The 1898 Swannanoa - 105-107 East 15th Street

On July 15, 1897, David Greene sold the "three story brick store" at 105 East 15th Street and the "three-story frame dwelling" next door at No. 107 for $19,684, a considerable $768,000 in 2025 terms.  The following year, developer Paul B. Pugh hired architect Gilbert A. Schellinger to design a 10-story residential hotel on the site--The Swannanoa.

Schellinger's Renaissance Revival-style structure featured a two-story stone base dominated by a double-height portico upheld by slender, polished granite Corinthian columns.  Two-story Doric piers separated the openings at this level.  Two rounded bays rose from the third to ninth floors.  Each story was separated by a richly carved spandrel panel.  A full-width stone balcony fronted the tenth floor, and a balustrade ran along the roof line.

The World's New York Apartment House Album, 1906 (copyright expired)

Paul B. Pugh marketed the building as having "every known modern improvement."  Apartments ranged from five to ten rooms and a bath.  An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on February 22, 1900 boasted that The Swannanoa was "finished and decorated in superior style, hardwood trim throughout, electric light, elevator, long distance telephone in each apartment" and "all night service."  Rents ranged from $55 to $160 (equal to $2,120 to $6,170 per month today).

This floorplan depicts four apartments, two each front and back.  New-York Tribune, February 22, 1900 (copyright expired)

The World's New York Apartment House Album described the parlors as being trimmed with "red birch, curly panels, handsome mantels with mirrors, gas grates, parquet floors."  The dining rooms and bedrooms were trimmed in quartered white oak.  The publication said that the kitchens contained, "wash trays and sinks of porcelain; gas ranges" and "refrigerators of [the] latest improved patterns and glass lined."

Among the respectable and well-to-do initial residents was a couple who were decidedly neither--Maudie Belle Marou and Charles H. Moore, alias Moran, alias Marou.  In 1900, Samuel H. Conn inherited $12,000 from his grandfather's estate.  He was introduced to Charles Moran by a friend.  

"I was taken to an elegantly furnished flat at the apartment house at 105 East Fifteenth street, and there met Miss Maudie Belle Marou, a very pretty girl.  I was told that Moran's real name was Marou, and that Maudie was his sister," he later told a reporter.  After visiting the apartment a few times, Morau told Conn "that he had the greatest chance in the world to make money."  He posed as a telegraph operator who "had made thousands by getting information from the race tracks before it reached the pool rooms [i.e., betting offices]."  Conn explained, "He said that friends of his who were operators would delay the reports of the St. Louis races twenty minutes, and give him a 'tip' on the winner by telephone."

On July 24, 1900, Conn gave Morau $2,500 to bet.  He lost and was told that the money was accidentally placed on the wrong horse.  A day or two later, he bet $3,500, and another time $600.  In each case the money was lost through an "error."  When Conn refused to continue to bet, Morau borrowed money to pay the rent on the flat.  On August 15, Conn told a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer, "He induced me to go to Saratoga on Tuesday, and when I returned to this city all the furniture had been taken out of the flat and stored, and Miss Marou and the gang had disappeared."  The newspaper said, "'Chappie' Moran is well known among the police, and his picture is at the rogues' gallery at police headquarters."

More typical of the residents were actors Kate Claxton and Charles A. Stevenson.  Kate was born in 1848 and first appeared on stage in Chicago in 1870.  Charles Stevenson was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1851.  The two married on March 3, 1878, and had one son, Harold.

The couple appeared together in In the Sea of Ice in 1883.  from the Jay T. Last Collection.

In 1900, Stevenson traveled to London with the cast of Zaza, which starred the world famous Mrs. Leslie Carter, known as the "American Sarah Bernhardt."  The run closed on July 28 and four days later the Morning Telegraph titled an article, "Kate Claxton is Miffed," and reported, "Charles A. Stevenson contemplates going to Switzerland with Mrs. Carter and her party, instead of returning to New York with the other members of the company."  The article added, "The growing fondness of Mrs. Carter and Mr. Stevenson for each other's society has excited a great deal of comment for several weeks."

The article continued, "It has even been whispered that Mr. Stevenson's wife, who is known to the stage as Kate Claxton, wrote to him some time ago to give up his engagement in the 'Zaza' company and return to their home."  Stevenson, however, "told some of his fellow players that he would not be dictated to."

Kate's concern had started on the opening night of Zaza in New York.  "It is said she almost fainted in the theatre...when at one period Mrs. Carter threw herself into Mr. Stevenson's arms and kissed and caressed and pawed over him in a way that would have brought response from a marble statue," said the Morning Telegraph.  Kate was not in town to comment on the rumors.  "She is visiting her son, Harold Stevenson, who is spending the Summer at Port Washington, to be near his yacht," said the article.

