as an inspector, had resigned."

Despite the shady circumstances surrounding his resignation, McLaughlin was granted a police pension of $2,500 per year (about $38,000 today).  He rebounded by opening McLaughlin's U. S. Detective Agency, no doubt employing several of the disgraced detectives from the Gould scandal.

Of their eight children, five were still living in the East 83rd Street house with William and Mary in 1911:  Violette and Edna, both unmarried, and William Jr., Thomas and Edward.

Fire broke out in the residence on the morning of February 22, 1915, after which the McLaughlins filed a claim for $70,000 in damages.  The Sun reported, "The inventory of the pictures destroyed included two canvases by Sir Joshua Reynolds, for which he paid $2,200; a Turner, valued at $1,250; two Troyons, worth $1,500 each; two Depres for one of which he paid $200 and for the other $1,000, and a Corot, valued at $1,500."  Mary additionally claimed the loss of $25,000 worth of clothing.

But, once again, it appeared that McLaughlin was acting a bit shadily.  The insurance company balked at the claim and it ended up in court in January 1916.  The insurance company brought in fire fighters, who testified "that it had taken them just five minutes to stamp out the fire entirely and that they had the hose turned on only one minute," according to The Sun on January 23.  The firm's experts asserted, "Only one dozen of the eighty-one paintings cited by the plaintiff...were actually damaged.  An additional $250, the experts declared, would have been sufficient to burnish up the other paintings whether they were injured or not."

Claiming that the McLaughlins had "willfully, maliciously and fraudulently" overstated the damage, the insurance company proposed that it was not obligated to pay a cent.  After deliberating for just over an hour, a jury agreed.  The Sun reported that it decided that Mary A. McLaughlin was "not entitled to any part of the $70,000 she asked in her suit against the National Fire Insurance Company."

On December 15, 1931 The New York Sun reported on the 85th birthday celebration planned for William McLaughlin the next day.  It reminisced about his storied career in law enforcement, calling him America's most famous thief catcher," and saying, "Trim in figure, natty in dress and a bit histrionic in his methods, he held the spotlight for years as the chief of the Detective Bureau."  Nothing was mentioned about the Gould scandal or any of the others.

Mary McLaughlin had been ill for an extended period at the time of the birthday party.  Fifteen days later the newspaper reported on her death.  Her funeral was held in the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue at 84th Street on New Year's Eve.

Mary left her entire estate to William.  And that caused a problem within the family.  Years earlier Annie had opened a savings account for her mother at the Broadway Savings Bank.  Upon her death it contained a balance of $5,102.32--just over $100,000 by today's standards.  Because she had opened the account in her own name, Annie insisted it belonged to her.  Her father (somewhat surprisingly given his vast fortune) took her to court.  Helen Edna testified against her sister, saying that Annie had always referred to the account as "mother's money" and to the bankbooks as "mother's bankbooks."  On June 6, 1933 William W. McLaughlin won the suit against his daughter.

It was a short-lived victory.  McLaughlin was visiting his married daughter Irene Coffey in Mount Kisco, New York on October 13 that year when he suffered what the Times Union described as a "coughing spell" followed by a fatal heart attack.  Once again, newspapers dwelt on his notable career.  The Times Union said "He was said to know the Rogue's Gallery by heart and he was a master of criminal psychology."  The New York Sun recalled, "During his career he broke up the Red Hook gangs and performed numerous feats of police work which inspired District Attorney William Travers Jerome to call him the 'ablest man on the force.'"

Family infighting over the will lasted for nearly a decade.  Helen McLaughlin first contested it over the distribution of paintings and other artwork.  The suits continued through 1941.

In 1948 the former McLaughlin mansion was divided into apartments--two per floor.  The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the basement level.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

One of them was home to burgeoning designer Elia Delgado in the 1970's.  New York Magazine described her in 1979 saying, "A good dressmaker is rarer than a truthful press agent.  One who's been keeping society's seams straight for years is Elia Delgado, 60 East 83rd Street."

image via zillow.com

Then, a renovation completed in 2009 completely changed the personality of the 1888 residence.  Reconverted to a single family house, the brownstone front was removed and replaced by a modern neo-Classical facade.  What remained of the F. A. Minuth interiors were gutted in favor of more sterile, cleaner lines.

Many thanks to reader Keith Leong for requesting this post

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The Samuel Mendel Phillips House - 62 East 83rd Street

 

In 1875 leather merchant Samuel Phillip Mendel and his family were living at 402 East 52nd Street.  Mendel and his wife, the former Julia Seckelman, had two children--four-year old Jennie and one-year-old Sarah.  He submitted a petition to the city in January that year which said in part, "They wish to change their names legally to Samuel Mendel Phillips, Julia Mendel Phillips, Jennie Mendel Phillips, and Sarah Mendel Phillips."   

The reason behind the name change is intriguing, but seemingly lost.  It would cause confusion in newspapers, books and various organizations for years with the names Mendel and Phillips haphazardly being swapped back and forth.

By the early 1890's there was a third daughter, Paula.  By now the had family had moved to 62 East 83rd Street, one of a row of high-stooped Italianate brownstones erected around the time of Samuel's petition.

Notable New Yorkers of 1896-1899 erroneously used Phillips's former surname, (copyright expired)

Phillips was born in Elmshorn, Germany in 1844 and arrived in New York City in 1866.  He was a partner with B. J. Salomon in the leather firm of Salomon & Phillips, founded by Salomon in 1867, and in the Armstrong Leather Company established by both men in 1890.  New York-1894 said the latter "manufactures colored calf, goat and sheep skins, and the products of their factory at Peabody, Mass.,...have at once taken a prominent position in the market."  The book described Phillips as "an active and enterprising man."  He was, as well, a director in the Hide and Leather National Bank.

