The 1907 West 86th Street Studios -- 257 West 86th Street

 

photo via cityrealty.com

In 1903 artist V. V. Sewell mulled “people have no conception of how difficult it is for one to find a suitable studio in New York.”  It was a problem that had prompted James Boorman Johnston to erect the famous 10^th Street Studios Building in Greenwich Village nearly half a century earlier, in 1858.  His was the first step in the movement of artist residence-workspace buildings that would gain momentum at the turn of the century.

Joining the trend in 1906 was the West 86th Street Studios Corp.  It hired the architectural firm of Pollard & Steinam to design an upscale studio building at 255 through 259 West 86th Street, between West End Avenue and Broadway.  Their plans, filed in May, called for a 12-story "brick and stone studio building" to cost $300,000--nearly $9 million in today's money.

Completed in 1908, the neo-Italianate structure was, in fact, 14-stories tall.  Its tripartite design featured a grand, double-height entrance with two-story piers upholding a substantial cornice.  The limestone of the three-story base gave way to 11 stories of Roman brick, decorated with palazzo-inspired pseudo balconies.  The building faced north, providing artists the much sought after natural northern light.  Of the 41 apartments, many were duplexes, offering soaring double-height studio spaces.  The larger suites had as many as eight rooms.

A musicians'-gallery-like window opens onto the double-height studio portion of this apartment.  via cityrealty.com

Among the initial residents were playwright and author Lee Wilson Dodd and his wife, the former Marion Roberts Canby.  In 1909, soon after they moved in, Dodd's play The Return of Eve was produced on Broadway.  Around the same time he published a book of poems, A Modern Alchemist, of which he said, "The critics told the public it was good but the public did not happen to be listening."

As intended, the building attracted artists and musicians.  Portrait painter Ernest L. Ipsen was another early resident, as was pianist Paolo Martucci, the son of the Italian composer Giuseppe Martucci.  On December 20, 1914 The New York Press noted, "Martucci, who recently has renewed his teaching in his new studio No. 257 West Eighty-sixth street, is conceded to be one of the foremost of modern piano virtuosi."

At the time of the article, Martucci intended to travel to Europe, but the worsening political tensions abroad ended those plans.  On May 22, 1915 Musical America noted that he had "made a most successful appearance at the popular concert at the Metropolitan Opera House on February 7," but "will be unable to take his usual trip to Europe.  He will remain in New York City during the entire Summer and will teach at his studios, No. 257 West Eighty-sixth street."

Other musicians in the building at the time were Arthur E. Stahlschmidt, who trained pupils in "all branches of voice production for the singing or speaking artist;" and soprano Charlotte Lund.

Musical America, October 16, 1915 (copyright expired)

Not all residents was associated with the arts.  The highly-respected engineer Frederick Remsen Hutton and his family were among the building's initial residents.  He was the former dean of the faculty 0f engineering at Columbia University and had written several engineering textbooks.  Sharing the apartment was their adult son, Dr. Lefferts Hutton.  Following his marriage to Esther Whitney in 1915, he and his bride continued to live in the building.

That year there were two vacancies in the building.  An advertisement on August 22 offered a duplex "of eight rooms and two baths."  The studio section had 18-foot ceilings.  The rent was not cheap--equal to about $6,000 per month today.  The other apartment was a "single," with "north light, of studio, bedroom, kitchenette and bath...including service."  The ad noted there was a "mail chute [and] house water filter."  The rent for that space was equivalent to about $2,200 per month today.

Novelist, screen writer and motion picture producer Louis Joseph Vance and his wife, the former Anne Elizabeth Hodges, signed a lease in July 1916.  He had founded Fiction Pictures, Inc. the previous year.

A vintage postcard shows the building towering above its neighbors.

Exhibiting in the 1917 exhibition of The Society of Independent Artists at the Grand Central Palace on Lexington Avenue were residents Marian Y. Bloodgood, Oscar Fehrer, Franklin De Haven, and Charles L. Wachter.

Franklin De Haven would live and work from the West 86th Street Studios for years.  He had married Elizabeth Woodcock in 1902.  He was a member of the National Academy of Design, the Salmagundi Club, the National Arts Club and the Allied Artists of America.

De Haven painted Silvery Waters in 1916 while living here.  from the collection of The Bridgeman Art Library

The West 86th Street Studios was known as a "partial cooperative" building, meaning that some of the studios were owned by the residents.  Composer and impresario David Gould Proctor was among the owners.  He graduated from Columbia University in 1900 and then served with Scotland Yard in London during World War I.  Back at home, he headed his own theatrical company and wrote piano compositions and 

songs.  

In August 1922 Proctor sold his "large duplex studio apartment," as described by the New York Herald, to Charles Otis.  Otis was president of The Wall Street Journal and of Dow Jones & Company.  He was, as well, publisher of American Banker and Bond Buyer.

Resident John R. Koopman's The Call of the Wild was used for the cover of Leslie's magazine in 1914.

Also living in the building that year were artist John R. Koopman, motion picture actor Ira M. Lowry, and pianist C. Virgil Gordon.  Lowry, who had appeared in silent films like the 1918 For the Freedom of the East, and 1919 releases Speedy Meade, The Road Called Straight, and a Misfit Earl, found himself on the wrong side of the law in 1922.

Silent movie actor Ira M. Lowry (original source unknown)

On July 29 The Evening World reported, "Ira M. Lowry, thirty-three, a motion picture actor, living at No. 257 West 86th Street, was locked up last night in the West 47th Street Station on an indictment charging grand larceny."  A Fifth Avenue jeweler, Rudolph Hammell, accused Lowry of taking $9,500 worth of jewelry--more than $145,000 today--"on memorandum" and not returning it.  The practice of allowing a potential customer to essentially borrow pieces for approval was common--as was theft.

On December 18, 1929 The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Dixon and Mrs. J. C. b. Hebbard gave a musicale last night at the studio of Mr. and Mrs. Dixon, 257 West Eighty-sixth Street.  Miss Leonora Corona of the Metropolitan Opera Company was the guest of honor.  She and Mr. Dixon gave a piano program."  Frederic Dixon had studied piano under Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler and Rafael Joseffy.  Joseffy had commented at one point that he "regretted he was not destined to live long enough to see this pupil become famous."

(original source unknown)

The piano on which Dixon played that night was a rarity, a Mason & Hamlin Ampico grand.  According to the Chicago Tribune, at a time when a Steinway cost $1,000, a Mason & Hamlin Ampico grand sold for $25,000.

Another concert pianist, Conrad Forsberg, leased an apartment in the building in June 1931, at the height of the Great Depression.  Despite the economic conditions, the West 86th Street Studios building did not suffer.  On October 1, 1932 The New York Sun noted, "The building, semi-cooperative...was considered especially suited for artists and musicians.  It not only proved popular with that clientele, but today is 100 per cent rented."

Two of the building's best known residents died in 1934.  Franklin De Haven succumbed on January 10.  His right foot had become infected at his summer home in Connecticut in 1933.  It was amputated that November, but he died of complications on January 10, 1934.  The 77-year-old had won scores of awards and his paintings today hang in prestigious museums nationwide.

Cartoonist and illustrator Dan Smith died of heart disease in his apartment on December 10 that year, surviving his wife, Wilhelmina, by about a year.  Born in Greenland of Danish parents, he had studied art in New York, Philadelphia and Copenhagen, and became famous for his newspaper and magazine illustrations.  The 69-year-old's funeral was held in his apartment.

Smith's "Fairyland" series appeared on the covers of the Hearst American Weekly Sunday Supplements in the mid-1920's.  

Another cartoonist living in the building was Rudolph Dirks, famous for his syndicated comic strip the "Katzenjammer Kids."

The West 86th Street Studios continued to attract artists, musicians.  In 1936 pianist Harold Henry signed a lease.  Sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who designed and sculpted Mount Rushmore, was a tenant; and in the early 1950's voice coach William S. Brady had his studio here.  

By 1965 Raoul Gelabert's dance studio was in the building.  Gelabert was a pioneer in kinesiotherapy for dancers.  On September 10, 1979 New York Magazine noted, "A seasoned teacher and pioneer in the field of physical therapy for dancers, Raoul Gelabert runs children's ballet classes at Gelabert Studios."  In 1989 he opened the Gelabert Studios Gallery, an art space, here.

More recently actor Robert Duvall lived in the building.  

photo via apartments.com

There are still only 41 apartments in the building.  The cornice, which was lost in the second half of the 20th century, was recently refabricated.  Inside, much of Pollard & Steinam's 1908 interior detailing survives.

many thanks to Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

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The Lost Broadway Tabernacle - Broadway and 56th Street

 

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

In 1857 the congregation of the Broadway Tabernacle moved from its location at Broadway between Worth Street and Catherine Lane because of "the encroachment of business."  Less than half a century later the same problem would force the church to move from its site at Sixth Avenue and 34th Street.

On January 4, 1902 the Real Estate Record & Guide announced "The new home of the Broadway Tabernacle congregation, of which the Rev. Charles E. Jefferson is pastor, will be located at the northeast corner of Broadway and 56th st."  The trustees had paid the equivalent of $14 million today for the Midtown parcel.  That amount would be more than doubled after the architectural firm of Barney & Chapman filed plans in October that placed construction costs at $500,000--around $15.5 million today.

