John Williams Morgan House

39 West 11th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1842

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. 1842

    Josiah Dodge builds a Greek Revival town house

    Josiah Dodge, listed in directories as a carter but probably the owner of a successful cartage company, builds this three-story red-brick house in 1842. The doorway is framed by palmetto-capped pilasters, with sidelights and a honeysuckle-patterned transom. After Dodge dies in 1855, his son inherits the house and keeps leasing it, and by the 1870s it appears to run as a high-end boarding house.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1923

    July

    John Williams Morgan buys the house

    John Williams Morgan, a 1915 Princeton graduate and a member of the family firm Enoch Morgan's Sons, a soap manufacturer, buys 39 West 11th Street in July 1923. His parents live with him, and when his father George F. Morgan dies in March 1925, the $8.5 million estate goes to his mother, Helen.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1946

    July

    Burglars take $30,000 in jewelry, and a second intruder is caught weeks later

    In July 1946 burglars enter the house while the family is away and escape with $30,000 in jewelry, leaving another $100,000 worth untouched. On July 31 an armed ex-GI, Joseph Landry, forces his way in looking for the rest. The maid, Esther Nielsen, goes to the roof and shouts for help, and police catch Landry in the rear yard.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1948

    Frederick Morgan co-founds The Hudson Review at the house

    Frederick Morgan and two other Princeton alumni start the literary magazine The Hudson Review from the house in 1948. Its first volume is released on March 1, and the contributors named at the time include Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter, and Wallace Stevens.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1964

    July

    Civil rights activists Robert and Joyce Gilmore buy the house

    Dr. Robert Wallace Gilmore, who helped organize peace and civil rights groups such as CORE, and his wife Joyce Mertz Gilmore buy 39 West 11th Street in July 1964. Joyce is active in civil rights and counsels figures such as A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin before she dies of cancer in 1974. Her mother, LuEsther Mertz, creates the Joyce Theater in her memory.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village