The Guy Fairfax Cary Mansion - 61 East 91st Street

 

photograph by Jim Henderson

Born in November 1879 to Clarence Cary and the former Elisabeth M. Potter, Guy Fairfax Cary was the great-grandson of the 9th Lord Fairfax (for which Fairfax County, Virginia, is named).  He was prepared for college at Groton School and received his A. B. and LL. B. degrees from Harvard in 1902 and 1904, respectively.  He was admitted to the New York bar in 1905 and became an influential attorney, the counsel to the National City Bank (later Citibank) and a trustee in the estates of William Rockefeller and Robert W. Goelet.

Shortly after the death of Arthur Scott Burden on June 15, 1921, Cary began a romance with his widow, the former Cynthia Burke Roche.  Born in April 1884 to Sir James Boothby Burke Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, and American heiress Frances Eleanor Work, Cynthia had married Burden on June 11, 1906.  The couple had a daughter, Eileen, who was born in 1911.  

Shortly after Cynthia's mourning period elapsed, the September 1922 issue of Harper's Bazar titled an article, "Newport Goes To An Expected Wedding At the Home of Mrs. Burke Roche."  The article reported, "Mrs. Arthur Scott Burden and Mr. Guy Fairfax Cary were married in Newport at Elm Court, the residence of the bride's mother, Mrs. Burke Roche," adding, "The wedding was Newport's happiest surprise of the season."  The first-time groom was 43 years old and his bride was 38.

The wedding party.  Harper's Bazar, September 1922 (copyright expired)

Eight months later, on May 26, 1923, The New York Times reported that H. H. Benkard had sold "the two private houses at 57 to 61 East Ninety-first Street," noting, "The buyer will rebuild and occupy the premises."  That buyer was Guy F. Cary who commissioned architect Mott B. Schmidt to design a replacement mansion on the site.

Schmidt had recently gained attention by transforming 19th century brownstones in Sutton Place to magnificent neo-Georgian mansions for the likes of Anne Tracy Morgan, Anne Vanderbilt, and Elisabeth Marbury.  He returned to the style for the Cary mansion.

Construction of the five-story, 51-foot-wide residence was complete in 1924 and cost $1.3 million (about $23.8 million in 2026 terms).  Faced in red Flemish bond brick, its entrance sat under an arched hood supported by fluted Scamozzi columns.  Brick quoins divided the two-story midsection into three bays.  The fourth floor, sitting upon a prominent cornice, was unexpectedly spartan.  Equally unfinished looking was the mansard with its five unassuming dormers.

Samuel H. Gottscho captured the mansion on film on April 25, 1930.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The mansion contained 23 rooms, 10 bathrooms, and two elevators.  The Carys filled the mansion with English and Continental antique furniture and a significant art collection.  The family's country home, Oak Hill, in Jericho, Long Island, was built for Cynthia's late husband in 1915, designed by John Russell Pope.  (It was at Oak Hill that Burden died following a polo playing accident.)

Oak Hill in Jericho, Long Island.  The Architecture of John Russell Pope, Volume I, 1925 (copyright expired)

Eileen Burden was 11 years old when her mother married Cary.  She would soon have two half-siblings.  Guy Fairfax Cary Jr. was born in 1923, and Cynthia Cary arrived the following year.

The winter social season of 1929-1930 was Eileen's debut.  On November 28, 1929, The New York Times reported that her parents "will give a dance on Dec. 27 at their home, 61 East Ninety-first Street, to introduce to society [their] daughter, Miss Eileen Burden."  The newspaper followed up on the "supper dance" on December 28, noting, "The guests included many of the débutantes and young men who have been seen at other parties of the season."

The following spring, Cynthia and Eileen sailed to Europe.  On May 2, 1930, The Evening Post reported that they "are returning this evening on the Aquitania."  It would be one of the last travels the mother and daughter would share.

On February 9, 1932, The New York Sun reported on the "important wedding" of Eileen Burden to Walter Maynard in the Church of the Heavenly Rest.  Cynthia Cary, who was eight, was the flower girl.  "A reception follows at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cary, 61 East Ninety-first street," said the article.

With America's entry into World War II, Guy Jr. entered the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant before the war's end.

Upon the death of Cynthia's mother in 1947, she inherited Elm Court in Newport.  The family now spent most of their summer season there.

Elm Court (original source unknown).

The Carys were at Elm Court on August 27, 1950 when Guy Fairfax Cary suffered a fatal heart attack.  He was 70 years old.  Interestingly, the East 91st Street mansion was bequeathed to Guy Jr.  Cynthia moved permanently to Elm Court shortly after her husband's death.

On August 25, 1952, The New York Times reported that the Cary mansion had been sold.  "It will be used as a nursing and convalescence home under the name of Park Town House," said the article.

photo by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York 

The Park Town House catered to well-heeled residents.  Among them over the years was art collector Richard Goetz who assembled "a collection of both modern and classic paintings valued at an estimated third of a million dollars," according to The New York Times.  Never married, upon his death here in December 1954, he left his $300,000 collection to a cousin.  (The value of the artwork would translate to about $3.5 million today.)

