211 East 13th Street, 214-216 East 14th Street, 208 East 14th Street | Block : 469 | Lot #7506

Description & Building Alterations

This unusual lot, with one front on East 13th Street at No. 211 and two fronts on 14th Street at Nos. 214-216 and 208, was developed with three separate buildings in 2013. 211 East 13th Street, now an eight-story residential structure named The Jefferson, was once the site of the Jefferson Theater. The theater was built in 1912 and its entrance stood at 214 East 14th Street while the auditorium fronted East 13th Street. It was designed by George Keister, a prolific theater architect who designed 12 other theaters in and around New York City including the Astor Theater and the Apollo. It was originally built for B.F. Keith’s vaudeville and later converted into a movie theater around 1928. The theater was in operation until the late 1970s and was demolished in 2000. For more information and photos of the old theater, click on the links on the side of the page.

208 East 14th Street originally housed an Italianate row house built in 1855 as a twin to 210 East 14th Street and it was demolished in 1987. According to Bedford + Bowery, 208 East 14th Street was part of a very salacious scandal that involved the great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Ray Hamilton (1851-1890). Robert Ray, a well-respected state assemblyman and lawyer who owned real estate throughout New York City, had a relationship with a woman named Evangeline, or Eva Steele. Three years into the relationship, she told him that she was pregnant with his child. Thereafter she traveled while Hamilton sent her money and, according to Steel at the time, gave birth to a baby girl on December 17, 1888 in Elmira. She returned to New York City and took up residence at 208 East 14th Street, a boarding house, along with her friend Josh Mann and his mother, T. Anna Swinton. It was there that Steele introduced Hamilton to his child and he married her within the next couple of days. What would come out later was that in fact Steele, in conspiracy with Mann and Swinton, had bought the child and passed it off as hers and Hamilton’s. None other than the famous reporter Nellie Bly followed up after this scandal broke by uncovering New York’s underground trade in newborn children. To learn more about this story, click HERE.