The Schuchman Apartments - 126 East 12th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany in 1851, John P. Schuchman arrived in New York City in 1868.  He became an attorney and was highly active in the Lower East Side German community, known as Kleindeutschland.  He sat on the Tenement House Committee in the 1890s, which worked to improve the conditions of the working-class.  His involvement in the German community was greatly reflected on April 17, 1894 when he signed a 13-year renewable lease on 190 Third Avenue, known as Scheffel Hall.  In 1891 he was appointed a judge in City Court.

In 1900, Judge Schuchman purchased the two vintage houses at 126 and 128 East 12th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues.  On March 11, The New York Times reported that John G. Prague had filed plans for "a six-story brick and stone flat" on the site.  He pr0jected the construction cost at $60,000, or about $2.37 million in 2026.

The commission was unusual for Prague for several reasons.  The prolific builder-architect worked almost exclusively on the Upper West Side where he created more than 200 private rowhouses, and he most often worked for himself.

Prague was known for his ebullient decorative elements.  Interestingly, for The Schuchman he focused only on the first floor.  Above a short stone stoop, he blended brick and brownstone to create a stark contrast of sharp angles (created by the crisp quoins around the openings) and sensuous Romanesque carved ornaments.  The keystone of the foliate carved, concave-arched entranceway took the form of a female head from which swirling ornaments spread Medusa-like.  Unlike most Medieval inspired carvings of the Romanesque Revival style, Prague's boiled with movement.

The stone carver made the decorations come alive--seeming to spume from the portrait keystone.  The bases of the engaged columns are vibrant with flame-like movement.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

Prague was unexpectedly reserved in the mid- and upper sections.  Faced in yellow ironspot brick, their square-headed openings wore uninspired, flat brownstone lintels.  The top floor sat within molded cornices.

There were four apartments per floor in The Schuchman, which was described by the New York Herald as "a bachelor apartment house."  An advertisement described: "Five rooms and bath; hot water, elevator, steam heat."  

Among the first to move in was its owner, Justice John P. Schuchman.  Other residents were middle-class professionals--at least one doctor and several lawyers.  Another initial tenant was Willis H. Alling, who used his apartment as his studio.  He advertised, "teacher of piano and organ, interpretation in singing, Concert and Studio Accompanist."

Although patent attorney Jacob N. McIntyre was "a sufferer from paralysis," as worded by The New York Times, he continued working and had offices in the Temple Court Building.  He hired Signey C. Olesen as his nurse and housekeeper in 1895.  But when he moved into The Schuchman he dismissed her.  The unemployed woman was infuriated.

On January 3, 1901 McIntyre (who "uses an ear trumpet," according to the New-York Tribune) was arrested.  Signey C. Olesen accused him of stealing a $300 pair of diamond earrings from her.  She also charged, "that through the entire six years of her service, although she was to receive $20 a month, she received only about $50 in all from Mr. McIntyre."  

The two faced off in court on January 11.  Olesen asserted that the 65-year-old had given her the earrings "in lieu of salary."  McIntyre countered that, "he simply let her wear them once, and that he never gave them to her."  The case was dismissed because there was no hard evidence against McIntyre.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

At the time, 58-year-old Dr. David Cory shared a first-floor apartment with a man identified only as "a Mr. Ryan."  The physician suffered with alcoholism.  Were his patients to discover that their doctor had a drinking problem, Cory's career would be ruined.  On July 30, 1901, police found him "in a state of alcoholic coma" on Fourth Avenue at 14th Street.  He was taken to the Belleville Hospital alcoholic ward where he said his name was "John Correy" and his contact was "Mrs. Ryan," at 126 East 12th Street.  He was released the next day.

On August 19, Dr. Cory was found drunk and unconscious again.  Once again he was taken to Belleville Hospital, but this time he died "less than thirty minutes after he was admitted," as reported by the New York Herald.  A reporter visited his apartment at The Schuchman, but "Mr. Ryan was not at home," said the New York Herald.

Justice John P. Schuchman retired from the City Court on January 1, 1902.  Two years later, on the evening of September 28, 1904, he returned home and "met a man on his way out.  The man was carrying the hall carpet on his back," reported The Evening World.  When Schuchman asked Edward Conner what he was doing, he responded that he was merely "taking the floor covering out to dust it."

Using street slang that he no doubt picked up during court cases, Judge Schuchman said, "I think that you intend to dust with the carpet."  ("To dust" meant to hurry off or flee.)  Schuchman attempted to detain Connor, but he "fought vigorously."  The uproar attracted Policeman Kepko who arrested the would-be carpet thief.  In court Connor confessed, "If I'd knowed a judge lived in the house I'd have passed it by.  I suppose I'll have to do me bit now."  (To "do one's bit" was to serve a jail sentence.)

The young bachelor Charles R. Buffalow lived here as early as 1905.  On February 25, 1907, he gave himself a dinner "on the anniversary of his 22d birthday," as worded by The New York Age.  The article said his twelve guests "were entertained in a most charming manner."  The lifestyles of The Schuchman residents were reflected in Buffalow's menu that evening.  The article listed the "relish course" as including oysters, blue points on the half shell, sherry and salted almonds.  For the soup course there was green turtle soup, deviled crabs, fish, and white wine.  The entree included roast filet beef, mushrooms, petit pols pommes and champagne; and asparagus vinaigrette was the salad course.  The dessert course was "biscuit tortoni and dematasse [sic] cordials."