Stage and silent film actor Jack Devereaux was also a resident.  The son-in-law of famous actor John Drew, he died here in January 1958 at the age of 76.

Irish-American actor Jack Devereaux, Motography magazine, 1917 (copyright expired)

In 1964, the former Cary mansion was acquired by the Dalton School to house its First Program (kindergarten and first grade levels).  The facility's main location was on East 89th Street.  Founded by Helen Parkhust in 1919 as the Children's University School, it was renamed in 1924.  

In 1978, the facility acquired the mansion next door at 53 East 91st Street and combined the houses internally.  On August 26, 1990, The New York Times reported, "The Dalton School has added another town house to its diverse holdings on the Upper East Side."  The school acquired the former Martha Rusk Stuphen mansion next door at 63 East 91st Street.  It enlarged the capacity of the "lower school" housed in the Cary mansion, which currently had about 400 students.

photograph by Jim Henderson

The 1937 19 East 72nd Street

 

On January 17, 1933, Louis Comfort Tiffany died in the hulking mansion he designed with Stanford White in 1882 at 898 Madison Avenue, at the northwest corner of 72nd Street.  Three years later, the Manhattan landmark was razed by attorney John Thomas Smith to make way for a 16-story apartment building.  Smith's motivation was not entirely selfish.  According to family members decades later, he wanted to provide jobs to out-of-work construction workers during the ongoing Depression.  Smith, who was general counsel and a vice president of General Motors Corporation, personally paid the $2.25 million (about $49.5 million in 2024) for the land and construction costs.

Smith hired Rosario Candela to design the structure, but, according to a grandchild who spoke to The New York Times journalist Christopher Gray in 1996, he "brought in Mott Schmidt to ride herd on Candela, who was thought too extreme, too Art Deco-y."  If Smith, indeed, wanted to tone down Candela's streamlined style, his choice of Mott, whose haughty neo-Georgian mansions on Sutton Place oozed dignity and elegance, was perfect.

Completed in 1937, the Art Moderne style building sat on a three-story base with gently sculpted limestone ogee curves.  Around the slightly recessed entrance, marble panels were carved with bas reliefs by Carl Paul Jennewein--seeming unrelated classical figures, flying putti, and various animals.  The ten-story midsection was relatively unadorned, and the top floors stair-stepped upward to provide commodious terraces.

There were just 34 apartments in the building--20 of them duplexes which ranged from 7 to 13 rooms.  Each of the 13 simplex apartments held 11 rooms.  For John Thompson Smith's family there was a triplex apartment of 21 rooms.  A decade later, builder Jesse J. Secoles recalled the apartments "have large, flat ceilings with elaborate cornices [and] fireplaces in their livings rooms and libraries."  Rents ranged from $330 to $1,000 per month--equal to $7,000 to $21,200 today.

Among the initial residents were attorney Edward Baldwin Boies and his wife, the former Helen Chapell.  The couple was married in 1914.  Helen and her neighbors appeared in society columns for their upscale entertaining.  On January 12, 1940, for instance, The New York Times announced, "Mrs. Edward B. Boies of 19 East Seventy-second Street will give a luncheon on Tuesday for Miss Sylvia Follett, a debutante of the season."

Carl Paul Jennewein's melange of images--like the dog and cat facing off on either side of the doors, and the putti flying about a compass rose--has puzzled architectural historians for decades.

Eleanor Grant Bosher Brewster and her daughter Frances were also early residents.  Eleanor's husband, George Stepenson Brewster, had been of the largest shareholders of the Standard Oil Company, and a member of The Jekyll Island Club.  It was on Jekyll Island that he died on March 11, 1936.  The Brewsters' summer home was in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

On March 29, 1941, Eleanor announced Frances's engagement to R. Stewart Rauch, Jr.   In reporting the event, The Brooklyn Citizen remarked that Frances "attended the Brearley and Foxcroft Schools and was introduced to society in Manhattan in 1933."

John Thomas Smith and his family summered in Southampton.  The erudite businessman was fluent in German, Spanish and French and, according to family members, read Greek and Latin.  He died in 1947 and two years later the Smith estate converted the building to co-ops.

The apartment of Arthur Wallace Pope and his wife, the former Josephine Marie Auguste, was the scene of the wedding of their daughter, Virginia Pope MacLean to Robert Bruce Dickson on September 9, 1964.  Like Frances Brewster, Virginia had a privileged upbringing.  The New York Times noted she "attended the Brearley School and was graduated from the Garrison Forest School.  She attended Bradford Junior College, and was presented at the Junior League Ball."  The at-home ceremony was somewhat understated because it was the second marriage of both parties.

Well-heeled residents in the second half of the century included N. Baxter Jackson and his wife, Judith Dohme.  Jackson retired as chairman of the board of Chemical Bank in 1956, remaining on as a director until 1968.  Born in 1891, his service in World War I earned him the Medal of Merit and his being named to the French Legion of Honor.  He was a member of the committees that chose the sites for the United Nations in Manhattan and at Lake Success, Long Island.

