George F. Pelham's 1931 121 East 31st Street

 

After learning his trade in the architectural office of his father, George Brown Pelham, George Fred Pelham opened his own office in 1890.  Having earned a solid reputation as a designer of apartment buildings and hotels, in 1930 developers Psaty & Fuhrman commissioned him to design an apartment building at 119 through 125 East 31st Street.

Pelham routinely drew from historic styles and for 121 East 31st Street he turned to the English Regency period.  Completed in 1931, the 12-story-and-penthouse structure was faced in red brick, its setbacks starting at the tenth floor perfectly symmetrical.  Pelham was perhaps inspired by the elegant 18th century designs of Robert Adam in the tracery above the doorway, the double-height fluted pilasters with lotus capitals that flanked it, and the delicate swagged frieze above the second floor.

George Fred Pelham released this rendering in 1930.  The New York Sun, May 3, 1930.

Among the initial residents were Dr. Harrison I. Cook, who leased the penthouse on March 22, 1931, and Marcus Meltzer.  Cook graduated from Bellevue Medical College in 1911 and Meltzer was the chief statistician of the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters.

Born in 1883, Meltzer was born in Russia and was brought to America by his parents at the age of eight.  The New York Times said, "He was widely known for his work, not only in his field but among societies and associations, and was a writer and lecturer on his subject."  Meltzer's passion for statistical work spilled into his private life.  While other male residents in the building may have been members of social, political or athletic organizations, he belonged to the American Statistical Association, the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Association of Casualty and Surety Accountants and Statisticians.  He was one of the founders and the secretary of the latter society.

Meltzer was a bachelor and apparently shared his apartment with a roommate.  His enjoyment of his new home would be extremely brief.  He left his office on March 17, 1931 at around 8:00 "in apparently good health," according to The New York Times.  A doctor was called to the apartment around 2 a.m., presumably by Meltzer's roommate, who found the 48-year-old dead.  He had suffered a fatal heart attack.

photograph by Lowell Cochrane

Crawford Blagden and his wife, the former Mary Hopkins, were also initial residents.  The couple was married on October 7, 1911 and had one son, Crawford, Jr., who was born in 1912.  For some reason, the younger Blagden went to live with his father's brother, Francis Meredith Blagden, and his wife, the former Lydia Lawrence Mason Jones, at Sloatsburg, New York shortly after the family moved into 121 East 31st Street.

Francis and Lydia were married on August 22, 1917.  Lydia was previously married to Francis's and Crawford's older brother, Albert Campbell Blagden, who died in 1915.  Crawford Jr. was living with them when his engagement to Mary Kernochan, daughter of Chief Justice Frederic Kernochan was announced on April 18, 1933.

Benjamin S. and Carolyn Pulitzer moved into the building that year.  Pulitzer was president of Mayfair Cravats, Inc. a men's neckwear company.  Apparently the couple over-indulged on the night of April 28 that year.  At 8:30 the following evening, she went to the office of Dr. Frank H. Russell, her regular physician, "suffering from the after-effects of intoxication," according to The New York Times.  

Russell administered what the newspaper described as "an overdose of morphine."  Carolyn Pulitzer fell unconscious and the next morning, at 4:30, Dr. Russell took her home in a cab.  Carolyn later testified that "a hallboy in the apartment house had helped the doctor get her to her apartment."  She said Russell tipped the hallboy from change from her purse.  That was not the only thing the doctor slipped from her bag.  

When Carolyn awoke later, she discovered $12,000 worth of Mayfair Cravats, Inc. stock was missing.  In court, Russell admitted he took the stock, "but was holding it until she completed payment for treatments."  Carolyn Pulitzer, "said she thought she owed about $40 or $50, but that he maintained the bill was $200."  (None of those amounts would necessitate a $12,000 guarantee.)  The startling case was dismissed when Carolyn, somewhat surprisingly, agreed to drop charges if Russell returned the stocks upon her paying his bill.

William Russell and Walter Kaufman shared an apartment here in the summer of 1937.  They, along with Augusta Merten, took the train to Silver Point at East Rockaway on July 28 to enjoy the beach.  They had dinner later, then "decided to go bathing again," reported The Rockaway News.  Augusta was a few yards ahead of Russell and Kaufman in the water when she was swept up by the undertow and carried out.  As Russell and Kaufman swam to rescue her, an off-duty patrolman Joseph Lynch, "who was bathing nearby," joined the effort.

