The Robert D. Sterling House - 19 East 77th Street

In 1878 Saulesbury L. Bradley erected a trio of 16-foot-side brownstone-fronted rowhouses at Nos. 15 through 19 East 77th Street.  They were designed by the prolific John G. Prague in the currently fashionable neo-Grec style.  Four stories high above an English basement, they featured three-sided oriels resting on heavy brackets at the second floor.  The upper story windows were encased in architrave frames and wore prominent cornices.

George P. Nelson and his wife, the former Mary E. Robinson, were the original owners of No. 19.  The Nelsons maintained a large summer estate in Westchester County.

An attorney, George had studied law in his father's office in Peekskill, New York and was admitted to practice in 1839.  He divided his focus between Manhattan and upstate.  He was a prominent member of the Westchester County bar and represented that district in Congress for several years.

Nelson's personal fortune was significantly increased following the death of his father, William.  On January 6, 1883 the New-York Tribune reported that the estate was "about $1,000,000."  That amount would be nearly 26 times as much today and was divided equally among George and his three brothers.

The family was at Jamesport, Long Island on September 20, 1899 when Mary inexplicably died.  Newspapers made no mention of the cause of death.  Her funeral was held in the 77th Street house two days later.

Still living with George were his two unmarried daughters, Cordelia and Georgina.  On September 18, 1902 he transferred title to the house to them, most likely to avoid any complications upon his eventual death.  And that came just three years later, on September 27, 1905.

In reporting his death The New York Times noted "He was 89 years old, and for more than thirty years had occupied the house in which he died."  The obituary made note of his civic interests and generosity.  "In the public schools he always took the liveliest interest.  He was also identified with numerous charitable and philanthropic enterprises."

Less than three months later Georgina and Cordelia sold the Westchester estate.  In town they took in a roomer, at least in 1907 and '08.  During both of those years Miss Everitt advertised in several newspapers:  "Teacher--Experienced; visiting tutor; thorough instruction from primary to college preparatory grades; classes as her residence."

On May 14, 1910 the Record & Guide reported that "the Misses Nelson" had sold the house to The Operating Realty Co., noting "this is the first sale of this property in over thirty years."  The new owners almost immediately resold it to broker Robert Dutcher Sterling.

While the brownstone house was out of fashion at the time, the block was decidedly not.  Sterling and his wife, the former Ruth Lancaster Hoe, commissioned architect George B. de Gersdorff to transform it into a modern residence.  His plans, filed on July 16, 1910, called for a "new entrance stoop, new chimney and new stairs."  They were deceptively understated.

The architect removed the stoop, pulled the facade forward to the property line, and created a stylish neo-Federal style residence in red brick and limestone.   

The remodeled home stood out among its Victorian neighbors.  It originally was a match to No. 17 at the left.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The stone-faced ground floor was understated at the very least.  Its modesty allowed the second floor to show off.   Here a stone balcony with iron railings fronted a set of French doors, flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows.  The arrangement, below an arched tympanum, created a Palladian effect.   The splayed limestone lintels of the third and fourth floor windows of carried on the 18th century motif.  The top floor took the form of a steep copper-clad mansard with two prominent dormers.

The Sterlings had two sons, Oliver J. and Edward C.  The family's summer home was in Dublin, New Hampshire.

The Sterlings took an extended trip, possibly to Europe, early in 1914 when they leased the furnished hose to Edward Coleman Delafield, president of the Franklin Trust Company.

The Sterling family was back home by 1920 and they scurried to restaff the house.  Robert was detailed in what he wanted in a chauffeur.  His advertisement sought a "useful man [for] private family; permanent position for unmarried man; wages $30 in city and $85 with board when in country."  The city wages would be equal to about $376 per week today.

The waitress (the top most in the echelon of maids) earned more than the chauffeur.  Her weekly wages were $50 that year and her "car fare" to and from the residence was paid as well.  On the other hand, the laundress, who was expected to do "some cleaning," was needed only two days at week, as reflected in her $3.50 pay.

