The Lost Donn Barber House - 125 East 74th Street

 

The Brickbuilder, January 22, 1913 (copyright expired)

In 1878, architect John C. Burne designed a row of identical, high-stooped houses for developer John McGlynn on the north side of East 74th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.  They became home to upper-middle-class professionals, like civil engineer Octave Britton Hebert, who occupied 125 East 74th Street in the early 1890s.  He was followed in the house by Dr. Alpheus Freeman, described by The New York Times as being "said to have a large private practice."

Freeman and his wife Josephine were married in the Jane Street Methodist Church in 1877.  Living with them was their adult son Charles, who also was a physician.  Domestic problems came to the Freemans at the turn of the century.  They landed the couple in court on March 6, 1902.  The New York Times reported that Josephine...

charged that Dr. Freeman had installed a woman named Alice Pitcher in their home at 125 East Seventy-fourth Street as housekeeper against her will, and had instructed the servants to take their orders from Mrs. Pitcher; also that the newcomer had already rearranged the interior of the house without consulting her desires.

Eventually, Alice Pitcher left and, for the most part, so did Alpheus Freeman.  Josephine said that in August 1901, "under the name of 'Mr. and Mrs. Brown' he had occupied a flat with his new housekeeper" on East 119th Street.  (He apparently still ran his medical office from 125 East 74th Street, since Josephine claimed he ate dinner there.)  Dr. Freeman countered that his visits to the Pitcher flat "were purely of a professional character, as she was an excellent nurse," and that "his wife drank to excess."

Regarding Josephine's intemperance, the judge said flatly, "I don't believe you."  He awarded Josephine $25 per week alimony, to which she exclaimed, "I don't want to leave my house."

Magistrate Pool told her, "You'd had better get another house."

Dr. Freeman remained at 125 East 74th Street for at least another year.  On May 6, 1905, the Record & Guide reported that architect Donn Barber had purchased the property for $22,000 (about $755,000 by 2024 conversion).

Born in Washington, D.C. on October 19, 1871, Barber graduated from Yale University in 1893 and entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris two years later.  Back in New York, he apprenticed in three of the most esteemed architectural offices of the time--Carrere & Hastings, Cass Gilbert, and Lord & Hewlett.  He opened his own firm in 1900.   

Barber and his wife, the former Elsie Yandell, were married on November 22, 1899.  When the couple purchased 125 East 74th Street, they had two small children, Elizabeth, born in 1902; and Louise who arrive a year later.

Before the family could move in, Barber did a gut remodeling of the old brownstone house.  He removed the stoop and lowered the entrance to grade, and replaced the stone facade with variegated brick.  (Somewhat unexpectedly, with the stoop gone he did not pull the front forward to the property line, as most architects were doing and thereby increasing the interior square footage.)  A two-story, pressed metal bay decorated with neo-Classical English motifs dominated the design.  He also enlarged the house by adding a two-story rear extension.  

Living with the family were Barber's widowed mother, Georgiana Williams Barber, and his sisters, Georgiana and Helena.  Donn and Elsie would two more children.  Elsie was born on February 13, 1907 and Donn Jr. on April 20, 1911.

When Barber moved his family into 125 East 74th Street, he had not yet received any substantial commissions.  Nevertheless, the family lived a comfortable lifestyle.  On October 25, 1910, for instance, The New York Sun reported that the family had "closed their house at Rye and are at their town residence."

The Brickbuilder, January 22, 1913 (copyright expired)

On February 12, 1911, Donn Barber hosted a dinner here for his good friend and former employer John M. Carrere.  The architect was to sail to Rome the next day to inspect the American Building which he had designed for the Rome Exposition, set to open the next summer.  Afterward, Carrere headed home in a taxicab.  Only a block and a half away, at 74th Street and Madison Avenue, Carrere's cab was struck by a trolley car.  The famous architect suffered a fractured skull and two broken arms.  He was taken semi-conscious to the Presbyterian Hospital where he died on March 1.  

Donn Barber, Real Estate Record & Guide, July 15, 1911 (copyright expired)

At the time of the tragedy, Donn Barber had designed some substantial structures, including the 1908 Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee; the Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court Building, erected between 1908 and 1910; the  1910 Berzelius Society Building at Yale; and the Lotos Club on West 57th Street, completed in 1909.  And he was about to receive his most prestigious commission to date.

On July 15, 1911, the Record & Guide reported on "the greatest building project in America"--the construction of the three marble buildings for the Departments of State, Commerce and Labor, and Justice in Washington D.C.  Donn Barber's design for the Department of Justice Building had been chosen by President William Howard Taft and the National Arts Commission.

Barber's rendering of the Department of Justice Building.  Real Estate Record & Guide, July 15, 1911 (copyright expired)

Barber's sister Georgiana was married to James Benham Malcom in St. Thomas's Church on April 29, 1914.  Touchingly, her maid of honor was Marion Dell Carrere, the daughter of John M. Carrere.  The reception was held in the East 74th Street house.

Donn Barber's successful career was reflected in the family's lifestyle.  In 1913 he purchased Donnybrook, the former country estate of W. A. Read in Purchase, New York, and in 1914 he drove a Pierce Arrow.

On April 9, 1913, The American Architect published a tantalizing photo of a section of Donnybrook with Donn Barber's remodeling.  (copyright expired)

With the outbreak of World War I, Elsie turned her focus to the war effort.  She had previously been involved in charitable works like the Winifred Wheeler Day Nursery, but now devoted her time to the National League for Women's Service. She became Canteen Chairman, overseeing the work of 2,500 women volunteers working in 12 canteens for army and navy men.  Elsie had strict rules for the young women.

While you are working in the canteens do not make up with rouge, powder, and lip sticks, and do not wear laces and jewelry.  The boys misjudge the women wearing make-up, and elaborate clothes are out of place.

Elsie Barber in her National League uniform.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Elsie's sister, designer, sculptor and artist Enid Yandell, had moved into the Barber house by 1917.

The Barber daughters were approaching their debutante years as the war came to a close.  On January 5, 1921, the New York Herald reported on the "bal masque" for debutante Estelle Manville.  The "green only" masked ball was a social event of that winter season.  The article said, "Numerous dinners were given in advance of the dance, the largest being that of Mr. and Mrs. Donn Barber in their home 123 East Seventy-fourth street.  Their party included the Misses Betty and Louise Barber, who were dressed as pirates, of course in green."

Elizabeth Elliston Barber, known in society as Betty, was also a debutante that season.  She was attending Bryn Mawr College, due to graduate in 1924.  Her sister, Louise Yandell, would be introduced to society in 1922.

On October 8, 1922, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Donn Barber and the Misses Betty, Louise and Elsie Barber, have returned from Europe and are at their apartment [sic], 125 East Seventy-fourth street."  What was not mentioned in the succinct article was that Joseph Larocque, Jr., had also been in Europe and had spent much of his time with the Barber family.

Two months later, the Barbers gave a dinner at the Colony Club for Louise.  The New York Herald said that during the event, "they made the interesting announcement of the engagement of their daughter, Miss Louise Yandell Barber, to Mr. Joseph Larocque, Jr."

The couple's engagement was relatively long.  It was not until April 22, 1924 that they were married.  A year later, on April 1, 1925, The Spur reported that Betty Barber would be married that month to Richard Sanford Hoffman.

At the time, Donn Barber was working on the plans for the Broadway Temple.  Pencil Points said he hoped to make it "his crowning achievement."  Neither it nor Betty's April wedding would come to pass.  Barber fell ill and died in the 74th Street house on May 29, 1925, at the age of 54.  The Architectural Forum said his death came "at the height of the development of his marked abilities," and Pencil Points said he "was just at the peak of a brilliant career in architectural work."

Following his funeral in the drawing room here, Barber was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at Tarrytown.  His entire estate, estimated at around $6.1 million by 2024 conversion, went to Elsie.  

Elsie Barber remained at 125 East 74th Street for a year, rented it to C. Morton Whitman and his wife in 1927, and sold it in 1928.  That year it and three neighboring houses were demolished to be replaced with a 10-story apartment building designed by Lafayette A. Goldstone, which survives.

The original appearance of the Barber house can be seen in the surviving brownstone next door to the replacement building.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for suggesting this post.

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The Amazingly Transformed 45 East 74th Street

 

Surprisingly, the pristine Victorian facade is only about 20 years old.  photograph by the author

In 1879 architect James E. Ware designed a row of six brownstone-fronted houses at 37 through 47 East 74th Street.  Four stories tall and 19-feet wide, they were designed in the popular Queen Anne style.   The developer, John Davidson, sold 45 East 74th Street to Addraetta (known as Addie) W. Goodwin in 1881 for $32,500 (about $889,000 today).  Addie was a self-reliant woman.

She was born on September 30, 1849 in South Berwick, Maine,  where her father, Mark Fernald Goodwin, owned a large farm, a brick-making factory and a lumber business.  Unmarried, Addie was a real estate operator, one of the few professions in the 19th century in which women could compete on a nearly equal basis with their male counterparts.

Six years before moving into the East 74th Street house, on May 6, 1875, Addie's father died and she inherited the 100-acre ancestral estate, becoming the sixth generation of Goodwins to own it.  Her mother, Dorcas Bartlett Frost Goodwin, continued to live in the house, while Annie summered there.

Then on September 30, 1884 Addie married shipbuilder  and former cabinetmaker Nathaniel Knowlton in South Berwick.   Knowlton retired from boat building and the couple moved permanently to the Maine farm where he "specialized in fruit culture."

Addie leased the East 74th Street house for several years.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on September 22, 1889 gave the rental price at the equivalent of about $5,000 per month in 2022 dollars.  She sold it to real estate operator John T. Farley in March 1891 for $25,000, who resold it in January the following year to Samuel W. Korn for $36,000.  His astounding short-term profit would be around $336,000 today.

Born in 1845 at Ostrow, Germany, Korn arrived in America in 1855, his family first settling at Olean, New York.  He and his wife, Jennie, had two sons, Albert and Harold, and a daughter, Florence.

Korn had been involved in his brother's retail clothing store in Olean, taking over control after his brother's retirement.  He begun his New York career in 1870 by partnering in the wholesale clothing business Korn & Holzman.  Upon his partner's death in 1888, the firm's name was changed to S. W. Korn & Co., and after his sons were brought into the business, to S. W. Korn, Sons & Co.

Never forgetting his German rooms, Korn was a member of the Freundschaft Club.  He was also highly involved in Jewish charities, and in 1895 became a trustee of the Jewish Theological Seminary.  The family's summer home was in West End, New Jersey.

The Korns had been in the East 74th Street residence for more than a decade before Samuel transferred title to Jennie in October 1904.  The delay was somewhat surprising, since the wives of wealthy businessmen commonly held title to real property as a matter of security.

The house was the scene of Florence's wedding reception on October 15, 1907.  She was married to Milton Lehman in the Madison Avenue B’nai Jeshurun synagogue.

The following summer the Korns leased the house to the Smith family.  The family narrowly dodged a horrific tragedy while staying here.  Susan Smith took her two children, four-year-old Mary and 16-month-old Michael, to see the Labor Day parade on September 7, 1908.  While they stood among the crowd, two horses, spooked by a band, "plunged wildly," as worded by the New York Herald.

Mary and Michael Smith, following their harrowing ordeal.  The Evening Telegram, September 7, 1908

The Evening Telegram reported that the horses jumped to the sidewalk, "striking the two children with their front feet [they] tore them from the mother's grasp."  The article continued, "The two children were knocked down, and falling directly under the horses, were about to be trampled upon, when the horses were seized by a policeman and held back while some of the many spectators dragged the children to safety."  They were taken to a nearby house when "it was found that except for shock and fright, they were all right."

Samuel W. Korn died in the East 74th Street house on December 21, 1909 at the age of 61.  He left $5,000 to various charities, and bequeathed the New Jersey house to Jennie, along with an annuity of $2,500 per year (about $76,800 today).  Men's Wear magazine noted, "It is stated in his will that no other bequest is made in behalf of Mrs. Korn, because he made ample provision for her during his life."

Jennie Korn remained in the house until 1926, when she sold it to Dr. Roy Upham and his wife, the former Edna Norma Tingley.  Born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts on March 16, 1879, Upham had studied medicine in New York, Vienna, London and Cairo.  By now he was a well-known gastroenterologist, and in addition to his practice lectured at the New York Medical College.

45 West 74th Street, seen here when the Uphams owned it, is the high-stooped house to the right.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Living in the house with the Uphams in 1940 were their cook, 36-year-old Martha Pasour, and John Simon, the houseman, who was 59.

Dr. Roy Upham was widowed when he died at the age of 76 on January 5, 1956.  His brilliant career was lauded by the newspapers reporting on his death.  He had founded the National Gastroenterological Association, as well as the American College of Gastroenterology, and in 1954 was named the outstanding alumnus of the year by the New York Medical College.

Later that the year, the vintage house was "awkwardly renovated," as worded by a restoration architect years later, into a multi-unit dwelling.  The renovations, completed in 1957, resulting in the removal of the 19th century architectural details, including the stoop, and giving the façade a veneer of brick.

Then, in 2009, Italian film producer Valerio Morabito purchased "the distressed townhouse," as described by The New York Times's Robin Finn later, for $10 million.  He hired renowned restoration architect Joseph Pell Lombardi to fix the mid-century vandalism.  The results were astounding.

Lombardi fashioned a reproduction 19th century Italianate façade with only the minutest hints--like the somewhat suspicious cornice--that this was not a 125-year-old survivor.  A columned portico sat above the stone stoop, and Renaissance-inspired pediments crowned the parlor and second floor windows.  The remarkable rehabilitation cost Marabito as much as he had initially paid for the property.

image via joseph pelllombardi.com

On November 15, 2013 The New York Times reported, "An ugly duckling townhouse that was the beneficiary of an ambitious $10 million neo-Roman makeover to restore its original 1879 panache with a striking façade of imported Italian limestone and a cornice that hides a rooftop soaking pool sold for $26 million."  The buyer was chief executive of commercial developer firm SOHO China, Zhang Xin.

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The Jennie Kelso Ewell House - 47 East 74th Street

 

Prolific real estate developer Jeremiah C. Lyons began construction on a row of eight five-story dwellings on East 74th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in 1898.  The architectural firm of Buchman & Deisler had designed them in two balanced groupings of four--A-B-B-A and C-B-B-C.  The westernmost house, an A model at 47 East 74th, was a dignified neo-Renaissance style residence faced in limestone.

A Doric portico upheld a two-story faceted bay decorated with a broken pediment at the second floor and crowned with a carved stone balcony.  The fifth floor sat between an intermediate cornice and the bracketed pressed metal terminal cornice. 

Lyons sold 47 East 74th Street in 1899 to Moses Newborg, the president of Newborg & Co., brokers.  It is unclear whether he and his family ever lived in the house, but in April the following year he resold it to Jennie Kelso Ewell.  The daughter of Andrew Varick Stout, president of the Shoe and Leather Bank, she had married his partner, John Newton Ewell, who  had died in 1885.  The couple had two children, Douglass Ewell (who died in 1897) and Caroline Elizabeth, known as Carrie.

Jennie's summer estate was in Northeast Harbor, Maine.  She shared it and the East 74th Street house with Caroline and her husband, DeWitt Parshall.  The couple had been married in a fashionable Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church ceremony on November 20, 1895.  Born in 1864, Parshall was a landscape artist.

Pashall's Grand Canyon is typical of his works.

Among Jennie's faithful servants was her coachman, Charles Heil, hired in 1885.  When she gave up her horses for a motorcar, he learned to drive and stayed on as her chauffeur.  On the evening of November 15, 1909 he took the Pashalls to dinner, and was returning to the Lenox Garage on East 74th Street when disaster occurred.

At Lexington Avenue and 75th Street, 9-year-old Joseph O'Connor darted into the street into the path of the automobile.  Although Heil was going "at a moderate rate of speed," according to a witness, he "was on the wrong side of the street and had no lights."  The New York Times reported, "The front wheel of the machine passed over the boy's head before the chauffeur brought it to a stop.  Jumping out, Heil lifted the boy up and carried him to the sidewalk.  Then, apparently becoming panic-stricken with fright, he threw the boy down, jumped back into his machine, and put on full power."

Bystanders called for him to stop, and O'Connor's playmates ran after the vehicle to get the license number.  Police easily traced it to Jennie Ewell and to the Lenox Garage.  There they found Heil "completely unnerved and weeping bitterly."  He claimed he had hurried to the garage to get help.  He was arrested on a charge of felonious assault.

Jennie Ewell told a reporter that in the 24 years he had been in her employ, he had never had an accident.  Nevertheless, the press coverage was not kind to the 51-year-old.  The New York Times headline read, "Boy Left dying By Fleeing Autoist."

It was Carrie who appeared in the society pages most often.  On February 19, 1910, for instance, the New York Herald announced, "Mr. and Mrs. DeWitt Pashall gave a reception yesterday afternoon at their home, No. 47 East Seventy-fifth street."

Jennie Kelso Stout Ewell died in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on July 26, 1916 at the age of 73.  Her funeral was held there and her body returned to New York and buried in Greenwood Cemetery.  She left an estate of over $7.5 million by today's conversion, all of which went to Carrie.

The Pashalls remained in at 47 East 74th Street until May 1920 when Carrie sold it to railroad executive Herbert N. Curtis.  The Pashalls moved to Santa Barbara, California.  

It was not long before Curtis's name appeared in the papers for a surprising and, perhaps, shocking reason.  On March 18, 1921 the 67-year-old bachelor appeared before Surrogate Judge Cohalan in hopes of adopting Mary Lois Fox "a professional entertainer, 29 years old," according to The New York Times.  He explained, according to the newspaper, "he met Miss Fox six years ago through his sister and that she taught him modern dancing steps for two years.  He has assisted her in placing negro songs before the public, he said."  Curtis told the judge he "wants to make her his foster daughter, he says, that she may be a comfort to him in his old age."

Judge Cohalan refused saying, "If that is your reason for wanting to adopt this young woman you won't do it with the aid of this court.  It is a parody on all laws of society, and if I were to be a party to such an adoption we would have a lot of old roues coming in here wanting to adopt young girls."

Mary Fox's attorney chimed in, saying that "the elderly man's interest in her was purely platonic and that his attitude had always been that of a father."  He said that Mary "expected to be married soon" and hoped to be able to treat Curtis "as her father and to have him live with her and her husband."  Mary Fox interjected that she "met him in a church choir."

Cohalan was unmoved.  The New York Times reported that he "decided that Miss Fox should wait until after her marriage and then she could either become the foster daughter of Mr. Curtis or she could adopt him as her son."

Curtis leased the house for the winter season of 1924-25.  On October 6, 1924 The New York Telegram and Evening Mail reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Parmentier will close their country place at Greenwich, Conn. this week, and will occupy for the winter the house at No. 47 East Seventy-fourth street."

The house was sold in 1945.  It saw a series of residents over the next decades, until being converted to apartments, two per floor, in 1999.

photographs by the author

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The Samuel Kempner House - 44 East 74th Street

 

image via elliman.com

In 1896 the T. C. Gordon had problems with their home at 44 East 74th Street.  On June 23 that year The Journal reported, "Mrs. Gordon spent the greater part of yesterday searching for another house.  The reason for moving is that noises which cannot be accounted for continue all day and night.  Doors that are locked at night are found open the next morning, and the impression is that the house is haunted."

The Gordons' seemingly possessed residence was one of 11 high-stooped Italianate brownstones erected in 1870 by developers Winters & Hunt.  Undaunted by rumored paranormal background, in the spring of 1899 Samuel Kempner purchased the 20-foot-wide residence.  The New York Press reported, "Mr. Kempner will remodel the house."

And remodel he did.  In May, architect George F. Pelham filed plans for renovations to cost the equivalent of $805,000 today.  He stripped off the brownstone front and removed the stoop, pulling the facade forward to the property line.  The resultant five-story English basement mansion was faced in limestone, its Beaux Arts design at the height of domestic fashion.

Above the rusticated base, a full-width stone balcony fronted French windows.  The top floor sat back from the bowed facade, providing an iron-railed balcony.  The design was crowned with a bracketed stone cornice.

Kempner and his wife, the former Rose Content, had no children.  Sharing the East 74th Street house with them were Kempner's parents, Marcus and Hannah.  Marcus died on July 17, 1911 at the age of 74, and his funeral was held in the drawing room that week.

Beginning in 1914, the Kempners leased the residence to Reuel Baker Kimball family.   He and his wife, the former Caroline Know, had two children, Reuel Jr., and Esther C.  America's entry into World War I in April 1917, threatened to upend Reuel Jr's studies.  On July 31 the New York Herald reported, "Reuel Baker Kimball of 44 East Seventy-fourth street, is a second year medical student.  He said he expected to be drafted, but understands that he will be given a furlough to continue his studies."

Young Kimball's medical studies went on despite the war.  original source unknown.

Two months after the article the Kimballs had moved on.  In September 1917 Samuel Kempner sold 44 East 74th Street to Parker D. Handy for $100,000--just over $2 million today.

Born in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1858, Handy was the president and chairman of Handy & Harmon, bankers and dealers in gold bullion and precious metals.  His wife, Anne Kissam Warner, came from an old and socially prestigious family.  They had three children, Truman P., Cortlandt W., and Ruth.

A year after moving in, the Handys announced Ruth's engagement to Ensign Ford Burchell.  The New-York Tribune noted on August 11, "Miss Handy is a member of the Junior League and was one of last season's debutantes.  Ensign Burchell was a student at Princeton, class '19, and left there to enlist in the Naval Reserve."

The wedding took place in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on November 16, 1918, with a reception in the East 74th Street house afterward.  The Sun noted, "Ensign Burchell and his bride will pass the winter in Newport, R.I., where he is stationed."

The Parkers' summer home, Groendak, in Glen Cove, New York, had been designed by architect C. P. H. Gilbert at the turn of the century.   But like other millionaire families, they traveled extensively, sometimes leaving the Glen Cove property shuttered for a season.  On July 15, 1923, for instance, The New York Times announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Parker D. Handy of 44 East Seventy-fourth Street have arrived at the Ocean House, Watch Hill, R.I. for the season," and on June 2, 1927 the New York Evening Post reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Parker D. Handy of 44 East Seventy-fourth Street have closed their house and will sail on Saturday on the Minnewaska for London.  They intend to take a motor trip through England, Scotland, and Wales, returning in August."

The Parker summer home, Groendak.  Architecture magazine, 1901 (copyright expired)

Parker D. Handy died at the age of 71 on November 12, 1929.  His funeral was held in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church three days later.  The New York Evening Post noted that all of the honorary pallbearers were graduates of Princeton University, of which Handy was a graduate and a life trustee.

Anne Handy stepped into her husband's post as chairman of the board of Handy & Harmon.  She served in that position until her death on March 15, 1934 at the age of 66.  Her funeral was held in the East 74th Street house on March 17.

The mansion next became home to Perle R. Mesta, the widow of George Mesta, an engineer and president of the Mesta Machine Company who died in 1925.  Upon his death she inherited a fortune of about $15 million in 1925 dollars.

She was highly visible in society, not only in New York City, but in Washington, D.C. where she maintained another home.  On February 17, 1939 The New York Sun reported, "Mrs. George Mesta of 44 East Seventy-fourth street, gave a luncheon party in the Iridium Room of the St. Regis yesterday in honor of Miss Patricia Peale, debutante daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rembrandt Peale of 138 East Seventy-ninth street."

But by then, Perle Mesta's passion was turning from society affairs to political issues.  Once a staunch Republican, she had taken a leading role in the National Woman's Party.   But around 1940 she switched parties, conducting successful fundraisers for Harry S. Truman and eventually becoming a close friend of the Truman family.

Perle Mesta left 44 East 74th Street around 1941.  Truman would appoint her the first United States minister to Luxembourg in 1949.  Her astounding life and career prompted Irving Berlin to write the musical Call Me Madam based on her story.

Perle Mesta in 1955.  image via britannica.com

In 1942 the mansion as converted to apartments.  Living on the first floor in 1947 was Meier Greenwald.  At 2 a.m. on June 5 that year, he was awakened by noises and discovered 23-year-old George Weltsch in his apartment.  The Daily Argus reported that Weltsch hit Greenwald "on the head with an automobile lug wrench during a tussle."  Police later found the wrench in the apartment.  Weltsch had made off with $1,000 worth of jewelry and other items.

Greenwald was in the toy business, and he believed he recognized Weltsch as a customer from Eastchester who had visited his apartment about a year earlier to see samples.  Detectives went to every toy and stationery store in Eastchester, New York until they found a proprietor who matched the description.  He admitted to jimmying the apartment door, but did not address the missing items.  Surprisingly, he was found guilty of breaking and entering, but cleared of burglary charges.

photograph by the author

In the early 2000's the ground floor was home to art galleries--first the Thompson, then the Carlton Rochell, and finally the Meredith Ward Fine Art gallery.  A renovation completed in 2014 returned the mansion to a single family home.

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The Benno Neuberger House - 55 East 74th Street

 

In 1898 the prolific real estate developer Jeremiah C. Lyons began construction on a row of eight five-story dwellings on East 74th Street between Park and Madison Avenues.  His architects, Buchman & Deisler, design them in two balanced groupings of four--A-B-B-A and C-B-B-C.  Among the C models was 55 East 74th, a dignified neo-Renaissance style residence faced in limestone.

Above a short stoop, the entrance sat within a handsome portico upheld by Scamozzi columns.  The pierced balcony railing at the second floor flowed into the continuous balustrade along the row.  An arched, cartouche-filled pediment sat above the center door at this level.  The bowed facade ended at the third floor, providing a stone railed balcony to the fourth.

Construction would be completed in spring of 1899, but Benno Neuberger did not wait that long.  On February 9, 1899 The Sun reported that he had purchased 55 East 74th Street "in course of construction."

Neuberger was born in Bremen, Germany in 1866 and came to New York in 1881.  He was the senior member of the tobacco firm of E. Rosenwald & Brother.  Highly involved with Jewish charities, he was the president of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, as well.  He and his wife, the former Stella Mayer, had two children, Florence Edna and Harry Hobson.  Moving in with the family was Stella's widowed mother, Fredricka Mayer.

Like their neighbors, the Neubergers filled the house with costly furnishings and decorations.  An inventory listed "an Aubusson tapestry suite of five pieces," an Aubusson tapestry fire screen, and Eduardo Leon Garrido's modern painting The Masque Ball, appraised at $8,000 by today's conversion.  Neuberger's German roots may have prompted him to buy a Benz automobile rather than an American-made vehicle.  It cost him $2,000, the equivalent of $53,400 in today's money.

from Empire State Notables, 1914 (copyright expired)

On January 4, 1911 Fredericka Mayer died at the age of 70.  Her funeral was held in the drawing room the following day.  That summer the family sailed for Germany, where Florence first met Ehrich Hecht, a well-to-do young agent for a Berlin exporting firm.  A romance was sparked.

The family was back in Germany in 1914.  Benno Neuberger was ill and sought "the cure" in Konigstein.  Not surprisingly, it seems that Ehrich Hecht was a regular caller on Florence.  But the trip ended tragically, with Neuberger dying of pneumonia there on July 6, 1914 at the age of 48.  He left an estate valued at $1,357,982--or about $36.3 million today.

The funeral and burial was held in Germany.  The family narrowly escaped being trapped abroad when, less than two weeks later on July 28, World War I erupted.  

Once back home, Harry joined the Tenth Field Artillery to fight against the country his father had so dearly loved.  He was sent to the French front in 1918 where he would receive what the New York Herald called, "his baptism of fire at Chateau-Thierry."  Harry performed valiantly during the harrowing battle.  The New York Herald reported, "He continued to assist in the evacuation of the wounded even after being gassed," and noted grimly, "Of his regiment only three more men are left.  All the others were either killed, wounded or detached."

New York Herald, February 25, 1919 (copyright expired)

On February 24, 1919 Harry was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism overseas.

Just months after peace was declared, Florence resumed her romance with Ehrich.  Anti-German sentiments still ran high in America, a fact that, perhaps, resulted in their marriage being quietly held in the East 74th Street house on October 25, 1919.  The New York Times commented that the groom was "said to be the first German subject to arrive here since the war."  The article noted, "Mr. Hecht was employed in the German War Office during the hostilities, but it was said that he intends becoming an American citizen if permitted to do so."

In April 1920, Harry Neuberger sold the house to the Stevenson C. Scott family.  Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1864, Scott was the son of a portrait painter.  He came to the United States in 1893, and was now a respected art critic and the president of Scott & Fowles, art dealers.  He was an authority on 18th century English painting and, according to The Saratogian, "possessed a comprehensive knowledge of modern and classical art."

He and his wife, the former Marie Power, had one daughter, Marie.   The family was followed by the society columns as they sailed to Europe, or summered in Saratoga Springs, New York.  Understandably, the home of the man who sold paintings to wealthy collectors and institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art filled his home with valuable artwork.  In 1939 he traveled to London where he created "a mild sensation" in art circles, according to The Saratogian, "when he paid $30,000 at Christies for Whistler's famous painting, At the Piano."  It was the highest price ever paid for a Whistler at the time.

Scott paid the equivalent of $560,000 in today's money for At the Piano.  from the collection of The Taft Museum, Cincinnati.

In January 1945, Stevenson Scott injured his hip when he suffered a fall in the East 74th Street house.  The family went to the fashionable Gideon Putnam resort in Saratoga Springs for his convalescence.   He died there nine months later, on October 8 at the age of 81.

The East 74th Street house was soon purchased by Dr. Otto  Burchard and his wife Berta.  The couple remained here until selling it in December 1951.  The New York Times noted that the buyer intended to remodel it into "apartments of four rooms each."  That plan was never carried through.

At the time, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was living at 211 East 62nd Street.  She had met Dr. David Gurewitsch in 1944 and the two became extremely close, platonic friends, often traveling together.  When Gurewitsch married Edna Perkel in 1958, the deep friendship increased by one.  According to Shannon Butler in her Roosevelt Homes of the Hudson Valley: Hyde Park and Beyond, Eleanor "soon treated Edna as an additional companion, and they traveled all over the world and formed a tight bond of friendship."

Dr. David Gurewitsch and Eleanor Roosevelt outside the Kremlin.  from the Everett Collection

Butler explains, "It was Edna who mentioned the possibility of the three sharing a townhouse together that would give Eleanor more room to work and David space to see patients."  In 1959 the three purchased 55 East 74th Street, with Eleanor taking the lower three floors and the Gurewitsches living on the top two.  While they lived separately, the Gurewitsches would often dine with Eleanor.

Living with a diplomat had its challenges.   According to The Wall Street Journal writer Katherine Clarke, "One day in 1960, Edna Gurewitsch got a call from former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt suggesting she get to their shared townhome early: Soviet statesman Nikita Khruschev, in town to address the U.N. General Assembly, was swinging by."

Less than three years after moving in, Eleanor Roosevelt went to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center on September 26, 1962 for what the public was told was "a routine checkup."  But, the Utica Press later noted, "Actually she had suffered a lung infection and anemia.  When her illness failed to yield [to] hospital treatment, she was discharged to her Manhattan apartment at 55 East 74th Street on October 18."

The modestly furnished room in which Eleanor Roosevelt died.  from the collection of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum

The First Lady "gradually faded," according to the article, until she died at 6:15 on the evening of November 6, 1962.

In 1964 an auction of Eleanor Roosevelt's personal items was held at Hammer Galleries.  The New York Times reported, "The collection comes from Mrs. Roosevelt's residences at 55 East 74th Street and the Val-Kill Cottage on the Roosevelt estate at Hyde Park, N.Y."  While many of the items were valuable antiques, like the 1750 George III melon-shaped silver pitcher, and the American Sheraton-style mahogany breakfront, a surprising number of the First Lady's furnishings were modest.  The New York Times diplomatically said, "In every case, though the furniture in the collection may have what is known as age, the articles are not period pieces."

David Gurewitsch died in 1974 and by 1976 Edna was operating the Gurewitsch Gallery from the house.  In April that year she staged an exhibition of sculptures by George Rickey here. 

She remained at 55 East 74th Street until 1999, when she sold it to Credit Suisse executive Vikram Gandhi and his wife, Meera, the founder of the Giving Back Foundation.   The nonprofit raises funds for education and to fight global poverty.  Through her works, Meera Gandhi, like Eleanor Roosevelt, would host prominent guests like Hillary Clinton in the house.  In 2000, the Gandhis made major renovations to the interior, eliminating Buchman & Deisler's 1899 architectural elements.

In the fall of 2021, with her children grown, Meera Gandhi sold 55 East 74th Street for $13.5 million.  In reporting the sale, The New York Times noted, "It has around 8,500 square feet of interior space and features terraces on the roof and fifth floor and a rear garden.  There are also six bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half baths."

photograph by the author

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The Wm. Walton Rutherfurd House - 14 East 74th Street

On September 14, 1873 the new brownstone house at No. 14 East 74th Street was offered for sale by real estate agent V. K. Stevenson, Jr.  The 22-foot wide house was one of a string of seven erected by developer James A. Coburn.  Four stories tall above an English basement, the Italianate house featured the expected high stoop of the style.

By the 1890's the house was home to James Hervey Sanford and his wife, the former Lucy Sistare.  Born in New Haven, Connecticut  on December 17, 1812, Sanford had graduated from Yale Law School in 1834.  He practiced law just one year before becoming a part-owner and editor of the Journal of Commerce in New York City.  But in 1857 he left after his views of slavery clashed with the newspaper's.

He married Lucy, daughter of banker George K. Sistare, on September 8, 1859.   The couple had one daughter.  Sanford had purchased the Buffalo Courier upon leaving the Journal of Commerce, but he sold it in 1862 and the couple returned to New York.   Sanford settled into retirement, living quietly with his wife and daughter and traveling extensively in Europe with them.

James Hervey Sanford contracted a serious case of influenza in December 1898.  He died on the day after Christmas at the age of 86.   Interestingly, there was no funeral.  The New York Times reported only that "There was no service over the remains, and the interment was private."

Two months later, on February 22, 1899 the New York Journal reported that Lucy Sanford had sold "the four-story, high-stoop private dwelling."  Both parties kept the price paid quiet, the article noting the sale was made "on private terms."

The buyer was the Rev. William Walton Rutherfurd and his wife, the former Anna Jackson.  The New York Times later mentioned "The Rutherfurds, who originally came from New Jersey, where the family owns much land, were prominent even in Colonial Days."  Rutherfurd had been ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church on June 16, 1889 and was now connected with Trinity Church on Wall Street.  His religious duties did not interfere with the couple's upscale lifestyle.

The Rutherfords did not immediately move into the 74th Street brownstone.  Instead, on July 27 the New-York Tribune reported that they had boarded the steamship Barbarossa for Europe.  The timing of the trip made perfect sense since the Rutherfurds had commissioned architect Stockton B. Colt to completely make over their new home.

In 1900 they moved into an unrecognizable residence.  Colt had removed the stoop and stripped off the brownstone cladding.  The new American basement plan placed the entrance in the center of the stone base.  Two sets of French doors opened onto a wide French balcony at the second floor, or piano nobile.   French turned to neo-Georgian on the upper floors, faced in variegated yellow Roman brick.  Bold splayed limestone lintels decorated the openings of the second and third floors.

A decorative terra cotta bandcourse introduced the understated fourth floor, ornamented only by recessed panels.  A bracketed stone cornice upheld the slate-tiled mansard roof, embellished with copper-clad dormers and prominent stone chimneys.

William officiated at the wedding of his equally wealthy brother, stock broker John Alexander Rutherfurd, and Cora Baker Davis on May 7, 1905.  It was one of the few times newspapers mentioned Rev. Rutherfurd's name in connection with a religious service.  Instead, society columns followed the couple's movements from one fashionable watering hole to the next.

On September 19, 1902, for instance, The New York Times had announced "The Rev. and Mrs. William Walton Rutherfurd are at Hot Springs of Virginia," and in reporting on the social events at Lenox on July 25, 1908, the New-York Tribune noted "There has been much bridge whist this week.  Mrs. William Walton Rutherfurd was hostess at a large entertainment this week in the Curtis Hotel."  The same week The New York Times reported that the Rutherfurds "will open their cottage at Bar Harbor to-day.  They have been recently visiting at Lenox."

But the whirlwind of resorts and bridge parties was about to come to an end.  On January 29, 1909 Anna died of pneumonia in the 74th Street house.  Her funeral was held at Trinity Church on February 1.

William remained briefly at No. 14.  Later that year in December he gave a dinner at the Metropolitan Club for Miss Estelle Crosby.  The wife of another wealthy and socially-visible Episcopal priest, Alfred Duane Pell, "chaperoned the young people," according to The Times. 

He soon leased the house and moved permanently to England.  On August 26, 1919 The Sun reported "The Rev. William Walton Rutherfurd, who has been in this country for several weeks the guest of his brother, John A. Rutherfurd, will return this week to England."  It may have been that visit that convinced him to finally sell No. 14.

Title was transferred to Townsend Hornor in January 1920.  A prominent real estate operator, his name (which newspapers routinely misspelled Horner) appeared in sports pages as a golfer, fisherman, and yachtsman.  His wife, whom he married in 1909, was the former Belva Dula, daughter of Robert R. Dula, a vice-president of the American Tobacco Co.

The Hornors maintained two country homes, Rocklee in Rye, New York, and another in Greenwich, Connecticut.  They also used the Dula estate, Inglenook, in Tarrytown on the scenic Hudson River. 

Not long after moving in Belva was looking for a new cook.  Her advertisement in The New York Herald on March 16, 1921 read "Cook, $65; two in family; best references required."  Cooks were routinely the highest paid among domestic staffs.  The wages offered would be about $890 today.

John began suffering heart trouble in 1923.  After having two cardiac operations he was taken to the Connecticut residence to recuperate.  He died there on August 4 at the age of 44.

Within two years Belva had remarried.  In 1925 Belva was listed in social registers as Countess Belva-Dula Pieri.  She sold No. 14 East 74th Street to James Gardner Shepherd and his new wife, the former Celia B. Rine.    Shephard and Celia had been married that year, shortly after his divorce from his wife, Myrtle.

Shepherd had retired from the mining and banking businesses about a decade earlier.  He focused greatly now on his art collection, filling the 74th Street house with notable works.  The New York Times later remarked "In the art gallery in his home Mr. Sheperd had one of the world's finest Corot collections and a large collection of Barye bronzes."  Other artists represented in the collection were John Singer Sargent, Narcisse Virgilio Diaz, and Albert Ryder.

Jean-Francois Millet's 1875 "The Woodchopper" was among Shepherd's collection.  Art Institute of Chicago

Perhaps more than any previous owners, the Shepherds entertained often.  On December 8, 1926, for instance, The New York Times reported that the couple "gave a dinner followed by a musical program last night at their home."   Operatic singers Harriet Maconel and Eleanor Rogers were accompanied by harpist Mario de Stephano.  The Shepherds took advantage of the pipe organ installed by the Rutherfurds by having Dr. Harry Rowe Shelly play.

Nevertheless, the house was quite often closed as the Shepherds traveled.  On February 8, 1928 they left in their private railroad car, the Newport, for Palm Beach.  They were back in March, but almost immediately left for Europe.  They returned on the steamship Berengaria in June, and then headed to "their country home, Paradise Camp, Grace Pond, Jackman, Maine," on June 27th as reported by The Times.

Back in town for the winter season, the Shepherds hosted a dinner on November 15, 1928.  The New York Times listed among the guests Prince and Princess Nicolas Kara-Georgevitch.

Socialites were expected to dress the part, even during the Depression years.  In 1931 Celia agreed to a cost-savings ploy that landed her in hot water and made her the focus of humiliating publicity.  Her Paris dressmaker suggested that an employee, Lotti Leroy, accompany the Shepherds to New York with Celia's new gowns packed in Lotti's trunks.  Because Lotti was French, said the couturier, Customs officials would assume they were her own apparel, and were not being imported.  It did not work.

On July 1 Celia returned to New York on the Leviathan.  Lotti Leroy was also on the passenger list.  Lotti informed the Customs officials that she was a French resident and the gowns were hers.  But they were not fooled.

"It was evident that the exclusive Paris models were not made for her and upon further questioning she admitted that they were for Mrs. Shepherd, who was fined $8,000," reported The New York Times on July 26.  But Celia's embarrassment did not end there.  Treasury agents began looking closer to earlier Customs documents from voyages on which the Shepherds were passengers.

They discovered "that several other costly Paris evening dresses had been brought over and delivered to Mrs. Shepherd free of duty by the salaried agent of the French dressmakers," said the article.  "Further duties and penalties amounting to $22,000 were levied and Mrs. Shepherd was permitted to keep the gowns after she had paid the total of $30,000."  The significant amount would be equal to about $483,000 today.

On March 18, 1935, about eight months after he was stricken with chronic nephritis (a kidney condition), James Gardner Shepherd died in the 74th Street house at the age of 67. 

Celia sold the "five-story residence with elevator and garden," to Willam A. Garrigues.  The son of William A. and Lillie Maxwell Garrigues, he had graduated from Princeton in 1919 and was a partner in Levering & Garrigues, iron manufacturers.  He remained until February 1946 when he sold it "for occupancy."

But the buyers, Fourteen East Seventy-Fourth Corporation, had other things in mind.  A conversion to apartments was begun in 1950.  Completed the following year, it resulted in furnished rooms throughout and one apartment on the third floor.  The entrance was converted to a window and the doorway moved to the side. 

When the house was sold in March 1953, The New York Times noted that the buyer "will occupy one of the apartments after minor alterations."  The alterations were not that minor.  There was now one apartment per floor within the building.

It was not uncommon for converted mansions in the neighborhood to house upscale art galleries and in 1963 the Reyn Gallery operated from No. 14.  Owner Alfred Reyn lived in the building, as well.  In the fall that year he staged a showing of artist Jef Banc's "oils, washes, and collages."  But as it turned out the Federal Government was interested in Reyn not for his paintings, but for other activities.

The Reyn Gallery was a front for Alfred's gambling operation.  He was arrested on July 6, 1964 in a novel scheme by United States Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.   The 57-year old was not charged with illegal gambling, but with failing to pay taxes on the alleged $1 million he had grossed in the past few years on wagers, and with filing untrue tax returns.

There are still just five apartments, one per floor, in the building.  And other than the disappointing loss of the entrance and the unsympathetic treatment of the French doors above, outwardly the house is little changed since the Rutherfords' remarkable makeover in 1900.

photographs by the author