The William Sackett Jr. House - 123 East 10th Street

123 East 10th Street (left) is identical to its next door neighbor.

Once part of Director General Peter Stuyvesant's farm, or bouwerij, the block of East 10th Street between Second and Third Avenues saw an explosion of development in the early 185os.  Robert and Franny Carnley moved into a newly built house at 191 Tenth Street and in 1854 Robert erected two matching homes next door at 193 and 195 (they would be renumbered 123 and 125 East 10th Street in 1865).

Four stories tall and two bays wide above a low basement, their rusticated first floors held fully arched openings.  Full-width cast iron balconies fronted the second floor windows.  The red brick-faced upper floors featured elliptically arched openings with molded stone lintels.

Carnley originally rented 193 Tenth Street.  His first tenants were the family of James P. Harper, a grocer, who remained through 1857.  They were replaced by the Kendall family.  Merchant Joseph A. Kendall operated an enterprise at 30 Barclay Street and Rufus W. Kendall ran a dry goods business on Vesey Street.

On January 20, 1864, the Carnleys' daughter, Frances (known as Fanny), married William H. Sackett, Jr.  The couple initially moved into the Carnley house, but by 1866 they owned and occupied 123 East 10th Street next door.  Sackett operated a furniture business at 397 Eighth Avenue.

Like many families, the Sacketts took in a boarder.  Living with the family in 1868 was Luke Wisely.  He unwisely decided to take a swim in the East River at the foot of East 17th Street on July 2 that year.  The New York Times reported that he "undressed himself to bathe...and on jumping in struck his head on a rock, sustaining severe injuries."  Wisely was taken to Bellevue Hospital and it appears he recovered.

Later that year, in December, William and Fannie welcomed a son, Robert Carnley Sackett.  Tragically, the boy died at the age of one-and-a-half on June 23, 1870.  His funeral was held in the house two days later.  (The couple would have two other children, Emma Carnley and Isabel Thompson Sackett.)

The Sacketts left 123 East 10th Street in 1871, but retained ownership.  The Donoho family occupied it in 1872.  Sisters Mary and Margaret, who were 25 and 28 years old respectively, worked in Archer & Anderson's bookbindery at 81-85 Centre Street.

At 5:20 on the afternoon of Christmas Eve 1872, a fire broke out in the Centre Street building.  On December 26, The New York Times reported, "It was hoped that all had been rescued from the building by the firemen, police, and others, who were soon on the spot, but there now seems no reason to doubt that seven or eight persons lost their lives."  The girls' brother, John Donoho, searched at the Franklin Street Police Station and the Park Hospital for the women with no success.  Four days after the inferno, the New York Herald reported that the Donoho sisters were among the seven bodies still not recovered from the ruins.

The following year, the Barker family rented the house.  William H. Barker worked in City Hall, as did Edward P. Barker, who was a deputy park commissioner.  (Edward was appointed in 1858 with an annual salary of $480, or about $19,000 in 2026.)  William J. Barker listed his profession as a clerk in 1873, but ran a storage business on Washington Street by 1876.

The Barkers remained here at least through 1880.  The house saw a rapid succession of renters until Dr. Richard W. Muller moved in around 1892.  Born in 1860, he was considered a specialist in diseases of the scalp and hair.  

Muller originally rented at least one room in the house and his first tenant was Charles Moehling, described by The New York Times as "a well-educated and highly-cultured German."  Moehling was the head bookkeeper at the banking house of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. 

If Dr. Muller was hoping for engaging conversation with his roomer, he was disappointed.  The highly-private Moehling spent his evenings in his room, studying and writing.  He contributed several lengthy articles on finance and literature to local German-language newspapers.  Muller remarked later, "in all the time Mr. Moehling was in my house, I never exchanged five minutes' conversation with him.  He lived entirely to himself, like a hermit, almost."

On the morning of February 22, 1894, Moehling left home unusually early.  Instead of going downtown to his office, he went to Central Park.  Around 11:00 that morning, Park Policeman McKenna found the body of the 50-year-old in a clump of shrubbery.  He had shot himself in the left ear with a 32-calibre pistol.  Next to the dead man was a note that read,

My name is Charles E. Moehling, and I occupy a furnished room in the house of Dr. R. W. Muller, 123 East Tenth Street.  I desire that my body be taken to Charles Diehl’s undertaking shop in Essex Street.

No one could imagine why the bookkeeper had taken his life, although Dr. Muller noted, “The servant in the house said she had noticed him several times feeling his way about the house, as if he were losing his sight, and it may be because of his failing sight and utter friendlessness that led him to take his life.”

Dr. Muller had two roomers in 1895, attorney Reginald H. McMinn and Ellen M. Coe, the head librarian of the New York Free Circulating Library.  The New York Herald described Ellen as "a handsome woman of about 45."  She was appointed head librarian when the Free Library was organized years earlier.  While living here, she met one of Muller's well-respected patients, Dr. Joseph H. Rylance, rector of the nearby St. Mark's Church in the Bowery.

Rev. Rylance's wife died in 1885.  Now, on February 15, 1895, he announced that Ellen M. Coe "would shortly become his wife," as reported in the New York Herald.  The high-profile engagement was covered in several newspapers, resulting in a barrage of reporters rushing to the Free Circulating Library.  Ellen was ready for the onslaught.  When a reporter from The Evening World attempted to interview her, "a bright-eyed, rose-checked young woman" told him, "Miss Coe wishes me to say that she is very much distressed at the publicity given to her name, and she refers inquirers to the Rev. Dr. Rylance."

Ellen Coe's marriage resulted in a vacancy.  On August 16, 1895, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune read, "Cosily furnished rooms; one or two gentlemen; conveniences, private house; reasonable."

