The 1890 Rosemont - 210 West 105th Street

photo by Anthony Bellov

Architect John C. Burne designed two identical apartment buildings in 1889 at 210 and 212 West 105th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and The Boulevard (renamed Broadway in 1899).  Each would cost the developer, Diedrich Tragman, $20,000 to construct, or about $631,000 in 2026.  The outlay was too much for Tragman's resources and on May 10, 1890 was forced to abandon the project.  The buildings were described in court papers as, "two five-story unfinished double flats in process of erection, requiring for the purpose of their completion an expenditure of about six thousand dollars."  (The term "double flat" referred to the configuration of two apartments per floor, east and west.)

The eastern building, 210 West 105th Street, was dubbed the Rosemont.  It and its counterpart were a happy marriage of Romanesque Revival and neo-Grec styles (the former appearing at the first and fifth floors).  The brownstone-framed entrances above short stoops were flanked by paired windows engulfed by vast arches.  Intricate swirling carvings filled the spandrels of the entrances.

Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta, the three-story midsections featured neo-Grec-style stone lintels and foliate terra cotta bandcourses and decorative panels.  The elements of the top floors included a dramatic brick arch above two fully arched openings.  It was supported by paired brick pilasters with terra cotta capitals.  A highly unusual pressed cornice with geometric horizontal and vertical lines completed the design.

An early advertisement in the New York Herald described, "Six fine rooms and bath; halls heated; select, small family; every room light; most attractive residence portion in the city.  Rent $23."  The monthly rent would translate to about $820 today.

The tenants were middle class, including Augustus Johnson, a locomotive engineer with The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad; Samuel Hamilton, an engineer with the Consolidated Gas Company, and inspector of buildings and retired police officer Michael Tully.  

Samuel Hamilton was born in 1840 and joined the Consolidated Gas Company in 1877.  He and his wife, Mary Ann, had a son and two daughters.  On the morning of June 3, 1900, he was inspecting the powerful machinery in the company's engine room on West 44th Street when something went terribly wrong.  The New York Times reported, "he was seen to stagger and fall into a pit in which a five-foot fly wheel was making 150 revolutions a minute."  The New York Herald added, "His body was whirled around by the wheel and when the machinery was stopped, he was dead."  Samuel Hamilton's funeral was held in his Rosemont apartment on July 5.

Following his retirement from the Police Department, Michael Tully had turned to construction.  (Incidentally, he received an annual police pension of $600, equal to about $23,500 today.)   In addition to that work, he was appointed an inspector of buildings in 1895.  He was still living here in July 1901 when he broke ground for a six-story brick tenement and store on West 26th Street.

Mary Ann Sullivan was also still occupying her Rosemont apartment that year.  She died on December 2, 1901 and, as had been the case with Samuel, her funeral was held in the apartment two days later.

Like Michael Tully, Daniel Brady was a contractor.  On September 28, 1910, he, his wife and their three children attended a funeral.  Just as their carriage crossed the plaza at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, it collided with an automobile.  The New York Times reported, "The horses took fright and started south, running straight for the Vanderbilt mansion at Fifty-eighth Street."  

Three carriage drivers--Paul Anderson and George and Joseph Nathan--bolted into action.  The Nathans jumped on either side of the team and Anderson bravely darted "directly in front of the plunging horses to seize the bridle."  Happily for the Brady family, the team was eventually subdued and no one was injured.

Helen Wall Stevenson, who was known to audiences at Helen Cayvan, was described by The Evening World as "a prominent show girl."  She moved into the Rosemont with her two-year-old daughter, Muriel, in 1910.  

Helen Wall Stevenson, The Evening World, January 13, 1911 (copyright expired)

Helen was estranged from her husband, Clarence A. Stevenson, whom she married in 1907.  The Evening World reported, "Young Stevenson created a stir...by marrying Helen Wall Cayvan."  The "stir" had to do with Stevenson's being the step-son of wealthy Dr. Francis J. De Giers, owner of the Hotel Collingwood.  The couple's domestic problems started in May 1910 when, according to Helen, Clarence "deserted her."  Their troubles worsened that autumn when Helen "was found in the company of Kenneth E. Blair, a college student," in a Philadelphia hotel, according to The Evening World.

On the afternoon of January 8, 1911, Helen dropped Muriel off with a Mrs. Cunningham.  When she returned to pick her up, Mrs. Cunningham explained that Clarence Stevenson, his mother and stepfather, had appeared with a "legal-looking document" that purported to be a court order.  They took Muriel with them.  Helen, "evidently in deep distress," said The New York Times, rushed to Police Headquarters and reported that Muriel had been kidnapped by her father.  She was told that the police could not interfere, "as it was the father who was alleged to have aided in the removal of the girl," explained The Times.  Helen was advised "to take the matter to court."

