George Little House

53 Jane Street | West Village | built 1846

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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. 1846

    Tobacconist George Schott builds a pair of brick houses, one now 53 Jane

    In 1846 George Schott, a tobacconist who also dealt in Village real estate, built a pair of three-story houses on Jane Street's north side, between Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street. Each had a rusticated brownstone basement, red brick upper floors trimmed in brownstone, and a dentiled cornice. This house was first numbered 72 and became 53 in 1855; George Little, a clothing merchant, lived here with his wife.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1872

    December 24

    Resident builder William Bull testifies after P. T. Barnum's museum burns

    Builder William H. Bull lived here in the early 1870s. In August 1872 P. T. Barnum hired him to renovate a 14th Street building for a museum and menagerie, and at about 4:10 on December 24 it caught fire and burned to the ground, killing many of the animals. Bull told the inquiry that Barnum had left the plans largely to him and he guessed that sawdust swept from the monkey and giraffe cages had touched the hot pipes.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1908

    May 7

    A Tammany superintendent living here vanishes after leaving an Eighth Avenue cafe

    Herbert C. Madge, a Tammany politician and warehouse superintendent for a French china firm on Murray Street, left friends at an Eighth Avenue cafe at 8:30 p.m. on May 7, 1908, saying he had a headache and was going home. He never arrived. The Evening World reported that friends feared he had been robbed, since he carried $2,000 to $3,000 in his pockets; Daytonian says it is unclear whether he was ever found.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1921

    Professor Malcolm Ogilvie, a tenant here, is mistaken for a vagrant while watching birds

    John Hallessey bought the house in 1920 and rented rooms, and in 1921 one tenant was Professor Malcolm Ogilvie of the New York Ornithological Society. While watching birds near Batavia, New York, that year, Ogilvie was reported as a vagrant, and a policeman thought him demented as he talked of cuckoos. Ogilvie handed over a card giving his address as 53 Jane Street, and he was left to watch birds in peace.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1923

    Irish labor leader Jim Larkin takes a room here after his pardon

    Jim Larkin, the Irish socialist and trade union leader, was sent to Sing Sing in 1920 for criminal anarchy. Governor Al Smith pardoned him in 1923, and he then rented a room at 53 Jane Street, possibly through a fellow resident, Sean Conway, who founded the Ulster Defense Alliance. His stay was short, since he was deported to Ireland later that year.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1970

    December

    A tenant's Great Dane survives an eviction attempt by the house's new owners

    Muriel Mayhew, a widow, moved into the basement in 1946 and brought home a Great Dane puppy named Daniel in 1961. After Richard and Sandra de Saint Phalle bought the house in December 1970, they moved to evict her, calling the dog ferocious and a danger to their two young sons. Neighbors' affidavits called Daniel gentle, and Justice Edward J. Greenfield ruled for Mayhew, finding the complaint was aimed at the tenant rather than the dog.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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