C ontents
Fifth Avenue
Chelsea
Pequod Club, 267 West 25th Street Martin House, 31 West 22nd Street James and Abby Gibbons House, 339 West 29th Street
Lower Manhattan
Captain Joseph Rose House, 273 Water Street No. 279 Water Street Evening Post Building, 20 Vesey Street
Tribeca
Federal Survivor, 508 Canal Street Renaissance Revival, 60–62 Lispenard Street
Chinatown
5th Precinct Station House, 19 Elizabeth Street 14th Ward Industrial School, 256–258 Mott Street Loew’s Canal Street Theatre, 31 Canal Street
Greenwich Village
Union Square
Morton Plant Mansion, Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street St Regis Hotel, Fifth Avenue and 55th Street Atlas Clock, Tiffany, 727 Fifth Avenue St Patrick’s Cathedral
Park Avenue
Foltis-Fischer Building, 411–413 Park Avenue South
Captain Wood House, 310 Spring Street Twin Peaks, 102 Bedford Street The Hampton, 80–82 Perry Street The Pepper Pot Inn, 146 West Fourth Street The Emma Lazarus House, 18 West Tenth Street The Asch Building, Washington Square The Village Cigar Store, Christopher Street
Houghton Mifflin Building, 11 East 17th Street W & J Sloane Building, 880–888 Broadway
Murray Hill
Gramercy
Roosevelt Houses, 47-49 East 65th Street
Lower East Side and East Village
Times Square
Breese Carriage House, 150 East 22nd Street General Slocum Memorial Fountain, Tomkins Square Park
George W. Bellows House, 146 East 19th Street
Flatiron District
Spero Building, 19–27 West 21st Street Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street
Midtown
No. 1240 Sixth Avenue
Joseph De Lamar Mansion, Madison Avenue and 37th Street
Upper East Side
Central Park
107th Infantry Memorial The Indian Hunter
Upper West Side
The Holdout at 249 West End Avenue
Harlem
17 East 128th Street Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Statue, West 122nd Street
C ontents
Fifth Avenue
Chelsea
Pequod Club, 267 West 25th Street Martin House, 31 West 22nd Street James and Abby Gibbons House, 339 West 29th Street
Lower Manhattan
Captain Joseph Rose House, 273 Water Street No. 279 Water Street Evening Post Building, 20 Vesey Street
Tribeca
Federal Survivor, 508 Canal Street Renaissance Revival, 60–62 Lispenard Street
Chinatown
5th Precinct Station House, 19 Elizabeth Street 14th Ward Industrial School, 256–258 Mott Street Loew’s Canal Street Theatre, 31 Canal Street
Greenwich Village
Union Square
Morton Plant Mansion, Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street St Regis Hotel, Fifth Avenue and 55th Street Atlas Clock, Tiffany, 727 Fifth Avenue St Patrick’s Cathedral
Park Avenue
Foltis-Fischer Building, 411–413 Park Avenue South
Captain Wood House, 310 Spring Street Twin Peaks, 102 Bedford Street The Hampton, 80–82 Perry Street The Pepper Pot Inn, 146 West Fourth Street The Emma Lazarus House, 18 West Tenth Street The Asch Building, Washington Square The Village Cigar Store, Christopher Street
Houghton Mifflin Building, 11 East 17th Street W & J Sloane Building, 880–888 Broadway
Murray Hill
Gramercy
Roosevelt Houses, 47-49 East 65th Street
Lower East Side and East Village
Times Square
Breese Carriage House, 150 East 22nd Street General Slocum Memorial Fountain, Tomkins Square Park
George W. Bellows House, 146 East 19th Street
Flatiron District
Spero Building, 19–27 West 21st Street Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street
Midtown
No. 1240 Sixth Avenue
Joseph De Lamar Mansion, Madison Avenue and 37th Street
Upper East Side
Central Park
107th Infantry Memorial The Indian Hunter
Upper West Side
The Holdout at 249 West End Avenue
Harlem
17 East 128th Street Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Statue, West 122nd Street
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
C A P TA I N J O S E P H RO S E H O U S E 273 water street
T H E R AT P I T When Captain Joseph Rose built his red brick Georgian home at 273 Water Street in or around 1773, long before landfill widened the island, the river ran just behind the property. Here Rose and his neighbor William Laight shared a pier where they docked their brigs. Rose’s ship, the Industry, imported expensive lumber for his Honduras mahogany trade. Similar merchant class homes lined the streets of the neighborhood on Water between Dover Street and Peck Slip. Rose’s fashionable, wide home with the dormered attic spoke of his success. In 1791 Joseph Rose moved his family to Pearl Street, leaving the Water Street property to his son. Early in the nineteenth century the street level of the Water Street house was converted to commercial use; first as a cobbler shop, then an