Samuel A. Warner's 1855 45 Murray Street

 

Until 1841, Rev. Dr. Barry's Academy operated from the five-story house at 45 Murray Street.  The property was acquired by clothing manufacturer Francis W. Hutchins in 1850.  It appears he lived in the house until 1854, when an auction was held of "the entire furniture."  The listing hinted at the sumptuous interiors, including "elegant chandeliers," rosewood parlor furniture, a rosewood piano, and "center tables, with marble tops."  The announcement noted, "the building is to be removed."

Hutchins erected a 26-foot-wide, five-story store-and-loft building on the site.  Architectural historians agree that the architect was most likely Samuel A. Warner, whose works include the Marble Collegiate Reformed Church on Fifth Avenue.  Faced in marble above the cast iron storefront, the Italianate structure featured blind balustrades below the tall second story windows.  They supported graceful volutes that flowed down from the scrolled brackets of the gently-arched window cornices.  The third floor openings were treated similarly, while those at the fourth and fifth floors were less showy.  The brackets of the pressed metal terminal cornice flanked panels within the marble frieze.

The second story windows have, sadly, lost their cornices, but overall the striking details survive.

On January 10, 1855 Hutchins offered "The lower part of the new first class marble front store" in the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer.  The ad promised that the building "will be finished 1st Feb."

Answering the ad was Townsend, Boynton & Jones, makers of women's pantaloons.  They shared the building with their landlord, Francis W. Hutchins, who moved his wholesale clothing operation into the upper floors.  

By 1860, the store space was occupied by the auctioneering firm Lockwood Bros. & Underhill.  It liquidated excess stock, or the stock of companies that had gone out of business.  The sale of the goods were often ordered by the City Marshall.  But in September 1860, it was a German peddler, James Dryfous, who suspiciously brought "eighteen dozen men's shirts and five dozen ladies' and gentlemen's under-garments," according to The New York Times.  It did not take authorities long to track the items, "recently stolen from the store of Mr. James S. Davie, No. 78 Cedar Street."  Dryfous was arrested and held for trial.

Francis W. Hutchins was gone from his building in 1861.  Lockwood Bros. & Underhill were still in the store, the second floor was occupied by the wholesale button and "general finding" store of T. S. Wheeler, the third by shirt manufacturer Hecht Friedland, and on the fourth and fifth floors were wholesale clothier A. Weinstein & Co. and Churchhill, Ingalls & Co., "merchants."  At around 11:20 on the night of September 9 that year, fire was seen in the fourth floor.

Although fire fighters were quickly on the scene, according to The New York Times, "owing to the peculiar, inflammable nature of some of the materials, the fourth and fifth floors were completely enveloped in flames."  Within half an hour the entire building was engulfed, the flames lighting up the night sky.  At about midnight, the rear wall collapsed.  The New York Times reported, "the heat was so intense on the opposite side of Murray-street at one time, that several of the hose[s] had to put constant streams of water, until the walls and roof of No. 45 fell in."

The intense fire was the subject of a Currier & Ives print, The Life of a Fireman.

In the end, only the marble façade was left standing.  The newspaper said it was too soon to know the exact loss, "but it was estimated by good judges that it could not be less than $150,000."  (That amount would equal about $4.5 million today.)

Within two days the fire marshal announced he "strongly suspected" arson.  The fire had started in A. Weinstein & Co. and, according to Katharine Greider in her 2011 The Archaeology of Home, "All these facts seemed to imply that someone, maybe even someone connected to Abraham Weinstein, set the fire to make good on fall merchandise that otherwise would have to be chalked up to a loss."  The investigation waned and no charges were ever pursued.

Although the newspapers called 45 Murray Street a total loss, Francis Hutchins rebuilt the gutted interior.  Following what was approximately a two-year renovation, the building filled with a new batch of drygoods merchants--Meriman & Long, Lewis Mills, Alexander Munkitrick, and yarn dealer C. R. Cutler & Co.

The neighborhood saw new types of businesses in the last years of the 1860's.  In 1868 wine merchants Wilson, Morrow & Chamberlin were in the building (the name was changed to Morrow, Chamberlin & Co. the following year).  Another non-drygoods related firm, the American Papier Mache Company was here by 1870, and flooring manufacturer Drew & Bucki opened a branch office in the building around 1874.

Real Estate Record & Guide, September 26, 1874 (copyright expired)

The trend continued, with Northampton Cutlery Co. and Wittemann Brothers, makers of tin foil, calling 45 Murray Street home in the early 1880's.  They would have to find a new location, however, in 1884 when cork dealer John Robinson & Co. leased the entire building.

In 1885 New York's Leading Industries described the business as a "manufacturer of corks and bungs, and importers of corks, dealers in brewers' and bottlers' supplies."  Founded in 1874, the firm employed an average of 150 workers at its Brooklyn factory at any time.  Most of the activity in the Murray Street building was "cork sorting." The firm's offices and salesroom were in the ground floor store level. 

As the name implied, John Robinson was the principal in the firm.  He was affiliated with another cork firm, Armstrong Brothers & Co. of Pittsburgh.  Although, according to The Sun, "Mr. Robinson was generally supposed to be wealthy," he declared bankruptcy on May 5, 1891.  The firm now continued as Armstrong Brothers.

The company remained at 45 Murray Street until about 1901 when the building once again saw multiple tenants.  Among them were the Carter Medicine Company; the Comstock Hoff Mfg. Co., leather goods dealers; and Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing Co., makers of cutlery and knives.

Hardware Dealers' Magazine, February 1910 (copyright expired)

In 1907 Brent Good, president of the Carter Medicine Company, purchased the building.  He continued to operate his business here, while leasing space to other tenants.  He had started out in the "proprietary medicine" business in 1866, and in 1880 had co-founded Carter Medicine Company with Samuel J. Carter.  The firm's one product was a pill, promised to cure "headache, constipation, dyspepsia, and biliousness." 

