Mills & Bottomley's 1920 1049 Park Avenue

 

photograph by Deansfa

J. Lang Mills and W. L. Bottomley worked as Mills & Bottomley in 1919 when they received the commission to design a 13-story apartment building on Park Avenue near the southeast corner of 87th Street from Katharine Abbot, head of the Abbotsford Realty Corporation.  Faced in brown brick and trimmed in stone and terra cotta, 1049 Park Avenue was completed in 1921 at a cost of $350,000 (about $6.5 million in 2026).

The tripartite, neo-Renaissance design included a three-story base, the lower two floors of which were enhanced with decorated quoins.  The centered entrance was flanked by double-height fluted Corinthian pilasters.  Above the doorway was an entablature with intricate Renaissance decorations and a window fronted by a faux balcony.  The pilasters rose to a broken pediment from which emerged a window topped with yet another broken pediment.  Portrait keystones enhanced each of the third floor openings.

While the architects left the seven-story midsection essentially unadorned, they gave the top section exuberant decoration.  Between the openings of the 11th and 12th floors were double-height, terra cotta cartouches filled with dangling garlands.  Smaller examples decorated the top floor above a terra cotta intermediate cornice.  A decorative parapet above the cornice was interrupted by paneled blocks that sprouted towering finials.

In 1922, a private house survived on the south side of 1049 Park Avenue.  photograph by John Wallace Gillier, from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The American Institute of Architects presented Katharine H. Abbot the gold medal for apartment house buildings completed in 1921.  It praised Mills and Bottomley "for the originality of its design, the pleasing proportions, the clever use of materials, and the domestic feeling of the building."

There were three apartments per floor--four, six or seven rooms each with two or three baths.  The penthouse apartment had nine rooms.  Rents ranged from $3,000 to $6,000 per year, or about $9,500 per month for the most expensive.

On Christmas night 1921, the Robert L. Huntzinger family was away from the city.  Their servants, according to the New York Herald, were "at a party."  With the apartment temporarily unguarded, burglars moved in.  The New York Herald reported, "Several thousand dollars' worth of silver and jewelry was reported taken."  Police surmised that the thief was "some one familiar with the premises and habits of the tenants."

Among the Huntzingers' neighbors in the building was the socially prestigious Caroline Suydam Whitney Fellowes, the widow of Colonel Cornelius Fellows.  As the daughter of Henry Whitney, the New York Herald remarked that she "was a member of one of the oldest New York and New England families" and was related to the Livingstons and Kernochans.  Caroline Fellowes's health began to decline in 1922 and she died on September 22, "in her seventieth year of infirmities from which she had suffered for months," as reported by the New York Herald.  

A young Caroline Suydam Whitney Fellowes, from a family album.

Canada-born siblings Florence Mary Lynch and W. F. Lynch were initial residents.  Florence was educated in Ottawa and at the Villa Marie Convent in Montreal.  W. F. Lynch was with the Cuba Railway Company and "was for some years secretary to Sir William Van Horne, predecessor of Baron Shaughnessy as president of the Canadian Pacific Railway," according to the New York Herald.

It was possibly through her brother's involvement in the railroads that Florence met D. C. Coleman, who lived in Winnipeg.  The 43-year-old was vice-president of the Canadian Pacific Railway's western lines.  The couple was married in St. Ignatius Loyola Church on October 28, 1922.  The New York Herald reported, "A small reception will follow at the home of Miss Lynch and her brother."

On April 9, 1924, the New York Evening Post reported that Barry Doyle, "the illustrious cousin and adopted brother of the originator of the famous Sherlock Holmes, was the guest of honor at a reception "at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Pullman West."  The article said the reception was being held "in the interest of the fund being raised for the relief of the starving children of the Near East."

Born in Providence, Rhode Island on December 18, 1876.  Stuart Pullman West was the nephew of George M. Pullman, the founder of the Pullman Company.  He graduated from Harvard in 1897 and was was the financial editor of The Evening World and contributor to the Wall Street Journal.  He and Eliza Von Bretton Di Zerega were married in January 1902 and they had one son and one daughter.  The couple's movements were followed by the society columns and on June 12, 1924, the Chicago Daily Tribune remarked, "Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Pullman West of 1049 Park avenue will pass the early summer at Whiteface Inn, Lake Placid."

Eliza West died on December 11, 1925 at the age of 46.  Before long, Stuart began a romantic relationship with Loren Oldham Crenshaw, described by The Yonkers Statesman as "a prominent society woman."  But tragedy interrupted their courtship.  Stuart Pullman West was diagnosed with tuberculosis early in 1927.  The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi explained that his illness was not discovered before it "was critical."   

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

On February 19, 1927, The Yonkers Statesman reported, "Romance dared to defy death two weeks ago."  The article said that Loren Crenshaw went to Stuart's bedside where they were married by a municipal court justice.  It continued, "Yesterday death won, when West's game fight against the ravages of tuberculosis proved unavailing."

Stuart Pullman West left an estate equal to $5.56 million today.  On March 1, 1927, The New York Times reported that his will "made no provision for his wife, Mrs. Loren Oldham Crenshaw West, whom he married a week before he died."  A reporter called on Loren West in her 1049 Park Avenue apartment.  She explained, "The will was made before I met Mr. West and I knew all about it.  Its provisions were not in any way a surprise."

