The George A. and Lillian S. Harris Mansion - 313 West 107th Street

 

Prolific Upper West Side real estate developers Perez M. Stewart and H. Ives Smith commissioned the equally prolific Upper West Side architect Clarence F. True in 1897 to design seven upscale residences at 305 through 317 West 107th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.  Among them was 313 West 107th Street.  Like its architectural siblings, it was 20-feet-wide and five stories tall.  Designed in the Renaissance Revival style with splashes of Beaux Arts, it was faced in gray brick and trimmed in limestone.  The arched centered entrance above a short stone stoop was flanked by engaged Scamozzi columns atop paneled pedestals.  Carved swags and ribbons decorated the spandrels.  

The lower three floors were bowed, providing a stone-railed balcony to the fourth floor.  Stone balustrades that fronted the second-floor windows suggested Juliette balconies.  The fifth floor took the form of a slate shingled mansard pierced with two arched-pedimented dormers.

The first owners of 313 West 107th Street were Henry and Mary A. Nichols.  On April 2, 1904, they advertised, "A North German or Protestant nurse wanted for two little boys; references required."

The Nichols placed the house for sale in November 1908.  Their realtor's ad described it as being "in fine condition, for sale at a reasonable figure."  It was sold twice before newlyweds George A. Harris and his wife, the former Lillian Dorothy Samuels, purchased the residence in 1912.

Born in Titusville, Pennsylvania on November 21, 1873, George A. Harris operated an apparel business with his brother Julian.  He and Lillian were married shortly before purchasing the house. 

The Harris family quickly grew to three.  Edward H. Harris was born in 1913.  Lillian placed an advertisement in The New York Times on February 11 seeking a "Nurse, thoroughly competent and experienced, for infant."  

In January 1914, George and Julian Harris took in a "special partner," Simon Ascher.  Asher contributed $150,000 to the company (more than $4.6 million in 2026 money).  While George remained as president, the name of the firm, which made and sold "knit goods and all other kinds of wearing apparel," as described in the partnership agreement, was renamed the Simon Ascher Company.

In September 1915, the Harrises hired architect John H. Corrigan to design a roof garden.  It included a "new enclosure" and cost the equivalent of $13,000 today.

George and Lillian Harris apparently determined early on that their son would be polished and erudite.  When they looked for a governess in 1918, they demanded that she be "experienced, speaking good French; boy five years."

Lillian's own cultivation was reflected in December 1928 when the Henry Street Settlement added a music school to its offerings with Lillian as its chairman.  The New York Times noted that the school would be under the leadership of Paulus Pilat, former teacher at the Königliche Kunstgewerbe Academy in Budapest.  The article said, "as they are sufficiently advanced, children will be taught ensemble work.  Chamber music is ultimately to be an important part of the program."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

While the Harrises maintained a country home in Scarsdale, New York, they were often seen at what society columns referred to as "fashionable watering-holes."  Such was the case in the summer of 1929, when they spent time in Saratoga Springs.  On August 30, The New York Times reported that they hosted a dinner party at the Lido Venice there.  Among the guests were Mrs. Graham Fair Vanderbilt, John Hay Whitney and Marquise Caigliano.

The family was absent from West 107th Street in 1930 and 1931, possibly in Europe.  It was leased to Walter and Helen T. Emerich.  Walter was the founder and head of Walter Emerich & Co., manufacturers of silk ribbons.  In reporting on the lease, The New York Times described the property as a "five-story residence with roof garden."

The house was sold in October 1938 to Kathryn A. Gorman.  The New York Times reported, she would occupy it "when alterations are completed."  Gorman lived quietly in the mansion, and the address fell from the society columns for decades.

A renovation completed in 1975 resulted in two apartments.

photograph by the author

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for prompting this post

The H. Ray Paige House - 304 West 107th Street

 

The advertisement for 304 West 107th Street in the New York Herald on October 19, 1909 called the residence, "well planned and attractive" with "4 bathrooms, needle bath, billiard room, &c."  It was one of a row of four upscale homes built by William J. Casey and designed by Neville & Bagge.  Five stories tall and 18-feet-wide, its neo-Georgian design included a dignified Ionic portico centered within the limestone base.  The upper floors were clad in red brick; the windows of each level being treated differently.  The fifth floor sat between two stone cornices, and a brick parapet finished the design.

Casey's advertisement was not immediately successful.  It would not be until a year later, on October 29, 1910, that the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that he sold 307 West 107th Street to Horace Ray Paige, whose wedding was just three weeks away.

