Murders, Suicides and Jazz - 90 West Houston Street

 

A flurry of construction along Houston Street between Laurens Street and Thompson Street around 1828 filled the block with two-and-a-half story Federal-style homes.  (This section of Houston Street would later become West Houston, and Laurens Street would be renamed South Fifth Avenue in 1870, West Broadway in 1896, and LaGuardia Place in 1967.)  Like its neighbors, 90 Houston Street would have been faced in Flemish bond brick, while one or two dormers would have pierced its peaked roof.  

Beyond the rear yards of the Houston Street houses were the elegant homes on Bleecker Street.  Angelica Gilbert, perhaps, hoped to draw clientele from those wealthy families.  She established Miss Angelica Gilbert's Boarding & Day School in 90 Houston Street.  An advertisement in the New-York Evening Post on September 2, 1830 described the school as being, "where with competent assistance, children are taught the rudiments, and young ladies the highest branches of a sound and elegant education."  And, indeed, Angelica Gilbert's students came from some of Manhattan's most illustrious families, including the Rhinelanders, Kipps, and Wards.

As early as 1850, the 18-foot-wide house had multiple occupants.  Listed here that year were Archibald Murray, a carver; and two butchers, William Odell who worked in the Essex Market, and George Vale, whose store was on Stanton Street.

Produce merchant Peter Lisse and his wife, Ernestine, were here in 1853.  Apparently boarding with them was Francis Burke, who operated a liquor store or saloon.  

Following Peter Lisse's death in 1854, Ernestine took over his business, listing her profession as "vegetables" in the Union Market.  She also now accepted more boarders.  Listed here in 1857, along with Francis Burke, were cabinetmaker John Hoffman; upholsterer George Stetter; and Simon Lampert, a "segarmaker."

Boarding here in 1870 was Margarette P. Luthy.  On June 10 that year, Walter L. Butler arrived at the house and handed her a letter from her good friend, Fannie C. Shattuck, who lived on Second Avenue.  In it Fannie apologized for her handwriting, saying, "I am very nervous," and explained, "When I see you again I will be a married woman."  The letter said that she and the man bringing the letter were to be married at 3:00 that day, and asked to borrow some of Margarette's things for the ceremony.  The letter said in part:

You know what I mean--your collar and undersleeves--and if you will oblige me so much will you loan me a pair of earrings and any little thing that you would think would do for me to get married in, and I will take the best of care of them, and would like to see you on to-morrow morning without fail.  Please send by my intended anything you will loan me, as I have not much time.

Margaretta Luthy gave Fannie Shattuck's "intended" a pair of gold and coral earrings, a breast pin, a lace collar, handkerchief, a "chemisette and a pair of undersleeves."  The items were valued by Margarette at $68, or nearly $1,750 in 2026 terms.  

When the blushing bride did not arrive the next day, Margarette investigated.  Fannie C. Shattuck was not married, nor had she been engaged.  And the letter's handwriting was unfamiliar not because Fannie had been nervous, it was because it was written by Walter Butler.

As it turned out, Butler was the ne'er-do-well nephew of Civil War General Benjamin F. Butler.  He was tracked down and arrested in Yorkville on June 24.  The New York Herald reported, "Butler attempted to cut his throat before he was taken from the house."  He pleaded guilty and sentenced to two years' and six months' hard labor.

Owner J. L. Brooks made significant changes to the building in 1871.   On February 11, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that he would transform the "two and a half story...second-class dwelling" by raising the attic to a full third floor "with Mansard roof to be added."  The building would be enlarged to the rear with an eight-foot deep extension, as well.  Equally important, The New York Times noted, "store to be made in front."

Brooks's contractor transformed the Federal-style house to a Second Empire-style store-and-apartment building.  A cast iron storefront was installed, and a stylish mansard with three prominent dormers brought the building up to date.

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

West Houston Street was becoming increasingly commercial, and the neighborhood in general was filling with immigrants.  Among Brooks's initial tenants was Pierre Fagani.  He was arrested on June 10, 1872, charged "with having stolen a counterfeit $20 bill, and afterward attempted to pass it on a poor shoe-maker," as reported The New York Times.

The ground floor became home to Joseph Rath's beer saloon.  It changed hands over the subsequent years.  By 1879, it was run by Adolph Luttig.

Several of the tenants continued to be on the wrong side of the law.  Around midnight on March 5, 1881, resident James McDonnell and five other thugs attacked Alfred Speanot on South Fifth Avenue.  Speanot tried to escape on Bleecker Street, but the three overtook him, knocked him down and beat him while trying to snatch his watch.  Police Officer Scullion came on the scene and while three of the men fled, Scullion captured the others, including James McDonnell.  When asked in court what they had to say, one of the prisoners explained that Speanot, "struck them first."  

Pierre Soulan, who lived here with his wife in 1888, worked as a waiter in the exclusive Delmonico restaurant.  A native Frenchman, The Evening World said he was "well connected in his native country."  In October that year, Soulan's eyes "began to trouble him," according to The Evening World.  On the advice of his physician, he went to the Eye and Ear Infirmary where an operation was performed.

The surgery was not only unsuccessful, it left Soulan in significant pain.  A second operation was proposed.  The Evening World said that since the first procedure, Soulan "has been more or less deranged."  At 5:00 on the morning of December 5, Mrs. Soulan called her husband to breakfast, saying it was nearly time to go to work.  She then noticed blood on the bedclothes.  Soulan, who was unconscious from a loss of blood, had slit his wrists with a razor while still in bed.  The Sun said, "It is supposed that the prospect of another operation was too much for him."  Amazingly, at Bellevue Hospital it was said he would recover.  (He would, however, now face charges of attempted suicide.)

