98 Christopher Street

West Village | built 1856

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. 1856

    Merchant tailor Samuel Taylor builds what is believed to be the Village's first apartment house

    Samuel Taylor, a merchant tailor active in real estate, put up this brick building in 1856, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission believes it is the earliest apartment house in Greenwich Village. Unlike the one-family houses at Nos. 92 and 94 nearby, its floors were given lower ceilings to increase rental income. Stores flank the central entrance, and cast-iron columns support the first floor.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1884

    June

    A saloonkeeper is bitten by an abandoned cat left in the basement

    Saloonkeeper Philip Graffe ran his bar on the ground floor in 1884. When a family left the basement and abandoned their white cat, Graffe lured it upstairs with meat. When he picked it up the cat bit his finger, and The Sun reported on June 16 that his hand and arm swelled badly and two doctors were studying him.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1906

    August 26

    A dinner guest chokes to death in a resident's apartment

    On August 26, 1906 resident Jacob Duhler met a friend, John Sewell, on the street and invited him up to dinner. Sewell, described by The New York Times as a mostly idle member of a well-known Long Island family, was slightly drunk. He choked on a piece of meat and died in Duhler's apartment before an ambulance arrived.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1911

    March 25

    Resident May Levantine escapes the Triangle Waist Company fire

    May Levantine, a widow who lived here, worked as a sewer at the Triangle Waist Company. When the Asch Building caught fire on March 25, 1911, she shut herself in a ninth-floor dressing room, then escaped by sliding down the elevator cable. Her hands were badly cut, but she survived a fire that killed scores of her co-workers.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 1,156 buildings with stories in West Village