Downing Street Playground

32 Carmine Street | also 273 Avenue of the Americas | West Village | built 1934

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1869

   The city builds Primary School 13 where the Friends meeting house once stood on Downing Street

   An earlier building on this site was the Friends Meeting House on Downing Street, which the city bought in 1857 to use as a public school. In 1868 it purchased the adjoining property to the west, and in 1869 it put up Primary School 13, a new three-story school, across the combined sites. The city demolished the school in 1921 and handed the land to the Parks Department in 1924.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1896

   The city condemns a lot beside Primary School 13 in 1896 for a school playground

   In 1896 the city took the lot adjoining the school to the northwest by condemnation for use as the school playground. The City demolished the school itself in 1921, and in 1924 the property was turned over to the Parks Department. The playground later gained a brick-walled gateway in the 1934 recreation building at 32 Carmine Street.

   “The lot adjoining the school to the northwest was acquired by condemnation in 1896 for use as the school playground.”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1934

   Aymar Embury II designs a neo-Colonial recreation building under Robert Moses

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   In 1934, when Robert Moses was Parks Commissioner, the architect Aymar Embury II designed the brick neo-Colonial recreation building at 32 Carmine Street. Its central vaulted passage serves as the gateway to the brick-walled playground behind it.

   “…under Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, Aymar Embury II designed the neo -Colonial recreation building…”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

4. 1943

   The city buys the corner triangle for a sitting area, later Winston Churchill Square

   In 1943 the city bought the small triangular parcel at Downing Street and Sixth Avenue for use as a public sitting area. Known today as Winston Churchill Square, it was redesigned and rebuilt in 1998-99 by landscape architect George Vellonakis, who added formal planting beds, a copper armillary and a decorative iron fence.

   “The City purchased the adjacent triangular parcel at the corner of Downing Street and Sixth Avenue in 1943 for use as a public sitting area.”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

• 30 Carmine Street2 entries
• 34 Carmine Street2 entries
• 38 Carmine Street3 entries
• 26 Carmine Street1 entry
• 13 Downing Street2 entries
• 42 Carmine Street5 entries

All 1,156 buildings with stories in West Village