The Nehemiah Cohn House - 250 East 33rd Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

Around 1855, a long row of brick-faced homes was erected on the south side of East 33rd Street between Second and Third Avenues.  Three stories tall above brownstone English basements, they exhibited elements of the waning Greek Revival style--particularly in the stone entrance frame, with its paneled stone pilasters and corniced entablature.  But even here, a decorative carved rosette above the doorway strayed from the expected sternness of Greek Revival.  Handsome Italianate-style cast ironwork originally protected the areaway and stoop, and individual cast cornices with foliate brackets, also Italianate in style, finished the design.

The cornice brackets are purely Italianate in style.  photo by Anthony Bellov

The presence of Irish immigrants in the Kips Bay district was reflected in the early inhabitants of 156 East 33rd Street (renumbered 250 in 1865).  In 1855, Michael Burke lived here.  He was a member of the Thomas Francis Meagher Club, which supported the Irish nationalist and leader in the Rebellion of 1848.  The Burkes were followed by Mary A. Rice, the widow of Henry Rice, and in 1864 by Daniel and Eliza Fitzgerald.  

The parlor was the scene of a somber funeral on November 23, 1864.  Jessie Fitzgerald, Daniel and Eliza's only son, had died two days earlier at the age of four-and-a-half.

The Fitzgeralds remained until 1865 when Nehemiah Cohn and his wife, the former Caroline Metzger, purchased the house.  Born in Germany in 1825, Cohn was in the tobacco and cigar business Nehemiah Cohn & Co. with his brother, Jacob.  They had two locations, one on Fulton Street and the other on South Street.  Nehemiah was a Master in the Darcy Lodge of the Freemasons.

The population within the house quickly grew.  Cecilia Cohn was born in 1866 and her sister, Josie, arrived the following year.  A third daughter, Flora, would follow.  

In 1868, brothers Marx M. and Aaron Myres were also listed at the address, presumably boarders.  They, with their brother Daniel M., comprised the Myres Brothers drygoods business on Third Avenue.

Nehemiah and Jacob Cohn found themselves facing a judge in the United States Commissioners' Court on July 21, 1869.  The previous year, the Internal Revenue Service had passed a law requiring that tobacco offered for sale be stamped as evidence that the necessary taxes had been paid.  The Cohn brothers were charged "with fraudulently evading certain provisions of the Internal Revenue laws."  Four days later, the commissioner dismissed the charges, saying the Cohns "proved by their clerk that he never knew of any sale of tobacco that was unstamped."

Among Cohn's suppliers was tobacconist John R. Sutton & Brothers.  On September 5, 1871, Sutton & Brothers fired Charles Kohler, a young man who had worked there for some time.  Kohler walked directly to Nehemiah Cohn & Co. at 12 Fulton Street and said he had been sent to collect a bill of $95 for a recent purchase.  On April 18, 1872, the New York Herald reported, "Mr. Cohn, supposing Kohler was still in Sutton & Brothers' employ, paid the amount demanded, and did not find that he had been swindled until several weeks later."

In the meantime, Kohler had fled town and got a job with the Erie Railroad.  Unfortunately for him, the train on which he was working pulled into New York City on April 17, 1872.  He "was at once arrested and taken before Judge Dowling at the Tombs Police Court," said the New York Herald.  (Nehemiah Cohn's $95, which would translate to around $2,500 in 2025 terms, was gone.)

Caroline Metzger Cohn died on June 14, 1874.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of 250 East 33rd Street three days later.  

In the summer of 1879, Cohn was called as a potential juror in a sensational murder case.  Mrs. Jane DeForrest Hull, wife of Dr. Alonso J. Hull, was found dead in their mansion at 4 West 42nd Street on the morning of June 11, 1879.  She was blindfolded, gagged, and her feet and wrists were tied with strips of bedsheets.  Jane Hull came from the DeForrest family, who was described by the Colorado newspaper The Rocky Mountain News as "wealthy and aristocratic" and who had "left her a fortune."  Suspicion quickly focused on "a negro named Chastine Cox," according to the Rocky Mountain News, who had previously been the family's private waiter.  When Chastine Cox was arrested weeks after the murder, Mrs. Hull's watch was found on him.

Finding an unbiased jury would prove problematic.  Not only had Mrs. Hull been socially esteemed, the defense attorneys would be facing rampant racism.  On July 16, 1879, the New-York Tribune reported that the process had taken two days.  Among those selected was Nehemiah Cohn.  Describing him as "a dealer in cigars," the New-York Tribune said, "he had no opinion on the case that he could not lay aside on entering the jury box," adding, "He was regarded as a competent juryman, and took the last chair."

(On July 24, 1880, Chastine Cox was hanged in the courtyard of The Tombs, downtown.)

The molded window cornices, seen in the neighboring houses, had been shaved flat by 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Among the 237 young women who graduated in the commencement exercises of The Normal College on June 26, 1884 was Cecilia Cohn.  She found a position teaching in the primary department of Grammar School No. 14 on East 27th Street, where she would remain for years.

Among the death notices in the New York Herald on May 17, 1890, was the astonishingly succinct announcement, "Cohn--On Thursday morning, Nehemiah Cohn."  The 65-year-old was buried next to Caroline in Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens.

Flora Cohn's engagement to Julius Starfield was announced on November 18, 1894.  The New York Herald noted that the intended couple would be "At home Sunday, November 25, 250 East 33d St." to received congratulations.

