138 West 10th Street

also 140 West 10th Street | West Village | built 1887

Open on the map5 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. 1887

    August 25

    The Happels buy Nos. 138 and 140 and have Berger & Baylies design twin tenements

    Adam Happel, a real estate agent who had mostly built tenements on the Lower East Side, turned to Greenwich Village in 1887. His wife Mary bought No. 140 in April, and he bought No. 138 with a wooden rear stable on August 25. Berger & Baylies filed plans for five-story tenements on both lots, each projected at $20,000, and designed them to read nearly as one structure with no seam in the brickwork.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1887

    Berger & Baylies pair Neo-Grec and Queen Anne detail at Nos. 138 and 140

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission describes Nos. 138 and 140 as identical five-story apartment houses built in 1887 for Adam Happel, rich in stone and terra cotta. Their style is a transition from the incised linear ornament of French Neo-Grec toward English Queen Anne terra cotta work. No. 138 was planned with a pair of storefronts at street level and has a low stoop with curvilinear ironwork.

    “They were built in 1887 for Adam Happel and were designed by Berger & Baylies. ... No. 138 was originally designed to accommodate two shops at street level…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1889

    March 3

    A drunken intruder frightens a tenant awake in her bedroom

    Evelina Taylor, whose night-watchman husband was out, woke around one in the morning to find George Broderick at her bedside. Her screams brought neighbors, and he was hustled to the police station, where he first claimed she owed him money. He then admitted he had simply been painting the town, found the street door unlocked and walked in drunk. He was fined $10.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1894

    Dr. A. M. Fernandez de Ybarra writes a medical history of Columbus at No. 140

    Dr. Fernandez de Ybarra, a physician at the Northern Dispensary, lived at No. 140 and wrote often for medical journals. In 1894 the Journal of the American Medical Association published his study of Christopher Columbus, the first comprehensive medical history of the explorer. Medical experts today credit him with describing symptoms suggesting Columbus was probably suffering from syphilis by 1502.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1961

    The Friedel twins open their Sculpsmith metal-sculpture shop in a ground-floor store

    William Friedel and his twin brother Bruce, both 25, opened Sculpsmith in one of the building's storefronts in 1961. Many consider them the originators of the sunburst designs that became a symbol of 1960s style. Their collectors included Sammy Davis Jr., Malcolm Forbes, Jim Henson and Richard Nixon, and some pieces sold for as much as $60,000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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