The Dr. Herman B. Sheffield House - 127 West 87th Street

In 1881, developer John W. Stevens acquired a 50-foot-wide parcel on West 87th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.  (The avenues would be renamed Columbus and Amsterdam, respectively, in 1890.)  Rather than erect two commodious townhouses, Stevens directed his architect, William Howe, to squeeze three onto the plot.  In January 1882, Howe filed plans for three "three-story brick and brown stone dwellings."  Each would be just over 16-feet-wide and would cost $8,000, or about $260,000 in 2026.

Like its identical siblings, the easternmost house at 127 West 87th Street was faced in brownstone and designed in the neo-Grec style.  Howe compensated for the home's lack of width with exuberant decoration.  The windows were flanked by paneled piers upon bracketed sills.  Mimicking the doorway, their earred lintels were profusely decorated with incised, foliate designs.  A complex pressed metal cornice of corbels, brackets and a paneled fascia completed the design.

The house was initially owned by Albert M. Crouter and his family.  They sold it at auction on September 29, 1891.  The following day, the New-York Tribune reported, "The bidding rose from $12,000 up to $16,900."  Norman and Sarah E. Macdonald placed the winning bid, but they quickly suffered buyers' remorse.

Court papers explained that on October 29, 1891, the Macdonalds "rejected the title and refused to complete [the purchase], claiming that the title was defective."  Albert M. Courter sued and the Macdonalds, apparently begrudgingly, moved in.

The couple welcomed a son, John, in October 1893.  Sadly, he died at just 18 months on March 20, 1895.

Norman Macdonald was one of hundreds of New Yorkers who were frustrated with the city's lack of street signs.  Some residents or businessmen erected their own signs, and stone blocks on the second floor of some corner buildings were carved with the avenue and street names.  But there was no standardized, city-authorized signage.  In January 1901, Macdonald signed a petition that began:

It is within the knowledge of every citizen who walks the streets of this great metropolis that it is next to impossible for a stranger to find the names of many of the streets of the city, unless he is fortunate enough to encounter a Policeman or make inquiry of some one he meets acquainted with the locality.

The petition that Macdonald signed was successful.  Later that year, the Guggenheim Ordinance was enacted.  It instituted a system of standardized street signs. 

The Macdonalds sold 127 West 87th Street to Clarence W. Eckhardt in April 1905.  He sold it to Emily L. Landon in June 1908 and she resold it the following year, in March 1909, to Dr. Herman B. Sheffield.

Born in 1871, Sheffield graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1895.  A pediatrician, when he purchased the West 87th Street house he had been associated with the Yorkville Dispensary and Hospital for Women and Children for 11 years; and in 1905 he was appointed Instructor in Diseases of Children at the New York Post Graduate Hospital.  (The Yorkville Dispensary and Hospital was renamed Beth David in 1910.)

Dr. Sheffield was a prolific author and routinely contributed medical articles to journals.  His expertise was often sought by attorneys in cases involving medical issues.  Such was the case in March 1913, when he was called to testify in the lunacy hearing of 22-year-old Walter Lathrop Hanson.  

Hanson's mother, Mrs. Aimes Hanson, had homes in Brooklyn and Saratoga Springs and was the niece of Leland Stanford, the founder of Leland Stanford University.  Hanson's father died in January 1912, and Walter began receiving payments from a $50,000 trust, administered by his mother.  The New York Times reported that on November 5, 1912, Walter married Henriette Keutti "without his mother's consent."  She now cut him off from his "allowance" and sought to have him committed as a lunatic.

In the courtroom on March 5, 1913, Dr. Herman B. Sheffield "pronounced him mentally competent," reported The New York Times.  The article added, "On the side of young Hanson sat his young bride, who returned stare for stare of her mother-in-law."

Sheffield occasionally took in a boarder.  At the time of his testimony, Rev. Charles Winfred Douglas was renting a room for the winter season.  Born in Oswego, New York in 1867, Douglas was educated at Syracuse University and at St. Andrews Divinity School, also in Syracuse.  He was a leader in Episcopalian liturgy.  

In her Ladies of the Canyons, Lesley Poling-Kempes writes that in the spring of 1913, Douglas was in poor health, "overwhelmed by the weekly commute between his home in Peekskill and his apartment in 127 West 87th Street in New York."  She notes:

By March, the canon was looking ahead to the summer break and the Douglas family's annual return to their palatial, two-story, seventeen-room log home at Camp Neosho...near Evergreen, Colorado.

In 1915, Sheffield published The Backward Baby, a book on "Idiocy and the allied metal deficiencies in infancy and early childhood."  It was one of several books and texts he would write.

Like pediatricians nationwide, in 1916 Sheffield was investigating the cause of poliomyelitis.  He was carefully following a number of cases, hoping to discover how the affliction was acquired and how it could be treated.

Among Dr. Sheffield's patients were Joseph Truitt Talbert and his wife, the former Almira Root Trevis.  Talbert was a vice president of the National City Bank and "one of the better known financiers of New York," according to The New York Times.  The banker suffered a fatal stroke on May 8, 1920 and five months later, his widow's 18-year-old sister, Betsy Tevis, moved from Richmond, Kentucky to live with her.

The situation was intended to be a solace to Almira.  But it only added to her grief.  On December 2, Betsy met a boy and became "infatuated," according to The New York Times.  They had a "social engagement" ten days later, but the young man telephoned at night and cancelled.  Betsy Trevis went to her bedroom, closed the door, and shot herself in the head.

