If the very top of the Port Authority building a few blocks away on Eighth Avenue and 14th Street weren’t visible, you might think this photo captured a row of simple homes in some small city or country town in the pre-automobile, horse and wagon era.
But it’s actually a moment in time on the West side of Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets in the West Village. The photo was taken by Berenice Abbott in 1937, just before these 11 three-story, wooden-balconied homes were razed.
Built by landowner William Rhinelander in 1848, they were previously known as “cottage row,” and they shouldn’t be confused with Rhinelander Gardens, a fancier row of homes that once stood on West 11th Street.
A New York Times article from 1937 said of Rhinelander Row, “With their wide piazzas and ample balconies on the upper floors they have been for many years refreshing reminders of the simple but comfortable residential days in that interesting part of the city.”
What’s on that block now? It’s the site of the Maritime Building, which appears to be getting the ax so Saint Vincent’s Medical Center can put up a new hospital building.
Tags: Cottage Row, Maritime Building, Rhinelander Row, Saint Vincent's Hospital, Seventh Avenue, West Village old houses
Ephemeral New York 
April 7, 2009 at 3:06 pm |
“…the Port Authority building a few blocks away on Eighth Avenue and 14th Street…” You mean the Port of New York Authority Building, 111 Eighth Ave., between 15th & 16th Streets?
And that “Maritime Building” — that would be the structure more often called the O’Toole Building (though originally the Joseph Curran Building) rather than the National Maritime Union’s Joseph Curran Annex at 100 Ninth Ave., just north of the aforementioned Port Authority building, right?
April 7, 2009 at 3:43 pm |
Right. Not the Port Authority Bus Terminal or the maritime building that’s now a hotel on Ninth. I’ve lived around both buildings and am just using the neighborhood shorthand.
April 7, 2009 at 4:30 pm |
It’s too bad they’re taking that ugly looking Maritime Building down, after so many years I’ve grown used to it, but knowing them they’ll put up a stupid looking skyscraper and say it’s the best of the ‘new’ New York that is now taking over…meaning more money and garbage shoddy architecture.
December 30, 2009 at 6:45 am |
[…] Rhinelander real estate site is just around the corner on Seventh […]
January 20, 2010 at 4:54 am |
beautiful
August 29, 2013 at 7:03 am |
[…] Two other Rhinelander-named enclaves in Greenwich Village, bulldozed decades ago, can be found here. […]