Bayview Correctional Facility
550 West 20th Street | also 112 11th Avenue | Chelsea | built 1931
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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.
- 1931
The Seamen's House opens as a residence for sailors
Three maritime charities jointly built this eight-story residence, designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon while the firm was also drafting the Empire State Building. Bronze lighthouse lanterns, terra-cotta anchors, and a ship-shaped plaque decorated the brown-brick facade, and sailors staying there had access to a cafeteria, chapel, gymnasium, and swimming pool.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1936
Seamen's House holds a memorial for the SS Mohawk dead
On the first anniversary of the sinking, Seamen's House held a memorial service for the 56 passengers and crew killed when the steamship SS Mohawk sank after a collision off the New Jersey coast. The service reflected the building's role as a community center for merchant sailors passing through the port of New York.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1938
A guard ejecting a drunk man leads to a homicide charge outside the Seamen's House
On February 1, 1938, Arthur Peterson, one of the building's special officers, tried to put a drunk and disorderly Hoboken ship worker, 47-year-old Patrick Travers, out of the building. Witnesses told police Travers swung first and Peterson punched back. Travers collapsed on the sidewalk and died, and police arrested the guard, who was 31, and charged him with homicide.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1940
The Seamen's chaplain registers 556 sailors for the first peacetime draft
After the first peacetime draft was enacted, many residents were at sea on registration day, October 16, 1940, and could not sign up. A plan let seamen register as they came back. By October 25 the chaplain of the YMCA's Seamen's Branch, Dr. James C. Healey, reported that he had registered 556 men since October 17 at 550 West 20th Street.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1967
The state converts the building into the Bayview Rehabilitation Center
New York State bought the former Seamen's House in 1966 and opened it in June 1967 as the Bayview Rehabilitation Center, a narcotics treatment facility. By 1974 the state had converted the building again, this time into Bayview Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison that eventually housed women.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1970
Knox Martin paints the Venus mural on the prison's blank wall
Artist Knox Martin covered the prison's blank south wall with "Venus," a large red-and-pink abstract mural, commissioned by Doris Freedman's City Walls program, a forerunner of the Public Art Fund. The mural became largely hidden from view after a tower rose next door at 100 Eleventh Avenue in 2010.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1974
A second state renovation turns Bayview into a medium-security prison
The old Seamen's House had become the state's Bayview Rehabilitation Center for narcotics treatment in 1967. A second state renovation, finished in 1974, converted it into the Bayview State Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison. A year later, the practice of letting certain inmates out on weekend passes was being questioned.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1983
Bayview holds a Family Day for incarcerated women and their relatives
On July 16, 1983, the Bayview Correctional Facility was reported to be hosting a special Family Day Program that afternoon. The event was meant to bring the women incarcerated there together with their parents, husbands and children.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1985
A Correctional Association report finds Bayview unfit for general confinement
A January 1985 report by the Correctional Association of New York described a run-down building, long delays in getting outside medical care, and inadequate visiting and program space. It also found little vocational training or counseling, and noted that male guards had in the past sexually harassed and abused women prisoners. The Association concluded that Bayview was not an appropriate general-confinement facility.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2012
Hurricane Sandy floods the prison and forces its closure
Superstorm Sandy flooded Bayview Correctional Facility in October 2012, causing more than $600,000 in damage. The roughly 150 women incarcerated there were evacuated ahead of the storm, and the state never reopened the prison, closing it for good afterward.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
The NoVo Foundation plans a Women's Building in the empty prison
Bayview stayed empty after Hurricane Sandy, and in 2014 the NoVo Foundation and the Goren Group announced plans to turn it into The Women's Building, meant as a base for the worldwide movement for girls' and women's rights. Deborah Berke Partners was chosen as designer in August 2016. In March 2020 NoVo said timelines and budgets had far exceeded estimates and redirected the $50 million it had raised.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- Bayview Correctional FacilityWikipedia
- The 1931 Seamen's House - 550 West 20th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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