391 West Street
also 8 Weehawken Street | West Village | built 1902
Open on the map4 entries
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.
- 1834
A wooden section of the Greenwich Market stands on this lot before 1902
Before the present tenement, this lot held one of four surviving connected sections of the wood-framed Greenwich Market, also known as the Weehawken Market, which dated from 1834. The Landmarks Commission says the 1902 building replaced this section.
- 1902
Polish immigrants Solomon and Augusta Lent build a men's-wear store with flats above
Read more
Richard Rohl, an architect who had emigrated from Prussia, designed this five-story neo-Renaissance building for Solomon and Augusta Lent, Polish immigrants. Solomon and his son Milton ran a men's furnishings shop on the ground floor until the 1920s. Milton also became proprietor of the Hotel Christopher at 386 West Street by the early 1920s, and the family kept the property until 1967.
- 1960
Alger Hiss is listed as a tenant here in 1960, six years after leaving prison
The Landmarks Commission names Alger Hiss, a lawyer and former State Department official, as a tenant of 391 West Street in 1960. Hiss was convicted in 1950 and imprisoned until 1954 for passing confidential government documents to the Russians. An earlier notable tenant was Frederick A. Sperling, a deputy assistant district attorney, who lived here around 1929 to 1934.
“Alger Hiss (1960), a lawyer and former State Department official who was convicted in 1950 of passing confidential government documents to the Russians…”
- 1967
Literary agent Jack Van Bibber buys the building he has lived in since the late 1940s
Literary agent and cookbook author John "Jack" Van Bibber purchased the building in 1967, having lived there since the late 1940s. In 1963-64 he had worked with Jane Jacobs against the Lower Manhattan Crosstown Expressway. In 1967 New York Times food critic Craig Claiborne profiled him in his apartment on the third and top floors.
“John ("Jack") Van Bibber, a literary agent and cookbook author who had resided here since the late 1940s. He had been active with Jane Jacobs in 1963-64…”
Nearby
- 6 Weehawken Street (Weehawken Market remnant)392 West Street | 12 entries
- 395 West Street3 entries
- 187 Christopher Street3 entries
- 185 Christopher Street3 entries
- Jacob P. Roome House7 Weehawken Street | 5 entries
- 5 Weehawken Street2 entries