Former Edison substation (30 Horatio Street)

39 Jane Street | also 30 Horatio Street | West Village | built 1910

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. 1836

    A Presbyterian church stands on the Jane Street lot before the substation

    An earlier building on the site of 37-39 Jane Street was a church put up in 1836. Successive Presbyterian congregations occupied it, beginning with the Village Presbyterian Church, followed by the Jane Street Church and ending with the Fifth Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1969 Greenwich Village report records this history when describing the Edison substation that later covered the site.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1900

    Edison Electric Illuminating Company opens a branch station on Horatio Street

    In January 1898 a four-story double tenement at 30-32 Horatio Street sold for $16,000, and the next year the Edison Electric Illuminating Company announced a fireproof branch station here costing $23,500. The station opened in 1900 behind a rusticated stone base, with entrances resembling livery-stable carriage bays. A 1903 company history said it served the riverfront shipping and wholesale trade and fed the southern end of the department store district.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1924

    Edison builds a classical substation at 37-39 Jane Street as an addition

    In 1924 the Edison Electric Illuminating Company erected a substation on Jane Street as an addition to its building at 30-32 Horatio Street. It is a classical brick building with a high round-arched central window, small windows with blind arches on each side, and an access door at the left. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1969 report noted that it replaced a church of 1836.

    “…erected by and for the Edison Electric Illuminating Company in 1924, was an addition to its building at Nos. 30-32 Horatio Street…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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