Carter's Medicine Company targeted the military in this 1914 advertisement.  copyright expired)

Good traveled to England in 1915--a dangerous time to be abroad.  The previous year, in December, Germany had begun aerial bombing of Great Britain.   Now in October 1915, Brent Good found himself in the midst of the upheaval.  On November 11, The Sun reported, "While in London on business a few weeks ago he was shaken up during a Zeppelin bomb raid and collapsed soon after returning home."  The 68-year-old never recovered from the shock and died on November 10.  The article noted, "He had made a fortune in the manufacture of pills."  By the time of that comment, the catchy name "Carter's Little Liver Pills" became a household phrase.

Carter Medicine Company continued at 45 Murray Street.  The changing tenor of the neighborhood was reflected in the tenants at the time.  Despite rampant anti-German sentiments, in 1917 Otto Goetz imported "German china, fancy goods, Bohemian glassware, beer steins, bisque novelties."  In the post war years Wallach & Behrend Co., dealers in chinaware and cafeteria equipment, was here, as was the Chemical Co. of America, makers of dyestuffs.

Carter's Medicine Company left Murray Street in 1935.  (In 1951 the Federal Trade Commission ordered it to change the name to "Carter's Little Pills," saying the "liver" in the name was deceptive.)

Throughout the rest of the century more industrial tenants occupied the building.  For two decades, starting in 1935, the International Plumbing Supply Co., and the Enbee Mfg. Co. were here.  The 1940's saw Harrington J. Bradford & Co., and Universal Budget Systems, dealers in "inexpensive family budget books," in the building.

Today an Indian restaurant occupies the former store space, while the upper floors continue to house small businesses and factories.  Despite the unfortunate loss of the architectural detailing of the second floor windows and a devastating 1861 fire, Samuel A. Warner's striking 1855 design is incredibly intact.

photographs by the author

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Henry Englebert's 1868 Marble Fronted 408-410 Broadway

Elias S. Higgins was a carpet merchant, the principal in E. S. Higgins & Company.  But as construction in New York resumed following the end of the Civil War and the Tribeca district began its transformation from a residential to commercial neighborhood, he turned to real estate development as well.

Between 1866 and 1869 he would work with architect Henry Englebert on at least three projects.  The earliest of these replaced the old Apollo Hotel with its well-known Apollo Rooms where banquets and balls were held as early as 1844, along with the commercial building next door (408 Broadway) which had recently been home to Wm. S. Vanderbilt & Bros., merchant tailors.

Ground was broken in 1866 and construction was completed two years later.  Engelbert had created two identical Italianate style structures.   Above the cast iron storefronts rose four stories of gleaming white marble, arranged in two sections divided by an intermediate cornice.  Rusticated piers framed each building.  Both of the two upper sections held two-story arches separated by Corinthian pilasters on paneled pedestals.  The arches of the middle section were segmental, while those of the upper section were fully rounded.

Among the initial tenants was was Calhoun, Robbins & Co., importers of "fancy dry goods and small wares."  The firm had been organized in 1858.  It had barely moved in when the gold panic known as Black Friday took place on September 24, 1869.  Caused by a conspiracy between Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the gold market, it caused gold prices to plummet and an economic depression was narrowly averted by the actions of President Ulysses S. Grant.  The effects of Black Friday trickled down to merchants like Calhoun, Robbins & Co.

New-York Tribune, March 9, 1870 (copyright expired)

Another fancy goods dealer in the building by 1872 was Isaac F. Stillitz, whose showrooms were on the third floor.  On the afternoon of March 25 that year, three men entered the building and hid in the hallway water closet.  They remained there until the employees had left, then broke into the Stillitz showroom.  The New York Times reported they "stole ten dozen of pocket-knives, valued at $85, and some articles of small value."  (The knives would be worth about $1,840 today.)

Isaac F. Stillitz turns out to have been relatively lucky in his loss.  The men escaped by forcing open the scuttle (or hatchway) to the roof, then traveling over the rooftops until forcing open another scuttle at No. 404 Broadway.  In that building they broke into two safes and removed a large quantity of jewelry valued at more than $25,600 today.  They broke open the street door to escape.

The trio went separate directions.  The box containing the jewelry was entrusted to one man and Stillitz's goods to another.  At around daylight Patrolman Mitchell was suspicious of the box he saw a man carrying up Broadway near Spring Street, and asked him what was inside.  Told that it was clothing, he asked to see inside.  The man then threw the box to the ground and ran.  Mitchell instructed a private security guard to watch the box while he pursued the burglar.

When the crook realized the cop was gaining on him, he turned and pointed a weapon, threatening to shoot.  (It turned out that the pistol was, in fact, a large door key.)  "The policeman, who had drawn his revolver, informed the desperado that unless he surrendered at once he would blow his brains out."  The culprit chose to retain his brains and was arrested.

The early 1880's was an unsettling time for wealthy capitalists as economic anarchists targeted banks and millionaires with bombs and death threats.   In the spring of 1882 two wealthy New Yorkers, William H. Vanderbilt and Cyrus W. Field, received mail bombs which, thankfully, did not detonate.  Professor R. Ogden Doremus examined the boxes and reported "The gun cotton in the infernal machines...was powerful enough to kill two men."

Postal investigators sought out experts to examine the components in an effort to track down the terrorists.  They brought one of the boxes to Calhoun, Robbins & Co. to possibly identify the box and covers.  The Sun reported "Several members of the firm gathered...examined the box critically.  They said that the 'T-137' was a German mark, and that the 157-8c. was a private mark of some retail house in this city."  They then sent for a young man from the packing room.  His knowledge of boxes was prodigious. 

"The young man picked up the box, turned it around and over, glanced at the picture of the peasant girl, slammed the box down on the table, pulled out a well-worn note book from his hip pocked, and yelled promptly, 'In America.'"

