170-188 Sullivan Street

 apartment building  Add category

The eastern part of the MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District, this group of colorful 4-story rowhouses were all built in 1850 for the estate of Nicholas Low. Each building is in the Greek revival style, and all have been joined and renovated.
The buildings were built as houses, but by the turn of the 19th century, had become deteriorated in an area that had become a slum. They were bought in 1920 by William Sloane Coffin, who engaged architects Francis Y. Joannes and Maxwell Hyde, who converted the houses into apartments and re-faced the buildings in Colonial Revival style while retaining some of the original Greek Revival elements. They removed all the buildings' stoops and combined the rear yards to make a common garden.
The district was designated a New York City landmark in 1967.