Ladies Mile Historic District

18 West 20th Street | also 23 West 19th Street, 20 West 20th Street | Flatiron | built 1902

Open on the map3 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. 1884

    The Bradley-Martin mansion stands on the lot before the loft building

    Before the present loft building, the site held the Bradley-Martin mansion, a private home spread across two lots and built before 1884. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's Ladies' Mile report says the house was richly appointed in Gilded Age style, with a "Louis Seize" drawing room, plus Beauvais tapestries and a stained-glass skylight. The house was later replaced by the commercial building that now stands here.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1901

    J. N. Osorio's eleven-story Beaux-Arts loft building goes up, designed by DeLemos & Cordes

    The firm DeLemos & Cordes, which also designed the Siegel-Cooper Building nearby, planned this store and loft building for owner J. N. Osorio; a new-building application was filed in 1901 and construction ran into 1902. Faced in stone with terra-cotta ornament, it is eleven stories tall and seventy-five feet wide on West 20th Street, and a narrow twenty-five-foot bay runs through the block to West 19th Street as a service entrance. Rusticated piers, pediments and balconies set white stone against dark metal spandrels.

    “Constructed in 1901-02, it was designed by the noted firm of DeLemos & Cordes, architects of the nearby Siegel-Cooper Building.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1989

    May

    The Ladies' Mile Historic District is designated after a long campaign

    In May 1989 the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Ladies' Mile Historic District, covering about 440 buildings on 28 blocks, a district that takes in this loft building. A group called the Drive to Protect the Ladies' Mile District, formed by Anthony C. Wood and Jack Taylor, had pushed for the status, while the Real Estate Board of New York argued that landmarking would burden owners. Supporters included Woody Allen, Diana Vreeland and Joseph Papp.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 20 buildings with stories in Flatiron