Jack I. Straus, who lived here with his wife Margaret Hollister by the 1960s, was chairman of the executive committee of R. H. Macy & Co., Inc. and its former chairman and C.E.O.

Minot K. Milliken and his wife, Armene L., had five adult children.  The treasurer and CFO of Milliken & Company, the largest privately owned textile company in the United States, he was, as well, a director of the National Distillers, Mercantile Stores, the Irving Bank of New York and the Union Pacific Railroad.  For many years he was chairman of the board of the Boys Club of New York.

But it was Milliken's position as president of the co-op board that would land him in the national spotlight in 1979.  When former President Richard M. Nixon and his wife, Pat, initially made a down payment on the nine-room penthouse owned by Robert A. Becker, there seemed to be no problem.  The New York Times reported on July 28,  "This apartment is said to include three master bedrooms and two servants' rooms."  The article continued, "although the Nixons had not yet taken title, there appeared little doubt, 'barring a broken cup at the lip,' that Mr. and Mrs. Nixon would become residents of the building."

But as it turned out, there was a rub.  Although the co-op board approved the Nixons' application, the other residents were not so quick.  Milliken's letter informing them of their potential new neighbor sparked a return letter signed by 14 residents expressing their opposition.  Simultaneously, according to The New York Times on August 3, "a lawyer representing several of the residents...had been in contact on several occasions with a lawyer for the former President, to let Mr. Nixon know that he faced opposition."

On August 2, 1979, Minot Milliken sent a new letter to the residents that read, "Please be advised that former President Nixon and Mr. Becker have agreed to cancel the contract relating to Mr. Becker's apartment.  Mr. Becker's apartment is once again on the market."

In 1996, a $1 million exterior restoration was begun.  It included roof replacement, repairs and cleaning of the limestone, and window replacement "at shareholder discretion," according to co-op president Cary Koplin.  (Minot Milliken had died in November 1998.)  Importantly, as John Thompson Smith had demanded in 1936, no commercial spaces were carved into the base in the renovations.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

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The Anne Harriman Vanderbilt House - 1 Sutton Place

 

In April 1837 George Sutton acquired a summer estate on the east side of Manhattan on the bluffs of the East River.  Four decades later as the formerly bucolic area saw development, his son Effingham B. Sutton subdivided the land into building sites.  In 1875 he erected 18 brownstone-clad rowhouses that formed a modified U from 57th Street to 58th Street along Avenue A.  His high-stooped, Italianate style houses were intended for upper-middle-class families.  Eight years later that block of Avenue A was renamed Sutton Place.

By World War I the smokestacks of the New York Steam Company loomed over the neighborhood.  The Queensboro Bridge is in the background.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

By the end of World War I the neighborhood had declined.  Peter Doelger's brewery and the New York Steam Company sidled up to the vintage brownstones, most of them now operated as boarding houses.  The New York Times flatly called the neighborhood "a slum" in 1920.  But Effingham Sutton's block caught the eye of architect Eliot Cross that year when he looked down onto "the odd formation of the houses and the little garden," while crossing the Queensboro Bridge, according to the New-York Tribune on December 12.  Among the passengers in his car was millionaire William Seward Webb, Jr., the son of Lila Osgood Vanderbilt.  The New-York Tribune recounted, "the suggestion was made that it might prove a very interesting place to live...Very quietly the property was secured and associate owners selected."

Before long Cross and Webb had recruited other millionaires to organize Sutton Square, Inc.  Their unique urban planning project would revitalize the residences into a unified community.  Each owner was required to remodel his Victorian home into an American basement (i.e., sans stoop) residence.  Restrictive deeds directed that the “brownstone stoops, the window ledges and other protrusions are to be cleaved off, leaving a straight front to the outside world.”  

The New-York Tribune noted, "The area behind the formation, instead of being subdivided into back yards, is an open space."  While owners were permitted to "build a tearoom in the garden extending not more than twelve feet from the house," the yard on a whole was a common space.  

Among the first members of Sutton Square, Inc. was Anne Harriman Vanderbilt.  Her husband William Kissam Vanderbilt died on July 22, 1920 and six months later, on January 29, 1921, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that she had purchased the four-story house at the northeast corner of 57th Street and Sutton Place.  The New York Herald added, "In moving to the new locality, which is in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge, Mrs. Vanderbilt will become a neighbor of her sister, Mrs. Stephen H. Olin, W. Seward Webb, Jr., Eliot Cross, Robert C. Knapp, Mrs. Lorillard Cammann, Miss Elisabeth Marbury, Dr. Edgar Stillman and Prof. J. P. Chamberlain of Columbia University."

1 Sutton Place before the renovation.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

On March 27, 1921 The New York Times reported that work on transforming the old brownstone had begun.  Anne Vanderbilt had hired architect Mott B. Schmidt, who was concurrently working on several Sutton Place homes.  "Mr. Schmidt has designed the house in the Georgian type of architecture and the main entrance will be an adaption of one of Sir Christopher Wren's charming doorways in London," said the article."  (The specific Wren doorway was at 2 King's Bench Walk.)

