Le Gendarme (former Ninth Precinct station house)
135 Charles Street | also 133 Charles Street | West Village | built 1896
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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.
- 1896
John duFais wins the Ninth Precinct commission amid a dispute over his reputation
The station house was the first built under Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, and the first designed by anyone but Nathaniel D. Bush, who had drawn the city's station houses since 1862. John duFais, once an employee of LaFarge, Richardson, McKim, Mead & White and Tiffany, filed plans in 1895. In 1896 the commissioners of the Sinking Fund quarreled over him, because he was little known in New York and some preferred Bruce Price as supervising architect.
- 1897
Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt dedicates the new Ninth Precinct station house
The Ninth Precinct building was dedicated in 1897 by police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt. It had holding pens, cell blocks and stables for the police horses. Several officers connected to the station were later killed on duty in this gritty industrial area near the waterfront. A plaque in the hallway still records the dedication, and Ninth Precinct lettering is carved over the entrance.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1924
State inspectors close the precinct's detention prison, which reopens in 1929 and is condemned again
A detention prison stood behind the station house, which people called the Charles Street Police Station. The state Commission of Correction recommended abandoning the prison, and it was closed in 1924. It reopened in 1929, and in 1930 the state again declared it unsanitary. Over these years the precinct was renumbered, becoming the 14th in 1908, the 5th in 1924 and the 6th in 1929.
“…was abandoned in 1924 at the recommendation of the New York State Commission of Correction, but was re-opened in 1929…”
- 1976
A builder buys the closed station house at auction and turns it into Le Gendarme apartments
The police left after the new 6th Precinct station house opened on West 10th Street in 1968-69. In November 1976 Yugoslavian-born builder Slavko Bernic and Blanka Bernic bought the old building at public auction for $215,000. The station house, the prison and the stable wing became the Le Gendarme apartments, designed by Hurley & Farinella.
- 1978
The New York Times describes 42 apartments carved out of lockers and holding pens
A 1978 Times article on the converted station described how the developer added a floor and made 42 apartments from the police locker rooms, meeting rooms and arraignment areas. The harder puzzle was turning 32 holding pens into luxury living quarters. The facade changed little, so the building now blends into the upscale far West Village.
Source: Ephemeral New York
Further reading
- Once a police precinct, now a West Village condoEphemeral New York
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