The Lost James B. Finnen House - 147 East 126th Street

 

Charles Von Urban photographed the vintage structure in 1932.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

In the years just following the end of the Civil War, two-story frame houses began dotting East 126th Street.  Their addresses were listed in directories through 1869 simply as "East 126th Street" since actual numbers would not be assigned until the following year.

James B. Finnen, a builder, occupied 147 East 126th Street that year, and it is likely he constructed it.  The clapboard, vernacular style building sat upon a stone basement.  Its naive design was not the product of a professional architect, but was the work of the builder.  Three bays wide, its single-doored entrance harkened to Greek Revival prototypes of a generation earlier.  The projecting wooden cornice below the peaked roof was supported by three utilitarian brackets.

In the rear yard was a second, smaller house.  Both buildings would see a regular turnover of occupants.  In 1873, Walter L. Thompson and his wife, Maria, occupied one building and Alexander Rogers and his family lived in the other.  Thompson worked as a clerk and Rogers was in the stone business.

Walter and Maria Thompson's baby girl, Loretta, was born on August 18, 1872.  Sadly, she died one month after her first birthday, on September 24, 1873.  Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

As early as 1876, William Ellis, a laborer, and his family occupied the rear house.  He and his wife had four children, Nellie, Mamie, Harry, and Edward (known as Eddie).  At the time, the Pabor family lived in the rear house next door at 145 East 126th Street.  

Around 1881, Pabors moved into the front house at No. 147.  Born in 1848, David Simon Pabor was a clerk.  He and his wife, Eliza Boazman, who was born in 1855, had four children, Catherine (known as Katie), Harry Munson, Lucy E., and David Jr.  

David Pabor died here on October 18, 1883 at the age of 36.  His funeral was held in the house on October 20.

Eliza Pabor and her children remained here.  The Ellis and Pabor children had been playmates for years.  In 1889, The Evening World initiated its "Sick Babies Fund" that solicited donations of clothing and money for "the babes of the poor."  The Ellis and Pabor children were moved and they organized an "entertainment" with several of the neighborhood children.

On August 19, 1889, the newspaper reprinted their letter: 

Please find inclosed [sic] $8.50, the proceeds of our second entertainment, held at 147 East One Hundred and Twenty-sixth street, on Thursday evening, Aug. 15, 1889, for the benefit of your Sick Babies' Fund held by the undersigned.

The children, the oldest of whom was Catherine at age 15, had raised the equivalent of $300 in 2026.  Their efforts did not stop with that event.  

The following year, on August 12, 1890, The Evening World reported, "Among the many Harlemites who became interested in The Evening World's efforts to raise a fund to send doctors among the sick babies was Miss Mamie Ellis, a pretty dark-eyed girl, of 147 East One Hundred and Twenty-sixth street."  The article explained that Mamie had "enlisted a corps of playmates and made arrangements for a rousing benefit."

The Harlem Democratic Club donated the use of its hall.  This year, Mamie Ellis convinced her teacher, Miss McKee, to help.  The children practiced for weeks before the event, which was held on August 8, 1890.  The article said, "the hall was crowded."  Among the extensive list of participants were familiar names.  Mamie Ellis recited "Asleep at the Switch" and sang, "Anchored."  Nellie Ellis recited "Singen on the Rhine," and Eddie Ellis recited "Pat and the Pig."  Harry Pabor was involved as well, reciting "Barbara Frietchie."  The benefit garnered $59.45--equal to more than $2,000 today.

Around this time, Captain Harry Munson Sr. and Jr., moved in with the Pabors.  The elder man appears to have been Eliza's maternal uncle.  Born in South Amboy, New Jersey in 1808, The Daily Argus described him as, "one of the oldest and best known oysterman of Long Island Sound."  Munson started in the oyster business in 1821.  According to the New York Herald, "He was among the first to learn the secret of replanting oyster beds with the small oysters which before this had been thrown overboard as worthless."

After his retirement in 1861, Munson opened a saloon on Park Row called "The Old Reliable."  Before moving into the East 126th Street house, he lived on City Island.  Remarkably fit for his age, in 1890, "he rowed from Harlem Bridge to City Island in a substantial rowboat, in which he spent many days at fishing and rowing about the Harlem River and the Sound," said the New York Herald.

Harry Munson Sr. died here on January 4, 1893 at the age of 85.  The Daily Argus attributed his death to "a stroke of paralysis."

Now grown, on August 5, 1895 Harry Munson Pabor signed a petition requesting the Board of Aldermen to consider "the necessity for the bicycle path between the upper and lower parts of the city."  By now, Catherine was listed as a dressmaker, running her business from the house.

Harry Munson by no means followed his father's career in oysters.  He founded the New York Bill Posting Company and in 1897 described himself in the Trow's Directory as a "bill poster and display advertising contractor."  

