William Mills Ivins House

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: 133 West 86th Street, New York City

Mr. Ivins house is a four story and basement brown stone, the upper portion being finished in brick. A fanciful gable, with a sculptured head in the middle, juts into the high roof. The entire second story front swings outward into one large bay window.

Wealth and good taste are apparent in all the interior furnishings and decorations. The prevailing tone in the parlors is a dark red or purple. By drawing back the wide doors or portieres all the rooms on the parlor floor can be thrown into one.

Ivins (who was known to friends as Will) was a member of the law firm Ivins, Kidder & Melcher, and was one of Manhattan's most visible reformers. The New York Herald said his "greatest pleasure in life apparently is to twist the tail of the Tammany tiger or take the scalp of the Tammany brave." He fought tirelessly against election fraud and became president of the Executive Committee of the Electoral Laws Improvement Association. He was, as well, a member of the Ballot Reform Committee of Citizens Union, the Honest Ballot Association, and the City Reform Club. The year he and his family moved into 123 West 86th Street, he published Machine Politics and Money in Elections in New York City.

On June 16, 1897, The Sun ran the shocking headline,

"Wm. M. Ivins Arrested." The evening before, at around 8:45, he had headed home. At 40th Street and Broadway he let several street cars pass because they were overcrowded. Finally, said the article, "Seeing that there was no hope of getting a seat, Mr. Ivins at last jumped on the front platform of a closed car...There were other persons on the platform, and the car was crowded with men and women, the back platform being so jammed that the people had difficulty getting off."

At 50th Street, "a crowd of men and women with transfers" made the packed conditions worse. Then, recounted The Sun, "At the Fifty-ninth street transfer station a number of people left the car, and the inside became less like the interior of a sardine box." The gripman (the worker who operated the "grip" that started and stopped the car) ordered Ivins to move inside the car. A legal debate ensued.

Ivins refused to enter the packed car and the gripman refused to move it. Ivins "told the gripman that the car was crowded when he got on; that it was crowded then, and that, as his fare had been accepted when he was standing on the platform, he intended to stay there, holding that the company had entered into a contract to take him uptown on that part of the car where his fare was collected."

The gripman summoned the conductor, named Riede, who explained that riding on the platform was a violation of company rules. Ivins refused to budge. Riede directed "that he must go inside the car or get off unless he wished to be arrested," said the article.

"I shall be arrested then," said Ivins.

In the meantime, the incident had brought six other streetcars to a halt behind it. Policeman Dobbins came to see what the problem was, and was told by Riede about Ivins's obstinacy. Ivins was arrested.

It was now Riede who was in an uncomfortable position. He was expected to follow Dobbins and his prisoner to the 86th Street station house to make a complaint. But he had to run the streetcar. He chose the latter. The Sun reported, "Mr. Ivins was detained for a few minutes and, as Riede failed to appear, he was allowed to continue on his way home."

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