A physician arrived and declared Betsy deceased.  The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Talbert, not satisfied that her sister was dead, telephoned for the family physician, Dr. Herman F. Sheffield."  He, of course, could only confirm the previous statement.  The shock was too much for Almira.  The following day, the New York Herald reported, "She is under the care of Dr. William B. Sheffield, of 127 West Eighty-seventh street."

In 1930, Sheffield retired, "because of failing vision," according to the Bulletin of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  He continued his writing, however, and in addition to his five books on diseases of children, he wrote poetry.  On November 10, 1940, for instance, The New York Times reported on the release of Lights and Shadows, Supplement III, "the final ten poems in a series of seventy-five."

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Dr. Herman B. Sheffield died at the age of 79 on March 17, 1950 "of arterio-schlerosis," as reported by the Bulletin of the University of Maryland School of Medicine the following year.

In 1951, the basement level was converted to an apartment.  Living here in the mid-1950s was H. Greenough Jr., an instructor at Julliard.

Monroe Schall and his wife, Doris, lived here by the early 1960s.  Around 7:30 on the night of October 31, 1964, they were parked in front of the apartment house at 123 West 93rd Street.  In the car was June Baron and the three were waiting for June's husband, Leon, to come down.  Suddenly, an armed man forced his way into the car and ordered Schall to drive.  Within a few blocks, he ordered him to stop, took June's purse, pushed her out of the car, then told Schall to drive to 84th Street and Riverside Drive.  There he took Schall's wallet, forced the couple out and drove off with their car.

Speeding through the Upper West Side, the crook sideswiped a taxi at the intersection of 82nd Street and Broadway.  He lost control and crashed into the window of a store.  In doing so, he hit Christine Zam.  She died on the scene.

The injured culprit ran from the scene, and then tried to hijack another motorist who grappled with the gun.  Before David Barnes was able to wrest control of the weapon away it went off once, missing both men.  The New York Times reported "the thug then leaped out of the car and fled east down 79th Street."

No. 127 West 87th Street survives remarkably intact after more than 140 years.  Even the interior shutters survive on the upper floors.  

photographs by the author

The James and Euphemia Russell House - 44 West 87th Street

 

Having trained in the architectural firm of Duggin & Crossman, Charles Buek established Charles Buek & Co. in 1880.  The development-construction firm doubled as its own architect.  Within a decade, Charles Buek & Co. was one of the most well-known firms in the industry.  On February 21, 1891, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the firm "will shortly commence the erection of six four-story brick and limestone front dwellings on the south side of 87th street, 100 feet east of Columbus Avenue."

Completed in 1892, Nos. 40 through 50 West 87th Street were designed in a refined version of Romanesque Revival.  No. 44 West 87th Street was twenty-three-feet wide, and its basement and parlor levels were clad in rough cut limestone.  A dog-legged box stoop mirrored that of its next door at No. 46.  The two-story midsection was faced in brick.  Grouped windows at the second floor were framed in limestone, distinguished by pilasters with ornate Corinthian capitals.  The fourth floor sat atop an intricately carved cornice.  Its slightly projecting center section held paired openings.  Their limestone frame was anchored by large, swirling volutes.  Directly above was a triangular pediment with a charming daisy rondel.

James and Euphemia Russell purchased the mansion from Charles Buek in February 1893 for $44,500, or about $1.4 million in 2026 terms.  Born in 1827 and 1841 respectively, the couple had four children, Marguerite, George Dunlap, May Isabelle, and Rachel (known as Ray) MacMaster.  The family's country home, Sunny Side, was near Mount Vernon, New York.

George, who had married the previous year, was the only sibling who did not move into the West 87th Street house.  May and Ray were single, and Margaruerite was married to her father's business partner, Charles S. Rees.  The men composed James Rees & Sons, Co., "boiler, engine and steamboat builders," and Russell & Rees, which operated the Continental Brewery.  

Charles S. Rees was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 5, 1860.  He graduated from Western University of Pennsylvania. 

Described by The New York Times later as the Russells' "palatial residence," 44 West 87th Street was filled with valuable artwork and antiques.  An inventory held in 1906 described "a valuable collection of Oil Paintings, comprising about one hundred canvases, many by prominent American and Foreign artists."  The parlor, or "salon," was furnished in "Marie Antoinette and Louis Seize," and the music room in Louis XVI.

The Russell women were highly involved in the Woman's Wards of the New York Post-Graduate Hospital.  Margaruerite Rees was president, Ray MacMaster Russell was secretary and treasurer, and Euphemia was an associate member.

Just two years after purchasing 44 West 87th Street, James Russell died.  

Isabelle married Isaac Hallam Jenney in 1898.  (The bride was 17 and the groom 26.)  The couple moved into the West 87th Street mansion.  Isaac Jenney was born in 1871 "in the American consular residence at Bogata, Columbia," as explained by the New York Herald, and graduated from Yale in 1892.  When he married May, he was working as an importer.  Two years later, on February 24, 1900, Marie Jenney was born.  

Society was abuzz in the spring of 1902 when Ray MacMaster Russell's engagement to millionaire Hector H. Havemeyer was announced.  The ceremony was to be held in the Madison Avenue Reformed Church and The New York Times said it "will be a large wedding."  And, indeed, on April 17 the New York Herald headlined an article, "Miss Ray Russell Becomes A Bride / Throng at Church to See Ceremony Which Made her Mrs. Havemeyer."  A who's-who of high society attended the ceremony, including Goulds, Gilseys, Ballards and Mackays.

Before long, Havemeyer, his friend, Peter Gilsey, and Isaac Hallam Jenney formed the real estate company, Gilsey, Havemeyer & Jenney.  

The extended family left 44 West 87th Street in 1902, although Euphemia retained possession.  She leased the house for the winter social season of 1902 to author and playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett.  In her 1927 biography, The Romantick Lady (Frances Hodgson Burnett), Vivian Burnett writes, "Situated in the middle of the block, it was far enough from heavy traffic to give Mrs. Burnett something of the quiet she needed."

Frances Burnett posed for photographer Herbert Rose Barraud in 1886 (copyright expired)

Born in 1848, Burnett had written the children's novel Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1886.  She would later produce two other popular children's works, the 1905 A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, released in 1911.  

The following year, Euphemia leased 44 West 87th Street to Ernest Benjamin Fahnestock and his wife, the former Abby Caroline Rhodes.  Fahnestock was the vice-president and general manager of the Fahnestock Transmitter Co.

Not surprisingly, when Euphemia Russell placed the house for sale in 1906, it was handled by Gilsey, Havemeyer & Jenney.  The property was sold to Dr. Abram Richard Stern and his wife, the former Stella Lichtenstein, in May.

Born on July 21, 1874, Stern was a graduate of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.  He additionally studied in Berlin and Vienna.  At the time of the purchase, he was Adjunct Assistant Attending Physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital.  He and Stella had two children, Richard and Stella Benita. 

Stern's patients ranged from theatrical to society figures.  In December 1907, for instance, he was called to the home of actress Julia Sanderson (who was in private life Mrs. Tod Sloan).  Sanderson had been appearing in The Dairy Maids even though she was feeling unwell.  Finally, she could not continue.  On December 3, The New York Times reported that Stern "diagnosed the case as typhoid."  And when the young and wealthy socialite Mrs. George A. Oppenheimer committed suicide on October 19, 1913, it was Dr. Stern who was called to the scene.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Among the Sterns' domestic staff in 1919 was their governess, 60-year-old Clarice Deckwis.  She left the house on the evening of October 7 and did not return.  At the corner of 106th Street and Fifth Avenue, Clarice had been hit by an automobile and seriously injured.  She was still unconscious in Mt. Sinai Hospital the following night when Dr. Stern identified her.  She had suffered a fractured skull and three broken ribs.

The Sterns remained at 44 West 87th Street until September 1940, when they sold the house to Joseph Kamert for $40,000 (about $894,000 today).  

It appears that Kamert rented rooms in the former mansion, and among his first tenant was Paul Bante.  The 44-year-old iron worker was born in Germany, but was a naturalized American citizen.  Bante brought nationwide attention to 44 West 87th Street when The New York Times reported on July 1, 1941 that he had been arrested as a member of a German spy ring.  He and 32 others were indicted 15 days later, accused "of having acted as agents" for the Nazi Government.   The New York Sun reported on January 2, 1942, that he had been sentenced to 18 months in a Federal penitentiary and a fine of $1,000.

A renovation completed in 2011 resulted in an office in the basement level and eight apartments in the upper floors.

photographs by the author

The Gamaliel and Amelia Rose House - 169 West 87th Street

 

Working as Wilson and Tichborne, William C. G. Wilson and James Tichborne helped to mold the countenance of the Upper West Side in the late 19th century with handsome rows of upscale homes.  In 1889 they hired architect Gilbert A. Schellenger to design another--a row of six 17-feet-wide townhouses at 159 through 169 West 87th Street just east of Amsterdam Avenue.

A marriage of Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles, 169 West 87th Street was faced in brownstone.  Like its neighbors, it was three stories tall above a high English basement.  The two styles existed harmoniously at the parlor level where the undressed stone was Romanesque while the prim, fluted pilasters with their lotus leaf capitals were purely Renaissance Revival.  A colorful stained glass tympanum unified the paired windows at this level.  The two upper floors, separated by a projecting bandcourse, were striated--the second by narrow rows of rough-cut stone and the third by incised lines.  A triple layered cornice crowned the design.

On March 29, 1890, the Record & Guide reported that Wilson & Tichborne had sold the house to "Mr. Rose" for $23,500 (about $858,000 in 2026 terms).  "Mr. Rose" was Gamaliel S. Rose, the "paying teller" of the Seventh National Bank.

Moving into the house with him and wife, Amelia, were their daughter Caroline and her husband William S. Hull, a real estate operator.  The family went about their lives quietly and while Hull's name appeared in newsprint regarding real estate transactions, they evaded the notoriety of the society pages.

The quietude of the Rose family's lives was shattered in 1901 when three executives of the Seventh National Bank, including Gamaliel S. Rose, were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury.  On September 23, Rose appeared at the Federal Building to answer charges of the "unlawful certification of the checks of Henry Marquand & Co."  The president of the bank was charged with "conspiracy against the United States."

A secondary headline in The New York Times said, "Messrs. Kimball and Rose and F. B. Poor Held in Heavy Bail."  Indeed, it was.  Rose's bail was set at $5,000, the equivalent of $195,000 today.  His attorney complained, "As for Mr. Rose, it is pretty hard lines for a $1,500 clerk to be put under $5,000 bail for doing what he was told to do by the President of the bank."

Unfortunately, the legal process was sluggish.  Six months later, on March 13, 1902, Rose's attorney asked the courts to dismiss his case.  He was denied.  The trial finally concluded on February 14 the following year.  While all three men were found guilty, "sentence was suspended in the case of Gamaliel S. Rose," reported the New York Herald.

With the embarrassing publicity finally behind them, the Rose family returned to social anonymity.  Their names did not appear in newspapers again until Amelia's death on October 18, 1921.  Her funeral was held in the parlor on October 20.  Just four months later, on February 13, 1922, Gamaliel R. Rose died here.  His funeral was held in the house on the 20th.

Caroline inherited 169 West 87th Street and she and William moved out shortly after.  By 1925, she was leasing 169 West 87th Street to Frank Finkelstein and his wife, the former Sylvia Lekin.  Their baby boy was born in the house on March 11 that year.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

At the time of the Finkelsteins' happy event, Saul A. Rothschild operated his funeral chapel at 2003 Seventh Avenue.  As early as the fall of 1929, he had moved the Saul A. Rothchild's Central Funeral Chapel into 169 West 87th Street, where it would remain for years.

The estate of Caroline L. Hull sold the house to Michael Fahey in October 1938.  Daughter Kathleen M. Fahey was a teenager when the family moved in.  When America entered World War II, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserves as a WAVE.  On June 6, 1945, The New York Sun reported that Kathleen, now with the rank of lieutenant junior grade, had passed the training to be a navigator.  Another WAVE in the group explained, "like the men navigators, we'll be used where the Navy needs us.  We may be assigned to classes or we may be assigned to fly, either on cargo or passenger planes."

George C. Joannides purchased 169 West 87th Street in 1951, converting it to furnished rooms.  Then, around 1971, the West Side Community Nursery School moved in.  Established in 1964 on West 90th Street, the school was one of the first private agencies to accommodate both tuition-paying students and those funded by the Federal Head Start program.

Around 1983, the name was changed to Escalera Head Start.  Still occupying the building, it provides care and instruction to children from two to five years old.

The exterior of the Rose house survives essentially intact.

photographs by the author

The Charles and Kate A. Katz House - 53 West 87th Street

 

In 1891, James Livingston broke ground for a row of upscale rowhouses on West 87th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.  Designed by Thom & Wilson in the Renaissance Revival style, they were completed the following year.  Among them was 53 West 87th Street.  Like the others, it was four stories tall above an English basement and faced in brownstone.  A dog-legged box stoop rose to the rusticated parlor level.  A rounded bay crowned by a stone balustrade dominated the second floor.  

Livingston retained possession of the house for years, finally selling it to Cornelius and Clarissa Outwater Doremus in March 1898 for $38,000 (about $1.4 million in 2026).  Born in 1842 and 1843, respectively, the couple had three children, Fred S., Myra, and Cornelia Adelaide (who went by her middle name).  

Doremus was president of the Germania Life Insurance Company, described by The Sun as "one of the largest insurance companies in New York."

Cornelius Doremus, Empire State Notables, 1914 (copyright expired)

Because Cornelia Adelaide had already been debuted in 1896, her name appeared next to her mother's when The New York Times reported on January 5, "Mrs. Cornelius Doremus and Miss Cornelia Doremus of 53 West Eighty-seventh Street have announced the first and third Wednesdays as their days for receiving."

That winter social season would be the last for the Doremus family in the house.  That year they sold it to Charles and Kate Anna Glatz.  The couple had two daughters, Elise Pauline and Henrietta Caroline.  (Henrietta had married Joseph Schauweker in 1893 and they lived in Cleveland.)  

Charles Glatz was born in Switzerland on June 29, 1836.  He was the founder and principal of the C. Glatz & Co., which manufactured watch cases, and he was highly involved in real estate operations.

Charles Glatz (original source unknown)

The Glatzes' new home was the scene of Elise's wedding to Harry Canfield on April 20, 1897.  The newlyweds moved to Brooklyn where their only child, Catherine Flavia, was born.

In 1904, Charles Glatz was taxed "as the possessor of personal property to the amount of $10,000," as reported by The New York Times.  Glatz protested, swearing "that all of his securities were in railroad stocks and bonds, which are exempt, as they pay taxes in other ways," explained the newspaper.  The assessment was canceled.  

The following year, the assessors, recalling the incident, did not charge Glatz any property tax.  On February 25, 1905, The New York Times reported, "President O'Donnell of the Tax Board is suffering from a severe nervous shock.  Something happened in his department yesterday the like of which he never dreamed of even in his rosiest moments."  Charles Glatz had stopped by the office to explain that he had disposed of some of his railroad stock "and now had $20,000 worth of personal property which should be taxed," said the article.  Glatz's commendable honesty cost him $300 in taxes--about $11,300 today.

Like many wealthy New Yorkers, the Glatzes sometimes spent their summer season in Europe.  That necessitated the closing of their townhouse and laying off the staff.  In such cases, employers would often attempt to help servants find positions.  On February 2, 1905, for instance, Kate Anna advertised, "A lady closing her home wishes to place a competent waitress to assist chamberwork; some time in her employ."  And an ad that appeared in the New-York Tribune on April 25, 1909 read, "A gentleman going abroad wishes a situation for his coachman, who has served him faithfully several years."

Harry Canfield died in 1909 at the age of 41 and Elise moved back to 53 West 87th Street, bringing along her daughter, Catherine.

Charles Glatz died in the West 87th Street house at the age of 83 on August 16, 1919.  His funeral was held in the drawing room on August 18.  

