The Wesson-Leland Mansion - 123 East 79th Street

 

Eufrasia Aguilar Leland and Emma Martha Leland were born in 1836 and 1844 respectively, two of the nine children born to Francis Smith Leland and Eufrasia Bernardina Aguilar Piriz.  Emma married Charles Howland Wesson, who died in 1873 when their only child (also named Eufrasia) was just three years old.

In 1906, the sisters purchased the two 20-foot-wide dwellings at 123 and 125 East 79th Street and hired the architectural firm of Foster, Gade & Graham to replace them with a double-wide mansion.  Simultaneously, Emma's daughter, Eufrasia, and her husband, artist Allen Tucker, commissioned Robins & Oakman to design a residence next door at 121 East 79th Street.  The two firms' neo-Georgian designs worked together in creating a harmonious effect.

Writing in The Architectural Record in November 1911, critic Montgomery Schuyler praised, "see how a big house and a little house may dwell together in amity on account of the employment of the same materials in both, when the designs of them have nothing in common beyond a loose and general agreement on 'style.'"

The Wesson-Leland mansion coexisted happily with its smaller neighbor.  The Architectural Record, November 1911 (copyright expired)

Faced in Flemish bond brick and trimmed in marble, the sisters' residence was three stories tall above a shallow basement.  Its Georgian inspired elements included fully-arched openings at the first floor, layered and splayed stone keystones at the second, and a dignified balustrade atop the cornice.

The women moved within society as a pair.  On July 7, 1918, for instance, the New York Herald reported, "Mrs. Charles Howland Wesson and her sister, Miss Eufrasia Leland of 123 East Seventy-ninth street, after a stay in Lenox, have gone to Poland Springs."

Eufrasia Aguilar Leland died in the East 79th Street mansion at the age of 88 on November 14, 1924.  Her funeral was held at the Church of the Incarnation on Madison Avenue three days later.  The following month, on Christmas Day, Emma died in the house.  Interestingly, her funeral on December 27 was held in the Church of the Resurrection on East 74th Street.

Dorothy May Jordan Robinson purchased the mansion.  Born in Boston in 1885, she was, according to The New York Times, "daughter of the late Eben D. Jordan, merchant of Boston and at one time a member of the famous dry goods firm of Jordan, Marsh & Co."  The newspaper said she "inherited a handsome fortune from her father."

Dorothy was estranged from her husband, Monroe Douglas Robinson, whom she married in 1916.  She had custody of their only daughter, Dorothy, who was eight years old in 1925.  Before moving in, Dorothy hired architect Mott Schmidt to add a fourth floor.  Set back from the roofline, the addition was greatly hidden behind the balustrade.

The new addition peeks above the balustrade in this 1940 photograph.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Dorothy Robinson would not be alone with her daughter and servants in the commodious home for long.  She obtained her divorce in December 1925, and on March 4, 1926, The New York Times reported that she and Elbridge Gerry Chadwick had been married in the house "in the presence of a few friends."

Chadwick, too, was born in Boston (he in 1881) and had lived in New York City since the turn of the century.  He was a partner in the real estate firm of Brown, Wheelock, Harris, Vought & Co.  "Mr. Chadwick and his bride left the city immediately after the ceremony," reported The New York Times, "and on their return they will make their home at 123 East Seventy-ninth Street."  The couple's country home was in Syosset, Long Island.

Both Dorothy and Elbridge sat on the board of the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, and entertainments in the mansion often centered around music.  In 1937, conductor Arthur Rodjinski of the Cleveland Orchestra was invited by the society as a guest conductor.  On February 19, The New York Post reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Elbridge Gerry Chadwick will be hosts at the reception in his honor to be held at their residence, 123 East Seventy-ninth Street."

On February 5, 1938, The New York Post reported, "One of the largest as well as most important weddings of the late season in town is that of Miss Dorothy Douglas Robinson, a grand-niece of President Roosevelt and cousin of Mrs. Roosevelt, to Randolph Appleton Kidder."  (Monroe Douglas Robinson, who came from Paris to give her daughter away, was the son of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, sister of Theodore Roosevelt.)  The article said, "there will be a large reception at the residence of the bride's mother, Mrs. Elbridge Gerry Chadwick."

Elbridge Gerry Chadwick died in the East 79th Street mansion at the age of 63 on March 23, 1945.  Within a few years, Dorothy sold the house to Ronald and Marietta Endicott Peabody Tree.

The couple, who had recently divorced their spouses, were married on July 26, 1947.  They had one child, Penelope, born in 1949.  Marietta brought her daughter from her previous marriage, Frances Fitzgerald, into the marriage.

Ronald Tree from the collection of the U.K. National Portrait Gallery

Tree's name at birth was Arthur Ronald Lambert Field Tree.  He was born in England of American-born parents, Arthur Tree and Ethel Field, daughter of Marshall Field.  Ronald served as a Member of Parliament from 1933 to 1945.  The family also maintained a home in Barbados, "Heron Bay."

Marietta Tree was as much involved in politics as she was in society.  She became county Democratic chairperson and in 1952 was involved in the presidential election campaign of Adlai Stevenson.  