Neither Josie nor Cecilia married.  Josie died on April 16, 1907 at the age of 40.  Vaudevillians Tom Noland and Cora White boarded with Cecilia, remaining here until Cecilia's death at the age of 42 on December 16, 1908.

Nolan & White listed their address within the Cohn house in 1908.  Variety, May 2, 1908 (copyright expired)

In the early 1940s, Edwin Schriver and his wife, the former Ruth Hafferkamp, lived here.  Their son, Gary Edwin, was born in the Woman's Hospital in November 1946.

Bishop Sears Harrold occupied the house at mid-century.  Born in 1888 and a 1913 graduate of Harvard, he was a stockbroker and a member of Filor, Bullard & Smith.  Never married, his country home was in Darien, Connecticut.  His deep American roots entitled his memberships in the Society of Mayflower Descendants and the Sons of the Revolution.  Harrold died while living here on December 30, 1954 at the age of 66.

Although the Italianate ironwork has been replaced, the unusual stone entrance framework and paneled doors survive.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

Six years later, the house was renovated.  There were now an office in the basement, one apartment on the parlor level, and a duplex apartment in the second and third floors.  Then, a subsequent remodeling returned 250 East 33rd Street to a single-family home.  Completed in 2007, the renovations included the addition of a fourth floor.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Edward T. and Viola B. Cockcroft House - 59 East 77th Street

 

When John McNerney commissioned architect Thomas S. Godwin to design eight rowhouses on the north side of East 77th Street between Madison and Park Avenues, their resulting brownstone faced, high-stooped design was all the rage.  Nathan and Sophia Meyer occupied 59 East 77th Street in the 1890s.  The couple held "one of the large entertainments of the week," as described by the New York Herald, to celebrate their anniversary on December 30, 1899.

In 1907 Nathan Meyer sold 59 East 77th Street to Edward T. and Viola B. Cockcroft.  Before the new owners moved in, the Meyers arranged an auction of the home's "rich household furnishings."  Among the items were a "gold drawing room suit in Belleville tapestry, gold Vernis-Martin and mahogany specimen cabinets," and a "rosewood and bronze mounted Chickering upright piano."

The English basement--or high-stooped--design had fallen from fashion by now.  The Cockcrofts hired the architectural firm of Albro & Lindeberg (which had designed their country home on Long Island, "Little Burlees," in 1905) to bring their townhouse into the Edwardian era.  Plans were filed on May 25 and the following day the New-York Tribune reported, "It will be made over into a five story building with a facade of the early English style of the Tudor period, with a tall ornamental bay with a balcony."

The Cockcrofts moved temporarily into the Hotel Leonari while the $20,000 project progressed.  (The figure would translate to about $689,000 in 2025.)  The transformation was staggering.  Albro & Lindeberg removed the stoop and replaced the brownstone with variegated Flemish bond brick.  The tripartite design included a stone-framed centered entrance, above which was a dramatic two-story metal infill of multi-paned windows fronted by a faux balcony with a filigree railing.  A touch of Arts & Crafts was introduced at the fourth floor with inset diamond patterns and a projecting cornice with elongated brackets.  The architects recessed the fifth floor behind a brick parapet, thereby providing a terrace.

The American Architect, October 16, 1908 (copyright expired)

Architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler, writing in The American Architect, addressed Albro & Lindeberg's motive in melding the second and third floors "into a single feature."

This composition assumes that the two selected stories are of equal importance and equally worthy of signalization, which is often true in case, for example, one contains the drawing-room and the other the library.

The second, or piano nobile, of the Cockcroft house was considered the first floor at the time.  It held the drawing room and dining room, separated by a generous stair hall.  On the third floor were the main bedroom and library, while the fourth contained bedrooms.

The American Architect, October 16, 1908 (copyright expired)

Edward T. Cockcroft was an antiques dealer and decorator.  If he and Viola intended to live in their remodeled home, they changed their minds.  On October 25, 1908, The New York Times reported that they had leased the house to newlyweds Michael Dreicer and his wife, the former Maisie Saville Shainwald.  The article noted that the couple had just "returned from Europe, where they have been motoring for several months."  (The trip was, in fact, their honeymoon.)

Born in Russia in 1867, Dreicer was a partner in the jewelry firm founded by his father, Jacob Dreicer.  During the couple's one-year residency, their names repeatedly appeared in the society columns.  On November 15, 1908, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dreicer will give an at home on Saturday at 59 East Seventy-seventh Street."  And on February 14, 1909, the newspaper announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dreicer...sailed a short time ago for a trip which will include London, Paris, Monte Carlo, and the Riviera."

Upon their return, the Dreicers purchased the mansion at 1046 Fifth Avenue.  On July 17, 1909, the Record & Guide reported that the Cockcrofts had sold 59 East 77th Street.  It was purchased by Samuel Owen Edmonds and his wife, the former Lillian Coles.  Born in 1869 and 1872 respectively, they had a daughter, Helene Ormonde.  Edmonds was a patent attorney and the counsel for the General Electric Company.

The Edmonds' family was increased in 1913 by a horrific tragedy.  Lillian's sister, Gertrude Schermerhorn Coles, was married to architect Robert A. Raetze.  The couple had two sons, one-year-old Stuart Coles, and two-year-old Griswold.  The family's country home was in Stamford, Connecticut.

