The 1897 Elbridge J. and Agnes H. Moore House - 268 West 91st Street

 

Agnes H. Moore took out an $18,000 mortgage on 268 West 91st Street in 1897.  The recently completed house was one of a row of seven begun the previous year by developer James Frame and designed by Alexander Welch.  Agnes was the wife of Elbridge J. Moore, and it was common at the time for the title of real estate to be placed in the name of the wives of well-to-do couples.

The Moores' new home was four stories tall and 18-feet wide.  It was faced in gray Roman brick above the planar limestone base.  The entrance was tucked behind two square columns that upheld a two-story bowfront culminating in a stone balustrade.  Doric pilasters separated the three windows on the fourth floor.  

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Agnes Lawrence Hall Moore was the widow of John T. Walker.  Moving in with her and Elbridge were her daughter from her previous marriage, Florence Le Baron Walker; and her mother, Urania Lawrence Hall.  (Urania spoke proudly of having been the first person married at the newly built First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue in 1846.)

Agnes and Florence often appeared in the society columns together.  On January 7, 1900, for instance, the New York Herald reported that Agnes "will be at home to her friends on Wednesdays throughout January.  She will be assisted in receiving by Miss Walker."  

Later that summer, on August 4, Brooklyn Life reported, "Mrs. Elbridge J. Moore and her daughter, Miss Florence H. Le Baron Walker, of West Ninety-first street, Manhattan, sail for Europe next Wednesday on the Oceanic, accompanied by Miss Walker's uncle, Bishop Walker...After traveling through England, they intend to visit the Paris Exposition and the Passion Play at Oberammergau."

The following year, the 91st Street house buzzed with the excitement of wedding plans.  On October 26, 1901, Brooklyn Life reported that Florence would be married to Ernest Sayre Emanuel in fashionable St. Thomas's Church on Fifth Avenue on October 30.

Elbridge J. Moore walked his step-daughter down the aisle of the church that had been the scene of notable society weddings.  The New York Times reported, "A reception followed at the home of the bride's mother, 268 West Ninety-first street."

At the time of the wedding, Agnes was vice-president of the Eclectic Club, founded in 1896.  Club Women of New York described the club's broad interests, saying, "In all movements, whether literary, social, ethical, altruistic or philanthropic the interest and influence of the Eclectic Club will be found active.  Although concerning itself with grave social problems and broadly active charities, yet the club does not neglect questions of literature and language, of taste and manners, while it prides itself also upon the high order of its musical entertainments."

In 1903, Agnes and Elbridge Moore moved to the Ansonia Apartments and sold 268 West 91st Street to Leo J. and Mary C. O'Donovan.  Leo was a partner in the consulting engineering firm Reis & O'Donovan.

Living behind the O'Donovans at 271 West 90th Street in 1906 was another consulting engineer, Clinton H. Fletcher.  At about 4:00 on the morning of June 1, he was awakened by a noise in the backyard.  Looking out the window, he saw a man climbing over the fence into the O'Donovans' yard.  He phoned police, then went back to the window to see the crook at his neighbor's basement window.

"There were heavy iron bars over the window," reported the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "and the burglar had to pick out the lead, in which they were set, before he could bend apart two of them and squeeze through."  The man disappeared into the dark house.  Police arrived just as the 30-year-old James Thompson was exiting the window carrying a sack of the O'Donovans' silver.  A struggle ensued, during which one policeman was stabbed in the hand with a silver carving fork.  The article said, "The burglar was well marked for identification by the nightsticks of the two officers, when they were through with him."

By 1911, the O'Donovans leased the West 91st Street house to George Washington Hill and his wife.  Hill was an executive with the American Tobacco Co.  (He would eventually become its president and chairman.)  

George Washington Hill, from "Sold American!" The First Fifth Years, 1904-1954

While his wife was visibly social, perhaps none of her entertainments was more high-profile than the theater party and supper she hosted for Mary Lillian Duke, the daughter of Hill's multimillionaire employer, Benjamin N. Duke, and her fiancé, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. on May 17, 1915.  The Newark, New Jersey Evening Star reported,

The Tapestry Room at Sherry's was reserved for the party.  The decorations were entirely of white, relieved only by a gilded cage containing cooing turtledoves, which was hung near the entrance.  The guests sat at a large open table and in the centre was a huge cake decorated with tiny electric lights and topped with a miniature bride and bridegroom.  During the supper a travesty on the Biddle-Duke nuptials was shown in moving pictures, giving the humorous details of the preparation for the wedding and those who are to participate, much to the surprise of the guests.

