Barber Badger House

15 King Street | Hudson Square | built 1826

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. 1826

    15 King Street rises on John Jacob Astor's leveled Richmond Hill estate

    Astor took over the lease on Aaron Burr's Richmond Hill estate in 1817, leveled the land and laid out King Street, named after Rufus King. Brick houses rose along the new blocks by the mid-1820s, including No. 15 at the northwest corner of Congress Street. It was two and a half stories tall with two dormers and a rear stable reached from Congress Street.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1833

    June 10

    Editor Barber Badger lives here as his teenage son runs away after a quarrel

    Badger edited the Christian Advocate and Journal from its 1826 founding, then left in 1831 to start the New York Weekly Messenger. On June 10, 1833, his teenage son Thomas left home after an argument, and a week later the parents ran a notice in the Evening Post offering a reward for his return. A Thomas Badger was listed as a silver merchant a decade later.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1848

    February 12

    Gideon Fountain, who lived at 15 King Street, is nominated for Harbor Master

    Fountain, a Whitehall Street merchant, lived here by 1840, was active in the Henry Clay Club of the Eighth Ward and ran for alderman in 1843. On February 12, 1848, the Herald reported the State Senate was considering him for Harbor Master, which he held for years. The job pushed his family to Brooklyn.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1925

    Sixth Avenue's southern extension passes 15 King Street, erasing Congress Street

    Work on extending Sixth Avenue south from Carmine Street began in 1925 and destroyed hundreds of buildings. It narrowly missed 15 King Street but largely erased Congress Street, beside which the house had stood. The neighborhood had by then become heavily Italian, and Dr. Alfred Benevento had leased the house in 1917.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1966

    August 16

    The district report names 15 King Street as one of the best-preserved Federal houses

    In its designation report for the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, the Commission said Nos. 15 and 17 King Street most clearly kept their Federal character. Although the doors and lintels had been altered, the houses retained their pitched roofs, dormers and cornices, and the doorways and shallow stoops were original.

    Source: media.villagepreservation.org

Further reading

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All 79 buildings with stories in Hudson Square