Stevenson, of course, was defeated in that election.  On January 21, 1953, The New York Times reported, "A half-hour before the inauguration of the man who defeated him at the polls, Adlai E. Stevenson left New York for Barbados."  The article said, "He will stay at Mr. and Mrs. Tree's home in St. James Parish, Barbados."  On the plane was Marietta Tree.  "Mr. Tree will join them Saturday," said the article.

Marietta Tree and Adlai Stevenson before boarding the airplane to Barbados.  The New York Times, January 21, 1953

In fact, Marietta and Stevenson were having a romantic affair, one reportedly acknowledged and accepted by Ronald Tree, who was bisexual.  The New York Times would later explain that Marietta "served as unofficial hostess at dinners Mr. Stevenson gave in his apartment in the Waldorf Towers."  

In 1954, Marietta was elected to the Democratic State Committee and on April 13, 1959, she was sworn in as a member of the New York City Intergroup Relations Commissions.  President John F. Kennedy appointed her to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1961.  The New York Times said, "She arrived at the United States mission almost every day in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce."

Marietta Tree and Adlai Stevenson were together in England on July 14, 1965 when, as worded by The New York Times, Stevenson "dropped dead on a London street."  The article said, "She tried vainly to revive him with mouth to mouth respiration."  According to her biography by the Human Rights Commission, that evening she wrote in her diary, "Adlai is dead.  We were together."

Ronald Tree died on July 14, 1976 and Marietta moved to One Sutton Place South where she would remain until her death on August 15, 1991.  

No. 123 East 79th Street next became home to John S. Samuels III.  Born in Galveston, Texas in 1933, Samuels received his law degree in 1960.  He and two other investors borrowed $4.5 million in 1973 to buy the Leckie Smokeless Coal Company.  Within a year the firm's earnings were reported at $50 million and in February 1979, three years after moving into 123 East 79th Street, he appeared on Fortune magazine's list of America's wealthiest men.  It reported his personal fortune to be as much as $300 million (about $1.3 billion in 2026 terms).

A month before that article, on January 9, 1979, The New York Times headlined an article, "House Ransacked," and reported, "The town house of John S. Samuels 3d at 123 East 79th Street was ransacked over the weekend by burglars who took gold and silver flatware, trays and place settings, according to the police, who estimated the value of the items as $500,000."  (By the time of the heist, Samuels was, as well, the chairman of the New York City Opera Company and the City Center.)

The East 79th Street mansion was one of five residences owned by Samuels.  He had two country estates on Long Island, a townhouse in London, and a home in Galveston, Texas.  

In 1979, John Samuels and his wife, the former Ellen Richards separated.  (They had four children, including actor John Stockwell.)  At the time, he was already experiencing financial problems.  An article in The New York Times on March 26, 1981 explained, "A series of reverses, starting in the late 70's, forced him to liquidate many of his personal and corporate assets."  Just two months later, the newspaper reported, "The fine town house at 123 East 79th Street, formerly the home of Marietta Peabody Tree, a former member of the United States delegation to the Union Nations, and the home since 1976 of John S. Samuels 3d, has been bought at auction for $4.05 million by the Brazilian Government."

The article said that the mansion "will be the residence of Brazil's United Nations head of mission."  The Wesson-Leland house remains the property of the Government of Brazil.

photographs by the author

The Lost John Aitken House - 72 East 56th Street

 

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

On March 25, 1881 Luke and Martha A. Slater purchased the 20-foot-wide brownstone at 72 East 56th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues.  They paid Samuel Zeimer $35,000 for the four-story residence, or about $957,000 in 2023.

Born in Fishkill, New York in 1832, Slater was of "Dutch and Yankee heritage," according to The New York Times.  As a boy he left home to work in a machine shop in Newburg, New York and before he was 21-years-old opened his own firm, the Redfern Iron Works.  Slater focused on ship repairs.  In 1875 he closed that company and established a new partnership with Alexander Reid named Slater & Reid.  The New York Times later said the firm had repaired "three-fourths of all the foreign vessels that entered the port of New-York."

Luke Slater would not enjoy his handsome home for especially long.  On June 26, 1887 he suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 55.  His funeral was held in the house three days later and he was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, New York where the Slaters' country home was located.

Martha left East 56th Street almost immediately afterward, never to return.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on October 8 offered, "To Rent Furnished--four story brown stone house to private family; perfect order."

In 1903 she leased the house to Eleanor Claire Hughes Munde.  Her renowned husband, Dr. Paul Fortunatus Munde had died the previous year.  Her wealth and social station were reflected in the reception held in the house following her daughter Natalie Morris Munde's wedding in St. Bartholomew's Church on April 26, 1905.  Among the guests were several members of the Roosevelt family, the Frederick Dent Grants, Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan, the Augustus D. Juilliards, Mrs. Henry Lewis Morris and other high-level socialites.

Before the wedding, the New York Herald had announced that Eleanor "will probably pass part of the coming summer in Europe."  What was certain was that she would not be returning to 72 East 56th Street.  In February Martha A. Slater had sold the house to John Aitken.  Six months later the New York Herald commented, "John W. Aitken is remodelling [sic] No. 72 East Fifty-sixth street into the American basement type of house."