Trow's City Directory, 1897 (copyright expired)

Following his marriage, Harry Munson and his wife appeared in the society pages.  The couple maintained a country home in Munson, New York.  (The town was named for his father.)  On December 2, 1897, for instance, The Queens County Sentinel reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Harry Munson have returned to New York, at 147 East 126th Street.  Mr. Munson expects to spend a portion of the Winter in the South."

At the time of the article, Eliza Pabor and her unmarried children had left East 126th Street.  (Eliza would live until 1939, dying at the age of 84.)  The Munsons lived on the upper floor of 147 East 126th Street and Harry installed a "branch office" of the New York Bill Posting Company in the parlor floor.  In doing so, he made no alterations to the exterior of the house.

One original two-over-two window survived on the first floor in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

By 1912, Munson had divested himself from the New York Billposting Company.  C. H. Taylor now managed the firm, a branch of which still occupied the first floor.  When Vincenzo Celenza purchased the property in May 1920, it was still described as a "dwelling."

By the late Depression years, the Bronx Pattern & Model Works occupied the basement and first floor.  It advertised, "wood and metal patterns, machinery, automobile ornamental work."

The second floor continued to be residential.  An advertisement in the New York Amsterdam News on May 23, 1964 offered, "Large and small front room."  Against all odds, the wooden relic survived unaltered until its demolition in 1990, replaced by a six-floor apartment building.

The Lost August Schulz House--435 West 53rd Street

 

August Schulz's cooper shop at the right replaced an earlier structure.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In September 1881, The New York Times called the Hell's Kitchen district, “one of the most miserable and crime-polluted neighborhoods in this City,” adding, “there is more disease, crime, squalor, and vice to the square inch in this part of New-York.”  In his 1882 New York by Gaslight, James D. McCabe, Jr. described the wooden residences here as the "wretched abodes of misery, and often of vice and crime."

Among them was 435 West 53rd Street, owned by J. P. Giraud.  Its builder had designed the two-story clapboard structure with an attempt at the Italianate style.  By the early 1870s, Girard leased it to German immigrant August Schulz and his family.  Abutting the house to the east was Schulz's two-story brick cooper shop, where he made or repaired barrels, casks, tubs and the like.

At 5:45 on the morning of November 24, 1872, an overheated boiler in the cooper shop set fire to the beams of the floor.  The fire patrol was on the scene for one and a half hours before extinguishing the blaze.  The New York Herald reported, "The fire extended to the adjoining frame building, No. 435, also occupied by Schultz."  Damage to the house was only $100 (about $2,500 in 2025), but the shop was ravaged.  The Central Patrol's Report of Fires and Alarms noted, "Stock, Tools, Machinery almost totally destroyed."  (The second floor of the shop was a total loss and was not rebuilt.)

The New York Herald mentioned that Schulz had no insurance on the destroyed machinery, valued at the equivalent of nearly $80,000 today.  The financial hit may have been too much for Schulz to withstand.  On February 24, 1876, he sold the cooper business to J. Schmuck.

The estate of J. P. Giraud leased the two buildings to Marietta Desaye and Jacques Deveaux on May 1, 1883.  They operated the dwelling as a rooming house, with tenants like Michael Delaney.  He worked as a laborer for the city in 1887, earning $2 per day.  Other roomers were a dressmaker who advertised in 1889 that she "works at home on reasonable terms."

Major change came in the early 1890s, when Zaisser Bros. took over both the former cooper shop and the house proper for its dyeing and dry cleaning plant.  The facility was unseen by customers, who dropped their items off at either of two stores, one on West 53nd Street and the other on Columbus Avenue.

Purchasers' Guide and Commercial Register, 1894 (copyright expired)

In 1894 Zaisser Bros. employed a large staff.  Working in the combined buildings were nine men, a teenaged boy, 14 women, and 21 teen girls.  They worked 57 hours throughout the week and another seven on the weekend.

Virgil Thurkauf took over the leases prior to 1897, moving his "silk dyeing factory" into the location.  Next door, at 429 and 431 West 53rd Street was what The New York Times described as "a large four-story brick stable and ice factory."   A fire there on August 3, 1897 "caused great excitement," said the newspaper, which noted that the structure "was completely wrecked." 

The blaze spread to the tenement behind, on West 54th Street, and to the Thurkauf buildings.  The New York Times reported that 433 and 435 West 53rd Street sustained damages of "about $10,000," or around $351,000 today.  

As Zaisser Bros. had done, Virgil Thurkauf employed a significant staff, but surprisingly none were female.  In 1904, it consisted of 19 men and two teenaged boys who worked 60 hours per week.  (The added hours from Monday to Friday made up for the fact that they did not work on the weekends.)

from the collection of the New York Public Library

It was common for tenement dwellers to sleep on fire escapes and rooftops during the hot months.  Behind 433 West 53rd Street was a five-story building where Thomas Lundy and his wife lived.  On July 2, 1904, the New York Sun reported that he "went home last night at 10 o'clock.  He went to the roof, lay down near the edge at the rear and went to sleep.  Some time later he rolled off."

