20 Bedford Street

also 32 Downing Street | West Village | built 1874

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.

1874
Carpenter William Hughes designs two eight-family tenements on the Bedford and Downing corner
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A carpenter and builder named William Hughes designed this corner building in 1874 as a pair of five-story tenements, each housing eight families over stores. The permit named Frederick Siefke as owner, though the deed records do not list him. It went up as tenements replaced early Village row houses, providing homes for the neighborhood's expanding immigrant and working-class population.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1946
Architect Ferdinand Innocenti turns the two tenements into one apartment house
Between 1946 and 1949 architect Ferdinand Innocenti merged the two tenements at 20-22 Bedford into a single multiple dwelling. The stores were eliminated, the interior was reconfigured, and an elevator was added. The exterior most likely took its current look then, with the cornice replaced by brick.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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