Lynch and Kaufman were able to pull the woman to the beach, but quickly realized that Russell was missing.  The Rockaway News reported, "Life Guard Roy Bower of Woodmere found Russell's body floating in the water a few hundred feet from where he had gone down."  Surprisingly, the 48-year-old had not drowned--an autopsy showed no water in his lungs.  The doctor deemed his death, "from a heart attack resulting from the excitement of attempting to rescue Mrs. Merten."

Dr. Harrison I. Cook was still living here on November 6, 1941 when he hosted a glittering dinner party in the Trianon Room of the Ambassador Hotel in honor of the engagement of Mildred L. Martens and Lt. George De Metropolis of the U.S. Navy.  Among the 40 guests listed in The New York Times, understandably, were several military officers and their wives.

Living here at the time were Lewis E. and Florence G. Birdseye, born in 1873 and 1874 respectively.  Until 1931, when Lewis was appointed the general agent for the St. John's Guild, a charitable institution established in the 1890s, he was superintendent of the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn.  Lewis was at his desk in his office at 1 East 42nd Street on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, 1942, when he collapsed with a fatal heart attack.

A month later, another resident, Marc MacCollum, laid plans to find a weekend retreat.  His ad in The Rhinebeck Gazette on January 28, 1943, read: "Wanted--I would like to hear from someone who would like to have a paying guest over weekends.  I have simple but clean tastes and like to saw wood."

Ray W. Thompson and his wife did not need to rely on someone else's country home for respite.  On October 5, at the end of the summer social season of 1950, The East Hampton Star announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Ray W. Thompson have left Amagansett for their New York home, 121 East 31st Street."

An interesting resident was Dr. Tibor Eckhardt.  His wife, the former Judy Dwyer, died in 1966.  Born in Makó, Hungary in 1888, he studied at the Universities of Budapest, Paris and Berlin, earning a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree.  He served in the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1920 served in the Premier's office.  He was elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1922.

Dr. Tibor Eckhardt in 1931.  (original source unknown)

At the time, Hungary was experiencing what was known as the "White Terror"--a period when leftist intellectuals, especially Jews, were being purged.  In 1923, Eckhart joined the Smallholders Party, the leading faction of the Hungarian Opposition. He became its president in 1934 and was Hungary's chief delegate to the League of Nations in 1935.  

That year he joined the Democratic Opposition, which was fighting against the growing Nazi movement.  When Hungary sided with Germany during the war, Eckhardt escaped to the United States in 1941.

Here he initiated a movement for the restoration of Hungarian independence that would spread world-wide.  He helped organize the Hungarian National Council in 1948 and was a member of its executive committee.  He sat on the Assembly of Captive European Nations in 1954.  While living here in 1972, he published, From Yalta to Potsdam.

In 1975 the residents of 121 East 31st Street lost what some might have seen as a nostalgic reminder of the 1931 era--the elevator operator.  On March 30, The New York Times reported that the new owners, Teitelbaum Holdings, "plans to automate the elevators in the 96-unit apartment house, but not to make other major changes."

photograph by Lowell Cochrane

Outwardly, George Fred Pelham's dignified design survives essentially intact.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

The 1926 Central Park View Apartments - 415 Central Park West

 

photo courtesy Landmark West!

On October 31, 1925, the Record & Guide pointed out, "Central Park West is now attracting the attention of apartment house builders and operators."  It went on to say that the latest project was a $1,325,000 building being erected by the 415 Central Park West Corporation.  "It will contain about 112 apartments," said the article, noting that "a library is included in the seven-room suites."

The Central Park View Apartments, on the northwest corner of Central Park West and 101st Street, opened in 1926.  Designed by Deutsch & Schneider in the neo-Regency style, the 16-floor and penthouse structure was formally symmetrical.  The three-story base was anchored by limestone corners, its double-height entrance supporting two pairs of neo-Classical urns.  The ten-story mid-section was faced in red Flemish-bond brick.  At the 14th and 15th floors, faux balconies sprouted 2-story stone surrounds and pilasters.

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, October 31, 1925

The Central Park View Apartments offered suites of four rooms and two baths, and six- or seven-rooms apartments with three baths.  A 1926 brochure said, "The two 6 room apartments are ideal, each being in effect a Private Home, extending through the full length of the building from east to west with no long halls; the maid's quarters, including the kitchen, occupying the entire rear, and the kitchens of both apartments connected with a service elevator and service stairway."

