The 1929 240 East 79th Street

Frederick Godwin's upper floor design was created, mostly, by strategically placed small, medium and large-sized windows.

The Great Depression was one year away in 1928.  Raymond B. Fenner was the president of the newly formed 240 East 79th Street Corporation and that year the syndicate hired Godwin, Thompson & Patterson to design a 16-story-and-penthouse apartment building on the south side of East 79th Street between Second and Third Avenues.  Reportedly Frederick Godwin was the lead architect on the project.  The plans, filed on December 10, 1928, projected the costs at $300,000, or about $5.6 million in 2026 terms.

For the most part, Godwin's Art Deco design was unexciting.  Faced in rough-faced variegated brown brick, its scheme relied greatly on the placement of fenestration and thin vertical lines of darker brick.  But the single-story base was another story altogether.

Godwin faced it with orange-hued tiles set off with vibrant mossy-green terra cotta.  At the corners were fluted pilasters topped with curved volutes that suggest that another half is hidden in the adjoining wall.  Similar pilasters flank two narrow windows, their caps fully formed and embracing an octagonal plaque of veined gray stone.  The tour-de-force is the entranceway.  Reeded gray stone pilasters on either side are topped with Empire State Building-like silhouettes.  Above the entrance, the address is announced in Art Deco lettering.  A sinuous hood, like a cresting wave or calla lily petal, sits above a large octagonal gray stone plaque.

On August 25, 1929 The New York Times reported that artist Ruth Carroll had been hired "to paint murals for the entrance hall of the new sixteen-story apartment house."  The article said, "Her paintings will depict the skyline, bridges and vistas of modern New York."  Two weeks earlier, the newspaper had reported that 240 East 79th Street "is rapidly nearing completion and is nearly 50 per cent leased."

An advertisement in Town & Country on September 15, 1929 offered three- or four-room apartments with one or two baths and "large living rooms, outside dining rooms."  Rents started at $1,350 a year, or about $2,100 a month in today's terms.  There were two "sky maisonettes" on the penthouse level.  An advertisement in The New Yorker noted that they included, "real kitchens."

Among those who signed leases during construction were Percy O'Gorman, advertising manager of Durham Duplex Razor Company; Dr. Claude E. Heaton; Dr. Anthony Fugassi; and Charles E. Gautier, secretary of J. H. Gautier Company, a crucibles firm.  

Taking one of the penthouses was 25-year-old Lord Charles Cavendish.  Upon his moving in, The New York Sun remarked on June 17, 1930, "Lord Charles, who is the second son of the Duke of Devonshire, is engaged in the banking business in New York."  Cavendish worked for J. P. Morgan & Co. and was romantically involved with Adele Astaire, the sister of Fred Astaire and his dancing partner.  The two had met in London in 1927.  Cavendish's residency here would be relatively short.  On October 23, 1931, Reuters reported that Adele "confirmed her engagement to Lord Charles Cavendish."  The couple was married in Chatsworth House, Cavendish's ancestral home near Chesterfield, England, in 1932 and they remained there.

Newlyweds Gardner Hale and Dorothy A. Donovan were also initial residents.  Hale was born in Chicago in 1894 and educated at Yale.  He studied art in Rome and Paris and at the Art Students League in New York.  Hale was well-known as a muralist and, according to The New York Sun, was "generally credited with the revival in this country of fresco painting."  Gardner and Dorothy were married in 1929.  She was his second wife.  His first wife was author Marie Louise Gibson, who used the pseudonym Maryse Rutledge.  They were divorced in 1926.

In November 1931, Gardner and Dorothy Hale went to Long Beach, California for a six-month stay.  On December 28, Hale headed for San Francisco alone.  The next day, The New York Sun reported, "The body of Gardner Hale, young painter of murals and frescoes, was found yesterday at the bottom of a 500-foot precipice, forty miles from Santa Maris, where his automobile had plunged from a highway."  Hale was 37 years old.

Azel Farnsworth Hatch and Dorothy Doane were married in August 1932 and moved into one of the penthouses.  Hatch, who had served in World War I and decorated with the Croix de Guerre, was president of A. F. Hatch & Co., bankers.  

Four months later, on December 10, the Times Union reported that Dorothy "was found in their penthouse apartment...early today with a bullet wound over her heart.  The shot was fired from a Luger pistol, war souvenir of her husband."

Police found Dorothy in a negligee on the living room floor.  According to the Times Union, Dorothy muttered, "I did it myself," then lapsed into a coma.  Hatch told the police that Dorothy had discovered the firearm while "cleaning out a closet."  She "asked her husband what she was to do with it," recounted The New York Times.  "It was discharged and a bullet entered her chest."  The incident was deemed an accident, however Hatch was charged with a violation of the Sullivan Law, an early gun control statute.