Six months later, on July 11, 1911, The Evening World began an article saying, "There was a new ripple on the choppy matrimonial sea of young Clarence A. Stevenson and his chorus girl wife."  Earlier, newspaperman George Flannery had accompanied Helen to the De Giers' summer home near Sea Gate to serve Stevenson with a subpoena.  He subsequently sued the entire Stevenson-De Giers family for assault.  He testified in court that "after she had served the subpoena, Dr. De Giers, his wife and young Stevenson had assaulted him."  The Evening World reported, "The two men, he said, had struck him in the face and Mrs. De Giers had scratched him."  Dr. Francis De Giers counter-sued, charging that Flannery had "struck him with a cane."

Astoundingly--given the times and Helen's profession and her reported cavorting with a college man--on June 29, 1911, The New York Times reported that the jury had ruled in her favor.  The article added that since her separation, she "had been a member of the Prince of Pilsen company, and had appeared in other Broadway attractions."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A prominent resident was politician and secretary of the Knights of Columbus, Charles J. Stuart.  When America entered World War I, he went to France as a representative of the Knights of Columbus to boost the morale of the 82nd and 89th Divisions.  His good will trip turned into deadly combat.  The Evening World reported, 

In the Argonne forest, Stewart [sic] said, he went forward with cigarettes, candy and paper for the troops, exhausted his supply, and, as the hand to hand fighting caused his life to be endangered, he secured a gun and fought through the engagement.

Unfortunately, said the newspaper, "he was gassed and sent home."

Charles J. Stuart, The Evening World, February 18, 1919 (copyright expired)

Sadly, shortly after returning to 210 West 105th Street, he and his wife suffered grief.  On December 1, 1919, their daughter Anna Agnes died.  Her funeral was held in the apartment on December 5.

The following year Stuart ran unsuccessfully for assemblyman on the Tammany Hall ticket.

Patrick J. Hurley lived here at the time.  Known as Paddy, he and Daniel and Connie Hurley had opened the Hurley Brothers & Daly saloon at 1240 Sixth Avenue in 1892.  When the Volstead Act was enacted, the headstrong Irishmen simply moved the bar to the rear of their building with an unmarked entrance and installed a florist shop in the front.  They did not fool two especially clever Federal agents, Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, however.  On May 8, 1922, The New York Times said that the agents "with many disguises" had "unequaled records for trapping violators."  The previous day they had discovered the clandestine bar and slapped a fine on Patrick J. Hurley.

Artist Charles F. Beck lived here in 1924 and within the decade Ben Benn moved in.  Born in Russia in 1884 as Benjamin Rosenberg, he studied drawing and painting at the National Academy of Design from 1904 to 1908.  According to his biography by the Smithsonian Institution, Benn was "best known as a modern painter who assimilated in his early style the influences of Matisse, Picasso, and Kandinsky."  He was living here in 1925 when his first one-man show was held at the J. B. Neumann Gallery.

At midcentury, the neighborhood around 210 West 105th Street had become heavily Hispanic.  Soto Canedo, who worked as a stevedore, lived here in 1949.  On April 22 that year, the Staten Island Advance reported that the 34-year-old "suffered an internal injury yesterday when he fell about 12 feet into a hatch while working...aboard the SS Athenia."  Canedo recovered in Staten Island Hospital.

Vincent Magraner, who lived here in 1960, attended the United Puerto Rican-Hispano Parade on May 15 that year.  The 44-year-old was among 18 persons arrested for "disturbances," as reported by The New York Times.

image via apartments.com

As was the case in 1890, there are still just 10 units in the building.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The 1902 Henry Herman Westinghouse Mansion - 313 West 105th Street

 

Real estate developer John C. Umberfield purchased vacant land on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive in 1900.  Architect William E. Mowbray designed seven high-end residences for the site in the French Beaux Arts style, configuring his three designs in an A-B-C-B-C-B-A configuration.

The row was completed in 1902 and among the C models was 313 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance, which sat atop a three-stepped porch, within a rusticated base.  A delicate French-style railing at the second floor introduced a three-story projecting angled bay.  Engaged Scamozzi columns upheld a dramatic, broken pediment over the central window of the second floor.

John C. Umberfield sold the 21-foot-wide residence in February 1902 to Kate A. Burbank.  Her ownership would be short.  On October 30, 1903, The Sun reported that Kate sold 313 West 105th Street "to a Mrs. Westinghouse."

"Mrs. Westinghouse" was Clara Louise Saltmarsh Westinghouse, the wife of Henry Herman Westinghouse.  Born in 1854 and 1853 respectively, the couple was married in 1873.  They had two daughters, Clara Catherine, who was 20 in 1903; and Marjorie Caldwell, who was eight.  (Another daughter, Florence Erskine Westinghouse, died in 1890.)

