The Lost John Innes Kane Mansion - 1 West 49th Street

 

image from "Charles Follen McKim, A Study of his Life and Work, 1913 (copyright expired)

Born on July 29, 1850, John Innes Kane was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor I.  His maternal grandmother was Dorothea Astor.  Kane married Annie Cottenet Schermerhorn on December 12, 1878, her wedding gown designed personally by Parisian couturier Charles Frederick Worth.  Kane was among the social class known as "gentlemen," meaning he lived on inherited wealth.  Rather than work, he was interested, according to The New York Times, "in scientific matters, especially those dealing with discovery and exploration."

In the spring of 1904, Kane purchased "the old Matthiessen residence," as described by The Sun, at the northwest corner of 49th Street and Fifth Avenue.  Weeks later, on April 9, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported he had purchased the abutting four-story houses at 612 and 614 Fifth Avenue.  The article said, "It is understood that Mr. Kane...will erect for his own occupancy a large modern dwelling on the site."

Four months later, on August 6, the journal reported, "McKim, Mead & White...have completed plans for a residence for John Innes Kane."  Saying the four-story mansion would be clad in limestone, the article noted, "It is estimated to cost $200,000."  The figure would translate to about $7 million in 2024.

According to his biographer, Charles McKim, who was a personal friend of Kane, took the reins in designing the residence.  In his 1913 Charles Follen McKim, A Study of His Life and Work, Alfred Hoyt Granger mentioned, "He builded for his friends many beautiful houses, of which the most beautiful in my judgment is the Kane house on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Forty-ninth Street."  The Sun, however, attributed the design to Stanford White, saying "Mr. White saw that the Italian renaissance was the style best suited to her [i.e. Annie Kane's] ideas."

At a time when many Manhattan millionaires were erecting frothy Beaux Arts confections, the Kane mansion's Italian Renaissance design was subtle.  On June 2, 1907, The Sun explained, "When Mr. and Mrs. Kane gave the order for the house they made but one condition with the architects.  They wanted the house to be the plainest in New York."  The journalist presumed, "This desire was probably inspired by the house they had lived in for many years previously."  (That was Annie's parents' mansion at 49 West 23rd Street.)  

The entrance of the mansion opened onto West 49th Street.  The Architectural Review, 1907

The Sun said, "It is considered a rarely pure specimen of Italian renaissance, even to the hatchment that hangs over the entrance."  While the exterior was Italian, the Kanes "decided that [the interiors] should be English."  Mrs. Frank Millet was commissioned to scour Europe for the appropriate furnishings.  "The furniture selected by Mrs. Millet was exclusively English of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," said the article.

Two views of the entrance hall.  The Architectural Review, January 1919 (copyright expired)

The ground floor held the "dining rooms and the library," while two large drawing rooms were on the second.  The bedrooms were located on the third floor.

In 1904, the same year ground was broken for their townhouse, the Kanes' cottage, Breakwater, in Bar Harbor, Maine was completed.  It was designed by Fred L. Savage in the Tudor Revival style.  The couple also maintained a residence in Lenox, Massachusetts that Annie inherited from her father.

The Kane cottage in Bar Harbor.  image via maineencyclopedia.com

Because Kane had no business responsibilities, he and Annie had unlimited leisure time and the ability to travel extensively.  On October 15, 1911, The New York Times reported, "Mr. and Mrs. John Innes Kane will be leaving shortly for Europe, and will later proceed to Egypt, where they will be joined by a party of eleven of their friends, who will be their guests on a long trip up the historic river."  Seven months later, on June 9, 1912, The Sun announced, "Mr. and Mrs. John Innes Kane, who passed part of the winter in Egypt, returned from Europe recently.  They will go to Bar Harbor for the summer."

A sitting room (above) and a breakfast room had seemingly identical ceilings.  from the collection of the Columbia University Libraries.

John Kane did not enjoy his limestone palazzo for especially long.  Early in the summer of 1912, he fell ill while at Bar Harbor.  His condition worsened over the months.  Finally, on February 2, 1913, The New York Times wrote, "John Innes Kane, a member of one of New York's oldest families and a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, died yesterday at his residence, 1 West Forty-ninth Street, from pneumonia."  Kane was 62 years old.  In reporting his death, the newspaper added, "His forty-ninth Street residence attracted immediate attention, when completed in 1909 [sic], because of its attractive simplicity."

from the collection of the Columbia University Libraries.

Following her period of mourning, Annie Kane resumed her seasonal routine.  On October 10, 1915, for instance, The Sun reported, "Mrs. John Innes Kane has arrived at Lenox from Bar Harbor, where she has been passing the summer.  She will return to 1 West Forty-ninth street about the middle of next month."

