The Half House

154 Spring Street | also 152 Spring Street, 154A Spring Street | SoHo | built 1920

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

  1. 1859

    October 21

    Mrs. Broome advertises penmanship lessons for young ladies at her academy at 154 Spring Street

    Before the Civil War the early house at No. 154 held a girls' school. An advertisement of October 21, 1859 offered ladies who wanted a quick and graceful hand, or private lessons in English subjects, instruction at the academy of Mrs. Broome. That house was torn down after plans for the present building were drawn up in 1910.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1861

    February

    Joseph Grundy, founder of a secret society at 152 Spring, is jailed for a month for taking fees under false pretenses

    In the house at No. 152 Joseph Grundy founded a lodge calling itself the Grand and Cordial Daughters of Ruth, an "Ancient Order" headed by a "Queen of Queens." Initiates paid a $1.50 fee, and fines such as 12 and a half cents for laughing kept it running. A new member of a male society, asked for a second fee, went to the police. In February 1861 a judge sentenced Grundy to a month in the penitentiary.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1904

    September 21

    Three boys steal a lodger's purse at 152 Spring Street and blame one another in Children's Court

    Teresa Milam, who rented a room at No. 152, was robbed of a purse holding $8 in 1904 by three boys nicknamed Dope, Horse and Iran. They were 11, 9 and 14 years old. In Children's Court on September 21 the group turned on each other, and the Sun printed their street dialect. The judge committed the 14-year-old to the Catholic Protectory and released the other two.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1910

    December

    H. Mankin hires Louis Sheinart to replace the old house at 154 Spring with a four-story loft

    In December 1910 H. Mankin commissioned architect L. A. Sheinart to design a four-story store and loft building on the site of No. 154. The old house was torn down. That left No. 152 looking like half a house, the quirk that attracts SoHo visitors today. The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates the new building to 1911.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1983

    December

    The New Deal restaurant at 152 Spring serves hippopotamus and rattlesnake salad at a game festival

    After the W.P.A. restaurant, the New Deal took over the ground floor of No. 152. In December 1983 it staged "The Game Festival." New York Magazine reported that the menu included scallopine of lion grandmere, loin of hippopotamus, and a rattlesnake salad. The space was replaced by Boom, a postmodern Asian restaurant, in 1994, and it stayed until 2013.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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