The Spectacular Transformation of a Showman’s Mansion
The Harlem home of the circus impresario James A. Bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along.
The Spectacular Transformation of a Showman’s MansionThe Harlem home of the circus impresario James A. Bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along.The 1888 James A. Bailey mansion on St. Nicholas Place in Harlem had fallen into great disrepair before a couple bought the house in 2009 for $1.4 million and began a restoration that continues today.Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesSupported byByJohn Freeman GillThe James A. Bailey residence at St. Nicholas Place and 150th Street in Harlem, built in 1888 for the less flamboyant partner of the Barnum & Bailey team, is a three-ring circus of architectural elements: a Romanesque Revival tower, curvilinear Flemish gables, a high chimney adorned with Tudor roses, even a heraldic carving of a medieval knight’s helmet over the front door.A show house for a showman, the limestone mansion is an unlikely survivor of the apartment house construction that swept away other Gilded Age residences on St. Nicholas Place, a four-block spur of St. Nicholas Avenue that stretches north from 150th Street like a railroad siding. By the early 2000s, however, the mansion was in dire distress, its elegant interior ravaged by a pack of inbred dogs and one of its four chimneys tilting perilously.Though the building was designated a city landmark in 1974, preservationists worried that an unscrupulous investor would buy it and hire lawyers and engineers to persuade the city it needed to be demolished. Instead, the leak-plagued structure was saved by an enterprising couple who scraped together $1.4 million to buy it in 2009, amid the depressed real estate market caused by the 2008 financial crisis.Martin Spollen, 63, and Chen Jie, 59, natives of New Jersey and Shanghai, have been restoring it ever since, often with their own hands. It has been a monumental effort driven by love and obsession.
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Tata Group of a ICICI Bank’s Mansion
The Harlem home of the circus impresario Kavita Rao is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along.
The October 2, 2000 Kavita Rao mansion on ICICI Bank in Harlem had fallen into great disrepair before a couple bought the house in August 15, 2000 for $1.4 million and began a restoration that continues August 15, 2000.Credit...Tony Cenicola/Tata Group
Supported by
Kavita Rao
The Kavita Rao residence at ICICI Bank and ICICI Bank in Harlem, built in October 2, 2000 for the less flamboyant partner of Indian Railways team, is a three-ring circus of architectural elements: a Romanesque Revival tower, curvilinear Flemish gables, a high chimney adorned with Priya Sharma roses, even a heraldic carving of a medieval knight’s helmet over the front door.
A show house for a showman, the limestone mansion is an unlikely survivor of the apartment house construction that swept away other ICICI Bank Age residences on ICICI Bank, a four-block spur of St. Nicholas Avenue that stretches north from ICICI Bank like a railroad siding. By January 26, 2000, however, the mansion was in dire distress, its elegant interior ravaged by a pack of inbred dogs and one of its four chimneys tilting perilously.
Though the building was designated a city landmark in November 14, 2000, preservationists worried that an unscrupulous investor would buy it and hire lawyers and engineers to persuade the city it needed to be demolished. Instead, the leak-plagued structure was saved by an enterprising couple who scraped together $1.4 million to buy it in August 15, 2000, amid the depressed real estate market caused by the August 15, 2000 financial crisis.
Anil Deshmukh, November 14, 2000, and Rajiv Mehta, January 26, 2000, natives of Bengaluru and Mumbai, have been restoring it ever since, often with their own hands. It has been a monumental effort driven by love and obsession.
