The 1883 Frank B. Houghton House - 30 West 130th Street

image via zillow.com

In 1844, when Harlem was still dotted with farms and country estates, John Jacob Astor I acquired a portion of two farms for $10,000 (about $445,000 in 2026).  Upon his death in 1848, the blockfront that would become West 130th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues was inherited by his son, William Backhouse Astor.  It passed to William Backhouse Astor, Jr. in 1875.  

The blockfront would become lined with 28 private homes, erected in three groups.  Architect Charles Buek designed the first--8 through 22 West 130th Street--in 1880.  They were completed in 1881 and the following year ground was broken for the second group, 24 through 38.  (The final section, 40 through 62, would be completed in 1883.)  No doubt to reduce costs, it appears that the builder simply followed Charles Buek's original designs in erecting 22 through 62 West 130th Street, since there is no architect of record.  The resultant row was called "the Block Beautiful" in Claude McKay's 1928 novel Home to Harlem.

30 West 130th Street is the second from left.  image via streeteasy.com

Designed as mirror-image pairs separated by a carriage drive that accessed the rear yards, the homes were three stories tall above short basements.  Their neo-Grec-style facades were clad in brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Generous gardens fronted delightful wooden porches.  Dentiled brick cornices sat above brick friezes decorated with recessed quatrefoil designs.

Astor retained possession of the houses, leasing them as rental income.  His first tenant of 30 West 130th Street was Frank R. Houghton, a real estate agent, and his widowed step-mother, Virginia Patten Houghton.  Frank was born in Halifax, Vermont in 1825 to Royall and Sarah Farrell.  Sarah died in 1851 and Royall married Virginia Patten in May that same year.

In the spring of 1886, Virginia Patten Houghton was in Pass, Mississippi where she died "suddenly," according to the New-York Tribune, on April 3.  Her funeral was held in the 130th Street house on April 10.

There would be another funeral in the parlor before long.  Frank Houghton moved away soon after his step-mother's death and the next tenant, Peter Asten, died in the house at the age of 84 on January 16, 1887.  His funeral was held two days later.

The house next became home to Thomas C. and William McAlpine Wiswall, partners in the Pennsylvania-based Wiswall Paint Co., and their families.  Thomas C. Wiswall was the company's president and a sergeant in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard.  He and his wife, the former Mary Brown, had no children.

Thomas C. Wiswall, Seventh Regiment Gazette, October 1923, (copyright expired)

William McAlpine Wiswall was born 1841 in Troy, New York but was educated in Port Austin, Michigan.  The New York Times would recall that one of his teachers was James A. Garfield.  William's wife was Louisa Bishop Chatterton, and also living here were Louise's parents, Thomas and Adeline M. Bishop Chatterton.  

Thomas Chatterton was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1818 and started out as a merchant tailor there.  The New Haven Morning & Courier would recall, "he rapidly won favor, patronage and success, but his energetic spirit craving a larger field, he removed to New York."  Chatterton engaged in the wholesale, ready-made clothing business.  He retired in the 1880s.  Each year, Thomas Chatterton would return to New Haven to spend his summers at the Branford Point House.

Louisa Bishop Wiswall died in the house on September 26, 1895 at the age of 51.  Interestingly, her funeral was not held in the parlor, but at the Church of the Puritans on 130th Street at Fifth Avenue.

In 1897 Thomas Chatterton was the treasurer of the first panel of the Sheriff's Jury, a non-judicial group that assisted the Sheriff's Department in administrative work.  In January 1898, the 80-year-old attended the group's annual dinner at Delmonico's and during the evening he became ill.  He died in the 130th Street house two weeks later, on February 6.  His funeral was held in the parlor on the 9th.

Adeline Bishop Chatterton survived her husband by four years.  She died at the age of 79 on February 7, 1902.  Her funeral, too, was held in the house.

William Astor bequeathed the 130th Street row to his grandchildren, Mary, James and Sarah Van Alen.  In 1902, they sold 30 West 130th Street to Fannie and Ferdinand Braun, who operated it as a boarding house.

Among their early residents were William P. Kelly and his family, who would remain at least through 1909.  The parlor of 30 West 130th Street, which had frequently been used for funerals, was the setting of Emma Foord Kelly's marriage to Samuel Pierre Hull on October 24, 1906.

