James H. Noe House

58 Morton Street | West Village | built 1849

Open on the map6 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. 1849

    Brush maker James H. Noe's transitional house goes up at 58 Morton Street

    James H. Noe, a brush maker, had No. 58 Morton Street built in 1848 and 1849, a year after the matching pair at Nos. 60 and 62. It blends late Greek Revival and Italianate features and rose three stories over a rusticated basement. Its high stoop was later removed, and an owner afterward rebuilt the stoop and its Greek Revival ironwork and repaired the doorway.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1863

    August 19

    Resident Talins Wells is called in the Civil War draft drawing and later becomes a chief bugler

    On August 19, 1863, names were drawn at the draft headquarters at 185 Sixth Avenue, and Talins Wells of 58 Morton Street was called, along with fifteen other Morton Street residents. He later became chief bugler of the 6th New-York Cavalry, a dangerous post, and in October 1867 word reached his family that he had captured the flag of the 14th Georgia Infantry.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1875

    August 22

    The house's builder, James Noe, is fatally beaten on a rooftop by the gangster Dandy Johnny Dolan

    James H. Noe lived at 58 Morton Street for about a decade, then moved to King Street. On Sunday, August 22, 1875, while checking an addition to his Greenwich Street brush factory, he found the Five Points burglar Johnny Dolan stealing lead from the gutters on the roof. Dolan struck him on the skull with an iron pry bar, and Noe died several days later, in one of the most publicized murders of the century.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1908

    May 1

    Professor John J. McNulty, who lived at 58 Morton Street, is found dead at the bottom of a Macy's elevator shaft

    John J. McNulty, who rented 58 Morton Street for over a decade before buying it in 1902, became head of philosophy at City College. On May 1, 1908, he went shopping at Macy's and was found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The operator claimed suicide, but a doctor who was in the elevator saw nothing of the kind and friends did not believe it. His funeral was held in the house on May 4.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1940

    The painter Ben-Zion fills a second-floor apartment at 58 Morton Street with art

    By the 1940s the house had become an unofficial apartment building with one large apartment per floor, and the painter Ben-Zion lived with his wife in the second-floor apartment. According to Daytonian in Manhattan, the couple filled the space with their own sculpture, paintings and ceramics and with art objects and artifacts collected over the years.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1971

    Elliott Gould moves into 58 Morton Street after divorcing Barbra Streisand, with John Belushi next door

    After a 1968 renovation recreated the stoop, the newly single actor Elliott Gould moved into No. 58, having divorced Barbra Streisand in 1971. He lived there with 19-year-old Jennifer Bogard, daughter of a Hollywood director. At No. 60, next door, John Belushi was living at the time.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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