The 1894 Moses Goldsmith House - 334 West 89th Street

 

In 1893 architect Ralph S. Townsend designed a row of five identical homes on West 89th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue for real estate developers Wilcox & Hoyt.  The rowhouses at 326 through 334 West 89th Street would have to compete with the mansions that were rising along those elegant thoroughfares.  Completed in 1894, they did just that.

Each 25-feet wide and rising four stories above tall English basements, they were designed in the Renaissance Revival style.  Handsome limestone newels carved with wreathes and torches anchored the stoops, which were flanked by pierced stone wingwalls.  The elegant entrances stood in stark contrast to the surprisingly spartan limestone bays at the parlor level.   Delicate carving framed the doorway, above which foliate brackets upheld arched pediments filled with carved shells.  Limestone gave way to red Roman brick on the upper floors.  The three-sided bays continued through the second floor where they were crowned with limestone railings that matched the stoop walls.  Renaissance inspired terra cotta frames surrounded the windows of the upper floors, and identical metal cornices unified the row.

On May 13, 1894 Wilcox & Hoyt placed an advertisement in the New York Herald that read:

For Sale--We would call the attention of investors and those in search of residences in one of the choicest parts of the city to the five Houses, 326-334 West 89th st., just completed...For solidity of construction, elegance of finish and general plan of interior these houses, for their size, cannot be matched on the west side.

The western-most house, 334 West 89th Street was sold to Moses Goldsmith and his wife, the former Adelaide Biddeford Lunt.  Goldsmith had been an importer and manufacturer of women's cloaks, but was now highly involved in real estate development.  The couple had four young children.  When they moved into the West 89th Street house their eldest, Myra Bell, was nine years old, Hilda Moses was seven, Samuel Lunt was five, and Nathaniel Manson was three years old.

Adelaide's parents were both deceased, and so living with the family was her unmarried sister Olive Hooper Lunt.  On December 11, 1899 the Goldsmiths announced Olive's engagement to Nathaniel Goodwin Manson of Boston.  The  summer home of the well-to-do groom was Camp Leatherstocking on Richardson Lake.  Field and Stream magazine reported on December 23 "The couple proposes to spend most of the summer of 1900 at Camp Leatherstocking."

The Goldsmith's summer home, Myhisana, was in Maine.  The name of the estate was an amalgamation of the first two initials of each of the children's names. It was there that Moses harbored his steam yacht.

On December 15, 1904, Nathaniel's teacher took him to the Y.M.C.A. at 302 West 56th Street and introduced him to superintendent J. J. Harvey who enrolled him as a member.  Two days later Nathaniel, who was 13-years-old, went to the gymnasium.  After working on the horizonal bar for about five minutes, he let out a cry and fell to the floor.  It was a fall of only about a foot and a half.  The New York Times reported, "He sat up immediately and no one in the gymnasium thought his fall had injured him."  

But he did not stand up.  Other boys brought a chair.  The article said flatly, "he suddenly became unconscious and died."  Doctors were puzzled, as no injuries could be found.  The New York Times reported that they proposed that "he may have suffered from heart disease brought on by overexertion, but his parents say his heart never troubled him."

Adelaide was overcome by the death of her youngest child.  Margaret Anne Goldsmith, a descendant, wrote in The Bernstein Herstein Schiffman and Goldsmith Collection, "I also remember my grandfather saying that Mo's wife had a breakdown when their youngest son, Nat died as a child.  The family had what my grandfather called a 'trained nurse' with her after the tragedy."  The family now closed Myhisana and spent their summers in the city.

On November 15, 1904 Myra Belle was married to George Rose MacKenzie Ewing in Sherry's restaurant.  The New York Herald reported that the reception would take place there.  Myra's younger sister, Hilda, was her maid of honor.  Five years later Hilda's engagement to Henry R. Treadwell of Norwalk, Connecticut was announced.

Now only Samuel lived with his parents in the West 89th Street house.  Seven years after Nathaniel's death, Adelaide may finally have started to heal.  On June 15, 1911, the Maine Woods reported, "We are glad to learn that Mr. and Mrs. M. Goldsmith of New York, after an absence of several summers, will this year open Myhisana Lodge."

Samuel purchased a DeDion automobile in 1914.  By now he was a stockbroker.  His engagement to Margaret Elizabeth T. Thurston was announced on May 15, 1915.

The Goldsmiths sold 334 West 89th Street in September 1927 for $50,000--about $780,000 in 2023.  In reporting the sale, The New York Times mentioned, "Mr. Goldsmith purchased this house from the builder in 1895.  He is a retired real estate operator and was a pioneer developer of Washington Heights and Kingsbridge."

It appears the new owner rented rooms within the house.  Living here in 1929 was 22-year-old John Taylor, a garment worker.  He was a member of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union.

The Daily Worker ran a banner headline on April 16 that read, "STRIKE TWO MORE TEXTILE MILLS AS TROOPS MOBILIZE / 1,000 Workers Join Mass Picketing in Food Strike."  The Hotel, Restaurant and Cafeteria Workers Union had gone on strike in the garment district.  In solidarity, garment-related unions joined the protest.  John Taylor was among the 45 protestors arrested as the "mass picket demonstration" on April 15.  The Daily Worker reported that he paid the $20 fine "in preference to serving five days in jail, in order to join the picket line today."

334 West 89th Street is at the far right.

A renovation completed in 1983 resulted in seven apartments, including a duplex in the fourth floor and new penthouse level, unseen from the street.  

photographs by the author

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

The Julia Woodruff Southack House - 330 West 89th Street

 

In 1894 developers Wilcox and Hoyt completed five 20-f00t-wide rowhouses on the south side of West 89th Street, between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  Designed by Ralph S. Townsend in the Renaissance Revival style, the identical homes rose four stories above high English basements.  The pierced stone stoop railings, anchored by handsomely carved newels, were copied in the stone railings of the third floor balconies.  The basement and parlor levels were faced in limestone, while the upper floor were clad in salmon colored brick.  Townsend lavished the homes with Renaissance elements, like the elaborate carved entrance frames, capped with arched pediments and deeply fashioned shells.  The detailed enframements of the upper floor openings were executed in terra cotta.

