James S. Rossant House
114 Sullivan Street | SoHo | built 1832
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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.
- 1832
Bookbinder Charles Starr completes seven upscale Federal houses on Sullivan Street
Charles Starr, a wealthy bookbinder and real estate developer, finished a row of seven homes on Sullivan Street between Prince and Spring Streets in 1832, and moved into one himself. Number 114 was faced in Flemish-bond red brick with brownstone trim, three bays wide, with a slate roof and dormers. Its Federal doorway reflected the status of the first family.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1881
A smallpox patient seems to vanish from the house, until health officers are found to have taken him
During the smallpox epidemic of 1881 the disease reached the house, and on March 20 the patient's family reported what the Tribune called a mysterious abduction of the sick man. He had been removed bodily from the house. Two days later the paper solved the mystery: the abductors were the Health Officers.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1892
Black Republican delegates meet here and the evening ends in a four-hour row
On the night of August 1, 1892, delegates of the Afro-American Republican Association's district organizations met at 114 Sullivan Street to plan its expansion. The Sun reported the resolution to organize every Assembly district with a large Black population. The Times noted only about 20 attended and that wrangling lasted over four hours and ended in a row, with fistfights nearly breaking out.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1922
Daniel Cella, raised in this house, is arrested with two truckloads of whiskey he says he thought was meat
The Cella family, who bought the house in 1898, raised its height to three floors. Daniel, one of two sons they raised here, was arrested in Jersey City on May 20, 1922 when officers stopped two trucks holding 6,750 bottles of whiskey worth $65,000. Both drivers said they thought they were carrying meat. Five years later Daniel and his brother Louis were charged over sacramental wine.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1972
Architect James Rossant and wife Collette make the house a family home and a children's cooking school
In the early 1970s James Rossant, architect of Butterfield House and planner of Reston, Virginia, moved in with his wife, Collette, and their four children, reconverting the upper floors to a single-family house. In 1972 Collette began teaching French cooking to children aged 9 to 15, at $60 for six classes, and James illustrated several of her cookbooks.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2002
The Rossants leave for France in 2002, and the house later becomes the home of actress Sandra Bullock
The Rossants, with their children grown, moved to France in 2002, and James died in 2009. The house then passed to the film star Sandra Bullock. It remains a single-family house, which the Daytonian blog describes as having come full circle from its years as a boarding and rooming house.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- Full Circle -- The James S. Rossant House, 114 Sullivan StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
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