A House with a Designing Past - 116 East 61st Street

 

photo by Ted Leather

In June 1869, "several fashionable young gentlemen persisted in paying their attentions" to Ella Hefferan, as reported by the New York Dispatch.  The unwanted wooing finally prompted Ella to confess to her astonished father that she had secretly married Frank E. Nesmith.  "The bride's father when he first learned of the match, did feel somewhat put, out," said the newspaper on October 24, "that his daughter should step out beyond his control in a surreptitious manner, but he now seems perfectly satisfied."  As Nesmith was "a gentleman of the highest character and respectability" and Ella was "his equal in every respect," the journalist hoped they would have a happy life.  Nevertheless, he closed saying, "the least that they can do is get up a grand dejenuer to their friends and well wishers."

With the matrimonial cat out of the bag, the couple leased the new high-stooped brownstone at 116 East 61st Street from developers Peter V. Winters and William T. Hurt.  The 18-foot-wide Italianate style house was three stories tall above a rusticated English basement.  Triangular pediments sat above the parlor openings, while molded sills and prominent cornices adorned the architrave windows of the upper floors.  

The Nesmiths opened their home to callers on New Year's Day 1871.  The New York Dispatch said "continuous calls were received all day and evening," adding, "The parlors of the splendid brown stone house are gorgeously furnished in blue satin, and looked magnificent."

Within the month, Winters and Hunt sold the residence to Louisa and Simon Bing, Jr. for $20,500 (just over half a million in 2024 dollars).  Bing was a partner with Jacob August in the clothing firm of August, Bing & Co.  It appears the Bings continued to lease 116 East 61st Street to Frank and Ella Nesmith until they sold it in October 1872 to Sarah McIntyre for $21,250.

Living with Sarah was her daughter, also named Sarah, and son-in-law Scipio L. Leslie.  Scipio Leslie was the youngest son of Frank Leslie, publisher of the highly popular Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.  The couple's daughter, Lonetta Leslie, was born in 1875. 

Scipio became ill in 1878 and "after a lingering illness," according to The New York Times, died on May 23.  His funeral was held in the drawing room three days later.

Sarah McIntyre died in 1879, and the following year her estate leased 116 East 61st Street to a Mr. Hoffman.  In May he had a house guest from San Francisco, Albert J. Seligman.  Seligman, who was the son of New York banker Jesse Seligman, was stopping here on his way to Frieburg, Germany to take courses and had booked passage on a steamship leaving New York on May 29.  

Two days before the vessel was scheduled to leave, Seligman was nowhere to be found.  On May 28, the New York World reported that his friends had reported him missing, saying he "disappeared a few days ago."  The article noted, "As he was not in his right mind at times, his friends feared that he might have committed suicide."

Seligman's steamship sailed without him.  On June 1, The Sun reported, "Nothing has been heard of Albert Seligman of San Francisco, who disappeared from No. 116 East Sixty-first street, last Tuesday."  Happily, Seligman did turn up.  The following year, on October 21, 1881, The Helena Independent reported, "Albert J. Seligman, son of Jesse Seligman, the well-known New York banker, arrived from the east Tuesday evening.  Mr. Seligman has just completed a course of study at Freiburg, and come to Montana for the purpose of obtaining practical knowledge of mining."

At the end of Hoffman's lease, Sarah moved back into her mother's house.  In the meantime, she had married James G. Powers, Jr.  Lonetta, who was now 7 years old, had a half-sister.  Madelaine Powers was born in September 1881.  Tragically, little Madelaine died on May 11, 1882 at the age of 8 months.  The family's grief was reflected in the notation "funeral private" included in her death announcement.

Sarah Powers purchased her two sisters' portions of their mother's house for $10,000 on September 6, 1882.  The family remained here for nearly a decade, selling it to James M. Cahn and his wife, the former Minnie Harriman, around 1891.

Born in 1859, Cahn was a member of the apparel firm James Cahn Brothers, established by his father in 1850.  When the family moved into 116 East 61st Street, son David Burnett Cahn was attending the Columbia Law School (he received his degree in 1893).  Another son, Louis, was a director in the Jose Lovera Co.

Minnie Cahn died on February 7, 1898.  As was customary, her funeral was held in the residence three days later.

Sharing the house with the three Cahn men by 1916 was the family of Colonel James B. Curtis.  A partner in the law firm of Baldwin & Curtis, Curtis was a veteran of the Spanish American War.  He and his wife had two young adult sons--Brian C., who graduated from Harvard in 1915; and Charles C., who was currently enrolled in Harvard.

Brian C. Curtis began post-graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1915, but the war in Europe prompted him to take a leave of absence.  That year he enlisted in American Ambulance Service in France.  On May 20, 1917, The New York Herald reported, "His mother went to Paris to come home with him at the expiration of his first enlistment, but when the young man decided to serve a second period, she remained in France, taking up relief work with the Belgian refugees in Paris."

James M. Cahn died in the house on September 7, 1918 at the age of 59.  The Curtis family remained in the house, renting it from Cahn's estate.  On January 7, 1921, the New York Herald reported, "Charles C. Curtis, who was graduated in 1919 from Harvard, has just arrived at the home of his parents, Col. and Mrs. James B. Curtis...after a trip to South America to see his brother, Capt. Brian C. Curtis."

On April 25, 1922, James B. Curtis traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana on business.  The following night, he "died during his sleep...presumably of heart disease," according to The New York Times.

