architectural legacy in Brooklyn Heights and Manhattan,
the Sangers were one of the seven families to commission
the Seven Sisters in Montauk, the famous Shingle-style
development by Stanford White, and spent their summers
there and in Saratoga.
Mr. Sanger died in 1886; of his children, the most
prominent was the diplomat and lawyer Colonel William
Cary Sanger who, after a stint with the National Guard,
served as Assistant Secretary of War under both William
McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. A tireless advocate for
Republican causes and a proponent of the draft, Sanger
ran twice for assemblyman and served as the president of
the delegation to the Geneva Convention in 1906. Married
to Mary Ethel Cleveland Dodge and father to a large
family, he constructed a vast estate near Albany called
Sangerfeld and, as time went by, spent more and more of
his time there.
In his absence and after the death of his mother in 1910,
his unmarried sister, Lillian Sanger, became the principal
full-time resident of 10 Montague Terrace. She lived there
with five servants and a visiting friend or relative, Isabelle
The Sangers were prominent members of Brooklyn
Heights’ elite, drawing their considerable fortune from
Mr. Sanger’s dry goods business. This later blossomed
into a profitable partnership with merchants William
Cary and Samuel Howard to become one of the most luxurious
stores in Manhattan, the firm of Cary, Howard &
Sanger. Housed in a now landmarked masterpiece of cast
iron architecture in TriBeCa, the store boasted more than
$3 million in annual sales of “the taste and ingenuity of
three continents” with “1,500 different kinds of domestic
and fancy goods” available, according to a contemporary
business chronicle of the time quoted by history blog
Daytonian in Manhattan.
The Sangers entertained frequently at their grand home,
where they also raised five children, two boys and three
girls. The Brooklyn Eagle records numerous instances of
Mrs. Sanger’s “at-homes” while Mr. Sanger served terms
as the president of the old Brooklyn Academy of Music
(then nearby on Montague Street) and on the board of
directors for the Brooklyn Hospital, the Packer Institute,
and the Brooklyn Art Association. In addition to their
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A lobby card for ‘The Sentinel’ showing a scene with Ava Gardner and Cristina Raines. Collection of Susan De Vries.