DOORWAY: 204 WEST 13TH STREET
Between Seventh and Greenwich Avenues
MAY 5, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 237

Turning the corner of West 13th Street from Rhinelander Row, Abbott encountered the doorway of no. 204. She photographed it on the same day that she took her third of three photographs of the Row. Nos. 204 and 206 were identical three-story houses built in 1840 by "Hans Ditman, artisan." The elaborate doorways of these modest homes were probably made by their original owner. The houses survived until the 1964 construction of the monolithic National Maritime Union headquarters.

Walker Evans, who shared with Abbott an interest in Americana and who also lived in Greenwich Village, photographed the same doorway in 1931. Unlike Abbott, he isolated the door from the facade, the stoop, and the railings.

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