In the meantime, H. Ivan Stengel and his wife, Marguerite, occupied a sixth-floor apartment.  Stengel was an engineer with the Cadillac Automotive Company.  He was, as well, the president of the Automobile Merchants' Association.  Their country home was in Larchmont, New York.

On the morning of April 8, 1924, the couple had a "shopping engagement."  Marguerite returned to 1049 Park Avenue around 11:00.  Hoping to summon a servant to help with her packages, she rang the apartment's bell from the lobby, but got no response.  The New York Times reported, "on alighting from the elevator again, [she] again rang to save herself the trouble of getting her keys from her bag."  Again she got no response.  Assuming that her maid, Louise, and her cook, Mary, were "in the rear of the deep apartment," she let herself in.

As she passed through the foyer, she could see a diagonal view into her bedroom through the half-opened door.  Marguerite later explained that she was frozen in fear seeing a man going through her dresser drawers.  "He had extracted a jewel case Mrs. Stengel kept there and before her eyes he proceeded to take from it two strands of pearls, one valued at $14,000 and the other at $10,000," said The New York Times. 

After approximately a minute, Marguerite uttered a sound and the burglar "glanced up sharply to catch her reflection in a mirror across the room."  He drew a revolver and Marguerite fled down the stairway all the way to the lobby.  The superintendent blew a police whistle and "mustering a posse of house attendants," headed upstairs.  The New York Times reported that they found "the servants, locked, terror-stricken, in a small room adjoining the bedroom."  The burglar had gotten away with jewelry valued at the equivalent of $940,000 today.

Marguerite described the thief as being "stumpy" and wearing a red wig.  The New York Times reported, "A red wig and a cap found on a rear fire escape marked his trail."

Four months later, on August 18, Louis Hernandez Campos (called the "red wig robber" by newspapers) was arrested in Washington D.C.  Campos had attempted to pawn one of the valuable pearl necklaces.  The New York Times reported, "In a canvas belt around his waist were jewels valued at $60,000."

The Stengels were at their Larchmont home at the time.  The following day, detectives arrived there and arrested their maid, Louise Provnka (who had been tied, gagged and imprisoned with the cook during the robbery).  In questioning Campos, they had discovered that Louise was his wife.  The New York Times reported, "the maid admitted she was the wife of Campos and had planned the robbery with him."

Helen Churchill Hungerford Candee lived here at the time.  Born in October 1858, she had divorced her abusive husband, Edward Candee in 1896.  An early feminist, her first book, How Women May Earn a Living, published in 1900 was a best-seller.  She went on to be a journalist, author, interior decorator, and geographer.  She was a close friend of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt.  Her personal account of surviving the RMS Titanic, Down To the Sea in Ships, would be published by her granddaughter years later.

Helen Churchill Candee, (original source unknown)

Helen eventually wrote eight books, traveled throughout the world, and even consulted with the Roosevelts in the remodeling of the White House's West Wing in 1909.  The remarkable author and lecturer died in York Harbor, Maine at the age of 90 on August 23, 1949.

The building continued to be home to well-heeled residents.  In August 1941, assistant publicity director of R. H. Macy & Co. John Goodwillie leased "a large penthouse apartment," as described by The New York Times.  Living here at the time was Oscar Gavrilovich, the Yugoslav Consul General.  His brother, Otto Gavrilovich, was Secretary of the Treasury of Yugoslavia.

In 1947 Josip Broz Tito created a new Yugoslavian Communist Government.  The Gavrilovich brothers found themselves in a difficult position.  On October 15, The New York Times reported that Oscar "is about to become a press agent" and that he would soon open a "diplomatic public relations office."  Otto, mentioned the article, "last month opened a retail women's apparel shop here."

Following World War II, Captain Stephen Booth McKinney and his wife, Sarah, moved into 1049 Park Avenue.  McKinney graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1903 and had been Chief of Staff of the Third Naval District during World War II.  He commanded the battleship Idaho from August 1939 to February 1941.  He was retired in 1946 "for medical reasons," according to The New York Times.  Now he was an executive in the law department of the National Association of Credit Men.

On October 9, 1953, McKinney was placed under the care of a heart specialist.  Three days later the 68-year-old plunged from the couple's apartment window.  The New York Times reported, "His pajama-clad body landed in a rear yard."

In 1960, 1049 Park Avenue underwent a cooperative conversion.  Among the residents at the time included Claudius D. Duncan, vice president of the Chemical Bank New York Trust Company and his wife, the former Mary Martin.  Claudius died of a heart ailment on September 1, 1961.  Three years later, on November 29, 1964, Mary announced the engagement of their daughter, Mary Martin Duncan, to Charles Francis Clement 3d.  In reporting the announcement, The New York Times remarked that Mary graduated from the Chapin School and was presented to society at the Grosvenor Ball in 1961.

The entrance of 1049 Park Avenue became familiar to television viewers nationwide starting in 1970.  The opening scene of every episode of The Odd Couple depicted Oscar (Jack Klugman) and Felix (Tony Randall) emerging from the building--Oscar throwing his cigar butt to the sidewalk and Felix picking it up with the point of his umbrella.

image via cityrealty.com

At some point the crowning parapet and its remarkable finials were removed from the building.  And unsympathetic masonry repairs have resulted in a patchwork of brick colors.  But, overall, 1049 Park Avenue survives highly intact.