John Schuchman rented an apartment on January 9, 1908.  He had, apparently, not thoroughly vetted his new tenant.  Schuchman arrived home three nights later to find police in the building.  "What is all this excitement about?" he asked.  "I am John Schuchman, formerly Justice of the City Court.  I own this apartment house and live upstairs."

To his surprise, Police Captain Shaw responded, "I am raiding a poolroom.  These men are prisoners."  (A poolroom was an illegal gambling operation.)  The New York Herald said, "The ex-Justice said he found it hard to realize that such a thing as a poolroom had got into his house."  

Among the prisoners were Dan O'Rourke, alias Diamond Dan, and George Wilson, alias Chick Trigger, both well-known Bowery figures.  The New York Herald said the police "found racing sheets and other things connected with the ponies" in the apartment.  

On May 2, 1908, The New York Sun reported that around 7:30 the previous evening John P. Schuchman was driving a runabout (a light buggy) on Lenox avenue.  Suddenly, "his horse took fright at an automobile near 117th street and dashed into a trolley car."  The impact was significant.  The article said that the horse "hit the car squarely amidship and the Judge was thrown through the side window of the car."  Astoundingly, Schuchman was catapulted through the trolley car window.  "He landed in the aisle, knocking over in his flight Ethel Douglas, 7 years old."  The New York Times remarked, "Mr. Schuchman's entrance caused a panic among the passengers."

The little girl was not injured, however Schuchman was removed from the trolly unconscious.  Shaken up, he was treated for cuts on his head, face and hands on the site.  His horse, sadly, broke a foreleg and had to be shot.

Later that year, John P. Schuchman moved back to Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany.  He died there in 1914. 

This turbulent corner carving is alive with writhing leaves and vines.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The residents of The Schuchman continued to be professional.  Living here in 1914 was John B. Golden, a Democratic Assemblyman.  He sat on the assembly's committee of Codes and Public Education.

William Boland and his wife, Magdalen, lived here in the post-World War I years.  Born in 1843, Boland served in the Civil War.  In 1924, he was one of the last 300 surviving veterans of that war living in New York City.  During the city's Memorial Day parade on May 29 that year, "Those who had fought in the three wars within the generation's span shouldered guns again," said The New York Evening Post.

Despite his advanced age, William Boland marched with the Lloyd Aspinal Post.  In its extensive coverage of the military event, The New York Evening Post recounted a touching moment.  It said that when his unit reached the reviewing stand, "William Boland, eighty-one...looked searchingly around for a lavender hat.  The owner of that bonnet also was looking for him.  They spied each other at the same time."  The article continued:

Mrs. Magdalen Boland, her little hat bobbing clambered down from the stand as her husband stepped from the ranks.  They stood in front of the reviewing stand and kissed.  Then Boland ran to join his company.

By the Depression years, several of the tenants of 126 East 12th Street showed activist tendencies.  On September 28, 1935, two residents, 21-year-old William Castle and 22-year-old John Lamarr, were arrested as part of a mass demonstration.  The group, the National Students League, had been protesting a motion picture that, according to The New York Times, "shows a radical youth in an unfavorable light in comparison with a conservative American."

The 1936 Official Report of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities listed several residents of 126 East 12th Street as registered Communist Party members.

The arrest on March 6, 1937 by Federal agents of resident See Too, who operated a retail business, was shocking.  That afternoon, the freighter Taybank arrived in Brooklyn from Shanghai with crates consigned to See Too.  Customs officials "seized 600 tins of prepared smoking opium," reported The New York Times.  Agents said that the importance of the raid did not lay in the amount of the drug captured, "but in the fact that the raid had broken the link of a major smuggling ring with world-wide activities stretching from Shanghai to New York."

The New York Times reported, "The dark, chunky See Too sat in the outer room of headquarters of the special agents [and] at 5 o'clock last night he was still there, puffing on a long cigar, his face expressionless."

At around the time of See Too's arrest, the ground floor of 126 East 12th Street was given a coat of stucco.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A more drastic modernization came in the 1960s or 1970s when the intermediate and terminal cornices were removed.

The cornices were gone as early as 1980.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Happily, a restoration initiated in 2017 included the installation of approximate replicas of the cornices, the removal of the ground floor covering, and the cleaning and repairing the masonry.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Michael J. and Annie Mahony House - 126 West 87th Street

John G. Prague's profession was both architect and developer.  In the late 19th century he designed and built scores of rowhouses on Manhattan's Upper West Side, prompting the Real Estate Record & Guide to comment in 1890 that he "created a neighborhood."  In 1886, he designed and erected four rowhouses at 110 through 116 West 87th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.  The following year he enlarged the row, designing 17 more.  This time he shared the project with two other developers.  Prague would erect four, Charles B. Milliken would build five, and D. Willis James eight.  With the new houses completed in 1888, the 21 residences--designed as a harmonious composition--nearly filled the southern blockfront.

Among James's group was 126 West 87th Street.  A medley of styles, Prague gave the undressed brownstone-clad basement and parlor floors a Romanesque Revival flair.  The arched entrance was crowned with a menacing, medieval inspired mask.  Prague strayed from Romanesque Revival by giving the panels below the parlor windows Renaissance Revival carvings.   

