The 1852 Charles C. Buxton Grocery - 380 Bleecker Street

 

In 1850, Charles C. Buxton and his family lived at 155 Amos Street, near his grocery store on Bleecker Street.  (Amos Street would be renamed West 10th Street in 1857.)  He was also an Inspector of the Eighth Ward Public Schools.  Buxton would have to relocate his business in 1851, when that building and four others were razed.  On the site, five four-story house-and-store buildings, which would later be numbered 372 to 380, were completed in 1852.  Arthur H. M. Haddock owned the new building that would be 380 Bleecker Street.

Almost identical to the others, it was faced in orange-red brick above the storefront.  Its design straddled the Greek Revival and Italianate styles, the former represented in the residential entrance with its sidelights, narrow pilasters and tripartite transom, and in the flat brownstone lintels and sills.  The cornice, on the other hand, was purely Italianate, with multiple scrolled corbels.

Haddock apparently had negotiated with Buxton prior to the demolition, and upon the building's completion, Buxton's grocery store moved into the ground floor.  (Haddock ran a cigar business on West Street and lived on West 11th Street with his business partner, William J. Haddock, most likely his father or brother.)

Living above the grocery store in 1853 was the family of Theron Losee, who was in the flour and produce business on Broad Street.  Born in Beekman, New York in 1813, Theron married Nancy Brown on September 5, 1842.  In 1853 their three children Celia E., Francis, and Theron Jr., were nine, seven, and three years old, respectively.  Also living with the family were Irish-born servants Margaret Sheron and Margaret Rogers.

By 1857, the upper portion of the house was occupied by three working class families.  Christian Hitzer was a shoemaker; Patrick McKenna was a smith, and John Richard worked in a stone yard.  

Charles C. Buxton operated his grocery store here at least through 1858.  As early as 1864, William T. Thompson's stationery store occupied the space.  Living upstairs that year were John Fling, who did not list a profession, suggesting he was retired; Baptiste Lamargot, a tailor; and P. J. Troy and his wife, Ann, and Ann's teenaged son, John Gilheeny.  

John Gilheeny went south to fight for the Union and, like the approximately 500,000 other soldiers who became victims of dysentery, typhoid, pneumonia, and malaria, the 19-year-old fell ill in Virginia.  On December 30, 1864, the New York Herald reported that he died "after a short but severe illness."  His body was returned to New York and his funeral was held in the Troys' rooms here.

The post-Civil War years saw a rapid turnover in commercial tenants.  In 1870, Ann M. Dolbeer ran her fancy goods store here; in 1873, Margaret and Susannah Mossman opened their "skirts" shop; and in 1876 the William Everett & Co. dairy store, was here.

That business was operated by John W. and William Everett.  At least one employee, Joel K. Schultz, who lived on Leroy Street, worked in the store.  It would remain into the early 1890s, by which time the business had been renamed Everett & Horton.

Living in rooms upstairs in 1895 was the Kay family.  Walter J. Kay, who was 17 years old that year, had been working for an embroidery factory making $3 a week (about $115 in 2026 terms), but he lost his job that spring.  At around 9:30 on the night of April 4, 1895, a policeman came across Walter sitting on the stoop of 63 Greenwich Avenue, apparently dozing.  He shook the teen by the shoulders and told him to move along.

According to Officer Gies, Walter "feebly protested, saying 'Don't,'" and told him that he had taken poison.  Walter told him that because he had lost his job, his mother had ordered him out of the house "because he didn't earn more wages," as reported by The Evening World.  Four days after leaving 380 Bleecker Street, he swallowed "a dose of oxalic acid," said the article.

Walter was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where his stomach was pumped.  The New York Herald said on April 5, "He has a chance for his life."  A reporter visited 380 Bleecker Street where the Kays gave a much different version of the story.  They confirmed that they had not seen him since Monday, but said "they had no trouble of any kind with him, but that he was a very stubborn boy."  Mrs. Kay was even more direct, telling The Evening World, "he is a bad and wayward boy."

Thomas F. Himmelman lived here as early as 1901.  He was treasurer of The American Association of Isaac Pitman Shorthand Writers, established in 1895 "by a number of enthusiastic followers of Isaac Pitman," according to Pitman's Journal in 1912.  Himmelman was, as well, an avid reader.  He routinely wrote to The New York Times seeking hard-to-find works.  On November 30, 1901, for instance, he wrote, "I wish to obtain a copy of a recitation entitled 'The Dandy Fifth.'  It is a recitation pertaining to labor."  Another letter printed in The Times on February 7, 1903 read, "Will some kind reader inform me where I can obtain a copy of a very comical recitation entitled 'Sweet Kate Paoir,' and another, entitled 'The Continental Ghost'?"  The next year, in October, he asked, "Who is the author of a poem entitled 'Uncle,' and where can I obtain a copy of it?"

As early as 1909, the Crist & Herrick real estate office occupied the ground floor.  Interestingly, the partners became temporary custodians of a Revolutionary relic in 1911.  On January 13, The New York Times reported on the demolition of an old house at 102 Christopher Street.  Workers dismantling the foundation discovered "an old milestone inscribed in the large letters of the type used a century or more ago," said the article.  The milestone puzzled historians as well as the owners of the property, the Buxton estate.  (Whether this Buxton family was related to Charles C. Buxton is unclear, but tantalizing.)

The librarian of the New-York Historical Society was perplexed by the inscription, saying:

What camp is meant?  Was it one of the camps of the Revolutionary War of the Continental or British troops, or does it refer to some popular roadhouse frequented by the downtown residents on their drives up the old Bloomingdale and Kings Bridge roads?

The New York Times remarked, "The stone is in the real estate office of Crist & Herrick, 380 Bleecker Street, agents for the Buxton estate.

