Showing posts with label central park west. Show all posts
Showing posts with label central park west. Show all posts

Monday, November 25, 2024

The Lost Elberon Hall - 385-386 Central Park West


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


In an article titled, "The Apartment House Work of Central Park," on February 15, 1902, the Record & Guide described Leon A. Liebeskind as one of New York City's most successful builders of apartment houses.  The article noted he "has now been in the building business in New York City for some fifteen or sixteen years, during which he has erected many apartments."

A year after that article, on April 15, 1903, the journal reported that Liebeskind had purchased a 55-foot wide plot on Central Park West between 98th and 99th Streets.  The article said he, "will erect an apartment house on the site."

Completed in 1904, the Renaissance Revival style structure featured a handsome portico with paired, Scamozzi columns.  Above the two-story, rusticated stone base were seven stories of beige brick.  Intermittent stone bays within the central section were flanked by gently rounded bays.  A tiara-like stone balustrade crowned the cornice.

There were two eight-room apartments with two baths per floor--north and south.  "Nothing will be found wanting which would tend to make these the most desirable housekeeping apartments in the city," said an advertisement in The New York Times on August 28, 1904.  Each had a "butler's pantry and reception and private halls which open upon every room."  Because Elberon Hall was intended for affluent tenants, the apartments included an "extra large fireproof jewelry safe" and a silver safe.  "There is liveried hall and elevator attendance day and night," said the ad, and "long distance telephone in every apartment, etc."

Tenants of Elberon Hall would enjoy a unique amenity.  "A special feature of the bathrooms is the Russian and Turkish Bath attachments, something heretofore unknown in private apartments," explained an advertisement.

The New York Times, August 28, 1904 (copyright expired)

Although the sons of Elberon Hall families certainly did not need to resort to crime for money, two brought unwanted publicity when they were arrested in separate incidents.  The first was 19-year-old Robert Turner.  On September 6, 1907, The New York Times reported, "In the arrest of three youths yesterday afternoon, detectives of the Central Office believe they have caught the burglars that for ten days have been ransacking flats in the Harlem district."  Turner and his cohorts were seen breaking into an apartment on West 112th Street.  Two were captured as they carried bundles out of the building.  Turner rushed back to the apartment.  The New York Times reported, "lowering himself through the window, [he] dropped to the bottom of the air shaft.  His cry of pain told the waiting policemen where to look for him."  The teen had badly fractured his right leg.  The three were charged with attempted burglary.

Ferdinand Herrman was the son of Morris Herrman, who the New York Press said was, "reported to be a millionaire and is president of the Herrman Realty Company."  Like Robert Turner, he broke into Harlem apartments.  On May 17, 1909, the 22-year-old was charged with grand larceny for having burglarized the St. Nicholas Avenue apartment of Charlotte Harris 13 days earlier.  He and his female accomplice were tracked down after they pawned some of the $1,300 worth of jewelry and silverware.

Young Herrman tried desperately to avoid publicity.  When arrested he said his name was Ferdinand Ladau.  At Police Headquarters, he gave his address as 437 Central Park West, and in court as 473 Central Park West.  Morris Herrman provided the $1,500 bail (equal to nearly $52,000 in 2024).  Shortly afterward, Mrs. Harris dropped her complaint, prompting strong suspicions that Herrman had paid her handsomely.

Nevertheless, the Herrman family stuck to the story that the accused burglar was the concocted Ladau, not Herrman.  A reporter from the New York Press who went to the Herrman's Elberon Hall apartment was told that Morris Herrman "had gone out of town."  A "young man who said he is a brother of Ferdinand Herrman, explained that Ferdinand Herrman had been absent in the West for six months," said the article.  As to the Ferdinand Ladau case, the young man said "he could not discuss that nor explain his father's interest in the case." 

As the reporter left, he stopped a hallboy and asked if Ferdinand Herrman was home.  "No," he answered, "he went out about ten minutes before you came.  He told me that if any one asked for him to say he did not live here."

Joseph M. Kahn and his family were victims of a brazen burglar on January 28, 1912.  Six burglaries had recently been committed in the section of Central Park West between 95th and 100th Street.  Police surmised the thief used a rope and iron hook to access the apartments--tossing the hook up to the fire escape, then pulling himself up.

That evening, between 7:00 and 8:00, Kahn and his wife were entertaining Kahn's brother-in-law, David Roth, and two nieces of Mrs. Kahn, "Miss Largman and Miss Denitz," in the drawing room.  The Kahns' small son was also there.  While they chatted, the burglar was at work.  The New York Times reported, 

...after reaching the fire escape [he] entered the window of the bathroom, which was not locked, and took most of his loot from two bedrooms...All told he got away with about $1,500 worth of things, among them a pony coat, a silver mesh bag, a set of red fox furs, a polo coat, a handbag containing clothing worth $150, another set of furs, a pocketbook in which was $50, a gold and ruby and a gold and emerald bracelet, several chains, and rings and several gowns.

Living here at the time were Frank C. Van der Veer and his wife.  The couple had two adult sons, Thomas C., who was an attorney, and Willard, an actor.  Thomas, who lived elsewhere, died at the age of 42 on May 7, 1913.  Willard, who was an actor, lived here with his parents.  Born in 1894, he made his stage debut in The Bad Samaritan at the age of 10.  He had appeared with stars of the day--John Griffith in Richard III, with Mabel Taliaferro in Polly of the Circus and in The Sign of the Four, and with Ben Greet in Macbeth, for instance.

