The Lost Samuel and Abigail Waterbury House - 34 East 30th Street

 

When this photograph was taken in 1912, buildings had crowded around the property.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Samuel Waterbury was born on January 25, 1795 and his wife, the former Abigail Williams, was born on March 21, 1806.  By the 1840s, when the couple lived in a vintage house on Beekman Street, Waterbury was a well-established cabinetmaker.  And their once-refined neighborhood was being rapidly transformed by commerce.

The couple were last listed on Beekman Street in 1848.  They had purchased land north of the established city on East 30th Street between Madison and Fourth Avenues.  (The latter would become Park Avenue South in 1959).

The Waterburys erected a 34-foot-wide frame house on the plot.  Two-and-a-half stories tall, its charming semi-rural design straddled the Greek Revival and Italianate styles.  The former was reflected in the sidelights and transom of the paneled door, in the Doric corner pilasters, and in the "end returns" of the gable eaves.  The Italianate style influenced the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows, the exceptionally tall second floor openings, and the wooden decorations atop the porch and roofline.

The house sat back on the property behind an especially tall iron fence and gate.  On the property was an apple orchard and decades later Abigail would tell a guest, "I could see from my windows the sun rise over one river and set over the other."

Samuel was one of four children born to Henry and Margaret Waterbury.  None of his siblings would marry and at some point his only brother, David H. (born 1807), moved into the East 30th Street house.

Samuel Waterbury retired in 1866.  By then, brownstone houses had begun appearing in the neighborhood.  As more and more crowded in around the Waterburys' house, it became a picturesque anachronism on the block.

David H. Waterbury died on January 14, 1873.  His funeral was held in the parlor on the 17th.  Five years later, on July 26, 1878, Samuel Waterbury died.  His funeral was held in the house three days later.

Abigail Williams Waterbury remained in the house, maintaining its pristine flowerbeds and tidy yard.  Gradually, the outbuildings and the orchard were sold off, until Abigail's carefully preserved slice of 1849 countryside was surrounded by modern structures.

On April 20, 1904, Abigail celebrated her 99th birthday by hosting "a dinner party to three of her friends," as reported by the New York Herald.  A week later, on May 29, 1904, the newspaper remarked:

A little white frame house, two stories high, with a pointed attic above them, a narrow piazza, a little stretch of ground in front and a white picket fence [sic] running between its grounds and the sidewalk is an odd thing to find in a great city like New York of to-day.

The article said that Abigail, "except for her servants and a woman companion, lives alone in her quaint abode, which has been her home for half a century."  The newspaper described Abigail as "a neighborhood celebrity" and "a fine looking woman."  She was particularly fond of "all dumb animals," said the article, which said she "often stopped on the street to pat a dog or cat when she was out walking."

The New York Herald went on to describe the house, saying in part:

Passersby can see right through the rooms of the first story.  The shades are drawn high and the old fashioned white lace curtains do not hide from view the masses of beautiful flowers standing in the drawing room, or the green parrot in a big cage before the window of the back parlor.  The flowers are famous in the neighborhood.  Relatives send them in from the country twice a week.

Abigail's birthday dinner would be her last.  On April 22, 1905, one month before her 100th birthday, she died in the house.  In reporting her death, the New York Herald reminded readers, "For over half a century she had lived in the little old fashioned frame house in East Thirtieth street, which with its prim flower beds in front had for many years been a curious landmark among the brick and brownstone houses which line the street on both sides and which had grown to be landmarks themselves."

Abigail's funeral in the drawing room on April 22, 1905 would be the last function in the house.  Seven months later, the Waterburys' furnishings were auctioned.  The announcement gives a hint of the couple's comfortable interiors: "Grandfather's clock, Colonial chairs, tables, old paintings, engravings, miniatures, arms, armor, curios, ivory carvings, draperies, genuine antiques."

For decades, developers and real estate operators had been waiting in the wings for the Waterbury property to become available.  On May 18, 1905, The Evening Post reported, "The most noteworthy [real estate news] was the sale by the Waterbury estate, of the frame thirty-four-foot dwelling at No. 34 East Thirtieth Street, only another evidence, of course, of the insatiable demand for property in the Park Avenue neighborhood."  

The purchase by George Rosenfeld initiated a series of turnovers.  He resold it to the New York Operating Company in April 1908, which sold it two years later.  On March 12, 1910, The New York Times reported, "The purchaser is a builder, who will erect a business structure on the site."

The quaint Waterbury house was demolished.  Its idyllic site was used, temporarily, by baseball teams.  On March 23, 1913, The New York Times remarked, "Pee Wee Park, that now famous baseball lot at 34 East Thirtieth Street, was invaded yesterday by a squad of militiamen from the Twelfth Regiment, looking for baseball action."

Teams would have to find a new venue in 1921.  That year, on May 19, The New York Times reported that George F. Pelham had filed plans for a nine-story office and store building.  That structure survives.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

William Waring's 1881 104 West Houston Street

 

In 1881, architect William E. Waring designed two identical tenement-and-store buildings on the northeast corner of West Houston and Thompson Streets for separate owners.  Five stories tall, they were clad in brownstone above cast iron storefronts.  A blend of Italianate and neo-Grec styles, their segmentally arched openings most likely wore molded lintels, typical of the Italianate style.  The crisp geometric lines of the cast metal cornices, however, were neo-Grec.  Waring embellished the cornices with triangular pediments topped with anthemions and classical urns.

No. 104 West Houston Street was built by Louis P. Dexheimer and his wife, Julia.  Louis established his "eatinghouse," or restaurant, in the ground floor and there were eight apartments, two per floor, in the upper portion.  An advertisement touted "latest improvements, rent $25."  (The monthly rent would equal $900 in 2026.)

