Sniffen Court
150 East 36th Street | also 1 Sniffen Court | Murray Hill | built 1864
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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.
- 1864
Ten Romanesque Revival stables are built along a private mews off East 36th Street
Sniffen Court's ten two-story brick stables were built in 1863–64 in an early Romanesque Revival style, and the little mews is named for John Sniffen, a local builder, though his role is uncertain. The stables were later turned into homes and studios, used by sculptors Malvina Hoffman and Harriet Whitney Frishmuth. The city made the mews one of its smallest historic districts on June 21, 1966.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1918
The Amateur Comedy Club buys the carriage houses at Nos. 1 and 3
The Amateur Comedy Club, a theater group founded in 1884, bought the buildings at 1 and 3 Sniffen Court in 1918. Malvina Hoffman added two sculpted plaques of Greek horsemen on the mews' rear wall, and in 1967 The Doors photographed the cover of their album Strange Days in the court.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The city designates Sniffen Court a historic district
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Sniffen Court a historic district on June 21, 1966, protecting the row of Romanesque Revival stables built there a century earlier. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1967
The Doors' Strange Days album cover is photographed in Sniffen Court
The Doors used Sniffen Court as the setting for the cover of Strange Days, released on September 25, 1967. Photographer Joel Brodsky pictured a group of New York street performers, but real performers could not be found for every role. His assistant stood in as the juggler, and a cab driver chosen at random was given $5 to pose playing a trumpet.
“The location of the photograph is at Sniffen Court, a residential alley next to East 36th Street between Lexington and Third Avenue…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Sniffen Court Historic DistrictWikipedia
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