Within two years, 116 East 61st Street was being operated as unofficial apartments, and in 1929 it was converted to a two-family dwelling.  The stoop was removed at this time and the entrance lowered to the former English basement level.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

After mid-century, the first of a string of highly-visible interior decorators to occupy 116 East 61st Street moved in.  James Davison, known as Jimmy, lived in the lower portion here when he met British-born designer Nicholas Haslam.  David was, according to Vanity Fair in September 2009, "a Rockefeller on his mother's side and his father was the head of J. P. Morgan."  The upper portion, said the magazine, was occupied by "a young comic named Woody Allen."

Davison and Haslam became lovers and, according to Haslam's Redeeming Features: A Memoir, "Almost immediately Jimmy asked me to move in with him, which I did."

Decorator Billy Baldwin moved in around 1964.  He told The New York Times on September 27 that year, "When I first looked at the New York apartment...I was appalled by all the juts and jags and awkward beams."   Baldwin was a partner in the decorating firm Baldwin & Martin, Inc.  On February 26, 1965, The New York Times said he "has never in his life sought a client and exercised considerable selectivity among those who offer themselves to him.  He will not do just anybody--and nothing could make him more attractive to a certain type of client than that."

In 1970 Baldwin, whose clients included the likes of Cole Porter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Diana Vreeland--moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Decorator and architect Geoffrey Bradfield of Bradfield & Tobin purchased 116 East 61st Street in 1978.  The New York Post called him a "superstar designer" who "has masterminded some of the city's choicest interiors."  The Real Deal would later note, "Bradfield, who was born in South Africa and became a leading interior designer to the global elite, used the townhouse both as his primary residence and his company headquarters."  

The house was the scene of Bradfield's glittering birthday celebration on September 20, 2007.  Attending that evening were well-known names like Mary McFadden, Monique van Vooren, and Carlos Souza.

photo by Ted Leather

Having occupied 116 East 61st Street for 35 years, in 2012 Bradford placed the house on the market.  He sold it three years later to Seema and Somesh Khanna for $9.9 million.  The couple initiated a renovation, completed in 2018, that returned it to a single-family home.   They placed it on the market in 2021 for just under $16.5 million.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for requesting this post

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The Paul P. Rao House - 210 East 61st Street

 

On May 7, 1871, the New York Herald ran a succinct, two-line article that read, "Augustus S. Bogert was yesterday morning found in death throes at No. 210 East Sixty-first street, and soon after died.  Coroner Keenan will hold an inquest."  The Bogert house was one of three recently erected homes at 206 through 210 East 61st Street.

The identical, 17-foot-wide homes rose four stories above high English basements.  Faced in brownstone, their designs stood out among the scores of other Italianate high-stooped residences being erected throughout the city.  The rusticated parlor floors were dignified by arched entrances, which were flanked by engaged Doric columns that upheld a dentiled pediment.  Each pair of arched parlor windows was separated by a paneled pilaster.  The residences were crowned with complex cornices that included paneled friezes, paired and individual brackets, and dentils.

No. 210 was rented to a succession of occupants until 1891, when Gustav Gomprecht, head of the Gomprecht Manufacturing Company, purchased it.  He and his wife, Rosa, had at least one son, Harry, who was studying at the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1895.  The family remained in the house until April 1906, when Gomprecht sold it to Ellen and Patrick J. McCue.  

Patrick was a partner with his brother in McCue Brothers, a men's hat firm.  While he and his wife now lived in a fine home uptown, he did not relinquish his Irish roots, and remained highly involved in the charitable work of St. Brigid's Church on the Lower East Side.

Boarding with the family from 1916 to 1920 was another Irish-born New Yorker, Thomas F. Maguire.  He had been a clerk for the County of New York since January 1, 1898.  When he left 210 East 61st Street in 1920, he was earning $2,400 per year (about $32,500 in 2023).

Around 1923 Paul Peter Rao and his wife, the former Catherine Marola, purchased the property.  The couple had two daughters, Nina and Grayce, and a son, Paul Jr.

Born in Prizzi, Sicily on June 15, 1899, Rao was brought to the United States by his parents when he was five.  He left school in 1917 to enlist in the navy and saw active service in the Mediterranean.  He graduated from Fordham Law School in 1923.

The respected attorney suffered embarrassment on Sunday morning, June 11, 1930.  He was most likely taking his family on a summer outing, and was driving along the Boston Post Road (today's Route 1) in Larchmont, New York when he became a victim of apparent distracted driving.  The Larchmont Times reported, "the cars stopped for a traffic signal and the Rao car, at the rear, crashed into the machine ahead and drove it into the first car in line."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Rao's career quickly rose.  From 1925 to 1927 he was Assistant District Attorney of New York County, and in 1941 was appointed an assistant United States attorney by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In 1948 President Harry S. Truman appointed him a judge of the United States Customs Court.  It was a lifetime position.

The population of 210 East 61st Street increased by one after Nina's marriage to John Denham Cameron on January 9, 1950.  The New Castle Tribune reported, "Following a wedding trip to Nassau and Florida, the couple will reside at 210 East 61st Street."

Judge Paul P. Rao in 1967.  (original source unknown).

Paul Rao was named Chief Judge of the Customs Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.  (The name of the court was changed in 1980 to the United States Court of International Trade.)  Rao could have retired at the age of 70 in 1968, however he chose to remain on the bench.  The following year he gave up his position as Chief Judge, but remained on as associate judge, "carrying a full calendar and going to his office at Foley Square each day from his home on 61st Street," said The New York Times.

