69 Bedford Street

West Village | built 1837

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1837

   Builder John C. Hadden pays the taxes on a new Greek Revival rental house at 69 Bedford

   Number 69 was one of six Greek Revival houses on the west side of Bedford Street built as rental property in the late 1830s. Taxes on the lot were paid by John C. Hadden, a builder who worked with the carpenter Sylvanus Gedney as Hadden & Gedney. The house went up in 1836-37 in Flemish bond brick. Later alterations stuccoed the facade, shaved off its lintels and added a neo-Grec cornice above the third floor.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1838

   January 29

   Rev. A. S. Francis's flock crowds into 69 Bedford for a pastor's visit, with actor Edwin Forrest among them

   The pastor of the Bedford Street Methodist Episcopal Church across the street, Rev. A. S. Francis, lived at 69 Bedford. A welcoming custom of the day had congregants descend on the minister's house, and the Morning Herald announced one for Monday, January 29, 1838. The actor Edwin Forrest attended and told the paper he found the evening a novelty, praising the worthy citizens, their wives and their smiling daughters.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1937

   December 2

   A milkman finds three .22 revolvers in the hall of 69 Bedford after a shooting at a Hudson River pier

   On the morning of December 2, 1937, three men shot at Owen McLaughlin, who worked as a stevedore on Pier 36. Later that day a milkman making a delivery at 69 Bedford Street found three .22-caliber revolvers in the hall. Forensic tests tied bullets lodged in the wall of a pier office on Vandam Street to one of the guns, and detectives arrested three men who they said had discarded the weapons in the building.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1943

   William S. Burroughs rents a furnished second-floor apartment at 69 Bedford during his bartender and detective months

   In 1943 the writer William S. Burroughs spent five months alone in a furnished second-floor apartment here, first tending bar and then taking work as a private detective. He later told interviewer Victor Bockris the place was very mediocre. That year he befriended Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and David Kammerer, who lived around the corner on Morton Street. In August 1944 Burroughs and Kerouac were arrested as material witnesses after Lucien Carr killed Kammerer.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The 1837 Rev. A. S. Francis House - 69 Bedford StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• Then & Now photos: 69 Bedford StreetVillage Preservation: Greenwich Village Then & Now

Nearby

• 71 Bedford Street1 entry
• Diana Traphagen House67 Bedford Street | 5 entries
• William Henry Knapp House65 Bedford Street | 5 entries
• 73 Bedford Street4 entries
• 63 Bedford Street3 entries
• 75 Bedford Street4 entries

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