The 1871 M. A. Glynn Livery Stable - 224 East 38th Street

 

Built in 1871, the livery stable at 224 East 38th Street was one of a row of similar buildings on what was known as a stable block.  Three stories tall and faced in red brick, it was a fetching commercial example of the Italianate style.  Perhaps to save costs, almost no stone was used in its decoration.  The elliptically arched lintels were executed in brick, as were the double-height piers of the upper section.  They morphed into a handsome corbel table that smacked of a row of icicles hanging from the cornice.

In 1941, the original appearance of the structure survived.  A plaque below the gable announces the date of construction.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

M. Jordan & Co. operated the livery stable in the 1890s.  By World War I, however, horses were almost completely replaced on the streets of Manhattan by motorized vehicles.  In 1918, the building was converted to a garage and repair shop for the Dearborn Truck Sales Company, Inc.  (The firm also leased the building next door at 220-224 East 38th Street, presumably as its showroom.)

New York Herald, June 16, 1918 (copyright expired)

The Dearborn Truck Sales Company, Inc. was based in Chicago.  The New York Herald, on June 16, 1918, called it, "among the pioneers in the manufacture of one and two ton truck units that convert Fords and other makes of cars into substantial one and two ton trucks."

The firm placed an advertisement in The New York Times on September 22, 1918 looking for a salesman "of ability to sell motor trucks; strictly commission; live, wide awake organization; prompt deliveries and efficient services.  Dearborn.  224 East 38th St."

The Dearborn Truck Sales Company's residency here would be extremely short-lived.  On April 6, 1919, an advertisement in The New York Times offered, 

Auto repair shop, service station, fully equipped machine shop; excellent location; satisfactory four-year lease; entire building, three floors, 6,000 square feet; quick action; immediate possession.  224 East 38th St., near 3d Av.

The building was leased by the printing and publishing firm Cameron & Bulkley.  It occupied the upper portion while sub-letting the ground floor to Eifler Brothers, "high grade automobile painting and upholstering."  That firm had a second location in Brooklyn.  Both companies would occupy the building until 1932, when the architectural firm of Bruno Berger & Sons converted the ground floor to a private garage and the upper two to factory space.

Karl P. Billner, a Swedish-born inventor and engineer, established his laboratories on one of the upper floors.  In 1935, he invented vacuum-processed concrete here.  His vacuum chamber removed a significant portion of the water from newly-mixed concrete, resulting in its setting more rapidly.  The U.S. Government tested it for bridge decks, canals and such.  At a "gathering of builders and construction men in his laboratory at 224 East Thirty-eighth Street," according to The Chemistry Leaflet in 1937, Billner suggested that the process offered "a possible solution of one phase of the low-cost housing problem."

In February 1946, Anna R. Crossin sold the former stable to "an electrical contractor [who] intends to occupy part of the premises for his business," according to The New York Sun.  The contractor was the Telephone Answering & Radio Paging Company, which did business as Telanserphone.

It was possibly at this time that the brick was painted and the roofline altered to a triangular gable that stretched end-to-end.

The new owner took one floor, and leased the others to the sales offices of the Gold Seal Company, and Experiment in International Living.  The Chicago-based Gold Seal Company manufactured "Glass Wax," advertised as a "Wartime Chemical Discovery!  Nothing like it anywhere for cleaning glass and metalware."  The Experiment in International Living described itself in 1948 as "a non-profit educational organization which has been promoting mutual understanding among the young peoples of 20 countries since 1932."

Telanserphone performed a much-needed service for professionals like physicians.  In its March 1951 issue, Popular Mechanics explained, "New York doctors who are relaxing at the beach or ball game are kept on continuous call by means of a new radio service."  The subscribers were issued a "small receiver that looks like a hearing aid."  When they were urgently needed, Telanserphone would broadcast a code which was repeated until the subscriber responded by telephone.

An operator working at the Telanserphone offices here in 1951.  Popular Mechanics, March 1951 

The firm was still operating here as late as 1971 (although it was now known as Aircall Radio Paging).  An advertisement that year sought "telephone operators for answering service."  The  round-the-clock enterprise required three shifts of operators working eight-hours.  The ad noted that they would have "alternating weekends" off.

The building as it appeared in 1983.   image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Leasing space in the building that year was Aviation Charter Corporation, a leasing agent for various charter companies.  By 1983, Guest Informant advertising agency operated from the address.

Today, the 153-year-old building is vacant.  The Fire Department has marked the façade with white X's to warn firefighters that the building is in such bad condition that they could face a safety risk upon entering.

photographs by the author

The Lawrence Spillane Saloon - 206 East 38th Street

 

Around 1866, Lawrence Spillane purchased the new, four-story house-and-store at 206 East 38th Street between Second and Third Avenues.  In the rear was a second four-story house for rental income.  Faced in red brick, the Italianate design of the primary structure included molded lintels and a handsome bracketed cornice with a paneled fascia.

