The Evangelical Lutheran Savior (Sts. Kyril & Metodi Bulgarian Cathedral) 552 W. 50th St.

 

 

photograph by Farragutful

On the evening of September 4, 1887, fire broke out on the second floor of the tenement building at 552 West 50th Street.  The following day, the New-York Tribune wrote that the flames had spread throughout the five-story building "and early this morning were still burning fiercely."  Tenements in the Hell's Kitchen district like this one were crammed with indigent families.  The article said that fire department officials predicted "that not less than ten bodies were buried in the burning ruins."

Steinhardt & Son erected a "three-story brick ribbon factory" on the site.  A minor labor problem arose in the summer of 1893.  The Evening World reported that some union members "had been insulted at Steinhardt's factory, 552 West Fiftieth street, for refusing to work on Memorial Day."  

On October 1, 1897, Herman von Hollen purchased the building for $12,000 (about $468,000 in 2026).  The buyer was, more precisely, Reverend Herman von Hollen, rector of the Evangelische Lutheriske Heilands Kirche (Evangelical Lutheran Savior Church).  

Born in Hanover, Germany on December 1, 1852, Von Hollen was ordained in 1878.  He married Matilda Lomberg in 1890 and had seven children, three of whom died in childhood.  The Von Hollens relocated to New York City in 1896.  Rev. Von Hollen organized the congregation in March 1897, just seven months before purchasing the factory building.  He had chosen a hardscrabble neighborhood in which to minister, and his was the first Lutheran church in Hell's Kitchen.

Within a month of the purchase, Von Hollen had commissioned the architectural firm of Kurtzer & Rohl to renovate the factory into "a three story brick dwelling and mission house."  The renovations cost him the equivalent of $117,000 today.  The architects' focus was the interior and little of the building's exterior appearance was altered.  In his 1907 Genealogical and Family History of New York, William S. Pelletreau described the Lutheran church:

It is a brick edifice, neatly furnished, with a seating capacity of about four hundred.  The work of the church is in larger degree among a poor class of the German population.

By 1903, the church was known simply as the German Lutheran Christ Church.  The renovated factory is the light-colored brick structure toward the left.  Federation magazine, June 1903 (copyright expired)

The Von Hollen family, a caretaker, a maid, and a housekeeper occupied the upper floors.  

The ruffians of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood were noted for their mischievousness, not their piety, as the newly-arrived German minister soon discovered.  On June 28, 1898, The New York Press reported that he defended himself before Magistrate Kudlich when he was accused by "half a dozen women" of abusing their children.  Von Hollen explained, "that he and his congregation were annoyed by children of the neighborhood, who howled around the church and threw stones and tin cans through the windows during services."

The mothers, "accused the minister of running out of the church and pulling the children's ears," said the article.  The magistrate sided with Von Hollen and dismissed the case, "but warned the women to be careful of their children's conduct hereafter."

Despite the magistrate's order, little changed.  Three years later, on May 18, 1901, The Evening World reported that Von Hollen had discovered two boys attempting to break into the church.  When he confronted them, John Ruck and Charles Kaiser, both 12 years old, pelted the minister with rocks.  It was a substantial assault.  The New York Morning Telegraph said that when Von Hollen appeared in court, "His scalp was furrowed by cuts and his clothing was gore [i.e., blood] stained."  But Rev. Herman von Hollen was what the newspaper described as, "One of the so-called 'turn the other cheek folk.'"  He begged Magistrate Zeller to "give the boys another chance," according to The Evening World.  Zeller told the delinquents that "were it not for Dr. Von Hollen's appeal...he would send them both to the House of Refuge."

Adolph Hernman worked as the caretaker of the property and lived in an upstairs room.  The German immigrant sported "a beard of patriarchal dimensions," as described by the New York Herald.  He, too, would become a target of neighborhood hooligans.  On August 15, 1905, he was walking along West 50th Street with a package when four boys "came up to him and asked for a match," as reported by the newspaper.  When he thrust his free hand into his pocket to get the match, "the four boys grabbed him.  Each one got a fistful of whiskers and the four pulled in different directions."

The reporter presumed that the prank was "exceedingly painful to the flesh, but more lacerating to the spirit."  Hernman found a policeman who "offered himself as the hook if Hernman would walk through the block again as bait."  And sure enough, within a few minutes one of the boys, 16-year-old Charles Kabish, attempted to grab the caretaker's beard.  The policeman rushed in and nabbed him.

The New York Herald reported, "Kabish wept a bucketful in court, but Magistrate Finn has seen boys cry before."  The teen was jailed for a day to spend "in meditation upon the evil of pulling whiskers and being caught at it."

In 1907, Rev. Herman von Hollen purchased a one-story brick church on Walton Avenue in the Bronx.  He retained ownership of the East 50th Street structure, and leased it to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Clemens and Mary.  The congregation occupied the building as it collected funds for its own structure.  On November 4, 1911, The New York Times reported that the St. Clemens and Mary congregation had purchased "two old residences" at 408 and 410 West 40th Street.  The article said, "a new edifice for the parish work is to be erected at once."

