The 1871 Jacob J. Lissner House - 125 East 78th Street

 

Among the early developers who began transforming the mostly rural land east of Central Park at the end of the Civil War was Nicholas McCool.  Around 1871 he erected a row of three-story, brownstone-fronted homes on the north side of East 78th Street between Lexington and Fourth Avenues (renamed Park Avenue in 1888).  The three-bay-wide homes were identical--their brownstone stoops protected by substantial cast iron railings and newels.  On either side of the fully arched entrances were foliate carved corbels that supported Renaissance-inspired triangular pediments.  Smaller versions sat upon the parlor floor windows.

McCool sold 125 East 78th Street to real estate operator Dennis Loomie, who, in turn, rented it to the family of Samuel Trishet.  Trishet and his wife had at least one small daughter.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on May 28, 1872 read: "Dressmaker wanted who understands making children's dresses, at 128 East 78th st, near 4th av., steady work."

On April 27, 1874, Loomie sold 125 East 78th Street to Jacob J. Lissner for $17,000.  The price would translate to about $496,000 in 2026.  The obscure Lissner did not list a profession in city directories.  Six years after purchasing the house, he and his family moved to Madison Avenue and 99th Street.

The family of John Byrnes next moved into 125 East 78th Street.  Born in Dublin, Ireland, Byrnes was the principal of the National Surety Company and was well-connected with Tammany Hall.  He and his wife, Rose, had at least three children: Matthew, Mary Cecelia, and Thomas F.  The family's country home was in Babylon, Long Island.

Despite the family's affluence, John Brynes had a stain on his reputation, one not forgotten by The New York Times.  Three years earlier, in 1877, he was appointed the city's Chief of the Supply Bureau and the following year he was Tammany Hall's nomination for Alderman.  The newspaper sneered at his nomination, saying that Byrnes, "is a fair sample of the class of men Tammany Hall seeks to place in power in this city."  The article then dragged out a shocking incident that occurred in 1869.  On July 31 that year, he had "exposed his person" to a young woman "in a most indecent manner," reported The New York Times.  He told her he "would like to have some pleasure with her," according to the victim.  She broke free and had Byrne arrested.

The children were young adults in 1897 and on October 20 that year Cecilia was married to Joseph W. Lawrence in the Church of Jean Baptiste on East 74th Street near Lexington Avenue.  John Brynes's earlier indiscretion seems to have been forgotten.  The social status of the two families was reflected in the reception held in the East 78th Street house.  Among the guests, as recorded by the New-York Tribune were "Miss Chambers, Miss Fish and the Misses Bayne," along with other recognizable society surnames like Kennelly, Sniffen, Trainor and Schuyler.

John Brynes's ties to Tammany had been advantageous to his son, Thomas, who was appointed Police Commissioner in 1880, the year the family moved into 125 East 78th Street.  But in 1895, the new president of the New York City Police Commission, Theodore Roosevelt, forced Thomas to resign as part of Roosevelt's purge of corruption within the department.  Thomas Byrnes would later become an insurance investigator.

Thomas F. Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America, 1886 (copyright expired)

Thomas Byrnes attempted to re-enter Tammany politics in 1903 as a nominee for mayor.  On September 12, The New York Times said that Byrnes's name was "stricken off" the list of candidates, saying that he was "one of the best known Tammany men in the city and a man who for thirteen years [sic] has lived at 125 East Seventy-eighth Street."

On January 27, 1912, The New York Times reported, "John Byrnes has sold...his residence at 125 East Seventy-eighth Street."  The purchaser was Marie C. M. Winter, whose country home was in Woodbury, Long Island.

As early as 1914, Marie Winter leased the house to Reverend James Nevett Steele and his wife, Helen Hudson Aldrich.  Born in 1850 and 1851, respectively, the couple maintained a country home in East Hampton.  Steele was vicar of Trinity Church and a prolific hymnist.  

Rev. James Nevett Steele, The Churchman, May 8, 1897 (copyright expired)

Several of the hymns Steele wrote are still highly popular in American churches.  Among them are "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts," "Just as I Am, Without One Plea," and "Nearer My God, to Thee."

Marie C. M. Winter had moved back to 125 East 78th Street before 1917, when she was looking for a new cook.  Her advertisement on October 7 read, "Cook--Good plain cook; young.  English, Scotch or Swedish preferred; must have good reference and want a permanent position."

Marie Winter sold 125 East 78th Street in February 1921 to George and Grace Middleton Roberts.  George Roberts was a partner in the law firm Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts.  Grace was the daughter of Clifford L. and Grace B. Middleton and an alumna of Smith College.  The couple had two daughters, Constance and Rosamond Graham.  Their country home was on Great Peconic Bay in Long Island.  

The Robertses updated the house.  The stoop was removed and the entrance, along with its original brackets and entablature, was relocated to below grade.  Guests approached the doorway under a handsome lantern hung from a wrought iron arch supported by iron posts.  The architect deftly transformed the former doorway into a precise copy of the windows at that level.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Roberts sisters were educated in the private Brearley School.  Constance was studying at Smith College when she was introduced to society at the Colony Club in December 1936 at a "reception and tea dance," as reported by The East Hampton Star.  She married Robert Louis Hoguet Jr. in August 1940 in East Hampton.

