The Remarkably Restored 1845 38 East Fourth Street

In early 1830's, the first of the aristocratic homes that would line the East Fourth Street block between Lafayette Place and the Bowery appeared.  Mary Waldron, the widow of Oliver Waldron, Jr., was a little late to the party, erecting a speculative, 25-foot-wide residence on the south side of the block in 1844-45.  The elapsed decade was reflected in the architecture.  The brick-faced house was Greek Revival in style, as opposed to its earlier Federal style neighbors.  Three-and-a-half stories above a brownstone English basement, its low-key outward appearance belied the opulence of the interiors.

Among the early residents of 372 Fourth Street (renumbered 38 East 4th Street in 1865) was Morris S. Hopper, a merchant, listed here in 1845.  In 1851 the family of Gilbert Allen occupied the residence.

Mary Waldron's estate sold the house in 1853 to Anna M. Rutgers, who leased it to the affluent Dr. William W. Dwight.  Born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, Dwight had graduated from Yale University in 1826.  He seems to have occasionally treated police prisoners, supplying the Board of Aldermen with bills "for medical attendance at the Third District Watch-House."  Dr. Dwight died on July 11, 1861 at the age of 55, and his funeral was held in the parlor the following day.

Lawrence (or Laurence) Maher and his wife, Bridget, purchased the house in 1865.  The appearance of the couple on the refined block may have caused comment over teacups in the neighboring homes.  Maher listed his occupation as "liquors," which could have meant he ran a saloon, or at best a wine and liquor store.  An incident in November 1865 suggests the former.

Thomas Moore ran a gambling parlor at 700 Broadway.  On November 14, 16-year-old Beverly Gibson had a bad stroke of luck there, losing $600 playing faro.  (It was a massive loss, equal to about $10,300 today.)   The teen had been a sailor in the Confederate Navy, and was the son of a Confederate surgeon-general.  Even worse than losing a fortune, that money did not belong to him.

Earlier, Gibson had picked William W. Smith's pocket of $920 "while walking in the street," according to The New York Times.  Suspecting the police might be after him, he boarded the Good Hope heading for California, but Police Sergeant Garland overtook the ship off Bedloe's Island and arrested the boy.  The New York Times reported, "Sergeant Garland called upon Moore and politely requested him to return the money won from Gibson, but Moore refused to comply."  Thomas Moore was also arrested, and "Lawrence Maher, of No. 38 East Fourth-street, became his surety."  (The term meant that Maher bailed him out of jail.)

Two years after the incident, the Mahers sold the East 4th Street house to Henry Iden.  (Incidentally, Laurence Maher's life would come to a gruesome end on August 11, 1880.  He and Thomas Hogan were driving "a loaded beer-wagon," according to The New York Times, when somehow both of them "fell beneath the wheels and were killed."

Iden leased the house to Lewis and Bertha Schneider, who operated it as a high-end boarding house.  Among their tenants in 1873 were Max Bottstein, a shoe merchant; and engraver Anton Hilgenreiner.

The elevated class of the Schneiders' boarders was evidenced in a court case in 1876.  Renting rooms that November were the recently widowed Eusebia Fitzgerald and her adult son, Horace.  Three weeks after they arrived, on December 16, the Los Angeles Evening Express reported, "Mrs. Fitzgerald, a wealthy lady from San Francisco, and a step-sister of Gen. Ewing of California, charged Mrs. Bertha Schneider, a boarding house keeper of No. 38 East Fourth street, with robbing her of diamond jewelry valued at $6,000."  (The actual amount was $4,000, or about $104,000 today.)

Saying that Bertha "keeps a fashionable boarding-house," The New York Times described her as "an honest-looking German woman, apparently about fifty years of age."  Eusebia Fitzgerald, said the article, "is a woman apparently a little more than thirty years old, with light yellow hair, and a face which, though fair, is not by any means beautiful."

The women faced off in court on December 16.  The New York Times said Eusebia "seemed rather nervous and excited while giving her evidence, and several times manifested a decidedly combative disposition when closely questioned by counsel."  She told the court she had come to New York to settle her husband's $800 life insurance policy.  She had shown the cash to Bertha on December 11, "and soon afterward missed it."  Three days later, she said, "Mrs. Schneider came into her room and seized her diamonds."  According to her, Bertha told her they "were perfectly safe," and she "would give them up as soon as the board was paid."  Horace Fitzgerald took the stand and corroborated his mother's story.  