That would be the last substantial entertainment given by the Hills while living here.  On September 19, 1915, Mary O'Donovan placed an advertisement in The New York Times offering the house for rent (emphasizing three bathrooms) at $2,500 per year, or about $6,500 per month by 2024 conversion.  The ad was answered by Geza D. Berko.

Berko was the founder and editor of the Hungarian-language newspaper Amerikai Magyar Nepszava and a leading figure in the Hungarian community.  He and his wife had at least two daughters, Marguerite and Olga.  The family had just moved in when Marguerite's engagement to Dr. Nicholas Galdonyi was announced.  The following year, on October 13, 1920, the Berkos announced Olga's engagement to Peter Fleischer.

The family's affluence was reflected in Geza Berko's detailed wish-list for a country house on April 15, 1921:

Country Property wanted--9-10 room house, 2-3 baths, and garage, in good residential section, with some ground; must be in first-class condition; at most 40 minutes from New York; no seashore; state price.  Berko.  268 West 91st st.

The O'Donovans' last tenant in the 91st Street house would be the Dugans.  Emaline Dugan signed a lease in October 1922.  By 1927, it was owned by doctors Emma Selkin-Aronson and Louis Aronson.  The couple had two children, Arthur, who was 11 years old in 1927, and Agnes, who was four.

Born in 1888, Emma graduated from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1910, and was Attending Surgeon and Gynecologist at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and Associate Gynecologist at Bronx Hospital.  

A psychiatrist and specialist in diseases of the brain and spinal cord, Louis Aronson was the adjutant neurologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital and attending neurologist at the Vanderbilt Clinic and the Bronx General Hospital.  He, as well, instructed in neurology at Columbia University.  Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1904.

Around 1929, Louis Aronson took up sculpture as a pastime and became adept at portraiture.  The New York Times said, "He was regarded as a good amateur and had exhibited his work at the New York Academy of Medicine.  He was a member of the Physician's Art Club."

Dr. Louis Aronson suffered a fatal heart attack in the house on February 1, 1934.  He was 52 years old. His funeral was held the following day at the Riverside Memorial Chapel on Amsterdam Avenue.  Nine months later, Emma sold 268 West 91st Street to Frank J. Reineske for $26,000 (about $592,000 today), $7,000 less than its assessed value.

Reineske, who lived in Glen Rock, New Jersey, converted the house to apartments.  It was renovated again in 1964, resulting in two apartments per floor and one in the new penthouse level, unseen from the street.

photographs by the author

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 Alfred Hess House -- No. 16 West 86th Street

Brothers William and Thomas Hall made their mark on Manhattan real estate as the 19^th century turned into the 20^th by erecting high-end speculative residences intended for wealthy homeowners.  In 1910 architect Alexander Welch worked for the Halls in designing a row mansions on the south side West 86^th Street, off Central Park.  The completed homes were surprisingly different.  Welch designed No. 14 in the Neo-Renaissance style, for instance, and No. 16 in the recently popular Neo-Georgian.

Nos. 14 and 16, constructed simultaneously, were architecturally diverse.

Elegant and up-to-date as they were, the sale of the mansions did not come quickly.  It was not until February 23, 1913 that The New York Times reported that W. W. and T. M. Hall had sold No. 16 in “a good residential deal on the West Side near Central Park.”  The newspaper noted “The house is one of a row which was erected by the sellers two or three years ago” and said it “is among the best constructed dwellings on the West Side, containing an elevator and the latest improvements.”

The three story brick-faced central section sat on a limestone base.  The red brick was contrasted by splayed limestone lintels, sills and bandcourses.  A steep copper mansard featured two tall dormers with classical pediments.

The elegant doorway brought early 19th century elements into the Edwardian age.

The purchasers were the eminent Dr. Alfred Fabian Hess and his wife, Sara, whose parents, Isador and Ida Straus, had been lost in the HMS Titanic sinking the year before.  Isador Straus had been the co-owner of the Macy Department Store.

