The 1905 Christ Church Bldgs-- 344 W. 36th Street

Grimy and mostly overlooked, the stately Gothic complex is slated for demolition -- photo by Beyond My Ken

In 1900 Rev. Dr. Maltbie Daveport Babcock was brought as pastor to Manhattan’s fashionable Brick Presbyterian Church.   Babcock was well known for his stirring oratorical powers and outstanding intellect.  His wide-ranging talents included music and he composed several hymns including the popular “This Is My Father’s World.”   His popularity was reflected not only in packed pews, but in his salary of $30,000—about $860,000 today.

photo "The Critic: An Illustrated Monthly Review of Literature, Art and Life" (1901, copyright expired)

Babcock may have preached to Manhattan’s wealthiest citizens; but he was intensely interested in the plights of the less fortunate.  Some attributed his death at the age of 42 just a year later, on May 18, 1901, to overwork.

Soon after Babcock’s death an anonymous donor presented Brick Church with a gift of $50,000 for a memorial “whatever might be decided on.”   The congregation decided to further Babock’s work by erecting a church and  parish house in the impoverished Hell’s Kitchen area.

The Church had decades earlier established a Sunday school on West 35^th Street to minister to the area.  It grew into Christ Church and in 1888 became an independent church.  By now, however, the church and facility were inadequate.  Brick Presbyterian Church members soon amassed $250,000 to start construction of the new Christ Presbyterian Church, Babcock Memorial.

On May 4, 1903 The New York Times reported that the site had been established—“in Thirty-sixth Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.”  The paper added “Title to the site is to be taken in July.”

A competition resulted in architects Parish & Schroeder receiving the commission to design the buildings in December 1903.  Although a sketch was released that month, plans would not be filed until May 14, 1904.  The Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide reported that the site would cover “Nos. 334 to 344 West 36^th st, and to be known as the Christ Church Memorial Buildings.”  

The architects dealt with the long but comparatively shallow building plot by placing the church building sideways.  “The edifice will measure 75 feet in height, with a façade of granite and brick with Indiana limestone trimmings.  The second-story plans call for a large gallery, with a library arrangement.  The parish house will harmonize with the general Gothic style of the church and will contain a 2-sty Sunday school hall, a gymnasium, club rooms for girls and boys, and a roof garden adjoining," said The Guide.

The architects released a sketch in December 1903 The Architectural Review, Dec. 1906 (copyright expired)

What might have appeared as amenities—the library and gymnasium, for instance—were necessary in the church’s outreach to the crime-ridden and impoverished community.  Christ Church, even before the first brick was laid, intended to educate its neighbors and provide training and recreation for the youth who faced the temptations of vice at every corner.

The cornerstone was laid on October 26, 1904 and the Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke of Princeton University made the differences between Fifth Avenue and Hell’s Kitchen churches quite clear.  The Epworth Herald said “A strong word was uttered by Dr. Henry van Dyke at the laying of the corner store of the Christ Church memorial buildings in New York the other day.”

Van Dyke told the crowd that we need “churches that can get close to the life of the people; churches that will know how to help a man when he gets into difficulties without making a botch of the matter; churches that understand how the people live; churches that are neither side tables for poor relations, nor mere gloomy praying closets; churches that can assist a man to round out his life splendidly.”

The $350,000 project, including land, opened on October 27, 1905.  The Christian Work and Evangelist said “The architecture is simple English Gothic, and an innovation in Presbyterian churches has been introduced in the arrangement for the ministry and choir.  Altogether the arrangement is like that in an Episcopal church.  The choir of men and women wear long black gowns and enter in procession.”

The Parish House, right, appeared to be part of the church, the entrance to which is at the far left.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GIU4Q17&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=894

The parish house was L-shaped, wrapping behind the church which was “architecturally the most important feature,” according to The Brickbuilder.   The parish house included a “men’s club” with a bowling alley in the basement.  Upstairs were a Sunday school hall, about 100 feet by 50 feet and capable of seating 1,000, six Bible-class rooms and two large galleries that seated 200 children each (these were used for infants and the “intermediate” departments).  The Sunday school floor included the large library.

The girls’ club rooms were on the fourth floor, as were children’s or kindergarten rooms, the two-story gymnasium with lockers and baths, and quarters for workers who lived in the building.

