The Lost Folies Bergere (Helen Hayes Theater) - 210 West 46th Street

 

The New York Architect - June 1911 (copyright expired)

The Forty-Sixth Street and Broadway Realty Co. was specifically organized to erect a unique theater at 206 to 212 West 46th Street.  Before ground was broken, on July 2, 1910, the Record & Guide reported that Henry B. Harris and Jesse L. Lasky had signed the lease.  The two producers envisioned a cabaret in New York City based on the restaurant-nightclub-theater in Paris, the Folies Bergère.

Designed by Herts & Tallant, the Folies Bergère cost $200,000 to erect--about $6.62 million in 2024.  The windowless façade was covered with a tapestry of polychrome terra cotta tiles--"old ivory, turquoise blue, and gold," according to The New York Architect in June 1911.  (The journal felt the exterior "presents a convincing argument for a more extended introduction of color in the facades of buildings of all descriptions.")  Below the "wrought bronze cornice" was a panel by eminent muralist William de Leftwich Dodge.  The New York Architect explained, "This frieze represents, in allegory, all the characters of vaudeville."

The Heating & Ventilating Magazine, October 1911 (copyright expired)

Inside the three entrances, the lobby was decorated in white marble with colored mosaic floors.  William de Leftwich Dodge supervised the decoration of the auditorium, drawing on the French roots of the Folies Bergère.  Gilded plaster festoons and paintings by Dodge created a decidedly Parisian atmosphere.  In its July 1911 issue, The Green Book said the auditorium suggested, "with its delicate color scheme, nothing else so much as the interior of a jewel box," adding, "The walls and pillars are covered with damask the shade of salmon, or crushed strawberry, or old rose."

The New York Architect, June 1911 (copyright expired)

Harris and Lansky departed from the traditional theater by treating the orchestra level and the front of the first balcony as a restaurant.  The Green Book Album wrote:

When you enter the auditorium you see, instead of the ordinary orchestra chairs, row after row of tables.  Each row is elevated a foot or so above that ahead of it, so that a good view of the stage is to be had from every seat, and an iron rail separates one company of diners from the next.

Wait staff in white tie assemble in the orchestra and front balcony.  The Heating & Ventilating Magazine, October 1911 (copyright expired)

Patrons in evening dress ordered from menus written in French and were served by white-tied waiters.  Diners would enjoy orchestra music from 6:00 to 8:15, when the curtain rose.  As the evening drew to a close, a call boy glided from table to table asking who needed a taxi.  Those patrons who did were handed numbered cards, eliminating the need for a curbside wait.

The Folies Bergère opened on April 27, 1911.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Dinner with music, dancing and fiery little tabloid shows as an accompaniment, will be served from 6 p.m. to 8:15, when the curtain will go up on 'Hell," a profane burlesque in one act by Rennold Wolf, with music by Maurice Levi...The revue will satirize plays and people of present public interest."  The revue was followed by the American premier of the ballet, Temptation, by Alfredo Curti; which was followed by another revue, Gaby.  

The article noted, "Supper will be served from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.  During the revues and the ballet refreshments will be served and smoking permitted in all parts of the house."  The supper portion of the evening was accompanied by the cabaret show, "giving New York the first midnight music hall."

Later that year, Harris and Lasky produced A La Broadway.  The "satirical burlesque in one act" opened on September 22.  The Sun reported, "It consisted or large quantities of girls, many changes of costumes and a pair of really funny comedians."  What audiences and critics could not know was that they were seeing the first appearance of an 18-year-old Brooklyn girl who would eventually shake American theater to its foundations.  "Miss Mae West had a song or two that went pretty well and she danced with considerable grace and originality," said the article.

Unfortunately, Mae West's first Broadway show closed after eight performances.  Lasky's and Harris's bold concept had not turned a profit.  On September 30, Variety reported on the closing of the Folies Bergère.  "While it is claimed that the restaurant portion of the enterprise has yielded a profit, the scheme has proved itself impractical owing to the limited seating capacity of the house under the present policy."

That year another producer, Beatrice DeMille, introduced Jesse L. Lasky to her son, Cecil B. DeMille.  Lasky would team with him and Samuel Goldwyn to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, a moving picture firm.  Harris traveled to London in April 1912 to arrange a play.  He was lost on the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.

With its auditorium remodeled with traditional seating, the theater reopened as the Fulton Theatre.  It offered both live plays and occasional moving pictures.  On November 24, 1915, for instance, an advertisement in The Evening World announced four screenings a day of Fighting In France, "The French Government Official Motion Pictures taken by order of the Great General Staff of the French Army for the National Archives."

The play Penny Arcade opened on March 24, 1930, a three-act drama about bootlegging and murder.  In the audience that night was Al Jolson, who was not taken with the performances of lead actors Eric Dressler and Lenita Lane, but with two supporting players, Joan Blondell and James Cagney.  According to Matthew Kennedy in his Joan Blondell, A Life Between Takes, Jolson purchased the motion picture rights to the play for $20,000.  "He quickly sold it to the Warner Bros. film studio in California, but only under the agreement that Blondell and Cagney come attached with a three-week contract to film the play."  It was the beginning of film stardom for the two unknowns.

The stage of the Fulton Theatre would see famous entertainers over the years.  On January 18, 1932, The New York Times reported, "Maurice Chevalier, the French film actor and entertainer, will begin a limited concert engagement of one and a half weeks at the Fulton Theatre."

Boris Karloff opened in the 1941 play Arsenic and Old Lace,; and on November 20, 1946, Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, the prequel to her 1939 drama The Little Foxes, opened with Patricia Neal as Regina Hubbard.  Also in the cast were Paul Ford and, Jean Hagen.  In 1951, Audrey Hepburn made her theatrical debut in Gigi.

On November 9, 1955, The New York Times reported, "The incandescent name of Helen Hayes will glow permanently on the marquee of a Broadway playhouse starting Nov. 21."  It was a great honor.  The only other living actress to have a theater name for her was Ethel Barrymore.  When told of the renaming, Helen Hayes remarked, "I burst into tears.  It was too much for me.  An actress' life is so transitory--suddenly you're a building."

The "extensively renovated" theater was dedicated on November 30, 1958 and opened the two nights later with Helen Hayes starring in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet.  The New York Times reported the auditorium had been "refurbished in Louis XIV decor" and that the "theatre's seating capacity was increased by 113 to 1,152."  The new decorations included a "mirror-paneled lobby with white marble stairs," and "'royal enclosures' with custom arm chairs and cushions, a series of French Lalique basket lights and crystal chandeliers."

The Helen Hayes sign covered the Dodge mural and a new glass building-wide marquee was installed.  photo from the collection of the Library of Congress.

The Helen Hayes Theatre was the venue of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Long Day's Journey Into Night, and the long running Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr which opened on March 8, 1961 and ran for three years.

One of the "royal enclosures" with chandelier is seen in this photo of the renovated theater.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Henry Fonda was starring in the one-man show Clarence Darrow in the spring of 1974.  Following his performance on the night of April 23, he collapsed in his dressing room.  His wife, Shirley Mae Adams, told reporters the extra strain of the Tony ceremonies two nights earlier had caused exhaustion.   Five days later, The New York Times reported the 68-year-old actor was still hospitalized.  Although Fonda eventually recovered, the play did not.  It was replaced by another one-man show, Will Rogers, starring James Whitmore.

On March 23, 1982, The New York Times reported that demolition had begun on the Helen Hayes Theater.  Preservationists had obtained a temporary stay, but it was lifted by the United States Supreme Court, removing "the last major impediment to construction of the 50-story Portman Hotel in the Times Square area," said the article.  The demolition was part of what would become known by some as "The Great Theater Massacre of 1982."  Four other vintage theaters would be demolished with the Helen Hayes--the Morosco, the Bijou, the Astor and the Gaiety.

A day earlier, 1,000 demonstrators had gathered on West 45th Street to hear pleas from performers including Celeste Holm, Tammy Grimes, Jose Ferrer, Colleen Dewhurst, Estelle Parsons, and Treat Williams.  Producer Joseph Papp broke the news to the gathering.  "I'll tell you frankly, these theaters are going to come down.  The Supreme Court has lifted the stay."

Because of the architectural importance of the Helen Hayes Theater, Portman Properties agreed to preserve one-third of the façade.  But on June 9, 1982, The New York Times reported that the façade "collapsed during demolition work on the remainder of the theater."

photo by Fred R. Conrad, The New York Times June 9, 1982.

The vandalism was not only architectural.  Many saw the demolition of the theater as an affront to Helen Hayes.  The following year, the Little Theatre was renamed the Helen Hayes Theater.

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The 1904 Lyric Apartments - 352-356 West 46th Street

 

image via loopnet.com

At the turn of the last century, three four-story flats had stood at 352 through 356 West 46th Street for years.  In 1903, they were purchased and demolished by Gotlieb W. Karpas, who hired architect George F. Pelham to design a modern replacement.

Completed in 1904, the Lyric's rusticated limestone base upheld four stories clad in gray Roman brick.  The sixth floor was faced in stone.  Pelham's Renaissance Revival design featured scrolled keystones, splayed lintels, and Renaissance style pediments.  The courtly entrance portico, however, stole the show.  Four Scamozzi columns upheld the intricately carved entablature and balustraded balcony.

Despite its proximity to the dangerous Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, the Lyric was intended for financially comfortable residents.  There were five apartments per floor, ranging from four to seven rooms.  Apartment Houses of the Metropolis noted:

Hardwood trim throughout.  Dining rooms are paneled seven feet high, capped with Dutch shelving.  All floors are double, noiseless, with hardwood border and parquet finish.  Baths are tiled and wainscoted with porcelain tile four feet six inches high, opal glass and tile lined refrigerators, porcelain plumbing fixtures, private telephone in each apartment.

Residents paid between $540 and $900 per year, or around $2,500 a month by today's terms.

Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, 1908 (copyright expired)

The Lyric had a wide variety of tenants, and its location near the theater district attracted several in that industry.  Among the first were Charles Zimmerman, a partner in the theatrical management firm of Nixon & Zimmerman, and his wife.  On the evening of May 19, 1905 the couple was walking their fox terrier on Eighth Avenue.  The World reported, "When they reached Fifty-third street a large bulldog which was with a negro sprang at the fox terrier, and the animals started to fight."

Zimmerman tried to separate the animals, but was bitten twice in the left hand.  The newspaper reported, "The bulldog sprang at Mrs. Zimmerman.  She turned her back on the animal, and several men beat the brute off.  Mrs. Zimmerman then pulled off her automobile coat and threw it over the fighting dogs."  The distraction ended the fight and Mrs. Zimmerman retrieved her bleeding dog.  "Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman then called a cab and were driven to Dr. Van Loen, who cauterized the bites," said The World.

The Zimmermans were by far not the only dog lovers in the Lyric.  Oscar A. Hirsch, who lived here in 1910 owned a pedigree Boston terrier; W. Beardsley Judson, here at the same time, was treasurer of the Bulldog Breeders' Association of America; and Rita Stamwood owned a cocker spaniel.

Another of the initial residents was actress Minnie Seligman.  Twice divorced, her family was closely related to the massively wealthy Seligman banking family.  Both her first husband and her family had forbidden her to go on stage.  She did anyway.

Minnie Seligman, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

While Minnie was away on the night of August 31, 1905, four teenage boys were discovered in her apartment.  Arrested for burglary, they provided a questionable explanation.  The teens said they had, indeed, entered the building, but "they were frightened away by a man in the house and went into Miss Seligman's apartments to escape to the street."

Louis R. Rothchild's marriage to Carrie Adams in Jersey City on June 27, 1905 was initially kept secret.  The groom's brother was David Rothchild, president of the Federal Bank, who had been arrested the previous year for "stealing $200,000 of the funds of the Federal Bank," according to The New York Times.  The newlyweds moved into Carrie's apartment in the Lyric.  A reporter from The Press arrived at the apartment on July 16, the day after the marriage was finally made public.  Carrie explained, "The reason we did not announce it before was partly because I knew it would mean a lot of notoriety.  Recently we decided it might as well come out now as at any other time."

In 1908 the building's name was changed to the Lansdown.  Typical of the tenants at the time were Russell Seipt Wolfe, a 1909 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a law clerk with Strong & Cadwalader.

Drawing unwanted publicity to the Lansdown in 1912 was actress Beatrice Walsh.  On the afternoon of October 28, she was seen by a Herald Square department store detective taking money from the purse of another shopper.  When he approached, Beatrice initiated what would develop into an astounding foot chase.  The Evening Telegram reported she, "startled a throng of women shoppers in the aisles of the store by leaping from a balcony to the first floor, narrowly missing several women who were beneath the balcony."

Scrambling to her feet, Beatrice darted out of the store onto West 34th Street, now closely pursued by several store detectives.  "Dashing madly across Thirty-fourth street, the fleeing woman ran into the pathway of a crosstown car, and was only saved from being knocked down and crushed by the frantic efforts of the motorman to halt the car."  Beatrice's flight was about to come to and end.  She "ran almost into the arms of Policeman Zorn" on the opposite side of the street.  The actress was arrested and charged with stealing $5 from the purse of Elizabeth Krowehl.

Stockbroker Harry Lattimer Bloodgood left his wife, the former Helen Hamler, in January 1912.  He moved into his mother's apartment on West 56th Street, and filed for divorce.  The rift greatly affected Helen's mind.  The Sun reported on March 10 that since the couple separated, "Mrs. Bloodgood ahs been in Broadway restaurants nearly every night and until early in the morning," and that she "had spent $3,000 in entertaining her friends in three weeks."  The article noted, "It was also learned that a piano player was kept on duty for twenty-four hours."

A concerned friend notified authorities who went to Helen's apartment in the Lansdown.  According to The Sun, the "physicians who were finally called in to treat Mrs. Bloodgood found the apartment wrecked."  On March 10, The Sun reported that she "was taken to the Bellevue psychopathic ward on Wednesday night, and was later committed to the Rivercrest Sanitarium."

In 1921, little had changed within the Lansdown.  An "elegant apartment of five large rooms" rented that year for $1,500 per year, or about $2,000 a month today.

Interestingly, the building continued to attracted dog lovers.  In 1919, Mrs. G. D. Crawford's pedigree Boston terrier Dandy Tim was registered at the address, and on July 31, 1922 The American Kennel Gazette and Stud Book listed Frederic H. Schader and his two German shepherds Westy Q and Asta here.

And theatrical types, too, continued to live in the Lansdown.  Among them in 1925 were Albert E. Johnston, of the vaudevillian act the Musical Johnstons, and his wife, Dorothy Drew.

Dr. Eugene C. Mowry was a well-known resident.  On April 19, 1935 the New York Post remarked that he had "befriended hundreds of residents in the West Forties during two score years as a physician."  The widower lived with his adult daughter Maude Blanche.  Mowry died in the apartment on April 27, 1935, and his funeral was held there two days later.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Included in Maude Mowry's inheritance was a vacant property at the southwest corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 72nd Street in Jackson Heights.  Her father had purchased it in 1920.  In 1938, she attempted to erect a gasoline station on the plot, but was rebuffed by the Board of Standards and Appeals.  Members of the Elmhurst Heights Taxpayers' Association "contended there was no need for the station in the locality as there are three such stations within five blocks there," reported the Long Island Daily Star.  Undaunted, Maude went to court.  State Supreme Court Justice George H. Furman overturned the Board's decision, calling it "arbitrary and unreasonable."

Living here in 1977 was 20-year-old tow truck helper Alexander Esau.  His long-time girlfriend was Valentina Suriani, an 18-year-old student at Lehman College.  On April 17, 1977 Alexander borrowed his brother's car to take Valentina to a movie.  Afterward, he drove to a service road on the Hutchinson River Parkway, about a block from Valentina's home.

The spring of 1977 was not a good time for lovers to park in secluded areas.  A serial killer had begun stalking the area nine months earlier.  John Keenan, Chief of Detectives of the New York City Police Department was unable to provide a motive, saying only, "It seems to be the work of a psychologically disturbed person."

At around 3:00 in the morning, David Berkowitz, who would later be known as the Son of Sam, walked up to the driver's side window of Esau's car and opened fire.  Valentina, shot twice in the head, died almost instantly.  Alexander, also shot in the head, lingered for two hours before dying at Jacobi Hospital.