Phillips was strongly attached to his German heritage (making his switching to an English surname puzzling).  He was an active member of the Freundschaft Club, the oldest German men's club in the city.  And the domestic staff of the Phillips house were seemingly all German.  An advertisement in the New York Journal & Advertiser on September 18, 1899 sought someone to "Cook, wash, iron; German girl."

The Phillips women, too, were involved in things German.  On November 3, 1895, for instance, The New York Times reported, "To the untiring efforts of a number of enthusiastic German women of this city is to be accredited the assurance of the erection of the beautiful Heine Memorial Fountain upon some suitable site in New-York."  The article noted that one of the three women forming the Committee on Decorations and Space was "Miss Jennie Mendel."  (Once again showing that Phillips was not always recognized as the family's name.)

By the turn of the century, Julia had died and Jennie and Sarah had married.  Jennie and her husband, Pertz Rosenberg, lived in the 83rd Street house with her father and Paula (who was an instructor of English at Dr. Sach's School for Girls).  Sarah and her husband, Ludwig Harberger, lived elsewhere.

On the morning of March 24, 1905 Phillips was preparing to leave the house when he suffered "apoplexy"--a term which today refers to a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage.  Despite his legal name change and the fact that his firm was clearly Salomon & Phillips, not Salomon & Mendel, his obituaries all referred to him as Samuel Phillips Mendel.  His funeral was held in the drawing room on March 26.

The 83rd Street house was bequeathed to the three daughters.  On May 4 Jennie purchased her sisters' shares for a total of about $974,000 in today's money.

Peretz Rosenberg was affiliated with Felix Salomon & Co., a German-based company which dealt in paper and paper stock.  He and Jennie had two children, Julian Dellevie and Rosalie.

When Julian graduated from Columbia University in 1917, war was raging in Europe.  He put off his career to join the army and served as a corporal in France.  At the end of the war he returned to 62 East 83rd Street and re-enrolled at Columbia, earning his graduate degree in law in 1921.

Both Julian and his sister were interested in nature.  Rosalie was a long-term member of the Torrey Botanical Club and her brother would later be highly involved in environmental causes like the preservation of the Connecticut River Valley.

Julian Rosenberg became a well-respected attorney.   But another world war would again interrupt his career.  He served as a lieutenant commander in Naval Intelligence during World War II.

The 83rd Street house was sold after the war and in 1950 was converted to apartments, one per floor.  A subsequent renovation completed in 1962 removed the stoop and lowered the entrance to the English basement level.  The building now held two duplex apartments.  That configuration lasted until 2006 when an extensive renovation was initiated to return the house to a single-family dwelling.

Despite the fact that the house was neither landmarked nor sat within a historic district, the architectural firm of Anita Bartholin Brandt Architect painstakingly refabricated the lost stoop, and replicated the original cornice and other missing details.  Completed in 2009, the superb restoration resulted in the Phillips house again looking as it did in the 19th century.

photographs by the author

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A French Facelift - 17 East 83rd Street

Edward Livingston entrusted his contractor, John H. James, with two $1,200 checks on November 7, 1895.  James, who lived in Cornwall, New York, was doing work for him and told Livingston that he was staying with "Mrs. Woods" at No. 17 East 83rd Street.  James left with the checks--worth nearly $75,000 today--and headed for the Bank of America.  That was the last time he was seen.

On November 11 The New York Times reported "The brownstone residence at 17 East Eighty-third Street was closed when a reporter called there yesterday, and it appeared as if it were not occupied.  A card showing that it is for rent is displayed.  A ring at the bell brought two servants from the basement.  They said that Mrs. Woods had gone to Cornwall."

The home of the mysterious Mrs. Woods was identical to others on the north side of 83rd Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues.   Two bays wide, it was faced in brownstone.  A stone stoop rose above the high English basement.   Molded architrave frames embraced the openings of the upper stories and a handsome bracketed cornice completed the design.

Following the turn of the century No. 17 was owned by David Lydig, who used it as an investment property.  His fascinating tenant was attorney Abram Jesse Dittenhoefer.  Born in Charleston, South Carolina to Jewish-German immigrants Isaac and Babette Dittenhoefer in 1837, he had moved to New York prior to the Civil War.  He was now a member in the firm of Dittenhoefer & Gerber.  His wife, the former Sophie Englehardt, died in 1900.  The couple had had five children, Estelle, Belle, Edith, Blanche and Irving.

Abram J. Dittenhoefer - original source unknown

Living with her father was Estelle, who had never married.  The 50-year old spinster was a member of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York in 1912.  Her interests in things political was understandable, given her father's background.

Abram Dittenhoefer first garnered attention during the Civil War.  A Jewish Republican leader and staunch abolitionist, he lived on West 34th Street and Eighth Avenue and was instrumental in directing Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaigns.  He first met Lincoln on the night of February 27, 1860 after the candidate's famous speech at Cooper Union.

When the Draft Riots broke out in 1863.   On July 12 a mob formed in front of the house. shouting "Down with the abolitionists" and "Death to Dittenhoefer."  According to Dittenhoefer years later, a messenger who was spirited out of the house ran to the police.  Their "active club work" managed to dispel the crowd.

Dittenhoefer worked closely with Lincoln and the two men became friends.  He described the President in a letter to Isaac Markens which said in part "While an air of melancholy seemed always to suffuse his features, I always regarded President Lincoln as the most genial of men."  He later said, "He was a very awkward man, but after he began to talk, he was awkwardness deified."

Lincoln was not the only President whose career was boosted by Dittenhoefer.  In 1880 James A. Roosevelt brought his nephew, Theodore Roosevelt, to Dittenhoefer's office "and said that the young man desired to embark upon a political career," according to The Sun years later.

"Mr. Dittenhoefer said he was interested in young Roosevelt and promised to help him along in the politics of the Twenty-first Assembly district.  A little later Theodore Roosevelt got his first nomination and went to the Assembly after a comparatively featureless campaign."

