Metaphysical University
51 Bond Street | also 51A Bond Street | NoHo | built 1830
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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.
- 1830
Speculative builder Timothy Woodruff completes a Federal-style house with Greek Revival touches
Builder Timothy Woodruff erected No. 51 around 1830 as an investment, a three-and-a-half-story dwelling with Flemish-bond brickwork and pedimented dormers. The Landmarks Preservation Commission says William Osborn lived there first, in 1831, followed by Navy Lieutenant Graham, and that it appears to have been a boardinghouse from 1837 until the late 1840s. The stoop was taken off in 1916 and the ground floor altered for lofts.
- 1849
Robert H. Bowne of the printing firm Bowne & Co. moves in
Robert H. Bowne, head of the stationers and printers Bowne & Co. of 149 Pearl Street, lived at No. 51 from 1849 to 1860. The firm, founded in 1775, specialized in financial printing for banks and insurers. His wife Elizabeth was a manager of the Colored Orphan Asylum in 1855. In 1860 the couple moved to West 11th Street.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1865
A 'metaphysical physician' advertises her cure-all from the house
On May 26, 1865 the New-York Tribune carried an ad for Mrs. M. G. Brown, a metaphysical physician offering a 'Metaphysical Discovery' for deafness and nearly every illness. Mrs. Brown was Elizabeth Billsland, then 27, who lived in the house with her widowed mother, and the mother rented out rooms. By 1869 Elizabeth was also making the patent medicines Poor Richard's Eye Water and Scalp Renovator 'by the barrel' in the basement.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1869
Elizabeth Billsland opens the 'Metaphysical University' and writes a pamphlet to sell her remedies
A New York Herald ad of September 4, 1869 announced that Mrs. M. G. Brown, the name Elizabeth Billsland used, would receive patients from September 6 at the Metaphysical University at 51 Bond Street. The same year Billsland wrote a 52-page book, the Metaphysical Pamphlet, under that name and advertised it for ten cents.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1874
A want ad seeks fifty sick women to sell the Metaphysical Discovery in country towns
In late 1873 the university announced a free dispensary and lecture room in the basement; the poor were told to bring three bottles to be filled, and the consultation fee was $5. On November 19, 1874 a Herald want ad sought fifty women with incurable ailments, offering free bottles in return for traveling as agents in country towns.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1903
Elizabeth Billsland dies in the house, reportedly leaving more than $3 million
Elizabeth Billsland died in the house on November 20, 1903, at 65. The New York Times reported in June 1904 that she was believed to have left more than $3,000,000, while the house was valued at about $10,000. It sold at auction in 1905, and within a month the buyer leased it to the Vienna Window Cleaning Company. Back in 1888 a reporter for The Sun had called the university a queer shop on Bond Street for twenty years.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1917
The window cleaners' union headquartered here threatens a strike of 1,200 members
In October 1917 No. 51 housed the headquarters of the Window Cleaners Union, which gave notice that its 1,200 members would strike unless wages rose. The Sun's headline on October 15 was 'Window Cleaners Revolt.' The cleaners were paid $18 a week and demanded $24.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The "Metaphysical University" - No. 51 Bond StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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