The Hamilton-Holly House, located at 4

St. Mark's Place 8th Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan that runs from Sixth Avenue to Third Avenue, and also from Avenue B to Avenue D; its addresses switch from West to East as it crosses Fifth Avenue. Between Third Avenue and Ave ...

in the East Village section of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, is a

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

townhouse constructed in 1831. A designated landmark, it was the home of

Eliza Hamilton Elizabeth Hamilton (née Schuyler ; August 9, 1757 – November 9, 1854), also called Eliza or Betsey, was an American socialite and philanthropist. Married to American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, she was a defender of his works and co- ...

, the widow of

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charle ...

, from 1833 to 1842. The

Trash and Vaudeville Trash and Vaudeville is a store located at 96 East 7th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue in East Village in Manhattan, New York. The store is associated with the clothing styles of punk rock and various other counter culture movements, ...

fashion store was located there for over forty years ending in 2016.

Building and initial development

The property was developed by Thomas E. Davis, a British-born real estate developer, who developed the entire block of St. Mark's Place (the name of East 8th Street in this area) between Third and Second Avenues. Davis built Federal style townhouses on both sides of the street. There are two other surviving townhouses from this development, at 25 St. Mark's Place and the best preserved of the three, the Daniel LeRoy House at 20 St. Mark's Place. The townhouse at 4 St. Mark's Place is wide and stories in height plus a basement level. The house is built of brick in a

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

pattern with white marble at the basement level up till the beginning of the first floor, it has a high front stoop to the main entrance on the left which is characterized by the

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires includin ...

Gibbs surround entrance with triple keystone and

vermiculated Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin ''vermiculus'' meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble worms, worm-casts, or worm tracks in mud or wet sand. The word may be used in a number of ...

blocks and long parlor-floor windows, molded pediment

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...

s and a peaked roof with two

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

windows. There was originally a semi-circular wrought iron balcony at the elevated first floor level. Around 1865–66, a nearly 53-foot two-story rear addition was built in the large rear yard, and a fire escape was installed on the front facade by the 1890s.

Historical significance

For nine years, the townhouse at 4 St. Mark's Place was the home of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (Eliza), widow of

, who was the first

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

and one of the

Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the war for independence from Great Britai ...

. In November 1833, Eliza's son Col.

Alexander Hamilton Jr. Colonel Alexander Hamilton Jr. (May 16, 1786 – August 2, 1875) was the third child and the second son of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Hamilton was said to have been 5'6 tall. Ed ...

purchased the townhouse from Davis for $15,500. At the same time, Davis purchased The Grange (now the

Hamilton Grange National Memorial Hamilton Grange National Memorial, also known as The Grange or the Hamilton Grange Mansion, is a National Park Service site in St. Nicholas Park, Manhattan, New York City, that preserves the relocated home of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Ham ...

) from Eliza, who was then 76 years old, for $25,000. The sale of the upper Manhattan home on 35 acres funded the Hamilton family's purchase of the townhouse. From 1833 to 1842, Eliza Hamilton lived there with two of her grown children and their spouses: her son Alexander and his wife Eliza Knox Hamilton, and her youngest daughter

Eliza Hamilton Holly Eliza Hamilton Holly (November 20, 1799 – October 17, 1859) was the seventh child and second daughter of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Early life Eliza wa ...

and her husband Sidney Augustus Holly. The building, now known as the Hamilton-Holly House, was designated as a landmark in October 2004 by the

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

Later uses and development

In the 1870s and 1880s, the building was used as a rental meeting hall, and the upper two stories became apartments. Later, the street level and basement became a rental property occupied by a succession of commercial tenants. An auditorium in the basement level of the building became, in the 1950s and 1960s, the home of the Tempo Playhouse, which staged the American premieres of works by

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Thief ...

and

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...

. It was later used by the New Bowery Theater, which debuted a number of early underground films. For over forty years, from 1975 to February 2016, the first floor and basement were occupied by

, a

punk fashion Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewellery, and body modifications of the punk counterculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited to the dressed ...

store. The property was listed for sale in 2015, at a price of roughly $12 million. After the building's retail space and four apartments were vacated, it was purchased by an investment group in April 2016 for $10 million. Portions of a renovation plan were approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in November 2016, including approval for restoration of the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

, reconstruction of the grand curved balcony at the first floor, a new entryway, and rebuilding the interior space to provide additional residential units.

References

{{Authority control Houses completed in 1831 East Village, Manhattan Federal architecture in New York City Houses in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan 1831 establishments in New York (state)