16-18 Charles Street ca. 1938 This house belonged to a row of 11 houses built in 1845-46 by carpenter Patrick Cogan. Abbott was attracted to the doorway, the result of an eccentric renovation of unknown date. Nos. 16 and 18 were combined and an original door frame and oval window were installed at the basement-level entry. The fanciful ironwork canopy and the flagstone sidewalk converted Abbott’s straightforward document into a maze of graphic patterns.

The Rhinelander Gardens row houses on West 11th Street, February 3, 1937. The Unadilla Apartment building is to the right of the image at 126 West 11th Street. A Sheffield Farms milkwagon stands out front.

A guide to the places Bob Dylan worked, played and created in New York's Greenwich Village.

251 West 13th Street, unknown date. 251 West 13th Street was originally the Jackson Square Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library. It was built in 1877 by the legendary Beaux-Arts architect, Richard Morris Hunt, who also designed the main entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The library opened in one year later with a gift of over 6,000 books from the collector and philanthropist George W. Vanderbilt At the height of the library's popularity, it attracted over a hundred visitors every day and circulated about 126,000 volumes annually. The library closed in 1908 when presented with the challenge of disinfecting books that could transfer communicable diseases. In 1967, the performance artist Robert Delford Brown acquired the former library, which he dubbed "the Great Building Crack-Up." During Brown's tenure, the venue hosted various art events and performances and became the international headquarters of Brown's "Orthodox Pagan" First National Church of Exquisite Panic, Inc. Since 1995, television producer Tom Fontana has lived and had his offices here.

154 West 14th Street ca. 1917 One of the few Viennese Secession-style buildings in the New York, 154 West 14th Street has anchored this bustling corner for nearly one hundred years and appears today almost exactly as it did at the time of construction. 154 West 14th Street was constructed in 1912-13 for lawyer-banker and real estate developer Leslie R. Palmer as a speculative loft. It was built in anticipation of the extension of Seventh Avenue, completed in 1917, and the construction of the Seventh Avenue subway line underneath. This steel-frame structure employed the latest technology in loft construction with maximum allowance for light to the interior spaces, accommodations for automotive delivery and freight elevators. The architect responsible for the design was Herman Lee Meader (1874-1930) who after graduating from Harvard in 1898 worked for the architectural office of Ernest Flagg. In 1911 he established his own practice and had some notable commissions, all of which included terra cotta as a cladding material. These included the Cliff Dwelling Apartments (1914-17 – also for Palmer) at 339 West 96th Street and the Greenwich Village Theater (1916, demolished) at Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street which was an experimental theater for Marguerite Abbott Barker (daughter of the president of Eastman Kodak Co.) 154 West 14th Street conforms to a tripartite arrangement of base-shaft-capital differentiated by color and materials. The three-story base is entirely clad in the polychromatic glazed tile, which is also featured at the mid-section on the spandrels between the white brick piers and at the top section. The terra cotta was manufactured by the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company which was the city’s only major producer of architectural terra cotta at the time. Palmer was a long-time director of the company and this building served as a virtual advertisement for the product.

Village Community Church ca. 1020 Greenwich Village may have a proud history of welcoming immigrants, but not all of the neighborhood’s residents was quite so willing to extend their open arms. In fact, one prominent Greenwich Village leader’s disdain for Catholic immigrants led to the coining of one of the most notorious slurs in American political history, and arguably changed the outcome of the hotly-contest Presidential election of 1884. In 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland was running for President against Republican James Blaine. Blaine was embroiled in a bribery and corruption scandal that resulted in many Republicans jumping ship and supporting Cleveland, presenting the possibility of the first Democrat to win the White House since the Civil War. But Republican loyalists pushed back, fanning the flames of a scandal which soon engulfed Cleveland – that he had apparently fathered a child out of wedlock. Seeking to rally their base against the Democratic insurgent, Republicans led by the Rev. Samuel Burchard, leader of the 13th Street Presbyterian Church, gathered before the election to sound the alarm against a potential Democratic victory, warning loyalists not to support the party (in Burchard’s words) of “rum, romanism, and rebellion,” citing the party’s large constituency of Southern former Confederates and northern Catholics (who were thought to be particularly fond of drink). A Democratic spy at the rally reported the insulting alliteration to the press, which painted Blaine as anti-Catholic. In one of the closest Presidential elections in history, Cleveland won the electoral college by just barely winning New York State’s 36 electoral votes by a mere 1,000 votes cast or 0.1 percent. His edge came from high levels of support in heavily Catholic New York City, whereas he lost to Blaine in predominantly-Protestant Upstate New York. Cleveland would be the only Democrat elected to the White House between 1860 and 1912.

Port of New York Authority Building,1949.

New York County National Bank ARCHITECT: DeLemos & Cordes; Rudolph L. Daus DATE: 1906-07 STYLE: Neo-Classical The Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building, built in 1907, is an exceptionally fine and well-conceived example of the neo-Classical bank type; that the overall design, though small in scale, employs the monumental classical type in a unified and structurally expressive manner. The well-proportioned composition superimposes two classical architectural systems, a trabeated and an arcuated order. The design is enhanced by fine stone carving, ‘Which incorporates Beaux-Arts ornamental motifs, classical symbols, and naturalistic elements. Among the noteworthy ornamental details are the entrance and window aedicules, the foliated spandrels, the classical balustrade and the imposing eagle in the pediment.

National Maritime Union of America buildings (Joseph Curran Plaza), ca. 1975. This eye-catching buildings has, at various times been described as looking like a pizza box as well as a cruise ship. Designed by New Orleans architect Albert Lerner, this nautically themed building was one of three structures built for the National Maritime Union in the late 1960s.

Rhinelander Gardens, February 3, 1937. Designed by James Renwick Jr. in a High Victorian Gothic style the balconied houses with ornate ironwork were built in 1855 for William C. Rhinelander as rental properties. The homes of Rhinelander Gardens were set back from the street, which allowed for lovely and somewhat uncommon front yards. The buildings survived more than 100 years; they were demolished in 1958 for the construction of a new school building.

The Gansevoort Market Historic District was landmarked in 2003 thanks to efforts by Village Preservation. In 2002 Village Preservation wrote: "Gansevoort Market is one of Manhattan's defining neighborhoods - gritty, hard-working, low-rise, with its own special character, and a rich collection of buildings and history that cannot be replaced." Since 2002 much of the grittiness has been replaced with luxury. The High Line has transformed from abandoned to desirable. The world-renowned Whitney Museum of American Art has replaced blue-collar meatpackers. But thanks to landmarking, the rich collection of buildings still define the area and remain (mostly) low-rise. The architecture of the district tells the story of an important era in New York City’s history when it became the financial center of the country and when its markets were expanding to serve the metropolitan region and beyond.

224 Waverly Place ca. 1933 St John’s in the Village suffered a catastrophic fire in the 1970s, destroying the previous church building on this site. The congregation decided to build a new church along with diverse performance and exhibition spaces to conform with its newly created mission statement which committed St John’s “to facilitate a continuing dialogue between the Christian faith and the artistic professions, acknowledging in this encounter that we share in common the enterprise of interpreting life, of advancing the quest for truth, and of reaching a fresh vision of reality.” The theater space at 224 Waverly Place has been home to Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater since 1994. Founded by Gary Bonasorte and Davis van Asselt, Rattlestick is an Obie-Award winning theatre that has developed and produced over 100 World Premieres in the past 23 seasons, including St. Vincent’s Project: Novenas for a Lost Hospital, an immersive play which Village Preservation is very proud to be a partner in creating. It will have its premiere on September 5th, 2019.