The new St. Clemens and Mary Church building was completed in 1912.  The consecration ceremony was held on May 26, but it went horribly awry.  The New-York Tribune headlined an article, "Crowded Stand at Church Collapses."  The article said that 3,000 persons panicked as the stands inside the church buckled.  Although 15 people were injured, some enough to be hospitalized, the ceremony went on.

Rev. Herman von Hollen now leased the West 50th Street building to the newly formed Saints Cyrillus and Methodius congregation.  It was founded by Franciscan friars to serve the increasing Croatian immigrant population.  The 1914 The Catholic Church in the United States of America recalled:

On October 16, 1913, this parish was formally established for the Croatians and entrusted to Rev. Ambrose Sirca, O.F.M.  An old church at 552 West 50th Street which was formerly used by St. Clemens' Polish congregation was obtained and dedicated to SS. Cyrillus and Methodius.

On New Year's Day, 1915, The New York Times reported that Von Hollen had sold the property to "St. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church."  Now that the congregation owned the building, it set out to make it look like a proper church.  In April 1915, it commissioned architect Frederick J. Schwartz to remodel the structure.  The New York Herald reported that his plans  "consist of building an entire new front wall, new stairs to the choir, new vestibule, and an addition to the choir loft for a sanctuary and sacristy."  The renovations cost the equivalent of $483,000 today.

Schartz's neo-Gothic design gave nods to the Croatian congregation's roots.  Faced in beige brick and trimmed in sandstone, the facade was dominated by a two-story, Gothic-arched stained-glass window.  The copper-clad steeple atop a square, featureless base reflected traditional Southeastern European prototypes.

The main stained-glass window depicts Saints Cyril and Methodius.  photograph by Carole Teller

The renovated church was dedicated on September 30, 1915.  The New York Herald reported, "and it will be known henceforth as the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius."  The article noted, "This will be the church centre for more than five thousand Catholics who came to the United States from Croatia, in the southern part of Austria-Hungary."

Aloysius Viktor Stepinac was the Archbishop of Zagreb (in Croatia).  Stepinac was imprisoned by the Yugoslav Government in 1946 for accused treason.  Croatian-American citizens protested.  On October 12, 1948, The New York Times reported on the "two young women in Croat peasant costumes" and five young men who picketed the Yugoslav consulate on Fifth Avenue.  The article said, "The young women said they were members of the Stepinac Club of New York, connected with the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius of 552 West Fiftieth Street."

In 1974, the congregation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius merged with that of St. Raphael's Church on West 41st Street and moved into that building.  The East 50th Street structure empty sat until 1979, when it was purchased by the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church.  The diocese made renovations, completed in 1984.  It was dedicated on May 12.

The following day, The New York Times reported that dozens of lay volunteers had "worked countless hours transforming a dilapidated church on the West Side of Manhattan into the showpiece of Bulgarian-American life in the New York metropolitan area."

photograph by Carole Teller

The article said that three artists, "who worked more than 70 hours a week on the project for the last two years," headed the group that embellished "nearly every square inch of the interior of the St. Kiril and Metodi Eastern Orthodox Church."  The main force behind the remodeling, including its financing, was 43-year-old Bulgarian immigrant Anton Russev.  The article said the painting was either done directly onto the plaster walls, or on panels in Russev's Lafayette Street studio.  An official of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church said this was the only structure in the United States "that has been decorated in traditional style with Eastern Orthodox icons."

photograph by Carole Teller

The congregation is still in the building with its riveting history.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post.

The 1911 Zinn Building - 210 Eleventh Avenue

 

photograph by Jim Henderson

Around 1847 when he was 16 years old, Simon Zinn left his native Bavaria.  Upon arriving in New York City, he found employment in a metal goods firm.  By the late 1880s, he was a partner in Zinn & Messer, which manufactured a vast variety of small metal goods like frames and clasps.  The firm's name had became Simon Zinn & Co. before Simon's death in May 1897.

Simon Zinn's widow, Mary, and her sons, Arthur and Martin, took over the firm.  The following year, they established an ancillary company, The Gem Cutlery Company to manufacture safety razors.  By 1907, the two businesses required a large facility.

On November 1 that year, The New York Times reported that the Zinns had purchased the two buildings at 210 to 216 Eleventh Avenue, on the southeast corner of 25th Street.  They were one- and three-stories tall, respectively.  The family did not move quickly to replace the structures, but a disaster three years later forced their hands.

On October 4, 1910, The New York Times reported on "One of the most spectacular fires New York has seen in years."  The blaze began in the lumberyards "on the North River water front" between 23rd and 26th Street.  The city's entire fleet of fireboats helped firefighters on the ground.   In the end, $1.5 million worth of property was destroyed and the riverfront from Tenth to Eleventh Avenue, from 24th Street to the north side of 26th Street was leveled.

Ten days later, the architectural firm of Shire & Kaufman filed plans for an 11-story "brick factory" for the Zinns.  The plans projected the construction cost at $300,000, or about $10.2 million in 2026.  Completed in 1911, the steel-frame Zinn Building was designed in an Arts & Crafts take on Gothic.  The three-story base included double-height segmental arches within banded piers.  The seven-story mid-section was faced in beige brick, its vast windows stacked within full-height arches.  The supports of the tenth floor piers took the form of medieval grotesques, and the building's corner sections rose above the roofline.  The northwestern corner sprouted a clock tower.

