The 1893 Max Feist House - 245 West 139th Street

 

photo by Mark Satlof

In 1890, developer David H. King, Jr. embarked on an expansive and ambitious project.  It was described by the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide on August 16 as, "one of the most important building operations ever undertaken in this city."  The article explained that King intended to cover the entire block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (today Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, respectively) and 138th and 139th Streets, as well as the south side of  138th Street between the same avenues with "buildings of a first-class character."

King expanded the project in 1891 by adding the northern blockfront of 139th Street.  "The new portion, engulfing the northern blockfront of 139th Street, would follow the same plan as the others and be designed by McKim, Mead & White," said the Record & Guide on January 27.  Stanford White was put in charge of the design.  His Renaissance Revival rowhouses were faced in orange Roman brick above rusticated brownstone bases.  Completed in 1893, they rose four stories above shallow basements.

Among them was 245 West 139th Street.  Its entrance above a short stoop was protected by a glass-and-iron marquee.  A dramatic Venetian-style balcony dominated the second floor.  Its molded brick frame upheld a terra cotta lintel, directly below an ornate terra cotta rosette.  

No. 245 became home to the Feist family.  Max Feist was the principal in the millinery supplies business named for himself.  He also invested in Harlem real estate.  Feist and his wife had one son.  S. Feist entered the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1913, but interrupted his studies a year before graduating to attend the Butt Military Training Camp in Burlington, Vermont.

Following World War I, Henry Allen Wallace, a widower, moved into 245 West 139th Street.  Born in Columbia, South Carolina, he was educated in Canada and at Howard University.  As a young man, he passed a civil service test and was hired as a clerk in the War Department, first in Washington and later in the New York City office.  He held that position for over 30 years.

More importantly, Wallace focused on what today is called Black History.  The New York Age said of him, "Mr. Wallace was a contributor to many Negro historical works, being an authority on Negro Ante-Bellum history; especially during the Reconstruction period in South Carolina."

An early activist for racial equality, Wallace was, as well, a stickler on historic accuracy.  He read an article in the January 1920 issue of The Journal of Negro History, for example, that outlined a meeting of the Secretary for South Carolina with two Black men "concerning the formation of the political organization for the newly enfranchised Negro."  Wallace shot back with a four-page letter to its editor, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, pointing out numerous inaccuracies.  In it, he said, "History, unless it is based on facts, incontrovertible facts, is worthless."

245 West 139th Street is second from left.  photo by Mark Satlof

Living at the address at the time was Mrs. M. E. Richardson, who was either a boarder or Wallace's housekeeper.  Her grandfather, Shandy Jones, had been a member of the Alabama Legislature during Reconstruction.

In 1922 Wallace visited Toronto, Canada (where he had spent his school years) for four weeks.  He wrote an article for The New York Age outlining racial conditions there.  In it he said in part:

Toronto has made wonderful strides and from a population of 50,000 in 1870 is now 529,000.  It would not be true to say there is no prejudice there.  The large influx of Americans has caused considerable prejudice, though one will be told, as in most of our northern cities, that there is none...When I hear a person say there is no prejudice at a certain place I know then there are not many colored persons at that place.

In failing health, Henry A. Wallace sold 245 West 139th Street in June 1922 to Harry and Sarah Wills.  Wallace moved to his sister's home in Chester, Pennsylvania where he died on February 12, 1923.

The title to 245 West 139th Street was in Sarah's name, so when the couple erected a garage in the back lot in 1922, she was listed as the owner of record.  

In reporting that Wills had purchased the property, the Record & Guide called him, "the colored aspirant for the Heavyweight Championship of the World."  He was known in boxing circles as the Black Panther.  That year, on March 12, New York Herald sportswriter W. O. McGeehan interviewed Harry Wills.  The boxer opened up about his personal life, saying for instance, "What do I read?  I read the papers and I like to read about history.  But the best book I ever had is a book written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.  He was a colored man, too, you know."

Harry Wills, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Harry Wills would hold the World Colored Heavyweight Championship three times.  But because of the "color line" held by the Boxing Commission, he never had a shot at his most coveted prize: the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World.  In his interview with McGeehan, he mentioned that fighting Jack Dempsey would be a distinction, but added frankly that the purse for that fight would be welcomed, as well. "It isn't very easy for colored fighters to get any kind of money."

In 1930, Dr. H. Binga Dismond and his wife, the former Geraldyn Hodges, moved into 245 West 139th Street.  He was a graduate of the University of Illinois, where, according to The New York Age, "he equalled [sic] the world's record for the 440-yard dash."  He had been practicing medicine since 1924, prompting the newspaper to call him in 1934, the "well known Harlem medico and sportsman."  He moved his medical practice into the house, as well.

photo by Mark Satlof

Geraldyn Hodges Dismond (known as Gerri) was a fascinating woman, especially considering the period and her race.  Ebony magazine would call her "one of the 'new Negroes' of the early 20th Century," and "one of the best known black women in America."  She and Dismond had met during World War I when she was a major in the American Red Cross and he was a soldier.

Her far-reaching resume included journalist, newscaster, publicist, author, community leader and editor.  Her residency at 245 West 139th Street would be relatively short, however.  Geraldyn received a Mexican divorce in 1933, although reportedly the couple remained friendly over the succeeding years.

