The 1902 Henry Herman Westinghouse Mansion - 313 West 105th Street

 

Real estate developer John C. Umberfield purchased vacant land on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive in 1900.  Architect William E. Mowbray designed seven high-end residences for the site in the French Beaux Arts style, configuring his three designs in an A-B-C-B-C-B-A configuration.

The row was completed in 1902 and among the C models was 313 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance, which sat atop a three-stepped porch, within a rusticated base.  A delicate French-style railing at the second floor introduced a three-story projecting angled bay.  Engaged Scamozzi columns upheld a dramatic, broken pediment over the central window of the second floor.

John C. Umberfield sold the 21-foot-wide residence in February 1902 to Kate A. Burbank.  Her ownership would be short.  On October 30, 1903, The Sun reported that Kate sold 313 West 105th Street "to a Mrs. Westinghouse."

"Mrs. Westinghouse" was Clara Louise Saltmarsh Westinghouse, the wife of Henry Herman Westinghouse.  Born in 1854 and 1853 respectively, the couple was married in 1873.  They had two daughters, Clara Catherine, who was 20 in 1903; and Marjorie Caldwell, who was eight.  (Another daughter, Florence Erskine Westinghouse, died in 1890.)

Henry and his brother, George Westinghouse, were the sons of George Westinghouse, Sr., a patentee and manufacturer of farm equipment.  Like George, Jr., according to The New York Times, Henry "inherited a talent for mechanical development."  In 1883 he invented the single-acting steam engine and continued to design devices connected with air brakes and steam engines.  (His brother invented the air brake.)  In 1883, Henry co-founded the engineering firm of Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co.  The New York Times would later remark, "This company marketed the single-acting engine in every country where steam power is used."

When he founded Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co., Henry had already been associated with the Westinghouse Air Brake Company for a decade.  When he and Clara purchased 313 West 105th Street, he had been a vice-president of that firm for four years.

The family had another residence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and their country estate, Grasmere, was on Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes district of central New York State.   

Henry Herman Westinghouse (1853-1933) original source unknown

The drawing and dining rooms of the West 105th Street house were routinely the venue of entertaining.  But the dinner party of "intimate friends and members of the family" on February 16, 1906, was special.  The New-York Tribune noted that "there were twenty-covers" and said that during the dinner, Clara Catherine's engagement to Charles William Fletcher was announced.

Six months later, on August 26, the New-York Tribune reported that the invitations to the wedding had been issued.  It would take place, said the article, "on the evening of Wednesday, September 12, at their summer home, Grasmere, Kidder's Ferry, on Cayuga Lake."  It would be a prestigious event.

The Auburn, New York Democrat reported, "The affair was elaborate in detail and was witnessed by about 900 guests and relatives from New York, Pittsburg, Boston, Schenectady and Atchison, Kansas."  The article mentioned that after their "automobile tour," the newlyweds "will be at home at 313 West One Hundred and Fifth street, New York, after November 15."

The following year, Henry and Clara sold the mansion to clothing manufacturer Hugh M. Mullen and his wife, Jessie C.  The couple had a daughter, Genevieve Lillian, born in 1887.

The family had barely settled in when Genevieve's engagement to Guyon Locke Crocheron Earle was announced.  On December 30, 1908, The Sun reported, "The marriage will be celebrated at the Mullen home on January 27.  

While the society reporters normally focused on the prospective bride, this engagement was different.  The son of the late General Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Guyon Earle grew up in "Earle Cliff," known today as the Morris-Jumel mansion, and in the family's Staten Island country home, Guyon Mansion, erected in 1673.  New Yorkers were also well-acquainted with the family through General Earle's proprietorship of hotels, notably the New Netherlands and the Hotel Normandie.

The wedding took place in the 105th Street house on the night of January 27, 1909.  As the Westinghouses had done, the Mullens soon sold the mansion.  In May 1910, Hugh and Jessie moved to the fashionable Sugar Hill section of Harlem, purchasing a house at 20 St. Nicholas Place.  They sold 313 West 105th Street to John Ewing and his wife, the former Grace MacKenzie.

John Ewing was born in Scotland on May 21, 1848.  When he was three, his parents immigrated to New York City.  He graduated from the College of Pharmacy and in 1877 partnered in the drug business of Doyle & Ewing.  He later founded Ewing & Co. with his brother-in-law Alexander MacKenzie.  Grace was the daughter of George R. MacKenzie, president of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

The couple was married on October 3, 1876.  Their first child, Grace MacKenzie, died at the age of five in 1885.  Their son, George Ross McKenzie, was 27 years old when they purchased 313 West 105th Street.  The Ewings' country home, Bramble Brae, was in Glen Spey, New York.

The couple was at Bramble Brae on July 29, 1914, when John died at the age of 66.  Grace remained at 313 West 105th Street until September 1920 when she sold it to British Lt. Colonel Lloyd, sparking a rapid-fire turnover in ownership.  

On December 10, 1924, The New York Times reported that Milton and Edward Schreyer had purchased the house for $55,000, saying they "intend to make extensive improvements and occupy."  (The price would translate to just over $1 million in 2026.)  They Schreyers lost the property in foreclosure and it was sold at auction to John B. Antonapolos for $40,950 on January 12, 1927.

Antonapolos leased the house the following year to the Master Institute of United Arts.  In reporting the deal on July 27, 1928, The New York Times remarked, "The institute owns the plot at the north corner of 103d Street and Riverside Drive, where it is erecting a fifteen-story structure."

