120 East 12th Street

East Village | built 2006

Open on the map4 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. 1871

    January 1

    An earlier church on this site, St. Ann's, is dedicated in a rebuilt French Gothic sanctuary

    Architect Napoleon Le Brun rebuilds the 1847 church on this site, keeping only its facade and tower, as a French Gothic sanctuary for St. Ann's Catholic parish. It is dedicated on New Year's Day, 1871, and cost $160,000 to build. The church is 166 feet long, seats about 1,600 and holds more than 2,300 with standing room.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1985

    At an earlier church on this site, a funeral mass is held for Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis

    In 1985 the funeral mass for performer Jackie Curtis, a "superstar" in Andy Warhol's films, takes place at St. Ann's. By then the church, which became an Armenian Rite Catholic cathedral in 1983, stands where this building is now.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

  3. 2004

    The Archdiocese closes the earlier St. Ann's church on this site for good

    In 2003 the Archdiocese of New York announces that it will close St. Ann's Church and sell the property. The doors are locked a year later, in 2004. Preservationists had asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect the building, but it did not.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2009

    NYU opens a dormitory behind the old church's 1847 facade

    Hudson 12th Development buys the church property for $15 million in 2005, and NYU announces a 26-story dormitory for the site. Plans are filed in July 2006 despite protests from preservation groups, and the dormitory opens in 2009. Only a thin section of the 1847 facade is left standing in front, which the AIA Guide compared to "a majestic elk, shot and stuffed."

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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