82-88 Horatio St: Dignified tenements where murderers struck twice
- Architect Theophilus G. Smith did not add excessive embellishments common to tenements
- The buildings saw multiple acts of violence, including murder of a resident in 1901 and in 1956
The buildings were 18 and 25 feet wide and cost $8,000 and $9,000, respectively, to build. In today’s dollars, that would be $292,000 and $260,000.
Have you ever passed by an interesting residential building in New York City and wanted to know more about its history? In this series, Brick Underground teams up with Tom Miller, creator of Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog about Manhattan buildings and other historic architecture. Each week, we will run an excerpt from the Daytonian’s archives with a link to the full article.
In 1878, developer John H. Selzam hired architect Theophilus G. Smith to design four flat buildings at 82-88 Horatio St. These would be home to working-class families, many of whom newly arrived in America. But unlike tenement buildings that would be built in Greenwich Village and the East Side, Smith did not embellish these buildings with grotesque masks, shields, and other over-the-top ornaments. Instead, he created a dignified marriage of Anglo-Italianate and Renaissance Revival styles.
The buildings were 18 and 25 feet wide and cost $8,000 and $9,000, respectively, to build. In today’s dollars, that would be $292,000 and $260,000.
Rounded arched windows and elliptically arched entrances distinguished the first floor, which sat a few steps above the sidewalk. Above a molded band course, the upper four floors were faced in orange-red brick and trimmed in brownstone.
A famous resident was fledgling playwright and actor Clifford Odets, who rented an apartment in 1933.
In its early decades, the building saw multiple acts of violence, including two murders of residents: In 1901, Madeline Nagel was shot by her husband Bernard, a lithographer with the Federal Lithographing Company at nearby 91-97 Horatio St., after the two got into a heated argument.
And in 1956, 26-year-old Pleiades Fieldgrove was found by the building superintendent stabbed to death in a courtyard behind the building. The Staten Island Advance added that her violent death came "apparently at the hands of a rapist."
Other than addition of stucco on the first floor and fire escapes, 82-88 Horatio St. survive remarkably intact. Theophilus G. Smith's handsome design is exceptionally refined for tenement buildings of the time.
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