The Manchester House, 145 West 79th Street

by Tom Miller

On December 6, 1927, the New York Sun reported that Harry A. Hyman “took title yesterday to three four-story buildings 141 to 145 West Seventy-ninth street.”  Among those vintage houses was the home of Daniel Frohman, famous theater producer.  The Frohman family had lived there since 1884.  Hyman had recently formed the 145 West Seventy-Ninth Street Corporation, of which he was president.  The article noted, “The purchaser is to demolish the buildings at once and improve the property with a sixteen-story and penthouse apartment building.”

Hyman had already commissioned apartment house architect Emery Roth to design the building.  Roth’s romantic, 1920s blend of Renaissance and medieval architecture included pointed Gothic arches, heraldic carvings, and a brown brick façade peppered with various-sized stone blocks to give the illusion of age.  In an early example of developers’ egoism that would climax with names like Helmsley and Trump being emblazoned on buildings throughout the city, Hyman had Roth include his monogram—H-A-H—on terra cotta shields on the third floor.  Completed in September 1928, the Manchester House had “suites of one, two, three and four rooms,” according to The Sun, which added, “the three and four rooms have dining alcoves.”

Roth’s romantic, 1920s blend of Renaissance and medieval architecture included pointed Gothic arches, heraldic carvings, and a brown brick façade peppered with various-sized stone blocks to give the illusion of age.

Pianist Paulo Gallico was among the initial residents.  Described by The Musical Monitor as “an accomplished pianist and versatile composer,” his oratorio The Apocalypse premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1922 to high acclaim.  His apartment doubled as his studio for teaching piano.  Gallico’s son, Paul, Jr. would go on to achieve fame as an author.

Other early residents were the Abraham Wolf family.  It appears that the Wolfs were opposed to a romance that formed between their daughter Miriam and Edwin Freed.  If so, their objections failed.  On May 7, 1930, The Talking Machine & Radio Weekly reported, “the secret marriage last December of Edwin Freed, younger brother of Joseph D. R., Leo and Arthur Freed, well known radio manufacturers, to Miss Miriam Wolf…was announced last week.”

Living here at the time was Clarence D. Costello, his wife, and his sister-in-law, Essie Kerns, who was a widow.  Essie, who was about 40 years old, was deeply tormented in the winter of 1930.  On the afternoon of December 1, 16-year-old Daniel Anderson was walking along the Coney Island boardwalk when he saw Essie wade into the icy surf.  The Standard Union reported, “Without taking time to divest himself of his clothing,” he plunged into the ocean after her.  “Screaming, ‘Let me die!’ she fought his efforts at rescue,” said the article.  The teen was able to overpower her, and as he was pulling her in, a deli operator waded in to help.  They carried her to a store in the Half Moon Hotel.  There, other than admitting her name, Essie refused to tell the police anything about herself or her reason for attempting suicide.  “She was taken to Kings County Hospital for observation,” concluded the article.

An erudite resident was Walter Beardslee Wildman, who taught Latin at the private Trinity School.  An 1898 graduate of Trinity College, he and his wife Bessie F. Wildman, had a teenaged son, Walter Jr., born in 1915.  Following Wildman’s death, Bessie and Walter remained in the Manchester House apartment.  Like his father, Walter Jr. attended Trinity College and then New York University’s College of Medicine.  The 35-year-old anesthesiologist was still living with his mother here when he became engaged to Patricia Ann Grayson in September 1950.

“Without taking time to divest himself of his clothing,” he plunged into the ocean after her.

A top-floor apartment became home to songwriter and singer Laura Nyro in the late 1960s.  While living here, she wrote hit songs like “Blowing Away,” “Wedding Bell Blues, “Stoned Soul Picnic,” and “Eli’s Coming.”  A consistent visitor to the apartment was her agent, David Geffen. 

In her 2002 Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro, author Michael Kort describes Nyro’s apartment saying,

A step up in class from her Eighth Avenue place, the apartment was still quite small, essentially one room with a foldout bed, a tiny kitchen, and a piano facing a wall on which she’d placed a heart-shaped mirror.  However, it opened onto a huge terrace, with a large black water tower to one side.

After nearly a century, Emery Roth’s Manchester House is nearly unchanged.  Its picturesque lower façade still charms the passerbys who pause to appreciate it.

Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com