The 1889 "The Adrian" - 58 West 72nd Street

 

Terence Farley was among the pioneer developers of the Upper West Side, the Real Estate Record & Guide calling him "one of the most active builders in this city."  In 1888, he began construction on a flat and store building on the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue (soon renamed Columbus Avenue) and West 72nd Street.  The four upper floors would hold high-end apartments, the second floor six offices and a "bachelor apartment," and there would be four stores at ground level.

The equally-prolific architectural firm of Thom & Wilson had designed a blend of the Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles for the upscale building.  Its residential entrance would be located at 58 West 72nd Street, with a second doorway that accessed the second floor on Columbus Avenue.

Farley would not live to see his project completed.  His business was taken over by his sons, John T. and James A. Farley who forged on with the construction.  (Oddly enough, the Farleys operated both as Terence Farley's Sons, and J. F. & F. A. Farley.)  The structure was completed in 1889 and called The Adrian.  Upper West Side apartment buildings often were given enigmatic names--the Viola and the Sylvia, for instance.  Adrian, however, was almost assuredly a tribute to a real deceased little boy.  At the third floor on the Columbus Avenue elevation, terra cotta plaques, each designed with a shield, decorate the spandrels between the windows.  Two, however, are different,  They are a touching portrait of a young boy, about three years old, dressed in Victorian garb--quite likely a silent memorial.

The poignant bust of the little boy is haunting.

The residential entrance on 72nd Street was graced by a granite columned portico.  Residents entered a 45-foot long hallway.  "It is lighted by means of a stained-glass ceiling, looking out on a courtyard, which runs to the top of the building, and which also gives light to all the rear windows of the various suites of apartments above," said the Record & Guide on April 27 1889.  

There were two apartments per floor, each with nine rooms including "reception, music, dining and drawing rooms," three bedrooms, a servant's bedroom, a "bathroom with all the conveniences," and a "well-appointed" kitchen.  The reception rooms, according to the Record & Guide, "are handsomely fitted up with mantels of special design, with mirrors and fireplaces, andirons, etc.  The walls are covered with cartridge paper and the ceilings are decorated.  There is no attempt to be gaudy, nor is there anything to offend good taste."

The initial tenants of the ground floor stores were H. A. Casebeer's pharmacy, a real estate office, decorator shop, and a Western Union Telegraph Company office.  Terence Farley's Sons moved its offices into one of the second floor offices.  Other second floor tenants were also involved in the construction industry, including builders Francis Crawford, C. W. Luyster, and architect Ralph S. Townsend.  The Record & Guide pointed out "The Adrian is now managed by [Terence Farley's] sons, who have resolved to hold the property as an investment for the estate."

Among the early residents were the W. H. Busteed family.  Their son, Joseph, made an attempt to show off his wealth and sophistication on September 4, 1893, with disastrous results.  The Sun reported that the 21-year old "took three young women into the Manhattan Café on Monday evening and ordered a $15 dinner.  At the conclusion of the meal he ordered cigars for himself and 90 cents' worth of cigarettes for his companions.  Then he told the waiter to 'chalk it up.'"  (Joseph's bill would be in the neighborhood of $475 today.)

Joseph's grandiosity came to a quick and humiliation end.  The manager, John Dunson, refused to give him credit.  Busteen explained he had no money, and while his female companions did have cash on them, The Sun said "they declined to part with it."  Busteen was arrested.  When he appeared in court two days later, his father paid for the dinner and the young man was allowed to go free.

By 1897, the family of Eugene V. N. Bissell, a member of the auction firm E. Bissell & Son, lived in the Adrian.  He and Mary Valentine Yale had married in 1888 and the couple had three children.  According to the New York Herald, they had "two servants and a maid."  Unknown to her husband, Mary was spending lavishly.

The problem came to light in March 1897 when a dressmaker, Anna C. C. Zann, sued Bissell for $1,080 Mary had spent on gowns.  Six months later the New York Herald said "Soon other case came up against Bissell because of his wife's fondness for extravagance."  By now he was faced with $10,000 for dresses and flowers (nearly $320,000 today).  And now John T. Farley added $333.32 in past due rent to the debt.

Mary was forced to testify in court when the furriers Revillon Freres sued for unpaid bills.  Women across New York were no doubt shocked at her admitted extravagance.  On September 23 she was asked by a lawyer how often she wore a dress before she considered it useless.  She replied "Five times; sometimes not so often."

The Morning Telegraph said of her, "She soon acquired a reputation as a spendthrift and was known as 'the Lady of Violets,' owing to her fondness for adorning herself with the small but most costly blossoms...Mrs. Bissell was noted for her beauty.  She was a large, handsome blonde and frequently covered herself completely with violets."

The publicity ruined Bissell.  His father forced him out of the business "on account of my wife's extravagance," he explained.  He divorced Mary, who quickly remarried by 1899.

Another tenant who garnered unwanted publicity was stock broker Ross Miller Turner.  On May 17, 1903, he took a drive in Central Park in a runabout.  Suddenly his horse shied and fell to the ground.  In doing so it knocked Madeline Neubeck, a dressmaker, to the pavement as well.  "The horse kicked her in the leg, but she was not badly hurt," reported The Sun.  An ambulance surgeon (the equivalent of today's EMT) dressed her wounds and everyone went on their way.

Turner's name was back in the newspapers the following year.  Just as today, the weekend crowds headed to the beach were significant.  On Sunday, August 21, 1904, the 31-year-old waited for the elevated train to Coney Island with a friend, Newell Blass.  The Daily Standard Union said "Mr. Turner and Mr. Blass made two of an immense waiting crowd."  When the train pulled in, it was packed so Turner "tried to get a seat on an 'L' train by jumping through a window."  He was immediately "hauled out" by a policeman.  Blass bailed him out of jail.