In 1913 David Lydig renewed Dittenhoefer's lease for another 10 years.  That same year he commissioned architect John H. O'Rourke to do minor renovations to the house, amounting to $700.

Dittenhoefer published his highly popular How We Elected Lincoln: Personal Recollections in 1916.  The following year on March 17 his home was the scene of a brilliant reception in honor of his 80th birthday.  The Emanu-El Review reported "The revered celebrant received more than two hundred letters and telegrams of congratulations, as well as numerous gifts and other attentions."

On the night of February 23, 1919 Abram J. Dittenhoefer suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage in the house.  The Sun not only called him the "last surviving elector of President Lincoln," but "one of the best known authorities on international copyright law."

The following year the estate of David Lydig sold No. 17 to real estate operator James W. Bulmer for $55,000--about $673,000 in today's dollars.  Bulmer was manager and a director in the real estate office of Harris & Vaughan.  The New-York Tribune reported on February 10, 1920 that the firm planned to make "extensive alterations into American basement."

The "American basement" plan had replaced the English basement with its high stoop years earlier.  While the stoop was removed and the entrance lowered, the completed renovations did not change the floor levels.  The doorway was now at the former basement level, several steps below the sidewalk, and the original entrance was only slightly disguised as a baluster-fronted window.  Fussy French-style cartouches and a swan neck pediment above the doorway gave the old rowhouse a Beaux Arts touch.

The original appearance of the upper floors can be seen in No. 17's next door neighbor.

The renovated house became home to heiress Llewellyn S. Parsons.  The daughter of Charles and Sarah Johnson Shepley Parsons, Llewellyn never married.   While the house appears to have been rarely the scene of entertainments, Llewellyn's name (always reported as "Miss") regularly appeared in society columns.  Her summer home was in Kennebunk, Maine.  Following her death at the age of 81 on September 27, 1956 she was buried in the Hope Cemetery there.

Within months of Llewellyn's death No. 17 was converted to apartments--a duplex on former parlor and second floors and two apartments on each of the top two.  The ground floor became the Aaron Furman Gallery.  Among first exhibitions here, in October 1957, was of "various interpretations of animal forms by pre-Columbian, African and ancient Chinese artists," according to The Times.  The newspaper said "It is the kind of show that should be seen piece by piece rather than style by style."

Change came to No. 17 once again in 2003 when it was re-converted to a single family home.  It was the scene of a "major gift dinner" hosted by Louis and Patrice Friedman on November 4, 2010 for Stanford University alumni.

The Library paneling appears to be original.  photo via 6sqft

The house was back on the market in 2015 with an asking price of $24.5 million.  While decades of renovations eliminated much of the 1920 interiors (and certainly nearly nothing of the original 1870's detailing remains), some rooms survive surprisingly intact.  And outside little has changed since James Bulmer gave the mundane brownstone a new French personality.

photographs by the author

The William Schickel House - 52 East 83rd St

Born in Wiesbaden, in western Germany, J. Wilheim Schickel was 25 years old when he arrived in New York City in 1875.  Trained as an architect, he quickly found work in the office of Richard Morris Hunt, then struck out on his own.

Embracing his new culture, he anglicized his name to William Schickel.  His rapid success resulted in substantial commissions.  On April 4, 1881 The New York Times reported on the mansion of Robert Stuart under construction on Fifth Avenue at 68th Street, saying it "will prove one of the most notable ornaments of the avenue."

Schickel designed Robert Stuart's massive home in the French Second Empire style - from the collection of the New York Public Library

As the Stuart mansion rose, Schickel turned his attention to matters closer to home.  On July 1, 1881 he filed plans for "one three-story and mansard roof dwelling" at No. 52 East 83rd Street for his family's home.

Projected to cost $15,000--about three quarters of a million dollars today--the red brick house would sit on a rusticated stone English basement.  The robust entrance consisted of fluted Ionic pilasters which upheld beefy scrolled brackets which, in turn, supported a stone balustraded balcony.   The keystones of the eye-catching limestone lintels were slightly different at each level.  Above the cast iron cornice the steep, slate-shingled mansard sprouted three dormers, the middle dormer being faced in brick.

Even at 24-foot wide the home might have been a bit crowded.  Schickel and his wife, Elise, had 11 children.

Schickel partnered with Isaac E. Ditmars and Hugo Kafa in 1885, to form the firm of William Schickel & Co.  In 1895 the name was changed to Schicek & Ditmars. 

A devout Roman Catholic, Schickel was active in religious and German-American circles as well as professional organizations.  The 1900 Biographical Directory of the State of New York listed his memberships in the Catholic Club, the Architectural League, the American Institute of Architects, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Aldine Association (incorporated in 1889 to "encourage literature and art").

On May 22, 1896 William Steinway presided at a meeting of German-Americans to organize the "German-American Sound-Money League."  The purpose was to rally German-born citizens around the gold standard, which was in jeopardy in the upcoming elections.  Among the committee members appointed that evening was William Schickel.

His importance in political and social activities was evidenced when Louis Stern hosted a dinner in his Fifth Avenue mansion for Governor Benjamin Barker Odell, Jr. on February 16, 1901.  Among the high ranking politicians, military and business men at the table that night--a group that included Senator Chauncey M. Depew, General Henry L. Burnett, Henry Rice and Judge J. W. Hawes--was William Schickel.

In the meantime, he had designed scores of significant structures, including the striking Church of St. Ignatius Loyola near the Schickel residence, on Park Avenue at 86th Street; the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston; and the Most Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn.

In April 1907 the Catholic Club opened an art exhibition of works by members.  Included were paintings by James Fagan, Laurel Harris and John F. Kaufman, and sculptures by John J. Boyle.  Also on view were architectural renderings, including, of course, examples by Schickel.