The reason for the divorce soon became clear.  On March 24, 1934, The New York Age reported that Dr. H. Binga Dismond had married Harriet Richardson.  "The bride's address was given as 245 West 139th street, which is the same as the doctor's," said the article.

Three months after his marriage, Dismond resigned from the American Medical Association.  The New York Age reported the move was "a protest against a new type of discrimination."  The AMA annually published a membership directory, and the article explained, "In previous years all members were listed without any special reference to their racial origin."  But when Dismond received his proof-sheets for approval, he saw "col." next to each Black physician's name.

The Dismonds had two "lodgers" that year, musicians Cyrus St. Clair and Fred Moore.  In 1940 there were three lodgers living at the address, Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Wade, and Nilo Rivera.

In 1941, Harriet Dismond was granted a divorce.  On July 18, 1942, The New York Age mentioned that Dismond "recently took unto himself a fourth wife."  (Cora Dismond was, actually, his third.)

The West 139th Street house was, at times, the scene of lavish entertaining.  On September 19, 1942, The New York Age reported on the couple's "Haitian Bar" themed party in honor of Judge and Mrs. Herman E. Moore of the Virgin Islands.  "The invitation started uptown's Fall social season with a flair," said the article, adding, "the setting was reminiscent of the good old days when Harlem was 'Harlem' and A'Lelia Walker, Carolyn Wilkins, and Turner Layton and Tandy Johnson were in their hey day."

Dismond surprised those who knew him when he published a book of poetry, We Who Would Die, in 1943.  The New York Age said it was "glowingly received by critics nation-wide."  The critic of the Hartford, Connecticut newspaper Courant said, "It is this reviewer's belief that the Negro poet, Binga Dismond, numbers among the great poets of modern times."  Twelve years later, Dismond's second volume, I've Often Wondered, was released.

The Dismonds moved to Sag Harbor in 1950.  Five years later, the upper floors of 245 West 139th Street were converted to furnished rooms.  A doctor's office still occupied the first floor.

Major change came in 1979 when Mutulu Shakur purchased the house.  He converted the doctor's office to the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture, headquarters of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America, or BAANA.  According to Rachel Pagones in her 2021 Acupuncture as Revolution--Suffering, Liberation, and Love, "The front room was used as a classroom, and in back was a conference area.  At street level was a clinic, with a front desk and waiting room--sometimes doubling as a classroom--to the fore and a treatment room behind."  

Mutulu Shakur, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation

On October 20, 1981, a Brink's armored car was robbed in Rockland County by several Black Liberation Army members and four former members of the Weather Underground.  In the process, a guard was murdered.  When their getaway car was stopped by two police officers, the robbers shot them dead, too.  Mutulu Shakur disappeared from West 139th Street.  

In Shakur's absence, the F.B.I. wiretapped the 245 West 139th Street telephones.  The New York Times reported, "they repeatedly heard orders placed for cocaine by a variety of people."  On March 7, 1983, nearly two years after the heist and murders, The New York Times reported, "at 245 West 139th Street, Mr. Shakur ran a clinic that, according to the F.B.I., was really the planning center for armed robberies.  From that address, F.B.I. officials say, the robbers left for Rockland County on Oct. 20, 1981."

On August 9, 1982, The New York Times reported, "The groups identified by the F.B.I. as communicating through the acupuncture center included the Black Liberation Army, the Republic of New Afrika, the May 19 Communist Organization, the Black Panther Party, the Weather Underground Organization and the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee."  Mutulu Shakur was finally arrested on February 12, 1986 in California.  He was sentenced to 60 years, but was released on December 16, 2022 because of his failing health.  He died on July 7, 2023.

photo by Mark Satlof

In the meantime, 245 West 139th Street was returned to a single family home in 1999.  

many thanks to Mark Satlof for suggesting this post

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

The Alan L. Dingle House - 245 West 138th Street

 

photograph by Mark Satlof

In the summer of 1890, developer David H. King Jr. embarked on what the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide said was "One of the most important building operations ever undertaken in this city."  Called the King's Model Houses, his ambitious project of homes "of a first-class character" would engulf the  entire block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (today's Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, respectively) and 138th and 139th Streets, as well as the south side of  138th Street between the same avenues.

Architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce worked together on the design.  Faced in beige brick and richly trimmed in white terra cotta, the 17-foot-wide homes were three stories tall above English basements.  Their neo-Georgian design featured a single-doored arched entrance that sprouted a dramatic, elongated keystone.  The splayed lintel of the parlor window was composed of alternating, foliate terra cotta sections, matched by smaller versions above all but one of the second story openings.  The exception, at the second floor, was crowned by a lintel in the form of a fasces, and an arched panel with a wreath and garlands.  Above it all was a brick parapet with balustraded openings.  The New York World pointed out that the residences would surround "a great court in the centre of the block."

The houses engulfed a courtyard.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, April 9, 1892.  image courtesy of the Office of Metropolitan History.

In May 1894 David King sold 245 West 138th Street to Henry W. Harwood.  He and his family remained here for 16 years, selling the house in May 1910 to George H. Walker.  It would not be the last time Harwood held title to the property, however.

Henry Harwood supplied the mortgage to Walker.  In June 1917 he was forced to foreclose, and a month later sold 234 West 138th Street to Chauncey O. Middlebrooke.  That transaction did not work out well, either.  The following year Middlebrooke sold the residence back to Henry W. Harwood.

