The Lost John Hardenbrook Farmhouse - 63rd Street and York Avenue

 

When lithographer Major & Knapp published this view of the estate in 1865, the caption erroneously placed it at 73rd Street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In the 18th century, wealthy New Yorkers escaped the heat and congestion of the city at sumptuous summer estates on the northern half of the island.  Most were situated near the rivers to take advantage of the sweeping views and the cooling river breezes.

By 1720, John Bass acquired the tract along the East River from approximately 64th to 66th Streets.  In 1747 he constructed a Georgian style residence on the estate "on a pinnacle of rocks overlooking the East River," according to a Bank of the Manhattan Company booklet decades later.   Despite its refined details--Chinese Chippendale railings and a handsome half-round attic window, for instance--the one-and-a-half-story wooden structure could as easily have been called a farmhouse as a mansion.  Bass and his wife Maria had at least two slaves on the property, Jinn and Henry.

John Bass died in 1768 and was buried on the grounds of the estate next to his wife.  The property was inherited by the Basses's daughter, Annetje (better known as Ann) and her husband Johannes, or John, Hardenbrook.  Interestingly, Bass's will provided Jinn and Henry with ten pounds each, "in consideration of [their] faithful service, and [they] may choose a master" for themselves, as recorded in the 1899 Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate’s Office, City of New York, Volume VII.

Hardenbrook listed his occupation as carpenter, however the couple's lifestyle suggests he was a well-to-do builder.  It appears the couple used the farm as their year-round home.

Directly north of and abutting the Hardenbrook farm was Louvre Farm, a 132-acre estate owned by John and Eleanor Jones.  It engulfed the area from today's Third Avenue to the river, and from 66th to 75th Street.  The Joneses were among New York's wealthiest families in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Purportedly, following the Revolutionary War the Hardenbrooks leased the estate to General George Clinton--a founding father, future New York State Governor, and future Vice President.  Those accounts place him here from 1783 to 1804, during which time, according to The New York Times in 1922, he hosted George Washington who "enjoyed the peaceful river view from beneath one of the ancient trees."  Despite the often repeated legend, there is no documentation to support Clinton's residency here.

John Hardenbrook died in 1803.  According to the 1810 census, Ann remained on the estate with three white females, none of whom were younger than 45, and two slaves.  She died in 1817 and was buried in the family graveyard on the property near her husband and parents.

In December that year Ann's heirs placed an advertisement in the New York Gazette offering the property for sale, describing it as:

...that very pleasant situation, on the E. River, about 5 miles from the city, adjoining the seat of P. Schermerhorn, Junior, Esq., well known as the property of the late Ann Hardenbrook, deceased, containing about 19 acres.

The P. Schermerhorn mentioned in the advertisement was Peter Schermerhorn, the husband of Sarah Jones.  The couple had inherited a substantial portion of John Jones's Louvre Farm.  They now annexed the Hardenbrook farm to their holdings.  In his 1914 Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, Cuyler Reynolds explained, "Adjoining [Louvre Farm], on the south, lay Hardenbrook Farm, of about twenty acres, between Sixty-fourth and Sixty-sixth streets, Third Avenue and the East river.  This Peter Schermerhorn purchased in 1818, from the heirs of John Hardenbrook, and adding it to his wife's share of the Louvre Farm, gave to the whole the name of Belmont Farm."  

Decades later, in 1924, William Rhinelander Stewart, in his Grace Church and Old New York, wrote, "after altering the house for his occupancy [Schermerhorn] removed his residence to it."

The Schermerhorns permitted the extended Hardenbrook family to continue using the cemetery and, in fact, they were obligated to do so.  Ann Hardenbrook's will included the stipulation that the owners must preserve "the burying ground forever, with a free passage thereto for the use of my heirs."  There would eventually be as many as 14 graves, ranging from the Basses to Mary Adams (Ann Hardenbrook's niece, whose body was interred in 1822).

Peter Schermerhorn, Jr. Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, 1914 (copyright expired)

Peter and Sarah were married in Trinity Church on April 5, 1804.  They had four children when they purchased the Hardenbrook property, and a fifth, James Jones Schermerhorn, was born that year on September 25, 1818.  The last to be born was William Colford, who arrived on June 22, 1821.  

Sarah Jones Schermerhorn (original source unknown)

During the winter season, the Schermerhorn family worshiped at Grace Church.  Peter was elected to the vestry in 1820, and was one of the wardens in 1845.  But, as The New York Times pointed out generations later, "churches were few and far between above Fifty-ninth Street."  The Schermerhorns erected a Greek Revival chapel on Belmont Farm, described by The New York Times as "a unique structure, a low one-story building adorned with a row of columns, giving it the resemblance of a Grecian temple."  The newspaper said, "Summer months services were held in the private chapel for the benefit of the wealthy residents, including the Rikers, Rhinelanders, Masons, Joneses, Delafields, Pearsall's, Beekmans, Gracies, Primes, and Astors, who had fine country homes in the vicinity."

On July 9, 1911, years after it had been demolished, The New York Times published an old depiction of the chapel on the Schermerhorn property.  (copyright expired)

The 1820 census listed the summer residents of Belmont Farm as Peter and Sarah, four sons under 16 years of age, and six "free colored persons" (four men and two women), at least one of whom was under 16.  Although slavery would not be abolished in New York State for another six years, the family's Black servants were all free.

