The West 135th Street Branch Library (Schomburg Collection) - 103 West 135th Street

Ivy trailed over the facade in 2009.  photograph by McMillin24

On March 12, 1901, Andrew Carnegie offered the City of New York a gift of $5,202,261 (about $192 million in 2024) to build free circulating libraries. The condition was that the city would provide the land and maintain the libraries.  An agreement was reached and the plans for fifty libraries throughout the five boroughs were begun.  

The firm of McKim, Mead & White received the commission for the West 135th Street Branch.  Principal Charles McKim and William Kendall took the reins in designing a sedate, neo-Classical structure faced in white limestone.  Three stories tall, it sat upon a rusticated base.  Double-height pilasters separated the upper bays.  A dramatic Palladian window dominated the second floor, its third-floor fanlight was ornamented with an elaborate wrought-iron grill.  McKim and Kendall finished the design with a deeply overhanging cornice.

Theodore Wesley Koch, in his 1917 A Book of Carnegie Libraries, noted, "The branch of 103 West 135th Street is a departure architecturally from most of the Carnegie buildings, inasmuch as it has an overhanging tile roof and a large arched central window in front running from the second to the third story."  

The deed to the property, according to Koch, provided, "that a strip of land 10 feet wide should be left free" on both sides.  The result was light and ventilation on all four sides of the building.  The architects took advantage of the western strip to provide an outside entrance to the basement assembly room.  The ground floor held the adult circulating and reference department, the second was the "children's room," and the third floor held the periodical room and janitor's apartments.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Harlem neighborhood around the library was composed mostly of middle-class and upper-middle-class Jewish families.  They utilized the routine functions of a branch library, while enjoying programs and activities within the basement assembly room.  On November 3, 1906, for instance, The School Journal announced that Dr. J. H. Canfield of Columbia University would be giving a series of eight lectures on "The History of Civilization" on Tuesday evenings.

At the time of Dr. Canfield's lectures, the demographics of Harlem had begun to change.  In 1904, subway service was extended northward, making the district more accessible.  The increasing influx of blacks ignited white panic among some residents, like Irish-born retired police officer John G. Taylor, who moved to West 136th Street in 1903.  In 1910, according to Mike Wallace in his Greater Gotham, A History of New York City From 1898 to 1919, Taylor "opposed allowing blacks to use the New York Public Library branch at 103 West 135th Street."  (A panicked Taylor, writes Wallace, "advocated building a 24-foot-high wall along West 136th Street to keep blacks from moving north.")

Noticeably not racist were the inclusive policies of the West 135th Street Branch.  Black faces would have been among the audiences at the January 1912 lecture on "Cowboy and Engineer in Colorado" by Graham C. Hunter, and Mrs. Emma P. Telford's talk on "Arizona: the Cradle and the Wonderland of the New York" later that month.

Gradually, the library became an integral part in the developing black community.  On September 17, 1914, for instance, The New York Age reported, "The Negro Civic Improvement League plans to organize its first neighborhood Association in Harlem at a meeting to be held in the Library, assembly room, 103 West 135th street, on Friday evening, September 18, at 8.15 o'clock."

In pre-air conditioning days, the second floor windows are opened wide.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1917, the assembly room was the regular meeting space for what the Young Men's Christian Association termed the "Colored Men's Branch" while its new building at 179-183 West 135th Street was being constructed.  The "Big Meetings" were held here every Sunday.  Dr. Adam Clayton Powell addressed the assembly on April 29 that year.

The themes of the lectures reflected the issues important to the locals.  On October 14, 1917, Dr. Mason Pitman, superintendent of the Colored Orphan Asylum gave a lecture on "The Colored Orphan," and Captain Charles W. Fillmore spoke on "The Negro as Soldier."

A letter to the editor of the New-York Tribune published on September 6, 1921 foreshadowed things to come.  It began:

Sir:  Readers of The Tribune will be interested in knowing that there is on exhibition at the New York Public Library, 103 West 135th Street, a unique collection of negro works of art.  Among the pieces displayed are paintings, drawings, etchings and work in sculpture.  There are also some rare books produced by negroes during the days of American slavery, and others of historic and racial value written by black men of America and other countries.