Eight years after he had first sold his former home, Harwood saw the last of it.  It was purchased on August 3, 1918 by Isabel Mackin, starting a game of real estate hot potato.  Macklin resold it three days later to C. Le Roy Butler, who quickly turned it over it to Ernest and Frederica Remaely.  They left in 1920 after purchasing a home nearby on Edgecombe Avenue and 138th Street.

photograph by Mark Satlof

Finally, 245 West 138th Street had a long-term owner in Cecilia G. Dingle and her family.  Almost certainly, her sons, attorneys John Gordon and Alan L. Dingle, purchased the property for her.  The family had come to New York City from their native Savannah, Georgia.

The West 138th Street house was well-populated.  Living with Cecilia were both sons, along with J. Gordon's wife and baby boy, and Cecilia's daughter, Clinton.  Clinton taught in the public schools.  All three of the Dingle siblings were well educated.  J. Gordon and Alan had graduated from Howard University, and Clinton from Atlanta University--a highly unusual achievement for a Black woman at the time.

The brothers' legal office A. L. & J. G. Dingle was nearby at 200 West 135th Street.  The firm quickly became involved in Harlem issues.  On February 2, 1926, for instance, a 14-year-old Black girl was trapped and assaulted in a barn in the Bronx by ten white men.  The men were arrested and each pleaded not guilty.

The Report of the Secretary of the N.A.A.C.P. that month noted that the victim "is in a very critical condition at Metropolitan Hospital on Welfare Island" and "the girl is destitute."  It said:

The National Office has retained Alan L. Dingle, a capable young attorney, who has been instructed to follow the case through for the N.A.A.C.P. both the legal side and the welfare end, and to take such steps as are advisable.  He has also been instructed to visit the girl, to talk with the hospital authorities, and to secure the girl's statement to be used in the event of her death.

In the meantime, the Dingle women made the house a social center.  On March 1, 1930, The New York Age reported, "On Washington's Birthday, February 22, Miss Clinton Dingle of 245 West 138th street, entertained at a luncheon and bridge.  Luncheon served at 3 o'clock after which bridge was in order."

John Gordon Dingle, Howard Academy Year Book 1918, (copyright expired)

J. Gordon Dingle suffered from asthma and was under the care of the family physician, Thomas H. Amos.  He seemed perfectly healthy at the office on January 21, but the following morning he died at the age of 39.  The New York Age said the asthma "finally weakened his heart."

Alan L. Dingle continued the legal practice he had begun with his brother.  Among his private clients were poet Langston Hughes and the estate of Madam C. J. Walker.  His prominence would result in Geraldine R. Segal's saying of him

in her 1983 book Blacks in the Law, "He has sometimes been referred to as the dean of the black bar of Manhattan."

Dingle's involvement in the Harlem community went beyond his legal practice.  He was President of the Harlem Lawyers' Association, Chairman of the Harlem Y.M.C.A., and upon America's entry into World War II became chairman of the 125th Street Rationing Board.

It appears that J. Gordon's widow died before 1940.  Living at 245 West 138th Street that year were Cecilia, Alan, Clinton, and J. Gordon's 15-year-old son, Gordon.

Alan L. Dingle The New York Age, December 23, 1944

Alan L. Dingle was 37 years old that year, and so the expectations that he would marry were few.  But then, on December 23, 1944, The New York Age reported, "Thursday evening, Atty. Alan Dingle, one of Harlem's prominent lawyers, became a benedict."  (The term, rarely used today, refers to a long-term bachelor who finally marries.)  He had married Ethel A. Gardner, a claims adjuster in the Brooklyn Post Office.  The article noted that the newlyweds would live at 211 West 149th Street.

It is unclear how long Cecilia and Clinton remained at 245 West 138th Street.  Unlike many of the homes along the block during the 20th century, it was never converted to apartments and remains a single family residence.

many thanks to reader Mark Satklof for requesting this post

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

The Fletcher Henderson House - 228 West 139th Street

 

On August 16, 1890 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported on what it described as "One of the most important building operations ever undertaken in this city."  Developer David H. King, Jr. had broken ground for an ambitious project of houses "of a first-class character" that would engulf the  entire block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (today's Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, respectively) and 138th and 139th Streets, as well as the south side of  138th Street between the same avenues.  An interesting aspect of what were called the King's Model Houses was that the developer had hired three architects--Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce worked together on the full block, while James Brown Lord designed the homes on the south side of 138th Street.

Five months later, on January 27, 1891, the Record & Guide reported that King had expanded the project, writing that he "intends to build another block just north of the present block he is improving on 137th and 138th [sic] streets, 7th and 8th avenues."  The new portion, engulfing the northern blockfront of 139th Street, would follow the same plan as the others and be designed by McKim, Mead & White.

The block of homes designed by Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce were a creative take on the neo-Georgian style.  The World explained, "These houses form a whole block...There is a great court in the centre of the block."  Faced in beige brick and richly trimmed in white terra cotta, the 17-foot-wide homes were three stories tall above English basements.  

Like its neighbors, 228 West 139th Street featured a single-doored arched entrance that sprouted a dramatic, elongated keystone.  The splayed lintel of the parlor window was composed of alternating, foliate terra cotta sections, matched by smaller versions above all but one of the second story openings.  The exception, at the second floor, was crowned by a lintel in the form of a fasces, and an arched panel with a wreath and garlands.  Above it all was a brick parapet with balustraded openings.

