Hope for Day house
Was home to post-Civil War Black crusader
A new City Hall administration has sparked renewed hopes that a 19th century Greenwich Village house steeped in Black history can finally receive landmark status.
The property at 50 W. 13th St. offers one of the few surviving links to the Manhattan neighborhood’s storied past, when the Village served as a hub for Black residents and a home to one of its leading Black citizens — Jacob Day, who devoted much of his life to fighting discriminatory laws that blocked many African-Americans from voting in post-Civil War New York.
“We’re perplexed and befuddled this hasn’t already happened, as it seems like a no-brainer,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for
Historic Preservation. “With the Martin Luther King holiday here, and the focus this year on voters’ rights, we feel this really resonates.”
In addition to its Black-history ties, the rowhouse dating to 1846-47 was more recently home to the 13th Street Repertory Co. — one of Manhattan’s oldest Off-Off-Broadway theaters, founded in 1972. Concerns about its future were amped up after the October 2020 death of the building’s well-known owner Edith O’Hara at age 103.
“There’s always been lore that the building was in fact used by the Underground Railroad,” Berman said. “We don’t know if there is conclusive proof of activity on the site, but historians say the evidence points in that direction.”
Day, who lived in the building between 1858 and 1984, was many things: One of the city’s
most prominent businessman of the 19th century, an abolitionist and a supporter of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church.
He operated a successful catering business, and became involved with the Freedman’s Bank — a post-Civil War operation created to provide economic help to the newly freed slaves and run for a stretch by Frederick Douglass.
He also challenged state rules at the time that required ownership of $250 in property for the right to vote, an enormous amount at the time and typically beyond the reach of Black men seeking to cast their ballots.
The landmarking proposal has received the backing of Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer and former Council Speaker Corey Johnson, among others. But the movement for its landmark status never gained traction during the de Blasio
administration, said Berman.
“The building did recently change hands,” Berman said. “We don’t know the new owner. But with a new administration in City Hall, it’s all the more reason to take another look and make sure this building doesn’t fall to the wrecking ball.”
An email to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for comment was not returned.
Day’s 1884 obituary in the New York Globe offered a brief yet enlightening run-through of his life’s work.
“Mr. Day was 67 years of age at his death, highly respected for his Christian and manly qualities, and had been for many years a constant and prominent member of the Abyssinia Baptist Church,” it read. “He was probably the oldest caterer in the city, and amassed considerable wealth in the prosecution of that business.”