Sarah Schermerhorn died in 1845 at the age of 63.  The first census after her death showed Peter, and six children and grandchildren occupying the summer house along with eight servants.  (Interestingly, all of the staff were white by now, of French, Canadian and Irish birth.)

Peter Schermerhorn died on June 23, 1852.  The sprawling Belmont Farm was inherited by his three sons, John, Edmund, and William, and the widow of his son Peter, Adeline E. Schermerhorn.  William Colford Schermerhorn and his wife, the former Ann Elliott Huger Cottonet, occupied the former Hardenbrook house with their five children as their summer home.  But after their sumptuous new house at 49 West 23rd Street was completed in 1859, they stopped coming north.

The Schermerhorns' decision to quit Belmont Farm may have had to do with the gradual incursion of development in the area.  Between 1833 and 1837 the New York and Harlem Railroad was extended along what would become Park Avenue, and in 1858 horsecars were operating on Second and Third Avenues.

By 1866, the Schermerhorn heirs leased the property to a German immigrant named August Braun, who took advantage of the rapid development of the district.  His 50-year lease allowed him to occupy the former Hardenbrook-Schermerhorn house and to operate a "boating and bathing facility" on the land.  In addition to this business, he ran the swan boat concession in Central Park.  His affluence allowed him and his family to have several live-in servants, according to census records.

In 1877 the Schermerhorn family leased the former chapel building to the Pastime Athletic Club.  The club initially paid  an annual rent of $180 (about $4,810 in 2023 terms), which included grounds privileges.  The members converted the chapel to a gymnasium and clubhouse, while the grounds and Braun's bathing facilities (which they apparently rented from Braun on occasion) were utilized for other sporting events.

In November 1885, staff members of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record took a leisurely walk along the East River.  In the Record's January 1886 issue, one wrote in part:

In an autumn afternoon ramble with our vice-president, as we were walking along the banks of the East River opposite Sixty-sixth Street, we came upon a little cluster of graves.  From the tombstones, more or less dilapidated, which marked these 'last homes,' we carefully copied the following inscripti0ns in the private burial-place, which is one of many to be found scattered along the East River shore of Manhattan Island.  It is on what is known as the Schermerhorn estate, and when the property was sold some sixty years since to Peter Schermerhorn, the former owners reserved the right of burial.

He went on to record the inscriptions, the earliest, of course, being the plain stones that read merely, "In memory of Maria Bass" and "In memory of John Bass."  They extended into the 1820's with extended Hardenbrook family members.

William C. Shermerhorn died on January 1, 1903.  The family wasted no time in liquidating the former summer estate only a month later.  In recording the sale to John D. Rockefeller, the Real Estate Record & Builders Guide noted, "The property...is the only unimproved plot of its size south of Harlem.  The streets, 65th, 66th and 67th, though officially upon the city map, have never been opened."  Rockefeller had paid $700,000 for the property (over $22 million today) as the site of his Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.  "The new laboratory grounds...according to present plans, will cover three city blocks," said the journal.

Both August Braun and the Pastime Athletic Club "received their notices to vacate early in 1903," as reported by The New York Times.  The New-York Tribune added, "August Braun, who came to this country from near Frankfurt-on-the-Main, has lived in the house since the '60s...He is said to have made many thousand dollars from his boating and bathing business."

The sorely neglected house as it appeared in 1914.  Historic Buildings Now Standing In New York Which Were Erected Prior to Eighteen Hundred.  (copyright expired)

Six years later the City History Club's Historical Guide to the City of New York mentioned that the "Schermerhorn Farmhouse" was now being used "in connection with the new buildings of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, the erection of which obliterated the Jones [sic] Chapel and the old graveyard where were buried members of the Jones, Hardenbrook and Adams families."  (In fact, it appears that the cemetery was simply covered over with fill dirt as the area was elevated and leveled.)

The rear of the house in 1914.  from the Frank Cousins Collection of the NYC Public Design Commission.

On October 19, 1914 Greater New York called the Schermerhorn farm house "the second oldest house in Manhattan."   The venerable building, having been allowed to deteriorate, was demolished that year.

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The 1846 George Little House - 53 Jane Street

 

photograph by the author

George Schott made his living as a tobacconist, but augmented his income with Greenwich Village real estate.  In 1846 he erected two three-story houses on the north side of Jane Street, between Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street.   Rusticated brownstone basements supported three stories of red brick trimmed in brownstone.  Their single-doored entrances included leaded sidelights and transoms, and delicately dentiled cornices crowned their designs.

No. 72 Jane Street (renumbered 53 in 1855) became home to George Little and his wife.  Little had been in the clothing business on Fulton Street for years, and seems to have retired around 1861 when he no longer listed a profession in city directories.

In the spring of 1866 the Littles hired architect James H. Brown to add a two-story brick extension to the rear.  Construction began in April and was completed the following month.  Somewhat surprisingly, within months the couple left the home they had just improved.

In 1867, 53 Jane Street was home to Dr. James Quee.  Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he was a partner with Dr. James Norval in the medical office of Norval & Quee.  He lived alone in the house with one or two servants.  He and his wife, the former Margaret Taylor, had arrived in New York in 1849, and she died four years later on June 26, 1853.

Since June 25, 1863 he had additionally served as assistant surgeon of the 84th Regiment Infantry, and following the Civil War donated his services to The Ladies' Union Relief Association.  The group provided aid to sick and disabled Union soldiers, and to the widows and orphans of soldiers killed in the war.

