John R. Murray House

375 Canal Street | also 305 West Broadway, 375B Canal Street, 301 West Broadway | SoHo | built 1824

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. 1825

    May 30

    Merchant John R. Murray, builder of the corner house at 375 Canal, faces his creditors as an insolvent debtor

    Murray began building a brick home at the corner of Canal Street and West Broadway in 1823 and finished it the next year. The Financial Panic of 1825 likely ruined him, and on May 30, 1825 a meeting was held of the creditors of 'John R. Murray, insolvent debtor.' He kept the property and rented it out, and by the 1840s the ground floor was a dry-goods shop.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1858

    Errand boy at a dry-goods store tries to sell stolen stockings to an undercover policeman

    Edward F. Downey, delivery boy for Robert F. Smith's dry-goods store here, tried in 1858 to pad his pay by stealing small items. He approached Officer Baldwin of the 8th Precinct, who was out of uniform, and offered hosiery for 23 cents. Baldwin bought it, asked for more, and arrested the boy when he said he could get plenty.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1870

    Saloonkeeper Dennis Lyons raises the attic to a full floor with a mansard roof and iron cresting

    In 1870 liquor dealer Dennis Lyons, who almost certainly ran a saloon here, turned the attic into a full story beneath a dormered mansard roof. The architects Hubert & Pirsson trimmed the roofline with decorative ironwork of the kind used on the best homes of the day. The cresting survives and is a defining feature of the building, which stands in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1992

    January

    The city sues owners on Canal Street, and 375 Canal has the most landmark violations of any building

    In January 1992 the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the city's lawyers sued eighteen owners around Canal Street whose illegal signs, awnings and storefront changes had given the area a flea-market look. The worst was 375 Canal, with fifteen violations, more than any other landmark in the city. The city sought $5,000 per violation and $1,000 per day, but by 1994 only three of the eighteen buildings had cured their violations.

    Source: nypap.org

Further reading

Nearby

All 736 buildings with stories in SoHo