The 1826 Abraham B. Vanderpoel House - 38 Dominick Street

 

photo via New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

In 1821 the by-then fetid canal, originally established to drain the swampy Lispenard Meadow, was covered over, creating Canal Street.  Quickly afterward, streets to the north opened and development began.  Among the first streets to open was Dominick Street, named in honor of George Dominick who fled France in the mid-18th century and became a vestryman of Trinity Church and a captain of the militia.

The new street sat upon land owned by Sarah Livingston, the wife of Robert Livingston.  She had inherited it from her grandfather, Anthony Lispenard.  On March 10, 1826, she sold 12 vacant lots along Dominick Street to Smith Bloomfield who filled them with prim, two-and-a-half story brick-faced homes.  

Among them was 39 Dominick Street.  (Confusingly and inexplicably, the odd and even street numbers were flipped in 1867, and No. 39 got the new address of 38.)  Like its neighbors, its Federal design included a doorway flanked by fluted wooden columns, narrow sidelights and a generous transom.  Two dormers pierced the peaked roof.

Abraham Barent Vanderpoel moved his family into the house in 1827, apparently renting from Bloomfield.  Born in 1788, he listed his profession as "custom house officer."  He and his wife, the former Harriet Goodwin, would have three children: Mary Vanburen, Sarah and Barent. 

The Vanderpoels left the house around 1835, initiating a series of occupants.  Dry goods merchant James L. Brinckerhoff was here in 1836, followed by Isaac N. Seymour and his family by 1840.  Seymour was the treasurer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company.  The family remained through 1858.

Abby J. Gorham, a widow, moved into the house in 1859 with her son Shabael C. Gorham.  The family had deep American roots, tracing their origins to John de Gorram who arrived on the Mayflower.  Never married, Shabael died at the age of 41 on November 23, 1861.  The New York Times noted, "Funeral services will be held at the house of his mother, No. 39 Dominick-st., on Monday."

The family of fish dealer Samuel H. Wood occupied the house from 1863 until 1867.  On February 23 that year an announcement in the New-York Tribune reported that the property "now known as No. 38 in Dominick street" would be auctioned.  It was purchased by Samuel Giveans Trusdell.

Trusdell was a partner in the coffee business Trusdell & Phelps.  He married Phebe Jane Edsall in 1863.  Born in 1835 and 1840, respectively, they would have one child, Samuel Edsall, who was born in the house in 1868.

The family would remain here for decades, taking in at least one boarder over the years.  Katie E. Moore lived with the Trusdells in 1884.  She was a teacher in the primary department of Grammar School No. 10 on Wooster Street.

In 1886, the home's Federal architecture was decidedly passé.  On April 3, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Phebe (who was the owner of record) had hired architects and builders J. Hankinson's Son to raise the attic to a full story.  The renovations cost the Trusdells $1,100, or about $37,800 in 2026.  Interestingly, while the contractors gave the remodeled house a fashionable Italianate cornice, it did not touch the vintage doorway.

As late as 1940, the doorway, with its slender columns, was essentially unchanged since 1826.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Samuel Edsall Trusdell died at the age of 28 on April 29, 1896.  His father survived him by four years, dying in the Dominick Street house on December 27, 1900 at the age of 65.  

It is unclear how long Phebe, who died in 1926, remained here.  In 1929, George Tombini leased 38 Dominick Street, and by 1940 the Campone and De Sapio families shared the house.

It was well-filled.  Pasquale Campone and his wife, Antonette, had five children, Rose, Pasquaela, Doris, Betty and Anthony.  Gerard De Sapio was married to Antonette's sister, Marinetta.  An Italian immigrant, he owned a trucking business.  The couple had two sons.

Anthony Capone was born in 1914.  He worked as a shipping clerk for the Equitable Trading Corporation, a wholesale liquor distributor on Hudson Street.  In 1936 he and eight other employees devised a scheme to augment their salaries.  It worked for several years, but then on July 13, 1940, The New York Times reported that the group had been arrested for the theft of "about $50,000 of liquors from the concern in the last four years."

Anthony's cousin would make a name for himself in New York politics.  Born on December 10, 1908, Carmine Gerard De Sapio attended St. Alphonsus parochial school and briefly attended Fordham College.  He often loaded freight at his father's business.  While in his teens, he contracted iritis, an inflammation of the eyes.  It necessitated his wearing dark glasses for the rest of his life, and they became his trademark.

The teen became involved with the Daniel Finn's Huron Club in Greenwich Village.  It was a center of Tammany power within the district.  De Sapio became Finn's "lieutenant."   By 1937, he had amassed enough power within Tammany to organize the Tamawa Club, challenging Finn's leadership in the district.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Carmine De Sapio married Theresa Natale in 1937 and he moved out of 38 Dominick Street.  By 1949 he was the "boss" of Tammany Hall.  His downfall came in the 1960s when, according to The New York Times, "Denounced as corrupt and authoritarian, he was abandoned by onetime allies."  In 1969 he was sent to prison, convicted of bribery charges.

In 1954, the Capone and De Sapio families converted the ground floor to a restaurant.  When Marinetta De Sapio died at the age of 76 on October 25, 1965, The New York Times remarked that she had lived "for many years at 38 Dominick Street."

Around 1987, the restaurant space became Sagebrush Canyon, which featured live jazz music.  By then, the ground floor windows had been replaced by a single opening.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The restaurant Alison on Dominick Street opened in 1990, its atmosphere described by The New York Times as "harmonious and comfortable and the soft lighting very seductive."  It remained until 2002.

The four 1826 houses were considered for landmark designation in 2012.  No. 38 is at the right.  photograph by Jason Kessler

A renovation completed in 2010 returned 38 Dominick Street to a single family home.  As a nod to the now lost Federal-style doorway, two disproportionate Ionic columns were shoehorned into the entrance.  Today its entablature is inscribed "Post Modern" in Greek lettering.

photograph by Jason Kessler

It and the other three remaining houses of Smith Bloomfield's 1826 row were considered by the Landmark Preservation Commission for landmark designation in May 2012.  The owners of No. 38 strongly testified against its designation, citing the drastic alterations to the nearly 200-year-old building.  The LPC agreed and only 32 to 36 Dominick Street were given landmark status.

many thanks to reader Jason Kessler for suggesting this post

The Lost 1827 Azariah Ross House - 45 Dominick Street

 

image from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Born in 1787 in New Jersey, Azariah Ross served in the War of 1812, then became a significant architect, real estate developer and builder (although he consistently understated his profession in directories as "mason").  On March 11, 1826, he purchased a substantial amount of rural land from Robert M. Livingston.  The deed demanded Ross "to convey it as a street to the Corporation" [i.e., the city] within 18 months, "otherwise it reverts to R. M. Livingston."  The new street would be named Dominick Street, after George Dominick, a French-born vestryman of Trinity Church.

Ross quickly developed Dominick Street with prim, brick-faced Federal-style houses, two-and-a-half stories tall.  He moved his family into one of the first, the 20-foot-wide 45 Dominick Street, and used it as his base of operation.  An advertisement in the New-York Evening Post on May 3, 1827, offered, "To Let, 3 elegant two story brick Houses in Dominick near Hudson street.  Possession given immediately.  Inquire of assessor, 45 Dominick street."

The mention of "assessor" referred to Ross's other profession.  In addition to his substantial development and real estate operation, he was one of the two Assessors of the Eighth Ward.  On June 22, 1827, the New-York Evening Post reported, "Public notice is hereby given that the Assessors of the Eighth Ward have completed their assessments, and that a copy thereof is left with Azariah Ross, 45 Dominick street, where the same may be seen and examined by any of the inhabitants."  (Today, no doubt, eyebrows would be raised if the builder and seller of many of the properties was also trusted with appraising their values.)

Azariah Ross was married to the former Elsie Van Buskirk.  When they moved into 45 Dominick Street they had two children, Edwin, who was eight years old, and Theodore, who was five.  Elsie was pregnant at the time, and Amelia was born in the house that year.  A fourth child, Leander, would arrive in 1834.  The family had a summer home in Rockland County.

By 1830, Ross had been appointed a Commissioner of Estimate and Assessment.  He continue his construction and architectural work, as well.  He would work with Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux in the design and construction of the stone bridges of Central Park, for instance, and in the stonework at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

On December 13, 1839, Ross sold his home and the abutting house at 43 Dominick Street at auction.  (He would design and erect a striking Gothic Revival mansion at South Nyack, New York in 1856, where his family increasingly spent time.)

