Thomas H. Van Tine House

47 Charles Street | West Village | built 1890

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. 1869

    Brooklyn mason Peter Tostevin builds three Italianate brownstones for James Bearnes

    In 1868 Brooklynite James S. Bearnes bought three building plots on Charles Street east of West 4th Street and hired the mason Peter L. P. Tostevin to build rowhouses. The brownstone-faced homes were finished in 1869. Each rose three stories over an English basement, with an arched, double-doored entrance topped by a pediment on scrolled brackets. This one was then numbered 57 and became 47 in 1936.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1872

    March

    Plumbing contractor Thomas Hartwell Van Tine buys the house for $14,500

    Van Tine, born in New Jersey in 1820, ran one of the city's chief plumbing firms and handled work such as the plumbing of several city fire stations. His son Thomas Jr. and family moved in. In 1874 the family's five-year-old granddaughter Addie died of scarlet fever here, and Van Tine died in 1885 at age 64, with his funeral held in the parlor.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1874

    October 1

    Burglars rob the house in broad daylight and kill the family's two pet birds

    While the Van Tines were away, burglars pried a grate off a basement window and carried off about $1,000 in laces and other valuables. The Evening Post called it one of the most daring robberies of late. The thieves had first prepared a cardboard box to carry off the family's two trained birds, but killed them instead and left them on the mantelpiece.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1889

    April 19

    A police captain's St. Bernard, Nero, wanders out the open door and goes missing

    Captain George Washington Gastlin of the Steamboat Squad, who leased the house, owned a big St. Bernard named Nero that his granddaughter Maggie rode on a tiny saddle. When five-year-old Maggie visited on April 19 and left the door open, the dog slipped out. Four days later The Sun reported him still missing and Maggie disconsolate.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1894

    December 19

    Captain Gastlin, who lived here, is accused of taking officers' money at the Lexow hearings

    In 1894 the Lexow Committee of the New York Senate held hearings on police corruption. Gastlin, the Steamboat Squad captain, was among three supervisors charged with extorting money from officers under them. One officer testified that he was paid $25 a month for 14 years for dock work and gave half to wardmen, and a wardman admitted taking money from officers and passing it to Gastlin, who was never indicted.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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