On March 5, 1896, The New York Times reported that Reuben M. Wilcox had sold 330 West 89th Street "to a Mrs. Southack."  Julia W. Southack had paid $40,000 for her new home--or around $1.3 million in 2022.

Born Julia R. Woodruff in 1848, she was the daughter of Marcus P. Woodruff, a New York City cotton merchant who died in 1872 "leaving a great fortune," according to the Democrat and Chronicle.  Julia's husband, Benjamin L. Southack, had died in 1886.  Prior to purchasing 330 West 89th Street, according to The Democrat and Chronicle, "Mrs. Woodruff and her children have spent much of their time in Europe."  Her country home was in Larchmont, New York.

Moving into 330 West 89th Street with Julia were her sons Louis Victor and Harold Cyprian, and daughter, Julia Woodruff.  Louis had graduated from Columbia College three years earlier and was now working in the real estate office of his uncle, Frederick A. Southack.

Julia and her daughter spent their summers in fashionable resorts or in Europe, often in France where Julia's sister Mary E. Loge and her husband lived.  On August 7, 1898, for instance, the New York Herald reported, "Mrs. Julia W. Southack [and] Miss Southack" had arrived at the Mount Pleasant House at Littleton, New Hampshire.

Julia and her daughter spent much of the winter season of 1900-01 in Paris, visiting the Loges.  In February she was "taken ill," as worded by The New York Times.  It was a diplomatic phrasing by the newspaper.  On the voyage home, the younger Julia wired ahead so her brothers would be prepared.  The New York Times reported, "When she returned to this country she was met at the pier by her family physician, who had her taken immediately to Bloomingdale Asylum."  Julia Southack, who was 53 at the time, had undergone a severe mental breakdown.

On November 9, 1901, Julia was "adjudged incompetent" by the courts, and her brother, Randolph B. Woodruff was put in charge of her finances, estimated at about $6 million by today's conversion.  The New York Times explained, "She imagines that she is a young girl fifteen years of age, and is a very violent patient."

Julia died in the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum on October 30, 1903.  A year later, in November, her children advertised the West 89th Street house for rent:

Furnished dwelling to let, 330 West 89th St, close to Riverside Drive; size 20x53; 4 [stories] and 2 story extension; 12 rooms, 3 baths.

Louis was married by now and was living at 308 West 97th Street.  His mother's disturbing condition and confinement may have contributed to his own mental problems.  The 32-year-old died on June 14, 1905.  In reporting his death, the New-York Tribune noted that while he died of a heart attack, "He had been suffering for a long time from a nervous disorder."

Three weeks later 330 West 89th Street was placed on the market, and was purchased by Leon Hess and his wife, Henrietta.  It was once again the scene of polite gatherings.  On February 24, 1907, The New York Times noted, "Mrs. Leon Hess, 330 West Eighty-ninth Street, will receive Tuesday afternoons, until April."

It appears that following Leon's death around 1909, Henrietta moved permanently to their Summit, New Jersey home, where she died on May 2, 1917.  In the meantime, the West 89th Street house had became home to the John Francis Steeves family.

The entrances nestle snugly between the three-sided bays along the row.

In 1908 Steeves had been appointed president of Church E. Gates & Co., a lumber firm with which he had been associated since 1877.  Born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1847, he and his wife, the former Imogene Upson, had four sons--Frederick M., Harrison Ross, John Jr., and Guy Carlton--and a daughter, Miriam.

Both John and Imogene had impressive pedigrees.  The first Steeves arrived in America in the early 18th century, leaving Pennsylvania in 1763 to French-held land in New Brunswick.  Imogene was descended from Captain Samuel Upson, who served in the Revolutionary War.

On April 17, 1910 John's touring car was approaching 129th Street and Park Avenue when it struck six-year-old Gustave Hochseld.  He and his identical twin, Freddie, were headed back to school after lunch.  Steeves and his chauffeur, Fred Katoli, jumped out of the car, bundled the boy inside, and headed to a hospital.  Freddie ran back home and informed his mother.

As a search began, Freddie was sent back to school.  "Soon after he entered his classroom he was surprised so see his twin brother come in with a bandage around his head," reported the New York Herald.   As it turned out, Steeves and Katoli could withstand the boy's crying and protesting only as far as 129th Street and Lenox Avenue, where they allowed him to get out.

After school, the brothers were playing in the street near their home.  In the meantime, still unaware that the two boys were identical twins, Fred Katoli was resolved to have the Gustave's injuries tended to.  He spotted Freddie Hocheld, "jumped to the sidewalk," and "started to drag the boy toward the automobile, but suddenly paused and stared at Gustave."  The New York Herald reported, "The mother hastened to the chauffeur and forced him to liberate the twin, whom he wanted to take to a hospital, whereupon the chauffeur again entered his car and rode off."  The well-intentioned Fred Katoli was later arrested on a charge of felonious assault.

In 1903, about six years before the family had moved into the West 89th Street house, Harrison Ross Steeves graduated from Columbia University.  In 1905 he was made a member of the faculty there, and would remain throughout his career, eventually becoming chairman of the English Department.  An authority on the English novel, he was the author of several books and treatises.  His 1913 Learned Societies and English Literary Scholarship in Great Britain and The United States was dedicated "to John Francis Steeves and Imogene Upson Steeves."

Living with the family by 1917 was John's sister, Louise Peters.  Her sons, William J. and Frederick Steeves Peters, joined the military upon America's entrance into World War I.  Although William's job made him exempt from the draft, he waived the exemption, earning him a place on "the Honor Roll of the National Army" in August 1917.  Tragically, on December 9, 1918, Frederick's name appeared on the list of "Casualties reported by General Pershing."  He had died of disease on the battle front.

The house was sold in 1920, instigating a rapid turnover of owners.  By 1938, when it was purchased by Mrs. P. Aukus, it had been bought and resold no fewer than six times.  On March 7, 1938, The New York Sun reported that she had leased the house for five years, and her tenant had "purchased the furnishings of the house."