Elaborate terra cotta elements distinguished the houses.

The block filled with professional families and No. 228 West 139th Street became home to the Joseph Clark Robinson family.  Robinson and his wife, the former Mary Frances Cramer (known familiarly as Fannie) had three children, Mary Edith, Alice Nelson, and Clarence Cramer.

Joseph Robinson was listed in city directories as a clerk--a somewhat nebulous term that ranged from an office worker to a highly responsible position within a bank or corporation.   When the family moved into the 139th Street house, Clarence, who was just 12-years-old, was already enrolled in the "Sub-Freshman" scientific course at the College of the City of New York.

On June 14, 1896, The World began an article saying, "The entire upper west side of the city is in a state of alarm, because of a daring robbery carried out yesterday afternoon in one of its most aristocratic sections."  The article continued:

The scene of the robbery was the elegant home of Henry [sic] C. Robinson, dry-goods merchant in Worth street, in one of the King model houses, No. 228 West One Hundred and thirty-ninth street.

Six months earlier the Robinsons had hired a servant, Johanna Herran, described by The Sun as "a German girl, about twenty years old."  On Saturday afternoon, June 13, "Mr. Robinson and his entire family were at the Sunday school picnic of the Mt. Morris Baptist Church, and the servant was alone in the house," according to the article.  The reporter said that around 2:00 "two rough-looking men rang the bell."

The World wrote, "'We're from the gas company,' said one of the men, ' and want to examine the gas meter.'"  Johanna told them the family was away and they should come back another day.  

"We can't waste time coming back," he replied.  "We're bound to attend to the meter now."  The World said his manner was authoritative and the fact that the men carried notebooks convinced the servant to admit them.  She took them to the cellar where one of the men grabbed her by the throat and forced her face-first onto the concrete floor.  At this point the second man sat on her back.  He stuffed a gag which he had fashioned from a handkerchief and a small piece of kindling into her mouth and secured it.  Johanna's arms were bound behind her back with another handkerchief, and her legs were tied with twine.  The World reported, "This done, the poor girl, who thought she was to be murdered, was left lying face downward on the cold concrete.  Her face had been bruised on the floor and her nose was bleeding."

At 4:00 the family returned home.  When no one answered the doorbell, they used their key to enter.  The Sun reported, "The house was in confusion, and a glance into the dining room showed that the thieves had made off with the silver."  Fannie Robinson called to Clarence Andrews, the 16-year-old son of Police Commissioner Avery Andrews, who was in his yard directly behind theirs.  The teen jumped the fence and helped in the search for the burglars, still thought to be in the house.

Young Andrews took a lantern to the cellar.  "There he found the servant, still bound and in a half-fainting condition," wrote

The Sun.  "Blood was oozing from her nose and mouth."  Clarence Andrews ran to the corner and found Policeman Thornton.  He and other officers arrived at the house and took Johanna's statement.  Afterward she went to bed, "suffering from the severe nervous shock."

According to The World, the burglars had nearly wrecked the house:

Everything was turned topsy-turvy.  Articles of clothing were strewn from first floor to garret.  All the drawers had been opened out and the contents dumped on the floor.  Mattresses were taken off of beds, and even carpets were torn up.  Much of the wreckage appeared to have been committed solely in a spirit of vandalism.

The thieves had made off with jewelry and silverware valued at "many thousands of dollars," according to The World.  As it turned out, Johanna was fortunate.  Two days later, Dr. Lewald, who had attended her, said, "If she had remained an hour longer with the gag in her mouth, she would be dead.  Fright and suffocation would have done the work."

Fannie came from an old New York family.  On February 8, 1897 The New York Press reported that she hosted a "whist afternoon" for The National Society of New England.

Around the turn of the century, the Robinson family left 139th Street.  Owned by an "E. Hamilton," it was leased in 1903 to the Jacob family.  On a single day, June 19, 1905, the New York Herald announced the engagements of sisters Jennie and Birdie Jacob--Jennie to Alfred Bleyer and Birdie to Morris Israel.

Living here in 1907 was salesman Solomon Piser.  He and a friend attended a crap game in the Bennett Building on Ann Street on Friday night, May 10 that year.  The room where the illegal game took place had been raided by police just a month earlier.  According to Piser, he and his friend "started a friendly crap game there" with another salesman named Louis Bloom and his friend.  Bloom was down $150 when Piser's friend briefly walked out of the room.  Piser told police, "Then the other two seized him," threw him to the floor and took $343 from his pocket and fled.  It was a significant theft--equal to more than $10,000 in 2023 money.

Despite having been involved in illegal gambling, Piser went to the police.  Louis Bloom was arrested at his house the next night.  "It was my money and I took it.  That's all," he told the arresting officers.  He refused to identify his friend.

In the post World War I years, the neighborhood was changing as Manhattan's Black community migrated northward.  A significant number of Black musicians--Eubie Blake, W. C. Handy, Billie Holiday and Noble Sissle among them--moved into the King's Model Houses, now known as Strivers' Row.

In 1924 pianist, orchestra leader, arranger and composer Fletcher Henderson and his wife Leora purchased 228 West 139th Street.  Born in 1897, Henderson would become one of the most prolific and influential Black musical arrangers in jazz history.

The year he and Leora moved into 228 West 139th Street, his band became the house band at the Club Alabam on West 44th Street.  Then, in July 1924 he landed what was intended to be temporary engagement at the Roseland Ballroom.  The reception by patrons was such that in October the orchestra was rebooked, now with Louis Armstrong in the group.  It was soon known as the best Black band in New York City.  Other members of the orchestra were Charlie Greene, Charlie Dixon, Buster Bailey and Elmer Chalmers.  By April 1925, The New York Age referred to the group as "Fletcher Henderson and his Roseland Orchestra."

Given little credit today, Leora was an important part of the Henderson Orchestra.  A trumpeter, music copyist, and arranger, she also handled much of the business end.  She organized tours, arranged rehearsals and handled other details.

This photo of Fletcher Henderson was taken in 1926, two years after he purchased 228 West 139th Street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In April 1928 Fletcher's group appeared at the Lafayette Theatre in the revue Jazz Fantasy.   In reporting on the opening, the critic from The New York Age said in part:

There comes a time in every reviewer's life when the English language fails him in his efforts to do justice to a particularly inspiring show...And the trouble arises from the fact that the greatest of all bands--Fletcher Henderson's Roseland Orchestra--weaves such an entrancing spell about the revue that one feels as if he were treading on air and cannot adequately describe his feelings.

The Hendersons opened their home to musicians from time to time.  In his 1991 book Boy Meets Horn, jazz cornetist Rex Stewart wrote that shortly after Henderson asked him to join the band permanently, "both he and Miss Lee insisted that I come back to live with them at 228 West 139th Street."  He added elsewhere in the book, "Later I found out that Miss Lee (as we called Mrs. Henderson) had written my mother in Washington, telling her that she would keep an eye on me.  This she did, as much as possible."

And in 1934 saxophonist Lester "Prez" Young lived with the couple.  In this 1990 book The Imperfect Art, Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture, Ted Gioia quote Young saying, "I was rooming at the Henderson's house, and Leora Henderson would wake me early in the morning and play [Coleman] Hawkins' records for me so I could play like he did."

In the meantime, the West 139th Street house was occasionally the scene of entertaining.  On August 22, 1931, for instance, The New York Age announced, "Miss Dorothy Phillips of Boston will visit her cousin, Mrs. Fletcher Henderson, 228 West 139th street."  And the following year, on May 21, the same newspaper wrote, "More than a hundred graduates of Atlanta University, former students and friends, attended a reception at the home of their fellow-alumnus Fletcher Henderson and Mrs. Henderson, 228 West 139th Street, New York City, on Sunday afternoon, May 15."

By 1937 the Hendersons had left 228 West 139th Street.  It was operated as a rooming house for decades.  Never converted to apartments, it is once again a single-family home.

photographs by the author

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The Lenox Presbyterian Church (Grace Congregational) 318-310 West 139th Street

On June 18, 1893 an article in the New-York Tribune began "One of the pleasantest and most rapidly growing parts of the city of New-York is west of Seventh-ave., between One-hundred-and-thirty-fifth and One-hundred-and-forty-fifth sts...It is largely inhabited by families who are always advancing in everything that is good for the mind and the soul.  This may account for the rapid growth of the Lenox Presbyterian Church."

Three years earlier the Rev. W. A. Halsey and William M. Waite had opened a Sunday school on Eighth Avenue (now Frederick Douglass Boulevard) near 137th Street.  It served 24 residents.  Within four months, on February 27, 1891, the growing group moved to larger quarters.  By the end of the year, with a congregation now numbering 37, the New York Presbytery had approved the formal formation of a new congregation, the Lenox Presbyterian Church with Rev. David G. Smith as its interim pastor.

So successful was the newly-organized church that on January 7, 1892 the trustees purchased the 140-foot wide plot at Nos. 318-310 West 139th Street.  Architect Joseph Ireland received the commission and construction commenced within a few months.  

Children from Sunday schools city-wide were responsible for contributing $3,500 of the $12,000 cost of the building.  According to The New York Times, 4,673 children contributed their nickels and dimes.  The names of every one of them were placed in the cornerstone.

Construction was completed in December 1892.  Ireland had produced a rather humble, brick-faced church the design of which drew mostly from the Romanesque Revival style.  Perhaps because of budget restraints, some of the elements that appeared in Ireland's renderings never made it to the finished church.  Most notable were the projecting quoins that would have framed the arched openings.

Ireland's original designs called for slightly more robust ornament.  New-York Tribune, January 9, 1893 (copyright expired)

Stair-stepped brick corbels ran below the gable edge, terminating in unusual flared gable springs on either side.  Ireland gave a brief nod to the Queen Anne style by including a panel of terra cotta tiles in the form of flowers below the large central stained glass window.  And a solitary Gothic Revival detail, a decorative crocket, appeared at the peak of the gable. 

Dedication ceremonies took place on January 8, 1893.  According to the New-York Tribune, "Rev. Dr. John Hall, of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, preached a most interesting dedicatory service."  The New York Times deemed the church "a neat-looking structure of red brick." 

A few weeks later, on the evening of February 4, the new pastor was elected.  The Rev. Bryce K. Douglass was the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Watkins, New York.  He had preached in the new church the past two Sundays "and has given great satisfaction," reported the New-York Tribune.  Once settled in, Douglass was given a glittering reception on the evening of May 2.  In reporting on the event, the New-York Tribune explained he had "recently been installed in the pastorate of this new and flourishing congregation."

As with almost all churches, lectures were somewhat regular occurrences on weekday evenings.  The Rev. Michael Nardi spoke here on July 14, 1897, for instance.  The Tribune described him as "the Italian evangelist who has labored so effectively among his own countrymen" and said he would "give some account of his conversion and work."  And on June 29, 1902 the Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin spoke on "The Progress of the Gospel in China."

The Lenox Presbyterian Church had outgrown its little brick building within a decade of its dedication  On February 10, 1904 The Sun reported "The New York Presbytery has sold the Lenox Presbyterian Church property, at Nos. 308 and 310 West 139th street...for $40,000.  A new church will be built at St. Nicholas avenue and 141st street."

The new owner was the Swedish Evangelical Immanuel Church.  The congregation would remain here until 1923.  By then the demographics of the neighborhood had radically changed.   Harlem had become the center of New York's Black population.  The church building was sold to Grace Congregational Church, formally organized in 1921.

The renovations that were made were indicative of the spirit of the congregation and its pastor Rev. Dr. Alexander C. Garner.  A kindergarten was installed in the basement, a day nursery shared the first floor with the worship space, and on the second floor was now an "employment agency connected with the church," according to Department of Buildings documents.  The church day nursery was the first in Harlem and allowed mothers the ability to hold down a day job.

This photo taken not long after Grace Congregational took over is rather somber. from the Avery Classics Collection of Columbia University Libraries. 

Garner also welcomed members of the theatrical profession.  It earned the church the nickname the "Church of the Actors."  

In what today would be seen as blatantly racist article, The New York Times informed its readers of the changes in the Harlem neighborhood on March 1, 1925.  Entitled "Negro City in Harlem is a Race Capital" it began "Black fingers whipping furiously over the white keys, beating out cascades of jazz; black bodies swaying rhythmically as their owners blow or beat or pluck the grotesque instruments of the band; on the dancing floor throngs, black and white, gliding, halting, swinging back in time to the music--this is the Harlem of the cabarets, jazz capital of the world."  In enumerating the changes, the article went on to note "The Grace Congregational Church of Harlem has taken over the building of a Swedish congregation west of Eighty Avenue."

It was exactly the sort of attitude the leaders of Grace Congregational Church sought to correct.  In August 1927 the church was the venue the Fourth Pan-African Congress.  On its second day Mrs. Helen Curtis, widow of the former American Minister to Liberia spoke on "African Missions."  She may not have been prepared for the discussion that followed.  The Times reported "white missionaries were criticized for their allegedly prejudiced attitude toward negro religious workers."

Later that week Robert W. Bagnall, director of agencies for the NAACP spoke "of the inadequate opportunities offered to the negro for education in the United States, especially in the South," according to The Times on August 25.

Among the actors who worshiped here at the time was Charles Wesley Hill.  He had started his career in medicine shows and "Tom" shows (skits and plays based on Uncle Tom's Cabin); and was an attraction in farm towns, portrayed as a Kickapoo Indian, according to The New York Times years later.

He got his break after a stint in vaudeville when he got roles in the 1921 Broadway musical Shuffle Along with music by Eubie Blake, and in the 1924 Runnin' Wild.  In 1930 he landed the distinctive role of the angel Gabriel in The Green Pastures.  The New York Times said "His performance in a major role was been acclaimed as one of the finest in the play."

Hill was crossing Eighth Avenue at 127th Street on the morning of December 10, 1930 when he was struck by a taxicab and killed.  The cast choir of The Green Pastures sang at his funeral in Grace Congregational Church.

A surprising effort to erase racial prejudice at an early age was devised in the summer of 1946.  Twenty-two children from Grace Congregational were sent to Quincy, Massachusetts where each would stay with a white family for a two-week visit.  The experiment was so successful that it was repeated, in reverse, the following year.

The photographer accidentally reversed the negative when he printed this 1940 shot, resulting in the entrance being on the wrong side.  Grace Congregational Church had painted the facade white.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

On July 15, 1947 fourteen girls a one boy arrived in Harlem.  The Times remarked "To the pastors of the two churches the project was 'an attempt to show the folly of racial intolerance.'"  To the children, however, it was just fun.  For one thing, they were reunited with the friends they had made the summer before.  "There were squeals, as always when children have been long separated," said the article.  Among the activities planned were a boat excursion to Bear Mountain for a picnic, visiting the Bronx Zoo and the Statue of Liberty and a trip to the United Nations headquarters at Lake Success.

There was, of course, widespread speculation about the advisability of the project.  One reporter asked Effie C. Waddell of the Quincy Family Welfare Society who chaperoned the group what the children thought about the mixing of races.

"What are these children thinking?  Why they do not even think about it.  They are just having a good time with their friends, and they enjoy it."

Another funeral to capture press attention was that of 69-year old James H. Williams who died on May 4, 1948.  For four decades he had been the chief attendant of the Red Caps in Grand Central Terminal.  Williams was a well-recognized figure who always wore a red carnation in his buttonhole.  The Times remarked "he met scores of famous actors and actresses, holders of high office, distinguished citizens of all sorts, of all nations."  Among those who knew Williams well was Alfred E. Smith "whom the Chief had known since the former Governor of the state was Sheriff of New York County."

