The 1847 Sarah A. Faulkner House - 134 East 16th Street

 

photo by Ted Leather

An advertisement in The Evening Post on September 14, 1847 offered, "The large, new, modern style Dwelling House and Lot in fee, No. 58 East 16th st., near Union square."  The ad described the 25-foot-wide, four-story residence as being, "Finished in the best manner, with carved statuary mantels, plate glass, mahogany doors, all the recent improvements, including dumb waiter, gas, furnaces, &c.,--One of the most desirable residences in the city."

Construction of the Greek Revival home had started a year earlier.  Faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, it was one of a row of identical houses.  A lacy, full-width cast iron balcony fronted the floor-to-ceiling parlor windows and a simple, bracketed cornice completed its design.  Distinguishing the row from scores of similar homes rising throughout the city at the time were their entrances, the entablatures of which were crowned with highly unusual cornices with stylized egg-and-dart decoration.

photo by Ted Leather

No. 58 East 16th Street (renumbered 134 in 1863) was purchased by Sarah Faulkner, the widow of William Faulkner.  Like many widows of the time, she operated her home as a boarding house.

Among Sarah's earliest tenants was Edward Chauncey Marshall, who boarded here as early as 1850.  He was on the faculty of the Free Academy of the City of New York as the Assistant in the Department of History and Belles Lettres.  In 1850 he earned $700 per year, or about $28,200 in 2025. 

The other boarders that year were three attorneys--Charles T. Shelton, Horace Andrews, and Cheselden Ellis-- and one merchant, John G. Williams.  Some, most likely, were married and would have shared one or two rooms with their wives.  Unmarried women were generally not welcomed in respectable boarding houses.

It appears that one married couple had a baby in 1852.  The new arrival prompted its parents to find their own home.  (The decision might have been made at Sarah Faulkner's urging.)  Sarah placed an advertisement in The New York Times on December 9, 1852 that read:

A Family who are about going to house-keeping will vacate two pleasant rooms in one of the most desirable boarding houses in the City, and would like to find someone to take them.  The dinner hour is 2 o'clock.

Sarah's daughter, Catherine, moved into the house following the death of her husband, Henry, in 1862.  She died here the next year, on August 2, 1863 at the age of 53.  Her funeral was held in the parlor of "the residence of her mother, Mrs. S. A. Faulkner, No. 134 (late 58) East 16-th st., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 3 o'clock P.M., without further invitation," reported The New York Times.

Boarding here at the time was David H. Brown, a clerk.  Two months after Catherine's funeral, he was called to testify in support of Alexander Simpson.  On October 14, Simpson and Margaret Larkin faced off in court--she accusing him of setting fire to Wilson's Bakery on the night of January 1, and he charging her of perjury.  

Larkin testified that she saw Simpson "with straw in his hands, the straw having tar, or some other combustible material spread over it."  The New York Times reported, "After the straw was lighted, she saw Mr. Simpson set fire to the stairs, baskets, &c."  Simpson swore that Mrs. Larkin's statements were "wickedly and maliciously false."  The Times said that David H. Brown "corroborated the statements of Mr. Simpson."

On March 15, 1865, David H. Brown and another boarder, John Strong, were inducted into the Union Army.  Happily for them, the war ended less than a month later.  Brown returned to 134 East 16th Street.

Catharine G. Read purchased 134 East 16th Street in 1867 for $23,250, according to the New York Dispatch on March 3.  (The price would convert to about $600,000 today.)  Sarah F. Brown continued to take in boarders.  David H. Brown would remain here through 1869.  Sarah Brown's other boarders that year were Robert McCartee (who listed his profession as "treasurer"), and John Murphy, a tobacco merchant.

The fact that Sarah Brown had only three boarders reflected the upscale tenor of her operation.  The fewer the tenants, the more exclusive the home.  She leaned on Sarah Faulkner's sterling reputation in advertising a vacancy on September 14, 1873:

134 East Sixteenth Street (late Mrs. Faulkner's) to let, with Board, a suit of rooms on second floor till November 1; also rooms for gentlemen.

The boarding house was taken over by Isaac Bush, Jr. in 1877.  Its respectability continued to be unreproachable.  Although Bush occasionally accepted unmarried females, they were always school teachers--Mary J. Gallagher in 1879, Mary G. Pursell in 1888, and Isabel McConnellogue in 1890.  All of them taught in public schools.

An interesting resident was Count Lucian Della Sala, who boarded here in 1883.  He summered at the Guigou House in the Catskill Mountains at least once.  As the end of the season neared in 1883, the resort listed him and other respected Manhattanites like General George H. Sharpe, Italian Consul General G. B. Raffo, and Colonel G. Thurston, as references.

On May 5, 1900, The World ran a lengthy article condemning "the immense profits made by The Tammany Ice Trust."  (Tammany Hall had given Charles W. Morse's American Ice Company a virtual monopoly over the ice supply in Manhattan.)  The article was headlined, "Grip of the Great Ice Trust, Now First Felt by the Public."  Among those interviewed for the article was Isaac Bush, Jr., who grumbled, "I had a special arrangement to get ice at 25 cents, and now comes a notice that the price is 50 cents."

Among the boarders in the early years of the 20th century were Reverend W. H. Van Antwerp and his wife, who arrived in September 1903.  Born in 1833 in Geneseo, New York, Van Antwerp was ordained on June 30, 1858 and earned his Master's at the General Theological Seminary.  He and Charlotte Augusta Jones were married in St. Thomas Church in 1862.  The couple traveled to Des Moines, Iowa in January 1882 where Van Antwerp built a new church.  

