Margaret Sanger Clinic

17 West 16th Street | Flatiron | built 1846

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. 1846

    George S. Fox builds a Greek Revival rowhouse with a rare curved bowfront

    George S. Fox purchased the lot in April 1846 as part of a restricted row developed by Edward Sebring Mesier, who had inherited the land from his father-in-law John Cowman. The resulting three-story brownstone featured a curved bowfront, extremely rare among New York rowhouses, along with a cast-iron balcony at the parlor level.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1876

    Merchant William B. Rice and his wife Gertrude move into the house

    Wealthy merchant William B. Rice and his wife, Gertrude Stevens Rice, acquired the West 16th Street home in 1876. Gertrude was appointed a Commissioner of Common Schools in 1888, one of the few women to hold the post at the time. After William's death in 1899, she devoted herself to charitable work from the house.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1930

    Margaret Sanger's husband buys the house for her Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau

    Oil industrialist J. Noah H. Slee purchased 17 West 16th Street in 1930 as the first permanent home of his wife Margaret Sanger's Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. The clinic served more than 10,000 patients a year and trained doctors from around the country in contraceptive techniques rarely taught in medical schools. It operated from the house until 1973.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1993

    September 14

    The clinic house becomes a National Historic Landmark after a delayed designation

    The National Park Service had recommended landmark status for the Sanger clinic house, but the designation stalled under the first Bush administration. After Bill Clinton took office, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed the National Historic Landmark designation on September 14, 1993, recognizing the building's role in the birth control movement.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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