The Helena and Charles McCann Mansion - 9 East 80th Street

 

Brothers David and John Jardine were partners in the prolific architectural firm D. & J. Jardine.  In 1867, they acted as developers, as well, as members of Kendall & Jardine.  That year they designed four brownstone houses on the north side of 80th Street, just east of Fifth Avenue.  No. 9, completed the following year, underwent a succession of owners over the subsequent decades.

Thirty years after the first occupant moved in, the neighborhood was changing from upper-middle class to high end.  The millionaire district, centered around Fifth Avenue in the 50s in 1867, had inched northward.  The Jardine-designed brownstone was both architecturally passe and socially inferior.  On April 28, 1899, the New York Journal and Advertiser reported that the 20-foot wide house had been sold.  Two months later, on June 30, The New York Times reported that the buyer, John C. Schawe, had commissioned Samuel Edson Gage to transform the high-stooped brownstone to a modern American basement mansion at the significant cost of $20,200--about $788,000 in 2025 terms.

Gage stripped off the brownstone facade, removed the stoop and gave the house a neo-French Renaissance front.  Above a stone base, the upper four floors (clad in yellow brick) were frosted with ornate terra cotta decorations--Corinthian pilasters encrusted with Renaissance ornamentation, and pediments topped with crockets and flanked with finials.  Each floor was defined by a molded intermediate cornice.  Gage created a unique terminal cornice by supporting it with free-standing colonnettes upon foliate scrolled brackets.

The treatment of the terminal cornice is unique and brilliant.

Hallett Allsop Borrowe and his wife, the former Anna Wheeler Corbin, purchased the remodeled house in April 1900.  Anna was the youngest daughter of railroad magnate Austin Corbin.  Her husband's life was what The New York Times described as "kaleidoscopic."

Born on April 1, 1864 into an aristocratic New York City family, he started out studying to be an artist.  He then turned to law, entering Columbia Law School, but never completing the course.  The New York Times said he then, "went abroad and mingled with the social and club life of England and France...His father's position and wealth enabled him to live a life of leisure."

A scandalous affair with Charlotte Augusta Drayton, the daughter of William and Caroline Astor and wife of J. Coleman Drayton, prompted Borrowe's father to "banish him to a residence in New Jersey," according to The New York Times.  When the Draytons went to London in 1892, Borrowe followed.  The visible romance between him and Charlotte resulted in Drayton's challenging him to a duel, what The New York Times called an "affair of honor."  That event never happened, but on April 24, 1892, Edward Fox (who was accused of being responsible for the publicity around the affair) fought Borrowe in a duel in Brussels.  The Associated Press reported that Fox's shot missed and Borrowe's pierced Fox's coat "without inflicting injury."  The duel was declared at an end.

Hallett Alsop Borrowe, passport photo 1915 (copyright expired)

Back home, Borrowe married Anna in 1896.  He joined Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, fighting in Cuba and returning home with the rank of captain.  When he and Anna moved into 9 East 80th Street, he was a partner in the realty firm of A. B. Ashforth & Co.

The Borrowes' residency would be relatively short-lived.  On November 11, 1904, The New York Times reported that they had sold 9 East 80th Street to Frank W. Woolworth, noting, "It is understood that Mr. Woolworth has bought the house for his daughter."

That daughter was Helena, Woolworth's eldest of three daughters.  The house was a wedding gift.  She and Charles Edward Francis McCann were married the previous April.  The bridegroom was a nephew of Tammany boss Richard Crocker.  An 1896 graduate of Columbia Law School, he was a partner in the legal firm of Douglas, Armitage & McCann.

Charles E. F. McCann (original source unknown).

Although it had been just four years since the mansion was remodeled, the McCanns embarked on renovations.  On January 8, 1905, the New York Herald reported that they, "are making rapid progress toward the completion of their new home, No. 9 East Eightieth street."  The article said they hoped to move in in time for two "at homes" on January 28 and February 4.

Helen Woolworth McCann (original source unknown)

McCann's marriage into the Woolworth family was professionally advantageous for him.  He would become president of the Broadway Park Place Company that owned the Woolworth Building, and upon his father-in-law's death, would serve as attorney for the estate.

 

The anticipated "at home" on January 28 would not take place.  On January 23, 1905, the New York Morning Telegraph reported on the death of McCann's cousin, Frank Crocker.  The article said, "Mr. McCann had but lately moved into his new residence at 9 East Eightieth street, and was preparing for a number of social functions."  The New York Herald reported, "On account of the sudden death of Frank H. Crocker, the invitations to the receptions which were to have been given by Mrs. C. F. McCann on January 28 and February 4 at her residence, No. 9 East Eightieth street, have been recalled."

