Monday, December 8, 2025 – SOMETIMES BUILDINGS ARE JUST LEFT BETWEE NEW STRUCTURES

By admin

This Tucked-away

Holdout House in East Midtown

was Built 3 Years

Afer the End of the Civil War

Ephemeral New York

MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2025

ISSUE #1588

All around it are structures you expect to see in the contemporary office enclave west of Lexington Avenue known as East Midtown—imposing facades, lots of glass, buildings that try to make a statement.

When it was completed in 1868, this lovely little survivor was not designed to stand out. It may have been built as an outlier, but it was likely part of a row of identical houses meant to appeal to upper middle class buyers enriched by the city’s gangbusters post-Civil War economy.

The architect, James W. Pirsson (who co-designed the city’s first co-op apartment building on West 57th Street in 1881), created a row of eight Italianate houses with brownstone fronts starting at 113 East 55th Street, according to Andrew S. Dolkart, historic preservationist and author of Central Synagogue in Its Changing Neighborhood.

It’s likely Number 119 was part of that row, which was constructed for a speculative developer. Who would have been the first buyer?

The rapidly developing neighborhood east of Park Avenue attracted business owners and other professionals with large families and several servants, states Dolkart. “Many of the residents were born in Germany, some undoubtably Jewish, reflecting the success of the German immigrant community in New York,” he wrote.

That professional likely commuted to a downtown shop or office via a horse-drawn streetcar, as elevated trains wouldn’t run this far away from the city center until the 1880s.

If they were German Jews, they may have joined the congregation at Central Synagogue, the spectacular Moorish synagogue opened in 1872 around the corner on Lexington Avenue.

With the arrival of mass transit, changes came to East 55th Street. Elite residential areas moved north of 59th Street and commerce came in. Some single-family brownstones were carved into multi-family apartments; others became boarding houses.

Architectural styles changed as well. Assuming it was part of the original row, Number 119 lost its brownstone front and stoop. Are the Greek urns on the window lintels original or a new feature to give the house a Classical edge? The research is scant.

Newspaper archives reveal the names of owners in the 20th century. In 1905, the house was bought by an Abraham Schwab, per the New York Herald.

Mrs. C. Russell Auchincloss resided there with her three children in 1910; she surprised a thief who broke into her bedroom one night to steal her jewelry (he made off with many pieces).

Real estate titan Charles F. Noyes occupied (or at least owned) the house in the 1930s through the 1950s or 1960s. Probably before Noyes moved in, some part of the former home served as the Tree Club, a Prohibition-era speakeasy on a stretch of the city known for its many secret drinking spots.

By the 1940s, 119 East 55th Street looked almost identical to the way it appears today. But it’s still on a townhouse row, flanked on the right by the other survivors of this post-Civil War row.

At some point after the 1940s, the other row houses began to go down. Someone moved the front door at Number 119 to the middle of the ground floor between the windows; the house also gained its rooftop sunroom addition.

Now it’s the last house standing. The story of how it managed to survive in a neighborhood known for its wrecking balls isn’t clear.

But it’s not going down yet. In fact, it’s actually for sale. With an ultra-modern interior (see photos here) its original occupants probably couldn’t even imagine, this historic holdout from New York’s early Gilded Age can be yours for a cool $14 million.

MORE IMAGES TOMORROW…

SHAYLA,ARIEL AND MAGGIE  JOINED JUDY BERDY CELEBRATING OUR HOLIDAY WINDOWS.  THE LADIES VOLUNTEERED TO DO A GRAND JOB DECORATING THE RIVERCROSS WINDOWS!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

TODAY IS THE DAY FOR 
MONDAY COMMUTE 
ON THE M TRAIN

MYSTERY PHOTO

TARGET STORE ON 70 STREET AND THIRD AVENUE
BUILDING WAS FORMER NYC FBI HEADQUARTERS
IMAGINE WHAT WAS STORED IN THESE  VAULTS!

CREDITS

EPHEMERAL NEW YORK

[Fifth image: MCNY; 45.129.36; sixth image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services]

Tags: 119 East 55th Street, 1860s Rowhouse on East 55th Street, East 55th Street Row Houses Brownstones, Holdout Buildings from the Civil War in NYC, Holdout rowhouse 119 East 55th Street, New York’s Holdout Brownstones Midtown, Speakeasy Tree Club 119 East 55th Street
Posted in Bars and restaurants, Houses of worship, Midtown

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

Copyright © 2025 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com