St. Nicholas Rectory

135 East 2nd Street | East Village | built 1899

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.

1903
Frank W. Herter designs a Neo-Gothic rectory for St. Nicholas Church
In 1903, plans were filed for a five-story rectory for St. Nicholas German Catholic Church at 135 East 2nd Street, designed by Frank W. Herter and finished in 1904 for $15,000. It replaced a school built next door to the church in 1867. The Neo-Gothic facade has pointed openings, drip moldings, heavy brick corbel tables, and a gable medallion imitating a rose window.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1916
A St. Nicholas Library operates from 135 East 2nd Street
The New York Public Library's annual reports listed a St. Nicholas Library at this address through at least 1916. It circulated 305 volumes in 1914 and 557 in 1916. Despite its name, the building was a mixed-use structure, and in 1910 plans still called it a brick school.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1920
The former rectory is converted into a day nursery
As German New Yorkers left Kleindeutschland, the parish school appears to have closed by the 1920s. Department of Buildings records show the building at 135 East 2nd Street converted to a day nursery around that time.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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