The upper floors were a happy marriage of Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival.  Faced in yellow Roman brick and trimmed in brownstone, the design's asymmetry was Queen Anne but the detailing purely Renaissance Revival.  Foliate carvings decorated the window frames.  Above the cornice, a brick parapet featured a stone panel above the single windows, and a triangular pediment above the paired openings.  The pediment sprouted a stocky, chimney-looking finial.

Brothers Daniel F. and Michael J. Mahony were partners in the real estate development firm Mahony Brothers, founded in 1873.  Michael was the construction side of the business and Daniel the architect.  In 1889, Michael and and his wife, the former Annie Campbell, purchased 126 West 87th Street.

Michael J. Mahony (the newspapers routinely misspelled the family's surname "Mahoney") was born in Cork, Ireland in 1841.  He and Annie had no children, but they took in their orphaned niece, Nonie L. Mahony, the daughter of Michael's brother, Patrick and his wife Mary Powers.  Annie's brother, Henry Campbell, also lived with the family.

Nonie died on December 14, 1902.  There would be another funeral in the Mahonys' parlor four years later.  On September 5, 1908, Henry Campbell died at Lake Mahopac, New York.  The funeral was held here on September 9 followed by a requiem mass at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus on 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

Annie and Henry had been made godparents of Lois Ann Campbell, the daughter of Annie's cousin, James Campbell, and his wife, Florence Adele.  She was christened in St. Patrick's Cathedral on March 27, 1893.  James had done well in his career as a banker and public utilities owner.  When he died in 1914, he left what The New York Times said on November 26 was a "16,000,000 estate."  (The staggering figure would translate to about $518 million in 2025.) 

Campbell's will divided the estate in halves--to his wife and daughter.  Annie Mahony was pulled into an ugly, days-long court battle in November 1914, when her cousin and only sister of James Campbell sued to upturn the will, charging that "Campbell died without leaving a child or children."  Annie Mahony testified on November 25 that she had been present two hours after Lois's birth.

Michael J. Mahony died in the house on March 12, 1918 at the age of 78.  As had been the case with Henry Campbell, his funeral was held in the parlor followed by a requiem mass at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus.  He divided his estate in equal shares to Annie and his sister, Elizabeth Mahony Walsh.  It was estimated at "more than $250,000 in real and $10,000 in personal property."  (The nebulous figure would equal not less than $5.5 million today.)

Just two months after Mahony's death, real estate agent Nicholas Francis Walsh offered the house for sale.  (Nicholas was Michael Mahony's nephew, the son of John J. and Elizabeth Mahony Walsh).  The ad described it as having 11 rooms and one bath.  

As it turned out, 126 West 87th Street became home to Nicholas Francis Walsh's future in-laws, the Hammill family.  On January 9, 1920, The New York Times reported, "The wedding of Miss Marguerite Fay Hammill, daughter of Thomas Hammill of 126 East Eighty-seventh Street, and Nicholas Francis Walsh...was celebrated at 10 o'clock yesterday morning at St. Patrick's Cathedral."  The importance of the two families within the Roman Catholic and Irish communities was reflected in the ceremony's being celebrated by Archbishop Patrick Joseph Hayes personally.  The Sun noted, "Mr. Walsh and his bride will live at 126 West Eighty-seventh street after their honeymoon."

Nicholas Walsh had graduated from the New York Law School and became a member of the bar in 1915.  Rather than law, he went into real estate and insurance.  Like his uncles, Michael and Daniel Mahony, he was closely tied to his Irish roots.  He was a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the American-Irish Historical Society.

According to The New York Times, Walsh was "close friends for years" with Alfred E. Smith, who was New York State Governor at the time of his and Marguerite's marriage.  The couple would have eight children--four daughters and four sons.  In 1924, they modernized the parlor level by replacing the two openings with a Palladio-inspired window.

The original configuration of the parlor windows can be seen on either side of No. 126.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Nicholas Francis Walsh died in the West 87th Street house at the age of 72 on August 17, 1949.  

The last of the Walsh family to occupy the house was Nicholas and Marguerite's unmarried daughter, Elizabeth.  She was approached by married actors Peter Maloney and Kristin Griffin in 1981.  Griffin later told The New York Times journalist Robin Finn that she had been renting down the block and "was enraptured by its haunted aura."  She said, "At first, Elizabeth F. Walsh...wasn't interested in their overtures."  But when told that they had no intention of converting the house into apartments, Walsh agreed to a $450,000 price.  Robin Finn reported, "a harrowing $2 million renovation commenced."

The two-year long project greatly remodeled the interior spaces, including the creation of a soaring 18-foot studio space with a vast skylight and two terraces.  During their residency, the house appeared in several episodes of "Law & Order."

In 2013, with their children grown, the couple offered the house for sale for $8.75 million.  Other than replacement windows, the exterior of the Mahony house is little changed since Marguerite and Nicholas Walsh remodeled the parlor window.

photographs by the author

The Gustavus and Carrie Maas House - 130 East 72nd Street

 

In March 1881, developer John Graham & Sons commissioned prolific architect John G. Prague to design four upscale homes on the south side of East 72nd Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  Prague was taking a step away from his familiar turf.  He is best remembered today for the hundreds of homes he designed on Manhattan's West Side. 

Each of the 20-foot wide, four-story homes cost $20,000 to construct (about $615,000 in 2024).  Atop the high stoops were prominent porticos supported by square, paneled columns.   The fascia panels between the scrolled brackets of the cornices were elaborately carved.

