Showing posts with label C. P. H. Gilbert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label C. P. H. Gilbert. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

C. P. H. Gilbert's 1890 Romantic Trio at 456-460 West 152nd Street

 

Gilbert cleverly designed the three entrances without upsetting symmetry photo by Mark Satlof.

On September 6, 1890, the Record & Guide reported, "On the south side of 152d street...east of 10th avenue, the three-story and basement dwellings are nearing completion, from plans of C. P. H. Gilbert.  They are ready for the trimwork, and are being built by J. H. McKenney."  The esteemed architect had filed the plans six months earlier, projecting the construction costs of each house at $9,834 (about $340,000 in 2024).

Gilbert disguised the three residences as a single structure.  The homogenous design was a surprising and successful blending of Romanesque Revival and Colonial Revival styles.  Faced in yellow brick and trimmed in brownstone, the former style exhibited in the rough cut voussoirs of the five-part arcade at the parlor level, the faceted bay and rounded tower on the end homes, and the romantic third floor's arched openings, charming dormers and conical cap.  The Colonial was most evident in the second floor with the delicate fanlight over the central grouping and spider web leading of the oval windows.

The project was personal for real estate developer James H. McKenney.  He had purchased the vacant property on November 28, 1881 and immediately transferred the title to his wife, Sarah A. McKenney.  The couple's plan was to occupy the easternmost house, No. 456, with their daughter, Susan, and to lease the others as rental income.  

Construction was completed before the end of 1890.  Each of the residences had 10 rooms and "1 bath and 2 toilets," according to an advertisement.  The still somewhat rural district was reflected in an advertisement for 460 West 152nd Street in 1891:  

The handsome three-story and basement brick residence; hardwood finish; sanitary plumbing; fruit trees.

As the neighborhood developed, the city struggled to keep pace with services.  On March 31, 1891, for instance, the New York Herald reported, "Residents of Washington Heights and Carmansville wish to have transportation facilities accorded them throughout the night," adding, "They do not look upon the running of the cable cars on Amsterdam avenue all night in the light of a luxury, but as a necessity."  Among the residents interviewed was James H. McKenney.  He said, "houses were standing vacant on account of the poor night service given by the cable road."  The article noted, "Night after night he had been compelled to walk from 125th and 145th streets, having missed the last car."

James H. McKenney died shortly after that interview.  Then, on February 8, 1894, Sarah A. McKenney died.  Her funeral, as her husband's had been, was held in the parlor on February 11.

After living alone for years at 456 West 152nd Street, on November 11, 1900 The New York Times reported that Susan, "daughter of the late James McKenney, long a well-known resident of Washington Heights, was quietly married on October 22."  She and Bostonian Frederick Sylvester Coburn had married in Port Jervis, New York.  The article noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Coburn will be at home at 456 West One Hundred and Fifty-second Street."

At the time of the wedding, Susan's tenants at 458 West 152nd Street were Daniel Van Wagenen, a ship chandler, and his family.  

The initial occupants of No. 460 had been Reverend E. Spruille Burford and his second wife, the former Josephine Finley Hynson.  (His first wife, Rosa Petite, died in 1873.)  The house was convenient to his work.  Burford was the rector of the Church of the Intercession at 158th Street and Broadway.  While Spruille was attending a funeral in Indianapolis in March 1894, a carbuncle developed on his neck.  Back at home, it worsened to blood poison and he died at the age of 54 on April 15.

 photo by Mark Satlof

Attorney John Baldwin Hand next occupied 460 West 152nd Street.  Born on February 28, 1856 in Canada, he married Elizabeth A. Sheppard in 1885.  The couple had two sons, Richard Bertram and John, Jr.  In addition to his law practice, Hand, Sr. was involved in the Washington Heights Savings and Loan Association. 

In May 1911, Susan McKenney sold all three properties at auction.  No. 456 became home to Angus P. Thorne, the Superintendent of Dependent Adults of the Charities Department.  In 1916, as war was raging in Europe, Angus, Jr. was deployed to the Plattsburgh Military Training Camp in Plattsburgh, New York.

George E. Hill purchased 458 West 152nd Street at the 1911 auction.  He and his wife, Margaret Marie, had a son, George F.  Like his next door neighbor, George F. Hill was inducted into the Army.  His address was still listed with his parents in 1923 when he held the rank of captain.

In July 1929, George E. Hill was promoted to the position of chief mechanical engineer of the Bronx Terminal Market.  His civil service job would bring welcome security when the stock market crashed later that year.  His raise brought his salary to $7,500--equal to about $133,000 a year today.

Less upstanding was Edith Stevens who occupied 456 West 152nd Street in 1922.  The 19-year-old, according to the Brooklyn Times Union, "is also known as Stevenson, nee Schneider, and whose true name is said to be Mrs. Hirsh."  On August 26, 1922, she was arrested as the conspirator of Anthony Cassese, "millionaire tobacco merchant of Ozone Park, owner of a fleet of alleged rum-running vessels, and Joseph Bartolin, his chauffeur, charged with conspiracy of smuggling liquor into this country."  The Long Island newspaper, The Daily Review, headlined an article, "Woman 'Pal' Of Bootlegger Under Arrest."