The porch and its hefty wing walls were intact when this tax photograph was taken.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Russian-born Nicholas Roerich and his wife, Helena, had arrived in New York City eight years earlier.  The mystic and artist described himself as a master in the theosophist belief in ancients who could transmit messages and knowledge to believers.  (Reportedly, it was he who urged follower Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture under Franklin Roosevelt, to persuade the Treasury Department to add the mystic pyramid of the Great Seal to the dollar bill—a change that was enacted in 1935.)  In addition to the institute, the couple had founded the Roerich Museum in 1923.

At the time of the lease signing, Nicholas was out of the country, "the head of the Roerich American expedition to Tibet," as explained by The New York Times on July 15, 1928.  His 5,000-word letter that Helena had received the previous day was the first anyone had heard from the expedition in 13 months.  He explained that they had been captives for five months in Tibet, "during which five of his men died and ninety caravan animals perished."

The Master Institute of United Arts and the Roerich Museum operated from 313 West 105th Street, staging exhibitions and lectures.  On January 27, 1929, The New York Times commented, "The Roerich Museum at 313 West 105th Street contains about 800 paintings by Mr. Roerich, including the panorama of his Asiatic travels.  The facilities remained here until the completion of the Master Building at 310-312 Riverside Drive. 

John Antonapolos signed a three-year lease for 313 West 105th Street to Pantelis Sioris on December 1, 1930 at $4,500 per year (about $7,000 per month today).  Before being leased in February 1939, it had been converted to multiple units--two apartments through the fourth floor and six furnished rooms on the fifth.

A substantial renovation came in 1963, when the former mansion was converted to apartments, three per floor.  The porch was removed, the main entrance and the service entrance remodeled as windows, and a new doorway installed where a window had been.

Then, in 1999, a penthouse level, unseen from the street was added.  It, combined with the fifth floor, created a duplex apartment.  There are 15 units in the building today.

photographs by the author

The 1902 Isidor and Julia Gartner Mansion - 309 West 105th Street

 

Two years after ground was broken, in 1902 builder and developer John C. Umberfield completed construction of seven, 22-foot wide townhouses on the north side of West 105th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in the French Beaux Arts style, they were five stories tall and faced in limestone.

Anchoring the row to the east was 309 West 105th Street.  Its American basement design placed the centered entrance within a rusticated base.  A projecting bay with gently curved corners provided an iron-railed balcony to the fifth floor.  Engaged Scamozzi columns that upheld a dramatic, broken pediment at the second floor were mimicked in the double-height pilasters that flanked the second and third floors.

Umberfield sold the house to Isidor and Julia M. Gartner in April 1902. Born in Rhaunen, Germany in September 1844, Gartner was a partner in Gartner & Friedenheit, makers of satin and silk ribbons.  The former Julia M. Winter was born in New York in 1847.  Also living in the house were the couple's unmarried sons, Louis Winter and Albert Victor; and son William S. (known as "Billy") and his wife, the former Carrol Batles (known familiarly as "Babe.")  They were married on July 3, 1900.  

The family's country home was in Arverne, Long Island.  Julia suffered a terrifying and potentially fatal incident there on August 10, 1902.  Among the domestic staff was Mathilda Schnitzer.  The New York Herald Dispatch reported, "The young woman found Mrs. Gartner alone in a room and sprang upon her with the cry, 'Now I'll do it!'  She then threw Mrs. Gartner on the floor and began to choke her."

Hearing the commotion, other servants ran to the room and found Julia unconscious on the floor.  "They dragged the Schnitzer girl away from Mrs. Gartner," said the article.  Two physicians soon arrived.  The Herald Dispatch said that Dr. Tingley "had trouble restoring [Julia] to consciousness," while the other doctor, George Meyer, diagnosed Mathilda Schnitzer with "acute mania."  (The term often refers to bipolar disorder today.)  The young woman was transported back to Manhattan where she was committed to the Bellevue Hospital insane ward.

William and Carrol had a baby boy, named William Jr. in 1902.  Tragically, he died on New Year's Day 1903.  The family's intense grief resulted in the infant's funeral being strictly private.

There would be another funeral in the parlor a month to the day later.  Julia Gartner died on February 1, 1903 at the age of 55.  Her active involvement and that of her husband in the local and Jewish communities was reflected in the groups represented at the funeral: Yorkville Lodge, No. 69; King Solomon's Lodge, No. 279; Temple Beth-El; the Monte Relief Society; and the Grand Lodge of the United Order of True Sisters.

On June 12, 1905, Isidore Gartner sold 309 West 105th Street to Daniel Fiske Kellogg.  Born on March 19, 1865 in Chittenango, New York, Kellogg was the financial editor of The Sun.  He married Maude Isabel Forbes on September 2, 1891 and they had a son, Daniel Jr., and a daughter Victorine Lee.  The family's summer home was in Newport.

The Kelloggs remained here for nearly a decade, selling the mansion in November 1914 for $50,000 to John F. Haas.  The price would translate to about $1.62 million in 2025.

