400 West 14th Street (37 Ninth Avenue)
400 West 14th Street | also 37 9th Avenue | West Village | built 1886
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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.
- 1886
Investment banker James Alfred Roosevelt owns the new Dunn-designed warehouse at 400 West 14th Street
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Joseph M. Dunn designed the warehouse at 400 West 14th Street, also numbered 37 Ninth Avenue, in 1886. James Alfred Roosevelt, an investment banker who controlled the Roosevelt family's real estate holdings, owned it. The Astors, Goelets and Roosevelts were among the families that put up commercial buildings in this part of the Gansevoort Market district in the 1880s and 1890s.
- 1972
The West Side Discussion Group opens its center at 37 Ninth Avenue
In March 1972 the West Side Discussion Group, a homophile organization that offered weekly talks and socializing as an alternative to bars, moved into 37 Ninth Avenue. It stayed until 1978, its longest tenure anywhere. About 250 people attended its weekly discussions by 1972. In August 1976 the Gay Activists Alliance, which had lost its Wooster Street firehouse, began holding meetings and dances here.
Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
- 1974
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo makes its debut in a second-floor loft here
The all-male comic ballet company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo gave its first performance on September 6, 1974, in a second-floor loft at 37 Ninth Avenue that housed the West Side Discussion Group Center. Center coordinator Eugene McDougle later recalled a sell-out crowd on about a hundred folding chairs. Six performances over two weekends made up that first season, and McDougle became the troupe's general director.
Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
- 1989
Lee Brewster moves his Mardi Gras Boutique for trans and drag customers to 400 West 14th Street
Lee G. Brewster, an early trans activist and founder of Drag magazine, moved his Mardi Gras Boutique to the third floor of 400 West 14th Street in 1989. He had begun it in 1969 as a mail-order business. The 5,000-square-foot store sold clothing, wigs, makeup and books for transgender and drag customers, and clients included Lady Bunny. It closed in 2000 after Brewster died of cancer at 57.
Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
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