The Lost Maunsell Van Rensselaer House - 22-24 St. Nicholas Place

 

The two houses were masterfully disguised as one.  Magazine of American History, January 1889 (copyright expired)

Before leaving Holland, Kiliean van Rensselaer was a wealthy pearl and diamond merchant in Amsterdam, and a founder and director of the Dutch West India Company.  His estate near today's Albany was named Crailo, a reference to his estate in Hulzen, Holland.  Van Rensselaer died in 1643, and his descendants would be among the wealthiest and most powerful figures in American history.

Perhaps not so powerful, but certainly wealthy, was Maunsell Van Rensselaer.  Born in Albany, New York on April 15, 1819, he was the son of Judge John S. Van Rensselaer.  He graduated from Union College in 1838, and from the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in 1841, becoming a deacon in the prestigious St. Paul's Chapel.  Over the succeeding years he would hold the positions of president of De Veaux College, New York, president of Hobart College in Geneva, New York, and, in 1886, the chaplain of the House of the Holy Comforter.  Van Rensselaer and his wife, the former Sarah Ann Taylor, had four children: Caroline Matilda, Maunsell Jr., James Taylor, and Bernard Sanders. 

Rev. Maunsell van Rensselaer, from the collection of De Veaux College

In the second half of the 19th century, the district of northern Manhattan which would become known as Sugar Hill was expected by many to be the city's next exclusive residential neighborhood.  Both freestanding residences and rowhouses rose throughout the 1880's which would house well-to-do families.   Maunsell Van Rensselaer had inherited a large swatch of land, originally acquired by his famous great-grandfather, John Watkins.  In his 1888 Annals of the Van Rensselaers, Maunsell recounted that Watkins:

...bought land on Harlem Heights, overlooking the Hudson and Harlem river, where he established his family in a dwelling which stood on the Kingsbridge road at what is now the corner of Avenue St. Nicholas and 152d street, which was destroyed by fire only a few years ago.  This was the ground on which was fought September 16, 1776, the battle of Harlem Heights, in which Washington was successful.

Were it not for the fire that destroyed it, Van Rensselaer may very well have moved his family into his ancestral country home.  In 1885 he began construction of a 100-foot-wide "double-residence" at 22 and 24 St. Nicholas Place, a block from the former Watkins house site.  Completed the following year, the exuberant Queen Anne style structure exploded in turrets, gables, and balconies.  Understated porches on either side disguised the fact that this was not a single mansion, but two.  The expansive rear yards extended to Edgecombe Avenue.  Rev. Van Rensselaer, Sarah and their unmarried children, Caroline and James, moved into 24 St. Nicholas Place (Bernard Sanders Van Rensselaer had died in 1870), while Maunsell Jr. and his wife, the former Isabella Mason, took the southern house.

The northern house, seen from his angle, was home to Rev. Van Rensselaer and his family.  (original source unknown)

The younger Maunsell Van Rensselaer was president of the Munich Co., and a member of the Volunteer Seventh Regiment.  (The Seventh Regiment was known popularly as "The Silk Stocking Regiment" or "The Dandy Seventh" because it was the favorite of the sons of the upper class.)  The year after he moved into his new home, on March 31, 1887, the Albany Express reported that he had been promoted to the rank of captain.

It may have been the Rev. Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer's failing health the prompted the families to dispose of the St. Nicholas Place houses.  They were auctioned on April 4, 1899 and Rev. Van Rensselaer and Sarah moved to Lakewood, New Jersey.  It was there that Van Rensselaer died on February 17, 1900 at the age of 80.  

The St. Nicholas Place property had been purchased by Mabel Suydam, who quickly resold it to Mary F. Lawrie in December 1900.  She operated The Audubon School from the houses, described in an advertisement as a "Boarding and Day School for Girls."  

The venture does not seem to have gone well, however.  On January 6, 1903 the New-York Tribune reported that "Nos. 22 and 24 St. Nicholas Place, two dwelling houses," had been sold, adding, "The buyer is a realty company."  Despite the still-upscale neighborhood, the double structure languished.  They were sitting vacant when Anna G. Mullen purchased them on July 1, 1904.   She quickly resold them to James Murray and Robert Hill.  Having only stood twenty years, the partners demolished the Van Rensselaer houses and hired architect Joseph C. Cocker to design two identical neo-Classical apartment buildings on the site, which survive.

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Dr. Lloyd's Sanitarium - 6-8 St. Nicholas Place

In 1884 John Fink commissioned architect Richard S. Rosenstock to design a commodious suburban home in the area that would later be dubbed Sugar Hill.  The principal in the pork packing firm of John Fink & Son, his new residence would reflect his significant personal wealth.

