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Gustavus Dessecker (b. Jul. 25, 1847 – d.
Jul. 9, 1902)
manufactured light carriages, doctor's coupes, hearses, invalid wagons
and
heavy trucks for his New York City customers from 1869 through the
teens.
Famous for his exceptional upholstery and drape-works, Dessecker also
specialized in refurbishing tired coaches. Following Dessecker's
passing in
1902, the firm was taken over by Pete Kief who leased the factory from
Gustav Dessecker's
widow. Kief brought the firm into the automobile age, initially with
the use of
heavy-duty chassis like Autocar and later on White commercial chassis.
Shortly
after Kief's 1915 passing, Dessecker's widow modified the structure
into a
parking garage, which remained in use for the next century. The firm's founder, Wilhelm Gustavus
Dessecker, was born on July
25, 1847 in Heilbronn, Wurttemburg, Germany to Christian and ??
Dessecker. In late 1853 he visited the US
with his
immediate family, leaving from Antwerp, Belgium onboard the SS
Catharine and
Cumbria, arriving at the Port of New York on January 11, 1854. The
ship's
passenger list included the following Desseckers: Johann
(26-yo male); Regina (20-yo);
Christian (48-yo male);Catherine (16-yo); Johann (14-yo male);
Christian (10-yo
male); Jacob (9-yo male); and our subject, Wilhelm (7-yo male). How long the Dessecker family stayed is
currently unknown,
however our subject subsequently returned with his family to Germany,
and in
November of 1867 filed paperwork in Heilbronn preparing for his
permanent
emigration to the United States, which took place soon afterwards. He
was
naturalized on Sep. 15, 1876. According to the 1880 US Census, his wife
Elizabeth C. (b.1855-d.1922) was a native-born New Yorker. Much of his early work is undocumented, most
of what we know
is from ads he placed in the Manhattan directories, the text of his
display ad
in the 1879 Manhattan edition follows:
In the early 1880s Dessecker moved to two
adjoining 3-story
fire-proof brick structures located at the southeast corner of
Elizabeth and
Kenmare Sts., formerly occupied by carriage builder Thomas T. Donnelly,
a
display ad in the 1885 Manhattan directory providing his new address:
A Dessecker undertakers wagon was featured
in the March 1893
issue of the Hub:
The October 29, 1896 issue of the New York
Times announced
an addition to the Dessecker works:
The March 9, 1889 issue of the Real Estate
Record and
Builders' Guide provided evidence of a second addition, which added a
fourth
story to the two adjoining three-story structures:
1902 Trow Copartnership and Corporation
Directory of New
York City:
Soon after Gustav Dessecker's passing, Pete
Kief took over
the firm of Gustav Dessecker from his widow as executrix of his estate,
the
Dec. 3, 1904 issue of the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide,
reporting his
5-year, renewable lease on the firm's Elizabeth Street manufactory:
The 1906 edition of the
Trow Copartnership and Corporation Directory of New
York City lists
the firm as follows:
For the next decade Kief continued to list
the firm under
both his name and Dessecker's as follows under the carriage makers
heading in
the Manhattan directories: 1911-1912 Manhattan Directory:
Famous for their exceptional upholstery and
drape-works,
Dessecker did a good business in refurbishing tired coaches as well as
furnishing new ones in the height of fashion. The firm supplied small
numbers
of motorized funeral vehicles to New York City livery firms such as
Hornthal
& Co.,starting in 1912. Many metropolitan funeral directors couldn't
afford to own
the sometimes large number of vehicles needed for the funerals of the
rich and
famous so they relied upon livery companies such as the Hornthal to
supply them
with extra vehicles. Other directors found that the excellent service
offered
by the numerous rental firms enabled them to operate without owning any
vehicles at all. With the sudden popularity of motorized
funeral vehicles,
large metropolitan liveries like Hornthal sold their old horse-drawn
hearses to
South American and Caribbean-based brokers who were eager to purchase
the
now-obsolete coaches. A fine Cunningham hearse, almost worthless in
NYC, might
bring as much as $1000 in Havana during the mid to late teens. The 1914 edition of the Official Automobile
Directory of the
State of New York has NY plate #24297 (a Walters
automobile - predecessor of the Walters heavy-duty
4x4 truck)
registered to George and Peter Kief, Jr., 152 Elizabeth St., N. Y.
City 1915 Manhattan Directory:
Classified listing under Hearse Builders in
1915 directory:
The 1915 edition of the Trow Copartnership
and Corporation
Directory of New York City lists the firm as follows:
The firm's factory was located on the
southeast corner of
Elizabeth and Kenmare Sts. The two addresses (152 Elizabeth & 14
Kenmare)
refer to the same structure. The 1900 US census list the Kief family as
follows:
The 1915 New York State Census lists the
occupations of
Peter Sr., Peter Jr., and George Kief as "makers of auto bodies,"
their home address 1541 50th St., Brooklyn. Peter Kief senior passed away in August of
1915 and the firm
was taken over by his two sons George and Peter Kief Jr. The 1916 Manhattan directory lists Peter
Kief Jr. as manager
of the firm's Elizabeth St. works:
The firm name was changed to Peter Kief Co.
in 1912 although
he kept a listing under Dessecker as late as 1916, as the 1916
Manhattan
Directory evidences:
Two years after the passing of Peter Kief
Sr. the Kief
family decided to withdraw from the carriage business. Peter Kief Jr.,
enrolled
in the US Army, serving from Sep. 21, 1917 to May 10, 1919 as a
musician and
soldier, spending one year fighting in the European conflict. Peter
Kief Jr.
married and moved to Long Island where he became an auditor. His
younger
brother George remained in the auto body business for several years as
a
painter and later moved to Norwood, Ohio where he worked as a printer
for
Gibson Greeting Card. Kief's largest customer, Hornthal & Co.
(Jos. & Saml. Hornthal
) at 327 E. 53d St. was suddenly without a supplier of hearses, and
subsequently opened up their own hearse
manufactory, hiring former employees of the Kief/Dessecker works to
handle the
construction. The first Hornthal motor hearse where mounted on extended
wheelbase Ford Model T chassis, but they soon experienced problems with
the
delicate conveyance, electing to go to the much sturdier White 140"
commercial car chassis in 1916. The Hornthal hearse works were
short-lived and
by the early 1920s, they started buying complete funeral coaches from
Sayers
& Scovill and Cunningham, who both established a satellite sales
and
service facilities in Manhattan - Sayers & Scovill at 257 Broadway
(rm.1409) and Cunningham at 231 W. 50th st. Dessecker's widow, Elizabeth, subsequently
renovated the
vacant factory into a parking garage, the May 5, 1917 issue of the
American
Contractor announcing that architect Max Muller had been awarded the
contract:
The 130-yo+ Dessecker carriage works
buildings remain
standing today at the southeast corner of Elizabeth and Kenmare. It
remained in
use as an automobile garage for close to a century (1917-2014). It's
currently
owned by Manhattan real estate developers Sumaida + Khurana (Nahla
Capital) who
have hired famed architect Tadao Ando to remake the building into 7
minimalist
luxury condominiums which will sell for $7 to $35 million each. http://www.152elizabethst.com/ © 2015 Mark Theobald for Coachbuilt.com with special thanks to Thomas A. McPherson.
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