Eighth Ward Mission House

49 MacDougal Street | SoHo | built 1847

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1843

   Actor Edwin Forrest testifies that he lived at 49 MacDougal Street in 1843

   In his widely publicized 1850 divorce case, the Shakespearean actor Edwin Forrest listed his past homes and said that in 1843 he lived at No. 49 MacDougal Street, before moving to Bleecker Street. He later produced a lease dated February 1844. Daytonian in Manhattan suggests he may have been the house's first tenant.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1877

   Mary Laidlaw founds the Eighth Ward Mission to help teenage orphan boys

   Mary Laidlaw, who paid most of its costs herself, began the Eighth Ward Mission in 1877 for boys of about 14 who were too old for orphanages but could not support themselves. It first took in teenage boys at 49 MacDougal, which soon became the mission's office when a new mission house and school went up on Houston Street. By July 1883 the Tribune counted ten resident boys, a class of seventy street boys, and sewing classes for forty women and sixty girls.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1892

   April

   Francis H. Leggett buys the house as a gift to the mission

   In April 1892 Francis H. Leggett bought 49 MacDougal for $13,800, apparently as a donation to the Eighth Ward Mission, which had kept its New York office there. On January 18, 1894, the mission handed out food parcels here, taking part in the Coal and Food Fund of the New-York Tribune. The offices moved away around 1900 and the house became a rooming house.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1952

   Female impersonator Tish moves in and becomes a Greenwich Village performer

   By the 1950s the building's tenants were mostly Italian families. In 1952 two young men moved into an apartment together, and one, who used the stage name Tish, went on to a modest local fame in Greenwich Village. A female impersonator whose first job was at the Moroccan Village, he performed in wigs and gowns, singing French standards in the style of Edith Piaf.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The 8th Ward Mission House - 49 MacDougal StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

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