The brick chimney of 433 West 53rd Street was stabilized by a "taut wire cable."  Miraculously, as Lundy plummeted five stories, his "body struck this slanting cable and he was shot swiftly to the roof" of No. 433.  The article said the only injury he sustained was a bruise on his forehead, "caused by his feet colliding with his face."  It concluded, "His wife put him to bed for the rest of the night."

The destroyed ice factory at 429-431 West 53rd Street had been replaced by the Bleaks Dairy Company's four-story brick stable by now.  In an astonishing case of deja vu, it was consumed by a fire that broke out just after midnight on January 2, 1907.  The Annual Report of the Committee on Fire Patrol noted that it spread to 433-435 West 53d Street...occupied entirely by Virgil Thurkauf, as silk dyer."  The Albany, New York newspaper The Argus reported, "The burning of the dyeing establishment was accompanied by explosions of chemicals, rendering greater the danger to the firemen and helping to spread the flames."  The series of fires and subsequent patchwork of repairs resulted in 433 West 53rd Street's being partially clad in brick and in wood.  Somewhat amazingly, the former house remained little changed, outwardly.

The American Silk Journal, August 1912 (copyright expired)

Virgil Thurkauf, who was born in France, had established the firm in 1881.  On April 1914, The American Silk Journal noted that his sons, Virgil, Jr. and William, were now associated with the company.  That year the firm erected a new plant at 438-440 West 54th Street, directly behind and connecting to the two ramshackle buildings.  Astonishingly, the project, which included "all the modern machinery and devices for turning out the best possible work," did not include updating the 53rd Street properties.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

By 1945 the property had been taken over by the city, and that year, on May 18, "the premises known as...433-435 West 53rd Street and 438-440 West 54th Street" were sold at auction.  The quirky relics of Hell's Kitchen's past survived until 1964, when they were demolished for a seven-story residential building.

The National Fine Art Foundry Bldg. - 218 East 25th Street

 

As early as 1853, Jane Clare, the widow of Peter Clare, operated the four-story boarding house at 108 East 25th Street (renumbered 218 in 1867).  In the rear yard was a two-story building.  Clare's tenants were working class, and in 1853 they included one laborer, two carpenters, a watchman (today's security guard), a smith, and a shoemaker.

Erected in 1848 and faced in running bond brick, the vernacular building was trimmed in brownstone.  Its pressed metal cornice was supported by creative brick corbels and dentils.

An advertisement in the New York Herald in April 1862 foreshadowed a major change to the property:  "To Let--At 108 East Twenty-Fifth Street, a four-story brick building; with two story Rear Building, suitable for business purposes."

The lower floors and back building were converted to the Chambers & Gabler piano factory, operated by Emil Gabler and Thomas H. Chambers.  Chambers had been making pianos as early as 1835.  He and Gabler partnered in 1863.

The least expensive of the 1866 instrument would translate to $7,250 in 2025.  Hannibal Daily Monitor, April 17, 1866 (copyright expired)

Chambers & Gabler dissolved in 1866 and Vinton & Son's pianoforte factory briefly operated in the space.  Charles A. Vinton had founded the business in the 1850s, and partnered with his son, Henry A. Vinton, in 1865.

In the meantime, Maurice J. Power was establishing himself as a sculptor.  Born in Rosscarbery, Cork, Ireland around 1836, he was brought to New York City at the age of three.  Powers wanted to create monumental sculptures--the heroic statues and monuments that adorned parks and cemeteries.

from History of the Tammany Society from its Organization to the Present Time, 1901 (copyright expired)

In 1868, Power established the National Fine Art Foundry and moved into the East 25th Street property.  (Presumably, the designing and molding were done in the main building and the foundry in the rear.)  By 1870, sculptor William Rudolf O'Donovan was employed here.  Born in 1844, he had apprenticed as a marble cutter in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania.  He saw fighting in the Civil War, including the Battle of Gettysburg.  Among their many works, Power and O'Donovan would design and execute several Civil War monuments.

William R. O'Donovan in the East 25th Street studio.  McClure's Magazine, October 1895 (copyright expired)

In April 1870, The Technologist said, "Mr. Maurice J. Power is an enthusiastic artist and, above all, an American artist and truly national work may be expected from his hands."   At the National Fine Art Foundry, said the article, "the noble art of bronze sculpture is conducted, which may be observed in all its stages, from the modeler's atelier to the foundry."

The Brooklyn Citizen Almac, 1893 (copyright expired)

At the time of the article, Power was completing the soldier's monument to be erected at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.  A statue not designed by the National Fine Arts artists, but cast here, was Byron M. Pickett's statue of Samuel F. B. Morse, installed in Central Park in 1871.  On June 17 that year, The Telegrapher commented, "The bronze statue was cast at the National Fine Art Foundry of Mr. M. J. Power, on East Twenty-fifth street...The casting was worthy of the model, and creditable to all concerned."