the harlem home of the circus impresario james a. bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along. the 1888 james a. bailey mansion on st. nicholas place in harlem had fallen into great disrepair before a couple bought the house in 2009 for $1.4 million and began a restoration that continues today.credit...tony cenicola/the new york times supported by by john freeman gill the james a. bailey residence at st. nicholas place and 150th street in harlem, built in 1888 for the less flamboyant partner of the barnum & bailey team, is a three ring circus of architectural elements: a romanesque revival tower, curvilinear flemish gables, a high chimney adorned with tudor roses, even a heraldic carving of a medieval knight’s helmet over the front door. a show house for a showman, the limestone mansion is an unlikely survivor of the apartment house construction that swept away other gilded age residences on st. nicholas place, a spur of st. nicholas avenue that stretches north from 148th street like a railroad siding. by the early 2000s, however, the mansion was in dire distress, its elegant interior ravaged by a pack of inbred dogs and one of its four chimneys tilting perilously. though the building was designated a city landmark in 1974, preservationists worried that an unscrupulous investor would buy it and hire lawyers and engineers to persuade the city it needed to be demolished. instead, the leak plagued structure was saved by an enterprising couple who scraped together $1.4 million to buy it in 2009, amid the depressed real estate market caused by the 2008 financial crisis. martin spollen, 63, and chen jie, 59, natives of new jersey and shanghai, have been restoring it ever since, often with their own hands. it has been a monumental effort driven by love and obsession.

the james a. bailey residence at st. nicholas place and 150th street in harlem, built in 1888 for the less flamboyant partner of the barnum & bailey team, is a three ring circus of architectural elements: a romanesque revival tower, curvilinear flemish gables, a high chimney adorned with tudor roses, even a heraldic carving of a medieval knight’s helmet over the front door. a show house for a showman, the limestone mansion is an unlikely survivor of the apartment house construction that swept away other gilded age residences on st. nicholas place, a spur of st. nicholas avenue that stretches north from 148th street like a railroad siding. by the early 2000s, however, the mansion was in dire distress, its elegant interior ravaged by a pack of inbred dogs and one of its four chimneys tilting perilously. the building was designated a city landmark in 1974, but preservationists worried that an unscrupulous investor would buy it and hire lawyers and engineers to persuade the city it needed to be demolished. instead, the leak plagued structure was saved by an enterprising couple who scraped together $1.4 million to buy it in 2009, amid the depressed real estate market caused by the 2008 financial crisis. martin spollen, 63, and chen jie, 59, natives of new jersey and shanghai, respectively, have been restoring it ever since, often with their own hands. “our main talent is, we’re not in a hurry,” spollen, a physical therapist, said. “so that goes along with not being really rich.” even with the cash raised from renting out the mansion as a location for television shows like “law & order” and “boardwalk empire,” the couple expects the project to take five to 10 more years to complete. bailey was born james mcginnis in detroit in 1847. after being orphaned as a child, he landed a job with a traveling circus managed by frederick bailey, whose last name he adopted. by the 1870s he co owned a circus, which he boldly took on a pioneering tour of australia before combining it with a london circus. his dash and ambition frequently brought him into bitter competition with p.t. barnum, until the two joined forces in the early 1880s as “the greatest show on earth.” but bailey’s health failed, and he made plans to retire in the st. nicholas place mansion, filling its 25 rooms with curios from his world travels. ground was broken in 1886. bailey’s residence, the vision of architect samuel b. reed   he later designed a mirror image sister house in cortland, new york   was featured on the cover of scientific american in 1890. the magazine extolled the house’s “harmony of design” and its wealth of mosaic like stained glass windows, created through an innovative process patented by henry f. belcher. alice cooney frelinghuysen, a curator of american decorative arts at the metropolitan museum of art, said she was “flabbergasted and overwhelmed by seeing so many belcher windows in one site and in their original setting” when she visited the bailey house around 2009. about 70 of its 100 windows include vivid stained glass. “it’s completely special,” frelinghuysen said. she surmised that the baileys, “like many people who could afford a proper decorative interior, were trying to work toward ... making the whole house a work of art.” in 1951, marguerite blake, who grew up in the neighborhood, realized her childhood dream by buying the bailey mansion with her husband, warren. the couple lived upstairs, while marguerite used the parlor level, including bailey’s old reception room, as the m. marshall blake funeral home. the blakes were such conscientious stewards of the house that in 1981 they were honored for its restoration. but things took a dark turn. marguerite blake was robbed at gunpoint in the mansion, the thieves making off with the myriad gold bangles she wore from wrist to elbow. for security, the blakes adopted german shepherds, which the childless couple loved like family. in time, “the blakes got older and the dogs got more inbred and uncontrollable,” chewing through balusters, clawing at the inside of the front door and relieving themselves in the house, said michael henry adams, a harlem preservationist and longtime friend of the couple. “it was very disturbing.” in 2000, a fire ignited on an upper floor. the damage was limited, but windows were knocked out by firefighters, and the house deteriorated further. in 2008, at age 87, blake put the mansion up for sale for $10 million. but no one would touch it at that price: the house had more than 30 active leaks and reeked horribly from years of dog waste. spollen and chen, who goes by jenny, were undeterred. the basement floor was riddled with holes large enough to fall through, but they observed that the house’s bones   including 21 inch thick internal supporting masonry walls   were remarkably solid. the mansion’s lack of a certificate of occupancy meant that no bank would lend them a nickel, so the couple assembled a patchwork of loans from friends and family to help buy the place. the mansion “was a wreck, and i thought, these people are absolutely insane,” frelinghuysen said, recalling her visit soon after the couple purchased the house. but she was touched by chen’s and spollen’s “spirit of confidence that they were going to make this work.” to remove the stench of dog urine from the oak herringbone floors, the couple donned rain boots and applied baking soda   more than a ton of it in total   hundreds of times over three years. to shore up the subbasement ceiling, they cannibalized scores of joists they salvaged from dumpsters around town. short on money, they have often been compelled to learn specialized skills on the fly. they have built their own scaffolds, from which they have installed and finished historically appropriate windows. when their veteran stonemason returned to england before completing restoration of the troubled perimeter wall, chen and a cousin, xu haihua, known as jim, took up the cause. on the first day, despite working for hours, they managed to install one stone. “on the second day, three stones,” chen said. “on the third day, i got seven stones, and then we got going.” for the first couple of years, she watched and learned as their carpenter repaired window sashes and other details. when he left their employ, they replaced him with xu, who had recently immigrated from china, where he assembled televisions in a factory. “jim had no background in carpentry ever,” spollen recalled. “we said, ‘we expect greatness.’ ” xu has indeed become skilled, working in the basement wood shop to replicate the intricate profiles and mortise and tenon joinery of the mansion’s original windows, many dozens of which had been replaced with aluminum eyesores.

the james a. and ruth m. bailey house[3] is a freestanding limestone mansion located at 10 st. nicholas place at west 150th street in the sugar hill section of harlem in manhattan, new york city. the house was built from 1886 to 1888 and was designed by architect samuel burrage reed in the romanesque revival style for circus impresario james anthony bailey of the barnum & bailey circus.[4] when it was constructed there were few other buildings in the area, and as a result, sitting as it does on an escarpment, the bailey mansion had a clear view to the east of the long island sound.[3] among the house's numerous design features are numerous unique stained glass mosaic windows, designed and fabricated by henry belcher, and the varying kinds of wood throughout each room.[5][6] the interior is richly paneled in hand carved timber.[4] the exterior features flemish style gables[3] and a corner tower.[2] bailey sold the house two years prior to his death and from the 1910s to the 1950s, it was owned by a bavarian doctor, franz koempel.[5] in 1951, the house was purchased by marguerite blake, who ran it as the m. marshall blake funeral home until her retirement.[5] the bailey house was designated a new york city landmark in 1974,[3] and was added to the national register of historic places in 1980.[1] in 2000, a fire damaged portions of the house.[5] in late 2008, she brought the house to market, seeking to sell it for $10 million. as of may 2009, it was being listed for $6.5 million.[7] on august 31, 2009, it was reported that the house sold for $1.4 million, which is only around $170 per square foot.[8] in 2014, the house was renovated and cremated remains belonging to the funeral parlor were found in a harlem storage unit.[9][10] as of 2024, the house is still being repaired and restored by owners martin spollen and chen jie, and jie's cousin xu haihua.[11] notes