Bertha's testimony, not surprisingly, was starkly different.  She said Colonel St. Martin had brought her to the house, introduced Eusebia as his sister-in-law, and paid her the first week's board.  When the second week's rent was not forthcoming, Bertha asked for it several times.  Eusebia Fitzgerald showed her several $100 bills on December 13 as proof that she had the money, and said she would pay her rent when she returned from shopping.  "She went out and when she came back she said she had lost her money," said Bertha.  Eusebia then went to Colonel St. Martin and declared Bertha had stolen her jewels.

Ellen Dillon, a servant girl in the house, appeared on behalf of Bertha.  The New-York Daily Tribune reported she "testified that Mrs. Fitzgerald offered her $500 to state that she had seen the jewel box containing $4,000 worth of property in the possession of Mrs. Schneider."  And while Eusebia had testified that she had known Colonel St. Martin "for many years," he told the court they had only met in July.  Furthermore, acquaintances of Eusebia and her late husband said that there was no life insurance policy.

The case lasted nearly a week.  Then, on December 21, 1876 Judge Bixby exonerated Bertha Schneider and dismissed that case.  The Salt Lake City Deseret News reported, "Mrs. Fitzgerald was very indignant, and threatens libel suits against the papers for writing her up so extensively."

In 1881 Ms. H. Bulliganer took over running the boarding house.  A colorful tenant that year was Professor St. Leon, who advertised in the New York Dispatch, "Professor St. Leon, late of London, Astrologer and Clairvoyant, reveals everything.  No imposition.  No. 38 East Fourth street."  His "office" fees were 50 cents, and "consultation by mail" was $1.00.

Henry Iden enlarged the house in 1883 by raising the attic to a full fourth floor.  It was purchased by tobacco merchant Jacob L. Kahn in December 1890 for $29,000--around $891,000 in today's money.

By now the once refined residential block was much changed.  Almost all of the wealthy homeowners had migrated northward.  Some of the homes were now being operated as boarding houses, others had been converted for business or razed for commercial structures.  On June 18, 1897 the New York Journal and Advertiser would note that to the east side of Kahn's house "is a saloon, and next to that a Chinese laundry."

Born in Germany, Kahn had gone into the tobacco business in 1877.  In 1895, five years after moving into the East 4th Street house, he went head-to-head with a formidable opponent, the Tobacco Trust.  The Trust was bent on monopolizing the industry, intimidating retailers to purchase only their stock.  In December 1900 The Tobacco Worker explained, "Having a large business and an extensive stock, [Kahn] found it absolutely necessary to carry the goods which were now in control of the Trust."  But he balked at being bullied, and went to extreme measures to obtain other goods.  One by one, Trust spies discovered who his suppliers were, and threatened them.  "Nothing daunted, Kahn hunted up other jobbers," said The Tobacco Worker.  "Many a night Kahn, after closing up his store for the day, would take a midnight train out of New York and start out on a hunt for cigarettes.  In this manner he succeeded, despite all the efforts of the Trust, to keep supplied."

As part of the District Attorney's investigation against the Tobacco Trust in 1897, Jacob Kahn was scheduled to testify in court.  And as the date of the case approached, he discovered he was dealing with a fearsome adversary.  On June 18, 1897 the New York Journal and Advertiser wrote, "Jacob L. Kahn, probably the most important witness for the people in the Tobacco Trust case...to prove that rebellious dealers have been persecuted by the Trust, that spies have been employed to annoy them, and that efforts have been made to break up their business, was the victim of a mysterious casualty in front of his home, at No. 38 East Fourth street, yesterday morning."

Just after midnight, as Jacob approached his stoop, he was attacked "by two thugs and was felled to the pavement."  He suffered two deep cuts to the face when he "struck the pavement with fearful force."  The attack did not dissuade Kahn, who appeared in court as scheduled.  (The weeks-long trial ended in a hung jury on June 29.  The members were so heated in their disagreement, according to The World, that "the struggle in the jury-room" required a physician to be sent in to tend to at least one of them.)

The Kahn family remained in the house for years.  By 1915 Semon Kahn was working in his father's business as a clerk.  The property was sold to Dr. Benedict F. D'Angelo in 1933.  The family would retain possession through 1967.  During that time the once-proud home was brutalized.  The stoop was removed, as was the cornice which was replaced by a brick parapet.  The parlor floor entrance was converted to a window, and the entrance moved to the former basement level.

