The Lost Bowery Village M. E. Church - 24-28 E. 7th Street

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Founded in 1794, the name of the Two-Mile-Stone Methodist Episcopal Church was derived from the stone marker that told travelers that the nearby house in which the congregation worshipped was two miles north of Federal Hall.  A later pastor, Reverend F. Bottome, would recall the location in his 1864 Bowery Village M. E. Church: A Discourse, saying it "was a rugged belt of land, with here and there a garden and a solitary house to diversify the barrenness of the stunted pasture lots with their dilapidated fences."  

Its rural origins resulted in the makeup of the church's leadership to be slightly different from those in more populated areas.  Kyle B. Roberts writes in his Evangelical Gotham, that because it was located within a "plebeian belt" at the northern boundary of the city, "tradesmen, rather than merchants, served as trustees, class leaders and elders."

Despite its remoteness, the fledgling congregation grew and moved in 1810 from the house to a small building.  (At that time of the move, the name was changed to the Bowery Village Church.)  It moved again in 1818, into a wooden church structure.  Then, in 1835, it began construction of a brick and stone church on the south side of Seventh Street (later East 7th Street) between Second Avenue and the one-block-long Hall Place.  (Hall Place was renamed Taras Shevchenko Place in the late 20th century.)

Completed in 1836, the edifice was an early and striking example of the Greek Revival design.  Its entrance sat within a recessed portico above a broad flight of stairs.  Two monumental, fluted Doric columns flanked by Doric pilasters supported the entablature and Greek temple inspired triangular pediment.  

By then, the city had expanded northward and engulfed the neighborhood.  The New York Times would recall in 1885, "It was at this time one of the wealthiest and strongest churches of the city."  The changes to the formerly rural district were reflected in January 1851 when the city's Committee on Lamps and Gas approved the "placing of two Gas Lamps in front of the Bowery Village Methodist Church in Seventh-st."

The congregation was scandalized in the winter of 1870.  On Friday afternoon, January 7, its married pastor, Reverend Horace Cook, went to a local school and "made arrangements" for him to remove 16-year-old Mattie Johnson.  The cleric and the teen "eloped."

A week later, Mattie's father received an anonymous tip that she was in Philadelphia.  He and his son rushed there and "instituted a diligent search and succeeded in finding her at one of the leading uptown establishments," reported the New York Herald.  Mr. Johnson brought his "prodigal daughter" home.

The family attempted to repair Mattie's ravished reputation.  Rev. Cook, they told reporters, had not shared the room with the teen.  The New York Herald was convinced, writing...

there is not the slightest reason to suppose that Miss Johnson is not as chaste a young lady as when she left her parents' home last week; on the contrary it is asserted that she is in no wise harmed save in the matter of unenviable and unfortunate notoriety.

In the meantime, Reverend Cook's whereabouts was unknown until 10:00 on the night of January 12 when, "as the reporters of the World were closing up their reports, a violent kick was heard at the editorial room door," reported the newspaper.  It was Horace Cook, who slammed his fist on a desk and demanded: "I come here to get satisfaction for the slanderous article published in your paper this morning concerning me."

Rather than succeeding in getting a retraction from The New York World, the editor called for a policeman.  Reverend Cook was arrested.  The Johnson family did not press charges, maintaining that the trip to Philadelphia was innocent, and so Cook was later released.  The following Sunday, the church was jammed with members and outsiders.  They were disappointed to find that a substitute minister, Rev. Dr. Browning, would be giving the sermon.  The New York Daily Herald explained on January 17, "The Rev. Mr. Cook has gone to his family in Williamsburg."  The article said that he would soon return "so that before long the last sensation will have been buried and forgotten."

Four months later, nothing had changed.  A temporary pastor was appointed and on April 7, 1870, the New York Herald said, "Mr. Cook is now in the bosom of his family, over in Williamsburg, restored to the affections of his wife and extremely penitent for his past and wayward conduct."  The newspaper's earlier prediction that Cook would soon--or ever--return did not come to pass.

On October 21, 1872, the New York Herald reported that the church had reopened after "extensive repairs" had been made.  It was most likely at this time that a Georgian Revival style cupola, oddly crowned with onion domes, was installed.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Around 1880, the name of the congregation was changed to the Seventh-Street Methodist Episcopal Church.  The demographics of the neighborhood had also changed.  It was starkly evidenced in 1882 when the Manual of the Methodist Episcopal Church reported that the Chinese Sunday-School in New York City, established in 1879, had "lately been transferred to the Seventh-street Methodist Episcopal Church."  And the following year, on July 21, 1893, the New-York Tribune reported that Reverend J. V. Saunders, "has begun afternoon services at 4 o'clock in the German language."  The article noted, "The music is good, the seats are free."

By the turn of the century, the East Village district was one of tenement buildings and working class immigrants.  In 1905 the Little Missionary Day Nursery operated from the church, and as early as 1910, physical examinations of underprivileged children who hoped to be sent to the Fresh Air Fund's summer camp were held.  On June 28 that year, the New-York Tribune remarked, "The pitiful thing about these physical examinations is that so small a proportion of the applicants pass."  Most, said the article, suffered with "eye and throat afflictions" and were not "up to the standard of cleanliness."

The following year, the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church melded with the Hedding Methodist Episcopal Church.  The congregation moved into that group's structure on East 17th Street.  On March 26, 1911, The New York Times reported that the Seventh Street church building had been sold.  The buyer was the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for the parish of St. George Ukrainian Church.

In 1976 the congregation broke ground for a substantial new church building on the abutting corner property.  Designed by Apollinaire Osadca, it was completed in 1978.  

