The F.W. Devoe & Co. Factory has significant architectural and cultural value, and we strongly support its designation as a New York City Landmark.

The F.W. Devoe & Co. Factory is located at 110-112 Horatio Street, just south of the Gansevoort Market Historic District and in the historically industrial Hudson River waterfront section of Greenwich Village. This building, like its neighbors in the Far West Village, is a significant reminder of the neighborhood’s past as home to large industrial complexes, such as Nabisco and Bell Telephone. At its height (1870’s-1918) the Devoe Paint Complex occupied its entire block which is bound by Jane, West, Horatio and Washington Streets. The company produced high quality paint and varnishes for prestigious clients such as the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads.

This particular building was built in 1882-3 as a manufactory of mathematical instruments. It was designed by Kimball, & Wisedell, who are well known for theatre design, renovation of the Madison Square Theater and the erection of the Trinity and U.S. Realty Buildings. This brick and terra cotta building is a prime example of the “raw, elemental Romanesque design” characteristic of late nineteenth century Far West Village industrial buildings. Additionally, its historic fabric remains almost fully intact, and includes a decorative terra cotta cornice and panels at the top of the brick piers that portray the “painterly trade.”

110 Horatio Street is one important reminder of the neighborhood’s unique history as an early mixed-use maritime, industrial and residential center. MAS feels especially compelled to urge that the F.W. Devoe building be designated as a landmark because of Devoe Paint’s special connection to the history of New York’s railroads and because of its iconic architecture and intact building fabric.