Thomas L. Himmelman was still writing to The New York Times in 1915, but one letter had nothing to do with books, poems or recitations.  It had to do with bicycling.  He wrote in part:

In this huge city of ours there are hundreds of men, like myself, chained to an office all day, who have little incentive to take proper physical exercise.  We have no funds for an auto, cannot keep a horse, and even walking alone becomes insipid.  Consequently, we hang around the house in the evenings and on Sundays or visit the theaters or "movies" or amuse ourselves in other sedentary ways.

He suggested the formation of a bicycle group.  "The object is merely to enable decent fellows to get together for a pleasant spin around the suburbs.  It may save them from infesting street corners, saloons, or poolrooms," he said.

Paul A. Soran lived here in 1919 when he went to Coney Island on July 4.  He went into the surf and did not return.  Three days later, The New York Times reported that his body had been recovered.

At 2:30 on the morning of September 3, 1922, a patrolman noticed resident William Shea enter a building at 312 Spring Street.  The New York Times reported, "He looked through an opening in the doorway and saw Shea standing near a bag.  The man talking with Shea ran upstairs when the patrolman approached."  When the policeman opened the bag, he found four quarts of whisky.  Shea was dumbfounded, said he did not own the bag, and knew nothing about it.  His plea worked.  When he faced Magistrate W. Bruce Cobb the next morning, he was discharged.

A plumbing firm occupied the ground floor space in the early 1940s.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In addition to handling the Buxton estate, Crist & Herrick was the realtor for the Arthur H. M. Haddock estate.  When the firm sold 380 Bleecker Street for Haddock's descendants Dorothy Hand, L. Estelle Clark and Florence Nickerson in February 1946, The New York Times remarked, "The property was held by the one family for ninety-five years."

For years in the mid-1950s throughout the 1960s, the storefront was home to Reubert Piano Co.  Its advertisements offered, "Reconditioned pianos for sale, tuning and expert repairing."

Reubert Piano Co. was supplanted around 1976 by odd bedfellows--the 380 Gallery and 380 Xerox Copy Center.  The gallery staged exhibitions, like the portrait sculptures of motion picture stars by Ron Kron in August 1977.  The copy center half of the space advertised, "color copies & slide enlargements" that year.  The unexpected, symbiotic coexistence continued throughout the 1980s.

Kitschen opened in the space in July 1995.  In reporting the opening, The Villager explained, "They sell kitchen accessories from the 1950s."  The vintage appliance shop remained for years.  By the early 2000s, a Ralph Lauren boutique occupied the space, and in 2014 a Robert Graham store moved in.  A Leset boutique currently occupies the shop.

photographs by the author

The Nicholas Keane House - 96 Madison Street

 

In the 1820s and 1830s, prim Federal-style houses rose along the Madison Street block between Catherine and Market Streets.  As early as 1830, Lewis Higgins and his family occupied 80 Madison Street, a two-and-a-half story, brick-faced home (renumbered 96 in 1852).  Two dormers pierced its peaked roof.  Higgins was a wholesale grocer at the nearby Catherine Market.

By the mid-1840s, the Jonathan Gardiner Fleet family occupied the house.  Born in 1801, Gardiner and his wife, the former Lydia Seaman, had four children, Harriette Rebecca, Sarah Cornelia, Maria, and Jennie.  Fleet operated two livery stables.

The family received a scare at around 7:30 on the night of March 30, 1847 when a fire started.  The Evening Post reported, "It was caused by a bed in the second story accidentally taking fire."  How the bed caught fire was not explained.

The Fleet family left Madison Street in the spring of 1851.  As was common, they sold everything in the house and started over in their new home.  An auction listing on March 28 reflected the Fleets' comfortable lifestyle.  It included, "tapestry carpets, rosewood furniture covered in maroon velvet, sofa, tete a tete," marble top center table, a piano forte, and oil paintings.

Grasset Launy, a coppersmith, occupied the house through 1858, followed by Thomas Rice, who ran a saloon and hotel at 44 Catherine Street.  

James W. Hefflin took possession of 96 Madison Street from Rice in 1865.  Although he listed his profession as running a boardinghouse, the size of the residence limited his number of boarders.  That year William Hutchinson, a tailor, and his family lived here, and in 1867 Cornelius Haggerty, an oysterman at the Catherine Market, boarded here.  Hannah Stapleton, a widow, and her son, Tobias, who was a printer, lived here the following year.

Hefflin was not necessarily an upstanding citizen.  On December 3, 1868, the New York Evening Express reported that he had been arrested.  Describing him as "said to have been an ex-policeman, but at present the owner of a sailors' boarding house at No. 96 Madison street," the article said he had broken into the saloon at 41 Market Street at 1:00 that morning and stole $3,000 in cash and "a lot of segars of the value of $7.50."  (The cash would translate to about $33,600 in 2025.)

The article said:

Hefferon [sic] was found in the building up stairs with a jimmy, skeleton key, and a lot of segars beside him, and a receipt from the New York Gas Company, which the bartender testified was in the desk from which the money was taken, was picked up when the prisoner was found.

Hefflin told the judge, "it was a woman that brought him there."

His imprisonment ended Hefflin's career of running the boardinghouse at 96 Madison Street and it became home to the Nicholas Keane family.  Keane had operated a chandler shop at 171 South Street since 1849.  

Also living here with the Keanes was their adult son, Nicholas Jr., and his wife, Bridget.  The younger Nicholas worked in his father's business and, interestingly, spelled his surname Kane, perhaps to differentiate him from his father.  The Kanes had two children, David and Mary.

On December 4, 1879, The Sun reported, "Nicholas Keane, an old resident of the Seventh Ward, died in his home, 96 Madison street, yesterday in his 55th year.  The article mentioned that he "amassed a fortune" in his business and "was a conspicuous member of St. James's Roman Catholic Church."

The Kanes soon leased the house, and it was again operated as a boarding or rooming house.  In the spring of 1884, a sailor, Thomas Jackson, was brought here with serious injuries.  Jackson had been aboard the William A. Lincoln heading to Manila on February 25 when he was "cruelly beaten," according to a crewmate, with an iron bar by the ship's captain.  When the ship returned to New York, another sailor, Abraham Weeden, had Captain M. J. Daly arrested.  The New York Times reported on May 20, "Jackson is now laid up at No. 96 Madison-street on account of the injuries received."

