The Lost Thomas Cole House - 1 Laight Street

 

photograph by Samuel Landsman from the collection of the New York Public Library

On September 13, 1802, the Board of Trinity Episcopal Church resolved to erect a chapel of convenience north of the city.  Construction of St. John's Park, anchored by a Georgian-style chapel designed by John McComb, began in 1803.  By the time St. John's Chapel was completed in 1807, the manicured, fence enclosed park--bounded by Varick, Laight, Hudson and Beach Streets--was being girded by refined Federal-style mansions.

The elegant, brick-faced residence at the head of Laight Street was three-and-a-half stories tall and 27-1/2-feet wide.  Although it faced Varick Street, it took the address of 1 Laight Street.  Because it sat on the northern side of the churchyard, its residents enjoyed windows on the southern side.  A stone stoop with wrought iron cage newels rose to the double-doored, arched entryway.  Its frame, along with the paneled window lintels, were made of marble.

photograph by Samuel Landsman from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Hoffman family occupied the house in 1827.  A. M. Hoffman was a surveyor, most likely employed by the city, and Henry Hoffman was a wholesale grocer.

Commission merchant Richard Reed and his family next occupied the mansion, here as early as 1829.  On the night of September 30, 1832, a sneak thief entered the house and made off with four silver and six silver-plated "table spoons."  A notice in the New-York Evening Post the next day said, "To any person returning said spoons, or giving information where they can be found, a suitable reward will be given by applying as above."

The house was sold on March 4, 1834 to Dr. George Ackerley and his wife, the former Anne Cole.  Born in 1797, Ackerley would be described by historian Henry Howe in 1891 as "the noted New York surgeon."  He and Anne were part of the "English immigrant colony" in Steubenville, Ohio when they were married in February 1821.  At the time, Anne's brother, Thomas, was working in the family's wallpaper factory, designing wallpaper patterns and engraving them into woodblocks.

By the time the Ackerleys moved into 1 Laight Street, Thomas Cole had transitioned to portrait painting.  He moved into the mansion with the Ackerleys.  Interestingly, Cole listed his profession in 1836 as "architect."

The Course of Empire, Consummation was among the works Cole executed while living here.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

That year, on November 22, Thomas Cole married Maria Bartow in her family's house in Catskill, New York.  Interestingly, Cole lived with Maria and her parents in the Bartow house during part of the year, while living with Anne and George in the remainder (most likely during the winter season).  Maria remained year round in Catskill, occasionally taking a steamboat to New York City to attend Thomas's lectures.  When they were apart, the pair maintained regular communications, with Maria often giving Thomas advice on his patrons.  In her letter on February 12, 1844, for instance, she urged:

Don't work too hard but go into society as much as you can--& now I Think of it, why need you propose either of your subjects of Pictures, Tell them you have Subjects, & what you will paint for them, & be sure you have it in the bargin [sic] that you may exhibit them if you wish to.

In the meantime, George Ackerley maintained a side practice of patent medicines.  In April 1841, he advertised Dr. Ackeley's Enteritic Balm in The New York Sun.  It guaranteed in part:

A certain remedy for the summer complaint of children, cholera morbus, dysentery, diarrhea, obstinate vomiting, cramp in the stomach and bowels, lead cholic, bilious and flatulent cholic, &c, &c.

The ad said the balm had cured 2,200 cases over the past eight years.  Ackerley also marketed Dr. Ackerley's Vegetable Pills, a "valuable agreeable and safe medicine for Ladies at all times," and Dr. Ackerley's Tonic Bitters, which "have done wonders where the Digestive and Nervous System have been out of order."  And an advertisement on April 8, 1842 in the New-York Tribune touted Dr. Ackerley's Purifying Anti-Scrofulous Syrup.  It said that, in part, that the medicine:

...cures scrofulous affections and other diseases occasioned by or attended with an impure state of the blood, restoring healthy action, diseased growths are stopped and scattered, and sores and ulcers healed...Prepared and sold by Dr. G. Ackerley, at his office for consultation and advice, No. 1 Laight st., corner Canal street.

A month after that ad appeared, George Ackerley was dead.  He died at the age of 45 on May 22, 1842.  Two days later, the New-York Tribune announced, "His friends, and those of his brother-in-law, Thomas Cole, are respectfully invited to attend his funeral this afternoon at 4 o'clock, from his late residence, No. 1 Laight street."

Anne Cole Ackerley soon left the mansion and in 1850 it was being rented by stockbroker S. A. Darling and his family.  The property was sold at auction on November 19, 1851.

Reflecting the gradual change in St. John's Park, Jules Poinsignon converted a portion of 1 Laight Street to a restaurant.  It was operated by William D. Benson in 1856 and '57, and in 1860 Charles Koss took over, running the former mansion as a hotel.

An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on February 4, 1863 offered the commercial properties at 394 and 396 Canal Street for sale.  The parcel included 1 Laight Street "in the rear."  The three properties would be forever linked going forward.

Charles Hoharst leased 1 Laight Street, running it as a boarding house with an "oyster house" in the former restaurant space.  Three years after opening, he lost his new puppy and on January 31, 1866, advertised:

$5 Reward--Lost a Bull Terrier pup, about 3 months old, white with brindle spots.  Had on a plated collar, with the name of Charles Hoharst on it.  Whoever will return the same to 1 Laight st. will receive the above reward.

Hoharst's reward would translate to about $100 in 2025.

In 1867, Trinity Church sold St. John's Park to the Hudson River Railroad Company.  The firm immediately began plans to replace the refined private green with a freight terminal.  Understandably, one-by-one the wealthy homeowners abandoned their mansions and moved uptown.

In 1909, 1 Laight Street (left) was dwarfed by a commercial structure.  The former mansion on the opposite of the chapel (right) is a near mirror-image.  photograph by George F. Arata from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The Canal Street and Laight Street properties were soon occupied by Huntington Brothers & Company, manufacturers of women's garments.  Presumably 1 Laight Street was used as its offices.  The firm remained until 1896.  Arkin Brothers, a maker of boxes, leased the properties in February 1901, and in May 1914, another box company, the Heppe-Schoen Paper Box Co., moved in.  Amazingly, through it all the exterior of the venerable Laight Street mansion remained essentially intact.

Edwin Davis French created this depiction in 1898.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Then, in 1918, the widening of Varick Street eradicated not only 1 Laight Street, but the magnificent St. John's Chapel.  The former Ackerley mansion was one of the last vestiges of what had been Manhattan's most exclusive residential enclave.