The old church was dwarfed by the new St. George Ukrainian Cathlic Church building.  photograph by Edmund Vincent Gillon from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

With the congregation now in its new home, it demolished the historic 1836 building, replacing it with a modern brick building.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

That was supplanted in 1992 with a 12-story apartment building.

image via cityrealty.com

Medicine, Socialists, and Theater - the Oft-Altered Merrill Williams House - 83 E. 4th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In the 1830s, a few developers lobbied the city to rename a block or two upon which they had erected high-end residences.  If they were successful, the blocks acquired a sense of exclusivity.  The 1836 Longworth's American Almanack explained, "Part of Fourth [Street], between the Bowery and Avenue 2d, has the soubriquet of Albion-place."

Among the homes along Albion Place was that of stockbroker John W. Stebbins and his family.  Their Federal-style house was faced in Flemish bond brick and sat above an English basement.  Originally two dormers pierced its peaked roof.  

Interestingly, the Stebbins family listed their address as 409 Fourth Street in 1836, rebuffing the Albion Place name.  And, equally interestingly, all of the subsequent occupants followed suit.  Visitors and mail carriers, nevertheless, would have other issues with which to contend in the upcoming years.  In 1850 the address was changed to 425 Fourth Street, and in 1864 to 83 East 4th Street.

Born in 1807, John W. Stebbins was a partner with his brother H. G. Stebbins in the brokerage firm Stebbins Brothers at 50 Wall Street.  Despite his young age, he was also the president of the Mercantile Library Association.  His residency here would be short-lived.  On June 4, 1837 he died at the age of 30 "after a protracted illness, according to The Evening Post.  His funeral was held on June 6 "from his late residence 409 Fourth st., Albion Place," said the newspaper.

When the property was scheduled to be sold at auction in February 1846, it was described as:

The elegant two story and modern attic brick house, No. 409 Fourth st, having basement and entire under cellars, tea room in rear, front and back stair ways, croton water in kitchen and second floor in closets.  It is altogether a first class modern house.

The mention of Croton water was significant.  Indoor plumbing, made possible by the Croton Reservoir, was not available before 1842.  So this house was among the very first to have the luxury--not to mention the "closets" on the second floor.  Water closets, or toilets, were an expensive indulgence.

The house was purchased by Henry A. and Rosalie Heiser.  At the time, Henry ran a dry goods business on Pearl Street.  He changed course in 1851, turning to shipping.

That year was one of joy and tragedy for the Heisers.  A baby boy, Russell, was born in May 1851 and he died just before turning four months on September 8th.  His funeral was held in the parlor the following afternoon.

The widowed Dr. Merrill Whitney Williams purchased the property in 1855.  Born in 1801, he married Eliza B. Duyrea in June 1826 and began his practice the following year.  Eliza died in 1844.  Moving into the house with Williams was his only surviving child, Elizabeth Ann (known as Lizzie), who was 20 years old in 1855.  (Two children John Duryea and Harriet Emma, died in childhood.)  Also living here was Williams's unmarried sister, Emma.

Emma Williams died in the house at the age of 74 on December 1, 1867.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on the 3rd.  

The room was the scene of a much happier event four months later.  Elizabeth was married here to merchant and banker Robert Macy Gallaway on April 20, 1868.  The newlyweds started their lives together in the East 4th Street house.

Dr. Merrill Whitney Williams died on December 3, 1873 at the age of 72.  Robert and Elizabeth left 83 East 4th Street within a few months.

By the time of Williams's death, the once-refined neighborhood of upscale private residences was quickly filling with immigrants and tenements.  No. 83 East 4th Street became a boarding house.

Among the first boarders was German-born Carl Denninghoff.  Born in 1835, he came to America in 1857 and found a job as a "drug clerk."  He lost his job in 1874 and 18 months later was still unable to find work.  On October 26, 1875, the New-York Tribune reported, "He was found dead in his bed yesterday afternoon, and had left a note stating that he had committed suicide."  Denninghoff had swallowed "an overdose of morphine."

While the upper portion of No. 83 continued as a boarding house, in 1881 Charles Steckler leased the basement for the Steckler Association, a political club.  On November 19, 1882, the New-York Tribune reported that, "having refurnished its rooms," the organization had a house warming.  The article said that Frederick H. Conkling "spoke of the principles of the two great parties, and he treated at length the Jeffersonian doctrines."

The following month, Charles Steckler was presented with a $1,000 diamond ring here in "recognition of his services."  (It was a generous tribute, worth about $32,500 in 2026 terms.)

By 1885, the boarding house portion was operated by a Mrs. Betz, described by The Sun as "a stout, good-natured German woman."  In January that year, a "German cripple and a tall, good-looking German with a broad moustache" climbed the stoop with a 16-year-old German girl."  They asked Mrs. Betz if she had a room for the teen.  The two men, they explained, were Marie Probanski's cousins and they had come with her "to vouch for her respectability."  

The Sun said that Marie's "fair, pretty face and bright brown eyes at once won the landlady's heart."  The mustached man paid a week's rent and the two left.  Marie found work as a seamstress and shortly became close friends with another boarder, actress Anna Rando.  After a few weeks, Marie confided into Anna.

She said she had come from Poland the previous August to visit her father and find work in America.  He found her a job as a servant, but she "gave it up because she wasn't strong enough," explained The Sun later.  She said her father eventually became abusive over her not working and she ran away.  Whether her story was true would never be known.

At 4:00 on the morning of February 11, 1885, Mrs. Betz was awakened by noises from Marie's room.  "She found the girl vomiting violently.  Beside her bed lay a little white envelope marked 'Arsenic--Poison.'"  Marie died shortly afterward.

As the boarders were gathered around the dining room table that night, "a short, dark-bearded German burst into the room, accompanied by a stout, rosy-cheeked woman."  The man was Marie's father, Joseph Probanski, and the woman her stepmother.  They had been searching for Marie for a month.  Joseph' story was far different from his daughter's.

The tall, 27-year-old man with the moustache, he said, was Oscar Lang.  "He is a scoundrel and a married man.  I'll fix him for this," he said.  He told Mrs. Betz, "He put the girl in this house so that I couldn't find her, and meant to ruin her.  She had a good home in my house with her stepmother."