McCann's mother, Maria Jeannette Frazer McCann, died on January 15, 1908.  Her funeral was held in the 80th Street mansion three days later.

In 1911, Frank Winfield Woolworth began construction of three adjoining mansions opposite the McCann's home.  Each would be a gift to a Woolworth daughters.  He commissioned architect Charles P. H. Gilbert, responsible for the Woolworth mansion around the corner at 990 Fifth Avenue, to design the homes.  

The McCann's new mansion, at 4 East 80th Street, was completed in 1915.  The couple did not sell No. 9, but leased it.  On November 23, that year, The New York Times reported that the McCanns had leased the house to Cornelius Tiers.  The following year, William Watson Lawrence occupied the house, and in October 1918, William Meyer leased it.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Six months later, on April 26, 1919, the Record & Guide reported that the McCanns had sold 9 East 80th Street to John Clarence Leslie and his wife, Elizabeth, for $90,000 (about $1.63 million today).

Born in North Carolina on March 17, 1865, Leslie married Elizabeth Harty (known as Bessie), in September 1893.  The Sentinel called her, "one of Charlotte's most prominent and most popular women."  The couple's daughter, Emma Ross, was 25 years old when the family purchased the house.  (A son, John, died in 1897 at the age of one.)  The family maintained a summer home on Long Island.

John C. Leslie was a partner in Cannon Mills with J. W. Cannon and Martin Glynn.  Tragically, both his partners died unexpectedly and swiftly by what was diagnosed as "angina pectoria," or heart attack.  The News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina, said, "The suddenness of their deaths had preyed upon Mr. Leslie's mind, he making frequent reference to it."

In the summer of 1923, Bessie and Emma were at Lake Placid while John remained in New York.  On the morning of July 24, he started downstairs for breakfast when he suddenly felt ill.  Before a servant could get him back to his bedroom, the 58-year-old was dead.  Ironically, he had suffered the same fate as his partners.

In reporting his death, The News & Record said, "Mr. and Mrs. Leslie had also planned an elaborate wedding for their daughter, in New York, one which would have been of wide social note."

Surprisingly, the wedding was not postponed.  On November 19, The Sentinel of Winston-Salem, North Carolina reported, "A wedding claiming much prominence and distinction was that of Miss Emma Ross Leslie and Mr. John Bynum Merritt, which was celebrated last Thursday...at the Leslie home, 9 East 80th street, New York city."  The article said, "Owing to a recent bereavement in the bride's family, the wedding was a quiet affair, being attended only by relatives and a few close friends."

On June 30, 1949, The New York Times reported that the Republic of Korea had purchased 9 East 80th Street.  The article mentioned, "It was owned and occupied for the past thirty years by Mrs. Bessie H. Leslie."  

The mansion continues to be home to the Korean Consulate General.  Other than a canvas marquee, little has changed to the exterior since its massive remodeling in 1899.

photographs by the author

The Lost New York Cotton Exchange Building - William and Beaver Streets

 

The Architectural Record, 1898 (copyright expired)

The New York Cotton Exchange was organized in 1870.  Historian Robert P. McDougall recalled in 1923, "Up to that time trading in cotton had been done in brokers' offices in and around Hanover Square, which still retained some flavor of the days when it was the residential site of wealthy New Yorkers and of distinguished French émigrés who had fled from the Revolution."  The new exchange met in rented rooms at 142 Pearl Street.

The Pearl Street building.  The Story of the Cotton Exchange, 1923 (copyright expired)

Two years later, the Cotton Exchange moved into India House at 1 Hanover Square.  That building sufficed until a committee was appointed on December 6, 1880 to consider sites and architects for a new headquarters.  On June 10, 1882, The Evening Post reported, "The most important private sale of the week was the purchase of the ground on Pearl, William, and Beaver Streets for the new Cotton Exchange Building."  The article said the exchange had paid $382,500 for the parcel.

Six architects submitted plans and on May 5, 1883 The American Architect & Building News reported, "Mr. George B. Post's designs for the Cotton Exchange Building have been accepted."  Five months later, The Sanitary Engineer announced that Post had filed plans for the eight-story structure.  "The estimated cost of the building is $530,000," said the article."  The combined cost of property and construction brought the outlay to more than $28 million by 2024 conversion.

As construction neared completion in January 1885, rental space was offered.  On January 29, The New York Times reported, "Little books containing elaborate diagrams of the interior of the new structure have been distributed among the members, and yesterday a circular was posted stating that a choice of offices would be disposed of at public sale on Feb. 4."

Construction was completed in 1895.  Above a three-story base, George Browne Post's neo-French Renaissance structure broke into two sections, each treated slightly differently, including the bases.  The upper floors at the corner morphed into a tower inspired by the Chateau de Chambord.  The Architectural Record said the New York Cotton Exchange building made the "bold sacrifice of rentable space to make the space which remains more useful and more agreeable to the inhabitants, by leaving large external courts upon which windows may open directly."  The article noted,

The round tower, by which the irregular angle is occupied, is an obvious resource in such a case, and Paris is full of such round towers used at the acute angles of meeting streets and avenues, but the New York business world has generally been too sharp-set for office rents to allow of such decorative treatment of its sites.

The critic felt that because of its striking tower, "the building is one of the most spirited structures in the business quarter of New York."

A hand-colored postcard highlighted the red tiled roofs.

"On a beautiful April morning, April 30, 1885," as described by Robert P. MacDougall, a band led the members of the New York Cotton Exchange from the old building to the new structure.  "The opening ceremonies were held on the great floor which was 108 feet long and 71 feet wide with a ring for trading in about the middle."  That evening, the celebrations were capped with a collation and ball.

Members were initially concerned about the acoustics of the trading floor.  On May 3, 1885, The New York Times reported, "In its present unfinished condition the board room of the new Cotton Exchange Building echoes the bids of brokers in a manner that is extremely unpleasant, if not confusing, during the busy hours."  The hard surfaces bounced the shouts of the brokers around the cavernous space, creating a cacophony.  The builders assured the members, "this will be remedied when all the window shades, furniture, and chandeliers are put in place."  

The echoing surfaces of the trading room initially caused problems.  photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York. 

Among the firms renting office space in the building was the insurance brokerage firm of Leonard & Moody.  Until 1884, Horace Moody's cousin William Gantz had worked for the firm, but that year he was discharged.  A reporter from The Evening World explained, "young Gantz, was brought up from infancy and educated by the Moodys."

Four years later, on August 2, 1888, Gantz appeared in Moody's office, asking for a loan of $30.  The Evening World reported, "Mr. Moody said he could not lend it to him, and as Gantz went out of the office he said that he would have it by hook or crook."  The article continued, "Mr. Moody went on a vacation the next day and when he returned found that his name had been forged for the exact amount which Gantz said he would have by 'hook or crook.'"

A young man had cashed the two $15 checks at Delmonico's restaurant across the street.  His description matched William Gantz.  Moody had his cousin arrested and Gantz was positively identified by the Delmonico employees.  

Although Gantz insisted he was innocent, he was locked up in the Tombs awaiting trial.  A conviction would result in a sentence at the state prison.  But then, a third attempt to cash a check at Delmonico's occurred.  Seventeen-year-old Charles E. Keeler was arrested.  He, too, had been employed by Leonard & Moody and had been fired in the spring.  

The Evening World reported on August 25, "Keeler, whose mental balance is not the most stable, confessed his guilt and acknowledged the uttering of the checks for passing which Gantz was in prison."  William Gantz was exonerated and the Delmonico's manager and cashier tepidly acknowledged their embarrassing mistake, saying, "they cash so many checks for their customers in person and by messenger that they may have been mistaken."

Another tenant in the building was W. R. Grace & Co.  It was headed by former Mayor William Russell Grace.  On October 29, 1890, The Sun remarked, "Mr. Grace has a big office in the Cotton Exchange building, and there are one or two smaller offices opening into it."

 

Like Leonard & Moody, Reinhard Sidenburg & Co. was the victim of forgers.  But in this case, the crime far exceeded the $45 drawn against the former's accounts.  In September 1893, $500 in cash went missing from a safe in the Rieinhard Sidenburg & Co. offices.  It triggered an inspection of the books that yielded shocking results.  About $20,000 was missing--nearly $700,000 in today's money.

On Saturday night, September 23, the firm's bookkeeper, Ernest J. Greene, was arrested at his Brooklyn house.  The cashier, John F. Collins, was arrested at his desk on Monday afternoon.  Both men confessed to the embezzlement.  The New-York Tribune explained how they perpetrated the crime.

Either Collins or Greene would erase by acids from checks made out to a customer the name of the payee, and substitute "bearer."  The dishonest employe[e]s would get the checks cashed and pocket the money.  They took care to intercept such checks and destroy them before they could be seen by any member of the firm when returned.

To cover up their crimes, false entries were made in the books.  The newspaper said that had they not stolen the cash, they could have gotten away with the scheme longer.  Collins and Greene were just 24 and 23 years old respectively.

