Monday, December 17, 2018

You'll be back: Look at the renovated Hamilton-Holly House on St. Mark's Place


[EVG photo from February 2017]

The freshly renovated 4 St. Mark's Place — aka the Hamilton-Holly House, circa 1831 — has made its first public appearance after nearly two years covered in construction netting and plywood here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

These two photos are from Friday...





In December 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) signed off on renovations and an expansion for the landmarked building. In doing so, the LPC did nix an additional floor, and a few other proposed items. The expansion was to take place in the back of the building, doubling the number of residential units from three to six.

Here's more about what was to take place via New York Yimby, reporting from that December 2016 LPC meeting:

On the front of the structure, a largely new entryway would be installed, the gate at the stoop would be removed, new windows would be installed, and the grand curved balcony would be reconstructed at the first floor. The secondary stair from the ground to the first floor would be removed and a new small gate put in its place at ground level, an additional window would be added to the basement level, an existing basement door would be replaced with a window, an agree under the front steps would be reopened, and signage would be installed. The existing fire escapes would remain. The façade would also receive an overall restoration.


[Photo from Friday]

And a look at the building in 2010...



In February, Wanyoo, a Shanghai-based cyber cafe chain, reportedly signed a lease for the garden space, per The Real Deal. Another retail listing from a different broker arrived in March for the parlor space.

Until February 2016, 4 St. Mark's Place housed Trash & Vaudeville for 41 years. The store relocated to 96 E. Seventh St.

The Hamilton-Holly House was once owned by Alexander Hamilton’s son. The Federal-style townhouse changed hands for $10 million in the spring of 2016.

Here's more history via 6sqft:

Col. Alexander Hamilton Jr. was the first owner of the townhouse at 4 St. Mark’s Place. British-born real estate developer Thomas E. Davis was erecting Federal-style homes along the street at the time as homes for wealthy New Yorkers seeking refuge from the cholera epidemic further downtown. In 1833, three decades after his father died in a duel with Aaron Burr, Hamilton Jr. bought the home and moved in with his mother Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (who was riddled with debt after her husband’s death), wife Eliza, and his sister Eliza Holly and her husband Sidney.
And, when St. Mark's Place became dead for the third or fourth time...

In 1843, the Hamiltons sold the house to oil and candle merchants Isaac C. Van Wyck and his son Cornelius. By mid-century the neighborhood had fallen out of fashion, and the homes along the street were split up into multiple dwellings. From 1903 to 1952, musical instruments firm C. Meisel Inc. housed their retail store and offices here. In the 1950s and ’60s, number 4 was used an experimental theater, including the Tempo Playhouse, New Bowery Theater, and Bridge Theater.

A bar called Eliza's Local, named for Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, recently opened next door at 2 St. Mark's Place.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place


[Via]

4 St. Mark's Place is for sale

More residential units and a 5th-floor addition in the works for landmarked 4 St. Mark's Place

A look at No. 4 in 1940 via the LPC...

1 comment:

Gojira said...

What an architectural gem. Its continued presence makes the inability of the Landmarks "Preservation" Committee to ensure the safety of the few remaining buildings of that vintage still extant even more painful.