By 1940 only a stump of the clock tower survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Gem Cutlery Co. was as successful (if not more so) as Simon Zinn & Co.  An article in the October 1913 issue of Exporters' Review said, "The 'Gem' safety razors are among the best known safety razors in the United States, the Gem Cutlery Co. having been pioneers in the manufacture of these indispensable toilet requisites."

The Popular Magazine, November 1913 (copyright expired)

Emanuel Grammici was hired in April 1915 as a press operator for Simon Zinn & Co.  The 25-year-old earned $1.18 per day, or about $38 in 2026 terms.  In operating the power press, he created metal inlays.  Less than a month after starting his new job, on May 6, he suffered a horrific accident.  According to legal papers, "in placing the inlay in the die, he accidentally released the power, catching his fingers between the die and punch."  In an instant, all of Grammaci's fingers on his right hand were severed.

Mary Zinn died in May 1919.  She had been highly involved in the operation of the two companies since her husband's death.  Just four months later, in September, Arthur and Martin sold the Gem Cutlery Company for $4 million, a staggering $72.5 million today.

The void in the Zinn Building was filled by the newly-formed Automatic Straight Air Brake Co.  The Wall Street Journal announced on May 14, 1920, "The company has obtained a desirable location for manufacturing purpose, at 210 Eleventh avenue."  And on November 9, the periodical reported, "The Automatic Straight Air Brake Co. is already in production at its plant at 210 Eleventh Avenue."

Arthur and Martin Zinn now focused on the Simon Zinn Inc.'s metal novelty goods.  In 1920, they added their patented vanity cases to the line.

An advertisement for the Zinns' patented vanity case featured a photo of the Zinn Building with the clock tower atop the corner.  The American Perfumer and Essential Oil Review, May 1923 (copyright expired)

In 1924, the Zinns moved their operation to Bristol, Connecticut.  The building was sold to the newly-formed 210 Eleventh Avenue Corporation.  The syndicate was composed of Paul Baron and his sons, Louis J., Abner, Samuel T., Harry and Morton Harold.

Paul Baron was born in Russia and entered the paper manufacturing business in 1882.  He and his sons founded the Royal Card & Paper Corporation in 1913.  The firm produced a variety of papers and card stock and was the first producer of gift-wrapping paper in the United States.

Giftwares magazine, May, 1929

In an early example of environmental regulation, the Royal Paper Company was fined $100 by Magistrate Edward Thompson on September 24, 1951 for air pollution.  Murray Berger, an inspector of the Bureau of Smoke Control, "had witnessed on several inspections," according to The New York Times, of the firm's permitting "dense smoke from the smokestack."

When Morton Harold Baron died in 1986, all his brothers had predeceased him.  Shortly afterward, the Royal Paper Company closed.

At the time of Baron's death, the Chelsea neighborhood was seeing a transformation from industry to art as lofts were converted to gallery spaces.  In 1999, the Robert Mann and the Pardo-Sheehan galleries were in the Zinn Building, joined the following year by the Edward Thorp and the Urban Architecture galleries.  

photograph by the author

Today 210 Eleventh Avenue is known as The Chelsea Arts Centre, its realtor boasting it is "the home to cutting edge creative and high-fashion tenants."  Astoundingly, the lower floors have never been brutalized and Shire & Kaufman's 1911 design is greatly intact.

The 1st German M. E. Church (Church of All Nations) 48 St. Mark's Pl.

 

48 St. Mark's Place originally would have been similar to the house to the left. photograph by the author

The recently built Greek Revival-style house at 48 St. Mark's Place was home to cotton broker Charles Easton in 1842 when his expensive pet ran off.  He advertised in the New York Herald on November 26, "if the finder of a small white Italian Gray Hound, with a dark mark on her back and yellow collar, will send the same to No. 48 St. Mark's Place, a suitable reward will be paid."

Easton's new home sat within a refined neighborhood.  Three-and-a-half stories tall and three bays wide, its sheer size reflected the financial status of its residents.  The elaborate wrought iron stoop railings were an expensive touch.

Easton's dog was not the last item he would lose.  On July 19, 1852, he advertised, "Lost--In one of the small cars, at 11-1/2 to 12 o'clock, between 8th and 27th sts., on the 15th, a Pocket-book containing a sum in gold and silver.  The finder will be compensated, and will receive the thanks of the owner, by leaving it at No. 48 St. Mark's-place."  And two years later, on March 13, 1854, an ad in the New-York Tribune read, "Lost--Thursday afternoon, a dark colored canary, of the long breed.  The finder, by leaving it at No. 48 St. Mark's-place, will be suitably rewarded."