Ruth's father, Robert Hoe III, was the head of the long-established firm R. Hoe & Co.  Upon his death she inherited $1.2 million in 1924.

Ruth was highly involved in the support of the Babies' Hospital throughout the decades.  She and Robert shared an interest in the American Museum of Natural History.  They both joined the Board of Trustees in April 1953.  They would go on to donate the Bald Eagle Group in the Hall of North American Birds at the museum in 1958 and 1963 presented it with dioramas of 16 of North America's small mammals.

Ruth Sterling died on June 11, 1966 at the age of 87.  Four years later, after a long illness, Robert died at Lenox Hill Hospital on September 5, 1970 at age 95.  The heirs sold No. 19 in 1972.  

The fact that the house had been home to only one family since its 1910 remake was responsible for its remarkable state of preservation.  It remains a single-family home today with few changes other than an elevator, installed in 2003, and replacement windows.

photograph by the author

The Richard Stevens House -- No. 171 East 70th Street

photo by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

In 1871 development on the Upper East Side was rampant.  The official completion of Central Park was just two years away (as was, on a less positive note, the great Financial Panic of 1873).  Investors and developers funneled their funds into the erection of speculative rows of brownstone homes aimed at the upper middle-class.  Among them was Thomas Smith who commissioned William O’Gorman to design six houses on East 70^th Street, Nos. 165 through 171 that year.

Three stories high over an English basement, the Italianate houses would have been little different from scores of other such homes rising in the neighborhood.  The house at No. 171 became home to the Thomas Thorpe family by the last decade of the century.  Thorpe and his wife Mary took their several children each summer to Patchogue, Long Island.  They were an accident-prone brood.

In 1896 one of the boys was nearly drowned while swimming in the Patchogue Bay.  The following season his brother “while riding a bicycle, was run down by a stage and nearly killed,” as reported by The Sun.  And on July 4, 1898 8-year old Mary Thorpe was celebrating Independence Day with fireworks.  The Sun reported the following day “In lighting a pinwheel a flying spark ignited her dress.”  The newspaper said that she was severely burned; although Dr. T. S. Divors “does not think [the wounds] will result fatally.”

The Thorpes stayed on through the turn of the century, at one point purchasing No. 169 next door, presumably as rental income.  Both properties were in Mary’s name.  But then in 1906 the change that was sweeping over the Upper East Side in general was magnified on the East 70th Street

Joseph L. Buttenweiser had demolished Nos. 154 and 156 with the intention of building a sanitarium.  The iron framework had already been erected when the project came to a halt.  With Manhattan’s wealthiest citizens building in the area, property values here were more suited for upscale homes.  In February 1906 Harry H. Hollister and Henry D. Babcock purchased the property to “remodel the iron frame and improve the plot with private houses,” said The Sun on February 6.

The entire block was about to get a make-over.  Within the same week Babcock’s son purchased No. 158, Hollister’s son-in-law purchased No. 160, and Hollister purchased No. 162.  “These three dwellings will be modernized and occupied by the purchasers,” said The Sun.

“In view of the radical change taking place in the character of the block, Please & Elliman have formed a syndicate which has purchased the remaining parcels that were for sale in the block.”  The syndicate then sold off the houses for the owners.  Those sales included Nos. 176, 155, 157, 159, 173, 175, and the two houses owned by the Thorpes—Nos. 169 and 171.

Robert H. E. Elliott purchased both of the Thorpe homes, according to The Sun.  Elliott apparently had no intentions of moving in to No. 171, for within three days he resold it.  No. 179 down the block sold on the same day.

Richard T. Stevens and his wife Georgiana purchased No. 171.  The couple was rarely in town for the winter season and the house was repeatedly leased.  In 1909 Edward Powis Jones took the house.  He was a partner in the Sperry Gyroscope Company.  Jones would be one of the last renters in the old brownstone.  Within two years the Stevens commissioned George B. de Gersdroff to update their Victorian dwelling.

As was happening throughout the area, the architect removed the brownstone façade, moved the entrance to the sidewalk level, and created an updated Edwardian residence.  Following the lead of Augustus N. Allen who had remodeled the house next door at No. 169 in 1910; de Gersdroff turned to the neo-Federal style.