Construction on the massive structure took three years.   The dedication of what The New York Times called the "city's most novel edifice" was held on March 5, 1905 with "impressive ceremonies."  The New-York Tribune described it as a "beautiful cathedral-like structure" and said it "embraces within its walls a huge auditorium, two chapels, a score of Sunday school rooms, parlors, offices, living rooms, a museum and safe deposit vault, each function expressed in the exterior architecture and all culminating in the tower in a harmonious whole."

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler called the style, "advanced and elaborate Gothic, advanced in some places to the verge of the French Renaissance."  He was especially taken with the 10-story cimborio, or tower, at the rear of the structure, which he said admirably "crowns the edifice."  Although known for his often biting criticisms, he wrote:

How successful is the choice and combination of material, the pale buff of the brickwork and the pale gray of the terra cotta.  How full of life and spirit is the modelling of this latter, really recalling the old work in comparison with the lifelessness of so much of most modern Gothic.

The Architectural Record, September 1904 (copyright expired)

The interior of the auditorium had been decorated by M. G. Broadbent.  The understated Gothic décor allowed for no painted murals, however hanging from the groin-vaulted ceiling were striking bronze-and-art-glass chandeliers.

Two views of the auditorium.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

The New York Times said, "The new edifice is perhaps the most unusual structure in the city, having a theatre, kindergarten, club rooms, a private wedding chapel, and a complete equipment for Settlement work."  

The article reminded readers of the church's beginnings, saying it was founded in 1840 "for the express purpose of reaching the masses" and adding, "The Tabernacle was the first church in New York to stand for free speech.  It was foremost in opposition to slavery."  The Rev. Dr. Charles E. Jefferson explained that the innovations in the new structure were a continuance of that history, saying "This church must be a people's church...This church must hurl itself against political corruption, against the liquor traffic, against militarism, and against industrial injustice."

Jefferson had been pastor for seven years at the time.  His views matched the historically open-minded, progressive stance of the Broadway Tabernacle.  Several years later he listed several issues that the church should fight.  The Sun quoted him on March 4, 1918 as saying that "the frightful inequalities of our social condition brought about by capitalistic injustice should be radically reformed, that race prejudice should be boldly attacked and rooted out and that militarism should also be regarded as a foe."

Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, from the collection of the Library of Congress

The New-York Tribune was unsympathetic with Jefferson's rabid anti-war stance.  (He said, "When I die and you should wish to place a tablet in the church for me I want you to put on it "Peacemaker, or, if you prefer, "Pacifist.")  

Calling his sermons "lectures," on March 12, 1919, as American boys were still returning from Europe, the newspaper wrote, "It is a little difficult at times to reconcile realities with Dr. Jefferson's teachings, but apparently his aim is to show that realities do not matter."  Even when America was deeply embroiled in World War I, Jefferson visited many of the military camps to preach to the soldiers, always insisting that "the great war must be the last war."

A canteen for soldiers was established within the church which "attracted uniformed men by the hundreds," according to the New-York Tribune.  An issue of the parish newsletter said that 100,000 men had visited the church, "attracted by the programme for the soldiers and sailors."  The New-York Tribune reported on May 12, 1919, "So grateful have the uniformed men been that they are planning to put up a bronze tablet to show their appreciation."

The Architectural Record, September 1904 (copyright expired)

Leading an important church like this one was financially rewarding.  In 1924 Jefferson was earning $10,000 per year--about $151,000 today.  The New York Times said he was "one of the highest paid Congregational ministers in this country."  He was offered a raise in salary that year, but he refused to accept it.  He was an author, as well, writing around 24 books on biblical subjects and three on peace.

The highly visible and idealistic pastor would go on to lead the Broadway Tabernacle congregation for 32 years.  The 69-year-old preached his last sermon on June 29, 1930.  Upon his retirement, the church gave him a yearly pension of $3,000--around $46,500 in today's money.

When he died in his New Hampshire home in September 1937, The New York Times reminisced about "'The Saint of the Great White Way' (as it often was suggested to name him)."  It said, "Dr. Jefferson had a longer 'run' on Broadway than any actor."

Whether it was the loss of its powerful leader or simply the fact that, once again, the church was being hemmed in by commerce, change came little by little.  On January 28, 1955 The New York Times reported, "The Broadway Tabernacle church will be known henceforth as the Broadway Congregational Church."  The pastor, Rev. Dr. Albert J. Penner explained, "The word 'tabernacle' has frequently led to misunderstandings."

In 1959 Rev. Dr. Joseph B. Huntley initiated a program to attract young adults--one of which Rev. Dr. Jefferson may not have approved.  He formed the Broadway Chapel Players, which staged plays within the church.  Writing in The New York Age on December 26, Virgil Cabaniss reviewed Susannah and the Elders, the twelfth in a series.  He called it "the most soul-searching religious drama this column has ever witnessed."  He said the concept was "a famous educational and entertaining drama as a form of worship service," adding, "And the place is packed with honest-to-goodness worshippers and discriminating theatre-goers."

