The 1889 Henry and Felicia Ressmeyer House at 348 West 122nd St: A Harlem brownstone changes with the times
- The construction cost of the three-story 16-foot-wide brownstone was $11,000
- By the mid-1920s private homes in Harlem were converted to rooming houses
The neo-Grec design of 348 West 122nd St. included beefy cast iron stoop newels and balustraded railings.
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 run an excerpt from the Daytonian’s archives with a link to the full article.
J. A. Webster designed 11 brownstones along the north side of West 122nd Street between Morningside and Manhattan avenues for developers Joseph W. and A. Alonzo Teets in 1888. Upon their completion in 1889, the brothers brought Webster back to design 10 houses on the opposite side of the street.
The construction cost of the three-story, 16-foot-wide houses was $11,000 each, or about $397,000 in 2026. The neo-Grec design of 348 West 122nd St. included beefy cast iron stoop newels and balustraded railings. Echoing the entrance, the windows sat within architraves decorated with incised fluting on the lower portion and stylized flowers above. The brackets of the parlor window cornice mimicked those of the entranceway.
The Teets originally rented the house, with the leases of some occupants being cut short by their demise. Barbara Rimick was one of 75 New Yorkers who succumbed to a brutal late season heat wave on November 24th, 1891. She was 73 years old. On August 18th, 1899, resident Margaret Johnson died in the house at the age of 43.
Shortly afterward, the house was purchased by Fannie Mayer, the widow of Robert Mayer. Living here with her and her unmarried daughters, Fanny, Annie, and Caroline, was at least one maid. Fannie would live here only a matter of weeks. She died "after a lingering illness," as reported by the New York Herald, on April 11th, 1900. She was 61 years old.
Caroline Mayer sold 348 West 122nd Street in August 1910 to Henry Frederick Ressmeyer, president of the Lutheran Education Society, and his wife, Felicitas. They had three children, Felicia C., Rudolph S., and Gertrude Henrietta.
By the mid-1920s, the Harlem neighborhood was changing. Private homes were being converted to rooming houses. The house was sold to Jeanette Glassman in February 1928 for $20,000 (about $321,000 today).
Jeanette Glassman resold the house to Louise Chaudruc three months later. The new owner rented rooms to tenants.
Although never officially converted to apartments, there are eight rental units in the former Ressmeyer house. From the outside, it survives remarkably intact.
For more on the property and the interesting people that lived here, check out the full article.
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