75 Leonard Street

Tribeca | built 1866

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1820

   Spanish Consul-General Thomas Stoughton lives in an earlier house at No. 75

   Before the present building, two old houses stood at 75 and 77 Leonard Street. In the 1820s the house at No. 75 was the home of Thomas Stoughton, the Spanish Consul-General. A Mr. Alger began a commercial building on the site on January 3, 1863, and Herman D. Aldrich took over the project in 1865.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1866

   Herman Aldrich's marble-faced Italianate loft replaces two masonry dwellings

   Built in 1865-66 for merchant Herman D. Aldrich, who owned several other properties nearby, the five-story building is about 51 feet wide and 100 feet deep, and it replaced two masonry dwellings. Above a cast-iron storefront with fluted Corinthian columns, the marble facade has six window bays per story, with molded surrounds, flat pediments and balustrades at the second floor. In 1869 the dry goods importers Buckley, Sheldon & Co. were its occupants.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1875

   July 20

   A teenage thief fires a revolver at pursuers after taking handkerchiefs from a dry goods firm

   On July 20, 1875, 17-year-old James Murphy took a box of handkerchiefs worth $50 from William Lottimer & Co. and was stopped by foreman William J. Andrews. Murphy threw the box at him, ran, and fired a revolver during the chase toward Elm Street, today's Lafayette Street. He then held an unarmed officer at bay until Officer John Raleigh got behind him and forced his surrender. The New York Herald said Murphy had already served time in the penitentiary.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1892

   November 4

   Dry goods merchant Clifford Cassidy is charged with murder over a Buffalo railroad strike shooting

   Clifford C. Cassidy ran a dry goods business from an office here and served in the National Guard's 22nd Regiment. During the Buffalo switchmen's strike of 1892 a striker, Michael Broderick, was shot dead on August 25. On November 4 Cassidy, by then a lieutenant, learned he was charged with murder for the order to fire, and said he would go to Buffalo at once. The Sun reported on November 16, 1893 that he would not be tried.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1985

   Samaya Foundation hosts Terry Riley at its Tibetan-culture space

   By 1985 the Samaya Foundation, a nonprofit meant to make Tibetan culture accessible to Westerners, occupied space here. For about a decade it hosted exhibitions and concerts. The New York Times reported on March 3, 1985 that composer Terry Riley, often regarded as a founder of minimalism, would perform two extended works for piano, sitar, tabla and voice: "The Medicine Wheel" and also "The Song of the Emerald Runner."

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The 1866 75-77 Leonard StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• 73 Leonard Street2 entries
• 81 Leonard Gallery79 Leonard Street | 5 entries
• 71 Leonard Street1 entry
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