But not even the popular theater program could save the congregation from waning attendance.  On February 26, 1969 a headline in The New York Times read, "Broadway Church Is Closing Doors After 129 Years."  The pastor, Rev. Lawrence L. Durgin, explained that the congregation had deferred maintenance for 30 years, and now $500,000 was necessary to "put it in good condition."  The article noted, "The building's nine-story twin gray towers and stained-glass windows are surrounded by office buildings and automobile showrooms."  The trustees had arranged to share the nearby Roman Catholic St. Paul the Apostle Church with that congregation.

Within the year the striking Gothic style church was leveled for a parking lot "for 105 cars," as outlined in Department of Buildings documents.  In 1977 Carnegie Mews, a 34-floor tower rose, on the site, erasing the memory of the Broadway Tabernacle for almost all New Yorkers.

photo via linecity.com

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The 1903 Hotel Somerset - 150 West 47th Street

 

The exuberant gable and handsome portico have recently been removed.  postcard from author's collection

The "apartment hotel" trend swept Manhattan toward the turn of the last century.  The hybrid residential buildings offered the amenities of hotels--like maid and valet service--with the long-term leases of apartments.   In 1902 architect Frederick C. Browne began plans for what the Real Estate Record & Guide would call "a late addition to the list of apartment hotels" at 148-152 West 47th Street for developer Henry L. Felt.  

But Browne's plans would never be executed, at least not completely.  While excavations for the foundation were under way, Felt sold the property to Street, Wykes & Co., which hired architect Clarence Luce to redo the design.  In the opinion of at least one contemporary architectural critic, partners Hunter Wykes and Charles F. Street should have kept the original.

Completed in 1903, the 12-story Beaux Arts style Hotel Somerset was faced in red brick above a two-story rusticated limestone base.  A portico of four free-standing columns with Scamozzi capitals upheld a stone-balustraded balcony.  Stealing the show was the massive, three-story Flemish Revival style gable that all but hid the mansard behind it.  Four full-length engaged columns rose to an overblown, broken pediment.  

Meant to draw attention, the gable did just that.  Writing in The Architectural Record in 1903, the often acerbic critic Montgomery Schuyler called it a "pompous sham" and said the Hotel Somerset was "the most ridiculous" of recent New York City structures.

The newly-completed building in 1903.  The Record & Guide, January 17, 1903 (copyright expired)

Nevertheless, the hotel catered to an upper-crust clientele.  Prospective long-term tenants were required to provide references, and  the names of those who were accepted appeared regularly in society columns.  On January 27, 1904, for instance, The Commercial Advertiser announced, "Mrs. Walter Scott of the Somerset, 150 West Forty-seventh street, gives the last of her January at homes to-day."

The residents of the Hotel Somerset, both long-term and transient, enjoyed amenities like a writing room, an elegant dining room and a rooftop café.   In 1910 the white collar residents had professions like physician, "manager," and broker.  And its proximity to the theater district drew members of the entertainment industry as well.

The trellis-roofed café.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Jules Von Tilzer and his wife, the former Estella Steinberg, lived here by the summer of 1906.  Von Tilzer was one of the six brothers who made up the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Company on West 28th Street.  The couple had "a domestic spat," according to The Sun, on May 27 that year.

According to Estella, she had gone to see Peter Pan at the Lyric Theatre with friends who were about to sail for Europe.  After the play, they stopped at Sherry's restaurant.  It was around midnight when she got home.  Jealous, Von Tilzer flew into a rage and stormed out.

Cast iron lampposts stand guard, and a lacy iron-and-glass marquee stretches forth from the portico in this early photograph.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

When he had not returned home four days later, Estella went to his office.  And there, The Sun said, "such lively things happened that the woman, who is young and attractive, was taken by a policeman to the Tenderloin station house."  Their conversation turned heated--to the point that Von Tilzer's white silk shirt was torn from his back.  When a secretary, Daniel Dody, rushed in to intervene, Estella broke her parasol over his head.

Dody called a policeman and asked him to arrest Estella for assault and disorderly conduct.  They traveled to the station house in the hansom cab that had been waiting for her at the curb.  There Dody told of Estella's violence and Estella pooh-poohed it all, exhibiting her parasol and saying, "Look at this little sun umbrella.  You couldn't hurt a fly with it."  And as to ripping her husband's shirt from his body, she explained she never meant to do so.

"It was a little, thin silk thing, too expensive for a music publisher to wear.  My husband struck me when we had some words and I grabbed at him to save myself."  