Schmidt had provided Vanderbilt with two options--the entrance opening onto Sutton Place or onto 57th Street.  She chose the latter.

Schmidt's office prepared a handsome watercolor rendering that proposed two options. 

The New-York Tribune described Schmidt's plans on March 20, 1921, noting the entrance hall would be paved "with small waxed red tile from which arises a stairway leading to the upper floors."  In the reception room an "interesting old deal room" removed from the Forbes House in Eastgate, Gloucester was installed.  It dated from the early William and Mary period.  The article said the walls "will be finished without paint, the old panels being merely waxed."  Also in the reception room was an Italian marble fireplace "faced with carved wood."

New-York Tribune, March 20, 1921 (copyright expired)

The dining room was tiled in black and white marble.  French windows opened onto the terrace and garden.  "Over the garden door will be placed an unusual carved wood overdoor in the shape of a shell with carved supporting brackets," said the article.  Schmidt had imported the Georgian period element from High Wycombe, England.

The Georgian entrance hood was still in place in High Wycombe, England when the New-York Tribune published this photo on March 20, 1921.

The living room on the second floor was 37-feet long, entered through a painted, antique Italian doorway.   The third floor contained bedrooms and the fourth held the servants rooms and a guest bedroom.  The New-York Tribune noted that the guest room had a "dome and skylight," as well as "a glass door opening on to an upper deck, from which may be had a magnificent view of the river."  The massive renovations cost Vanderbilt $75,000--just over $1 million in 2023.

Visitors staying in the third floor guestroom had the benefit of a large deck (seen at right) from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In its March 1927 issue, McCall's Magazine opined:

Among America's great hostesses, Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt has a few peers.  Few have quite her quality of distinction, quite her high-bred charm.  She entertains in her chanting home in Sutton Place with delightful informality.  Yet she cares less for society than for serving humanity, and practices a hundred quiet ways of doing good.

And, indeed, Ann Vanderbilt was highly involved in charitable causes.  She financed the construction of four large apartment buildings on York Avenue for tuberculosis patients.  During World War I, according to The New York Times, she was "among the most tireless of the American women Red Cross aides."  For that work the French government made her a Knight of the Légion d'Honneur in 1919 and an Officer in the Légion d'Honneur in 1932.

This portrait of Anne Harriman Vanderbilt was painted by Francois Flameng in 1909.

On January 11, 1940 Vanderbilt entered the New York Hospital.  Three months later, on April 20, she died.  Her funeral was held in St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue three days later.  Among the mourners was Count Charles de Ferry de Fontnouvelle, French Consul General.  Her casket was draped in an American flag and a folded French flag was displayed at its foot.

The 18th century Georgian hood in place over the garden entrance.  (original source unknown)

The following year, on January 23, 1941, syndicated columnist Maury Paul reported, "agents are, I believe, still looking for a tenant for the red brick mansion at 1 Sutton place, formerly occupied by the late Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Sr."  That tenant was found in the Reavis family.  With World War II raging abroad, thirty-year-old Clarinda Reavis, like her predecessor had been, was active in war efforts.  She was a member of the Mayor's "city patrol corps," a volunteer defense auxiliary.

Equally patriotic, however, was the Reavis's next door neighbor at 3 Sutton Place, Anne Tracy Morgan.  And in May 1942, with gas rationing in force, Morgan smelled the vapors of gasoline emanating from the basement 1 Sutton Place.  She notified the Bureau of Combustibles of the Fire Department and investigators found more than 65 gallons of fuel stored in the cellar.  Clarinda Reavis explained that she was fearful that the rationing card she received would not provide enough gasoline for her patrol duties.  She was fined $100 after which the neighborly relations were most likely somewhat strained.

The mansion was sold in 1943 to the De Rham family for $55,000 (about $557,000 today).  They resold it to Swiss-born art dealer Gustave Pierre Bader who filled the mansion with priceless paintings and sculptures.  He had arrived in the United States in 1941, and now conducted his art business from the house.  He became a United States citizen in 1947.

Bader suffered embarrassment on March 5, 1954 when he was detained by French authorities at Orly Airport and charged with "attempting to smuggle out a painting by Camille Pissaro," according to The New York Times.  Officials recognized that the signature of a contemporary artist had been forged over the original on an authentic Pissaro worth about $2,900 (about $30,000 in 2023).

Never married, Gustave Pierre Bader died during a business trip in Geneva, Switzerland on April 22, 1959 at the age of 48.  The mansion sat shuttered, still filled with remarkable furnishings and artwork until October 31, 1962.  An auction of the property was held in the house that day.  The New York Times reported, "The sale attracted about 200 persons and drew 14 bids, including a telephoned bid of $300,000 from Zsa Zsa Gabor, the actress."  She and the others were outbid by the president of Steuben Glass, Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. (who lived in the former Anne Morgan house next door).  He paid the equivalent of just under 4 million in 2023 dollars.  Gustave Pierre Bader's furnishings and artworks were sold at a two-day auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries the following week.

