The Abused 1841 Cornelius Read House - 328 East 4th Street

 

photograph by Carole Teller

New York City's shipbuilding industry along the East River in the early 19th century stretched from about Grand Street to East 12th and earned the district the nickname Dry Dock.  It attracted thousands of workers in the related businesses that arose in the surrounding blocks, all of whom needed housing.  In 1837, construction began on a row of seven brick-faced houses along East Fourth Street between Avenues C and D.

Completed in 1841, the identical, 22-foot-wide Greek Revival-style homes were three stories tall above brownstone English basements.  Sturdy Doric stone pilasters flanked the doorway and upheld paneled entablatures.  The molded lintels and bracketed sills of the openings reflected the rising Italianate style.  The sumptuous wrought iron stoop railings that terminated in drum-based newels testified that they were not intended for working-class occupants.

The sinuous hand-wrought railings swept down to wrap the newels.

Merchant Cornelius Read and his family moved into 557 Fourth Street (renumbered 328 East 4th Street in 1863).  His lumber business at 42 Mangin Street was typical of the Dry Dock district firms.  Cornelius was born in 1798, and he and his wife, Eunice, had three adult children: Mary Elizabeth, Catharine, and Junius (known as John).  John was involved in his father's company.  All of the siblings were married by 1847.

When Catharine married Joseph Bishop, they moved into the house next door at 555.  Like his father-in-law, Bishop was affluent and involved in the Dry Dock industry.  He operated a shipyard at 193 Lewis Street, just a block away from Read's business.

Cornelius Read died at the age of 51 on Monday evening, April 30, 1849, "after a short illness," according to The Evening Post.  His funeral was held in the parlor on May 2.

Eunice left the East 4th Street house the following year.  Interestingly, city directories now listed her as operating the Mangin Street lumberyard.  She moved into the home of Junius Read at 267 Fifth Street.  

Her move necessitated a scramble to find new employment on the part of her servants.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on October 10, 1850 read:

Wanted--Situations by two respectable Protestant women--one as good cook, washer and ironer, (none for entire housework need apply); the other as chambermaid and seamstress or to do the fine washing and ironing--is willing to make herself generally useful in a good family.

Eunice's leaving initiated a stark change in the formerly refined household.  Briefly operated as a rooming house, in 1851 its tenant list included four tailors, a bootmaker, two laborers and a locksmith.

The house returned to a single-family home in 1853 when David L. Youngs and his family moved in.  Like Cornelius Read, he was involved in the Dry Dock industry and ran a ship joinery business on East 9th Street, Youngs, Cutter & Co.  (The firm constructed and installed the interior wooden components and furnishings in vessels.)  Additionally, Youngs owned a stagecoach business and was a director in The Pacific Bank.  Like many wealthy citizens, he was concerned about the less fortunate and was a member of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

David and his wife, Caroline A., had at least three sons, William F., Joshua and Roscius.  William and Joshua were married and lived elsewhere.  Both were ship joiners in their father's shop.  Roscius was just 16 years old when his parents moved in and was most likely still in school.  Tragically, Roscius died on September 29, 1860 at the age of 23.  His funeral was held in the parlor on October 2.

The following year, David and Caroline Youngs sold the house to Bernard Kelly.  A contractor and builder, he was also a candidate for Aldermen in 1861.  His campaign was unsuccessful.

Kelly was involved in an affray shortly after moving in.  On Saturday night, December 7, 1861, he and two friends went into the lager beer saloon of Valentin Schack at 186 East Second Street.  Apparently the trio had already been drinking elsewhere.  The New York Times reported, "They soon became very disorderly, and proceeded to break tumblers, chairs, tables, &c."  Schack, "thinking there was imminent danger of his establishment being destroyed," pulled out a pistol and told them to leave.

Kelly and his friends asked him to put the firearm down, which he did.  Then one of Kelly's drunken friends picked up the gun and accidentally fired it, hitting Kelly in the stomach.  Seriously wounded, he was brought back to 328 East 4th Street and "surgical aid procured," according to the article.  Happily, he survived the ordeal.

It appears that 328 East 4th Street was rented in the ensuing years.  Between 1867 and 1869, William W. Vanderbilt, a consulting engineer, lived here.  From 1870 through 1874, the families of Henry Blach and Edward Straus, both dry goods merchants, shared the house.

Physician Charles A. T. Krog lived here as early as 1879.  He was a graduate of the University Medical College of New York.  As was common at the time, Krog was sometimes called to the rooms of young women who were dying from botched abortions.  On February 9 and 10, 1879 he was called to the home of a Madame Berger to attend to Cora Sammis.  (He was told her name was Maggie Steele.)  The patient's attempt to hide her identity was typical.  Having an abortion was as illegal as performing one.  Krog was told that she was suffering with diarrhea.  She died the following day.

