St Lukes School

487 Hudson Street | West Village | built 1825

Open on the map4 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. 1825

    James N. Wells builds his Federal-style rowhouse

    Builder James N. Wells constructs this 36-foot-wide, two-and-a-half-story Federal-style house for his own family, giving the entrance Ionic columns, sidelights, and a transom. One of the most active developers on the surrounding Greenwich Village blocks, Wells lives here until 1833, when he relocates to Ninth Avenue in Chelsea.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1845

    Future author Bret Harte's family boards in the house

    After arriving in New York from Albany, the family of future writer Francis Bret Harte takes rooms in the house, then run as a boarding house with advertisements seeking tenants. The Newcomb family, whose eldest daughter had died there the previous year, had occupied the house just before them.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1851

    St. Luke's Church opens a home for indigent women here

    The church converts the former Wells house into St. Luke's Home for Indigent Christian Females, an institution formally incorporated on January 12, 1854. The home is expanded to a full three stories in 1857, and by Christmas Eve 1867 it shelters 31 women.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1872

    The Home for Old Men and Aged Couples takes over the building

    When St. Luke's Home for Indigent Christian Females relocates to Madison Avenue and 89th Street, the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples moves into the Hudson Street building. It remains there until relocating again to West 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in the mid-1890s.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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