The up-to-the-minute amenities included lighted closets (the smallest apartments had five closets while the largest had ten, including a cedar closet).  The brochure noted, "The floors are of hardwood, in herringbone design; solid brass and bronze hardware has been used throughout...In keeping with all else, every apartment has up-to-date electric refrigeration--individual equipment in every kitchen."

The two penthouse apartments were marketed as "roof garden apartments," and called "a feature of this building."  One had six rooms, the other seven rooms.  The 1926 brochure said, "The roof is entirely of red tile, and a liberal landscaping effect is provided around these apartments.  Elevator service, of course."

photo courtesy Landmark West!

Among the initial residents of one of the penthouse apartments was the musical comedy lyricist Lorenz Hart.  He moved in with his parents, Max and Frieda Hart.  According to Gary Marmorstein, in his A Ship Without a Sail--The Life of Lorenz Hart, the family moved here from their 119th Street house to be on one floor.  Max Hart "was having an increasingly painful time negotiating a flight of stairs."

Max's deteriorating condition did not improve.  According to Marmorstein, on the night of October 8, 1928, with Lorenz and his brother Theodore at his bedside, Max said, "I'm going to die tonight.  Don't wake your mother, though.  Let her sleep."  He was 68 years old.

Lorenz Hart (right) with Richard Rodgers.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Early in the summer of 1929, Lorenz Hart and his partner, Richard Rodgers, received an offer from producer Laurence Schwab to contribute songs for the movie version of the Broadway musical Follow Thru.  To celebrate, Hart hosted an open house.  Variety reported, "Larry Hart threw an endurance party at his place the other a.m.  Broke all pent-house records."

Lorenz and Frieda Hart remained in the Central Park View Apartments until August 1939 when they moved about nine blocks south to the Ardsley, at 320 Central Park West.

Illustrator Peter Arno and his wife, Lois Long, were also initial residents.  Born Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr., Arno was perhaps best known for his covers for The New Yorker.  He began contributing cover designs in 1925, the year of the magazine's founding.  He branched into the theater, producing, designing and writing four Broadway shows, beginning with the 1931 Here Goes the Bride.

Peter and Lois most likely met through The New Yorker.  Lois had been a journalist for Vogue and Vanity Fair before being hired to write an anonymous nightlife column for The New Yorker.  Using the pseudonym "Lipstick," her witty chronicles of Manhattan nightclubs and society capers made her a celebrity--albeit an anonymous one.  She married Peter Arno in 1927.

The couple's professional interaction seems to have been more successful than their domestic situation.  Their arguments turned violent, and on January 20, 1930, the Daily News headlined an article, "Peter Arno, Cartoonist, Hides From Wife to Nurse His Scars / Split With Lois Long, Says It's Friendly."  The final altercation was apparently heard by neighbors, Time magazine reporting that the couple "quarreled bitterly in the middle of the night."  Arno left the Central Park View Apartments and he and Lois divorced the following year.

Another tenant associated with The New Yorker was writer and critic Alfred Kazin and his wife, the former Natasha Dohn.  The couple moved in on November 18, 1948.  Kazin's reviews appeared in The New Yorker as well as the New York Herald-Tribune, The New York Times, and The New Republic.  His 1951 memoir, A Walker in the City was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, as were its sequels, the 1965 Starting Out in the Thirties and New York Jew, published in 1978.

Novelist Padraic Colum and his wife, Mary (known as Molly) Maguire, moved in around 1933 after spending three years living in France.  A major figure in the Irish Literary Revival movement, Colum covered all the literary bases--novelist, dramatist, children's author, playwright, poet and biographer.  

Padraic Colum, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Mollie Colum died in 1957 while co-writing Our Friend James Joyce with Padraic.  He finished the book about their close relationship with the Irish novelist and poet, which was published in 1958.

Jazz vocalist and civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln was another celebrated resident.  In her 2017 Dizzy Duke, Brother Ray and Friends--On and Off the Record With Jazz Greats, Lilian Terry recalls, "it became customary that I accept [Abbey's] hospitality at her New York apartment at 415 Central Park West."