Spillane opened his "liquor saloon" in the ground floor.  (Liquor saloons were different from beer saloons and porterhouses, in that they served hard spirits.)  Living with Spillane's family on the upper floors in 1868 were blue collar, Irish-born boarders Michael Doyle, a mason; stonecutter Thomas Fagan; and John Slack, a laborer.  Occupying the rear house were Bridget McCarroll, who did washing; and Thomas Scannon, a coachman.

Expectedly, the turnover in boarders was frequent.  Timothy Kirby lived here in 1869.  On July 14 that year, the New York Herald reported that he, "was severely injured in the foot yesterday while repairing the railroad track, corner Fourth avenue and Ninth street, by a passing car."

By 1870, Spillane ran two other saloons--one on Spring Street and the other on Thompson Street.  

Ellen Roberts, a widow, lived three houses away at 212 East 38th Street in 1873.  That year she became the target of an investigation prompted by neighborhood women like Ellen Jarvis, who lived here.  At the time, families who took in orphans from the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections were paid--similar to today's foster care programs.  Ellen Roberts, however, used the system as her sole source of income, making her what was known as a "baby-farmer."  

On September 24, 1873, The New York Times headlined an article, "Shocking Case of Baby-Farming," and reported that Ellen Roberts had been arrested "on a charge of wholesale infanticide."  Ellen Jarvis was among the women who asserted that Roberts was "a professional baby-farmer; that infants were exposed to the weather, starved, and otherwise maltreated till they died."

The article said, "According to...one witness, thirty children were systematically allowed to drift out of existence between Jan. 1 and June 4."  Also arrested was the undertaker named Boylston whose business was across the street.  He was accused "of keeping the dead bodies of the victims in his stable, and irregularly disposing of them."

Ellen Jarvis was called to testify.  The New-York Tribune reported, "She stated that on several occasions she gave her children into the care of Mrs. Roberts, but invariably got them back in a filthy and starved state.  Mrs. Roberts was in the habit of getting drunk almost daily, and on one occasion she lay down on top of two children who would have been suffocated but for two women who interfered."

In 1884, Lawrence Spillane closed his saloon here.  He still operated one at James and Water Streets.  The store space became a barbershop, the proprietor of which, according to employee Michael Dietrich later, paid $22 rent.  The monthly figure would translate to $700 in 2024.  Three years later, after Dietrich bought the shop from his boss, his rent was increased to $25.

Lawrence Spillane sold the "two four-story tenements," as described by the New York Herald, in October 1888.  The newspaper explained the property had been "the investment of a saloon keeper at James and Water streets who is anxious to retire from business."  E. N. Peck paid Spillane the equivalent of about $443,000 today.

Peck's tenants continued to be working class immigrants.  They occasionally placed advertisements in local newspapers as they looked for employment.  One, printed on February 4, 1890, read, "Chambermaid or waitress--By a reliable young woman; not afraid of work; willing and obliging.  208 East 38th-st; ring McCarthy's bell."  An ad in The New York Times on October 29, 1891, read, "Useful Man--Young Swede, lately landed, handy and willing to do any kind of work.  Address Carlson, 206 East 38th St."

"Carlson" may have been the same resident who was looking for work six months later.  On April 23, 1892, an ad in The World announced, "Bartender--A young Swede, 22, wishes a position as assistant bartender; speaks English fluently; has got some experience.  Address Bartender, 206 East 38th st."

In the winter of 1893, 20-year-old Catherine (known as Katie) Reischmann stopped in Michael Dietrich's barbershop and asked for work.  The young woman had married Otto Krabiel a year earlier, on October 24, 1892, but left him a month later and began using her maiden name again.  Dietrich told Katie that his sister had kept house for him but she had recently married.  He offered her a scandalous proposition.  According to Katie later, "he said I should go and keep house with him and be his wife.  After he said that I immediately went to live with him as his wife.  I took up rooms and began housekeeping as such at 206 East Thirty-Eighth street."

The next year, on September 24, 1894, the couple had a child, Lena.  Now a father, Dietrich suggested that he and Katie should be married.  They went to a notary public who officially confirmed that they "agreed to live together as husband and wife."  When asked later why there was no church ceremony, Katie explained, "My husband said he did not believe in ceremony.  He said it was more publicity than anything else."

Michael Dietrich was still operating the barbershop in 1906 when he and Katie separated.  When she went to court to obtain support, he denied they had ever been married and stressed that Katie, in fact, had never divorced her first husband.  Katie and their 11-year-old daughter were left on their own.

In the meantime, resident John McKenna faced legal problems of his own.  Early in 1903, he was sued by Julia Pearsall on behalf of her daughter, Elva, for breach of promise to marry.  Julia alleged that McKenna had proposed to Elva on June 13, 1902 and that "he refused to carry out his contract to marry her."  The reason she had to be appointed guardian ad litem for her jilted daughter was because Elva was 10 years old.

