Kimmy goes back in time!

[74 Freeman Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

For Ellie Kemper fans: no. 74 (built in 1931) serves as the exterior of Kimmy Schmidt’s place in the series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

The street number has some history: in 1887 a twenty-two-year-old male resident of whatever building stood as no. 74 was arrested in “the ruins of the Havemeyer sugar refinery,” where he (drunk) and a twenty-two-year-old woman (also drunk, also arrested) had attracted the interest of spectators. We can probably guess what they were doing. In 1915, a different male resident of no. 74 was arrested for and later convicted of bigamy, having married a woman in Jersey City when he was already married to a woman in Brooklyn (who did not live at no. 74). In 1937, a former star of the Sing Sing football team was granted a divorce from his wife, a resident of no. 74 who was accused of “misconduct” while her husband was in prison. Perhaps the Havemeyer ruins were still standing in ruins.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt seems to be the next matter of interest, and far happier interest, in the building’s history.

In 1962, no. 74 was offered for sale in an interestingly punctuated ad:

[Greenpoint Weekly Star, February 16, 1962.]

A recent estimate of the property’s value: $1.56 million. Here it is in 2022.

If you click on this tax photograph to look a bit more closely, you might be startled by the appearance of the young person standing on the building steps. To my eye he looks like a minor character in a Dickens novel, perhaps Bitzer in Hard Times.

And if you’re wondering what lies behind that door topped with a fence, it’s an alley leading to a small backyard.

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More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

[All details of no. 74’s past via Brooklyn Newsstand and The New York Times.]