Police searched for Oscar, but were initially able to find only his brother, Paul (the "cripple" who had appeared on the stoop that first day).  Paul added to the confusion of Marie's story.  He denied that Oscar was married, and said, "Her father swore at her, and told her to leave the house if she couldn't earn money...He wouldn't have had anything to do with sheltering her if her father had acted like a father to her."

The Steckler Association remodeled the basement level again in 1885.  Calling it "a strong political East Side organization, on April 27, the New-York Tribune reported it "received their friends in their newly renovated rooms at No. 83 East Fourth-st."  The article noted, "Many prominent politicians and business men were present."

The space became Frederick Bengal's "coffee-house," around 1890.  Charles Henry Parkhurst was not so sure that coffee was the only thing being traded here.  The clergyman and reformer founded the Society for the Prevention of Crime in 1891 and in November 1893 he sent word to Captain Doherty of the Fifth Street police station "that the coffee-houses in his precinct were nothing but gambling resorts."  During the last week of November, Doherty made raids on seven such places, including that of Frederick Bengel, who was arrested.

The post-World War I years saw the neighborhood become the center of labor and Socialist groups.  No. 83 East 4th Street was home to the Unemployment Council by 1921.  On December 4 that year, The New York Times explained, "The Unemployment Council is made up of delegates from various unions."

Within a year, the Organization of the Unemployed, the United Labor Council and the Workers' Party of America operated from the building.  On March 11, 1922, The Daily Worker reported on the 15 million people starving from famine in Russia.  "Can you witness this suffering without raising a hand to help?" asked the article.  It said that a "vast relief army is being mustered in New York City" and one of the stations where donations could be left was at 83 East 4th Street.

Around 1939, the attic was raised to a full floor.  Its wall of windows was topped with a stepped parapet.  The brick was painted white and the basement and parlor floor were converted to Royal Hall, a meeting and entertainment space.  On October 31, 1943, The New York Times reported that the United Nations Folk Dance Group met here once a week.

A canvas marquee sheltered patrons of The Royal in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A decade later, the Royal Hall became the Royal Playhouse.  On October 30, 1953, a new play The Wedding Present by Ken Parker premiered here.

The Royal Playhouse was a short-lived venture.  In 1954, the Fourth Street Theatre opened.  It lasted until the Writers Stage Theater took over around 1960.  

In 1967, the New Dramatists Workshop operated within the building.  Two attendees of a performance of Megan Terry's Keep Tightly Clothed in a Cool Dry Place on March 23 that year were undercover officers.  In one scene, four actors--Yale University drama students--used an American flag as a blanket, threw it on the floor and rolled in it.  They were arrested for "desecrating an American flag."

On February 27, 1969, The New York Times reported that the Playwrights Unit, headed by Edward Albee, Richard Barr and Charles Woodward, had purchased 83 East 4th Street for $77,000 (about $675,000 today).  Barr and Woodward were the producers of the highly successful The Boys in the Band, and Albee was a Pulitzer Prize dramatist.  The article said, "The organization gives new dramatists an opportunity to see their scrips presented on a professional basis without the commercial pressure of paid public performances and newspaper criticism."  The theater space was now known as The Next Stage.

In 1972, the Players Workshop opened here, described by the New York Amsterdam News on October 28 as "a new performing arts center."  It offered courses and workshops in drama, dance, costume design and sewing.

A letter to the editor of The Villager printed on June 26, 1975, said that "the old Playwright's Unit theater is now operating under the name of Wonderhorse."  A product of The Alive Company, "a music-oriented performing theater group."  (The writer noted that when Wonderhorse was not in use, The Next Stage could use the space.)

Theater groups came and went.  In 1991, the New York Theatre Workshop purchased the property and moved in the following year.  (The group's principal performance venue is at 79 East 4th Street.)  No. 83 East 4th Street became a 75-seat "black box space" for readings, the organization's administrative offices, and a workshop.  The group continues in the vintage house today.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1892 Middle Church House - 50 East Seventh Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

In 1891, the Middle Collegiate Church hired architect Samuel B. Reed to design its newest church building, at 112 Second Avenue.  This would be its third structure.  The congregation was established in 1729  at Cedar and Nassau Streets.  In 1859 it moved north to Lafayette Place and Fourth Street.

Included in Reed's commission was the designing of the multi-purpose Middle Church House around the corner at 50 East 7th Street.  While he designed the church in the Gothic Revival style, he turned to Romanesque Revival for the church house.  Five stories tall above an English basement, the upper four floors were clad in beige Roman brick.  Reed faced the first floor with undressed limestone--the same material used for the church.  The asymmetrical design included grouped windows at the second and third floors within an arch crowned with a stone eyebrow.  The charming fifth floor design was composed of a tower-like western portion with a triple arcade and pyramidal cap, while the eastern portion was distinguished by a wide dormer with a hipped roof, fronted by a stone balcony.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Inside were living accommodations for the minister and his family, an auditorium for lectures and services, a gymnasium, Sunday school rooms, and administrative offices.

The year 1918 was especially noteworthy for Reverend Edgar Franklin Romig.  He was ordained in March, was married to Ella Woodruff Dutcher on May 11, and was appointed minister of Middle Collegiate Church in 1918.  Rev. Romig and his bride moved into the Middle Church House.

Romig had a fascinating past.  Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on March 22, 1890, he graduated valedictorian from Franklin & Marshall College in 1911 and graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in 1918.  (He would earn an M. A. degree from Columbia University in 1923.)  From 1913 to 1916, he was an instructor at Syrian Protestant College (now American University) in Beirut, Syria.  In August 1914 he served in the American Consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia.

At some point, the building became the repository of William Leverich Brower's extensive collection of historical memorabilia.  A catalogue published in 1926 said, "This collection comprises one hundred and thirty prints and photographs of persons and places chiefly identified with the earlier history of the City and Nation."