Dexheimer's venture was short lived.  In January 1882, he offered his "neat oyster and dining room cheap."  When he had not sold the restaurant by April 15, he advertised again, saying it was doing "good business" and adding, "$75 will buy to-day; must close by Monday on account of sickness."  (The term "cheap" was accurate.  The figure would translate to only $2,440 today.)

The former restaurant space became home to Charles Reichert's butcher shop in 1888.  He and his wife moved into an apartment upstairs.  They were affluent enough to afford a live-in servant.

In June 1890, 17-year-old Caroline Henneman arrived in America from Germany.  She found employment as a servant in the Prospect Hotel in Newark, New Jersey.  The World said, "becoming dissatisfied with her situation, [she] wrote to her lover, William Burgess, of No. 410 East Fifth street, asking him to procure her a situation."  Burgess talked to Reichert and Caroline moved into their apartment on September 19.

The New York Herald reported, "When she went to bed she was instructed in the management of the gas, with she said she was already familiar."  (Illuminating gas was among the "latest improvements" boasted in the Dexheimers' ad, and its use was unfamiliar to the less urbane.)  On September 22, 1890, The World reported, "Caroline Henneman...a domestic in the family of Charles Reichert, at No. 104 West Houston street, was found dead in her bed yesterday morning with the gas partially turned on."  The article mentioned, "She was to have been married to Burgess next month."

Charles Reichert kept up with technology within his butcher shop and on December 1, 1897, The Butchers' Advocate reported on the "successful gas engine operated refrigerating plant" he had installed in the cellar.  Its engine also operated "a meat chopper and a number of fans and pumps."  The article said the equipment "has proved in every way an economical and paying investment, and Mr. Reichert expresses himself as much pleased with his acquisition."

Two of the cornice-top urns survived as late as 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Harry Neid and his family occupied an apartment here as early as 1905.  He spent time at the Delmonico Club on Broome Street near the Bowery.  Early in the morning of March 26, Neid was playing cards there when police terrorized him and the other patrons with a violent raid.  The New York Times said, "The raid was made with drawn revolvers, after the doors had been battered down with axes."  Neid and 31 other patrons were arrested.

Otto Rosalsky was hired to defend all of them.  He told reporters he would "show that the raid was a political outrage, the place being a social club where some little games were carried on for fun."  Authorities countered his assertion.  "The police say that craps and stuss were going on, with some money on the tables," reported The New York Times.

Charles Reichert's butcher business was highly successful.  He was affluent enough to purchase a three-story tenement building at 166 Thompson Street by 1908.

Although the apartments within 104 West Houston Street were decidedly dated by World War II, the tenants remained middle-class.  Mario Gennaro and his family lived here in 1945, for instance.  They maintained a "one-story bungalow" on South Beach, Staten Island.  

By the early 1960s, a cafe operated by Arthur Giunta, La Casa Di Arthuro, occupied the ground floor space next door.  The name eventually was honed down to Arturo's, a famous Greenwich Village spot for Italian food and pizza.  As Arturo's success burgeoned, it spread into the space that had been Charles Reichert's butcher shop for decades.

At some point, the masonry of 104 West Houston Street was painted, the lintels shaved, and the urns atop the cornice removed.  

photographs by the author

The Philip Minis House - 117 East 78th Street

 

photograph by the author

As laborers returned to New York City following the end of the Civil War, construction resumed.  Within a few years years development was inching northward into the Upper West and Upper East Sides.  Around 1871, Nicholas McCool erected a dozen high-stooped brownstones at 103 through 125 East 78th Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues.  Like its neighbors, 117 East 78th Street was just under 19-feet wide and rose three stories above a high English basement.  The Italianate design included an arched entrance below a classical pediment supported by foliate-carved corbels.  The architrave framed parlor windows, as well, wore triangular pediments.

It appears that McCool originally leased the house.  Robert Wild Todd was a Yale University educated attorney.  He married Mary M. Shields on December 14, 1871, and they lived here as early as 1873.  By 1876, John B. Carroll, who worked in the city's Bureau for the Collection of Assessments, occupied 117 East 78th Street, followed by Joseph and Sophie Newman.

Sophie Newman died in the house in 1881.  Within months, George Frederick Seward and his wife, the former Kate Sherman, moved in.  The couple were married in 1870 and had four children.  Born in 1840, George Seward was the president of the Fidelity and Casualty Co. and a director in several other firms.

George's uncle, William H. Seward, had served as Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State.  It may have been his influence that landed George's appointment as United States consul to Shanghai in 1861.  He became Consul General and, in 1875, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Peking.  When he and Kate moved into 117 East 78th Street, they had just returned to New York from Washington D.C. where he was the American Minister to China.  He had held that post from 1876 until 1880. 

George Frederick Seward.  from the 1911 "George F. Seward: Born November 8, 1840, Died November 28, 1910" by the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York.

Seward was, as well, "a writer on political and financial matters," according to The Milwaukee Journal.  Among his works was the Chinese Immigration in Its Social and Political Aspects.

Around 1883, Martin Freeman and his wife, the former Henrietta Wise, purchased 117 East 78th Street.  The couple had two adult sons.  Freeman arrived in New York City from Belvidere, New York around 1879 and found employment in the clothing and men's furnishings business of Henry Wise & Co.  He would not only rise within the firm, but he would marry the owner's daughter.  Martin's brother, Joseph Freeman, also got a job within the firm and he, too, married one of Henry Wise's daughters.  Upon the death of Henry Wise, the firm was renamed Freeman Bros.

Martin Freeman, The American Hatter, June 1902 (copyright expired)

The Freemans maintained a country home in Elberon, New Jersey.  In April 1895, they advertised the property for rent, possibly because the family would be summering in Europe.  The ad described: "15 rooms; all modern improvements; with stable having accommodation for coachman's family and room for four horses; location the best."

