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Jane
Street History
"Authors' Row"
Greenwich Village, New York City
1969 - 2011
By
Warren Allen Smith
(Listed in Contemporary Authors,
he moved to Jane Street in 1990)
In 1969 “The Greenwich Village Historic District Designation
Report” was published. At that time August Heckscher was
Administrator, Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs
Administration; Harmon H. Goldstone was Chairman of the
Landmarks Preservation Commission; and John V. Lindsay was the
Mayor. The study focused on New York City's designated Historic
District, which included Jane Street from Greenwich Avenue only
to Washington, not to West Street. At that time, two garages and
several businesses were on the street, and an electrical
substation had been remodeled as an apartment building.
In earlier days, it is believed that a cow path (rather than a
cobblestone road) led to the Jaynes (or Jayne) farm, where
tobacco was grown in the area. The street’s name might have been
altered from Jaynes or Jayne to Jane by a Villager, Mrs. Jane
Gahn. Or below is another possibility, found in September 2008:
Later along the street one could find carriage houses,
coachmen’s quarters, stables, and a stoneyard. At one time,
according to centenarian Jean Verral in
2008, who once was an editor for pulp magazines such as Police
Blotter, silent movies were shown for a time in a
lot at the corner of Jane and Washington Street (site of a small
garage owned by painter Jasper Johns in partnership with Julian
Lethbridge that is
adjacent to the Furniture Store on Washington. If a movie were
to be shown on any day, a red light announced it. No red
light, no movie!
First, some views of the 5-block-long Jane Street,
which The New York Times
once described as having more published authors of books per
block than any other place in the city, leading some to call
the street "authors' row."
Looking west from 31 Jane to the Hudson River
Looking east from 31 Jane to Greenwich Avenue
Jane
Street, known as an exclusive address in the West Village, is
seen in the lower right of the following photo taken by Scott
Casazza from an August 2010 helicopter ride.
For
example, 61 Jane is the left of the two brown buildings right
of center, and 31 Jane is between the tall light-colored
Standard Hotel near the Hudson River and the now
closed
St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Below is
a close-up of the area, showing 2 and 12 Horatio Street; the
old RCA Institutes of radio engineering; the former St.
Vincent’s Hospital; and 31 Jane Street,
between
the Gansevoort Hotel and the Standard Hotel (atop the new High
Line). Aerial photo was taken by Scott Casazza of Jane Street.
Of the
two tall buildings left of center, below, 31 Jane is the one
on the right.
The
picture was taken from the roof of 61 Jane.
Jane
Street is in the west part of Manhattan's Greenwich
Village. As the map shows, it is only five blocks long,
from Greenwich Avenue to the Hudson River. (Using the
blue tube at the bottom, you can extend the map.)
That 1961 map by famed cartographer Lawrence Fahey is
courtesy of Janestreeter Cindy Niedoroda. Where 31 Jane
now is formerly was the Greenwich Village Humane League.
The house where Hamilton died is shown on the wrong side of
the street.
Gone nearby are the Greenwich Theatre, Loew's Sheridan, bars
such as Frisco's and Jack Barry's, the Sea Colony Restaurant,
Food Trades High School (now the gay center), the Bank Street
College of Education, etc. (It's a wide picture - adjust
the screen to stretch over beyond 6th Avenue.)
For further details about the map, see the very ending of the
present website.
•
The following facts are from the 1969 “Greenwich Village
Historic District Designation Report,” cited above.
[Comments
by the present author added after 2003 are in brackets.
All photos were taken by the author in November 2003.]
•
#1 The Archbishopric of New York hired
architect Charles Kreymborg to build a simple six-story brick
apartment here in 1938-1939. The structure replaced a late
Federal house at the corner of Jane and Greenwich, in addition
to the two town houses next to it on the Greenwich Avenue side.
[Entrance to the Soy Luck
restaurant is on Greenwich Avenue.]
#2 A six-story apartment building, it is one
that features rounded bay windows at the corner. It was erected
in 1903 and replaced houses built in 1842 for the DeKlyn Estate.
