The Samuel A. Moore House - 51 MacDougal Street

 

In 1788, the Bayard family hired Casimir Theodor Goerck to map out streets and building plots on their land.  The western boundary between their estate and Richmond Hill was called MacDougal Street.  It was named for patriot Alexander MacDougal (who at some point dropped the second L from his family's surname, MacDougall).  Fervently anti-British, he was a founder of the Sons of Liberty along with activists like Samuel Adams, Benedict Arnold, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere.  During the war, he rose to the rank of major general and succeeded Benedict Arnold in commanding West Point.

By the 1820s, many of Goerck's streets and building lots had moved from paper to reality.  But the MacDougal Street block between West Houston and King Streets would not be developed until the early 1840s.  Samuel A. Moore operated a livery stable at 51 MacDougal Street, on the southwest corner of West Houston Street, until 1843.  The next year he replaced it with a Greek Revival house-and-store building.

Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, the substantial building was three stories tall above the storefront.  Moore and his family lived here and took in boarders.  In 1847, they were William H. Burnett, a carpenter; and Edward Mesler, the assistant keeper at the City Prison.  Samuel A. Moore listed his profession as "late stables" (meaning he was retired from the stable business) until 1851 when he began a delivery business and was listed as a carman.  That year Charles Morgan moved his butcher store into the ground floor.

The Moores left MacDougal Street around 1855 and the building was operated as a boarding house by Margaret Orr, the widow of Peter Orr, until around 1860.  Her daughter, also named Margaret, was married to Moses M. Gregor, a Scottish immigrant, in their parlor here on July 9, 1857.

A tragedy occurred here on Saturday evening, August 31, 1861.  The May family, who had a two-year-old son named Conrad, lived in rooms on the third floor.  He was left alone for a few minutes and, according to The New York Times, "he mounted a stool by the window and pushing open the blinds, lost his balance, falling to the flagging.  His skull was crushed in."

Several of the residents would remain at 51 MacDougal Street for years.  Police officer Henry M. Quinn, for instance, moved in with his family around 1863.  He and his wife had at least two sons, and would still be here as late as 1890.

Another Irish-born resident was Lawrence McCarthy, who lived here with his family in the early 1880s.  He ran a dance hall on Mercer Street near Bleecker Street.  The Mercer Street neighborhood had a scandalous reputation.  For decades it was home to brothels, gambling dens and dives.  Very early on the morning of March 19, 1883, McCarthy was found by police at Eleventh Avenue and 43rd street, badly beaten.

The New-York Tribune said he had been assaulted "by some ruffians."  More likely, the incident was a result of a gangland dispute.  McCarthy refused to identify his attackers.  The article explained, "They were former friends of his, it is said, and they had quarreled with him."  He initially insisted on being brought home.  "His injuries were so serious, however, that his family caused his removal to St. Vincent's Hospital yesterday," reported the New-York Tribune on March 21.

By the late 1880s, the residents of the MacDougal Street block were mostly immigrants, and many of those living at 51 MacDougal Street were from Ireland and Italy.  Henry F. Shaughnessy, a clerk for the city, lived here in 1888; as did Camillo Augerarini, a cigar maker; and Richard Shea.

At 8:00 on September 9, 1889, Camillo Augerarini left 51 MacDougal Street and went to the ferry at 125th Street with Thomas De Fina.  They were on their way to Fort Lee.  De Fina ran a cigar store on Wall Street and was, no doubt, one of Augerarini's customers.  Unfortunately, they missed the last boat and so De Fina paid someone to take them across the Hudson River in a rowboat.

About halfway across, a "heavy wave struck the boat and capsized her," reported The New York Times.  The accident was witnessed by the crew of a nearby brick schooner, the Voorhis, and two men jumped overboard.  They succeeded in rescuing De Fina, but Augerarini and the other man were swept away.  Their bodies were never recovered.

One block to the east of 51 MacDougal Street is the Church of St. Anthony of Padua.  In June 1887, Bishop Stephen Vincent Ryan excommunicated one of its priests, Father Dent, for what might be called unpriestly behavior.  Five years later, Dent sued the bishop for $100,000 for slander.  The scandal prompted the other St. Anthony priests to initiate a cover-up, which was exposed when Maggie Kenny, who lived at 51 MacDougal Street, was called as a witness for the defense.

