The 1910 Brogan Building - 251 Park Avenue South

 

photo by Feil Organization

On December 11, 1909, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that Charles Brogan, Inc. had hired Neville & Bagge to design a "16-story brick and stone loft" at the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 20th Street.  The cost, said the article, would be $350,000, or about $12.4 million in 2026 terms.  

The architects' Renaissance Revival design included a three-story, stone-clad base.  Retail spaces sat behind double-height elliptical arches that flooded the interiors with natural light.  Stone faux balconies dotted the brick faced ten-story midsection.  Above an intermediate cornice, a dramatic, triple-height arcade was distinguished by Scamozzi pilasters.  A bracketed cornice completed the design.

A relic from the neighborhood's residential past, the All Souls' Unitarian Church can be seen at the right corner.  The Architectural Record, December 1910 (copyright expired)

The Brogan Building filled with a variety of tenants.  Among the early apparel-related firms were the Regal Art Embroidery Company, which leased the 15th floor in November 1912; the Castle Braid Company; and M. C. Migel & Co., makers of corsets and underwear.  

The Vulcanized Rubber Co., maker of "rubber combs and sundries," was here by 1913.  The United States Rubber Company took two floors in 1918, and the Carlisle Tire Corporation's general offices were in the building by 1920.

Importantly, magazine publishers comprised an important part of the tenant list.  Among them were The Ladies' World, publishers of The Ladies' World and Housekeeper; Harpers' Weekly; and McClure's.  (In fact, 251 Fourth Avenue was popularly called the McClure's Building shortly after its opening in 1910.)

Among the executives of the Castle Braid Company in 1915 was Augustus Latz.  He was the proud father of two Cornell University seniors, Robert C., who was an engineering student, and J. M. Latz, who attended the school's College of Agriculture.  The School of Engineering's graduation ceremonies took place on June 16.  The previous day Latz, his wife, and two friends drove to Ithaca to attend the exercises.  Unfortunately, Augustus Latz would not see either of his sons receive their diplomas.  Fifteen minutes after he and his wife checked into their hotel room, Latz suffered a fatal stroke.  He died without regaining consciousness.

An interesting tenant in the post-World War I years was The Better America Picture-Lectures.  It offered pre-packaged lectures to church groups (ten in a set) with "colored lantern slides."  Its ad in The Expositor in 1919 guaranteed, "You...will need only a brief preparation--and the first one will so advertise the others that you need have no empty seats in your audience."

The Aircraft Syndicate and its related concern, the Aircraft Construction-Transportation Corporation, moved into offices on the 11th floor in 1921.  Its advertisement, printed in German, in the Staats-Zeitung on May 19 was headlined: "$20 for $1!  This is a Fact!"  The ad began, "Every German ought to invest his savings in this wonderful safe undertaking, New York-Chicago in giant Zeppelins in eight hours."  It guaranteed, "Money cannot be lost.  The future belongs to aerial navigation," and concluded, "Every millionaire started that way."  It was signed, "Mr. Goognair, 251 4th av."

Suspicious, a reporter from the New York Herald visited the office.  Mr. Goognair was not in, but the firm's president, Jean D. De Deltrand, granted an interview.  Shown the ad, he said, "I'm glad you showed it to me.  We're not responsible of course, inasmuch as our name is not signed thereto...Must speak to him about it."  De Deltrand called Goognair, "a nice, energetic chap, but probably a bit too enthusiastic in his use of words."

Nevertheless, he assured the reporter that the firm was preparing to build "three airships of the Zeppelin type, 1,000 feet long."  He explained that the trip from New York and Chicago would take ten hours and the "rate for a passenger will be $75, including berth and meals."  (The fare would translate to about $1,300 today.)   Additionally, to accommodate Chicago-to-New York passengers, the firm proposed to build a "great hotel in West Forty-second street, say about Tenth avenue" outfitted with a zeppelin landing platform on the roof.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Among Jean De Detrand's office staff at the time was bookkeeper Catherine C. Conlon.  On July 11, 1921, De Detrand asked her to stay after hours "so that he could instruct her in the method he wanted followed in opening a new set of books," explained the New York Herald.  Instead, De Detrand made "unmanly advances, and finally made an attack upon her," as described by The New Orleans States.  Catherine fought him off, but, according to her, she "suffered greatly in mind and body."  The Evening World reported that the incident caused her to suffer "a nervous breakdown."

In a desperate attempt to quell a potential catastrophic scandal, "Mr. de Detrand telephoned the girl's home next day, apologized and offered to defray the expenses of the girl, her father and her aunt, with whom she lived, on a vacation trip," reported The New Orleans States.  Instead, Catherine filed a $50,000 suit against her employer.  De Detrand denied the charges, saying he "was with her alone for the first time" that night, "and then for not more than ten minutes."

In the meantime, the Freed-Eisemann Radio Corporation, "manufacturers of high and low radio apparatus," occupied space here; as did the offices of the Reinhardt Manufacturing Company, which manufactured silk ribbons in Paterson, New Jersey; the Catoir Silk Company; and the publishers of Success Magazine.  The Parents Publishing Company moved onto the 16th floor in January 1929.

The Depression brought a new tenant, the local Works Progress Administration offices.  And political and social upheaval in Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s prompted another type of renter.  As early as 1941, the offices of the Jewish National Workers' Alliance were here.  Among its operations was the administration of the Unser Camp and Kinderwelt, the organizations "summer home" at Highland Mills, New York.  

