243 West 14th Street

 apartment building  Add category

5-story (including raised basement) Greek-revival/Italianate residential building completed in 1847 as one in a row of three houses. It was built for Andrew Norwood as an investment. He moved into the neighboring house, and this one was sold to Latimer Bailey in 1853. He lived here until 1865, and it was converted to use as a boarding house. In 1910 the house was sold to the Tough Club which announced "the building will be remodeled into an up-to-date club house." The Tough Club was founded in 1865, associated with the Tammany Hall political machine; Mayor Jimmy Walker was said to hang out here, and FDR supposedly visited at least once. Architect William S. Boyd was hired to make extensive renovations. It was most likely at this time that the center openings of the upper floors were shortened and a stucco-type material applied over the brick.

The club survived at least into the early 1980s with an aging membership. In 1998 the upper floors were converted to three apartments. Shortly afterward the end of the line came for the Tough Club, which had been relegated to the former storefront space. A series of restaurants followed, and it is currently occupied by Chelsea Living Room.

The facade has been remodeled, with a new facing of smooth-stucco, painted tan. The windows have brownstone enframements, arranged in three bays with shorter windows in the center. The entrance is located on the parlor floor, up a high stoop on the left, with wood-and-glass double-doors and a transom set in a recessed alcove of paneled wood that is framed by a Greek-revival surround. Two French windows on the right open onto a shallow balcony, with the storefront of wood and glass below. There are white iron railings over the bases of the windows in the outer bays. The facade is crowned by a thin brown metal roof cornice with simple brackets.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-latimer-bail...