Approximate location of 312 East 73rd Street today. Click to enlarge.

The 1880 U.S. Census for the County of New York (which is contiguous with Manhattan) shows the Nicholas Hart family living in an apartment at 312 East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side.

(Their census page doesn't specify "East," but other pages in the same section of the same Census book do.)

The address no longer exists, but if it did, it would be approximately where this brownstone stands (inset).

The parents are Nicholas, 46, a miller, born in England; and Rossana, 41, housewife, born in Ireland.

William's listed age is 16 — 1880 minus 1864 is 16 — but he was born in December of 1864, and the Census was taken in June of 1880, when he was only 15½.

His siblings — three girls — are Nettie, 18, a dressmaker, born in New York; Frances, 11, born in Illinois; and Bill's favorite little sister Mary Ellen, 8 (Illinois), whom he would care for later in life.

We're unsure where this address fits into Bill's timeline. It doesn't seem to appear in secondary sources, including Bill's own autobiography.

The family was extremely poor. Nicholas traveled from town to town in New York and throughout the Midwest building and repairing flour mills. The family traveled with him until about this time (1880) when Rosanna took ill and Nicholas sustained an injury that rendered him incapable of working for several weeks. After that, the family remained in New York, regardless of where Nicholas' work took him.

It's notable that Frances and Mary Ellen were in school. Bill didn't have much formal schooling because, he says in his autobiography, the family couldn't afford books. Instead he supplemented the family income by taking jobs as a messenger — as noted in the Census — for hotels, a butcher, a tailor and other local business concerns wherever they lived in the New York area.

The Everett House, the Hart family home for two years — probably sometime after they lived at the address shown in the 1880 Census. Click to enlarge.

Where they lived in New York was a lot of places. Perhaps they lived at 312 East 73rd Street before they landed at the Everett House, 37 East 17th Street in Gramercy Park, where they remained for a relatively long time — two years.

Bill writes in his 1929 autobiography, "My Life East & West" (pp. 81-82):

Young Bill was so capitivated by the people and plays he experienced at the theater that — well, you know the rest of the story.

Information from the Friends of Hart Park:

WHEN WILLIAM S. HART BEGAN HIS FILM CAREER in 1914, he initiated a fresh approach to Westerns that continues to influence the genre today. Although Western motion pictures were already very popular, for the most part they were exercises in mediocrity, filled with "impossibilities or libels on the West," according to Hart in his 1929 autobiography, My Life East and West. But in the course of appearing in or producing more than 60 movies over an eleven-year span, William S. Hart created a film style that revealed a more authentic vision of the Old West. At the same time, he made a major contribution to film history by developing and embodying the prototype of the frontier hero. Fame, artistic recognition, and wealth were Hart's rewards.

A CHILDHOOD IN THE WEST

William Surrey Hart was born in Newburgh, New York, probably in 1864. During his boyhood, his family traveled extensively in the Midwest as his father searched unsuccessfully for the ideal site to build a gristmill and make a permanent home for his family. Young Bill was raised in a pioneer atmosphere; he had contact with Indians, ranchers, and cowboys and learned Indian sign language and a little of the Sioux language from his playmates. He gained a respect for Indians and their cultures that he never lost.

HART'S FIRST CAREER

The Hart family returned to New York while Bill was in his early teens, and it was there that he developed an interest in the stage. By 1900 he had appeared in productions from New York to San Francisco to Montreal. He received critical acclaim for his own production of The Man in the Iron Mask and his creation of the role of Messala in Ben Hur.

Hart's first Western role was also in a stage production: in 1905, he was cast as "Cash" Hawkins in The Squaw Man. His subsequent stage roles were primarily Western and included the lead in an enormously successful production to The Virginian.

TWO GUN BILL

While touring with the company of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine in 1914, Hart decided to move to California to make Western films. In his autobiography, he wrote, "I was an actor and I know the West. ... I had to bend every endeavor to get a chance to make Western motion pictures." Hart obtained parts in several Westerns and collaborated in writing screenplays, and his film career was launched.

As a filmmaker, Hart drew on his childhood experiences, insisting on using realistic costumes, locales, and situation. The public loved "Two Gun Bill" and his movies, and he obliged the fans with one success after another. He became one of Hollywood's top actors and most successful directors.

LA LOMA DE LOS VIENTOS

Some of Hart's Westerns were shot on and around a ranch in Newhall, California. In 1921^[1] he purchased the property from Babcock Smith. After completing Tumbleweeds (1925), his final film and one of his finest, Hart commissioned Los Angeles architect Arthur Kelly to design a magnifient Spanish colonial-style mansion, which Hart christened La Loma de los Vientos (Hill of the Winds) and occupied in 1927.

Hart filled his home with treasure reflecting his interest in the West, including Navajo textiles, Indian costumes, guns and weapons, and Western paintings and sculptures. In his retirement, he became active in the operation of his ranch and deeply involved in Santa Clarita Valley community affairs.

He wrote more than a dozen novels and short stories as well as his fascinating autobiography, My Life East and West.

Hart's reputation as a Western figure put him in contact with other prominent personalities of the day. Western enthusiasts, such as Will Rogers and Wyatt Earp, and important artists, including Charles M. Russell, C. C. Crisadoro, and James Montgomery Flagg, visited the ranch or corresponded with Hart.

THE HART LEGACY

True to the spirit of Western heroes he had portrayed on screen, Hart was humbly grateful to the fans who had supported his film career. "While I was making pictures, the people gave me their nickels, dimes, and quarters. When I am gone, I want them to have my home." When he died in 1946, he left the bulk of his estate to the County of Los Angeles, stipulating that his house and the ranch property were to be used as a museum and public park.

Today, the Parks and Recreation Department of Los Angeles County operates and maintains William S. Hart Park, which includes hiking and nature trails, a large picnic area, a campground, an exhibit of farm machinery, an assortment of live animals including a herd of bison, and approximately 110 acres set aside as a wilderness area.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angles County is responsible for the interpretation of the historical portion of Hart's bequest, which includes his home and its contents and several other buildings. The Friends of Hart Park and Museum, an active group of local citizens, provides volunteer support services.

La Loma de los Vientos stands today not only as a tribute to William S. Hart but as a valuable and edifying museum. Hart's personal effects and movie paraphernalia are displayed in his home along with Indian artifacts and Western American art that he amassed. These materials form a major resource for understanding the American West as it was perceived in the early part of the century.