Henry and his brother, George Westinghouse, were the sons of George Westinghouse, Sr., a patentee and manufacturer of farm equipment.  Like George, Jr., according to The New York Times, Henry "inherited a talent for mechanical development."  In 1883 he invented the single-acting steam engine and continued to design devices connected with air brakes and steam engines.  (His brother invented the air brake.)  In 1883, Henry co-founded the engineering firm of Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co.  The New York Times would later remark, "This company marketed the single-acting engine in every country where steam power is used."

When he founded Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co., Henry had already been associated with the Westinghouse Air Brake Company for a decade.  When he and Clara purchased 313 West 105th Street, he had been a vice-president of that firm for four years.

The family had another residence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and their country estate, Grasmere, was on Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes district of central New York State.   

Henry Herman Westinghouse (1853-1933) original source unknown

The drawing and dining rooms of the West 105th Street house were routinely the venue of entertaining.  But the dinner party of "intimate friends and members of the family" on February 16, 1906, was special.  The New-York Tribune noted that "there were twenty-covers" and said that during the dinner, Clara Catherine's engagement to Charles William Fletcher was announced.

Six months later, on August 26, the New-York Tribune reported that the invitations to the wedding had been issued.  It would take place, said the article, "on the evening of Wednesday, September 12, at their summer home, Grasmere, Kidder's Ferry, on Cayuga Lake."  It would be a prestigious event.

The Auburn, New York Democrat reported, "The affair was elaborate in detail and was witnessed by about 900 guests and relatives from New York, Pittsburg, Boston, Schenectady and Atchison, Kansas."  The article mentioned that after their "automobile tour," the newlyweds "will be at home at 313 West One Hundred and Fifth street, New York, after November 15."

The following year, Henry and Clara sold the mansion to clothing manufacturer Hugh M. Mullen and his wife, Jessie C.  The couple had a daughter, Genevieve Lillian, born in 1887.

The family had barely settled in when Genevieve's engagement to Guyon Locke Crocheron Earle was announced.  On December 30, 1908, The Sun reported, "The marriage will be celebrated at the Mullen home on January 27.  

While the society reporters normally focused on the prospective bride, this engagement was different.  The son of the late General Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Guyon Earle grew up in "Earle Cliff," known today as the Morris-Jumel mansion, and in the family's Staten Island country home, Guyon Mansion, erected in 1673.  New Yorkers were also well-acquainted with the family through General Earle's proprietorship of hotels, notably the New Netherlands and the Hotel Normandie.

The wedding took place in the 105th Street house on the night of January 27, 1909.  As the Westinghouses had done, the Mullens soon sold the mansion.  In May 1910, Hugh and Jessie moved to the fashionable Sugar Hill section of Harlem, purchasing a house at 20 St. Nicholas Place.  They sold 313 West 105th Street to John Ewing and his wife, the former Grace MacKenzie.

John Ewing was born in Scotland on May 21, 1848.  When he was three, his parents immigrated to New York City.  He graduated from the College of Pharmacy and in 1877 partnered in the drug business of Doyle & Ewing.  He later founded Ewing & Co. with his brother-in-law Alexander MacKenzie.  Grace was the daughter of George R. MacKenzie, president of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

The couple was married on October 3, 1876.  Their first child, Grace MacKenzie, died at the age of five in 1885.  Their son, George Ross McKenzie, was 27 years old when they purchased 313 West 105th Street.  The Ewings' country home, Bramble Brae, was in Glen Spey, New York.

The couple was at Bramble Brae on July 29, 1914, when John died at the age of 66.  Grace remained at 313 West 105th Street until September 1920 when she sold it to British Lt. Colonel Lloyd, sparking a rapid-fire turnover in ownership.  

On December 10, 1924, The New York Times reported that Milton and Edward Schreyer had purchased the house for $55,000, saying they "intend to make extensive improvements and occupy."  (The price would translate to just over $1 million in 2026.)  They Schreyers lost the property in foreclosure and it was sold at auction to John B. Antonapolos for $40,950 on January 12, 1927.

Antonapolos leased the house the following year to the Master Institute of United Arts.  In reporting the deal on July 27, 1928, The New York Times remarked, "The institute owns the plot at the north corner of 103d Street and Riverside Drive, where it is erecting a fifteen-story structure."

The porch and its hefty wing walls were intact when this tax photograph was taken.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Russian-born Nicholas Roerich and his wife, Helena, had arrived in New York City eight years earlier.  The mystic and artist described himself as a master in the theosophist belief in ancients who could transmit messages and knowledge to believers.  (Reportedly, it was he who urged follower Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture under Franklin Roosevelt, to persuade the Treasury Department to add the mystic pyramid of the Great Seal to the dollar bill—a change that was enacted in 1935.)  In addition to the institute, the couple had founded the Roerich Museum in 1923.

At the time of the lease signing, Nicholas was out of the country, "the head of the Roerich American expedition to Tibet," as explained by The New York Times on July 15, 1928.  His 5,000-word letter that Helena had received the previous day was the first anyone had heard from the expedition in 13 months.  He explained that they had been captives for five months in Tibet, "during which five of his men died and ninety caravan animals perished."

