The 1902 Henry Herman Westinghouse Mansion - 313 West 105th Street

 

Real estate developer John C. Umberfield purchased vacant land on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive in 1900.  Architect William E. Mowbray designed seven high-end residences for the site in the French Beaux Arts style, configuring his three designs in an A-B-C-B-C-B-A configuration.

The row was completed in 1902 and among the C models was 313 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance, which sat atop a three-stepped porch, within a rusticated base.  A delicate French-style railing at the second floor introduced a three-story projecting angled bay.  Engaged Scamozzi columns upheld a dramatic, broken pediment over the central window of the second floor.

John C. Umberfield sold the 21-foot-wide residence in February 1902 to Kate A. Burbank.  Her ownership would be short.  On October 30, 1903, The Sun reported that Kate sold 313 West 105th Street "to a Mrs. Westinghouse."

"Mrs. Westinghouse" was Clara Louise Saltmarsh Westinghouse, the wife of Henry Herman Westinghouse.  Born in 1854 and 1853 respectively, the couple was married in 1873.  They had two daughters, Clara Catherine, who was 20 in 1903; and Marjorie Caldwell, who was eight.  (Another daughter, Florence Erskine Westinghouse, died in 1890.)

Henry and his brother, George Westinghouse, were the sons of George Westinghouse, Sr., a patentee and manufacturer of farm equipment.  Like George, Jr., according to The New York Times, Henry "inherited a talent for mechanical development."  In 1883 he invented the single-acting steam engine and continued to design devices connected with air brakes and steam engines.  (His brother invented the air brake.)  In 1883, Henry co-founded the engineering firm of Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co.  The New York Times would later remark, "This company marketed the single-acting engine in every country where steam power is used."

When he founded Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co., Henry had already been associated with the Westinghouse Air Brake Company for a decade.  When he and Clara purchased 313 West 105th Street, he had been a vice-president of that firm for four years.

The family had another residence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and their country estate, Grasmere, was on Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes district of central New York State.   

Henry Herman Westinghouse (1853-1933) original source unknown

The drawing and dining rooms of the West 105th Street house were routinely the venue of entertaining.  But the dinner party of "intimate friends and members of the family" on February 16, 1906, was special.  The New-York Tribune noted that "there were twenty-covers" and said that during the dinner, Clara Catherine's engagement to Charles William Fletcher was announced.

Six months later, on August 26, the New-York Tribune reported that the invitations to the wedding had been issued.  It would take place, said the article, "on the evening of Wednesday, September 12, at their summer home, Grasmere, Kidder's Ferry, on Cayuga Lake."  It would be a prestigious event.

The Auburn, New York Democrat reported, "The affair was elaborate in detail and was witnessed by about 900 guests and relatives from New York, Pittsburg, Boston, Schenectady and Atchison, Kansas."  The article mentioned that after their "automobile tour," the newlyweds "will be at home at 313 West One Hundred and Fifth street, New York, after November 15."

The following year, Henry and Clara sold the mansion to clothing manufacturer Hugh M. Mullen and his wife, Jessie C.  The couple had a daughter, Genevieve Lillian, born in 1887.

The family had barely settled in when Genevieve's engagement to Guyon Locke Crocheron Earle was announced.  On December 30, 1908, The Sun reported, "The marriage will be celebrated at the Mullen home on January 27.  

While the society reporters normally focused on the prospective bride, this engagement was different.  The son of the late General Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Guyon Earle grew up in "Earle Cliff," known today as the Morris-Jumel mansion, and in the family's Staten Island country home, Guyon Mansion, erected in 1673.  New Yorkers were also well-acquainted with the family through General Earle's proprietorship of hotels, notably the New Netherlands and the Hotel Normandie.

The wedding took place in the 105th Street house on the night of January 27, 1909.  As the Westinghouses had done, the Mullens soon sold the mansion.  In May 1910, Hugh and Jessie moved to the fashionable Sugar Hill section of Harlem, purchasing a house at 20 St. Nicholas Place.  They sold 313 West 105th Street to John Ewing and his wife, the former Grace MacKenzie.