Houghton leased 1 Sutton Place to the United Nations Ambassador from The Netherlands Robert Flack and his family until 1972 when he sold it to Henry John Heinz 2d, chairman of the H. J. Heinz Company, and his wife Drue.  Heinz was the grandson of Henry J. Heinz, who founded the food processing company in 1869.

Two views of the mansion during the Heinz residency.  Photos by Travis Mark for Sotheby's International Realty

Henry John Heinz died in Florida on February 24, 1987 at the age of 78.  Drue lived on in the Sutton Place mansion until her death in 2018 at the age of 103, after which it was placed on the market for $21 million.

Today 1 Sutton Place is home to Andrew Bolton and Thom Browne.  Bolton is the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute.  (It is Bolton who makes the annual Met Costume Gala happen.)  Thom Brown is a fashion designer and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc.

photographs by the author

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The Charles G. Cornell, Jr. House - 24 East 64th Street

 

Real estate developer Theodore Weston acted as his own architect when he erected four Queen Anne style homes on the south side of East 64th Street, just west of Madison Avenue, in 1881.  Four stories tall above high English basements, they were completed the following year.

Weston sold the western-most of the row, No. 24, to William Cullen Brewster.  Born on July 29, 1831, he was married to the former Georgiana Williams in 1857.  The couple had a two daughters, Annie Seabury and Mary Roget (who went by her middle name) Brewster.

The family had a sterling American pedigree.  Brewster was directly descended from Elder Brewster and John Alden.  Georgiana's ancestors included Roger Williams.

William was a founder of the Plaza Bank and its first president.  He was also president of the Fifth Avenue Safe Deposit Company and a director in the Second National Bank and other financial institutions.

Mary was the first to marry.  Her wedding to Navy Lieutenant Lazarus L. Reamey took place on November 10, 1886 in the Church of the Holy Spirit.  The Argus mentioned, "his bride has very sensibly persuaded him to transpose his two Christian names, and on the wedding invitations he stands as Lieutenant Lowry L. Reamey."  

The writer had visited the Brewsters' home previous to the ceremony and wrote, "I saw, confidentially, a guest chamber crowded with sumptuous bridal gifts, many of them from Tiffany's."  A reception was held in the house following the wedding.

Mary's parents had been uneasy at the both the pace of the couple's romance (they had known each other just ten days before Reamey proposed) and what The Argus called "the genteel poverty of our naval service."  But William Brewster found the suitor his other daughter eight years later even more troubling.

The problem was that the Brewster family was Episcopalian and Count Henri de Frankenstein was Roman Catholic.  The Polish count traveled from Rome to New York in January 1894 and waited nervously for two months as William and Georgiana talked it out.  (One imagines that Georgiana may have pressed for the match, which would result in her daughter's becoming a countess.)

Finally, on March 13, according to the Indianapolis News, "Mr. Brewster looked relieved this morning.  'I have given my consent to his marrying my daughter,' he said.  'They are engaged.  The wedding will take place, I presume, on March 28.'"  The article noted that the prospective groom's family "are closely allied to the family of the Pope" and "Miss Brewster may be obliged to renounce Protestantism and become a Roman Catholic."

On March 28 The Evening World reported "The marriage of County Henri de Frankenstein to Miss Annie Seabury Brewster...who is worth $1,00,000 in her own right, took place at 11:30 o'clock this morning in St. Patrick's Cathedral."  A wedding breakfast was held in the East 64th Street house, the guest list of which groaned with high-level society names like Rockefeller, Mills, Post, Thebaud and Gibson.  

Annie Brewster on her wedding day.  The Evening World, March 28, 1894 (copyright expired)

Brewster, however, seemed not quite reconciled.  At the breakfast, according to The Evening World, "He went from one room to another with his hands in his trousers' pockets, his head bent, his nerves unstrung, and a cigar in his mouth, puffing smoke into the rose and lily scented atmosphere."

William Cullen Brewster suffered a fatal heart attack in the house on May 30, 1900.  His estate sold No. 24 East 64th Street the following February to Judge H. W. Bookstaver for $70,000--about $2.2 million in today's dollars.

The house saw a turnover in owners over the next two decades.  Major change came in 1919 when it was purchased by Charles G. Cornell, Jr.  (Interestingly, he paid $70,000 for the property, exactly the price paid almost two decades earlier.)  He hired society architect Mott B. Schmidt to remodel the outdated Victorian into a modern, American basement residence.

Schmidt removed the stoop and pulled the front forward to the property line.  He replaced the brownstone facade with white stone.  What had been an eccentric Queen Anne house now wore a prim Adamesque facade

The original appearance of the house is suggested by the No. 26 partially seen to the left.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Sculptress Consuelo Vanderbilt was the daughter of Virginia Fair and William Kissam Vanderbilt, Jr.  She was named after her aunt (the daughter of William K. Vanderbilt, Sr. and his wife Alva), who had become the Duchess of Marlborough.  On January 26, 1926 she married stock broker Earl E. T. Smith in her father's mansion at No. 666 Fifth Avenue.  

