The 1926 John Muir - 27 West 86th Street

 

image via landmarkwest.org

Developer and builder John Muir assembled a syndicate, The 31 West 86th Street Corporation, in 1925 to replace five handsome rowhouses at 27 through 35 West 86th Street, just west of Central Park, with an apartment building.  The group hired the architectural firm of Sugarman & Berger to design the the 15-story structure.  Completed in 1926, it was faced in variegated brick above a stone base.  Designed in the neo-Renaissance style, Sugarman & Berger peppered the facade with romantic terra cotta and cast stone details. 

The double-height frames around the grouped openings of the second and third floors included engaged terra cotta columns and spandrel panels with rondels containing bas relief busts or shields.  Shells and pinnacles capped each grouping.  The motif was copied at the sixth and thirteenth floors, where they were fronted with stone balconies.  An elaborately decorated cast stone parapet crowned the design.

John Muir christened the building after himself: The John Muir.  Although he had no connection with the naturalist and explorer of the same name (and who had died 14 years earlier), Sugarman & Berger might have given a nod to the much more famous John Muir by adding a very subtle, very non-Italian Renaissance detail--a Western cow's skull on either side of the entrance.

Above the ornate neo-Renaissance details of the entrance pilasters, is a surprising Western skull.  image via landmarkwest.org

An advertisement in The New York Times in November 1926 offered apartments of five through seven rooms, with two or three baths.  It boasted high ceilings and large rooms.  Although the ad described The John Muir as a "housekeeping apartment building," meaning the apartments had kitchens (including "electrical refrigerators" and "kitchen cabinets"), it noted, "Restaurant service available."  It was a vestige of residential hotels, in which tenants ate in restaurant-like dining rooms.

In September 1926, while construction was nearing completion, Dr. Leon L. Feldberg leased an apartment.  He was, perhaps, the first of an inordinate number of doctors and dentists in the building. 

Margaret (known as Rita) Hoff and Henry McAleenan were married in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Broadway and 71st Street on January 12, 1927.  The New York Times noted that following their "wedding trip in Europe," they would live at 27 West 86th Street.  The following year, on May 1, 1928, The New York Sun reported that the couple had welcomed a son.

Attorney Charles Culp Burlingham and his wife, the former Mary Farrell, were original residents.  Their country home was in Blackpoint, Connecticut.  Born in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1858, Burlingham was admitted to the bar in 1881 and became a partner in Burlingham, Veeder, Masten & Feary.  An expert in admiralty law, among his prominent clients were the White Star Line, the Holland America Line and Nippon Yusen.

Fourteen years before moving into The John Muir, Burlingham represented the White Star Line before the United States Supreme Court following the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.  He was, perhaps, better known as a civic and legal reformer.  (In 1953, the New York City Bar Association deemed him the "first citizen of New York.")  A close adviser to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Burlingham become president of the New York City Bar Association in 1929.

Charles Culp Burlingham in 1932.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Mary Farrell Burlingham died on May 20, 1928.  It is unclear when Charles moved to 860 Park Avenue, but he would survive Mary by decades.  On August 30, 1956, The New York Times said that at the age of 98, he was "one of the country's oldest practicing lawyers."  Asked how others could live to be 98, Burlingham replied, "Just never stop breathing."  Charles Culp Burlingham died at the age of 100 on June 7, 1959.

Among the several physicians in the building in the 1920s and early 1930s were Dr. Rubin L. Kahn; Herbert L. Celler, former president of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Alumni Association; Damas B. Becker and his wife, the former Beulah Mosher; Dr. John J. White; and dentists Ethel R. Meyerson and Henry G. Rieger.

When The John Muir opened, Dr. John J. White was involved in a lawsuit.  On March 15, 1926, he was riding in a Pennsylvania Railroad dining car and ordered the boneless chicken pie.  The pie turned out to be anything but boneless and when White bit into a bone, he lost a front tooth.  The New York Times reported that the cook insisted he could not understand "how come a bone should be in the pie."  Dr. White's long-lasting suit was finally settled on April 27, 1929.  The Weekly Underwriter and Insurance Press reported that he was awarded $650 (just under $12,000 in 2026).

image via landmarkwest.org

Elizabeth Russell, who was 20 years old and an artist's model, moved into The John Muir following her divorce from Richard C. Lyman in December 1926.  She took back her maiden name, but would not have it for long.  Elizabeth attended a New Year's Day party on January 1, 1928.  There she met 34-year-old playwright Patrick Kearney, who had recently adapted Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy for the stage.  He, too, was recently divorced.  He divorced his first wife in 1924 and his second in 1926.  Just over two weeks after they met, on January 17, The New York Times reported that the pair were married that afternoon.

(Patrick and Elizabeth would have two daughters together.  Their marriage would end tragically, however, on March 28, 1933 when the 39-year-old playwright committed suicide.)

Along with Charles Burlingham, at least two other attorneys, David M. Fink of Fink & Frank, and Louis L. Kahn of Wilberg, Norman & Kahn, were early residents.  Kahn and his wife had one daughter.  Born in Hungary in 1880, he graduated from the New York University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1903.