Around 1886, the Saulpaugh family moved into the house.  Moses James Saulpaugh ran a lumber business.  Born in 1835 in Kingston, New York, he started in the lumber industry "when but a boy of fourteen," according to The New York Times.  He married Maria Jane Love on August 27, 1856 and the couple had 12 children.  They maintained a country home  along the Hudson River in Kingston.

At least one son, James Montgomery (a twin of Egbert), lived with his parents and worked in his father's business.  He married Sarah Ann Whatley on October 13, 1880 and the couple moved into the East 4th Street house.

Moses Saulpaugh died of stomach cancer at the age of 54 on October 17, 1889.  In reporting his death, The New York Times called him, "a well-known lumber merchant" and "an old volunteer fireman."  Once again, a funeral was held in the parlor, this one on October 20.

At the time of Moses's death, James and Sarah had three children, William Pray, George J., and James Jr.  A fourth child, Sarah, would be born two months later.

The family suffered a severe scare on May 5, 1894.  Louis Eckhard was driving a soda-water wagon that afternoon when "he ran over seven-year-old James Saulpaugh," according to The Evening World.  The article said, "After the accident Eckhardt whipped up his horse and disappeared."  A witness, however, wrote down the number of the wagon and reported the incident to police.  The Evening World said, "Detective Farrell make Eckhardt a prisoner."  Charged with reckless driving, he insisted he did not know he had run over the boy.  The article said, "The little fellow is at home, suffering from bruises."

Within two years of the incident, the Fried family occupied 328 East 4th Street.  Eugene H Fried was a physician, and Samuel Fried was a real estate agent.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

While most of the similar houses in the Dry Dock district were converted to boarding or rooming houses by the turn of the century, this one continued to be leased as a private home.  On August 21, 1904, The New York Times began an article saying, 

To most people, even to New Yorkers who know the region well, 'the east side' means a district of tenements, where bedclothes adorn the fire escapes and children vie with one another in annexing grime to their persons.  But scattered among the monotonous blocks of tenements are a few homes as comfortable and luxurious as money can make them.

The article mentioned, "Herman Stieffel, who used to be connected with the Corporation Counsel's office, has a big house at 328 East Fourth Street."

Stieffel was followed in the house by attorney Abraham Bimbaum.  Change came around 1928 when the house became a synagogue.  It remained until 1974 when 328 East 4th Street and the house next door at 326 were purchased by the Uranian Phalanstery.

The group was begun by artist Richard Ovlet Tyler in 1959 in the basement of the tenement house next door at 330 East 4th Street.  At the time of purchasing the house, he and Dorothea Baer Tyler incorporated the Uranian Phalanstery with 20 other artists to create "a shrine devoted to art," according to its website.

Despite the sympathetic treatment of the addition, the new entrance and lamps could only be described as grim.  photograph by Carole Teller

Faced with financial problems, in 2010 the Phalanstery sold both houses to a developer.  Its plans for enlarging the astonishingly intact 1841 properties was challenged by preservationists.  But, without landmark designation, the new owners had no legal opposition.  Two floors were added and the entrances gruesomely altered.  To the architect's credit, he copied the original openings in the addition and designed a sympathetic cornice.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The Prison Association of N.Y. Building - 135 East 15th Street

 

The family of Ebenezer Doughty most likely leased the upscale house at 185 East 15th Street (renumbered 135 in 1868) in 1853.  Doughty had retired from his position as an inspector at the Customhouse.  Living with him and his wife were their adult sons, Edward and Charles A.

The four-story, three-bay wide home was typical of the Greek Revival style.  Its double-doored entrance was flanked by sturdy brownstone pilasters that upheld a substantial entablature.  The house would have originally had an understated cornice.  A superb cast iron railing swept down the stoop to encircle the newels.

In 1854, the family of tea merchant Theodore Crane moved in.  As was common, the Cranes took in a boarder.  In 1854 it was Charles E. Groesbeeck, and in 1856 Augustus Morand lived with the family.  

Augustus Morand, The Photographic Art-Journal, 1851 (copyright expired)

Augustus Morand listed his profession as "artist," however he was taking artistic license in saying so.  Born in New York City in 1818, he was a pioneer in the photographic field.  When living with the Cranes, he had been creating daguerreotypes for about a decade.  He would become well-known as a portrait photographer.  Perhaps his most celebrated client would be Frederick Douglass, whom he photographed on May 15, 1863.

The Cranes were followed in the house by Herman Joseph Aloysius Koerner, Ph.D.  Dr. Koerner was an artist and Professor of Drawing at the Free Academy of New York.  The Koerners were involved in the German community within the district.  On April 18, 1862, for instance, The Sun reported, "The ladies of the 18th Ward assembled yesterday noon at the residence of Miss Koerner, 185 East 15th street, and adopted preliminary measures for the organization of a Ladies Aid Society...in behalf of the German Hospital project."

