The 1899 Thomas P. Hughes Mansion - 621 West End Avenue

 

Upon the death of Terence Farley, described by the Real Estate Record & Guide as "one of the most active builders in this city," his sons, John T. and James A. Farley, took over the business.  Operating as Terence Farley's Sons, they continued to make a significant impact on the development of the Upper West Side.

Typical of their high-end work was the row of seven upscale homes that wrapped the northwest corner of West End Avenue and 90th Street, completed in 1899.  They sat within a neighborhood that was filling with opulent residences.  Designed by prolific architect Clarence F. True in the Elizabethan Renaissance Revival style, the homes drew praise from the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, which said, "The architect, Clarence True, has had a large experience in domestic architecture, but nevertheless, this is the best design that has ever left his boards."

The group wrapped the corner, with 621 West End Avenue stealing the spotlight.  Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, October 7, 1899 (copyright expired)

The corner house, 621 West End Avenue, was the showpiece of the group.  At 32-feet-wide on the avenue and 40 feet long on West 90th Street, the five-story structure was intended for a wealthy buyer.  The entrance sat within an ornate stone frame decorated with Renaissance style carvings.  Its cornice supported a pedimented window flanked by serpentine volutes.  True took advantage of the corner site by tucking the service entrance to the back of the house, on West 90th Street.

While the expertly-crafted stonework survives, the door and window above it are unsympathetic replacements.

The four upper floors of red brick were trimmed in limestone.  Below the fifth floor window on the 90th Street side was a large, carved stone cartouche and above it a was a dramatic Flemish gable.  Two large dormers pierced the peaked roof on the avenue side.

The Record & Guide supplied a hint of the interiors of the row, listing "separate servants' entrances, kitchens, laundries, parlors, drawing-rooms, dining-rooms, butlers' pantries, connected and separate bedrooms, dressing salons, bathrooms, secluded servants' quarters with bathrooms, rear stairs and all other requirements of a first-class dwelling."  The journal added, "A lavish use of beautiful woods, marbles, tiles, plate and colored glass, under artistic guidance, evidence the expenditure of the greatest care and generous use of money to produce the best possible results from both the aesthetic and practical points of view."

Thomas P. Hughes purchased 621 West End Avenue.  A stockbroker, his residency would be comparatively short-lived.  In 1904 he sold it to Harry Wiggin Bennett and his wife, the former Agnes Pattie Smith.  Born in Alton Bay, New Hampshire on February 6, 1866, Smith and Agnes had married in 1891.  When they moved in they had two sons, 12-year-old Tom Wiggin, and 9-year-old Dick Woolson.  Another son, Harry, Jr. would come along in 1907.

Bennett had recently arrived in New York City.  For six years he and the family lived in Mexico where he was the manager of the Woolson Spice Co.  Now in New York, he established the banking firm of H. W. Bennett & Co.  He was, as well, the president and a director of the Cuba Eastern Railroad, the Northeastern Cuba Railroad, the North River Improvement Co., and a director in several other corporations.

Annually included in Dau's New York Blue Book of society, the Bennetts maintained a country home, Great Hill, on Buzzard's Bay in Marion, Massachusetts.  The family summered there until 1909, when they sold it to millionaire Galen Stone, who erected an even more lavish mansion, also named Great Hill, on the estate.  Four years later they also gave up their West End Avenue mansion, moving into a nine-room apartment on West 106th Street.  

Moses Charles Migel and his wife, the former Elisa Parada, purchased 621 West End Avenue.  Elisa was born in Santiago, Chile in 1877 and she married Moses in 1906.  The couple had three children, Parmenia, John Charles and Richard Howell.  Their summer home, Greenbraes, was in Ramapo Hills in the mountains of New Jersey.  

Migel was a fascinating figure.  A retired silk dealer, his parents had been married during the Civil War and initially lived on Canal Street.  But Solomon Migel's asthma forced him to relocate his family to Texas, where Moses was born on November 3, 1866.  Following Solomon's death, Moses's mother brought the children to Brooklyn, and by the time he was a teenager, he and his siblings were orphaned.

Moses and his brother somehow managed to get into the silk business, and by the turn of the century had a Greene Street office and a warehouse in Long Island City.  Moses Migel's fortune grew when, during World War I, he formed an import firm, the Allied Silk Trading Corporation, to bring silk fiber from China and Japan for the manufacture of cartridge cloth needed by the War Department.  