The boyish-looking Azel F. Hatch earned $100,000 a year, according to his wife (a comfortable $2.3 million today).  The Daily News, December 19, 1936.

The Hatches' marriage did not last and when Dorothy filed for separation on December 18, 1936, she told the court the truth of the incident four years earlier.  The Daily News reported, "It was attempted murder, and not an accident, she told the Manhattan Supreme Court."  The New York Post said in part:

Telling the Supreme Court about it, she said she was sitting on her husband's lap, weeping and pleading with him about something or other on the night of December 9, 1932.  Without warning, she said, her husband picked up a German Luger pistol, a little trinket he had taken from some German prisoner, and shot her.

Azel Hatch, not surprisingly, gave a different version of the incident (although this one, too, differed from the couple's original story).  He said that Dorothy had "snatched up the gun and fired it herself."  He added that he "didn't stop her when she grabbed the gun because he was amused.  Besides, he was sure the gun wasn't loaded."  Dorothy obtained her divorce and Azel was never charged with attempted murder.

Another titled resident, 34-year-old Josef Franz, Archduke of Austria and Prince of Hungary, and his wife, Princess Anna of Saxony, moved into 240 East 79th Street in 1937.  The couple was married in October 1924 and had five children.  (Three more would come later.)  Archduke Josef Franz was born in 1895 to the last Palatine of Hungary.

Archduke Joseph Franz and Princess Anna Monika Pia.  (original source unknown)

The Nazi annexation of Austria had made staying in Europe dangerous for the family.  The members of the imperial family discovered that they would quickly need to adapt to American rules and customs.  The same applied to the family's staff.  On January 7, 1938, The New York Times reported, "Archduke Franz Josef of Austria was fined a dollar for overtime parking."  The Archduke's chauffeur explained in traffic court, "the Archduke is unfamiliar with traffic regulations here," said the article.

America's entry to World War II resulted in several residents of 240 West 79th Street going off to the front.  Dr. Emil E. Napp, who lived here with his wife, the former Ruth Marschalk, was on the staff of the Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital.  He became a commander with the Navy Medical Corps in the South Pacific.  Napp received the Navy and Marine Corps medal for his work on Guadalcanal in 1942, and was awarded the Silver Star on May 19, 1944.

Another resident doctor was Gurney Taylor.  He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel with the American Seventh Army in France.  He was attached to the Ninth Evacuation Hospital in the Vosges Forest, which was, somewhat astonishingly, "manned by the veteran Roosevelt Hospital Unit from New York," as reported by The New York Times on October 29, 1944.

240 East 79th Street soared above the neighboring buildings in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Two other residents returned from the war in 1945.  One was Captain Carel Van Heukelom, and the other Barbara Murphy, one of 280 volunteer workers of the American Red Cross who served in the European theatre of operations.  Barbara told a reporter that "she had drive a clubmobile during her eighteen months overseas," adding, "Oh, I made the Grand Tour."

A fascinating resident was Marjorie T. Bellows, here at midcentury.  Born in 1906, she earned her masters degree in statics at the Columbia School of Public Heath.  From 1928 to 1929 she was senior statistician at the New York State Health Department.  She joined the American Heart Association in 1946 and became its senior staff member.  While there she directed investigations into the statistical aspects of cardiovascular issues, like rheumatic fever.  Bellows, who never married, developed the technique of "case registers," that analyzed the nature and uses of recording systems in public health administration.

Among Marjorie Bellows's neighbors in the building at the time was actress Lili Darvas.  Born in Hungary in 1902, she made a name on the Budapest stage as a young woman, debuting in 1921 as the female lead in Romeo and Juliet.  She married playwright Ferenc Molnar in 1926.  Lili was appearing in Vienna in 1938 when the Nazi troops invaded.  She said later that "she simply packed her things, walked onto a train to Switzerland and departed" with her Hungarian passport.  

The couple arrived in New York and Lili Darvas first appeared on stage here in 1941 in The Criminals.  Molnar died in 1952, and Lili continued acting, appearing in roles that most often portrayed characters fitting her European background.  Such was the case when she played the domineering mother of Sigmund Freud in the Henry Denker drama A Far Country.

Lili Darvas and Billy Mumy in a 1961 Twilight Zone episode, "Long Distance Call."  CBS Television publicity shot.

The indefatigable actress did not restrict herself to the stage, film or television.  On June 13, 1963, The New York Times interviewed her regarding her upcoming catering stint.  She had been asked by another actress to prepare an after-theater dinner party for 50 guests.

Lili Darvas died in her apartment here on August 22, 1974 at the age of 72.  