The Master Institute of United Arts and the Roerich Museum operated from 313 West 105th Street, staging exhibitions and lectures.  On January 27, 1929, The New York Times commented, "The Roerich Museum at 313 West 105th Street contains about 800 paintings by Mr. Roerich, including the panorama of his Asiatic travels.  The facilities remained here until the completion of the Master Building at 310-312 Riverside Drive. 

John Antonapolos signed a three-year lease for 313 West 105th Street to Pantelis Sioris on December 1, 1930 at $4,500 per year (about $7,000 per month today).  Before being leased in February 1939, it had been converted to multiple units--two apartments through the fourth floor and six furnished rooms on the fifth.

A substantial renovation came in 1963, when the former mansion was converted to apartments, three per floor.  The porch was removed, the main entrance and the service entrance remodeled as windows, and a new doorway installed where a window had been.

Then, in 1999, a penthouse level, unseen from the street was added.  It, combined with the fifth floor, created a duplex apartment.  There are 15 units in the building today.

photographs by the author

The 1909 Esperanto - 229 West 105th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

In 1908 developer Lorenz Weiher acquired the five lots at 227 through 235 West 105th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway.  He commissioned the architectural firm of Moore & Landsiedel to design a "six story brick and stone tenement" on the site, as described in the firm's plans.  (The term "tenement" at the time referred to any multi-family residential building.)  Construction, which was completed the following year, cost Weiher $125,000, or about $4.45 million in 2026.

Moore & Landsiedel drew from Colonial precedents, embellishing the Roman brick clad upper facade with dramatically splayed lintels and scrolled keystones, and prominent stone quoins that emphasized verticality in the extremely wide structure.  The architects also broke up the horizontal plane by placing the entrance to the east and balancing its heavy stone enframement with a duplicate to the west--the latter embracing two windows.  The four-story midsection sat between intermediate cornices and the top floor was capped with a bracketed and corbelled cornice.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

An advertisement for the Esperanto in August 15, 1909 described "5 or 6 rooms and bath."  Because financially comfortable New Yorkers fled the city in the summer months, the ad noted, "Concessions for summer."  The advertised rents ranged from $660 to $840 per year--the equivalent of $1,950 to $2,500 per month today.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1909  (copyright expired)

The residents were affluent enough to have domestic help.  Hulda Maske, described by The New York Times as "a servant girl," worked for and lived with a family here.  On her night off on October 18, 1909, she went with three men and two women in an automobile to the Bronx.  Early in the morning, the car struck a telegraph pole on Jerome Avenue.  The Times said, "The women fainted, and all the party were bruised and cut, but apparently none was hurt enough to go to the hospital."

After being treated by an ambulance crew, Hulda and her friends went back to Manhattan "by trolley."  The next day, Hulda complained that her head began to ache.  She was taken to Harlem Hospital where she was diagnosed with a skull fracture.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1909 (copyright expired)

Among the early residents were Reverend Thomas W. Martin and his wife.  Born in 1837, Martin was ordained by Bishop Henry C. Potter in 1863.  For years he had been rector of Trinity Church in Hewlett, Long Island.  

Walter Bertrand Walker and his wife, the former Mary Creecy Lawton, moved into the Esperanto following their wedding in The Plaza on February 14, 1911.  An attorney, Walker was a 1903 graduate of Yale College and a partner with classmate George Leonard.  The young lawyer was, somewhat surprisingly, a trustee of the American College for Girls in Constantinople, Turkey.  His bride was graduated from Ely School in 1906.  

Baron Paul von Eglinitzki lived here following his divorce from the former Helen Nicholson in July 1915.  The couple was married on June 1, 1907 and their only child, Katharine, was born in 1909.

Von Eglinitzki was born in Germany in 1876.  The New York Times said that his ancestors "could be traced back to the fourteenth century" and that he "was for six years in the German Army, two years in the Thirteenth Huzzars and four in the first guard Field Artillery, of which the Kaiser was the Colonel."

Now living in the Esperanto, he was a stockbroker with Charles R. Flint & Co. with offices in the Park Row Building.  The New York Herald noted, "the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice also had its offices" in the building.  The bureau suspected that the baron was more than a stockbroker.  

On March 14, 1919, The New York Times ran the headline, "Baron Paul von Zglinitzki [sic] and Others Sent to Fort Oglethorpe," and reported, "He was arrested yesterday after having been watched by Government secret agents for a year."  The New York Herald explained that he was suspected "of having negotiated for the shipment of munitions in Mexico."  

The baron and the other six German nationals were sent to the Government internment camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.  But because the Armistice had been signed on November 11, 1918, Von Zglinitzki would likely not be held there very long.  The New York Herald said that prisoners who "escaped arrest until so near the end of the war" would most likely be released from internment camps and deported "when peace is ratified." 