The Lost Henry Ammon James Mansion - 735 Park Avenue

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

British-born architect Frederick Junius Sterner arrived in New York City in 1906.  He purchased an architecturally outdated brownstone on East 19th Street and transformed it into a Mediterranean-style villa with a stuccoed facade and red tile roof.  Within five years, he had remade numerous high-stooped brownstones around the city into modern mansions for numerous wealthy patrons.  

Henry Ammon James would add his name to Sterner's client list in 1916.  On January 29, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Sterner was designing renovations to the old brownstone at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 71st Street.  The plans included the removal of walls and stairs, "rearrange [the] roof," creation of "new areas," and installing modern "plumbing, wiring and heating."  The remodeling would cost James $25,000, or about $756,000 in 2026 terms.

The vintage four-story-and-basement house, built in the 1870s, originally faced 71st Street.  Sterner reconfigured the layout, placing the entrance on Park Avenue.  The "new areas" in his plans included extending the building to the north.  Sterner transformed the high-stooped house into a modern Elizabethan Revival-style townhouse.  Two projecting, two-story bays distinguished the Park Avenue elevation, and multi-paned, leaded windows throughout gave the house a sense of antiquity.  The otherwise symmetrical design was upset by the peaked attic level with its disparate sized gables.  It stopped short of the northern extension.

Hemry Ammon James, Yale College Class of 1874, 1870-1912 (copyright expired)

Attorney Henry Ammon James was a widower.  Born in Baltimore on April 24, 1854, he was educated by a private tutor before entering Yale.  He married Laura Brevoort Sedgwick on September 21, 1891 and they had two children, Dorothy, born in 1892, and William Ellery Sedgwick, born in 1895.  Laura died on November 1, 1907.  

In addition to his law practice, James was the president of the East Hampton Electric Light Company.  The family's country home, which Henry and Laura built the year they were married, was in East Hampton, Long Island.  

A postcard depicts the James' sprawling, shingle-style summer house.

William Ellery Sedgwick James went by Ellery.  When the family moved into the remodeled mansion, he was attending Yale University.  He and Louise R. Hoadley were engaged to be married in Southampton in June 1917, but, as was the case with hundreds of couples across the country, the war in Europe changed their plans.  On April 14, 1917, The New York Times said, "as Mr. James has joined the officers' reserve corps of Yale University the date for the wedding has been advanced."  The couple was married in St. Bartholomew's Church on April 25.

The war did not interrupt Ellery's schooling and he graduated later that year.  But shortly afterward he left his bride at home and went overseas with the American Expeditionary Force.  He would see battle in France with the 324th Field Artillery.

Sterner placed the service entrance in the northern extension, directly under the conservatory.  The American Architect, December 12, 1916 (copyright expired.

Dorothy's engagement to George Griswold Haven was announced on February 2, 1925.  It would be an extremely short engagement.  Three days later, The New York Times reported that the couple had been married the previous morning in St. George's Church.  "When Mr. and Mrs. Haven return from a wedding trip they will live at 6 East Fifth-third Street, which has been Mr. Haven's home for many years," said the article.  George G. Haven was the president of the Metropolitan Opera House Real Estate Company and the senior member of the banking form of Strong, Sturgis & Co.  Dorothy was his second wife, his first having died a few years earlier.

Thousands of diamond shaped panes composed the openings.  The American Architect, December 12, 1916 (copyright expired)

Five months later, on July 21, 1925, George and Dorothy had breakfast in their East 53rd Street mansion at 8:00.  Afterward, Dorothy left to go shopping.  An old friend, Dr. E. Eliot, stopped by unannounced at around 10:30.  The butler informed him that George was in his room.  "I'll go up and see him," responded Eliot.  He entered the bedroom to find George's body on the bed.  The New York Times reported, "He had shot himself through the jaw.  The bullet had lodged in the brain, killing him instantly."

Henry Ammon James died at the East Hampton estate on the afternoon of August 2, 1929 "after a long illness," as reported by The New York Times.  The newspaper noted that he "was a member of the University, Century, Metropolitan, Maidstone, Garden City, National Golf and Jekyll Island clubs."

James left an estate, according to The New York Times, of $2,993,392, or about $57.7 million today.  The bulk of the estate was divided, essentially, equally between Dorothy and Ellery, although Ellery received the Park Avenue mansion and its contents.

Two months later, on October 1, The New York Times reported that Ellery had purchased the abutting house at 103 East 71st Street.  The move was potentially intended to protect the mansion from developers.  But if that were the case, James changed his mind.

In August 1930, he sold the corner properties to developer Michael E. Paterno.  The New York Times reported that he intended to erect an apartment building on the site.  

William Ellery Sedgwick James died at the age of 37 on November 26, 1932.  

Seven years later, the syndicate named 737 Park Avenue Corporation had acquired the additional properties necessary to go forward with the apartment building project.  On November 25, 1939, The New York Times reported that workers "started this week to demolish six old private residences to make way for an eighteen-story apartment house which will go up on that corner."  Designed by Sylvan Bien, the replacement structure was completed in 1940.

photo by Godsfriendchuck

many thanks to Doug Wheeler for suggesting this post

The Lost John and Ethel Hoyt Mansion - 900 Park Avenue

 

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Born on July 29, 1869 to Alfred Miller Hoyt and his wife, the former Rosina Elizabeth Reese, John Sherman Hoyt was a great-nephew of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman.  He married 22-year-old Ethel Valentine Phelps Stokes on October 31, 1895.  The bride's parents were  Anson Phelps Stokes Sr. and Helen Louisa Phelps.  The Phelps and the Stokes families were among the wealthiest and most socially prominent in New York City.  

