James Baldwin Residence

81 Horatio Street | West Village | built 1870

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. 1865

    A coal yard and stables occupy the site before the present houses

    In the 1830s brick houses were going up along Horatio Street, but the lots at Nos. 79 and 81 held something less genteel. A New York Herald advertisement in 1865 described a coal yard, brick stables and an office there. Their closeness to the Hudson River docks made the site convenient for such a use, which probably irritated neighbors in the well-kept houses around it. These structures preceded the present houses, which came a few years later.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1870

    Developer James Gilmore has William Grant build a matching pair at Nos. 79 and 81

    In 1869 the developer James Gilmore bought the 47-foot-wide property and hired William Grant, himself a real estate operator rather than an architect, to design two mirror-image houses. They rose four stories above brownstone basements, noticeably taller than their older neighbors. On June 3, 1870 he sold No. 81 for $18,000 to Morris Littman, who promptly ran it as a rooming house.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1932

    October

    A refrigerator salesman at No. 81 is arrested after two of his wives find each other

    Lionel Southard, a refrigerator salesman living at 81 Horatio Street in 1932, shared his apartment with a woman who was not his wife. He had already been convicted of bigamy in 1924. Two wives, Mary in Brooklyn and Gertrude in the Bronx, discovered each other and had him arrested in October 1932. The Daily News counted four wives and a lover.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1958

    James Baldwin moves into 81 Horatio Street

    James Baldwin signed a lease in December 1957 and moved into an apartment here in April 1958, after his first trip to the South. He stayed until 1961 and worked on his third novel, Another Country, in the building. A plaque marking his residence was affixed to the facade in October 2015.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2017

    Jessica Harris's memoir calls Sam Floyd's apartment at No. 81 "Club 81"

    In her 2017 memoir My Soul Looks Back, Jessica B. Harris uses the name "Club 81" for the apartment of the writer Sam Floyd, Baldwin's best friend and a fellow resident of the building. She remembers seeing Stokely Carmichael, Baldwin, Martina Arroyo and Louise Meriwether there. Floyd did much of the cooking, including roast goose and turnip greens.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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