In 1925, the Peck Estate sold the "four story tenement with a store" and the rear building to J. Franklin McKean.  He hired architect Alfred A. Tearle to make renovations.  There were now two apartments above the store in the front building and a shop on the ground floor of the rear structure.  (The upper floors of the back building were "not to be occupied," according to the Department of Buildings.)  The shop in the front building became home to the Franklin Metal Weatherstrip Co.

The Franklin Metal Weatherstrip Co. was in the shop in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Franklin Metal Weatherstrip Co. was founded in 1900.  An advertisement in Carpenter magazine in 1925 described the product as being "for all kinds of windows and doors" and "manufactured by us in large quantities and sold to carpenters at unusually low prices." 

The front building received a substantial make-over in 1970 when it was converted to offices above the shop.  The 19th century storefront was replaced with stone and neo-Colonial, splayed lintels were installed over the upper floor windows.

In the 1970s, the shop was home to the Keen Gallery.  A nail salon occupies the space today.  The rear building was renovated to a single family house in 1994.

photographs by the author

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

J. M. Felson's 1936 137 East 38th Street

 

Architect J. M. Felson kept busy throughout the Depression years designing, for the most part, apartment buildings.  They ranged from splashy Art Deco designs with colorful terra cotta panels to much more sedate versions of the style.  Among the latter examples was 137 East 38th Street, completed in 1936.  The 12-story-and-penthouse structure was faced in ruddy red brick.  Stone appeared only at the water table; the stoic, two-story entrance surround; and two three-floor frames at the eighth through tenth floors.  The slender panes and shallow transoms of the casement windows were important to Felsom's design.  A series of setbacks provided terraces to the eleventh through penthouse levels.

The setbacks and all-important casements can be seen in this 1941 photograph.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

There were nine apartments each on the second through tenth floors, seven on the eleventh and twelfth, and five on the penthouse level.  Among the initial residents were Chester and Beryl Halley Falkenhainer.  Falkenhainer had served in World War I as a Marine.  Now an insurance executive, he was earning $5,000 a year, according to Jacob L. Bapst and Ivan M. Tribe in their Beryl Halley, The Life and Follies of a Ziegfeld Beauty, 1897-1988.  The couple paid $125 per month for the apartment, or about $2,770 in 2024 terms.

Born in Bladen, Ohio in June 1897, Beryl Halley first appeared on Broadway in the musical comedy Tangerine in 1921.  Beginning in 1923, she was a member of Florenz Ziegfeld's famous Follies.  Halley essentially retired from the stage following her marriage to Falkenhainer on September 30, 1933.

Beryl Halley, International News, 1926

Franklin Benjamin and Esther Leeming Tuttle were also early residents.  They moved in following their wedding on June 14, 1940.  Like Chester Falkenhainer, Ben (he went by his middle name) Tuttle was an insurance executive and, like Beryl Halley, Esther Leeming had given up her stage career after marrying.  She had debuted on Broadway playing the part of a Mexican maid in The Petrified Forest with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.

In her 2003 autobiography No Rocking Chair for Me, Esther (known to her friends as Faity) mentions that their 10th-floor, two-bedroom apartment, "had a great view looking south over the city."  She busied herself for the next few decades volunteering and raising three children.

Esther Leeming Tuttle's astounding career would happen long after moving from 137 East 38th Street.  Following Ben's death in 1968, she returned to acting.  "I thought I might as well try being a granny model," she told a reporter from the New York Post in 2005 (she was in her 90s at the time of the interview).  And, in addition to her many commercial roles, she was highly involved with the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, serving as its Board Chair from 1970 to 1977, overseeing its incorporation, and producing a series of horticulturally themed films.  She died on July 9, 2015 at the age of 104.

Resident August L. Janssen--who moved in with his wife, Alice, shortly after the building's completion--was familiar to many New Yorkers.  Described by The New York Times as "one of the best-known restaurateurs in the city," Janssen was born in Emden, Germany, in 1865.  He arrived in New York at the age of 20 and, while working for a caterer, saved enough to open the Hofbrau Haus restaurant in 1898 on Broadway at 30th Street.

The New York Sun later remarked, "such notables as Enrico Caruso, Victor Herbert and President[s] Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were among his regular patrons."  At one point Janssen had two branch Hofbrau Hauses, but the anti-German sentiment during World War I forced him to close them.  By 1928, he operated a restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut and five in Paris.  Janssen died in the Lenox Hill Hospital on November 16, 1939 at the age of 72.

A fascinating resident was Dr. Kristine Mann.  She graduated from Smith College in 1895 and she taught English at the University of Michigan, Vassar College and the Brearley School before turning her attention to medicine.  She studied at the Cornell University Medical College and earned her Doctor of Medicine in 1913.  Dr. Mann's focus was on the conditions of working women.

From 1914 to 1916, she headed an investigation into the physical condition of saleswomen in New York stores.  During World War I, she "represented the Ordnance Department in overseeing the health conditions of women working in munitions plants," according to The New York Times, and from 1920 to 1924, was director of the Health Center for Business and Industrial Women in New York City.  She told a reporter in 1921 in part:

Every woman, whether she expects to marry or not, should possess the feeling of self-reliance which comes with earning a salary.  The young wife who knows that, if necessary, she can resume her place in the business world, has a much greater chance of maintaining an equal part in her household than has a young wife who must rely absolutely on the support of someone else.

