Carter's Review

This handsome, 15-story, co-operative apartment building at 395 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 112^th Street was erected in 1924 and has about 117 apartments. 

It was converted to a co-operative in 1983.

This building, which is also known as 620-628 West 112^th Street, was designed by Gaetan Ajello, who also designed its twin at 390 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 111^th Street, a building whose façade is more light-colored and which has not had some of its stone painted gray.

Both buildings were developed by Joseph Golding but changed hands often subsequently.

Bottom Line

An attractive, pre-war co-operative with a slightly curved frontage on Riverside Drive that has good public transportation and is close to Columbia University. 

It has an entrance beneath a light court on 112^th Street.

Description

This building differs slightly from 390 Riverside Drive, its twin, because its Riverside Drive is chamfered.

See the CityRealty.com description of this building’s twin at 390 Riverside Drive.

Amenities

It has a full-time doorman, a live-in superintendent, a laundry and storage.

Apartments

Apartment 9E is a three-bedroom unit with a 6-foot-long entry foyer next to a 14-foot-long windowed kitchen and a 24-foot-long dining room that leads to a 20-foot-long living room.

Apartment 2E is a one-bedroom unit that has a 6-foot-long entry foyer that leads past a 14-foot-long windowed kitchen with a washer/dryer to a 14-foot-wide dining area that opens onto a 35-foot-long living room.

Apartment 15E is a one-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-long living area next to an enclosed windowed 16-foot-long kitchen with a dining area.

Apartment 10E is a two-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-wide entry foyer that opens onto a 14-foot-long windowed kitchen that opens onto a 14-foot-wide dining room that opens onto a 20-foot-long living room.

History

On April 22, 1933, The New York Times published an article about an incident in the building in which a dog was killed.

“Fire flashed in the keen hunter’s eyes of Count Vasco da Gama yesterday as he recounted in his office at 52 William Street how he slew Lord von Dick a week ago Wednesday in the main lobby of 395 Riverside Drive,” the article began.

“The Count is a big-game hunter and a lineal descendant of the Portuguese navigator who was the firsts European to sail around Africa to India near the close of the fifteenth century.  He is an expert marksman, writes for sportsmen’s journals. ‘The shot,’ said the Count, ‘was perfectly synchronized.  The leash dropped, the dog jumped, I fired.’  The shot caught Lord von Dick in the heart,  The Count says the animal fell, ran for the door and the imperturbable William Junkers, doorman, opened the portal to give him exit.  Lord von Dick no sooner got over the threshold than he rolled over and died.  Lord von Dick was the property of Isidor Green, painter and decorator, a neighbor of the Count’s at the address on Riverside Drive.  Mr. and Mrs. Green were very bitter last night over their pet’s death,” the article continued.

“’He was a chow, but he was as good as he was beautiful,’ said Mrs. Green….The Greens version of the shooting differed somewhat from that given by the Count.…The Count said that the chow was allowed out unmuzzled; that despite three letters of complaint addressed to the superintendent of the building, the animal continued to be a menace to children in the house and to the da Gama Pekes, Moke and Molay….’In my last letter,’ he went out, ‘I warned them that ‘from now on I am going to be armed, and if the dog makes a move that endangers me or mine, I shall fire to kill.’”

“The explorer explained that he had led three military expeditions into the Belgian Congo and had killed elephants and lions.  He waved his hand at photographic evidence of his marksmanship.  The walls of his office are adorned with picture of the Count astride dead elephants, hippos and the like,” the article continued.

“At 10 o’clock the night of the shooting, said the Count, he encountered Mr. Green and the unmuzzled Lord von Dick in the lobby.  ‘I asked Mr. Green to please have his dog muzzled,’ the Count related.  ‘The dog made a move in my direction and in that second, he had a bullet in his heart.’  A pistol, said the Count, is useless unless it is handy and ready for use.  H had his 9 mm Luger automatic, or Parabellum, as it is known abroad, in his outside coat pocket unholstered.  It was no trick, he indicated, to get von Dick in midair.”

According to the article, Mr. Green went upstairs and summoned the police who came and took the Count and his pistols away.  The Count was released after putting up $500 for bail.

The article quoted Mr. Green as stating that “I took the dog down, like every night.   This Count, whom I never saw before, came up.  He said, ‘Stand aside, or I’ll shoot the two of you down.’  Then I saw fire, my dog gave a terrible scream and ran out I the street and lay dead.  It isn’t true that my Dicky bit his Pekes.  His Pekes bit Dicky.  Let him be a Count, if he wants, but can’t go around shooting like that.”

The April 30, 1933 edition of The Times reported that the Count was sentenced to 30 days for the shooting but was released when he posted bail 

“An imposing array of witnesses crowded the court room yesterday,” the article said, nothing that with the Greens who were there to see their dead dog avenged, and “with them came several dog lovers, incensed at newspaper accounts of the Count’s latest hunting expedition and clamoring for his punishment.  In dense of the count were many character witnesses, including Howard Chandler Christy, the artist, Edward J. Barber, president of the Barber Steamship Lines; Louis Latham Clark, of the American locomotive Company and a director of the Shell Oil Company, and Seton Porter, president of the National Distillery Company.”

See the CityRealty.com history of 390 Riverside Drive for information about Gaetan Ajello.