The 1930 Year Book of the (Collegiate) Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York outlined some of the activities offered in the Middle Church House.  In addition to the "large number of boys and young men at the Sunday School services," said the article, there were Sunday school classes for girls and young women.  Young men were offered physical education and health classes, and a Boy Scouts troop was organized here in 1929.

photograph by Carole Teller

As the East Village neighborhood changed, the offerings within the Middle Church House adapted.  In May 11, 1960, for instance, The Villager reported, "A film, 'Voices Across the Miles,' will be shown...in the Middle Church House" on May 17.  The following year, on February 2, 1961, the newspaper reported on the Middle Collegiate Church's upcoming production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.  The article mentioned that dramatic soprano Susan Griska, who would be singing the lead role, "is directing the costuming and staging of the production in the Middle Church House."

Neighborhood outreach was reflected in programs hosted here.  A "Game Night" for the benefit of the Warwick Fund was held here on October 19, 1962.  (The Warwick Fund, administered by the American Philosophical Society, helped orphans of World War II.)  As early as the following year, volunteers from the Society of Illustrators offered art classes to teenagers here as part of the Blue Curtain Youth Program in the neighborhood.  And on April 4, 1983, as reported by The New York Times, the second East Village Arts Festival would open here.  The article said, "Artists, musicians, dancers and other performers who live in the East Village will take part."

With the AIDS crisis ravaging New York City in 1986, Celebrate Life Meal for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS was established here.  At a time when HIV victims were often seen as pariahs, Reverend Gordon R. Dragt, explains in his One Foot Planted in the Center, the Other Dangling off the Edge,

Every Monday night a meal was served, vegetables and groceries were distributed, people were greeted and hugged, a social worker, nurse and nutritionist were available, entertainment was provided, and special event parties were planned.

Around 1987, the Divine Theater was established in the auditorium, staging productions like Bertolt Brecht's theater-dance piece, Dog and Bone in November that year.  The name was changed to the Cooper Square Theater in 1989.  The venue would continue to offer performing and visual arts.  On May 11, 2001, The New York Times reported, "A choreographic collective, De Facto Dance," would be performing for two days at "Middle Collegiate Church Performance Space, 50 East Seventh Street."

Tragedy came on December 4, 2020 when Middle Collegiate Church was destroyed by fire.  Executive minister Amanda Ashcroft summed up the catastrophe to the New York Post.  "This has been a year already with racial inequity, economic inequity, a global pandemic and now our church is burning."

The extended columns give the appearance of having always been there.  photograph by Carole Teller

The shaken congregation rallied.  After holding services online and in East End Temple, plans were initiated to convert Middle Church House to the new worship space.  Recently completed, the facade was deftly altered by the removal of the stoop and lowering of the entrance to grade.  The architects seamlessly extended its engaged columns and installed a two-paneled transom to fill the resultant void.  A double-doored entrance to the worship space was installed to the side.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

A "Thieves' School" -62 East Third Street

 

62 East Third (right) was one of a pair erected in 1838-39.  photograph by Carole Teller

The Greek Revival style was just beginning to nudge out the Federal style in 1838, when John Hanrahan began construction of two brick-faced homes at 56 and 58 Third Street between First and Second Avenues.  (They would later renumbered 62 and 64 East Third Street) Completed the following year, they were three stories tall above brownstone-clad basements.  Cast iron stoop railings wrapped the newels, which sat upon stone drums.  Typical of the style, the entrances were flanked by sidelights and framed by stone pilasters and a heavy entablature.

The original owner of No. 56 was William H. Mott, who leased the house.  Living here in 1840 was Kendrac W. Follet, a painter, followed by Rev. Darius Eliot Jones and his wife, the former Dorcas Ann Letts.

Born on October 18, 1815 to musician Abner Cheney Jones, Darius married Dorcas around 1828.  The couple would have four children, Mary, Kate Louisa, Charles B. Hatch, and Abner Campbell.

In addition to his ministry, Jones was a hymnist.  He wrote "He that Goeth Forth With Weeping" and "Jesus, Lord of Life and Light," and compiled volumes like Songs for the New Life, Hallowed Songs, and National Church Harmony.

Sadly, the couple's first son, Charles, died in the house on August 27, 1843 at just one-and-a-half years old.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

As early as 1845, David C. and Jane Buchan occupied the house.  Buchan listed his profession as "chairmaker," and advertised himself as the "manufacturer of curled, maple and fancy chairs."  

A metal David C. Buchan chair tag.  Chair tags were affixed to the bottom of a chair to identify (and advertise) the maker.

As was common, the Buchans took in a boarder.  Living with the family in 1845 was silversmith George W. Gilchrist, and in 1851 schoolteacher Peter L. Ewell was here.

Starting around 1855, Cornelius L. Everitt and his widowed mother, Mary, occupied the house.  Cornelius was born in 1808 and when he and Mary moved in he was secretary of the New-York Gaslight Company.  He would eventually rise to president of the firm, as well as president of the Mercantile Literary Library, and secretary and treasurer of the Second Company, 7th Regiment, National Guard.  Additionally, he would become vice-president of the Broadway Savings Bank and a director in the Stuyvesant Insurance Company.

The New-York Tribune would later describe Cornelius Everitt, saying:

He was very correct and methodical in all his habits, and his strong common sense and well known probity, caused him to be sought after as a trustee and executor of estates requiring prudent and skillful management.

Everitt moved from 62 East Third Street in 1859.  He was followed in the house by John Harpell, a butcher in the Washington Market.  The affluent Harpell family would remain until 1872.  Harpell and his wife had two young adult children, a son and a daughter.

The Harpells also took in a boarder, who in 1859 was Thomas Hanlon.  Because of the tight quarters, Hanlon shared a bedroom with the Harpells' son.  The bedroom of their daughter, Henrietta, adjoined it.  

According to Henrietta, on the night of May 27 that year, she had left her bedroom door ajar "on account of the warmness of the weather," as reported by the New-York Daily Tribune.  At around 2:00 in the morning, Henrietta awoke to find Thomas Hanlon attacking her.  She screamed, and Hanlon dived under a bed in the corner of the room.  The article said, "he was captured shortly after by her father and brother."  He was charged with assault and battery.

After the incident, the Harpells were, apparently, more careful in choosing their boarders.  James M. MacGregor, for instance, lived with the family in 1863 through 1865.  He was superintendent of buildings for the city.

The Herman Zimmer family replaced the Harpells in 1872. He and sons Alfred F. and Emil Zimmer listed their professions as clerks.  The family occupied the house at least through 1880.

At the turn of the century, the East Third Street neighborhood had declined.  No. 62 was operated as a rooming house and its occupants were no longer respectable.  Living here in 1905, for example, was James Nixon.

On the night of October 9 that year, he and Thurston Gladheim were drinking in the Dry Dock Hotel at East Third Street and the Bowery.  President Theodore Roosevelt had just mediated the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War and the two men were discussing it.  The Sun reported, "Incidentally the subject of wounds was broached."

James Nixon, who apparently had psychopathic tendencies, told Gladheim, "If you were excited enough, I could stab you with this knife and you wouldn't feel it."  In a flash, he thrust his pocket knife into his friend's chest.  The wounded man staggered out of the saloon and "almost into the arms of Policeman Muller."  Muller called an ambulance and Gladheim was transported to a hospital where his condition was deemed "very precarious."  James Nixon was held without bail awaiting "the outcome of Gladheim's injuries."

In May 1907, Henry Cohen was arrested with a boy, Jacob Stein, for stealing 500 coats from the factory of Jacob Davis.  The boy was let free as "only a tool."  Cohen, on the other hand, was found guilty.  In hopes of a lighter sentence, he told detectives about Theodore (known as Teddy) Grant, who "was not only running a fence, but a school for boy thieves," reported The Evening World.

On the night of May 17, four detectives staked out 62 East Third Street.  When 19-year-old Joseph Kist and "a driver, who lives in the house," entered the basement door, the detectives followed and attempted to arrest Kist.  "There was a struggle when he tried to escape," said the article.  The noise was heard on the floor above, and then there came a grating sound, as if something were coming down the chimney."

Theodore Grant, thinking that police were trying to get in the front door, attempted to slip into the basement through the chimney grate.  "The feet were seized and the man was drawn forth.  He fought hard but was soon in handcuffs."  In the parlor level, police discovered what The New York Times called, "a school of instruction in Crime."  The Evening World titled its article, "$50,000 Loot Found In Alleged Fence, Run, Police Say, By A Fagin."  The teenaged "pupils" were arrested and the spoils of their lessons were confiscated.  "There were many pieces of lace, jewelry of value and other goods, all of which, it is declared, had been stolen from express companies in transit," said The Evening World.

  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Louis Sockler rented a room here in 1924.  Late on the night of November 30 that year, he walked into I. Silberforf's store at 359 East 10th Street.  He was greeted by a man who said, "Come right in the backroom.  The boss is giving a party tonight."

What Sockler could not have known was that the "clerk" was one of three gunmen who had tied Silberforf to a chair a few minutes earlier.  As the crooks tethered Sockler to a chair next to Silberforf's, a second customer entered the store.  The scenario was repeated and now three victims were tied and bound in the backroom.  The New York Times reported, "Then the thieves took $100 from the pocket of Silberforf, $30 from Sockler, and 85 cents from Levison."

While one gunman was guarding the prisoners, the others started to rifle the cash drawer.  They were interrupted by two more customers and fled.  Nevertheless, Sockler and the other two victims gave detailed descriptions of the thieves.

In June 1930, Nathan Yochnowitz purchased 62 East Third Street.  The house was converted to four apartments and that configuration survives. today.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1925 Labor Temple - 223 Second Avenue

image via streeteasy.com

When the Fourteenth Street Church was erected at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and 14th Street in 1851, it sat "in the centre of wealth and fashion," as worded by The New York Times.  That was no longer the case in 1910 and on January 7, The Sun titled an article, "An East Side Church To Quit" and reported that the trustees would be selling the property. 

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

With the vintage structure unoccupied, Rev. Charles Stelzle, who had once been a machinist, "opened a Sunday evening forum in the old church," reported The New York Times.  "The success of the innovation was immediate, and Labor Temple was organized, with Mr. Stelzle as its first director."  Labor Temple offered educational services for workers, clubs "of all sorts and purposes" were initiated, and an employment bureau was opened.  "Labor Temple became the centre of the life of the neighborhood," said The New York Times.

The former church was regularly the venue for lectures and discussions on political, labor and civic issues.  On February 29, 1912, for instance, Arthur J. Howard lectured on "Political and Industrial Australia."  It was, nevertheless, still operated by the Presbyterian Church, with Sunday services "applied to the daily life of its congregation."  Sermon topics included "Religion and Labor," "The Strength of Capitalism," and "The Ethics of Propaganda."  The services were conducted in several languages to cater to the area's diverse demographics.

In 1924, Rev. Thomas Guthrie Speers, chairman of the Labor Temple Committee, determined that the corner property was valuable.  He proposed a business building with "ample quarters for Labor Temple" on the site.  A committee composed of businessmen was formed and the well-known architect Emery Roth was given the task of creating a multi-use structure on the site.

Roth's expertise was apartment buildings.  Dan Everett Waid, who used his first initial professionally, was known for office buildings.  (He had recently designed the annex to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company building on Madison Square, and was, as well, the president of the American Institute of Architects.)  Roth and Waid had no professional connection, but it is clear that Roth consulted Waid on this project.  Although the latter's name does not appear in any documentation, Roth included Waid's name in the base of a 14th Street pilaster.

image courtesy Robyn Roth-Moise

The cornerstone was laid on April 4, 1925 "above the clang of surface cars and the thunder of elevated trains to a crowd of 300 passers-by, unemployed and supporters of the Labor Temple," as reported by The New York Times.  In his address, Rev. Edmund B. Chaffee stressed, "there would be no change in the policy of the temple."

