The Henry and Isabella Cammann House - 7 Sutton Place

 

In April 1837 George Sutton acquired property on the east side of Manhattan where only a few years earlier were summer estates of New York’s wealthy.  Not long after the end of the Civil War, development reached the area.  In 1875 Effingham Brown Sutton erected a group of brownstone residences along the eastern section of Avenue A from 57^th to 58^th Street.  The area was far from the fashionable neighborhoods to the west, yet it enjoyed the breezes from the East River directly behind the homes.  In 1883 the two-block stretch of Avenue A from 57th to 59th Streets was renamed Sutton Place.

By 1920 the neighborhood had noticeably declined.  A brewery, a steam plant, and coal yards surrounded Sutton's brownstone row.  Yet, that year a group of wealthy New Yorkers headed by architect Eliot Cross and W. Seward Webb, Jr. had a vision for the u-shaped group of houses.  They proposed remodeling them into upscale residences, and removing the backyard fences to create a common garden overlooking the river.  Their scheme was described by the Architectural Record in 1922 as "a more or less co-operative plan."

The group as it appeared when Cross and Webb first saw it.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

The group agreed, for uniformity, that “The brownstone stoops, the window ledges and other protrusions are to be cleaved off, leaving a straight front to the outside world.  Architecturally the façade will be of the American basement style, which has been popular in the Fifth Avenue district for the last decade."  The 18 properties were snapped up at an amazing rate, given their location in what The New York Times unceremoniously deemed "a slum."

No. 7 Sutton Place was purchased by Henry Lorillard Cammann and his wife, the former Margaret Willard Miner.  They hired architect William F. Dominick to remake the vintage brownstone.  He removed the stoop and lowered the entrance to one step above the sidewalk.  The colonial-style door with a leaded transom sat below a fanlight that matched the arched openings of the first floor.  Dominic achieved a tripartite effect with a full-width balcony at the second floor and an intermediate cornice at the third.

Architectural Record, February 1922 (copyright expired)

The Architectural Record noted that in order to enjoy the garden and the view, "the more important rooms are placed at the back of the house, and on the first or entrance floor the dining room opens out through glazed doors upon a balcony, where a few curved steps lead down to the garden."  Dominick had replaced the straight, Victorian staircase with a dramatic winding stairway with an iron railing.

Architectural Record, February 1922 (copyright expired)

On the second floor was the dual purpose living room-library.  "The book-case is recessed in the wall, above two built-in cabinets, the doors of which are designed to frame some old carved Gothic panels," said the article.  Adding to the Gothic motif were an imported marble mantle of the period, and "two Italian Gothic lanterns, which have had electric lights ingeniously introduced," which hung from the ceiling.  Two bedrooms were at the front of the second floor.

Architectural Record, February 1922 (copyright expired)

Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1864, Cammann graduated from Harvard College in 1886, and was now a woolens importer with Henry W. T. Mali & Co.

Henry Lorillard Cammann, 25th Anniversary Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1886 of Harvard College, 1911 (copyright expired)

He and Margaret married in Grace Church on December 4, 1917.  It was the second wedding for both.  Margaret was the widow of Worthington Miner.  Henry's first wife, Grace Huntington Churchill, had died in 1911, The New York Times saying at the time she left "a large fortune to her husband, including the Cammann home in Greenwich [Connecticut]."

The Architectural Record published two views of the living room-library in its February 1922 issue. (copyright expired)

The year they bought the Sutton Place house, the 19th Amendment was ratified, ending a long fight for Margaret.  She had been, as described by The New York Times, "a leader in the woman suffrage movement."  She was, as well, prominent in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Queensboro Bridge can be seen beyond the garden in the lower photograph.  Architectural Record, February 1922 (copyright expired)

Not very long after the couple moved in, on April 25, 1924, the house was the scene of the wedding reception of Margaret's niece, Mary Sargeant Spencer.  Her marriage in Grace Church to Kenneth Philips was described by The Buffalo Sunday Express as "a wedding of great interest."

