Rosanna Dunn House

21 Prince Street | Nolita | built 1910

Open on the map4 entries

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

  1. 1837

    Rosanna Dunn, owner of 21 Prince Street, signs a petition against widening Centre Street

    The Board of Aldermen proposed in 1837 to extend and widen Centre Street between Broome and Houston, and neighborhood owners petitioned against it. One signer was listed as "Rose Dunn," owner of 21 Prince Street. Born in 1795 and twice widowed, Rosanna Dunn owned several nearby properties and lived with her sons Anthony and James Conron in this 21-foot-wide Federal brick house, which had a smaller rental house behind it. She died in 1851.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1867

    The Conron house is a crowded boarding house of tailors, a shoemaker and laborers

    After Anthony Conron died in 1864, the house became a crowded boarding house. In 1867 it had seven boarders, several in the clothing trades, including two tailors, a woman who worked in cloaks and a shoemaker, plus two laborers. Bridget Hackett, a widow, probably ran it. Earlier the Conron brothers had run a liquor store, and in 1859 the Gallagher Guard, a volunteer military company, called a meeting at Anthony's house.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1887

    Architect William Grant remodels the house with a cast-iron storefront and an added floor

    Patrick Daly bought the property in December 1886, when the ground floor already held a store. He hired the architect William Grant, whose plans raised the attic to a full floor, rearranged the interior and gave the ground floor a cast-iron front with two shops. The upper windows received pressed-metal pediments and terra cotta frames. The change from Flemish to running bond brick still shows where the new fourth floor starts.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1950

    A social club on the ground floor draws underworld figures

    According to Eric Ferrara's Manhattan Mafia Guide, the ground floor housed the Thompson Social Club at mid-century, a hangout for gangsters such as Peter Di Palermo. In later decades Prince Street Editions published art calendars here in the 1980s, and an antiques shop, the Laughing Cat, was here by the mid-1990s. The Ina consignment shop took the space around 2000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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