Rev. Robert Travis House

312 West 11th Street | West Village | built 1843

Open on the map5 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. 1843

    No. 312 keeps a Greek Revival doorway nearly identical to its neighbor's

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    The Greenwich Village Historic District report counts 312 West 11th Street among three Greek Revival houses of 1842-43 built for Nicholas Brinckerhoff. Its doorway has square pilasters on each side, three-pane sidelights and a four-pane transom, almost matching the one at No. 310. It keeps less of its delicate original stoop ironwork than No. 310, and its first floor has casement windows.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1848

    Rev. Robert Travis buys the house, and both his sons enter the ministry

    Tax collector William Shuart and his family lived here until 1848, when Rev. Robert Travis bought the house. His sons Edward and Robert Jr. were Columbia College students when the family moved in, and both entered religious life. Robert Jr., ordained around 1850, assisted at the Church of the Ascension on Staten Island and by 1858 was rector of Trinity Church in Jersey City, yet he still lived with his parents here through at least 1860.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1876

    Landlord Elisha Bloomer runs the house as a boarding house, one of a dozen-plus rentals

    By 1876 Elisha Bloomer owned 312 West 11th Street and operated it as a boarding house. That year's residents included a real estate agent, a bookbinder, the keeper of a beer saloon and an ice dealer. Bloomer also owned the neighboring Brinckerhoff house and at least a dozen other Village rentals, all of which were sold at auction in November 1888 after his death.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1902

    December 1

    A resident is stopped with ten bags of smuggled tobacco hidden under a tarp

    Customs officers in 1902 were eager to stop smugglers rowing out at night to unload tobacco from Dutch steamers. At 8 a.m. on December 1, Patrolman Entwistle stopped a tarp-covered wagon near the ferry house at Exchange Place. John Degnan of 312 West 11th Street and Joseph Van Damme said they carried vegetables, but under the tarp were ten bags of tobacco. They would not say where it came from, and were arrested.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2002

    A basement travel agency becomes the 60-seat Ground Floor Theater

    Charlie and Robin Whitehouse bought the house in 1995 and ran their travel agency from the basement level until 1999. In 2002 they spent $160,000 turning that floor into the Ground Floor Theater, an intimate black-walled room holding up to 60 people. Robin Whitehouse's nonprofit FatChance Productions staged shows there, and the space was also rented to companies without a venue of their own. It is now called the Next Stage Theater.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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