Erastus C. Benedict House

10 West 10th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1845

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1870

    February 29

    An editor is shot outside the Benedict house after an evening visit

    On the night of February 29, 1870, attorney and civic leader Erastus C. Benedict entertained J. P. Meehan, editor of the newspaper The Irish American. Meehan had made enemies with his outspoken views on Irish independence. Soon after he left and walked from the stoop toward Broadway, he collapsed on the pavement, shot in the back of the neck, in what the New York Herald called a "dastardly attempt at murder." He survived.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1895

    March 7

    A missing-funds scandal leads Henry Oakley to hand over the house

    A review of the American Church Missionary Society's books in spring 1895 revealed that a large sum was missing. The New-York Tribune reported on March 7 that its treasurer, Henry Oakley, who owned the house with his wife Helen, had retired from the post. As partial reparation, title to the house was transferred to the society.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1902

    November 17

    James Paulding offers to replace a policeman's helmet after a runaway horse

    James Paulding, who backed the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was passing Madison Square Garden during the Horse Show on November 17, 1902, when a startled delivery horse bolted. Policeman Casey stopped it by the bridle but crushed his new $2.40 helmet in the process. Paulding told him not to worry about replacing it and went to nominate Casey for the Society's annual bravery medal.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2006

    The Colombels restore the house's lost stoop and lintels

    Eric and Andrea Soros Colombel bought the house for $11.5 million in 2006 and began top-to-bottom renovations. When the work was done, the stoop and lintels, most likely removed in a 1956 conversion into apartments, had been restored to their 1844 appearance. The enlarged 8,500-square-foot house contained 21 rooms, among them seven bedrooms and eight and a half baths, plus a basement fitness center where household staff once worked. The Colombels sold the house for $20 million in 2015.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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