Interestingly, the following year Charles Easton moved next door to 46 St. Mark's Place.  Although their furnishings were only a decade old and could be easily moved next door, the family held an auction on June 6, 1855.  (Completely restarting in a new location was common at the time.)  The items reflected the Eastons' high end lifestyle.  They included "a fine rosewood Piano-Forte, by one of the most celebrated makers," "suites in crimson and maroon brocatelles," bronze and ormolu clocks, rosewood etageres, and "a superb marble figure of the Madonna of Tenerani."

A week later, an announcement in the New-York Tribune offered, "House No. 48 St. Marks-place to Let--Possession by first July.  Inquire of Charles Easton, No. 46 St. Marks-place."

The initial tenant was Gustave Schepff, a merchant.  He and his family remained through 1857.  They were followed by attorney Jonathan Miller and his wife, Sarah R., in 1858.  Sarah left in 1860, following Jonathan's death.  The Freeman family next moved in.  George H. and George W. Freeman operated a produce business in the Fulton Market.  The family remained through 1862.

Finally, starting in 1863, the house had relatively long-term residents in the Billinge family.  William S. Billinge was a partner in  the tea firm Billinge Boies & Co. on Vesey Street.  By 1868, Henry W. Billinge had joined the business.  

   

Like the Eastons had done, when the Billinge family left in the spring of 1871, they auctioned their household goods.  Included in the announcement were, "rare oil paintings and engravings, silver plate and glassware," "rosewood parlor suits, in crimson figured brocatel," and "rosewood dressing bureaus, with French plate glass."

The house next became home to Ernest Steiger, who listed his profession in 1871 as a "German news agent."  The family took in two renters that year, attorney Ebenezer D. Gilbert and Otto Khrebiel, an artist.  

The family had barely moved in before Steiger was selected to sit on a grand jury.  On November 24, 1871, the New York Herald editorialized, "Ernst [sic] Stiger [sic], of 48 St. Mark's place, is to be relied upon, we hope, to perform his full duty as one of the grand jurors in indicting the plunderers of the city treasury."

The Steigers continued to take in a few renters over the years and in 1877 advertised, "To Let--To a single gentleman, a handsomely furnished front Parlor, with adjoining hall Room on second floor, in a private German family."

Henry Bardes purchased 48 St. Mark's Place in 1881.  He immediately hired German-born architect Charles Sturzkober to raise the short attic level to a full fourth floor.  His plans described "alteration for tenement."  The renovations cost Bardes the equivalent of $158,000 in 2025.

Bardes's tenant list reflected the now overwhelmingly German population of the district.  Gustav Schmidt lived here in August 1882 when he was arrested in a raid on a policy shop (an illegal gambling den).  Jeweler Joseph Hamerschlag rented rooms here the following year.

Just three years after purchasing the property, Henry Bardes died.  His heirs sold 48 St. Mark's Place in April 1884 to the well-rounded Dr. Henry Krollpfeiffer and his wife, the former Frederica Merz.

Born in Germany in 1849 Henry Krollpfeiffer began practicing medicine in New York City in 1875.  He and Frederica (known as Frida) were married in 1881.  The couple had four children, Freda, born in 1883; Henry George, born the following year; Elsa Emma, in 1889; and Charles William Frederick, who arrived in 1894.

Dr. Krollpfeiffer was highly involved in the community and served as the Chairman of the Trustee's Committee on Discipline of the New York Public Schools.  His staunch demand for the obeying of rules and his religious views (or lack of them) clashed in the spring of 1896.

Gustav Bittner had three children enrolled in Public School 22.  The school's morning exercises began with a short reading from the Bible and the repetition of the Lord's Prayer.  Bittner, who was a book peddler, was an agnostic and on April 31 informed the principal "that he did not wish his children to be compelled to join in the worship of an 'unseen phantom,'" as reported in The Sun.  The issue landed on the desk of Henry Krollpfeiffer.  His demand for rules and regulations trumped his religious views and he decided, in part:

Though I am an agnostic myself I believe in the opening exercises.  They certainly are moral and can't corrupt anybody...Children must keep order and conform to school rules in their behavior at prayers as much as at recitations.

Krollpfeiffer was also the president of the Centennial Bowling Club.  On April 18, 1896, the club won a bowling tournament among 12 clubs, winning a cup valued at $1,600.  That night the Centennial Bowling Club hosted a banquet at Liederkranz Hall.  Afterward, when Krollpfeiffer examined the bill, he accused waiter Jacob Kochmann of "robbing him" of $42--an overcharge of the champagne consumed.

Dr. Krollpfeiffer and Kochmann faced in court on April 30.  The waiter was represented by a woman lawyer, Rosalie Loew.  Krollpfeiffer was assuredly confident in winning his case.  Female attorneys were highly unusual at the time and the current gender discrimination presumed Loew was incompetent.  Additionally, this would be her first appearance in a courtroom.

As it turned out, Rosalie Loew was masterful.  She asked Krollpfeiffer if he had counted the empty bottles.  He had.  Then she said, while admitting she had never attended a function like this, she assumed "they must be very convivial."  She asked Krollpfeiffer if he had counted any broken bottles.  Forced to admit that he had not, the self-assured doctor was humiliated by the rookie attorney.

