James R. Sayre House

29 Charlton Street | Hudson Square | built 1826

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. 1826

    Mason James R. Sayre builds a house for his family as dozens of Federal homes rise on the old estate

    Sayre, a mason, put up the house in 1826 for himself and his family, on a former country estate that was filling with Federal-style homes. A fellow mason, James Barnes, and a carpenter, John Voorhees, moved in with the family and may well have helped build it. The two-and-a-half-story house was faced in Flemish-bond brick and had a single door under a leaded transom, framed by delicate rope molding.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1850

    Painting contractor and school board commissioner Eliphalet Bootman buys the house around 1850

    Eliphalet Bootman, born in 1803, bought the house with his family around 1850; he was a partner in the painting firm Bootman & Smith and sat for years on the Board of Education as a commissioner. His sons Robert and Lieff both worked in the firm, which he took over in 1860 and renamed E. Bootman & Sons. Around 1862 he had the attic raised to a full floor, matching the Flemish-bond brick and adding a plain wooden cornice rather than a bracketed one. He died on November 4, 1869, aged 66.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1859

    November 13

    The Bootman family offers a $5 reward in the Herald for Snap, their lost black-and-tan dog

    By 1859 the household included a dog named Snap, described as black and tan. On November 13 the family ran a notice in the New York Herald reporting Snap lost or stolen and offering a $5 reward, about $190 in 2025 dollars, to anyone who brought him back.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1918

    Collier's editor Lucian Cary lives with the Hoyt family here from 1918 to 1920

    Lucian Cary, an editor and writer at Collier's magazine, lived with Ellen Millett Hoyt and her two unmarried daughters. Mrs. Hoyt, a widow, had bought the house in 1917 after the death of its previous owner. Cary had started as a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1910 and joined Collier's in 1916. He later wrote novels and short stories and became a leading authority on firearms.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1966

    The Landmarks Commission calls the Sayre House a model of the simple, genteel Federal home

    In its 1966 report designating the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, the Landmarks Preservation Commission singled out 29 Charlton Street, which it called the Sayre House, as a model modest Federal-period house. It listed numbers 27, 31, 33 and 35 as architectural companions, with low entrances and plain narrow doors typical of the less opulent houses of the era. It added that the twin houses at 37 and 39 were perhaps the district's most important for age, richness of style and preservation.

    “The Sayre House, 29 Charlton Street, is a perfect example of the simple "genteel" house of the Federal period.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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All 79 buildings with stories in Hudson Square