[Benny’s Burritos, a
restaurant on the left, below, has its entrance on Greenwich
Avenue.]
#4-8 The three Greek Revival brick houses,
each three stories high, were built for speculative purposes in
1843 by the heirs of Leonard DeKlyn, a merchant who had
purchased the land. Dr. David M. Halliday, whose wife Mary was a
DeKlyn, owned #4. Buildings #6 and #8 retain their original
appearance.
[When the warehouse at 247
West 12th caught fire in 1922, #8 Jane was damaged and two
firemen died in the fire.]
#5 & 7 Robert J. Gray,
a machinist, erected these early apartment buildings in 1871.
#9 The four-story building was erected in
1844 as an investment for Walter H. Mead,
a tinsmith. An arched gateway affords access to a three-story
house (#9 1/2) built in 1854.
#10-14 At this site was a six-story garage
that extended through to 247-251 West 12th St.
[It was called the Castle
Garage, had been built in 1910 as a warehouse to store
paper, rubber products, whiskey, and photographer’s flash
powder. The structure supposedly was fire-resistant, but
Terry Miller’s Greenwich Village and How It Got That Way
(Crown, 1990), describes how it burned for five days and
nights, exploding when whiskey or flash powder caught fire.
The garage was replaced by condominiums, and the Jane Street
side was closed.]
#11-19 In 1921 a two-story garage was
erected for the New York Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Formerly it had been the site of the Jane Street
Methodist Episcopal Church, which had established itself here
in the mid-1840s. Two 3-story townhouses once stood at each
side of the lot.
[The name of the present
garage is Value Management Corporation. Adjacent is P. E.
Guerin Bronze Manufacturers and on the corner of 4th Street
and Jane is the 18-story Rembrandt co-op, 31 Jane Street.]
#16 A five-story apartment house, it was
designed originally in 1887 for Robert Dick
and completely altered in 1939. Two Tony Sarg
murals, just inside the entrance door, decorate the entrance
hall.
[Tony Sarg (1880-1942), who
lived at #16, was a producer of puppet shows and with his wife
Margo creator of “Howdy Doody.” One of his students was Bill
Baird. Part of one of the murals was saved when the entrance
was re-painted, but a later change eliminated Sarg's work.
Following is his "Fish Footman," described by one person as
"almost too proud to speak to anyone," from a 1930 production
of "Wonderland."]
[Dr. Andrew S. Dolkart of
Columbia University's School of Architecture wrote the
following for the school's 13 July 1940 publication.
Note that in 1940 rentals at 16-18 Jane Street for 1 1/2 and 2
1/2 room apartments were $45 and $60 per month.]
#20 Originally a five-story house built in
1872 for Charles Guntzer,
the building’s stores at either side of the entrance were
converted to apartments in 1952.
A
former resident of 20 Jane, Reynold Weidenaar, reports that
the building is better described as "a 5-story tenement with
ground-floor stores. It was very much a classic low-end
tenement, with tiny interior bedrooms that had windows only to
the hallways. The census records for 1880 listed names and
occupations of the occupants -- there were 17 families, nearly
60 people, living in the building. All the adults were
immigrants. No indoor toilets before 1900. There was a 5-seat
"school sink" privy in the back yard. Not an easy life."
#21-25 The building was erected in 1868 for
the Bronze Works Manufacturing Company.
[The name of the present
business is P. E. Guerin Bronze Manufacturers.]
#22 The two-story-high building was erected
in 1868 for Calvin Demarest
and served originally as a stable with living quarters for the
coachman on the second floor.
#24 & 26 Two five-story stone buildings
were erected in 1885-1886 for two brothers, James and Isaac
Lowe, who lived here.
#28 The one-story building was erected
originally in 1913-1914 and altered by the addition of a rear
extension in 1921 for Charles Fitzpatrick.
[Leo Design Studio
occupies part of the ground floor.]
#30 Formerly a stable with living quarters
above, the small two-story structure was occupied for a number
of years by a printer. Linus Scudder, who built other houses
in the Village, constructed it in 1870.
[The Gottleib Corporation
owns the building, in which is a food catering business.]