Abbey Lincoln was one of the long list of impressive musicians who lived in the Central Park View Apartments that included drummers Art Blakey, Max Roach and Elvin Jones; jazz pianists Teddy Wilson and Dwike Mitchell; lyricist Yip Harburg; and cellist Marion Cumbo.  Singer, songwriter, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone moved into the building in 1960, following her divorce from Donald Ross.

By 1970, science fiction and fantasy author Robert E. Margroff lived here.  His first story, "Monster Tracks," was published in 1964, after which he mostly co-authored novels with Piers Anthony.  They included the five-book series Kelvin of Rud.

A fascinating tenant was artist Bradford Boobis, who lived here with his wife Shawn.  Starting out as a Hollywood composer, he turned to painting.  The self-taught artist was highlighted in a 1969 edition of American Artist, which said, "His work indicates that he has thoroughly mastered oil technique, draughtsmanship and craftsmanship."  A year later three of Boobis's works were chosen to be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Library of President Papers.  American Artist pointed out that he was the only living artist represented in the exhibition.

Boobis suffered a heart attack on January 16, 1972 and died on his way to the hospital at the age of 43.  Writing in The New York Times half a century later on April 3, 2023, Joshua Needelman recalled that on the night of his death, "fearing that his widow might sell them," four of his "most dedicated devotees" entered the Boobis apartment and "surreptitiously removed roughly a dozen of his paintings, which depicted naked figures amid distorted surroundings." 

Bradford Boobis's The Cocktail Party was one of the paintings shipped to London.  via Louis K. Meisel Gallery.

The paintings were shipped to London to Robert Anthony Rayne, a member of the British peerage.  In June 2022 they were briefly returned to New York City for a showing at the Meisel Gallery.  Louis K. Meisel told Needelman that two of the paintings were "as great as anything I'd ever seen in realism and surrealism or anything representational."

Stage, television and motion picture actor Edward Emerson and his wife, the former Edith Broder, lived here at the time of Boobis's death.  Born in 1903, Emerson appeared on Broadway in shows like Hilda Cassidy; Heigh-ho, Everybody; and Crime Marches On.  His film career included roles in the 1936 Cover Chinatown, Behind the Criminal the following year, and There Goes Kelly in 1945.

photo courtesy Landmark West!

While not as architecturally dazzling as some of the thoroughfare's well-known Art Deco structures, the Central Park View Apartments plays an important role in the Central Park West streetscape.

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The Lost Elihu Root Mansion -- 733 Park Avenue

 

The New York Architect, August 1907 (copyright expired)

Born on February 15, 1845, Elihu Root was a pioneer in the practice of international law.  He married Clara Frances Wales in 1878, and the couple had three children, Edith, Elihu Jr., and Edward Wales.  The family's summer home was in Clinton, New York.

A 1907 postcard depicted the Root summer home.

Elihu Root was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1883.  Then, in July 1899, he was made Secretary of War by President William McKinley.  Root resigned his cabinet position on February 1, 1904 to return to New York and his private law practice.  It appears that Root had considered his resignation for some time.  A year earlier, on May 9, 1903, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide had announced that Carrere & Hastings was designing "the new dwelling which Secretary of War Elihu Root will erect at the southeast corner of Park av. and 71st st."  The article noted that Root had paid $100,000 for the land and that the "dwelling will cost in the neighborhood of $150,000."  The combined costs placed Root's outlay at over $8.5 million in 2024 terms.

Elihu and Clara Frances Root, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

On June 25, 1904, a year into construction, the Record & Guide reported that the mansion "has reached the 5th story floor level."  The article said, "The design, by Carrere & Hastings...is almost devoid of ornamentation, the structure depending upon its proportions, simplicity of line, and the rich color of its Harvard brick exterior, for its effectiveness."  The journalist added, "The house is to have a richly carved marble staircase with ornamental balustrades."

Construction was completed in 1905.  Carrere & Hastings's reserved, neo-Regency style design recalled the townhouses of the London gentry a century earlier.  The entrance sat within a shallow limestone portico crowned by a broken pediment.  Faux balconies fronted the second story windows, the limestone frames of which terminated in panels carved with classical urns.  The fifth floor sat discretely behind a balustrade above the terminal cornice.

Visitors were no doubt awed when they entered the spacious "foyer hall" wits its sweeping marble staircase.  The New York Architect, August 1907 (copyright expired)

If the Roots moved into their new home at all, it was for a very short period.  On July 19, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Elihu Root Secretary of State, and, once again, he and Clara relocated to Washington.  