In August 1930, Kahn was named by the Tammany executive committee as the "Democratic candidate for the vacancy on the City Court bench," as reported by The New York Times.   Three months later, on November 14, the newspaper announced that Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed him as a judge of the City Court of New York.

The names of residents of The John Muir routinely appeared in the society columns.  On May 26, 1933, for instance, The New York Evening Post reported, "Dr. Eugene A. Dupin of 27 West Eighty-eighth Street, will give a dinner party at the Park Lane tonight for about fifty guests."

At least one resident at the time, however, appeared in newsprint for less favorable reasons.  Physiotherapist Albert C. Thierer occupied his apartment alone after his wife, Lee, left him.  In July 1932, he was ordered to pay her $12 per week to support her and their child.  According to Thierer, his Depression era patients were "lagging" in their payments and his finances were stretched.  On February 1, 1933, he faced his wife and a judge regarding the $125 he owed her.

When Magistrate Anthony Hockstra demanded that he immediately pay the amount in full, a frustrated Thierer exploded.  He told the magistrate, "I'll have to get a pistol permit from you and go out and steal!"  The Daily Star said the outburst "startled" the courtroom.  Hockstra adjourned the case for a week, saying that if Thierer did not come up with the $125, he would "go to jail for six months."

Perhaps because of his financial problems, Thierer branched out from physiotherapy to plastic surgery.  And it appeared to be working.  A year later, The New York Times reported that he "numbered many prominent actresses among his patients."  Unfortunately, Thierer had skipped an important step in opening his practice.

He was arrested on October 8, 1934 for "practicing medicine without a license."  The 42-year-old pleaded not guilty in court on December 20.  Apparently Thierer weathered the storm and on October 21, 1936, the "Shopping With Susan" column of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on "beauty authority" Grace Donohue's skin rejuvenation therapy.  The article said, "Grace Donohue offers a free analysis of your skin by Albert C. Thierer, B.S."

Among the residents in the second half of the century were attorney David Vorhaus and his wife, Dr. Pauline G. Vorhaus.  A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, David was in charge of gasoline rationing in the New York City area during World War II.  Pauline was a psychologist and author.  Their two children took similar professional paths.  Dr. Louis J. Vorhaus was a physician, and Dr. Jane M. Vorhaus Gang was a psychiatrist.

A fascinating resident was Moe Gale, who lived here with his wife, the former Gertrude Arnstein.  Born on the Lower East Side to a luggage salesman, in 1926 Moe partnered with Jay Faggen to open the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.  The New York Times would say that he "advanced the musical careers of such personalities as Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the bands of Erskine Hawkins, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Tiny Bradshaw and Lucky Millinder."  It was Moe Gale who discovered the Four Ink Spots.

The Savoy Ballroom was famous nationwide.  The Times recalled, "Nearly every name band in the late nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties played there, including those of Rudy Vallee, Isham Jones, Duke Ellington, Chick Webb, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller."  The Savoy Ballroom closed in 1958.  Six years later, on September 2, 1964, Moe Gale died while living here.

Among the Gales' neighbors in the building were Dr. Ludwig V. Chiavacci and his wife, Dr. Sidonia T. Furst-Chiavacci.  The two most likely met at the University of Vienna.  Ludwig received his medical degree there in 1925 and Sidonia the following year.

A research expert on multiple sclerosis, Ludwig was on the research staffs of the neurological Institute in Manhattan and the New Jersey Diagnostic Center in Metuchen.  A dermatologist, Sidonia Furst-Chiavacci was on the staffs of the University and Montefiore Hospitals.  She also served as a physician and dermatologist to the Austrian Consulate.  Ludwig V. Chiavacci died in August 1970 and Sidonia in September 1973.

image via landmarkwest.org

Externally, there are almost no changes to Sugarman & Berger's dignified, 1926 facade.

many thanks to reader (and former resident) Robyn Roth-Moise for suggesting this post

The 1893 American Female Guardian Society Industrial School 7 - 225 E 80th

By the last decade of the 19th century, the concept of industrial schools--in which underprivileged youths were trained in manual skills for boys and domestic skills for girls--was well established.  In March 1892, architects Fowler & Hough filed plans for a three-story "brick and stone building" to replace the two houses at 225 and 227 East 80th Street.  The cost was projected at $20,000 (or about $711,000 in 2025 terms).

Fowler & Hough was tasked with designing a multi-functional structure.  It would be shared by the Phillips Chapel of the Phillips Presbyterian Church and the American Female Guardian Society.  The society would operate its Industrial School 7 in the lower portion, training children as young as kindergarten age; and its Home for the Friendless in the upper section.  

Completed in 1893, the Romanesque Revival-style structure was faced in beige brick.  Striation of the first floor was created by bands of salmon colored brick that matched the pinkish terra cotta frames of the windows and the striking hood over the double-doored entrance.  Sitting upon sturdy brackets, the inside of the hood was decorated with deep coffers.  They were echoed in the deep frames of the windows on this level.

