The 1918 Harvey D. Gibson House - 52 East 69th Street

 

In 1881 developer William a. Hawkinson completed a row of five high-stooped houses at 50 to 58 East 69th Street.  Each 18-feet wide, they were designed by Lamb & Wheeler.  The first resident of 52 East 69th Street was Anne White Schermerhorn Suydam, whose husband Charles Suydam died on December 31, 1882.

In the first years of the 20th century, the outdated brownstones in the neighborhood were being replaced by sumptuous, modern mansions.  Banker Henry P. Davison purchased the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 69th Street in 1916 as the site of his new home.  Included in the parcel were 50 and 52 East 69th Street--50 as part of his site and 52 to guarantee that no apartment building was erected next to his mansion.

Davison was well acquainted with another banker, Harvey Dow Gibson.  As his own residence was under construction, on December 27, 1916, The American Architect reported that Davison had sold "to Harvey Gibson, vice-president of the Liberty National Bank, the lot at 52 East Sixty-ninth Street.  Mr. Gibson will erect a dwelling for his own occupancy."

The close relationship between the two financiers was reflected in Gibson's choosing the same architectural firm that had designed the Davison mansion--Walker & Gillette.  Completed the following year, the architects' neo-Georgian design complimented the Davison house.  Both sat on a limestone base and were faced in the same Flemish bond red brick.  

The fluted columns that flanked the entrance of 52 East 69th Street supported an entablature decorated with rosettes and bellflowers.  Full-relief rams' heads upheld its cornice.  The paneled lintels of the second floor openings were carved with neo-classical urns and swags.  The fifth floor, behind a brick parapet, took the form of a steep, slate shingled mansard with two pronounced dormers.

Born in 1882 in New Hampshire, Harvey Dow Gibson graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 1902.  He started with American Express before moving to the Liberty National Bank where he quickly rose to vice-president.  He married Carrie Hastings Curtis on June 10, 1903.  

The couple's 32-acre summer estate, Land's End, was in Locust Valley, Long Island (where the Davisons' country home, Peacock Point, was also located).  The mansion there, built in the 1850s, was given a Georgian remodeling by Walker & Gillette.  The Gibsons also owned a home at 5 Rue Mesnil in Paris.

Henry Dow Gibson in 1917, the year he moved into 52 East 69th Street.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

America entered World War I in April 1917, just as the Gibsons were preparing to move into their town home.  Henry Davison was appointed chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross and The New York Times reported that Davison "called upon" Gibson to become the Red Cross Commissioner in France.  Both he and Davison traveled to the war front throughout the remainder of the war.

The year 1917 was additionally eventful for Gibson when, in addition to his new house and Red Cross position, he was promoted to president of the Liberty National Bank, as reported in The American Elite and Sociologist Blue Book.  (Upon Liberty National Bank's merger with the New York Trust Company, Gibson became president of the latter organization.)

Gibson was, according to The New York Times, "a close friend of Helen Keller."  He would eventually be treasurer of the Helen Keller Foundation and a trustee of the American Foundation for the Blind.

Untypical of millionaires, Gibson was driving himself on the night of June 20, 1921.  As he entered the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, former tennis champion Beals Wright, who was drunk, smashed into Gibson's automobile.  According to the policeman who witnessed the collision, "As soon as he became disentangled from the Gibson car...Wright continued up the avenue."  The New-York Tribune reported "at Fifty-sixth Street, it is alleged, [Wright] struck and upset a horse-drawn carriage, driven by Denis Ryan."  The tennis star was arrested for intoxication and reckless driving.  Gibson was apparently unharmed.

Domestic clouds were forming over the East 69th Street house before long.  On July 1, 1925, The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Harvey Dow Gibson of New York, wife of the President of the New York Trust Company, has filed a petition for divorce in the Paris courts." 

The following year, on March 13, 1926, The New York Times reported that Gibson had married Helen Whitney Bourne in Berne, Switzerland.  The article said the marriage "is of wide interest in New York.  Mrs. Bourne obtained a divorce from George Galt Bourne in Reno in October, 1924, and Mr. Gibson and his first wife, the former Miss Carrie H. Curtis, were divorced in Paris last Summer."

On May 15, 1933, The New York Times reported that the 51-year-old banker "broke his collar-bone yesterday when he was thrown from his horse while hurdling a fence near his estate, Land's End, Locust Valley."  The millionaire spent the night in the North Country Community Hospital.

