The 1893 Max Feist House - 245 West 139th Street

 

photo by Mark Satlof

In 1890, developer David H. King, Jr. embarked on an expansive and ambitious project.  It was described by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide on August 16 as, "one of the most important building operations ever undertaken in this city."  The article explained that King intended to cover the entire block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (today Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, respectively) and 138th and 139th Streets, as well as the south side of  138th Street between the same avenues with "buildings of a first-class character."

King expanded the project in 1891 by adding the northern blockfront of 139th Street.  "The new portion, engulfing the northern blockfront of 139th Street, would follow the same plan as the others and be designed by McKim, Mead & White," said the Record & Guide on January 27.  Stanford White was put in charge of the design.  His Renaissance Revival rowhouses were faced in orange Roman brick above rusticated brownstone bases.  Completed in 1893, they rose four stories above shallow basements.

Among them was 245 West 139th Street.  Its entrance above a short stoop was protected by a glass-and-iron marquee.  A dramatic Venetian-style balcony dominated the second floor.  Its molded brick frame upheld a terra cotta lintel, directly below an ornate terra cotta rosette.  

No. 245 became home to the Feist family.  Max Feist was the principal in the millinery supplies business named for himself.  He also invested in Harlem real estate.  Feist and his wife had one son.  S. Feist entered the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1913, but interrupted his studies a year before graduating to attend the Butt Military Training Camp in Burlington, Vermont.

Following World War I, Henry Allen Wallace, a widower, moved into 245 West 139th Street.  Born in Columbia, South Carolina, he was educated in Canada and at Howard University.  As a young man, he passed a civil service test and was hired as a clerk in the War Department, first in Washington and later in the New York City office.  He held that position for over 30 years.

More importantly, Wallace focused on what today is called Black History.  The New York Age said of him, "Mr. Wallace was a contributor to many Negro historical works, being an authority on Negro Ante-Bellum history; especially during the Reconstruction period in South Carolina."

An early activist for racial equality, Wallace was, as well, a stickler on historic accuracy.  He read an article in the January 1920 issue of The Journal of Negro History, for example, that outlined a meeting of the Secretary for South Carolina with two Black men "concerning the formation of the political organization for the newly enfranchised Negro."  Wallace shot back with a four-page letter to its editor, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, pointing out numerous inaccuracies.  In it, he said, "History, unless it is based on facts, incontrovertible facts, is worthless."

245 West 139th Street is second from left.  photo by Mark Satlof

Living at the address at the time was Mrs. M. E. Richardson, who was either a boarder or Wallace's housekeeper.  Her grandfather, Shandy Jones, had been a member of the Alabama Legislature during Reconstruction.

In 1922 Wallace visited Toronto, Canada (where he had spent his school years) for four weeks.  He wrote an article for The New York Age outlining racial conditions there.  In it he said in part:

Toronto has made wonderful strides and from a population of 50,000 in 1870 is now 529,000.  It would not be true to say there is no prejudice there.  The large influx of Americans has caused considerable prejudice, though one will be told, as in most of our northern cities, that there is none...When I hear a person say there is no prejudice at a certain place I know then there are not many colored persons at that place.

In failing health, Henry A. Wallace sold 245 West 139th Street in June 1922 to Harry and Sarah Wills.  Wallace moved to his sister's home in Chester, Pennsylvania where he died on February 12, 1923.

The title to 245 West 139th Street was in Sarah's name, so when the couple erected a garage in the back lot in 1922, she was listed as the owner of record.  

In reporting that Wills had purchased the property, the Record & Guide called him, "the colored aspirant for the Heavyweight Championship of the World."  He was known in boxing circles as the Black Panther.  That year, on March 12, New York Herald sportswriter W. O. McGeehan interviewed Harry Wills.  The boxer opened up about his personal life, saying for instance, "What do I read?  I read the papers and I like to read about history.  But the best book I ever had is a book written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.  He was a colored man, too, you know."

Harry Wills, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Harry Wills would hold the World Colored Heavyweight Championship three times.  But because of the "color line" held by the Boxing Commission, he never had a shot at his most coveted prize: the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World.  In his interview with McGeehan, he mentioned that fighting Jack Dempsey would be a distinction, but added frankly that the purse for that fight would be welcomed, as well. "It isn't very easy for colored fighters to get any kind of money."

