The 1896 Edward Curtis House - 33 West 69th Street

 

Henry F. Cook was a one-man band when it came to real estate.  He acted as developer, architect and contractor in constructing speculative houses in the late 19th century.  In 1895 he embarked on an ambitious project of eight rowhouses on the north side of West 69th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.

Cook designed his row in the Renaissance Revival style, arranging the dwellings in an off balance A-B-B-C-C-D-E-F configuration.  The mirror-image "C" houses, Nos. 31 and 33, were "of Long Meadow stone and coral brick," as described by The Record & Guide.  Side-by-side stoops rose to the balcony-topped entrances.  Rounded bays rose from the basement level through the second floor, terminating in a balustraded balcony.  Grouped windows at the top floor sat atop an intermediate cornice, their interior piers decorated with Renaissance-inspired carvings.

In May 1896 Cook sold four of the eight houses to real estate operator George F. Johnson.  If you anticipated a quick turn-around, it did not happen, at least not for No. 33.  It was not until January 18, 1897 that Dr. Edward Curtis purchased the 22-foot wide house, giving in part payment his elegant home at No. 27 Washington Place.

No. 33 West 69th Street became home to an impressive family.  Edward was born on June 4, 1838 in Providence, Rhode Island.  He was descended from two presidents of Harvard University--Samuel and Joseph Willard.  He graduated "with high honors" from Harvard in 1859 and during the Civil War he was assistant surgeon in the United States Army.  

Dr. Curtis in his Union uniform.  from the collection of the National Library of Medicine

On the night of April 14, 1865 he had been summoned, along with 13 other physicians, to the home of William and Anna Peterson in Washington D.C. where President Abraham Lincoln had been transported after being shot in Ford's Theatre.  The following morning he and Dr. Joseph Woodward conducted an autopsy on the martyred President's body.  Curtis resigned from the military in 1870 and took up private practice in New York City.  He was a lecturer and author, having written books like the 1883 Manual of General Medicinal Training.

He and his wife, the former Augusta Lawler Stacey, had five children, Constance, Marian, George De Clyver, Natalie, and Bridgham.  Augusta and her daughters were visible among society, The Sun reporting on January 16, 1898, for instance, that "Mrs. Edward Curtis and the Misses Curtis of 33 West Sixty-ninth street" would be holding an "informal tea from 4 until 7 o'clock" the next day.

Augusta was extremely active in social and charitable causes.  She was perhaps most involved in the Mary F. Walton Free Kindergarten for Colored Children, of which she was vice-president in 1903.  She held meetings in the house for various groups, like the Women's Municipal League.  

On November 6, 1907 one of the Women's Municipal League meetings addressed the problem of funding.  The New-York Tribune said the women decided "that what it most needs for the furtherance of its work is the sinews of war--namely, money."  A paid worker, they felt, would be able to patrol the Upper West Side to "watch for infractions of the law, collect evidence and see that persistent law breakers were brought to justice."

In 1904 Dr. Curtis retired from practice because of ill health, but he continued his writing.  In 1906 he published his latest book, Nature & Health.  In its preface he said in part:

This book has been written in great part out-of-doors.  Thought out under the open sky, it has been committed to paper by the wayside, on knee or on the flat tops of fences.  Brought forth in such fashion, it is offered not as learning, but as a lure--a lure for the wise living that shall gain from goddess fairer than Hera, than Athene, or than Aphrodite herself, that gift, all Hygieia's own, the priceless boon of health, happiness, and the usefulness of years.

The same year, on October 3, the house was the scene of Marian's wedding to Roger B. Whitman.  Still living with their parents were George and Bridgham, both graduates of Harvard, and Natalie.  With one bedroom now vacant, William Fuller Curtis, their cousin, moved in.  He had been living, interestingly, in the former Curtis house on Washington Place.  No. 33 was now replete with artistic talents.  

Natalie, who was born in 1875, was a member of the Archaeological Institute of America.  She had studied music in France and Germany.  In America she focused on the musical cultures of Native Americans and lectured "before scientific and educational institutions," according to Who's Who in Music and Drama.  Along with article for various periodicals, she was the author of the 1902 Songs From a Child's Garden of Verses, Songs of Ancient America, published in 1905, and the 1907 The Indians' Book.

