The Muffin House

337 West 20th Street | Chelsea | built 1850

Open on the map3 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. 1850

    A brick-and-brownstone building with a foundry in its lower levels stands on West 20th Street

    The building at 337 West 20th Street went up about a decade before the Civil War, and a foundry once occupied its lower levels. That use probably explains its extra-wide frontage and would have called for large brick ovens. The street level is Anglo-Italianate in style.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1919

    Samuel Bath Thomas dies as his family carries on the muffin business

    Thomas had emigrated from England in 1874 with his English muffin recipe and opened his first bakery at 163 Ninth Avenue in 1880 before expanding into the foundry building on West 20th Street, using its brick ovens to bake muffins sold to hotels and restaurants. When he died in 1919, his family took over the business before eventually selling it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 2006

    July

    A resident discovers Thomas's forgotten muffin ovens beneath the building

    By 1952 the building held apartments and the old bakery ovens, walled off under the garden, were forgotten. In July 2006 resident Mike Kinnarie removed a radiator while renovating, then cut into a basement bedroom wall and found an arched brick oven chamber scarred black by heat. The co-op became known as The Muffin House.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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