In 1941, the cast iron balcony of 132 East 16th Street next door survived.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Another interesting boarder was artist A. T. Weston.  His advertisement in Printers' Ink on November 27, 1907 read, "Drawings.  Comic drawings--bright, catchy and original.  Tell me what you want and I will submit sketches."

That year Catharine G. Read died, leaving the title "free of a mortgage" to 134 East 16th Street to her daughter, Gertrude E. Kellogg.  She retained possession at least through 1912, when she leased the house to Minnie Hoffman.

In the post-World War I years, 134 East 16th Street operated as a rooming house.  Not all the residents were as upstanding as those who had occupied rooms in the 19th century. 

On August 14, 1925, for instance, Platon Sorotay was arrested and "charged with driving [a] car while intoxicated," as reported by the Daily Argus of Mount Vernon, New York.  And on the night of April 28, 1944, Nicholas Marino was arrested in the subway station at Broadway and 72nd Street.  The New York Sun reported, "Marino was shown by the records to have been arrested twenty-four times previously" for pick-pocketing.

A renovation completed in 1961 resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor levels and two apartments each in the upper floors.  The duplex was divided into two apartments in 1965.

photograph by Ted Leather

Although the iron stoop railings have been replaced, the original Greek Revival-style areaway fencing suggests their appearance.  The iron balcony was removed prior to 1940 and the brick facade has been painted.  Nonetheless, of the 1847 row, only 134 East 16th Street has outwardly survived mostly intact.  

many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post

The 1832 Benjamin Robert Winthrop Mansion - 138 2nd Avenue

 

image via apartments.com

In 1832, the year after he completed the sumptuous homes along St. Mark's Place between Second and Third Avenues, Thomas E. Davis began construction of similar Federal-style mansions on Second Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets.  The property sat within what had been part of the Stuyvesant farm.  Completed the following year, like its identical siblings 138 Second Avenue was faced in Flemish bond brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Typical of Davis's designs, the arched entrance sat within a Gibbs surround.  Three-and-a-half stories tall, its peaked roof was pierced with two prominent dormers.

photograph by the author

The mansion was purchased by Benjamin Robert Winthrop, a nephew of Nicholas William Stuyvesant.  Born in January 1804, he was a direct descendant of John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts and from Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of New York.  The head of a marine insurance company and a vice president of the New-York Historical Society, he and his wife, the former Elizabeth Neilson, had three sons and a daughter.

Benjamin Robert Winthrop later in life.  from americanaristocracy.com

The "Report of the Annual Dinner of the New England Society" on December 23, 1851, recalled, "From both father and mother he inherited a large fortune," adding that his house "is said to have been one of the finest houses in the city."

The Winthrops sailed to Europe in 1839, apparently intending to return to 138 Second Avenue eventually.  Benjamin Winthrop's first cousin, Hamilton Fish, moved into the house with his wife, the former Julia Kean, and their seven children.  The family had previously lived in Fish's birthplace, 21 Stuyvesant Street.

Hamilton Fish, from the collection of the Library of Congress

Born on August 3, 1808, Fish was an attorney.  He first ran for New York State Assembly as a Whig candidate in 1834 and would be a prominent figure in State and U.S. politics for the rest of his life.  

It appears that the Fish family lived with the Winthrops' furnishings.  In 1851, the "Report of the Annual Dinner of the New England Society" noted that the house "remains nearly in the same condition as when [Winthrop] left it to go abroad.  His library, rich in American and local history, is  still there.  On one of the walls hang pictures of his ancestors, among them one of Petrus Stuyvesant."

In 1851, Hamilton Fish was elected U.S. Senator.  (He would go on to become U.S. Secretary of State from 1869 to 1877 and a close advisor to President Ulysses S. Grant.)  He and his family left 138 Second Avenue following his election.

The house became home to Duncan Pearsall Campbell and his wife, the former Maria Bayard.  (Maria was Campbell's second wife, his first, Catherine Bayard, was her sister.  Catherine died in 1814 and Duncan and Maria were married on June 16, 1817.)  Campbell, who was born on Christmas Day 1781, was a partner in the shipping firm Le Roy, Bayard & Co.  His father-in-law, William Bayard, was the senior partner of the firm.  Living with Duncan and Maria were the children of Duncan's first marriage--Sarah Ann, Henry P., Robert B., and William B. Campbell--and Thomas P. Campbell, the only child of his second.

In addition to his position with Le Roy, Bayard & Co., Campbell was a director of the City Dispensary, was a founder of the Bank for Savings, and a trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York.

It was almost assuredly Duncan Campbell who raised the attic to a full fourth floor and updated the parlor with a three-sided bay.  While the Federal-style lintels were copied at the new level, the Italianate cornice with foliate brackets gave the house an up-to-date flavor.  

The parlor bay was likely added when the attic was raised.  No. 138 is the fourth house from the left.  Its original appearance can be see in 140 and 142 2nd Avenue next door.  King's Handbook of New York, 1892, (copyright expired)

The Campbell family suffered a period of grief starting on December 9, 1860 when William Bayard Campbell died.  Interestingly, his funeral was not held in the house, as would be expected, but at Trinity Church.  (None of the Campbell funerals would be held at home.)  Three months later, on March 5, 1861, Sarah Ann Campbell died, and on November 9, Duncan Pearsall Campbell expired in the house at the age of 80.

Thomas and Henry remained in the Second Avenue house with Maria through 1869.  By then, the once refined neighborhood was being engulfed with immigrants.  In 1870, the Winthrop family leased the former mansion to Eliza Foshee, the widow of Bernard Foshee.  She operated it as a boarding house.  Among her initial tenants were William Vanduze, a dry goods merchant; and George Adams, who did not list a profession in city directories, suggesting he was retired.

