The Archive (U.S. Appraisers' Warehouse)
154 Christopher Street | also 110 Barrow Street, 641 Washington Street, 666 Greenwich Street | West Village | built 1899
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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.
- 1888
Congress authorizes a customs appraisers' warehouse, and a fight over its site sends it to Christopher Street
In February 1888 Congress authorized a U.S. Appraisers' Warehouse, where customs agents would inspect imported goods and set duties. Downtown real estate interests wanted it beside the new Custom House at Bowling Green, but merchants wanted it nearer the docks. Treasury Secretary William Windom backed the downtown plan until public pressure, and accusations that he favored a pneumatic tube company he had invested in, reversed the decision. The warehouse went to Christopher Street, on a lot mostly bought from Trinity Church at $4 a square foot.
Source: The New York Times
- 1899
The ten-story brick Appraisers' Warehouse, designed by Willoughby Edbrooke, is completed
Begun in 1892 and completed in 1899, the Appraisers' Warehouse, designed by W. J. Edbrooke, fills an entire city block and rises ten stories. The Landmarks Commission describes a Romanesque Revival building of almost entirely brick, whose effect comes from great masonry arches: wide arches at the base, tall windows carried up five stories, and a top floor of small arched windows that wrap the curved corners. It called the result powerful and nearly free of ornament.
“This handsome Romanesque Revival warehouse building, now known as the Federal Building, was built as the…”
- 1930
The warehouse becomes the United States Federal Building, with the National Archives Record Center
As income taxes replaced tariffs as the government's main revenue, appraising imports faded from view and the Christopher Street building became a general federal warehouse renamed the United States Federal Building. Starting in the 1930s it was remodeled into offices for several agencies, among them the National Archives Record Center and a post office. Those offices were leaving by the early 1970s, which is when the New York Landmarks Conservancy stepped in.
Source: The New York Times
- 1966
The city landmarks the federal building over a federal official's questions about jurisdiction
On March 15, 1966, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the United States Federal Building at 641 Washington Street. An official of the federal General Services Administration had questioned the proposal, and the commission acknowledged the jurisdictional question. It designated the building anyway, saying the city should state its concern for the building's survival because it might one day be in jeopardy.
“Acting Regional Administrator of the Federal Government's General Services Administration questioned the proposal to designate the building…”
- 1982
A 1982 deal makes the Landmarks Conservancy a partner in turning the building into apartments
When the deal was signed in 1982, the federal government handed the building to the state Urban Development Corporation for $10, and the agency leased it to the developer for 99 years. The New York Landmarks Conservancy was in effect an equity partner, which the New York Times described as the only such arrangement for a major building in the city. The developer's payments fed a revolving loan fund for restoring landmark brownstones and churches. Rockrose, the first developer chosen, had dropped out amid community opposition.
Source: The New York Times
- 1988
The old warehouse reopens as the Archive apartments, home to Derek Walcott, Jennifer Connelly and Monica Lewinsky
The Archive opened in 1988 with 479 apartments after a six-year, $115 million conversion that ended with Rockrose in charge of construction. Residents over the years included the Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott and the actress Jennifer Connelly, along with designers, photographers and novelists. Monica Lewinsky also lived there, and reportedly made the tabloids when she was a day late on her rent.
Source: The New York Times
- 2003
Tenants fight the end of rent stabilization at the Archive and report rot and warehouse beetles
In 2003 the Archive's tenants faced the end of rent stabilization tied to the building's tax breaks, and some went to court over promises in older leases. Tenants also reported that moisture trapped under the floors had rotted subfloors, and that unusual warehouse beetles, perhaps carried in by old cargoes, lived in the building's depths and had reached some apartments. Managers blamed the bugs on a ground-floor supermarket and said few units were affected.
Source: The New York Times
Further reading
Nearby
- 100 Barrow Street2 entries
- St. Luke's School gymnasium653 Greenwich Street | 1 entry
- 649 Washington Street3 entries
- 157 Christopher Street2 entries
- 651 Washington Street2 entries
- 653 Washington Street4 entries