488 Greenwich Street House
488 Greenwich Street | Hudson Square | built 1823
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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.
- 1823
The Rohr family builds a row of small Federal houses on Lispenard land along Greenwich Street
Starting around 1820, German-born tailor John George Rohr and his relative, the mason John Rohr, leased lots from the Stewart family and built modest brick rowhouses on Greenwich Street. Tax records from 1824 show new houses on the lots now numbered 486 and 488. The mason is presumed to have built all of them.
- 1899
Ambrose K. Ely, whose family included a former mayor, buys the house at auction
Ely owned the storage warehouses next door and the family held No. 488 until 1944. His brother Smith Ely Jr. had been mayor of New York in 1877 and 1878, and the family's leather-tanning firm, Ely, Vanderpoel & Kitchell, dated to 1868. Edwin A. Ely, the last sibling, was also a collector of rare books.
- 1965
The front wall is found bulging, and the building is refaced with its own bricks
In 1965 the Buildings Department ordered the bulging, out-of-plumb facade corrected, and it was refaced in common bond, apparently with the historic bricks. A year later James Johnston Sr., who ran an iron works next door at No. 486, bought the house. Earlier tenants had included a luncheonette, a truck-cover firm and a fruit dealer.
- 1975
John and Joanne Hendricks buy 488 Greenwich Street and return it to residential use
John Hendricks, an artist and museum curator, and Joanne Hendricks bought the house in 1975 and brought it back to residential use after many years of commercial tenants. By the time of the 2007 landmark report, Joanne was running a bookstore here devoted to rare cookbooks and food books.
- 2007
The Landmarks Commission designates 488 Greenwich Street
After a hearing on April 10, 2007, at which six people spoke in favor, the Commission designated the house a landmark on July 24. The report calls it notable on its own and as one of a pair with its neighbor at No. 486. Supporters included representatives of State Senator Thomas Duane, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and Community Board 2.
Further reading
- The Improbable Little Survivor at No. 488 Greenwich StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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