In 1925, Dr. Mann began studying with Swiss psychoanalyst Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, returning to Switzerland every three years until 1938.  When Dr. Jung was in America in 1936, he gave a seminar at Dr. Mann's summer home in Maine.  She was still living at 137 East 38th Street when she died at the age of 72 on November 12, 1945.

Living here at the time was songwriter and author Dorothy M. R. Stewart.  Born in Australia, she immigrated to the United States in 1924 and became a citizen in 1938.  Her 1948 song Now Is the Hour, recorded by Bing Crosby, was a chart topper.  But she soon recognized a problem--royalties (or lack thereof) from jukeboxes.

In 1953 she testified before Congress, "When my Now is the Hour was a jukebox favorite, I first became aware that our copyright laws do not provide for compensation to writers for such an obviously commercial use of our works."  Pointing out that dramatic rights were accorded in 1856, and performing rights in 1897, she stressed, "the jukebox industry can well afford to pay a small charge to authors, else they would not spend so much money in putting fancy trappings on the machines that play our music."

Another successful immigrant resident was Albert van Sand, who was born in Denmark in 1881.  A graduate of the University of Copenhagen, he came to America at the age of 20.  He began his career as a dancer, associated with society dancer Vernon Castle.  Then, in 192o, he changed course, becoming editor of the Danish language newspaper Nordlyset (Northern Light).  Six years later he acquired the weekly.

Living here with his wife, the former Rose Delar, Sand helped organize the Free Danish Committee in New York City during World War II.  In appreciation, Denmark bestowed the King Christians Order of Liberation on him in 1947, and a year later he was awarded the Order of Danneborg by King Frederik IX.

The replacement of the casement windows greatly upsets J. M. Felson's restrained Art Deco design.  The building's somewhat unassuming outward appearance belies the often compelling stories that have played out inside.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for suggesting this post

photographs by the author

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The Lost Charles T. Barney Mansion - 101-103 East 38th Street (67 Park Av)

 

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

In 1872, Caroline G. Reed's Boarding & Day School for Young Ladies operated from the stylish double-wide mansion at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 38th Street.  Designed in the Second Empire style, its entrance above a brownstone stoop faced the side street.  A full-height faceted bay caught breezes on the avenue.  The fourth floor took the form of a smart mansard that sprouted dormers and chimneys.  

At the time, Ashbel Holmes Barney and his family lived a block to the west, at 38 East 38th Street.  Born in Adams, New York in 1816, he and his brother Danford had relocated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1842 to establish Danford N. Barney & Company, a forwarding and commission merchant business.

Danford Barney quickly moved to Buffalo, New York, having been elected president of Wells Fargo & Company in 1849.  Ashbel remained in Ohio until 1857, when he brought his family to New York City.  He was elected a director of Wells Fargo & Company in 1859, and became a director in several railroads, as well.

In 1873 Ashbel Barney purchased 101-103 East 38th Street (the family and newspapers would use either street number interchangeably).  He and his wife, the former Susan H. Tracy, had two children, Charles Tracy and Helen Tracy.  (A third child, Gardiner Tracy, died in childhood in 1856.)  Charles was married to Laurinda Collins Whitney, daughter of James Scollay Whitney and Laurinda Collins.  Helen, who would never marry, moved into the 38th Street mansion with her parents.  

The family had not lived here long before the house was the scene of somber occasion.  Danford N. Barney lived in the  fashionable Windsor Hotel on Fifth Avenue.   He died there on March 8, 1874 at the age of 66.  Danford's body was brought to 103 East 38th Street where his funeral was held on March 11.

It is unclear how extensive the Barneys' renovations of the mansion were; however in 1882 they commissioned a three-part stained glass window from Associated Artists (the partners of which were Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler and Lockwood de Forest).  Called The Sea of Mystery, it was installed in the second floor hallway directly above the entrance.  The theme was based on the tale of the fisherman and the mermaid.

from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Sadly, Susan Hester Tracy Barney died that year, on July 3, 1882, at the age of 64.  Ashbel had retired from business the previous year, and would live on in the Murray Hill mansion until his death on December 27, 1886.  (He had fallen ill on Christmas day.)

In reporting on his demise, Harper's Weekly said, "The death of Ashbel H. Barney removes another of that long list of Americans whose names are associated with the great enterprises of the last half-century."  The article noted, "His enterprises made him a millionaire."

Barney's funeral was held on December 30.  The New York Times reported, "The remains reposed in the large hall between the parlors on the first floor...The four large parlors were crowded with the personal and business friends of Mr. Barney."

With his sister now alone in the East 38th Street mansion, Charles and Laurinda (who was known as Lily) sold their house at 10 East 55th Street to editor Joseph Pulitzer and moved in.  Helen would have to become accustomed to much more activity within the household--Charles and Lily brought along six children, Ashbel Hinman, James Whitney, Gardiner Tracy, Helen Tracy, Katherine Lansing, and Marie.  The eldest, Ashbel, was just ten at the time.