About two months later, the Land's End house was burglarized.  Then, on August 13, Gibson reported $200 in cash was missing from the residence.  The Gibsons may have had a light-fingered servant in their employ.  The New York Times recalled, "The theft follows another and larger loss in the same manner several weeks ago."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Interestingly, although Harvey and Helen Whitney Gibson continued to live in the East 69th Street house, Carrie Gibson had received it in the 1925 divorce.  It was not until February 2, 1935 that The Sun reported that Gibson "acquired the town house he occupies at 52 East Sixty-ninth street, at an indicated consideration of $90,000" from Carrie (who was now married to Griffith E. Thomas of the U.S. Navy).  The price would equal about $1.9 million in 2024.

Harvey Dow Gibson died "of a heart ailment," according to The New York Times on September 12, 1950.  In reporting his death, the newspaper called him a "banker of world-wide fame," and noted that he had served as a "Red Cross leader in both World Wars."

Helen Whitney Bourne Gibson's daughter, actress Whitney Bourne, who married Roy Atwood in 1956, inherited the East 69th Street house.  On December 24, 1964, The New York Times headlined an article, "Actress Buys East Side House" and reported that Whitney Bourne Atwood had sold 52 East 69th Street to Jayne Mansfield.  The article noted, "Miss Mansfield plans alterations to the residence."

Jayne Mansfield and husband Matt Cimber with their newborn son and her four other children.  Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1965.

Mansfield had married her third husband, Italian-born director Matt Cimber exactly three months earlier, on September 24, 1964.  The couple separated on July 11, 1965.

Two months before that, on May 10, 1965, the Long Island City newspaper Star Journal reported, "Actress Jayne Mansfield's East Side town house at 52 East 69th street, Manhattan, was burglarized yesterday of $51,000 in jewelry."  The amount of the heist would translate to about $473,000 today.

Mansfield was in Biloxi, Mississippi appearing at the Gus Stevens Supper Club in the early summer of 1967.  After midnight on June 28, a driver for the club chauffeured the actress and three of her children, her attorney, and her romantic partner Sam Brody on a trip to New Orleans where Mansfield was to appear on an afternoon television show.  The automobile slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer, killing Mansfield and the two other front seat passengers.

The former Gibson house later became home to Peter M. Robbins.  It was sold in 2022 to historian, author, and collector of Old Master paintings Davide Stefanacci for $9.1 million.

photographs by the author

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The Charles F. and Maude Watson Mansion - 34 East 69th Street

 

Prolific real estate developer Anthony Mowbray erected two brownstone-faced homes at 32 and 34 East 69th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in 1880.  Designed by Lamb & Wheeler in a marriage of neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles, they were 20-feet wide and four stories tall above high English basements.

34 East 69th Street would originally have been very similar to its next-door-neighbor at 32 E. 69th Street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Politician John Kelly and his wife, Ann Theresa Mullen, purchased 34 East 69th Street.  Born in 1822, Kelly entered politics in 1840 and served as a New York Representative in Congress from 1855 to 1858.  He was elected Sheriff of New York County in 1859 and in 1871 turned his focus to fighting the corruption of the notorious Tweed Ring.  By 1874, Kelly controlled Tammany Hall and earned his nickname, "Honest John."

John Kelly, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Ann was Kelly's second wife.  His first, Mary Ann McIllhargy, died on July 17, 1866, and within five years their three children had perished.  He and Ann (who was the niece of New York Cardinal John McCloskey) had a son, John Jerome, and a daughter, Josephine.

Kelly, the most powerful force in New York City politics, suffered a blow in 1884.  In his 1917 The History of Tammany Hall, Gustuvus Myers writes:

Kelly broke down with nervous and physical prostration after the Presidential campaign of 1884.  Grover Cleveland's election, which falsified his predictions, deeply disappointed him.  He kept to his house, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth street, but still issued his orders to the Tammany organization.

His condition was well publicized.  On February 14, 1885, The New York Times reported that Kelly had spent a few days as a guest of Nathaniel Jarvis, Jr. in Far Rockaway.  Now back home, the article said "it was announced that he was greatly improved in health, and had not been in better spirits for several weeks."

New Yorkers no doubt realized things were more serious that November.  The day after the elections, the New-York Tribune reported, "John Kelly remained all day yesterday at his home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st.  It was stated that he was too ill to go out of the house."

By the following year, according to Gustuvus Meyers, "he could not sleep except by the use of opiates."  Around 1:30 on the morning of May 30, 1886, Mary Ann sent for a priest.  Two more came at around 10:00 to administer last rites.  On June 2, The Sun reported, "John Kelly, the Tammany chieftain, whose name is as familiar to the country as the President's, died yesterday afternoon at a little about 3 o'clock."  John Kelly's funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 5.

Kelly had left the East 69th Street house in equal shares to Mary Ann and Josephine, who was still unmarried.  Following their period of bereavement, the women again entertained.  Those gatherings often reflected the Kellys' deep Catholic faith.  On December 16, 1894, for instance, the New-York Tribune wrote, "One of the pleasant dinners of the week was given by Mrs. John Kelly for Monsignor Satolli, at her home, No. 34 East Sixty-ninth-st., on Monday.  The decorations were in white and purple, the Papal and the Delegate's colors."  (Monsignor Francesco Satolli was the first Apostolic Delegate to the United States.)