In September 1984, The New York Times reported that 240 East 79th Street was undergoing a cooperative conversion.   Among the new apartment owners in 1989 was bond trader Jeffrey M. Stambovsky, who placed a down payment on a country house that August.  He got buyer's remorse when he picked up a 1977 Readers' Digest article titled, "Our Haunted House on the Hudson."  In it, Helen V. Ackley, from whom he was buying the 18-room Victorian residence in Nyack, wrote about its ghosts.  The New York Times reported on March 16, 1990, "She described one as a 'cheerful apple-cheeked man' who looked more like Santa Claus than Rex Harrison in 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.'"

Stambovsky sued to get his money back.  He claimed in court that publicity of the ghost stories "threatened the house's property value" and that Mrs. Ackley "never told him about the ghosts."  Unfortunately for Stambovsky, while the judge agreed that the stories might affect the property values, he said that Ackerly "was not required to tell Mr. Stambovsky of any ghosts."

Thankfully, little has changed outwardly to 290 East 79th Street in its nearly 100 years of existence.  And, although Ruth Carroll's Art Deco lobby murals have been painted over, outside Godwin, Thompson and Patterson's bold and striking ground floor elements are showstoppers to this day.

photographs by the author

The Francis G. Lloyd House - 157 East 71st Street

 

The contracting firm of Breen & Mason was composed of James R. Breen and Alfred G. Mason.  In 1881, they acquired the 40-foot-wide wooden structure at 155-157 East 71st Street.  The partners acted as their own architects for this project, designing two four-story-and-basement, neo-Grec-style homes on the property.  Completed in December 1881, the high-stooped brownstones were distinguished by the windows, which sat within shallow architraves atop paneled spandrels and capped with prominent cornices.

The James R. Breene family moved into 157 East 71st Street just in time for a wedding.  On December 8, 1881, the New-York Tribune reported, "James R. Breene's daughter, Ariana A., was married yesterday at 7 p.m. in her father's house, No. 157 East Seventy-first-st., to John H. Bellamy."  

By 1890, Charles Brenneman and his family occupied the house.  He and his wife, Elizabeth, had a daughter, Emma.  On February 3, 1903, Emma's engagement to William Thomas Fritte was announced.  Four weeks earlier, on January 25, The New York Times reported that Brenneman had sold 155 and 157 East 71st Street.

The buyer, Dr. Andrew J. McCosh, resold 157 East 71st Street to Otto and Carrie Strack in the spring of 1904.  The couple's residency would be short-lived and tragic.  The family had not fully settled in when, on May 18, 1904, five-year-old Walker Strack died in the house.

A year later, on June 22, 1905, The New York Times reported that Otto Strack had sold the house to John L. Martin.  His ownership, too, would be short.  

Frank Guerin Lloyd purchased 155 and 157 East 71st Street in March 1907.  In October, he commissioned the architectural firm of Trowbridge & Livingston to update the residences.  No. 155 would be used as rental income and 157 East 71st Street would become the Lloyds' home. 

The architects' plans for 157 East 71st Street included new plumbing, windows and a "one-story partition."  The New-York Tribune said that the "making over" of the house would transform it "into an American basement dwelling house."  The plans included "remodeling the interior."  American basement houses differed from English basement houses in their lack of stoops.  While Trowbridge & Livingston left the upper floors untouched, the entrance was now slightly below grade.  Now fronting the second floor, or piano nobile, was a trio of French windows fronted by an iron railing.  The renovations, completed in April 1908, cost Lloyd $15,000, or about $517,000 in 2026.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Francis Guerin Lloyd was born in New Jersey in 1848.  He married Matilda Hedenberg Herbert on August 9, 1875.  The couple had two surviving children. (Two others had died in childhood.)

Lloyd was hired by Brooks Brothers, the men's clothing firm, when he was 14 years old.  He worked his way up, and in 1879 was made a partner.  Upon the death of John E. Brooks in 1896, Lloyd became senior partner.  By the time he purchased 157 East 71st Street, he was president of Brooks Brothers.  The family's country home was in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Moving into the house with the Lloyds was their daughter-in-law, Julia A. Trowbridge Lloyd.  Daniel Herbert Lloyd died in 1907, a year after the couple's marriage.  According to the New-York Tribune, when Julia's father, who was a physician, died, he "left his daughters independent fortunes."  Additionally, said the newspaper, Daniel Lloyd, "left a large estate."  Julia maintained her own country home, Driftwood, in Noroton, Connecticut.

Near Driftwood was the summer home of Thomas Crimmins, son of millionaire John D. Crimmins.  The properties were, apparently, close enough for a romance to blossom.  On February 12, 1910, the New-York Tribune reported that the pair had been quietly married in Augusta, Georgia.

