The Lost "Furness House" -- 34 Whitehall Street

 

photo via Architecture magazine, July 7, 1918 (copyright expired)

In 1891, Christopher Furness, owner of the Furness Line of steamships, and Henry Withy, head of the shipbuilding firm Edward Withy & Co., merged their businesses to form Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd.  Starting out with 18 vessels, by the outbreak of World War I, it sailed more than 200--and it was ready for a new New York City branch office building.

On May 5, 1917, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd. had purchased the southwest corner of Whitehall and Pearl Street "for improvement with a six-story fireproof building, which will be used as a permanent home" for the firm.  The Whitehall Street area was where most of the steamship companies were concentrated.  Architect Walter B. Chambers was commissioned to design the structure.  Although he had formed a partnership with Ernest Flagg in 1894, only Chambers was listed as architect for this project.

The Record & Guide said, "The facade will be of limestone or marble, and will be set back in both Whitehall and Pearl streets to conform with the fronts of the contiguous South Ferry Building."  The cost of construction was placed at $200,000--or approximately $4.25 million in 2022.

With war raging in Europe, the project came at a tense time for Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd.  Eight months earlier, on October 8, 1916, the firm's ship the West Point had been sunk by a German submarine near Nantucket, Massachusetts.  Germany was actively targeting British freighters, but the firm was resolute.  On February 19, 1917 Lord Marmaduke Furness, head of Furness, Whithy, commented, "Our own line has lost thirty-one ships during the war, but we are replacing them two to one.  When the war is over our facilities will have more than doubled."

Despite the depleted labor force due to the war, the Whitehall Street headquarters, known as Furness House, was completed in 1918.  Chambers's dignified building smacked of a Georgian townhouse in London.  The openings within the rusticated ground floor were arranged in a rhythmic arcade.  The three-story mid-section featured tall windows at the second floor fronted by iron faux- balconies and capped with classical pediments.  Spandrel panels between the third and fourth floors were carved with delicate swags.  The top floor sat upon a prominent cornice and was crowned by a stone balustrade.

Following the war, Americans resumed ocean travel.  And Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd. began branching out into the luxury passenger trade.  On September 19, 1919, The New York Times reported that the firm had acquired the New-York Bermuda Line, adding, "The Furness company will put the British passenger steamships Fort Hamilton and Fort Victoria into the new service."

The following decade, Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd., made a notable move in modernizing its fleet.  At the annual meeting on July 28, 1927, Sir Frederick Lewis announced that in the past two years, "all ships ordered by Furness Withy and associated companies have been motor ships."  The New York Times reported, "Lewis said he believed that the future of long-voyage trading lay with motor ships.  He, however, deplored the high cost of construction of this class of vessel."

At the time, American views of ocean travel--once simply the only means of transportation between America to Europe--were changing.  Voyages to places like Bermuda and Canada were vacations in themselves--the beginnings of the cruise ship craze of the last decades of the century.  The New York Times reported on December 3, 1927 that the Furness, Withy line had launched "the new 20,000-ton motor ship Bermuda," saying, "Tourist interests in Bermuda are organizing early in preparation for the coming season."

The voyage portion of cruises offered by the Furness Bermuda Line were an integral part of the vacation experience.  New York Herald, June 25, 1922 (copyright expired)

The firm continued to gobble up other freight and passenger lines.  On May 22, 1933, The New York Times reported, "Lord Essendon, chairman of Furness, Withy, & Co., Ltd., today moved a step nearer dominance of the British shipping world with the announcement that his company had acquired a controlling interest in the Shaw, Savill & Albion Co., Ltd, which operates twenty-two passenger liners and freighters between Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand."  The article noted, "Henceforth ships operated or controlled by Furness, Withy & Co. will be seen on every ocean."

The expansion of business required more space and around this time the building was seamlessly enlarged to seven floors.  The original intermediate cornice and the top floor balustrade were either salvaged or perfectly copied.  The completed renovations gave no hint that the two new floors were not original.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the firm found itself, once again, a target of German torpedoes and mines.  And, once again, Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd. rebuffed the enemy's threat.  Following the sinking of the British steamer Horsted and deaths of three of its crew on December 6, 1939, Furness, Withy & Co. announced that it "would institute a fortnightly service of fast cargo liners between New York and London," reported The New York Times.

