History

Steeped in History

The building at 385 Greenwich Street was originally erected in 1805 by Joshua Barker, a merchant and former alderman of the Sixth Ward. It was initially designed as a two-story, 25’ wide, 40’ deep house, used as a Seafarer’s Inn to feed and house fishermen and sailors. Around 1815, Barker built a second dwelling on the lot next to it, No. 71 North Moore Street. Just before his death, construction began on a third dwelling (no longer standing), No. 69 North Moore Street, which became the property of Barker's widow in 1821. The corner lot was later owned in the 1850s by Thomas Stillman, whose shoe business was located at 148 Greenwich Street, and in the 1860s by the Schabbehar family which was in the jewelry business. In 1870 James P. Foster acquired the lot and in 1874 commissioned Peter L.P. Tostevin to alter and enlarge the corner structure from a two-and-a-half-story dwelling to a four-story tenement with a commercial base; the simple design was enhanced with a bracketed cornice. In 1898 the storefronts were replaced, and projecting show windows and an angled corner entrance were installed. Since the 1920s, the base of the building has housed restaurants.  No. 71 N Moore retains the scale and proportion of a dwelling and the original brownstone lintels and sills of the windows remain intact. The building was remodeled in 1949 for use as a coffee roasting facility. The building was reinforced internally with steel, a vehicular entrance was inserted in the ground story and the upper stories were covered with scored stucco. Today, the structure stands as one building, 6,421 square feet, 25’ wide x 70’ long, with two addresses. 385 Greenwich Street houses one commercial space on the corner of Greenwich & N Moore, currently occupied by Yves Restaurant. 71 N Moore Street houses one commercial space, currently occupied by Smith & Mills. The upper floors of both buildings have been joined together to create three distinct floor-through lofts. Four-story walk up building, with two commercial tenants on the ground floor, and three residential tenants above.

The picture above and below left is a tax photo from 1940 of 385 Greenwich Street. The elevated train pictured is the southern section of the IRT Ninth Avenue Line, the first elevated railway in NYC. It originally began operating in July 1868, ran straight up Greenwich Street, and continued operating through June 1940. However, a portion of the line north of 155th Street, known as the "Polo Grounds Shuttle," continued to operate until August 1958.