Now sharing the house with Francis and Matilda were James Henry McKinley, a "well known tenor and teacher of singing," and his wife, the former Laura Celestine Fiske.  The relationship between the two families is unclear, but they would live together in the East 71st Street house for years.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the Lloyds did not routinely entertain.  An exception came on April 3, 1915.  Matilda's niece, Emilie Mathilde Roe, was married to Duncan MacIntosh Hay in St. Thomas's Church that day.  The New York Times reported that the ceremony was "followed by a breakfast at the home of Mrs. Francis G. Lloyd, 157 East Seventy-first Street."

On the morning of October 6, 1920, Francis Lloyd left the house, heading to his office.  On the way, the 72-year-old suffered a fatal heart attack.  

Matilda H. Lloyd moved permanently to the Bernardsville estate where she died on October 25, 1945.  The McKinleys remained at 157 East 71st Street.  Laura's uncle, Alexander P. Fiske, moved in with the couple.  He died at the age of 89 on May 30, 1922 and his funeral was held in the parlor the following day.

On August 18, 1928, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that James and Laura McKinley had purchased a brownstone at 626 West End Avenue.  The article mentioned that they had "resided at 157 West 71st St. for the past 25 years."

When the house was sold in August 1941, The New York Times reported that the buyer, Inez C. Robb, president of the Callaway Holding Corporation, had hired architect John S. Burrell to covert "the old residence into a modern apartment building for ten families."

The renovation resulted in two apartments per floor.  Among the residents was the building's owner, Inez C. Robb.  An advertisement in The New York Sun on March 13, 1942 described the one-room, kitchen and bath apartment 2-E saying, "Decorator will lease beautifully furnished, comfortable, large living-bedroom.  Full-sized kitchen, bath, wood burning fireplace.  Fully equipped."

Robb sold the building in September 1956.  It was updated in 1982, while preserving the configuration of two apartments per floor.

Then, in September 2000, Todd Romano Antiques & Decorations opened in the ground floor.  The New York Times said it, "offers furnishings from 18th-century French to 1970's Lucite, with upholstered pieces of his design."  Romano later moved his operation to East 59th Street.

On the exterior, little has changed to 157 East 71st Street since Trowbridge & Livingston remodeled it nearly 120 years ago.

photographs by the author

Blum & Blum's 1912 875 Park Avenue

image via fis-architecture.com

Having studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, brothers George and Edward Blum opened their architectural office, Blum & Blum, in 1909.  The following year, they received an important commission from A. M. Jampol, president of the newly formed 875 Park Avenue Company.  

On September 23, 1910 The New York Times reported that they had filed plans, "for a twelve-story fireproof elevator apartment house to be erected at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Seventy-eighth Street."  Projecting the construction costs at $1 million (about 34 times that much in 2025), the article said, "The building will have a facade of brick with limestone and terra cotta trimmings of the modern Italian Renaissance style."

Park Avenue was seeing its private homes replaced with upscale apartment buildings for the wealthy at the time.  This one would have to compete.  The article said that the residents of the 48 apartments would enjoy, "four electric passenger elevators and a refrigerating plant, heating plant, vacuum cleaning plant and large laundry in the basement with steam dryers and all the latest electrical appliances for washing and ironing."

Construction would take two years to complete.  The Times was generally correct in saying the style would be Italian Renaissance.  But in designing 875 Park Avenue, the Blum brothers revealed their knack of stepping away from the expected, a trait that would become their trademark.  Creative brickwork and terra cotta elements created vertical piers and what architectural journalist Christopher Gray would later call "a haunting series of hieroglyph-like medallions.

images via fsi-architecture.com

The apartments ranged from seven to ten rooms "with foyers," according to the New York World's Apartment Album.  "These apartments are designed to fill the needs of those who wish to combine the advantage of a private house with the comforts of an apartment," said the article, which added, "all porcelain plumbing fixtures [are] similar to those used in the Vanderbilt Hotel."  It noted that 875 Park Avenue provided "ample servants' accommodation."

Most floors had four apartments.  The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

Rents ranged from $2,500 to $4,500 a year--equal to about $7,000 to $12,500 per month today.  Although construction was not completed until September 1912, by the end of March that year 15 apartments had been leased.  Among those initial residents were John F. Stevens, head of the construction company that bore his name; Percy Seldon Straus, Jr. and his wife, the former Edith Abraham; and Baroness de Graffenried.

Born in 1876, Percy Selden Straus was the son of Isidor and Ida Straus.  Percy was a member of the R. H. Macy & Co. department store in which his father was a partner.  Edith Straus was the daughter of another department store mogul, Abraham Abraham, founder of Wechsler & Abraham.  In 1888, Isidor Straus and his brother, Nathan, purchased Joseph Wechsler's portion, creating the Abraham & Straus department store.

Edith and Percy Seldon Straus from the collection of The Straus Historical Society

The Strauses had two sons when they moved in--Ralph Isidor, born in 1903, and Percy Selden Jr., who arrived three years later.  In 1916, a third son, Donald Blun, was born.  