Quee was also a "chemist," or drug manufacturer.  A Half-Century's Progress of the City of Brooklyn called him "an expert chemist of no ordinary attainments."  The article said, "Mr. Quee is manufacturer of many valuable preparations which are known as among the best.  Among them are Mamelon, or nipple wash, which for nursing mothers is indispensable, preventing the skin from breaking and all the annoyances to which they are subject."

In the 19th century it was common for homeowners preparing to relocate to simply sell their household furnishings and start over in their new homes.  On April 28, 1871 an auction was held of "all the contents of the three story house--Parlor, Bedroom, Kitchen and Basement Furniture."  James Quee moved to Brooklyn and 53 Jane Street became home to builder William H. Bull.

In August 1872 Bull was hired by P. T. Barnum to renovate a building he had purchased on 14th Street for a museum and menagerie.  Only four months later, at 4:10 on December 24, fire was seen coming from the building.  Before long it burned to the ground and many of Barnum's exotic animals perished.  An investigation into the blaze was conducted two days later, and, not surprisingly, William H. Bull was called to testify.

He said in part:

Mr. Barnum gave me the general outlines of such alterations as he required, and told me he hardly knew himself what he wanted, but would leave it all to me, as he was going away; that he had a big show and there was not half room enough there; that I would have to arrange it so as to get as much room as possible.

Bull noted that Barnum instructed that the boiler needed to be able to provide "the maximum amount of heat" as "some of his animals were from a warm climate and needed this heat."  The builder stressed that he had done everything possible to make the building fireproof, and surmised that sawdust from the monkey and giraffe cages may have been swept into contact with the hot pipes.

By the late 1870s, 53 Jane Street had become home to the Charles H. Morrison family.  The Morrisons' daughter, Ella, taught in the Girls' Dept of Grammar School No. 45 on West 24th Street.  

Then, in 1880, Dr. Cornelius Van Keuren and his wife moved in.  Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1843, he had served in the Civil War.  The New York Times later said, "Although very young when the war broke out, he enlisted in the Duryea's Zouaves and served until its close."  He had earned his medical degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

On July 8, 1887, The New York Times reported that Dr. Van Keuren had been appointed a police surgeon.  The position had been established in 1853 by the Metropolitan Police Act, originally to provide medical care for police officers.  By now the duties were expanded to include the examination of prisoners.

It was quite likely that Van Keuren's affiliation with the police department first brought him into contact with Officer Edgar W. Conklin, who began boarding with the family in 1887.  Conklin earned an annual salary of $1,200 that year, or about $35,300 in 2023 terms.

Conklin continued boarding with the Van Keurens after his retirement on May 2, 1893.  He received a pension of $600 per year after that.  He was still here on January 24, 1898 when Dr. Cornelius Van Keuren suffered an attack of apoplexy, what today would be termed a stroke.  He died six hours later at the age of 55.

The house next became home to three bachelors, Michael Seery, who was a contractor, and his nephews, William and James Seery.  On the night of June 15, 1899, Michael Seery did not return home.  The New York Press reported a week later, "The nephews have been hunting all the institutions in the city for a trace of their uncle."  Tragically, their search would not end happily.

On June 22, The New York Press reported, "Although their uncle, Michael Seery, had died on June 15, his nephews, William and James Seery, did not find it out until last evening."  The article explained that on the 15th, Michael had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at 23rd Street and First Avenue, and was taken to Bellevue Hospital.  "He died two hours later," it continued.  "The body was kept the usual number of hours for claimants, but none came."

Another resident to go missing nine years later was Herbert C. Madge.  He was a Tammany politician and superintendent of the warehouse of a French-based china firm on Murray Street.   At 8:30 p.m. on May 7, 1908, he cut his evening with friends short in an Eighth Avenue café, saying that he had a headache and was going home to bed.  He never arrived.

Nearly a week later, on May 13, The Evening World reported, "Madge, who was an intimate friend and lieutenant of Charles Culkin, Tammany district leader...carried from $2,000 to $3,000 in his trousers pockets all the time, and some of his friends are of the belief that he met with foul play and was robbed." 

The article, which noted he "had a happy home life," said, "His wife is almost distracted over his absence.  They have two children."  It is unclear if Madge was ever found.  His wife was living alone in New Jersey soon afterward.

No. 53 Jane Street was home to John Hallessey by 1918.  He rented the house for at least two years before purchasing it in May 1920.  Hallessey immediately rented rooms.  Among his tenants in 1921 were Professor Malcolm Ogilvie.  The somewhat eccentric Ogilvie was doing field work that year in Batavia, New York, when he drew the suspicions of the locals.

The August edition of The Guide to Nature reported that residents notified authorities that a vagrant was skulking around.  And things got worse for Ogilvie when a policeman approached him and Ogilvie "began to tell him about some cuckoos or something that the disinterested 'arm of the law' was totally ignorant of and, for that reason, asked: 'Do you live around here?' [thinking] the 'poor nut' was demented."

Ogilvie explained that he lived in New York City, but came to the Batavia region each spring "to be with the birds.  I'm very fond of birds."  The policeman replied, "some of the folks around here are complaining.  They think you're a queer bird, yourself."

"How very extraordinary--here's my card--it may explain matters," replied Ogilvie.  The card read:

Professor Malcolm Ogilvie, New York Ornithological Society, 53 Jane Street, New York.

The matter was cleared up, and Ogilvie was allowed to birdwatch unmolested; however, the locals most likely still viewed him as a queer bird.

Also living at 53 Jane Street that year were newlyweds Albert F. Hilts and his wife, the former Maria Flood.  Hilts had served in World War I as a second lieutenant in the 52nd Pioneer Infantry and had survived the fierce Argonne Forest battle.  His bride, astonishingly, had also served in France as a telephone operator with the First Army on the Verdun front.  It was in France that the couple met.  Hilts had obtained a job with the Federal Reserve Bank downtown following the war.

In 1922 Irish-born Sean Conway lived at 53 Jane Street.  The founder of the Ulster Defense Alliance, on December 16, 1922, The Advocate said he "has been speaking for the Irish republican cause for many years in the United States."  The article announced that Conway had just written "a new martial song, entitled, 'O Ulster, Proud Ulster,' which is said to be the finest northern war song since 'O'Donnell Abu.'"

Even more ardent in Irish causes was socialist and trade union leader James Larkin.  Also known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, he was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party and of the Irish Worker League.  

In 1920 Larkin had been sent to Sing Sing for "criminal anarchy."  Upon his pardon by Governor Al Smith in 1923, he took a room at 53 Jane Street (possibly through his connections with Sean Conway).  His stay would be short-lived, however.  He was deported to Ireland later that year.

In 1941 a fire escape attested to the several occupants of 53 Jane Street.  The parlor windows have not yet been lengthened.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Muriel S. Mayhew moved into the basement of 53 Jane Street in 1946.  A widow, in 1961 she brought home a Great Dane puppy named Daniel.  Nine years later, when Richard and Sandra de Saint Phalle purchased the house in December 1970, Daniel was no longer a bouncing puppy.

The De Saint Phalles moved into the house with their 4- and 5-year-old sons.  They almost immediately initiated eviction proceedings against Muriel.  Richard de Saint Phalle, who was a lawyer with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, described Daniel as "ferocious" and "seven feet tall when standing on his hind legs."  They called him a "substantial threat" to their sons' safety.

Muriel Mayhew produced affidavits from neighbors that described Daniel as "calm, gentle, and friendly."  Those testimonies and Muriel's swayed Supreme Court Justice Edward J. Greenfield to decide in Muriel Mayhew's favor.  He concluded the complaint was "centered not upon the dog but upon the tenant."

A Greek Revival mantel and period moldings survive in the parlor.  image via cbwarburg.com

There is still a basement apartment in the house.  Much of the original Greek Revival detailing survives inside.  At some point after mid-century the parlor windows were lengthened, but, overall, the exterior appearance is little changed since 1846.

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

The Remodeled Rev. Howard Crosby House - 116 East 19th Street

 

Around 1851 Lothrop L. Sturges moved his family into the recently completed house at 75 East 19th Street (renumbered 116 in 1865).  Like the other high-end homes along the block, it was four stories tall above an English basement.  A high, stone stoop led to the parlor floor.

Sturges was a partner in the shipping firm Sturges, Clearman & Co., and chairman of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company.  He and his wife, the former Jane Freeman, had six children, Charles Dimon, Catharine C., Theodore, Wallace N., Mary Jane, and Edwin Cady.

Charles Sturges was born on January 14, 1827.  Immediately after graduating from Yale College in 1848 he joined his father's firm.  His younger brothers would go on to other pursuits.  Edwin, for instance, was in the oil business by 1868.

The family's parlor was the scene of a somber event on October 5, 1860.  Around the time the Sturges family moved into the East 19th Street house, Mary Jane had married Jeremiah Manchester Wardwell.  The couple had six children.  Tragically, Mary Jane died on October 3 at the age of 39.  Her funeral was held here.

It would not be the last.  Two years later, on November 28, 1862, the funeral of Wallace N. Sturges took place here.  He was just 28 years old.  His older brother, Charles, died at the age of 41 on August 27, 1868; and Jane Freeman Sturges died on August 21, 1870.  She was 67.  

The last of the Sturges funerals to take place in the parlor was that of 80-year-old Lothrop.  Having buried nearly all of his family members, he died in the house on December 16, 1873.

The estate sold 116 East 19th Street to the Reverend Dr. Howard Crosby the following year.  He was pastor of the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church, which was just two blocks away.  He and his wife Margaret Evertson Givan were married on March 17, 1847 and had nine children, the youngest of whom, Grace Ashton, was just three years old when the family moved in.

Crosby's ancestors included colonist Rip Van Dam; 17th century mayor of New York City Matthias Nicoll; and General William Floyd, a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.  The erudite pastor was a chancellor of New York University (then known as the University of the City of New York), and president of the American Philological Association.  He would eventually write at least 16 books.

Like Lothrop L. Sturges, Howard Crosby had a significant personal fortune.  His had been inherited from his parents.  In 1899, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record noted, "Mrs. [Harriet Ashton Clarkston] Crosby died on December 13, 1859, and her husband [William Bedlow Crosby] followed on March 18, 1865, leaving an estate valued at $1,000,000."  (That amount would translate to more than 18 times as much in 2023.)

Reverend Dr. Howard Crosby, from the archives of New York University.

The charitable nature of religious leaders made them targets of scam artists.  Reverend Crosby was not easily duped, however.  On November 24, 1877, The New York Times reported, "A respectable but rather shabbily-dressed man called at Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby's residence at No. 116 East Nineteenth-street, about a week ago, and rang the bell.  Being shown into the library, he told Dr. Crosby a pitiful story of deprivation and want."

He said he was a Christian man who merely wanted work, "no matter what kind or how hard," but, recounted the article, "at the same time, he could not, of course, refuse a small donation of ready cash to relieve his necessities."  He provided three letters from religious leaders that attested to his upstanding nature and urged the reader to provide employment if possible.  One of them was from Rev. Eldridge Mix, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Orange, New Jersey, a minister familiar to Crosby.

Crosby told the man he could not help him at the moment, but made an appointment for him to return a few days later.  He then wrote to Rev. Mix.  The reply "showed conclusively that the applicant was not only an unworthy man, but that he had recently carried on a swindle by forged letters, through which the clergymen of Northern New-Jersey were frequent and heavy losers," said The New York Times.

When Robert Bentley, alias John Brown, alias Jack Davis, returned at 6:00 on November 23, he told Rev. Crosby he "was more anxious than ever to get work of any kind to do."  The New York Times reported, "His fears for his immediate condition were soon relieved by the detectives, who arrested him and locked him up in the Eighteenth Precinct Station."

In 1877 Crosby founded the Society for the Prevention of Crime, "for putting down of illicit traffic in strong drink, the suppression of concert halls and low-grade theatres, the purification of criminal courts, and the betterment of legislation affecting city interests," according to The Sun.  For years its meetings were held in the 19th Street house. 

Interestingly, although he fought for improved saloon laws, Crosby was adamantly opposed to the total abstinence promoted by the Temperance Movement.  He asserted that "for years the prohibitionists have obstructed the path of reform," insisting that making alcohol illegal would simply increase crime and, ironically, drinking.

He was less lenient to the evil of Sunday newspapers.  Not only did their printing and sale require some to work on the sabbath, he said in a letter to his congregants in November 1885 that the newspapers "furnish secular reading to divert the mind from the holy themes especially appropriate to the Sabbath."  He complained "Our young people, who would not otherwise think of spending the day in such reading, are readily led to consider it a safe and proper thing, when they see the paper brought into the family, and even purchased from the stand by members of the church."

The Crosbys' youngest son, Nicholas Evertson, graduated from Columbia College in 1882.  Like his father, he was a classical scholar, and in 1891 was appointed a professor of Greek and Latin at Princeton.  (He changed course to professor of Archaeology at the school in 1893.)  He wrote a tongue-in-cheek letter to the editor of The New York Evening Post in June 1886, that said in part, "Sir: Will it not surprise you and your readers to learn, as it did me to discover, that ancient Rome in the days of Terence had its 'dudes,' and called them even by the same name?"  Crosby referred to the ancient Roman comedian Terence's play Eunuchus in which he used the word dudum.  Crosby translated the line to read, "He seemed a dude, because he was decked out in parti-colored clothes."  He ended his letter saying, "Perhaps Juvenal himself was a dude; Rome was full of them then."

The Crosbys' daughter Agnes married Reverend Arthur Huntington Allen in 1889.  The couple moved to Rensselaer, New York.  Two years later the Crosbys received word that Agnes was seriously ill and Howard Crosby rushed there in the frigid winter weather.  Agnes died on March 18, 1891, at the 32.   

Crosby was unable to attend the funeral.  He had "caught a heavy cold," according to The Sun, and was transported back to New York City.  On March 26, Figaro reported, "The Reverend Doctor Crosby is dangerously ill at his home, No. 116 East Nineteenth Street, New York.  He fell a victim to the grip last Friday, and pneumonia is feared."  The article added that Agnes's death a week earlier "was a great shock to him."  It noted, "Professor Nicholas Crosby and Miss Grace Crosby are in constant attendance at their father's bedside."

At around 4:00 on March 29, Crosby asked for paper and a pen.  He wrote farewell letters to his family, especially to his son Ernest, who was a Judge of the International Court at Cairo, Egypt, and his daughter Edith who was visiting him there.  At 5:30 he died.  Crosby was 65 years old.

The Crosby family rented 116 East 19th Street for decades afterward.  An advertisement in April 1900 described it as a "twenty-five foot four-story high-stoop residence, eighteen rooms, 3-story extension; rent moderate."  

The Crosbys' tenant that year was poet, scientist and essayist Edmund Clarence Stedman and his wife, the former Laura Hyde Woolworth.  Stedman wrote to Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness on Christmas Day 1900 from Bermuda, where he had gone after an illness.  In it he noted, "I shall be in New York again, D. V., by mid-January, at 116 East Nineteenth Street."  ("D. V.," was the abbreviation for deo volente, or God willing.)

Before long Colonel Peter French and his sister-in-law Julia Prentis French resided in the house.  French was an examiner in the Appraisers' Stores Branch of the Customs Service.  Julia was the widow of Stephen Bull French, who had shot himself in 1896.  The former President of the Police Board and "one of the best known of the old-time politicians of the city," according to The Sun, his suicide was attributed by the newspaper to his recent financial losses on Wall Street.  Peter French died in the East 19th Street house on October 19, 1912, and Julia died the following year on November 17.  