Hoyt was a director of the American Car and Foundry Company, maker of railroad cars.  He and Ethel had five children (their first, John Jr., died in infancy in 1897).  The family's townhouse was on East 65th Street and their country home was on Contentment Island in Darien, Connecticut.

John Sherman Hoyt (original source unknown)

A one-line article in the New-York Tribune on April 24, 1915, read, "John Sherman Hoyt will erect a home costing $100,000 on the site he recently purchased at the northwest corner of Park av. and 79th st."  Not surprisingly, the Hoyts commissioned the architectural firm of Howells & Stokes to design the mansion.  Partner Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes was Ethel's brother and, although Howells & Stokes was the architect of record, Architecture magazine gave Stokes full credit for the design.

Construction costs rose to $150,000 (about $4.83 million in 2026).  The facade was faced in Pennsylvania granite and trimmed in limestone.  Stokes drew inspiration from Elizabethan manor houses.  The two-story entrance provided a commodious balcony at the third floor, sheltered by an overhanging roof.  The 16th century motif included projecting bays "fitted with English casement windows," as described by The New York Times, grouped openings with square-headed drip moldings, clustered chimneys and charming hooded dormers.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Visitors entered into a "two-story hall with gallery," reported The New York Times.  "This with the drawing rooms occupies most of the ground floor," said the article.  Unexpectedly, the floors throughout the home were worthy of notice.  The floors on the ground level were of teak and oak, and those on the second floor, which included the large library, were of mahogany and oak.  The newspaper noted, "On the fourth floor there is a squash court and a large sun parlor."

A very young Ethel Valentine Stokes Hoyt (original source unknown)

Anson Phelps Stokes Hoyt and Sherman Reese Hoyt, were 20 and 17 years old, respectively, in 1918 when America entered World War I.  That year both were inducted into the army.  The privileged young men had, apparently, a greatly protective mother and grandmother.  On April 15, 1918, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes and Mrs. John Sherman Hoyt started for Chillicothe, Ohio, where members of their families are in training for war service."

The Hoyt family received disturbing news a year later, on April 3, 1919, when Anson's name was listed among the soldiers wounded in battle.  Happily, both sons returned home safely following the conflict.

John Sherman Hoyt's father had died in 1903 and on February 26, 1922, his mother, Rosina, died in the Hoyt mansion at 934 Fifth Avenue.  Half of her massive estate went to John's unmarried sister, Rosina Sherman Hoyt.  Each of John's and Ethel's children received $10,000 (about $187,000 today), and John was left one-quarter of the estate.  Rosina, who was now 48-years-old, moved into the Park Avenue mansion with the Hoyts.

Sherman Reese Hoyt was married to Hayes Blake on August 19, 1924 in New Haven, Connecticut.  Another wedding in the family four months later may have surprised high society.  On December 21, The New York Times reported that John and Ethel, "have sent to relatives and a few intimate friends invitations to the marriage of Mr. Hoyt's sister, Miss Rosina Sherman Hoyt, to Gerard Beekman Hoppin."  The wedding, which took place in St. Thomas's Church on December 27, was the first for bride and groom, who were 50 and 55 years old, respectively.

Anson was married the following year, on June 30, 1925, to Amy Jessup Moore.  He would be the last of the Hoyt children to marry while the family occupied the Park Avenue house.

On June 4, 1926, The Knickerbocker Press reported, "James A. Stillman has purchased for his home 900 Park avenue...a stone mansion designed for John Sherman Hoyt, the seller."  The article said that Stillman had paid $600,000 for the property, or about $10.6 million today.

James Alexander Stillman was Chairman of the National City Bank.  He married Ann Urquhart Potter (known as Fifi) in Grace Church in 1901.  The Evening World called it “a social event” and reported “about 2,000 invitations had been issued, and a fashionable assemblage was present.”  The couple moved into a 14-room apartment in the exclusive Hotel Marguery and maintained a "camp" in Grand Anse, Quebec and a country estate in Pleasantville, New York.

James and Ann Stillman, Daily News, May 4, 1921 (copyright expired)

Trouble had come in 1921 when James sued for divorce, suggesting that their youngest child, Guy, who was born in 1918, was the son of "a half-blood Indian guide from Quebec."  The lurid trial stretched on, with Ann charging James of fathering two illegitimate children with a chorus girl.  Then, in a surprising twist, in 1926 Stillman gave Ann a half-million dollar necklace and the two sailed off to Europe to receive marriage counseling from Carl Jung.

In reporting on their purchasing 900 Park Avenue, The New York Times explained that the Stillmans "were recently reconciled and went on what they termed a 'second honeymoon.'"

The couples' children were Ann, James Jr. (known as Bud), Alexander and Guy.  When the family moved into 900 Park Avenue, Bud was a senior at Princeton.  On October 7, 1926, he told reporters in his dorm room that he intended to marry Lena Wilson.  The 23-year-old had fallen in love with the girl from "the farm adjoining his mother's estate at Grand Anse."  Lena, who was 18, had worked in the Stillman estate as "mother's personal maid and housekeeper," explained Stillman.  She also, "acted as interpreter for mother when she wanted to give orders to the gardener or other servants who spoke only French-Canadian."