Astounding change would come in 2007.  Two years earlier the Fourth Street Inn, LLC had leased the house.  Now, having purchased it, the concern completed a remarkable restoration of the facade, rebuilding the stoop, and recreating the Greek Revival doorway.  The Lafayette House, a 15-room inn opened in October 2007 "with no fanfare at all," according to Fred A. Bernstein of The New York Times.

The stoop, Greek Revival style entrance, and decorative ironwork were all fashioned in 2007.

Although the parapet (with a newly-added cornice) gives the house a rather high forehead, and the parlor windows, which were undoubtedly full height in 1845, have been shortened, 38 East 4th Street has essentially regained the appearance it had when the stylish broughams of the block's wealthy residents passed by.

photographs by the author

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The Lost Ann Warner House - 27 East 4th Street

 

27 East 4th Street is at far left, next to the Seabury Tredwell mansion.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

By the mid-1820's, streets were laid out on the former Herring Farm.  Within the eastern section, later known as the Bond Street District, opulent residences soon began rising as the city's wealthy homeowners were continually pushed further north by the incursion of commerce.  No doubt seeing the investment potential in the area, in 1825 George Warner purchased the entire blockfront of East 4th Street between Lafayette Place and the Bowery, just east of the Herring Farm property.  Unfortunately, any plans Warner might have had for developing the property ended when he died later that year.

His wife, Ann, inherited three plots on East 4th Street (her children received the other parcels).  In 1831 she built the first house on the block at 359 Fourth Street (later renumbered 373 Fourth Street, and then 27 East 4th Street).  Ann Warner's brick-faced, Federal style house vied with other elegant residences in the Bond Street neighborhood.   Its aristocratic tenor was reflected in the double-doored entrance above  the stone (possibly marble) stoop.  Its Gibbs surround and the stepped lintels of the openings were nearly identical to the George Rogers mansion on Washington Square, erected in 1828.  Like that house, it originally rose three full stories to a dormered, peaked roof.

The architectural details of the doorway and windows of the George Rogers mansion were nearly identical to the Ann Warren house.

Ann's married daughter and her family lived with her.  Son-in-law William R. Cook was born in 1795 and worked in the U.S. Customs House.  The Cooks had five children, John H., William Jr., Catherine, Kelly and Anna.  In 1853 the youngest, Anna, was 21 years old and John was working as a clerk.

Despite the family's size (plus four live-in servants), the Cooks took in boarders--a common practice even within well-to-do families.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on February 6, 1852 offered:  "Genteel Board Up Town--A few gentlemen and ladies can be accommodated with rooms and genteel board, at No. 373 Fourth street, near Lafayette place."

Ann Warner died on November 24, 1856 at the age of 81.  Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later, and she was buried in Trinity Cemetery.  At the time of her death, the house was assessed by the insurance company at $12,000--about $367,000 in today's money.

In the 1860's the Cooks sold the house to plasterer Andrew Garvey.   He was closely allied with Tammany Hall and while living here was given the commission to decorate the new Tweed Courthouse, for which he received $133,187--half of the original budget for the entire structure.  A satirical poem from 1871, "The House That Tweed Built," even mentions Garvey:

Who made it his little game

To lay on the plaster, and lay it on thick,

On the roof and the walls

And the wood and the brick

...until it was only the plaster that was holding up the courthouse.

Decades later, in 1906, The New York Times remarked, "Garvey's house at 27 East fourth Street still contains the Tweed chandeliers, which were adorned with Indian heads and other Tammany emblems."

Around 1870 Garvey sold 27 East 4th Street to John Lynch and his wife Theresa.  Born in 1820 in England, Lynch was a jeweler and diamond merchant at 723 Broadway.  He also owned a livery stable at 222 Mercer Street.  

The couple had seven children and seven servants, including a butler.  It was no doubt the dense population of the house that prompted Lynch to increase its square footage by raising the attic to a full floor.  At the same time the Federal-style stoop ironwork was replaced with cast iron Italianate versions and a geometric lintel that closely matched those of the windows was placed above the arched entrance.

In the 1870's the wives of wealthy merchants were not expected to have careers.  And so it is somewhat surprising that directories listed Theresa Lynch as a jeweler at the Broadway shop with her husband.

Years later The New York Times later remarked that like the other neighbors, "Mrs. Lynch, the diamond dealer...was unable to get acquainted with the maiden sisters who occupied the house next door."  Those women were the daughters of Seabury Tredwell, whose house sat on property originally sold by Ann Warner to Joseph Brewster in 1831.  (The last of the  Tredwell sisters, Gertrude, would die in that house in 1933, nearly a century after its construction.)