Aitken had hired architects Foster, Gade & Graham to transform the outdated brownstone into a modern Edwardian home.  The all-encompassing plans, filed in May, called for new facades, a rear extension, and new internal stairs and walls.

Construction was not quite completed when this photo was taken.  The stone parlor window railing has not yet been installed.  The Brickbuilder, September 1908 (copyright expired)

Foster, Gade & Graham created a charming Colonial Revival home faced in red brick and trimmed in white stone.  An ample arched fanlight crowned the entrance and the grouped parlor windows were fronted by a stone faux balcony.  The second story windows opened onto an iron-railed balcony, their splayed lintels typical of Colonial architecture.  The mansard featured two dormers behind a brick parapet.

The first and second floor plans reflect the extension Aitken had added to the rear.  The Brickbuilder, September 1908 (copyright expired)

Aitken was a member of the dry goods business Aitken, Son & Co. founded by his father.  A 1901 graduate of Princeton University, he and his wife, the former Ethel Ralson, had been married in her parents' home in Chicago in 1902.  When they moved into their newly remodeled home, they had a baby son, John William, who was born on May 28, 1904.  The couple would have two daughters, Barbara and H. Jean.

The family's summer home, Cumbernauld, was at Oyster Bay, Long Island.  Twelve years after Foster, Gade & Graham had remodeled their townhouse, the firm was called back to improve the country estate.  On August 11, 1917 the Record & Guide reported that the architects were designing a one-story garage and wing, a two-and-a-half-story chauffeur's cottage, and a farmer's cottage of the same size.

That year the United States entered World War I.  Although John Aitken was 38-years-old, he entered the navy, attaining the rank of lieutenant.  While serving with the transport division at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, he met Chief Yeomanette Harriet D. Berry.  Shortly after the war, in January 1920, John and Ethel Aitken were divorced in Reno, Nevada.  Four months later, on April 23, John and Harriet D. Berry were married.  

With their divorce pending, the Aikens had sold 72 East 56th Street in November 1919 to Arthur N. Peck and his wife, Ella.  Peck was the head of the stockbrokerage firm Peck & Co.  The couple had a son, Arthur K. and a daughter Ruth P.  Their summer home was in Woodmere, Long Island.

Two views of a bedroom, most likely a guest room, during the Peck residency.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

When the Pecks moved into 72 East 56th Street, commerce was inching into the formerly exclusive neighborhood.  They would remain only through 1925, after which the basement level was remodeled for a restaurant, Gus Christo, and the upper floors to apartments.

A writer for the humor magazine Judge reported the "important news" on December 11, 1926 that "Gus [Christo] has opened a place at 72 East Fifty-sixth that's a darb--best meals in town!  I get a free meal for this ad!"

In 1941 the basement restaurant had large windows and a shop has been installed at the parlor level.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In the mid-1940s photographer Harriet Arnold lived and worked from an apartment here.  In its March 1945 issue, Popular Photography said she "has successfully solved one photo-economic problem, to wit, how not to pay additional rend for a studio."  That solution made for tight conditions, however.  "Miss Arnold lives in a one-and-a-half room apartment...which means that she lives, eats, sleeps, entertains, and works in one room."

Harriet Arnold sets up a fashion photo shot in her tiny studio apartment.  Popular Photography, March 1945

In 1950 D. D. and Leslie Tillett opened the House of T. Fabrics here, selling drapery and upholstery materials.  Their fashion-forward designs reflected mid-century tastes.  On June 15, 1951 The New York Times reported on a new collection "enlivened with the hot colors and amusing patterns usually associated with Mexican designs."  The journalist was amused by one multi-colored print called Bouillabaisse.  "Drawings of the recipe's ingredients, including octopus, clams and different shell fish, are printed in stripes on the fabric."

In 1979 Les Petites Gourmandes opened in the former Gus Christo space.  The New York Times's food critic Mimi Sheraton said, "Walking back into the small dining room of Les Petites Gourmandes is like taking a step back in time to an intimate supper club of the mid 1930's or early 40's."  She called the French restaurant's menu "as stylish as its décor."  The restaurant remained well into the 1980's.

By then the Jay Johnson Gallery and the America's Folk Heritage Gallery operated from the building.  But the end of the line for the former residence was on the near horizon.  It and the surrounding properties on 55th Street and Park Avenue were demolished to make way for the Park Avenue Tower, designed by Murphy/Jahn Architects, which opened in 1986.

photo by Epicogenius

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The Ralph Pulitzer House - 17 East 73rd Street

Someone thought it would be a good idea to paint the limestone at the entrance level gray.  It wasn't.

Although only steps from Fifth Avenue and Central Park, the ten brownstone residences erected by developer James E. Coburn on the north side of East 73rd Street in 1871 were not mansions.  For the time being Manhattan's wealthiest citizens were content to live below 57th Street.  But they hinted at things to come.

At least one of them, No. 17, replaced an earlier, simpler home.  On April 24, 1869 an advertisement in the New York Herald had offered "To Let--A three story high stoop house."  Now, on September 6, 1875, an ad in the same newspaper touted:

For Sale--That New and Well Built House, No. 17 East Seventy-third street; hard wood finish; 22x60; four stories and basement.

Designed by J. W. Marshall, it and the rest of the row were aimed at more affluent owners--such as Ernst August Roesler, who would live here.  Born in Germany in 1844, he and his wife, the former Clara Mueller, had a daughter Ottilie.

Following Clara's death in 1883 Roesler married Augusta Koehler.  The couple had another daughter, Therese Auguste Louise.  But her half-sister would not see her grow up in the house.  On the afternoon of April 17, 1888 the 18-year-old Ottilie was married in the parlor.  It was a wedding that was covered by all the newspapers.

The bridegroom was George A. Steinway, eldest son of piano maker William Steinway.  The Evening World reported "Many telegrams of congratulations have been received not only from all parts of this country, but from friends of both families in Hamburg, London, [St.] Petersburg, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Paris and other cities of Europe."  The article concluded "The presents received by the bride were very beautiful and very numerous, coming from Germany and England as well as the United States."  Dinner and the reception were held at Delmonico's.

Roesler died on February 10, 1900.  By then merely well-to-do residents like the Roesler family were being nudged out by the fantastically wealthy.  The following year millionaire publisher Joseph Pulitzer demolished Nos. 7 through 15 Eat 73rd Street as the site of his magnificent mansion designed by Stanford White.

In June 1904, the year after the Pulitzer palazzo was completed, son Ralph bought the former Roesler house next door.  The timing of the purchase, a year before his marriage to one of society's most eligible debutantes, Frederica Vanderbilt Webb, was most likely not coincidental.

Frederica was the daughter of Dr. W. Seward Webb and Lila Osgood Vanderbilt.  Her grandfather was William H. Vanderbilt.   The wedding took place in Shelburne, Vermont, where her parents maintained their 3,000-acre country estate, Shelburne Farm.  Its Queen Anne-style mansion contained 60 rooms and Frederick Law Olmsted had designed the park-like grounds.

Webb, who had given up his medical practice to become involved with the railroads with his father-in-law, arranged a ten-car special train to transport guests from Manhattan.  On October 14, 1905, the day before the ceremony, The New York Times reported "At Shelburne House, the decorators were kept at work to-night.  They completed the decorations there yesterday, but the heat to-day withered them so it was necessary to do them all over again."  The newspaper later reported that the wedding "was attended by 600 guests."

A month later, on November 12, 1905 the New-York Tribune reported that the architectural firm of Foster, Gade & Graham had filed plans for remodeling No. 17 East 73rd Street.  "The facade is to be removed and a new front of decorated limestone erected.  New staircases are to be installed and the interior rearranged."  The firm estimated the cost at $20,000, or about $575,000 today.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported on what might have been an embarrassing afterthought.  A separate set of plans were filed, this one specifically to "install toilets."

Foster, Gade & Graham worked around the old English basement plan by placing the new entrance a few steps below sidewalk level.  Clad in limestone, the neo-Renaissance residence was splashed with Beaux Arts embellishments.  The three story rounded bay was marked by three arched French windows, and a trio of rectangular openings separated by Corinthian pilasters, their sills dripping swags of carved roses.  Similar garlands draped over blank rosettes below the elaborately carved stone cornice which supported the mansard level.

The house was barely completed when Ralph and Frederica began construction of their summer home in July 1906.  The Colonial-style mansion would sit on their 200-acre estate near those of William K. Vanderbilt and Payne Whitney.

Back in Manhattan the newlyweds most likely never lived in the 73rd Street house.   Despite the efforts and cost his son had expended to renovate the house next door, Joseph Pulitzer's wedding present to Frederica was a house on Fifth Avenue.

In 1910 Ralph Pulitzer leased No. 17 to Josephine Livermore.   The widow of attorney John R. Livermore, who died on May 3, 1906, she was the former Josephine Whitney Brooks.  The couple had married in December 1898, The New York Times noting "The wedding was a social event.  H. O. Havemeyer was the bridegroom's best man."

Livermore's death was, somewhat bizarrely, brought on by the trauma of the destruction of their country home in Westchester County about a month earlier.  The target of arsonists, the magnificence of the mansion and its furnishings was reflected in the silver alone--valued at around $990,000 in today's money.  "The fire was a great shock to Mr. Livermore," said a newspaper following his death, "who has been ailing ever since"

As the Pulitzers continued to lease the house (to Sidney C. Berg in 1913 and Mrs. Gardiner Sherman in 1915, for instance) their names continued to appear in newspapers.   In 1913 Ralph surprised most of the city when he sued the powerful Tammany-backed Mayor William Jay Gaynor for defaming his father.  A few months later, in January 1914, the building in which Pulitzer's $40,000 yacht, the Bullet, was store in dry dock burned, destroying it.

In August 1916 architect Louise J. Farmer did significant upgrades to the 73rd Street house for Pulitzer.  His plans called for "new stairs, partitions, plumbing, brick walls."  The renovations cost the publisher the equivalent $105,000 today.