As motion pictures developed, Willard Van der Veer switched course, first becoming a cameraman with studios like Vitagraph and Edison.  He remained in the Elberon Hall apartment as late as 1918.  Later, he would accompany Admiral Richard E. Byrd's expeditions to the Artic and Antarctic, earning an Academy Award for his cinematography of polar scenes released in a Paramount documentary in 1930.  (Interestingly, his son, Frank, would also win an Academy Award for his special effects work in the 1976 King Kong.  Frank Van der Veer also did special effects for hit films like The Towering Inferno, the 1977 Star Wars, and Clash of the Titans in 1981.)

Another early tenant was Brigadier General James Nicholls Allison.  Born on September 4, 1848 in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, he had served in the Civil War from 1863 to 1865.  He was active until his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1912.

Elberon Hall was well known as a luxury building at the time.  In 1913, an eight-room apartment with two baths rented for $1,600 per year--about $4,250 a month in 2024 terms.

The building was owned by Herman Auerbach, who lived in the northern apartment on the seventh floor with his wife, Claire, and their three children, Beatrice, Daisy and Lester.  Herman was the head of the Auerbach Realty Company.  

On February 1, 1915, the New-York Tribune said the 49-year-old had "accumulated a fortune in the candy business, in which he had been associated with his father and brother."  He had withdrawn from the family firm a little over five years earlier to establish his real estate firm.  Now, said the newspaper, "He lost that fortune speculating in real estate."

The Auerbach children had been reared in privilege.  Both daughters "intended to go to college," according to the article.  As Auerbach's financial condition worsened, he first mortgaged Elberon Hall, then sold it.  Secretly, Daisy and Beatrice schemed to take stenography courses to help out.  Despite their parents' insistence that they give up their business studies, they continued and eventually got jobs.  Auerbach refused to allow Lester to drop out of De Witt Clinton High School to follow his sisters' lead.  

On February 1, 1915, The New York Times reported that a nephew of Herman Auerbach had arrived at Elberon Hall at 9:00 the previous morning to take Beatrice skating.  The telephone operator rang the apartment and the maid, Lattie Schliep, said none of the family was up yet. 

"Then call Lester," said the nephew.  Lester, who was 14, came to the phone, took the message, and told his cousin to call back at about noon.  He then decided to wake Beatrice and tell her of the invitation.

He walked down the corridor to the sleeping room of Beatrice, 18 years old, and her sister Daisy, 16, knocked at the door, and receiving no response, opened the door and looked in.  The two girls lay motionless, with their pillows stained crimson.

Lester shut the door and ran down the hall to his parents' room.  When no one answered his "frantic pounding," he went in.  "He saw his father and mother lying dead, with bullet wounds in their heads."  

Herman Auerbach had purchased a rifle and a silencer a few days earlier.  He had shot his 34-year-old wife and two daughters in the back of the head while they slept, then turned the rifle on himself.  As Lester ran to tell the maid, he noticed a note on his bedroom door from his father.  "When you wake up," it said, "telephone to Uncles Joe and Leo and grandpa."

The New-York Tribune traced Auerbach's movements.  February 1, 1915 (copyright expired)

The Evening World said the coroner felt the triple murder and suicide "was due to temporary insanity, brought on by imminent poverty after a life of prosperity that at one time put him in the millionaire class."  It was surmised that Lester was spared because "he was a boy" and could fend for himself.

Colonel John W. Schultz de Brun and his family lived here at the time of the tragedy.  Son Harry C. W. Schultz de Brun was exceptionally well-educated.  He was a graduate of New York University, Fordham University and the University at Bordeaux, France.  When American entered World War I, he joined the Army, serving as a surgeon with the allied forces and with the American Expeditionary Forces.  

Harry C. W. Schultz de Brun would eventually be promoted to the rank of major.  Amid the horrors of war, he found love.  Mathilde Dolmetsch, who lived on West End Avenue, was in Europe as an ambulance driver for the National League for Women's Service.  At the end of the war, on October 11, 1919, her parents announced her engagement to Schultz de Brun.  The couple was married in the Collegiate Reformed Church on June 12, 1920.

Elberon Hall was sold to an investor on April 23, 1929.  It was "entirely renovated" in 1937, according to court papers later.  The sprawling apartments were divided into 3-1/2 room suites.  The renovations included bathrooms with, "tile floor, tile wainscot, plaster walls and ceiling, pedestal basin, toilet with flushometer, built-in tub with shower."

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

By then, Elberon Hall was an anachronism.  The other turn-of-the-century apartment buildings along Central Park West had been replaced during the 1920s with high-rise Art Deco structures.  Unlike those buildings, it was not the change in fashion that doomed Elberon Hall, it was the mid-century urban renewal trend.

On April 10, 1958, the New York Post reported, "The building is in good physical condition but is to be demolished soon under the redevelopment plan."  The Urban Relocation Management, Inc. had been hired to find housing for the tenants.  A month earlier, on March 3, after 17 residents did not immediately accept the option, the elevator suddenly stopped working.  Since then, said the article, "elderly persons and mothers with small children have been forced to walk up and down."