In 1930, Dr. H. Binga Dismond and his wife, the former Geraldyn Hodges, moved into 245 West 139th Street.  He was a graduate of the University of Illinois, where, according to The New York Age, "he equalled [sic] the world's record for the 440-yard dash."  He had been practicing medicine since 1924, prompting the newspaper to call him in 1934, the "well known Harlem medico and sportsman."  He moved his medical practice into the house, as well.

photo by Mark Satlof

Geraldyn Hodges Dismond (known as Gerri) was a fascinating woman, especially considering the period and her race.  Ebony magazine would call her "one of the 'new Negroes' of the early 20th Century," and "one of the best known black women in America."  She and Dismond had met during World War I when she was a major in the American Red Cross and he was a soldier.

Her far-reaching resume included journalist, newscaster, publicist, author, community leader and editor.  Her residency at 245 West 139th Street would be relatively short, however.  Geraldyn received a Mexican divorce in 1933, although reportedly the couple remained friendly over the succeeding years.

The reason for the divorce soon became clear.  On March 24, 1934, The New York Age reported that Dr. H. Binga Dismond had married Harriet Richardson.  "The bride's address was given as 245 West 139th street, which is the same as the doctor's," said the article.

Three months after his marriage, Dismond resigned from the American Medical Association.  The New York Age reported the move was "a protest against a new type of discrimination."  The AMA annually published a membership directory, and the article explained, "In previous years all members were listed without any special reference to their racial origin."  But when Dismond received his proof-sheets for approval, he saw "col." next to each Black physician's name.

The Dismonds had two "lodgers" that year, musicians Cyrus St. Clair and Fred Moore.  In 1940 there were three lodgers living at the address, Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Wade, and Nilo Rivera.

In 1941, Harriet Dismond was granted a divorce.  On July 18, 1942, The New York Age mentioned that Dismond "recently took unto himself a fourth wife."  (Cora Dismond was, actually, his third.)

The West 139th Street house was, at times, the scene of lavish entertaining.  On September 19, 1942, The New York Age reported on the couple's "Haitian Bar" themed party in honor of Judge and Mrs. Herman E. Moore of the Virgin Islands.  "The invitation started uptown's Fall social season with a flair," said the article, adding, "the setting was reminiscent of the good old days when Harlem was 'Harlem' and A'Lelia Walker, Carolyn Wilkins, and Turner Layton and Tandy Johnson were in their hey day."

Dismond surprised those who knew him when he published a book of poetry, We Who Would Die, in 1943.  The New York Age said it was "glowingly received by critics nation-wide."  The critic of the Hartford, Connecticut newspaper Courant said, "It is this reviewer's belief that the Negro poet, Binga Dismond, numbers among the great poets of modern times."  Twelve years later, Dismond's second volume, I've Often Wondered, was released.

The Dismonds moved to Sag Harbor in 1950.  Five years later, the upper floors of 245 West 139th Street were converted to furnished rooms.  A doctor's office still occupied the first floor.

Major change came in 1979 when Mutulu Shakur purchased the house.  He converted the doctor's office to the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture, headquarters of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America, or BAANA.  According to Rachel Pagones in her 2021 Acupuncture as Revolution--Suffering, Liberation, and Love, "The front room was used as a classroom, and in back was a conference area.  At street level was a clinic, with a front desk and waiting room--sometimes doubling as a classroom--to the fore and a treatment room behind."  

Mutulu Shakur, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation

On October 20, 1981, a Brink's armored car was robbed in Rockland County by several Black Liberation Army members and four former members of the Weather Underground.  In the process, a guard was murdered.  When their getaway car was stopped by two police officers, the robbers shot them dead, too.  Mutulu Shakur disappeared from West 139th Street.  

In Shakur's absence, the F.B.I. wiretapped the 245 West 139th Street telephones.  The New York Times reported, "they repeatedly heard orders placed for cocaine by a variety of people."  On March 7, 1983, nearly two years after the heist and murders, The New York Times reported, "at 245 West 139th Street, Mr. Shakur ran a clinic that, according to the F.B.I., was really the planning center for armed robberies.  From that address, F.B.I. officials say, the robbers left for Rockland County on Oct. 20, 1981."

On August 9, 1982, The New York Times reported, "The groups identified by the F.B.I. as communicating through the acupuncture center included the Black Liberation Army, the Republic of New Afrika, the May 19 Communist Organization, the Black Panther Party, the Weather Underground Organization and the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee."  Mutulu Shakur was finally arrested on February 12, 1986 in California.  He was sentenced to 60 years, but was released on December 16, 2022 because of his failing health.  He died on July 7, 2023.

photo by Mark Satlof

In the meantime, 245 West 139th Street was returned to a single family home in 1999.  

many thanks to Mark Satlof for suggesting this post

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The 1891 Robert Twombly Bryan House - 228 West 138th Street

 

photo by Mark Satlof

On August 16, 1890 The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that "One of the most important building operations ever undertaken in this city is about to be commenced in Harlem."  The article explained that developer David H. King, Jr. intended to cover the entire block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (today Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, respectively) and 138th and 139th Streets, as well as the south side of  138th Street between the same avenues with "buildings of a first-class character."  King had commissioned three architects to design his project, assigning the blockfront on the south side of 138th Street to James Brown Lord.

