Lafayette House

38 East 4th Street | NoHo | built 1845

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. 1845

    Widow Mary Waldron builds a speculative Greek Revival house on East 4th Street

    Mary Waldron, widow of Oliver Waldron Jr., put up a 25-foot-wide Greek Revival house at what was then 372 Fourth Street in 1844 and 1845. She was late to a block of wealthy homes that had begun to appear a decade before. The brick house had three and a half stories above a brownstone basement, and the street was renumbered as 38 East 4th Street in 1865.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1865

    November 14

    The owner bails out a gambling-parlor boss after a teenage ex-Confederate loses stolen money at faro

    Liquor dealer Lawrence Maher bought the house in 1865. That November, 16-year-old Beverly Gibson, a former Confederate Navy sailor, lost $600 at faro in Thomas Moore's gambling parlor at 700 Broadway, money the New York Times said he had taken from a man's pocket. Police caught Gibson aboard a California-bound ship off Bedloe's Island, and Moore was arrested when he refused to return the winnings. Maher, of 38 East Fourth Street, stood surety for Moore.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1876

    December 21

    A wealthy boarder accuses landlady Bertha Schneider of seizing her diamonds, and a judge dismisses the case

    Lewis and Bertha Schneider ran the house as a high-end boarding house. In December 1876 boarder Eusebia Fitzgerald, a widow from San Francisco, charged Bertha with robbing her of diamond jewelry. Bertha said Fitzgerald had simply lost her money, and a servant testified that Fitzgerald had offered her $500 to back the story. After nearly a week in court, Judge Bixby cleared Schneider on December 21.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1897

    June

    Tobacco dealer Jacob Kahn, a foe of the Tobacco Trust, is attacked on his stoop before testifying

    Jacob L. Kahn bought the house in 1890. He kept his tobacco shop stocked in the 1890s by tracking down independent suppliers, even though the Tobacco Trust was threatening dealers who refused to carry its goods. In June 1897, just after midnight and shortly before he was due to testify against the Trust, two men attacked him by his stoop and cut his face. He still appeared in court, and the trial ended in a hung jury on June 29.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2007

    After decades of alteration, the house is restored and reopens as the Lafayette House hotel

    By the 1990s the stoop, Greek Revival door surround, window hoods and cornice had been stripped away and a brick parapet added. Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode, as Fourth Street Inn, LLC, leased the building in 2005 and bought it in 2007. They restored its Greek Revival look and reopened it as the Lafayette House Hotel.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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