Despite his relative youth, Martin Freeman suffered from heart disease.  On the evening of May 26, 1902, he died from a heart attack.  The American Hatter noted, "He was not quite 58 years of age."

On May 2, 1905, Henrietta Wise Freeman sold 117 East 78th Street to Philip H. Minis for $28,250, just over $1 million in 2026 terms.  

Before the Minis family moved in, they hired architect Henry Brooks Price and Hunt & Howells to make what the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide described as "extensive alterations."  Almost assuredly, one firm handled the structural changes and the other the interiors.  On March 21, 1906, the New-York Tribune reported, "The interior is to be remodelled [sic] and a new staircases installed."  The residence was enlarged by the seamless addition of a fourth floor.  It was likely during these renovations that new iron stoop railings in a Classical Roman cross-hatch design were installed.  The remodeling cost the Minis family the equivalent of $554,000 today.

A 1940 tax photograph captured the distinctive ancient Roman-inspired stoop railings.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Philip Minis was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1843 and fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  He came to New York City in 1871 and founded the brokerage firm P. H. Minis & Co.  Among his most visible clients was William K. Vanderbilt.

He and his wife, the former Roberta Dudley, had one son, Robert B. Minis.  According to the New York Herald, Minis was a founder of the Metropolitan Club and (ironically) a member of the Union Club.  By the time he purchased 117 East 78th Street, he was a partner in the brokerage firm of Minis & Davis.  

In October 1911, Philip H. Minis fell ill.  His condition worsened to pneumonia and he died in the house on October 22, 1911 at the age of 68.  In reporting his death, the New York Herald described him as "one of the oldest members of the New York Stock Exchange."

Upon the appraisal of Philip Minis's estate, many in the financial community taken aback.  On September 25, 1912, the New York Herald reported, "A woman as equal partner in a Stock Exchange firm was revealed yesterday...The report stated that Mrs. Roberta B. Minis, the widow, claimed to have been admitted to membership in the firm in 1906 and remained in it until her husband died."  Minis may have made his wife an equal partner to guarantee her financial future.  She received half of the firm's assets and about one-third of her Philip's estate.  Robert received the other two-thirds.

Robert and his wife, Janet, shared the house with Roberta.  On July 10, 1911, The Wall Street Journal reported that Robert had been appointed cashier of the National Reserve Bank.  It was a highly responsible and visible position.  Three years later, on February 5, 1914, the newspaper reported that he had been elected as a vice-president of the Mutual Trust Co., "which absorbed the National Reserve Bank."

In the meantime, Janet, was visible in high society.  In reporting on the activities in Southampton on August 28, 1922, for instance, the New York Herald said, "Mrs. Robert B. Minis, who for some weeks has been at the Irving House, gave a luncheon yesterday at the Meadow Club."

The house was photographed in 1940, just before the stoop was removed.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Minis family sold 117 East 78th Street to Harold Joseph Roig and his wife, the former Henrietta Bartlett Havens (known familiarly as "Henri"), in 1939.  Born in 1885 and 1892, respectively, the couple had three daughters, Jean, Carol and Leila.  Like their mother, at least two of them went by nicknames--Jean as "Cookie" and Leila as "Dee Dee."

As the Minis had done, the Roigs made significant alterations to the house before moving in.  They hired architect William Lawrence Bottomley to remove the stoop and lower the entrance below grade.  In transforming the original entrance to a window, Bottomley recreated the triangular pediments of the original windows.  And he skillfully removed the foliate entrance brackets and reinstalled them on either side of the new doorway.  (Tellingly, the certificate of occupancy noted, "entire premises to be occupied as [a] dwelling for one family and servants.")

Although Harold was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, his father, Adolph S. Roig, was Cuban-born.  Harold graduated from Columbia Law School and became CEO of W. R. Grace & Company and a co-founder and president of Pan American Grace Airways.  The family maintained a country estate in Great Neck, Long Island.  

Harold Joseph Roig, (original source unknown)

The Roigs moved in just in time for the announcement of Jean's engagement to John Thompson Ross.  The article in The New York Times on July 12, 1940, testified to the Roig sisters' privileged youth and their significant educations.  

Miss Roig attended the Brearley School in this city, was graduated from the Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, Pa., and in 1939 from Smith College.  She was introduced to society at a supper dance at the St. Regis in December, 1936, and is a member of the Junior League of New York.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the article noted that the prospective groom "is now with W. R. Grace & Co.

When the United States entered World War II, Carol enlisted in the U.S. Navy.  Her sense of patriotic duty led to romance and on August 19, 1945, The New York Times reported, "Lieut. (j.g.) Carol Roig of the Waves...was married [in Coronado, California] to Lieut. David Gapen Watrous, USNR."  Interestingly, none of the family members other than her father, was mentioned in the article.

On August 28, 1946, the Pan American-Grace Airways launched two passenger-cargo ocean liners, the Santa Sofia and the Santa Clara.  A crowd of about 500 watched as Henrietta Roig christened the Santa Sofia.  (The other was christened by the wife of another W. R. Grace & Co. executive.)

That would be perhaps that last time the Riogs' names would appear in the newspapers for quite a long time.  In 1946, Harold and Henrietta relocated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

By the mid-1960s, the house was owned by Andrew Y. Rogers.  He was president of The Park Association of the City of New York, a civic and advocacy organization.  The group often battled city officials, like Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, regarding urban planning and the loss of public green spaces.

George A. Kellner occupied 117 East 78th Street as early as 1981, when he was an incorporator of Kellner, Dileo & Co., an investment firm.

photograph by the author

At some point, an unofficial renovation resulted in three units within the house.  The exterior, however, is little changed since William Lawrence Bottomley removed the stoop and remodeled the lower floors for the Riogs in 1940.  And, perhaps coincidentally, the lost stoop railing's Roman cross-hatch design is reinvented in the ground floor openings.

