12 Washington Mews

also 5 Washington Square North | Greenwich Village | built 1920

Open on the map3 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1833

    James Tallmadge Jr., who helped organize NYU, makes his home at 5 Washington Square North

    James Tallmadge Jr., a lawyer, congressman and former lieutenant governor, took over the lease of No. 5 in 1831 and moved into the finished house with his daughter, Mary Rebecca. He was instrumental in forming New York University, served as president of its council from 1834 to 1846, and also presided over the American Institute. The university's site on Washington Square lay diagonally across from his home.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1898

    August 20

    McKinley taps Charles W. Gould, a resident here, to oversee the evacuation of Cuba

    Charles Winthrop Gould, a widowed lawyer who founded the firm Gould & Wilkie in 1892, was living at No. 5 by 1896. As tensions between Spain and Cuba worsened in 1898, President William McKinley called on him, and on August 20 the New-York Tribune reported his appointment to organize and oversee the evacuation of the island. The paper stressed that he had never been active in politics.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1935

    Sculptor Heinz Warneke works from a studio on the mews in the mid-1930s

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission records that in the mid-1930s the sculptor Heinz Warneke, spelled Heinze there, worked from a studio at what was then No. 5 Washington Mews. The small house presents the street with just a front door, one large studio window under an iron lintel with a grille, and a high parapet and chimney.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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