The newlyweds would make No. 24 East 64th Street their home.   The New York Sun remarked, "The house, completely furnished, was a wedding gift from her father, William K. Vanderbilt."  Although Mott Schmidt's interiors were only five years old, Consuelo hired John Russell Pope to make alterations before the newlyweds moved in.

Daily News, March 9, 1927

On March 9, 1927 the Daily News reported that the couple had welcomed their first child, Iris.  "Two of three middle names will be given the seven-and-one-half pound morsel of aristocracy now lying under silk coverlets in the Smith home at 24 East 64th st.," said the article.

The couple's second daughter arrived three years later.  On May 20, 1930 the Daily News reported "Another heir to the vast fortunes of the clan Vanderbilt was born on Sunday...The child...is a great granddaughter of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont and the late William K. Vanderbilt on the maternal side and the late Edward N. Tailer, social lion of the mauve decade, on her father's side."  The baby was named Virginia.

But the end of domestic bliss was on the horizon.  In 1934 the Smiths separated.  The New York Times said, "Relatives and close friends, it is learned, have been endeavoring to effect a reconciliation.  Few, however, knew of the marital difficulties."  On January 9, 1935 the newspaper reported that Consuelo had arrived in Reno to institute divorce proceedings.

The eight-minute private trial was held on February 21.  The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Smith, who is reported to have a personal income of $1,000,000 a year, went directly to District Judge Thomas F. Moran's court room.  A moment later the doors were locked behind her and the trial began."  Consuelo's claims of "extreme cruelty" were supported by the testimony of a servant, Mrs. A. A. Blackmer.

Consuelo sold No. 24 East 64th Street to Colonel Grayson M. P. Murphy, and in turn bought his former house at No. 11 East 70th Street.  Grayson was a senior vice president of the Guaranty Trust Company and founder and principal in the brokerage firm of G. M. P. Murphy & Co.  During World War I he had served as the first European Commissioner of the American Red Cross, and more recently was implicated in the failed 1933 conspiracy, known as the Business Plot, to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt in a military coup.

Grayson would not enjoy the house for long.  He died in October 1937, about a year after moving in.  The residence was sold by his estate in December.

Owner William H. Hawkins hired architect Morris Whinston to alter the house to accommodate the Lawrence O'Toole Gallery at sidewalk level and apartments on the upper floors.  On December 21, 1940 The New York Sun deemed James St. L. O'Toole's new galleries "exceedingly agreeable and lend themselves well to the furtherance of exhibitions."

The Lawrence O'Toole Art Gallery remained in the space until 1958 when the ground floor was converted to one apartment and a retail space.  Another renovation completed in 1976 resulted in offices throughout the building.

The ground floor space became home to Bradley Mischka's first Manhattan boutique in 2013.  Despite the interior alterations in the second half of the 20th century, the sophisticated mansion retains much of its 1920 appearance.

photographs by the author

The Lost E. Farrar Bateson House - 129-131 East 79th Street

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

Rosina Hoyt Otis was 19-years old when her illustrious father, Dr. William Kelly Otis, died of pneumonia at the age of 47 on September 22, 1907.  With her mother in mourning, Rosina's wealthy grandmother, Rosina Hoyt, took charge of her introduction to society in January 1908.  Tragically, the debutante's mother, Florence Cecelia Otis, died four months later, on April 18.

Suddenly orphaned, she moved into her grandmother's mansion at No. 934 Fifth Avenue.  On April 26, 1914 Rosina Hoyt announced Rosina Otis's engagement to Edgar Farrar Bateson.  It would be the joining of members of two well-known and moneyed families.  (The passing of decades since the end of the Civil War had dulled New Yorkers' prejudice against Southerners--Bateson was a grandnephew of Jefferson Davis.)

The wedding took place on November 4.  Five hundred guests filed into St. Bartholomew's Church. The New York Herald listed many of the high-level society names present, including Delafield, Crocker, Alexander, and Pulitzer.

On April 15, 1920 the New York Herald reported that Bateson had purchased the two 20-foot wide brownstones at Nos. 129 and 131 East 79th Street.   The New-York Tribune added "It is the intention of the buyer to raze the old structures and erect a modern dwelling for his own occupancy."

That may have been the couple's original intention, but they apparently changed their minds.  A common practice in the first quarter of the 20th century was instead to drastically remodel the outdated buildings.  The Batesons hired architect Mott B. Schmidt to do just that.  

Schmidt was already at work transforming an old brownstone on Sutton Place to a dignified Georgian-style residence for Elisabeth Marbury.  Before long he would do the same along that block for Anne Tracy Morgan and Anne Vanderbilt.  His neo-Georgian design for the Bateson house would have slipped comfortably into that enclave.

Schmidt filed plans on July 16, 1920.  Along with joining the houses, they called for increasing the height, adding an extension to the rear, and making "alterations."  The cost was projected at $100,000--about $1.25 million today.

