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Records of the Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District

Call Number

MS 3136

Date

2005-2017, inclusive

Creator

Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District (New York, N.Y.)

Extent

3 Linear feet in 3 record cartons.
4.87 Gigabytes (1,094 files, 43 folders)

Language of Materials

The documents in this collection are written in English.

Abstract

Documentation of the historic preservation efforts to recognize the house at 339 West 29th Street, Manhattan's only extant stop on the Underground Railroad, and home, during the Civil War Draft Riots of July 1863, to the abolitionist Gibbons family, who fled the attacking mob across the adjoining rooftops. In 2009 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the house and its neighbors the Lamartine Place Historic District, after the mid-19th century development's original name.

Historical Note

Beginning in 1846 developers Cyrus Mason and William Torrey built a row of houses on the north side of West 29th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea. The predominantly Greek Revival-style buildings faced a green space across the street, Lamartine Park, apparently named for Alphonse de Lamartine, who played a role in the French Revolution of 1848. To boost sales Mason and Torrey rechristened the block "Lamartine Place." (Similarly, West 28th Street became the more distinctive "Fitzroy Place.") The development attracted prominent residents, such as the philanthropists James Sloan Gibbons (1810–1892) and his wife, Abby (Hopper) Gibbons (1801–1893), who purchased No. 19 Lamartine Place in 1852. Noted abolitionists, the Gibbons family made their home a stop on the Underground Railroad, where they usually sheltered, fed, and supplied the needs of several escaping slaves at once. Notable visitors to the home included Horace Greeley, Lydia Maria Child, and William Lloyd Garrison.

The Gibbonses were staunch Republicans who supported the Civil War as an evil necessary to ending slavery. With the discovery that those who could afford a surrogate could buy their way out of conscription, violent mobs (probably organized by agitators) stormed New York on July 13–16, 1863, attacking known sites of abolitionist activity. Aware that their home was likely to be hit, Julia and Lucy Gibbons (daughters of James and Abby) carried some of their belongings over the rooftops to an uncle's house down the street. The mob came on July 14, chanting "Greeley! Gibbons! Greeley! Gibbons!" and looted the home, passing what they could through the windows, trampling what they could not. Forced by the militia to disperse, the rioters regrouped and set fire to 19 Lamartine Place. The house was damaged, but thankfully not destroyed. By then the Gibbons family was ensconced in their relative's home, but still at risk. A friend, finding them there, led them back over the rooftops toward Ninth Avenue and down to a carriage and safety.

Despite the burning of No. 19, Lamartine Place survived the New York City Draft Riots. The street name eventually reverted to West 29th. Its houses stood largely intact into the early 21st century, wearing the minor alterations common to 150-year-old rowhouses. One day in April 2007, Fern Luskin, a professor of art history at LaGuardia Community College and resident of the block, noticed a penthouse addition going up atop one of the houses. Distressed that its increased height would mar the uniform appearance of the row, she began to investigate the legality of the construction. In her research Luskin uncovered the by-then forgotten history of the development, how it had once been called Lamartine Place, and how it had once been home to the abolitionist Gibbons family. Remarkably, their house—now renumbered 339 West 29th Street—was the very one being disfigured by an addition that was erasing its roof and all trace of their Draft Riots escape.

The efforts of Luskin, fellow activist Julie M. Finch, and other concerned residents and elected officials, brought wide recognition to the Hopper Gibbons house as Manhattan's only extant, documented stop on the Underground Railroad. On October 13, 2009, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 339 West 29th Street and its neighboring buildings the Lamartine Place Historic District. By law, buildings so designated cannot be demolished or altered without consent of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Despite this, the owner of 339 West 29th Street continued work on the rooftop alteration under expired and revoked permits, claiming (falsely) that construction had happened before the designation. After protracted legal actions, on May 18, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the New York City Department of Buildings ruled in favor of the Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District (as Luskin, Finch, and their associates came to be called): they ordered the owner to remove the addition and restore the roofline to its historic height.

For a fuller history of the block and the work of Finch, Luskin, et al., see the Lamartine Place Historic District Designation Report, and Dusica Sue Malesevic, "Preservationists Win: Hopper-Gibbons House Owner Ordered to Subtract Addition" in The Villager, May 24, 2017.

Arrangement

With some slight alterations (e.g., topical groupings and title expansions), the files in this collection remain in the chronological order in which they were received. Records maintained separately by Fern Luskin are filed after the main sequence.

Scope and Contents

This collection documents efforts by the Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District, led by Fern Luskin and Julie M. Finch, to recognize and preserve no. 339 West 29th Street (originally called 19 Lamartine Place), Manhattan's only extant stop on the Underground Railroad and home, during the Draft Riots of July 1863, to abolitionists James Sloan and Abby (Hopper) Gibbons, whose family fled across the adjoining rooftops to escape the attacking mob. Through clippings, email printouts, financial records, fliers, letters, press releases, and research notes dating between 2005 and 2017, the collection details the eventual designation by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission of the Hopper Gibbons House and its neighboring buildings as the Lamartine Place Historic District, and recounts the protracted litigation against an illegal rooftop addition constructed by the owner of 339 West 29th Street.

Access Restrictions

This collection is stored offsite. To arrange to consult it, please go to www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Researchers may request view-only remote access to digital materials. A full manifest of the individual files comprising the series is available from the reference librarian on request. Certain digital files may not be accessible due to file corruption or because the library does not have the proprietary software necessary to make the information they contain accessible.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282. Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: www.nyhistory.org/rights-and-reproductions.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: Records of the Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District, MS 3136, The New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

This collection is stored offsite. To arrange to consult it, please go to www.nyhistory.org/library/visit. Digital files can be made available online for viewing only. To arrange to receive a link to the desired digital files, contact reference@nyhistory.org.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District, via co-chairs Julie M. Finch and Fern Luskin, 2019 (accession no. MS-2019-006).

Related Materials

The New-York Historical Society holds two typescript versions of Lucy Gibbons Morse's "Personal Recollections of the Draft Riots of 1863" in which she describes her family's experiences at 19 Lamartine Place (today's 339 West 29th Street) on July 14, 1863: AHMC - Morse, Lucy Gibbons and F128.44 .M88 Oversize.

Collection processed by

Joseph Ditta

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-09-05 11:03:42 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

Archivist Joseph Ditta arranged and described this collection in August-September 2019. Digital archivist Margo Padilla processed the digital media in May 2023. Digital files were transferred off of five unlabeled CDs using TeraCopy. Virus and malware scan was completed using ClamWin and Malwarebytes with no results. Special characters (e.g. #!*, etc.) were removed from some filenames.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024