Rosamond's time in the limelight came four years later.  On December 26, 1944, The New York Sun reported that her debut took place "at the roof of the St. Regis."  

The Robertses announced Rosamond's engagement to Donald Arthur Jr. on August 21, 1946.  The East Hampton Star noted that after graduating from Smith in 1944, "She did postgraduate work with the National institute of Public Affairs in Washington and has since been with the Tenant Relocation Bureau in New York."

Nine months later, The East Hampton Star reported, "Mr. and Mrs. George Roberts, who were in East Hampton last week, are moving in May from their house at 125 East 78th St. to 139 East 79th St."   The couple sold the house to photographer Hans Henry Namuth.

Born in Essen, Germany in 1915, Namuth focused on portraiture, often choosing artists as his subject.  Among the painters he photographed were Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Rauschenberg.  He also made portraits of architects like Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn.

Namuth captured Jackson Pollock at work in his studio.  from the collection of the Hans Namuth Estate

In 1967, 125 East 78th Street was remodeled.  There were now a dress shop in the ground floor and one apartment each on the upper stories.  A one-year renovation initiated in 2019 returned the structure to a single family home.

photographs by the author

Bernstein & Bernstein's 1901 202 East Sixth Street

photograph by Carole Teller

Starting in 1867, reformers worked tirelessly during the 19th century to enhance living conditions among tenement dwellers.  Fire safety, ventilation and sanitary conditions were gradually improved.  The ultimate statute was the New York State Tenement House Act of 1901, passed on April 12 that year.  Referred as the "New Law," it required central courtyards that replaced the earlier airshafts, and demanded that tenements sit upon more than one building lot.  

Brothers Michael and Mitchell Bernstein comprised the prolific architectural firm of Bernstein & Bernstein.  They were, perhaps, best known for designing tenement buildings.  In 1901 developer William Shulmann commissioned them to design another at 202 and 204 East 6th Street just east of Third Avenue.

The Renaissance Revival style, six-story structure was faced in red brick and heavily trimmed with terra cotta.  It cost Shulman $35,000 to construct, or about $1.37 million in 2026 terms.  The residential entrance above a three-step stoop was flanked by polished granite Scamozzi columns that upheld over-sized scrolled brackets.  Above the highly carved entablature was a molded cornice.  A pressed metal frieze of swags ran atop the three storefronts.

Originally, three stores occupied the ground floor.  via NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The second floor windows were flanked by Corinthian pilasters decorated by trailing bellflowers and topped with lintels with cartouches surrounded by wreaths.  Elaborate terra cotta panels connected the second and third floor windows, the latter embellished with intricate triangular pediments.  The fourth and fifth floor windows wore top-heavy terra cotta lintels and pediments.  Paneled brick piers separated the openings of the top floor and a corbeled cornice with a swagged frieze ran along the roofline.  Rather confusingly, Bernstein & Bernstein strayed from the Italian Renaissance in the two central bays.  Here the windows sat below flared Colonial Revival stone voussoirs.

Renaissance Revival and neo-Colonial window treatments coexist side by side.  photograph by Carole Teller

One of the store spaces became a restaurant.  On September 2, 1904, Michael Connelly, a driver for the E. Mass Bottling Company, pulled his wagon to the curb to deliver an order of beer.  While he was busy inside, according to the New York Herald, "A crowd of urchins amused themselves tickling the animals and poking them with sticks until the team ran away."  The article noted, "There was a story that some of the boys stuck pins into the horses."

The panicked horses galloped to Second Avenue.  In avoiding a trolley car, they bolted across the sidewalk and crashed into the stores of money broker Emil Kiss, at 104 Second Avenue, and tailor S. Kleiner next door.  The storefronts were two steps below the sidewalk.  The New York Herald reported, "The horses leaped down into this, pulling the wagon after them, and one of the animals fell sidewise into Kiss's show window, scattering foreign gold coins and paper money as far as the middle of Second avenue by his frightened kicks."  The wagon ended up inside Kleiner's tailor shop.

There was a scramble for the bills and coins in the street.  The New York Herald said (although Kiss had not yet tallied his losses), "He had just spent $100 for elaborate sign painting on the window and put in some showy brass fixtures, which were wrecked."  Next door, Kleiner had "a lot of fine cloth and new clothes" in his window.  The goods were now "filled with little cuts by glass splinters."  The horses, happily, while injured, "can be saved," said the article.  Expectedly, the wagon and the barrels of beer were "damaged."

Meantime, inside the restaurant was a coin-operated music box, the early 20th century version of a juke box.  The proprietor decided to sell it in 1908.  His advertisement in the New York Evening Telegram on August 1 read:

Largest size Regina music box; changes tunes automatically; cost $400; all new; $100.  Restaurant, 202 East 6th st.

The coin-operated Regina music box would have been similar to this model.  image via M. S. Rau Antiques

The expensive instrument would have cost the restaurant owner the equivalent of $14,000 today.

The newly-formed Schorr & Popsk moved into one of the storefronts in 1911.  In its January 1912 issue, The Sheet Metal Shop announced its opening and described the firm as a "new sheet metal and roofing business."

Living here at the time were immigrants, many of them Russian and German Jews.  