Somewhat surprisingly, only six years after remodeling 7 Sutton Place, the Cammanns prepared to leave.  On November 17, 1926, The New York Times reported that the couple had purchased two adjoining apartments nearby at 430 East 57th Street.  Until the current leases were up and the apartments could be combined, said the article, the Cammanns would occupy a six-room apartment in the that building.  They leased 7 Sutton Place furnished to William V. Griffin and his wife.  

Three years after Henry Lorillard Cammann's death on March 1, 1930, Margaret sold 7 Sutton Place to Marshall Rutgers Kernochan and his wife, the former Caroline Rigney Hatch.  The couple had a 14-year-old son, John Marshall Kernochan.  Their country home was in Tuxedo Park.

Before moving in, the Kernochans hired the architectural firm of Polhemus & Coffin to give William F. Dominick's 1920 design a new look.  On January 4, 1934 The New York Sun reported, "The work will consist of erecting new brick walls, new interior partitions, heating, plumbing and elevator work."  

The renovations were significant, costing the Kernochans the equivalent of more than half a million in 2023 dollars.  The entrance was moved to the opposite side, where the Cammann's service entrance had been.  It featured a colonial-style stone surround capped by a broken pediment.  Dominick's balcony and fourth floor cornice were removed and the second floor windows given prominent cornices and the those on the third floor received pediments that matched the entranceway.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Kernochan was a musician, publisher and composer.  He had studied music in Frankfurt, Germany under Ivan Knorr and at the Institute of Musical Art (today's Julliard School).

On March 13, 1941, the Evening Star commented, "With the announcement of the engagement of Miss Adelaide Chatfield-Taylor, daughter of the Undersecretary of Commerce and Mrs. Chatfield-Taylor, to Mr. John Marshall Kernochan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Kernochan of New York, there is promise of additional entertaining for prominent young couples."  John gave his father the honor of being his best man at the wedding.

John would go on to become a law professor, a composer and publisher like his father.  He would found Columbia Law School's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts.

By the time of John's wedding, Marshall Kernochan was the president of the Galaxy Music Corp., and he and Caroline had established their summer home in Edgartown, Massachusetts.  The couple was there on June 9, 1955, when the 74-year-old Marshall died.

The following year, in September 1956, Caroline sold 7 Sutton Place to the 33-year-old Robert G. Goelet.  The newspaper called the millionaire bachelor "the scion of a real estate dynasty."  The family's history in New York real estate closely paralleled that of the Astor family.  Goelet had service as a Navy flier in World War II and was president of the American Museum of Natural History, the New-York Historical Society, and the French Institute.

Robert G. Goelet, The East Hampton Star, October 17, 2019

Manhattan society may have surmised that Goelet would never marry.  He was 53 years old when, on September 11, 1976, The New York Times reported, "On Gardiner's Island, longtime barony of her mother's family, Alexandra Gardiner Creel was married quietly Thursday to Robert G. Goelet, heir to the real estate fortune of the Goelet family of Manhattan and Newport, R. I."  The newspaper would later add that their marriage "merged two families that date to the 17th-century New Amsterdam."

Upon the death of Alexandra's "idiosyncratic uncle Robert David Lion Gardiner," as worded by The New York Times, the Goelets took possession of the 3,300-acre Gardiner's Island, owned by Alexandra's family since 1639.  Calling it "a storied sanctuary off the tip of Long Island," The New York Times noted it had "27 miles of coastline, lush white pine and oak forests, colonial buildings, a 200-year-old windmill, a family cemetery and considerably more ospreys than people."  The couple maintained the island as a bird sanctuary, while restoring its colonial buildings and habitat.

Continuing the tradition of remodeling that every owner of 7 Sutton Place had done since 1920, The Goelets combined their home with 9 Sutton Place.  In its October 18, 1976 issue, The New Yorker noted they live "in a double house, 40 feet wide, that looks out on the East River across a lawn and garden."  Interestingly, their architect made no attempt to meld the facades.

Nos. 7 and 9 Sutton Place outwardly give no hint that they have been combined as a single residence.