The Hess family had been living at No. 154 West 72^nd Street.  The title to the mansion was, as was commonly done, put in Sara’s name.  Among the first events held in the new house was a wedding—interestingly enough not a Hess nor Straus marriage.

On October that year the parlor was filled with wealthy well wishers with names like Gimbel, Morganthau and Gildersleeve who witnessed the marriage of Martha Ornstein to Dr. Jacob B. Brenner.  The groom was the director of the research laboratories of the West Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh.  It was most likely Alfred Hess’s association with the respected researcher that led to ceremony's being held here.

There would be no scandal or gossip surrounding the Hess family throughout their years here.  The couple was involved with charitable causes like The Home for Hebrew Infants.   Alfred Hess garnered increased fame and respect for his research into child diseases, particularly rickets.  His published findings included the 1917 article “Prophylaxis of Rickets,” for the American Medical Association;  “The Cure of Infantile Rickets by Sunlight” in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1921 and a year later “Newer Aspects of the Rickets Problem.”

There was a bit of trouble, however, in 1916 when a man and woman were arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut on charges or attempting to pass forged checks.  It was then discovered that they were wanted in New York City for obtaining merchandise from merchants on false pretenses.  The man gave his name as Dr. J. E. Pareant and identified his wife as Jennie.

“Some medical apparatus was found in the possession of the man, who said he has a physician’s office at 16 West Eighty-sixth Street,” reported The New York Times on October 24, 1916.  Of particular interest to authorities was that the couple had with them a 13-year old girl, whom they introduced as their daughter.  They had taken the girl from the home of her parents on the promise to pay her for taking care of their baby.  “Police found no infant in their rooms,” said the newspaper.

Police Inspector Faurot cleared Alfred Hess of any involvement.  He told reporters “The man, it seems, never lived or practiced medicine at 16 West Eighty-sixth Street.  One of the leading physicians of the city resides there, and has occupied the house since it was built.  He says he never heard of Pareant until Saturday, when the attorney from Providence called and asked about the man.”

Sara Hess’s entertainments in the mansion seem to have often revolved around political and social causes.  On February 20, 1924 James W. Gerald addressed the Women’s Democratic Union here, speaking in praise of the late President Woodrow Wilson.

“Woodrow Wilson was the greatest idealist the world has ever seen,” he told the women.  “He gave an extraordinary opportunity to the world, which was not grasped either here or abroad.”

Living next door at No. 14 at this time, interestingly, was the Joseph Saks family--another department store connection.

By now the Hess daughters were growing up.  In 1926 Eleanor graduated from Byrn Mawr and two years later her parents announced her engagement to Harold Kurzman.  On April 24, 1928 the wedding took place in the Hess mansion, with Eleanor’s sister, Margaret, acting as maid of honor.

Three years later it would be Margaret’s turn to be married.

For years it was tradition that Dr. Alfred F. Hess present the diplomas to the graduating nurses at the Hebrew Home for Infants, and to deliver the commencement address.  On December 6, 1933, he did so again.  Then, as he reached his car following the ceremony, the 58-year old physician was stricken with a fatal heart attack.  He died in the parking lot inside his automobile.

In reporting on the extensive contributions to children’s medicine Hess had made throughout his career, The New York Times said “Thousands of children have been saved from deformities by the discoveries of Dr. Hess.”

On December 8 “a simple, private funeral service” was held in the 86^th Street mansion.  The Times reported that “More than 200 persons, among them scientists and prominent physicians, attended the funeral.”

The family retained possession of the house; but by now West 86^th Street had drastically changed.  Most of the great mansions of the avenue-wide street had been razed for modern apartments.  In 1935 the family commissioned architect John Harold Barry to convert the house into apartments – just two per floor.

Sara Straus Hess finally sold "for cash" the mansion where she had lived with her famous husband for 35 years in 1948.  In 1967 it received another interior make-over resulting in, perhaps appropriately, the installation of a doctor’s office on the first floor.

When Gary and Patricia Nave purchased the building in 1979 for $350,000, it was sadly neglected.  According to the Naves, pieces of the ceiling were falling.  They did a “restoration;” but preservationists would agree that the better term would be “renovation.”

In 2010 the residence, still broken into apartments, was offered for sale at $8.95 million.  Still waiting for an owner who will return to the mansion to its 1910 glory; it nevertheless survives as a scarce reminder of the earliest days of West 86^th Street.

photographs by the author

The 1898 James A. Burden Carriage House -- No. 75 E. 77th Street

On May 21, 1897 The New York Times reported on the sale of six building lots stretching westward from the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 77^th Street.  Henry Hilton had sold the property to brothers William W. and Thomas M. Hall.  As the Upper East Side rapidly developed, the two speculators were among the busiest—responsible for dozens of structures in the neighborhood.

The Halls purchased the real estate on the north side of East 77^th Street for a purely pragmatic project.  As Manhattan’s millionaires threw up grandiose mansions along Fifth Avenue they would require private stables.  A wealthy bank or lawyer would own several expensive vehicles, six or more horses, and a small staff of grooms or coachmen.  The location—two blocks from the avenue—was perfect:  close enough for a quick response when a carriage was called for; yet far enough away that the noises and odors could not waft into refined sitting rooms.

The brothers put their architect of choice, Alexander M. Welch of Welch, Smith & Provot, to work on the string of upscale stables.  Their long-standing collaborations would produce a variety of structures more glamorous than homes for horses.  Two years later, for instance, they would team up to produce the lavish mansion purchased by Benjamin Duke at No. 1009 Fifth Avenue.

Private carriage houses reflected the wealth and status of their owners.  Welch, therefore, treated each structure differently while maintaining a harmonious architectural flow.  Each one three stories tall, they shared the same overall layout and proportions.  And each one boasted the extra architectural attention necessary to attract moneyed buyers.

Centered along the row, completed in 1898, was No. 75.  Welch treated the red Roman brick almost as modeling clay.  The long, thin bricks were laid with precise craftsmanship and many were customized for their place in the structure.  Bullnose bricks formed rounded edges to the openings and long bricks that tapered to a wedge-shape created the first floor arches.

The Romanesque Revival façade was relieved with limestone trim—three carved eyebrows above the arches connected by foliate ornaments, bandcourses, plain pilasters between the paired windows above, and two exquisitely carved discs set into the brick.

Inside, the stalls and cabinetry were fashioned of oak.  Six horses could be housed in the rear while the vehicles would be stored closer to the front.  Perhaps because of the unpleasant but necessary manure pit in the back lot, upstairs quarters for the coachmen and their families faced the street.  The rear of the second floor contained a hayloft.

The carriage house was especially convenient for James Abercrombie Burden, Jr. who lived at No. 2 East 77^th Street, just off Fifth Avenue.  Burden had married Florence Adele Sloane three years earlier in Lenox, Massachusetts.  Florence was the great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and daughter of the fabulously wealthy William D. Sloane.  Burden’s family’s fortune was made in the iron works founded by his grandfather in Troy, New York.  At the time of the wedding, the young groom had an annual income of more than $1 million.

James A. Burden purchased No. 75 upon its completion.  The convenience of its location would be short lived, however.  Apart from the $700,000 worth of gifts the Burdens had received on their wedding day was the promise of a new home from Florence’s father, William D. Sloane.  In 1901 he commissioned architects Warren & Wetmore to produce a magnificent residence further up Fifth Avenue at No. 7 East 91^st Street.

The mansion was completed in 1905 and the Burdens moved north from East 77^th Street.  Nevertheless they retained the carriage house for several more years; possibly leasing it to another well-heeled family.

In 1907 the family using the stable cut back on staff expenses as they planned an extended European trip.  Living upstairs at No. 77 East 75^th Street were at least two employees; one with his family.  In April that year one coachman got his walking papers.  He placed an advertisement in the New-York Tribune on April 21 looking for employment.  “Coachman—First class recommendations; married, one child; will be disengaged May 1, present employer going abroad.”

Two months later a groom received notice.  On June 25, 1907 he too placed an ad in the New-York Tribune.  “Thoroughly competent in the care of fine horses and carriages; highest written and personal recommendations; will be found willing and obliging.”

Finally on December 31, 1909 The New York Times announced that the Burden “family private stable” had been sold.  By now automobiles were nudging out horse-drawn vehicles as the preferred mode of transportation and throughout the city carriage houses were being converted to garages.  The high-tone neighborhood in which the Burden stable sat no doubt prevented its being reduced to a commercial garage.  As the decades wore on, most of the surviving Upper East Side carriages with their handsome facades were converted, instead, to private dwellings.

And so it would be for No. 75.  In 1930 Robert Nagel leased the building and converted it to a one-family home with private 5-car garage at street level.  The residence was updated in 1971 when a partial fourth floor was constructed at the front of the building and an open air atrium was constructed inside.

The facade is a masterpiece of brickwork.  A set of shallow stone steps creates the illusion that this was meant as a home for people--not for horses.

Another ambitious renovation occurred in 2005 which, like the former changes, carefully left Welch’s striking façade with its wonderful brickwork intact.  Other than the regrettable barracks-like rooftop addition of 1971 the James Burden carriage house survives charmingly unspoiled.

photographs by the author

The 1900 Alfred G. Jennings House -- No. 2 East 82nd Street

photo by Alice Lum

At the turn of the last century encroaching commerce pushed New York's millionaires northward up Fifth Avenue along Central Park.  Brothers William and Thomas Hall took full advantage of the lucrative opportunity.  Both contractors and developers, they bought up long swathes of real estate and built speculative high-end residences.

A generation earlier such developments would have appeared as long rows of identical or nearly-identical brownstone rowhouses.  The Halls were savvy enough to recognize that by now residents in this exclusive neighborhood wanted individuality in their homes.  They often worked with architect Alexander M. Welch of the firm Welch, Smith & Provot to achieve both harmony and individuality in their rows of mansions.

In 1898 construction was begun on adjoining mansions on Fifth Avenue between 81^st and 82^nd Streets, Nos. 1007, 1008 and 1009; as well as 2 East 82^nd Street around the corner.   No. 2 East 82^nd Street was completed in 1900 and, despite its ample size and commanding architecture, it was diminished by the sprawling No. 1009 FifthAvenue next door.

Welch simultaneously designed the three houses at Nos. 1007 through 1009 Fifth Avenue.  The corner mansion, No. 1009, would become home to Benjamin Duke. photo NYPL Collection 

Welch used matching materials—red brick and white limestone—to complement the two residences.  The rusticated bases were in near perfect alignment, the cornice of No. 1009 flowed smoothly into the fifth floor balcony of No. 2, and the iron railings of that balcony visually coursed into the stone balustrade next door.  The handsome and dignified No. 2 East 82nd Street with its tall iron fence held its own beside its massive big brother next door.

Four years before construction began on the homes, wealthy Brooklynite Albert Gould Jennings was married to the daughter of wealthier John D. Crimmins.  Suzanne Beatrix Crimmins, 22 years old, was described by The New York Times as “a handsome blonde.”  Susie, as she was known, had grown up amid luxury in a mansion at No. 40 East 68^th Street. The 25-year old groom was the son of the founder of the Jennings Lace Works and had graduated from Princeton in 1890.  The New York Times noted that “He is the owner of a handsome brownstone residence 313 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn.”

The wedding was held in the Crimmins country home, Collender’s Point, in Darien, Connecticut.  The ceremony was officiated by Archbishop Corrigan, assisted by Bishop Tierney of Harford, Father Rogers of Stamford, “and a number of priests from that diocese,” said The Times.  “The ceremony closed with the Papal benediction.”

The seeming overkill of priests may have been John Crimmins’ way of making a statement.  The fervently Roman Catholic Crimmins was allowing his daughter to marry a Presbyterian.  The Times said “in order to have the ceremony performed under the rites of the Catholic Church [Jennings] had to promise that his wife should have the full freedom of practicing her religious faith, and to allow his children to be reared in the Roman Catholic faith.”

Although Jennings’ business was in Brooklyn, life in the outer borough apparently did not appeal to his new wife.  The couple purchased No. 2 East 82^nd Street while the mansion was still under construction.  It was completed in 1900 and entertainments—often involving Crimmins family members—began.

The American Architect printed a photograph of the Jennings House in 1903.  A servant waits on the sidewalk for a carriage and greenery is planted on the 2nd floor balcony.  The periodical got the architect's name wrong, citing Ernest Flagg.  (copyright expired)

Susie’s sister, Constance, was introduced to society In 1902.  On December 12 the Jennings hosted a dinner for her in the house.  It was followed the next day by a “coming out reception” in the Crimmins mansion.

The following year Susie threw a dinner party for her brother, John D. Crimmins, Jr., and his fiancée, Lillian Stokes Holmes, in anticipation of their upcoming wedding later in the week.   The entire wedding party was invited.

Unlike many wealthy New Yorkers who built sumptuous summer cottages and estates, the Jennings preferred to lease impressive quarters in different resorts.  With daughter Janice and son Albert Gould Jr. they summered in Tuxedo Park, Bar Harbor, Newport and Southampton.   In 1910 they arrived in Bar Harbor, having rented “Bowling Green” for the season.

Despite appearances, not all was happy within No. 2 East 82^nd Street.  Susie Crimmins Jennings was a modern woman, independent and opinionated.  Albert Gould Jennings had more old-fashioned ideas concerning a woman’s place in the home.  It all boiled over in July 1912.

As the summer season approached, Albert packed his bags and sailed to Paris.  He would not returned to New York a married man.  The New York Times reported that “He accused his wife of accepting invitations without consulting him and altogether showing a too independent spirit.”

Susie Jennings filed a counter-charge of incompatibility.   It would appear that John D. Crimmins used his substantial influence for, somewhat surprisingly considering the couple had two children, the marriage was annulled on October 22, 1913.

Apparently as part of the arrangement, four months earlier Suzanne Jennings sold the house on East 82^nd Street to the "recently formed" Roxanne Realty Company.   The new company was owned by Albert Gould Jennings.

Alfred returned to the house on East 82^nd Street and before very long married Marion Stoddard.  The marriage was, at least from a religious point of view, more compatible.  Marion was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Charles Augustus Stoddard, an author and distinguished Presbyterian clergyman.

In 1917 a son was born in the house, Wyllys Burr Jennings.  In the meantime, the infant’s step-brother, Albert Junior, served in the United States Navy during the war.  Upon returning he moved back into the 82^nd Street house with his father and stepmother.  Albert graduated from Princeton in 1919 and the athletic young man gained memberships to the Brook and Turf and Field, Racquet and Tennis Clubs.

Marion took the reins of social entertainments.  One again the house was the scene of receptions, teas and dinner parties.  On April 22, 1920 she gave a luncheon for Elizabeth Coleman who had recently become engaged to Marion’s relative Stoddard Hoffman.

Marion Jennings was a large stockholder in the Silver King Ginger Ale Company, presided over by State Senator James J. Walker.  Most likely through her influence, young Albert was made Secretary of the company.  A few years later Albert Junior struck out on his own, taking an apartment for himself at No. 146 East 49^th Street.

No one on New York society was more shocked than Albert and Marion Jennings to learn in the spring of 1925 that Albert Gould Jennings, Jr., had been surreptitiously  married.  “The secret marriage last Fall of Albert Gould Jennings Jr…a member of a family socially prominent in this city, to Mrs. Helen B. Rueping, a wealthy divorcee, was reported yesterday and it was said that the couple were planning to go abroad,” reported The Times on March 8, 1925.

“Mr. Jennings Sr. and Mrs. Jennings, stepmother of the young man, said last night they knew nothing of the marriage.”

Young Albert provided more gossip to New York drawing rooms when the marriage fell apart.  A Special Cable to The New York Times arrived from Paris on June 27, 1929.  It read in part “Mrs. Albert Gould Jennings…filed today a petition for divorce in Paris from her husband, who is a wealthy New York resident and is prominent in the American colony here.” 

By the spring of 1937 Alfred Gould Jennings, Sr. was apparently leasing the mansion.  Broker John F. Bowles, Jr. was living in the house when, on April 8, he married Jeannette Horlick Simmons in the chapel of Riverside Church.  Both wealthy in their own right, The New York Times announced that “After their wedding trip, the couple will divide their time between this city and Greenwich.”

The following year Albert Gould Jennings sold the house that had been his home for nearly four decades.  The unnamed buyers paid the $95,000 asking price in cash.  In reporting the sale The Times noted that the house “contains an elevator, and at the rear looks out upon a permanent garden on Eighty-first Street.”  The article mentioned the elite neighbors.  “Near by are the homes of Orlando F. Weber, Ogden H. Hammond and Angelica T. Gerry.  Recently Garardo Machado, former President of Cuba, purchased a private house across the street.”

Within three years the house would be converted to furnished apartments.

The Alfred and Marion Jennings were now living at No. 4 East 95^th Street and their son, Wyllys Burr Jennings became an Army pilot when the war in Europe broke out.  On August 26, 1944 the 27-year old navigator was shot down over Ludwigshafen, Germany.

In the late 1970s an apartment building was constructed at No. 1001 Fifth Avenue, extending down 81^st Street where the Jennings gardens had once been.  It created a problem with zoning restrictions.  On April 29, 1979 The Times reported that “In March, workmen began blocking up rear windows and the doors in two floors of vacant apartments in the converted townhouse at 2 East 82^nd Street.  This was in accordance with a requirement to bring the five-story building within the maximum allowable floor area for the site, which it shares with the recently constructed apartment house at 1001 Fifth Avenue.”

The windows of the upper floors of the mansion were sealed off with unsightly cinder blocks.  After several meetings between the construction company, the Buildings Department and the Planning Commission, an agreement was made whereby the blocks would be removed and curtains hung to block the windows.   It was a decidedly more attractive solution.

In 1982 the house was home to actress Meryl Streep’s character Brooke Reynolds in the psychological thriller film Still of the Night.   In the motion picture, Dr. Sam Rice, played by Roy Scheider, visited the house to discern if he could trust the mysterious woman.

Around half a century earlier Mother Joseph Butler of the Order of the Sacred Heart of Mary purchased the Jonathon Thorne mansion nearby at No. 1028 Fifth Avenue to be used as a “select school for girls in connection with Marymount College at Tarrytown-on-Hudson.”  In 1936 the school expanded by acquiring the mansion next door at No. 1027, and 14 years later purchased the adjoining house at No. 1026.

Now, in 1999, the Marymount School eyed the former Jennings house at No. 2 East 82^nd Street for use as its Middle School.  The school was especially taken with the intact interiors of the house, which complemented the Fifth Avenue mansions it already owned. The problem was that developer Peter S. Kalikow had already purchased the mansion with intentions of converting it into a garage for the new apartment building at No. 1001 Fifth Avenue.

After six months of negotiations, the school purchased the property for $9.5 million.  A $7 million renovation was initiated with careful attention to the preservation of the intact interior detailing—ornamental plasterwork, mantels and wood paneling.

The renovations were completed in 2003, earning Richard Ciccarelli, independent architecture and planning professional the Lucy G. Moses Award for NYC Landmarks Preservation.  The private school continues to operate in the building.

The 1899 Francis Stetson House - 4 E. 74th Street

photo by Alice Lum

In the final years of the 19^th century, brothers William A. and Thomas M. Hall busied themselves with speculative development in the Fifth Avenue neighborhood along Central Park.   William was Director of the Publishers’ Paper Co., but his income was greatly increased by the construction and sale of luxurious mansions for the city’s wealthiest citizens.

In 1898 they commissioned architect Alexander Welch of Welch, Smith and Provot to design a magnificent residence at 4 East 74^th Street.  Welch would be responsible for several mansions built by the Hall brothers, and this one would be among his finest.

Completed a year later, it was imposing.  A rusticated limestone base was dominated by a bowed portico supported by garland-swagged columns.   A carved stone balcony above the entrance introduced the two-story bay with small-paned windows.  Limestone quoins along the side of the structure and the bay contrasted with the warm red brick.  To preserve the proportions, the sixth floor was set back so as to be nearly invisible from the street.

Behind the overhanging cornice hides the sixth floor -- photo by Alice Lum

The newly-completed mansion was purchased by Francis Lynde Stetson and his wife, the former Elizabeth Ruff.  Stetson was a highly-regarded and successful corporate attorney, the head of the firm Stetson, Jennings & Russell, and who had formerly been the law partner of Grover Cleveland.

Francis Lynde Stetson -- photo Library of Congress 

Stetson was involved in important causes of the period.  He was a member of the American Forestry Association, founded in 1875 to promote conservation of existing forests—an amazingly early example of environmental awareness.  He was also a member of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis at a time when the disease devastated crowded urban areas like New York.

Elizabeth Stetson’s health began to decline around 1914 and she took on 19 year old Margery H. Lee as her secretary.  As her condition worsened, the young woman moved into the Stetson mansion in 1916.  What followed would raise the eyebrows of wealthy socialites throughout the city.

A chubby face is worked into the carved cartouche above the fourth floor windows -- photo by Alice Lum

Elizabeth Ruff Stetson died in the house on April 16, 1917.   Less than five months later, on September 6,  Stetson, now 71 years old, adopted the 22 year old woman as his daughter and heir to his fortune.  He explained to a reporter from The Sun in a telephone interview that “My wife was very fond of Miss Lee.”  He also noted that she “shall continue to bear her own name and to be known thereby.”

If the arrangement was unexpected by New York society, it was also unexpected by her father.  The Sun reported that “Miss Lee’s father, when seen at his Germantown home, expressed surprise at his daughter’s adoption.”

In December 1918 Stetson fell ill.  He was confined to the house on 74^th Street until, finally, on March 8 seemed to improve.  The New York Times reported that “He is able to sit up and spends much time every day in his library.”

The newspaper’s assessment of his condition, however, was optimistic.   On February 5, 1920 the New-York Tribune reported that he was “confined to his residence at 4 East Seventy-fourth Street, suffering from thrombosis, involving a partial paralysis.”  The newspaper could not resist mentioning that Miss Margery H. Lee was his heir.

On December 5, 1920 the aged attorney died.  The gossip and speculation that Margery Lee would be the sole heiress to the Stetson estate were proved untrue when the lawyer’s will was probated.   Williams College received over $1 million of his $3 million estate.  The institution received the bequeath on the condition that it would “keep in good order of the Williams College cemetery and the grounds and monument of my beloved wife and myself.”   A long list of charities and organizations received bequests including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Botanical Society, the Bar Association, the Lying-in Hospital and the Young Men’s Christian Association.

As for Margery Lee, she could not complain.  She received a trust fund of $300,000—equal to about $3 million today.

photo by Alice Lum

The house at 4 East 74^th Street, assessed at $140,000, also went to Williams College.  The following year the mansion was purchased by Edward L. Ballard, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Merchants Fire Assurance Corporation of New York.  The Ballards had one daughter, Elizabeth, and in December 1927 she was introduced to society.  Along with the entertainments in the mansion, her mother gave a luncheon in the Florentine Room of the Park Lane for Elizabeth.  The guest list included not only the girls of wealthy New York families, but some from Philadelphia and Boston.

The Ballards maintained a summer estate, Graeloe, in Ridgefield, Connecticut.  There on September 3, 1936 the beautiful Elizabeth G. Ballard married James M. Doubleday, the Vice President of the First National Bank of Ridgefield.  The New York Times noted that “After their wedding trip Mr. Doubleday and his bride will make their home in New York.”

That home would be 4 East 74^th Street.

Doubleday obtained a position with the New York Trust Company and a year later, in 1937, a son was born to the couple.  That same year they purchased a 40-acre estate in Ridgefield near the Ballard home.  The joyful events of 1937 came to an end on New Year’s Eve when Edward Ballard died.  He left an estate of about $2 million.

Elizabeth sold the house in April 1940 to Mrs. Theodore Grubb.   Grand mansions in the post-Depression years were often viewed as white elephants and the new buyer would hold onto the property only long enough to convert it into apartments—one per floor.  In July 1942 investor Mary E. Crocker bought the altered home.  Interestingly, in reporting the sale The New York Times reported that it was built “from plans by Andrew McKenzie,” the architect responsible for the 1905 New York Times Building.

photo by Alice Lum

The house saw the arrival and departure of a variety of residents; but none was more celebrated than Russian artist Marc Chagall and his wife who arrived in 1943.   Chagall was not the hot artist in New York that he had been in Paris; although he was given a major retrospective in 1946 by the Museum of Modern Art.

Although the Chagalls lived in the most exclusive part of town, the artist was most comfortable in the Lower East Side, chatting with Jewish immigrants and reading Yiddish-language newspapers like the Forward.

The Stetson mansion was converted once again in 1948 when Dr. H. Bakst installed his office and apartment in the lower floors.  Finally in 1995 it was reconverted to a single-family home as increasingly multimillionaires discovered the prestige and luxury of returning the grand mansions to private homes.

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