A 19th century stereoscope slide highlights the metalwork--the statues, plaques and decorations--of the Civil War Soldiers' Monument in Greenwood Cemetery created at the National Fine Art Foundry.

On July 29, 1893, Architecture and Building noted that the National Fine Arts Foundry had "erected about thirty public monuments in the United States" and were located "in nearly every State of the Union east of the Mississippi River."  The article said, "It contracts for the complete erection of monuments, including the granite work, and in association with sculptors of reputation it undertakes the execution of such memorials."  

Workers in the foundry portion.  The caption in McClure's Magazine in October 1895 read "Making a mould for the bronze casting...Most of the workmen are French."  (copyright expired)

Among the monuments the firm had executed at the time were the Battlefield of Monmouth Monument at Freehold, New Jersey; the Oriskany Battlefield Monument near Utica, New York; the Soldiers' and Sailors' Fountain in Manchester, New Hampshire; and the Tower of Victory at Washington's Headquarters in Newburg, New York.

In 1895, Power handed the reins to William R. O'Donovan in the commission to design life-size bas relief statues of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.  The panels would be incorporated into the Brooklyn Memorial Arch.  In its October issue that year, McClure's Magazine said, "In the south side of East Twenty-fifth Street in New York City, just out of the roar of Third Avenue, stands a dingy brick building, on whose front big black letters announce "Fine Art Foundry."  The article said, "A queer place, one would think, to find Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln; yet here they are, or were during the summer months, eying the visitor with stern salutation from the backs of their bronze horses."

Maurice J. Power died in September 1902.  In addition to his artistic work, he had been highly involved with Tammany politics, serving as a Police Court Justice from 1880 to 1890; Shipping Commissioner for the Port of New York starting in 1893; and Aqueduct Commissioner in 1897.  His wife, Mary F. Power, sold the East 25th Street property to F. Morris & Co. in January 1906.

In May 1909, Rochette & Parzini purchased the building.  Founded by sculptors Michael Parzini and Eugene Rochette in 1904, the firm continued the tradition started with Maurice J. Power.  Parzini was born in Turin Italy and studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.

A year after moving in, the studio was the scene of a mystery.  On the morning of September 23, 1910, a sculptor, Emil Gautier, was found dead on the floor.  Initially, his death was attributed to heart failure and "fellow-workmen, who found Gautier lying dead, said he suffered from attacks of syncope [fainting]," said The New York Times.  But the coroner, Dr. O'Hanlon, "found the case not so simple as it had seemed."  Gautier's head was badly burned, the hair "burned to the scalp, the top lobe of the ear was seared, and the skin of the jaw and cheek badly burned," said The Times.  In addition, his face was "badly scratched."  Frustratingly, newspapers did not follow-up with the results of O'Hanlon's autopsy.

Upon the death of Michael Parzini in December 1946, The New York Times remarked, "The firm did much work for the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White...Its work can be seen on the present Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the Hotels Pierre and Biltmore and the Hotel Roney Plaza in Miami."  The article noted that Rochette & Parzini sculpted decorations of buildings at the New York World's Fair in 1939-40, "the New York Stock Exchange, the Yale, Columbia, Lehigh and Fordham University buildings and other structures."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The founders' deaths did not signal the end of Rochette & Parzini.  On August 26, 1964, The New York Times reported on sculptor Mario G. Tommasi's work high atop the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.  The article said his hammer and chisel were working on "a block of stone that has been waiting since 1924...The cast was made from a clay model in the extensive workshop of Rochette & Parzini, Inc., 218 East 25th Street, a concern that has completed numerous projects here and throughout the country," said the article.

Six years later, Rochette & Parzini received the commission to execute the 11-1/2-foot-tall bronze statue of Leif Ericson for Leif Ericson Park in Brooklyn.  Sculptor Arnold Bergier designed the monument, which was dedicated on May 23, 1971.  At the time, the building's first and second floors were designated as a "sculptor's studio" by the Department of Buildings, and the upper floors as "storage."

In 1977, photographer Clara Aich purchased the property.  Amazingly, Rochette & Parzini artifacts were still in place.  She converted the building to a residence, and used the sculptural pieces as decoration.  In 1979 she opened the Casa Clara Theater in part of the building.

photographs by the author

The Lost Striker's Cottages - West 52nd Street

 

The houses were somewhat bedraggled when this photograph was taken in the late 19th century.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

John Hopper the Elder acquired an estate north of New York City in 1667, known as Hopper Farm.  It comprised 80 acres and spread approximately from today's Sixth Avenue to the Hudson River, and from 48^th to 55^th Streets.  He built a house on the land for each of his sons.  His own house, Rosevale, sat near what is now 53^rd Street.  

When Mary Hopper married James Garret Striker in 1780, they moved into the house built in 1752 for John Hopper, Jr.  James's first American ancestor, Jacobus Van Strycker arrived in New Amsterdam in 1651.   The couple would have nine children.  

Upon James Garret Striker's death on December 15, 1831, the Hopper Farm passed to his son Garrit Hopper Striker.  Born in 1784, he would live in the John Hopper, Jr. house until his death in 1868.  