Ralph and Frederica had two children, Ralph, Jr. and Seward.  In the autumn of 1921 a tutor was hired for Seward.  Cyril Jones had served as secretary to Colonel Edward M. House during the Paris Peace Conference and was in charge of communications between him and President Woodrow Wilson.  Following his discharge from the Navy, he took the job of tutoring Seward.

Before long, unknown to Ralph Pulitzer, a romance was developing between his wife and the tutor.  In the spring of 1922 Jones resigned to join the faculty of the Milton School near Boston.  Frederica promptly sailed to Paris to begin divorce proceedings.   On February 15, 1924 The New York Times reported on the pending divorce, the grounds of which were "constructive desertion."  Four months later the newspaper reported that Frederica Pulitzer would marry Cyril Jones at Shelburne House in August or September.

Interestingly enough, Pulitzer retained possession of No. 17.  In 1927 he leased it William D. Flanders who married author Margaret Leech the following year.  Upon returning from their honeymoon in England and France, they took up residence at No. 450 East 52nd Street.  A daughter was born in there March 1929.

Finally, after decades of leasing the home, Ralph sold it to Benjamin Joseph Buttenweiser in 1934.  Five years earlier the banker and philanthropist had married Helen Lehman, daughter of Arthur Lehman, senior partner in Lehman Brothers.  Son Lawrence Benjamin was born on January 11, 1932.  His parents were a fascinating pair.

Buttenweiser, the son of wealthy real estate operator Joseph L. Buttenwieser, was admitted to Columbia College at the age of 15, focusing on 19th century English poetry.  He graduated two years later.  Because Columbia University refused to accept him for its doctorate program (he was too young) he entered the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb.

And Helen was no insipid socialite.  A civic leader, she was one of the first women admitted to the City Bar Association.

Before moving in, the Buttenweisers got rid of the Edwardian interiors of Foster, Gade & Graham.  They hired the Modernist architect William Lescaze to completely redesign the interiors.  On December 12, 1936 The New Yorker wrote that Lescaze "in the last five or six years has taken the lead in Modernist architecture in this country" and said that the Benjamin Buttenwieser house was one of "the only three completely Modernist town houses in N.Y.C."

The result was a striking dichotomy of styles.  The inside was sleekly cutting edge, while the facade remained nearly unchanged.  Writing in Arts & Decoration in 1937, architecture critic Mary Fanton Roberts noted "The exterior Mr. Lescaze left pretty much as it used to be. He took a few ornaments off, substituted casement windows. All of which was probably a sound idea...although the result in no way reflects the Modern expected from Mr. Lescaze."

The Buttenwiesers would have two more sons.  Peter L. Buttenwieser was born in 1936 and Paul Arthur on April 15, 1938.  All three boys would go on to successful careers.  Lawrence established a thriving legal career; Peter would eventually become best known as a philanthropist (Mother Jones Magazine placed him at No. 2 on its 1998 list of Top Ten "power elite" with "bald ambition"); and Paul became a physician, child psychiatrist and author.

The family's country home was in Bedford Village, New York.  Benjamin and Helen were still living on 73rd Street when Lawrence married Ann Harriet Lubin on July 14, 1956 in Purchase, New York.  But within to years it was owned by the Republic of Guinea as its Permanent Mission to the United States.

The Mission remained in the house until 1969 when it was converted to a three-family residence with a doctor's office on the ground floor.  It was most likely at this time that the mansard was converted to a glass-walled penthouse.

From 1977 to the early 1980's the office was home to Maho Bay Camps, Inc., operators of the "camping resort" on St. John in the Virgin Islands.  The resort offered 70 three-room "canvas cottages" each 16 x 16 feet.  The rates in 1977 were $150 per week for couples and an additional $15 for each child.

The Pulitzer house has suffered some humiliation--the coat of graphite-colored paint over the limestone first floor, window air conditioners in the transoms of the fourth floor windows and, much worse, gouged into the fifth floor stonework.  (And, then, there's the matter of the mansard roof.)  But overall the elegance of the 1906 remodeling of the Victorian brownstone survives.

photographs by the author

The John Russell Pope House - 4 East 81st Street

Brothers William B. and Ambrose M. Parsons hired architects Thom & Wilson to design a row of 11 brownstone residences on East 81st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues in 1883.  The high-stooped, neo-Grec homes were completed the following year.

The homes within the ambitious row were intended for financially-comfortable families.   The 20-foot wide, brownstone clad houses were four stories high above an English basement.  Their neo-Grec architecture featured windows with architrave surrounds sitting on diminutive brackets, and handsome sheet metal cornices with four paired brackets.

Rather amazingly, every one of the 11 houses sold within a one week period in April 1884.  Isaac Rosenstein paid $40,850 for No. 4--just over $1 million today.   Rosenstein was the principal in the clothing "ready-made clothing" manufacturer Isaac Rosenstein & Co. at No. 23 White Street.  The firm made boys' and men's shirts for working class customers, such as "cotton shirts, flannel shirts," and "jean shirts."

Like other well-to-do Jewish families, the Rosensteins were limited mainly to Jewish social circles.  They were among the patrons of the lavish ball of the Young Ladies and Gentlemen's League of the Montefiore Home in Carnegie Hall in January 1895.  The New York Times said "The ball promises to be the most brilliant event in Jewish society this season."  Providing the music that evening was Victor Herbert.