It was that work that began Moses's involvement with the blind.  After the Armistice, he accepted the position of overseeing services for American servicemen blinded in battle who were still in French hospitals.  Upon his return to the United States, he served on the Committee of Direction of the Red Cross Institute for the Blind.

Moses Charles Migel (original source unknown)

Moses became highly involved with the American Association of Workers for the Blind, and in 1914 was treasurer of the Uniform Type Commission, formed to perfect an American system of braille.  He was reportedly the sole source of funds for that commission.

In 1923 Moses and Elisa purchased a five-acre parcel adjoining their summer home.  There they developed Rest Haven, a free vacation home for blind women.  Transportation to-and-from New York City was also gratis.  By now Moses was the chairman of the New York State Commission for the Blind.

Elisa Parada de Migel (original source unknown)

In 1924 Elisa traveled to Chile and visited the Santiago College, a Methodist boarding school for girls where she had spent her formative years.  She and Moses donated $150,000 to the school for the construction of new structures and Elisa became president of its Board of Trustees.

By then, the Migels had been gone from West End Avenue for four years.  They sold the house in April 1920 to Juan Cortada.  In reporting the sale, the Record & Guide noted, "The house was free and clear and was sold for all cash."

In 1941 the house was virtually unchanged.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Juan and Rita Cortada had two daughters, Josephine and Rita, and a son, George.  As some point following Juan's death in 1929, Rita moved to their summer home in Deal, New Jersey.

In 1950 a renovation was begun to convert the mansion into apartments.  Completed the following year, the building's fifth floor had been replaced with a crisp brick box.  Clarence True's gable window on 90th Street was the sole survivor of his dramatic top floor design.  A pair of windows were punched into the third and fourth floors on this side, as well.  There were now two apartments per floor.  A subsequent renovation in 1955 provided two doctors' office spaces on the ground floor.

John Miller lived in an apartment here in the 1960's.  The military veteran was described by The New York Times on October 13, 1964, as "a tall, burly man of 58 and is a father."  John was walking near 91st Street and West End Avenue on the afternoon of March 24 that year when he was arrested on a vagrancy charge by Detective Daniel Koegh.  The problem was not that Miller was a vagrant--it was his outfit that bothered the detective.  According to Koegh in court a week later, "his prisoner had been wearing a brown, two-piece woman's suit, high heels and a fur cape.  He was carrying a purse.  On his head was a gray wig, and on his face, lipstick and powder."

In arresting Miller, who sometimes went by Joan, Koegh had relied on an 1845 vagrancy statute that made it illegal for a person to appear in public with "a face painted, discolored or covered or concealed or being otherwise disguised, in a manner calculated to prevent his being identified."  

The American Civil Liberties Union struck back, calling the arrest of someone who "has done nothing more than wear the clothing of the opposite sex" unconstitutional.  Entering the case as a Friend of the Court, the ACLU purported that Koegh had not arrested Miller for vagrancy, but "because of distaste for his behavior."

Given Moses C. Migel's work, it is appropriate that around 1969 the office of the Elbee Audio Players opened in 621 West End Avenue.  Headed by David Swerdlow, one publication said it performed "contemporary plays like Marty and A Majority of One, dramatically read by blind actors."  It was still operating from the address in 1988, when Resources in Theatre and Disability wrote, "Blind and sighted performers make up this repertory troupe that [performs] in the greater New York area."

Once an architectural grand dame in the neighborhood, the 1950 butchering of 621 West End Avenue makes it easily passed by, unnoticed, today.  

photographs by the author

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

The Lost Cyrus Clark Mansion - Riveride Drive at 90th Street

photo from the collection of the New York Historical Society

The development of the rocky, hilly Upper West Side into a modern suburb was due in great part to the tireless work of Cyrus Clark.   By the end of the Civil War, when Clark was still in his 30s, he had amassed a substantial personal fortune from his wholesale silk business.

He left New York in 1867 to pursue an entirely different career.  After studying real estate development in Europe, he returned in 1870 and began buying undeveloped land in the Upper West Side.  Disinterested in any other sections of the city, he lobbied for improvements like mass transit, sewer and water lines, and gas street lamps.

Clark pushed for laying out Riverside Drive along Riverside Park, construction of which had begun in 1872.  In February 1884 he helped organize the Citizen's West Side Improvement Association, which was incorporated as the West End Association in 1889.  Clark would be its president for years and his unrelenting work led to his being warmly called The Father of the West Side.