Beginning around 1864, Margaret Andrews operated the residence as an upscale boarding house.  She accepted only a handful of boarders.  In 1872, Clarinda A. Witherstine took over the operation.  The widow of Gaylord Witherstine, she seems to have sought out teachers as her residents.  

On November 10, 1872, an advertisement in the New York Herald read, "Miss F. A. Millspaugh would like a few more pupils for the Pianoforte at her own residence, 135 East Fifteenth street, or at that of the pupil."  Florence A. Millspaugh would board here through 1879.  Other boarders in the house that year were teachers Genevieve Baker and Maria L. Clawson.

The house was sold in foreclosure in October 1879, and underwent a rapid turnover of owners until Cornelius B. Gold sold the property to the Prison Association of New York in 1887.  On June 9, The New York Times reported that "through the generosity of some of its friends," the Prison Association "has been able to buy the house 135 East Fifteenth-street, where its offices will be in the future.  The same building will contain the offices of the National Prison Association of the United States and of the Burnham Industrial Farm."

Incorporated in 1846, the association worked to improve conditions of prisoners, and to reform discharged convicts.  It lobbied for reformatory laws regarding indeterminate sentences, probation and parole.  Additionally, the association worked to help the families of incarcerated men, now faced with no income.

On October 10, 1897, the New York Journal reported, "A very novel exhibition has been given at No. 135 East Fifteenth street the last three days."  The artworks were the work of prisoners in "Sing Sing, Auburn and Clinton prisons, but also from the Elmira Reformatory and the Mattawan Asylum for the Criminal Insane."  In addition to drawings, there were "fine plaster casts" made by a young Italian convict, an architect, and wood carvings.  (The article said it would not reveal the architect's name, "for on his release he intends to go back to his old position, and to begin life over again as an honest man."

The Prison Association of New York hired the architectural firm of Stoughton & Stoughton in June 1910 to remodel the interiors.  The first floor now held the parole bureau, the library, and a waiting room for released convicts.  Clerical staff--the chief parole agent, and the assistant parole agent, for example--were now housed on the second floor.  A new cornice with a triangular pediment was installed.

The association also published The Delinquent from the house.  The monthly periodical printed articles like, "Domestic Relations, Courts and Divorce," and "Some Factors in Prison Reform," which appeared in the February 1917 issue.

Especially at Christmas time, the families of convicts were remembered by the association.  General Secretary E. R. Cass wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times on November 30, 1923 that read:

Mothers and children come to us every day in great sorrow and distress, through no fault of their own.  For the children of men in prison we hope, through the help of your interested readers, to have a Christmas tree and toys at 135 East Fifteenth Street.  Dolls for the girls and toys and games for the boys will be appreciated and will help to bring cheer and sunshine to these children.

In 1961, the Prison Association of New York changed its name to the Correctional Association of New York.  A renovation completed in 1971 resulted in a superintendent's apartment in the basement, and offices throughout the upper floors.  

North Star Fund, created in 1979, acquired the former house in 1983.  The organization raises funds and makes grants "for racial, gender and economic justice," according to its website.  In 1984, it made renovations to the building and it was most likely at this time that the former parlor floor windows were replaced with grouped openings under a single lintel, which the architect carefully coordinated with the entrance entablature.  It was also possible that during this renovation the cornice pediment was removed.

The former Ebenezer Doughty house was restored to a single family residence in 2012.  Described by a realtor in 2017 as a "stunning, 25-foot elevator home," there are now eight bedrooms within the home.

photographs by the author

The 1840 Samuel Martin House - 52 King Street

 

The original stoop railings wrapped around newels that perched upon the brownstone drums. 

On June 18, 1854, Elizabeth E. Martin married Albert G. Crowell.  The wedding may have taken place in the parlor of her parents' home at 52 King Street.  Well-to-do builder Samuel Martin's house was one of a row of identical Greek Revival style homes.  Built in 1840, the three-story-structure was faced in brick above the brownstone clad basement level.  Handsome iron stoop railings descended to wrap the short newels atop sturdy brownstone drums.  Within its heavy stone framework, the paneled door was flanked by narrow sidelights.  A delicately dentiled cornice originally ran along the roof life.

Albert G. Crowell, who was in the drygoods business, and his bride moved into the Martin house.  It became a bit more crowed when Elizabeth's sister Caroline married John G. Benson.

The parlor was the scene of Caroline's funeral on the afternoon of May 16, 1854.  She had died two days earlier "after a lingering illness," according to her death notice in the New York Herald.