In March 1883, John Graham sold 130 East 72nd Street to Charles Stern and his wife, the former Amelia Metzler.  Born in Germany in 1831, Stern came to New York as a young man and opened a wine business.  By now he was one of the largest wine importers in the country.  He and Amelia had four children, Alfred, Louise, Emily and Josephine.

In 1896, the Sterns moved to Los Angeles, California.  They sold 130 East 72nd Street to Gustave Maas for $30,500 on April 29.  (The price would translate to about $1.14 million today.)  Maas was born in Frankfurt, Germany in May 1850.  He had married Caroline (known as Carrie) Heimerdinger in Vienna Hall on Lexington Avenue and 54th Street on November 27, 1884.  Shortly after moving in, Gustave transferred title to the property to Carrie.

The couple had three daughters, Manuela F., who was eight years old in 1896; and twins Edith Helen and Catherine, who were five.  Also living in the house was Gustave's widowed mother, Rachel Regina Ochs Maas.  (In 1899, another daughter, Agnes C. would arrive.)

Gustave and Carrie immediately hired architect Hugo Koehler to make improvements to the house.  His plans, filed in June 1896, called for new plumbing and increasing the height of the rear extension by one story.  The extensive renovations cost the owners the equivalent of $374,000 today.

Rachel Regina Maas died on February 12, 1900 at the age of 79.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room three days later.

Like many well-to-do New Yorkers, the Maas family had made the switch from carriages to motorcars by 1907.  That year, on March 31, their chauffeur, Eugene Bugnet, was "caught by Policeman Cunningham at 136th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue," according to The New York Times.  Bugnet was arrested for speeding the touring car at 18 miles per hour.

On August 20, 1911, the New York Herald reported on Manuela's engagement to Edward Necarsulmer.  The article noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Maas have a villa in West End, and their home in New York is at No. 130 East Seventy-second street."  (West End was an upscale community of Long Branch, New Jersey.)  A graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, Manuela's fiancé was an architect.  Among his works was the Hebrew Infant Asylum of New York.  The couple was married on November 20.

Having an architect in the family had its advantages.  On July 25, 1913, Necarsulmer filed plans for a massive renovation to the Maas house.  Inside, an elevator was installed.  Outside, John G. Prague's Victorian design was transformed into a modern, American basement dwelling.  

Taking a page from the book of Frederick Junius Stern, well-known for remodeling outdated brownstones to up-to-date, often fanciful residences, Necarsulmer removed the stoop and lowered the entrance to street level.  As Stern often did, he slathered the façade with stucco and gave the openings jagged brick surrounds.  At the second floor he installed charming leaded and stained-glass windows, and gave the third floor a romantic hooded oriel with faux balconies.

The original appearance of 130 East 72nd Street can be seen in the as-yet unaltered house to the right in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Maas family remained here until March 1922, when they sold the house to attorney Mortimer Henry Hess and his wife, the former Marion Newman.  The couple had one son, Mortimer, Jr.

Born in July, 1889, Hess was an expert in tax, estate and trust laws.  He earned his law degree from Columbia University in 1911 and began practicing law in 1913.  A co-founder of the law firm of Hess, Segall, Popkin & Guterman, he was, as well, the chairman of the law committee of Temple Emanu-El.

Like many other socialites, Marion Hess turned her focus from teas and receptions to public service during World War II.  Hers, however, was a bit surprising.

On December 7, 1943, The New York Sun began an article saying, "If there is a particle of waste fat floating around in any household in Greater New York Mrs. Mortimer H. Hess means to have it."  She had discovered that common cooking fats could be used to make glycerin, which went into the manufacturing of munitions.  The article said,

And so that no New York housewife can live in her ivory tower, remote from needs of the hour and forgetting that our fighting forces must have that used fat to keep them supplied with war materials, Mrs. Hess has enlisted a special committee which will pound home the message that every drop of fat is worth salvaging.

The Sun called Marion "a pretty unusual person."  Among the traits that set her apart, said the article, was her ability to keep the same live-in maid for 29 years.  

At the time of the article, the four 1882 houses still retained the restrictive covenants in the deeds that demanded they be used only as private dwellings.  A judge, on April 27, 1940, had ruled, "The court has considered the fact that this restriction might be removed by the consent of all four owners."

By the second half of the century, that consent had been reached.  In 1964, 130 East 72nd Street was converted to apartments.  A duplex in the basement and first floor shared part of the lower section with a doctor's office, and each upper story held one apartment.

Unfortunately, the once-contrasting brick has been painted the same white as the stucco, seriously detracting from Edward Necarsulmer's picturesque design.

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The 1869 Oswin O'Brien House - 128 East 37th Street

 

Prolific architect John G. Prague, who would design hundreds of Manhattan rowhouses before the 1890s, was hired in 1868 by speculative developer and carpenter John Coar to design four upscale homes at 124 to 130 East 37th Street.  Faced in brownstone, they rose four stories above English basements.  Prague's Second Empire design included slate-shingled mansards, nearly obligatory to the style.

The row was completed in 1869.  Oswin J. and Elizabeth G. O'Brien purchased 128 East 37th Street.  The couple had a son, Oswin Jr.  Born in 1826, Oswin Sr. was a stockbroker and member of the New York Stock Exchange.  Additionally, around 1864 he opened "The Palace" department store at the corner of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue.  Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of General Frederick Ellsworth Mather and a descendant of Rev. Richard Mather, who arrived in Boston in 1635.  Elizabeth was also related to Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth, third Chief Justice of the United States.