Clark and his wife, the former Julia Antoinette Requa, had three children, Walter, Howard and Mary.   When the West End Association was incorporated Clark and his family had lived in their new home on the southwest corner of Riveride Drive and 90th Street for a year.   Architect Henry F. Kilburn designed the mansion--a successful blending of French Renaissance and Romanesque Revival.  Costing $90,000 to construct (about $2.34 million today), it was faced in rough-cut stone.   The tile-covered hip roof was broken by two towers, dormers and clustered chimneys.   Numerous porches took advantage of the location's river breezes and spectacular views.

On December 17, 1891 The New York Times ran the headline "OWNERS LOADED FOR BEAR."  The article explained that mansion owners along Riverside Drive, including Cyrus Clark, accused the Park Commissioners of failing to maintain Riverside Drive and allowing "nuisances" to invade it.  They insisted that the Parks Commissioners were responsible for their falling property value, and now threatened to go to Albany over the "threatened construction of ill-smelling and unsightly factories along the river front."

This interior view of the Clark house shows a typical 1890s assemblage of paintings, statuary and bric-a-brac. photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Clark never let his guard down in protecting the Upper West Side and in particular the Riverside Drive neighborhood.   He was there when the Parks Commissioners met on February 3, 1892 to discuss the proposed licensing of a triangular piece of land in Riverside Park between 72nd and 75th Streets to the New-York Central Railroad.  Clark fought against the proposal, asserting it "was a scheme to gain the right to the river front, so that docks and warehouses could be built there later."

In the meantime, Julia had more immediate issues on her mind.  Mary was now a young woman and her marriage to Dr. Edward Washburn had to be carefully planned.  The ceremony took place in the Riverside Drive mansion on June 3, 1893, prompting The Times to call it "one of the prettiest of the early June weddings."

The groom was an educator with an impressive background.  He had been an instructor in Latin and Greek at Columbia College, and now held the post of Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Bryn Mawr College.

Mary's wedding party assembled on the porch and lawn.  Note the little second floor balcony just above the porch roof; a charming detail.   photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The wedding reception was held in the house following the ceremony.  The New York Times mentioned "The bride and bridegroom will spend the Summer in Europe"

The following year, on October 25, 1894, Walter was married to Alice Marshal Westervelt in what was called "an important and unusually pretty wedding."  The ceremony took place in the fashionable St. George's Episcopal Church on Stuyvesant Square.

Walter had graduated from Harvard five years earlier.  His bride was the great-granddaughter of Daniel D. Tompkins, who was several times the Governor of New York and the James Monroe's Vice President.

Howard was his brother's best man.  The 23-year old had enlisted in the United States Army, serving in Troop A Calvary, in 1891.  He had seen field service in the Buffalo Switchmen Strike in August 1892 and three months after the wedding he would help squelch the violent Brooklyn Trolley Strike.

In October 1897 Clark sold the southern half of the block, totaling about 10 building plots, for about $200,000 (just under $6 million today).  His relinquishing of half his lawn may have been a signal.  With two of his children married, he and Julia left the Riverside Drive mansion in 1898, significantly downsizing to a new rowhouse at No. 327 West 76th Street.

The Riverside Drive mansion was purchased by Mary Llewellyn Swayne Parsons.  Her husband, Edwin Parsons had died four years earlier.  The head of Edwin Parsons & Company, a cotton commission house, he left his widow a substantial fortune.  Mary's father, Noah Haynes Swayne, had been a United States Supreme Court Justice.   Her summer estate was at Northport, Long Island.

Mary wasted no time in opening her new home to guests.  On March 1, 1898 The New York Times reported "Mrs. Edwin Parsons gave a dinner of twelve covers at her home, Ninetieth Street and Riverside Drive, last night.  The table decorations were roses."

On August 30, 1900 Mary was an honored guest at the cornerstone laying ceremonies of the Parsons Memorial Library in Edwin's hometown, Alfred, Maine.  Earlier that year she had taken a much different stance against another memorial.

Mary's neighbor to the north, seen here in 1903, was John H. Matthews, the "soda water king." photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In January, calling herself "a taxpayer," she filed suit against Mayor Van Wyck, the President of the Park Board, three city officials and Joseph A. Goulden, the Chairman of the Memorial Committee of the Grand Army.  She intended to stop plans for erection of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Riverside Drive and 89th Street.   She declared that the monument would interfere "with the flow of light and air and obstruct the view."

No doubt much to Mary's distress, the lawsuit was defeated and the memorial was built.