By 1876 the Lynch family had moved to 37 East 12th Street.  They retained possession of the East 4th Street house, however, leasing it to wealthy beer importer Frederick Hollender and his family.  Somewhat ironically, living with them in 1876 was Rev. John S. Hanna.

Hollender and his wife had five children.  In 1883 they purchased the house from the John Lynch, and would remain until 1890.  Hollender and his wife, too, apparently found their next door neighbors somewhat standoffish.  As had been the case for Teresa Lynch, according to The New York Times later, "he and his family never became acquainted with the occupants of No. 29."

By the time Frederick Hollender sold 27 East 4th Street the neighborhood was no longer refined.  Wealthy homeowners continued to migrate northward and their once-opulent homes were being operated as boarding or rooming houses.  Before long only the Tredwell house next door would remain a single-family home.  At the turn of the century three families and one "lodger" lived in the former Warren residence.

By 1907 the basement level was converted for business, home to Adolph Wolf's men's clothing shop.  Two years later it housed another clothing shop, Charney & Newson.  Partner Nathan Newson was charged with violating child labor laws in 1909 for "employing child under 16 years of age without Board of Health certificate."

Around 1918 the parlor level became home to the headquarters of the International Workers of the World.  A Socialist-based group, it published a pamphlet that year titled "The Truth About the I.W.W" that touted members' contributions to the war efforts.  It said in part, "Many I. W. W. unions have been loyally serving the country during the war, particularly in loading ammunition and war supplies on the docks."  The group was notorious for its use of violence in labor disputes, however the pamphlet asserted, "Violence has been much more commonly used against the I. W. W. than by it."

On May 25, 1919, the New-York Tribune reported on "one of New York's revolutionary 'newspapers," The Rebel Worker.  The article said, "It appears twice a month, chiefly in the alien quarters of the city.  It is published at 27 East Fourth street...and finds its principal source of news in press dispatches concerning the activities of the Bolsheviki abroad and at home, all sorts of revolt propaganda and the activities of the Industrial Workers of the World."  The writer noted, "'The Rebel Worker' espouses the cause of outlawism and disorder."

The Socialist newspaper was published at 27 East 4th Street. The Rebel Worker April 15, 1919 (copyright expired)

In 1919 the New York State Legislature formed the Lusk Committee to investigate individuals and organizations suspected of sedition.  With rumors of a Bolshevik uprising circulating, the committee acted.  According to Robert Dunn in his 1948 The Palmer Raids, on June 13, 1919, "at 3 P.M., Lusk's agents simultaneously invaded the Rand School of Social Science at 7 East 15th Street, the headquarters of the Socialist Party 'left wing' at 43 West 20th Street, and the I.W.W. at 27 East 4th Street."

The New-York Tribune reported, "The raiding party ended its day's work at the I. W. W. headquarters, on the first floor of a much decayed brownstone building at 27 East Fourth street."  Inside were 15 men and a woman.  "Quantities of I.W.W. literature and records of the branches that meet at headquarters were wrapped in bundles and sent out to be started to the Lusk committee's headquarters in the Prince George Hotel."  

Among the materials were books like Manifesto and Programme of the Left Wing Section; Socialist Party Local, Greater New York; and The New Social System, or the Correct Basis of Economics and Ethics.  A passage from the latter book was typical of the evidence the committee found: "Do we hold that the revolution must come by violence?...The Left Wing hopes that the proletariat will conquer its enemy, the capitalistic class, with as little bloodshed as possible."

On July 6, the New-York Tribune commented, "Before the recent raid the I. W. W. headquarters at 27 East Fourth Street had very much the appearance of a boys' club.  The chief dispensers of literature and loungers about the rather bare and dreary rooms were young men, some of them so young that they were still of school age.  Even those who were not seemed young enough, or perhaps too young, to know better."  The article said that the chief duty of the boys "was keeping the place in a receptive situation for police raids which occurred with considerable regularity."

Many of the teens had already served jail terms.  The article said they "all dressed with studious disregard for collars and conventions, probably dreading to be confused with the bourgeoisie."  The converted parlor and dining room, once richly carpeted and filled with oil paintings and mahogany or rosewood furniture, showed little trace of their patrician beginnings.  "The furniture was old and dusty," said the New-York Tribune.