The wartime efforts went further.  Two of the firm's most luxurious passenger vessels, the Monarch of Bermuda and the Queen of Bermuda, were converted for military purposes.  The Monarch of Bermuda became a troop ship and its sister ship was outfitted with guns as an armed merchant cruiser.

The luxury liner Monarch of Bermuda was used to transport troops during the war.

As war neared an end, Furness, Withy & Co. looked to the future.  And as had been the case in 1919, it planned not only to return to normal, but to expand.  On December 28, 1943, The New York Times reported that the firm, "whose luxury liners were a main artery of Bermuda's pre-war tourist trade with New York, will extend its ship service after the war."

Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd. continued to operate from its handsome Whitehall Street building until the late 1960's.  The firm was acquired by the Orient Overseas Container Line of Hong Kong in 1980, and was resold to the Oetker Group in 1990.

In the meantime, Walter B. Chambers's handsome Furness House was demolished in 1970, replaced by 34 Whitehall Street, completed in 1976.  

image via lavamap.com

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for prompting this post

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

The Lost St. Nicholas Skating Rink - 69 West 66th Street

photo via Office of Metropolitan History

On July 13, 1895 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the newly-formed St. Nicholas Skating and Ice Company had "just concluded the purchase of a site for a model ice skating rink on the north side of West 66th street, between Columbus avenue and Central Park West."  It was an exciting development for New Yorkers, since the technology necessary for creating such a massive ice sheet was new.

The price for each of the nine building plots, stretching 225 feet along West 66th Street and 100 feet deep, was about $29,000.  The Record & Guide reported that architects Ernest Flagg and Walter B. Chambers had placed the cost of construction of the "ice-skating rink and club-house" at $130,000; bringing the total outlay to more than $12 million in today's dollars.

The Record & Guide described the internal layout above the rink.  The second floor would hold a viewing gallery and "there will also be on this floor private rooms for ladies, a buffet and toilet rooms."  The third floor was "to be for the men of the club," and here were the locker rooms, dressing rooms and accommodations for visiting hockey teams.  A private gallery on this level was to look down upon the rink.  (As it turned out, the third floor never materialized.)

Calling it "New York's Palais de Glace," the New York Herald reported on the completed structure on November 8, 1896.  The writer deemed the building a "large, handsome structure."  

"The "place of rendezvous," said the article, included "lounging rooms, dressing rooms, buffets, music, all modeled on the best Parisian plan...There are also ample storage for bicycles and cloak rooms for the public...The ice is surrounded by a broad promenade.  On one end is a great lounging room, shut off from the ice by plate glass.  This apartment is for the use of the public.  A great fireplace, on which logs will burn brightly, occupies one end of the room, and it is from this room that spectators will get the best and most comfortable view of the gay scenes on the ice."

On the opposite end were the private rooms of the St. Nicholas Skating Club members.  Among those who paid the annual $25 dues were "the Astors, Millses, Livingstons, Hewitts, Hoyts, Baileys, Mrs. Ladenburg, Whitneys, Remsens, Morgans, Belmonts, Hitchcocks, Kernochans...In fact, the list is just like that of the Patriarchs [Ball], or opera or Horse Show boxes," said the New York Herald.  So that social royalty need not share the ice with more pedestrian skaters, the rink was closed to the public on Sundays and Mondays and only members were admitted.

A uniformed attendant helps a woman with her skates while fashionably-dressed skaters glide by.  Upstairs women enjoy the ladies' buffet room.  The New York Herald, November 8, 1896 (copyright expired)

The other skaters paid "a small fee" for admission, and had access to most of the amenities of the St. Nicholas Skating Rink, including a tea room, smoking room, and reading room.  A band played during the mornings and evening sessions.  The New York Herald lamented that the St. Nicholas Skating Rink "probably will not be as lively and interesting" as a similar rink in Paris, "for we take our pleasures in a little more subdued, if not sadder, fashion than the French."  But, nevertheless, "the beauty, the novelty of the scene, is certain to be appreciated by everyone who finds his way within."

Leslie's Weekly, March 15, 1896 (copyright expired)

A branch of the St. Nicholas Skating Club was its hockey team, composed of well-to-do gentlemen with names like Astor, Brokaw and Vanderbilt.  Hockey, as The New York Times pointed out, had "come to be quite the vogue" and the men held their own among other teams.  In its March 1898 issue the New York Athletic Club Journal noted that a tight race for the Hockey League championship was between the New York Athletic Club, the St. Nicholas Skating Club and the Hockey Club.

Leslie's Weekly noted that the "indoor game" was played on "artificial ice."  April 1896 (copyright expired)

As it turned out, the St. Nicholas Skating Club took the championship that year.

Among the casually-posed champions in 1898 was the massively wealthy Irving Brokaw, wearing number 3. The Illustrated American, February 12, 1898 

The excellence of the skating surface prompted the National Amateur Skating Association to hold is annual contest for the figure skating championship here.  Irving Brokaw was not only a splendid hockey player, but a figure skater as well.  As the 1899 contest neared, newspapers noted that he would not participate this year.  "Brokaw is this season in Europe to compete in the world's championship at Vienna."

The rink as it appeared in 1898.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

As the decades passed, the building would be reworked again and again.  The first major renovation came in October 1904 when architects Tracy & Swartwout designed new iron staircases, a new gallery, skylight, new fireproof dressing rooms and iron columns and beams.

Architect George A. Pearse's plans for remodeling in February 1911 used a puzzling description, calling the building a "brick garage and skating rink."  (There is no evidence that there was ever a garage in the building.) Other work in 1913, 1914 and 1915 resulted in new bleachers, repaired masonry and a new marquis.

In 1915 a fad swept New York--dancing on ice.  On November 21 The Sun reported "Fashion has set the seal of approval on the difficult art and the fox trotters are taking to the rinks."

Couples dance on blades at the St. Nicholas Rink.  The top couple is performing "The Hesitation."  The Sun, November 21, 1915 (copyright expired)

The following year, on October 22, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported "Ice skaters are indulging in their favorite recreation with more enthusiasm and in greater numbers this season than ever before in New York's history."  The article made note of the St. Nicholas Skating Rink's "Marimba Band and its corps of expert exhibition skaters." 

The Marimba Band was new--part of yet another renovation.  In 1915 a $20,000 improvement resulted in "enlarged and redecorated lounging, locker and club rooms" and new quarters for the visiting hockey teams.  Another significant change came the following year; one that had nothing to do with the structure, but with its policies.  According to The Evening World on October 7, 1916, "There will be no private sessions this season."  The ultra-wealthy had moved on.

By 1916 the rink was less ornate; however the columns and their capitals imitated ice and the railings and benches mimicked the rustic details of the natural Central Park skating area.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

The days of skaters and hockey games came to an end in October 1918 when the rink was leased for ten years to The Palace Carnival.  The Record & Guide reported that the group "expect to make alterations costing $100,000 to convert the structure into a dancing establishment."

The Evening World, January 18, 1919 (copyright expired)

The Dancing Carnival would remain for years, a popular destination for footloose couples.  One group of young people enjoyed a night here on March 10, 1921; but a light-hearted bet landed one of them in jail.

Elsie Fisher was 22-years-old and worked as a stenographer downtown.  She and her friends left at around 11:00 that night, but their suspicious movements caught the attention of a cop.  The New York Sun reported "Patrolman William Stalba...followed a crowd that came out of the St. Nicholas skating rink...and found the object of the crowd's pursuit was a slender young man who looked innocent enough."

Intent on discovering why the group was so interested in the fellow, Stalba pushed through the group, until "the policeman's keen eye spied the end of a blonde curl sticking out from under the soft hat.  He took the curl, which was growing on a girl's head, to the Wet Sixty-Eighth street station, where after much argument, the curl's owner admitted she was Elsie Fisher."

Elsie had taken a bet that she could walk a mile in men's attire without being detected.  Cross-dressing in 1921 was a crime and Elsie was held at the West 13th Street station overnight.  The next morning she appeared in court, "dressed in the garb of her sex, which friends had brought her."  The judge listened to her story, gave her a suspended sentence, and warned her to stop "trying to paint the lily white."  The Sun reported "She told him she would."

Another group got in trouble eighteen years later.  The New York Sun reported on January 7, 1929 that 33 young women had been arrested in the "St. Nicholas dance hall" the previous Saturday night.  "They were arraigned as wayward minors yesterday before Magistrate Bushel in the Women's Court."

The Great Depression resulted in the Corn Exchange Bank Trust Company's taking possession of the building.  Calling it "The Crystal Palace, a dancing pavilion," The Sun reported on its sale in March 1934 to Jean Sunnenfeld for $340,000, a significant $6.38 million today.  It was the end of dancing in the old St. Nicholas building.