Paige (who went by his first initial and middle name) had graduated from Yale University two years earlier.  His marriage to Maud Emily Louisa Steinway took place in All Angels' Church on West End Avenue and 81st Street on November 22, 1910.  Born on April 6, 1889, Maud was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Ranft Steinway and the granddaughter of Henry Steinway, founder of the piano making firm Steinway & Sons.  Orphaned in 1896, she was reared by her half-sister, Paula Steinway von Bermuth.  

Somewhat surprisingly, Maud joined her husband in a business venture.  On July 2, 1912, they and a partner incorporated the Russian Tyre Sales Co., "to deal in rubber, tires, etc." according to The India Rubber World.

The Paiges' country home, Basket Neck Farms, was in Remsenburg, Long Island.  The couple would have two children, Audrey Helen, born on December 24, 1913, and Shirley Maude, who arrived on June 23, 1917.  But neither would see the inside of 304 West 107th Street.

On January 5, 1913, The New York Times reported that the Paiges had leased the furnished house to James Joyce (not to be confused with the Irish poet), and on October 11 that year they leased it to Foster Crampton and his wife, the former Lorraine March.

The couple was married in London on August 6, 1912.  Born in 1877, like his landlord, Crampton was a graduate of Yale.  In the first half of the 20th century, physicians attended to most well-to-do patients in their homes rather than hospitals.  On November 27, 1914, The Yale Alumni Weekly reported, "A son, Foster, Jr., was born to Mr. and Mrs. Foster Crampton at 304 West One Hundred and Seventh Street, New York City."

On January 6, 1917, the Record & Guide reported that the Paiges had sold 304 West 107th Street for $45,000--equal to about $1.1 million in 2026.  (Unfortunately, the Paiges' marriage would not last, and they were divorced in Paris in February 1926.)

The buyer was Dr. William Sargent Ladd and his wife, the former Mary Richardson Babbott.  Born in Portland, Oregon on August 16, 1887, Ladd earned his medical degree at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1915.  When he purchased 304 West 107th Street, he had just been appointed a professor at Columbia.  He and Mary were married in 1913.  (An ardent mountain climber, Ladd took his bride to the Alps for their honeymoon.)  The couple would have three sons and a daughter.

Mary was the daughter of Frank Lusk Babbott and the former Mary Richardson Ladd Pratt.  Her maternal grandfather was the multi-millionaire Charles Pratt.  Upon the death of her mother in 1919, Mary inherited $576,960--around $10.5 million today.

It was possibly the financial windfall that prompted the Babbotts to built a new house in the Bronx.  In January 1920, they sold the 107th Street house and The American Architect reported that they had hired architect Frederick L. Ackerman to design a "3 story residence to be built on Independence Ave."  

The Babbotts' leaving ended the residence as a single-family home.  It was converted to "bachelor apartments" with the Department of Buildings noting, "not more than 10 rooms to be used for sleeping purposes" and "cooking in more than two of the apartments will render this building liable to immediate vacation."  The conversion was completed within months and an advertisement in The Sun on April 4, 1920 offered, "High class apartments" of "1-2-3- rooms and bath."  Rents ranged from $1,200 to $2,800 a year, or about $3,650 per month for the most expensive in today's terms.

Despite the renovation, the cornices were intact as late as 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The apartments attracted several artistic tenants.  An early resident was Mikhail Press, also known as Michael Press.  Born in Vilnius, Lithuania in August 1871, the violin prodigy first appeared in public at the age of 10 and at 13 years old he was concert master in the Vilna Opera House.  After escaping execution during the Russian Revolution, he fled to Germany, then Sweden, and finally to the United States in 1922.

Mikhail Press (original source unknown).

In its January 1926 issue, The Musical Observer reported,

Michael Press, since his return from Europe late in the Fall, has been busy arranging his work for the season.  In addition to his activities in Philadelphia and his chamber music work, he has been enlarging his New York studio, at 304 West 107th street, where he is giving musical receptions, pupils' recitals, and informal recitals of his own.

Stage and motion picture actress Cecilia des Roches lived here at the same time.  On Christmas Eve 1928, her maid was unable to get into the apartment.  The superintendent opened the door and they found the actress dead in the bathroom.  The New York Times said she was "clad in a kimono and lying half under the bathtub.  It is thought she became ill suddenly while preparing to take a bath."  The article added, "Her position under the tub seemed to have been due to her kimono's catching on a faucet, tightening about her as she fell and causing her to roll partly under the tub."

Des Roches's mysterious death prompted an autopsy.  It revealed that she was a victim of what the Brooklyn Eagle described as "Christmas rum."  Prohibition had forced  Americans to resort to bootleg alcohol in celebrating the holidays.  Cecilia des Roches was among the six deaths attributed to bootleg alcohol on that day alone.