Amazingly, just ten years after the Cotton Exchange Building was completed, on February 13, 1905, The Wall Street Journal reported, "Plans for the new Cotton Exchange building are to be voted on next Wednesday."  The demolition seemed to be confirmed, the article saying that the new building would cost "about $1,500,000."  Something derailed the plans, however, but the project was resurrected seven years later.  On September 25, 1912, The New York Times reported, "It is planned to tear down the old Cotton Exchange building at the corner of William and Beaver Streets, and to erect a new building at a cost of $1,755,000."  This replacement structure was proposed to rise 22 stories.

But, once again, the plans were scrapped.  Among the tenants in 1919 were the classrooms of the "commercial courses" of New York University, as described by the New York Herald on November 27.  

At the time, the world was suffering through the Great Influenza epidemic.  It broke out in 1918 and killed 675,000 Americans that first year.  And so occupants of the Cotton Exchange Building were no doubt panicked when 40-year-old commission merchant Vincent E. Mitchell died of influenza in January 1920.  The New York Times noted on January 17, "His wife died a few hours later, also of influenza, and his mother and two small children are ill with the same disease."  Happily, the disease did not spread throughout the building.

The streets of the Financial District were quiet in this postcard from the turn of the last century.

On December 16, 1921, the New York Herald reported that the Cotton Exchange would be renting space in the New York Produce Exchange building "from May 1, 1922 to May 1, 1923, while its new $3,000,000 building is under construction."  This time the demolition plans would happen.  Three weeks later, the New-York Tribune reported that Donn Barber's plans for a 24-story replacement had been accepted, noting "construction of the building was delayed for various reasons."

Donn Barber's replacement structure survives on the site.

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The Frederick W. White House - 20 East 64th Street

 

On November 17, 1879 brothers David and John Jardine advertised one of their pair of newly build residences:

For Sale--The elegant four-story full-wide bay-front brown-stone house, No. 20 East 64th-st.; just completed, designed and built by the undersigned in the most careful and complete manner.  Can be seen any day.  D. & J. Jardine, Architects

The 25-foot-wide, high-stooped house was sold to Henry Belden, Jr. and his wife, Clara.  Oddly, the Beldens had a proclivity for moving.   In the two years since 1877 they had lived in Brooklyn, on East 47th Street, on  West 45th Street, and at 18 West 38th Street--sometimes staying only for a matter of months.  Their habits did not change with the purchase of 20 East 64th Street.

In 1880 the Beldens moved to Irvington, New York and sold the 64th Street house to Franciso Bianchi and his wife Elizabeth for $80,000--around $2 million today.  Bianchi was a millinery merchant as well as an officer in the Eighth Avenue Railroad.  

Tragically, the family were in their new home only a few months before the drawing room was the scene of a funeral.  The Bianchi's son, Theodore, was about 11 years old when he died on September 5, 1880.

There would be another funeral in the house three years later.  Living with the family was Joanna Willis, the elderly widow of William Willis and presumably Elizabeth's mother.  She died on July 19, 1883 at the age of 81.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room the following day.

The Bianchis sold the house in October 1898 "for about $80,000," according to The Sun (interestingly, that was exactly what Francisco had paid for it 18 years earlier).  The buyers were Henry P. Goldschmidt and his wife, the former Georgette Woodleaf.

Born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1843, Goldschmidt was a banker.  He had come to New York in 1866 to work with the German banking house of Ballin & Sander.  He was now the head of the banking firm of H. P. Goldschmidt & Co.

He and Georgette maintained a "handsome villa in South Elberon, New Jersey," as described by George von Skal in his 1910 History of German Immigration in the United States.

On February 18, 1920 Goldschmidt sold the outdated brownstone to Frederick M. White.  Before he and his wife, the former Pansy B . Belwin, moved in, they hired architect Harry Allan Jacobs to transform it to a modern mansion in keeping with the neighborhood.  (The New York Evening Post commented that Jacobs "has planned some of the finest residences in New York.)

Jacobs stripped off the brownstone façade and removed the stoop.  A new marble front was erected at the property line.  Completed in 1921, the chaste neo-French Renaissance residence featured little ornamentation.  The main and service entrances at street level were nearly undistinguishable, their concave frames delicately carved with Renaissance style decorations.

Similar carvings embellished the arched openings of the second story.  The fourth floor sat above a projecting band.  Here intricately carved panels flanked the openings.  The windows of the tiled mansard, interestingly, were recessed within the roof, rather than taking the form of more expected dormers.

White was president of Peters, White & Company, president of the Mapes Company, and vice-president of the Mutual Chemical Company of America.  He and Pansy had been married since 1909.  His many social clubs included the New York Athletic, the Bankers Club, the Oakland Golf Club and the New York Club.

Perhaps unexpectedly, after spending $40,000 in renovating their house--in the neighborhood of $738,000 today--the Whites sold it in May 1927 to J. Clark Dulany and his wife, Belle Bart.    

The Dulanys were a colorful couple.  They established the American Academy of Astrology in the house upon moving in.  They and their operation quickly raised eyebrows--both social and legal.

On May 9, 1928 the Daily News reported, "At Belle Bart's fashionable astrology parlor at 20 East 64th st., you may learn what the stars have to do with your most private affairs.  But Edmund E. Frisch, jeweler of 576 5th ave., who is trying to find out what has become of a diamond brooch he values at $12,500, is not so sure the revelations are authentic."

Frisch had met the Dulanys in August 1927 in Lucerne, Switzerland.  They asked him to drop by the 64th Street mansion in December with a selection of jewelry from which to choose.  The  couple picked out the brooch as well as a diamond-studded bracelet with a $350,000 price tag in today's money.  They asked Frisch to leave the pieces so they could have them independently appraised.

Five months later Frisch had received neither payment nor the jewelry.  In May 1928 the bracelet was discovered in a pawn shop.  It was being held by the sheriff when, within days, the Dulanys appeared before State Supreme Court Justice Thomas C. T. Crain "to explain...why they shouldn't produce the brooch and also have the sheriff return the bracelet to Frisch."

On May 25 The New York Times reported that on the stand Belle said she was wearing the brooch one day in April, "and later in the day discovered it was missing."  The article added, "A search of the house failed to reveal it, she said."

This was (so far) the third time the Dulanys had been in legal trouble that year.   In February they had defended themselves against a law suit filed by George A. Devoe for default in a $20,000 loan made to the Academy.  And in reporting on the Frisch case, The New York Times noted, "Mrs. Dulany was mentioned last week in the replevin suit by the Federal Insurance Company to recover an $18,000 diamond ring alleged to have been lost by Mrs. Frederick W. Trabold, in which it was said the ring came into Mrs. Dulany's possession."  The ring had been pawned for $8,000.

Then, on August 24 that same year The Yonkers Statesman reported that George A. Devoe had been arrested for embezzling $325,000 from the New Jersey Fidelity and Plate Glass Insurance Company.  The complaint alleged that he shared the proceeds "with Mrs. Barton Delaney [sic], known also as 'Belle Bart,' an astrologist and her husband J. Clark Delaney [sic], 20 East 64th Street."

The Delany's left 20 East 64th Street in 1931 (they filed for personal bankruptcy in 1932).  The new owner, Roy Wilson Howard, had architect F. Albert Hunt make interior alterations to the 22-room mansion.  

Howard was chairman of the board of the Scripps Howard newspapers.   Living with Howard and his wife, the former Margaret Rohe, were their son, Jack, and Margaret's unmarried sister, Alice.

Roy Wilson Howard from the collection of the Library of Congress

Howard was a self-made man, having been born in Gano, Ohio on New Year's Day 1883 to a railroad brakeman and his wife.  Following his father's death, he was forced to drop out of school and help with the family's finances.  He found a job with the Indianapolis News and went on to a career in journalism.

Alice Rohe was as fascinating as her brother-in-law.  In 1914 she had served as bureau chief in Rome for the United Press.  She was the first female to hold such a position with an international press organization.  She was, as well, the first women to interview Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini.  When World War I broke out, she served with the Red Cross in the Balkans.

Alice Rohe from the collection of the Library of Congress

Alice died on April 7, 1957 at the age of 81.  She bequeathed an impressive collection of Etruscan antiquities to the University of Kansas.

Roy Wilson Howard died on November 20, 1964.  After various owners it was purchased by Irish-born real estate investor Derek M. Quinlan in 2005 for $26.25 million.   He listed it in 2009 for $37 million after the real estate market had plummeted the previous year.  He finally sold it in August 2011  to Gregg Hymowitz for $3.25 million less than he had paid for it.

Hymowitz, a co-founder of EnTrust Capital Funds, immediately began renovations--some of which did not please the locals.  By June 2015 he faced two lawsuits from neighbors who claimed their residences were being damaged by his construction.  The owners of 22 East 64th Street alleged their foundations had been damaged by Hymowitz's "attempt to build a below-ground bowling alley," according to Curbed New York.  They sued for $5 million.

Despite any interior remodeling, the exterior remains precisely as it looked when Harry Allen Jacobs gave it a sensational make-over in 1921.

photographs by the author

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