The James Morris Leopold House - 347 West 84th Street

 

In 1888, Nathan Murray began construction of the first house on the West 84th Street block between Riverside Dive and West End Avenue.  Designed by Joseph M. Dunn, 347 West 84th Street was completed the following year, its three-story, brownstone clad facade reflecting the currently fashionable Queen Anne style, splashed with neo-Grec touches.

The high stone stoop led to an impressive portico with banded Corinthian columns and pilasters.  The two parlor windows were united by a single frame and separated by fluted Corinthian pilasters.  Their single, triangular pediment was filled with a carved sunburst--a common Queen Anne element.  The upper story windows sat within architrave frames, with those of the second floor wearing pediments that echoed those of the doorway and parlor window.  An ornate pressed metal cornice topped the design.

The 18-foot-wide house was purchased by real estate operator Frank N. Gill, perhaps best known for erecting the Gill Building at 9-13 Maiden Lane.  He leased the house for several years before selling it to James Morris Leopold and his wife, the former Florence Rosetta Kohn, on November 29, 1897.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1860, Leopold was the head of the banking and brokerage firm James M. Leopold & Company.  He and Florence had four children, James Jr., Florence Henriette, Leopold, and Jane Rose.

(original source unknown)

Leopold's brother, Alfred, was a partner in James Leopold & Co.  He went to police headquarters in 1901 to file a complaint against a new client.  On May 6 Theodore Barron's check for $11,190 was returned by his bank marked "N.G." (no good).  The 38-year-old was arrested on May 14.  The Leopold brothers were not eager to speak about the incident.  The New York Times reported, "At the home of James M. Leopold all information was refused, reporters being told to go to the house of Alfred M. Leopold."  There the journalist was told that Alfred "would not return during the night, as he would stay at a hotel for the night."

Leopold sold 347 West 84th Street to George W. Thedford around 1908, who quickly resold it to Otho Sprigg Cockey and his wife in March 1909.  Cockey, whose family had deep American roots, was the general agent of the Grand Trunk Railway System.  

A year before moving into the West 84th Street house, Cockey was called as a potential juror in the most sensational murder case of the day--the trial of Harry Kendall Thaw, who had fatally shot architect Stanford White.  But, according to The Evening World, “The fact that Otho S. Cockey...had been associated with Thaw’s father in business barred him.”

The Cockeys beloved pet, a French bull terrier, ran off in the spring of 1913.  They wasted no time in offering a reward for her return.  On April 26 a notice in The New York Times read: 

STRAYED from 347 West 84th St., at 8 o'clock this morning, small toy, dark brindle French bull bitch; answers to the name of 'Wiggles'; liberal reward.  O. S. Cockey. 347 West 84th St.

It is unclear if Wiggles ever came home.

The Cockeys were at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on May 9, 1915 when Otho died.  His body was brought back to 347 West 84th Street where his funeral was held three days later.

Cockey's widow remained in the house for several years, then leased it.  On September 2, 1920, the Musical Courier reported that Adelaide Gescheidt had "added more space for her teaching facilities by taking the house at 347 Wet Eighty-fourth street, New York, retaining her main studios at 817 Carnegie Hall."

Born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1877, Gescheidt had been an operatic soprano.  Her stage career ended when, as she recalled in her 1930 book Make Singing a Joy, she "met with a serious accident to my neck by falling from an awkward height across a steel bar."  Now, she turned to coaching opera and concert singers whose voices had been damaged by "injury, illness, or other defects."

Adelaide Gescheidt, Musical Courier, November 23, 1922 (copyright expired)

On June 26, 1920, three months before Gescheidt leased 347 West 84th Street, Nina Teresa Melville was married to Gould Thorp Miner in Massachusetts.   Now, after their honeymoon, they subleased rooms from Adelaide Gescheidt.

The young groom had served in the navy during World War I.  He was now associated with the Bankers Trust Company.  They, like their landlady, rubbed shoulders with polite society.

On May 27, 1921, the New-York Tribune reported that the Miners had welcomed their first child, Olive Emelie.  The article noticed, "Mr. and Mrs. Miner will pass the summer with Mrs. Edward Gleason Spaulding, at Princeton, N. J., and Woods Hole."

This would be the last season that Adelaide Gescheidt received students in the West 84th Street house.  Musical Courier, July 6, 1922 (copyright expired)

In July 1923, The Sun reported that Mrs. Cockey had leased the house for a period of ten years.  It was operated as a respectable rooming house, with residents like Herbert H. Wentworth, a sales engineer with the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., coming and going for a decade.