Asked who made it, he thumbed through the book again and advised "Go to J. F. Hitchcock, 72 Duane street."  He then went back to his packing room.  His tip gave investigators the first clue that resulted in a chain of valuable information.

Business owners had to be constantly on guard against swindlers and cheats, not only from the street by from within their companies.  Tenants H. M. Richards & Co. and Browning, King & Co. would both be victims.

Browning, King & Co. were clothiers whose superintendent of the packing department, John Masterson, was a trusted employee.  But he was arrested in June 1883 after it was discovered that he and an accomplice, John Ford, had swindled the firm out of $20,000--a significant $527,000 in today's money.

Jewelers H. M. Richards & Co. were the victim of slick con artists the following year.  Matthew Webb, Jr. and Henry Rice, 23 and 25-years old respectively, set up a jewelry firm (in name only) and hired a 16-year old messenger boy, Alfred Wieck, as their unwitting accomplice.  Webb and Rice constantly renamed their business and moved around, making tracing them difficult.

Weick was paid $6 a week, which was enough for him not to ask questions.  He was sent to jewelry firms with printed order forms from the fake company.  Rather astonishingly, jewelers, including H. M. Richards & Co., fell for the ruse and turned over small amounts of jewelry.  The orders amounted most often to about $45--around $1,180 today--enough to keep the crooks in business but not enough to arouse suspicion.

The scam worked until late July 1884 when Weick brought an order to Thomas W. McAdams.  The letterhead read Conkling, Frye & Lewis, which was not listed in the city directory.  The clerk, Philo Scofield, suspected he was being hustled and packed up a wad of cotton in a package and then followed Weick.  The teen went to another jewelry store where he was given eight lace pins and five pairs of earrings.

The New York Times reported "Mr. Scofield had by this time secured Detective McCabe...and the two followed the boy until he joined Matthew Webb, Jr."  Both were arrested and on the way to the station house Weick pointed out Rice on the street.  Alfred Weick was let go, but Rice and Webb were held on multiple charges of swindling.  H. M. Richards & Co. suffered a loss of about $1,700 in today's dollars.

In 1887 Nevius & Haviland moved in.  The American Stationer reported on February 3 that year "Nevins & Haviland, the well-known manufacturers of wall-papers and dealers in all sorts of odd things for wall decorations, have removed to 408 Broadway, where, with increased facilities and better accommodations, they expect to serve their patrons even better than in the past.

The American Stationery, February 3, 1887 (copyright expired)

Nevius & Haviland's factory was at the corner of Tenth Avenue and 42nd Street.  The block contained similar industrial buildings, all of which were stocked with "paper, chemicals and inflammable materials," according to The World.  In the pre-dawn hours of October 19, 1893 a fire broke out which spread from one building to another until the entire block was engulfed.

The World reported "A crowd of at least fifteen thousand people was congregated this morning...gazing wonderingly at the blackened ruins of one of the largest, most destructive and costliest fires that New York has suffered in over a decade."  Nevius & Haviland estimated its damage at $150,000--nearly $4.5 million today.

Calhoun, Robbins & Co. suffered a tragedy on August 29, 1906.  There were no safety regulations for elevators at the time and shafts were often unguarded by gates or doors.  Among Calhoun, Robbins & Co.'s employees was the messenger boy George Swenson.  That day he fell down the shaft.  The New-York Tribune reported "Although he fell two stories and was severely injured, the surgeons at the Hudson Street Hospital believe that he will recover."

New-York Tribune, September 25, 1909 (copyright expired)

On October 21, 1913 the New-York Tribune reported "Calhoun, Robbins & Co., dealers in notions etc., and for half a century located at Broadway and Canal street, have arranged to occupy the old Lord and Taylor store at Broadway and 19th street in 1915, when the present lease expires...The lease involves the property at No. 895 and 899 Broadway."

The building continued to house dry goods dealers for years.  In 1921 silk manufacturer Max Hyman was here.  His premises were robbed of $6,000 worth of silks on the morning of August 6.  Somewhat shockingly, in pressing charges he identified three other silk dealers--Abner Friedman, Abraham Schwartzbart, and Isadore Weingartner--as the thieves.  The men were foiled when Abner Friedman offered to sell a portion of the stolen silk to another dealer.  He was unaware that the businessman was a relative of Max Hyman.

In 1950 the building received a renovation.  It resulted in salesrooms on the first and second floors, and light manufacturing space above.  In the mid-1990's the store at No. 410 was home to Ad Hoc Softwares where decorative and useful items for the home like perfume decanters could be purchased.

Another renovation completed in 2008 accommodated a trade school on the second and third floors and offices on the top two floors.  It became home to Spin Magazine by 2009.

Although the Corinthian capitals of the cast iron storefront have been lost, overall the marble fronted building looks much as it did when it opened in 1869, just four years after the end of the Civil War.

photographs by the author

The Lost Abraham Quackenbush House - 231 East 86th Street

from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Born in New York City on March 27, 1791, Abraham Quackenbush came from a long-established family in America.   Pieter van Quackenbosch (who later dropped the "van" from his name) arrived in New Netherlands from Holland around 1660 at the age of 21.  From the beginning the family was well-to-do.  In her 1909 Quackenbush Family in Holland and America, family historian Adriana Suydam Quackenbush noted he was "possessed of more means than was usual with the Dutch immigrants.  He also brought with him a well established family name, which is another indication that he was of a higher station than the average early settler." 

The house in which Quackenbush was born was on Fair Street, later renamed Fulton Street.  According to Adriana Suydam Quackenbush, "he was fond of telling that as a boy and young man he often hunted in the neighboring meadows, which covered the area now bounded by Lispenard and Spring Streets, Broadway and the North [Hudson] River."