The physician who described himself as an agnostic in 1896 had decidedly had a change of heart before the turn of the century.  On October 20, 1900, the New York Tribune reported, "The four story and basement brick dwelling house No. 48 St. Mark's Place, will be altered into a church and dwelling house for the Rev. Henry Krollpfeiffer, pastor of the First German Methodist Episcopal Church.  The basement and first floor will be used for church purposes, and the upper part as a dwelling house for the pastor."

The First German Methodist Episcopal Church was incorporated in 1842.  The congregation had worshiped at 175 Second Avenue since then.  The services were solely conducted in German.

On the same day of The Times article, the Record & Guide noted that architect John Boese had filed plans for the renovations.  They included new steel beams and girders, necessary to create a worship space in the former residence.  Boese replaced the parlor openings with a triptych stained-glass window and added a neo-Gothic terra cotta frieze and entrance frame.  The upper floors were given a veneer of brick, the second floor windows replaced with multi-paned casements, and trefoil-filled terra cotta arches placed over the top floor windows.  The cornice was removed, replaced with a terra cotta faced gable and parapet.

Boese's second floor casements and superb original Greek Revival stoop railings survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Henry Krollpfeiffer died on April 12, 1911 and the property was transferred to the East German Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Dochtermann family had shared the upper floors with the Krollpfeiffers since, at least, 1908.  Charles Dochtermann Sr. and his sons, Charles Jr. and Paul, incorporated the Dochtermann Realty Company that year.  In 1913, the sons, now including Frederick, incorporated the Dochtermann Storage Warehouse Company.

Charles Dochtermann, Sr. died at the age of 73 on November 18, 1917.  Expectedly, his funeral on November 21 was held in the First German M. E. Church.

The terra cotta panel announcing the name of the First German M. E. Church was still exposed when this photograph was taken by Jim Henderson on January 15, 2011

A horrific incident occurred early on the morning of November 20, 1920.  The Dochtermann Storage Warehouse was on East 10th Street.  A Coney Island amusement company was temporarily storing a "collection of animals" there, according to the New York Herald.  That morning one of Charles Dochtermann's watchmen called him at home to tell him that the animals were causing "a disturbance" and that the neighborhood around the warehouse "was echoing to their roars."

What Charles Dochtermann obviously did not know when he went to the warehouse was that at least one of the dangerous animals had escaped.  The New York Herald reported, "Opening the doors against the protests of the watchman, he stepped inside, and, raising an electric torch, started to inspect the place."  Suddenly, a leopard pounced from the darkness, clawing and biting at Dochtermann's shoulders.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Doctermann [sic] fought the beast with his bare hands for several minutes, and then the watchman called in a man from the street."

They prodded the cat with iron poles.  "Doctermann [sic], mortally wounded and weakened from loss of blood, was trying to jam his arm down the beast's throat."  Eventually the two men managed to drive the cat from Dochtermann, who was now "prostrate and senseless," according to the New-York Tribune.  He died at Bellevue Hospital.

The next morning, newspapers reported that Dochtermann had died from leprosy, causing a temporary panic in the neighborhood.  Hearing that a leopard had caused Dochtermann's death and considering that a slim possibility, a reporter assumed the he misheard "leprosy" as "leopard."  The reports were corrected a week later.  Dochtermann's funeral was held in the St. Mark's Place church on November 30.

In 1921, John H. Bachmeler was appointed treasurer of the First German M. E. Church.  He held the position until the early part of 1930.  About a year-and-a-half later, on October 20, 1931, he was arrested.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle explained, "it is said shortages of at least $60,000 have been unearthed in an accountant's survey" of the church's books.

On June 16, 1975, The New York Times reported, "The First German United Methodist Church, at 48 St. Marks Place, yesterday ended 133 years of worship in the German language on Manhattan's Lower East Side."  Although the church's finances were stable, according to the pastor, Rev. John E. Swords, "only two active members now live in the neighborhood, which was once German but is now mainly Spanish-speaking and Ukrainian."  The other 65 congregants lived elsewhere in the city or in the suburbs, said the article.

The church was next shared by the Manhattan Central United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church of All Nations (Iglesia Metodista Unida Todas la Nacionas).  Importantly, the Center for Immigrants Rights shared the building as early as 1987.

photograph by Beyond My Ken

More recently the vintage structure became home to The Church of the Village, followed by Jubilee Mission Center.

Taylor & Masley's 1924 312 Fifth Avenue

 

In 1854, Benjamin Wheeler Merriam erected his brownstone-fronted mansion at 312 Fifth Avenue.  Born in 1803 in New Hampshire, Merriam had amassed a fortune importing mirrors and glass, and was one of the founders of Chatham National Bank.  He and his wife Adeliza had four daughters and a son.  Their summer home was at Scarborough-on-the-Hudson.  Merriam died in the house on April 25, 1884.

Members of the Merriam family remained at 312 Fifth Avenue for decades.  On December 27, 1915, the New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. David Du Bois Sahler died yesterday at her home, 312 Fifth Avenue from pneumonia."  A widow, Adeliza Frances Sahler was the last of the Merriam siblings.  The article noted, "The house at 312 Fifth Avenue was built for Mrs. Sahler's father, Benjamin Wheeler Merriam, in 1854."