Born in 1851, Charles had graduated from Williams College in 1870 and entered banking.  His wife's familial ties assured his success.  He joined the Knickerbocker Trust Company in 1884, and was involved in real estate operations, as well.  In 1890 he, William C. Whitney, W. E. D. Stokes and others would form the New York Loan and Improvement Company.

The residence that had been only tepidly involved in high society now became a social center.  On December 23, 1891, it was the scene of the debutante reception of Azuba Latham Barney, the daughter of Charles's cousin Arthur L. Barney.  The Sun reported:

The rooms and hallways of the double house were trimmed with American Beauty, Mme. Cusine, and dark red roses and Christmas greens.  Lander's orchestra, screened behind trailing vines of smilax and evergreen, festooned with ropes of roses, played in the hallway throughout the afternoon and evening.  Miss Barney, a tall brunette, received in the white and gold drawing room.

The close relationship between the families was evidenced five years later, on April 18, 1896, when The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tracy Barney of 101 East Thirty-eighth Street will give a dinner party to-night in honor of Miss Azuba L. Barney and her fiancé, Reginald H. Jaffray."

The dinner party took place in a totally redecorated house.  Among Charles's and Lily's closest friends were the Stanford Whites.  The couples shared a box at the opera, and White had designed the Barneys' East 55th Street house.  In 1895 Barney commissioned White to re-do the interiors of 103 East 38th Street.  

One of the double parlors following the Stanford White redecoration.  A portiere is slightly opened to reveal a glimpse of a similar room.  Note the stenciled and painted ceiling.  from the collection of the Columbia University Library.

The Barneys' summer home was Windy Barn in Southampton, erected by William Sprague Hoyt and his wife Nettie in 1877.  The Barney's purchased the estate in 1886, paying $20,000 (about $645,000 in 2023).  The couple almost immediately doubled the size of the main house, adding a ballroom and other improvements.  Its Dutch-inspired architecture featured cedar shake cladding and a gambrel roof that harkened to Long Island's colonial past.  Historian William Pelletreau said bluntly, "some call [it] quaintly artistic, and others a monstrosity, but it is an object of interest."  The New York Times, nevertheless, called it "one of the finest residences on the Long Island Coast."

The Barney addition, as see above, doubled the size of Windy Barn, (original source unknown)

Charles Barney again turned to Stanford White in 1900 when he commissioned him to decorate the interior of his yacht, the Invincible.  The following year he was brought back to the East 38th Street house to once again remodel the interiors.  It was a substantial project, costing $100,000, or about $3.5 million by 2023 terms.

The Barneys anticipated the massive upheaval and the army of workmen who would be invading their home.  That fall The New York Times reported, "For this reason, Mr. Barney had recently transferred many valuable belongings from that house to the country home."  Included, said the article, were "rare bric-a-brac and paintings of great value, by European artists."

The family was at Windy Barn on the night of November 16, 1901, when Katherine Barney, who was now 16 years old, "was awakened by the sound of crackling wood and in a few moments knew that the house was on fire," reported The Evening World.  The teen rushed through the darkened halls and stairways, first to her mother's room and then to every bedroom in the house to awaken the household.  "Before she reached the servants' dormitory, which was just above her room, the whole top of the house was shooting flames, visible for miles around," said the article.  Nevertheless, Katherine pushed on, saving the three sleeping servant girls.

The family and staff escaped to the lawn "in scant attire," said The New York Times.  Before firefighters could arrive, the wooden structure was engulfed.  The following morning The New York Times reported, "nothing remains but three tall chimneys, rising like monumental shafts."  The fire had started in the billiard room, supposedly from a defective flue.

Not only were the Barneys' rare tapestries, antique furnishings and valuable paintings destroyed, but Lily reported that she had $125,000 in jewelry in her bedroom.  The Evening World later reported, "for weeks after the family had given up the search for the gems hordes of diamond seekers swarmed to Southampton and spent many fruitless hours sorting debris and ashes in a vain quest for them."

Anders Zorn painted this portrait of Charles Tracy Barney in 1904.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Katherine's debut in 1903 began with a ball in the mansion of her uncle, William C. Whitney at 871 Fifth Avenue.  The Evening World reported on December 17, "Everything that money and taste can do to make the occasion memorable among the balls of exclusive and extravagant New York society has been done."  

Debutante entertainments stretched throughout the winter season, and on January 19, 1904 The New York Times reported, "Mrs. Charles T. Barney gave a small dinner dance at the Barney residence, 67 Park Avenue."  (With the renovations done to the townhouse, the Barneys began using the Park Avenue address, although the entrance was still clearly on 38th Street.)  The article note, "The cotillion was preceded by a dinner of eighty covers, the guests being seated at large tables placed in the green and stone rooms."