The couple filled their 875 Park Avenue apartment with a magnificent collection of Renaissance art.  Living with them was Edith's widowed mother, Rose Abraham, who was active in philanthropic work.  (Edith's father died in 1911.)

Baroness de Graffenried was the former Gertrude Van Cortlandt.  Her first husband, whom she married in 1877, was Schuyler Hamilton, Jr.  She and her current husband, Baron Raoul de Graffenried, had been estranged for several years.  (The Baron was living in Switzerland.)  Gertrude and Hamilton had four children together, Violet Loring, Gertrude Ray, Helena Van Wyck, and Lilian Gardiner.  Moving into 875 Park Avenue with their mother were Violet and Gertrude, 30 and 25 

years old respectively.

Expectedly, the residents' names often appeared in the society columns.  On December 3, 1913, The New York Times reported, "The Baroness de Graffenried was the hostess last evening at an informal and small dance at 875 Park Avenue, for her daughters, the Misses Gertrude and Violet Hamilton."  The article noted, "A buffet supper was served at midnight."  Although the event was considered informal and small, the article named 68 guests.

Similarly, on December 14, 1913, at the height of the debutante season, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Robert T. Ford is to give a tea for her daughter, Miss Julia Ford, on Friday afternoon, at 875 Park Avenue."

In 1915, Percy Straus Sr. and Jr. went to the Far West "on a pleasure trip," according to The New York Times.  On September 24, Percy Jr. became suddenly ill on the train in New Mexico.  "He was believed to be suffering from spinal trouble, and physicians declared his life could not be saved without an immediate operation," said the article.  Percy Straus Sr. had the nine-year-old boy taken off the train at Albuquerque and he chartered a special train of three coaches to rush his son to Denver.  The New York Times said, "The special covered 528 miles in less than twelve hours.  At times the train ran eighty miles an hour."  At the hospital, physicians discovered an abscess in the boy's neck and performed a successful operation.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1910 (copyright expired)

Living here at the time was Dr. Whitney Lyon, the 51-year-old son of wealthy tooth powder manufacturer, I. W. Lyon.  A widower, Dr. Lyon was also the president of I. W. Lyon & Sons.  His son and daughter were attending Yale and Wellesley, respectively, in 1915.  Lyon also maintained "a handsome country place at New Canaan, Connecticut," as described by The New York Times, and "a fine estate in Fleming Park, Larchmont Point [New York], overlooking the harbor and the Larchmont Yacht Club."

Dr. Lyon gave up his apartment here in 1917.  He was married to Maude Cecil Vollman on January 28 at the Larchmont estate.  The New York Times said, "It is expected later that they will make their home in Larchmont, where Dr. Lyon owns considerable property."  The article noted, "After the marriage, Dr. Lyon and his bride motored toward Connecticut."

Other socially visible residents were Dr. Robert Cunningham Myles, his wife, the former Edith Georgiana Russell Platt, and their sons, Robert Jr. and Beverly Russell.  Born in Covebrook, Mississippi in 1853, Myles received his medical degree at the age of 21.  Specializing in nose, throat and ear diseases, he "was known as a pioneer of modern treatments," according to The New York Times, and invented several types of surgical instruments.  The family's country home was in Garden City, Long Island.

Dr. Robert Cunningham Myles as he appeared around 1893.  from the collection of the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

Robert Jr. left Yale to enter the banking firm of Harriman & Co.  He married Dorothy Greer in the St. James Chapel of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on November 8, 1916.  The New York Times said that, although a large ceremony in St. Bartholomew's Church had been planned, "owing to mourning," it was a smaller wedding.  In reporting on the ceremony, the journalist noted, "On his father's side he is a descendant of Paul Russell of Hereford, England, who founded the family of that name in New England, of which James Russell Lowell was a member."

On the night of February 25, 1916, the Yale Chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity gave a large dance at Sherry's that started at 10:30.  The New York Times said, "Those from the university town arrived here in a special car in time for a dance given by Dr. and Mrs. Robert Cunningham Myles at 875 Park Avenue, from 4 until 7 o'clock."

As early as 1918, Thornton Niven Motley and his wife, the former Kathryn Lena Kennard (born in 1858 and 1868 respectively) lived in 875 Park Avenue with their unmarried daughter, Kathryn Thornton, who was born in 1898.  Motley was the head of Thornton N. Motley & Co., manufacturer of railroad cars and steamships.  The family's summer home was in Newport where, in 1887, Thornton Motley won the Newport Yachting Cup.

The social spotlight shone on the Motleys in 1919 when Kathryn's engagement to Matthew Comstock Jenkins was announced.  Three days before the wedding in St. Thomas's Church, on February 19, 1920 her mother gave a dinner, the guest list of which included "the entire bridal party," according to the New-York Tribune.  The following afternoon, she gave a luncheon at the Plaza Hotel for the bridesmaids.

