landmarks Preservation Cormnission May 1, 1990; Designation List 225 IP-1586 21 WFST 16th STREEI' BUIIDING, Borough of Manhattan, Built c. 1846. Architect unknown. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 818, IDt 23. On June 10, 1986, the landmarks Preservation Conunission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a landmark of the 21 West 16th Street Building (Item No. 7); 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 two witnesses who spoke specifically in regard to 21 West 16th Street, as well as to the related items. '!here were no speakers in opposition to designation. 'Ihe landmarks Preservation Conunission has received seventy-seven letters in support of the designation of the houses on the north side of West 16th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. DESCRIPI'ION AND ANALYSIS Summary IDcated on the north side of West 16th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, No. 21 West 16th Street is a distinctive Greek Revival rowh.ouse constructed about 1846, at a time when the Union Square area was developincJ as a fashionable neighborhood. As the city expanded northward in the 1840s, the area west of Union Square and north of 14th Street, then bordering on the city's northerrnnost urban limits, became a prosperous neighborhood of mansions and fine rowhouses. Characteristic of the Greek Revival style, this brick-fronted house, with its elegant design and proportions, is trinnned in finely detailed stone, ironwork, and wood, exerrplified by the original wood door enframement with its slender Corinthian pilasters supporting an entablature and transom above and the richly ornamented iron balcony fronting the parlor-story windows. 'Ihe 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 during the 1840s. '!his rowh.ouse is one of at least twelve on this block planned and probably built by speculator and businessman F.dward S. Mesier, under a restrictive agreement that detennined the appearance and use of the buildings in order to ensure that West 16th Street, like the surrounding neighborhood, develop as a block of fine residences. 1 In the late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century, the area changed in character from residential to one of mixed use, as corrrrnercial buildings replaced most of the older rowh.ouses. Remarkably intact, No. 21 West 16th Street maintains its simple elegance and serves as a significant reminder of the fonner residential character of the neighborhood to the west of Union Square. 1

'Ihe Clevelopment of the Union Square Neighbo:rhocxi2 'Ihe site of 21 West 16th Street originally laid within the original boundaries of a fann belonging to Simon Congo, a "free black man" and property owner in seventeenth-century New York. '!his property was later incorporated into the holdings of esteemed landowner Hency Brevoort of the Bowery, a New York civic leader. 'Ihe northernmost tract of the Brevoort fann was sold to 'Ihornas and Samuel Burling in 1799 and in 1825 the section of land now roughly bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues and West 16th and 17th Streets was purchased from them by John Cowman. 'Ihe land rema.ined rural into the 1830s, despite the fact that Fifth and Sixth Avenues were opened to traffic in this area a decade earlier. 'Ihe development of this and the surrounding blocks was tied to New York's inexorable march northward. 'Ihe fact that this area became a prime residential neighbo:rhocxi was due to its proximity to Union Square. Union Place (later known as Union Square), located a little over one block to the east of 21 West 16th Street, appears on the New York City connnissioners Map of 1807-11, which formalized the street grid of Manhattan above Houston street. It was formed by t

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