John Jay McKelvey (May 24, 1863 – October 19, 1947) was an American author, attorney, and preservationist who set precedents in establishing the Harvard Law Review and in framing case law to craft the environs of his Spuyten Duyvil community, New York.
Life John Jay (J. J.) McKelvey was born Sunday, May 24, 1863, in Sandusky, Ohio, to John McKelvey and Jane Rowland Huntington McKelvey. J. J.'s paternal grandparents were Matthew McKelvey and Nancy Adams McKelvey, and his paternal great-grandparents were William McKelvey and Mary Toppings McKelvey along with Bildad Adams and Mary Hines Adams. William McKelvey of Scotch-Irish American, Revolutionary War regality removed with an assembly after the war to the Western Reserve; where John McKelvey fashioned and financed Sandusky and a section of its first short line railroad, which was eventually enveloped by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Whereas, J. J.'s maternal grandparents were Apollos Huntington and Deborah Rowland Huntington with his maternal great-grandparents being American Revolutionary War soldier Elisha Huntington and Esther Ladd Huntington and great-grandparents of the William Rowland lineage. J. J.'s five siblings included: Janet Huntington McKelvey Swift, Alice Rowland McKelvey Milne, Jennie Adams McKelvey, Charles Sumner McKelvey, and Ralph Huntington McKelvey. J. J.'s sister Alice and father John helped document their family's English and Welsh pedigree, colonial ancestors, war-time service, and Fire Lands migration.Hetzel, Susan Rivière. 1896. Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Volume 16. Washington, District of ColumbiaNational Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 1938. Current Volume E. New York: James T. White and Company; and Mohr, William F., editor. 1914.
After successfully completing his college course, McKelvey initially married Mary Clark Mattocks on July 12, 1887 in Cleveland, Ohio, at the bride's childhood home. Before settling into their described "Bonnie Brae" on the Hudson River at Spuyten Duyvil, he and Mary visited her mother in Los Angeles, California to consolidate contiguous land for the completion of their estate on Palisade Avenue, New York City. In J. J.'s household, he afforded Irish servants, and he and Mary had four girls: Mary Alice McKelvey, Constance McKelvey, Ruth McKelvey, and Jane McKelvey. Primarily J. J. lived and practiced law in New York City; though, he occasionally traveled for business or an excursion to Oberlin, Bermuda, or to Ricker's Hill-Top in Poland Spring, Maine.Anonymous. (July 1, 1894) "Arrivals." The Hill-Top (Poland Spring, South Poland, Maine) 13, no. 1: 27. Midlife, McKelvey and Mary divorced; after which, he married Louise E. Brunning, June 10, 1914, and fathered three children: Louise McKelvey, John Jay McKelvey Jr., and Robert Adams McKelvey. After 1940, John Jay McKelvey was thought to have returned to his Lake Erie, Cleveland, Ohio roots; however, he died Sunday, October 19, 1947 after a short illness in Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, New York. His family held his service at the previously popular Universal Funeral Chapel, Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street, New York City, Wednesday, October 22 at 8:00 p.m.
Education McKelvey graduated from Sandusky High School, Ohio, with first honors during June 1880 and entered Oberlin College during September 1880, where he completed his undergraduate classical studies, June 1884, earning an A.B. degree. Oberlin's writing guild and its oratory society, wherein he excelled, helped prepare him for ten hour days of studying law, moot court, and the Socratic Method at Harvard, where he began during the autumn of 1884. By June 1887 he had graduated from Harvard with an A.M. degree from the College Department and a L.L.B. degree from the Law Department and cum laude credentials.
With further distinction, McKelvey founded the Harvard Law Review and served as its first editor-in-chief, during 1887.Harvard Bulletin, Inc. (October 4, 1911). Harvard Law Review [title republished within the publication] Harvard Alumni Bulletin 14, no. 1. pp. 453–454. . Retrieved May 20, 2025. To take the law review from idea to print, Chief McKelvey convinced law society mates to join his mission, and his intimate nucleus gaged the backing of Harvard professors and solicited subscription support from alumni.The Harvard University. 1917. The Harvard Law School, 1817 – 1917. Norwood, Mass: Harvard Law School Association. Page 139. . Retrieved August 13, 2016McKelvey, John Jay. 1937. The Law School Review, 1887 – 1937. Harvard Law Review 50, no. 6 (April): 882, 886. With proper organization and logistics, the review went to press, and Chief McKelvey bolstered the Harvard Law Review success, by lobbying his circle of influence, including the Oberlin contingency and Harvard alumni of Boston and New York City. Salesman, spokesman, organizer, chief, McKelvey essentially encouraged other law-truth-seekers to buy into the value of establishing the Harvard Law Review.