The Morris family occupied rooms here in 1894.  On the evening of July 4 that year, 17-year-old Frank Morris and his 14-year-old friend, William Laugin, who lived around the corner, were setting off firecrackers on South Fifth Avenue between Bleecker and Houston Streets.  They would be witnesses to a brutal crime.

Maggie Davis and her boyfriend, George Washington Gibbin, had been drinking that night.  The two separated and, suspicious, Maggie followed George.  The New York Herald reported that she "saw him talking to another woman."  She went home, retrieved a large butcher knife, and went out looking for Gibbin.  She found him near the spot where Morris and Laugin were lighting their firecrackers.  Frank Morris turned just in time to see Maggie, who had sneaked up behind Gibbin, raise the knife.  He yelled a warning to the unsuspecting man, but it was too late.  The New York Herald said, "As he did the weapon descended three times in rapid succession.  Gibbon was stabbed in the back, in the chest, and in the right thigh."

Morris and Laugin were in court to testify.  While Maggie Davis (who was "well known to the police as a general hard character") insisted she had not done the stabbing, the New York Herald said, "Morris and Laugin both contradicted her."

In the meantime, the ground floor space at 90 West Houston Street became J. S. Rowley's Restaurant in 1893.  The patrons of the all-night operation were not necessarily upstanding citizens.  

Among the regular customers was Alice Walsh, whom The Evening World described as a "poor outcast."  She entered the restaurant at around 12:30 on the morning of April 21, 1895.  According to the cook, Michael C. McNamara, a few minutes later four men entered, one of them saying, "There she is."

Alice was "much disturbed" according to McNamara, "and then became very angry when the men began to abuse her for having deserted them."  When one of the men threatened her, Alice "retorted by showering vile epithets upon him, after the fashion of the women of the street."

One of the men told Alice to come with them to the Yorktown Hotel.

"Not on your life," she answered.

"We'll make you," said one of the men.

"No you won't," said Alice, and she pulled out a long, steel hairpin and threatened, "I'll stick you with this, --- you, and I mean what I say."

Finally, at around 1:55 a.m., all five left.  McNamara said as they headed toward Thompson Street, he could still hear them "talking loudly and making threats."  Later that morning, Alice Walsh's body was found "in the squalid hallway at 148 Thompson Street."  She had been kicked and beaten and then fatally stabbed in the abdomen.

A month later, on May 18, 32-year-old Tony Murphy was "ejected from Rowley's restaurant by Walter Patrick Henry,"  as reported by The Evening World.  The barman was less than gentle in removing the unwanted customer.  Murphy was found unconscious on the sidewalk outside at 5:00 that morning, bleeding from the head.  The newspaper reported that he was hospitalized with a "probable fracture of the skull."  Walter Henry was arrested.

Pierre Soulan was not the last of the tenants here to attempt suicide.  Jacob Froelich, a tinsmith, lived here in 1899 when he became infatuated with another resident, Mrs. Taylor.  On November 17, he swallowed Paris Green, a rodenticide, because Mrs. Taylor "did not look favorably upon his suit," reported the New York Herald.  The article noted that he had done this before, "but cried out in time."  It added, "He will not die this time either."

More successful was Louis Guillemot, who lived here with his wife and two children in 1900.  The 24-year-old worked as a collector for an insurance company--calling on clients and receiving their premiums.  Each morning he would meet his supervisor at a grocery store on Macdougal Street to report and turn over his collections.  

On the morning of February 7, 1900, he was in trouble.  He had used $15 of his previous day's collection (about $600 today) for personal purposes.  Just before his supervisor arrived, he mentioned his plight to someone in the store, then walked into the rear room and shot himself in the chest.

The store space here became home to M. Martin & Co., commercial plumbers, by 1916.  A delicatessen occupied the space during the Depression years, and in 1964 it was converted to a luncheonette.  At the same time, the upper floors were converted to apartments, two per floor.

Among the tenants in 1986 was Ruth Polsky, a booking agent for clubs and discotheques.  On the night of September 8 that year, she was outside the Limelight on Sixth Avenue when a driver for a car service ran a red light and smashed into a taxicab.  The taxi spun out of control and careened into five people on the sidewalk, including Ruth Polsky, who was killed.

The ground floor space became Zinc Bar in 1993.  In reporting its opening, The Villager said, "Along with espresso, they provide blues and jazz and some Brazilian music."  Zinc Bar remained here until July 2008.  A coffee house, Moka Moment, occupies the space today.

photograph by the author

Henry Engelbert's 1868 367 Bleecker Street

369 Bleecker Street (left) was a mirror-image of 367.  The Charles Street homes, built simultaneously, are directly behind 367, at the right.

By the mid-1860s, the Second Empire style was highly popular in America, its mansard roofs giving a decidedly French flair to Manhattan streets.  In 1867, grocer E. C. Henry Kugeler hired architect Henry Engelbert, who was currently working on the design of the Second Empire-style Grand Hotel on Broadway, to design four structures at the northeast corner of Bleecker Street and Van Nest Place (later Charles Street)--two four-story mansions on Van Nest Place and two store-and-flat buildings facing Bleecker.

