The Edward Cooper Mansion -- No. 12 Washington Square

The seven acres of land that New York City purchased from the Herring family in 1790 was chosen for its somewhat remote location.  The property was used as an execution ground and potter’s field.  Seven years later it was increased to 13 acres.

In 1796 John Rogers purchased four acres just north of the potter’s field.  When he died the land was divided among his three children, George, John Jr., and Mary.  By 1828 the hangings had ceased and Mayor Philip Hone renovated the potter’s field into a military parade ground.  George Rogers began construction on his elegant Federal style mansion on the north side of what would be named Washington Square.  It was the first step in transforming the square into one of Manhattan’s most refined residential enclaves.

The Sailors’ Snug Harbor owned the block on the north side of the park between Fifth Avenue and University Place, and Washington Square to 8th Street.  Three prominent businessmen, John Johnston, John Morrison and James Boorman leased the plots facing Washington Square and in 1832 began construction on a row of graceful mansions—Nos. 1 through 13. 

The sumptuous homes were completed a year later.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in white marble, the speculative row was intended for only the highest class of resident.  Designed as a harmonious set with only minor differences, their columned porticos, deep yards and elegant cast iron fencing and gates bespoke social eminence.  Washington Square was successful as a well-to-do residential enclave.  It was near Broadway—but not too near—and not inconveniently far from the Bond Street neighborhood and the Astor Place Opera House.  Moreover, the large landscaped park with its paths and foliage was a perfect spot for promenading; an important social pastime.

James Boorman, the senior partner in Boorman & Johnston, took the mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue, No. 13, as his own.  The additional windows to the side made the house especially desirable.  Directly behind, at No. 1 Fifth Avenue, he had constructed another mansion, used as an elite girls’ school, presided over initially by his only sister, Mrs. Esther Smith.  Boorman’s niece boarded there and her letters tell of wistfully looking out the windows of her “prison” to watch her uncle “walking in his flower-garden in the rear of his house on Washington Square!”

Next door to Boorman lived Samuel Downer, Jr.  A wealthy merchant, he lived in No. 12 only briefly, selling it in 1837 to Samuel Shaw Howland, also a “merchant.”  Howland’s older brother, Gardiner Greene Howland, lived in the mansion as well, at least for some years.  Able to boast that their family had arrived in America on the Mayflower, the brothers had only recently retired from their firm Howland & Aspinwall.  A series of events that bordered on scandalous—or even criminal—had prompted the brothers to step down from the firm (named G. G. & S. Howland until 1831) and to put Gardiner’s eldest son, William Edgar Howland, and his nephew, William Henry Aspinwall, in charge.

Samuel Howland lived at No. 12 for 16 years, until his death in 1853.  It then became home to William Butler Duncan.  Born in Scotland, he became partner in the New York branch of the London banking firm Duncan, Sherman after completing his education at Brown University. 

Wealthy and socially well-connected, he was one of the original 25 “patriarchs”—the elite group chosen by Ward McAllister as the core of New York society.  The high point of New York’s winter social season was the Patriarchs’ Ball.  Each patriarch was permitted to invite four women and five men, including himself and family, to the ball.  Duncan’s inclusion into the select group put him on par with names like Astor, Van Rensselaer, Phelps and Livingston.

William and his wife, the former Jane Percy Sargent, had three children.  When James Boorman died in 1866, No. 13 passed to his adopted daughter, Mrs. Josiah W. Wheeler.  She sold it to William Butler Duncan.  It took Duncan six years to complete; but in 1872 he had renovated Nos. 12 and 13 into a single expansive mansion.  The stoop and entrance of No. 13 were seamlessly removed and the combined homes took the address of No. 12.

Duncan's alterations left subtle hints--the scar of the closed-up entrance to the left and the original ornate gate posts, now part of the fencing.