By the third quarter of the 20th century, the former McKenney house held the Wilson Major Morris Community Center.  The facility provided help to local residents.  On June 23, 1989, for instance, Newsday reported, "State Sen. David Patterson will speak on 'Budget Cuts/Freeze Efforts on Senior Citizens.'"  

At the turn of the century, at least one of the residences was tottering on dereliction.   In 2002, 460 West 152nd Street was vacant and shuttered.

All three were renovated within the decade.  In 2008, 460 West 152nd Street was remodeled to a duplex on the first and second floors with one apartment on the third.  Two years later, 456 West 152nd Street was converted to the identical configuration; and 458 West 152nd Street was remodeled in 2010 to a basement apartment and a single family home on the upper floors.

 photo by Mark Satlof

C. P. H. Gilbert's especially eye-catching trio of 1890 residences have happily survived greatly intact.

thanks to reader Mark Satlof for prompting this post

Monday, August 12, 2024

The Lost Henry F. Shoemaker House - 26 West 53rd Street

 

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Prolific developer Richard W. Buckley completed a row of high-end brownstone fronted homes at 26 through 32 West 53rd Street in 1881.  Each 25 feet wide and four-stories tall above English basements, they were intended for well-heeled families.

The exclusive character of the block, just steps from Fifth Avenue, was evidenced when Nathaniel Stone Simpkins paid $90,000 for 26 West 53rd Street on April 28, 1883.  The figure would translate to about $2.82 million in 2024.  

Twenty-two years old, Simpkins had graduated from Columbia University that year.  His father, John, had died in 1870, and his mother, Ruth Barker Sears Simpkins, died in June 1882, a year before Nathaniel purchased his new home.  According to The New York Times, John Simpkins left his children "a large fortune."  Nathaniel's wife was Mable Jenks.  Moving into the mansion with them were John's 16-year-old brother, Willard Sears Simpkins, and his unmarried sister Elizabeth.  (Another sister, Mabel, was just 12 at the time and most likely also lived in the house.)

Nathaniel's and Ruth's first child, Nathaniel Jr., was born in 1885.  There would be four more children, the last, Tudor Jenks, arriving in 1904.

On October 9, 1886, Willard Sears Simpkins, now 19, went to Central Park with "a young lady attired in regulation riding habit," as described by The New York Times.  She was the daughter of James B. Houston, president of the Pacific Mall Steamship Company.  The pair hired two horses at Merkin's Stable and started out on a ride.  The newspaper said, "Mr. Simpkins's horse was a fiery and rebellious beast, but he was particular to have such mounts in preference to quiet horses."  

The couple was going at "a smart trot" as they approached 62nd Street.  Simpkins's horse suddenly lurched violently and broke into a gallop.  Miss Houston hurried around the curve to find Simpkins in a clump of bushes beside the bridal path.  A park policeman extricated him and an ambulance was called.  The New York Times reported, "The ambulance surgeon found Mr. Simpkins breathing but unconscious, and his neck appeared to be broken."  Although the doctor advised that Simpkins be transported to a hospital, Miss Houston demanded that he be taken to his home.  Although "half a dozen physicians were quickly in attendance," according to The Times, the teen died at 2:00 that afternoon.

In 1896, Stanley Mortimer and his wife leased the Simpkins house, and by 1898 former U.S. Secretary of War Daniel S. Lamont and his wife Juliet occupied the mansion.  Juliet Lamont entertained often during the year they were here.

By the time she "received her friends" on March 17, 1898, as reported in the society pages, the brownstone house was decidedly out of fashion.  The following year Nathaniel Simpkins sold it to Henry Francis Shoemaker.  He immediately commissioned mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert to update the residence.  On July 15, 1899, the Record & Guide reported that Gilbert's plans included removing the stoop and replacing the brownstone with limestone.  The article said, "The building will be fitted in the most substantial manner, and will be equipped with an electric elevator, electric plant, etc."

The renovations resulted in a striking Beaux Arts style mansion, the lower three floors of which were rusticated and bowed.  At the second floor (or piano nobile), a set of French windows opened onto a faux balcony.  They were capped by an elaborate swans head pediment.  The bowed section provided a balcony at the fourth floor.  The renovations cost Shoemaker the equivalent of $1.48 million today.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1843, Henry Francis Shoemaker came from an old Quaker family, his first ancestor arriving from Holland in 1685.  After serving in the Civil War, in 1863 he took over control of his family's coal mines, eventually expanded into railroads and banking.  He and his wife, the former Blanche Quiggle, moved to New York in 1878.  

The couple's summer homes were Restless Oaks in Pennsylvania (the Quiggle family estate) and Cedar Cliff in Riverside, Connecticut.  The 1907 Men of Mark in Connecticut commented, "his beautiful Connecticut home at Riverside-on-the-Sound, which is built on a high bluff overlooking the water...is considered by many to be among the finest along the Sound."

Henry Francis Shoemaker - New York State's Prominent and Progressive Men, 1900 (copyright expired)

When the Shoemakers moved into their new home, their son Henry Wharton was 19 years old, William Brock was 17, and Blanche LeRoy was 13.

The winter social season of 1904 was an important one in the Shoemaker household--it was Blanche Leroy's debutante season.  The whirl began relatively quietly.  On November 27, 1904, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Henry F. Shoemaker of 26 West Fifty-third street will give a tea next Saturday afternoon when she will present her daughter, Miss Blanche Le Roy Shoemaker."  The article noted, "The family recently returned from Europe and Miss Shoemaker was the guest for a time of the Duchess of Manchester."  It added, "Miss Shoemaker, who is a decided blond, will be presented at one of the first London drawing rooms when the season there begins."

The debutante entertainments continued for weeks.  On February 15, 1905, The New York Times reported on the theater party, supper and dance the Shoemakers hosted "for their debutante daughter, Miss Blanche Le Roy Shoemaker, who will sail next week with her father for several months in Europe."  Ninety guests assembled at the 53rd Street house before heading to Daly's Theatre, after which there was dancing in the marble ballroom of the St. Regis Hotel followed by supper.  The New York Times later reported that Blanche "was introduced at Court in England" in May. 

French artist Theobald Chartran painted Blanche LeRoy Shoemaker's portrait in 1905, her debutante year.  image via christies.com

She and her father were back home in time for the engagement of William Brock Shoemaker to Ella Morris de Peyster on August 19, 1905.  The Sun predicted, "There is likely to be as big a crowd in St. Bartholomew's Church on this occasion as for any nuptial event of the season."

In announcing the engagement, The New York Times mentioned that William's father had "made a fortune in mines and railroads."  It added that the groom-to-be "with his elder brother, Henry Wharton Shoemaker, who has held diplomatic posts at Lisbon and Berlin...has gone into the banking business." 

The couple was married on December 14, 1905.  Tragically, six months later, on June 21, 1906, William Brock Shoemaker sustained injuries "in an elevator," according to The New York Times.  He died in the Hudson Street Hospital three days later.

The following year Blanche was married to Alfred Wagstaff in the 53rd Street mansion on April 29.  The New York Times reported, "The house was beautifully decorated for the occasion, with white lilies, white roses, and smilax and green leaves.  The ceremony took place in the drawing room where an altar and prie dieu of lilies and roses were erected."

Blanche was no insipid society girl.  Already a recognized name in the literary field, she had begun writing poetry as a child and her first poem had been sold to Town & Country magazine three years before the wedding.  Unlike other society brides, she insisted on a career and served briefly as the associate editor of the literary magazine, The International, and published volumes of her own poetry. 

The Wagstaffs moved into the Shoemaker mansion.  The population of the house increased again in 1907 when Henry Wharton married Beatrice Genevieve Barclay.  And on March 29, 1908, The New York Times reported that the couple had a son.  "The boy will be called Henry F. Shoemaker, second, after his paternal grandfather," said the article.  Six months later, Blanche became mother of Alfred Wagstaff III.

Neither of the marriages would work out.  Soon after little Henry's birth, his parents separated then divorced.  Henry Wharton Shoemaker married Mabel Ruth Ord in 1913.  In the meantime, Beatrice, who had permanent custody of their son, married Dr. Richard W. Perry.  Perry adopted the boy and had his name legally changed to Henry Barclay Perry.  

While Henry and Mabel were in Europe on their honeymoon, Henry F. Shoemaker discovered that his grandson's name had been changed.  On May 24, 1913, The New York Times reported, "The name of Henry Barclay Perry, the 5-year-old adopted son of Dr. and Mrs. Richard W. Perry of Seattle, was changed by decree of Superior Judge Walter J. French late to-day to Henry Francis Shoemaker."  The article said that Henry F. Shoemaker, "retired banker of New York" had made the boy "the promised heir to $2,000,000" if his name was changed back.

Henry F. Shoemaker died at the Connecticut estate on July 2, 1918.  In reporting his death, the New-York Tribune recalled, "He was graduated from Syracuse University in 1861, and was appointed to the United States Naval Academy by President Lincoln."

Blanche and Alfred Wagstaff were divorced in Newport in December 1920.  Six months later, on July 31, 1921, the New York Herald reported that Blanche had married Donald Carr.  At the time she and her 13-year-old son were still living with her mother at 26 West 53rd Street.

Blanche Quiggle Shoemaker lived on in the mansion through 1923.  In 1924 she leased it to the Edward Motley Weld and his wife, the former Sarah Lothrop.  

Not long afterward, the Shoemaker mansion was converted to the European Club.  The lavish nightclub was, in fact, an upscale speakeasy.  When it was raided on April 9, 1928, The New York Times said, "the club is situated in a four-story brownstone [sic] front building and occupies every floor."  Twelve people, including three proprietors, were arrested.  The club was raided again on July 30 that year and again on June 7, 1929.  That time, The New York Times said it was "ordered padlocked for ten months."

The European Club was taken over by the newly-chartered Simplon Club.  It became the target of Chicago gangsters within the year.  On July 13, 1930, The New York Times reported, "Racketeers invaded the exclusive district just off Fifth Avenue early yesterday morning and exploded a bomb at the Simplon Social Club, 26 West Fifty-third Street, jarring the neighborhood which includes John D. Rockefeller, Jr. among its residents."

The club had closed at 3 a.m. and only two porters and the female caretaker, who had gone to bed, were in the building when the bomb exploded at 4:30.  The article said, "Chicago racketeers, crippled by the exposures that followed the murder of Alfred Lingle, Chicago reporter, have been coming to New York to attempt to ply their trade."  It added, "The club, occupying the entire five stories, is a luxuriously fitted establishment, with a large lounge on the ground floor, a restaurant on the second, and private rooms above."  After the explosion, detectives searched the club for liquor, but found nothing.

Little changed, the Shoemaker mansion stood alone in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Shoemaker mansion survived relatively intact until 1955 when it was demolished for a four-story commercial building.  That was razed for a 31-story apartment building completed in 2015.

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Monday, March 18, 2024

The Lost Hotel Dauphin - Broadway and 67th Street

 

To the left, at 66th Street, is the Hotel Marie Antoinette.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

In 1894, William L. Flanagan opened his elegant new Hotel Marie Antoinette at the northwest corner of Broadway and 66th Street, designed by J. Munkowitz.  Four years later, Franklin Pettit sold the abutting vacant plot to the north to August M. Bruggeman for around $190,000--around $6.8 million in 2024.  The Record & Guide commented, "The buyer will erect a 10-sty apartment hotel on the site."

Bruggeman's plan never came to pass.  On February 22, 1902, the Record & Guide reported that the Broadway Realty Co. had hired architect C. P. H. Gilbert to design a 12-story apartment hotel on the site.  Before ground was broken, the developer had leased the building to Albert R. Keen, the proprietor of the Hotel Marie Antoinette.

Charles Pierpont Henry Gilbert had firmly established his position as a leading architect of the period.  But he was known for designing opulent mansions and townhouses, and so the Hotel Dauphin would be a step away from his specialty.

At the time, William Earl Dodge Stokes's magnificent Ansonia apartment hotel, designed by Paul E. M. Duboy, was rising six blocks to the north on Broadway.  The Hotel Dauphin would echo its French Beaux Arts architecture--its brick-and-limestone facade rising to a massive mansard with elaborate dormers and copper cresting.

An advertising postcard from post-World War I depicted Broadway with no traffic.  

The hotel--which offered both permanent and transient accommodations--opened on April 15, 1903.  The New-York Tribune reported, "about four hundred guests inspected the handsome new dining rooms, offices, parlors, reception rooms, suites, etc...Several dinners were given, in gayly decorated dining rooms, in honor of the occasion."  Among the visitors were some of New York City's wealthiest citizens, including John D. Crimmins and his wife, William D. Sloane, and William Crittenden Adams.  

Those residents who gave dinner parties included renowned soprano Emma Eames and her husband, artist Julian Russell Story.  Eames made her professional debut in Roméo et Juliette with the Paris Opera.  She debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in November 1891, quickly becoming a favorite of New York audiences.  

Madame Emma Eames, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Born in England in 1857, Story came from an artistic family.  His father was sculptor William Wetmore Story and his brother was a well-known sculptor, as well.  He was best known for his portraits of well-heeled sitters.

Julian Russell Story, Hartford Daily Courant, February 25, 1919 (copyright expired)

The New-York Tribune noted, "F. J. Middlebrook and Miss Middlebrook, too, gave a dinner, at which Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Thompson, Dr. Russell Bellamy and Mrs. Bellamy, Robert E. Dowling, Miss Potter and Mr. and Mrs. William H. McIntyre were guests."  It added, "Dr. Bellamy, who is the house physician of the Cliffs, at Newport, will be the physician of the new hotel."

Although the new hotel dwarfed its predecessor, Albert R. Keen (who now managed both hotels) touted it as "an annex" to the Hotel Marie Antoinette and marketed both under that name.  It caused understandable confusion and newspapers sometimes differentiated between the structures by referring to the "Hotel Marie Antoinette on 66th Street" and the "Hotel Marie Antoinette on 67th Street."  

A 1916 advertisement grouped both hotels under a single name.  The $2.50 per day starting rate would equal about $69 in 2024.  (copyright expired)

On December 12, 1913, Michigan attorney Devere Hall checked into a ninth floor suite in the northern hostelry.  The 60-year-old was a leading corporation lawyer in his home state, and was once considered for a seat on the State's Supreme Court.  The Evening World said, "Overwork caused a nervous breakdown a year ago."  Hall came to New York to be treated by nerve specialist Dr. Spitzka, who happened to be a boyhood friend.  Hall's adult son, Ray, came with him, taking a furnished room near the hotel.

At 8:30 on the morning of December 14, Ray went to his father's room.  To his surprise, Hall was not there and the bed had not been slept in.  The Evening World reported, "The shoe and sock underneath the open window prompted the son to look out and discover his father's body."  Suicide was ruled out.  The body, which landed on the roof of the hotel's engine room, was clad in underclothing and the other shoe and sock.  Investigators surmised Hall had sat on the sill to remove his shoes and socks and fell backwards out of the window.

In 1929, the hotel regained its individual identity.  After a court battle over which facility could use the name Hotel Marie Antoinette (which the 66th Street owners won), it became the Hotel Dauphin.  On January 11, 1930, the Atlanta, Georgia newspaper The Constitution, noted, "Mr. and Mrs. Guy Mark Mankin, who were the recent guests of their mother, Mrs. Hamilton Douglas, are making their home for the present at the Dauphin Hotel, New York city."

Mrs. H. Magen lived here in 1934 when she read of Gimbel Brothers new policy of "telling the whole truth, good or bad about every article."  In an announcement, the department store offered a $10 reward "to the person who first reports to it any misleading or untrue statement about or claim for qualities of any article of merchandise advertised."

The period of marketing both buildings as the Hotel Marie Antoinette, as in this 1911 postcard, still causes confusion.

Mrs. Magen wasted no time in reporting her disgruntlement with the heating pad she had purchased for 50 cents.  It was advertised to "retain heat 10 to 15 hours."  The New York Sun reported on February 5 that Mrs. Magen was the first customer to receive the $10 award.  "The Gimbel people tested the pad and felt it succumb to the weather after seven hours."  Mrs. Magen's $9.50 profit from the falsely advertised item would equal a satisfying $208 today.

The dining room and ballroom were favorites for large groups.  On April 27, 1938, for instance, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported, "The banquet given annually in honor of the basketball squad at the College of Pharmacy will be held tonight at the Dauphin Hotel."

Columbia Daily Spectator, March 18, 1947.

After mid-century, the Hotel Dauphin was the frequent meeting spot for Irish-American groups.  On May 16, 1953, for instance, the New York Irish American Advocate reported on the final meeting of the I.R.A. Pettigo 1922 Memorial Committee.  The group was formed to honor the soldiers of the Irish Republican Army who died in the summer of 1922.  The article said, 

A very satisfactory financial report was submitted.  Letters were read from the Memorial Committee in Ireland thanking all who helped to make the drive for funds a financial success.  The amount was much larger than it was expected.  Receipts were received from Ireland for the full amount already sent.  A vote of thanks was passed to all who gave donations. 

One of the last of Irish-American events was held here in May 1960.  The New York Irish American Advocate reported on March 27, "The Williamstown Social Club, N.Y. at a meeting held in the Dauphin Hotel...voted to hold a dance on May 7 at the Dauphin Hotel, 67th St. & Bway, N.Y.," adding, "Persons from the Williamstown Co. Galway area, interested in joining the organization can do so at a meeting on Sunday, April 24, at the Dauphin Hotel at 4 P.M."

The various groups that rented the dining room and ballroom would soon have to find other venues.  In 1963 the block was demolished as part of the vast Lincoln Square urban renewal project.  A 32-floor mixed use structure occupies the site today.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023

The A. Howard Hopping House - 256 West 93rd Street



Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert did not officially begin practicing architecture in New York City until 1886.  But by the mid-1890s, C. P. H. Gilbert was designing some of New York's grandest mansions.  In 1893, he designed a row of seven upscale residences for the City Real Estate Co. on West 93rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue.

Designed in the Beaux Arts style, the homes rose five stories above shallow American basements.   Like its fraternal twins, the ground floor of 256 West 93rd Street was faced in limestone, while the upper floors were clad in beige Roman brick.  The three-story bowed bay wore a stone, tiara-like balustrade.  Limestone elements--the carved panel at the third floor and splayed lintels at the fourth, for instance--contrasted with the brick.

On September 14, 1894, The New York Times reported that A. H. Hopping had purchased the house for "about $23,000."  That amount would translate to approximately $807,000 in 2023.  Andrew Howard Hopping was a partner in the dress goods business of Hitchcock & Co.  

In his personal life, Hopping served as a vestryman in the church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy.  His deep American roots were reflected in his memberships in the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of the War of 1812, and the Huguenot Society.

Born on July 18, 1852, Hopping and his wife, the former Emma Louise Tilton, had three sons, Allen Tilton, Howard Hitchcock, and a newborn baby, Spencer Bininger.  A fourth child, Hallsted Lubec, would arrive in September 1902.

Andrew Howard Hopping (original source unknown).

Two years after moving into the West 93rd Street house, Hopping was contacted by his brother Henry D. Hopping about a disconcerting and embarrassing situation.  Henry and his family lived in an apartment building on West 134th Street.  His 13-year-old son Arthur was a student at Grammar School 50, and worked as a messenger.  On November 4, 1896, The Sun reported, "For three weeks past Fire Marshal Hollister had been at his wits' end because of the frequent fires in the district between Columbus and Fifth avenues and 125th and 137th street."  There had been 11 apartment house fires, all deliberately set.

Arthur H. Hopping was arrested and charged with the arsons.  The newspaper reported, "He set the fires, he said, just out of pure love of excitement, and because he wanted to see the engines and firemen in action."  Henry Hopping was "stunned at the revelations made by the boy," said the article.  A clerk, he did not have the financial means to provide the $5,000 bail to get his son out of jail.  The New-York Tribune reported that it "was furnished by his uncle, Andrew Howard Hopping, an importer...who lives at No. 256 West Ninety-third-st."

Journalists tagged the 13-year-old a "firebug."  The Sun, April 11, 1896 (copyright expired)

Arthur Hopping had problems of his own the following year.  Two of W. G. Hitchcock & Co.'s largest clients were the English manufacturers B. B. Priestly & Co. and S. Courtland & Co.  Hitchcock & Co. owed B. B. Priestly & Co. "a large amount," according to the Brooklyn Standard Union.  So large was that amount, in fact, that its principal left Britain for New York in October 1897 "for the purpose of looking into the accounts between his firm and Hitchcock & Co."  The visit ended badly.

On October 23, 1897, the Brooklyn Standard Union ran the headline, "BIG FAILURE / The Old Dress Goods House of Hitchcock & Co. Goes."  Calling W. G. Hitchcock & Co. "one of the oldest and best-known houses in the dress goods trade," the article said the firm's bankruptcy "was a great surprise in commercial circles."  The article, which noted that the firm had been in business since 1818, commented, "It is believed that Mr. Priestley's visit to New York may in some way be responsible for the failure of the firm."

Arthur and Emma sold 256 West 93rd Street to John Marshall and his wife Nellie in February 1899.  The Marshalls apparently never lived in the house, but rented it to affluent tenants.

By 1914, the family of Willis A. Follmer lived here.  Follmer was affiliated with the umbrella manufacturing firm Follmer-Clogg Company, co-founded by his father Charles Jennen Follmer.  Willis and his wife had at least three children, Florence V. J., Charles J., and  Natalie D.

In the decades before seat belts, collisions often resulted in passengers being ejected from automobiles.  On October 12, 1914, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Olive Waldman, wife of Henry Waldman, an insurance agent of 220 West Ninety-eighth street, was thrown from the tonneau of her husband's automobile yesterday afternoon at Broadway and Ninety-first street."  Waldman had been driving west when it "came into collision with the machine of Willis A. Follmer, of 256 West Ninety-third street," said the article."  Although Olive Waldman's injuries "appear to be serious," it appears her husband was at fault and Follmer was not detained.

By 1918, Willis's parents, Charles and Teresa, who had lived at 214 Riverside Drive, moved in with the family.  Also living here was Willis's widowed sister, Eleanor McCormack.  

On February 28 that year, Charles and Teresa were at Atlantic City, where Charles died "suddenly."  His body was brought back to New York and his funeral was held in the West 93rd Street house on March 1.  

Willis inherited the equivalent of $3 million today from the estate.  After having leased the house for years, on December 16, 1918, The New York Times reported that Willis A. Follmer "is the buyer of the dwelling, 256 West Ninety-third Street, sold recently by Mrs. Nellie D. Marshall."

On July 8, 1920, an advertisement appeared in the New-York Tribune offering 256 West 93rd Street for sale, adding "possession at once."  Just two days later, the newspaper reported that Willis Follmer had sold the house, adding, "The new owner will alter it into small apartments."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The residents of the remodeled apartments were financially comfortable and respectable.  The actions of one of the initial residents, however, tainted that description.  The Evening World reported that Charles E. Turney rented a "villa" in Newburgh, New York owned by Gladys E. and Ward Brewer for the summer of 1921.  On January 17, 1922, the newspaper related, "When he moved out last November he took valuable property.  Some of the stolen articles were found in a garage, more in Turney's New York home."  He was sentenced to "from a year and a half to three years" for the theft.

Much more respectable was Mrs. Anna Manion, who lived here in 1933.  That year she was one of more than 150 "mothers and widows of New York State men who died on the battlefields or at sea during the world war" who accepted the invitation of the U. S. Government "to visit the graves of loved ones or attend memorial services at points abroad during the coming summer," as reported by The New York Sun.  There would be five sailings, the trips to last for one month.

Swiss-born art student Walter Herdeg lived here by 1936.  He became acquainted with a German, Otto August Ritter, that year.  Ritter promised Herdeg a job earning $800 a week as soon as he received $2.5 million that was coming from his father in Germany.  He just needed $2,400 "to tide him over," as later reported by The New York Sun.

The newspaper noted that it was "a story which Mr. Herdeg had no reason to doubt."  He had no reason to doubt it, because he was unaware that the German Vice Consul had written to the New York City Police Department on August 10, "warning them that he was known as an international swindler and had been in jail in Germany."  Police were watching the 42-year-old, but so far had no reason to arrest him.

Herdeg gave Ritter the $2,400 in cash.  Early in January 1937, Ritter paid him $800, but the check bounced.  Police arrested Ritter "in an expensively furnished apartment overlooking the East River," according to The New York Sun on January 6.  He was held on a grand larceny charge.  Ritter's attorney "alleged that his client was being persecuted by the Nazi Government" and insisted "that while it was true Ritter had been in three German prisons, he had been arrested on political, not criminal, charges."


A renovation completed in 1988 resulted in a total of eight apartments.  Unfortunately, the contrast in brick and stone that C. P. H. Gilbert so purposefully designed has been lost under a coat of white paint.

photographs by the author
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Tuesday, November 7, 2023

The William G. Collins House - 261 West 85th Street

 


In the last decade of the 19th century, architect C. P. H. Gilbert was busy designing scores of residences in the developer Upper West Side.  While known for creating sumptuous private mansions, he produced rows of upscale speculative homes, as well.  Such was the case in 1896, when developer John O. Baker completed construction of six fine brick and limestone rowhouses at 253 through 261 West 85th Street.

Gilbert had designed the five-story-and-basement homes in the popular Beaux Arts style.  He bowed the facades of the first four floors of the end houses, including 261 West 85th Street, creating a balustraded balcony to the fifth floor.  The round openings at this level were surrounded by elaborately carved decorations.

No. 261 West 85th Street was sold to the Cooper family, whose residency was short.  By 1901 they were leasing the house to William G. Collins.  

Born in Chardon, Ohio in 1848, Collins founded the upholstery textile firm Collins & Aikman Co. with Charles M. Aikman.  His long family history in America was evidenced in his memberships in the Society of Colonial Wars and the Society of Mayflower Descendants.  A widower, he had two sons, William Major and Kenneth Benedict.  When they moved into the West 85th Street house, William was attending Columbia University and Kenneth was already involved in his father's business.

The all-male household would receive a feminine touch in 1902.  On May 4, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, "Very quietly on Wednesday evening there were married, from the home of Mr. and Mrs. Haines Woodruff Sullivan...Mrs. Bertha W. Armstrong and William G. Collins of Manhattan."  Bertha  was a widow.  She and her daughter Clara had lived in Philadelphia prior to the wedding and their moving into 261 West 85th Street.

It appears that Clara left a beaux back home.  But distance did not cool their romance.  Two years later, on April 29, The New York Times reported on Clara's engagement to Albert Buck Dissel of Philadelphia.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After William Major Collins's graduation from Columbia in 1902, he enrolled in the New York Homeopathic Medical College.  He received his medical degree in 1905, and continued living in the 85th Street house with his father and step-mother.

That same year Mary P. and Harriet Cooper offered 261 West 85th Street for sale.  Although obviously pleased with the house, Collins apparently did not wish to purchase it.  The sisters sold 261 West 85th Street to Frederick Pflomm, who quickly resold it to C. A. Mount and his wife.  The new owners continued to lease the house to the Collinses.

William G. Collins died in the residence on June 15, 1915 at the age of 67.  In reporting on his death, The Upholsterer said, "the domestic fabric industry has lost one of its most prominent members."  The funeral was held in the drawing room on June 17.  Described by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle as "beautiful services," it included music by choir members of the West End Presbyterian Church.

It is unclear how long Bertha Armstrong Collins continued to lease 261 West 85th Street.  The Mounts sold the house in May 1921.  It continued to be leased to well-to-do families until 1936, when architect John Arthur Rofreno was hired to convert it into a multiple family dwelling.  There were now one apartment on the ground floor and furnished rooms above.


That configuration lasted until 1969, when a renovation resulted in one apartment on each floor.  And then, in 1983, the upper four floors were combined as a single residence.  The ground floor apartment remains.

photographs by the author
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Friday, June 10, 2022

The 1899 Herbert Leslie Terrell Mansion - 925 Fifth Avenue

 


In 1898 corporate attorney John Woodruff Simpson purchased the two abutting plots at 925 and 926 Fifth Avenue, between 73rd and 74th Streets, and hired architect C. P. H. Gilbert to design two lavish homes on the sites.  One, 926 Fifth Avenue, would be for Simpson and his family, while the slightly narrower 925 was intended as an investment.

Completed in 1899, the mansions were architecturally harmonious, yet distinctly different.  Gilbert gave 925 Fifth Avenue a three story, bowed bay that provided an ample, iron-railed balcony to the fourth floor.  The entrance, centered within the rusticated limestone base, was embellished with an elaborate swans neck pediment.  Clad in beige brick above the ground floor, the house rose five stories.


The construction of 925 Fifth Avenue cost Simpson $45,000, or about $1.45 million in 2022 dollars.  He sold it to Herbert Leslie Terrell and his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Wood.

Born on October 5, 1842 in Ohio, Terrell had graduated from Yale University and practiced law in Cleveland until 1879.  That year he became General Counsel for the New York Chicago and St. Louis Railroad and moved his family to New York City.  He was, as well, a director in several corporations and a part-owner of the Continental Tobacco Company.  The couple had two daughters, Elizabeth and Bertha, and maintained a country home, Seacroft, in Seabright, New Jersey.

The Terrells spent their summers at Seacroft, a sprawling Queen Anne Shingle Style mansion.  from the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association

By the time the family moved into 925 Fifth Avenue, Terrell had essentially retired, and now focused on his clubs (he was a member of the Union League, the Manhattan, the New York Athletic, the Lotos, the Lawyers', and the New Clubs).  In 1891 The University Magazine commented, "The versatility of his mind and the wide range of his tastes, are evident from his membership in several scientific societies."  

The John W. Simpsons lived on the north side (left) of the Terrell mansion.  To the south was the home of General Henry Warren.  Collin's Both Sides of Fifth Avenue, 1910 (copyright expired)

The Terrells had a well-known art collection and the Fifth Avenue mansion was filled with masterpieces.  Among the artworks that hung on its walls were Rembrandt's Portrait of Himself, Sir Joshua Reynold's Lady Frances Finch, Thomas Gainsborough's Portrait of Isabel Howland, and Henri Regnault's Automedon and the Horses of Achilles.

Terrell's last additions to his collection were personal.  In 1909 he commissioned a portrait of Mary by artist Philip de László.  Shortly after its completion, De László painted a companion portrait of Terrell.


The Philip de László portraits were completed in 1909, the year Terrell died.  images via bidsquare.com

It is possible that Terrell never saw his completed portrait.  He died at the age of 67 in the Fifth Avenue mansion on November 9, 1909.

Mary remained in 925 Fifth Avenue and at Seacroft.  Her extensive wealth was reflected in a notice she placed in the New York Herald on March 2, 1912:

$500 reward for platinum and diamond Chain and black enamel and diamond Watch, lost March 1, on 5th av., between 50th and 75th sts.

The New York Herald explained, "Mrs. Terrell left her home in an automobile at half-past twelve o'clock to go to the Plaza Bank, at Fifth avenue and Sixtieth street.  She returned home an hour later and discovered her loss.  The watch and chain had been specially made for her and were set with many jewels."  The reward she offered would be equal to $13,800 today.  She valued the watch at $68,800 in today's money.

Mary Elizabeth Wood Terrell died in her Fifth Avenue mansion on October 22, 1924 at the age of 79.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room two days later.

The former Terrell mansion became home to Barrington Moore and his wife Muriel Hennen.  Moore, a son of Clement Clarke Moore, was a forestry researcher.  The couple, who had two sons, Barrington, Jr., and Peter Van Cortland, were visible in society.  On February 11, 1926, for instance, The New York Sun reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Barrington Moore will give a dinner, followed by music, at their home 925 Fifth avenue, on February 21."

But things were not going well behind the scenes between the Moores, and they separated in 1927.  The house became home to Reid Langdon Carr and his wife, the former Eleanora Frederikson.   An attorney, Carr was born in Cornwall, Vermont on October 20, 1880 and graduated from the New York Law School in 1903.  He and Eleanor had married on February 4, 1916.

That same year the Carrs moved into 925 Fifth Avenue, they tried out a new summer spot, East Hampton, Long Island.  On July 13, 1928 The East Hampton Star reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Reid Langdon Carr, of 925 Fifth Avenue, New York, are newcomers in the summer colony here this year, occupying the house belonging to the F. G. Potter estate."  East Hampton passed muster and the Carrs spent their summers there for years.  They never acquired their own estate there, however, preferring to rent.

Living with the couple in 1940 was Eleanora's 93 year old widowed mother, Carolina Fredrikson.  The family had three live-in servants at the time, Sigred Harmen, Julia Sheehy, and Anthony Forgione, the butler.

Although the Carrs had no children, the Fifth Avenue house was the scene of at least one wedding reception.  Yolanda Risacoli Benjamin was married to Theodore Ridgway Jaeckel on April 5, 1940.  The New York Sun noted, "A reception will follow at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Reid Langdon Carr of 925 Fifth avenue, long-time friends of the Benjamin family."

Reid Langdon Carr died of a heart attack in the Fifth Avenue house on October 7, 1948 at the age of 67.  His funeral was held in the drawing room at 10:00 on the morning of October 11.  In his memory, Eleanora erected Carr Hall at Middlebury College in Vermont, which was completed in 1951.

The Italian Government purchased 925 Fifth Avenue as home to its Ambassador to the United Nations.  Egidio Ortona and his wife hosted a black-tie dinner here on October 3, 1959 in honor of the visiting Italian Prime Minster Antonio Segni and his wife.

In 1976 Piero Vinci was the Ambassador.   While he was in Rome that year, his wife spent the first weekend in September in Southampton, Long Island.  The only person left in the mansion was the custodian.  On Saturday night, while he was sleeping on the top floor, burglars entered the house, making off with four rugs, jewelry and silverware.  The rugs alone were valued at nearly $91,000 by today's standards.


The mansion became home to billionaire Leonard Norman Stern and his wife, Allison Maher, shortly after their marriage in 1987.  He was the chairman and CEO of the Hartz Group, makers of the Hartz Mountain pet products, founded by his father.  Max Stern had started out in business by importing 2,100 canaries from Germany to sell in the United States.  His Hartz Mountain Corporation was named after the Hartz Mountains in his native Germany.  The Sterns still maintain 925 Fifth Avenue as their private home.  It and the former Simpson mansion are the last remnants of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue along the block.

photographs by the author
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