Fire hits 180-year-old Greenwich Village building once home to E.E. Cummings

A pre-dawn fire on Wednesday hit a landmark building on Patchin Place in Greenwich Village, one of the neighborhood’s quietest — and most storied — corners. 

The early-morning blaze broke out at 4 Patchin Place, a mid-19th-century townhouse once home to poet E. E. Cummings. The site is part of a broader renovation project, according to a complaint report filed by the Department of Buildings and obtained by The Post. 

The report said that the fire, which started on the second floor, caused “major” damage, though the full extent is unknown. It also noted that an inspection blamed an electrical heater as the cause of the fire.

Patchin Place is a narrow, gated cul-de-sac off of West 10th Street, famous for its intimate alleyway feel and rich artistic history. 

Built in the late 1840s, the 10 small, brick homes lining the lane have housed celebrated writers and creatives — from Marlon Brando, Theodore Dreiser and Djuna Barnes to Cummings himself — and have changed little in appearance over the decades, even retaining one of the city’s few remaining 19th-century gas lamps. 

It is part of the Greenwich Village Historic District and a fixture on walking tours of the city’s architectural past.

In March 2022, Firebird Grove, a SoHo-based real estate investment firm, bought all 11 buildings on Patchin Place for just over $32 million from Morgan Holding Capital, an investment group with a long portfolio of New York properties. 

Firebird Grove describes itself as a “next-generation real estate investment group that buys, modernizes, and operates medium to large-scale assets.” 

The company has not publicly detailed its long-term plans for the enclave, though the ongoing renovations pre-dating the fire appear tied to its stewardship.

“We have no plans on tearing down the properties,” Marla Siegel, a spokesperson for Firebird Grove, previously told The Post. “That street is full of history and charm. The plan is to maintain the special quality of that block.”

The Post has reached out to Firebird Grove for further comment following the blaze.

Gary Weiss, author of “Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie,” lives across from the structure and witnessed “a lot of smoke” in the early moments of the fire.

“About 2:30, I started hearing a commotion outside, but I didn’t think much of it because there is always noise in the courtyard,” Weiss told The Post. “Then at about 3 a.m., I heard someone scream, ‘Fire!’ I looked outside my window and, oh my God, across the courtyard — I must have been, like, 30 feet away — I see flames on the second floor.”

Weiss said the location had been under restoration “for months” and that the historic structures “are not built to withstand fire,” lamenting that it was “an incredibly stupid way to destroy a 180-year-old building.”

For residents on Patchin Place — many of whom moved in within the last few years, according to Weiss — the fire was a disorienting shock.

“Most [tenants] are fairly new people. The old-time residents like myself — that is to say, people who moved in more than 20 years ago — have passed and are dying,” Weiss said. “I went out, and I talked to people, and they were just mainly confused and upset.”

Weiss also offered a perspective on the block’s evolution under its new owners.

“They seem like nice people. … So far they seem like a pretty good, pretty good bunch of people,” he said. “So, yeah, I kind of feel bad for them.”

While Patchin Place’s small enclave has historically drawn literary and artistic residents, in recent decades it also became known for professional offices — particularly psychotherapy practices — as well as private homes, a testament to its peaceful charm within the city’s urban fabric.

Weiss credited the nearby FDNY Squad 18 with containing the blaze before it spread to adjacent buildings.

“The fire department was very swift,” he said. “And I think everybody’s very grateful to the guys at Squad 18 down the street.”