The A. B. Emmons House -- No. 40 East 38th Street

photo by Alice Lum

On January 10, 1896 The Sun reported on the rumors that had circulated through Manhattan’s high-toned sitting rooms for weeks.  “Mrs. Mary Scott Dimmock of 40 East Thirty-eighth street would not admit or deny yesterday the correctness of the statement published in The Sun’s Indanapolis despatch yesterday that she is soon to marry ex-President Benjamin Harrison.  There is a well-defined belief prevalent in the neighborhood of Mrs. Dimmock’s place of residence, however, that the story is true.”

Mary Dimmock and her sister, Mrs. J. H. Parker, had closed their door to reporters and gossip-mongers—for now.  The well-to-do widows both had a connection to the former president.   Mary’s aunt, Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison, was his wife and First Lady.  In 1889 Mary had moved into the White House to serve as her aunt’s personal assistant.   Mary’s sister had been married to the now-deceased Lieutenant J. H. Parker, a distinguished military officer and Private Secretary to Harrison during his term in office.

Now the two ladies shared in a brownstone home in the fashionable Murray Hill neighborhood, drawing attention to themselves only because of Mary’s highly-noticeable gentleman caller.  Tidbits in the newspapers perked the attention of the matrons of society.  Three days after The Sun’s article, The New York Times mentioned “Gen. Harrison remained in the Fifth Avenue Hotel yesterday until after luncheon.  He went out at 3 o’clock to call on Mrs. Dimmock, at 40 East Thirty-eighth Street, returning to his hotel for dinner.”

The silence on the part of both parties was frustrating to reporters and the public alike.  On January 12 The Times grumbled “[Harrison] was willing to speak of the favorable state of his health, of the weather, and about his trip, but when reference was made to the reported marriage, his manner changed, and he very coldly said: ‘I cannot discuss the matter.’”

When the former President left through the Fifth Avenue Hotel’s private entrance after dinner and “strolled up Broadway,” The Timessaid “He told nobody where he was going, and seemed desirous of having his movements unknown.”

The newspaper added “Inquiry at the residence of Mrs. Dimmock, at 40 East Thirty-eighth Street, developed the fact that the ex-President had not been there, and that Mrs. Dimmock was also out for the evening.  Mrs. Dimmock had sent word earlier in the day, when asked for information, that she must be excused from saying anything.”

The rumored romance of the couple was fertile ground for wagging tongues.  Not only were they slightly related by marriage, Mary was 37 years old; Harrison was 62.  Finally, on January 17 the gossip was put to rest.  Harrison’s secretary, Colonel Tibbetts, had announced a press conference in the hotel lobby at 9:00 that night “for the communication of National importance.”

The New York Times said that the hotel’s corridors were “thronged” with politicians awaiting news.  At 9:00 Tibbetts appeared and distributed a printed announcement that read “Gen. Harrison authorized the announcement that he and Mrs. Dimmock are engaged to be married, and that the marriage will not take place until after lent.”

Mary Dimmock, the niece of his deceased wife Caroline, caught the eye of Benjamin Harrison --photograph Library of Congress

The couple was married in St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue on April 6, 1896.  With Mary married, her sister left the 38^th Street house as well.   Two years later the owner Fannie J. Byrnes leased the house for five years to “a Mrs. St. John,” according to The Times on August 18, 1898.

The St. John family did not live out their lease and in 1901 Fannie Byrnes sold the brownstone rowhouse.  Newspapers hinted at the buyer.   And on May 24 The Times said “it is reported that A. B. Emmons has bought the four-story dwelling.”

The wealthy Emmons and his wife, the former Julia W. Parish, were more well known in Newport society than in Manhattan.  Their estate there, Hillside, was the site of their most important entertaining and it was there that Emmons had announced his engagement to Julia in 1891.

With their new purchase, the Emmons family had acquired a wide town home in Murray Hill—an exclusive neighborhood populated by millionaires and aloofly removed from the more public Fifth Avenue.  But the post-Civil War residence was decidedly out of style.

Change was coming to Murray Hill in terms of architectural renovation.  New owners were modernizing their old brownstones with new facades and interior make-overs by the city’s most esteemed architects.  Arthur Emmons joined the trend by hiring the firm of Parrish & Schroeder to transform the stern high-stooped Victorian house to an up-to-date Beaux Arts palace.

