The Washington Irving Smith House - 361 West 19th Street

 

In 1845, Washington Irving Smith's pottery factory was located at 261 West 18th Street.  The firm manufactured industrial items, like clay drain pipes.  Smith and his family lived in a handsome, two-and-a-half story house at 241 West 19th Street (renumbered 361 in 1868), between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.  One of a row of identical homes, it featured understated brownstone lintels, a double-doored entrance above the high stone stoop, and a short attic level typical of the Greek Revival style.

Smith died around 1866.  His widow Margaret remained here until 1871 when the house was purchased by John M. and Mary A. Moffitt.  The couple paid the equivalent of $350,000 in today's money.

A sculptor, Moffitt was born in London in 1837 and came to New York after serving his apprenticeship there.  Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography noted, "One of the first orders he received after his arrival was for the execution of the figures that adorn the eastern entrance to Greenwood cemetery, and represent the four ages of man."

Two of Moffitt's bas relief panels are visible in this stereopticon slide of Richard Upjohn's magnificent Greenwood Cemetery gates.

Three years before moving into the West 19th Street house, Moffitts had executed the sculptures of Pike's Opera House on 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue.  On June 26, 1869 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide noted, "We also highly approve of all the sculpture work on Pike's Opera House...representing Mozart and Shakespeare, as well as Tragedy and Music, standing on the attached Corinthian columns in the centre of the main front on Eighth  avenue."

Calling Moffitt "an English sculptor of great celebrity in this city," the article added that he "also produced the 'Artic Monument' at Greenwood, the 'Soldiers' Monument,' in Connecticut, and the massive altar for the new church in New Haven, &c."  He was also responsible for the colossal Eagle and Her Young on the façade of the New York Life Insurance Company building at Leonard Street and Broadway.

An inventory of the household goods hints at the Moffitts' luxurious interiors.  Included were "costly oil paintings, by foreign artists," rosewood parlor furniture, a pianoforte, and Brussels carpets.  Notable was the "Herring's Iron Safe," which would have held cash, documents and, possibly, Mary's jewelry.

The Moffitts sold 361 West 19th Street to Thomas J. and Julia C. Coleman in 1877.  The couple paid $13,000, or about $330,000 today.  They took in a boarder in 1883, offering rooms on the top floor with "hot and cold water" for $17 per month (a pricey $455 today).  The advertisement sternly insisted, "no children."

In March 1884, following Thomas Coleman's death, Julia sold the house to Edward R. Merrill, president of the E. R. Merrill Spring Co.  He hired architect James Stroud to significantly update the dwelling.  The attic level was raised to a full third floor and a prominent cast metal cornice crowned with serrated decorations was installed.  Sheet metal sills and cornices were placed over the brownstone originals.

James Stroud's renovations included modern, paneled entrance doors.

The Merrill family remained in their remodeled house for two decades, selling it to Mary O'Neil in 1905, who operated it as a boarding house.

Among her newest tenants early in January 1907 was John Bailer, a bookmaker.  A month earlier he had married Hattie Moser and the couple had moved into Hattie's apartment on West 109th Street near Central Park West.  When he came home on New Year's Day, just three weeks into their marriage, Hattie was gone.  The Duluth Evening Herald reported, "He learned, he says, that she went away with young [James R.] Roosevelt in an automobile."

The married millionaire James R. Roosevelt, Jr., it turned out, had been paying the rent on Hattie's apartment and had also furnished it.  When Hattie did not return, Bailer put the furniture into storage and moved into the West 19th Street boarding house.  He then threatened to sue Roosevelt for the equivalent of $1.4 million in today's money, for the alienation of his wife's affections.

The scandalous story spread across the nation.  On January 12, 1907 the Roanoke Times said, "Unless the bride returns within a few days, which seems unlikely, the suit, Bailer says, will be filed."  Among those reading the shocking articles was Roosevelt's wife, Sadie.  The World commented that the millionaire's wife "knew much of young Roosevelt's escapades, but never suspected what was coming."

A flurry of suits followed the press coverage.  James Roosevelt swore out a writ "for the furniture, claiming it was his," according to The World.  Bailer pressed ahead with his alienation of affections suit, and on February 27 The Duluth Evening Herald reported, "The escapade[s] of James R. Roosevelt, Jr., are once more coming into the limelight, this time because his wife has begun proceedings against him for a separation."

Mary O'Neill sold 361 West 19th Street later that year.  It became the home of Dr. Henry J. Fischer, who had graduated from Cornell University in 1900.  Later it was occupied by Thomas A. Rosbotham, an executive of the American Distilling Company.  He died in the house on March 23, 1919.

The changing Chelsea demographics was evidenced in 1951 when the 602-4 East 138th St. Corp. purchased the house, from a doctor.  Court documents later said, "The parlor floor had been used as the physician's office, and the other three floors by his family as their residence."  Without notifying the Department of Buildings or filing plans, the new owner "promptly converted the building into an eight-family rooming house," according to The New York Times.  "It was rented to Puerto Rican families, generally consisting of seven or more persons, each occupying what was originally one room, under the most appalling slum conditions, at rents of over $110 per month."  (Astonishingly, that figure would translate to over $1,000 per month today.)

In July 1952, after tenants lodged complaints, an investigation was launched.  The State Rent Commission found that the owner had illegally "created squalid slums, not livable housing."  The house was subsequently officially converted to apartments, one per floor.  The alterations were completed in 1956.

A second renovation, completed in 1967, resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels.  Although holes for air conditioning units have been punched into the brick facade, the outward appearance of the house is little changed since its substantial make-over in 1884.

photographs by the author

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The Otto Presspritch House - 411 West 154th Street

In 1874 developer John Kelly acquired the large parcel at the southwest corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and 154th Street.  It would be years before the development of the Sugar Hill neighborhood was fully underway; and Kelly waited nearly a decade before hiring architect James Stroud in 1883 to design eleven row houses that wrapped the corner--seven on 154th Street and four others at Nos. 881 to 887 St. Nicholas Avenue.

In May 1883 Building, An Architectural Monthly remarked on the unusual setting.  "The architect, Mr James Stroud, has designed them on plateaus, giving the pleasing effect of green terraces, with walks of Seyssel Rock asphalt."  The writer described what today we recognized as the Queen Anne style.  "He has introduced colonial features of architecture, such as bow windows, irregular roofs, verandahs and balconies.  There will be ornamental sashes with glacier decorations and rolling Venetian blinds."  

A rendering released by Stroud's office reveal that the houses originally had covered porches--called "verandahs" by Building.  Building, An Architectural Monthly, May 1883 (copyright expired)

Each of the 21-foot wide houses had upscale detailing.  Expensive ash and cherry trim and hot and cold running water were expensive, modern amenities.  Building pointed out that at each stairway landing was a window "opening to the outer air," which it deemed "a decided improvement on the usual city house."  

Kelly erected the houses for rental income.  The Building journalist noted "Just why families are willing to pay $1,800 or $2,000 per annum for a suite of apartments on the eleventh story of an apartment house when they can rent a pleasant residence on its own ground for less than half the money, it is difficult to tell."  

The West 154th Street row was designed in an A-A-B-C-B-A-A configuration.  The pairs of "A" houses on either end were near mirror images of one another; the significant differences being in the treatment of the mansard towers.  No. 411 at the western end was, like its neighbors, three stories tall including the full-height mansard.  The openings wore brick lintels with stone keystones and imposts.  The dramatic mansard included a dormer and an oval window within the tower.

The 11-room house became home to the large Presspritch family.  Otto Presspritch and his wife, the former Marie Le Gendre, had been married in 1862.  The New York Times mentioned that Marie "was descended from an old family of New Orleans."  Otto was a cotton broker at the time.  Following the Civil War Presspritch was made Consul to the Russian Government and the couple moved to Liverpool, England, until 1875.

Otto and Marie had two daughters, Marie and Alice, and five sons, Henri, Ernest, Walter, Reginald, and Otto, Jr.  In 1887 Reginald was a freshman at the College of the City of New York, enrolled in its "Classical course;" while his brother, Henri, was studying a Columbia University.

