E. H. Purdy & Co. Building

42 West 13th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1960

Open on the map5 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. 1870

    E. H. Purdy & Co. replaces four townhouses with a six-story factory

    By 1869 Sixth Avenue shopping was pushing onto the formerly residential 13th Street block. Elijah Purdy, William Phyfe and Robert Clenighen of E. H. Purdy & Co. bought four high-stooped houses at 42-48 West 13th Street and put up a six-story Italianate factory, finished in 1870. The firm made wooden moldings, mantels, picture frames and architectural ornaments there.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1890

    July 16

    Cabinetmakers and varnishers strike the Purdy factory over non-union hands

    The E. H. Purdy Manufacturing Company at 46 West 13th Street was hit by a strike on July 16, 1890, as The World reported the next day, after the firm employed non-union cabinetmakers and varnishers. The walkout nearly derailed a big job of finish work for a row of expensive houses on 72nd Street near West End Avenue. The dispute was resolved, and a week later the firm was advertising for boys to sand wood.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1899

    September 6

    A bicycle policeman spots a fire that heavily damages the Purdy factory

    Around 8 p.m. on September 6, 1899, a patrolman on a bicycle saw flames in a second-floor window and pedaled hard to the nearest alarm box. A crowd filling West 13th Street hampered the firefighters, and a burning stairway gave way under several of them, who fell thirty feet. The Times put the damage at $40,000 to $50,000, and the firm was afterward taken over by F. J. Newcomb Mfg. Co.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1940

    The Villager newspaper moves in and hosts neighborhood clubs

    Around 1940 the Greenwich Village newspaper The Villager took space at 48 West 13th Street, publishing and printing its paper there. It also lent meeting rooms to local groups; the Little Gardens Club of New York City was announced to meet at the Villager office on January 3, 1944, for a talk on Chinese gardens.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1967

    The old factory is converted to apartments as 'The Bakery Building'

    After a stretch as the home of the National Folding Wall Corp., which made folding partitions for hotels and schools, the building was renovated for housing in 1967 and given the name The Bakery Building. The brick facade has since been painted, the cornice and pediment are gone, and fire escapes cover the front.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village