Eventually, all the tenants were evicted and moved to new housing.  The site of Elberon Hall is now part of a vast parking lot for the resultant apartment houses, completed in 1961.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

The 1926 Central Park View Apartments - 415 Central Park West

 

photo courtesy Landmark West!

On October 31, 1925, the Record & Guide pointed out, "Central Park West is now attracting the attention of apartment house builders and operators."  It went on to say that the latest project was a $1,325,000 building being erected by the 415 Central Park West Corporation.  "It will contain about 112 apartments," said the article, noting that "a library is included in the seven-room suites."

The Central Park View Apartments, on the northwest corner of Central Park West and 101st Street, opened in 1926.  Designed by Deutsch & Schneider in the neo-Regency style, the 16-floor and penthouse structure was formally symmetrical.  The three-story base was anchored by limestone corners, its double-height entrance supporting two pairs of neo-Classical urns.  The ten-story mid-section was faced in red Flemish-bond brick.  At the 14th and 15th floors, faux balconies sprouted 2-story stone surrounds and pilasters.

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, October 31, 1925

The Central Park View Apartments offered suites of four rooms and two baths, and six- or seven-rooms apartments with three baths.  A 1926 brochure said, "The two 6 room apartments are ideal, each being in effect a Private Home, extending through the full length of the building from east to west with no long halls; the maid's quarters, including the kitchen, occupying the entire rear, and the kitchens of both apartments connected with a service elevator and service stairway."

The up-to-the-minute amenities included lighted closets (the smallest apartments had five closets while the largest had ten, including a cedar closet).  The brochure noted, "The floors are of hardwood, in herringbone design; solid brass and bronze hardware has been used throughout...In keeping with all else, every apartment has up-to-date electric refrigeration--individual equipment in every kitchen."

The two penthouse apartments were marketed as "roof garden apartments," and called "a feature of this building."  One had six rooms, the other seven rooms.  The 1926 brochure said, "The roof is entirely of red tile, and a liberal landscaping effect is provided around these apartments.  Elevator service, of course."

photo courtesy Landmark West!

Among the initial residents of one of the penthouse apartments was the musical comedy lyricist Lorenz Hart.  He moved in with his parents, Max and Frieda Hart.  According to Gary Marmorstein, in his A Ship Without a Sail--The Life of Lorenz Hart, the family moved here from their 119th Street house to be on one floor.  Max Hart "was having an increasingly painful time negotiating a flight of stairs."

Max's deteriorating condition did not improve.  According to Marmorstein, on the night of October 8, 1928, with Lorenz and his brother Theodore at his bedside, Max said, "I'm going to die tonight.  Don't wake your mother, though.  Let her sleep."  He was 68 years old.

Lorenz Hart (right) with Richard Rodgers.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Early in the summer of 1929, Lorenz Hart and his partner, Richard Rodgers, received an offer from producer Laurence Schwab to contribute songs for the movie version of the Broadway musical Follow Thru.  To celebrate, Hart hosted an open house.  Variety reported, "Larry Hart threw an endurance party at his place the other a.m.  Broke all pent-house records."

Lorenz and Frieda Hart remained in the Central Park View Apartments until August 1939 when they moved about nine blocks south to the Ardsley, at 320 Central Park West.

Illustrator Peter Arno and his wife, Lois Long, were also initial residents.  Born Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr., Arno was perhaps best known for his covers for The New Yorker.  He began contributing cover designs in 1925, the year of the magazine's founding.  He branched into the theater, producing, designing and writing four Broadway shows, beginning with the 1931 Here Goes the Bride.

Peter and Lois most likely met through The New Yorker.  Lois had been a journalist for Vogue and Vanity Fair before being hired to write an anonymous nightlife column for The New Yorker.  Using the pseudonym "Lipstick," her witty chronicles of Manhattan nightclubs and society capers made her a celebrity--albeit an anonymous one.  She married Peter Arno in 1927.

The couple's professional interaction seems to have been more successful than their domestic situation.  Their arguments turned violent, and on January 20, 1930, the Daily News headlined an article, "Peter Arno, Cartoonist, Hides From Wife to Nurse His Scars / Split With Lois Long, Says It's Friendly."  The final altercation was apparently heard by neighbors, Time magazine reporting that the couple "quarreled bitterly in the middle of the night."  Arno left the Central Park View Apartments and he and Lois divorced the following year.

Another tenant associated with The New Yorker was writer and critic Alfred Kazin and his wife, the former Natasha Dohn.  The couple moved in on November 18, 1948.  Kazin's reviews appeared in The New Yorker as well as the New York Herald-Tribune, The New York Times, and The New Republic.  His 1951 memoir, A Walker in the City was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, as were its sequels, the 1965 Starting Out in the Thirties and New York Jew, published in 1978.

Novelist Padraic Colum and his wife, Mary (known as Molly) Maguire, moved in around 1933 after spending three years living in France.  A major figure in the Irish Literary Revival movement, Colum covered all the literary bases--novelist, dramatist, children's author, playwright, poet and biographer.  

Padraic Colum, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Mollie Colum died in 1957 while co-writing Our Friend James Joyce with Padraic.  He finished the book about their close relationship with the Irish novelist and poet, which was published in 1958.

Jazz vocalist and civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln was another celebrated resident.  In her 2017 Dizzy Duke, Brother Ray and Friends--On and Off the Record With Jazz Greats, Lilian Terry recalls, "it became customary that I accept [Abbey's] hospitality at her New York apartment at 415 Central Park West."