Artist Vera Bock occupied an apartment here as early as 1930.  Born in Russia in 1905, she was known for book illustrations and her posters for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.

Vera Bock illustrated A Ring and a Riddle in 1944.

Tim Nagai and Larry Tajai lived here in 1945.  On the night of May 11 that year, Tajai discovered his 23-year-old friend dead.  The New York Sun reported, "Gas was issuing from four burners of a small stove, according to Tajai, and the death was listed as an apparent suicide."

Today there are nine apartments in the building.  At some point the fourth- and fifth-story cornices were removed, and while the several renovations have erased much of Neville & Bagge's interior details, some survive to hint at the mansion's former grandeur.

The former dining room retains its ceiling beams, high wainscoting and "Dutch stein shelving," now painted, and fireplace, all original to the 1907-08 design.  image via zillow.com

photographs by the author

The 1908 John J. and Helen Pulleyn House - 302 West 107th Street

 

In 1907 the architectural firm of Neville & Bagge designed four, 19-foot wide rowhouses at 302 through 308 West 107th Street for developer William J. Casey.  The architects arranged the row in a balanced A-B-B-A configuration.  Completed the following year, their neo-Georgian design exuded dignity and affluence.  

The end (or A model) residences, which included No. 302, sat upon limestone bases, their arched entrances nestled within fluted Scamozzi columned porticoes.  The upper floors were clad in red brick.  The second through fourth floors were bowed, the windows of each treated differently.  The fifth floor sat back and a paneled brick parapet sat atop the stone cornice.

Casey initially leased No. 302 to well-to-do tenants like the Elsasser family, who were here in 1910.  Then, in September 1916, he sold the property to John Joseph Pulleyn and his wife, the former Helen Blake.

Born in 1860, Pulleyn was the controller and a trustee of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank.  In 1914, he was made a member of the Committee for the Revision of the Bank Laws.  He and Helen had four children, John W., Robert, Claire and Virginia.  Moving into the house with the family was John's widowed father, Joseph J. Pulleyn.  He was was born in Yorkshire, England in 1829 and came to America in 1869.  

John Joseph Pulleyn, (original source unknown)

John and Helen announced Virginia's engagement to Walton Pearl Kingsley on December 1, 1916.  The family's drawing room was the scene of the wedding on May 23, 1917.

Joseph J. Pulleyn died at the age of 90 on January 7, 1919.  Interestingly, his funeral was not held in the house, but at the Church of the Ascension on West 107th Street.

John Jr. was the next of the Pulleyn siblings to wed.  His engagement to Alice Moffitt was announced on February 27, 1920.  By then, his father was president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank and would become a commissioner of the Port of New York Authority in 1928.

Six years before that would happen, in May 1922, the Pulleyns sold 302 West 107th Street to Samuel and Gene Horwitz for $40,000 (about $748,000 in 2025).

Samuel A. Horwitz was a co-founder with Leo Lindeman with Lindy's Restaurant on Broadway.   He and Gene had two sons, Richard and Howard.  The couple hired architect Gail T. Brown to renovate the house into apartments.

Four weeks after work began, on October 13, 1922, the 12-man work crew's lunch break morphed into an impromptu dance fest.  Paul T. Nolan was not merely a construction worker.  The 27-year-old was also a budding artist, a pianist and a baker.  He told The Evening World that on that afternoon after they finished their lunch, one of the workers pulled out a mouth organ.  "Then one little old man (we call him 'Pop') jumped up and danced a jig.  In about ten minutes we discovered we had among us a really good quartet, two buck and wing dancers, one acrobat and a comedian.  Everybody let loose!"

Nolan said that the only thing missing was a keg of beer.  The improvised festivities were eventually ended by the supervisor.  "Hey!  What the wheresthis does this mean?  Do you guys know it is fifteen minutes past one?"  (Sadly extinct, the word "wheresthis" was used to replace more colorful phrases.)

With jigs and mouth organ music behind them, the workers completed construction by the fall.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on November 5, 1922, offered:

Apartment for rent, two rooms, kitchenette and bath, high class building, newly decorated, moderate rentals.

Samuel and Gene Horwitz moved their family into one of the apartments.  A third son, Robert H., would be born on May 30, 1926.

In the meantime, one of the initial tenants got into trouble on December 12, 1922.  On the surface, Renee Beauchamp had an impressive background.  A trained nurse, she spoke four languages, was "socially well connected," according to the New York Herald, and had served overseas in the war.  

