14 WEST 12TH STREET
Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
JULY 16, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 146

The twin town houses at 12-14 West 12th Street were built in 1849 by renowned architect Alexander Jackson Davis. From 1888 to 1895, no. 14 belonged to sculptor John Rogers, whose painted plasters of sentimental genre subjects brought him fame and fortune. From 1895 to 1917, Rogers rented the house to the Salmagundi Club, before its move to 47 Fifth Avenue, a block away. In 1920, the two houses were combined to become the parish house of the First Presbyterian Church (1846), which occupied the block between West 11th and 12th Streets on Fifth Avenue. In 1957, the houses were torn down and replaced by a multipurpose church house designed by Edgar Tafel, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Most likely Abbott was drawn to the house's unusual Victorian ironwork rather than to the house itself. The whimsical circle pattern stands out in bold relief under the afternoon sun, in contrast to the pattern of trapezoidal shadows under the window cornices. Shortly after Abbott's photograph, the ironwork was removed.

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