19 Bedford Street

West Village | built 1889

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1889

   Julius Ritter replaces an old house with Francis Minuth's five-story store-and-flat building

   Julius Ritter bought the old house at 19 Bedford Street in 1888 and hired Francis A. Minuth, a German-born architect, to plan a five-story building holding a store below and apartments above. It was finished the next year at a cost of $14,000. Minuth gave the red-brick Renaissance Revival facade brownstone trim, a small balcony at the fourth floor and a bracketed cornice.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1915

   April 29

   Two policemen chase a gunman up the stairs and across the roofs of 19 and 21 Bedford

   On April 29, 1915, Sergeant Camille Pierne and Policeman Dennis Mitchell, walking their beat near Houston and Hancock Streets, heard a gunshot and chased a man into 19 Bedford. He shot at Pierne on the stairs and fled across the roof, where Mitchell met him from No. 21 and the two wrestled near the edge as a crowd watched. The man, barber Benjamin Lotta, was subdued and taken down to the street.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1923

   May 25

   A tenant tending his rooftop pigeons rescues two toddlers from a fire next door

   Edward Neary, who lived at 19 Bedford Street and kept pigeon coops on the roof, saw smoke pouring from 40 Downing Street on May 25, 1923. He rushed into the burning building and carried the Sibi brothers, aged one and two, down the rear fire escape, while the building's owner brought out their mother. Neary was hailed as a hero.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1941

   February

   A widow's attorney is indicted for draining her bank accounts, then vanishes for a decade

   Mary Young, a widow living at 19 Bedford Street, was hospitalized in 1936 and gave her attorney, Michael J. Horan, power of attorney. He drew about $10,000 from her accounts over four years and was indicted for grand larceny in February 1941, then disappeared. Young died in her apartment in 1949 at age 93, and Horan, by then disbarred, surfaced in court in July 1951 to defend himself.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1953

   The city condemns the building to make way for Robert Moses's never-built expressway

   In 1953 the city condemned 19 Bedford Street and neighboring buildings under Robert Moses's 1928 plan for a Lower Manhattan Expressway, and a demolition permit was issued in 1957. The project stalled and tenants stayed on month to month. After Verrazano Street was later removed from the map, the city sold the building and it became five co-operative apartments, one per floor.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Francis A. Minuth's 1889 19 Bedford StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• 21 Bedford Street2 entries
• 23 Bedford Street2 entries
• 25 Bedford Street2 entries
• 27 Bedford Street2 entries
• 38 Downing Street2 entries
• 29 Bedford Street2 entries

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