Midcentury saw additional publishers in the building.  Fur & Leather Worker magazine was here as early as 1948, as was the N. P. D. Corporation, which published periodicals like Modern Photography and National Photo Dealer.  Exposition Press, which occupied space by 1950, created illustrated booklets like "How to Select a Publisher." 

Abraham Liberman, head of Book Sales, Inc., narrowly escaped arrest in the summer of 1955.  Another publisher, Samuel Roth, was indicted on August 20 "for sending obscene articles and publications through the mails."  The New York Times reported that Abraham Liberman was "listed in the indictment" as a co-conspirator, but was not indicted.

The neighborhood was known as "Camera Row" in the 1950s, and among the related firms in 251 Fourth Avenue were Intercontinental Marketing Corporation, which distributed camera accessories; Nikon Incorporated; and Fuji Photo Optical Products.

Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue South in 1959.  By then, a different type of tenant had already started changing the personality of No. 251.  The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies moved into the building in 1957, and The International Rescue Committee and its Medico Division were here by the following year.  By 1968, the American Occupational Therapy Association and the Jess Ward Foundation occupied space.

The Crestwick-Hummelwert stood alone among the publishing, camera, and welfare organizations.  The firm was described by The New York Times in 1965 as "distributor of Hummel figurines and other novelties."

Among the tenants in the 1980s were the architectural offices of Conklin & Rossant; the Young Adult Institute; and The Hinson Collections, manufacturers of high-end wall coverings.

image via marketplce.vts.com

Significant interior renovations to the building began in the late 1990s, and some exterior restoration was initiated.  It was possibly during this work that the cornice was removed, leaving an unfortunate scar and an uncompleted look.

many thanks to reader Peter Alsen for prompting this post.

The 1855 Peter Gibson House - 139 East 18th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

By the end of the 1840s, Gramercy Square (known today as Gramercy Park), was ringed with fine mansions.  Its refined tenor spilled into the neighboring blocks, and in 1855 D. Hennessy completed five brick faced houses two blocks away, on the north side of East 18th Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place.

Four stories tall above short basements, they were just two bays wide.  The segmentally arched openings wore handsome cast iron lintels, chosen from a local foundry's catalog.  Each house had its own bracketed cornice.

Among them was 106 East 18th Street (renumbered 139 in 1865).  It became home to builder Peter Gibson and his family.  

The family briefly took in a roomer in 1857.  Their advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 29 read, "106 East 18th-st., near Irving-place--One or two nicely-furnished rooms or two handsome parlors, to let to gentlemen only, without board, in a modern-built house, with a private family."  The ad was answered by James M. Hamilton, a retired merchant.  It appears that the Gibsons valued their privacy more than the income, and no other roomer was listed after 1857.

The Gibson family moved to 132 East 19th Street in 1859 and the 18th Street house became home to Gustave Herter and his wife, Anna.  Herter listed his profession as, "furniture, 547 Broadway."  It did not reflect his talents.

Born in Germany in 1830, he and his half-brother, Christian Augustus Ludwig Herter, who was nine years younger than he, learned cabinetmaking from their father.  Gustave Herter arrived in New York City in 1848 and established his furniture-making shop.  Around the time that he and Anna purchased 106 East 18th Street, Christian arrived in New York and joined the business, renaming it Herter Brothers around 1864.

Herter Brothers designed and manufactured high-end furniture.  Their remarkable pieces both followed and set fashionable trends, and caught the eye of America's wealthiest patrons.  By the late 1860s, they not only created the furnishings of America's mansions, but decorated the rooms around them.  When President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Grant moved into the White House in 1869, they commissioned Herter Brothers to redecorate the Executive Mansion.

This illustration titled "A Corner in the Drawing Room" shows a portion of Herter Brothers' furniture and decoration of William Henry Vanderbilt's Fifth Avenue mansion. Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, 1883 (copyright expired)

By 1873, Herter Brothers was, perhaps, the foremost furniture maker and interior design firm in the country.  With their success came affluence.  That year Gustave and Anna left 139 East 18th Street.  Their furnishings--no doubt all of which came from the Herter Brothers workrooms--were sold at auction on April 16 and among the offerings were, "fine Parlor, Chamber [i.e, bedroom], Library, Hall, Dining Room and Kitchen" furniture, described by the auctioneer as "elegant."

The house was briefly operated as a boarding house until Dr. William W. Hurd, a dentist, moved in in 1876.  Hurd and his family remained until 1884, when Richard Cary Morse purchased 139 East 18th Street.  

Richard Cary Morse, from the collection of the Springfield College Archives.

Born in Hudson, New York on September 19, 1841, Morse was a nephew of inventor Samuel F. B. Morse.  Although he studied at the Princeton and Union Theological Seminaries, he never pursued active ministry.  In 1869, he became involved with the Y.M.C.A.

On June 21, 1883, Morse married Jane Elizabeth Van Cott.  She would regularly be hostess to Y.M.C.A. leaders.  In his autobiography, My Life With Young Men, for instance, Morse writes:

In 1884, and several succeeding years, the Secretaries, on coming to the city for the annual dinner, spent the day in our home at 139 East 18th Street...The morning and afternoon were spent in our parlor and library on the second floor, going over each man's work for the year past, and the program of his department for the coming year.

