Dear Editor,
The May issue, with the articles on Louis Sullivan’s work (page 29) for the Bayard-Condict Building, ca. 1897, included a reference to 58 Bleecker Street as the oldest remaining structure in NOHO, built in 1822 as the James Roosevelt Home.
Thanks to a plaque-unveiling ceremony at this address on May 14th by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, members were reminded of the location’s other significance. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American woman to receive a degree in medicine, acquired this structure and opened the first U.S. hospital for women and children, run and staffed by women with female doctors, in 1857. The hospital served the underserved, including instruction for women studying medicine, and free services for the poor.
Though a bar now sports a set of picture windows along Bleecker Street, the remaining three and a half story, Federal style home and outbuildings are remarkably intact.
This building tells a proud and inspiring history; stop by to see the bronze plaque on the corner wall.
—Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP
