Building: 35 Perry Street

35 Perry Street was built in 1852 along with the two neighboring Italianate row houses to the West. It was built by a merchant and his family as a single-family home. It remained so until the 1890’s when the address became a rooming house and was divided into multiple apartments. In the first half of the XXth Century a young Thomas Merton, before his famous Augustinian conversion, lived on the second floor. The current owner has totally gutted the building, erecting a steel frame throughout and using salvaged historical elements. Perry Street, itself, is named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, naval hero of the War of 1812. While America’s forces were battered at sea by the British Navy, Commodore Perry managed to keep a majority of the Great Lakes and its many ports in the hands of the United States. He also famously coined the rallying cry, “Don’t give up the ship!”

Description provided by: Alexander De Bordes