In the turbulent 1960's the pastor of Grace Congregational, Rev. W. Sterling Cary, faced racism and discrimination head on.  As the moderator of a conference of Congregational churches, on August 26, 1962 he charged "that Negroes here still faced discrimination in appointment to responsible positions" within the city.  He also pointed out that seminaries "steadfastly deny to Negro scholars the right to teach," as reported by The New York Times.

"America is the only land in the world where a large segment of the population is forced to continuously fight, struggle and labor for the blessings of citizenship.  The fact that Negroes must engage in boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom rides--all of this is a sorry condemnation of the American way of life."

When the Citywide Committee for Integrated Schools fought to integrate New York City schools in 1964, Cary was among the 20 Harlem ministers who voted to boycott the schools on February 3.  And when he addressed a convention of 500 ministers and laymen of the 2-million-member United Church of Christ on January 30, 1966 regarding racial injustice in the South, Cary said in part that that public opinion for civil rights must be mobilized "without the help of Klansmen, insane bigoted mobs or mentally sick public officials or the explosive eruptions of a riot."

Following his departure from Grace Congregational, incidentally, on December 7, 1972 Rev. W. Sterling Cary was elected president of the National Council of Churches, the first Black man to hold that office.

Grace Congregational Church continues to be a vital force in the Harlem community.  Music is a major part of its program.  Other than an unfortunate set of replacement doors, little has changed outwardly to its charming brick and brownstone church.

photographs by the author

McKim, Mead & White's "King's Model Houses" - 203-269 West 139th Street

On August 16, 1890 The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that "One of the most important building operations ever undertaken in this city is about to be commenced in Harlem."  The article explained that developer David H. King, Jr. intended to cover the entire block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (today Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, respectively) and 138th and 139th Streets, as well as the south side of  138th Street between the same avenues with "buildings of a first-class character."

What was most interesting about the project was that the houses (78 in total) would be built around central courtyards, accessed by two wide carriage gates in the center of the blocks.  "By this plan, instead of there being the usual four corners to the entire block, there will be six corners on each street and two corners on each avenue."  The significance of the courtyard, other than providing significant light and air to the rear of the homes, was that there was no need for service entrances at the fronts.  "The courtyards will have handsome ornamental wrought-iron gates at the street and avenue entrances, and through these access will be had by tradesmen as well as servants and residents."

Another interesting wrinkle was that King had commissioned three architects to design the project.  Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce worked together on the full block, while James Brown Lord worked independently on the south side of 138th.  

As construction proceeded King was apparently well pleased with the project.  On January 27, 1891 the Record & Guide wrote that he "intends to build another block just north of the present block he is improving on 137th and 138th [sic] streets, 7th and 8th avenues."  The new portion, engulfing the northern blockfront of 139th Street, would follow the same plan as the others and be designed by McKim, Mead & White.

Known as the King Model Houses, the entire project was completed by the end of that year.  King's Handbook of New York City of 1892 (there is no apparent connection between the two Kings) noted "An interesting feature of dwelling architecture had reached a definite and gratifying result in the unique blocks of 'King Model Houses,' designed [sic] and constructed by the famous building, David H King, Junior."

The McKim, Mead & White 32-house row was designed, for the most part, in the Italian Renaissance style.  Rusticated brownstone bases upheld three stories of reddish-brown brick.  Each of the offset entrances above a short stoop wore an iron and glass marquee--except for the center house of the eastern group, No. 233, which acted as the focal point of that section.  Its entrance was recessed within an arcade (and its second floor window was given a round-arched pediment).  Why the same was treatment was not given to the center house of the western block is puzzling.

No. 233 stands out from the rest.  Even its facade projects slight away from its neighbors.

At the second floor a centered set of French doors opened onto an iron-railed balcony.  It was flanked by two brick-framed openings and sat below a decorative terra cotta medallion--a common element in Italian Renaissance architecture.  Above a projecting sill course the third floor openings were framed in brick and had prominent cornices.  The fourth floor windows sat on molded, bracketed sills.  Their brick enframements were broken by simple keystones.

The other exceptions to the regimented design were the corner houses, including those on either side of the gateway.  Here the round-arched pediments reappeared, giving visual anchorage to the corners.

A glance through the handsome courtyard gates gives an idea of the ample proportions within the homes.

Little has changed at the courtyard entrance since this photo was taken in 1899.  Architectural Record, June 1899 (copyright expired)

Montgomery Schuyler, the critic of Architectural Record, was pleased.  "It may be said in general that the authors of the southernmost and northernmost rows have apparently built for tenants who, Quaker like, were content to dwell in decencies forever.  Decorum they have in fact and without question attained.  These are 'second-rate, genteel houses,' in which nobody will be ashamed to be caught dwelling."  (Schuyler's use of the term "second rate" was not necessarily a derision, but implied that the houses were not mansions.)
  
David King retained ownership of the McKim, Mead & White row until 1895, when he sold it to The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States.  The firm continued to lease them to financially-comfortable families until 1905, when they were sold as a group to the Lexington Avenue Co.  The new owner had no intention of being a landlord and quickly sold the individual houses.

The new owners were white collar professionals.  Jules A. Coelos, president of Coelos & Fasselle, Inc. and secretary of the Thomas J. Brady Co. bought No. 219; Dr. Thomas F. Macguire and his wife Mary Irene purchased No. 235; and Professor James Furman Kemp took bought No. 221, which he had already been renting.

No. 237 retains its fanciful iron-and-glass marquee.

Born in New York City in 1859, Kemp was Columbia University's professor of geology.  Moreover, he was a nationally-recognized authority on the subject and the author of several books.  A man of several interests, he was also the manager and scientific director of the New York Botanical Gardens; and in 1902 was named chairman of the Faculty Committee on Athletics at Columbia.

James Furman Kemp, photo from the collection of the  American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers.

Following a collapse in the subway construction on Park Avenue in 1902, concerned property owners and residents sought out James F. Kemp "to investigate the condition of the subway and to make a scientific survey of the formation of the rock."  And following 5.1 earthquake in Maine in 1904 that shook areas as far away as Boston, reporters rushed to get Kemp's take on a similar prospect in Manhattan.

Fully aware of the island's bedrock foundation, the geologist calmed New Yorkers.  "Owners and tenants of the big steel structures need have little fear.  If the shock that Boston felt should be transmitted here, the damage would be very slight."

No. 261 was sold in 1905 to Arthur Pillsbury Dodge and his wife, Elizabeth.  Arthur's family had first arrived in America from England in 1629.  With only a scant education, he had served as a drummer boy in the Civil War, then self-educated himself to become an attorney.  He married Elizabeth Ann Day in November 1870 and the couple had six children.  

By the time the Dodges purchased No 261 Arthur had founded and published the New England Magazine, the Bay State Monthly and Granite State Monthly, worked with George Pullman in perfecting a streetcar in Chicago, and with Cornelius Vanderbilt II and William K. Vanderbilt in producing steam streetcar engines.

Arthur Pillsbury Dodge and Elizabeth Ann Day Dodge. photo via The Bahai Encyclopedia Project 

The couple was perhaps best known, however, for their religious affiliation.  They were the first members of the Bahai faith in New York City and were, as worded by The New York Times, "active supporters of the propagation of the Bahai Revelation."

Henry D. Gobber lived at No. 259 and even though several houses separated his from James Kemp's, he still managed to irritate his neighbor.  Gobber was a mortician and he set up his practice in his house, hanging a sign outside.  Neighbors went to court on the grounds that "the street was restricted and that the undertaker could not use his house for business purposes," according to The Sun.  The judge ordered him to relocate his business, but conceded that Gobber could "hang a card in his window similar to those of physicians or dentists, showing that the house was the residence of an undertaker."

So Gobber took down his sign, placed a card in the window, and brashly continued operating his mortuary from the house.  Kemp and another neighbor were incensed.  On March 22, 1913 he and Dr. Henry Spitzer appeared in court and "proved that Gobber had been transacting an undertaking  business from his house."  Gobber was fined $34 for contempt of court.  Despite the neighborly tensions, he remained in the house until 1922.

The architects executed the complex window enframements in brick.

By the time Gobber sold No. 259 the neighborhood had changed from an all-white to a nearly all-Black population.  The New-York Tribune entitled its article reporting on the sale of Nos. 231 and 241 West 139th Street on November 8 1919, "Sales in Harlem Negro Section."  That year the former Kemp house was sold to Vertner W. Tandy and his wife, Sadie.  The Record & Guide identified Tandy on April 26 as "an architect, who will occupy the premises after extensive alterations."

Vertner W. Tandy had entered Tuskegee Institute to study architecture in 1904 and a year later transferred to Cornell University.  Upon his graduation he became the first African American registered architect in the State of New York.  He was as well the first Black architect to gain membership to the American Institute of Architects.  During World War I he achieved the rank of major and was put in command of the 15th Battalion, infantry, of the New York National Guard.  It was, of course, an all-Black unit.

No. 221 was home to both Professor James Furman Kemp and architect Vertner W. Tandy.

The year before moving into No. 221 Tandy had designed what many consider his best work, Villa Lewaro, the country home of Madam C. J Walker.  Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Louisiana where her parents and older siblings had been slaves, she developed beauty and hair products for Black women.  Described by the Guinness Book of Records as being "America's first, self-made female millionaire," she created an empire.  She approached Tandy to design a palatial estate--not to boast of her achievements, but to show other struggling Blacks what was possible with hard work and determination.

Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

On June 3, 1922 the Record & Guide reported that No. 245 West 139th Street had been sold to "Harry Wills, the colored aspirant for the Heavyweight Championship of the World."  It noted there were "facilities in the rear for a garage."

Wills, who was still working his day job as a dock worker, held an undefeated record in the boxing ring.  Earlier that year, on March 12, sports writer for The New York Herald W. O. McGeehan wrote an article on the "Black Panther."  Wills opened up about his personal life, saying for instance, "What do I read?  I read the papers and I like to read about history.  But the best book I ever had is a book written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.  He was a colored man, too, you know."

Harry Wills - from the collection of the New York Public Library

Harry Wills would hold the World Colored Heavyweight Championship three times.  But because of the "color line" held by the Boxing Commission, he never had a shot at his most coveted prize: the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World.  In his interview with McGeehan, he mentioned that fighting Jack Dempsey would be a distinction, but added frankly that the purse for that fight would be welcomed, as well. "It isn't very easy for colored fighters to get any kind of money."

The McKim, Mead & White row has survived remarkably intact.  David H. King, Jr.'s "Model Houses," look little different from when Montgomery Schuyler said of them "The experiment is so successful that one would like to have it again and again repeated, not merely for the sake of having something entertaining to look at...but as a friend of humanity."

photographs by the author
many thanks to reader Matthew Priest for suggesting this article