Duncan’s timing could not have been worse.  Within a few years Duncan, Sherman & Co. was in trouble.  A two-day auction held on December 16 and 17, 1875 liquidated Butler’s immense personal library—around 1,000 volumes.  The auctioneer advertised the library as “consisting of the best editions of English and American books, for the most part superbly bound.”

The Duncan family relocated to the former boarding school directly behind the house at No. 1 Fifth Avenue.  It was a step down, but most certainly still a prestigious address and residence.  The grand double mansion was purchased by Edward Cooper in 1879.

Cooper was married to the former Cornelia Redmond.  He was the son of industrialist Peter Cooper and the same year the family moved into No. 12 he became Mayor of New York City.  His term would last only one year; and in the meantime he ran his iron and steel manufacturing business and served as President of Cooper Union.

Edward Cooper’s business partner and brother-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt, shared his interest in politics.  On the night of October 15, 1886 Hewitt worked on his acceptance speech for Democratic nomination for mayor.  The following morning the New-York Tribune announced “It will be read by him to the committees of Tammany Hall and the County Democracy, which will assemble in the parlors of the house of Edward Cooper, No. 12 Washington Square, North, at 1 o’clock to-day.”

Society’s disdain for theatrical types did not always extend to foreigners.  When the internationally-known actress Mrs. Kendal and her husband toured in American in 1890, they were highly entertained, including a dinner on Washington Square.  On March 3 that year The Sun reported “In the evening the Kendals drove from their hotel to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cooper, 12 Washington Square, where a dinner was given in their honor.  Covers were laid for eighteen, and the guests included some people of note in society and a few professionals.”  The newspaper intimated that Mrs. Cooper had not gone overboard for the actress.  “There was no decoration in the house beyond the flowers used on the dining room table.”

Living with the Coopers at No. 12 were their daughter, Edith, and her husband Lloyd S. Bryce.  Edith was honored in 1890 when she was chosen to represent New York City as a “lady manager” of the upcoming World’s Fair.  When interviewed by The Sun, she said she would “undoubtedly accept the appointment.”  Her husband was quick to chime in.  “The duties, Gen. Bryce said, would have to do with woman’s work and the woman’s department.”

The Cooper family repeatedly hosted distinguished foreigners.  In May 1891 the British Minister, Sir Julian Pauncefote and his entire family stayed here; and he was back two years later.  During the latter visit, The Sunreported that “He had been confined to his room by an attack of gout, and a rumor that he was seriously ill became current.”  Later that year the Coopers hosted a dinner in honor of the Duke de Veragua and his party.

The double-wide mansion made elaborate entertainments possible.  On February 17, 1892, when Edith Bryce “gave a cotillion…at the house of her mother,” as reported in The Sun, no fewer than 120 guests were present—with names including Astor, Vanderbilt, Livingston, Fish, Cushing, Burden, Goelet, Roosevelt and Whitney.  In order that the toes of other socialites were not stepped upon, the hostesses often organized their entertainments to avoid schedule clashes.  In this case, Edith’s guests had been fed before arriving at No. 12.  “Her guests had been previously entertained at dinner parties given by Mrs. Ogden Mills, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Frederic Bronson, Mrs. Bradley Martin, and Mrs. Maturin Livingston.”

Perhaps the reason that Edith gave the cotillion that February night rather than her mother was due to Cornelia’s failing health.  She suffered what the New-York Tribune termed “a long illness” before her death in the house on Monday March 19, 1894.  Four days later her funeral took place at Grace Church.  The newspaper mentioned that “The top of the coffin was completely hidden beneath a mass of white and purple violets, lilies-of-the-valley, white hyacinths and white and purple lilacs.”  Somewhat unusually, there was no service in the family home.  As expected, the church was filled with the most socially important names in New York.

Edward Cooper would live at No. 12 for 26 years -- photo "Notable New Yorkers of 1896-1899 (copyright expired)

About three months later, on the evening of June 5, 1894, just as the Cooper family sat down to dinner, a servant ran down the stairs shouting “Fire!”  Without pausing he bolted out the front door to find an alarm box.  The family’s butler ran up the stairs with Edward Cooper close behind.  When they reached a second floor sitting room, they discovered the draperies in flames.

A gas reading lamp was connected to the lighting gas pipe by a rubber hose.  A delicate silk shade rested on the glass chimney.  Somehow the shade had become tilted and caught on fire.  The same servant who had run downstairs noticed the small flame as he passed the door.  In his attempt to remove the shade, he knocked the lamp off the table and the curtains caught fire.  At this point he panicked and ran from the house.

The butler ripped the curtains from the window and stamped out the fire.  He then turned off the gas to the lamp and placed it back on the table.  The New-York Tribune said “The burned curtain was flung out in the yard, and a couple of pails of water put out the last spark of fire.”

The fear of fire was prominent in the minds of Victorians.  Well-dressed residents promenading in Washington Square saw the flames in the window and rushed to the house.  The Sun reported that “several hundred persons gathered in Washington Square opposite the house” and the New-York Tribune said they had “packed themselves about the house when the firemen arrived, and the police had to make a lane through this throng for the fire engines to pass.”

“Besides destroying the curtains the fire scorched the enameled window frame and slightly damaged the carpet and an antique bookcase.  The damage was about $500,” reported The Sun.  That figure would translate to about $14,000 today.

Edith took over her mother’s role as hostess of No. 12 Washington Square following the period of mourning.  The house was the scene of a delightful entertainment on April 14, 1898 when “several children of well-known society people took part” in a play.  The juvenile actors included “Miss Ruth Twombly, daughter of H. McK. Twombly; little Miss Iselin, Miss Lee, daughter of Mrs. Charles Carroll Lee; Miss Edgar, and Miss Bryce.”

After a quarter of a century in what the New-York Tribunedeemed “the handsome, old-fashioned house,” Edward Cooper died there on Saturday, February 25, 1905, at the age of 81.  As had been the case with his wife, there were no services in the house and the funeral was conducted at Grace Church.

On the afternoon of January 16 the following year, the mansion was the scene of Clare Bryce’s marriage to J. Sergeant Cram.  The New-York Tribune noted “The wedding was quiet, as Mrs. Bryce is in mourning for her father and Mr. Cram for his sister, Miss Ethel Cram, who died last autumn in Lenox from injuries received in a runaway accident.”

“During the ceremony, which took place in the drawing room, decorated with palms and cut flowers Lander’s Orchestra played.”

Within weeks of the ceremony the Bryces sold No. 12.  Lloyd Bryce had purchased property from Andrew Carnegie adjoining the James A. Burden, Jr. mansion.  The New York Times predicted he would erect “a handsome dwelling on this plot.”

The Washington Square house was purchased by Eugene Delano, a member of the banking firm of Brown Brothers & Co.  His wife, Susan Magoun Adams was directly descended from John Adams.  She had died in 1904.  The family had barely moved in before daughter Susan Adams Delano was married to Charles M. McKelvey at Glymont, the Delano country estate in Orange, New Jersey.  Susan’s three brothers, Eugene Jr., William, and Moreau, and sister Caroline moved into No. 12 with their father. 

The house had sprouted three-sided bays and a rooftop balustrade in the 19th century -- photograph from "Fifth Avenue" 1915 (copyright expired)

Years later William Adams Delano would be a highly-respected architect and member o the firm Delano & Aldrich.  According to Peter Pennoyer and Anne Walker in their The Architecture of Delano & Aldrich, he would recall “this house had a great influence on my architectural thinking…The simple rooms with their large windows and high ceilings, taught me that these elements [were] more important than elaborate decorations, which people tire of in time.”

Tragedy visited the family on January 29, 1913.  Twenty-five year old son Eugene had graduated from Yale in 1908.  The bachelor purchased a large farm in Saskatchewan, Canada.  In 1912 he battled constant bouts of ill health which caused “despondency.”  He had been visiting the family in January 1913 and left for Canada on Saturday the 25^th.  He never made it to his farm.

Four days later his body was found in a Winnipeg hotel room.  The New York Times reported he was found “in his room in the Royal Alexandra Hotel with his throat and wrists slashed with a razor.  He left this note addressed to Eugene Delano, New York:

‘Dear father, sisters, and brother, forgive me.  Eugene.”

Caroline Delano married Dr. Augustus Baldwin Wadsworth in 1910; leaving only her father and brother, Moreau, in the Washington Square home.  Moreau would still be here a decade later when Eugene Delano died in the house on the morning of April 2, 1920.  He was 75 years old.  Delano’s $3 million fortune was divided among his four children.

The heirs sold their father’s house to Rodman Wanamaker, son of department store giant John Wanamaker for $150,000.  In reporting the sale The New York Timesreminded readers “The land is owned by the trustees of Sailors’ Snug Harbor.”

When Wanamaker purchased the house, it had a Victorian extension to the rear -- photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWO2AMBI&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=631

Wanamaker was a Special Deputy Chief of Police, and Vice President of John Wanamaker Department Stores.  His physical condition was frail and would be a constant concern.  At the time of the purchase Rodman Wanamaker was living nearby at No. 69 Washington Place.  His alterations to No. 12 would take over a year; but as the new year arrived in 1922, he was preparing to move.  It nearly did not happen.

A fire broke out in the Washington Place house on January 2.  Wanamaker was alone in the house with four servants.  “He has been preparing to leave there to move into his new home in Washington Square,” said The Times on January 3, “but his works of art and many antiques had not yet been transferred.”

The fire started in the basement when everyone in the house was asleep.  Wanamaker’s bedroom was on the third floor and the servant rooms were on the fourth.  The house filled with smoke, overcoming Wanamaker.

The Evening World reported “Early yesterday morning Ernest Schmidt, the butler, seeking his master in the smoke-filled house, stumbled over the latter’s body, picked him up and dragged him to safety on an extension roof.”

According to The New York Times “Mr. Wanamaker was so overcome by the smoke that he was not able to step out on the coping alone.  So Schmidt picked him up, his friends say, and carried him to the next building.”  He was taken to No. 12 Washington Square to recover. 

The Times noted “Mr. Wanamaker’s health has not been good since he was in Paris a year ago, and he was so affected by his experience and the shock of awakening in a smoke-filled room that word was sent to his personal physical, Dr. Harvey Shoemaker, of Philadelphia, who took the first train available for New York.”  Wanamaker pulled through; however many of his artworks and antiques did not fare so well, and were “ruined” by water from fire hoses.

Later that year, in November, Rodman Wanamaker was in the news again for health reasons.  The New-York Tribune reported on November 15 that doctors had confined him to the Washington Square mansion “for the rest of this week.”  In addition “policemen are stationed about the house to prevent any unnecessary noise.  This gave rise to a rumor that he was seriously ill.”

In June 1923 the policemen were back “to keep trucks and other noisy vehicles from passing” due to Wanamaker’s ill health.  His secretary, Thomas A. Hayes, explained to reporters “The heat during the jubilee celebration last Saturday affected Mr. Wanamaker considerably.”

By January Wanamaker was well enough to escort his daughter, Fernanda, in the quiet wedding ceremony in the mansion.  Six months earlier she had divorced her husband, Arturo Juan Alessandro Heeren, in Paris.  Now she married Ector Orr Munn in her father’s parlor.  (Fernanda’s sister, Anne Marie Louise, was also married to a Munn.)  “The ceremony was of the simplest kind and only members of the Wanamaker family and one or two intimate friends and business associates of Mr. Wanamaker were present,” said The Times on January 25, 1924.

Rodman Wanamaker died on March 9, 1928 at his country villa in New Jersey at the age of 65.  Daughter Anne Marie Louis Munn was living with him at the time and on January 30 the following year The New York Times reported that she had purchased the Washington Square house from her father’s estate.  Her ownership would long be long-lived, however.

In 1933 Marie Louise Munn divorced her husband Gurnee Munn, claiming cruelty.  Two years later an auction was held of Rodman Wanamaker’s things.  “From the Rodman Wanamaker residence at 12 Washington Square will come Ch’ien-lung, Yung-Cheng and other carved jades, a seventeenth-century paneled walnut ‘pharmacy room’ with a collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century French, Italian and Dutch pharmacy jars and bronze mortars, and period furniture covered in needlepoint and tapestry.”

In 1939, as demolition of the interiors of No. 12 was underway, a photograph captured the handsome detailing -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWO2AWEQ&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=631

In 1939 the mansions from No. 7 through No. 13 were gutted and only the facades preserved.  Architectts Scott & Prescott created a modern apartment building, with an entrance on Fifth Avenue, which replaced the elegant homes.  Their doorways above the white marble stoops are mostly for show and rarely, if ever, used.

non-credited photographs by the author

The Lost Wm. Butler Duncan House -- No. 1 Fifth Avenue

photograph from "Collins' Both Sides of Fifth Avenue" 1910 (copyright expired)

In the first years of the 1830s New York City’s three most prestigious residential neighborhoods were the Bond Street area, on the East Side; elegant St. John’s Park, to the south; and more recently Washington Square.  North of the Square was the unpaved and undeveloped Fifth Avenue.

Henry Brevoort Jr. changed that when he erected his impressive mansion at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 9th Street.  The magnificent home was the first step in the establishment of Fifth Avenue as Manhattan’s premier address.  It was a fortuitous trend for the trustees of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor in the City of New York.  The group owned the entire block of property on the east side of Fifth Avenue from 8^th Street to Washington Square.

Within a decade handsome mansions were constructed; and on November 1, 1834 James Boorman signed an 18-year lease on Nos. 1 and 3 Fifth Avenue.  Boorman improved the lot with a handsome double-wide mansion, separated by a carriage lane from the private stables of Washington Square.   Later court papers described the Boorman structure as “built by him to be used…for a boarding-school for young ladies.”

Four stories tall, it was faced in red brick.  The unassuming Federal-style entrance was left of center and sat above a shallow porch.   The small size of the windows at the first floor level announced that it was the second story that housed the reception and entertainment rooms.  Here cast iron balconies embraced two sets of floor-to-ceiling openings.  As was the case even with the more elaborate Federal-style mansions around the corner on Washington Square, a simple wooden cornice completed the design.

The paneled entrance featured paned sidelights and transom.  The entrance door is a late 19th century update.  Note the doorbell pull to the right.  photographer unknown.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GD9966K&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=629

Boorman had recognized the need for a respectable school for the daughters of the affluent new residents of Fifth Avenue.  According Helen W. Henderson in her 1915 A Loiterer in New York, he opened "a select school for young ladies, presided over at first by Mr. Boorman's only sister, Miss Esther Smith."

An 18-year old teacher named Green came from Worchester, Massachusetts and, after a few years, she and her sister took over the operation.  Lucy M. and Mary Green ran The Misses Green’s School for years and decades later the Fifth Avenue Bank of New York’s book Fifth Avenue would remember that it “was, for years before and after the Civil War, one of the most fashionable and select schools of its day…Here were educated the daughters of the commercial and social leaders of New York.”

Along with academic courses, young ladies were taught proper demeanor.  Among the students were the daughters of Leonard Jerome, Fanny and Jennie (Jennie would become Lady Randolph Churchill and mother of Winston Churchill).  Instructors included John Bigelow who taught botany “and charmed the young ladies of Washington Square because he was ‘so handsome,’” according to Fifth Avenue’s authors; and Elihu Root, later Secretary of State and Senator from New York.  Root was so young when he began teaching that his presence among the young women concerned Lucy Green.  Calling her “a martinet for social proprieties,” Fifth Avenue said she thought it best that she “frequent his classes.”