Mary Parsons died at the age of 73 in 1913.  She left many charitable bequests including, for instance, were $5,000 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, $5,000 to the Society for the Relief of Destitute Blind of New York, and $5,000 to the Church Home for Infirm and Disabled Colored People.

Family members, of course, received large inheritances.   The slice of the estate received by Mary's brother, Francis, was $80,000--about $2 million in today's terms--and the Riverside Drive mansion.

In the meantime the wealthy and powerful Bishop Henry C. Potter had constructed his lavish mansion on the corner property that Clark had sold in 1897. That same year restrictive covenants had been placed on the block barring "for a period of thirty-five years" the construction or use of any building except private dwellings intended for single families.

The year before Mary Parsons died William H. Barnard, President of the International Salt Company, and his wife, Lily, had purchased the Potter mansion.  Now those restrictions would result in problems.

Francis Swayne leased his sister's former house to Mrs. Florence B. de G. Shaw.   Florence moved her Hamilton School for Girls into the mansion.  Exclusive private girls' schools were almost always located within upscale residential districts.  But William Barnard was not pleased.

Citing the restrictive covenants, he took Francis Swayne and Florence B. de G. Shaw to court in October 1915.  He argued that the school was a business and, therefore, violated the covenants.  He insisted that "it would be necessary to install fire escapes on the building, which would destroy the privacy of the neighborhood."  The New York Times reported "He said he had heard that Mrs. Shaw would take boarding pupils, as well as day pupils."

Before a grand jury the following month, Florence "contended that the privacy of the Drive neighborhood was passing" and "insisted that her school would be conducted so quietly that it would not disturb the block."

Then she flipped the accusation--pointing out that William Barnard had already broken the restrictive covenant when he leased his mansion for $1,000 to a motion picture company.   Scenes of the silent film thriller, which starred Billie Burke, were shot in the Barnard mansion.  Florence told the court that the privacy of the block was in chaos during the filming.

The mansion was ivy-covered in the early 20th century.  Behind, to the left, can be seen the carriage house. The back of this postcard reads "Cyrus Clark, Father of the West Side, Built This House."

The New York Times reported on November 6, 1916 "The scenes leading up to the capture of the escaped murderer in the house, she said, had been taken on the grounds and in the street, and had created so much excitement that large crowds collected and the peace of the neighborhood was greatly disturbed."

Barnard pressed on with the suit, and hired a private detective to snap photographs.  When the case came to trial on January 8, 1917, William L. Drummond provided his "pictorial evidence" and told of "seeing the girls exercising in the barn, which is now the school's gymnasium."  Barnard testified that his property value had fallen from $880,000 to $800,000 because of the school.

When Barnard won his case, Florence de G. Shaw appealed to the State Supreme Court.  On December 14, 1917 the ruling was overturned and Barnard's suit dismissed.  The court decided that the restrictions applied "to any future buildings erected on the property and did not affect present building there."

The tense co-existence between the Barnards and the Hamilton School for Girls would last only seven more years.  In 1925 the mansions were demolished to be replaced with that block-engulfing apartment building designed by J. E. R. Carpenter which survives.

photo via https://www.manhattanscout.com/building/173-riverside-drive

The John T. Farley House - No. 303 West 90th St

photograph by the author

Builder Terrence Farley was described by the Bulletin of the Building Trades Employers' Association as "prominently identified with the improvements of the upper west side in the early eighties, following the opening of the elevated road."  His sons, John T. and James A. Farley, continued the business, forming T. Farley's Sons.  By 1898 T. Farley's Sons had established a reputation for its high-end structures.  They were responsible, for instance, for the mansions of Jacob H. Schiff, Frank J. Gould and William Guggenheim.

That year they began construction of seven high-end rowhouses which wrapped the northwest corner of West End Avenue and 90th Street.  Prolific architect Clarence F. True received the commission and, in keeping with his architectural flair, he married two distinct historical styles--Elizabethan Renaissance and Flemish Renaissance Revival--to create an eye-catching row.

While several of the homes sprouted elaborate carved decoration and distinctive Flemish gables, No. 303 West 90th Street was reserved, nearly to the point of severity.  Especially wide at 24 feet, the handsome arched entrance sat below an ornate carved cartouche which announced the address.  The bowed limestone facade at the second and third floors was banded in wide flat courses and featured two stone and iron balconettes.  Above it all the pitched roof was covered in red tiles and distinguished by two prominent dormers with arched pediments.  Attractive wrought iron fencing defined the areaway.

