John Degraw House

16 Grove Street | West Village | built 1840

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. 1840

    The wrought-iron railings and doorway of 16 Grove Street survive from the 1840 row

    Winant and Degraw's 1840 row has Nos. 14 and 16 closest to their original look. No. 16 keeps its stoop and a Greek Revival doorway framed by pilasters under an entablature. Projecting sheet-metal cornices were later added above its stone lintels, and its original roof cornice and wrought-iron railings with fret castings remain.

    “Both retain stoops leading up to fine Greek Revival doorways…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1860

    A candle left near clothes starts a fire in a top-floor closet at 16 Grove Street

    The New York Times reported that around four one afternoon in November 1860 a fire broke out in a clothes closet on the top floor of the Degraw house. An occupant had set a lighted candle near some garments. The blaze did about $50 in damage, and the house narrowly escaped disaster.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1898

    September

    Tammany district leader John Purcell, Commissioner of Jurors, is mourned at 16 Grove Street

    John Purcell lived at No. 16 in the late 1890s. He was Commissioner of Jurors and Tammany leader of the Third District, described as a close friend of Boss Richard Croker. After he died in September 1898, mourners gathered at the house before a requiem mass at St. Anthony's church, and Croker, two senators, a judge and a sheriff attended the funeral.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1931

    October 23

    Composer Marc Blitzstein moves into 16 Grove Street for $10 a week

    On October 23, 1931, composer and librettist Marc Blitzstein took a room in this rooming house at $10 a week. Biographer Howard Pollack wrote that a romance with his future wife, Eva Goldbeck, developed during his stay. She arrived in New York later that month, and Blitzstein found her another room in the house; both stayed through 1932.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1956

    February 7

    Roomer Andrew Finnegan of 16 Grove Street is arrested in a master-key burglary ring

    Andrew Finnegan, 38, was arrested on February 7, 1956, in connection with a series of burglaries at new apartment buildings. Together with a partner, Irving "Izzy the Eel" Cohen, he bribed construction workers for master keys, then let himself into finished buildings after tenants moved in. Finnegan was one of the less respectable roomers at No. 16, then leased to rooming-house operators.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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