Isaac Lawrence House

19 Howard Street | SoHo | built 1814

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. 1843

    November 22

    The Lawrence estate's Howard Street house sells at auction for $5,500

    A Federal-style house stood on this lot by 1814, owned by Isaac Lawrence. After Isaac's son James Lawrence died in 1843, James's large Manhattan holdings were liquidated at auction on November 22, 1843. William N. Gilbert paid $5,500 for the Howard Street house as an investment and is thought to have given it the Greek Revival makeover that followed, including a full attic story under a plain wooden cornice.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1846

    February 6

    Irish author Edward Maturin advertises evening elocution classes at 19 Howard Street

    A couple living in the remodeled house took in a boarder in 1846. He was Edward Maturin, an Irish author, poet and language professor. On February 6, 1846 he placed an ad in the New York Herald offering evening elocution classes to gentlemen at his residence, No. 19 Howard Street. Maturin moved permanently to New York in 1848.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1859

    August

    Police raid the saloon and brothel operating in the former house

    As fashionable New York moved north, the neighborhood slid. according to Trow's Directory No. 19 was a boarding house in 1853, and by 1856 the parlor floor held a saloon. In 1859 James Connolly ran the saloon while a brothel operated upstairs, and on August 17 the New-York Tribune reported that police had raided the premises as an alleged disorderly house. Connolly, his bartender, several other men and some women were arrested.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1867

    The old house is converted for business and fills with small manufacturers

    A carpentry shop took over the former saloon space by 1863, and in 1867 the whole building was in business use: Crow & Son, a window glass firm, on the lower level and Louis Hallen, a maker of dusters, upstairs. Small manufacturers stayed on through the 20th century, among them R. & S. Machine Co. in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1944 architect Ferdinand Savignano removed the ground-floor front and put in a new entrance, steps and show window.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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