But the 34-year-old was arrested that night for throwing a stuffed pepper at her waiter in a New Chambers Street restaurant, missing him and smashing a plate glass window.  Renee explained in night court that she had just gotten off a 48-hour stint, "without an opportunity to eat and that her nerves were unstrung."  After waiting for half an hour to receive her order, she became "incensed."  The New York Herald reported, "The pepper throwing she admitted, but said the window was broken accidentally."  But a search of her record revealed that she "had been convicted eighteen times for disorderly conduct and intoxication since August 1916."  She was sentenced to 30 days in the workhouse."

Another early tenant was Mrs. Grace Moore Shaw, the sister of well-known competitive swimmer Lottie Moore Schoemmell.  In 1926, Lottie set her sights on the Wrigley Marathon swim in the Santa Catalina Channel to be held on January 15, 1927.  The problem was financing.  Lottie convinced her sister to back her, and drew up a contract which said that if she won either the first or second prize--$25,000 or $15,000--she would repay Grace the expenses plus $1,500.  If she did not win anything, the expenses were to be paid back by January 1, 1928.

The Oakland Tribune, January 10, 1927 (copyright expired)

As it turned out, Lottie did not place in the marathon.  Six months after the loan's due date, on June 11, 1928, Grace Shaw sued her sister.  The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Shaw said it cost more than $2,500 to take her sister to Los Angeles and enter her in the contest."  Then she had to foot the bill for supplemental items like "'shark proof' grease at $2 a pound, cut flowers which Mrs. Schoemmell insisted be in her training quarters and training room at all times, telegrams which totaled as high as $20 a day, and especially prepared foods."

The animus that had festered between the sisters was evident in barbs Grace peppered into her interview with The Times.  She mentioned that Lottie "is 34 and not 28 as her publicity men insist," that her "food bill was enormous," and she said, "I spent considerable money when we were at Hermosa Beach for private photographers."

This was necessary as we were so far from Los Angeles that newspaper camera men came out rarely and I found it next to impossible to get my publicity-crazed sister into the water to train unless it was to the accompaniment of a camera shutter click.

Lottie's attorney, John Santora, told the press on June 12 that Grace's accusations were "very much exaggerated" and "the suit is the result of a family quarrel."

In the meantime, Samuel A. Horowitz became entangled with racketeer and crime boss Arnold Rothstein.  On April 2, 1928, Horowitz wrote a letter to the gangster in which he agreed to deliver 100 shares of Lindy stock "in two days."  Already, Rothstein, known on the street as "The Brain," had taken title to 302 West 107th Street.

Arnold Rothstein was shot in a gangland hit on November 4, 1928.  He died two days later.  Apparently for Samuel Horowitz, Rothstein's death presented an opportunity for him to regain control of Lindy's.  But an accounting of Rothstein's estate in December revealed that Horowitz had never turned over the Lindy stock.   Horowitz was summoned to court on December 17 to account for it.

On June 14, 1930, The New York Times reported that "the slain gambler's real estate holdings would be liquidated, including 302 West 107th Street.  Described as a "five-story remodeled apartment house," it was sold on June 30 for $49,600 (more than $930,000 today).

The fourth floor cornice was intact in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Still living here at the time was the former pepper-slinging Renee Beauchamp.  On the night of May 8, 1933, neighbors around Chelsea Park reported a "disturbance" in the park to police.  The New York Sun reported, "A man and a woman were found lying semiconscious on the sidewalk early today in front of 503 West Twenty-seventh street, across the street from Chelsea Park."  They were Renee Beauchamp and Timothy McNamara.  The article said, "Both were suffering from severe lacerations and possibly fractures of the skull."  It is unclear if their assailants were ever captured.

The once-proud Pulleyn residence continued to house small apartments until a renovation in 1989 returned it to a single family house, according to Department of Records filings.

photographs by the author

The Julian and Clara Meyer House - 307 West 107th Street

 

In 1897 real estate operators and builders Perez M. Stewart and H. Ives Smith, partners in Smith & Stewart, commissioned one of the Upper West Side's most prolific architects, Clarence F. True, to design a row of nine upscale houses along the north side of West 107th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  True's plans, filed in June, said the four-story homes would be "of various sizes."

The row was completed in 1898.  Typical of True, No. 307 was a blend of historic styles.  Romanesque Revival appeared in the bowed facade's rough cut limestone, notably in the thickset blocks that created the voussoir over the arched ground floor window.  The carved frames of the second floor openings were Renaissance Revival, and True splashed the doorway with neo-Classical swags.  Completing the design was a Flemish Renaissance Revival gable at the fifth floor.