In September 1886, David J. Kane, Nicholas's son, hired architect Bernard McGurk, to enlarge the house by raising the attic to a full floor and adding a one-story extension in the rear.  McGurk added stylish pressed metal lintels to the openings and a triangular pediment above the entrance.  An Italianate-style bracketed cornice finished the renovations.

As early as 1941, the brick was painted.  Before the 1886 renovations, the house matched the Federal-style house down the block.  via the NYC Dept. of Records & Information Services.

As early as the mid-1890s, Mary Kane Carroll, David's sister and daughter of Nicholas, occupied the house.  She and her husband, Michael Carroll, were living here when a fire caused $1,200 worth of damages.

On October 19, 1910, The New York Times reported that Mary, "daughter of the late Nicholas Kane and Bridget Kane, and widow of Michael Carroll," had died the previous day.  The following year, in August, David J. Kane hired architect Jacob Fisher to reconfigure the interior floorplan as a "tenement," according to Fisher's filing.

On April 3, 1918, The Evening World reported, "Shichisaburo Hosaki, twenty-five, a Japanese ship steward, was killed by one of his roommates in a sailors' boarding-house at No. 96 Madison Street at 2 A.M. to-day."  The article explained that four Japanese shared a room on the top floor.  One of them came home drunk and Hosaki scolded him.  "He drew a clasp knife and slashed Hosaki three times on the neck, killing him almost instantly," said the article.  His slayer fled before his roommates could stop him.

The following month, on May 13, Hitash Mogi, another steamer steward, was arrested in Boston.  Mogi admitted being in the room at the time of the slaying but insisted he, "had nothing to do with it."  He insisted the crime "was the result of a family vendetta" and named Roy Shida as the murderer.

A twist in the case occurred four weeks later when Lota K. Kamali was arrested in Lima, Ohio.  He was appearing with a troop of Hawaiian singers and guitar players at the Orpheum theater there.  The Lima Times-Democrat reported on June 18 that he was arrested for disorderly conduct and "suspicion of being the man wanted for the murder of Shichisaburo Hosaki, a Japanese knifed at New York on April 3d."

As it turned out, the case was never solved.  Both Mogi and Kamali were released without being charged for the murder.

Painted shades of blue today, the house sits within a streetscape of late 19th century tenement buildings.  The sole surviving relic of the block's earliest years, it looks much as it did in 1886 when David Kane remodeled it.

photograph by the author

The Patrick Galligan Saloon -- 337 Third Avenue

 

In 1853, Robert Kennie operated a grocery store in the Italianate-style building at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and 25th Street.  Although storekeepers customarily lived above their shops within buildings like this, the Kennies lived a few blocks north on Third Avenue.  Living upstairs at the time was Peter P. Roome, who worked as a watchman (what today we would call a security guard).

No. 337 Third Avenue was three stories tall and faced in running bond brick above the storefront.  Trimmed in simple brownstone sills and lintels, the building boasted a handsome bracketed metal cornice.

Around 1858, Patrick Galligan moved his saloon into the former grocery space.  Sarah Mason, widow of Jabez Mason, lived in the upper floors by 1861.  Hubbard Mason, presumably her son, was working as a carman in 1865.

The Masons had a scare early on the afternoon of July 4, 1865.  Celebrations for Independence Day in the 19th century were boisterous and dangerous.  Boys routinely fired pistols indiscriminatingly in the air and firecrackers were tossed willy-nilly with no regard to property owners or pedestrians.  The New York Times reported:

At about 3 o'clock P. M., the roof of No. 337 Third-avenue took fire from India crackers, and loss was sustained to the amount of $350.  The loss is fully covered by insurance in the Stuyvesant Office.

The saloon was taken over by James Goss in 1871.  In February 1874, builder James Whyte was hired to add a one-story, 21-foot-long extension to the rear, adding significant square footage to the saloon space.

Thomas Goss, presumably James's son, was arrested for a shocking crime on June 18 that year.  The New York Herald reported that he had been charged with felonious assault on Charles Sheridan, "whom he stabbed three times in the neck."  Goss was held without bail while Sheridan's fate played out, his "wounds being of a dangerous character."

Eliza Mooney ran a boarding house on the upper floors as early as 1879.  Her tenants were respectable, like Richard Tamplin, a shoemaker, who lived here at least from 1876 through 1880; and a young man who kept his identity private in his ad looking for work in May 1877:

Coachman and Groom--By a first-class coachman; single man; thoroughly understands his business; is a good, careful driver; will make himself generally useful; willing and obliging; no objection to the country; best City and country reference.  Address Coachman. No. 337 3d-av.

Thirty-nine-year-old Joseph Buneo, a barber, lived here in the spring of 1881 when he was involved in a disturbing incident.  At around 10:00 on April 3, he and 17-year-old Biencio Angelo were walking along First Avenue when the teen stopped at Mullen's fruit stand at First Avenue and East 2nd Street and purchased 5 cents of apples.  The Sun reported, "While the two Italians started off Mullen saw Buneo take an apple from the stand.  He demanded payment for it, and when it was refused, he attempted to forcibly take it from Buneo."

While Mullen and Buneo struggled, Angelo drew a knife and stabbed Mullen five times.  The fruit dealer fell to the pavement and cried for help as Mullen and Buneo fled.  Right behind them were two detectives, who quickly arrested them.

At the time of the incident, the saloon was now operated by Miles A. Gibbons.  He placed an advertisement in The Sun on May 13, 1881 that read, "Boy wanted about 17 to work in liquor store; reference required.  Miles A. Gibbons, 337 3d av."

Operating the upper floors in 1882 was M. Luther, who advertised in September, "A girl, about 15 years old, to mind baby and assist in light housework."

