The James Wells House at No. 162 9th Avenue

By the time the Civil War was over, James N. Wells had made a fortune in the real estate business, nearly single-handedly selling and developing the plots of land that had earlier been part of Clement Moore’s family estate, Chelsea. 

Wells start out in real estate in 1819.  By 1833 he was living and doing business from the charming two-story brick house at 183 9^th Avenue.  Two years later he completed a fine brick town house just around the block; over twice the width of the surrounding homes.  But Wells would move again to an even more impressive house.

The large Greek Revival brick residence at No. 162 9^th Avenue, just down the street from his office, rose four stories over an English basement.  The understated brownstone lentils and modest cornice were eclipsed by the imposing entrance way.  Two stately fluted Doric columns flanked the heavy paneled double doors above a set of seven brownstone steps.  Wells’ house stretched back eastward on 20^th Street, a distance amounting to at least one additional residential lot.

The stately entrance with its fluted brownstone columns.

By the time the often-moving James Wells died on February 16, 1892 he was living at No. 12 East 42^nd Street, just off the very fashionable Fifth Avenue.   Professor Joseph H. Gomien was living in No. 162 9^th Avenue as early as 1884.  Gomien taught  music in Public School 64, was well-known as the organist for St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church on Barclay Street, and by 1895 was giving musical instruction from the house.

Three years later Patrick H. Bird was living here.  In 1898 he was working for the New York City Docks Department and earning $1200 a year as a “Stenographer and Typewriter.”   It would be several years before typewriters (the turn of the century term for secretaries) and stenographers were mainly females.  Office work at the time was the bailiwick of men and women were still, for the most part, expected to stay at home.

The heavy cast iron fence with its over-sized palmettes wraps the property.

In 1899 the Catholic Boys’ Association was formed.  Its purpose was “to keep boys off the streets at night, to offer them innocent amusements, and to bring them under refined and elevated influences,” according to the Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction that year.  For several years Bird administered the Association from his house.   It does not appear, however, that many of the boys were ever lodged in the Bird home, if any at all.

The stalwart widow Sarah Loomis was next to live here.  She was, in 1910, an officer of the Young People’s Prohibition League.   Sarah intended to achieve “The prohibition of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors and the entire prohibition of their manufacture and sale.”

By 1919 the Yagnini family was living in No. 162.  In the politically-charged atmosphere born of World War I, anarchist uprisings and global revolutions, Peter Yagnini and his wife Mildred were documented Republicans.    Their son Phillip was registered as a Socialist.  The parlor and dining room of No. 162 9^th Avenue were the scene of several intense political discussions, one might assume.

In 1941 the brick facade was painted white.  A fire escape to the rear confirms its multi-family use by now.  The other buildings along the Avenue have been converted to commercial use.  photo NYPL Collection

As the 20^th century progressed, the unusually large residence was financially burdensome to maintain as a private dwelling.  In addition, while the Chelsea side streets remained still charming, 9^th Avenue had taken a decidedly commercial turn.   The handsome house was broken into apartments and remains so today.

The striking Greek Revival house with its long list of interesting owners is beautifully preserved.  Its heavy, decorative iron fencing remains around the light moat to the basement.  It is an often overlooked beauty with an engaging past.

non-credited photographs taken by the author

The 1835 James N. Wells House -- No. 414 West 22nd Street

James N. Wells established his real estate business in 1819.  By 1833 he was living and running the business dealings from the quaint brick house at 183 9th Avenue. As Clement Moore broke his sprawling estate, Chelsea, into plots he collaborated with Wells on the sale and development of the sites.

The unflagging Wells was instrumental in transforming Chelsea from meadows and farmland into a rapidly growing residential and commercial section.  And it made him a small fortune in the meantime.

In 1835 Wells completed his own grand town house at No. 414 West 22nd Street, just about a block from his office. Its Greek Revival design was just appearing and its exceptional width stretching five bays across – over twice the size of an average lot—allowed a symmetrical balance seldom enjoyed by contemporary rowhouses.

The house was three stories tall over a deep brownstone English basement. A centered entrance led to a central stair hall with matching parlors on either side.