Rosenstock designed a three-story, freestanding residence in the trendy Queen Anne Style.  Although his plans called for a "brown stone front dwelling," only the basement and first floor were faced in rough cut stone.  The second floor was clad in brick and the top floor in wood.  True to the Queen Anne style, the house featured a riot of angles, shapes, and colors.  Dormers poked through the fanciful jerkinhead gables, and a corner tower clung to the two upper floors.  A profusion of stained glass and scattered carvings delighted the eye.  The cost of construction would be equal to about $924,000 today.

Carved portrait keystones and stained glass transoms survive at the northern corner.

Located at No. 8 St. Nicholas Place, on the northeast corner of 150th Street, Fink's stylish home and its bucolic hilltop location may have been a deciding factor in James A. Bailey's decision to built his imposing mansion on across the street, at No. 10.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, on January 16, 1896, commented "One of handsomest residences on this avenue is that of John W. Fink, son of Commissioner Fink of railroad fame.  It is situated o the northeast corner of One Hundred and Fiftieth street, and is a three-story ornate stone front building, having all the modern improvements."  (The journal got its facts slightly wrong.  Fink was unrelated to Commissioner Albert Fink, and was the son of the recently deceased provisions merchant, Johannes Fink.)

The original entrance porch with its sideways stoop is evident in this early photo, as is the wonderful turret.  Directly behind is the James A. Bailey house.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York 

Fink would not enjoy his handsome new home long.  He died in the residence from a fatal stroke on April 27, 1886 at just 30 years old.  

The construction date is worked into the elaborate carving on the first floor chimney back.

A delightful detail is Stein's continuing the gable level over the chambered rear corner.

The Fink estate sold the house, along with the vacant property extending east to Edgecomb Avenue, to real estate operator Charles E. Runk and his wife, Aurelia, in 1888.  Runk was also the treasurer of the Washington Heights Taxpayers' Association, and a partner in the Oneota Fertilizer and Chemical Co.

The Runks' ownership would be short-lived.  On March 9, 1891 they sold No. 8 to Sigmund Bergmann for $31,750, just over $900,000 today.  Bergmann was a partner with Edward H. Johnson and Thomas Alva Edison in the Bergmann Electric & Gas Fixture Co.

Sigmund Bergmann was a partner with inventor Thomas A. Edison.  Electrical Review and Western Electrician, December 21, 1912 (copyright expired)

Bergmann had left his native Germany in 1870 at the age of 21, already trained as an engineer.  The Electrical Review and Western Electrician later explained "He was associated with Edison for several years and being imbued with the idea that he should turn his talents in a direction that would insure to him the greatest possible personal reward he established a business of his own."  That move did not injure his friendship with Edison nor their businesses connections.  His lifelong friend, Francis Jehl, later said "many of Edison's experiments were made in the Bergmann shop, while the phonograph was to a great extent developed with Bergmann's assistance."

In 1893 Charles Runk sold the undeveloped eastern plot and at the same time removed the restrictive covenants John Fink had originally built into the deeds.  It was a move that would have serious impact on No. 8 a few decades later.

Simultaneously Jacob P. Baiter and his wife, Kate, began construction on their upscale residence next door at No. 6.  Their architect, Theodore G. Stein, file plans on May 26 for a 25-foot wide, four story brick dwelling to cost $35,000 (or about $1 million today).  Completed the following year, it could not have been more different than its neighbor.

Stein had turned to the more formal Renaissance Revival style with undeniable Romanesque Revival influences.  He embellished the beige brick with terra cotta decorations and included a rounded bay at the second floor.  The top floor took the form of a steep mansard, its gabled dormer ornamented with an intricate panel of tangled bows, wreaths and swags.

Jacob Baiter was the East Coast manager of the Fleischmann Yeast Company, and so it is most likely not a coincidence that Max Fleischmann would soon live almost directly across the street at No. 400 West 149th Street.  Yeast was an important part in the making of alcohol, and both men were involved, as well, in the Ridgewood Distillery, the Eastern Distilling Co., and the Somerset Distilling Co.

Originally a high sideways stoop led to the doorway.

Jacob and Kate had two sons, Charles William Grevell and Louis J. Baiter.  Kate Baiter died in the house on October 26, 1898.  Her funeral was held here three days later.

Jacob's grief was rather short lived.  The following year he married and transferred title to No. 6 to his new wife, Carrie.  The Evening Post Record of Real Estate Sales listed the transaction as "gift."