The Haas family did not initially move into the house.  They leased it Colonel Frank Scott Long and his wife, the former Edith Erdine Clark.  The couple had two sons, Charles C. and Frank Sidney, and a daughter, Edith.  When the family moved into the house in 1914, Frank Sidney was 19 years old.  On June 18 that year, he was appointed a cadet in the U. S. Military Academy.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

When America entered World War I, Frank Sidney Long was deployed to Europe.  A first lieutenant, he was in command of a battalion at Fleville, France on October 5, 1918.  In posthumously awarding him the Distinguished Service Cross, The General Orders, No. 95 of the War Department on July 26, 1919 read:

Having been wounded in the side by shrapnel while caring for wounded men of his platoon, Lieut. Long refused to be evacuated, but returned from the dressing station to his command.  While withdrawing his platoon to a better position under heavy barrage he was instantly killed by shell fire.

The Haas family moved briefly into the West 105th Street residence.  On September 19, 1919, an ad in The New York Times read, "Lost--Brown and white rough terrier, male; answers to name Scally; no collar; strayed from home Wednesday, 309 West 105th St.  Miss Hass [sic]."  When Scally had not been found nearly two months later, the identical ad was placed in the New York Herald on November 3 adding the plea, "owner heartbroken."

Charles Andrew Flammer and his wife Harriet moved into the house before the end of the year.  Born on June 28, 1845, he graduated from the College of the City of New York and was admitted to the bar in 1866.  He was appointed a judge in 1873.  

On June 29, 1936, The New York Times reported on Flammer's 91st birthday, recalling that he "was a justice presiding over Yorkville Court during the Civil War."  Four months earlier, Flammer had been interviewed by The New York Times journalist Meyer Berger in "the cavernous, dark-paneled parlor of his home at 309 West 105th Street."  The judge recalled the day when he was in his teens, standing at the corner of Broadway and Canal Street "to watch Abraham Lincoln go by in his carriage."  

Justice Charles A. Flammer, Times Wide World Photo, The New York Times June 25, 1937

Berger mentioned in that February 13, 1936 article, "He and his third wife live in the great house off Riverside Drive with two servants.  He climbs the old stairs, despite his age, reads standard or classic books in his library and smokes three cigars a day."  

Judge Charles Andrew Flammer died in the house on June 24, 1937, four days before his 92nd birthday. 

The Flammer estate sold 309 West 105th Street to James H. Cruickshank on June 20, 1939.  In reporting on the sale, The New York Times remarked, "There are fourteen rooms and three baths in the building."

In 1950, the mansion was converted to apartments and furnished rooms.  A subsequent renovation in 1964 resulted in one apartment on the first floor and two each on the upper floors.

photographs by the author

The Benjamin Mordecai Mansion - 319 West 105th Street

 

On April 17, 1902, The New York Times reported that Benjamin Mordecai had purchased the recently completed limestone-faced mansion at 319 West 105th Street.  Designed by William E. Mowbray in 1900, it was one of seven upscale residences erected by builder and developer John C. Umberfield.  

Five stories tall and 22-feet wide, Mowbray designed the mansion in a very structured version of the French Beaux Arts style.  Rather than carved festoons and wreathed cartouches, he ornamented the facade with straight forward Ionic pilasters at the ground floor.  The second through fourth floors were bowed, each story defined by an intermediate cornice.  The bowed section was flanked by paneled quoins, its windows capped with hefty, layered keystones.  A stone cornice with substantial scrolled brackets completed the design.

Benjamin Mordecai and his wife, the former Constance Miriam Davis, were born in 1865 and 1867, respectively.  Benjamin was a partner in A. L. Mordecai & Son, the real estate firm founded his father, Allen L. Mordecai.  He and Constance had four daughters (Eva, Lucile, Constance, and Katherine), and a son, Allen Lewis.

Maintaining a significant domestic staff often came with problems.  Such was the case for Benjamin and Constance on the evening of December 26, 1903.  That evening at 7:30, a cab had been waiting at the curb for some time to take the couple to the theater.  Inside the mansion, Benjamin was dealing with a servant, Ellen McDonald, whom he discharged, but who refused to leave the house.  A telephone call was made to Police Headquarters asking for an officer to remove her.

When the officers arrived, "Mr. Mordecai was remonstrating with a servant in the kitchen," reported The New York Times.  "She would not leave the house, and the other servants were afraid, Mr. Mordecai said, to stay in the house with her."  He told the officers he did not want her arrested, but simply wanted her removed.  One of them tried gently to persuade Ellen to come along with them.

McDonald refused, saying, "I want my discharge in the regular way."

A policeman called for a patrol wagon.  "Another effort was made to get the servant to leave, but she objected," said the article.

"I'm king, here," she asserted, "This kitchen's me castle, and you can all clear out.  Take yer gilted buttons and skedaddle." 

Having tried all else, the policemen had to resort to force. "The woman, screaming and kicking, was carried out by the police and locked up on a charge of being drunk and disorderly," reported The New York Times, which added, "It was then 2:30 o'clock, and M. Mordecai said he would not go to the theatre."

The entrance, above a wing-walled two-step stoop, was originally centered.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Constance's early entertainments in the mansion were routine.  On December 29, 1907, for instance, The New York Times mentioned, "Mrs. Mordecai, 319 West 105th Street, was the hostess a short time ago at a bridge given in her home."

But as Eva and Lucile reached their debutante season, the focus turned to them.  In 1911 the girls were 21 and 20 years old, respectively.  On February 26, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Benjamin Mordecai of 319 West 105th Street, gave a large dance for her daughters, the Misses Eva and Lucille [sic], on Wednesday night."