The Dominick Street house was purchased by Charles L. Vose, a merchant at 28 South Street.  His residency would be relatively short.  When he advertised 45 Dominick Street in 1845, he boasted that it "is in complete order and has all the modern improvements, Croton water, &c., probably the most convenient house in the city."

The mention of Croton water was significant.  It meant that 45 Dominick Street was one of the earliest to have running water.  The Croton Reservoir on Murray Hill (site of today's New York Public Library) had opened only three years earlier.

For nearly two decades, 45 Dominick Street saw a succession of occupants who most likely rented the house.  Then in 1863 it would become the long-time home of the Townsend Carpenter family.  

Carpenter was born in Purchase, New York in 1800.  He and his wife, Phebe, who were married in Purchase on October 5, 1823, were members of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.  After relocating to New York City, they continued to maintain a home in Purchase, a Quaker community founded by John Harrison in 1695.  

Townsend Carpenter was a wholesale grocer at 308 Spring Street.  He and Phebe had three children, Isaac Thorne, born in 1825; David R., born two years later; and Adelia Augusta, born in 1829.    

On June 29, 1868, one month after Townsend's 68th birthday, he died "suddenly," according to The New York Times.  The term most often referred to a heart attack or stroke.  His death notice reflected the phraseology of the Society of Friends:

His friends and relatives are respectfully invited to attend his funeral, from his late residence, No. 45 Dominick-st., at 4 o'clock on Fourth Day (Wednesday) afternoon, and at Friends meeting house, Purchace [sic], at 11 o'clock Fifth Day morning.

The family was in Purchase on September 1, 1884, when Phebe Carpenter died at the age of 79.  Her funeral was held there, the notice in the New-York Tribune noting, "Carriages in waiting at White Plains Depot on arrival of the 8:30 a.m. train out of New-York."

Isaac T. Carpenter had taken over the operation of the family's grocery business.  Neither he nor Adelia married and lived quietly in the Dominick Street house for the rest of their lives.  The New-York Tribune mentioned that in his leisure time, Isaac was a member of the Manhattan Chess Club.

Around 1896, Isaac suffered a stroke.  Paralyzed, he was "confined to the house in care of nurses," according to the New-York Tribune.  Calling him, "one of the oldest residents of Greenwich Village," on December 17, 1902 the New-York Tribune reported that Isaac T. Carpenter had died. He was 77 years old.   The newspaper mentioned that he, "lived with a sister nearly as old."  There was no funeral in the Dominick house.  Instead, the body was directly transported to Purchase where the funeral was held in the Friends' Meeting House.

Amelia Augusta Carpenter lived on alone until November 19, 1915, when she died at the age of 87.  The New-York Tribune noted, "For the last fifty-two years she had been a resident of Greenwich Village, living during the entire period in the house where she died."  Like her family members before her, her funeral was held in the Friends' Meeting House in Purchase.

The extensive Carpenter real estate holdings was revealed the following year when Isaac T. Carpenter's estate was liquidated.  The auction in April 1916 included tenement buildings, factories, numerous houses, and vacant lots throughout the New York area and even a dwelling in Bar Harbor, Maine.  The Real Estate Record & Guide noted that Carpenter's will directed the proceeds to go to "over twenty-five charities as beneficiaries, including many hospitals."

Following World War I, William Sloane Coffin purchased many of the overlooked vintage structures in the neighborhood.  Included was 45 Dominick Street, which he leased to the Spring Street Church for its parsonage.  On April 18, 1920, The Sun noted (with one glaringly inaccurate historic detail), 

Mr. Coffin's first activity in the rehabilitation of Greenwich Village started seven or eight years ago, when he remodelled [sic] the parsonage of the Spring Street Church at 45 Dominick street.  This old house, like others in the neighborhood, has the quaint dormers and interesting Colonial doorway.  It is, as in the case of the others, built substantially of brick, with brownstone copings and a low front stoop with iron railings, and in this case, wrought iron posts [that] indicated the fact that at some time in its history, it was occupied by a Mayor of New York.

The same year of the article, construction began on the massive Holland Tunnel project that wiped out blocks of vintage structures.  The venerable Azariah Ross house, however, escaped the carnage by a mere block.  Nevertheless, in 1927, 45 Dominick along with the structures stretching to the corner of Varick Street, were demolished for a parking lot.

In 1954, a shed was erected on the parking lot to shelter the vehicles.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services. 