Completed in November 1925 at a cost of $750,000 (about $13.4 million in 2026), Roth's Italian Renaissance Revival design included a two-story limestone base with full-height elliptical arches.  Stores along the sidewalk and professional offices on the second floor provided retail income.  They prompted The New York Times to comment that the Labor Temple would get "its new and enlarged quarters rent free."  

Faux balconies above the third floor and Florentine-inspired arches at the seventh enhanced the Renaissance motif.  An arched corbel table ran below the minimal cornice.

Inside, on the ground floor was a large auditorium, a meeting room and office "for the use of labor organizations."  In the basement was a gymnasium.  On the second floor was a chapel that could accommodate 150 persons, and a music room.  The third and fourth floors contained clubrooms and classrooms, the employment bureau, the director's office, and the "living and dining room for the staff of Labor Temple," according to The Times.  Living quarters for the resident workers occupied the sixth floor and the director's apartment was in the penthouse, along with a "sunny playroom" for neighborhood children.  It opened onto a roof playground.

On November 9, 1925.  The New York Times reported, "Labor and the Church joined hands last night in the dedication of the new six-story Labor Temple Building at Fourteenth Street and Second Avenue, where educational classes, community activities and religious worship will be conducted."  

For Edward Hale Everett, the oldest employee of the Labor Temple, the opening of the structure would come just in time.  Since its inception, Everett had played Santa Claus for the organization's Christmas Eve children's party.  When he was not wearing his false beard and red suit, he taught neighborhood children carpentering.

On October 27, 1925, two weeks before the dedication, he was operating the elevator for the workmen who were bringing furniture up the elevator and placing it into various spaces.  Suddenly, he stopped answering the elevator bell.  Alarmed, Rev. Chaffee went to the basement and opened the elevator door.  "Eddie had dropped dead with his hand still clutching the control level," said The New York Times.

"Eddie" Everett's funeral was held in the chapel on October 30.  The New York Times said, "Out on the street the boys that Eddie had taught carpentering and the little girls to whom he had given dolls lined up to wait.  And when the body was borne out, they waved their hands and called out: 'Good-bye, Eddie!  Good-bye, Santa Clause!'"

Interestingly, Emery Roth was called back twice to make renovations--in 1927 and in 1930.  What changes were made is unclear, but it was most likely during one of those remodelings that the rather incongruous, projecting Second Avenue entrance was installed.  

image via streeteasy.com

The auditorium immediately became a favorite space for political and labor gatherings.  The night after the dedication, defeated Socialist candidate for mayor, Norman Thomas, spoke here.  He blamed his loss to James J. Walker on "indifferent and unintelligent voting."  

In addition to Sunday services, like any other church, the chapel was used for funerals and weddings.  In October 1926, Eugene V. Debs, who had run for President five times under the Socialist Party ticket, died in Chicago.  His body was brought by train to New York City and on October 22, The New York Times reported, "The body will lie in state at the Labor Temple...from 2 P.M. until 9 P.M. tomorrow."

In November 1927, Rev. Edmund B. Chaffee lobbied for $3,000 city funding to renovate the rooftop playground.  Included in the plans was a "steel protective covering."  He insisted, "While this will not solve the city's playground problem, it will at least do something to save the children of this section from the trucks and street cars."

As seen here in 1940, Chaffee was successful in getting his steel rooftop enclosure.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The conviction of Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for murder on July 14, 1921 immediately caused an uproar amid the labor and immigrant communities around the country.  Their arrest and conviction were viewed by many to be the result of bias against immigrants and radicals.  Sacco's and Vanzetti's innocence was widely touted in periodicals and throngs across the country pleaded for a pardon or new trial. 

Six years later, as their execution date was nearing, New York labor organizations mobilized.  On August 15, 1927, The Daily Worker reported, "The Sacco-Vanzetti Emergency Committee will hold its fourth conference tonight, at 8 o'clock, at Labor Temple."

The nation-wide efforts to save Sacco and Vanzetti were unsuccessful and the two were electrocuted on August 23, 1927.  Although Police Commissioner Joseph A. Warren banned public mourning, the Socialist Labor Party held a memorial service in Labor Temple on August 26.  The New York Times reported that it "was quiet and orderly."  The meeting ended with the singing of the "International."

The diversity of the neighborhood was reflected in one of the ground floor tenants, The Russian Kretchma ("Russian Tavern") here as early as 1927.  Patrons were entertained by Nastia Poliakova, a "Russian gypsy singer" who was born in Moscow," the "daughter of a gypsy 'king,'" according to The New York Times.  She had sung before Czar Nicholas II and after fleeing to Turkey during the Russian Revolution had sung in a Parisian nightclub, and in Berlin and Belgrade.

Barnard Bulletin, January 6, 1928 (copyright expired)

Several medical tenants occupied the second floor spaces.  Among them in the 1920s and 1930s were Dr. S. A. Chernoff, a "specialist in acute and chronic diseases of men and women, skin and blood;" chiropodist Aaron Shapiro; and surgical dentist Dr. A. Brown.  

According to the Daily Worker on January 19, 1941, the Labor Temple was "home of 43 unions," like the Cleaners, Dyers and Pressers Union.

Living in the building as early as 1945 was journalist and playwright Gershom Bader and his wife, Jennie.  Born in Krakówm Galicia on August 21, 1868, he came to America in 1912.  By the time the couple lived in Labor Temple, Bader had written several volumes on Jewish life and religion.  Among his Yiddish-language plays were Der Rebe in Feyer, The Rabbi's Melody, and Di Goldene Royze.  He was the honorary vice-president of the Federation of Polish Jews in America.

Gershom Bader, from The Schwadron Collection of the National Library of Israel.