An employee took over the saloon for Miles Gibbons in the summer of 1883 when Gibbons was called for jury duty.  He sat on the murder case of James English, who had shot and killed James Ward on June 28 in McGlory's saloon.  The verdict was reached on July 6.  The courtroom was packed with "frequenters of Billy McGlory's dance hall," said The Sun.  The afternoon was favorable to the defendant and relatively tragic for Gibbons.  The article said, "The jury found a verdict of accidental shooting, and the audience dispersed.  The audience stole the new Panama hat of Juror Michael [sic] Gibbons."

By the mid-1880s, the building was part of the vast real estate holdings of a consortium of relatives including Nicholas Fish and his wife, and several Bryce family members, including Joseph S. and Elizabeth S. Bryce.  In 1891, Joseph Bryce signed a three-year lease on the building to John J. Dooley.  Almost immediately, Dooley gave the "saloon lease" to Peter Doelger.  At the time it was common for large breweries like the Peter Doelger Brewery to operate saloons that sold only their products.  

A tragedy occurred in 1893.  Annie Melzen arrived in New York from Germany on September 29 and moved into a room here.  The 15-year-old quickly found a job as a servant and her prospects in her new country seemed good.  But Annie Melzen was unaccustomed to illuminating gas and seven days after moving in, she went to bed and blew out the flame, as she would with a candle.  She was found dead in the morning.

The Peter Doelger saloon repeatedly ran afoul of the excise (or liquor board) authorities.  On June 11, 1894, bartender Henry Bohmeeche was arrested for selling alcohol on Sunday.  The New York Times said he told Justice Voorhis, "he was merely closing up his place."  Voorhis responded, "What's the use of lying?" and held him for trial.

Three months later, on September 26, 1894, The Evening World reported, "Supt. Byrnes has thrown down the gauntlet to the Police Commissioners and declared open war."  Thomas Byrnes declared, "No more Sunday saloons."

Among the saloon workers arrested in the massive city-wide raids ordered by Byrnes on September 23 was Thomas Connor, who was bartending here that afternoon.

In May 1896, William and Emma Tucker "engaged a room," as reported by The World, at 337 Third Avenue.  Tucker and his wife were "theatrical people."  Theirs were snug conditions.  The Tuckers, who were "in hard luck," according to The World, shared the room with their daughter and son, eight and three years old respectively; and Nora Purcell, Tucker's 21-year-old step-daughter, who minded the children.

William Tucker had appeared recently in In a Big City, but was now out of work.  The World reported, "Impoverished but hopeful, Tucker, his wife and step-daughter bent their energies to a search for employment.  The wife alone succeeded, securing an engagement in a Bowery concert hall."  A few days after the family moved into their room, Tucker "worn out with exertion and anxiety," entered the Union Square Theatre.

The performance ended at 6:00, "but the quiet figure in the balcony remained motionless," said The World.  Two hours later, an usher saw William Tucker "sway slightly and then bend forward, his head falling gently upon the cushioned balcony rail."  The New York Times reported that he was carried unconscious out of the theater and was dead by the time a doctor arrived.

Nora Purcell identified the body at the Mercer Street Police Station.  She then rushed to the Palace Theatre where her mother was appearing.  She told The World, "At the theatre, I told my story to the manager, but he refused to allow me behind the scenes.  'Don't tell her now,' he insisted.  'Wait till after the show.  Do you want to break her all up?'"

Nora sat, crying, backstage throughout the show.  Afterward, she asked a company member to break the news to Emma Tucker.  "Mrs. Tucker fell in a faint, and it was an hour before she revived sufficiently to leave the theatre and be driven to the Morgue," said The World.

The Bryce-Fish families sold numerous properties in June 1889, including 337 Third Avenue, which was purchased by Ellen Dooley.  She renewed the saloon lease to Peter Doelger the following year, and leased the upper floors to Ellen Snyder, who named it the Rockland Hotel.  (It would later be revealed that Snyder and the Doelger proprietor were working in concert.)

In November 1900, Isaac Gilbert took a room here.  He arrived in New York City from Bridgeport, Connecticut seeking work and "had enough money to last him a few days," according to The New York Times.  Unfortunately, the former gardener was unsuccessful in finding a job and "grew despondent."  On December 17, 1900, The New York Times reported that Gilbert, "tried to end his life yesterday in the Rockland Hotel, 337 Third Avenue, by inhaling illuminating gas."  He was unsuccessful, however, and at Bellevue Hospital, "it is said that he will recover," said the newspaper.

The Rockland Hotel was what was known as a "Raines Law hotel."  The 1896 law was intended to curb the consumption of alcohol by imposing regulations.  An exemption to the Sunday liquor laws was that hotels could still serve alcohol to guests, if it accompanied a meal or was served in the guests’ rooms.  The result was that saloons, like the one at 337 Third Avenue, took over the upper floors as a “Raines Law hotel” to circumvent the excise laws.  When detectives raided the Rockland in February 1902, they discovered more than they expected.

On February 22, The New York Times reported that a group of officers "at a late hour raided a Raines law hotel at 337 Third Avenue, capturing six prisoners.  Ellen Snyder, the alleged proprietress of the hotel, was arrested as were three other women and Ernest Myers, a bartender.  They were charged with disorderly conduct."  (The term referred to a brothel.)

The incident ended the Peter Doelger saloon.  The property was turned over to a receiver, John M. Bowers, and four months later, the lease was given to Bernheimer & Schmid, owners of the Lion Brewery.  They operated the saloon until Prohibition closed it.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The space became a restaurant.  It was the scene of a spectacular gunfight at 2:00 on the morning of December 22, 1933.  Someone rushed up to Patrolman Harry Kroll and told him there was a holdup taking place in the restaurant.  Kroll drew his revolver and entered the premises, "where he fearlessly exchanged shots with the bandit and fatally wounded him," according to Kroll's citation for bravery the following year.  In the exchange, Kroll was wounded and was hospitalized for nearly two weeks.  

