R. Tassi & Sons Garage

45 Downing Street | West Village | built 1915

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. 1915

    The Tassi family completes a three-story car stable five years after buying the lot

    In May 1910 Joseph Tassi paid $16,000 for a one-story frame building and the vacant lot beside it, on the site of 45-47 Downing Street, and hired George Provot to plan a three-story garage. The project stalled, and when it opened in 1915 the architect of record was Eugene De Rosa. The garage traded as R. Tassi Sons, advertised used cars such as a Ford taxicab and a Pierce-Arrow raceabout body, and carried the words 'Tassi Garage' on its cornice.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1979

    November

    A New York Times ad offers a former garage for $100,000 and says it is occupied by 'Royalty'

    On November 30, 1979, a New York Times classified ad pitched 45 Downing Street as a unique townhouse, 'presently occupied by Royalty', that had to be sold immediately for $100,000. The former Tassi garage had been turned into a single-family home eight years earlier. Daytonian in Manhattan could not determine who the 'royalty' was.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1988

    Wall Street guests pay a premium to attend a reception hosted by John Glenn and Geraldine Ferraro

    After the garage was converted to a single-family home in 1971, its lower floors became an event space. In July 1988 the N.Y. Amsterdam News reported that Wall Street financiers had descended on 45 Downing Street for a pricey reception hosted by Senator John Glenn and Geraldine Ferraro. The venue later hosted a 1990 wedding, a 1995 benefit for the Dessoff Choirs and a 2002 memorial for the artist Peter Fraenkel.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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