Abbey Lincoln was one of the long list of impressive musicians who lived in the Central Park View Apartments that included drummers Art Blakey, Max Roach and Elvin Jones; jazz pianists Teddy Wilson and Dwike Mitchell; lyricist Yip Harburg; and cellist Marion Cumbo.  Singer, songwriter, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone moved into the building in 1960, following her divorce from Donald Ross.

By 1970, science fiction and fantasy author Robert E. Margroff lived here.  His first story, "Monster Tracks," was published in 1964, after which he mostly co-authored novels with Piers Anthony.  They included the five-book series Kelvin of Rud.

A fascinating tenant was artist Bradford Boobis, who lived here with his wife Shawn.  Starting out as a Hollywood composer, he turned to painting.  The self-taught artist was highlighted in a 1969 edition of American Artist, which said, "His work indicates that he has thoroughly mastered oil technique, draughtsmanship and craftsmanship."  A year later three of Boobis's works were chosen to be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Library of President Papers.  American Artist pointed out that he was the only living artist represented in the exhibition.

Boobis suffered a heart attack on January 16, 1972 and died on his way to the hospital at the age of 43.  Writing in The New York Times half a century later on April 3, 2023, Joshua Needelman recalled that on the night of his death, "fearing that his widow might sell them," four of his "most dedicated devotees" entered the Boobis apartment and "surreptitiously removed roughly a dozen of his paintings, which depicted naked figures amid distorted surroundings." 

Bradford Boobis's The Cocktail Party was one of the paintings shipped to London.  via Louis K. Meisel Gallery.

The paintings were shipped to London to Robert Anthony Rayne, a member of the British peerage.  In June 2022 they were briefly returned to New York City for a showing at the Meisel Gallery.  Louis K. Meisel told Needelman that two of the paintings were "as great as anything I'd ever seen in realism and surrealism or anything representational."

Stage, television and motion picture actor Edward Emerson and his wife, the former Edith Broder, lived here at the time of Boobis's death.  Born in 1903, Emerson appeared on Broadway in shows like Hilda Cassidy; Heigh-ho, Everybody; and Crime Marches On.  His film career included roles in the 1936 Cover Chinatown, Behind the Criminal the following year, and There Goes Kelly in 1945.

photo courtesy Landmark West!

While not as architecturally dazzling as some of the thoroughfare's well-known Art Deco structures, the Central Park View Apartments plays an important role in the Central Park West streetscape.

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Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Emery Roth's 295 Central Park West


image via rudin.com

Most of Central Park West's Victorian and Edwardian residential hotels and apartment houses were replaced by jazzy Art Deco towers in the 1920s.  One dowager holdout, however, the New Windsor Apartments at the southwest corner of 90th Street, survived through the Great Depression.  But that would soon change.

On November 17, 1938, The Sun reported that the Northwest Realty Corporation of which Samuel Rudin was president, "has purchased 294-295 Central Park West, the seven-story New Windsor Apartments...for a consideration of $115,000."

Rudin hired the architectural firm of Emery Roth & Sons to design the 19-story-and-penthouse replacement building.  The firm's streamlined Art Moderne design relied on form rather than ornamentation.  The shoulder-high granite water table that girded the base of the building rose up to form a monumental, two-story stepped entrance frame.  Emery Roth & Sons gently rounded the building's corners, the windows wrapping the sides.  A series of setbacks provided terrace space to the upper floors.

Emery Roth & Sons created the decorative bandcourse between the first and second floors in brick.  image via  landmarkwest.org

An advertisement in the New York Post on June 24, 1941 promised the "20-Story Apartment Masterpiece" would be ready for occupancy on August 1.  Compared to some of the pre-Depression buildings along the park, the size of the apartments were modest--ranging from "1-1/2 to 5 rooms" with either one or two baths.  The management's brochure stressed that 295 Central Park West "provides livability in small apartments to a remarkable degree."

The advertisement boasted of the "Norge hermetically sealed rollator refrigerators," while the brochure pointed out amenities like "modern steel casement windows, specially equipped with fresh air ventilators...A radio outlet in each living room...Venetian blinds in all rooms and bathrooms," and "Special soundproofed partitions between apartments assure the utmost quiet."

On August 9, the New York Post noted, "The special requirements of the professional man have been met in the scientific planning of the six doctors' suites in the new apartment building at 295 Central Park West."  Samuel Rudin announced that four of those suites had been leased to physicians who also took apartments in the building.  He also noted, "The building is now 84 per cent rented and 24 families have just moved in."

The relatively small apartments are seen in this typical floorplan.   from the collection of the New York Public Library

The building filled with professionals.  Among the initial residents were Mitchel and Eda Leventhal.  In January 1944, Mitchell partnered with Herman Lipin to form SOSY, for the "buying, selling, and generally dealing in luggage, hardware and other merchandise."  Three years later, the Times Record of Troy, New York reported that the couple and five other investors had purchased the Boardman Building in that city.

Resident Milton Davis had set up a business just before moving into 295 Central Park West.  In 1940, with World War II raging in Europe, he and Charles Davis (presumably a relative) formed the Coat Corporation of America.  Their only client was the U.S. Government for "the manufacture of Army clothing," according to The Daily Argus.