The merger of two massively wealthy and socially important families occurred when Charles and Lily announced Helen's engagement to Archibald Stevens Alexander in the spring of 1905.  Following the ceremony in St. Bartholomew's Church on April 8, a wedding breakfast was held in the Barney mansion.

One of the Barneys' most celebrated entertainments was their masquerade party in February 1906.  The New York Herald reported, "Their guests were seated at a long and narrow table placed on three sides of their Renaissance tapestry room, and while it had the appearance of a continuous table, it was really divided into sections so that the costumes of each country represented were grouped together."  The article continued:

Even all the house servants were in costume, and the men, from Sherry's establishment who served the dinner, wore regular "beef eaters" costumes.  It was a most picturesque night when all the guests were seated, the architecture of the room, the brilliant light and the general artistic surroundings quite suggesting a painting of some old master.

Lily's costume was "a faithful reproduction of that worn by Catherine de Medici," said the New York Herald.  (copyright expired)

Katherine's engagement to Courtlandt Dixon Barnes was announced in November 1906.  Three months later, on February 24, 1907, The Sun reported that she would have an "Easter wedding," adding, "Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Barney have a fine ballroom at their home, 67 Park avenue, which will be the scene of the reception."

Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, November 30, 1907 (copyright expired)

Katherine's wedding came just before a most difficult time for her father.  By now he had been president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company for ten years.  In 1907 the firm 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, 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 2023.  But he was disgraced and humiliated.

At the time, the Barneys had a houseguest, Mrs. Susan Abbott Mead, who had arrived from Europe two weeks earlier.  Five days after Barney's resignation, at around 10:00 on the morning of November 14, 1907, Lily and Susan Mead were in Lily's bedroom, next door to that of Charles, when they heard a gunshot.  Lily told police:

I heard a shot in my husband's room.  I ran in there, and I saw him standing upright.  He fell to the floor, as I was approaching him.  I took his head in my lap.  I heard him say nothing that would indicate that he had committed suicide.  Indeed, I didn't know then he had been shot.

But Charles was shot.  He had placed a revolver to his stomach and pulled the trigger.  Ashbel, who was 31 years old at the time, ran upstairs.  His father directed him, "Don't move me."  Physicians rushed to the mansion and even as they worked to remove the bullet, Barney drew up his will.  He died around 2:00 that afternoon. 

The will was probated five days later.  The New-York Tribune reported on November 20, "The will itself is necessarily brief, made, as it was, when Mr. Barney was suffering from a mortal wound."  He left his entire estate to Lily.

Lily Whitney Barney lived on in the mansion with at least one of her children, Ashbel, who was unmarried.  He had graduated from Yale University in 1898.  

Named for his grandfather, Ashbel Hinman Barney was born in July 1876.  (original source unknown)

Stanford White's renovations to the house in 1901 included electric lighting.  The technology was still unreliable, and it caused a major scare in the Barney mansion on March 15, 1908.  The Evening World reported, "Mrs. Barney was awakened by the sudden turning on of the electric lights in the dining room.  Without waiting to arouse other members of the household she called up the police." 

The mansion was besieged by officers who "searched from top to bottom."  In the dining room were "large quantities of silverware," said the article, "but if the burglars had been there they did not have time to carry any of it away."  Although the house was put on "close watch," detectives told the press "the trouble is believed to have been caused by crossed electric wires."

Lily returned to entertaining following her mourning period.  On May 9, 1916, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported, "Mrs. Charles T. Barney gave a dinner, followed by bridge, last night, at her house, 67 Park Avenue."  But her residency was drawing to a close.  On November 29, 1920, the New York Herald advised, "Mrs. Charles T. Barney will remain at 101 East Thirty-eighth street until December 15, when she will move into her new apartment at Sixty-sixth street and Fifth avenue."

67 Park Avenue replaced the venerable mansion.  It survives.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Lily had sold the mansion to developers who replaced it with a Schwarts & Gross designed, 14-floor apartment building completed in 1922.

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The Mary C. Hargin House - 130 East 38th Street

 

image via streeteasy.com

In 1868 brothers David and John Jardine, partners in the architectural firm D. & J. Jardine, were hired by developer Abraham B. Embury to design a row of five brownstone-faced homes at 128 to 136 East 38th Street.  Completed the following year, the Anglo-Italianate style houses rose four stories above short, four-stepped stoops.  (David Jardine was apparently pleased with the results, moving into 136 East 38th Street.)

The owners of 130 East 38th Street offered it for rent in September 1877, their succinct advertisement reading simply, "To Rent--On Murray Hill, a small house, No. 130 East 38th st."  A month later it was home to a dressmaker.  High-end dressmakers often worked from their homes, and the best of them could afford to live in refined neighborhoods.  The thriving business of this one was reflected in an ad on November 12, 1877:  "Wanted--Several thoroughly competent hands in a private dressmaking establishment; references wanted."

The dressmaker would have to find new accommodations the following year, when Mary Caroline Ellis Hargin purchased the house.  Born in Onondaga Hill, New York on September 8, 1812, she was the daughter of Major General John Ellis, who had distinguished himself in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War.  Her husband, Charles B. Hargin, had died on August 6, 1840.

