The 1899 Chas. Hudson Mansion -- No. 3 East 76th Street

An electric street lamp sits across the street from the newly-completed mansion.  The J. J. Wysong mansion would rise on the vacant Fifth Avenue lot next door.  In the background another Fifth Avenue mansion is under construction.  photo by Wurts Bros from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWP9OVC1&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

As the 19^th century drew to an end, Charles I. Hudson was doing well for himself.  He had formed the brokerage firm of C. I. Hudson & Co. with partner Albert H. De Forest in 1885, had garnered a substantial fortune, and lived with his family in a handsome home at No. 36 West 52^nd Street.  In 1894 he was one of the millionaire founders of the Thousand Islands Club, a private summer community “which embraces in its membership a number of well-known New-Yorkers,” as described by The New York Times.

Now, in 1898 like many other wealthy New Yorkers, Hudson looked to move uptown near Fifth Avenue and Central Park, away from the encroaching commerce.  He purchased the lot at No. 1 East 76^th Street and laid plans for a fine new mansion.  His choice of architects is a matter of contention.  The Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide mentioned on April 13, 1918, “Hiss & Weekes were the architects.”  Generations later the Landmarks Preservation Commission would credit Brite & Bacon with the design.

Whoever was responsible, the result was striking.  In 1899 the five-story neo-Jacobean residence was completed.  The regal composition was distinguished by a two-story bay of leaded casements that supported a carved-stone balcony.  The brick and stone façade culminated in a decorative parapet that hid the fifth floor from the street.  Although the mansion was a commodious 30-feet wide, an areaway between it and the property at the Fifth Avenue corner allowed the luxury of windows in  the western wall.

Hudson and his wife, the former Sara Kierstede, had four sons:  Percy Kierstede, Hans Kierstede, Charles Alan, and Hendrick.  With no daughters in the house, Sara Hudson was relieved (or deprived) of debutante entertainments.  She was highly visible, however, in the charitable events and causes expected of Manhattan socialites.  The family spent the summer seasons at its country estate at East Norwich, Long Island.

The family was doubtlessly embarrassed when Charles Hudson’s name appeared in newspapers for a physical confrontation on the floor of the Stock Exchange on March 5, 1900.  When a “telephone boy,” Florence E. Finnegan, upbraided Hudson for selling sugar below the price he was given, trouble ensued.

“Mr. Hudson is a man of middle age, and Finnegan has just attained his majority,” said The New York Times the following day.  The millionaire was unaccustomed to back-talk from a boy and became enraged when Finnegan answered “That won’t do, Mr. Hudson.  The order was 98-1/2 and I don’t turn in not’in’ different, see?”

After what The Times described as a “lively discussion” Hudson reached his breaking point.  “Mr. Hudson swung and landed with his right on Finnegan’s right eye.  The telephone boy fell, and when he got up he was without his glasses, but he had blood in his eye, figuratively and literally.  A crowd had to keep them apart.”

Hudson was suspended from the Exchange for 30 days—the maximum penalty possible.

The wealthy family of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Lea lived in Philadelphia; but as their daughter Majorie Vaughan Lea approached marrying age, they spent more and more time in New York City.  Marjorie’s debut into society took place in New York the same year that Charles Hudson had his skirmish with the young Finnegan boy.

Marjorie and her parents spent the following winter season in New York; and by October 1902 she and Percy Kierstede Hudson were engaged.  That same month Charles Hudson purchased a new private carriage house at No. 178 East 73rd Street.

Less than eight years later the remaining Hudson boys would begin leaving home.  In May 1910 Hendrick was married to Helen Morgan Frith.  Five months later on October 14, the engagement of Hans to Ethel Le Roy De Koven was announced and Charles’ wedding to Eleanor Granville Brown would soon be in the planning stages.