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Henry Schemby lived here in 1915.  The 42-year-old worked as a handyman for a Brooklyn doctor.  On January 23, that year, The Daily Standard Union reported, "while cleaning the slush off the stoop of Dr. Robert Scott...to-day, [Schemby] was seized with epilepsy and fell, receiving lacerations of the scalp."

Born in Russia, S. Podolsky was living here prior to his homeland's being wracked by world war and revolution.  On December 16, 1917, The New York Times titled an article, "Jews in Russia Seek Their Friends Here."  The article went on to say that throngs of Russian immigrants here were seeking news from their relatives, as well.  Among those urgently trying to find information on his relatives in Russia was S. Podolsky.

One of the three shops became a storefront mission as early as 1919.  It also served as what today would be called a homeless shelter.  The New York Charities Directory in 1920 described Mission Hall saying,  "Gospel services carried on nightly and at times worthy women and men are given lodgings; coffee and rolls served nightly."

John Kassman's saloon-restaurant became merely a restaurant after the enactment of Prohibition.  On the night of October 26, 1924, a man entered and announced that he was a Special Service Division detective.  He displayed a badge and demanded to make an inspection, "because of a number of complaints that he had received," according to Kassman.  Although Kassman did not object, the agent whispered that "trouble could be adjusted with money."  

via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Discreetly, Kassman directed one of his employees to find a policeman.  Shortly afterward, Sergeant Kelly and Patrolman Falls responded.  John Carney attempted to confirm his authority, but was unable to convince the officers.  As they were interrogating him, an object fell on the floor.  "It was a gold shield bearing the inscription, 'Special Officer,'" reported The New York Sun.  The 28-year-old was arrested for impersonating a Special Service Division detective.

A restaurant occupied the space into the 1940s.  By 1940, R & W Trucking Company occupied the middle storefront while the other held a barbershop.

The exuberant terra cotta was originally a cream color.  photograph by Carole Teller

In the last quarter of the 20th century the terminal cornice was replaced with a less ornamental example.  By then, the 1901 storefronts had been modernized.  In 2020, the red brick was painted white and the elaborate terra cotta, the stone voussoirs, and the outlines of the top floor piers were painted black.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post

The 1893 Jacob and Emma Wertheim House - 19 West 76th Street

 

Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1858, Jacob Wertheim came to New York City with his parents as a boy.  He started working at the age of 14 and by 1893 had founded and owned several cigar making companies.  That year, he and his wife, the former Emma Stern, purchased the newly built residence at 19 West 76th Street.

Real estate developer Cornelius W. Luyster had broken ground for this and two other upscale homes a year earlier.  Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by esteemed architect John H. Duncan, 19 West 76th Street was 25-feet-wide and rose four stories above a high English basement.  A handsome dog-legged box stoop, decorated with swirling volutes and rosettes, fronted the brownstone-fronted parlor level where shallow pilasters were carved with anthemions.  The upper three floors were faced in tan Roman brick.  A three-sided brownstone oriel dominated the second floor.  The third-floor openings sat within molded architraves, and the fourth-floor windows were framed in terra cotta, their cornices crowned with urn-topped pediments.  A deeply overhanging cornice with a terra cotta frieze crowned the design.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Jacob and Emma had five children: three daughters and two sons.  The boy who left school to find work had come a long way.  The Brooklyn Eagle said, "he engaged in the cigar business and made rapid progress, organizing one company after another."  Eventually he consolidated them into the United Cigar Manufacturers, one of the largest independent cigar making firms of its kind.  

The Wertheims were generous with their wealth.  Calling Jacob "one of the most prominent Jews in this city," The Brooklyn Eagle noted that he was highly involved in the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies and the Joint Distributing Committee.

The family's residency was relatively short-lived.  On September 13, 1899, the New-York Tribune reported that Wertheim had sold 19 West 76th Street to "a Mr. Ullman."  The buyer was Jacob Uhlman and his ownership, as well, would be short.  He resold the residence in March 1902 to Henry A. Caesar and his wife, the former Laura F. Unger.  The New York Times mentioned that they "will occupy the house after making extensive alterations."  Those alterations most likely had much to do with modernizations like the installing of updated plumbing and electricity.

Henry A. Caesar was born in Brooklyn on May 15, 1856.  Educated in Europe, he established the banking firm of H. A. Caesar & Company in 1886.  He was, as well, a director of the Germania Life Insurance Company and of the Chemical Bank and Trust Company.  Laura was his second wife.  His first was Mathilde M. Muller, with whom he had two sons, Paul N. and Harry I.  He married Laura in 1894 and they had a son, Charles U., born in 1897.

The Caesars' 39-acre country estate, Lauriston (named for Laura), was in Rumson, New Jersey.  The mansion on the property was designed by Leon Cubberly in 1870.

The Colonial Revival mansion at Lauriston.  image via Preservation New Jersey

Form was a weekly magazine that kept affluent American families abreast of incidents in society.  Its masthead explained that it covered "the interests of American Society at Home and Abroad."  On December 27, 1913, the periodical reported that Henry I. Caesar and Dora Porter would be married that day.  The ceremony took place in St. Thomas's Chapel.  The high-society surnames of bridal party reflected the families' status.  Among them were Townsend, Hoagland, Slocum and Symington.

Henry and Laura Caesar sold 19 West 76th Street to Solomon Marcuse Stroock in April 1917 for $70,000.  (The figure would translate to about $1.7 million in 2026.)  