When he appeared in court to pay his $3 fine, the judge reprimanded him severely.  "I should think that you, an evidently well educated and apparently sensible man, would be deeply ashamed of having shown such greed for a seat.  In a crowd such as goes to Coney Island on Sunday afternoon it is the place of such men as you to set an example.  Consider the result, if all men of your pattern acted as you have done."

By 1912, the apartment of opera singer Bertrand de Bernyz doubled as his vocal training studio.  In an advertisement in September that year he called himself "the renowned European Grand Opera and Concern Singer and Director."  Within three years he used the apartment, as well, as the headquarters of the Bertrand de Bernyz Opera, Oratorio and Concert Society, which gave concerts at the Hotel Majestic.

De Bernyz was also the president of the American Opera Organization, "founded to aid needy American talent and to provide opportunities for the same," according to the New-York Tribune.  Among those was Roland-Douvall de Martinez-Campus whom de Bernyz described as "a great tenor voice of exceptional quality and volume, who has all the qualifications necessary to become a successful rival to Caruso."  The New-York Tribune announced on March 21, 1915, "Professor de Bernyz invites all interested in hearing this newly discovered voice...to attend the public operatic rehearsals held every Saturday afternoon at 5 o'clock in Studio Hall, 58 West Seventy-second Street."

De Bernyz became involved in a tangled custody case in 1921.  Among his students was 11-year old Bessie Connell Harring, "a singer whose voice can reach above high C," according to the Daily News on May 29.  She had lived with her widowed father, Thomas H. Cornell, an engineer, until he became seriously ill and was confined to the Harlem Hospital.  Bertrand de Berynz agreed to take the girl into his care.

But Bessie's maternal grandmother, Martha Connell, had other ideas.  After the girl disappeared from The Adrian, she was found with Mrs. Connell.  (Martha was charged with disorderly conduct for the kidnapping.)  The grandmother insisted she wanted custody because "she loves her granddaughter as much as anybody."  De Bernyz accused her of wanting to start her "on a professional career now."

On May 29, 1921 the Daily News reported "King Solomon was outdone by Magistrate John E. McGeehan in West Side Court yesterday.  When a controversy, based on the age-old theme, 'who gets the child?' came before the Magistrate, he settled it by taking the child into his own custody."

Obscured by a fire escape, a niche on the Columbus Avenue side is graced with a stylized potted flower.

In 1935, one of the second floor offices was leased by dentist Alex Paigen.  At around 11:00 on the morning of December 3, four young men entered.  One told the assistant, Rae Sharet, he needed dental attention.  Dr. Paigen was working on a patient, so the men calmly read magazines until the patient left.  They then pulled out guns.  The New York Times reported they "held up the dentist and his assistant, binding them to chairs with twine."  They took $35 from Rae's purse and $160 from the doctor's wallet "and walked quietly down the stairs and into Seventy-second Street."  

The Adrian was renovated in 1938, resulting in five apartments per floor.  That configuration lasted until 1998 when a penthouse level, invisible from the street, was added.  Once again there were two apartments each on the third through fifth floors, and three duplexes above.

In the meantime, beginning around 1980, a Charivari store occupied one of the ground floor spaces for at least a decade.   Another space was occupied by Diane's, which offered one of "the best choices for hamburgers," according to The New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton on December 31, 1982.  In December 1997, Ordning & Reda opened a store in 253 Columbus Avenue.  Its wide variety of stationery products--diaries, address books, portfolios, photo albums and such--were designed and handmade in Sweden."

Although the ground floor shops have been extensively altered, the upper floors of The Adrian are strikingly intact, including the haunting portraits of the young boy who has looked out onto Columbus Avenue for more than 130 years.

photographs by the author

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The Lost St. Clement's Church -- 108 West 3rd Street

On July 26, 1830 the parish of St. Clement's Protestant Episcopal Church was officially organized.  Only three days later the cornerstone of its church building was laid at 108 Amity Street, between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets, in Greenwich Village.  (Amity Street would be renamed West Third Street in 1858.)  

The property had been donated by Thomas L. Servoss, "a wealthy businessman," according to The Sun.  Decades later, the New-York Tribune would recall, "At that time, the section was a choice portion of the city.  It contained the homes of many of New York's wealthiest and most respected families, many of whom were members of St. Clement's."

The structure was completed at a cost of $32,000 (nearly $920,000 today) and consecrated on May 5, 1831.  A stark departure from the ubiquitous Greek temple design, St. Clement's was styled in the new Gothic Revival style.  Two six-sided, crenellated towers flanked a double-height portico with graceful ogival arches and delicate, pencil-thin columns.  Both the portico and the gable shared the crenellation of the towers.

The revolutionary architecture quickly met with condemnation.  The Sun later reported, "In a few months it was decided the church was unfit for use and it should be torn down."  The concern was "that an attempt was being made to introduce so called 'Romish practices and doctrines'" and "The church attained much notoriety as a result," said the article.  However, "In about two years this was forgotten and St. Clement's went on as before."

Among the early members of the congregation were Edgar Allan Poe and his wife, Virginia.  The newlyweds (they were married in October 1830) had arrived in New York in February 1831 and lived "in a little frame house," according to The Sun years later, across the street from the church.  The newspaper said, "St. Clement's was the first Episcopal church in the city to have a vested choir and it is said the child wife of Poe often sat at the open window of their humble rooms to listen to the strains of music which floated across narrow Amity street from St. Clement's."

Interestingly, there was just one burial vault below the church, that of the Pintard family.  John Pintard, a wealthy merchant, is best remembered for founding the New-York Historical Society.  Pintard had the remains of his family removed from the old French graveyard on Pine Street to this vault.  He died on June 21, 1844, the last of the Pintards to be interred here.

In 1851, the organ originally built for St. John's Chapel in 1814 was installed in St. Clement's Church.   The 1909 Historical Guide to the City of New York would recall, "It was captured by the British and ransomed for $2,000."  

Like other congregations, St. Clement's threw its support behind Union troops during the Civil War.  On November 20, 1861, The New York Times reported on gifts being sent to injured soldiers.  The article said, "From the Ladies' Aid Association of St. Clement's Church, repeated evidences of liberality in well-chosen gifts for patients, and recently a large and valuable case containing pillows, cushions, &c., &c."

The church's assistant rector, Rev. Treadwell Walden, was appointed to a six-man "Committee of Inquiry" by the United States Sanitary Commission on May 19, 1864.  The other members were three eminent physicians (Dr. Valentine Mott, Dr. Ellerile Wallace and Dr. Edward Delafield) a district court judge and  diplomat Gouverneur Morris Wilkins.  Their purpose was to investigate "the terrible reports of suffering" in Southern military prisons.

The men traveled to enemy territory, gathered information, and published their findings in October 1864.  Their reports of "tens of thousands of brave men suffering under anguish as great as mortal can endure," according to The New York Times, resulted in a humanitarian agreement between the Union and Confederacy.  On October 28 the newspaper explained the plan permitted the Union Government "to send necessary supplies of food, clothing and medicines to the starving, naked and sick brave men whom the fortunes of war have placed in the power of the rebels."  In return, the Confederacy were allowed to "purchase abroad" supplies needed for prisoners held by the Union.

In the decade following the end of the war, well-to-do families moved further north along Fifth Avenue.  On December 12, 1875, Rev. Theodore A. Eaton spoke on the history of the church in his sermon.  "It was founded 45 years ago, when the locality in which the church edifice stands was one of the fashionable quarters of New York," he said.  But, as The New York Times noted, "The  gradual moving of private residences up town had taken away most of the wealthy members, and to-day there were but seven families connected with the church which worshiped there when the Rector began his ministry, twenty-five years ago."

from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The passage of time did not improve the situation.  On November 24, 1900, in reporting on the congregation's 70th anniversary, the New-York Tribune noted, "When St. Clement's was built it was surrounded by the private houses of many rich families.  St. Clement's finds itself now in an undesirable cosmopolitan population, near to factories and business houses."

The Sun added, "Houses formerly occupied by wealthy families [are] now tenanted by the poor.  Those people looked to St. Clement's not only for religious consolidation but also for financial aid."

As the neighborhood declined, Bishop Henry C. Potter led the push "to put the property to larger use," according to The Sun on September 4, 1909.  But the rector of St. Clement's, Rev. Edward H. Van Winkle, fought back, recognizing the parish's importance to the poor.  With his death on August 30, 1909, the only impediment to the diocese's plans was removed.  The Sun reported, "The vestry of St. Clement's Episcopal church in Third street is puzzled to know what to do with the property, estimated to be worth $250,000...The building has long been in a dilapidated condition."

A vestryman told the reporter from The Sun, "The church is falling to pieces and it is not wise to repair it.  There are a few loyal people, poor it is true, but they cannot be abandoned.  The property is theirs more than it is that of anybody else."

It did not take the diocese long to make a decision.  In June 1910 the remains of the Pintard family were moved to St. Michael's Cemetery in Queens, and demolition of the architecturally ground-breaking edifice began soon afterwards.  On August 13, 1911, The Sun reported, "The old church was razed last year as it was in danger of falling down.  Its site is now vacant, but it is supposed it will eventually be improved with big flats similar to those adjoining it on either side."

image via dp-plus.us

Today the site is occupied by New York University Law School's D'Agostino Hall.

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Theater History - The John A. Duff House - 33 West 10th Street

 

To the right, the seamless addition that took the place of a passageway to the rear can be seen.

In 1832 William Ewing erected a two-and-a-half story house at 33 Amos Street in Greenwich Village.  (In 1857 the street would be renamed West 10th Street.)  Sitting atop a brownstone basement level, it was faced in Flemish-bond red brick.  Typical of the Federal style, the attic floor featured one or two dormers which poked through the peaked roof.

Ewing's residency was not overly long.  By 1840 the family of James Jacobs lived at 33 Amos Street.  He was a partner in the drygoods firm of Jacobs, Pierce & Fuller downtown.  The funeral of 13-year-old Caroline Dyer Jacobs was held in the parlor on April 30, 1841.

Almost immediately afterward the Jacobs family moved to West 12th Street.  The Amos Street house was now home to the Bussing family.  Thomas P. Bussing was a member of the Public School Society, and was head of the Mechanics' School on Crosby Street.  The institution was founded in 1820 by the General Society of Mechanics' and Tradesmen to provide education to children of its deceased or "unfortunate" members.

In the 1850's Moses L. Lion, a partner in Lion & Brother jewelers, lived here.  It was almost assuredly Lion who gave the outdated Federal style house Greek Revival updates.  The attic was raised to a full floor, the parlor windows were extended, and a modillioned cornice added.  Perhaps most significant was the closing in of the horsewalk, or alleyway, that led to the rear yard.  The narrow passage was converted to an extension of the house.

Around 1867 John A. Duff purchased 33 West 10th Street.  Born in Ireland on March 10, 1820, he had was married to the former Mary O'Rourke.  The couple had nine children. 

After trying several occupations, Duff had gone into the restaurant business.  He was a partner in the popular Crook & Duff restaurant on Park Row.  Then, around 1859, he went into theater management, beginning with the Olympic Theatre.