Indoor & Out, March 6, 1906 (copyright expired)

In their absence, the Roots rented the mansion to Paul and Charlotte Morton.  The two couples were assuredly well acquainted, Morton's position as Secretary of the Navy having just ended on June 30, 1905.  (The end of his one-year term was uncomfortable, at best.  He was forced to resign when it was revealed that the Santa Fe Railroad, of which he was vice president, was given illegal rebates under him.  President Theodore Roosevelt supported Morton, insisting that the millionaire never knew of the improprieties.) 

Morton was now president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.  He and his wife, the former Charlotte Goodrich, had two daughters, Charlotte and Pauline.  Charlotte was an ardent “anti” during the early Suffragist Movement, allying herself with socialites against women’s rights to vote.  She was Honorary Vice-President of the National League for Civic Education; an organization that strove to snuff out the Suffragist Movement.

Indoors & Out, March 6, 1906 (copyright expired)

The Mortons had impressive, if unexpected, houseguests on January 15, 1906.  The New York Times reported that former President Grover Cleveland and his wife arrived in town that day, and that "Paul Morton...got lodgings for Mr. Cleveland on Monday evening" at the Hotel Buckingham on Fifth Avenue.  Cleveland first attended a luncheon at the Lawyer's Club, then went to the hotel.  Astonishingly, given that Cleveland was a former United States President, he was not accommodated.

Indoor & Out, March 6, 1906 (copyright expired)

"'I am very sorry, but there really isn't a room in the house,' he was told," said The New York Times.  "Mr. Cleveland seemed disappointed as he walked away."  And so the Clevelands turned to the man who had been entrusted in securing their lodging.  "After failing to get rooms at the Buckingham, he went to Mr. Morton's house, at 733 Park Avenue.  Mrs. Cleveland joined him during the day, and they spent last night there," said the article.

Paul and Charlotte Morton, New-York Tribune, August 20, 1905 (copyright expired)

The Roots and Mortons apparently had an understanding that the former could use their home when necessary.  On January 25, 1907, the New-York Tribune reported, "Secretary Elihu Root of the State Department and Mrs. Root arrived in the city at 9 o'clock last night on the Montreal express...They went at once to their town house, No. 733 Park avenue, and will leave here this morning for Washington."

The library.  Indoors & Out, March 6, 1906 (copyright expired)

The next day, The Sun reported that among the "notable weddings" to take place the following month would be that of Pauline Morton to J. Hopkins Smith, Jr.  "Mr. and Mrs. Paul Morton, the bride's parents, are living in the fine new establishment of Elihu Root, 733 Park avenue, which will be the scene of the big reception."

The wedding took place in St. Thomas's Church on February 2, after which a who's who of society filed into the Park Avenue mansion.  Included among those invited were not only the expected society names like Astor, Cutting, Atterbury, Alexander and, of course, the Roots, but also President  Theodore Roosevelt and the First Lady.  

Elihu Root's term as Secretary of State ended in 1909.  But he would not be returning to Park Avenue.  On March 4 that year he began service as United State Senator.  Never having truly occupied the sumptuous house they had erected, Elihu and Clara Root sold it in November 1910 to Carll Tucker for $350,000 (about $11 million in today's money).   The Mortons moved to 844 Fifth Avenue, next door to the John Jacob Astor mansion. 

Tucker's wife was the former Marcia Myers Brady.  The couple had two children, one-year-old Luther and four-month old Nicholas Brady.  Three more children would be born in the house, Marcia Anne, in 1914; Ruth Burnett in 1917; and Carll Jr. in 1921.

An early photograph of Carll Tucker (original source unknown)

As with all monied families, the Tuckers filled 733 Park Avenue with impressive art.  Included in their collection were paintings by modern artists like Edward Hopper.

The Tuckers' elevated lifestyle was reflected in The New York Times reporting on the New York Horse Show on November 7, 1915.  One of the last gasps of the summer social season, like Ascot in Britain, it was where socialites displayed their finery.  And six-year-old Luther was already being groomed.  The article said,

The children of society were there in numbers, and they marched around the promenade in twos and threes, in dainty and modish costumes, just like their mammas, while the less fortunate children looked down upon the scene with wondering eyes.  Some of the children hugged the silver cups they had won, all afternoon, particularly little Luther Tucker of 733 Park Avenue, who was with his sisters and a governess.