By 1899, Dr. Daniel Cook took over the lease of 123 East 10th Street.  An 1867 graduate of the University of New York, he advertised his office hours as 8 to 10 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m.  Cook's reputation earned him a well-known clientele.  On April 14, 1899, for instance, the New York Journal and Advertiser reported that boxing manager Martin Julian was in "very critical condition with typhoid pneumonia."  The article said, "This famous promoter of pugilistic events is being attended by Dr. Cooke, of No. 123 East Tenth street."

Cook remained here until June 1904 when Frances Sackett sold the house to Bernhard Schneller.  (Schneller simultaneously purchased No. 125 from Henry H. and Harriet W. Holly.)  

Schneller's first tenant was yet another physician, Dr. Alfred H. Stiebeling.  Born in 1866, Stiebeling would create headlines three decades later.  His six-year-old granddaughter would die in 1927 and on July 12, 1937 The Berkshire Eagle would title an article, "Doctor Takes Poison at Grave of Granddaughter."

In the meantime, the respectability of some occupants of 123 East 10th Street had declined.  On June 1, 1914, the New York Press reported that George Borden had been arrested as one of the four men who committed a jewel heist from an Avenue A store.

Charles Kirchman rented a room here in December 1914.  He told the landlady that his name was William Dillon and that he had just lost his job with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company.  (It is unclear why he disguised his identity.)  Three weeks later, Kirchman was still unable to find employment.  On January 25, 1915, he wrote a letter to his sister, saying in part, "My last prayer is that God will deliver my soul into a better world than the one I am leaving."  The next day, The Evening World reported, "His body was discovered to-day in the gas-filled room."

The following year, Julius Segletti occupied a room here.  On Saturday night, July 15, he took his sweetheart to a dance hall on East 8th Street.  As they prepared to leave, 22-year-old Carrol Marres approached and asked, "May I dance with your lady?"

Segletti replied, "She's too tired."

"But just one dance wouldn't harm.  May I?"

"No," replied Segletti.

Marres walked away.  Fifteen minutes later Segletti and his girlfriend left the hall.  As they walked along Avenue A between 7th and 8th Streets, Marres rushed up from behind.  He drove a knife into Segletti's head.  He died of a fractured skull in Bellevue Hospital.  Marres was captured the following day and Segletti's girlfriend, whose name was withheld, identified him as the murderer.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Living here at midcentury was life-long bachelor Colonel Julian Fairfax Scott.  Born in Maryland in 1877, he was a member of the New York National Guard.  In 1909, he was appointed Cleaning Commissioner in charge of the Bronx.  He died in the house on November 14, 1953.

Scott was followed at 123 East 10th Street by Dr. Edward Campbell Berger and his wife, Ethel.  An osteopathic physician, Berger graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy.  During World War II he served with the U.S. Army in North Africa and Italy.  While living here he was with the administrative department of the Outpatient Service of the Osteopathic Hospital and Clinic of Le Roy Hospital.

Both 123 East 10th Street and his architectural twin have survived in remarkably pristine condition.

The venerable house was never converted to apartments and remains a single-family home today.  Its exterior appearance is essentially unchanged since 1854.

photographs by the author

The 1839 Thomas Macfarlan House - 102 East 10th Street

 

In 1836, Peter Gerard Stuyvesant and his sister, Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish, established the outlines of a double-wide lot that would become 178 and 180 Tenth Street (renumbered 102 and 104 East 10th Street in 1865).  Peter Stuyvesant's long-term real estate manager was Thomas Macfarlan and that year he was assessed $4,100 on the property.  Three years later, Macfarlan received a $400 tax increase, reflecting the construction of a house at 178 Tenth Street.  It was the first dwelling to be erected on the block.

Two stories tall above a brownstone basement, the house was faced in warm, red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  It likely exhibited elements of the Federal and newer Greek Revival styles.

The house was originally rented.  Although the first family's identity is unknown, an advertisement in The Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer on June 9, 1843 hints at life inside the home:

Wanted--A respectable middle aged Protestant woman, a good Seamstress, and one who has been accustomed to the care of children, and possessing the necessary qualifications and disposition to discharge when required, the duties of a house keeper.  Apply at No. 178 Tenth street.  City references required.

The following year, in September 1844, the family was looking for another servant:

Wanted--A girl accustomed to the duties of a waiter and chambermaid, with good city recommendations, may hear of a situation by applying at 178 Tenth street.

Around 1849, a two-story office building was erected next door.  It housed Peter Gerald Stuyvesant's real estate office.  Here Stuyvesant, Thomas Macfarlan and Daniel T. Macfarlan operated.  

Daniel T. Macfarlan was Thomas's son.  Born in 1828, he married Mary Jane Merritt on November 20, 1850.  His involvement with his father's real estate business would be relatively short-lived.  He was "converted in what was known as the Dry Dock Mission," according to The Christian Advocate later, and became a Methodist minister.

With the real estate office next door, Thomas Macfarlan moved his family into 178 Tenth Street.  Mcfarlan was born in 1793.  In addition to Daniel, he and his wife had two other sons, Ebenezer and Thomas Jr.  

Shortly after moving in, Thomas Macfarlan was drawn into a heated controversary.  His father was among the patriots who had been imprisoned and died in the Livingston Sugar House--used as a prison by the British during the Revolution.  Their remains were interred in Trinity Churchyard and were threatened with removal by a proposed public street through the churchyard.  (The project was successfully blocked.)

The parlor was the scene of a funeral on February 25, 1856.  Margaret Crawford apparently lived with the family.  The 80-year-old was the widow of Thomas Crawford, Mrs. Macfarlan's brother.  The notice of her death in the New-York Daily Tribune noted, "The relatives and friends are requested to attend her funeral from the house of her brother-in-law, Thos. Macfarlan, No. 178 tenth street, one door east of Third avenue, at 1 o'clock this afternoon."

By 1859, Thomas Jr. was working with his father and the business became T. Macfarlan & Son.  (The younger Thomas and his family lived significantly north at 132 East 53rd Street.)