Completed in 1868, the two Bleecker Street buildings were designed as mirror-images.  Despite the storefronts, the brick-faced edifices were imposing.  Their segmentally-arched openings originally wore molded brownstone lintels.  Above the cornice was a slate shingled mansard with dormers capped with elegant triangular pediments.  Both buildings were designed to house just three families above the ground floor.  (Apparently the attic level was reserved for servants or storage.)

The commercial space in 367 Bleecker Street was leased to the Cole & Fox dry goods store, run principally by Theodore Fox who lived on West 30th Street.  Among the original residents upstairs were James Bousinger, an importer, and his family; and the Springsteen family.

Henry Springsteen held a relatively new job, a professional firefighter.  Prior to 1865, fires were fought by volunteer companies throughout the city.  When a bill was introduced in the State Senate to abolish those companies and establish the Metropolitan Fire Department in January that year, The New York Times commented that it "has created a great excitement in fire circles, and among the better class of firemen it is not very favorably received."

But by the time the Springsteens moved into 367 Bleecker Street, the uproar had settled.  Henry worked at Engine Company No. 19.  George H. Springsteen, on the other hand, had a more white collar job, working as a clerk.

On October 8, 1871, a conflagration broke out in Chicago.  Dry and windy conditions resulted in a two-day inferno that would be known as the Great Chicago Fire.  The nation reacted with an outpouring of aid.  The disaster caused another to be greatly overlooked.  Calling it "The Great Northwestern Fire," on October 21, New York Herald reported, "The needs of the sufferers by Wisconsin fires are very great; thousands are utterly destitute and must be assisted for many months."  The article noted, "Mr. Fisher, of the Anchor Life Insurance Company, yesterday forwarded one bundle of clothing from Coles & Fox, 367 Bleecker Street."

Unlike some dry goods stores that offered women only the raw goods to create their clothing, Cole & Fox also produced apparel.  On December 16, 1872, it placed an advertisement in the New York Herald that read (rather sternly): "Dressmaker wanted; come prepared to work."

In 1876, George H. Springsteen changed his profession to "printer."  Simultaneously, he established the Chatham, Jordan & Springsteen printing company with two locations--29 Charles Street and 367 Bleecker, supplanting Cole & Fox here.  

Unfortunately, George Springsteen's venture did not work out.  The following year, Chatham, Jordan & Springsteen disappeared from city directories, and E. C. Henry Kugeler, who still owned the four buildings, moved in his grocery.  (It was located at 386 Bleecker Street when he erected the buildings.)  The Springsteen family left Bleecker Street that year, as well, moving to 90 Bank Street.

Now occupying the upper floors were Daniel A. Anderson, an agent who worked on Pier 49 on the Hudson River; Ira S. Otis, a clerk; and cabinetmaker John Lorenz.  Otis and his family would remain here at least through 1886.

J. H. Goetchius leased 367 and 369 Bleecker street in 1891 and made "interior alterations," as described by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide on September 26.  Whatever the remodeling was, it was minimal, costing Goetchius the equivalent of only $7,000 in 2026.

An interesting resident here during the first years of the 20th century was Amos L. See, a widow.  Born in Westchester County in 1837, his family moved to "old Greenwich Village," as worded by The New York Times, in 1856.  He served in the Civil War as a captain with Company H, 71st Regiment.  (His two sons fought in the same company during the Spanish American War.)  Following the Civil War, See went into the  business of manufacturing hardware.

In 1903, See retired.  He suffered a fatal stroke in his apartment here on March 14, 1906.  The New York Times said, "He was an enthusiastic fisherman, and he spent the last three years of his life fishing a little and talking and reading about it more."  

E. C. Henry Kugeler died around 1909 and the two Bleecker Street buildings and the house that was still numbered 18 Van Nest Place were inherited by his daughters, Matilda C. Kugeler and Anna L. Zellweger.  They sold the three properties at auction on March 15, 1910.

At the time, the residents of 367 Bleecker Street were less professional.  Living here at the time was the family of John Walsh, who drove a wagon for an express company.  That summer, the teamsters went on strike.  Labor disputes in the first decades of the century were often violent and even deadly.  On October 31, 1910, the New-York Tribune reported, "In expectation of trouble to-day Chief Monahan ordered the police to shoot any one seen inciting to riot and who ran when ordered by the police to submit to arrest."  The extreme orders were, in part, a result of the rioting that occurred the previous day.  During that affray, said the newspaper, "John Walsh, a driver, of No. 367 Bleecker street, was locked up on a charge of assaulting Patrolman M. J. Hogan."

The Walsh family was still here when war broke out in Europe.  On October 1, 1918, William J. Walsh's name appeared on the list of soldiers wounded in battle.

In the post-war years, Peter H. Rieper ran the grocery store.  Following the enactment of Prohibition, he started selling more than celery and eggs.  On February 19, 1920, the New-York Tribune reported, "In a grocery at 367 Bleecker Street, Revenue Agents Loftus and Jacobs found thirteen bottles of wine and a quantity of gin."  Rieper was jailed.

A grocery still occupied the ground floor in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1967, Pierre Moulin and Pierre LeVec created a French Provicial antiques shop, Pierre Deux (The Two Pierres), here.  The shop branched out, importing fabrics from the south of France.  The New York Times would later report, "Before long, there were 22 Pierre Deux shops around the world."

The partners gave the building an even more Parisian flavor by  installing French windows throughout.  Shopping at Pierre Deux could be costly.  New York Magazine said, "this crowded West Village antiques shop has two floors of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French Country, as well as twentieth-century--tables, chairs, commodes, beds, and more.  Armoires start at $8,000, farm tables at $5,000."  