At the end of the lease, on September 6, 1933, The New York Sun reported that an agent "leased for Mrs. M. Cockey of East Orange, N. J., her dwelling at 347 West Eighty-fourth street to a client who will alter and occupy the house."  Around 1940, the Cockey estate sold the property to Harry W. Thedford, who was, ironically, the brother of George W. Thedford, from whom the Cockeys had purchased it.

In 1964 the house was converted to apartments, one per floor.  Then, a substantial renovation completed in 2019 resulted in an apartment in the basement and a triplex residence above.  While O'Neill Rose Architects removed almost any trace of Joseph M. Dunn's 1888 interior details, its sweeping redesign earned it Architect Magazine's 2019 Residential Architect Design Award.

photographs by the author

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The 1875 Van Tassell & Kearney Building - 110-112 East 13th Street

The horse auction firm of Johnston & Van Tassell was established in 1864 at 110 and 112 East 13th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenue.  In 1874, William Van Tassell partnered with Edward W. Kearney, changing the firm's name to Van Tassell & Kearney.  They wasted no time in upgrading their auction house.

On June 26, 1874, architect Joseph M. Dunn filed plans for a four-story "brick stable and auction mart."  Construction was completed the following year.  Dunn's neo-Grec design featured a cast iron base that supported four floors of red-orange brick trimmed in limestone.  Stone bandcourses connected the segmentally arched lintels and (originally) the bracketed sills of the openings.  A complex metal cornice with small and large brackets and a frieze of shell-filled corbels crowned the design.

Van Tassell & Kearney sold both horses and vehicles in its massive auctions every Tuesday and Friday at 10:00 a.m.  The business was vital to businesses and private citizens alike, with more than 100,000 horses in New York City at the time.  In 1878, The American Gentlemen's Newspaper called Van Tassell & Kearney, "One of the largest and most reliable auction and commission houses in this city, for the sale of horses, carriages, etc."  It employed a staff of between 40 and 50 men.

In at last one instance, a special Van Tassell & Kearney auction included unexpected items--dogs.  An advertisement for the June 22, 1875 sale listed "the entire establishment of  private family going abroad."  The wealthy clients were disposing of three vehicles and teams of horses.  But they also needed to see "two imported hunting dogs from the best Scotch stock, and well broken on all kinds of game."

The 1888 Illustrated New York, The Metropolis of To-day said the firm "handle[s] an average of 10,000 horses and from 12,000 to 15,000 wagons, carriages, harnesses, etc., at private sales."  The article also mentioned, "the firm are now engaged in the erection of a new building in the same block."  The Sun chimed in on August 24, saying that Van Tassell & Kearney "has been so successful that it was necessary...to seek a location for entirely new quarters."  At the time of the articles, their new home at 130-132 East 13th Street was nearly completed.

Van Tassell & Kearney had been leasing the building from Andrew S. Garvey.  William T. A. Hart, who briefly rented it next, made minor interior alterations in October 1889.

Alfred Dolge & Son moved into the building in 1893.  Alfred Dolge was born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1848.  His father, August Dolge, was the head of the piano-making firm in Leipsic, A. Dolge & Co.  Alfred came alone to America as a teen "with little or no money," according to The Engineering Magazine in April 1897.  After working in a piano factory for a year, he struck out on his own in 1869 at the age of 19.  It was a remarkably bold move, considering that the teen had just married "an estimable young lady without fortune."  Using the $500 he had saved, he started manufacturing piano felt in a small shop on Amity Street (later West 3rd Street) in Greenwich Village.

His success was phenomenal.   Now 43 years old, he had essentially created a town out of the little village of Brockett's Bridge, New York--which had been renamed Dolgeville.  The Engineer Magazine wrote, "a railway was constructed...fine stores, magnificent schools, an elegant Turn Halle, and other accessories of Civilized existence sprang into being under the magical wand of the Dolge management."

His factories in Dolgeville manufactured "felt shoes and sounding-boards"  The magazine noted, "The Dolgeville productions are recognized the world over as the best of their class, having taken first premiums at the world's fair at Vienna in 1873, at Philadelphia in 1876, at Paris in 1879, and at Chicago in 1893."

The Music Trade Review, 1897 (copyright expired)

The East 13th Street held the offices and showrooms of Alfred Dolge & Sons.  The firm employed 70 clerks at this location, and about 1,000 workers in Dolgeville.

