page_title: Robert and Anne Dickey House
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Robert and Anne Dickey House / History
context_page_description: The Robert and Anne Dickey House, also referred to as the Robert Dickey House or by its address 67 Greenwich Street, is a Federal-style building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Edgar Street to the south, Greenwich Street to the west, and Trinity Place to the east. It is named after Robert Dickey, a 19th-century New York merchant, and his wife Anne, who both resided in the house. Erected circa 1810, it is one of the few remaining Federal-style buildings in the city, and was designated a New York City Landmark in 2005. Currently in disrepair, the building is slated for renovation and conversion into a school as part of the construction of the adjacent 77 Greenwich Street.
context_section_description: Robert Dickey and Anne Dickey (née Brown) were both born in what is now Northern Ireland, and later emigrated to the United States. Robert Dickey arrived in the U.S. in 1798. The two married in Baltimore, Maryland in 1807. Robert Dickey was a spice merchant, whose fortunes put him among the wealthiest men in New York City at the time.
  The lower ends of Greenwich Street and Trinity Place were created circa 1790, when a "bluff" created by the Hudson River tides was leveled and filled in order to be developed. In 1809, Robert Dickey purchased three lots at the south end of Greenwich Street. Two of the lots were originally owned by Comfort Sands and given to his daughters in 1796. One of his daughters was the wife of New York banker and broker Nathaniel Prime. Dickey proceeded to construct two houses on the site, addressed 69 and 71 Greenwich Street (later 65 and 67). Stables and a storehouse fronting Trinity Place (then called Lumber Street) were also built on adjacent lots. At the time Greenwich Street was known as "Millionaire's Row" and later called the "Original Park Avenue", and the two houses were among numerous other Federal-style rowhouses on the street. Dickey acquired the adjacent 73 Greenwich Street (future 69 Greenwich) in 1816, while selling 69 Greenwich. He operated his business ventures from the rear of the property on Lumber Street. In 1821, Dickey sold the two remaining houses. In 1822, the New York City Common Council established the modern building addresses on Greenwich Street; 71 Greenwich Street was renamed 67 Greenwich Street.
  The house was transferred to Peter Schermerhorn (brother of Abraham Schermerhorn) in 1823, and the Schermerhorn family owned the building through the 19th century. During this time, the house was rented out to prominent New Yorkers. These included William Bayard Jr., Nicholas Low, and Ezra Ludlow (father of William H. Ludlow). It also served as the French Consulate building from 1830 to 1831. By the 1840s, it became a boarding house.
  In the late 1860s, construction began on the Ninth Avenue Elevated railroad along Greenwich Street in front of the house. The elevated line opened in 1868. Shortly afterwards, the Sixth Avenue Line was erected along Trinity Place (then called New Church Street), with the two lines merging at Morris Street. This meant that both the front and rear faces of the Dickey House were obstructed by elevated tracks. In April 1871, the house was among several in Lower Manhattan raided by police under the suspicion of prostitution. In 1872, Detlef Lienau was contracted to remodel the house, removing the hipped roof and adding the building's fourth floor. By this time, the building was used as a tenement, with the original upper class residents of the neighborhood having relocated uptown and immigrants taking their place. An 1890 police census reported 57 tenants of Irish descent occupying the house.
  The house was sold in 1919 to Rose A. McGuigan. One year later, McGuigan (also spelled "McGuigman") filed plans to convert the house and the adjacent 65 Greenwich Street property into a six-story office building. Around this time, the surrounding neighborhood west of Greenwich Street developed into an Arab immigrant community known as Little Syria. In 1922, the one-story shop extension was constructed on Trinity Place.
  The Sixth and Ninth Avenue elevated lines were closed in 1938 and 1940 respectively, and dismantled in the 1940s. During the construction of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel in that decade, numerous buildings in the neighborhood were demolished. This included many on Greenwich Street, and most of Little Syria. The Dickey House, however, remained, with Edgar Street moved north to the south face of the house. Because of this, the house would later be described as a "Robert Moses survivor".
  In 1960, the Dickey House was purchased by brothers-in-law Irving Schachter and Eli Goldhagen. At this time, the building was used by a paper company. The house was first nominated for possible landmark status in 1967.  On February 11, 1991, the New York State Historic Pre
caption: The Ninth Avenue (left) and Sixth Avenue (right) elevated lines merging near the Dickey House circa 1893
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