The structure was renovated as a meeting space, and sports and performing arts venue, now known as the Royal Windsor Hall.  On April 29, 1938 the New York Post announced "More than fifty New York University students will take part in 'That's Life,' the annual varsity show, which will be presented to night at the Royal Windsor."    Less light-hearted were the massive union meetings and rallies held here for years.  On May 26, 1940, for instance, The New York Times reported on the New York State Convention of the Communist Party here.

Wrestlers Hans K. and H. Olson battled it out in 1936.  photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

But it was professional boxing and wrestling, for which the hall was best known to most New Yorkers.  A raised ring was moved into the center of the hall for bouts.  Over the years newspapers would report on the fights of greats like Kid Chocalate, Rocky Graziano, Floyd Patterson (who fought his first professional match here in 1952) and Cassius Clay (who later took the name Muhammad Ali).  Tuesday night matches were aired on television to fans across the country.

When the last boxing match was held on May 28, 1962, more than 30,000 bouts had reportedly played out here.  The old St. Nicholas Skating Rink building limped along until the 1980's when it was demolished for the expansion of the ABC TV offices.

The rink sat just to the east of the corner.  image via Google Earth

The Gertrude and Michael Gavin Mansion - 12 East 65th Street

In June 1906 Minnesota railroad magnate James J. Hill purchased the sumptuous mansion at No. 8 East 65th Street.  The New York Times remarked that he was the "second of the Western railroad magnates to reach the decision recently that he spends enough time in New York to justify his buying a house here."  Another member of the Hill family would, too, be moving to the block before long.

On September 21 that same year a Minnesota newspaper reported "The engagement of Miss Gertrude Hill, daughter of James J. Hill, to Michael Gavin, a lawyer of New York, was announced last evening at a dinner given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Theron Slade."  Noting that Gertrude had made her debut two years earlier, the article added that she "is musical in her tastes."

Gertrude Hill Gavin on her wedding day.  from the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society 

The wedding took place in St. Paul later that year.  The couple received a handsome wedding gift from James J. Hill; a Manhattan mansion.

Next door to the Hills' New York home, at No. 12 East 65th Street, was the 22-foot wide brownstone residence of Judge Charles H. Truax, built in 1876.  The Traux family had lived in the house since the mid 1890's.  In 1907 the judge sold the now out-of-fashion brownstone to Hill.

The architecturally outdated Traux house, left, contrasted with the ebullient Beaux Arts mansions of James J. Hill and William Bliss.  from the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society

The title to the property was put in Gertrude's name.  When the couple returned from their honeymoon trip, they set about planning their new home.  On August 29, 1908 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that architect Walter B. Chambers had been hired to design a five- and six-story brick and stone dwelling.  The projected cost was placed at just over $1 million today.

The New York Times explained the "five- and six-story" issue.  "The design is unusual, the house being five stories high in front and six stories in the centre, and three at the rear.  It will have a mansard and a second-story balcony, and be finished with a central stair hall and foyer."

Chambers carefully melded the new house to its neighbors to the west.  He matched the rusticated base, and lined up the second floor balconies and cornices.  A quieter presence, the design was nonetheless harmonious and elegant.

Although educated in law, Gavin was a junior partner in the investment banking firm of Moore & Schley when the couple moved in.  In 1915 he joined the brokerage firm of Montgomery & Company; and before long became a full partner in the financial firm Montgomery, Clothier and Tyler.

The Gavins were highly visible in society, traveling to Europe regularly and entertaining both in the Manhattan home and their Bernardsville, New Jersey estate.  On August 19, 1910 The New York Times advised "Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gavin will sail on the Adriatic next week for France, where they expect to visit friends and spend considerable time motoring.  They will return to New York in October."

Gertrude was highly active in charities and activities related to the Roman Catholic Church.  In 1920 she was elected the first president of the National Council of Catholic Women.  She was awarded the papal medal Pro Ecclesia and pontifical diploma in 1924.  Her religious interests spilled over into the entertainments in the 65th Street house.  On January 16, 1923, for instance, she hosted a lecture by Father Clifford, Professor of Scholastic Philosophy at Columbia University, on "faith, faith cures and the doctrine of the miraculous."

In 1920 the Gavins gave up the Bernardsville summer home after Graenan, their French Renaissance-style mansion designed by John Russell Pope, was completed on their 50-acre Oyster Bay, Long Island estate.  In 1926 Gertrude had Chapelle de St. Martin de Sayssuel, a medieval chapel in the French village of Chasse, dismantled and shipped to the Oyster Bay estate.  John Russell Pope was brought back to oversee the careful reconstruction on the grounds.   The project sparked the legend that Graenan, too, had been imported stone-by-stone from France; a rumor that survives.

The charming chapel was removed to Marquette University in Wisconsin, in 1966 following the destruction of Graenan by fire.  photo by Sulfur

In the meantime, Gertrude may have surprised some when she announced in November 1924 that she would be stepping down from the presidency of the National Council of Catholic Women.  She had been selected by Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes to "work among Catholic immigrants landing at New York."

Quoted in The New York Times on November 10, she explained "Many of these Italians as well as Catholic immigrants from other countries become confused in the struggle for existence in the new country and from lack of information sometimes make mistakes."

Michael Gavin retired in 1928.  His time was not idle.  The Gavins traveled almost every year to the Saint John River where Gertrude loved salmon fishing.  Along with the Hills, they were members of the exclusive Jekyll Island Club.  They eventually acquired a third home in Boca Grande, Florida.

Wealthy socialites gave their assistance during World War II to relief work and to military support--like the Soldiers' and Sailors' Clubhouse.  Gertrude did her part by helping to organize and run the Cathedral Canteen of New York.  Both the Departments of the Army and the Navy awarded her certificates of appreciation following the war.

In 1949 the Gavins sold the 65th Street house to the Dominion of Pakistan.  They moved to an apartment at No. 760 Park Avenue where, within six months of one another, the couple died in 1960.

The Republic of Pakistan purchased the James Hill mansion in 1951 and today still owns both properties.

photographs by the author

The Several Faces of 1 Broadway

Nothing of the current facade hints at its appearance in 1884. photograph by Gryffindor

Cyrus Field’s rise from an errand boy in A. T. Stewart’s dry goods emporium to one of the city’s wealthiest men was meteoric.  Years later the Daily Alta California would remind readers “His brother, David Dudley, was given a collegiate education; instead of a classical education Cyrus received $25 in cash and his father’s blessing.”

After working three years for $2 a week at Stewart’s, he took a job as a salesman for a paper manufacturer.  Before long he started his own business.  The California newspaper said “on the first day that he took possession of his new office he made the sanguine remark: ‘I shall make a fortune here in twenty years.’  Better than his word, he made his fortune in twelve years and retired, still in the prime of life, to enjoy the rest which he had never known since his boyhood.”  

The “prime of his life” was age 33 and Field left with a comfortable fortune of $250,000—between $6 and $10 million today.  But his retirement did not necessarily include "the rest" which the California journalist referred to.  He traveled with artist Frederick Church through Bogota, Guayaquil and Ecuador.   But he is best remembered for being the force behind the laying of the Transatlantic Cable in 1866.

Field was also the owner of the Evening Mail newspaper.  In 1881 he embarked on a project to erect a new headquarters building which would include additional floors of leased office space.   One by one he purchased the properties that composed the block front on Battery Place, between Broadway and Greenwich Street (today Trinity Place).  Included was the historic Washington Hotel at No. 1 Broadway, built in 1745 as the mansion of British Captain Archibald Kennedy. 

On November 17, 1881 The New York Times explained that Field "decided that six of the foremost architects of this City should enter into a competition in the drawing of plans for the immense office building which it is his intention to have erected on that ground."   The mere submission of a design would reap the architects $500; the winning architect would be awarded $5,000 (plus an additional $500 for relinquishing ownership of the designs to Field).

The designs were to be submitted anonymously, marked with a "motto," accompanied by a letter containing the architects' names which would be opened only after the choice had been made.  On November 1, the deadline, Field gathered up the plans, took this to his country home at Irvington-on-Hudson, and reviewed them with his wife.  The couple decided on Edward H. Kendall.

"Mr. Kendall's plan is to constructor a building that will in many of its details be a reminder of the old colonial days, and which will, to some extent, memorialize the building there standing and known to have been the head-quarters of Gen. Washington," said The Times.  "The architect has, therefore, produced plans for a building, the style of which he is pleased to distinguish as colonial."

The Broadway entrance, seen above, was mirrored on the Greenwich Street corner.  Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)

While Kendall's design did include Colonial Revival elements, it also drew substantially from the new Queen Anne style.  Faced in "Milwaukee brick," its brownstone trim was, according to The Times, "the same kind of stone used in the construction of Trinity Church."   From the two main entrances at the chamfered corners rounded stone staircases spilled to the sidewalk like cascades.  Both corners included five-story "turreted oriels."  

Even after Kendall filed his plans on June 23, 1882 it seems that he and Fields were still working out significant details.  Although Field had initially put a $500,000 cap on construction costs, Kendall's plans came to $900,000--nearly $20.5 million today.  And although the plans called for an 11-story building, The New York Times described 10 stories.

Even at that height it would be a marvel.  (In 1896 one writer called the building "the pioneer of the "Sky Scrapers.)  The Times called it "an artistic effort" and predicted it "cannot fail to attract the eye, and it is believed that the building will be one of the handsomest in the City."   

The entire tenth floor, said the newspaper, would be used by the Evening Mail for its "editorial, reportorial, and composing rooms," and, of course, Cyrus Fields's office.  The press rooms were located in the cellar, with windows at sidewalk level, at the western end of the building.  The Broadway side cellar space would hold the safe deposit vaults of the banking firm which had already signed a lease for the first floor space on that side.  Floors three through nine contained 19 rented offices each, which measured 17 by 18 feet.  The Times commented "The offices on the Battery-place front will command an unsurpassed view of the Battery Park and the harbor."

Named the Washington Building in homage to its venerable predecessor, it was in fact more popularly called the Field Building.  It was completed in 1884 and, as The Times predicted, stopped at 10 floors.  Also missing from the original plans was a "cupola, with a flag-staff and electric light," resulting in a blunt roofline,

Among the first tenants were the Manhattan Hay and Produce Exchange, as well as D'Orville's restaurant, which would be the scene of business meetings and dinners.  One example was the annual dinner and election of the Telegrapher' Mutual Benefit Association on November 19, 1884.   The millionaires in evening clothes had come from as far away as Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

The offices of the committee for erecting the Statue of Liberty moved in shortly after the building's completion.  The frustrating task of erecting a base and assembling the monument had been dragging on since 1876 when the arm was first displayed in Madison Square Park.  Part of the problem was that the United States had to pay for the pedestal.  Americans were still reeling from the Financial Panic of 1873 and there was tepid interest in donating to the project.

Periodicals were not quick to get behind it, either.  Harper's Weekly declared that France should have paid for the entire gift; and The New York Times said "no true patriot can countenance any such expenditures for bronze females in the present state of our finances."

But now the goal seemed within sight.  In August 1884 the Broadway entrance of the Washington Building was draped in French and American flags in anticipation of the cornerstone laying ceremonies of Richard Morris Hunt's pedestal on August 5.  A reception was held that morning from 10:00 to 1:00 and 3,000 invitations had been sent out for the ceremony.

Only a year after the Washington Building was completed, Edward H. Kendall got his way.  On July 18, 1885 The Record & Guide reported "Cyrus W. Field intends to add three stories to the Washington Building next year, to cost about $250,000.  The addition will contain a tower and other features, and will be a continuation of the original design, which was to make it an eleven-story building.  The architect will, of course, be E. H. Kendall."

Kendall eventually got his cupola and flagpole.  Piles of bricks sit in front of the remodeled building as workers pave Battery Place in 1886.  King's Handbook of New York 1890 (copyright expired)

The Record & Guide called the remodeled structure "undoubtedly one of the handsomest office structures in the world."  Not only did were the building's electric lights powered by its own dynamos in the basement, it had its own artesian well.  The Guide concluded "It is probably the first building to attract the foreigner who comes to our shores, and it stands out prominently, both on land and water, as one of the noblest buildings at the extreme southern boundary of Manhattan Island."

The Statue of Liberty Committee would not need offices after October 1886.  But the group went out with a bang--literally.   Previous to the monument's dedication on the afternoon of October 28, a procession came down Broadway to the Battery.  That night fireworks were set off from the Washington Building.

Cyrus Field had known Wall Street speculator James H. Hunting casually for years.  A wealthy jeweler in the 1850s, he had lost his business through bad investments.   By now he was considered "to be in moderate circumstances," as described by The New York Times.   His marriage had ended in divorce and "after this Hunting seemed to grow less and less prosperous."

Hunting routinely dropped into the offices of friends to ask for small loans.  Among those was Cyrus Field and on May 4, 1888 he was back.  He walked into Field's  office in the Washington Building asking him to lend him a few dollars.

Field reportedly replied, "Why, Jim, you know how this thing is; I have calls every day or two for money, and I can't lend you any to-day."  Hunting laughed at the good natured rejection, handed Fields a note and said, "Read this tonight."

The Times reported "Still laughing and in a perfectly cheerful manner, Mr. Hunting left the office.  His steps sounded along the hall for a moment, and then the report of a pistol was heard.  People rushed out of their offices and found Mr. Hunting dead."

Field opened the note which read:

Dear Will:  It seems almost impossible to succeed.  As a last favor, will you send my body to Madison, N. J., for burial as cheaply as possible, as I have no other friend but you.  Yours, Jim.

A string of tragedies would personally visit Cyrus Field beginning in 1891.  His beloved wife, Mary, died in their country home in November.  Only weeks later his son, Edward, went insane.  He not only brought about the failure of his brokerage firm, Field, Lindley, Weichers & Co., but "raided the strong box in which his father, Cyrus W. Field, kept his securities and left it empty of valuables," as reported by The Times on December 2.   The two events seriously affected Field, who was reported bedridden and while "not unconscious" all efforts "to arouse him were not successful."

And things got worse.  A partner in the ruined Field, Lindley, Weichers & Co. was Daniel Lindley, the husband of Cyrus's daughter Grace.  Now, stricken with "nervous prostration," Grace was taken to the Field mansion on Gramercy Park.  She died there on January 11 and her funeral was held in the mansion.  It was all too much for the 72 year old millionaire to handle.  He never recovered and died in the Irvington-on-Hudson house in July 1892.

The Broadway building was purchased by the Washington Building Co.   In January 1908 the firm hired Harry E. Donnell to so "extensive improvements."  Although the plans are vague, the updates were internal and most likely involved issues like plumbing and elevators.

Far more serious renovations would come after the International Mercantile Marine purchased by Washington Building in November 1919.  The organization paid $3 million--more in the neighborhood of $42.5 million today.  Only one week later it announced the structure "is to be transformed into a great white stone structure of classic dignity and proportion."

Architect Walter B. Chambers told reporters "The cupola and the side turret windows of the present structure will be removed, simplifying and strengthening the outline of the new elevation.  The interior will also be entirely remodeled in accordance with the most modern ideas."

The remarkable make-over was completed in August of 1922.  Astoundingly, the massive reconstruction of the building was executed without dispossessing the existing tenants--they were simply moved around as construction took place floor-by-floor.  

The entire first floor became the "great booking office" of the steamship company, as described by the Record & Guide.  "This office was designed to represent the latest idea in practical utility, with extensive counter space, a large waiting room for customers, a department devoted to the issuing of travelers' checks and an information bureau."  The Guide deemed the remodeled building "a beautiful harmonious structure, which few would recognize as the old Washington Building, known for two generations as the first skyscraper in Manhattan."

The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, August 19, 1922 (copyright expired)

The design won the The Downtown League's "first [place] award for an altered building" in January 1922.  In announcing the award, the League said it "covered their beautiful building at 1 Broadway, formerly known as the 'Washington Building.'"

The International Mercantile Marine Company had barely opened its offices at 1 Broadway when it became involved in a sticky international problem--Prohibition.   Passengers on elegant steamships heading to New York from Europe expected wine with dinner and, perhaps, a cocktail in the evenings.  But Attorney General Daughtery ruled in October 1922 that "no ships may enter American waters with liquor aboard."

The ruling was immediately protested by the Cunard Line, the Anchor Lines, the United American Line and Red Star Line.  On October 12 the International Mercantile Marine Company joined the others in challenging the ruling.

The day before the ruling became effective passengers of the United American steamship Resolute "entered port singing lugubriously 'How Dry I Am,' the ship's bar having been closed at sea," reported the New-York Tribune. on October 13.  The Government was given a temporary restraining order by Judge Learned Hand until the United States Supreme Court could rule on the scope of the 18th Amendment with relation to international ships.

In 1992 Allstate T. F. I. acquired No. 1 Broadway in foreclosure.  Over the decades the stone facade had weathered and fragments have fallen away.  The firm initiated a $2.2 million facade restoration by architect Stephen Cohan, executed by C. & D. Restoration.  Interestingly, as damaged stone was removed, the original brick and brownstone facade was revealed underneath.  

Above the base, colorful terra cotta shield representing ports of call adorn the facade.  Elsewhere, limestone decorations carry on a marine theme--starfish and shells, for instance.   photograph by Gryffindor

Completed in 1995, the project was awarded the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

The 1913 James Sheffield-Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper House - No. 45 E 67th Street

photo by Alice Lum

On the morning of Wednesday, November 12, 1902 the funeral of Thomas H. Lowerre, Jr. was held in the parlor of his fashionable townhouse at No. 45 East 67th Street. The impressive house was one of many similar brownstone homes built half a century before in the upper-middle class neighborhood.

That neighborhood was changing, however. As the turn of the century arrived, so did the wealthiest of New York society who were gradually inching up Fifth Avenue along Central Park, filling its side streets with chic, updated residences. On February 25, 1911 James R. Sheffield purchased the house from the Lowerre estate.

A prominent and wealthy attorney, Sheffield commissioned architect Walter B. Chambers to design a mansion to replace the Lowerre house – one that would reflect the family’s position and social status.

Five stories tall and completed in 1913, the 20-room mansion featured a white marble base with two deeply recessed arched openings. One sheltered the double-doored entrance, accessed by two extremely shallow marble steps; the other provided access to the American basement behind a handsome wrought iron fence.

Carved Beaux Arts details of oak leaves and ribbons embellished the first floor. Above, a three-sided oriel window rose through the second and third floors, creating a balcony to the fourth story. Above it two striking hooded dormers pierced the mansard roof.

photo by Alice Lum

Sheffield’s wife was the former Edith Tod, granddaughter of David Tod who was both the Governor of Ohio and United States Minister to Brazil. The couple was as active politically as they were socially; Mrs. Sheffield holding the posts of vice-president and governor of the Women’s National Republican Club, vice-president of the Union Settlement, and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames of America and the Daughters of the Cincinnati.

Upon Calvin Coolidge’s election in 1924, Sheffield was appointed Ambassador to Mexico, a post he would hold for three years. Later President Herbert Hoover named him Special Ambassador to Venezuela to present a statue of Henry Clay to that country.

When in town, the Sheffield house was the scene of dinner parties, dances and teas until James R. Sheffield died in 1938. Edith Tod Sheffield remained on at No. 45 East 67th Street for nearly two decades. She died in June 1956.

The year that James Sheffield was appointed Ambassador to Mexico, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and his wife, Gloria, celebrated the birth of their only child, Gloria Vanderbilt. The little girl’s life would be a tumultuous one. Her father died when she was 18 months old and a scandalous custody battle later ensued between her mother and her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who felt Gloria’s mother was unfit.

After three failed marriages, Gloria met and married screenwriter and author Wyatt Cooper in 1964. The newlyweds purchased No. 45 East 67th and moved in along with Gloria’s two sons by her former husband, conductor Leopold Stowkowski. Within the next two years two more sons would be born – Carter and Anderson.

The styles of the 1960s were avante garde and splashy designer Gloria Vanderbilt was right in the middle of it all. In addition to her fashion designing, she threw herself headlong into interior design. American quilts became her signature theme.

The designer lined entire rooms of the mansion with quilts – even the ceilings were fair game. Later a grown-up Anderson Cooper would recall the floors of his bedroom being covered with quilts, which were then shellacked. The interiors were striking, if perhaps not quite in the taste of Edith Tod Sheffield.

The master bedroom in 1970.  The walls, ceiling and floor were quilted by Gloria -- photo by Horst P. Horst from "Horst: Interiors"

Wyatt E. Cooper died unexpectedly of a heart ailment on January 5, 1978.  Years later Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper would reminisce “Always, when I go by there I look at the wisteria vine in front of that house because Carter and Anderson and I were there when their father, Wyatt, planted that vine. It was a little tiny foot-high wisteria. Now it’s grown up over the whole building.”

The wisteria vine planted by Wyatt Cooper still twines up the facade -- photo by Alice Lum

The imposing house at No. 45 East 67th Street remains a private home, its outward appearance unaltered during the past century. And the wisteria vine still twines up the façade.