80 West 12th Street

Greenwich Village | built 1843

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. 1843

    Attorney Daniel Baldwin builds a row of sixteen Greek Revival houses

    Daniel A. Baldwin, a lawyer with offices on Nassau Street, turns to speculative real estate and builds sixteen Greek Revival houses along West 12th Street, from No. 54 through No. 84. They are meant for merchant-class families, and No. 80 is identical to its neighbors.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1882

    Rev. Leo Koenig, pastor of a German Lutheran church, buys the house

    Rev. Leo Koenig buys No. 80 in 1882. Born in Frankfort-on-Oder, Germany, he arrived in America at 22 and has led St. Paul's German Lutheran Church on Sixth Avenue since about 1879. The Koenigs most likely added the Italianate arched entrance doors and a neo-Grec cornice.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1919

    October 13

    Rev. Leo Koenig dies after four decades leading St. Paul's Church

    Rev. Leo Koenig dies at 75 after a midday nap. He had served St. Paul's German Lutheran Church as pastor for forty years. His son Nicholas, a scholar of Oriental languages, had translated al-Kindi's history of the governors of Egypt and spent a year in Jerusalem as a fellow.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1950

    October

    Future Rankin/Bass producer Arthur Rankin buys the house

    After 68 years in the Koenig family, the house is sold to Arthur Gardner Rankin, an ABC art director, and is assessed at $29,000. In 1955 he and Jules Bass form Videocraft International, which later produces stop-motion TV classics under the Rankin/Bass name, including Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village