In January 1920, Fannie K. Schiefenlin Crosby sold 116 East 19th Street.  In reporting on the sale, the New-York Tribune reminded readers it was "the former residence of the late Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby," and noted, "The building will be extensively altered."  And indeed it was.

A renovation completed in 1921 resulted in offices in the basement through second floors and apartments on the third through fifth.  The stoop was removed, the facade pulled forward to the property line, and a new Arts and Crafts inspired brick front installed.  Two entrances--one to the offices and another to the residential floors--flanked a grouping of windows on the ground floor.  The second floor was more glass than masonry, its multi-paned casement windows flooding the interior with natural light.  A skylight within the slate shingled roof that caught the natural northern light made the top floor apartment perfect for an artist's studio.  Out of respect for the building's history and its esteemed former owner, a bronze plaque was affixed to the facade that reads: "The Home of Howard Crosby D. D.  1875 1891."

The house would have originally have been similar to the one next door at left.  image via the NYC Dept. of Records & Information Services.

Even before construction was completed, Reginald Pelham Bolton moved his businesses into the building, which was now known as the Bolton Building.  In its October 1910 issue, Steam magazine announced that Bolton had hired James A. McHollan "in the consulting engineering practice" of the R. P. Bolton Company.  "The company specializes in power plants, electrification of steam plants, etc.," noted the article.

Born in London, Bolton was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institution of Consulting Engineers, and the American Society of Consulting Engineers. He was president of the R. P. Bolton Company and the Bolton Electric Meter Corporation.  His passion for history equaled his expertise in engineering.  He was an honorary life member of the New York Historical Society and president of the American Science and Historic Preservation Society.  In 1925 he published Washington Heights, Manhattan--Its Eventful Past; a Contribution to the History of America.

A Consolidated Gas Company of New York advertisement in Gas Age Record on January 2, 1926 touted "Remarkable results from gas heating," and said, "You will find them at No. 116 East Nineteenth Street.  A remodeled dwelling, now a thriving business building and studio apartments."

In 1930 Congress was considering the purchase of the rare 15th century book collection of Otto Vollbehr that included a perfect Gutenberg Bible printed around 1456.  A communication from Reginald Pelham Bolton was read before the Congressional committee on May 16.  He said:

I desire to convey to you my appreciation of your interest in this matter and the hope that you will be successful in inducing Congress to secure these invaluable volumes for the Nation, which I have had the privilege of examining.

A renovation completed in 1946 resulted in the offices of the publisher Beechhurst Press in the basement and first floor, and apartments throughout the upper floors.  By 1953 the ground floor space was home to Spanish Books, Inc., a bookstore.

photograph by Beyond My Ken

Then, in 1965, the first floor became the private East Manhattan School.  It remained through 1971, opening its doors occasionally to the public, such as in March 1970 when it staged a "poetry reading, also Goya art slides, [with] comments by Bill Brady Italian Poetry Group," as announced in The Villager on March 19.  In 1977 a renovation resulted in apartments throughout the building.

non-credited photographs by the author

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The Alexander Clinton House - 358 West 20th Street

photo by the author

James N. Wells began his career as a carpenter-builder in Greenwich Village.  He branched out into real estate in 1819, and the following decade became the property manager of Clement Clarke Moore, who had begun parceling off his family's country estate, Chelsea.  By 1835 Wells had amassed a significant personal fortune.  He and his wife had six children, John R, Josephine, Emma, Julia, Mary S., and James Jr., and lived in a fine, double-wide home at 414 West 22nd Street.

In 1853 Wells initiated construction of six handsome houses for his children on the south side of West 20th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.  Completed the following year, the Anglo-Italianate style homes sat atop low English basements.  Their short, three-step stoops and areaways were guarded by handsome Italianate ironwork.  Three floors of dressed stone sat atop a rusticated base where heavy cornice slabs on brackets capped the doorways.

It appears that few, if any, of the Wells children moved into the row.  Reverend Milo Mahan rented 240 West 20th Street, the westernmost house.  (It would be renumbered 358 in 1865.)  The location was convenient.  Mahan was the Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the nearby General Theological Seminary.

Famed photographer Mathew Brady took this photograph of Rev. Milo Mahan. from the collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Mahan's successful career had a shaky start.  Born in Virginia in 1819, his father, an Irish immigrant, died when Milo was two years old.  According to The World Biographical Encyclopedia, his half-brother, Dennis Hart Mahan, "assumed responsibility for the care and education of the boy."  Somewhat a prodigy, at the age of 17 Milo Mahan was teaching Greek at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia.

Rev. Mahan relocated from West 20th Street in 1857.  (Interestingly, his vocal support of the South led to his resignation from the Seminary in 1864 and a move to Baltimore.)  A string of tenants followed.  Edward R. Swasey leased the house from 1857 to 1858.  He was a partner with George Swasey in the leather firm of E. R. Swasey & Co.  His family was followed by that of John D. Wilcox.

Wilcox was in the butter business when he moved in, but had switched to meat, operating from the Washington Market, by 1863.  He and his wife took in a few boarders, as was common.  An advertisement in September 1861 read:

Furnished room to let--With Board, to gentlemen and their wives, or single gentlemen, at No. 240 West Twentieth street.  Dinner at 6 o'clock.

The Webster family leased the house in 1864 and 1865.  Bela C. Webster was in the drygoods business, and George H. Webster was a flour merchant.