Although attorney Nelson Beardsley Burr and his wife, the former Helen M. Morris, had no children of their own, in 1914 they became wards of Helen's nephew, Monson Morris Jr.  Helen's brother, Major Monson Morris, was a real estate operator "and prominent socially," according to The New York Times.  His wife died in 1914.  Prior to traveling to Europe in November 1917 with his regiment, he gave Helen custody of his four-year-old son.  Possibly thinking he may not survive the conflict, he wrote in part, "I promise to give you entire charge of his bringing up and education until he becomes of age."

On May 10, 1922, The New York Times reported that Morris had sued Helen Burr for custody of the now nine-year-old boy.  The article mentioned that Morris "has been married twice since his first wife's death."  The custody battle would extend for two years.  Perhaps State Supreme Court Justice Bijur's decision had much to do with the young Morris's telling him that he did not like his father's newest wife.  In 1924, Nelson and Helen Burr was given full custody of the boy, with his father having regular visitation rights.

Rose Abraham died in the Straus apartment on May 26, 1938 at the age of 86.  She bequeathed $10,000 each to her three grandsons--a quarter of a million each in 2025 dollars. 

By the time of his mother-in-law's death, Percy Selden Straus was chairman of the board of R. H. Macy & Co.  He suffered with heart disease, which worsened in 1939.  On the night of April 6, 1944 he died in the apartment at the age of 67.  Tributes poured in from businessmen and department store heads, among them from Walter Hoving, president of Lord & Taylor; and Samuel J. Bloomingdale.

Edith Straus inherited a life interest in Percy's "books, paintings, pictures, sculptures and household furnishings."  Particular artworks, however, he left to his sons.  Percy Jr. received the Fred Spencer Portrait of Andrew Jackson; Ralph was bequeathed Renoir's Portrait of Maurice Grimpel and Pacheco's Portrait of a Chorister.  Donald was given the Gilbert Stuart Portrait of Thomas Jefferson and Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin's Still Life.  

Upon Edith's death 75 of the masterworks in their collection--paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Van Dyke, Botticelli, Bellini, Fra Angelico and sculptures by Michelangelo, Cellini, Houdon, Luca Della Robbia and others--were to go to the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston.

A reserved resident was Estelle Whitfield, of whom The New York Times said, "her name practically never appeared in the newspapers."  A daughter of John A. Whitfield, a wholesale merchant, she had grown up in a Gramercy Park mansion.  Among her father's close friends was Andrew Carnegie, who married Estelle's sister, Louise, in 1888.  

Never married, in 1928 Estelle sailed to visit her widowed sister at Skibo Castle in Dornock, Scotland.  (Andrew Carnegie had died in 1919.)  While there, Estelle caught pneumonia.  She died at Skibo Castle on July 14 at the age of 66.

Other residents at the time were Katharine C. Harper, the widow of publisher James Thorne Harper; and former opera singer and widow of stock broker James H. Benedict, Mary von Buehler Benedict.  Before her marriage to Benedict at the turn of the century, Mary was known on the European stage as Madame Billoni.  After a command performance in St. Petersburg, the Czar presented her with a pair of diamond earrings hidden in a bouquet of roses.

Following her divorce from Paul Felix Warburg in 1934, Jean Stettheimer Warburg moved into 875 Park Avenue with her daughter, Felicia.   In 1948, Felicia (and her mother by extension) scored a social coup by being presented at the Court of St. James.  Two years later, in April, Jean announced her daughter's engagement to Robert William Sarnoff.  One year later, nearly to the day on April 6, 1951, Jean married Lawrence J. Steinhardt.

Among the residents by the mid-1960s were real estate executive and president of the J. H. Taylor Construction Company, William Korn and his wife, the former Fannie Mayer.  Among the structures Korn's concern built were the office building at 1407 Broadway and the apartment building at 240 Central Park South.  In the 1930s and '40s, Fannie was instrumental in organizing the "Congress houses," shelters for incoming refugees from Nazi Germany.  In 1963, she was a co-winner in the first Louise Waterman Wise Award of the American Jewish Congress.

Fannie Mayer Korn died in their apartment at the age of 85 on August 21, 1972.  Five months later, on December 18, William Korn died here at the age of 88.

image via fsi-architecture.com

In time for the building's centennial in 2012, a facade restoration was completed by FSI Architecture.  The project entailed restoration or replacement of the deteriorated terra cotta and stone ornaments, repointing and other preservation work.

