172 Bleecker Street

also 170 Bleecker Street | Greenwich Village | built 1900

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.

1861
The Nicholas Low estate builds a row of eight identical houses at 172 to 186 Bleecker Street
Read more
Around 1861 the estate of the merchant Nicholas Low built eight identical four-story row houses with dormered roofs, 172 to 186 Bleecker Street. Stoops were later removed for ground-floor shops with apartments above, and about 1920-21 the Hearth & Home Company simplified the facades. Later owners replaced peaked roofs with full fifth stories and added artists' studio windows, as here.
“…constructed c. 1861 for the estate of Nicholas Low…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1941
James Agee reportedly rents the top floor and works on The African Queen
The writer James Agee, a Pulitzer Prize winner and an influential film critic, reportedly rented the top floor here from 1941 to 1951. During those years he is said to have been writing the screenplay for The African Queen (1951) while living in the building. The claim comes from a guide to Greenwich Village history.
“…is said to have rented the top floor of this building from 1941 to 1951 and to have worked on the screenplay for The African Queen…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby