William Christie House

17 King Street | Hudson Square | built 1826

Open on the map3 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. 1840

    William Christie, a carman, buys 17 King Street

    After merchant Gideon Fountain moved next door to 15 King Street in 1840, the house was bought by William Christie, who called himself a carman. Daniel B. Pierson, a mason, boarded with the Christie family for about five years. Christie died in December 1846, and his son David took over the business. The family leased the house out around 1851 and moved to River Edge, New Jersey, around 1868.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1899

    Judge Wauhope Lynn, owner of the house, refuses to toast Queen Victoria

    Wauhope Lynn, an Irish-born lawyer, bought 17 King Street with his wife Anna in 1889 and became a municipal court justice in 1892. At the St. David Society's annual dinner, attended by about 350 guests, he and his wife stayed seated during a toast to Queen Victoria. He said he would sooner serve 20 years in state prison than drink to her health, then left the hall. Lynn retired from the bench in 1919 and died the next year.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1955

    May 16

    Writer James Agee leaves home for a doctor's visit and dies in a taxi

    The writer James Agee lived in the house at mid-century with his wife Mia Fritsch and their three children. He worked as a novelist, poet, film critic and screenwriter, and wrote the screenplays for The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter. On May 16, 1955, he left for a doctor's appointment and suffered a fatal heart attack in a taxi. His novel A Death in the Family appeared two years later and won a Pulitzer Prize.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 79 buildings with stories in Hudson Square