Harriet Hubbard Ayer, 317-323 E. 34th St. near 2nd Ave. (2003)

Harriet Hubbard Ayer (1849-1903) was born in Chicago, Ill., married at the age of 16, lived the life of a wealthy society matron until 1882, then separated from (and eventually divorced) her husband, and became a business woman. She manufactured a facial cream called Recamier Cream, named for the famous French beauty, Madame Juliette Récamier (1777-1844).

Click here for 1886 ad for Recamier Cream. This ad borrows freely from the portrait of Mme Récamier painted by François Gérard in 1805 (Musée Carnavalet).

Thomas William Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century of 1898 states: "The Recamier Company, of which [Mrs. Ayer] is the president and chief owner, now occupies a five-story building in New York city, and employs nearly a hundred people."

Actually, in 1893 Harriet Hubbard Ayer lost control of her company when her daughter and ex-husband had her committed to a mental asylum. Although she was released a year later, her career in the cosmetics industry ended at that time, and she then became a journalist, writing a column on beauty advice for the New York World.

And the building above is not the one referred to by Herringshaw, but the site of Harriet Hubbard Ayer Inc., Vincent B. Thomas president, which was formed after 1903 and moved here in 1911. It was Vincent B. Thomas who won the right to Harriet Hubbard Ayer's signature which he registered as a trademark stating first use in commerce as 1907. On Vincent Thomas' death around 1920, his wife Lillian Sefton Thomas took over the company. By 1925 she had remarried and continued to run Harriet Hubbard Ayer Inc. as Mrs. Lillian Sefton Dodge. Her husband, Robert Leftwich Dodge, served as Art Director of the firm.

The Dodges appear in the 1930 US Census as Lillian S. Dodge, age 50, President, Cosmetic Co. and Robert L. Dodge, age 56, Art Director, Cosmetic Co. They lived on Frost Mill Road, Oyster Bay, Nassau County with Mrs. Dodge's daughter, Mary Sefton Thomas, age 17. The household included 10 servants, consisting of Butler, 2nd Man, Parlor Maid, Cook, Kitchen Maid, 2 Chamber Maids, Houseman, and 2 Laundresses.

In 1949 the house on Frost Mill Road, called "Sefton Manor," was sold by Mrs. Dodge to the Lutheran Friends of the Deaf. The purchase included the 34-room stone residence (of Tudor Gothic architecture) and 73 acres of woodland, open fields, an orchard and formal landscaping. (New York Times, Nov. 21, 1949, p. 21.)

Harriet Hubbard Ayer Inc. continued to maintain offices here on East 34th St. until around 1950.

Also visible on this wall are signs for C. P. Goerz American Optical Co., a manufacturer of photographic optical lenses, and E. J. Audi, furniture-rugs.

C. P. Goerz American Optical Co. (like Harriet Hubbard Ayer) moved to 317 E. 34th St. around 1911. Carl Paul Goerz (1854-1923), the founder, is famous in the annals of photography as the inventor of several revolutionary precision optical instruments, including the Anschutz folding press camera, the first camera with a self-contained (focal plane) shutter capable of speeds as short as 1/1000 sec. Born in Brandenburg, Germany, Goerz started in Berlin in 1886, opened a photographic workshop in 1888, a factory for grinding lenses in Winterstein, Thuringia in 1895, and a larger factory in Friedenau in 1898. Goerz died in 1923, and in 1926 the firm Optische Anstalt C. P. Goerz AG, Berlin, was taken over by Zeiss IKON AG.

The original branch for Goerz lenses in New York was opened at 52 Union Square Place (later called Union Square East) around 1895 and managed originally by William Goerz and later by Otto C. Goerz. In 1901 C. P. Goerz Optical Works opened a factory at 79 E. 130th St. in Harlem which remained there until around 1911 when both offices and factory were moved to the East 34th St. location above. By this time the firm was called C. P. Goerz American Optical Co. and seems to have become independent of Goerz (Berlin). In any case Goerz America survived its German progenitor by many years. The Goerz name was trademarked by C. P. Goerz American Optical Co. at 461 Doughty Blvd., Inwood, N.Y. in 1964. Goerz American Optical was purchased by Schneider Optics of America in 1972.

Goerz was located in this building until the mid-1950s. Two photographs by Percy Loomis Sperr (1890-1964) on the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery seem to date the Goerz sign to around 1940. The first photo is dated 1939 and shows clear Harriet Hubbard Ayer and Eugenics Publishing signs, but the Goerz sign is faint and hard to read. The second photo is dated 1941 and gives a glimpse of a bright and shiney Goerz sign. So it would have been re-painted around 1940.

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The founder of E. J. Audi was Elias J. Audi (1894-1968) an immigrant from Lebanon in 1912. A graduate of Cornell University (1917), he started his career with the Fuller Brush Co., then founded his own company in 1928, dealing in wholesale rugs and furniture. The business moved to 317 E. 34th St. in 1958 and stayed until around 1995. In 1974 E. J. Audi's son, Alfred J. Audi, bought the L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture Co. of Syracuse, NY. The New York showroom of Stickley, Audi & Co is currently (March 2004) located at 160 5th Ave. near 21st St. Click here for flag.

A clear view of this wall in 1942 can be seen on the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery. This is a photo by Percy Loomis Sperr (1890-1964). It shows Harriet Hubbard Ayer at the top, then a sign for Eugenics Publishing Company, and then C. P. Goerz American Optical Co. The sign beneath Goerz seems to say The Precision Machine Co. Inc. There is also a Lofts for Rent sign for Carstens Linnekin and Wilson 221 4th Ave. ALgonquin 4-7780. For more on Carstens & Linnekin see 347 5th Ave.

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