The sisters not only shared their debuts, but their engagements.  On April 29, 1913, Benjamin and Constance announced that Eva was engaged to Sidney Cardoza and Lucile was engaged to Harold Leiber.  The New York Times noted that Eva had graduated from Barnard College in 1912, and that Lucile was a senior there.  The following month, a dinner party was held in the mansion for both couples.

Entertainment briefly focused on the parents in the fall of 1914.  On November 8, the New York Herald reported that Benjamin and Constance had hosted a reception "to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary."

Like their sisters, Constance and Katherine were married in quick succession.  Constance was married to Danforth Cardoza (Eva's brother-in-law) on June 28, 1917, and Katherine was married in the 105th Street mansion four months later, on October 9, to Clarence L. Lee.

With only 17-year-old Allen still at home, in the fall of 1919 the Mordecais placed the mansion on the market.  Expectedly, A. L. Mordecai & Son handled the listing.  It was most likely Benjamin himself who wrote the advertisement in The New York Times on October 9, which called 319 West 105th Street "a palatial home."  Noting that it sat within a "restricted neighborhood" (meaning that businesses were banned), the ad said in part that it "is modern in every respect and embodies all the innovations and improvements that money can buy.  Decorations and appointments are in keeping with the artistic ideals of the owner."

Within two weeks, the mansion was sold to William P. Youngs and his wife, Harriet.  The Mordecais moved into a sprawling apartment on Park Avenue.  Like Benjamin Mordecai, Youngs was a real estate operator, a partner in W. P. Youngs Bros.

As the Mordecais had experienced, the Youngs soon encountered a staff problem.  Ella D. Mallet was a seamstress, hired to work on Harriet's "certain dresses and garments," according to her testimony.  On January 8, 1921, she passed through a doorway and, according to her complaint, "was suddenly precipitated and fell down certain steps leading out from said door."  Ella charged her employers of "carelessness and negligence" and sued for $2,000 damages (about $35,000 in 2025 terms).  A year later, when the case came to court, she said she was  still confined to bed "and will so continue to suffer."

The Youngs were childless, but they nevertheless hosted a debutante event in 1921.  On February 28, The Yonkers Statesman reported, "Miss Winifred Youngs, debutante daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Youngs...was guest of honor at a dinner-dance given for her by her aunt, Mrs. William P. Youngs of 319 West 105th street, New York City, Saturday."

The Youngs would not remain in the 105th Street mansion for especially long.  On August 29, 1925, the Record & Guide reported that they had sold it for $60,000 (just over $1 million today).  The buyer was Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad executive Michael J. McGowan.  

The wealthy bachelor remained in the house until his death on November 5, 1938.  Four years later, the mansion was converted to a total of 13 apartments.  The renovation resulted in the main and service entrances being converted to windows, and the doorway relocated to the side.

An interesting resident was actor Takeo Lee Wong.  He was best known for playing a medical examiner in the Fox Television series New York Undercover in the 1990s.  He and his partner, talent agent Rosella Olson, occupied one of the two ground floor apartments as early as 2001.  That year, after the World Trade Center attacks, he began converting the concrete areaway in front of the house with pots of flowers.  It was, he explained later, as a tribute to a neighbor who died.

Over the years, the pots of lavender and impatiens and geraniums were added to with hydrangeas, strawberries, cactus, basil and other plants.  Calling it his "mother garden," Wong carefully tended the pots, and arranged with his neighbors to take in perennials over the winter.  But in 2010, his off-site landlord, Joey Franco, demanded that he clear out the potted garden.  Wong complied, prompting Corey Kilgannon of The New York Times to write, "Mr. Wong turned this concrete expanse--about the size of a parking space--into a plant paradise over the past decade, only to have it stripped of the plants by his landlord."

Takeo Lee Wong posed in his "mother garden" in July 2012.  photo by Ozier Muhammad, The New York Times August 11, 2012.

But two years later, the garden was back.  On July 11, 2012, Corey Kilgannon wrote, "he has brought back the plants, thicker than ever."  The reprise would be short lived.  On July 4, Joey Franco was back as well.  Kilgannon reported that he "showed up, and he was not happy."  He told Wong that he had a truck ready to cart away the plants.  The areaway was returned to a concrete slab.

Other than the refiguration of the ground floor and replacement windows, the appearance of the Mordecai mansion is nearly unchanged after 124 years.

photographs by the author

The Transformed Manhattan Opera House (Manhattan Center) 311-321 West 34th Street

 

photo by Jim Henderson

Theater manager and impresario Oscar Hammerstein branched into grand opera when he erected his Manhattan Opera on Eighth Avenue near Broadway on November 14, 1892.  The critic of The New York Times was taken with its size.  "The new theatre is very large.  The stage was obviously designed for grand opera," he wrote.  But the cavernous auditorium had a drawback.  "The auditorium must be 100 feet deep...Last night, in the centre of the house, beyond the first four or five rows of seats, it was difficult to follow the speech on the stage," he wrote.

Eleven years later, Hammerstein sought to improve the situation.  In April 1901, his architect, William E. Mowbray, filed plans for a "five-story brick and stone theatre" three blocks away on West 34th Street, just west of Eighth Avenue.  Mowbray projected the construction cost at $300,00o--or about $10 million in 2022.