Completed the following year, Nos. 129-131 West 79th Street was trademark Mott B. Schmidt.  Five stories tall, it was clad in red brick and sparingly trimmed in contrasting white stone.  The centered entrance was framed in stone and capped by an arched pediment.  The voussoirs of the splayed lintels of the second floor alternated between brick and stone.  Brick quoins ran up the sides to the cornice, which upheld a solid brick parapet that fronted the dormered mansard.

Because the couple were avid golfers, they not only spent time away from their town house at fashionable summer resorts, but at retreats with golf courses, like Hot Springs, Virginia.  On November 5, 1921, for instance, The New York Herald reported "Mr. and Mrs. E. Farrar Bateson, who arrived yesterday from New York, registered this morning at the Golf Club and played over the long course."

The 1920's saw old brownstones being demolished by the score, to be replaced by soaring modern apartment buildings.  Rosina Bateson took a proactive move in 1927 when a syndicate headed by Burrall Hoffman began buying up the group of houses at the southwest corner of 79th Street and Lexington Avenue.  According to the New York Evening Post on September 28, his intention was to build "another de luxe co-operative apartment."  

That proposed 14-story building could negatively affect the light and ventilation to the Bateson mansion.  Rosina scrambled to buy the house next door, No. 133, from Vincent Astor.  The New York Evening Post noted that the purchase "restricts 133 to its present height."

As did all wealthy New York families, the Batesons spent time in Europe.  On June 27, 1931 The New York Sun noted that among the passengers on the Mauretanis were "Mr. and Mrs. E. Farrar Bateson, Miss Florence M. Bateson, and "E. Farrar Bateson, Jr."  Almost assuredly daughter Rosina, who was about 8 at the time, was also on board, but too young to be mentioned.

In 1933 the Batesons again hired Mott B. Schmidt, this time to design their summer estate, Deramore, in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.  Once again he turned to 18th century English models.

The Bateson's 1933 country home, Deramore.  photo by James Hogarty via publicinsta.com

In the meantime, family was attended to in the 79th Street house by "two upstairs maids, two parlor maids, a cook, a kitchen maid, a laundress," and Edgar F. Bateman's orderly from World War I, according to a daughter later.

The winter season of 1934-35 saw Florence's debut.  She was introduced at a dance at the Hotel Pierre on December 23.  Now a socialite in her own right, her name appeared more regularly in print.  On February 11, 1937, for instance, The New York Sun reported that debutante Mildred P. Cartwright was the guest of honor at a luncheon in the 79th Street house.  The article noted it was "given by Mrs. E. Farrar Bateson and her daughter, Miss Florence Bateson."

Daughter Rosina finally had her time in the limelight in 1943 when her debutante season arrived.  Her coming-out was held in December at the Crystal Garden.

The Batesons sold the 79th Street residence in 1944 and moved to No. 791 Park Avenue.  A conversion was immediately begun.  Completed the following year, it resulted in a duplex apartment on the first and second floors, and one apartment each on the upper floors.  When Julian L. Marx purchased the building in October 1946, The New York Post described it as "a five-story apartment building."

In 1968 the former Bateson mansion was purchased by Hunter College to make way for its $4.15 million, 7-story building for its School of Social Work.  It was dedicated in March 1969.  That building was replaced in 2012 by architect William Sofield's 20-story apartment building.

photo via streeteasycom

The 1930 Clarence Dillon House - 124 East 80th Street

photograph by the author

Clarence Lapowski was born on September 27, 1882 to Polish Jewish immigrant Samuel Lapowski and the former Bertha Stenbock.  When the family became naturalized citizens in Texas in 1891, they changed their surname to Dillon. 

Young Clarence had a privileged education, graduating from Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and from Harvard University in 1905.  On February 4, 1908 he married Anne McEldin Douglass.  The couple would have two children, Clarence Douglass Dillon, born in 1909, and Dorothy Anne Dillon, born in 1912.

The same year that Dorothy was born 1912 Dillon joined the brokerage firm of William A. Read & Company in Chicago; relocating to the company's New York office two years later.  After Read died in 1916, Dillon purchased the majority of stock and rose to the head of the firm.  In 1921 it was renamed Dillon, Read & Co.

By then Dillon's success and resultant personal fortune was reflected in his club memberships.  In 1920 he was a member of the Metropolitan, Riding, Sleepy Hollow Country, Harvard and Esssex Hunt Clubs of New York; and the Metropolitan and Riding Clubs of Washington D. C.  The family was living fashionably at No. 635 Park Avenue.

In 1925 Dillon diversified, purchasing the automobile maker Dodge Brothers Company for $146 million.  Two years later he merged the company with Chrysler Corporation.  It was time for the Dillon family to have a residence on par with their financial and social status.

Dillon purchased the three old houses at Nos. 122 through 126 East 80th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues in 1928.  The block had already attracted the attention of wealthy homeowners.  Vincent Astor had constructed his Regency-style stone mansion at No. 130 in 1926.

Now Dillon turned to Astor's architect, Mott B. Schmidt, to design a mansion to replace the houses at Nos. 124 and 126 (he sold the third property to George Whitney who would erect his own handsome townhouse there in 1930).  Schmidt famously designed residences in 18th century styles; most notably, perhaps, several neo-Georgian mansions on Sutton Place earlier in the decade.

Completed in 1930, the four-story 80th Street house imitated a Georgian townhouse.  Faced in brown-gray Flemish bond brick, its aloof 18th century design featured a handsome doorway with fluted pilasters and bold arched pediment.  There would be little other  stonework on the facade.  Mott created the quoins along the sides and the imitation blocks of the Gibbs-type surround of the second floor opening in brick.    Only two bandcourses, a single keystone and the third floor cornice were stone.

Dillon simultaneously commissioned Schmidt to design the 20,000-square-foot neo-Georgian mansion on his 118-acre summer estate, Dunwalke, in New Jersey. 

The new city house required additional servants.  The Dillons had made do with five on Park Avenue; but when they moved into the 30-room 80th Street house the staff grew to 14--plus two security personnel.  Clarence Dillon was understandably concerned about the safety of his family.  The 1920's saw radical Marxists and anarchists targeting capitalists with violence--as vividly exemplified by the September 1920 terrorist attack on the J. P. Morgan & Co. building on Wall Street.  In response, Dillon augmented the household staff with a night watchman and a private motorcycle cop who made rounds throughout the night.

Young Clarence was attending Harvard University when the house was completed.  On January 14, 1930 the school's wooden locker house burned to the ground.  Clarence telephoned home and urged his father to replace the building.  The resultant brick field house cost half a million dollars during the Depression years.

Clarence Douglass Dillon did not wait for graduation to marry.  On March 11, 1931 The New York Times reported that he and Phyllis Ellsworth had been wed in Boston.  The promising young man would go on to an impressive career--serving in the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations as Ambassador to France, Under Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury.  During the Cuban Missile Crisis he sat on the Executive Committee of the National Security Council.

In the meantime his father did not slow down.  He was a director in five banks and several corporations including the National Cash Register Company.  With the outbreak of World War II he served in Washington on the War Industries Board and in 1941.

Anne McEldin Douglass died in 1961.  Clarence survived until April 14, 1979 when he died at the age of 96 at Dunwalke. 

The Republic of Iraq had purchased No. 124 East 80th Street two years earlier.  It was the beginning of a bizarre chapter in the history of the elegant mansion.  Although home to the country's ambassador to the United Nations, there were no diplomatic receptions, no glamorous entertainments. 

Any maintenance of the building stopped in 1991 when the United States slapped sanctions on Iraq.  Famed interior decorator Mario Buatta, a neighbor, later grumbled to writer Laura Shaine Cunningham "There was no décor at all.  Sad, very sad.  The Iraqis did not do a thing inside.  It's in bad shape--has been since they got in in '77.  The house could have been beautiful; it was beautiful before they bought it."

There was one decorative item visible through the windows--a life-sized portrait of Saddam Hussein.   Wires dangled from each of the windows, prompting one reporter to question whether the Iraqis were "stealing cable."  The rear garden--unlike the manicured back yards of its neighbors--was used to store small propane tanks.  Neighbors watched as men silently moved from limousines to the door, never responding to greetings. 

Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri was a vocal supporter of his boss and detractor of the United States, saying at one point America wanted to "kill everyone in Iraq.  He refused to answer questions from specific reporters, calling them "Israelian Jews."  In silent protect several homeowners on the block hung American flags in their windows.

Al-Douri walked out of the United Nations in March 2008 accusing the United States of "criminal aggression" and intentions of "a real war of extermination" against Iraq.  That would be his last chance to grandstand.

On April 2, 2003 al-Douri no doubt sat in No. 124 watching televised coverage of the fall of Baghdad and the toppling of the statues of Saddam Hussein (who was suddenly no where to be found).  Suddenly the former ambassador had no country, no position and was about to have no home. 

The following week the Iraqis were ousted from New York, although al-Douri did not go peacefully.  Crying "I love New York" on April 9, he refused to accept his subpoena, while at the same time lamenting "the game is over."  The following day the 80th Street block was packed with reporters and cameramen waiting for the last appearance of the fallen diplomat.

Al-Douri would suffer one last humiliation.  When the door of No. 124 finally opened, he ran through the crowd heading straight to his limo.  But his driver had not parked in the accustomed spot and al-Douri was left to look left and right before spotting it up the block.  To make things worse, he was unable to get in--the door was locked and his driver was temporarily unable to unlock it.

Years passed and the vacant mansion became even more forlorn as dirt accumulated on the proud facade.  Then, in 2014, it appeared that a change was coming.  Kim Velsey, writing in The New York Observer on September 19 noted that "to the consternation of neighbors" the house had sat empty since 2003; however Omar Humandi, special assistant to the current ambassador, said "they've started talking to engineers and architects about finally renovating the place."

Any renovations were not what the moneyed neighbors had in mind.  In 2017 the Department of Buildings received several complaints that the Republic of Iraq was operating the mansion as "a commercial gym."  The operation was ended and the Dillon mansion was again abandoned--a wistful reminder of a grand past.