Construction began in 1901 and the Emmons family packed their bags for Newport.  While the bulk of society was returning to the city, they headed in the opposite direction to wait out construction on the house.  The Newport reporter for The New York Times mentioned on October 16, 1901 “Arthur B. Emmons and family…arrived from New York to-day.”

A year later they moved into the completed house.  No trace of the former building where Benjamin Harrison courted Mary Dimmock survived.  The old stoop was gone and the Emmons family had a limestone-faced, American basement house fit for upper Fifth Avenue.  A two-story bowed bay rose above the entrance and a full-story, steep mansard roof completed the French design. 

photo by Wurts Brothers, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UP1GHNJC3Z&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=603

Merely two years later, in April, Emmons sold the mansion.  It became home to the Rev. John B. Morgan and his wife Juliet.  Morgan had been for many years the pastor of the American Episcopal Church in Paris.  His wife was the sister of nearby neighbor J. P. Morgan, Jr..  Juliet Pierpont Morgan would stay on in the house following her husband’s death in 1912.

Like Emmons before her, Juliet filled the house with valuable art.   On the walls were hung paintings by 18^th century English artists Joshua Reynolds, George Romney and John Hoppner.  On April 1, 1923 Juliet died at the age of 53.  The Timesreported on her valuable jewelry and artworks; however seemed disappointed in her wardrobe.  “The report fixes the value of Mrs. Morgan’s wearing apparel at only $350,” it said.

The 38^th Street house was purchased by Donald Winchester Brown.  Mrs. Brown immediately staged glittering entertainments.  The Browns’ daughter, Charlotte Babcock Brown, was the focus of a dizzying number of receptions, dinners and teas in 1926, the year of her debut.  On December 11 The New York Times reported that “Mrs. Donald W. Brown held a reception yesterday afternoon at her home, 40 East Thirty-eighth Street, to introduce her daughter…to some of her older friends.  Mrs. Brown and her daughter were assisted in receiving by Mrs. William Reynolds Brown, grandmother of the debutante, who gave a large dance for her last month.  Mrs. Rembrandt Peale, Jr., was at the tea table.  Mrs. Paul Gibert Thebaud will give a luncheon today at Pierre’s, followed by a theatre party, for Miss Brown.”

The street address was incorporated into the carved cartouche over the entrance -- photo by Alice Lum

Mrs. Brown accomplished an envy-inducing social coup in 1928 when a wireless report arrived at The New York Times office from London.   On June 12 the newspaper told readers that young Charlotte was “to be presented at Buckingham Palace at the season’s fourth court, it became known today.”  Charlotte had been chosen as one of six American girls “who will curtsey before their Majesties."

The Browns moved on from East 38^th Street in 1930 when they sold the house to Grace Rainey Rogers.  Grace, too, was an art collector—surpassing perhaps all the former owners of the residence.  When she died in 1943 the nation’s top art museums stood in line for their bequests—The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art among them.

At the time of her death, Grace was living at No. 58 Park Avenue and her niece, Bertha Rainey Plum, was living in the 38^th Street house.  Not long afterwards, it was divided into apartments.

Life as an apartment house would be short-lived for No. 40, however.  In 1950 the United States Golf Association purchased the mansion to house its museum and headquarters.  The USGA spent $100,000 for the property and for what Marty Parkes, in his “Classic Shots: The Greatest Images from the United States Golf Association” calls “suitable renovations.” 

The association was responsible for developing standards for the game, including golf balls and clubs.  In its museum here the public was invited to view the group’s extensive collection of golf memorabilia and photographs.  Upstairs were club rooms and, on the third and fourth floors, two apartments each.

The former mansion became known as “Golf House,” and would continue its quiet operations here for over two decades.  Then in 1972 it sold the house and moved its administrative offices to a 70-acre former New Jersey country estate in Far Hills.  In 1991 the house was acquired by the owners of the Kitano Hotel next door at No. 42 East 38^th Street. 