By 1995 Judith Henderson lived here, operating the Judith Henderson & Associates casting agency from the house for years.  In 2018 the house was converted to a two-family home, with a triplex in the basement through second floor and a duplex above.  

photographs by the author

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

The Julius S. Klous House - 322 West 89th Street

The sensuous swirl of the carving of the stoop railing anticipates of the Art Nouveau movement, which would not become popular for years to come.

Developer Garrett Van Cleve began construction of a row of seven brick-and-stone faced rowhouses on West 89th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive in 1889.  Completed the following year, they were designed by Frederick K. Camp as Renaissance Revival-Queen Anne hybrids.  His plans placed the costs of the 22-feet wide residences at $18,000 to $20,000 each--or about $563,000 today for the more expensive homes.  

Among them was No. 322 West 89th Street.  Its English basement and parlor levels were faced in planar brownstone, while the upper stories were of red brick.   Renaissance Revival took the stage in the carvings of the entrance and spandrel panels below the parlor windows.  The general asymmetry, the creative use of brick as a design element (in the blind panels and chain pattern in the gable), and the substantial brick two-window dormer beside the charming half-round window were elements of the Queen Anne style.

The house was sold to Oscar Schoenherr, a partner in the silk and velvet importing business Fleitmann & Co.  It is unclear if he lived here or simply used the property as rental income.  Upon his death in 1897 he was living on St. John's Place, in Brooklyn.

At the time Julius S. Klous was leasing the house.  He was a partner in the "hatter's trimmings" importing firm of Klous, Byron & Eastmond at No. 473 Broome Street.  His position within society was evidenced by his membership in the exclusive Union League Club.

In July 1902 Klous purchased a house just steps away at No. 338 West 89th Street.  The following March the Schoenherr estate sold No. 322 to John Nelson Hayward and his wife, Christine.  The couple had two daughters, Sara Tyson and Christina Watson, Hayward.  Socialites were informed by The New York Herald in December 1904 that "During this month, Mrs. John Nelson Hayward of No. 322 East Eighty-ninth street, is at home home Mondays."

The Hayward family's residency seems to have lasted only as long as the daughters remained single.  On March 12, 1905 the engagement of Sara to Edward Stroebel Johnson was announced; and on April 14, 1907 Christina's engagement to George Ross McKee was published.

Christina's wedding took place on January 15, 1908.  The following year her husband was made a partner in the real estate and insurance firm of McKee, Hayward & Co. with Malcolm M. Hayward, presumably a relative.  The arrangement did not work out and in 1910 McKee "retired" from the firm.

Before then McKee, Hayward & Co. were, not surprisingly, the agents in the sale of No. 322 in October of 1909.  The buyer, Marie L. Degener, already owned several properties along the row.  She leased No. 322 to B. F. Haas, a real estate developer, and his wife.  They lived here until 1915 when the house was sold again, this time to a "Mrs. Young."

In fact, there was no Mrs. Young.  The buyer was musician Norman Winter, who now operated the house as a boarding house for others in the musical field.

Winter was a pianist and voice coach.  On October 11, 1917 The Music Magazine mentioned "A great addition to the success of Miss [Florence] Nelson has been Norman Winter, the gifted American pianist, who is the accompanist at her recitals and songs."  He operated his voice studio from the 89th Street house.

The Sun, January 10, 1915 (copyright expired)

Soprano Edythe Le Bermuth moved into No. 322 in the summer of 1921.  Born in St. Louis as Edythe Hayward, she traveled to Europe, studying voice in Vienna, Paris, Brussels and Lausanne.  She sang the roles of Marguerite in Faust, Violette in La Traviata, and Manon in Manon Lescaut in the leading opera houses.  The married Belgian banker Arthur Le Bermuth in 1894.  Now widowed, Edythe had returned to the United States the year prior to moving into the 89th Street house.

Norman Winter took a student to court in the fall of 1927.  Nathaniel Wagner did not aspire to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House, but on the Broadway stage.  He landed a job in the chorus of the Shubert theaters, earning $25 per week, and then came to Winter for voice lessons.

According to Winter, "I found that his voice had possibilities and it was agreed that payment for his teaching would be guaranteed by the mother of a young woman to whom he was engaged."  A five-year contract was signed.

But the deal fell apart when Wagner broke his engagement and married the niece of another voice teacher, Oscar Seagle.  The mother of the first fiancee, understandably, refused to continue paying for Wagner's lessons.  Seagle, at the same time, insisted "something was amiss with his training" and took Wagner as his own student.  On November 20, 1927 The New York Times reported Winter was suing for $20,000 (around $289,000 today).  Wagner's defense was that "after he had changed teachers his voice improved and that he was justified in ignoring the contract."

The street address is incorporated into the Renaissance-inspired carvings of the entrance.

Another notable musical residence was Jean Theslöf.  The Finnish singer was as well known for his athletic abilities.  In 1924 he competed in four shooting events in the Summer Olympics.

Salesman and amateur boxer Robert Exton lived here by the fall of 1936.   In October he was given a wire-haired terrier, Terry, by friends.  They were unaware that the dog was losing its eyesight.  The New York Post later explained "Like a parent who grows more and more attached in a child afflicted with some infirmity, Robert Exton became more and more devoted to Terry because he was going blind.  Every night he bathed Terry's eyes with boric acid solution; he nursed him as though the dog had been a human being."

The Long Island Sunday Press was even more dramatic in painting its word picture:

[Exton's] best-loved pal was his little fox terrier.  Exton and the dog were inseparable chums...going everywhere together in the man's leisure hours, sleeping in the same room.  On $20 a week, in New York, there is not much leeway left over for luxuries.  Yet the terrier was fed on the fat of the land, even when hunger was none too far away from his master.  The good little dog gradually went blind.  No longer could he frisk through the parks on his daily walks.  He must be led on a leash, and be guided away from any obstacle which might hurt or bruise him if he should collide with it.