Paul Peter Rao died of a heart attack on November 30, 1988 at the age of 89, having lived at 210 East 61st Street for over 50 years.  The house remained in the family, occupied by Paul Rao Jr., also a lawyer, for decades.  It was sold in January 2022 for $7.58 million.  Nearly a century of its being in the same family resulted in its remarkable preservation.

photographs by the author

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The Robert P. Breese House - 249 East 61st Street

 

The Jacobs family lived in the recently completed brownstone house at 249 East 61st Street, just west of Second Avenue, in 1872.  The Italianate style home was one of three identical houses, each just 16-feet-wide and three stories tall.  Abraham and Francis Jacobs had the heart wrenching duty of holding the funeral of their son, Isaac Leon, in the parlor here on January 26, 1873.

The family may have rented the house from a man named Davis.  For some reason he was very eager to divest himself of its furnishings the following year.  And his terms, laid out in an advertisement on April 23, 1875, were decidedly unusual:

The First Class Furniture, mirrors carpets, pianos, &c. of a private family--about $4,000 worth--will be exchanged for Bourbon Whiskey, on a cash basis, and $1,000 cash will be added.  Address Davis, 249 East Sixty-first street, for three days.

With the house now empty, it was advertised for rent in September:  "To Let--Unfurnished, from October 1, the nice little brown stone House, No. 249 East Sixty-first street, in splendid order.  Go see it."

The residence became home to the Hermann Neubert family.  Neubert died at the age of 46 in March 1881, and in April 1886 John Millemann and his wife, the former Annie F. Frey, purchased it for $13,500--just over $400,000 by 2023 terms.

Millemann was a partner with his brother David in the provisions firm of John F. Millemann & Co. on Washington Street.  At some point Annie's widowed mother, Ellen Frey, moved into the house with them.  Ellen died on May 21, 1912 at the age of 87.  Her funeral was held in the house two days later.  

Annie, now widowed, sold the house in July 1919 to Robert Potter Breese.  He and his wife, the former Beatrice Claflin, hired the architectural firm of Sterner & Wolfe to update the vintage brownstone.   Frederick Junius Sterner was well known for his transformations of Victorian rowhouses into Edwardian fantasies.

The renovations cost the Breeses the equivalent of $125,000 in 2023.  The architect removed the stoop and lowered the entrance below grade.  In signature Sterner fashion, the brownstone was stuccoed, romantic pseudo-balconies were installed, and decorative terra cotta plaques applied to the facade. 

A 1941 tax photograph of 249 (behind the sign) and its neighbor provides a before-and-after view of the renovations.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Born in 1886, Robert Breese was a descendant of Samuel B. Morse.  After attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he designed, constructed and raced sports cars in America and France.  Among the racecars he designed and raced were the Breese-Paris and the Breese Midget.

Beatrice was the daughter of millionaire Arthur B. Claflin.  They couple was married in Southampton, Long Island on October 9, 1915.  The New York Times noted, "Mrs. Breese is heir to more than $250,000 under the will of her grandmother, Mrs. Agnes Claflin."  (The amount would be closer to $4 million in 2023.)  The following year a daughter, Beatrice Lawrence, was born.

Fanciful plaques, a trademark of Sterner design, decorate the facade.

The renovations were completed in 1920, but the Breese family would never move in.  While Sterner & Wolfe was transforming their new home, domestic complications involving "a tall, slender woman" had developed.

That year Robert Breese leased the house furnished to Ronald Tree and his bride, the former Mrs. Henry Field.  The couple was followed by series of renters until 1924, the year the Breeses divorced and Robert Breese sold 249 East 61st Street to Richard Washburn Child, the former Ambassador to Rome.  Despite Beatrice Breese's significant personal wealth, the court ordered Robert to pay her $4,500 annual alimony and $20,000 from the sale of the house.

Richard Washburn Child had a change of mind regarding the East 61st Street house.  The following year, in October, he sold it to banker Stephen Galatti.  The New York Times remarked that Child was giving up his New York home because he "intends to live elsewhere."

Born in New Jersey on August 6, 1888, Gallati was a Harvard graduate, and had joined the American Field Service in 1915.  Stephen Galatti had married the recently divorced Grace Sands Coffin on September 25, 1925, a month before purchasing 249 East 61st Street.  Grace had an impressive social pedigree, related to the Schuyler, Sands, Bowne, Livingston and Chew families.

The newlyweds' honeymoon trip had a colorful start.  They arrived at the pier at 10:30 on the morning of September 26.  But they had the departure time wrong.  When they alit from their automobile, the Paris was steaming away toward the Battery with the Galatti luggage aboard.  The New York Times reported, "After a brief consultation the couple decided to sail next Wednesday on the Aquitania, and a radio message was sent to the purser of the Paris asking him to have the baggage held for them in Paris."

A honeymoon in Paris made perfect sense, since Galatti owned a home there.  The couple would, in fact, spend much more time there than in the East 61st Street house.

On November 15, 1927 the New York Evening Post reported that Galatti had leased the house furnished to Paul L. Reinhardt, and his wife.  Mrs. Reinhardt, it appears, did not find the Galatti furnishings to her taste.

In the June 15, 1927 issue of Town & Country, Augusta Owen Patterson reported on her redecorations of two rooms in "her temporary home at 249 East Sixty-first Street."  She said, "Much of Mrs. Reinhardt's furniture has been especially designed, that being one of the privileges possible to Paris."  In Paris, said the article, she "goes hunting--for modern art and modern furniture."  Within the Reinhardt art collection were "the most famous Cézannes, Utrillos, Derains, Braques and Matisse's," said Patterson.

