Alfred E. Smith House

25REAR Oliver Street | also 25 Oliver Street | Two Bridges | built 1880

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1868

   Thomas Coman, son of the house's owner, rises to Acting Mayor

   The house was owned by Thomas Coman, an Irish immigrant who brought his family to New York in 1838. His son Thomas, a City College graduate of 1856, was elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1866 and became its president in 1868, standing in as Acting Mayor for about a year when Mayor Hoffman resigned. Tammany Hall scandals followed, and in 1873 he was indicted along with other Tweed Ring figures over corruption in building the County Courthouse.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1881

   Coman family sells the house to St. James Church, which makes it a rectory

   In 1881 Martha Coman sold the house to the nearby Church of St. James. By 1883 three schoolteachers, Mary and Sarah Corrigan and Mary G. Meagher, were renting rooms here from the church. In 1884 the church announced plans to join Nos. 25 and 23 as its rectory, and No. 25 did become the rectory. When Al Smith later moved in, he leased the house from the church.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1909

   Al Smith moves his family of seven into 25 Oliver Street

   Around 1909 Alfred E. Smith, a state assemblyman since 1904, moved from 28 Oliver Street into this house with his family of seven, leasing it from St. James Church after funeral director Henry McCaddin relocated. Smith worked for Lower East Side improvements including rent control, tenant protection and low-cost housing. After he became governor in 1918, the family split its time between the Executive Mansion and Oliver Street. When rumors of his leaving surfaced in 1922, a neighbor insisted the boys would never allow it.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1913

   June 16

   Three thousand children gather on the stoop for Smith's savings program

   The New York Times reported that on June 16, 1913, three thousand children crowded the doorstep of 25 Oliver Street, where each received a tin bank and a nickel to start saving. The event showed how closely Smith was tied to his mostly Irish neighbors. In October 1915, when he ran for sheriff, traffic was shut out of the blocks around Oliver, Henry, Catherine and Madison Streets, which were decorated with lanterns and bunting.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1945

   A slab of Oliver Street sidewalk goes into the Liberty ship Alfred E. Smith

   In 1945 an official ceremony removed a bluestone sidewalk slab from the front of 25 Oliver Street and placed it inside the SS Alfred E. Smith, a Liberty ship launched that year. After Smith left the house, the funeral director Henry McCaddin leased it again from the church and moved his funeral home back in. A 2015 look at the building found its window lintels gone and the doorway lintel rusting.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The Alfred E. Smith House -- 25 Oliver StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• Alfred E. Smith House25 Oliver Street | 4 entries
• Woolsey G. Sterling House27 Oliver Street | 8 entries
• 47 Madison Street3 entries
• St. James Church32 James Street | 7 entries
• Daniel Riordan House15 Oliver Street | 5 entries
• P.S. 1 Alfred E. Smith School8 Henry Street | 3 entries

All 43 buildings with stories in Two Bridges