Benjamin Robert Winthrop died in London in 1873.  The Evening World reported, "By a provision of the will, the widow was given the house at 138 Second avenue, rent free for her life and $20,000 a year."  Elizabeth Winthrop, who had homes in Paris and London, would not be returning to Second Avenue.

The residence continued to house boarders until about 1883, when the Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls leased it and the house next door at 136.  Founded in 1869, its Annual Report said, 

The objects of the association shall be to rescue the daughters of poor and dissolute parents in the city of New York from the evil influences which surround them, by providing houses where the most necessitous and exposed may be cared for, or by gathering them for daily instruction, religious or secular.

The Annual Report of the State Board of Charities noted in 1885, "The building No. 136 is occupied by the older girls and young women, and constitutes an institution quite separate from the next house, occupied by children."  It added, "Number 138 is undoubtedly overcrowded, especially considering the condition of the health of a large number of the children."

Around 1894, the basement level was converted to business.  It held a barber shop through the turn of the century.  Despite its current uses, No. 138 Second Avenue and the other surviving Davis homes still exuded their former graciousness.  Influential architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler wrote that they give "an impression of decorum and refinement for which one would search any more modern quarter entirely in vain."

The Rev. Dr. Orlock and his wife were associated with Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls.  They lived here as early as 1900.  The couple got around town on bicycles, a popular and expensive pastime.  But on April 16, 1900, The Sun reported that the pair, "have been obliged to forego bicycle riding for the last two weeks because someone stole their wheels from their residence at 138 Second avenue."   Happily for them, a detective discovered the bicycles in a junk store on First Avenue on April 14. 

Living in the building in 1904 was John Holthosen, the sexton of St. Mark's Church.   By now, the former barber shop was operated as Philip Wagner's "funeral shop."  On June 14 that year, John and his two adult daughters boarded the General Slocum for a day trip up the East River and across the Long Island Sound to a picnic grove on Long Island.

The pleasure trip became a disaster--ending with the largest loss of life in New York City until the World Trade Center attacks.  Fire broke out below decks around 10:00.  Within 15 minutes the General Slocum burned to the waterline.  Of the 1,300 people aboard, only 321 survived.  Among them was John Holthosen, "who was saved with his two daughters," according to The Sun.  

On June 19, The New York Times reported,

...all day yesterday many [unidentified bodies] lay in the undertaking shop of Philip Wagner, at 138 Second Avenue, while every now and then hearses came and went and now one and then now another coffin was borne out for burial, some of whom made up the grim family party lying so quiet in the long black boxes in the back room of the undertaker's shop.

The "grim family party" referred to in the article were the 26 extended family members of Henry A. Kohler.

In 1910, the Winthrop family received a permit to install a store front, or "bay window."  The permit noted it was "not to project past the property line."  Five years later, in February 1915, architect Louis A. Sheinart filed plans to make alterations "for show rooms."  While the projecting, two-story storefront destroyed the parlor bay, the renovations did not alter the magnificent entrance nor the upper floor openings.

In 1916, the League of Foreign-Born Citizens moved its headquarters into the building.  Its present, Nathaniel Phillips, also took up residence here.   On December 15, The Evening Post remarked, "Starting in October, 1913, with five members, the League has grown steadily until its membership is now close to 2,400."  The article said, "At 138 Second Avenue the brother of the man who stormed Bucharest sits beside the cousin of the man who defended it and learns how to become a citizen of his adopted land."  The organization was described in the November 1919 issue of Foreign Born as the "First organized institute for the purpose of helping the foreign-born to become American citizens and appreciate American institutions."

The League remained here at least through 1919.  The commercial spaces held the Enterprize Dental Supply Co. and the Art Costume Co. in the 1920s.  By then, ownership of 138 Second Avenue had passed to Benjamin Winthrop.  Prior to his death before 1931, he possessed 72 properties in the district, including this one.

In March 1939, the Manhattan Eighth Assembly District Club established its clubhouse here.  The social-political club was "formed to fight Charles A. Schneider for the Tammany leadership of the district," according to The New York Times on March 17.

Lightweight boxer Angelo DeSanza fought in the ring as Terry Young.  On November 17, 1943, The New York Times reported that the 21-year-old "boasted...he had averaged $10,000 yearly for the last three years."  He was, as well, the leader of a gang of gunmen who had been perpetrating hold-ups on the Lower East Side.  The article said their downfall came "when the four younger robbers invaded the Eighth Assembly District Democratic Club at 138 Second Avenue on Feb. 19."  The gang threatened 40 members with drawn pistols and fled with $400.

The inexperienced delinquents had chosen the wrong club to target.  Two were arrested within hours and they then fingered the others as well as DeSanza.  He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in Sing Sing.  In sentencing him, Judge Goldstein commented, "It was only by the grace of God and the cool-headedness of those in that club that some of the victims were not murdered by those young gunmen."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

In 1947, Spanish American painter Esteban Vicente Pérez (who did not use his surname professionally) and his bride, Maria Teresa Babin, moved into an apartment here.  Born on January 20, 1903, he was among the first generation of New York School abstract expressionists.  He had just returned to New York after a two-year period of painting in Puerto Rico.  According to Elizabeth Frank in her Esteban Vicente, when they moved into 138 Second Avenue, 

Vicente already knew and had become good friends with composer Edgar Varèse and his wife, and now he became friends with the composer Stefan Wolpe and his wife, the poet Hilda Morley, as well as a number of painters, including Willem de Kooning, Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, William Baziotes, and Barnett Newman.

The couple remained here through 1949.

The Eighth District Assembly Democratic Club had its headquarters here at least through 1969.  One of the commercial spaces was home to Zachary's hair salon in the early 1980s.

photograph by the author

A hearing regarding the designation 138 Second Avenue as an individual New York City landmark was scheduled for June 23, 2009.  Poised to testify was Joyce Mendelsohn, author of The Lower East Side Remembered & Revisited.  In her letter of support, she commented, "No. 138 Second Avenue survives as an important nineteenth century building with twentieth-century alterations, reflecting the history of the area and the growth and development of the city."  Unfortunately, the hearing was "removed from the calendar without prejudice."  

photographs by the author

The 1908 James G. Johnson House - 306 West 107th Street

 

On September 25, 1909, William J. Casey, "owner and builder," placed an advertisement in the New York Herald for three of his four newly completed houses.  (Casey omitted No. 308 because he kept it for his own occupancy.)

New York Herald, September 25, 1909 (copyright expired)

The advertisement pointed to the homes' luxurious amenities, like the four bathrooms and billiard room.  The "needle bath" would nearly surround the user with a series of sprays.

The bathrooms were outfitted with needle baths similar to this one.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The row was designed by Neville & Bagge in an A-B-B-A configuration.  Each of the neo-Georgian-style residences was five stories tall.  The entrance of No. 306, one of the B models, sat behind a dignified portico with fluted Ionic columns.  Above the limestone base, the upper floors were clad in warm, red brick, and the openings were fronted with Juliette balconies with iron railings.  The fifth floor was sandwiched between substantial cornices, the uppermost of which was surmounted by a brick parapet.

On October 10, 1909, the New-York Tribune reported that Casey had sold the "five story American basement dwelling house" at 306 West 107th Street.  James G. Johnson had spent $65,000 for the residence, or about $2.3 million in 2025 terms.

New-York Tribune, October 10, 1909 (copyright expired)

Born in Monaghan, Ireland in 1831, Johnson arrived in New York City in 1850 and joined the dry goods business of another Irish immigrant, Alexander Turney Stewart.  In 1856, Johnson founded the importing and manufacturing millinery firm of James G. Johnson & Co. at Canal and Wooster Streets.  He was, additionally, a vice president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank.

A widower, Johnson had five grown children, George B., Thomas W., Edward S., Annie McEntyre, and Elvira Kelly.  Elvira was a widow and she and her children, Adelaide and Herbert J., also moved into the new house.  The Kelly family shared Johnson's summer home in East Hampton, as well.

The engagement of Annie McEntyre's son, James G. McEntyre, to Helen Marie Sheehan, was announced in the spring of 1913.  On May 25, The Sun reported, "On Wednesday evening Mrs. E. Kelly, aunt of Mr. McEntyre, was the hostess at a theatre party.  She took her guests to see 'The Amazons' and after the performance to her home, 306 West 107th street, for supper and informal dancing."  The New-York Tribune commented that also attending were the bridegroom's grandfather, James G. Johnson, and Adelaide (who would be the maid of honor) and Herbert.  Herbert would serve as an usher at the wedding.

James G. Johnson died in the West 107th Street house on December 29, 1916 at the age of 85.  In reporting his death, The East Hampton Star commented that his business success had "brought him fortune and prosperity."  The newspaper added, "He was sparing with his fortune however, and used much of it for the benefit of the poor and the community in which he dwelled, generally."

His estate was appraised at the equivalent of $18.2 million today.  Elvira inherited the equivalent of $3.65 million, and Adelaide and Herbert were bequeathed just under $30,000 in today's money.  Elvira and her children remained at 306 West 107th Street.  

America entered World War I in April 1917 and the following year The Sun headlined a first page article, "The Fighting Irish Who March With 'Kelly and Burke and Shea.'"  The article reported on the recruits of the "Fighting Sixty-ninth" which had been commissioned at Camp Wadsworth.  It listed three full columns of Irish surnames, including Herbert Johnson Kelly of Company K.

Elvira received terrifying news on April 16, 1918.  The Evening World reported, "Word was received to-day by Mrs. John B. Kelly, of No. 306 West 107th Street that her son, Corpl. Herbert Johnson Kelly, Company K, 165th Infantry, has been wounded in action."  (It appears that Herbert survived his injuries and the war in general.)

Within the year, Elvira sold 306 West 107th Street.  The new owners converted it to a "dwelling for two families and bachelor apartments," according to the Certificate of Occupancy that year in 1919.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

At least one of the two apartments was a duplex, home to Edwin Bell and his wife.  It was occasionally the venue of social events.  On May 23, 1920, for instance, The Sun reported, "At a luncheon and musicale given recently by Mrs. Edwin Bell at her home, 306 West 107th street, announcement was made of the engagement of Mrs. Anne Nancy Gottschalk of Cincinnati and this city to Mr. Herman Wagner of Providence, R. I., and New York."  The Bells' apartment was large enough to take in a renter.  They placed an advertisement on October 2, 1921 for "A furnished suite consisting of unusually large room, bath and complete kitchen, in private duplex apartment.  Bell, 306 West 107th st."

More typical was the apartment of a tenant named Scott, who advertised on March 13, 1921, "Very attractive apartment, 2 rooms, bath and kitchenette, near Riverside Drive, to be sublet until October."

At least some of the residents at the time were affluent enough to own an automobile.  On November 30, 1921, The Evening World reported that Frank Wesley and George Engle had been arraigned, "charged with the theft of an automobile owned by Henrietta [Madison] of No. 306 West 107th Street."  The pair's arrest ended a months-long string of thefts.  Two days later, the New York Herald reported that Wesley and Engle had confessed "to having stolen more than forty automobiles."

A renovation completed in 1961 resulted in two apartments per floor in the former mansion. 

photographs by the author

The Lost "Bruno's Garrett" - 58 Washington Square So.

