Close to yesterday’s scene, on West 10th Street…
The white-painted brick building on the left was constructed as a stable sometime shortly after 1863, most likely for the Grosvenor Hotel half a block away at Fifth Avenue and 10th Street. The sign reading “Grosvenor Private Boarding Stable” sounds like it was built so that hotel guests could get hotel rooms for their horses, which would explain its short life relative to the hotel: by the 1880s, very few visitors to New York were arriving on horseback. It was converted to a private house in 1887 and has remained so since. The 1831 house to its right used to have a shallow rear yard leading to a rear stable; the pass-through to reach the stable was converted to a garage in the 1900s, and an extension built connecting the house and the former stable.
All fairly ordinary stuff: buildings change over time. But it’s fun seeing the traces of the past.