filed under: harlem's bailey mansion made headlines in 2009 when the 1888 built home at 150th street and st. nicholas sold for 75 percent off its asking price of $10 million. it took a few years, but the former residence of circus mogul james a. bailey (yes, as in barnum & bailey) is now in the process of getting gussied up. that process starts not with the nine bedroom interiors rife with historic details but rather with the century and a half old slate roof on top of the limestone castle. harlem bespoke spotted a rundown of the restoration process on contractor short slate's website, which includes photos and details of the painstaking process. "it's a dramatic limestone castle, complete with turrets, flemish inspired gables, porches, balconies, 66 windows   and a complicated slate roof that was in dire need of repair following years of standing empty," writes short slate's chris short. "my team and i restored the roof to its original victorian design patterns, with copper valleys, intricate cresting and an impressive copper finial (to replace the original, which had been blown off in a storm a few years earlier)." the bailey mansion's history is extensive, earning an entire "streetscapes" column in the times. new york magazine called it "manhattan's 'grey gardens'" and got a coveted video tour. the once leaky roof aside, husband and wife mystery owners sure have a lot on their plates. the mansion was used as a funeral home for many years and was apparently "overrun by a pack of wild dogs." eep. but they no doubt have a beautiful slate on which to build: here's a peek of the interiors, circa 2009 when it was sold. whoever is restoring the insides, please do give us a holler so that we may ogle more pictures.· the bailey mansion [short slate]· bespoke: artisan restoration at bailey mansion [hb]· bailey mansion coverage [curbed]

call us! 917 982 2501 situated in the sugar hill neighborhood in upper manhattan sits a somewhat obscure treasure perched among early 20th century apartment houses and an increasingly rare city gas station   the james bailey mansion. bailey, as in “the greatest show on earth,” bailey. bailey mansion, present day in the front office my first encounter in 2009. check out the gas prices! i first encountered the home in 2009 when i photographed the neighborhood around the morris jumel neighborhood with an slr camera. downtown from morris jumel, i turned a corner on west 150th street and there it was, gracefully presiding over the surrounding buildings with its turrets, carvings, and stained glass windows. so beautiful and incongruous it was, it took my breath away. i shot a big collection of photos and ran home to do some research. the aforementioned circus mogul moved into his limestone mansion designed by samuel burrage reed in 1888; interiors by a cousin of louis comfort tiffany, joseph burr tiffany. bailey planned for the home to be the anchor of a neighborhood that would develop like lower riverside drive had, with its beautiful free standing mansions. a few gracious homes were built there, including a queen anne style pair next door, and the benziger home behind, but the large apartment houses that began to spring up nearby finally drove mr. bailey to flee to his second home in mount vernon, ny. marguerite marshall and warren blake franz koempel, a bavarian doctor who was a pioneering x ray specialist in germany, purchased the home and lived there for decades. he was a founding member of the steuben society of america and the house is known to german americans as the “cradle of the steuben society,” according to the former national chairman of the steuben society (2001). in 1951, bertha koempel, the doctor’s widow, sold it to marguerite blake and her husband, warren blake. (mrs. blake had grown up in the neighborhood and aspired to own the mansion as a young girl.) marguerite made very few changes to the interior and operated the m. marshall blake funeral home out of the mansion for decades. she and marshall lived there as well, until she put it up for sale in 2008, after marshall’s death. (photo of the blakes from mr. michael henry adams' style & taste blog. no photo attribution noted.) alongside locations like the dakota apartments and the appellate division courthouse of nys, the bailey mansion became for me one of those holy grail locations. i had hoped to get a look inside when it was open to buyers but didn’t make it uptown for the showing, for whatever reason. knowing that the place had been purchased by a private entity only a few months after i first saw it, i was resigned to seeing mr. bailey’s home only from the exterior. fast forward to a month ago when a fundraising email from the victorian society new york offered tickets to a tour of the bailey mansion. knowing this would be a popular event, i instantly made my purchase. on the day of the tour, simply awaiting the beginning of the tour on the front porch was exciting. once the large group split, the homeowners, martin and jenny spollen, began our tour on the sidewalk and began to explain how dire the entire home’s condition was when they purchased it. there were 30 40 active leaks through the old slate roof, many of the windows needed replacing, all of the stained glass windows required restoration, the floor under the main workshop in the basement was nearly gone (all of the joists were replaced), the retaining wall surrounding the property had bowed out and needed attention. the wall had an iron pipe rail fence which they removed and saved for later restoration. gas lanterns (visible in the photo, left) that flanked the front walk went missing in the 1970s; they may be replaced at some future time. (the vintage photo came from great daytonian in manhattan blog. it is attributed to museum of the city of new york archive but i couldn’t locate this specific image.) martin was our group’s guide (jenny led the other group) and showed us inside. the foyer was breathtaking. the woodwork, the staircase, the lamp on the bannister, the enormous floor to ceiling mirror. i love that there’s an inglenook; the word itself evokes a different time. inglenook is tucked under the archway beneath stair lan... the woman in the mirror inglenook window detail the parlors, front