In 1909, the same year that Charles Baiter was married, Dr. Henry William Lloyd purchased No. 8.  Charles Runk's removal of the deed restrictions allowed Lloyd to convert the house to The Audubon Sanitarium.  Having a private hospital next door may have been too much for the Baiters, and in October 1911 they sold their home to Dr. Lloyd for $75,000.  The Sun reported that he "will use it for his own occupancy."

And, indeed, he did--for a few months.  In 1912 he joined the two structures with a somewhat ungainly addition.  A new entrance was established within the new portion.

In 1942 the former Baiter house still retained its stoop.  via the Office for Metropolitan History

Things inside the upscale sanitarium did not always go smoothly, sometimes resulting in unwanted publicity.  On March 18, 1912, for instance, The Sun reported on the investigation by Coroner Holzhauser and the police into "the death of Miss Alice Anderson in the sanitarium of Dr. Henry W. Lloyd at 8 St. Nicholas place early yesterday morning."

The article carefully tip-toed around the fact that Alice, who was 30-years-old, had come for an abortion.  According to Dr. Lloyd, she had already received a botched procedure and that he told her "that she probably would not survive the second operation."  So certain was he that his patient would die, before starting the procedure he sent for a priest to hear her confession.  Before she died she "told her three sisters who was responsible for her condition," said The Sun.

Five months later a journalist from The Sun was back, this time at the request of Mrs. Sarah Harris.  The 34-year-old, referred to as "the sufferer" by the newspaper, had been stricken with a "strange malady" three years earlier which paralyzed her from the neck down.  Able to move only her head, she had lain in the same position the entire time.

On August 31, 1912 the newspaper entitled its article "Woman Paralytic Begs State To End Her Life."  In it Sarah pleaded "We have our Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which put out of their agony injured and sick animals, but human beings for whom medicine can do nothing are kept on in their torture.  Why should this be?"

Mrs. Harris did not get her wish and in 1915, when Dr. Lloyd hired architect George H. Hardway to enlarge the sanitarium, she was still a patient.  The addition housed a "new maternity hospital," as described by The New York Times.

Close inspection reveals a winged, terra cotta rampant lion atop the gable.  The stylized sunflower on the metal facing below is a familiar Queen Anne motif.

Dr. Lloyd's Audubon Sanitarium saw celebrated figures come and go.  In 1917 the wife of preacher Billy Sunday received an emergency appendectomy.  The operation removed a "strangulated tumor" as well.  On May 20 The New York Times noted "Though deeply distressed by his wife's illness, Billy Sunday preached last night to 22,000 persons."

The same operation was performed on Lucien Muratore, principal tenor of the Chicago Opera Company in February 1922.  Newspapers carried updates on his condition for days.

Dr. Henry W. Lloyd sold the properties in January 1925 to the Louis H. Low Syndicate.  There were 100 rooms in the complex at the time.  The new owners, according to The Times on January 24, had already leased it to the newly-formed Lloyd's Sanitarium, Inc. (headed by Dr. Victor Low) "who will continue the operation of same after extensive alterations and improvements."  Architect Henry F. Schlumbohn, Jr. was called upon to update the hospital and dispensary.

By 1935 the name had been changed to The Community Hospital.  The admission fee was 35 cents and a "revisit fee" was a quarter.

The clinic was gone by mid-century, when the mish-mash of buildings was operated as a 53-room hotel.  As the neighborhood declined, so did the the property and by 1983 it was run by the city's welfare program as the Dawn Hotel, "housing formerly homeless families," according to The New York Times on August 25 that year.

The Dawn Hotel sat within what had become a gritty neighborhood.  Late on the night of December 6 a man entered the lobby and got into an argument with the clerk.  At around 1:00 on the morning he returned, armed with a pistol  and, according to police, "shot the clerk in the chest and fled from the hotel."  

As the Sugar Hill neighborhood improved in the 21st century, the Dawn Hotel did not.  A New York Senate report in January 2017 on the State's "unclean, unsafe, dangerous temporary shelter system" awarded the Dawn Hotel the uncomplimentary title of No. 1 in the top ten hotel violators in the state.  

The once handsome houses have been sorely abused throughout their various connected uses.  And yet glimpses of their former splendor still manage to seep through.

photographs by the author

Charming Bedfellows--Nos. 14 and 16 St. Nicholas Place

The wooden shingles of the second floor are a latter renovation, sometime after 1938.  The boxy green entrance to No. 14 was originally an airy open porch.