Oscar Hammerstein I, from Who's Who on the Stage, 1906 (copyright expired)

The new Manhattan Opera House would take five years to complete.  Hammerstein took advantage of the time to recruit the most talented and famous musicians and vocalists in the world.  Upon his return from Europe on April 29, 1906, he told reporters, "When I left New York eight weeks ago I concluded that if I could not create for my Manhattan Opera House an ensemble of such magnitude, artistically, as would eclipse every effort ever made in this direction since grand opera found a foothold in this country, I would abandon my project and give up the idea of giving grand opera for once and all."  The New York Times titled its article, "Hammerstein Declares War In Grand Opera."

Hammerstein had signed contracts with some of the most famous opera singers in the world for his opening season.  Among them were sopranos Nellie Melba and Gabrielle Lejeune-Gilibert, baritone Maurice Renaud, and tenors Alessandro Bonci and Amedeo Bassi.

The approaching opening of the Manhattan Opera House could not have come at a worse time for Hammerstein's rival, Heinrich Conreid of the Metropolitan Opera House.  The Metropolitan chorus singers had unionized, and on November 1, 1906, The Sun ran the headline "Conried Defies The Union."  It reported that he refused to sign an agreement.  The article ended saying, "Fifteen [singers] applied the other day to Oscar Hammerstein for engagements at the new Manhattan Opera House."

Construction was completed early in December 1906.  Mowbray's neo-Classical structure featured five double-doored entrances beneath a glass-and-iron marquee that stretched to the curb.  The seven mid-section bays were separated by Scamozzi pilasters, each window fronted by a stone balcony.  A classical pediment topped by a anthemion fronted the balustraded fifth floor.

from the collection of the Library of Congress

The Manhattan Opera House opened on December 3, 1906 with I, Puritani, although the finishing touches on the building were not yet complete.  The New York Times reported, "Yesterday afternoon, Bonci, the new tenor, and Mme. Pinkert, the soprano, rehearsed with chorus and orchestra while some shifters set scenery and carpenters pounded the last nails.  The din was terrifying."  When Hammerstein held up a finger to stop the work, the foreman told him "We can't get this theater done unless we have every minute, and if we don't get the theater done, you can't give the opera."  And so the workmen continued.  "Bonci sang the rest of his high notes to a hammer accompaniment."

Architects' and Builders' magazine, February 1907 (copyright expired)

The New-York Tribune noted, "To Mr. Hammerstein alone the public is indebted for this new addition to its places of amusement.  He has no board of directors nor opera company.  He is the board of directors, impresario, real estate company, manager, treasurer.  Under his famous hat the affairs of the house will be entirely decided."

At the end of December, The New York Times critic Richard Aldrich deemed the Manhattan Opera "worthy of support," praising the excellence of Hammerstein's productions.  The problems of the former house had been corrected.  Aldrich noted, "Its acoustics are remarkably good.  Notwithstanding its size, it is so built that the audience as a whole is brought nearer the stage and into more intimate relations with what goes on upon it than is the case in the older houses."  The "older houses," of course, included the Metropolitan Opera.

A postcard pictured the venue shortly after its opening.

The international fame of Nellie Melba was such that her debut here on January 11, 1907 caused a near riot.  That evening she appeared with Bonci in Rigoletto.  The New York Times reported, "The crowd was so large at the Manhattan Opera House last night...that it was necessary for Mr. Hammerstein to telephone to Police Headquarters at 7 o'clock for a squad to control the mob of people in the lobby."  The efforts were not enough.  The "crowd surged up the gallery stairs, breaking away the side railing.  At 7:15 the box office closed, and no more standing-room tickets were sold...In the course of the second act a woman fainted and was carried out."  The carriage man (the uniformed employee who met and opened the doors of arriving carriages) counted 510 vehicles that pulled up to the marquee that evening.

Nellie Melba in the role of Ophelia.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1911 Hammerstein leased the venue to Metropolitan Opera House chairman Otto Kahn.  The contract came with a massive $1.2 million bribe that Hammerstein not be involved in opera in New York City for ten years.  He used the money to erect the London Opera House, in London.  By 1916, the Manhattan Opera House was being managed by the Managing & Producing Co., Inc., headed by Alexander Kahn.  That summer the venue was "lavishly renovated," and it may have been at this time that a sixth floor was added.

The upward enlargement created a bulky, disproportionate appearance.

Oscar Hammerstein died on August 1, 1919.  His wife Emma Swift Hammerstein inherited the Manhattan Opera House.  The venue continued to offer grand opera, opening with Aida that season, followed by La Boheme.  In 1921 Emma sold the building to her daughters, Stella H. Pope and Rose H. Tostevin.

Massive change came the following year.  On March 11, 1922, the Record & Guide reported that the sisters had sold the structure to the New York Consistory, Scottish Rite Masons, "who will use it as a temple after a few structural changes."  The New-York Tribune placed the price at $600,000--or about $9.7 million today.  The newspaper said, "It is the plan of the Scottish Rite Masons to leave the auditorium as it is and hold assemblies and ceremonies there.  Upstairs will be constructed rooms for a library, lounging quarters, banquet hall and kitchen."

If the organization's initial plans called for "a few structural changes," the board soon changed its mind.  On July 30, 1922 The New York Times reported that the Scottish Rite had hired architects Harrison G. Wiseman and Hugo Taussig to renovate the structure.  The "entire Thirty-fourth Street facade will be remodeled and stores added," said the article.  "A large assembly hall and banquet room will be constructed on the present roof."  The article said the assembly hall would be one of the largest in the city, capable of holding 1,200 diners.   The architects placed the cost of renovations at $250,000.