Richard and Jane Morse remained here until around 1898, after which 139 East 18th Street was operated as a boarding house.  It was run by Mrs. Mollie Galler by 1917.

Two boarders who arrived in 1919 had much in common.  With the war ended, former soldier Antonio de Blaza returned to New York.  He took a room here and found a job as a porter in the Hilliard Building, an office building at 55 John Street.  And in August, Army Sergeant Ernest W. Gooch rented a room.   A native of Indiana, he had been reassigned to the Army Recruiting Office at East 14th Street and Third Avenue.

Sergeant Gooch was dealing with dark demons.  Four weeks after moving in, on September 15, 1919, Gooch committed suicide by shooting himself in his room.   The New-York Tribune reported, "Two sealed letters addressed to his company commander were found."

Another tragedy occurred a month later.  On October 17, The Sun reported that Antonio de Blaza "was caught between the elevator and the shaft opening on the first floor landing" at his job.  "Firemen were called to extricate him, but before he was released he was dead."  The article mentioned, "He was unmarried and had recently returned from service overseas."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Luke Chess, who rented a room here in 1921, worked as a mechanical engineer for the Standard Oil Company.  In the early hours of September 13, he was awakened by a knock on his door.  Two men and a woman "demanded his jewelry," according to Chess.  The would-be robbers were unprepared for his reaction.  

Suspicious of the unexpected visit in the middle of the night, Chess had pulled out his revolver before answering the door.  The New York Times reported, "Clad in pajamas, Luke Chess...chased two men and a woman from his apartment at 139 East Eighteenth Street early yesterday and fired several shots after them."  One of the men escaped, but Gladys Kaufman and Charles Banno were apprehended.

Seven days later two another residents appeared in the newspapers, for a much different reason.  On September 30, 1921, the Daily Star reported that the four men responsible for the theft of ten automobiles recently had been arrested.  Among them was "James Stapleton, alias Rogers, alias Frisco, of 139 East Eighteenth street, Manhattan," said the article.  Another gang member, James Hall, who also lived here, was already in jail, "having admitted committing three hold-ups in Manhattan."

John Cole, who lived here in 1937, worked at the Horn & Hardart Automat at 115 East 14th Street.  He was on the picket line outside on Christmas night that year when he and another striker, George Russo, became annoyed with the police officers, "calling them 'rats and finks' and causing a crowd of more than 500 to gather, after they had been warned to desist," reported The New York Times on December 29.  The fingerprints of both men revealed that they had previous convictions.  Their calling officers derogatory names landed them in the workhouse for 60 days.

photograph by Carole Teller

A renovation completed in 1989 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and first floors, two duplexes that shared the second and third floors, and one apartment on the fourth.  The configuration was amended in 2010 when the top three floors were combined as a triplex apartment.

many thanks to reader Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The James A. Foley House - 316 East 18th Street

 

A laudable recreation of the entrance and window frames replaced the lost originals.  photo by Ted Leather

An advertisement in the New York Herald on November 6, 1867 described the recently built house at 316 East 18th Street:

For Sale--With possession, house and furniture; house 3 stories, high stoop and brown stone front, with all conveniences and in fine order.

It was purchased by the William L. Colby family.  Three stories tall and 20-feet wide, its individual Italianate design was unlike others on the block.  The elliptically arched openings sat within architrave frames, including the unusual doorway.  Its multi-layered frame was capped with a gently arched cornice.  A foliate-bracketed cornice with paneled fascia crowned the design.

William L. Colby was an important figure in the printing industry, a close associate of Richard March Hoe, the head of R. Hoe & Company.  Hoe invented the rotary printing press in 1843.  Colby, too, improved the printing process.  In his 1885 History of R. Hoe & Company, Stephen D. Tucker noted that around 1858, "Mr. William L. Colby devised a plan for driving the type bed of cylinder presses through a universal joint."  The device was adopted for most of the R. Hoe & Company presses.

Colby and his wife, the former Malvina Walkington, had three sons and three daughters.  (The close relationship between Colby and Roe was evidenced in the name of the Colbys' youngest son: Richard March Hoe Colby.)  The other children were John, Benjamin L., Sarah E., Mary, and Malvina W.  

When the family moved into the East 18th Street house, Richard March Hoe Colby was enrolled at the College of the City of New York.  His brothers, John and Benjamin L. Colby, joined the Roe firm by 1871; and Malvina W. Colby taught in the primary department of Grammar School No. 2 at 116 Henry Street in 1876.

William L. Colby died on March 6, 1881 at the age of 70.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later.  Malvina survived him by 12 years, dying in the house on August 7, 1892 at the age of 78.  Her funeral, too, was held in the residence.

The former Colby house was occupied by several physicians starting in 1894 with a dentist named Mogovin.  German immigrants Dr. Otto Maier, a gynecologist, and his wife, Dina, occupied the house in 1899.  

Their lives were rocked in the fall of 1899 when Otto Maier was accused of murder.  Nora Seltz was brought to Bellevue Hospital on October 18 "following an operation performed by some person or persons unknown," as reported by the New-York Tribune.  (The implication was that Seltz had had an abortion.)  After the 38-year-old patient died, Dr. Maier and an associate, Dr. Henry Purdy, were arrested and charged for murder.

Police Captain Delaney testified during the trial on October 27, saying "the reason why he had had the physicians arrested was because they had been the last to attend her."