It would be the last public event involving the architect.  He died in the 83rd Street house just two months later on Friday, June 14, 1907.

Elise remained in the house with some of the still-unmarried children.  William Jr. was still here when he went into his own business the following year with partners John G. Hanson and Bruno Benziger.  The trio incorporated the plumbing firm of Hanson & Schickel.

Also in the house was Norbert who founded the Schickel Motor Co. in 1911 at the age of 25.  Norbert had been swept up in the motorcycle boom that inundated the nation beginning around 1905.  While still in high school he had tinkered with electrical motors and gas engines.

Norbert displayed his first motorcycle at the 1911 Chicago Motorcycle Show.  He patented the "spring fork front suspension" and the "fly wheel magneto," and his designs would help popularize the twist grip control.   A century after founding his company, Norbert Schickel was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

In September 1919 the Schickel family sold No. 52 to Arthur Osgood Choate, a senior partner in the banking firm of Clark, Dodge & Co. and a director in the Massachusetts Fire and Marine Insurance Co.  Choate paid $70,000 for the house, just under $1 million today.

Choate drew the least amount of press coverage among his relatives.  His brother, Joseph was the ambassador to the Court of St. James; and his brother William was the founder of the Choate School.  His wife, the former Anne Hyde, was no less in the spotlight.

Anne was born in 1887 in Hyde Hall, the manor house built by her great-grandfather, George Hyde Clarke.   He was the great-grandson of George Clark, acting Colonial Governor of New York from 1734 to 1740.  Her godmother was Juliette Gordon Lowe, founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

She and Arthur married in 1907 and by now had three children, Arthur Jr., Thomas Hyde, and Anne.  The same year that the Choates moved into the former Schickel house, Anne succeeded Juliette Gordon Lowe as the Girl Scouts' second president.

Anne Choate (right) with Juliette Gordon Lowe -- from the collection of the Library of Congress

Anne explained her attraction to the organization in 1919 saying "Scouting is more than just play.  It builds health, a sense of social responsibility, democracy, character, initiative, reliability, loyalty, self-control, cheerfulness, obedience, usefulness and thrift."

The Choate country estate was in Pleasantville, New York.  The main house had been remodeled by Lawrence Grant White, son of Stanford White, in 1917.  When there, Anne took daily horseback rides, always riding sidesaddle.  She told a reporter "Much the best way; safer when you take the jumps and more elegant too."    She often invited local Girl Scout troops to camp on the estate.

When 5,000 Girl Scouts marched up Fifth Avenue on October 22, 1921, Anne Choate was in the lead, directly behind the Governor's Island Military Band.  But while Scouting was main passion, it was not her only interest.

On June 28, 1924 The Times reported "Women took the lead yesterday in a movement looking toward the selection of a 'dark horse' compromise candidate by the Democratic Convention."  Anne took charge, hosting a breakfast at the Colony Club to promote the nomination of David F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson.

She was also actively involved in the Robin Hood Club which gave an annual charity ball to benefit causes like the Old Couples Fund and The New York Times Neediest Cases.

The plight of the Russian exiles under the Soviet Government in the 1920's drew Anne's concern, as well.  The Choates took a box at Carnegie Hall for the concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to benefit the American Society for Relief of Russian Exiles, Inc. in January 1930.  And the following year, in February, she opened the house for a lecture by Andre Kalpaschnikoff, a former Russian diplomat.  He spoke, according to The New York Times, "on the rule of the Romanoffs and the Bolshevistic campaign of Stenka Rasin on the Volga."

Entertainments at No. 52 turned to daughter Anne's introduction to society in 1936.  The major event was the supper dance at Sherry's on December 26 with a guest list of "several hundred," according to society pages.

Anne was married to Ellmore Patterson, Jr. four years later, on September 27, 1940, in what The Times called "one of the most important" weddings of the season.   The ceremony took place in St. John's Episcopal Church near the family's Pleasantville estate.

Arthur Jr. was the last to marry.  His wedding to H. Whitney Bourne on July 3, 1946, took place in the summer home of the bride's parents, Land's End, on Long Island.

Arthur and Anne Choate left New York City to live permanently on their Pleasantville estate.  Arthur died in 1963, and Anne lived on another four years, still riding sidesaddle every day until her death at the age of 80 on May 17, 1967.  She was still active in the Girl Scouts at the time.

In the meantime, No. 52 was converted to apartments in 1948--a duplex in the basement and parlor levels, and one apartment per floor above.  The names of the moneyed tenants appeared in society columns throughout the subsequent decades as births, deaths and marriages were reported.

The Schickel home was returned to a single-family residence in 1998; its striking appearance little changed since its completion in 1882.

photographs by the author

Victorian Survivors - 222 and 224 East 83rd Street

In 1839 the grid of streets and avenues, laid out in the Commissioners' Plan in 1811, began slicing up the farmland in the district known as Yorkville.   The New York and Harlem Railroad had been extended along Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue) two years earlier, with a station at 86th Street.   The neighborhood became even more accessible in 1852 when the Third Avenue Railway System opened streetcar service.

The residents of Yorkville were mostly blue collar immigrants from Germany and Ireland.   But some were more affluent--shopkeepers and factory owners, for instance.  Two mirror-image houses were built on East 83rd Street in the years just before the outbreak of the Civil War that targeted the latter.

Mirror images, Nos. 222 and 224 East 83rd Street, between Second and Third Avenues, were three stories tall above a shallow English basement.  Faced in brick, they sat back from the property line, creating garden space between the stoops.  Each two bays wide, they were crowned by wooden Italianate cornices supported by ornate leafy brackets with paneled friezes.