Tragedy came on March 29, 1937 when Exton took Terry to the apartment building at No. 169 West 97th Street to visit his sister and brother-in-law.  For some reason the doorman, Joseph Johanson, attacked the dog.  The Long Island Sunday Press reported that the 49-year old doorman "did one of the most rottenly unpardonable things any man could have done under the circumstances.  As the dog went unseeingly past him, Johanson kicked the poor little sufferer with right savage force."

Johanson had chosen the wrong man's dog to kick.  The amateur boxer landed a punch which knocked him off his feet.  Johanson's head struck a set of steps, fracturing his skull.  He died later at the Knickerbocker Hospital.  Before turning himself into police, Exton took Terry to his sister's apartment.  "As he was being led away, he turned to his brother-in-law, Morris Stein...'Will you please keep up the treatment of Terry's eyes?  If it stops now, all the work I've been doing won't do them any good,'" said the Sunday Press.

Exton's murder hearing was held on June 2.  The Canisteo, New York, Times began its article saying "Judges as a rule are human," and The New York Times added "Quoting from a publication entitled 'Man's Best Friend,' a eulogy on dogs, Magistrate Brooks in homicide court recently dismissed a charge of homicide against Robert Exton...Many in court applauded the court's decision."

Exton remained in the 89th Street house and soon had a second dog.  On February 23, 1938 the New York Sun reported on the Bloomingdale's dog show and mentioned "Another dog is Punchdrunk Lady of Hallwyne, entered by Robert Exton of 322 West Eighty-ninth street."

This spandrel panel was evidently executed by a beginner stone cutter.  The profile is at once charming and comical in its naivete. 

Dr. Robert Amos Mee practiced from the house by 1943.  He would be a significant figure in another murder case.  Lieutenant Adam A. Rother and Rita Costello came to his office on July 2 that year seeking to discover if the 41-year old Coast Guard officer could sire children.  They came back the next day and again two days later.

Less than two weeks later, on July 17, the couple were riding in a taxicab on Staten Island.  The driver was shocked by a gunshot and the flash.  Rita Costello was dead in the backseat.  Rother was charged with first-degree murder and the sensational trial was vividly covered in newspapers across the country.  Prosecutors claimed he killed her because she refused to marry him.  Dr. Mee was brought to the stand in March 1944 to testify about the office visits.  In the process he was asked a puzzling question.  The New York Sun reported "Under cross-examination he stated that Miss Costello did not have any venereal disease."  

In the end, a single female juror saved Rother from the electric chair.  The other eleven, who voted for a first-degree murder conviction, agreed the lesser second-degree charge "rather than have the trial end in a disagreement," explained The Times, on March 30, 1944.  Rother was sentenced to 20 years to life imprisonment.

The 89th Street house was officially converted to apartments in 1958.  There were now two apartments per floor, including the basement level.  Rather amazingly the stoop was not removed, as was common in most such conversions.

photographs by the author

The Lost Cassius M. Wicker House - 599 West End Avenue

The For Sale signs in the windows date this photo to 1923.  Brilliant stained glass transoms can be seen at the second and third stories.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

On October 1, 1887 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide pointed out that architect J. H. Taft was "working on plans for ten first-class brown stone and brick residences, to be built by Squier & Whipple."  Joseph H. Taft was highly busy at the time on the Upper West Side; and this project may have actually been for one of his major clients, William Earl Dodge Stokes, who sometimes disguised his involvement by using the names of other builders' or developers' on the building applications.

Whoever was behind the project; it would result in Taft's producing ten upscale homes that wrapped the southwest corner of West End Avenue and 89th Street.  The Record & Guide projected that "these dwellings will exhibit some of the most satisfactory architectural work on the west side."

Squier & Whipple added to the confusion by listing itself as "architects and builders" of the house in an advertisement for the row in the West End Avenue Association's 1888 brochure "West End Avenue."  It described the design of "dwelling houses" as "Old English, enriched with sculptured panels and carved stone around doors and windows."  Upscale details inside included "Cabinet trim of Mahogany, Oak and Ash on each and every story.  Hard wood floors.  Perfect sanitary plumbing, all first-class"

Although the advertisement described the style as "Old English;" the houses were in fact a mixture of styles that included a melding of Queen Anne and Flemish Renaissance Revival, with Dutch stepped gables and dormers, turrets and stained glass.  Each cost an average of $20,000 to build--about $563,000 in 2019 dollars.

All ten homes were sold in 1888, before the last going for just over $1 million in today's dollars.  The showpiece of the row was the 80-foot wide corner house, No. 599 West End Avenue.  Its impressive entrance portico above a dog-legged stoop faced West 89th Street.  The undressed brownstone of the first floor provided a contrast to the red brick facade above.

The purchaser of No. 599 seems to have overextended himself and the house was quickly lost to the New York Life Insurance Co. in foreclosure.  On May 12, 1890 Cassius Milton Wicker bought it for $41,500 (just under $1.2 million today).

Wicker moved into the house with three children, Henry Halladay, Lucy Southworth, and Cyrus French.  Wicker's wife, the former Augusta Carroll French had died a year earlier.  Also living in the West End Avenue house was Wicker's widowed mother, the former Maria Delight Halladay.

Cassius Milton Wicker, Prominent and Progressive Americans, 1902 (copyright expired)

Wicker's career was wide-flung.  The 1903 Geneological and Family History of the State of Vermont called him a "railroad president and manager, financier and investigator."  Born in in Vermont on August 25, 1846, three of his ancestors had arrived on the Mayflower--Mary Chilton, Elder Brewster and William Latham.  He had gone west at the age of 21, settling in St. Louis where he became involved in the Star Union Railroad Line.  By the time he moved to New York City in 1887, he was vice president of the Colorado Eastern Railroad.  Now he was an executive in several railroad and surface car lines, a partner in Wicker Brothers, bankers and brokers, a vice-president of the Washington Savings Bank of New York, chairman of the board of the Bank of Discount, and a director in several other banks and corporations.