The judge asked, "Was that the sole reason?"

"Yes."

The jury decided that Nora Seltz's death was due to blood poisoning following the earlier operation.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The two physicians were exonerated from all blame."

After having occupied the East 18th Street house for about a decade, the Maiers began a family.  Both 41 years old at the time, their daughter Dorothea was born in 1906 and a year later Herbert was born.  (Herbert would follow in his father's professional footsteps, eventually becoming chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.)

On February 25, 1910, the New-York Tribune reported, "Otto Maier sold to a Mr. Foley for occupancy No. 316 East 18th Street."  "Mr. Foley" was James Foley, a well-known figure within Tammany Hall politics and since 1879 had been chairman of the General Committee of the Twelfth Assembly District.  He and his wife, the former Anne Moran, had eleven children. 

Son James A. Foley, born on June 21, 1882, was also involved in politics.  Three years before his parents purchased 316 East 18th Street, he was elected to the New York State Assembly.  In 1913, he was elected to the New York State Senate.

In the meantime, his brother Frank was a broker with C. I. Hudson & Co. and held the rank of major in the Twelfth Regiment of Infantry.  Frank Joseph Foley was married to Rosa A. Metzner on Long Island on October 8, 1913.  Senator James A. Foley was his brother's best man.

The year 1919 was a significant one within the Foley household.  On May 14, son Edward died.  His funeral was held in the parlor on May 16 followed by a solemn mass of requiem at the Church of the Epiphany on Second Avenue.

Surprisingly, James A. Foley's wedding to Mabel Graham Murphy was celebrated a month later, on June 21.  Shortly afterward, James Foley fell ill.  Described by The Evening World as a "veteran Democratic political leader," he died on August 10.  As had been the case with his son, his funeral was held in the house followed by a mass at the Church of the Epiphany.

On August 12, The Evening World reported, "Hundreds of persons attended the funeral to-day of James Foley...Two hundred and fifty members of the Democratic Committee of the 12th Assembly District escorted the body to the church and later to Calvary Cemetery."  The mourners represented a who's-who of New York politics.  The guard of honor at the gravesite was composed of Tammany chief Charles F. Murphy and four judges and an alderman.  Also present were Governor Alfred Smith and his wife, former Governor Martin Henry Glynn, Police Commissioner Robert F. Wagner, President of the Board of Aldermen Robert L. Moses and other leaders.

The East 18th Street house was now a female domain.  Florence J., Anna M., Mary E., Kathryn and Jane, still unmarried, remained with their mother.  And around the time of James's death, Anne's widowed sister, Elizabeth M. Leary, moved in.

Only two years after the parlor was the scene of two Foley funerals, it was the setting of Elizabeth Leary's.  She died here on April 6, 1921 and, like the others, her funeral was followed by a mass at the Church of the Epiphany. 

Florence M. Foley was involved in a frightening accident on October 12, 1927.  The Brooklyn Daily Star reported, "Edward O'Hare, sixty-five...was struck by an auto operated by Florence M. Foley, 316 East Eighteenth street, Manhattan, at Forty-sixth (Bliss) street and Queen's boulevard."  O'Hare was transported to St. John's Hospital with "multiple contusions of the head, neck and back."

At some point in the first half of the 20th century, the Victorian window surrounds were shaved flat.  The original entrance frame was intact.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Five months later, on March 29, 1928, Anne Moran Foley died in the East 18th Street house at the age of 81.  The New York Times reported, "This was learned yesterday in the Surrogate's Court when her son, Surrogate James A. Foley, failed to take his place on the bench in the morning."  The article noted that she was survived by seven of her eleven children.  Once again, a Foley funeral mass was held in the Church of the Epiphany.

The last of the Foley family to occupy the house was Kathryn.  When she sold it in April 1962, The New York Times commented, "The house had been in the seller's family for fifty-three years."  

photograph by Ted Leather

At some point before 1941, the Foleys had shaved off the window surrounds and modernized the stoop railings.  Still a single family home, in 2007 the owners initiated a two-year renovation.  It was apparently at this time that a period-appropriate entrance frame and window surrounds were fabricated.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The Altered Alfred Schanck House - 318 Second Avenue

 

photograph by Ted Leather

Alfred Schanck's first American ancestor was Roelof Martense Schenck, who arrived in New Amsterdam from the Netherlands in 1650.  Alfred's grandfather, John Schanck (the surname had been changed a generation earlier) fought in the Revolutionary War, and Alfred's father, DeLaFayette Schanck, was, according to his obituary, "the first American child who bore the name of La Fayette."

Alfred was born on November 5, 1817.  In 1845 he married Emily Woodward and the couple had two children: Charles W., born in 1846; and Emily W., born in 1849.  Alfred was a partner in the ironworks firm Tugnot, Dally & Co. on First Avenue at 25th Street.  It manufactured elements of U.S. Navy vessels like the U.S.S. Niagara, the U.S.S. Shubrick and the U.S.S. Brooklyn.  

Portions of the U.S.S. Niagara were manufactured in Schank's foundry. (original source unknown)

In 1852 Schanck moved his family into the newly built  Italianate-style rowhouse at 318 Second Avenue, a block-and-a-half north of elegant Stuyvesant Square.  Four stories tall above a high brownstone-clad basement, it was faced in warm red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  The floor-to-ceiling parlor floor windows were most likely fronted by a cast iron balcony.  The elliptically arched openings sat within handsome architrave frames.  An elaborate cornice with scrolled brackets and alternating panels of rosettes and foliate ornaments completed the design.

