Dr. Oliver White House

52 West 12th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1854

Open on the map4 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. 1854

    Financier Frederick P. James builds a row of speculative houses on West 12th Street

    Financier Frederick P. James builds, on West 12th Street's south side, nine speculative rowhouses, starting in 1854 with Nos. 48 through 52. No. 52, the westernmost, is a 21-foot-wide, four-story Anglo-Italian house with a rusticated first floor, a Corinthian-columned entrance and cast-iron balconies. Widow Ann P. Clark lives there until 1859.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1859

    November 15

    Dr. Oliver White buys the house and leads the county medical society

    Dr. Oliver White buys the house in 1859, the same year he is elected president of the New-York County Medical Society on November 15. He studied in his father's office before earning his medical degree at Yale College at age 21. He also helps found the Academy of Medicine, as well as the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1879

    November 7

    Dr. Oliver White dies in the house at age 69

    Oliver White dies in the house on November 7, 1879, at age 69, after being diagnosed with "valvular disease of the heart." His funeral is held not at home but at First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue. A codicil added six months before his death leaves a $3,000 annuity to Catherine O. Ritter, daughter of his former housekeeper, and describes her as his wife.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1985

    Renovations smooth over the rustication, and one in 1985 leaves a doctor's office and apartments

    After 1949 the house is renovated twice more, the last time in 1985, leaving a doctor's office in the basement and five apartments above. During one of these renovations the ground-floor rustication is smoothed over, the striking entranceway is removed and the window details are shaved off.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village