F.W. Devoe & Co. Factory

History and architecture

Constructed in 1882-83 for paint manufacturers F.W. Devoe & Co. and designed by the noted architectural firm of Kimball & Wisedell, the six-story factory building at 110-112 Horatio Street is a rare surviving example of the industrial structures that once occupied much of the far western section of Greenwich Village. F.W. Devoe & Co. traces its origins to 1754 when William Post began selling paint on the East River waterfront. The company expanded rapidly during the mid-nineteenth century, moving its offices to Fulton Street in 1855 and acquiring manufacturing facilities on Horatio Street that same year.

The firm continued to grow in the years following the Civil War, erecting several buildings in the 1870s and 1880s. The factory at 110-112 Horatio Street was the last and largest structure constructed for F.W. Devoe & Co. in the neighborhood and at one time housed the company’s brush making department, facilities for grinding and mixing paint, and areas for storage and shipping. The building was the most architecturally prominent structure within the paint company’s Horatio Street works.

The multi-story construction, open floor plans, and large window openings are characteristic of the urban industrial loft building typology, while the façade’s regular grid of vertical brick piers and horizontal bands, relatively elaborate brick work, and corbelled brick and terracotta cornice containing a series of round arches suggest the influence of the Rungbodenstil and American Round Arch styles of industrial architecture.

F.W. Devoe & Co. sold its Horatio Street works in 1918, at which time the building—like many in the neighborhood—was converted to warehousing facilities serving the nearby Gansevoort and Chelsea Piers. In 1984 it was converted to an annex of the adjacent apartment building. This was a period of substantial redevelopment for the Far West Village, during which time many of the industrial buildings that once dominated the neighborhood were either replaced by modern apartment buildings or were significantly altered during their conversion to residential use. The F. W. Devoe & Co. Factory is therefore a rare—and because of its high degree of physical integrity, an important—reminder of the Far West Village’s industrial past.