The Rosensteins remained in the 81st Street house for 15 years, moving to No. 16 East 96th Street in 1901.  They sold the house in April to the wealthy widow, Mary Herschfield, who lived here quietly until 1905.  That year she sold it to Cornelius Fellowes and his wife, the former Caroline Suydam Whitney.  The couple had two children, 26-year old Cornelius, Jr. and Carolyn Whitney Fellowes, who was 23. 

Fellowes was born in 1840 in Louisville, Kentucky, and was educated at Columbia University.  He amassed his fortune in the stock and cotton brokerage firm of Fellowes, Davis & Co.  He had retired in 1890 and was now best known for his affiliation with the fashionable National Horse Show.  He was also secretary of the Coney Island Jockey Club and rubbed shoulders with other prominent horse owners like August Belmont, William C. Whitney, Pierre Lorillard and Alfred Vanderbilt, just a few of the millionaires The New York Times deemed Fellowes's "intimate friends."

When the Fellowes purchased No. 4 it was decidedly out of fashion, architecturally speaking.  The architectural firm of Foster, Gade & Graham was called in to remedy that problem.  In April 1906 plans were filed.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported on the alterations.  "The rear and front will be enlarged with a 3 and 4-story extension, light shafts, stairs and other interior changes."

At the time the frothy French Beaux Arts style was falling out of favor among wealthy New Yorkers.  Millionaires like Andrew Carnegie and Paul Tuckerman were living in neo-Georgian mansions that hearkened back to Colonial days.  Foster, Gade & Graham's redo of the Fellowes house, completed within the year, would follow the trend.

The stoop was removed and the facade pulled forward to the property line.  The entrance was now located above a shallow stoop, slightly higher than the sidewalk level.   The red brick was laid in Flemish bond, to mimic age, and splayed limestone lintels carried on the early 19th century motif.  Three copper-clad dormers perched on the stone cornice.

The renovations were completed just in time for Carolyn's important society wedding.  On June 9, 1908 she was married in Grace Church.  The reception was held later in the East 81st Street residence.  Society pages were, perhaps, less interested in the bride than the groom.   Richard Lewis Morris was the son of Dr. Stuyvesant Fish Morris.  The separate components of his name alone constituted a significant representation old New York society.

Cornelius Fellowes was suffering from arterio-sclerosis at the time of the wedding.  That winter his health forced him to step down as president of the National Horse Show and as officer in The Jockey Club.  In February 1909 he took a severe turn for the worse, and fell into unconsciousness on April 27.  He died three days later without regaining consciousness.

Caroline did not remain in the house she had planned and shared with her husband.  Beginning in October 1910 she leased it to a succession of well-heeled tenants.  In June 1912 Franklin Delano Williams signed a lease "for a term of years."

Williams was a cotton goods merchant with a highly-interesting background.  He was born in Hong Kong in 1855.  His father, Franklin D. Williams, Sr., was a founder of the China export trading firm Wetmore, Williams & Co.  The family moved to Boston in 1861 where Franklin was educated.  He married Ruth Morse and the couple had one child, Mary Nelson Williams.  She was married in Boston in 1882 to lawyer Henry Ware Putnam.

Williams became a member of the cotton manufacturing firm Wellington, Sears & Co.  The family spent their summers in their Newport estate known as Wyn Wyc Cottage.  When they moved into the 81st Street house they had been living in New York only about three years.

After a lengthy illness, Williams died on February 4, 1914.  Ruth received a trust fund of $100,000, which amounted to nearly $2.5 million in today's dollars.

Caroline Fellowes continued to lease the house.  In 1915 it was rented by J. F. A. Clark, a member of the brokerage firm Clark, Childs & Co.   Like the Williams family, the Clarks summered in Newport.

Caroline Suydam Whitney Fellowes died in her stylish apartment at No. 1049 Park Avenue at the age of 70 on September 22, 1922.   She had sold No. 4 the year before to esteemed architect John Russell Pope.

Even if Pope had not been an acclaimed architect, his and his wife's names would have been well known, socially.  Both Southerners by birth, they were considered by The New York Herald to be "a prominent part in the summer life of Newport."  John's father, also named John, was a successful portrait artist whose subjects included Henry Ward Beecher, actor Edwin Booth, and Secretary of War Edward McMasters.  Sarah Pope was the daughter of millionaire Pembroke Jones and Sarah Wharton Green. 
 
Somewhat interestingly, Pope had also purchased the 50-foot wide lot on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 96th Street around the same time where, according to the New-York Tribune, he "intended to erect a home on the site for his own occupancy."
 
The Popes' change in plans may have had to do with the devastating tragedy which occurred shortly after they took possession of No. 4.   Around the first of March, 1922 little 7-year old Sarah Pope complained of stomach pains.  Within the week, on March 6, she had died of peritonitis.

Rather surprisingly, only five weeks later the house was the scene of the wedding of Sarah Pope's mother.  Pembroke Jones had died in January 1919.  On April 11 Sarah Green Jones married an old family friend, Henry Walters, described by The New York Herald the following day as "railroad executive, yachtsman and noted art connoisseur."