Despite his firm's rapid expansion, or perhaps because of it, Alfred Dolge was in trouble in the summer of 1898.  On June 17, The New York Times reported on a judgment against him for two demand notes held by the Exchange National Bank totaling $30,108--just under $970,000 in today's money.  

The company blamed the difficulties on what today we would call supply chain issues, telling The New York Times, "The trouble is only temporary and was due to the war scare, which stopped the placing of commercial paper.  The firm had to use considerable paper in the business, and inability to raise money in this way brought matters to a crisis."  The statement added, "Mr. Dolge is a man of such ability, energy, and resources that it is only a question of a little time when his affairs will come out all right."

Unfortunately, they did not.  The firm failed, not only devastating Alfred Dolge and his son, Rudolph, but the entire town of Dolgeville.  The Johnstown Daily Republican said the news "caused universal surprise and regret throughout this section of the state."  The article noted, "When verified...the news elicited many expressions of sympathy for the people of Dolgeville and especially for the man who has spent the best years of his life in establishing the immense business which he controlled and in upbuilding and improving the handsome little village."

In February 1899, Andrew S. Garvey hired architect H. A. Hausenstein to make interior renovations for his new tenant, the American Felt Company.  The firm manufactured "felt of every description," according to one advertisement.

In 1901, following Garvey's death, his wife, Helene B. Garvey, sold the building to the American Felt Company for $55,000 (about $1.73 million today).  It made subsequent renovations in January 1910 when architect Earl H. Syall replaced the windows.

The firm remained for over a decade.  On June 30, 1925, the New York Evening Post reported that the American Piano Supply Company had "leased the entire building."  Its stay would be relatively short-lived.  

On June 17, 1927, the D. A. Schulte Retail Stores Corporation purchased the Huyler's chocolate and candy company, founded in 1846.  Headed by David Arthur Schulte, the firm operated "5¢-to-$1" shops across the nation.  Schulte now established the Huyler's Luncheonettes, Inc., and in March 1928 rented 110-112 East 13th Street.  Once again, renovations were made, this time by architect Frederick J. Berger.  The New York Times advised, "The space will be used for offices, a showroom and the manufacture of ice-cream, candy and bakery products."

The Great Depression had cataclysmic effects on the Huyler's candy portion of the firm, but the luncheonettes limped along until 1964 when the last of them was closed.

On October 7, 1981 The New York Times writer Alan S. Oser reported on the city's new loft law.  "A building that may provide the first test of how this system will work is a loft building at 110 East 13th Street," said the article.  The intention was to convert the structure to office space, but that never came to be.  Instead, a renovation completed the following year resulted in residences above the ground floor retail space, including two additional stories, set back from street view.

Unfortunately, over decades of renovations, the openings of the upper floors were brutally disfigured.  Only the top floor gives an idea of their original appearance.  Hints of the cast iron storefront remain, and yet Joseph M. Dunn's impressive neo-Grec design manages to endure.

photographs by the author

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The 1886 Simon Carmichael House - 51 West 105th Street

While the doorway opens onto 105th Street, it is technically the side of the building.

On June 12, 1885 architect Joseph M. Dunn filed plans for six "three-story stone and brick dwellings" on New Avenue at the corner of 105th Street.  Dunn was just a little out of touch with changes in the neighborhood, as New Avenue had been renamed Manhattan Avenue the year before.

The row of 17-foot wide speculative homes was the project of Frank A. Seitz, owner of the Frank A. Seitz Realty & Construction company.  The construction cost of each was estimated at $10,000, about a quarter of a million in today's dollars.   And that construction proceeded rapidly.  On January 30, 1886 the Record & Guide reported that one of the nearly-completed "Queen Anne houses" had sold; and within two months the row was finished.

The corner house opened onto the side street, disguising the narrow Manhattan Avenue dimensions, and providing it the address of 51 West 105th Street.  Clad in red brick and trimmed in limestone with terra cotta ornaments, it managed to out-charm its neighbors with details like the picturesque Juliet balcony above the entrance.

Dunn used optical tricks to provide architectural interest while retaining function.  He drew peaked, stepped gables in limestone to give the impression of an irregular roofline, while at the same time preserving a full-height third floor.  Even while knowing that the structure is rectangular with three pointy parapets, it is difficult for the observer to not see gables.  And he added stone wing walls on the 105th Street side with an offset opening, suggesting a doglegged stoop.

A carved shell fills the transom area above the delightful faux balcony.  There were, no doubt, originally French windows that opened outward.  Why the other openings on this level are bricked over is unclear; however their transoms (and all the others) were once filled with stained glass.