138 West 14th Street ca. 1928 144 West 14th Street (aka 138-146 W. 14th St.) is “a grandly-proportioned Renaissance Revival-style loft building” and was built between 1895-6. As described in its designation report, the structure is: “Faced with limestone, tan brick and terra cotta, it was designed by the architects Brunner & Tryon in 1895-96. Seven stories tall, the street facade is articulated through a series of monumental arches, embellished with handsome classical details.” The building served as a workshop for many different stores and products over the years, including Macy’s and Les Paul. Eventually in the late 90’s, the building was acquired by Pratt and now serves as their Manhattan campus. “Since its completion, many commercial tenants have occupied various floors, including R. H. Macy’s, which produced flags and silk underwear here, the silversmith Graff, Washbourne & Dunn, as well as Epiphone, a leading manufacturer of stringed instruments. In 1941, the noted American jazz guitarist Les Paul assembled a “solid-body” electric guitar in the company’s workshop; it became the prototype for many electric guitars played today. 144 West 14th Street was acquired by Pratt Institute in 1999. Restored by Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, it now serves as the school’s Manhattan campus.”

Pingpank Barber Shop ca. 1938 When Abbott photographed this shop window, August Pingpank was 87 years old, in business for more than 50 years, and said to be the oldest barber in New York City. On the verge of retirement, Pingpank remarked that “it’s different now with the men shaving themselves every morning at home.” Abbott’s photograph presents a distilled image of Pingpank’s world. Set up against a mirror are his customers’ personalized shaving mugs on a makeshift display stand. Given the place of honor on the stand are a Chinese porcelain jardiniere, a cut glass disinfectant jar, and a can of Jergen’s talcum powder. Attached to the mirror is a photograph of the shop’s interior, and on the left wall is a Victorian cigar advertisement. A horse-drawn cart is reflected in the window, a fitting accompaniment to this relic of a bygone era. Pingpank’s store, which falls within boundaries of the Greenwich Village Historic District, is currently occupied by an antique shop.

Sheridan Theatre, 1926. The theatre seen here is at the southern tip of the triangle formed by Seventh Avenue, Greenwich Avenue, and West 11th Street. The Sheridan Theatre opened in 1921 and was taken over by Loew's in 1926. The house sat 2,342 patrons. The building was demolished by St. Vincent's Hospital in 1969 for a proposed nurses residences (which never came to be).

Pedestrians crossing West 15th Street on the west side of Eighth Avenue; April 18, 1926. Every building on the blockfront behind them, between West 15th and 16th Streets, would be razed in the following years, making way for the city's largest building. The mammoth Port Authority Building (now Google's New York headquarters) was completed in 1932.

County Trust Company Building, March 16, 1933. Built as the home of the Country Trust Company, the 20-story structure with fanciful wedding cake-like setbacks was completed in 1930. The building was designed in a neo-Gothic style by William Whitehall.

440 West 14th Street ca. 2003 Near the southern end of the High Line, the Meatpacking District bustles with designer clothing stores, outdoor cafes, and trendy hotels. Tourists in particular flock to this area, and it can often be a source of amusement to watch club-goers navigate the bumpy Belgian block (aka cobblestone) streets in their fashionable stilettos. Many New Yorkers, however, remember a very different Meatpacking District of not too long ago. Historically known as Gansevoort Market, that story has been well documented already, so instead we thought we would focus on the story of a particular building: 440 West 14th Street at the southwest corner of Washington Street. Built on land owned by the Astors from 1819 to 1946, this Queen Anne style building has stood on this corner since 1887. Architect James W. Cole designed no. 440 as French Flats with a ground floor store. The Gansevoort Market Historic District Designation Report describes it as “an indication that quality residential buildings were still being constructed on West 14th Street until the turn of the century, despite the inroads of commerce all around the district.” The report is a valuable resource for discovering just who rented out the ground floor store over the course of its history. The earliest was John H. Rohde, a saloon and liquor dealer, who occupied the space from 1887 to 1906. Future tenants also included those selling produce; butter, cheese, and eggs; poultry; provisions; and, beginning in 1946, meat. By 1935, the upper apartments were converted to office space. At the time the report was written in 2003, Gachot & Gachot, Inc (which had changed names several times over the years), had been supplying meat in this space since 1980. By 2003, most of the windows of the upper floors had been bricked up, the canopy had rusted, and brick infill had closed off much of the storefront. Fast forward a mere ten years later: the windows of the Diane von Furstenberg Studio have been re-opened with single-pane glass (perhaps not the best contextual choice), a perforated glass canopy running the length of three buildings has been installed, the storefront’s brick infill has been replaced with large plate glass, and the brick and pressed metal cornice has been cleaned.

51: 1843; 53: 1846; 1930, combined façade: William Bayard Willis) NYC IL, NYC HD, NR-P, NHL The Stonewall Inn was the starting point of the Stonewall Rebellion of June 28-July 2, 1969, which began when customers at the bar refused to leave during a police raid — in the 1960’s, it was illegal for a gay bar to obtain a liquor license and police routinely raided them. The uprising became a catalyst for the formation of organizations and groups across the country devoted to LGBTQ civil rights, and it’s commemorated nationwide and around the world with Pride marches and the celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month. In 2015, the Stonewall Inn became the city’s first Individual Landmark commemorating an LGBTQ site, designated entirely on the basis of its cultural, rather than architectural, significance. The area was designated as the Stonewall National Monument in 2016, the country’s first U.S. National Monument dedicated to LGBTQ civil rights history. Further State and National designations have made it one of the most decorated and protected sites in the city. Photo by Diana Davies/NYPL.

West 13th Street looking west to Pier 54, Master Purveyor, and the High Line, ca. 1990. For 44 years Master Purveyors was on 13th Street near Washington Street. The company relocated to Hunts Point Terminal Market, a 60-acre site in the Bronx, in spring 2001 when the landlord refused to renew the lease. Sam Solasz, the owner, describes his customer base as ''the finest hotels and restaurants in New York.'' Along with his two sons with whom he co-owns the business, Sam Solasz sells cuts to top-chop houses in the city like Peter Luger Steak House, Wolfgang's Steakhouse, '21' Club and the Hilton Hotel chain. Before starting Master Purveyors, Sam worked for Hygrade Food Corporation. It was the third largest meat business in the U.S. at the time, selling frankfurters to Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs. Sam came up with the original blend of Nathan's while at Hygrade. "They loved it," he said. One week after his first blend, Nathan's started buying 2,000–3,000lbs of Sam's frankfurters weekly!

“A new warehouse is being built over and including the elevated roadbed in the block from Horatio to Gansevoort Streets. April 9, 1934.” The nine-story brick and limestone warehouse was designed by architects John B. Snook Sons for the New York State Realty & Terminal Company (owners of the elevated railroad right of way), built between 1931-35 and leased to the Manhattan Refrigerating Company, who bought the building outright in 1941. Construction on lower segment West Side Line elevated tracks was completed in 1934, eliminating all grade crossings of the former freight line along West Street and “Death Avenue,” as Tenth Avenue was nicknamed.

Wedged between the West Street portion of the West Side Highway and bustling 9th Avenue, the history of this site tells us about the many lives of this particular swath of Downtown Manhattan. This area was first largely industrial, then a hub of slaughterhouses and packing plants, and now an area densely populated with galleries as well as the latest home to the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Grocery store at the corner of Christopher and Bleecker Streets, June, 1925. This tiny corner store was built between 1802 and 1808 by a grocer named William Patterson, in what was then a rural village. In 1807, the house at the corner of Herring (Bleecker) and Christopher Streets served as a meeting place for the commission charged with designing Manhattan’s street grid. Lead surveyor John Randel spent ten years staking out and marking intersections from 1st Street to 155th Street. Recognized as a work of genius today, Randel and his surveyors were pelted with cabbages and artichokes by landowners furious at the prospect of streets being plowed through their properties.

St. Vincent's Hospital opened in November 1849 in a rented house on 13th Street in Manhattan. Ellen Hughes, Irish-born sister of Archbishop John Hughes, known within her community as Sister Angela, was the hospital's first administrator. Patient rosters at St. Vincent's between 1888 until 1894 indicate a predominantly immigrant, Irish population. By the turn of the century, the patient population majority was native-born.

Built as the New York headquarters for the Bell Telephone Laboratories, this industrial complex was one of the largest in the country when completed. As a telecommunication facility between 1898 and 1966, a number of major inventions took place here including the first transistor, first experimental talking movies, first vacuum tube, and early television. In 1966 Bell abandoned the massive complex. In 1968, under the direction of developer Dixon Bain and with funding from the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the National Council for the Arts (later the NEA), the buildings were converted into low-income live-work spaces for artists and their families. Westbeth Artists Housing was one of the first instances of adaptive reuse of industrial buildings for artistic and residential use in the country. The buildings opened to resident artists, including dancers, musicians, actors, writers, visual artists, and filmmakers in 1970. The building also became home to a number of large cultural organizations such as Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the first LGBT synagogue in New York. Today the buildings are on the National Register and are a designated NYC landmark. They also remain the home and workplace of dozens of working artists.

Doorway to 16-18 Charles Street, June 1, 1938.

The White Horse Tavern, ca. 1975. In addition to its literary bona fides, the White Horse served as a meeting place for leftists, labor organizations, and journalists, including writers associated with the Village Voice, whose 1960s headquarters at Sheridan Square was a short walk away.

Collapsed section of the West Side Elevated Highway, just north of 525 West Street, ca. 1975. On December 15, 1973 a section of the West Side Elevated Highway collapsed. 80 feet of the roadway fell to the street level below, along with a sedan and a dump truck. It is believed that the weight of the dump truck (more than 30 tons), which was carrying asphalt for highway roadwork, caused the collapse. (The truck was severely overloaded, with nearly 10 more tons than it should have been carrying.) Neither driver was seriously injured. This incident led to an investigation of the soundness of the elevated roadway. It was found to be serious defective and the road south of 46th Street was closed permanently.

A tour of the architectural and cultural gems of Bleecker Street. From Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas, from Federal style rowhouses to new law tenements, Bleecker Street represents a wonderful cross-section of New York City’s diverse history.

Greenwich Village may have a proud history of welcoming immigrants, but not all of the neighborhood’s residents was quite so willing to extend their open arms. In fact, one prominent Greenwich Village leader’s disdain for Catholic immigrants led to the coining of one of the most notorious slurs in American political history, and arguably changed the outcome of the hotly-contest Presidential election of 1884.

Public School 16, 1920. Originally School No. 16 of the Ninth Ward, the original section of the building was constructed in 1845, with additions erected in 1859 and later. The institution became Public School 16 by the turn of the 20th century, but was in bad condition by the 1920s. Reports of the facilities suggest “plumbing wet and foul" and “rooms small, dirty and dingy.” The school became a vocational campus in 1924 and during the Depression offered programs for unemployed adults. In 1938 Mayor LaGuardia opened the building as the Food Trades Vocational High School, where pupils learned skills needed to become butchers, bakers, cafeteria workers, tea room hostesses and store clerks. LaGuardia wished to create an educational experience that would prepare children of poor immigrants for jobs that would remain necessary during times of economic depression. Later in the 1960s the school would add Maritime trades to its vocational offerings, becoming the Food and Maritime Trades High School. That institution moved into a new building in 1980 and this structure was put up for lease. The building initially became the home of a number of social and community non-profits, including a few small LGBT-focused organizations. In 1983 the gay organizations and AIDS advocacy groups joined forces to purchase the building from the city, forming the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center for that purpose. Over the last nearly 30 years the LGBT Community Center has become an integral organization in the gay community. It is a meeting place for community groups, the founding location of organizations such as Survivors of Transsexuality Anonymous and Gender Identity Project, and home to medical clinics and cultural programming.

53-55 Little West 12th Street ca. 1970 On the other side of the High Line, just outside the Gansevoort Market Historic District, sits two old three-story rowhouses at 53 and 55 Little West 12th Street. Now home to the Brass Monkey, a popular restaurant and bar, the two little buildings sit by themselves. Looming in the background is the soaring Standard Hotel, designed by the Polshek Partnership (now Ennead Architects), and built in 2009. The contrast of these historic load-bearing brick rowhouses and the “floating” curtain-wall glass of the posh Standard Hotel speaks to the ever-changing character of this neighborhood. By going back in time a mere 25 years through the 1989 “then” photograph, we can see how this little section of the Meatpacking District has changed. I am particularly drawn to the “ghost town” quality of this photograph. Anything but abandoned, however, the district thrived not as a trendy club scene, but as a neighborhood full of vendors transporting goods in and out of warehouses. While a good portion of the area is now protected through the landmark designation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District we successfully fought for in 2003, the buildings on Little West 12th Street featured in the “then” photograph were not included. Of the four (built in 1888), only nos. 53 and 55 remain today. Their neighbors at nos. 51 and 57, oddly enough, were the more intact of the group with their pressed metal cornices still present in 1989 (the surviving middle buildings once had similar cornices). At the time, 51-55 Little West 12th Street operated as a meat processing plant with offices and cold storage facilities; no. 57 was part of the wholesale meat market at 20 Tenth Avenue around the corner. The surviving buildings at 53 and 55 have lost their metal canopy, and the triangular parapet of no. 55 has since been leveled. Although these parapets were not original to either building, it is likely they were added in 1930 when major alterations occurred inside each building (replacing cornices with stepped parapets was common in this era). These two little survivors have faced a lot of change over the years, but, even still, they continue to play a part in the neighborhood’s evolution. Be sure to look their way on your next walk along the High Line.

253 West 16th Street adjoining the N.E. corner of Eighth Avenue, showing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. November 26, 1927.

National Maritime Union Headquarters Designed by famed Modernist architect Albert C. Ledner, the Joseph Curran Building (seen here at left) was completed in 1963 for the National Maritime Union. The building's notable architecture—it certainly was not a modernist glass box— caught the attention of critics and the public alike. The Union, which represented longshoreman and merchant sailors, capitalized on the interest, offered tours of the building in the late 1960s. Ledner also designed two other eye-catching buildings for the union nearby. In 1973, the white building became the Edward and Theresa O'Toole Medical Services Building when neighboring Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Center purchased it. Following St. Vincent's bankruptcy in 2005, this building became the center of a highly contested debate regarding contextual development. With plans to raze the building and erect a 21-story hospital tower, the community voiced their dissent and controversy ensued. In the end, the building was not demolished but restored and reused. In 2017 the ship-like structure reopened as the Lenox Health Greenwich Village, a state-of-the-art medical facility.

The Church of Our Lady Guadalupe was established in 1902 by the Augustinians of the Assumption. It was the first Spanish-speaking Catholic parish in New York City, serving working-class Spaniards. The church was popular with various Hispanic communities throughout the 20th century. The rapid growth of the Mexican population in the late 20th century overwhelmed the small church and forced it to move to a new location at St. Bernard Church in Chelsea. The church has been re-purposed since the 2003 move.

Formerly the Bell Telephone Laboratories Complex, the Westbeth Arts Complex is a group of buildings that takes up an entire city block. Westbeth is significant not only as the former home to one of the world’s most prestigious telecommunications research organizations but also as the first and largest publicly- and privately-funded artists’ housing project in the United States. Westbeth is a pioneer of large-scale industrial rehabilitation and adaptive reuse.

The Napolitana Kitchen, photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1947, in the ground floor space of no. 228, a 1900 Romanesque Revival tenement designed by Peter J. Herter.

High pressure water system trench crosses Jackson Square; undated photo. The city acquired the parcel at the intersection of Greenwich and Eighth Avenues and Horatio Street in 1826. While it's unclear exactly when or how this triangular park became known as Jackson Square, it is likely the name is in some way connected to President Andrew Jackson. Through the mid-19th century, Jackson Square served as a de facto meeting place for rallies and celebratory gatherings. In 1872, the Parks Commission officially recognized Jackson Square as parkland, and installed features including lamps, ironwork, and sidewalks. In the background, West 13th Street continues toward the Hudson River.

132 Bank Street This charming row of three brick residences was built in 1833 for William E. Fink, a grocer. These houses, early Greek Revival in style are three stories in height with basements. Nos. 132 and 134 have fronts of Flemish bond. The corner house, No. 136, is constructed of running bond, and the top floor attic windows have been replaced by larger ones. The original wrought iron hand railing of the stoops has been retained at all three houses. At Nos. 132 and 136, the horizontal band beneath the handrail proper is designed with a very graceful scrollwork pattern. The iron spindles are enhanced by a delicate ball design at mid-height. The handrailings, resting on very simple newels with urnlike bases, terminate in a curved volute. A simple wrought iron areaway railing, and wrought iron uprights, topped by small acorn finials may be seen at all three residences.; At. Nos. 132 and 136, the charming Greek Revival doorways have columns and transoms. These doorways consist of a handsome three-paneled door which is flanked on both sides by well proportioned, fluted Doric columns. The two handsome columns support a low entablature which is surmounted by a five-paned transom. A simple lintel, enhanced by a delicate cornice, is seen over the transom. The lintels above the muntined windows of the first and second floors of all three houses have had cornices added. In all three houses, the original sills remain unchanged. The facades may have originally been crowned by a deep fascia board with waterproofed surface seen at No. 134, with small windows cut into it. No. 136 has a shallow cornice set above the lengthened windows, while No. 132 was remodeled to provide a double window located on center with casements, above which a dormer has been added to obtain north light. Philip Evergood, a well-known painter, lived at No. 132 Bank Street from 1940-47.

Trowmart Inn ca. 1906 While the Martha Washington Hotel established a model for housing business women, a 1907 housing exposé titled: “The Problem of Living for 97,000 Girls,” emphasized the “Absurd Restrictions and Poor Housing Conditions” working-class women continued to suffer. The article mentions one innovative solution, however: the Trowmart Inn. Completed in 1906, the Trowmart picked up on the ideas put into practice at the Martha Washington and, for the first time, provided accommodation for the working-class girl without the strict rules of a “Moral Home.” Like its inspiration, the Trowmart highlighted this fact in its promotional brochures. Compared to the Martha Washington, the inn’s interior spaces and furnishings were plain and even utilitarian, but the Trowmart provided similar amenities: a dining room and cafeteria, “beau parlors” (small parlors where the residents could entertain their gentlemen friends), a large parlor with a piano, a library, and doctor’s office. In addition, the Trowmart provided a sewing room, full laundry, and a drying room, essential spaces for the shop, millinery, and factory girls for whom the Inn was planned. Living expenses ran to $4.50 to $5 per work week, with breakfast and dinner included. The Trowmart Inn was an immediate success: a 1908 newspaper article reported the hotel, which housed 250 women, had been full since its 1906 opening. The Trowmart was the exception however. The majority of women’s hotels constructed during the first few decades of the 20th century were for professional women.

Few neighborhoods in New York can claim as rich a tradition of social advocacy as Greenwich Village. This collection documents the homes and lives of a few of them.

70 Greenwich Avenue, October 13, 1930. The lot at 70 Greenwich Avenue originally included three separate homes constructed in the 1850s. At some point in the late 19th century the homes were combined to create the small four-story brick building that now occupies the lot. Designed to fit in its sharply angled location, the first floor extends to a blunt narrow end (too slim for even a door). The second through fourth floors are set back from the narrow end and the facade is wide enough for a single window.

Felipe Rose of the Village People, Can't Stop the Music Film Set in front of 244 West 4th Street, 1979.

Rhinelander Row ca. 1937 Rhinelander Row — a group of 11 houses with wooden balconies and front yards — was built in 1843 by William C. Rhinelander, a powerful Greenwich Village landowner. For 75 years, the Row stood at the base of Seventh Avenue, but with the 1914 extension of the avenue south to Canal Street, the Row lost its neighboring residences and was stranded on the edge of a major intersection. When demolition began in 1936, only one house was occupied. Abbott first photographed the Row before the May 10 front page New York Times story, “Historic Greenwich Village Homes to be Demolished.” Her two return visits recorded the stages of the Row’s demise. Shortly before election day, she showed the Row abandoned and decorated with campaign posters for a Democratic candidate for City Court judge (not shown). The following May, while a WPA crew dismembered the porches, Abbott photographed the site again. Workmen, seen on the roof and the second-story porch, were responsible for collecting clothing left in the houses and draping it on a front yard tree, which Abbott placed in the center of her composition.

23 West 13th Street, c. 1994 Substation 235, located at 23 West 13th Street on at the intersection of Greenwich Avenue and Horatio Street. The structure was built in 1932 during the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line, a project that lasted from 1932 until 1940. A substation is fed power from a central station that is converted from high voltage alternating current (AC) into low voltage direct current (DC) to power the subway. This substation and others constructed for the IND line were the first to be non-manually operated. Greenwich Substation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as a unique piece of New York City's transit history. The masonry structure's footprint, a chamfered rectangle, reflects the infill lot's geometric condition at this bustling intersection. The facade is adorned with limestone, brick, and aluminum; its loading dock doors are framed by Art Deco motifs and sunburst patterns, not uncommon of substations and telephone buildings of the era. The human-scaled entrance is decorated more modestly and located at the level of the sidewalk.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, ca. 1978. Built 1821-22 as the Eighth Presbyterian Church, the Federal style church was sold to St. Matthew’s Episcopal in 1842. The church was sold again in 1855, this time to a Lutheran congregation of German immigrants. In 1886, Victorian embellishments were added to the facade, including a new pediment inscription commemorating the church’s German-American heritage: “Deutsche Evangelish-Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche.

Village Preservation places plaques on sites in our neighborhoods to mark the locations of historically significant events, organizations, places, or figures. Click here to learn more about our plaque program, including upcoming unveiling.

This image is from the 1969 Designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District on Village Preservation's GVHD50 Then and Now map click here to explore the map.

The Salvation Army National and Territorial Headquarters ARCHITECT: Ralph Walker; Vorhees, Gmelin & Walker DATE: 1929-35 STYLE: Art Deco The complex includes a 12-story office building, adjacent to a 4-story auditorium building that included modern broadcast facilities. The building was designed by preeminent modernist architect Ralph Walker of the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, using an Art Deco style. Both of these buildings are clad in brick, with a small amount of cast-stone ornament near the top and around the entrances.

Saint John's in the Village ca. 1970 The Greek Revival made several modifications in the conventional Greek temple form. Where the width of a building might have required six columns (hexastyle) and the cost of erecting them was prohibitive, the scheme of bringing the sidewalls forward (in antis) and using two columns (distyle) was followed; the balance of the width was met by widening as much as required on each side of the portico, with flush walls parallel to the street. These walls were the unusual feature, resulting in an exceedingly handsome innovation. This church is distyle in antis, combined with prostyle tetrastyle (having four columns).

53 Gansevoort Street, 1936. This triangular building (seen at its most narrow near Ninth Avenue) was constructed in 1887 for Robert and Ogden Goelet. Designed by Joseph M. Dunn, the five-story, store and loft building, housed dozens of food and meat manufacturers and purveyors through the 19th and 20th century. The Goelet family (whose ownership of the property began prior to this building in 1847) held onto the building until 1942. Today the food history of building remains seen in the faded painted logos of its facade which note "BURNHAM'S CLAM CHOWDER" and "NEW ENGLAND BISCUIT WORK."

St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church ca. 1930 St. Bernard’s, at 328-332 West 14th Street and now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Bernard’s, was originally founded by Irish immigrants during the wave of immigration resulting from the 1840’s famine. This church served relatively middle class “Lace Curtain Irish” (opposed to the lower classes known as “Shanty Irish”), who worked as longshoreman, janitors, mechanics, and teamsters, and owned saloons, stables, blacksmith shops, and the other types of businesses needed to support the industries of the time.

"St. Joseph's Home for the Aged, 15th Street adjoining N.W. corner of Seventh Avenue. This institution, which opened in 1873 is maintained by the Society of St. Vincent De Paul. (Roman Catholic), 1931." The building that once housed the St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged, still exists below the simple Art Deco style brick apartment building that stands on 15th Street today. In 1940 a New York Times article described how the older building will be converted and modernized (not demolished) into a six-story elevator apartment building. The cost of the building for the development company was $75,000

“Looking down a narrow lane at children on the porch of 9 ½ Jane Street, 1915.” The three-story house is accessed by an alley to the west of no. 9 Jane Street, a four-story brick townhouse built in 1844 for tinsmith Walter H. Mead. The rear house was built in 1854.

