In 1836, Peter Gerard Stuyvesant and his sister, Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish, established the outlines of a double-wide lot that would become 178 and 180 Tenth Street (renumbered 102 and 104 East 10th Street in 1865). Peter Stuyvesant's long-term real estate manager was Thomas Macfarlan and that year he was assessed $4,100 on the property. Three years later, Macfarlan received a $400 tax increase, reflecting the construction of a house at 178 Tenth Street. It was the first dwelling to be erected on the block.
Two stories tall above a brownstone basement, the house was faced in warm, red brick and trimmed in brownstone. It likely exhibited elements of the Federal and newer Greek Revival styles.
The house was originally rented. Although the first family's identity is unknown, an advertisement in The Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer on June 9, 1843 hints at life inside the home:
Wanted--A respectable middle aged Protestant woman, a good Seamstress, and one who has been accustomed to the care of children, and possessing the necessary qualifications and disposition to discharge when required, the duties of a house keeper. Apply at No. 178 Tenth street. City references required.
The following year, in September 1844, the family was looking for another servant:
Wanted--A girl accustomed to the duties of a waiter and chambermaid, with good city recommendations, may hear of a situation by applying at 178 Tenth street.
Around 1849, a two-story office building was erected next door. It housed Peter Gerald Stuyvesant's real estate office. Here Stuyvesant, Thomas Macfarlan and Daniel T. Macfarlan operated.
Daniel T. Macfarlan was Thomas's son. Born in 1828, he married Mary Jane Merritt on November 20, 1850. His involvement with his father's real estate business would be relatively short-lived. He was "converted in what was known as the Dry Dock Mission," according to The Christian Advocate later, and became a Methodist minister.
With the real estate office next door, Thomas Macfarlan moved his family into 178 Tenth Street. Mcfarlan was born in 1793. In addition to Daniel, he and his wife had two other sons, Ebenezer and Thomas Jr.
Shortly after moving in, Thomas Macfarlan was drawn into a heated controversary. His father was among the patriots who had been imprisoned and died in the Livingston Sugar House--used as a prison by the British during the Revolution. Their remains were interred in Trinity Churchyard and were threatened with removal by a proposed public street through the churchyard. (The project was successfully blocked.)
The parlor was the scene of a funeral on February 25, 1856. Margaret Crawford apparently lived with the family. The 80-year-old was the widow of Thomas Crawford, Mrs. Macfarlan's brother. The notice of her dead in the New-York Daily Tribune noted, "The relatives and friends are requested to attend her funeral from the house of her brother-in-law, Thos. Macfarlan, No. 178 tenth street, one door east of Third avenue, at 1 o'clock this afternoon."
By 1859, Thomas Jr. was working with his father and the business became T. Macfarlan & Son. (The younger Thomas and his family lived significantly north at 132 East 53rd Street.)
Thomas Macfarlan died at the age of 73 on June 26, 1866. Both the house and the real estate office were taken over by Charles C. Wakeley. (Peter Gerald Stuyvesant continued to maintained his office at 104 East 10th Street as he pursued his political career. He was elected New York Governor in 1848, senator in 1851 and United States Secretary of State in 1869.)
The Wakeley household was thrown into turmoil on November 18, 1875. The Hudson Daily Star reported, "This morning Mary Ann Fitzmorris, aged forty-five years, a servant at No. 102 East Tenth street, drank a quantity of oxalic acid with suicidal intent." A family member found her and two doctors were summoned to the house. The article said, "a stomach pump was applied, and the patient at present is doing well."
On March 24, 1879, The City Record reported that Rutherford Stuyvesant had hired architects Peter T. O'Brien & Sons to "alter and enlarge the brick dwelling No. 102 East Tenth street." (Rutherford had inherited 102 and 104 East 10th Street from Peter Gerald Stuyvesant, his great-uncle. At the same time, he demolished the office building next door and replaced it with a house.) The renovations to 102 East 10th Street cost Stuyvesant $1,000 (just under $32,500 in 2026asdf terms). Included in the modifications were sheet metal cornices above the openings and a neo-Grec style cornice.
No. 102 East 10th Street became a boarding house. Among the residents in 1884 were Joanna M. Bourke, a public school teacher; and William H. McGiven, a theatrical business manager.
In 1888, Herman S. Clark, alias Harry Johnson; and John H. Williams, alias Henry H. Williams, shared a room here. Clark, who was 24, was an artist; and the 27-year-old Williams worked as a bookkeeper. And they had a sideline to augment their finances.
On May 26 that year, The Evening World began an article saying, "The operations of two young men who have preyed upon the occupants of boarding-houses for some weeks were brought to an abrupt close yesterday by the arrest of the thieves." Using 102 East 10th Street as their base of operations, the two men would engage a room in other boarding houses, ransack other boarders' rooms, then make off with the loot. Their luck ran out when Mary A. Hogan, the proprietor of their most recent exploit, pointed them out to police officers on Lexington Avenue. "The officers overhauled the fellows in Thirty-seventh street, near Fifth avenue, and soon had them behind the bars," said the article.
In their room on East 10th Street, police discovered pawn tickets for, "dress suits, sealskin sacques, meerschaum pipes, diamond collar buttons, and many other articles of value," reported The Sun. Judge Martine sentenced Clark, a.k.a. Johnson, to four years in prison, and Williams to four-and-a-half.
Born in Germany, Helen Fischer lived here in 1892. At just 18 years old, she was already noted as a singer. She fell in love with another German immigrant, Gustave Bruder. Then, early that summer, the young man broke up with her. Helen was devastated and on June 2, she walked into Stuyvesant Park and shot herself in the chest. Three weeks later, The Sun reported, "she has recovered from her injury, but is insane." The newspaper said that the promising young singer "will be sent to the lunatic asylum on Blackwell's Island to-day."
Two years later, the residents were terrified--although they were not certain why. On January 7, 1894, the New York Herald reported, "Boarders at No. 102 East Tenth street do not know whether it was a burglar or spook that invaded the house, rapped at doors and thumped Mr. Koeniges' head." (It is unclear if the source of the unnerving occurrences was discovered.)
The boarders here continued to be middle-class professionals. In 1899, George M. Silverberg was appointed a commissioner of deeds (a civil service position similar to a notary public). He was still living here and holding the position in 1903 when another resident, Daniel Morgan, was appointed a commissioner of deeds, as well.
Mrs. Frieda McCarthy ran the boarding house in 1912. Among her residents was Marie Fueler, who informed Mrs. McCarthy early in March that she would be sailing to Europe soon. On the afternoon of March 11, while Mrs. McCarthy was away from the house, Marie used a skeleton key to enter her room. She stole $60 in cash (about $2,000 today), a gold watch and chain, and five rings that Frieda McCarthy valued at $130, and then packed her bags and left.
Mrs. McCarthy notified Detective McGrath, stressing the importance of finding Marie Fueler quickly, since she had a ticket to sail on the Crown Prince Wilhelm the next day. McGrath soon arrested her on the street not far from the East 10th Street house. Marie admitted having taken the items, but insisted that Frieda McCarthy "owed her a large sum of money which she refused to pay." She had merely taken the cash and valuables as partial payment, she said. While she was in jail, the steamship left port with Marie Fueler's luggage on board.
In 1941, a laundry occupied the basement and French-style doors filled the entrance. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
By the time Louis Bass purchased 102 East 10th Street in August 1919, the New-York Tribune described it as a "two-family house." Toward the end of the Great Depression, the basement was converted to commercial use, and in the early 1940s, it housed the Third Avenue Laundry.
The somewhat beleaguered house was purchased in 1966 and its owner initiated a sympathetic renovation to a single-family home. Among the most striking elements of the project was the entranceway, designed to resemble one that would have been seen in a period Greek Revival home. Its fluted, Ionic pilasters support an blank frieze and transom.
The oldest house on the block, 102 East 10th Street is still a single family home.
photographs by the author
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