Mary Ann and Josephine remained here until August 1928 when 34 East 69th Street was sold to stockbroker Charles Frederic Watson Jr.  Somewhat ironically, seven months later, on March 25, 1929, Mary Ann Kelly died.

In reporting the sale on August 3, 1928 The New York Times had remarked that during the decades that the Kelly family occupied the house, "the block was improved with fine residences."  Charles and Maude Watson followed suite by hiring architect A. Wallace McCrea to remodel the outdated brownstone.  

He stripped off the outer wall and pulled the facade to the property line.  McCrea gave the mansion a tripartite, neo-French Classic marble facade.  Above the rusticated base, the windows of the piano nobile were fully arched, while the upper openings were segmentally arched.  McCrea even executed the terminal cornice in marble.

The renovation caused a stark contrast to its once fraternal twin next door.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

As work on the house progressed, the Watsons lived in a sumptuous apartment in Mayfair House at 610 Park Avenue.  Then, on November 2, 1929, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Watson Jr. have left Mayfair House for 34 East Sixty-ninth Street."

Both Charles Frederic Watson Jr. and his wife, the former Maude V. Burnside, came from privileged backgrounds.  They were married in St. Thomas's Church on January 26, 1924.  The New York Times said that Charles was "descended from the Campbell and Argyle families of Scotland."  On her maternal side, Maude was a descendant of Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Charles was born in Orange, New Jersey and educated in private schools.  He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1906, but was, perhaps, better known for his athletic skills at the time.  He was a championship amateur tennis player.  Now, he and Maude maintained a home in London where they spent several months every year.

As early as 1938, the Watsons's butler was John Evert Andren.  The butler was the most trusted member of a family's domestic staff and were entrusted with all the keys and combinations for silver safes.  On January 17, 1939, Andren was arrested "as a suspect" in the theft of some of the Watsons' silver.  Although he claimed innocence, he was carrying "monogrammed silverware worth more than $500" at the time of his arrest.  (The value would translate to more than $11,000 in 2026.)

Charles Frederic Watson Jr. died at the age of 71 on April 19, 1954.   Maude sold 34 East 69th Street on November 1, 1956 to Harold G. and Irene R. Lacks.  The couple's marriage dissolved and the house was auctioned as part of the divorce proceedings in February 1969.  It was purchased for the equivalent of $3 million today by the Government of Iran.  On February 28, The New York Times reported, "The house will be the residence of Iran's consul general, Parviz Sepahbodi."

photograph by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On February 11, 1979, revolutionary, armed forces overthrew the Iranian Government.  The U.S. State Department took over Iranian properties, including 34 East 69th Street in April 1980.  Six months later, on October 14, The New York Times reported that the State Department had leased the building to the French Designer Showhouse.  The Decorator Showcase continued to be held here through 2000.

In 2001, the Richard L. Feigen & Co. gallery opened in three floors of 34 East 69th Street.  Founded in Chicago in 1957, the gallery "handles work by such important artsists as German Expressionist Max Beckmann and Surrealist master Henri Rousseau," according to the 2016 ART + NYC.

David Zwirner's gallery took over the space in 2017.  Art dealer Adler Beatty occupied the fourth floor.  When Zwirner closed his East 69th Street location in July 2026, artnet recalled, "The Zwirner on East 69th Street hosted about three-dozen exhibitions for canonical figures like Yayoi Kusama, Bill Traylor, and Dan Flavin."

With the gallery gone, the future of the landmarked marble mansion is unclear.

photographs by the author

The Edwin Cornell Jameson House - 16 East 69th Street

photo by Alex Citrin, The New York Observer

In the 1880's, as the area east of Central Park was drawing more and more New Yorkers north, the blocks leading off Fifth Avenue were being developed with elegant residences.  In 1882 developer and architect Charles Buek & Co. completed a row of three neo-Grec style houses at 16 through 20 East 69th Street.  

The 33-foot wide residence became home to C. Adolph Low, the cousin of Columbia University President Seth Low and it was here in August of 1897 that the socially important wedding reception of his daughter, Edith Westervelt Low was held.

Low sold the house a week before Christmas in 1899 to William E. Shepard, who had married Cettie Gwynn in 1888 (she was the sister of Alice Gwynn Vanderbilt, wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt II).  The Shepards rubbed shoulders with New York’s most socially elite.

No. 16 East 69th Street was the scene of lavish dinners and receptions for years. Yet, after the death of William Edgar Shepard, Cettie’s circumstances became strained.  Alice Vanderbilt quietly stepped in, purchasing the house and in December 1914 transferring the title to what The New York Times referred to as “the costly residence” to her sister.