The gymnasium provided a space for recreation.  Here basketball players share the floor with a band while onlookers gather on the gallery.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GIU4Q17&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=894

The interior of the church reflected its no-nonsense mission.  Nearly Spartan, its stucco-covered walls relied almost entirely on the northern stained glass windows for decoration.  The Journal of Presbyterian History said “The church is kept for worship.  It has a simple and stately interior, with plain brick walls.”

The interior of the church proper was modestly decorated -- The Brickbuilder, December 1906 (copyright expired)

The Journal added, “The Christ Church Buildings are surrounded for the most part by the homes of people of most modest means.  Some of them are very poor.  It was to minister to these that the institutional work was started in connection with the church when it was in the old building on Thirty-fifth Street.”

Men relieved workday stress by a game of bowling in the basement -- photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GIU4Q17&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=894

At the time of the opening of Christ Church the city was terrorized by tuberculosis—especially in the crowded and filthy tenement districts like Hell’s Kitchen.   Among the church’s first efforts was the establishment of Tuberculosis Classes.  Dr. Walter L. Niles reported on the classes to the National Tuberculosis Association in 1906.  Explaining that the church was “in the heart of the crowded west-side tenement district, where the population is largely German and Irish,” he said “All of our original patients lived in the immediate vicinity of the church, and we have since restricted the membership to within a radius of about one-half mile.”

Niles and his staff tried to educate the community on the need for fresh air; but they were frustrated with the inability of the ill-educated residents to grasp their concepts.  “Most of our members have been comparatively ignorant, one or two stupid, and all have been very poor, requiring considerable financial aid in every instance.  We not only direct them what to get and what to do, but see that they have and do everything necessary.”

Classes were not merely for the children.  Here women participate in a sewing class.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GIU4Q17&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=894

Christ Church also operated the Sick Children’s Aid Society and was highly involved with the Fresh Air Fund.  The Fund collected donated money which enabled tenement children to spend time in the country during summer months.  Dr. John Bancroft Devine managed the Fund in 1910 and meetings of “missionaries, settlement workers, hospital nurses and visitors for charitable agencies,” met at the Parish House, as described by the New-York Tribune.

That year 26-year old Rev. Norman Metton Thomas was assistant pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church; but he was more interested in the Hell’s Kitchen residents than his Fifth Avenue congregation.  The New York Times on September 2 said he “has always been identified with charity work” and “his work for the Summer Garden, at the foot of Thirty-fourth Street, endeared him to the people of the district.” 

Thomas was slated to move to Christ Church as assistant pastor in 1911.  But before that happened he married Frances Violet Stewart on September 1, 1910.  The young woman lived in the fine residence of her parents at No. 27 East 38^th Street but had spent much of her time in the slums, working with Rev. Thomas.   The Times noted that she “has often helped him in his work, and besides taking charge of the Sunday school has financially helped the church work.  She has been known as ‘the Angel of Hell’s Kitchen,’ and is much beloved by those in the poor districts for her untiring devotion.”

The bride would give up her fashionable address for the tenement district.  “Mr. and Mrs. Thomas will make their home at 351 West Forty-second Street, which is in the district of Mr. Thomas’s work,” said the newspaper.

The church offered classes to improve the lots of the impoverished community.  Top: Girls are instructed in the art of cooking.  Middle:  Boys learn carpentry.  Bottom:  girls clustered on pews bend over their needlework.  photos by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GIU4Q17&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=894

By 1915, with Europe gripped by world war, the Mayor’s Workshop was established in the Parish House.  “Several hundred men are employed at this place making bandages for the American Red Cross,” reported The Times on March 7.  “The pay for this work is 50 cents a day” and the men were given a free lunch.

But George McAneny, President of the Board of Aldermen, had an innovative idea.  He personally knew a few hotel and restaurant managers and convinced them to donate soup.  Suddenly what we would today term “celebrity chefs” were preparing meals for the poor.  By the time the program got off the ground chefs from high-end hotel restaurants like the Waldorf-Astoria, Holland House, and Ritz-Carolton were involved.

The Times remarked that the men working at Christ Church Parish House “are given a meal at noon, and now, as a result of the aid given by the hotels and restaurants, those that have families bring pails and carry them home at night filled with steaming soup.”

The kindergarten class poses with the teachers in 1908 -- photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GIU4Q17&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=894

Somewhat surprisingly, a performance of King Lear was staged in the Parish House on April 25, 1916.  How many tenement dwellers showed up for the Shakespearean production is unclear; however it was the foreshadowing of drama in the building in years to come.