[He also built five brownstones at 32-40 East 58th Street,
where Jay Lewin, Esq.,
and his siblings were born and raised.]
#31 In 1959, The
Rembrandt, a seventeen-story apartment house
(42-46 8th Avenue) was built by the Irman Realty
Company and occupies
the corner site on 8th Avenue. The main entrance is at 31
Jane. The co-op rents space to a store and a dry cleaner on
the 8th Avenue side. A Russian-born sculptor who had studied
in Paris, Gleb W. Derujinsky,
resided here and became known for his busts of Lilian
Gish, Mrs.
Henry Hammond, and Theodore
Roosevelt.
“This eighteen-story apartment house . . . represents a
breaking away from the scale, the quality, and the beauty that
we have come to associate with The Village. The windows are
still articulated as individual entities but are already being
grouped in ever-larger multiples unrelated to anything which
adjoins the building. This block, with its three tiny houses
flanked by apartment houses, is an example of the fate
awaiting The Village if such new construction is permitted
without any preliminary review of its design."
[Novelist and member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters Ed Hoagland lived here,
as did Robert McKinley,
an eminent maker of dolls, who died here in 1994. Adjacent to
31 Jane Street is 21-25, the P. E. Guerin Bronze Manufacturers
building.]
#32 In 1829, Richard Cromwell,
a merchant, purchased this and the adjoining properties
(331-327 West 4th) from David Bogert.
His building had an English basement entrance but now retains
little of its original character and has been completely
smooth-stuccoed.
#33 This three-story building faces both on
Jane Street and on Eighth Avenue (#31). Built for Alfred A.
Milner five years
earlier than #35, it has been completely altered and
smooth-stuccoed.
#34 A corner house (331 West 4th St.) was
originally built in 1828. The one-story extension at the rear
was a later 19th century addition, replacing a stable at the
back of the lot.
[A bar, the Corner
Bistro, has its entrance on 4th Street. Across the
street on the corner of 8th Avenue is a delicatessen, 38
Market, which went out of business in 2003. Cater-cornered
across the street at 31 Eighth Avenue, which has an entrance
partly on Jane, the Tavern on Jane was the setting of a
feature film, The Tavern.]
Jane
Street Looking west toward the Bistro and 4th Avenue
The
Corner Bistro, which many swear has the best burgers in the
city.
Jane
Street looking eastward toward Greenwich Avenue.
31 Jane is on the left and the Corner Bistro is on the right.
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Above,
Jane Street looking eastward -
the triangle where
West 4th Crosses Jane Street
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In
the mid-1950s, the site was 42 Eighth Avenue. On the
corner was the Greenwich Village Humane League and a
thrift shop. Halfway down the block, with a canopy, is
the Seascape (possibly the earliest gay business in
the Village.
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[#31 Eighth Avenue The Tavern on Jane is operated by
Horton Foote Jr., whose father is the Academy Award
screenwriter of To Kill a Mockingbird
and Tender Mercies.
The corner building can be entered with one foot on Jane and
the other on Eighth Avenue.]
#35 Here is a four-story house built in 1847
for Alfred A. Milner,
a baker. Later it was remodeled as a store. Sculptor Abron
Ben-Schmuel lived here
in the mid-1930s.
[In 1943, the first co-op art gallery in Manhattan formed
here. During its seven years of existence, the
Jane Street Gallery
was dominated by Hyde Solomon, Nell Blaine, Judith Rothschild,
Leland Bell, Louisa Matthiasdottir, Ida Fischer, Larry Rivers,
and Albert Kresch (at 80 and now a resident in Brooklyn, the
only survivor in 2009). A 2003 Times article by Grace
Glueck described the group as "a cozy, bonded group,
almost equals in age, with cocksure opinions about what art
should be," and they designed the sets for Lorca's If Five
Years Pass
at the Provincetown Playhouse. . . . Bonsignor, a pastry shop,
is at this address now.]