The Stevensons received horrifying news three years later.  On April 22, 1904, The Boston Globe reported that Harold Stevenson, "shot and killed himself this afternoon in his bachelor apartments at 225 4th av."  The 21-year-old left a note that said, "Dear Mother--I can't make any friends.  We all have to go some time, and I may as well go now before I suffer any more.  Harold"

New-York Tribune, September 9, 1906 (copyright expired)

Other residents at the time were William S. Brockway, secretary of the Oil Fields of Mexico Company; John K. Erskine, Jr., a member of the law firm of Evarts, Van Cott & Erskine, and his wife, Marie; Leslie P. Farmer, chairman and commissioner of the Passenger Department of the Trunk Line Association; and children's author John Howard Jewett.

Jewett was born in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1843 and fought in the Civil War with the 10th Massachusetts Infantry.  For years he was editor and business manager of The Holyoke Transcript and then, starting in 1873, published The Worcester Gazette.  By the end of the 19th century, he devoted himself to writing children's books.  His first, The Bunny Stories: For Young People, was published in 1900, followed by the five-volume Christmas Stocking Stories, a ten-volume series of Little Mother Stories, and a four-volume set of Grandmother Goose Stories.

George J. Kraus was described by The New York Times in 1914 as an "amusement man" and had been the partner of "Big Tim" Sullivan in the firm of Sullivan & Kraus.  (Sullivan was a prominent leader in Tammany Hall and served in the United States Congress from 1903 to 1906.)  On June 3, 1914, a year after Sullivan's death, The New York Times said Kraus "was 'the man behind the gun' in the many theatrical ventures of the late leader of the Sullivan clan."  Sullivan & Kraus owned the Dewey Theatre on East 14th Street, which reportedly averaged a daily attendance of 9,000.  

George J. Krause was a part-owner of the Dewey Theatre, above.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Diamond dealer Antonio Stephen lived in The Swannanoa in the post World War I years.  At around 4:45 on the afternoon of June 5, 1919, he was enjoying a cup of coffee in Abraham Numair's coffee house at 95 Washington Street when six gunmen stormed in.  "We're going to frisk you," they announced.

The New-York Tribune said, "the customers thought the intruders were detectives."  The thugs had done their homework before crashing in.  They "marshalled" customers into a group and then one of them demanded, "Where's Stephen?"  They took his satchel, which contained $6,000 worth of diamonds, and $110 in cash from him.  Then, one-by-one, they fleeced the other two dozen or more patrons.  "In taking the scarfpins, the robbers cut their victims' neckties to obviate the difficulties offered by the safety clasps of the pins," said the article.

Suddenly, a customer entered the restaurant.  Abraham Numair shouted, "We are being held up!"  Before the gunman at the door could stop him, the customer ran into the street yelling for a policeman.  The Sun reported, "the gang on a signal from the leader backed out of the restaurant and scattered in the crowded street."  The man who had stood watch at the doorway was captured by Numair after a violent struggle.  Unfortunately for Antonio Stephen, the other robbers escaped with his diamonds and cash.

A fascinating resident, here as early as 1921, was Dr. Annie Sturgis Daniel, president of the Woman's Prison Association and Isaac H. Hopper Home.  She graduated from the Women's Medical College of New York in 1879 and joined the staff of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children at 321 East 15th Street two years later.  Known by New Yorkers as "The Angel of the East Side," she visited the tenement buildings in the Lower East Side and publicized the conditions.  Decades later, The New York Times would say, "she is known as the woman who first showed the need of tenement house, sweatshop and prison reforms."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

On the evening of November 22, 1941, Dr. Daniel was the guest of honor at the annual dinner of the alumnae of the Women's Medical College in the Hotel St. Moritz.  In reporting the event, The New York Times mentioned, "Dr. Daniel is celebrating her sixtieth year as a member of the staff of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children."  Three years later, on August 11, 1944, The New York Times reported that Dr. Annie S. Daniel, "sometimes called 'The Angel of the East Side,'" had died in her apartment here at the age of 85.

In the meantime, Georgie Vere Tyler, the widow of Dr. Lachlan Tyler (son of President John Tyler), lived here as early as 1922.  Born in Richmond, Virginia, the outspoken author and speaker addressed social and political issues.  Among her works were The Daughter of a Rebel and A Huntress of Men.  When her Children of Transgression was published in 1922, she was interviewed by Marguerite Mooers Marshall for The Evening World.  Marshall described the book as "a strong and unusual plea for a new kind of sex equality, for 'equal rights' not merely in politics or business but in love and happiness."

Georgia Vere Tyler, The Evening World, May 6, 1922 (copyright expired)

Tyler pointed out during the interview that for generations, men "told women--all women--that woman is never, never so happy as in her own home."  The modern woman, she said, was rebelling against that restriction.

By mid-century, sculptor Breading B. Furst lived here.  Born in Yonkers, New York in 1907, he was best known for his portrayals of children and abstract studies.  He died in his Swannanoa apartment on December 19, 1950.

Former light heavyweight boxing champion Paul Berlenbach and his wife, the former Elizabeth Merck, lived here by the mid-1960s.  Born on February 18, 1901, Berlenbach was known in the ring as the Astoria Assassin and held the world light heavyweight title in 1925 and 1926.  Now retired from sports, he ran Paul Berlenbach's Ringside Restaurant in Sound Beach, New York.

In 1986, the apartments were divided, resulting in seven and eight suites per floor.  It was possibly at this time that the tenth-floor balcony was removed.  Still known as The Swannanoa, a current advertisement boasts that it offers "contemporary urban living while preserving its historical charm."

photographs by the author

The 1847 Sarah A. Faulkner House - 134 East 16th Street

 

photo by Ted Leather

An advertisement in The Evening Post on September 14, 1847 offered, "The large, new, modern style Dwelling House and Lot in fee, No. 58 East 16th st., near Union square."  The ad described the 25-foot-wide, four-story residence as being, "Finished in the best manner, with carved statuary mantels, plate glass, mahogany doors, all the recent improvements, including dumb waiter, gas, furnaces, &c.,--One of the most desirable residences in the city."

Construction of the Greek Revival home had started a year earlier.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, it was one of a row of identical houses.  A lacy, full-width cast iron balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows and a simple, bracketed cornice completed its design.  Distinguishing the row from scores of similar homes rising throughout the city at the time were their entrances, the entablatures of which were crowned with highly unusual cornices with stylized egg-and-dart decoration.

photo by Ted Leather

No. 58 East 16th Street (renumbered 134 in 1863) was purchased by Sarah Faulkner, the widow of William Faulkner.  Like many widows of the time, she operated her home as a boarding house.

Among Sarah's earliest tenants was Edward Chauncey Marshall, who boarded here as early as 1850.  He was on the faculty of the Free Academy of the City of New York as the Assistant in the Department of History and Belles Lettres.  In 1850 he earned $700 per year, or about $28,200 in 2025. 

The other boarders that year were three attorneys--Charles T. Shelton, Horace Andrews, and Cheselden Ellis-- and one merchant, John G. Williams.  Some, most likely, were married and would have shared one or two rooms with their wives.  Unmarried women were generally not welcomed in respectable boarding houses.

It appears that one married couple had a baby in 1852.  The new arrival prompted its parents to find their own home.  (The decision might have been made at Sarah Faulkner's urging.)  Sarah placed an advertisement in The New York Times on December 9, 1852 that read:

A Family who are about going to house-keeping will vacate two pleasant rooms in one of the most desirable boarding houses in the City, and would like to find someone to take them.  The dinner hour is 2 o'clock.

Sarah's daughter, Catherine, moved into the house following the death of her husband, Henry, in 1862.  She died here the next year, on August 2, 1863 at the age of 53.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of "the residence of her mother, Mrs. S. A. Faulkner, No. 134 (late 58) East 16-th st., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 3 o'clock P.M., without further invitation," reported The New York Times.

Boarding here at the time was David H. Brown, a clerk.  Two months after Catherine's funeral, he was called to testify in support of Alexander Simpson.  On October 14, Simpson and Margaret Larkin faced off in court--she accusing him of setting fire to Wilson's Bakery on the night of January 1, and he charging her of perjury.  

Larkin testified that she saw Simpson "with straw in his hands, the straw having tar, or some other combustible material spread over it."  The New York Times reported, "After the straw was lighted, she saw Mr. Simpson set fire to the stairs, baskets, &c."  Simpson swore that Mrs. Larkin's statements were "wickedly and maliciously false."  The Times said that David H. Brown "corroborated the statements of Mr. Simpson."

On March 15, 1865, David H. Brown and another boarder, John Strong, were inducted into the Union Army.  Happily for them, the war ended less than a month later.  Brown returned to 134 East 16th Street.

Catharine G. Read purchased 134 East 16th Street in 1867 for $23,250, according to the New York Dispatch on March 3.  (The price would convert to about $600,000 today.)  Sarah F. Brown continued to take in boarders.  David H. Brown would remain here through 1869.  Sarah Brown's other boarders that year were Robert McCartee (who listed his profession as "treasurer"), and John Murphy, a tobacco merchant.

The fact that Sarah Brown had only three boarders reflected the upscale tenor of her operation.  The fewer the tenants, the more exclusive the home.  She leaned on Sarah Faulkner's sterling reputation in advertising a vacancy on September 14, 1873:

134 East Sixteenth Street (late Mrs. Faulkner's) to let, with Board, a suit of rooms on second floor till November 1; also rooms for gentlemen.

The boarding house was taken over by Isaac Bush, Jr. in 1877.  Its respectability continued to be unreproachable.  Although Bush occasionally accepted unmarried females, they were always school teachers--Mary J. Gallagher in 1879, Mary G. Pursell in 1888, and Isabel McConnellogue in 1890.  All of them taught in public schools.

An interesting resident was Count Lucian Della Sala, who boarded here in 1883.  He summered at the Guigou House in the Catskill Mountains at least once.  As the end of the season neared in 1883, the resort listed him and other respected Manhattanites like General George H. Sharpe, Italian Consul General G. B. Raffo, and Colonel G. Thurston, as references.

On May 5, 1900, The World ran a lengthy article condemning "the immense profits made by The Tammany Ice Trust."  (Tammany Hall had given Charles W. Morse's American Ice Company a virtual monopoly over the ice supply in Manhattan.)  The article was headlined, "Grip of the Great Ice Trust, Now First Felt by the Public."  Among those interviewed for the article was Isaac Bush, Jr., who grumbled, "I had a special arrangement to get ice at 25 cents, and now comes a notice that the price is 50 cents."

Among the boarders in the early years of the 20th century were Reverend W. H. Van Antwerp and his wife, who arrived in September 1903.  Born in 1833 in Geneseo, New York, Van Antwerp was ordained on June 30, 1858 and earned his Master's at the General Theological Seminary.  He and Charlotte Augusta Jones were married in St. Thomas Church in 1862.  The couple traveled to Des Moines, Iowa in January 1882 where Van Antwerp built a new church.  

In 1941, the cast iron balcony of 132 East 16th Street next door survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Another interesting boarder was artist A. T. Weston.  His advertisement in Printers' Ink on November 27, 1907 read, "Drawings.  Comic drawings--bright, catchy and original.  Tell me what you want and I will submit sketches."

That year Catharine G. Read died, leaving the title "free of a mortgage" to 134 East 16th Street to her daughter, Gertrude E. Kellogg.  She retained possession at least through 1912, when she leased the house to Minnie Hoffman.

In the post-World War I years, 134 East 16th Street operated as a rooming house.  Not all the residents were as upstanding as those who had occupied rooms in the 19th century. 

On August 14, 1925, for instance, Platon Sorotay was arrested and "charged with driving [a] car while intoxicated," as reported by the Daily Argus of Mount Vernon, New York.  And on the night of April 28, 1944, Nicholas Marino was arrested in the subway station at Broadway and 72nd Street.  The New York Sun reported, "Marino was shown by the records to have been arrested twenty-four times previously" for pick-pocketing.

A renovation completed in 1961 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels and two apartments each in the upper floors.  The duplex was divided into two apartments in 1965.

photograph by Ted Leather

Although the iron stoop railings have been replaced, the original Greek Revival-style areaway fencing suggests their appearance.  The iron balcony was removed prior to 1940 and the brick facade has been painted.  Nonetheless, of the 1847 row, only 134 East 16th Street has outwardly survived mostly intact.  

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The Henry J. Scudder House - 116 East 17th Street

 

In 1850, Henry Joel Scudder purchased the 25-foot-wide plot at 69 East 17th Street (renumbered 116 in 1867) from Courtlandt Palmer.  Half a block to the west was Union Square where brick and brownstone mansions had begun appearing five years earlier; and two blocks to the east was the equally exclusive Stuyvesant Square.  

Three years later Scudder married Louisa Henrietta Davies and the following year, in 1854, the couple began construction of their new home on the site.  Their four-story-and-basement Italianate-style residence, completed within that year, was faced in brownstone.  

The highly-ornamented arched entrance, inspired by Renaissance designs, would set the house apart.  Its paneled columns were carved with a chain motif, the spandrels were filled with intricate foliate designs, and the keystone was carved with a stylized lyre.  A full relief shell sat within the triangular, bracketed pediment.  The chain motif was echoed in a frieze running below the fourth-floor windows.

The windows sat within molded architrave frames.  A cast iron balcony most likely fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows.

Born in 1825, Henry Joel Scudder had deep American roots, descending from Thomas Scudder who arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1630.  Henry Scudder graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1846 and opened his law office in New York City in 1848.  He co-founded the law firm of Scudder & Carter in 1854.

When the couple moved into their new home, they had a newborn baby, Henry Townsend Scudder.  Also living with them were Henry's brothers, Hewlett and Townsend, a merchant and lawyer, respectively.  (Townsend was a partner with his brother in Scudder & Carter.)  

Henry and Louisa would have four more children--Charles Davies, Edward Mansfield, Mary English, and Elizabeth.   The family's country home was along the upper Hudson River.

