"If not for Jane Jacobs, Susan Spehar might still be living in a big lonely house in the suburbs. Spehar and her husband had raised their kids in Darien, Connecticut, in a place with a pool and a yard and rooms that emptied as their kids left for college. After her husband's death and in search of noise and friendship, she found a rental in Greenwich Village."
"After about five years there, someone turned her on to a house for sale nearby - a three-story brick building with a store on the ground floor and a two-bedroom duplex upstairs. The commercial rent could help offset the mortgage and serve as an eye on the street, a comfort for anyone living alone. The extra room meant her kids could visit."
""It was a good place for a woman who had to start over," Spehar said. "It had a nice feel to it." The house also brought in a stream of unannounced visitors who came to pay homage to a past owner: Jane Jacobs. "They would ask me a few questions that I couldn't answer, and I would bring them in," she said. "The street and the house kind of became my world.""
Susan Spehar left a suburban home in Darien after her husband's death and moved to Greenwich Village seeking noise and companionship. She bought 555 Hudson Street, a three-story brick building with a ground-floor store and a two-bedroom duplex above. Rental income helped offset the mortgage and the storefront provided an 'eye on the street' that felt reassuring for someone living alone, while an extra room allowed visiting children to stay. The house drew visitors interested in its famous former occupant. Jane Jacobs lived at 555 Hudson Street from 1947 to 1968, where she formulated ideas, raised children, and organized meetings in a richly lived-in home.
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