315 West 4th Street

West Village | built 1836

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. 1836

    Ten nearly identical houses rise on lots bought by a merchant and resold to builders, including this one

    In spring 1835 the merchant Charles W. Hawkins bought ten empty lots along Fourth Street, between Bank and West 12th Streets, from Samuel Bayard. Within four months he resold the 20-foot parcels to six men in the building trades, among them the builders Frazee and Banta, a mason and a lime dealer. A year later ten houses were nearly finished. This one stood at 45 Fourth Street until the street was renumbered in 1863.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1836

    No. 315 keeps its simple Greek Revival doorway but gains a full third story

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    Like the rest of the ten-house row of 1836, No. 315 was built in the Greek Revival style at two and a half stories. The Landmarks Preservation Commission notes that it later received a full third story, perhaps somewhat earlier than the 1870s, and that it still has a plain doorway with a pilaster on each side and a transom above. Its entry is one of six in the row that survive in that form.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1868

    City Fire Commissioner Nelson D. Thayer buys the house

    In 1868 the Forbes family sold No. 315 to Nelson D. Thayer, a collector for the city, born in Schenectady in 1818. Thayer had sat in the City Assembly from 1857 to 1866 and been elected Fire Commissioner in 1859. He and his wife Margaret had six children, and the household took in boarders. Most likely it was Thayer who raised the attic to a full third floor and added heavy Italianate cast-iron stoop railings.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1926

    Architect George Provst converts the house to bachelor apartments

    In 1926 the architect George Provst was hired to turn the family house into bachelor apartments, most of them without kitchens. The Department of Buildings limited it to no more than two families cooking independently and no more than 15 sleeping rooms. In 1933 one of the two apartments that did have a kitchen was advertised for rent at $35 a month for two rooms, about $750 in $2023.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1946

    Tenant Shepard J. Goldin patents a chess-piece design and an illuminated watch clip

    Among the tenants in the mid-1940s was the inventor Shepard J. Goldin, who aimed at improving everyday objects. In 1946, while he lived here, he was granted patents for an ornamental design for chess pieces and for an illuminated watch clip with a mirror, a flashlight mount that cast light on the watch face. He had earlier patented an improved eyeglass case.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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