A second funeral was held here in 1863.  Samuel Martin died at the age of 78 on February 13, and his funeral was held two days later.

Around 1875, Albert G. Crowell would be appointed the chief clerk in the municipal Government's Excise Department.  By then they had been gone from 52 King Street for about nine years.  It became home to the Mark and Catherine Redmond family.

The Redmonds were well known at the Washington Market.  James H. and Nicholas W. both worked in their father's butcher business, and their mother oversaw the Redmond & Co. fruit business there.

Like many of their neighbors, the Redmonds took in a boarder.  In 1868 it was John Meyer, whose name appeared in the newspapers for an embarrassing reason that year.

On March 12, the Evening Express reported that Meyer had appeared before the magistrate in the Jefferson Police Court and "related how he had been enticed into a den of iniquity by a fair but false one and then robbed of $150."  The "fair and false one" was a woman named Jennie Hess who lived on Bleecker Street.  According to Meyer, he met her on the street and she invited him to her room.  

While he and Jennie were in bed, three men entered the room.  "On arising, he found that his wallet, containing $150 in money, had been taken from his pantaloons," related the Evening Express.  The scheme was known to police as a "panel house game."  Perpetrators had little reason to fear that their victims--preferring to suffer the loss rather than face the humiliation and publicity--would go to the police.  But Meyer was different.  He immediately found a policeman who arrested Jennie Hess.  Although she pleaded not guilty, "she was locked up to await her trial at the General Session," said the Evening Express.

In 1872 the Redmond family moved to 120 East 23rd Street.  The King Street house became home to the extended Henry M. Scoble family, who moved here from Vestry Street.  Living with him and his family were his widowed mother Caroline Martyn Scoble and his brother John R., who was a firefighter.

Caroline Martyn Scoble died in the house at the age of 74 on March 14, 1874.

Henry and his wife had four sons, Andrew Harvey, John M., William Henry and Thomas.  An attorney, Andrew ran for assemblyman in 1897.  The Evening Post noted described him as, "Lawyer; has been bank clerk and journalist; never before a candidate for public office."

William Henry was accepted into the College of the city of New York in May 1899.  It was no doubt a source of pride for the family.  The New York Herald noted, "more than thirteen hundred pupils of the public schools essayed to answer the puzzling questions put to them by the faculty of the college.  Of this number 630 reached the requisite percentage and will enter upon their duties the coming autumn."

The Scobel family lived on in the King Street house for decades, finally selling it in April 1907.  

At some point during the Depression years, the house was converted to unofficial apartments.  The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the basement level.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Living here in 1959 were Glacinta Rubino, a widow, and her unmarried daughter, Annette.  Another daughter, Rosalie Rubino Weinstein, had died in an airplane crash in April 1958 "while returning to New York from a western mission for Boys Town," according to The Villager.  Rosalie's husband, attorney Charles Weinstein, had died three months earlier.

Glacinta and Annette Rubino had an impressive house guest in the summer of 1959.  The Villager reported, "Princess Gabrielle Pacelli, niece of the late Pope Pius XII, visited 84-year-old Mrs. Glacinta Rubino, at her home, 52 King St., in Greenwich Village, on Monday, June 1."  The article explained, "The Princess and her husband, Prince Marcantonio Pacelli, were dear and close friends of Mrs. Rubino's daughter, the late Mrs. Rosalie Rubino Weinstein."

No. 52 King Street was officially converted to apartments , one per floor, in 1977.  A subsequent renovation in 1988 resulted in two duplex apartments and the rebuilding of the stoop based on surviving examples along the row. 

photograph by the author

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The 1836 Henry D. Thayer House - 315 West Fourth Street

 

In the spring of 1835 merchant Charles W. Hawkins lived at 98 Greenwich Street.  That year he purchased ten vacant lots on Fourth Street between Bank and West 12th Street from Samuel Bayard.  Within the next four months he resold the 20-foot-wide parcels to six men, all of whom were builders or otherwise involved in that trade.  Solomon Banta and Abraham Frazee made up the construction company Frazee & Banta, James Vandenberg and Aaron Marsh were also builders, while Henry M. Perine was a mason, and Richard Taylor was a dealer in lime.  A year later, ten houses were nearly completed on the sites, presumably constructed by their several owners.

Each of the nearly identical, brick-faced homes was two-and-a-half stories tall above an English basement.  Like its neighbors, 45 Fourth Street (renumbered 315 West 4th Street in 1863) was Greek Revival in style.  A short stoop led to the entrance where Doric pilasters flanked the single door.  The attic windows pierced a wide fascia board below the dentiled cornice.

By 1840 Joseph Fennimore, a carter, lived in the house.  It is unclear how long he remained, but in 1851 it was home to two families, the Finches and the Tallmans.  Whether the families were related is uncertain, but they would live together for years.