Five years later, despite their contracts with the Government having totaled about $12 million (equal to about $195 million in 2024), the Davises were in trouble.  On July 31, 1945, The Daily Argus reported that they "entered pleas of nolo contendere to an indictment charging a conspiracy to file a false statement with the renegotiation Board of the Army Quartermaster Corps."  Isaiah Matlack, chief of the New York Office of the War Frauds Division of the Department of Justice, had accused them of stating their 1942 profits amounted to $37,000, "whereas government investigation disclosed the profits totaled around $200,000."  The Davises were charged $30,000 in fines.

Residents of the two penthouse apartments enjoyed wrap-around terraces.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Living here in 1949 was Herbert X. Blum.  He had formerly been president of the Self-Service Laundry Operators, a chain of coin-operated laundromats, and was now a vice-president.  Like Milton Davis, his shady operations landed him in court.  On July 12 that year, the Nassau Daily Review-Star reported that State Attorney General Nathaniel Goldstein had charged him and his partners with price-fixing and extortion.  They attempted "to drive the [lower priced independent operators] out of the 25 million-dollar-a-year industry by subsidizing price-war competition."  The attorney general estimated "the combination's price-pegging policy added four to five million dollars a year to the cash-and-carry laundry costs of New York housewives."

image via zumper.com

Davis and Blum were exceptions, of course, to the generally respectable residents of 295 Central Park West.  Living here in 1964 were Marjorie G. Levy and her daughter Jane.  On June 21, 1964, the Herald Statesman reported that Marjorie would serve as office manager on the staff of the Encampment for Citizenship at the Fieldston School in Riverdale."  The article noted, "Her daughter, Jane Levy, attended the encampment as a student in 1958.  Now a teacher in the New York City school system, Miss Levy will attend the New York University Human Relations Seminar in Puerto Rico this summer."

Another resident at the time was Peter Schwab, who was equally involved in social causes.  A former Peace Corps member, he was now an instructor at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  On November 4, 1965, the Riverdale Press reported that he would appear in a lecture series with Senator Abraham Ribicoff titled, "The Image of Man."  Schwab's topic was "The New Frontiers of Man."

The most celebrated resident at the time was Dr. Robert C. Weaver.  Born on December 29, 1907, he was described by The New York Times as a "portly, pedagogical man who wrote four books on urban affairs," Weaver was an important figure in the civil rights movement in the 1930s and '40s.  He repeatedly urged, " "Fight hard and legally, and don't blow your top."

In 1933 Weaver was appointed an aide to Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.  "He later served as a special assistant in the housing division of the Works Progress Administration, the National Defense Advisory Commission, the War Production Board and the War Manpower Commission," according to The New York Times.  He was a member of what was loosely termed Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet."

Dr. Robert C. Weaver, Office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Weaver became national chairman of the NAACP in 1960, and was approached by President John F. Kennedy for advice on civil rights.  In 1961 Kennedy appointed him administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, which would later become H.U.D. 

Dr. Weaver and his wife Ella would have to leave their apartment at 295 Central Park West and move to Washington in 1966.  President Lyndon B. Johnson elevated H.U.D. to a Cabinet position, making Weaver the first Black person appointed to the Cabinet. 

In 1974 Dr. Harold C. Martin resigned as chancellor of Union College in Schenectady, New York.  On July 8, the Schenectady Gazette reported, "Dr. and Mrs. Harold C. Martin have left their home on Union College campus to reside at 295 Central Park West in New York City, and in Rome, Italy."  The couple maintained a summer home in Rensselaerville, New York.

Exactly how much time they couple spent at 295 Central Park West is unclear, since Martin just had been appointed the president of the American Academy in Rome.  His tenure there was short, however.  He resigned in 1976 and was made a Dana Professor at Trinity College.  Following Dr. Martin's retirement in 1982, the couple moved permanently to Rensselaerville.

image via elliman.com

Rather amazingly, 295 Central Park West has never been converted to a co-op or condo, and remains a rental building.  Perhaps even more amazingly, it is still owned and managed by the Rudin family.  The dignified Art Moderne structure is one of the lesser known designs by one of America's chief 20th century apartment architects.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochran for suggesting this post
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Monday, April 3, 2023

The Lost El Dorado - 300-302 Central Park West


from The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1901 (copyright expired)

As the turn of the last century approached, fashionable residential hotels and apartment buildings rose along Central Park West.  Their developers took advantage of the sweeping park views and the guarantee of unobstructed light and ventilation that the park provided.  Joining the trend was John V. Signell, who hired the architectural firm of Neville & Bagge to design two identical, eight-story apartment buildings between 90th and 91st Streets in the spring of 1901.  The firm's plans, submitted in April, estimated the total cost of construction at $760,000, a significant $25 million in 2023.

The twin buildings were given a single name, the El Dorado.  Completed in October 1902, each had a two-story stone base and six floors clad in red brick and trimmed in limestone.  At each corner was a rounded, turret-like bay, and central light courts were give dramatic, soaring open archways.

The apartments ranged from 4 to 14 rooms, with rentals at $1,000 to $4,500 per year (a staggering $12,350 per month for the most expensive in today's money).  The Real Estate Record & Guide said on October 11, 1902, "Special features are an automobile room in the basement, a safe in every apartment, and rooms for servants on the roof."