A row of altered mansions, once similar to those on the north side of the park, contrast to the humble, frame building on the corner.  from the New-York Historical Society, Robert L. Bracklow Photograph Collection

In 1790, New York City purchased seven acres of land to be used as an execution ground and potter's field well north of the established city.  The property, which would later be named Washington Square, was increased by seven acres in 1797.

According to city directories, Daniel Megie, an early Irish immigrant, held the title of "keeper" of the potter's field starting in 1819.  The position would include the less impressive duty of grave digger.  That same year, as documented in the records of the Title Guarantee & Trust Company, Megie purchased a 21 by 80 foot plot at the southeast corner of what would become Thompson Street and Washington Square South from John Ireland.  (Ireland, a well-do-to merchant, owned significant property south of the potter's field.)  Megie paid $500 for the parcel (about $12,700 in 2025 terms).  

Daniel Megie erected a two-story frame building on the plot.  The no-nonsense, vernacular-style structure was clad in wide clapboards and capped by a modest cornice.  Its six-over-six windows were typical of the period.  The lonely building was the only structure along the field.

The last of the executions in the cemetery took place on July 8, 1819.  The Evening Post reported that “Rose, a black girl who had been sentenced for setting fire to a dwelling…was executed yesterday at 2 o’clock near Potter’s Field.”  It would be the last of the hangings.  (Whether the executions were part of Daniel Megie's job description is unclear.)  

In 1821, Megie sold his corner property to Joseph Dean for $850.  It was the last year that Megie was listed as keeper of Potter's Field.  The next year, a devastating 1822 yellow fever epidemic struck New York City.  Trenches were excavated and wooden coffins piled three or more deep--swelling the number of dead to an estimated 10,000 to 20,000.

Mayor Philip Hone instructed that the cemetery be renovated to a military parade ground called Washington Square in 1826.  Four years later, George P. Rogers began construction of the first of the elegant mansions that would ring the park: 20 Washington Square North.  Within a decade, Washington Square was one of the three most elegant residential enclaves in New York City.  And sitting among the opulent Greek Revival-style mansions was the little wooden building at 58 Washington Square South.

The increasing property values on the square was reflected in John de Ruyter's purchasing the wooden building in 1867 for $14,650--about $330,000 today.  He leased it to John Connelly who assuredly raised the ire of his patrician neighbors.  On July 21, 1871, The Sun reported that he had received a permit to "place a watering trough in front of number 58 South Washington square."  His purpose of having a horse trough was, perhaps, to attract cab drivers and draymen into Connelly's saloon.

It seems that the first publicity around the saloon came on April 24, 1876, an incident that The Sun described as "one more Temperance lecture."  Adolphe Lemoyne, Jr. was the son of a well-heeled merchant.  The newspaper said that he, "was a handsome fellow a few years ago, but dissipation told heavily upon him.  He chose to be an outcast."  The young alcoholic pawned everything he owned to support his habit and on that afternoon, he pawned "two pairs of pantaloons" in a Sixth Avenue shop for $2.  The 35-year-old went directly to Connelly's saloon.  He sat at a table and said he felt ill.  He asked for a glass of water and, after drinking it, "fell backward from his chair and expired."

A disturbing incident took place on September 28, 1888.  John Entwistle came to New York City from upstate that morning, "and started out to see the sights of Gotham," as reported by The Evening World.  He made friends with a woman named Ella Johnson and they went from saloon to saloon, "among them was one at 58 South Washington Square, where Entwistle treated everybody."  Suddenly, "so crazy with drink," according to the article, Entwistle blurted, "I might as well kill myself."  He took out a knife and jabbed it twice into his chest.

Entwistle was arrested (attempted suicide was a jailable offense at the time) as were "his female companions, three other girls, and two men."

At the time, the saloon was operated by John F. Doyle, who was described by The World as a "divekeeper."  Entwistle's suicide attempt paled to the scandalous activities that were going on.  Captain John J. Brogan of the 15th Precinct station investigated the saloon on March 7, 1889 "after complaints by President Z. Stiles Ely, of the Wetmore Home, and by all the other inhabitants and property owners of Washington square," according to The World.  His report was shocking, saying in part,

Found the place nasty, vile; about ten women in place; we treated six; found eight in room about eight by ten, in rear of saloon; bartender named Foster encouraged women to drink, calling them by name, etc.; conversation very vile; bartender well built; light-complexioned, good looking light moustached man; was busy at 1 A.M. measuring three of these women's limbs, thighs and private parts.

John F. Doyle's excise license (i.e., liquor license) was revoked on March 28, 1889.  After being closed "for a little while," according to Capt. Brogan, the operation of the saloon was taken over by Michael Ward, one of Doyle's former bartenders.  In May 1890, Brogan testified to a State Senate committee, "It is running as usual."  The Evening World reported the testimonies before the Fassett Committee a year later, on May 28, 1890.  It told of five excise inspectors who, "were able to tell such a disgusting tale of vile performances in their report that it was too dirty for publication in the newspapers."

Surprisingly, especially given the fact that Michael Ward's dive sat among the mansions of some of Manhattan's wealthiest and most powerful citizens, a year later it was still in operation.  On November 27, 1891, The Evening World reported that Ward was summoned to the Excise Board's president "to show cause why his license should not be revoked."

Michael Ward's license was revoked.  The saloon was cleaned up, at least moderately, by a Tammany Hall favorite Francis A. Stevenson, who moved his family into the upper floor.  Stevenson, known as Frank, was a boxing referee and fight manager.  He ran several dance halls and dives, the most notorious being the Black & Tan at 153 Bleecker Street.  Shockingly in the 1890s, he catered to all races.  Police Superintendent George Walling wrote of the Black & Tan, "It is the resort of black men as well as white, but the girls are all white!"  He called it, "revolting."