George Finch was a builder.  In his spare time, he volunteered at the Harry Howard Hose Company No. 55 on Christopher Street.  Living with him and his wife was his mother-in-law, Lavina Allen.  The parlor was the scene of 87-year-old widow's funeral on December 26, 1854.  

Tunis Tallman was a cabinet maker, whose shop was at 609 Hudson Street.  His son, Abraham S. Tallman, would go into the drygoods business around 1856.

The two families left West Fourth Street in 1863.  They were followed in the house by Thomas Forbes, a clerk, and his family.  Joseph Forbes, possibly Thomas's father, listed no profession in city directories, suggesting he may have been elderly and retired.

The Forbes family sold 315 West Fourth Street in 1868 to Nelson D. Thayer, a collector for the city.  Thayer was born in Schenectady on November 6, 1818 and moved to New York City in 1829.  He married Margaret Eliza Brown in 1840 and the couple had six children, Joanna, Lovina Ann, Margaret Jane, Irene, Seth Nelson, and Ella.  Highly involved in civic affairs, he had been elected to the City Assembly in 1857 and held the position through 1866.  In 1859 he was elected Fire Commissioner, as well.  

It was most likely Thayer who updated the home's appearance by raising the attic to a full third floor, and installing beefy, cast iron Italianate railings and newels to the stoop.

The muscular cast iron stoop ironwork survived in 1941.  The approximate appearance of the original third floor can be seen at right.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Middle-class households like the Thayer's would have had one or two servants, such as a cook and chamber maid.  In August 1869 Margaret advertised for "A German girl, to do general housework."

Like most of their neighbors, the Thayers took in a boarder.  In 1871 it was policeman William H. Christie, and the following year Harriet Habermehl lived with the family.  Harriet died on August 27, 1873 "at the residence of N. D. Thayer," according to her death notice in the New York Herald.  It described the 73-year-old as "the relic [i.e., widow] of Henry."  Her funeral was held in the house the following day.

Over the next few years the Thayers' boarders were Irene Pierce, a teacher, here from 1874 through 1876; and attorney Henry Winans the following year.

The Thayer family left 315 West Fourth Street in 1878, and the house continued to be home to middle-class families for decades.  Then, in 1926 architect George Provst was hired to convert the building to bachelor apartments--meaning that for the most part, they did not have kitchens.  The Department of Buildings warned, "not more than two families cooking independently on the premises," and "not more than 15 sleeping rooms in building."  

An advertisement for one of the two apartments within the "remodeled dwelling" that did have a kitchen was advertised for rent in 1933.  Rent for the two-room apartment was $35 per month, or about $750 in 2023.

Among the tenants here in the mid-1940s was inventor Shepard J. Goldin.  Goldin did not attempt to change the world with ground-breaking inventions, but focused on improvements to everyday objects.  While living here in 1946, he received patents for an "ornamental design for chess pieces," and an "illuminated watch clip and mirror."  The latter was an "attachment for watches in form of a flashlight mount for casting light on face of watch, having mirror over center of crystal."  Earlier he had patented an improved eyeglass case.

A renovation completed in 1963 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floors, and two apartments each on the upper floors.  Then, in 1996, the house was returned to a single-family home.  New stoop ironwork based on the surviving areaway fencing replaces the Italianate examples.

photograph by the author

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The William Menck Bakery Building - 163 Eighth Avenue

 

Originally a short attic level, the third floor was raised to full height in 1908.

In the late 18th century, George Rapelje's farm abutted Chelsea, the country estate of the Moore family.  The boundary between the properties ran approximately along what would become West 18th Street.  The end of bucolic life in the district came when Eighth Avenue was extended northward in 1816.  Two years later Clement Clarke Moore began selling building plots, and Rapelje's grandson and his wife, Susannah, followed suit in 1825.  

By 1842 a 25-foot-wide, two-and-half-story house-and-store stood at 163 Eighth Avenue.  Faced in red brick, its Greek Revival design included a squat attic level below what would have been a plain wooden cornice on block corbels.

The district known today as Chelsea was already a vibrant neighborhood.  William Menck purchased 163 Eighth Avenue, opening his bakery in the ground floor and moving his family into the upper portion.  The success of his business prompted an urgent-sounding advertisement in The Sun on April 12, 1842: "Wanted--An apprentice to the baking business.  Inquire 163 8th avenue immediately."

The bakery seems to have been a popular gathering spot for locals.  The city assessors annually published property assessments and for several years an identical notice appeared in the newspapers in the fall reading "a copy thereof is left with Wm. Menck, at 163 eighth avenue, where the same may be seen and examined by any of the inhabitants."