Two years later another family wedding would take place here.  John's sister, Minga, married Robert Halsey Patchin on April 4, 1924.  Both the bride and groom were widowed and the ceremony in the 81st Street house was subdued.  The Times noted that "relatives and a few intimate friends will be present."

On October 6, 1925 Pope received a notable commission when it was reported he had "won the competition for a design for the Roosevelt Memorial to be erected in Washington."  It was the first of several important D.C. structures he would design, including the Jefferson Memorial, the National Archives, and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.

The Popes' two daughters, Jane and Mary, were in their teens now and were being readied for society.  On April 24, 1930 the New York Evening Post mentioned that the family "are sailing for Europe tomorrow on the Majestic.  They will return the middle of the summer to go to Newport."  The family may have made their trip somewhat short because Mary's 19th birthday was in August and her debut would soon follow.  

John Russell Pope - from the collection of the Library of  Congress

Sarah Walters gave her granddaughter a lavish birthday present in Newport--a new coupe automobile.  One week later, at around 6:00 on the evening of August 18, Mary was driving her new car with Adelaide F. Whitehouse along for the ride.  At the corner of Eustis Avenue and Old Beach Road, she collided with the car driven by James W. Sullivan, Jr.  According to Sullivan's report, after Mary's car struck his, it "swerved and turned over two or three times."  Adelaide was thrown from the car, but Mary was trapped inside.

She suffered a skull fracture and was taken to the Newport Hospital where she died.

Five years later, in August 1935, Jean Landon Pope's debut was celebrated with a ball in August 1935 at the Popes' Newport estate, The Waves.  (John had designed the lavish Newport in 1927.)

On August 27, 1937, John Russell Pope died at the age of 63.  His reputation as an architect was deemed by The Times as "international."  King George VI of Britain referred to his Tate Gallery in London as "the world's finest sculpture gallery."

Sarah inherited the entire estate, valued at $812,974 (around $13.6 million today).  Pope had explained in his will that Jean Landon Pope, his only surviving daughter, "is otherwise provided for" and said "I am confident that my wife will act for her best interests."

A reception was held in the 81st Street house following Jean's wedding to Navy war hero Anthony B. Akers in St. Thomas Episcopal Church on November 28, 1942.  Now alone, Sarah lived on here until 1949 when she sold it to Benjamin Gladwin.  He announced his intentions "for converting [it] into eleven modern apartments."

The renovations were completed in 1950, with two apartments each in the basement through fourth floors, and a single apartment on the fifth.

Outwardly little has changed to the house since Cornelius Fellowes made his dramatic changes in 1906.

photographs by the author

The John Iselin House -- No. 59 East 79th Street

By the end of the 1870s the northern side of the 79^th Street block between Madison and Park Avenues was lined with middle-class homes between just 13 and 14 feet wide.  But as the century drew to a close the neighborhood changed as Manhattan’s wealthiest citizens moved northward.

While many old brownstones were being razed or renovated in the first years of the 20^th century; the houses on 79^th Street posed a problem.  They were too narrow to accommodate the upscale residences appropriate for lavish entertaining and luxurious lifestyles of moneyed homeowners.  The solution was simple—side-by-side houses were purchased, demolished, and commodious mansions erected on their combined sites.

Among these were Nos. 59 and 61 East 79^th Street—each 14 feet wide.  They were purchased and demolished by John Iselin and his wife, Caroline, in 1908.  In August that year architects Foster, Gade & Graham filed plans for a five-story “brick and stone dwelling” with a projected cost of $45,000 (in the neighborhood of $1.2 million today).

The New York Times reported on August 4 “It is to be of the Colonial type, with small paned windows, keystone arch, and a mansard roof, and will be of ornamental brick with trimmings of decorated stone.  It will have a central hall, a library, a children’s playroom, and a sun parlor on the roof.”

Despite newspaper’s prediction, the architectural style of the mansion, completed in 1909, could hardly be called “Colonial.”  Foster, Gade & Graham had married the French Classic and Northern Renaissance styles to create an interesting and opulent hybrid.  The firm’s choice of grayish-buff brick, which nearly matched the limestone trim, produced the initial impression of a stone-faced structure.

The entrance, above a short set of stone steps, was balanced by a window of the same proportions.  The service entrance was discretely placed below the stoop.  The combination of styles was nowhere more evident than at the second floor, where robust stone balconies with Renaissance carvings fronted elegant French windows with delicate French Classic panels of fruity swags.

As was customary, the title of the mansion was placed in Caroline’s name.  John H. Iselin was a prominent lawyer who had formerly been Assistant District Attorney in New York County.  Caroline was highly involved in charities of the Episcopal church and the house was frequently the scene of meetings of the Fresh Air Fund of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the Cathedral Sewing Class.

Wealthy New Yorkers closed their Manhattan homes during the oppresive summer months as they sought the relief of country estates and fashionable resorts.  The Iselins were, of course, no different.  Only four years after the 79^th Street house was completed, repairs were needed.  And there was no better time to have noisy and obtrusive repairs done than when the house was vacant.

