landmarks Presei:vation Connnission May 1, 1990; Designation List 225 LP-1583 9 WEST 16th S'IREEI' BUIIDING, Borough of Manhattan, Built c. 1846. Architect unknown. landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 818, I..ot 33. On June 10, 1986, the landmarks Presei:vation Connnission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a landmark of the 9 West 16th Street Building (Item No. 4); the building was one of twenty-three buildings located from 3 to 59 West 16th Street, each being heard that day as an individual item. A total of six witnesses spoke in favor of designation, including four witnesses who spoke specifically in regard to 9 West 16th Street, as well as to the related item.s. '!here were no speakers in opposition to designation. '!he landmarks Preservation Connnission has received seventy-seven letters in support of the designation of the houses on the north side of West 16th Street on the block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, including one letter referring specifically to No. 9 West 16th Street. DFSCRIPI'ION AND ANALYSIS Sl.Il!'!lllfilY '!he bow'-fronted house at No. 9 West 16th Street, constructed c. 1846, serves as a distinctive reminder of the period when this section of Manhattan, near Union Square, was a fashionable neighborhood filled with handsome residences. 'Ibis brick house with its generous width and elegant cur:ved front is a finely-designed exanple of the Greek Revival style; the unusual bow' front is a feature more conunonly found on houses in Boston dating from earlier in the nineteenth centw:y. '!he eared and battered entrance surround, executed in stone, is a distinguishing architectural feature initially derived from :Egyptian sources that was popular in Greek Revival rowhouse designs durj.ng the 1840s. 'Ibis house is one of a group of nine residences (four extant1) constructed under the tenns of a restrictive agreement which governed the use and overall design of the buildings to ensure that this block of West 16th Street would develop as a fine residential street. D.Iring the late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century the area changed from purely residential to one of mixed connnercial and residential use. '!his house has maintained its residential character and simple elegance, and recalls the earliest period of development in this neighborhood west of Union Square. 1

Development of the Union Square Neighbo:rhood2 '!he block of West 16th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues lay within the original boundaries of a fann belonging to Slinon Congo, a free black man in seventeenth-century New York. 'Ihis property was later incorporated into the holdings of the esteemed landowner Herny Brevoort of the Bowe:ry, a New York civic leader. '!he northernmost tract of the Brevoort fann was sold to Thomas and Samuel Burling in 1799, and in 1825 John Cowman purchased the section of land now roughly bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues and West 16th and 17th Streets. '!he land remained rural into the 1830s, despite the fact that Fifth and Sixth Avenues were opened to traffic in this area a decade earlier. '!he development of this and the surrounding blocks was tied to New York's inexorable march northward. '!he fact that this area became a prime residential neighbo:rhood was due to its proximity to Union Square. Union Place (as Union Square was originally known) located just over one block to the east, appears on the New York City Connnissioners Map of 1807-11, 'Which formalized the street grid of Manhattan above Houston Street. It was fonned by the unplanned convergence or "union" of the Bowe:ry Road (Fourth Avenue), and Bloomingdale Road (Broadway), and initially extended from 10th to 17th Streets, on land owned by the Manhattan Bank. In 1815, however, the state legislature reduced the size of Union Place by marking the cross-town arte:ry of 14th Street as its southern boundary. '!he site was at times used as a potters' field, and as late as 1833 was covered with cnide shanties. Iaid ou

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