159 Charles Street House

History and architecture

Constructed around 1838 for merchant Henry J. Wyckoff, 159 Charles Street is significant as a relatively rare surviving residential building of the early period of development of the far western section of Greenwich Village and has associations through its occupants with some of the area’s most significant businesses, the maritime trade and brewing industry. It is one of the few surviving Greek Revival style rowhouses in the Hudson River waterfront section of Manhattan, specifically the area west of the Greenwich Village Historic District between West 14th Street and Lower Manhattan.

Wyckoff, a prominent tea and wine merchant, built nine buildings on the former grounds of Newgate prison of which this is the only survivor. No. 159 Charles Street was initially leased to merchant James Hammond who operated a lumber business at Leroy and West Streets. Later tenants included local business owners and maritime workers including dock master Archer Martine and schooner captain Alexander Cunningham.

In the 1880s the building was acquired by the neighboring Beadleston & Woerz brewery and was used to house brewery workers and in 1930s and 1940s served as the corporation’s offices. A three-story-plus-basement three-baywide brick house with brownstone detailing, 159 Charles Street exhibits the simple forms and planar surfaces characteristic of the Greek Revival style. Its most notable feature is the handsome entry incorporating a stone surround with pilasters and a heavy entablature, tall wood pilasters framing a paneled doorway, sidelights, transom bar, and toplights. The house retains its brownstone base and original decorative wrought iron areaway fence ornamented with anthemia. The house’s historic bracketed metal cornice probably dates from the 1870s or 1880s.