Elizabeth G. O'Brien.  photograph courtesy of Michael O'Brien Weber

The O'Brien family sold 128 East 37th Street in 1873 to William Adams Walker Stewart and his wife, the former Frances Loring Gray.  Stewart was a wealthy lawyer.  He would be lost at sea when his yacht, Cythera, disappeared during a  voyage to the West Indies in March 1888.  Eight years before that tragedy, he and Frances sold 128 East 37th Street to his massively wealthy father, John Aikman Stewart, for $17,000 (about $523,000 in 2024).

Born on Fulton Street on August 26, 1822, John A. Stewart was married to Sarah Youle Johnson.  He had served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War.  Now he was president of the United States Trust Company and a director in several banks and insurance companies.  He and Sarah, who lived almost directly across the street at 125 East 37th Street, apparently purchased the house for their daughter, Emily, and son-in-law, Robert Waller, Jr.

In June 1882, John Aikman Stewart hired architect James Brown Lord to enlarge the Waller's house by adding a two-story extension to the rear.  It is unclear exactly how long Emily and Robert Waller remained here, but the house was occupied by the aristocratic Van Vleck family by 1889.

Walter Van Vleck was described by the New York Herald as "the dashing sergeant major of the Ninth regiment."  At the Regiment Ball in 1889, 17-year-old Minnie Ahearn caught Van Vleck's eye.  The New York Herald described her as being,

...tall for one of her years, with a fine, well developed figure and might easily pass for a maiden of twenty-five.  Her dark, heavy eyebrows and rich brown hair could attract attention anywhere, while her beautiful eyes and well rounded face have caused many a gallant masculine heart to flutter on the West side since she has been living on Twenty-sixty street with her aunt and guardian, Mrs. Margaret Higgins.

Margaret Higgins kept a close rein on her ward.  But the 40-year-old bachelor and his new sweetheart managed to communicate by love letters sneaked back-and-forth via a young girl.  The romance came to a climax on January 13, 1890, when Minnie Ahearn and Walter Van Vleck both disappeared.  

A week later, with the couple still missing, The Press pointed out the social differences between them.  "Love laughs at locksmiths and scorns all the artificial distinctions of rank, wealth, birth and breeding.  It is, however a long time since Love, the leveler, has shown himself so thoroughly democratic as in the probable elopement of Walter Van Vleck of 128 East thirty-seventh street with Minnie Ahearn of 204 West Twenty-sixth street."  The New York Herald wrote, 

At the residence of the Van Vleck family all was excitement yesterday.  Walter had been telegraphing to his two sisters and mother nearly every day during the week to make excuses for various engagements to dinner parties, &c., for him.  Members of the family are greatly shocked over the affair, because the young lady in the case does not move in the same fashionable set nor in society at all for that matter.

It was later confirmed that the two unlikely lovers had married.

By 1900, John Aikman Stewart was leasing 128 East 37th Street to the John Jay White family.  White and his wife, the former Virginia Grace Hoffman, had a teenaged daughter, Louise Lawrence White.

Interestingly, when the house was leased for winter social season of 1900-1901, the New-York Tribune did not mention Louise's parents.  The article on December 9, 1900 read, "Mr. and Mrs. Lester del Garcia have taken No. 128 East Thirty-seventh-st. for the winter.  It is the home of Miss White."

On May 10, 1903, The New York Times reported on the engagement of Louise to Walter Lispenard Suydam, Jr., saying, "The extreme youth of the couple neither being over eighteen years of age, gives it a touch of the romantic."  The article noted, "The attendants selected are related to nearly all the old Knickerbocker representative branches, including the Suydams, the Lispenards, the Delafields, the Lydigs, the Mesiers, the Hoffmans, the Jays, and a score of others."

Walter Lispenard Suydam.  Portraits of the Presidents of the [Saint Nicholas] Society, 1835-1914 (copyright expired)

Indeed, the couple was so young that on January 28, 1904, in reporting that Louise "gave one of a series of days at home," The New York Times mentioned that she "was Miss White, and she and Mr. Suydam were married last Summer.  Mr. Suydam was then still at college, and his wife had not made her debut in society."

The Suydams appeared in the society columns repeatedly over the next few years.  The couple welcomed a baby girl, Louise Lispenard, in June 1905.  Tragically, she died on January 24, 1906, at the age of six months.

Two years later, Louise had a brush with death.  On February 15, 1907, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Walter L. Suydam, Jr., who is in town for the Winter at her home, 128 East Thirty-seventh Street, is seriously ill with typhoid fever."

The Suydams remained here until 1909 when the 11-room, two-bath house was sold.  The couple's marriage would end tragically two years later.  In 1911, Louise left Walter for the 22-year-old son of a Brooklyn plumber, Frederick Noble.  They were married in January 1912.  A month later, on February 5, The New York Times ran the headline, "Dies With Youth She Eloped With / Suicide by Gas Ends Romance of Young Noble and the Former Mrs. Suydam."  The article said that their short marriage was troubled, and surmised that Louise discovered she was still in love with Walter.  The two committed suicide together.