In 1989, Moulin and LeVec retired, selling all of the shops except 367 Bleecker Street.  LeVec died in 1998 and Moulin the following year.  

Pierre Deux closed in 2011 and in 2013 Burberry Brit moved into the space.  In reporting the opening, Retail Market Study 2013 remarked, "The budding fashion district that is 367 Bleecker Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village has a new destination.  In October, Burberry opened their latest Burberry Brit store."

Despite the loss of the molded lintels, 367 Bleecker Street is still a commanding presence on the corner.

photographs by the author

The Lost Josiah H. Burton Mansion - 390 Fifth Avenue

By the turn of the last century, the former basement level had been converted to shops.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Josiah Howes Burton was born in St. Albans, Vermont on December 27, 1824.  He married Lucia Maria Clark in 1852 in St. Albans, and relocated to New York City shortly afterward.  Around 1858, the family moved into the newly built mansion at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 36th Street.

The northward migration of wealthy homeowners was just now reaching this far north along Fifth Avenue.  It would not be until the following year, for instance, that the sumptuous John Jacob Astor III mansion would rise on the northwest corner of 33rd Street.  The Burtons' residence would equal or surpass any of the rising mansions.

Faced in brownstone, it was five stories tall above an American basement.  (The American basement plan placed the entrance nearly at street level.)  Designed in the Second Empire style, its fifth floor took the form of a slate-shingled, Parisian style mansard crowned with lacy ironwork.  The offset arched entrance within the rusticated base sat above a short stoop.  The windows on the Fifth Avenue elevation were arranged in threes and set in graceful frames.  Quoins separated the Fifth Avenue bays.

When they moved into their new home, the Burtons had two sons, Clark Candee, born in 1853, and Frank Vincent, born two years later.  Two more sons would later arrive--Robert Lewis in 1860 and John Howes in 1868.

The Burtons' residency was short lived.  The family left 390 Fifth Avenue in 1860 and shortly afterward moved to a 51-acre estate in Newburgh, New York.  

The mansion became home to merchant Thomas George Walker and his family.  Born in 1832, Walker and Lucy Bowman Holbrook were newlyweds, married on October 1, 1860.  Walker's first American ancestor, Thomas Walker, arrived in New York City in 1790, just after the end of the Revolution.  Lucy's American roots were deeper.  Her earliest ancestor was Nathaniel Bowman, who arrived in Massachusetts around 1630.

The Walkers did not leave on a wedding trip, but immediately moved into 390 Fifth Avenue.  That most likely had to do with  the health of Lucy's mother.  Although Lucy's parents, Henry M. and Louisa W. Holbrook, lived in Brooklyn, they were staying with the couple in the Fifth Avenue house.  Louisa died there 12 days after the wedding, on October 13, 1860.  Her funeral was held in the mansion on October 15.

A more joyful event took place in the house the following year when Holbrook Walker was born. 

The mansion was threatened later that year.  On November 24, 1861, The New York Times headlined an article, "Fire In Fifth-Avenue."  The article explained, "A fire was discovered yesterday morning in the residence of Thomas G. Walker, No. 390 Fifth-avenue."  The blaze had started in "an ash-barrel under the back stoop," said the article.  Firefighters extinguished it before significant damage was done.

Sadly, Holbrook Walker died in March 1862, not yet one year old.  Three more children would be born in the mansion: Arthur Lucian, born in 1863; Marion in 1866; and Louis Bowman in 1869.

Lucy Bowman Holbrook Walker died in 1871.  Thomas sold the mansion that year to William P. Seymour.  (Interestingly, on April 2, 1873, Thomas Walker married Lucy's cousin, Louise Jones Bowman.  They would have one daughter, Lucy.)

The Finance and Commerce of New York, 1909 (copyright expired)

William P. Seymour had started his real estate business in 1859.  He specialized in "the most expensive class of property in the City of New York," according to The Finance and Commerce of New York.  

Also living in the mansion was Seymour's unmarried sister.  She sometimes traveled to Europe with their sister, the wife of William K. Merritt.  They did so in 1872, and on March 20, 1873, they were among the 950 passengers who boarded the White Star Line steamer Atlantic in Liverpool, heading home.  The women were among the 50 cabin passengers, the other 900 were in steerage.  The steamship was wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia on April 1.  Both of William Seymour's sisters were lost in the sinking.

Later that year, Seymour sold 390 Fifth Avenue to William H. Barmore.  Although the neighborhood was still exclusively residential (it would be another 17 years before William Waldorf Astor broke ground for the Waldorf Hotel on the site of the house his father had erected), Barmore converted the mansion to a hotel--the Barmore House.  

Barmore was the son of William Barmore, who had been president of the Knickerbocker Ice Company.  Upon his death, the younger Barmore "inherited considerable property," according to The New York Times.  Prior to opening Barmore House, he had operated a confectionary business and now continued to run a shop in the former mansion. 

Close inspection reveals that Barmore kept the original entrance intact, while installing his confectionary store on the corner.   Trow's New York City Directory, 1879 (copyright expired)

The Barmore House was operated on the European Plan, which meant that meals were not included in the cost of the suites.  A residential hotel, its occupants signed leases.  They could take their meals in the Barmore Restaurant on site, if they liked.  An advertisement read:

Barmore's, 390 Fifth Avenue, southwest corner 36th street.  Elevator and all modern improvements.  Rooms en suite and single, specially arranged for permanent families.