On April 12, 1861, the year Elizabeth was born, the Civil War broke out.  Henry Scudder, a member of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment, left his family to fight in 1862.  In his absence, Louisa died on December 28, 1864 at the age of 30.  Shortly after Scudder's return to his East 17th Street home, Elizabeth died at the age of four.

Formerly the responsibility of Louisa, Henry Scudder was now tasked with staffing the houses.  He placed an ad in The Sun on May 3, 1865:

Wanted--A Cook and Chambermaid in a gentleman's family, 60 miles up the North River.  The cook to assist in washing and ironing; the chambermaid to be seamstress also; good references required.  Call at 69 East 17th st, between the hours of 8 and 3 to-day.

At the time of the ad, Hewlett still lived with the family.  Townsend had moved to East 30th Street by then.

In 1866, Henry Scudder married Emma Willard.  The population of the East 17th Street house would continue to grow as the couple had five children--Willard, Louisa H, Heyward, Emma Willard, and Hewlett.

Henry Joel Scudder, from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1872, Scudder was elected to the Forty-third Congress and held the office through March 3, 1875.  Afterward, he returned to his law practice and became the principal counsel for the Standard Oil Company.

Scudder moved his family to East 22nd Street in 1882 where he died on February 10, 1886.  In reporting his death, The New York Times said he, "for nearly a third of a century occupied a leading position at the Bar of this city."  In the meantime, the East 17th Street house was being rented, its tenant operating it as a boarding house.

Boarding here by 1887 was George R. Phillips, who apparently consisted of the one-person faculty of The New York School of Oratory.  Phillips taught his students from his rooms.  His advertisement in the New York Herald on December 18, 1887 read: "The New York School of Oratory and Voice Culture for the care of stammering and vocal impediments, 116 East 17th st, George R. Phillips, Principal."  He would remain here at least through 1879.

Another tenant gave instructions from his rooms.  In the same issue of the New York Herald an advertisement read, "$5 for six lessons--day or evening; drawing, flowers &c.; painting, photo color, photo crayon. 116 East 17th."  (The cost of each lesson would translate to $27.50 in 2025.)

The upscale tenor of the boarding house was reflected in one resident's ad looking for new accommodations on December 2, 1888.  "A lady with maid would like sitting room and bedroom in quiet, comfortable house; private family preferred, where there are no other boarders.  Address, giving particulars, K. E. 116 East 17th st."

The Scudder family advertised the house for sale on January  22, 1895, noting, "rented to May 1, 1896."  Just four days later, The New York Times reported "the Scudder estate [sold] to W. S. Patten the four-story and basement brownstone dwelling 116 East Seventeenth Street."  

William S. and Mary E. Patten inherited at least two boarders, Major Charles Mann and Rev. John R. Davies.  Rev. Davies was the pastor of the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Charles Mann was born in 1833 and educated in Germany.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the First Missouri Light Artillery.  He was Assistant Chief of Artillery at the Battle of Vicksburg.  The New York Press noted, "After the war he interested himself in oil wells."  Charles Mann was still involved in that business when he died here at the age of 62 on June 21, 1895.  His funeral was held in the parlor three days later.

The Pattens continued to take in male boarders.  An advertisement  in the New York Journal and Advertiser on April 4, 1899 read, "17th St., 116 East, near Irving place--Large and single rooms; first class table; moderate price; gentlemen."

In December 1909, the Pattens sold the house to Ekko and Elise Sollmann.  They resold it in 1917 to George Borgfeldt & Co., which leased furnished rooms in the house.

The chain-carved frieze, molded window frames and denticulated cornices of the parlor windows survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Living here in the spring of 1928 was 22-year-old Winifred Mullarky, who came to New York from Youngstown, Ohio to become an artist's model.  The impressionable young woman read James Branch Cabell's Beyond Life while living here.  

On March 13, a tenant smelled gas and traced it to Mullarky's door.  The Evening Telegram reported, "Failing to gain entrance, the tenant called Policeman Frolich of the East Twenty-second street station, who forced the door."  Inside he found Winifred Mullarky unconscious in a chair.  She had placed a rubber tube leading from an open gas jet into her mouth.  Inhaling illuminating gas was so common that a device was available from some utility companies.  In addition to calling an ambulance from Bellevue Hospital, Frolich summoned "a lung motor from the Consolidated Gas Company."  The Evening Telegram reported, "it was said Miss Mullarky would recover."

The model had left a suicide note for her mother in Ohio, that said in part,

I am disappointed in life, in love, and in happiness.  Much that I have wanted to try to do has not been done.  I recently read the book by James Branch Cabell, "Beyond Life," and I found it very interesting.

She told her mother that the book shed light on the "life beyond the horizon."