On May 14, 1920, The Sun reported that the Tuckers had purchased "the handsome house of Edmund Butler known as Sengahurst, and thirty-seven acres of land surrounding."  The family renamed their new summer estate in Mount Kisco "Penwood."

A postcard depicted Sengahurst, which the Tuckers renamed Penwood.

Like almost all extremely wealthy families, the Great Depression did not noticeably affect the Tuckers' lifestyle.  In 1929, Carll commissioned the Migrant, a steel-hulled, 800-ton three-masted auxiliary schooner, called by The New York Times, "one of the largest of its kind built in the United States."  And Marcia continued her routine of entertaining and charitable works.  On February 18, 1933, for instance, The Evening Post reported on the sewing classes of the Fresh Air Association of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  "On March 14," said the article, "the group will meet with Mrs. Caril [sic] Tucker at her home."

A disturbing incident occurred on May 23, 1933.  Marcia traveled to Penwood with a maid, Bertha Hubert, who had been hired a month earlier.  As the automobile neared the estate, Marcia, Bertha and the chauffeur, Robert E. Yaeger (he was one of three chauffeurs employed by the family), heard a noise and noticed a shimmying of the vehicle.  Later that same day, Marcia asked Robert to take Bertha and another servant, Nellie Fisher, back to the Park Avenue house.  He mentioned to Carll Tucker that he suspected "there was something wrong with the front tire and the steering," according Bertha later.  She said that Tucker replied, "Never mind, that is a new tire."

The library at Penwood.  Architectural Forum, Volume XLII, 1925 (copyright expired)

On the way to New York City, Bertha testified, "I heard a crack like a blow-out" after which the car crashed and rolled over twice.  All three occupants of the automobile were hospitalized and all three sued their employer.  (Robert Yaeger later dropped his suit.)  A jury awarded $4,000 to Bertha Hubert and $2,000 to Nellie Fisher ($84,500 and $42,000, respectively, in today's money).

photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Tuckers were at Penwood on July 30, 1956 when Carll died of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 74.  Calling him a "clubman," since he had no real profession, in reporting his death The New York Times mentioned, "Mr. and Mrs. Tucker entertained frequently at their New York home, the former Elihu Root mansion, 733 Park Avenue...and on their extensive Mount Kisco estate."

Marcia Tucker sold 733 Park Avenue to Alex Muss in 1969.  The following year, on October 11, 1970, The New York Times began an article saying, "Ground has been broken for a $10-million cooperative apartment house on Park Avenue in which the least expensive unit...is being offered at $270,000."  Muss had demolished the former Root mansion to erect the 28-floor building designed by Kahn & Jacobs with Harry F. Green.  The building is known as 733 Park Avenue.

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The Orpheum Theater - 126 Second Avenue

One of two Greek-inspired drama masks on either side of the marquee can be glimpsed at the top of the ground floor pier.

In 1837 construction began on two nearly mirror-image Greek Revival homes at Nos. 126 and 128 Second Avenue.   Each three bays wide, they were three-and-a-half stories tall and featured the details of upscale residences--handsome wrought-iron basket newels at the shared stoop, paneled double entrance doors and a stone balustrade above the cornice.

In 1860 the trustees of the New-York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children purchased No. 126.  The institution was at the time located at the corner of Bleecker and Crosby Streets, but, as noted by The New York Times on May 7 that year, "The Dispensary and Infirmary patients are constantly increasing."  The "large and commodious" 25-foot wide home, according to the trustees, was "well adapted for the accommodation of patients."

The building as it appeared around 1868.  original source unknown

By the turn of the century the facility was gone.  The once-elegant neighborhood was now the center of New York's German immigrant population.  Along Second Avenue were restaurants, beer gardens, and at least one pleasure garden, the Orpheum Garden.

Pleasure gardens had been popular for most of the 19th century.  They offered food and drink and, in the warm months, open-air entertainment in the rear "gardens" where patrons could escape the stifling heat of their tenement rooms.

On February 14, 1908 the New-York Tribune reported that the vintage house-turned infirmary-turned-recreation venue was about to get a face life.  "Plans have also been filed for remodelling the four story and basement restaurant and concert hall, No. 126 Second avenue for the Orpheum Garden Company."