The Kitano management gutted the Edwardian interiors of Parrish & Schroeder’s entrance level to install a sleek, double-height restaurant, The Garden Café.  The rooms where socialites entertained among masterpieces of art gave way to an open, soaring space where lunching Murray Hill businessmen talk trade.

photo http://www.chopsticksny.com/contents/restaurant-review/2009/09/2788

The gracious Beaux Arts exterior, however, remains essentially unchanged.

photo by Alice Lum

The Henry Randel House -- No. 38 E.38th Street

photo by Alice Lum

As the Civil War drew to a close, the Murray Hill neighborhood attracted wealthy merchant class residents who moved into wide brownstone rowhouses.  The south side of East 38^th Street, between Madison and Park Avenues was lined with four-story Italianate homes including No. 38, the home of Henry Randel and his wife, the former Caroline Malvina Perrine.

Earlier, in 1840, Randel had partnered with James Baremore to form the high-end jewelry company Randel & Baremore.  The pair opened their first store at No. 32 North Moore Street.  In 1851 they hired Chester Billings as a clerk.  Fifteen years later Billings became a partner and the firm was renamed Randel, Baremore &amp Billings; Co.

The firm would probably have been lost in the tangle of upscale jewelers at the time if it were not for a daring step Randel and Baremore took shortly after opening.  At a time when wealthy women were judged by their pearls, Randel and Baremore focused on diamonds.  Years later the New-York Tribune would remember “they determined to make diamonds their specialty, and in this they were pioneers, as no diamond specialists existed here at that time.”

It was a risky move.  Americans were largely disinterested in cut gemstones; however Randel,  Baremore & Billings now held a near-monopoly in the diamond trade in New York.  The partners amassed personal fortunes. 

James Baremore traveled to France in 1867.   New York was shocked to receive the news that the 48-year old died in Paris on Friday, September 27.   The body had to be transported home on a steamer, and almost a month later, on Friday October 18 at 2:00 in the afternoon, Baremore’s funeral was held in the parlor of the Randel home at 38 East 38^th Street.

The home would be the scene of another unexpected funeral on Wednesday, January 28, 1874.  Caroline’s brother, Isaac C. Perrine, died near Omaha on January 23.  His body was brought back to New York for the 38^th Street funeral.

Henry Randel and Chester Billings took another bold step in 1880.  The New-York Tribune said “they took up diamond cutting, and this they carried on in the American style…This method aims at producing effect rather than conserving the weight of the gems.”  Their pioneering method focused on brilliance rather than size.  Once again their daring paid off; prompting the Tribune to say their “enterprise was most successful.”

The successful firm owned its own building -- King's Views of New York (copyright expired)

By now the firm now had two branches overseas.  The Tribune noted that “But, besides diamonds, this house deals largely through its London and Amsterdam offices in rubies, sapphires, opals, emeralds and pearls and their designs for the settings and arrangements of these gems give them high rank as manufacturers of jewelry.”

The Randel family received a scare on March 30, 1885.  While traveling in Washington DC the 68-year old Henry Randel “was suddenly prostrated at dinner,” as reported in The Sun.  The resilient jeweler recovered however and it would be another twelve years before he finally retired.

On February 23, 1897 Henry Randel and Chester Billings issued a Notice of Dissolution.  The partnership was dissolved “by mutual consent” and continued business under the name of Chester Billings & Son.  Ironically, it was Billings who died later that same year.

The Randel’s daughter, Emelie, was no longer in the house by now.  Divorced, she married the staggeringly-wealthy director of the Standard Oil Company, Henry Huttleston Rogers, in 1896.  Her aging parents kept up their annual pilgrimages to various summer resorts, along with the rest of New York’s wealthy citizens.  For the summer season of 1900 they took “the Hathorn Cottage” in Saratoga and the following year leased the William Kent Cottage in Tuxedo, New York.

But Henry’s age was showing.  In 1900, on the advice of H. H. Rogers, he traveled to Georgia for medical attention.  It was an idea that annoyed Samuel Clemens.  On April 8 of that year the author wrote a fiery letter to Rogers from London which said in part:

"Now you get some Plasmon of Butters, and give it to Mrs. Rogers and her father, and you will find good results.  In any case it will do away with indigestions, and that is something. Why did you send Mr. Randel to Georgia?  There was no use in it.  You should have sent him to Dr. Helmer, corner of 36^th and Madison avenue—osteopath.  Can’t I beat it into your head that physicians are only useful up to a certain point?  There their art fails, and then one osteopath is worth two of them.”