In 1900 the Presspritches were paying $900 per year rent on the house--approximately $2,300 a month in today's terms.  But they would not continued to do so for much longer.  Perhaps because the children were now grown, In 1904 the family left No. 411.  In July that year it was purchased by Albert Pritchett and his wife, Mary Elizabeth.

Pritchett was a manager of the Baltimore-based Keen & Hagerty Mfg. Co. at No. 99 Nassau Street.  His residency in the 154th Street house here was a rocky one.  He troubles started in February 1906 when The Title Insurance Company of New York began foreclosure proceedings against him.  He owed $11,582.28 on his mortgage at the time, nearly $335,000 today.  The situation was grim enough that the house was scheduled to be auctioned on April 5.

Pritchett managed to wriggle out of that situation; but his problems were not over by far.  He attempted to improve his finances by gambling in 1907, but that ended badly.  On September 23 The Sun reported that he appeared in the West Side Court "with his right arm badly cut" and was charged with "being a disorderly person."

As the article explained, "Pritchett said that he had been to 141 West Ninetieth street to play in a poker game on Saturday night to see if he could win back some money he had lost.  He lost more, he said, and made a kick."  When his hosts demanded that he leave, he "got out by going through the glass panel of the door in the vestibule."   The judge was as much surprised by the fact that the poker game had not been raided as he was by Prichett's bad behavior.

Possibly in an effort to avoid another foreclosure, Albert transferred title to the 154th Street house to Mary Elizabeth on February 28, 1908.  Apparently desperate for money, two months later he turned to larceny.  On the afternoon of April 5, 1908 he accompanied a 30-year old woman, Frances Tenney, to the apartment of her friend, Amelia B. Liddy at No. 2337 Broadway.  The two women had been close friends for years so Amelia had no reason to be suspicious.

But as the three were sitting in the living room, Pritchett rose and boldly walked into the bedroom.  According to Amelia, he "went to a dressing table...and took from a drawer $2,650 worth of jewelry."  Included were a diamond and pearl ring, a diamond locket and a "snake pin" set with diamonds."  Pritchett then bolted from the apartment.

"Miss Tenney ran over to me and placed her hand over my mouth that I might make no outcry," Amelia said in her complaint.  "I tried to rise from my chair.  She pushed me back into it and held me there."  

When Pritchett had had sufficient time to escape, Frances ran away too.  It did not take long for authorities to apprehend her; and the following day The New York Herald reported "Police are searching for Albert G. Pritchett of No. 411 West 154th street."

Pritchett appears to have panicked.  When Amelia appeared before a judge the day after the incident, a man identified only as "Sam" entered the courtroom.  The Evening World reported he pleaded with her "to withdraw the complaint against Pritchett."   And when he handed her a chamois bag containing the stolen jewelry, she did just that.  "All I wanted was my jewels back," she said.

The Evening World described the detectives as being "dumbfounded."  Amelia told reporters "He's not a bad sort, anyhow.  He's Miss Tenny's friend.  I hated to have the dear girl arrested, but you know those diamonds are worth $2,700 and that's something."  The article said "Both women are considerate of Pritchett.  He is a married man with a family."

The Pritchetts managed to remain at No. 411 into 1912.  They were followed by Daisy L. Jordan, whose former husband Arthur M. Jordan was the proprietor of the Cedarcliffe Hotel in New Rochelle, New York.   Daisy took him to court in September 1912 claiming he owed $950 in back alimony--nearly $25,500 today.   Daisy Jordan's time here was short and in 1913 electrical engineer Virgil Ellsworth Metcalfe called No. 411 home.

By the Depression years the Sugar Hill neighborhood had significantly changed.  Most of the comfortable 19th century homes were converted to rooming houses, some with shops in the basement levels.  The end of the line for No. 411 as a dwelling came at the beginning of 1938.

