116 Sullivan Street is on Sullivan Street in SoHo

SoHo

SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...

, Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. The red brick Federal

Federal architecture

Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...

 townhouse was built in 1832 as an investment by Charles Starr (bookbinder)

Charles Starr (bookbinder)

Charles Starr was an American early-nineteenth-century bookbinder and real estate developer in New York City. His bookbinding business was on Nassau Street...

 and includes some Greek Revival details. It was heightened two stories in 1872. The structure is noteworthy for its elaborated round-arched brownstone doorcase, or "enframement of the front door," which has an exceptional treatment of painted timber Ionic half-column sidelights, unique and highly significant in New York City architecture. Due to the sidelights, "instead of leaded glass, typical of the time, each sidelight is divided into three superimposed oval sections. The ovals are formed by a richly carved wood enframement that simulates a cloth sash curtain drawn through a series of rings."

The house stands on land previously belonging to the farm of Nicholas Bayard

Nicholas Bayard

Colonel Nicholas Bayard was an official in the colony of New York. Bayard served as the sixteenth Mayor of New York City, from 1685 to 1686...

, Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...

's brother-in-law, and is one of seven houses that was built as an investment by Charles Starr (bookbinder)

Charles Starr (bookbinder)

Charles Starr was an American early-nineteenth-century bookbinder and real estate developer in New York City. His bookbinding business was on Nassau Street...

, a bookbinder, whose business was on Nassau Street

Nassau Street (Manhattan)

Nassau Street is a street in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan, located near Pace University and New York City Hall. It starts at Wall Street and runs north to Frankfort Street at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, lying one block east of Broadway and east of Park Row...

. Starr's own house at 110 Sullivan Street was 32 feet wide, unusually large for the time. It has been restored.