The district of northern Manhattan which would become known as Sugar Hill was expected by many to be the city's next exclusive residential neighborhood.  Both freestanding residences and rowhouses rose in the 1880's which would house well-to-do families.  James Montieth cleverly created a hybrid of the two.

A Sugar Hill resident himself (he lived on St. Nicholas Avenue at 154th Street), he acquired the properties at Nos. 14 and 16 St. Nicholas Place and laid plans for two upscale homes.  Perhaps to make the most efficient use of the plots and wring out the most floor space as possible, he directed architect William Grinnell to design connected houses fashioned to appear nearly as one.  The result was a fairy tale delight.

Completed in 1884, the Queen Anne style houses featured all the architectural bells and whistles expected in the style--asymmetric lines, a mixture of materials and colors, and a riot of shapes and angles.  The two-story and attic structures sat on bases of rough cut schist--a highly unusual choice for the style.   No. 14 stole the spotlight with its corner tower and bulbous onion dome.  The stucco-covered and half-timbered gable at the side tied into the more prominent example of No. 16.

The gable of No. 16 was originally stucco faced and included Tudor half-timbering.

That house featured a projecting bay supported by a shallow wooden entrance porch.  The Tudor-style gable boasted elaborate half-timbering.  The two dwellings shared a wide box dormer and their chimneys marked the separation line.

When the houses were completed U.S. District Attorney William Dorsheimer and his wife, Isabella, lived in Washington D. C.  But on February 4, 1886 he wrote a letter of resignation to President Grover Cleveland.  The couple moved to New York where Dorscheimer died in the spring of 1888.

An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on March 20, 1892 apparently caught the eye of Isabella P. Dorsheimer.  It offered "the 2-1/2 story stone and frame house, No. 14 St. Nicholas Place...adjoining the residence of James A. Bailey.  The above property is in the choicest and most desirable residence locality in the city of New-York."   Isabella leased the home from the Montieth family and was listed (as "widow") at the address at least through 1894.

On May 21, 1896 James Montieth's heirs sold No. 14 to Thomas Alexander, who paid $25,000 for the house, or just over $770,000 today.  He immediately transferred title to his wife, the former Annie Newton.  The couple had three children, Marion, Arthur Douglas and Nelson.

Alexander had begun working for the Federal Government as an office boy in 1867 at the age of 13.  On New Year's Day 1887 he was appointed commissioner and deputy clerk of the United States District Court, in which position he acted "as cashier of the admiralty branch of the district court," according to the New-York Tribune.  By the time he purchased the St. Nicholas Place home, his responsibilities had greatly increased.  He now oversaw all bankruptcy cases and Federal felonies.  On April 29, 1896, for instance, The Sun reported that "Henry J. Butler, a letter carrier attached to Station A, was brought before Commissioner Thomas Alexander yesterday afternoon...on a charge of having stolen letters containing money."

Like all moneyed families, the Alexanders closed their Manhattan house during the summer.  While they were gone during the summer of 1899 there was a break in.  The Sun reported that Thomas Alexander, "upon visiting his home at 14 St. Nicholas place, for the first time in six weeks, the house having been closed for the summer, he found that it had been entered and every room showed traces of having been carefully searched."  The intruders took nothing, but were evidently searching for something in particular.  "They had opened every drawer and searched every cranny, and apparently every scrap of correspondence had been read over."

Between the topmost tower windows pierced panels create stylized sunflowers, an important motif in the Queen Anne style.

Frustrated, the burglars now focused on Alexander's office.  On August 26 The Sun entitled an article "Alexander's Curious Visitors," and noted "Sometime between Saturday noon and Monday morning some person pried open two drawers of the cashier's desk in the clerk's office of the United States District Court in the postoffice building.  Commissioner Thomas Alexander is clerk of the court."  Once again the thieves went away empty handed.  "The lock of one drawer was forced off and fell into the drawer and the clutch of the other was forced back into the lock." 

In the meantime, No. 16 had originally been sold to the family of Leonard B. Smith.  Smith was a partner in the tea and coffee firm of Eppens, Smith & Wiemann at No. 267 Washington Street.  In 1896, the same year that the Alexanders moved into No. 14, Smith leased the residence to the Augustus R. Adams family.

Adams was an attorney and member of the law firm Adams & Hahn at No. 76 Williams Street.  His son, Robert Allison Adams, was enrolled in the "classical" courses at New York City College at the time.   On May 13, 1902 Augustus died at the age of 60.  His funeral was held in the house three days later.

Leonard Smith and his wife sold the 32-foot wide house to Emma Reiner in 1905.  The Adams family continued to lease under their new landlord.

