203 West 14th Street

Chelsea | built 1920

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.

1855
Mathematician James B. Thomson lives here and publishes a mental arithmetic text
James B. Thomson was living in this house, then numbered 123, by 1855. That year he published Thomson's Arithmetical Analysis, one of a series of arithmetic textbooks he wrote. He stayed until 1868, when Captain Francis R. Baby bought the house and the number changed to 203.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1872
April
Captain Francis R. Baby, a resident, donates a Japanese deer to the city
Captain Francis R. Baby bought the house in 1868. He had commanded Pacific Mail Steamship Company steamers on the West Coast since 1852 before moving east. The Parks Department's annual report for April 1872 lists a Japanese deer among its new additions, presented by Baby.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1875
Captain Baby begins converting the house into an apartment building called The Senora
In 1875 Francis and Hilda Baby began a two-year renovation that turned the house into apartments, with one nine-room apartment per floor. The stoop was removed and the basement level became commercial space. They named the building The Senora, possibly because the neighborhood bordered the Cuban community.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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