The second floor was sandwiched between terra cotta bands.  A single arched window sat above the entrance, and paired openings appeared over the first floor windows.  These were separated by fluted, terra cotta Corinthian columns and capped by denticulated eyebrows with stylized palmettes.  A bracketed cornice capped the understated third floor.

The children who were housed by the American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless were often desperate.  On July 2, 1895, for instance, The Evening Post reported on the arraignment of Herman Reich, "the man accused of murdering the woman he lived with."  The article said Riech's "little six-year-old daughter, now without natural protection," was "committed to the care of the American Female Guardian Society" by the magistrate.

The entrance hood is a masterful example of terra cotta work.

Among the financial supporters of the society was Helen Miller Gould, daughter of multimillionaire Jay Gould.  On May 4, 1895, in celebration of the marriage of her sister, Anna, Helen funded parties in several of the society's locations (there were twelve by the turn of the century).  The following day, The New York Times reported, "Children of the Home Industrial School, No. 7, at 225 East Eightieth Street, about 350 in number, enjoyed a beautiful dinner at noon yesterday, through the bounty of Miss Gould."

In reporting on the kindergarten graduation of Industrial School 7 on June 29, 1900, the New-York Tribune called the facility "almost the 'banner' school of the series of twelve, and the exercises showed a remarkable brightness on the part of the pupils."  The five-year-old graduates "showed good training, even if some of the youthful elocutionists did forget a line or two."  In March and April that year, lectures for women were presented: "Care and Repair of Clothing," and "Food and Cooking for Health and Economy."  The mission also conducted a Girls' Club.

By now, the Phillips Mission was called the East 80th St. Mission, a branch of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.  In addition to children, it offered courses for mothers.  In 1903 it conducted "The Mother as Housekeeper," "The Mother as Trained Nurse," and "Common Diseases and How to Avoid them."

On February 6, 1918, The Sun reported that the American Female Guardian Society and House for the Friendless had sold the property to the New York City Baptist Mission Society.  The article explained the group "will use it for a church and other settlement work for the Hungarian Baptist congregation."

The Regional Conference of Baptist Ministers was held here in September 1919.  Among the issues the clergymen debated was the proposal of a strike.  The Rev. George Chalmers Richmond was markedly opposed to the notion.  He told his colleagues, according to the New-York Tribune on September 23, "A strike of clergymen would be 'all tomfoolery.'"  The article said, "He suggested a minimum salary of $1,500 for unmarried clergymen and a minimum of $2,500, with quarters, for married pastors."  (His proposed salary for married ministers would translate to $45,300 today.)

In 1920, the Rev. Dr. Nickolas Dulitz, pastor of the Hungarian Baptist Church, initiated a "servant girl club" where female domestics could "spend their leisure hours," as reported by The New York Times on March 22.  The Hungarian Girls' Club, which was on the third floor, was "equipped by women in Baptist churches of the city."  Dulitz told the newspaper, "he thought this was a well-directed step toward solving the servant problem."  By 1926, the Hungarian Girls' Club had morphed into the First Hungarian Baptist Church Home for Hungarian Working Girls, where domestics and shop girls could live inexpensively.

Hungary was experiencing political and military upheaval in 1920.  A counterrevolution, sometimes called the "white terror," led to imprisonment, executions--as many as 5,000-- and torture of Jews, leftist intellectuals, socialists and communists.  On May 2, The New York Times reported, "The American Red Cross is co-operating with the American Relief Committee for Hungarian Sufferers in the shipment of clothing to Budapest."  The article mentioned, "If a donor cannot supply a whole case of gifts, he should send his contributions to the Rev. Michael Dudley of the Hungarian Baptist Church, 225 East Eightieth Street."

In many ways, the services offered by the Hungarian Baptist Church echoed those of the American Female Guardian Society.  The 1922 Directory of Social Agencies said it, "Conducts preaching services, a sewing school, clubs and classes for boys and girls, women's meetings.  English classes and a Home for Hungarian working girls."

In response to the strife in their homeland, the church hosted Hungary Night on February 27, 1922.  The Baptist reported, 

To the scores of Baptists who assembled in the church, there was given for the first time a vivid and definite picture of Hungary, the land of the Magyars; the land of a troubled history that had striven so long for freedom; the land of women whose clever fingers know their way through intricate mazes of fine needlework; the land of art and music; and the land today of struggle and hunger and sorrow.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

In 1928, John Chaky was hired as the building's janitor and his wife, Rose, as housekeeper.  Rose oversaw the maintenance of the Home for Hungarian Working Girls.  According to Elizabeth Matuskovits, the wife of pastor Rev. Joseph Matuskovits, "Mrs. Chaky took care of and cleaned 18 rooms daily in our girls' home."  The couple and their three children lived in the building.