When the United States entered World War I the focus of Christ Church turned from the making of bandages to the accommodation of soldiers and sailors.  On July 29, 1917 The Sun reported that “Special dances for sailors are to be given every Wednesday night in the auditorium of Christ Church.”  Laura Johnson Moore who ran the program “said the sailors may bring their dancing partners with them or attend singly and be introduced to some of the girls of the neighborhood who will be there.”

The newspaper pointed out the success of the dances.  “Heretofore dances to which the sailors have been specially invited have been held on Thursday, but the crowds were so great it was found necessary to give the sailor boys a special exclusive night.”

In December the following year New York braced for the arrival of 15,000 military men on leave in for the holidays.  Christ Church opened its doors to provide sleeping arrangements for some of them.

Even worse than the war in terms of fatalities was the 1918 influenza pandemic that broke out just a month later.  An estimated 50 to 100 million people died worldwide.  As it had done since 1905, Christ Church offered what assistance it could.  On October 21, 1918 the New-York Tribune reported that the Christ Church House had been made a relief station “where any person needing help may obtain it.”  The station was overseen by the Emergency Advisory Committee of the Health Commission.

Christ Church’s outreach continued as times changed.  In 1932 the Maternal Aid Association opened in the building.  By now the city’s Garment District had engulfed the area and the buildings of Christ Church were surrounded by fewer tenements and more garment factory buildings.  In 1935 Christ Church became the strike headquarters of the Ladies’ Apparel Shipping Clerks Union.  Thousands of strikers assembled here on August 27, 1935 to parade through the garment district.  Instead, they had to give up their plans when police refused to grant a permit fearing “possible disorder.” 

Nevertheless, the women (who demanded “a thirty-five hour, five-day week with time and a half for over-time, six legal holidays, equal distribution of work in the dull season, a closed shop and a minimum wage ranging from $23 to $40 a week, as against the present reported average wage of $15 a week”) crippled the industry for days.

The church’s affiliation with labor continued and in 1939 it was the meeting place for the American Labor Party Women’s Division.

A new Manhattan congregation, the Greek Evangelical Church, was established in October 1946 and shared the building with Christ Church.   Then, in 1950, signs of change appeared.  On May 6 The New York Times noted “The Circle Theatre company will offer a fourteen-week season of centrally staged presentations in the Christ Memorial Church building, 344 West Thirty-sixth Street, beginning July 17.”

What at first seemed like a temporary arrangement was not.  Three weeks later the newspaper noted “The construction of the Circle Theatre’s theatre-in-the-round is scheduled to begin today at 344 West Thirty-sixth Street, the gymnasium of Christ Memorial Church, which is being converted into the new playhouse.”

The theater opened with a combination of Moliere’s The Physician in Spite of Himself and The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife.  It was the beginning of a decades-long residency.  The church would hold on until 1970.

In 1975 the Christ Church Memorial buildings were taken over by the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health.  The facility, staffed by social workers and psychologists, offered clinical services to both children and adults.   Outwardly, the Gothic structure was grime covered and dreary.

Then in 2014 the complex was sold to Sam Chang’s McSam Hotel Group for $50.75 million.  Chang immediately made his intentions for the property known, saying through a representative “it is well-positioned for hotel or residential conversion.”

By January 2015 the choice was made.  Parish & Schroeder’s Gothic memorial buildings, where impoverished Hell’s Kitchen residents were helped for decades, was slated for demolition to be replaced with a hotel.

many thanks to Elissa Desani for requesting this post

The 1898 Clarence Whitman Mansion -- No. 7 East 76th Street

When constructed No. 7 bore the address of No.  5 East 76th St.  To the left is the mansion's fraternal twin, originally No. 3.

On October 24, 1897 The New York Times reported that the wealthy socialite Mrs. E. Schiefflin had purchased the lot at No. 3 East 76^th Street from Dr. E. Seybel.  By the following year Catherine Schiefflin would own the adjoining plot at No. 5 and set the architectural firm of Parish & Schroeder to work designing two grand limestone mansions.

Completed in 1898 Nos. 3 and 5 were harmoniously designed in the neo-Renaissance style.  The proportions and compositions of the sister homes left no doubt that they were built as a pair or that they were intended for wealthy owners.  The slightly lower stoop of No. 5 allowed for higher ceilings on the parlor level and therefore grander spaces.  The reserved Italian-inspired façade, highlighted by a delicate iron balcony at the second floor, rose to a rather unexpected clay-tiled mansard.

