Thomas E. Davis House

68 East 7th Street | East Village | built 1839

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.

1835
Attorney Thomas E. Davis builds a 25-foot-wide Greek Revival home
In 1835 Thomas E. Davis, an attorney and banker, builds a three-story brick house with a brownstone English basement at 68 East 7th Street. Its 25-foot width reflects his wealth, which reaches about $2 million by 1870. He and his wife Anne have six children.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1884
An Episcopal mission to Jewish New Yorkers takes over the house
After Davis dies in 1878, the Episcopal Church buys the house as headquarters for the Church Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. The society takes out a $9,000 mortgage in March 1884, probably to turn the house into school rooms and a chapel. The facade was also given Italianate window pediments and a pressed-metal frieze, possibly in the same work.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1905
January 22
A yeshiva opens in the former Davis house
The society sells the house to Samuel Grossman in March 1904, and he passes title to the Machizke Talmud Torah School days later. The school opens on January 22, 1905, helped by $25,000 from Jacob H. Schiff. The building is used as a synagogue afterward.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1989
The Davis house is divided into one apartment per floor
After years as a school and synagogue, the house at 68 East 7th Street returns to single-family use in 1960. In 1989 it is converted into one apartment per floor.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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