In the meantime, the 37th Street house was purchased jointly by Alexander Stewart Walker and Leon Narcisse Gillette, partners in the architectural firm of Walker & Gillette.  They converted the upper floors to apartments and installed their offices in the lower floors.  An advertisement in The New York Times on April 23, 1911 offered, "Two Apartments, 128 East 37th Street, 3 and 4 rooms and bath."

Walker & Gillette was a highly respected firm which, at the time, was mostly responsible for lavish country homes and New York City townhouses.  Among the residences they designed from 128 East 37th Street were the 1914 Warren M. Salisbury estate in Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the 1917 Henry P. Davison mansion at 690 Park Avenue; and Coe Hall in Oyster Bay, Long Island, erected between 1918 and 1921. 

Walker & Gillette occupied 128 East 37th Street through 1926.  In the 1930s, the house was owned and occupied by well-known stage designer, Norman Bel Geddes and his partner, George Howe.  Bel Geddes was described by The New York Times as "a brilliant craftsman and draftsman, a master of style, the 20th century's Leonardo da Vinci."

In 1936, Bel Geddes designed the "Metropolis City of 1960."  It, perhaps, landed him the job that year of assisting production designer William Cameron Menzies in fabricating the sets for the H. G. Wells science fiction film, Things to Come.

Not everything was so positive for Bel Geddes in 1936.  That year on August 21, the Elmhurst, New York Daily Register reported that Edna Buckler had filed a $2 million lawsuit claiming that the play Dead End was "a plagiarism from her play entitled 'Money.'"  The article said she was suing the play's author, Sidney Kingsley; its producer, Norman Bel Geddes; Random House, which published the drama; and Samuel Goldwyn, who bought the film rights.

A scalloped, arched entranceway was created after the removal of the stoop.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1940, following Bel Geddes's sale of the house, it was converted to apartments.  The stoop was removed and a rather dramatic entrance created at the former English basement level.  Otherwise, the exterior was little changed.

At some point the entrance framing was removed.  There are four apartments in the house today, including three duplexes (two of which share the third and fourth floors).

photograph by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The 1896 Peter J. Brennan House - 788 West End Avenue

Although the first-floor window has been bricked over, the house is overall remarkably intact.

John G. Prague and Peter J. Brennan were no doubt well-acquainted with one another before 1894.  Both were well-known developers and builders.  (In 1890, in reaction to Prague's building--and designing--of hundreds of Upper West Side residences, the Record & Guide said he had "created a neighborhood.")  Brennan was equally prominent in the building industry and erected many of New York City's school buildings.

In 1894, Brennan hired Prague to design a trio of townhouses at 788 through 792 West End Avenue.  Like the other opulent residences rising along the thoroughfare, they were intended for monied families.  Costing Brennan a total of $45,000 to construct (about $560,000 each in 2024 money), the homes were completed in 1896.

Peter J. Brennan kept 788 West End Avenue for his family.  Prague's American basement design included two entrances (one for the servants and deliveries and such) above short stone stoops.  The window between them was fronted by a carved half-bowl decoration.  The three-story bowed midsection was essentially undecorated, save for blind panels below each set of windows.  Above a prominent cornice, the curious fifth floor facade morphed shoulder-high to the two fully-arched windows into a highly unusual, nearly vertical mansard.

In the 1940s, the ground-floor window survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Living with Peter and Sarah Brennan were their son and daughter, James and Sally, as well as Sarah's widowed mother.  The family maintained a summer home in Edgemere, New York.  Proud of his Irish heritage, Peter was a decades-long member of the American-Irish Historical Society.

Brennan nearly lost his life on the day after Christmas in 1900.  The New York Times reported, "Peter J. Brennan, an elderly, wealthy builder of 788 West End Avenue, was run down by a cab at the crossing at Thirty-fourth Street, Broadway, and Sixth Avenue last night."  Brennan was taken to New York Hospital with a broken leg and "contusions of the body."  The cab driver, Edward Hamill, was jailed.

The scope of Brennan's construction operation was evidenced  in an article in The Sun on February 14, 1907.  President Theodore Roosevelt and the Isthmian Commission (in charge of the building of the Panama Canal) were holding hearings with contractors.  The Sun explained the purpose, "was to give the contractors an opportunity to tell of their resources and responsibility."  The article said, "Next Tuesday, Peter J. Brennan...will go to the White House to tell the President and his canal advisers of [his] abilities and resources."

Brennan gave his family another scare in 1910.  On November 23, The Rockaway News reported,

Mr. P. J. Brennan, a summer resident of Edgemere, and well known in this section being the contractor who built St. Mary’s Lyceum, and the O’Kane Building, and at present constructing the Inwood Public School, had a paralytic stroke on Saturday, and is quite ill at his home at 788 West End Avenue, Manhattan.  It Is hoped our esteemed friend will recover, as he is a man held in high esteem by all his friends and neighbors.

At the time of his stroke, the well-to-do family owned at least two motor vehicles.  Sarah drove a Hudson and her son had a Stearns.  In 1919, James purchased a $2,500 Cadillac (the price would translate to $38,000 in 2024).  On the night of December 8, he parked his new car in front of the house, locked it, and went inside.  Thirty minutes later he walked out to find his luxury automobile missing.  

The case received wide-spread press attention when Benny Kauff, the star center fielder for the New York Giants was arrested and charged with running a car theft ring.  The ballplayer, who also ran an autobody shop, took orders for particular models, sent his cronies out with the list, then repainted the stolen autos in his shop.  Kauff, known as the "Ty Cobb of the Feds," was banned from baseball, despite being acquitted of the Brennan theft.  (He testified he had been eating dinner with his wife at the time of the crime.)  Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Landis said the acquittal "smelled to high heaven."