Once again called the Lyric, George F. Pelham's handsome building still has five apartments per floor.  While the interiors have been stripped of 1904 details, the exterior is little changed.

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The 1885 William B. Keller House - 345 West 46th Street

 

John Livingston was a prolific real estate developer in the late 19th century, the Record & Guide calling him "one of our oldest and wisest builders."  On January 12, 1884 he announced his intentions to erect a row of "stone front private dwellings" along the north side of West 46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.  The following month Frederick T. Camp filed plans for nine "three-story and basement brown stone dwellings," each to cost the equivalent of $315,000 in 2022.

The identical, brownstone-fronted homes were completed in December 1884.  Camp had designed the 19-foot-wide houses in the neo-Grec style.  The architrave stone frames of the windows were miniature versions of the entrances.  Geometric brackets with incised decorations upheld pronounced molded cornices.  The corbels of the terminal cornices with paneled friezes carried on the motif of the openings below.

Ten months after their completion, two of the nine houses were still unsold.  Livingston's advertisement in October 1885 suggests he was eager to find a buyer.  "Attention--Substantial new dwellings, 343, 345 West 46th st.,; hard wood; extra plumbing; airy cellars; low prices; easy terms."

William B. Keller, founder of the publishing firm W. B. Keller & Co., purchased 345 West 46th Street.  Born in Kellersville, Pennsylvania, he and his wife had a son, William, Jr.  In the 1870's he was the first publisher in New York to install linotype machines.

When the family moved into 345 West 46th Street, Keller was embroiled in a serious legal battle.  His firm published the National Bottlers' Gazette, a trade monthly.  One of his regular advertisers was John Matthews, known popularly as the "soda water king."  The New York Times reported on October 27 that "whenever mention was made of the firm in that paper the Messrs. Matthews were very highly spoken of." 

But in June 1885, Matthews stopped advertising in the National Bottlers' Gazette.  After that, said Matthews's legal complaint, "in each publication, disparaging and libelous notices of the Messrs. Matthews appeared."  Not only did Matthews sue Keller for more than a dozen instances of libel, but on October 23 he had Keller arrested.

Keller advertised the 46th Street house for sale in January 1891.  The ad pointed out that it sat within a "restricted and select block," assuring the prospective buyer that no commercial incursion was allowed on the block.  Keller's advertised price was $20,500, or about $602,000 by today's conversion.

It was purchased by another publisher, Thomas Jolly and his wife, Helen L.  The couple's residency would be relatively short, and in October 1897 they sold the house to Julius and Adelaide Dietz.  Julius Dietz was the principal in the Central Market Co., a large meat market on 48th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue.  The couple had four children, Walter E., Ida A., Carolyn M. (known as Carrie), and J. Herbert Dietz.

Walter was the first of the Dietz children to marry.  His engagement to Dorothy Marian Vail was announced in November 1914.  The Sun mentioned that the bride-to-be, "who lived in Tuxedo for some time, is proficient as an amateur dancer and has taken part in many entertainments given by young people."  Three years later, on April 15, 1917, the Dietzes announced the engagement of Ida to Dr. Charles A. Gomer.

By the time of Ida's wedding, the West 46th Street block was no longer restricted.  The once refined tenor of the neighborhood was being tarnished by the intrusion of commerce.  In November 1920, Julius Dietz moved his family to 958 Madison Avenue.  (He paid for that house with "a meat market," according to the New-York Tribune.)

The Dietzes' removal signaled the end of 345 West 46th Street as a private home.  It became a boarding house, and among its first residents was Beatrice Towers.  She advertised "piano instruction; adult beginners, children."  Not so upstanding was John Williams, alias Patrick Hoey.  The 22-year-old was arrested on May 25, 1921 on the complaint of a baker, Antonio Palski.  According to Palski, Williams followed his delivery boy and as he delivered fresh-baked bread to customers.  When the boy dropped off the bread, Williams would steal it.

By 1927 board was no longer offered in the house.  Now a rooming house--without the amenity of meals--it was run by Mrs. Francis Hyland.  Among her roomers was 72-year old Frank W. Mumford, a holdover of the original tenants after the Dietzes moved out.  He had worked for the Remington Typewriter Company in its mechanical department since 1902.

On the afternoon of October 26, 1927, Francis Hyland went to Mumford's room to make up the bed.  The door was locked, and so she used her passkey.  She found the elderly man dead on the floor.  The New York Sun reported, "While searching Mumford's effects the police found $2,500 in cash."  That would translate to more than $37,000 today.

As was happening with many other homes along the block, the basement of 345 West 46th Street was converted to a restaurant, run by Joseph Lany.  In 1928, Grover Aloysius Whalen was appointed Police Commissioner by Mayor James Walker.  The strict enforcement of Prohibition was perhaps his main focus.  His stance was clearly revealed in an address to the Rotary Club at the Waldorf-Astoria on April 5, 1929.  The New York Times wrote:

Police Commissioner Whalen blamed prohibition for the increase in crime in this city, declared there were 32,000 'speakeasies' in New York, warned against the 'hostess problem' which is 'verging on vice conditions that were wiped out years ago,' and scored 'sob sister' judges who criticize police strong-arm tactics against criminals.

Four months earlier, on January 2, Whalen had unleashed an army of police officers to conduct raids.  They had orders to "treat 'em rough," according to the Standard Union.  Whalen instructed the officers to wreck the "dangerous speakeasies and places which breed crime."  Among them was Joseph Lany's place at 345 West 46th Street.

Following the repeal of Prohibition, the basement space became home to John Baccialon's restaurant, Lou Jean's.  He happily obtained his liquor license in October 1934.