On February 18, 1932, Rose Chaky underwent what The New York Times described as "a serious operation" at Lenox Hill Hospital.  Two days later, she plunged from window of her 11th floor room of the hospital, dying instantly.

In March 1957, title to the 80th Street property was transferred from the New York Baptist City Society to the Hungarian Baptist Church.  In 1969, it shared its meeting hall with the recently founded India Christian Assembly.  The group would remain about two years.

The Hungarian Baptist Church still occupies the building after more than a century.  Its arresting Romanesque architecture is a captivating presence on the block.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

The Jacob Herrlich & Sons Building - 332 East 86th Street

photo by Ted Leather

Early in 1885, developer Gotthold Haug completed construction of three "four-story stone front flats," as described by the Real Estate Record & Guide, at 332 through 336 East 86th Street.   Their openings sat within pronounced architrave neo-Grec-style frames and bracketed cornices with paneled friezes crowned their facades.

On November 15, 1898, Jacob and Christine Ruth Herrlich purchased 332 East 86th Street for $16,150 (about $630,000 in 2025 terms).  The following month, on December 31, The New York Times reported that Herrlich had contracted architect Charles Stegmayer to make renovations.  

The alterations converted the ground floor to a commercial space.  It was originally home to the Yorkville Court (or headquarters) of the I.O.F. (the Independent Order of Foresters).  But by 1905, the Jacob Herrlich & Bros'. Funeral Parlors occupied the space.

Jacob Herrlich had opened his funeral operation in 1875.  Living above the funeral home with Jacob and Christina were sons August Jacob and Philip C.  August was made a commissioner of deeds in 1906, a civil service position similar to a notary public.

Other tenants in the building at the time were William Wheeler, a tile-layer, and his mother; and Caroline A. Wieler who, like August Jacob Herrlich, applied for a civil service job in 1909.  But her application for Typewriter Accountant was denied.  The minutes of the Municipal Civil Service Commission of July 14, 1909, said, "It appeared that the candidate had been disqualified for placing the examination number on her papers."  Caroline appealed, submitting a statement that "the error was unintentional and made with no thought of revealing her identity."  Upon consideration, the commission granted her papers for examination.

Jacob Herrlich died in 1907 and by 1910, the business was renamed Jacob Herrlich's Sons.  Philip and August Herrlich made renovations to the building in 1923, resulting in the funeral parlor on the ground and second floors, and one apartment each on the third and fourth.  The Herrlich brothers and their families were now the only occupants of the building.

Jacob Herrlich & Sons was the scene of notable funerals over the decades.  Annie White Strathern's funeral was held here in October 1920.  Never married, she devoted her life to social work and was a teacher and social worker for 55 years, 43 of those working with the Children's Aid Society.  She spent every summer vacation at the fresh air branches of that society.  In 1908 she organized the Mothers' Helpers' Association, which trained young girls in domestic science.

Another notable funeral was that of Police Sergeant Herman R. Blohm, held here on August 23, 1922.  Blohm had taken his family on vacation to Highland Lake.  The previous summer his family "were annoyed by rattlesnakes," according to The Evening World, so this year Blohm left his service pistol home "and bought a vest pocket automatic," to deal with the reptiles.

On August 20, Blohm and his wife headed to the lake.  He saw and killed a rattle snake on the way.  Uncustomed to the new weapon, he forgot to adjust the safety catch.  The Evening World said, "The trigger caught on his trousers and the weapon was discharged."  His funeral here was crowded with police.

A Nazi parade marched past the Jacob Herrlich & Sons building on October 30, 1937.  A prominent blade sign identifies the funeral home.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Perhaps none of the funerals attracted more public attention than that of Krao Farini, known as the "bearded lady," the "missing link," and the "ape-woman" of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  

Born in Laos in 1876, Krao was afflicted with what today is known as hypertrichosis--an abnormal amount of hair growth.  She and her parents were captured by explorer Carl Bock during an expedition in 1881.  Bock put her on exhibition in 1882 as an example of the missing link between apes and humans.  By the 1920s, she lived in Brooklyn and when not on exhibition with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, she wore a heavy veil in public.

Krao Farini, cabinet card by Obermuller & Son, around 1890.

Krao died from influenza on April 16, 1926.  Her funeral was held here on April 18.  The New York Times reported on the service, spattering the article with callous descriptions of the mourners.  It described Carrie Holt as "the fat lady," and said Jim Tarver, the "Texas Giant" had "to bring his own chair."  The article said, "Victoria Anderson, 'leopard girl' with the spotted hair and skin, cried a bit as she looked at Krao for the last time."  Krao Farini had requested that her body be cremated to preclude her corpse becoming a post-mortem freak attraction.

Philip C. Herrlich died in his apartment on April 8, 1926 at the age of 53.  In reporting his death, The Casket and Sunnyside called him "one of the most widely known members of the profession in Greater New York, and a power in the State and local associations."

A coat of white paint covered the brownstone in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

August Jacob Herrlich continued the family business.  At mid-century, the firm merged with Frank E. Campbell Funeral Church, and after occupying the space for half a century, left East 86th Street.  By 1954, it was home to the office of attorney Richard E. Bauman.