apothecary, and, before the Civil War, a boarding house. By then the neighborhood had substantially declined and Water Street had earned a reputation as a “sea of wretchedness and sin.” James D. McCabe described Water Street in 1882, “Strains of music float out into the night air, and about the doors and along the sidewalks stand groups of hideous women, waiting to entice sailors into these hells, where they are made drunk with drugged liquors, robbed of their money and valuables, and turned helpless into the streets. Groups of drunken and foul-mouthed men and boys lounge about the street, bandying vile jests with the women, and often insulting respectable passers-by.” In 1863 Christopher “Kit” Burns purchased 273 Water Street, starting a chapter in the building’s existence that sounds like something from Dickens. Burns had been one of the founders of the notorious Dead Rabbits gang. He opened a dance hall in the house called “Sportsmen’s Hall” where he offered a variety 4
5
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
C A P TA I N J O S E P H RO S E H O U S E 273 water street
T H E R AT P I T When Captain Joseph Rose built his red brick Georgian home at 273 Water Street in or around 1773, long before landfill widened the island, the river ran just behind the property. Here Rose and his neighbor William Laight shared a pier where they docked their brigs. Rose’s ship, the Industry, imported expensive lumber for his Honduras mahogany trade. Similar merchant class homes lined the streets of the neighborhood on Water between Dover Street and Peck Slip. Rose’s fashionable, wide home with the dormered attic spoke of his success. In 1791 Joseph Rose moved his family to Pearl Street, leaving the Water Street property to his son. Early in the nineteenth century the street level of the Water Street house was converted to commercial use; first as a cobbler shop, then an apothecary, and, before the Civil War, a boarding house. By then the neighborhood had substantially declined and Water Street had earned a reputation as a “sea of wretchedness and sin.” James D. McCabe described Water Street in 1882, “Strains of music float out into the night air, and about the doors and along the sidewalks stand groups of hideous women, waiting to entice sailors into these hells, where they are made drunk with drugged liquors, robbed of their money and valuables, and turned helpless into the streets. Groups of drunken and foul-mouthed men and boys lounge about the street, bandying vile jests with the women, and often insulting respectable passers-by.” In 1863 Christopher “Kit” Burns purchased 273 Water Street, starting a chapter in the building’s existence that sounds like something from Dickens. Burns had been one of the founders of the notorious Dead Rabbits gang. He opened a dance hall in the house called “Sportsmen’s Hall” where he offered a variety 4
5
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L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
evening post b uilding 20 – 24 vese y street
art nouveau in vese y street Art Nouveau is rare in New York. From the 1890s until just before the First World War Paris filled its boulevards with buildings, even its Metro stations, designed in the sinuous, almost sensuous, curving naturalistic lines of Art Nouveau. Staid New Yorkers, however, preferred more traditional styles (especially Beaux Arts). Only a handful of Manhattan buildings such as the 1898 New Era Building at 495 Broadway or the 1903 New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street would embrace the revolutionary new style. One of the most striking of these was the New York Evening Post building: a bold expression of the Vienna Secession offshoot of Art Nouveau. In 1905 Vesey Street across from St Paul’s Churchyard was lined with old store and loft buildings. The Evening Post, under the ownership of Oswald Garrison Villard, purchased Nos. 20, 22, and 24 Vesey as a site for its newest home. In announcing the new site, the Evening Post said on 3 March 1905, “The decision to remain downtown is of especial interest in view of the recent removal of the Times and other newspapers uptown. The management believes that for a high-class evening newspaper a downtown location is still essential.” Architect Robert D. Kohn was commissioned to design the new structure, which would house leased offices as well as the offices and presses of the Post. On 2 March 1906 Kohn filed plans for the new building for Garrison Realty Company, a concern incorporated specially for this project. The building was completed in April 1907 and it was like nothing seen in New York before. Rising thirteen stories above the street, with two full floors below, its steel-framed structure was clad with limestone. Half a century later the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission would note “The building is particularly interesting because, although Art Nouveau in inspiration, it is not 8