In the end, Dody dropped the charges on the condition that Estella never enter the office again.  She agreed, saying, "I've promised not to go to the office, but that promise does not prevent my going in the street.  I'll be outside the office sometimes."

The main dining room.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Actor and playwright Robert Drouet and his wife, the former Mildred Loring. were residents.   Born in 1870, he had joined a theatrical company at the age of 16.  He was as successful as a playwright as an actor.  Among the plays he wrote, the best known which were Fra Diano and Doris. 

Actor-playwright Robert Drouet was just 44 years old when he died. The Players Blue Book, 1901 (copyright expired)

Mildred Drouet and her mother traveled to Chicago in the summer of 1914.  On the night of August 16 Drouet went to bed at about midnight, leaving word at the desk to call him at 8:00.  The next morning, according to The Sun, "A number of telephone calls had been unanswered, and when the manager of the hotel went to Mr. Drouet's room to investigate the actor was found dead in bed."  He had died of heart failure.

The tranquility within the Hotel Somerset for its permanent residents may have been upset in October 1914 when the Boston Braves baseball team checked in.  But if the young men had ever been a bit rowdy, that all changed following their game against the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 6.  The team was almost assured of playing in the World Series that year, but during the game their star "hard-hitting third baseman," J. Caryle "Red" Smith, splintered the bone in his right leg while sliding into second base.

The New-York Tribune reported, "It was a glum, sorrowful group of Boston players who sat down to their dinners at the Hotel Somerset last night.  Where all had been mirth and enthusiasm all was sombre and suppressed."

Taken in 1904, this photograph show elegant draperies, tall ceilings and an Oriental rug.  photograph by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

On April 11, 1919 Edward Van Bode checked into the hotel.  He had no luggage, a fact that should have raised suspicions in the management.  The 60 year old bachelor, who was the son of General Von Bodemer of the British Army, fell to his death from his eighth floor window two days later.  Despite what seemed to be obvious, the New-York Tribune noted, "There was nothing in his room to indicate suicide."

Another playwright to call the Hotel Somerset home was Edward Henry Peple, here by 1920.  Best known for his farces and comedies, among the popular plays he wrote were The Prince Chap, A Pair of Sixes and The Littlest Rebel.

In 1923 actress Beverly Sitgreaves moved in, having returned from Europe.  On December 30 The Morning Telegraph explained, "After an absence of nearly five years, she has returned to her work as actress and teacher.  In 1919 a cable from Sarah Bernhardt called her to Paris and finally resulted in a tour which eventually carried her around the world."

Beverly Sitgreaves as she appeared while living at the Hotel Somerset.  The Morning Telegraph, December 30, 1923 (copyright expired)

After being the houseguest of Sarah Bernhardt for three months, she played in London in a revival of Arms and the Man, "under the personal direction of Bernard Show," and then appeared in Australia.  At the time of The Morning Telegraph's article, she had just finished an engagement with Ethel Barrymore.  In addition to her stage work, Sitgreaves coached thespians.  The article said she preferred one-on-one instruction, which she "practices at her residence, the Somerset Hotel, 150 West Forty-seventh street."

Also living here in 1923 was lecturer and author Mrs. Sophie Almon Hensley.  She published her first collection of poetry in 1889 and went on to write other poetry collections, and books and essays such as Women's Love Letters and Love and the Woman of Tomorrow.  She lectured on literary topics, and was President of the Society for the Study of Life, secretary of the New York State Assembly of Mothers, and founder of the New York City Mother's Club.  She was also the associate editor of Health: A Home Magazine Devoted to Physical Culture and Hygiene.

Sophie and her husband moved to Jersey, England in 1937.  They were forced to relocate to Canada when the Nazis occupied the Channel Islands in 1940.

The Arts & Crafts style Reading Room in 1904, outfitted in oak and leather furniture.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In the meantime, the Hotel Somerset continued to attract residents involved in the entertainment industry.  In 1925 vaudevillian actress "Princess" Rajah lived here.  She suffered a major loss that year when she her purse was picked.

Early in the morning of March 23 she was standing in a subway car with two female friends.  Her handbag was suspended over her arm.  The New York Times reported, "She noticed two men standing near her, the car being very crowded, and said that one of them was reading a newspaper which he thrust close to her face."

As the train pulled into 110th Street, she noticed her pocketbook was open and she closed it without much thought.  She and her friends debarked at the Times Square station and went to a restaurant near the Hotel Somerset.  When she opened her purse there, she realized the chamois bag with her jewelry was gone.  The diamonds and other jewelry were valued at $20,000--more than $300,000 in today's money.

Cartoonist Ellison Hoover lived in the Hotel Somerset in the 1930's, as did vaudeville entertainer David Genero (he had won the American cakewalk championship in 1891) and writer Edward Goldbeck and his singer-actress wife Lina Abarbanell.