Lord designed his row in a modern take on Georgian architecture.  Each of the three-story residences was clad in brownstone at the basement and parlor levels, and red brick above.  While most were designed as mirror-image pairs with shared split stoops, 228 West 138th Street sat independently between two such pairs, boasting its own dog-legged stoop with elegant iron railings. 

It became home to Robert Twombly Bryan, a well-known tennis player.  When he moved into the West 138th Street house, he was a member of the Lenox Tennis Club and Seventh Regiment Tennis Club.   The Lenox Tennis Club's grounds were between St. Nicholas and Manhattan Avenues, and 122nd and 123rd Streets.

In 1901 Bryan and another Lenox member, Louis J. Grant, formed a new organization, the New York Tennis Club, with Bryan as its president.   But in doing so, they usurped their former club's courts.  Both men were promptly sued by the Lenox Tennis Clubs which charged they "went secretly to the owner of [the tennis courts property] and without notice to said Lenox Tennis Club" persuaded him to transfer the lease to them.

Bryan left West 138th Street before 1905, when Dr. DeWitt Stetten, a surgeon with Lenox Hill Hospital, and his wife, the former Magdalena Ernst, occupied 228 West 138th Street.  The couple had a daughter, Margaret.

Stetten would be later described by The New York Times as "an outstanding surgeon."  He would help found the Blue Shield movement in New York and the Blood Transfusion Association.  The DeWitt Stetten Pathology Laboratory at Lenox Hill Hospital would be dedicated to his memory in 1952.  

The Stettens had a second child, DeWitt Jr., on May 31, 1909.  He would follow his father's professional footsteps, eventually making significant scientific contributions as a biochemist.  At the time of his birth, the family had been gone from the 138th Street house a year.

In 1908 it became home to the widowed Henry Schottenfels, a well-to-do lace importer.  Moving into the house with him was Henry's sister-in-law, Mina, and her two daughters, Sara X. and Agnes, and son Erwin.  Mina's husband, Julius Schottenfels, had died in 1904.

The family was highly involved in Jewish organizations.  Henry was a member of the Jewish Protectory Aid Society.  In 1901 Sara X. became secretary of the New York branch of the National Council of Jewish Women.  (She was, as well,  a suffragette and member of the League of Women Voters.)  Mina was a member of the United Order of True Sisters, a national Jewish organization.

Like their neighbors, the Schottenfels' names occasionally appeared in society columns.  On March 7, 1909, the New York Herald reported that Mina had given a dinner for 30 "in compliment to Miss Lisette Cohen and Mr. Erwin Schottenfels, whose engagement has been announced."  

In 1910 Henry leased the house to Louis Bartung for the summer social season in anticipation of the extended family's travel to Europe.  On April 10, 1910, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Mina Schottenfels and her daughters, the Misses Sara X. and Agnes of 228 West 138th Street, will sail for Europe on Saturday, April 23, to be gone some months."

Henry appears to have sailed separately.  He was headed home on the liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse on December 5 when a disturbing incident occurred.  The New York Times reported that Henry was among other first class passengers including John Jacob Astor IV and his son Vincent "on deck enjoying the afternoon promenade" at 2:15 when one of the ship's two propellers fell off.  The article noted, "There was no panic, but great anxiety at once."  Henry and the other well-heeled passengers made it home with only about a 12-hour delay.

The demographics of West 138th Street changed drastically following World War I as the Harlem neighborhood became the center of Manhattan's Black community.  Ada and Joseph Lord purchased the former Schottenfel house.  It was being operated as a rooming house by 1921 when Augusta Savage and her 14-year-old daughter rented rooms.

Born in Green Cowe Springs, Florida in 1892, Augusta's parents had been born into slavery.  She began sculpting in clay as a little girl.  According to Jill Lepore in her Joe Gould's Teeth, Augusta recalled, "At the mud pie age, I began to make 'things' instead of pies."  It was a problem to her minister father, who considered sculpture "idolatrous."  Savage said, "My father licked me five or six times a week and almost whipped all the art out of me."

Sculptor Augusta Savage, from the collection of the National Archives

Divorced from her carpenter husband James Savage when Augusta and her daughter moved into the 138th Street house,  she was studying at Cooper Union and working in a steam laundry to support them.  