Thomas Macfarlan died at the age of 73 on June 26, 1866.  Both the house and the real estate office were taken over by Charles C. Wakeley.  (Peter Gerald Stuyvesant continued to maintained his office at 104 East 10th Street as he pursued his political career.  He was elected New York Governor in 1848, senator in 1851 and United States Secretary of State in 1869.)

The Wakeley household was thrown into turmoil on November 18, 1875.  The Hudson Daily Star reported, "This morning Mary Ann Fitzmorris, aged forty-five years, a servant at No. 102 East Tenth street, drank a quantity of oxalic acid with suicidal intent."  A family member found her and two doctors were summoned to the house.  The article said, "a stomach pump was applied, and the patient at present is doing well."

On March 24, 1879, The City Record reported that Rutherford Stuyvesant had hired architects Peter T. O'Brien & Sons to "alter and enlarge the brick dwelling No. 102 East Tenth street."  (Rutherford had inherited 102 and 104 East 10th Street from Peter Gerald Stuyvesant, his great-uncle.  At the same time, he demolished the office building next door and replaced it with a house.)  The renovations to 102 East 10th Street cost Stuyvesant $1,000 (just under $32,500 in 2026asdf terms).  Included in the modifications were sheet metal cornices above the openings and a neo-Grec style cornice.

No. 102 East 10th Street became a boarding house.  Among the residents in 1884 were Joanna M. Bourke, a public school teacher; and William H. McGiven, a theatrical business manager.

In 1888, Herman S. Clark, alias Harry Johnson; and John H. Williams, alias Henry H. Williams, shared a room here.  Clark, who was 24, was an artist; and the 27-year-old Williams worked as a bookkeeper.  And they had a sideline to augment their finances.

On May 26 that year, The Evening World began an article saying, "The operations of two young men who have preyed upon the occupants of boarding-houses for some weeks were brought to an abrupt close yesterday by the arrest of the thieves."  Using 102 East 10th Street as their base of operations, the two men would engage a room in other boarding houses, ransack other boarders' rooms, then make off with the loot.  Their luck ran out when Mary A. Hogan, the proprietor of their most recent exploit, pointed them out to police officers on Lexington Avenue.  "The officers overhauled the fellows in Thirty-seventh street, near Fifth avenue, and soon had them behind the bars," said the article.

In their room on East 10th Street, police discovered pawn tickets for, "dress suits, sealskin sacques, meerschaum pipes, diamond collar buttons, and many other articles of value," reported The Sun.  Judge Martine sentenced Clark, a.k.a. Johnson, to four years in prison, and Williams to four-and-a-half.

Born in Germany, Helen Fischer lived here in 1892.  At just 18 years old, she was already noted as a singer.  She fell in love with another German immigrant, Gustave Bruder.  Then, early that summer, the young man broke up with her.  Helen was devastated and on June 2, she walked into Stuyvesant Park and shot herself in the chest.  Three weeks later, The Sun reported, "she has recovered from her injury, but is insane."  The newspaper said that the promising young singer "will be sent to the lunatic asylum on Blackwell's Island to-day."

Two years later, the residents were terrified--although they were not certain why.  On January 7, 1894, the New York Herald reported, "Boarders at No. 102 East Tenth street do not know whether it was a burglar or spook that invaded the house, rapped at doors and thumped Mr. Koeniges' head."  (It is unclear if the source of the unnerving occurrences was discovered.)

The boarders here continued to be middle-class professionals.  In 1899, George M. Silverberg was appointed a commissioner of deeds (a civil service position similar to a notary public).  He was still living here and holding the position in 1903 when another resident, Daniel Morgan, was appointed a commissioner of deeds, as well.

Mrs. Frieda McCarthy ran the boarding house in 1912.  Among her residents was Marie Fueler, who informed Mrs. McCarthy early in March that she would be sailing to Europe soon.  On the afternoon of March 11, while Mrs. McCarthy was away from the house, Marie used a skeleton key to enter her room.  She stole $60 in cash (about $2,000 today), a gold watch and chain, and five rings that Frieda McCarthy valued at $130, and then packed her bags and left.

Mrs. McCarthy notified Detective McGrath, stressing the importance of finding Marie Fueler quickly, since she had a ticket to sail on the Crown Prince Wilhelm the next day.  McGrath soon arrested her on the street not far from the East 10th Street house.  Marie admitted having taken the items, but insisted that Frieda McCarthy "owed her a large sum of money which she refused to pay."  She had merely taken the cash and valuables as partial payment, she said.  While she was in jail, the steamship left port with Marie Fueler's luggage on board.

In 1941, a laundry occupied the basement and French-style doors filled the entrance.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By the time Louis Bass purchased 102 East 10th Street in August 1919, the New-York Tribune described it as a "two-family house."  Toward the end of the Great Depression, the basement was converted to commercial use, and in the early 1940s, it housed the Third Avenue Laundry.

The somewhat beleaguered house was purchased in 1966 and its owner initiated a sympathetic renovation to a single-family home.  Among the most striking elements of the project was the entranceway, designed to resemble one that would have been seen in a period Greek Revival home.  Its fluted, Ionic pilasters support an blank frieze and transom.

The oldest house on the block, 102 East 10th Street is still a single family home.

photographs by the author

D. & J. Jardine's 1869 108 East 10th Street

 

image via realtor.com

In 1867, just two years after John and David Jardine formed their architectural office of D. & J. Jardine, builder James Mulry hired them to design three four-story rowhouses at 106 to 110 East 10th Street just east of Third Avenue.  The resultant brick-faced residences were three bays wide.  Trimmed in brownstone, they sat upon rusticated stone English basements.  Their identical, Italianate-style design included prominent molded cornices with foliate brackets over the openings and cast metal cornices with paneled friezes and leafy scrolled brackets.

The middle house at 108 East 10th Street was operated as a boarding house from the beginning.  Living here in 1868 were the families of Asa S. Blake, who ran an express business; and physician William S. Townsend.  