Two years after the home’s completion the Financial Panic of 1837 and the subsequent depression brought development in Chelsea to a virtual standstill for a few years; however Wells’ business survived and soon thrived again.

While the Civil War was raging to the South, the Wells House got a makeover sometime between 1864 and 1866, including a fashionable mansard roof to bring it up to date.

Well's house, far right, at five bays (windows) wide, was significantly wider than the two-bay houses along the block.

In 1867 The Samaritan Home for the Aged was founded in an effort to relieve the overcrowded conditions of other old age homes. It advertised itself as “a permanent home for aged, friendless, indigent persons, of good character, of both sexes, over 65 years of age, and of all Protestant denominations.”  The home was supported by voluntary contributions, a $250 entrance fee (a sizable amount in 1867), and bequeaths.

By 1870 the Home needed a permanent building and No. 414 was purchased.  King’s Handbook of New York City called “a cheerful and commodious home,”  The following year in an effort to make the mortgage payments, Sophie B. D. Denny wrote to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment.  

In her letter she pled, “We have been and are continuing to use every effort in our power to lawfully and respectably raise our treasury from its present very low state, but should feel so encouraged and rewarded could we occasionally be remembered among the innumerable donations to the many charities of the metropolis.

“Fifty souls we already have under our care; $25,000 would be so acceptable.”

Ms. Denny’s plea apparently did not reap the harvest she wanted, and by the beginning of 1885 the institution was in trouble.

On January 27 of that year The New York Times reported on the home’s financial worries. “At the close of its eighteenth year the Home finds itself with 16 men and 20 women under its charge and an indebtedness of $2,000 in the shape of a mortgage on its property.”  Donations, which The Times called “a change to help the aged poor,” were “earnestly solicited by the manager.”

Within three years the Home had turned the financial corner. The number of inmates had increased to 47 but donations rose to $15,729 with expenditures of $15,442 and a permanent fund of $20,000.

Partial credit for the turn of events could be placed on the St. Valentine’s Kettledrum. Organized by socialites to aid the Home, it was a strange mixture of bazaar, dinner party and dance. The event became an annual affair that lasted for decades – well into the 1920s.

In 1892 The Times reported that “For twenty years these events have been very fashionable affairs and great financial successes. Last year $3,000 was cleared and everything points toward as large receipts to-day.” Listed among “the ladies interested” was Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt and, according to the newspaper, “the rich society people of the city have allowed no engagement to interfere with their attending the annual St. Valentine’s kettledrum in aid of the Samaritan Home for the Aged.”

Operating funds came from legacies, as well.  In 1889 The Baptist Home Mission Monthly reported that Thomas Hope, “a wealthy Scotchman,” left $3000 to the Home; and in 1902 Samuel D. Babcock willed $2,000 and Mary J. Walker left another $10,000.

At the turn of the century there were 19 men and 15 women residing at the home, one of whom had been there seventeen years.  A year later, in 1901, Philip F. Olwell, attending to his obligations as a good citizen, left the Home to register to vote.  Mr. Olwell was turned away because he lived in an institution and, therefore, had no right to vote.

When he sued, he lost the court case. The verdict was appealed in Supreme Court. He lost again. The judgment read “A person residing at the Samaritan Home for the Aged does not, by such residence, acquire the right to vote at elections within the district wherein such home is located.”

It would be years – too late for Philip Olwell—before the injustice was reversed.

On May 27, 1929 the cornerstone for the new Samaritan Home for the Aged was laid at 440 East 88th Street.  The aged brick residence was taken over as the Women’s Emergency Lodge of the Salvation Army where needy women were given shelter until 1952.  That year the Lodge was moved to 11 Dominick Street.

The following year the house was renovated into 25 furnished rooms and, in 1971, modernized again as 30 apartments.

Today most of the architectural detailing of No. 414 West 22nd Street has been stripped away. The brownstone window surrounds have been shaved flat, even with the brick façade and the once-elegant doorway is by no means elegant.

