WEST VILLAGE, NY — A sidewalk shed scaffold that has covered a West Village building on and off for more than 20 years was removed to the joyous surprise of its tenants.

The saga of a sidewalk shed at 24-26 W. Ninth St. — which began at the turn of the 21st century — came to unexpected close Monday, residents said and the Buildings department confirmed.

While activists who've been working to remove the scaffolding didn't know why it was finally removed, they weren't shy about celebrating.

"It shouldn't take 23 years of continuous complaints or a grassroots campaign to noodge every agency and representative to get action, but landlord George Adams finally did the right thing," Take It Down co-founders Leslie Breeding and Nina Kaufelt said.

"He did the work and took it down. It's amazing what a few posters will do."

The sidewalk shed saga began on Nov. 7, 1999, lasted through Dec. 31, 2004, returned from March 2005 until 2007, took a five-year hiatus, resumed in 2012 and ended Monday, according to the Department of Buildings.

During years-long stretches under light-blocking scaffolding, frustrated tenants of the West Village building organized Take It Down and teamed up with the West 9th Street Block Association to get the structure...taken down.

"Sidewalk sheds blight blocks all over," said Breeding and Kaufelt . "The City's regulations still have no teeth. Landlords thumb their noses at the tenants and the fines."

The group pushed the building's owner and the Department of Buildings to do something about the scaffolding — while also looking to raise awareness about similar long-standing structures throughout the city.

Take it Down's "delight" with Monday morning's "surprise event" was echoed by the West 9th Street Block Association's leading members.

"The efforts of block neighbors and the City Council team have resulted in what we believe was the second longest-standing sidewalk shed in New York City to have finally come down," Annette Stover, a member of the block association, told Patch.

"Let the light shine onto the street trees and into residents’ windows!"

The groups weren't actually certain about why the structure came down on Monday, but a spokesperson from the Department of Buildings broke it down.

The current rendition of the sidewalk shed at 24-26 W. Ninth St. was in place to protect the members of the public from the building's "unsafe exterior walls," according to the Department of Buildings.

Throughout the years, an engineering company hired by building owner B. Adams Holding Corp submitted multiple reports to the city showing there were unsafe facade conditions that posed an "imminent hazard to pedestrians," according to the DOB.

Patch was unable to reach B. Adams for comment, as an email provided by tenants, was no longer in use.

The owners of the building first obtained permits for this specific repair work in March 2016, but didn't complete them until earlier this year, a DOB spokesperson said. The engineering report for the completed work was then submitted on Aug. 29, 2022, and was subsequently reviewed and accepted on Sept. 21, 2022, by the Department of Building.

"As the façade is now in a safe condition, and no longer posing a danger to pedestrians, the owners could remove the sidewalk shed," the DOB spokesperson told Patch.

As of today, there are 9,659 sidewalk sheds in New York City, which is down from the 11,300 sidewalk sheds in the summer of 2020 — an all-time high.

Patch first reported on the longstanding sidewalk shed at the West Village building in June of 2021.

The original West Village story led to a wider look at "When 'Temporary' Scaffolding Turns Permanent In NYC."

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