The El Dorado (foreground) joined a long stretch of apartment buildings on Central Park West.  photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.  

That the buildings had underground garages in 1902 testifies to the affluence of its intended tenants.  Only the very wealthy could afford automobiles at the time.  An advertisement touted the "extensive view of the lake and Central Park, its picturesque drives and bridle paths," and listed "every known modern convenience," saying:

Main bathrooms [are] equipped with shower attachments, majority of suites have three tiled bathrooms and separate entrance for domestics.  Tiled kitchen with sanitary garbage closets.  Interior woodwork in each apartment is the best cabinet finish, and every apartment contains a combination safe.  Parquet floors.

The El Dorado also offered "continuous hall and elevator service," and "long distance telephone in each suite."  Live-in servants were not only tactfully distanced in top floor rooms, separate from the apartments, but two of the four elevators in the buildings were dedicated for servant use.  

A typical floor plan of the two buildings shows three apartments per floor.  from The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1901 (copyright expired)
  
The apartments filled with socially prominent residents.  Among them was Fannie Ida Pritchard Helmuth, whose husband, Dr. William Tod Helmuth, had recently died on May 15, 1902.  He had been the long-time chair of the surgery department of the New York Medical College.  Fannie's early American ancestry entitled her to membership in the Society of the Daughters of Holland Dames, of which she was Director General.  She was assuredly acquainted with residents Mrs. Wright Edgerton and Mrs. Addison Allen.  All three women appeared in the 1904 Club Women of New York.

Charles Mortimer Hogan and his wife, the former Helen Clarke, were initial residents of the northern building.  Born in 1854, at the age of 13 he was hired as an office boy by the John Wanamaker department store and in 1896 became secretary and general manager of the Siegel-Cooper Company.  He was described by the Yearbook of the Pennsylvania Society of New York in 1906 as "one of the most notable department store men in the country."  

Hogan fell ill in the spring of 1905 and died just days later on May 20 at the age of 50.  His funeral was held in the apartment two days later.  The esteem with which he was held was reflected in the Siegel-Cooper department store's closing its doors at 4:00 on the day of the funeral.

New-York Daily Tribune, May 21, 1905 (copyright expired)

When the El Dorado was sold in December 1907, the Record & Guide saw the transaction as an affirmation of apartment house living.  Calling the sale "of especial significance at this time," the article said, "It shows that people of means are perfectly willing to invest in gilt-edge property, preferring this type of investment rather than the nerve-racking Wall Street 'securities.'"

Fannie Helmuth was still living and entertaining in the southern building in 1910 when The New York Times reported on her "luncheon for twenty-four guests" on February 8.  The guest of honor was the visiting president of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs,  Mrs. Elmer Blair.   Fannie Helmuth would remain at least through 1914.

The social prominence of the residents was reflected in ten families in the southern building and eight in the northern building being included in the 1911 Dau's New York Blue Book of society.

Artist Herbert A. Morgan and his wife Abbie Pitou Morgan were residents of the northern building at the time.  Born in New York in 1857, Morgan had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and had been a member of the esteemed Salmagundi Club since 1892.  

Morgan's Portrait of a Woman was typical of his portraiture.  in private collection

Living in the northern building at the time were Warren Day Hanford and his wife Alice Newhouse Sherman.  The couple had been married in 1902.  Born in Vinton, Iowa in 1866, Hanford came to New York City in 1898.  He was the founder and head of W. D. Hanford, a produce firm and a vice-president of the Mercantile Exchange.

On April 10, 1915, Hanford attended a meeting at the Mercantile Exchange, after which he was stricken with "acute indigestion," according to the trade journal Chicago Dairy Produce.  The article said he "was immediately taken to his home, 302 Central Park West, in his car."  Colleagues who called the following morning were told the 48-year-old was "resting comfortably," but before noon "the end came without the slightest warning."   

The New York Produce Review & American Creamery reported, "The news of his death came as a most shocking surprise to his friends in the trade...Mr. Hanford was a man of apparently fine physique."  His funeral was held at the Central Baptist Church on West 57th Street.

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

A notable resident at the time was Francisco Madero, who lived in the northern building.  His father Evaristo Madero had served as Governor of Coahuila and had amassed an enormous fortune, making the Madero family one of the wealthiest in Mexico.  Francisco's son, Francisco Ignacio Madera, was the former Mexican President.  He had been deposed in a coup d'état in February 1913 and assassinated.    

On September 3, 1916 Francisco Madero suffered a fatal heart attack in his apartment.  Two days later The Sun reported, "Prominent Mexicans, who were active in the affairs across the border prior to the murder of Francisco I. Madero, were seen yesterday morning at the funeral of Francisco Mader, father of the ex-President, which was held in the Roman Catholic Church of St. Gregory, 144 West Ninetieth street."

New Yorkers, especially those involved in the theater, were "much interested," according to The Sun, when they read on August 16, 1917 of the engagement of Oscar Hammerstein to Myra Finn.  The newspaper quickly cleared up the confusion the following day, writing, "the Oscar in question, however, is not the Oscar of opera fame, but a grandson.  He resides at 302 Central Park West."