Schanck also dabbled in real estate.  On March 7, 1860, for instance, he offered a house on this block, 324 Second Avenue, for rent; and a "two story and basement Cottage" on East 35th Street.  He was, as well, a director in the Hamilton Fire Insurance Co.

The Schanck family moved to 844 Second Avenue in 1863 and No. 318 became home to merchant Samuel Bachrach.  The family's residency was relatively short.  On April 5, 1869, an advertisement in the New York Herald offered:

To Let--Furnished, the fine, four-story high stoop brick House No. 318 Second avenue containing 22 rooms, suitable for a large family or private boarding house, at reasonable rent to responsible parties.

The house was rented for a year to attorneys George S. Sedgwick and Thomas Simons, whose office was at 41 Chambers Street.  Boarding with the two families was Mary G. Reyns, a teacher.

The Bachrachs sold 318 Second Avenue the following year.  An auction of the "handsome household furniture" was held on April 9, 1870.  The residence was purchased by Franz Romanus Rust and his wife, Rudolphine.

Rust was the victim of what The New York Times called "one of the most audacious of recent robberies in this City," on July 1, 1871.  Rust went to the New-York Trust Company at 119 Broadway at 1:30 that afternoon.  He intended to make a deposit of $2,000 in cash (equal to $53,000 in 2025).  As he entered the vestibule, "he was surrounded by six thieves, one of whom succeeded in taking the wallet containing the money from his pocket, while another knocked him down," according to The Evening Post.

Attracted by Rust's cries, a crowd collected and "the desperadoes...fled in different directions as soon as the money had been carried away," said The New York Times.  The article continued, "But Mr. Rust continuing his outcries, the next instant a person, whom he vaguely describes as a half-grown colored boy, handed him back the wallet, which he said he had picked up in the street."  There was $500 missing.

Police quickly nabbed two suspects whom Rust identified.  The following day, the New York Dispatch reported, "James F. Martin, alias Butts, and Joseph Page, alias James Ahearn, alias 'Mysterious Jim,' were arraigned before Justice Hogan, at the Tombs, yesterday, charged with having robbed Emil Rust...of a wallet containing $2,000 in greenbacks."  

In an interesting turn of events, this was not the first time the magistrate had interacted with one of the defendants.  The Evening Post reported, "Butts about a year ago assaulted Justice Hogan in a Broadway stage, when the latter interfered to preserve a lady from insult, but the ruffian escaped punishment."

Well-to-do families often filled non-used rooms with renters or boarders.  On December 24, 1872, the Rusts advertised, "two single nicely furnished rooms to let, without board."  The ad was answered by Herman A. Curiel and Siegfried Koppel, partners in an importing firm at 95 Beaver Street; and Maurice Krickl, a trimmings merchant.

As the Second Avenue neighborhood morphed from elegant private homes to commerce, the Rusts left 318 Second Avenue and leased it to a proprietor who operated it as rented rooms.  Rudolphine, who survived her husband, died on October 4, 1912.  On December 3 the following year, The New York Times reported that "the four-story brick tenement situated at 318 Second Avenue," was being auctioned "to close [the] estate of Rudolphine Rust."  (Rudolphine's estate was equal to about $2.5 million today.)

The handsome cornice and the carved frames of the windows and former doorway survived in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The property continued to be a rooming house and at some point previous to 1941 the stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the basement level.  A renovation completed in 1952 resulted in a day nursery in the basement, a doctor's office on the first floor and one apartment each on the upper floors.  

photograph by Ted Leather

A subsequent remodeling in 1990 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and first floors, and one apartment each on the upper stories.  There are a total of five apartments in the former mansion today.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post.

The 1852 Catherine Stapleton House - 321 Second Avenue

 

The upper floor windows were almost assuredly originally framed in stone.  photograph by Ted Leather

The first of the mansions that would encircle Gramercy Park (or Gramercy Place as it was sometimes called) began rising in the early 1840s.  A decade later, the high-tone tenor of the neighborhood had spread and in 1852 a row of identical homes were erected by the wealthy Stuyvesant family along the western side of Second Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets.

Four stories tall, they were two bays wide.  Unlike the English basement style homes that were proliferating throughout the city, their Anglo-Italianate design forewent high stoops.  Their arched entrances sat just above the sidewalk.

Likely a full-width cast iron balcony originally fronted the second floor windows.  photograph by Ted Leather

No. 321 Second Avenue became home to dressmaker Catherine Stapleton, who was most likely a widow.  The best of the dressmakers at the time created the wardrobes of wealthy socialites and earned significant incomes.  Catherine had a boarder in 1853, Samuel Durand, a moulder (a maker of castings or, sometimes, a brickmaker).  He may have occupied the smaller house in the rear yard.

Boarding with Catherine Stapleton by 1859 were Hannah Merritt Smith and Joseph Seymour Mathews, his wife Elizabeth, and their infant daughter, Fannie.  Mary Cleary, the widow of James Cleary, occupied the rear house.  Catherine Stapleton offered the parlor on June 5 that year for Hannah Smith's wedding to Caleb Green Dunn.