Department store mogul Benjamin Stern purchased four of the houses from Smith & Stewart, including No. 307, on May 31, 1899 as investments.  Stern leased the 20-foot wide house for four years before selling it to Julian Harriman Meyer and his wife, the former Clara Dempsey Bentley, in 1903.

Born in 1860, Meyer was a graduate of City College.  He founded the wholesale grocery firm of Meyer & Lange.  He and Clara had one son, George Bentley, born on January 6, 1895.

Soon after settling into their new home, Clara began entertaining.  On January 28, 1904, The Evening Telegram reported, "At the home of Mrs. Julian Meyer, No. 307 West 107th street, during the last week, handsome prizes were hotly contested for at the meeting of the Monday Afternoon Whist Club."  The extent of the preparations necessary to receive guests was evident in The New York Times' reporting of Clara's "pretty reception" in April 1908.  It said,

Mrs. Meyer received in a gown of rose point and Duchesse lace in her drawing room, which was fragrant with pink roses and Southern smilax.  In the music room American Beauties were used, and Spring flowers and ferns made the dining room particularly attractive.

The social gatherings here often involved Clara's favorite philanthropy, the Stony Wold Sanatorium.  On April 15, 1907, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported on the regular meeting of the facility's Auxiliary No. 4, during which "Mrs. James E. Newcomb made an address."

In December 1907, Meyer contracted an electrical firm headed by Henry Rheinwold to address a problem in Clara's bedroom.  John S. Moltzen arrived on December 23 and began work.  Clara went downtown, leaving the worker with the servants.  While she was gone, a second electrician, Raymond C. Brainard, arrived.  He had been recently fired by Henry Rheinwold.  When Clara returned home, the workers were gone and so was $3,500 worth of Clara's jewelry.  (The figure would translate to about $121,000 in 2025.)

John S. Moltzen was the obvious suspect.  He deflected the investigators' attention to Raymond Brainard.  At 5:00 on the morning of December 24, Detective Daly broke into Brainard's Bronx apartment.  He "found Brainard and a young woman--Dorothy Wiebel--examining the jewelry, which was spread on a table in the kitchen," as reported by The New York Times.  The article said, "Brainard showed fight, but Daly quieted him by a display of his revolver."

Brainard and Wiebel were arrested and the next morning were taken to the Jefferson Market Court.  Dorothy, an unemployed servant, was discharged.  She told the magistrate, "He promised me a ring.  I had no idea where he got the jewelry."  Also in the courtroom was Clara Meyer.  "She identified as hers the jewelry that Daly found in Brainard's flat," said the article.

The Meyers did not own a summer home, instead they patronized fashionable resorts.  Julian was a member of the New York Athletic Club and as such, the facilities of the club's Travers Island were available to the couple.  On October 23, 1910, The New York Times reported, "A small party motored out to Travers Island one day last week and took luncheon as the guests of Mrs. Julian H. Meyer, 307 West 107th Street."

In addition to his membership in the NYAC, Meyer was a member of the Automobile Club of America and the Metropolitan Opera Club.  Clara was a member of the Daughters of the Revolution.

George enjoyed a privileged youth.  He prepared at the Horace Mann School and at Phillips-Andover before enrolling in Yale.  He graduated in 1916 with a law degree.

George Bentley Meyer, History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred And Sixteen Yale College (copyright expired)

On September 6, 1917, Julian suffered "a sudden attack of apoplexy," according to the New York Produce Review and American Creamery.  (Apoplexy referred to a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage.)  The 57-year-old's funeral was held in the West 107th Street house the following day.

Clara Meyer remained in the house for three years, selling it in August 1920 to the Estere Realty Company.  When the firm offered it for sale in May 1921, it noted that the former residence had been "remodelled [sic] in small apartments."  The property changed hands twice before Walter R. Manning purchased it in December 1928 "for investment," according to the Record & Guide.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The house was briefly home to the Nilsson Institute.  An advertisement in the May 15, 1928 issue of Vogue read:

Slenderize--Medical supervision.  Splendid results.  Also Facial rejuvenation.  Treatments at your home or at Nilsson Institute, 307 West 107th St., N.Y.

It appears that Walter R. Manning died in 1929.  On December 4, 1930, The New York Times reported that Ella Hamblen Manning had given a "release of her dower rights in 307 West 107th Street" to the Michael E. Paterno Corporation.  

The house was remodeled again in 1965, resulting in seven apartments.  Among the initial residents was librarian and educator Wendell Wray.  Born on January 30, 1926, he was passionate in preserving Black history.  He received his Bachelor's degree in psychology from Bates College in 1950 and a Master of Library Science from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1952.  (He was the first African-American man to graduate from the library school.) 

Wendall L. Wray, School of Information Science Faculty photo, University of Library Science, Pittsburgh 

While living here, he was acting director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.  Shortly after moving in, he was invited to preview a documentary, William Faulkner's Mississippi.  On May 8, 1965, the New York Amsterdam News printed his letter to the editor regarding the piece.  He said in part, "I came away shocked and nauseated by what I saw.  Every broken-down cliche about negroes was used.  I was told that this was not what we wanted to see of Mississippi, but what Faulkner saw."

In 1981, Wray was named chief of the Schomburg Center.  He resigned in March 1983 and retired to Oakland, California.

There are still seven apartments in the former house.  Its exterior appearance is little changed.

photographs by the author

The 1908 James G. Johnson House - 306 West 107th Street

 

On September 25, 1909, William J. Casey, "owner and builder," placed an advertisement in the New York Herald for three of his four newly completed houses.  (Casey omitted No. 308 because he kept it for his own occupancy.)

New York Herald, September 25, 1909 (copyright expired)

The advertisement pointed to the homes' luxurious amenities, like the four bathrooms and billiard room.  The "needle bath" would nearly surround the user with a series of sprays.

The bathrooms were outfitted with needle baths similar to this one.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The row was designed by Neville & Bagge in an A-B-B-A configuration.  Each of the neo-Georgian-style residences was five stories tall.  The entrance of No. 306, one of the B models, sat behind a dignified portico with fluted Ionic columns.  Above the limestone base, the upper floors were clad in warm, red brick, and the openings were fronted with Juliette balconies with iron railings.  The fifth floor was sandwiched between substantial cornices, the uppermost of which was surmounted by a brick parapet.

On October 10, 1909, the New-York Tribune reported that Casey had sold the "five story American basement dwelling house" at 306 West 107th Street.  James G. Johnson had spent $65,000 for the residence, or about $2.3 million in 2025 terms.

New-York Tribune, October 10, 1909 (copyright expired)

Born in Monaghan, Ireland in 1831, Johnson arrived in New York City in 1850 and joined the dry goods business of another Irish immigrant, Alexander Turney Stewart.  In 1856, Johnson founded the importing and manufacturing millinery firm of James G. Johnson & Co. at Canal and Wooster Streets.  He was, additionally, a vice president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank.

A widower, Johnson had five grown children, George B., Thomas W., Edward S., Annie McEntyre, and Elvira Kelly.  Elvira was a widow and she and her children, Adelaide and Herbert J., also moved into the new house.  The Kelly family shared Johnson's summer home in East Hampton, as well.

The engagement of Annie McEntyre's son, James G. McEntyre, to Helen Marie Sheehan, was announced in the spring of 1913.  On May 25, The Sun reported, "On Wednesday evening Mrs. E. Kelly, aunt of Mr. McEntyre, was the hostess at a theatre party.  She took her guests to see 'The Amazons' and after the performance to her home, 306 West 107th street, for supper and informal dancing."  The New-York Tribune commented that also attending were the bridegroom's grandfather, James G. Johnson, and Adelaide (who would be the maid of honor) and Herbert.  Herbert would serve as an usher at the wedding.

James G. Johnson died in the West 107th Street house on December 29, 1916 at the age of 85.  In reporting his death, The East Hampton Star commented that his business success had "brought him fortune and prosperity."  The newspaper added, "He was sparing with his fortune however, and used much of it for the benefit of the poor and the community in which he dwelled, generally."

His estate was appraised at the equivalent of $18.2 million today.  Elvira inherited the equivalent of $3.65 million, and Adelaide and Herbert were bequeathed just under $30,000 in today's money.  Elvira and her children remained at 306 West 107th Street.  

America entered World War I in April 1917 and the following year The Sun headlined a first page article, "The Fighting Irish Who March With 'Kelly and Burke and Shea.'"  The article reported on the recruits of the "Fighting Sixty-ninth" which had been commissioned at Camp Wadsworth.  It listed three full columns of Irish surnames, including Herbert Johnson Kelly of Company K.

Elvira received terrifying news on April 16, 1918.  The Evening World reported, "Word was received to-day by Mrs. John B. Kelly, of No. 306 West 107th Street that her son, Corpl. Herbert Johnson Kelly, Company K, 165th Infantry, has been wounded in action."  (It appears that Herbert survived his injuries and the war in general.)