On the afternoon of January 5, the Raetzes were entertaining Professor John Darnall.  The family's Christmas tree was still up, and, according to The Sun, "It was aglow with candles."  While the three were at tea, the nurse, Mary Gould, prepared the boys' bath.  Suddenly, Raetze ran upstairs, yelling to the nurse to get the children out, "The Christmas tree has set fire to the house!"  He was followed closely by his frantic wife.

Mary went to a rear window and screamed for help.  A maid from next door, Kate Kenny, ran out onto the roof of the extension of that house.  "She held out her hands and the Raetzes' nurse handed little [Stuart] to her," said The Sun.  "Then Miss Gould swung herself across and was safe."  In the meantime, Professor Darnall had found Griswold and carried him to the street.  Tragically, the bodies of Robert and Gertrude Raetze were found together on the third floor of the ruins.  

The article said, "The two children went to the home of their aunt, Mrs. Samuel Owen Edmunds [sic]."  Stuart and Griswold would remain with the Edmonds and were soon adopted by the couple.

Eleven years later came Helene's debut.  During Christmas week 1924, the Edmonds hosted a dance at Sherry's.  It was followed on New Year's Day by a reception, "where they will introduce to the older friends of the family, their daughter, Miss Helene Ormonde Edmonds," according to The New York Times on January 1, 1925.

Now introduced, Helene's name would be included in the society columns.  On May 1, 1925, The New York Times announced, "Mrs. Samuel Owen Edmonds and her daughter, Miss Helene Ormonde Edmonds, of 59 East Seventy-seventh Street have gone to their country place at Stamford, Conn."

That year, however, Stuart Coles Edmonds would steal Helene's social spotlight.  On February 14, 1925, his engagement to Audrey Barclay Ulman was announced.  The New York Times remarked, "The engagement is of wide interest in New York, with which city the ancestors of both young people have been identified for generations."  Stuart was by now associated with Standard Oil Company.  The article noted, "Mr. Edmonds is a grandnephew of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Coles, whose mansion was at 677 Fifth Avenue and among whose legacies was the gift of a set of tapestries now hanging in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine."

Stuart gave "his bachelor dinner" in the East 77th Street house four days before his wedding on April 21, 1925 in St. Bartholomew's Church.  The newlyweds moved into 65 East 96th Street where their first child, Audrey, was born on March 27, 1926.  The christening was held in the East 77th Street drawing room on New Year's Day 1927.

It was the last happy gathering that the Edmonds would host in the house.  Nineteen days later, on January 20, 1927, Samuel Owen Edmonds died at the age of 57.  His funeral was held in the drawing room two days later.

Soon afterward, Lillian sold the house to Walter Palmer Anderton and his wife, the former Ethel W. Kingsland.  The couple had two daughters, Audrey Kingsland and Helen Elizabeth, eleven and one year old respectively.  Anderton had been an Assistant Visiting Physician for the Presbyterian Hospital since 1918.  Ethel was a cousin of millionaire Newbold Morris and the granddaughter of Ambrose C. Kingsland, Mayor of New York from 1851 to 1853.  A year after moving into the 77th Street house, Walter Anderton was appointed chief of Vanderbilt Clinic.  

Shortly before noon on November 8, 1940, Audrey, who was now 24, went to 340 East 57th Street to visit her cousin, Countess Seherr-Thoss.  (The countess before her marriage was Marian Kingsland.)  The women planned to have luncheon at 1:15.  According to the countess, Audrey "was in good spirits and spoke with pleasure of the Bundles for Britain Ball that she had attended the night before at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria," as reported in The New York Times.  At one point the countess and her maid walked to a different part of the apartment.  When they returned a few minutes later, Audrey was gone.

The women looked out the open window and saw Audrey's body on the pavement.  The New York Times reported, "As she fell to the courtyard, which was below street level, she screamed, attracting the attention of neighbors and passers-by."  Audrey was under the care of a nerve specialist and the police listed her death as "fell or jumped."

The Andertons sold 59 East 77th Street to W. Boulton Newbold & Associates in April 1956.  The New York Times reported they "plan to convert the structure into a five-unit cooperative apartment building."  The configuration lasted until a renovation completed in 2001 returned it to a single family home.

The mansion was offered for sale in May 2011 at $18.7 million.  It was finally sold in April 2012 for the reduced price of $11 million.

photographs by the author

The 1854 55 Warren Street (aka 55 Murray)

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

A French family resided in the vintage house at 55 Murray Street between West Broadway and Church Street in 1853.  On October 20 that year, an advertisement written in French sought, "We ask for a good Frenchwoman who knows how to sew well.  Contact 55 Murray Street between 12 and 2, after noon."

The family would soon have to move.  That year former district attorney James R. Whiting purchased the property and that directly behind it at 55 Warren Street.  He erected a five-story store and loft building on the site, completed in 1854.  Although Whiting (who would be elected to the bench of the New York Supreme Court the next year) was listed as both the builder and owner, he indubitably commissioned an adept architect to design his structure.

Faced in marble above cast iron storefronts, the Warren and Murray Street facades were identical.  Their striking Italianate elements were drawn from Renaissance palazzi--alternating triangular and arched pediments over the center openings, prominent molded cornices over the others, and delicately carved cresting over those of the second floor.  The marble cornice was supported by scrolled, foliate brackets.

The details were drawn from the Italian Renaissance.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The initial tenants were importers Bradford, Heath & Clark, operated by George P. Bradford, Charles Heath and John Q. Clark; and boot manufacturer Howes, Hyatt & Co., owned by Rueben W. Howes and Stephan Hyatt.

Around 1859, some of the floors were divided, giving certain tenants the 55 Warren Street address only.  Among those was a shirt manufacturer, and one of his employees seems to have been embarking on a more artistic career: the formation of a band.  An advertisement on June 8, 1859 read:

Wanted--A violinist, a good player.  One willing to travel, and capable of leading at a performance; must be satisfied with a moderate salary.  Apply at 55 Murray street, up stairs, in the shirt store.

  

Alexander Platt worked in the building in 1865 when he found himself in a highly embarrassing situation on November 29.  Platt went to Greene Street, notorious for having no fewer that two dozen houses of prostitution.  The New York Times reported that he accompanied "Cecilia Austin, otherwise Flora Reed, a syren [sic] from Greene-street" to her house.  The next day he realized his valuable gold watch was gone.  Prostitutes most often got away with thievery since their clients avoided the humiliation and scandal that would accompany the reporting of the crime.  Such was not the case with Platt and Cecilia was arrested later that day.

By the last quarter of the century, the tenant list was predominately glass and hardware dealers.  In 1879 they included Williams, White & Churchill, hardware, and S. N. Wolff & Co., glass (listed at 55 Warren Street); and Vogel & Reynolds, "dealers in glassware" at the Murray Street address.

At the turn of the century, the hardware firm of Surpless, Dunne & Co. was on the first floor and the New York Bag Company occupied the entire second floor.  A. L. Tuska, Son & Co., importers of Japanese ware, also leased space in the building.

On the night of July 20, 1901, a passerby saw smoke pouring out of the windows of the Warren Street side.  A fire had started under the stairway on the second floor.  The New York Times reported, "the flames quickly spread to the thousands of tightly packed bags, causing thick volumes of smoke to fill the whole building."  The fire was contained to the New York Bag Company space, although the upper floors were slightly damaged by smoke and Surpless, Dunne & Co. suffered water damage.

Elegant carved marble cresting crowns two of the second floor windows.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

A much more serious fire broke out eight months later.  On Saturday night, March 15, 1902, the engineer of a Sixth Avenue elevated train noticed smoke coming from a fourth floor window.  He stopped his train midblock between Church Street and West Broadway directly in front of Fire Patrol No. 1 and blew his whistle several times.  He shouted that there was a fire at 55 Murray Street.

The blaze soon grew to a three-alarm fire.  The New York Times reported, "An exciting incident occurred soon after the second alarm had been sent in.  Four firemen of Engine Company No. 7 had climbed to the fourth story by the fire escape, and as they reached the cage a sheet of flame burst forth, completely enveloping them."  The water tower truck had just gotten into position.  The stream of water "struck the men with great force," but saved their lives.

The Annual Report of the Committee on Fire Patrol reported, "Fire originated on fourth floor of No. 55 Warren Street and extended to fifth floor, then through roof and fifth floor and roof of No. 55 Murray Street."  The blaze also damaged the abutting buildings at 53 Murray, 53 Warren and 57 Warren Street.

The Murray Street elevation is identical to that on Warren Street.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The Motor Car Equipment Company leased three floors in the repaired building in 1905.  Established in 1902 by Emil Grossman, it handled automobile supplies like batteries and tires.  Automobile Topics said their new space contained "approximately 10,000 square feet."

A. L. Tuska, Son & Co. was still here.  On November 25, 1907, the American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record suggested, "In casting about for striking holiday goods the druggist could not do better than include the line of beautiful Japanese novelties which are imported into this country direct by A. L. Tuska, Son & Co. 55 Murray Street, New York."  

Also in the building that year was Plume & Atwood Mfg. Co., makers of "electric portables," such as "lamps, unmounted gongs for electric bells, etc."

In 1917, Columbia Graphophone Co., makers of the Dictaphone, leased the entire building.  An announcement in The New York Times on July 9, 1917 explained, "And here are the reasons for the move: The steadily increasing adoption of The Dictaphone System by business men generally in and around New York has made more room and better facilities a necessity."

The New York Times, July 9, 1917 (copyright expired)

Another advertisement stressed that the country's entry into World War I would make the Dictaphone crucial to the workings of an office.  "You are going to lose some of your workers through conscription--possibly many--and you must be prepared for the loss."

The Columbia Graphophone Company's residency would be short.  In 1920 it completed construction of its own building at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.  In March that year, the I. Blyn Shoe Company purchased the property.  Founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1923, it operated Red Cross Shoe and Rambler Shoe stores.  The firm moved its main office into the building and continued to rent unneeded space.

The company was the victim of audacious thieves in 1924.  On April 27, The New York Times reported, "Burglars broke open two safes and stole $5,000 in the offices of the I. Blyn Shoe Company, 55 Warren Street, yesterday morning or Friday night.  The police think the burglars hid in the building before it was closed Friday night.  They entered the offices by boring a hole through a wall."

I. Blyn Shoe Company operated numerous stores across the country.  But the Great Depression dealt a fatal blow to the firm and it declared bankruptcy in July 1931.  Jacob Blyn, a widower, moved into his sister's apartment on Riverside Drive.  On July 27, 1936, The New York Times reported, "Jacob Blyn, 67 years old, ended his life early yesterday by opening four jets on a gas range in the kitchen of the apartment of his sister, Mrs. Hannah Stoff."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

A renaissance in the Tribeca neighborhood began in the last quarter of the century as industrial lofts were converted to artists' working and living spaces.  In 2013, 55 Warren Street was converted to residential use above the ground floor.  The renovation resulted in one apartment per floor.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

Arthur Paul Hess's 1930 200 East 16th Street

 

Arthur Paul Hess was a busy man during the late 1920s.  He was not only an architect, but a builder and developer, president of the Middleton Estates, Inc.  As the decade waned, the firm acquired the properties at 200 through 204 East 16th Street, and 157 through 165 Third Avenue.  On April 27, 1929 (just six months before the Wall Street Crash), the Evening Post announced, "The Stuyvesant Park section is to have a new apartment house." The article said the building, "with terraced roof apartments...is to go up at 200 East Sixteenth Street, overlooking St. George's Church."  It ended saying, "Middleton Estates, Inc. are the owners and Arthur Paul Hess is the architect."

The 19-story and penthouse building was completed the following year at a cost of $850,000--about $16 million in 2025 terms.  Faced in reddish-brown brick, Hess's Art Deco design featured bold, contrasting brick bands above the first through third floors, and at the 16th floor, where setbacks began.  Above the entrance, which was framed in cast stone, were two striking terra cotta faux balconies with banded, curved telescoping edges.  The front sections of the balconies were decorated with bold sangria and white panels of stylized fountains or cornstalks.

The brick bands are laid with projecting corners, creating an angular, three-dimensional effect.

Prospective tenants could choose from one- through four-room apartments.  There were also five "studio garden apartments" in the penthouse level.  The units filled with a wide variety of residents.

Among the first was Philip A. Parke, a salesman.  The 45-year-old added his name to the growing list of Depression suicides on February 11, 1932.  The New York Times said he killed himself "by jumping to the elevated tracks at Forty-seventh Street, before a Third Avenue local."

Police Detective Charles F. Kane and his family lived here at the time.  In January 1933, he read a heart wrenching story in the newspapers about the death of Anna Mortimer.  The woman's husband, John, was 60 years old and had been out of work since the previous summer.  On the night of January 18, he telephoned the Polyclinic Hospital saying that he feared Anna was having a heart attack.  According to The New York Times, the clerk "refused to send a physician out to see her."  John and Anna tried to make it on foot, but she died on the sidewalk outside the hospital.

On January 21, The New York Times reported, "Saved from a pauper's grave by the generosity of Detective Charles F. Kane, Mrs. Anna Mortimer will be buried today in Calvary Cemetery.  The funeral expenses will be paid by the detective."  Kane told reporters he did not know the couple, but was moved by the story he read in the newspapers.

Among the Kanes' neighbors in the building were journalist Dudley Siddall and his wife, Dr. Dorothy Bocker.  The couple was married in 1926.  Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1891, Siddall was on the staff of The Sun.  In addition to his journalist abilities (he had worked for newspapers in Michigan, Ohio and New York), he was educated at the Cleveland School of Art.  He was editor of The Sun's Saturday "fishing pages," and wrote the newspaper's boating guides for 1931 through 1933.

The couple was invited for Thanksgiving at the home of S. G. Stern in Grantwood, New Jersey in 1934.  What had started as a warm gathering turned tragic when Dudley Siddall suffered a fatal heart attack at the Sterns' home.

A colorful resident was 31-year-old Natalie Colby, who had a clever, if illicit, means of augmenting her income during the Depression years.  Colby (also known as Natalie Chadwick, Natalie Cohen, and Natalie Rosenbaum) was a former Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl and lived in what The Sun described as "an attractive three-room apartment."  She moved into that apartment in 1932.  Her neighbors and landlord, most likely, did not realize that she had just been released from Auburn Prison after a two year stint for burglary.

Colby would go to the race tracks and strike up conversations with well-to-do persons, "learn the addresses of these acquaintances and then rob their houses," explained The New York Sun on June 25, 1935.  Among her victims was Mrs. Simone Brooks of 400 East 57th Street.  She burglarized that apartment on March 30 and again three weeks later, making off with a total of $4,400 in "furs, jewelry and other personal property," according to The New York Times.  She was careless during the second heist and left a fingerprint on a mirror.

Natalie Colby's fingerprints were readily available.  The Sun said, "Mrs. Colby has a record of four arrests."  The newspaper reported, "From inquiries made in night clubs and among stage folk the police learned that Mrs. Colby was living at 200 East Sixteenth street."  When officers arrived at her apartment on the night of June 24, 1935, she "slammed the door in their faces."  She relented when they threatened to break down the door.

Describing Natalie Colby as "a comely young woman in a green dress," on June 26, The New York Times said that she "became the star of the daily police line-up yesterday."  Not only was Mrs. Simone Brooke there to pick her out, she identified some of the stolen property discovered in Colby's apartment.

Several of the residents of 200 East 16th Street were connected professionally with Tammany Hall.  Living here at the time of Colby's arrest were Joseph H. Morris and his wife, the former Helen McAuliff.  Since 1905 he had been a Democratic county committeeman and a member of the Tammany's Anawanda Club.  Among his close associates was Tammany Hall leader, Charles F. Murphy.  Another political ally was Joseph Hamerman, a lawyer.  He would be nominated as the Tammany candidate for Alderman from the Eighth District in October 1937.