9
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
evening post b uilding 20 – 24 vese y street
art nouveau in vese y street Art Nouveau is rare in New York. From the 1890s until just before the First World War Paris filled its boulevards with buildings, even its Metro stations, designed in the sinuous, almost sensuous, curving naturalistic lines of Art Nouveau. Staid New Yorkers, however, preferred more traditional styles (especially Beaux Arts). Only a handful of Manhattan buildings such as the 1898 New Era Building at 495 Broadway or the 1903 New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street would embrace the revolutionary new style. One of the most striking of these was the New York Evening Post building: a bold expression of the Vienna Secession offshoot of Art Nouveau. In 1905 Vesey Street across from St Paul’s Churchyard was lined with old store and loft buildings. The Evening Post, under the ownership of Oswald Garrison Villard, purchased Nos. 20, 22, and 24 Vesey as a site for its newest home. In announcing the new site, the Evening Post said on 3 March 1905, “The decision to remain downtown is of especial interest in view of the recent removal of the Times and other newspapers uptown. The management believes that for a high-class evening newspaper a downtown location is still essential.” Architect Robert D. Kohn was commissioned to design the new structure, which would house leased offices as well as the offices and presses of the Post. On 2 March 1906 Kohn filed plans for the new building for Garrison Realty Company, a concern incorporated specially for this project. The building was completed in April 1907 and it was like nothing seen in New York before. Rising thirteen stories above the street, with two full floors below, its steel-framed structure was clad with limestone. Half a century later the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission would note “The building is particularly interesting because, although Art Nouveau in inspiration, it is not 8
9
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
copied from any particular building executed in that style. It is primarily a free expression of the architect’s individuality.” Four soaring ten-story piers rose from the sidewalk, accentuating the verticality of the structure. Between, windows bowed outward giving undulating movement to the facade. But Kohn’s visual emphasis was above. Below a tall, shallow coppersheathed mansard stood four gaunt over-sized limestone sculptures. Representing the “Four Periods of Publicity,” two were sculpted by Kohn’s wife, Estelle Rumbold Kohn while the other pair was executed by Gutzon Borglum, who would later An allegorical figure on the facade of carve Mount Rushmore. the Evening Post building Despite the Post’s ungenerous comments a year earlier, the New York Times was complimentary of the building on its completion. “The color scheme of the structure is gray and bronze, giving an impression similar to that obtained in some of the new business structures in Fifth Avenue,” it said. And the New York Tribune called the $500,000 building “an imposing structure.” On the evening of 13 April 1907 the Evening Post officially opened the No. 20 Vesey Street headquarters with a grand dinner and play for all employees, from trustees and editors to office boys. The Home Trust Company was located in the ground floor space while the Evening Post itself used the two basement floors and the four top floors. From here the Post published not only the newspaper, but also magazines including the popular The Nation. Other publishing firms moved in, including Yachting Publishing Company, the Ronald Press Company, which printed “books for better business,” the United States Army and Navy Journal published by W.C. & F.P. Church, and the Nautical Gazette. Non-publishing firms here included the American Multigraph Company, a manufacturer of printing machinery and parts with a plant in Cleveland; 10
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
The New York Evening Post Building, or Garrison Building, is seen further down Vesey Street from St. Paul’s. Note the limousines lining the curb.