An advertisement in January 1870 offered, "2 beautifully furnished rooms, with board; also back Parlor to gentleman and wife or single gentlemen.  Terms very moderate."

There were far more boarders in 1871, including the Austin family.  James and William K. Austin were partners in the gas firm James Austin & Co. at 7 Bowling Green and 311 Avenue A.  George and William Lewis were both clerks; as were Lawrence Stein and Walter Wilson.  Also boarding here that year were reporter Theodore Schenck and broker Henry M. Stanton.

Anna M. L. Baron ran the boarding house as early as 1876 and it appears she scaled back her tenant list.  Only Robert Ellis, a mirror dealer; and Dr. Galen W. Lovatt were listed at the address.

In 1881 two boarders arrived who would shine the spotlight onto 108 East 10th Street.  Actress Marie Prescott was born in Kentucky in 1850.  She first appeared on stage in Cincinnati as Lady Macbeth.  Although married with two children, she and delicatessen store owner, William Perzel, became romantically involved.  She hired him as her manager.

According to Kevin Lane Dearinger, in his Marie Prescott: A Star of Some Brilliancy, in the beginning of 1881, Perzel "rented five rooms at 108 East Tenth Street, in New York City, and as his two children were away at school, he had proposed that Prescott 'take half the flat.'"  By now, the actress had obtained a divorce.  Dearinger writes, "They were already engaged at the time...and 'shared the same table at meals,' even if they had not yet 'shared the expenses of living.'"

Marie Prescott moved in upon returning from appearing in the West.  She later explained that she "took one-half of Mr. Perzel's flat on the express condition that she should pay half the expenses.  Her French maid was with her and occupied the apartments with her."  Despite the respectable arrangement, it infuriated her press agent, Ernest Harvier, who had become infatuated with her.

Harvier created "a scene" at 108 East 10th Street, according to Prescott, when he arrived and pressed her to become his lover.  She said "She ordered him out of the house, whereupon he became angry and said, "I have spent three years to put you where you are and I will spend twenty-three years to pull you down."

Ernest Harvier told the American News Company that the star was cohabitating with Perzel and that she was pregnant with his baby.  The newspaper ran the story and in October 1882, Marie Prescott sued for $20,000 damages.  The New York Times reported that the courtroom on October 17 was filled with about 300 men who "stood before her and gazed down upon her in rude curiosity."

Marie Prescott, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Testifying that day was her former landlord, Amelia C. Tate, who "testified that she knew of nothing against Miss Prescott's character," and Dr. Miles H. Nash, who swore that Marie was not pregnant and suffered only from "a not unusual female weakness."  On the stand, Marie was asked about Harvier's testimony.  Always the actress, The New York Times reported, "A convulsive shudder ran through Miss Prescott's slender fame.  She grasped the railing of the Judge's desk tightly, and in a voice broken with sobs she slowly said: 'It is an infamous lie from beginning to end.'"

Marie won her case and was awarded $12,500--about $396,000 in 2026 terms.

Thomas Jefferson Regan, an "inspector of electric lights and gas mains," boarded here in 1890 when he was the brunt of a political joke.  On August 7 that year, The Evening World began an article saying, "There is only one Thomas Jefferson Regan in this town and he is one of Tammany's shining lights in the Fourteenth Assembly District."  The article went on to say, "A great number of Mr. Regan's friends who saw the above advertisement this morning were very much worried about him."  The notice read:

$100 Reward for any information of Thomas Jefferson Regan; has not been seen since July 31, at Washington Park.  Arthur Donnelly, 110 Madison av.

On the afternoon of July 31, the employees of Percy Rockwell's bakery hosted a picnic in Washington Square and among the "honored guests" was Regan.  A friend explained to a reporter from The Evening World, "They opened 100 bottles of fizz in our honor, and the result was that we all got feeling pretty lively."  Nevertheless, he said, "The boys have been kidding Jeff again.  He hasn't been missing at all, and I was with him all last evening."

Regan did not necessarily think the prank was humorous.  The article said, "His friends think that he will try to find out who perpetrated the hoax upon him, and will make things warm for the practical joker if he discovers him."

By the turn of the century, the tenant list was peppered with a few less professional types.  Patrick Sarsfield worked as a laborer in 1899, when he was arrested for drunkenness.  On August 9, The Sun reported that he "died of acute alcoholism on Blackwell's Island on Sunday and his body was removed to the morgue on Monday."  His brother and sister viewed the body there the next day.  "The face was discolored and there was blood upon it," said the article.  The siblings accused guards on the island of beating their brother to death, as had recently been the case of inmate James McGuire.

A heart rending story played out here in the summer of 1907.  Rolford Miller and Eva Fisk came to New York City from Washington D.C. in June and took a room here.  Miller had been employed as a private detective, but became "sickly and unable to work," according to Eva.  On July 8, Eva was arrested on Third Avenue as "a street walker."

Eva appeared in the Yorkville police court the following morning.  As her case was called, Rolford Miller entered the courtroom.  The Sun reported, "He appealed to Magistrate Wahle to discharge his wife, saying that he did not know that she spoke to men on the streets and promising that she would never do it again."  He explained that they had recently been married in Washington.

When Wahle pressed Eva, she admitted that the two were not married, that her parents lived in Plattsburg, New York, and "she was deeply in love with the young man and had been supporting him for some time" since he could no longer work.

Hearing that, Magistrate Wahle sentenced Miller to six months in the workhouse "as a vagrant," and said he would hold Eva in jail "until he could communicate with her parents."  Eva refused to disclose her parents' names and pleaded with Wahle, "Send me to jail too.  I want to go with Rolf."  She cried, "You can send me to prison, but I will not tell.  Do please let me go with him."  The article concluded, "The Magistrate turned the girl over to Matron Lynch of the court prison until to-morrow to see if she will give the address of her parents in the meantime."