Construction began in 2006 of the 46-story Trump SoHo hotel on the site, engulfing the blockfront of Varick Street from Spring Street to Dominick Street.  The building was opened in 2008 and renamed the Dominick Hotel in 2017.

The Ira and Fanny Horton House - 36 Dominick Street

 

A wave of development engulfed the area above the newly-laid Canal Street in the 1820s.  In 1826 twelve similar Federal style houses were erected on the south side of Dominick Street between Hudson and Varick Streets, five of them by Smith Bloomfield.  Like its neighbors, 36 Dominick Street was faced in Flemish bond brick and rose two-and-a-half stories, its peaked roof punctured by two prim dormers.

Bloomfield maintained the house as a rental property.   The close relationship between the builders of the twelve houses was evidenced when Azariah Ross, who was responsible for building 38 through 46 Dominick Street, moved into Smith's 36 Dominick Street in 1826.  He was living here by February 14, 1826, when he advertised a list of his own houses for sale.  He added a line to his resume in 1827 when he was appointed the Fire Warden of the Eighth Ward.

The house received a celebrated tenant in the spring of 1829.  According to Thomas A. Bogar in his his 2018 biography Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre, English actor Thomas Hamblin and his wife, actress Elizabeth Blanchard, moved in on May 1.  Born in 1800, Hamblin had immigrated to the United States at the age of 25, first performing at the Park Theatre where he received glowing reviews.  

Thomas Hamblin, from the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library

Hamblin's reputation would be mixed.  In 1830 he began theater management at the Bowery Theatre.  He changed the face of American theater by offering starring roles to American actors rather than British.  However, he was a widely-known as a philanderer, prompting Elizabeth to file for divorce in 1831.  He would continue to have multiple out-of-marriage affairs (one of which ended when the actress Naomi Vincent died in childbirth).

No. 36 Dominick Street saw a regular turnover of tenants.  In 1836 it was home to the family of George Opdyke, owner of George Opdyke & Co., clothiers on Hudson Street; in 1840 it was occupied by Robert Malcolm, a tailor; and in 1852 by John Alexander, who earned his living as a clerk.

Bloomfield found a long-term tenant in Henry A. Morgan in 1853.  A hardware merchant, he and his family would remain for a full decade, during which he was appointed an Inspector of Elections for the Eighth Ward.  In 1863 he moved his family to MacDougal Street.

Change came in 1866 when the house was purchased by Ira C. and Fanny M. Horton.  Ira was in the milk business at 24 Harrison Street.  The couple immediately embarked on a renovation project.  The Semi-Annual Report of the Superintendent of Buildings documented that construction was begun on March 1, 1866 to "raise and build upon" the structure.

The original appearance of the house can be seen in its neighbor at 32 Dominick Street.

The renovations resulted in the attic being raised to a full floor, molded lintels being installed above the windows, a pediment over the entrance, and a handsome Italianate bracketed cornice added.  

Ira and Fanny Horton may have considered the project to be what today is called a "flip."  In 1868, shortly after the renovations were completed, they sold 36 Dominick Street to Charles H. and Ann Eliza Applegate.

Charles H. Applegate listed his profession simply as "merchant" at 328 Broadway.  Both he and his wife were highly involved in charitable causes.  Charles was a vice-president of the New-York City Sunday-School and Missionary Society, and Ann was a manager of The New York Ladies' Home Missionary Society.

The Applegates' residency, too, would be relatively short.  In 1871 they sold the house to Hugh and Alice Taylor.  Hugh was a baker at 456 Greenwich Street.  Living with the couple were their adult son, Wilson, who was a photographer on Eighth Avenue; their teen-aged daughter Mary; and their married daughter Alice and her husband John S. Berry.  Sadly, Alice Taylor Berry died on May 29, 1872 at the age of 20.  Her funeral was held in the house on June 2.

With the house increased to three floors, the Taylors were able to take in a boarder for extra income.  In 1872, William C. Hickox, a dealer in "machines," lived with the family; and in 1875 through 1877 George W. Fuller, a bell merchant was here.  In 1888 Mary E. Taylor began teaching in the Boys' Department of Grammar School No. 35 on West 13th Street.  

The house changed hands again in 1890 when the Taylors sold it to John and Jennie Geagan (often spelled Geagen).  Living with them was their son, Edward J.  In 1899, he was appointed a notary public by the city.