In the summer of 1968, the seafood restaurant Brigadoon opened here.  Food critic Craig Claiborne of The New York Times said on August 30, "As to the decor and table service, there isn't a lot to praise in this recently opened fish and seafood house."  He deemed the fish, however, "impressive."

The venture was short lived.  It was replaced by Alda's Ristorante in 1970.  The restaurant offered "heartwarming Italian cuisine," according to its advertisement in Gourmet magazine that year.  The end of Alda's Risatorante came 15 years later when the owners were caught selling heroin in addition to pasta.

The former funeral home space continued to see a turn-over of occupants.  Christine Polish Restaurant was here in 1987, replaced by Pasta Vicci in 1989, and the following year The Well Bred Pedigree, a pet shop, was here.  Most recently, a hair-removal clinic occupies the space.

At some point the white paint was carefully removed from the brownstone facade, returning the upper floors to its 1895 appearance.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.

Soon To Go - the 1886 York Hotel - 222-224 East 86th Street

photo by Beyond My Ken

By 1880 the Yorkville neighborhood was no longer a sleepy suburb.  Development following the Civil War was hastened by the opening of the Third Avenue elevated in 1878 and the Second Avenue line in 1879.  On June 15, 1882, Joseph Murray paid the extravagant sum of $10,000 for the 34-foot-wide, three-story wooden house at 222 East 86th Street (the price would translate to $307,000 in 2024).

Three years later, in March 1885, the Health Department approved the "plans for light and ventilation" for a new flat building at 222-224 East 86th Street.  Completed early in 1886, its Queen Anne design was rigidly balanced--a departure from the style's normally asymmetrical form.  Two storefronts flanked the residential entrance.  The upper section, faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, featured brawny arched windows at the second floor, and a pair of prominent copper gables that fronted a paneled parapet.

A center stair hall separated 222 and 224 and residents were listed at either address.  Described as a "first class, well kept apartment house," each of its apartments held four rooms.

Among the initial tenants of 224 East 86th Street were Byron W. Anderson and his wife Lucette.  Living with them was Lucette's widowed mother, Elizabeth Wall, who had a fascinating history.

Born Elizabeth Thompson in Freehold, New Jersey in 1798, her father, according to The New York Times, "was a German slaveholder."  The newspaper noted, "His house at Monmouth was Washington's headquarters when the famous battle was fought."  An "intellectual girl and of singular beauty," Elizabeth married Major William Wall.  When he died in 1856, he left Elizabeth with 10 children and "a handsome pension."

Fond of knitting, Elizabeth would often walk to Central Park and sit on a bench where she knitted socks that she would offer to policemen or laborers.  But it appears she also shows signs of what today we would recognize as early dementia.  Lucette wrote "Anderson, No. 224 East Eighty-sixth-street" on a slip of paper and tucked it into her mother's bag.  The New York Times explained she "feared that some day her mother would lose her way or be taken sick."

On September 20, 1886, The Boston Globe began an article saying, 

For many seasons the old lady with the knitting has been a familiar figure in Central Park.  All the policemen and laborers knew her by sight, but were ignorant of her name and residence...Selecting a shady bench in some retired nook the old lady took her knitting from the reticule and worked industriously until the afternoon was far spent. 

The day before the article, Charles McGlone, a park watchman, "saw a woman's body floating close to the western wall of the North basin."  He and an assistant removed the body.  The article said, "it was the 'old lady with the knitting.'"

The family had been searching for Elizabeth for hours and Byron W. Anderson identified his mother-in-law's body at the morgue.  While The Boston Globe attributed her death to "mental weakness, the result of advanced age," Anderson was not so sure.  He told a reporter from The New York Times, "to get to the reservoir basin she would have had to scale a fence which it was no easy task for an able-bodied man to get over."  The article said, "He scouted the idea of foul play."

Another early tenant was Mrs. Katherine Bassett, who taught German in Grammar School No. 37 on East 87th Street.  Katharine was most likely a widow, since, for the most part, only unmarried women taught in public schools.

Traveling salesman Oscar Hammerslough and his wife lived here by 1897.  The couple was married in 1893 and their domestic life was already troubled.  The New York Herald said on June 27, 1897, "Mrs. Hammerslough, who is twenty-seven years old and an attractive brunette, is said by her husband to have a passion for drink."

On the morning of June 22, Hammerslough gave his wife $20 for shopping before leaving on a sales trip.  When he returned home three days later, she was gone.  With two detectives, he found her in the home of Laura Johnson and Elisha Brewer, described by the New York Herald as "colored."  The article said Mrs. Hammerslough was intoxicated.

In court, Mrs. Hammerslough explained, according to the New York Herald, "that she had gone to a house to get some washing, and that she had been given something to drink by the colored man.  She denied that the man had assaulted her."  Laura Johnson testified that Mrs. Hammerslough came to her house at 11:00 that morning to get her laundry, that she asked to be allowed to sit down, "as she did not feel well," and that Laura had left her alone with Brewer.

