265 Bleecker Street

also 267 Bleecker Street | West Village | built 1910

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1835

   Charles Oakley builds a pair of Federal houses at 265-267 Bleecker Street

   Nos. 265 and 267 were built about 1835-36 as small houses for Charles Oakley, who had bought twenty lots on this block in 1819. By the 1850s they had become mixed-use buildings with shops below. The houses were raised from two stories to three around 1868, and they were sold as a pair except between 1926 and 1947. Their cornices and lintels were removed after 1985.

   “Built as dwellings c. 1835-36, by the 1850s, like many of the buildings in the area, nos. 265 and 267 had been converted to mixed use.”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1886

   November 8

   A hat-store fire at 267 Bleecker Street is survived when an uncle drags his disabled nephew out

   On the night of November 8, 1886, George Geist smelled smoke at No. 267 and got his wife and child out onto the street. Hearing the cries of his nephew Emil Schuman Jr., who slept in the hat store because of a severe disability, he ran back, kicked in the rear door and pulled him out unharmed. The store was gutted, with a loss of $1,500.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1898

   November 9

   A Scottish visitor says a uniformed policeman drugged him in a side room at 267 Bleecker Street

   In November 1898 James Alexander of Arbroath, Scotland, told a newspaper that policeman Henry Kreckel took him from a saloon to a side room at No. 267, Amelia Harnett's bar. After drinking from a glass there he lost consciousness and woke on the sidewalk at 3 a.m. without two gold watches, $135 and his jewelry. The New York Press ran the story as "Knockout Drops Back to Town."

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1962

   "Record Richie" Clothier opens House of Oldies, a shop for old rock and rhythm-and-blues records, at 267 Bleecker Street

   Richard Clothier opened the House of Oldies at No. 267 in 1962, offering records from earlier years and taking mail orders. A window sign invited customers to turn back the clock to a favorite year. The shop later moved to Carmine Street under Bob Abramson. New York Magazine noted in 1972 that it paid anywhere from five cents to $100 a record.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1968

   Jimi Hendrix browses the House of Oldies at 267 Bleecker Street and a clerk photographs him

   In 1968 Jimi Hendrix walked into the House of Oldies on Bleecker Street. According to owner Richard Clothier, he was not working that day, but his employee Ann took Hendrix's picture with Clothier's camera. Clothier later had the black-and-white photograph turned into a poster.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Charles Oakley's 265 and 267 Bleecker Street Daytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• Neighborhood Church269 Bleecker Street | 2 entries
• 271 Bleecker Street1 entry
• Zito's Bakery building259 Bleecker Street | 4 entries
• Matt Umanov Guitars273 Bleecker Street | 3 entries
• Peter Weimar Saloon Building275 Bleecker Street | 6 entries
• 257 Bleecker Street3 entries

All 1,156 buildings with stories in West Village