In the post-World War I years, the Fifth Avenue block between 31st and 32nd Streets would have been unrecognizable to Benjamin Merriam.  The few mansions that survived had been converted for businesses, the others razed and replaced with commercial buildings.  In 1924 the Houston Construction Company demolished the vintage brownstone and hired the architectural firm of Taylor & Masley to design what their plans described as a seven-story "brick store and office building," on the site.

The process of removing of the Merriam house was nearly catastrophic.  Unthinkable today, business continued downstairs as the upper floors were being demolished.  The Evening Post reported, "Scores of persons attending a jewelry auction sale on the ground floor of the building at 312 Fifth avenue, narrowly escaped injury today when the third floor of the building collapsed."  The second floor held, preventing the structure from pancaking down on the auction attendees.  Nevertheless, two workmen were injured and removed to New York Hospital.

Taylor & Masley gave the new building a sheathing of gleaming white terra cotta.  The spandrel panels of each floor contained Gothic arches on either side of centered faces.  A parapet armed with pointy pinnacles took the place of a cornice.

Among the first tenants was the upscale men's "shirtmakers and haberdashers," H. Sulka & Company.  The firm had branches in London and Paris.  Its custom-made shirts cost "$8.00 upward," according to a 1925 ad--around $140 each by 2024 terms.

H. Sulka & Company offered a full scope of men's furnishings.  Its well-heeled patrons could even be custom-fitted for their underwear.  A 1925 advertisement remarked, "In buying Underwear from us you have the advantage of being unusually well fitting in Union or Two-Piece Suits of our own and other most desirable makes."  The range of items offered was reflected in a December 1927 advertisement of "our holiday offerings."  It urged, "It is not too early to select from our choice French Cravats, Handkerchiefs, Hosiery, Mufflers and Lounge Robes--especially if monograms are required."

An interesting tenant was the Health Developing Apparatus Company, which "leased large space for executive offices" here in December 1931.  The firm patented and sold what today would be described as home gym equipment--like rowing machines.

The Second Sino-Japanese War between China and Japan that broke out in 1937 resulted in a new tenant, the Chinese Women's Association.  In May 1938, a letter to the editor of the New York Sun read:

The destitute civilian war refugees in the devastated areas in China are urgently in need of clothing of every description, such as children's outfits, suits, dresses, sweaters, blankets, underwear, coats, shoes, etc.  This association has for months been collecting clothing for these sufferers.  Three consignments have already been sent to China, and a fourth is about ready for shipment.

 

Donations should be sent directly to our China War Relief warehouse at 115 South Fifth street, Brooklyn.

                             Miss WINO-LINO WANG, Secretary, Chinese Women's Association

By the World War II years, the days of high-priced, custom made shirts for monied customers had passed.  For years starting around 1947, The Rug Mart "House of Carpets" occupied space, joined in the 1950s by tenants like Saraka the "laxative that cures Nervous Constipation," and the Irma Cosmetic Hair Remover company. 

The Fifth Avenue block bustled with activity in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

 

In the mid-1960s, the Marie Chantel Corporation leased space.  The firm manufactured women's "sauna swimming underwear," promising, "you can lose 7-15 lbs. or more and become 3 inches slimmer in the shortest time (without drugs or starvation diet) if you wear Sauna Swimming Underwear for just 2 hours a day!"

One tenant of 312 Fifth Avenue came under FBI scrutiny in January 1970.  Twentieth Century Industries, Inc. was a holding company that owned, or was part-owner, of "drug, plastics, metals, mining and soft-drink concerns," according to The New York Times.  At the time, Angelo Bruno was described by the bureau as "the No. 1 Mafia leader in the Philadelphia area" and "one of the Mafia's 12-member national governing council."  

On January 16, Manhattan district attorney William I. Aronwald disclosed that a grand jury "was seeking to determine if there was any connection between Bruno and 20th Century Industries, Inc., a holding company with offices at 312 Fifth Avenue." The New York Times explained, "The Manhattan investigation...is trying to learn if certain corporations have received proceeds of organized criminal activities involving gambling, bribery, extortion and loan-sharking."

While the ground floor of 312 Fifth Avenue has been drastically altered, Taylor & Masley's neo-Gothic design has fared much better than its neighbors, two of which were recently demolished and most of the others significantly remodeled.  Although the show windows have been replaced, the terra cotta is nicely intact.

photographs by the author

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The 1957 House of Advent Hope - 111 East 87th Street

 

photograph by the author

Until 1955, two identical brownstone-fronted apartment buildings stood at 109 and 111 East 87^th Street.  In 1933 musicians Charles Louis Seeger, Jr. and his wife, Constance de Clyver Seeger moved into an apartment in 111 East 87^th Street with their 14-year-old son, Peter.  Pete Seeger would go on to be one of America’s best known folk singers and social activists.
 
The Seegers had moved into the then-predominantly German neighborhood of Yorkville.  It had seen an influx of German and Irish immigrants in the 1850s, many of them hired to build the Croton Aqueduct.  Following the horrendous General Slocum disaster in 1904 that killed more than 1,000 German-speaking residents of the Lower East Side, residents migrated north.  Yorkville became Manhattan’s center of the German immigrant community.
 