While the Randels were in Tuxedo Park the following year, Henry fell ill again.  The New York Timesreported on July 28, 1901 that “Mr. Henry Randel, who occupies the William Kent cottage, lies seriously ill at Tuxedo, having suffered a stroke of apoplexy last week.  Fears are entertained for his recovery and the family have been sent for, and are now constantly with him.”

The Times was a bit tardy in its reporting.  Henry Randel had been dead for two days when the article came out.  The body of the 84-year old was brought back to the house on 38^th Street, where his funeral was held on Monday, July 29 at 10:30 a.m.

Within the year Caroline Randel left the house she and her husband had shared for over half a century.  She moved to No. 667 Madison Avenue and the 38^th Street house was offered for sale.  It was undoubtedly no coincidence that the buyer of the family home was Emelie Rogers’ step-son, H. H. Rogers, Jr.

photo by Alice Lum

Rogers lost no time in updating the architecturally out-of-fashion home.  Like other wealthy homeowners in the still-upscale neighborhood, he gave the old house a facelift.  Rogers commissioned architect Charles Brigham to design an entirely new façade.  What resulted was an imposing limestone mansion overflowing with classical details—scrolled broken pediments embracing carved urns over the parlor windows, two-story fluted pilasters at the upper floors, menacing carved lions heads in the brackets of the limestone balcony and elaborate oversized volutes that rolled away from the free-standing Corinthian entrance columns.

photo by Alice Lum

Unusual for the East Side of Manhattan, Brigham used a dog-leg stoop.  But unlike its West Side counterparts, he treated it imperiously.  Squared columns with Ionic pilasters supported four classical urns.  Ornate ironwork provided a screen and regal iron gates protected the service entrance.

The handsome treatment of the dog-leg stoop created an even more regal appearance -- photo by Alice Lum

As 38 East 38^th Street was receiving its make-over, Hugo Baring was arriving in New York.  On May 18, 1902 The New York Times reported that “Hugo Baring, a brother of Lord Revelstoke and Cecil Baring, will take the latter’s place in the banking house in this city.  Cecil Baring returns to England.”

The 26-year old was already a member of the firm Baring & Co. at No. 15 Wall Street and before long would hold memberships in New York’s most exclusive clubs—The Union, Racquet and Riding, and Tuxedo Clubs among them.  He was quickly established as one of society’s most eligible bachelors.

That bachelorship ended in March 1905 when he married.  The renovated house on 38^th Street was now worthy of titled British and the following year The Times noted that “Hugo Baring and his wife, Lady Evelyn Baring, are at 38 East Thirty-eighth Street for the Winter.”

Following the Barings, the family of Winthrop Burr took the house.  1907 was an important year for the Burrs as daughter Rosamond was being introduced to society.  On December 5 Mrs. Burr hosted an afternoon tea for Rosamond, followed by a dinner “of fourteen covers.”  Helping Rosamond and her mother receive were six other young socialites.

The following evening twenty-eight guests dined in the Burr mansion.  Afterward Mrs. Burr gave a dance in the Assembly Room of the Colony Club.  The impressive guest list included the top names in New York society:  Fish, Roosevelt, Harriman, Gould, Morgan, Sloane, Townsend among them.   Guests expected favors and Mrs. Burr’s seem somewhat surprising to modern minds.  “There were four sets of favors, including fancy lace bags and jardinières of ferns, assorted baskets trimmed with roses, toy monkeys holding ferns, carved Japanese daggers, hand mirrors tied with ribbons, velvet cat pin cushions and shaving pads,” noted The Times.

After the cotillion supper was served for the 210 guests.

In 1909 the Burrs moved to No. 20 West 58^thStreet for the winter season.  Before long the magnificent house would be leased as upscale furnished apartments.  In 1919 Walter Franklin took an apartment here and a year later newspapers reported that “William Alpheus Nettleton has taken an apartment for the Winter at 38 East Thirty-eighth Street.”

