The building was definitely built, however, and was supported by Association members Frederick B. Lord and George C. Rand. Lamb & Rich completed a school for Rand in 1891 that might be Lawrence Hall.

[Manufacturing jeweler "Ned Banford"] said his own capital was very small and a wealthy friend, a Mr. Viedler, was backing him, and at that time had ten thousand dollars in his business. He enlarged on the liberality of this friend, saying, amongst other things, that when he went to him for money he never asked anything further than, “How much do you want, Ned”? and then writing a cheque would hand it to him.

He also told me that his business was very profitable and the only disadvantage he labored under was Mr. Viedler’s frequent absence. . . .

It was with our New York friends that most of our social life was passed. The circle there had been enlarged by the addition of many pleasant people, although the close intimacy still rested where it had started, with, however, the addition of Mr. and Mrs. William Viedler.

Mr. Viedler, a multi-millionaire at that time, has since largely increased his fortune and is now the controlling interest in a prominent trust of comparatively recent formation. They had been Brooklynites but bought a fine house on Fifth Avenue. We first met them on the occasion of a dinner given in their honor by Mr. and Mrs. Curtice, to welcome them to New York. Mr. Curtice is a nephew of Mrs. Viedler. . . . [The inner circle] comprised Mr. and Mrs. Curtice, Mr. and Mrs. Todd, Mr. and Mrs. Banford, Mr. and Mrs Viedler, and ourselves Curtice was our poet laureate[.]

Russell, 157-161.

It seems likely that:

• “Viedler” is George Frederick Vietor (1839-1910);
• his wife, the former Miss “Curtice,” is Anna Margaretha (Achelis) Veitor (1847-1927); and
• her “nephew” “Will Curtice” is actually her brother Fritz Achelis, with his wife Bertha.
  • Anna Vietor’s real nephew was Frederic George Achelis, who married Helen Bruff Achelis, but he was a child in the early 1890s when the book’s events are taking place.

It is not clear who “Ned Banford” was.

The building seems to have burned several years after Taylor sold it. The current Pine Tree Point is a relatively recent replacement.

Version 6.3 of the list (pdf) has been posted. It contains a few changes and corrections.

The house was put up for sale in 2009, and there is a video showing a few interiors:

The house was apparently owned for some time by Mary Harrison McKee, daughter of former president Benjamin Harrison.

Other new identifications will be posted this week. Updates on the Butler Manor situation will be posted as information comes in.

The firm’s records describe one 1897 project simply as “Brighton Pier.” This is now being interpreted to refer not to a pier in Brighton but to a project for the Brighton Pier & Navigation Co., the ferry operator and builder of the 1880s New Iron Pier at Coney Island.

It is speculated that George Tangeman’s 1900 commission likely refers to the completion or modification of Dr. Cornelius N. Hoagland’s house on Fresh Pond Avenue, Glen Cove (1896, C.P.H. Gilbert).

Information is being sought regarding Brooklyn sugar baron William Dick and his 1880s house at Islip, “Allen Winden.”

It seems possible that Roosevelt heard about the firm through a neighbor. One wonders whether there is a Long Island historian who knows Mr. Vandewirt’s true identity…

——————
[1] “Summary of the Week,” The American Architect and Building News 11:338 (17 June 1882), 289.

The mystery man deserves his own book. He is probably more interesting to historians of modern architecture and Victorian America than either Hugh Lamb or Charles Rich.

Wheeler grew up in Danbury and moved to Newark in the 1870s. The best obituary claims that he studied under the great William Halsey Wood, which is possible, although the two were about the same age. Wheeler joined up with Lamb around 1877 and went solo in 1881. In 1883 he began a wide-spread series of mostly Flemo-Moorish buildings from offices (most successive, some concurrent) in New York; Atlanta; Decatur, Alabama; Memphis; allegedly Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis.

There is some confusion out there regarding Wheeler’s firms in St. Louis. He was the “Wheeler” in Wheeler & McClure of that city. Partner Craig McClure’s previous firm was Fuller & Wheeler of Albany, which was founded by William Arthur Wheeler and has no connection to the peripatetic Lorenzo.

Wheeler is credited with bringing the practice of interior design, if not Taste itself, to the city of Atlanta. He died at his brother’s house in Danbury in 1899.

Other new information:

• The First National Bank of Sheffield, Alabama and other Wheeler projects.
• A 1921 addition to the New Woodruff Hotel in Watertown, N.Y.
• Houses of 1890 and 1908 for Elmer T. Butler on Staten Island. Thanks to those working to preserve the surviving second house, now the Staten Island Montessori School, for generously sharing information about this historic mansion.
• A grand 1893 mansion (summer cottage) for Harley T. Procter, of Procter & Gamble, in Williamstown, Mass. This one was solved thanks to the detective work of the readers of Ephblog.
• George Koyl’s design for the Woman’s Club of Ridgewood.

It turns out that the Internet Archive is hosting scanned and searchable copies of the Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide from 1879 to 1922, each reporting new buildings, alterations, purchases, mortgages, and other transactions in detail. Searching for this journal returns a list of volumes available in pdf and other formats. The one unnumbered volume is 73 (1904), and volumes 26, 28, 30, 38, and 46 appear to be unavailable. Of those, volume 28 (second half of 1881) is available from Google Books.

[Update 12.31.2009: This information reposted from Dartmo.com.]

[Update 05.31.2010: A favorite way to search for specific individual or address is by using Columbia's copies of the Record & Guide. Type this into Google to learn about 101 West 97th:

"97th st., no. 101" "real estate record" site:www.columbia.edu

The address takes some fiddling to account for boundary-based descriptions and OCR misspellings:

97th st., s s

should narrow things down. Also try

97th street, no. 101

and

101 west 97th

Google ignores the punctuation and line breaks. Most programs' "find" commands do not ignore these features, so searching the Record & Guide via Google will turn up information that would be miss in a search of only the text files or the pdf downloads.]