As the project neared completion in October 1899 the Farleys placed an advertisement in the New-York Tribune.  "These houses contain several novelties, and are designed and built to please the most FASTIDIOUS, and are constructed in the best manner possible.  The location is the very choicest and MOST FASHIONABLE in New York, and in the immediate neighborhood of the handsomest and most expensive improvements."

One of the seven, however, would not be offered for sale.  John T. Farley kept No. 303 West 90th Street for his family.   Farley and his wife had four sons.  

John Farley's fortune afforded him and his family a lifestyle similar to his wealthy clients.  He was a member of the Westchester Country Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, and the Suburban Riding and Driving Club.  He was also  a member of the Coney Island Jockey Club.   The New-York Tribune explained that while he was "not prominent in the racing world," he was "a lover of good horse flesh."

The Farleys hosted a formal card party in the house in 1901.  Note the cove ceilings.  While interior decorating taste required perfect symmetry in the window treatments, it did not extend to the artwork on the walls.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The health of the 46-year old builder deteriorated in 1904, but did not seem to be the cause of excessive worry.  Then, on Wednesday, January 4, 1905 he suffered a fatal heart attack in the 90th Street house.   The Record & Guide noted "his sudden death was a surprise to his family and friends."

The house was briefly leased to James Shewan and his family.  Shewan had come to New York from his native Ireland in 1869 at the age of 21.  The following year he married Ellen Curley and the couple had two sons and four daughters.

Apprenticed as a ship's carpenter in Ireland, he started a dry dock and ship repair business in New York.  By the time he moved into the 90th Street house with Ellen and one daughter The Evening World described him as "rated as many times a millionaire" and noted he "has a great country estate at Cold Spring Harbor, L.I."

The Shewan family, which had "a prominent place in society," dealt with an embarrassing situation in April 1906.  James Shewan, Jr. lived in an "expensive apartment in Cross Chambers, No. 210 Fifth avenue," according to The Evening World.  He was thrown into a panic on the afternoon of April 26.

Yvonne du Mont, wife of the wealthy New Orleans rubber manufacturer Edgar R. du Mont, was described by the World as "a strikingly pretty young woman, and always appeared to be well supplied with money."  She had come to New York about a week earlier to attend a family wedding and took an apartment in the Belleclaire,  on Broadway at 77th Street.

She was found in her rooms by hotel attendants, "suffering from the effects of two corrosive sublimate tables she had swallowed."  She asked them to send word to young Shewan.  Newspapers were quick to following the movements of the socially-prominent young man.

"He hurried to the hospital and most of the night he was at the side of her cot, working with the doctors and half hysterical in his pleadings to save the young woman's life," reported the newspaper the following day.  Naturally, society was puzzled at his involvement with the married woman.

When a reporter stopped him as he left the hospital, "he was surprised that his identify had become public."  He answered questions saying "Oh, I'm merely a friend of--her husband's."

And that husband's business partner quickly attempted to squelch rumors of impropriety between Yvonne and Shewan.  "She had no trouble whatever," said C. H. Taylor.  "She and her husband were the chummiest of chums, and I know that they love each other very much."

Mrs. du Mont recovered, but her reputation did not.  In September 1911 she was spotted on Broadway by Mrs. George Harwood Barrett, the "beautiful young Boston wife of the portrait painter," as described by the Richmond, Virginia Times Dispatch.   The Barretts lived, at the time, in "magnificent apartments near Riverside Drive."

The unsuspecting Yvonne du Mont was "publicly caned" by the irate woman.  According to the Times Dispatch, "She portrayed Mrs. Dumont in the dual capacity of New Orleans society leader and as a 'vampire,' who makes periodical visits to this city to take part in affaires du coeur, free from the irksome supervision of her husband."

In the meantime, the Shewans left West 90th Street in 1907, leasing the furnished mansion of Mrs. W. E. Woodward at No. 58 west 71st Street.  No. 303 became the unhappy home of Allen Lawrence Story and his young wife, the former Helen Hilton, who were married that year.  The bride was just 16 years old and The New York Times said "The marriage was a runaway affair and created much excitement in Washington society circles, in which the bride's parents were so prominent for many years."

Story was the son of well-known and outspoken Mrs. William Cummings Story who was frequently quoted in newspapers for her "strong opinions" on topics such as her stand against pacifism.  Helen had inherited money from the estate of her grandfather, United States Circuit Court Judge Henry Hilton.  The couple had a daughter, Ruth, in 1908; but the relationship quickly deteriorated.