Constance was a year older than Natalie.  She studied at the Art Students League and was a student of William M. Chase.  Her works were exhibited in the Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition in 1907, and the Paris Exposition, the St. Louis World's Fair.  

Constance Curtis entitled this work White Roses.

William Fuller Curtis had studied art in Paris.  Born in 1873, he had been awarded top prizes in the Corcoran Gallery exhibitions in 1902 and '03 and at the St. Louis Exposition.  Although he did oil paintings and murals, he was best known as a pyrographer.  Writing in House and Garden in 1903, Leila Mechlin said, "In a somewhat analogous way William Fuller Curtis has begun the development of the art of burnt wood, for, leaving behind the common usages of the craft, he has pushed on into the realm of the sculptor and the painter and created a new art.  Neither in Europe nor America, in the past ages nor today, has work of a similar character been done."

By combining painting and wood burning techniques, Curtis created astounding bas relief works.  Some pieces, like his The Golden Dish, incorporated inlaid materials like gold.

This untitled piece by William Fuller Curtis, 52 inches wide, was executed in 1904.  Kaminski Auctions of Beverly Massachusetts.

On November 28, 1912 Edward Curtis died in his home at the age of 75.  The New York Times called him "for years one of the most widely known physicians in this country."  Soon afterward Augusta sold the 69th Street house to Arthur M. and Frances Wolff.  

Their purchase was no doubt prompted by the recent death of their daughter, Emily Rebecca.  Their young son-in-law, Ernest Abraham Cardozo, now was rearing two children, one less than a year old, next door at No. 31.

Like Augusta Curtis, Arthur M. Wolff was highly involved in charitable causes.  He was a supporter of the Dispensary and Hospital for Deformities and Joint Diseases, and was secretary of the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes.

The Wolffs did not remain especially long in the house and, while Frances retained possession, by 1917 it was being operated as a boarding house.  One resident, Benjamin Carter, was aboard the Cunard linter Laconia in February 1917 when it was torpedoed by a German submarine.  The Sioux City Journal ran the headline "Great British Liner Sunk By a Plunger / No Warning Given Liner."

While passengers were being hurriedly loaded into lifeboats, the submarine fired a second torpedo.  The vessel sank within 45 minutes.  On February 28 The Sun entitled an article "Laconia Survivors Hours in High Seas," and reported that two American women, Mrs. Mary E. Hoy and her daughter, Elizabeth, died of exposure in their life boat and were buried at sea.  There were 267 confirmed survivors, including Benjamin Carter, and 13 fatalities.

An incident of the war involved another boarder, Joseph J. Doherty, the following year.  Like so many of his countrymen, Doherty had enlisted for service.  On December 10, 1918 the New-York Tribune listed him among those wounded in battle.

The side-by-side stoops can be seen in this photo from around 1941.  NYC Dept of Records and Information Services

The tradition of artists in the house continued with Bertha Menzler Peyton and Bessie Potter Vonnoh, both of whom boarded in the house and exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 115th exhibition in 1920.  They were still here the following year when their works were again accepted in the prestigious show.

Betty Van Dyke ran the boarding house at the time.  She leased the property from Frances Wolff for years, finally "surrendering" the lease in 1933.  Fred M. Howard continued operating it as a respectable boarding house until 1939 when Else Alba leased both No. 31 and 33 West 69th Street from Frances Wolff, buying the furnishings from Howard.

In 1955 the former Curtis house was converted to apartments in the basement and former parlor level, with furnished rooms on the upper floors.  The stoop was removed, the original entrance converted to a window, and a rather unsightly doorway installed at the basement level.

It became home to middle-class professionals, like Rita Mary Martin, here in the late 1950's.  She worked as a stenographer in the New Zealand Mission to the United Nations.

Although the fraternal twins have lost their stoops, their former elegance is apparent.