In the meantime, the upper portion of the building was still being operated as a rooming house.  A month before Lou Jean's got its liquor license, a roomer, Anthony Nino, was arrested.  He, Cal Schmitt, and Joseph Quinalan had been robbing men in the Times Square district by impersonating undercover officers, accusing their victims of loitering or some other minor crime, and accepting bribes to avoid arrest.

It backfired on September 10, 1934.  That night Quinalan and Schmitt approached Joseph Downey and William Conroy, while Nino stood nearby as a lookout.  According to Downey, the two said, "We're police officers.  What are you doing here?"   Quinalan displayed a fake police shield, then turned to Schmitt and said, "What'll we do with them, sergeant?"  The problem for the pair was that Downey and Conroy were undercover detectives.  All three were arrested.  Anthony Nino was lucky enough to return to his furnished room at 345 West 46th Street that night, since he had not technically been involved.

The basement level was home to a series of restaurants over the subsequent decades.  In 1970 Danny's jazz club was here, followed by Mr. Mike's Italian restaurant, run by Mike Macario, here by 1976.  The following year Parkway, an Indian restaurant opened, and around 1980 the American restaurant, Mildred Pierce occupied the space.  It was replaced by Maison Brasil toward the end of the decade.

And then, the well-known piano bar/theater Don't Tell Mama opened in 1989, combining the basement spaces of 345 and 343 West 46th Street.   It was a popular destination for decades, known for its singing bartenders and waiters.  In 2008, the owners moved Don't Tell Mama to Las Vegas, seemingly ending a chapter in the history of what had become known as Restaurant Row.  Happily for theater goers, the restaurant recently reopened.

photographs by the author

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James Blackhurst's 1874 319 West 46th Street

 

In the first years following the end of the Civil War, the West 46th Street block between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Hell's Kitchen was anything but attractive.  One block to the east was Longacre Square, the center of the city's carriage making industry.  The industrial tenor of the district spilled over onto the West 46th Street block, and in the 1860's John Hemmer's distillery sat at 319 West 46th Street.  Hemmer was capable of producing 15 gallons of liquor per day.

The property was owned by Henry Astor III, the son of William Backhouse, Sr. and brother of John Jacob and William B. Astor, Jr.  He was estranged from his family after he married the daughter of the gardener of the Astor summer estate.  The couple lived  comfortably on an estate in West Copake, New York.  While he inherited 119 parcels of New York City real estate from his father, he was not permitted to manage it--that was done by his brothers, who had otherwise turned their backs on him.

In 1874 architect and developer James Blackhurst erected two identical homes at 319 and 321 West 46th Street.  He  designed the brownstone-fronted houses in the Italianate style, with decided neo-Grec influences.  Sitting on the site of the Hemmer distillery, 319 West 46th Street was, like its twin, three stories tall above the English basement level and 20-feet-wide.  Hefty cast iron Italianate newels and railings flanked the stone stoop.  On either side of the double-doored entrance were engaged, Doric columns that upheld a classical pediment.  The incised decorations of the architrave window frames drew from the relatively new neo-Grec style.  The house was sold subject along with the leasehold of the Astor property on which it sat.  

Surprisingly, not only do the original 1874 entrance doors survive, but so do the interior parlor shutters.

The new owners did not need the entire house.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on March 24, 1875 offered, "To Let--To a small family, three rooms on third floor of new brown stone house, 319 West Forty-sixth street."  Living here the following year was William Weber, whose profession was listed as "clerk."

The house was sold at auction to real estate operators James Kyle & Sons on May 18, 1892 for $6,475, or about $190,000 in 2022 terms.  It was now operated as a respectable boarding house.

Living here from about 1898 through 1904 was artist Maria Matilda Brooks.  Born in Staines, England, in 1837, she studied at the South Kensington Art School in London and the Royal Academy School.  She moved to the United States in 1883.  Her Down Piccadilly, Returning from Covent Garden Market One June Morning earned her an Honorable Mention at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Brooks drew on her English background to create the painting exhibited in the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

Maria Brooks continued to exhibit while living here.  In 1898 she received a bronze medal at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London; honorable mention in the Buffalo, New York Pan-American Exposition; and a bronze medal in Charleston, South Carolina in 1903.

Maria Brooks's career came to a sudden end on November 16, 1913.  That afternoon she was crossing Broadway when she was hit by an automobile.  She died in the hospital later that evening.

Other boarders were Dr. Emmet Dinsmore, who lived here in 1896, and brothers James M. and John C. Seager.  In 1899 the Seagers partnered to incorporate the John C. Seager Company, "to conduct a general shipping agency and freighting and chartering business."

The men had earlier operated the steamship firm of Seager Brothers, which dissolved in 1883 with debts of $55,338.  They hoped, no doubt, that the new venture would enable them to erase that debt and get back on their feet.   That may have happened, were it not for one disastrous incident.

On February 13, 1901, the New York Herald reported, "John C. Seager, general agent of the Prince line, received last night this cable despatch [sic] at his home, No. 319 West Forty-sixth street:  'Spartan Prince stranded.  Straits of Gibraltar.  Passengers safely landed here.  Carrara.'"

The steamship Spartan Prince had left New York on January 29 headed to Italy.  It hit rocks that punched holes in the keel at the engine room and holds.  The New York Herald reported, "Salvage steamers set out at once, and the tug Hercules returned to-night, bringing eighty-three passengers.  No lives were lost."  Seager told a reporter, "I am in hopes that the damage may not be as serious as the despatch [sic] states."