John Duff's family was closely associated with his business.  In 1868 one of his daughters married James E. Hayes, who had  begun his career in 1863 as a scenic artist at the Olympic Theatre.  The New York Herald said of him "Among the members of his profession he ranked high, especially as a painter of interior scenes, where skillfulness in perspective is necessary.  He was also remarkably successful in delineating statuary."  Marrying the boss's daughter was professionally advantageous and Duff made him manager of the Olympic Theatre.  

The following year, on January 7, Mary D. Duff married playwright and critic Augustin Daly.  He and his new father-in-law partnered in Daly's Theatre and, for a while, in the Grand Opera House.  Regarding the latter venture, theater manager Commodore Tooker recalled in 1885 that John Duff "was the front legs of Mr. Daly with hind legs of the white elephant that it was supposed to be.  Mr. Daly managed the stage and Mr. Duff was in the office."

Duff's son, James C. Duff, following closely in his father's professional footsteps.  Known in the industry as "young Mr. Duff," he had made his mark in American theater when he returned from England with a copy of the new operetta, H. M. S. Pinafore.  The Sun's theater critic, W. J. Henderson later recalled, "America discovered Gilbert and Sullivan and the English type of 'comic opera' established itself on Broadway."

On August 16, 1884, The New York Times reported James C. Duff had returned from "the wild dissipations of Saratoga" and announced he had leased the old Standard Theatre.  He told reporters, "I am going to establish it as a sort of home for opera comique."  Rechristened the New Standard Theatre, it opened on December 23 with Franz von Suppe's Trip to Africa.

On the afternoon of March 30, 1889 the 69-year-old John A. Duff was sitting at his desk in the Standard Theatre when he suffered a stroke.  The following day The New York Times reported, "he is now lying in a precarious condition at his residence, 33 West Tenth-street...The entire left side is paralyzed, and Mr. Duff is unable to speak or to move either his left leg or arm."  The article noted, "His wife and all his children were with him excepting James C. Duff, who was in Baltimore, but had been telegraphed for."

John A. Duff died at around 2:00 in the morning.  The New York Clipper said, "His death was peaceful."  His funeral in the Church of St. Francis Xavier took place on April 2.  James had made it back from Baltimore in time.  The New York Times noted, "All the members of Mr. Duff's family were present except his youngest daughter, Maggie Duff, who is a Sister of Mercy, connected with the Convent of the Sacred Heart."

The church was crowded not only with theatrical figures--managers like Daniel Frohman and famous thespians including Lillian Russell, John Drew and Ada Rehan--but important civic leaders like William R. Grace and Eugene Kelly.

Still living in the West 10th Street house with Mary were John J. Duff, and James C. Duff and his family.  He was married to the former Augusta Cogan, and the couple had two children, Rufus and Mary Margaret.  John J. Duff died on October 10, 1900 and his funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

On October 21, 1912, Augusta took Mary Margaret, who was 10 years old, uptown to Durland's Riding Academy near Central Park.  While Mary took her riding lessons, Augusta headed to her French lesson.  The New York Herald reported, "As she was about to enter a school of languages, at No. 100 West Seventy-sixth street," Augusta "suddenly collapsed and fell to the ground.  Before the arrival of Dr. Oler, of the Polyclinic Hospital, she was dead."  As had been the case with her father-in-law, the 40-year-old was the victim of a major stroke.

James and Mary Margaret continued to live at 33 West 10th Street.  On June 5, 1921 the New York Herald announced, "Only relatives and a few intimate friends have been asked to the marriage of Miss Margaret Duff, daughter of Mr. James C. Duff...to Mr. Lafayette Page Jr."  The ceremony took place three days later in St. Francis Xavier's Church, which had played such an important part of the Duff family over the decades.

In 1924 Duff hired architect S. Edson Gage to create apartments in the house which had been his home since childhood.  He lived on in one of the seven apartments.

Despite his advancing age, James C. Duff continued working.  In 1927 he staged a new production of The Beggars Opera.  The following year, on September 1, 1928, he died in the West 10th Street house of a stroke at the age of 73.  

A renovation completed in 1995 returned the venerable house to a single-family home.

photographs by the author

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Charm and Drama - 353-355 West 30th Street

The entrance today was originally a shared carriageway to the rear yard.

In 1861, George A. Harriot and his wife, the former Julia Sumners, purchased the newly built house at 353 West 30th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.  It was one of what appeared to be two mirror image, Italianate homes.  The architect, however, had creatively fooled the eye.  The Harriot house was just 19-feet wide, while its fraternal twin at 353 was an ample 26-feet.  The difference was necessary to accommodate the "carriage-way"--a pathway that tunneled through the middle of the properties to the rear yard.

Harriot was an inspector for the city.  He and Julia had two daughters, Georgiana and Susan (known familiarly as Susie).  Both would become teachers.  Susie taught in Primary School No. 24 on Horatio Street in 1868, and her younger sister Georgiana began teaching in Grammar School No. 16 on West 13th Street in 1876.

Any happiness the family had over Georgiana's new job turned to sorrow that year.  Shortly after falling ill that winter, George died on December 3, 1876 at the age of 65.  His funeral was held in the house three days later.

Julia now took in boarders to supplement her income.  In 1871 Dr. Daniel H. Kitchen lived with the family, and the following year another physician, Stephen M. Roberts rented a room.  Julia's advertisement in November 1873 read, "A private family will let two connecting rooms, furnished, on parlor floor, to one or two responsible gentlemen; location desirable."

Her boarder in 1878, Louis M. Tucker, was not so "responsible."  Although The New York Times described him as being "about 24 years of age, prepossessing in appearance, and is said to be of good family," his character, or at least his judgment, was flawed.  On October 6, The Sun reported, "The Rev. Joseph D. Hull and family went into the country on the 20th of June last, leaving their elegantly furnished house in charge of Louise M. Tucker, a young man in the grocery business."  The practice of entrusting someone to check on one's house during an extended absence was both common and practical.  But the minister had chosen the wrong man for the job.

The Sun explained, "the residence of Rev. Joseph Hull was turned into a club house.  It became a scene of the wildest dissipation, the drunken members sleeping off their liquor on the elegant furniture."  The group that had started as Tucker and three male friends, was enlarged with the inclusion of "five young women from Boston."  The revelries continued throughout the summer.

By September, Tucker had to deal with the fact that the Hulls would soon be returning.  On September 11, The New York Times reported, "Mr. Hull received from Tucker a letter informing him that his house had been broken into and robbed."  And he had the insolence to ask for "a remittance to meet the expense of searching for the burglars."  Hull rushed home to find between $300 and $400 of jewelry and clothing missing.  It did not take long to discover the truth.  Hull questioned his neighbors who said they had been shocked by the "boisterous revelry."  Tucker was arrested for grand larceny, but was released on a lack of evidence that he had stolen the items.

Julia died on November 6, 1891.  The house was inherited jointly by her daughters.

In the meantime, the larger house next door had been home to Eli French, a book dealer on Nassau Street, until 1869 when it was purchased by Margaret Wilson Petrie, the widow of merchant David Petrie.  Moving in with her was the family of her daughter and son-in-law, Margaret Louise and Alexander Buchanan.  They had four children, Theodore David, Alexina Louise, and Marcella.  Tragically, only months after moving in Theodore died "suddenly" on May 18, 1870.

Alexander Buchanan was a physician, and his office was installed on the ground floor.  His wife later described, "The office did not take up the whole of the front.  There was the carriage-way in the front; also a hall by the side of the office reaching to the street."  The couple's daughters enjoyed a life of privilege.  Julia would recall in 1901 that they had "private teachers," including "a governess, and French, music and German teachers."  

Margaret Petrie died on May 13, 1872.  Although the house was inherited by her son, John, he transferred it to the Buchanans in 1875.  

The family nearly lost their home on October 31, 1884.  The furnace was lit for the first time that fall, but according to The Eagle the servants "neglected to see that the shaft leading from the heater in the cellar to the second floor was clear."  Fire broke out on the first floor.  The article said, "The doctor, his wife and three daughters slept on the second floor, and two servants on the third.  All were roused from sleep soon after midnight by the thickening smoke, and dressing hastily reach the street more or less overcome."

It took firefighters "some effort" to extinguish the blaze, which was confined to the first floor.  The damage to Buchanan's office and library was estimated at about $80,000 in today's money.  "The Doctor to-day is confined to his bed, suffering from the effects of the smoke and exposure of the night," said The Eagle.

Things in the Buchanan household were tense at the time.  Margaret had been domineering since her marriage in 1853.  Alexander's brother, James, later testified that none of the extended family was allowed to visit.  "Mrs. Buchanan had said she would not have a Buchanan enter her house, and so she was 'out' with all the members of the family of her husband."  Dr. Buchanan visited his family in their own homes, but told them "it was better" than they not come to his.

Dr. Buchanan's niece added that she once confronted Margaret saying, "I have been told that you many years ago ill-treated my uncle with force--you and your old mother--that you fell upon him and beat him and left him in an almost dying condition."  At one point, she said, Alexander Buchanan had told her, "I have lived a life of hell for thirty-five years, and I cannot stand it any longer."

Finally, on August 24, 1887, Dr. Buchanan walked out of 355 West 30th Street and never returned.  Margaret later testified, "I never saw him again."  Buchanan moved into the house of the widow Kate M. Foster and her daughter on West 71st Street.

In the summer of 1897 Dr. Buchanan became ill.  Realizing he would not survive, he told his brother "that he did not want his wife or children to know of his death or to attend his funeral," according to The Sun.  He died on September 2, leaving the bulk of his estate, including $20,000 in real estate, to Kate Foster.  He left than $50 to Margaret and $5 to each of his daughters.

It precipitated a storm of law suits by Margaret Buchanan against Kate Foster that dragged on past the turn of the century.  She sued to recover the estate and sought $50,000 damages for the alienation of her husband's affections.

Margaret and Marcella, who never married, lived on in the house for decades.  Margaret Louise died at the age of 88 on January 13, 1921.  After being in the family for nearly six decades, Marcella sold 355 West 30th Street in 1926.

The Harriot family, too, had retained possession of their home.  In reporting that Georgiana had sold 353 West 30th Street in October 1926, the New York Evening Post noted, "This is the first sale of this property since 1861."

A renovation in 1934 joined the two houses internally and converted them to apartments.  The former carriage way was incorporated into the structure and now became the entrance. 

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Living in a ground floor apartment in 1981 were Frank Regman and Richard Williams.  On the night of February 10 a 25-year old man, Wilson Torres, broke in through their unlocked door, brandishing a gun and demanding money.  After Williams handed over cash, Torres shot the 65-year-old in the back.  In reaction, Regman, who was 63, grabbed a knife and lunged at the intruder.  He, too, was shot, but not before he fatally stabbed Torres.  Both roommates survived.

Despite the alterations, the combined houses with more than their fair share of drama, retain their 1860 charm.

photographs by the author

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The Marcus Englander House - 262 East 78th Street

 

Following the end of the Civil War, Jacob Hirsch and Moses Leopold were partners in a fancy goods business at 90 Chambers Street.  Their relationship was so close (or perhaps their finances so tight) that in 1870 the men and their families shared the newly completed house at 262 East 78th Street.  They had a significant commute to work.  East 78th Street had existed only on paper until 1860, and their home--one of a row of identical speculative houses--was among the first wave of construction in the Yorkville district.  Hirsch and Leopold would have taken the Second Avenue streetcar line, opened in 1858, into the city.