Oscar Hammerslough told the judge he would apply for permission to have his wife committed to a private sanitarium.  She pleaded with him, "This will kill me.  Let me go, and I will go to my sister's."  The article said, "But her husband, who was standing close to her, turned his back and would not pay any attention to her.  He said afterward that he was going to apply for a divorce."

Interestingly, at the turn of the century the building was racially mixed.  Among the black tenants were the Robert W. Carter family.  Their movements were closely followed by the society columnists of The New York Age.  On September 28, 1905, for instance, it reported, "Mrs. R. W. Carter of 222 East 86th street, who has been seriously ill for four weeks, is able to be out again," and the following year, on October 25, the newspaper announced, "Mrs. Robert Brown of Manassas, Va., left for home last Saturday after paying a six weeks' visit to her daughter, Mrs. Robert Carter, of 222 East 86th street."

For some reason, Robert W. Carter lived apart from his family, only occasionally visiting.   On April 25, 1907, The New York Age reported, "after making a ten days' visit in different parts of Virginia, [he] spent the remainder of his vacation with his family.  He left for Boston on Sunday, April 21."  And on April 23, 1908, the newspaper reported, "Mr. R. W. Carter, of Brookline Mass., is spending two weeks in the city with Mrs. Carter and his daughter, Beatrice, at his house, 222 East 86th street."

No mention was made of the Carters' son, Myron L. Carter, in that article.  Eight months earlier, his name had appeared in newspapers for a a hideous crime.  On August 8, 1907, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "Myron L. Carter, a mulatto, 19 years old, of 222 East Eighty-sixth street" had been arrested for the murder of eight year old Katie Tretschler.  The article recounted that she "was found strangled and outraged [i.e., raped] in the cellar of 203 First avenue" on August 1.

By 1917, State Senator Robert Ferdinand Wagner and his wife, the former Margaret Marie McTague, lived at 224 East 86th Street.  Born in Prussia in 1877, Wagner was elected to the State Assembly in 1905 and to the State Senate in 1909.  He was Acting Lieutenant Governor of New York from October 17, 1913 to December 31, 1914.

Robert F. Wagner, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Wagner left the Senate in 1918 to serve as a justice of the New York Supreme Court.  He remained in the 86th Street apartment following Margaret's death in 1919.  Journalist Ada Patterson titled her article in the June 1921 issue of The New Success, "The Janitor's Son Who Became a Judge."  She began her article saying,

He lives in a comfortable home, with his ten-year-old son at 222 East Eighty-sixth Street, New York City.  His recreation is grand opera.  Once a week he goes to the Metropolitan Opera House, or he puts a Caruso or a Barrientos record on his victrola and the music is an aid to him as he reads or studies...Robert F. Wagner was a poor immigrant's son.  He arrived in this country when he was eight yeas of age--and he could not speak one word of English.  His father secured a job as janitor in an East Side apartment house.

Patterson attributed Wagner's success to hard work, determination, and academic excellence.  Six years after her article, he was elected to the United States Senate and would served until June 28, 1949, succeeded by John Foster Dulles.

A socially visible tenant was Mrs. Lucelle Shiloh.  On March 3, 1923, The New York Age reported on the "Martha Washington dinner dance" she hosted in her apartment "in honor of Mrs. M. Patillo Harper of New Rochelle" on February 22 (George Washington's birthday).  The article listed 17 guests, who must have experienced snug conditions in the four-room apartment.

On November 12, 1926, The New York Sun reported that the Joseph Murray estate had sold 222-224 East 86th Street.  The next year the second floor was converted to offices and the upper floors to "non-housekeeping" apartments, meaning they had no kitchens.  That year G. Lipksin & Son, violin dealers, moved its shop into the western store.  In reporting on the move on September 24, 1927, The Music Trade Review noted, "This firm is thirty-five years old and specializes in fine repairing."

John Szabo operated his travel agency from the other store in 1937.  He ran afoul of anti-Nazi groups in September that year when he displayed American flags along with posters advertising German Day.  He was summoned to appear in the Yorkville Court on September 13 to answer to charges by the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League and the German-American League for Culture of "misuse of the American flag."  

The cut-up apartments no longer housed well-to-do residents.  Among the tenants in the spring of 1940 was 28-year-old James Russell Osterman, an unemployed shoe salesman.  On March 9 that year, he applied for a job at the shoe store of William Shapiro at 1485 First Avenue.  When Shapiro turned him down, Osterman reacted violently, stabbing him fatally with a hunting knife.  Before Osterman could escape, according to The New York Times, Shapiro, "with his last strength, kicked out the plate glass window before he died."  It attracted a crowd of passersby, who trapped Osterman in the store.  Police found him "crouching in the rear of the store grasping a hunting knife," said the article.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By the third quarter of the 20th century, the building was known as the York Hotel, a squalid SRO.  The New York Times journalist Sarah Lyall called it "a single-room-occupancy hotel that was little more than a flophouse."  In 1992, the nonprofit group Postgraduate Center for Mental Health purchased the building with financial help from New York State.  The group announced plans to convert the building into a group home for 38 mentally ill people.  It's president, David Glazer, told Lyall, "it was small [and] so rundown that repairs could only be welcomed by the community."