The son of German immigrants, Solomon Stroock as born in New York City on September 22, 1873.  He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1891, received his Masters degree from Columbia University in 1892, and his law degree from  Columbia Law School in 1894.  In 1907, he was appointed a Justice on the New York Supreme Court.  He was also a partner with his brother Moses in the law firm Stroock & Stroock.

Solomon Marcuse Stroock, The Jewish Tribune, November 25, 1927

Stroock married Hilda Weil in 1904 and the couple had three children.  Like the Caesars, they spent the summer months away from the city.  On May 20, 1921, for instance, The American Hebrew noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Sol. M. Stroock of 19 West Seventy-sixth street will spend the summer at Ossining, N. Y."

As had been the case in the two previous owners, the Stroocks would not remain here especially long.  On September 17, 1924, The New York Times reported that they had sold 19 West 76th Street "to a buyer for occupancy."  That was only partially accurate.  The house became The Liberta School, a private co-educational progressive school.

The Christian Science Monitor, February 12, 1925 (copyright expired)

Among the students here was nine-year-old Mary Elizabeth Steele, who lived with her mother at 66 West 77th Street.  The prodigy was an accomplished pianist--so accomplished, in fact, that she was invited to give a private concert for President Calvin Coolidge and the First Lady in the White House.  Mary Elizabeth and her mother, Mrs. C. O. Steele, left their apartment on March 17, 1925.  They left Mary Elizabeth's dog, Frisky, with the building's superintendent.  The New York Times remarked that the wire-haired terrier "had been Mary's companion almost since his birth, frequently sitting beside her as her nimble fingers played compositions of Bach, Chopin and other masters."

Mary Elizabeth played the concert on the evening of March 21 and the following day she and her mother were invited to  meet the President at the White House.  On March 27, The New York Times began an article saying, "Her joy at being received by President Coolidge in the White House several days ago was dispelled upon her return to New York, Wednesday night."  The superintendent had lost Frisky.  It is unclear whether Mary Elizabeth's precious pet was recovered.

In March 1926, just one year after moving into 19 West 76th Street, The Liberta School sold the house to Carl and Hulda Steen.  Their son, Jens H., born in 1914, was a scholar.  After graduating from George Washington High School, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Cooper Union in 1934.  He continued studying at New York University and on July 9, 1936, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, the widow of Andrew Carnegie, awarded him a scholarship for foreign study.  The New York Sun reported, "He will sail abroad...for Sweden, where he will spend [a] year at the University of Lund, majoring in Economics."

The Steens leased 19 West 76th Street in 1939, and sold it in 1942.  The house avoided being converting to apartments until 1974, when it was renovated into a total of 14 units.  The exterior, however, is nearly unchanged after nearly 135 years.

photographs by the author

The Lost 1812 Washington Hall - 282 Broadway

Lithographer George Hayward produced this lithograph in 1853.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

On Independence Day 1809, the Washington Benevolent Society laid the cornerstone of Washington Hall on the southeast corner of Broadway and Reade Street.  (The 1876 Centennial, Illustrated commented, "in earlier times the Negro Burying Ground was located here.")  John McComb Jr., whose City Hall was rising a block to the south, was responsible for the design.

Edwin C. Hill explained in the 1922 The Historical Register, "Although intended to be used as a public hall for meetings and assemblies, it was also kept as a hotel."  Washington Hall would be considered one of the finest structures in the city. 

Construction would take four years to complete.  On July 3, 1812, the Building Committee was disbanded, "except so far as respects a settlement of claims," reported The Evening Post.  The "claims" were the workers' salaries, materials and such necessary to complete the building.  Those, said the article, would be "presented to Mr. John McComb, Junr."

Five months later, an announcement in The Evening Post on December 29 read:

This elegant and spacious Building, situated in Broadway, corner of Reed-Street [sic], is now nearly completed; and will be Let or Leased from the first of May next, or sooner if required.  It is well calculated for a splendid Hotel, having forty one Rooms, thirty-two of which are supplied with fire places.

The article deemed the large 35-by-56 foot meeting room as "the largest and most elegantly finished in the city; and has a large orchestra finished in superior style."  (The "orchestra" was the balcony for musicians.)  There were also six "elegantly finished" rooms for "dining or supper parties."  Two of them were connected by folding doors for larger affairs.  

Americana Illustrated, January 1912 (copyright expired)

Daniel W. Crocker had answered that ad.  He leased the building and on October 18, 1813 announced in The New-York Evening Post that Washington Hall, "is now opened for the accommodation of the public as a Hotel."  He described it as being, "replete with every convenience."  Somewhat oddly, guests would not be sleeping in Washington Hall proper.  Crocker wrote, "The rooms are spacious and airy, and the bed-rooms (in a building separate from the Hotel) are neat, convenient and retired, with one bed in each room."

On the ground floor was the Coffee Room, "in which the daily papers will be kept and which will be open to the public," said Crocker.  He noted that it and the public dining room opened onto Broadway.  On the Reade Street side was the Porter Room, which Crocker described as "not excelled for convenience and cosiness [sic]," adding, "Here refreshments (of every sort) may be had at the shortest notice."  Crocker described the main Assembly Room on the second floor as "the most elegant and spacious" in New York City or, "perhaps in the United States."

Edwin C. Hill explained that the Washington Benevolent Society "was not organized as a political association, its members were mostly of the Federal Party."  Because of that, Washington Hall would become the headquarters of the Federal Party.  

Five months before the hotel was opened for business, the Assembly Hall saw its first grand event.  The United States and Great Britain were engaged in the War of 1812.  On February 22, 1812, Captain James Lawrence's USS Hornet sank the HMS Peacock, an 18-gun Royal Navy warship.  Lawrence and his crew visited New York City in May 1813 and the City Council hosted a lavish banquet in his honor.  (One month later, during the battle in which he famously ordered "Don't give up the ship!", Lawrence was fatally wounded.)

Another lavish affair linked to the war was held in the Assembly Room the following year.  Valentine's Manuel of Old New York would recall in 1921:

One of the most notable events of its history was when in 1814 a magnificent ball was given to celebrate the longed-for restoration of peace between England and America.  The superb ballroom was magnificently decorated and was crowded with a brilliant company of the elite of old New York.  The newspapers of the day described the scene as "a picture of feminine loveliness, beauty, fashion and elegance not to be surpassed in America.

Among the groups that rented rooms here was the Bread and Cheese Club, a literary group founded by Fenimore Cooper in 1824.  In its February 16, 1920 issue, The Mentor noted that the club "took its name from the fact that candidates were balloted for by bread and cheese."  Among its members were William Cullen Bryant, Henry Halleck and Gulian Verplanck.

The hotel portion hosted notable figures, none more so than President Martin Van Buren who stayed here in 1839.  On July 7, he was visited by Hannah Gouge.  The 104-year-old, according to The Morning Herald, "retains the possession of all her faculties, and has a most perfect and vivid recollection of her visit to General Washington."  Hannah, who lost three sons in the Revolution, had been presented to every President except Andrew Jackson.

Washington Hall continued to be the venue of glittering balls, prestigious banquets, meetings and entertainments.  On January 26, 1844, for instance, separate articles in the New-York Daily Tribune announced the "special meeting of the Third Ward Clay Club;" an upcoming concert by Sophie Gjertz, "pianist to the Royal Family of Denmark;" and a lecture "of Mr. Shea" that would "possess the deepest interest to lovers of Ireland."

At the time of the articles, the building had recently been "repaired and fitted up at considerable expense," according to the New York Herald, which added it was "decorated in a most superb manner."

Both Sides of Broadway, From Bowling Green to Central Park, New York City, 1910 (copyright expired)

The Assembly Room was booked for a ball on July 5, 1844.  At 7:00 that morning, a small fire was discovered in "one of the chimneys at the back of the building," as reported by the New York Herald.  It was quickly put out and forgotten.  Then, about three hours later, "it was found that the roof at the back immediately over the upper bedrooms was in flames."  The fire spread rapidly and several fire engines were on the scene within minutes.  The newspaper said the firefighters were "followed by a great mob whose evident object was plunder, for they kept running about from room to room making 'confusion worse confounded,' breaking the furniture and pilfering little articles that were lying about."  The New York Herald said that firefighters warned the intruders that they would be trapped by flames if they did not leave "and in a very short time the building was comparatively cleared of these blackguards."

In the meantime, employees rushed to salvage valuable items, like the large portrait of George Washington, some mirrors and furniture.  The New York Herald said in part:

The ball-room was kept locked until the roof began to fall in, and the flames to make their appearance...It was found impossible to save the splendid chandeliers with which this room was adorned, in consequence of the burning fragments which was [sic] continually falling, and the beams from which they were suspended having become ignited.  In a short time afterwards the chandeliers fell, and were utterly destroyed.

On October 16, 1844, The Evening Post reported, "Washington Hall (or rather the ruins of Washington Hall) was sold yesterday for $62,500 to Mr. Stewart, dry goods merchant, of Broadway, who will convert it into handsome stores."  (Department store mogul Alexander Turney Stewart was among the nation's wealthiest merchants.)

On the night of April 7, 1845, Mayor Philip Hone wrote in his journal that Stewart "is preparing to erect on the ground a dry goods store, spacious and magnificent beyond anything of the kind in New York."  He noted, "In removing the rubbish after the hall was burned the corner stone was brought to light and exhumed this morning."

On the site of Washington Hall, Stewart erected his "Marble Palace," which, enlarged, survives.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Howard and Frances Poillon Mansion - 174 East 80th Street

 

In 1873, Mary Barter, a widow, lived with her adult daughter, Ellen, in the newly-completed "double flat" at 174 East 80th Street just west of Third Avenue.  Ellen C. Barter was a teacher in the primary department of School No. 33 on East 66th Street.  There were two apartments per floor in the building and the Barters' neighbors were respectable and working class, like Peter Dunigan, who worked as a carpenter.

The Edward Haas family lived here in 1877.  Haas was a policeman and his daughter was a music teacher.  For some reason, the young woman left New York headed to Ocean Grove, New Jersey on January 31 that year in what the New-York Tribune described as a "furious northeast gale."  She boarded a New-Jersey Central Railroad train that left New York  at 5:15.  Because of the dangerous weather conditions, the conductor and engineer were told to run the train "carefully as far as South Amboy."  

When they arrived at Red Bank, "the conductor of the train received orders to go to Long Branch, and stop the train there," reported the New-York Tribune.  Miss Haas and the other four passengers were enraged and "insisted on being taken to Ocean Grove."  After an hour's delay, the train continued.  At Deal Beach, the conductor and head brakeman got off and walked the track for 300 yards.  They returned and reported that the track seemed safe as far as they had gone.  The New-York Tribune reported, "The train had scarcely moved a hundred yards when the track gave way and the engine toppled over into the Great Pond, carrying the head brakeman, the engineer, and fireman."

The engine plunged into the water, pulling the baggage car behind it.  The baggage master "jumped for his life."  Tragically, one passenger, 24-year-old Dr. Laird, had moved forward into the baggage car and was killed.  The sole passenger car remained on the tracks.  The three male passengers helped rescue the engineer and fireman and the baggage master "plunged into the pond and dived under the wreck of the engine," looking for the brakeman.  He was finally found alive, trapped under the fire-box of the engine.  The New-York Tribune explained, "This was two hours or more after the accident."

The article said, "The passengers, one of whom was Miss Haas...then walked back to Deal Beach.  The lady was taken care of there, and a conveyance was obtained to convey the other passengers to Ocean Grove."

On April 15, 1920, The New York Times reported that Harriet A. Reinig had sold "the four-story flat" to Eugene Klapp, who "will make substantial alterations."  Instead, a year later on June 27, 1921, the New-York Tribune noted, "Howard Poillen [sic] is the new owner of the flat at 174 East Eightieth Street."

Born in 1879, engineer Howard Andrews Poillon graduated from Columbia University School of Mines in 1901.  He married Frances Wright in 1914 and the couple had three children, Cornelius III, Jeanne, and Peter.  The family's country home was in Westhampton Beach, Long Island.

Howard Andrews Poillon (original source unknown)

Poillon had prospected for gold in Alaska for ten years before co-founding Poillon & Poirier in 1913.  He was a vice president of Research Corporation, Consolidated Asbestos, Ltd., Federal Asbestos Co., D. M. Steindler Holding Co., and president of Crescent Lorraine Mining Co.  He was also a director in several other corporations.

The Poillons hired the architectural firm of Ford, Butler & Soliver to convert the vintage apartment building into a private home.  Although designated by the Department of Buildings as a single family dwelling, the Poillons rented out the upper two floors.  On September 17, 1922, they advertised in The New York Times:

An unusual duplex apartment.  174 East 80th St.--10 rooms, three baths, automatic elevator, two open fireplaces, living room 16x23.6, dining room 14.6x19; use of laundry in basement; occupancy Oct. 1.  Howard Poillon 42 Broadway.

The building likely looked similar to the one on the right in this 1940 tax photograph.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The ad was answered by three siblings: Catherine, Margaret and Henry Stanton Leverich.  They were the children of the late Edward Leverich and the former Annie Frederica Schuchardt, who died in 1886 and 1918, respectively.  Henry was a real estate operator.  The New York Times described the siblings as descendants "of Colonial families identified with Rhode Island and New York."  They traced their paternal roots to the Rev. William Leverich, a Puritan clergyman who arrived in Rhode Island in 1634, and on their mother's side, according to The New York Times, from "the Remsen, Rutgers and de Peyster families of New Amsterdam."

The Leverich sisters moved within polite society.  On November 18, 1923, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Miss Margaret D. Leverich, of 174 East Eightieth Street will give a large luncheon on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at the Colony Club for Miss Margarette S. Delafield."

Calling him the "well known club man of New York city," on February 22, 1924 the Otsego Farmer reported that Henry Stanton Leverich would be married in Cooperstown, New York the next day to Jessie Reid Birdsall.  The New York Evening Telegram remarked, "Mr. Leverich was graduated from Yale in 1901 and is a member of the Union and Turf and Field clubs."  Following their honeymoon "through Italy, France, Belgium and England," according to the Otsego Farmer, "they will make their home at No. 174 East 80th Street."

Also moving into the upper floors was Jessie Reid Birdsall's daughter from her previous marriage, Gertrude Carlton Reid Birdsall.  On August 1, 1926, Town & Country reported on her engagement to William Richard Galt Duane.  The article noted that she "is a graduate of St. Agnes School, Albany, and has been studying in New York and Paris."

In 1927, Howard Andrews Poillon was promoted to president of Research Corporation in 1927.  The firm was described by The New York Times as, "an engineering foundation organized to transact business for the advancement of science."

Frances, in the meantime, kept herself busy within society.  On June 27, 1929, for instance, the Standard Union reported on the happenings at the Westhampton Country Club.  "The women's golf tournament for the Tombstone Competition was held yesterday," said the article.  "Mrs. Howard Poilon [sic] of 174 East Eightieth street, Manhattan, is chairman of the women's golf committee."

Jeanne Poillon attended the private Brearley School and graduated from Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut in June 1938.  In March 1939, her parents hosted a tea to announce her engagement to Wellington Vandeveer.

When America entered World War II, Cornelius and Peter Poillon joined the U.S. Army and were deployed to Europe.  Jeanne's husband also enlisted.  Vandeveer joined the United States Naval Reserves.  With her husband fighting abroad, Jeanne and her two young daughters, Pamela and Judith, moved back into 174 East 80th Street with her parents.  The family was at the Westhampton Beach house on September 5, 1944, when Jeanne, who was 25 years old, died "presumably of Rocky Mountain fever," according to The New York Times.

In 1944, Howard Poillon suffered a debilitating stroke.  It necessitated his stepping down from the presidency of Research Corporation.  In 1948, he was admitted to the Westchester branch of New York Hospital in White Plains.  He remained there until his death on January 20, 1954.  

No. 174 East 80th Street next became home to the Morton Fearey family.   Born in New York City in 1913, Fearey was a graduate of Yale University and the Yale Law School.  Now a partner in the law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, he had served as a naval aviator in World War II.  He and his wife, the former Mary Senior, had two sons, Morton Jr. and John, and a daughter, Mary.  The family's country home was in Edgartown, Massachusetts.

Mary's dizzying debut to society included a dinner dance in the Colony Club on December 26, 1956.  The New York Times remarked that she "attended the Grosvenor Ball in the Plaza last month and the Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball in the Waldorf-Astoria last Friday.  She also will attend the Mayfair Assembly in the Pierre New Year's Eve."

The social spotlight turned to Morton Jr. in 1964 when he was married to Beverly Ann McMonagle on February 8.  The ceremony as performed by the Right Rev. William Appleton, "retired Bishop of Western Massachusetts and granduncle of the bridegroom," as reported by The New York Times.

Two years before Morton Fearey's death in 1988, the couple sold 174 East 80th.  Their former residence was converted to offices.

It became home to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation, and The New York Preservation Archives Project.  

photographs by the author

The Bush Terminal Sales Building - 130 West 42nd Street

 

photograph by Epicgenius

In 1895, Irving T. Bush conceived a solution to shipping, storage and distribution costs.  His Bush Company organized a complex of six warehouses and a steamship pier on the South Brooklyn waterfront as a freight-handling terminal.  The firm's name was changed to the Bush Terminal Company in 1902.  By then, the complex included a railroad, factory lofts and warehouses.  The Bush Terminal Company moved into its newly-built headquarters at 100 Broad Street in 1905.

In 1916, at the age of 47, Irving T. Bush envisioned another ground-breaking project: a centralized market in which wholesalers world-wide could display their goods.  The architectural firm of Helmle & Corbett, composed of Frank J. Helmle and Harvey Wiley Corbett, was commissioned to design a 30-story structure on the narrow, 50-foot-wide plot at 130-132 West 42nd Street.  Corbett took the reins of the project, designing the skyscraper in the neo-Gothic style.

Irving Bush's original name for the building--The Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building and Buyers' Club--did not easily roll off the tongue.  It was quickly abbreviated to the Bush Terminal Sales Building.  In its July 1917 issue, Dry Goods described it as "a World's Fair in a skyscraper."  The article said, "The Bush Terminal Company is constructing the building at a cost of $2,000,000, and, war or no war, is going to have it open by October 1st."  (The construction cost would translate to $50.2 million in 2026.)  Dry Goods noted that it would be "the tallest building in Times Square."

Corbett's streamlined Gothic elements emphasized the building's narrow verticality, carrying certain vertical lines from the base to the crown.  Corbett explained to The American Architect years later, "The whole mass of the building [was], of course, vertical, and everything possible in designing was done to accentuate this verticality."

The American Architect, October 17, 1917 (copyright expired)

The soaring tower dwarfed the neighboring low-rise buildings.  However, Corbett realized that  the situation might not last forever.  In order to avoid blank side walls, he created full-height, trompe l'oeil piers by the use of colored brick.  Although the Bush Terminal Sales Building is often touted as the first example of the newly enacted New York Zoning Law, Corbet corrected that idea in The American Architect in 1926, saying, "Plans for the building were drawn before the law went into effect.  The set-backs were conceived purely for architectural and aesthetic reasons."

The American Architect, October 17, 1917 (copyright expired)

Dry Goods explained the "double purpose of the new skyscraper."  The Buyers' Club occupied the first floor and mezzanine and included a men's lounge, "reading rooms with library reference books, catalogs, out of town and foreign newspapers and magazines, bar, buffet lunch, etc."  The article laid out the various services available to visiting buyers in the Buyer's Club:

There will be 'information about plays and the sailing of steamships, telephone booths, theatre tickets, retail shopping news, a stenographic department, ticker tape service, trade and credit information and a register of doctors, dentists, nurses.

The typical upper floors held display units of 10 by 10 feet.  On the highest floors were offices, including those of Irving T. Bush (on the topmost floor) and Helmle & Corbett.

The lobby carried on the Gothic motif.  The Bush Magazine 1921 (copyright expired)

In its October 1919 issue, The American Magazine noted, "at present over one thousand manufacturers have engaged space and service for their products.  Elene Foster, writing in the New-York Tribune on February 2 that year, lauded the convenience of one-stop shopping for the out-of-town buyers.  "Before the erection of the Bush Terminal Sales Building, which by the by, is the first of its kind in the world, the woman buyer...who makes a semi-annual pilgrimage for the purpose of replenishing her stock was obliged to trudge from one dingy downtown building to another."  

Dry Goods, July 1917 (copyright expired)

Now, she said, "she wends her way toward the great Gothic building on Forty-second Street."  Buyers would find manufacturers were arranged by floors--toys, childrenswear, or housewares, for instance, on their own dedicated floor.