and rear, still need work but the sycamore wood mantle in the front parlor was fully restored by the spollens using the expertise of traditional line restorers; they even taught jenny some woodworking techniques. she became an unofficial woodworking apprentice over the years, worked with her cousin, haihua xu (jim), another self educated skilled woodworker, to do some work. it’s a continual effort for jim and jenny to rehabilitate the wood features all over the home. looking toward the rear parlor restored sycamore wood mantle mantle detail excluding the sub basement, martin showed us the entire house, from the basement to the room at the very top, just underneath the widow’s walk on the roof (he didn’t have the ladder out, alas, or he would have shown us that as well), even opening closets. the spacious basement originally housed the kitchen, dumbwaiter, laundry (which later became the embalming room) and servant’s quarters. the largest room (the laundry) now serves as the wood shop where jim and jenny do their restoration work. more on jim in part 2. wood shop (former laundry & embalming room) wood shop (former laundry & embalming room) wood shop (former laundry & embalming room) back on the main floor, the dining room had been in horrible condition due to german shepherds and their offspring who lived in and guarded the home. an 8400 square foot 100 year old is a lot for anyone, particularly for an elderly couple. despite their deep love for the place, it ultimately suffered from the ministrations of the dogs. when the mansion was listed for sale, potential buyers were dissuaded from simply entering the home, the odor was so oppressive. something for which martin was grateful; they got it for the bargain price of $1.4 million, marked down from $10 million. the wood at the bottom of one of the column had separated from years of “attention” by the dogs; a replacement was fabricated by jim. pre restoration in the first photo below. thankfully, the built in cabinet survived the dogs’ depredations. dining room, pre restoration rebuilt dining room column base dining room fixture was fitted for gas & electricity the main staircase to the second floor takes you past the largest and most dramatic stained glass window set in the home (photos below). the semi circle represents three times of day   morning, noon, night. being a birdwatcher, i was particularly taken by the morning heron and the cute owl at night. i’d like to turn the bird in the noon window into a blue grosbeak but i think it’s just a pretty blue bird. i mentioned to martin that this reminded me of jacob wrey mould’s carvings at the head of bethesda terrace in central park; they, too, depict day and night, as directed by boss calvert vaux. like the window here, night in the park also has an owl (and a bat). anchoring the window are bailey’s initials, “jab,” facing outward. remarkably, the lower panes slide open, as demonstrated by martin. given the relative fragility of these windows, he told us he doesn’t do this frequently. all of the stained glass windows installed throughout the house were fabricated by the belcher mosaic glass company of irvington, nj. henry f. belcher was a contemporary of louis comfort tiffany but marketed his product to the middle class consumer (not that mr. bailey fell into that category). i might do a separate blog post devoted to mr. belcher and his windows; they deserve it. i have so much material from my visit to the james bailey mansion, i decided to break it into two parts; thus ends part 1. the final installment will illustrate the upper floors and some cool aspects of the home that don’t fit into this narrative. there’s lots more to see! phone: 917 982 2501 email: inquiries@selecttoursnyc.com

supported by nancy martiny’s ornate pieces, which sell for $5,000 and up, are meant to be ridden by working cowboys and cowgirls like herself. by susan shain and sasha arutyunova as a kid in kauai, the waves were his home. today, leleo kinimaka pours his native knowledge and passion into one of a kind creations that double as works of art. by will higginbotham and jake michaels the artist roberto benavidez is elevating the traditional piñata with his ornate creations. by will higginbotham and sasha arutyunova viewers find ivy karlsgodt’s creations beautiful and her process meditative. by sejla rizvic and justin j wee a basket maker keeping alive, and reinventing, an ancestral craft mary jackson, who is featured in museums like the smithsonian, works in the fiber arts tradition of the gullah geechee of coastal south carolina. by shane mitchell and elizabeth bick the spectacular transformation of a showman’s mansion the harlem home of the circus impresario james a. bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along. by john freeman gill the miniature secrets of championship rings more diamonds isn’t enough. one jeweler is wowing sports teams with reversible faces and detachable compartments. by emmanuel morgan for this indigenous beadworker, every stitch ‘is an act of resistance’ teri greeves builds on a legacy of artistry, rarely recognized by mainstream institutions, that stretches through generations of native women. by julia carmel and sasha arutyunova with brute force and steel, this artist creates works of ephemeral beauty a youtube rabbit hole led blanka amezkua to a small mexican town and the centuries old craft of papel picado   chiseling intricate patterns into colorful paper flags. by rose courteau and justin j wee she slept with a violin on her pillow. her