Also living here at the time was Joseph Chaikin, an editor of the Jewish newspaper The Day.  Born in Russia in 1885, he came to New York City in 1901 "and soon was active as an editor in the Jewish labor movement," according to The New York Times.   In 1946 his Yiddish-language book Jewish Newspapers in America was published.  He was a founder of the National Jewish Workers Alliance and a member of the Yiddish Writers Union.  

Reverend John F. Duffy headed the Labor Temple by the mid-1940s.  He gave a speech at Barnard Day Chapel in October 1946 to explain the Labor Temple's work.  He told the audience that its original purpose "was to give the labor unions a place to hold their meetings and give the laborers, who up until then were not accepted in the churches of the lower east side, an opportunity to join a church."  In addition to that original goal, he said, the Labor Temple hoped to demolish "the middle walls of partition which keep people from one another."

The Russian Kretchma was still going strong at the time of that speech.  As Russian Orthodox Sunday approached in 1947, The New York Times noted that pascha, an Russian Easter cake,  and kulich, an Easter bread with sugar icing, would be served there, as it was every year.

A renovation in 1952 created additional apartments within the building--12 each on the third through sixth floors.  

Gershom and Jennie Bader still occupied their apartment here on November 12, 1953 when the playwright and journalist died at the age of 85.

A renovation completed in 1963 resulted in a restaurant and cabaret on the ground floor.  The auditorium was converted to a gymnasium, but the chapel and its accessory spaces were kept intact.  But then, in 1996, Stellar Management Company acquired the property and began a $500,000 renovation into residential use with retail stores.

photograph by streeteasy.com

The first floor of Emory Roth's handsome Florentine-inspired structure has been horribly vandalized.  The upper floors, however, are happily intact.  The former Labor Temple building survives as an important example of the architect's work and a significant page of New York City's labor history.

many thanks to reader Robyn Roth-Moise for prompting this post

The Richard Grant White House - 118 East 10th Street

 

In 1861, Richard Grant White moved his family into the newly built house at 186 Tenth Street (renumbered 118 East 10th Street in 1867).  It sat upon a triangular parcel of land purchased by Matthias Banta from the Stuyvesant family in 1854.  Banta's architect (most historians attribute the homes to James Renwick, Jr.) had to deal with the irregular plots, resulting in the five-story-and-basement houses ranging from 16- to 32-feet-wide and from 16- to 48-feet deep.  The Anglo-Italianate-style homes were completed in 1861, the year the Whites purchased their new residence.

Like its neighbors, the rusticated brownstone basement and first floor of the White house sat below four stories of red brick trimmed in sandstone.  The tall, fully-arched windows of the second floor were connected by a stone bandcourse.  Each of the architrave frames of the upper openings were treated slightly differently.

Born in 1822, Richard Grant White was a globally recognized Shakespearean scholar.  He traced his American ancestry to John White, a founder of Cambridge, Massachusetts and of Hartford, Connecticut.  Although he studied medicine and law (he was admitted to the bar in 1845), by the time he purchased the Tenth Street house, he was the musical critic for The Courier and Enquirer, and had already published his 1854 Shakespeare's Scholar and the 1859 Essay on the Authorship of the Three Parts of Henry VI.  He would be described by the 1901 New York University; Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics as, "one of the foremost literary and musical critics of his date."

Richard Grant White, from the 1901 New York University; Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics (copyright expired)

Grant was married to Alexina Black Mease on October 16, 1850.  The couple had two sons, Richard Mansfield, born in 1851 and named after Grant's father; and Stanford, born in 1853.

The parlor of the East 10th Street house was most likely the scene of lively artistic discussions.  Among Richard G. White's acquaintances were Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Law Olmsted, and John LaFarge.  It may have been those gatherings that sparked young Stanford White's interest in architecture.

The outbreak of the Civil War affected Richard White's career, at least temporarily.  In 1861 he was appointed Chief of the United States Revenue-Marine (later the U.S. Coast Guard).  He would serve in that post until 1878.

In the meantime, Stanford White pursued a career in architecture.  With no formal training, he became an apprentice in the office of Henry Hobson Richardson in 1871 at the age of 18.  While his professional life progressed (he would become Richardson's principal assistant), the young man's personal lifestyle was a concern to his parents.  Mary Cummings, in her Saving Sin City, says Stanford White and his friends "preferred the company of models and chorus girls to that of dowagers and debutantes."  She writes:

He was living with his family at 118 East 10th Street but seldom came home.  One night he was hurrying off in swallowtail and knee breeches to a society event, the next he was headed for the libidinous downtown wilds, leaving his father to lament that he was absent at breakfast, rarely present at dinner, and then after dinner "he don't stop at home more than ten to fifteen minutes but is off to the Benedick."

Stanford White, photograph by George Cox, ca 1892 (copyright expired)

Stanford White left East 10th Street in 1878 for a year-and-a-half tour of Europe.  When he returned in 1879, he joined Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead to form McKim, Mead and White.  His parents had sold 118 East 10th Street to Charles Nicholson the previous year.  They moved to 330 East 17th Street where Richard Grant White died on April 5, 1885.  In reporting on his death, The New York Times called him a "variously accomplished man."

The house was owned by two more owners in quick succession.  After William L. Stow purchased it for $14,000 in October 1884 (about $462,000 in 2026), the dwelling was operated as a boarding house. 

Among the residents in 1886 was singer Louise Pauline, described by The Sun as the "prima donna of the Carlton Opera Company."  In May that year, the company took the production of The Bohemian Girl to Philadelphia.  The New York Times reported that on May 29, "just before the curtain rose on the first act," Louise fainted.  She was taken to her dressing room where her costume was removed by two other singers.  Louise would later say, "They took $1,500 which was concealed in my bodice, and gave it to the stage manager, Mr. [Charles] Fais, for safe keeping."  (It was an astounding amount of cash to be hidden in one's underclothes--equal to about $51,000 today.)