J. Seymour Mathews was a commissioner of deeds and an engrossing clerk within the Aldermen's Office.  (As an engrossing clerk he checked departmental entries for accuracy.)  He received a bonus of sorts on December 1, 1859 of $250 "for extra services," according to the Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen.  The windfall would translate to about $9,730 in 2025.

In June 1860, Manhattan society was captivated by the arrival of the first Japanese Delegation of the United States.  The 76 ambassadors were called "the Japanese princes," by newspapers.  J. Seymour Mathews was given a crushing responsibility.  He and Simon Myers were appointed "the principals in charge of the visit."

On June 30, 1860, five days after the the Japanese delegation left New York, Charles DeForest Fredricks created this portrait of Simon Myers and J. Seymour Mathews (right).  from the collection of Getty Museum.

Catherine Stapleton's parlor was the scene of little Fannie Mathews's funeral on December 5, 1861.  She died on December 3, one day after her second birthday.

Three months later, Joseph Seymour Mathews died here on March 19, 1862 at the age of 38.  His funeral was held in the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church near Third Avenue.

By 1868, Thomas Ingham, an iron merchant, and his family occupied 321 Second Avenue and would remain until 1875 when Felix Marx moved in.  Marx ran an "eatinghouse" at 185 Church Street at the time.  By 1879 his son, J. L. Marx had joined him and they opened a second restaurant at 438 Broome Street.

Felix Marx leased 321 Second Avenue in 1881 to G. F. Abraham, who operated it as a boarding house.  Among his initial tenants was Rev. Griffith H. Humphrey.  The 32-year-old bachelor had been the pastor of the Welsh Presbyterian Church on East 13th Street for four years.  The Sun described the young minister as "a tall, slender man, with a full brown beard."  

In July 1882, Laura A. Jones came to New York from Llanberis, Wales.  She found a room in a boarding house on Eighth Avenue and became a member of the Welsh Presbyterian Church.  The Sun reported, "She was looking for employment and made frequent calls with this object on Mr. Humphrey at his residence, 321 Second Avenue."  The newspaper said, "He says he requested her not to call so often."  Her repeated visits, however, resulted in "much talk about their acquaintance."  By the early months of 1883, rumors were so rampant that Humphrey "requested the church to investigate the matter," according to The Sun.

Laura Jones was interviewed by church elders in April.  She told them that Rev. Humphrey had proposed marriage.  A few days later, she wrote to the deacons and retracted her statement.  Then, a few days after that, she asserted that Humphrey had again proposed to her.  When called to testify to that in person, she again retracted her statements.  She was expelled from the church "for falsehood."

With her out of the picture, Humphrey most likely thought he was free from scandal.  In the summer of 1883 he was married.  But Laura Jones reappeared.  On December 17 she sued Humphrey for $10,000 for breach of promise (about $323,000 today).  Her illegitimate child was born on December 30.

Rev. Humphreys was arrested at his residence on February 13, 1884 "on Miss Jones's complaint that he was the father of her child."  She told the court that "she had no means of support and was likely to become a charge on the county."  The trial revealed shocking testimony.  Boarders in the house where Laura Jones lived said they had seen her in bed with Ellis Owens, another boarder.  A Mrs. Crook testified that when Laura was first in a "delicate condition," she "asked her about Mr. Humphrey, and Miss Jones said there had never been anything wrong between them."  Rev. Griffith H. Humphrey was absolved of any crime.

Living here in the early 1890s were T. R. Fell, a stenographer who worked in the Mayor's Office; and Charles Walton, who worked for a painter and decorating firm.  Walton was estranged from his wife.  His employer, Leopold Freund, was known to the courts for abusing his employees with litigation.  The Evening World said Freund "has come to be known as a professional complainant."

Early in July 1894, Freund procured a summons on a charge "of stealing a pair of overalls" against Walton.  Walton did not appear in court and so on July 13, a court officer appeared at 321 Second Avenue.  The New York Times reported, "At Walton's home...he was told that the man he sought was at his wife's home, 116 Seventh Street."  What he was not told was that Walton was dead.

The article said that when the officer arrived to the wife's home, he "found preparations for a funeral in progress."  The article said:

The woman who answered the door bell explained that when Walton was served with a summons he took it so much to heart he went to his room and killed himself by inhaling gas.  Walton had lived apart from his wife, but when she heard of his death she had his body brought to her home.

The same day, Freund appeared in court against another employee, Henry Paul, whom he accused of stealing painting materials.  In the courtroom were friends of Walton who told the judge "that Freund had hounded the old man and thus drove him to suicide."  Justice McMahon responded by dismissing the complaint against Paul and ordered Freund out of court.  "You have fooled this Court long enough and you will do so no longer," he said.

Nellie Thomas worked as a salesperson and lived here as early as 1904.  Starting around 1902, John A. Price, a theatrical agent, became enamored with her.  On January 21, 1905, The Sun said, "for the past three years he has been paying court to Miss Thomas with poor success."  In fact, Price had become what today would be called a stalker.  The article said, "His attentions became so annoying that she caused his arrest six months ago, and he was put under bonds to keep the peace."

"Under bonds" was what today would be known as a restraining order.  During that time, Nellie began dating a young man.  On January 19, 1905--the same date that the restraining order expired--the two went out.  They were walking along East 17th Street when Price appeared.

"Hello, Nell.  Don't you love me any more?" he said.

