diff --git a/IPython/html/files/handlers.py b/IPython/html/files/handlers.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..11607f000
--- /dev/null
+++ b/IPython/html/files/handlers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+"""Base Tornado handlers for the notebook server."""
+
+# Copyright (c) IPython Development Team.
+# Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
+
+import logging
+import os
+import mimetypes
+try:
+    # py3
+    from http.client import responses
+except ImportError:
+    from httplib import responses
+
+from tornado import web
+
+try:
+    from tornado.log import app_log
+except ImportError:
+    app_log = logging.getLogger()
+
+from IPython.html.utils import is_hidden
+from IPython.html.base.handlers import IPythonHandler
+
+class FilesHandler(IPythonHandler):
+    """serve files via ContentsManager"""
+
+    @web.authenticated
+    def get(self, path):
+        cm = self.settings['contents_manager']
+        abs_path = os.path.join(cm.root_dir, path)
+        if is_hidden(abs_path):
+            self.log.info("Refusing to serve hidden file, via 404 Error")
+            raise web.HTTPError(404)
+
+        path, name = os.path.split(path)
+        if name.endswith('.ipynb'):
+            self.set_header('Content-Type', 'application/json')
+        else:
+            cur_mime = mimetypes.guess_type(name)[0]
+            if cur_mime is not None:
+                self.set_header('Content-Type', cur_mime)
+        
+        self.set_header('Content-Disposition','attachment; filename="%s"' % name)
+        self.write(cm.get_model(name, path)['content'])
+        self.flush()
+