144 West 14th Street Building

144 West 14th Street | also 140 West 14th Street | West Village | built 1896

Open on the map8 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1858

    Monroe's exhumed body lies in state at the Church of the Annunciation, later replaced by a loft

    The Church of the Annunciation, built in 1846 next to the home of the merchant Richard P. Dana, is where the exhumed body of President James Monroe lies in state in 1858 before its reburial in Virginia. The church and the Dana house are bought in 1895 to make way for the loft building that now stands on the site.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1895

    Real estate operator Joseph L. Buttenwieser buys the church and the Dana house

    In early 1895 Joseph L. Buttenwieser, a City College graduate and lawyer who has worked as a real estate operator since the late 1880s, acquires the church and the adjoining Dana house. He is also a philanthropist who backs the Citizens Union and the Hebrew Technical Institute. He hires the architects Brunner & Tryon to replace the old buildings with a speculative loft.

    “In early 1895 the church and the adjoining Dana house were acquired by Joseph L. Buttenwieser (1865-1938).”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1896

    June

    Brunner & Tryon finish a seven-story loft with eight monumental arches

    Brunner & Tryon file plans in June 1895 for a loft building estimated at $250,000, and work wraps up a year later. The 125-foot front is dominated by eight arches rising from the third to the sixth floor, with sixteen smaller arches above. Behind the masonry is a skeleton of iron and steel, though the floors are pine joists, which keeps the building to 85 feet.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1897

    March 17

    A 45-year-old beginner breaks her shoulder at a bicycle academy and sues for $7,500

    Karmel Brook runs an indoor bicycle academy on an oval track in the building. After her third lesson, Mary L. Smith rides alone, veers into a rack and breaks her shoulder, then sues for $7,500, saying the racks stood too close to the track. The judge tells the jury that a woman of her age has every right to learn to ride, and asks only who was negligent.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1898

    R. H. Macy & Company advertises two workshops here, one for flags and one for silk underwear

    R. H. Macy & Company advertises two production facilities in the building in September 1898, one making American flags and the other ladies' silk waists and silk underwear. Other early tenants include a suspender maker and a diamond seller. The silversmiths Graff, Washbourne & Dunn, founded in 1899, lease space for more than five decades before the Gorham Company buys the firm in 1961.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1941

    Les Paul builds the Log, billed as the first solid-body electric guitar, at Epiphone

    Epiphone, a maker of guitars, banjos and basses founded in 1873, leases space here from April 1935 and doubles it in 1937. In 1941 the jazz guitarist Les Paul designs and assembles a solid-body electric guitar in its workshop, nicknamed the Log for its solid wood core. After changes in the mid-1940s, Gibson brings a version to market in 1952.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 1946

    Django Reinhardt visits the Epiphone factory during his only American tour

    The jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, touring America with Duke Ellington in late 1946, stops at Epiphone's factory in the building. He is one of several well-known players counted among the company's clients. Epiphone is sold to the C. G. Conn Company in 1950 and to Gibson's owners in 1957.

    “…the legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who visited the company's factory during his only American tour (with Duke Ellington) in late 1946…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  8. 1999

    Pratt Institute buys the building and turns it into its Manhattan campus

    Pratt Institute acquires the building in 1999 and has it rehabilitated by Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn. Since 2001 it has been the school's Manhattan campus, with classrooms, labs and offices on six floors, plus a library and a public art gallery.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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