Rooms continued to be leased in the house throughout the following decades.  It was purchased in 2012 for $23.5 million, initiating a still-ongoing renovation that will result in a two-family residence.

photographs by the author

The Lost W. H. Jackson Building - 31 East 17th Street

 

The narrow W. h. Jackson Building towered above his neighbors.  from the collection of the Library of Congress (cropped)

In the first years after the Civil War, commerce began invading the refined residential Union Square neighborhood.  The mansions that ringed the park--with its iron fencing and ornamental fountain--were converted one-by-one to high end shops as their former residents fled northward.  In as early as 1872, William H. Jackson owned the high-stoop brownstone at 31 East 17th Street, home to the headquarters of W. H. Jackson & Co.

Seen here in 1880, 31 East 17th Street (to the left of the tall Century Company Building) retained much of its domestic appearance.  Only the parlor floor had been altered.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1890, architect William Harvey Birkmire, the staff architect for W. H. Jackson & Co., filed plans to replace the vintage mansion and the property behind it on 18th Street with an 11-story, $100,000 office building.  Birkmire was a pioneer in "curtain wall" construction and in his 1893 Skeleton Construction In Buildings described the W. H. Jackson Building in detail.

Real Estate Record & Builder's Guide, October 25, 1890 (copyright expired)

Completed in June 1892, the W. H. Jackson Building was what would be called a "sliver building" today.  Birkmire's design was a blending of Romanesque Revival and German Renaissance styles.  Birkmire congratulated his design saying it had, "a commanding character in spite of its narrowness."  The lower three floors, dominated by a three-story arch, were  clad in cast iron molded to imitate stone.  Inside, said Birkmire, "The stairs are finished with cast-iron ornamental strings and wrought-iron railings with marble treads, the passenger elevators with wrought-iron scroll grilles and cast-iron transoms."

The abundance of ornamental ironwork was not surprising.  Founded in 1827, by Nathan H. Jackson, W. H. Jackson & Co. (known over the years as several names, including Wm. H. Jackson & Co. and Jackson Architectural Iron Works) designed and manufactured iron fireplace grates, architectural railings and other items.  The firm's success eventually brought commissions to design and produce the doors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and the Bowery Savings Bank.

An 1891 complementary Wm. H. Jackson & Co. calendar pictured a decorative fireplace fender.  (copyright expired)

Even as the upper floors were still under construction, the ground floor space was advertised for rent.  On December 2, 1891, an ad touted the "handsome large store, 28 x 184, just finished."  For potential occupants of the upper floors, the ad described "swift-running passenger and freight elevators.  Steam heat and power.  Complete system of electricity."

The store was taken by a long-term Union Square fixture, Brentano's bookstore.  The firm had occupied a converted mansion on the west side of the park for years.  

The Evening Post, December 19, 1892 (copyright expired)

Other tenants included at least two architectural firms.  Cady, Berg & See occupied offices by 1895.  The firm had designed important structures like the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Opera House.   Esteemed architect George B. Post worked from the W. H. Jackson Building by 1897.

Several tenants were involved in the publishing industry.  Cassell Publishing Company issued Cassell's Family Magazine here by 1895.  At the turn of the century, the Ridgway Company published Everybody's Magazine here, and on March 17, 1906, The New York Times reported,

The group of publishers around Union Square--The Century Company, Baker, Taylor & Co., Brentano's, Doubleday, Page & Co., and Everybody's Magazine--will shortly be joined by Moffatt, Yard & Co., whose new offices will be at 31 East Seventeenth Street, the Jackson Building, where they will have more room for the growing business.

That year Moffatt, Yard & Co. published Behind the Scenes With Animals, the author of which was another W. H. Jackson Building tenant.  Ellen Velvin's office would remain in the building at least through 1914.  Born in 1862 in Plymouth, England, she was a prolific author, often writing about wildlife.

The W. H. Jackson Building is seen in this 1910 postcard.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Another publishing house, Robert M. McBride & Co., would occupy space by 1913. 

In the meantime, William Henry Jackson died in November 1908 at the age of 79.  The firm ceased operation the following year.

William Henry Jackson, from Biographical Directory of the State of New York, 1900 (copyright expired)

Another tenant in the first years of the 20th century was The Regina Co., which produced and sold "pneumatic cleaners," known today as vacuum cleaners.  An advertisement in 1911 promised that Regina cleaners "have solved the 'Spring Housecleaning' problem in thousands of homes."

In 1913, Kyoto Manufacturing Co., a Japanese-based importer, moved in.  Also occupying space in the building at the time were the Travel Club of America and Tilton & Keeler, dealers of "color cards."

The Sun, October 1, 1919 (copyright expired)

Three new tenants moved into the W. H. Jackson Building in 1917.  Owens-Kreiser Co., a toy manufacturer, leased the sixth floor; Winsor & Newton, Inc., "dealers of artists' colors," moved in; and the tenth floor was leased to the Camp Fire Girls.

Founded in 1910 by husband and wife team, Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick and Charlotte Vetter Gulick, the Camp Fire Girls was the first non-sectarian organization for girls in the country.  In addition to camaraderie and fun, the girls learned domestic skills.  On December 21, 1924, The New York Times remarked, "The next generation is assured of [being] able to cook a well-balanced meal, wash dishes and do a turn at the washboard."  The article explained that to earn their homecraft honors during the past year, "They have cooked and served at least two Sunday dinners while their mothers have rested; they have cared for a baby at least an average of one hour a day for a month and they have made four kinds of biscuits."

By 1921, the Camp Fire Girls had expanded into the 11th floor, as well.  On December 20 that year, The Evening World reported, "The Camp Fire Girls who are mending broken toys to give to poor children, want more toys to mend and give."  The girls' toy drive had already resulted in the Italian-Chilean baritone Renato Zanelli of the Metropolitan Opera Company donating 25 new dolls.

image from the collection of the Library of Congress.

In 1893, William Harvey Birkire had boasted that his W. H. Jackson Building, "is entirely fireproof."  But on March 11, 1928, The New York Times reported, "Three women and more than twenty men were rescued yesterday afternoon by elevator operators in a fire in the eleven-story Jackson loft building, at Union Square North and East Seventeenth Street."  The fire had started in the fifth floor in the toy and doll factory of Nadel & Shimmel.  Owens-Kreiseler Company still occupied the sixth floor and the flammable celluloid used by both firms in making dolls fueled the blaze.  The ensuing three-alarm inferno gutted the fifth through eleventh floors, including the Camp Fire Girls headquarters on the top two.

At one point, said the article, "two flights of steel stairs, from the ninth to the eleventh floor, collapsed.  At first it was feared that a squad of firemen had been trapped, but all were found to be safe."

Almost two years to the day, on March 9, 1930, The New York Times reported on a second fire in the Jackson Building.  In a tragic case of déjà vu, the fire once again started in the Nadel & Shimmel factory.  "Firemen who responded to the first alarm turned in additional alarms when they found celluloid dolls and other celluloid toys," said The New York Times.

This time, the owners did not repair the upper floors.  The Work Progress Administration's New York City Guide explained in 1939, "The decreased demand for industrial floor area and the increased number of vacancies, in the years following the financial crisis of 1929, led to the popularity of a new type of structure--the taxpayer...Such an example is at 31 East Seventeenth Street, a two-story structure of cream brick and panels."

The stump of the W. H. Jackson Building had been remodeled as a low-rise Art Moderne structure, including glass block and vast windows, made possible by William H. Birkmire's skeleton construction.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

In 2005, the little building was given a gut renovation and a new glass and steel facade.   No hint is left to suggest for the passerby that this is the remnant of one of the earliest skyscrapers in Manhattan.

image via LoopNet.com

The Lost Clarendon Hotel - 18th Street and Fourth Av (Park Avenue So.)

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Similar to his Gramercy Park, Samuel Ruggles's Union Square was ringed by substantial brick residences around a fenced park with a central fountain.  The blocks of Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue South) directly above the park were named Union Place.  In 1848, six years after completion of the park, Ruggles began construction of an elegant hotel one block to the north at the southeast corner of 18th Street and Union Place.

Completed in 1851, the Clarendon Hotel was designed in the Italianate style.  A cast iron portico sheltered the entrance within the rusticated stone base.  The hotel's six-floor center section on 18th Street rose one story above the rest of the structure.  

Ruggles leased the hotel to proprietor G. C. Putnam.  His opening announcement on August 8, 1851 stressed its residential setting (as opposed to bustling Broadway), saying it would appeal to families "who desire the comforts and quiet of a more retired situation than the other hotels of New York."  It continued in part,

The arrangements of this establishment are altogether superior to anything of the kind in this or, perhaps, any other country, being divided into suits of apartments, with bathing rooms and other water conveniences attached.  It is furnished in the most elegant and expensive manner, equal to the best private residences of the city.

The garden of the Efraim Holbrook mansion can be seen at the left.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The Clarendon Hotel catered to both transient and permanent guests.  An advertisement in 1859 noted, "The apartments, from the single room to the suite of any number desired, are provided with Bath Rooms, and all the modern conveniences.  It is conducted on the Table d'Hote system, or meals are served in rooms."

By then, Kerner & Birch had taken over the proprietorship.  Gerrit Kerner, who had been the steward of the exclusive Union Club, ran the hotel with military precision.  A permanent guest, Richard Lathers, recalled in his 1907 memoir, Reminiscences of Richard Lathers,

The table service was exceedingly well organized.  The waiters marched from the pantry in military order to place the food on the table and, after removing the covers of the dishes, marched in the same manner to deposit them on the side tables before waiting on the guests.  The dinner was served punctually at a fixed hour, and those not present at any course lost it--for the courses were brought on with as much regularity as a private dinner.

