A Victorian Gothic courthouse from 1877, converted to a public library in 1967, where visitors report a smiling woman in period dress who waves from across the room and then is gone.
425 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10011
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public library; no admission charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Street-level entrance on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1877 · Built 1874-1877 as Third Judicial District Courthouse · Designed by Frederick Clarke Withers and Calvert Vaux in Victorian Gothic style · Site of Harry Thaw arraignment (1906) in the Stanford White murder case · Housed the country's first night court · Saved from demolition by community campaign in 1958 · NYPL branch since 1967; National Historic Landmark (1977)
The building at 425 Sixth Avenue was constructed between 1874 and 1877 as the Third Judicial District Courthouse for Manhattan. Architects Frederick Clarke Withers and Calvert Vaux—Vaux was the co-designer of Central Park—created a Victorian Gothic structure with a prominent clock tower that became one of Greenwich Village's most recognizable landmarks.
The courthouse served the heavily trafficked entertainment district known as the Tenderloin and was the site of the country's first night court, established to handle the volume of cases generated by the neighborhood. It continued operating as a courthouse through 1945.
In 1906, the building received national attention when Harry K. Thaw was arraigned before the magistrate on charges of murdering architect Stanford White. Thaw had shot White on June 25, 1906, at the rooftop theater of Madison Square Garden. The background to the killing—White had assaulted Thaw's wife, the chorus girl and model Evelyn Nesbit, when she was a teenager—made the case a tabloid sensation. Nesbit, who had been a teenager when the assault occurred, testified at the trial; Thaw was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity after two trials. The case was later depicted in E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime.
By 1958 the courthouse had been vacant for years and was slated for demolition. A community preservation campaign, led in part by e.e. cummings and other Greenwich Village residents, successfully blocked the demolition. After restoration work, the building reopened in 1967 as the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977. The library underwent major restoration and reopened in July 2022.
Sources
The ghost account associated with the Jefferson Market Library is among Greenwich Village's more consistently reported: a woman in what witnesses describe as period dress, seen across the reading room or near the stairs, who makes eye contact, waves or smiles, and then is not there when the witness looks again or moves toward her.
Local ghost-tour operators and documentation compiled by TimeOut New York connect this figure to Evelyn Nesbit, whose connection to the building came through the 1906 Thaw trial. Nesbit, who had been assaulted by Stanford White as a teenager, was present throughout the proceedings and testified on her husband Harry Thaw's behalf. She was a significant public figure during the trial—her image appeared in newspapers nationwide—and her association with this particular courthouse makes her the anchor of the building's haunting lore.
It is worth noting that the nature of the apparition—friendly, waving, not threatening—diverges considerably from what one might expect given the traumatic circumstances. Ghost-tour narrations sometimes frame the figure as Nesbit still seeking sympathy for the ordeal she endured. No paranormal investigation has been formally conducted at the library, and the accounts that circulate in ghost-tour literature are not traceable to named witnesses.
Notable Entities
Visit the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library, housed in an 1877 Victorian Gothic courthouse that narrowly escaped demolition in the 1950s. The building's exterior clock tower and stained glass windows are among Greenwich Village's most distinctive architectural features.
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