Rediscover the UWS's Main Street! |
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"West Seventy Today" introduces you to your business neighbors along West 72nd Street, from Central Park to Riverside Park in weekly installments.
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Meet your neighbors, NOW:
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by Claudie Benjamin
Marjolaine is a particularly popular cake at My Most Favorite Food, a Kosher bakery, restaurant, and catering business. This multi-layered meringue showstopper has a number of features that distinguish it from the typical creations at other bakeries. “It’s a delicious suitable-for-Passover choice. People stop me on the street and ask, ‘Is this cake really OK for Passover?’” says Doris Schechter, owner of this business located 247 West 72nd Street. The Marjolaine also passes scrutiny among dessert lovers who are lactose intolerant or have gluten-free diets. Inclusiveness, making food that all can enjoy is an overall theme Doris emphasizes.
Doris Schechter owned similar businesses in Long Island, the Upper East Side and mid-town before bringing the bakery/restaurant to West 72nd Street 12 years ago. The sweetness of her bakery creations like plain, marble and chocolate chip cheesecakes and a luscious chocolate mousse ribbon cakes may hint at European origins. But, these confections give no clue about the formative traumas she experienced as a child fleeing Vienna with her family and then sheltered by residents of Guardiagrele, a beautiful small, Italian town in the Abruzzo region.
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The family was then among the nearly 1,000 mostly Jewish refugees who came to the US aboard USNS Henry Gibbins. At the time, they believed they would have to return after the war was over. The group sequestered for almost two years at Fort Ontario used as a camp for displaced people in Oswego NY. During this period Doris’ father died. Her mother brought Doris and her younger sister to New York City where they had relatives.
Doris completed school, attended FIT and at 18, married fellow student Marvin Schechter. Within the next few years, the couple had five children. They lived in Kings Point, Nassau County. “I had the American Dream,” says Doris, but she wanted more – a profession. Having experienced enormous turmoil as a young child, personal stability mattered deeply. “I was worried about what I would do if I ever got divorced or my husband died.” Her love for baking provided the answer. She opened a small bakery in Great Neck that gained a great reputation for baking from scratch. That success led to moving the business to the Upper East Side’s Madison Avenue near 86th street. Expanding the Viennese-style café into a restaurant, Doris moved to a mid-town location after 15 years. She stayed there for 12 years and the moved again to West 72nd Street. KEEP READING
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Twin Homes at 247-249 West 72nd Street |
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by Tom Miller
The avenue-wide West 72nd Street experienced an explosion of development as the 1880’s drew to an end. In 1888, 60 upscale homes had already been erected on the street and more than 100 building lots were waiting their turn. Speculators worked with architects like Clarence Fagan True and Charles T. Mott who transformed the Upper West Side, drawing inspiration from a variety of historical styles.
In 1892 four rowhouses appeared at numbers 247 to 253 West 72nd Street. Designed by architects Charles A. Rich and Hugh Lamb for developer J. R. Stimpson, they were designed as two pairs of mirror-image mansions. 247 and 249 were overall Romanesque Revival in style, but were splashed with other elements—like the stepped Flemish gables and party wall that rose above the roofline.
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Clad in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, the fanciful facades featured rounded bays crowned by carved balustrades and grouped, arched openings at the uppermost floors that simulated arcades. Tall stoops rose from the sidewalk to the entrances.
On April 29, 1893 the completed house at 247 West 72nd Street was purchased from Herman Wronkow. Interestingly, on October 30 his estate sold it to Hugh Lamb for $90,000—about $2.6 million today.
Next door at 249 West 72nd Street lived Albert Abernethy Cowles and his wife. By December, Mrs. Cowles was ready for guests. On December 12, 1893, The New York Times reported “Cards for Thursdays in January and February have been issued by Mrs. Alfred Abernethy Cowles of 249 West Seventy-second Street.”
The 48-year old Cowles held a dizzying number of positions. KEEP READING
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72 Crosstown highlights the architectural and social histories of the buildings along West 72nd Street.
We are working on your suggestions -- if you have a building you'd like us to prioritize, or a business you think we should feature, let us know!
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See you on West 72nd Street again, next FRIDAY! |
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LANDMARK WEST!
45 West 67th Street NY NY 10023
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