William Barmore's venture came, perhaps, before its time.  He faced financial problems in January 1881, selling the property to John Jacob Astor III for $212,000 (about $6.7 million in 2025).  Barmore continued the hotel, leasing the building from Astor.

It was common for businesses to pay (some might say "bribe") newspapers to print glowing reviews, most often written by themselves.  That was assuredly the case when, on November 13, 1881, The New York Times wrote, "Peculiar circumstances enable the Barmore, No. 390 Fifth-avenue, to furnish a better table d'hôte for $1.25 (with wine) than has ever before been afforded in New-York."

Barmore's marketing was not enough to keep his business afloat.  On January 20, 1882, his creditors held a meeting in the hotel.  The New York Times said his statement showed, "liabilities $15,000 and merely nominal assets."

Astor altered the ground floor to shops and leased space to high end retailers.  In 1888, Rophine Rouis opened his lamp shop in the building.  Described by History and Commerce of New York as "the only manufacturer in this country of lamp shades in floral designs in silk and satin," Rouis also imported, "lamp shades, candle shades, candles, artistic vase lamps and oil chandeliers."  The article said that by moving into its 25 x 75 foot salesroom here, he could sell his "enormous and splendid stock of goods" directly to the public, rather than through dealers.

By the early 1890s, Keller & Co., art dealers and "dealers in German and Italian World's Fair exhibits," according to The Evening World, occupied space here.  The firm was operated by Moritz and Anna Keller.  In 1893, they fired Martin Cuney.  Moritz Keller said later that "a threat had been made that trouble would be made unless Cuney was reinstated." 

Shortly afterward, a shipment arrived for Keller & Co. that included a $1,100 jewel casket.  Although the item was being held in bond and officially in the possession of Customs officials, the Kellers were permitted to exhibit it along with other items from the recently closed Chicago Exposition.  They were on display in The Grand Central Palace, the city's new exhibition hall on Lexington Avenue and 44th Street.

On January 18, 1894, Anna Keller and her former employee, Martin Cuney, were arrested and charged "with a violation of the custom laws in disposing of dutiable goods in bond."  The Evening World reported, "Mrs. Keller is a handsome woman of the Oriental type of beauty.  The fact that she had spent the night in Ludlow Street Jail did not appear to affect her personal appearance to the least."

Customs officials had discovered that the expensive imported casket was gone, and in its place was a $29 substitute purchased from Bloomingdale Brothers.  It appears that Cuney had carried out his threat to make trouble.  He told the court, "he had carried the casket to the Hotel Savoy and delivered it to a Mr. Boehm, under instructions from Mrs. Keller.  He did not know he was doing wrong," recounted the newspaper.  Happily for Anna Keller, the case was dropped by Government officials on February 1.

Another art dealer in the building was Max Williams Co., founded in 1893, which handled "rare engravings and etchings."  Williams was also a publisher and produced reproductions of artworks.  The firm had a branch in London and Paris, as well.  On February 27, 1896, The Independent reported, "at the Max Williams Gallery, 390 Fifth Avenue, [are exhibited] seventy-seven of his etchings and dry points, which are beautiful work.  They range in price, generally speaking, from five to fifteen dollars."

The linen store of William S. Kinsey & Co. occupied space by 1899.  The firm handled embroidered napkins, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, and the like.

The Outlook, December 9, 1898 (copyright expired)

William S. Kinsey & Co. was still operating from 390 Fifth Avenue when the Gorham Manufacturing Company purchased the property in 1904.  They hired McKim, Mead & White to design an office and showroom building on the site.  Designed by Stanford White, the replacement building was completed in 1906.

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

The Lost George W. Pell Mansion - 392 Fifth Avenue

 

The family's private carriage house can be glimpsed behind the mansion, beyond the bay window.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Born in 1820, George Washington Pell was described by The New York Times as "a member of one of the oldest New-York families."  His earliest paternal ancestor in America, John Pell, was the first lord of Pelham Manor.  His mother, Adelia Duane, was related to "the Livingstons, the Norths, the Bleecker-Millers, and the Duanes of Schenectady," said the newspaper.

In 1853, Pell married Mary Bruen.  The couple moved into the newly built brick-and-brownstone mansion at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 36th Street.   They would have one son, Alfred Duane Pell.

The Pell's opulent home was four stories tall above an English basement.  Its Second Empire design included a classical pediment above the entrance.  Prominent cornices upheld by scrolled brackets graced the parlor openings.  A stone balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows on Fifth Avenue.  The fourth floor took the form of a slate-shingled mansard.  Its elaborate dormers were strikingly similar to those of the John Jacob Astor III mansion, erected a year earlier at Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street.

Although he held a degree from Columbia College, Pell's substantial inherited wealth precluded his needing a profession.  The New York Times would later mention that he "never engaged in business further than to manage his brother's estate and his own property interests."  He did involve himself in the community, specifically regarding issues within his elite neighborhood.  At the City Council meeting on December 9, 1862, for instance, Pell's "remonstrance to the proposed incumbrance of Thirty-fifth-street, by projecting the sidewalk out," was read.  And the following year, he joined neighbors to sign a letter to Albany expressing "surprise" of the state legislature's intention to install street railroads on every "avenue and street in the City of New-York."

In 1864, George and Mary Pell moved slightly northward to the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street.  No. 392 Fifth Avenue now became home to Emil and Virginia W. Justh. 

