The Abused 1894 Bilger Stable - 49 Market Street

Market Street was lined with handsome, brick-faced homes by the late 1820s.  The family of Irish-born Thomas Dunphy occupied 49 Market Street in 1865.  Living in the house with Dunphy and his wife, Julia, were their daughter, Annie, and her husband, Charles Henry Hawkins.

A tragic and bizarre incident happened on December 13, 1865.  The New York Times reported that the 50-year-old Dunphy, "attempted to turn a summersault in his hallway, but fell heavily to the ground instead, fracturing his spinal column, and causing death to ensue."

Charles Hawkins was a butcher at 55 Market Street.  He and Annie continued to reside with Julia.  The couple would have five children, William, Sarah, Anna, Thomas and Richard.  

Following Julia Dunphy's death, the title to the house passed to Annie.  At the time of Annie's death in 1893, the neighborhood of her childhood had severely changed.  Private homes were being razed and replaced with tenement buildings.  In 1894, Charles H. Hawkins hired architect M. Muller to design a three-story stable building on the site of the former Dunphy house.  The structure would cost $10,000 to erect (about $365,000 in 2025).

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Above the expected configuration of the ground floor--a centered carriage bay flanked by a door and a window--Muller flexed his architectural skills.  Incised vertical lines in the brickwork below two bandcourses created the impression of double-height, fluted pilasters.  The cornice was a tour-de-force of the bricklayer's art.  Mimicking an ornate cast metal example, the brackets, dentils, paneled parapet and triangular pediment were all executed in brick.  Identifying the building as a livery stable was a carved horse's head.

Hawkins leased the property to James Bilger.  The lessee, most likely, had little or nothing to do with the business.  He was an established attorney and almost assuredly rented the stable to a proprietor.  In 1902, Thomas Hawkins sold the building to Lowenfeld & Prager.  (Interestingly, James Bilger acted as Hawkins's attorney for the transaction.)

Although in 1920 motorized vehicles had greatly replaced horses in New York City, when Lowenfeld & Prager sold 49 Market Street to Nicosia Bros. Company in August that year, it was described as a "modern stable."  Nicosia Bros. Company dealt in dairy products.  The building housed its delivery vehicles, horses, and its office.

Substantial change came in 1949.  With Prohibition in the rear view mirror, 49 Market Street was converted to a "restaurant, bar and grille" on the ground floor and an American Legion "clubroom" on the second.  In a slipshod attempt at a Mid-Century modernization, a red brick veneer obliterated M. Mullen's 1894 design.  Glass blocks filled the upper portions of the ground-floor openings, a brick diamond-patterned band separated the first and second floors, and the masterful cornice was removed.  The architect was apparently unwilling to destroy the sculpted horse's head, which now poked through the brick veneer.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

In the 1980s and '90s, the former bar space was home to a surprising tenant, Manhattan Custom Tackle.  Here anglers could purchase equipment for fly fishing.

In the early years of the 21st century, the 2,400-square-foot former American Legion space become home to the studio of multimedia artist Spencer Sweeney.  In the summer of 2017, Sweeney moved his studio to West 18th Street with a year left on his lease.  On November 12, 2018, The New York Times journalist Ben Detrick, reported that to make use of the now vacant space, Sweeney and artists Brendan Dugan and Urs Fischer "began inviting friends to the studio to make illustrations of human heads."  Detrick said the "Sunday night salon called Headz resurrected the spirit of Andy Warhol's Factory, the art club area and creative gatherings of yore in a gentrifying downtown where such avant-garde pockets are on the precipice of extinction."

Headz spread by word of mouth.  Nine months after the first gathering, it was "populated by contemporary artists including Kembra Pfahler, Joe Bradley and Alex Bag, improvisational jazz legends, night-life lurkers, skateboarders and Lower East Side teenagers."  At the end of the lease, the art parties ended on July 22, 2018, closing a colorful chapter in the many lives of 49 Market Street.

Today Happy Medium, an "arts club for casual artists," occupies the building.  And after more than 130 years, the stone horse above it all continues to survey the street.

photographs by the author

The 1824 William and Mary Bogart Clark House - 51 Market Street

 

The Catherine Market was established in 1786, giving its name to Market and Catherine Streets.  In 1824, wholesale grocer William Clark began construction on his two-and-a-half story, brick faced house at 43 Market Street (renumbered 51 in 1850).  Completed the following year, its Federal-style details reflected Clark's affluence, like the handsome Gibbs surrounds of the basement level openings.  The paneled lintels of the upper floor windows were embellished with carved, foliate end blocks.  The elegant entrance with paneled door and fluted, Ionic columns sat below a delicate leaded fanlight.  The attic floor was originally fronted by two dormers.

The foliate blocks on below the entrance arch were echoed in the window lintels.  

