Joseph H. Coates House

16 West 11th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1845

Open on the map4 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. 1845

    Henry Brevoort Jr. builds a row of identical Greek Revival houses

    Developer Henry Brevoort Jr. begins seven identical brick-faced houses on West 11th Street in 1844, and they are finished in 1845 in the Greek Revival style. Brownstone stoops lead to parlors with floor-to-ceiling windows, and a continuous dentiled cornice ties the row together. No. 16 becomes the home of Joseph H. Coates, a partner in the Pearl Street firm Miller & Coates, whose family stays until 1857.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1887

    December 4

    Sullivan & Cromwell co-founder Algernon Sydney Sullivan dies in the house

    Lawyer Algernon Sydney Sullivan, who formed the firm Sullivan & Cromwell in 1878, dies of typhoid fever in the house on December 4, 1887, soon after moving in. His widow, Mary Mildred Sullivan, lives there for nearly half a century, serving as president of the Nursery and Child's Hospital and leading the grand march at the Charity Ball. She dies in the house in 1933 and leaves bequests to family, staff, and charities.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1957

    Painters Jane Freilicher and Joe Hazan buy the house

    Artists Jane Freilicher and Joe Hazan buy the house in 1957, the year they marry, and create four living spaces without formally converting it to apartments. Freilicher has shown at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery since 1952 and is associated with several poets there, among them Frank O'Hara, who writes a poem for the wedding. The couple later have a daughter, Elizabeth.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1970

    March 6

    A Weather Underground bomb rocks the block next door

    On March 6, 1970, a bomb being built by members of the Weatherman group explodes in the basement of the townhouse next door at 18 West 11th Street. Actor Dustin Hoffman, who lives on the parlor floor of No. 16, is away, but his babysitter and young stepdaughter are inside when the blast hits. Hoffman had become nationally known three years earlier in The Graduate.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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