In 1923 Augusta was accepted to attend the Fontainbleau School of Fine Arts in Paris, one of just 100 Americans chosen.  But then the offer was reversed by an American committee that included some of the most recognizable names in American architecture and art--Thomas Hastings, James Gamble Rogers, Edwin E. Blashfield, and Whitney Warren among them.  On April 24, The New York Times reported that Ernest Pelexotto "admitted that refusal was based on the ground that she is a negress and that a number of Southern girls intended sailing on the same ship she had chosen, to begin art studies at the same academy."

Public outcry was, rather surprisingly for the period, intense.  Appeals were made to the French Government and a delegation was sent to President Harding.  The decision, however, was not reversed and Augusta was unable to attend the prestigious school.  The widespread publicity however, got the attention of Hermon Atkins MacNeil, who invited her to study with him.  Augusta Savage would go on to become an important sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance.

photo by Mark Satlof

In 1940 the rooming house was operated by James and Geraldine Walter.  They had 16 roomers, eight of whom were married couples.  The residence continued to be operated as a rented rooms until a renovation completed in 2000 resulted in one apartment per floor.  

photographs by the author

many thanks to reader Mark Satlof for prompting this post

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The 1892 William B. Strong House - 240 West 138th Street

Completed in 1892, the 25 rowhouses along the south side of West 138th Street between today's Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards were designed by James Brown Lord.  The three-story, red brick residences were part of the visionary project of David H. King Jr. known as the King's Model Houses.  Lord's modern take on Georgian architecture included egg-and-dart carving around the parlor level openings and elongated, foliate-carved keystones.  The upper story windows were framed in brownstone quoins and wore splayed lintels.  A pressed metal cornice with an ornate fascia crowned the design.

Behind the row was an "interior cross-street," accessed by two wide carriage entrances with iron double gates.  Families used them, most likely, as often as the tradesmen who made rear deliveries.  King originally planned circular flower beds and fountains for the rear courtyards.  The carriage entrances made the houses on either side especially desirable, because they were afforded an extra wall of light and ventilation.

The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide published a projected view of the courtyards on April 9, 1892.  image courtesy of the Office of Metropolitan History

Among them was 240 West 138th Street.  It became home to wealthy silk importer William B. Strong and his wife, the former Mary E. Leavitt.  The couple had married in June 1884.  Not long after moving into the West 138th Street house, the Strongs' domestic bliss fell apart.  

In January 1896 Strong ordered Mary out of the house.  She later explained, "for the sake of appearances, she remained there, paying her own expenses until June."  (Because Mary had her own significant fortune, she could afford to support herself and maintain the charade.)  At that point she went to the summer estate of her sister, Mrs. Francis Tuckerman, in Bar Harbor, Maine.  At the end of the summer social season, Mary relocated to Newport where she owned a cottage.

Finally, Mary dispensed with appearances.  On May 24, 1898 the New York Herald ran an all-caps headline, "DIVORCE FOR MRS. W. B. STRONG / Wife of a Prominent and Well-do-Do Silk Importer Gets a Decree in Newport / WOULD NOT SUPPORT HER."  Mary's hopes of avoiding scandal were over.  She obtained her divorce on charges of "failure to provide necessities."

Almost immediately, Strong sold 204 West 138th Street to the newly-married Dr. Joseph Brown Cooke.  Born in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1868, he had had a privileged upbringing.  He attended three private academies--the Franklin School, Trinity School, and Phillips Exeter Academy--before entering the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons where he earned his medical degree in June 1891.

Cooke married Constance Rachel Cottin in London on May 31, 1898.  The couple had a newborn daughter, Lucy Elizabeth, when they moved in.  Three more children would soon arrive, Constance Ursala in 1901, Joseph Cottin in 1902, and Charles Harris in 1904.

Well-to-do families spent the summer months at either their country homes or at fashionable resorts.  Very often the husbands would remain in the city during the week to take care of business, joining their families on the weekends.  Most of them stayed at their social clubs, rather than go to the expense of keeping their townhouses open for a single occupant.  But Dr. Cooke likely saw patients at home during certain hours, so he remained in the West 138th Street house.

Dr. Cooke's family was "in the country," as worded by The Sun, during the summer of 1907, "but he has relatives stopping at the house."  Cooke arrived home around midnight on August 17 and, according to The Sun, "after writing letters for an hour, he went to bed."  

The New-York Tribune reported, "About an hour later the physician was awakened by some one on the stairs, and, getting his revolver, went into the hall."  He ran into a man and, according to The New York Times, demanded, "Put up your hands and don't move."  Instead the burglar bolted.  Cooke fired a shot and the intruder fell down the stairs."  Cooke was close behind, and fired two more shots in quick succession.  The Sun continued, "the thief dodged through the hallway to the rear of the house and got out through an open window.  The physician fired another shot, but the burglar climbed over the fence and got away."  

