Two Potato building

684 Greenwich Street | also 143 Christopher Street | West Village | built 1900

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. 1868

    Builders put up a stable and a wheelwright's shop at Christopher and Greenwich Streets for a butcher

    Thomas E. Broadway Jr., a butcher in his father's firm, bought the lot in 1865. Builders James Barclay and Nicholas Connor then erected two brick structures of two stories, one a stable or carriage house and the other a wheelwright and blacksmith's shop with a dwelling above. Within a few years they held tenants such as the shoemakers Walling & Son and, at 684 Greenwich Street, Peter Hagan's saloon, which stayed from 1870 to 1890; voter lists of 1874 showed nine residents.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1884

    John J. Mitty, a future bishop, is born in a flat upstairs

    John J. Mitty was born in an upper-floor dwelling in the building in 1884. In June 1926 Pope Pius appointed him Bishop of Salt Lake City. Almost four decades after his birth, in January 1923, the Cathedral Cafeteria was incorporated to take over the ground floor.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1898

    November 15

    Surrogate's Court upholds a butcher's will leaving everything to his 13-year-old step-granddaughter

    Thomas E. Broadway Jr., the building's builder-owner, died in September 1897; his doctor later testified that Broadway had insisted his dead wife came back to him in flesh and blood. His six-line will left everything to 13-year-old Fannie L'Hommedieu, and over 70 relatives, among them his former wife Kate, contested it for undue influence and mental incapacity. After a trial of months, Surrogate Petty upheld the will on November 15, 1898.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1934

    July 11

    A priest sues to close the Cathedral Bar & Grill next to his rectory

    After Prohibition ended in December 1933, the Cathedral Cafeteria reinvented itself as the Cathedral Bar & Grill. Father Delaney of neighboring St. Veronica's Church went to court on July 11, 1934 to shut it, testifying that loud language could be heard from the restaurant at 6 a.m. The bar was less than 200 feet from a church but had operated at the site for nine years, so it could not be closed; the judge instead ordered the bar moved from the wall next to the rectory to the front of the restaurant.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2001

    November 26

    The state suspends the Two Potato bar's liquor license for 30 days

    Two Potato, a gay bar that moved into the ground floor in 1982, faced a dispute when its license came up for renewal in August 2001. Neighbors said drug dealers and prostitutes gathered outside, and The New York Times framed the argument as gay-identity politics set against claims of racism. The State Liquor Authority shut the bar for 30 days beginning November 26 by suspending its license, and fined it $5,000; it was to reopen as Chances Are, which lasted until 2005, when Bar Nocetti took over.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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