A widower, John H. Conway lived here at the time.  Born in 1843, he was a Civil War veteran and the last surviving crew member of the Monitor, which famously fought the Merrimac off Hampton Roads.  An ardent Democrat, he was formerly president of the Horatio Seymour Democratic Club and was treasurer of Tammany Hall in the 1870s.  He was appointed Deputy Tax Commissioner in 1893.  Conway still held that position on August 1, 1919 when he died in his apartment at the age of 76.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

George H. Whaley, president of the dye-making firm John Campbell & Co., lived here with his wife until his romantic eye roamed.  He became infatuated with his stenographer, May M. Croke.  In 1919 he gave her money to take a three-week vacation and while she was gone, he induced his wife to divorce him so he could marry May.  (Whaley moved to the Hotel Breslin and his wife remained in the Esperanto apartment.)  When May returned from her vacation, Whaley gave her a $2,200 diamond engagement ring and the title to a house at 301 West 88th Street.

But problems soon arose.  George Whaley "employed detectives to shadow her."  They discovered, in part, that May had used some of the money Whaley gave her for her vacation on Monte F. Jacobs "and was with him part of the time," according to The Times.  The embittered George Whaley "instructed the detectives to give [Effie Elizabeth Jacobs] the evidence they had."  Jacobs's wife then sued May Croke on September 22, 1920 for $100,000 damages, "charging alienation of the affections of her husband."  George Whaley now had neither wife nor girlfriend, and a significant dent in his bank account.

Two residents were victims of audacious thievery in 1924.  The first took place in the apartment of Bernie Woods where a wedding was held on June 22.  Among the guests was 15-year-old Anna Treloar, presumably accompanied by her parents.  Anna left the ceremony early, according to police.  Later, expensive wedding gifts were discovered missing--a platinum watch, an onyx ring and silver cuff links.  On August 10, Anna was arrested and at the time she was wearing the platinum watch.  "The girl was held for the Children's Society, reported The New York Times.

The following month, on September 15, Detectives Cronin and Barrett thought that 21-year-old Loretta Floyd was acting "suspiciously" as she came out of the building with a suitcase.  Loretta was a maid in the apartment of Irving Finkelstein and his wife.  When they had her open the suitcase, they discovered, "valuable silk dresses, lingerie and other wearing apparel," reported The Evening Mail.  Loretta was charged with grand larceny.

The building continued to house middle-class professionals, like dentist Ernesto Calvo, here as early as 1928; and John G. Broady, an attorney with the firm Chadbourne, Stanchfield & Levy in 1930.

Abraham Adolph Rozen and his wife, Eva, came to America in 1941 and moved into 229 West 105th Street.  Abraham had been a leader among Polish Jews in Paris before leaving Europe.  Now he was a partner in a textile exporting concern.  The couple was still living in the building when Rozen suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 63 on March 10, 1954.

Elizabeth Horvath West lived here with her married daughter, Joyce Kaiden, and Joyce's five-month-old son in September 1960.  (The whereabouts of Joyce's husband is unclear.)  Elizabeth, who was 38, was estranged from her husband.  The Daily News described her as a "120-pound brunette-dyed-blonde."  On the night of September 6, she and three men, including 32-year-old Robert Hannigan, were seen at a rear table in the Castilian Room on East 75th Street.  

Elizabeth Horvath West, Daily News, September 8, 1960

Robert Hannigan was a bartender and convicted gambler.  He had been negotiating with the owner to buy the Castilian Room for about six months.  The Daily News said that Elizabeth was apparently meeting with him "to discuss the possibility of becoming hatcheck girl there in the fall."

The last of the club's employees left around 4:20 a.m.  A refuse collector entered at 5:50 and discovered the bodies of Elizabeth West and Robert Hannigan.  The Daily News said, "The killer shot Mrs. West three times, once in the abdomen, once in the neck and once in the head, the last slug penetrating the brain."  Hannigan's body was on the floor under a pay phone.  A dime on the carpet suggested he had tried to make a call when he was ambushed.

It appeared that Elizabeth was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Hannigan was "in the hole," according to the club's owner, "for $2,000 in business debts and a $7,000 mortgage."  Police thought that the money was the motive.  Elizabeth was murdered because she could have identified the killers.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The 1960s saw at least two activists in the building.  On October 2, 1961, Joseph Brandt was called to Washington to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  Brandt was a member of the National Assembly for Democratic Rights.  The Long Island Star-Journal reported that he "invoked the Fifth Amendment 60 times in refusing to answer questions."  And on May 18, 1968, 21-year-old Steven Goldfield was arrested with two other Columbia University students when they refused to leave a building on 114th Street while other students protested outside.

In 1970, The Besma Women's Association was founded here.  On May 27, 1972, the New York Amsterdam News reported on the group's upcoming annual Debutante Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Statler Hilton.  The organization's headquarters is still in the building today.