In 1885 it suddenly seemed that Mary was about to come into a unexpected windfall.  She discovered that five years before he died, her husband had purchased a large amount of land in Syracuse, New York.  The Democrat and Chronicle described it as "a big tract of land some distance from the town," and said "his widow was so ignorant of her right that she did not know she had any claim upon the real property."  A portion of Syracuse University and a large cemetery now sat on what had been undeveloped land.

In August Mary began action "for the recovery of her dower interests," said the Springfield Journal.  "Her claim is said to be unquestionable, so that her prospects of wealth are good."  The courts did not agree, saying in part, "More than twenty years having elapsed" since the current owner took possession, her claim had expired.  Mary's hopes of unanticipated financial gain were dashed.

Emmeline Sinclair purchased 130 East 38th Street as an investment property by 1890.  She lived in Long Branch, New Jersey and on May 1 that year leased the house to Charles W. Handy for five years.  It was the scene of genteel entertainments during the family's residency.  On March 19, 1893, for instance, The World reported, "Miss Handy, of No. 130 East thirty-eighth street, gave a luncheon on Thursday for Miss Heimburghe, of Albany, who is her guest at present."

Upon the expiration of the Handys' lease, the Murray Hill house was rented to Grace Wolfe, a very colorful character.  Her name almost immediately appeared in newspapers.  For some reason she had refused to pay her Fifth Avenue dressmaker, Phoebe A. Smith $279 for gowns (about $8,870 today).  

Smith had obtained a judgement against Grace, who still refused to pay.  On October 29, 1895. the New York Herald reported, "Miss Wolfe was directed to appear and submit to examination...She did not do so and was then directed to show cause why she should not be punished for contempt."  Instead, Grace simply ignored the second order to appear.  The newspaper said that it was charged "that Miss Wolfe, who is a woman of wealth, has been trifling with the dignity of the Court."

The following year she was involved in a peculiar case.  She had rented the 38th Street house through the real estate firm of Francis Frederick Georger.  Georger and his wife Florence were married about the time Grace Wolfe moved in.  Florence gave birth in Washington D.C. on February 11, 1896.  The infant's arrival was kept secret from her family because Georger feared his father-in-law would disinherit Florence.  

And then, the baby boy was spirited away from the hospital.  Court papers later revealed, "A certain Sophie Landgraf, procured by Grace Wolf [sic], might solve the mystery...Amelia Ries, known as Grace Wolf [sic], unsavory, was a tenant of Georger's firm at 130 East Thirty-Eighth street, at the time."  Landgraf had taken the infant to the home of Louise Ries, a sister of Amelia (or Grace).  The convoluted case came to light when the Georgers divorced in 1910 and Florence first attempted to find her child.

Grace left East 38th Street in 1897, following her marriage to William Ash.  The Sinclair family continued to lease the house until February 1915 when The New York Times reported that George T. Sinclair had sold the property after his family had owned it for half a century.

It was purchased by actress and singer Ida Adams.  Her first stage appearance was in the 1909 The Candy Shop.  In 1912 she appeared in Florenz Ziegfeld's A Winsome Widow, and appeared in his Ziegfield Follies of 1912.

Ida Dams in the 1916 play Houp La!  Play Pictorial, November 1916 (copyright expired)

Ida Adams was the first owner to make renovations to the now-dated house.  On July 5, 1919, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that she had hired the architectural firm of Warren & Clark to install new plumbing and heating, and a "new front."  The remodeling resulted, according to The New York Times columnist Christopher Gray decades later, in the stripping off of the brownstone and replacing it with "tinted stucco and leaded glass windows."

Ida lived in the house with one live-in servant, her cook.  Among her good friends was Helen Elwood Stokes, the wife of millionaire William Earl Dodge Stokes.  Things were not going well between the Stokeses, and Helen occasionally found refuge in the East 38th Street house.  During the well-publicized divorce proceedings, the address repeatedly was brought up.

On October 15, 1923, for instance, a former Stokes domestic, Anna McIntosh, testified that in May 1914 she saw Mrs. Stokes "at the home of Ida Adams, an actress, at 130 East thirty-eighth Street."  The New York Times reported, "The witness took in a bottle of whisky and one of vichy and some cigarettes, she testified."

In August 1938, the house was sold to Harry I. and Mary G. Phillips.  Following Mary's death in 1938, Harry sold it and it underwent a series of owners over the next two decades.

A renovation completed in 1958 replaced the windows (Ida Adams's leaded glass windows were apparently lost in this remodeling), altered the entryway, and introduced new ironwork.  The interiors were altered for offices throughout the house with a caretakers bedroom on the top floor.

In 1978 the house was returned to a single-family dwelling.   Art publisher Barnett Brimberg had the facade installed for Ida Adams by Warren & Clark removed.  It was replaced with scored stucco that simulates brownstone blocks, while the openings were given eared architrave frames more appropriate to a Greek Revival house of a generation earlier.  (Brimberg told Christopher Gray in 2002, "It was a nothing facade, so I felt that since it wasn't original, I could remove it.")