Several of the tenants continued to be on the wrong side of law enforcement.  In 1909, John Mahoney was arrested for robbery, in March 1914, Meyer Lewis was convicted of pickpocketing, and three months later Joseph Gordon was arrested for armed robbery.

About 20 roomers lived at 108 East 10th Street in 1921, which was owned by Adolf Orgus and his wife.  The couple lived in the basement.  Among their roomers were 33-year-old Edith Medvin, who lived on the second floor; and 57-year-old Anna Hansel, who lived on the top floor.  Anna was "a crippled piano teacher," according to The New York Herald.

The building was quiet on Christmas night 1921.  The New-York Tribune said that only Edith Medvin and Anna Hansel "had no better place to spend Christmas than the rooms in which they lived."  At around 9:00, a passerby "noticed that a flickering glare framed the window shades on each floor and that smoke was seeping out of the door cracks," reported the New-York Tribune.  He turned in an alarm and when firefighters arrived, according to the New York Herald, "the hallway and stairs had become a furnace and it was half an hour before firemen were able to enter."

Someone in the crowd told Acting Battalion Chief Quinn that they had heard screaming coming from the blazing house before the engines arrived.  When firefighters finally could enter, they found Edith Medvin in her room, "burned about the head and upper part of her body," according to the New York Herald.  She was taken to Bellevue Hospital "so severely burned she probably will die," said the article.  

 

The New-York Tribune reported, "On the top floor in the hallway they found the body Mrs. Hansel."  Her clothing had been burned away.  Ironically, firefighters said that had she remained in her room, she probably would have survived, "as the house aside from the hallway was hardly touched by the fire."

The fire damage was repaired and 108 East 10th Street returned to a rooming house.  In 1922, Milton Pasky took a room here.  He lived in Baltimore where the 28-year-old worked as a baker's assistant.  He had arranged time off with his employer to come to New York City to find his missing sweetheart.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

A few months earlier, Milton's fiancée proposed that she would come to New York where she "could earn more money here as a stenographer" towards their wedding.  Once here, she wrote every day.  But little by little the letters came less frequently until they stopped and Milton's letters were returned stamped, "Not at this address."

The New York Herald reported on August 11, 1922 that Milton, "tucked his revolver into his hip pocket and came north to find the girl.  He and the revolver obtained a furnished room at 108 East Tenth street."  After a week of searching, on August 9, Milton ran into a female friend from Baltimore.  He asked about his missing girlfriend.

"Why, Milton," she replied, "didn't you hear?  Why, I thought everybody knew.  She's married.  The nicest fellow, too.  They got the prettiest flat.  I was up there last night.  Such a party, Milton.  Want her address?"

The crestfallen Milton did not want the address.  Now penniless and broken hearted, he walked into a pawnshop with the only thing he had of value, his revolver.

"Can you gimme enough on this to buy a ticket to Baltimore?" he asked the broker.

Unfortunately for Milton, Detective Casseti was in the shop at the time.  He arrested Milton Pasky as "a violator of the Sullivan Law."  (The 1911 Sullivan Law required a license to carry a concealed weapon.)  The "sad Baltimorean," as described by the New York Herald, was jailed in The Tombs downtown.

Sometimes tragic, sometimes criminal, and more often colorful roomers continued to live here.  Harry Bailey, who rented a room in 1931, was arrested for working in a speakeasy and selling drinks to a Prohibition agent.  Hyman Rosenberg was one of a dozen striking textile workers arrested on July 18, 1940 when a "mass picketing demonstration," as described by The New York Times, "culminated in a near-riot in front of City Hall."  And Aurelio Fazio was involved in a bizarre workplace incident on June 23, 1945.  Fazio worked in a barbershop at 671 Third Avenue.  For no apparent reason, while another barber was cutting a customer's hair that afternoon, Fazio went berserk and attacked his co-worker with his razor.  Leonardo Pascalicchio told investigators, "I was cutting hair this way for the customer, and the barber in the third chair, without warning, he tried to cut my head off."  Pascalicchio suffered a slash to his neck that ran nearly ear-to-ear.

A renovation completed in 1962 resulted in an apartment in the basement and a single-family home on the upper floors.

The Charles Lewis Tiffany House - 125 East 10th Street

 

Identical to its next door neighbor, 125 East 10th Street is on the right.

Robert Carnley, who lived at 191 Tenth Street, erected two houses next door at 193 and 195 Tenth Street in 1854.  (The twin homes, just steps from St. Mark's churchyard, would be renumbered 123 and 125 East 10th Street in 1865.)  The homes were four stories tall and two bays wide above a low basement.  Sitting upon rusticated stone bases with arched openings, the upper floors were faced in red brick and trimmed in sandstone.  Full-width cast iron balconies fronted the second floor windows.  Molded stone lintels sat upon the elliptically arched upper windows and a single corbeled cornice unified the structures.

No. 195 Tenth Street became home to Charles L. Tiffany, the principal in the newly renamed jewelry firm Tiffany and Company.  He and John B. Young had started out in business in 1837.  In 1841, Tiffany married his partner's sister, Harriet Olivia Avery Young.  When the couple moved into the East 10th Street house, they had two children (their first, Charles Jr., died in 1847).  Annie Olivia, was ten years old, and Louis Comfort was six.  Three more children, Louise Harriet, Henry Charles, and Burnett Young, would arrive in 1856, 1858 and 1860 respectively.

Charles Lewis Tiffany as he appeared nearly half a century after moving into the East 10th Street house. from Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany was born in Connecticut in 1812.  At the age of 25, he  and John B. Young opened a small "stationery and fancy goods store" at 259 Park Row.  They established a reputation of selling only first-class items, like imported Bohemian glass and porcelain.  Starting around 1843, Tiffany began creating his own jewelry and in 1845 introduced the Blue Book, generally considered the first direct-mail catalog of fine jewelry in America.  

In 1853, Tiffany and Young separated and Charles Tiffany struck out on his own, creating Tiffany & Company.  The same year that the East 10th Street house was erected, the firm's new building at 550 Broadway, was built.