Two view of of the boudoir as redecorated by Mrs. Reinhardt.  Town & Country said, "The furniture is silvered."  photos by Mattie Edwards Hewitt, Town & Country magazine, June 15, 1927.

The article pointed out that the costly redecorating was short-term.   "It must be remembered that these two rooms existed in a house which has been quite casually rented."

On September 25, 1930 a son, Stephen Galatti Jr., was born in the East 61st Street house.  The New York Times mentioned, "Mr. and Galatti are here from their home in Paris for a brief stay."

Four years later, on June 19, 1934, Grace Sands Montgomery Galatti died of heart disease at the age of 35.  Stephen and his son remained in the East 61st Street and Paris homes.

The following year Stephen was appointed Director General of the American Field Service.  The AFS played an important role in World War II, supplying the front lines with corps of volunteer ambulance drivers.  According to Galatti, the service had "carried more than half a million wounded, saved thousands of lives and formed friendships with all races and all nationalities in the United Nations."  The AFS was commended by President Franklin Roosevelt, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery.  

Following the war, Stephen Galatti founded the AFS Scholarship Program in 1946 and changed its focus from a ambulance corps to an international educational exchange service.  He would serve at its helm throughout the rest of his life.

In 1963 Galatti sold 249 East 61st Street to singer and actor Frank Sinatra.  Galatti died the following year on July 13 at 216 East 39th Street.

During his time here, Sinatra was a familiar face in restaurants like the Colony at 30 East 61st Street.  His residency at 249 East 61st Street would be relatively short-lived.  In 1969, three years after his marriage to actress Mia Farrow, he sold the house to Dr. David Y. Solomon and his wife, Yris Rabenou Solomon. 

The couple was married in 1966 and had a son, Darius, born in 1968.  In 1972 a second son, Teimour, was born.  The boys’ parents had riveting backgrounds.  

David Y. Solomon had grown up in Iraq and was the first Jew to be admitted to the Royal College of Medicine in Baghdad.  He fled Jewish persecution, going first to Iran.  There practiced medicine before accepting a fellowship at the Alfred Einstein School of Medicine, part of Montefiore Hospital, in 1961. 

Sterner's plank door (with a clever peephole) features forged strap hinges and a door knocker in the form of a stylized animal.

Yris Rabenou Solomon had grown up in Paris, the daughter of a Persian and a German.  When the Nazi’s took over the city, Yris’s mother fled with her and her two siblings.  Then, in 1948 the family came to the United States.  Yris was a musician and singer, recording mostly French folk music for Columbia Records.  Upon her father’s death, she entered the family’s business with her mother, dealing in ancient Persian and Middle Eastern art. 

Upon purchasing 249 East 61^st Street, the Solomons made gentle renovations, including replacing the garden wall with an expanse of windows and French doors.  The house became museum-like, not only with Middle Eastern art and artifacts, but with Dr. Solomon’s collection of West African art.  He acquired the pieces over a period of half a century. 

According to Teimour Solomon, in the late 1970s the house was a haven for refugees from the Islamic Revolution in Iran.  It had already been an important gathering spot for years.  “Our home was a central point in the lives of a vast number of people from extremely different circles, in the arts, sciences, and politics over a period of fifty years,” he said recently.  

In the 1960s Dr. Solomon was the physician for the Senegalese Ambassador to the United Nations.  Through the ambassador’s recommendations, other high-ranking Senegalese, like the Maribout of Senegal, sought Solomon's services.  He became both physician and trusted friend.  The Solomon house hosted a myriad of high-ranking officials and personalities over the years. 

Following their parents’ deaths, Darius and Teimour Solomon placed their remarkable childhood home on the market with George Vanderploeg of Douglas Elliman in 2023.

photos by the author
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The Arthur C. Coxe, Jr. House - 211 East 61st Street

 

A fanciful metal hood decorates the second story bay, added between 1957 and 1967.

During New York's post-Civil War building boom several developers erected long rows of high-stooped homes, and their names appeared repeatedly in trade journals.  Such was not the case with A. S. Bussell.  Essentially forgotten today, he was perhaps restricted by his available finances and his projects were limited to two or three houses at a time.  Often years passed between the completion of one group and the initiation of another.  In each case he acted as his own architect.

In 1875 he completed a trio of 18-foot-wide, brownstone-clad homes at 211 to 215 East 61st Street.  His Italianate design held fast to tried-and-true elements seen throughout the city.  High stoops led to double-doored entrances below triangular pediments upheld by foliate brackets.  The architrave openings sat upon molded sills with diminutive brackets, while handsome cornices pulled out all the stops with paneled friezes, foliate brackets, ornate modillions, and dentils.

The easternmost of the three, 211 East 61st Street, became home to Mary P. and Sophia Vernon, presumably mother and daughter.  The woman took in a few roomers (apparently not wanting to go so far as to offer board).  An advertisement in November 1886 offered, "An elegantly furnished front room to let; gas, bath, heat. 211 East 61st st."  Living with the women the following year were Dr. Charles B. Isaacson and Sheir Levison.  (Unfortunately, Levison died on July 2 that year.)

At the time, Jacob Ottenheimer was working hard to ensure that fellow Germans headed to America would have stable homes.   Born in 1840, he had been an agent of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company since 1881, having previously worked for two other railroads.

He had established the town of Ottenheimer, Kentucky (today known as Ottenheim), which was described by The New York Times as "a thriving German colony of over 200 families planned by him and named after him."