#36 [At
this un-numbered site,
the Jane Street Garden in 1973 was begun by members of
the Jane Street Block Association. The lot had been owned by
St. Vincent’s Hospital. The garden was started on what was a
burned area of land. In 1975, after a developer bought the
site and was denied permission by the Landmarks Commission to
build, the city took over the property and charged the Jane
Street Block Association to use it. When the association
became unable to pay, it was turned over to the West Village
Committee, which negotiated a new lease and has cultivated and
cared for the garden through volunteer labor and
contributions. It contains two varieties of crabapple trees; a
range of roses; and shrubs such as dogwood, firethorn, crape
myrtle, yew, hydrangea, smoke tree, rose of Sharon, boxwood,
jasmine nudiflorum, red bud, Chinese and American holly. Its
flowers include violets, narcissus, tulips, bleeding heart,
columbine, peonies, alyssum, lilies, foxglove, mint, astilbe,
iris, hosta, dahlias, hollyhocks, and asters. . . . At the
Jane Street Fair in 1999, baseballer Sandy Koufax visited one
weekend, but equally noted celebrities are and have been
full-time residents. . . . .Since 1988, Billy Romp, a tree
farmer from Shoreham, Vermont, has sold Christmas trees on the
corner. Christmas on Jane Street (1998) describes his, his
wife Patti’s, and their three children’s annual trips to
Greenwich Village. Sleeping in their tiny camper parked
nearby, they became known as “the tree people.”]
[Patricia Fieldsteel,
writing from Nyons, France, has some different details.
She described the birth of the Jane St. Garden in The Villager
(16-22 May, 2007), for she lived in the Village in 1969 when
the garden's site was occupied by 3-story Greek Revival
Buildings on 8th Avenue. In 1975 the plot now known as
"36 Jane St., Block 625, Lot 34" was bought at auction by a
novice real estate developer, 26-year-old Gregory Aurre Jr. of
West 12th, who hired architect Stephen Lepp to design a
4-story combined apartment/commercial building for the
site. Jane Streeters charged that it was not in keeping
with the street, and rumor had it that the building was to be
a high-class brothel. On May 12th, a workman sent by
Aurre entered the garden and dug it up. An angry crowd
led by Jean Verral arrived
to help save what had not been destroyed. Ultimately
Landmarks rejected Aurre's proposal, and the city rented it to
the Jane Street Block Association for between $6,000 and
$10,000 a year. In 1977, Aurre pleaded guilty as part of
a 24-count federal indictment for participation in an
unrelated banking conspiracy in which he obtained $160,000 in
fraudulent loans between 1973 and 1975 - he was sentenced to
prison. . . . The garden then was replanted and a landscape
designer re-did the area ("Pamela R. Berdan, a creative,
talented visionary but nonetheless a bit of a witch").
An old-fashioned Dutch windmill was built in the garden by
Evan and Arthur Stoliar, and a Dutch theme coinciding with the
visit of a Dutch princess was planned at the 3rd annual Jane
Street Fair, 9 October 1982. According to Fieldsteel,
when the limousine disgorged the princess and Mayor Ed Koch
spotted "the lone, bewildered princess across the street, [he]
ran to her rescue, yelling "Here, Princess! Here,
Princess!", she nodded graciously, and he escorted her to the
dais. The festival netted $20,000. . . . Bill Bower and
the West Village Committee are credited with obtaining a
25-year lease at $40/year to maintain the space as a community
garden. Bower and Berdan, who had worked together on the
St. Vincent's Hospital garden, did not continue working
happily. He held the keys and locked Berdan out.
With two escorts, Berdan was permitted to remove plants she'd
put in at her own expense. . . . The street at one time was
adopted by an individual calling himself "The Friendly
Neighborhood Poet," or as he said, "poyt," and he accepted
remuneration for bringing "poytry" to the area (until he was
found to be selling items with neighbors' Social Security
Numbers on them and was reported to the Sixth Precinct.
Sleeping beneath the windmill, however, and not noticing that
it had caught fire, he escaped the fire but was escorted to
Rikers . . . and the damaged windmill was torn
down. Fieldsteel's article is filled with other memories
that Janestreeters will not want to overlook.]
Where
Jane Street crosses 8th Avenue and continues westward to the
Hudson River
#37 & 39 Here was an electrical
substation building erected in 1924 by and for the Edison
Electric Illumination Company.
It was an addition to its building at 30-32 Horatio Street and
stands on the site of a church erected in 1836, one occupied
by successive Presbyterian church groups, first by the village
Presbyterian Church,
then the Jane Street Church,
and finally the Fifth Associate Reformed
Presbyterian Church. In
1966-1967 it was remodeled as an apartment house, the upper
floors of which have central triple windows flanked by single
windows.
Jane
Street looking west, the former electrical substation now
apartments on the right
#38-40 Here are three-story houses built in
1845 for John Marsh of Mendham, NJ.
#41 & 43 These two five-story apartment
houses were built in 1888 for Robert Dick. The cornices reflect
the influence of the Queen Anne style popular at his period.
#42-50 Here is a fine row of Greek Revival
houses, all built on land which was sold by the estate of
Richard Townley in 1845 and dates from 1846. People who lived
there were Ira Crane, a mason, at #44; Thomas Crane, who owned a
granite company, at #46; and Gustavus A. Conover, a builder, at
#48.
#45 The number was not used in the present
numbering system.
[Patricia Fieldsteel, writing from France in The Villager
(12-18 December 2007), described in detail what she remembers
while living in “a studio on the parlor floor, that had
4-foot-by-8-foot windows looking south on Jane between Eighth
Avenue and Hudson Street.” Click
here for the article (with information about
homelessness, transgendered hookers, crickets, cicadas,
mockingbirds, etc.)].
#47 & 49 These two four-story brick
town houses were built in 1837-1839 for Alexander Mactier, a
merchant and a large property owner in the neighborhood. A
fourth story was added to #49 after 1858. In 1870 the front of
#47 was extended forward for J. W. Johnston. Both houses were
altered in the 20th century to provide basement entrances.
#51 Here is a five-story building built in
1870 for William H. Aldrich, owner-architect
#52 & 54 It is likely that in 1848
Gustavus A. Conover, who had purchased the land and paid the
taxes, built #52, a simplified version of the Gothic Revival
style. In 1851, #54 was built for an agent of the Merchants
Exchange, John M. Patterson.
[In 1997 #52 was renovated
with a 400 square foot addition.]
[The following was received
5 June 2007 from David Broad, who now is professor and head of
the psychology and sociology department at North Georgia
College and State University:
I
lived at 52 Jane from 1958 to 1967 while I attended
Southerland Junior High (Hudson and Grove), Stuyvesant H.S.
(345 E. 15th St) and NYU (Washington Square). My mother,
Frances Wegner, was a newspaper reporter for the Long Island
Star-Journal and Long Island Press. My stepfather, Lloyd
Wegner, was a photographer. He was friends with Leon
Seidel who owned the Lion's Head Tavern, and Cora Wright who
was a columnist for Popular Photography.
They were like my uncle and aunt.
My mother wrote a short story that was published (New
Yorker?)
called "Mrs. Manowich and the Cats," about our neighbor at 50
Jane who fed about twenty cats in her yard every day.
They all gathered at the appointed hour of the feeding, and it
was quite a spectacle. The tag-line was, of course, that
they kept coming for weeks after she died.
Thanks for the website, with so many heart-warming images for
me.]
#53 & 55 These three-story brick houses
were built in 1846 for George Schott,
a tobacconist who also owned 624 and 636 Hudson Street around
the corner.
[In the original 1971
movie, Shaft,
Shaft’s apartment was at #55.]
#56 A four-story corner house, it was
erected in 1852 for Leonard Appleby.
#57 The building was built for George
Schott in 1846.
[Mi Cocina, a restaurant
that went out of business in 2008, had its entrance on
Hudson Street.]
#58-66 The five brick Greek Revival
residences were erected in 1848-1849 by Stacey
(Stacy) Pitcher, a
mason at 117 Crosby Street, as a part of his development of
the block. #62 and 64 have fine craftsmanship and design of
the ironwork of their hand railings at the stoops. The stair
rails are wrought iron with castings set between the vertical
spindles. #62 displays square openwork panels of wrought iron
that make the transition from the stair hand railings to the
more widely spaced railings of the landing itself. #62 retains
its original wrought iron areaway railing with modified Greek
Revival fret design at the base. #64 has ornamental
latticework cast iron porch at its landing and respects the
design of the original ironwork. The stone basement of this
three-unit row is handsomely rusticated.
[Greenwich
Cleaners Inc. is now at #66, its entrance being on
Greenwich Street.]
#59 This number is not used in the present
numbering system, but at the site was a bricked-up doorway,
which once served as the rear entrance to 624 Hudson Street.
#59-63 A huge nineteen-story apartment house
was erected in 1962-1964. At one time seven houses stood here
facing Hudson. “The Cezanne
rises to a height of 19 stories. Built in 1962-1964, it has
not attempted to band or streamline the windows horizontally
in the manner which was so unusual in the 1930s and carried
over to the 1950s. The windows, which have wood sash, are
grouped in twos and threes and, in the wider grouping of
threes, a picture window is inserted in the middle. More
attention to neighborhood fenestration might, at no extra
cost, have produced a more compatible building.”
[When The New Republic
published his first story, writer John Cheever (1912-1982)
was a teenage dropout who lived on the corner where #61 now
is. Guitarist-singer Jimi Hendrix; actor Brad Midnight
Express
Davis; and Limelight Cafe operator Helen Gee once lived here.]
The
Cezanne
Cobblestone
Road on the way from 61 Jane to the Hudson River
#65-67 A charming courtyard with a simple
wrought iron railing; it is the entranceway for #809-813
Greenwich Street.
[It now is an entranceway
to the Greenwich Street houses only by way of Jane Street.]
#68 A seven-story factory and loft building,
it was designed in the tradition of McKim, Mead & White
(architects of the New York Herald Building and the Boston
Public Library) by David H. King Jr. It was built in 1897
for Helene M. Cavarello. “Although not in character with the
residences in the area, this is an unusually fine commercial
structure and set a standard for this area which was never
surpassed.”
[Its entranceway now is on
Greenwich Street. Calvin Trillin, among others,
remembers the Eclair baking factory that was here.]
#69 Where once a two-story corner house with a
rear lot and a stable once stood, now there is a parking lot at
the corner of Jane and Greenwich streets.
[It now is a design studio adjacent to the Furniture Company,
with an entrance on Greenwich Street. Painter Jasper Johns in
partnership with Julian Lethbridge owns the garage, a workshop
on the corner. According to the street’s oldest resident, Jean
Verral,
silent movies were sometimes shown in that vacant lot.]
#70-80 The six brick Italianate residences
here are similar architecturally, but the house at #80 was built
in 1849 while the remaining five were erected in 1855. The row
was built for Joseph Harrison, a merchant and real estate
speculator.
#71-81 The six brick Greek Revival residences
here were developed in 1846-1847 by Peter Van Antwerp, an
attorney at 33 Pine Street who resided at #75. The other houses
were built as residences for two lumber merchants, William
Foster (#73) and William Dunning (#79); and a planer, Daniel D.
Clark (#71). Stephen H. Williams (#81), a carpenter-builder at
105 Bank Street, likely planned and built this row.
[Alexander Hamilton died at
a physician’s home near but closer to the middle of the area
between #81 Jane and Horatio Street. Someone named Jaynes is
said to have built a house at 81 Jane in 1750, but it was torn
down in 1800.]
#80 1/2, 82 Built in 1886, the pair of
five-story brick apartment houses tower over the nearby
buildings. The architect was M. Louis Ungerich for John Totten.
#82 Jane Street contains a plaque (below) that claims Alexander
Hamilton died here.
[A plaque installed in 1936
at #82 erroneously states that Alexander Hamilton died here in
1804 after his fatal duel across the Hudson River in Weehawken
with Aaron Burr. He had been brought, still alive but
paralyzed from the waist down, to the William Bayard House,
close to but not specifically at #81 Jane, except that the
street then was curved in the direction of Horatio Street.
According to Greenwich Village and How It Got That Way, by
Terry Miller, the William Bayard House never stood at #82 but,
instead, was “just below the present Gansevoort Street. . .
close to the present Horatio Street—possibly even in its path,
as Horatio wasn’t mapped until 1817 or opened until 1835.”]
[Al Trojanowicz (63-56 75 Street, Middle Village, NY 11379
altz@earthlink.net), retired Fire Department New York marine
historian, writes that a resident of 82 Jane Street was John
J. Harvey. Harvey was pilot of the FDNY fireboat Thomas
Willett known as Engine Co. 86 and berthed at Pier 53,
Bloomfield Street. On 2/11/1930 he operated the Willett
at the fire aboard the North German Lloyd liner Muenchen
berthed at Pier 42, Morton Street.
http://www.fireboat.org/history/jjh.asp
As a result of explosions
aboard Muenchen, the fireboat alongside was severely damaged,
some firemen were injured, and John J. Harvey was
killed. It is notable that he was stationed and was
killed near his Jane Street home. The new fireboat
completed the following year was named for Harvey. It is
no longer owned by FDNY but has been preserved and is on the
National Register.]
The
fireboat John J. Harvey
#83 Robert H. Bayard
in 1853-1854 had this four-story brick residence built. It is
Anglo-Italianate in style, with an English basement. The house
is crowned by an Italianate cornice with vertically placed,
paired console brackets and paneled fascia.
[Gay historian Jonathan
Ned Katz and MacArthur Fellow Alan Berube once lived here.]
#84 & 86 Built in 1858 in the local
vernacular of the period, the two brick houses were originally
only two stories in height but later another story was added.
#86 retains its stoop, which is enhanced by a simple iron hand
railing. Both residences, erected for Samuel D. Chase
as part of a row of three, are crowned by bracketed Italianate
cornices of identical design.
#85-87 A low two-story brick building, it
was erected after the middle of the 19th century on the site
of a former stone yard. In 1885, the two original houses were
altered to a stable and carriage house. It now serves as a
garage and factory building.
[At the site now is Pro
Piano, which rents upright and grand pianos.]
#88-90 Replacing a row house at #88 and a
stable at #90, this one-story 1919 brick structure serves as a
warehouse and garage for the building on the corner, #94 Jane
Street.
[#88 is now a four-story
building owned by the 88-90 Jane Street Corporation.
Composer David Diamond once lived here.]
#89-93 Built in 1919 as a one-story garage,
this brick building was raised to two stories in the early
1960s.
[#89 is now a studio
belonging to Industria
Superstudio, a commercial photography company at 775
Washington Street.]
#92 Italianate in style, this three-story
house with basement is all that remains of several houses built
in 1858 for John B. Walton.
Looking
eastward from Washington Street, showing a cobblestone road in
need of repairs
#94 The corner two-story brick industrial
structure was erected in 1948.
[The entrance to a
commercial photography company is on 777 Washington Street.]
#95 A three-story vernacular structure with a
completely incoherent design, it was erected in 1849 as a
residence. “A one-story extension at the rear of the lot was a
later addition. Not the slightest effort was made to reconcile
window sizes to each other or to relate them to the large door.
The building serves a useful purpose in the community but, at no
extra cost, the varied window sizes might, in the hands of a
skillful designer, have been made exceptionally attractive,
befitting its location in an Historic District.”
[The building, once listed
as Moore’s Wholesale Meats, has been boarded up and not in use
for years. In November 2003, however, it has been completely
renovated. Across the street, buildings on the corner were
taken down in 2009, and new ones will be built.
#97 - 99
[A public park with a small waterfall is now at #99, between
Washington and West streets. It is gated in the evenings.]
#99 [An eleven-story luxury building with
175 units of 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom apartments, #99 was
completed in 1999 by architects Fox
and Fowle.]
#100 [An eight-story apartment building,
#100 is operated by 100 Jane Street Lic.]
#101 – 109 [A garage at this site extended
through the block to 100-108 Horatio Street. In 1986 the
Horatio Street side was demolished, according to The
Architecture of The Greenwich Village Waterfront
(NYU Press, 1989).]