"Don't you speak to me.  I don't want anything to do with you," she replied.

"I love you as the flowers love the sun.  You are driving me crazy, and I don't care what happens to me unless I get you for my wife.  Shoot me, throw me in the river, but don't say you won't be my wife.  Chase this young fellow away and say you love me."

Nellie said, "I've told you dozens of times that I'd never marry you.  If you speak to me again, I'll have you arrested."

At the time, Detective Bradley was walking on the opposite side of the street.  He later testified that he "saw Price raise a heavy cane and strike the young woman on the head with it.  The blow cut her scalp open and knocked her to the sidewalk."  Price ran down the street with Nellie's companion and Bradley in pursuit.  He was arrested a few blocks later.

Nellie's head wound needed stitches.  Later she signed a formal complaint.  In court Price told the judge, "Yes, I'm guilty.  Do with me as you like.  If I can't get my Nell, I don't want to live."

Nellie asked the prisoner, "Why did you beat me so?"

"Because I love you.  Do as you like with me."

Then, as is often the case with the victims of physical abuse and emotional control, Nellie began to soften.  She told the court, "He wants to marry me, Judge."

The magistrate responded, "So he tried to woo you with a club, eh?"

"It was only a cane, Judge, and I don't know as I want to press the complaint."

Nellie sat for a few moments, then walked over to Price.  "The two began talking earnestly," reported The Sun.  Nellie approached the bench and said, "Judge, we are going to get married.  Jack is a good fellow, and I know he didn't mean any harm."  The pair left the courtroom together.

On August 14, 1920, The New York Times reported that the Rutherfurd Stuyvesant estate had sold "the four-story dwelling 321 Second Avenue to Henry Braveman."  When he sold it a month later, the Record & Guide described the property as a "four-story tenement house."

In 1941 the stone details had been removed and the third floor windows shortened.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building was renovated in 1922 to bachelor apartments.  The Certificate of Occupancy demanded, "not more than two families cooking independently on premises."  It was likely during the remodeling that the stone frames of the windows were replaced by brick.

photograph by Ted Leather

There were subsequent renovations over the next decades.  Today there are five apartments in the building.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

Schwartz & Gross's 1930 44 Gramercy Park North

photograph by Lowell Cochran

Clement E. Merowit was just 26 years old in 1929, yet he was president of the Merowit Construction Corporation and had erected several significant apartment buildings, including the 1926 Windsor Arms on West 9th Street.  On November 23, 1929, The New York Evening Post reported the Merowit had broken ground for a "16-story and penthouse rental apartment house" at 44 Gramercy Park North.

The article said architects Schwartz & Gross, "have designed a distinctive building with gables and battlemented towers reminiscent of an English manor house."  The romantic mood of the design was achieved partly by asymmetry--the east portion rising 10 stories and the west being 16 stories.  Schwartz & Gross turned to Tudor England for inspiration, lavishing the red brick facade with multi-paned and leaded windows, faux limestone balconies with quatrefoil panels, and square-headed drip moldings.

photograph by Eden, Janine and Jim

The New York Evening Post said, "There will be three penthouse floors and several tower apartments with terraces," and explained that during construction potential tenants "may incorporate their own ideas, whether in a duplex or other type of apartment."  The typical apartment would range from 2 through 5 rooms, with "dining galleries equivalent in size to an extra room," said the article.  Schwartz & Gross carried the Tudor motif inside, and most apartments had log-burning fireplaces.

The upper floor apartments were spacious.  At the time of The New York Evening Post's article, bachelor Aldo R. Balsam had already leased the entire 11th floor based on the floorplans.  Two months later, on January 9, 1930, The New York Sun reported that Helen M. Holsclaw had leased "a special duplex apartment on the twelfth and thirteenth floors."  Like Balsam, she was unmarried and (in what might be seen as a slight to Schwartz & Gross) hired the esteemed architectural firm Warren & Wetmore to design her suite.  And on May 23, 1930, The New York Sun reported that publishers' attorney John Hanrahan had "leased the eight-room penthouse, with four large terraces."

The historic motif was carried into the design of the apartments.  photo via brownstoner.com

An advertisement in The New Yorker on February 15, 1930 promised that there would be "Numerous structural and decorative refinements seldom found even in the finest cooperatives."  Another advertisement skirted the cost by saying merely, "you get it at a fair rental."  By the time the building opened on October 1, 1930, it had been fully rented.

Aldo R. Balsam would not occupy his sprawling apartment alone for long.  On August 5, 1931, The New York Evening Post reported that he had married Geneva White Webster at the Savoy-Plaza the previous day.  The relatively subdued ceremony was possibly explained by the mention, "The bride secured a divorce in Reno recently."  The Balsams would patronize the upscale winter and summer resorts.  On February 13, 1932, for instance, The Pinehurst [North Carolina] Outlook mentioned, "Aldo R. Balsam, an outstanding player in last season's polo, came back to town this week and showed his old form."

Occupying less lavish apartments at the time were white collar residents like Dr. Arthur L. Linden, who specialized in "X-ray work;" surgeon Dr. Harrison I. Cook, who graduated from Bellevue Medical College in 1911; and artist and cartoonist Clive Weed.