The Wickers' summer estate was The Locusts near North Ferrisburgh, Vermont.  The Successful American said "The old New England homestead has been enlarged and added to by its present occupant, as only a dweller of a city can appreciate and adapt the suggestions of Nature to a country habitation."

Henry Wicker was 14-years old when the family moved into No. 599.   Before many years he would be dipping his toe into social affairs.  On January 1, 1893 The New York Times reported on the New Year's Eve party of the young Brock sisters.  "A gay company of young people clad in fantastic costumes was the old year out last night at 265 West Seventy-third Street as the guests of Miss Edna Brock and Miss Georgie Brock.  There were about seventy-five masqueraders present."  Among the youthful heirs with prestigious names like Stokes, Seward, and de Peyster was Henry Wicker.

Henry studied at the preparatory Berkeley School where he was well-known for his athletic prowess both as a football and baseball player.  The Sun described the boy as "a tall, manly fellow, handsome and muscular."

The year after the Brock sisters' party, Henry graduated from the Berkeley School and was accepted at Yale for the following fall.   The family did not go to The Locusts that summer, but leased a cottage at Swampscott, Massachusetts, on the ocean.  The Sun described the area saying "The beach at Swampscott stretches out to meet Massachusetts Bay, and every cottager there possesses on or more boats."

Henry wanted a boat, too.  According to The Sun, "He had long known how to swim, he pulled a strong oar, and was a fairly good sailor, so his father bought for him a large dory, rigged with a leg-o'-mutton sail."  Nearly every day that summer Henry spent hours on the water and became a familiar sight to the local fishermen.

The family had a house guest as the summer drew to a close.  On Tuesday morning, September 11, Henry invited his cousin, "Miss Halladay," to sail with him to Marblehead.  The family was seriously concerned when they had not returned by dinner time; but just as they were about to start a search the two walked in.  As it turned out the water became so rough that Henry wisely pulled the boat into a fishing settlement and they walked home.

The following day Cassius and his mother had business to take care of, so it was arranged that all the young people would go to "The Willows," described by The Sun as "a sort of Coney Island on a small scale."  Henry told his sister and cousin that while they went to the train station to see their father and grandmother off, he would rush over to retrieve his dory.  He promised he would be back before they returned.

But he was never seen by the family again.

The girls went on to The Willows, leaving word with a servant to have Henry join them there.  When they returned at 3:00 he had not shown up.  At 5:00 the girls went to the fishing hamlet and inquired about him.  He had been seen sailing off toward Egg Rock, about five miles distant.  The fishermen were only a little concerned that there had been a "wind flaw," or sudden gust, that morning.  The Sun reported "If the flaw had struck the dory--well the old fishers gravely shook their heads."

Two days later, at 11:00 on Wednesday morning, the fishing schooner Acacia saw Henry's dory bottom-up.  Tugboats were chartered to patrol the waters and shores to no avail.  Four months later the family abandoned all hope.  On January 12, 1895 a brief noticed appeared in The New York Times:  

Lost at sea, off Marblehead, Tuesday, September 11, 1894, Henry Halladay Wicker, aged 18 years, 7 months, and 2 days, eldest son of Cassius M. Wicker, and of Augusta French Wicker, deceased.

Henry's body was never found and his name was carved into the granite monument in the family plot in the North Ferrisburg, Vermont cemetery, "Henry Halladay Wicker, lost at sea off Marblehead."

Maria Delight Wicker died in the West End Avenue house on April 9, 1903.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room the following afternoon.  She was buried in the North Ferrisburg cemetery, near Henry, on the next day.

At the time of his grandmother's death, Cyrus was 19-years old, attending Yale.  Like his brother, he proved himself athletically, earning attention for his abilities on the track and as an oarsman.  He gradated with honors in 1905 and went on earn his law degree from New York Law School in January 1907.  That same year he received a "special certificate" in International Law from Columbia University.  


On March 10, 1907 The New York Times reported that he was appointed a Rhodes scholar and "will enter Balliol College at Oxford."  The following year Cyrus updated his classmates, writing in the 1908 History of the Class of 1905:

I take tea regularly now at half after four, have a private 'scout' who brings in the morning tub and serves breakfast and lunch within my own rooms in Balliol College, and I go to lectures in great Gothic halls with Elizabethan ceilings and windows glowing with mediaeval blazonry.

I have grown almost used to my clothes, which are of genuine Harris tweed with five pockets on the outside and large leather buttons; have joined the Dramatic Society here, the American Club and the Oxford Union, and have tried 'soccer,' cricket, and lately and disastrously, punting on the Isis.

Cyrus focused on International Law at Oxford.   On January 17, 1909, The New York Times foreign correspondent in Berlin reported "Cyrus French Wicker, a graduate of Yale and a Rhodes Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, has come to Berlin to act as private secretary to Ambassador [David Jayne] Hill.  He expects to return to Oxford for the Spring semester."

In the meantime, Cassius Wicker's name appeared in print for a surprising incident.  In addition to his many positions in railways and banks, Wicker owned real estate.   Among his holdings was a building at No. 118 West 49th Street, where he rented rooms to Polish actress Madame Alexandra Viarda in October 1909 "so that her company might have a place to rehearse 'Die Braut von Messina,'" according to the New-York Tribune on December 25.

The actress did not prove to be an easy tenant, prompting the Tribune to say "What with bickerings between landlord and tenant and soliloquies of sweeping passion from morn until night, Vicker [sic] has lived under a constant strain for some time."   Wicker again confronted the actress on December 23 after she and her company took over a storeroom in the building not included in their lease.  

Witnessing the conflict was the actress's manager, 27-year old Baron Frederick Joseph von Schiller.  A native of Germany, Von Schiller had drawn attention to himself a few years earlier when he joined the Unites States Army, but, according to The Evening Telegram, "growing tired of barracks life, he deserted."  He was arrested and sentenced to three years in the military prison on Governor's Island.  Just eight months before the confrontation between Wicker and Viarda, he had been pardoned by President Taft after much lobbying from Madame Viarda.

While Wicker and Viarda argued heatedly, von Schiller lost his temper.  "During the argument Von Schiller rushed up and struck Wicker so the latter told the magistrate and threw him over a trunk," reported the New-York Tribune.  The article said "Cassius M. Wicker has no sympathy with the tragic muse when it comes to being thrown over a trunk by one of its devotees...Wicker promptly took his grievance to Magistrate Kernochan, in the West 54th street court, and had his alleged assailant arrested yesterday on a charge of assault."

Von Schiller was convicted and fined $10 (about $285 today).  But worse for him was the embarrassment caused when the publicity prompted a closer look at the baron.  A week later, on January 3, the New-York Tribune informed its readers that while von Schiller "declares himself to be a descendant of Germany's famous poet, and inasmuch as this assertion has received widespread publicity, it may be just as well to state in the most emphatic manner that his pretensions are entirely without foundation."  Not only was he not related to poet Friedrich Schiller, neither was he a baron.

With only he and Lucy still in the West End Avenue house, Wicker placed it on the market that November.  It was sold a month later to Ada B. Callender who almost immediately leased it to the Hamilton Institute for Boys.  An announcement in The New York Press on August 30, 1911 read "The 20th year of the Hamilton Institute for Boys will open in its New Home at 599 West End Av."  The academy offered college and commercial preparation courses.  Its founder and principal, N. Archibald Shaw, Jr. and his wife moved into the mansion.

Advertisements offered "Visual Instruction in History, Geography and Science.  Lessons prepared at school.  Gymnasium, Outing Classes, Athletic Field."  That curriculum broadened with the United States' entry into World War I.  An advertisement on October 6, 1918 noted "Special Military preparation for boys 15 to 19."

It was about the same time that the Institute got a new landlord in Catherine F. Smith.  The school would have to find a new home after March 1922 when the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that "Mrs. C. F. Smith leased to a tenant, for a term of 21 years, the 4-sty and basement stone dwelling 599 West End av."   

That tenant was the Columbia Preparatory School, which operated from one block away at the northwest corner of West End Avenue and 88th Street.  It was run by headmaster and owner, F. Arthur Clawson.   The New York Times reported "The building will be entirely remodeled and every modern convenience and equipment installed for classrooms, dormitories, gymnasium, swimming pool, dining quarters and outdoor kindergarten."  The article added that the school would retain possession of its other building, "as a girls dormitory."

The Columbia Preparatory School's 21-year lease was soon curtailed.  On July 18, 1923 The New York Times reported that Catherine Smith had sold the house to "an investor, who will improve the site with a ten-story apartment."  The selling price was $75,000, about $1.1 million today.

By then No. 599 was the last hold out along the West End Avenue block.  Demolition permits were issued in 1924 and architect brothers George and Edward Blum managed to designed the 12-story apartment which squeezed itself into the domestic footprint of the Wicker mansion.

photograph via www.apartments.com

The Lost Elizabeth Clark House - 347 West 89th Street

The glass-covered wing curving toward 89th Street appears to be conservatory or picture gallery--in fact it was a bowling alley.  The Architectural Record, November 1902 (copyright expired)

In 1896 Elizabeth Clark was among the wealthiest widows in the country.   Born Elizabeth Scriven, she had married Alfred Corning Clark on October 20, 1869 in the parish church of Withecombe Raleigh in Devonshire, England.  He was the only son of Singer Sewing Machine magnate and real estate developer Edward C. Clark.   They had four sons, Edward Severin, Robert Sterling, Frederick Ambrose and Stephen Carlton.

The Clarks had maintained two residences in the city.  Their main home was at No. 7 West 22nd Street.  A sprawling apartment in The Dakota, which his father had built, was used mainly for entertaining.  Edward Clark died in 1882 leaving an estate valued at between $15 and $20 million.  Alfred inherited extensive property on the Upper West Side, including the Dakota.

The family summered at what the New-York Tribune described as "a large country place at Cooperstown, New York."  The estate, called Fernleigh, had been previously owned by James Fenimore Cooper.

On April 8, 1896 Alfred Corning Clark died in the 22nd Street house.  The New-York Tribune explained "Mr. Clark's death was caused by an acute attack of Bright's disease."  The article mentioned "Comparatively few people in the city knew that he was the possessor of many millions, because he was a retiring and modest man who studiously avoided notoriety."

Elizabeth inherited the bulk of her husband's estate, including extensive properties.  Mourning did not interfere with her plunging into real estate development.  Seven months later she transferred ownership of a block of land--from Tenth to Eleventh Avenues between 68th and 69th Streets--to the newly-formed City and Suburban Homes Company in exchange for stock.  The Sun noted the "city homes" would be designed by Mr. [Ernest] Flagg."

It was by no means the last time Elizabeth and Flagg would work together.

A year later, on September 28, 1897, The New York Times reported "Cyrus Clark has sold, for about $215,000, a plot, equivalent to about ten lots, at the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and Eighty-ninth Street."  The site engulfed half of the block, the other half filled with the Cyrus Clark's own mansion.   The article noted "Mr. Clark said yesterday that the buyer is an individual, an not an estate, as has been reported, but refused to make any further disclosures." (Clark, incidentally, was not related to the Alfred Clark family.)

A month later the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide added that the "buyer is reported to be Frederick Clark."   The report was close.  The buyer of record was "the Clark estate," or, in reality, Elizabeth Clark.

Ernest Flagg filed plans in April 1898.  He produced a four-story Georgian mansion of red brick trimmed in white marble which appeared to have been plucked from the English countryside.  The Evening World called it "one of the most striking residences on that beautiful thoroughfare."  Flagg place the entrance to the side, giving it the address of No. 347 West 89th Street.

"In fact," said The Evening World, "it looks more like a public building than a private house."  The Architectural Record noted "The house is finished front and back, inside and out, with equal care, and the workmanship and appointments are the best that money can buy.  Probably no better built or ventilated house was ever put up."  The journal made it clear that Elizabeth was highly involved in the details.  "It was the desire of the owner that it should be plain, substantial and dignified."

Elizabeth Scriven Clark was a devout Episcopalian and highly involved in philanthropies.   The New-York Tribune mentioned in July 1902 "Mrs. Clark...is well known to the people of the city, not merely because of her great wealth and large real estate holdings, but also because of her many charitable gifts, notable among which is the Alfred Corning Clark Memorial Chapel, work on which was begun last spring."

The floorplan shows an immense dining room and entrance hall on the first floor.  The Architectural Record, November 1902 (copyright expired)

She contributed enormously to Cooperstown, providing parks, buildings and statues.  The Evening World said "She is immensely wealthy and the Episcopal Church of this diocese owes much to her generosity."  Her social and religious activities put her in close contact with the New York bishop, Henry Codman Potter, who was, not coincidentally, at the laying of the cornerstone of the Alfred Corning Clark Memorial Chapel and delivered an address.

Clark stepped away from Georgian when he added a French-style marquee above the marble entrance.  The Architectural Record, November 1902 (copyright expired)

Potter was not only powerful, but wealthy.  He and his wife, the former Eliza Rogers Jacob, lived in a stately home at No, 10 Washington Square North.  His name appeared in the society columns nearly as frequently as the Astors or Vanderbilts.   Eliza died "of heat prostration" on June 29, 1901.  But the bishop would not remain unmarried for long.

A year later, on July 12, 1902, The Evening Post announced that "it was authorized to make public the engagement of the Right Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New-York, and Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark."  At the time Potter was in Paris and Elizabeth was at Fernleigh.

Neither the 66-year old Potter nor his intended bride were saying much.  A week later The Evening World noted "Friends of the Right Rev. Bishop Potter and Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark have made up their minds in the absence of a formal announcement of the wedding plans that the ceremony will take place at Mrs. Clark's country home, Fernleigh, at Cooperstown, N. Y., and will be performed with extreme quiet.  The wedding is expected to take place before the middle  of September."

The focus of the society columnists on the details of the prominent couple's romance greatly overshadowed another Clark engagement.  Almost simultaneously Frederick Ambrose Clark's engagement to Florence Stokes, daughter of millionaire Henry D. Stokes, president of the Manhattan Life Insurance Co., was announced.   Not surprisingly, Bishop Potter performed the ceremony at Stokes country estate on Orienta Point in Mamaroneck, Long Island, on September 20, 1902.  The New-York Tribune reported that his mother "and the party have come down from Cooperstown to be present," and The Evening World noted it "was a brilliant society affair, the 120 guests all being members of the ultra-fashionable set."

Frederick and his wife received lavish presents from their parents.  The Evening World said "Mr. Stokes gave his daughter a steam yacht and town house in Manhattan."  Elizabeth provided them a new country estate, Iroquois Farm, near Cooperstown.

Exactly two weeks later, on October 4, Elizabeth was married to Henry C, Potter in Christ Church in Cooperstown.

The 52-year old bride.  The Evening World, September 12, 1902 (copyright expired)

The national coverage of the romance and the frequent mentions of Elizabeth's generosity had resulted in an unexpected side effect.  On October 12 The New York Times reported "From July until October, the interval between the announcement of the engagement of Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark and Bishop Potter and their recent wedding...Mrs. Clark was in receipt of more than a thousand letters asking for money.

"The letters were from people in all parts of the country.  Some asked donations for themselves or some sick friend; others wanted to complete a college education; some had gilt-edged schemes of investment full of promise, and others represented various institutions."

And while her secretary plowed through the correspondence, Elizabeth and the bishop had lengthy discussions about their coming living arrangements.  The Evening World had reported on September 12 that "For the last few weeks the Bishop has been visiting Mrs. Clark at her summer home, Fernleigh, on the shores of Otsego Lake, and there, it is said, they have been planning with great care for the disposition of their town and country houses, when the union shall have combined the two valuable estates."

The bishop, friends said, "expressed a preference" for his Washington Square mansion.  It appeared they had made up their minds and The Evening World reported "Friends of Bishop Potter's bride-to-be, Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark, say she purposes abandoning her magnificent mansion at the corner of Riverside drive and Eighty-ninth street, and will give the house to some charity to be designated by the Bishop."

In the end, it was the Washington Square house which was given up.  No. 347 West 89th Street earned the much-used name of "the Bishop Potter Residence."

Carriages entering from Riverside Drive (left) would exit onto 89th Street.  (copyright expired)

The reason Potter was in Paris when the engagement had been announced was because "the condition of his health was not all that could be wished," according to the New-York Tribune at the time.  Now, just three months after the wedding, the newspaper reported that he was unable to preach at Yale University the day before "on account of illness."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Elizabeth continued her generous works.  Alfred Corning Clark had lavishly patronized young artists, one of his favorites being sculptor George Grey Barnard.  He had commissioned a large bronze figure of Pan, originally intended as a fountain figure for the courtyard of the Dakota apartments.  But when he saw the designs, he decided it was too find a piece to be hidden and decided to donate it to Central Park.  He died before the statue was completed.

In 1907 Elizabeth picked up the project and had it cast.  The city's Art Commission, while conceding that "it was artistic enough to be worthy of acceptance by the city," according to the New-York Tribune on October 6, 1907, could not agree on a site.  Elizabeth seems to have lost patience and, instead, donated the three-ton piece to Columbia University.

The following spring Bishop Potter fell ill again.  After being bedridden for a week, his doctor, J. E, Janvrin, issued a formal statement on May 2, 1908, putting a positive spin on the situation.

A week ago Bishop Potter was taken seriously ill, suffering from three complaints--overwork, indigestion, and a bilious attack.  His condition to-day is much better than it was then, and he is getting along very satisfactorily.  I hope to have him out in a week's time."

But Potter's condition would not improve.  He died at Fernleigh on July 21 at the age of 74.   His funeral was held in Grace Church on October 20.  The New-York Tribune said the ceremony was "of extreme simplicity" and "there was no display at any time during the services."  Nevertheless, "the impressiveness of it all was profound."