The nine-over-one windows survive in some apartments.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The name Esperanto was dropped decades ago.  But the apartments still contain five and six rooms and the exterior is essentially unchanged.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for prompting this post

The 1890 Elmhurst Apartments - 212 West 105th Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

In 1889, Diedrich Tragman hired architect John C. Burne to design two identical apartment buildings at 210 and 212 West 105th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and The Boulevard (renamed Broadway in 1899).  

Each of the buildings cost Tragman $20,000 (or about $631,000 in 2026) to erect.  Unfortunately, he overextended himself and on May 10, 1890 he was forced to sell the "two five-story unfinished double flats in process of erection, requiring for the purpose of their completion an expenditure of about six thousand dollars," according to court papers later.  The buyer, Frederick M. Littlefield, completed the buildings.  (The term "double flat" referred to the configuration of two apartments per floor, east and west.)

The western building, 212 West 105th Street, was called the Elmhurst Apartments.  Like its architectural sibling, it was a happy marriage of Romanesque Revival and neo-Grec styles (the former appearing at the first and fifth floors). Paired windows on the first floor were engulfed by vast arches.  They flanked the brownstone-framed entrance above a short stoop.  Intricate swirling carvings filled its spandrels.

Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta, the three-story midsection featured neo-Grec-style stone lintels, foliate terra cotta bandcourses and decorative panels.  The elements of the top floor included a dramatic brick arch above two fully arched openings.  It was supported by paired brick pilasters with terra cotta capitals.  A highly unusual pressed cornice with geometric horizontal and vertical lines completed the design.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Each apartment held "six large, light rooms," according to an advertisement.  They rented for $25 a month, or about $1,000 today.  Among the initial tenants were builder and contractor Ernest Wetterer, and New York Life Insurance Company agent Silas E. Pearsall.

The middle-class residents were affluent enough to afford domestic help.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on January 18, 1893, read: "Housework--a girl, 16 to 17, to help with housework and washing; wages $5 or $6.  Mrs. Garrison, 212 West 105th st."  The higher figure would translate to about $215 today.  

Mary and H. D. Hubener purchased 212 West 105th Street in August 1906.  Two months later, "a heap of kerosene-soaked rags was found in the cellar," reported The New York Times, which said the "attempt to burn the building was reported to the police, but they were unable to get a clew to the firebug."  Mary Hubener had her suspicions, though.  She and her husband had previously owned an apartment house where they were harassed by a "woman firebug."  

The vengeful arsonist had only started, however.  A few months later, The Brooklyn Citizen reported, "The tenants of the house...had about forgotten this fire when on Dec. 1 another blaze was discovered among some furniture in the cellar.  Three days later this was discovered ablaze again, and the terror began to seize upon the tenants."

At 8:45 on the night of December 6, 1906, another rubbish fire was discovered in the cellar of the building and four nights later another was set in the hallway.  On January 7, 1907, the New York Herald reported on yet another fire, saying, "This was the fifth fire of undoubted incendiary origin that had been discovered in the house within two weeks."  On the same day, The Brooklyn Citizen reported that police "got information to-day that a woman firebug" was bent on destroying "the handsome ten-family apartment house."  Mary Hubener told the police the woman's name.  

The New York Herald added, "the place has a reputation of being a hoodoo house."  (The term meant it was cursed.)  Mary Hubener told a reporter from The Brooklyn Citizen, "These fires have about ruined me.  Nobody will live in the house."  The New York Herald reported that the repeated attempts to burn the building resulted in its being "almost deserted by its tenants.  Three of ten families were left and these had given notice of their intention to take an early departure."

The Hubeners apparently gave up.  On April 30, 1907, The New York Times reported that they had sold the building.  The fires ceased.

212 West 105th Street (right) is identical to its neighbor at 210.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Somewhat shockingly for the times, 26-year-old Florence Sohmer lived here on her own in 1911.  On the evening of August 6 that year, three teenaged males knocked on her door "with a letter purporting to come from a friend," as reported by The Evening World.  While she started reading the letter, one of them pulled out a revolver, "while another hit her over the head with a blackjack," said the article.  Florence Sohmer screamed, frightening her assailants and causing them to flee.  Florence's shrieks had alerted passersby.  The Evening World said the men "ran, with a crowd following into Morningside Park."  The trio, whose ages ranged from 17 to 19, were later captured.

Living here around the time was French-born Marie Escande and her daughter, Charlotte.  Marie worked as the companion of wealthy widow Dorcas Knox Braisted, who lived in the Hotel Gotham on Fifth Avenue.  Mrs. Braisted died at her summer home in White Plains on March 24, 1925.  The New York Times reported, "Mme. Marie Escande of 212 West 105th Street...will receive an annuity of $1,800."  The annual windfall would equal more than $32,000 today.

A tenant named Thylstrup also worked for himself.  Moving in around 1915, he remained here into the 1920s.  His advertisements over the years never changed: "Painter, paperhanger, kalsominer, first class; has tools; reasonable."  (A skilled craftsman, a kalsominer applied kalsomine to ceilings, resulting in a matte finish.)