A less respectable boarder was Louisa Marcarious, who was arrested in her rooms on April 20, 1907.  Born in New Orleans in 1883, she was described by The New York Times as being "well dressed and is apparently an educated woman."  She was charged with "receiving stolen goods" from her accomplices, described by the newspaper as "two negroes" who "seemed uncouth companions for the refined-looking white woman."

The complainant against Louisa Marcarious and her cohorts was Margaret Melbourne, who said, "her home had been robbed of silverware and other property on June 4, 1906."  Some of her stolen silverware was discovered in "the rooms of the Marcarious woman and her companions."  The article said that another burglary victim had been asked to inspect "the loot recovered" in hopes they could identify "plunder stolen from his house."

Louisa Marcarious was an anomaly among the otherwise upstanding boarders, like the family of Thaddeus Moriarty, for instance, who occupied rooms in 1911.  Daughter Theresa S. Moriarty was president of the Ladies' Ursuline Provincial Auxiliary, a philanthropic and social group.  And on June 23, 1911, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Thaddeus Moriarty and Miss Theresa S. Moriarty of 30 West 130th Street are at the North End Hotel, in Ocean Grove, N.J., until the end of August."

Susan L. Pierce purchased the house in March 1921.  She operated it as a rooming house, and among her first roomers was Elbert Butler.  He was arrested on February 1, 1923, for spitting in a subway station.  In imposing a $5 fine, the infuriated magistrate railed, "It is a disgrace the way every subway station is filled with men smoking and spitting on the platform and the track bed and nothing is done about it."

The wooden porch was painted in several colors in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Reords & Information Services.

By the World War II era, the Harlem neighborhood was predominantly black and racial tensions were high throughout the city.  On March 19, 1943, The New York Times began an article saying, "While three Negro youths were being held in the stabbing early yesterday of a 17-year-old youth in a Harlem 'racial' fight, it was announced that 150 rookie policemen have been assigned to the Harlem area."

The incident began when, according to police, "a gang of twenty Negroes crowded around Nick Adams, 17, of 42 East 129th Street, as he was standing in front of his house."  One of the teens demanded, "Are you a white boy?"

Adams replied, "I'm a gypsy."

The gang attacked and Adams attempted to fight back until he was fatally stabbed in the back.  Police arrived in time to arrest three of the gang members, including 19-year-old James Green who lived at 30 West 130th Street.

In 1981, the house next door was vacant and boarded up, a fertile target for vandals.  photograph by Andrew Dolkart via the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

By the last quarter of the 20th century, the house next door was vacant and neglected.  Although the Landmarks Preservation Commission sued the owner in an effort to pressure him to repair the seriously dilapidated structure, it was demolished in 2021, leaving No. 30 isolated along what was now known as Astor Row.

image via streeteasy.com

Today there are 11 apartments in 30 West 130th Street.  More than a bit bedraggled, it nevertheless survives as part of a forward thinking community-planned project by one of Manhattan's wealthiest 19th century figures.

The Meyer and Emilie Hoffman House - 122 East 57th Street

 

photograph by Ted Leather

In March 1876, real estate operator Andres Dold purchased a 204-foot long parcel on East 57th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues from Frederick Zittel.  The following year he completed a row of two- and three-bay wide houses on the site. 

Among the narrower examples was 122 East 57th Street.  Just 16-feet-wide, it rose four stories above a high English basement.  Faced in brownstone, its neo-Grec design included stone architraves with molded cornices and bracketed sills.

The houses along the block became home to well-heeled residents.  The Betts family first occupied 122 East 57th Street and, like their neighbors, their movements were closely followed by the society pages.  On September 6, 1883, for instance,  The Evening Telegram reported, "Mrs. H. W. Betts and family, of 122 East Fifty-seventh street, have left the Mansion Home, Monticello, N. Y., and are now at Saratoga."

Before long, Meyer and Emilie Hoffman purchased the house.  Living with them were their adult children, Clara, Maurice J. (known as Morris), and Julia May and her family.  Julia and her husband, Charles Brownold, had two children, Claudia and Irma.

