57 Sullivan Street House
57 Sullivan Street | SoHo | built 1816
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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.
- 1816
A three-bay Federal row house of 1816 keeps some of Manhattan's earliest paneled window lintels
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Built as a speculative venture for Frederick Youmans, the wood-framed house has a Flemish-bond brick front, an incised entry arch with keystone and impost blocks, and a low stoop. The paneled window lintels on its first and second floors are thought, by the Landmarks Commission, to be among the oldest of their kind still standing in Manhattan. Originally two stories under a gabled attic, it was altered in 1842 and 1875.
- 1817
Mason David Bogert buys the new Federal house and keeps it for 24 years
Built around 1816-17 on land that had belonged to the Stewart family, 57 Sullivan Street is thought to be the South Village's oldest surviving house. The mason David G. Bogert held it from 1817 until 1841. Thomas Bray, an Irish immigrant with a liquor store on Grand Street, bought it next and lived there.
Source: Village Preservation
- 1874
The basement becomes the Knickerbocker, a saloon in the black-and-tan style run by an African-American proprietor
By 1874-75 the basement of 57 Sullivan Street had been converted into the Knickerbocker, a saloon run by an African-American proprietor and bartender. Black-and-tan saloons in the neighborhood served white and Black patrons together, and were denounced by writers like Stephen Crane and reformer Jacob Riis.
- 1880
A resident robbed on Broome Street is kicked in court by the attacker he helped convict
Michaelo Minafera, who lived at 57 Sullivan Street, was knocked down on Broome Street on September 3, 1880, and robbed of his watch and chain. At the trial on October 20, Thomas Smith, a 20-year-old ex-convict, kicked Minafera in the side as he was led out of the courtroom. The Recorder gave Smith the full penalty, 10 years in state prison.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1931
Resident Charles Maturo is found dead in a bloodied Prohibition speakeasy
Charles Maturo lived at 57 Sullivan Street in 1931, when police believed he was one of the owners of the Wonder Club, a speakeasy on 14th Street. Police found him and two other men dead in the early hours after a reported raid on August 13, amid overturned tables and broken bottles. They believed a rival gang led by Angelo "Little Augie" Pisano was responsible.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1973
The Landmarks Commission approves designating the house, but the Board of Estimate apparently overturns the vote
The Landmarks Preservation Commission first considered the house in 1970 and approved designation in May 1973, though the Board of Estimate apparently overturned that vote. Village Preservation and the Landmarks Conservancy proposed it again in 2002 as one of 13 Federal houses. In 2014 it was nearly dropped from consideration along with nearly 100 other properties.
Source: Village Preservation
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