The entrance is a superb example of the early 19th century woodcarvers' craftsmanship.

Born in 1785, Clark had started his career at the age of 19 in a notions store.  In 1809, he married Charlotte Mandeville, who died on February 24, 1811.  Two years later, on April 7, 1813, he married Mary Bogart.

While the Clark family was relatively newcomers to America (William's father, Samuel, was born in England), Mary was "of Knickerbocker stock," according to the 1895 Biographical Review.  She descended from Everadus Bogardus, who arrived in New Netherland in 1633.  William and Mary had four children when they moved into the Market Street house.

The interior entrance mirrors the exterior configuration.

William Clark died at the age of 51 on November 30, 1836.  His funeral was held in the parlor the following afternoon.  Still living with Mary at the time were Sarah and William, Jr.  William married Rosamond Michael on June 16, 1842, and Sarah was married to Rev. Talmon C. Perry in the Market Street Church on October 1, 1851.  Mary remained here until her death around 1854.

The house next became home to Reverend Ira R. Steward and his family, listed here as early as 1855.  Born in 1795, Steward began his career as a sailor and a soldier.  But he turned to religious work by his mid-40s.  In 1841, the New York Domestic Missionary Society instituted a "ministry for seamen."  The Mariners' Temple was formed, with Steward as its first pastor.  (In 1859, the congregation purchased the Oliver Street Baptist Church at 12 Oliver Street, conveniently close to 51 Market Street.)

Reverend Ira R. Steward (original source unknown)

With the outbreak of Civil War, the Stewards' son, Ira W., joined the Union Army.  He was still active as late as 1865.

On December 28, 1867, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, "Rev. Ira R. Steward, an eminent Baptist minister of New York, died this week from paralysis.  For nearly half a century he has been connected with the cause of seamen in the city and is known in all quarters of the globe."  ("Paralysis" most likely referred to a stroke.)

The house was purchased by Thomas Maher, who listed his profession as "boardinghouse" in 1867.  By now, the once refined residential neighborhood had changed.  Waves of Irish and German immigrants filled the district and private homes were being razed to make way for tenement buildings.  In October 1870, Maher hired builder Thomas Hanlon to enlarge the house to four floors with a rear extension.  The plans explained that the remodeled building would be used "for tenants or boarders to let to families...two on each floor."

Exquisite plasterwork survives throughout the parlor and second floors.

Surprisingly, Hanlon carefully mimicked the carved lintels of the 1824 design for the windows of the new floors.  Only the slight difference in brick color and the change from Flemish bond to running bond brickwork testify to the addition.  A fashionable Italianate-style bracketed cornice finished the renovations.

The resulting boarding house was operated by a "Miss French" in 1876.  Her respectable boarders were middle-class, like Michael Farley, a driver; and Charles Infield, who ran a clothing store on Lispenard Street.

Matching black marble mantels are in the parlor and dining room.

At the first years of the 20th century, W. H. Hemingway owned the property.  In 1905 he instituted another renovation that would raise the three-story rear extension to four floors.  His choice of architects is surprising.  Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was nationally recognized.  He had designed famous Manhattan structures like the 1880 Dakota Apartments, the Waldorf and Astoria Hotels for the Astor families, and was currently working on plans for the Plaza Hotel.  

Hardenbergh's plans laid out a "toilet room" and a kitchen, noting that the building will be used as a "tenement house, as at present."

Edmund V. Gillan photographed the stoop in 1970.  It may have been the basis for the 21st century reconstruction.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

As the Great Depression cast its pall over the nation, Columbia University owned the “four story tenement building.”  When the institution sold the property at auction on December 13, 1945, it was assessed at $515,000—about $8.7 million in 2025 terms.

By the third quarter of the 20th century, Chinatown had engulfed the neighborhood around 51 Market Street.  At some point the front stoop was removed, but before 2015 it was refabricated.  Despite decades of having been used as a rooming house and make-shift apartments, the venerable building survived astonishingly intact.  

The paneled 1824 entrance door remains in place.  Inside, the original marble mantels, elaborate plaster ceiling medallions, and carved details have withstood two centuries.  The Clark house is on the market as of this writing.  And while the exterior was designated an individual New York City landmark in 1965, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, the interiors are not protected.  They will be at the mercy of the next owner.

photographs by the author

The Wm. Clark House -- No. 51 Market Street

In the years following the Revolutionary War, residential development of the northern fringes of New York City increased with a fervor; only to be slowed by the War of 1812.   But construction resumed shortly after the conflict’s end in 1815. 

Catherine Market was established in 1786 between Catherine Street and Market Slip.  Even as the blocks near the river changed to a fashionable residential neighborhood, Catherine Market stayed, giving its name to Market Street.

A few blocks east of No. 51 was the Catherine Market, by the river.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1824 merchant William Clark began construction of a fine brick-faced Federal style home at No. 51 Market Street.  According to a descendant in 1892, Clark “when 19, started a notion store, and was after a wholesale grocer and dry goods merchant.”  Born in 1785, he was 24 years old when directories first listed as a grocer at No. 14 Newslip, at the corner of Front Street in 1809.

Clark had married Charlotte Mandeville of Peekskill, New York the year before.  But their marriage would be short.  Charlotte died less than two years later on February 24, 1811.  Almost immediately after his period of mourning elapsed he married Mary Bogart on April 7, 1813.

William and Mary moved into a house at No. 63 Catherine Street that year.  Their first child, Mary, was born just short of nine months later, on December 28.  The family continued to grow and the Clarks moved to No. 86 Catherine Street in 1816 and to No. 43 Market Street a year later.

Directories continue to list William Clark and his family at No. 43 Market Street until his death there on November 7, 1836.  On that day the New York Evening Post reported “This morning, William Clark, 51 yrs, 43 Market St. died at age 51.”  It could be that Clark never intended to live at No. 51; building it for income purposes.  Or perhaps the numbering of Market Street changed in the mid-19^th century.

Either way, No. 51 was completed in 1825, a superb example of the high-end residences that were filling the neighborhood.  The architect splashed the two-and-a-half story façade with costly extras that merely hinted at the luxurious interior appointments.  The openings of the brownstone English basement featured Gibbs surrounds named for the English architect James Gibbs.   The red brick was laid in Flemish bond and highlighted by outstanding paneled lintels with end rosettes.

The brownstone basement level, with the handsome Gibbs surrounds, is now painted pink.  The once lovely iron fencing has suffered hideous abuse.

It was the doorway, however, where the architect pulled out all the stops.  Within the carved stone entranceway an eight-paneled door sat within fluted Ionic columns, in turn flanked by matching half-columns.  Leaded sidelights lightened the composition and allowed daylight into the foyer.  Above it all an exquisite leaded fanlight stole the show.  Combined, the elements spoke of refinement and wealth.

Despite wood rot and graffiti, the superb design and craftsmanship of the extraordinary doorway shine through.

In rather stark contrast to the elegant doorway, the wrought iron fencing was nearly Spartan; its decoration relying on acorn finials interspersed with classical urns.  The urn motif was, interestingly, more expected in France and England at the time.

Interestingly, on October 19, 1835 the Board of Assistants passed an ordinance “for the correction of a nuisance at No. 51 Market Street.”  On October 29, the Mayor approved it.  The minutes of the Proceedings of the Boards of Aldermen are painfully vague as to what the “nuisance” was.

Before all of this, on July 30, 1822, William and Mary welcomed their fourth child, William, Jr.   Two decades later, on June 16, 1842 young William married Rosamond Michael, daughter of Philip Michael, at Pittsdown, New York.  No. 51 is often referred to as the William and Rosamond Clark House; so it seems the couple lived here at least for a few years.

At some point after the end of the Civil War the roof was raised, adding too full floors to the house.  In doing so, the architect carefully copied the wonderful paneled brownstone lintels to create a seamless alteration.   But quickly the neighborhood would change.  Thousands of immigrants from Europe entered New York Harbor.  As wealthy residents continued to move north, the old mansions were converted to boarding houses or simply razed for tenement houses.  Already a stable had replaced the mansion that sat at No. 49 Market Street, next door to the Clark House.

The paneled lintels with carved rosettes were copied on the new upper floor.  The deeply-paneled interior shutters survive after nearly 200 years.

By 1876 “Miss French” was selling “household furniture” from No. 51; most likely from the basement level.   As the turn of the century neared, roomers came and went; many of them leaving by a horse-drawn hearse.  On March 1, 1897 63-year old John Huggard died in his room; as did William B. Reed two years later on June 7, just 20 years old.  In 1902 36-year old John J. Driscoll died here on the 11^th of April, followed by 50 year old Kate Daly three months later.

As the Great Depression cast its pall over the nation, Columbia University owned the “four story tenement building.”  When the institution sold the building at auction on December 13, 1945, it was assessed at $515,000—about $5 million today.

As the neighborhood continued to change and Chinatown engulfed No. 51; amazingly little happened to the superb façade of No. 51 Market Street.  Although the windows were expectedly replaced; even the original 1825 door survived.

A photograph in the late 1970s reveals the accuracy of the 2010 stoop design.  photo by Edmund V. Gillon from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GI2INCW&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=629

In 2010 the front stoop was removed.  Its replacement tries valiantly to look like brownstone and the railings are a sympathetic take on the 19^th century design.  The refined house—so starkly out of place today—is a rare glimpse of life on Market Street when only the wealthy merchant class called it home.

The replacement railings are valiant reproductions.

 photographs by the author