The Tiffany & Co. building (the clock of which would follow the firm in its subsequent moves) testified to Charles L. Tiffany's success.  Here it is seen in the Union Square store.  photograph via RIBA Collections.

Born in 1825, George McClure was the husband of Harriet Tiffany's sister, Maria Young.  He became a partner in the newly formed Tiffany & Co., heading the firm's diamond department.  When Charles and Harriet Tiffany left 195 Tenth Street in 1859, the McClures moved in.  The couple had two daughters, Nellie Louise, born in 1853; and Anna Cushman, born in 1856.

Living with the McClures was Frederick M. Peck, a clerk at Tiffany & Co.  He would remain with the family through 1862.  (By then, he listed his profession as "jeweler.")

Tragically, four-year-old Anna Cushman McClure contracted scarlet fever in 1860.  She died on June 5 and her funeral was held in the parlor the following afternoon.

When Civil War broke out, George McClure joined the 22nd Regiment.  He became Quartermaster and would serve on the staffs of Generals Aspinwall and Shaler.  McClure rose to the rank of colonel before the war's end.

At home, New York socialites turned their attention to helping the Union effort.  In February 1864, plans were laid for the "great Metropolitan Fair" to raise funds.  The New York Times reported that among the committee members of the "Jewelry and Fancy Goods" department were Harriet Tiffany and Maria McClure.

In 1870, the McClures moved into Everett House, conveniently across Union Square from Tiffany & Co.  George McClure would die of Bright's Disease there on September 30, 1885 at the age of 60.

In the meantime, 125 East 10th Street became home to the Henry H. Holly family.  Henry was a partner with Gilman Collamore in G. Collamore & Co., "importers of china, glass, gas fixtures, silver plated ware, &c.," according to an advertisement.  Son John I. Holly was in the oil business and was also a director in the Brunswick Land Reclamation Co.

Like many families at the time, the Hollys rented an unused portion of their house.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 22, 1874, read, "Neatly furnished apartments [i.e., rooms] in a private house with modern improvements, to one or two single gentlemen, at 125 East Tenth street, near Second avenue.  Terms moderate to suitable parties."

Next to occupy the house starting around 1876 was Harriet King and her unmarried children.  Harriet's husband, Josiah King, had been in the hardware business at 373 Bowery.  He died on August 5, 1873.  The couple had five children, Josiah Nicholson, Karlene Eugenia, Ida Estelle, Charles Fletcher and Frank A.   Josiah, who was the eldest, was 41 years old when his mother moved into the house, and the youngest, Frank, was 16.

Ida Estelle was married to Captain John Waydell of the 22nd Regiment in St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church on the evening of December 6, 1876.  The New York Times reported at length on the ceremony, mentioning, "The gentlemen were in full dress."  The article added, "A reception was subsequently held at the residence of the bride's mother."

Harriet had left 125 East 10th Street by 1878.  It was home to a series of occupants before becoming a rooming house at the turn of the century.  

In 1905, Max Silverman (also known as Max Studnick) and his bride, the former Celia Spielberger, took rooms here.  Celia worked as a servant girl and had carefully saved her money.  In July that year, according to The Sun, "she decided that she ought to be married.  She went to Max Tuner, a marriage broker."  Tuner promised her that every match he arranged "is full of happiness."

Soon after meeting with Tuner, Celia was introduced to Max Silverman.  He told her that he had an income of from $8,000 to $10,000 a year.  (The high-end figure would translate to about $368,000 in 2026.)  Celia asked for proof.  A few days later he showed her a check for $1,000 payable to him.  "Celia said that she had no proof that the check was genuine," said The Sun.  And so the next time they met, Silverman produced a bankbook that showed a $1,000 deposit.

Then, on an afternoon stroll with Celia, Silverman paused in front of a saloon at Pike and Madison Streets.

"That is my saloon," he said.

"Fine," replied Celia.  "Let's go in and look at it."

"Oh, no!  I couldn't think of it.  It is against the law for a woman to enter a saloon, and you, my future wife, must not be arrested."

Silverman pointed to the traffic coming in and out of the saloon.  "See all those customers.  Every one of them spends from 15 to 25 cents each," he said.

The Sun reported on August 27, "That was enough for Celia, and she married Silverman, who lived with her for four days at 125 East Tenth Street."  On the fourth day Silverman told his bride that "he had a sudden demand for money."  Celia had saved up $400 and, coincidentally, that was exactly the amount her husband needed.  The Sun reported, "Could he have it? With pleasure, she said.  He never came back."

As it turned out, Max Tuner operated a scam involving "a gang of men" who "will marry any number of women, get whatever money they have and then desert them," explained The Sun.  Celia's attorney told reporters that he had "evidence that Silverman married other women."  

In 1941, both houses were painted.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Twenty-five-year-old inventor Fred Miller rented a room here in 1911 when he, like Celia Spielberger, decided it was time to be married.  In September, he wrote to the mayor of Denver, Colorado asking him "to find a good Denver girl for him to marry."  His letter said that "New York girls do not appeal" to him.  According to The Sun, the letter explained that "he has heard so much about Denver girls that he wants to try one of them for a voyage on the sea of matrimony."  He guaranteed that the royalties from his inventions would support a married couple.  Whether or not the mayor fulfilled his request is unknown.

Detectives stormed into a room here on December 10, 1918 and arrested four men.  Among them were Peter Vazzaro and Alfred Faroco.  The New York Herald said, "They are charged with homicide, the police alleging they had a hand in the street fight in which Ettore Ochinoeri...was killed on November 29."

By 1919, St. Mark's Church was leasing this house and the one next door at 123 East 10th Street.  The tenant list became much more respectable.  Living here that year was Lucy Constance Rulison, for instance.  The highly-educated musician had graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1902 and continued her studies in Europe through 1913.  She became a member of the faculty of the Music School Settlement in 1916, and became teacher of piano at the David Mannes Music School in 1917.