But the super-wide mansion of James N. Wells still exudes the grace and elegance that was.

non-credited photographs taken by the author

The 1825 House at No. 487 Hudson Street

The house is two bays wider than its neighbors -- photo by Alice Lum

In 1714 Queen Anne bestowed on Trinity Church a vast section of land stretching along the Hudson River from Duane Street to what would become Christopher Street to the north in the Village of Greenwich.  The large tract of land became familiarly known as the “Trinity Farm” or the “Church Farm.”

The sleepy hamlet would see a tremendous building boom as a result of the 1822 yellow fever epidemic that caused New York City residents to flee northward to the country.  Yet two years earlier an ambitious development project on the Trinity Church land was already under consideration.

Mrs. Catherine Ritter lived at the corner of West 4^thStreet and Little Jones Street.  A meeting was held in her house in 1820 with the goal in mind to see an Episcopalian chapel erected in the village.  On November 6 of that year the parish of St. Luke’s was organized.  Clement C. Moore, whose family estate Chelsea sat north of Greenwich Village, was named senior warden.

The chosen site for the chapel sat mid-block on the west side of Hudson Street between Christopher and Barrow Streets.  The rural setting resulted in its being popularly called “St. Luke’s in the Fields,” a moniker that survives today.  Construction on St. Luke’s Chapel began in 1821 and was completed a year later.  The structure was erected by James N. Wells, who would later nearly single-handedly develop Moore’s Chelsea into a vibrant community. 

St. Luke's, a chapel of Trinity Church, was completed in 1822 -- photo by Alice Lum

With the chapel completed, attention was focused on developing the rest of the church-owned block.  Wells would be responsible for encircling the block with Federal-style rowhouses which shielded from public view the graveyard and gardens of the chapel.  Among the first four homes to be built was No. 487 Hudson Street which flanked the chapel to the north and would become home to James N. Wells, himself.  Construction was completed in 1825 and Wells’ home would be the largest on the block—a full 36 feet wide.  Two-and-a-half stories high, it featured the expected dormers sitting above the eave line and a handsome entrance with Ionic columns, sidelights and transom.

The handsome entrance survives intact.  Flemish bond brickwork adds to the charm and the window to the right of the door retains its paneled lintel. --photo by Alice Lum

Wells lived in the spacious home until 1833 when he moved to No. 183 Ninth Avenue in Chelsea.  Within the decade the Hudson Street house would become home to the family of Captain William Newcomb.  Here, on the afternoon of Saturday December 21, 1844, Newcomb’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, died.  Her funeral was held in the house at 3:30 on Christmas Eve.

Within two years the large home was being operated as a boarding house.  An advertisement in the New-York Daily Tribune on February 5, 1846 offered “Furnished rooms with board to be obtained at No. 487 Hudson-st.  References exchanged.”  It was apparently at this time that Francis Brett Harte’s family lived here; arriving from Albany in 1845.  Brett Harte would grow up to become one of Americans most beloved writers.

In 1851, however, the church had taken over the house as St. Luke’s Home for Indigent Christian Females.  The institution was incorporated on January 12, 1854 and was supported mainly by private donations.   In 1855 the “Journal of the Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church” complained about tepid donations.

In 1857 the house had been raised to a full three floors--from the collection of the New York Public Library

“St. Luke’s Home for Indigent Females, though in more vigorous operation, and unable to meet the numerous applicants for admission, has not received the wide support which an indispensable church institution demands.  As this is not a parochial institution, (only one of its inmates being from St. Luke’s Parish) but general both in its organization and in its admissions from the city parishes at large, its humane benefits will, we trust, enlist the more general interest and support of the Church.”

On January 14, 1864 the Home received a windfall when New York City Board of Councilmen voted to donate $1,000 (a generous $25,500 in today’s terms).  On Christmas Eve 1867 there were 31 “inmates” in the home.  That year temperance advocate J. B. Swann donated the women’s Christmas dinner.  “Turkeys and geese are to be the substantials,” reported the New-York Tribune.  However the newspaper noted that Christmas was an understated holiday—its focus being more religious than festive.  “Beyond this nothing is to be done, as in this Institution ‘Thanksgiving’ is the principal day.”

By 1870 the building had been enlarged to the rear.  That year the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities described it.  “The building…is thirty-six feet front by forty-feet deep, and three stories high, with an extension eighteen by thirty-six feet.  It is in good repair and well furnished, and adapted to its present use.”