Within the year, Elvira sold 306 West 107th Street.  The new owners converted it to a "dwelling for two families and bachelor apartments," according to the Certificate of Occupancy that year in 1919.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

At least one of the two apartments was a duplex, home to Edwin Bell and his wife.  It was occasionally the venue of social events.  On May 23, 1920, for instance, The Sun reported, "At a luncheon and musicale given recently by Mrs. Edwin Bell at her home, 306 West 107th street, announcement was made of the engagement of Mrs. Anne Nancy Gottschalk of Cincinnati and this city to Mr. Herman Wagner of Providence, R. I., and New York."  The Bells' apartment was large enough to take in a renter.  They placed an advertisement on October 2, 1921 for "A furnished suite consisting of unusually large room, bath and complete kitchen, in private duplex apartment.  Bell, 306 West 107th st."

More typical was the apartment of a tenant named Scott, who advertised on March 13, 1921, "Very attractive apartment, 2 rooms, bath and kitchenette, near Riverside Drive, to be sublet until October."

At least some of the residents at the time were affluent enough to own an automobile.  On November 30, 1921, The Evening World reported that Frank Wesley and George Engle had been arraigned, "charged with the theft of an automobile owned by Henrietta [Madison] of No. 306 West 107th Street."  The pair's arrest ended a months-long string of thefts.  Two days later, the New York Herald reported that Wesley and Engle had confessed "to having stolen more than forty automobiles."

A renovation completed in 1961 resulted in two apartments per floor in the former mansion. 

photographs by the author

The Edward and Regina Steindler House - 311 West 107th Street

 
Perez M. Stewart and H. Ives Smith were prolific developers on the Upper West Side in the last quarter of the 19th century, erecting dozens of high-end rowhouses.  In 1897 Stewart & Ives hired architect Clarence F. True to design a row of seven residences at 305 through 317 West 107th Street.  Completed in 1898, True designed them in a balanced A-B-C-D-C-B-A plan.

The centerpiece, 311 West 107th Street, was 20-feet wide and, like its siblings, five stories tall.  Faced in gray brick and trimmed in limestone, its lower three floors were bowed, providing a stone-railed balcony to the fourth floor.  A graceful French-style balcony fronted the French windows of the second floor.  The fifth floor took the form of a slate shingled mansard pierced with two arched dormers.

On May 7, 1899, the New-York Tribune reported that Stewart & Ives had sold 309 and 311 West 107th Street to "a well-known merchant."  Benjamin Stern, with his two brothers, Louis and Isaac, owned the Stern Brothers department store on West 23rd Street.  Just before buying these two houses, according to the article, he had purchased several other dwellings on the Upper West Side "for investment."

Stern rented 311 West 107th Street for two years before selling it in September 1902 to Edward and Regina Steindler.  Steindler's life was worthy of a Horatio Alger novel.  Orphaned at four years old, he lived in the Cleveland Orphan Asylum until he was 12.  The pre-teen traveled to New York City and got a job as an errand boy in a tie factory.  He slowly rose through the company to be a "commercial traveller" (today's traveling salesman), "getting a high salary," according to the New-York Tribune later.

In 1893 he organized the New York Curtain Company.  It "arranges advertisements for theatre curtains," described The New York Times.  (The stage curtains of vaudeville theaters were slathered billboard-like with advertisements.)  Steindler was also president of the Block Light Company and of the American Paste Company.  "He is also interested in mines, and is said to be the second largest individual owner of mines in the Dominion of Canada," according to the New-York Tribune in 1907.

Regina was known to her family and friends as Regi.  Moving into the house with the Steindlers were Regina's parents, Louis and Sarah Franke.  Louis Franke was a commission merchant.  When he was summoned to testify in a case about water rights upstate in 1903, Franke mentioned, "I live with my son-in-law, 311 West 107th Street, near Riverside Drive; a very fine house."

As well-to-do families left New York City to spend the summer months at country homes or resorts, the men often stayed back to attend business.  They would see their families on the weekends.  And so, when The New York Times reported on the "expected August rush to the Catskills" on August 9, 1903, among the arrivals at the Hotel Kaaterskill were "Mrs. Edward Steindler" and "Mrs. Louis Franke."

Although the Steindlers had no children, they gave a debutante dance in 1906 for Lola P. Kalman, the daughter of Regina's sister.  On April 8, the New York Herald reported that "thirty young people" attended.

On May 17, 1907, Edward and Regina boarded the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria to France.  On the afternoon of June 2, they and eight other Americans who were staying at the Elysée Palace Hotel in Paris decided to motor to Versailles for lunch.  They took three cars, one of which was operated by Edward Steindler.  The New York Times reported, "While the Americans were traveling at an easy rate through the Bois de Boulogne, a heavy racing car bore rapidly down upon the party.  Mr. Steindler turned out too late and the racing car cut his car nearly in half."