In 1924 West 154th Street was still unpaved.  Several of the porches have been lost, as was a portion of the retaining wall.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York 

On January 24 The New York Sun reported "A stag stronghold, the St. Catherine's Boys Club, has been established in an old four-floor private house at 411 West 154th street, with as many officers as there are in a Mexican army."  Each of the 35 members, ranging from 15 to 22-years old, was at least a director.

The house had been acquired by the Catholic Youth Organization and Rev. Joseph A. Brady of the nearby Church of St. Catherine of Genoa gave the boys a daunting responsibility.  They were told, according to The Sun, "that they could have the house for a clubhouse if they would furnish it."  The article note "they have furnished the house partly with articles from members' homes, and are ready to make merry and make money."

To make money the boys organized their own "employment agency" to obtain after-school jobs like dog walkers, window washers, errand runners and "carriage-wheelers."  They also published an eight-page newspaper, the Armchair.

The boys were also responsible for the maintenance of the house as well.  Seventeen-year old Robert O'Brien, who acted as the Armchair's editor, for instance, tended the furnace.  So "in the heat of press time the clubhouse is cold," said The Sun.

It was not all work, of course.  St. Catherine's Boys Club also had "football, baseball, basketball, track and debating teams, a dance committee and a library," according to the article.

Unfortunately for the boys, the endeavor did not last.  Within a year it had become The Modern School, a private elementary school.  In the 2001 book Manhattan at Mid-Century: An Oral History, Barbara Pringle recalled that the first school she attended "was the Modern School at 154th Street, which was a feeder for white private schools.  Ethel Waters's daughter, W. E. B. Du Bois's granddaughter, a whole number of children who came from black professional families went there."

The girls of The Modern School were dressed for a program on Christmas Eve 1939.  from the collection of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The Modern School was founded in 1934 by Mildred Johnson Edwards.  A Black graduate of the teacher training program at the Ethical Culture Center on Central Park West, when she found that she could not get a teaching position in a New York City private school, she simply opened her own.  The school accepted children from 18 months of age through the fifth grade.

Mildred Edwards purchased No. 411 when her success demanded more space and her enrollment reached 200.  Years later, in 1999, Nina Seigal wrote in The New York Times, it "came to be respected as one of the best private schools in Manhattan."

Around 1954 the school moved to West 152nd Street.  No. 411 became home to Bryant Memorial Zion Baptist Church, which retains ownership.  Although sadly battered, the house has managed to retain its charm, silently begging for sympathetic attention.

photographs by the author

Tattered Beauties - 883-887 St. Nicholas Avenue

photo by Matthew X. Kiernan 

Developer John Kelly purchased the large tract at the southwest corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and 154th Street in 1874.  It would be nearly a decade before development in the Sugar Hill district was far enough along that he considered building on the sprawling plot.  In 1883 architect James Stroud designed eleven row houses for Kelly that wrapped the corner--seven of them on West 154th Street and four more at Nos. 881 to 887 St. Nicholas Avenue.

In its May issue that year Building, An Architectural Monthly remarked that the homes would not edge the sidewalk, as might be expected, but would sit aloofly back and above.  "The architect, Mr James Stroud, has designed them on plateaus, giving the pleasing effect of green terraces, with walks of Seyssel Rock asphalt."  The writer described what today we recognized as the Queen Anne style.  "He has introduced colonial features of architecture, such as bow windows, irregular roofs, verandahs and balconies.  There will be ornamental sashes with glacier decorations and rolling Venetian blinds."  (The "glacier decorations" would most likely have been stained glass transoms and the multi-paned upper sashes that still survive at No. 883.)

The seven houses on West 154th Street all survive.

Kelly intended the 21-foot wide homes to be rental properties.  To lure well-heeled tenants, he included upscale interior detailing--like ash and cherry trim--and modern amenities like hot and cold running water.  A "decided improvement on the usual city house is the introduction of windows opening to the outer air, which are at the head of the stairways on each landing," said Bridge.

The writer opined "Just why families are willing to pay $1,800 or $2,000 per annum for a suite of apartments on the eleventh story of an apartment house when they can rent a pleasant residence on its own ground for less than half the money, it is difficult to tell."  Kelly's tenants would expect to pay as much as $2,250 per month in today's dollars.

The four St. Nicholas Avenue houses were arranged in an A-B-B-A configuration.  Nos. 881 (now demolished) and 887 were mirror images.  Their stone staircases from the sidewalk to the "plateau" were on the opposite side of the lot from the stoop.  The entrances were within a slightly projecting bay that rose to an Addams Family-ready mansard cap with a large oval window.

Nos. 883 and 885, also mirror images, were accessed by long, dramatic sets of steps from the street.  To the side of the entrances were three-sided bay window which provided balconies to the second floor.  The full-height mansards were covered in fish-scale patterned slate shingles and united by a sharp triangular pediment.

No. 885 (right) has sadly lost its parlor floor bay window (and a few other architectural elements).

Title to the properties were in the name of Kelly's wife, Mary.  She leased No. 883 to a socially prominent couple--Thomas M. Foote and his wife, the former Julia Jerome.  The couple had two children, Thomas, Jr. and Frances Jerome Foote.

Born in 1841, Foote was a member of the brokerage firm Thompson & Foote and also, for a while, president of the American District Telegraph Company.  He was a member of the exclusive Union Club and the Coney Island Jockey Club.

Julia was the daughter of Addison G. Jerome and cousin of Jennie Jerome.  On September 4, 1874 the Daily British Colonist began an article saying "A New York dispatch gives the following as the price paid by a New York snob for getting his daughter into the English nobility."  The article had to do with Jennie Jerome's marriage to Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill.  It went on to say that Thomas M. Foote was one of three trustees charged with paying "an annuity of $10,000 in gold."  

Given the Footes' sterling reputations within society, it was shocking that in March 1894 Mary Kelly took Thomas to court in an attempt to get back rent.  

Mary had better luck with her tenant at No. 885.  Financier Albert S. Caldwell had started out as a clerk clerk around 1864 and was later one of the founders of the Fifth Avenue Bank.    The Caldwells' daughter, Elizabeth Stockwell Caldwell, married Eustace Hopkins while living here.  The groom was the son of wealthy merchant John M. Hopkins, who had been associated with Alexander T. Stewart.  (Stewart left Hopkins the equivalent of a quarter of a million in today's dollars in his will.)  The Caldwells remained in No. 885 until Albert suddenly died on the night of June 3, 1894.  

The Caldwells were followed by the George B. Watts family, here by 1897.  It must have been a somewhat crowded environment, judging from the listing in The Social Register.  Living here along with Watts and his wife, the former Helen Wood, were daughters Julia and Ethel; a son listed only as "J. Watts;" and George Watts, Jr., his wife and two children, Sabina and James D. Watts.  The family as well had two Black live-in servants, both from the South.  

Helen Watts was active in charitable and social causes.  In 1899 she was the president of the American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless.  She touted the institution in a letter to The New York Times on January 20 that year, saying "No better evidence of the health of our children can be had than the fact that from May 1, 1895 to May 1, 1898 there were 685 different children in our home; and during that time, there were only five deaths."

Bubble-like terra cotta bosses decorate the eyebrows above the arched doorways and blackened bricks create a patterned coarse above.

Helen had decided opinions and in a speech to the "200 enthusiastic women" who attended a meeting of the Female Guardian Society on October 6, 1899, she attacked "the Mormon M0vement."  She opened her speech with a prayer that American homes might be "protected and saved from the horrible black curse with which they have been menaced."

No. 887 was home first to William R. Foster, Jr., the counsel of the Produce Exchange.  He left around 1887, just before scandal ruined his good name.  He handled the Exchange's "gratuity fund," which provided loans for members' mortgages.  In 1888 it was discovered that Foster had been issuing fake mortgages, forging signatures, and embezzling thousands.  Foster disappeared and in the meantime his bitter father spoke to reporters.  "He said that he could not understand how, with a certain inheritance of $500,000, the son could have disgraced himself and the family name for $193,000," recounted The New York Times on September 30, 1888.