Annie's significant fortune was increased upon the death of her sister, Fannie Schermerhorn Bridgham in 1919.  On November 10, 1920, The New York Times reported that Annie had inherited $590,538--just over $9 million in today's money.

Disaster struck while Annie was at Bar Harbor in August 1921.  A crew of workmen were in the 49th Street townhouse, one of whom was on the second floor on August 23 when he heard something fall in the library.  He opened the door to discover, as worded by The New York Times, "the library was a furnace."  His opening of the door caused a backdraft, which "spurted out so quickly that the workman was hardly able to close the door without catching fire himself."

Crowds crammed Fifth Avenue as flames burst through the windows of the mansion.  Although the fire spread to the dining room, McKim, Mead & White was credited for saving the residence.  "The rooms were fireproofed so perfectly that the firemen were able to confine the flames, and, although everything in the library was burned, some of the furniture in the dining room was saved," said The New York Times.  The solid construction was also reflected in the fact that there was relatively little water damage.  "Another remarkable feature of the fire was that the thousands of gallons of water pumped into the burning rooms did not seep through to the ceilings of the floors below, but cascaded down a marble stairway," said the article.

Tragically, "priceless portraits and heirlooms of the Schermerhorn and Kane families" were destroyed.  The Evening World reported, "The fire was extinguished in a quarter of an hour, but in that time the two rooms had been gutted, the great carved ceilings reduced almost to charcoal, family portraits, marbles, tapestries and bric-a-brac burned to a cinder or blackened beyond repair."

The twin beds in this bedroom cleverly shared a single canopy.  from the collection of the Columbia University Libraries.

Annie Cottenet Kane died at the age of 69 "after a long illness," according to The New York Times, on July 24, 1926.  Her will divided her extensive estate among "worthy charities and other organizations."  The New York Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital received $1 million to found the Annie C. Kane Fellowships to provide fellowships to young surgeons, for instance, and Columbia University received two $500,000 bequests, one in memory of Annie's father William C. Schermerhorn.

The Kane mansion would not survive much longer.  Two years after Annie's death, John D. Rockefeller Jr. set in motion the ambitious 22-acre Rockefeller Center project.  In 1933, Raymond Hood's La Maison Francaise was completed on the site of the mansion.

photograph by Epicogenius

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Boak & Paris's 1941 177 East 77th Street

 

Russell M. Boak and Hyman F. Paris both worked in the office of architect Emery Roth.  They struck out on their own and in 1927 established the office of Boak & Paris.  Like Roth's, the firm quickly became known for designing apartment buildings.

In 1940, developers Sidney and Arthur Diamond hired Boak & Paris to design an 11-story-and-penthouse building on East 77th Street, just west of Third Avenue.  The New York Times noted, "The plot runs through to Seventy-eighth Street, and on that side will be transformed into a large garden for the benefit of the tenants."  The architects introduced two innovations--one structural, the other aesthetic.  On July 6, 1941, the newspaper headlined an article, "Bolting Replaces Riveting on New Building; Each Suite in East Side House Has Terrace."

The foregoing of riveting in favor of bolting the girders and columns together made the process nearly noiseless.  Sidney and Arthur Diamond told the reporter that the exterior brickwork, completed within 30 days, had "set something of a record for this type of work."  The article explained the rapid process.

As the steel construction progressed from floor to floor the concrete workers poured the concrete floor in at a pace that kept them constantly within two floors of the steel workers.  When the concrete workers reached the seventh floor the bricklayers started their task, and when the brick work reach the sixth floor, work on the partitions began.

The reporter noted, "For a while the steel men, concrete men and bricklayers were all working at the same time."  At the time of the article, fully 50 percent of the apartments had been leased.  The renting manager, Charleton Otis, explained, "The private terraces for every apartment, the 11,000 square feet of landscaped, private garden adjoining the building, the spaciousness of the rooms and the architectural design of the building have been strong attractions."

The abundance of balconies was possible because the Goelet family, from whom the Diamonds purchased the plot, had erected a two-story store-and-apartment building on the Third Avenue blockfront in 1936.  The Diamonds took the bold gamble that no tall building would replace it.

Clad in sandy-colored brick, Boak & Paris's streamlined Art Moderne design included an understated entrance with incised Mayan-type designs.  No other ornamentation graced the facade.  The architects used 45-degree chamfered corners on the sides of the recessed section above the entrance--a feature they had used on another Stanley and Arthur Diamond building at 160 East 89th Street in 1937.

from the 1941 real estate brochure "177 East 77th", in the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

An advertisement in September 1941 touted, "52 apartments, each with private terrace.  Already 90% rented.  11,000 sq. ft. of private garden, roof garden, 3-4 rooms each."  The real estate brochure boasted, "seven large closets in four room apartments...five large closets in three room apartments...glass enclosed stall showers."

Among those who signed leases during construction were two physicians, Dr. Mary Dunne Walsh and Dr. Jules Victor Coleman; and Malcolm S. McNaught, a sales manager for the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Mary Dunne Walsh had received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1921.  Seven years before she moved into 177 East 77th Street, her name had appeared in newspapers nationwide for decidedly non-medical reasons.  She sued a socially-prominent female stockbroker and exposed a corrupt scheme.

In 1924, Edna V. O'Brien opened a private stockbrokerage business.  Time magazine described her as "an energetic, middle-aged spinster who had fought the good fight for women's votes, who was a lieutenant in an ambulance unit but did not get to France, who was a good friend and committee-mate of many of Manhattan's ablest socialites."

Boak & Paris managed to wrangle a balcony or terrace to every apartment.  from the 1941 real estate brochure "177 East 77th", in the collection of the Columbia University Libraries

Among O'Brien's clients were Anne Morgan, Elizabeth Marbury and Amelia Earhart Putnam.  Dr. Walsh had entrusted her with $80,000 to invest.  In December 1932, according to Time, "On the complaint of Dr. Mary Dunne Walsh...Miss O'Brien was hauled before the New York State Bureau of Securities.  She refused to answer questions." 

Investigators discovered that Amelia Earhart Putnam had lost $150,000, according to the article.  On February 11, 1933, The New York Times reported that Edna V. O'Brien had been arrested after the grand jury issued "four indictments charging theft of between $50,000 and $80,000 in securities from Dr. Mary Dunne Walsh."  (Dr. Walsh's loss would translate to as much as $1.9 million in 2024.)

Dr. Victor Coleman had earned his B.A. degree at Cornell University in 1928, and his medical degree in Vienna, Austria in 1934.  America's entry into World War II drastically changed his life.  He was sent with the U.S. Army Medical Corps overseas as a psychiatrist attached to the 38th Infantry Division.  The United States Army's Neuropsychiatry in World War II later explained that while working "with combat casualties in the forward area during the Luzon Campaign, [he] was able to return 70 percent of his patients directly to duty from the clearing station."

Dr. Jules Victor Coleman, Journal of the Kansas Medical Society, 1950

Coleman was listed at 177 East 77th Street as late as 1943, when he was promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain.  But it does not appear he returned here following the war.  In 1950, he was living in Denver, Colorado where he was president of the American Association of Psychiatric Clinics for Children.

In 1946, Sidney and Arthur Diamond bought the two-story building on Third Avenue from the Goelet family, preserving the eastern exposure of 177 East 77th Street at least for the foreseeable decades.

A celebrated resident was violist Max Rosen, who lived here with his sculptor wife, the former Gertrude Buchbinder.  Born in Romania in 1900, Rosen's family emigrated to New York when he was eight months old.  They lived in the impoverished Lower East Side where Max's father ran a barber shop at Rivington and Forsyth Streets.  According to The New York Times, "It was in the rear of this barber shop that Max Rosen learned the rudiments of the violin from his father," and he was "able to play difficult compositions at the age of 7."  Friends of his father, astonished at the boy's playing, arranged to send him to the Music School Settlement.

There he continued to amaze professional musicians.  When the banker and founder of the Flonzale Quartet, Eduard de Koppe, heard the 12-year-old play, he sent him to Dresden, Germany to study with famed violinist and instructor Leopold Auer.  Max Rosen returned to New York in 1917 and debuted as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on January 12, 1918 at the age of 18.

Max Rosen at the age of 18.  from the collection of the Library of Congress

Rosen appeared throughout the world with major symphonic ensembles before his retirement, after which he used his 77th Street apartment to teach.  He died from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 16, 1956 at the age of 56.

Not only did television and motion picture producer William A. Berns live here, but so did his brother and partner Samuel D. Berns.  

In the 1940s William Berns joined the National Broadcasting Company, producing the show While Berns Roams and acting as emcee for the radio game show Say It With Acting.  In the 1950s, he worked with several radio and television stations.

Then, in 1960, he joined the staff of Robert Moses's New York World's Fair 1964-65 Corporation as vice president in charge of communications.  That year he traveled internationally to promote the fair to other nations.  During the second year of the fair he served as its director of television, radio and motion picture publicity.

At the fair's end, Berns again turned to producing.  He produced the 1970 film The Gamblers, and was executive producer of Mel Brook's The Twelve Chairs, released the same year.  In 1970, he also partnered with Samuel Bern in film importing and packaging.

The Bern brothers were born in Philadelphia.  Samuel D. Bern lived here with his wife, the former Ruth Horne.  Before going into business with William, he had been on the staffs of Film Daily and Variety, and was at one point the West Coast editor for Quigley Publications.

The 1941 real estate brochure for 177 East 77th Street had touted, "steel casement windows specially equipped with fresh air ventilators."  Unfortunately, those windows--so important in Boak & Paris's design--have been replaced.  Otherwise, the building is little changed and--at least for now--the low-rise buildings on Third Avenue survive, affording light and views to the eastern-facing balconies.

many thanks to reader Lowell Cochrane for requesting this post

photographs by the author

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Harry Hurwit's 1927 Re-Do of 1080 Park Avenue

 

In 1887, bricklayer John P. Thorton erected eight brick-faced flats, or apartment houses, on the west side of Fourth Avenue (renamed Park Avenue a year later) between 88th and 89th Streets.  Designed by Frederick T. Camp, they were intended for middle-class residents, predating the thoroughfare's exclusivity by about a decade. 

 
Although it took the address of 1080 Park Avenue, the entrance to the corner building was on 88th Street, allowing Herman Goossen to open his saloon in the Park Avenue end in 1889.  When Prohibition arrived, the saloon made way for the Paramount Market.

A significant change had come to Park Avenue by then.  Mansions equal to those along Fifth Avenue lined the blocks and vintage buildings like 1080 Park Avenue were quickly disappearing.  On November 13, 1925, the New York Sun reported that that a syndicate had been formed "to improve the northwest corner of Park avenue and Eighty-eighth street with a fifteen story duplex apartment house."  The operators had leased the building in July "for sixty-three years, with an option to purchase it."

The developers quickly hit a snag, however.  The building's owner, Simon Ginsberg, had purchased 1080 Park Avenue in 1922 and had owned 1082 Park Avenue since 1905, operating his upholstery business there.  He had already refused to sell his properties to another set of developers who erected the large L-shaped apartment building around them in 1925.  And he was unwilling to have another apartment on the corner.

In 1925, Ginsberg gave 1082 a remarkable make-over designed by Augustus N. Allen.  Two years later he turned his attentions to the corner building.  

Architect Harry Hurwit remodeled 1080 Park Avenue with a Mediterranean inspired, stuccoed facade.  The entrance was given a segmentally arched entrance, flanked by paired, engaged columns with graceful cinched waists.  Directly above the entrance was a pseudo balcony fronting two windows framed by paneled pilasters and capped by swans head pediments.

The romantic motif continued at the fourth floor, where windows with balconettes were framed by engaged columns (similar to those of the entrance) under round arches.  An arcade of shop windows graced the Park Avenue ground level, while a roof of Spanish tiles crowned the design.

Ginsberg had successfully transformed his two 1887 buildings into modern fantasies.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Park Avenue commercial space was leased to David Bogen for his Boghen Pharmacy (the difference in spelling had to do with a licensing technicality), while the apartments became home to respectable, well-heeled tenants.  

Among the earliest was Marie Estill, who got unwanted and embarrassing publicity in 1929 when Betty Marvin sued her husband, Lewis B. Marvin, Jr., for divorce.  The Marvins maintained a country home in Port Washington, Long Island where, according to the Newburgh News, Lewis was a "prominent yachtsman."  In court on January 22, Betty said her husband "owns a sloop and a sporty roadster."

The divorce stemmed from a raid Betty had led on the summer home five months earlier, on August 1, 1928.  She took a friend, Florence Lawson, and a private investigator, Chester B. Evans along.  The Long Island Daily Press explained, "none was prepared for the sight that met their eyes.  As they stepped into the hall Mrs. Marie Estill of 1080 Park avenue, Manhattan, walked across the landing at the head of the broad staircase.  She was completely unclad."

Evans testified that Marie "screamed and dashed into another room."  The raiding party rushed up the stairs and into the bedroom where, "they found Marvin, considerably embarrassed as he reached frantically for articles of clothing."

In the meantime, residents paid $2,300 per year for four-room apartments (about $3,400 a month in 2024 terms).  Unlike Marie Estill, their names most often appeared in newspapers for social reasons.

On October 12, 1933, for instance, The New York Sun reported, "Mrs. Helen Virginia Meyer gave a tea yesterday on the roof-garden of her penthouse apartment at 1080 Park avenue in honor of Mrs. John P. O'Brien, wife of Mayor O'Brien."  Helping to host was Mrs. Howard Chandler Christy.

Helen was a "onetime show girl and silent-movie bit player," according to The Saturday Evening Post later, but was best known for her extensive collection of period gowns and costumes.  She was described in the 1937 book Fabrics as the "well known costume historian, and designer of the 'Famous Brides' and 'Famous Queens' series."  

In reporting on the upcoming Society Circus Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria on May 2, 1934, The New York Sun commented that Helen Virginia Meyers was on the costume committee.  "Miss Meyers, who is at 1080 Park avenue, as well as the Brooks Costume Company, have all manner of original and colorful costumes available for the ball, and will donate part of the proceeds on the rental and sale of the costumes to the charity for which the ball is being held."

Resident Fredericka Ludlum had experienced an unsettling incident earlier that year.  She had a house guest in January, Julia Wright.  The 80-year-old was, according to the North Shore Daily Journal, "a member of one of the oldest families of Long Island."  The article said, "The Wright family from which she was descended, settled the village [of Oyster Bay] 250 years ago, having bought their land from the Indians."  

On the evening of January 17, 1934, Julia Wright said good night.  The next morning, Fredericka Ludlum attempted to wake her houseguest, whom she discovered had died in her sleep.

In 1936, William F. Cutler was among the founders of "the newly formed professional football team, to be known as the New York Yankees," as reported by the New York Post on September 22.  The newspaper said, "The first match is scheduled for Sunday at the new stadium on Randall's Island...Following Sunday's game the team and their backers will drive to Manhattan, where Mr. William F. Cutler, one of the directors, and his pretty wife will play hosts to them at a cocktail party at their apartment at 1080 Park avenue."

A renovation completed in 1959 resulted in two apartments per floor.  The ground floor pharmacy was still operating as late as 2002, replaced by an Ottomanelli grocery store by 2011.  Today a deli occupies the space.

Harry Hurwit's graceful storefront has been brutally remodeled and the roof tiles replaced with shingles.  Nevertheless, his romantic remake survives, overall, intact.

photographs by the author

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Rosario Candela's 1930 740 Park Avenue

 
In 1928, a year before the Stock Market crash, George Stephenson Brewster and his wife, the former Eleanor Grant Bosher, lived in a handsome mansion on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 71st Street.  The massively wealthy Brewster was among the largest stockholders of the Standard Oil Company.  That year, the Brewsters' next door neighbor, real estate operator James T. Lee, proposed that they give up their mansions in favor of opulent apartments in a luxury building on the site.  By March 1929 when ground was broken, Lee had acquired a third mansion on Park Avenue and a nurses' residence on 71st Street.

Lee commissioned architect Rosario Candela, known for his high-end apartment buildings, to design 740 Park Avenue.  Working with him was Arthur Loomis Harmon (who joined the firm of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon later that year).  Construction was completed in October 1930 and, despite the onslaught of the Great Depression, James T. Lee had little trouble filling his opulent building with millionaires.

Candela and Harmon had produced an aloof, 17-story structure with little outward flair.  Its style has been called by one architectural historian, "Classicizing Art Deco."  Faced in limestone, the building's minimal decoration included a dignified, monolithic entrance flanked by fluted shafts topped with foliate, cabbage-like finials.  A bracketed cornice above the second floor introduced the upper section.  The topmost floors were decorated with carved panels, urns, and rosettes; and the balconies given decorative iron railings.

It was not the exterior, but the cooperative apartments that were meant to astound.  The New York Times said the building was "literally twelve mansions built one on top of another."  (In fact, there were 30 apartments.)   On September 6, 1930, a month before the building opened, The New York Sun had described the duplex apartments as being designed around "a spacious central gallery opening on separate corridors, which definitely set apart the servant, master and guest quarters."  The article said in part,

The main gallery has a marble floor and base and the second floor gallery is teakwood, as are the floors of the principal master room throughout the quarters.  The typical duplex floor plan has six master bed chambers with private baths and dressing rooms surrounding two sides of the gallery.  The guest suite has a private corridor.  On the opposite side of the gallery is the corridor leading to the servants' quarters, containing four maids' rooms and baths. 

  

On the main floor the gallery has the sweeping brass stair rail and alcove taking the space opposite to the living room and the library entrances.  Also opening off the gallery are a large reception room and a dining room...Numerous wood-burning fireplaces are provided in every large apartment.

Along with the Lees and the Brewsters, according to The New York Times, residents included Bayard C. Hoppins, Frances W. Scoville, James Watson Webb, G. Beekman Hoppin, and Langdon K. Thorne.  (The Thorne apartment consisted of sixteen rooms and seven baths.)

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On October 14, The New York Times reported that James T. Lee's daughter and son-in-law, Janet and John Vernou Bouvier 3d, had purchased "an apartment of eighteen rooms and six baths."  Despite the building's being brand new, the article said, "The purchaser...will occupy the suite upon completion of alterations."  At the time, the Bouviers' daughter, Jacqueline, was just two months old.  She would, of course, go on to become First Lady of the United States as Jacqueline Kennedy, and subsequently wife to millionaire Aristotle Onassis.

Among the of the first social events was the wedding of Electra Webb.  Her pedigree was sterling.  Her father, James Watson Webb, was the son of William Seward Webb and Elizabeth Osgood Vanderbilt; and her mother, Electra Havemeyer, was the daughter of Henry Osborne Havemeyer, whose family had made its extensive fortune in the sugar industry.  The Webbs' country estate was Shelbourne Farm, in Shelbourne, Vermont.

The Webbs announced Electra's engagement to Dunbar Wright Bostwick on December 21, 1931.  The groom held his own in regard to familial prestige.  The Evening Post said, "Mr. Bostwick is a grandson of the late J. A. Bostwick, and on his mother's side he is a grandson of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry B. Stokes and a nephew of Mr. and Mrs. F. Ambrose Clark."

The Brewster apartment was the scene of a burglary around the same time.  Just over three weeks later, The New York Age reported that five detectives had been presented a $4,000 reward "for the recovery of $80,000 jewelry stolen from the home of Mrs. Eleanor Brewster at 740 Park avenue."  (The heist would equal about $1.78 million in 2024.)

On July 26, 1937, The New York Sun reported that plans had been filed "for alterations to be made in the apartment to be occupied by John D. Rockefeller, Jr."  The millionaire and his wife Abby Greene Aldrich were combining apartments 15B and 16B on the 15th and 16th floors.  "They are to be connected by private elevator and a new private stairway," said the article, noting, "Other changes also are to be made."

When completed, the Rockefeller apartment engulfed 20,000 square feet with 37 rooms and 14 bathrooms.

Two views of the Rockefeller apartment.  images via Vanity Fair, October 30, 2003.

Among the residents as mid-century approached were Marshall Field III and his wife Ruth Pruyn Phipps.  Like all socialites, Ruth involved herself in worthy causes.  On June 5, 1948, for instance, The New York Age reported, "Mrs. Marshall Field and Miss Lillian Hellman were co-hostesses at a tea for the benefit of the Wiltwyck School for Boys on Thursday, in Mrs. Field's apartment, 740 Park avenue."  That day, two judges spoke on the "problem of juvenile delinquency" in the city and the work of the school, which, the newspaper explained, "is interracial and non-sectarian, [and] cares for delinquent boys between the ages of 8 and 12 years."

On August 3, 1952, The Sunday Press of Binghamton, New York, reported that Webb & Knapp, Inc., headed by William Zeckendorf, had purchased 740 Park Avenue.  The article noted, "Among those who have apartments in the building are John D. Rockefeller, Jr., R. T. Vanderbilt, Jack F. Chrysler, Countess Allene de Kotzebue, Mrs. S. R. Guggenheim, Mrs. Langborne Williams, Col. William Schiff and Mrs. Janet Auchincloss.   

Abby Green Aldrich Rockefeller died in 1948.  Three years later Rockefeller married former concert pianist Martha Baird.  The ceremony was held at Martha's Providence, Rhode Island home. 

John D. and Martha Rockefeller were vacationing in Tucson, Arizona on May 11, 1960 when the multi-millionaire died at the age of 86.  Although he had given away hundreds of millions of dollars during his lifetime, he left an estate appraised at $160,598,584.  The New York Times reported, "The bulk of his estate was left about equally to his widow, Mrs. Martha Baird Rockefeller of 740 Park Avenue, and to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc. of New York."  Among Martha Baird Rockeller's inheritances was the apartment.  She died of a coronary occlusion in the apartment on January 24, 1971 at the age of 75.

Another prominent resident died two months later.  Flora Ettlinger Whiting had moved into a 14-room duplex in June 1940.  Her husband, Giles Whiting, had died three years earlier.  She maintained a 100-acre summer estate in Scarborough, New York, and a "porticoed Greek Revival mansion," as described by The New York Times, near Tarrytown.  She filled the three residences with early American furnishings and artwork.

When Flora Ettlinger Whiting died on March 8, 1971 at the age of 93, she left an estate "estimated at $20-million to $25-million," according to The New York Times.  On May 1, 1972, an auction of her furnishings and artwork was held at Parke-Bernet.  The array of items ranging from Federal tall case clocks, to an 18th century camelback sofa purchased by the State Department, to Etruscan, Roman and Greek antiquities drew bidders from across the nation.

Retired publisher and philanthropist Enid A. Haupt purchased her duplex penthouse apartment in 1967 for $350,000.  The widow of Ira Haupt, who died in 1963, she maintained a country home in Greenwich, Connecticut.  Intensely interested in horticulture, she donated the Haupt Fountains at the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument, and the four-acre Enid A. Haupt Garden beside the Smithsonian "Castle" in Washington.  She also provided the funding for the American Horticultural Society to purchase River Farm, an 18th century plantation near Mount Vernon.

Enid Haupt died in her Greenwich home on October 26, 2005.  The following year, her 740 Park Avenue apartment with two terraces on the 17th floor and a "very large, rambling terrace on the 18th floor," as described by The New York Times, went on the market for $27.5 million.  It was purchased by John A. Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, and his wife Carmen.  Their country home was in Harrison, New York.  The couple put the apartment back on the market in 2018 for $39.5 million.

Two views of the Thain apartment.  photos by Jon Nissenbaum, The New York Times April 27, 2018.

After nearly 100 years, 740 Park Avenue remains one of Manhattan's most prestigious addresses--its placid Candela-Harmon facade belying the sumptuous, house-like apartments inside.

photographs by the author

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The James H. Sanford House - 31 West 9th Street

 

Dennis McDermott broke ground for three four-story rowhouses on West 9th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue in 1854.  Their architect was quite possibly James Renwick, Jr., who lived half a block away, at 21 Fifth Avenue.  The 17-foot-wide homes were completed in 1855.  Their Anglo-Italianate style placed the entrances a few steps above the sidewalk.  Above the rusticated first floor, a full-width cast iron balcony fronted floor-to-ceiling windows at the second, and bracketed cornices crowned the design.

It appears McDermott originally leased the center house, 19 Ninth Street (renumbered 31 West 9th Street in 1868).  The lessee operated it as a boarding house, advertising in The New York Times on April 6, 1855:

Rooms and Board.  A second story front room and bedroom to let, separately or together, furnished, or unfurnished, to a gentleman and wife; also rooms for single gentlemen.  Apply at No. 19 9th-st., between 5th and 6th avs.

That no single women were accommodated testifies to the high-class nature of the boarding house.  Living here in 1856 were Cyrus Y. and Harvey S. Bradley, who were in the clothing business on Murray Street; Julius Catlin, Jr., a clerk; printer William C. Martin; and Benjamin K. Phelps, an attorney.

The "first class four story and basement house with the modern improvements" was offered for rent again in April 1857.  It became home to Irish-born actor, poet, author and theater manager John Brougham and his actress wife, the former Annette Hawley.

John Broughman, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Brougham had relocated from London to New York City in 1842, debuting at the Park Theatre.  He opened his own theater, Brougham's Lyceum, in 1850; wrote plays; and edited a comedic paper, The Lantern.  

Annette Brougham had two stage names, Mrs. Annette Nelson and Mrs. Coppleson Hodges.  The Broughams left the West 9th Street house in 1860, returning to London.

The house next became home to merchant Charles J. Spence, whose family would remain here until about 1864.  A daughter dropped a piece of jewelry in the fall of 1863.  Her parents' notice in the New York Herald on October 21 read,

Lost--On Monday afternoon, the 19th inst., between Ninth street, Fifth avenue and Twenty-first street, a child's Gold Armlet, marked (inside the clasp), C.R.S.  The finder will be suitably rewarded by leaving it at 19 Ninth street.

Dr. Morrie Leo Wolf lived here for a year, between 1865 and 1866, after which James H. Sanford purchased the house.  A printer with offices at 644 Broadway, he sold the 31 West 9th Street on April 26, 1870 to Rodney W. and Agnes Looke for $25,000 (about $600,000 in 2024).

Rodney W. Looke was the yard master of the Long Island Railroad's repair yard at Hunter's Point.  He was, as well, a partner with Robert G. Farmer in the Farmer & Looke saloon at 711 Eighth Avenue.  He and Agnes had four children.

In the summer of 1870, Looke was involved in a disturbing incident.  The Long Island Railroad repair yard was "being constantly invaded by river thieves," according to John B. Schmelzer, the railroad's general ticket agent.  Within the past year, $15,000 worth of iron had been stolen.  On the night of August 6, yard workers became aware that men were carrying away iron towards a boat.  Looke joined Schmelzer and a few other workers in chasing the crooks.  Schmelzer handed Looke his handgun and later testified, "The workmen threw stones, and Mr. Looke fired two shots."

Rodney Looke's testimony was slightly different.  The New York Times related, "He fired two shots at the boat, when, not understanding the revolver, he handed the weapon to a canal-boat Captain, who fired two more shots.  The remaining two shots were subsequently fired at a freight car by Mr. Schmelzer."

The reason the men were testifying before a coroner's jury was that one of the burglars, John Smith, was hit and subsequently died.  The New York Times reported, "The jury rendered a verdict of justifiable homicide, though they were in doubt which of the two men fired the fatal bullet."

The parlor of 31 West 9th Street was the scene of the funeral of the Lookes' youngest son, Rodney James, on September 25, 1872.  The boy had died two weeks after his 14th birthday.

Charles Sanford had provided the mortgage on the house to the Lookes.  In 1875, with $18,000 still outstanding, he lost patience and evicted them.  Sanford held a mortgage sale of the "household furniture, piano, French plate mirrors, velvet and Brussels carpets, &c.," on July 8.  Three months later, on October 12, a foreclosure auction of the house was held.

It was purchased by John E. Forbes, a stockbroker, and his family.  Living with them was John's widowed mother, Laura S. Forbes.  The Forbes' residency would be relatively short.  They sold the house in November 1880 to coal mogul Washington Lee.  It appears the purchase was a gift for his daughter Josephine and her husband Bruce Price.  

Born in Maryland in December 1845, Price opened an architectural office in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where he met Josephine Lee.  The couple was married in 1871.  They moved to New York City in 1877 with their five year old daughter, Emily.   

Bruce Price, image via baltimorearchitecture.org

Among the structures Price designed while living at 31 West 9th Street were the James Alfred Roosevelt estate at Cove Neck, Long Island; the Charles T. How cottage "Cleftstone," in Bar Harbor, Maine; and the sprawling Rumson, New Jersey estate "Seacroft."  The Prices sold the West 9th Street house in March 1894 to W. H. C. Barlett for $21,000 (about $767,000 today).

The Barlett family lived here through 1903, then leased the house to Rafael R. Govin and his wife in 1904.  Govin was a banker at 15 Wall Street.  

Bertha K. Barlett and her sister Helen M. Post had inherited 31 West 9th Street by 1911, when they leased it to Theodore Bromley.  Born in Cornwall, England, he was long involved in the theatrical community.  In 1874, he was made treasurer of Booth's Theatre, later becoming the business secretary of the Actors' Fund of America.  He died in the West 9th Street house on February 4, 1914.

Somewhat surprisingly, on September 26, 1916, The New York Sun reported that the house had been leased "to the Delta Sigma Pi Fraternity for a long term of years."

The Barlett family sold 31 West 9th Street to Emanuel C. de Bonilla in October 1922.  By 1936, it had been converted to unofficial apartments.  Among the residents in 1936 was Charles L. Trout, the head of Charles L. Trout Company, Inc. described by the North Shore Daily Journal as the "widely known jewelry firm."

By 1941, the window details had been removed.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On the morning of February 4, 1936, the 70-year-old failed to show up at work.  Employees were concerned and sent Harold Sensing to the apartment to check on him.  The North Shore Daily Journal reported, "When Sensing arrived there he found the jeweler clad in pajamas, dead in the bathtub of his two room apartment.  In his right hand was a revolver.  In his right temple a wound."

Contract bridge expert Josephine M. Culbertson lived here at mid century.  Born Josephine Murphy, she was hired as the secretary to bridge expert Wilbur C. Whitehead in 1920.  Through him she not only learned the game, but quickly mastered it.  By 1922, she was teaching the game and met Ely Culbertson, "an up-and-coming young bridge player," as described by The New York Times.  The couple was married the next year.

The Culbertsons taught, lectured and wrote about bridge, earning each of them $100,000 per year by 1936, according to The New York Times.  Although they divorced in 1938, they remained close friends and in 1954 Josephine edited a book on contract bridge by her former husband. 

Josephine Culbertson was living here on March 24, 1956 when she died at the age of 57 after suffering a stroke.

In 1987, the house was officially converted to apartments, with a doctor's office on the first floor.  Although the window details have been shaved off, 31 West 9th Street is the best preserved of the original row.

many thanks to reader Ari Heckman for requesting this post.

photographs by the author

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