It is unclear how far-reaching those original exterior renovations went; but the interior was remodeled into a silent film theater.  In January 1913 the Practical Mother's Association of Greater New York sent its foot soldiers out to investigate the posters displayed by such venues.  Their intention was to attack "the films and houses which deserve reprobation."  One sanctimonious member inspected the Moving Picture Theatre at No. 126 Second Avenue, reporting "Crowd of children outside.  I did not go in, but outside of building up to standard.  Posters good."

At the time the theater was owned by Nathan Bloch.  It was doing well enough that the following year he hired architect Harold L. Young to design a replacement building.   His plans called for a "$10,000 theatre."  That figure would translate to about $253,000 today.

The result was a handsome brick-faced theater, two stories tall.  Trimmed in limestone, it was a refined 20th century take on English Regency architecture; the second floor and parapet being a near copy of the 1819 entrance to the Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly.

Harold L. Young quite possibly referred to T. H. Shepherd's 1819 Burlington Arcade in London.  copyright expired

The new theater was named the Orpheum--an obvious nod to the Orpheum Garden.  The venue continued to draw crowds and two years after its opening Bloch re-hired Young to update the building with "new fire-proof widows."

The title of the property was in the name of Nathan Bloch's wife, Gizella.  The couple retained ownership for decades, but did not attempt get involved in the theater's management.  They leased it to a series of theatrical management firms--like Benjamin Sherman who took it over in September 1929 and the Danrold Amusement Company, Inc. which leased it in September 1934.

Motion pictures gave way to live entertainment in 1958 when the American Mime Theatre opened in the renovated venue.   The New York Times theater critic Arthur Gelb was not overwhelmed.  Following opening night on September 24, he wrote "Watching the American Mime Theatre is more like looking at a group of high-spirited, attractive young people playing charades than watching an artistic achievement.

"Like an onlooker at charades, a member of the audience at the New Orpheum Theatre on Second Avenue can get pretty bored."  His brutally frank review ended "Once they figure out who and what they are, let them come back and try again."

Despite the lackluster performance of its opening production, the Orpheum Theatre became a popular off-Broadway venue.  The following spring Producer Philip Rose's production of the new musical, My Old Friends, was staged; and on May 18, 1959 the Peter Pell production of Chic, starring Virginia de Luce, opened.

Dancer and actress Virginia de Luce had made her Broadway debut in New Faces of 1952. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York  

Later that year a new musical Little Mary Sunshine thrust an unknown actress into stardom.  The tongue-in-check production opened on November 18, 1959 starting Eileen Breenan.  The role earned her an Obie Award.

Eileen Brennan as Little Mary Sunshine at the Orpheum Theatre.  original source unknown

Throughout the decades the Orpheum Theatre would see a succession of veteran stage stars.  On January 15, 1962 Felicien Marceau's play, The Egg, opened with Dick Shawn starring.  In the cast of Matty and the Moron and Madonna, which opened on March 29, 1965, were Katherine Ross and Sylvia Miles.  And on September 26, 1967 George Tabori's joltingly-titled The Niggerlovers opened starring Stacey Keach.  Tabori described the play as "contemporary--set in New York--and on one level of meaning about the problem of black and white."

photo by Edmund Vincent Gillon from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In December 1979, Harvey Fierstein brought his Fugue in a Nursery to the stage here.  The Times critic John Corry was tepid in his assessment of Fierstein's offering, saying in part, "Nonetheless, credit Mr. Fierstein with warm intentions; he likes his characters...Mr. Fierstein likes them well enough to even play Arnold himself.  There is vanity at work here, but Mr. Fierstein is serious about it."

Critic John Corry was relentless in his deprecation of An Evening with Joan Crawford, which he called "a ramshackle musical at the Orpheum" following opening night on January 29, 1981.  The production, the cast of which were mostly female impersonators, "alternates between ridicule and adoration of Miss Crawford and it makes of her a holy monster."  He concluded "One imagines the actors sitting around, telling Joan Crawford stories and imagining that you will find them as amusing as they did.  You will not, and necrophilia is not nostalgia."
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photo by Beyond My Ken

No one could imagine that when the production of Stomp opened in 1994 it would still be going strong nearly a quarter of a century later.  Although the sizable marquee obscures much of the lower half of the structure, little has changed to Harold L. Young's elegant 1914 movie theater.