Edward was rushed to the New York Hospital on the night of December 2, 1912.  The Leader-Observer reported that he died there "very suddenly...at 4 a.m, Thursday, December 3rd, following an attack of meningitis."  The funeral was held in the Dominick Street house the following day.

There would be another funeral in the parlor just over a year later.  Jennie Bateman Geagan died in the house on February 15.  Her funeral was held two days later.

On October 28, 1919, the New-York Tribune reported that John Geagan had sold the 20-foot-wide residence, adding, "The seller has lived in this house over thirty years."  The buyers were the Galante family, the head of which seems to have been Leonard A Galante.  Living with the family in 1921 was Maria Grace, a widow who lived on her deceased husband's police pension of $300 (about $4,900 per year in 2024).

The Dominick Street neighborhood had greatly changed by now.  The elegant St. John's Park to the south had been wiped out in the years following the Civil War to make way for the Hudson River Railroad's freight terminal.  Shortly after the Galantes purchase 36 Dominick Street, that would be erased by the construction of the Holland Tunnel and the elevated Miller Highway.  In 1922 demolition of houses along the 1826 Dominick Street row began.  Of the 12, only four, including 36 Dominick Street, remained.

The upheaval may have been too much for the Galante family.  They sold the house in 1925 to Carlo Salvati.  It was resold in 1957, and at some point was converted to three rental apartments.  Although the owner opposed the move, in 2012 36 Dominick Street was designated an individual New York City landmark.

photographs by the author

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The Peter J. Hamill House - 34 Dominick Street

A slight variation in brick color testifies to the addition of the third floor.  The house originally matched the one to the left.

Most of the sprawling Anthony Rogers Farm was inherited by his son-in-law, Leonard Lispenard in 1746.  It became known as the Lispenard Meadows, and while the Lispenard mansion stood at what today is the area of Hudson and Desbrosses Streets, much of the land was marshy and unusable.   In 1811 the Lispenard heirs petitioned the Common Council to drain the land and the same year building plots were first laid out.

By the early 1820's Dominick Street (named for Trinity Church vestryman George Dominick) was laid out, and shortly afterward three builders purchased twelve lots from Robert M. and Sarah B. Livingston (she was the granddaughter of Anthony Lispenard).  Working independently, they erected a long row of twelve Federal-style homes, completed around 1826, on the south side of Dominick Street between what today are Hudson and Varick Streets.

Smith Bloomfield, a mason-builder, was responsible for five of them--Nos. 28 through 36.  Two-and-a-half stories tall and faced in Flemish bond red brick, the 20-foot wide Federal style dwellings were intended for middle-class families.  Two dormers punched through their peaked roofs.  The homes were intended as income properties and Bloomfield chose to lease them rather than sell.

By the late 1830's No. 34 was home to the Frederick D. Priest family.   A veteran of the War of 1812, he and Eliza M. Brooks had been married in Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, the bride's hometown, on July 7, 1817.   Living with them in the Dominick Street house was Eliza's widowed mother, Maria Mallam Brooks.

At the time the city engaged in a practice which today is chilling.  Poverty was a crime punishable by incarceration in the Alms House on Blackwell's Island.  Children were offered for "indenturing," to work in shops, factories or homes.  Simply put it was a form of forced labor with the children receiving only food and shelter in return.

On November 3, 1842 the Priests took advantage of the opportunity by taking in Anna Johnson (or Jansen--the Alms House documents were unsure).  The girl would have been expected to help Eliza with housework and sundry chores.  But after one-and-a-half years, the family sent her back.  Their reason was that she "was not a good child."

On the evening of June 16, 1845, Maria Brooks died here at the age of 75.  Her funeral was held in the house two days later.

Within only a few years Benjamin Ellis and his family were renting the house from Bloomfield.  Ellis was active in public and reform causes.  When the City Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment was formed in 1842 he had been elected its president, and while living here was an official with the Public Schools.

Like all middle class families, the Ellises employed at least one servant girl who lived in the attic level.  It seems that the roof was leaky in the summer of 1850 and someone set out to patch it from inside.  It nearly ended with the house being burned to the ground.