Kate Anna received Charles's estate, "estimated at more than $100,000," as reported by The New York Times.  (The common practice of releasing "more than" figures in reporting on estates cloaked the totals and protected the heirs' privacy.  Even at that, the $100,000 figure would translate to nearly $2 million today.)  Upon Kate Anna's death, the estate would be divided equally between Henrietta and Elise, explained the article.

On November 17, 1920, Elise announced Catherine Flavia Canfield's engagement to Leighton Elliott, who lived in Toronto.  In reporting the engagement, The New York Times noted, "During the war Mr. Elliott served as a First Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Field Artillery."  The couple was married in the Hotel Gotham on June 11, 1921.

Kate Anna Glatz died in the West 87th Street house on February 17, 1922 at the age of 80.  As had been the case with her husband, her funeral was held in the drawing room two days later.

Henrietta and Elise sold the house nine months later to real estate operator Frederick Brown.  In reporting the transaction on November 7, 1922, the New-York Tribune mentioned, "The building contains fourteen rooms and two baths."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Brown resold 53 West 87th Street three months later for $45,000 (about $850,000 today).  The New York Times reported on February 8, 1923 that the house "will be altered into a five-story apartment house with four rooms and two baths on each floor."  The unnamed buyer, however, apparently changed his mind.  On June 19, the newspaper reported that James Bocalos had purchased it "for occupancy."

The Kusche family occupied 53 West 87th Street at midcentury.  In 1955, at a time when some teenagers were seen as delinquents, the teens on the West 87th Street block turned to neighborhood improvement.  On December 4, 1955, The New York Times reported, "Eleven youngsters on West Eighty-seventh Street became gardeners yesterday morning, when seventeen London plane trees were planted on their block."  The article said the teenagers wore "shiny, new green and yellow buttons signifying their membership on the junior committee of the Eighty-seventh Street park Block Association."

"The tree planting is the first project of the two-month-old block group," said the article.  "By spring, the association hopes to have planted ten more trees."  Willie Kusche was the junior committee chairman.  He explained that each tree would be assigned to a "patrol member" who was responsible for its care.

A renovation completed in 1970 resulted in two apartments per floor.  That configuration lasted until a remodeling in 1999-2000 returned 53 West 87th Street to a single family home.  

It became home to Tony Award winning actress Judith Ivey and her husband.  Born in 1951, Ivey won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play twice--for her 1981 role in Steaming, and her 1984 performance in Hurlyburly.  She was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992.  Her first film appearance was the female lead role in the 1984 The Lonely Guy.  She would go on to appear in numerous films, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Compromising Positions, and Women Talking.

In 2011, a year before Ivey would be nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the 2012 revival of The Heiress, Ivey sold 53 West 87th Street.  

Other than replacement windows, little has changed externally to the vintage house over its 135 years.

photographs by the author

The Peter K. Wilson House - 56 West 87th Street

 

An unfortunate coat of white paint covers the beige brick of the upper floors, seen in the neighboring house to the right.

On December 20, 1890, the Real Estate Record & Guide opined, "It would not be unjust to others to state that no firm of builders in New York City is better known than that of Chas. Buek & Co."  The article added, "Messrs. Buek & Co. always draw the plans for their own buildings, the firm being architects as well as builders."  Two months later, on February 21, 1891, the journal reported on the firm's next project, saying that Charles Buek & Co. "will shortly commence the erection of six four-story brick and limestone front dwellings on the south side of 87th street, 100 feet east of Columbus Avenue."

Charles Buek & Co. designed the row, which stretched from 48 to 58 West 87th Street, as three mirror-image pairs.  Nos. 56 and 58 shared a split stoop, the steps of which branched off to the east and west half way down.  Like its architectural sibling, the Romanesque Revival design of 56 West 87th Street featured rough-cut stone at the basement and parlor levels and beige brick at the upper floors.  A blustraded oriel dominated the second floor and a triple arcade at the third wore a continuous stone eyebrow.  A full-width, brick-faced gable fronted the slate shingled mansard.

The 20-foot-wide residence became home to the family of Peter K. Wilson.  A widower, Wilson was born in Scotland on August 27, 1825 and came to New York City at the age of 15.  By the time he was 21, he had started his own business, and in 1867 went into partnership, creating J. B. McBurnie & Co.  (It was described by the Dry Goods Reporter as "manufacturers and importers of laces, embroideries and white goods.") Upon his partner's retirement, Wilson renamed the firm P. K. Wilson.  He established the first American-owned lace factory in France, and was awarded the grand cross of the Legion of Honor from the French Government for promoting trade between the two countries.

Peter K. Wilson, Dry Goods Economist, December 20, 1913 (copyright expired)

Living with Peter Wilson in the West 87th Street house were his two single children, Samuel M. and Agnes Elizabeth, and his married son, William B. and his wife.  When Samuel joined his father's firm, the name was again changed--now to P. K. Wilson & Son.  Later William entered the business as general manger.

The Wilsons maintained a small domestic staff.  In April 1893, they were searching for two replacements.  Their advertisement in the New York Herald read, "Wanted--A cook, who is a good laundress, in a small family; also a girl to do chamberwork and waiting; German or Swede preferred."

The drawing room was the scene of Agnes Elizabeth's marriage to William Sanford Boyden on December 21, 1898.  

