The only chance of even a temporary reprieve lies with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The house seems especially notable because it was a direct replacement for an 1890 frame building — same site, same client, same architects — that had been consumed by fire. The new building was built of tile, stucco, and probably other modern materials in an effort to make it fireproof.

Google’s aerial shows the L-shaped house, its remaining outbuildings, and encroaching development:

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…

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[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.

The most interesting new entry is the Holland Building (1896, Wheeler & McClure), a notable early St. Louis skyscraper by Lorenzo B. Wheeler and Albany/St. Louis architect Craig McClure.

Another notable project is Hugh Lamb’s pair of apartment houses at 306-312 West 97th Street (1900). These large buildings are on the 2009 wish list (West End Avenue Study Area) of the Committee to Preserve the Upper West Side.