The narrow house (just 16 feet wide), was typical of the Italianate style residences rising throughout the city.  Faced in brownstone, it rose three stories above the English basement.  The impressive arched entrance featured double doors with arched windows, topped by an ample transom.  Scrolled and foliate brackets rose from paneled pilasters to uphold an arched pediment.  The molded architrave window surrounds sat upon diminutive brackets.  The design was completed by a cast metal cornice with paired brackets and paneled frieze.

The two families left East 78th Street in 1871 and the house became home to Marcus Englander, his wife, Mariam, and their five children.  Englander was a well-to-do jeweler, a partner with Simon Adler in Englander & Adler at 180 Broadway.

Despite what must have already been crowded conditions, in 1875 the Englanders took in boarders, Mary de Leenheer and her daughter, Josephine.  Mary was the widow of Casimir de Leenheer, who had owned a bakery and candy shop on East 19th Street.  Josephine was teaching in the Boys' Department of Grammar School 53 on East 79th Street, near Third Avenue.  She earned $708 per year in 1876, or about $17,500 today.

Saratoga, New York, was a popular summer resort among Manhattan's wealthy citizens.  During the season of 1876 Englander opened what today might be called a "pop-up" store there--a temporary branch of his upscale jewelry shop.  On September 15, with the season over, Englander packed the unsold stock in a trunk, and took it to the Saratoga railroad station "with instructions to forward it to his residence," explained the New York Herald.  He was understandably panicked when the trunk never arrived.  The newspaper noted the truck contained "diamonds and jewelry valued at $22,000"--more than half a million in today's dollars.

Police discovered a watch, part of the inventory, in a pawn shop, which led them to William McKenzie, a waiter in the Grand Union Hotel.  According to his story, he was returning to New York from Albany when "he was accosted by two men...who said they were coming to this city, and as they were strangers, requested him to take their check for a trunk and bring it to his house, where they would call for it and give him $10."

McKenzie--if his story were true--should have had his suspicions raised when, as an incentive, the men gave him "a pair of diamond earrings, two watches, a neck chain, two pair of bracelets and several plain gold rings."  McKenzie said he no longer had the trunk, that it had been picked up and taken to Philadelphia.  Police there were notified.  New York Police Sergeant Keely advised, "the remainder of the stolen jewelry is without doubt in their possession."  It is doubtful that Englander got much of the valuable booty back.

The Englanders sold 262 East 78th Street in March 1879 to J. Rosenstrauch, whose surname reflected the increasingly German population of the Yorkville area.   The house was purchased at auction on April 12, 1892 by Lena Fried, who resold it in 1897 to Moses Mayer.  The $8,500 price would equal about $250,000 today.

The parlor was the scene of Amalia Mayer's funeral five years later, on December 3, 1897.  She was the wife of Salomon Mayer, and presumably the daughter-in-law of Moses.

As the Englanders had done, the Mayers took in a boarder.  In 1898 Dr. Charles Hush lived with the family.  The 44-year-old suffered a somewhat embarrassing accident on May 30 that year.  He was riding his bicycle at Lexington Avenue and 50th Street at noon when he pedaled headlong into a cable car.  The New York Herald reported, "He received a scalp wound and was removed to the Presbyterian Hospital."

While he retained possession of 262 East 78th Street, Mayer and his family moved out in 1914.  On April 15 the New-York Tribune reported he had leased it "for a term of years."  Sometime prior to 1921 it was purchased by Dora Schnelle.   

In 1922 two servants (most likely the only staff) were seeking new positions.  Their advertisement read: "Cook, German couple, general houseworker, except laundry; moderate wages."

Most likely because of its narrow proportions, 262 East 78th Street was not divided into apartments until 1966, when a renovation resulted in two duplexes.   One of the initial residents was William Cunningham, a graduate of the United States Military Academy.  He was appointed to "one of the top positions in the New York City transportation agency" in 1966 by Mayor John Lindsay, according to Assembly magazine.

Although the brownstone has been painted white, overall the house is in a remarkable state of preservation.

photographs by the author

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The Rose Hill M. E. Church (St. Illuminator's) - 221 East 27th Street

 

John Watts, Sr. served in the Colonial government--a member of the Colonial Assembly and of the King's Council.  The Watts country estate, Rose Hill, covered more than 130 acres from the East River to what would become Park Avenue, from 21st to about 30th Street.  By the time his son, John Watts, Jr., died in 1836, he had already begun parceling off portions of the Rose Hill estate, as the expanding city slowly encroached on the district.

On August 15, 1842 a single-sentence article appeared in The Evening Post:  "The corner stone of the Methodist Episcopal Mission church on Rose Hill is to be laid this afternoon at 4 o'clock."  The site, purchased in February 1842, was on the north side of East 27th Street, between Second and Third Avenues.

The church would have a permanent home after years of having moved around.  Years later, 1885, The New York Times would recall, "The church had its origin in School No. 24, of the old Female Union Society, which was organized in 1824.  The meetings were then held in the house of Joseph Brewster, on what was then the Boston road, where Thirty-fifth-street crosses Lexington-avenue."  It then moved to O'Dell's tavern near 31st Street and Lexington Avenue, and around 1830 into the Disbrow Academy, on 28th Street near Third Avenue.  The congregation was incorporated as The Methodist Episcopal Mission Church at Rose Hill on April 13, 1835.  

The building was completed within the year, at a cost of $7,000--around a quarter of a million in today's dollars.  It was dedicated by the Rev. Dr. Stephen Olin, President of Wesleyan University.  The congregants would not enjoy their new home for long, however.