On May 7, 1906, The Sun reported that Stevenson had been injured in a car accident.  Five months later, on October 2, The New York Times reported, "Francis A. Stevenson, a member of Tammany Hall, and a friend of Richard Croker, died on Saturday night at his home, 58 Washington Square South.  His death was hastened by an automobile accident."  The article did not mention the 59-year-old's saloons.

Stevenson's death signaled the end of a saloon in the little wooden building.  It was converted to the Arch Cafe, which was sold in February 1912 to Jess Albrozza and Joe Cavagnara.  They opened the Oasis in Greenwich Village, an ice cream parlor.

On March 2, 1913, The New York Times posed a question that must have been on the minds of locals for decades.  "It is a singular fact, and one that the old real estate records do not explain, that this immediate corner was never fully improved."  The article said it and the adjoining wooden buildings on West 3rd Street, "present a decidedly incongruous appearance by the side of the fine old houses adjoining."

An interesting chapter of the venerable building started on May 10, 1915.  The New-York Tribune reported that Bruno's Garrett had opened the previous day.  "The works of the artists of Greenwich Village will be on exhibition continuously," said the article.  Guido Bruno opened his upstairs "Garret" with an exhibition of 250 drawings by Clara Tice.  He told the newspaper, "no admission fee is charged and there is no expectation of sales.  The Garrett is just to acquaint New Yorkers with their own artists in the Latin Quarter of America--Greenwich Village."  

Guido Bruno was born Kurt Josef Kisch in Prague in 1884.  He immigrated to America in December 1906 and moved to New York City in 1913, when he legally changed his name.  From a rear space he published the monthly Bruno's Chap Books, Bruno's Weekly, Bruno's Monthly, Greenwich Village  (with Charles Edison, son of the inventor), and the book Bruno's Bohemia.

from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In his June 23, 1915 issue of Greenwich Village, Bruno announced a poetry reading "every Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock."  He described them as "interesting gatherings in Bruno's Garret which is situated at 58 Washington Square" and cautioned, "It is informal and no admission fee is charged.  But please drop me a line so I can reserve a seat for you."

In reporting on a second exhibition of Clara Tice drawings on April 11, 1915, The New York Times described Guido Bruno as, "an Americanized Serb with an Italian name, who was been a war correspondent in Turkey and a reporter in Chicago, and is at present a translator, publisher and research expert in the history of Greenwich Village."  The article described the century-old structure as, 

...the most forlorn-looking two-story frame building that can be found in New York.  On the ground floor is an Italian soda fountain and candy and cigar store; above are the rooms where the Bruno Chap Books and the semi-monthly magazine, Greenwich Village, are published; and the big front exhibition room with a view, across the fountain and under the Washington Arch, of the lower reaches of the avenue.

 from the New-York Historical Society, Robert L. Bracklow Photograph Collection

On February 13, 1916, the New-York Tribune began an article saying, "Bruno's Garret is a mass of charred and shattered glass ruins."  Bruno had arrived to work that morning to prepare for an exhibition about Abraham Lincoln.  A fire had started in the abutting East 3rd Street structure "presumably from an open grate," according to The New York Times, and spread into the second floor of 58 Washington Square South.

The article said, "Abraham Lincoln, in painting, and his mother, Nancy Hanks, alone remain unscathed in the room."  The Fourth Estate noted that Bruno's Garret "has an international reputation," and said, "Mr. Bruno's greatest loss was the destruction of many unpublished manuscripts, including one by Bernard Shaw."  The New-York Tribune recounted, "the quaint, small wooden building that holds the Garret has a strange history.  When Washington Square was the potter's field, the little building was the tool house of the grave digger.  Later it was a tavern, where upstate coaches paused for mail and a drink."  The newspaper said, "Mr. Bruno declared that he will repair the Garret at once."

Bruno did restore the damage (the Oasis of Greenwich Village was apparently little hurt) and reimagined it as The Garret Shop, a bookstore.  His operation would be short-lived, however.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

According to historian Rose Durand, shortly after opening the store, a customer entered and asked for Edna: The Girl of the Street by Alfred Kreymborg.  The "customer" was, in fact, an agent of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.  The novel detailed the challenges of a woman driven to prostitution.  Bruno was arrested for a violation of the Comstock Law.

On September 29, 1917, The Sun reported that the second floor of 58 Washington Square, "formerly known as Bruno's Garret, [was rented] to Miss Grace Godwin for use as a tea shop."  After renovations, Grace opened her "Grace Godwin's Garret" which she advertised as "a cheerful place for good coffee."

The ground floor was now Rossi Brothers Confectioners and Grace Godwin's signage (much less dramatic than Bruno's) was displayed on the second floor.  The woman sitting in the window may be Grace.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

The Oasis of Greenwich Village, by now, was owned by the Rossi Brothers.  According to Emily Kies Folpe in her It Happened on Washington Square, the store "offered ice cream, cigars, and cigarettes and was notorious for its willingness to sell tobacco products to women."

The Quill, December 1918 (copyright expired)

Grace Godwin's cafe took the ambience of Greenwich Village's subterranean tearooms to her second floor.  In his 1993 book Greenwich Village: Culture and Counterculture, Jan Seidler Ramirez writes that her patrons "could observe aspiring local painters scratching graffiti on the restaurant's walls, or rub elbows with impoverished poets and budding Bolsheviks."

 

The Quill, February 1, 1918 (copyright expired)

By 1922, Walter Meyer had taken over what was now called The Garret.  A cleverly worded advertisement in The Quill in April 1922 touted, "Execrable food and unspeakable coffee at exorbitant prices.  Seating accomodation [sic], cramped and suffocating.  No attractions whatever--And still they come!!!  Was Barnum right?"