Following the funeral, Potter's body was place in the crypt of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, below the main altar.  The structure at the time was, essentially, a construction site and Potter's was the first body to occupy a vault there.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1908 was more construction site than church. New-York Tribune, October 21, 1908 (copyright expired)

A mere eight months later, on March 5, 1909, Elizabeth died unexpectedly in the Riverside Drive house from Bright's disease.  Newspapers reported in length about her long tradition of giving.  "She disliked social display," said The Times, "and was never prominent socially, always living quietly and retiringly, and contenting herself with benevolent activities."  The newspaper mentioned her many gifts to Cooperstown, including "the building used by the Young Men's Christian Association, a public library, park, and museum."

Edward was with her at her death, but Frederick and Stephen were in Europe and Robert was in China on "an expedition of exploration an scientific investigation."  The funeral, held in the Church of the Incarnation, was delayed until March 14 to enable Frederick and Stephen to return.   The New-York Tribune noted "Few funerals of private citizens in late years have been so well attended as was that of Mrs. Potter."

Her body was taken to Cooperstown where it was placed beside that of her first husband.

A tinted postcard view clearly shows the Riverside Drive carriage entrance and, in the background, the Cyrus Clark and John H. Matthews mansions.  (copyright expired)

Elizabeth left an estate of approximately $50 million--a staggering $1.27 billion in today's terms.  Frederick inherited the Riverside Drive house as well as Fernleigh.

Frederick and Florence remained in the Riverside Drive house until 1912 when he sold it to William H. Barnard and his wife, Lily.  The purchase price was not publicized, however the Record & Guide pointed out it "is valued at about $850,000."  In reporting on the sale the publication noted "The Clark residence...is one of the show places of the drive."

The Barnard family enjoyed the lifestyle of the wealthy.  Earlier that year, for instance, The Sun had reported "Mr. and Mrs. Barnard and their family will spend the greater part of the summer cruising on their yacht, Sagamore." 

Barnard was president of the International Salt Company, vice president of the Fidelity Trust Company, president of four other companies and a director in 24 corporations.  The couple's winter estate, Barnard Villa Place in Aiken, South Carolina consisted of 92 acres, a stone residence and several outbuildings.  Their summer home, The Manor, was in Rutland, Vermont.

The couple's daughter, Lilybel, was a bit rebellious and even before her debut into society had made headlines for the wrong reasons.  On March 21, 1909 she told her chauffeur to let her take the wheel and was spotted by Policeman McIntyre speeding along Riverside Drive.  He took chase and Lilybel merely stepped on the gas. At 190th Street she turned the car around, her chauffeur got in the driver's seat, and then took off again.

After what The Sun called "a long chase" both Lilybel and the driver were arrested.  "Miss Barnard was charged with going at twenty-four miles an hour and her chauffeur with going at twenty miles an hour."

Now, the summer after the family moved into the former Clark house, she shocked even her parents.  On the morning of July 22 Lilybel left the Vermont mansion to go for a drive with James Williams Salisbury.  The pair did not return home by noon for lunch.  Then, as reported by The Sun, "A telegram received at the Manor this afternoon from Bellows Falls, Vt., simply announced that Miss Barnard and Mr. Salisbury were married and were on a honeymoon,"

Her parent's surprise and possible anger abated and the newlyweds moved into the Riverside Drive house.    In 1915 the family was approached by George Kleine who was producing a silent film serial starring stage star Billie Burke, called Gloria's Romance.  He wanted to use the exterior of the mansion for "the scenes leading up to the capture of the escaped murderer," as reported later in The Times.  The Barnards rebuffed the $1,000 offer.

Lilybel later admitted that Assistant Director Kane had found her alone in the house and insisted "that thousands of feet of reel would be crippled if Gloria didn't romance through the late bishop's yard."  He sweetened the deal with a promise of $50 or an Easter bonnet for Lilybel directly.

She later admitted that  "in the absence of her family, [she] gave permission for the company to take exterior pictures."  When her husband came home to find a movie crew on the grounds, he was furious. Lilybel was entertaining women at a luncheon and said "My husband was very angry.  He said he had telephoned for the police.  I felt shamefaced because I was the only member of the family not opposed to taking the pictures."

William Barnard directed "that his wife accept for charity a check for $1,000," according to the Los Angeles Herald on January 19, 1917.  The article added "The grounds were utilized for four months." 

While her parents received the check, Lilybel did not forget Kane's promise to her.  On May 1, 1916 she wrote a letter from the Riverside Drive house which read:

Mrs, James Williams Salisbury wishes to make a request of $50,00 for her part in persuading Mr. Barnard to allow Mr. Kane and his people to continue their film work at 347 West Eighty-ninth Street.  Mr. Kane will, no doubt, recall his conversation with Mrs Salisbury and realize that it was due to her efforts that the picture company gained their permit.

Hoping Mr. Kane finds this request within reason,

Very truly yours,
LILYBEL B. SALISBURY

In March1921 Barnard bought up the old Cyrus Clark property, giving him the entire blockfront along Riverside Drive.   The New York Times said this "gave him possession of a splendid site available for apartment improvement."

But then he sold the combined properties on June 6, 1922 for $1.25 million.   The New York Times immediately reported "A statement, indicating that New York City is about to receive from an anonymous donor, the gift of an official residence for the Mayor, similar to the Governor's Mansion at Albany and the White House at Washington, was sent out last night by William A. White & Sons, who announce in this connection the sale of the former home of the late Bishop Potter at Riverside Drive and Eighty-ninth Street."


The statement said the purchased intended to donate the property to the City "for an official residence for the Mayor" and said the "Clark mansion takes rank with the finest homes of Fifth and Park Avenues and Riverside Drive."

If there ever were such a civic-minded philanthropist, his grand scheme never came to fruition.  Instead the Clark mansion was demolished to be replaced by the massive 16-story 173 Riverside Drive apartment building.  Designed by J. E. R. Carpenter, it was completed in 1925 and survives.

photo via streeteasy.com