Through the 1920s well-to-do tenants included Mrs. F. Stanhope Philips, who also lived in Santa Barbara, California; Dr. John P. A. Lang, and Dr. Samuel Gottesman.  Dr. Gottesman was living here in 1925 when he married Lillie Simmonds and the couple was still here in 1929 when they announced the arrival of their baby daughter on January 28.

In 1936 the house was structurally converted to apartments—just two per floor with a doctor’s office in the basement level.   Among the tenants was Leonard M. Holland who had been wine steward at the Waldorf-Astoria for 12 years when he died in his sleep in his apartment in 1945.

In 2006 the house was renovated once again.  The doctor’s office remains in the basement level; but now the house is divided into a triplex stretching from the parlor through the third floor, and three apartments above.  Today the exterior of the imposing house is little changed from the 1902 renovation.

No. 38 sits among other turn-of-the-century updates.  Down the street an Italianate survivor from the 1860s is a reminder of how No. 38 appeared when Henry Randel lived here. -- photo by Alice Lum

The W. R. Grace Mansion -- No. 31 East 38th Street

Thompson N. Hollister and his wife, M. Louisa Hollister, were among the wealthy families who moved to the developing Murray Hill neighborhood just before the outbreak of the Civil War.   Their Italianate-style granite-clad home at No. 31 East 38^th Street was the latest in architectural fashion.  The carved stone window surrounds and classical pediments were added touches that proved to passersby that the family could afford expensive extras.

The entrance, accessed by a broad stoop with heavy stone Italianate newels and railings, was flanked by Doric columns standing on paneled stone blocks.  They upheld the deep entablature and pediment that matched those of the openings.  Doric pilasters and carved panels carried the motif to the three-sided, two story bay which extended to the English basement below.

Tragedy would strike the family as 1865 drew to a close.  Little Mary De Forest Hollister, the couple’s youngest child, died in the house on Saturday, December 30.   Distraught friends and family gathered in the parlor at 3:00 on Tuesday, January 2, for the girl’s funeral.

Within a few years the Hollisters would move to the nearby No. 15 East 35^th Street.  The 38^th Street house became home to the family of Philander Hall Butler, listed in city directories as “merchant.”   It was most likely Butler who added the fashionable Second Empire mansard roof.

He had married the former Louisa Clinch, sister of Cornelia Clinch Stewart—wife of the multi-millionaire dry goods merchant Alexander Turney Stewart.  The Butlers reared five children—Rosalie, Virginia, Helen, Maxwell, Lillian and Prescott Hall Butler.  The Butler women, as expected, were highly involved in charitable causes.  Rosalie was for at least four years between 1873 and 1877 the secretary of the Local Visiting Committee for Bellevue Hospital.

Alexander Stewart and his wife lived in a block-engulfing marble mansion on Fifth Avenue, across 34^th Street from the William B. Astor mansion.  According to The Cyclopedia of American Biography, its private art gallery was “the largest and most valuable private collection [in the world], excepting that in the Vatican.”  When Stewart died in 1876 he left his wife a $40 million fortune that reportedly made her the wealthiest woman in the word.

In 1886, six years after the Butler family sold No. 31 East 38^th Street, Cornelia Stewart died.  Her will directly pulled them into a legal maelstrom that would last for years.  Although Louisa Butler and her children (Philander had died by now) were provided for; Prescott Hall Butler filed to have the will dismissed.   In accordance with an 1877 codicil, the children of Cornelia’s and Louisa’s brother, Charles Clinch and Sarah Smith, received approximately $4.6 million each.   Cornelia’s lawyer helped himself to an estimated $9.2 million.  Louisa’s children received as little as $50,000 each.

Prescott Hall Butler’s complaint also alleged that missing from the estate’s inventory was “about $20,000,000 worth of property including a large and valuable collection of works of art,” according to The New York Times on Fe bruary 19, 1887.

William Russell Grace had just been elected Mayor when he purchased No. 31 -- photograph Library of Congress

In the meantime wealthy businessman and newly-elected Mayor of New York, William Russell Grace purchased the house in 1880.  Grace was the principal of the W. R. Grace & Company and had just become the first Irish American Catholic mayor of the city.  In addition to his business income, Grace was earning a yearly $10,000 stipend as Mayor.  That figure would translate to about $235,000 today. 

