Jeremiah and Mary Ann Youmans House

34 MacDougal Street | also 205 Prince Street | SoHo | built 1834

Open on the map6 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. 1834

    John P. Haff completes the row house at 205 Prince Street

    According to Landmarks Preservation Commission research, developer John P. Haff put up this brick row house and its neighbor at 203 Prince Street in 1833-34. It is two full stories with an attic, laid in Flemish bond, and probably began in the transitional Federal and Greek Revival style. A slate mansard roof was added before about 1940.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1850

    Jeremiah and Mary Ann Youmans buy the house and take in boarders

    Around 1850 Jeremiah Youmans, who ran a lumber yard on Washington Street, and his wife Mary Ann bought 205 Prince Street. They let rooms with board, and after Jeremiah died in 1862 Mary Ann kept running it as a boardinghouse until her death in 1869. The house sold at auction in February 1870 for $20,250 to Samuel Parsons, who kept taking boarders.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1857

    September

    Soprano Clara Brinckerhoff teaches voice lessons from the house

    Clara Maria Rolph Brinckerhoff, born in London in 1828 and a soloist at Grace Church, boarded here with her husband Charles from 1857. A September 1857 New York Times notice offered a 24-lesson term at $40, with the address given as 205 Prince Street. She also wrote romance novels under the name Henri Gordon and composed songs, among them One Flag or No Flag during the Civil War.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1875

    Samuel Parsons turns the ground floor into a store

    In 1875 Parsons took out the stoop, filled in the basement level and added a cast-iron storefront, and the attic may have been raised to a mansard then. The first commercial tenant, O'Leary Bros., was a furniture store. About 1886 brewers Bernheimer & Swartz leased the space, since breweries often ran their own saloons to make sure only their beer was sold.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1906

    Al Sibberns turns the building's saloon into a hub for boxers and ballplayers

    Albert J. F. Sibberns bought the building in 1906 and called his saloon a cafe. It served as a hub for boxers and wrestlers: in 1909 he was named as manager of the boxer Young Evans, and the bar was headquarters of the Bugs Association baseball club, in which Sibberns played center field. He declared bankruptcy in November 1916, and a saloon or restaurant stayed here for most of the century.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1979

    Homeowners' group honors the building's return to a single-family house

    In the 1970s the building was converted back to a one-family home, and the owners replaced the old storefront infill with arched windows. In 1979 the Association of Village Homeowners presented the owners with a Certificate of Appreciation for respecting the district's historic character in the renovation.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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