Alexandra died on December 19, 1990.  Robert G. Goelet survived her until his death at the age of 96 on October 9, 2019.  Their double house looks for all the world like two separate residences.

photographs by the author

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The Catherine Auchincloss House - 123 East 69th Street

In 1872 ubiquitous developer Christopher Keyes began construction on a row of 11 20-foot wide brownstone-fronted homes on East 69th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues.  Designed by the equally-prolific John Sexton, they were completed in 1873.

On April 14, 1903 the New-York Tribune reported the Catherine Agnew would be married to Edgar Stirling Auchincloss that afternoon in the mansion of the bride's family at No. 23 West 39th Street.  Catherine was the daughter of Andrew G. Agnew and the former Mary Hervey Bliss.  Exactly one year later, on April 15, 1904 Agnew purchased No. 123 East 69th Street.   And then the following year, in July, he transferred title to his daughter.

The reason that her parents' wedding gift was belated was most likely due to an updating of the now-outdated Victorian.  In 1904 Agnew had hired S. Edson Gage to make alterations.  Period photographs reveal a remodeled facade--a somewhat curious take on Spanish Revival.

Edgar Auchincloss was a wealthy importer.  He had graduated from Yale University in 1896 and was was a member of some of Manhattan's most exclusive clubs, including the University, Downtown and Racquet Clubs.  At a time when only the wealthiest owned motorcars, he was a member of the Automobile Club of America.  The Auchinclosses had four children--Edgar, Jr., Mary Bliss, Elizabeth Ellen and Katrina. 

The twisted wrought iron balusters of the sinuous staircase and the lighting fixture carried on the Spanish motif.  photo by Samuel H. Gottscho from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York 

The same year that Edgar and Catherine moved into the remodeled house, they acquired a 400-acre country estate near Darien, Connecticut.  Its name, Keewaydin, was taken from Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha."

On May 4, 1910 Edgar Auchincloss died in the 69th Street house at the age of just 35.  While he left about a quarter of a million dollars to relatives, Catherine received the bulk of the estate.  The New-York Tribune remarked "At her death the estate is to go to the testator's three daughters and one son" and added that the estate's executors "are empowered at any time to provide a fund of $25,000 for the son to use should he desire to embark in business, or a like sum, should he desire to enter into serious study preparatory to taking up a profession."

In a move that may have shocked society, two days after her husband's death, Catherine purchased the house next door, at No. 121, spending more than a million and a half in today's dollars on the property.  It may have been, however, a reaction to being suddenly alone that prompted the purchase.  After having the architectural firm of  R. H. Robertson & Sons make "extensive alterations and additions" to the home, she sold it to her brother, George Bliss Agnew.

The alterations to No. 121 were remarkable.  Seen at far right, No. 123 boasted a Spanish Renaissance entrance, tiled roof and dramatic balcony above the areaway.  photograph by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The closeness of the siblings was evidenced five years later when, on the same day, September 17, 1915, architect W. I. Morris filed plans for interior renovations to both houses.  They were identical in scope, "extend stairs and bedrooms," at a cost of $3,000 each. 

The young widow never remarried.  She instead busied herself with charity work, most notably the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children.  During a its annual meeting in the 69th Street house on March 2, 1926, she was re-elected its president.   For decades she would be highly involved in her pet philanthropy, often hosting meetings, teas and receptions in the home.

In 1930 Catherine commissioned architect William F. Dominick to give the house a noticeable face lift.  His plans, filed on December 11, involved removing the stoop and areaway, remodeling the first and second story facade, and replacing the tiling of the roof and shed dormer with copper cladding.

Dominick's remodeling of the lower floors toned down the former Spanish Renaissance elements.

It was a busy time for Catherine.  Twelve days later the engagement of Edgar, Jr. to Patty Milburn was announced.  One by one Catherine's children married and left East 69th Street.  Mary was married to Nelson Lawrence Page on November 16, 1933; and Katrina's engagement to Royal Elting Mygatt was announced on July 9, 1937.  That wedding took place less than a month later at Keewaydin.  Elizabeth's wedding three years later in June also was celebrated in the Connecticut home.  Rather surprisingly, The New York Times noted on June 9, 1940, "No previous announcement of the engagement had been been made."