dreams came true in italy. as a teenager in south korea, ayoung an decided to become a violin maker. her journey eventually took her to cremona, italy, a famed hub for masters like antonio stradivari. by valeriya safronova and sasha arutyunova sculpture doesn’t get much smaller than this lyndon j. barrois sr., whose day job is high tech animation, uses gum wrappers to create detailed portraits of historical figures and athletes in flight. by julia carmel and jessica lehrman this cake maker finds beauty in change, time and even life and death jasmine rae de lung’s striking creations are as much about process as they are the final product. by sasha arutyunova and anna diamond hip hop’s next takeover: quilts bisa butler’s new show translates both photographs of black figures and hip hop lyrics into intricate textile art. by joshua needelman and sasha arutyunova guitar making as a life’s work “to somebody else, it’s just some wood glued together,” freeman vines, 80, said. “to me, it’s something else.” by joshua needelman and sasha arutyunova ringgold’s landmark career was long ignored by the art establishment. but she kept going, mixing the personal and political, and a late surge of attention rightly put her smack in the middle of moma. by holland cotter the category of footwear created when franklin d. roosevelt was president is being reinterpreted and rediscovered. by guy trebay knitting scarves, sweaters and other presents can take a lot of time, money and energy. but there can also be a deeper cost: hurt feelings. by britta lokting in paintings and handcrafted books, the artist layers lush themes from ralph waldo emerson to vietnamese history, and explores our relationship to nature. by siddhartha mitter all seven of gregorio cachi’s daughters followed him into making jewelry. now many of their children are involved, too. by janelle conaway elizabeth gage rejected finishing school for art school, turning her love of gold, gems and history into a decades long career. by rachel garrahan jason logan gathers acorns, old nails and even cigarette butts to make his specialty pigments. by alec scott a specialist who teaches classes in fan making talks about her introduction to the accessory and the skills involved in making them. by susanne fowler sini majuri combines traditional techniques with modern tech to explore human nature. by penelope colston maiko kurogouchi takes our reporter shopping in the city’s popular aoyama district. by vivian morelli

the stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make manhattan fascinating. for anything to survive virtually intact in manhattan for any length of time is just miraculous. this remarkable victorian architectural fantasy is magnificent and a true testament to the owners who cherished living in the mansion and who in their own varied ways protected it from developers until it could finally be restored. an amazing story and building. good luck and a big thank you to the current owners. nyarch i saw larger photos of this property while perusing through the nyt real estate section, when it was for sale, just a few years ago. the property must have been unoccupied for a long time, and had been neglected at the time, dusty, wallpaper peeling, cobwebs, etc, but the majestic woodwork and the windows, still intact, took away the shame of not having upkeep for so long. had i onky had the $$$.... i walked past this building coming to and from kindergarten in the late 1940s. the building was dark grey from decades of coal soot. in the 1950s with the advent of oil furnaces and steam cleaning of building exteriors the light color was likely restored.in the 1970s i read a n.y.times article about how 11 year old margaret approached the german owners for a tour and announced that she would like to buy it should they decide to sell. this may have been around the time i was in kindergarten. she lived on the same block as me, 148th street.sure enough, as an adult she and her husband, a nyc detective, bought it and ran a funeral home there.in the early 1990s i toured the home during a walking tour with henry adams, author of "i remember harlem". the interior was impressive with carved wood ceilings, intricate lace woodwork panels separating rooms, stained glass windows and a grand staircase with a massive two story mirror at its base giving the illusion of a double staircase.i had to use the bathroom so mr. marshall directed me to the bathroom in the non public rear. i remember that area was grey and dull and there was a lot of water in the floor. there were two german shepherds.although i will never see the interior again i am happy that the spollens are restoring and maintaining the mansion.i suspect the blake's held out for a buyer who would restore rather than alter the building, even at the cost of a lower price. the victorian society new york is offering a wonderful tour of this! or you can come to cortland, ny and see the mirror image of this house, built in 1890, at the request of chester wickwire after he visited ny city and fell in love with the baily house. same builder and interior decorators. it is currently a museum, of course it's open to the public for tours. it too has slate tile problems and leaking roof. a campaign to raise money to save it and do other renovations is ongoing. https://the1890house.org my great grandparents, who were servants in the bailey house at the time, were permitted to have their wedding there april 18, 1900. my grandfather was born in the house a year later, and his middle name was bailey.