John Ewing was born in Scotland on May 21, 1848.  When he was three, his parents immigrated to New York City.  He graduated from the College of Pharmacy and in 1877 partnered in the drug business of Doyle & Ewing.  He later founded Ewing & Co. with his brother-in-law Alexander MacKenzie.  Grace was the daughter of George R. MacKenzie, president of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

The couple was married on October 3, 1876.  Their first child, Grace MacKenzie, died at the age of five in 1885.  Their son, George Ross McKenzie, was 27 years old when they purchased 313 West 105th Street.  The Ewings' country home, Bramble Brae, was in Glen Spey, New York.

The couple was at Bramble Brae on July 29, 1914, when John died at the age of 66.  Grace remained at 313 West 105th Street until September 1920 when she sold it to British Lt. Colonel Lloyd, sparking a rapid-fire turnover in ownership.  

On December 10, 1924, The New York Times reported that Milton and Edward Schreyer had purchased the house for $55,000, saying they "intend to make extensive improvements and occupy."  (The price would translate to just over $1 million in 2026.)  They Schreyers lost the property in foreclosure and it was sold at auction to John B. Antonapolos for $40,950 on January 12, 1927.

Antonapolos leased the house the following year to the Master Institute of United Arts.  In reporting the deal on July 27, 1928, The New York Times remarked, "The institute owns the plot at the north corner of 103d Street and Riverside Drive, where it is erecting a fifteen-story structure."

The porch and its hefty wing walls were intact when this tax photograph was taken.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Russian-born Nicholas Roerich and his wife, Helena, had arrived in New York City eight years earlier.  The mystic and artist described himself as a master in the theosophist belief in ancients who could transmit messages and knowledge to believers.  (Reportedly, it was he who urged follower Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture under Franklin Roosevelt, to persuade the Treasury Department to add the mystic pyramid of the Great Seal to the dollar bill—a change that was enacted in 1935.)  In addition to the institute, the couple had founded the Roerich Museum in 1923.

At the time of the lease signing, Nicholas was out of the country, "the head of the Roerich American expedition to Tibet," as explained by The New York Times on July 15, 1928.  His 5,000-word letter that Helena had received the previous day was the first anyone had heard from the expedition in 13 months.  He explained that they had been captives for five months in Tibet, "during which five of his men died and ninety caravan animals perished."

The Master Institute of United Arts and the Roerich Museum operated from 313 West 105th Street, staging exhibitions and lectures.  On January 27, 1929, The New York Times commented, "The Roerich Museum at 313 West 105th Street contains about 800 paintings by Mr. Roerich, including the panorama of his Asiatic travels.  The facilities remained here until the completion of the Master Building at 310-312 Riverside Drive. 

John Antonapolos signed a three-year lease for 313 West 105th Street to Pantelis Sioris on December 1, 1930 at $4,500 per year (about $7,000 per month today).  Before being leased in February 1939, it had been converted to multiple units--two apartments through the fourth floor and six furnished rooms on the fifth.

A substantial renovation came in 1963, when the former mansion was converted to apartments, three per floor.  The porch was removed, the main entrance and the service entrance remodeled as windows, and a new doorway installed where a window had been.

Then, in 1999, a penthouse level, unseen from the street was added.  It, combined with the fifth floor, created a duplex apartment.  There are 15 units in the building today.

photographs by the author

The 1900 Albert Goldman Mansion - 305 West 105th Street

 

In 1899, real estate developer Hamilton W. Weed broke ground for four upscale residences on the north side of West 105th street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.  Designed by Janes & Leo in an A-B-B-C configuration, they were completed the following year.  Among the B models was 305 West 105th Street.  Clad in Flemish bond brick and trimmed in limestone above an ashlar base, its French Beaux Arts design included a two-story, faceted oriel behind a balustrade at the second and third floors.  The central window of the second floor wore a triangular pediment that engulfed a large, layered keystone.  The understated fifth floor sat above a bracketed metal cornice.

Real estate operator Albert Brod purchased three of the houses for resale.  He sold No. 305 to Albert and Augusta Goldman in May 1901.  Goldman sat on the board of directors of the Mutual Chemical Company of Jersey City and of the Tartar Chemical Co.  He and Augusta had three children, Harry, Sophie and Lillian.

John C. Umberfield lived with the family briefly, listed here in 1904.  A prolific builder and developer, many of the structures he erected were on the Upper West Side.

Sophie and Lillian Goldman had lofty ambitions for young women in the first years of the 20th century.  At a time when female attorneys were nearly unheard of, in 1911 Sophie was enrolled in the Woman's Law Class of New York University.  Her sister would graduate from the Law Class, as well.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Augusta Goldman died in the mansion on August 10, 1914.  Sophie and Lillian took over the management of the house.  When well-to-do families closed their townhouses for the summer, the staff was often let go, to be replaced in the fall.  On June 26, 1916, a notice in The New York Times read: "Cook--Lady closing house for Summer, wishes situations for her cook and chambermaid, waitress.  305 West 105th St."

As early as 1920, both sisters were members of the Portia Club.  A women-only group, it was founded in 1895 and focused on social and intellectual activities.  Sophie was also a member of the Woman's Forum, a group composed of female lawyers, social workers, doctors and other professionals.  While partly a social club, the Woman's Forum also held civic discussions and events.

By then, Harry was gone from West 105th Street.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 23, 1920 reflected Albert's German origins: "Cook, competent, for private house, family three adults; city references required; German or Austrian preferred."

Interestingly, another builder-developer lived with the Goldmans shortly after that ad.  Hugh Getty was described by the Record & Guide as "one of the best known builders of New York City."  Born in Ireland in 1849, he came to New York at the age of 18 and "erected a number of business buildings in this city, several hotels and a number of handsome residences," said the journal.  Getty died in the house at the age of 73 on December 3, 1922.

The Goldmans had a serious scare in the spring of 1926.  Around the turn of the century, the Consolidated Gas Company established a "Pulmotor Crew" to resuscitate victims of escaping fumes from "imperfect gas fixtures and unsatisfactory, antiquated or neglected house pipes," as described by Gas Logic.  In March 1926, the Goldmans' neighbor, Dr. B. S. Bookstaver, who lived across the street at 304 West 105th Street, wrote a letter to the Consolidated Gas Company that said in part:

I extend my sincerest thanks for the help your Pulmotor crew have given me today in saving the life of Albert Goldman of 305 West 105th Street at 8:30 A.M. from accidental gas asphyxiation.

On April 21, 1929, Goldman's death was announced in an extremely succinctly worded notice in The New York Times:  "Goldman, Albert, at his late residence.  305 West 105th St. Funeral private."

The mansion was converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1940.  Among the residents as early as 2006 was Tony Award winning actress Betty Buckley.  Born in Texas in 1947, she made her mark on Broadway, film and television, earning her Tony as Grizabella in the original Broadway production of Cats in 1983.  While living here she sang "Memory" from Cats at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2006, in tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Externally, little has changed to 305 West 105th Street since the Goldman family moved in nearly 125 years ago.

photographs by the author

The 1902 Isidor and Julia Gartner Mansion - 309 West 105th Street

 

Two years after ground was broken, in 1902 builder and developer John C. Umberfield completed construction of seven, 22-foot wide townhouses on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in the French Beaux Arts style, they were five stories tall and faced in limestone.

Anchoring the row to the east was 309 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance within a rusticated base.  A projecting bay with gently curved corners provided an iron-railed balcony to the fifth floor.  Engaged Scamozzi columns that upheld a dramatic, broken pediment at the second floor were mimicked in the double-height pilasters that flanked the second and third floors.

Umberfield sold the house to Isidor and Julia M. Gartner in April 1902. Born in Rhaunen, Germany in September 1844, Gartner was a partner in Gartner & Friedenheit, makers of satin and silk ribbons.  The former Julia M. Winter was born in New York in 1847.  Also living in the house were the couple's unmarried sons, Louis Winter and Albert Victor; and son William S. (known as "Billy") and his wife, the former Carrol Batles (known familiarly as "Babe.")  They were married on July 3, 1900.  

The family's country home was in Arverne, Long Island.  Julia suffered a terrifying and potentially fatal incident there on August 10, 1902.  Among the domestic staff was Mathilda Schnitzer.  The New York Herald Dispatch reported, "The young woman found Mrs. Gartner alone in a room and sprang upon her with the cry, 'Now I'll do it!'  She then threw Mrs. Gartner on the floor and began to choke her."

Hearing the commotion, other servants ran to the room and found Julia unconscious on the floor.  "They dragged the Schnitzer girl away from Mrs. Gartner," said the article.  Two physicians soon arrived.  The Herald Dispatch said that Dr. Tingley "had trouble restoring [Julia] to consciousness," while the other doctor, George Meyer, diagnosed Mathilda Schnitzer with "acute mania."  (The term often refers to bipolar disorder today.)  The young woman was transported back to Manhattan where she was committed to the Bellevue Hospital insane ward.

William and Carrol had a baby boy, named William Jr. in 1902.  Tragically, he died on New Year's Day 1903.  The family's intense grief resulted in the infant's funeral being strictly private.

There would be another funeral in the parlor a month to the day later.  Julia Gartner died on February 1, 1903 at the age of 55.  Her active involvement and that of her husband in the local and Jewish communities was reflected in the groups represented at the funeral: Yorkville Lodge, No. 69; King Solomon's Lodge, No. 279; Temple Beth-El; the Monte Relief Society; and the Grand Lodge of the United Order of True Sisters.

On June 12, 1905, Isidore Gartner sold 309 West 105th Street to Daniel Fiske Kellogg.  Born on March 19, 1865 in Chittenango, New York, Kellogg was the financial editor of The Sun.  He married Maude Isabel Forbes on September 2, 1891 and they had a son, Daniel Jr., and a daughter Victorine Lee.  The family's summer home was in Newport.

The Kelloggs remained here for nearly a decade, selling the mansion in November 1914 for $50,000 to John F. Haas.  The price would translate to about $1.62 million in 2025.

The Haas family did not initially move into the house.  They leased it Colonel Frank Scott Long and his wife, the former Edith Erdine Clark.  The couple had two sons, Charles C. and Frank Sidney, and a daughter, Edith.  When the family moved into the house in 1914, Frank Sidney was 19 years old.  On June 18 that year, he was appointed a cadet in the U. S. Military Academy.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

When America entered World War I, Frank Sidney Long was deployed to Europe.  A first lieutenant, he was in command of a battalion at Fleville, France on October 5, 1918.  In posthumously awarding him the Distinguished Service Cross, The General Orders, No. 95 of the War Department on July 26, 1919 read:

Having been wounded in the side by shrapnel while caring for wounded men of his platoon, Lieut. Long refused to be evacuated, but returned from the dressing station to his command.  While withdrawing his platoon to a better position under heavy barrage he was instantly killed by shell fire.

The Haas family moved briefly into the West 105th Street residence.  On September 19, 1919, an ad in The New York Times read, "Lost--Brown and white rough terrier, male; answers to name Scally; no collar; strayed from home Wednesday, 309 West 105th St.  Miss Hass [sic]."  When Scally had not been found nearly two months later, the identical ad was placed in the New York Herald on November 3 adding the plea, "owner heartbroken."

Charles Andrew Flammer and his wife Harriet moved into the house before the end of the year.  Born on June 28, 1845, he graduated from the College of the City of New York and was admitted to the bar in 1866.  He was appointed a judge in 1873.  

On June 29, 1936, The New York Times reported on Flammer's 91st birthday, recalling that he "was a justice presiding over Yorkville Court during the Civil War."  Four months earlier, Flammer had been interviewed by The New York Times journalist Meyer Berger in "the cavernous, dark-paneled parlor of his home at 309 West 105th Street."  The judge recalled the day when he was in his teens, standing at the corner of Broadway and Canal Street "to watch Abraham Lincoln go by in his carriage."  

Justice Charles A. Flammer, Times Wide World Photo, The New York Times June 25, 1937

Berger mentioned in that February 13, 1936 article, "He and his third wife live in the great house off Riverside Drive with two servants.  He climbs the old stairs, despite his age, reads standard or classic books in his library and smokes three cigars a day."  

Judge Charles Andrew Flammer died in the house on June 24, 1937, four days before his 92nd birthday. 

The Flammer estate sold 309 West 105th Street to James H. Cruickshank on June 20, 1939.  In reporting on the sale, The New York Times remarked, "There are fourteen rooms and three baths in the building."

In 1950, the mansion was converted to apartments and furnished rooms.  A subsequent renovation in 1964 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and two each on the upper floors.

photographs by the author

The Margaret Delprat Remsen Mansion - 3 East 80th Street

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A renovation completed in 2000 created two triplex apartments.

photographs by the author