220 Sullivan Street

also 222 Sullivan Street | Greenwich Village | built 1896

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.

1895
Catherine Aste builds a five-story tenement for 28 families with a store below
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Catherine Aste commissioned the architect P. Henry Gilvarry to build this Romanesque Revival tenement in 1895-96. It held 28 families, four on the first floor and six on each of the four floors above, plus a ground-floor shop. The red brick building has round-arched corbelling and a small terra-cotta cornice at the roofline.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1930
Oliver and Thomas Williams modernize the tenement into an elevator apartment house
In 1930 Oliver and Thomas Williams, working through Kenish Realty, remodeled the old tenement as an elevator apartment building. They gave it a rusticated concrete ground floor and removed historic masonry details. Three new apartments replaced the ground-floor store in 1933. The Williamses carried out similar upgrades next door at 224 to 228 Sullivan Street, and the Real Estate Record featured the work in 1931.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1948
Photographer Herman Leonard opens his first studio at 220 Sullivan Street
In 1948 the photographer Herman Leonard opened his first studio in this building. He is best known for his moody images of jazz musicians in New York from 1948 to 1956 and then in Paris. Two years after opening here, he moved the studio to East 50th Street.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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