The house was purchased on April 19, 1886 by Simon P. Carmichael.  He paid Seitz $14,750, nearly $390,000 in today's money.  A dealer in "men's furnishings," he had run his haberdashery, S. P. Carmichael's, on Sixth Avenue for many years.  Like all upscale men's stores, he not only sold imported accessories but custom-made fine shirts and suits for his customers.

Carmichael and his wife, the former Annie Green, had three daughters: Jennet Irene was 24, Anna Belle (who went by her middle name) was 22, and Margaret Louise was just six years old.  He was not only well-respected as a merchant and businessman (he was also a trustee in the West Side Savings Bank); but was active in political and social issues--an active member of the Presbyterian Club and the West Side Republican Club, for instance.

Simon Carmichael's fervor for social and political reform was evident in November 1893 when he helped found the "Good Government Club," the object of which was "to secure honesty and efficiency in the administration of city affair, procure the election of capable persons and to sever municipal from National politics."   Its clubhouse was established nearby the Carmichael house on 104th Street and by 1896 he was its president.

Terra cotta details include this panel below a first floor window on the Manhattan Avenue side, composed of 13 tiles.

He was also a member of the West Side Reform Association.  On January 30, 1895 The New York Times noted that its membership was "drawn from the best social and religious circles of the west side."  The objects of the temperance-minded group were:

1.  To oppose the granting of new liquor licenses and to restrict the sale of spirituous liquors.
2.  To promote the passage of more stringent excise laws, imposing just and adequate restraints and regulations upon the sale of liquors, wines, ale, and beer, and to secure the due enforcement of existing excise laws and regulations.

In 1890 Carmichael got a jump on other Sixth Avenue shop owners when he relocated to No. 1190 Broadway, in the Sturtevant House hotel.  The Clothier and Furnisher mentioned the new store was "fitted up very handsomely."

The Carmichael family spent their summers away as did all well-to-do New Yorkers.  But like most businessmen, while his wife and children whiled away the warm months, Simon took only a few weeks at a time.  On Friday, August 13, 1897, for instance the Clothiers' and Haberdashers' Weekly noted he "will spend three weeks in the Western part of New York State."  He apparently made an exception two years later when the same journal advised "S. P. Carmichael...will sale for Europe the latter part of July."

1899 had already been a busy year for Carmichael and he may have needed the diversion.  In March he had traveled to Albany to protest the proposed laying of four electric trolley car tracks along Amsterdam Avenue.  Among the group were the former mayor, William L. Strong, prominent businessmen, and the rectors of three important Upper West Side churches.

Then, just three weeks later, 19-year old Margaret Louise married William Alexander Wiley in the West End Presbyterian Church on April 5.  Belle, still unmarried, was her only bridesmaid.

The end of the house is a near match to the front of No. 127 Manhattan Avenue in the middle of the row.

The Carmichaels purchased a summer home in Ocean Grove, New Jersey around the turn of the century.  Simon remained a highly-visible (and audible) figure in Upper West Side causes.  He was in attendance at the West Side Republican Club's memorial dinner for William McKinley at Delmonico's on January 28, 1905, for instance.

The following year, on March 11, Annie died at the age of 59.  Her funeral was held in the house two days later.  Simon lived on in No. 51 until his death in the Ocean Grove cottage on August 3, 1911.

Just four months later, on December 16, the New-York Tribune reported that his daughters had sold the house to Mrs. Frances Hoertel.   Known as Fanny, she was the widow of Emile E. Hoertel the principal in William Hoertel's Sons.  Hoertel had been well-known in the latter part of the 19th century as a breeder and racer of thoroughbred horses.

Fanny had four children, Amelia, Emile Jr., Elsie and George.  At some point she transferred title to the 105th Street house to Emile, whose family lived with her there.   Successful and wealthy in his own right, he was the secretary and treasurer of Alexander McDonald, Inc., shipbuilders in Port Richmond, Staten Island. 

When Fannie Hoertel died in the house on September 8, 1923 at the age of 85, Emile and Amelia were her only surviving children.  It is unclear how long Emile and his family stayed on in the house; but it has survived as single family house up to today.

The wonderful built-in Eastlake-style sideboard never held a wine decanter during the residency of the abstinent Carmichaels. 

A beautifully-carved newel introduces the gently sweeping staircase, below which is tucked the stairs to the basement level.  photos via William Raveis

While certain of the period details--like the stained glass panels, for instance--were lost, most of the interior Queen Anne elements survive.

photographs by the author