Just after midnight on November 18, 1848, fire broke out in the large livery stables of J. & M. Murphy, at the corner of 27th Street and Third Avenue.  The blaze spread quickly and before help could arrive at least 115 horses had died, and scores of omnibuses, sleighs and carriages were destroyed.  The inferno spread down the block, The Evening Post reporting, "The flames extended to and destroyed the Rose Hill Twenty-seventh street Methodist Church, Public School No. 15, and one or two brick and frame dwelling houses on the same block, and opposite the stables."

A new church building was erected within a year's time.  The somewhat severe Greek Revival style structure was faced in red brick.  Four large antae, or pilasters, projected slightly away from the facade.  The entrance sat within an enclosed portico.

The original entrance was strait-laced.  To the right is Public School 14.  photo by Samuel Landsman, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

As was the case with most churches, the female members threw themselves into the war effort following the outbreak of the "War of the Rebellion."  They organized the Rose Hill Soldiers' Aid Society, and on October 31, 1862, The New York Times reported, "A reunion of the most cordial character took place on Wednesday evening in the Rose Hill Methodist Episcopal Church.  Its object was to assist, by subscription and immediate donation of money, the self-sacrificing and patriotic efforts of the Society of ladies."

Scattered among the "patriotic glees" and short speeches were testimonials from "the poor invalids themselves, who came forth maimed and halt to bear witness to the worthiness of the appealing cause."  They spoke of the mistreatment in prison camps, the appalling lack of sanitation, and the happiness gifts of "wines, brandies and jellies" brought to the soldiers.  The newspaper said, "a spirit of generosity was aroused quite unusual in a meeting of the kind."

The men, too, responded.  The New York Times would eventually report, "Fifty-three members of the church and Sunday school enlisted in the service, seven of whom died in battle."

In the mid-1870's the church offered its auditorium for meetings of The Universal Peace Union.  The group turned its attention to the Indian Wars during a meeting on January 17, 1876.  One speaker, A. B. Meacham, had served as a missionary to the Modoc tribe.  "He accused the Government of having violated its promises to the Modocs," reported The New York Times.  "Fifteen days after the armistice with the Indians had been made, he said, and while it was still in full force, it was broken by the Army of the United States, seizing the Modocs' horses and keeping them in spite of all remonstrance."

As the decades passed, the Rose Hill neighborhood filled with tenements.  In one of them, at 492 Second Avenue, lived Bella Cooke, perhaps the church's most well-known congregant.  She joined the church in 1847 and had dedicated her life to helping the impoverished families around her.  Later, her doctor, Mrs. Joseph Pullman, would write, "When Mrs. Cooke went to live at No. 492 Second Avenue there were green fields stretching down to the river.  When the neighborhood became what it is--noisy and crowded--her children wanted to move her away."  But Bella could not be moved.  A spinal affliction made her bedridden in the 1850's.

Bella Cooke distributed charity from the bed in which she was confined for more than half a century.  from Rifted Clouds, or The Lift Story of Belle Cooke, 1909 (copyright expired)

Born in England in 1821, she and her husband had come to America a few years after their marriage.  He died of cholera shortly after arriving in New York.  When Bella's spinal condition became so bad that her doctors informed her she would never even sit up again, she turned her attention to helping the poor.  She provided money to needy neighbors and her work became known to wealthy socialites.  "The rich made her their almoner, and through her the poor received coals, clothing, food and money."

In 1897 a special "jubilee" service was held in Rose Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, celebrating Bella's 50th anniversary of membership.  In its January issue, The Record of Christian Work wrote, "Though having nothing, she possessed all things, and besides helping the church constantly from then till now, she has been made by hundreds of wealthy people in this city the medium of relieving thousands of needy sick and starving people."

In August 1900 renovations were made to the church by the architectural firm of James E. Ware & Son.  The modifications, costing nearly $24,000 in today's money, were relegated to the interior.

When Bella Cooke died on November 18, 1908 at the age of 87, she had been removed from her bed only twice in more than half a century.  Newspapers across the city reported on the funeral of Bella Cooke in the Rose Hill Methodist Episcopal Church.  The New York Herald said, "The church was filled with friends of the dead woman, many children among them," and noted she was "known as the 'Second Mother of the Children of Second Avenue.'"  Among the floral tributes was a wreath of orchids from Mrs. Frederick Vanderbilt; a cross of white roses, orchids and lilies-of-the-valley from Catherine Bliss; and lilies from Mary Callender.  The Daily Tribune wrote, "Among those who looked into her coffin were some who were rich and some who were poor.  Behind a woman in rich furs walked a bareheaded, white-haired woman in a faded shawl."

In 1915 the congregation merged with the Crawford Memorial Church, and on February 21 the New-York Tribune reported, "Justice Page has signed an order permitting the Rose Hill Methodist Episcopal Church to sell its church property, at 221 East Twenty-seventh Street, for $50,000, and to apply the proceeds to paying off a mortgage on the Derbyshire apartments, at 217 and 219 East Twenty-seventh Street, adjoining the church and owned by it."

The building became home to the Armenian-language St. Illuminator's Church, founded in 1910 after a schism within St. Gregory the Illuminator resulted in two congregations.  

It was the starting-off point of a parade on Saturday, November 10, 1917.  President Woodrow Wilson had declared it "tag day," in response to the mass genocide of Armenians and Syrians by the Ottoman Empire.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, "In line were 3,500 Armenians and Syrians who succeeded in escaping the wholesale massacre in Armenia, 200 girls from the Teachers College, Columbia University, and 300 Camp Fire Girls.