A German language Seventh-Day Adventist congregation was established in Yorkville in the second half of the 19^th century.  Its building burned in 1949 and a fund-raising drive was begun to purchase a new property and erect a church.  Alfred B. Heiser, a Seventh Day Adventist who may also have been a congregant, was chosen to design the structure.  A 1910 graduate of New York University, Heiser was educated as an engineer, not an architect.  At the time of the commission he was the chief draftsman of the American Can Company.

 
For the site of their new Church of the Advent Hope, the trustees chose the old flat buildings at 109 and 111 East 87^th Street.  The property plus construction costs were projected at $320,000—nearly $4 million in 2023.  Less than one-third was guaranteed by the Seventh-Day Adventist Conference.  Fund-raising for the remainder took time and it was not until 1955 that Heiser filed plans. 
 
The dedication took place in May 1957 with German Consul General Franz Josef Hoffman addressing the congregation.  Heiser had produced a charming, country church in an urban setting.  Faced in randomly laid, rough-cut granite blocks, it was a rustic version of Tuscan Gothic.  Flat-faced limestone piers separated the façade into three vertical sections.  The two Gothic-arched entrance doors sat within a larger, slightly recessed arch that announced, “Haus der Advent Hoffmung / Siebenten Tags Adventisten Kirche.”  (House of Advent Hope / Seventh Day Adventist Church)
 

photograph by Eigenes Werk

A virulent anti-German sentiment pervaded the country following World War I.  In its February 17, 1947 issue, Life magazine published an article entitled "Peoples of New York."  Its description of the German community of Yorkville reflected the still-fresh anti-German sentiment, saying in part, “Dressed in their regional costumes and speaking German, they engage in violent Bavarian folk dances and drink huge quantities of beer…Germans in the city's Yorkville district are fond of uniforms and costumes, and a pro-Nazi Bund flourished before the war.”  The pervasive mindset no doubt had much to do with the dilution of the district’s German language, customs, and identity. 
 
By the last quarter of the 20^th century, the ethnic personality of Yorkville had changed as younger generations of Germans moved away.  The House of Advent Hope eventually discontinued its German language services.
 

Like the side walls, the wall behind the altar was originally unplastered.  photograph by Eigenes Werk

Music was an important part of the church’s function within the Yorkville community.  On December 5, 1986, for instance, The New York Times reported, “The New England Youth Ensemble and the Atlantic Union College Choir will present the American composer Randall Thompson’s rarely heard ‘Nativity According to St. Luke’—the Christmas story in music, pageant and biblical costume—at the Church of the Advent Hope.”  In October 1990 a concert by the New England Youth Ensemble/Collegiate Choir presented “works by Haydn, Handel, Bach, and English composers,” according to New York Magazine.
 
Another rarely performed work presented here in the summer of 1994 was C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters.  On July 10, The New York Times explained, “Screwtape, a senior devil, instructs his nephew Wormwood, a junior demon, in the art of winning over a young man’s soul—not by luring him into a sudden fall into mortal sin but by means of the routine temptations of daily life.”  The readings of C. S. Lewis were accompanied by the music of Benjamin Britten, John Ireland and Frank Bridge.  Music director David I Spelman said the work had been chosen “because we wanted to stick with programming that had a spiritual quality but also goes against the mainstream.”
 
Sitting between modern apartment buildings, Alfred B. Heiser’s quaint country church is a calming presence.  Its German inscription above the entrance is a reminder of an era when Yorkville was the epicenter of Manhattan’s German culture.

 LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The 1929 Warren Hall / Baptist Tabernacle - 162-166 Second Avenue

 

Founded in 1839, the Baptist Tabernacle left its Mulberry Street location in 1850 and erected a striking Gothic Revival building at 166 Second Avenue between 10th and 11th Street, designed by David Henry Arnot.  In 1886 a large parish house was constructed next door.  Despite its official name, the church was widely known as the Second Avenue Baptist Church.

The Baptist Tabernacle and the parish house are at the right.  The New-York Historical Society building occupied the corner of East 11th Street.  image from King's Views of New York City 1892, copyright expired

By the turn of the century the neighborhood, once filled with the mansions of "some of the best known of New Yorkers," according to The New York Times, was one of immigrants and tenement buildings.  On December 6, 1909 the newspaper said that the Second Avenue Baptist Church, "one of the oldest church edifices" in the city, "has been described 'as a congregation of thirty languages."

But with no more wealthy congregants, debts began to mount and by the 1920s a solution was needed.  At the time, a new concept was sweeping metropolitan areas--the "skyscraper church."   Congregations from coast to coast were demolishing their old structures and erecting apartment or office buildings that incorporated a ground floor church space.  In theory the congregation would reap tremendous income from the rental properties.  Not everyone was thrilled by the concept.  The New York Times, for instance, editorialized, "Must we visualize a New York in which no spire points heavenward?"

