John Addoms House
158 Henry Street | Two Bridges | built 2009
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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.
- 1848
Catherine Bininger, who reportedly hired young John Jacob Astor, dies here at 92
The wealthy John Addoms moved into the Greek Revival house around 1843, along with Catherine "Katy" Bininger, widow of the grocer Abraham Bininger. She had helped build the firm A. M. Bininger & Co., and the Times later said she hired a teenaged John Jacob Astor to peddle her cakes from a basket. She died on July 11, 1848, and her funeral was held in the parlor.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1896
A grand engagement party for Jacob Scharlin ends in a breach-of-promise suit
Snuff dealer Simon Scharlin filled the big parlors for the engagement of his deaf son Jacob to Annie Berlinger. The match soon fell apart, and Annie, through her guardian, sued for $50,000. She was awarded $1,950, but Jacob later filed for bankruptcy to escape the judgment, saying he had no assets.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1897
Simon Scharlin and his son are arrested over allegedly lead-tainted snuff
The New York Herald reported on March 5, 1897 that hundreds of pounds of allegedly adulterated snuff were blamed for at least 27 cases of chronic lead poisoning. Simon Scharlin and a son, of the firm S. Scharlin & Son, were indicted and arrested the day before on a technical charge of petty larceny. They pleaded not guilty and were cleared.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1900
A mother's dream leads to the exhumation of her son
Nimon Scharlin died at 27 at Mount Sinai Hospital on February 3, 1900 and was buried the next day. Four nights later his mother Sarah dreamed he was alive and could not rest. Officials disinterred the body, and seeing that it had not moved, she accepted his death.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1924
The Agudat Achim Anshei Drohitchin congregation moves into the house
Congregation Shearith Israel took the former Scharlin house in 1920. In 1924 the congregation Agudat Achim Anshei Drohitchin, organized in 1899, moved here from Monroe Street. Renovations in 1925 added a basement kitchen and dining room, a meeting room on the parlor floor and a rabbi's residence upstairs.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2009
The synagogue is sold and becomes the World Buddhist Center
After decades as a synagogue, the house was sold in August 2009. It is now the World Buddhist Center, a Chinatown temple where members sit on pews facing a statue of Amitabha Buddha. The window lintels and sill brackets are gone from the facade, and a bright red casing frames the entrance.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The John Addoms House - 158 Henry StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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