Cettie lived on at in the house until April 30, 1928 when she sold it to insurance executive Edwin Cornell Jameson for $250,000 (more than $3.75 million in 2022 dollars).  Plans to update the aging house were almost immediate.  Plans for alterations filed by architect A. Wallace McCrea in 1929 would result in a substantial facelift.  

McCrea removed the stoop and pulled the facade forward to the property line.  Faced in red brick with limestone trim, the prim neo-Georgian design was a stark departure from Buek's original Victorian front.  A fifth story, tucked behind a brick-and-stone balustrade, accommodated servants’ rooms. 

By 1940 the house was home to Walter J. Salmon and his family.  He was  would remain for nearly three decades.  That year the Salmons' son, 20-year old Burton D., a student at Yale University, struck and killed a 35-year old man at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.  He was arrested on charges of assault and dangerous driving.

Salmon raised race horses and on December 12, 1948 Mrs. Salmon hosted a committee meeting at 16 East 69th Street to discuss plans for a Mid-Winter Ball in the Plaza Hotel which would include a horse auction to benefit the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital for Animals.

Walter J. Salmon died in the house in 1953 and three years later his widow sold the home to the English Speaking Union, which initiated a two-year renovation into a “clubhouse” which opened in January 1958.

The English Speaking Society shortly after renovating the house -- photo NYPL Collection

The organization holds classes in English as a second language and pairs native English speakers with persons newly arrived in New York.  After four decades in the building, the Union put the house on the market in the spring of 1999.  Explaining the decision, Executive Director Alice Boyne said, “it’s the largest asset that we hold.”  The Union felt the funds could be better used in funding scholarships and language programs. “We’re not about mortar and brick,” Boyne said.

In 2000 the Wall Street Journal reported that  investment banker Roger Barnett sold his web-based company, Beauty.com, to Amazon.com for $42 million.  That same year he and his author-heiress wife, Sloan Lindemann Barnett, purchased 16 East 69th Street for approximately $11 million.

The Barnetts hired Fred L. Sommer & Associates to reconvert the building to a single-family home, after which interior designer Peter Marino (who has designed for names like Andy Warhol, Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani) decorated the interiors.  According to real estate brokers, the renovations cost the Barnetts approximately the same amount they paid for the building.

Inside the entrance door, guests found themselves in a marble foyer. There were separate passenger and staff elevators. The second floor featured a living room, capable of entertaining 100 guests, that spanned the width of the house, and a dining room with 14-foot ceilings.

photo by Curbed New York

Seven years later the Barnetts were ready to move on. They quietly put the house on the market for $62 million.  Although there were no takers at that price, the house sold in 2010 for $48 million to their friend, Johnson & Johnson heiress Libet Johnson.

Like so many other grand mansions near the park which have recently been reconverted to private homes, No. 16 East 69th Street is a remarkable property with a stunning price tag.

The Meyer A. Bernheimer House - 9 West 69th Street

 

Architect Alexander M. Welch was known for designing high-end homes, very often on the east side of Central Park.  But in 1895 he was hired by builders James A. Frame & Son to design a row of five 20-foot wide homes on West 69th Street, just off Central Park West.  The developers had purchased the parcel from Clara Sachs for $75,000--or about $2.36 million in today's money.  The firm promised the homes would have "all modern conveniences."

Completed the following year, the Renaissance Revival residences rose four stories above an English basement level.  The rusticated limestone base of No. 9 West 69th Street sat above a dog-legged stone stoop.  The two-story midsection, faced in gray Roman brick, featured a rounded bay.  Decorative blind roundels and palm fronds adorned the lintels of the second floor.  The fourth floor was clad in paneled limestone.

It was sold in October 1896 to John J. and Julia Mitchell.  The couple paid about $50,000 for their new home--in the neighborhood of $1.57 million today.  As was common, the title was placed in Julia's name.  

Mitchell was president of Mitchell, Vance & Co.  Founded in 1854 it manufactured and designed light fixtures, clocks and bronzes, and ornamental metal work.  While Mitchell busily oversaw his well-known business, Julia focused on things more social.  On March 26 1899, for instance, the New York Herald reported "Miss Marion E. Coppernoll gave an interesting talk on 'Famous Folks and Their Families' Friday morning last at the home of Mrs. John Mitchell, No. 9 West Sixty-ninth street."  On the same page an article about Mrs. John H. McCarthy's afternoon luncheon listed Julia as one of the guests.

The Mitchells remained in No. 9 for more than a decade, selling it on April 28, 1908 to Meyer A. Bernheimer.  Interestingly, he immediately transferred title to Alice, Cora A. and Blanche A. Bernheimer.

Bernheimer was one of eight children born to Isaac and Isabella Bernheimer.  He and his brother Jacob were partners in Jacob S. Bernheimer & Bro., the cotton converting firm founded by their father.  Meyer was more visible, however, in his real estate dealings.  His father had branched into real estate and mining interests before his death and Meyer followed suit.  He bought and sold Manhattan properties and owned vast properties in the Far West.  In 1917 he would purchase silver mining properties in Montana.

The Bernheimer girls involved themselves in Jewish causes.  Blanche was involved with the Hebrew Technical Institute and Cora was a member of the National Council of Jewish Women.

The Bernheimer family and their neighbors along the block lived in quiet opulence, surrounded by the trappings of the well-to-do.  Their homes were filled with silver flatware and serving pieces, paintings and sculpture and expensive bric-a-brac.  And they were the constant targets of stealthy burglars.

In 1914 the neighbors organized the Sixty-Ninth Street Property Owners' Association for their own protection.  Meyer Bernheimer told a reporter from the New York Herald, "the property owners decided that there were too many burglaries in the neighborhood and hired special watchmen, one for day and one for night duty."  Unfortunately, the regular policemen bristled at the move, seeing the private watchmen as an insult to their own capabilities.  When the association asked that the watchmen be supplied with special police badges, the police commissioner refused.

One night in December the night watchman, Leo A. Carey, heard a loud police whistle being blown by one of the Bernheimer maids--the signal that help was needed.  He rushed to the house and detained Thomas McCoy.  The New York Herald reported "The man was caught while trying to escape a maid in the Bernheimer home at No. 9 West Sixty-ninth street.  One hundred dollars' worth of silverware had been taken."  (The foiled heist would be valued at about $2,640 today.)

The responding policemen were less than congratulatory to the watchman.  The New York Herald recounted "According to Mr. Bernheimer, Carey hardly had his prisoner locked up when detectives arrived at the Bernheimer home and asked upon what authority Carey made the arrest.  Mr. Bernheimer says that this has been the practice ever since the request for special police badges for the watchmen was refused by the Police Commissioner."  The article noted "That the block needs more protection, the property owners assert, is shown by the fact that in the last few months Carey has made no fewer than seven arrests on charges ranging from burglary to disorderly conduct."

World War I brought with it considerable anti-German sentiment.  It prompted some German-American run businesses and institutions to change their names to something less German-sounding.  One wonders about the conversations that went on within No. 9 West 69th Street before Charles Daly Bernheimer changed his surname to Burnham before joining the United States Army Reserve Corps.

Charles rose to a captain in the Quartermaster Section.  Shortly after the war's end, on June 24, 1919, he married Estelle White King.

The Bernheimer family left West 69th Street within a few years, moving to No. 42 West 58th Street.  Meyer A. Bernheimer died there on October 18, 1928.

By the early 1940's No. 9 was the sole survivor of the 1896 row.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

By the Great Depression years the former Bernheimer house was being operated as a respectable rooming house.  Among the tenants in 1937 was Peyton Fentrell McLamb.  A graduate of West Point he was married to Esther Marie Johnson that year.  His bride was a graduate of the University of Kansas.

photo via streeteasy.com

After surviving, essentially, as a private residence for eight decades, No. 9 West 69th Street was converted to apartments in 1977.  It was the last standing house of the 1896 row.  Much of Alexander Welch's handsome interior elements survive while the exterior is nearly unchanged.

photographs by the author

The 1896 August Goldsmith House - 36 West 69th Street

 

Gilbert A Schellenger designed almost every house on the south side of the West 69th Street block between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue in the 1890s.  Interestingly, however, they were not the project of a single developer, but three unrelated operators.  Two of the Schellenger designs stood in stark contrast to his other high-stooped brownstones.

Nos. 34 and 36 were faced in gray brick above limestone bases.   Shallow porches led to the entrances nestled behind fluted Ionic columns that upheld striking, two-story bowed bays.  Designed for George C. Edgar's Sons in 1895, the dignified, 22-foot-wide residences rose five stories.

The entrance to 36 West 69th Street (right) was originally centered, like its neighbor next door.

As construction neared completion on December 21, 1895, the New York Herald reported that George C. Edgar's Sons had sold No. 36 to William Moore for $55,000.  The newspaper had gotten the name more than a little wrong--the buyer was J. F. William Mohr.  The price he paid would translate to just under $2 million in 2023.

Born in Germany in 1848, Mohr was a partner in the cotton firm of Mohr, Hanneman & Co.  He and his wife Clothilde had a daughter, Helene Sophie.  (Another daughter, Clothilde Marie, had died in 1888 at the age of 4.)

The proximity of Central Park to 36 West 69th Street made a ride either on horse or by carriage convenient for the Mohrs.  On Sunday afternoon, April 25, 1897, William took a buggy into the park, but the airing did not end well.  The New York Herald reported that around 5:00 "he was run into by a hansom cab driven by Martin Garrity.  The hind wheel of Mr. Mohr's vehicle was broken off, but he escaped any injury."

Helen Sophie Mohr Zinsser in a theatrical costume later in life.  (original source unknown)

The following year, on October 22, 1898, Helen Sophie was married in All Angels' Church to August Zinsser, Jr.  Following the ceremony, a reception was held in the 69th Street house.

In July 1904, Mohr sold 36 West 69th Street to August Goldsmith.  A wealthy jeweler, he was the principal of Goldsmith, Stern & Co. on Gold Street.  Born in Germany in 1860 as Adolph Goldschmidt, he had anglicized his name upon arriving in America.  He and his wife Devorah had three sons, Arthur J., Richard, and Lawrence Lyon.

The Goldsmiths experienced a terrifying incident the year after they moved in.  On September 28, 1905, the family was at dinner, "when Mr. Goldsmith sent one of the maids, Katherine Gordon, to a bedroom on the second floor to get a letter," according to The Morning Telegraph.  She entered the bedroom, clicked on the light and "was confronted by a man, 6 feet in height, wearing black clothes and a derby hat," reported The New York Times.

The intruder pointed a revolver at Katherine and growled, "Keep still, and I won't hurt you.  Move or scream, and I'll kill you."

The clever chambermaid did not lose her wits, but carefully felt the wall behind her, searching for the light switch.  When her fingers found it, she plunged the room into darkness and bolted out and down the stairs.  She alerted the house that there was a burglar upstairs.  As August Goldsmith headed up the stairs, she warned, "Look out, he has a revolver and may kill you."

While her husband went upstairs, Devorah rushed into the street to find a policeman.  In the meantime, according to The Morning Telegraph, the household was "thrown into an uproar" and the servants "fled in terror."  Four policeman searched the house, and found no one.  They did discover a scuttle to the roof had been pried loose.  The well-dressed thief had gotten away with $55 in cash, a set of gold cuff links and a gold ring.

The Goldsmiths were highly active in charitable and social causes.  By 1909 August was a director of the Educational Alliance, which educated immigrants "to render them desirable citizens," according to The Sun.  On March 8, 1915, the newspaper said, "Some idea of the activities of the Alliance may be gained from the fact that over 3,000,000 persons go through the building every year."  Goldsmith was also involved with the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies.

Devorah worked with the Federation Settlement, along with other socialites with impressive surnames like Lowenstein, Dreyfoos, and Rothschild.

In 1917, the Goldsmiths had a houseguest for the winter season.  Devorah's niece, Mildred Sommerfield, lived in Chicago.   Devorah, who had only boys, suddenly found herself planning a wedding for a young woman.  On May 11, 1917, The American Jewish Chronical reported that Mildred had been married to Robert Goldman at the fashionable Sherry's restaurant on May 1.  The article explained, "They were to have a large wedding some time in June, but the fact that Mr. Goldman has been called to Plattsburg [a military training camp] hastened their plans."

Arthur was the first of the Goldsmith boys to become engaged.  His plans to marry Stella Ruth Metzger were announced in April 1918.

With war raging, August became chairman of the Jewelry Committee of the Liberty Loan Committee in 1918, which pushed for the sale of Liberty Bonds.  He was still working hard for the cause in 1919, when his focus was necessarily redirected to labor problems.

In September, his 200 jewelers, polishers, toolmakers and other staff walked off the job.  Goldsmith was not sympathetic.  "These union men are mad with Bolshevism," he told The Sun.  And so, he felt, if his workers favored the communist way of doing things, he would appease them.  He offered to sell the strikers his entire operation for $300,000.  They could then divide it equally among themselves and run it as they wished.  

The workers had another proposal.  They demanded that Goldsmith turn over the company to them cost-free and that he and his partners "clear out immediately."  Not surprisingly, neither party accepted the other's proposal.

Lawrence Lyon Goldsmith was married to Gertrude T. Winter in January 1926.  The American Hebrew reported on January 8 that the couple "have sailed for France, where they will spend their wedding trip.  They will travel in Spain, Portugal and Germany during January and return to the States later to make their home in New York."  The article mentioned that Lawrence "graduated from Princeton in 1920 and studied at the University of Paris."

Still unmarried, Richard remained in the house with his parents.  Following Devorah's death, August Goldsmith sold 36 West 69th Street to B'nai B'rith in 1930.  On November 10, The New York Evening Post reported, "The club...will move to the Sixty-ninth Street address in a couple of weeks."  (August Goldsmith moved to the Hotel Dorset on West 54th Street, where he died at the age of 73 on May 24, 1933.)

B'nai B'rith operated from the former Goldsmith residence for just over a decade.  In 1937, the Menorah School of Adult Education shared the building.  Then, in 1945, a renovation resulted in two apartments per floor.  The entrance, which was moved to the side, was replaced by a large window. 

Living here in 1950 was actress Joyce Henry.  A 1948 graduate of the University of Michigan, she had spent her summer in Ivoryton, Connecticut playing in a summer stock production of Yes, My Darling Daughter starring Ann Harding, and in Blithe Spirit starring Arthur Treacher.  Back in New York, she studied drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.

Although the entrance has been relocated, the exterior of the Goldsmith house is otherwise little changed since 1896.  There are still two apartments per floor.

photographs by the author

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Thom & Wilson's 1886 190-198 Columbus Avenue (100 West 69th Street)

In the mid-1880's developer George J. Hamilton was busy erecting rows of high-stooped houses on the Upper West Side.   He added an apartment building to the mix in 1885 when he commissioned the architectural firm of Thom & Wilson to design a "brick flat and store" along with four four-story row houses at the southwest corner of Ninth (later Columbus) Avenue and 69th Street.

The group was completed in July 1886.  Thom & Wilson, known for its distinctive take on popular styles, did not disappoint with the flat building.   Ground floor shops faced Columbus Avenue, while the residential entrance was located at No. 100 West 69th Street.  

The upper floors were faced in red brick and trimmed in stone.  Predominantly neo-Grec in style, the architects liberally splashed the design with Queen Anne elements.  The 69th Street elevation featured two Palladio-inspired openings at the second floor.  At the third floor the outside windows wore half-bowl decorations--adequate for a pot of flowers or the elbows of an inquisitive housewife.  Each of the top floor windows was capped by a deeply carved fan.  The pressed metal cornice included a handsome wave crest pattern between the brackets.

The more visible Columbus Avenue side was dominated by the unusual treatment of the top-heavy chimney backs which widened into full-blown chimneys that broke through the cornice line.  The central chimneys embraced a pediment that included an arch filled with exuberantly carved vines and fans. 

The corner shop was leased to Gustave Loetdje for his "handsome grocery store," as described by The Evening World.  Loetdje, who had come to America in 1881, seemed confused when the Federal Government stepped in to break up the monopoly of the sugar industry, the "Sugar Trust," in 1888.  His focus was more on the struggling refinery workers who would lose their jobs.

On January 30, 1888 a reporter from The World said "he thought it very hard on the hundreds of poor workmen who were thrown out of employment at this time of year by the shutting down of some of the sugar manufactories."

Among the tenants in 1893 was 20-year old Mable O. Clark, wife of Frederick Sherwin Clark, who was two years older.  The couple had been married on June 27 that year but, according to The New York Times, "the honeymoon lasted until July 1."  According to Frederick, it had been a shotgun wedding, "forced upon him at the point of a pistol."

The article explained that the pair had lived together for some time, but on that night Mable's mother and aunt appeared with a minister.  "Mrs. Clark threatened to shoot him and then commit suicide," said the newspaper.  "Clark preferred not to be shot."

But after returning to the city on July 1 and taking rooms at No. 100 West 69th Street, Frederick vanished.  He then hired a private investigator to gather evidence to file for divorce.  

Unaware of his actions, Mabel sued for lack of support and appeared in court with her mother on July 19.  Clark was there with his father.  After the judge decreed that Clark was to pay $5 per week to Mabel, all parties began to file out of the courtroom.  It was then that Clark's private detective approached Mabel and tried to serve her with the divorce papers.

"She discovered his game and shouted out that she was being assaulted," reported The Times.  Mabel and her mother nearly lost the detective in the crowded hallways, but he caught up with them on the street.  "Mrs. Clark ran around an ash barrel.  The detective ran after her.  Around the barrel they raced again and again.  A crowd gathered and watched the novel game of hide-and-seek."

"At last," said The Evening World, "Wells caught her and thrust the paper into her hands."   But then, back in the courthouse, detective Wells made a crushing discovery--the divorce papers were still in his vest pocket and he had served Mabel with his New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad timetable.

The names of most of the residents appeared in newsprint for respectable reasons--like Gertrude de la M. Ludlam, whose daughter, Helen Denison Ludlam, was married in their apartment to Herbert F. C. Ashenden on June 6, 1900.  But occasionally a tenant would find himself on the wrong side of the law.

Such was the case on March 2, 1907 when Deputy Police Commissioner Hanson and six detectives raided a poolroom on Broadway between 75th and 76th Streets.  The term poolroom referred to an illegal gambling operation, normally involving horse racing.  The New York Press reported "With his detectives he made a quick dash at the door and gained admission without difficulty.  He found sixty men in the room, he said, gathered around racing charts and other paraphernalia."

Among the "prisoners and the plunder" that were carted away in a patrol wagon was Monroe Voorhess, of No. 100 West 69th Street.   He was charged with aiding and abetting John Davis, who headed the illegal operation.

Alfred M. Woolley and his wife lived in the building at the time.  He and W. E. Woolley, presumably his brother, were proprietors of the Hotel Marie Antoinette on Broadway between 66th and 67th Streets.   Captain Walter G. Smith had been Alfred Woolley's secretary since 1898.  

On Sunday January 19, 1908 Smith told one of the clerks that he was going to take a walk.  He never returned.  His friends began a frantic search and a week later a reporter knocked on the Woolleys' apartment door.  Alfred was not there, but his wife said in part, "Mr. Woolley is greatly worried...He has heard nothing from him since he left the hotel last Sunday.  Perhaps Captain Smith has been injured in some way or has become ill."

The reason for his disappearance soon became evident when it was discovered that about $12,000 (about $338,000 today) was missing from the Hotel Marie Antoinette.  Four months later, on April 6, Smith was found in the Susquehanna River with a bullet hole in his head.  But if the discovery initially seemed to have closed the case, it did not.

On April 27 Alfred Woolley had Deputy State Attorney General William E. Kisselburgh, Jr. arrested for defrauding the hotel out of $4,000, $2,263 of which was written on bad checks.  More importantly, it appeared that Kisselburgh had been involved in Smith's embezzlement.  The Auburn Semi-Weekly Journal reported "The charge is now made that Smith advanced part of this sum to Kisselburgh and two other men as I.O.U.'s and worthless checks."

Kate F. Hanley, who made her living as a dressmaker, lived here in 1915 when she visited James Butler's grocery store and butcher shop on Amsterdam Avenue and 68th Street on January 8.  Between the two sections were swinging doors.  The butcher shop was then one step down.  

As Kate passed from one store to the other she did not notice the step and fell.  She sued Butler for negligence.  The jury did not agree and found in favor for Butler, saying that instead it was Kate who was careless.  The feisty dressmaker did not accept the verdict and as late as 1915 was still battling in court.

And while Kate was fighting for justice, 12-year old Alexander Discount was doing the same, albeit in a much different way.  On January 28, 1915 the boy surprised a burglar, William Fiore, "ransacking a bureau in his room," according to The New York Herald.  As the thief ran down the hallway stairs, Alexander flung himself from the second floor landing onto his back.

"Screams brought women tenants with brooms.  The young man was being subjected to a severe pummeling when Policeman Heaney arrived and arrested him on a charge of burglary," reported the article.   Alexander's dresser was obviously not Fiore's first target that night.  "Three watches and a quantity of silver were found in his pockets."

Although they were middle class, several of the residents were affluent enough to purchase automobiles in the post World War I years.   Buying one and successfully driving one were separate issues, however.

On August 11, 1919 the New-York Tribune reported "A car driven by Louis Starvides, of 100 West Sixty-ninth Street, crashed into the machine of Miss Gertrude Mooney, twenty-one, of 1027 Carroll Street, Brooklyn."  The impact was such that Mooney's car was overturned.  She suffered a fractured skull and two of her passengers were severely injured.  "Mrs. George Mooney, fourth occupant of the car, was treated for hysteria and shock," said the article.

Three years later, late on the night of March 18, 1922, 24-year old M. Alexander was driving his automobile in the Inwood section.  The Evening World reported "St. Patrick's Day worshippers returning from church soon after midnight to-day saw a powerful touring car plunge over an eighteen-foot embankment of Vermilye Avenue."   The screams of women attracted police who, with several civilians, pulled Alexander from the wreckage.  "He has a possible fracture of the skull and lacerations of body and head," said the article.  "The car was badly damaged."

In 1929 renovations were made to the building and it was most likely at this time that the 69th Street entrance was bricked up and the doorway moved to Columbus Avenue.

Another alteration in 1981 resulted in a total of 14 apartments above the six ground floor stores.  Over the next decades the shops reflected the increasingly trendy personality of Columbus Avenue.  The Robert Marc eyewear boutique and optician office was here by 1984 and still remains.  Other shops along the row in the 1980's were Contre-Jour, the furniture and housewares store which owner Bill Roach described in 1986 as carrying only "things I would have myself;" and Judy Corman, which dealt in modish accessory items.

The new century saw the Frank J. Miele Gallery, gourmet shop Oliviers & Company, and French tea importer La Palaise des Thés among the ground floor tenants.

The brick and stone have been painted and the windows, of course, replaced.  But other than the blocked up entrance on 69th Street and altered storefronts, Thom & Wilson's somewhat quirky building survives little changed.

photographs by the author