The New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. Steindler was picked up in a semi-conscious condition and taken to her hotel."  The article said she was "severely injured."  The Sun noted, "Mr. Steindler will prosecute Dodey, the racer who was driving the automobile which ran into him."  In reporting on the accident, the New-York Tribune parenthetically mentioned, "Mr. Steindler was the largest contributor to a fund for building the Training School for Nurses attached to Lebanon Hospital, of which he is treasurer."

Regina recovered and back home in New York the couple resumed their philanthropic work.  In the summer of 1910, The New York Sun reported on the upcoming Orphans Automobile Day.  The annual event took Manhattan orphans on a day trip to Coney Island.  The article titled, "Committee Needs More Cars For Orphans Day," mentioned, "The latest offers of cars include four sight seeing cars donated by Edward Steindler of 311 West 107th street, who more than duplicated his contribution of last year."

By then, Steindler had expanded his advertising business into the new motion picture industry.  Among his various positions, he was president of the Moving Picture Advertising Company.

On April 10, 1912, the 49-year-old suffered a fatal heart attack in the West 107th Street house.  Regina took over the reins of at least one corporation and the following year she was listed as a director in the Dorchester-Riverside Company.

Regina Steindler's wealth was reflected in a notice she posted in the "Lost and Found" section of The New York Times on October 18, 1914:  "Liberal reward, diamond and pearl bracelet lost in taxicab Thursday night from Cort Theatre to 311 West 107th st."  The item was, in fact, a collar, described by police as containing, "sixty-four diamonds set singly, ninety-six in clusters, and thirty-one pearls."

Two months later, on December 15, two detectives arrested Harry D. Koenig and Frederick Young as they attempted to pawn the item.  Koenig told the police he found it between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, "and, needing money now, had determined to pawn it."  The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Steinaller [sic] was overjoyed to recover the ornament."

The near-loss was not enough to make Regina more careful.  A notice in The New York Times on March 11, 1916 read, "$200.00 reward [for] return of diamond platinum hairpin, tortoise shell prongs, hinges of gold, lost Feb. 25 between Metropolitan Opera House and 311 West 107th St."  Regina's offered reward would translate to just under $6,000 in 2025.

Louis Franke died in the house on March 24, 1922 and his funeral was held there on the 26th.  Five years later, on October 24, 1927, Sarah Franke died.  Her funeral, too, was held in the drawing room.

After occupying 311 West 107th Street for more than four decades, Regina Franke Steindler died in 1943.  Her estate sold the property in February 1944 to Rabbi A. Bornstein.  A renovation completed in 1955 resulted in an apartment "for rabbi's study," as described by Department of Buildings, and a kitchen on the first floor, two apartments on the second, and apartments and furnished rooms on the upper floors.

The Jewish Journal, June 25, 1945

Among the tenants in 1964 was 19-year-old Columbia student Steven Galper.  He was one of eight civil rights demonstrators arrested on March 20.  Sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality, 50 demonstrators appeared at the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company in Brooklyn to protest alleged racial discrimination in hiring.  Galper paid a $25 fine rather than spending five days in jail.

In September 1966, two other Columbia students, Paul Auster and Peter Schubert, moved into an apartment together.  The two were best friends, according to Auster.  In his Groundwork, Autobiographical Writings 1979-2012, Auster described the space as, "A two-room apartment on the third floor of a four-story walkup between Broadway and Riverside Drive."  Referring himself in the second person, he writes:

A derelict, ill-designed shit hole, with nothing in its favor but the low rent and the fact that there were two entrance doors.  The first opened onto the larger room, which served as your bedroom and workroom, as well as the kitchen, dining room, and living room.  The second opened onto a narrow hallway that ran parallel to the first room and led to a small cell in the back, which served as Peter's bedroom.  The two of you were lamentable housekeepers, the place was filthy, the kitchen sink clogged again and again, the appliances were older than you were and hardly functioned, dust mice grew fat on the threadbare carpet, and little by little the two of you turned the hovel you had rented into a malodorous slum.

Nevertheless, Paul Auster emerged as a novelist, poet and filmmaker.  Among his works are the 1987 The New York Trilogy; The Brooklyn Follies, released in 2005; and the 2012 Winter Journal.

Edward and Regina Steindler's dining room is now part of a two-room apartment.  image via sovereignrealestate.com

Another renovation was finished in 1972.  There are nine apartments within the building.  Despite the alterations, much of Clarence F. True's 1898 interior details survive.

photographs by the author

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post