
Daytonian in Manhattan
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Daytonian in Manhattan is a website founded in 2009 that explores the history and architecture of New York City through the lens of one building at a time. Its blog provides in-depth historical information and stories about some of the city's most significant and interesting buildings.
Daytonian in Manhattan
19h ago
photo by Beyond My Ken
Born in Scotland in 1862, Henry Collins Brown arrived in New York City in 1871. With an unexpected interest in the city's history, he began accumulating articles and other information about New York City as a teenager. In 1913, he wrote one of his many books to come, Book of Old New-York, and in 1916 revived the 19th century Valentine's Manual of New York (tweaking the name to Valentine's Manual of Old New York). He additionally wrote articles on New York City history and architecture for The Sun.
Around 1920, Brown began lobb ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
2d ago
Little remains of the house's 1826 Federal style appearance.
Around 1826, the two-and-a-half story house at 46 Macdougal Street was completed. Faced in red Flemish bond brick, its peaked roof would have been punctured by one or two dormers. In 1827, it was home to miniature painter Abraham Rykers Parsell and his wife, the former Mary Richards.
Parsell was born in Somerset, New Jersey in 1791. He and Mary were married in 1819 and they had a son, John H. Parsell, who was six years old when they moved in. (Two other children, William G. and Mary Elizabeth, had died.)&n ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
3d ago
During British rule, Roman Catholic worship was illegal in New York City. And although anti-Catholic sentiments were still strong after the Revolution, the Roman Catholic population was such that on April 8, 1808 the sprawling diocese of New York was created--covering all of New York State, New Jersey, and several Long Island counties. On May 14, 1815, the first Catholic cathedral in America, St. Patrick's, was dedicated at Mulberry and Spring Streets.
Two years later, Bishop John Connolly reached out to Elizabeth Seton, the founder of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsbu ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
4d ago
Samuel Henry Rokenbaugh was a merchant at 45 Wall Street and the president of the Hanover Fire Insurance Company. Around 1855, he moved his family into the house at 25 West 24th Street--one of a row of identical upscale residences. The 25-foot-wide, brownstone-fronted townhouse rose four stories above a high English basement. Its Italianate style originally included an arched entrance under a shallow arched pediment, molded architrave window frames, and a bracketed cornice. Just half a block west from Madison Square and Fifth Avenue, the Rokenbaugh house sat wi ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
4d ago
image via compass.com
On December 6, 1927, the New York Sun reported that Harry A. Hyman “took title yesterday to three four-story buildings 141 to 145 West Seventy-ninth street.” Among those vintage houses was the home of Daniel Frohman, famous theater producer. The Frohman family have lived there since 1884. Hyman had recently formed the 145 West Seventy-Ninth Street Corporation, of which he was president. The article noted, “The purchaser is to demolish the buildings at once and improve the property with a sixteen-story and penthouse apartment building.”
H ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
6d ago
The Literary Digest, July 25, 1925 (copyright expired)
On July 16, 1919, The Sun described the area between the Hudson River to Broadway, and 181st street to 202nd street as, "the wildest and most naturally beautiful in all New York," noting that around "the studio of the sculptor George Grey Barnard, the Cloisters...there are scarcely a dozen houses in the primitive expanse."
Born in 1863, sculptor George Grey Barnard studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He would be described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's curator J. L. Schra ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
1w ago
Unlike thousands of Italian immigrants who arrived in Manhattan in the 1890s, Dominick Abbate and Rocco Maria Marasco did not live in tenement buildings, but constructed them. Abbate could have sprung from a Horatio Alger rags-to-riches story. Starting as a newsboy at the age of nine, he worked various jobs until he saved $150 at the age of 21. He and Marasco invested in real estate and, according to The New York Times, "The firm did a business of $2,000,000 in seven years."
At the dawn of the 20th century, Marasco & Abbate were replacing numerous vintage struct ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
1w ago
When developer William Manice hired Wallis & Goodwillie to design a 12-story "brick and stone store and loft" in 1911, he was perhaps taking a risk. While the firm was well-established, Architecture magazine commented on December 15, 1912, "The architects of this building were almost untried in work of the loft building type."
A respected architect, Frank E. Wallis also wrote articles and books on architecture, while his partner, Frank Goodwillie, specialized in the engineering aspects of their projects. Just before they received the commission for the Manice Building, Arth ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
1w ago
In 1855, the Olivet Memorial Church was established on East Second Street, between First and Second Avenues. The refined residential neighborhood in which it sat, however, was already seeing change, as waves of German immigrants poured into the district. That year, New York City had the third largest German population in the world--outranked only by Berlin and Vienna. The demographics affected the Olivet Memorial Church, as well. In 1891, The New York Times recalled that in 1867:
When that portion of the city where it is situated changed its characte ..read more
Daytonian in Manhattan
1w ago
When the stoop was removed, the door was lowered, resulting in comical proportions and an absurd transom.
In the early 1870s, John Hampton, a dealer in grates, and his family lived at 110 East 61st Street, one of a row of identical Italianate-style homes erected in 1869. The three-story-and-basement house was faced in brownstone and was 18.6-feet-wide. While the upper floor windows wore prominent cornices, the openings of the parlor floor were distinguished with Renaissance inspired pediments.
In 1876, Julius and Ida Binge purchased 110 East 61st Street. Julius ..read more