Jacob R. Pentz House

14 West 11th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1845

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.

1845
Henry Brevoort Jr. builds the house as one of five for his daughters
Brevoort began five identical Greek Revival houses on West 11th Street in 1844 and finished them the next year, each a gift for one of his five daughters. Jacob R. Pentz, a merchant and president of the Empire City Bank, moved his family into No. 110, which was renumbered 14 in 1853.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1926
Theatre Guild founder Lawrence Langner buys the house
Lawrence Langner and his second wife, Armina Marshall, bought the house from the Biddle estate in 1926. Langner, a patent attorney, founded the Washington Square Players in 1914 and the Theatre Guild in 1919, and later founded the American Shakespeare Festival. The couple also ran the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1953
Robert Anderson, who wrote part of Tea and Sympathy at the house, sees the play produced
Playwright Robert W. Anderson and his wife lived in the house in the early 1950s. In a 2000 letter to the New York Times he recalled writing part of Tea and Sympathy at the address, along with some Theater Guild of the Air scripts, before the play was produced in 1953.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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