the Benvenue Granite Company; the New York Silicate Book Slate Company, manufacturers of school slates; and Ironmonger Advertising Agency, who moved here in 1917. 11
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
copied from any particular building executed in that style. It is primarily a free expression of the architect’s individuality.” Four soaring ten-story piers rose from the sidewalk, accentuating the verticality of the structure. Between, windows bowed outward giving undulating movement to the facade. But Kohn’s visual emphasis was above. Below a tall, shallow coppersheathed mansard stood four gaunt over-sized limestone sculptures. Representing the “Four Periods of Publicity,” two were sculpted by Kohn’s wife, Estelle Rumbold Kohn while the other pair was executed by Gutzon Borglum, who would later An allegorical figure on the facade of carve Mount Rushmore. the Evening Post building Despite the Post’s ungenerous comments a year earlier, the New York Times was complimentary of the building on its completion. “The color scheme of the structure is gray and bronze, giving an impression similar to that obtained in some of the new business structures in Fifth Avenue,” it said. And the New York Tribune called the $500,000 building “an imposing structure.” On the evening of 13 April 1907 the Evening Post officially opened the No. 20 Vesey Street headquarters with a grand dinner and play for all employees, from trustees and editors to office boys. The Home Trust Company was located in the ground floor space while the Evening Post itself used the two basement floors and the four top floors. From here the Post published not only the newspaper, but also magazines including the popular The Nation. Other publishing firms moved in, including Yachting Publishing Company, the Ronald Press Company, which printed “books for better business,” the United States Army and Navy Journal published by W.C. & F.P. Church, and the Nautical Gazette. Non-publishing firms here included the American Multigraph Company, a manufacturer of printing machinery and parts with a plant in Cleveland; 10
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
The New York Evening Post Building, or Garrison Building, is seen further down Vesey Street from St. Paul’s. Note the limousines lining the curb.
the Benvenue Granite Company; the New York Silicate Book Slate Company, manufacturers of school slates; and Ironmonger Advertising Agency, who moved here in 1917. 11
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
But in 1910 an organization of particular significance moved in. Oswald Garrison Villard’s grandfather was abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. From him the publisher had inherited a strong commitment to human rights. Following a race riot in 1908 and persistent lynching throughout the country, Villard and other white liberals, including Mary White Ovington, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscotwitz, organized a public meeting to discuss means to combat racial injustice. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was born. Villard subsidized the group’s national headquarters in the Post Building, and from here its magazine The Crisis was published and distributed. Later other groups sensitive to equality and social betterment would find offices here. In 1935, as Hitler gained increasing power in The forward-thinking Germany, the Committee on Fair Play came into Oswald Garrison Villard being. The Times reported that “The formation of a nation-wide committee on fair play in sports to oppose the participation of American athletes in the Olympic Games in Berlin next Spring was announced from its headquarters.” Three years later the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom headquarters was here and the American Council on Public Affairs published a fifty-page pamphlet entitled “Five Years of Hitler.” That same year the International Relief Association, also with offices in the building, published its “Youth Betrayed,” which, on the fifth anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power, described the young people in Germany under the Reich. The Catholic Interracial Council headquarters was here in the 1940s. By this time, however, the New York Evening Post had moved on. The Mutual Life Insurance Company owned the building until October 30, 1944 when it was sold to an investing firm. The building continued through the rest of the twentieth century to have a varied tenant list: J. S. Frelinghuysen Corp., one of the oldest insurance 12
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
New York artist Sharon Florin captured N0. 20 Vesey on canvas.
brokerage firms in New York signed a lease on October 1949. In the 1960s it was home to the Practicing Law Institute and, among others, E. E. Pearce Company, a lumber firm. Continuing the building’s history of involvement with social issues, No. 20 Vesey Street became the 9/11 Memorial Preview site as the permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11 was under construction. Despite owner opposition, Robert D. Kohn’s magnificent and rare Art Nouveau building at No. 20 Vesey Street was designated a New York City landmark in 1965.