Quackenbush married Sarah McLaren in the Franklin Street Reformed Dutch Church on March 25, 1818.  According to the McLaren family legend, her father, Daniel McLaren, had arrived from Scotland on Evacuation Day, his ship passing those of the leaving British troops.

The couple would have eight children, two of which died in childhood.  Abraham was engaged in the dry goods business on Greenwich Street, but he retired in 1826 at the age of 35.  In 1851 he purchased a country home near Yorkville, far north of the city.  The wooden Italianate-style house sat within grounds bordered by 86th and 87th Streets, and Second and Third Avenues.  The "country seats" of other families of prominence--the Rhinelanders, Astors, Rutters, and Fanshaws, for instance, were the family's near neighbors.

The Quackenbush house was surrounded by gardens.  Its site upon a hill resulted in a very high basement level at the front of the house, while the rear was nearly even with the ground.  A graceful split staircase rose to the full-width veranda where the family no doubt spent many summer evenings.  A centered Palladio-inspired window grouping added interest to the second floor.  The attic windows were hidden between the brackets of the wooden cornice, and the whole was topped by a shuttered cupola.

Three years after the family moved in, on March 16, 1854, the house was the scene of daughter Vestiana's wedding to Dr. Nathaniel Marsten Freeman.  The ceremony was performed by her brother, Rev. Daniel McLaren Quackenbush.  The marriage did not reduce the population of the house, however, but increased it.  The newlyweds made their home here.

Rev. Daniel M. Quackenbush presided over the wedding of his brother, Abraham C. Quackenbush and Lizzie A. Louderback on December 17, 1863.   The groom moved his wife into the 86th Street house which must have been becoming a big snug.  By now Vestiana and Nathaniel had an eight-year old son, Charles, and a five-year old daughter, Elizabeth.

Nathaniel Freeman also ran his medical practice from the house.  He advertised his office hours in 1867 as between 8 and 10 a.m., and 2 to 4 p.m.

That year Rev Daniel McLaren Quackenbush (who, too, still lived in the 86th Street house) became pastor of the Prospect Hill Reformed Church in Yorkville.  At the time the once rural neighborhood was filling with residences and shops.   

The increasing property values were evidenced in 1868 when Abraham Quackenbush sold the Third Avenue and 87th Street corner of his land to Nathaniel J. Burchill.  The price for the 20-foot site plot was $42,000; or about $765,000 today.

Sarah died in the wooden house on July 21, 1869.  Abraham survived her until March 12, 1877.  The Quackenbush heirs--Vestiana and her family, Abraham, Jr. and Elizabeth, Charles and Daniel--remained in the 86th Street house.

In the meantime, by 1866 Abraham Jr. his brother Charles, were partners with William H. Townsend in Quackenbush, Townsend, & Co., a wholesale hardware firm.   Abraham branched out in 1883 by co-founding The New York Rock Salt Company.  He was chairman and president and he brought his nephew, Charles Freeman, on board as treasurer.

Two years later Abraham and his wife left the family home.  On January 7, 1885 he transferred his portion of the title to Daniel, Charles and Vestiana.  His siblings would not be far behind him.

It may have been the soaring value of the property that prompted them to sell in 1890 what had been their parent's country home.  The charming wooden structure was quickly demolished to be replaced with houses and shops.   An apartment building, erected in 1983, sits on the site today.

The Sullivan, Randolph & Budd Bldg - 80-82 White Street

Carpet dealer Elias S. Higgins plunged full force into the flurry of new construction that swept New York City after the Civil War.   In 1867 he began work on the Grand Hotel on Broadway at 31st Street, designed by Henry Engelbert.   The architect would design the even larger, more impressive Broadway Central Hotel for Higgins in 1871.

It was not a hotel that the two men worked together on in 1867 at Nos. 80-82 White Street, but an elegant loft and store building.   Faced in white marble above a cast iron storefront, the six-story building was completed in 1868.   The Italianate-style facade would have been typical of the scores of buildings going up in the district were it not for Englebert's neo-Grec detailing.  The architectural style had only just begun appearing in America and the elements--like the stylized capitals of the pilasters--took the design to the cutting edge.

By March 1868 the new building had became home to Sullivan, Randolph & Budd, importers of "woolens and goods for men's wear."  At the time it claimed to be the oldest textile house in the United States.  Founded around 1834 as Wilson G. Hunt & Co., the name was changed in 1864 when long-time employees Naham Sullivan, Peter F. Randolph and William A. Budd took over.

The firm had barely moved in when the 1868 guide History of New York City; From the Discovery to the Present Day described the "handsome marble structure."  "The building...is six stories high, with a splendid lofty basement, fitted up in the most complete and admirable manner.  A powerful steam-dummy performs the work of hoisting and lowering from basement to roof."

The firm's offices were on the first floor ("very tastefully arranged") as well as the sales room.  "The other principal floors are devoted to a complete stock of foreign and domestic fabrics, together with a full assortment of trimmings, etc., while in the top floor is stowed a large surplus."

Not mentioned in the article was Meinhard Bros. & Co., wholesale clothing merchants.  Based in Georgia, the company sub-leased an office in the White Street building.

from the Historical Record of the City of Savannah, 1869 (copyright expired)

Sullivan, Randolph & Budd was well-known for its durable uniform fabrics.  The firm supplied goods to West Point and other military schools, as well as the city's Municipal Police Department and other police organizations throughout the country.

But behind the scenes, there seems to have been discord among the management.  Shortly after taking over No. 80-82 White Street, the firm was changed to Sullivan, Budd & Co., then in 1871 to N. Sullivan & Co.  One by one Naham Sullivan's partners had dropped out.

After Sullivan & Co. moved to No. 329 Broadway around 1873 the White Street building became home to several smaller firms.  One of them, possibly Meinhard Bros., did not identify itself in an advertisement that appeared in The New York Herald on October 26 that year.  The wholesaler was offering excess stock to individual, private customers off the street:

Clothing at Your Own Use at wholesale prices, at 80 and 82 White street, up stairs, first building east of Broadway.  You can buy for the next 60 days, from our large and beautiful stock of Clothing, single Garments for your own use, and save you from 25 to 50 per cent.  Fashionable styles, equal to custom work.