With only a diminished household staff in the mansion, the workmen easily moved from room to room.   Among them was a stone mason helper, 18-year old Albert Beegklin.  The temptation of being surrounded by unprotected valuables was too much for the teen.

On Monday evening, August 4, 1913 John Iselin returned to the city for a business meeting.  The New York Times reported “When he went to his bedroom he found that a gold watch, a gold cigar lighter, and a gold match box had been stolen.”

Lieutenant Detective Tiche questioned the domestic staff and the workmen one-by-one.  Finally, said The Times, “his suspicions fell on Beegklin who, the detective says, is at present on suspended sentence for stealing a $250 diamond ring from a Brooklyn doctor last May.”

Tiche and Beegklin went to the boy’s home in Brooklyn where the stolen items were found hidden in the bathroom.  Although Beegklin had managed to smuggle out the expensive items; he left much behind.  “Mr. Iselin said the thief overlooked $10,000 worth of jewelry in a jewel box in the same bureau,” reported the newspaper.

As the United States entered World War I socialites turned their attention to war relief and some millionaires donated vehicles and supplies.  John H. Iselin went a step further.  On September 24, 1918 the New-York Tribune announced that he had been accepted as a candidate to attend the Field Artillery Central Officers’ Training School at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky.  His valiant gesture proved unnecessary as peace was declared less than two months later, on November 11.

In September the following year the Iselins moved to No. 1042 Madison Avenue, selling the 79^th Street house to Norman Hezekiah Davis and his wife, the former McPherson (known as Mackie) Paschall.  The couple had eight children, all of whom shared the same middle name of Paschall.

Davis had amassed millions of dollars as a banker in Cuba and held the position of president of the Trust Company of Cuba, from 1902 through 1917.  He returned to the states during World War I when he was appointed financial adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury on foreign loans.  When the Davis family moved into No. 59 East 79^th Street he had just returned from Europe; having been sent there as Foreign Emissary.

Within a few months he would be back again, traveling to the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919 with President Woodrow Wilson as the President’s financial advisor.  Davis would continue to serve Wilson as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Under-Secretary of State and Acting Secretary of State.

In the meantime Mackie and the children carried on the lifestyles expected of Manhattan’s elite.  The family’s summer estate was in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and two years after moving into the 79^th Street house the first of the several debutante entertainments began here. 

Norman and McPherson (Mackie) Davis -- photo from the collection of the Library of Congress

On December 27, 1921 Mackie gave a reception for Martha, who was home from Vassar for the holidays.  While the announcement in the New-York Tribune gave the event little notice, the New York Herald noted that about “a thousand friends paid their compliments” over the course of the afternoon.

Over the next two decades the home would be the scene of repeated debutante entertainments and wedding receptions as one-by-one the Davis children reached adulthood and married.  Typical of these was the dance held in the house on December 18, 1928 for daughter Mary, who had been introduced at a reception earlier in the week.  Among the more than 300 guests were family friends Charles Dana Gibson and his wife, John D. Rockefeller III, and Nelson A. Rockefeller; and among the “young people” were names like Maria Sloan Auchincloss, Cornelia Van Rensselaer, and August Belmont, Jr.

Although some of the Davis weddings took place in fashionable St. George’s Church (in April 1930 The Times said that the church was “transformed to represent a garden of yellow springs flowers” for Mary’s wedding to John Clarkson Potter); some, like Martha’s in 1931 and Sarah’s in 1936, were held in the 79^th Street house.

In the meantime, Norman Davis continued to be invaluable to United States Presidents, serving Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt.  He earned the unique title of Ambassador at Large “with a roving assignment in Europe”in 1936 under President Franklin Roosevelt, as described by the New York Times.

The schedule of entertainments, political meetings and society receptions was interrupted in April 1935 for a much different meeting in the house.  Neighbors appointed Norman H. Davis chairman of a committee to fight the intrusion of a motion picture theater on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 79^th Street.   Well-heeled homeowners gathered in the Davis house to plot their attack.  The New York Times reported on April 24 “Militantly organized against what they term ‘an unwarranted invasion of one of the few remaining strictly high-class residential sections of the city,’ they will voice their objections.”

The newspaper noted “Members of the committee said construction of a picture theatre ‘with consequent noise, garish lighting and continuing come and go of the taxicabs’ would ‘at once disastrously change the quiet tone of the neighborhood.’”

In addition to his many other responsibilities, on April 12, 1938 President Roosevelt appointed Davis to the post of Chairman of the American Red Cross.  The President said at the time he “saw no reason any Mr. Davis’s duty with that organization should interfere with his duties as Special Ambassador at Large and adviser to the State House on European affairs.”

What it did mean, however, was that living in New York shortly was no longer feasible.  While they retained their Stockbridge summer home, the Davises moved to Alexandria, Virginia in 1941.  Only a few months later Mackie died there, on March 7, 1942.

With the Davises gone, the fate of the Manhattan mansion was sealed.  That same year the 79^th Street house was converted to apartments.  Later a doctor’s office was installed on the ground floor.   Although it could stand a serious cleaning; the Iselin mansion is little changed on the exterior.  It survives among a row of other homes of wealthy New Yorkers who demolished pairs of middle-class houses to erect lavish residences.

photographs by the author