On the first floor were "a couple of neatly furnished rooms," according to Lathers, for smoking.  "After dinner, and after the theater, these smoking rooms were always filled," he said.  Lathers listed some of the well-heeled figures who haunted the smoking rooms, including Ward McAllister, Governor John T. Hoffman, Charles Clinton, former President Franklin Pierce (a full-time resident of the hotel), and General Winfield Scott Hancock.

Perhaps the first foreign dignitaries to stay at the Clarendon Hotel were Lord and Lady Ellesmere, who stayed here with their daughter in 1853 while attending the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations in the Crystal Palace.  Quickly, according to Lathers, "the Clarendon [became] popular with travelers from all over Europe, and especially from England."

from the collection of the Library of Congress

On March 7, 1857, Lord Napier and his family arrived on his way to Washington.  He was the newly appointed British Ambassador to the United States.  High ranking figures would continue to stay here.  On one day alone--October 22, 1870--the New York Herald reported that opera star Christina Nilsson, General E. W. Serrell, and Russian Minister Count Calacazy had checked into the hotel.

Gerrit Kerner died in 1862 and his son, Charles H. Kerner took over the hotel's operation.  There was no change in the level of service and hospitality.

The Grand Duke Alexis of Russia arrived on November 28, 1871.  He was given the equivalent of today's secret service protection.  The New-York Tribune reported, "When he landed three detectives guarded him; at the serenade on Tuesday night they were near at hand; and they are now quartered at the Clarendon Hotel."  Within the Clarendon, the Grand Duke was able to relax from his many official duties.  Lathers said he "visited this headquarters of international goodfellowship for the relaxation of a cigar and a glass of the best wine in the city after the tiresome formalities of public receptions."

While staying here the Grand Duke Alexis was honored by the city with a grand ball.  Harper's Weekly, December 1871.

In 1884, New York's Great Industries said that because of its proximity to "all of the theatres, halls and clubs, the Clarendon has many recognized advantages as a place of residence for the leading prima donnas and artistes who visit the metropolis, while the nobility and gentry of the Old World here find those congenial surrounds and superior service which has made the Clarendon so justly celebrated all over Europe."  

Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák, his wife and two of their children arrived in America on September 27, 1891.  In his 2022 Distant Melodies, Edward Dusinberre writes they were "met at the port of Hoboken by an enthusiastic delegation of Czech citizens and people associated with the National Conservatory before being installed in luxurious rooms at the Hotel Clarendon near Union Square."  Unfortunately, the quiet residential nature of the location that was so touted in 1851 was gone.  "The presence of a new Steinway grand piano was not enough to distract Dvořák from the unaccustomed noise of the city," writes Dusinberre.  The family was soon installed in rooms in a nearby rowhouse on East 17th Street.

To the shock of many hoteliers, when C. H. Kearny's lease was up in April 1893, he did not renew it.  In reporting that the lease was available on April 8, The New York Times mentioned, "For many years the Clarendon was without a rival as the favorite family hotel of the city.  It was always a home-like house, with spacious rooms, genteel service, and pleasant surroundings."  But now the hotel which was once feared to be too far uptown, was too far downtown.  "The construction of other fine family hotels further up town within the last few years has made the Clarendon, however, less desirable from a lessee's standpoint."

Charles L. Briggs, who had been head clerk for years, took over the lease in a valiant but hopeless endeavor to save the old hostelry.  Five years later, on October 13, 1898, The Sun reported, "To-day the solitary tenant of the building is George, the old porter, who for nearly a quarter of a century has been employed in the house."  The newspaper lamented, "In any other city than New York it would probably survive to-day with its former prosperity, the resort of just the sort of persons who frequented it in the past.  But the times change and people change with them more rapidly here, and the Clarendon...has been deserted by its patrons for the more fashionable and more modern hotels uptown."  The article reminisced, 

That seven Ministers of foreign Governments slept one night in the hotel was one old boast of its manager...The aristocracy of genius went there as well.  Adelaide Ristori stopped there on her visits to this country, and so did Brignoli, Carolotta Patti, and Etelka Gerster.  Adelaide Neilson, the actress, and Christine Nilsson, the singer, were regular guests of the hotel, and when Helen Modjeska first came from San Francisco to try her fortunes here, it was at the Clarendon that she lived.

The Clarendon Hotel survived, vacant, until 1909.  Developer Henry Corn had purchased it a year earlier and on September 15, 1909, the Record & Guide reported that the venerable structure "is to be torn down and immediately replaced with a 20-story high-class office building of the best type."  Named the Clarendon Building and designed by Maynicke & Franke, it survives.

photograph by Byron Company,  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

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