On August 28 the New York Morning Courier reported "fire was discovered about half past 5 o'cock Monday evening in the dwelling house of Benjamin Ellis No. 34 Dominick street, caused by carelessness in leaving a pail of boiling pitch over a furnace in one of the attic rooms.  The firemen were promptly on the spot, but before they could subdue the flames, the roof of the building was consumed.  One of the female members was slightly burned while attempting to make her escape."  The Evening Post added that in addition to losing its roof, "the building was considerably damaged by water." 

An advertisement appeared in The New York Herald on May 8, 1856 seeking "A Protestant Girl to do the housework of a small family; must be a first rate washer and ironer, and understand plain cooking.  To one competent and willing, good wages will be paid."  There was nothing extraordinary about the ad other than the last condition:  "One without cousins preferred."

In 1866 Smith Bloomfield's estate sold No. 34 to James M. Horton and his wife, Mary.  Earlier that year he had sold his share in a provisions firm to his partners George Dorn and John C. Guffin.  It was an amiable split and in an announcement in newspapers in March he called them "men of integrity."

It appears Horton used the money from the sale to open a new milk business.  On November 22, 1866 The New York Herald reported "James M. Horton is spending $5,300 on the erection of a milk store at 29 Vestry street."  It was not the only construction project he was engaged in at the time.

He raised the attic floor of No. 34 to full height and updated it with an impressive Italianate cornice and brownstone lintel over the doorway in the same style.  The paneled Federal style doors and transom were replaced with up-to-date double doors.

The panels of the doors precisely lined up with the new panels of the side walls.

If the Horton family lived in the remodeled house, it was not for long.  The following year they sold it to John and Jane Taylor who were living here with their adult son, James D. Taylor.  

James had fought in the Civil War in I Company of the New York National Guard.  He may have been living with his parents because of a long-standing medical condition. He died at the age of 24 on January 19, 1872 "after a long and lingering illness."   His funeral was held in the house two days later, well attended by members of his military company.

By 1879 John Dreyer, Jr. and his family had purchased the house.  Dreyer was in the provisions business in Washington Market.  

The house was the scene of a horrific tragedy in the fall of 1881.  The John Loescher family lived a few houses away at No. 40 Dominick Street.  Their son, John, Jr., was 14-years old at the time.  He and Julius Haefner, who was a year younger, had been best friends for years.  The New York Times said that they "were almost inseparable companions."

On the evening of September 21 the boys "quarreled for the first time in their lives" while eating pears.  The argument ended in their pelting one another with the fruit.  Three nights later John Loescher was on Dominick Street near his house when Julius appeared.  According to him, "Haefner suddenly struck him in the mouth."  The Times reported "Loescher had a common jack-knife with a blade two inches long in his hand, and as soon as he felt the blow he plunged the blade into Haefner's body up to the hilt."

John turned and fled while the injured boy staggered to the door of No. 34 in an attempt to get help, but "with a gasp fell dead."  The body was taken to a drugstore at Varick and Broome Street where, in a bizarre coincidence, Julius's mother was just walking out.  "She swooned as she saw the bloody corpse of her son, and was taken home by some of her neighbors."

It did not go well for the teen-aged culprit.  In his cell he explained to a New York Times reporter "I was mad when I did it and I didn't mean to to it."  While the journalist was still there the "crying and moaning" of a man could be heard.  John recognized that it was his father.  When John Sr. entered the cell, he told his son, "I would give $10,000 if it was you instead of that boy."  The Times concluded "Then the heart-broken man left the place, and the cell-door was closed again on the young murderer."

Veronica Dreyer was the victim of a thief who snatched her purse in December 1885.  It contained only a small amount of money; but her screams for help were enough to result in James Maloney's arrest.  In court on December 23 he wanted to explain his story to the judge, "but objected to being sworn," according to the New York Herald.  

Surprisingly, he was allowed to speak without being sworn in.  He said he had not intended to steal the purse, but only "to take it and hand it to her, to show how carelessly she was carrying it."   The judge was not convinced and Maloney was sentenced to two and a half years in Sing Sing Prison.

The family remained in the house until the estate of Catherine Dreyer sold it in 1909.  In 1915 it was home to Charles A. Peacock, a partner with his brother William in the fruit business, W. H. Peacock & Co., at No. 97 Water Street.

The house was sold again in 1923 to politician Peter J. Hamill and his wife the former Matilda Van Axen.  The couple had two children.

A Tammany Democrat, Hamill had been a member of the New York State Assembly since 1916.   Two years after moving into the Dominick Street house he was elected the Tammany Hall leader of the First Assembly District.  It was a sign that he was a rising star within the party.

