Eliza Payne House

499 Broome Street | also 361 West Broadway, 363 West Broadway | SoHo | built 1900

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. 1845

    June 25

    A fire at the Broome Street Saloon leads to an arson trial of the family that owns it, who walk free

    Shortly before dawn on June 25, 1845, the cellar tenant was woken by the watchman: the house was on fire, with shavings spread on the stairs. Eliza Haughwout, her husband Jacob and her two daughters were charged with arson, then a capital crime. Testimony described fires set in several places and an immediate insurance claim. Even so, the Tribune reported a general feeling among prospective jurors against taking life as a punishment, and the Haughwouts walked free.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1867

    December 24

    Widow Eliza Haughwout hosts the first Sunday school service for adults of color in her house

    Eliza Haughwout, who ran a saloon on the ground floor, spent years working for the Educational Institute for the Benefit of Colored Adults. Her house was the setting for the first Sunday school session offered to adults who were not white, on Christmas Eve 1867. The New York Times praised her in January 1868 and noted that the neighborhood had about 2,000 Black residents.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1921

    December 19

    Gunmen rob the St. George Society's almoner at his desk, and one robber later returns to ask forgiveness

    The British charity's almoner, Leonard Langley, was at his desk in the rear building at 361 West Broadway, which Otto Arps had joined to No. 499 that year, when three young men shut the door on December 19, 1921, held a gun to his head and took his watch, stickpin, money and $185 from the safe. On Christmas Eve, one bandit came back and begged his pardon, and was arrested. Four gunmen returned in March 1922 and shot at him, grazing him, and by November he was moving his office downtown.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1925

    Prohibition agents padlock Otto Arps's bar after he ignores the Volstead Act for years

    Otto L. Arps had run the corner saloon since 1906 and bought the building in 1916. When Prohibition began in January 1920 he kept serving until agents found him in 1925. The New York Times reported the bar was padlocked, forcing him to close for two months.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1972

    February

    Kenn's Broome Street Bar opens on the ground floor after two years closed

    The bar was shut after a 1970 shooting in which, according to local reports, a man who believed the bartender was involved with his wife shot him dead. In February 1972 brothers Kenn and Bob Reisdorff leased the space. Kenn bought out his partner and ran it among the new galleries until his death in 2014; two patrons then took over the lease.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

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