Porto Rico Importing Company

201 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.

1848
A four-story house with a store and a rear workshop goes up on Bleecker Street around 1848
Tax assessments suggest the front building went up about 1848 as a dwelling with a store, and by 1858 the records give it four stories. The rear building, dated 1849-50, was classed as a workshop or store of the third class. The owners of record then were Andrew Anderson, who made pianos, and Robert Harron, who made planes.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1905
The Longo family buys 201 Bleecker Street, which has a brick bread oven in its basement
Peter Longo, owner of Porto Rico Importing Company, told Village Preservation's South Village oral history project that his grandfather bought 201 Bleecker around 1905 for $5,000, after working for a baker at 190 Bleecker. The building held a traditional Italian brick oven with a boiler that injected steam, in the space that later became the store's office. The family lived upstairs and rented to other tenants.
Source: Village Preservation
1968
Porto Rico Importing Company, founded in 1907, is listed at 201 Bleecker Street from 1968
The Porto Rico Importing Company was established in 1907, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission's South Village report says that it has made 201 Bleecker Street its home since 1968. The report cites the Manhattan White Pages for 1968-69 as its evidence for the date.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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