Van Rensselaer House

149 Mulberry Street | Little Italy | built 1920

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1841

   The 1816 Van Rensselaer house is moved to its current Mulberry Street site

   Stephen Van Rensselaer III's Federal-style house, built around 1816 on the northwest corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets, is moved down the block to its current site in 1841. The modest two-story, dormered house was a once-common row house type in lower Manhattan.

   Source: Wikipedia

2. 1894

   Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes opens the Free Italian Library in the old house

   Philanthropist Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes converts the former Van Rensselaer house into the Free Italian Library and Reading Rooms, serving the Italian immigrants who now fill Mulberry Street's tenements. The library offers books, children's programs, and educational activities in a neighborhood the Van Rensselaer family never anticipated when the house was new.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1911

   A bomb explodes inside a restaurant in the old Van Rensselaer house

   A bomb detonates inside Caputo's Restaurant, then on the ground floor of the historic house, one of many blasts attributed to Black Hand extortion gangs terrorizing Little Italy at the time. Police believe this bombing was aimed at the Humbert Association's meeting rooms upstairs rather than the restaurant itself. The building survives and later houses other Italian restaurants, including Villa Nova and Paolucci's, for decades afterward.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1969

   The city designates the Van Rensselaer house a landmark

   New York City designates the Van Rensselaer house an individual landmark in 1969, and it joins the National Register of Historic Places fourteen years later. It stands as one of the few Federal-style houses to survive intact from Manhattan's early nineteenth-century rowhouse era.

   Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• Stephen Van Rensselaer HouseWikipedia
• The 1816 Van Rensselaer House -- No. 149 Mulberry StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• The Grand Mulberry and Italian American Museum185 Grand Street | 7 entries
• Ferrara Bakery & Cafe195 Grand Street | 3 entries
• P.S. 130 Hernando De Soto School143 Baxter Street | 3 entries
• O'Nieal's174 Grand Street | 4 entries
• Umberto's Clam House132 Mulberry Street | 2 entries
• 190 Grand Street House190 Grand Street | 5 entries

All 76 buildings with stories in Little Italy