Monday, February 13, 2023

On 2nd Avenue, historic Isaac T. Hopper House hits the market for the first time in 149 years

A historic East Village building is for sale for the first time since (checking notes) 1874.

There's a new listing for 110 Second Ave., aka the landmarked and currently vacant Isaac T. Hopper House between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. 

Per the listing via Denham Wolf Real Estate Services: The property is vacant and provides a unique redevelopment opportunity. Asking price: $7.1 million. The building also has "+-4,628 ZFA potential excess development rights." (Any alterations to the landmarked building must go through the Landmarks Preservation Commission and other city agencies.)

The Women's Prison Association has owned it since 1874.

Here's some history of the address of No. 110, built circa 1837-1838, via Village Preservation:
This three-and-a-half-story Greek Revival structure is a rare surviving house from the period when this section of Second Avenue was one of the most elite addresses in Manhattan. Additionally, it is also a rare surviving nineteenth-century institutional presence in this ever-changing neighborhood.

The house at 110 Second Avenue was constructed as one of four houses built for brothers Ralph, Staats, and Benjamin Mead and designed in the Greek Revival style. Although the only one remaining of the original four houses, 110 Second Ave. retains much of its original details characteristic of a Greek Revival row house. The façade is clad in machine-pressed red brick laid in stretcher bond, tall parlor-level windows with a cast iron balcony, a denticulated cornice, and a brownstone portico with ionic columns supporting an entablature.

In 1839 David H. Robertson, a shipbroker and tradesman, bought the house for his widowed mother, Margaret. Three years later, however, he declared bankruptcy. The house was foreclosed, and in 1844 it was auctioned and transferred to Ralph Mead. Mead was the proprietor of Ralph Mead and Co., a wholesale grocery business. He and his second wife, Ann Eliza Van Wyck, lived at 110 Second Avenue (then No. 108) from 1845-1857. After that, they leased the house but retained ownership until 1870. It was sold in 1872 to George H. and Cornelia Ellery, who then sold it in 1874 to the Women's Prison Association ...
In 1992, the Hopper House was renovated and re-opened as a residential alternative to imprisonment for women. The residents and staff were displaced when the six-alarm fire destroyed Middle Collegiate Church next door in December 2020.

In January, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to allow the demolition of the remains of the fire-damaged structure to allow Middle Collegiate to rebuild on the site.

Previously on EVG:

18 comments:

  1. I'd like to know more about why the WPA is giving up this property. I know they were displaced, but does that mean the building is no longer habitable? The WPA is a really important organization and I'm sad to see them lose the home they've had for over a century.

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  2. Anyone have any idea what the interior of this building looks like? I would have guessed it had a much more interesting façade given the age but it just looks like a crummy post-war building to me.

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    1. Post Revolutionary War, you must mean.

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  3. Carol from East 5th StreetFebruary 13, 2023 at 10:42 AM

    Crummy post war building? What war are you talking about? It was built in 1837 and it's classic Greek Revival.

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  4. outside of the columns and the parts above and below the windows, it's a pretty dreary exterior (and even those parts don't look great).

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    1. Are you familiar with the Greek Revival style? It’s mostly intact and looks beautiful to me..

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  5. WPA has a location on 10th and B for those wondering why this is being sold.

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  6. @Neighbor, if by "post-war" you mean the War of 1812, then sure.

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  7. Maybe the WPA has found they can do more by selling it in this elevated market than by renovating somewhat and re-opening.

    If it's landmarked -- well, let's see how it goes. I hope landmarked means it can't be torn down.

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  8. It's very old, likely needs a lot of interior work, and it's *landmarked*, AND it's next door to that huge area that was the church (which will be a major construction site at some point).

    Even if I had the $$$, I wouldn't buy that particular building. But I hope someone does & does right by it!

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  9. Pre war, post war whichever war all I know is if I win one of those $500 million+ powerball jackpots this will be mine
    Won’t tear it down either!

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  10. What 1:17 pm said. Tough work for a nonprofit who probably thought their resources would be better conserved by selling than by trying to deal with all that.

    Post-war??? The facade is not brilliantly preserved (and probably wasn't helped out by the giant FIRE next door and resulting construction work), but whoever said that, I sincerely hope you haven't been in the city long, because....geez.

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  11. Here is an article about the history of the house, its interior, and the work the WPA did there for more than a century:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/realestate/22scape.html?unlocked_article_code=MYs3PHT2kMasdjX1NY7WOV2OdEaF_oMh4VrIkp3-V7Es7S6qiQVcSoU2zAvU1Xa2KkKFPjWthW4q-e_7hVOUDEfFcfOxZ5tB-wJv-eYaSeM-RYd0QcckCwvKrurm2jCHqSjo1tzkAan5pmY4nMIMAPPhDVazlwgg3ByHn0Jp_VjbxfLek_2BfZIkBKGQOjqyL5vVYexnZiY6lI82qhz-HxqoBK_KWgm5uhZVr0d1hLWyLEDDbaHuL4MePMSoi3OUsecUmHJKIhwqsoLJSLgm6sOmemySZpcO9QaBT15EbnT8RXD2Kz91sZDZkKSpv_ZQqSDX5A&smid=share-url

    I know the church people won't say this, and neither will the high-minded people at the WPA, but whoever started this fire should be keelhauled in the Hudson for 24 hours straight. It would be hard to wreck more history in such a small space outside of DC.

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  12. My building, which is a block away, was built 30 years after this one and doesn't look nearly as nice. I think it's beautiful.

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  13. I was inside in the mid-aughts when a friend of mine doing her masters was working on a theater program with the women there. I shot video documentation of their rehearsals & theater piece. I only saw the common areas. Had a fairly institutional feeling, which did in fact seem very post-war era renovations. Was not a horrid disaster by any means, but will take a huge amount of work to make it into modern residences.

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  14. @6:39- Of course the renovations were post-war. Do you think people were still pooping in chamber pots in 1950? Or waiting for the arrival of the ice wagon? Reading by candle light?

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  15. I'm a smelling a Frankenstein. and another landmarked building oops the wrecking ball missed out of existence.

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  16. I saw a room or two of the interior about 20 years ago and it felt institutional- fluorescent lights, sheetrock walls, etc.

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