13
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But in 1910 an organization of particular significance moved in. Oswald Garrison Villard’s grandfather was abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. From him the publisher had inherited a strong commitment to human rights. Following a race riot in 1908 and persistent lynching throughout the country, Villard and other white liberals, including Mary White Ovington, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscotwitz, organized a public meeting to discuss means to combat racial injustice. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was born. Villard subsidized the group’s national headquarters in the Post Building, and from here its magazine The Crisis was published and distributed. Later other groups sensitive to equality and social betterment would find offices here. In 1935, as Hitler gained increasing power in The forward-thinking Germany, the Committee on Fair Play came into Oswald Garrison Villard being. The Times reported that “The formation of a nation-wide committee on fair play in sports to oppose the participation of American athletes in the Olympic Games in Berlin next Spring was announced from its headquarters.” Three years later the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom headquarters was here and the American Council on Public Affairs published a fifty-page pamphlet entitled “Five Years of Hitler.” That same year the International Relief Association, also with offices in the building, published its “Youth Betrayed,” which, on the fifth anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power, described the young people in Germany under the Reich. The Catholic Interracial Council headquarters was here in the 1940s. By this time, however, the New York Evening Post had moved on. The Mutual Life Insurance Company owned the building until October 30, 1944 when it was sold to an investing firm. The building continued through the rest of the twentieth century to have a varied tenant list: J. S. Frelinghuysen Corp., one of the oldest insurance 12
L OW E R M A N H ATTA N
New York artist Sharon Florin captured N0. 20 Vesey on canvas.
brokerage firms in New York signed a lease on October 1949. In the 1960s it was home to the Practicing Law Institute and, among others, E. E. Pearce Company, a lumber firm. Continuing the building’s history of involvement with social issues, No. 20 Vesey Street became the 9/11 Memorial Preview site as the permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11 was under construction. Despite owner opposition, Robert D. Kohn’s magnificent and rare Art Nouveau building at No. 20 Vesey Street was designated a New York City landmark in 1965.
13
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
GR E E N W I CH V I L L AGE
twin peaks 102 b edford street
hansel and gretel in greenwich village In the spring of 1925 millionaire Otto Kahn was to be found having lunch in a rather unexpected spot – the tiny wooden tea room named The Little House on Greenwich Village’s Bedford Street. Lunching with him was builder Clifford Reed Daily, who lived nearby on Sheridan Square. Daily was pitching a deal. Behind The Little House sat the venerable three-story townhouse at No. 102 Bedford. A frame building sitting on a brick basement, it had been constructed around 1830, when Greenwich Village was experiencing a population and building boom. By the turn of the century it was owned by real estate investor Richard Bogardus who, judging from the fire escape he installed in 1901, rented the property to more than one family. After his death his estate kept the house for some years, managed by Van Vliet & Place, before selling it to “an investor” in 1913. When Daily met Kahn for lunch, he made an impassioned plea for financial backing for his “dream”, which revolved around the old wooden house next door. (“I am only a dreamer,” he said to the financier, “and this is my dream.”) Daily envisioned a fanciful structure of angles and half-timbering, of dormers and balconies – a place that could set the imagination free. “We are being herded into barracks,” he protested, “one the same as the next.” He ranted on that the existing buildings were “unfit for inspiring the minds of creative Villagers.” His dream, he said, was to create in 102 Bedford an “oasis in a desert of mediocrity.” Daily purchased the house that same year and, with his grand dreams and Otto Kahn’s money in hand, set out on a $14,000 renovation. A year later it was completed. According to building records there were two “non-housekeeping” apartments per floor, a total of ten, each of which rented for 14
The distinctive steep gables gave 102 Bedford its name of “Twin Peaks”. 15
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
GR E E N W I CH V I L L AGE
twin peaks 102 b edford street
hansel and gretel in greenwich village In the spring of 1925 millionaire Otto Kahn was to be found having lunch in a rather unexpected spot – the tiny wooden tea room named The Little House on Greenwich Village’s Bedford Street. Lunching with him was builder Clifford Reed Daily, who lived nearby on Sheridan Square. Daily was pitching a deal. Behind The Little House sat the venerable three-story townhouse at No. 102 Bedford. A frame building sitting on a brick basement, it had been constructed around 1830, when Greenwich Village was experiencing a population and building boom. By the turn of the century it was owned by real estate investor Richard Bogardus who, judging from the fire escape he installed in 1901, rented the property to more than one family. After his death his estate kept the house for some years, managed by Van Vliet & Place, before selling it to “an investor” in 1913. When Daily met Kahn for lunch, he made an impassioned plea for financial backing for his “dream”, which revolved around the old wooden house next door. (“I am only a dreamer,” he said to the financier, “and this is my dream.”) Daily envisioned a fanciful structure of angles and half-timbering, of dormers and balconies – a place that could set the imagination free. “We are being herded into barracks,” he protested, “one the same as the next.” He ranted on that the existing buildings were “unfit for inspiring the minds of creative Villagers.” His dream, he said, was to create in 102 Bedford an “oasis in a desert of mediocrity.” Daily purchased the house that same year and, with his grand dreams and Otto Kahn’s money in hand, set out on a $14,000 renovation. A year later it was completed. According to building records there were two “non-housekeeping” apartments per floor, a total of ten, each of which rented for 14
The distinctive steep gables gave 102 Bedford its name of “Twin Peaks”. 15
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
$68.50 a month. The house was now five stories tall, slathered in stucco, with two steep gables. Tiny dormers and pseudo-balconies projected from the medieval-looking structure, creating what the AIA Guide to New York City would later call “pure Hansel and Gretel.” Daily christened the house “Twin Peaks.” Although the National Geographic Traveler contends that “Otto Kahn remodeled the building after one in Nuremberg,” it seems that the whimsical design was more likely based entirely in Daily’s imagination. On 21 May 1926 the building was dedicated. And what a dedication it was. The New York Times remarked “One of the dreams that are nurtured in Greenwich Village, usually to become nothing more than dreams, will attain reality with the dedication of Twin Peaks.” Here, the newspaper said “In this apartment building are centered the ambitions of the life and time of Two years after completion, Twin Peaks Clifford Reed Daily.” looms darkly over The Little House. In a ceremony deemed by The Times to be “novel exercises,” screen actress Mabel Normand christened the house by smashing a bottle of champagne from a platform erected on the roof. Holy water was sprinkled on the building and Princess Amelie Troubetskoy, an American writer married to a Russian prince, burned acorns to honor Pan. Clifford Reed Daily’s fanciful dreams crashed a year later when he had to turn the property over to Otto Kahn. Interestingly, the millionaire’s daughter lived here for a period alongside other tenants of more meager financial means. 16
GR E E N W I CH V I L L AGE
The apartments were charming, with odd angles and quirky amenities, yet their small size – most only about 20 by 18 feet – makes questionable the claims that Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Walt Disney lived here. In the mid-1980s architect Stephen J. Kagel purchased Twin Peaks for $350,000, converting it to co-op apartments. In June 1998 the co-op owners put it back on the market for $2.5 million. The ten apartments, each with its own fireplace, still retain their eccentric slants and unusual windows and doors. The house appeared as a disco in the 1969 film The April Fools with Catherine Deneuve and Jack Lemmon. The same year it was included in the Greenwich Village Historic District. Clifford Reed Daily’s dream survives as a wonderful surprise to those who stumble upon it.
Silent screen actress Mabel Normand christened the building from one of the gables.
The eccentric doorways and interior details mostly remain. 17
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
$68.50 a month. The house was now five stories tall, slathered in stucco, with two steep gables. Tiny dormers and pseudo-balconies projected from the medieval-looking structure, creating what the AIA Guide to New York City would later call “pure Hansel and Gretel.” Daily christened the house “Twin Peaks.” Although the National Geographic Traveler contends that “Otto Kahn remodeled the building after one in Nuremberg,” it seems that the whimsical design was more likely based entirely in Daily’s imagination. On 21 May 1926 the building was dedicated. And what a dedication it was. The New York Times remarked “One of the dreams that are nurtured in Greenwich Village, usually to become nothing more than dreams, will attain reality with the dedication of Twin Peaks.” Here, the newspaper said “In this apartment building are centered the ambitions of the life and time of Two years after completion, Twin Peaks Clifford Reed Daily.” looms darkly over The Little House. In a ceremony deemed by The Times to be “novel exercises,” screen actress Mabel Normand christened the house by smashing a bottle of champagne from a platform erected on the roof. Holy water was sprinkled on the building and Princess Amelie Troubetskoy, an American writer married to a Russian prince, burned acorns to honor Pan. Clifford Reed Daily’s fanciful dreams crashed a year later when he had to turn the property over to Otto Kahn. Interestingly, the millionaire’s daughter lived here for a period alongside other tenants of more meager financial means. 16
GR E E N W I CH V I L L AGE
The apartments were charming, with odd angles and quirky amenities, yet their small size – most only about 20 by 18 feet – makes questionable the claims that Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Walt Disney lived here. In the mid-1980s architect Stephen J. Kagel purchased Twin Peaks for $350,000, converting it to co-op apartments. In June 1998 the co-op owners put it back on the market for $2.5 million. The ten apartments, each with its own fireplace, still retain their eccentric slants and unusual windows and doors. The house appeared as a disco in the 1969 film The April Fools with Catherine Deneuve and Jack Lemmon. The same year it was included in the Greenwich Village Historic District. Clifford Reed Daily’s dream survives as a wonderful surprise to those who stumble upon it.
Silent screen actress Mabel Normand christened the building from one of the gables.
The eccentric doorways and interior details mostly remain. 17
times s q uare
times s q uare
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
TI M E S S QUA R E
algon q uin hotel no . 59 west 4 4 th street
frank case and the round ta b le
The continuous rows of bay windows improved ventilation and increased daylight in the Algonquin’s rooms. 20
By the beginning of the twentieth century the 44th Street block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues had changed dramatically. The street that had been lined with twostory stables and carriage houses now boasted the exclusive Harvard Club and New York Yacht Club, as well as high-toned residence hotels. Albert Foster planned another residence hotel, to be called the Puritan, at No. 59 West 44th Street. He commissioned architect Goldwin Starrett to create an up-to-date design intended to attract well-heeled tenants. Starrett embellished his basically neo-Renaissance facade with fashionable Beaux Arts touches. Above the two-story limestone base, red brick and limestone was broken by soaring continuous cast metal bays nine stories tall. The bay windows not only added depth and interest to the otherwise flat facade, they increased airflow to rooms that could be stifling in hot, humid months. As the hotel was still rising, Foster began hiring his new staff, among them Frank Case. At thirty-one Case had already worked for nearly a decade in the well-known Taylor’s Hotel in Jersey City, and he knew his way around the hotel industry. One of his first concerns was the name of the hotel. He pointed out that the word “puritan” had repressive connotations that could possibly discourage potential tenants. After combing through manuscripts at the public library, he suggested instead the native American “Algonquin.” When the hotel opened on 22 November 1902 three-quarters of the apartments were already occupied. The New York Tribune was highly impressed, calling it “the last step in excellence in this class of structure”, and going on to say “The elegance of the structure, the perfection of its embodied details, combined with the letter-perfect house service of this new family hotel, bid fair to make it lead all of its class.” 21
S E E K IN G M A N H ATTA N
TI M E S S QUA R E
algon q uin hotel no . 59 west 4 4 th street
frank case and the round ta b le
The continuous rows of bay windows improved ventilation and increased daylight in the Algonquin’s rooms. 20
By the beginning of the twentieth century the 44th Street block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues had changed dramatically. The street that had been lined with twostory stables and carriage houses now boasted the exclusive Harvard Club and New York Yacht Club, as well as high-toned residence hotels. Albert Foster planned another residence hotel, to be called the Puritan, at No. 59 West 44th Street. He commissioned architect Goldwin Starrett to create an up-to-date design intended to attract well-heeled tenants. Starrett embellished his basically neo-Renaissance facade with fashionable Beaux Arts touches. Above the two-story limestone base, red brick and limestone was broken by soaring continuous cast metal bays nine stories tall. The bay windows not only added depth and interest to the otherwise flat facade, they increased airflow to rooms that could be stifling in hot, humid months. As the hotel was still rising, Foster began hiring his new staff, among them Frank Case. At thirty-one Case had already worked for nearly a decade in the well-known Taylor’s Hotel in Jersey City, and he knew his way around the hotel industry. One of his first concerns was the name of the hotel. He pointed out that the word “puritan” had repressive connotations that could possibly discourage potential tenants. After combing through manuscripts at the public library, he suggested instead the native American “Algonquin.” When the hotel opened on 22 November 1902 three-quarters of the apartments were already occupied. The New York Tribune was highly impressed, calling it “the last step in excellence in this class of structure”, and going on to say “The elegance of the structure, the perfection of its embodied details, combined with the letter-perfect house service of this new family hotel, bid fair to make it lead all of its class.” 21