Despite his privileged background, according to Helen Allen "refused to contribute anything toward the household expenses from his income.  She was obliged to pay everything and eventually her husband "stayed for the most part at the home of his mother" at No. 86 Gramercy Park.

On September 26, 1911 Allen arrived with his brother, Harold Story, saying he wanted to retrieve some of his old clothes.  Little Ruth's nurse, Dikka Carlsen, was holding the toddler in her arms when the men entered the house.  According to Helen later, "they took the child from the nurse by violence and shoved her away when she tried to stop them."  Dikka ran after the car, but, according to Helen, "her husband and his brother beat her off and made away with the child."

Ruth was taken to Mrs. William Cummings Story's residence.  Every time Helen tried to see her daughter, she was told Mrs. Story was out.  The New York Times reported on November 29 that "She says she has learned that Mrs. Story has ordered that she shall not be admitted to the Gramercy Park house."

Helen took legal action against Allen, and on November 28 Supreme Court Justice Seabury ordered him to produce Ruth in court.  Helen told reporters that she believed "she has an excellent chance of getting the custody of her daughter."

The house that had once seen society dinners and other entertainments was, by 1931, a rooming house operated by Kurt Heppe.  That year it would be the scene of a sensational shootout straight from a gangster movie.  Years later Heppe told a reporter that running rooming houses was "anything but dull," adding "You meet such interesting people."

Perhaps the most interesting was 19-year old Francis Crowley whom Heppe described as a "model tenant."  The teen had rented the rooms on the top floor under a fictitious name, and for good reason.     

Born on October 31, 1912 to an unmarried German immigrant and, reportedly, a policeman.  He was immediately put up for adoption at the "baby farm" run by Mrs. Annie Crowley.  Annie kept the infant, giving him her surname.  The New York Times would later say she "brought him up as well as she could."

But Crowley was challenged.  The newspaper described him as "undersized, underchinned, underwitted--he never could learn to read and write in any but the crudest fahsion and he never developed beyond the mental age of ten and a half--the world would never have known he existed if he had not turned to crime.  And having vanity, he turned to crime."


Crowley ran away from home in his teens and fell in with gangs.  He was fascinated with automobiles, which he frequently stole.  His foster brother, John Crowley, was no doubt partially responsible for his violent criminal path.  In 1925 John was involved in a shoot out with Patrolman Maurice F. Harlow, in which both men died.

Francis became bolder, participating in a shoot out in front of the American League Headquarter in the Bronx in February 1931.  Shortly after that, when Patrolman George Schaedel tried to arrest him, Crowley shot and seriously wounded him.  Before long he earned the street name "Two-Gun Crowley."

His closest friend and crime partner was Rudolph "Fats" Duringer, a truckman.   Early in the morning of April 27, 1931 the Crowley was driving a stolen car.  Inside were Duringer and a dance hall hostess named Virginia Brannen.   Duringer's motives are fuzzy--rape and robbery were both suggested--but for whatever reason he shot Virginia in the head and they dumped her body near St. Joseph's Cemetery in Yonkers.

On May 6 Crowley and his girlfriend, 16-year old Helen Walsh, were sitting in another stolen car when two policemen approached the car and asked for identification.  Crowley responded by fatally shooting Hirsch and seriously wounding Yodice.

The case drew to a head when police showed a photograph of Crowley to Kurt Heppe.  He identified the wanted man as his top floor tenant.  The day after murder of Officer Hirsch, "more than 100 policemen...armed with tear gas, axes, shotguns, rifles, machine-guns and pistols, besieged the place," reported The Times.  Inside the apartment were Crowley, Duringer and Helen Walsh.

The Brooklyn Standard Union estimated the number of police on West 90th Street that day at 300.  A crowd of about 1,000 civilians grew around the perimeter of the two-hour siege, "the most spectacular waged by New York police in a generation."


Astonishingly, Crowley, Duringer and Helen received only superficial wounds.  Kurt Heppe later told a reporter "after his gun battle with the police we picked 900 bullets out of the mattresses, the woodwork, the walls, the ceiling and the floor."
]

Smug and dapper, Francis Crowley posed in prison.  photo from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Rudolph Duringer was executed for the murder of Virginia Brannen on December 10, 1931.  Helen, who had testified against Crowley, attempted to see him on May 5, 1932, the day he was scheduled to be executed.  Still furious, he refused, adding "I hear she's running round with a cop and she wants to sell the story to a newspaper."  Francis "Two-Gun" Crowley was electrocuted in Sing Sing that night at the age of 20.

Life in No. 303 West 90th Street was much quieter after that.  In 2013 it was reconverted to a single family home.   Clarence True's original double entrance doors survive, as does the handsome wrought iron fencing.   The house's sedate facade successfully keeps secret the colorful story of a petty gangster and a sensational shoot-out which played out here.
 

The Lew Fields House - No. 307 West 90th Street

In October 1898 Clarence F. True filed plans for seven upscale houses which wrapped around the northwest corner of 90th Street and West End Avenue.  He received the commission from developers John T. and James A. Farley, who did business as Terrance Farley's Sons.  As the rowhouses were being constructed the Record and Guide commented on the brothers, saying on December 22, 1900 that they "have always been engaged in the building of the best residence improvements and have always kept abreast of the continually increasing demands of the times."

Clarence True was prolific on the Upper West Side and routinely turned to historic styles for his inspiration.  And he often mixed and matched disparate styles with gleeful abandon, as was the case with No. 307 West 90th Street; part of the Terrance Farley's Sons project.

Completed in 1901 the 18-foot wide, five-story residence was designed in the American basement plan which did away with the tall stoop so popular for the past half century.  Two bays wide, True designed the first four floors in an exuberant Renaissance Revival style--its bowed red brick front decorated with conspicuous limestone quoins, two appealing balconettes at the second floor, and an arched Renaissance-style entrance almost identical to that around the corner at No. 627 West End Avenue.  At the top floor True changed gears.  He abruptly turned from Renaissance to Flemish Revival, designing the attic level as a flamboyant Dutch gable fronting a red tiled pitched roof.

William Cumming Story and his wife, the former Fannie Ella Daisy Allen, moved from Central Park West to the 90th Street house.  Story was vice president of the American Savings Bank and vice president of the Standard Statistics Bureau; but it was his wife who claimed the spotlight.

Fannie Story's American roots were deep.   Her English and Dutch ancestors included an uncle, Enos Throop, who served as Governor of New York, and Stephen Allen, the first elected Mayor of New York.  Fannie followed the family's political traditions, serving as President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution, President of the Republican Women's Club and President of the City Federation of Women's Clubs.

The style morphed from Renaissance Revival to Flemish Revival at the attic floor, where Oscar Hammerstein and Herbert Fields later wrote songs.

The Storys had three sons, Allen, Harold and Sterling, and the family maintained a summer "cottage" in on Long Island in Cedarhurst.  And while the Storys were visible in society, the majority of Fannie's entertainments were related to her various offices.  On Thursday, January 30, 1907, for instance, she held a bridge party for the Manhattan Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

William Cumming Story did not simply sit at home while his wife was at meetings, teas and conventions.  In October 1908 he was inducted as a member of the West End Association; a civic group formed to promote improvements on the Upper West Side.

Rather surprisingly, the fight for office within the Daughters of the American Revolution was sometimes cutthroat.  In April 1908 Mrs. Donald McLean, the incumbent President General, supported Mrs. Matthew Scott, who was running against Fannie Story.  The McLean camp sent out a letter to all delegates to the upcoming congress.  It praised Mrs. Scott for her interest in the proposed Continental Hall in Washington D.C.  The Sun reported on April 9 "As for Mrs. William Cumming Story, who is running against Mrs Scott, the letter says that she doesn't care a continental for the hall, in fact is almost opposed to it."

Fannie Ella Daisy Allen Story -- from the collection of the Library of Congress

The fight was on.  "As soon as Mrs. Story's adherents heard about the letter they decided to get out one of their own, and accordingly they hastened to headquarters to obtain a list of accredited delegates and alternatives."  But the D.A.R. officials refused to release the mailing list.  "Mrs. Story's supporters had forgotten that the McLeanites are at present in control of the organization machine and that nothing can go out from headquarters without their sanction."

A reporter called at No. 307 West 90th Street to ask Fannie about the letter.  She said "I have no personal feeling against Mrs. Matthew Scott, who is running against me."  Confident of her win, Fannie said "I shall do everything possible to encourage Mrs. Scott to use her splendid abilities for the advantage of the cause dear to us both."

Fannie was president of the City Federation of Club Women at the time.  The following year was an election year and the fight was no less ruthless than the D.A.R. campaign.  The New-York Tribune opined on January 10, 1909  "'If any Tammany politician wants pointers in the art of manipulating elections let him come to us.'  This is the substance of remarks that may be heard among almost any group of clubwomen in these degenerate days."