It seems that the Hamills rented a room in the house to Edward Schramm in 1929.   By now the once quiet residential street was seeing the demolition of the old Federal houses and the rise of massive factory buildings in their place.  One such building was being erected at the corner of Dominick and Hudson Street that year.

The 52-year old Schramm was walking under the sidewalk scaffolding at the site on May 3, 1929 when it collapsed.  He was taken "severely injured" to St. Vincent's Hospital.  Two other pedestrians were slightly injured.

Later that year, on December 5, the State Democratic minority leader Maurice Bloch died from an embolism.  Two weeks later the Buffalo Courier Express called Hamill the "leading contender for the toga left by Bloch."  And, indeed, before the year was out Hamill was chosen the Democratic leader in the State Assembly.

Hamill's stellar rise came to an abrupt and unexpected end.  In the first week of January he suffered a severe appendicitis attack in the house and was rushed into surgery.  He never recovered from the operation and died in the hospital on January 13, 1930 at the age of 44.  His children, Mary and Peter, Jr., were just four- and two-years-old respectively.

The esteem with which Hamill was held within the political community was exemplified by Mayor James J. Walker's personally choosing the pall bearers for his funeral.  Among the 2,000 mourners in St. Alphonsus' Church on January 17 was Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Members of the St. Patrick's Cathedral choir sang the mass.  The chaplain of the United States Military Academy at West Point officiated, helped by the chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Monsignor Thomas G. Carroll and, according to the Buffalo Courier-Express, "more than twenty priests."

The following week the Buffalo-Courier Express reported that Matilda Hamill had been "appointed supervisor of investigators for the new crime prevention bureau of the police department."  Her annual salary, $4,500, would be equal to about $67,700 today.

Every window shade in Matilda Hamill's house was pulled to precisely the same level.  photo via the NYC Dept. of Records & Information Services. 

The house was home to Anna Santulli around the outbreak of World War II.  According to a descendant, Patricia Santulli Cameron, living in the house with her were her son Carmine, and daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Albert DeVincenzo.  The house remained in the Santulli family until the early 1990s, according to Cameron.  Quite remarkably, as the neighborhood had filled with mammoth industrial structures, the south side of the block around No. 34 survived.

In 2012 No. 34 was nominated for landmark designation.  It was not a prospect well received by its owner, Robert Neborak.  He complained before the Landmarks Preservation Commission on March 27 that designation would force him to "bear the entire financial brunt" of preserving a building that did not warrant landmark status to begin with.   He said No. 34 "is not a notable architectural example of anything other than a well-maintained old building."

Neborak's arguments were unsuccessful and the 186-year old house was deemed an individual landmark.

photographs by the author

The 1826 House at No. 32 Dominick Street

Scaffolding partially obscures the facade as work proceeds in early 2015.

When Trinity Episcopal Church announced in March 1803 its intentions of erecting a chapel of convenience north of the city on what would be Varick Street near Hudson, an outcry ensued.  The area was undeveloped and boggy, filled with reeds and overrun with mosquitoes and snakes.  Undeterred, Trinity erected St. John’s Chapel, the focal point of what would become an exclusive residential neighborhood surrounding a landscaped park.

The area north of St. John’s, known as Lispenard’s Meadows, was equally unpleasant despite the agreeable name.  But the arrival of brick mansions and a stately Georgian chapel fostered an interest in developing the surrounding land.  In 1817 an ordinance was passed to fill in the marshy Linpenard’s Meadows and two years later a sewer was laid along the length of Canal Street, which provided further drainage.

It was not, of course, just the wealthy who were moving northward and in 1826 the newly established Dominick Street saw quaint working class dwellings erected.  The block between Varick and Hudson Streets saw no fewer than a dozen Federal style homes built that year.  Among them was No. 32, constructed by Smith Bloomfield as one of five identical speculative homes.

He had purchased the lots from Robert and Sarah Livingston on March 10, 1826.  Sarah had inherited the property from her grandfather, Anthony Lispenard.  Bloomfield would move into one of the homes, No. 28, and he rented the little house at No. 32 for years.

Charming in its simplicity, the brick-clad home was two and a half stories tall with the entrance at street level.  A handsome cast iron fence topped with palmettes guarded the basement and two high, stately dormers sat above the plain cornice.