The Kips Bay neighborhood saw change in the third quarter of the century.  In 1978, Mr. Lee's restaurant opened here.  The New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton noted on March 3 that the "nondescript neighborhood" belied the interior that "summons up images of an enclosed, Spanish garden."  The  restaurant, which served a Continental menu, remained for more than a decade.

The space returned to its long tradition of housing a tavern in the 21st century when it became The Hairy Monk.  By 2014 it was the Rose Hill Tavern, and most recently AWOL Bar and Grill.

photographs by the author

The Lost Theodore F. Naudin House - 323 West 85th Street

 

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

New York City was nearly destroyed by fire twice.  The Great Fire of 1776, which started six days after the British invasion, destroyed a third of the city's structures; and the Great Fire of 1835 devastated 17 city blocks.  As the city transformed to a metropolis, the threat of fire loomed ever greater.  In 1866 a law was passed prohibiting wooden construction.

The charming three-story house at what would be numbered 323 West 85th Street had squeaked in under the wire.  Constructed around the beginning of the Civil War, it was typical of the farmhouse-rowhouse hybrids being erected in the developing Upper West Side and Yorkville districts.  Its Italianate design included molded lintels and a bracketed cornice that echoed the more sophisticated brownstone homes downtown.  The full-width porch, however, evoked rural evenings and rocking chairs.  The home's full-height parlor windows would have provided welcomed ventilation during summer months.

It is unclear how early the family of Theodore F. Naudin moved into the house, but they were here by the early 1880s.  Theodore and his wife, the former Charlotte Amelia Wunnenberg, had two daughters, Susan E. and Irene.  He was born in the neighborhood, then known as Bloomingdale, in 1834, and had served in the Civil War aboard the Union steamer Niphon.

Theodore Naudin worked as the janitor of Grammar School No. 9 nearby at the corner of West End Avenue and 82nd Street.  In 1883 he was earning $751 per year, or about $22,600 by 2023 conversions.  During the warm months, he played baseball and in 1889 was the head of the amateur team the Jolly Ten. 

The following year John and David Dunne moved into 323 West 85th Street.  The brothers were real estate developers, active in the Upper West Side district.

Then, in February 1896, the house was purchased by Frederick C. Hilliard and his wife, the former Anne Knowlton.  Hilliard was a cashier with the Home Life Insurance Company and, despite the somewhat homespun appearance of his family's residence, was affluent.  The Hilliard country home was in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Frederick C. Hilliard was, as well, an accomplished vocalist.  He was the baritone soloist with the Metropolitan Music Society during its performance at "the new music hall" (Carnegie Hall) in 1892; and was the regular baritone soloist at the All Souls' Church.

Shortly after moving in, Anne Hilliard was looking for domestic help.  Her advertisement on May 5, 1897 read: "A good cook and laundress; German, Swede or Scotch preferred; permanent place, winter and summer; two in family; wages $18."  (The monthly wages would translate to about $655 today.)  The situation may not have worked out.  Five months later, a servant placed a position wanted ad in the New York Herald: "North German as chambermaid in small family; good sewer; good references."

The Hilliards would become involved in a tense domestic situation in 1908.  Anne's sister, Adeline Knowlton, had married well.  Her husband was Dr. William E. Hoag, "whose aristocratic lineage and wealth place him high in fashionable life," according to The Evening Star.  The couple had a daughter, Adeline Knowlton Hoag, whom the newspaper described as "one of the fairest girls of New York's 'Four Hundred.'"  And The New York Times called her "one of the most beautiful of the debutantes" of the 1907 season.

Adeline's parents (presumedly, mostly her mother) had arranged a match for her with a titled Englishman.  But the young woman had already fallen in love with a 32-year-old perfume salesman, Francis Newton Carpenter.  The Hoags prohibited the couple from seeing one another, and the situation seemed to have been settled.

In May 1908, the older Adeline Hoag went to Plattsburg, New York for two weeks, telling her daughter that upon her return they would go to Boston.  Her train had barely pulled out of Grand Central Station when her daughter rushed to the Hilliard house and "implored Mr. Hilliard, the uncle, to give the bride away" in marriage, according to The New York Times.  Frederick agreed and witnessed Adeline's wedding to Francis Carpenter.  (Anne Hilliard diplomatically remained at home.)  

It is unclear whether the ensuing rift between the Hoags and the Hilliards would ever be repaired.  The New York Times reported on June 19, 1908 that Dr. Hoag "has been prostrated ever since he heard of his daughter's marriage," and the bride's mother was furious.  She told a reporter that Frederick Hilliard "knew right along that it was this marriage which we feared most."  

At the time of the incident, the Hilliards had been gone from 323 West 85th Street for a year.  They had sold the 25-f00t-wide house in September 1907 to architect Donald Purple Hart.

Born in Ohio in 1868 and described by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as "a descendant of New Englanders," Hart graduated from Marietta College in 1888 and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1894.  His wife, the former Marie Louise Buell, was also from Ohio, the daughter of Edward Wyllyss and Melissa Barker Buell.  She, too, had deep American roots and was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants.  The couple had three sons, Donald B., Edward Edgerton, and Allison B.

Marie was looking for domestic help in 1910.  Her unusual advertisement sought, "Two sisters or friends; cook to help with housework; second girl, help with children; small house."

Despite having three boys in the residence, the Harts rented a room. In 1912 and 1913, Indiana portrait artist Marie Goth lived with the family.  She had moved to New York after receiving a scholarship to the Art Students League.  Another unmarried young woman, Elizabeth I. Jones, possibly also a student, lived here the following year.

Donald P. Hart was best known for his designing of country homes, mostly on Long Island and in Connecticut.  On May 5, 1929, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on an especially interesting residence he designed in Westport, Connecticut for painter Karl Anderson.  Anderson owned a farm upon which were 18th century buildings, including a spacious barn.  The article noted, "The early builders in New England used the best materials, and their hand-hewn beams and solid floors resisted stoutly the advancing years."  Donald P. Hart embarked on what the newspaper called "an experiment."  

