THIS building at #56 Bleecker Street, NE corner of Crosby, isn’t officially called the “Roosevelt House” but I’ll give it a name, as it was constructed by James Roosevelt in about 1823. The Roosevelts were a prominent NYC family from the late colonial era and owned property in lower Manhattan, and a street was laid out in those early days and named for the family. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, James Roosevelt was the great grandfather of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
After James Roosevelt’s death in 1847, his widow, Harriet Howland Roosevelt, remained in the house until, in 1857, it became the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, co-established by the USA’s first female medical doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell, a pioneer in medical education for women in the USA and England. A native Britisher, she later co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women.
56 Bleecker has served as a feather emporium, manufacturing lofts, a sewing machine factory (here it is in 1940, when it was accompanied by an entrance kiosk for the Bleecker Street station on the IRT #6).
When I passed it in September 2026, the ground floor tenant was a shoe store selling handmade Turkish footwear, Sabah, where you can apparently also hear live sitar music!
You never know what you’re passing in NYC, or what kind of history it may have had.
Check out the ForgottenBook (HarperCollins, 2006), as well as Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013). I also have a chapter in the anthology “New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg” (Reaktion, 2007). As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
10/8/26