He was followed in No. 887 by Louis Rosenbaum and his family.  A German-born leather merchant, Rosenbaum lived here with his wife, Eva, four sons, and two Irish servants.  The family lived here until 1902.

That year Anna T. Kelly sold all eleven of the houses to Moses Bachman, who resold them to Max Marx.  He immediately began selling them off one-by-one.

He sold Nos. 883 and 885 simultaneously--883 to Mary C. Van Cott and 885 to Louis F. Hallen.  Both were real estate developers and had known each other since Hallen was a boy.  Mary, who never married, had helped to raise Hallen, resulting in a near-family relationship.

Interestingly, the Hallen family moved into Mary C. Van Cott's residence, at No. 883, and Hallen continued leasing No. 885 to the Watts family.  They would remain until 1909.

Louis Hallen's wife was the former Mary W. Jones.  They had two daughters and a son, Louis Frederick, who was just two years old when they moved into No. 883.  The family maintained a country home at Stony Brook, Long Island and it was there, in the summer of 1903, that Hallen suddenly died.  His funeral was held in No. 883 on August 5.

The close relationship between Mary C. Van Cott and the Hallens was again evidenced when she now moved into No. 833.  Her presence was no doubt a help in rearing little Louis, as it had been with his father.

Louis was 17-years old when the United States entered World War I.  He joined the Army and fought through the conflict; but took a criminal path upon returning home.  He was convicted of third degree robbery on June 29, 1925 and sent to the State Reformatory in Elmira, New York.  

Mary C. Van Cott died at the age of 80 five months later, on November 19.  Her substantial estate included several large bequests to charitable organizations like the St. Luke's Home for Aged Women and the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples  But one bequest caught the attention of the press.

On December 4 the Buffalo Evening News reported "When Louis Frederick Hallen, 25 years old...is released from the state reformatory...he will find an incentive to better things awaiting him in the form of a legacy."  The New York Times explained that he would receive $20,000 outright (about $286,000 today), and "one-fifth of the residuary estate."   The Buffalo Evening News said simply that Mary "had taken a friendly interest" in him; and The New York Times added "Miss Van Cott helped to bring up the young man's father."

With Mary's death Nos. 883 and 885 soon ceased to be private dwellings.  They were purchased by the Church Temperance Society.  No. 883 was converted to a doctor's office on the first floor, "treatment rooms" on the second, and the superintendent's quarters on the third.

A doctor's office was also installed in the first floor of No. 885, with living quarters for Dr. James Empringham and the offices of the Society on the upper floors.  

On December 3, 1926 the readers of The New York Times were likely shocked when it reported that Empringham had asked Prohibition groups to drop his name from their list of supporters.

"The organization of which I am secretary is for temperance.  It is not for prohibition and never has been in all the fifty years of its existence," he said.  "The Church Temperance Society is made up of total abstainers who, of course, would like to see the traffic in alcohol ended, but we believe in bringing this about by education and moral suasion."

By the mid-1940's the Ethlyn Beauty Salon operated from the former doctor's office at No. 883, run by Ethlyn Smith Carter.  In May 1948 the New York Age reported on its reopening after a remodeling.  "The Ethlyn Beauty Salon not only is equipped to do a first class hairstyling job," it said "but is also furnished to give milady all the modernistic treatments for putting on or taking off excess poundage."

In March 1950 the Ethlyn Beauty Salon offered a "special 30-day treatment" for weight reduction at $27.  The announcement promised that the treatment would reduce "hips, thighs, etc., which helps reduce inches and banish bulges."  

In 1977 Nos. 883 and 885 were converted to the McDonald's Nursery, a day care center for children 2-1/2 years old and up.  Then, around 2010, the combined homes became a bed and breakfast.

A general renovation inside and out is taking place at No. 887 in 2019.

In 2018 a renovation was begun on No. 887 to convert it to a two-family dwelling.  Substantial restoration is being conducted on the facade.  And while all three of the houses show lamentable abuse, each could be rehabilitated to their former charm.

photographs by the author
many thanks to reader Holly Tooker for suggesting this post