He transformed the venerable barn into an upscale residence, one of the first (if not the first) example of repurposing a barn into a home.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, "So successful was the experiment that in a short time all the empty barns and granaries in the neighborhood were converted into delightful homes and a compatible group of writers, artists and sculptors were settling contentedly into a background at once beautiful and rich in tradition."

Two views of Donald Purple Hart's renovation of the Karl Anderson barn.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 5, 1929

On April 25, 1930, the New York Evening Post reported on the engagement of Anne Ayres to Donald B. Hart.  Four months later, on August 18, the newspaper reported that Donald Purple Hart had leased "the Colonial dwelling" on West 85th Street to George T. Oldham.  The article noted, "The lessee plans to redecorate and occupy the residence."

In 1938 the picturesque survivor was sold to the Evangelismos Greek Orthodox Church, or the Church of the Annunciation, which simultaneously purchased the former William Randolph Hearst garage next door at 325 West 85th Street.  The church occupied the house as its administrative offices until leasing the two properties in 1968 to the city's Addition Service Agency for use as Phoenix House.  

When the Metropolitan Montessori School purchased 323 and 325 West 85th Street in 1996, it demolished what was one of the few surviving wooden structures in Manhattan, replacing it with an annex to the school designed by architect Jason Gold.

image via thebluebook.com

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The Michael Schweyer House - 461 West 43rd Street

 

In 1843 Michael Schweyer was described by the New York Daily Express as a "German porter-house keeper at 11 Frankfort Street."  It was around that time that a row of handsome brownstone-fronted homes were built along the north side of West 43rd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.  

The houses sat on land that was originally part of John Leake Norton's extensive farm, 70 acres of which had been purchased by John Jacob Astor I and William Cutting prior to 1807 in anticipation of the city's expanding this far north.  The neighborhood that would become known as Hell's Kitchen would be blighted with shanties, taverns and crime following the Civil War, but for now it was still respectable.

Like its identical neighbors along the row, 461 West 43rd Street was 25-feet-wide and three stories tall above an English basement.  The arched entrance was originally capped by a pediment upon scrolled brackets, and the windows wore molded lintels.

In 1868 Michael Schweyer purchased 461 West 43rd Street.  The move was convenient, since he had recently established A. & E. Schweyer, a malt manufacturing business, three blocks away at 530 Tenth Avenue.  His partners in the venture were his sons, Edward and Adolph.

Also living in the 43rd Street house with Michael and his wife, Margaretha, was Adolph, the younger of the two sons.  (Edward and his wife moved to 467 West 43rd Street, just three houses away.)  The population of 461 West 43rd Street increased by one on May 16, 1871 following Adolph's wedding.  Anna M. Schweyer moved into the house with her new husband's family.  It was around this time that a stylish Second Empire style mansard was added, greatly increasing the interior square footage.

Michael and his sons were Masons, all members of the Copestone Lodge.  The affluence of the extended family was evidenced when they attended the lodge's annual ball on February 14, 1872.  The New York Evening Express noted that "prominent among the ladies" were Edward's and Adolph's wives.  "Mrs. Edward Schweyer [wore] dark brown silk, powdered hair, emeralds; Mrs. Adolph Schwyer, dark blue silk, en train, trimmed with heavy overlaps of white point lace, white illusion overskirt."

Tragically, Adolph's and Anna's lives together would be short.  On June 20, 1874, Anna died at the age of 30.  Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

There would be two more funerals in the Schweyer house before the decade was out.  Michael died at the age of 74 on November 29, 1876, and Adolph died "suddenly" at 43 years old on April 26, 1879.  Margaretha moved in with Edward's family soon after Adolph's funeral.

John E. Hasler briefly leased 461 West 43rd Street.  It next became home to the family of James F. Wiley.  The parlor was again the scene of a funeral after the Wiley's four-year-old son, Leroy Filkins, died here on May 31, 1883.

Although much of the detailing has been lost, the original Italianate entrance doors survive.

William B. Lundie, the superintendent of the 42nd Street Station of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, next occupied the house.  A Civil War veteran, he had been discharged after being wounded in action on March 1, 1863, but the determined 21-year-old soldier re-enlisted on February 14, 1864, serving in Co. B., 1st Battalion.  Wounded again, he was discharged from the U. S. Army General Hospital in Newark on July 20, 1865.  He died in the West 43rd Street house at the age of 47 on Christmas Day, 1890.

The house became home to Jacob Loewer and his family.  He and his brother, George, were members with their father, Valentin Löwer, in the Valentin Loewer Brewing Co., which he founded in 1869.  As had been the case with Michael Schweyer, Loewer most likely chose 461 West 43rd Street because it was convenient to the brewery on West 41st Street.

The brewery was nearly lost on the night of October 18, 1893.  A massive blaze broke out in the wall paper factory of William S. Campbell on the same block.  The New York Herald wrote, "The fiercest fire this city has seen in many years swept away one-third of the block bounded by Tenth avenue, Forty-first and Forty-second streets last evening."  

Next to Campbell's factory was a brick tenement he also owned.  In the basement was a saloon owned by Jacob Loewer's uncle, Jacob Johannes.  He lived in one of the apartments with his wife and seven children.  Behind the factory was a building occupied by William Schwager, the foreman in Loewer's brewery, his wife and nine children.

The New York Herald said, "From Nos. 530 to 540 West Forty-first street is the Valentin Loewer brewery, a handsome and costly structure of brick and granite, while on the opposite side are the brewery stables."  There were 60 horses housed in that building.  "Mr. Loewer arrived with a score of employés.  In a trice all the horses were taken out and were shortly scattered for the night in various stables in Eleventh Avenue."

The brewery, remarkably, escaped the conflagration.  Jacob Johannes and William Schwager were not so lucky.  In the basement of Johannes's saloon were barrels of whiskey, which exploded one-by-one, adding to the inferno that consumed the building.  The New York Herald reported that the structure in which the Schwagers lived was totally destroyed.  "Young Mr. Jacob Loewer took the Schwager family to his home, No. 461 West Forty-third street."