 Perhaps it was their sons’ impending marriages that prompted Charles and Sara to sell their impressive mansion in May 1910--or it could have been the construction of the newly-completed J. J. Wysong mansion on the Fifth Avenue corner that prompted the sale.  As the Wysong house went up, the Hudsons lost their view “overlooking Fifth avenue” that the Record & Guide had noted.

Whatever the reason, on May 15, 1910 The New York Times reported that Hudson had sold the house for $300,000—a satisfying $7 million by today’s standards.  The purchaser was Robert Franklin Adams.

With the construction of the Wysong mansion, the house numbers along the 76th Street block changed.  Rather than take the prestigious Fifth Avenue address, the new mansion took No. 1 East 76th Street.  That meant that the Hudson house became No. 3 and so forth down the block.

Adams was Vice President of the Adams Manufacturing Company.  A member of the exclusive University, Lotos and New York Yacht Clubs; the motorcar enthusiast was also a member of the Automobile Club of America.  A year after purchasing the house, Adams’ shiny limousine would be the victim of a runaway horse and cart.

On April 8, 1911 a horse attached to an ash cart was spooked in front of No. 36 West 52nd Street.  The driver was thrown from the cart and the panicked horse galloped onto Fifth Avenue, “narrowly missing several carriages,” reported The New York Times the following day.

“As the runaway tore down the avenue there was a wild scampering of autos and other traffic,” said the newspaper.  As the horse tore down Fifth Avenue with the ash cart careening behind, it approached Robert Adams automobile parked at the curb at 46th Street.  “The horse tore the running board from its side and threw out the chauffeur, Charles Bender.”  The collision slowed the animal enough that mounted Patrolman Plagge was able to get the horse under control.

Adams and his wife, the former Lona O’Brien, had two children, Edith and Robert.   While Sara Hudson had no opportunity to throw debutante entertainments, Lona Adams would.  Edith’s coming out was celebrated in 1913 and the entertainments ended with a reception in the house on December 30.

Three years later on February 2, 1916 Edith was married to Jules Glaenzer in St. Thomas’s Church on Fifth Avenue.  The wedding would be followed by “a large reception,” according to The New York Press two weeks earlier.

The following March Edith was back in the 76^th Street house for the birth of her baby.  In 1917 the wealthy were most often still seen by doctors in their private homes; rather than hospitals and clinics.  In May Robert Adams Glaenzer was born in his grandparents’ mansion.

Only a few days later the engagement of Robert to Jennie Frances Marston was announced.  As with the Hudson family, perhaps the childrens’ leaving the house was cause enough to sell.  Adams sold the house for $225,000. 

In 1929 No. 3 East 76^th Street was owned by Mrs. Dorothy G. Pagenstecher.  I. N. Phelps Stokes had recently purchased the ten-story apartment building at No. 952 Fifth Avenue, around the corner.  On April 28, 1929 the New York Times reported that he had bought the Pagenstecher mansion “to protect the light of the apartment house.”  He paid Dorothy Pagenstecher $200,000 for the property.

Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes was not merely the son of fabulously wealthy Anson Phelps Stokes; he was an architect and partner in the firm Howells & Stokes.  At the time of the purchase he had just completed the authoritative 6-volume work entitled The Iconography of Manhattan Island.  He had married Edith Minturn in 1895 and the couple was immortalized by one of their wedding gifts--a double portrait by John Singer Sargent.

The newly-weds were immortalized in their wedding gift portrait.  Unlike so many of Sargent's society portraits, the Stokes are wearing casual clothing -- http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/38.104

On December 27, 1931 Stokes transferred the title to No. 3 East 76^th Street to Edith.  The mansion was converted to apartments—two each on the first four floors and a penthouse on the fifth.  The upscale apartments were home to equally-upscale tenants for decades.

Somewhat unexpectedly in residential design, the date of construction was carved within the ornately-carved Jacobean-style cartouch.

