The Lost Minturn Mansion -- No. 60 5th Avenue

photo from "Old Buildings of New York" 1912, copyright expired

Robert Bowne Minturn was born into a life of privilege in 1805.  His father, William, was a wealthy merchant shipper and one of the founders of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of New York.  But the War of 1812 changed the family’s circumstances.

Within a few years of the outbreak of the conflict Minturn and Champlin failed and Minturn’s fortune was wiped out.  Desolate, William Minturn became ill and died in 1818.  His 13-year old son Robert was determined to rise to the top again.

Within the year he found work as a clerk in the counting house of Charles Green; and became a partner six years later in 1825.  Robert’s sister, Sarah, had married Henry Grinnell in 1822 and in 1830 he entered the firm of Fish and Grinnell, a transatlantic shipping firm.  Two years later the firm was renamed Grinnell, Minturn & Co.

Robert further enhanced his ties with the company’s partners when he married Anna Mary Wendell in June 1835.  She was the daughter of John Lansing Wendell, also a partner.  By the mid 1840s the men had created a shipping empire whose fleet of 50 clippers sailed to every continent.  In little over 20 years the indomitable Robert Minturn had become one of New York’s richest citizens and one of its most influential businessmen.

Robert and Anna lived in one of the city’s most elegant neighborhoods—St. John’s Park.  But by the 1840s commerce was moving unsettlingly close.  In the meantime, in 1834, Henry Brevoort had started a new trend when he built the first mansion on what was still an unpaved Fifth Avenue.  Quickly the blocks north of Washington Square sprouted brownstone or brick mansions that rivaled one another for opulence.  The Minturns and the Grinnells would soon join the Fifth Avenue enclave.

In 1847 the Minturn mansion was completed.  It was a solemn brownstone cube that encompassed two building lots on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 12^thStreet.  A heavy cast iron fence guarded the mansion, behind which was an ample yard and a stone carriage house.  As was the case with even the most lavish mansions in 1847, there was no ostentation—the outward decoration being reserved for simple carved window framing and a slightly-projecting portico that supported a stone-balustraded balcony.

The house was completed just in time for debutante ball for granddaughter Edith.  That same year Robert bankrolled the construction of the $1.6 million clipper ship Flying Cloud.  It was the largest, most glorious vessel of its kind in the country.  The New-York Daily Tribune reported “she is expected to make the voyage to San Francisco in less than ninety days, and her appearance seems to justify these anticipations.”  A California newspaper proclaimed “Just think of eating butter in San Francisco on the heel of summer that was made in New York in May.”

 

Robert Bowne Minturn -- Booth's History of New York (copyright expired)

Soon after moving into the Fifth Avenue house, Robert Minturn initiated his male-only get-togethers on Thursday nights.  Wealthy businessmen, thinkers and politicians gathered to discuss current events and concerns.  Throughout the next decade the topic would often center round the shaky conditions of the Union; as well as the problem of the poor, and Anna Minturn’s passionate dream.

Mid-century Victorians enjoyed the promenade.  More than a casual stroll, the promenade was regulated by a strict protocol.  Small books and pamphlets were poured over by ladies and gentlemen alike to ensure no breach of promenade etiquette.   The Minturns and their wealthy neighbors promenaded in Washington Square and sometimes along the top of the massive Croton Reservoir at 42^ndStreet.  But Anna Minturn had a grander idea.

In May 1848 the entire Minturn family (there were seven children) embarked on an 18-month tour abroad.  They visited England, Italy, Egypt, Jerusalem, Germany, Switzerland and France.   While in Europe Anna marveled at the sprawling manicured parks outfitted with decorative benches and ponds and handsome statuary. 

Upon the family’s return, Robert’s Thursday night meetings revolved around the idea of a central park modeled after the Bois de Boulogne or Hyde Park.  Uncharacteristically, Anna was allowed to add her voice to the male-only group.  She stressed that not only would a grand park provide a lovely space for the wealthy to stroll and drive; but it would provide a healthful environment for poor children and provide employment during its building.   The decision to create the Central Park was hastened by the Minturns’ donating the land.

Robert Minturn’s ancestors were Quakers and he was staunchly against slavery.  He reportedly traveled to the South to purchase slaves, simply to set them free.  According to Jean Zimmerman in her “Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance, “ Minturn also built a model apartment house for one hundred poor African-American families in what is now New York’s Chinatown.”  He and Anna were outspoken regarding the treatment of immigrants.  He donated generously to the Freedmen’s Association and helped found the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

On the 9^th of January, 1866 Robert Minturn “was seized with apoplexy, and expired in a few hours,” as recorded by historian Anne Ayres in 1880.  She wrote “Mr. Minturn, though actively engaged in commercial business, never wearied in works of practical benevolence.  His thoughtful head and large heart were given to such, with the greatest earnestness and sincerity, even in his hours of relaxation from the counting-house, and he was extensively occupied in helping forward or governing a vast variety of agencies for the benefit of the poor and afflicted.”

Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg, the esteemed Episcopal minister, lamented “The loss seems irreparable.  Who can repair it?  Who now will be our foremost man in enterprises of good?  To whom now shall we go first in any new project of humanity?...Who will be his successor, with his adamantine integrity, in places where, alas, such virtue is rare?”

Anna Mary Minturn lived on in the mansion with her unmarried daughter.  Robert, the eldest son, and John took over their father’s business as partners.  John was described by The New York Timeslater as “a man of large wealth” who owned “a magnificent residence at Hastings-on-the-Hudson.”  But John’s health was not good.  He suffered constant headaches and “nervous prostration.”

In October 1880 John W. Minturn took his family to Europe “in the hope that rest and change of scene would restore his health,” according to The Times.  Although he returned to New York occasionally, he and his wife and children lived principally in Paris.

In April 1881 John returned to New York to conduct some business and stayed in the Fifth Avenue mansion.  He told his mother and sister “that his vacation had done him very little good thus far, but he had hopes of deriving benefit from a continuation of his residence abroad.”  Several times after his arrival he complained about his headaches.

Then, on the morning of April 30, 1881 John went to the offices of Grinnell, Minturn & Co. at No. 78 South Street.  He carried a large bundle under his arm.  The following day The New York Times reported “This is believed to have contained the revolver with which he afterward took his life—a weapon of the navy pattern, too large to be carried in the pocket.”

John Minturn had placed the muzzle of the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger at around 10:00 in the morning.  Mahlon D. Sands, who had been on the Gallia from France with Minturn told reporters “He has suffered indescribably, and while physical disorder was undoubtedly the primary cause of his troubles, mental disquietude resulted…He has been positively mad; there can be no question about that.”

Although Anna Minturn did not sell the mansion, before not too much longer she would no longer live there. 

In September 1886 New York society was a bit shocked when news arrived from London of the marriage of Civil War General Daniel Butterfield to Mrs. Frederick P. James.  “This was somewhat in the nature of a surprise to all but a few persons who were in the secret and who knew that during Gen. Butterfield’s administration of the estate of Mr. James, who died two years ago, he had developed a decided tendresse for the widow,” opined The New York Times on September 26.  The newspaper noted that “On their return to the city, which will be within a month or two, Gen. and Mrs. Butterfield will occupy Mrs. Minturn’s house at Fifth-avenue and Twelfth-street, which they have taken for the Winter.”

The three-month lease lasted for years.  In 1888 the Magazine of American History made note of the prominent neighbors.  Along with Thurlow Weed, who lived on the opposite side of 12^th Street, the magazine listed “General Winfield Scott, a few doors west in Twelfth Street…James Lenox, in Fifth Avenue, near by; Moses H. Grinnell, at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Fifth Avenue; and Jonathan Sturges, Richard M. Blatchford, and Robert H. Mccurdy, in Fourteenth Street, but a few doors from Fifth Avenue.”

 

While upscale carriages still travel along 5th Avenue, business buildings have already appeared.  photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York, http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWQNGW1Y&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

Two years later the Minturn mansion was put on the market.  Lower Fifth Avenue had, by now, changed.  Modern mansions of the Gilded Age were being built further up the avenue and commerce was closing in above Washington Square.  On June 15, 1890 The Times reported “The property at 60 Fifth Avenue, having a frontage of two full lots, was sold for $160,000.  This price would have been considered very low a few years ago, but since Fifth Avenue below Fourteenth Street is now well out of the line of travel it is quite as good a price as could be expected.”   The somewhat disappointing sale price would equate to about $4 million today.

The house became home to newlyweds Harry Le Grand Cannon and the former Elizabeth Mary Thompson of Detroit.  Their June 9, 1891 wedding was called by The Times “one of the important events of the kind that Summer.”  The pair would have two children—a boy and a girl.  The newspaper said that Cannon was “well known as a n artist, and especially so as a clubman.”

If entertainments in the mansion were understated while the Minturns lived here, they would be far less so now.  On January 13, 1893 225 guests filled the drawing rooms as Harry Le Grand Cannon hosted a “private salon concert” by the entire Boston Symphony Orchestra.  It was the second of a series of such events in the house.

“The large drawing rooms and adjacent halls of the mansion…proved admirably adapted to the large orchestra,” said The Times the following day.  The guest list included the most elite names in New York society, including “Fish, Havemeyer, Iselin, Kernochan, Sloane, Schuyler, Townsend Vanderbilt, Whitney, Oelrichs, Burden, Alexander, Clews and Mrs. John Minturn.

The beautiful young Elizabeth would shortly become a widow when Harry died on May 6, 1895.  Then in 1898 she remarried in Grace Church where “about 100 people, many of them prominent in New York society,” gathered “to witness one of the most fashionable and at the same time one of the most unostentatious church weddings of the year.”

Elizabeth married the wealthy widower, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Treasurer of the Coats Thread Company.  “The guests adjourned to the bride’s home, at 60 Fifth Avenue, where Mr. and Mrs. Frelinghuysen will probably live, and a wedding reception took place there,” said The Times.

Despite the changing neighborhood, millionaire Thomas Fortune Ryan purchased the old Minturn house and stable on February 13, 1901.  Ryan’s unlimited wealth was such that the following year he announced his intentions to built a cathedral in Richmond, Virginia in his wife’s name.  “In her home at 60 Fifth Avenue last evening, Mrs. Ryan said that work on the cathedral is to be begun soon,” said The Times on October 20, 1902.

Ryan was determined that his immediate neighborhood would not fall victim to the rising apartment buildings that were edging up Fifth Avenue.  He bought up the abutting properties, as well as the old Lenox mansion across the avenue, to protect his investment.  Ryan’s amassing of real estate around the mansion prompted The New York Times to remark on July 30, 1905, “The prospect that the lower end of Fifth Avenue will keep its present residential character has been greatly improved within the last two or three years.”

Ryan apparently leased the house to Mrs. George Lovett Kingsland that year.  The Times noted on January 14, 1906, “Mrs. George Lovett Kingsland…was Miss Helen S. Welles, a sister of Benjamin Wells, and a niece of Mrs Astor.  For some time she has occupied the old Minturn mansion.”

The Ryan family was back in the house by April 11, 1909 when son Joseph J. Ryan was arrested for speeding.  “Mr. Ryan was driving a racing machine on Broadway, near Dyckman Street, when arrested.  He seemed surprised when told he was going nineteen miles an hour when Policeman Echols of the West 152d Street Station arrested him.  He gave a diamond ring as security for his appearance in court to-day,” reported The New York Times the following day.  As it turned out, the millionaire’s son did not appear.  His lawyer claimed that young Ryan was “too ill to appear.” 

That same year Thomas Fortune Ryan shocked members of the Washington Square Association when he gave up on Lower Fifth Avenue.  He moved his family to No. 858 Fifth Avenue, far uptown.  The Ryans held onto the property until April 1915 when it was sold to the 11 West Twelfth Street Company.  Robert E. Dowling, head of the company, told reporters “the old corner house was being torn down because it was not suitable to the neighborhood and it was a waste to pay taxes on the old building.”

The Macmillan Company building survives as the Forbes building today -- from the collection of the New York Public Library

Within months the property was purchased by the Macmillan Company which built its stoic, no-nonsense headquarters building designed by Carrere & Hastings and Shreve & Lamb in 1924.  Now the Forbes Magazine Building, it survives today.

The 1896 Yerkes Carriage House -- No. 149 East 69th St.

In the last decade of the 19^th century grand mansions arose along Fifth Avenue across from Central Park.  Along with the marble or limestone palaces came the need for private stables to house the several vehicles of the millionaires, their horses and their grooms.