Lucy and Mary Green’s brother was Andrew H. Green, who would later be known as “the father of Greater New York.”  He shared, according to Henderson, "in the direction of the establishment, and in 1844, taught a class in American history."

Green’s political career began as School Commissioner in 1860.  He was appointed a Central Park Commissioner in 1864; Central Park Comptroller in 1869; and in 1871 rose to the position of City Controller.  The New York Times could not have been more pleased.

The newspaper was perhaps the staunchest adversary of the corrupt Tammany Hall.  On September 21, 1871 it wrote “The long contest with the Tammany gang is now, we have every reason to believe, very near its end.  Mayor Hall’s doublings and twisting cannot save him and his confederates.  We positively assured our readers on Sunday morning, that the appointment of Mr. Andrew H. Green would infallibly bring to light all the dark secrets of the great robberies which have been committed.”

The Times’ editor predicted that under Green’s reforms, the Tweed Ring, “the infamous thieves,” would be overturned.  Both The New York Times and Andrew Green underestimated the power of Boss Tweed and his political machine.

By now the Misses Graham had taken over and moved the elite girls' school.  Andrew H. Green subsequently made the mansion his home.   On August 30, 1872, a year after Green took office and began “carefully overhauling the roll of employes,” as described by The Times, he was named as defendant in “The People of the State of New-York ex rel. J. W. McGowan vs. Andrew H. Green, Controller of the City of New-York” for a purported  missing $500.  Unperturbed by the political move, Green ignored the demands of the Tammany leaders.

Finally, at around 6:00 on the evening of July 2, 1873, Green and his lawyer, James C. Carter, approached his Fifth Avenue home.  As the pair turned into the gate, Judson Jarvis, Clerk of Arrests, stopped them.  The man said simply, “Mr. Green I arrest you on an order of close commitment from the Supreme Court” and produced the order of arrest.

The attorney was shocked at the effrontery of the action.  The New York Times reported “Mr. Carter said that surely Mr. Jarvis did not propose taking the Controller to jail.”  The clerk responded that he had no option unless Green produced the $500. 

Andrew Green pulled $350 from his vest pocket (an astonishingly large amount to be carrying around; in the neighborhood of $6,890 today) and “subsequently obtained the balance from another source.”

When he was released from custody, Green asked the Sheriff if he would be getting a receipt.  Jarvis interrupted saying, “Your receipt is the body of Andrew H. Green.”

At the time William Butler Duncan had his wife, the former Jane Percy Sargent, were well-established in New York society.  Butler was born in Scotland and educated at Edinburgh Academy and University.  When his father, Alexander Duncan,  emigrated to Providence, Rhode Island, William’s education was continued at Brown University.  He became partner in the New York branch of the London banking firm Duncan, Sherman. 

The high point of New York’s winter social season was the Patriarchs’ Ball.  Generations later the New-York Tribune would recall that they “were probably the most famous subscription affairs New York has ever known, and were organized  by Ward McAllister.  The subscribing members, or Patriarchs, numbered twenty-five, and each man had the privilege of asking four women and five men, including himself and family, to the dances.”  Among the exclusive list of 25—including of course the Astors, Van Rensselaers, Livingstons, Schermerhorns and Phelps families—was William Butler Duncan.

William and Jane had three children—Alexander, Jessie, and Mary.  Butler had a passion for books and, subsequently, an immense and valuable library.  Prompted by financial problems in his firm, an auction was held on December 16 and 17, 1875 of around 1,000 volumes.   The auctioneer advertised the library as “consisting of the best editions of English and American books, for the most part superbly bound.”

By 1877 the Butler family had moved from No. 12 Washington Square into No. 1 Fifth Avenue, directly around the corner.  That year Butler took his next door neighbor, Nathan P. Beers to court.  Both Beers and Butler leased their homes from the Sailors’ Snug Harbor.  When Boorman had erected No. 1 Fifth Avenue, he also held the lease on No. 3; so he saw no problem in putting windows on the north side of the mansion now occupied by Butler—since he had no intention of building on the lot.