The Notions and Fancy Goods division (top) and the Perfumery and Toilet Articles floor.  The Bush Magazine, 1921 (copyright expired)

There was an exhibition space in the building, as well.  On February 6, 1919, the New-York Tribune reported, "The first children's fashion show took place last night at the Bush Terminal Building under auspices of the International Buyers' Club," and nine months later, on November 24, The New York Times announced, "Four thousand examples of Persian art will be placed on exhibition and sale today at the Bush Terminal, 130 West Forty-second Street."  Among the "miniatures, lacquers, potteries, brocades" and other items was a 16-foot-square tapestry, "representing the work of 100 women for ten years," said the article.  It was valued at $100,000

About two weeks later, that exhibition escaped what could have been a disaster.  On December 13, The New York Times reported, "Candles used for lighting when electric lights were turned off in accordance with the fuel conservation order were said to have been the cause of a fire on the eighth floor of the Bush Terminal Sales building."  The fire was confined to that floor and the article said, "The fire and water proof construction of the building prevented any damage being caused by water to the collection of Persian art exhibited on the third floor."  The article noted that the 4,000 specimens were the property "of the Persian throne" and included "illuminated manuscripts, rugs, jewelry, and lacquer work which date back as far as the twelfth century."

World War I brought a new type of tenant to the building.  In 1919, the League to Enforce Peace, the League of Free Nations Association, the Vacation War Relief Committee of the Vacation Association, and the City Government Committee of Citizens' Union signed leases.

On May 22, 1921, The New York Times reported, "Extensive alterations are being made to the lower floors of the Bush Terminal Sales Building...to accommodate a novel feature to be known as the Old Town Tavern."  The article explained that the tavern proper "will be equipped with the furniture and fittings characteristic of some of the famous old inns and taverns of New York a hundred years ago."  The motif was carried on throughout the first three floors.  Irving T. Bush, said the article,  intended to remind visitors "of the great historic interest of New York which is so often overlooked or forgotten."  

The three floors, therefore, "are furnished with the quaint old furniture and fittings of the old English manor houses."  Heavy ceiling beams, blocks of travertine imported from Italy and "Old English tile" for the floors were installed.  Irving Bush loaned antiques from his personal collection, including a 16th century banquet table.

The American Architect, October 17, 1917 (copyright expired)

Another change came the following year when the newly organized Hamilton Bank moved into the ground floor in December 1922.  Other new tenants that year were the Technical Book Co. and the Newspaper Club, composed of journalists.

The world-wide esteem of the Bush Terminal Sales Building was exemplified in July 1922 when English novelist Hugh Walpole and the Maharajah of Rajpipla visited the United States.  The New-York Tribune opined on July 10 that the two distinguished visitors had made a mistake.  "No man can see America in two weeks."  The article presumed that the Maharajah would have time only to see one landmark in each of the cities he would be visited.  The newspaper chose the Bush Terminal Sales Building as New York City's point of interest.

The offices of architects Robert P. Rodgers and Alfred E. Poor were located in the building in 1930.  That year, on February 18, Rodgers & Poor's design for the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was selected among 35 submitted designs.

In March 1931, the Childs Restaurant chain leased the two-story space formerly occupied by the Hamilton Bank.  (The bank had recently merged with Chase National Bank.)  The New York Times reported that the space "will be extensively remodeled in old London style by the architects, Pruitt & Brown."

By the outbreak of World War II, the building that Bush Magazine of Factory and Shipping Economy had called "A Modern Temple of Trade" in 1917 was no longer a wholesale shopper's mecca.  Now filled with offices, on March 28, 1941, The New York Times reported that six new tenants had signed leases the previous day.  They included the Commercial Capital Corporation; the accounting firm of Edwin J. Fluss Company; the ABC-Mutual Cleaning Contractors; Leo J. Margolin, an attorney; Stuart Robson, a novelty company; and William Rutter, the New York representative of the Angell Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio.

The headquarters of the Red Cross War Fund of Greater New York opened here in January 1943.  Its sole purpose was to raise money for the Red Cross's work in war-ravaged Europe and on the battlefronts.  By 1946, the name was tweaked to the Red Cross Fund Headquarters.  Among its fund-raising methods was an annual benefit Broadway variety show, and in March 1946 two days of tennis matches at the Seventh Regiment Armory were held.  On March 6, The New York Times announced, "Donald Budge, the king of the courts, heads a cast of professional tennis players who will appear in New York for the benefit of the American Red Cross."

The 1960s saw a wide variety of tenants.  Among them were the Doric Training Center, which promised, "If you're interested in a glamorous, high fashion, high profit cosmetics business of your own, this is it!"; the American School, which advertised, "Do you have leadership potential? Supervisory training at home in your spare time;" and attorney Hyman Abrams, who specialized in immigration law.  He was convicted in August 1969 for "obstructing justice and causing false statements to be made to the Immigration and Naturalization Service," as reported by the New York Amsterdam News.

The building was acquired by Vanke US in 2015 and the lobby was remodeled by Fogarty Finger Architects.  The sleek, white space was inspired "by art gallery spaces," according to Vanke's website.  

image via vanke.us.com

The upper floors were gutted into industrial loft-style spaces.  In May 29, 2026, Bisnow reported that the Bush Terminal Sales Building "is now in the hands of a bank."

many thanks to reader Andrew Porter for suggesting this post