Catherine's library was decidedly English in design.  photo by Samuel H. Gottscho from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York 

At the time of Elizabeth's marriage Catherine had five live-in servants at No. 123--a cook, two maids and two "waiters," (the more polished maids who served, for instance, Catherine's teas, receptions and luncheons).   An example of the regular teas that would have kept those women busy was the tea hosted by Catherine and Elizabeth on April 7, 1945 for the trustees of the Child Education Foundation.  It was emblematic of the types of entertainments Catherine held--almost never merely social, but with an altruistic purpose.

On May 16, 1950 The New York Times reported that Catherine had sold the house she had occupied for nearly half a century.  Two years later, while still a single-family home, a doctor's office was installed in the first floor.  

By the early 2000's the mansion was owned by, Zack Hapton Bacon III, a partner in the multibillion-dollar hedge fund Moore Capital Management; and fiancé of Diandra Douglas (former wife of actor Michael Douglas).  When he listed the property in 2005 for $10.75 million, it was described as having "six bedrooms, eight wood-burning fireplaces, a wood-paneled library and a terrace topping the fourth floor."  There were also an elevator, indoor waterfall in the entrance hall, and a gym with sauna.  Bacon changed his mind, however, and took the property off the market.  

Twice remodeled, Catherine Auchincloss's stately home is an integral part of the amazing architectural fabric of the East 69th Street block.

photographs by the author

The 1921 Dominick Mansion -- No. 117 East 54th Street

Bayard Dominick was, as was sometimes said, “well born.”  His father was founder and senior member of the brokerage firm of Dominick and Dominick; and had attended the exclusive preparatory school, St. Paul’s, in Concord, New Hampshire before heading off to Yale.

Dominick’s lineage in America stretched back to French-born George Dominique in 1742.  His grandfather, James William Dominick, had married Phoebe Cock.  It was in the house of her father, Major James Cock, that Major John Andre was imprisoned the night before his execution.

In 1894, the year that Bayard Dominick was graduated from Yale, Thomas B. Taylor announced the engagement of his daughter, Florence Juliette.  The Taylor family lived in handsome four-story brownstone rowhouse at No. 115 East 54^th Street.  Two blocks east of “Vanderbilt Row” on Fifth Avenue, the street was lined with similar upscale residences.

That year Dominick began working in his father’s firm, and in 1896 he was made a member of the New York Stock Exchange.  One year later he became a junior partner in Dominick and Dominick. 

Fascinated with exploration and with the personal funds to act upon it, Dominick organized a hunting safari of several months to East Africa in 1909 (beating the well-publicized Theodore Roosevelt expedition, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, by several months).  The New-York Tribune later described “The walls of the Broadway office of the firm of Dominick & Dominick…are crowded with trophies of African big game hunts.”

On September 5, 1917 Dominick married Alice Wait Hoyt.  Bayard sold his four-story house at No. 22 West 51^st Street and the newlyweds leased the house near the former Thomas Taylor residence, at No. 119 East 54^th Street for the winter season.  They apparently were comfortable on the block.

In May 1919 Dominick purchased No. 115 East 54^th Street and three days later bought No. 117.  The New-York Tribune noted “the new owner will reimprove with an American basement residence for his own occupancy.”

Within the month architect William F. Dominick (a relative of Bayard) filed plans for joining and remodeling the old houses into a modern home. The $62,000 renovation (about $850,000 in today’s dollars) included stripping off the brownstone facades and removing the stoops, and a gut demolition and rebuilding.

The Dominicks’ decision to renovate on East 54^th Street was surprising at best.  For a decade Manhattan’s wealthy homeowners had been fleeing northward as commercial buildings engulfed the neighborhood.  While renovations were being done on the Dominick mansion, other millionaires were doing similar projects far north in the Lenox Hill and Carnegie Hill districts.