An interesting tenant by 1875 was the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  The White Street office was in charge of filling the annual supply list necessary for the Indian missions and reservations throughout the West.  On April 28, 1875 The New York Herald reported "Commissioner Edward P. Smith, of the Indian Department, held his annual reception yesterday, at No. 82 White street.  It was largely attended, and the visitors walked up and down and stood in groups discussing the prospects of the coming season, while the Commissioner read out the bids on which they proposed to supply the wants of 'Poor Lo.'" (Poor Lo! was the term commonly used for the group of missions.)

There were approximately 300 bidders whom the article identified as mostly from the West and "were nearly entirely composed of Indian contractors."  The men placed bids for contracts on everything from shoes and blankets to beef.

Also in the building at the time was dry goods merchant Charles M. Aikman & Co.  The firm was the target of inveterate thieves George Callahan, alias "the Countryman," and Charles Murphy, alias "Cheek," on the night of April 24, 1876.  The men were members of a gang of burglars wanted for a string break ins.  This time, however, they were spotted when they rushed down Courtlandt Alley with $500 worth of lace curtains and piano covers from Charles M. Aikman & Co.

The eyewitness account helped lead to the arrest of the pair along with their cohorts, John David, John Roche, alias "Casino," and James Stapleton, alias "Buck."  For the White Street burglary, Callahan and Murphy were held on $2,000 bail each--more than $47,000 today.

On February 19, 1880 a massive fire consumed the building at Nos. 384 and 386 Broadway, at the corner of White Street.  As the inferno spread to No. 388 firemen broke into No. 80-82 White Street and directed hoses "from the roof and windows," according to The New York Times.  Two fire fighters died fighting the blaze and the Broadway buildings were destroyed.

Even the gap provided by Courtlandt Alley could not prevent damage to the White Street structure.  The following month The Record & Guide reported that Higgins had hired architect William H. Holmes to repair the fire damage.

In the mid-1880's Wm. Topping & Co. operated its auction house from the address.  The firm sold off over-stocked goods or the residue from bankrupt firms, as well as real estate parcels.

A notable tenant in the 1890's was the carpet retailer Morris & McKay.   Its extensive line included not only carpeting, but "oil cloths, rags, mats, etc."  Mostly forgotten today, decorative oil cloth mats mimicked rugs and were placed beneath tables for easy clean-up and to protect expensive carpeting.

The Evening World, October 13, 1894 (copyright expired)

In July 1900 Eugene Higgins hired architect William H. Birkmire to update the aging structure.  New plumbing was installed, and "general alterations" done.  The upgrades cost the equivalent of more than $450,000 today.

They were enough to lure an important tenant by 1903, the Rhode Island-based Clark O. N. Thread company.  The quality maker constantly battled counterfeiters, as was reported on April 30, 1904 in The Sun.  The article noted "Last winter persons in the trade brought to the Clark offices at 82 White street reports that the Clark thread was being sold in the West in large quantities at prices very much below the market quotations.  An investigation showed that the Clark trade mark stamp had been counterfeited."

The following year Spool Cotton moved in, taking over the New York City operation for Clark O. N. T. Thread.  The company would remain here for several years representing Clark.

In 1911 it participated in a educational project in high schools nationwide.  The Annual Report of the Minnesota State High School Board that year explained "Not a few schools are acquiring illustrative material for their industrial department" and provided a list "of educational exhibits, which may be obtained free of charge by making courteous application to the addresses given below."  Included was Spool Cotton, which offered examples of "spool cotton and needles."

A major change came in 1913 when Jenkins Bros. leased the entire building.   Makers of plumbing valves, the firm was nationally recognized.  Their main plant was located in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The House Beautiful, October 1920 (copyright expired)

The dependability and quality of the Jenkins projects was best evidenced when the firm was contracted to produce the valves for United States naval ships during World War II.  Following a worker walk-out in 1944, an Executive Order from the White House directed "that all employees were instructed to report for work immediately."

Wartime ads differed greatly from the domestic setting of 20 years earlier.  This one may have had a message to the plant's employees as well.

The Government went a step further.   On April 13 that year an order from the War Department read "Sec. of the Navy authorized to take possession of and operate the plants and facilities of Jenkins Bros, Inc."

Following the war Jenkins Bros. returned to business as usual.  In the spring of 1949, after more than three decades at No. 80-82 White Street, it signed a lease in the new building at No. 100 Park Avenue.  On May 18 The New York Times announced that the White Street building "was sold by the heirs of Eugene Higgins."  The buyer, it said, "plans to occupy the building when it is vacated by Jenkins Bros."

For decades the General Hardware Manufacturing Company occupied the building.  By 1992 the Tribeca renaissance had reached White Street and Art In General, a non-profit exhibition space, leased space in the building.

A substantial renovation and restoration began in 2016 to transform No. 80-82 White Street to retail space, offices, and an apartment.   Still owned by General Hardware, now General Tools, the firm announced it was vacating the premises.  It had commissioned the firm FSI Architecture to do the work.

In May 2017 Artists Space, a non-profit gallery, announced it would be moving to the renovated building.

photographs by the author

The Lost Robt. L. Stuart Mansion - 154 Fifth Avenue

The rear and side of the mansion as seen from the 20th Street side.  The carriage entrance is flanked by massive lanterns.  The sunlit conservatory, or tea room, faces the side street.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

When Kinloch Stuart and his wife, Agnes, fled Scotland to New York in 1805 because of crushing debt they could never have imagined that their sons would be among their new homeland's wealthiest citizens several decades later.   Upon landing in Manhattan Kinloch took his total savings of about $100 to open a candy store on Barclay Street.  The couple lived above the business and it was there in July 1806 that Robert Leighton Stuart was born.