Around Thanksgiving 1913, Peter Wilson retired at the age of 89.  Two weeks later, on December 9, he died in the West 87th Street house of pneumonia.  In reporting his death, the Dry Goods Reporter remarked, "Mr. Wilson had long been regarded as an expert on laces and embroideries."  Somewhat surprisingly, his funeral was not held in the drawing room, but at the West Park Presbyterian Church.  

William B. Wilson and his wife continued to occupy 56 West 87th Street.  By 1914 they had changed from horse-drawn vehicles to an automobile and that year William owned a Renault.

Wilson sold the house in March 1924 to Baron Gennaro Mario Curci.  Born in Rome on September 19, 1888, he relocated to New York City in the mid-1910s.  Trained in voice at the Royal Academy of Rome, Curci ran his operatic vocal coaching studio in the house.

The New York Courier, March 1925 (copyright expired)

In its September 1924 issue, the Musical Advance announced, "Maestro G. M. Curci, the well-known vocal teacher and operatic coach, has removed to 56 West 87th Street, where he has resumed his individual teaching and classes, and is prepared to receive applications from those wishing to study with him."

Gennaro Mario Curci, Musical Courier, October 31, 1918 (copyright expired)

Curci branched into playwriting and in 1928 his play Barbara was produced in Naples and Havana.  It earned him first prize in a competition arranged by Le Cronache Letterarie e Teatrioli, a theatrical review of Naples.  On June 17, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Mme. Annie Mork, Finnish actress, who has been visiting in this country, was the guest of honor Saturday at a reception and supper given by Baron Gennaro M. Curci at his home, 56 West Eighty-seventh Street...She will appear [at the Abo Theatre in Abo, Finland] in September in the title role of 'Barbara,' by Baron Curci."

It had not taken long for Broadway producers to take notice.  A week before that article, The New York Times reported that William H. Leahy had announced that Barbara would be staged on Broadway "early next October."

Before long, it was Curci himself who was before audiences.  Motion picture director David Burton met him at a social function and was impressed with his voice and stature.  He cast him in a leading role in the 1935 film The Melody Lingers On.  It changed the vocal coach's life.  Curci went on to be a character actor in more than 30 feature films.  His new career took him from West 87th Street to Hollywood and by 1941 No. 56 was home to wine dealer Emil Marak.  

The natural brick can be seen in this 1941 image.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In the 1960s, the house was operated as unofficial apartments.  In the summer of 1967, a two-and-a-half-room apartment was rented to Gary Spring, who was only 19 years old.  Spring's actual home was in Bayside, Queens.  The Long Island Star-Journal explained that the teen did not intend to live here, but rented it "because the 'heat on dope parties in Queens" was getting too intense.  

Spring was the leader of eight youths who were involved in the selling and using of marijuana, LSD and other drugs.  Spring's plan of hiding his operation in a Manhattan apartment did not work.  The Long Island Star-Journal said that two Narcotics Squad detectives infiltrated the ring by one of them "posing as a beatnik and another by posing as a Queens College student."

A 2:00 on the morning of June 21, 1967, detectives raided the apartment and arrested eight youths, including Gary Spring.  Seven were charged with possession of marijuana and loitering "for the purpose to buy or use narcotics."  Spring was charged with additional charges of "possession of LSD and maintenance of a place for the purpose of using narcotics."

An official conversion completed in 1969 resulted in 2 apartments each on the lower three floors, and four furnished rooms on the top floor.  A renovation in 1992 returned 56 West 87th Street to a single family home above a basement apartment.

photographs by the author

The Peter and Nellie Radiker House - 159 West 87th Street

The frenzy of transforming undeveloped land west of Central Park in the last quarter of the 19th century was deemed the "Great West Side Movement" by the Record & Guide.  Highly involved in the frenzy were William C. G. Wilson and James Tichborne, who formed the real estate development firm of Wilson & Tichborne.  The partners erected rows of upscale  speculative homes.  Among their projects were six three-story-and-basement homes on the north side of West 87th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.  Engulfing Nos. 159 through 169, they were designed by Gilbert A. Schellenger in 1889.  He blended historic styles in designing the homes, perhaps most conspicuously evident in No. 159.

Possibly because of its narrow proportions (just 18-feet wide), Schellenger emphasized horizontality.  The rusticated undressed stone of the basement parlor level, the rough courses of the second floor, and the incised lines of the third gave the impression of a wider structure.   

The heavy Romanesque Revival feel of the parlor level was softened with elegant fluted Renaissance Revival pilasters on either side of the entrance.  Intricate foliate carving ran below the striking curved bay at the second floor.  Schellenger introduced the Queen Anne style with the elaborate, three-part cast cornice--a regimented corbel table below a fluted fascia with brackets decorated with fish scales and sunflowers, and a dentiled cornice with offset arched pediment.

On February 1, 1890, the Record & Guide reported that Tichborne & Wilson had sold 159 West 87th Street "to Peter J. [sic] Radiker, a 9th avenue groceryman, for $22,500.  He will occupy it as his home."  The price Radiker paid for the new residence would translate to $800,000 in 2026.

Peter and Nellie Radiker.  from the collection of the Worthington Historical Society Archive.

Born in 1865, Peter Theron Radiker married Nellie F. Pease on June 27, 1889.  Their only daughter, Marguerite "Margaret," was born in 1891.

Radiker threw himself in the Great West Side Movement.  On March 1, 1891, the New-York Tribune reported, "A large and enthusiastic meeting was held...of property owners of the West Side."  They were preemptively fighting saloons in their developing neighborhood.  Among the attendees was Peter T. Radiker.  The article explained, "An association was immediately formed," said the article, which explained, "The objects and aim of the association will be the property regulation and restraint of the liquor traffic and prevention of the erection of improper buildings in the residential part of the West Side."

Radiker changed course in 1897.  That year E. C. Smith and his partner in Smith & Hempstead parted ways.  They had operated the Cedarhurst Stables on West 83rd Street since 1890.  Radiker replaced Hempstead and the firm's name became Smith & Radiker.  New York, 1895: Illustrated called them, "both natives of this city, and young men of excellent business ability."  Calling the Cedarhurst Stables "one of the foremost establishments" in the industry, it noted, "The establishment is heated by steam, has a steam power elevator, all modern sanitary improvements, a handsome ladies' reception-room, harness-room and all conveniences."

The Cedarhurst was a dual operation--both a livery and boarding stable.  On the livery side (equivalent to a rent-a-car business today), Smith & Radiker owned "forty fine road and saddle horses, [and] fifty carriages and wagons," according to New York, 1895: Illustrated.

As had been with his former business partner, Smith parted ways with Radiker after a few years.  Peter T. Radiker bought him out and renamed the business the Cedarhurst Stable Company.  He apparently stretched his finances in doing so, and on May 22, 1901, The New York Times reported that Radiker had filed bankruptcy.

The resourceful Radiker, however, survived.  He held onto the business and in 1906 sold the livery portion and now shared the 83rd Street building with Seaman's Stables company.  Radiker realized that horses were being replaced with motor vehicles and in 1908 he organized the Cedarhurst Motor Livery Company.  The Motor World reported that his partner was Nellie F. P. Radiker.  Their major client was Frayer-Miller cabs, which operated a taxicab service from the building.

The Radiker finances were, possibly, still thin and in 1911 they rented part of their home to Francis Conrad Elgar and his sister, Eleanor L.  Born in 1862, Elgar was a builder and real estate operator, a partner with his brother Alfred in James Elgar & Sons.  Eleanor L. Elgar died here on January 27, 1913.

Late in 1921, Peter and Nellie traveled to Southern Pines, North Carolina.  Peter died there on December 11 at the age of 56.  His funeral was held in the parlor of 159 West 87th Street just two days later.

Francis C. Elgar was still living at 159 West 87th Street in 1934 when, in December, Nellie Radiker sold the house to "a physician for his residence," according to The New York Times.  The article mentioned, "This was the first sale of the property in forty-four years."

That doctor was Harry C. Saunders.  He transformed the basement level of the house to his office, sharing the practice with Dr. William Mourtrier, Jr. and Dr. Allen F. Murphy.

Shockingly, on the night of October 19, 1939, Dr. Murphy was arrested from his house in Queens, where he lived with his wife and two children.  The Long Island Star-Journal reported that he performed "an illegal operation" on 29-year-old Alice Corbett on October 13.  The purposely vague term referred to an abortion.  The article said, "Miss Corbett died later in Murray Hill Hospital."  Taken immediately to Manhattan Homicide Court for arraignment, the newspaper said Murphy "appeared bewildered."

Murphy's trial did not begin for a year, opening on November 19, 1940.  His attorney denied that he "had performed an illegal operation."  The jury did not believe him and on December 16 Murphy was sentenced to "two to ten years" in Sing Sing prison for first-degree manslaughter.

Dr. Saunders sold 159 West 87th Street in May 1945 to "an investor," according to The New York Times.  It was operated as unofficial apartments until a renovation completed in 1991 restored it to a single family home with the owner's dentist office in the basement.

photographs by the author

The Max and Julia G. Wolff House - 26 West 87th Street

 

In May 1891, real estate developer James A. Frame purchased five lots on the south side of West 87th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.  The upscale rowhouses that Frame erected on the site were designed by the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson.  Like the others, the easternmost house, 26 West 87th Street, was four stories tall and faced in brownstone.  A doglegged box stoop led to the rusticated parlor level, above which a rounded bay dominated the second floor.  The stacked openings of the third and fourth floors were separated by a molded cornice and spandrel panels decorated with carved swags.  Fluted pilasters framed the third floor openings, and graceful swan's neck pediments with swags capped those of the fourth.

The residence became home to Max and Julia G. Wolff.  Born in Aldorf, Germany in April 1852, Wolff founded the Palace Ribbon Manufacturing Company in 1889.  His wife, the former Julie Stern Gutman, was born in Brooklyn in September 1870.  Three children would be born in the house: Irving Gutman, in 1894; Helen Rose in 1896; and Lawrence (known as Pete), in 1902.

Max and Julia Wolff later in life (original sources unknown)

The offices of the Palace Ribbon Manufacturing Company were located at 62 Greene Street, while the mills were in South Allentown, Pennsylvania.  On January 18, 1899, Wolff traveled to the mills, where the foreman, Maurice Zinderstein, had recently been fired.  At the end of the day, around 5:30, Wolff left the office to take a cab to the train station.  As he descended the stairs, he confronted Zinderstein who was brandishing a revolver.

Wolff rushed back up the stairs, but the office door had locked behind him.  As he struggled with the knob, Zinderstein fired.  The Paterson Evening News reported, "Those in the office, hearing the shots, ran out and picked up Wolff and carried him into the building."  The article said that the 61-year-old Zinderstein, "is said to have been drunk at the time."  One of the bullets had missed, but two struck Wolff, one in the back and the other in the thigh.  He was taken by train to St. Luke's Hospital in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  "It was believed there that he had a chance of recovery," said the article.

