18 Commerce Street
also 58 7th Avenue South | West Village | built 1830
Open on the map3 entries
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.
- 1830
Grain measurer William Depew sells his new double house on Commerce Street before it is finished
William Depew, a grain measurer, built a late Federal double house at Nos. 16-18 Commerce Street in 1830. He sold it before completion to David S. Brown, a tallow chandler. Its two doorways have Doric columns, and the original leaded transom still survives at No. 18, along with well-preserved original ironwork on the stoop and areaway.
“…built for William Depew, a grain measurer who sold it before completion to David S. Brown, tallow chandler.”
- 1919
A second-floor tea porch at the back of No. 18 becomes visible from Seventh Avenue
No. 18 is a three-story Federal house of 1830. At the rear, a second-floor tea porch sits above a patio, probably added decades after the house went up, according to Village Preservation. It stayed hidden inside the block until Seventh Avenue was cut through the Village in the late 1910s, when the back of the house came into view from the street. A brick fence and a barn-style gate now screen it.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 2008
The Village House Tour Benefit shows visitors the tea porch and backyard of No. 18
In 2008 the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation featured 18 Commerce Street on its annual Village House Tour Benefit, held on the first Sunday in May. Visitors explored the tea porch and the backyard, which faces Seventh Avenue South and is usually hidden behind a gate and brick wall. The society described the house as late Federal, built in 1830, with a tea porch that may have been a later addition.
Source: Village Preservation
Further reading
- Then & Now photos: 18 Commerce Street (aka 58 Seventh Avenue South)Village Preservation: Greenwich Village Then & Now
- Tea porches were once popular in city houses—this 1830 Greenwich Village home still has oneEphemeral New York
Nearby
- 20 Commerce Street1 entry
- Commerce Street gas station14 Commerce Street | 1 entry
- 24 Commerce Street1 entry
- 17 Commerce Street4 entries
- Dominick Neusch House15 Commerce Street | 5 entries
- 26 Commerce Street1 entry