When Kinloch died in 1826 he left a substantial estate of $100,000 (about $2.5 million today), half going to his widow and the other divided between his two sons, Robert and Alexander.

The brothers took over the family business, adding sugar refining to the manufacture of candy.   In 1835 the refinery business had grown so large that the candy operation was abandoned.  As their fortunes increased, the Stuarts completed side-by-side mansions at Nos. 167 and 169 Chambers Street.  But in 1862, "the business part of the city having invaded Chambers-street," as explained by The New York Times, Robert and his wife Mary erected a lavish stone-faced mansion on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 20th Street.

The Italianate residence and grounds engulfed fully half of the block front; the norther half being occupied by the Gothic Revival-style South Reformed Church.   The manicured grounds included a greenhouse--necessary to propagate the exotic plants de rigueur in mid-Victorian interiors--and were anchored by a palatial carriage house at the western edge of the property.

Between the South Reformed Church and the mansion were manicured gardens.  The handsome Stuart stables are in the background.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Stuart mansion was a staggering 92 feet wide and 100 feet deep.  Its rooms reflected the Stuarts' refined culture.  The library contained about 25,000 volumes and included rare illuminated manuscripts.   One newspaper deemed it "one of the most valuable in the City."  The Times noted that "Mr. Stuart's gallery of paintings was collected with great pains and lavish outlay and was one of the finest in the City."

The couple may have been influenced in the choice of the site by to its proximity to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, a block away at the northwest corner of 19th Street.   Both Robert and Mary were ardent Presbyterians and deeply religious.

The couple focused more on charitable and civic causes than lavish entertainments.  At the time they moved into their new home Mary held the post of First Directress of the New-York Half Orphan Asylum.  In 1864 Robert was among the founders of the Home for Disable Soldiers; and he was a trustee of the First Ward Lord Industrial School and president of the Presbyterian Hospital.

The Stuarts' second floor sitting room was quintessentially mid-Victorian in decor.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1870, when John Taylor Johnston assembled millionaire art collectors to form the Metropolitan Museum of Art in his marble mansion nearby at No. 8 Fifth Avenue, Robert L. Stuart was expectedly among them.   He was also a founder of the Museum of National History, and when President Ulysses S. Grant laid the cornerstone for that new building on June 2, 1874, Stuart was at his side.

Later that night the President, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, Orville E. Babcock (the Secretary to the President, or what in today's terms would be the Chief of Staff), and Secretary of the Navy, George M. Robeson, dined in the Stuarts' Fifth Avenue mansion.

Stuart would brush shoulders with the new U.S. President, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1879.  Hayes traveled to New York to open the fair within the new Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.  A feature of the fair was the 135 loaned artworks that hung in three large galleries on the third floor.  Collectors like John Jacob Astor, William B. Astor and Cornelius Vanderbilt removed paintings from their picture galleries to loan to the exhibit.  Stuart loaned First Impressions, by German genre artist Johann Peter Hasenclever, and Grandmother's Story, by French painter Hugues Merle.
 

Grandmother's Story was loaned by the Stuarts to the Seventh Regiment Armory Fair.  image via wahooart.com

 On the evening of April 21, 1880 a fund raising event for the Hahnemann Hospital took place in Madison Square Garden.   Well-dressed citizens danced and chatted in elegant surroundings.  And then tragedy occurred.   The Madison Avenue wall “including the tower at the north-western corner, fell into the street, carrying away the Art Gallery, the dancing-room, and part of the restaurant.”  Four patrons were killed and 22 hospitalized.

Robert L. Stuart responded by writing a check for $10,000 to the Hahnemann Hospital--just under a quarter of a million dollars today.  It was just one of the munificent gifts the Stuarts routinely bestowed.  He was described by The New York Times as "one of the most generous donors of Princeton College," and he and Alexander jointly built Stuart Hall on its campus.

The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church moved to Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in 1875.  It was emblematic of the northward migrations of its neighbors and congregants leaving the Fifth Avenue neighborhood below 23rd Street.  On March 19, 1881 The Real Estate Record & Guide announced that "Mr. Robert L. Stuart will build a sumptuous dwelling at Sixty-eight street and Fifth Avenue."

Robert Leighton Stuart as he appeared just prior to his death in 1882.  Contemporary Biography of New York Vol. II 1882 (copyright expired)

Sadly, the mogul would never see his new home completed.  In late November 1882 he became ill and was confined to his bed for three weeks.  He died in his bedroom on December 12 from what The New York Times reported was septicaemia, a blood infection.  The newspaper noted "Mr. Stuart leaves a widow and an estate valued at between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000."

Stuart's funeral took place in Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church three days later.  The church was crowed with millionaires, educators and politicians.  Former Governor Edwin D. Morgan, Assistant U.S. Treasurer Thomas C. Acton, John Sloane, J. Pierpont Morgan, John T. Agnew, and Darius Ogden Mills were a few of the notable mourners.

Mary moved into the completed mansion at 871 Fifth Avenue and leased No. 154 to the well-known decorating and furniture firm Herter Brothers.  The company signed a 10-year lease at $20,000 per year--an astounding $40,333 per month in today's dollars.

New-York Tribune, March 3, 1886 (copyright expired)

On July 2, 1889 the Philadelphia News wrote a one-paragraph article that had nothing to do with a news story.   It merely enlightened its readers on the noble works of Mary Stuart.  The writer said that she cared little for high society, "and probably never saw the inside of a theatre; but the poor and afflicted know her bounties, if not herself."

The newspaper revealed "She keeps a person whose sole occupation it is to visit the different police courts and give bail for any deserving person whose detention would be a hardship until proved guilty, and often pays their fines when the offense is light."  Calling her a "sweet, simple, retiring woman of the noblest type, quiet and self-sacrificing," it noted that the widow had inherited "some $10,000,000."  "She does more genuine good than the world dreams of; but then she does not do it for the world to know or herald."

