James and Euphemia Russell House

208 West 11th Street | West Village | built 1856

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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. 1856

    Elisha Bloomer builds a row of four brownstone houses that includes 208 West 11th Street

    In 1856 Elisha Bloomer, a merchant then living on Perry Street, builds four brownstone houses on what was Hammond Street, today 208 to 214 West 11th Street. A single bracketed cornice still ties the row together. By the time of the 1969 landmark report, numbers 208, 210 and 212 had entrances at basement level and numbers 210 and 212 had lost all the trim from their openings, while the corner house at 214 best showed the row's original look.

    “This row of four dignified town houses was built in 1856 for Elisha Bloomer, a property owner of The Village.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1868

    June 3

    Eighteen barrels of distilled spirits turn up at brewer James Russell's house

    James Russell, who runs a brewery on Greenwich Avenue, lives at 208 West 11th Street with his wife Euphemia from 1864. On June 3, 1868 the New York Evening Express reports that a condemnation action was started once eighteen barrels of distilled spirits turned up at the address. Daytonian reads this as a sign that Russell had quietly branched into the liquor trade that year.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1883

    January 22

    A violinist who gives lessons here is panned at Steinway Hall

    Brothers Carl and Edward Hermann, a pianist and a violinist, give lessons from rooms at 208 West 11th Street in 1882. On January 22, 1883 Edward plays Beethoven's Violin Concerto at Steinway Hall with Carl accompanying. The reviewer for Music and Drama calls the performance deplorable, saying he cannot play in tune and shows no intelligence, and spares Carl only a passing mention.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1892

    January 5

    Robert Mayhew, the Village's self-styled son of an admiral, dies after years as a local character

    Robert Mayhew, a boarder under Harriet Goble, was by the Times's account the 8th Ward's most celebrated resident, known for a gray duster, a straw hat and pockets of candy for children. He lived by offering shopkeepers who blocked the sidewalk to settle matters with the authorities for a fee. Called the neighborhood's greatest liar, he claimed to be the son of an English admiral and a descendant of Robert the Bruce. He dies at St. Luke's Hospital on January 5, and papers in his room appear to back up his tale.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1896

    November 11

    A boarder is found dead and her estate goes to her lawyer's clerk, not her sister

    Margaret J. Seiley, 50, widow of an English army officer, takes a room at Harriet Goble's boarding house in July 1896 and lives on his $75 monthly pension. On November 11 she is found dead in her room, and newspapers report it as a suicide. Two days later The New York Times reports under the headline "Suicide Slights Relative" that she left her whole estate to a 45-year-old clerk in her lawyer's office rather than her sister, and her bank books showed assets of almost a quarter of a million dollars in current terms.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1918

    July 11

    A boarder is among the first men jailed under the wartime Loafer Law

    In July 1918 John Collins, a 35-year-old tenant at 208 West 11th Street, is arraigned under a new New York State law requiring every able-bodied man aged 18 to 50 who is not in military service to hold a useful job until the war ends. The Sun reports on July 11 that he is one of the first three men sentenced to jail under it. He receives three months in the workhouse.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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