There were only two tenants in the building when the Postgraduate Center purchased it.  One left after she was found an affordable new apartment and given $3,500 for expenses.  The other, Jerome Smith, refused to budge.  Smith, who owed nearly $40,000 in back rent since 1988, "has refused to leave even as his neighbors moved out, as the paint peeled away in strips, as the curtains turned from yellow to brown and the rats took over," Lyall reported on March 8, 1993.

Despite all incentives--including an apartment in the renovated building--Smith stayed on.  The city, concerned about tenants' rights, would not allow the Postgraduate Center to evict him, threatening to "deny the group permission to renovate the hotel" if they did.

Finally, after a 14-month standoff, Jerome Smith accepted a $10,000 payment for moving expenses and the forgiveness of the back rent.  On March 13, 1994, The New York Times reported, "After being blocked for a year and a half by a tenant who would not move out, work began last week on the decaying York Hotel at 222 East 86th Street."

The PCMH Residences provided apartments to mentally ill residents until 2022, when a demolition permit was issued for the building.  On January 3, 2023, Nick Garber, writing in Patch, opened an article saying, "A nearly 100-year-old [sic] Yorkville building, home since the 1990s to a mental health facility, will be demolished by its nonprofit owner."

photograph by the author

More than a year later, the striking Queen Anne style building survives, but its future is shaky at best.

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The 1882 John G. Wilson House - 6 Henderson Place

Approximately five miles north of the city, the Yorkville community was surrounded by sprawling, bucolic country estates of wealthy New Yorkers like John Jacob Astor and Archibald Gracie in the 18th century.  Following the end of the Civil War, the city expanded ever northward, eventually engulfing the once-rural town.

By 1880, John C. Henderson had established a significant fortune in his hat, fur, and "strawgoods" business.  He turned to real estate development and in 1881 acquired the blockfront along East End Avenue, wrapping the corners of East 86th and East 87th Streets.  Henderson commissioned the architectural firm of Lamb & Rich to design 32 brick-faced houses that would be marketed "for persons of moderate means."  The plans, filed in October 1881, placed the cost of each at $6,500, or about $192,000 in 2024.

Lamb & Rich turned to the fanciful Queen Anne style for the project.  The houses began with a charming mews called Henderson Place that opened onto East 86th Street, then continued around the block, ending with four homes on East 87th.  Completed in 1882, the individual designs of the group melded into a charming streetscape of arches, towers and gables.  

(Henderson was so pleased with the outcome that a year later he began construction of another Queen Anne group on Staten Island, also designed by Lamb & Rich and also intended for less affluent occupants.  The Record & Guide noted, "It will be a satisfaction to people in humble circumstances, therefore, who wish to make Staten Island their home, to know that Mr. Henderson contemplates the construction of other buildings that may be offered on very much easier terms.")

Sitting at the southeast corner of the mews and East 86th Street was 6 Henderson Place.  Its doorway sat atop a sideways stoop that matched the rough-cut granite basement level.  The 86th Street end was dominated by a two-story metal and wooden bay, its upper section slightly larger than the lower.  Molded brownstone bandcourses defined each floor, and diminutive square panes--a common feature of the Queen Anne style--embellished the windows.  The third floor took the form of a slate-shingled mansard with a pedimented dormer directly above the entrance and a picturesque tower on the corner that terminated in a cone-shaped roof.

The entrance opens onto the mews, known as Henderson Place.

No. 6 Henderson Place was first leased to the family of playwright John G. Wilson.  Soon after moving in, he collaborated with actor Frank Mayo on a stage version of Elisabeth Werner's 1877 novel Vinetta, called Nordeck.  The play opened at the Union Square Theatre on May 23, 1885 with Mayo playing the role of Waldemar.  The New York Dispatch said, "It has strength; its argument is straight-forward and possesses a meaning; it is bold in color, positive in intent, and it has a vigorous vitality."

Wilson's wife had an artistic bent, as well.  On June 7, 1885 the New York Dispatch reported, "The statuette of Mr. Frank Mayo, as Waldemar in 'Nordeck;' which may be seen in windows on Broadway, is the work of Mrs. John G. Wilson, wife of the author of 'Nordeck.'"  The critic was diplomatic in his description.  "Mrs. Wilson is not an art professional, the statuette being a labor of love; a tribute of esteem to the actor."

The Wilsons had two boys, Henry Mclandburg and Mclandburg, and a daughter Elaine, would soon follow.  (Mclandburg Wilson went on to become an aspiring poet.)  Having small children was possibly distracting to her artistic work.  Three months later, on September 22, 1885, an advertisement in the New York Herald read, "Wanted--Nurse girl for two children; bring references.  Apply at 6 Henderson place, corner East 86th st."  

