Amid the pricey, starchitect-designed buildings on Bond Streetlookin' at you, 40, 25, and 10stands a pretty, but not outstanding, six-story Renaissance Revival building. Turns out the house that used to stand at No. 31, though, was the site of a particularly gruesome murder that captivated New Yorkers' imaginations in February of 1857. The Times has the rundown: well-off dentist Harvey Burdell was "strangled and stabbed 15 times, including twice in his heart"; the 10 boarders living in his house heard nothing. The manager of the boardinghouse, Emma Cunningham, was accused of the crime, which later went to trial, when she was acquitted. The Times headline from the next morning read: "Mysterious Murder. Eminent Citizen Assassinated"; the event has inspired a novel and more. The four-story house between Bowery and Lafayette where the murder took place was torn down to make way for the current structure, which was bought by developer Joshua Gurwitz's Good Property Co. for $16 million in December. Gory history be damnedas planned, he's gonna build condos.
"[W]hat occurred did not occur in the current structure," he said. Added broker Leonard Steinberg, who recently jumped ship to head Urban Compass, "I think if one could do an accurate history of every building in New York, it probably was the scene of a murder at some point or another." And, last but not least, who would squander "one of the last development opportunities on Bond Street"? Not Gurwitz, that's for sure.
· NoHo Real Estate That Comes With a Tale of Murder [NYT]
· Bond Street Outcast Might See Luxury Residential Conversion [Curbed]
· All 31 Bond Street coverage [Curbed]
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