Nack-Ballantine House
47 Barrow Street | also 47A Barrow Street | West Village | built 1826
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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.
- 1861
Deaf poet James Nack's house at 47 Barrow becomes a newlyweds' home
James Nack, the first deaf author published in the United States, whose first book appeared in 1827 when he was 18, lived at 47 Barrow in the 1850s with his two daughters and two sisters. Funerals for his sisters Elizabeth and Sarah were held in the parlor in 1857 and 1861. On November 7, 1861, his daughter Evelina married the lawyer William A. Ballantine, and the couple moved in while Nack and his daughter Mary Janette moved to 38 Grove Street.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1891
A burglar who stole an Assemblyman's clothes at 47 Barrow is caught after a second break-in
In 1891 the Tammany lawyer Wright Holcomb, newly elected to the State Assembly, was leasing 47 Barrow. While he was in Washington, a burglar broke in and took a suit of clothes. Days later a homeless man named Redmond Porter was caught after a break-in at Alderman Mead's house at 15 Barrow, with Holcomb's pocketbook on him. He said he had entered a vacant Commerce Street house, crossed the backyard and a shed, and climbed in through Holcomb's bedroom window.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1918
Painter Ruth Murchison, known for Dutch peasant subjects, leases 47 Barrow Street
In November 1918 the artist Ruth Murchison leased 47 Barrow from the Ballantine family. She was known for pictures of peasant and servant women, often in Dutch dress, and drew covers for magazines including Punch in 1914. Murchison also ran a Village shop called The Little Shop Around the Corner, which sold homemade decorative goods. In 1920 the Ballantines' heir disposed of the property, selling it to Florence Hemsley Wood, widow of the architect William Halsey Wood.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- Then & Now photos: 47 Barrow StreetVillage Preservation: Greenwich Village Then & Now
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