Outspoken and opinionated, Fannie Story made her views known.  Indifferent to the feathers she might ruffle, she rallied for women's right to vote and railed against the pacifists concerned about war in Europe (all three of the Story boys would fight in the coming World War I).  And when she was asked to speak at a July 4 celebration in 1910, she may have surprised some in the audience.

While other speakers recalled patriotic feats of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, Fannie spoke only of women--like Dolly Madison, Margaret Corbin (who helped to defend Fort Tryon), and Catherine Schuyler.  The New-York Tribune reported "She said that they suffered for their country as much as the men did."

About the time of the Independence Day speech the Storys had left West 90th Street.  The 1910 census shows the Lew M. Fields family in the house.  Lewis Moses Shanfield used the stage name Lew Fields.  As half of the enormously successful comedy team Weber and Fields, he had amassed a personal fortune.  The team broke up in 1904 when Weber took over operations of a music hall.  But the multi-talented Fields forged on as an actor and comedian, producer and theater manager.

Lew Fields, photo from The Actors' Birthday Book, 1909 (copyright expired)

With Fields had married his wife when she was 17 and working as a toy buyer for the Namm department store in Brooklyn.  They now had four children, Joseph, Frances, Herbert and Dorothy.  Also living with the family was Bob Harris.  He was the uncle of the Fields children, but was only five years older than Joseph.

Joseph seemed to find himself always in trouble. On December 29, 1911 The New York Times reported that Patrolman Boshamer noticed posters on trees along Broadway between 88th and 92nd Streets.  He tore them down; but when he returned later new ones had been tacked up.  He saw two boys busily replacing the posters.

"One of them was young Fields and the other was Herbert [sic] Harris, who lives with the Fields family at 307 West Ninetieth Street," noted the newspaper.  The boys appeared before a judge on December 28, who, "after giving the lads a kindly lecture, fined them east $1, which they paid."

Joseph and his brother Herbert attended De Witt Clinton high school.  In his senior year Joseph had missed so many classes he was in serious trouble.  He brought his father to school to smooth things over.  School officials, however, were not duped.  The youthful Bob Harris made a poor surrogate for the mature (and well-known) Lew Fields.

It ended with Joseph and his brother, Herbert, being expelled from De Witt Clinton; but they dared not tell their father about it.  Decades later Joseph told their astonishing story to Karl Schriftgeisser of The New York Times.  The reporter explained "They sold themselves to a private school as what used to be called, in less honorable days, 'ringers' for the football team.  That meant free tuition, and somehow they managed to be graduated without Lew getting wise."

Lew Fields continued to have theatrical successes, including his 1911 Hen-Pecks co-starring Vernon Castle, and his 1920 Poor Little Ritz Girl, with songs by Rodgers and Hart.  And so it was no doubt a shock to most who read the New York Times headline on August 21, 1921 "LEW M. FIELDS BANKRUPT."  The actor's attorney, Jacob I. Berman downplayed the situation.  He told reporters that Fields "had been forced to take the step because he wished to take a position without having his means of livelihood attacked by creditors."  He said that Fields would continue making payments "until the slate was clean."

In the meantime, although their mother vocally opposed their entering show business, the Fields children showed extraordinary talent.  The family was still on West 90th Street when, in 1922 Lorenz Hart and Herb Fields came up with an idea for a musical, Winkle Town.  Hart's biographer, Gary Marmorstein, wrote in his A Ship Without a Sail: The Life of Lorenz Hart, "The premise was so intriguing to Oscar Hammerstein II...that he offered to work with Herb Fields on a book for the show.  Fourteen or fifteen Winkle Town songs were written on the top floor of the Lew Fields house at 307 West Ninetieth Street."

Dorthy became a lyricist, sometimes working with Herbert.  Among her memorable songs would be "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "I'm in the Mood for Love," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," and "The Way You Look Tonight," which won her an Academy Award.

Bad boy Joseph eventually became a Hollywood scenarist.  He teamed up with Jerome Chodorv.  Their main success was the screen dramatization of My Sister Eileen.

But before any of that happened, the 90th Street house was sold in September 1922.  In reporting on the sale, the New-York Tribune noted "The property will be altered into apartments."  The resulting renovation resulted in what a later sales report called an "apartment house for nine families."

Then in 1991 came another renovation, resulting in just two multi-floor apartments.  Flat paned windows replace the more charming curved examples that originally conformed to the bowed facade.  But overall Clarence True's delightful blend of styles survives remarkably intact.

photographs by the author