A renovation completed in 1997 resulted in two apartments per floor.  

photographs by the author

The 1896 Theodore K. Pembrook House - 31 West 69th Street

 

Henry F. Cook acted as developer, architect and contractor in constructing speculative houses in the late 19th century.  In 1895 he embarked on an ambitious project of eight rowhouses on the north side of West 69th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.

Cook designed his row in the Renaissance Revival style, arranging the dwellings in an off balance A-B-B-C-C-D-E-F configuration.  The mirror-image "C" houses, Nos. 31 and 33, were "of Long Meadow stone and coral brick," as described by The Record & Guide.  Side-by-side dog-legged stoops rose to the balcony-topped entrances.  Rounded bays rose from the basement level through the second floor, terminating in balustraded balconies.  Grouped windows at the top floor sat atop an intermediate cornice, their interior piers decorated with Renaissance-inspired carvings.

On January 2, 1896 The Real Estate Record & Guide reported that No. 31, "one of the handsome row recently completed by Henry F. Cook," had been sold to Theodore K. Pembrook for about $75,000.  (The price would translate to about $2.3 million today.)

Pembrook was a partner in the wholesale dry goods firm of Sweetser, Pembrook  & Co.  He was also a director in the New York Casualty Co. and the Traders' Fire Insurance Co.  Sweetser, Pembrook & Co. was organized in 1868 and by now was described by King's Handbook of New York as "among the most prominent of the dry-goods firms of America."

Pembrook's social status was reflected in his several club members, including the Colonial, the New York Athletic Club, and the Merchant's and the Manhattan Clubs.  He and his wife, the former Bertha Patience Woodruff, had two daughters, Bertha Woodruff and Sara Isabelle.

Mirror images, Nos. 31 and 33 shared a balcony created by the creative hoods above the entrances (now windows).  

The Pembrooks enjoyed an extended stay in Lakewood, New Jersey for the 1897 Thanksgiving holiday.  On November 28 the New-York Daily Tribune noted "Theodore K. Pembrook and William B. Dowd, of New-York, are out for quail these days, with good results.  Their record for four days is eighty-six birds, and on Tuesday they brought in thirty-four quail and two woodcock."  In a separate article the newspaper reported "Mrs. William A. Pembrook is visiting her son, Theodore K. Pembrook, a New-Yorker, who is here for a long stay."

Interestingly, in addition to being a businessman and huntsman, Pembrook had an artistic side.  He had an art studio on West 68th Street and owned the Lyceum Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  

But things were about to fall apart for the Pembrooks.  On April 10, 1900 The New York Times reported on a judgment against "Theodore K. Pembrook, the artist," for $6,344 (nearly $200,000 today).  In his hearing, Pembrook has said "that there was another judgment against him held by his father's estate for about $8,000."    He claimed he owned no real estate, saying he "did own the property at 31 West Sixty-ninth Street, but it had been foreclosed and sold."  (That was not exactly true.)

In November Pembrook sold the Lyceum Theatre.  He had already transferred his interest in Sweetser, Pembrook & Co. to his mother.  The Pembrooks managed to stay on in No. 31 until August 1903 when Theodore leased the house which he had earlier insisted was not his to Frederick M. Strauss and his wife Julie.  Two years later, on October 5, 1905, Pembrook sold the 22-foot wide house to his tenants.  

Strauss was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  The couple's son, Walter C., was a freshman at Harvard, and son John Francis was an attorney in the law firm of Strauss & Hedges.  More notably, he was a recognized photographer.

Known sometimes simply as J. F. Strauss, he was a co-founder with Alfred Stieglitz in 1902 of the Photo-Secession.  He worked as an associate editor for Camera Work, a quarterly founded by Stieglitz.  The magazine featured a photogravure by Strauss, The Bridge, a haunting shot of the Brooklyn Bridge at night.

J. F. Strauss's The Bridge was taken in 1903.  from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art

While living in the 69th Street house J. F. Strauss exhibited his works at impressive venues like the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh and the National Arts Club in New York.

Around 1911 the Strausses shared the house with Ernest A. Cardozo.  A widow, the well-to-do attorney had graduated from Columbia University in 1899 and was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.  He was financially comfortable enough to own a Pierce Arrow automobile.

It appears that John Francis left the family home in 1913.  On December 7, 1912 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that he had purchased Larchmont Manor, the former George Croker estate in Larchmont, New York.  The price he paid would equal just over $2 million today.

Ernest Cardozo was still living with the family in June 1919 when he married Mary Ellen Katon of Cincinnati.  In reporting on the wedding The New York Times mentioned that he also owned a summer home at Allenhurst, New Jersey.

The split, shared stoop was intact when this photo was taken around 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The Strauss family left the 69th Street house shortly after that.  In 1938 it was being operated as "furnished rooms," and in 1947 a renovation converted it to two apartments per floor.  Sadly, the stoop--so integral to Henry F. Cook's design--was removed, the entrance converted to a window, and a new, unattractive doorway installed in the former basement level.

Among the first residents was opera singer Dino Yannopoulos.  He was no doubt thrilled to receive a letter from the Metropolitan Opera Association dated March 2, 1949 which said in part, "It is the intention of the management to offer you a contract for the season 1949-50."

Other than replacement windows, the tragic loss of the stoop, and an air conditioner projecting through a hole gouged in the brickwork of the top floor, Henry F. Cook's handsome design is essentially intact.

photographs by the author

The 1899 Warwick Arms - 101 West 80th Street

 

Early in 1898 Tomas R. White and his wife, Henriette K. bought and demolished the two brownstone-fronted houses at the northwest corner of Columbus Avenue and West 80th Street.   They commissioned architect Henry F. Cook to design a high-end apartment house on the property.  His plans, filed in March, called for a "fireproof" brick and stone structure to cost a staggering $235,000--just under $7.5 million today.

Construction was completed by the end of the following year.  Cook's Beaux Arts design include a three-story stone base and seven stories of vibrant red brick and white limestone.   The architect relied more on the striking contrast in colors than on the frothy ornamentation expected in the style.  For the most part, he forewent fruity swags and garlands, using instead more formal molded lintels supported by scrolled brackets to accentuate his design.

Called the Warwick Arms, there were two apartments per floor--one with seven rooms and the other eight.  Each apartment had two bathrooms (one for servants).  Tenants paid between $1,600 to $2,200 per year, or about $5,760 per month today for the most expensive apartments.  An advertisement stressed that the servants quarters "are totally separate, though in the same apartment."

The building filled with affluent tenants, like Asa Alling Alling, a well-known attorney, and his wife, the former Louise Floyd Smith.  Born on May 4, 1862, he had graduated from Cornell University in 1883 and from Columbia Law School in 1885.  He traced his American roots to Roger Alling, a Puritan who arrived in 1637.

Asa Alling Alling - A History and Genealogical Record of the Alling-Allens, 1899 (copyright expired)

Alling was a member of the legal firm Kenneson, Crain & Alling.  His social status was reflected in his exclusive club memberships--the Metropolitan and Manhattan Clubs and the New England Society.  Sadly, he would not enjoy his new apartment for long.  He contracted appendicitis in February 1900 and was confined to home.  The Sun said "From the beginning of his illness his physicians, Dr. Bull and Dr. Janesway, had no hope of his recovery."  He died in his apartment on April 14.

Broker Byron White lived with his parents here at the time.  The young man celebrated Christmas Eve to excess in 1901.  The New York Press reported that a resident of Riverside Drive near 79th Street called Police Headquarters that afternoon, frantic because there was a dead man sprawled on a bench in Riverside Park.

A patrolman was sent to the scene and when he began to lift the corpse, it grunted "Lemme alone."  The newspaper explained "He was drunk.  That was all."  About that time two detectives arrived.  "They were disgusted when they learned the true state of affairs," said the article.

Officer Sheridan, who was the first to arrive, felt bad about arresting the young man.  "It's the day before Christmas, though, and I hate to do it.  But this is Riverside Drive."  A patrol wagon took the protesting 'dead man' to the police station.  There he hiccoughed the information that he was Bryon White.  His father arrived that night to post bail.  The article said, "No member of his family could be seen last night at the Warwick Arms."

Additional rental income was provided for the building's owner (Joseph C. Levi had purchased the property from the Whites upon its completion) by retail shops on the Columbus Avenue side.   An initial tenant was the upscale haberdashery, Butler & Cleland.

The Evening World, June 4, 1902 (copyright expired)

As with most similar buildings, an apartment was supplied for the supervisor and his family in the basement.  The Langs narrowly escaped a horrific tragedy on June 8, 1903.  Arthur Lang was nine years old and was coming home from school that afternoon.  As third-graders often do, he bolted across Columbus Avenue and 80th Street without looking carefully.  The Evening World reported, "just as he stepped out from behind a north-bound car a [street] car going in the opposite direction at top speed struck him.  He was caught full in the back and hurled thirty feet, receiving a fracture of the leg and thigh and a dozen wounds about the face and arms."

The streetcar was filled with women passengers who, "as soon as they recovered from their excitement," rushed to Arthur's aid.  Mrs. J. T. Valentine took charge, carrying the boy to the sidewalk, then ordering "a dozen or more women, who had gathered around her, to tear off bandages from their clothing, with which she bound up the little fellow's wounds."  Arthur was taken to the hospital and the motorman was arrested.

By 1905 well-known artist Howard Chandler Christy and his wife Maebelle Gertrude Thompson lived in the Warwick Arms.  They had a daughter, Natalie Chandler Christy.  Born in Ohio in 1872 he became famous for his "Christy Girl," the successor to Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girl."  The Christy family would remain in the building at least through 1909.

Christy's World War I recruitment posters were seen nationwide. 

Dr. Mary S. Macy was a Warick Arms tenant by 1906.  Women who aspired to the title of physician had an especially difficult time in the early 20th century.  Most doctors felt women made good nurses, but that the higher levels of the medical profession should be left to men.  Mary S. Macy was an early example of a successful female doctor.

She was part of an noteworthy wedding party on June 12, 1906, one of the bridesmaids of Georgetta Aller at her wedding to Winfred L. Potter.  What made the event amazing, according to The New York Press, was that both the bride and groom were doctors, as was the entire wedding party.  "With doctors for bride and bridegroom, doctors for best man, bridesmaids, and ushers, about eighty doctors for wedding guests and a doctor of divinity as performer of the ceremony," said the article, the wedding "caused much interest in medical and social circles."

Dr. Mary S. Macy was joined in the building by another female doctor, Isabelle Thompson, by 1913.  That year both women attended the 15th International Congress on Hygiene and Demography in Washington D.C.  Dr. Macy would remain in the Warwick Arms at least through the end of World War I.

In 1907 well-to-do contractor Patrick Henry Hirsch moved in with his wife, Ruby, and mother-in-law.  Things went well within their "luxurious apartment," as described by The Evening World, until September 17.   In fact, as it turned out, the couple was not married at all and Hirsch had another wife, Bessie, in the deep South.  Mrs. Hirsch tracked down her wayward husband and had him arrested.  Word arrived at the Warwick Arms that "Mrs. Hirsch" was Miss Ruby Yeargin.

When Ruby and her mother returned home that afternoon the elevator operator refused to take them upstairs.  They had to climb the stairs.  The Evening World reported, "Presently there came  rap on the door.  Miss Yeargin, tearful and woebegone, answered the knock.  Outside stood Charles Spurgeon, the manager.  'Madam,' he said, 'the proprietor, Mr. L. Hutzler, has instructed me to ask for your keys. You must vacate these rooms at once.'" 

Despite a one-year lease, the management was required by law to refuse accommodations to unmarried couples.  Ruby pleaded "There are thousands of other women in this city who are doing what I have done!"  Spurgeon was unrelenting, and said "I don't want to use force, but if you do not get out peaceably I will have you put out forcibly."  Not only was Ruby evicted, she was arrested along with Hirsch.  Later that afternoon a truck took away all of the furnishings.

Rosalie Schumar and her son, Otto Hirsch (no relation to Patrick), shared an apartment on the top floor of the Warwick Arms in 1914.  Just after 3:00 on the early morning of December 15 Roslie was awakened by a flashlight in her room.  The Sun reported "She screamed and saw the burglar make his way hurriedly into the butler's pantry."  The crafty thief locked the door so Hirsch could not get in, then climbed down the fire escape.  He had made off with a $300 stickpin.  

In the morning it was discovered that the burglar had visited the Hammersley apartment on the same floor, taking $50 in cash, and the apartment of A. Kaiser on the second floor, where he made off with $40 in cash and $300 in jewelry.  The total heist would be equal to about $18,200 today.

It may have been a remodeling initiated in 1918 that prompted long-term residents like Dr. Mary S. Macy to leave.  On March 5, 1918 The Sun entitled an article "Suites For Bachelors" and reported "The Warwick Arms apartment house...is to be made over into small housekeeping suites."  Owner Leo Steinfeld had hired the architectural firm of Rouse & Goldstone to make the $50,000 in renovations.  Rather than two, there were now six apartments per floor.

Despite being smaller, the apartments still attracted moneyed residents.  Living in one of the renovated apartments in 1919 was E. A. Steinfeld.  On October 2 he participated in a welcoming parade for King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium.  Riding in his "big touring car," as described by the New York Telegram, were Police Commissioner Augustus Drum Porter, Captain J. W. O'Connor, and Army physician Dr. Meagher.

The New York Telegram reported, "In order to avoid running down a group who started to cross Broadway," Steinfeld drove his automobile "into a high pile of paving blocks.  The pile was bowled over into crowds lining the sidewalks."  The New-York Tribune added that the collision "scattered the wooden blocks, some of which struck and slightly injured spectators lining the curb."  Dr. Meagher treated the wounded onlookers and O'Connor and Porter "helped repile the blocks before they rejoined the procession."

In 1923 Dr. William Johnston Books and his bride, Florence Margaret Ferris moved in.  Although a son, William, Jr., was soon born, things did not go smoothly in the household.  Florence accused her husband of giving her $20 per month for personal expenses originally, but soon "doled out" money from 50 cents to a dollar at a time.

On Christmas Day 1925 Florence took their son to her parents' house to "visit" and never came back.  The following day she received a stern telegram from her husband that read simply "Have Bill in New York this evening."  Finally, in June 1925 Dr. Books filed for custody, but failed.

Three years later the battle was still being waged.  On February 9, 1928 he told the court that Florence "pens up" their son.  The Brooklyn Standard Union reported "'Chicken wire guarding the windows and but one chair in the room' is the way Dr. William Johnston Books, a physician, of 101 West Eightieth street, Manhattan, describes the locale for his visit to his son, 'Junior.'"  It is unclear whether the doctor ever got custody of the boy.

Helen Booz, who lived here in 1934, was the principal of School No. 1 in Fairfiew, New Jersey and a supporter of the visual arts.  She was a patroness of an exhibition in the Roerich Museum that fall.  But she was shocked when she first viewed one of the displayed paintings, The Head Hunter by Wilson H. Ellsworth.  It was a modern take on a Bible story.

"The canvas of 'The Head Hunter' and its suggestion of a modern version of John the Baptist is distasteful and immoral," she wrote to the museum's president, Louis L. Horch.  She demanded that the painting be taken down.  Instead, the committee in charge of the exhibition decided to keep it on display and simply remove Miss Booz's name from the list of patronesses.

Throughout the 20th century the Warwick Arms would continue to house white collar residents.  William J. Simon and his wife, the former Ann Rosenberg, lived here after mid-century.  A composer and pianist, Simon had originally gone into medicine, but decided instead on music.  He not only wrote music for Broadway, but for radio and television shows.  He was associated with the National Broadcasting Company for years.  He died of cancer in his apartment here on August 4, 1971.

The basement apartment was home to superintendent Bob Taylor in 1981.  It was the scene of a grisly double murder on April 20 that year.  Taylor, who was 52 years old, was found gagged and bound to a chair with a gunshot in the head.  A second man "had apparently been bludgeoned to death," according to The New York Times.  The apartment had been ransacked in what was an apparent robbery.

Henry F. Cook's handsome red-and-white design survives beautifully intact today.  A reminder of a time when well-to-do apartment dwellers shared their sprawling homes with servants--who were kept "totally separate." 

photographs by the author