13 Downing Street

West Village | built 1877

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.

1877
William Kirk puts up a four-story tenement with two stores and twelve apartments
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In 1877 builder F. Draper designed an Italianate tenement at 13 Downing Street for the owner, William Kirk. It held twelve apartments over two ground-floor shops. The Landmarks Preservation Commission places it among the many early Village houses and workshops that were being replaced by tenements for the neighborhood's growing working-class and immigrant population.
“…designed by F. Draper in 1877 and constructed for William Kirk as a 12-family tenement with two stores…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1880
Census takers find twelve working-class households at 13 Downing Street, some headed by single mothers
The 1880 census recorded twelve households living in the building, including some single mothers who had boarders. Most tenants were working-class: clerks, stone masons and a cartman are named, along with a wine merchant.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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