Artist Sarah Eakin Cowan lived here in 1923.  Born in Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1875, she studied in Paris at the Académie Julian.  Known for full-size and miniature portraits, she had co-organized the 1915 exhibition of painting and sculpture by women artists.  She was a co-founder of the American Society of Miniature Painters.

Kathryn Cerick purchased 125 East 10th Street in 2006 for $4.25 million.  She later sold it to French-born banker Olivier Sarkozy, who already owned 123 East 10th Street.  In 2015 he married actress and fashion designer Mary-Kate Olsen.  They soon sold both houses.

Former architecture critic for The New York Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff and his wife, artist Cecily Brown, purchased 125 East 10th Street in October 2019 for $7.75 million.  Real estate brokers continually told prospective buyers that the house was designed by James Renwick, Jr., despite there being no evidence of the assertion.  What is certain, however, is that both houses survive externally in a remarkable state of preservation.

photographs by the author

D. & J. Jardine's 1867 110 East 10th Street

 

photograph by the author

U.S. Senator Hamilton Fish inherited land from the estate of his mother, Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish.  On May 1, 1867, he leased the plots that would become 106 through 110 East 10th Street to developer James Mulry.  The annual rents on the 21-year land leases were $200 each--about $4,380 in 2025.  Fish included restrictive covenants in the leases that prohibited the erection of "dangerous, noxious or offensive establishments" or of tenements or "community houses."  Instead, Fish demanded that only "a good and substantial dwelling house, three or more stories high" and faced in brick or stone be built on the plots.

Mulry commissioned the architectural firm of D. and J. Jardine to design three upscale homes on the property.  Born in Scotland, brothers David and John Jardine--27 and 29 years old respectively at the time--had gone into partnership just two years earlier.  For Mulry, they produced identical, four-story homes faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Sitting upon rusticated stone basements, their Italianate-style design included segmentally arched entrances within unusual stone frames, the beefy scrolled brackets of which upheld prominent molded cornices.  The windows wore handsome molded cornices supported by carved foliate brackets.  Pressed metal cornices with leafy corbels completed the design.  Each of the houses cost Mulry $6,000 to erect--about $131,000 today.

No. 110 was leased to Elizabeth Carlyle, the widow of Edward Carlyle, who operated it as an upscale boarding house.  An advertisement offered, "Handsomely furnished rooms to let, with first class Board, for gentlemen and wife or single gentlemen, en suite or singly; terms moderate."  Elizabeth's residency was short.  By 1870, another widow, Anna M. Carroll operated the boarding house.

Among Carroll's boarders in 1871 were attorney George P. Avery, and young Julius William Russell.  Russell's permanent home was in Burlington, Vermont and he was in New York City attending Columbia College.  

An unnamed boarder was a victim of theft in 1874.  His advertisement in the New York Herald on April 16 read:

$25 Reward--If the young man who took the Violin from 110 East Tenth street will return it he will oblige the person he conversed with and receive $25 reward; no questions asked.  The violin only valued as a keepsake from a deceased father.

Widow Elizabeth Koch ran the boarding house in 1876. Among her few boarders that year were Dr. A. A. Angell; Sarah Dubois, a dressmaker; and Adolph Franosch and his wife.  Described by The New York Times as "a well-known singer in German opera," Franosch was born in Cologne, Germany in 1828.  In 1874, two years before taking rooms here, he had toured in the German Company in the role of Plunket in Martha.  The Indianapolis News called Franosch, "a marvel of power," saying, "His voice is unquestionably the finest in this if not any country.  Seldom is heard such majesty of tone combined with such correctness of execution and dramatic force."

Living here in 1882 was Madame Ivan C. Michels.  It is possible that Elizabeth Koch allowed her to use the parlor for her teaching, but most likely it was done in her rooms.  Her concise ad in the American Art Journal on February 11 that year read, "Mme. Ivan C. Michels Teaches Elocution for Pulpit, Bar and Stage."

Another boarder in 110 East 10th Street that year was Lizzie Wood, an actress who appeared on stage as Lizzie J. Mauritius.  While she was out on the morning of May 25, a man appeared at the door and identified himself as an expressman.  He told the maid that Lizzie had engaged him to remove a trunk from her rooms.  When Lizzie returned home, she realized she had been the victim of a clever ruse.  According to her, the value of the trunk and its contents was $200 (about $6,330 today).

Later that night, Patrolman James Kelly noticed John Adams taking a trunk into the house at 29 West 44th Street.  Despite the fact that trunks were routinely taken in and out of buildings, he was suspicious.  Upon opening the trunk, he discovered Lizzie Wood's items.  Adams was arrested and he confessed.

Dr. John R. Hobbie boarded here in 1885, as did Walter R. Sherman.  Sherman was estranged from his wife, Kate M.  The couple had an eight-year-old son, Walter M. Sherman.

Kate Sherman told the court of "her run-away marriage while Sherman was a student in Cornell University."  She said they were married less than three months when, "he abused me by the use of the grossest language" and physical abuse.  "It was a common thing for him to pull me by the hair and to slap me in the face."  

On May 25, 1885, Kate Sherman added new charges against her husband.  She brought witnesses to testify to "the intimacy between [Sherman] and Clara Menz, who was a servant at 110 East Tenth street."

John Emory Bryant took a room here in 1891, while his wife, the former Emma Spaulding, remained in Earlville, New York.  He had fought for the Union in the Civil War and both he and Emma had been avid abolitionists.  They had met while John, who was teaching, boarded in Emma's family's home.  Emma was a teacher of mathematics.  They were married in 1864 while he was a soldier.

On September 25, 1891, Bryant wrote to Emma, saying he was sending her $20 toward her costs to come to New York.  He directed that should she be delayed, she should telegraph him "at my boarding house, 110 East 10th Street."  The letter went on to hint of tensions between the couple.  He copied numerous scriptures that made his note sound more like a lecture.  Emma Spaulding Bryant's letters were published in 2004.  They reveal some of the conflicts within middle-class couples that were strictly guarded from the public.