By now there were 34 women living here.  The Committee noted “They are admitted for life, and none are removed except upon the request of relatives or friends desirous of providing for their support.”

The elderly women were comfortable, but clearly not pampered.  “The house is plainly but comfortably furnished, the table is well supplied, and proper medical attention is given to the sick and the infirm.”

In 1871 a confusing legal issue arose when John Alstyne died.  In his will he bequeathed $25,000 to “The Old Ladies’ Home.”  The problem was that no institution went by that name.  When The Home for Aged and Indigent Females laid claim to the hefty legacy; St. Luke’s Home countered with a law suit.  It took Judge Spencer several months of consideration to decide that it was St. Luke’s Home Alstyne had in mind.

The windfall would help in the construction of the new St. Luke’s Home for Indigent Christian Females on Madison Avenue and 89^thStreet the following year.  Wood’s Illustrated Hand-book to New York and Environs in 1872 remarked on the coming move.  “It is at present on Hudson street, and its doors are open to persons of respectability in reduced circumstances, and who are members of the Episcopal Church.  The new building just ready for occupation…is four stories high.  The style is mediaeval Gothic, with Mansard roof and three towers.”

The house on Hudson Street was immediately taken over by a new institution—the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples was incorporated in 1872.  The New York Times explained “While St. Luke’s afforded a refuge for aged Christian women, there was no place under church influences open to receive old men, or where an aged couple could pass their declining years together.  It was also desired to extend a home to those who had once been prosperous, and while so unfortunate as to lose their property still retained their good names.”

Although there was a considerable admission fee of $250; the elderly men and aged married couples lived cost-free after that.  Bishop Horatio Potter described the home in flowery Victorian prose:

“The very name of such a home calls up before the mind an image of touching interest.  We think of the life within that Christian Home—serene, patient, cheerful—of the aged men rescued from lonely want and suffering, and brought into a family where needed comforts are secured to them, where love reigns, and where, by kindly looks and words they can contribute to each other’s enjoyment.  We think of the aged couples saved from the bitterness of separation—saved from the daily dread of a to-morrow, harder to bear than the cold and hunger of to-day; we think of these aged couples established in a Christian home, provided with simple comforts, themselves overflowing with gratitude to God and to their early friends for the unimagined blessings vouchsafed to them, and never weary of exchanging with other inmates as favored as themselves the touching story of former trials and present mercies.”

The Home flourished and in 1872 the New York City Mission and Tract Society noted that “The House now numbers among its inmates several who have been successful in the learned professions, and who have had high standing in mercantile life in this city.”  The report added “Here their remaining days can be passed in comfort, and free from anxiety as to whence their daily bread will come.  Only those who are too old to take care of themselves, and who have no one friend from whom they can claim support, are admitted.”

At some point an architecturally-questionable hood was installed over the entrance -- photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYW57K3LP&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

On December 1, 1887 the Home held its 15^th annual reception.  By now there were 31 elderly persons living in the house.  “The old people received their friends in the parlors,” reported The Times.  “Other rooms were fitted up with tables upon which were spread for sale fancy work of all descriptions, contributed by Miss Byson, Mrs. Kane, Mrs. O’Connor, and Mrs. Williams.  The proceeds are to go to the home.”

In 1892 King’s Handbook of New York City was still a bit surprised that the home allowed inmates of both sexes.  “The home is at 487 Hudson Street, and here aged married couples are allowed to dwell comfortably together during their closing years.”  By now the number of residents had risen to 36.

Like its predecessor, The Home for Old Men and Aged Couples eventually moved further uptown.  In 1896 it acquired land on 112^th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and completed a new building the following year.

Little has changed to No. 487 Hudson Street since Berenice Abbott took this photograph on June 13, 1936 -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYW57K95U&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

The house remained little changed throughout the 20^thcentury.  It served as St. Luke’s Parish House by the 1960s and then as St. Luke’s School.  Along with its surviving neighbors, the Landmarks Preservation Commission said of it “These houses provide us with some of the finest examples of Federal architecture remaining in the city, and are among the few of the period for which a builder is definitely known.”