Unfortunately for the Seager brothers, the damage was as serious as the telegram suggested.  A year later, almost to the day, on January 26, 1902, The New York Times reported that John C. Seager had filed for bankruptcy.  The wreck had wiped him out.  The article noted, "he has assets consisting of cash in the bank, $202; watch, chain and studs, $100, which he claims are exempt.  His life is insured for $20,000."  (Seager was, sadly, worth more dead than alive.)  His troubles would only increase.  He was still living at 319 West 46th Street the following year when Judge Adams of the United States District Court refused his petition of bankruptcy.

The house continued to see white collar boarders.  By 1907 Judge Edwin J. Dutton lived here.  A judge in the Court of General Sessions of Peace, he would remain for several years.  Printer Walter Cavell boarded in the house in 1910, and in 1914 Myer S. Cohn listed 319 West 46th Street as his address when he and his partners incorporated the Kings County Lumber Company, Inc.

Before the end of World War I Longacre Square was renamed Times Square.  It was now the center of the city's theater district.  In 1924 the offices of Fred E. Eckhart's theatrical business were located at 319 West 46th Street.  But greater change was on the near horizon.

The house has changed little since this photograph was taken in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1926 renovations by architect Paul Cerrina were completed that resulted in a restaurant in the basement, and a rooming house on the upper floors.  The Department of Buildings directed, "not more than 15 sleeping rooms in building."

Nearly 140 years after its completion, James Blackhurst's dignified house is surprisingly well preserved along today's Restaurant Row.  

photographs by the author

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Frederick T. Camp's 1884 347 West 46th Street

 

On January 12, 1884 developer John Livingston announced his plans to erect a row "stone front private dwellings" along the north side of West 46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.   A month later his architect Frederick T. Camp filed plans for nine "three-story and basement brown stone dwellings," each to cost $11,500 to erect, or about $315,000 in today's money.

Camp designed the identical brownstone-fronted homes in the neo-Grec style.  The architrave stone frames of the windows were miniature versions of the entrance.  Geometric brackets with etched decorations upheld pronounced molded cornices.  The corbels of the cornices, with their paneled frieze, carried on the motif of the openings below.

The houses were completed in December 1884.  Livingston offered 347 West 46th Street for lease at $1,400 rent, an affordable $3,000 per month today.  His listing noted that the 20-foot-wide house was "3-rooms deep."  He rented the house for two years before selling it to Samuel T. Reed on March 15, 1886 for the equivalent of $558,000 today.

It appears that Reed and his family never lived in the house.  Instead it was operated as a high-end boarding house.  Among the high-profile residents here by 1889 was G. Waldo Smith, a wholesale grocer and member of the Chamber of Commerce.  He would remain in the house at least through 1894.

The outspoken Smith was unafraid to make his opinions known.  In 1894, Congress considered a Tariff bill that included an income tax proposition.  On June 2, the New-York Tribune entitled an article "The Metropolis Protests / Away with The Income Tax," and went on to report on a mass meeting of businessmen.  G. Waldo Smith spoke on behalf of the wholesale grocers, and the journalist deemed his remarks, "particularly acceptable."

New Yorkers were concerned with other trouble issues at the time.  The Lexow Investigating Committee, formed by the New York State Senate, was looking closely into corruption among the New York Police Department.  Smith reacted dramatically.  At a special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on October 34, 1894, he addressed the group, calling for martial law.  He stressed that the force "should be stripped of all civil appearance, and instead, should be changed into a military body, with its members subject to court-martial and the sternest of discipline."

Also living in the house at the time were John F. Suydam and his wife.  Suydam, who came from an old New York family, was a wholesale grocer.  He had fought in the Civil War with the Seventh Regiment, known as the Silk Stocking Regiment, or the Blue Bloods, because a disproportionate number of its members came from the socially elite.  He was a member of the prestigious Holland Society, restricted those who could trace their roots to New Amsterdam.

In 1898 the North American Journal of Homoeopathy reported that Dr. Hugh Kidder had moved his office from the West Side Clinic and Hospital to 347 West 46th Street.  There was already a physician operating from the address at the time, Dr. Santia Crova, who conducted a bizarre set of experiments in "cutaneous metamorphosis."  They resulted in Crova being sued for $10,000 damages by a patient in April 1898.

In his complaint, John Barnes (described by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle as "a stalwart young negro") said that in July 1897, "Dr. Crova told him he would pay him $5 per week if he would submit to certain baths for the purpose of turning his skin white."  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle explained, "At the expiration of six weeks, [Barnes] was informed, he would be a white man."  Crova "represented himself as a scientist in that particular line," and the two signed a contract.  

In court, Barnes detailed the treatments.  "The recital reads much like a chapter of medieval art," said the newspaper.

Barnes would enter the tub and remain there a half hour, sometimes two hours.  He would suffer a burning sensation, whereupon the physician would rub the parts with vaseline and cold cream.  Sometimes he could not renew the bath, so greatly did he suffer from the pain caused by the chemicals in the water, he says.  So powerful were these chemicals that they even penetrated the zinc of the tubs, he alleges, practically ruining the metal.

Barnes testified that his fingernails had turned deep black, parts of his body remained "extremely sore," and his general health had been "weakened and impaired."  He told the court, "Yet my skin is as black as ever."

In the first years of the 20th century single women were boarding in the house, still owned by Samuel T. Reed.  Elsie R. Hirst was here as early as 1906, when she was on the "eligible list" for the position of stenographer and typewriter for the Board of Water Supply.  She got the job, earning $900 a year in 1910.