On December 16, 1888, The New York Times reported that he had purchased "some 12,000 acres of land" in Pike County, Pennsylvania, which "is said to consist for the most part of very fertile land."  The article noted that he and several German-born investors had been assured of "a large German immigration between now and next Spring, and for some of whom they have undertaken to find land suitable for market gardening within easy reach of New-York."

In 1891 Ottenheimer built the Forest Park Hotel in Pike County, Pennsylvania.  It was a summer resort marketed as being located in the "Adirondacks of Pennsylvania."

Jacob Ottenheimer died on October 25, 1895 at the age of 55.  Not long afterward his widow, the former Clara Fredman, leased 211 East 61st Street from Mary P. Vernon.  Moving in with her were her unmarried daughter Florence L., her married daughter Sophie and son-in-law Arthur Lederer, and their two small sons, Richard Melville and Herbert Bernard.

Clara and Arthur Lederer now joined forces to run the Forest Park Hotel.  During the off-season of 1897 they greatly expanded the operation.  The Jewish Messenger reported on June 3, 1898:

Many important improvements have been made during the winter and this spring, such as the building of a new cottage, new bachelor apartments, a bicycle depository, a two-mile bicycle track between Forest Lake and Lake Taminent, a large bathing float with ten additional bathing houses; and, with the continued increase of popularity, the Government has found it necessary to establish a summer post-office there under the name of Forest, which will provide improved and increased mail facilities.

An advertisement the following year enumerated the activities available at the Forest Park Hotel and Cottages.  "Fishing, bathing, rowing, sailing, bowling, billiard, pool, tennis, croquet, bicycling, music, cafe.  Cuisine and appointments unsurpassed."  The advertisement promised, "No malaria or mosquitoes."  

On March 11, 1900 The New York Times reported that Clara had announced Florence's engagement to William E. Jacobs, noting that mother and daughter "will be home to their friends on Sunday, March 25, from 3 to 6. P.M."  The couple was married in the East 61st Street house on June 4, after which they sailed to Europe "to make an extended trip through the Continent," according to The New York Times.

In 1941 the house still retained its 1875 appearance.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Mary P. Vernon sold 211 East 61st Street in 1902.  It was resold twice before attorney Arthur Conkling Coxe, Jr. purchased it in August 1916 for $13,500 (about $345,000 in 2023 terms).

Born in 1880, and a graduate of Yale University and the Cornell University Law School, Coxe had an impressive political and legal pedigree.  He was the son of United States Court of Appeals judge Alfred Conkling Cox, Sr.; the great-grandson of United States Representative and United States District Court judge, Alfred Conkling; and the grand-nephew of Roscoe Conkling, New York Congressman and Senator.

Coxe had married Helen Prince Emery in 1913.  They had three sons, Alfred Jr., John E. and Samuel H.  The family's summer home was in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

In 1929 Coxe was nominated by President Herbert Hoover to the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York.  He was the third of his family to serve in the role.  His great-grandfather, Alfred Conkling, had been appointed a Federal judge by President John Quincy Adams in 1825; and his father was appointed by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882.

Alfred Conkling Coxe, Jr. original source unknown, via Bcoxewiki

On January 12, 1951, The New York Times reported, "After twenty-one years on the Federal bench in the Southern District of New York, Judge Alfred Conking Coxe announced his retirement yesterday.  He notified President Truman by letter on Wednesday."  Coxe noted that he would continue "to accept special assignments."

Six years later, on December 21, 1957, Alfred C. Coxe died in the Old Lyme, Connecticut home at the age of 77.  It is unclear how long Helen remained in the East 61st Street house, but before 1967 it had received a significant make-over.

The stoop was removed and the entrance lowered to the former English basement level, a few steps below grade.  A delightful bowed oriel was installed at the second floor with a delicate balcony-like railing and a whimsical metal hood.  A coat of stucco was applied, the architrave surrounds of the upper story windows were removed, and the cornice simplified.  It remains a single family home.

photograph by the author

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The Jarvis and Barbara Cromwell House - 159 East 61st Street

 

Around 1872 the three high-stooped houses at 157 through 161 East 61st Street between Lexington and Third Avenues were completed.  Faced in brownstone, their identical Italianate designs included prim, architrave openings capped with molded lintels, and individual paneled and bracketed cornices.

The original owners of 159 East 61st Street had more house than they needed.  An advertisement on April 25, 1875 offered: "Upper part of house to let--Can be seen to-day.  159 East Sixty-first street."  

By the mid-1880s the Mahon family lived here.  John Mahon died in the house on June 25, 1883 and his funeral was held in the parlor three days later.  The prominence of the family was evidenced in the New York Herald's noting that afterward, "His remains will be conveyed to St. Patrick's Cathedral...where a solemn high mass of requiem will be offered for the repose of his soul."

Within months of Mahon's funeral the residence became home to the Milton Kempner family.  A civil engineer, Kempner's fortune came from real estate operations.  He bought, renovated, and sold buildings throughout the city.  When the family moved into 159 East 61st Street, Irving Isaac Kempner was attending Columbia University.  He would eventually become as well-known in real estate circles as his father.

The Kempners left in 1894, after which the home was operated as a high-end boarding house.  An advertisement for a "good chambermaid and waitress" that year stressed that this was a "fine private boarding house."

Boarding houses were judged by the number of residents--the fewer boarders the more upscale the operation.  Among the professionals who boarded here in the 1890s was Louis Kaufman, a director of the Elite Styles Company, publishers of Elite Styles magazine.

