508 Canal Street House
508 Canal Street | Tribeca | built 1826
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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.
- 1826
The first occupants include a Front Street merchant, then a china store with a merchant living upstairs
Number 241 Canal Street, now 508, had its first occupant in 1826, Moses S. Phillips, who did business on Front Street. From 1829 James H. Greenfield ran a china shop on the ground floor for two or three years, while Roderick Sedgwick, a Front Street merchant, lived on the upper floors. Like its twin next door, the house paired a shop below with living rooms above.
- 1840
Rohr sells to a French ivory turner whose house holds four families by 1850
In 1840 John G. Rohr sold the house to Joseph Batby, a French-born ivory turner. By the 1850 census Batby lived there with his wife Sarah and four children, among them a 16-year-old son working as a jeweler. Three other households shared the building: a French couple with two boarders, an Irish stonecutter's family with his mother-in-law, and John and Catherine Flaherty.
“According to the 1850 census, Batby was a 46-year old French-born ivory turner who lived in the house with his wife Sarah and four children…”
- 1872
Burglars ransack an upstairs family's rooms while they are out
On the afternoon of Thursday, May 9, 1872, thieves broke into the apartment of Henry Wellbrook and his family while they were away. According to the New York Times, the burglars took about $300 worth of clothing and jewelry. The loss was a heavy one for a family renting a few small rooms.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1882
A new owner builds a one-story workshop across the back lot
Matthew Thompson bought the property in 1882 and applied for a permit to enlarge the building at the back. The addition filled the rest of the oddly shaped lot with a one-story workshop lit by three skylights, and the third-story windows may have been made taller at the same time.
“When Matthew Thompson acquired the property in 1882, he filed an application for an alteration permit to extend the building at the rear…”
- 1914
A plumber who lives here runs through a Long Island village shouting that the British are coming
Joseph Thompson ran the plumbing firm Thompson & Moran from the ground floor and lived in the house. In August 1914 the 50-year-old had been living for a week on a small motorboat off the north shore of Long Island. Just after midnight on August 14 he ran through the streets of Northport waking residents with a warning about the British, and police guessed he had sunstroke, according to the New York Times.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1941
The original cast-iron shopfront is removed for a restaurant and replaced with brick
In 1941 the ground story was converted for restaurant use. The cast-iron arcade that matched the one at 506 was taken out, brick in Flemish bond now covers the first story, and new door and window openings were cut. The cast-iron window lintels on the upper floors, which were part of the original design, still survive.
- 1998
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the house despite its lost storefront
The commission designated 508 Canal Street House a landmark on June 30, 1998, on the same day as its twin at 506. The owners supported designation, and eight people spoke in favor at the April hearing. The report describes the house as one of a rare group of early nineteenth-century buildings that survive on a partly landfilled block near the Hudson waterfront.
- 2011
A furniture maker turns the ground floor into a cabaret theater and the upstairs into a bed and breakfast
Kipp Osborne and his wife Margot bought the house in 1980 and raised their daughter there. They ran a furniture business at street level, selling dated, signed and numbered pieces, before Osborne converted the ground floor into the Canal Park Playhouse, a theater-cabaret. The upstairs became the Canal Park Inn, a four-room bed and breakfast that opened in 2011, with rooms named for former owners and residents.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The 1826 Federal Survivor at No. 508 Canal StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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