Hamilton-Holly House

History and architecture

The large town house at 4 St. Mark’s Place in the East Village section of Manhattan was constructed in 1831 in the Federal style, characterized and made notable by its unusual 26-foot width and 3-1/2-story height, Flemish bond brickwork, high stoop, long parlor- floor windows, Gibbs surround entrance with triple keystone and vermiculated blocks, white marble base with openings also with Gibbs surrounds, molded pediment lintels, peaked roof, and double segmental dormers. The entire block of St. Mark’s Place (East 8th Street) between Third and Second Avenues was built by English-born real estate developer Thomas E. Davis, who sold this house in 1833 to Col. Alexander Hamilton, son of the late first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

This was the home during the next nine years of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the senior Hamilton’s widow; her daughter, Eliza Hamilton Holly, and her husband Sidney; and Col. Hamilton and his wife Eliza. In 1843¬ 49, it was the home of Isaac C. Van Wyck and his son Cornelius, oil and candle merchants; the Van Wyck family retained ownership until 1863. By the 1850s, houses on this formerly fashionable block were no longer single-family dwellings. No. 4 was owned from 1863 to 1903 by butter merchant John W. Miller; in the 1860s, a large two-story rear addition was built with a first-story meeting hall. From 1901 to 1952, the house was owned and used in part by the musical instruments firm of C. Meisel, Inc. The building had a significant and colorful theatrical history from 1955 to 1967, reflecting its location on St. Mark’s Place during the cultural ascendancy of the East Village.

Among other uses, it was the Tempo Playhouse, New Bowery Theater, and Bridge Theater, noted venues for experimental theater, contemporary music and dance, and early underground films. Despite the loss of some architectural details, the Hamilton-Holly House is among the rare surviving and significantly intact large Manhattan town houses of the Federal style, period, and 3-1/2-story, dormered peaked-roof type.