An artist from the New-York Tribune sketched the parlor of 27 East 4th Street in June 1919.  (copyright expired)

The group was still in the building as late as February 1931, when it joined a protest against unemployment.  The Daily Worker, a Socialist newspaper, reported on February 25, that the Down Town Council of the Unemployed would meet at its Leonard Street offices at 11 a.m.  "From this point the jobless will march to 27 East Forth Street, and then to Cooper Square, where they will be joined by the members of the Marine Workers Industrial Union and jobless marine workers, and will march on to Union Square to take part in the demonstration."

In the early 1930's, a lunchroom occupied the former basement level.  The I. W. W. was still renting the parlor floor.  original source unknown

In 1945 the beleaguered century-old house was demolished, to be replaced by a one-story garage and repair shop owned by the Paramount Filling Stations, Inc.   Designed by Herman Kron, it survives.

The garage was photographed shortly after its completion, sitting next to the pristine Tredwell house.  Scars of the Warren residence, including a fireplace, mark the western wall.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

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many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for requesting this post.

The Lost Liederkranz Hall - 31-35 East Fourth Street

 

Other than a new entrance portico for the middle house and a broken pediment with lyre finial, the Liederkranz Society made few exterior changes.  At the far left a tiny sliver of the Seabury Tredwell house can be seen, known today as the Merchant's House.  original source unknown

In the first years of the 1830's elegant mansions were rising along Fourth Street between the Bowery and Lafayette Place.    Sitting within the exclusive neighborhood that would be called the Bond Street District, the 25-foot wide homes were four stories tall above English basements.  Intricate wrought iron basket newels sat on paneled pedestals at the bottom of the marble stoops.  The entrances were framed in elegant Gibbs surrounds (named for the 18th century Scottish-born architect James Gibbs who had resurrected the Roman design of "blocking" the frame of an entrance).  

The sumptuous residences became home to wealthy families.   By the early 1850's Henry C. Dwight lived in No. 379, and attorney William C. Wetmore's family was next door at 381.  (In 1864 Fourth Street was renamed East Fourth Street, and the houses were renumbered 31 and 33)

On the night of November 18, 1854 William Wetmore woke up to the sound of footsteps on the staircase.  The New York Herald reported, "He started up, and on opening the door heard distinctly two men retreating, but he was unable to catch them.  On examining the house he found that books, forks, knives, &c., were missing, and coats were scattered about the hall."

Around 5:00 that morning, two police officers noticed two men carrying a basket into a Bayard Street house.  Decades before search warrants, the policemen followed them into an upstairs room where they found Wetmore's stolen articles, along with burglars' tools.  James Gilmour (who was just 16 years old) and Charles Dean were arrested.  The New York Herald added, "Gilmour had on a pair of Mr. Wetmore's stockings at the time."

The Dwight house was sold in 1855 to Pierre Sarracco who briefly operated the Grand Apollinea, a dance academy, within it.  His advertisement in the New York Daily Herald on June 12 that year read:

Prof. Saracco, the only accomplished teacher known in America, gives lessons every day.  The ladies and gentlemen who may honor him with their patronage can be assured to learn, by his unique method, in a few lessons, all the most fashionable dances.

The following February an ad touted the academy as "the favorite resort of the aristocracy from all parts of the Union; a fashionable and select circle fills every evening his elegant rooms."  Despite his self-described success, Saracco sold the house three months later to esteemed portrait Charles Cromwell Ingham.

Ingham's portrait of Fidelia Marshall is typical of his work.  from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum 

Ingham was a favorite among high society for his portraits of the wives and daughters of New York City's elite.  He was a founder of the National Academy of Design, and served as its vice president until his death in December 1863.

Ingham left the East Fourth Street house in 1862.  In 1863 it and the William C. Wetmore house were purchased by the Liederkranz Society, a German singing group.  The society paid $32,000 for the two properties--just under $675,000 today.   The auction listing of Wetmore's furnishings gives a hint of the resplendent interiors.  Included were velvet carpets, "carved rosewood Suits, in velvet plush," rosewood and mahogany bedroom suites, and velvet window curtains.  The family sold almost everything other than the statuary and paintings.

The Liederkranz Society was formed in 1849 by, according to The New York Times, "a number of German gentlemen, lovers of music, who thought by this means to secure the better cultivation of German music in this country, and to have a place where they might sociably spent their evenings."  The group combined the two houses internally, erected an extension in the rear, and raised the attics to a full floor.  In November 1863 the first rehearsal was held in the new space and a month later the official opening was celebrated with a concert, banquet and ball.

On February 4, 1864 The New York Times said, "The buildings are most admirably arranged for the purpose for which they are intended, having a large dining-room in the basement, two large and handsomely furnished parlors for ladies on the next floor, sitting rooms for the members, dining-room and a cosy little wine-room on the next floor, readings rooms, a fine library, committee and billiard rooms on the floor above."

The concert hall, in the rear, was 75 x 50 feet, its ceiling and walls "beautifully decorated with paintings," according to the article.  Balconies provided guests a viewpoint of the "singing parties" which were held three nights each week.

At the time there were 700 members.  Originally a men's club, by now it accepted women and its chorus of 110 voices was composed of 50 men and 60 women.  The society was renowned not only for its concerts, but for its annual fancy dress balls, which often took the form of costume balls.  They were held in large venues like the Academy of Music or the City Assembly Rooms.

The Liederkranz Society's first ball after moving into its new space was held on February 4, 1864.  The New York Times said it "was looked forward to with great interest by the number who had been so fortunate as to secure tickets."  The $5 tickets were limited only outsiders who had a "personal introduction" by a member could obtain them.  (The cost of admission would equal about $85 today.)

In 1869 the Italianate style house at 35 East Fourth Street was added, increasing the size of Liederkranz Hall by one-third.  While its proportions matched 31 and 35 exactly, it wore the more updated trappings of elliptical arched lintels, a pedimented entrance, and floor-to-ceiling parlor windows with a cast iron balcony.  The three houses were visually joined with a common cornice topped by a pediment.

Liederkranz Hall was the scene of glittering receptions and other events.  On December 6, 1870, for instance, The New York Times reported "The German Sanitary Fair drawing of the Weber grand action piano, the Bauer piano, the Mason & Hamlin organ, the India shawl and the 'Rocky Mountain scene' will take place tomorrow at 8 P.M., at the Liederkranz Hall, No. 33 East Fourth-street."

In 1881 a building committee purchased the properties at Nos. 111-119 East 58th Street.  The cornerstone for a new structure was laid on October 1 that year and on November 26, 1882 the Liederkranz Society moved into its new home.

The East Fourth Street building became Everett Hall, a meeting and concert venue.  The structure was threated on June 15, 1887 by fire in the third floor rooms of the proprietor, Charles Beinberg.   

Beinberg's wife had no intentions of leaving the blazing building without her jewelry and cash.  The Sun reported, "Mrs. Beinberg recollected that $800 and her jewelry were in a wardrobe in the burning room, but she was stopped in an effort to reach them by the flames."  Undaunted, she rushed into an adjacent room and through a connecting door.  The article said, "she succeeded at considerable risk in saving the money and all."  Fire fighters were able to extinguish the fire before considerable damage was done.

Everett Hall was the scene of a variety of entertainments.  On September 15, 1888 The Evening World announced that the "Opening ball of the original Alaska Pleasure Club at Everett Hall, 31-35 East Fourth street," would take place that evening.  And a few weeks later, on November 18, the fourth annual ball of the Labischiner Benefit Society was held here.

As the turn of the century approached, Everett Hall became a favorite meeting place of labor groups.  It was the scene of a mass meeting of clothing trade workers in February 1891.  The labor journal Workmen's Advocate entitled an article "Sweating / Away With the Barbarous System" and noted that the hall was crowded.  It said "the organized labor of this city has taken in hand the cause of these trades and will give them all the aid in its power."

In the first years of the 20th century Everett Hall was an equally favored space among Tammany politicians.  On November 18, 1903, for instance, The Tammany Times reported on "invitation ball" of the Lawrence Mulligan Association.  "Many prominent Tammany men besides [Congressman Timothy D.] Sullivan were present."  It was also the scene of wedding receptions of high-ranking Tammany officials.

In 1912 Everett Hall was converted to an opera house.  On September 29, The New York Times reported, "The Garibaldi Theatre, at 31 East Fourth Street, opened last night with the San Carlo Opera Company in Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino.'  To-night 'La Favorita' will be sung."  The article went on to list the upcoming performances, a different opera every night.

As mid-century approached, the West Fourth Street block, where once stylish carriages dropped well-dressed ladies and gentlemen at their marble stoops, had become gritty and industrial.  The former Liederkranz Hall was converted to a parking garage.

The structure survived until 1988 when, according to one historian, it was "demolished surreptitiously in the middle of the night."  The wrecking was done with no concern for the remarkably intact sole survivor of Joseph Brewster's 1831 row.  Known today as the Merchant's House Museum, the Seabury Tredwell house suffered substantial structural damage.

The site of Liederkranz Hall remains a vacant lot.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

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