The 1828 39 Charlton Street

 

The change in brick color testifies to the 1871 raising of the attic to a full floor.

Among the streets laid out by John Jacob Astor I around 1817 on the grounds of Richmond Hill (the former estate of Aaron Burr), was Charlton Street.  It was named in honor of Dr. John Charlton, the president of the New York Medical Society.  Astor began filling the block between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue with brick-faced homes.

In the summer of 1828, an arsonist set fire to the two unfinished houses at 37 and 39 Charlton Street, nearly destroying them.  (He would be back a few months later, on October 12, torching two more homes--at 32 and 35 Charlton Street.)  Carpenter-builders John Gridley and Samuel Martin partnered to purchase and rebuild 37 and 39 Charlton Street.  Their completed houses were noticeably grander than the middle-class homes that lined the block.

Twenty-five-feet wide and two-and-a-half-stories tall with two dormers, their marble stoops rose to elegant entranceways.  Here fluted marble columns and half columns on either side of the door flanked delicately leaded sidelights.  Intricately carved foliate bands outlined the leaded transom, which sat within a frame of panels and rosettes.

Martin and Gridley held title to 37 and 39 Charlton Street respectively.  Gridley appears to have initially rented his house.  Sharing it in 1827 and 1828 were Tunis Banta, a cartman who was currently erecting several homes in Greenwich Village; Samuel Martin, a carpenter; and teacher of elocution, William E. Shadgett.

For much of the 1830s, 39 Charlton Street was home to merchant Reuben Vose.  Born on February 19, 1796 in Milton, Massachusetts, he married Sarah F. Hunting in March 1825.  The couple had two children, Sarah Louise and John Gorham.  In 1860, Vose would write The Life and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin.

By then, the Vose family had been gone from Charlton Street for two decades.  In 1840, 39 Charlton became home to drygoods merchant Justus Earle, who lived here until moving to Waverly Place in 1851.  William Williams and his wife next occupied the house.  Williams appears to have continually reinvented himself.  In 1853 he listed his profession as "manager," in 1856 as "accountant," and in 1860 as "barber."  

In May 1854, the couple advertised, "Rooms to Let--The whole second floor, four rooms, to let to one or two single gentlemen or to a gentleman and his wife only.  Apply at 39 Charlton street."

The house continued to see a relatively rapid succession of occupants.  The family of fancygoods dealer James W. C. Anderson lived here in the early to mid-1860s, followed by Henry Miller, who operated a shoe business on Union Place.  The Miller family moved in around 1867 and would remain at least through 1873.  In 1871, Miller raised the attic to a full third floor.  Rather than installing a modern cornice in the currently popular Italianate style, Miller's builder either reused the original dentiled cornice and fascia board, or refashioned a similar one.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

In 1871, the year that Miller enlarged the house, Patrick and Catharine Meehan McKenna moved into 42 King Street, a block to the north.  Their one-year-old son Peter Joseph died there on November 20, 1871.  Although they retained possession of the King Street house, in 1876 they moved into 39 Charlton Street, renting it from John W. Ferdon.  Their landlord lived in Piermont, New York.

Patrick McKenna listed his profession as "liquors," which could refer to a liquor store or a saloon.  In his case, he had two locations, at 109 and 172 Varick Street.  

Living with the couple was Catharine's widowed mother, Mary Meehan.  The 65-year-old died on December 2, 1877 "after a painful illness," according to the New York Herald.  Her funeral was held in the house, followed by a solemn requiem mass at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua on December 5.

Having sold the King Street house around 1879, the McKennas purchased 39 Charlton Street from John W. Ferdon in February 1884 for $4,500 (about $144,000 in 2025).  They occupied it into the early years of the 20th century.

By 1917, Mary Helen Hall Smith occupied 39 Charlton Street.  She was the widow of John Jewell Smith, who died in 1901.  Living with her was at least one of her six children, Jewell Kellogg Smith, who was 27 years old in 1917.  His engagement to Margaret Shearer was announced on October 20 that year.  The elevated social-economic status of both families was evidenced in The Sun's mentioning, "The bride to be was graduated from Bryn Mawr and Mr. Smith from Princeton in the class of 1914."

William S. Coffin purchased 14 "old dwellings," as described by the New-York Tribune, in August 1919, including 39 Charlton Street.  A month later he sold it to Anne T. Safford.  She paid $10,000 for the property, or about $176,000 today.

Safford retained ownership until 1927, when she sold it to Dr. Anthony Garbarino.  He hired architect Frank B. Zontanaro to convert the top floor to an apartment in 1937.

Three decades after the physician moved in, on April 23, 1959, The Villager reported that Dr. Garbarino had sold the house to "Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Kiggins and Miss Barbara Comfort," noting, "The purchasers bought the property for all cash for their own use."  The article mentioned that Garbarino "has owned it since 1927." 

The buyers initiated a renovation, completed in 1960.  It resulted in a duplex apartment in the basement and parlor floor, and another in the upper two stories.

In 1917 the attic of 37 Charlton Street was raised, making it and 39 Charlton Street once again identical.  The Landmarks Preservation Commission has called them, "Perhaps the two most important houses [in the district] in age, richness of style, scale and perfection of preservation."

photographs by the author