The cover of the 1921 catalog.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The exhibition came from the collection of George Young, who ran a bookshop at 135 West 135th Street.  In its October 1922 issue, the Fisk University News said, "Young's Book Exchange contains the largest collection of books by and about the negro race that has been assembled anywhere and which is open to the public."  The article said, "From the beginnings six years ago with six books, Mr. Young's collection has grown to 8,00 to 10,000 books by and pertaining to negroes.  Some of the rarest copies of first editions are there, for Mr. Young has had exceptional opportunities for collecting."

The article said, "Miss Ernestine Rose, the librarian, and Augustus Dill have arranged an exhibit to show the colored people of the neighborhood, and the white people, what the negro has accomplished." Its success was such that the showing became an annual event.

Like George Young, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg was an avid collector of black history.  Born in Puerto Rico, Schomburg arrived in New York in 1891 at the age of 17.  He obtained a job with the Bankers Trust Company where he stayed for two decades.  According to his biographer, Elinor Des Verney Sinnette, his passion for collecting black history stemmed from his fifth-grade teacher's offhanded remark, "Black people have no history, no heroes, no great moments."  

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, from the collection of the New York Public Library

Shelley Fisher Fishkin writes in her Writing America--Literary Landmarks from Walden Pond to Wounded Knee:

On May 19, 1926, more than a hundred packing crates were delivered to the central building of the New York Public Library to be prepared for shipment to their final destination: the 135th Street branch of the library, where thousands of books, manuscripts, etchings, portraits, and pamphlets would be made available to the public the following January.

The crates contained the accumulated collection of Arthur A. Schomburg.  On January 14, 1927, a private viewing was held of the Schomburg Collection prior to its official opening.  Arthur Schomburg would be appointed curator of the Negro Division of Literature, History, and Prints in 1930.

Although now the greatest repository of black history in the nation, the 135th Street Branch library continued its regular programs.  On July 16, 1932, The New York Age reported that the staff, "cordially invites the summer students and their friends to their annual reception and dance, to be held in the auditorium of the library."  

The branch operated a Book Club and speakers regularly appeared at its meetings.  On May 19, 1933, for instance, Alain Locke of Howard University spoke on "Contemporary Drama and Negro Life" and Dr. Charles Augustin Petioni discussed, "The American Negro Colonist in the West Indies."  The New York Age mentioned that the latter was the "second of a series of lectures especially planned and promoted by A. A. Schomberg [sic]."

During the Depression years, the Federal Works Project funded the American Negro Theater, which was based here.  Called "the Library Theatre," on July 6, 1940, The New York Age called it, "the ideal place for a summer theatre and in the heart of Harlem."  On May 30, 1942, the newspaper announced the upcoming opening of Starlight.  Included in the cast was "Ruby Wallace Dee."  A month later, the newspaper called her "the greatest find of 1942."

The New York Age was correct.  The following year, Ruby Dee made her Broadway debut in South Pacific.  She would go on to win an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and an Academy Award nomination, among many other honors.

The Schomburg Collection of the New York Public Library became central to Harlem community activities.  On July 18, 1959, the New York Age reported on a new exhibition "commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" here.

The aging building was in need of maintenance in August 1968 when Black World/Negro Digest reported that the city had set aside $54,000 "for an engineering survey of the old Harlem building to house endangered Schomburg Collection."  At the same time, the state had allotted $80,000 "to aid its manuscript preservation campaign."  The Board of Estimates anticipated that "an additional $966,600 would be forthcoming to reconstruct the library building."

In 1974, a series of buildings were vacated in preparation for groundbreaking for a new building for the Schomburg Collection, including a tenement next door.  The ten-foot space between the structures set forth in the 1904 deed proved fortuitous.  On April 9, The New York Times wrote, "Smoke filled the reading room of the Schomburg collection of Negro History and Literature last week as a fire set in an empty tenement next door threatened the irreplaceable collection of memorabilia, art, history and literature housed in the old library building."  It was the most recent of several arson fires in the neighborhood.  "Several weeks ago a custodian spent the night wetting down the sides of the library...as sparks from a burning tenement at 108 West 135th Street licked the side of the Schomburg."

The new building, the Countee Cullen Library branch, was opened in 1980.  Seven years later, in August 1987, Howard Dodson, chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, escorted a New York Times reporter through the still vacant McKim, Mead & White building.  The landmark building was undergoing a $3.4 million restoration project.

He reminisced, "how Alex Haley researched 'Roots' there; how James Baldwin in the heyday of his Harlem youth discovered literature there; how Kenneth Clark studied there; how such entertainers as Harry Belafonte and Ossie Davis trained there," said the article.

image via marblefairbanks.com

The project resulted in a gift shop and exhibition hall, and the restoration of the American Negro Theatre space.

McKim, Mead & White's 1912 998 Fifth Avenue

 

photograph by Eden, Janine and Jim

In the first decade of the 20th century, apartment living had gained favor on the Upper West Side.  On the opposite side of Central Park, however, things were different.  Here, multi-family residential buildings were still associated with tenements--not the sort of conditions Upper East Side millionaires would consider.  And so when James T. Lee (the future grandfather of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis) and Charles R. Fleischmann, partners in the Century Holding Co., acquired the plot of land at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 81st Street in the spring of 1910, they were setting out on a risky and daring project.

Lee and Fleischman had acquired the property from millionaire August Belmont "after long negotiations," according to the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide on June 4, 1910.  Belmont had purchased the plot (which was "one of two pieces on upper 5th av. that are not covered by restrictions") as the intended site of his mansion.  Now the partners conceived the third "really high-class apartment house," as described by the Guide, on Fifth Avenue.

"The house will be twelve stories high and will contain but eighteen apartments.  No apartment will have less than seventeen rooms and there may be one of twenty-eight rooms," said the article.  Readers were doubtlessly shocked when they read, "The rentals will range from $10,000 to $26,000, making them the highest renting apartments in the city."  That shock would have been well founded.  The $26,000 per year rent would translate to about $71,650 a month by 2024 conversion.

Six of the 18 apartments "will be on the duplex plan," said the article, adding, 

All the rooms will be of large dimensions and will be decorated as elaborately as the most sumptuous private homes.  The exterior of the building will be in the Italian Renaissance, the facade being of limestone.

McKim, Mead & White, which was currently designing the north wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art almost directly across the avenue, had been given the commission.  The firm's architect William Richardson headed the project.  His choice of an Italian palazzo design was almost assuredly intended to slip unobtrusively into the mansion neighborhood.  (McKim, Mead & White had been faced with the same consideration in 1896 when it designed the University Club within Millionaires' Row.  This new building would have striking similarities.)

Richardson separated the building's three four-story sections with prominent stringcourses--one distinguished by a stone balustrade and the other by Juliette balconies.  The rusticated granite base was decorated with Renaissance inspired shields.  The fifth floor openings wore arched and triangular pediments, and a bracketed cornice completed the design.

McKim, Mead & White released this rendering in 1910.  Record & Guide, August 13, 1910 (copyright expired)

As excavations got underway, the Century Holding Company did significant marketing, stressing that these apartments would be commensurate to mansion living.  On August 13, 1910, the Record & Guide reported, "In the plan of the house an intention is perceived to give in each apartment more and larger room than can be found in any private city dwelling, with the exception of a few of the largest residences.  The four principal rooms--namely, the salon, dining-room, living-room (or library) and the gallery--aggregate 2,500 square feet."  

The servants' wing was well separated from the tenants' space.  The New York Times, December 7, 1913 (copyright expired)

Residents would also be supplied with jewelry safes, wine cellars in the basement, and at least six servants' rooms.  As the building neared completion on March 10, 1912, The Sun noted, "the rooms have been laid out and made of such size that tenants can entertain just as they would in large dwellings.  Indeed the use of fine marbles and woods in reception halls and on stairways has been so skillful that the apartments give at once the impression of expensive individual homes."

An advertisement promised, "Management provides without charge--Vacuum cleaning of suites, window cleaning, artificial refrigerator and supply of cake ice."  The bathrooms were lined with marble.  The Sun was impressed with the modern conveniences, pointing out,

The kitchen is provided with a waste incinerator which makes unnecessary the handling of garbage.  Washing machines of the latest device and electric drying and ironing equipment are included in the service.  Refrigeration is supplied to kitchens by means of a pipe coil and cake ice made on the premises as well is supplied to tenants.

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

At the time of the article, almost all of the apartments had been rented.  Those who signed leases during construction had provided their input on the individual designs.  The Sun mentioned, "In the Root and Guggenheim apartments, which include whole floors, the salons and livings rooms have been thrown together to make large spaces where receptions and dances may be held.  In Senator Guggenheim's apartment this room has been done in gold, with a ceiling which probably is the equal of anything of the kind in the city."

The tenants mentioned in the article, industrialist and politician Murray Guggenheim and his wife, the former Leonie Bernheim; and Elihu Root and his wife, Clara Wales; would have equally impressive neighbors within the building.  Others who signed leases during construction, according to The Sun, were Commodore Robert E. Tod, Lloyd Aspinwall, Rogers Winthrop, Levi P. Morton, Colonel George Fearing, and Henry Goldman.

On November 1, 1913, the Record & Guide concluded, "It paid to go the limit."  The article said, "The highest schedule of rentals ever known in the city attracted families from the best circles of society.  No more distinguished social functions have occurred anywhere this year in the city than were enjoyed in this house."

Elihu Root was a familiar name to Americans.  He was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1883.  Then, in July 1899, he was made Secretary of War by President William McKinley.  Root resigned his cabinet position on February 1, 1904 to return to New York and his private law practice.  The Roots' summer estate was in Clinton, New York.

Another former politician was Levi Parsons Morton, who had married his second wife, Anna Livingston Reade Street, in 1873.  A descendant of George Morton, who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts on the Ann in 1623, he started his career in the drygoods business.  In 1878, he was elected to Congress, was appointed Minister to France in 1881, and in 1889 became Vice President under Benjamin Harrison.  He served as Governor of New York from January 1, 1895 through December 31, 1896.

Banker Henry Goldman of Goldman Sachs and his wife, the former Babette Kaufman, had three children.  All the residents of 998 Fifth Avenue had impressive art collections, but none, perhaps, surpassed the Goldmans'.  Shortly after they moved in, on December 12, 1912, The New York Times reported that Goldman had purchased a "painting of St. Bartholomew by Rembrandt" and said it, "is now adorning the gallery of Mr. Goldman's home."  Dr. Wilhelm Bode, the foremost European authority on Rembrandt declared it "to be a splendid specimen of the great artist's work."

Five years later, on January 16, 1917, The New York Times reported that Goldman had added Hans Holbein's Portrait of a Musician to his collection.  "The picture cost Mr. Goldman $175,000," said the article.

Three years before that article, the Goldman family's name had appeared in the newspapers for less happy reasons.  On May 26, 1914, Robert Goldman, who was 20 years old, "ran away from Williams College, where he was a junior," reported The Evening World, "with Edith Ostend, a chorus girl, and they were secretly married in Jersey City."  Goldman's bride was 19 years old.  The marriage did not sit well with her new parents-in-law.

Young Goldman was sent to "Ranch L07," a property in Meeker's, Colorado.  Calling the ranch "his exile," The Evening World explained, "With an English tutor the boy was sent out there to be a cowboy and to forget his costly experience on Broadway."  In the meantime, Henry Goldman had Edith Ostend Goldman trailed.

In court on March 1, 1915, Goldman's private secretary, Chester E. Mann, related that he had headed a raid on the studio of artist Nathan Harris at 66 West 9th Street.  He and the investigators climbed down a fire escape and into a window.  "Mrs. Goldman was sitting on a couch nude with Harris," he testified.  It was the beginning of the end of Robert Goldman's short-lived marriage.

On December 23, 1918, The Evening Post reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Edson Bradley will give a dinner-dance at their apartment at 998 Fifth Avenue on Wednesday evening."  At the time, the Bradleys had homes in Tuxedo Park, Newport, Washington D.C. and on Wellesley Island.  Born in New Canaan, Connecticut, Bradley was married to the former Julia Wentworth Williams.  He succeeded her stepfather, Marshall J. Allen, as president of W. A. Gaines & Co., one of the largest distilleries in the nation.  The dinner dance reported on by The Evening Post was just one of the many glittering events that would be held in their apartment.

The New-York Tribune reported on December 21, 1922, for instance, "Mr. and Mrs. Edson Bradley gave a dinner at their home, 988 Fifth Avenue, last night for Bishop and Mrs. William T. Manning.  Among the guests were their neighbors, Elihu and Clara Root, along with Lady Maitland, the Chauncey Depews, Mrs. Herbert Shipman, and others.

On June 5, 1924, the New York Evening Post reported that the Bradleys had "closed their home at 998 Fifth avenue and are at the Plaza until they go to Newport for the summer."  The couple was in the process of rebuilding their mansion there.

