Isaacs-Hendricks House

77 Bedford Street | also 32A Commerce Street | West Village | built 1800

Open on the map5 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. 1799

    Joshua Isaacs builds what is now the oldest house in the West Village

    Merchant Joshua Isaacs begins a free-standing house at 77 Bedford Street in 1799 and completes it the next year. It has clapboard siding, a Dutch-style gambrel roof and a simple Federal doorway. It is now regarded as the oldest surviving residence in the West Village.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1801

    Harmon Hendricks takes over the house after Isaacs's bankruptcy

    After Joshua Isaacs loses the house in bankruptcy, his son-in-law Harmon Hendricks buys 77 Bedford Street in 1801. Hendricks founds a copper rolling mill and builds a large fortune. When he dies in 1821 the house is left in trust to his daughter Hettie, and it stays in the family's hands for generations.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1836

    A brick front goes up over the original wood frame

    Around 1836 the house at 77 Bedford Street gains a brick front over its simple frame construction, which has a gambrel roof. The same year a builder puts up 73 and 75 Bedford Street next door. Until then the house had stood alone, with its own yard.

    Source: Ephemeral New York

  4. 1923

    November

    Silent-film actress Evelyn Vaughn buys the house and has the attic raised

    In November 1923 the Hendricks-Gomez properties are sold off, and a group of artists, writers and performers buys several houses on the block to ward off development. Silent-film actress Evelyn Vaughn buys 77 Bedford Street. Her architect, Ferdinand Savignano, raises the attic roof to create studio space.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1989

    Yul Brynner's widow restores the house to a single family home

    Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume, third wife of actor Yul Brynner, reconverts 77 Bedford Street to a single-family home in 1989. The work includes reopening the Bedford Street entrance, which had been closed off in 1930 when the street was widened. The house had been split into apartments in 1938.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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