By the early 1870s No. 224 appears to have been operated as a boarding house.  Sisters Emma and Carrie Adams lived here from 1874 at least until 1884.  Emma taught at Grammar School No. 36 on Ninth Avenue, making $760 in 1881.  Carrie was a teacher in the Girls Department of Grammar School No. 42 far downtown on Allen Street.  She made slightly less than her sister, making $684 in 1881--or about $16,400 today.

If the house next door was still a private residence in 1880, that was about to come to an end.  Real estate operator Eliza Gardner purchased it at foreclosure auction in December that year, paying $5,500--five dollars more than the amount due on the mortgage.  Although Gardner lived in Paramus, New Jersey, she regularly invested in Manhattan properties.

James E. Morrissey, who had been a clerk in the Tombs Prison for more than three years, was married in November 1894.  He and his bride boarded at No. 222.    Two months later, on the evening of January 14, 1895, he left work "apparently in perfect health," according to The New York Times.  But the following morning his wife found him dead in their bed.  The newspaper reported "It is supposed that his death was caused by heart disease."

A little over a decade later the houses would be struck by a string of deaths.  In 1910 the Bureau of Census reported increases in fatalities from typhoid fever, measles, and influenza.   It may have been these rampant diseases that caused the succession of funerals that were held in Nos. 222 and 224 beginning in 1909.

On August 6 that year, Herman Witt died in No. 224.  Five months later Charles B. Berger died on January 23, 1910; and Abraham Otto died on June 22.  Three weeks later William H. Gardiner died next door.  And on October 31, 1911 Joseph Oppenheimer died in No. 224.

The Great Depression brought change to the two boarding houses.  Architect Lloyd E. Mellor converted No. 224 "for business" that year.  No. 222 was already home to the Flatiron Window Cleaning Company.  One of its employees, 55-year old Walter Tholin, was killed on September 21 that year when he lost his balance and fell from a window ledge on the fourth floor of C. H. Gallagher's brownstone house at No. 141 East 47th Street.

The conversions of the lower floors of both houses resulted in broad shop windows and a modest cornice at the parlor level.  The stoops and the upper floors were left intact.

In 1960 No. 224 was converted to two apartments; while its next door neighbor continued to be home to small businesses--the Veteran's Caning shop in the 1960s, followed by Such Outlandish Stitches, which described itself as "a miraculous boutique."

Then in 1974 it, too, was converted to a parlor floor apartment below a duplex, with a florist shop in the basement.  The greatest change came in 2005, however, when the interior walls were broken through and the joined houses became a single family residence.

It was most likely at this time that the architecturally-incongruous, neo-Classical inspired surrounds were tacked to the upper story openings.  Oddly, their fluted pilasters abruptly end with no bases; making them appear almost like skinny shutters.

Despite the alterations, the quaint garden-fronted pair, nestled back between apartment buildings, create a charming Victorian scene.

photographs by the author

The F. W. Woolworth Stables -- No. 121 East 83rd Street

John H. Scheel lived in the three-story brownstone house at No. 121 East 83rd Street in the 1890s.  He was treasurer of the Yorkville Dispensary and Hospital for Women and Children.  The charity institution was "confined to the Dispensary for treatment of poor women and children only."

Around the turn of the century the house was converted as the headquarters of the Shawnee Club.  A Democratic political group, The New York Times on December 16, 1901 said it "represents Tammany power" in the district.

Scheel evicted his tenants when they stopped paying rent in October 1902.  But it appears to have been a mutual arrangement.  The Sun reported "Myer J. Stein said last night that the club quit paying rent in October at the request of the landlord, John Shields [sic], in order that the lease, which would have run to Feb 15, might be broken, as the property was to be sold."

The buyers were developers Evans & Buscall, who planned an upscale private carriage house on the site.  The block by now was filling with the private stables of Fifth Avenue millionaires.  In November Hamilton & Mesereau filed plans for a "3-story brick stable" costing $33,000--in the neighborhood of $940,000 today.

The office J. A. Hamilton and W. H. Mesereau was far downtown at No. 32 Broadway.  Mesereau was a structural engineer as well as architect.  Theirs was an intriguing partnership; apparently working independently as often as together as Hamilton & Mesereau.

A year earlier C. P. H. Gilbert had designed Frank W. Woolworth's new mansion at northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 80th Street.  Construction on what Bankers Magazine deemed "one of the notably fine houses in that center of wealth and fashion" was completed just prior to the 83rd Street carriage house.

On July 21, 1903 The New York Times reported that Evans & Buscal had sold "the new three-story private stable" to Woolworth, noting that the price had been set at $50,000--a substantial $1.4 million in today's dollars.

While technically three stories, the carriage house rose to nearly the equivalent of four.  A half-story loft above the ground floor added to the height.  Hamilton & Mesereau had produced an extremely handsome edifice faced in Flemish-bond variegated brick.  The gray and tan headers contrasted with the red length-wise bricks.  Splayed limestone lintels and double-keystones reflected the neo-Federal motif; while carved panels of floral swags and a wreath and bow in the tympanum over the carriage bay were elegant neo-Classical touches.  The unusual triangular brackets upholding the cornice were a dramatic addition.


Woolworth's impressive fleet of vehicles and expensive horses were housed on ground level.  Behind the elegant structure would have been a much less appealing but necessary feature--the manure pit.  It was the odors (with the accompanying problem of flies) and the bothersome noises of stables that brought about "stable blocks" where there were few, if any, residences.

On the two upper floors the mogul's most important stable employees lived.  The main coachman and the groom are the most likely candidates.  In many cases the entire families of the employees resided in comfortable accommodations (discounting, of course, the manure stench).

By the time Woolworth died on April 8, 1919, the carriage house was already being leased to Murry Guggenheim.  Horses had given way to automobiles by now, and he had renovations done to the building that year, converting it to a garage for "not more than five cars."  Building Department records reveal that the top floor was to be used as a "dwelling for one employee."