Wilson's next play was also written with Mayo.  The Royal Divorce, completed in June 1886, introduced "Napoleon Bounaparte [sic] and the beautiful Josephine," according to the New York Dispatch.  Seemingly indefatigable, the pair completed The Royal Guard in 1887 with the role of D'Artagnan written for Mayo.

On September 20, 1890, the Buffalo Evening News reported, "John G. Wilson, the author of 'Nordeck,' 'The Royal Guard' and a dozen other successful dramas, has written a comic opera satirizing Wall street and American plutocracy.  The title of the piece is said to be 'Gay Gold.'"

The entire city prepared for the week-long "Columbian celebrations" beginning on October 8, 1892 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage to America.  They included three days of parades, banquets, speeches and other events.  Buildings throughout the city were "illuminated," or decorated with bunting and other festive adornments.  Mrs. Wilson joined the excitement.

In reporting on the decorations, on October 7 The Evening Post said:

Mrs. John G. Wilson has arranged a special original illumination of her residence at No. 6 Henderson Place, corner East Eighty-sixth Street, near East River Park, on the nights of October 10, 11, 12, 13.  A window will be devoted to the following subjects: Columbus, "Hope and courage rigged his spars," Land Ho! the New World; the Indians, Washington, Lincoln, Grant, War, Peace, Literature, Painting, Music, Invention, the Stage, the Press, etc.

The Wilsons remained at 6 Henderson Place until around 1903, when it became home to the Peter and Margaret Worth family.  Living with the elderly couple were their two adult sons, Harry P. and William.  (Harry occupied his spare time in breeding pedigree French bulldogs.)

Peter Worth died on February 5, 1908 at the age of 84.  His funeral was held in the house two days later.

After having leased the house for 27 years, on May 23, 1909 the New-York Tribune reported that the Henderson estate had sold 6 Henderson Place to the C. N. Sherman Investing Company.  The firm continued to lease the house to various white-collar tenants.

In 1910 Daniel Donegan lived here.  That year he was appointed a deputy New York tax commissioner for Manhattan within the Department of Taxes and Assessments.  

In 1912, John P. Morrisey, was here.  An assistant engineer with Pattison Brothers, he and his family would remain through 1915.  Another civil servant moved in followed the Morriseys.  Charles G. Glennen worked for the city in the Bureau of Highways.

The post-World War I years saw Dr. Henry Dawson Furniss and his wife, the former Ruth Kellogg Pine, living at 6 Henderson Place.  A gynecologist and 1899 graduate of the University of Virginia, his office was located at 54 East 62nd Street.  The couple maintained a summer home in Pelham, New York.

Born in Selma, Alabama in 1878, Furniss had practiced in New York City since 1903.  From 1917 to 1927 he was Professor of Gynecology at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School.  He and Ruth were married in 1912 and had five children, three of whom had survived infancy--Henry Dawson Jr., James Pine, and Warren Todd.  

Ruth Pine Furniss was an author and published several short stories and novels.  In 1937 her short story "Obsession" was adapted by poet Weldon Kees into a one-act play.  She was plagued with a mental affliction which, most likely, would be diagnosed as bipolar disorder today.  It resulted in Henry's sometimes committing her to institutions like the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center and the Central Islip Psychiatric Center for treatments.  

Her 1928 novel Gay, and her 1929 Snow: A Love Story addressed Ruth's struggles with mental illness and her various medical treatments.  Horrible to consider today, those treatments included shock-therapy, a topectomy, and finally a lobotomy, according to the Ruth Pine Furniss Papers in the collection of Yale University.

On January 25, 1942, Dr. Henry Dawson Furniss died of a heart attack in the Henderson Place house.  At the time, only Warren, who was a senior at Yale University, still lived with his parents.  Henry Jr. lived in Massachusetts and James was serving in the army.

Furniss's estate, appraised by the state at around $2.6 million in today's money, was settled the following year.  The Newburgh, New York Daily News reported, "The estate is left to the widow, Mrs. Ruth Pine Furness of 6 Henderson Place, New York.  She will receive the income for life, the principal then going to their three sons." 

Ruth turned her focus on the ongoing war, and became what would be known as a Gray Lady with the Red Cross.  The volunteers (so named because of their gray uniforms) worked mostly in hospitals, providing friendly, non-medical services to the ill or injured.  She died on December 15, 1957 in the Lynwood Nursing Home on West 102nd Street at the age of 64.

image via josephpelllombardi.com

At the time, Samuel Morse Lane and his family lived at 6 in Henderson Place.  An attorney, Lane was a partner in Casey, Lane & Mittendorf.  Pamela Lane made her debut into society in 1958.   The family remained at least into the early 1960s.

Relatively recently, the exterior of 6 Henderson Place was given a thoughtful restoration by the office of restoration architect Joseph Pell Lombardi.  Its prominent corner location makes it a charming and integral part of the picturesque enclave.

photographs by the author

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