The Mencks apparently took in a highly-educated boarder in 1845.  His advertisement that year read:

A Gentleman lately arrived from France, is desirous of procuring a situation, being fully qualified as Teacher in a seminary or private family, or would have no objection to a situation in a mercantile house, being perfect master of the French and German languages, also, Spanish.  Understands book keeping by single and double entry.  Address A. B. care of Mr. Menck, 163 Eighth Avenue, New York.

In 1851 William Menck and his wife relocated to another developing area--Bloomingdale--far to the north in today's Upper West Side.  In 1852 he was the vice president of the newly-formed Bloomingdale Building Association, which provided building loans to urban pioneers in the district.

Louis Solomon moved his family into the upper floors of 163 Eighth Avenue.  The former bakery was divided into two store spaces, one of which became Solomon's clothing store.  The other half was leased to George Harvey and Williams Timms, who ran their fish store and oyster restaurant in the space.

Harvey and Timms did not survive here long.  On October 12, 1854, an advertisement touted, "A Good Opportunity--For Sale, a valuable oyster cellar, an old stand and doing a good business; also a dining saloon, in a business part of the city, for sale cheap for cash.  Inquire at No. 163 Eighth avenue, after 11 o'clock A. M."

Louis Solomon seems to have been struggling, as well.  By 1855 he had moved his family to 429 Eighth Avenue, and within two years his store was gone.  In 1858 one of the stores was home to George Clarendon's shoe and boot shop, and the other to Mark Leipziger's fancygoods store.  A fancygoods store was different from a general or drygoods store in that it sold a range of items like ribbons, buttons, ceramic figurines and such.

The relatively rapid turnover of stores continued.  On January 24, 1861 Clarendon advertised, "For Sale--Boot and Shoe Store, 163 Eighth avenue; Lease, Stock and Fixtures, or Lease and Fixtures without stock if required; the best stand in the avenue; low rent and fitted up in good style."  And the following year Mark Leipziger's fancygoods store became home to Sarah Shuman's millinery shop.

Sarah and her husband, Benjamin, moved into the upper floors of 163 Eighth Avenue.  The pair had barely settled in when near disaster struck.  On March 24, 1862, the New-York Daily Tribune reported that around 2 a.m., "the millinery store of S. Shannon [sic], No. 163 Eighth avenue, was discovered to be on fire."  Before the blaze could be extinguished, the Shumans incurred $500 in damaged, "principally by water," according to the article.  Happily the loss (around $14,000 in 2023 money) was fully covered by insurance.

Boarding with the Shumans in 1865 was Michael Kennedy, who volunteered with Hose Company No. 37 on West 29th Street.  He was on duty there on July 31 and, according to The New York Herald, "while there [he] fell asleep; while thus enjoying himself his watch was taken from his pocket."  Another fire fighter witnessed 22-year-old James McKegney "fumbling about the complainant's pockets while he was asleep."  Despite the evidence against him, McKegney, who worked as a barkeeper, "denies his guilt," said the article.

In a bizarre case of deja vu, on March 17, 1874, The New York Times reported, "James C. Kline, residing at No. 267 West Twenty-fifth street, was...charged with stealing a watch and umbrella from Thomas Seacock, of No. 168 Eighth avenue, while he was asleep."

By then Louis Weinheimer's "gentlemen's furnishing goods" shop had occupied one of the stores for at least six years.  The haberdashery would remain through 1880.  The other shop held Leopole Veith's drygoods store.

In 1889 Frank J. Berlin opened what he described as a "china and house furnishing goods" store, around the time that Louis Lowenstein purchased the building.  Louis and Albert Lowenstein (presumably brothers) opened their clothing store, L. Lowenstein's, in the second store.

In 1902 Louis Lowenstein hired architect John B. Mooney to renovate 163 Eighth Avenue.  The renovations cost him the equivalent of just under $16,500 in 2023 money.  The following year the Lowensteins signed a petition to the Board of Alderman to provide "flagging" (or sidewalks) along Eighth Avenue from 13th street to 59th Street.

A major change to the venerable building came in 1908, after Lowenstein sold the property to C. Fisture.  On July 16, The  Evening Post reported that plans had been filed "for enlarging and modernizing the two-story and attic dwelling and store."  The attic was raised to a full floor and an Italianate cornice, somewhat out of date, was installed. 

It appears Fisture rented rooms in the renovated upper floors.  Among the residents in 1911 was William C. Dodge.  He met a sudden death on November 28 that year.  The Standard Union reported, "William C. Dodge, a member of De Long Council, Royal Arcanum, was taken suddenly ill at the corner of Fifteenth street and Eighth avenue, Manhattan, last night and died before he could be attended by a doctor."  Dodge's affluence was reflected in the $624.24 check found in his pocket--a significant $18,400 by today's conversion.