An esteemed resident of the northern building was former judge Rufus B. Cowing.  Born in 1840 in Jamestown, New York, he was elected alderman at large in 1876 and at one point sat on the committee appointed to investigate the Tweed ring.  In 1905, after having tried more than 35,000 criminal cases, he told a reporter from The New York Times that he firmly believed "there is in every man more to praise than to blame."  The well-respected magistrate died in his apartment on May 7, 1920 at the age of 79.

English-born food concessionaire Harry M. Stevens lived in the southern building in the post-World War I years.  American's best-known ballpark concessionaire, he was dubbed by the New-York Tribune in 1920 as "the well known purveyor of double-jointed peanuts and hot frankfurters at the Polo Grounds and caterer at the metropolitan racetracks."  According to him, on a chilly day in April 1901 few ballpark attendees were interested in buying ice cream, so he sent an employee to buy buns in which to put hot German sausages known as "dachshund sausages" so patrons could hold them.  He therefore took credit for inventing the hotdog.

Stevens drew unwanted publicity to the El Dorado in 1920.  On September 5, the New-York Tribune ran the headline, "Harry Stevens Sued As Home Wrecker."  The article explained that one of his employees, Arnold Krakauer, had sued his wife for divorce and was now suing Stevens for $200,000 for alienation of his wife's affections.  The Sun reported, "Despite the fact that Stevens knew Mrs. Krakauer was married," he had intimate affairs with her not only at the Krakauer home, but in his El Dorado apartment over a period of a year.

At the time of Stevens's indiscretions, apartment buildings along Central Park West like the El Dorado were architecturally out of fashion.  One-by-one they were being razed and replaced by modern, Art Deco style structures.  

photo by Jay Dobkin

The end of the line for the El Dorado came in 1929, when developer Louis Klosk purchased the twin buildings, demolished them, and erected a modish 30-story replacement.  Klosk gave a nod to the former buildings by christening his structure the El Dorado.

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Tuesday, March 21, 2023

The 1899 Samuel McMillan House - 247 Central Park West

 



In 1887 architect Edward Angell designed a row of nine upscale homes along Central Park from 84th to 85th Street for developer William Noble.  Ground was broken in 1888 and construction was completed the following year.  Nobel had spared no expense.  Each cost him $37,000 to construct, or just over $1 million by 2023 terms.

While several of the Queen Anne style homes featured romantic gables and turrets, 247 Central Park West was noticeably formal.  Its basement and parlor levels were clad in stone, the second and third in beige brick, while the fourth floor took the form of a dormer-punctured slate mansard.  Angell designed the house to be perfectly symmetrical.  Above the dog-leg box stoop, the arched entrance was balanced by a parlor window with an exquisite stained glass fanlight.  Between them was a smaller arched opening.  A rounded oriel at the second floor provided a balcony to the third, where the arched windows were arranged in a Palladio inspired configuration.



Builder developer Samuel McMillan paid $60,000 for the 22-foot-wide house in July 1890.  The owner of the construction firm Samuel McMillan & Co., he focused on the upgrading of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, buying ramshackle structures and replacing them with modern flats.  

Born in County Down, Ireland, McMillan was also a director in the Mutual Bank and the West Side Bank.  The New York Times reported, "Mr. Samuel McMillen expended about $10,000 in the interior decorations, which include such unusual features as tufted silk wall coverings.  The building is one of a row known as the Noble Houses, from the name of the builder."

His residency at 247 Central Park West would be cut tragically short.  On October 11, 1891 his wife, Elizabeth S. Short, died here after a brief illness.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room three days later.  The following September McMillan advertised the house for sale, describing it as "splendidly constructed and interior decorations unsurpassed."

Instead, McMillan leased it briefly to the James W. Quintard family.  A member of the Quintard Iron Works and a director in the Pacific Steamship Company, he and his wife Hedwig had four children, Frances Adele, Florence Estelle, Maude Louisa and George W.  (Hedwig, somewhat scandalously, was James's fourth wife and had previously been the children's governess.)

The family lived here long enough to see Frances Adele married to Louis Lanier Safford in the Church of All Angels on West End Avenue on April 12, 1893.  The New-York Tribune noted, "A small wedding breakfast followed at the home of the bride's parents, No. 247 Central Park West."

Five months later, on September 13, 1893, The New York Times reported that former Mayor Frederick Edson had traded his three-acre country home at Morris Heights to Samuel McMillan for the Central Park West residence.

Franklin Edson, from Notable New Yorkers of 1896-1899 (copyright expired)

Like McMillan, Edson may have been changing his residence because of grief.  His wife, Frances "Fannie" Wood, had died less then three months earlier, on June 18, at the age of 53.  The couple had had seven children, two of whom were still in their teens when he purchased the house.  Robert S. was 19 and Ethel Townsend Edson was 16 years old.

Born in Chester, Vermont in 1832, Edson had left his father's farm at the age of 20 to work in his brother's distillery in Albany.  In 1866 he relocated to New York City where he became a wealthy and successful produce merchant.  He was appointed president of the New York Produce Exchange in 1873, a highly important and respected position.

Edson was elected mayor in 1883.  During his term in office the Brooklyn Bridge was dedicated, the Croton Aqueduct was fully completed, and the Manhattan Municipal Building was erected.  He retired from politics at the end of his term and returned to his grain business.

Franklin Edson remained in the Central Park West house only six years.  On October 7, 1899 an advertisement in The Evening Post offered the house for sale, noting "A house [the] same size as 247 Central Park West on the other side of [Central] Park would cost from $170,000 to $200,000."  While the ad did not give the asking price, it suggested it would be a relative bargain.