Born in Hungary in 1825, Justh was the head of the brokerage firm E. Justh & Co.  When he and Virginia moved into their new home, the Civil War was raging.  It appears Justh was nervous about the draft lottery, enacted the previous year.  The legislation provided a loophole by which the wealthy could pay for a substitute.  On September 4, 1864, The New York Times ran the sarcastically worded headline, "The Draft: Names of Patriotic Gentlemen who Have Furnished Substitutes in Advance of the Draft."  Among those listed was Emil Justh.

The wealthy couple apparently leased 392 Fifth Avenue from the Pells.  In 1866, they moved to 93 East 34th Street.  (Emil Justh survived an assassination attempt there on Christmas Eve, 1866.  In the middle of the night, he heard a noise in the hallway.  As he approached his bedroom door, "it was suddenly thrown open and a pistol fired directly at him," reported The New York Times.)

In 1868, Louis Thurston Hoyt purchased 392 Fifth Avenue for $129,000, according to The New York Times.  The price would translate to about $2.9 million today.  Born on April 9, 1834, Hoyt was a stockbroker.  Among his high-powered clients, according to The New York Times later, were "Commodore Vanderbilt, Leonard Jerome, A. W. Morse, E. H. Miller, John Trevor and Benjamin Nathan."  He married Marie Antoinette Bogert on January 27, 1857.  The couple had two daughters, Geraldine, born in 1859; and Aline born two years later.  The couple's country home was in New Brighton, Staten Island.

Marie Antoinette Hoyt died in the mansion on June 1, 1879.  Interestingly, her funeral was not held in the drawing room, as would be expected, but at the Church of the Incarnation on Madison Avenue.

Hoyt and his daughters were at the Staten Island estate during Thanksgiving week 1886.  While there, Geraldine died at the age of 27.  Her funeral was held in New Brighton on December 1.

Left with no family members other than her widowed father, Aline was now among the most prominent heiresses within Manhattan society.  The hostess of 392 Fifth Avenue, she appeared in society columns, like the mention in The New York Times on January 29, 1893, "To-morrow Miss Hoyt of 392 Fifth Avenue will entertain a party of ladies at luncheon."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The innocuous article did not reflect the storm clouds forming inside the mansion.  Aline was engaged to John W. Woodfield, against her father's blessings.  The potential groom was British and, reportedly, Hoyt did not wish his daughter to marry anyone other than an American.  The tensions were perhaps behind the notice in the New-York Tribune on December 24, 1893, "The wedding of Miss Aline Hoyt, daughter of Louis T. Hoyt, and John Woodfield, which was set down for January 3, has been postponed on account of the illness of Miss Hoyt."

On January 18, 1894, the New-York Tribune reported, "It is authoritatively announced that the engagement of Miss Aline Hoyt...to John W. Woodfield, of England, has been broken."  While it appears that Louis Hoyt's will had prevailed, it was a temporary situation.  Four months later, the New-York Tribune wrote, "Miss Aline Hoyt a few months ago was married to John Woodfield, in St. Chrysostom's Church...without the knowledge of her father, who has since refused to receive either his daughter or her husband."

With Aline gone, Louis handled the social affairs within his house personally.  On May 8, 1894, The New York Times announced, "Miss Edith Cruger Sands and her fiancé, T. J. Oakley Rhinelander, were the guests of honor at a handsome dinner given last evening by Louis T. Hoyt."  But the absence of a female in the Fifth Avenue mansion would be short-lived.  On May 18, 1894, the New-York Tribune reported, "The engagement has just been announced of Mrs. Richard M. Pell, of No. 436 Fifth-ave., to Louis T. Hoyt, of No. 392 Fifth-ave."  Louis and Frances Mary Jones Pell were married on June 11.  (Interestingly, Frances's former husband, who died in 1882, was the brother of George Washington Pell, the first owner of her new home.)

The newlyweds would see changes within their exclusive residential neighborhood.  A year earlier, William Waldorf Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel on the site of his father's mansion.  It would open the floodgates to commerce along the thoroughfare.

In the summer of 1901, Louis and Frances traveled to Europe.  Louis died in Bad Nauheim, Germany on August 2 at the age of 67.  His body was brought back to New York and buried in Greenwood Cemetery.  In reporting his death, The New York Times mentioned, "he had one daughter, Mrs. Woodfield, who lives in London."

At the turn of the last century, commerce had encroached into the neighborhood.  The Hoyt mansion can be glimpsed on the right, while a shop has been installed into the ground floor of the mansion to the left.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On September 4, 1901, The New York Times reported that Frances "is to receive the bulk" of Hoyt's estate, noting, "She is to receive the residence 392 Madison [sic] Avenue, with the jewelry, furniture, and horses and carriages for life...Mrs. Hoyt is also to have the use of his country seat at Staten Island."  The Fifth Avenue property was assessed at $9 million in today's money.

It does not appear that Frances Hoyt was interested in the New Brighton estate.  Following her period of mourning, she rented "Mrs. Markoe's cottage" in Southampton for the summer of 1903, according to the New-York Tribune, and spent subsequent summers in other fashionable places and in Europe. 

By 1908, Frances Hoyt was the last of the holdouts in the neighborhood.  Other mansions had been converted for business purposes or replaced with commercial buildings.  She eventually relented.  On June 2, The Sun reported she "is the buyer of No. 726 Fifth Avenue, sold recently by Charles W. Morse."  Six months later, the New-York Tribune announced that Frances had hired McClellan & Beadel to design a replacement mansion on the site.  

With her new home completed, in February 1912 Frances Hoyt sold the brownstone mansion to The Martin Holding Co.  The Record & Guide reported, "The price paid was about $1,000,000."  The figure would translate to about $33.4 million today.  On February 4, The New York Times commented, "The old house has been occupied for many years by Mrs. Louis T. Hoyt, and it has attracted attention in view of the fact that it is the only dwelling in that locality which has thus far resisted the encroachment of business."  The article said, "it is believed that the residence will soon be torn down and improved for high-class commercial purposes."

That assumption proved to be true.  Just four months later, on June 16, The New York Times began an article saying, "In the recent demolition of the old Louis T. Hoyt house on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street, for an eleven-story commercial building...one of the few remaining residential landmarks in the shopping district around Thirty-fourth Street has been wiped out as a result of the all-devouring trade invasion."

The tall building in the center of the frame replaced the Hoyt mansion.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The 1864 Isaac L. Devoe House - 134 East 36th Street

Developers George J. Hamilton and Thomas Kilpatrick began construction of a trio of stylish, brownstone fronted houses at 130-134 East 36th Street in 1863.  Just 17.2-feet wide, 134 East 36th Street had the advantage of a corner site, giving it three exposures of light and ventilation.  The home's cutting edge Second Empire style included the nearly obligatory slate-shingled mansard.  The molded, architrave surrounds of the windows sat on bracketed sills.

Completed in 1864, the house was purchased as an investment by wealthy merchant Robert W. Milbank.  He leased the house until 1867 when it was purchased by Isaac L. Devoe.   

Born in Westchester, New York in 1813, Devoe was the principal of the glass firm Isaac L. Devoe & Co. at White and Centre Streets.  He married Mary Ann Harsen in 1841.  The couple had three sons, born every two years like clockwork--Henry I., born in 1842; Theodore, born in 1844; and Frank who arrived in 1846.  

The Financial Panic of 1873 was a devastating economic catastrophe--called the Great Depression by some until 1929.  It would last until 1879 and may have been the reason that Devoe drastically changed his business--from glass to wool.  For whatever reason, the switch was unsuccessful.  On September 1, 1878, The New York Times reported that Devoe had filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy.  Reporting that his liabilities were $25,000 (about $788,000 in 2024), the article said, "He has no assets."

Isaac and Mary Devoe lost their home to foreclosure.  It was acquired by Dr. Edwin M. Kellogg and his second wife, the former Frances (known as Fanny) Anne Bowen.  

Dr. Kellogg was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1826.  He married Louise H. Chur on April 16, 1867.  His bride died 11 months later at the age of 27.  He and Fanny were married on October 11, 1869.  

Kellogg served on the staff of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College as Professor of the Diseases of Women.  He was also the treasurer of the American Institute of Homoeopathy.  Fanny kept busy with charitable organizations.  She was, for instance, secretary of the St. Barnabas Employment Society, which found work for destitute women.  

In 1886, Kellogg hired the esteemed mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert to design a replacement townhouse on the site of 134 and 132 East 36th Street.  For whatever reason, the plans were scrapped and the Kelloggs, instead, moved out and leased the two houses to well-to-do tenants.  Occupying 134 East 36th Street were Henry D. Steers, president of the Eleventh Bank, and his family, here in the 1890s; and Francis G. Gorham, an agent of the Bethlehem Iron Co., who lived here in 1900.  Gorham's social position was evidenced in his memberships to the Union League and Harvard Clubs, the Down Town Association and the New England Society.

Frances Bowen Kellogg died at the age of 64 on June 5, 1900.  Her death greatly affected Dr. Kellogg and in June 1905 Dr. Thomas Franklin Smith remarked, "Since the death of his wife...he has kept very much to himself; for the last two or three years he has kept himself confined to the house to a considerable extent."  Smith's remarks were made at Kellogg's memorial service.  He died on June 29, 1905.

Two years earlier, in February 1903, Kellogg had sold 132 and 134 East 36th Street to attorney Arthur Hoffman Van Brunt and his wife, the former Ethel Townsend Edson.  The Record & Guide reported, "The properties will be remodelled  [sic] into American basement dwellings."  The term meant that the stoops would be removed and the entrances lowered to the former basement level.  In 1905, Van Bruner enlarged 134 East 36th Street with a two-story, three-sided bay at the rear.

Born in 1865, Van Brunt's choice of a law career came naturally.  His father, Charles H. Van Brunt, was presiding justice of the Appellate Division of the First Department.  Arthur graduated from Columbia in 1886 and became a partner in the law firm of Joline, Larkin & Rathbone.  

The year they purchased 134 East 36th Street, the Van Brunt's first child, Caroline, was born.  There would be three more: Edson, born in 1906; Arthur, Jr., in 1910; and David Chesterman, who arrived in 1917.

It may have been the growing population of the narrow house that prompted the Van Brunts to move out.  In March 1916, they leased 134 East 36th Street to the family of Willis and Caroline Charlotte Benner.

The Benners would have to find another home the following year.  In 1917, 134 East 36th Street was converted to offices of the Electro-Medical Scientists, headed by Dr. Francis R. Ward.  On May 20, 1917, the Brooklyn Standard Union reported the offices, "comprise the entire building at 134 East 36th street, corner of Lexington avenue."  As a sort of grand opening discount, the article said, "Consultation, advice and examination, including where required, the X-ray, chemical Analysis and Blood Pressure Test for one dollar."  The offer was good for ten days.