By now, reported The Sun, "the neighborhood was aroused and several patrolmen came hurrying up."  In the dining room, the Cooke silver had been loaded into bags, ready to be taken away.  The burglar was, most likely, on a search for jewelry on the upper floors when Cooke encountered him.  Blood spots were found outside the kitchen window, leading police to believe Cooke had hit the robber.

The following afternoon, John Williams, reportedly an elevator operator, entered Otto Krauss's drugstore on Seventh Avenue with an open bullet wound on his arm.  Krauss summoned the police, who asked Williams how he came to be shot.  He refused to answer and was held on suspicion of the Cooke burglary.

The erudite Dr. Cooke published a textbook, A Nurse's Handbook of Obstetrics, in 1903, the same year he wrote a pamphlet for expectant mothers, "Before the Baby Comes."  He lectured on obstetrics for the city's Department of Charity in 1908.

In 1909 the Cookes left West 138th Street.  Their former home was purchased by banker Frederick William M. Kamm.  Living with her unmarried brother was Therese C. C. Kamm.

Born in Bonn, Germany in 1847, Kamms' parents brought the children to America in 1852.  Frederick joined the banking firm of Lazard Freres in 1869 and four decades later was still there.  His elevated interests were reflected in his memberships in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the National Geographical Society.

Sadly, Frederick Kamm would not enjoy his new home long.  He died of a heart attack in the house on July 5, 1909 at the age of 62.  Therese died three years later, on January 14, after a short illness.  The 65-year-old's funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

The block was seeing significant change by then.  The extension of the subway into Harlem in 1904 made the district more accessible.  Landlords downtown had been taking advantage of their Black tenants for years, overcharging on rents.  The northward migration of the Black community was changing the demographics of the formerly all-white block.

There was a quick succession of owners for 240 West 138th Street, until Dr. J. Freeman Otto purchased it in March 1921.  Harrison ran the Cosmopolitan College of Chiropractic, and on March 16 the New-York Tribune reported that he "will remodel the dwelling, altering the two upper floors into dormitories."

Simultaneously, Otto hired Hubert H. Harrison as the school's Instructor in Embryology.  According to Jeffrey B. Perry, in his Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, Harrison wrote in his diary that he was "the only Negro on the Faculty and the only member of it who is not a doctor."  He gave a series of lectures for the students and their guests.

via Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927

An advertisement for the Cosmopolitan College of Chiropractic in April 1922 lured prospective students with the prospect of financial success and respectability.  It said in part, "Incomes of $5,000 and $10,000 dollars per year are common and the added advantages of social prominence and opportunity for service are not equalled."

The school did not last at the location, and by 1924 204 West 138th Street was being run as a boarding house by Louise Peters Haubs.  Among her tenants in 1924 was Theodore Baker and his live-in girlfriend, Jessie Wright.  Jessie managed a hairdressing parlor at 2343 Seventh Avenue.  On July 16, 1924, the couple had an argument and Baker shot Jessie three times in the chest.  The Pittsburgh Courier reported, "The woman was in bed at the time of the shooting."

Louise Haubs sold the house to Jacob Goodman, who resold it in January 1929.  The New York Sun reported that the buyer "expects to make extensive alterations with intentions of using the house as a furnished rooming house."

In 1940, William Julius operated what the Census Bureau deemed a "lodging house."  Almost unbelievably, the census that year listed 32 persons, including Julius, living here.  Several of them comprised small families, like 21-year-old Hamer Banki and his 20-year-old wife, Cuetta.  They had an 18-month old son, Norman.

The venerable house received a make-over in 1982, when it was converted to seven apartments, two per floor plus one in the basement level.

photograph by the author

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The Eubie Blake House - 236 West 138th Street

 

The block of 25 homes on the south side of West 138th Street between today's Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards was completed in 1891.  Part of the visionary project of David H. King Jr. known as the King's Model Houses, the homes were designed by James Brown Lord in a modern take on Georgian architecture.  Each of the three-story residences were clad in brownstone at the basement and parlor levels, and red brick above.  

Among them was 236 West 138th Street, which shared a split stoop with elegant iron railings with its neighbor at 234.  The openings of the parlor level were trimmed  in egg-and-dart carving and wore elongated, foliate-carved keystones.  The upper story windows were framed in brownstone quoins and wore splayed lintels.  A pressed metal cornice with an ornate fascia crowned the design.

The house became home to John Cheever Goodwin and his wife, the former Ida Drigg.  The couple had married in Boston in 1878 and had 11 children.  A graduate of Harvard University, Goodwin went professionally as J. Cheever Goodwin.  