A bit battered, the fencing survives with its acorns along the bottom and palmettes at the top.

As expected, No. 32 was rented by working class tenants.  In 1834 John B. Gedney, a “forwarder,” lived here with his family; and in 1856 resident Solomon W. Johnson listed his occupation as “agent.” 

On October 14, 1862, a year after the first shot was fired in the Civil War, The New York Times notified voters that No. 32 Dominick would be the “designated place at which elections shall be held” in the Fourth District, Eighth Ward.  Within the year the war would visit the Dominick Street more personally.  .  On August 26, 1863 E. Oven was living here.  That day not only was his name pulled in the military draft; but so was that of next door neighbor J. Manley who lived at No. 34.

It would seem that by now more than one family resided in the little home.  Nine months after Oven was drafted Mrs. Ann Hagan died here, on May 4, 1864.  If the 78-year old woman’s life had been rather ordinary, her passing would not be.  The New York Times informed readers that her body would be taken from the Dominick Street house on Saturday morning, May 7, “to St. Joseph’s Church, where a solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of her soul will be held, thence to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for interment.”

By the end of the war the neighborhood surrounding Dominick Street had greatly changed.  In 1867 Trinity Church shocked New York City be selling St. John’s Park to the Hudson River Railroad Company.  The company immediately laid plans to replace the refined private green with a freight terminal.  But while most homeowners fled, leaving their residences to be converted for commercial purposes or razed; the Dominick Street block remained resolutely intact.

Smith Bloomfield had sold No. 32 to Mary McKinley in 1866 (spelled in some documents as McKindley).  She still owned the house on March 25, 1873 when she joined other property owners on the block, including Smith Bloomfield, in protest against their assessment for “paving Dominick street from Clarke to Hudson street.” 

Mary’s heirs sold the house to carpenter John F. Wilson in 1878.  He and his family lived in the upper floors while he rented the first floor to families like that of bookkeeper Thomas Sutter who was here in 1880. 

As the century drew to a close Charles W. Ottiwell lived here.  An owner of “steamtugs,” he died of pneumonia in the house on November 23, 1898 at the age of 67.  His funeral was held here on Friday morning, November 25.

As the 20^th century dawned the Dominick Street block was an anachronism among the rumbling freight trucks and warehouses.  On February 13, 1910 The New York Times remarked that “the owners have refused to be driven out and still live there in trim houses, with neat yards and gardens.”

Another section of Dominick Street, around 1915, is lined with well-kept vintage homes.  photo by Samuel Landsman, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWHZV94F&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

Two years later Elizabeth W. Morse, who had inherited No. 32 from John F. Wilson’s estate, conveyed the house to the Church of Our Lady of Vilnius.  The Lithuanian church was located nearby at No. 570 Broome Street.  The gift rescued the house from the alterations that were happening along the block.  The church used the house as its rectory, keeping its residential architecture intact.

The end of trim houses and neat yards would come to a close for the northern side of the street in 1922.  Construction of the Holland Tunnel resulted in six of the venerable homes to be destroyed.  On the south side, the homes were heavily altered.  But No. 32 survived with even its Federal ironwork unscathed.

In 1939 the house remained a time capsule.  It's once-matching next door neighbor has received a full third floor.  photograph New York City Municipal Archives

George Gruniskas lived in the rectory on January 13, 1947 when his car was stolen from outside.  About two weeks later, on January 27, Patrolmen William Allmendinger and Ernest Vohs of the East 67^th Street stationhouse spotted the vehicle parked at a curb.

“With pistols drawn, they stepped alongside the car and ordered the occupants out,” reported The New York Times.  Instead, they were met with a barrage of gunshots.

“The patrolmen returned the fire, emptying their pistols as the car pulled away.”  A car chase ensued.  The police cruiser followed Gruniskas’s car to Lexington Avenue, then north to East 83^rd, then west toward Park Avenue.  Panicked, the gunmen abandoned the car and fled on foot.

George Gruniskas got his car back.  But there were seven bullet holes in it.

No. 32 Dominick Street served as the rectory of Our Lady of Vilnius until the Archdiocese closed the church in 2007.  The remarkable single family home—a rare Federal period relic in astonishing condition—was designated a New York City landmark in 2012.  It was put on the market a year later for $4.9 million.

non-historic photographs by the author