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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.
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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
August 2010
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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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