The facility offered what were deemed electric cures.  "Here the fact is proved that science has so modified and tamed electricity that the weakest child or invalid can stand its force without fear or pain," said the article.   "At the offices of the Electro-Medical Scientists the current that lights the homes and runs street cars is used and is harnessed to the wonderful machines by which every jar and jerk is removed and it is then sent through the body as softly, smoothly, and pleasantly as a ray of sunshine."

Ward had started his clinic in Chicago, but relocated to New York after "his advertised claims were attacked by the newspapers," according to the New York Evening World on April 20, 1919.  (In fact, newspapers there flatly called him "a quack.")  When asked by a New York Evening World reporter why he was not a member of the Academy of Medicine, Dr. Ward replied, "they won't let me."

Nevertheless, he and his clinic were doing quite well.  The article said, "He treated last year an average of 125 patients daily at $2.40 a treatment, giving him a gross income of $300 a day, or about $9,000 a month."  The gross monthly figure would translate to about $159,000 in 2024.  The Electro-Medical Scientists remained in the house until 1921.  That year Van Brunt leased it to Isabel Smith and Eldred Johnstone, who presumably rented rooms.

The stoop and entrance were originally identical to those at 132 East 36th Street, seen here in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Van Brunts sold 134 East 36th Street to architect William A. Delano of Delano & Aldrich in 1924.  He converted the house to studio apartments.  Among his tenants were Dr. St. Clair Smith, here around 1927, and operatic soprano Wilma Miller in the 1930s.  Miller played the role of Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Hippodrome on October 26, 1934.

Delano lost the building in foreclosure in 1941.  It continued to house studio apartments until a renovation completed in 2018 returned it to a single family home.

photographs by the author

The Lost Union Dime Savings Bank - Sixth Avenue and Broadway

 

Real Estate Record & Guide Supplement, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)

Founded in 1859, the Union Dime Savings Institute started out in unassuming offices at Canal and Varick Streets.  Eight years later, it moved to larger quarters at Canal and Laight Street.  Then, in October 1874, despite the country's being mired in the crippling Financial Panic of 1873, the trustees laid bold plans--to move the bank northward to the trapezoidal plot facing the small park that would be named Greeley Square in 1892.

Thirty-six-year-old Stephen Decatur Hatch was given the commission to design the new building.  The architect had designed the elaborate, Second Empire style Gilsey House Hotel three blocks to the south on Broadway in 1868.  He turned to the popular style again for the Union Dime Savings Bank building.

On September 30, 1876, The New York Times reported on the progress of construction, saying the "large and commodious building at the junction of Broadway, Sixth-ave., and Thirty-second-st...when completed, will be an ornament to the upper part of the city."  The article predicted the cost of construction to be $250,000, and said the figure would have been much higher had the economic conditions not drastically cut labor costs.  The Sun chimed in, saying the cost of the land was $275,000, "making the total outlay $525,000."  That figure would translate to about $15.4 million in 2024.

Five floors tall above a basement level, the building was clad in Westchester marble.  "There are also seventeen large pillars of polished Nova-Scotia stone placed on the three sides of the building, which lend a grace and beauty to the whole exterior," said the article.  A three-story, six-sided clock tower wore crown-like, cast iron cresting.  Upon its completion, The Sun described the Union Dime Savings Bank building on January 22, 1877 as "by far the finest structure of the kind in the city."

Nine months after opening in its new home, rumors began circulating that the bank's costly marble palace had overstretched its resources.  On October 24, 1877, the New York Herald said, "The story that the new building was 'too heavy to carry' was repeated with certain additions."  The rumors turned to panic and the New York Herald headlined the article, "Panic-Stricken Depositors Make a 'Run' on a Savings Bank."  The article said that long before opening, "a large crowd of anxious depositors had congregated in the vicinity of the bank and lined the sidewalk opposite, skirting the little garden park at the junction of Sixth avenue and Broadway at Thirty-second street."  Police had to be called in to control the near-riot.

The Sixth Avenue Elevated had opened by 1889 when this photo was taken.  King's Handbook of New York City (copyright expired)

The following day, the New York Herald ran a one-line article, saying, "The run on the Union Dime Savings Bank showed no signed of abatement, and will probably be renewed this morning, notwithstanding the confident assurances of its officers."  Eventually, reason ruled and on November 30 the newspaper concluded an article saying, "The Union Dime's directors are in a pretty safe condition, but there is no margin for wild investment."

Just under three decades after opening its doors, on August 7, 1906 The New York Times reported that the Union Dime Savings Bank had sold the property for $1 million (equal to nearly $35 million today).  The trustees had purchased a plot at 40th Street and Sixth Avenue as its new home.  The article said, "The bank will continued to occupy its property at Broadway and Thirty-second Street until May, 1908."

The majestic structure was worthy of its own stereoscope slide.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

In fact, the bank did not move out until February 1910 when its new structure was completed.  In the meantime, the property had been resold.  On February 27, 1910, The New York Times reported, "The new English owners will not take title to the old Union Dime building until May 1.  Rumors that the edifice was to be torn down were set at rest yesterday when a representative of the company stated that it was not the intention of the owners to make any improvement for five years at least."

The majestic marble structure survived until 1928.  On November 4, The New York Times published an article on the flurry of construction going on in the district.  It said in part that a project that "will probably not be long delayed, will be the demolition of the old Union Dime Savings Bank Building."  The article commented, "This has long been one of the interesting landmarks of the city."

The article had predicted correctly.  The Union Dime Savings Bank Building was demolished to be replaced by a seven-story, Art Deco commercial building designed by Starrett & Van Vleck which survives.

photo by acronson

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