In 1850, Garrit Striker made a somewhat surprising move, given the remoteness of the Hopper Farm.  He erected a row of eight, two-story frame houses along the north side of 52nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.  He christened the block Striker's Row and the houses the Striker Cottages.  (A similar row would follow on the south side, and while no photograph survives of those, they were most likely carbon copies.)

The design of the houses was almost assuredly the product of the builder rather than a trained architect.  Best termed vernacular, they borrowed elements from several current styles.  Sitting back from the dirt road with commodious front yards, they shared a common veranda supported by delicate wooden railings that smacked of Chinese Chippendale.  Floor-to-ceiling French windows at the ground floor offered fresh air in warm months, and transoms over the single-doored entrances supplied additional light.

Striker erected the houses as rental income, and an advertisement in the New York Sun in 1850 offered, "To Let: Eight entire[ly] new two-story cottages, piazza and verandah fronts, courtyards 35 feet deep, filled with elegant forest trees."  The ad boasted, "four bedrooms, two parlors and kitchen" in each house, and "hard finished walls with cornices and centre piece."  (The "centre piece" was, most likely, the elaborate plaster ceiling medallion in the parlors and dining rooms.)

The Kyle family lived in 7 Striker's Row in 1861.  They placed what today might be viewed as a somewhat bizarre ad in the New York Herald on March 2 that year:

A Private Family will receive a little girl to Board and educate.  She will be kindly treated, and carefully instructed in the English branches, Drawing and Flower Painting.  Terms $15 per month in advance.  Apply to Mrs. Kyle, No. 7 Striker's row, West Fifty-second street, near Eleventh avenue.

The monthly fee the Kyles were charging to essentially foster the child would translate to about $514 in 2023.

Amos Colt was an agent of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, founded by his cousin, Samuel Colt.  As tensions between North and South intensified, Sam Colt sent Amos to the Deep South "to reap his share of the gun orders that came flooding in to the North," according to James L. Mitchell in his 1959 Colt, A Collection of Letters and Photographs About The Man--The Arms--The Company.  The Yankee agent managed to return to New York before war erupted.  Mitchell writes,

It is apparent that Amos Colt while in Mississippi did not express his sentiments concerning the natives of that state aloud for he lived to return to his native New York City...a check of the New York directory shows that as late as 1866 he was living at 5 Striker's Row, and his occupation was shown as "Agent."

The residents of 7 Striker's Row (possibly still the Kyle family) took in a boarder in 1866, offering three rooms for $15.  

By the 1870s, the houses were being engulfed by the neighborhood that would become known as Hell's Kitchen--one tainted with poverty and crime.  But for the time being, their middle-class residents continued to be respectable.  Most had at least one servant.  One of them was looking for a new position in 1872.  Her advertisement on June 25 in the New York Herald read:

1 Striker's Row, between West 52d and 53d streets--A respectable young girl (lately landed) as chambermaid and to do washing and ironing, and willing to do according to orders.  Call for two days.

In 1882 Henry Steinberg and his family occupied No. 1.  He was in the "waters" business.  Two widows, Rose Everhardt and Alice McPhilips, lived at 11 and 5 Striker's Row respectively, possibly operating them as boarding houses.  Charles Meyer, who worked as a weaver, occupied No. 9, and notary John McDonald and his family lived at 7 Striker's Row.  The McDonalds took in a boarder for extra money.  In 1882 James F. Degnan, a butcher, lived with the family.

John McDonald was a recently arrived immigrant.  He was born in Baillborry, County Cavan, Ireland.  Unfortunately, his life in America would not be a long one.  He died in his Striker's Row home in 1884 at the age of 45.

Alice McPhillips, Rose Everhard, and Charles Meyer were all still living on Striker's Row in 1886.  Other occupants included Irish immigrants Thomas F. McCauley, a driver, at No. 11; Patrick Clawsey, who worked as a cutter in a garment factory and lived at 9 Striker's Row; and George Ferguson at No. 1, who worked in an ice business.  All of them would have to find different accommodations before long. 

In 1890 the houses had suffered noticeable neglect.  Elsworth L. Striker demolished the row.  On December 20, 1890, the Real Estate Record & Guide began an article saying, "The Striker family have been in possession since 1640, directly or by heritage, of the property they have improved in the neighborhood of 52d street and the Hudson River."  The article said that Striker was in the process of constructing "three five-story brick and brown stone front apartment houses...on the north side of 52d street, between 10th and 11th avenues."

Many thanks to reader Douglas B. Kearley for suggesting this post

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The 1831 William Laird Porterhouse - 106 Greenwich Ave

 

In the 17th century, the diagonally-running Sand Hill Road, sometimes called Monument Lane, followed an earlier Native American trail.  Towards the end of the 18th century, its name was changed to Old Greenwich Lane (or simply Greenwich Lane), and in 1843 finally renamed Greenwich Avenue.  By then, the expansion of Greenwich Village had overtaken the roadway, which was now lined with homes and shops.

