In 1869, Peter Gilsey built Gilsey House, an eight-story hotel, on the site of the Casper Samler farmhouse and playing grounds of the St. George Cricket Club.
In 1819, Daniel Megie, NYC's gravedigger and hangman, purchased a small plot directly across from NYC's potter’s field at 58 Washington Square South.
In 1916, Don Dickerman opened a tearoom called the Pirate’s Cave at 133 Washington Place (Sheridan Square) in NYC's Greenwich Village. See what's there today.
The House of Flowers run by Charles Thorley was once a foliage covered townhouse in NYC in the former residence of Joseph W. Harper at 562 Fifth Avenue
Built around 1735, when Flatbush Avenue was called Main Street, the John C. Bergen homestead was the oldest house still standing in Flatbush, Brooklyn by 1901.
When a Lower East Side block was demolished as part of slum clearance, it was discovered that 29-29½ Cherry Street was the oldest house standing in Manhattan.
A St. Bernard named Rex Moore has been gracing the entrance to 2500 University Avenue in the Fordham Manor neighborhood
When C.K.G. Billings constructed a $250,000 driveway for his mansion, Fort Tryon Hall, perched 250 feet above the Hudson River, he got some help from a cow.
In 1898, a slice of the block bounded by Mulberry, Houston, Crosby, and Bleecker Streets was torn away for the Lafayette Street lengthening. What's left today.