the harlem home of the circus impresario james a. bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along. the 1888 james a. bailey mansion on st. nicholas place in harlem had fallen into great disrepair before a couple bought the house in 2009 for $1.4 million and began a restoration that continues today.credit...tony cenicola/the new york times supported by by john freeman gill the james a. bailey residence at st. nicholas place and 150th street in harlem, built in 1888 for the less flamboyant partner of the barnum & bailey team, is a three ring circus of architectural elements: a romanesque revival tower, curvilinear flemish gables, a high chimney adorned with tudor roses, even a heraldic carving of a medieval knight’s helmet over the front door. a show house for a showman, the limestone mansion is an unlikely survivor of the apartment house construction that swept away other gilded age residences on st. nicholas place, a spur of st. nicholas avenue that stretches north from 148th street like a railroad siding. by the early 2000s, however, the mansion was in dire distress, its elegant interior ravaged by a pack of inbred dogs and one of its four chimneys tilting perilously. though the building was designated a city landmark in 1974, preservationists worried that an unscrupulous investor would buy it and hire lawyers and engineers to persuade the city it needed to be demolished. instead, the leak plagued structure was saved by an enterprising couple who scraped together $1.4 million to buy it in 2009, amid the depressed real estate market caused by the 2008 financial crisis. martin spollen, 63, and chen jie, 59, natives of new jersey and shanghai, have been restoring it ever since, often with their own hands. it has been a monumental effort driven by love and obsession.

 the james a. bailey residence at st. nicholas place and 150th street in harlem, built in 1888 for the less flamboyant partner of the barnum & bailey team, is a three ring circus of architectural elements: a romanesque revival tower, curvilinear flemish gables, a high chimney adorned with tudor roses, even a heraldic carving of a medieval knight’s helmet over the front door. a show house for a showman, the limestone mansion is an unlikely survivor of the apartment house construction that swept away other gilded age residences on st. nicholas place, a spur of st. nicholas avenue that stretches north from 148th street like a railroad siding. by the early 2000s, however, the mansion was in dire distress, its elegant interior ravaged by a pack of inbred dogs and one of its four chimneys tilting perilously. the building was designated a city landmark in 1974, but preservationists worried that an unscrupulous investor would buy it and hire lawyers and engineers to persuade the city it needed to be demolished. instead, the leak plagued structure was saved by an enterprising couple who scraped together $1.4 million to buy it in 2009, amid the depressed real estate market caused by the 2008 financial crisis. martin spollen, 63, and chen jie, 59, natives of new jersey and shanghai, respectively, have been restoring it ever since, often with their own hands. “our main talent is, we’re not in a hurry,” spollen, a physical therapist, said. “so that goes along with not being really rich.” even with the cash raised from renting out the mansion as a location for television shows like “law & order” and “boardwalk empire,” the couple expects the project to take five to 10 more years to complete. bailey was born james mcginnis in detroit in 1847. after being orphaned as a child, he landed a job with a traveling circus managed by frederick bailey, whose last name he adopted. by the 1870s he co owned a circus, which he boldly took on a pioneering tour of australia before combining it with a london circus.