On June 1, 1892, the New-York Tribune reported that she, "created a sensation by asserting that she had been ordered in confessional by a priest not to testify in the case, and also by suddenly saying that three of the priests at St. Anthony's Church were married."  When further pressed, Kenny identified the priests by name.

By 1904, Maria Brogan owned the building.  In December that year she leased the store to Dennis Gallo.  The 12-year lease began on January 1.  She hired architect Louis Faresin to design a new storefront for Gallo's drugstore, as well as to reconfigure some interior walls.  The alterations cost her the equivalent of about $18,000 in 2024.  Two years later, Brogan made significant updates to the building.  In April 1907, she hired architect F. E. Ryall to reconfigure the floorplans to accommodate bathrooms.

Shoemaker Angelo Serio was a native of Sicily.  He and his family lived here in 1913.  Justice among the Sicilian community was, most often, handled internally.  In June that year, Serio was arrested for having shot at a man in the Mulberry Bend neighborhood, a depressed, often dangerous Italian district.  The would-be victim ran away, and so Serio was charged only with disorderly conduct.  Apparently, however, his target did not forget.

Just after 8:00 on the night of July 6 that year, he was with a group of seven other Sicilians at the corner of Hester and Mott Streets.  The New York Times commented, "There was nothing to distinguish them from the thousands of their countrymen who swarmed in Sunday-night leisure in the crowded quarter, except that they seemed to be quarreling among themselves."

Suddenly, seven revolver shots rang out.  The Times reported, "A terrified scurrying among the members of the group and the crowds ensued."  When calm returned, Angelo Serio lay dead on the pavement, and the body of another, Bernardo Di Siano, was on the stoop of a building where he had attempted to flee.  Serio had been shot three times, and De Siano once through the heart.

During the Depression years, the store was home to Frank's Pizzeria.  An advertisement in the New York Post on February 22, 1941 emphasized, "specializing in Italian pizza and spaghetti.  Beer."  The restaurant became Calypso in the early 1950s.  The cabaret-style eatery featured live entertainment.  On April 13, 1952, for instance, the famous calypso singer Lord Invader, "plus many native artists of the famed Trinidad Carnival," opened here.

By 1970, the Morrison Pastry Company bakery operated from the ground floor of 51 MacDougal Street.  The wholesale operation nearly lost a driver on July 28, 1970.  At 3:50 a.m., Michael T. Tureck was about to make a delivery to the Bank of America Building at 41 Broad Street when he saw smoke coming from a small suitcase near the door.  The New York Times reported, "He turned and ran away just before the explosion, which left him shaken but apparently unhurt."  The bomb, planted by the terrorist group The Weathermen, shattered the glass doors and cracked the building's marble walls.

Morrison's Pastries initiated a clever marketing plan in April 1976 by allowing individual customers to buy small quantities  of cakes and "party goods" at wholesale prices.  

At the turn of the 21st century, Something Special occupied the store.  The 2000 guide Savvy in the City: New York urged,

Let Lenny take care of you.  he's the landlord of this building, but for a mere dollar a deed, he will fax, make keys, make copies, notarize, etc.  Mailboxes available for $50/month...Lenny is busy but reliable, and if you are really nice, he just might forward your mail wherever the wind has taken you!

"Lenny" was Lenny Cecere, who owned the building and the quirky store.  On January 30, 2017, TheRealDeal called Something Special, "a store that for decades sold everything from sweets to jewelry to books.  It also offered key making, notary services and handled mail for celebrities reluctant to disclose their addresses, such as Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker and Famke Janssen."

Cecere operated Something Special until his death in 2015.  In January 2017, the building was purchased by "an unnamed overseas family trust" according to TheRealDeal, which "shelled out $9.85 million for the four-story property."

The storefront was remodeled and in 2022 Hamburger America moved in.  The upper floors were renovated to five apartments, one on the second floor and two each on the third and fourth.

photographs by the author

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