George Van Zile House

29 Bethune Street | West Village | built 1836

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.

1836
No. 29 Bethune is built in 1836 as one of three fine Greek Revival row houses
Nos. 25-29 Bethune Street were built in 1836 as part of a speculative row and keep their two-and-a-half-story height over a basement. Their wrought iron railings use the anthemion leaf as a decorative pattern. No. 29 has low newels topped with balls and a doorway crowned by a shouldered, pedimented cornice.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1852
Cabinetmaker George Van Zile wins a silver medal for the best newel posts
George Van Zile lived at No. 29 and appears to have run his cabinetmaking shop, G. Van Zile & Co., from a building in the rear yard. In 1852 he showed examples of his work at the American Institute's 26th annual fair and received a silver medal for the best newel posts. He later joined Company E of the 34th Infantry at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1891
April 17
A saloonkeeper at No. 29 shelters families burned out by a fire, then is arrested by a policeman
A fire that began in a factory on Abingdon Square spread to a Bank Street apartment house where seventeen families lived. The saloonkeeper John Carroll sent about a dozen displaced people to his wife at 29 Bethune, then started home himself. Policeman Coleman stopped him with a blow of his club that broke Carroll's thumb and arrested him, and friends bailed him out at 4 a.m. A judge discharged him the next morning.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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