The block of East 69^th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues was close enough that the wealthy homeowners would not wait long for their carriages; but far enough away that the noise and smells would not intrude on their refined lifestyles.  Little by little the block became lined with handsome carriage houses.  Despite their utilitarian purpose, the private stables of Manhattan’s wealthiest citizens were designed to impress.

Among them was the carriage house of Charles T. Yerkes.  The Chicago financier and street railway tycoon laid plans to move to New York City in 1895.   He began construction of a mansion at No. 864 Fifth Avenue, between 67^th and 68^th Street which a Chicago newspaper called a “palace.”  Adjoining the house was a connected private art gallery.  Simultaneously his carriage house on East 69^th Street began taking form.

Architect Frank Drischler married two stories of hefty Romanesque Revival  with a third floor influenced by Flemish Renaissance to create a picturesque structure.    The no-nonsense stone base supported a stocky arched opening at the second floor.    A peaked gable protruding from the slate-tiled roof was lined with zig-zagging limestone, hinting at the stair-stepped gables of the Dutch.  Above a quaint Romanesque arcade three vents were positioned like dove cotes.  On this level was residential space for Yerkes’s grooms or coachman.  Above it all a copper ventilation tower provided an old-world charm.

The carriage house was completed in 1896, just in time for Yerkes’ relocation to Manhattan.   On December 28, 1896 a Chicago newspaper reported that “Charles T. Yerkes’s ambitious plan to shake the dust of Chicago off his shoes and go to New York to live seems about to be realized.”

Charles T. Yerkes --  Catalogue of paintings and sculpture in the collection of Charles T. Yerkes, New York, 1904 (copyright expired)

Charles Yerkes died in 1905.  His property, including the Fifth Avenue mansion and the carriage house, were the property of his widow, Mary.    She stayed on in the house for another five years, then in April 1910 offered the mansion, art gallery and carriage house at auction.   The New York Times reported on April 12, 1910 that “The Yerkes stable…was purchased by Robert E. Dowling for $29,600.”

Dowling also purchased the Yerkes art gallery.  His interest in the property was purely as an investment and within the month he resold it to Thomas Fortune Ryan.  Ryan first purchased the gallery, then on May 3, added the carriage house.

Ryan made his staggering fortune—his estate would be estimated at more than $200 million—in tobacco and transportation.   By this time the modern-thinking Ryan was more interested in motor cars than carriages and he set to work having the Yerkes stables converted to a garage.

Ryan went straight to the top of the architectural heap and hired Carrere & Hastings to do the renovations.   The firm’s masterful New York Public Library was just being completed, and within the past year or two it had designed the Alfred I. DuPont mansion, the Payne Mansion in Espous, New York, and the Administration Building of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

But for Thomas Fortune Ryan Carrere & Hastings would renovate a garage.   The remodeling cost Ryan $18,400—about $350,000 today.   No noticeable changes were done to Drischler’s exterior design.  The focus of the renovations was the installation of a new interior elevator, boiler, gasoline tanks and pumps.

In 1946, eighteen years after Ryan’s death, builders Sidney and Arthur Diamond purchased the garage.   A year earlier the pair had purchased the double-wide private garage of James A. Stillman further down the block.  The Times reported that “The building originally was the private stables and riding circle of Mr. Stillman, who converted it into a garage where he later kept a collection of automobiles.”

They followed that purchase, the same year, with the acquisition of the former stable of Ernest Iselin.  A pattern was emerging.    By March 27, 1955 with the purchase of the former private garage of Ruth Vanderbilt Twombly, the Diamonds owned the abutting former stables stretching from No. 137 to 161 East 69^thStreet.

The end of the road for the charming row of former carriage houses seemed inevitable.  The New York Times remarked “The builders are not ready to announce plans for the disposition of the property.  It is quite certain, however, that any improvement planned for the parcel would involve the demolition of the present structures.”

Yet the anticipated demolition did not come about.  In 1956 Photo-Library Galleries moved into the old Yerkes carriage house, along with Pinney Beecher, a commercial photography, art and design firm.   The Photo-Library Galleries staged exhibitions, like the July 1958 “Music In Pictures” show “of more than 500 photographic record album covers;” called by The New York Times “examples of typical work being produced in this fast growing new field.”