A replacement door sits within the carved brownstone frame.  photo by Anthony Bellov

There are still just two apartments per floor in the building that lost its name decades ago.  Other than a shocking coat of bright turquoise paint on the cornice, little has changed externally to the 135 year old building.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The 1900 Albert Goldman Mansion - 305 West 105th Street

 

In 1899, real estate developer Hamilton W. Weed broke ground for four upscale residences on the north side of West 105th street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.  Designed by Janes & Leo in an A-B-B-C configuration, they were completed the following year.  Among the B models was 305 West 105th Street.  Clad in Flemish bond brick and trimmed in limestone above an ashlar base, its French Beaux Arts design included a two-story, faceted oriel behind a balustrade at the second and third floors.  The central window of the second floor wore a triangular pediment that engulfed a large, layered keystone.  The understated fifth floor sat above a bracketed metal cornice.

Real estate operator Albert Brod purchased three of the houses for resale.  He sold No. 305 to Albert and Augusta Goldman in May 1901.  Goldman sat on the board of directors of the Mutual Chemical Company of Jersey City and of the Tartar Chemical Co.  He and Augusta had three children, Harry, Sophie and Lillian.

John C. Umberfield lived with the family briefly, listed here in 1904.  A prolific builder and developer, many of the structures he erected were on the Upper West Side.

Sophie and Lillian Goldman had lofty ambitions for young women in the first years of the 20th century.  At a time when female attorneys were nearly unheard of, in 1911 Sophie was enrolled in the Woman's Law Class of New York University.  Her sister would graduate from the Law Class, as well.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Augusta Goldman died in the mansion on August 10, 1914.  Sophie and Lillian took over the management of the house.  When well-to-do families closed their townhouses for the summer, the staff was often let go, to be replaced in the fall.  On June 26, 1916, a notice in The New York Times read: "Cook--Lady closing house for Summer, wishes situations for her cook and chambermaid, waitress.  305 West 105th St."

As early as 1920, both sisters were members of the Portia Club.  A women-only group, it was founded in 1895 and focused on social and intellectual activities.  Sophie was also a member of the Woman's Forum, a group composed of female lawyers, social workers, doctors and other professionals.  While partly a social club, the Woman's Forum also held civic discussions and events.

By then, Harry was gone from West 105th Street.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 23, 1920 reflected Albert's German origins: "Cook, competent, for private house, family three adults; city references required; German or Austrian preferred."

Interestingly, another builder-developer lived with the Goldmans shortly after that ad.  Hugh Getty was described by the Record & Guide as "one of the best known builders of New York City."  Born in Ireland in 1849, he came to New York at the age of 18 and "erected a number of business buildings in this city, several hotels and a number of handsome residences," said the journal.  Getty died in the house at the age of 73 on December 3, 1922.

The Goldmans had a serious scare in the spring of 1926.  Around the turn of the century, the Consolidated Gas Company established a "Pulmotor Crew" to resuscitate victims of escaping fumes from "imperfect gas fixtures and unsatisfactory, antiquated or neglected house pipes," as described by Gas Logic.  In March 1926, the Goldmans' neighbor, Dr. B. S. Bookstaver, who lived across the street at 304 West 105th Street, wrote a letter to the Consolidated Gas Company that said in part:

I extend my sincerest thanks for the help your Pulmotor crew have given me today in saving the life of Albert Goldman of 305 West 105th Street at 8:30 A.M. from accidental gas asphyxiation.

On April 21, 1929, Goldman's death was announced in an extremely succinctly worded notice in The New York Times:  "Goldman, Albert, at his late residence.  305 West 105th St. Funeral private."

The mansion was converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1940.  Among the residents as early as 2006 was Tony Award winning actress Betty Buckley.  Born in Texas in 1947, she made her mark on Broadway, film and television, earning her Tony as Grizabella in the original Broadway production of Cats in 1983.  While living here she sang "Memory" from Cats at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2006, in tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Externally, little has changed to 305 West 105th Street since the Goldman family moved in nearly 125 years ago.

photographs by the author

The 1902 Isidor and Julia Gartner Mansion - 309 West 105th Street

 

Two years after ground was broken, in 1902 builder and developer John C. Umberfield completed construction of seven, 22-foot wide townhouses on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in the French Beaux Arts style, they were five stories tall and faced in limestone.

Anchoring the row to the east was 309 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance within a rusticated base.  A projecting bay with gently curved corners provided an iron-railed balcony to the fifth floor.  Engaged Scamozzi columns that upheld a dramatic, broken pediment at the second floor were mimicked in the double-height pilasters that flanked the second and third floors.