The house was purchased by Clarence Whitman who wasted little time in adapting the mansion to his personal tastes.  On June 10, 1899 architect Charles Alonzo Rich filed plans for alterations amounting to $10,000—over $275,000 today. 

Whitman was a wealthy importer of laces and embroidery.  He and his wife had three sons, Harold, Gerald and Clarence, and the family summered in their elaborate country estate in Katonah, New York.

The Whitman boys were nearly grown when the family moved in.  Clarence Morton Whitman graduated from Harvard in 1900 and, like his father, was a yachtsman and clubman.  He left the mansion following his November 19, 1903 wedding in St. Thomas’s Church to Eleanor Motley.

A society event, The New York Times remarked that “It was a white wedding, the decorations of church and house being white flowers and greens.”  The modern couple spent their honeymoon in Southern California rather than making the traditional European bridal tour.

On November 23 the following year Clarence Whitman sold the house to Harold Farquhar Hadden.  Like Whitman, Hadden was an importer.  He was the head of Hadden & Co., which had been founded by his grandfather.  By now it was one of the oldest silk importing firms in the country. 

Hadden was educated at Cambridge University and, as expected of moneyed merchants, was a member of several clubs.  The spacious home was necessary for Hadden and his wife, the former Valerie Burkhardt--they had three daughters and three sons.  Their summer home was in Seabright, New Jersey.

In 1904, the same year that the family moved into the East 76^th, son William Aspinwall Hadden was admitted to the family firm.  A graduate of Harvard, he had spent two years learning the business and now stepped into the position of President.

Young, handsome and wealthy, William Hadden died in the mansion at the age of 27 -- The American Carpet and Upholstery Journal June 10, 1908 (copyright expired)

But in 1908 the 27-year old contracted typhoid fever.  According to The American Carpet and Upholstery Journal on June 10, “Mr. Hadden was stricken at just about the opening of the carpet season, after a hard Winter’s work, and for a time convalesced so rapidly that his friends were encouraged to believe he would soon be at his desk; but last week his condition took a turn for the worse.”  Tragically, on Saturday morning, June 6 the promising young businessman died in the mansion.

With the construction of the J. J. Wysong mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue in 1910, the house numbers along the 76th Street block shifted.  Rather than take the prestigious Fifth Avenue address, the new mansion took No. 1 East 76th Street—an address already being used by Charles Hudson.   Now the Hudson house became No. 3, No 3 became No. 5 and so forth down the block.

That same year brought a flurry of social excitement to the Hadden household.  On March 30, 1910 Harold Farquhar Hadden, Jr. was married to Laura Emmet in what The New York Times called “the largest of the Easter week events.”  The newspaper said “St. James’s Church, at Seventy-fourth Street and Madison Avenue, was filled with a fashionable throng.”

Five months later, on August 18, the Haddens announced the engagement of daughter Valerie to Francis Behn Riggs of Seattle.  Valerie’s debut had been celebrated in the house just a few years earlier.

It would be a short engagement.  On October 6 the wedding took place in the same church where her brother had been married; with a reception following at the 76^th Street mansion.

Social events in the Hadden house were not all about weddings, debuts and engagements.  On February 4, 1913 Valerie Hadden hosted a musical for some of Manhattan’s most socially-elite.  The Times reported that “Those invited included Mrs. Vanderbilt, Mrs. H. Fairfield Osborn, Mrs. Hamilton Fish, Miss Beatrix Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Damrosch, Miss Constance Wilkinson, Magistrate Barlow, Miss Olive Fremstad and M. Hellen.”

St. James’s Church had not seen the end of the Hadden children weddings.  In January 1914 son Gavin’s engagement to Rebecca Lloyd was announced and on February 16, a year later E. Kenneth Hadden married Frances Hawthorne Wyeth.  In reporting that ceremony, The Times said “The wedding…filled the edifice with a large and fashionable assemblage.”  The newspaper noted that following their honeymoon the newlyweds “will live at 7 East Seventy-sixth Street.”

Six months later on August 11, 1915 Harold Farquhar Hadden died in the Seabright home at the age of 60.  Valerie did not stay on in the mansion and within months the Yale Alumni Weekly announced that Herbert Parsons had changed his residence to 7 East 76^th Street.  It was possibly Parsons who installed a handball court on the roof in 1917.