Resident George Martin worked as a deckhand on the steam-powered barge, or lighter, the Jessica in 1922.  The vessel was owned by the Kehoe Lighterage & Coal Company in Flatbush.  With Prohibition in effect, the Government operated "rum chasers"--fast boats that checked ships for bootleg liquor.

On the night of September 20, customs inspectors from the rum chaser Newberry boarded the Jessica when its captain believed "Ambrose Channel, off Ambrose Lightship, [was] an unusual place for a steam lighter to be cruising in the early dawn," according to The Evening Telegram.  The men "were welcomed aboard courteously" by the Jessica's captain.

The article said, "Through every nook of the engine room and empty hold the customs men say they searched without result.  At the same time, they say, the unmistakable odor of high grade liquor assailed their nostrils."  They were about to abandon their search, when false panels "in, behind and under pieces of cabinet furniture" were discovered.  Inside were 2,112 cases of Scotch and rye whiskey.  The contraband was valued "by current bootleg rates at $211,200," said the article.  The entire crew, including George Martin, was arrested.

In 1937 the ground floors of 163 and 165 Eighth Avenue were combined as a single store, home to Newman's 5, 10, and 25 cent store.  The second floor of 163 Eighth Avenue was renovated as a dentists office, the third floor now had an apartment.

The first floors of 163 and 165 Eighth Avenue were combined in 1937.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The configuration lasted until 1967, when the ground floor stores were again separated.  The store in 163 became home to The Book Stop, which remained for years, followed by Phases, a vintage housewares shop.

The Village, December 10, 1981

Writing in The New York Times on January 16, 1981, Eleanor Blau called Phases, "a roomy and elegant shop near 18th Street [where] you can find items from the turn of the century to the 1950's, including art pottery, crystal, chrome ware, old household appliances, Depression glassware (what they gave as gifts at movie houses to lure the customers in), and Art Deco."

For years starting around 1996, the ground floor was home to Allstate Private Car & Limo, a forerunner of car services like Uber and Lyft.  The firm remained at least through 2003, replaced by a men's day spa and more recently by a cannabis shop.

Much has changed in the Chelsea neighborhood in the more than 180 years after William Menck moved his bakery and family into 163 Eighth Avenue.  Yet, above the ground floor, the building looks much as it did following the 1908 renovations.  

photographs by the author

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The Lost Valentine Mott Mansion - 94th Street and Broadway

 

image from the Victor Prevost collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Born in 1785 in Glen Cove, Long Island, Valentine Mott came from a line of Quaker physicians.  Having graduated from Columbia Medical College in 1806, he traveled to London to study under the renowned Sir Astley Cooper.  So adept was the young doctor that Astley almost immediately made Mott assistant in surgery.  In 1809, at the age of 26, he returned to New York as a recognized surgeon.

Because he was ambidextrous, Moss was able to operate with either hand, an ability that contributed to his success.  He garnered international fame when he performed successful, never-before attempted operations on arteries, including his 1818 surgery on a tiny vessels just two inches from the patient’s heart.  

Dr. Valentine Mott.  from the collection of the New York Academy of Medicine, Carte de Visite Collection

In 1819, Dr. Mott married Louisa Dunmore Mums, whom he described in his autobiography as "a lady of English descent, congenial temper, great personal attractions, elegant manners, and rare intellectual endowments."  The couple had nine children, six sons and three daughters.

Louisa Dunmore Mums Mott, artist unknown, from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery

By the early 1830's Mott had garnered a substantial personal fortune.  Wealthy New Yorkers routinely maintained townhouses for the winter social season, and "country seats" for the summer.  The latter provided a respite from the stifling heat and conditions of the city during the hot months.  In 1833 Dr. Mott purchased land in the Bloomingdale district, north of the city, from Samuel Oakley, and a year later added to the property with land purchased by Thomas D. Carpenter.  The estate stretched from the Hudson River to today's Amsterdam Avenue, and from 93rd Street to 96th.

The estate, seen here in 1874 after building plots and roadways were laid out.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The purchase was made for Louisa and the children.  In his biography, written in third person, he admitted, "The country, in fact, had no charm for him."  There was an existing house on the property, which the Mott family used for a decade.

During their father's many extended trips abroad, the children's tutor, Mr. Darling, aided Louisa in their care.  In 1888, Henry Mott recalled, "My father purchased [the] property on the 30th of April, 1833, and our family went that summer to Bloomingdale, and Mr. Darling was then with us...He was from that time in our family up to 1836, either as tutor or as guardian and proctor during my father's absence in Europe."

