Captain Joseph Rose House

273 Water Street | Financial District | built 1792

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

  1. 1773

    Sea captain Joseph Rose is listed as owner of the Water Street property and rents it out

    Joseph Rose, a captain who carried mahogany from the Bay of Honduras, was listed as owner of this Water Street lot by 1773, and rented his property to others while he was at sea. The surviving brick house may date to 1781, since the 1773 rental ads could describe an earlier building. It was certainly standing by 1793, when the cartway beside it was paved.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1796

    Rose's son opens an apothecary shop, and the house later holds a shoe store and a hotel

    Rose's son Isaac operated an apothecary shop in the house after 1796. After Captain Rose died, the building was sold to Elisha King, a lawyer who rented out its rooms. A shoe store occupied the ground floor in 1812, and the building later served as a small hotel and saloon known for staged rat fights.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1868

    Kit Burns' Sportsmen's Hall stages rat-baiting matches here

    After the Civil War the building housed Kit Burns' Sportsmen's Hall, famous for rat-baiting, in which a terrier was set against rats in a zinc-lined pit. Crowds of a hundred or more bettors turned out, with purses starting at $125, and a good dog could kill a hundred rats in under an hour. A book published in 1868 condemned the spectators as lower than the animals in the pit.

    Source: Ephemeral New York

  4. 1870

    Henry Bergh of the ASPCA raids Sportsmen's Hall and ends the rat pit

    Burns advertised that he would give away 300 rats so gentlemen could try out their dogs, and the notice caught the attention of Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA. Bergh led a raid in late 1870, and Burns and others were arrested under the state's anti-cruelty law. Burns died of pneumonia that December, and his son-in-law turned the hall into an ordinary saloon.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1904

    A fire destroys the Rose house's third story and peaked roof

    The house was originally three stories with a pitched roof. A fire in 1904 destroyed the third story and roof, so the brickwork above the second-floor band course dates from after that year. Another fire in 1976 badly damaged the interior of what the Landmarks Preservation Commission called one of the district's most important buildings.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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