In 1912, the houses to the south of 788 West End Avenue were demolished to make way for an apartment building, and in 1920, the other two houses of Brennan's 1896 row were razed for the same reason.  With their home now vised between soaring, multi-family structures, the Brennans left in 1924.

The Brennan house became home to the De Lancey School for Girls.  An advertisement in The New York Times on September 27, 1925, offered, "Kindergarten, Primary, Intermediate, College Preparatory and General Courses."  While it was primarily an exclusive girls' school, the ad noted, "Classes for Little Boys."

The school remained through 1931, after which the Claremont School moved in.  First, however, architect George A. Bagge was hired to remodel the interiors.  The school now occupied the first through third floors, there was an apartment on the fourth, and the fifth was reserved for storage.  (Interestingly, the Certificate of Occupancy was granted on the condition that the apartment house at 800 West End Avenue was allowed access to the passageway between it and the house.)

Established in 1913, the Claremont School was coeducational.  It accepted students from three to fifteen years of age, whose parents paid tuition as high as $350 in 1935 (about $7,700 today).  Its occupancy of 788 West End Avenue would be relatively short-lived.  

In 1939, the former Brennan house was converted to apartments, two per floor on the second through fourth floors, and one on the fifth.  It was purchased by Cuban-born Hilario Villavicencio in 1979 who embarked on a campaign to make the exterior more interesting.  He splashed the facade with brilliant red and yellow, and added found statuary--a woman's head and two dragon heads--below the second floor windows.

Villavicencio told The New York Times columnist Christopher Gray in September 2010, "I try to make something alive.  But some people they don't like it; they say it looks like a circus.  Hey, you can't please everyone."

The colorful, vintage holdout--dwarfed by its early 20th century neighbors--is a delightful surprise along busy West End Avenue.

photographs by the author

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The William Mills Ivins House - 123 West 86th Street

 

A stone stoop, at far left, originally rose to a parlor floor entrance.

The land around the corner of Columbus Avenue and 86^th Street was once the country estate of the wealthy Livingston family.   By the mid-1880s when streets and avenues crisscrossed the property, it was owned by T. E. D. Powers who partnered with developer and architect John G. Prague to develop the plots.  The pair would build more than 230 residences in rapid-fire succession.  The Real Estate Record and Guide said in 1890, “They have created a neighborhood.” 

Prague developed some of the plots on his own.  Such was the case in 1887 when he designed and built six rowhouses on West 86th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.  Their designs were trademark John G. Prague--Northern Renaissance Revival splashed with touches of Queen Anne.  Four stories tall above English basements and 20-feet-wide, the residences were intended for well-to-do families.

Among them was 123 West 86th Street.  Prague placed a full-width oriel at the second floor.  The fourth floor took the shape of a steep, fish-scale shingled mansard fronted by a Northern Renaissance inspired dormer.  It was decorated with a centered portrait rondel flanked by two carved faces that gazed east and west.

A carved panel of a potted plant decorates the third floor, while three masks stare in different directions from the dormer.

Prague sold the newly-completed house to Thorton N. Motley, who immediately leased it to attorney William Mills Ivins.  Born in 1851, he and his wife, the former Emma Laura Yard, had five children: Margaret, Eleanor Laura, William Jr., James Sterling Yard, and Katherine.

Shortly after the family moved in, on June 22, 1890 the New York Herald printed a sketch of the house and wrote:

Mr. Ivins house is a four story and basement brown stone, the upper portion being finished in brick.  A fanciful gable, with a sculptured head in the middle, juts into the high roof.  The entire second story front swings outward into one large bay window.

Wealth and good taste are apparent in all the interior furnishings and decorations.  The prevailing tone in the parlors is a dark red or purple.  By drawing back the wide doors or portieres all the rooms on the parlor floor can be thrown into one.

Ivins (who was known to friends as Will) was a member of the law firm Ivins, Kidder & Melcher, and was one of Manhattan's most visible reformers.  The New York Herald said his "greatest pleasure in life apparently is to twist the tail of the Tammany tiger or take the scalp of the Tammany brave."  He fought tirelessly against election fraud and became president of the Executive Committee of the Electoral Laws Improvement Association.  He was, as well, a member of the Ballot Reform Committee of Citizens Union, the Honest Ballot Association, and the City Reform Club.  The year he and his family moved into 123 West 86th Street, he published Machine Politics and Money in Elections in New York City.

William Mills Ivins, Sr. The World's Work, 1907 (copyright expired)

On June 16, 1897, The Sun ran the shocking headline, "Wm. M. Ivins Arrested."  The evening before, at around 8:45, he had headed home.  At 40th Street and Broadway he let several street cars pass because they were overcrowded.  Finally, said the article, "Seeing that there was no hope of getting a seat, Mr. Ivins at last jumped on the front platform of a closed car...There were other persons on the platform, and the car was crowded with men and women, the back platform being so jammed that the people had difficulty getting off."

At 50th Street, "a crowd of men and women with transfers" made the packed conditions worse.  Then, recounted The Sun, "At the Fifty-ninth street transfer station a number of people left the car, and the inside became less like the interior of a sardine box."  The gripman (the worker who operated the "grip" that started and stopped the car) ordered Ivins to move inside the car.  A legal debate ensued.