Umberfield sold the house to Isidor and Julia M. Gartner in April 1902. Born in Rhaunen, Germany in September 1844, Gartner was a partner in Gartner & Friedenheit, makers of satin and silk ribbons.  The former Julia M. Winter was born in New York in 1847.  Also living in the house were the couple's unmarried sons, Louis Winter and Albert Victor; and son William S. (known as "Billy") and his wife, the former Carrol Batles (known familiarly as "Babe.")  They were married on July 3, 1900.  

The family's country home was in Arverne, Long Island.  Julia suffered a terrifying and potentially fatal incident there on August 10, 1902.  Among the domestic staff was Mathilda Schnitzer.  The New York Herald Dispatch reported, "The young woman found Mrs. Gartner alone in a room and sprang upon her with the cry, 'Now I'll do it!'  She then threw Mrs. Gartner on the floor and began to choke her."

Hearing the commotion, other servants ran to the room and found Julia unconscious on the floor.  "They dragged the Schnitzer girl away from Mrs. Gartner," said the article.  Two physicians soon arrived.  The Herald Dispatch said that Dr. Tingley "had trouble restoring [Julia] to consciousness," while the other doctor, George Meyer, diagnosed Mathilda Schnitzer with "acute mania."  (The term often refers to bipolar disorder today.)  The young woman was transported back to Manhattan where she was committed to the Bellevue Hospital insane ward.

William and Carrol had a baby boy, named William Jr. in 1902.  Tragically, he died on New Year's Day 1903.  The family's intense grief resulted in the infant's funeral being strictly private.

There would be another funeral in the parlor a month to the day later.  Julia Gartner died on February 1, 1903 at the age of 55.  Her active involvement and that of her husband in the local and Jewish communities was reflected in the groups represented at the funeral: Yorkville Lodge, No. 69; King Solomon's Lodge, No. 279; Temple Beth-El; the Monte Relief Society; and the Grand Lodge of the United Order of True Sisters.

On June 12, 1905, Isidore Gartner sold 309 West 105th Street to Daniel Fiske Kellogg.  Born on March 19, 1865 in Chittenango, New York, Kellogg was the financial editor of The Sun.  He married Maude Isabel Forbes on September 2, 1891 and they had a son, Daniel Jr., and a daughter Victorine Lee.  The family's summer home was in Newport.

The Kelloggs remained here for nearly a decade, selling the mansion in November 1914 for $50,000 to John F. Haas.  The price would translate to about $1.62 million in 2025.

The Haas family did not initially move into the house.  They leased it Colonel Frank Scott Long and his wife, the former Edith Erdine Clark.  The couple had two sons, Charles C. and Frank Sidney, and a daughter, Edith.  When the family moved into the house in 1914, Frank Sidney was 19 years old.  On June 18 that year, he was appointed a cadet in the U. S. Military Academy.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

When America entered World War I, Frank Sidney Long was deployed to Europe.  A first lieutenant, he was in command of a battalion at Fleville, France on October 5, 1918.  In posthumously awarding him the Distinguished Service Cross, The General Orders, No. 95 of the War Department on July 26, 1919 read:

Having been wounded in the side by shrapnel while caring for wounded men of his platoon, Lieut. Long refused to be evacuated, but returned from the dressing station to his command.  While withdrawing his platoon to a better position under heavy barrage he was instantly killed by shell fire.

The Haas family moved briefly into the West 105th Street residence.  On September 19, 1919, an ad in The New York Times read, "Lost--Brown and white rough terrier, male; answers to name Scally; no collar; strayed from home Wednesday, 309 West 105th St.  Miss Hass [sic]."  When Scally had not been found nearly two months later, the identical ad was placed in the New York Herald on November 3 adding the plea, "owner heartbroken."

Charles Andrew Flammer and his wife Harriet moved into the house before the end of the year.  Born on June 28, 1845, he graduated from the College of the City of New York and was admitted to the bar in 1866.  He was appointed a judge in 1873.  

On June 29, 1936, The New York Times reported on Flammer's 91st birthday, recalling that he "was a justice presiding over Yorkville Court during the Civil War."  Four months earlier, Flammer had been interviewed by The New York Times journalist Meyer Berger in "the cavernous, dark-paneled parlor of his home at 309 West 105th Street."  The judge recalled the day when he was in his teens, standing at the corner of Broadway and Canal Street "to watch Abraham Lincoln go by in his carriage."  

Justice Charles A. Flammer, Times Wide World Photo, The New York Times June 25, 1937

Berger mentioned in that February 13, 1936 article, "He and his third wife live in the great house off Riverside Drive with two servants.  He climbs the old stairs, despite his age, reads standard or classic books in his library and smokes three cigars a day."  

Judge Charles Andrew Flammer died in the house on June 24, 1937, four days before his 92nd birthday. 

The Flammer estate sold 309 West 105th Street to James H. Cruickshank on June 20, 1939.  In reporting on the sale, The New York Times remarked, "There are fourteen rooms and three baths in the building."

In 1950, the mansion was converted to apartments and furnished rooms.  A subsequent renovation in 1964 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and two each on the upper floors.

photographs by the author