When Dr. Alexander James Clinton and his family moved in, the house finally received long-term residents.  The physician had an impressive pedigree and was related to General James Clinton and Governor DeWitt Clinton.  He and his wife, the former Adeline Arden Hamilton, had seven children.

Their 30-year-old son Charles William Clinton was an  architect.  He had trained in the office of esteemed architect Richard Upjohn, and at the age of 25 opened his own practice in 1858.  A member of the Seventh Regiment's Company K, he would design its spectacular Seventh Regiment Armory in 1880.

The Clinton family seems to have expected much from their domestic staff.  In most high-end homes, cooks were not responsible for anything other than food preparation.  But the Clintons' ad in May 1872 read, "Wanted--In private family, a good plain cook, washer and ironer; wages $14 per month.  Apply at 358 West 20th st., near 9th av."  The salary would translate to about $320 a month in 2023.

The Clintons moved out in 1875.  The house was next leased by the William P. Holls family.  On September 29, 1877, an advertisement in The New York Times offered the house for rent again.  "A four-story brown-stone house, No. 358 West 20th-st., newly furnished and in complete order; seen any time."

It appears the new lessee of 358 West 20th Street operated it as a boarding house.  Living here in 1878 were Harvey J. Beck, a clerk, and Richard D. Joost, who listed his profession as "tasselmaker."  It returned to a private home again in the early 1890s.

P. A. Haverty was a commissioner of deeds, similar to today's notary public.  His daughter Geraldine taught in the Primary Department of Grammar School No. 37 on East 87th Street.

The house was sold at auction on April 7, 1897 and purchased by William J. McIlvaine and his wife, Mary.  The couple had a daughter, Lydia.  McIlvaine was president of the Literary Society of the Twenty-Third Street Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association.  Lydia graduated from Normal College in 1909, and immediately took the test to be certified as a teacher in the New York City public schools.

Mary Shaw McIlvaine died on March 26, 1911.  Her funeral took place in the residence the following evening at 8:00.  It is unclear how long William McIlvaine remained in the house.

On June 5, 1943, The New York Sun reported, "A new organization to assist war widows in making psychological and material adjustments has been formed...The organization, the American Widows of World War II, has its headquarters at 358 West 20th Street."

The row as it appeared when the American Widows used 358 West 20th Street (third from right).  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1978, Central Hall Gallery opened in the house.  It was supplanted in 2010 by Nyehaus.  In announcing its pending opening, Artspace said, "run by noted collector, curator, and philanthopist Tim Nye, [it] will create a context for the critical and in-depth exploration of work by important contemporary artists, predominantly those in mid-career."  Nyehause remained in the space through 2013.

image via cityrealty.com

Essentially intact on the exterior, 358 West 20th Street is a two-family house today.

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

J. F. Miller's 1889 318 through 322 West 115th Street

 

Real estate developer P. H. McManus was busy erecting rows of handsome homes in the rapidly developing Harlem district in the late 19th century.  In September 1888, his architect J. F. Miller filed plans for eleven three-story brick rowhouses on the south side of West 115th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues (today's Frederick Douglass Blvd. and Manhattan Avenue, respectively).  Miller arranged them in groupings of two and three.  Nos. 318 through 322 were designed in the Queen Anne style, with Romanesque Revival influences.

Perfectly balanced in an A-B-A configuration, each of the 12-room houses featured a dog-legged box stoop.  The arched openings and terra cotta eyebrows of the second floor were Romanesque Revival touches.  The Queen Anne style, however, was dominant, appearing in terra cotta panels, tympani and band courses, and the quirky metal hoods over the third floor windows of the end houses.  The center residence, which at 17-feet-wide was an imperceptible one foot wider than its siblings, boasted a striking second floor oriel and a prominent gable that overlapped the pressed metal cornice.

The center house became home to Dr. Edwin D. Simpson.  His methods were no doubt viewed with some suspicion by main line physicians.  In announcing his joining The American School of Metaphysics in November 1897, The Metaphysical Magazine said, "Dr. Simpson is a Theosophist, with a strong occult tendency, as well as a successful physician; qualities which, it would seem, should harmoniously combine to make the true metaphysician."  

Simpson's practice had begun like that of most other doctors.  The North American Journal of Homoeopathy said he "was for many years an old school man, but became convinced of the trust of homoeopathy and affiliated with us.  He was particularly interested in psychotherapy and taught this subject and physiological drug-therapy to the students at the New York Homeopathic College."

Simpson died on June 23, 1905.  For several years he had worked closely with Dr. Wallace Belding House, who lived nearby at 203 West 113th Street.  House not only absorbed Dr. Simpson's practice, but moved into 322 West 115th Street.  In its November 1905 issue, The Homoeopathic Record reported, "Dr. Wallace Belding House announces his removal to No. 320 West 115th Street, New York City, where he will occupy the offices and succeed to the practice of the late Edwin D. Simpson, M. D."

Born in Brooklyn, Michigan in 1871, House was educated in the Midwest, and in 1902 The Medical Visitor called him "one of the shining lights in the talented Ohio colony in New York City."  In April 1903 he was appointed "examiner in lunacy" and assistant neurologist to the out-patient department of Flower Hospital.

House's intimate relationship with his former colleague's family was strengthened on October 16, 1907 when he married Edwin D. Simpson's daughter, May.  The young woman who had spent much of her youth in the house now became its mistress.

Dr. House had to make a difficult decision in 1909--one that would not be challenging at all for a physician today.  He was chairman of the annual alumni dinner of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital at the Waldorf-Astoria.  One member, Dr. Charles G. Pease objected  vociferously to the custom of after-dinner cigars.  The New-York Tribune reported that he "gave notice to the alumni that they would have to choose between him and the vile weed."  His note to Dr. House said in part:

Can you conceive of anything more monstrous and unprofessional than a roomful of doctors in an atmosphere of poisonous vapor, their lips puckered around a cigar or pipe stem, as they suck narcotic vapor from a weed?  Certainly not a picture that angels delight to look upon.

Dr. House was somewhat taciturn about the matter, the New-York Tribune saying he "did not go into the question very deeply."  He did confirm, however, that "as the majority of the physicians at the dinner desired to smoke, cigars had been provided."  And so, said the article, "Dr. Pease says he is sorry he can't attend, but he has a horror of gazing upon a roomful of doctors inhaling poison into their systems."

The Houses remained in 320 West 115th Street until 1910, when they moved into a home on West 78th Street.  In the meantime, 318 West 115th Street had been home to Civil War veteran A. Livingston Washburn and his wife, Rhoda.  Not coincidentally, Rhoda was the sister-in-law of Dr. Edwin D. Simpson.  She died in the West 115th Street house on August 13, 1907.

By 1914 the former Washburn home was being operated as a rooming house.  Living here that year was Jerome O'Driscoll.  A stenographer with the Civil Service Commission, he earned $1,050 per year, or about $29,500 in 2023 terms.

No. 320 West 115th Street, too, became a "furnished room house" after the Houses left.  Both it and 322 West 115th Street were operated by Louis E. Bowen, who lived in 320.

In 1911, a boarder in 320 West 115th Street, Professor G. G. Simonelli, advertised "Italian instruction, translations, researches; lessons at pupils' residence; only by appointment."  And the following year a resident, Herbert Eisenberg, was hired by the city as a "Searcher," with an annual salary of $1,050.  Like his next-door neighbor Jerome O'Driscoll, in 1914 Christian A. Merz was hired by the city as a Civil Service stenographer.  The government's pay scale was nothing if not consistent.  His salary was the same as O'Driscoll's and Eisenberg's.

In December 1920 all three houses were sold to Schutter Homes, Inc., which quickly sold them separately.  They continued to be operated as rooming houses for decades.  Not all of their tenants were upstanding citizens.

Fred Small lived in 318 West 115th Street in 1921.  The 40-year-old was a glassblower who had come to New York from Lynn, Massachusetts in 1920.  He caused an upheaval within the house on the night of March 6, 1921 when he came home drunk "and created a disturbance," according to The New York Times.  His landlady called the police who arrived with a patrol wagon.  "Small had barricaded himself in the bathroom," said the article, "turned on the gas and began tearing the fixtures from the walls and ceiling."  The three responding policemen forced the door open and "overpowered him after a struggle."  When the patrol wagon reached Harlem Hospital, Small was dead.  Dr. Brandstein said his death "was due to alcoholism and gas poisoning."

Four months later, one of the roomers at 320 West 115th Street was arrested.  Robert Umstead, who was 18 years old, was caught in Buffalo with two other men in a stolen car.  They had taken the vehicle from 44th Street and Broadway on June 13, and then used it for a crime spree.  On June 28, The New York Times reported that Umstead was one of the "three young men, believed by the police to be the trio of bandits who during the last month committed many hold-ups by means of an automobile between here and Niagara Falls [who] were locked up in Police Headquarters yesterday."  When apprehended, Umstead had two loaded revolvers on him.

All three stoops were intact in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

More respectable were Sam and Mary Young, who lived at 322 West 115th Street in the 1930s.  The young Irish-born couple ran the Old Log Cabin Grill at 103rd Street and Columbus Avenue, and the Log Cabin Hotel in Rockaway Beach.  The couple provided transportation from Manhattan to the hotel.  A 1934 advertisement said, "During the summer season buses will leave Young's Old Log Cabin Grill...every Friday."  It noted, "The Log Cabin Hotel is made up of nice, light, airy and large furnished rooms with the privilege of light housekeeping.  There is also an indoor and out-door restaurant where good home cooked meals are served at low prices."

Mary Young died on Christmas Eve, 1934.  Her wake was held in 322 West 115th Street.  Sam remained here for several more years.  

In the 1980s, a single room in 318 West 115th Street with "no cooking" cost $75 per week with two weeks' rent paid in advance and two weeks' security required.  Two doors away at 322 West 115th Street, rooms were slightly more expensive.  A well-worded advertisement in October 1983 was titled, "Is Harlem on your mind?" and offered "studios, ranging from $75 to $125 per week."  (The more expensive rent would translate to about $340 today.)

The West 115th Street neighborhood underwent significant change in the 21st century.  A renovation completed in 2012 resulted in two duplexes within 322 West 115th Street, and then in 2019 the house was reconverted to a single family home with one apartment in the basement.

The architects' released this rendering in 2015.  via newyorkyimby.com

In 2015 Madison Advisory Group announced plans to combine 218 and 220 West 115th Street and add two-stories set back from the roofline.  Designed by CTA Architects, the remodeled building contains six condominium apartments.

photograph by the author

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog