The 1913 Marquand - 11 East 68th Street

 

On March 23, 1912, The New York Times reported that "the handsome Marquand house" on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and 68th Street had been "sold to a syndicate for improvement with an eleven-story apartment house."  The 1884 Henry Marquand mansion was "one of the finest residences in the city," said the article."  Its interiors were decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany, John La Farge, Frederick Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

The syndicate mentioned by The Times included former senator George B. Agnew and architect Herbert Lucas.  The group had paid "somewhat under $500,000" for the mansion, or about $16.3 million in 2025 terms.  Expectedly, Herbert Lucas was the architect of the "high-class semi-co-operative apartment."  His plans, filed in December, projected the construction cost at $500,000.

In a nod to the site's history, the building was called The Marquand.  Completed in the fall of 1913, it was faced in limestone, buff colored brick and trimmed in terra cotta.  The World's New York Apartment House Album called it, "an architectural ornament to this high-class residential neighborhood and also noteworthy among fine apartments in the city."

Lucas designed the neo-Renaissance-style structure as a U, assuring natural light and ventilation to almost every room.  There were two entrances--one on Madison Avenue under a metal-and-glass marquee, and the other tucked into the 68th Street light court.  Above a rusticated, two-story base were nine stories of brick.  The full-height rounded bays on 68th Street were echoed in the bracketed cornice.  Intermediate cornices of terra cotta relieved the verticality of the design.

A 1913 rendering shows the original Madison Avenue entrance.  The World's New York Apartment House Album (copyright expired)

The apartments ranged from seven to 13 rooms "and a few are arranged on the duplex plan," said The World's New York Apartment House Album.  An advertisement in November 1913 touted, "very large rooms, ample closet space and exceptional servants' quarters," adding that the suites were, "especially designed for discriminating tenants."  Rents began at $2,000 per year, or about $5,450 a month today.

There were typically four apartments per floor.   The World's New York Apartment House Album (copyright expired)

In its July 1914 issue, The Real Estate Magazine noted, "in such an apartment house at No. 11 East sixty-eighth street, one can entertain on the same scale as they could in a country house with half the number of servants required in the latter."  That was because the building's staff was on hand for large entertainments.  In a recent event, for instance, the superintendent "acted as major domo" and six other employees "were his assistants," greeting the guests "to give them the same service that would have been afforded had the dance been held in the ballroom of a hotel."

The article said that the floor space within the larger apartments equaled that of a four-story private house, and the six-room apartments were "equivalent to that of the average three-storied residence."  The living rooms of the large apartments measured 31.6 feet in length and the dining rooms measured 22-by-14 feet.

Among the initial residents were W. Albert Pease, Jr. and his wife, the former Martha C. Rodgers.  Born in 1872, Pease had been the partner of Lawrence B. Elliman in the real estate company of Pease & Elliman.  (He would retire from that firm in 1917 to operate as an independent broker.)

On April 19, 1914, The New York Times reported that Martha had, "sent out invitations for two fancy dress dances" in the apartment--one for that evening and the other to be held three days later.  The article said, "While the invitations read 'Bal Poudre,' fancy dress is not obligatory."  A bal poudré had been a popular theme for balls in the last part of the 19th century.  

After Martha Pease's second affair, The New York Times said, "there were about a hundred guests, and the majority of them appeared in fancy costume with powdered hair and colored wigs.  As the entertainment was in the nature of a bal poudre, the men came in satin knickerbockers, with stocks [i.e., stiffened neckwear], frilled shirt fronts, and powdered hair."

Living here at the time were Morris Roderick Volck and his wife, the former Lillian Marian Holmes.  The couple had two children, four-year-old son, Morris Jr., and a two-year-old girl, Elsie.  Volck was born in 1886, the son of wealthy dry goods merchant George Andreas Volck, and graduated from Yale in 1910.  Following his father's death, his mother married Domicio da Gama, the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States.  

The other residents of the Marquand were assuredly unaware that Lillian Volck was being imprisoned in their apartment.  Suspecting that she was considering divorce, at around 3:00 on June 9, 1915, the 29-year-old Volck (whom Lillian thought had sailed for Germany) appeared at the apartment and announced that she was a "prisoner."  He forbade her to communicate with her family, her lawyer "or anyone else," according to The New York Times.  He then instructed the superintendent "not to allow anybody to come to or go from the apartment without his permission."

The minute he left the apartment, Lillian, who was 24, telephoned her lawyer, Edmund L. Mooney of Blandy, Mooney & Shipman.  The following afternoon, Mooney called the apartment and asked Volck what right he had to imprison her wife.  Mooney later testified, "He replied that his house was his castle and that he guessed he knew his business."  Mooney continued:

I got a little hot under the collar and replied: "You thick-headed mutt, don't you know that kind of business doesn't go in this country.  You needn't think this war has thrown us back to mediaeval times.  What you are trying to do may be all right in Germany, but it does not go in America.  I'll have you down to court before night on a writ of habeas corpus.

Leaving Lillian locked in the apartment, Volck went to the "villa" of his mother, Madame Da Gama, in Long Branch, New Jersey ("famous for its sunken gardens," according to The New York Times).  The newspaper tracked him down there.  In a telephone interview, Volck said, "Now it is all over and it is all right.  I believe that my wife and I will be living together in a day or two."

The couple was not living together in a day or two.  On June 15, 1915, The New York Times reported that Lillian had filed for divorce, charging her husband "with cruelty, desertion, and non-support."

Shields emblazoned with the Marquand's initial decorate the facade.

Other initial residents were William Hurlbut Force and his wife, the former Katherine Arvilla Talmage.  They had two daughters: Kathryn, born in 1891, and Madeleine, born two years later.  Force was the head of William H. Force & Co., commission merchants.  Still unmarried, Kathryn lived with her parents.  

Madeleine Force had married John Jacob Astor IV on September 9, 1911, against her parents' wishes.  Not only was Madeleine 18 years old and Jack Astor 47, but Astor was divorced.  The Episcopal church refused to marry the couple because of Astor's divorce.  (They finally were married by a Congregationalist minister.)  After an extended honeymoon, the couple booked passage back to New York on the new luxury liner RMS Titanic.  Astor was lost in the sinking, but Madeleine and her unborn baby, John Jacob Astor VI, were saved.

William H. Force died in the apartment on May 19, 1917.  He left his entire estate, about $12.2 million in today's money, to Katherine Arvilla.  In reporting his death, The New York Times remarked, "Miss Katherine E. Force...is engaged to Henri C. Harnickell, a broker."  That marriage would not come to pass.  

Five years later, on December 5, 1922, The New York Times reported, "Although the engagement of Miss Katherine E. Force...to Major Lorillard Spencer has never been formally announced, it has been rumored for some time, and their wedding will take place tomorrow at the home of Mrs. William K. Dick.  (Madeleine Force Astor had married William Karl Dick in June 1916.)

James Walter Thompson and his wife, the former Margaret Riggs Bogle, lived here by the early 1920s.  Margaret was the daughter of portrait painter James Bogle.  James Thompson was born in 1847 to Alonzo D. Thompson and Cornelia Roosevelt.  He came to New York City from Ohio in 1864 and found a job in an advertising agency.  He purchased the business in 1878, renaming it J. Walter Thompson Company.  Called the father of modern magazine advertising, Thompson was, according to The New York Times, "the first man to recognize the importance of the back pages and covers of magazines for advertising purposes."  He retired in 1916 and sold his firm.

Katherine Arvilla Talmage Force was at the Newport home of Katherine and Lorillard Spencer, Chastellux, in the summer of 1939.  She died there on August 14 at the age of 76.  In reporting her death, The New York Times commented, "Among her grandsons is John Jacob Astor."

An interesting resident at the time was Vladimir N. Smolianinoff, who lived here with his wife Olga.  The son of "wealthy Russian landlords," as described by The New York Times, he was was born in 1861.  Following his graduation from the University of Moscow in 1882, he oversaw the educational system in the Grandy Duchy of Finland and later the educational facilities in the south of Russia.  Czar Nicholas II appointed him Grand Master of the Imperial Court of St. Petersburg.  He fled Russia during the Revolution and came to the United States in 1938 to join his family.  He died in the apartment on August 8, 1942.

Another fascinating immigrant resident was Ernest Brummer, who lived here as early as the 1950s.  A native of Hungary, he studied at the Louvre School of Archeology in Pars and at the Sorbonne.  Prior to World War I, he went on expeditions to the Middle East and Egypt, where he uncovered "a collection of art works, including jewelry, sculpture and vases in marble, bronze and other metals," according to The New York Times.

Brummer immigrated to New York in the mid-1920s and opened the Brummer Gallery with his brother Joseph.  It handled classical art objects and among its clients were the Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre.

In 2012, the HFZ Capital Group and Vornado Realty Trust initiated a conversion to condominiums.  Three years later, The New York Times reported that the Marquand's 41 apartments were being remodeled into 25 condominiums.

That year, in May 2015, HFA Capital Group sold a five-bedroom apartment for $21 million, and on August 2, 2019, The New York Times reported that a triplex apartment sold for $34.2 million.

photographs by the author

The Henry J. Harper House -- No. 125 East 38th Street

photo via Google Streetview

In 1865 the two newly-completed houses at the northwest corner of 38th Street and Lexington Avenue reflected the comfortable financial conditions of Murray Hill residents.  No. 314 Lexington Avenue, the home of the L. A. Milbank family, was three stories tall above the basement level and boasted a stylish mansard roof like its abutting neighbors to the north.  Directly behind it was the home of Robert Porter and his family, at No. 125 East 38th Street; described by one newspaper as a "four-story high stoop brownstone dwelling."

The addresses continued to be home to socially-visible families throughout the 19th century.  Benjamin F. Watson and his wife lived at No. 314 Lexington for at least two decades, until around 1896.  Mrs. Watson was highly involved in charitable events, her name appearing regularly in the social columns.  No. 125 was owned by the wealthy widow of Prescott Hall Butler around the turn of the century (Butler died in 1901).

The configuration of the two houses would have been similar to these, one block to the north, although altered for business when this shot was taken.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

But the Lexington Avenue corner fell from favor for upscale families when the Independent Rapid Transit began excavation for its subway line.  Both houses saw a regular succession of renters; although neither appears to have been converted to a boarding house.

By 1915, when architect Chester H. Aldrich of the esteemed firm Delano & Aldrich, leased No. 125 East 38th Street from Mrs. Prescott Hall Butler, the house had lost its stoop; now described as a "five-story residence."

A more significant alteration was made five years later when the house was purchased by the British Government and converted to the British War Veterans' clubhouse.  It was officially opened by Sir Aukland Geddes, British Ambassador to the United States on Saturday, October 29, 1921.  The New York Herald noted "The clubhouse...has living quarters for the men in addition to recreation and reading rooms.  A club canteen is also a feature of the new clubhouse."

At its opening the club already had 950 members.  The Herald explained "The organization includes several veterans of the Boer war and the Indian fighting, as well as veterans of the world war."

In the meantime, publisher Henry Sleeper Harper was well-known in publishing and in New York society.  The grandson of one of the founders of Harper & Brothers, he lived a few blocks south at No. 133 East 21st Street.  As unsinkable as Molly Brown, he had survived the sinking of a ship which collided with an iceberg off the Grand Banks around 1902.   A decade later the incident would repeat itself in an unsettling case of deja vu.

Harper and his wife, Myra, toured Europe and Asia in 1911, taking along their Pekinese dog, San Yat-Sen.  While they visited Cairo, Harper hired an interpreter-guide named Hammad Hassab.  Obviously pleased with their Egyptian helper, Henry Harper hired him as a full-time servant.

In April 1912 the trio headed back to New York City.  They boarded the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg, France.  (Myra's pet did not get a free passage--the Pekinese dog had ticket number 869.)

Exactly as had happened ten years earlier, Harper was jolted by the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg early on the morning of April 15.  Instructed to put on warm clothing, Henry put an overcoat over his dinner clothes and Myra donned a black fur over her dinner gown.

The couple, along with Hammad Hassab, boarded Lifeboat 3, along with little San Yat-Sen.  They were rescued by the Carpathia around 6:00 that morning.  Later, after Harper was asked about the dog being brought onto the lifeboat, he replied "There seemed to be lots of room and nobody made any objection."

By the time the British War Veterans opened their 38th Street clubhouse, Myra's health was poor.  After a prolonged illness, she died on November 14, 1923.  Less then eight months later, on July 8, 1924, the 60-year old Harper quietly married Anne W. Hopson.

Despite the Lexington Avenue subway and the increasing commercialization of the avenue, the Murray Hill neighborhood retained its affluent reputation.  In 1926, the same year a son was born to the the couple, Harper commissioned architect Herbert Lucas to convert the two vintage houses on the corner of 38th Street to a single, lavish mansion.

Completed the following year, the structure was a marriage of neo-Classical and Art Deco styles.  An ambitious entryway on 38th Street flaunted a broken pediment, fluted pilasters and a somewhat over-sized cartouche.  Jazzy geometric lintels graced the upper openings.  The old carriage house was incorporated into the design as an extension.

The former carriage house was incorporated into the new mansion.  photo via Google Streetview

The Lexington Avenue entrance was preserved, no doubt, as the service entrance.  However, surprisingly in November 1928 when Henry Harper signed a petition objecting to incursion of business on Lexington Avenue within the restricted Murray Hill district, he used No. 314 Lexington Avenue as his address.

Henry Jr. studied at Phillips Exeter Academy and then, at the age of 18, he enrolled in Cornell University where, according to The New York Times, he "is undergoing naval training."  His father had been ill for about two years at the time.  On March 1, 1944 Henry Sleeper Harper died at the age of 79 in the 38th Street house.

Anne remained in the mansion for another six years.  Henry Jr. had served in the Navy during World War II and was now employed by the Federal Government in Washington DC.  In January 1951 Henry's engagement to Elizabeth Clay was announced.  Following the wedding, Anne Harper moved into the couple's home in Alexandria, Virginia.

photo by Carl Forster, 2001, courtesy the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association

The following year, on September 22, The American Institute of Management announced it had purchased the Harper mansion, "and plans to use it for its national headquarters."  The group was a non-profit organization founded in 1948 "to help solve the problem of raising management efficiently by the process of comparative analysis," according to The Times.

The Institute converted the interiors to offices, with a duplex apartment on the third and fourth floors.  Department of Buildings permits noted "The apartment is to be occupied by an officer of the American Institute of Management."

By 2013 the house had become home to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Benin to the United Nations.   Sometime after 2000 the mansard roof was removed and the top floor extended to full height.   The Harper house survives mostly intact since its 1927 make-over; a a delightful and unexpected surprise.

Apologies for the poor quality photographs in this post.  The Harper House has been obstructed by sidewalk scaffolding for an extended period at the time of this writing.