138 Second Avenue | Block : 450 | Lot #5

Description & Building Alterations

This four-story with basement Federal-style row house was originally built in 1832-33 as a private dwelling, on land once encompassed by Peter Stuyvesant’s farm. In 1850, the house was purchased by the prominent merchant Duncan Pearsall Campbell, who lived here for the last eleven years of his life. Campbell was a partner in the renowned New York merchant house Le Roy, Bayard & Co, a director of many companies and charities, a trained physician, and a trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He married Catherine Bayard, daughter of William Bayard, and when she died, he married her sister Maria, with whom he bought this house.

In 1874, no. 138 was combined with no. 136 by the Sisters of the Divine Compassion to house the Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls. No. 134 was added to the building several years later in 1881. The Association was then renamed the House of the Holy Family by the Archdiocese, and in 1916 it transitioned into the League for Foreign Born Citizens. Nos. 134 and 136 were demolished and replaced in the twentieth century…