William Jose's 1873 5 Spring Street

 

image via apartments.com

On June 17, 1873, the "brick house in front and small brick building in rear" at 5 Spring Street were auctioned.  Their sale would doom the two buildings, which, like nearly all the vintage structures in the neighborhood, were falling victim to the drastically changing demographics in what a century later would be called Nolita.

On month later, architect William Jose filed plans for a 25-foot-wide, "five-story brown stone store and tenement" for developer F. Herlein.  His Italianate design was typical of the ubiquitous tenement buildings being erected throughout the Lower East Side.  Sheet metal lintels with molded cornices sat atop the upper floor windows and an arched pediment crowned with a Greek-inspired antefix sat atop the building's pressed metal terminal cornice. 

photograph by Ted Leather

What was not typical was the cast iron storefront.  Between two entrances--one accessing the upper floors and the other the store--was a triple arcade.  The paneled piers between the windows contributed to a handsome presence, but restricted the ability to display wares.  The lack of a vast show window did not deter Joseph Hugo to open his bakery in the space.

The 1873 storefront survived in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

No. 5 Spring Street filled with blue collar and middle-class tenants.  Living here in 1877 were three clerks, two carpenters, a shoemaker, a hatter, a laborer, a cigarmaker, a butcher, a maker of awnings, two widows, and an ostler (or stable worker). 

Many of the tenants were Irish-born, like Michael J. Riley, who worked as a letter carrier, and his wife and five children.  One afternoon in October 1884 he delivered mail to a Bond Street machine shop.  He placed a package of 125 letters on the counter.  They were addressed to Bond Street businesses that had already closed for the day.  The New York Herald explained, "In such cases the mail is taken back to the station and stamped with an explanation of its non-delivery."  Riley, perhaps distracted, "picked up his pouch and went out of the shop, leaving the package."

On October 8, the New York Herald reported that Michael Riley had been arrested, "on a charge of unlawfully detaining the mails."  Riley stressed that he "forgot all about it."  Perhaps coming to his defense, the article concluded, "Riley had a sunstroke last summer."

Sam Erwin Ryan, born in 1828, was described by the New York Herald as "one of the oldest Irish comedians on the American stage."  The widowed entertained died here on November 15, 1891 at the age of 63.  In reporting his death, the New York Herald remarked, "He had been forty years on the stage, and had been a conspicuous actor in his day."

Unthinkable today, working class parents often sent their small children on errands, even at night.  On Saturday night January 9, 1897, Detectives Summers and Lynch noticed five-year-old Lee Collins, whose family lived at 5 Spring Street, "walking along that thoroughfare...with a can."  They asked the boy where he was going and he said he was off to get some beer.

The policeman followed him to Henry Barr's saloon at 14 Spring Street, "and saw the bartender, Clement Kirschner, sell him a pint of beer."  Although Kirschner was arrested, Lee Collins' parents were not accused of any wrongdoing (and apparently Lee Collins went on his way home unaccompanied with the pail of beer).  When the bartender faced Magistrate Deuel in the Centre Street Police Court, he received "a severe lecture."  Deuel "told him he ought to be ashamed of himself to sell beer to a child" and placed his bail at $1,000 (a stunning $40,000 in 2026 terms).

The Commerford family lived here in 1898.  The New York Journal and Advertiser said that Patrick Commerford "is accustomed to putting a little whiskey in his black coffee at breakfast."  On September 4, however, there was no whiskey in the apartment, so Maggie Commerford was sent to the apartment of her aunt, Kate White, at 239 Mulberry Street to get some.  The New York Journal and Advertiser said Maggie was three-and-a-half years old.  The New York Herald placed her age at nine.  Either way, the newspapers' reporting on the events that followed, however, were consistent.

Maggie went to her aunt's home and, according to Kate White, she filled Maggie's pint bottle with whiskey "and told the little girl to carry it home to her father," as reported by the New York Herald.  On the way, "Little Maggie evidently became thirsty," said the newspaper.  The girl drank the entire pint bottle of whiskey.  The New York Herald said she "was picked up from the sidewalk in Mulberry street yesterday in an unconscious state and carried to St. Vincent's Hospital."

Maggie told officials, "It felt just like I had played too much 'ring-around-a-rosy.'"  And asked why she drank it, she replied, "Oh, I just tasted it, and it seemed to taste good, and I tasted it all up."  Mrs. Commerford took the girl home and Patrick Commerford was arrested.

By the turn of the century, Mary Seibert ran the bakery.  The workspace and ovens were in the basement and Mary lived in an apartment above the bakery.  The business was apparently successful, because Mary could afford a live-in servant.  

The neighborhood was, by now, greatly filled with Italian immigrants.  In 1899 Paolo Lecestra arrived from Italy, "leaving his wife, Luigia, behind until he could get money enough to buy her passage with," explained The New York Sun.  He was not here very long before he found a job as a pressor in a tailor shop.  Just as quickly, he fell in love with a co-worker, Rosina Ignelia.  

Lecestra married Rosina in November 1899 and they moved into 5 Spring Street.  In the meantime, Luigia Lecestra was also working towards her passage.  On April 4, 1901, The Sun reported, "Six months ago Luigia, the first wife, scraped together enough money to come to this country."  Paolo Lecestra met Luigia at the pier, "but gave her an angry reception," reported The Sun.  What followed was remarkable.  The article recounted:

Then he took her to his home at 5 Spring street and introduced her to Rosina, who he said was his lawful wife under the laws of the United States.  Lecestra told Luigia that she might remain if she did as she was told.  Her duties were to keep house for her husband and Rosina, who worked together in the tailor shop.

Luigia later described the arrangement.  The Sun recounted, "Lecestra maintained wifely relations only with Rosina who is younger and prettier than Luigia," adding, "Luigia was the household drudge."  The heartbroken Luigia spilled out her woeful condition in a letter to her uncle in Italy, who was an attorney.  He forwarded it to the Italian Consul, which turned it over to the New York District Attorney.  On April 3, 1901, Paolo Lecestra was arrested for bigamy.  The New York Sun reported, "Rosina kissed him and wept when Lecestra was taken away."

The Pavone and Versa families lived here in 1906 when their mischievous sons went on a rampage.  On August 29, they and three other Italian boys boarded a subway "loaded down with apples," as worded by the New-York Tribune.  The article said they "amused themselves by throwing apples at everybody in the rear car."  The motorman stopped the train "and blew the train whistle repeatedly."  Two officers responded and the "boys resisted arrest, but were subdued."  The five were "locked up charged with disorderly conduct," said the article.

Joseph Marino, who lived here in 1935, was doing well enough financially to afford an automobile.  In September that year, the car was stolen and the thieves removed the license plates.  Although the vehicle was not readily recovered, the plates showed up the following month as part of a grisly discovery.  

On September 30, gangster Joseph "Pretty" Amberg and his chauffeur, Morris Kessler "were lined up against the wall in a Brownsville garage, after the fashion of  the celebrated St. Valentine's Day massacres in Chicago, and were riddled with bullets," reported The New York Times.  On October 24, the newspaper revealed, "'Pretty' Amberg's body was found early yesterday morning in a blazing automobile which had been left in front of 131 North Elliot Place, Brooklyn."  The plates on the car belonged to Joseph Marino.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Joseph Bianco was discharged from the Army in October 1945.  The veteran returned to New York, got a job driving a milk wagon, and moved into 5 Spring Street.  His heroism ended at the end of the war.  

In March 1946, five teenaged boys were arrested "as juvenile delinquents," explained The New York Times.  The boys confessed in a string of tenement building burglaries and arsons.  One of the fires nearly resulted in the death of a sleeping girl.  In interrogating the teens, police discovered that 22-year-old Joseph Bianco was a modern day Fagan.

On March 11, 1946, The New York Times reported that he "looked defiantly yesterday in Felony Court as the prosecutor related...that Bianco trained five boys, all under 16 years old, not alone to be burglars but to set fire to three lower East Side tenement apartments to conceal their crimes."  Bianco pleaded ignorance of the crimes, saying he had accepted the loot from the youths, but insisted, "I didn't know they had stolen that stuff."

When Bianco got out of prison, he remained friends with a resident of 5 Spring Street, Joseph Trulio.  On December 26, 1950, The New York Times reported that the two men confessed to "holding up thirty hotels in the last two weeks, nine of them on Christmas morning."  In court, Magistrate Brenner asked Bianco, "Why pick hotels?"  He replied, "Hotels are easier.  They have big lobbies and you can make a quick getaway."

photograph by Ted Leather

Changes in the neighborhood were reflected by Sweet and Vicious, a night club, occupying the ground floor space in the early 2000s.  A renovation completed in 2016 modernized the storefront, home to The Tavern today.  Although the paneled piers remain, the arched openings are either squared off or covered by signage today.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The Charles G. Dean House - 214 East 31st Street

 

In 1867 real estate agent Charles E. Pierce moved his family into the recently built house at 214 East 31st Street.  Three stories of red brick sat upon a rusticated brownstone basement.  A rather spartan version of Italianate, its double-doored entrance had no ornamentation other than a simple lintel.  The 20-foot-wide home featured floor-to-ceiling parlor windows and a bracketed cornice with a paneled fascia.

Charles E. and Esther A. Pierce, born in 1831 and 1825 respectively, had an adult daughter, Lillias Adelaide, known as Lilly.  Lily had an unspecified disability.  In explaining why she could not appear in court in person to testify in 1869, she said, "I am quite lame."

Like many families, the Pierces rented extra rooms in their home.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on July 24, 1869 offered:

Front room and Bedroom, second story, nicely furnished, closets, gas and water, with partial Board, or for light house-keeping at a low price; hall room $2.50; pleasant location.

The $2.50 room rate would translate to $60 in 2026.

The Pierces had bad luck with roomers.  On August 7, Charles Allen died in his room.  Unlike some landlords, the Pierces apparently did not offer their parlor for his funeral.  The 56-year-old was buried from the Church of the Transfiguration.

The following year, on October 22, 1871, 77-year-old roomer Ann Irwin died.  This time the funeral was held in the house.

Following the Pierces was the family of Charles G. Dean, another real estate operator, who moved in in 1874.  Dean and his wife, the former Eliza Reed, had five children: William Matthews, Charles Jr., Hamilton F., Edward B., and Eliza Reed.

Born in 1813, Charles G. Dean was the son of book publisher William E. Dean.  In addition to his real estate business, Charles was an alderman.  

William M. Dean operated a harness business on Third Avenue as early as 1879.  His brother, Charles Jr., however, was listed as a "gentleman," meaning he had no profession.  Charles explained when being interviewed as a juror in 1890, that he "had no business, but was engaged in looking after his own affairs."

Charles G. Dean, Sr. died of pneumonia at the age of 68 on February 11, 1881.  Interestingly, his funeral was not held in the house, but at Rutgers Church.

Shortly afterward, the Dean family tepidly updated the house.  Fashionable wrought iron stoop railings and newels were installed, the parlor windows shortened, and sheet metal cornices applied to the openings.

The original appearance of the windows matched those of the homes on either side in this 1940 photo.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Following the death of her husband, Noel B. Stanton, daughter Eliza moved back to the East 31st Street house with her mother and unmarried brothers.

William Matthew Dean died on February 12, 1896 and Charles G. Dean on September 8, 1905.  Both funerals were held in the parlor.

The year 1918 was a morose one for the Deans.  Eliza Reed Stanton died on January 21 and Eliza Reed Dean died at the age of 96 on November 3.  Both funerals were held in the Madison Avenue Baptist Church.  

Hamilton F. Dean, who was highly involved in real estate operations, continued to live in the house until his death in 1937.  In August that year, his estate sold 214 East 31st Street to Richard N. Cotter.

Living here in 1942 was the Meyer family: Anna, Catherine, Harvey, John, Louise and Thelma.  All of them were listed by the Congressional Special Committee on Un-American Activities that year as being registered Communist Party voters.

A renovation completed in 1955 resulted in an office in the basement, a doctor's office on the parlor floor, and one apartment each on the upper stories.  More recently, the offices were converted to apartments, resulting in a total of four.

photographs by the author

Richard Williamson's 118 East 78th Street

 

The extension of the New York and Harlem Railway along Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue) in the early 1830s sparked interest in the district.  East 78th Street was officially opened in 1860 and homes began appearing shortly afterward.  But construction ground nearly to a halt throughout the city when laborers were sent to fight in the South.  

The Civil War ended in April 1865 and one developer wasted no time in constructing of a row of upper-middle-class rowhouses along East 78th Street between Lexington and Fourth Avenue.  Historians agree that it was likely Richard Williamson who was responsible for the project.  

Three stories tall above rusticated basements, the houses were just 18-feet wide.  Their elliptically arched openings sat within attractive molded frames.  Williamson's builder forewent the fussy scrolled corbels and pediments seen above Italianate entrances of more costly homes, giving these a simple keystone.

The molded architraves of 118 East 78th Street would have matched these, which survived in examples farther east along the row in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Given the regular change in occupants, it appears that Williamson rented 118 East 78th Street.  Living here in 1870 was Deborah Plume, the widow of Isaac Plume, and her son, Joseph.  (Another son, Isaac H. Plume, was among those New Yorkers who had marched off to battle.  A member of the Seventh Regiment, he rose to the rank of first lieutenant and was killed in the Battle of Manassas on August 27.)  Deborah died here on July 23, 1870 at the age of 80.  Her funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

James S. Shell and wife, Mary J., moved in within months.  Schell was a saddler with Hoover, Calhoun & Co., "manufacturers and importers of fine saddlery and harness, wholesale and retail," as described by The Merchant's Directory.  

Schell, too, had served in the war, but his experience was much different from that of Isaac Plume.  James S. Schell was drafted into the Union Army on March 21, 1865.  Just over two weeks later, on April 9, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the war.  Schell was mustered out on July 11, 1865.  

Like most families who had extra rooms, the Schells took in boarders.  Their ad on December 22, 1875 read: 

A gentleman and wife, or family, can have elegant Rooms and Board very low with small private family; brown stone residence.  118 East Seventy-eighth street, near Madison avenue cars.

Answering that ad was attorney Wells Hendershott, who listed his address here through 1877.

Around 1878 William D. Lent and his family owned and occupied 118 East 78th Street.  Lent was a glass merchant with his business at 390 Broome Street.  He and his wife, Ella M., had three daughters Alice, Mary and Marietta.  

Marietta's wedding to William H. Starbuck in St. Bartholomew's Church on September 22, 1880 reflected the family's comfortable finances.  "The bride's dress was of brocaded silver satin, and the dresses of the bridesmaids of mull and satin," reported The Daily Graphic.  The article noted, "A reception followed at the house of the bride's parents, No. 118 East Seventy-eighth street."

It appears that living with William D. Lent could be taxing.  Decades later, he sued his daughter, Alice, who was now married, "to restrain her from disposing of the contents of a safe deposit box containing securities which he had given to her," reported the New York Herald.  He died on November 17, 1915 leaving an estate equal to $3.2 million in 2026 terms.  The New York Herald reported, "He gave nothing to his wife, Mrs. Ella M. Lent."

In the meantime, the Lent family had moved to 60 East 68th Street around 1886 and the East 78th Street house became home to the Herman Hirsch family.  It was either the Lents or the Hirsches who slightly updated the house around that time.  Modern, Esthetic-style ironwork at the stoop and areaway replaced the Italianate originals.  And French windows with a modified fanlight were installed in the parlor.

The new parlor window and one of the replaced newels can be seen at the left in this 1913 photograph. (The molded architraves are intact.)  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Herman Hirsch listed his profession as "liquors," meaning he either ran saloons or liquor stores.  He had two locations, one at 1336 Third Avenue and the other at 75 Murray Street.  When the family moved into 118 East 78th Street, Lee Hirsch was attending the Free Academy of New York.

The residence continued to see a frequent turn-over of occupants.  The Beckwell family lived here in 1895 when William and James J. Beckwell added their names to hundreds of New Yorkers who petitioned the Board of Aldermen to construct a "bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."

Around 1906, John H. Campbell and his wife purchased 118 East 78th Street.  Born in 1866, Campbell was described by the New-York Tribune as "prominent in New York politics during the reign of Richard Croker as Tammany Hall chieftain."  The distinction was not especially positive.  "Boss" Crocker's tenure was marked with corruption.  Campbell was initially Crocker's secretary, and when the latter became City Chamberlain in 1889 he made Campbell his deputy.  

John H. Campbell, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

In 1908, Campbell "left the city's service," as worded by the New-York Tribune, and took the position of treasurer of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.  He would become, as well, the treasurer of the Subway Realty Company, the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, the Interborough Consolidated Corporation, and a director of the Merchants Refrigerating Company, the Metropolitan Securities Company, and "several ferry and transportation concerns," according to the New-York Tribune.

While Campbell was busy at work, his wife enjoyed the lifestyle of a well-to-do woman.  On August 24, 1913, the New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. John Campbell, of No. 118 East 78th street, who is spending the summer at the Nassau Hotel, Long Beach, gave a shore dinner and dance to her Beach friends at the Casino, Long Beach, Tuesday evening, August 19."  The article noted that Nathan Frank and his wife were among the guests and "his orchestra of fifty pieces played on the porch during the dinner."