Two years after the family moved into their sumptuous town home at 1 Gramercy Park, Mott replaced the Bloomingdale house with a noble Greek Revival residence at approximately 94th Street and the Bloomingdale Road.  Set back from the road, its double-height Scamozzi columns not only provided a breeze-catching veranda for summer evenings, but gave the house a stately air.  Mott described it saying, "In 1846, he built, near the Bloomingdale road, an elegant and stately mansion, adorned with various kinds of trees and shrubbery, and surrounded with gardens, conservatories, and graperies, which he used as a summer retreat until the time of his decease."

The family was here during the summer of 1855 when Dr. Mott read an unsettling article in The New York Times:  "Dr. Valentine Mott, we are very sorry to announce, is quite ill of intermittent fever, at his residence in Bloomingdale."  Foreshadowing Mark Twain's famous letter about his own supposed death, Valentine Mott responded to The New York Times on July 31, 1855 saying:

I am happy to be able to contradict the rumor, and affirm that my health is very good...I find it necessary to make this statement, as the erroneous paragraph has found its way into several other journals and country papers.  By correcting this mistake you will oblige.

                    Yours respectfully, Valentine Mott.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Dr. Mott dedicated his full attention to the war effort, offering his services to President Abraham Lincoln.  As consultant to the War Department, he gave advice on the administering of anesthesia in battlefield hospitals.  Through this work, he and the President became close friends.

The assassination of the President on April 16, 1865 deeply affected Mott.  Four days later Mott was bedridden.  On April 26, The New York Times ran a single-line article that read, "We regret to learn that Prof. Valentine Mott was taken suddenly ill on Saturday, and is not expected to recover."  The following day the 80-year-old died in his Gramercy Park mansion.

His death came at a time when the ambitious concept of extending Broadway northward to replace the Bloomingdale Road (for the most part) was in its formative years.  In 1868 the project had reached the Mott estate.  The dignified mansion sat squarely in the middle of the proposed road, known at the time as the Boulevard.  Years later, on January 22, 1910, the Real Estate Record & Guide would recall, that "the home of the celebrated surgeon, Dr. Valentine Mott...stood back from the river such a distance that it had to be moved to make way for the contemplated Boulevard in 1868."

The mansion was relocated slightly south, to the corner of 93rd and the Boulevard (i.e., Broadway).  In the move, the house was necessarily altered.  The veranda, removed in order to transport the house, was replaced with a Greek temple portico.  Where the cupola had sat, there was now a peaked roof.  

It was here that Louisa Mott died on June 2, 1873.  The heirs began selling off the property in the following year.  On March 27, 1874, an auction of the mansion's contents was held at Robert Somerville's auction house at 74 University Place.  The announcement called it an "important sale of Valuable Furniture of the late Dr. Valentine Mott, removed from the Mott Mansion, Boulevard."  In addition to the furniture, Somerville sold the "massive mantel, pier and hall mirrors,"  as well as the chandeliers, carpets, "dining ware," and kitchen utensils.

At the time of the auction, The Children's Fold had been operating on East 58th Street for seven years.  The small, private orphanage under the supervision of Rev. Edward Cowley took care of around 34 children.  Horrors within the institution were uncovered in December 1876.  On January 15, 1877, The New York Times reported on an investigation that found "the children brutally beaten and maltreated."  Cowley, expectedly, was not only removed but jailed in the Tombs "under indictment for cruelty to his unfortunate wards," as reported in The New York Times on February 7, 1880.

Henry E. Pellew, in a letter to that newspaper on February 5, updated readers on the status of orphanage.  "The Children's Fold, under new management, soon recovered from its temporary difficulties, and under the administration of the Rev. Dr. T. M. Peters, in its new situation at Broadway and Ninety-third-street, has every claim to the full confidence of our citizens."  The "new situation" was the former Mott mansion.

A sign noting "All Welcome" hung on the pillars of the remodeled portico after the Mott house became a mission/orphanage.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

By 1885 the orphanage had grown considerably.  A notice requesting donations in The Evening Post on December 18 read, "The Children's Fold:  The ladies of the Fold desire to make a merry Christmas for their 160 children."

For some reason, an arsonist attempted to destroy the orphanage in the summer of 1895.  In the middle of the night on August 21, a dog barked at a man in the yard.  "This aroused the inmates and the man decamped," said The Press, which reported, "A bundle of rags soaked with kerosene were found...under the steps of the Mott mansion, at the northeast corner of Ninety-third and Western Boulevard.  Burnt matches were found, also, near the steps."  

At the turn of the century, what had been bucolic countryside was a bustling neighborhood of homes and shops.  The stately, if timeworn, Mott mansion survived until around 1903 when it was replaced by the Beaux Arts style Hotel Narragansett, and the Advent Lutheran Church.

The Hotel Narragansett (center) and the Advent Lutheran Church (right) sit on the site of the Mott mansion.  photo from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

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