40 Leroy Street

also 45 Bedford Street | West Village | built 1837

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.

1837
Builder Aaron Marsh and masons put up 40 Leroy Street for dry goods merchant Andrew Quackenbush
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The house was built in 1836-37 for Andrew Quackenbush, a dry goods merchant who also owned 284 and 286 Bleecker Street. It originally stood two and a half stories under a peaked roof. Quackenbush soon sold it to his nephew James, who rented it to a physician, John King; by 1851 tenants included a Washington Market merchant, an architect, a shoemaker and a silversmith.
“…constructed in 1836-37 by builder Aaron Marsh and local masons William and John Huyler for dry goods merchant Andrew Quackenbush…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1917
The extension of Seventh Avenue South spares 40 and 42 Leroy Street while demolishing the rest of the block
When Seventh Avenue South was cut through to Varick Street at an angle to the old street grid, finished between 1914 and 1917, every building on the south side of Leroy between Bedford and Hudson Streets was torn down except this house and its neighbor at 42. From 1959 to 1999 the owner was James Ray, a well-known Village antiques dealer.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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