Boddy House

105 Mercer Street | SoHo | built 1820

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. 1820

    Seamstress Mary Boddy has a Federal-style brick house built at 105 Mercer Street

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission says No. 105 was built in 1819-20 as a home for Mary Boddy, a seamstress. Its pitched roof and dormers were later removed, yet the original slender wooden Ionic columns by the door and an intact spoked fanlight survive, framed by an arched stone lintel with a vermiculated keystone. The commission found it remarkable that so much remained after a century of commercial use.

    “No. 105 was built in 1819-20 as a residence for Mary Boddy, a seamstress.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1864

    July 13

    A man falls into a basement excavation outside 105 Mercer Street and his widow sues the owner

    In July 1864 owner Gustave Herter began enlarging the basements of Nos. 103 and 105. At about 1 a.m. on July 13, Amos M. Butler fell into the excavation and died hours later. His widow sued Herter for $5,000, claiming there were no proper guards. Herter's lawyer told the jury that Butler had been drunk and had stumbled through the barriers.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1892

    January 13

    Furriers Erdody and Gerhardt suffer a first-floor fire as Mercer Street becomes the fur trade's center

    By the 1890s the old house was a workplace, and in 1892 it held Erdody and Gerhardt, furriers, who made and sold their goods on the premises. A fire on the first floor on January 13 destroyed about $1,200 of merchandise and did $300 of damage to the building. Other fur firms followed, and from 1901 a hat and cap maker employed five people working about 59 hours a week.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1965

    A 23-year-old jewelry designer rents the top two floors of the derelict house for $150 a month

    Searching for cheap space, a young jewelry designer found 105 Mercer in bad shape, with no windowpanes on the second and third floors and rats on the sidewalk. She offered the landlord $150 a month for a five-year lease on the top two floors, and he agreed. She had a skylight cut into the roof and lived there about four years, until a 1969 newspaper ad for her lease drew many callers who sensed the newly named SoHo was coming.

    Source: Ephemeral New York

Further reading

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