Seba Smith House

46 Stuyvesant Street | East Village | built 1853

Open on the map3 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1853

   Builder John L. Smith completes an Anglo-Italianate house at 46 Stuyvesant Street

   Builder John L. Smith bought an oddly shaped, triangular lot at 46 Stuyvesant Street and put up a new house there in 1853. On April 1, 1854, he sold it to optometrist Samuel Elliott for $10,700. The Anglo-Italianate facade has a rusticated brownstone base, red brick upper floors, and a bracketed cornice, and it hides the house's triangular interior layout.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1855

   May

   Writer Seba Smith and poet Elizabeth Oakes Smith buy 46 Stuyvesant Street

   In May 1855 humorist Seba Smith, founder of the Portland Courier and author of the popular satirical Major Jack Downing books, bought the house for $17,000. His wife, the poet and author Elizabeth Oakes Smith, entertained literary guests there, including foreign exiles. Topics she recalled discussing included women's suffrage, civil rights, and slavery. The Smiths left in 1860 for a home in Patchogue, Long Island.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1878

   Former congressman Thomas J. Creamer reports suspicious activity next door in the theft of A.T. Stewart's body

   In November 1878, after the body of millionaire A.T. Stewart was stolen from its tomb, Thomas J. Creamer, a former state senator and congressman who lived at 46 Stuyvesant Street, told the New York Times about two incidents he tied to the crime. One was a carriage that waited outside his door before an earlier attempt. The other was a houseguest who saw two men carry a trunk out of No. 44 next door on the morning of the theft.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The 1854 Seba Smith House - 46 Stuyvesant StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• 46 Stuyvesant StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks

Nearby

• Nicholas William Stuyvesant House44 Stuyvesant Street | 4 entries
• 42 Stuyvesant Street1 entry
• 38 Stuyvesant Street1 entry
• 231 East 9th Street3 entries
• Barney Building26 Stuyvesant Street | 3 entries
• 128 East 10th Street4 entries

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