Webster House

251 East Houston Street | Lower East Side | built 1900

Open on the map5 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. 1879

    The Virginia Day Nursery takes rooms in the old house for working mothers

    In 1879 the Virginia Day Nursery, a City Mission project founded that February, took a few rooms on the lower floors of 251 East Houston Street. It looked after children under six whose mothers had jobs, charging only 5 to 10 cents a day. The nursery moved to East 5th Street in 1886, and the vacated space became a meeting hall.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1888

    August 16

    A Democratic club organizes for Cleveland's campaign in Mayer's Hall

    The former nursery space had become Mayer's Hall by 1888. On the evening of August 16, the James Monroe Club of the Tenth Assembly district formed itself here as a campaign club for Grover Cleveland's reelection bid. At an overflow meeting of a related citizens' association, Julius Harburger spoke on the case for another Democratic term.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1897

    March

    Louis F. Heinecke raises the attic to a full story for Max Schwartz

    Max Schwartz, a dealer in apparel trimmings who also dabbled in real estate, bought the old Federal-style house in 1894 and turned the hall into a saloon-restaurant. In March 1897 he hired architect Louis F. Heinecke to rework the interiors and make the attic a full floor, at a cost equal to about $78,000 today. Heinecke gave the second-floor windows cast metal cornices and finished the roofline with a bracketed cornice and triangular pediment.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1904

    March 28

    Burglars drill into the safe of a dyeing shop but flee when the landlord bangs on the door

    Around midnight, thieves broke into the Metropolitan Cleaning and Dyeing Company on the ground floor, dragged its safe to the back and drilled through the outer wall. They took $65 in cash and were working on the inner compartment, which held $1,000 in diamonds belonging to the manager's wife. Landlord Max Schwartz, woken by the noise, pounded on the door and the burglars escaped through a rear window.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1988

    July

    Cafe Bustelo, a poetry and folk venue, settles into a former synagogue here

    By 1949 the basement and parlor floors had been turned into a synagogue, and two Stars of David still mark the facade. In July 1988 Newsday reported that Cafe Bustelo had lately relocated from Avenue B in the East Village to this former synagogue at 251 East Houston. The paper described a room of monologues, post-punk folk musicians and many poets.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 78 buildings with stories in Lower East Side