Soprano Lina Abarbanell, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Goldbeck wrote in both German and English and was a former columnist of the Chicago Tribune.  Lina Abarbanell was a soprano who performed in light and grand opera.  In 1909 she introduced the title character of Madame Sherry at the New Amsterdam Theatre, which ran for 231 performances.

Another author and playwright, Jane Maudlin Feigl, moved into the Hotel Somerset early in 1934, following the death of her husband Colonel Fred Feigl on December 10, 1933.  The New York Times had described her husband as a "former publisher and well known in military circles."  Jane had  already mourned the death of their son Lieutenant Jefferson Feigle for years.  He was the first American artillery officer killed in action in World War I.   The loss of her husband added to her enormous grief.

A relative described Jane as being "very miserable and unhappy," following her husband's death.  The New York Times wrote, "Because of her moodiness, Captain George G. Feigl...her brother-in-law, had been a frequent caller."  Her depression was severe enough to require her being hospitalized in the Fifth Avenue Hospital for several weeks that spring.

On June 5, 1934 Captain Feigl dropped by Jane's 12th-floor apartment.  Unable to get an answer to his knocking, he enlisted the help of manager John Smith, who opened the door with a passkey.  The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Feigl was lying in bed, and along side her was a bottle believed to have contained an acid."

In 1953 the Hotel Somerset was remodeled to a transient hotel.  There were now a restaurant and store on the ground floor, 18 hotel rooms on the second through twelfth floors, and 6 each in the new penthouse, unseen from the street.

photo via cityrealty.com

That configuration lasted until another renovation, completed in 1980, converted the Hotel Somerset to apartments, nine each on floors two through twelve, and four in the penthouse.  In 1997 the details of Clarence Luce's gable were shaved off and the portico was removed, destroying the building's 1903 personality.

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The Edward A. Kerbs Mansion - 19 East 82nd Street

 

In 1894 architect Henry Andersen designed a pair of opulent homes on the northern side of East 82nd Street, just west of Madison Avenue, for developer Daniel Hennessy.  Construction took two years to complete.  

The mirror-image, 25-foot-wide mansions were an especially dignified take on neo-Italian Renaissance architecture.  Short stoops introduced the recessed entrances, flanked by Ionic columns.  The service entrances sat below oculi framed in carved, spilling cornucopia. Like the first floor, the second was clad in rusticated limestone.  Its windows were fronted by stone balustrades and flanked by Ionic pilasters.  Delicately carved shells sat atop each opening.

The upper three floors, which were gracefully bowed, were faced in light orange brick and trimmed in terra cotta.  Andersen embellished the top floors with ornate, Renaissance inspired panels and entablatures.  An elaborate terra cotta frieze introduced the bracketed cornice.

Edward A. Kerbs and his wife, Alice, purchased 19 East 82nd Street late in 1899.  Kerbs was a partner in the cigar manufacturing firm of Kerbs, Wertheim & Schiffer.  The couple had a four year old daughter, Jeanne Edith.

The Kerbs wasted little time in opening the doors of their new home to guests.  On February 22, 1900 the New York Herald announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kerbs, of No. 19 East Eight-second street, will give a large reception to-day, which will be in a measure a house warming."

During the 1915-16 winter season entertainments in the house focused on Jeanne as she was introduced to society.  It began on December 24 when her parents hosted a dance at the Ritz-Carlton for her.

The 82nd Street house was the scene of Jeanne's marriage to William Kallman on February 25, 1919.  It would be the last large event for the family within the residence.

Less than three months later, on May 12, 1919, Edward A. Kerbs died in the house.   His philanthropic lifestyle extended past death.  His will left $15,000 (a quarter of a million in today's dollars) to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, of which he was a trustee, and $50,000 to the Trudeau Sanitarium in the Adirondacks.   He stipulated that the latter amount was intended "to erect pavilions for men and women tubercular patients."

The bulk of the estate went to Alice, with the direction that after her death it passed to Jeanne.  But should Jeanne die first, without children, "the estate is to be used to establish the Kerbs Hospital for Tubercular Diseases."

As a side note, in 1953 Jeanne honored her parents by funding the Kerbs Memorial Boathouse, designed by Aymar Embury II, in Central Park.

The Kerbs Memorial Boathouse in Central Park.  photo via the Central Park Conservancy

Almost immediately after her husband's death, Alice sold the mansion to millionaire Isaac N. Phelps.  If he intended to move in, he quickly changed his mind.  In October 1920 he sold it to John Sergeant Cram and his wife, the former Edith Claire Bryce.

Cram was president of the Dock Board and head of the New York Public Service Commission.  He was, as well, the treasurer of the Dayfield Realty Company of which Edith was a director.

