105 Christopher Street

West Village | built 1900

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. 1875

    Shoemaker-turned-landlord Ernst Schroeder owns an earlier house here, with a rental in the back yard

    During the Civil War cartman Joshua F. Hill lived in a modest house here, and a two-story brick house stood in the rear yard. By the mid-1870s the property belonged to Ernst Schroeder, a widower who had begun as a shoemaker and invested in Ninth Ward real estate. He lived with his son in the front house and rented the rear one. This was an earlier building on the site.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1880

    Jobst Hoffman designs a four-story brick tenement with a saloon below

    On July 12, 1879 the Real Estate Record reported that Hoffman had filed plans for an $8,000 four-story brick store and tenement for Schroeder, completed within a year. Its trim is restrained: sawtooth brickwork, incised Eastlake detail in the brownstone, a cast-iron base and a metal cornice. The ground floor soon housed a saloon run by a man named Ryan.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1885

    April 12

    A Sunday-morning saloon brawl ends with the defense lawyer's watch stolen

    Early on April 12, 1885 a crowd spilled out of Ryan's saloon and neighbors told the Charles Street station there was a riot. Police arrested fifteen men, plus Ryan for selling liquor on Sunday. Lawyer James B. McClelland got all sixteen released in Jefferson Market Court, then found that one grateful client had lifted his hunting-case watch and chain.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1892

    October

    A member of the notorious Allen brothers is arrested while living in the building

    In October 1892 police arrested 'Mart' Allen, 46, who lived in the building. Inspector McLaughlin called him one of four Allen brothers who appeared in the city's criminal records more often than any other four men, and said Mart had served at least six years in prison. A brother known as 'The' was a dive keeper and Republican politician in the Eighth District.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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