Valerie Perrine being filmed in Can't Stop the Music in front of Sevilla Restaurant & Bar, 1979.

Rhinelander Row, Seventh Avenue, March 20, 1936. This set of eleven cottages along Seventh Avenue became known as Rhinelander Row, after the developer William C. Rhinelander. The three-decker style brick rowhouses were built in 1849, with each story allocated its own wooden porch (replaced by sturdier iron in 1888). The row was demolished in 1937, with a gas station occupying the site after plans for a contemporary apartment building fell through. In 1964, the Maritime Union Building, later the Maritime Hotel, was built on the site.

Spanning over a century of architectural styles from the 1860s to 1960s, with a stellar renovation in the 1970s by Richard Meier, the Bell Laboratories Building Complex is an amazing example of adaptive reuse. The oldest building in the complex was constructed in the vernacular Italianate style circa 1860 to house the Hook’s Steam-Powered Factory. It is one of the last remaining 19th-century industrial buildings on the Hudson Riverfront. From the 1920s to the 1960s, the complex served as the headquarters for Bell Laboratories and bore witness to parts of the Manhattan Project and innovations including the first television broadcast. When Bell Laboratories vacated the property in the early 1960s, the complex fell into disrepair and found itself at the mercy of an aggressive Urban Renewal Program. Jane Jacobs spoke on behalf of the West Village Committee at a townhall discussing the demolition of Bell Laboratories, arguing that the complex suffered only from negligible blight and that it would be unconscionable to demolish it. Thankfully, Bell Laboratories escaped this fate, with an innovative plan to convert the historic structure into a hybrid work/live artists’ studios complex. In 1968, the J.M. Kaplan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts provided $1 million in seed money to purchase the former Bell Laboratories site for the Westbeth Artists’ Housing project. The adaptive reuse project was designed by Richard Meier, who was inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles. Meier created 383 single-story and duplex residential units, gallery spaces, dance and theater performing spaces, and common studio spaces in the basement and the Section I (former Hook’s Steam-powered Factory) building. The Bell Laboratories complex showcases the evolution of the West Village from a gritty industrial hub to a hot spot for art and architecture.

The same, a year and a half later. The church is about to be demolished and replaced by an apartment building, Chelsea Hall. May 30, 1929.

Worker with hand truck crosses West 14th Street amid a jumble of delivery trucks, ca. 1980s. The camera is facing east, from about the point where Washington Street meets West 14th. At right, on the south side of the street, a branded truck is visible at the loading dock of the Imperial Lamb and Veal Co. Today, the building is occupied by retail storefronts for clothing brands.

James Baldwin Residence ca. 1930 James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924 and became a celebrated writer and social critic in his lifetime, exploring complicated issues such as racial, sexual, and class tensions, as a gay African-American man. Baldwin spent some of his most prolific writing years living in Greenwich Village and wrote of his time there in many of his essays, such as "Notes of a Native Son". Many of Baldwin's works address the personal struggles faced by not only black men but of gay and bisexual men, amid a complex social atmosphere. His second novel, Giovanni's Room, focuses on the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men. It was published in 1956, well before gay rights were widely supported in America. His residence from 1958 to 1963 was 81 Horatio Street. A historic plaque memorializing his time there was unveiled on October 7, 2015.

149 West 14th Street, ca. 1930. Kooky’s Cocktail Lounge, better known as Kooky’s (pronounced “cookies”), was a Mafia-owned lesbian bar that operated here from 1965 to 1973. Even though a female-operated bar at that time was unusual, Kooky (last name unknown) was not particularly welcoming to lesbian patrons. She enforced a door cover-charge policy ($3 – a large financial burden at that time) and had a lot of control over the imposing bouncers; rather than protect the patrons, which was supposedly their job, they would often bully them. Lesbian feminist author Karla Jay described Kooky’s memorable style: “Her hair was shellacked into a large golden beehive that suggested that she had last set, teased, and sprayed her hair in the 1950s and then left it permanently in place.”

New York has always been a great place to enjoy a pint (or three). A rare class of the city’s taverns date to Prohibition days or earlier, and each carries decades of local history: from the Revolutionary War to the gay rights movement. Starting with the Old Town Bar on 18th Street, take a loop through downtown Manhattan, and pay a visit to the dives that have withstood the test of time.

Port of New York Authority Building, 1941.

59 Christopher Street, ca. 1909. This Greenwich Village standard, known as Kettle of Fish, was established 1950 as a Wisconsin Sconnie bar. In the early-1960s, when the bar was located at 116 MacDougal Street, it emerged as a major hangout for Beat writers like Jack Kerouac, and musicians and writers, including Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Joyce Johnson, Bob Dylan, and Andy Warhol among others. Kettle of Fish later moved to Third Street, where the live music venue Fat Black Pussy Cat is now, before relocating to its current Christopher Street location in the late 1990s. While the bar has moved twice since its opening, through the years, Kettle of Fish has proven to be popular with people from all walks of life -- intellects, musicians, writers, and sports fans alike. The owner, who hails from Wisconsin, has made the bar the go-to NYC spot for Packers and Badgers fans!

60-74 Gansevoort Street, ca. 1980. The buildings at 60-68 and 70-74 Gansevoort Street were constructed by the firm of Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith in the early 1940s. The one-story building at the corner (nos 70-74) was constructed for the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank and served as a freight truck depot before becoming a wholesale meat market building in 1950. The two-story building at left (nos. 60-68) is the alteration of a 19th century structure. Constructed in 1881 as a five-story neo-Grec tenement, the building was reduced by three floors and converted into a market building in 1940, complete with metal canopy, a tell-tale feature of the market buildings.

505-507 West Street, ca. 1929. The Jane, formerly known as the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute, is a landmark building that was originally designed as a hotel for sailors. Constructed in 1907-08, the structure was designed by William A. Boring, also the architect of the immigration station on Ellis Island. His designs for the building include a chapel, concert hall, and a bowling alley. On April 19, 1912, the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute hosted a memorial service for surviving sailors rescued from the Titanic. The hotel was also used to house survivors while the American inquest into the sinking was held. In 1944, the YMCA took over the building. It has since taken on a number of different uses. During a period in the mid-1980s, the American drag performer RuPaul lived in the tower of the hotel. In 2000, the building was designated a New York City landmark.

The original structure was a two-story Federal style frame house, built in 1826 and converted into a tavern in 1864. During Prohibition, by which time a third story and stucco finish had been added, the “Seven Doors” bar continued to operate as a speakeasy. Following the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, the bar was renamed Julius’. During the 1950s, Julius’ became known as a gathering place for gay New Yorkers, despite its management’s harassment of gay customers, under the auspices of liquor regulations prohibiting the sale of alcohol to “disorderly” customers (gay men were considered intrinsically disorderly). In 1966, a group of gay activists and members of the Mattachine society held a “sip-in” to challenge the discriminatory law: after first identifying themselves as homosexuals, they ordered drinks from the Julius’ bartender who then refused service (the New York Times headline read “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars”). The men successfully challenged the New York State Liquor Authority in court, winning a ruling that guaranteed gay New Yorkers the right to peaceful assembly, thereby opening the door to legal, licensed gay bars.

Old Homestead Steakhouse, ca. 1978. The Old Homestead Steakhouse is one of the longest operating steakhouses in the country. It first opened its doors back in 1868, just after the Civil War, when the meatpacking district was exclusively for butchers. The restaurant, which has now been in the same family for nearly seven decades, is currently owned by brothers Greg and Marc Sherry. Their grandfather Harry Sherry, who started out as the dishwasher, purchased the eatery in the 1940s from its former owner. One key to Old Homestead Steakhouse's longevity is the fact that the establishment, since its start, has been a rather upscale eatery. Unlike chophouses, the steakhouse has always been about serious quality. In fact, the Old Homestead Steakhouse is one of a few restaurants in the United States to serve Kobe Beef, pricing 12-oz portions at $350. Over the years, the restaurant has expanded its tablespace but its menu and atmosphere remain relatively untouched. In fact, it still prides itself in being the first restaurant to send patrons home with a doggy bag (leftovers to-go), because the portions sizes are too big!

The Stonewall Inn, site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, 1969. The buildings at 51-53 Christopher Street were constructed in the 1840s as stables. In 1930 the two buildings were given a unified first floor of an Arts & Crafts style brick and stucco facade. The Stonewall Inn opened in 1967 and became a popular bar for the LGBT community. In the early morning of June 28th, 1969 the police raided the bar (as they often did to gay establishments in the 1960s). The patrons of the bar did not disperse as ordered but instead fought back, angrily remaining on the streets in front of the bar, growing in numbers, and chanting at the rough treatment of those arrested. The Stonewall Riots (sometimes referred to as the Stonewall Uprising) lasted for the next six days and included demonstrations that encompassed the surrounding blocks. This event is considered the beginning of the modern LGBT right movement. The buildings (today only no. 53 is the Stonewall Inn, an iteration that opened in 1993) are a part of the Greenwich Village Historic District, designated in 1969. In 2000 it was the first LGBT-related location to be named to the National Register of Historic Places and in 2015 an individual landmark designation was enacting, marking its cultural importance and making it the first landmark in New York City to be recognized on the basis of its status in LGBT history.

Former New York Bank for Savings Interior ARCHITECT: R. H. Robertson DATE: 1896-97 STYLE: Academic Classic The interior of the New York Savings Bank was built in the Academic Classic style popularized by the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893). The interior is intrinsically linked with the exterior, reflecting the exterior volume in the interior space. It is exceptional for its use marble, bronze, stained glass, and plaster. The engaged Corinthian columns and pilasters, coffered ceiling, the drum and dome possess fine ornamental detail.

367 Bleecker Street, ca. 1980.

"Southeast on Greenwich Avenue from Horatio Street on southwest side and 13th Street on northeast side to its southeastern terminus at Sixth Avenue, March 10, 1933." Designed by architect George F. Pelham in 1882, the building was constructed as studio apartments. The LPC Designation Report for Greenwich Village notes its "prow-like" shape at the narrow angled point between Greenwich Avenue and West 13th Street.

Doorway 204 West 13th Street, May 5, 1937. Somewhat strangely, this particular door on West 13th Street is the subject of photographs by two well-known American photographers. In 1931 Walker Evans captured the columned door frame of no. 204. Six years later, Berenice Abbott, under the auspices of the Federal Art Project, took a slightly wider framed shot. In the late 1920s through the early 1930s, the building at no. 204 was the home of Charles Seeger, American musicologist, composer, and father of folk singer Pete Seeger.

Photo, left: Ken Lustbader of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, Julius’ owner Helen Buford, Sip-In participant Randy Wicker, author/activist John Cameron Mitchell, Andrew Berman of Village Preservation, and State Senator Brad Hoylman; photo, right: Berman, Wicker, and the plaque.

Bell Telephone Laboratories Complex ARCHITECT: Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz; McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin; Warren B. Sanford; Richard Meier DATE: 1860-1903 STYLE: Neo-Classical 45-465 West Street, 137-169 Bank Street, 51-77 Bethune Street, and 734-754 Washington Street, Manhattan. Built c. 1860; 1896-1903, Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz, architect, Marc Eidlitz & Son, builder; 1924-26, McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin, architect, Tidewater Building Co., builder; 1929, Warren B. Sanford, engineer, Turner Construction Co., builder; 1931-34 alterations, Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, architect; and 1968-70 conversion, Richard Meier, architect. The Bell Telephone Laboratories Complex, occupying an entire city block in Manhattan’s Far West Village, is highly significant as the site of one of the world’s most prestigious telecommunications research organizations, where research work that resulted in many significant innovations and inventions was conducted, and later, as the first and largest publicly- and privately-funded artists’ housing project in the United States, as well as a pioneering large-scale industrial rehabilitation project. The Western Electric Co. built an office and factory building for telephone-related equipment (1896-1903) at 455-465 West Street, 149 Bank Street, and 734-742 Washington Street. After 1913, the building ceased as a manufacturing plant and was largely the headquarters of Western Electric’s Engineering Department. In 1925, it became Bell Telephone Laboratories for research and development for both the American Telegraph & Telephone Co. and Western Electric Co. After Bell Labs vacated the property in 1966, Roger L. Stevens, first chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, conceived of the complex as a pilot project of subsidized, affordable studio living quarters for artists, which was substantially supported and inaugurated by the J.M. Kaplan Fund. It was converted in 1968-70 into Westbeth Artists’ Housing, the first major work by architect Richard Meier, with 383 residential and work studio units, as well as gallery, performance, and commercial spaces, and a park.

The Metropolitan Temple (Methodist Episcopal) at the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 13th Street, December 22, 1932. The Collegiate Gothic church, designed by Louis E. Jallade, opened in September 1932. The Montréal-born architect moved to New York City in childhood, and later become the commander of the city's Twelfth Regiment of the New York Guard, which he first joined in 1914. Openly gay Reverend C. Edward “Ed” Egan, Jr. led the Metropolitan-Duane United Methodist Church from 1971 to 1977, when he was forced into early retirement because of his homosexuality. From 1973 to c. 1996, the church was the meeting location of the support group now known as PFLAG, the first such group in the world for parents of lesbian and gay children. Between 1974 and 1976, the church was also the first meeting location of the Salsa Soul Sisters, a black and Latina lesbian group. From c. 1977 to 1988, the church hosted services by the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, which was founded to minister to the LGBT community whose members were not welcome in most churches.

Herring Building, May 4, 1927. Built in 1849 for Silas Clark Herring, the building served as the headquarters of the Herring Lock and Safe Company. The metal "Salamander" safes sold by this company included innovative plaster-of-Paris lining technology, which purported to be fireproof. The neo-Grec, though more generally vernacular building, is five stories tall and is given its odd shape by the meeting of Ninth Avenue and Hudson Street at 14th Street. The northern section of the building, which gives it the shape that earned the moniker of "Little Flatiron" was actually an addition circa 1860. In the late 19th and early 20th century the building was home to variety of food related businesses, including grocers, saloons, restaurants, and at least one butcher. This address has been best known in the late 20th century, as the location of a series of well-known clubs, the most prominent being the basement BDSM Hellfire Club (1971-2002).

St. Vincent's Triangle, ca, 1976. The plan for a nurses' residence on this plot never came to be. The triangle was used as a community garden and greening-recycling center for many years. Sometime in the late 20th century, St. Vincent's built a low-rise, brick materials receiving center on a section of the plot. The hospital closed in 2010, and a park was planned through community review, and constructed by the development company as part of the hospital to residence conversion work. The park was given to the city in 2017. A year earlier the park was dedicated as the NYC AIDS Memorial Park. (The former hospital was the city's first and largest AIDS ward.) The new park includes an 18-foot steel canopy-shaped public memorial, "to honor New York City's 100,000+ men, women and children who have died from AIDS, and to commemorate and celebrate the efforts of the caregivers and activists."

In 1967, neo-Dada artist Robert Delford Brown performed one of his greatest pieces of all time, which he titled "The Great Building Crack-Up." The performance was meant to evoke a collision of the new and the old. The site of the performance was the elegantly designed brownstone by Beaux-Arts master Richard Morris Hunt. It was a meeting of Avant-garde minds between Brown and the architect Paul Rudolph. This is the story of a building that has lived many lives.

My Archive Summer 2019 “In the photo is a co-worker. It is from a series of photos I took between 1977 and 1982, while I was a worker in the market. I had just moved back to NYC in late '77. Getting the job here was just supposed to be a "pit- stop" until I figured out what I wanted to do. I wound up staying 8 years.” —Richard Ovaduke

555 Hudson Street, Manhattan (1842, attributed to John Cole) NYC HD From 1947 to 1968, this was the home of author, urban theorist and activist Jane Jacobs (1916-2006). While it is not certain that she wrote her 1961 seminal work “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” here, she did often reference her home in Greenwich Village while extolling the virtues of thriving urban settings with bustling sidewalks and small-scale, mixed-use buildings —like 555 Hudson. She wrote and spoke out against the then-rising practice of slum clearance and urban renewal, and was instrumental in the fight to save the South Village, SoHo and Little Italy from Robert Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway. Her work heavily influenced contemporary urban thought, despite urban planners who, at the time, criticized her lack of formal education. Today, her legacy is celebrated every May with Jane’s Walks — volunteer-led walking tours in urban neighborhoods — throughout the country. Photo by NYC Municipal Archives

One of New York’s most beloved and iconic landmarks, the Flatiron Building is known for (among other things) its unique shape. But of course, the corner of 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue isn’t the only place in Manhattan where streets intersect at quirky angles. In fact, the Village’s off-the-grid streets are full of them. More information can be found here.

Village Community Church, West 13th Street, ca. 1985. This temple-fronted Greek Revival church was built in 1846 as the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church. Mergers with nearby congregations led to a series of new names: Greenwich Presbyterian, Village Presbyterian, and the Village Community Church. In 1975, the church was sold to a residential developer, despite its inclusion in the Greenwich Village Historic District. It is now an apartment complex known as Portico Place.

David Christie House at 131 Charles Street, next door to the NYPD Sixth Precinct, 1928. Christie, a stonecutter, built this Federal style house in 1834. It retains many of its original features, including Flemish bond brickwork and wooden window frames. Left of the front steps is the alley door, leading to a small outbuilding at the rear of the lot. The photographer Diane Arbus lived in the that carriage house, now known as 131½ between 1957 and 1966.

The White Horse Tavern at Hudson and 11th (formerly Hammond) Streets, 1933. Opened in 1880, the White Horse became known as a hub for literary and “Bohemian” New Yorkers in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its notable patrons was Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet — and prodigious drinker — who was a frequent visitor right up until his death in 1953 (two days after he is said to have ordered eighteen whiskeys at the White Horse).

1 Little West 12th Street Many people know the restaurant Bagatelle located at 1 Little West 12th Street for their lavish brunch parties, where as one recent brunch reviewer stated “I’ve never seen so many bottles of Dom Perignon ordered in my life”. Bagatelle helped changed the face of NYC brunch in 2008 from a laid back Sunday afternoon meal to a party atmosphere featuring live DJ’s and $15,000 bottles of champagne. 1 Little West 12th Street was built in 1909 and is located in NYC’s Gansevoort Market Historic District. It is also part of the Gansevoort Market National Register Historic District. This building plays a role in several important aspects of NYC history including the famous Astor family, the meatpacking industry, and currently, the tech industry, which according to Bloomberg News is now NYC’s second largest industry, employing almost 300,000 people. According to the designation report, “This Arts and Crafts style building, which is largely intact, contributes to the historically mixed architectural character and varied uses – including market-related functions – of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Constructed in 1913, during one of the major phases of development of the area when storage- and market-related buildings continued to be constructed in the district, it further contributes to the visual cohesion of the district through its brick facade and metal canopy.” This property has a long and storied history. When built in 1913 by William Vincent Astor, a member of the prominent Astor family, the address was 5 Little West 12th Street, a.k.a. 2 Ninth Avenue. From 1913-1922 it served as a warehouse for the provisions firm of C. Percival, which was established in 1868, and according to the book History and Commerce of New York, published 1891, supplied “hotels, restaurants, and steamers on a large scale, as well as the general public, with pressed larding pork, breaded pig’s feet, sugar cured ham, bacon, pure lard, and provisions of a like description”. 1 Little West 12th was then owned by Ottman & Co. for use as a packaging and processing plant, with storage on one floor, and butchering and packaging on other floors. Ottman & Co. was owend and operated by Jacob “Jack” Ottman, descendant of Phillip of Philipp Ottmann & Company which was founded in 1859 and later renamed William Ottmann & Company (around 1876) of Fulton Market. William Ottmann & Company was sold around 1916 to rival Beinecke & Company, who were originally in the meatpacking business, and were also owners at the time of the Plaza Hotel. Note one of the n’s was dropped from the last name to work around a non-compete clause that was part of the sale of the original company. Ottman & Co., after a brief stint at 446-448 West 13th Street moved into part of the building in 1919, with C. Percival using the rest, and eventually bought the entire building along with the neighboring buildings 1 and 3 Little West 12th street, which Ottman & Co. had used as administrative offices. The former 1 Little West 12th Street was built in 1887 and was also known as the Middendorf building and housed Middendorf & Rohrs grocery company. The former 3 Little West 12th Street was built in 1918 and also housed the Middendorf & Rohrs company for many decades. The three buildings were sold in 1987 to Peter J. and Richard P. Kleinknecht, who ran Kleinknecht Electric Co. Inc. from the space. This company was founded in 1916, and is still “solving all of your electrical needs” from West 37th Street. In 1998 the property was sold to current owner William Gottlieb Real Estate. In 2011, after remaining vacant for over 10 years, once bricked over windows that shielded refrigerated spaces that were devoted to the production and storage of portion controlled frozen meats, were opened up to house new “boutique” office tenants WeWork, a company that leases office space to startups. Bagatelle moved into the ground floor space from a different Meatpacking District location in 2012.

Street & Smith Publishing is was one of the oldest publishing houses in the country. They can be credited with encouraging literacy en masse by churning out thousands of volumes of enticing and easy-to-read dime novels, pulp fiction books, comic books, and magazines. The company was founded in 1855 by Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith when the two revitalized a dying fiction magazine. Three short years later, they purchased the New York Weekly Dispatch and began growing their publishing empire. The house put forward novels in the following categories: adventure and sea stories, detective and mystery, romance, sci-fi, sports, westerns, and young adult fiction. They also published comic books including the likes of Jesse James, Buffalo Bill, and Nick Carter. Their weekly magazines included Popular Magazine, Pic, Charm, and Mademoiselle. Street & Smith ceased production of pulp fiction in 1949, largely due to increasing competition with television. The publishers turned their attention to their collection of magazines. The publisher was sold to Conde Nast for over 3.5 million dollars in 1957.

Workers lay pipe in a trench at the corner of West 11th Street and Greenwich Avenue; undated photo. In the early 1900s, the Monahan Express Company, an express mail courier service, operated from the ground floor and stables of No. 61-71 Greenwich Avenue, a former brewery also occupied by an industrial stamping company and a wine importer. In February 1907, a fire caused more that $100,000 of damage to the "old-time brewhouse." The fire-damaged building was eventually demolished ahead of construction for the Seventh Avenue Extension and the IRT Seventh Avenue subway line.

New York City is known for many things: Art Deco skyscrapers, picturesque parks, the world’s greatest theater district, venerable museums and educational institutions, not to mention bagels and pizza! But above all of these, New York is most important as home to some of the world’s most fascinating and significant people and as the site of impactful and significant happenings throughout history. The city’s cultural influence is, perhaps, its greatest contribution to the world, and its built environment stands as a grand scavenger hunt of clues waiting to be uncovered. Lucky for us, the city’s Landmarks Law, passed in 1965, provides the legal framework for protecting the physical reminders of the city’s cultural wealth. In fact, one of the stated purposes of the Landmarks Law is to “safeguard the city’s historic, aesthetic and cultural heritage.” In the first 50 years that landmarks were designated by the City, much emphasis was placed on the historic and aesthetic. In recent years, though, more consideration has been made for the importance of sites associated with people or historical events, rather than just for their architectural or historical value. In 2015, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Stonewall Inn as an Individual Landmark solely for its association with the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. In 2018, the Commission designated the Central Harlem—West 130th-132nd Streets Historic District, describing it as “not only representative of Central Harlem’s residential architecture, but the rich social, cultural, and political life of its African American population in the 20th century.” Also, in recent years, Greenwich Village’s Caffe Cino and Julius’ Bar were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as significant and influential sites connected to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBTQ) community, The New York Times profiled a historian giving tours of Muslim sites of significance in Harlem, and the City is commemorating some of our most storied and accomplished female citizens with the installation of statues in all five boroughs. Indeed, grassroots preservation activism around the city is also swelling around sites of cultural significance: Tin Pan Alley and Little Syria in Manhattan, Walt Whitman’s house in Brooklyn, Arthur Avenue in The Bronx and a recently-rediscovered African burial ground in Queens, to name a few. In response to this movement of interest in cultural landmarks, the Historic Districts Council undertook an initiative to highlight such places as one of its Six to Celebrate in 2018. The culmination of that effort was a conference in October 2018 entitled “Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Rethinking Sites of Cultural History.” The conference convened preservationists, historians, artists, planners, place-makers and more to work together to clarify what cultural significance is and how it can work, how to document and create compelling narratives around cultural sites, and how to identify the specific challenges of cultural sites from a preservationist perspective. This tour provides just a sample of some of the city’s cultural landmarks, organized thematically and representing all five boroughs. The list includes some sites that are legally protected — in some cases by more than one government body — and some that are unfortunately in danger of being lost. Preserving culturally significant sites that may not possess overtly aesthetic value often requires a particularly active and engaged form of advocacy to achieve protection from the wrecking ball. But, as long as there are interesting people making their mark on New York City and crucial events taking place here, that effort will never be in vain, since those stories are the lifeblood of this vibrant place.

New York Savings Bank ARCHITECT: R. H. Robertson DATE: 1896-97 The New York Savings Bank, built in two sections in 1896-97, has a significant place in the architectural and cultural history of New York City. It was designed by the well-known architect R. H. Robertson and is one of his most successful designs because of its scale, choice of materials, and relation to the two major thoroughfares on which it is situated. Its Eighth Avenue portico, the 14th Street elevation of pedimented bay and westernmost three windows, the wall clock, cornice and cresting, the drum and the dome comprise fine ornamental detail. Its materials–granite, marble, bronze and copper–and the workmanship these represent are exceptional.

The National Maritime Union Dormitory and Training Center (1967) on 9th Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets is another of Albert Ledner’s commissions for the National Maritime Union. With over 100 porthole windows and a white, tiled, sloping façade, the dormitory adheres to Ledner’s playful modernist aesthetic in the nearby National Maritime Union Building . In 1987, the National Maritime Union sold the Dormitory and Training Center to Covenant House for use as a runaway shelter and education facility. Over the next two decades, the building experienced a string of bad luck that would tarnish the architectural integrity of the complex: in the late-80s New York Mayor Ed Koch sought to condemn the building and turn it into a prison and then, in the mid-90s a street-level renovation interrupted the sloped façade and added a faux-brownstone city block. Fortunately, adaptive reuse projects have restored its architectural integrity. The Dream Hotel, designed by Handel Architects, added a new Ledner-inspired façade to a portion of the building while retaining the porthole window motif. The Maritime Hotel, a portion of the Dormitory and Training Center rehabilitated in 2003 by Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson, painstakingly recreates elements of the original design and adds details such as nautical teak paneled rooms.

Village Presbyterian Church ca. 1985 The simulation of stone in wood required that the carpenters produce absolutely flat, smooth surfaces for parts of the entablature and for the back of the pediment. Where these surfaces were not properly maintained and kept painted, the whole illusion was lost. In this hexastyle Doric church it was apparently not deemed necessary to return the entablature beyond the depth of the portico, as this was not a corner site.

April 13, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Museum occupied two temporary buildings before opening its permanent location in Central Park in 1880. When it first opened to the public, The Met was located in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Douglas Mansion became The Met’s second home from 1873 to 1879, situated at 128 West 14th Street. Since opening its permanent home on Fifth Avenue, the building has expanded greatly, and various additions now surround the original structure. These images chronicle the early decades of The Met’s 150-year history.

American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute ARCHITECT: William A. Boring DATE: 1907-08 STYLE: Neo-Classical This building was constructed in 1907-08 to the handsome neo-Classical style design of architect William A. Boring. The American Seaman’s Friend Society, established in New York City in 1828, was one of a number of nineteenth-century religious organizations concerned with improving the social and moral welfare of seamen throughout the U.S. and abroad. After the luxury liner Titanic sank in 1912, surviving crew members received care here.

New York Savings Bank moved into the basement of this four-story bank building in 1857. Over the next few decades, the bank prospered and became more visible when it moved into the first-floor space. In 1896 the New York Savings Bank demolished this structure and commissioned a new building on the same site.

79 Eighth Avenue, ca. 1980. One of two landmark banks on this corner, the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building was constructed in 1907 to the designs of De Lemos & Cordes. Created in the model of the "City Beautiful" movement, which postulated that beautiful civic and commercial buildings could promote moral and civic virtue among urban populations, the architects produced a stately, classical building that has enured more than a century.

The Carey Lithograph Company building, to the west of elevated railroad track construction, 1933. Following the demolition of buildings along Washington Street to make way for elevated tracks, the Carey building was the only structure in the square block bounded by West, Gansevoort, Washington, and Horatio Streets not owned by the Manhattan Refrigerating Company.

299 West 12th Street ca. 1932 Built in 1929-31, this 16-story apartment house is clad in multi-colored brick set in Flemish bond creating an interesting texture to the exterior. Randomly cut and placed stones of varying colors are placed at the window and door openings and at the corners of the building. Along with 59 West 12th Street, this was one of two collaborations between Emery Roth and the development team of Bing & Bing and exemplified the elegant interwar style of New York apartment building for which both came to be known.

New York Savings Bank, ca. 1921. The New York Savings Bank has occupied the northwest corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue since the middle of the 19th century. By the turn of the century the bank deemed themselves in need of a new building. Robert Henderson Robertson designed a white marble Roman temple topped by a striking copper dome. The building, which remained a bank through the 1960s, was designated an exterior and interior landmark in 1988. As such each of its ensuing tenants (including a carpet shop, grocery store, and currently CVS) have has to abide by the rules governing interior landmarks (such as not attaching anything to walls or floors).

New York Port Authority building, 1937. 111 Eighth Avenue is an enormous building which takes up the entire block between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and 15th and 16th Streets. It is 2.9 million square feet and was the largest building in the city until 1963. Built in 1932 in the Art Deco style and designed by Lusby Simpson, the mammoth building was original constructed to be multi-use, with the first floor and basement used for the movement of goods by truck under the auspices of the Port Authority, and the upper floors used for manufacturing. With changing transportation and the dwindling of railroad freight in Manhattan, the original trucking functions of the building were largely abandoned by the mid 1940s. The building served as the headquarters of the Port Authority from the 1940s until the WTC opened in 1970. Since 2010 the building has been owned by Google (they paid a reported $1.9 billion), though other companies continue to rent space, including Nike and Bank of New York.

Grocery store at the corner of Christopher and Bleecker Streets, June 18, 1936. One of Greenwich Village’s oldest buildings, this corner store was built as a grocery in 1802. Its top floor was reputedly the office of the commission that laid out the 1811 grid plan for the development of Manhattan Island. The structure was itself a victim of urban planning: in 1828, when a bend in Bleecker Street was eliminated to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic across Christopher Street, the store lost 20 feet of its width. Abbott’s photograph shows the brick wall, extending behind and above the old clapboard structure, which marks the building’s truncation. The grocery was run by a single owner for 25 years and remained remarkably unchanged until 1997. It is currently under renovation as a pizza shop.

Throughout the years many artists have called Greenwich Village home. This collection highlights the writers of Greenwich Village.

Music is an integral part of the cultural legacy and impact of our neighborhoods! In March 2019 we explored the iconic music venues and punk meccas of the East Village through East Village Building Blocks. Today we’re venturing west into the Greenwich Village Historic District for another musical tour.