Thirteen years earlier, Dr. James Cameron had purchased building lots on Greenwich Lane from John Harris.  Cameron, who lived nearby on Hudson Street, erected an unassuming, vernacular style house-and-store at 106 Greenwich Lane, completed in 1831.  Above the ground floor shop were two floors of brick.  The six-0ver-six paned windows wore flat lintels and sills, and a delicately dentiled cornice crowned the design.

As early as 1840, William Laird's porterhouse occupied the store level while he and his family lived upstairs.  (A porterhouse was a tavern and restaurant where malt liquor, such as porter, was sold.)  As was common, in the rear yard was a smaller house, which was rented to Joseph Thompson, a gardener, that year.

Laird was described by the New-York Tribune in 1842 as "an old man, and has been been afflicted for years with a paralytic stroke."  For some reason, on December 1, 1841 he was in the notorious Five Points section downtown, when John O'Connor became convinced that Laird had thrown a brickbat through his window.

The following day, the New York Herald reported that O'Conner had been "charged with an outrageous assault and battery on William Laird whom he struck a violent blow on the side of the head with a huge club, knocking him down and placing his life in danger."  When Police Officer McComb came upon the scene, Laird was lying in a snowbank and O'Connor was "beating him over his head with a large hickory club," according to the New-York Tribune.  

O'Connor's trial was held on January 7.  The New-York Tribune reported, "It was proved by officer McComb, as well as Wm. Laird, that the assault was of the most outrageous character, so much so that in all probability the man would have been killed if it had not been for the interference of the officer."  John O'Connor was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $25 fine (about $925 in 2023).

Before 1845, Laird's porterhouse was renovated for Peter B. Marks's butcher store.  The Laird family may have still lived upstairs, since Marks's home was at Seventh Avenue and 17th Street.

Eli C. Thompkins ran the butcher store in 1851.  By now the upper floors were home to three working class families.  Peter McBride was a carman, or delivery driver; James Mooney was a mason; and Janet McGarrett, presumably a widow, sold toys.

The butcher store changed hands again by 1853, when John Rudman, who lived across the street at 89 Greenwich Avenue, ran the business.   The families of two brewers, Miles Kneeland and Thomas Marrigan, shared in the upper floors.

The wives and daughters of the families who lived at 106 Greenwich Avenue necessarily worked, as well.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on February 27, 1855 read, "Wanted--By a Protestant girl, a situation in some small family, to do general housework."  And the following year in October an advertisement was placed by two women who appear to be sisters:

Wanted--Situations, by two young women; one as first rate cook, and to assist in washing and ironing; the other as chambermaid and waiter; has no objection to assist in washing.  The best of city reference given from their last place, where they lived the last four years.  Apply at 106 Greenwich avenue, between 12th and 13th sts.

By 1857 Henry Schlegel ran the butcher shop.  The upper floors were occupied by a single family again in 1865, when the occupants advertised a furnished room for rent.  Noting it was "handsomely furnished" in "the house of a private family," the advertisement described the room as "suitable for a single gentleman, without board."  (The last caveat made it clear that the renter would have to find his meals elsewhere.)

Peter Carroll lived in the house in the summer of 1870 when a confrontation with Thomas McFadden resulted in a gruesome injury.  McFadden operated a saloon on West Houston Street.  On June 20, the New York Herald reported that he had been charged "with assaulting Peter Carroll...biting out a portion of his lip."

Both 106 and 108 Greenwich Avenue were owned by Christian Wolf by the 1880s.  In 1882 he leased 106 Greenwich Avenue to German-born Louis Koelsch, who appears to have continued running the butcher store.  He was still here in 1890 when Wolf's estate sold both properties to Friedrich Knubel for a total of $19,500.  That price would translate to just under $650,000 today.

Thomas J. Fallon operated the butcher shop in 1896.  At least two tenants lived upstairs: John Froelich was a saloon keeper, and Augustus F. Urben did not list a profession.  Whatever his business, the 23-year-old found himself in trouble on May 22, 1896 when he was arrested while riding a bicycle at 110th Street and Lenox Avenue.  According to the New York Herald he was charged with stealing Walter R. Greville's $100 bicycle from 36 Barrow Street on May 16.  The article said, "Urben said he could prove that he bought the wheel in good faith, without knowing that it had been stolen."  He was held in $1,000 bail awaiting trial.

Another tenant to land in jail was William Connors, who lived here in 1903.  He was arrested in a raid on six poolrooms (illegal betting operations) on June 26.  The New York Press reported that officers had used "axes, ladders and the usual methods of forcible entry."  The article said that eight patrol wagons were necessary to haul away 592 prisoners.  According to police, of the five "alleged principals" arrested was William Connors.

After having been a butcher shop for more than half a century, in 1907 the H. T. F. & O. Hartemann fish market occupied the store.  Harry Hartemann received a summons from the Department of Labor in 1912 for "employing children under 14 years of age."