The Lost Walter B. James Mansion - 7 East 70th Street

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In 1818 Robert Lenox paid the Corporation of the City of New York $6,920 (about $176,000 in 2025) for 30 acres of land far north of the city.  He named his summer estate Lenox Farm.  In his will dated May 23, 1829, he admonished that his son should keep "the property from being sold."  James Lenox did (mostly) keep the property intact throughout his lifetime.  But in January 1870, he donated the Fifth Avenue blockfront between 70th and 71st Street for the site of a library--the Lenox Library.

In March 1895, the Lenox, Tilden, and Astor Libraries were consolidated, creating the New York Public Library.  Even before after its palatial building on Fifth Avenue was completed in 1911, plots within what the Record & Guide called "the Lenox Library block" were being sold.  The Sun mentioned, "The instructions of the trustees were that sales could only be made to parties who would improve for their own resident purposes."  (In other words, buyers could build only homes for their own occupancy on the plots.)

Industrialist Henry C. Frick was early to the party, purchasing the entire Fifth Avenue blockfront in 1907 in anticipation of his sprawling mansion.  In 1910, Cornelius Luyster Jr. completed a sumptuous residence on 70th Street, directly behind the Frick site.  On March 10 that year, The New York Times said a "half dozen" others were under construction on the block.

In 1913, a glimpse of the Frick mansion can be seen.  Between the Luyster and Walter Jennings mansions sits the last vacant lot.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

On February 26, 1914, the Engineering News reported that Trowbridge & Livingston had completed plans for "a six-story brick and limestone residence at 9 East 70th St., for Mrs. Helen I. James."  (The confusing numbering on the block--including the skipping of numbers--was soon corrected giving the James plot the address of 7.)  The Record & Guide said it would contain "21 bed rooms, 2 elevators, to cost $100,000."  (The construction cost would translate to about $32.4 million today.)

Helen Goodsell James was the wife of Dr. Walter Belknap James.  (It was common among affluent couples to place the titles of their domestic real estate in the names of the wives.  The owner of record, therefore, was Helen.)  

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1858, James graduated from Yale in 1879 and from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1883.  He immediately became a clinical lecturer at Columbia.  Walter and Helen had three children, Eunice Coe, Helen G., and Oliver Burr. 

As construction neared completion on May 8, 1915, the Record & Guide called the James mansion, "one of the largest private houses in the city," and said, 

This house is seven stories in height, with basement and attic, and in height is second only to John D. Rockefeller's house in West 54th street...The building itself occupies a plot 41 by 90 feet.  Its facade is of granite and limestone, elaborately carved.

Trowbridge & Livingston produced a dignified Renaissance Revival-style mansion.  Above the trio of fully arched ground floor openings, the windows of the second floor (or piano nobile) were fronted with stone balustrades and capped with Renaissance-inspired triangular pediments.  The two top floors, behind a stone balustrade, formed a steep mansard.  The windows of the fifth floor were capped with arched pediments.

The James family maintained a sprawling country estate in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island.  

This aerial view of the James estate and mansion in Cold Springs Harbor was taken on March 16, 1947.  from the collection of the New York State Archives.

The winter social season of 1916-17 saw daughter Helen's introduction to society.  Debutante entertainments often continued for weeks and on February 17, 1917 The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Walter B. James gave a small dance at her residence, 7 East Seventieth Street, for her debutante daughter, Miss Helen James, guests being chiefly debutantes of the season and the young dancing men."

Focus turned to Oliver later that year.  On November 22, The Evening Post reported that invitations had been issued to the wedding of Oliver B. James to Angeline J. Krech.  The article mentioned, "Mr. James is training with the aviation section of the Signal Corps."  The ceremony took place in St. Bartholomew's Church on November 28 and the couple moved into the East 70th Street mansion.

from left to right are the Frick, Luyster and James mansions.  Real Estate Record & Guide, May 8, 1915 (copyright expired)

By then, Helen James had been highly involved in war relief efforts for months.  On January 1, 1917, The New York Times reported, "Many prominent people filled the ballroom in the house of Mrs. Walter B. James, at 7 East Seventieth Street, yesterday, in the interest of the Comité Franco-Americain pour la Protection des Enfants de la Frontière, with headquarters in Paris."  The article said, "Appeals for little children of France made orphans and homeless by the war induced a small group of women to offer to support fifty children for one year."

Five months later, on May 16, The Times reported, "Sixty-one orphans of the battle of the Marne found foster-parents at the home of Mrs. Walter B. James...when each member of the New York Committee of the Fatherless Children of France pledged herself to 'adopt' one more fatherless children."  (The adoptions were financial, rather than actual.)

Eunice was introduced to society during the winter season of 1919-20.  On November 26, 1919, her parents hosted a dance for her in the house.  The Sun reported, "There was general dancing during the evening, and at midnight supper was served.  The guests, about 500 in number, included young married couples, debutantes, and young men in society."  The article listed among the guests some of New York's most socially illustrious names, including Grace and Cornelia Vanderbilt, Emily Sloane Hammond, Katharine Mackay, M. Millicent Rogers, Katherine Bliss, and A. Routh Ogden.

