Wait Wells House

65 Horatio Street | also 65A Horatio Street | West Village | built 1845

Open on the map4 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. 1845

    A Washington Market fishmonger builds himself a house at 65 Horatio Street

    Wait Wells ran Stall No. 30 at Washington Market, the wholesale food center just south of the Village, where shoppers could find everything from Maryland turkeys to buffalo and llama. In 1845 he put up a three-story Greek Revival house on Horatio Street. He clad its side wall in brick and gave it windows, apparently certain that the lot next door at No. 63 would stay empty.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1845

    A deep wooden fascia and a side bay window set the Wells house apart

    The 1969 landmark report singles out the third-floor fascia of this house, a full-depth wooden board with windows set into it that wraps around the corner, as one of the few of its kind in the city. A bay window added later projects from one side, and the doorway lintel carries jigsaw ornament typical of the 1850s. The original wrought iron stair and areaway railings survive.

    “The full-depth fascia, with windows in it extending around the corner of the third floor, is one of the few examples of its kind in the city.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1905

    May 20

    The Reynolds family sells the house after decades

    The Reynolds family was living at No. 65 by 1866, when Nelson Albert Reynolds entered the introductory class at New York City College. Boys from Nos. 58, 64 and 78 on the same block enrolled there in the following years. On May 20, 1905 the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide reported that Nelson A. and Evry Reynolds had sold the house.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1927

    January 15

    A truck driver from No. 65 skids in a blizzard and hits his own neighbor

    A violent blizzard struck the city on January 15, 1927. William Dunchey, a truck driver who lived at No. 65, lost control at the corner of Sixth and Greenwich Avenues and slid onto the sidewalk, hitting two women. One was Harriet Carrier, who suffered a fractured skull; the other was Waithe Radford of No. 44 Horatio Street, who went home without treatment. Dunchey was not charged because of the weather.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 1,156 buildings with stories in West Village