In 1896 Dr. William Angus White leased the house.  Born in Canada in 1873, he had graduated from the University of the City of New York Medical Department in 1896.  The bachelor doctor established his practice in the house.  

image from Universities and Their Sons, 1903 (copyright expired)

On December 27, 1900, White married Mary Mosetta Jones.  The couple soon welcomed a daughter, Mary Mildred.  (Mary would graduate from Barnard College  in 1924 and go on to teach English and biology.)  Although the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood was, for the most part, one of tenements and poverty by now, the Whites were financially comfortable.  In 1914 the doctor owned an Overland automobile.

White would live and practice from the residence for decades.  After having leased it for three decades, he purchased the house in May 1924.

His office was the scene of a tragic occurrence on December 21, the following year.  The New York Evening Post reported that while 65-year-old Peter McFarlin was sitting in the waiting room, he "collapsed and died from heart disease."

Dr. William A. White died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 76 on July 10, 1933.  In 1935, 461 West 43rd Street became the home and office of Dr. Graham L. Bennett.  It was most likely Bennett who modernized the facade by stripping off most of the Victorian detailing.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Dr. Bennett had received his medical degree from Cornell University and, like White, would live and practice from the house for years.  He was still listed at the address as late as 1953.

Astonishingly, the house remained a single-family home until a renovation completed in 1978 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floors (with a doctor's office in the lower portion), one apartment each on the second and third floors, and two on the fourth.

photographs by the author

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The Tiffany Studios Building - 333-335 Park Avenue South

 

Artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany established Louis C. Tiffany & Company in 1878.  It expanded three years later with the founding of Louis C. Tiffany & Co., Associated Artists.  Within a year the decorating firm was hired to do work in the homes of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Ogden Goelet, Mark Twain, and to decorate several rooms in the White House.  

Tiffany had been experimenting with glassmaking since 1875.  When Louis C. Tiffany & Co., Associated Artists was dissolved in 1883, he forged on with Louis C. Tiffany & Co. and, in 1887, the newly formed Tiffany Glass Company.  On March 5 that year, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that P. H. Mandel had leased the building at 333-335 Fourth Avenue to the Tiffany Glass Company.

The brick-faced, Italianate style building was erected around 1861, and was being advertised for "storage and light manufacturing" in 1870.  Handsome dentiled lintels crowned the elliptically arched windows of the second through fourth floors.  The scrolled cornice brackets were separated by a paneled frieze.

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, July 5, 1890 (copyright expired)

The name of the firm changed again in 1892.  On February 27 an announcement in the Record & Guide read:

The Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, of No. 333 4th avenue, announces to the patrons of the Tiffany Glass Company...that it has acquired by purchase the entire plant, assets, business and good-will of the last named company.  It will continue the business of the Tiffany Glass Company, and will fulfill all orders and contracts held by them without interruption of inconvenience.

The following year, the firm's exhibition at the Chicago Columbian Exposition displayed its expertise in interior decoration, glass, and mosaics.  It constructed an entire chapel, one which must have awed the thousands of visitors to the fair.  On April 1, 1894, The Sun reported, "The Tiffany Chapel, which was one of the most notable American exhibits at the World's Fair, can still be seen at 333 Fourth avenue.  It represents the interior of a chapel Romanesque in the style of its arrangement and decoration and a remarkable demonstration of what may be accomplished in modern ecclesiastical art."

The Baptistery of the Tiffany Chapel.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

New Yorkers and tourists visited the Fourth Avenue building to view the exhibit.  The Sun described the elements, saying "The mensa is a single slab of Carrara marble resting upon a frontal of white glass mosaic made of 150,000 pieces.  This is ornamented with the Apocalyptic emblems of the four Evangelists."  The chapel was complete, including "six canonical candlesticks of gold filigree embedded with semi-precious stones and an altar cross which is a blaze of white topazes so arranged on a thin metal frame that they scintillate in every direction."

A portion of the chapel as it is exhibited today at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Florida. photograph by mirsasha.

The reredos consisted of polished black marble with iridescent glass mosaics of peacocks among twining vines.  Above it rose a half-dome, "covered in ornaments in relief and made brilliant by overlays of gold, settings of jewels, and inlays of mosaic inscriptions."  The dome was supported on columns composed of 200,000 squares of glass mosaic.  They sat against a background "of mosaic, and having astragals of jewels set in gold," said the article.  There were also, of course, stained glass windows.  "The entire chapel was made from the design of Mr. Louis C. Tiffany, and was executed under his personal supervision."  (Following the exhibition, it was disassembled and placed in storage.  It was installed in the basement of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1898 where it eventually fell into disrepair.  Tiffany repurchased and restored it for his Long Island home, Laurelton Hall.  It was again dismantled in 1949 and sold in various sections.)

The Tiffany Chapel may have been the first time that extraordinary pieces were exhibited here, but it was certainly not the last.  In 1894 the firm was commissioned to design and execute a frieze for the rotunda of the Marquette Building in Chicago.  The work, executed in favrile glass mosaics, took an entire year to complete, and, prior to shipping, was exhibited in the Fourth Avenue building beginning on April 13, 1895.

Designed by Jacob A. Holzer, the frieze was four feet high and 112 feet long, its three panels depicting the travels of Marquette and Joliet, who explored the Mississippi River in 1673.  The Sun reported, "There are 200,000 pieces of glass and 10,000 pieces of pearl used in the work."

Later that year, another important commission was placed on display.  The New York Times reported on December 12, "An unusually attractive and brilliant stained glass window is now on view at the studios of the Tiffany Company, 333 Fourth Avenue.  The design is by Frederick Wilson, and the work goes to the Young Men's Library at Troy, N. Y., the gift of Mrs. Mary Hart of that city in memory of her husband."  Entitled The House of Aldus, Venice, A. D. 1502, it depicted the printer Aldus presenting Doge Leonardo Loredan the proof pages of the first popular edition of Dante.  The New York Times said, "Yellow, reds, and greens predominate, while by use of the new Favrile glass exquisite tones and effects of astonishing luminosity have been obtained."  Simultaneously, two other memorial windows, one for the Unitarian Church of the Saviour in Brooklyn, and the other for Christ Episcopal Church in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, were exhibited.