With his health failing in 1919, Campbell and his wife sold 118 East 78th Street to Dr. Royal Herman Willis and his wife, Jennie.  The Campbells moved to the Garden City Hotel in Garden City where John H. Campbell would die on April 5, 1922 at the age of 56.  

Herman was Jennie's second husband.  Born Jennie B. Murray in 1867, her first husband, Samuel Edward Vernon, died in 1914.  She and Vernon had two children, Vivian and Murray Vernon.  They were 25 and 21 years old respectively in 1919.

Vivian would not reside in the East 78th Street house.  The previous year, on May 11, 1918, she married Leo Nunes, "of Leghorn, Italy, in Grace Church," as reported by the New-York Tribune.

Murray Vernon would live here until 1923.  On June 9, 1923, The New York Times reported on his marriage to Marcella Verran at the bride's home at 270 Park Avenue.

At some point prior to 1940, the molded architraves were shaved flat, apparently in an effort to slightly modernize the facade.

The molding of the frames around the windows and doorway was flattened by 1940.  The shuttered windows and boarded entrance suggests interior renovation was going on.  The charming crescent moon cutouts in the shutters provided ventilation.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.  

Jennie B. Willis died on December 3, 1953 at the age of 86.  Dr. Royal Herman Willis would die in Brooklyn in 1961 at the age of 85.  

In the meantime, the East 78th Street house was converted to two duplex apartments in 1953.  The configuration remained until a renovation in 1971 returned the house to a single-family home.  

In 2007 Chelsea Atelier Architect, PC completed a gut renovation.  The firm's website says that the "facade was completely restored to its original brownstone...Some stone was replaced and everything was repainted."

photograph by the author

Charles Mettam's 1870 506 La Guardia Place

image via loopnet.com

As early as 1845, a two-story brick house occupied the plot at 185 Laurens Street.  In the rear yard was a three-story brick house.  (It was an unexpected configuration since, normally, the larger house was at the front of the property.)  The address and the street name would be changed more than once in the coming decades.

Charles Golden owned the property in the post-Civil War years and the front house was home to Edwin Beyersdorf's lager-beer saloon.  At 10:00 on the morning of September 30, 1869, Beyersdorf was filling a cigar lighter on the counter from a "can of liquid gas," according to The New York Times.  The can ignited and the flames quickly engulfed the barroom.  The article noted, "The building, owned by M. [sic] Golden, is damaged about $800 and is insured for $4,000 in the Aetna."  (The amount of damage would translate to about $19,500 in 2026.)

One wonders if the fire was truly an accident or if Golden was in cahoots with his tenant to obtain the insurance money.  Two weeks before the fire, architect Charles Mettam had already filed plans for a "five-story brick store & tenement" on the site.  It is clear that Golden intended to replace the old structures, because at the time of Mettam's filing, the builder, James Clarke, had already been contracted.

Whether Golden was aware that Clarke was making shortcuts in the construction of the new building is impossible to know.  But a horrific accident took place on the job site.  The New-York Tribune reported, "a wrought-iron tension rod broke.  It was used to sustain the front wall...Having broken it let the entire wall down in to the cellar, and came near killing the master mason and a laborer."  An investigation revealed that the rod "was not of suitable form to sustain a great weight."

By the time construction of the building was completed in 1871, the block was known as South Fifth Avenue.  Mettam's Italianate design was typical of scores of store-and-apartment buildings being constructed throughout the city.  Faced in red brick above its cast iron storefront, the building's windows wore handsome molded stone lintels.  The cast metal cornice, likely chosen from a foundry's catalogue, featured foliate corbels, dentils and brackets. 

The building received a new address again in 1896--506 West Broadway.  Occupying the commercial space at the time was the United States Directory Publishing and Printing Company.  Among the upstairs tenants were the Mullin and Smith families.

Mary Mullin was an activist of sorts, at least for a woman of her time.  In 1896 she co-founded of the Woman's National Democratic League of the United States of America.  Its noble and floridly written purposes included: 

To denounce all forms of political corruption and unjust legislation and to aid and encourage the voters of the nation in their patriotic endeavors to maintain and perpetuate government of the people for the people and by the people.

The Smith apartment was burglarized by a trio of crooks early in 1897.  John Gartland, alias Corey; John Kelley, alias Frank Hazel, and Charles Walker, alias Stewart, were arrested on March 27 at 96 Barrow Street, described by the New York Herald as "a den of thieves."  Recent victims of burglaries, including Annie Smith, were summoned to Police Headquarters to identify any possible stolen items.  Annie "claimed a gold wedding ring," reported the New-York Tribune.

By the turn of the century, Gross & Horn, makers of shoe soles, occupied the ground floor.

Building Trades Association Bulletin, July 1901 (copyright expired)

In 1905, Ulric J. De Poli, described by the New York Herald as "a good looking young Italian," took an apartment here.  He operated his silk business from his apartment.  The nearly penniless immigrant posed as Louis Banta, "an Italian nobleman and a wealthy silk merchant," said the article.  Telling the owners of silk mills in New Jersey that he had $17,000 in the bank, he ordered bales of silk on credit and resold them to dry goods merchants.

The scheme collapsed on the morning of December 8, when De Poli "was nabbed at Bleecker street and West Broadway by Detective Sergeants Howard, Flannelly and Schoenick, who had a warrant for his arrest," as reported by the New York Herald.  The article explained that De Poli had been wanted "for fleecing several silk manufacturers out of goods valued at $20,933." 

Abolardo Cassi and his family arrived from Italy in 1906 and moved an apartment on the third floor of 506 West Broadway.  Like De Poli, he ran his business, of sorts, from his apartment.  On July 26, 1907, a man "hurried into the New York Custom House," and told officials that "he had found seven paintings by old masters, including Correggio and Titian, offered for sale by Abolardo Cassi...and that at the price asked he was sure they must have been smuggled into the country."