Grace had married Lillius Gilchrist on September 11, 1859 and the couple had 11 children.  Of these, four had died before the family moved to East 38^thStreet.    Within the first few years of living here, two more children would pass on.  On April 21, 1882 little Caroline died, just one day before her third birthday; and two years later 16-year old Agnes died.

Agnes Isadora Grace, seen in a cabinet photo at the time of her First Communion, died in the house in 1884 -- copyright expired 

A time-honored tradition in New York, stretching back to Dutch colonial days, was the installation of Mayoral lamps outside the mayor’s residence.   William R. Grace was closely involved with the choice of his lamps, described by The Evening World:  “There stand at the foot of the broad steps leading up to his beautiful Berea granite residence at 31 East Thirty-eighth street, two stately beacons.  The lamps have large spherical globes, held in frames of  burnished bronze, on posts of bronze in graceful design.  Mayor Grace’s lamps cost $326, according to the records, and are the most expensive of all  the Mayors’ lamps.”

The Evening World provided a sketch of the lamps on January 8, 1891 (copyright expired)

Among the grand entertainments in the house would be the debutante reception for Grace’s niece, Elisa.   With the young woman’s father, M. P. Grace, away on business in Peru, Lillius and William took over the responsibility.   Held on December 22, 1888, it began in the afternoon and lasted well into the evening when dancing took place.  The New York Times remarked on the elaborate decorations.

“The reception began at 4 o’clock, and the parlors were handsomely decorated with flowers.  Masses of holly banked the stairways, large rubber plans and palms filled the corners of the halls and drawing rooms, and the parlors themselves were filled with smilax, roses, and Autumn leaves.”  The newspaper noted “The flowers were nearly all from ex-Mayor Grace’s conservatory at his country seat at Great Neck, Long Island.”

Old and elite family names passed through the corridors that evening, including Townsend, Hewitt, Cornell, Borden and Roosevelt.  The current Mayor, several judges and at least one baron and baroness were included on the guest list.

That glittering event would be outdone by the reception for the Grace’s own daughter, Lillius, four years later.   On December 18, 1892 The New York Timesreported that Lilas had been introduced “into the social world yesterday afternoon” by her parents “when they gave a reception from 4 to 7 o’clock in their handsome home.”

This time Mrs. Grace had the drawing rooms professionally decorated by Siebrecht & Wadley.  “Between the windows in the front drawing room were several immense cocoa palms reaching to the ceiling.  The spreading tops formed a canopy, under which Miss Grace received.  The mantels in the front and rear drawing rooms were banked with American Beauty roses, and the atmosphere of the parlors was heavy with the sweet fragrance of the plants, which filled in the fireplaces.  Orchids adorned the dining room, where a buffet lunch was served.”

The presence of roses and orchids in mid-December must have been impressive.   If her cousin had enjoyed the congratulations of prominent members of society; Lillius’s guest list was even more remarkable.  Among them was the President-elect and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Grover Cleveland.  The Governor, Roswell P. Flower, and his wife attended; as did the former Secretary of the Treasury and his wife; and the former Secretary of the Navy.

On January 29, 1893 The New York Times reported that Grace had “sold his handsome house” and would be building a new mansion “on the west side near Riverside Drive.”   It was purchased by William L. Bull for $100,000.  Four months later Bull resold the house for a $10,000 profit.

No. 31 East 38^th Street became home to Julia Sewell Cameron, widow of Adam Scott Cameron who had died in 1877.  Julia had taken over the administration of the A. S. Cameron Steam Pump Works, located in several buildings encompassing the block bounded by 23^rd and 24^th Streets between Avenue A and First Avenue.  With Julia in the 38^thStreet house was her son, Walter Scott Cameron.

Less interested in business than his father, W. Scott Cameron was well-known in the country club circles as a tennis player and fox hunter.  Although he was graduated with honors from Yale in 1897, The New York Times would note that he “was closely identified with the life of Southampton.”  On April 23, 1902 his mother gave a dinner to celebrate his engagement to Rosalie de Goicouria.  Rosalie’s sister was well-connected in New York social circles; having married August Belmont, Jr.

The wedding was held on April 30; and only a few months later Rosalie was nearly widowed.  On November 15, 1902 W. Scott Cameron was acting as Master of the Hounds at the Meadow Brook Hunt Club when he was thrown from his horse.  “Mr. Cameron lay unconscious, and many among the large crowd of spectators in the road thought he had been killed or seriously injured,” reported The Times.

Two days later the New-York Tribune reported on his progress, saying he “was somewhat better this evening.  He is at his country place [in Hempstead, Long Island] where he was taken after his accident, which resulted in concussion of the brain and a number of painful and severe contusions.”  Cameron’s doctor warned that it would be some time before he could hunt again.

W. Scott Cameron and his wife enjoyed a happy marriage; at least for several years.  In 1903 a daughter, Rhoda, was born (later described by The Sun as one of the “Dainty future leaders of New York Society”).  They would sometimes stay at the East 38^th Street house, as was the case in the spring of 1906 following their returned from Europe while the Hempstead “cottage” was prepared for reopening.

By 1909 Julia Cameron had exchanged carriages for automobiles; but her early experiences were not pleasant.  In March that year her chauffeur lost control and smashed her motorcar.  Julia was not hurt in the collision; but would be less fortunate nine months later.

On December 2 The Sun ran a headline reading “Mrs. Cameron in Smashup.”  Once again her chauffeur, Frank Gilvey, lost control and this time ran into a wagon at Madison Avenue and 38^th Street.  Julia was cut by flying glass.  The New-York Tribune reported that Gilvey “was arrested charged with reckless driving” (he protested that the steering apparatus was out of order); but The Sun noted that first “he was permitted to take Mrs. Cameron to her home.”

Julia Cameron had filled the mansion with antiques and works of art; but as with all wealthy homeowners, it was a work in progress.  When the highly-publicized auction of the Havemeyer estate was held in November 1914, Julia was there.  She purchased a Louis Quinze cabinet for $305 (more in the neighborhood of $7,330 today).  The Sun described it as “of French parquetry, with elaborate mounts and ornaments of gilt ormolu.”

While Julia was shopping for antiques, her son was dallying with women.   In 1919 Rosalie left Walter and a year later testified that “she and her husband lived happily till 1911 when he began to show attention to other women.”  She also “told of many instances in which he cursed and reviled her in the presence of others.”   Rosalie was granted a divorce in 1920.  She was given custody of Rhoda and an allowance of $14,000 per year.

The ethereal-looking Rhoda was destined, said The Sun, to lead society.  January 10, 1915, copyright expired

Julia was, perhaps, a bit shocked when her son sued “to partition his father’s real estate.”  As a result of the law suit again his mother, the accounting of her estate following her death on February 12, 1931, included a $591,903 debt to Walter.  Nevertheless, Julia Cameron left the bulk of her nearly $5 million estate to him.  Somewhat ironically, a year later the 59-year old Walter Scott Cameron died suddenly on July 12 of septic pneumonia.

On February 8, 1935 Julia’s estate leased the house to Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Witherspoon.  For the first time in over four decades the house was the scene of a debutante reception.  In November the Witherspoons hosted the event for the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bergh, Jerry Bergh.  It would one be the last of high-end social events in the house.

In 1937 the former mansion was converted to two apartments per floor; except the parlor floor which became one expansive apartment.   Over the next few years residents would include Captain Corliss Hooven Griffis who spent six months in a German prison, prompting him to write the 1924 What I Learned in Germany; and author Frances Winwar who penned the biography of George Sand entitled The Life of the Heart.  In 1965 the house was being described as an “11 family apartment house.” 

Then in 2010 No. 31 East 38^th Street was purchased for $7.45 million by the arcane Catholic organization Opus Dei.  Scandalized by what it considered an inaccurate portrayal in “The Da Vinci Code,” the mysterious group promised the house would be used “as a residence for women where they would be offered philosophical, theological and spiritual guidance.”

Two years later the 28-foot wide house was reconverted to a single family house.   Although W. R. Grace’s bronze mayoral lamps have been lost; No. 31 is surprisingly intact--a handsome survivor of a time when Murray Hill’s residents were among the city's most prominent.

non-credited photographs by the author