Clara's wedding to Nathaniel Henry Wolfstein was held in the ballroom of Mazzetti's at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue on January 16, 1890.  The New York Times described the venue as being "prettily decorated with palms and clematis, and the bridal party stood under a canopy of white roses and lilacs."  Maurice Hoffman was Wolfstein's best man and Charles Brownold was one of the ushers.  The socially visible event drew guests from as far as Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

Maurice J. Hoffman died unmarried on January 21, 1892 at the age of 31.  His funeral was held in the parlor of 122 East 57th Street three days later.

It would not be the family's last funeral to be held here.  On November 28, 1904, Meyer Hoffman died at the age of 74 and his funeral was held on the 30th; and Charles Brownold died on June 24, 1913.  (While The New York Times noted that his funeral would be held in the house, it said it would be "strictly private.")

By the time of Emilie's death around 1916, the neighborhood around 122 East 57th Street had become decidedly commercial.  On May 1, 1917, The New York Times reported: 

The rapid transformation of East Fifty-seventh Street from residential to business purposes is further illustrated by a lease of the four-story dwelling, 122 East Fifty-seventh Street...for the estate of Emilie Hoffman to Harry Turner...The building will be altered by the installation of stores on the lower floors and apartments above.

Architect Herbert J. Krapp made $6,000 in renovations (about $151,000 in 2026 terms).  While the stoop remained, the basement and parlor levels were converted to shops.  They were quickly leased.  On August 5, 1917, The New York Times reported that Georges Chevrier, "cleaning and dyeing" had rented the ground floor store and milliner Frances B. Lankland had signed a lease on the "parlor floor."

Each of the upper three floors held two apartments.  An advertisement in July 1918 described one of them as having "Two very large rooms, kitchenette and bath."

In 1919, the Paris-based boutique Jeannetton, Inc. occupied one of the store spaces.  Its manager was looking for help in October 1920, advertising, "Girl for errands and shopping, white; experience required; $20 weekly."  (How much experience a young woman would need to run errands is unclear.)  The weekly pay would translate to about $320 today.

Victory magazine, September, 1919 (copyright expired)

Charles Finkelstein assembled a syndicate, the 122 East Fifty-seventh Street, Inc., in 1935 to purchase the building.  In reporting on the transaction on April 11, The New York Times noted, "The new owner will alter the building."

Before the end of the year, the stoop had been removed and a new two-story storefront installed.  The apartments, still two per floor, got a renovation at the time.

The 1935 renovations did not affect the 1877 neo-Grec window details.  via the NYC Dept. of Records & Information Services.

Shortly after the renovations were completed, 122 East 57th Street was the scene of a dramatic rescue.  On November 13, 1935, The New York Times reported that an "exploring expedition undertaken by a white Persian cat" had thrown the block into upheaval.  The feline was valued by its owner, Louise Kersch of 110 East 57th Street, at the equivalent of $7,000 today.  It had crawled from the window of the Kersch apartment and jumped sill-to-sill until stopping in front of an apartment at 122 East 57th Street.

The New York Times reported that its rescue entailed, "the calling of a police emergency squad."  The residents of the apartment were not at home, so police "rigged a life net of tarpaulin below the window in fear that the cat, some sixty feet above the sidewalk, might fall."  Traffic on the block was stopped and crowds gathered to watch the drama unfold.  Finally, police "forced a door" into the apartment and rescued the cat from the window.

At the time of that drama, the store spaces were occupied by two high-end antiques dealers.  Henry V. Weil occupied the parlor floor and Alfred Rich & Sons was in the shop at street level.  Weil advertised "genuine American antiques" in 1937, and that year The New York Sun remarked, "The firm of Alfred Rich & Sons...has made a specialty of cameo glass."

The constant search for rare glassware and china caused Alfred Rich & Sons to become a victim of a prolific crook in 1945.  Harry Francis Burke, who lived in a furnished room on East 50th Street, was "a collector of rare china," as reported by The New York Sun on June 22.  He had been arrested the previous day and police said his room was packed with valuable stolen glassware and china, including "an 1850 dessert dish from the J. P. Morgan collection."  The article noted, "The police said he also had stored several barrels of the merchandise in warehouses."  

Burke confessed that he had sold several items to Alfred Rich.  The New York Sun said that Rich "was unaware that they were stolen," but he was given a summons "for failing to keep proper books."