The architects' rendering showed a hipped roof.  The New York Times, July 30, 1922 (copyright expired)

The use of the renovated building as a Masonic temple was relatively short-lived.  In 1927 Warner Brothers leased the auditorium space as a sound stage, and in 1940 it was converted to a meeting hall and multi-purpose venue, called the Manhattan Center.

The meeting hall was a favorite venue for political meetings.  A two-day mass meeting was held here on in 1942 to pressure the Government to release Communist leader Earl Browder from an Atlanta prison.  An announcement in The New York Age on March 28 urged, "Trade unions, fraternal societies, religious and young peoples organizations, send delegates to the National Free Browder Congress at Manhattan Center, 311 West 34th street, Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29."

A banner at this National Communist Party meeting reads, "Communism is 20th Century Americanism."  original source unknown.

A somewhat surprising meeting was held here following the end of World War II.  On January 26, 1946, The New York Age reported on the "Rally for Democratic Japan" to be held on January 24, 1946.  It was sponsored by the Japanese American Committee for Democracy, which stressed, "Japanese who are sympathetic to American ideals must be used in reconstructing a democratic Japan."

The use of the Manhattan Center continued to morph over the decades.  The Manhattan Center Studios was organized in 1986 for multimedia events.  The group opened Studio 4 in 1993, with a cutting edge control room for recordings and live ballroom events.  Other studios followed, all connected to the Ballrooms and capable of recording the events there.

The Hammerstein Ballroom, photo by aconson

The Hammerstein Ballroom was the venue of "WWF Monday Night Raw" airings beginning in January 1993.  Episodes of the "Impact Wrestling" television program were taped here in 2014, and several seasons of "America's Got Talent" took place here.

photo by Tdorante10

The Manhattan Center continues to be house event, production and performance spaces.  And those passing by or even entering the building, can hardly imagine that it was once one of New York City's premier opera houses.

Many thanks to reader Rich Conrad for requesting this post

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Wm. E. Mowbray's 1890 No. 454 W. 144th Street

In December 1886 wealthy silk dealer William M. De Forest and his son, also named William, were poised to make their mark on the recently-developing Hamilton Heights neighborhood.  Once part of Alexander Hamilton's extensive estate, The Grange, it was quickly becoming an upscale northern suburb.

That month the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide noted "More than twenty elegant houses, of English Gothic, Flemish and other styles, as modified by the taste of the architect Mr. Wm. E. Mowbray, are already planned and will be built without delay."  Among these was a row of eight houses on the south side of West 144th Street, between Convent and Amsterdam Avenues.

William E. Mowbray's picturesque medley of Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, Flemish Revival and other styles would create a fantasy neighborhood.  But William H. De Forest's bankruptcy and subsequent commitment to an insane asylum brought the project nearly to a full halt.  William Jr. took over, and the row, stretching from No. 452 through 466, was finally completed in September 1890.

No. 454 sat within an architecturally delightful row.

No. 454 was a quaint marriage of neo-Tudor and Gothic.  Mowbray used beige brick and brownstone to create a vibrant two-colored facade.  The eye was drawn upward from the understated, planar parlor level to three floors of energetic design.  Three grouped openings at the second floor were unified below a Queen Anne-style sunburst transom panel.  A stone pseudo-balcony sat on tightly-packed corbels.   Like those below, the grouped openings of the third floor were outlined in stone quoins.  The fourth floor was highlighted by a charming row of Gothic-pointed windows below a deeply-overhanging cornice.  By lessening the successive bulk of the elements--from the heavy brownstone base to the delicate top floor windows, Mowbray kept the residence visually grounded.

The house would not be sold for two years.  In 1892 William H. De Forest, Jr. and his wife, Harriett, sold four houses in the row, including No. 454, to operators Edwin H. and Walter J. Peck.  The men paid $45,000 each for them--about $1.2 million today.

No. 454 was leased to wealthy produce merchant Charles W. Weston.  The family maintained a summer estate in Milton, New York.  In March 1892, about the same time that the Pecks were receiving title to No. 454, the Weston's closed upstate home was being enjoyed by 20-year old William Williams and an accomplice.

On March 10 The New York Times reported "Williams has made a confession in which he says that his first idea was robbery, but he and his companion found the accommodations of the house so comfortable that they determined to spend the Winter there."  The newspaper noted they had broken into the wine cellar "and used the contents freely."

Williams told police "We just had things as we wanted 'em; we was the bosses of a regular sinners' hotel, and as long as the wine lasted we had a----of a time."  Unfortunately for the Weston family, things "just as we wanted 'em" included expensive damage.

"Carpets were cut up, soiled, and besmeared with dirt; valuable paintings were cut and their frames broken; costly bits of statuary were destroyed; bric-a-brac had been hurled through the glass doors of bookcases, and the walls of the rooms had been disfigured by the bloody heads of chickens and other fowl that were killed and cooked in the house."

To keep warm, the squatters broke up furniture for firewood.   Jewelry and other valuables were sold in nearby towns and, as described by The Times, "Every room in the house had been turned topsy turvy."  And the problem of bathroom hygiene was solved when "Much costly underwear and wearing apparel, which had been put into cedar closets for protection, was cut into shreds and besmirched with the filth of the marauders."

The Weston family remained in the West 144th Street house for about two decades.  By 1913 they had moved permanently to the Milton estate.

In October 1916 the Pecks transferred title to Kate A. Hastings.  Like the Pecks, Kate and her husband, Charles S. Hastings, had purchased multiple properties in the area in 1892 and continued to manage leased residences.  In August 1917 she leased No. 454 to Lindsay S. Perkins who had become a minor celebrity for toppling a German spy and terrorist ring.

Perkin's early life held no hint of the colorful career as a Secret Service agent to come.  A short story writer, he became city editor of Georgia's The Macon Telegraph in 1889.  Two years later he relocated to Washington DC as a Patent Office employee. Then, with the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Secret Service. Although the U.S. had not yet entered the war, spies and saboteurs were a threat to American munitions plants, ships carrying supplies to warring countries, and such.

The agency was closely monitoring the moves of a group of German businessmen and diplomats in 1916.  They were suspected of conspiring to blow up of the Welland Canal connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in 1914.  Among them was Captain von Papen, Military Attache of the German Embassy, and his secretary, Wolf von Igel, described by Current History and Forum later, in October 1917, as "a large, suave man of Teutonic aspect."

On April 16 Linsday S. Perkins entered von Igel's supposed "advertising" office at No. 60 Wall Street.  A month later Information: A Monthly Digest of Current Events wrote "Before submitting, von Igel struggled until the Federal agents were compelled to draw their revolvers."  According to Current History and Forum, when their guns were drawn, von Igel shouted "This is German territory.  Shoot me and you will bring on war!"

The New York Times said Perkins "is accredited with the capture of Wolf von Igel, a German spy."  And Information reported that his involvement in the Welland Canal plot and "many bomb outrages on munition carrying ships...were described by a high Federal official as the biggest haul made by the government since the activities of the agents of the Central Powers in this country were first uncovered."

Five months before the 54-year old Lindsay moved into No. 454 he was involved in defusing another nearly disastrous plot.  The German ocean liner Friedrich der Grosse was moored at Hoboken.  Lindsay and other agents stormed the ship where a bomb making factory was being operated.  Within 12 days workers had created 250 bombs, intended to be smuggled onto ships carrying food to the allies.  Five German insurgents were arrested.  On March 16, 1917 Lindsay S. Perkins testified in United States Court, identifying two of the spies.


The Secret Service agent leased No. 454 until around 1920, when he retired to his farm in Seat Pleasant, Maryland.  (He did not remain retired, however; he returned to the State Department as a Russian and Spanish translator in 1931.)

In August 1920 Kate Hastings put the house on the market for $20,000 (around $240,000 in 2016).  It was sold to Valentine M. Kelley, who immediately leased it to the former police officer with the appropriate name George J. Law.   Law had joined the New York City Police Department on September 11, 1886 and retired from the 31st Precinct on April 7, 1905.

By the Depression years John H. Fay lived here with his wife, Elizabeth, and their adult son, Thomas.  Elizabeth and her son stayed on for a few years following John's death in the house on May 5, 1931.  The following year Thomas was a witness in court over an annoying incident.

He had been a passenger on August 2, 1932 in the automobile of 24-year old friend Arthur J. McQuade, son of former judge Francis X. McQuade.  Following in his father's footsteps, Arthur was secretary to General Sessions Judge John J. Freschi.

When McQuade parked near the intersection of 54th Street and Broadway, he was given a ticket by Patrolman Charles L. Klkia for obstructing the crosswalk.  The young men protested and all three ended up in traffic court on October 18.

Both Fay and McQuade insisted that 'pedestrians had plenty of room to move past the parked automobile," according to The New York Times the following day.  The policeman "admitted they could get past, but insisted part of the automobile was on the crosswalk."  It may have been because of Arthur McQuade's ties to the courts or simply the judge's frustration with Officer Klika's pettiness; but Magistrate Aurelio dismissed the charges.

The last occupants of No. 454 as a private home was the Thomas Family.  Anthony B. Thomas and his wife, Marie, had three sons, Francis, Robert and John. Francis graduated from West Point in January 1943 with the rank of Lieutenant; and Robert was a Private First Class in the army. 

Francis A. Thomas was deployed to Del Rio, Texas following his graduation.  Tragically, just four months later the 24-year old died suddenly of unexplained causes there.  His funeral was held in the West 144th Street house on May 10 and he was buried in the United States Military Academy Cemetery at West Point.

In 1952 the house was converted to "furnished rooms."  Today there are seven apartments in the building.  Outwardly, however, other than replacement windows, the charming Victorian is little changed.

photographs by the author

The J. Romaine Brown Mansion - No. 340 Convent Avenue

In 1886 William Mowbray was busy transforming the blocks around Convent Avenue and West 144th Street into a fashionable neighborhood.  The area, once part of Alexander Hamilton's estate The Grange, was quickly developing.  In December that year the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide noted "More than twenty elegant houses, of English Gothic, Flemish and other styles, as modified by the taste of the architect Mr. Wm. E. Mowbray, are already planned and will be built without delay."

Many of those homes were designed for developers William H. DeForest and his son, also named William.  Mowbray's builder father, Anthony, constructed the residences.  But for Nos. 340 through 346 Convent Avenue, at the corner of West 144th Street, Mowbray acted as both developer and architect.

Not completed until 1890, the row was anchored by the impressive corner mansion.  Although the entrance was unquestionably located at No. 451 West 144th Street, the house took the address of No. 340 Convent Avenue.  All Mowbry's houses along the street were modern takes on historic styles.  But the red brick mansion was less quaint and more imposing than its neighbors.  A Victorian adaptation of French Renaissance, it featured a large corner tower with a conical cap, a basement level of rough-cut granite, and pedimented dormers which cut through the steep slate-tiled roof.

The neighborhood at the turn of the last century was charming.  The tower of No. 340 Convent Avenue (right) still retained its conical cap.  photograph by Thaddeus Wilkerson, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In 1905 the mansion became home to Joseph Romaine Brown and his wife, the former Annie Elizabeth Lockwood.  The 72-year old was still highly active in the real estate business and headed the J. Romaine Brown Company at No. 10 East 43rd Street.  He was deemed the "Dean of Manhattan Brokers."

He and Annie had married in April 1865.  By then he had had a widely-varied career.  He had started business by learning the locksmith trade; then in 1854 purchased the 34th Street stage coach line (it ran from 34th Street, down Broadway to 26th Street, then to Third Avenue and back), and two years later started his real estate business.

By the time the Browns moved into the Convent Avenue mansion, their four children were grown and Joseph Brown had accumulated a significant fortune.   That was partly due to the street car line which was formed in the 1850s.  Its founders wanted to run it along the same route as Brown's coach line, so they bought him out for $150,000--in the neighborhood of $4.25 million today.

J. Romaine Brown -- photo via werelate.org

In 1913, when the country was still suffering through the crippling financial depression known as the Panic of 1907, a reporter from The Sun visited Brown to get a veteran's views on the economy.  The article, which appeared on Sunday, August 31, encompassed half of the front page.  Brown boosted optimism among the newspaper's readers by retelling stories of earlier depressions--like the paralyzing Panic of 1873 that lasted until 1880.  The article noted "Mr. Brown expects that the experiences of 1878 are soon to be duplicated here, that is, the real estate market will turn from a period of inactivity to one of splendid business."

Two months later, 345 lots on Jerome Avenue were sold at auction.  The New York Times noted on November 2, "J. Romaine Brown, whose knowledge of New York real estate extends over a longer period that the great majority of brokers, showed his faith in the future of the Jerome Avenue lots sold by purchasing nearly the entire block front on the east side of Jerome Avenue" at 174th Street."

Brown used his reputation to further bolster confidence in the economy.  He chided other real estate men for not bidding, saying "the lots sold for absurdly low prices" and adding "anyone who will look back at the growth of New York can readily see that Jerome Avenue, in a short time, will be far better than Eighth Avenue, and more like Sixth Avenue, below Fifty-ninth Street, with stores and substantial improvements."

Brown sold No. 340 Convent Avenue in May 1916 to an investor.  Annie died in 1923 at the age of 87; and Brown died the following year at the age of 91.

The house was the scene of considerable excitement the year after the Browns moved out.  Burglars did not expect Thomas Stuart to be in his West 142nd Street apartment on the afternoon of July 18, 1917; but he worked nights and was sleeping.   He was wakened by the sound of men trying to jimmy his front door open.   He surprised the would-be crooks but, "by reason of his attire was unable to pursue the burglars, but gave the alarm to passersby in the street," reported The Sun.

The two men were chased down 142nd Street and onto Convent Avenue "by an ever increasing crowd."  The accomplice of Charles J. Miller (described by the newspaper as "a Swiss, 26 years old) ducked into a construction site, then managed to reappear and slip into the crowd unobserved.  To distract the pursuers, he pulled a fire alarm at 145th Street and Convent Avenue.  The Sun reported that the ploy worked for him, but not for Miller who began "a systematic series of fence vaulting from one yard to the next."

As Miller jumped over one back fence to another, Patrolman Whelan had joined the chase.  Unfortunately for the crook, the policeman had "won fame not long ago as a pole vaulter and gymnasium expert with the Irish American A. C."  The athletic cop "showed such superior technique in fence vaulting that he caught Miller in the yard of 340 Convent avenue."

Although Miller put up a fight, he was subdued and arrested.  At the police station, it was confirmed that he had been involved in several other burglaries in the neighborhood.

The following year, in June 1918, the mansion was purchased by the Little Sisters of the Assumption.  Their convent had been located since 1899 at Nos. 125-127 West 130th Street which a spokesperson said was, at the time, "a desirable residence locality."

Now, the President of the Little Sisters, Claire Daburon, explained the move in terms disturbing to 21st century readers.  She said a reporter from The Sun in late June that "within the last few years the character of the neighborhood had so changed because of an influx of colored residents that the site was no longer desirable for a residence and convent."

The Little Sisters of the Assumption was founded in 1864 in Paris.  The Catholic Encyclopedia described its work in 1922.  "The Little Sisters nurse the sick poor in their own homes, without regard to creed or nationality, accepting no remuneration of any kind.  In addition to caring for the patient, they keep the house clean and in order, prepare the meals for the family, dress the children and send them to school."

In 1922 the Little Sisters purchased and demolished the abutting house at No. 342 Convent Avenue.  Architect P. F. Brogan was commissioned to design a four-story addition to the mansion; a strikingly dissimilar red brick structure in a toned down version of the French Classical style which continued the original mansard.

A section of the 1922 addition can be seen above.

The convent remained in the mansion until about 1960, when it became home to the Greater Tabernacle Baptist Church, which describes itself as "a small church with a big heart."  Although the conical cap of the tower has been lost and the facade painted red, the house is as attention grabbing as it was in 1890.

photographs by the author