Knickerbocker Hotel (former)

125 MacDougal Street | also 117 West 3rd Street | Greenwich Village | built 1829

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.

1865
Silversmith Francis W. Cooper owns the building and keeps his shop here
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From 1865 to 1875 the house on the corner of MacDougal and West 3rd Streets belonged to Francis W. Cooper, a silversmith known for fine church silver. He ran his workshop in the building. It had been built around 1828-29 for Alonzo A. Alvord and was enlarged to four stories around 1867-68 according to tax assessments.
“From 1865 to 1875, 125 MacDougal Street was owned by Francis W. Cooper, a silversmith known for his fine ecclesiastical silver who maintained his shop in the building…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1901
The Knickerbocker Hotel, run by an African-American proprietor, opens in the building
The building operated as the Knickerbocker Hotel from 1901 to 1906, and in 1901 both its proprietor and its guests were African American. Later its storefront was reclassified as a restaurant in 1941, and the upper floors were converted from a boarding house into apartments in 1989-91.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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