Two years later, on December 30, 1891 Mary died at the age of 75.  Her will left $1 million to the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church "to be used as a permanent fund."  The Boards purchased Mary and Robert Stuart's old home at No. 154 Fifth Avenue in December 1893 and used her endowment to replace it with The Presbyterian Building to house its mission offices.  That building, designed by James B. Baker, survives.

An early postcard view depicts the gleaming new building.

The Lost Seaman Mansion - Broadway at 216th Street

The house as it appeared in 1895 after being acquired by the Suburban Riding and Driving Club Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, November 1895 (copyright expired)

The northernmost reaches of Manhattan in the first half of the 19th century were still rural.  Interspersed within the long stretches between villages like Bloomingdale and Harlem were working farms, like that of the Dyckman family who had worked their land since 1661, and country estates of the city's wealthy.

James T. and John Ferris Seaman were two of Dr. Valentine Seaman's 11 children.  By the time of their father's death in 1817 he had made significant breakthroughs in medicine including introducing small pox vaccinations to America (his obituary noted "The first white child vaccinated in New York was his own son), writing several books, and serving for many years as a surgeon at New York Hospital.

In 1851 the brothers purchased the hilltop property around what is now Broadway and 215th Street in the district then known as King's Bridge, sometimes spelled Kingsbridge.  They began erecting an imposing summer residence constructed of white marble quarried nearby.   Outbuildings, including the stables, were constructed of marble as well.

Exactly when the Italianate villa was completed is unclear; however by 1856 the estate had been up and running long enough that John was able to enter a three-year old bull into the exhibition of the American Institute of the City of New-York.  He won a silver cup and $10 for third place.  The Institute listed his address simply as "Kingsbridge,"

The estate was about one hour's drive from the southern edge of the recently-planned Central Park.  Its gatehouse took the form of a marble triumphal arch, with its windows facing the rear.   Modern amateur historians are fond of purporting it to be a copy of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris; however the two structures have little in common and both were among hundreds of such arches constructed during the 19th century, based on ancient Roman prototypes.

From the gatehouse a winding drive one-eighth of a mile long led to the mansion.  The gardens were terraced, with marble staircases and gravel paths.  The carriage drive curved around to the front of a deep porch that provided a balcony to the second floor of the house.

Inside were 30 rooms, according to Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly years later.   Upon entering, according to the magazine, "one finds himself in a hall, baronial in proportions and extending from front to rear."  Off the hall were the drawing room and the library.  The library was lined with built-in mahogany bookcases and along the upper portions of the walls were marble busts of thinkers such as Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, Byron and Scott.  Off the library was the conservatory "in which grow all the choicest plants known to the tropics, as well as many of our own zone, and beautiful flowers of every description."  (It was from that conservatory that the potted palms, de rigueur in mid-19th century interior decor, would have been cultivated.)

The Seaman family were reverent Quakers and on the second floor, overlooking the porch and drive, was a chapel.

Harper's New Monthly Magazine mentioned the house in November 1861, calling it a "palatial mansion of gleaming marble" and saying it was "imposingly in view at all points."

The city residence of John and his wife, the former Ann Drake, sat among the mansions of Manhattan's wealthiest citizens.  By the early 1870s their address was No. 16 East 53rd Street, steps from Fifth Avenue and what would become known as "Vanderbilt Row."  But John was apparently deeply involved in the Kingsbridge district.  In the summer of 1860 he was appointed to the city's commission "to lay out that portion of the City lying north of One Hundred and Fifty-fifth-street."  Also on the committee was his relatively-near neighbor, Isaac Dyckman.

By 1866 James was no longer mentioned in connection with the estate.  That year Andrew H. Green, the comptroller of Central Park, mentioned the Kingsbridge mansion in a communication to the Park's commissioners.  "Above Tubby Hook Valley, between the hills on the Hudson and King's Bridge Road, a range of land, surmounted by the residence of John F. Seaman, Esq., rises about 100 feet above tide."  There was no mention made of James.

John had greenhouses erected on the property and enjoyed vegetable gardening here.  When the American Institute held its exhibition in 1871 John submitted his grapes "grown under glass," and his "tolly Qua" cucumber.  (He received three first place awards for his grapes that year.)

John F. Seaman died on the morning of May 20, 1872.  Interestingly, two funerals were held on May 23rd--one in the fashionable Trinity Chapel downtown at 9:30, and another at 1:00 at "his late residence at Kingsbridge," as announced in The New York Herald.

Ann inherited her husband's vast real estate holdings that included several residential properties.  The year after his death she was on a steamer on the Harlem River when she was pushed "accidentally by a crowd," according to The New York Herald, into the water.  She was rescued, however the accident seems to have hastened a mental decline in the 70-year old widow.

Although she appears to still have been active in charities the following year when she donated "1 barrel of flour and 50 loaves of bread" to the Sparta Club's Soup House, she increasingly grew reclusive and eccentric.  Her behavior as described by visitors strongly suggests she suffered the onset of dementia.

On March 4, 1878 Ann died in her city mansion.   The New York Times instructed friends to "assemble at the house at 9:30 A.M." on March 7 before heading to the Trinity Chapel funeral.

Ann's will seemed, at least at first glance, to fairly distribute her massive $4 million estate (more than $99 million today).   She named 36 relatives, who each received property (many of them getting houses) and other items.  Mary M. Drake received the "house and grounds on the south side of Fifty-third street, east of Fifth Avenue, with all the furniture therein, all the diamonds and jewelry," for instance.