A terrifying incident occurred here on November 28, 1935.  Abraham Simmers and his wife occupied a one-room apartment.  That afternoon Simmers's sister, Mayne Spilberg, was visiting.  As they chatted, Mrs. Simmers cleaned a dress with dry cleaning fluid.  Suddenly, at around 2:30, the fluid violently exploded.  The New York Times reported that it "forced forty other residents of the twenty-story building to the lobby.  Fire resulting from the explosion poured smoke through the building and wrecked the apartment where it started."

Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, which was confined to the Simmers apartment.  Amazingly, while the apartment was devastated, all three of its occupants at the time survived.  They were taken to Columbus Hospital with "severe burns," according to the article.

The New York Sun journalist Gerry Fitch wrote a descriptive article about "A Polite Neighborhood" (Stuyvesant Square) on November 7, 1936.  After strolling through the "gentle English atmosphere of the place," he said, "I felt a bit of a shock upon noting the smart modernistic apartment building across the way at 200 East Sixteenth Street."  He described:

This terraced structure has chromium marquees under which stands a doorman as gorgeously uniformed as the King's guard.  With a white-gloved hand he imperiously disposed of me in the elevator that whisked me to the thirteenth floor on which was a three-room apartment available at $135 a month.  French doors open upon two terraces with east and south exposure.  An extra maid's bath and a little half-room off the kitchenette add to its individuality.

The monthly rent for the three-room apartment he described would translate to $3,000 today.

Born in 1882 and never married, Virginia Schwarte, who lived on the 13th floor, started teaching in New York City public schools in 1904.  In 1936, she taught far uptown in Public School 57 on East 115th Street.  In January 1937, she called in sick and was out that entire week.  Then she disappeared.  The New York Times said, "friends became alarmed and reported her missing to the police."  She re-emerged on March 19, saying she had gone to Boston, but offered no explanation of the trip.

Concerned about that Virginia was suffering a nervous breakdown, a friend, Dr. Agnes Smith, who lived in Newark, offered to stay with her for a few days.  Two days later, on March 21, Virginia "seemed in better spirits," said Dr. Smith.

But Virginia Schwarte was decidedly not in better spirits.  That morning Agnes Smith spoke to her from another room and got no reply.  She telephoned another teacher in the building, Mary Deming, who lived in the apartment directly below.  "Miss Deming looked out, and saw the body on an extension roof," reported The New York Times on March 22.  The 55-year-old teacher had jumped from the 13th floor window.

An interesting resident was Mrs. Elizabeth Beach, the mother of celebrated sculptor Chester Beach, and the widow of Chilion Beach, "who started the first book store in San Francisco," according to The New York Times on June 6, 1946.  Elizabeth shared the apartment with her unmarried daughter, Jean.  Elizabeth Beach's birthday celebration in their apartment the previous day had been a momentous one--her 100th.  Born in Bedford, New York in 1846, she "remembers rolling bandages at the age of 15 in New York for the Civil War fighters," said the article.  It added, "She wears no glasses and reads her newspaper without difficulty."

Another Tammany-related resident was former city official and newspaper writer William R. Peer, who lived here with his wife, Lucille and their two children, Roderick Johnson and Nancy.  Born in Brooklyn in 1906, he had been on the staff of The New York Post and the New York Daily Mirror.  On August 23, 1948, The New York Times reported that he had been named by Tammany leader Hugo E. Rogers as director of press and public relations for the New York County Democratic Committee.

In the summer of 1953, William and Lucille Peer allowed Roderick, who was 11, to go on vacation to Killawog, New York with family friends.  On July 9, Roderick and his friend, Wayne Davidson, who was also 11, went fishing off a train trestle of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.  Suddenly, a northbound train appeared.  The boys raced to get off the bridge and the Davidson boy made it to safety.  Roderick Peer did not.  He was instantly killed when the locomotive struck him.

Three months later, on November 20, newly-elected Mayor Robert F. Wagner appointed William Peer his press secretary.  In reporting the appointment, The New York Times said, "Mr. Peer will bring to his new post long experience in political and general public relations."  

The building was converted to cooperatives in 1987.  Although the doorman no longer wears the white gloves that so impressed a journalist in 1936, the residents enjoy amenities those tenants could not have dreamed off--a "fitness room with Peloton bike" and a "recreation room with a massive TV," according to StreetEasy.

The windows have been replaced and some unsympathetic brick repairs to the upper floors done, but Arthur Paul Hess's unusual Art Deco design survives generally intact.

photographs by the author

The Luis Napoleon Henriques House - 17 West 87th Street

 

Patrick and John J. Farley erected a row of five brownstone-fronted houses on the north side of West 87th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue in 1891-92.  Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Thom & Wilson, their rich details reflected wealth and taste.  

Twenty-feet wide, 17 West 87th Street was an A model of the A-B-A-B-A configuration.  A dog-legged box stoop led to the double-doored entrance, the proportions of which matched the parlor window.  Both sat within matching, heavily carved frames.  A bowed oriel dominated the second floor, its windows separated by Ionic pilasters. 

On November 26, 1893, the New York Herald reported that "a Mr. Henriques" had purchased 17 West 87th Street.  Luis Napoleon Henriques (who often Anglicized his name to Louis) was born on August 24, 1844 in Santa Marta, Colombia.  He and his wife, the former Carolina de Morales y Jullien had six sons and five daughters.

Late in 1894, son George, who was 18 years old, sailed to Havana.  As it turned out, it was not a good time to visit the island.  The Cuban Revolution (which was an attempt to break free of Spanish control) broke out on February 24, 1895.  George found himself amid chaos and violence.  Finally, he escaped on the steamer Orizaba, arriving in New York on March 25.  The teen was immediately suspect.

The New-York Tribune reported, "it was rumored that Henriques had been in some way connected with the revolutionists, and had left Havana hastily.  He came on board the steamer without any baggage and with a passport from a South American nation."  (That nation, of course, was Colombia.)  The revolutionary mobs, George explained to officials, had stolen his possessions.  He was eventually released.

image via NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Also detained that year was Albert Fombona, attaché to the Venezuela Legation in Washington D.C.  The diplomat was in New York City on September 14 when he was arrested for pressing unwanted attentions on three young women at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 23rd Street.  One by one, as they approached, he would drop his cane to the sidewalk in front of them and ask, "Excuse me, my dear, are you out for a promenade?"  

His actions attracted the attention of Policeman Walsh.  After the third attempt, Walsh approached and said, "Say, young man, I will give you a promenade.  You come with me to the station house."  Once there, the indignant attaché sent a message to Luis Henriques, who furnished his bail.

In 1899, Luis Henriques purchased 203 West 38th Street and sold the West 87th Street house to Charles Rohe, a dealer in "provisions and lard," according to The Financial Red Book in 1903.  He was head of Rohe & Brother's, president of the Eastern Live Stock Express, vice-president of the West Side Bank and a trustee of the North River Savings Bank.

By 1911, the Rohe children were young adults.  The first to wed was Olga.  On April 4, 1912, the American Meat Trade and Retail Butchers Journal reported that she would marry Henry C. Steneck in the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Central Park West on April 25.  Her siblings were part of the ceremony--Gertrude was maid of honor and William and Charles Jr. were ushers.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Mr. and Mrs. Steneck will sail on Tuesday on the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria.  They will be away about two months."

Olga's wedding was closely followed by William's.  He was married to Maude Underwood Wait in Sherry's two months later on June 27.  "Mr. and Mrs. Rohe will sail within a few days for Europe, where they will spend the Summer," reported The New York Times.

On the night of January 22, 1913, Charles Rohe received a telephone call from Charles Fink, the collector of Rohe & Brother's.  At about 7:30, Fink and William Bornemann were counting money in the company's cashier's cage.  The New York Herald reported, "five men dashed up to Rohe & Bro.'s wholesale meats, provisions and oils plant at 527 to 531 West Thirty-sixth street...and at the point of revolvers held up two inside and two outside employees of the firm, vaulted over the wire screen around the cashier's cage and dashed away again with about $700 of the firm's money."  The heist would equal about $23,000 today.  The robbers escaped in a taxi.

Charles Rohe was certain the robbery was not an inside job.  He told police, according to the New-York Tribune, "Fink had been in his employ for a number of years and was a reliable, trusted man."

Gertrude was the next of the Rohe children to marry.  On January 4, 1914, The New York Times reported on her engagement to Leopold Sommer.  The couple was married on November 11 in the Church of the Advent.  

Gertrude posed with her bridesmaids on the day of her wedding.  photograph via lookingoppositvely.com

Tragically, five years later Leo Sommer contracted influenza and died on January 16, 1919.  He and Gertrude had a two-year-old daughter, Charlotte.  Gertrude and Charlotte moved back to her parents house on West 87th Street.  Charles Jr., still unmarried, was also still here.

Charles Rohe was president of the North River Savings Bank in April 1922 when he sold 17 West 87th Street to Minnie A. Broadback for $40,000 (about $748,000 today).  Broadback resold the house in 1924 to Dr. Benjamin Dubovsky.  On March 19, the New York Evening Post reported that he "will occupy it as his residence and professional office."

It appeared that the house was doomed in 1944.  On October 12, The New York Times reported, "A twelve-story apartment house for 108 families was filed for a site at 5-17 West Eighty-seventh Street, to cost $450,000."  But something derailed those plans.  The row survived and in 1960, 17 West 87th Street was converted to two apartments per floor.

The conversion did not affect the exterior appearance of Thom & Wilson's design.  More than 130 years after its completion, the house looks much as it did when Luis Napoleon Henriques and his family moved in.

photographs by the author

The Lost Grammar School 37 - 113-119 East 87th Street

 

The 1892 facade was modernized around 1927.  photo by Board of Education, N.Y.C., from the collection of the New York Public Library

On July 1, 1891, 30-year-old Charles B. J. Snyder was appointed Superintendent of School Buildings of the Board of Education.  He took on a formidable task.  There were 91 grammar schools and 39 primary schools in Manhattan, and not a single high school.  The school buildings were constructed on a plan little changed since the 1850s—with no regard for proper ventilation, lighting or fire safety.  C. B. J. Snyder would change all that and before retiring 31 years later he would design more than 700 school buildings within the five boroughs and redesign scores of others.

Just four months after his appointment, Snyder turned his attention to the outdated and overcrowded Grammar School 37 on East 87th Street midway between Lexington and Park Avenues.  On November 8, 1893, The New York Times reported, "the new Superintendent of School Buildings, C. B. J. Snyder, had discovered that in the plumbing of Grammar School No. 37, at 113 East Eighty-seventh Street, a cheap quality of galvanized iron pipe had been used instead of the lead pipe called for in the contract."  It was just one of the deficiencies Snyder found.

They initiated a series of overhauls to the building, which were started in May 1893 and completed in 1896.  Despite the significant renovations, the school was never closed, with major construction apparently done during the summer months.  The most substantial phase started in 1895, with Snyder placing the costs at $35,000, or about $1.35 million in 2025 terms.

In the meantime, some parents would have preferred that a new building replaced the old one.  On June 30, 1896, the New York Herald reported on "protests made by citizens" in the neighborhood "as to the alterations being made in the building.  It was asserted that the structure, which is one of the oldest school buildings in the city was unsafe, and that to occupy it would endanger the lives of 2,500 pupils attending the school."

Additionally, not everything went on schedule.  As the renovations neared completion, they delayed the opening of the 1896 fall semester.  On September 29, 1896, The Sun said, "The only one of our regular buildings that is not ready is Grammar School 37, and this will be ready in a few days.  Then all of our last year's children will be accommodated."  

Snyder's renovations resulted in an H-shaped building with play areas tucked into the sides.  Faced in brick and trimmed in brownstone, the four-story facade was five bays wide, the end and center bays projecting slightly forward and capped with overhanging, Tuscan-inspired roofs.

A disturbing incident had taken place while construction progressed.  On the schoolyard on April 19, 1895, Eva Harfield approached five-year-old Matilda Rusch and said, "Here, Tillie, take some April fool candy."  Tillie's mother told reporters later that April fool candy was popular with the children and "was supposed to contain cayenne pepper."  Eva, however, had taken the prank further.

Tillie went home sick.  Dr. J. C. Rosenblueth examined her and diagnosed arsenic poisoning.  On April 25, The Sun reported that the kindergartener had died that morning.  "Tillie had not been conscious since Monday, save for an occasional rational moment," said the article.  During one of those, she had named Eva Harfield as the girl who gave her the candy.  The Evening World reported that police "will not arrest Eva Harfield, as she is under the legal age."

By 1911, the facility had been changed from a grammar school to a public school, now teaching older students.  On October 9 that year, 14-year-old May Lewis left her apartment on 93rd Street for her first day at Public School 37.  Her mother, Anna B. Lewis said she "had 12 cents when she said good-bye."  (The mother and daughter had just returned from three months in Colorado Springs.)  May never reached the school that day.

Anna's husband, the girl's father, had disappeared ten years earlier and Anna declared him dead.  The Evening World reported that Anna feared that May, "was kidnapped by one of her mother's former suitors because she refused to marry him."  After a frantic night and widespread search, on October 10 the New-York Tribune reported, "After spending a night on the porch of a vacant house in New Jersey and a day in the house of two women who befriended her," May was home with her mother.  She explained that on the way to school, "a boy snatched her school transfer card and ran away."  May was too afraid to go to school and somehow ended up in New Jersey.

The auditoriums of public school buildings doubled as local event spaces.  On February 6, 1921, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported that a free concert of the Park Council Symphony Orchestra would be held here the following evening; and a week later the newspaper announced a "mass meeting to discuss [the] traction situation, Public School 37."  (The "traction situation" referred to the street railway system.)

Two months later, four boys were arraigned in the Children's Court "on a technical charge of being juvenile delinquents," according to The New York Times on April 16.  The boys had stolen 110 bars of chocolate from a kitchen storage room, then set a fire to conceal the theft.

The incident foreshadowed a major change to Public School 37.  On February 24, 1927, School magazine reported that it had been converted to a "probationary school," meaning that it taught only "bad" boys.  The article said it was "now prepared to admit truant, insubordinate, and disorderly boys from anywhere in Manhattan and The Bronx."  The article explained boys would be transferred here only after normal means of discipline had been exhausted.

It was most likely at this time that the facade was painted and given an update with Art Deco elements, like the entrance frame.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1938, the approach to disturbed youths was changing from what was essentially incarceration and separation to psychological treatment.  Public School 37 was one of just two probationary schools in the city.  On April 15, The New York Times reported that Assistant Superintendent Benjamin B. Greenberg, "is making a study of these schools to determine what action should be taken."  He offered, "Instead of sending the boys to a special probationary school, with the resultant stigma, the educational officials today attempt to diagnose the problems and then treat the boys on an individualized basis."

Public School 37 was renamed Public School 612, one of the "600" group "to which are sent pupils whose cases are pending in courts or who so lack adjustment that principals have asked for their removal from regular schools."  On June 14, 1950, The New York Times explained, "Deformalized education, greater stress upon individual problems, thorough understanding of the home life and other background of each pupil, stimulation of self-respect and a feeling of 'belonging' are the steps taken by the specially selected teachers in the '600' schools."

Interestingly, the students themselves were involved in their rehabilitation.  On May 30, 1953, for instance, The New York Times reported, "A panel of 'experts' on vandalism, composed of youngsters who know vandalism at first hand, tackled the problem yesterday and came up with some answers that astounded their elders."  The round table discussion, which including boys from 14 to 16 years old, suggested actions like "fines for parents if they were accessories before the fact."

On August 17, 1967, The New York Times reported that the Board of Education was considering "replacing P.S. 169, a school for maladjusted children" with a residential tower atop a school building.  Ten months later, plans for the $8 million school-and-apartment building was filed.  The 38-floor Carnegie Tower was completed in 1972.

image via corcoran.com