In 1928 the trustees demolished its masterful church and the parish house and hired hotel and apartment building architect Emery Roth to design a 15-story combination "apartment hotel" and church building on the site.  Their choice in architects may have been prompted by Roth's skyscraper church, the Hotel Carteret, which he had designed for the Chelsea Presbyterian Church two years earlier.

A 1929 real estate brochure featured the building on the cover. from the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

Completed in October 1929, Warren Hall was entered at 166 Second Avenue.  The Baptist Tabernacle entrance was on the opposite end of the building, at 162 Second Avenue.  The doorways reflected the stark differences in their purposes.  The round-arched entrance to Warren Hall was flanked by fluted pilasters that terminated in Art Deco urns of flowers.  Between, a bas relief panel depicted scantily-clothed figures on either side of a basket of fruit.  In severe contrast, the entrance to the church was unmistakably ecclesiastical.  Its pointed Gothic arch and heavy double gates with Gothic tracery sat below a crenellated entablature carved with the church's name.  On either side were bas relief torches, symbols of inspiration and knowledge.  Roth's only other nod to the ecclesiastical motif came as three angels that served as the balcony bases at the third floor.

photograph by Beyond My Ken

A brochure for Warren Hall insisted that the neighborhood was on an upswing, saying, "This district, so rich in City tradition is once more coming into prominence as a desirable location for the modern home."  It boasted two- and three-room apartments "each consisting of large living room, foyer, kitchen, bath and several roomy closets."  The three-room suites came with "large Dining Alcove Rooms."  The advertisement noted, "Kitchens are equipped with artistic dressers [i.e., cupboards], gas range and mechanical refrigeration, and are lighted by windows."

Warren Hall brochure, 1929,  from the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

The fifteenth floor, or penthouse, held four apartments.  They were "designed in the form of country bungalows, yet have all the city conveniences, large private roof gardens and wood-burning fireplaces," said the brochure.

Residents of the 15th floor enjoyed outdoor space.  Warren Hall brochure, 1929,  from the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

Although Warren Hall opened in the fall of 1929, it would take a few months before the Baptist Tabernacle was completed.  On March 3, 1930, The New York Times reported, "Six nationalities worshiped in their own languages yesterday at the first regular Sunday services of the Baptist Tabernacle in its new edifice in the fourteen-story apartment house at 164 Second Avenue."

The church engulfed the entire ground floor other than the Warren Hall entrance.  The New York Times explained that the congregations of the Second Avenue Baptist Church--the Italian Baptist Church, the First Estonian Church, the Russian Church, the Polish Church, and the Chinese Baptist Church--were "housed under one roof and incorporated into the tabernacle."  Their "three chapels, standing side by side from north to south, occupy all of the ground floor of the $1,200,000 apartment house, and are connected by a corridor extending from the separate entrance for the church," said the article.

Change would once again come.  In 1953 stores were installed at street level, signaling a vast reduction in floor space for church use.  It was a temporary fix, and four years later the church space was converted to the Gate Theatre.

In August 1959 the Gate Theatre produced a revival of The Drunkard.  The New York Age commented that it "has been acted more often in the United States than any other by an American author--except possibly 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'"  Indeed, Matt Conley who had the title role had already played it more than 1,000 times.

By 1964 the Cricket Theater shared the space with the Gate.  In addition to offering plays for children on weekend afternoons, it presented serious drama, like Athol Fugard's The Blood Knot that dealt with racial tensions, which opened on March 2, 1964.

On September 17, 1970 The New York Times reported that Robert L. Steele had purchased both theaters.  Continuing to use the name the Gate Theater, the article said he "plans to present a new musical, 'Stage Movie," the following month.

Around the same time, part of the former church space (presumably the basement) was converted to a nightclub, Sanctum Sanctorum.  The New York Times called it "a so-called 'juice bar,'" meaning that it did not have a license to sell alcohol.  But patrons found other ways to get high. 

On April 18, 1973 The New York Times reported that Sanctum Sanctorum had been ordered temporarily closed "because of drug selling and other unlawful activity."  The closing, said the article, was "part of the Mayor's campaign to close the several nonalcoholic discotheque-like enterprises that have attracted youthful clientele and a number of drug dealers."

The owners, Jerry Sands and CinemaDisco Corporation, argued that the club was a private facility.  State Supreme Court Justice Sidney A. Fine disagreed, saying their contention "is really a dance to camouflage the illegal activity."

The Gate Theater continued until 1977, replaced by the Theater for the New City.  Known familiarly as TNC, it was founded in 1971 in the West Village.  A sort of triplex, the space now held three theaters, named after Joe Cino, Charles Stanley, and James Waring.

In 1978, according to The New York Times, the theater commissioned Sam Shepard to write Buried Child, which premiered here the following year.  It became the first off-off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Price.  In 1984 the theater would premier two Heiner Muller plays, Hamletmachine and Quartett.

Unfortunately, when the landlord increased the rent a reported 300 percent in 1984, the Theater for the New City was forced to relocate, moving out a few years later.  The space that had seen the introduction of award winning drama became a Mayfair Supermarket in 1996.

photographs by the author

many thanks to reader Graham Nash for requesting this post

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com