138 Sullivan Street

also 140 Sullivan Street | SoHo | built 1900

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.

1841
A Greek Revival row house replaces an earlier house, with an oval window at the front
Charles Stewart built this brick row house around 1841 to 1842 in place of an earlier one. It is Greek Revival, with brownstone sills and a distinctive oval window at the first story. The commission thinks the house originally included a horse walk giving access to the rear of the lot.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1878
A retired police officer and Hickory Club president owns the house for decades
By 1878 the house belonged to Daniel Coffey, a police officer who in 1871 had been president of the Seventh Ward Hickory Club. After retiring in March 1886 on a $600 pension, he moved down the street but kept this house as a rooming house and added real estate investments nearby. He still owned it in 1912. Tenants over the years included a saddler who volunteered with a fire company and a teacher at a nearby primary school.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1893
July 2
A Sunday family dinner ends in a stabbing and a gunfight in the rear house
After a dinner at the little house in the back yard, fruit seller Gaestono Ricchi slapped his wife, and her brother Giuseppi Lendini objected. Ricchi pulled a stiletto and stabbed him in the hand and head, and Lendini fired a revolver, hitting Ricchi three times. Between 400 and 500 neighbors gathered outside, and Lendini, shot through the lung, was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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