New York City’s Beloved Subway Baby Celebrates 25 Years of Life and Thriving Against the Odds

The family’s journey is featured in a new animated short film, “18 Months,” produced by the organization Second Nurture, which supports foster and adoptive families. The film was created in collaboration with Klick Health, Zombie Studio, and Jamute.

In August 2000, Danny Stewart, then 34, missed the express train at 110th Street near his Morningside Heights apartment. By the time he reached the A/C/E station at 14th Street, he was already running late to meet his partner, Peter Mercurio, then 32, for dinner. As Stewart pushed through the turnstile to exit, he noticed what appeared to be a doll wrapped in a black hoodie lying on the ground. But when one of the doll’s legs twitched, he realized it was actually a newborn baby.

Without hesitation, Stewart ran up the steps to a nearby payphone — this was before cell phones were common — to call the police. Then he hurried back down to comfort the tiny infant, who still had part of the umbilical cord attached. Although authorities arrived to take the baby into their care, Stewart couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“I could not stop thinking about him,” he told The Post, reflecting on that unforgettable moment.

Peter Mercurio has just released a book sharing their family’s extraordinary origin story.

 Still, Stewart, a social worker, didn’t initially expect to adopt the baby. In early December 2000, he went to court to share his account of the discovery, helping authorities establish that the baby had been abandoned and to expedite finding him a permanent home.

But during the proceedings, the judge surprised him by asking if he was interested in adopting the baby. Stewart was taken aback—the judge knew nothing about him—but he answered, “Yes.”

Mercurio wasn’t immediately convinced, but Stewart was determined to move forward with the adoption, with or without his partner’s support.

Haunted by the baby he’d found, Stewart eagerly said “yes” when a judge unexpectedly asked if he wanted to adopt him.

“I knew he was motivated by fear,” Stewart said. “Also, I thought it was going to be a long process, so I figured we’d have time to figure everything out.”

Mercurio recalled, “I said something really snarky, like ‘Good luck being a single parent in New York City.’ But it didn’t faze him at all.”

In the end, the adoption process moved surprisingly fast, thanks to a short-lived pilot program designed to cut through red tape and quickly place healthy, abandoned infants into permanent homes.

Stewart (left) and Mercurio named their baby Kevin, honoring a son Mercurio’s parents had lost.

The couple spent one overnight visit with the baby, and Mercurio felt an “instant bond” the moment he held him.

“Everything changed in that moment,” he said.

By Christmas, Kevin was home with them. They chose the name Kevin in honor of a son Mercurio’s parents had lost in 1967.

“The old tears of grief now mixed with new tears of joy,” Mercurio writes in his book, recalling the moment he shared the name with his mother and father.

The proud dads describe Kevin as “a really easy kid to raise.”

The proud dads say Kevin has been a joy and an easy child to raise.

In 2012, when Kevin was 11, Stewart and Mercurio got married. They invited the same judge who had first asked Stewart if he wanted to adopt the baby to officiate their wedding.

They also asked the official — referred to in the book only as Judge Cooper — what she had seen in Stewart back in 2000.

“All babies need a connection with someone, and I was that someone,” Stewart recalled her telling him.

While the book ends with their wedding, Kevin’s story has happily continued. He attended the NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies in Chelsea, near their home, and went on to graduate from Swarthmore College, where he studied computer science and mathematics.

Kevin, now living in Pittsburgh and working in website development, recently surprised his dads by traveling to NYC for a screening of “18 Months.

Now based in Pittsburgh, Kevin works as a website developer and captains his Ultimate Frisbee team.

Mercurio described him as a “cool cucumber,” but said Kevin made a point of telling him how much he enjoyed the book and how proud he was.

“That’s all I need,” Mercurio said. “That’s the only review that matters to me.”