Even with the war over, Helen continued her relief efforts.  She could, however, begin hosting solely social gatherings.  On January 7, 1920, for instance, the New-York Tribune announced, "Mrs. Walter B. James will give an afternoon musicale to-day at her home, 7 East Seventieth Street."

On November 16, 1922, Walter and Helen announced Eunice's engagement to Henry E. Coe, Jr. and Katherine's engagement to Herman D. Boker.  (Katherine's wedding to Boker would not come to pass.  She later married Henry Burrill Anderson.)

Eunice and Henry Coe, Jr. were married in the mansion on April 19, 1923.  An at-home wedding did not imply a small affair.  The New York Times reported that Eunice had "eighteen young people" as her attendants.  The article noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Coe are sailing shortly and will travel in Europe for several months."

Years after the end of World War I, Helen James was still working for the benefit of French victims.  On January 12, 1923, for instance, The New York Times reported that she had sponsored the exhibition and sale of articles "made by French people who have been deprived of their means of support through the war." 

Dr. Walter Belnap James.  from the collection of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Walter James occasionally had private time.  On January 11, 1924, The New York Evening Post reported, "Dr. Walter B. James will leave this week for Jekyl [sic] Island, Ga."  Jekyll Island was purchased in 1886 by the male-only Jekyll Island Club, which Munsey's Magazine deemed, "the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world."  At the time of the Evening Post article, James was president of the club.

In March 1927, James suffered a heart attack while at Jekyll Island.  The New York Times reported, "His relatives were summoned to the club but he improved sufficiently to be removed to his home here."  He died in the mansion on April 6.  

The estate of Dr. Walter B. James was reported as being "about $2,000,000," according to The New York Times (around 18 times that much in today's money).  On April 19, The Times said his will, "makes substantial bequests to three colleges, a sanitarium and a biological association."  Helen received all the real estate, personal effects like furniture, jewelry, etc., and one half of the remaining estate.  The three children shared equally in the other half.

Oliver and his family were still in residence with his mother at the time.  He and Angeline would have five children, Angeline Pool, Helen, Walter Belnap, Oliver Jr., and R. Campbell (known familiarly as Zup). 

In 1930, Helen purchased a second lavish summer home, Aspen Hall, on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island from John Aspegrens and his wife.  Helen renamed it Rockhurst.

Rockhurst.  from the collection of the DeGolyer Library of the Southern Methodist University.

Helen Jennings James died in the 70th Street mansion on August 15, 1946 at the age of 86.  In reporting her death, The New York Times recalled that she was the niece of William Rockefeller and a descendant of Isaac Jennings, a settler of Hartford, Connecticut.  

At the time of Helen's death, the Frick mansion had been operating as a museum--the Frick Collection--for eleven years.  In 1940 the museum purchased 9 East 70th Street "and converted it to a wartime storage area," according to The New York Times, and following Helen James's death, it purchased 7 East 70th Street.  The museum leased it to The Asia Institute.

Founded in 1928 as the Iranian Institute, the organization was formed with the goal of "furthering the knowledge of Oriental culture and civilization."  On September 21, 1947, The New York Times reported that the institute "will move to larger quarters at 7 East Seventieth Street in time for registration for the fall semester."  The Asia Institute could now boast "the largest faculty on Chinese studies in the United States and one of the largest in the world."

In 1941, East 70th Street was lined with sumptuous mansions.  The Frick mansion is the short structure at the left, and the James residence is two doors away, behind the automobile.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The institute opened in December 1947.  Asian art was displayed on the ground floor, including "Gandhara and Khmer sculpture, Chinese and Indian rugs, Persian carpets, miniatures and ceramics," according to The Times on December 9.  The second floor housed the library and a gallery of Persian art.  The New York Times reported, "The third floor houses the art of India, Indonesia and the Zimmer Memorial Library."  The upper floors held classrooms, "each decorated in the style of the region to be studied," and the administrative offices.

On November 23, 1949, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran, opened "an impressive exhibit of Persian art treasure" here, as described by The New York Times.  The Shah was accompanied by "an entourage of fifteen persons."

At the time of the exhibition, The Asia Institute was in serious financial trouble.  On February 23, 1950, The Times reported, "Unless $50,000 is raised by Wednesday, the Asia Institute at 7 East Seventieth Street...will go out of existence."  While the institute managed to survive, it was forced to leave the former James mansion.

In 1952, the Frick Collection demolished the structure "for an expanded service area," according to The New York Times.  Just over a decade later, in 1973, the site of the James mansion became part of the museum's plan to create a 100-foot-square garden and terrace.

photo by Navid Baraty, from the collection of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.