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James A. and Ruth M. Bailey House
10 St. Nicholas Place
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James A. and Ruth M. Bailey House
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10 Nicholas Place at the corner of West 150th Street, as seen from St, Nicholas Avenue, 1935. Designed by Samuel Burrage Reed for famed circus producer James Bailey, the Romanesque Revival style mansion was completed in 1888. The stately home, despite being surrounded by apartment houses today and for much of the 20th century, was constructed in a still rural area. Impressive from both facades visible on the large corner plot, the house features a three-story corner tower at St. Nicolas Place and 150th Street and three smaller turrets at the other corners of the home. Supposedly the home was filled with trophies, animal skins, and other curios and artifacts from Bailey's circus travels. It also featured a number of pictorial stained glass mosaic windows. The house was so admired that Chester Wickwire got permission to build a mirror image replica in Courtland, New York . In the 1940s the home was owned by Dr. Franz Koempel, a doctor and pioneering X-ray specialist. When his widow put the house up for sale in the early 1950s, it was purchased by a local African American woman who had always admired it. The asking price: $86,000 (only $6k more than it had cost to build in 1888). She ran a funeral home on the first floor during the second half of the 20th century. In recent years it has seen a large-scale renovation. Along with its neighbors (no. 14-16 is pair of attached houses designed to look like one massive mansion), no. 10 stands newly restored, with a gleaming light colored stone facade, at a high point of the surrounding Sugar Hill neighborhood.
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James A. and Ruth M. Bailey House
James A. and Ruth M. Bailey House
Manhattan: St. Nicholas Avenue - Fort George Avenue St. Nicholas Place, east side, north across W. 150th Street. At the right is the 6-story Audubon Court Apartments. Adjoining same are the several buildings that house the Community Hospital in New York City. These are at the S. E. corner of 150th Street. Across the street at the N. E. corner is the reputed Ringling mansion. One, J. A. Bailey owned same in 1904. This individual may have been one of the famous circus owners, Barnum and Bailey, the predecessors to the present Ringling Brothers. H. Acker is the owner in 1910, Louis Schaefer in 1918 and a Bertha Koemple in 1959. Adjoining this is the minaretted A. Alexander home. View 2 shows only the structures at the N. E. corner. The triangular park that separates St. Nicholas Place from the Avenue of the same name, is Donnelson Square. May 19, 1940 April 19, 1940 P. L. Snerr No. 3 The Community Hospital and it's adjoining buildings as photographed across the aforementioned Donnelson Square. June 5, 1940 P. L. Sperr
James A. and Ruth M. Bailey House
Manhattan: St. Nicholas Place - 150th Street (West) (1) 10-14-16 St. Nicholas Place, at, adjoining and north of the N.E. corner of West 150th Street, as seen from St, Nicholas Ave., (western side of Donnelson Square). September 1, 1935. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, from a different angle. September 1, 1935. P. L. Sperr.
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