Peter McLaughlin House

105 West 11th Street | West Village | built 1842

Open on the map5 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. 1842

    Marble dealer Peter McLaughlin has a Greek Revival house built near Sixth Avenue

    Peter McLaughlin, a marble dealer, had No. 105 built in 1842 as one house in the long Greek Revival row planned by architect William Hurry and builder George Youngs. It is a modest three-story house on a basement, and it keeps its original stoop and a Greek Revival doorway. The neo-Grec cornice was probably added in the 1870s.

    “…built in 1842 for Peter McLaughlin as part of the Hurry-Youngs row…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1854

    February 8

    Helen Brown sends clothing and money to families burned out by the Pearl Street fires

    After fires gutted a block of Pearl Street in January 1854, the New-York Daily Tribune reported on February 8 that Mrs. C. H. Brown of 105 West 11th Street had given a bundle of new clothing and money to a lieutenant at the First Ward police station. He visited the fire site, where thirty or forty poor families were living in the dilapidated buildings, and gave out $20 among them. Her husband Constant was then a clerk at the Merchants' Bank.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1866

    April 16

    The widowed Helen Brown auctions off her rosewood piano, Roux furniture and Roman bronzes

    Constant Brown, a bank cashier, died in 1860 and his funeral was held in the house. In April 1866 his widow Helen moved back to Waterford, New York, and sold the house's contents at auction. The sale listing included furniture made by the cabinetmaker Alexander Roux, a rosewood cabinet piano, Sevres china, Roman bronzes, paintings and marble statuary by Mozier.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1923

    A countess said to be of Napoleon's family, once an actress on the English stage, lives here with her husband

    By 1923 Countess Josephine de Castelvecchio lived in the house with her husband Anthony Frabisilis, a court interpreter. Born in Paris in 1864, her father was reportedly a half-brother of Napoleon III, and she had acted in England under the stage name Elouina Oldcastle after Ellen Terry offered her roles. She toured the United States, then tutored. She died in 1932, leaving an estate under $1,000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1926

    Film character actress Eleanor Wesselhoeft boards here with a Bellevue trustee and the countess

    In 1926 the boarding house counted among its residents the character actress Eleanor Wesselhoeft, who later played matronly roles in films such as the 1931 Street Scene. Her housemates included Dr. Charles A. Perilli, an Italian-born physician and Bellevue Hospital trustee who stayed into the 1930s, and the Countess de Castelvecchio.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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