Ivins refused to enter the packed car and the gripman refused to move it.  Ivins "told the gripman that the car was crowded when he got on; that it was crowded then, and that, as his fare had been accepted when he was standing on the platform, he intended to stay there, holding that the company had entered into a contract to take him uptown on that part of the car where his fare was collected."

The gripman summoned the conductor, named Riede, who explained that riding on the platform was a violation of company rules.  Ivins refused to budge.  Riede directed "that he must go inside the car or get off unless he wished to be arrested," said the article. 

"I shall be arrested then," said Ivins.

In the meantime, the incident had brought six other streetcars to a halt behind it.  Policeman Dobbins came to see what the problem was, and was told by Riede about Ivins's obstinacy.  Ivins was arrested.

It was now Riede who was in an uncomfortable position.  He was expected to follow Dobbins and his prisoner to the 86th Street station house to make a complaint.  But he had to run the streetcar.  He chose the latter.  The Sun reported, "Mr. Ivins was detained for a few minutes and, as Riede failed to appear, he was allowed to continue on his way home."

Emma Yard Ivins was an amateur photographer.  Her sympathies were with the suffragist movement, but peer pressure kept her from being an activist, at least for now.  That changed in January 1900.  In a letter to Susan B. Anthony, she explained in part:

For a long time I have had a great desire to enroll myself on the side of the suffragists.  My sympathies have always been with you, but the "drip," as the college boys calls it, of my dearest friends, who, alas, are among the anti-suffragists, has more and more convinced me that silent sympathy is neither sufficient nor decent.

Emma Ivins would become a lifetime member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the treasurer of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, and a delegate to the International Congress of Women.

William Mills Ivins Jr. would go on to become the curator of the department of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from its inception in 1916 until 1946.

The Ivins family left 123 West 86th Street in 1900, prompting the Real Estate Record & Guide to report its sale on March 10.  Thorton N. Motley fired off a heated letter that said in part, "There has been no sale of this property since it was purchased originally in 1888.  The house has never been for sale."

The Motley family had, indeed, not sold the property, but had moved into 123 West 86th Street.  Motley was the head of Thorton N. Motley & Co., sellers of "railway, steamship, machinists' and contractors' tools and supplies," and a director in the Manhattan Oil Co.  He and his wife, the former Kathryn Kennard, had three children.

Kathryn Motley was looking to replace a servant later that year.  An advertisement in The New York Times on November 11, 1900 read, "Wanted--Competent waitress and chambermaid; must be willing and obliging, and have best reference from last employer."

The family's residency would be short lived.  Motley sold the house in December 1904 to Samuel D. Styles, who resold it by 1908 to Henry Edward Oppenheimer and his wife, the former Mella Flesher.  The couple had four children, Julie Adelaide, Matilda, Henry Jr., and Edward Davidson.

Henry Edward Oppenheimer (original source unknown)

On January 26, 1913, The New York Times announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Oppenheimer of 123 West Eighty-sixth Street will celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary on Saturday."  Sadly, it would be one of their last.  Mella died on January 10, 1916. 

By the time Henry Edward Oppenheimer, Jr. graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology with an engineering degree in 1919, his father had married Lena Davidson.   

Lena Davidson Oppenheimer (original source unknown)

It appears that Lena's bachelor brother, Herman, moved into the house, as well.  The 54 year old died on March 1, 1921, and his funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

Shortly afterward, Oppenheimer sold 123 West 86th Street to Dr. Harry Finkelstein.  He hired architect M. Joseph Harrison to convert the basement level to his doctor's office.  Harrison removed the stoop and lowered the doorway to just below grade.  Harrison filled the tympana of the arched openings at this level with attractive carved fans.  The parlor windows and former entrance were replaced with a handsome grouping of small-paned windows.

Dr. Harry Finkelstein image via the Bulletin of the Hospital for Joint Diseases.

Born in New York City in 1883, Finkelstein was a specialist in orthopedic surgery.  One of 16 children of Jewish immigrants from Belarus, he had graduated from Columbia University's Medical School in 1904.   He was connected with the orthopedic departments of Mount Sinai and Beth Israel Hospitals.  In 1924 he became a chief of Orthopedic Services of the Hospital for Joint Diseases.

Dr. Harry Finkelstein died in 1939, the year after his daughter Rita was married to Dr. H. L. Jacobius.  It appears that Jacobius may have utilized his father-in-law's medical office for a while, for it was not until 1945 that an advertisement appeared in New York Medicine offering, "Beautifully furnished, complete laboratory, radiography and physiotherapy,  24-hour telephone.  Secretarial and nurse's service.  Any hours day or night to any specialist."

Rudolph Muller purchased 123 West 86th Street that year.  By now the other houses in the neighborhood had been converted to business and rooming houses, or demolished for commercial and apartment buildings.  And it did not take Muller long to join the trend.  A renovation completed in 1946 resulted in doctor's offices in the basement level, as had been the case since 1921, and two apartments each on the upper floors.

The configuration lasted until a slight remodeling in 1998 converted the second floor to a single apartment.  The former Ivins house is one of four of the John G. Prague's original six to survive.  Although they are all altered, they give us a glimpse into what West 86th Street looked like in its more genteel days of the 1880s.

photograph by the author

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