Dr. Downey was boarding here on the afternoon of March 13, 1895 when he was summoned to 388 Sixth Avenue.  There he found 30-year-old Annie Lefkowitz "in a precarious condition," according to The Sun.  At 7:00 that evening, Downey went to the West 13th Street police station to report that she was "suffering from the result of a criminal operation."  The newspaper's delicately wording referred to an abortion.  Annie Lefkowitz's family physician, Dr. Robert Berlinger, had performed the procedure that morning.  The Sun reported, "Mrs. Lefkowitz is not expected to live through the night."

In October 1903, a "Mr. Williamson" and his young wife took rooms here.  In fact, Mr. Williamson was James H. Grant and his "wife" was Madeline J. Schlamp.

A relative of President Ulysses S. Grant, the New-York Tribune described James Grant as "a married man, one legged and with a wife and four children."  He worked at the New York and New Jersey Telephone Company and lived in West Orange.  Living next door was the Henry J. Schlamp family.  The Schlamps' 16-year-old daughter, Madeline, according to The Sun, was a member of the "choir of a Methodist church in their home town."  

Madeline disappeared from home in October 1903.  On hearing that her mother was dying, she returned home, but left again after the woman's death.  Henry J. Schlamp heard that she was living at 110 East 10th Street and on the night of November 25, he and Police Detective Clarence went to the house and found Madeline and John Grant together.  Grant said he merely had visited her "from motives of charity, and had obtained employment for her in this city, as she had been unable to get along at home."  Henry Schlamp said that Grant had "an hypnotic influence" over her.

Grant was charged with abduction and Madeline was arrested with disorderly conduct.  Calling her daughter "incorrigible," Schlamp told Agent Fogarty of the Children's Aid Society that he "wanted her committed to some institution."

On June 29, 1905, The City Record reported that the residents of 110 East 10th Street were "required to vacate."  The article said the building, "is dangerous to life, and is unfit for human habitation because of defects in the plumbing there."  The issue was resolved and in September that year, the estate of Hamilton Fish transferred the title of numerous properties, including the land upon which 110 East 10th Street sat, to the Hamilton Fish Corporation.

Mrs. Matthew Callahan operated the boarding house in 1908.  On February 10 that year, a reporter from The Sun interviewed her about Annie Conning.  She said that the 24-year-old had been recently working as a maid in the Chelsea Hotel.  The reporter wrote, "Mrs. Callahan said the girl had stayed in her house every once in a while when out of employment."

The reason for the journalist's visit was that early that morning the body of a woman known in the notorious Tenderloin district as "Queenie" was dumped in a gutter on Second Avenue and 8th Street.  The previous night three women, including Annie Conning (or Queenie), and three men had been "carousing," as worded by The New York Times.  The newspaper said they began in the Tenderloin and ended up in Chinatown.

At around 5:30 a.m., the group headed back northward, boarding a Second Avenue street car.  The New York Times said, "One of the men carried a bottle of champagne, unwrapped, and flourished it in the frolic indulged in by the revelers to kill time on the journey uptown."  A sleeping laborer on the car leaned on Queenie's shoulder.  One of the men took his watch and chain and one of the women, Mabel Cuzzie, took his tie pin.

Just then, the worker woke up and "sprang toward the Cuzzie woman," said The New York Times.  Both of Mabel's hands were inside her muff, which also held a pistol.  The Sun reported, "as he reached for it she stood up.  As she did so, there was a report and a flash seemed to come from the muff."  The gunshot hit Queenie in the heart, who exclaimed, "I'm shot," and fell to the floor.

The conductor stopped the car and, while around 30 shocked passengers watched, the group got off.  "Two of them picked up Queenie's limp body--it was curled up in a heap on the floor at their feet--and made for the rear door."  The article continued, "There they dropped Queenie, her head in a pile of snow and ice and her rose trimmed picture hat beside her."

The five dispersed.  One passenger jumped from the car and captured Mabel Cuzzie, holding her until Policeman Faber arrived.  Before long the other four were arrested.  Coroner  Shrady opined "that the shooting seemed to have been an accident but that it needed more investigation," reported The Sun.  It was Mrs. Callahan who identified the body at the morgue.

Dora Siegel, who lived here in 1914, experienced a terrifying incident on November 21 that year.  She told police that someone told her that she had been targeted by a gang for robbery.  In response, she placed $2,000 worth of jewelry in a safe deposit vault.

She came home at about 1:00 a.m. and noticed that her rooms were ransacked.  Suddenly, as reported by The New York Times, "six men rushed from an adjoining room and seized her."  She was tied up with a sheet from the bed.  Another tried to stuff a gag into her mouth, threatening to kill her if she cried out.  While one of the men took $40 from her bag, Dora screamed.  Policeman Poss heard her, and rushed toward the building just as the six men ran out.  Poss pursued one of them to a tenement house across the street.  He captured Frank Picony on the third floor.  The others got away.  The article said, "The thieves overlooked a $375 diamond ring in her corset."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

On November 4, 1922, the tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter.  Three months later, on February 13, 1913, The New York Times began an article saying, "The influence on women's fashion of the Tut-ankh-Amen discoveries in Egypt is expected to be so great that Hazel Slaughter, a designer of 110 East Tenth Street, will go to Egypt to study Egyptian art."  Hazel had won prizes at the textile exhibition and at the exhibitions of the Art Students' League, and now she was awarded a scholarship at the International Silk Show that enabled her trip to Egypt.

While 110 East 10th Street fulfilled Hamilton Fish's 1867 demand that it would be a "good and substantial dwelling," he most likely intended it to be a single-family home.  Ironically, it never was.  In 2014 it received a "gut renovation" that resulted in a two-family home.