In the early 20th century Adolph H. Rosenfeld, an attorney; legal stenographer Louis Glaser; real estate operator Mrs. M. Brann; and Emil Freund lived here.  Freund, who resided for at least a decade between 1907 and 1917, was a member of the National Association for Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis and of the American Museum of Natural History.

The house was returned to a private home when Rudolph Hermann Kissel purchased it in June 1920.  He was a partner in the banking firm of Kissel, Kinnicutt & Co., described by The New York Times as "one of the important Wall Street houses."

Mary Graff Bell, was Kissel's second wife.  The couple had married in 1910, two years after Rudolph's wife Caroline Morgan, whom he married in 1887, died.  He and Caroline had had four daughters, Gladys, Eleanor, Barbara Mildred, and Alice; and two sons, Gustav H. and Rudolph Jr.  Moving in with the couple were Rudolph's unmarried daughters Barbara Mildred and Eleanora, along with Gladys and her daughter Gladys C. M. Miller.  Gladys's husband James Ely Miller was a major in the Air Services and was killed in action during World War I.  ( Ironically, her brother, Gustav Hermann Kissel, was also shot down and killed in France in 1918.)  The Kissel's country estate was Inamere Farm in Morristown, New Jersey.  

On March 26, 1924 a sub-headline The New York Times read "Two Notable Families Will Be United by Ceremony in the Early Summer."  The article said that the Kissels had announced Barbara Mildred's engagement to Jarvis Cromwell.  The wedding took place on June 21 in St. Peter's Church in Morristown.  The newlyweds moved into the East 61st Street house.

Social attention turned to young Gladys Miller in 1927.  Debutante entertainments sometimes went on for weeks, if not months, and on October 14 the New York Evening Post reported, "Miss Gladys C. M. Miller, whose formal debut is to be made at a supper dance at Sherry's on December 3, will be the guest of honor at a luncheon her mother, Mrs. James E. Miller of 159 East Sixty-first Street, will give for her at Pierre's on November 29."

Among the nearly 50 women at the luncheon were some of the most recognizable names in New York society, including Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. Francis E. Dodge, Mrs. Frederic Foster De Rham, Contessa Hilla Rebay, Mrs. John Sloane, and Mrs. Junius Morgan.

In the meantime, Jarvis Cromwell was making his mark in financial circles.  Having served as a sergeant in the 308th Machine Gun Battalion in World War I, he returned to Princeton, graduated in 1918, and immediately joined the factoring office of William Iselin & Co.  He was made a partner in 1920.  

Cromwell became interested in the Boys' Club of New York City, eventually becoming view president.  Barbara shared his enthusiasm and for years ran the annual benefit events for the group.  

The couple had three children.  David Everett was born on April 2, 1925, Patricia Mary arrived the following year on April 29, 1926, and Roger James Kissel was born on March 4, 1931.

In 1941 only 159 East 61st Street retained its stoop along the row.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Three weeks after Roger's birth, on March 31, 1931, his grandfather, Rudolph H. Kissel, died in the Morristown house at the age of 82.  At the time of his death, only the Cromwells were residing in the East 61st Street house.  Mary Kissel, Eleanora, and Gladys (now remarried to Louis Rokos) all lived permanently in Morristown.

In 1932 William Iselin & Company merged with the CIT Financial Corporation.  Cromwell was named president of Iselin, a separate division.

With the outbreak of World War II, Cromwell was made chairman of the New York Chapter of the American Red Cross.  David became a navigator on a B-29 bomber, and Patricia (known in the family as Patsy), became a nurse's aid.  

Jarvis Cromwell, The New York Times, March 17, 1992

In 1951 Cromwell founded and became president of the Iselin-Jefferson Financial Corporation.  It was sold to the Manufacturers Hanover Trust in 1971, of which Cromwell was director.  By that time he and Barbara had moved to an apartment on Park Avenue.

The East 61st Street house was renovated by the John J. Iselin family in 1972.  It appeared as the home of Archie Knox, the character played by actor Alec Baldwin in the 2007 film Suburban Girl.

The year the motion picture was released, 159 East 61st Street was sold to Robert and Rose Marina Kelly for $14.67 million.  Kelly was the CEO of the Bank of New York Mellon.  The couple initiated a gut renovation, leaving essentially no hint of the 1870s interior detailing.  The six-bedroom, six-bath home was now described as being in the "British Arts and Crafts mode."

The facade was refaced with a rusticated basement and parlor level, and a gray-brown brick veneer on the upper floors.  The stone architrave frames were removed and quoined surrounds installed.  The cornice and the original entrance doors were preserved.  The house was sold in December 2013 for $15.5 million.

photographs by the author

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The William H. S. Wood House - 129 East 61st Street

 

In 1871 Joseph E. and William G. McCormack completed a row of 19-foot-wide brownstone-clad homes on East 61st Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.  The Italianate design of the four-story and basement homes included picture frame-like architrave window surrounds and bracketed cornices with paneled friezes.

William H. S. Wood moved his family from East 33rd Street into 129 East 61st Street.  Born on April 13, 1840, the well-educated young man had graduated from the University of the City of New York and from Haverford College.  In 1865 he was made a partner in his father's firm, William Wood & Company, which published medical books.  The elder William Wood had retired in 1870, making William its head.  According to Genealogies of the State of New York in 1915, "he steadily built up the medical publishing business until the firm became the first in its line in this country."

In 1865 he had married Emma Congdon, a niece of Johns Hopkins.  The couple had two sons, William, who was five-years-old when they moved in, and Gilbert, who was three.  They would have three more children: Edward Arnold, who was born in 1872; Philip Hopkins in 1876; and Mary Underhill in 1881.

The Wood family's occupancy would be relatively short.   On March 17, 1879 they sold the house to Mayer Gutman and his wife Emma for $17,250.

Gutman operated a hosiery business at 426 Broadway.  He paid cash for 129 East 61st Street, and nearly a decade later, in June 1888, testified that he owned the house "free and clear," estimating its value at $20,000 to $25,000--about $735,000 in 2023 on the higher end.  The Gutmans had four children, Abraham Lincoln, Miram, Leonard and Carrie.  

Mayer Gutman died in April 1891.  Emma sold the house to Leopold Miller eight years later.  He resold it in March 1902 to Barend and Edith Van Gerbig.  The couple had been married two years earlier, on May 25, 1900, in Edith's parents' mansion at 4 West 53rd Street.  She was the daughter of banker and politician Frederic Pepoon Olcott and his wife, Mary Esmay.  Edith was also the niece of millionaire banker Dudley Olcott.

Almost immediately, the Van Gerbigs modernized the dated brownstone.  In April 1903 they hired architect H. E. Tichen to make modifications.  He removed the stoop and relocated the entrance to the basement.  Paneled pilasters upheld a three-sided bay at the now-second floor, creating a sort of portico for the entrance.  A rounded oriel at the third floor created a pleasant seating area inside and additional visual interest outside.

Barend was, perhaps, an unexpected match for the heiress.  He was a pianist and composer who had relied on the support of society matrons.  Years earlier, on March 30, 1893, for instance, Town Topics reported on his recital at Music Hall.  Calling him "a very capable young pianist," the article said it was arranged "under the patronage of a number of well-known ladies."

The couple had two small boys when they moved in.  Dudley was two years old in 1903, and Howell was one.

Edith's personal fortune increased following her father's death.  On September 30, 1909, The New York Times reported that she received $669,640 plus "realty valued at $135,000."  The combined inheritance would be equal to about $25.8 million today.

As the boys grew to their teen years, the Van Gerbigs made improvements to the New Canaan, Connecticut summer property.  On June 14, 1913, the Record & Guide reported that architect W. Kiddie had designed a $10,000 "brick and concrete squash court" for the estate.

The Van Gerbig sons attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire.  Howell went on to Princeton University where he was a member of the varsity football and hockey teams.  Expectedly, his fiancée, Geraldine Livingston Thompson, came from a socially prominent family.

The couple's engagement was announced on August 1, 1926.  Geraldine was the granddaughter of William Dare Morgan and a niece of A. Gordon Norrie, two of the most recognized names in Manhattan society.  The marriage would not last.  The couple was divorced in 1936 and Howell's engagement to Dorothy Randolph Fell was announced on June 4, 1937.  She, too, came with a sterling pedigree.  Her ancestors included Van Rensselaers, Drexels and Randolphs.  Sadly, Dorothy died of thrombosis of a brain artery on July 28, 1945 at the age of 32.

In the meantime, Edith Van Gerbig had been outspoken in her views against Prohibition.  In 1928 she donated $1,200 to the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment.  She and Barent would remain at 129 East 61st Street until selling it to Bertha Weissberger in September 1941.

An alteration completed in 1956 resulted in two apartments each in the ground through fourth floors, and three on the fourth.  That configuration, plus a medical office in the former basement level, survives.

photographs by the author

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The Joseph E. McCormack House - 112 East 61st Street

 

In the late 1860's and early 1870's brothers Joseph E. and William G. McCormack were erecting rows of high-stooped brownstone homes in the neighborhood around Lexington Avenue and 61st Street.  Joseph and Eliza J. McCormack moved into one of them, at 112 East 61st Street.

Identical to its neighbors, the three-story and basement house was faced in brownstone and was 18.6-feet-wide.  The parlor level openings wore triangular, Renaissance inspired pediments, and the architrave frames of upper floor windows sat on bracketed sills and wore molded lintels.  An ornate cast metal bracketed cornice crowned the structure.

Not long after moving into their new home the couple suffered unspeakable tragedy.  Their only son, Thomas A. McCormack, died on the evening of April 6, 1871.  He was three months short of his third birthday.  The little boy's funeral was held in the parlor on April 8.

The house next became home to Dr. Bernard Sachs and his wife, the former Bettina R. Stein.  The couple's daughter, Alice S. Sachs, was born on September 15, 1888.  Sachs was the youngest of five children.  His brother Samuel was a partner in the banking firm of Goldman, Sachs & Company.  His eldest brother Julius founded the Sachs Collegiate Institute for Boys, where Bernard finished his early education.

Dr. Bernard Sachs around 1900.  (original source unknown)

After graduating from Harvard, Sachs studied medicine in Europe.  He focused on nervous system disorders in children and in 1887 described the fatal genetic neurological disorder he called Amaurotic Family Idiocy (later renamed Tay-Sachs Disease).  He wrote several books, including the 1895 A Treatise on the Nervous Diseases of Children for Physicians and Students.

Around 1895 112 East 61st Street became home to another physician, Dr. Abram Brothers.  He and his wife, the former Minnie Epstein, had three children, Viola, Madeleine, and Arthur J.  

An obstetrician, like his predecessor Brothers was well regarded in the medical community.  He was the author of medical articles and was a professor of diseases of women at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, and visiting surgeon to Beth-Israel Hospital.  He operated his private practice from the house.  A Renaissance Man of sorts, Brothers was also an author, violinist and actor.  