Completed in 1911, the Stevens house gave the first impression as having been built as a pair with its neighbor.  Both had rusticated brick bases, iron-railed balconies at the second floor, and centered three-part openings at the three upper stories.  The similarities continued with the large centered dormers above the cornices.

photo by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

The Stevens continued to lease the house and in 1913 it was taken by Robert L. Livingston.  A member of the influential and wealthy Livingstons “of Revolutionary stock,” as described by The Evening World, Robert had had his share of misfortune.  On December 21, 1902 he had married Helen L. Kountze, “much courted for her good looks and charming manner,” according to The Evening World.

The newlyweds received a “colonial villa” in Morristown, New Jersey as a wedding present from Robert Livingston, Sr.  A year later his lovely Helen Kountze suddenly died at the home of her parents.

Now joining him in the 70th Street house in 1913 was his relatively new bride.  Livingston had married Marie Sheedy in February 1911.  The Evening World called her the “richest girl in Denver.”

The Stevens continued to rent the house in the years to come.  In 1919 they signed a lease “for a matter of years” according to The Sun.  Their new tenants were Duncan D. Stuphen, his wife Jane, and her widowed mother Eleanor Kevan Fraser.

Sutphen was a member of the textile firm A. D. Juilliard & Co.  The year 1919 would be a highly traumatic and tragic one for the businessman.  Suddenly on Tuesday morning February 11 Eleanor Fraser died in the house.   Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later, on Valentine’s Day, at 10 a.m.

Duncan Sutphen would attend another funeral in April—that of his employer, millionaire Augustus D. Juilliard.  But even more tragically, the following month, on May 24, his wife, Jane, died in the 70^th Street house.  In a morbid case of déjà vu, her funeral was held here on Tuesday morning, May 27 at 10:30.

photo by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

The Stevens continued to hold on to the property and it saw a succession of wealthy tenants.  On June 22, 1921 The New York Times reported that “Mr. and Mrs. Frederick L. Collins have taken Mrs. Richard T. Stevens’s house at 171 East Seventieth Street for their residence.”  Collins was the publisher and president of McClure’s magazine.

Following the Collins family, that of Dr. Hugh Auchincloss would be long-term residents.  The family summered in Kennebunkport and the East 70^th Street home would be the scene of many social events throughout the years. 

On November 26, 1927 a dinner was given in honor of daughter Frances, followed by a debutante ball at the Colony Club.  The following year it was daughter Maria’s turn to be introduced to society.  Now the young women participated in hosting teas and receptions in the house for their favorite charities. 

Hugh and Katharine Auchincloss lived on at No. 171 as one-by-one their children were wed.  Frances married Thomas Watson Armitage in a fashionable St. Bartholomew’s ceremony on January 10, 1930; Maria was next, marrying Allen Look in Kennebunkport on July 2, 1934; and in 1942 the engagements of both Barbara and Hugh Jr. were announced.

In 1946, after four decades of ownership, Georgiana H. Stevens sold the house to Robert W. Straus, Jr.  A member of an old and prominent New York family, Straus was a publisher and President of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

By 1959 the Strauses had become unhappy with the Edwardian interiors.  They mentioned their issues to an artist friend, Francis Scott Bradford.  Among these, according to Rita Reif of The New York Times on April 9, 1960 were “leaded windows, which obscured the views of street and garden and rejected sunlight” and “foot-thick moldings, which cheated the rooms of height.”

Although Bradford was “a complete amateur in architecture, interior and furniture design,” according to Reif, he set about gutting and renovating the Straus interiors.  He designed the furnishings and produced a 1960s Modern environment appropriate for the Jetsons.  While the spaces were trendy and artistic, they were irrelevant to the building and were quickly dated.

photo by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

Before the house went on sale for $5.75 million in 2013, Bradford’s Mod renovations had been reversed.  Ceiling moldings were replaced, period mantels installed and parquet floors laid in an effort to recapture an historic feel.  In the meantime, little has changed to de Gersdroff’s 1911 façade.