Daniel Riordan House
15 Oliver Street | Two Bridges | built 1920
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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.
- 1806
A two-story brick house at 15 Oliver Street is advertised for sale in 1806
On April 7, 1806, the Evening Post carried a notice offering the house at 15 Oliver Street, perhaps the first building on a street laid out only a few years earlier from the Rutgers and De Lancey estates. It stood two stories high with ten rooms and six fireplaces, and was suited to two families. The lot was held on a lease with nine years left and a ground rent of five pounds a year.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1880
Dr. Peter Burnett of 15 Oliver Street accuses his wife of attempted murder in court and is told to go home
Dr. Peter Burnett and his wife Elizabeth bought 15 Oliver Street in 1864 and took in boarders. The Sun reported on February 14, 1880 that he had gone to Special Sessions the day before with an iron poker in his pocket to charge her, his fourth wife, with trying to murder him. She answered that he had thrown acid in her face and broken her foot, and the judge told him to go home. Later that month she was back in court, accused of kicking him out, and a justice ruled that he got what he deserved.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1889
Congressman-to-be Daniel Riordan buys 15 Oliver Street and raises it to three stories
Daniel Riordan, then in real estate, bought the old Federal house on July 16, 1889 for $12,000. Architect Bernard McGurk was hired to lift the attic into a full third story and add a rear extension. The stoop and area railings were replaced, the entrance doors were newly paneled, and a bracketed cornice with a triangular pediment topped the facade. Riordan was elected to Congress in 1898.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1915
A would-be assassin pulls a stiletto on Tammany boss Tom Foley at the door of 15 Oliver Street
The Evening World reported in May 1915 that a plot against Tammany leader Thomas F. Foley and Congressman Daniel Riordan had been uncovered. After the men left the Tammany clubhouse on Madison Street, a man followed them to 15 Oliver Street, where Foley lived. As Foley bent to unlock the vestibule door, the man tried to stab him in the back, but Foley turned and the attacker ran off.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1925
Thousands pay tribute to Tammany leader Tom Foley, who lay in state at 15 Oliver Street
Thomas F. Foley, known as Big Tom, was a saloon keeper and Tammany's political organizer who shared the Oliver Street house with Riordan's mother and sister. He died on January 15, 1925 at age 73, after Governor Al Smith rushed to the city when he came down with pneumonia. His body lay in state at the house, with hundreds waiting outside, and his funeral was held at St. James's Church. Foley Square was later named for him.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The Daniel Riordan House - 15 Oliver StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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