It was not until October 1920 that the title of the building was transferred from Crawford Memorial Methodist to the congregation of St. Illuminator's.

On August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding suffered a fatal heart attack.   A high mass was held in St. Illuminator's Apostolic church on August 12, The New York Times saying, "During the requiem, which is used by the Armenians only on rare occasions, every member of the congregation remained standing and each held a lighted candle.  The latter is for the illumination of the soul."

The church was closed for a year in 2008 for major renovations.  On August 31, 2009, upon its reopening, The Armenian Weekly noted, "The Mayr Yegeghetzi has always been known as the 'Ellis Island' to New York's Armenian immigrants because of the very important role it played in welcoming them to Manhattan from all over the world."  On September 19 His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Eastern United Sates led the re-consecration services.

Unlike its neighborhood, other than the remodeled entrance portico, the appearance of the nearly 175-year old church is little changed.

photographs by the author

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W. J. Merritt's 1896 123 West 95th Street

 

In the summer of 1886, developer Charles A. Bouton embarked on a project of six rowhouses on West 95th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.  His choice of architects was interesting.  William J. Merritt & Co. was a prolific developer on the Upper West Side, occasionally acting as its own architect.  When plans were filed on August 6 the architect of record was W. J. Merritt & Co.--normally considered a competitor of Bouton.

Each of the narrow houses--some were 16 feet and the others 17 feet wide--would cost $10,000 to construct, more than a quarter of a million dollars today.  The row was completed in 1887.  Among the 17-foot-wide homes was 123 West 95th Street, a blend of the Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles.  It shared a stoop (divided by a solid wall) with its neighbor at 125.  The basement and parlor floors of both houses were clad in rough-cut brownstone, their entrances topped with blocky voussoirs.   But there the similarities essentially stopped.

A dramatic, full-height rounded bay rose turret-like to a brick parapet above the dentiled cornice at 123 West 95th.  The windows of the interior hallways of the brick-faced upper floors were noticeably reduced--beginning at about chest height.

Boulton sold the house to Mary V. Terry on March 10, 1888 for $18,000--around $505,000 in today's money--initiating a game of real estate hot potato.  Mary lost it in foreclosure that December.  It was sold at auction to Walter Scott for $14,300, who sold it the following month to Albion L. Warner for $16,000.  

Warner owned four other West 95th Street houses, all of this he leased.  Living here in the 1890's was the family of I. L. Lersner.  A pharmacist, Lersner was prominent among the Jewish community.  He would sit on the sub-committee for the erection of The McKinley Memorial in 1902 to honor the assassinated President.  But he was perhaps best known outside of his druggist work, for translating and publishing the Rules and Regulation of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1878.  

The West 95th Street house was the scene of an important social function on February 12, 1900.  Hannah Leonore Lersner was married to Julius Siegel in the drawing room at noon that day.  "After the ceremony there was a breakfast, followed by a reception," reported the New-York Tribune.  The house was filled with some of the most socially important names in Jewish society, including Schwab, Bachman, and Flesichman.

Albion L. Warner sold 123 West 95th Street in May 1904 to Marcus F. Bender.  Interestingly, he, too, was a pharmacist, having started in the business in the 1860's.  His Chelsea drugstore was at 357 West 14th Street, at the corner of Ninth Avenue.

His purchase of the house may have been prompted by a recent windfall.  The American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record explained that he "inherited a modest fortune from his relatives in Syracuse."

Born in 1849 in Syracuse, New York, Bender had started out working the drugstore of Charles H. Bell, at Bleecker and Charles Street, as a boy.   He and his wife now had two grown children, Lucia H. and Dr. Leach H. Bender.

Bender suffered a fatal stroke in the house on January 28, 1907.  He was only 58 years old.  His will hinted at tensions between him and his son.  The American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record reported that his store, "will be conducted...in the interest of his widow and daughter, for whom he has otherwise provided comfortably."  Nothing concerning Leach was mentioned.

Once again the house saw a rapid turnover of owners.  Three months later it was sold to Charles F. Schorer, who quickly sold it to Josephing I. Harrington, who sold it in May 1908.

By 1913 it was the home of Dr. Alexander Andrade.  In June that year he and his wife looked to take in a roomer.  Their advertisement offered, "Beautifully decorated, three rooms, handsome marble bathroom, kitchen, private residence."

Andrade was born in Colombia, South America.  On Saturday night, January 10, 1914, he attended a meeting of Colombian businessman in the Earlington Hotel.  It resulted in the organization of the Colombian Commercial Club.  The New York Herald reported, "Francisco Escobar, Consul General of Colombia in New York, was urged to accept the presidency of the club, but he declined in favor of Dr. Alexander Andrade, of No. 123 West Ninety-fifth street, who was unanimously elected."

The newspaper added that "a committee was appointed to find a location for the club house."  They did not look far.  In its May 1914 issue, the Bulletin of the Pan American Union reported:

There is now established in New York, at 123 West Ninety-fifth Street, a Colombian Commercial Club, which has for its purpose the bringing about of cooperation and good feeling between the citizens of Colombia and the United States; the free promotion by free instruction of a knowledge of the history, language, and commercial possibilities of those countries; and the maintenance of a library of books, periodicals, newspapers, magazines and other publications relating to the soil, climate natural resources and commercial possibilities of both.

The club was still holding its meetings and lectures in the house as late as 1919.

In the meantime, the Andrades continued leasing the three rooms.  Living with them in 1918 was R. E. Voss.  That year he started a new business, The Voss Alcohol Export Corporation, "to manufacture alcohol, etc."

The residence remained a single-family house until 1977 when it was converted to a total of seven apartments, including a duplex.  That configuration survived until 1996 when a renovation resulted in just four apartments.

photographs by the author

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