The New Hampshire Apartments: Where Bela Bartók Meets Tarzan

by BQE Admin · September 26, 2024

New Hampshire Apartments’ historic facade rendering.

A Forest Hills Residential Gem Echoes Harmonies

By Michael Perlman

Encounter a plaque which reads “New Hampshire Apartments” on a stately pre-war six-story building at 110-31 73rd Road in Forest Hills, and with a bit of research, stories of yesteryear will unfold. Current residents may be unaware that it was once home to legendary Hungarian composer and pianist Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945), as well as Hungarian actor, swimmer, and water polo player Johnny Weissmuller (1904 – 1984), best known as “Tarzan.”

The New Hampshire Apartments was erected in 1937 by Boulevard Construction Corporation, which was also the owner, and designed by award-winning architect Benjamin Braunstein. Immigrating from Constantinople, he would achieve a large number of historic apartment buildings, spanning the Tudor, Georgian Colonial, and Spanish Mission style in neighborhoods including Forest Hills, Rego Park, and Kew Gardens. As for The New Hampshire, the façade uniquely merges the Georgian Colonial and Art Moderne style, characterized by curved exposures with glass block, recessed facades, bay windows, archways, and a former roof garden and sun deck.

Facade plaque.

Apartments were advertised for their exceptional layouts with spacious foyers, radio outlets, soundproofing, nine rooms, and “appointments of the most modern Park Avenue apartments.” The lobby and hallways were carpeted. The residence’s convenience to small businesses, places of worship, the 1936 IND subway line, parks, the West Side Tennis Club, and the conceived 1939 – 1940 World’s Fair, was a major draw.

Around 1940, Bartók and his wife became Forest Hills residents. As for Peter Sipsas, who recalls its sense of place, he is not surprised that celebrities called this address home. “I can never forget long summer days of hopping the fence separating our building from the next one, The Mayfair House, and playing Stickball with kids from the block, sometimes from noon to night. On July 4th, someone’s dad would barbecue, and we would take our dogs and burgers to the roof, where we could watch the fireworks on the East River. It was a very idyllic childhood.”

Bartók made his American debut with the Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with Rhapsodie Op. 1 in 1927. He was noted for his blend of late Romanticism, Eastern European folk music, and Debussy, and transcribed folk songs into Classical masterpieces. Among his notable compositions are “Two Portraits,” “Dance Suite,” “Two Pictures,” and “Music for Strings,” and “Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114.” Sad themes are apparent in “String Quartet No. 6,” which was his response to World War II. Among his stage works are “Prince Bluebeard’s Castle,” “The Miraculous Mandarin,” and “The Wooden Prince.”

New Hampshire Apartments, 2009.

“I played Bartók’s music when I learned to play the cello in Hungary around age 7,” said Peter Arato, who lived in the New Hampshire Apartments from 1983 to 1985 with his wife. “Our apartment had character, with ten-foot ceilings and interesting molding, and to learn that he also lived in our building is fascinating.”

“It’s amazing that Bartók immigrated to the USA from Hungary and eventually settled in Forest Hills,” said local resident William Gati, a pianist and architect, who praised him as one of the greatest classical twentieth century composers. “He was part of the creative exodus from Europe before WWII that catapulted the American creative and intellectual revolution. Bartók, like my father, studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. We shared Forest Hills with a musical genius.” Gati also pointed out how Bartók was among other twentieth century notables, including Charlie Chaplin and Sergei Prokofiev, who came to New York City, with hopes for a better life.

New Hampshire Apartments lobby, where celebrities walked.

At 6 feet 3 inches and 190 pounds, Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals in 1924 and 1928, 52 national and 67 world titles, and held freestyle records from 100 yards to the half-mile. He was known for holding one of the best competitive swimming records of the twentieth century. Associated Press recognized him as “Greatest Swimmer of The Half Century” in 1950. He popularized the American crawl stroke position, as his chest appeared high out of the water.

Béla Bartók at the piano.

Béla Bartók in 1927, Courtesy of Queens Community Board 6.

For Weissmuller’s screen test, he once said, “They asked me if I could climb trees, and I said yes. And they asked me ‘Could I pick up a girl and walk away with her,’ and I said yes. And that’s all there was to the test. I had the part.”

Swooping from tree to tree and combating crocodiles and lions, Weissmuller starred in twelve feature films, including “Tarzan, The Ape Man,” “Tarzan and His Mate,” “Tarzan’s Secret Treasure,” and “Tarzan’s New York Adventure.”

Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan and the Mermaids.

“Tarzan was a New Hampshire Apartments resident from the spring to fall of 1939, when he was appearing in Billy Rose’s ‘Aquacade’ water show with Eleanor Holm at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows,” said Cary, North Carolina resident Richard Delaney, who was born in 1936, and witnessed much residential growth in Forest Hills as he resided in the Holland House. The Aquacade, which was the most successful World’s Fair production, took place at the 11,000-seat New York State Marine Amphitheatre, which overlooked a 200-foot deep by 311-foot wide stage.

Forest Hills resident Liz O’Byrne Scharf moved into The New Hampshire Apartments in 1959 as an infant, along with her parents and sister. She reminisced, “When I was a little girl, I would go down the stairs with my mom and she would say, ‘Apartment 2A was Johnny Weissmuller’s apartment.’ I bet she was excited as I was.”