While many of the Upper East Side mansions were either razed or converted to apartments in the 1920s and subsequent decades, No. 7 survived as a private residence.  By 1926 it was home to Colonel Thomas H. Birch.  The annual horse show was a major event for Manhattan society and on November 25 that year The New York Times noted that “The third night at the horse show was marked with an unusually brilliant showing of fashion.”  This was partially due to the attendance of the Spanish Ambassador, his wife, and a large entourage. 

On the afternoon before The Times article Colonel Birch hosted a luncheon in the house “for the Spanish team of officers who are participating in the international events at the show.”

Throughout the 1930s Mr. and Mrs. Albert J. Erdmann lived at No. 7.  Mrs. Erdmann was highly involved in charitable causes.  In 1932 she was a member of the committee arranging the Vassar Club’s benefit opera “Lucia di Lammermoor” and to benefit the college’s scholarship fund.  She would be a force behind the formation of the Junior Consultation Service that helped drop-outs find jobs with the help of psychologists and vocational counselors.

By the 1960s the mansion was home to Sam Salz, one of the world’s leading art dealers.  Salz dealt mainly in impressionist and post-impressionist paintings; but he was a collector as well.  On February 15, 1964 The Times remarked “On walls in hallways, living rooms, and bedrooms are works of Renoir, Dufy, Utrillo, Brque, Pissarro, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, Rouault, Manet, Sisley and Toulouse-Lautrec.  There are also many pieces of sculpture.”

The Austrian-born dealer lived in the mansion with his wife, Marina, and their two sons.  “On the walls of the bedrooms hang small Vuilllards, Bonnards, Renoirs and Pissaros,” reported The Times’ Milton Esterow.

.

The mansion survives essentially unchanged today; a remarkably handsome private home.

 photographs by the author

The Ludlow-Parish Houses -- Nos. 6 and 8 E. 76th St.

The Ludlows lived at No. 6 (right) and the Parishes at No. 8 -- photo by Alice Lum

Margaret Tonnele Hall Ludlow had an impressive New York pedigree. She was closely related to the Roosevelt family and in 1863 she married Edward Philip Livingston Ludlow--a direct descendant of Philip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of Gabriel Ludlow who was named by King William III as a Vestryman of Trinity Church in 1697.

By the time Ludlow’s daughter, Susan, married the wealthy banker Henry Parish, Jr. in 1884 New York’s wealthy citizens were building imposing mansions along the east side of Central Park. The Ludlows and Parishes would join the trend in 1895 when Edward and Margaret Ludlow laid plans for a double mansion on East 76^th Street, just off the Fifth Avenue.

The Ludlows commissioned architects Parish & Schroeder to design two side-by-side homes—one for themselves and the other for their daughter and son-in-law.  By designing the houses as mirror images, the firm created what appeared to be a single Italian Renaissance palazzo—two mansions pretending to be one.  Sitting squarely at sidewalk level above two shallow steps, the separate entrances were disguised by a single portico supported by paired columns.

The limestone base gave way to four stories of beige-grey Roman brick trimmed in limestone.  Parish & Schroeder resisted the gushing ornament popular on other mansions of the period; instead relying on restrained decoration—brick quoins, simple iron railings and just two Renaissance-inspired triangular window pediments.

The houses were completed in 1896, the title of both being recorded in Margaret’s name.  The Ludlows moved into No. 6 East 76^th Street, with the Parishes next door at No. 8.  The houses were connected internally by “wide sliding doors” between the drawing rooms, according to The New York Times.  While Margaret Ludlow gave the expected entertainments here and in her Newport cottage, Mount Airie, it would be Susan Parish who attracted the social spotlight.

On December 4, 1897 the Parish home was ready to receive guests.  The following day the New-York Tribune noted that “Mrs. Henry Parish, Jr., of No. 8 East Seventy-sixth-st., gave a housewarming yesterday afternoon, in her new home, which was one of the largest and most brilliant receptions of the day.”

For her afternoon housewarming Susan wore “a gown of mauve velvet,” and assisting her in receiving the throng of guests were five wealthy socialites:  Mrs.Goodhue Livingston, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, Mrs. Benjamin Welles, Mrs. William S. Cowles, and, of course, her mother who, the Tribune mentioned, “lives in the communicating house.”