#111 [A six-story apartment building, #111
is operated by Jane Street Condo.]
#113 - 115 [Originally the Seamen’s
Institute of the American Seamen’s Friend Society (1910),
according to Stuart Waldman in Maritime Mile (2002), it had an
octagonal tower that housed a beacon light. Later, it became
Jane West Hotel and is now called Hotel Riverview. First
described as a home-away-from-home “for seamen of all ranks
and all nationalities visiting the Port of New York” and “a
temporary refuge for “seamen in distress,” in 1912 it housed
surviving crew members of The Titanic. It is a six-story hotel
that includes on the ground floor, where the hotel’s formal
ballroom once was, The Jane Street Theatre, which seats 280
and has a small balcony.]
[In 2008, the old Hotel Riverview was remodeled and became The
Jane.]
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A first-rate New
York Times article (19 July 2009) by Christopher Gray
contains 16 online photos of the old and the new Jane, including
the following of the bar (which was not allowed in the original
hotel):
Photo
by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
#118 [The NY Central Railroad’s elevated freight line
from West 12th to Jane Street was completed in 1934. The empty
lot below became a parking lot.]
#124-132 [Originally a factory, it was
gutted by fire in 1891. In 1978, it was converted from a paper
warehouse to a six-story multiple dwelling, Harbor House.]
#140-142 [A parking lot operated by Icon
Parking Systems covers the area from Harbor House westward to
West Street.]
•
Some Books About Greenwich
Village
Blake,
Aaron, The Literary Map of New York
Churchill,
Allen, The Improper Bohemians
Gold, Joyce, From Trout Stream to Bohemia, A Walking Guide
to Greenwich Village History
“Greenwich Village Historic District Designation Report,
1969,” City of New York
Leisner, Marcia, Literary Neighborhoods of New York
White,
Norval and Elliot Willensky, American Institute of
Architects Guide to New York City
•
More about the
1961 map, above:
Contact
the Author
Last
updated April 2012
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Contact
the Author with Question and Comments
HAS
ANYONE THE ANSWER?
(17
August 2010)
A friend emailed me your article and I was thrilled. I was
born in 1947 and lived in 41 Jane Street unitl I married.
Although they were pretty old buildings then, my childhood was
fantastic. Jane Street had been a designated "play street"
and only people who lived there could drive through. We
had signs at the corner of Jane and 8th indicating it was a play
street. Because of the designation, we were allowed a
sprinkler system on the hydrant at the corner for the
summers. There was a candy/soda fountain store where the
gardens are now and Jane Street was packed with children from a
very young age to teenagers. There would be lines of girls
awaiting their turn at jumping rope games while the older kids
were listening and sometimes dancing to the music on their
radios. I was fortunate to be on the Charity Bailey Show
on Sunday mornings on Channel 13. She lived in a brown
stone building across the street. If you want, I could
send you a photo that had been in the NY Times about her
show. The stories of Jane Street are endless and I belong
to the Chelsea/Greenwich Village Assoc. with other people who
were kids with me and attended the same school. We met (15
of us) in the Jane Street Tavern in June and had a ball.
My building alone could be a sitcom.
Betty Taylor in
Lincroft, NJ <elizat@comcast.net>
Greetings from Australia!
U. Stuart Auslander <stu@aus9.net>
Cc: Martin Henner
I remember the street perhaps in 1956.
I don't remember the address, but Joyce Mertz had an apartment
there. She moderated a discussion group for teens in
behalf of American Friends Service Committee. It was a formative
experience in my life I met other bright teens & my first
girl friend. Stuart Auslander
From: Martin Henner
<mhenner@comcast.net>
I don't remember Joyce Mertz from Jane Street. I recall the AFSC
discussions at Bob Gilmore's home on St. Marks Place.
Later, Joyce Mertz, owned an elegant townhouse on 17th off of
Grammercy Park. Joyce was the heir to the Publishers Central
Clearinghouse (and sweepstakes) fortune. Martin Henner
henner@impartial.com
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