Actress Marie Burker boarded here in 1916.  The location was convenient, since by now the entertainment district had moved northward to nearby Times Square.  She had a handyman who was doing work in the house arrested on May 7, 1916, accusing him of stealing a ring valued at $600 (a significant $14,600 today).  William Brower, who lived in the Mills Hotel No. 3 (a residence for down-on-their-luck working men), confessed he had stolen the ring.  Unfortunately for Marie Burker, the ring was gone.  "He asserted, however, that some one had since stolen it from him," reported The New York Press.

Another actor who lived here was Edwin "Poodles" Hanneford.  Born in England, he grew up in a circus family.   He and his family were brought to America by John Ringling in 1915.  By then, Hanneford was among the greatest trick horse riders in the world.  He fell in love with well-known actress Grace White, but she refused to marry him until after World War I had ended, fearing he would be killed.

Then, on August 20, 1919 The Brooklyn Standard Union reported, "Edwin Hanneford, an actor, of 347 West Forty-sixth street, Manhattan, was married to-day to Miss Grace White, a well-known actress."  The groom was 28 years old and his bride was 23.  Hanneford would go on to play in motion pictures, including the 1935 Our Little Girl with Shirley Temple; The Red Pony, with Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum, released in 1949; and the 1952 The Springfield Rifle with Gary Cooper.

Albert E. Smith, who was "in the steel construction business," according to the New York Herald, lived here with his widowed mother, Elizabeth, around the time Edwin Hanneford and Grace White were married.  Elizabeth died on March 11, 1921, and her funeral was held in the house.  

A few months later, Albert Smith's deep sense of patriotism prompted him to have an Englishman arrested.  Smith was at the Strand motion picture theater on August 18.  In the audience was 38-year-old Herbert Blache.  According to Smith, "when a 'close-up' of the [American] flag flying from the battleship Michigan was thrown on the screen, Blache hissed audibly."  Smith had Blache arrested, and two other patrons, Mrs. M. E. Johnstone and Louise P. Sanger, backed up his complaint.

At the station house Blache protested, insisting that he had applied for citizenship.  "I deny hissing the American flag.  I am an Englishman, though I have been in this country fourteen years.  I have nothing against the American flag.  In fact, I prefer it to any other," he told the police lieutenant.  He was held on $500 bail awaiting his appearance in court.

The following year Leonora M. Reed sold the house to Dr. J. Kessler, "for occupancy," according to the New York Herald.  The once-upscale block was undergoing significant change at the time.  The bustle of Times Square spilled into the neighborhood and one-by-one the former private homes were being converted to apartments with businesses in the basements.

In 1971 the basement of 347 West 46th Street was Chez Cardinale.  It was not until 1978, however, that the upper floors were converted to apartments, two per floor.  In 1982 the restaurant space became home to La Vielle Auberge.  On December 3, The New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton wrote, "Considering the demand for good, pleasant, moderate-price restaurants in the theater district, La Vieille Auberge should develop a loyal following."  And it did.  The restaurant was a fixture on Restaurant Row for more than a decade.

Some interior details, like the staircase wainscot and railings, and a marble neo-Grec mantel, survive.  images via streeteasy.com

In 1997 Les San Culottes, another French restaurant was in the space, replaced by Sushi of Gari, which opened in 2006.   Although the brownstone has been painted, Frederick T. Camp's neo-Grec facade is otherwise greatly intact--even the 1884 entrance doors survive.  Inside, a few of the original details, like neo-Grec marble mantels, remain.

photograph by the author

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The 1875 Ignatius Radley House - 344 West 46th Street

 

Henry Astor was shunned by his family when he married Malvina Dinehart.  She was the daughter of a farmer and the gardener who done work on the Astor summer residence at Red Hook, New York.  But while estranged from his family, living in West Copake, New York, Henry lived comfortably off the income from 119 parcels of Manhattan real estate held in trust, including the block between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, and 45th to 46th Streets.

The trust was overseen by Henry's brothers, John Jacob and William Astor.  In 1874 they leased much of the 46th Street block to developers.  The following year, on April 25, 1875, an advertisement in the New York Herald offered:

For Sale--On Astor Lease, cheap, two new brown stone Houses 342 and 344 West Forty-sixth street, three stories and basement.

Leather merchant Ignatius Radley purchased 344 West 46th Street.  Born in France on August 2, 1833 as Ignatius Redle, he had anglicized his surname upon arriving in America.  He and his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Milleman, had five children, George Francis, Emma, Mary Elizabeth, Amelia Mcentye, and Ignatius, Jr.

Their 20-foot-wide home was designed in the popular Italianate style.  Atop the high stone stoop, the double-doored arched entrance was framed by engaged columns that upheld a classical pediment.  The full-height parlor windows, most likely, were fronted by a cast iron balcony, and the upper windows sat within architrave frames.

The family's affluence and social standing was evidenced in the wedding of Ignatius's brother, John J. Radley, to Edith Marian Smith on January 16, 1894.  According to the New-York Daily Tribune, "between 600 and 700 witnessed the marriage ceremony" in St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Ignatius served as an usher.

By the 1890's, the Radley children were young adults.  Amelia was the youngest of the three daughters.  In 1890, at the age of 25, she was teaching in the Primary Department of Grammar School No. 58 on West 52nd Street.

In May 1898, the engagement of Ignatius, Jr. to Emma Muschenheim was announced.   By now the 20-year-old was a clerk in Franklin Savings Bank.  His future father-in-law, William C. Muschenheim, was the proprietor of the Hotel Astor.  Later The New York Times called him, "one of the first men to see the future of Times Square."  Convinced that the district had potential, Muschenheim had strode into the offices of the Astor brothers and (after significant prompting) convinced them to build the lavish hotel.  His fortune was estimated at between $5 and $10 million--more than $160 million on the lower end today.

Emma Muschenheim's engagement portrait.  The Illustrated American, June 3, 1898 (copyright expired)

The wedding took place in the Muschenheim house, Fort Tryon Terrace, on June 1, 1898.  The New York Press announced that after the ceremony, "An elaborate programme has been prepared for the entertainment of the guests.  Carriages will be at the 'L' station, 155th street and Eighth avenue, for the convenience of the guests."

The newlyweds moved into the Muschenheim mansion.  It was the site of a macabre incident two years later.  The New York Press described the grounds of Fort Tryon Terrace as overlooking the Hudson river, "just north of Libbey Castle near the extreme northern end of Manhattan Island."  Boys playing on the rocks on the estate on March 24, 1900 discovered the badly decomposed body of a woman.

Ignatius launched his own investigation and found a pocket prayer book among the rocks.  He was not overly quick to notify police, however, and two days later The New York Press reported that the book "was still in his hands yesterday and the police said the finding of it was news to them."  Unfortunately, it provided no evidence to the woman's identify.

As the population of 344 West 46th Street shrank, the Radleys took in a boarder.  Their choice in 1900 was unfortunate.  William J. Connor was well-dressed and gentlemanly, however on February 6, 1901 he was arrested with a cohort, Frederick Mille.  The New-York Tribune said they were "thought by police...to be members of a gang of clever counterfeiters."

On December 19, 1903 the Muschenheim mansion was destroyed by fire.  Ignatius, Jr. and Emma Radley moved into the West 46th Street house.  A year later, on November 9, 1904, Ignatius, Sr. died in the residence at the age of 72.  In reporting his death, The Globe and Commercial Advertiser described him as "a well-known resident of the west side."

Ignatius, Jr. rose through the ranks of the Franklin Savings Bank.  In September 1907 he was made secretary of the institution.  He and Emma had a summer home on West 227th Street.  In April 1908, Radley renewed the land lease on the  West 46th Street house from Henry Astor.

At the time, he was suffering from a cold.  It developed into pneumonia and, after being ill for about three weeks, he died almost immediately after renewing the lease, on April 6.  He was just 38 years old and the Franklin Savings Bank announced his death "was as unexpected as it will be lamented by all who knew him."  

Although the Radley family left 344 West 46th Street in 1910, they retained possession, leasing it.  It was now operated as a boarding house, its tenants not all upstanding.  Among the earliest occupants was Michael Burns.  He was employed as a faro dealer in an illegal gambling house at 236 West 41st Street.  

When police raided the place on June 4, 1910, there were about 200 patrons inside.  The Sun described the raid as "using all the methods current in the old days.  There were axes and broken doors, attempts to break away across the roofs and gumshoeing by detectives."  Michael Burns was among those  arrested.

In August 1913, as the once elegant block became increasingly commercialized, the Ignatius Radley estate hired the architectural firm of Gross & Kleinberger to install a storefront in the basement.  The upper floors now contained rented rooms.

In 1923 Jack Gentile opened Jack's Restaurant in the store space and moved his family into the upper portion.  Four years later, on February 12, 1927, The Brooklyn Standard Union entitled an article "Dry Raiders Swing Axes in Raids on Broadway Resorts."  Among the targets was Jack's Restaurant.  The article said, "Entrance was gained to an alleged speakeasy in the basement at 344 West Forty-sixth street by smashing a window with a crowbar."  Prohibition agents seized "a half case of whisky and a fifty-gallon keg of wine," and arrested Gentile and a waiter and a dishwasher.

December 31, 1933 signaled the end of Prohibition.  On October 26, 1933 the Irish-American newspaper The Advocate announced that Jack's Restaurant, Inc. had acquired a license for "on premises consumption" of alcohol.   The little bar to the right of the entrance became Jack Gentile's bailiwick, where he would tend bar for years to come.

The eatery was a favorite for theater-goers.  On March 29, 1941 The New York Sun began an article saying, "A great many New Yorkers who like to eat well swear by the food at Jack's Restaurant at 344 West 46th street.  The prices are moderate and the cooking lures the patrons back again and again.  This has been going on for years."

The article described the "homelike atmosphere," saying "There are two dining rooms--a tiny one on the first floor and a larger one on the second floor. The cuisine is French-Italian and Jack is perhaps best known for his frogs legs, guinea hen and steaks.  He turns out a marvelous steak."  A full course dinner cost $1.15, with filet mignon, the priciest item, costing $1.50 (about $25 today).

In 1946 Jack Gentile sold the restaurant.  Although the new owner's name was Anthony, the business name remained unchanged.  On September 27, 1947, Blair Chotzinoff, writing in the New York Post, explained, "Rather than turn the neighborhood into a state of turmoil, Anthony retained the name Jack and also Jack's customers."  The menu was now strictly Italian.

Jack's Restaurant became Jack's Epicure by the early 1970's when it was owned by Victor Mather.  Again the menu slightly changed, now offering French-North Italian cuisine.  

After half a century in the space, Jack's was replaced by Meson Savilla by the early 1990's.  The classic Spanish restaurant remains.  A renovation to the upper floors completed in 2001 resulted in two apartments each on the first and second floors, and six furnished rooms on the third.  

What was most likely the archway between the Radley's parlor and dining room is now a kitchenette.  via alonzoproperties.nyc

photographs by the author

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