90 West Houston Street
Greenwich Village | built 1900
Open on the map5 entries
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.
- 1830
Angelica Gilbert advertises her boarding and day school in the new row house
Built around 1828 as part of a Federal-style row on Houston Street, the house became home to Miss Angelica Gilbert's Boarding & Day School. A September 1830 advertisement in the New-York Evening Post promised instruction in the rudiments for children and advanced subjects for young ladies. Her pupils came from prominent Manhattan families, among them the Rhinelanders, Kipps and Wards.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1870
A forged wedding letter lets Walter Butler borrow a boarder's jewelry
On June 10, 1870 Walter L. Butler delivered a letter to boarder Margarette Luthy, supposedly from her friend Fannie Shattuck, who wrote she was about to marry and asked to borrow earrings, a collar and other items. Luthy handed over goods she valued at $68. Shattuck was neither engaged nor married; Butler had written the letter himself. A nephew of General Benjamin F. Butler, he was caught in Yorkville and got two and a half years of hard labor.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1871
A mansard roof and storefront turn the Federal row house into a Second Empire shop and flats
The house was built around 1828 for Isaac Plum as one of four at 88 to 94 West Houston Street. In 1871, with plans by J. H. Brown for owner J. L. Brooks, the house was raised to four stories under a Second Empire mansard roof with three dormers, and a cast-iron storefront went in at street level. The landmark survey describes it as an altered Federal building with Second Empire elements.
“Originally a two-and-a-half-story row house with peaked roof and dormers built c. 1828 for Isaac Plum, as part of a group of four at 88 to 94 West Houston Street…”
- 1986
Music booker Ruth Polsky, who lived here, is killed by a runaway taxi outside the Limelight
Ruth Polsky, a talent buyer at Hurrah and Danceteria who helped break British post-punk acts in the United States, lived at 90 West Houston Street. On the night of September 7, 1986 a runaway taxi pinned her against the front of the Limelight club on West 20th Street, and she was killed. She had brought over bands including The Smiths and New Order; Morrissey dedicated a Smiths single to her memory.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1993
Zinc Bar opens on the ground floor with jazz, blues and Brazilian music, staying until 2008
Over the years the ground floor held a restaurant, a plumber's shop, a delicatessen and a luncheonette; in 1964 the upper floors became two apartments per floor. In 1993 the Zinc Bar opened, and The Villager reported that besides espresso it offered blues, jazz and some Brazilian music. It stayed until July 2008, and the space is now a coffee house called Moka Moment.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- Murders, Suicides and Jazz - 90 West Houston StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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