The subtle change of brick color testifies to the addition of the upper floors.
The Dutch Rutgers clan first settled in Albany, but moved to New York in the 18th century. Henry Rutgers was related to the Lispenard family by marriage. He established a large estate on which, in 1798, he erected a Presbyterian church, known as "the kirk on Rutgers Farm." According to The Sun decades later, "On, July 27, 1799, Rutgers on his own grounds paraded the militia before President Washington, Gov. Clinton and visiting Indian chiefs, and thereafter he was Col. Rutgers. Gilbert Stuart painted Washington’s portrait at that time, and it was a prized possession of the Rutgers mansion.”
Streets were laid out on the sprawling Rutgers Farm in the first years of the 19th century. Rutgers left his mark on the map, naming Rutgers Street where his mansion stood. It intersected Henry Street, named for himself. There were also Catherine Street, named for Catherine Rutgers, and Bancker Street, named for Rutgers's son-in-law. (The street which divided the Rutgers estate from the De Lancey farm was given the name Division Street.)
The former Rutgers Farm became a high-toned residential neighborhood. In 1827, a two-and-a-half-story, Federal style home was erected at 263 Henry Street. Faced in red brick, the 24-foot wide residence would have had a handsome Federal style entrance with columns and sidelights (similar to the surviving example next door at 265), and dormers at the attic level.
The family of Joseph Benedict lived here at least from the mid-1830s through 1841. He was a clerk in the Post Office on Nassau Street. Mercy King, the widow of John A. King, occupied the house in 1853 and '54, followed by another widow, Hannah Ashford. Living with her was her adult son, John A. Ashford, Jr. Hannah died here on July 15, 1861 at the age of 69. Her funeral was held in the parlor at 2:00 on July 17, and she was interred in Greenwood Cemetery.
There would be another funeral here less than a year later. Charles H. and Caroline M. Smith next moved into the house and had a baby, Charles, Jr. on December 13, 1861. The boy died four months later and his funeral was held on May 4, 1862.
The house continued to be leased to a succession of well-heeled tenants. Emily Thompson, the widow of Andrew Thompson, lived here in 1864-65, and Henry Donald, a stevedore, occupied the house from 1867 through 1869.
No. 263 Henry Street was sold in June 1870 for $13,500 (about $325,000 in 2024). It was purchased by Mary A. McEntee, who leased it to Nelson and Lydia A. Bush. Nelson was the proprietor of an "eatinghouse," or restaurant at 166 Nassau Street.
Nelson Bush joined his father's business in 1873, the same year the Bushes took in a boarder. Jeremiah Hitchcock, a saddler, lived with the family from about 1873 through 1878.
The Bush family moved to Wilson Street in Brooklyn in 1880. That year George Graham and his wife purchased 263 Henry Street. In May, they hired architect Gage Inslee to enlarge the property. His plans said the dwelling would "be raised to four stories, also a four-story brick extension on rear." The renovations cost the Grahams about $72,300 in today's money. Inslee gave the openings fanciful brownstone lintels with vining, incised carvings. The parlor floor windows were additionally embellished with diminutive molded cornices above the lintels. Sandwiched between the lintel and cornice of the entrance was a fancifully carved Queen Anne panel with a sunburst and volutes. A modern neo-Grec cornice crowned the design.
The renovations resulted in modern, Queen Anne fencing contrasted to the openwork Federal newels.
George Graham died at the age of 64 on August 26, 1890. His funeral was held here three days later followed by a requiem mass at St. Theresa's Church, on Rutgers Street.
It appears that Graham's widow moved soon afterward. She was living in Iceland, New Jersey in July 1898 when she hired architect Max Muller to erect an interior wall. By now the Henry Street neighborhood had significantly changed--from one of aristocratic families to mostly Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Before long she would have a most celebrated tenant.
Rabbi Jacob Joseph was described by The New York Times as "the highest official in the orthodox Jewish religion in the United States." Born in Russia, he was the head of the Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodai at 64 Norfolk and had written several books. In 1894 he suffered a stroke, but continued to work. Then in 1898 (the year Mrs. Graham had the wall installed), he had a relapse, which left him paralyzed.
According to Scott D. Seligman in his The Chief Rabbi's Funeral:
Despite the astronomical salary he had been paid during his early years in America, he had never managed to amass a nest egg, and in the 1890s he was forced to relocate to a more modest home at 263 Henry Street. By 1901 he was not only paralyzed but nearly penniless.
On the evening of July 28, 1902, according to The New York Times, "his family gathered about his bedside. When he died his son and his married daughters were present." The article said, "As soon as the death became known crowds began to gather in front of the house. Nearly a thousand persons were there, and prayers were offered for the rabbi."
About 50,000 mourners accompanied the rabbi's coffin from the house. Salvation magazine reported, "Seldom before, not even during the meat riot, had so many thousands of people thronged the streets. Never had a man so well beloved by the Orthodox Jews died in this country." The article said, "From the door of the Chief Rabbi's humble home at 263 Henry Street, to the gateway of the Temple Rodolph Shalom Cemetery, in Cypress Hills, L. I., the route of the funeral line was one continuous path of mourning."
But it did not go smoothly. Antisemitic sentiment was strong, and as the procession with the unpainted pine coffin passed the Hoe factory on Grand Street, workers hissed and jeered from the windows. One employee recounted seeing his coworkers, "throw water and missiles down onto the surging crowds of mourners. At last, he saw the hose turned on the streets," as reported by The New York Times.
A riot broke out. The 300 policemen detailed for the event were overwhelmed, and their response, at least according to some witnesses, was focused on the mourners rather than the instigators. On August 2, 1902, The New York Times headlined an article, "Police Denounced by Jews In Mass Meeting," and reported that 3,000 people had crammed into Cooper Union "to protest against the conduct of the policemen and factory workers who participated in Wednesday's rioting."
A community leader angrily protested, "The men in the factory insulted us wantonly. Then the police, who should have protected us, clubbed us into insensibility." A lawyer, Abraham D. Levy, headed a committee to bring charges "against the officers who had clubbed the mourners in the funeral procession," said The Times.
The 1880 lintel is a spectacular example.
Mrs. Joseph Fine founded the Hebrew Day Nursery in the house in 1904. Born in Poland in 1860, she was the daughter of Rabbi Joshua Seigel and "a prominent worker in various Jewish welfare organizations," according to The Sun. She was a director of the Home of the Daughters of Jacob, of the Harlem Daughters of Israel, and of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School.
The Hebrew Day Nursery allowed mothers to work during the day. It continued its work here after Mrs. Fine's death on March 28, 1919.
On the afternoon of July 7, 1925, a fire broke out on the stairway between the second and third floors. The New York Evening Post reported, "The dozen children who occupied the Hebrew Day Nursery at 263 Henry street yesterday are unharmed today...Teachers and nurses removed their charges to the street while the flames were extinguished." The damage was limited to $200 (just under $3,500 today).
Lillian D. Wald founded the Henry Street Settlement in 1893 and two years later Jacob Schiff purchased the house at 265 Henry Street for the organization. In 1935, the Settlement acquired 263 Henry Street and opened the Workers' Education Center, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. In her 2020 The House on Henry Street, Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier explains it, "served 150 students, most of them from the Lower East Side: unemployed cooks, clerks, laborers, stonecutters, shipping clerks, garment workers, and more."
A poster advertised an "information study group" here. from the collection of the Library of Congress.
The house was renovated twice--in 1942 and 1994. The first resulted in classrooms in the basement, first and third floors, with one apartment each on the second and fourth floors. The last remodeling changed the basement and parlor floor classrooms to office space.
photographs by the author
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