395 West Street
also 394 West Street | West Village | built 1848
Open on the map3 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.
- 1848
Oyster dealer William Forsyth builds two brick houses with stores on the old market ground
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William Forsyth, an oyster dealer at Washington Market, paid $3,800 for this property and put up the two three-story buildings, 394 and 395 West Street, around 1848. The pair stood on ground where part of the open-shed Greenwich (Weehawken) Market of 1834 had been, and the tax records first list them in 1849 with the block marked as formerly a market. Early tenants included lime dealers, grocers and a maker of lubricating oil.
- 1880
John Tietjen buys both houses at auction and opens a saloon in them
Forsyth died, and in 1880 the two properties were sold at auction to John Tietjen. He joined the buildings, added cast-iron storefront piers to the ground floor, and ran a liquor saloon with his family from 1880 to 1899. The family also lived here for a time and kept ownership until 1936.
- 1980
A gunman fires an Uzi at the Ramrod bar, killing two men and wounding six
On November 19, 1980, a former transit officer sprayed Uzi fire along the block and into the Ramrod, a gay bar at this address. The dead were Jorg Wenz, a 24-year-old Dutch immigrant who worked the door, and Vernon Kroening, 32, a church organist. The shooter was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The next night about 1,500 people took part in a candlelight procession from Christopher Park to the bar.
Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
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