In 1971 plans were filed to renovate the structure into a photographic studio on the ground floor and a single residence above.  By 1978 the photographic studio had been replaced with a personal garage.

The former stables lines up with carriages houses of other 19th century millionaires to form a charming row.

Today the handsome carriage house remains a single-family home.  At street level a garage, library and recreation room share the space where Charles Yerkes’s horses and landaus were once housed.

photographs taken by the author

The Emma Lazarus House -- No. 18 West 10th Street

In 1854 the Wall Street banking firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co. had made millionaires of its principals.   The senior member of the firm was James Winslow, whose wife, Margaret, was the daughter of partner James F. D. Lanier.

The West 10^th Street block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues was, at the time, becoming more and more fashionable as the mansions of New York’s wealthiest citizens crept northward along Fifth Avenue.   Impressive residences replaced the earlier modest Federal style homes as the affluent Fifth Avenue neighborhood spilled onto the side streets.

That year a pair of grand brick town house was begun at Nos. 14 and 16.  Completed a year later, No. 16 was purchased by Lanier.  As the Lanier family moved in, a new home was begun next door at No. 18.  It would become the residence of the Winslows.

The Winslow mansion was completed in 1856, an exceptionally handsome Italianate-style residence that rose four floors above an English basement.  The architect distinguished the structure with a basement and parlor level base of brownstone that supported the brick upper stories.

The most striking feature was the three openings of the parlor level.  Two floor-to-ceiling windows shared identical proportions with the entranceway—creating an unusual symmetry and appeal.  Rather surprisingly, instead of the expected Italianate scrolled brackets below the cornice, the architect reverted to the more outdated dentiled cornice and fascia found on Greek Revival homes.

The parlor level featured windows that matched the proportions of the entrance.

Nearly a century and a half later the “AIA Guide to New York City” would dub the mansion “serene.”

The Winslows lived in the house for only three years.  In 1859 it was purchased by Dr. George H. Humphreys and his wife May.  As had been the case with the Winslows, the deed was put in the wife’s name; a common practice to ensure the financial stability of the widow should the income-earner die.

Although the Humphreys held on to the property until 1880, it appears they rented it for at least one year.  In 1879 George and Harriet Hammond were living here when their son was born in the house on November 6.

The following year the Humphreys sold the house to John E. Devlin.  The importer was president of John E. Devlin & Co. and a director of the Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Company; and of the Guardian Fire Insurance Company.   Devlin sold the house in the fashionable neighborhood just three years later, in 1883, to wealthy sugar merchant Moses Lazarus, a member of the firm Johnson & Lazarus.

Lazarus had retired in 1865 with what The New York Times deemed “a very large fortune.”   Now 67 years old, his health was not good.

Lazarus’ daughter, Emma who was already established as a poet, was no doubt pleased with the location.    The block had filled with artists.  Two doors away lived painter John La Farge, and at No. 51 was the renowned Tenth Street Studio Buildingwhere artists like Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer and William Merritt Chase worked.

The treatment of the cornice, while handsome, was unexpectedly outdated.

Emma sailed for Europe just weeks after the family moved in.   At the time Richard Morris Hunt’s pedestal for the Statue of Liberty was already half completed and in Paris the statue was ready to ship.  In order to erect it, all that was needed now was the raising of the necessary money.

In May, while Emma was still abroad, J. Carroll Beckwith and William Merritt Chase, both instructors at the Art Students League, agreed to organize a fund-raising art exhibition for the statue.   In conjunction, writer Constance Cary Harrison asked two poets—one of them Emma Lazarus—to pen short verses for its opening.

Harrison would later recall “I begged Miss Lazarus to give me some verses appropriate to the occasion.  She was at first inclined to rebel against writing anything ‘To order’ as it were.”   Nevertheless, she completed “The New Colossus,” a sonnet to “Liberty Enlightening the World” in time for the exhibition’s opening on December 3, 1883.  After that night, Emma Lazarus’s stirring poem was largely forgotten.

On March 9, 1885 Moses Lazarus died in the house on West 10^thStreet from “a complication of diseases,” according to The Times.  The esteemed Jewish businessman had obtained memberships in some of the most exclusive clubs in town; a highly unusual achievement at the time.

That year Emma set off on her second visit to Europe.  When she returned to New York in September 1887 she was seriously ill.   On November 20 The Sun reported “Miss Emma Lazarus, the well-known poet, translator, and general writer for the magazines, died yesterday at 18 West Tenth street, in this city, which was the home of her parents who are both dead.”

Emma Lazarus was 36-years old.  Although newspapers reported that she “had been ill for about a year, though death was due to a recent development of congestion of the lungs,” it is now believed she died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The funeral took place in the house the following morning.

The Sun noted “Miss Lazarus was one of the leading woman writers of the age, a great and strong writer, and despite the fact that death came to her just as she had reached her prime, she had gained a place and made a mark in literature far above the achievements of many eminent lives well rounded by age.”

Ironically, Lazarus’s longest-lasting achievement would be her overlooked sonnet “The New Colossus.”  When the Statue of Liberty was opened the year after her death, the poem played no part in the ceremony.  Not until 1903 when the text was mounted in bronze on the pedestal would the poem become eternally linked with the monument.

The statue, intended as an embodiment of personal freedom and democracy, was forever transformed by Emma Lazarus’s poem to a symbol of immigration and welcome.

The Lazarus family sold the house in May 1889 to stock broker Henry B. Livingston, a member of one of New York’s oldest and most respected families.    Livingston was a partner in the firm of Lee, Livingston & Co., a member of the New York Stock Exchange.  Like Moses Lazarus, he was a member of the Knickerbocker and Union Clubs.

The Livingston house was the scene of expected social entertainments.  On December 7, 1895 The New York Times reported that “Among the social incidents to-day will be [a reception by] Mrs. Henry R. Livingston, 18 West Tenth Street.”

That event was a tea given for Angelica Livingston who was making her debut and was it was deemed by the newspaper to be one “of the largest” of the season.

The original, exquisite Victorian window grills survive at the basement openings.

In 1900 the Livingstons leased the house to banker Edwin M. Post, a member of the firm Thomas & Post.  Born in Cincinnati, the wealthy financier was also President and director of the Express Coal Line and Georgia Car Co.; vice-president and director of the Southern Iron Car Line; and secretary-treasurer and director of the Manhattan Car Trust Co.; among other positions.

Post was in the house only a year and in 1901 it was rented by Mrs. Charles Lea.  The widowed Mrs. Lea used the mansion not only for meetings of her favorite social group, the Junior Thursday Evening Club; but for debutante events for daughter Marjorie that year.

On January 11 Angelica Schuyler Church gave a luncheon “of twelve covers” in Marjorie’s honor.  It was quickly followed by two coming-out receptions in the 10^th Street house, the second being held on January 25.

On March 21 the Junior Thursday Evening Club had a symposium in the house “where several members of the Comedy Club gave a little play,” reported The New York Times the following day. 

Mrs. Lea and her daughter moved on when, in August of that year, Henry B. Livingston sold the house to John Barry Ryan and his wife, Nina.   Fortune was the son of the immensely wealthy Thomas Fortune Ryan, a prominent financier.

John Ryan had grown up in the family mansion at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 12^th Street.   His mother, the former Ida M. Barry of Baltimore, died on October 17, 1917 and, much to the surprise and shock of the family, his father married Mrs. Cornelius C. Cuyler “a prominent society woman of New York,” according to The Times, just twelve days later.

The newspaper said “John Barry Ryan, who lives at 18 West Tenth Street, would make no comment on his father’s marriage.”  It added “As far as could be learned last night, none of their families or friends even knew that they contemplated marriage.”

The Ryans would rear four sons and a daughter in the house; not all of whom would bring welcomed publicity to the family.  John Barry Ryan’s personal fortune was greatly increased upon the death of his father on November 23, 1928.  Thomas Fortune Ryan left an estate of over $200 million, about one-fifth of which went to John.

That same year daughter Adele met nightclub entertainer Robert Johnston and his wife in Cape Antibes, France.  There was an immediate attraction and when Johnstons traveled to London the following winter, Adele decided to visit her sister there.  Johnston was entertaining at the Night Life Club, of which the Prince of Wales was a member. 

Adele visited the Johnstons during the day at their Pall Mall house and would come to the club in the evenings.  The constant attention got on the nerves of the entertainer’s wife who complained that Adele wrote frequently to her husband and “willfully” tried to break up their marriage by sending him gifts.

When the Johnstons returned to the their New York home nearby at No. 41 West 11^th Street, Adele continued her pursuit of Johnson and “induced Mr. Johnston to accompany her on trips to Boston and on Oct. 3 [1929] persuaded him to escort her to the Park Chambers Hotel…and to register with her as ‘Robert Johnston and wife,’” as reported in The New York Times.

Johnston left his wife and moved into the house next door to the Ryans, at No. 16 West 10^th.   The family’s name was scandalously in the headlines when Muriel Johnston filed a $500,000 suit “for the loss of her husband’s affections.”

In June that same year, Adele’s brother, Thomas Fortune Ryan 2^nd, was arrested in France as he prepared to sail to New York.  He was charged with issuing checks for $2,600 without having the funds to back them.  Then he upset the family further by marrying the divorcee, Mrs. Margaret Moorehead Rea in Sheridan, Wyoming.   The marriage was kept generally quiet, but young Ryan displayed an uncanny ability to appear in the newspapers.

In March 1930 he drove his automobile into a truck, resulting in a slight skull fracture.   Seven months later, in October he obtained a divorce “on the ground of desertion.”  On June 27, 1931 the 32-year old was in love again and secretly married the 23-year old divorcee Mrs. Mayme Cook Masters.

John Barry Ryan had had his fill.  On August 12 The New York Times reported that “News of the ceremony leaked out and rumors had been current since that Ryan’s parents planned to have the marriage annulled.”

The newspaper said on August 11 “Forced to choose…between his father’s millions and his bride of six weeks, Thomas Fortune Ryan 2d today declared that he had refused to give up his wife and therefore had been disinherited by his father, John Barry Ryan of New York.”

In the meantime, perhaps to ensure the quality of the block around his residence, John Barry Ryan purchased the three adjoining houses at Nos. 18, 20 and 22 that year.

Before long it would be John Barry Ryan rather than his children who were bringing unwanted publicity to West 10^th Street.    The Ryans left the house in 1930, apparently in an effort to evade warrant servers and collection agents.

In 1932 Ryan was accused of “hiding or evading service of a suit in the Plaza Hotel” and by April 1933 his property was being seized to satisfy judgments against him.

Amazingly, the man who had inherited millions was now skirting servers.  Two of his automobiles had been seized and on April 23 The Times reported that “representatives of Milton Eisenberg, attorney for W. Rossiter Redmond, who was appointed receiver for Mr. Ryan’s property on Thursday, failed in their second attempt to station custodians in the Ryan home at 18 West Tenth Street here, where there are paintings and objects of art valued at about $1,000,000.”

Indeed Ryan had filled the house (which was sitting unoccupied and guarded by the Holmes Electric Protective Company) with an impressive collection, including busts by Houdon.  His financial problems plagued him for years to come.  The Government filed an income tax lien against him for $210,916.74 in 1937 and another in 1938.

John Barry Ryan died in 1942 and three years later Nina sold the house.  In reporting the sales The New York Times said “This is one of the picturesque old brick dwellings for which that neighborhood long was known, and is one of the few remaining in its original appearance, without remodeling.  It dates back about a century.”  The newspaper noted “It was acquired by the Ryan family in 1901 and occupied as their home until 1930, but has been vacant since then.”

The amazingly-unaltered house was purchased by attorney Charles Abrams and his wife, artist Ruth Abrams.  The visionary urban planner and housing expert created the New York Housing Authority and was one of the first to use the expression “Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.”

At some point the carved moldings enframing the upper story windows were shaved flat; but no other significant changes were made to the house.   While Charles worked on housing projects, Ruth pursued her artistic career.  She was Art Director at the Research Association of The New School between 1965 and 1966.

 Abrams died of cancer in the house in 1970.  Ruth lived on in the house until her death in March 1986, after which a New York Times critic called her “a woman unfairly neglected in a macho era.”

In 1996 the basement level was converted to a separate apartment; however today the upper floors remain a single-family house.  The 28-foot wide residence is an elegant remnant of old West 10^th Street, and the place where one of America’s most moving poems was penned.

photos by the author