But it was the unexpectedly large slice of the estate pie awarded to Lawrence Drake the irked other relatives.  The will bequeathed him "the marble house and grounds at Kingsbridge, in this city, and all the furniture therein, the store and lot on the southwesterly corner of Reade and Washington, and all the premises belonging to the testatrix bounded by Market, Monroe and Hamilton streets."  The final line of the well, after enumerating the other heirs, read "The rest and remainder of her estate she gives to Lawrence Drake."

A throng of relatives arose to contest the will, insisting that Drake had "unduly influenced" Ann in disposing of her property.   Lawrence Drake came to a "compromise" with the plaintiffs that ended the suit.  But other relatives did not stay quiet for long.  The case was reopened early in 1891.  It did not come to court until November 5, 1893 when The Evening World estimated the number of plaintiffs and defendants at "nearly three hundred."

Ann, who had suffered the confusion and forgetfulness of old age was suddenly painted as feeble-minded.  The newspaper explained "The trouble all grew out of the death, March 4, 1878, of Mrs. Ann Drake Seaman, who fell off a Hudson River steamboat, was nearly drowned, and came out of the water little better than an imbecile, according to the complainants."

The relatives complained that Drake "a distant relative, got the baronial marble mansion on the Inwood bluff...and other nice slices of the $4,000,000 property left by Mrs. Seaman."  They alleged that Ann "became a drivelling imbecil" and "Lawrence Drake forced himself upon Mrs. Seaman" and directed her to write the will.  But the will was upheld and, according to The American Lawyer, the "disappointed relatives" were forced to pay Drake $2,000 and court costs.

In May 1894 Drake sold the marble mansion to the Suburban Riding and Driving Club (of which he was a member).  The club had been trying to acquire the former McCormick mansion at 172nd Street and King's Bridge Road but were unsuccessful.  In reporting on the sale on May 18, The New York Times poo-pooed the loss.

Harper's Bazaar depicted the mansion following its conversion to the clubhouse, in November 1896.  (copyright expired)

"This place, which is by far handsomer in every respect than the McCormick place, contains twenty-six acres of ground.  The house, of thirty rooms, is being finely furnished.  The excellent stabling facilities will be increased with fifty box stalls."  The club spent $10,000 in refurbishing the mansion, stables and grounds--about $295,000 in today's dollars.

Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly said that the club was "scarcely a year old--and yet it is already as powerful as it is popular" and noted "The mansion is a beautiful structure of white marble, with a view from any part of the house or grounds across the Hudson to the Palisades.  A lawn sweeps down from the main entrance to the edge of Spuyten Duyvil Creek."  The magazine reported "There are many fine oil paintings and several charming pieces of marble statuary" within the new club.

To the left of the entrance hall was the new "Ladies' reception room."  The gilded plasterwork and ceiling fresco from the Seaman residency survived.  Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, November 1895 (copyright expired)

The article added "The ladies' reception room, at the left of the main entrance, is furnished in a style to correspond with the rest of the house" and noted that the former Seaman chapel had been converted to a ladies' dressing room.   The drawing room and the library became to dining rooms and a cafe was included for the male members.

Upstairs the bedrooms were converted to private dining rooms.  The conservatory was made into a "smoking and 'sun' room," according to Harper's Bazaar.   The magazine added that a golf course had been installed on the grounds.

Frank Leslie's gushed on: "With such a palatial edifice; with all the luxuries and the finest restaurant in the world; with all the comforts of a fireside; with all the companionship and social jollity of a selected membership of ladies and gentlemen; with all the breezes that blow from any direction to cool the heated brow on a summer's day; with all the perfumes of the wild flowers that grow in the meadow and climb on the rocks and creep up the hillside to greet the nostrils and by their beauty to enchant the eye...[who] would hesitate to take a drive of an hour from Fifty-ninth street to the portals of the Suburban Riding and Driving Club?"

A coach laden with club members heads through the gatehouse in 1895.  A glimpse of the mansion can be seen behind.  At the time Frank Leslie's described an outing here as "a day in the country."  November 1895 (copyright expired)

Members of the club who enjoyed the former Seaman mansion came from the highest echelons of Manhattan society, with names like Beekman, Schieffelin, Oelrichs, Goelet, Dodge and Clews.  Harper's Bazaar noted "During the winter the wives and sisters of the members make the place attractive by a series of receptions at the clubhouse, while sleighing and driving parties frequently stop there."

In an interesting side note, Ann Drake Seaman's will was once again contested in 1900.  James W. Drake filed papers stating that he was next of kin of Ann, and that he was entitled to $2 million of her fortune.  A court order demanded that he produce proof of his relationship.

In 1905 the Kingsbridge property was sold to wealthy contractor Thomas Dwyer.  He used the mansion as his year-round house and eventually converted the gatehouse for his offices.

At the time of this photo, around 1911, the marble gatehouse had not yet been converted for the contractor's offices.  Motorcars now drove through the arch used by elegant coaches and carriages a decade earlier.  from the collection of the New York Historical Society.

The Kingsbridge district became known as Inwood in the 20th century.  As the city inched northward, the once bucolic neighborhood filled with commercial structures.  Following World War I Kingsbridge Road, renamed Broadway, in front of the former Seaman gatehouse was lined with tawdry, low brick buildings.  The Dwyer family left during the Depression, selling the property to developers in 1938 who demolished the mansion and erected apartment houses on the former estate.

Seen here on October 26, 1927, the gatehouse had an additional story, installed by Thomas Dwyer when he converted it for his business.  The once-grand arch is surrounded by tacky businesses already.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

But somehow the marble gatehouse survived--more or less.  Engulfed by business buildings, it was sorely abused.   By the 1960s the gatehouse was part of the the Jack Gallo Auto Body shop complex.  Gutted by fire in 1970, its interiors were never rebuilt and the roof never replaced. 

The gatehouse in 2015.  photo by Beyond My Ken

The humiliated marble gatehouse rots away behind the Gallo's auto body shop.  It is the last vestige of the magnificent Seaman estate and of a far different period in Inwood.

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for prompting this post