Bud Stillman inventoried his sweetheart's attributes, calling her "a girl of the outdoors who loves hunting and tramping."  Saying she was "different from ordinary girls," he said she "doesn't smoke and she doesn't Charleston...She prefers the old-fashioned steps, the waltzes and the square dance."  (She had taught Bud to square dance the previous summer.)  He continued, "she plays the accordion and the mouth organ.  Hunting, fishing and canoeing are the things at which Miss Wilson excels."  He told the reporters that her "first experience with pretty clothes will be when she comes to New York."

Perhaps surprisingly, Bud's parents were happy with his choice.  His mother, he said, "knows that social standing isn't so all important."  James not only said, "We are thoroughly happy about our son's coming marriage," but he and Ann picked out the engagement ring.  He quickly said it was "of moderate price" and that "Bud paid for it out of his own funds."

Ann Stillman accompanied Lena Wilson on the train from Quebec to Manhattan, arriving on December 1.  The New York Times reported that Lena would be the Stillmans' house guest until spring.  "While here she will gather together her trousseau."

Lena arrived just in time for a joyous moment within the Stillman family.  Daughter Ann had married Henry P. Davison two years earlier.  As was common among the upper class, in the final days of Ann's pregnancy, she and Henry moved temporarily into her parents' home in anticipation of the birth.  Their son was born in the mansion on December 14, 1926.

Bud and Lena were married on July 26, 1927 in the Wilson home in Quebec.  The New York Times reported, "there will be a fete to which the country folk will be invited."

Problems between James and Ann were first hinted in March 1929 when Fred Beauvais, the "Indian guide" who had played a prominent role in Stillman's 1921 divorce case, sued the banker for $500,000 damages, claiming "his good name has been held up to ridicule."  The Standard Union said, "Mrs. Stillman is now at camp, in Grande Anse, Quebec, while Mr. Stillman divides his time between his town residence, No. 900 Park avenue, and his country home in Pleasantville."

Ann obtained a divorce in Poughkeepsie in June 1931 and "a few hours after" it was granted she married Fowler McCormick, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.  Ann received the Pleasantville and Quebec properties in the divorce.  James purchased a winter home in Havana, Cuba.

Architecture magazine, June 1917 (copyright expired)

Stillman's legal battles continued in April 1932 when William Uhe, the engineer of his yacht, the Wenonah II, sued him for $50,000 damages.  An explosion occurred on the yacht on July  16, 1929 and Uhe "declared that his left leg was made crooked for life, his right leg broken and his body and face burned."

The embattled banker continued to live alone with his domestic staff until falling ill in January 1944.  He was taken to New York Hospital where he died on January 13 at the age of 70.  

Perhaps surprisingly, Ann and Fowler McCormick moved into the Park Avenue mansion.  Alexander Stillman was now a pilot with the U.S. Navy.  On August 8, 1945, The New York Times reported on his being "credited with destroying four Japanese cargo ships, a large whaling ship, a heavily armed patrol boat and two large fishing vessels."  The article said, "His mother, Mrs. Fowler McCormick, lives at 900 Park Avenue."

By 1949, the mansion was occupied by the Latin-American Institute.  On January 7, 1952, the Tarrytown, New York Daily News explained that among the courses offered by the school was "legal stenography, which includes court reporting."

The mansion next became the Egyptian Consulate.  It was several times the setting of controversy.  On April 14, 1956, for instance, The New York Times reported that the consulate "was the unexpected setting yesterday for Jewish memorial services for Israelis killed recently by Egyptian raiders.  Twenty-two young Jews forced their way into the building at 900 Park Avenue...at 10:30 A.M., and remained praying for more than an hour."

Now the United Arab Republic's United Nations Mission, in  September 1960 it was the setting for the U.A.R.'s President Gamal Abdel Nasser's meetings with India's Prime Minister Jawaharial Nehru and Yugoslav President Tito.

On February 5, 1972, The New York Times reported, "A 132-unit cooperative apartment house will be built at 900 Park Avenue...the former site of the Egyptian Embassy.  The 25-story building, called The Park 900 and designed by Philip Bimbaum, was completed in 1973.

image via cityrealty.com

The Lost Henry de Coppet Mansion - 754 Park Avenue

 

The Architectural Record. November 1911 (copyright expired)

Robert W. Buckley and Robert McCafferty composed the builder-architect firm of McCafferty & Buckley.  In July 1891, McCafferty bought out his partner's share of their new, upscale house at 754 Park Avenue (adjoining the southwest corner of 72nd Street) for his own occupancy.  By then, the thoroughfare was seeing the construction of similar upscale residences.  

McCafferty died in the Park Avenue house on February 11, 1905 "after a long illness."  Less than two months later, on April 1, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that his estate had sold the 34-foot-wide dwelling to Henry de Coppet.

De Coppet and his wife, the former Laura Fawcett, commissioned architect George B. de Gersdorff to modernize the outdated Victorian.  His plans, filed in June, called for a new facade, an extension to the rear, and reconfigured interior partitions.  The renovations cost the De Coppets the equivalent of $441,000 in 2026.

Court documents in 1914 reveals the odd footprint of the De Coppet property.  Supreme Court, Bronx County, August 1914 (copyright expired)

De Gersdorff dealt with an unusual footprint, especially considering that his extension would mostly gobble up the rear yard.  He removed the stoop and pulled the facade to the property line.  The entrance was lowered to below grade, centered within a marble base.  De Gersdorff faced the upper floors in red brick and trimmed in marble.  The three windows of the first floor, or piano nobile, sat within slightly recessed arches.  The neo-Georgian design included splayed lintels, a handsome stone balustrade atop the third floor, and large dormers that fronted the fourth floor mansard.