The youthful-looking Bayard Dominick in 1922 -- Quarter-Century Record, Class of 1894 Yale College, 1922 (copyright expired)

While construction continued, and without a town home for the winter season; Bayard and Alice went to Palm Beach, Florida.  It turned out to be a good decision.  On March 16, 1920 the New-York Tribune reported on the bitterly cold weather in the north and pointed out the number of wealthy couples who fled to Palm Beach.   The Dominicks were joined not only by New Yorkers, but by the Olds family of Detroit, and the du Ponts of Wilmington among others.

Later that month the Tribune reported on Bayard Dominick’s sponsorship of a two-year expedition through the South Seas.   He backed the joint Bishop Museum and Yale University project with a gift of $40,000.  The “Bayard Dominick Expedition” garnered valuable ethnological information and would be the broker’s lasting scientific legacy.

Architectural Record, November 1921 (copyright expired)

The 54^th Street mansion was completed in 1921.  Clad in limestone, the reserved Italian Renaissance structure was four stories tall below the attic level, where two dormers peeked shyly through the peaked roof.   The interior was decorated in a mixture of styles.   Bayard’s “trophy room,” crammed with the mounted heads of exotic beasts, was housed in a separate wing—perhaps the outcome of a compromise with Alice.

Bayard's man cave, the Trophy Room, was housed in a one-story extension into the garden.  Architectural Record November 1921 (copyright expired)

The Dominicks maintained a summer estate, Linden Farm, in Syosset, Long Island; and remained in the 54^th Street mansion until the first years of the Great Depression.  By 1934 they were gone and No. 117 East 54^th Street was home to banker Frank A. Vanderlip, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1897 to 1901.  His wife, the former Mabel Narcissa Cox (who went by her middle name), had been a fervent suffragist and was for 37 years the president of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.

Two views of the Morning Room during the Dominick residency -Architectural Record November 1921 (copyright expired)

The Vanderlip’s 125-acre country estate, Beechwood, in Briarcliff Manor, New York, included a 100-room mansion; a hunting lodge; a second mansion erected for their daughter, Charlotte; a house for the family physician; and the Scarborough School, a progressive school established by the Vanderlips not far from the main house.

Architectural Record November 1921 (copyright expired)

During the Vanderlip residency the 54^th Street mansion was the scene of grand entertaining.  Narcissa Vanderlip was routinely involved in the Velvet Ball, an annual charity event of the debutante season.  Each year, before the ball, she hosted a dinner party for out-of-town debutantes and their guests.  Although Frank was assumedly present at these affairs; his sons Frank Jr. and Kelvin, co-hosted the dinners with their mother.

On January 30, 1937 the Vanderlips gave a dinner party in honor of their daughter, Narcissa, and son-in-law Julian Street, Jr.  It would be one of the last entertainments in the house for Frank Vanderlip.  Around June 15, he was admitted to New York Hospital with an intestinal ailment.  Two weeks later, on June 29, he died there at the age of 72.

Narcissa remained in the house for several years.  In 1939 she opened the gardens as part of a tour to aid a civic group.  “There the visitors saw an ingenious use of rhododendron bushes,” said The Times.  The newspaper took the opportunity to voice its complaint on urban pollution.  Its headline read “Sooted Gardens on Tour.”

The mansion, one of the last hangers-on in Midtown, finally surrendered to commerce.  In 1949 a conversion by architect James E. Casale resulted in an upscale restaurant and cocktail lounge on the first through third floors, and a single apartment above.  A fifth floor penthouse that could only be described as ghastly, was added at the time.

The original staircase was preserved in the restaurant conversion.  Architectural Record November 1921 (copyright expired)

Casale described the Brussels Restaurant as “an authentic reproduction of Italian Provincial design” and the first floor cocktail bar as “modified Elizabethan English style.”  The original curved stairway with its wrought iron railings was preserved as the access to the second floor main dining room.

Albert Giambelli’s Brussels Restaurant would remain a Midtown destination until 1986 when the building was again converted to the banking offices of Banco de Comercio, with a single apartment on top floor.  Today the former mansion is home to the Hong Kong Association.  Other than replacement windows and the gruesome penthouse, little has changed on the exterior since the remarkable make-over of 1921.

photographs by the author