Minnie's story was no less colorful.  According to the family, while her mother was pregnant with her in New Orleans, a Southern gentleman somehow attacked her.  Her father retaliated by shooting him, and then fleeing.  Reportedly, Mrs. Epstein then followed her husband in a canoe paddled by a Native American.  They settled in New York where Minnie was born and where her father became the city's first kosher butcher.  While her husband tended to his medical practice and wrote articles, Minnie dealt in real estate, buying and selling properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn.  

Viola took an interest in the arts.  Her father taught her to play the violin.  She left school at the age of 16 to pursue a musical career.  Viola Brothers Shore would go on to become a poet, biographer and playwright.  She would win several Ellery Queen awards for her mystery stories, like the 1932 Murder on the Glass Floor.

In 1904 the Brothers family took a summer house in Sea Cliff, Long Island.  They were there on October 15, 1910 when "after a long illness," according to the Times Union, Abram Brothers died.  The 61st Street house was sold to Virginia Kent Magee that year.

She was the widow of Louis J. Magee and, like Minnie Brothers, dealt in real estate.  She hired architect John H. Van Pelt to modernize the outdated brownstone.  He added a two-story addition to the rear, removed the stoop, and added a sweeping bowed oriel at the former parlor level.  The renovations cost Virginia Magee the equivalent of $177,000 in 2023.

The entrance was moved to the former English basement, below sidewalk level.

She briefly leased the remodeled house to J. W. Schiffern.  Then, by 1913, Baron and Baroness Alfred Von de Ropp were living here.  The couple had two children, Harold and Vera.

As might be expected, entertainments in the house were notable.  On December 4, 1913, for instance, The Sun reported that Baroness de Ropp would be giving a reception that afternoon for former First Lady Mary Dimmick Harrison, wife of Benjamin Harrison.  Gatherings were not exclusively social.  On February 6, 1915, The New York Times announced, "The Baroness de Ropp has sent out invitations for 11 o'clock Saturday morning, Feb. 13, at her residence, 112 East Sixty-first Street, to hear Mme. Grevitch speak on the war in Servia [sic]."

While debutantes received most of the social attention as they came of age, young men of society were nonetheless celebrated.  On December 17, 1915 The New York Press reported, "The Baron and Baroness Alfred de Ropp of No. 112 East Sixty-first street will give a large dinner party to-morrow evening at Sherry's in honor of their son, the Baron Harold de Ropp.  The guests will be from the younger set."

Vera was married to Major Eric Fisher Wood, Assistant Chief of Staff to General Edwin F. Glenn in Los Angeles on April 20, 1918.  While the wartime wedding may have had military overtones, there was no question that this was the marriage of a titled bride.  The New York Times reported that Vera "wore a white satin robe draped with tulle and a tulle train bordered with satin, silver braid, and orange flowers."

There was another wedding around the same time.  Virginia Kent Magee was now Mrs. Stephen Swete Cummins.  She and her husband briefly moved into 112 East 61st Street.  Then, on October 2, 1919, Virginia arranged an auction of the artwork and furnishings.  An advertisement said the "complete antique and modern appointments" had been "chiefly collected in Europe by the owner."  

Included in the sale were an 18th century watercolor portrait of George Washington, English and French prints of the same period, oil paintings, antique Oriental rugs, a Sheraton bracket clock, Delft, pewter, a "fine Old English luster chandelier," a Queen Anne tall case clock, and other antique and modern furniture.

Virginia leased 112 East 61st Street to Harold C. Whitman, and then sold it to him the following year, in May 1920.  He, too, used it as a rental property.

In its section titled "Where Prominent People Live," the 1920 Valentine's City of New York listed Arthur Brisbane at 112 East 61st Street.   Among the best known newspaper editors of the period, he and his wife, Phoebe Cary had six children.  He was the editor of the New York Mirror at the time of the family's residency.  

There would be a relatively rapid turnover of occupants.  In 1924 John R. Green purchased the house, followed by cotton broker Adolph Eugene Norden.  Norden was a member of the firm A. Norden & Co. founded by his uncle, Adolph Norden.  The wealthy young man was separated from his wife, Rensa Wyenberg, who lived in Amsterdam.

While never divorced, Norden's relationship with his wife was apparently strained.  When he died at the age of 49 in the East 61st Street house on February 25, 1932, The New York Times mentioned only his mother and brother as his survivors.  Nevertheless, he left one-quarter of his estate, reported by The New York Sun to be the equivalent of $11 million in 2023, to Rensa.

No. 112 East 61st Street continued to be home to well-to-do residents.  On February 2, 1966, The New York Times reported that Mrs. M. Dreher Armstrong had hosted a cocktail party "honoring Miss Liane Augustin, the Viennese Singer."  Mrs. Armstrong was the committee chairperson for the upcoming Viennese Opera Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria.

The family of plastic surgeon Dr. Teresita Mascardo followed Mrs. Armstrong.  She established a medical office in the basement level.  They remained here until 1999 when Dr. Mascardo purchased the former home of Seymour Durst just steps away at 120 East 61st Street.  In reporting the sale, The New York Times said, "Dr. Mascardo and her family...will make the house their residence and also the home of the Woman to Woman Plastic Surgery Center."

Although the brownstone has been painted and architecturally unsympathetic windows installed on the upper floors, the McCormack house retains most of its integrity since Virginia Kent McGee completed renovations in 1910.

photograph by the author

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

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