When The Sunday Constitution Magazine listed among the "few places of repute in Greenwich Village" on March 4, 1923, "The Garret at 58 Washington Square," was included.  At the time, however, the end of the line for the 114-year-old building was near.  Five months earlier, on October 22, 1922, the New York Herald reported that the Anglesea Realty Company had purchased it and the abutting house at 60 Washington Square South, along several other Greenwich Village properties.

They survived until August 1927, when they were demolished for a 15-story apartment building that never came to pass.  Instead, the vacant lot sat behind a tall wooden fence, which was used for outdoor art shows.

Percy Loomis Sperr photographed an art show on May 23, 1935.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Today the six-story Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, designed by Eggers & Higgins in 1961, occupies the site.

The 1827 William Cleary House - 41 Charlton Street

 

In 1827, Thomas Parker erected seven, identical rowhouses along the recently opened Charlton Street block between MacDougal and Varick Streets.  Two-and-a-half stories tall and faced in brick, their upscale details--marble stoops, double-doored entrances, and handsome stepped lintels-- elevated them above more modest homes rising in the neighborhood.  

The complex openwork wrought iron stoop newels terminated with pineapples and four acorns.  The motifs would have been familiar to potential owners.  For decades, the pineapple was a symbol of welcoming; and because it was the seed of the mighty oak tree, the acorn connoted strength.

William Cox and his family briefly occupied 41 Charlton Street.  Then, on January 20, 1831, "the house and lease of lot" were sold at auction.  The announcement appearing in The Evening Post described:

The house is one of those much admired two story, marble stoop and basement, opposite the Richmond-Hill House.  The rapid increase of this section of the city, the view of the river, the contiguity to one of the best markets, high ground and good water, having a well of excellent water in the back area not two feet from the kitchen, render this a desirable location for a genteel family.  The lease is from Trinity Church, and has 35 years unexpired from 1st of May next.

(As the announcement mentioned, the house sat upon Trinity Church property, known as the Trinity Farm.  While the purchaser would own the structure, he would not own the plot and would be obligated to pay annual land rent.)

Eugene L. Bell purchased the house.  But, unfortunately, his residency was short-lived.  The 32-year-old died at Bull's Ferry, New Jersey on July 24, 1833.  His rushed funeral was held at 41 Charlton Street the next afternoon--most likely before most acquaintances knew of his death.

The Charlton Street house was next occupied by the Coddington family.  Samuel Coddington was a commission merchant at 106 Water Street, and David J. Coddington was a copper smith at the same address.  The family was supplanted by John Bishop, a shipmaster, beginning in 1836.  John Jr. was a grocer on Front Street.

The Bishops left 41 Charlton Street in March 1840.  At the time, it was common for families to liquidate their household goods and start over at their new location.  An auction here on March 24, 1840 listed "genteel furniture" and expensive items, including a piano forte, French mahogany bedrooms suites, "elegant marble top centre tables," and an extensive parlor suite of "divans, sofas, ottomans, chairs."  Also sold were oil paintings, cut glass, silverware and "china dinner and tea sets."

Around this time, the owner modernized the house.  When he sold it in 1846, he boasted, "finished attic, marble mantels, Croton water, kitchen range."  The Croton Reservoir on the site of today's New York Public Library first brought running water into households who could afford it in 1842.

In the meantime, Samuel T. Armstrong had been leasing the house since the Bishop family moved out.  He and his son, Frederick W. Armstrong, operated a flour business, Samuel T. Armstrong & Son, at 23 Water Street. 

When 41 Charlton Street was sold in February 1846, the Armstrongs remained as tenants for another two years.  It was, once again, offered for rent in 1846.  Tenants continued to come and go until William Cleary purchased the house around 1867.

Cleary's business interests were far-flung.  He was a real estate agent, the proprietor of two saloons--one on Hudson Street and another on Varick Street--and by the 1870s added "drugs" and "lumber" to his resume, as well as a school trustee of the Eighth Ward Common Schools.

William Cleary and his wife had two sons, William H. and John.  It appears that Cleary's sister and brother-in-law, Ellen and Michael Sullivan, lived with the family.  When Ellen died at the age of 33 on April 21, 1868, her funeral was held in the parlor two days later.

In 1871, Cleary sold one of his saloons.  His advertisement in the New York Herald on August 10 offered, "For Sale--The lease, stock and fixtures of the old established corner Liquor Store 343 Hudson street, corner Charlton, price $350.  Apply on the premises, or to William Cleary, 41 Charlton street."  His price for the business--equal to $9,000 in 2025--seems a bargain.

Three years later, in February 1874, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Cleary filed plans to "raise one story; cost $1,500."  His builder carefully matched brick color and the original lintels, and installed a simple fascia board and cornice.  Only the change from Flemish bond to running bond brickwork testifies to the addition.

The 1874 cornice survived as late as 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Cleary boys were young adults by then.  William J. was working as a clerk by 1875, the year that his brother got into serious trouble.  On May 30 that year, the New-York Tribune reported that John Cleary "had a fight last night with George Green of No. 9 Varick-place, at West Third and Wooster sts.  Clary [sic] struck Green upon the head with a club, inflicting severe wounds."

Another funeral was held in the Cleary parlor on May 10, 1877.  John Sloane was the husband of Cleary's sister.  The 48-year-old had died, presumably here, on May 7.

The Cleary family left Charlton Street in 1879.  They were followed in the house by Levi Heyer, a provisions merchant in the Clinton Market.  Living with him and his wife, the former Phoebe Helme, were their teenaged sons, Henry H. and Louis F., and Phoebe's widowed mother, Margaret.

Unlike the Cleary's, the Heyers did not need the additional space.  In December 1879 they advertised one room per floor for rent.  "An American family will let three large Rooms, on first, second, and third floors, with or without Board on moderate terms."

Phoebe's mother, Margaret Helme, died at the age of 74 on December 29, 1879.  His funeral was held here on December 31.  Three years later, there was another funeral in the parlor.  Louis F. Heyer died on October 9, 1882 at the age of 21.  

In the meantime, Louis's brother was embarking on a medical degree.  In 1887 he was listed as Dr. Harold H. Heyer.  It was most likely their common profession that resulted in Dr. John P. Nolan leasing space from the family by 1889.

Dr. Nolan received a subpoena to appear in court in June that year.  Elizabeth Ann Goodrich, alias Swan, was accused of  "a pious fraud," as worded by District Attorney William Jerome.  For years, he charged, she had collected money "for an aged woman named Goodrich" and her husband, "a paralytic," from well-to-do merchants.  Nolan had been summoned because he "could testify that Mrs. Goodrich's husband was really a paralytic."  The sometimes testy doctor, however, "had torn up the subpoena...and declared that he would not come to court," reported The Sun on June 27.

Dr. Nolan was arrested.  "He explained that he had torn up the subpoena because he had been bothered a good deal by Mrs. Goodrich and did not believe that the subpoena is a legal document.  In fact, he did not read it," said the article.  It concluded, "The Doctor paid the fine, and tried to look pleasant."

New Yorkers were incensed when they read the death of police officer George Davis in the newspapers on August 3, 1892.  He had fallen ill during duty the previous day, and was taken to Dr. Nolan's office here.  The Evening World reported, "The doctor is said to have declared that Davis's ailment was not serious."  In the cab on the way to his home, Davis died.

The damning coverage threatened to severely damage Nolan's reputation.  That evening a reporter visited him at 41 Charlton Street where he found the doctor "very indignant about the statement imputed to him."

He said the officer had been in his office for more than half an hour, "too sick to walk."  He diagnosed him with "acute cholera morbus," gave him medicine, and advised him "to go to a hospital, as I considered his home too far for him to be carried even in a hack."  He denied, "that I treated his sickness as something trifling."

Nolan treated a bizarre case following the election in November 1893.  Fred Holmes was a longshoreman and a Democrat who lived at 274 Spring Street.  That year, the Tammany candidate was defeated.  Although his wife tried to comfort him saying, "There will be another election next year," Holmes replied, "But they beat Hill and I want to die."

Dr. Nolan was called in.  He "prescribed the usual remedies for post-election paralysis," said The Sun.  Holmes went to sleep and his wife went to her housework.  An hour later, Holmes walked in the room and said, "Well, Mary, I guess I fooled you this time,"

"Of course you did, Fred.  Now do sit down.  Maybe the Democrats will win next time."

Holmes told her he did not have long, "I have just taken a big dose of carbolic acid."  Nolan was called back, this time accompanied by a priest.  Fortunately, Nolan was in time, and Holmes survived.  

Although the Heyer family moved from 41 Charlton Street around 1893, Nolan remained.  When he married in 1906, he and his bride moved to West 112th Street, but he kept his office in the Charlton Street house.

Ten years later, Elizabeth Nolan sued him in State Supreme Court to set aside a separation agreement she had signed in 1913.  She had agreed to accept $5 a month and give up her dower right.  (A dower right would have given her claims to real estate in the eventuality of a divorce.)  The Sun reported on April 7, 1916,  "They lived in the same apartment but did not speak, and Mrs. Nolan said that her husband so terrified her by his threats that she signed the agreement."

In 1917, Trinity Church sold 17 of the 375 dwellings it owned in Greenwich Village.  Among the buyers was William S. Coffin, who purchased numerous properties, including 41 Charlton Street.  He converted the house to studio apartments, advertising one of them in May 1918 as, "two large, light rooms, kitchenette and bath, electric light, stem heat, hot water, fireplaces."  The parlor floor was leased to the St. Hilda Guild Art School.

Living here in the early 1940s was journalist Edwin S. McIntosh.  Starting out just after World War I, he worked in several cities before moving to New York City in 1919 and joining The Sun.  When he moved into 41 Charlton Street, he was a political reporter for the New York Herald Tribune.  He covered the Sacco-Vanzetti execution and, according to the Daily World in 1944, reported on "virtually every political campaign in the last fifteen years."

McIntosh fell ill in the summer of 1943.  Six months later, on January 12, 1944, he died at the age of 55 in Lenox Hill Hospital.  Saying that he was "known to political figures and reporters everywhere as Ned," the Daily World reported that his funeral in Campbell's Funeral Home on Madison Avenue was "simple."

At some point around this time, the cornice was removed from 41 Charlton Street.  A photograph after mid-century shows a brick parapet trimmed with the diminutive cornice that we see today.

Although no Certificate of Occupancy is on file to document the conversion of apartments to a single family home, a listing for 41 Charlton Street in 1993 clearly confirms that.  It describes a "6-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 4-story one-family 1829 [sic] town house; dining room, eat-in kitchen, library, study, 8 fireplaces, original molding and detail."  

The house was purchased in 1999 by art dealer Lisa Spellman for $2.7 million.  She told Constance Rosenblum of The New York Times in 2010, it had been home to "Robert Morgenthau, the longtime Manhattan District Attorney, who was married here, and a fashion designer named Catherine Shannon, a great-granddaughter of Henri Matisse."

In 2010, Spellman authorized Oliver Stone to film here, as the home of actress Carey Mulligan's character in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

photographs by the author