By the time of this exhibition, the firm was known as Tiffany Studios.  New-York Daily Tribune, October 13, 1897

By the turn of the century, the firm's extraordinary success prompted it to expand into the Fourth Avenue Studios Building next door, at 337-341 Fourth Avenue, owned by Ogden Goelet.

The corner building held the studios of some of New York's preeminent artists.  King's Views of New York, 1893 (copyright expired)

Tiffany Studios was not immune to labor problems.  In 1903, the workers went on strike.  Labor issues at the turn of the last century were often marked by violence, but in this case it was internal corruption within the union that caused problems.  Union leader Sam Parks approached the foreman of Tiffany Studios, Louis Schmitt, demanding $500 "to settle the strike."  It was a considerable amount, equal to around $16,000 in 2022.  Management paid the money, then filed charges against Parks for extortion.  He was indicted on September 14, 1903.

This 1901 advertisements reflects the expanded address.  (copyright expired)

Requiring ever more space, in 1905 Tiffany Studios moved from Fourth Avenue to the former Knickerbocker Athletic Club at the corner of Madison Avenue and 45th Street.  Ogden Goelet leased part of 333-335 Fourth Avenue to the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms.  For decades it would be the scene of estate auctions, many of them liquidating the collections of millionaires.  On February 1, 1906, for instance, the firm advertised the auction of "the extensive and valuable art collection formed by Mr. T. Idsumi, a native expert and collector of Kioto, Japan."  

The building was used, as well, for exhibition space.  On April 20, 1907, for instance, The Evening Post reported, "The first annual exhibition of the Guild of Book Workers will be held at the old Tiffany studios, No. 333 Fourth Avenue...on April 25, 26, 27 and 29.  Examples of hand-printing on hand-made paper, illuminating and binding will be shown."  The exhibitions were held every year through 1909.

That year Goelet leased the lower parts of the corner building to the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms, as well.  The two structures, however, were not joined internally.  While the auction house operated from the lower floors, the upper portion of 333-335 held artists studios--like those of Thomas R. Manley and Robert L. Dodge in 1911--and businesses spaces.  The National Metalizing Co. was here in 1915.  The firm manufactured decorative and functional items like lighting fixtures.

This National Metalizing Co.'s hanging fixture provided indirect lighting to "parlors, drawing rooms and receptions rooms."  Electrical Record, October, 1915 (copyright expired)

Also in the building was the publishing firm, The Century Co.  It published The Secrets of Polar Travel by Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary from the address in 1917.

In the meantime, the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms continued to operate from both buildings.  In March 1919, the sale of the James L. Bishop estate was held in the portion at 333-335 Fourth Avenue.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The collection comprises in part Louis XV and XVI furniture, including Aubusson suites; a marble fountain representing 'Venus Rising from the Shell,'" and paintings, etchings, "books in fine bindings," etc.  The Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms would continue to occupy the ground floors through 1922.

By 1919 the offices of the Schola Cantorum occupied space in 333 Fourth Avenue.  Founded in 1909 as the MacDowell Chorus, it was now headed by composer and conductor Kurt Schindler.  On October 19, 1919, The Sun reported on the upcoming season, saying, "The chorus held its first rehearsal on October 8, when work was begun on the Mozart 'Requiem' and a Bach cantata...There are still a few vacancies for professional singers, especially sopranos and tenors, information concerning which may be had at the office of the society at 333 Fourth avenue."  The Schola Cantorum would occupy space here through 1922.

At the time the studio of renowned photographer Jennie Tarbox Beals was in the building.  The first published female photojournalist in the United States, she was especially known for her photographs of Greenwich Village.  She used her studio as a meeting space, as well.  On October 9, 1921, for instance, the New-York Herald reported, "The poetry group of the New York League of American Penwomen will meet Wednesday at the studio of Jennie Tarbox Beals, 333 Fourth avenue."

Another noted figure to have an office here was architect and painter Edwin Hooper Denby.  Born on February 9, 1872, his work received an honorable mention at the Architectural Section of the Paris Salon in 1895.  By the 1930's, when he established his office and studio here, he had designed churches, schools and apartment buildings.  But he was, perhaps, as well known for his architectural water colors and his contributions to typography.  

On March 10, 1934, The New York Sun reported, "The exhibition of Edwin H. Denby, A. I. A., comprising water colors of architectural subjects, will remain open to the public during the months of March and April in the gallery adjoining his office at 333 Fourth avenue."  He also developed and designed his own type fonts and styles.  In 1940, his book Catalog of Enorm Type Slotted to Interlock for Better Spacing was published, and two years later his Lincolniana, and Various Display Prints in Denby Type appeared.  Denby still worked at his studio here when he died on January 17, 1957 at the age of 84.

Two years later Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue South.  The building saw a variety of tenants over the succeeding decades.  In 1970 the American Computer Institute operated from an upper floor, while Antenna, a unisex hairdressing saloon, occupied the third floor.  

On August 12, 1971, Angela Taylor wrote in The New York Times, "The current 'in' shop is Antenna...It's a spacious, airy arrangement with brick walls, a polished wood floor, and lots of greenery in pots and hanging baskets.  The outdoor effect is emphasized by the shop's own zoo: a pair of large turtles that lumber around freely, snakes, frogs and lizards in glass cages, plus three whippets and a huge black cat."  The reputation of Antenna was such that one customer traveled from San Francisco every six weeks for a styling.  He told Taylor, "It's a long way to come for a hair cut, but I don't let anybody else cut it."

The last years of the 1970's saw apartments mixing with offices in the upper floors.  The building was converted to co-ops in 1981.  Above the modern storefront today, the structure looks much as it did in 1887 when Louis C. Tiffany moved his new company in.

photograph by the author

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