Charles M. Oakley House

19 Bethune Street | West Village | built 1837

Open on the map4 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. 1837

    Builders erect six speculative Greek Revival houses on Bethune Street, including No. 19

    The row of six brick houses was built in 1836-37 by the builders Henry S. Forman and Alexander Douglass, the carpenter William Goudey and the builder Isaac S. Spencer. Number 19, then numbered 7, is a two-and-a-half-story house with a pilastered doorway and Greek Revival stoop railings. Its roofline was later cut for a skylight to serve an artist's studio.

    “They were built in 1836-37 for speculative purposes by a number of men associated with the building trades…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1881

    January

    A police captain boarding at No. 7 Bethune is sued for false arrest by an importer

    In January 1881 Captain Charles W. Caffrey, who boarded with the Oakley family, and Officer Edward Moran were sued for $5,000 by the importer George W. Lake. In 1878 Moran had been called to stop a young woman, Nettie Lake, from jumping out of a window, and Lake was later arrested. The charges fell apart when she refused to testify, and Lake then sued for false arrest. The jury felt bound by the law to find against the officers but awarded Lake only six cents.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1892

    Bethune Street is extended to Hudson Street and No. 7 becomes No. 19

    In 1887 Bethune Street ended at Greenwich Street, and residents, including the carpenter Charles Oakley, who owned the house, petitioned in February to extend it to Hudson Street, where it would open onto Abingdon Square. The city agreed and finished the work in 1892, which gave the house its present number, 19.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1938

    The Society of Independent Artists uses the Buchholz family's house as its informal headquarters

    By 1938 No. 19 was the home of Frederick Buchholz, secretary of the Society of Independent Artists, and the society used the house as its de facto headquarters. The Buchholzes most likely added the art studio on the roof. Their daughter Dorothea was teaching at a dance school on Fifth Avenue by 1953, and the family stayed in the house through 1959.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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