Upon returning to 118 East 10th Street, Louise Pauline asked Fais for her money.  "He gave it all back except $90," she told the courts.  He could not explain the shortfall, "and offered to return to Philadelphia and investigate," reported The New York Times.  After waiting a week, Louise had Charles Fais arrested.  The Times said, "When taken into custody, however, he offered to make good the loss."

The boarders continued to be respectable, for the most part.  In 1890 they included Mary E. Brady, a teacher in the primary department of Grammar School No. 30.  Edward Bagwell and Frank Tuttle also lived here at the time.   

On July 8, 1890, The Evening World reported on the stifling heat wave, predicting, "Old Sol is rendering himself liable for malicious mischief to-day."  The previous day, the "malicious mischief" of the dangerous heat resulted in 39-year-old Edward Bagwell's collapsing on a Christopher Street streetcar.  He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital for treatment.

Later that year, on the night of September 3, Frank Tuttle was walking along the corner of Bond Street and the Bowery when he "lurched against" Jack Ashton and "made an impolite remark."  The World reported, "Mr. Ashton returned a merry response and Mr. Tuttle, unfortunately, took that as an evidence of weakness, so he rushed rudely forward and attempted to toss Mr. Ashton into the air."  Tuttle had chosen the wrong man to attack.  The article said, 

But Mr. Ashton is as quick with his fists as he is at repartee, and he dealt Mr. Tuttle that which is known at Bond street and the Bowery as a "biff on the kisser."  Mr. Tuttle made a second attempt, and, this time, instead of being the thrower, he became the throwee.

A passing policeman arrested both men.  At the station house, neither wanted to make a complaint.  The World ended its article saying, "In a few moments that entente cordiale which should always exist between gentlemen was re-established, and the snowy dove of peace cooed and spread her pin-feathers over the happy little group."

Annie Nicholson operated the boarding house at the time.  She proved to be more than a match for 25-year-old Joseph Braham on the night of February 6, 1893.  Described by The Evening World as a "sneak thief," he attempted to leave the house that night with a $60 overcoat.  Annie Nicholson thought not.  She overpowered the young man and held him until a policeman arrived and arrested him.

Boarding here that year was actress Ella Dunbar who was playing the leading female role in A Winning Hand.  The company went on the road on October 16, 1893, but the reviews were devastating.  Just over a week later, she was back.  With no receipts, the cast did not get paid and Ella had to leave her jewelry with the hotel as a guarantee for her room fare.  Additionally, she had to put up the check for her trunk with the railroad for her passage.

At the turn of the century, the neighborhood had declined.  The condition was reflected in the change in boarders.  Margaret Delahunty worked at the Hot Air Club at 7 East 22nd Street within the notorious Tenderloin district.  On November 6, 1904, undercover officers entered the nightclub.  The Sun reported that 27-year-old Margaret Delahunty and 21-year-old Mable Miller, "stepped out on an improvised stage and began to sing and dance.  The crowd voted the performance slow."

One of the women replied, "Think so? Well, there!" and kicked off her slipper.  "In the course of the next five minutes the performers removed one garment after another."  Responding to a call from the officers, "a squad of Tenderloin sleuths rushed in and arrested everybody."  

George Berger and his family occupied rooms here in 1911.  A clerk, according to him, he was having problems supporting his family.  On the afternoon of June 21, he sneaked into the apartment of W. J. R. Johnston, a magazine writer, at 215 West 108th Street.  Mrs. Johnston returned home to find him there.

"I guess I got into the wrong apartment," he said.

"I am sure you did," she answered.  

The woman confronting him was no retiring housewife.  "Take off that coat and let me see what property of mine you've got in your pockets," she demanded.  The Sun reported, "She called for help and the neighbors began to arrive.  They found the man backed up against the wall with Mrs. Johnston guarding him."

Police officer Murrell arrived with his gun drawn.  Mrs. Johnston realized that she was dealing with a meek, inexperienced burglar.  "You can put that gun back in your pocket," she said, "He's perfectly harmless."

More experienced in burglary was Harry Stein, a 26-year-old roomer who listed his profession as a salesman.  On August 16, 1916, he was arrested during a burglary in the Bronx with two accomplices.  The New-York Tribune reported that Stein tried to escape, but "a shot into the air stopped" him.

When Stein got out of jail, he returned to 118 East 10th Street and to his life of crime.  On October 1, 1916, he appeared in court to plead guilty of another burglary.  The Evening World said he and his accomplice had "long police records."

By the end of World War I, the rooming house was operated by a Mrs. Lewis.  A woman who gave her name as Helen Curtis took a room in 1920.  According to Mrs. Lewis, she left at the beginning of summer "to take a position as checker in a tea room."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

On September 23, old Helen Bolger was admitted to the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.  She gave her address as 118 East 10th Street.  During a throat operation that night, she died.  The 24-year-old was the wife of a merchant mariner, Thomas Bolger, who had just returned from sea.  In a bizarre turn of events, Helen Bolger and Helen Curtis were the same woman and why she was living in Mrs. Lewis's rooming house under an assumed name is a mystery.

On June 9, 1958, The New York Times reported that 118 East 10th Street had been purchased by S. P. Sloane and Lloyd Hauser.  "They plan to modernize the building into ten apartments," said the article.  Instead, the renovations resulted in just four apartments--a duplex in the basement and first floor, one apartment each on the second and third, and a duplex in the fourth and fifth floor.

Among the residents in the early 1970s were Huibert Zuur and Edward J. Austin.  The young men had worked together for Halston for some years.  In 1973, they launched their own women's clothing line: Austin-Zuur.  On September 9, 1974, Enid Now reported in The New York Times, "The partners show their collection in their glass, brick and wicker duplex apartment at 118 East 10th Street."

From the exterior, the house where one of the world's greatest Shakespearean scholars and one of America's greatest architects lived for decades is little changed since 1861.

photographs by the author