Minthorne House
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Minthorne House
72 East 1st StreetNew York, NY 10003
There are both residents and businesses at this historic address marked by a plaque that reads “Minthorne House 1868.” According to a conversation with a gentleman who lives here, this entire area was once farmland belonging to the Minthorne family. Apparently, the building was the very first constructed on the plot although none of the Minthornes actually lived at this address. After contacting author and historian, Oliver Popenoe, we also learned that No. 72 1st Street “survived the 1811 grid that cut up Minthorne farm.” The farm once ran “west to east from the Bowery to what is now Orchard Street and south to north from present day First Street to Fifth Street…When the Minthorne farm was later divided up among nine heirs a tiny parcel was left over on First Street just east of the Bowery,” known as Extra Place. A highly developed, ever-changing part of Manhattan, it is amazing to think that the streets of the East Village were once vast farmland.
In addition to the plaque that we discovered on 1st Street, we also found this one on a brick home between Second and Third Avenues that reads:
Established 1831
Constructed 1842