In 1931, the art collection of W. E. Dickerman hung on walls covered in brocaded fabric.  photo by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Other socially prominent residents were Elliot Fitch Shepard, Jr. and his wife, the former Eleanor Leigh Terradell.  Shepard was the son of Elliott Fitch Shepard and Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt, the eldest daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt.  On October 20, 1918, The Sun casually mentioned, "Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, after passing the summer in the Virginia Hot Springs, has returned to 998 Fifth avenue."

Six months after that article, another Vanderbilt moved into 998 Fifth Avenue.  On April 5, 1919, the Record & Guide reported that Edith Stuyvesant Dresser Vanderbilt, the widow of George Washington Vanderbilt, had leased "a duplex apartment, especially planned, of 18 rooms and 5 baths."

French paneling and frescoed ceilings made way for modern decor in the Edouard Jonas apartment in 1936.  On the walls are Van Gogh's Portrait of a Peasant; Dancers in the Wings by Degas; and Degas's Horse with Head Lowered.  photo by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The following year, in July, apartments were leased to Harriet Smith Van Schoonhoven Thorne and Henry Fairfield Osborn.  Harriet Thorne's husband, millionaire Jonathan Thorne, had died in January that year.  

Henry Fairfield Osborn was born in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1857 to a distinguished family.  His father, William Henry Osborn, was a railroad mogul.  Henry's wife was the former Lucretia Thatcher Perry.  Unlike his industrialist father, Henry pursued an academic career.  He was hired in 1891 as a professor of zoology at Columbia University, and subsequently took the position of curator of the Vertebrate Paleontology Department of the American Museum of Natural History.

Another prominent family here by 1926 were the Lewis Latham Clarkes.  Born in 1871, Clarke descended from William Ellery, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, on his mother's side; and from Emperor Charlemagne and Henry I of England on his father's.  Florence M. Clarke held her own among the socialites in the building in terms of lavish entertaining.

On March 11, 1927, for instance, The New York Times reported that Emilio Axerio, Consul General for Italy had conferred the decoration of Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy upon Lewis Latham Clarke "at a dinner which Mrs. Clarke gave last night at their home, 998 Fifth Avenue."  The article said, "A musical program and supper followed the dinner."  Among the 52 dinner guests were elite names like Schermerhorn, Mackay, Baruch, Brokaw, and Harriman.  

On April 15, 1912, the year 998 Fifth Avenue was completed, John Jacob Astor IV perished when the RMS Titanic sank.  His pregnant wife, Madeleine was rescued and on August 14 their son, John Jacob Astor VI was born.  Now, three decades later, he moved into a penthouse here after his wife, Ellen, filed for divorce in Reno in the spring of 1943.

A rumor reached The New York Times that Astor was sharing his apartment with a female named Silvia.  As it turned out, however, she was not his latest love interest.  On October 29, 1943, the newspaper reported that Astor's butler had taken Silvia to the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital for Animals, noting, "it was known at the hospital as 'the penthouse pig.'"  The article described Silvia as, "about nine inches long and about three weeks old."

In the end, an "emphatic" spokesperson for Astor explained that the pig was not a pet, but "one of a litter from Mr. Astor's farm at Basking Ridge, N. J."  Because it was undernourished, "Mr. Astor and his chauffeur drove the pig from the farm to the hospital."  The animal, "had never been domiciled in a penthouse, never had lived on Fifth Avenue, never had been a pet of Mr. Astor," insisted the statement.

One Sylvia who did live at 998 Fifth Avenue was the fascinating Sylvia Green Wilks.  (Her actual name was Harriet Sylvia Ann Howland Robinson Green Wilks, but she was always known as Sylvia.)  The daughter of eccentric multimillionaire Hettie Green, she was the widow of Matthew Astor Wilks, the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor I.  Sylvia Wilks died in the New York Hospital on February 5, 1951 while living here.  She left an estate valued at $94,965,229 (about $1.1 billion in 2024).

In 1953, 998 Fifth Avenue was converted to a cooperative.  The storied building continued to be home to some of Manhattan's wealthiest citizens.  The 16-room John Jacob Astor VI penthouse was acquired by attorney William Condren, who sold it to Archibald Cox, Jr., son of the Watergate prosecutor, in August 1993 for $5.4 million.  It was sold again in 2000.  Among the other residents at the time were Morton Hyman, head of Overseas Shipholding Group; private investor Peter Kimmelman; and zoning attorney Samuel Lindenbaum.  In September 2017, William P. Lauder, executive chairman of the Estée Lauder Companies, purchased a 14-room apartment on the sixth floor for $23.5 million.

photograph by Jay Dobkin

In designating 998 Fifth Avenue an individual landmark in 1974, the Landmarks Preservation Commission called it, "the finest Italian Renaissance style apartment house in New York City."

McKim, Mead & White's 1885 167-173 West 83rd Street

 

In 1891, developer David H. King, Jr. hired McKim, Mead & White to design a block-wide row of houses known as the King Model Houses at 203-269 West 139th Street.  He had commissioned the firm six years earlier for a much less ambitious project--four flat buildings at 167 through 173 West 83rd Street.

Designed in an A-B-A-B configuration of mirror-image pairs, the Romanesque Revival structures sat on planar stone bases.  The proportions of the arched openings of the ground floor--the windows being slightly wider than the doors--were echoed in the openings directly above.  The second- through fourth-floor windows were recessed within shallow arches that terminated in brownstone lintels that sprung from the capitals of the three-story brick piers.  Handsome terra cotta rondels with flowers and sunbursts decorated the spandrels.

The apartments, one per floor, were intended for professional, middle-class tenants.  They included wooden wainscoting, paneled doors and plaster ceiling decorations.  King was a developer, not a landlord, and quickly sold the completed buildings.  Two of them were purchased in April 1886 for $48,000 (about $1.6 million in 2024).

Among the original residents of 167 West 83rd Street was Oliver C. Gardiner, an "index clerk of the Sinking Fund Records" within the city's Finance Department.  He earned $1,200 per year, or about $41,000 by today's terms.  Unfortunately for Gardiner, he lost his job in 1889 when Tammany Hall regained control of City Hall and purged employees.

Marie E. J. S. L. Willard moved into 171 West 83rd Street in 1891 following her divorce from James Willard.  The New-York Tribune said, "Her maiden name was Marie Von Wallisch, and she was known as 'Countess' Von Wallisch before she was married."  The newspaper described her as "a handsome, stylish and stately woman, under middle age, and of winsome ways."

Marie Willard's rent was paid by wealthy builder and contractor Richard Goodman Platt, described by the New-York Tribune as a "well-known clubman."  According to him, he "furnished the rooms luxuriously, spending about $20,000 on her account."  The relationship between the two would end in a shockingly scandalous court case two years later.  According to Marie Willard, in October 1891, "Platt promised to marry her, and induced her to hold intimate relations with him, but afterward refused to fulfil his promise of marriage."

The National Police Gazette was less than flattering in its depiction of Marie Willard in its September 9, 1893 issue.  (copyright expired)

Platt's version was, expectedly, different.  He claimed that soon after moving into 171 West 83rd Street, the "Countess" went to Paris and began writing letters asking for money.  The New-York Tribune said he claimed that, "in one of these letters she said that, had it not been for a Mr. Alexander, she would have been 'on the streets of Paris, homeless.'"  Marie returned to New York in 1893 and sued Platt for $50,000 damages for breach of promise, beginning the case that proved embarrassing to both parties.

Another case of domestic upheaval in the building involved Maria and William Dershem.  William ran a shoe store in Staten Island.  The couple moved into an apartment at 171 West 83rd Street after their marriage on June 15, 1898.  At the time of the wedding, Dershem's adult daughters were away for the summer and it is possible that Maria (who was about their age) did not realize that they would be sharing the apartment.  The newlyweds' happy home life would not last long.

A year later, on December 24, 1899, The Sun reported that Maria was suing William "for a separation on allegations of cruel treatment by him and his two daughters."  When the daughters returned, according to Maria, they took charge of the household.  Annie Dershem, she said, would tell her father that Maria was making faces at him behind his back, although Maria insisted "she had kept her face straight."  William responded by striking his wife "on several occasions."

A prominent resident of 173 West 83rd Street was Dr. Willis W. French, "a popular young physician," as described by The New York Times on March 12, 1888.  A native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he graduated from the New-York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1883.  Another physician, Dr. Harry Power, lived in the building by 1891.

The family of Clarence Colburn Chapman, an insurance agent, lived at 173 West 83rd Street by 1901, when sons Worthington Frothingham and Isaac Amandre were studying at Yale University and the College of the City of New York, respectively.  Worthington would also attend the College of the City of New York, before entering the Yale's Sheffield Scientific School.

Worthington Chapman would have an interesting career.  After graduating in 1905, he took a post-graduate course in mining.  He spent two years in the West working with The Tonopah Exploration Company.  Back in New York, he became affiliated with the Columbus & Hocking Coal and Iron Co.  He listed his address here through 1910.

Joseph Nullet was the chief salesman of the Sustenance Division of the Surplus Property Division of the U.S. Army.  He lived at 167 West 83rd Street in 1920 when he devised a devious plot to cheat the Government.  On January 29, 1921, the Brooklyn Standard Union reported he had been "charged with conspiring to defraud the Government by juggling bids for 50,000 pounds of overseas tea."

Later that year, on September 8, 18-year-old Stanley Dudzig tried to burglarize 171 West 83rd Street.  The Daily News said he "was surprised to find Detective Thomas Foley at his elbow when he attempted to enter a second story window of an apartment."  The article continued, "Foley was equally surprised when Dudzig poked a pistol in his stomach and pulled the trigger."  Fortunately for Foley, the gun did not fire.  The would-be burglar faced a judge the following day.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1930, a store was installed on the ground floor of 167 West 83rd Street and in 1966 the apartments were divided, resulting in two per floor.  The apartments at 171 West 83rd Street had been divided in half in 1959.

The brownstone bases of all four buildings have been painted white, and the upper floors of 169 and 171 West 83rd Street have also been painted.  Overall, the restrained designs of one of America's foremost architectural firms are greatly intact.

Many thanks to Larry Mentz for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

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

Metamorphosis -- The Drastically Remodeled 358 Fifth Avenue

 

image by Tdorante10

On March 6, 1901, The New York Times reported, "Hundreds of workmen are daily demolishing into a reminiscence what was once the grandest residence in New York, and collectors of curios from the old house have been busy for the past week."  The newspaper was referring to the former Alexander Turney Steward mansion, on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.

The magnificent, white marble residence had been purchased by the Knickerbocker Trust Company, which commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to design an uptown branch office on the site.  Their plans called for a "four-story marble and terra cotta and stone office building" to cost $450,000--or a staggering $16.6 million in 2024.

Anticipating that the Midtown location would eventually become its headquarters as Manhattan's business district moved northward, the Knickerbocker Trust Company directed the architects to allow for enlargement.  The Real Estate Record & Guide noted that the new building was "built with the idea of adding to its height, and so the foundations were made sufficiently strong for the erection of additional stories."

McKim, Mead & White produced a white marble structure that foreshadowed the firm's Roman-inspired Pennsylvania Station complex two blocks to the west.  A full-width set of marble stairs spilled from monumental, three-story Corinthian columns.  Elaborate carvings filled the frieze below the cornice, which was capped with a formal balustrade.

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Knickerbocker Trust Company had correctly projected that commerce would engulf the former mansion district.  But that change brought problems for the building.  McKim, Mead & White had followed the tradition of old brownstones, whose stoops extended beyond the property line, by designing the sweeping stairs (and even a portion of the columns) 15 feet onto city property.  On November 17, 1906, the Record & Guide reported on the city's intentions to widen Fifth Avenue and its resultant demand that all "encroachments"--stoops, bay windows, and other elements--be removed.

When Wurts Bros. took this photo in 1905, the fate of the broad marble steps was sealed.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The article said that the city's case "is perfectly clear," but conceded, "The only really difficult cases are those in which the ornamental parts of really beautiful buildings, such as that of the Knickerbocker Trust Co., project slightly beyond the line."  Despite the firm's desperate attempts, the broad stairs were doomed.  Six years later, on December 21, 1912, the Record & Guide recalled "the unsuccessful legal efforts of the Knickerbocker Trust Company to save its wide-spreading marble steps."  As it turned out, the loss of the steps was merely the first of dramatic changes to the 1902 building to come.

Seen here in 1915, the Knickerbocker Trust Company was now accessed by a diminutive set of steps.  To the south is the Waldorf-Astoria, on the site of the Astor mansions. photograph by Perry Walton from the collection of the New York Public Library 

In 1907, the Knickerbocker became part of a shady deal organized by F. Augustus Heinze and Charles W. Morse to corner the market of the United Copper Company.  The scheme disastrously failed on October 15 when the share price of United Copper crashed.  Morse and Heinze were ruined and depositors began a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company. 

Six days after the collapse, president Charles T. Barney was asked by the board to resign.  The next day the Knickerbocker was forced to suspend operations.  Unlike his co-conspirators, Barney was not ruined financially.  His personal fortune was estimated at the time to be $2.5 million--or about $80.3 million in 2024.  But he was disgraced and humiliated and on the morning of November 14, he shot himself in his mansion at 103 East 38th Street.

The Knickerbocker Trust was taken over by the Columbia Trust Company.  On December 27, 1919, the Record & Guide reported that the bank had sold its building to Max N. Natanson, noting, "The buyer will increase the height of the present structure by nine stories."  

Natanson quickly rethought the project.  A month later, on January 31, 1920, the Record & Guide reported he had sold the Columbia Trust Co. Building to the Columbia Graphophone Co. for $3 million (about $51 million today) "as a permanent home."  The article said the firm had chosen it "on account of its splendid location and accessibility at all points."

The firm brought back McKim, Mead & White to design the additional floors.  The project was estimated to cost $1 million.

McKim, Mead & White's original renderings mostly preserved the original structure.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On July 4, 1920, The New York Times reported that work had begun on the building.  "When completed the structure, which has for many years been one of the imposing architectural landmarks of middle Fifth Avenue, will be radically changed from its original appearance," said the article.  "Ten stories are being added, making the new building fourteen stories in height."

The project ended the former compromise with the city.  The "four magnificent columns," as described by The Times,  would be replaced "by square columns with their Corinthian tops."  The newspaper explained, "The present columns project slightly beyond the building line, and that is the real reason for their final removal."

One of the original McKim, Mead & White capitals.  photo by McKim, Mead & White,  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The New York Times said that "the magnificent frieze, five feet high," would be salvaged and moved to the top of the building, below the cornice.  McKim, Mead & White placed a brick-faced, Renaissance Revival structure on top of its Roman original.  The Columbia Trust Company remained in the banking floor as a tenant.

Among the initial tenants of the new upper floors were the Fifth Avenue Association; Gilman Importers (which had branches in Paris and Miami); Benjamin & Johnes, makers of the Bien Jolie Corsette; and several legal firms.

Benjamin & Johnes remained in the building at least through 1925.

The 1930s and 1940s saw tenants like the men's hat dealers, The Frank H. Lee Co., here for a least a decade; and Vogue Foundations, creator of women's items like the "Kno-Belt."  The firm advertised it in 1939 as being "for the women who frankly need figure control."

The Frank H. Lee Co. was in the building from around 1936 to 1946.

A long-term tenant was architect Archibald F. Gilbert, who leased an office as early as 1926.  Born in 1875, he had worked in the office of D. H. Burnham & Company until opening his own office in 1916.  Among his works were the 1927 Manufacturers Trust Company Building on Broadway; the 20-story Goldman Sachs headquarters at 30 Pine Street, designed in 1929; and the 1939 Delaware Academy in Delhi, New York.

When Gilbert's son, Daniel C. C. Gilbert, joined his father's practice, the firm became A. F. Gilbert & Son.  Archibald F. Gilbert died in his Riverside Drive home on July 7, 1953.  Daniel C. C. Gilbert carried on the business under the name of A. F. Gilbert & Son.  The offices were still at 358 Fifth Avenue in the late 1960s.

Square columns replaced the fluted originals.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The banking space was home to a Greenpoint Bank branch in 2000, when it was the victim of a serial bank robber.   Three blocks away, at the textile firm Park B. Smith, Inc., Smithson Smith worked as the company's computer operations supervisor.  On December 28, 2000, The New York Times said that recently, Smith's co-workers "made jokes at his expense, citing his uncanny resemblance to a widely publicized wanted poster that showed a bank robber calmly strolling out of a nearby Midtown branch."  The article said they laughed, saying he should probably eat lunch at his desk so he would not be mistakenly arrested.

"They probably won't be laughing today," it continued.

Smith had been arrested and charged with 18 bank robberies, three of them at the Greenpoint Bank branch at 358 Fifth Avenue.

image via loopnet.com

The building was remodeled again in 2021.  The banking operations were removed to the basement and the first and second floors converted to retail space.  All traces of McKim, Mead & White's remarkable 1902 white marble structure have been obliterated, resulting in an unremarkable office building.

many thanks to reader Martin Hill Ortiz for suggesting this post

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