The Jonas Wood House

285 East 3rd Street | East Village | 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. 1837

    Builder Charles Dodge erects a row of Greek Revival houses

    Builder Charles Dodge, a ship carver, put up 285 East 3rd Street in 1837 as part of a row of six Greek Revival houses on land once owned by the Fish family. Each three-story brick house was 22 feet wide above an English basement, with brownstone pilasters at the doorway. Lawyer Jonas Wood was the first occupant.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1864

    July

    Resident William Raise is injured in a train collision while guarding Confederate prisoners

    William Raise, a Union Army guard who boarded in the house, was injured on July 15, 1864, when his train collided head-on with a coal train at Shohola, Pennsylvania. The train was carrying more than 800 Confederate prisoners from Maryland to Elmira, New York.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1972

    June

    A two-alarm fire breaks out in the vacant house

    A two-alarm fire broke out at 285 East 3rd Street in June 1972, when the New York Times described the house as vacant. By 1984 the bookstore I. Reed Books operated from it, and by the mid-1990s it was home to Steve Cannon's Gathering of the Tribes.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2010

    Preservationists ask the city to landmark 285 East 3rd Street

    The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the East Village Community Coalition sent the Landmarks Preservation Commission a request in 2010 to consider this house and its twin at 287. The request was denied. The two Greek Revival houses are the only ones ever to stand on their lots and remain in excellent condition.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

  5. 2012

    May

    Steve Cannon, founder of the Gathering of the Tribes, is served a termination notice

    Steve Cannon ran the Gathering of the Tribes from the house from the mid-1990s, with the Tribes Gallery and space for emerging artists to network and show work. In May 2012 the New York Times reported that he had been served a 10-day notice of termination over use of the premises as an office and gallery.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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