Susan and Henry had just one child, Julia, a fact that did not stop them from hosting several debutante affairs, weddings and receptions in the house.  Henry’s sister, Edith married her “kinsman,” Daniel Parish Kingsford, in a wedding in July 1898 that the Vermont Phoenix deemed “notable because it involved some of the best blood of old New York.”  The ensuing wedding breakfast was held at No. 8 East 76^th.  The following year, on December 14, Susan gave a dinner for her relative Kitty Hall.  “The guests were all debutantes,” mentioned The New York Times.

Henry Parish, Jr. -- "Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York" 1914 (copyright expired)

But none of the events held in the house at No. 8 East 76^th Street would outdo the wedding that took place here on St. Patrick’s Day, 1905.

At the turn of the century, both parents of Susan’s cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, had died.  Anna, who went by her middle name, moved in with the Parishes.  Eleanor’s uncle was President Theodore Roosevelt and following a reception and dinner at the White House in 1903, she was introduced to her distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt.

Much to the disgruntlement of his domineering mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, Franklin announced his plans to marry Eleanor in 1904.  Despite Sara’s efforts to stop it, the wedding took place in the Parish mansion.  The house was transformed for the ceremony.  The Los Angeles Herald said “A huge floral cluster of 1,000 pink roses, entwined with smilax and asparagus, was suspended in the center of the drawing room and formed a canopy.”  

The New York Times wrote “The two large drawing rooms on the second floor, done alike in pale amber-yellow satin brocade, were thrown into one large salon running the width of the two houses.”  With no father to give her away, Eleanor relied on her uncle, the President of the United States.

Getting to the Parish house for the President meant disrupting the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  The Los Angeles Herald said “On the way he met a big St. Patrick’s day parade, which was stopped, the participants and the thousands who crowded the sidewalks wildly cheering Mr. Roosevelt as he went through and passed up Park avenue.”

At 3:00 in the afternoon he arrived.  “The president, with his niece leaning on his arm, preceded by the bridesmaids, passed into the drawing room through an aisle of white ribbons held by the ushers,” said the newspaper.

In 1915 Henry Parish retired from the Bank of New York and Trust Company where he had been vice-president and trustee.  Unbendingly old-fashioned, The New York Times remarked that “he had never allowed a telephone in the institution and permitted typewriters only out of his own earshot.”

The Parish house continued to be the scene of numerous entertainments, including the wedding of cousin Elizabeth Livingston Hall to Norwood Rathbone on February 8, 1922.  The New York Times could not resist mentioning that “Mrs. Rathbone is a cousin of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose wedding was also celebrated some years ago in the same house, long occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Parish.”

The Roosevelts and the Parishes had a close relationship and even after Franklin attained the presidency he and Eleanor were frequent guests on East 76^th Street and in the Parish homes in Newport and Llewellyn Park, New Jersey.  Henry and Susan were guests, as well, at the White House.

On June 26, 1942 the 82-year old Henry Parish died of a heart attacked in the Llewellyn Park summer home.  Susan continued to live on in the house on East 76^th Street and to maintain the New Jersey and Newport estates.

Four years after her husband’s death, Susan Parish was at home in New York while workman prepared the New Jersey house for her return in May 1946.  A lit cigarette was tossed onto the porch roof and before long the upper floors were on fire.  A gardener, William Kennedy, rushed into the burning house to rescue personal and historic items.  Among them were photographs “of the late President after his graduation from Harvard University and one of the Roosevelts at their wedding, which took place in the home of Mrs. Parish,” reported The Times.

The fire destroyed the second and third floors of the home, “one of the oldest residences in Llewellyn Park,” according to The Times; causing about $30,000 in damages.

Susan had the home restored.  By now the aging woman who had once been so socially prominent was a semi-invalid and spent her time in seclusion.  In 1950 she traveled to the Llewellyn Park estate for the summer and there, on July 9, she died at the age of 84.

The following year her estate sold the house on East 76^th Street where she had lived for over half a century in a cash deal.  It was the end of the line for the Parish house as a private home.

Both homes were converted to multi-family residences; their historic significance largely lost -- photo by Alice Lum

After her mother’s death, the house next door had been purchased by Colonel Thomas H. Birch.  He died here in 1929 and Mrs. Birch remained on until the early 1930s.  In 1946 it had been converted to apartments and doctors’ offices.

The same fate would befall the Parish home.  Following the sale in 1951 it was converted to apartments with doctors’ offices on the ground floor.

 

The two once-grand homes give little hint of their former lives.  No one remembers that here a President of the United States gave away a future First Lady in marriage, under a canopy of 1,000 pink roses.