Rev. C. F. Frey House

266 Bleecker Street | also 266A Bleecker Street | West Village | built 1833

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1833

   Charles Oakley builds a Federal row house with a shop at 266 Bleecker Street

   Around 1833 Charles Oakley, a New York-born agent, put up this house as the third in a row of five on Bleecker Street. He developed several neighboring buildings as well, including 282 Bleecker and 6 Morton Street. In 1879 a storefront was added on the ground floor, and later shop tenants included an A&P tea store in 1929 and a glassware dealer in 1950. The brick facade is largely unchanged.

   “No. 266 Bleecker Street was constructed c. 1833 as the third in a row of five houses for New York-born agent Charles Oakley…”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1841

   Rev. Joseph Frey, a Jewish-born Baptist evangelist, lives above his son's drugstore

   Joseph M. Frey ran a drugstore on the ground floor by 1841, and his father, the Rev. C. F. Frey, lived upstairs. Born in Germany in 1771 to an observant Jewish family, the elder Frey became a Christian and came to New York in 1816 to found an American branch of the London Society, which promoted Christianity among the Jews. By the time he lived here he belonged to a Baptist church on Mulberry Street, and in 1843 he left on a nine-month tour of four southern states for a missionary society.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1846

   Butcher and alderman Jacob L. Dodge lives upstairs, then buys the building

   Jacob L. Dodge, a butcher with two shops nearby, lived here in 1846 and was elected to the Board of Aldermen the next year. He also held at least two patents for hats. He had left the building by the time Bleecker Street was renumbered in 1859, but he bought the property in 1862.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1950

   Books-By-Mail moves into the ground floor and starts a bookselling tradition

   In 1950 Books-By-Mail took over the store, beginning a long run of booksellers in the space. Decades later Biography Bookshop, which had been open at Bleecker and 11th Streets from 1984, moved here and renamed itself Bookbook. The shop is still in the ground floor of the 1833 house.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The Rev. C. F. Frey House - 266 Bleecker StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• 264 Bleecker Street5 entries
• 268 Bleecker Street2 entries
• 262 Bleecker Street4 entries
• 270 Bleecker Street2 entries
• 6 Morton Street5 entries
• Faicco's Italian Specialties260 Bleecker Street | 3 entries

All 1,156 buildings with stories in West Village