Hopper-Gibbons House

339 West 29th Street | Chelsea | built 1847

Open on the map4 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. 1851

    James and Abby Gibbons buy the Lamartine Place house

    Banker James Sloan Gibbons and his wife, Abigail Hopper Gibbons, buy No. 19 Lamartine Place, the name then given to this block of West 29th Street. Abby, the daughter of reformer Isaac Hopper, already runs a school for Black children and later organizes the New York Infant Asylum. The couple are committed abolitionists, and the house becomes a stop on the Underground Railroad where escaping slaves are given meals and shelter.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1863

    July

    A Draft Riots mob ransacks and burns the Gibbons house

    After the Emancipation Proclamation, James Gibbons lights up his house in celebration, a public stand that makes the family a target. During the Draft Riots that July, a mob breaks into No. 19 Lamartine Place, ransacks it, and later returns to set it on fire. The family receives $8,500 from the city and $2,750 from friends, and James insists on rebuilding on the same lot.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 2007

    Autumn

    A stop order halts alterations to the house

    Work on the house is stopped in autumn 2007 because of alterations being made and several inconsistencies in the filed paperwork. As of June 2008, the matter has not been scheduled for a hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Place Matters notes that changes to the cornice line and roof may need to be reversed.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 2008

    June

    Place Matters lists the house as Manhattan's only documented Underground Railroad safe house

    The Place Matters census describes the house as the only documented Underground Railroad safe house still standing in Manhattan, citing several eyewitness accounts. It notes that Horace Greeley and Ralph Waldo Emerson knew the Hopper-Gibbons family and dined at their home, and that Emerson's nephew married a Gibbons daughter. The listing also records that the house has no landmark protection.

    Source: Internet Archive

Further reading

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