The Jacob Day Residence, a three-story row house at 50 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, has been designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designed around 1845 in the Greek Revival style, the structure was owned from 1857 to 1884 by Jacob Day, a prominent Black business owner and abolitionist. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously on the designation.
The Jacob Day Residence is a rare surviving 19th-century site with direct links to New York City’s abolitionist history. Jacob Day, one of the city’s wealthiest and most successful Black entrepreneurs of the era, used the building as both his home and a space for his catering business. The ground floor and basement level housed his business, while the upper two floors were rented to other members of the Black community, including educator, abolitionist, and suffragist Sarah J. S. Tompkins Garnet.
In 1959, the building underwent renovations to include a theater in the basement and a theater school on the first floor. The theater featured performances by the Afro-American Folklore Troupe and works by well-known Black writers. In 1972, the site became home to the 13th Street Repertory Company, one of New York’s longest-running Off-Off Broadway theaters.
“Building a better future starts with first understanding and reconciling with our past,” said first Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. “Within Greenwich Village at the Jacob Day Residence, we have a tangible connection to a Black abolitionist who helped fight for freedom and civil rights. To honor the bravery and boldness at the Jacob Day Residence, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is taking a critical step in designating it as a landmark, ensuring that all New Yorkers are aware of the history that lives within our city.”
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Is a landmark designation enough to save a derelict building?
This building should be torn down and a 8 story building should be built. This is why there is a shortage of housing in NYC . Get rid of Landmark this proves it is so idiotic.
There are plenty of better spaces to build housing vs a historic abolitionist landmark
The place is decrepit and falling down.
The trouble with the overbearing Landmarks Commission is that now, whoever owns the building (assuming it’s not the city, “in lieu of taxes”), will be mandated to at least, bring it up to code, and only in a way permitted by the Commission…at great expense.
The other problem with this Landmarks Commission is that ad hoc groups demand, sometimes loudly, landmark status for building (or part of a building), then after the building gets the landmarks designation, those same loud ad hoc groups are nowhere to be found to assist financially, or even with their labor, to initiate the repairs and upkeep, as per the Commission.
There’s probably a Constitutional question about all this, but, basically, it’s unfair to the building owner. Maybe it’s time to reconsider the status of the Landmarks Commission.
Like the other commentators here, I see no reason to designate a derelict, graffiti-covered, broken-windowed and apparently empty tenement building an historical landmark, just because a a prominent Black business owner and abolitionist occupied it over 150 years ago. Instead of dwelling in the selective past, why not build an affordable 8-10 story affordable housing building in the same location? I’m pretty sure Jacob Day would have wanted it that way. Certainly a building in this condition is not what he thought his legacy should be. The city is putting political expediency ahead of a housing crisis. This is not even a close call.
Yeah maybe just tear it down and put up a plaque
Better late than never. Something like this with this story is very rare, and there’s plenty of room elsewhere in the city to tear something down and build a 100 story tower.
Based on the C6-2 zoning, this property could be redeveloped with an FAR of 6 (8 or 9 story residential) – until one considers that the adjacent hotel built in 2011 in the same zone has an FAR of 10.7 – this sounds like an air rights deal that makes it impossible to build up! If so, the buildable area cannot be increased; this means renovation is probably the best way to go, even if the building were not historic.
Also, if the City can landmark 128 West 17th Street (former Colored School 4, which is in even more poor condition and its original facade is lost), than they can certainly landmark 50 West 13th Street too on the same historical grounds.
I would agree that some structures are so far gone that a historical marker would be a better way to preserve history. The Colored School is one of these. The Adorama store nearby on 18th St. was the Hilborne Roosevelt [cousin of Pres. Theodore] Pipe Organ Works. He was a friend of Thomas Edison and operated the first telephone company in the city and made electric batteries and burglar alarms. A marker could well be placed there.
Well, the building’s condition is largely due to its current owner allowing it to crumble during the 4 years of its journey toward historic designation. Look at the photos from not long ago. I see this another way, we suffer and practically lose an historic landmark because of the greed and malfeasance of an individual owner. Where is your outrage about that, folks? The owners of many of these sites largely get away with murder with this SOP and I hear nothing from you but complaints about overreach.
The many small and sometimes nondescript buildings in Greenwich Village that connect us to the district’s rich cultural history are what makes this such a unique area. As a whole this ensemble of buildings are worth much more than the mere parts. The damage, at least to the facade, are all cosmetic and easily repaired. It would be wonderful to see it continue as a performance space.
Are the electrical and water systems in there still working? Thanks.
I rarely read the comment section on this site. Most of today’s comments are why.
You don’t want to expose yourself to rational ideas?
Hideous building in a sad condition. That’s no way to honor abolitionist history. Tear it down, build housing and actually contribute to the good of the city. Can guarantee no one is going to walk by that building and reflect on history.
I have never seen such EVIL statements about history and maybe that’s because its BLACK HISTORY 🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