The for-sale advertisement featured a glimpse of the interior.  The Evening Post, October 7, 1899 (copyright expired)

The property was sold and resold twice before being purchased by George Frederick Brooks his wife, the former Eva Leverich.  A well-known physician, Brooks was also a director in the Casualty Company of America.  He was the son of another prominent doctor, George Washington Brooks who, according to The Globe and Commercial Advertiser "had among his patients some of the most noted residents of New York," following the Civil War.

Shortly after moving in, Brooks hired contractor Joseph Martin to clean the facade.  The Sun noted that Martin "employs members of two [labor] organizations."  That proved to be a problem.  On April 15, 1903 the newspaper reported, "They began to fight among themselves and finally one union declared a strike."

The striking faction was composed of Italian immigrants.  The article said, "There has been a reign of terror about Dr. Brooks's house since.  The physician and family have scarcely dared to leave the house.  Stones have been thrown at the house and the workers accuse the strikers of throwing acids upon the ropes holding up the scaffolds."

At one point, Dr. Brooks appeared at the door pretending to be armed "to prevent the strikers invading his home," said The Sun.  Despite repeated police calls, a month later the siege was still underway.  On May 14, The Evening Telegram reported that Joseph Martin "said that a crowd of about fifty strikers surrounded his workmen while they were eating their noonday meal.  Various threats were made against the workmen by the strikers, and finally some were struck by stones."  Eventually the cleaning was completed and the drama came to an end.  

In 1909 the couple made the bold decision to change from their carriages to an automobile.  Eva placed an advertisement in the New-York Daily Tribune on February 27 that read, "Coachman--A lady, giving up horses, desires to place her exceptionally competent coachman.  E. B. 247 Central Park West."

The World War brought upheaval to Dr. Brooks's office in the basement of the house.  The fifty regional draft boards within the city were tasked with giving medical examinations to each of the draftees.  Brooks was appointed the medical supervisor of Draft Board 130, and on August 3, 1917 the New-York Tribune reported, "This board has for its headquarters the home of Dr. G. Frederick Brooks."  The article explained Brooks's highly organized process:

In issuing the call Dr. Brooks specified not only the day for the registrant to appear, but also the house.  With three other physicians assisting, he was able to maintain his schedule of fifteen examinations to the hour, and for the registrants there were only a few minutes of dead time each.

Only eight months after that article, on April 26, 1918, George Frederick Brooks died in the Central Park West house.  His funeral was held in St. Matthew's Church on West 84th Street three days later.

Eva sold the house to William Gedney Beatty in July the following year for $40,000 (about $627,000 today).   Born in New York City on June 27, 1869, Beatty was somewhat of a Renaissance man.  The son of stockbroker John Cuming Beatty and Hetty Bull Beatty, he was a trained architect, an early aviator (he flew the Wright Brothers' plane in 1911), an accomplished artist, and an important collector of rare architectural books and antique building hardware such as hinges, locks, knockers and door handles.  (His collection of manuscripts would become an important part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Print Room collection.)

Beatty's mother had died in 1906.  His father moved into the Central Park West house with him.  The 85-year-old died here on March 10, 1922.  

In 1930, as the private mansions of Central Park West were being rapidly razed to make way for modern Art Deco apartment buildings, developers Earle & Calhoun began buying up the mansions along William Noble's row.  They hit a snag when they approached W. Gedney Beatty.  He refused to sell.  Faced with the stubborn holdout, their 251 Central Park West, completed in 1931, fell short of engulfing the entire blockfront.

Beatty died on July 1, 1941 at the age of 72.  His estate sold 247 Central Park West in October 1943.  Three years later a renovation resulted in one apartment on each floor.  It was purchased in 1947 by Beatrice and Cost Vendramis, who were soon sued by a tenant because of the constant piano playing of another resident, Lydia Frankfurt, who taught in her apartment.  In court, Cost Vendramis dismissed the complaint, saying "I no give attention to it that somebody was playing the piano."  He had noise complaints of his own.  He testified in part:

July and August [1948] the place is quiet.  After September it started to get crazy--not the noise from the piano, but this stamping nine hours of a day, sometimes eight or nine hours a day.  they do it with the foot on the floor with no covering.  You hear this, and it makes anybody crazy.  I get nervous and crazy.  If it stay longer, I have to go in the crazy house.  I fight with my wife every day.

The problem of noisy tenants was apparently solved.  

Half a century later, in 2000, Abigail Disney initiated a two-year renovation which restored 247 Central Park West to a single-family home.  She lived here for five years, selling the home in 2006 to then-President and COO of Coach, Keith Monda for $15.5 million.

photo via sothebysrealty.com

Monda did a renovation of his own, one that prompted journalist Aisha Carter to write in 6sqft on September 19, 2014, "William Noble would roll over in his grave if he knew the fate of his beloved private residence."  Monda's gut renovation left no hint of the interiors that Samuel McMillan had spent a fortune to enhance.  The carved wooden staircases were replaced by glass and steel.  The basement level where World War I Army inductees were examined by Dr. Brooks now held a workout space and a 60-foot lap pool.  

But the exterior, happily, remained untouched--one of the three surviving houses of William Noble's 1899 row.

photographs by the author
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