A year after Woolworth's death, on April 22, 1920, the first of the auctions of his massive real estate holdings was held.  But three months earlier, the 83rd Street garage was sold separately to what the New-York Tribune, on January 13, described as "a well known businessman residing on Fifth Avenue."  That businessman was Murry Guggenheim.

He was the third of eight sons of Meyer Guggenheim.  Meyer's was a Horatio Alger-worthy story.  The Jewish immigrant arrived from Switzerland in 1847, starting out as an itinerant peddler.  When get-rich-quick prospectors headed West for gold and silver, Guggenheim invested in copper mines in Colorado.  Mining and smelting of copper, silver, lead and gold made the Guggenheim family's fortune one of the largest in 19th century America.

Murry Guggenheim and his wife, the former Leonie Bernheim, had two children, Edmond and Lucille.  Their mansion was at No. 998 Fifth Avenue at 81st Street, conveniently near the carriage house.

Throughout the years Murry and Leonie supported extensive charities.  In 1929 they formed the Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Foundation which built and maintained a dental clinic for indigent school children.  In 1921 he and his brothers donated $1 million for a private pavilion at Mount Sinai Hospital, and earlier he gave the hospital its first motor-driven ambulance.  He and his brother David presented the Central Display Greenhouse to the New York Botanical Gardens in 1919.

Following David Guggenheim's death in 1930 Murry became the head of Guggenheim Brothers.  He steadfastly went to his office at No. 120 Broadway every day until Friday, November 10, 1939 when, at the age of 81, he became ill.  He died five days later.

Guggenheim's estate was appraised at nearly $19 million and papers listed gifts from 1917 until his death at about $16 million.  His will bequeathed to Leonie the Fifth Avenue mansion, "his household and personal effects," property in Colorado, and "real property at 121 East Eighty-third Street."

The Guggenheim family continued to use the private garage for years.  Then, in 1965, the ground floor and "mezzanine" were converted to a photographic studio and the upper floors to a duplex apartment.  A subsequent renovation in 1996 turned the photography studio into medical offices.

Today the Woolworth carriage house is one of only a handful which survive on the former stable block.  Its stylish 1903 facade reminds the passerby of the elegant housing the horses of Manhattan's wealthiest citizens enjoyed in the early years of the last century.

photographs by the author

The Metropolitan Republican Club - 122 East 83rd St

The house at No. 122 East 83rd Street was considered on the "wrong side" of Park Avenue in the 1890s.   Built in 1859, the wooden dwelling now shared the block with the handsome private stables of Fifth Avenue millionaires.

At the time political clubs had gained importance throughout the city.  In 1902 the Republican Club of the 29th Assembly District opened at No. 627 Madison Avenue, at the corner of 59th Street.  Among its original members were the recently elected President Theodore Roosevelt and Mayor of New York Seth Low.  Member Charles Evan Hughes became Governor of New York in 1907 and was appointed United States Supreme Court Associate Justice by President William Taft in 1910.

In 1917 the club moved further uptown to No. 1041 Madison Avenue, between 79th and 80th Streets; prompting a name change to the 15th Assembly District Republican Club.  Its roster continued to impress with members Samuel H. Hofstadter being elected to State Senate and Ruth Baker Pratt elected to Congress in 1928--the first woman from New York so elected.

The following year, in reporting on the club's purchase of "the old frame house" at No. 122 East 83rd Street, The New York Times made reference to the club's wealthy constituents.  On May 29 it wrote that "The Fifteenth Assembly District Republican Club, the 'Silk Stocking District' organization'" had bought the house "where it plans to erect a new building...The house was sold by Judge William F. Moore, in whose family it had been held for seventy years."


The club commissioned architect Eugene J. Lang to design its new clubhouse.  Lang, who began his independent practice in 1908, had by now earned a reputation for producing grand residences in historic styles.  Among them were the neo-Tudor mansion of B. F. Hermann in Tarrytown, New York, built in 1919; and the sprawling Italian villa of Paolino Gerli in Bronxville, New York, completed a year earlier.

Despite the disastrous stock market crash on October 29 that year the project forged ahead.  Lang filed plans in December 1929, estimating the cost at $126,000 (in the neighborhood of $1.75 million today).  Only two months later the cost had risen to $130,000.

The club's annual ball was held at the Commodore Hotel on February 3, 1930; and this year The Times reported that the "proceeds form the ball will be used for the furnishing and decorating" of the clubhouse under construction.  The article noted "As has been the custom for several years, an all-star vaudeville entertainment will precede the dancing."

On May 26, 1930 Ruth Baker Pratt, "holding a brick in one hand and a trowel in the other," laid the cornerstone of the new clubhouse.  The steel box she sealed within the cornerstone contained copies of New York newspapers, a roster of the members, several coins dated 1930, and a program from the February ball.

The clubhouse formally opened on October 6, 1930.  Lang had produced a pristine neo-Georgian structure faced in red Flemish bond brick and trimmed in white marble.  An especially high stone water table rose half the height of the elegant arched entrance.  The paneled double doors sat below an elegant leaded fan light.  Paneled lintels, chunky slate shingles on the mansard and pedimented dormers lent to the 18th century motif.

Two shallow marble steps lead to the double doors, beneath a delicate leaded fanlight.

The interiors were designed by Pauline Sabin.  Born into privilege, the daughter of Paul Morton and Charlotte Goodridge, she owned an interior decorating firm.  But she was best known for her political work.  A year earlier she had resigned from the Republican National Committee to form the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform.

Still called the Fifteenth Assembly District Republican Club when the new building opened, it was unusually accepting of both sexes (possibly through some influence of Ruth Baker Pratt).  The New York Times mentioned the clubhouse "contains a large auditorium, a lounge room for women, a grill room and kitchen."

Political prose at the time was no less acerbic than today.  When Edward C. Carington ran for Borough President in 1931, he compared his Tammany opponent  to a gangster during a reception in the clubhouse on September 27.

"Tammany Hall is New York's Public Enemy No. 1," he said.  "In Chicago that distinction was passed on to Al Capone.  There is no difference between Tammany and Public Enemy No. 1 in that great metropolis in the West."

Less controversial were the several annual events the club sponsored for district children.  On December 28 that year The New York Times reported on the Christmas party for 400 children held the day before.  Alderman Joseph Clark Baldwin dressed as Santa Claus.

"Bewhiskered, and attired in the conventional red suit, Alderman Baldwin stood beside a huge, brilliantly lighted Christmas tree and distributed gifts to every child."  The presents were considered gender-appropriate in 1931.  "Dolls and sets of dishes were given to the girls, while the boys received toy musical instruments, games, footballs, baseballs and basketballs."

Ruth Baker Pratt, as always, was present, as was Assembly man Abbott Low Moffat.  "Preceding the distribution of gifts, a two-hour entertainment was held, consisting of group singing, games, a Punch and Judy show, and performances by an accordion player, a clown and Sooky San, child dancer."

Even more impressive was the annual June outing in Central Park.  More than 5,000 youngsters were treated to an "athletic carnival" in 1932.  Traffic on the Upper East Side was temporarily disrupted as the thousands of children received their name tags at the clubhouse, then marched to the Park; many of them dressed "in the costumes of characters from Alice in Wonderland, in Colonial uniforms and in Indian garb."

The games were made even more special by treats rarely gotten in the Depression years. "Perhaps in view of the heat and the participation of the boys and girls in the roof races provided in the program, about 10,000 bricks of ice cream were eaten...Large quantities of milk, lemonade and cakes also were provided during the day," wrote The Times.

A month later the club members addressed a far more serious issue--Prohibition.  No doubt much to the satisfaction of Pauline Sabin, on July 14, 1932 the club unanimously adopted a resolution in favor of "immediate repeal" of the 18th Amendment.

On August 23, 1968 the club changed its name to the Metropolitan Republican Club.  It was here, on November 29, 1971 that Senator Jacob K. Javits warned his party against Conservatives who, he said, were "pursuing a divide-and-conquer strategy in an effort to take over the Republican party."

Ironically, when the very conservative former U. S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani announced his candidacy for Mayor in 1989, he did so from the same podium used by Javits.

The Metropolitan Republican Club continued its tradition of attending to the needs of youth when, in 1981, it initiated its After-School Workshop.  About 30 children aged 5 through 12 engaged in activities ranging from crafts, carpentry, cooking, computer lessons, to games like roller disco and dodge ball, as well as tutoring in math or reading.

The picturesque neo-Georgian clubhouse continues to be a vibrant force in New York City Republican politics.  When member Michael R. Bloomberg ran for Mayor in 2005, he made the ballroom his campaign headquarters.  Looking rather like a transplant from Philadelphia's Society Hill, Eugene J. Lang's Metropolitan Republican Club sits serenely amid an architectural hodgepodge on its East 83rd Street block.

photographs by the author

The Duford Garage -- 127-129 East 83rd Street

Things were changing in the first decade of the 20th century.  New Yorkers were seeing gas lighting slowly being replaced by electricity, the use of telephones in offices and even in apartment buildings, and the gradual edging out of horse-drawn vehicles by automobiles and trucks.

The block of East 83rd Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues, was a mish-mash of private carriage houses, old three-story houses, and tenements.  At No. 127 East 83rd Street a narrow tenement building stood next to a vacant lot.  John Henry Yockel recognized a need and purchased the two properties from Charles Gulden and Andrew Smith in May 1908.  The New-York Tribune noted "the buyer will improve with a five story fireproof garage."

There were between 200,000 and 400,000 motor vehicles in America that year; and another development was in the works.  Only the wealthy had been able to afford an automobile--the average car costing about $2,500 or around $66,400 today.  But in 1908, the same year Yockel laid plans for his garage, Henry Ford introduced the Model T, priced for the masses at $825.  The age of the car garage was dawning.

Architect John Hauser completed plans for the "four-story brick and stone garage" in July.  The Engineering Record noted construction costs would run $50,000, in the neighborhood of $1.3 million today.  What might have been a surprising figure, considering the utilitarian nature of the structure, was partly due to the engineering necessary for a building holding the weight of 100 automobiles.   And it also had to do with Hauser's lavish design of the facade.

The exuberant Beaux Arts building sat on a stone base with four wide elliptically arched bays, each with a hefty scrolled keystone.  Above, two three-story arches dominated the red brick facade, the spandrel panels of which overflowed with rich terra cotta cornucopia, ribbons and cartouches.  Below the crenelated parapet was a frieze of terra cotta arches, each containing a shell in deep relief.  The machinery for the elevator and other functions were housed in a rooftop tower.  The New York Times mentioned one engineering feat inside, saying "The ground floor forms a large open floor space without any pillar obstructions."

It appears that John H. Yockel overextended himself in the ambitious project.   Foreclosure action began in 1909, and when the property was scheduled to be auctioned on February 24, 1910, Yockel owed more than $86,000 in two mortgages, plus taxes and other costs at more than $4,400.

John H. D. Meyer paid $89.425 for the garage, a significant $2.3 million in 2016 dollars.  He quickly transferred title to the Duford Garage Company, which not only stored its clients vehicles, but serviced them.

In November 1910 Engineering Review noted that the Duford Garage had installed a "very successful appliance, consisting of a combination oil separator and sewage ejector."  The article explained in length the environmentally-friendly system which handled petroleum waste products while ensuring they did not make their way into the sewers.

Engineering Review was impressed with Duford's innovative waste system.  November 1910 (copyright expired)

"The Duford is one of the most up-to-date garages in the city, accommodating about 100 cars, and is provided with a waste stand on each floor connected to a 4-inch main waste line, which connects with the separator."  The complicated system was designed "to avoid any possibility of the oils passing through the discharge lines to the sewer."


The new owners continued to make improvements, and in April 1911 commissioned architect William M. Farrar to "alter toilets" and make other interior adjustments.  The renovations to the still-new structure cost $4,000.

Millionaire George Gould housed his vehicles in the Duford Garage, although his mansion was relatively far away at No. 857 Fifth Avenue at 67th Street.  Following his daughter Marjorie's marriage to Anthony Drexel, Jr. in April 1910, he shipped a touring car to Europe with them so they could motor from country to country at ease.  British chauffeur Beresford Watson was hired to drive the newlyweds on their honeymoon.  When the Drexels returned home, their driver and "the machine" came along.  The Sun noted that Watson "came to this country and obtained employment with Mr. Gould."

In addition to being a capable driver, George Gould's new chauffeur was apparently resourceful.  In January 1911 the metal license plate on the same car that Watson had driven in Europe fell off.  Gould wrote to the Secretary of State for a replacement.  In the meantime, Watson knew he could not drive a plateless car, "so the chauffeur made a leather one of the required size and painted the proper number on it," according to The Sun.

On  February 7 Beresford Watson retrieved the touring car from the Duford Garage.  He soon discovered that not everyone appreciated his inventiveness.  "He was running through Central Park on Tuesday, when Policeman McGuire served him with a summons," reported The Sun.

Watson explained to the judge, "We have done all we can do to comply with the law."  Magistrate O'Connor agreed, saying "There is no evidence here that this man intended to break the motor vehicle law and I discharge him."

An advertisement listed the many services available.  The Tammany Times, February 24, 1912 (copyright expired)

The Duford Garage assisted its clients in selling their vehicles, as well.  On November 3, 1912 an advertisement appeared in the New-York Tribune, offering the "Latest model six-cylinder Fiat touring" car.  The vehicle, which had cost its owner $5,000, was selling for a bargain $3,000.  A few years later, in 1920, David Helier offered his Alco five-passenger touring car, in "good condition" at a "very reasonable price."  Helier suggested that a new owner might convert the chassis "into Truck or Working Car."

A wonderful detail is seen in the two large leaves which spill from below the carved shells onto the scrolled keystones of the upper arches.

The expensive automobiles housed in the Duford Garage were threatened in April 16, 1914 when a massive explosion occurred just outside its doors.  The New-York Tribune reported "A gas pocket, which had formed in the sewer under East 83d st., exploded last evening with a force which blew every manhole cover between Lexington and Park aves. forty feet into the air...Windows all along the block were shattered, and sheets of flame shot into the air."

A policeman named Kupec was blown into the street and badly bruised.  The concussion threw a plumber, Joseph Bernard, who was working in the basement of No. 131 East 83rd Street, against a boiler, badly burning him.  "He may lose his sight," noted the newspaper.

In the meantime, employees at the Duford Garage scrambled.  A massive gasoline tank was located directly under the 83rd Street sidewalk.  Should it explode, the results would be disastrous.

The Tribune said garage men "stood guard with pails of sand while the gasolene was pumped from a tank underneath the sidewalk to one in the rear of the garage."  The threat was made more obvious when it was realized that the gas pipe line supplying the tank "was warped and broken."

John Stafford, treasurer and director of the Duford Garage, was 42 years old when the nation entered World War I.  Despite his age, he volunteered for service in the Army and on October 29, 1918 was made a Second Lieutenant with the Motor Transport Corps.

Stafford ran the Duford Garage until 1931 when he retired at the age of 55 "to enjoy the leisure that he had always promised himself," according to The New York Times.  He and his wife, Grace, lived in a "large semi-colonial structure" in Flushing, Queens, and he now spent his time working on the lawns and flower beds.  In May 1932 he started the project of painting the trim on his large brick home.

He had been painting a kitchen window on May 31, standing on a wooden box.  When he quit for the day, he left the crate there.  The seemingly innocuous move proved fatal.  As the Staffords were sleeping, a burglar made use of the box to cut a hole in the window screen and enter the house.

Around 3:45 in the morning, Grace woke and noticed Joseph was not in his bed.  "A moment later, she was terrified by a flash of light and a pistol shot coming from the darkness of the guest bedroom across the hallway," as reported by The Times.  Stafford had surprised the burglar, who rushed past Grace in the dark hallway.

"Mrs. Stafford ran into the bedroom, switched on the light and saw her husband's body lying on the floor.  He had been shot in the head at close range."  Just one year after selling the Duford Garage to enjoy his retirement, John Stafford was dead.

The garage played a part in a murder investigation in 1995.  A female jogger was murdered in Central Park in September and investigators scrambled for clues.  A suspect had been spotted on Fifth Avenue and investigators told reporters he "might still be found with the help of the witness, tentatively identified as John T. Steuerer, 50," who had initially given police his report; but had been lost.

On September 23 The New York Times reported "On Thursday, [Police Commissioner William J.] Bratton made a public plea to the witness, who was driving a 1992 gray Nissan with a personalized license plate that began with the word SOBER, to come forward and repeat his story."

Within hours an anonymous tip came in, saying the car was at the 83rd Street garage.  Steuerer was found (his license plate was SOBER82) with the help of garage attendant Robert Lawson.  He had been unaware that the police were looking for him.  Later Assistant Chief John J. Hill said he had been "very, very helpful."

The operation here continues its venerable tradition by calling itself the Duford Studios (sounding a bit more residential than the garage it is).  And other than a coat of paint on the ground floor stonework and a joining of the two western-most bays; little has changed to John Hauser's ebullient 1909 structure where the limousines of millionaires and the Toyotas of the not-so-rich have come and gone for more than a century.

photographs by the author