John D. Crimmins House

40 East 68th Street | Upper East Side | built 1910

Open on the map7 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1878

    John D. Crimmins buys No. 40 East 68th Street and hires William Schickel

    In 1878 the contractor John Daniel Crimmins bought No. 40 East 68th Street from George W. Pettit, a music teacher whose modest home stood on the lot. Crimmins, who had taken over his father's contracting business in 1873 and whose company built the Croton Aqueduct and most of the elevated railroads, commissioned the architect William Schickel, born in Germany, to design a more stylish brownstone in its place.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1897

    Crimmins buys the house next door and Schickel & Ditmars join the two into a Beaux Arts mansion

    As his ten children grew, John D. Crimmins bought the neighboring Hildburg house in 1897 and asked William Schickel, now partnered with Isaac E. Ditmars, to combine the two homes. Finished a year later, the job replaced two plain brownstones with a four-story white stone Beaux Arts facade with a mansard level and a two-story bay, standing out from its brown neighbors.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1902

    Crimmins's secretary confesses to stealing rare books from his library

    In spring 1902 John D. Crimmins noticed that valuable volumes from his library were missing, among them a unique 1627 copy of Smith's History of Virginia. He went to the rare book shops of Fifth Avenue, asked casually for the book and found his own copy. His 30-year-old secretary, Edward Kearney, one of only two people besides Crimmins who knew the combination to the basement vault, confessed to the robberies.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1907

    April 3

    Constance Crimmins marries Frederick Robbins Childs at home

    On April 3, 1907, the Crimmins house hosted a wedding: Constance Crimmins married Frederick Robbins Childs. Monsignor Lavelle, the pro-rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, performed the ceremony. The house was rarely the scene of grand social events, and a second Crimmins wedding followed there ten years later, on April 14, 1917, when Evelyn Crimmins married Arthur Cox Patterson.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1917

    November 9

    John D. Crimmins dies at home and thousands line the route of his funeral

    John D. Crimmins contracted pneumonia and died in the house on November 9, 1917, with seven of his ten children at his bedside; the other three, all Army lieutenants, were overseas. On November 12 his casket was carried from the house to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where mourners filled the aisles. The Sun reported that thousands stood with bared heads along the way.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1918

    March

    The Crimmins family sells the house for $350,000 and takes the Rossin house in part payment

    On March 26, 1918, The Sun reported that the Crimmins family would move to a small house at 15 East 62nd Street. Their 68th Street home sold for $350,000, partly paid for with Alfred S. Rossin's own house, which was valued at $97,000. Rossin, a partner in a tobacco firm, moved in with his wife Clara, a daughter of Adolph Lewisohn, and their five children.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1927

    December 17

    Clara Rossin, host of modern-music musicales, dies at home after a walk

    Clara Rossin hosted monthly musicales in the music room of 40 East 68th Street, where new works by composers such as Bartok and Ravel were often heard early. She had commissioned the artist Clagett Wilson to paint murals there. On December 17, 1927, aged 47, she fell ill on her afternoon walk and took a taxi home. She was put on a sofa in the parlor and died of a heart attack before the family physician arrived.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 93 buildings with stories in Upper East Side