Born in 1851, both the Sergeant and Webb families were socially prominent.  John's first cousin William Seward Webb was married to Eliza Vanderbilt, the daughter of William H. Vanderbilt. 

Edith was his second wife.  He had married the widow Georgiana Beatrice Budd in 1898 when he was 47 years old.  She died in 1903.  He and Edith were married in 1906 and would have three children, Henry Sergeant, Edith Bryce, and John Sergeant.  The family had a summer home in Newport and a winter house in Palm Springs, Florida.  

John Sergeant Cram, New York State's Prominent and Progressive Men, 1902 (copyright expired)

Despite her husband's highly visible government positions, it was Edith whose name appeared in newspapers more often.  She was both an ardent pacifist and an activist for human rights.

On December 1, 1921, for instance, the New York Herald reported that she chaired a meeting of the World Peace Fellowship in Town Hall the evening before.  The article said it was "attended by more than 1,000 persons, at which most of the audience signed pledges they would never engage in a war, offensive or defensive, whether it be by bearing arms, making or handling munitions, voluntarily subscribing to war loans or laboring to set others free for war service."

During World War I, men were imprisoned for "political offenses."  In 1922 the wives and children of 37 of them set off on a protest from the West Coast to Washington D.C. seeking their release.  On April 26 they arrived in New York City and paraded up Madison Avenue carrying banners with mottos like "I Have Never Seen My Daddy" and "Is Opinion a Crime in the U.S.A.?"  The New York Herald reported, "In the afternoon they went to the circus as the guests of Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram."

Edith's agenda was not all political, of course.  She routinely entertained in the 82nd Street house.  On February 21, 1924 The Sun reported, "Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram gave one of a series of dinners last evening, at her home, 19 East Eighty-second street," and on February 1, the following year--presumably just before heading to Palm Beach--she gave another.

The family received a major scare in April 1926 when the 72 year old Cram fell down the staircase at 19 East 82nd Street.  Two months later, on June 24, the Oswego Palladium-Times reported he had "failed to rally," and "is seriously ill as the result of severe injuries to his head."

Nevertheless, Edith and her daughter went to Newport that season.  On September 10, The New York Sun announced that "Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram and Miss Edith B. Cram have returned from Newport."

Edith continued with her pacifist activities, which did not go unnoticed by right-wing Ralph Montgomery Easley, head of the National Civic Federation.  In a series of articles in the New Republic in 1924, Captain Sidney Howard placed Easley at the top of his list of "self-appointed, business-backed, hell-roaring flag wavers." On May 5, 1927 Robert Dunn, writing in The Daily Worker, listed "some of the persons this man Easley has gone out of his way to slander and malign."  Among them were H. G. Wells, Cardinal William O'Connell, and "Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram, noted peace advocate."

In 1931 J. Sergeant Cram was 80 years old.  It may have been his advancing age that prompted the Crams to lease their home to a William Randolph Hearst concern in August that year.  The firm may have eyed the property for development, since it already owned the entire Madison Avenue blockfront between 82nd and 83rd Streets, along with the twin house next door at 17 East 82nd.

Instead, the mansion was subleased.  It was home to the widowed Mrs. Carl Newkirk in 1939.  Her husband had been an attorney in Frankfort, Germany.  On February 4 that year her son,  Rudolph H. Newkirk, was married in St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue to Hope Emerson Lyons.

John Sergeant Cram died in 1936.  In July 1941 the 82nd Street house was sold to Louis Potter.  He converted it to apartments and furnished rooms.

The elegant mansion saw a variety of commercial tenants in the ground floor "apartment" over the next decades.  In the early 1970's it was home to the Coe Kerr art gallery, and in 1976 became the World of Leslie Blanchard, the society hairdressing salon of "world-famous authority on hair coloring, styling and conditioning," Leslie Blanchard as described by The Journal News on September 16, 1976.  By 2008 the property was owned by Warren Adelson and was home to the Adelson Galleries.

Then, in 2012 the mansion was purchased by the foundation organized in 2005 by impressionist artist Cy Twombly.  (He had died in Rome on July 5, 2011.)  It announced the house would be converted to an education center and Cy Twombly museum.  The Cy Twombly Foundation continues to stage exhibitions and display Twombly's works here.

photographs by the author

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The 1836 Joseph Potter House - 313 West Fourth Street

 

In the 18th century William Bayard's estate sat within the northwestern section of Greenwich Village.  (It was to Bayard's handsome Georgian home that Alexander Hamilton was taken following his duel with Aaron Burr in 1804.)  Following his death in 1826, his heirs began selling off portions of the Bayard Farm.