The interiors were gutted in 2014, leaving little if anything of the historic detailing.  

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The Soon To Go J. F. McQuade Building - 215 East 38th Street

The little wooden house at No. 215 East 38th Street, built at around the end of the Civil War, was the home and business of the Boylston family for decades.  Thomas Boylston ran his undertaking business from the rear, while his wife Eleanor operated a grocery store in the front.  In 1880 a son, John, was born to the couple.  On January 23, 1888 The World mentioned "At 215 East Thirty-eighth street Mrs. Boylston has sold small groceries for twenty years."

Around 1903 Caroline and Frank F. Schwartz purchased No. 215 and the building next door at No. 217.  The titles were put in Caroline's name.  The couple ran the Schwartz Manufacturing Company; and Caroline seems to have been the force behind it.  She listed herself as president, manager and director.  Frank was a director, only.

If the intention was to build a new factory building on the combined sites, that did not happen.  Caroline had No. 217 demolished in 1904 and erected a five-story brick factory on the site, designed by Louis Falk.  The Schwartzes retained possession of both buildings until January 1921 when they sold them to J. Charles Hupfel, president of the newly-organized Hup Realty Co.

Again, if Hupfel considered combining the sites, he changed his mind.  Instead he demolished what the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide described as the "two story frame building" at No. 215 and commissioned the architectural firm of Bruno W. Berger & Son to replace it with a "two-story brick factory."  According to The Accessory and Garage Journal the cost of the building was projected at $30,000--or around $421,000 today.

Bruno W. Berger had been associated with notable architects during his long career.  He began with a brief partnership with Theodore A. Tribit as a partner in Tribit & Berger in 1879 to 1880.  He soon worked with Franklin Baylies in Berger & Baylies, creating some noteworthy Manhattan structures until 1890 when they both established independent offices.  

The architect designed the little 25-foot wide building in the Arts & Crafts style.  The unapologetically utilitarian structure was given visual interest through checkerboard patterned brickwork below and above the ground floor openings.   The high parapet above the grouped windows of the second floor was decorated with Arts & Crafts motives created in brick and concrete--an immense cost savings for the owner.

A separate entrance to the left accessed the second floor.  When this photograph was taken in 1939 the name J. F. McQuade, Printers was stenciled on the ground floor windows.  from the collection of the New York Public Library 

In 1930 Charles Bloom, Inc. leased both floors.  Incorporated in 1919, the firm imported and manufactured silks.  Its mills were in Paterson, New Jersey.  In addition to silk fabrics, the firm manufactured silk accessories and household goods.  It would eventually become a major player in the interior decorating industry after leaving 38th Street.

Among the items produced by Charles Bloom, Inc. was the bag made of organdy, and the unusual  boudoir lampshade.  Dry Goods Economist wrote "Imagine an electric light shining through this lovely pale lemon chiffon and satin lamp shade."  Dry Goods Economist, April 9, 1921 (copyright expired)

By 1935 J. F. McQuade "Book and Job Printing" was here.  Organized by Joseph F. McQuade in 1905, he had been located at No. 205 East 34th Street since its inception.  The Irish-born McQuade was highly active in the Irish and the Catholic communities.  His advertisements, often placed in Irish-American publications, stressed his alliance with the working class.  On October 28, 1944, for instance, an ad in The Advocate read:

We are now in a position to handle your printing needs, tickets, hangars, journals, etc.  All work done by the McQuade Printing of 215 East 38th st--a strictly union shop, and will be delivered on time.

The Advocate was Manhattan's leading Irish-American newspaper.  McQuade scored a coup within the community when the publication wrote "We are now connected with the McQuade Printing Firm, of 215 East 38th Street.  Joe is a member of the Corkmen's Association and Grand Knight of Vera Crus Council, K. of C.  It is strictly union.  The prices are O'K and all work will be delivered on time."

Following Joseph F. McQuade's death in 1938 the business was taken over by his son, Joseph F. McQuade, Jr.  About the same time the structures directly to the east were demolished to create Tunnel Exit Street for the Queens Midtown Town, completed in 1940.

Caroline Schwartz's 5-story factory was taken out by the new Tunnel Exit Street.

J. F. McQuade Printing remained in the building until September 1961 when it moved to a larger facility at No. 104 East 25th Street.

Within months No. 215 was converted to offices; the openings of the ground floor bricked over and the replacement windows installed at the second floor. 

In 2016 the owner marketed it and the building next door at Nos. 211-213 as a "development parcel" as $42 million.  It was purchased by Kent 38th St LLC.

rendering by Hill West Designs via cityrealty.com

In December 2017 Hill West Architects released renderings for a "Consulate and Permanent Mission to the United Nations" on the site.   The 20-story building will erase two more elements of the quickly disappearing low-rise fabric of Murray Hill.

photographs by the author
many thanks to reader Sherri Dial for prompting this post