In the meantime, the Ezaqul family rented rooms upstairs in 1908.  As with all working class families, their 16-year-0ld son Reginald worked.  He rode his bicycle back and forth to his job at the Conlin Brothers store at 40 Tenth Avenue.  But on Saturday, July 11, he never returned home.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that he was working on the third floor that day when he was told he could go home.  Instead of going straight home, he took his bike to the second floor.  The article said he "was riding his wheel around when he fell from the bicycle and plunged down the [elevator] shaft."  The teen was killed instantly.

In 1916 the city was struck by a devastating epidemic--poliomyletis, or infantile paralysis, better known as polio.  The disease caught doctors unaware, giving it a foothold.  Dr. Abraham Zingher of the Willard Parker Hospital explained on September 3 that "so little did the average practitioner know about poliomyelitis at the beginning of the present sweep of the scourge that many cases were treated as summer complaint or other common illness for several days before unmistakable symptoms of paralysis began to manifest themselves."

By November that year there were 8,197 cases reported in New York City and 1,988 deaths.  Among those affected was little Amelia Enrich, who lived at 106 Greenwich Avenue.

The upper floors of 106 Greenwich Avenue were converted to "non-housekeeping apartments" in 1928.  The term meant that there were no kitchens, and the Department of Buildings flatly noted, "no cooking permitted on these premises."  It may have been at this time that a coating of stucco was applied to the brick facade.

The stucco was in evidence as early as 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In the 1960's the ground floor was home to The Rastro, an antiques store "known for its extensive stock of wrought iron, antique brass, old faience, oak furniture--including stools and chairs--carved wood figures and lighting fixtures," according to Interior Design in 1964.  It was replaced in the 1970 by Victoria Galleries, another antiques and collectibles shop, called by the 1982 New York Art Guide a "small house which is often good for jewelry and orientalia."

A renovation completed in 2011 resulted four apartments on each of the upper floors.  The men's clothing store Odin moved into "a glamorous new space at 106 Greenwich Avenue," according to Alexis Mainland of The New York Times on January 11, 2012.

After nearly 200 years, 106 Greenwich Avenue appears more than a bit battered.  Amazingly, its six-over-six upper floor windows survive.  

photographs by the author

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The Lost Wheaton Bradish House - 78 West 11th Street

 

The brick fireback on the side, looking much like a bricked-up opening, prevented the heat of the fireplace from setting fire to the clapboards.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Wheaton Bradish arrived in America from Ireland in 1809.  He and his family lived at 483 Bowery until 1838, after which they moved to 78 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.  Their two-and-a-half-story clapboard house was recently erected, West 11th Street having been opened in 1830.  It sat next to the walled remnants of the 1805 Cemetery of Congregation Shearith Israel, at least half of which had been relocated when West 11th Street was created.  To the west of the Bradish house was a frame, 18th century roadhouse, by now known as the Grapevine Tavern.

The builder of 78 West 11th Street was no doubt responsible for its vernacular design.  Diminutive attic windows faced 11th Street, and a large brick chimney testified to the size of the fireplaces inside.  Bradish and his wife Harriet had four daughters, Harriet, Emily, Catherine Trenor, and Eliza.

Although the wooden residence appears humble by a 21st century viewpoint, it was a substantial home to a successful merchant.  Proud of his heritage, Bradish was first vice-president of the St. Patrick's Society, and had been a vice-president in the American-Irish Historical Society since around 1831.

In 1840, the family traveled to England.  It was there, in Upper Heigham, that Harriet died at the age of 38 on October 29.

Bradish married Emily Proctor, a widow, a few years later.  (It appears that she was the mother-in-law of Wheaton's daughter, Emily, who was married to John Proctor.  If so, she was now both the younger Emily's step-mother and mother-in-law.)

Of the Bradish daughters, only Harriet would not wed.  Eliza was married to Charles Stewart Smith, and Catherine Trenor married Henry Rudolph Kunhardt in 1857.  (The Kunhardt's son, Wheaton Bradish Kunhardt, would become a noted engineer and author.)

Following the death of her husband, Emily Bradish Proctor moved back into the West 11th Street house.  She died on October 4, 1851 and, somewhat surprisingly, her funeral was not held in the parlor, but at St. Mark's Church on East 10th Street. 

The Bradish family left West 11th Street by 1856, when it was home to Charles T. Wetmore, another affluent businessman, and his wife.  

The former Bradish house displays a tailor's sign in the late 1890's.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In an interesting sidenote, on June 29, 1862, The New York Times reported that Wheaton Bradish had died "suddenly" two days earlier at the age of 76.  The term often referred to a heart attack, but not in this case.  The Annual Reports of the Railroad and Canal Companies of the State of New Jersey explained that for some unknown reason, Bradish was walking on the railroad tracks near Orange, New Jersey that day when he "was struck by the engine of a passenger train and killed."