Weed was born in 1884 and graduated from the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in 1903.  He then studied under Thomas P. Anshutz at the Summer Art School in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and in Paris.  Weed turned from fine art to cartoons when he joined the Philadelphia Record in 1910.  By the time the bachelor moved into 44 Gramercy Park North his work regularly appeared in Judge magazine.  He also contributed to publications like The Nation, The New Republic, Leslie's Weekly, Life and The New Yorker.

Fascinating residents were the Rev. Dr. John W. Chapman and wife, May Seely.  Born in 1858 in Pikesville, Maryland, Chapman served in the Charity Hospital on Blackwells Island early in his career.  In 1887, he and May traveled to Alaska, founding the Christ Church Mission at Anvik.  

The couple's close relationship with the native population--which lasted for four decades--resulted in important ethnological advances.  The Chapmans translated native dialects to compile and publish a collection of folk tales.  The New York Sun said, "He also made many phonograph records of native songs and stories."  (These would eventually become part of the American Museum of Natural History's collection.)  Rev. Chapman built a wireless station that he operated for six years.

Chapman retired in 1930 and he and May were initial residents of 44 Gramercy Park North.  John W. Chapman died in their apartment at the age of 81 on November 27, 1939.

It was about that time that the building was converted to co-ops.  Living here in 1939 was author and editor Dr. Lewis B. Chamberlain.  Born in 1865, he was the secretary of the John Milton Society for the Blind.  From 1918 to 1935 he edited the monthly Bible Society Record and from 1920 to 1935 was editor of the American Bible Society annual reports.  Among his books was Seshayya: Conversion of a Brahman.

In 1941, newlyweds John C. Wood and his wife, the former Anne Robeson Truesdale, moved in.  The couple was married on January 20 that year.  Wood was a vice-president of B. Altman & Co., having joined the firm in 1932.  The couple's affluent lifestyle was reflected in Wood's memberships to the Union League Club and the Cedar Creek Club of Locust Valley.  America's entry to World War II, however, greatly changed their lives.

On October 5, 1942, Wood joined the Army Specialist Corps.  The expertise he gained while working in the department store became valuable to the military.  Six months later, he was transferred to the Office of the United Secretary of War as Executive Officer of the War Department Price Adjustment Board.

The Cincinnati Post reported on May 19, 1944 that Anna David, "plunged to her death yesterday from her 15th-floor apartment to a courtyard below."  The article said that the 46-year-old, "had been ill and had disappeared from her bedroom while her sister and a physicians were in an adjoining room."

What had seemed to be another tragic suicide became national news when Anna David's more famous identity was divulged.  The Washington Daily News reported that David, "was revealed today to have been Anna Damon, Communist leader and national secretary of the International Labor Defense."

Anna Damon during her testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities on October 16, 1939.  (source unknown)

Born Anna Cohen, her married name was David, but she used the surname Damon for her political work.  She was the executive secretary of the International Labor Defense, which provided legal services to persecuted Blacks, trade unionists, and others.  She was a founding member of the U.S. Communist Party.

At mid-century, author, playwright and screenwriter Jonathan Finn and his wife, the former Sadie Borgenicht, lived here. Sadie, who went by her maiden name as vice president of Jack Borgenicht, Inc., a children's dress manufacturer, was highly involved in charity work.  The Port Chester, New York newspaper The Daily Item noted that she "sponsored a creative therapy technique at Hillside Hospital, Long Island, in which painting was used for both artistic and psychological achievement."

Jonathan Finn partnered with Sing Sing Prison's warden Lewis E. Lawes to write the non-fiction book, Twenty-Thousand Years in Sing Sing, published in 1932.  The best seller was made into a motion picture starring Bette Davis and Spencer Tracy that same year.  The experience may have prompted Finn's prison-themed play Chalked Out that premiered on Broadway in 1937.  Among his screenplays were the 1936 Jailbreak, the 1939 Smashing the Money Ring, and Invisible Stripes, released in 1939.

Sadie Borgenicht Finn died on November 20, 1962 at the age of 66.  Finn took up her position at Jack Borgenicht, Inc. in addition to his writing.  He died in the apartment on June 4, 1971 at the age of 87.

After leaving his position in the Foreign Service of the State Department as consul in Saigon in 1962, Daniel Joseph Meloy moved to New York City and into 44 Gramercy Park North.  Fluent in Japanese, he took the post as deputy executive director of the Japan Society here and served as consultant with the Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation.  A graduate of Oberlin College and the Harvard Business School, he had served as vice consul in Kobe and Toyko, and consul in Sapporo, Japan before taking the South Vietnamese post in 1961.

Around 1969, Hungarian-born Janos Aranyi moved into a 2,141-square-foot, two-bedroom duplex on the 12th-floor.  A conservator of vintage picture frames, among his clients was the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  When Aranyi and his wife Theresa Llorente placed the apartment on the market in 2014, the realtor recalled that it was the scene of "countless soirees attended by such high-profile guests as Al Pacino, George Soros and Jeremy Irons."

The Aranyi dining room.  image via observer.com

Resident Mary Jo Jacobi lived in apartment 15-C and was working in the banking industry with Drexel Burnham Lambert in the early 1990s.  Born in 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri, she had previously been an aide to President Ronald Reagan, whose administration ended in 1989.  She returned to government service in 1992 when President George H. Bush appointed her Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

photograph by Lowell Cochran

Schwartz & Gross's Tudor fantasy survives beautifully intact, including the all-important casement windows, an integral piece of the historic-themed design.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochran for suggesting this post