16 Morton Street
West Village | built 1829
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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.
- 1829
Mason Henry Fredricks builds a Federal house over its own horse-walk
Around 1829 the mason Henry Fredricks put up a two-and-a-half-story brick house at 16 Morton Street, probably serving as his own architect. Instead of leaving the side passage to the rear stable open, he built the house across it and added a street-level door, which widened the facade from three bays to four. The narrower fourth window above that door is the clue that remains.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1884
Alderman John Wesley Jacobus knocks down a would-be blackmailer at his Morton Street door
On March 4, 1884, William Rollston rang the bell at 16 Morton Street and demanded money from the former alderman John Wesley Jacobus, threatening to spread a scandalous story. Jacobus, described by the New York Times as one of the city's best amateur boxers, floored him and gave him a thrashing. Rollston was arrested and claimed he had simply gone to the wrong house.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1887
Burglars polish their shoes in the Jacobus parlor and rifle the former alderman's trousers
When the Jacobus family came home from a weekend in Highlands, New Jersey, two burglars climbed in through a cellar window while everyone slept. They took the cash and gold watch from Jacobus's clothes, blacked their own boots in the parlor and drank his whisky, yet left Mrs. Jacobus's jewelry untouched on the bureau. A noise scared them off before they could carry away a bundle of silver and umbrellas.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1928
A cooperage rebuilds the old house in 1928, and a garage follows in 1935
In 1928 the architect Salvatore P. Patti demolished parts of the front and rear walls at 16 Morton Street, joined the house to the old stable building behind it and gave the whole a new Utilitarian brick facade. The Basilio & Barbero Cooperage Co. worked there until 1935, when the building was raised to a full three stories as a public garage and repair shop with apartments above (architect Philip Bardes). Morton Auto Service stayed into the late 1950s.
- 2014
Designer Cynthia Rowley pays nearly $11 million for the converted garage building at 16 Morton Street
In May 2014 Curbed reported that the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley had paid just under $11 million for the 4,500-square-foot building at 16 Morton Street. Plans were filed ten days later to make the ground floor commercial space and to combine the upper apartments. Rowley lived in one of the two resulting apartments, and she put the property up for sale in April 2018 at $17.5 million.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The Much Altered 1829 Henry Fredricks House - 16 Morton StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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