Back home on West 87th Street, Julia received the terrifying news.  The New-York Tribune reported, "his wife hurried out to South Bethlehem."  Saying that Max Wolff "is well known in the drygoods world here," the article described his injuries as "dangerous, if not fatal."  (Zinderstein, in the meantime, was arrested for attempted murder.)

Max Wolff recovered from the assassination attempt.  In 1915, the family took in a boarder, Dr. George Birmingham McAuliffe and his children.  Born in 1865, McAuliffe's wife, Margaret Gervais, had died the previous year.  He had four children, Felix Vincent, who was 22; George G., who was 21; 19-year-old Gervais Ward; and Aubrey, who was 15.

With tensions worsening in Europe, in 1916 Irving Wolff joined the Army and was sent to the Plattsburg Military Training Camp. 

The house was the scene of Helen Rose Wolff's marriage to Leo Samuel Frenkel on November 24, 1920.  The New-York Tribune reported that the newlyweds would live in the city after "a short honeymoon in the South."

Six months later, on May 22, 1921, the New-York Tribune reported that the Wolffs had sold 26 West 87th Street "to a physician."  That physician was their long-term boarder, Dr. George Birmingham McAuliffe.  He was a clinical instructor of otology at the Cornell University Medical School.  The family's summer home was in Sag Harbor, Long Island.

On November 6, 1922, the New York Herald reported on the engagement of McAuliffe to Marguerite Laux.  The couple would have two children together, Marguerite Georgette, born in 1924, and George Jr., born on March 30, 1926.

Like their neighbors along the block, the McAuliffes maintained a domestic staff, as well as George McAuliffe's trained nurse, Helen Martin (known to her friends as Blossom).  Although she was engaged to be married, Helen caught the eye of the family's butler, Philippine-born Eulogia Lazado, who was hired in 1922.  His romantic advances were not welcomed.

At one point, Helen's rebuffing of his attentions infuriated Eulogia.  Helen's close friend, Mary Harrington, later recounted, "the ringing of a telephone bell probably saved the life of the nurse" when Lazado choked her.  Helen told the incident to Dr. McAuliffe and said she was going to resign.  "She stayed, however, on being assured the butler would not molest her again," reported the Times Union.

On June 8, 1923, Lazado told Helen that he had purchased a $300 diamond ring for her.  According to Lazado later, Helen replied, "Well, I have another man who is worth a lot more than you and will shoot you if you bother me any more."

In a rage, the butler strangled Helen to death.  He pulled down a drapery from the window in his room and--with her knees pulled up to her torso--wrapped her body first in the drapery and then in brown paper and tied the bundle with cord.

Lazado managed to get the package to the Staten Island Ferry with the intention of dumping it into the harbor.  The New York Times reported that he "did not do so because passengers were watching."  On the Staten Island side, he took a taxicab to the Elizabethport Ferry.  The cabbie, Edward Mareuer, helped him carry the bundle to the boat.  Mareurer (not surprisingly) became suspicious and notified Police Sergeant John Miller on the pier just as the ferry began to pull out.

Miller shouted to passengers to stop Lazado from trying to throw the bundle off the boat.  Two deckhands and a passenger seized him and the ferry reversed course back to the slip.  The New York Times reported, "Lazardo, meanwhile, had put up a spirited fight and nearly managed to throw the bundle overboard before he was felled by the fist of one of the ferry's crew."

Sergeant Miller took Lazado and the bundle into the ferry house where Miller began to inspect the package.  "The first thing he uncovered after tearing through a wrapping of heavy manila paper tied with clothesline was the head of a young woman," said the article.  Later, Lazado confessed "that he had strangled the girl in a quarrel over his intended gift of a diamond ring," reported The New York Times.

Five months later, after a sensational trial, on November 19, 1923 The New York Times reported that Lazado was sentenced "to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing."

The carved swags of the top floor pediments were intact in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Marguerite's engagement to John Egan O'Reilly was announced on April 1, 1946.  Her brother, George, Jr., was with the U.S. Army in Japan at the time, rebuilding the country under General Douglas MacArthur.  

Dr. George Birmingham McAuliffe died on October 1, 1954 at the age of 90.  Marguerite sold the house to Leon Tshernoff, who converted it to apartments, two per floor.

Among the earliest tenants was Eleanora Fagan, who moved in on June 21, 1958.  According to Paul Alexander in his Bitter Crop, "it was only after the landlord, Dr. Leon Tshernoff, a physician originally from Palestine, agreed to grant her a three-year lease at a rent of $135 a month that he learned his tenant was Billie Holiday."  Alexander writes that she shared apartment 1B "with her constant companion, a Chihuahua she adored named Pepe."  Although Holiday's husband, Louis McKay, was listed on the lease, he had moved to California.

Billie Holiday, from the collection of the New York Public Library

On July 18, 1959, The New York Times reported, "Billie Holiday, famed jazz singer, died yesterday in Metropolitan Hospital...Miss Holiday had lived at 26 West Eighty-seventh Street.  She had been under arrest in her hospital bed since June 12 for illegal possession of narcotics."  It was the ignominious end to a brilliant career that greatly changed the course of jazz music.

The upper portion of the house returned to a single family home in 2015, with an apartment in the basement.  It was listed for sale that year as $12.95 million.

photographs by the author