Butler’s suit argued that the 20 windows on his northern wall overlooked “the open, vacant, and rear portion of said lot No. 3, and received necessarily their only light, air, and ventilation therefrom.”  Now Beers “was erecting a building against the plaintiff’s said northerly wall, and inserting beams of the new building in the plaintiff’s walls, and closing up many of the windows.” 

Duncan sought to stop construction to preserve his windows.  Despite his wealth and station, the courts saw it differently.  The building went up.

The feud over windows was long forgotten by 1884 when daughter Mary was married to 32-year old Paul Dana, son of The Sun editor, Charles A. Dana.  Following the fashionable Grace Church wedding on November 11 “a limited number of intimate friends” gathered at the Fifth Avenue mansion.  Jane Duncan had hired the society caterer Pinard, who served socially- and politically important guests like Congressman Dorsheimer, Assistant U.S. Treasurer Thomas C. Acton and Mr. and Mrs. George Rives.

The Duncan family remodeled not long after moving in; replacing the Federal interiors with the newly-popular Colonial Revival style -- photographer unknown.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GD9966K&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=629

Mary and Paul would move into the house with her parents.  The Times later recalled Dana's well-intentioned gesture that backfired; nearly ruining his reputation.  The newspaper said that one of his “great journalistic feats was an assault on the memory of Gen. Grant.  His famous insult to the family of the dead ex-President in offering to pay and actually paying the disputed undertaker’s bill is well remembered.” 

The comings and goings of William and Jane were, of course, closely followed by the press.  On May 13, 1899 The New York Times mentioned “Mr. and Mrs. Butler Duncan are still in Paris, and may not return until the yachting season opens.” 

On November 22, 1903 William and Jane celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.   The aging couple preferred an understated family dinner.   Nonetheless, the event did not go unnoticed by society and telegrams and letters arrived all day.  Among the “tokens of esteem” received by the couple was “a handsome silver loving cup” from the St. Andrew’s Society engraved with the names of the givers, including Andrew Carnegie, John Sloan, J. Kennedy Tod, John Reid and John S. Kennedy.

The updated interiors featured electric sconces, built in cabinetry, centralized heating (note the cast iron grill), and a closet.  photographer unknown.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GD9966K&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=629

Two years later, on December 11, 1905, Jane Percy Butler Duncan died in the house.  William, now 75 years old, lived on here with Mary and Paul.   His health would eventually be an issue and on February 20, 1908 The Times reported that he had been ill at his home for several days.  “It was learned last night that there had been some misgivings earlier in the week regarding his recovery, but that his condition had materially improved in the last day or so, and that his recovery is considered simply a matter of time.”

Two years later there was excitement in the house as Lord Kitchener headed to New York from London.   Plans had been set for the earl to be the guest of Duncan; but on April 7, 1910, just two days before the Kitchener’s steamer docked, new arrangements had to be made.

“Until midnight on Thursday it had been arranged that Lord Kitchener should be the guest of William Butler Duncan, President of the Pilgrims, at his home, 1 Fifth Avenue, during his stay in this city, but owing to his host having contracted a severe attack of pneumonia, arrangements were made for him at the Plaza instead.”

Duncan’s disappointment may have been somewhat softened two years later.   On January 22, 1912 The Times recalled that in 1868 William Butler Duncan had entertained the 18-year old Prince Arthur of England.  Now the Duke of Connaught, he was headed back to New York and the newspaper said “It was learned yesterday that among the first to welcome the Duke will be W. Butler Duncan of 1 Fifth Avenue, who is now in his eighty-second year.”

In reporting the upcoming visit, The Times mentioned “the old family mansion at 1 Fifth Avenue.”  The house, it said, “is filled with many remembrances of the by-gone days.” 

The following year men with names like Astor, Vanderbilt and Belmont were perhaps taken aback when The Metropolitan Magazine wrote “Since the death of John Bigelow, at the ripe old age of ninety-four, there has been a certain amount of discussion as to the rights of succession to the title of New York’s premier citizen.”  The magazine offered a few candidates for the position, including John Choate, former ambassador to Great Britain.

“But there are still more, including Mr. Choate himself, who insist on ascribing the honor to William Butler Duncan, the senior of the former ambassador to England, by several years, who for half a century has most appropriately made his home at 1 Fifth Avenue—a house renowned through several generations here and abroad, for its kindly hospitality, and where well nigh every distinguished foreigner who has visited New York since ‘befo de wah’ has had the opportunity of stretching his legs beneath that wonderful mahogany table which is one of the features of the establishment.“

The article spoke of a photograph of Queen Alexandra and King Edward sent by the Queen to Duncan.  “The picture occupies the place of honor on Mr. Butler’s writing table in his library at 1 Fifth Avenue, where among other souvenirs, are signed photographs of the Duke of Connaught, of Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, of Lawrence Oliphant, Lord Rosebery and many other well-known people, living and dead.”

Only one month after the article ran, on June 20, 1912, William Butler Duncan died suddenly in the house of pneumonia.  The Sun reminisced while reporting his death “He was at one time president of the New York Whist club and loved to tell of the games that he and Gen. Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican war, played together.

“The library of the Fifth avenue home, filled with rare editions and autographed copies, was perhaps the most interesting of all the rooms in the big house to those visitors whom Mr. Duncan was always fond of entertaining.  Here King Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales, spent many hours during his visit at the Duncan home and here Mr. Duncan received his friends who came in after business was over to talk of the development of the city…Mr. Duncan had the distinction of being the only American member of the Travellers Club of London, one of the most exclusive of clubs.”

In June the following year William Butler Duncan’s $1.25 million estate was publicized.    Along with the furniture, paintings, stocks and other assets (including his pew in Grace Church, valued at $2,500) was the leasehold on No. 1 Fifth Avenue—still owned by the Sailors’ Snug Harbor—assessed at $15,000.  The leasehold was divided equally between his son, Alexander Butler Duncan, and daughter, Mary Butler Dana.

The New York Times noted that “In his will Mr. Duncan directed that all his servants should receive one-twelfth of the entire wages they had received while in his employ.  In the case of two servants this meant about $2,000.”

Mary and Paul Dana lived on in the house to see their own children marry—Janet Percy Dana in 1915, William Butler Duncan Dana in 1916, and Anderson Dana the following year.   On February 16, 1922 Mary Butler Dana died in the house in which she had grown up.   A month later The Times reported that “The will, dated July 6^th last, leaves her residence, 1 Fifth Avenue, including all of its contents to her husband, Paul Dana.”

Within a few months the many mementos and relics of William Butler Duncan were moved out.  The house was leased to Mr. and Mrs. R. Thornton Wilson.  The Wilsons started a new family in the house when their son was born in May the following year.  They lived in the august mansion until the inevitable happened in 1926.

On May 30 The New York Times announced “Four venerable houses in lower Fifth Avenue, within half a block of the Washington Arch entrance to Washington Square, are being town down to make way for another towering apartment hotel.  They are the brownstone residences at 1, 3, 5, and 7, Fifth Avenue, occupying the short block frontage on the east side of that thoroughfare between Washington Mews and Eighth Street.”

The article mentioned the history of No. 1, saying it “is listed in the 1851 city director as ‘Lucy Green’s School’…At one time 1 Fifth Avenue house was the home of Andrew H. Green.  W. Butler Duncan also lived there many years, dying there in 1912.  More recently the house was the home of Paul Dana, who left the locality for the upper east side a few years ago.”

photograph http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GV/GV003OneFifthAve.htm

The massive Art Deco skyscraper apartment building that replaced it still stands, dwarfing the Washington Square mansions half a block away that escaped progress.