J. Cheever Goodwin, from Francis Wilson's 1897 Recollections of a Player (copyright expired)

A playwright, librettist, lyricist and producer, his first successful libretto being the wildly popular Evangeline in 1874.  The New York Times would later say that he wrote or adapted more than 40 musical comedy librettos.  He was a member of the American Dramatist's Club, among others.

Goodwin worked several times with Woolson Morse, writing the lyrics for his 1890 L'etoile, for his 1891 Wang, for Panjandrum in 1893, and for Lost, Strayed or Stolen in 1896.  Through those collaborations, the Goodwins and Morses became friends--something that put the Goodwins in an uncomfortable position in 1895.

On January 11 that year, The World reported that Morse's wife, actress Agnes Cecilia Riley, had walked out of their home at 30 West 24th Street and into the Goodwin house.  "She is recovering from a fit of nervous prostration brought on by the recent troubles with her husband."  The troubles stemmed from Agnes's brother-in-law, George F. Hoey, who "turned Woolson against me," she said.  Hoey's meddling had affected his own marriage, as well.  "Mrs. Morse and Mrs. Hoey are now opposed to their respective husbands, and they say that will never make up their trouble."  It is unclear how long the Goodwins' troubled houseguest remained.

Sheltering Morse's wife during their marital troubles obviously did not negatively affect the relationship between composer and lyricist.  On January 8, 1899, The New York Times reported that the pair's The Merry Monarch had opened in London.  "Gilbert and Sullivan have seldom pleased the English fancy more thoroughly," said the article.

The following year the Goodwins left West 138th Street. Their former home became a respectable boarding house, home to attorney William H. Andrews and his wife; Sam Weingart, who was involved with the Hebrew Technical School for Girls; and the Watson W. Vredenburgh family.  Vredenburgh was a former police officer and his son, Loretto was an assistant principal in the public schools.  The Vredenburgh family would remain at least through 1905.

In 1916 236 West 138th Street was returned to a single-family home.  Bachelor attorney and politician Thomas T. Reilley and his unmarried sister, Ellinor F. Reilley moved in following the end of Thomas's term as State Assemblyman.  Prior to his election he had been head football coach at New York University.

Thomas Reilley during his New York University coaching days.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

He had little time to enjoy his new home, however.  When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, he left to fight as a member of the 42nd Infantry Division of the U. S. Army National Guard, known as the "Rainbow Division."

On March 22, 1919, the New York Herald reported that Reilley had been "slightly wounded in action."  The article noted that a year earlier he had been promoted to the rank of major.  His injuries earned him the Distinguished Service Cross.

Reilley returned to West 138th Street following the war, and on April 26, 1920 was appointed to the New York Supreme Court.  It may have been that appointment or simply the changing demographics of the Harlem neighborhood that prompted Reilley to leave 236 West 138th Street that year.  The home once again became a boarding house--now populated by Black families.

Among the early residents were pianist and composer James Hubert Blake (known as Eubie), and his wife, the former Avis Elizabeth Cecelia Lee.  The couple moved into rooms on the second floor.  Eubie Blake was born to former slaves in Maryland in 1887.  According to him, he had composed the "Charleston Rag" in 1899 when he was 12 years old, but was unable to write it down until 1915 when he learned musical notation.

James "Eubie" Blake, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

On May 22, 1921, the musical Shuffle Along opened at the 63rd Street Music Hall.  The New York Times wrote that it had "the distinction of being written, composed and played entirely by negroes," adding that it had "a swinging and infectious score by one Eubie Blake."  The article noted that Blake had collaborated with Noble Sissle on the libretto.  It was a convenient arrangement, since Sissle lived nearby at 264 West 138th Street at the time.  Among the tunes to come from Shuffle Along was the highly popular, "I'm Just Wild About Harry."  The ground-breaking musical would run for two years.

Two other early roomers--here by 1925--were Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and his wife, the former Fannie S. Clay.  Robinson had started his career as a dancer at the age of five, appearing in local saloons and on the sidewalks in front of theaters.  By the time he and Fannie moved into the house, he had a solo vaudeville act.  He would first earn national fame in the 1930's dancing with Shirley Temple in a series of films.

The unmarried sisters Catherine, Madeline and Anna Whales rented rooms here by 1925.  When their sister, Grace, visited that spring, they gave a party.  The New York Age reported on March 14 that the women  "entertained a number of her friends...Dancing and music were enjoyed and refreshments served."  There were seven unmarried women invited, and nine young men.  For the sake of decorum, the article noted that also present was "Mrs. Skenk, chaperone."

The lives of the boarders did not always go smoothly.  Allen Stewart, who was separated from his wife, lived here in 1926.  That December he picked up a copy of the New York News in which was a photograph of an abandoned child.  Authorities were hoping someone could identify him.  The little boy was his son, Earl.  Allen Stewart rushed to New Jersey to retrieve his son.

On December 18, the Pittsburgh Courier published a photograph of Stewart and his son, with the caption that read, "'Yes, sir! That's my Earlie!' cried Allen Stewart, 236 West 138th street, New York, after rushing into Mothers' Institute, Jersey City."   The article said "The mother was held on an abandonment charge."

The New York Age described Avis Blake as "one of Harlem's most gracious hostesses in whose house the sincerely pleasant atmosphere embraced all visitors," adding, "Because of her husband's connections in show business she was an integral part of his every success."  In 1936, Avis was diagnosed with tuberculosis.  She was taken to the Riverside Hospital, never to return to the West 138th Street house.  

Three years later, on March 25, 1939, The New York Age reported, "Broadway and Harlem met Saturday at the bier of Mrs. Avis Blake, who lived at 236 West 138th street and was the wife of Eubie Blake, impresario-pianist of Harlem and Broadway."  Among the notable mourners at Avis Blake's funeral were Noble Sissle, W. C. Handy, Walter Thompson, George Jones Jr., and Clarence Tisdale.

Not long after Avis's funeral, Eubie moved to Brooklyn, where he died on February 12, 1983.  The West 138th Street house continued to be operated as a rooming house for decades.  Then, a renovation completed in 2006 returned it to a private home, with one apartment in the basement level.

many thanks to reader Mark Satlof for prompting this post

photograph by the author

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The Alpha Phi Alpha House - 203 West 138th Street

 

Vertner Woodson Tandy entered Tuskegee Institute to study architecture in 1904.  A year later he transferred to Cornell University.  There he and seven other students established Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity on December 4, 1906, to promote a bond and fellowship among Black collegians.  It was the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity especially established for Black men.

Upon graduation, Tandy became the first African American registered architect in the State of New York, and the first Black architect to gain membership into the American Institute of Architects.  In 1919 he and his wife, Sadie, moved onto West 139th Street, in a section of homes built in 1891 as the King's Model Houses. 

At the time, Louis C. Jacob lived a block away, at 203 West 138th Street.  This block, like the one onto which the Tandys moved, was developed by David H. King, Jr.  An extension of King's ambitious project, these homes were designed by architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce in a creative take on the neo-Georgian style.  

203 West 138th Street is at the far right.  photograph by Beyond My Ken

Like its neighbors, the Jacob house was face in beige brick and richly trimmed in white terra cotta.  Three stories tall above an English basement, its single-doored arched entrance sprouted a dramatic, elongated keystone.  The splayed lintel of the parlor window was composed of alternating, foliate terra cotta sections, matched by smaller versions above all but one of the second story openings.  The exception, at the second floor, was crowned by a lintel in the form of a fasces, and an arched panel with a wreath and garlands.  Above it all was a brick parapet with balustraded openings.

In 1923 the Eta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha acquired the Louis C. Jacob house.  The branch of the fraternity founded in part by its now-neighbor, Vertner Woodson Tandy, had been established on June 5, 1909 on the campus of Columbia University.  The chapter was known as "The Jewel."

On December 29, 1923, The New York Age reported:

Eta Chapter of this city holds a very important position in the organization, having been awarded the 'McGhee Cup' for efficiency and progress at the last convention in St. Louis, Mo.  This year it has also made single progress as evinced in the securing of the beautiful home at 203 West 138th street, as the Chapter House.

In 1926 the chapter initiated a series of meetings in the house to "present prominent people to residents of the community," as explained by The New York Age on April 24.  The first to speak here was W. P. Beazell, managing editor of The New York World, on April 23.  The newspaper noted, "Well-known men and women of the race were in attendance."  Perhaps as interesting as Beazell's speech about current-day wages, was Ralph E. Mizelle's short talk.  The president of the Eta Chapter, he told the audience about the "go to high school and college" movement fostered by Alpha Phi Alpha.

As was the case with almost every fraternity chapter house, to help with finances, rooms were rented on the upper floors to members, very often alumni.  Living here at the time of Beazell's speech was Claude Thurston Ferebee.  (He had been elected the chapter's secretary in January that year.)  Ferebee had entered Columbia's dental school in 1924.  An all-around athlete, he was also a member of the French Club, the Dramatics Club and the NAACP.

While living here, Ferebee met Dorothy Boulding, a 1924 graduate of the Tufts University School of Medicine.  The couple was married in 1928, a few months before Ferebee graduated as a doctor of dental surgery on June 4, 1929.  Ferebee joined the staff of Howard University's dental program, and his wife became a professor in the school's medical school.  Dorothy Boulding Ferebee would go on be a member of the executive board of UNICEF, of President John F. Kennedy's Council for Food for Peace, and the President's Children and Youth Council.

photograph by James Van Der Zee

Alumnus Dr. I. A. McGowan broke racial barriers in 1926 while living here.  On May 1 that year The New York Age began an article saying, "The fight to have colored internes [sic] named for duty at Harlem Hospital has at last been won."  The hospital had barred Black interns until the arrival of a new superintendent, Dr. Rudolph Rapp, in March.  Neither Rapp nor McGowan was naïve about the challenges the intern would face.  Rapp told reporters that McGowan "would be given every opportunity to make good, and that he would be protected in every way possible from any attempt to subject him to unfair or prejudicial conditions because of his color."

The nation and, perhaps, Blacks in particular, were divided on the issue of Marcus Garvey's incarceration on mail fraud charges in connection with his Black Star Line of ships.  In March 1927 a reporter from The Daily Worker interviewed an Alpha Phi Alpha member, A. M. Smith, in the West 138th Street house.  Smith was unsympathetic, saying "The government was justified in imprisoning Mr. Garvey for fraud."  A fraternity brother who quite possibly did not agree was Clarence Benjamin Curley.  He had been the general accountant and secretary for Garvey's Black Star Line.

Within a year of Smith's interview, Curley and his wife, Alma Zola Duncan, purchased 203 West 138th Street.  Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Curley had helped lead the movement to establish the Black officers' training camp at Des Moines, Iowa during the war.  He received his masters degree from New York University in 1922.  The year that he and Alma moved into the 138th Street house, he founded the National Negro Fraternal Association, a life insurance firm.  On August 18, 1928, The New York Age noted, "There are some strong organizations of his kind among the other races, but this is the first among Negroes in the State."  The article said that "since this is a New York institution, [it] makes Mr. Curley's effort a valuable contribution to the business awakening in Harlem."  Curley ran the operation from the 138th Street house.

C. Benjamin Curley, The Crisis 1939

Within a few months Curley established the People's Credit Union here, as well.  It was the only Black-owned financial institution in New York City chartered by the State, according to Negro World in 1932.

While his family (he and Alma had four children) remained in the upper floors, in 1935 Curley leased the basement and parlor levels of the house to Lorenzo "Lonnie" Debman.  On February 9, The New York Age reported that the "progressive young businessman" had established "an up-to-date funeral home at 203 West 138th street."

The New York Age, May 4, 1935

The Curley family remained in the house at least through 1942.  By now Clarence Benjamin Curley had made an enormous impact on Harlem and the Black community at large.  He had been greatly involved in the Colored Merchants' Association and in 1930 he and Alma established Rainbow's End, the first summer camp for Blacks in New Jersey.

Another influential figure in the Black community was Charles Seifert.  Born in Barbados in 1871, his father was a plantation overseer.  As a child Seifert read his father's books on African history, most of them written before slavery.  In 1910 he dedicated his life's work to preserving African American history.  Working as a contractor, he bought books, manuscripts and other documents, eventually compiling what he named the Ethiopian School of Research History.  By the time of his death in 1949, his library included thousands of volumes.  (Reportedly Marcus Garvey had accessed Seifert's library so intensely that for a time he moved into the Seiferts' home.)

Soon after his death, Seifert's widow, Goldie, moved the Charles C. Seifert Research Library into 203 West 138th Street.  On June 10, 1950, The New York Age reported "the Charles C. Seifert Historical Research Association, Inc., held open house at the Charles C. Seifert Library, 203 West 138th Street, New York City, recently."  The article said, "An overflow crowd of former students, friends and persons interested in research gathered to pay homage to the life work and character of the late Charles C. Seifert, research historian and founder of the library."

The library was the scene of lectures and other educational functions.  On October 7, 1950, for instance, The New York Age reported it hosted Dr. William Leo Hansberry, "eminent Howard University archaeologist and anthropologist, in a series of seven lectures of Africa beginning Saturday, October 7th, and continuing every other Saturday until February, 1951."  The article added, "The Seifert Research Library is as extensive in the books, pamphlets and materials it contains as the original Schomburg Collection, now part of the New York Public Library."

By 1973 the Negro Book Club, Inc. was headquartered at 203 West 138th Street.  The Black periodical News Illustrated was published from the address as the time.

A renovation completed in 2021 returned the house--so important to Black history in New York City--to a single family home.  At the time the facade and its terra cotta decorations were restored.

photograph by the author

many thanks to Mark Satlof for his valuable input

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