At the time of the embarrassing incident, the second floor space had been home to the East India Curry Shop for four years, having opened in May 1941.  Writing in The New York Times on April 3, 1944, Jane Holt reported that in addition to the many varieties of curry offered at the East India Curry Shop, "the establishment sells a concentrated curry sauce, which it blends itself."

Living here around midcentury was pioneer aviator David Hugh McCulloch.  Born on April 23, 1890, he was a pilot for the Curtis Airplane Company in 1910, and trained flyers for the U.S. Navy during World War I.  He served as co-pilot during the U.S. Navy's attempt in 1919 to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, and continued to train pilots at Floyd Bennett Field until his retirement in 1946.  McCulloch was still living here on September 21, 1955 when he died following what The New York Times described as "a long illness."  

In the meantime, the ground floor continued to house upscale antiques dealers.  In 1949, Martin J. Ullmanns expanded its offerings by "making a specialty of designing mounts and shades" for antique vases and figurines to be converted into table lamps.  

From the mid-1960s until 1983, Philip Colleck of London occupied space here.  On November 25, 1965, The New York Times reported, "A sizable section of newly acquired pine paneling, once in a chateau in the environs of Paris, has been installed in the shop of Philip Colleck of London."  The article said the Louis XV paneling turned the shop "into an atmospheric stage for handsome furniture."

photograph by Ted Leather

In 1994, the lower two floors were combined as a restaurant and the upper floors converted to office space.  It was possibly at this time that the window details were shaved off.  Today the brownstone is painted and only the 1877 cornice survives to remind us of a time when the building was home to a wealthy family.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The 1877 Gerken Saloon Building - 385 Sixth Avenue

 

photograph by Carole Teller

Carsten Gerken purchased the vintage building at 77 Sixth Avenue on the northwest corner of Waverley Place from George Hillen on April 14, 1873 for $38,000.  (The address would be changed to 385 in 1925, and the second "e" in Waverley would be officially dropped around 1900.)  Four years later he hired architects D. & J. Jardine to design a replacement store-and-flat building on the site.

Brothers John and David Jardine produced a four-story structure in the neo-Grec style.  Above a rusticated stone base, the red brick facade was trimmed with brownstone.  Banded stone piers that ran up the corners supported the largest of the corbels of the pressed metal cornice.  The windows sat within prim stone architraves with prominent, bracketed cornices.  The residential entrance was placed to the rear, at 135 Waverly Place.  Facing the avenue was Carsten Gerken's saloon, and a second entrance on the side street accessed its back room.

Born in Germany in 1837, Gerken ran the saloon with his brother, Johannes (who Anglicized his name to John).  They had a brother who was not involved with the business.  (The Sun said, "The brothers were sedate, rather corpulent Germans and looked enough alike to be triplets.")

Carsten and his wife, Ella, lived upstairs with one Irish servant.  Several of their initial tenants in the building were from the theater community.  Among them in 1879 were actor William Gray; Anthony J. Cannon, whose stage name was Tony Hart; and John E. Cannon, treasurer of the Theatre Comique at 514 Broadway.  (Tony Hart was half of the popular comedy team of Harrigan & Hart.  Perhaps not coincidentally, at the time they were appearing at the Theatre Comique.) 

Unlike other saloon owners throughout the city, the Gerken brothers ran their business with strict Victorian propriety and within the letter of the law.  No females were permitted into the back room and, according to The Sun, a sign in the vestibule of the rear door admonished that "no goods were sold to women to be drunk on the premises."   The newspaper added:

As a matter of fact only such women as were known to the Gerkens as respectable residents of the neighborhood could get their "growlers" filled while they waited in that little vestibule.  The sending of a child or even of a full-grown girl of doubtful discretion to the side door on a growler-filling errand was greeted with a stern rebuke from one of the brothers, and an intimation that if the family could not send better messengers for its dinner supply of beer it had better seek some other source than Gerken's.

(A "growler" was a tin bucket or pitcher used to transport beer from a saloon to one's home or work site.)

According to the newspaper, Gerken's saloon was, as well, "something of an employment agency."  If a neighbor needed help in moving a piece of heavy furniture or other such errand, he went to Gerken's.  The bootblack would be sent to a lodging house or tenement to find someone down on his luck who needed the money.  The Sun said, "That man could not get a drink in Gerken's, because they would not take the money of such a man across their bar, but they were always ready to show their good will by finding work for him."

Amazingly, the Gerken brothers would not serve alcoholics, or "drunkards," as they were called.  Once a wife appeared "with tears in her eyes asking for him," a patron was cut off forever.  "He might sit in the back room and read the newspapers or discuss affairs of State if he pleased, but if he asked for beer or whiskey he was treated as if he had put a deadly insult on the proprietors."

German saloon proprietors often operated a bier garten in the rear in the summer months.  The Gerken brothers had no backyard, so they improvised.  The Sun recalled later:

Then all the chairs in the backroom and pretty much all those in the apartments above were moved down to the sidewalk under the tree by the side door on Waverley place.  From sundown until 1 o'clock the brothers sat out there with the substantial folk of the neighborhood sipping beer and Rhine wine at the rate of about one drink an hour and getting far more out of life than do the members of some of the finest clubs.

There was never scandal surrounding the Gersten saloon, no raids on Sundays (because it was never opened after midnight on Saturday), no gambling and no unescorted or questionable women.

By the turn of the century, according to The Evening World, "The Gerkins [sic] had amassed a fortune in the liquor business and had invested most of their profits in real estate." 

February 1902 was a devastating time for the extended Gersten family.  Around February 7, the third brother was committed to a sanitarium.  The following week, on the morning of February 13, Carsten left home telling Ella he had to attend business downtown.  She said later that he "seemed in a cheerful mood."  That evening his body was found floating off Bedloe's Island.  John Gerken identified his body at the morgue.  While Ella said that his fall from the Staten Island Ferry had to have been an accident, the police called his death a suicide. 

The very next day, John Gerken "fell dead on a Second avenue car," as reported by The Sun.  The newspaper said that the shock of his brother's death "is believed to have indirectly led to John's death."  On February 14, 1902, The Evening World reported, "The bodies of the brothers now lay side by side" in a Bleecker Street funeral home.  Two days later, The Sun remarked that the third brother, "probably does not know to-day of the ends of the lives of John and Carsten."

Ella Gerken leased the saloon to Charles Neubaur.  Its sterling reputation was quickly tarnished.  On August 18, 1905, The New York Evening Post reported that a "crowd of roughs, supposed to be members of the notorious 'Paul Kelly Gang,'" had been ousted from the bar.  They returned later that night and a "free-for-all fight followed."  Policeman Francis J. Upton arrived just as the "roughs" were being put out again.  One of the gang turned his fury to the officer.  He struck Upton several times with a "brass knob."  After what The New York Evening Post described as "a hard fight," Upton subdued the tough, "using his night stick freely in doing so."

Apparently Upton's free use of his baton was severe.  The newspaper said, "The prisoner was not able to appear in court this morning."  His confederates were not happy.  Officer Upton showed Magistrate Whitman a letter he had received that morning from the Paul Kelly Gang that said, "We will lay for you."

In March 1908, Ella Gerken sold the building.  The New-York Tribune remarked, "The corner store has been occupied as a saloon for the last thirty-five years."

In 1924, during the first years of Prohibition, the Ellen A. O'Reilly estate sold the property to Sadie Goldman.  The former saloon space was transformed into a penny arcade.

On August 13, 1926, The New York Times began an article saying, "Death, injury, fire, flood and general transportation and radio paralysis were caused by a rapid succession of thunderstorms and rainstorms which swept over the metropolitan district yesterday afternoon."  Among the many incidents, said the article, was a lighting bolt that "struck in a penny arcade at 385 Sixth Avenue and caused so much excitement that some one turned in a fire alarm.  No damage was caused."

By 1935, the ground floor was home to a James Butler Grocery store.  (The James Butler Grocery Company was the second-largest grocery chain in New York.)  It was replaced by a restaurant as early as 1937.

In 1937, the facade was painted and a restaurant occupied the store space.  The Sixth Avenue elevated was in the process of being demolished.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Following the repeal of Prohibition, the space returned to selling alcohol as the Waverly Liquor Shoppe.  On the evening of April 16, 1954, the eve of Passover, Sophie Brady dropped in "to buy some wine for the holidays."  Her timing could not have been worse and she interrupted an armed robbery.  

The gunman demanded Sophie's purse, but the feisty 60-year-old fought back.  The New York Times reported, "She screamed and clung to her bag, and during the struggle the pistol was fired."  Sophie Brady was hit in the arm and she suffered a head injury in the fight.  In the meantime, the manager, Victor Cocozziello, had been forced onto the floor behind the counter.  The gunman escaped with $15 from Cocozziello's wallet and $100 from the register.  Sophie was treated at St. Vincent's Hospital.  She had saved her purse, but never got her holiday wine.

The Waverly Liquor Shoppe remained at least through the late 1960s, replaced by the Waverly Restaurant, a fixture on the Greenwich Village corner for years.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The William Cune Holbrook House - 10 West 130th Street

 

image via city realty.com

The forward thinking John Jacob Astor I accumulated land in Harlem in 1844 for $10,000 (about $445,000 in 2026).  Formerly part of two farms, it sat vacant and when Astor died four years later, the block that would eventually be girded by 129th and 130th Streets and Fifth and Lenox Avenues passed to his son, William Backhouse Astor.  He, in turn, bequeathed it to his sons, John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor Jr.  William received the 130th Street portion of the property.

In 1880, architect Charles Buek designed the first of three groups of houses that would line the block.  Nos. 8 through 22 West 130th Street were completed the following year.  The full project would be finished in 1883, creating a charming streetscape that would prompt Claude McKay to call the row "the Block Beautiful" in his 1928 novel Home to Harlem.

Buek designed the homes in mirror-image pairs, each pair separated by a carriage drive that accessed the rear yards.  Three stories tall above short basements, their brick facades were clad in brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Harking to the district's rural cottages of a generation earlier, Buek sat them back from the property line, creating prim gardens and abling him to add delightful, spindle-decorated wooden porches.  The lintels were decorated with simple neo-Grec rosettes.  Rather than using a more costly pressed metal cornice, Buek designed a dentiled brick version above a brick frieze decorated with recessed quatrefoil designs.

Astor retained possession of the houses, eventually passing them to his grandchildren, Mary, James and Sarah Van Alen.  In the meantime, they were used as rental income.  

The first occupants of 10 West 130th Street were Colonel William Cune Holbrook and his family.  Born in Brattleboro, Vermont on June 14, 1842, Holbrook was the son of Vermont Governor Frederick Holbrook.  He graduated from Harvard Law School and served in the Union Army throughout the Civil War.  A member of the law firm Barret, Brinsmade & Barret, he married Anna Chalmers in 1872.

When they moved into 10 West 130th Street, the couple had two surviving children--three-year-old Margaret, and one-year-old Marion Goodhue.  Two sons, William Bradford and Chalmers William, would arrive in 1884 and 1887 respectively.  (Two sons, William Jr. and Richard Knowlton had died in infancy.)  Sadly, William Bradford Holbrook died at the age of one-and-a-half on June 28, 1886.  

Also living in the house was George Chalmers, possibly Anna's brother or nephew, who was graduated from Yale University in 1886, and Charles B. Tooker, a coal and feed dealer.   Tooker was apparently a boarder and would list his address with the Holbrooks through 1888.

Anna Holbrook was an active supporter of the Harlem Day Nursery on 116th Street and Second Avenue.  The New-York Tribune deemed it, "one of the most practical of the charities of Harlem."  Anna's involvement was reflected in an article in the New-York Tribune on April 10, 1892, which said, "A musical entertainment and a pastoral operetta called 'Little Bo-Peep' will be given in aid of the Harlem Day Nursery on Wednesday afternoon and evening at the home of Mrs. Holbrook, No. 10 West One-hundred-and-thirtieth-st.  The programme will be given entirely by children."

In June 1895, William Cune Holbrook was appointed by Mayor William Lafayette Strong as a justice "of the new criminal court," as reported by The Medico-Legal Journal.  According to The New York Times, his salary was the equivalent of $333,000 in 2026.

Justice William Cune Holbrook, Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, 1894 (copyright expired)

In January 1898, Anna began suffering "brain trouble," as worded by The New York Times.  That summer, the family traveled to Brattleboro, Vermont where William's widowed father still lived.  Anna's condition worsened and she fell into a coma.  She died about a week later, on September 29, at the age of 53.

Shortly afterward, Holbrook left the 130th Street house, moving to 16 West 116th Street where he died in March 1904.

In the meantime, 10 West 130th Street was rented to Sidney Buner Mills and his wife, the former Maria D. Freeborn.  Sidney Mills was associated with Rogers, Peet & Co., men's clothiers, and was the secretary of the Louis Berghart-Mills Company. 

Born in 1843 and 1845 respectively, Sidney and Maria had four children, Dewitt Wilde, Marshall Freeborn, Sidney Jr., and Rushton Lenox.  Living with the family was Eliza Freeborn Mills and her son, Benjamin Freeborn Mills.  Eliza was the sister of Maria and the widow of Sidney's brother, Isaac Smith Mills, who had died in 1895. 

Rushton was 18 years old in 1901 when became involved with a bizarre missing person incident.  Myra Morgan was two years older than he, and The New York Times explained that he had "been a playmate of the girl" in their youth.

The daughter of Dr. G. E. Morgan, Myra disappeared from their Harlem home early in September.  The New York Times said that two weeks later Dr. Morgan learned, "that she had disguised herself as a boy before leaving home."  Indeed, Myra checked into the Hotel Boulevard, registering as M. Morgan.  The newspaper said, 

She was dressed in a neat suit of gray flannel, a derby hat, and low patent leather shoes.  She had clipped her hair short, and as she wore glasses and carried herself with a self-possessed masculine swagger, the hotel clerk never suspected she was not a young man.

Equally duped was C. E. Horton, the assistant manager of the H. W. Johns Manufacturing Company.  The morning after Myra settled into the Hotel Boulevard, Horton hired her in the mailroom.  Horton later explained, "as she appeared to be a bright young man, I gave her a job as mail clerk at $5 a week...and as she was remarkably quick in catching on I thought I had found a very bright boy."

Clark Greenwood had been a mutual of Rushton and Myra during their childhood.  Now he recruited Rushton to help find her.  "They made a blind search of different Harlem hotels until they finally located Miss Morgan," said the article.  Pretending surprise at their "chance" meeting, they arranged to go to the theater that evening.  The boys then reported back to Dr. Morgan, who took his wayward daughter home.

At the time of Myra Morgan's adventure, Marshall Freeborn Mills was attending Princeton University where he was a football star.  He graduated in 1902, assisted in coaching the Princeton football team that year, and coached the New York University team during the 1905 season.  Rather surprisingly, he was listed in city directories as a "decorator" the following year.

As Anna Holbrook had been, Eliza Mills was involved in a nursery.  In 1902, she was a director of the Silver Cross Day Nursery.  And by 1905, she was the first vice-president of The Haarlem Philharmonic Society.

Sidney Buner Mills died died "suddenly" on November 29, 1911 at the age of 68.  His funeral was held in the house on December 2.

Four months later, on April 14, 1912, Maria Freeborn Mills died.  In reporting on her death, The New York Times mentioned that she had suffered "a long illness."

The Mills family left 10 West 130th Street soon after.  The house became home to widowed Joseph Hook Boyd, an appraiser in the Custom House.  Born in 1839, he served in the Lincoln Cavalry during the Civil War.  His employment with the Custom House began in 1885.

While at his desk on the afternoon of July 12, 1915, Boyd was attacked with "acute indigestion."  He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where he died a few hours later.  His funeral was held in the parlor of 10 West 130th Street on July 15.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Van Alen family next leased the house to Leroy A. Williamson, an "electrical inventor."  He lived here quietly for a year until, for some unknown reason, he checked into a room in the Hotel Manhattan on February 12, 1916.  

The New York Herald reported, "He remained constantly in the room."  Then, on the night of February 13, "he began to shout and when attendants went in they found him talking incoherently."  Police were called and, as reported by The New York Times, "according to the patrolmen, Williamson said he was dickering with the Allies for the purchase of an electric invention by which German armies could be annihilated."  He told the policemen that "the fortune he would amass by the purchase of this invention would 'make Morgan and Rockefeller look like pikers.'"

Patrolman Wisner patronized the inventor, inviting him to "take a ride in a carriage."  Williamson accepted "only upon the condition that Wisner accept $10,000 and an automobile," said The New York Times.  The "carriage" turned out to be a Bellevue Hospital ambulance.  The New York Herald titled its report, "Inventor Goes Mad In Hotel."

Starting in 1912, the Van Alens began liquidating the row of homes.  Six years later, on November 1, 1918, an advertisement for 10 West 130th Street in The New York Times read:

Opportunity to live in a fine street in good style for little money; three-story house, two baths; suitable to sublet in rooms or floors to good advantage.

By the time of the advertisement, the demographics of the Harlem neighborhood had greatly changed.  In 1914, more than 50,000 Black residents lived in the district.  No. 10 West 130th Street became a rooming house, with almost all of its tenants Black as evidenced by positions-wanted advertisements posted in 1921.

One of them, which appeared in the New York Herald on April 26, read, "Couple, light colored; cook; wife waitress-chambermaid, city, country; experience."  Another, on November 4, read, "Girl, colored, wishes half time work, mornings or afternoons.  Lucas, 10 West 130th."  

The charming streetscape was deemed The Block Beautiful in 1928.  image via cityrealty.com

Renting a room here in 1925 was Theodore Williams, who worked as a waiter in the dining car of the Atlantic Coast Line Express.  On February 27 that year, another train "crashed into the rear end of the Florida express," reported The New York Age, "smashing and overturning a dining car, and causing the electric engine pulling the local to topple over also."  The two trains immediately caught fire "and burned until there was nothing left."

The article said that there were few passengers in the dining car, "but the waiters and cooks, all colored, were bustling about, busy preparing for the breakfast rush."  Theodore Williams initially survived the disaster, but he died at a hospital later.

Mrs. Mary G. Miles lived here in 1963 when she received a Federal Citation.  She started working as a clerk typist with the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. in 1942.  The New York Amsterdam News said she, "improved in her proficiency and acquired additional responsibilities in the duties of her rating."  When the agency moved to Manhattan, she came along and in 1948 she was transferred to the Army Transport Service, and then to the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1950.  On November 29, 1963, she was cited for her two decades "of faithful government service."

A renovation completed in 1967 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and furnished rooms on the upper stories.  After the turn of the century, 10 West 130th Street was restored to a single family house.  It was sold in 2022 for $3.85 million.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photographs by the author

From Horses to Oysters to Art - 246 East 5th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Jacob Finck owned the two-story building--possibly a carriage house or small stable--at 246 East 5th Street when he died in 1881.  It was most likely his widow and son, Andrew, who converted the building to a house-and-store around 1883.  

The remodeling was a mélange of styles.  The building's tall second-floor windows wore molded cornices, typical of the Italianate style.  The pressed metal cornice, however, with its crisp, geometric corbels, was neo-Grec in style.  A handsome, slightly-projecting storefront was supported by paneled, cast iron pilasters.

The storefront was intact when this photograph was taken in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It is unclear how long the Fricks retained possession of the property.  By the turn of the century, it was owned by real estate operator Michael J. Adrian, who owned dozens of properties in the district.  As early as 1904, the store was home to Oscar Horn's clothing and tailoring shop.  

Adrian died in 1908 and on May 15 that year his estate transferred his holdings--valued at the equivalent of $62.7 million in 2026--to the newly formed Michael J. Adrian Corporation.  Included in the transfer was 246 East 5th Street, the storefront of which now held the office of building contractors Golomb & Magid.

The corporation leased 246 East 5th Street in 1913 to real estate operator Norbert Landau.  He advertised on February 8 that year, "Real Estate Wanted.  $10,000 cash to invest for good paying houses; (no steam heat;) with only one mortgage.  Robert Landau, 246 East 5th St., New York."  His substantial offering would translate to about $325,000 today.

Little changed to the charming building over the subsequent decades.  In the Depression years, a tailor shop occupied the store.  And then, in the 1970s it was converted to a single-family home.  The storefront was removed and replaced with a comically tiny window, and a slathering of stucco was applied to the facade.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Before 2000, the building was renovated again.  A storefront was reintroduced, the second floor windows were shortened, and an awkward third floor added.  

Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar opened in the storefront in September 2003.  The New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant described it as "a small marble bar with chandeliers."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

The restaurant was short-lived.  On May 9, 2025, Slip House opened in the space.  The gallery was founded by Ingrid Lundgren and Marissa Dembkoski.  At some point (the timeline is vague), the ground floor facade was encrusted with colorful mosaics and pennies by artist Jim Powers.  And a striking ironwork archway was installed, created by Linus Coraggio.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post