Influential architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler was displeased with the awkward placement of the below-ground entrance.  He said the mansion...

is unmistakably Old New York, excepting the high stoop--very much excepting the high stoop, for here the revivalist has gone to the other extreme; and to dive into the area in order to get at the front door cannot be considered a dignified mode of entrance.

Henry and Laura de Coppet were born in 1843 and 1840 respectively and were married in 1873.  Henry was "a member of a family long prominent in financial and social affairs," according to The New York Herald.  He was educated at the University of Berne and founded his own brokerage firm.  He retired in 1900.

He and Laura had three children, Beatrice, Gertrude and Theakson.  (Their first child, Kinloch Fawcett, died in 1876 at the age of two.)  The family's summer home, Summerstay, was near Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island.

The family was at Summerstay on July 20, 1910 when their automobile was involved in what would be an expensive accident.  The vehicle collided with that of Dr. Henry Rolf Brown, another Manhattanite.  On September 2, Brown and his passenger, Mary H. Rhentan, filed individual suits against Henry de Coppet--Brown's for $5,000 in injuries and damages to his car; and Rhentan's for $5,000 for personal injuries and "a shock to her nervous system."  The suits alleged that the De Coppets' chauffeur "was driving in a careless manner."  The combined suits would translate to about $243,000 today.

Theakston de Coppett had attended Columbia University and was a stockbroker by the time the family moved into 754 Park Avenue.  In 1916, he turned his back to Wall Street and urban life, purchasing the abandoned mill village of Hillsdale, Rhode Island.  He moved there and became president of the town council.  (An early preservationist, the bachelor would will the entire 1,800-acre estate to the state of Rhode Island in 1937.)

In 1920, the family had to address an uncomfortable issue: Henry's mental decline.  On May 11, The Sun reported that Laura "and two of his children," had applied for what today would be termed a conservatorship.  The article said that De Coppet, "is alleged to be suffering from senile dementia." 

As it turned out, the conservatorship was not necessary.  Henry de Coppet died less than five months later on October 6, 1920 at the age of 77.

Laura Fawcett de Coppet survived her husband by six years, dying in the mansion on April 21, 1926.  At the time, her daughters, neither of whom would marry, lived in the house.  They sold 754 Park Avenue to Mary Hoyt Wiborg in July 1929.

Born in 1888, Mary's maternal grandfather was millionaire Hoyt Sherman and her uncles were General William Tecumseh Sherman and Senator John Sherman.  The wealthy socialite had served in a French hospital during World War I.  She now had turned to playwrighting and in 1922 released Taboo, which starred Paul Robeson.

Mary Hoyt Wiborg, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Wiborg's family owned the corner mansion, and on March 25, 1930, The New York Times reported Mary Hoyt Wiborg had sold the two residences to the Rhoades-Kennedy Security Corporation, "which intends to erect on the site a $3,000,000 eighteen-story cooperative apartment house."  The article noted, "The parcel is one of the few in Park Avenue not improved with an apartment house."

In reporting on the transaction, the newspaper commented, "Miss Wiborg, who is prominent in society, is the daughter of Frank B. Wiborg, local manufacturer.  They have a home also in East Hampton, L. I."

Mary Hoyt Wiborg's family's mansion can be glimpsed at the right.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Something, possibly the Depression, derailed the plans.  The property reverted to Mary Wiborg and she continued to reside in 754 Park Avenue.  An art connoisseur, she filled the mansion with a remarkable art collection.  On February 20, 1931, for instance, The East Hampton Star reported that Mary had loaned "three canvases by Picasso" to the Brooklyn Museum for a year.  "Among the Picasso group was a canvas entitled 'Seated Women,' in the modern manner."

When her father died on May 12, 1930, Mary Wiborg inherited $365,509 from his estate--about $7.5 million today. 

At mid-century, the combined corner property was again sold and this time the developers were successful.  The two mansions were replaced by a 17-story apartment building designed by Horace Ginsbern & Associated, completed in 1951.

image via cocoran.com.

John Sloan's 1924 898 Park Avenue

 

photo by Jim Henderson

In 1923, two years after Henry Mandel hired architect John Sloan to design his Pershing Square Building at Park Avenue and 42nd Street, he commissioned Sloan for a much different project--an ultra-exclusive apartment building at the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 79th Street.  The posh tenor of the neighborhood was reflected in the price Mandel paid for the corner.  The $207,500 would translate to $3.8 million in 2026.

Although Adolph E. Nast was listed as assistant architect, it is Sloan who routinely gets credit for the design.  Drawing inspiration from what The New York Times described as "the pre-Renaissance style of Northern Italy," Sloan's tripartite was sprinkled with arched corbel tables above the first, fourth, twelfth floors, and fourteenth floors, and a stately arcade above the entrance.  His choice of variegated beige, black and brown brick prompted The American Architect to say he used it "in the same way the artist painter mixes his colors."  The roof was paved in red tile and an arcaded penthouse.

Completed in October 1924, the the 14-story building held only six cooperative apartments on the upper floors (there was a simplex and a doctor's suite on the ground floor).  An advertisement called them, "8 exclusive apartments at Park Avenue's most exclusive corner."  Each of the other apartments were duplexes--each comprising two full floors, "with a private stairway of travertine stone and wrought iron balustrade, leading from the living room floor to the bedroom suite on the upper floor," explained The New York Times on October 6, 1924.

Among the initial buyers were George Winfield Fairchild, Allerton Seward Cushman, and Charles X. Cordier.  

Born in Oneonta, New York on May 6, 1854, Fairchild had served as a U.S. Representative from 1907 to 1919.  He had been, as well, the vice president of the 1919 International Peace Conference.  Before his political career, he owned the Oneonta Herald Publishing Co. and president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company.

Fairchild married Josephine Mills Sherman in 1891 and they had one child, Sherman Mills Fairchild.  He purchased his 13th-and-14th floor apartment in May 1924, five months after his Josephine died.  

George Winthrop Fairchild, from the collection of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Fairchild was still president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company when he left Congress, and was its chairman in February 1924 when the firm was renamed IBM.

George Winthrop Fairchild would not enjoy his sprawling apartment for long.  On December 31, 1924, newspapers throughout the country reported that he had died "of acute heart trouble."

Like Fairchild, Allerton Seward Cushman was a recent widower.  Born in the American Consulate at Rome in 1867, he earned his M. A. and Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard in 1896 and 1897.  In 1910 he founded the Institute of Industrial Research in Washington D.C.   Cushman's wife, the former Sarah Hoppin, died in 1921.  They had one son, Charles Van Brunt Cushman.

Three years later, he relocated to New York City as a consulting chemist, and purchased the fifth-and-sixth-floor apartment.  He married Katherine McCausland Inglis-Jones in 1926.  

Allerton Seward Cushman and his second wife, Katherine Inglis-Jones.  (original sources unknown)

Katherine (known familiarly as Kay) was in Europe on April 30, 1930 when Allerton underwent an operation at the Park East Hospital.  The 62-year-old died there two days later.

Charles Xavier Cordier and his wife, the former Suzanne Sanford, took the second-and-third-floor apartment in May 1925.  Both were born in 1875 and had a daughter, Marjorie Case.  The family maintained a country estate, The Four Ways, in Sharon, Connecticut.  

The Cordiers announced Marjorie's engagement to William Holland Lawrence Shears on December 22, 1926.  Four months earlier, another family in the building, the Haley Fiskes, had announced their daughter's engagement.

An attorney, Haley Fiske was born on March 18, 1852.  He was a partner in the law firm Arnoux, Ritch & Woodford and since 1891 had been president of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.  He and his first wife, Mary Garrettena Mulford, who died in 1886, had one daughter, Helen.  Fiske married Marione Cowles Cushman on April 27, 1887.  (The New York Times noted that she "is a descendant of Robert Cushman of Mayflower fame.")  They had five children and their youngest daughter, Margaret Lois, was still unmarried and lived with her parents.  The family's country home, Overcross, was in Bernardsville, New Jersey. 

Haley Fiske, Nation's Business, May 20, 1927 (copyright expired)

On August 15, 1926, The New York Times reported on Margaret Lois's engagement to Martin Edwin Walker 3d.  The article mentioned that the prospective bride "was presented to society several years ago."  The ceremony was held in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin on October 28 that year and the reception was held in the Fiske apartment.

Two years later, on March 19, 1928, The New York Times reported on Fiske's 76th birthday celebration, which was highlighted by "five children, seven grandchildren and a clean bill of health."  The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's physicians had examined him a few days earlier and "gave up and admitted that they could find nothing wrong with him."  The article said that the Fiske apartment "looked like a florist shop, every room except the kitchen being filled with flowers, while hundreds of telegrams were received."

Ironically, one year later almost to the day, at around 12:30 on March 3, 1929 the Fiskes' chauffeur pulled up to the curb in front of 898 Park Avenue following church services at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin.  Before he could exit the automobile, Fiske died from an embolism of the heart, as reported by the newspaper.

(Eerily, according to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company employees, when someone entered Fiske's private office the following morning, the "large grandfather clock in Mr. Fiske's inner office, which had run steadily for twenty years, had stopped.")

The New York Times reported Fiske's estate at the equivalent of $15.6 million in 2026.  Marione inherited the apartment, Overcross and the bulk of her husband's fortune.  

Ery Euripides Kehaya and his wife, the former Grace Whittaker, were also initial residents.  Born in Ordou, Turkey on February 18, 1885, Kehaya was the son of a Greek Orthodox priest.  He grew up in the tobacco growing regions of Asia Minor and southern Europe.  He came to the United States in 1910 and founded the Standard Commercial Tobacco Company in 1912.

Grace Whittaker was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Her father, William A. Whittaker was a prominent tobacco merchant.  The couple was married in 1917 and they had one son, Ery W. 

Ery Euripides Kehaya (original source unknown)

Like their neighbors in the building, society columnists followed the Kehayas' movements.  On February 20, 1927, for instance, The New York Times reported:

Mr. and Mrs. Ery Kehaya and Ery Kehaya Jr. [sic] of 898 Park Avenue have gone to Whitehall, Palm Beach, for the remainder of the season.  In the Spring they will tour Europe.  In Greece they will visit President Condouriotis, who recently, through the Greek Minister...bestowed on Mr. Kehaya the highest decoration of the Greek Republic for his relief work and his services in the cause of education.

The Kehayas also routinely appeared in the society columns for their entertainments both here and at their Westchester home.

Dr. George David Stewart and his wife, the former Ida Robb, purchased the 13th-and-14th-floor apartment in May 1924.  Born in Nova Scotia in 1862, Stewart graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1889.  He was president of the American College of Surgeons, of the New York Academy of Medicine, and headed the medical boards of St. Vincent's and Bellevue Hospitals.

This portrait of George D. Stewart was painted by H. Harris Brown.  from the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives

The couple had four daughters, the youngest of whom, Mary Leslie, was unmarried and lived with her parents.  The family's country home was in Great River, Long Island.

Although Mary Leslie would not be introduced to society until the winter season of 1930-31, her parents got ahead of the game a year earlier.  On November 6, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Dr. and Mrs. George David Stewart of 898 Park Avenue will give a dinner dance on Dec. 27 at the Central Park Casino for their daughter, Miss Mary Leslie Stewart."  

On February 27, 1933, Dr. Stewart became ill.  Eleven days later, he died in the Park Avenue apartment from uremic poisoning.  In reporting his death, The New York Times called him "one of the foremost surgeons in the United States."  The article recalled that on April 18, 1928, a bronze bust of him had been placed in the Carnegie lecture room of the Bellevue Hospital Medical Centre.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

By 1934, the Hoyt Augustus Moores occupied an apartment here.  A native of Ellsworth, Maine, Moore graduated from Bowdoin College in 1895 and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1904.  He and his wife, Lora, had two children, Edward P. and Dorothy Parsons.  

Edward was the first to marry.  His marriage to Barbara Freeman took place in Mount Vernon, New York on June 13, 1934.  Dorothy was not far behind.  Her engagement to James Wilson Tower was announced in September 1937 during her senior year at Smith College.

The wedding would have to wait until Dorothy's graduation, but anticipatory celebrations took place before that.  On January 3, 1938, The New York Times reported that the Moores hosted a reception the previous day "for their daughter, Miss Dorothy Parsons Moore, and her fiancé."

Among the Moores' neighbors in the building were the Alanson Gibbs Fox family.  Fox was born in 1879 and his wife, Mary Cumming Humstone, was born in 1881.  The couple was married on September 29, 1923 and their son, Alvin Gibbs, was born in 1927.  The family's country home was Pittsfield, in Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts.

No. 898 Park Avenue was the only town home that Alvin Gibbs Fox ever knew.  He attended the Collegiate School of New York and graduated from Yale in 1950.  His engagement to Nancy Louis O'Connell was announced on June 28 that year.  

Alanson Gibbs Fox died on February 9, 1951 at the age of 71 and was buried in the Pittsfield Cemetery in Massachusetts.  

Unexpectedly, his father's death did not delay Alvin's wedding plans.  He and Nancy were married in Pittsfield, Massachusetts five months later, on July 28, 1951.

Perhaps the most socially prominent couple in the building at the time were I. Townsend Burden Jr. and his wife, the former Florence Sheedy.  The couple, who were married in 1911, had two sons, I. Townsend Burden III and Dennis Sheedy.  Burden was the corporation lawyer for the New York Transit Company and the president of the Burden Iron Company, founded by his grandfather, Henry Burden.  The family's Newport estate, Fairlawn, was formerly owned by Levi Morton.  

The Burdens' Newport mansion, Fairlawn, sits on Bellevue Avenue.  image via americanaristocracy.com

The family was at Fairlawn on August 10, 1949, when Florence died at the age of 61.  Almost immediately, I. Townsend Burden sold the estate. 

On July 16, 1953, Burden and his sister, Evelyn Bird Burden, arrived in Newport.  Three days later he suffered a heart attack and died on July 20 at the age of 77.

The second half of the century saw two entertainment figures in the building, conductor Richard Kaye Korn, here as early as 1956, and theatrical producer and director John Chapman Wilson.

Korn and his wife, the former Peggy Rosenbaum Lehman, had two daughters, Penelope Lehman and Wendy Lehman.  A graduate of Princeton University and the Yale Law School, Korn turned his back on law for a full-time musical career.  He studied conducting under Leon Barzin at the Juilliard School of Music and Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood.  He was assistant conductor of the National Orchestral Association and appeared as guest conductor throughout the United States and Europe.

In 1959, Korn founded the Orchestra of America, described by The New York Times as "one of the first orchestras designed to encourage the participation of minority-group musicians."  The Korns were still living here in 1981 when Richard died in the apartment from leukemia on April 27, 1981.

Born in 1899, John Chapman Wilson was a long-time associate of Noel Coward, acting as his business manager, director or producer.  His wife was the former Princess Natalie Paley, daughter of Grand Duke Paul of Russia.  Among the many Broadway hits he either directed or produced were Kiss Me Kate, Private Lives, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Blithe Spirit.

In 1970, James and Manuela Goren (both of whom were born in Italy) purchased the thirteenth-and-fourteenth-floor apartment and connected it to the penthouse by an elevator to create a triplex.  James was a partner in the investment bank and real estate development company Goren Brothers, and Manuela was a correspondent for Italian Vogue and L'Uomo Vogue.  The couple had two children.

Their resultant four-bedroom apartment included a 550-square-foot wrapped terrace, a library with the original 1924 paneling, and a living room ceiling, "brought over from a chateau in France," as reported by The New York Times.  Manuela described it as having, "all the advantages of a town house, and none of the disadvantages."  Thirty years after moving in, the Gorens placed the triplex on the market in 2010 for $15 million.

photograph by Deans Charbal

As it was in 1924, 898 Park Avenue is one of the most exclusive apartment buildings in New York City.