An art expert from the Appraiser's Office, a Customs inspector and a representative from the Custom House's legal department accompanied the man to Cassi's apartment.  Here Cassi showed them Titian's Rebecca at the Well; two canvases by Tintoretto, Hunting and Music; two works by Correggio, Abraham Dying and Joseph Recognizing His Brothers; The Holy Family by Cimaburg, and Massaccio's The Redeemer.  Cassi's asking prices ranged from $1,000 each for Hunting and The Redeemer to $15,000 for Rebecca at the Well.  The total amount of $32,000 would equal $1.1 million today.

Cassi explained that the paintings were "heirlooms of his family, which was at one time well-to-do in Italy," as reported by The New York Times.  He told the officials that he "had formerly been in prosperous circumstances, but that, meeting with reverses, he came to this country, bringing the paintings with him, as he did not wish to part with them."  Now in America, the Cassis' 17-year-old son was their main support.  But "since they arrived in this country," he explained, he "recently became insane and is now confined in the Manhattan State Hospital."

The art appraiser decided that the paintings were "very old, but were not considered originals."  Because there was no evidence that Cassi smuggled them into the country, the matter was dropped.  Whether the struggling immigrant was able to liquidate the copies is unclear.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Around the time of the Cassi investigation, 506 West Broadway was acquired by C. & M. Moriggia.  In 1911, they hired architect L. V. Spenaport to do $8,000 in renovations to convert the upper floors to commercial use.

Their ground floor tenant around the time was the Mariani Brothers, importers of Italian foods, operated by Filomena and Oreste Mariani.  On January 15, 1915, the New York Herald reported on the massive earthquake that destroyed 16 Italian towns, including Avezzano, and damaged 12 others.  An article said, "Mr. Oreste Mariani, who is a native of Vasto, near Avezzano, set to work early in the morning collecting funds at his place of business, No. 506 West Broadway, and turning them over to the Italian Red Cross Society.  The firm of Mariani Brothers headed the subscription list with $100."  The article continued:

Mr. Oreste Mariani sent a cable despatch [sic] to his brother, Mr. Humbert Mariani, in Naples, directing him to go to the stricken country, investigate conditions and to extend whatever immediate aid he could to the sufferers.  Mr. Mariani awaits a reply and expects to be accurately informed by one who was born and reared near Avezzano and still has nearly a dozen relatives in that region.

Less noble press about the Mariani Brothers came four months later.  The firm was fined $25 in April 1915, "for shipping whiskey into prohibition Vermont as 'groceries,'" reported The Larchmonter-Times.  

Among the upper floor tenants in 1912 were Axelrod & Sokel, manufacturers of boys' pants, and H. H. Upham & Co., sign makers.  The latter firm was established in 1863.  They would be joined in the building by 1915 by Edward Podesnick's electrical machinery shop.

Mariani Brothers remained in the building at least through 1919.  That year they advertised, "Correspondent wanted to take care of Italian and English correspondence; good typist; several years' experience with importers and small mail order; good salary."

But, initiated by Edward Podesnick, the building was mainly occupied by electrical firms in the 1920s.  Among them were the Shotwell Electric Co. and Neptune Battery Co., manufacturer of dry batteries.  The latter was renamed the Advance Battery Co. in 1923.

The building was a scene worthy of a cops-and-robbers movie in 1958.  In the early hours of February 8, Police Sergeant Thomas Gilligan and Patrolman John Dolan followed Kendall Brown, an ex-convict.  A passerby notified them that he had climbed the fire escape of 506 West Broadway to the roof.  The New York Post reported, "Gilligan, a six-footer weighing 200 pounds, was confronted on the roof by a man about his size wielding a switch-blade knife.  He disarmed the suspect in a struggle near the edge of the roof."

As the pair wrestled, Kendall tried repeatedly to shove Gilligan over the edge of the roof.  After breaking loose from the sergeant's hold, Kendall "scaled an eight-foot wall to the roof of an adjoining building," said the article.  Gilligan fired two shots and missed.  While Dolan waited below for the fugitive to emerge, Gilligan fired one more shot, hitting Kendall in the arm.  He was taken into custody.  The New York Post reported that Kendall had been arrested twice for robbery and spent a prison term that ended in 1953.

A renovation in 1962 resulted in a luncheonette on the ground floor, and one apartment-working space each on the upper floors. 

The street was renamed yet again in 1967, now known as La Guardia Place in honor of former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.  

In 1980, Bruno Bakery occupied the ground floor.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Around 1980, Bruno Bakery, a bakery-cafe, moved into the ground floor space.  In 1999, Biagio Settepani purchased the business, renaming it Pasticceria Bruno.  The pastry chef had started his career at the age of 13 in a small bakery in Brooklyn.  Settepani had previously been named one of the ten best pastry chefs in America and in 2006 he received the Northeastern Region's Pastry Chef of the year Award from the American Culinary Federation.

The popular bakery remained through 2016, when it was supplanted by Austrian restaurant Freud.  Two years later the name was changed to Bar Freud after, as reported by Florence Fabricant in The New York Times on February 27, 2018, "Freud has hit the bottle.  Or, rather, the cocktail hour."

The change was short-lived.  On August 6, 2019, The New York Times reported the opening of Bosie Tea Parlor a "well-appointed tea cafe" and French bistro.  The cafe remained until 2022 when Lord's opened.

On September 2 that year, Florence Fabricant wrote, "At Lord's contemporary English fare 'a long way from the bangers-and-mash of previous generations,' is how Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski, the owners of Dame, describe what they have in store for this sibling."

Today each of the upper floors has one apartment and the commercial space is still home to Lord's.