Attorney-at-law Admitted to the New York bar during 1888, initially McKelvey began to practice law at 10 Wall Street in New York City, with Albert Stickney, Esquire and Edward Morse Shepard, Esquire of Stickney & Shepard, at the top of his bar history;Names and Addresses of Living Bachelors and Masters of Arts and of the Holders of Honorary Degrees of Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University. . Retrieved July 7, 2016 after which, during 1889 McKelvey associated with DeLancey Nicoll. From 1890 to 1894, McKelvey worked as a solo practitioner at 45 William Street—the same office complex shared by then Grover Cleveland. Between 1894 and 1895, McKelvey joined the law firm of Shepard, Terry, McKelvey, & Prentiss—a short-lived partnership, though fellow Harvard Law alumni Seth Sprague Terry would subsequently serve McKelvey as his counsel. McKelvey returned to practicing law alone, between 1895 and 1899. With his brother-in-law Frederick W. Mattocks, McKelvey formed his second longest partnership, primarily practicing realty law from 1899 to 1906 at 66 Broadway.Trow Directory Company. 1901. The Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx City of New York. New York: Trow Directory Company. Volume [XLVIX?]. March. . Retrieved August 13, 2016The Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx City of New York, 52nd Year. March 1904. McKelvey longest law partnership was between 1906 and 1914 with the firm of McKelvey & Favour at 84 William Street where Alpheus Hoyt Favour and associates drew denunciations and dismissals.Harvard University. 1908. Names and Addresses of Living Bachelors and Masters of Arts and of Science Masters of Arts and of Science Doctors of Philosophy and of Science and of Holders of Honorary Degrees of Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University. . Retrieved July 13, 2016Harvard University. 1914. Harvard University Directory. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. By 1919, McKelvey was displaying his own shingle, practicing law at 43 Cedar Street.Harvard University Law School. 1915. Quinquennial Catalogue of the Law School of Harvard University, 1817 – 1914. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Law School. . Retrieved July 13, 2016McKelvey held his last partnership with McKelvey & Kennedy from 1926 to 1930 before finishing his solo law career, with an office at 36th West 44th Street and pleadings before the New York Supreme Court on behalf of his affluent clients.
Legal clients Holding about a dozen board memberships and principalship positions, McKelvey counseled officers of various business entities, involving insurance underwriting, lumber, finance, politics, preservation, railroad, and voluminous realty issues. His work as advocate and attorney presented opportunity to appear and champion his clients and their causes at several levels from local assessors' boards to the New York State Senate and New York Supreme Court to U.S. legislative hearings, and ultimately via U.S. Supreme Court pleadings.
Representing the Sandusky & Columbus Short Line Railway Company, McKelvey served as counsel and helped consolidate the railroad his father began. Years later, he returned to the railway transit business, with the New York & Chicago Short Line, but his involvement with the Pan-American Transcontinental Railway Company could have unhinged an elite career. Early to mid-career McKelvey began defending the risks and rights of lumber and insurance entities, and a New York City newspaper commentary listed McKelvey among a list of approximately 200 attorneys eligible and worthy to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court bench. McKelvey'sadvocacy and appearance work augmented his travel and influence from Canada to California to the Roosevelt White House, 1904 and kept his name in wide-ranging newspapers and respected industry periodicals, as an authority, appearing alongside the names of entities such as these: East Side Lumber Company Lumbers Exporters' Association Lumber Insurance Company of New York Lumber Insurers General Agency National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association of America Adirondack Fire Insurance Company Toledo Fire and Marine Insurance Company of New York Federal Union Fire Insurance Company Through the Park District Protective League, attorney McKelvey represented the realty rights and interests of wealthy landowners who lived along the Hudson River at Spuyten Duyvil. He defended the residents against adverse possession, easements, eminent domain, unfair property assessments, etc.Board of City Record. 1914. Official Journal of the City of New York 42, part 11 (21 November): 9227. New York: Board of City Record. . Retrieved August 13, 2016Board of City Record. 1914. Official Journal of the City of New York 42, part 10 (14 October): 8144. New York: Board of City Record. . Retrieved August 13, 2016. With denials, fees, and decisions against the residents and their reserve, McKelvey switched tactics. He moved from a protective mode to a preservationist mind frame. McKelvey formed or managed companies, which he used to finesse the purchases of the Spuyten Duyvil estates from amiable residents and subsequently used the companies to control these multi-faceted realty transactions and help control urban growth. McKelvey's strategy converted manor homes and grounds into multi-unit cottages, mostly upscale co-operatives, apartments, or studio homes. McKelvey fashioned the residences after the character of the estate environs but named the abodes after French and British heroines Rosa Bonheur and Charlotte Brontë, with names such as the Villa Victoria, the Villa Rosa Bonheur, and the Villa Charlotte Brontë. McKelvey primarily pushed his lasting strategy through the below five named collectives:
Along-the-Hudson Company Edgehill Co-operative Savings and Loan Association Edgehill Terraces Company Industrial and Commercial Exhibition Company of New York Northern Realty Company
The landscape continued to change for the park residence district with the onslaught of WWI through the Great Depression, which amplified the pressure from urban developers, commissioners, and unabated assessors. Along the pathway to resolving the grotesque vs. picturesque community character crisis, other creative landowners adopted McKelvey's strategy or a similar stance.
Legal cases