The Wetmore's puppy went missing in 1857.  Offering a $5 reward (about $175 in 2023), Wetmore gave a detailed description: 

Strayed from 78 West Eleventh street, on the afternoon of Tuesday, Dec. 1, a young Skye terrier, color blueish gray, short tail and very short cut ears, hair long and wavy, seven or eight inches high.  Answers to the name of Nelly.

Apparently the incident did not greatly increase the Wetmores' vigilance.  Nelly was missing again in January 1859, and once again, a $5 reward was offered.

John C. Tillotson boarded with the Wetmore family from 1856 until 1862.  Although he did not list a profession in city directories, it appears he dealt in real estate.  In reporting on a fire that destroyed the boarding house at 136 Grand Street on November 16, 1860, The World noted, "The house was the property of J. C. Tillotson, residing at 78 West Eleventh street." 

With Tillotson's rooms vacant, in May 1862 the Wetmores advertised, "Desirable Rooms for gentlemen," noting, "Breakfast and Tea in room, if desired."  A later ad pointed out that the rooms were "in a private family, where there are no children."

In 1866 the Wetmores were absent for a year, possibly traveling in Europe.  The fashionable tenor of the house and the block was evidenced in their ad on October 7, 1866:  "To Rent--A nicely furnished house, 78 West Eleventh street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.  Rent $350 per month."  The monthly cost would translate to about $6,650 today.

After occupying 78 West 11th Street for 16 years, the Wetmores left in April 1872.  It was purchased by Henry Post Mitchell and his wife, the former Rebecca Simmons.  Born in 1841 to a colonial Philadelphia family, Mitchell was a graduate of Yale University.  His "oils" business had two locations, on First Avenue and on Pearl Street.  The couple had five children.

Five years after moving in, the Mitchells left 78 West 11th Street and it became home to a colorful couple, Count Emile Leon de Brémont and his wife, Anna Elizabeth, Comtesse de Brémont.  A former officer in the French Army and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, De Brémont was a physician.  Like many immigrants of noble birth, he dropped his title upon coming to America.  The New York Herald noted that he was "well known and highly regarded among the French 'colony.'"  Dr. De Brémont ran his medical practice from the house, and it was most likely he who added a second door, to be used by his patients.

The countess was born Anna Elizabeth Dunphy in New York around 1849, and grew up in Cincinnati.  An accomplished vocalist, she returned to New York and was a contralto soloist in Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.  The couple were married in 1877.

On May 21, 1882, the New York Herald reported, "The Count Emile de Brémont, better known in this city as Dr. Leon le Brémont, died on Friday evening at his residence, No. 78 West Eleventh street of congestion of the lungs."  The article noted, "his funeral on Tuesday will be attended by the Garde Lafayette."

Following her husband's death, Anna turned to the stage.  The following year, The New York Mirror wrote, ""Mme. La Comtesse de Brémont, nee Dunphy, who has, after pluming her flight under a stage name with success last season, determined to try her fortune in the coming year.  Mme. de Brémont is a tall, graceful young lady, with a very decided talent for acting, and a rich and mellow contralto voice, which she manages with skill."

Anna de Brémont's venture was a success.  She moved to Europe, and in 1888 was initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn.  Along with her brilliant stage career, she was a successful author, writing among other works a memoir about Oscar Wilde and his mother.

In the 1890's, the former doctor's office at 78 West 11th Street was home to a tailoring business, and by the turn of the century John L. Dunlap lived and ran his business, the Local Credit Company, in the house.  He also had an office downtown on Park Row.

On August 3, 1900, police officers entered the 11th Street office and arrested Dunlap for usury.  The managers of a silk company, Scheffer, Schram & Vogel, had discovered that "a number of employees of the firm borrowed money from Dunlap some time ago," explained The New York Times, "and finally told their employers."  Dunlap had loaned the factory workers, most of them immigrants who did not understand what they were signing, small amounts, which by the terms of the agreement they were never able to pay off.  One borrower was Charles Witner, who borrowed $30 in June 1898.  The complaint said in part:

He was charged $3 for notary services, $1 for investigating expenses, and $3 for the first month's expenses.  As he was only paid every two weeks by his firm he paid Dunlap at the same time, giving him $15 each two weeks.  He said that by the method of paying he renewed the loan once a month, and up to this time, according to receipts which he has, has paid Dunlap for $124 for the $30.

John L. Dunlap, The Evening World, August 6, 1900 (copyright expired)

As the date of Dunlap's trial approached, a reporter from The Evening World interviewed locals.  In his article on August 6, 1900, he quoted a Sixth Avenue businessman who said, "That fellow Dunlap has hundreds of poor employees in this neighborhood tied up.  Once in his clutches it is hard to get out of them."

Dunlap was found guilty of usury, but apparently was fined rather than jailed.  He continued running his business from 78 West 11th Street for years.

Then, in 1915, the quaint wooden house, a relic of a much different Greenwich Village, was demolished along with its venerable neighbor on the corner to make way for a modern apartment house.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post.

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