While moneyed New Yorkers routinely spent weeks or months abroad every year, the Alexander family stayed relatively close to home.  Thomas Alexander commuted to their summer residence on the weekends, most likely spending weeknights at his club.  But on February 23, 1907 The Sun reported that the Commissioner would be taking his "first vacation since 1898."  The two-week visit to London, said the article, "will be the Commissioner's first real holiday since 1898.  Ever since the bankruptcy law went into effect that year the Commissioner, who is also clerk of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has never for a single day been a hundred miles away from his office or beyond reach by telephone."

In 1912 the Alexanders began construction of a new summer house in Harriman, New York, overlooking the Ramapo Mountains.  While construction proceeded, the family leased a house nearby.  On the night of July 9, according to The Sun, Thomas "started with his two sons to visit the new home, and in the darkness stumbled into a well that has been sunk about fourteen feet.  His cries for aid brought his sons, who were a little distance away, and they saw that other help was needed."

One of the boys rushed to a neighbor who brought his automobile across the field.  He had the foresight to bring along a wicker chair.  In the meantime, a call was made to Dr. Rhullison who lived about six miles away.  Using the automobile lights to illuminate the well, the men carefully dropped packing crates into the hole until they could clamber down.  The chair was lowered and Alexander was carried up.  The 58-year-old had suffered three broken ribs, but nothing more serious was evident.  What the country doctor did not perceive was that, in fact, his skull was fractured.  

Alexander lingered in the Harriman house for two weeks.  He died of heart failure on July 24 as a result of his injuries.  Alexander's estate was valued at about $1.7 million in today's dollars, the bulk of which was bequeathed to Annie.   The family continued to live in the St. Nicholas Place house and at Briarton, the new Harriman estate.

Following the expected mourning period, the Alexander family reappeared among society.  On June 24, 1916 Marion was married at Briarton to Charles Meding.  She was given away by her brother, Arthur.  The Sun reported "Two hundred guests came out from New York by automobile."

After the Adams family had leased No. 16 for two decades, on September 13, 1917 Robert A. Adams purchased it through his father's estate.   The family's focus, however, was no doubt mostly concentrated on Arthur's well being.

Five months earlier the United States had entered World War I and Arthur enlisted in the Army.  He was sent overseas as part of the American Expeditionary Force in France with the rank of First Lieutenant where he held the position of Chief Ordnance Officer.  But on June 4, 1917 The Sun reported that he had been "to-day honorably discharged from the camp for physical disability."

1st Lt. Arthur Douglas Alexander was a Columbia-educated attorney.  photo via Columbia University Roll of Honor

While overseas Arthur had contracted tuberculosis.  He continued his military service in the States until after the Armistice.  On March 28, 1919 the Columbia Alumni News reported that he "has been discharged from the service and may be addressed at 14 St. Nicholas Place, New York City."  Less than a month later, on April 21, Arthur died in the St. Nicholas Place house of the disease.  In January 1921 Columbia University announced the establishment of The Arthur D. Alexander Memorial Cup to be presented annually at the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball Championship.

On April 1, 1925 an advertisement in The New York Times announced the liquidation of the real estate of Thomas Alexander.  Included was No. 14 St. Nicholas Place, described as a "splendid home; exceptionally fine views."

No. 16 was vacant in 1938, its windows boarded up and a plank fence protecting it from invaders.  Note the elaborate Tudor gable.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

No. 16 had been sold three times by now, yet was still a single-family house.  By the mid 1940's it was home to Dr. Alma Mary Haskins and her husband, James Egert Allen.  Almas was the only Black woman practicing podiatry in the city at the time.  Born in Newport News, Virginia, Haskins received her medical degree from New York University and had served as president of the New York County Society of Podiatrists in 1927 through 1929.

James E. Allen was born in 1896 in Greenwood, South Carolina.  He had been an educated in the New York public school system since 1926.  Additionally, he was a community advocate, civil rights activist and author.  An active promoter of African American studies, he was the first president of the New York City Branch of the NAACP.

The esteem in which the community held Dr. Haskins was evidenced in a comment in The New York Age on February 26, 1949.  "Send fancy get-well cards to Dr. Alma Mary Haskins who is better after suffering from a severe attack of sciatica."

Both houses managed to survive the 20th century as single family homes, although in 2003 No. 14 was converted to apartments--one each on the first and second floors, and two on the third.  A rediscovery of the Sugar Hill neighborhood at around the same time resulted in the careful preservation of Nos. 14 and 16.  They are the oldest surviving structures in the Sugar Hill Historic District.

photographs by the author