Then in 2004 the Hudson mansion was purchased by the Hewitt School and converted to classrooms.  The private girls’ school uses the house as its “lower school” for grades kindergarten through 4.  Despite its current use and expected alterations—the wonderful bronze entrance doors are gone, the first floor window has been converted to a doorway, and the servants’ entrance now contains a rather commercial-looking door—the wonderful and unusual neo-Elizabethan house is greatly intact.

non-credited photographs taken by the author

The 1854 Phelps-Morgan Mansion No. 231 Madison Avenue

In the decade before the Civil War, wealthy New Yorkers in the fashionable Bond Street neighborhood were just beginning to consider leaving their refined homes like those composing the white marble LaGrange Terrace as commercial enterprises slowly encroached.

Three connected families, however, evacuated early. The Phelps and Dodge families had made their immense fortunes mining copper. In 1852 John Jay Phelps, Isaac N. Phelps and William E. Dodge purchased the block of land on Madison Road (later to become Madison Avenue) between 36th and 37th Street and began construction on three impressive brownstone mansions with shared gardens and stables. At the time Madison extended no further than 42nd Street.

The residences were completed a year later. A graceful wrought iron fence set in a limestone wall wrapped the properties, protecting the three impressive Anglo-Italian homes.

Isaac Newton Phelps owned No. 231, the northern-most of the houses. Unlike his copper mining neighbors, his wealth--estimated at the time at around $5 million, or nearly $130 million by today's standard--was made in hardware, banking and real estate.

Phelps was already retired when he moved in with his wife, the former Sarah Maria Lusk, and their children.  At the time of his death thirty-five years later in 1888, the house and furnishings, valued at $175,000 were left to his daughter Helen Louise Stokes.

By this time J. Pierpont Morgan was living in the home built by John Jay Phelps at the 36th Street corner, having purchased it in 1882.

Mabel Youngson was employed as a maid at No. 231 in 1892. Working with her boyfriend, Arthur Morley, who was a servant a block away at No. 214, she slowly spirited costly items out of the mansion. After several months, Mrs. Stokes realized that over $2000 worth of china, jewelry and even rugs were missing. Youngson, however, gave the police the slip.  Although much of the stolen property was recovered, the maid escaped to England.

Within a week of the death of Mrs. William E. Dodge in 1903 in No. 225, the house next to his, Morgan purchased her home.  Before a year had passed he had also purchased the Stokes house at No. 231 as a gift to his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. and his wife, the former Jane Norton Grew.

With no real need for the former Dodge house between the two residences, Morgan Sr. demolished it to create space for a shared garden.  In the meantime, Morgan, Jr. had the forty-five rooms of No. 231 professionally redecorated. The mid-Victorian interiors were renovated with lavish woodwork, intricate ceiling plaster detailing and richly carved mantles.

Young girls roller skate past J. P. Morgan Sr.'s house as a carriage with liveried coachmen passes the spot where the Dodge mansion had stood.  -- Library of Congress

The house was the scene of theft once again when John Bernauer sneaked in on January 26, 1912. Despite the family’s staff of 18 servants, he was able to make off with $4,500 worth of silver and cut glass. Unlike Mabel Youngson, however, the police finally arrested him in October after a string of similar burglaries of upscale residences.

In 1928 No. 231 became the last remaining house on the block when J. P. Morgan Senior’s mansion was demolished to accommodate an annex to the Morgan Library.



In 1928 No. 231 was the last of the original three mansions still standing -- nypl collection

The house was often the scene of sumptuous entertaining.  Even after Mrs. Morgan died on August 14, 1925, Morgan hosted a string of debutante dinners and dances in the house from 1934 through 1939 for his granddaughters. Five hundred guests were entertained on December 18, 1936, for instance. The Alexander Haas orchestra played as guests danced in the library and the entire first floor was decorated with palm trees, chrysanthemums, roses and other flowers.

J. P. Morgan, Jr. died on March 13, 1943. By September the United Lutheran Church in America was planning the purchase of the house as its national headquarters.  In December Parke-Bernet Galleries announced that the furnishings and artwork from the mansion would be sold at a series of three auctions beginning January 6, 1944.

Items being sold from the house were an Oriental Lowestoft porcelain bowl, said to have been used at the christening of George Washington in 1732, 18th century gold boxes, two French 18th century enamel portrait miniatures of Benjamin Franklin, French and English furniture and Oriental rugs.

The Lutheran Church of America moved in a year later, having spent $245,000 on the purchase. The Rev. Franklin Clark Fry established his office in front of the built-in cabinet where the Morgan children’s toys had been stored. The Rev. George F. Harkins, assistant to Dr. Fry, worked in what had been Mrs. Morgan’s boudoir under the frescoed ceiling by German artist Rosa Kauffmann. Crystal chandeliers on the main floor were still in use – valued at $5000 each in 1955.



Not long after this photograph was taken, the tall brick chimneys were demolished, as was the carriage house immediately behind the mansion.  -- nypl collection

Although the Lutherans treated the interiors with respect, they place no historical importance on the structure. In June 1955 the tall, imposing brick chimneys were hammered apart and the coach house was demolished. In its place a modern 4-story building was erected.

As summer approached in 1965, the Lutheran Church applied for a zoning change that would allow the demolition of the mansion and construction of a 12-to-15-story office building. The church complained that it needed more space.

Strong opposition from civic and political groups was voiced at a public hearing at City Hall. Mrs. Eleanor Clark French, the city’s Commissioner to the United Nations protested that it would “destroy part of a beautiful entity.” Surprisingly, perhaps, the Rev. George Koski, a Lutheran minister from the Bronx was extremely vocal against the demolition, calling the mansion “an oasis of beauty in the middle of a turbulent town.”

Other protesters included the American Institute of Architects and the Municipal Art Society.

The New York City Landmark Preservation Commission rushed to protect the structure, giving it landmark designation that year. But the church was undaunted and sued in the State Court of Appeals.

The magnificent exterior ironwork was a late-19th century addition.

Two years later the battle was still raging. H. Ober Hess, speaking for the Lutheran Church in America, felt that the mansion “has never been in a New York City guidebook,” and therefore was expendable.

To the astonishment and severe disappointment of preservationists and most New Yorkers, the Court of Appeals reversed the landmark status on July 15, 1974 in a 5-to-2 decision. The fate of the Morgan Mansion, it seemed, was sealed.

But by now the Lutheran Church had run out of money. A church spokesman said that because “money is no longer available today for building,” it would keep the Morgan house “as is.” The perilous situation, however, unnerved preservationists.

Beverly Moss Spatt, chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission was “shocked and disappointed” by the decision. Eminent preservation architect Giorgio Cavaglieri said the ruling “concerns itself with the fact that the owners of this building deserve the consideration of certain amounts of money. If they are entitled to compensation the local government has the responsibility to provide such compensation so that New York’s citizens in the future , as well as the present, can at least have some living record of their visual heritage.”

The Commission refused to give up and in 1974 it re-designated the house a landmark.

The Morgan Library's 2006 addition now fills the void where the William E. Dodge mansion once stood.

Finally in 1988 the mansion was purchased by the Morgan Library. Architects Voorsanger & Mills melded the house with the Library by means of a modern glass wing. The interiors of the house were tenderly preserved. The rooms in which 500 guests dined and danced in 1936 are now home to the gift shop and bookstore, as well as a small café. Offices and conference rooms are housed upstairs.

The Morgan mansion is one of Manhattan’s few existing free-standing brownstone mansions; one which only barely managed to survive.  In 1974, Beverly Moss Spatt urged “We must preserve such buildings not only for themselves but for the preservation of the entire city. The Morgan house is evocative of its period and has a wealth of architectural detail, dignity, and simplicity.”

non-credited photographs taken by the author