In April 1835 Charles W. Hawkins purchased land along the recently named West Fourth Street (the lane had been called Asylum Street until around 1834).  He divided the lots and resold them within the subsequent months.  Among the buyers was mason Henry M. Perine, who erected a two-a-and-half story brick faced house at 43 West Fourth (renumbered 313 in 1864).

Designed in the emerging Greek Revival style, its squat attic level replaced the dormers and peaked roof of the Federal style.  The single-doored entrance featured sidelights and an ample transom that allowed sunlight into the foyer.  Perhaps most eye-catching were the handsome iron stoop railings.  Their graceful design included palmettes above and below a central wreath.

The flat blades within the empty spaces at the bottom of the railings were boot scrapers, a necessity before paved streets.

By the early 1840's the West Fourth Street residence was home to attorney Joseph C. Potter and his wife Cornelia.  The family took in a boarder, James Ferris.  

Ferris was a weaver by trade.  Most likely unknown to the Potters, he had served time in the state prison twice for forgery.  He found himself in trouble again after a confrontation on February 1, 1842.  Ferris was drinking in the nearby porterhouse run by Henry Osborn when Peter Nodine came in looking for his son.  One way or another the two men got into a heated fight.  In court on April 20, Nodine claimed, "while there, Ferris assaulted him and bit the end of his thumb off."

Ferris brought a witness, a boy named Potter who may have been related to Joseph and Cornelia.  Potter worked in the tavern and testified that it was Nodine who made the assault and swore that Nodine "attempted to knock Ferris's brains out with a decanter."  The jury had to decide between the charges--one that Ferris had bitten off the thumb of Nodine, and the other charging Nodine with "attempting to gouge [Ferris's] eye out."  Ferris was found guilty and Nodine was acquitted.

On October 11, 1843 Joseph and Cornelia had a baby girl, Cornelia Livingston Potter.   Sadly, the Potters' parlor was the scene of the her funeral a year-and-a-half later, on May 13, 1845.

By 1851 Edward H. Jacot and his family lived here.  A coal and hardware merchant at 15 Gold Street, his was an substantial business.  On August 20, 1853 he announced the receipt of a shipment of "Steam and gas tubes--One thousand lap-welded English boiler tubes, 2 to 3 inches; 20,000 feet English gas tubing."

Jacot was born in 1811.  He had married Christina Isabella Forbes in 1833.  The couple had at least one daughter, Isabella.  The family's residency was short-lived.  In 1854 liquor importer Morris Livingston and his family, who had previously lived on Eighth Avenue, moved into the house.  

In 1862 Frederick Livingston was enrolled in the introductory class of the Free Academy of the City of New York.  It was possibly the boy's age the prompted a servant to look for a new job that year.    An advertisement in the New York Daily Herald on November 14 read:

Wanted--A situation by a young American woman, to take care of children; has some knowledge of running a sewing machine.  Best city reference.  

As the Potters had done, the Livingston family took in a boarder.  In 1873 William Latson, a driver, rented rooms, and in 1876 Henry M. Parr, who made his living as a clerk, listed his address with the family.

In 1879 313 West Fourth Street became home to the Henry M. Parr family.  Parr was in the produce business at 459 Greenwich Street, and Henry Jr. was an attorney.  The Parrs would remain here for years.  After it was sold to D. Sylvan Crakow in 1902, it was operated as a boarding house by a "Mrs. Borden."

On Friday, October 14, 1904, a middle-aged couple, James O'Neill and his wife, appeared at the door as asked for a room.  The Buffalo Enquirer said, "To Mrs. Borden, the landlady, they said, half-laughingly; that they were on a second honeymoon trip, but they told her nothing of their home."

The O'Neills seemed to have been on a spontaneous visit to the city.  "They said they might stay a week and see some of the wonders of New York," Mrs. Borden later explained.  On Sunday morning they planned to explore the city, but did not come down for breakfast.  The Buffalo Enquirer reported, "Their plans made for a day's outing, death claimed Mr. and Mrs. James O'Neill yesterday, just as their holiday dawned."  Mrs. Borden found them dead in their rooms.  The gas valve had not been fully closed and they died in their sleep.

In 1927 the house underwent a renovation which resulted in a tea room in the basement  and "non-housekeeping apartments" on the floors above (the term referred to the fact that they had no kitchens).  The configuration lasted until 1968 when the former tea room was converted to an art studio and gallery.  There were now one apartment on the parlor floor and two each on the floors above.

The art studio was home to the gallery of British artist Fiona Banner in the early years of the 21st century.  The space was regularly the scene of one-person exhibitions, like the debut of French artist Anne-Marie Schneider in February 2006.

A gut renovation in 2018 brought the venerable house back to a single-family home.  While the 1836 exterior is remarkably preserved, nothing of the original survives inside.

photographs by the author

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